Tom Payne Eight Times

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I was interested in the upcoming Fox show Prodigal Son when it was first announced because I do love my daddy Michael Sheen, and him playing a serial killer sounded up my alley. But the trailers make it look like pretty standard network stuff, not at all up my alley after all, and also I'm curious what happened to Finn Jones playing the role of the manipulated son, who's now played by former Jesus Tom Payne, seen here via Flaunt Magazine. Anyway one of you guys tell me if the show's worth my ever shrinking allotment of time, and in return I'll share the rest of this shoot after the jump...

Today's Fanboy Delusion

Today I'd rather be...

... circling the block with Jon Hamm.

In the most obscene display of gratuitous gray sweatpants since Justin Theroux rocked the nation to its very core on The Leftovers the new Amazon series of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's book Good Omens went and had Jon Hamm -- Jon Hamm, Noted Bulge Aficionado -- of all people jog towards a camera while wearing gray sweatpants, and to be quite frank (heh) I'm surprised he didn't knock both my eyes out.

I actually keep forgetting that Amazon dropped the show already and I haven't yet started watching -- I have to thank some rando on Tumblr for alerting me to this scene's presence. Randos on Tumblr are doing the lord's work. Anyway if any of you have watched the series yet I'd appreciate a heads up (heh) on the show, quality-wise.

With A Son Like Finn

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On Friday I told you about a forthcoming serial killer drama for FOX called Prodigal Son because the actor Michael Sheen, who we like quite a lot, is going to play a serial killer (nicknamed The Surgeon) on it. I tend not to watch these procedurals but Michael Sheen can convince me of many things. Anyway the lead on the show isn't actually Michael -- the lead is Michael's character's son, who uses his knowledge of dear daddy's psychosis to profile killers for the FBI, and it looks like Finn Jones, former Game of Thrones gay and hotly disliked Netflix hero, has nabbed the part (thx Mac). Oh and thing I just noticed -- the show is being directed by the guy who made that Age of Adaline movie with Blake Lively and, more importantly, Michiel Huisman in a towel. Put Michael Sheen in a towel, you cowards! Or Finn too, I suppose.

I Am Link

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--- No Really Now - As I've been previewing for weeks now (months, actually) Gregg Araki's giddy gay day-dream for Starz called Now Apocalypse is premiering this very weekend, on Sunday night. I recommend you watch it, I have found the episodes I've seen so far bonkers sexy fun. Anyway there is a very good piece on Araki, that chats with the man himself, over at The Ringer -- they look back at his entire career and how it's all been trash-compacted-up (that is meant as a compliment) into this show, which touches on everything he's stood for since he started the 90s.

--- The Sheen Is Off - It's a big year for our boy Michael Sheen -- Neil Gaiman's Good Omens premieres on Amazon in May, which has him playing the sissy angel Aziraphale. But he's getting his evil on this year too -- he's just signed on to play a serial killer on a FOX drama called Prodigal Son. Dubbed "The Surgeon" (that sounds promisingly gross) he's the father of the lead character, a criminal psychologist who learned how killers think from dear ol' dad.

--- Big Horror - Scream writer Kevin Williamson is teaming up with Hostel director Eli Roth for an adaptation of the book The River at Night, which is giving me some Descent-vibes description-wise -- a girl who's recovering from the death of her brother goes on a wilderness rafting trip with some girlfriends to get her mind off things and, well, things don't go as planned. Okay they don't mention cave monsters so maybe it's more like Deliverance than The Descent.

--- Smile Jacky Boy - It seems like a good idea to me for Jack O'Connell to do something a bit lighter, movie-wise -- I feel like he's always grimacing and grunting (sexily, but still) whenever I see him on-screen. So I look forward to this sci-fi romance called Little Fish that he's just signed on for, which'll have him living in a world where memory is running out, opposite Bates Motel and Ready Player One actress Olivia Cooke. 

--- Squad Member - I remain agnostic on there being a Suicide Squad sequel since the first movie was so so so very lousy even with such a mostly good cast, but the cast just got a little more interesting to me now that Will Smith has left the project and Idris Elba has been brought in to replace him as the super-shooter Deadshot. Will Smith wasn't even really that bad in the first film, to be honest - he certainly wasn't one of its biggest problems, anyway - but I still prefer looking at Idris on all counts. Him and Jai Courtney palling around? Yes please. (thx Mac)

--- And Finally hey remember when I posted that video of Alessandro Nivola doing some shirtless karate training on his Instagram? That was for a movie called The Art of Self-Defense that has him playing the "charismatic and mysterious Sensei" (according to IMDb anyway) to Jesse Eisenberg, who's looking to learn how to defend himself. Well the film is about to play South By Southwest next week (before it hits theaters in June) and the folks at BirthMoviesDeath have got the first teaser trailer -- check it out here. And below I giffed what is naturally my favorite moment...

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Wilde (1997)
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Oscar: Robbie is Canadian. You can tell by his youth.
Ada: Have you been brought to England to mature, Mr. Ross?
Robbie: That was the idea. But it doesn't seem to be working.
I've lived here since I was three and you see the pitiful result.
Oscar: Robbie comes from a long line of imperial governors.
His grandfather was Prime Minister of Upper Canada.
Or was it Lower Canada? The British take their class system
wherever they go. They apply it even to continents.
Ada: Are you planning to govern a continent?
Robbie: Oh, no. I don't even plan to govern myself.

I really have got to go back and watch Wilde sometime -- it's been so long the only thing I remember is Jude Law's assorted gay rompings, but then you never forget that kind of thing. I don't even remember that it was Michael Sheen in the movie, but then 22 years ago I didn't know who "Michael Sheen" was, now did I? Well now I certainly do...

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What is it about Michael Sheen that makes me want to leap the length of entire continents to molest him?

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) August 13, 2014

... so I should wish him a very happy 50th birthday 

today, in hopes that he'll see this and come find me.

Happy birthday, Michael Sheen!
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Six Six Six Scary Movies in 150 Words or Less

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I've gotten woefully behind on reviews again (the eternal drum-beat!), nowhere moreso than with a pile-up of horror flicks I've tried to catch up on as the year of 2018 ended. So here are six (natch) quick takes on six (natch) horror or at least horror-adjacent flicks...

The House With a Clock in its Walls -- It's really strange to realize that Eli Roth has now directed a film starring Cate Blanchett, isn't it? And I say that generally as a fan of Eli's work, a stalwart defender of both Hostel films. Do you think Cate sat down and watched Hostel II at some point to familiarize herself with her director? Maybe she's a secret Torture Porn enthusiast! I could totally see that being true. As with all of our great actors she's got a hint of madness in her eyes - it's not too far a stretch to picture Cate getting stoned and cackling as the infamous leg shaving scene happens in Cabin Fever. Does it seem as if I'm avoiding talking about The House With a Clock in it Walls? Yeah you ain't mistaken. Snooze, next. 

Unfriended: Dark Web -- Don't ask me how this franchise turned out actually pretty good, but here we are two movies in and the Unfriended movies have legit burrowed under my skin two times now. (Here's my review of the first one.) This one, as ever the case with horror sequels, feels the need to expand outward from the first one - speaking of Hostel II it kind of has the feeling of that, with a vast conspiracy of crazies (or... you might say... a Dark Web) turning tech on its dumb-dumb users. But conspiracies of crazy people are almost always fundamentally scarier to me than demon possession or ghost infants and this army of hooded google ghouls (Goo-Ghouls?) shiver me timbers. It's clever and mean enough to make you need the lights on later.

The Housemaid -- Jump-scares don't normally get me but there are a couple of fun jump-scares in this atmospheric South-Korean-directed Vietnam-set ghost flick that got me; mostly though it reads as kind of a wan mash-up of The Handmaiden and Ju-on. It's also comically unsexy when it thinks it's being sexy - there are a whole lot of humping scenes in here that're about as hot as swamp butt on a first date. It also suffers from hot fits of non-sensical plotting a la Karyn Kusama's Destroyer that only make sense at the end of the film, but which un-do the viewer's goodwill before the time you get there. You're so irritable at people doing what seem like dumb things at the time that it's hard to work up a care once their actual motivations get unfurled.

New Year, New You -- Not as glimmeringly unnerving as director Sophia Takal's 2016 film Always Shine with Mackenzie Davis and Caitlin FitzGerald was (here's my review of that) but, well, that starred Mackenzie Davis and Caitlin FitzGerald, after all. But Suki Waterhouse fares better here than she did in The Bad Batch I thought, and Mr. Robot's Carly Chaikan as her former teen tormentor turned lifestyle blogger is insidiously awful (thats a compliment - she's meant to be). Best in show is probably Melissa Bergland as the malleable hanger-on willing to go full psycho for web sensation status. Still I was a little turned off by the pile of dead lesbians by film's end, and the constraints of its format - this is a 90 minute episode of a Hulu anthology series Into the Dark - stay felt.

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New Fetish: Michael Sheen Crazy Old-Timey Preacher pic.twitter.com/5bEicL3TAC

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) December 28, 2018

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Apostle -- Starts out weird, gets way weirder - it's always a treat to see Michael Sheen (full stop) getting his nuts on (fuller stop) and his gig here as an old-timey preacher-man gone full woodland cult psychotic is a bonanza of bearded bug-eyed fun. The presence of Dan Stevens confusedly skulking about brings with it a whole meat-sack of reminders of his superhero TV series Legion though - these're both projects that often get lost up their own gobbledygook, and the more out-there their shenanigans the less invested turned my attention. Still it's kind of Baskin lite starring movie stars and, uh, that in itself is so crazy you can't help but be a bit impressed. 

Bird Box -- Our culture's become so infinitesimally fractured that we leap at any opportunity for something approaching a shared experience - anyway that's the only reason I can come up with for why this silly un-scary mash-up of ten things better things before it became such a meme generator and topic of conversation. Once we knew Netflix's numbers we grasped for what we could! Sandra Bullock does what she can - she is Sandra Bullock for a reason, after all - and there are lots of names here I have no doubt that Netflix's algorithms know we love watching (John Malkovich being John Malkovich! Tom Hollander being Tom Hollander! Trevante Rhodes... call me!) but like that SUV in Sarah Paulson's fickle hands it all just sort of crashes into the sky.
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Such Beautiful Animals

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Even though Jake is making a face like he's got to run to the bathroom in every single shot I am happy that somebody in charge got him and Aaron Johnson to line up beside each other at this week's photo-call for Nocturnal Animals in Los Angeles. And Aaron looks sharp! (Pointed absence of Jake's movie-function attire implied.) Here's let's look at the whole gang...

... mainly because I am super amused by how much Armie Hammer towers over the rest of them. I always forget that dude is such a giant. (Okay I never forget that, I am lying.) By the way if the world doesn't end next week (you know what I am talking about) then I am booked for a press screening of Nocturnal Animals the week after, finally! My impatience is eating me up! Especially with...

... the promotional materials hitting hard front left and right. Three clips from the film were dropped over here (thx Mac) but the most important one the above gif is out of, involving Michael Shannon menacing a scuzzed-up Karl Glusman (who's shockingly tall himself, I just remembered) so let's watch that together:

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Two hours of just that, please! Also the first featurette about the film was released today, with some chatter from the usual suspects plus some new-to-my-eyes footage... hey Armie Hammer...

Also I don't recall that shot of a 

dandied-up Michael Sheen before...

... and you can watch that full video right here.

But wait! There is even more Jake to stuff in your mouth today! Perhaps you recall that Jake appeared at a Broadway fundraiser for Hillary Clinton earlier this month? I didn't say a ton about it because I was annoyed I wasn't there (comparable to the crickets we've given over to Jake's recent Sunday in the Park with George performances) but Jake did a lil' thingy with Jon Hamm for it (no, not that lil' thingy, unfortunately) and we finally have video! (thx Mac)

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Good Morning, World

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I always forget that Finn Wittrock played the gay hustler on the first season of Masters of Sex -- it was pre-American Horror Story so he was not yet Mister Finn as he is now. Anyway that forgetfulness means I've never giffed up his gay sex scene (although "sex" is stretching it since all it's got is some making out) with Bobby Campo under Michael Sheen's watchful eye, so today for Mister Finn's 32nd birthday we're doing just that. Hit the jump for it...

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

The Princess Bride (1987)

Westley: There's a shortage of perfect breasts 

in this world. It would be a pity to damage yours. 

A very happy birthday to Cary Elwes today!

Okay so the prospect of a remake of The Princess Bride is nigh unfathomable, but if it were to ever happen I could maybe finally get my favorite part of William Goldman's book -- THE ZOO OF DEATH!!! - visualized, so I can't say I'm one hundred percent opposed to the idea. But if it was going to be remade right this very minute - who would you cast in the roles? 

I mean primarily who would you cast as Westley & Princess Buttercup, but if you're a big enough nerd fan of the movie and the book (and I know you people exist, because I am one of you!) you can go ahead and re-cast as many roles as you want. Like you might think this is weird (you might even think it is INCONCEIVABLE) but I think that Michael Sheen would make for a fantastic Vizzini.

He's able to be charming while playing obnoxiously superior, anyway. As for my picks for Westley & Buttercup I went looking for actors who're right around the same age Elwes & Wright were (early 20s) and... well I didn't like any of them. But Haley Bennett & Glen Powell were both born in 1988 and I think they'd be great.

No Glen Powell's not as beautiful in the face as Cary Elwes was in 1987, but he's strapping and goofy enough for the role. And as he proved the other week on Scream Queens he can pull off romantic sincerity in the middle of insincere mayhem just fine. As for Bennett if you've seen Kaboom then you know she's better than all of the garbage she's been handed to work with since Kaboom (although I still haven't seen The Girl on the Train).

So who would you cast?

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I Am Link

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--- Big Dog On Campus - I haven't checked to see how many theaters Wiener-Dog is showing in here in its first week but I assume it's on the smaller side, so I won't nag at everyone to get their ass out to see it just yet, since you might not be able to see it just yet. But the second you have got the chance, do, doody, do. Here's my review from last week. And here's something even better, Richard Brody's outstanding rave for The New Yorker. (Although he's too spoilery so maybe read his after you've seen the movie.) But most importantly go read this chat with Todd Solondz himself, wherein he talks a bunch about the character of Dawn Weiner, the people's princess. (And I adore that illustration by Brian Taylor.)
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--- Euphoric Sisters - I could've sworn I'd posted about this movie once because I will post about Eva Green sitting on a log in a bow if given the chance and this is much more, but I can't find the story in our archives so I guess it slipped through - anyway! Eva Green is going to star in a movie called Euphoria with Alicia Vikander and Charlotte Rampling. Indeed! Green and Vikander are playing "sisters in conflict traveling through Europe toward a mystery destination" and it will shoot in the Alps this summer.

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--- Buncha Lookers - There's been a lot of new about the Looking movie this week since it premiered in San Francisco (it airs on July 23rd on HBO; here's the trailer if you missed it) - here are some fun quotes from the cast on the red carpet, including Jonathan Groff being typically goofy and adorable saying how happy he is about getting to make out with Murray Bartlett (yeah no kidding Jonathan). And a behind-the-scenes photography book is being released later this year - click here for info on that. (thx Mac)
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--- Bonkers For Batgirl - I seriously doubt anything will ever come of this but it's kind of amusing to imagine - in an interview this past week Nicolas Winding Refn said that he'd love to get tossed the keys to the studio kingdom just once to make a great big expensive superhero movie, and the one he'd most like to tackle would be... Batgirl! I'm sure this has nothing to do with the one-time rumor that Neon Demon actress Jena Malone was thought to be playing Batgirl in Batman v Superman (her role got edited out of the final film).

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--- The Doctor Is In(sane) - Some things, like the polar ice caps melting and Fruity Pebbles making milk both colorful and delicious, are just inevitable, and files "Taylor Lautner working with Ryan Murphy" under that same umbrella - Lautner's signed on to co-star in the second season of Scream Queens as, get this, "Dr. Cassidy Cascade." That name is so Soapdish I can hardly stand it. There's a little more info about the show's second season at the link if you're interested - all I care is that Niecy Nash & Glen Powell are back, and they are, sign me up.

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--- Resurrection Crew - We're only what four episodes into Preacher, just before the halfway mark, but AMC likes what they're getting well enough to've just renewed the show for a second season, and a bigger second season at that - the episode count is going up for 10 to 13. Well even if my feelings are a little bit mixed at this point, which we dove into yesterday as we dove on top of Derek Wilson, I'm happy that Dominic Cooper's got a steady job. Who knew after Agent Carter got canned...
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--- River Man - The great and still somehow underrated Michael Sheen is making his directorial debut on a movie about the serial killer Gary Ridgway, aka the Green River Killer of the 1990s; Sheen's also written the script (an adaptation of the graphic novel) and is planning on starring. So I guess he's into serial killers! He's got the eyes for it. I say that with great affection - we can stare crazy eyes at each other all night long, dude.
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--- And Finally file this one alongside the Angels in America piece I posted about earlier under "I have to get my shit together and read these damn things already!" -- here's a big interview with Girlfight and Jennifer's Body and The Invitation director Karyn Kusama that I've been meaning to read all week. Speaking of I should probably go back and watch Girlfight sometime since I have loved both of Kusama's horror films.
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I Am Link

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--- Mister Monsters - I showed The Strangers to a friend this week who'd never seen it and I was trying to figure out something to write on the movie since I hadn't seen it in awhile but let's be lazy and just share this good news instead - Scott Speedman is teaming up with director Brian Bertino again! They're making a movie called There Are Monsters which is about a mother and daughter terrorized by a you-guessed-it monster. I doubt that Speedman is playing the mother, the daughter, or the monster, but I guess we'll see.

--- Dead Down Dead - BD posted the opening scene from The Walking Dead spin-off Fear the Walking Dead (sidenote: I came up with a better title for this show on Twitter last night; I think I am going to call it that from now on) and you can watch it right here - the opening scene involves the character played by Frank Dillane stumbling around half-naked the entire time...

... and just cuz we're always thankful for abs, here are two fun-facts about him: Dillane is the son of Stephen Dillane, the terrific actor who most recently played Stannis on A Game of Thrones (and who we've posted naked pictures of because of course we have), and also Frank played Tom Riddle (aka Young Voldemort) in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Anyway according to BD he steals the first episode away from everybody else, so we'll see.

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--- Scare Ya Later - Yesterday I linked over to a list of "The Top 21 Horror Movies of the New Century" and as soon as I did I noticed that our beloved friend Final Girl had already taken on the list herself, with her own competing take on What Stacie Thinks Is Good. Some very fine additions to the pantheon here - I am always down with a Lake Mungo shout-out because hot damn is that movie scary and super underrated.

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--- Lady America - Just because Mistress America has come out and I have already reviewed it doesn't mean I'm gonna stop talking about it, not when I adored it and implore all of you to go go go as soon as you can. So here, read this delightful chat with Greta Gerwig over at Details; loved this bit on how she works out dialogue in her scripts:

"I try and keep my earbuds out of my ears so that I can listen to people. The subway is great. There are people talking really loud about everything. Gynecology problems. Waxing, boyfriends, cancer, parents. Everything. I follow people. Someone said to me the difference between the NYC subway and, say, the Paris metro is that on the Paris metro, everybody is silent. They do not talk. In New York City, everybody is yelling their problems and it is so great for listening to things."

--- Sex Less - A bunch of my co-conspirators at The Film Experience have taken to talking the new season of Masters of Sex, read their thoughts over here. I think they say some very wise things about the stuff that's gone wonky this year. I still watch because I love all of the actors so very very much, but it does feel aimless this year.
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--- Suit Yourself - The folks at Daredevil teased a look at the Daredevil suit for the second season on Twitter, see the tease here -- anyway if they really wanted to "tease" us they could have had a buck-naked Charlie Cox holding the folded-up suit over his junk. I mean really, it's like they're not even trying.
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--- And Finally I am one of the folks that loathed the final season of Lost (especially the last episode) with a passion so hard it burned up all my use for even re-watching the earlier seasons that I very much liked, so when I tell you you should read this piece from Lost (and The Leftovers) show-runner Damon Lindelof talking about how obnoxious the online conversation gets around Game of Thrones then you should probably go read the piece. I co-sign pretty much everything he says. Choice laugh-my-ass-off-loud bit:

"When I see a blogger—thank God I’m not on Twitter anymore, because I get into all sorts of trouble—or a critic, or a recapper say, “I’m done with your show,” if I were running that show I would call them up and say, “You are not allowed to watch my show anymore. I’m going to f–king alert everybody in your life to watch you. I’m going to hire a private eye to tap your media consumption, and you better not ever watch it again. Are you sure you want to do this?"

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Great Moments In Movie Shelves #5

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Okay it's not from a movie, it's from this week's episode of Masters of Sex, but this long slow pan along the shelves of a 1960s bookshop gave me the same incandescent feeling this series of posts is here for so we're going with it -- look at those vintage spines! Gimme!

I also feel like Important Things are being telegraphed to us about the show by their book selection, since the books being shown aren't really in any sort of order that makes sense for a bookstore. Can you name all the books shown?

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"Crackerjack."

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Which is Hotter?

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Alan Bates or Matthias Schonaerts as

Gabriel Oak in Far From the Madding Crowd?

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I never got around to watching John Schlesinger's 1967 version of Thomas Hardy's book before seeing Thomas Vinterberg's great big brand new 2015 edition -- you can read my review of the latter right here; suffice it to say, I adored it. Anyway I watched Schlesinger's film last night and it too was good! There were little character touches that were missing from the new more-condensed version that clicked some folks (Fanny and Mr. Boldwood, specifically) into place; Peter Finch's last scene as Boldwood especially worked better for me than what Michael Sheen was handed.

But ya know what? It could just be a case of which you see first but I still prefer Vinterberg's film. It felt more interested in Bathsheba and her inner life; the 1967 film captures the scope of the story but it didn't leave me particularly moved in the end, and it's very nearly more interested in each of her suitors than it is in its central figure... even if Julie Christie is, as always, a captivating diamond shining on the screen.

Quote of the Day

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“I like it when guys don’t wear those boxer briefs that go to mid-thigh and look like bike shorts. It’s harder and harder to find. They’re very popular, but I think they look stupid. I prefer old-fashioned tighty-whities or even just boxer shorts. When you discover a man who wears tighty-whities, you hold on to him. It’s so old-school. They’re great.”

-- That's Lizzy Caplan, preaching halleluiah, via Playboy.

I Am Link

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--- Silvestre's Sense of Smell - Towleroad talked to our longstanding Spanish boyfriend Miguel Angel Silvestre (click his name to fall down a rabbit hole of great gratuity) about hie role on the Wachowskis Netflix series Sense8 (maybe you've heard us mention it), you can read the whole interview here. Choice bit about his love-scenes with also-hottie Alfonso Herrera:

"It wasn’t a big challenge, to be honest. Me and the guy playing Hernando, we spoke from the beginning, and we knew that was going to be one of the things that we really needed to portray. An issue that is happening in Mexico, every two days, [a person is murdered in a homophobic crime], even though it was one of the first Latin American countries to get marriage for homosexuals … We had to treat this with the care and the love and as sincere as possible. So we have to be very relaxed with each other. I don’t like when you see the actors, they play a character, and they say “Hey, hey, I’m not really like this.” We became good friends, and we enjoyed all those moments. I really admire the guy playing Hernando. I believe admiration is love, and from the first minute, I admired this guy. Also, he smelled super good. That helped a lot ..."

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--- Cookie Crumbs - I wrote about the biography of John Waters' actress and downtown NYC icon Cookie Mueller a bunch when I was reading it and told y'all how good it is - well now Richard Hell (of the band Television) has done the same, and he knew Cookie personally so you should believe him. Such a fun book.
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--- Sex Sells - The teaser trailer and a poster for the third season of Masters of Sex dropped yesterday and it looks like they've plunged head-long into the '60s (which I vaguely remember from last year's finale - these seasons are happening too far apart) and hey oh there's a make-out between Lizzy Caplan & Caitlin Fitzgerald. Where's my make-out session between Nicholas D'Agosto & Teddy Sears dammit?
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--- Gone In A Flash - I'm beginning to get a little bit impatient with Michael Haneke - it's been almost three years since Amour came out and I'm feeling the need in my insides for his patented brand of miserablism. Supposedly he'd been waiting around for an "unnamed actress" to make his cyber-drama Flashmob (it was probably Binoche or Huppert, I'm guessing) but The Playlist is reporting he's now moved on from that project, and he'll be making something elsee. Per usual, no word on what the something else is, since he keeps shit close to his vest. But at least he's working.
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--- Boomerang Babe - It's good to know that Jai Courtney also groaned when he read that his Aussie character in Suicide Squad is named "Captain Boomerang" because good grief. But he says we need to get over that because director David Ayer has got a great angle on it, and he won't be embarrassing his homeland this time around. Although Jai does use the words "dark and gritty" and god DC needs to learn to loosen up a bit.
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--- Missed Mark - Sigh, so apparently the word leaking out that Jason Statham was in talks with Marvel to play the villain Bullseye for the second season of Daredevil was enough to ruin everything, and now Statham will not be doing it. Damn damn damn, that sucks, I was very very much into the thought of him and Charlie Cox rasslin' with each other a bunch.
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--- Tastes Like Burning - My pal Jarett's been on fire the past week at Buzzfeed - last week he did an amazing oral history of cult 80s comedy Don't Tell Mom The Babysitter's Dead on the eve of its 25th anniversary, and then yesterday he gave us quotes from 51 television writers, folks like Bryan Fuller and Rob Thomas and Chris Carter oh my, on the favorite thing they've written for their shows. Weirdly my favorite thing was the line from The Simpsons that Andrew Kreisberg wrote for Ralphie that git cut. (Ralphie is so much win.)
 .
.--- Girl Power - Some of these stories are several days old, sorry, I haven't gotten around to one of these link round-ups in a bit, but maybe you missed the word on director Jennifer Kent's follow-up to The Babadook? It will be an adaptation of the non-fiction book Alice + Freda Forever, which tells the story of two girls in 1892 Tennessee who fell in love and yadda yadda murder leads to yadda yadda a great big sensational trial. I can imagine, it being 1892 Tennessee. Anyway Jennifer Kent making her own Heavenly Creatures? Sign me the fuck up! Has anybody read the book? It sounds interesting.
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