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“The Odyssey” will cross the $200 million line tonight after one week in release. It’s on the brink, teetering last night at $199 million.
Shows are still sold out around the clock.
Plus, two different translations of Homer’s epic poem are in the amazon top 20! People not in high school are voluntarily reading “The Odyssey”! No numbers yet but you can bet Homer’s heirs will be demanding royalty statements!
Meantime, A24’s “The Invite” is being declined after a strong indie start. “The Invite” has a total of almost $18 million but it’s down 29% from last week.
I was one of those who put down some cash for a ticket this week. “The Invite” is “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” if made by Woody Allen at his height. It’s also kind of a psychological horror thriller that could easily be performed on stage — I’ll bet it comes to Broadway next.
Olivia Wilde’s direction is superb. Rashida Jones and Will McCormack’s screenplay is going to get all kinds of awards attention. But so, too, will all four actors starting with Penelope Cruz, Edward Norton, Wilde herself, and Seth Rogen playing the Woody character. And Sting gets a shout-out for tantric sex! Nice work!
I was very startled tonight to read that Ben and Casey Affleck’s mom, Chris, died at 83 back on May 31st. Her sons have just announced the passing.
Like Matt Damon’s late great dad, I remember meeting Chris back in the time of “Good Will Hunting.” She was terrific. Condolences to her family and friends.
Here’s her obit, reprinted from Legacy.com. May her memory be a blessing
Born in New York City, in 1942. From the beginning of her life, Chris made her unconventional name her own, foreshadowing both the personality and the practicality that would follow her to her death. She accepted a typo in her first email address in similar fashion, making her “Chritopher” with no “s” for a solid twenty years.
Chris cherished her younger siblings. She idolized her stepfather, Sam, and took pride in his WWII service and support for civil rights. At Nightingale-Bamford, she made the most of an elite education while remaining skeptical of the tightly cloistered world it represented. When a teacher chastised her for criticizing Jim Crow, without hearing from the “other side,” she slipped down to a payphone to ask Woolworth’s whether they really did turn Black customers away. That was Chris: always willing to acknowledge that she might be wrong and never letting that uncertainty be an excuse for inaction.
Chris taught literacy classes in Mississippi during Freedom Summer, marched against the Vietnam War, and reveled in 1960s counterculture. One of the first Radcliffe women to receive a Harvard diploma, she eschewed a world of higher paying careers to spend 35 years as a public school teacher. Every student, whether just arrived from Haiti or Cambridge upper crust, was a cherished citizen of her classroom republic, equal to each other and to herself.
Her favorite young people, however, were her sons, Benjamin Géza (b.1972) and Caleb Casey (b.1975). Her five grandchildren, Indiana (2004), Violet (2005), Atticus (2008), Fin (2009), and Sam (2012), were the animating force of her last two decades. Chris was suitably proud of her descendants’ achievements, but she was delighted when they questioned, defied, or cleverly engaged authority.
She retired in 2008, to both see the world and change it. After volunteering on the Obama campaign trail, she traveled to Palestine/Israel, in 2009, and returned home as an organizer with the Alliance for Water Justice in Palestine. In her beloved Truro, she was a founding board member of the Sustainable Cape project. When her granddaughter’s student activist group needed a space for trainings, she invited them to Truro and attended every single workshop herself, taking notes. Her activist spirit was woven into the robust social life she kept with friends like Tom and Betsy Bilodeau, Peg and Carl White, Peter and Nancy Garrison, Patty Collinge and Jan Egleson, and those friends’ children and grandchildren.
Given six months to live in December of 2025, she called her friend, Josh Laub, to take oral histories of his time as a principal in the South Bronx.
Her greatest wish after her diagnosis, however, was to live to see her grandson graduate high school. She did so, attending with her family on May 31, 2026. She died peacefully, in her sleep, two days later.
GNot satisfied with flushing hundreds of millions of dollars down the tubes with his last movie project, the Hyatt hotel empire heir has returned for more.
Pritzker lost at least $200 million shooting, and then reshooting with a whole different cast, his jazz movie called “Bolden.”
A period piece, “Bolden” took about 10 years to make, and remake, before it was ultimately released to a few theaters and bombed.
The whole thing was a vanity project, travesty that came to include many actors and casts.
In the end, “Bolden” — about little known coronet king Buddy Bolden — made around $300,000 during its limited run. The whole thing was gigantic write off, and maybe caused Hyatt Hotel rates to increase out of the blue.
I really thought that was it for Pritzker, whose brother Tom is chairman of Hyatt Hotels, as far as the movie business. Until today.
It turns out Pritzker has been shooting another megamovie, in Australia. It’s about the building of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge which, as we all know is NOT Down Under, but right here in the good ol’ USA.
Deadline.com, failing to mention the “Bolden” disaster, says the cast of “Fog City” includes Cooper Koch, Angus Imrie, Sarah Bolger, Miranda Otto, and Carla Gugino. At least, that’s the cast of this version because if Pritzker doesn’t like the finished product, he may start all over again!
Executive producers of this extravaganza is Richard Arlook, a former talent manager whose previous credits don’t indicate anything of this enormity. Producers are Jon Cornick, and Michele Tayler. The latter must be a glutton for punishment since she worked on “Bolden.”
Is this a bridge too far? A compelling subject? Not really. Watching a bridge being built by miscellaneous people you’ve never heard of doesn’t sound like a movie. Also, we know the ending — the bridge is there and there are cars on it all day. Drama? In the bridge’s OG story, it was closed from 1951 to 1954 because it was unstable. (I won’t make the obvious joke.)
There doesn’t seem to be that much drama about building the Golden Gate Bridge. But maybe there’s secret backstory we will learn about.
“Bolden” seems to be on YouTube, for free, with just 2,600 views.
The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce has announced 33 new names for the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Some are deserved, some are from left field. Some are ridiculous.
Someone has to pay for that star. Usually it’s a studio trying to get attention for a movie. Often, a group of friends will cough up the dough. But it’s pay to play. The star comes with a hefty price tag of reportedly $85,000.
Some of these names are questionable, like Karol G and Raven Symone. I love the Ramones, but who’s paying for that? Jo Koy? Really? Robert Bolle (Italian ballet dancer)? Keke Palmer now? At this early point in her career? Charlamagne the God? A little soon, no?
I love the fact that Elle and Dakota Fanning are going in together as the first ever sisters. Elle gets a lot more press than Dakota, who is a wonderful actress and deserves equal kudos. Lovely. Two stars? Maybe they got a discount!
Frankly, Sam Elliot is the most eligible of all these people. And his wife, Katherine Ross, should be there, too!
Movies:
Cheech and Chong
Idris Elba
Sam Elliot
Elle Fanning and Dakota Fanning (the first sister duo to get a double star ceremony!)
Kate Hudson
Delroy Lindo
Sam Rockwell
Ted Sarandos
Television
David Allen Greer
Lisa Kudrow
Bill Lawrence
Pedro Pascal
Adam Scott
Jeff Probst
Keke Palmer
Raven Simone
Recording
Karol G
David Guetta
Waylon Jennings (posthumous)
The Ramones
Grandmaster Flash
Mark Shaiman
Sia
The Smashing Pumpkins
Linkin Park
Lil Wayne
Age is finally catching up with all the 60s performers in their 80s.
Now Mike Love of the Beach Boys is ill with something unspecified. He’s 85, after all.
The result is the Beach Boys cancelling the rest of their Endless Summer tour — 30 dates — through the beginning of September.
They say it’s “to recharge,” but look, 85 is an AGE. There’s no fooling around. Frankie Valli, 92, has been pulled off the road. There are some others, younger, who are getting noticed for their frailty. (Of course, not the Stones, or Ringo, or Paul!)
Wouldn’t it be nice if no one aged? Reality is getting worse and worse. A lot of people don’t like Mike Love — his cousin, Brian Wilson, sure didn’t. But he remains a central figure in the rock and roll canon. So we wish him Good Vibrations.
iTunes still doesn’t get it. When AI songs and artists hit their charts, they make no distinction.
So now we have a fake singer called Arthur Hayes. He has a “group” called Gravel Grace.
Their “song,” called “Leave the Lamp on Lord,” is number 1 on iTunes. It has 68 fake videos on YouTube. Some of them have 300,000 views.
But it’s all AI, a total fake. If you like it, fine. But you won’t see be seeing Arthur Hayes in concert.
He doesn’t exist.
Spotify recently said they would start identifying AI songs and artists. But iTunes and You Tube don’t. That’s how “records” by fake artists like Eddie Dalton became iTunes this past spring.
No lamps for Arthur Hayes, and no grace. Maybe some gravel.
Gravel & Grace has nine positions on the iTunes top 100.
Also on the chart is “Noah Nine” with three fake tracks. That makes 12, if you’re counting.
Where are they coming from? Stay tuned. They could be from that guy in Greenville, South Carolina called Dallas Ray Little. Or someone else who’s gotten their hands on an AI Program.
There’s so REAL good music that deserves those iTunes spots. This has become an embarrassment.
Also be on the lookout for something called Xania Monet. She’s NOT the great Victoria Monet, who is really real and vastly talented!
I just saw this flurry of excitement for a new Stevie Wonder album in 2027.
To quote a Stevie Wonder song “I wish.”
I immediately checked in with my Wonder insiders. They said: “He’s been working on it for three years. There’s a lot of great stuff. But is it really coming? We have to wait and see.”
Someone posted there were four unreleased tracks from “Songs in the Key of Life.”
My source laughed. “Yeah, there are hundreds of songs in the archives. You should see it. Who knows what will happen?”
I love Stevie Wonder so much, like all of us I want a new album. Stevie’s last full album, “A Time to Love,” was released in 2025 by Motown with Sylvia Rhone at the helm. It’s unclear who would shepherd a new album now, but you can bet it will be on Motown/Universal. Stevie is incredibly loyal. He flew across he country in June for Clive Davis’s funeral. When Aretha Franklin was in her final stages, he went to her bedside in Detroit. He’s a mensch!
Stevie’s last official single was a duet with Elton John in 2021 called “Finish Line,” on the Lockdown album. He also played me a cool new song years ago at Tony Bennett’s 90th birthday dinner at the Rainbow Room. This was back in 2016. When Stevie put the headphones on me, both Bruce Willis and John Travolta got in a snit because he wouldn’t let them listen.
With an $18 million Wednesday, the Chris Nolan epic is looking at $200 million either tonight or tomorrow morning.
Total right now is $181 million.
There’s no stopping “The Odyssey,” which is still selling out locations in the middle of the night.
Last night, when I went to see “The Invite” (whole other story), people were walking in for the 10pm show of “The Odyssey,” a three hour movie — plus that damned half hour of commercials and trailers.
“The Odyssey” gets one more big week before “Spider Man: Brand New Day” swings into action.
There’s a lot of overlap this year between the Venice and Toronto Film Festivals.
Most of the entries look top notch, with stars like Sam Rockwell, John Malkovich and Steve Buscemi in “Wild Horse Nine,” Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem in “The Bunker,” and the making of a classic film in “I Play Rocky.”
Many stars will appear at each festival, and they’re all great. But so far the competing festivals are lacking “buzz.”
Venice and Toronto are suffering from two issues each: the movies that are available, and the ones the studios are brave enough to show in advance.
What’s not on the lists is more interesting than the offerings.
Warner Bros. is not giving Tom Cruise in “Digger” to either of these festivals. The Alejandro G. Innaritu film opens October 1st. Warner Bros. looks like it’s following the path they took with last year’s “One Battle After Another,” maybe even keeping it out of the New York Film Festival. The plan certainly worked with “One Battle.” It won all the Oscars.
There’s also no sign of Joel Coen’s “Jack of Spades,” starring his three time Oscar winner wife Frances McDormand, Damien Lews, and Josh O’Connor. Maybe it will be a surprise at Telluride, or maybe we won’t see it until next year. Too bad — that would have been an event.
What Venice and Toronto have in common are top notch films with great casts, and strong filmmakers.
Florian Zeller’s “The Bunker” — which sounds a little like “The Brutalist” — stars Penelope Cruz, Javier Bardem, Steven Graham, Paul Dano, and Patrick Schwarzenegger — the latter is in a couple of films this fall and will really get to prove himself after “The White Lotus” made him a star.
Everyone’s hoping for good things with John Turturro in “The Only Living Pickpocket in New York.” Turturro is due for some awards attention after a long, stellar career.
I told you about Chris Rock’s “Misty Green” yesterday — lots of potential.
Jesse Eisenberg is already getting hyped for directing “The Debut,” which comes with Oscar winner Julianne Moore, and the great Paul Giamatti. That’s a no-brainer.
I really want to see what “Friends” star Courteney Cox is like as a director with “Evil Genius.” Cox has a lot of good will, and if she pulled this off — a complex story with a big cast — then the whole game changes.
Trudie Styler’s “Up Against It” is a romantic comedy that marks the producer-actress’s debut with narrative film. It sounds great with Antonio Banderas, Irish star Eva Birthistle, and Forest Whitaker leading the A list cast.
We already know Martin McDonagh’s “Wild Horse Nine” is going to be entertaining. Sam Rockwell, John Malkovich, and Steve Buscemi are the stars. We’d like to see it now, please, just from the trailer.
Casey Affleck is back as a director, with “Company,” starring starring Nick Nolte, Adelaide Clemens, Ben Mendelsohn and Scoot McNairy.
But really big stars and directors? With “The Odyssey” already the blockbuster of the year, there’s not a lot of oxygen for small, quirky films. And with Spielberg’s “Disclosure Day” come and gone, it’s hard to say if any other “event” releases are going to light up the season.
But let’s hope there’s a big surprise in the pack! I’ve seen it happen, especially at Toronto, anything’s possible!
David Letterman has reposted a clip of his interview with legendary TV producer Peter Lassally. You can see it below.
Lassally was a towering figure in television. He worked side by side with producer Frank DeCordova on Johnny Carson’s “Tonight Show” beginning in 1969. When he left in the 1980s, it was to oversee David Letterman’s “The Late Show” on NBC. He also worked on The Late Show with Craig Ferguson.
In Letterman’s clip he and Lassally recall the night Dave’s staff were introduced to Carson, and what happened next.
