A Little Tom Holland Treat

The first official images from Christopher Nolan's film of The Odyssey have started to land (via the new issue of Empire magazine I believe) and I figured it would be this shot of Tom Holland playing the character of Telemachus that would blow up all y'all skirts the best. This movie's not out until July 17th 2026 so we've got some time to decide whether we give a shit -- well I suppose "we" really equals "me" since I'm the biggest Nolan naysayer around. And yet! And yet I did like Oppenheimer. So maybe I'll like this one even more and Nolan will suddenly become a director I appreciate again, which hasn't really been a thing since Memento. (Okay okay I do mostly like The Dark Knight too.) With a cast that includes Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron, Anne Hathaway, Mia Goth, Jon Bernthal, Zendaya, Logan Marshall-Green, Lupita Nyong'o and Samantha Morton (among others) there'll certainly be somebody worth staring at most of the time... but then Nolan's always gotten big starry casts which he then usually squanders. I'm trying to be optimistic, really! How are y'all feeling about the prospects on this one? 

Cosmo Jarvis Three Times

Big day for Cosmo-stans as not only was he featured in that Warfare clip I shared earlier but we've also got news of his next project, and it's a biggun -- he's just joined the vast cast of Chris Nolan's upcoming epic take on The Odyssey (thx Mac). No idea who he's playing in it but he's got a face for skirts and he joins the already announced (the movie is actually already filming) cast of (deep breath) Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Zendaya, Anne Hathaway, Lupita Nyong’o, Robert Pattinson, John Leguizamo, Benny Safdie, Charlize Theron, Jon Bernthal, Mia Goth, Shiloh Fernandez, Himesh Patel, Elliott Page, Bill Irwin, Samantha Morton, Jesse Garcia, Will Yun Lee and Corey Hawkins. We have of course been in the Cosmo-corner ever since we first saw him opposite Florence Pugh in Lady Macbeth -- it took Shōgun for the rest of the world to catch up but that's fine because Shōgun is ace. And I know I should know better than to expect anything homosexual from Nolan but my god with this cast of actors and Ancient Greece as your setting... I mean we all know what Achilles and Patroclus were getting up to dammit!

No Castle Rock For Garrett Hedlund

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Oh no! You can cram a form in last month's news that Garrett Hedlund will be starring in the second season of the Stephen King anthology show Castle Rock -- he got canned! And replaced by Paul Sparks from House of Cards. Alright "canned" might be a rougher way to describe what happened than what happened, here's how Deadline puts it:

"I hear the recasting was a creative decision related to the character of Ace, who is taking over his uncle Pop’s (Tim Robbins) businesses and threatening a fragile peace with nearby Jerusalem’s Lot. It was made after Hedlund had filmed a handful of scenes. They will now be reshot."

You know what, if one reads between the lines and assumes the worst in the world (duh) I really don't think "canned" is harsh though. That sounds like "canned" to me. I wonder what the deal is? And this is nothing against Paul Sparks, obviously...

... this is no doubt a big break for an actor that's been floating around the margins for awhile now, having done every TV show from Cards to Boardwalk Empire to The Night Of... and hey he was in Synedoche New York! He played Derek, the dude who was living in the basement of the burning house that Hazel (Samantha Morton) bought whom she went on to marry...

That burning house (her cause of death) with its pre-fabricated husband included inside of it is probably my favorite bit of symbolism in Synecdoche, my favorite movie of the past 20 years, so the fact that this is that dude goes a long way.
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Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Mister Lonely (2007)

Michael Jackson: It's hard to always laugh
when you don't know what people find so funny.

A happy 45th birthday to Harmony Korine today!

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Great Moments In Movie Shelves #90

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As action tough and testosterone-riddled as Daniel Craig's proven himself to be in his James Bond movies I will always be able to think of him as more than just a well-oiled everything thanks to having fallen for him back in 2004 in the movie Enduring Love, in which he played a bookish man bedeviled by a deranged Rhys Ifans.

I mean quite literally bookish, as the movie seems to frame him amongst books and bookshelves every single chance it gets. This scene in a bookstore is pretty important - it's the first time you really get the sense that this dude ain't right.

But even in the scene before this -- which is one of Craig's many many career-long odes to "How Good Daniel Craig Looks In Tighty-Whities," the books are there!

And once you start noticing it it actually becomes...

... a little bit goofy, how often...

... the movie frames him against bookshelves. Goofy, but wonderfully so, since Daniel Craig is great but "Daniel Craig plus bookshelves" is even better. What does it all mean? Oh I suppose since his character is a college professor there's a whole, "All your book learnin' didn't see this coming" vibe - and also the Straw Dogs sensation of a learned City Boy needing to Man Up.

But really, who cares. My eyeballs are just thankful it exists. And for more of what they appreciate in this movie, hit the jump...

I'd Rather Be Staring At Tahar Rahim

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This post is basically for me and me alone because I'd tweeted out astonishment not too far back that there is a show in the world that stars Mr. Rahim and Samantha Morton in the world and somehow I hadn't been hearing jack-squat about it -- this post is just me reminding myself to figure out how the hell I watch The Last Panthers, which is what said show is called, immediately. I know Sundance is airing the European-produced show here in the US, but I gotta get on that, specific-wise. Have any of you gotten on that? By "that" I mean the show, not Tahar, but if any of you have gotten on Tahar I want to hear that story even more. Hit the jump for seven more shots of the beautiful talented man in question...

Tammy Meet...

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... Hazel meet...

...  Tammy meet...

... Claire?

Meet Tammy.  

Happy birthday, Emily Watson!

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You Reap What You D'oh

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Hey did you guys know that Michael Shannon and Samantha Morton starred in an episode of Goosebumps? It was titled The Revenge of Doctor Mom & Nurse Dad (at least until some bozo in Hollyweird decided to re-title it The Harvest) and it was all about what a brain-fuck having Michael Shannon and Samantha Morton as your parents would be. And also marshmallows. Lemme tell you something - you haven't seen marshmallows be threatening until you've seen Michael Shannon handle marshmallows. (Say that ten times fast: Michael Shannon handles marshmallows threateningly, Michael Shannon handles marshmallows threateningly, et cetera.)

I think that RL Stine got the plot of The Revenge of Doctor Mom & Nurse Dad from his time spent working on 7th Heaven (or at least watching it) - they rejected it because they couldn't imagine Stephen Collins making marshmallows threatening. Enter Michael Shannon, stage left, thunderclap. The Revenge of Doctor Mom & Nurse Dad tells the spooky tale of two precocious teenagers, young love, a fateful wheelchair trip through the cornstalks, kidnapped babies, marshmallows, a fight for the Little League pennant, and Samantha Morton drooling in the forest.

Listen, much like Michael Shannon with marshmallows, Samantha Morton, she's a top-tier trooper, you guys. This piece of shit was like a dare she took, I think - can I take a straight-up ham-bone and spin it into a human being? Samantha Morton, she will open up those big beautiful eyes of hers wide, her mouth will quiver or twist; that sly smile you think is kinda shy, kinda coy, kinda sweet, it will ripple into the scariest fucking snarl like lightning across a bubbling midnight-blue sky. Samantha Morton, she will sell you like nobody's business.

But at what price? What price, Samantha Morton??? Amusing-myself-for-shits-and-giggles posturing aside, The Harvest (real title) reads like the back panel on a box of Ben-Gay - this shit is thick and stinky and it's gonna make you feel like an old person. I have my endless aches and pains so thanks but no thanks, movie.

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I Am Link

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--- No Ass Kick - Jim Carrey has come out against his upcoming movie Kick-Ass 2, denouncing the violence in the wake of Sandy Hook etc etera. I see movie violence as more of a reflection of society than a cause, but I still think this is totally cool of him all the same. It creates a conversation, anyway. It also creates an opportunity for me to post that picture of Aaron Johnson's backside in costume, so bless you Jim.

--- Another She - I hadn't heard the news that Samantha Morton, my beloved, had been replaced as the voice of the computer that Joaquin Phoenix falls in love with in Spike Jonze's upcoming film Her - Scarlett Johansson is now voicing the role. I can only assume they wanted to go for sexy instead of sweet, because that's the only way that swap makes sense to me. Oh also some footage screened in LA this weekend, which Slash has word on.

--- White Wolf - Channing Tatum says he's playing a half-wolf half-human albino in the Wachowskis new film Jupiter Rising, so you know, he should be terribly attractive to look at, and all. Maybe they're giving him some body hair? Like... white grandpa body hair? I can only imagine. And worry. In a post-Cloud Atlas world I worry.

--- RIP MJ - There was some drama last week when it was announced that Shailene Woodley was cut out of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (she'd already filmed a couple scenes as Mary Jane, Peter Parker's other love interest); now comes word that Cronenberg regular Sarah Gadon has joined the movie, but the suits say she is not taking over the Mary Jane role. 

--- Dino Tacular - What are purported to be story details for the fourth Jurassic Park film can be read over at JoBlo... or right here - apparently the park in the movie is going to be full operational, meaning full of people, and we're going to see aquatic dinos this time! There'll be a full Sea World-esque show. AWESOME. But they've managed to keep wraps on the super-secret super-smart dino that causes all the havoc, still.

--- Night Man - Joel McHale talked to EW a little bit about Beware the Night, that paranormal cop movie he's making with Eric Bana; most importantly they mention he had to be "in top physical condition, especially since he’s working opposite 'freaking Eric Bana.'” Fingers crossed that by "opposite" he really means "underneath."

--- Undead Daddy - Arnold Schwarzenegger is going to make the zombie movie Maggie, about a man whose daughter is slowly turning into one of the undead. I guess the script's fairly well received - course once it's Arnold saying yours precious words, expectations tend to change, eh?

--- And finally, here's the Yeah Yeah Yeahs new video (via) for the song "Despair," which is the first music video ever shot on the top of the Empire State Building. Karen O is life.

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Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Synecdoche, New York (200?)

Hazel: I like it. I do! I'm... 

I'm just really concerned about dying in the fire. 

Burning House Realtor: It's a big decision - 

how one prefers to die. 

 Happy 36, Samantha Morton.

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Imagine These Two As Your Parents

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I had this as part of my previous "I Am Link" post but then I realized it's just too awesome to get lost in the shuffle and deserved its own little spotlight. John McNaughton, the director of two of the greatest movies ever made - Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer and Wild Things, natch - is returning to feature film-making after an eleven year break - he's going to make The Harvest, a thriller about overprotective parents with a sick kid, starring two of the greatest actors working, Michael Shannon and Samantha Morton. Can I get a hell yes?

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Speaking Cronenberg

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In case you missed it earlier this week I went to the New York premiere of David Cronenberg's new movie Cosmopolis starring Robert Pattinson, and I wrote up some celeb sightings I had there and then I reviewed the movie, which I liked quite a bit. I bring this up because I got to see the movie a second time last evening out in Queens at the Museum of the Moving Image, and I have to say that I liked it even more a second time through. Once you know how it's gonna come at you and you're able to focus less on its bizarre surfaces and dig deeper into it, it rewards the efforts tenfold. The humor begins to pop (this is a very funny movie) and the emotional core of the thing starts to seem obvious - what at first felt cold and distant starts unraveling, and bruises - purple, raw - reveal themselves. I actually teared up this time! Similarly Robert Pattinson's performance (and to a lesser degree that by Sarah Gadon, who played his wife) grew much stronger with a second glance. Where I had some reservations about the movie before, they all but evaporated this time through.

Anyway Cronenberg was there for a Q&A after the movie and  now that I've seen him speak three times I can say with utmost certainty that he is one of the greatest Q&A guests I've had the pleasure of listening to. He can turn any nonsense question into an interesting answer, and he's generous and funny and his intelligence just drips right off of him no fuss, no muss. If I weren't enamored before, I most certainly would be now. (But I mean, obviously I was enamored before.) And thankfully for posterity's sake I recorded the whole damned thing last night, which you can watch right here.

Cosmopolis is out in NY and LA today.

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The Streets Are Filled With The Sleekest Tombs

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Leave it to David Cronenberg to take an "unfilmable" novel about the dense poetry of elliptical capitalist nonsense and make a movie from it straight-on, focusing right in on its anti-cinematic nature as hard as he can. Cosmopolis is about words, and it's about silence - Robert Pattinson's character Eric Packer pauses to reflect upon pauses, for goodness sake, and the majority of the action not only happens in the claustrophobic coffin of a stretch limousine but it takes place in the claustrophobic coffin of a stretch limousine that's been fitted for soundlessness, and Cronenberg goes above and beyond the call of duty if cutting off all excess noise on the soundtrack. This place is a self-sealed vacuum, a tupperware container of ricocheting capitalist suspicions.

So it's a weird and an unsettling picture... entirely Cronenberg. People speak stiltedly, oft affectless. Pattinson isn't quite robotic, but he keeps things on an even keel for the majority - if somebody gets a smirk from him, you feel like they've won the lottery. His prostate does most of his emoting, off-screen. This isn't a slight - it's right for the character, and for what Cronenberg wants - it just works best when Rob's got somebody better than him to play off of.

So what it comes down to is a series of episodic conversations, building towards who knows what (an anti-confrontation) but there's a sense of building, and the strength of each sequence depends upon the person opposite Pattinson involved. Some people carve a more memorable swath through the rigid confines than others. Cronenberg's obviously fascinated by Packer's predeterminate null and void newlywed situation (he makes it even colder than it is in the book), but the scenes between Packer and his wife (played by a very game for being very flat Sarah Gadon) played forced for me. 

Juliette Binoche gets a nice scene early on but she could've done it in her sleep; granted, one of her sexiest of sleeps. It's Samantha Morton who gets the opportunity to tear into it, and does she ever - I could listen to her rattle off theoretical stock portfolio poetry for hours. She lands the bizarre tone of it while making it sizzle at the same time - that long tube of limousine opens up never better than when she's filling it. She cuts right down to the bone of it, and everything stops and makes sense, beautiful bizarre sense, as she does.

Later when Paul Giamatti shows up I rolled my eyes at the obviousness of casting Paul Giamatti in the role - him for a mad-eyed loser schlub? Who'd have thunk it? - but he ends up sticking a marvelous speech about women's shoes and the "merchant copy" so on point that I was reminded why somebody would hire Paul Giamatti to do this again. It's one of the funniest, most caustically incisive moments that Cronenberg's ever filmed.

It's a difficult movie, I think (and by "difficult" I really mean "deliberately off-putting"); it's one you've gotta be willing to put up the effort to ride along with, and to overlook the occasional pot-hole. It hangs strange, ill-fitting even. But there's life - sexy snaking smart bat-shit weird life - left in Cronenberg yet.

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Mars Needs Hunks

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 Well that was quicker than expected - the John Carter Sans Mars trailer is here! Watch it over at Apple. I've watched it just the one time through now in order to grab these caps you'll see below and while I love all the Taylor Kitsch nipplage we're getting here I think I expected a slighter larger scope off the bat? I dunno, I guess they've still got thirty-two years until this thing is out and the big effects probably aren't finished yet and they'll blow us away later on down the road. For now though it introduces us to the story and the world well enough.I'm really just waiting for the second book to get filmed anyway. It's much better!

See 13 more pics after the jump!

Quote of the Day

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The lucky a-holes of io9 got to visit the post-production oasis for John Carter, aka A Princess of Mars, Pixar's live-action adaptation of the first book of Edgar Rice Burrough's sci-fi genre building series, and have filed a terrifically detailed report from there, along with a decent amount of conversation with director Andrew Stanton. They've seen the trailer, they've seen Woola and the Tharks and Dejah Thoris doing a slutty shimmy no doubt (harlot). I liked this bit from Stanton:

"Tharks are 9-foot to 10-foot tall green aliens with four arms and tusks. They're all CG, so I went with my Pixar gut and experience, and got actors because of their eyes, their voice, and their acting ability. That's all that's going to be left when all of this is said and done. Those are three things that can translate directly to the animated characters, once they're portrayed there. I got Willem Dafoe and Samantha Morton, and this is what I asked them to do, which was to be on stilts with gray pajamas on, with face cams in 100-degree heat. That's how I sold it. I didn't know how else to get around this issue. I said, "How would you like to wear gray pajamas and be on stilts and wear face cams and stand in 100 degree heat in the desert for six months or three months?" They said, "Where do I sign?""

I have a feeling that Samantha Morton walks around on stilts in gray pajamas when she's in her backyard so this probably wasn't even weird for her. That's why we love her! (And now that I think about it, the same goes for Willem Dafoe as well. What a bunch of weirdos!)

Oh and I should mention this revelation also from the article, since it's been a question I've maintained since the beginning with this project - Taylor Kitsch is not I repeat NOT wearing only a leather thong the whole movie. Cheats! Scroundrels! Thong-stripping hooligans! Boo! BOO! (image via)

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I Am Yours, David Cronenberg

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For decades and decades David Cronenberg has been delivering his goods straight to my happy spot. Would I be the man I am today without having witnessed a mutated Jeff Goldblum barfing up stomach acid at too young an age? I would not, and we all have him to thank for it. For me! And even if we have gotten a somewhat kinder and gentler Cronenberg in his past couple of films (okay 'kinder and gentler"'s obviously relative here; they've still got naked knife-wrestling and cheerleader 69s in them) he's still my big poppa.

Not only does he keep employing greats like Viggo and Vincent Cassel over and over, but the names he's adding to people he has or is about to work with? They're heat-seeking missles aimed straight at my heart. He's got Michael Fassbender coming up in A Dangerous Method, of course, which in itself is enough for eyes-back-in-head bliss. But the cast he's lining up for his project after ADM, his adaptation of Don Delillo's Cosmopolis? This shit is bananas. We've already addressed the fact that Juliette Binoche has joined the cast, which is enough to make me see stars. But today... this!

"While the entertainment world waits for Robert Pattinson's completion of "Breaking Dawn," we can't help but look forward at the "Twilight" star's next edgy project: David Cronenberg's "Cosmopolis."

Pattinson joined the project in January, with his costar Marion Cotillard dropping out shortly thereafter due to her pregnancy. After that, Kiera Knightly was rumored to have come on board, but later went on to deny it. During the MTV First livestream interview with Pattinson, he admitted that a new leading lady had been picked, he just couldn't disclose who she is.

"There is, I think, but I don't think I'm allowed to say it yet," he admitted before revealing: "I know Juliette Binoche is in it now, and Samantha Morton. It's going to be a crazy cast. Like, I have a feeling it's going to be amazing."

Samantha Morton! In a David Cronenberg movie! One of the things I adore most about Samantha Morton is her ability to simultaneously seem completely vulnerable and totally creepy, and if that's not a mixture made for Cronenberg then I don't know what. And then add Juliette Binoche! I mean... uhh... what words do I use here? Are there words to express my enthusiasm here? There are not. There are no words. I am going to sew my lips shut with a needle and thread and that act in itself might express one twentieth of how inexpressible my enthusiasm for this news is. Just... ahh!
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Happy 30, Ben Foster

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Ben Foster's character in 3:10 to Yuma, the flamboyant outlaw Charlie Prince, could've probably wrangled himself a spot in the Queer Creeps battle currently raging here at MNPP - when I wrote up a quick post ages ago defending the gay villain it was in honor of that character, after all. I hadn't seen the film yet when I wrote that, and when I did see the movie I had some other thoughts about how even more interesting a creation Charlie Prince was than he could've been.

And loads of that is surely due to Foster, who's quickly solidified himself as one of my favorite working actors. I missed his performance in The Messenger until awhile after I grace my 2009 prizes away but I've no doubt his work in that film sits at the top of the heap now that I have seen it. Just a beautifully gauged performance, and he deserved the recognition for that film more than either of his co-stars (and y'all know what a freak I am for Samantha Morton so that's saying a lot coming from me). Point being, I'm looking forward to what he's still got to give, and a happy birthday to him today.

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"God, Caden. I wish we had this..."

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" ... when we were young. And all those years in between.

My heart aches so much for you.

We're here, Caden."

In honor of her birthday today I was going to do a list of my favorite performances of Samantha Morton's, but looking through her credits I realized that there's a shameful amount of her work that I haven't seen yet. I still haven't seen Control or Jesus' Son or even The Messenger from last year, and I scarcely remember Sweet and Lowdown.

But I adore her every single time I see her in something and over the past couple of years, with Synecdoche (review) and with Mister Lonely (review) especially, I've come to revere her like few other actresses working today. So happy birthday, you wonderful wonderful actress. I look forward to working backwards athrough you've already given, and then seeing what you'll give in the future too. (Next stop: Pixar's John Carter of Mars!)
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The Moment I Fell For... Daniel Craig

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I kinda wish I could say with all honesty that it was the moment when he popped out of the water in the trailer for Casino Royale just so I could post that picture for the five-thousandth time (it really will never ever grow old), but I was really a big fan of Craig's before he became Bond, and it was this terrifically underrated movie that sealed the deal. It might not have been this moment in particular that did it, maybe it was something in his sweet, slowly unraveling relationship with Samantha Morton's character that was it, but it was this movie where I knew I'd follow the dude forever so I figured I'd have to pick something from it so why not post the gay bit. I love the fact that he's continually played gay (or gay-kiss-inclined, as it were) but I do wish he'd pick a partner hotter than Toby Jones or Rhys Ifans or Derek Jacobi... maybe when he's on-stage with Hugh Jackman...? I dare to dream too big, I do. Anyway, it was just an (super crazy big) added bonus that Danny looked so good in a square-cut swimsuit; he's an enormously talented actor outside of that goodness.
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Happy Birthday, Samantha Morton

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My new favorite actress Samantha Morton turns 32 years old today, and we here at MNPP would like to wish her a wonderful day. I'm sort of surprised to see she and I are only a couple months apart in age - she seems older somehow to me. Huh.

Anyway, I'm not alone in finding myself utterly terrified of this woman, right? She just doesn't seem wholly right in the head to me, which of course only adds to my fascination with and love for her, of course. But I wouldn't want to ever find myself alone with her. I feel like she'd start spinning around in the middle of the room singing and then fall in a heap on the floor whilst spitting out the most vile curse words and then giggle like a school-girl as she cut her face with a long skinny blade she'd pulled from her bra.

In other words, she's totally awesome.

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