BoxOfficeFangrl

Not that it was this well-known IP, but Marry Me is adapted from a graphic novel: http://marryme.keenspot.com/ The Northman is doing better than I expected (Last Duel numbers wouldn't have surprised me). Massive Talent seemed pretty niche, self-referential movies often are, it's not like Being John Malkovich was this massive box office hit.

How many Quibis is that?

I mean, Paramount didn't even do everything in their power to get Yellowstone on Paramount+ so... Doesn't Yellowstone have not one but two spin-offs (at least in the works) that are period Westerns? I guess it's different since it's a TV show and they can't be sure that audience will go to theaters again.

So, the plan was for Liza to sit backstage in a director's chair and...get transported to the microphone somehow? If she just has a bad back but doesn't need a wheelchair, was this director's chair supposed to be placed onstage and she was supposed to walk out there? How did this go in rehearsals? I mean, as careless as this story makes the producers seem (not to mention the Gaga haters insinuating that she orchestrated this "heartwarming moment" to boost her image), it also feels a bit like a friend trying to make an excuse for how she came off. You know, "Liza is totally FINE, sharp as a tack, she only seemed so impaired mentally because those mean producers tricked her!"

Lists like that exist to make people mad about them on social media. Also, it's The Ringer, Sean Fennessy is like the only person there who acknowledges that pre-1970s movies are worthwhile. Anyway, I think the rom-coms will need another angle to lure people into theaters; an action element, a superhero angle, being based on a book, or maybe keep it cheap and just throw in a cute dog or two?

Dune had a staggered release, mid-September in parts of Europe and October 21 (Thursday previews) in the US. WB wanted to make what they could overseas before the HBO Max copy went online.

Or a version of Ron that he could be with, but same difference, really. It's like how Ben Affleck married Jennifer Garner; people always said he never seemed that into her and didn't understand them as a couple. But take Garner and Hilary Swank and Matt Damon and you could totally buy them playing triplets. JKR always said wrote the last chapter of the series way back when she was starting out: that tracks because the writing in the epilogue is extremely basic, and it includes those pairings. It's just that as she wrote, IMO the story started evolving in another direction and she indulged that with Order of the Phoenix. So, Ginny is over Harry, dating other guys, he sees this and genuinely couldn't care less. The chick he is dating, is convinced he actually likes Hermione, whose "love advice" for Harry never actually helps him with Cho ahead of time. But with Half-Blood Prince, Rowling plugged ahead with the old ships like Book Five never happened: Ginny's love life now piques Harry's jealousy, plus Hermione has to cheat to help Ron make the Quidditch team because she looooves him so much...when he'd played on the team the year before and even had a big heroic moment (which Hermione wasn't there to see because she was off with Harry). JKR had a certain idea for the romances in HP, very melodramatic yet comical but more of a sidebar, so it was rather clumsily worked into the story. Plus she was unwilling to do anything remotely "controversial" in terms of sex in the HP books, so you get the Lupin/Tonks marriage after like three weeks of dating, rather than a pregnancy happening before the wedding. Rita Skeeter's unauthorized Dumbledore biography only reveals a "close friendship" with Grindelwald and the book itself is only laced with hints. Some fans picked up on it immediately but her approach wasn't exactly brave by 2007. The Divergent fans didn't even like the third book that much, the second movie didn't make as much: everyone except Lionsgate seemed to know what a mistake it was to split Allegiant into two.

I was going to say... Bonnie seems like a lovely person IRL but they completely rewrote Ginny as she got older to accommodate BW's skill set, such as it was. Now, I really couldn't stand Book Ginny, so for me, her being dull instead of "feisty" was a tremendous improvement. For the lead character's love story, though, it was pretty weak. At the time, I remember thinking Ginny wasn't in the movie enough, compared to the books, but her acting wasn't a problem then. When they cast Ginny, only the first four books were out, a nice, quiet girl made a bit more sense. I thought the blocking/staging for the big Ron/Hermione kiss was also pretty poor, but Rupert and Emma spoke of their total dread about the scene and maybe that was the best take? When JKR retroactively bashed Ron/Hermione and said she shouldn't have put them together (some of us were saying that all along but we got called 'delusional' back then, but I digress), I wonder how mad they were at WB. Because of the books, they were stuck with pairings where the actors weren't great at selling their romantic chemistry together. Cursed Child is alternate universe but not even in a good way.

At a certain point, you have to wonder if these awards writers even believe what they're saying, or are just vomiting out the words that will get the most clicks. I have enjoyed all the "______ Must Return Oscar to Restore the Award's Honor (Guest Column)" parody tweets, though.

The Most continues to be done...

She announced her split from ex-fiancé A-Rod on April 15, 2021, less than one year ago. Still, I'm not surprised Bennifer got back together: they always sounded so wistful about each other, years after the breakup. JLo has to know the media's going to be making Thanos jokes and slideshows of all her engagement rings, but she doesn't care, she still believes in love. No wonder she's so drawn to romcoms: her life is one.

Lots of traumatized folks in the Academy... Fines! Anger management! Take the Oscar away! Alll the responses aren't that dramatic, but the article gives a sense of what the Academy leadership must have been hearing from their members. There was no way the response could possibly please everyone.

The verdict is in: Will keeps his Oscar because the Academy was never going to open that can of worms... Wondering if he ever did get it engraved that night, or does the AMPAS mail him the trophy plaque or his Oscar is just going to remain blank forever? Obviously not his biggest problem at the moment...

But Amy said she was soooo "traumatized" by The Slap... A woman actually died on a film set... Alec Baldwin wasn't even in Don't Look Up? If this is the kind of joke that edgelord comedians aren't "allowed" to tell anymore...good.

The Morbius Defense Brigade here to save the day... All this for a movie the studio had absolutely no faith in... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Will wasn't thinking rationally. There'd been another joke alluding to Will/Jada's marital situation earlier in the show (the Covid test bit) and maybe with a second personal joke that night, he'd had enough. Like Will said in his speech, stars are just expected to laugh off any joke thrown their way. They still have feelings, despite all the money and fame (not that hurt feelings mean you get to hit people, obviously). I have never been in the school of thought that a comedian in roast mode is absolutely needed at awards shows to take these stars down a peg... Like, the comedians are also right there soaking up the publicity from the awards show while positioning themselves as above it all? Hypocrites. I am tired of awards shows giving massive airtime to people who clearly don't even like the kinds of films that get nominated and all the "nobody liked these movies" jokes...go host the People's Choice Awards, then. Why is the mythical casual viewer supposed to want to care about the Oscars when the people who run the show seem not to like the Oscars, either? They have a huge cultural legacy and footprint (as witnessed by The Slap being such a big deal because of where it happened--at an after party, it's maybe Jay-Z and Solange in the elevator), embrace it.

Wow! I thought that with the Academy and producers presenting 5,000 versions of events, that he'd skate with a suspension for a year or so. Still, you can't just go on stage and pop someone at the Oscars because they told a tactless joke. This was the best move to get everyone to move on, but what a fall from grace Will has had in less than a week.

Slapgate Update: .

IMO it's hard to say, because if you know there are only five Best Picture slots, you might approach the entire campaign differently. I feel that CODA had higher nomination potential but Apple didn't go full throttle until after the nominations were out. Maybe if they'd been more aggressive earlier on, Matlin and Jones get nominations along with Editing, and it seems more like a traditional frontrunner. But then there’s also more time for a frontrunner backlash to build, and maybe Power of the Dog has time to recover. It isn't always true that the movies with most nominations would have been the Top 5 in Best Picture. Even under the old system, you had a case like They Shoot Horses, Don't They? which somehow missed Best Picture despite 9 other nominations. It is fun to debate, though.

I find it odd that it took the Academy three days to say they asked Will to leave but he refused. It would be a crazy thing to lie about, and also seems like that should have been revealed on Monday at the latest? It would have made AMPAS look better and Will worse: they could say they didn't want to make a scene with security dragging him from the premises or whatever. What you got was the Academy’s Twitter account posting Will's win like nothing had happened, then blandly condemning violence without naming names later that night. Will Packer did a flip tweet about the show not being boring. All the reports from the scene made it sound they were scrambling vs decisive, which seems about right for them.

Eating my words here because I ended up thinking Jonathan Bailey and Simone Ashley really smoldered together. Good job fleshing out the Anthony character from S1, and nice glow up. I guess the story/writers can do the same for the other Bridgerton kids, because they're going to need to if the next season's lead is Colin or 45 year old Benedict. Just discovered that the Prudence Featherington actress is the daughter of "Mr Carson" and "Professor Umbridge" and I totally see it now.

Good rebound, but they've got to work out how to add a streaming component. The Super Bowl has done it while still coming on TV and the streaming figures were included in the overall viewership numbers.. Let those fancy Disney lawyers do their jobs!

Will wasn't so apologetic when he was partying it up last night, but I guess the rumored threat of having an Oscar rescinded or an Academy membership revoked makes a person sorry very quickly...