Category: Movie

Alanis Morissette speaks out in a new documentary; another new doc lets Kenny G shake off his haters; Paul Schrader praises digital film; the new Christopher Nolan film goes to Universal; A-bombs and the Penguin are having a moment. All in today’s Movie News Rundown.

Alanis Morissette: The singer says in the new HBO doc Jagged, premiering today at the Toronto International Film Festival, that she was raped repeatedly as a 15-year-old — and that when she told people, no one did anything about it.

Defending Kenny G: Filmmaker Penny Lane has a knack for making sympathetic documentaries about reviled and seemingly irredeemable people — her last one was about Satanists. Her latest takes on someone even more divisive: Kenny G.

Schrader: Here’s Paul Schrader talking to MovieMaker managing editor Caleb Hammond about how shooting on digital film helped him retain full control over his (excellent) new film, The Card Counter. He also talks about a grouchy commentary track he once recorded, in which he was pretty tough on himself.

“He Speaks in Your Voice, American”: Ted Melfi, whose new film The Starling just premiered at Toronto, will adapt, direct and produce the 1997 Don DeLillo novel Underworld for Netflix, Deadline exclusively reports. Underworld is a hypnotically sprawling novel about baseball, the atomic bomb, waste, heroin, and America. I have no idea how one would adapt it and can’t wait to see.

A-Bombs, So Hot Right Now: Deadline also exclusively reports that Universal Pictures has won the right to finance and distribute the new film from Christopher Nolan, about J. Robert Oppenheimer and his work creating the atom bomb.

The Penguin: You can’t accuse Warner Bros. of leaving any IP unexploited: The Hollywood Reporter says HBO Max is exploring a Penguin series based on the version of the character who will appear in the upcoming Matt Reeves film The Batman. THR says Colin Farrell, who plays the crime lord (real name Oswald Cobblepot) in the film, has been approached about playing the role in the series but that no deal is in place. HBO Max is also working on a new Batgirl film and a series about the Gotham police force.

‘I Like Your Size’: A cool thing that happens when you search for “Kenny G” is that YouTube assumes you’re a huge fan and serves you videos like this one. (Also it is perfectly within bounds for a movie publication to share this because the “regulators — mount up!” is from Young Guns.) Enjoy!

Main image: Christopher Nolan directs John David Washington in Tenet.

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The Wire creator David Simon won’t shoot in Texas; Netflix opens a Roald Dahl factory; a new app uses movie IP to help parents spend less time with their children. All in today’s Movie News Rundown.

But First: If you followed the news in the ’90s, you are very familiar with the name Linda Tripp. But Impeachment: American Crime Story showrunner Sarah Burgess says she’s realized that many young viewers are learning about Linda Tripp for the first time. And she’s trying to be scrupulously fair.

Calm App: Variety exclusively reports that the meditation app Calm is ramping up its catalogue of content to help kids relax and fall asleep. The company already partners with Dreamworks’ Trolls franchise, and will offer new “Sleep Stories” based on Dreamworks’ Kung-Fu Panda and Illumination Entertainment’s Minions. It also offers audio narrations read by celebrities.

In Other Words: Fuck you, books! Hooray for no more wasted hours cuddling with your children as they tenderly turn the pages and learn to recognize letters and words.

See You at Cine Gear: MovieMaker will be at Cine Gear in Los Angeles this weekend. At 12:15 p.m. Friday in Petree Hall, we’ll hold a one-hour pitch session for MovieMaker Production Services, our program that doubles your film’s budget by leveraging our relationships with equipment rental facilities, post-production houses, and more.

Can’t Make It: All good, you can still learn about MovieMaker Production Services here.

Having It Dahl: Netflix has purchased the Roald Dahl Story Company and will expand an existing deal to create a Roald Dahl empire even bigger than a giant peach, Variety reports, without making that terrific giant peach joke. Deadline notes that the deal, for an undisclosed amount, will give Netflix access to the full catalogue of Dahl’s works. This will expand on a $1 billion deal between the companies in 2018. Among the Dahl project in the works is a series based on the world of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, from Taika Waititi and Phil Johnston.

Wait, Are You Serious? I know, I know — “Roald” is an absolutely insane name. It’s apparently of Old Norse origin and means “famous ruler.”

David Simon Won’t Film in Texas: The Wire creator is working on a new script based in Texas, but won’t shoot there because of the state’s new abortion law. “I’m turning in scripts next month on an HBO non-fiction miniseries based on events in Texas, but I can’t and won’t ask female cast/crew to forgo civil liberties to film there. What else looks like Dallas/Ft. Worth?” he tweeted.

Response: The Dallas Film & Creative Industries Office (formerly known as the Dallas Film Commission), responded: “Laws of a state are not reflective of its entire population. Not bringing a production to Dallas (a big ‘D’) only serves to further disenfranchise those that live here. We need talent/crew/creatives to stay & vote, not get driven out by inability to make a living.”

Rebuttal: “You misunderstand completely,” Simon replied. “My response is NOT rooted in any debate about political efficacy or the utility of any boycott. My singular responsibility is to securing and maintaining the civil liberties of all those we employ during the course of a production … if even one of our employees requires full control of her own body and choices — and if a law denies this or further criminalizes our attempt to help her exercise that control, we should have filmed elsewhere.”

May I Editorialize? Haha no just kidding I’m terrified to editorialize about this.

But Seriously, Folks: The Texas “bounty” provision — which potentially turns everyone in the state into Walker, Texas Ranger — is obviously grim. But I’m wary of attempts by Hollywood to try to force states like Texas and Georgia to change bad laws by refusing to work with film professionals in those states who probably voted against those laws. (People in the arts tend to lean left, I think we can all agree.) Punishing people who are on your side feels counterproductive. As the Dallas Film & Creative Industries Office noted (see “Response,” above), Hollywood boycotts may incentivize liberal voters to leave red states, instead of staying to vote against bad laws. I understand Simon is making a different argument (see “Rebuttal”). But I think liberals would have an easier time changing Texas by moving there than by refusing to engage. And should stop with the circular firing squads.

Veruca Salt: Whenever we write about Roald Dahl I try to remind me that Veruca Salt is one of the best band names ever. If you followed music in the ’90s, you are very familiar with the name Veruca Salt. If you’re learning about them for the first time, enjoy this you lucky dog:

Main image, above: The 1996 Henry Selick film James and the Giant Peach, based on the beloved Roald Dahl “book” (a rectangular curiosity used as the basis of future streaming content and/or children’s apps).

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FX’s Impeachment: American Crime Story showrunner Sarah Burgess has spent years crafting the first television show to dramatize the affair between President Bill Clinton and former White House intern Monica Lewinsky — and to tell the story of Linda Tripp, who leaked details of their affair to investigators.

Viewers who followed the ubiquitous story in the late ’90s remember Tripp well. But Burgess is aware that younger viewers may be hearing about her for the first time.

“Monica Lewinsky herself was made so famous by this crisis, that name is still known, even to teenagers. And, of course, Monica’s reemergence in the past few years has made her a positive public icon for young women,” Burgess said. “But… I remember talking to someone who was in their late 20s and didn’t know the name Linda Tripp at all.”

Longtime Murphy collaborator Sarah Paulson (American Horror Story, Ratched) plays Tripp in Impeachment: American Crime Story. But the real-life Linda Tripp passed away in 2020 before she could ever see Paulson’s portrayal of her on cable television. Tripp and Lewinsky became friends while working at the Pentagon. Tripp has faced immense scrutiny for recording her phone calls with Lewinsky, who revealed intimate details about her sexual relationship with the president. But Burgess made a point to be very fair in telling Tripp’s side of the story.

Also Read: Impeachment: American Crime Story Showrunner Wishes She’d Met the Real Linda Tripp Before She Died

“Different generations are going to hear and feel and experience the story very differently,” Burgess said. “For some people, this would be good information — and some people have read every book and podcast and know all the sort of intricacies of it. I was at a dinner last night where my friend… was telling her friend all about a very specific incident that I do depict in the show, and she hadn’t even seen my show yet. So it’s really fascinating to play to all these different audiences and I’m really curious how it’s all going to land on everybody differently.”

Without Linda Tripp, one could argue that Monica Lewinsky might never have become a household name. But Burgess feels differently.

“Linda’s decision to record Monica, and then to deliver those tapes to Ken Starr’s office, ensured that Monica would be caught up in a federal investigation. I don’t personally believe that Linda wanted to have something as horrible happen to Monica as happened to her. That’s my personal belief in sort of writing this character for several years. I don’t think she understood exactly the forces that she was unleashing,” Burgess said. “They were forces of misogyny, and they landed on Linda, too, and the tragedy of this tragic story is that Linda unleashed forces that harmed a young person who I believe she was friends with, and I don’t think she had that intention for harm of that level to occur… we also wouldn’t know who Monica is if not for Bill Clinton, and Ken Starr, and Matt Drudge, and Michael Isikoff.”

New episodes of Impeachment: American Crime Story air Tuesday nights at 10 p.m. on FX.

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Editors, cinematographers and more could soon go on strike; a closeup look into The Eyes of Tammy Faye; James Bond and Venom try to tag-team a box-office heist. All in today’s Movie News Rundown.

Dune, Sweet: The Denis Villeneuve film is off to a promising start, earning nearly $36 million from 24 overseas markets, Variety notes.

Behind The Eyes of Tammy Faye: Caleb Hammond talks to Michael Showalter, director of the televangelism biopic, who explains that he likes the challenge of taking “seemingly unlikable characters” and trying to “find the humanity in them,” beyond their superficial past portrayals. The film stars Jessica Chastain as singer, evangelist and makeup enthusiast Tammy Faye Bakker, and the interview covers a lot of detail about how Showalter made it.

Strike: One of the entertainment industry’s most essential unions will hold a strike authorization vote after contracts broke down with producers. IATSE represents over 150,000 editors, grips, operators, cinematographers, sound technicians, costumers, make-up artists, hair stylists, writers assistants, script coordinators and other industry professionals in North America. In a statement yesterday, IATSE leaders said the AMPTP, which represents unions, said it would not respond to IASTE’s latest proposal. “This failure to continue negotiating can only be interpreted one way. They simply will not address the core issues we have repeatedly advocated for from the beginning,” the IATSE leaders said in the statement.

What’s at Issue: The two sides are under a media blackout, which means few specifics have come out. But rest periods, higher wages and funding for IATSE’s health and pension plan are key issues.

The Response: The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the industry’s collective bargaining representative, says in a statement that it offered “a deal-closing comprehensive proposal that meaningfully addresses the IATSE’s key bargaining issues,” and would cover a “nearly $400 million pension and health plan deficit” while making “substantial improvements in rest periods, increases in wages and benefits, increases in minimum rates for specific job categories and increases in minimum rates for New Media Productions.”

Bond and Venom: Variety quotes Paul Dergarabedian, a box office authority and senior media analyst with Comscore, saying that the one-two punch of Venom: Let There Be Carnage on Oct. 1 and No Time to Die on Oct. 8 could kick off a “busy” fall box office. Venom: Let There Be Carnage and No Time to Die are perfectly positioned to entice the 18-to-30 year-olds who have driven the comeback of the movie theater in the latter part of the summer,” he says. Variety also says the end-of-summer release Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings looks likely to be the first pandemic-era film to cross $200 million domestically.

Comment of the Day: “Michelle Williams?” — MovieMaker publisher Deirdre McCarrick, upon seeing that the four-time Oscar nominee is in Venom: Let There Be Carnage.

Why Yes: In fact we did open today’s Rundown with a reference to Dude, Where’s My Car.

 

 

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The Eyes of Tammy Faye director Michael Showalter believes America’s longstanding fascination with televangelists and charismatic leaders has to do with the nation’s Christian roots mixed with unbridled capitalism.

“It’s a very American thing. America is rooted in these early Christian spiritual principles and values, plus this capitalist, rugged, individual thing,” he says. “And the televangelists are preaching this notion that God wants you to have it all: ‘The American Dream is out there, and you can have it. And God wants you to have it.’

“It’s more than the white-picket fence and the dog — it’s more than that,” he continues. “You can have the boat and the swimming pool. Your wildest dreams can come true. And God wants that for you. It’s this weird American way in which Christianity mixes with capitalist ambition.”

Pioneering televangelists Jim Bakker and Tammy Faye rode this “God wants you to have it all” prosperity gospel  in the ’70s and ’80s with their wildly popular TV program The PTL Club.

Showalter remembers watching The PTL Club as a teenager in the ’80s. To him, the show was a “curiosity,” something he found “a bit ridiculous but also entertaining.”

In 1988, Jim Bakker (played by Andrew Garfield) was indicted on eight counts of mail fraud, 15 counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy. He was sentenced to 45 years in prison, but ultimately served about five. (ABC News goes into the reasons why here.) Tammy Faye was not charged.

“The scandal was big news for a really long time. Everyone took pleasure in watching them be brought down. Tammy Faye was a big laughingstock. We all made fun of the way she looked and the way she talked and her high voice and her makeup and her garish outfits,” says Showalter.

When searching for scripts, Showalter says he looks for a main character who “is not obviously heroic or is challenged in some way.”

“I find that a good challenge is to take seemingly unlikable characters and to find the humanity in them and to look at them in a way that looks past the superficial way we might see that person,” he says.

Tammy Faye fit that description perfectly.

While her then-husband Jim Bakker was committing massive fraud behind closed doors, Faye embraced people on her daily program who had been shunned by more conservative Christians, like Moral Majority founder Jerry Falwell (played by Vincent D’Onofrio). In one sequence in the film, she speaks via live feed with gay pastor Steve Pieters, who had been diagnosed as HIV positive. Faye’s compassion is striking in the context of the era, when many fundamentalist Christian leaders turned their backs on people with HIV/AIDS.

Hidden behind fake eyelashes, tattooed eyeliner and colorful eyeshadow, Jessica Chastain lends layers to her Faye portrayal. She even sings, just as the real Tammy Faye did.

“We were using Nashville studio musicians, some of whom had actually recorded songs with Tammy Faye and had done music for the Bakkers on PTL,” Showalter says. “Rather than using hip cool current musicians trying to mimic that, we actually use the actual studio musicians who were of that time period.”

Showalter says he tried to maintains a zen-like disposition through the challenges of the film, which included studio recordings, portraying characters based on real people, and recreating decades of 700 Club and PTL Club sets.

“I often equate my experience of directing as getting in the ocean and letting the waves hit you. If you fight the waves, you get beat up more. You have to let the waves just hit you. There’s so many elements in this movie. My approach was to just to let all of it be what it wanted to be and then just go with it.”

Centering the film on Faye’s perspective also helped guide the editing process.

“In post-production, with all of the jumping back and forth between time periods, there was a lot of experimentation into finding the right balance. In the current version, you start in the ’90s, and you end in the ’90s. But in the original draft, you’re constantly returning to the ’90s as a kind of framing device. And now it’s much more of a bookended thing.”

“It was about telling the story of telling Tammy and trying to zero in on that thread,” he continues. “There’s a lot of other balls in the air. There’s Jim, and there’s the other characters, and there’s all sorts of other points of view that are flowing through it. It was about figuring out how to really focus in on Tammy’s point of view.”

Also read: Paul Schrader Says Shooting The Card Counter Digitally Helped Him Retain Final Cut

Up next for Showalter is a television series with Will Ferrell and Paul Rudd. Rudd starred in Showalter’s breakout, Wet Hot American Summer, in 2001.

Showalter calls Ferrell’s role in the series “quite dramatic.” He says actors best known for comedy and drama tend to approach their work the same way.

“There’s an essence there with someone like Will, where he just is funny even when he’s not meaning to be — that just is,” he says. “But they’re all very serious about it. And it’s the same approach: What performance do you want to give and let me help with that? How can I lean in? How can I encourage that further?

“The biggest choices are in casting that person and trying to work with an actor that isn’t going to rest on their laurels, that isn’t going to just do what they know how to do and not try to examine if there’s more they can explore.”

The Eyes of Tammy Faye, directed by Michael Showalter, is now in theaters. 

Main image, above: Jessica Chastain is Tammy Faye in The Eyes of Tammy Faye from director Michael Showalter. 

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