I Am Link

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--- The Trouble With (Casting) Harry - Last week we heard that it was Brady Corbet, Alden Ehrenreich, and Dane DeHaan who were up for the role of Peter's best buddy Harry Osborne in the second new Spider-Man movie; well four more names have been added to the heap - they are Sam Claflin (who somehow won the role of Finnick in The Hunger Games), Eddie Redmayne (how many willowy Brits they gonna fill it with?), Douglas Booth (haven't seen him in anything, but he's in Noah and he's pretty), and something called Boyd Holbrook, also pretty, pictured there to the left.

--- Abe's Woes - Since I'm spending all this energy casting shade at Steven Spielberg's Lincoln lately, I'll link to this opinion piece at The New York Times casting extreme shade at the film's handling of black characters, and rightfully so I think now in retrospect. I didn't know the real-life roles of Elizabeth Keckley and William Slade in the civil rights movements of the time when I saw the movie, but after reading about who they actually were, well the way they're shown as silent observers really is kind of offensive, frankly.

--- Lady Hitch - The New York Times takes a look at Alma Hitchcock, aka the missus, as seen through the lens of the two Hitchcock movies that have stormed our shores this holiday season. She's played by Helen Mirren in Hitchcock, out this week, and she was played in The Girl, which aired recently on HBO, by Imelda Staunton, the latter being a much closer match physically. I haven't seen Hitchcock yet so I can't say what Mirren's doing, but I thought Staunton was good, and very close to what I've always pictured of Alma. (thanks Mac)

--- Haunted Still - Director James Wan is indeed making Insidious 2 next, and - this is the surprising part - most of the original cast is returning for it. Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, and Lin Shaye, all of who... well their fates were not looking so bright when the first movie ended. Maybe they're just returning for the first scene and we'll see what happened after all slammed to black? Anyway it swill be out in August, they say.

--- Ghost Hunter - Speaking of Patrick Wilson and James Wan and horror movies - an unholy triumvirate! - STYD has a new picture of Patrick (and Little Patrick?) in Wan's The Conjuring, which we are very much looking forward to.

--- Fed Up - Anna Chlumsky is taking a break from being totally rad on Veep to presumably be totally rad on Bryan Fuller's Hannibal - she will play an underling to Jack Crawford (played by Laurence Fishburne). Who'd have thought My Girl would have such a sweet renaissance?

--- Re Bonded - Sam Mendes is working on a story for a second Bond film, after succeeding so smashingly with Skyfall. I am totally all in for that, but he must hire his ex-wife to play a Bond girl, I demand that much.

--- His Name Is Scoot - Scoot McNairy, who was one of my favorite things (out of not very many) in Ben Affleck's film Argo, has just jumped on-board for the next film from the director of the marvelous Animal Kingdom, and Stale Popcorn takes the opportunity to post several delightful pictures of the attractive gentleman. Fine work, Glenn!

--- Holy Master - Over at The Film Experience Nat takes on two wonders of inscrutability - Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master (which yes I still refuse to review until I see it a second time, which... is it even still playing now? Sigh) and Leos Carax's Holy Motors, which is at this point probably my favorite movie of the year.

--- Hey Look Charlie Hunnam is on the cover of Entertainment Weekly. Unfortunately it's in his Sons of Anarchy biker get-up and not, you know, in his underpants. But I ain't complaining - Charlie's success is all of our gain, because it means we'll eventually see him in his underpants more. Hooray! (See some more pics of Charlie from the cover shoot here.)