Have you noticed Jake Gyllenhaal's increasingly eclectic resumé, ping-ponging between gigs like action movie "Road House" and "Othello" on Broadway with Denzel Washington (his first Shakespeare performance)? It's all part of his quest for projects that freak him out. "The feeling I want to have is, can I do it?" he told the Hollywood Reporter in a wide-ranging interview that covered how he got into acting, losing his sense of imagination, and why he thinks the fact that he's legally blind is advantageous.
Darryl Hickman died last week at the age of 92. He was a child actor in "The Prisoner of Zenda" and "The Grapes of Wrath," became a monk for a brief period, then later in life was a CBS executive and had a bit part in Sidney Lumet's "Network." Christan Blauvelt of @IndieWire has penned this moving tribute to Hickman, a "critical link to Old Hollywood" and a crucial part of one of the most striking death scenes in film noir history in "Leave Her to Heaven." "When Bernard Hill died recently, I wrote about the unique feeling accompanying the real-life death of an actor when that actor has been especially associated with a dramatic death scene onscreen," Blauvelt writes. "That feeling is only magnified when it’s been a very long time since the actor performed the demise in question."
It’s a funny word, “schmooze.” It comes from the Yiddish, shmuesn, and before that from Hebrew, approximately shemuoth, according to my Webster’s.
Leo Rosten, in The Joys of #Yiddish, says it refers to a “friendly, gossipy, prolonged, heart-to-heart talk.” No other word, he avers, “conveys ‘heart-to-heart chit-chat’ as warmly.”
This is excellent news. Maybe finally the execs at the big exhibitor chains will scream loud enough at the execs at the big studios for Hollywood to stop shoveling the same old sequel/IP franchise shit at moviegoers*.
*Who am I kidding. The big dumb corporate studios are going to keep shoveling shit at us until ticket sales go to zero at which point they’ll scratch their heads and wonder “wuh happund”
The Hollywood Reporter says there's a new A-list in town — and these young stars work with auteur directors, don't wear capes, and have largely eschewed cinematic universes. Here's a look at who they say is the future of film, from Austin Butler to Zendaya. Tell us in the comments if you think there's anyone who isn't on this list and should be.
The Hollywood Reporter's Roundtable events bring together leading figures in entertainment for frank conversations. This time, it's the turn of comedy actresses and the lineup is stellar: Quinta Brunson, Kristen Wiig, Michelle Buteau, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Ego Nwodim and Maya Rudolph. They met at The Georgian Hotel in Santa Monica to talk about the strangest feedback they've received, the roles that transformed their careers, and what happens when someone — in this case, Netflix — finally believes in you. "Oh, I’ve been tap-dancing for the patriarchy for a good while," says Buteau. "My knees are tired, but fish oil helps."
#Vietnamese#Actor Hoa Xuande stars in the new espionage thriller “The Sympathizer” based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about the #VietnamWar. On Wednesday, May 22 at 3:00 p.m. ET, the breakout star joins The Post’s Jonathan Capehart to talk about playing a double agent in the miniseries, exploring the #VietnamesePerspective of the war and his journey from #Australia to #Hollywood.
Movie star Scarlett Johansson said Monday she was "shocked" by an OpenAI synthetic voice that sounds like her, which was released after she declined to work with the ChatGPT-maker on such a project. The artificial intelligence powerhouse headed by Sam Altman said it was working on temporarily muting the Johannson-sounding voice it calls "Sky." Monte Francis reports. #OpenAI#AI#Hollywood
“As a human rights lawyer, I will never accept that one child’s life has less value than another’s. I do not accept that any conflict should be beyond the reach of the law, nor that any perpetrator should be above the law. So I support the historic step that the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has taken to bring justice to victims of atrocities in #Israel and #Palestine.”
Earlier today, OpenAI announced that it would no longer be using a its "Sky" voice for its new chatbot. They didn’t say why, but the voice sounded a lot like Scarlett Johansson’s, despite the fact that the Hollywood star had declined to offer her voice to the company. Read more from NBC News, including how Johansson reacted: https://flip.it/IQYBUQ #Culture#Entertainment#AI#Hollywood#ScarlettJohansson
I just saw "Matrix 5" is in the works. When will Hollywood start producing new content instead of rebooting, remaking, or putting out the 5-10th installment of existing movies over and over again. Same goes for TV IMO.
I'm reminded of a bit from "The Simpsons" about Charles Bronson in "Death Wish 9."
Very sad news for movie lovers: the legendary Roger Corman has died at age 98. Here's a tribute to him from Variety. Tell us what you loved about Corman in the comments.
Was going through some old cornball action films, and it's really a shame that these two films were at different studios, because a Nic Cage cameo (as his character from 'Gone in 60 Seconds') would have been really fun in a Fast & Furious sequel...
Arabs suffer from a long and systematic stereotyping from the West. From the Orientalist movement of the 18th century till today, Western perceptions of Arabs and by extension Muslims, are based on what they have been conditioned to believe through the media be it in the form of literature, art, and more recently, movies and...
Is this a sign of the times for the movie business and creative professions in general? The Art Directors Guild (ADG) has suspended its Production Design Initiative program, which gives people hands-on training and job placements, saying, "we cannot in good conscience encourage you to pursue our profession while so many of our members remain unemployed.” The unemployment rate for members of the ADG currently stands at 75 percent. Here's more from IndieWire.
Jar Jar Binks actor Ahmed Best says his career "began and ended" with "Star Wars." As "Phantom Menace" celebrates its 25th anniversary, he told People magazine "Everybody came for me ... I'm the first person to do this kind of work, but I was also the first Black person, Black man." He remembers being ostracized from motion-capture work after the movie came out, but forged a new career as an educator and co-founder of the AfroRithm Futures Group. Here's more.
Hollywood Actor Steve Buscemi Randomly Assaulted in NYC (thenarinder.in)
Steve Buscemi, the renowned actor hailing from New York City, was randomly assaulted in Manhattan's Kips Bay area last week.
STEREOTYPING ARABS – A Timeless Hollywood Tradition (youtu.be)
Arabs suffer from a long and systematic stereotyping from the West. From the Orientalist movement of the 18th century till today, Western perceptions of Arabs and by extension Muslims, are based on what they have been conditioned to believe through the media be it in the form of literature, art, and more recently, movies and...