Whatchu Dune

I've only ever read the first Dune book and I never watched the Children of Dune miniseries, so my knowledge of the weirdnesses that happens down the road in the Dune stories is limited to hearing random things here and there -- some sort of galactic space worm or something? Anyway the teaser for the third Dune movie Dune Messiah has just dropped today (or are they just calling it Dune Part Three now? Yawn) and I am excited! Especially with Robert Pattinson looking like such a freak in it. Freaky Robert Pattinson is always a good sign. This movie isn't out until December 18th though, so let's not let ourselves go too wild. Practice patience! And watch:

Thoughts?

Nothing will ever top Matt Keeslar as Feyd-Rautha in the 2000 miniseries though - the height of Cinema!

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— Jason Adams (@jamnpp.bsky.social) March 17, 2026 at 2:55 PM

Flashin' the Stan

Yeah as threatened yesterday I'm abandoning you once again today -- off to another dentist appointment in an endless stream of dentist appointments. (If all goes well, knock on wooden teeth, I'll have one more appointment next week and that'll be that. Fingers and molars crossed.) I am leaving you with these two fine photos of Sebastian Stan from his recent cover story for Vanity Fair -- there are lots more photos from the shoot but I found the shoot kind of too boring to care to post in its entirety. He looks good obviously -- obviously! -- it's just nothing we haven't seen before. Real low energy handsomeness. Anybody planning on seeing Thunderbolts this weekend? (I am not typing that title's asterisk, I refuse.)  I've taken to watching the Marvel movies once they make it to streaming and this one ain't enough to change that habit -- Fantastic Four might be though! We'll see. Sorry, Seb! Actually I owe bigger apologies to Florence Pugh probably -- all the wrong people will probably blame this movie's lower box office on it having a girl in its lead. So apologies to Flo and apologies to all of womankind -- I have let you down once again.

Wrap Me in Reynor

Florence Pugh (because she is very good, mind you!) has a tendency to swallow up her male co-stars' deserved attention. We saw it with Lady Macbeth and how long it took the world to cotton to her co-star in that, Cosmo Jarvis. And it seems to've happened again with Jack Reynor, Pugh's Midsommar leading man -- he ran around with his willy out (as did Cosmo actually) and for what? Bupkis for years, while she's off starring in Avengers movies. Feminism run amok! In all seriousness I think Jarvis and Reynor stood every bit her equal in those movies so I was very happy when Cosmo started getting attention thanks to Shogun, as I am very happy now to see that Reynor's booked a big leading man gig -- he is going to star in a new version of The Mummy for Evil Dead Rise director Lee Cronin. I don't think I mentioned it on here but I finally got around to seeing Wolf Man, the Christopher Abbott reboot of that Universal Monster, and I liked it way more than its reputation suggested? I loved its single night structure and I found the dissolving relationship of the family unit surprisingly moving! That movie got a bum rap. (Anyway it's on blu-ray now so you should give it a chance if you missed it.) And Cronin is maybe an even better director than Leigh Whannell -- Cronin's 2019 horror flick The Hole in the Ground is tremendously fine (here is my review). So I'm curious to see what they do with the Mummy mythology and I think Jack will look good covered in sand -- count me in! And since we're here I unearthed something of my own -- an attractive Jack Reynor photoshoot from 2022 that I apparently never posted. So hit the jump for it... 

It's Tearing Christopher Abbott Apart

I forgot that this was happening, but actress and writer Zoe Kazan is taking a page from her esteemed Hollywood heritage and writing the script for a new limited-series adaptation for Netflix of John Steinbeck's classic novel East of Eden, which her Grandpa Elia himself turned into a legendary star-making vehicle for one Mr. James Dean back in 1955. Florence Pugh's been attached for some time but the reason I'm reminded of this project's existence is this week's news that one Christopher Abbott will be tackling the role of Adam Trask in the series. Which is not the role that James Dean played, by the way... 

... but the role played by Raymond Massey, aka Jimmy Dean's character's father. The 1955 film only adapted the last part of the epic book, the part about Adam and Cathy's children Cal (Dean) and Aron (Richard Davalos), so yes this is a pretty smart idea for a limited series adaptation -- there's an entire three-quarters of the book laying there to be told! Although I do know there was also a 1981 three-part miniseries that starred, amongst others, the ridiculously handsome Hart Bochner...

... and that I would love to see. Anybody seen that? 

Off To Fuckboi

Okay well I'm going to go watch Dune 2 now, bye.

Here is the Dune: Part Two Trailer

I don't really feel like giffing it -- it's really just a bunch of Timmy standing around in the desert and then sliding down some sand, with a couple of brief glimpses of Austin Butler playing the Sting role. But I'm excited! Don't think I am not excited because I am. I very much dug the first one. It's out on November 3rd. Thoughts?

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Little Women (2019)

Amy: Well I believe we have some power over who we

love, it isn't something that just happens to a person.

Laurie: I think the poets might disagree.

Amy: Well. I'm not a poet, I'm just a woman. And as a woman I have no way to make money, not enough to earn a living and support my family. Even if I had my own money, which I don't, it would belong to my husband the minute we were married. If we had children they would belong to him, not me. They would be his property. So don't sit there and tell me that marriage isn't an economic proposition, because it is. It may not be for you but it most certainly is for me.

Happy 27 to Florence Pugh today!

Don't Worry Darling in 150 Words

Was surprised by how lively and entertaining the first hour or so of Don't Worry Darling was, as I went into it with sub-basement expectations -- said expectations were met by the film's nonsensical final act which undoes most of its good will, but it does coast on Florence Pugh's charms and some ace production design for a long while. Casting is also pretty ace... well save Harry Styles, who has yet to prove to me he's anything but an elfin music-video figurine. Styles works well enough for that first hour when the film doesn't ask much of him -- as the plot reveals get wackier he leaves Pugh dangling in the wind, as does the rest of the film. But Flo's great and I can't say I was ever bored. It's no Truman Show (which it very much wants to be) but it's unfortunately no WTF-fest like Serenity either. Ultimately middling!

What a Wonder Full World

I keep thinking I've seen most of the 2022 movies I've been most excited about already, and then I'm reminded that no, wait, there are actually several more coming still! I might be ahead thanks to press screenings and film-fests but this is shaping up to be quite the year, y'all. Anyway one such film that I'd forgotten we've still got coming is The Wonder, the new movie from Disobedience and A Fantastic Woman and Gloria (times two) director Sebastian Lelio, which stars Florence Pugh. See my previous posts here -- I am a life-long committed Lelio-head at this point so I'm all over this like biscuits on gravy. Or gravy on biscuits? Christ I'm hungry. Speaking of in The Wonder Pugh plays an 19th Century nurse who goes to a small Irish village to find out what's happening with a young girl who's supposedly not eaten anything in four months -- it's based on a well-received book by Emma Donoghue. Anyway out of the two movies Miss Flo's got coming out this fall this is the one I truly give a shit about. And now there's a trailer: 

Netflix says they're releasing this in theaters on November 2nd

and then it's hitting streaming on November 16th, so stay tuned!

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from: 

Gloria Bell (2018) 

Gloria: You're doing the right thing. It's gonna be fine.

Arnold: Thank you for saying that. You just may

not see how difficult this is for me.

Gloria: How can I not see you? I'm looking straight at you.

A very happy birthday to one of our favorite working directors, the Chilean wonder Sebastián Lelio, who's turning 48 years young today. It's been four full years since his last movie (the one above, a remake of his breakout 2013 film) so we're more than ready for what he's got coming up, and thankfully they seem to be piling up -- he's already finished filming The Wonder with Florence Pugh, which I told you about last May; it's an adaptation of a book about a journalist who travels to rural Ireland to check out the story of a young girl who's had some sort of medical miracle where she's survived without eating for months. The rest of the cast is to die for -- not just Ciarán Hinds and Tom Burke but when I wrote about this movie last year I wasn't yet familiar with actress Niamh Algar, but having now seen the horror flick Censor her presence is very exciting. 

PS I shared the first image of Pugh in the film right here. But wait! The Wonder is not everything! Lelio has a project lined up for after that one -- it's called Bride and it will star Scarlett Johannson and I am pretty sure I haven't mentioned that one yet even though it was announced way back in October. Apple and A24 are producing it and here's how the so-called "science-fiction drama" is described:

"“Bride” follows a woman created to be an ideal wife — the singular obsession of a brilliant entrepreneur. When she rejects her creator, she’s forced to flee her confined existence, confronting a world that sees her as a monster. While on the run, she finds her true identity, her surprising power and the strength to remake herself as her own creation."

I am sure it will be special given Lelio's involvement but this does sound a lot in its way like two previous ScarJo movies, namely Under the Skin and Lucy, doesn't it? You could also sort of say Ghost in the Shell too. She sure likes movies that have her being chased around for being different until she embraces her difference, right? Seems like a thing. Now I am picturing her in Ex Machina. Surprised she didn't steal that one from Alicia Vikander. Anyway in summation go watch a Sebastián Lelio movie tonight in the man's honor! I recommend any of them, but I am feeling like it could be a Disobedience kinda night. 

Josh Hartnett Two Times

Even though Christopher Nolan had already cast my beloved Florence Pugh, one of my favorite actors, in his next movie Oppenheimer (about the scientist who came up with the grand ol' atom bomb), I had successfully avoided talking about it because, well, because I'm basically done with Nolan at this point. I haven't liked anything since The Dark Knight, and that only somewhat -- I love Memento but that's about where the relationship between me and Chris ends. But he got me today because he went and cast Josh Hartnett in Oppenheimer (news via, thx Mac), and I got no fight on that front -- you put Josh in your movie, I see your movie. Dammit all to fuck -- this is a low-blow, Nolan! Also in the cast so far -- Robert Downey Jr, Benny Safdie, Rami Malek, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, and Cillian Murphy in the titular role. BOOM! (That's the sound of an atom bomb going off, PS, in case you didn't get it)

Pic of the Day

(via, click to embiggen) That there is our first look at Florence Pugh, young legend, in her next movie The Wonder -- to be honest I'd kind of hoped we'd put a moratorium on titles with "wonder" in them after the Great Wondering of 2017 debacle, but I'll allow it since I don't want to disturb this particular boat, this boat being a movie starring Pugh and directed by the great Sebastián Lelio of the films Gloria, A Fantastic Woman, Disobedience, and Gloria's 2018 remake Gloria Bell. I told you about this movie when it was first announced -- and funny enough I complained about the title then too; I am so original -- it's based on a book about a nurse and a journalist in 1859 rural Ireland who are both summoned to a small town because a purported miracle of some sort occurred. It's described (the book is, anyway) as a "psychological thriller" so that'll be kind of new territory for Lelio, as will also be the whole period setting. Exciting! The movie is being filmed right now so no word on release or anything; I would imagine next year. The only other cast member announced is an Irish actress named Niamh Finlay who is pretty green, only a couple of projects on her IMDb so far.

Who Wore It Best?

I've spent the past two days, ever since Jai Courtney posted a photo of himself celebrating Midsommar over the weekend, weighing whether to do a "Who wore it best?" post that pitted his flower crown against Florence Pugh's flower-crown in Ari Aster's film named after said same holiday. What kept me from doing the poll was I figured it would be a blow-out for original May Queen Florence...

... although perhaps I was underestimating y'all's Jai-thirstiness in my considerations. But today that query's moot, as we've been afforded a new option! Because it turns out that Jai's Suicide Squad co-star Jay Hernandez was also at his little party! So we can decide between them instead!

survey tool

Alex Going Above & Beyond Infinity Again

Alexander Skarsgård has made some hella fine choices career-wise as of late. He's in Robert Eggers' big Viking movie The Northman which is the biggie for me of course, but he's also got a small but important role in Rebecca Hall's masterful flick Passing (which I reviewed at Sundance right here) coming out later this year. And from there one glance back at his filmography shows several already-classics under his belt (yes let's all take a pause since I just talked about being under Alexander Skarsgård's belt........ okay, moving on) -- he's worked with Park Chan-wook on The Little Dummer Girl; he's worked with Lars von Trier on Melancholia; he made Diary of a Teenage Girl with Marielle Heller and Hold the Dark with Jeremy Saulnier and Mute with Duncan Jones and The East with Zal Batmanglij. No not all of those worked, but he keeps jumping on interesting filmmakers and picking interesting projects. Somebody who looks like Alexander Skarsgård doesn't have to do this!

Maybe that's the bare minimum to ask but I appreciate it, anyway. I appreciate not having to watch dreck just so I can stare at him, is my point! Thank you, Alex! Anyway that brings me to today's terrific news about his next next thing, which will be a film (thx Mac) with Brandon "Son of David" Cronenberg, who's fresh off his killer flick Possessor. It's gonna be called Infinity Pool and here is how Deadline describes the plot:

"Infinity Pool follows James and Em, who are young, rich, in love, and on vacation. Their all-inclusive resort boasts island tours and gleaming beaches. But outside of the hotel gates waits something much more dangerous and seductive, beyond the edge of paradise."

The studio Neon, who distributed Cronenberg's Possessor for him last year, already snatched up the rights to this one so they're clearly in the him business. The film will begin shooting in September -- no word on who his leading lady will be -- I'd love to see him reunite with one of his formers like Florence Pugh or Riley Keough, wouldn't y'all? Or, ooh ooh ooh ooh, what about Anna Paquin! We don't see nearly enough Anna Paquin these days!

Shō Me Your Guns, Cosmo Jarvis

Happy news for us Cosmo-heads, as the Lady Macbeth actor Cosmo Jarvis has just lined up an interesting sounding role -- he's playing the co-lead opposite the great and sexy Hiroyuki Sanada in a new miniseries adaptation of James Clavell's 1975 novel Shōgun for FX. There was a miniseries made of this book in 1980 that starred Richard Chamberlain and Toshiro Mifune (mmm) that I have vague childhood memories of but which I haven't thought of since...

... anyone seen it lately? I can't imagine it holding up given the way these kind of white savior narratives have long been told -- stories where the white guy shows up in a different culture and masters the culture better than the people who've built the culture a la The Last Samurai with Tom Cruise. But we seem far more aware of that destructive story-arc now, so I have hopes this will be an updated take. Here's how Deadline describes Shōgun:

"Sanada and Jarvis will play the male leads, Yoshii Toranaga and John Blackthorne, respectively, in the project, which tells the story from both a Western and Japanese perspective... Written by Justin Marks and Rachel Kondo, Shōgun is set in feudal Japan. It charts the collision of two ambitious men from different worlds and a mysterious female samurai: John Blackthorne (Jarvis), a risk-taking English sailor who ends up shipwrecked in Japan, a land whose unfamiliar culture will ultimately redefine him; Lord Toranaga (Sanada), a shrewd, powerful daimyo, at odds with his own dangerous, political rivals; and Lady Mariko, a woman with invaluable skills but dishonorable family ties who must prove her value and allegiance. 

... Sanada’s Yoshii Toranaga is a living legend. He is a powerful daimyo from a feared lineage, isolated and outnumbered by his enemies in Osaka Castle when the story begins. But little does anyone realize that Toranaga is a brilliant strategist, a master of the long game, and the holder of Japan’s ultimate fate. Jarvis’ John Blackthorne is a restless English pilot in search of a destiny far from the world he was born into. His mission is to forge a path into the Pacific islands and disrupt Portuguese and Spanish interests in Japan. But Blackthorne finds more than he bargained for when his ship washes ashore within the territory of Toranaga, a deadly warlord who becomes his captor and spiritual mentor."

They haven't cast the third role, for the female character; the head-writer Justin Marks has credits on the live-action Jungle Book movies and the forthcoming Top Gun sequel so, uhh... we'll withhold judgement. He also did a TV program I've never heard of, something called Counterpart that starred JK Simmons and Olivia Williams? There is so much TV now, you guys. I have no idea. 

Anyway if you're not familiar with Cosmo Jarvis yet it's okay since he hasn't done a ton, but what he has done has made me very curious about what he might be capable of. I already mentioned Lady Macbeth -- Florence Pugh got all of the attention and she deserved it but I wish we'd thrown some of it Jarvis' way too, since I think he one hundred percent holds his own against her there. Since then he's been pretty choosy but in the past year we got to watch him do his fine beefy-weirdo thing in Calm With Horses opposite Barry Keoghan and then again in the eensy little thriller Funny Face, which I wrote about here and which genuinely proved to me that he's the real deal. He does a lot of capital-A Acting in the latter but I kinda loved it? 

I should add in "News I Missed" I see on his IMDb page that Cosmo also has been cast in that forthcoming modernized adaptation of Jane Austen's Persuasion that will star Dakota Johnson and Henry Golding, posted previously about here -- as admitted in that earlier post I have never read Persuasion so I'd just assumed Henry Golding was playing the romantic male lead, named "Captain Frederick Wentworth," but no! It turns out it'll be Cosmo in that role! Okay! I'll enjoy staring at all of these people. On that note there are a few more shots of Cosmo from this photo-shoot I've been sharing above (via) and I will now let us just happily stare at him after the jump...

The Wonder of Florence Pugh

Florence Pugh has a face and a talent that I don't foresee myself getting tired of looking at any time soon, so I greet the news that she's hooking up -- work-wise, I mean -- with one of my favorite directors with much and I do mean much fanfare. Whoop whoop! (That's much fanfare. I even italicized!) Anyway Deadline reported this like a week ago but I'm a turd, just now getting around to it -- she's going to star in Sebastián Lelio's new movie! You should definitely know Lelio's name by now but if you need a refresher he's the genius fella behind Gloria, A Fantastic Woman, Disobedience, and Gloria's 2018 remake Gloria Bell with Julianne Moore. There ain't a stinker among that bunch -- indeed most of them were in my very favorite films of their years. 

Now on to the movie they're making together. It's an adaptation of Emma Donoghue’s 2016 novel called The Wonder, a 19th century Irish thriller... well, I will let Deadline summarize it:

"The novel is set in Irish Midlands, 1859 and follows an English nurse, Lib Wright (Pugh), who is summoned to a tiny village to observe what some are claiming as a medical anomaly or a miracle – a girl said to have survived without food for months. Tourists have flocked to the cabin of eleven-year-old and a journalist has come down to cover the sensation. The Wonder is a tale of two strangers who transform each other’s lives, a psychological thriller, and a story of love pitted against evil."

That's kinda vague, but I prefer it that way -- better to let the movie surprise me. Similarly I won't go read the book, but if any of you have please tell me if all of this sounds like a good idea! I kind of hope they change the title -- there are too many movies with too similar a title to The Wonder already. I don't want to be forced to think about that bad Terrence Malick movie with Ben Affleck, god forbid, during this.

Good Morning, World

I was so confused when I first saw these photos of Stephen Amell and Alexander Ludwig and it said they were for an upcoming Starz series called Heels -- I was like, "Is Alexander playing a drag queen who has to turn to pro-wrestling to pay for his size-fifteen stilettos?" Alas, this is not the case. (Tell me that wouldn't make for an amazing show though.) The title means "heel" as in "bad guy" although who knows, maybe there will be a joke somewhere on the show about Amell's character wanting to wear lifts because he's shorter than Ludwig (they're playing brothers) and ta-dah, we'll have wordplay. 

Why do they always have to be playing "brothers" on these things? Aren't we to the point where they can play boyfriends? I'm tired of Brother Programs! We've had a billion by now. There have been more TV shows about brothers than there have been actual Brothers in recorded history. Gimme boyfriend rivals in the ring, dammit! Aaaanyway the pictures come via TV Line where there's more info on the show -- it seems like a TV version of that movie Fighting With My Family from last year that starred Florence Pugh and Jack Lowden which I psychotically have yet to see, even though...

Remind me that I have this photo of Jack Lowden when Christmas comes around again, please (also, MY GOD) pic.twitter.com/6qj4Wi2Xhr

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) February 24, 2021

Pantys '19: Performers, Part Two -- Actresses

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Earlier today I shared with you my ten (well really twenty, with the runners-up included) favorite performances from actors in 2019. Now the time's come for my ten (well twenty really, with the runners-up) favorite performances from actresses coming out of 2019. That's how things work, see? Amazing. 

And no, sidenote, I don't really know anymore why I'm splitting these things up by gender in the year that is 2020 (not to mention even using the word "actress"), except it gives me a good way to split this into two lists and thereby include twice as many names -- I try to do my "Actor to Actor" series when I can manage my time well enough since it sidesteps all this, but this year we're falling to the old standby due to time constraints. So Actors and Actresses it is. Yadda and yadda, in no particular order I give you...

My 10 Favorite Actresses of 2019

Elisabeth Moss, Her Smell

Fatma Mohamed, In Fabric

Lupita Nyong'o, Us

Florence Pugh, Midsommar 

Yeo-jeong Jo, Parasite

Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Dolemite is My Name

Marietta Subong, Ode to Nothing

Adèle Haenel, Portrait of a Lady on Fire

Alfre Woodard, Clemency

--------------------------------------------

10 Runners Up

Isabelle Huppert, Frankie

Octavia Spencer, Luce

Mia Wasikowska, Piercing

Taylor Russell, Waves

Mary Kay Place, Diane

Julianne Moore, Gloria Bell

Noémie Merlant, Portrait of a Lady on Fire

Aisling Franciosi, The Nightingale

Marianne Jean-Baptiste, In Fabric

Molly Shannon, Wild Nights With Emily

What were your favorite Actresses of 2019?
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Monsters Wanna Costume Too

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As I mentioned earlier there wasn't a lot that stuck in my craw during last night's Oscars, since they got a lot right -- or you know, right with the limited options they had presented themselves with, nomination-wise, anyway. But there was one big thing I found myself annoyed about, and that was the way they used costumes from both Midsommar and Us as dancing props for the opening musical number even though neither of those movies got nominated. If you follow me on Twitter you saw this happen in real time:

.

The Midsommar dresses just make me sad :(

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) February 10, 2020

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Wow -- riveting Twitter feed, Jason. Anyway I turned that tweet into action and today over at The Film Experience I wrote a little bit about the Oscars' truly lackluster history with the genre's endlessly iconic costuming. When I really started thinking about all of the egregious oversights over the years it really piled up! Even just this past year there are two hands worth of examples!

I know it's just one of many, many examples of the Academy hardly ever allowing themselves outside of the box, but it seems like all we ever talk about with regards to that are the bigger categories when, if you dive into the smaller crafts that make up our shared movie history, you see it's just as infuriating. As much as I loved Greta Gerwig's Little Women -- and I deeply deeply did -- who's going to remember anything Florence Pugh wore in that movie more than they'll remember her day-mare floral May Queen extravaganza?