Fantasia 2021: Broadcast Signal intrusion

If there's one movie sub-genre overripe for a comeback I'd wager the "Conspiracy Thriller" of the 1970s, a la The Parallax View and All the President's Men, is fit to burst -- I for one cannot understand how we haven't been riding on waves of them post-2016, which turned us all on every side of the political divides into a flock of Woodward & Bernsteins, wild-eyed connecting red strings between a blinking receiver at the top of 725 5th Avenue with Russian Kompromat. I suppose the only answer is, "Hollywood doesn't make those kinds of thoughtful movies anymore," so instead we're forced to read between the lines of Avengers dialogue for whiffs of our deepest cultural fears writ out, when once upon a time Adult Movies dove face-first into such subversive spectacle, and entertainingly to boot.

Thankfully we don't have to rely on just the blockbusters of mainstream Hollywood for our movies though, and so we get here and there little psycho-conspiratorial gems like Broadcast Signal Intrusion, Jacob Gentry's unsettling and cryptic new indie thriller (now showing as part of the Fantasia Film Festival), have popped up, poked us in the side, and shrieked our moment's angst into some artistic form. It stars Harry Shum Jr. as James, a video archivist mourning his missing wife who stumbles upon one of the intrusions of the title, where lo-fi scammers sneaked their way onto the airwaves and in the middle of your regularly scheduled programming inserted a few seconds of terrifying footage seemingly streamed straight out from our collective nightmares.

These intrusions are the film's greatest asset -- when I tell you that Gentry seems to have plunged his hands into the meat of Hell's belly and tossed the entrails of what he found across the screen I am possibly understating how much these snippets of blank-faced mask ladies flapping their empty mouths to a discordant soundtrack unnerved me. It's David Lynch by way of the Ringu tape -- the old familiar skittish skips of VHS tech feeling like tears in reality, looking through to a place we're not meant to look. If you're old enough to have tried to catch bits of nudity on the scrambled Pay-Per-View channel I want you to imagine catching a snuff film instead (and on that note I did think of the 1995 forgotten classic Mute Witness here) -- that feeling, dirty and wrong, pulses in from the edges of this movie in most excellently doled amounts. 

As James starts looking for a second, and then a never-seen third signal, our vertigo senses tingle. (And if you've never seen the true-life 1987 incident that this film's based on, involving an unsettling twist on 80s icon Max Headroom, I recommend you check it out on YouTube. And then take a shower.) James' quest, spurred on by his desperate need to find answers where there probably are none, drags him and us with deeper into the skittering and unpleasant abyss, every connection either confirmation bias or a subtle fraying at the sides of reality's fabric caught on film, transferred through seven generations, and sprayed out the opposite end, chicken bones and fortune tales. 

Does the film bite off more mysteries than it can chew? Possibly -- like an army of Gyllenhaals in Zodiac we find ourselves lost in many a basement sniffing musty boxes and file-cases, no end in sight, strange footfalls overhead, and no visible legs in sight. It's more of a hover above a crime-scene, like we're the ghost of a person who just got surprised bonked in the head, trying to figure out who killed us before we slip into the light; it's false-starts and back-steps and occasionally frustrating in the way the unknowable will always be. I dug that about it. Leave the pat answers for the Avengers -- modern living seems to me more of a spiral with no end in sight, and Broadcast Signal Intrusion tunes into that frequency more than it doesn't.

Embrace the Pink Fantasia

Alright it's a Thursday early-evening in the months of the season called summer and so you should know what that means -- means I'm outta here for a three-day weekend. Except not, not totally, because the Fantasia Film Festival is I am sure you're aware now a happening, a right now happening, and I'll probably be popping in at some point with a review or two. If you missed my preview of the fest earlier this week click here, where I listed a full twenty you read that right twenty movies that I recommend. Fantasia's a feast, I tells ya, a feast. And to get to that photo of Harry Shum Jr. seen up top -- one of the movies I recommended, one I will be reviewing very soon, is called Broadcast Signal Intrusion and it stars, whaddyaknow, Mr. Shum Jr. himself. That photo isn't from the film -- indeed that pink mood is very far from the dark strange mood of that movie. But it's a nice photo I think we can all agree. And on that note -- nice pictures of nice-looking men in Fantasia movies, I mean -- I also recommend you bookmark the below Twitter thread of mine because I will also be updating that with treats as we roll along as well. Happy weekend, everybody!

A thread of cute guys in @FantasiaFest movies suddenly seems like a good idea! In that spirit — hey there, Kenshi Okada pic.twitter.com/RysxKMtg1y

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) July 31, 2021

It's That Sweet Fantasia Time Yet Again!

Hard to believe it's already the start of August, right? On the one hand I'm happy about that because I wish nothing more than the total and complete annihilation of the summer season every year, and August, while wretched, is at least the ass-end of it. On the other hand I'm sad that time's flying by because death, sweet death, is hurtling forward. But on the third hand I'm thrilled it's August because August every year means it's time for the grand Fantasia International Film Festival! 

Based out of Montreal (and celebrating its 25th edition here in 2021) we here at MNPP have been covering the fest for four years now from a distance -- maybe one year I'll attend in person, I've always wanted to see Montreal, but 2021 is obviously not the one. But I always see several surprising and wonderful genre films thanks to them every year; they do ace stuff. This year's festival begins this Thursday August 5th, and runs for three whole weeks, until the 25th -- you can check their full line-up at this link, but it's a whole lot and so I'm going to highlight some stuff for you. Because you're here and you trust my opinion, right? (That was your first mistake.) 

Some of these I'll be reviewing in the weeks ahead, some of these I have already seen and reviewed at previous fests, and some of these I probably won't get the chance to see but really really really want to -- they all sound like good news to me, is the point.

20 Films You Should See at Fantasia 2021

The Night House -- I'm supposed to see this later this month as it's out in actual theaters on August 20th, but this chiller starring the ever-great Rebecca Hall has gotten a lot of great notices since it premiered at Sundance way back in 2020. Rebecca Hall! Yes, please.

Alien on Stage -- I already saw this tremendously entertaining documentary earlier this year at SXSW and I reviewed it right here -- a chest-burstingly feel-good crowd-pleaser if ever there was one it tells the story of a group of small-town Brits who decide to adapt Ridley Scott's classic horror flick Alien for the stage and whose sudden viral success far outpaces their modest means. I adore this movie.

Strawberry Mansion -- I saw this at Sundance (reviewed it right here) and it won't be everybody's cuppa - it's hella quirky in that Michel Gondry sort of lo-fi way - but I found its endlessly delightful and weird in ways I still haven't gotten out of my head.  

The Sadness -- I don't recall Fantasia ever slapping trigger warnings on their horror flicks before, but this Taiwanese zombie flick comes with several and that's good enough for me! You can't trigger the already dead inside! (In all seriousness this movie is deeply fucked up -- more to come soon.)

Great Yokai War Guardians -- It's Takashi Miike! Of course I wanna see this one! The Closing Night film, this is the sequel to Miike's 2006 flick about adorable war demons and the kiddies who love them -- I haven't seen the original one since 2006 and should probably revisit it before diving in here, I guess. But assume craziness.

We're All Going to the World's Fair -- Another one I saw at Sundance, but I never got around to reviewing it -- that's not due to it being anything less than fascinating though, and I haven't stopped thinking about this one all year. And it's got a terrific lead performance from newcomer Anna Cobb, who's already been scooped up to co-star in Luca Guadagnino's new flick with Timmy! 

The Feast -- Another super super duper movie I saw at SXSW, I reviewed the deeply dark horror flick The Feast right here. Here's a whiff of what Is aid about it at the time:

"... an unsettling and hypnotic little parable about the haves and the have-nots and what one will do to the other and the other right back to have what they had, want, and rightly or un-rightly demand. It's brim with weirdos and secrets bubbling up from beneath the black surface and the diseases of cordoned-off eccentricities left to rot and fester in their own heady stew, delicious au jus..."

Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes -- A clever and quirky time-travel comedy from Japan where the characters get trapped in a two-minute-ahead time-loop of sorts. This is great brain-teasing fun.

The Last Thing Mary Saw -- A period horror flick that stars Isabelle Fuhrman and Rory Culkin; they had me at Fuhrmann!

The Righteous -- I'll just admit up front that I want to see this one entirely based on the fact that I have a desperate crush on its writer-director-star Mark O'Brien (see why here), who you oughta recognize from the show Halt & Catch Fire or the horror flick Ready or Not. But sometimes crushes are enough! They lead us into places we might not go otherwise! That said this is an "occult horror film" so I'd be going to this place anyway. It also stars Henry Czerny, seen above, who already co-starred with O'Brien in Ready or Not. And we dig him too.

Catch the Fair One -- This flick rightly won the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature at Tribeca earlier this summer; I didn't write it up but it's a barn-burner of a thriller with a stand-out turn from its leading lady Kali Reis, who plays an ex-boxer whose sister goes missing -- you have heard that plot description a million times but this movie goes to unexpected places!

King Car -- More to come soon on this wacko Brazilian flick but this one was a very happy surprise! It's about a young man who can talk to cars, and shit gets real fucking weird real fucking fast. It's kind of like Bacurau meets Jumbo, the recent movie that had Portrait of a Lady star Noémie Merlant falling in love with a carnival ride, and that's all I'll say about that.

Cryptozoo -- Speaking of real weird I've been telling y'all y'all need to see Dash Snow's newest nutso animation ever since Sundance (I posted the trailer right here a few weeks back) and here's a chance! Otherwise it's out here in theaters in the US on August 20th, but I'm not sure about streaming. I would try to describe this movie but I don't see any positive in me trying to do that. It's one of a kind.

Broadcast Signal Intrusion -- This was one I really wanted to see at SXSW but missed due to an error on their platform -- cut to me falling to my knees and screaming "Nooo!" a la Darth Vader. But Fantasia came through! More on it soon, but it's a surreal little nightmare starring the lovely Harry Shum Jr -- think Blow Out meets, I don't know, The Poughkeepsie Tapes.

Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched-- This fantabulous three-plus-hour documentary about the films of Folk Horror screened at SXSW as well; here is my review. Be prepared to keep notes, because it's a glorious and knowledgeable film class all its own. I can't wait to own this so I can skim through it at will and remind myself of the thousand titles it told me about for the very first time!

Wild Men -- I felt bad about not getting around to review this one when I saw it at Tribeca; a dark Danish comedy about a middle-aged dude trying to find himself in nature only to get caught up in a Coenesque crime-caper I really loved it.

Brain Freeze -- The opening night film, this zombie flick from France has some clever twists on the genre and some good class commentary -- Uncle George Romero would be proud. Oh and a main character in this gruesome zombie movie is a baby!

Tombs of the Blind Dead -- Fantasia always screens some restorations of classic flicks and I'd somehow never seen any of Armando De Ossorio's undead-Templar-Knights quadrilogy of 70s/80s films out of Portugal until I got this chance, and I'm already hooked. This is the first of the four films, restored gloriously by the folks at Synapse Films -- I hope they do all four movies!

Mad God -- A full-length stop-motion horror flick from the Phil Tippet, the special-effects genius behind the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park and the big bugs in Starship Troopers? You think I'm not all up in this sucker's business? He's been working on this for thirty years! And here's how Fantasia delightfully describes this one:

"... a Dantean descent into seething theological outrage, its multitude of fascinating monstrosities, an uncanny carnival in the tradition of Hieronymus Bosch, a perpetual-motion machine of biomechanical malevolence..."

The Deep House -- This is one I probably won't be able to see here because as far as I can tell they're only screening it in person in Montreal, but man oh man am I sad about that -- it's the new flick from Alexandre Bustillo & Julien Maury, the filmmakers behind the 2007 French Extremity classic Inside (as well as the flick Kandisha that hit Shudder earlier this month which I spoke briefly about here.). But most importantly it's about a Haunted House at the bottom of a lake! I love that idea so much.

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

There are literally dozens and dozens more movies showing at Fantasia, so I say go check out this line-up here. I couldn't even make a small dent in all of the awesomeness. I didn't even delve into all of the short films; hell I didn't even mention how they've got the new Suicide Squad movie, for goodness' sake. Fantasia rules. And please stay tuned over the next few weeks as the fest runs for reviews from yours truly.

Pics of the Day

I keep waiting for the actor Matthew Daddario to star in something that I'll wanna actually, you know, watch, because good grief look at him, but that day only came once and it was the remake of Cabin Fever in 2016 and it that was not a good day for anybody. I know he was gay on that Shadowhunters show -- gay with harry Shum Jr. at that! -- but I just couldn't bring myself to press play on that show all the same, it seemed so Tween Hot Topic. Anyway these new photos of Matthew from the second upcoming season of Desperate Housewives creator Marc Cherry's latest show Why Women Kill have got me thinking...

... maybe I wanna watch Why Women Kill? This old-timey sex-detective look really does things for me, it always has, and IMDb tells me his character's name is Scooter. SCOOTER! I don't know if that's an experience my life can sustain an absence of. So anybody watch that show? I do know that Cherry, as he did with Housewives, always keeps his gay audience in mind and the show is already stacked with hot actors even besides Matthew here. I even did a post during its first season about Veep star Reid Scott finally showing some flesh...

5 Off My Head: Something SXSW This Way Comes

I am about to say something very controversial. I hope you'll still be able to look me in the eyes (or whatever the online equivalent of that is) after this but here goes: this pandemic sucks. It just does! The pandemic sucks! Send your hate mail to somebody else, I am speaking my truth. The Pandemic is not a good thing, no matter what Martha Stewart says. That said there has been one gleaming, shimmering beneficence I have experienced over the past bad year -- I've been able to "attend" a bunch of film festivals from my perch in NYC that were unavailable to me before this. Does this make up for The Pandemic? It does not. But instead of, you know, dying, I will take this. 

Last month I did Sundance for the first time, and now -- ta-dah! --now comes South By Southwest. Like Sundance I've always wanted to go to Austin and experience SXSW but, and I don't know if y'all know this, I have a full-time job that has nothing to do with movie-blogging. So week-long out-of-town jaunts to Film Fests have so far proven impossible. I can do in-town ones like NYFF and Tribeca that can be scheduled in between and around my work-hours easy enough, but these Pandemic-Era Virtual Fests have been a godsend.

So that's my far too longwinded introduction to the fact that yes, I will be covering this year's SXSW next week. It runs from March 16th through the 20th, and you can check out the website and the film line-up over here. Please do buy a pass and watch some movies! I'm personally pretty excited because SXSW always has lots of genre films and y'all know I love my genre films. And on that note I'm now going to highlight the five movies I'm most looking forward to seeing! 

5 Movies Out of SXSW 2021 I'm Looking Forward To

Swan Song -- All I have to say is that this is a movie that stars Udo Kier as a flamboyantly gay hairdresser, right? Right? You're sold already? You should damn well be. But here's more in case you're crazy difficult -- it's about Udo Kier, flamboyantly gay hairdresser, going on a small-town quest to style a dead woman's hair. And it co-stars Jennifer Coolidge. Yeah. I know. I'll wait for you to get off the floor before moving on. 

Jakob's Wife -- I felt like I got to it super late but I was shocked and delighted last year when I finally got around to seeing director Travis Stevens' Girl on the Third Floor (reviewed here), which ogled the hell out of its leading man WWE star CM Punk whilst also tossing him into a tub of gore and flinging all kinds of crazy shit at him -- that movie rules. So of course I will see Stevens' new movie no matter what. But this stars the living legend Barbara fuckin' Crampton. Come on now.

Here Before -- I know it's ridiculous to just keep saying "Here is a name, the end" when explaining why I want to see these movies, but Here Before stars Andrea Riseborough. I have a lifetime "Andrea Riseborough" pass, where I can just get out of any knot I have tied myself into by just whispering "Andrea Riseborough." She is plenty! I honestly have no idea what this movie's even about -- I know it's a psychological thriller and it stars Andrea Riseborough and it is therefore in my Top 5 list.

Off-Season -- I've only seen two Mickey Keating movies to date, but they've both been worth seeing. Carnage Park in 2016 (reviewed here) and to a slightly lesser extent Psychopaths (reviewed here) the following year. He gives really good roles to actresses (in both of those films' case that was Ashley Bell) though and he's got a couple of fine actresses this time around with Off-Season in Melora Walters (from Magnolia and PEN15) and Jocelin Donahue (from House of the Devil). 

Woodlands Dark and Days Bewtiched: A History of Folk Horror -- a three-plus-hour documentary about Folk Horror movies? I signed up for this faster than you can scream Samhain. faster than you can put on an animal mask and dance with Christopher Lee, faster than you could put naked Jack Reynor into a hollowed out bear suit -- that's how fast! That's fast.

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

A couple more films high on my list: Broadcast Signal Intrusion (conspiracy thriller starring Harry Shum Jr.), The Feast (some sort of class warfare horror), Gaia (folk horror), Potato Dreams of America (movie about a gay kid in 1980s USSR), Paul Dood's Deadly Lunch Break (a horror-comedy that sounds very Vincent Price, about a talent show loser who begins killing off those who wronged him). 

So please stay tuned! Next week lots of SXSW coverage (as long as my second dose of vaccine doesn't kill me on Monday, haha fingers crossed) here and maybe at a couple other places! And go check out their entire line-up on their website!

Good Morning, World

Some Shum in the mornin' to wake ya right up -- that's from All My Life, the 2020 tearjerker starring our speedo wizard Harry alongside Happy Death Day's delightful Jessica Rothe in a tearjerker 'bout the cancer. The trailer's right here, or you can rent it on Amazon right now. I have not rented it to watch it, even though I like both Shum and Rothe a lot -- although for wildly different reasons -- but maybe you have already? Is it a good tearjerker? I like a good tearjerker now and then, although that's an impulse that's kind of taken a hike during the Trump Administration -- don't we all have plenty to cry about already, I mean?Just 15 days to go y'all! That's enough reason to put on a red speedo and do a little spin am I right? (thx Mac)

Good Morning, World

It's MNPP's last day before the holiday break -- we'll be pretty much closed up tomorrow through the 3rd, aka 2021, aka good fucking riddance to the year that was 2020! Not that we don't have some shit to wade through still -- lord knows. But if one glances askance from the horrors for a moment there is light on them thar horizons. One light I can give you now (oooh smooth transition) is Harry Shum Jr. making a home workout video for Men's Health -- click on over there to watch! And let's start getting through this day in one piece...

Harry Shum Jr. One Time

Good Morning, World

It's just 26 days until Election Day and I hope and pray that every single one of you people reading these words right now are planning on voting -- not just voting but voting for Joe Biden specifically! I will specify! Because the other dude is gonna kill us all, man, and for all its ups and downs I like fucking living. I like eating lasagna and I like watching movies and going for walks in the park, I like talking or not talking, and I like seeing Mark Ruffalo naked. And to that latter piece of the puzzle that is me Ruffalo and a bunch of his celeb buddies made a video about voting! Specifically about the "naked ballots" that are poised to be a thing this year in a bunch of states thanks to Republicans being shitty anti-voting lunatics. Here, watch, learn, laugh, love:

As a side-note celebrities getting naked for the election this year (see also Harry Shum Jr, and then see also Diplo, and of course there was the way Chris Evans rescued his dick leak...) So anyway make sure you return both those envelopes if you're in one of these states, folks. Written details here. Make sure to dot your I's and cross your balls because this goddamned election is too important... well the last one was too important too but that one got fucked up -- let's get it right this time! And as your reward extra "Naked" Ruffalo, after the jump...

Good Morning, World

View this post on Instagram

Have you registered to vote yet? (Link in bio) #vote2020

A post shared by Harry Shum Jr (@harryshumjr) on Sep 14, 2020 at 9:48am PDT

Harry Shum Jr. doing activism the right way.

See also Chris Evans, making his Dick Pic count:

Now that I have your attention
🤦🏻‍♂️🤷🏻‍♂️....

VOTE Nov 3rd!!!

— Chris Evans (@ChrisEvans) September 15, 2020

Chris Pang Eight Times

.

Did anybody else realize it was Crazy Rich Asians actor Chris Pang -- he played the groom in CRA; see lots more of him here -- that showed up in the Andy Samberg's time-travel rom-com Palm Springs? I didn't recognize him at all...

... but in my defense it's hard to see around that jacket. Anyway I was just tweeting a deep need for the Crazy Rich Asians sequel last week -- or at least a scaled-down version, cough cough -- and so I feel like this new photo-shoot of Mr. Pang for Esquire Singapore (via) is the universe nodding in my direction. Hit the jump for the rest...

Good Morning, World

.

Harry Shum Jr already got me excited 

for the Crazy Rich Asians sequel. y'all.

.

Henry Golding Eleven Times

.

The leading man of the biggest rom-com in nine no six years is on the cover of Esquire Singapore this month (via, thanks Mac) looking as mighty fine as you'd expect. I was gonna yell at Esquire US for not having him on their cover but they did give us this nice photo-shoot of him this month at least, even if it's not a cover. (Cover, please!)

Click here if you'd like to see the previous photos we've posted of Henry. And here's my review of CRA, which I totally enjoyed -- I hope they can keep the spark going for the now green-lit sequel. And by "spark" I obviously mean ten times more abs! (I expect Harry Shum Abs at the very least.) Hit the jump for the rest o' Henry...

Golding Morning, World

.

And our three day exploitation fest of the men of Crazy Rich Asians, out in theaters right now, comes to a close as it must with our leading man, our "Asian Bachelor" as Awkwafina so astutely calls his character in the film, Mr. Henry Golding. Wanna know one of the reasons why I agree with my friend Chris in his review of the film at The Film Experience that Michelle Yeoh deserves an Oscar nomination for her performance as his mother?

Because she somehow, insanely, manages to make this scene glimpsed in the trailer, which is all about the camera sexualizing her son as she dresses him, not creepy. I don't know how she did it - I was primed for a thick waft of incest to come pouring off the screen, but Yeoh sells "motherly concern" the whole damn time. Only a goddamn miracle of an actress could stare at those abs and not turn to the camera to hiss, "HE'S MINE!" An Oscar for Ms. Yeoh, please.

Stay tuned for my review of the film a little bit later today, and if you'd like to see our previous posts this week click here for Chris Pang and click here for Pierre Png. And now after the jump I will share a few more (aka several dozen) pictures of Mr. Golding...

Today's Fanboy Delusion

Today I'd rather be...

... picking up Harry Shum Jr.

Doing that Darren Criss post earlier made me think of his Glee co-star Harry and once I start thinking about Harry it gets tough, not thinking about Harry. Especially with all the making out he apparently does with the also lust-worthy Matthew Daddario...

... on that Shadowhunters show. (I really need to watch that show.) So hit the jump for about twenty more shots (really very hot shots not to mention more kisses with Matthew Daddario at that) that we haven't posted before...

Good Morning, Et Cetera...

.

Last night as I tried and failed to drift off to sleep I skimmed through Instagram, nervous that there might've been some good stuff (you know the good stuff about which I speak) that I might've missed over my holiday, and I ended up down the rabbit hole of dudes, so let's play some catch-up. After the jump I'll share some pictures, new and not, of Harry Shum Jr., Eric Balfour, Russell Tovey, Austin Nichols, and good ol' boy slash perennial flasher George Stults...

Why So Glum, Harry Shum

.

I'll give you a reason to smile, Harry. 

(via)

.

Good Morning, Harry

.

For somebody with abs like Harry Shum Jr. has abs - see here and here and here and especially here for examples - he's got an awfully demure Instagram account. If I had his abs it'd be like Ab Weekly up in there. "Abs! They're Just Like Abs!" The best I could do was the above shot and then below a tank top and a shot showing off the bruises he got doing wire-work for the Crouching Tiger sequel he's starring in.

Oh and also for some reason there's a video of Harry and tWitch (Hey I just learned who that is! He's one of the new dancers in Magic Mike XXL!) having "a topless sword fight." Minds out of the gutter, people - it's not quite as promising as that originally sounds.

.

.

A happy 33 to Harry today.

.

I Am Link

.

--- Bathed In Gold - Somebody figure out the riddle of who Robert Pattinson is talking here in Esquire UK:

"This actress was doing a scene in the bath and she kept complaining about the temperature, how it was too hot or too cold. So everyone pissed in it and put a bunch of bubble bath in afterwards so you couldn’t smell it! This stuff happens. That’s why I avoid asking for anything. I don’t want to get anyone’s piss on me."

Michael at DListed thinks it could have been Reese Witherspoon on the set of Water For Elephants, which sounds possible given Reese's reputation. But there are also a couple of actresses in that Bel Ami movie he was in (no not the Eastern European porn, unfortunately) I could see this going down with. So who has a bath scene? It's not like I'm watching any of these movies myself.

--- Getting Wet - That girl pretending that a cardigan makes her shy and dumpy in the Fifty Shades of Grey trailer has just been cast in the new movie from I Am Love director Luca Guadagnino, which is one we've been following ever since I Am Love wowed us so hard, but with her casting comes more info than we've had so far - it's going to be called A Bigger Splash and it's a remake of the 1969 flick La Piscine, which starred Romy Schneider and Alain Delon as a couple who get into a love triangle with the younger Jane Birkin. I've never seen La Piscine, but I have seen Alain Delon in it...

... I really should see La Piscine. The most important news I haven't even gotten to - in this here remake, Tilda Swinton and Ralph Fiennes are playing the older couple. Yeah, we all live or die by this movie now. It is everything.

--- Tom's Friend - My current favorite ginger whose named doesn't rhyme with ass-bender has a new job - Domhnall Gleeson is going to be in that Leonardo Dicaprio / Tom Hardy movie The Revenant that I can only get mildly excited about because A) I don't really love Leo and B) it's being directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, blecch. But still, we do love Domhnall, and maybe he'll play Tom hardy's boyfriend or something.

--- Monster Maker - I wasn't as crazy-in-love with Wadjda as a lot of people seemed to be (my review) but I do find it interesting that its director is making a movie about Frankenstein author Mary Shelley starring Elle Fanning next - that's a leap! The movie will be about her romance with Percy Shelley when she was 17, before she wrote the book that would come to define her.

--- Crouching Hot Piece - I'm glad to see that Harry Shum Jr. is getting a gig somewhere off of Glee, because, uh, well because he is a hot piece, full stop. (More pictures here.) I have no idea if he can act. Anyway Harry is bringing his abs to the Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon sequel! The choreographer of the fight scenes in Ang Lee's original movie is playing director this time, but Michelle Yeoh is returning to the role she was so so good in. Another hot piece, Donnie Yen, is co-starring.

--- Note To Self - read this long piece on the making of David Ayer's Fury (I mean Haircut: The Movie) over at The New York Times on your lunch break. (thanks Mac) There are several pictures of Brad Pitt's haircut to break up the monotony of all them words, thankfully.
.