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Scarlett Johansson’s night hosting “SNL” for the 5th time went all in on Donald Trump. And I mean, big time. On a very funny episode, ScarJo called Trump a “racist” to her dog, who revealed himself to be a Trump supporter:
ScarJo also played Ivanka Trump, whose new perfume is called Complicit:
Pete Davidson was scathingly hilarious. He said Steven Miller was voted in high school as Most Likely to Have a Cigar Box Full of Missing Girls’ Drivers Licenses. He also said Sean Hannity looks like a thumb “which is why he’s so far up Trump’s ass”:
And of course Alec Baldwin was back as Trump, defending the planet from aliens– the space kind:
This is the kind of box office story Hollywood loves.
Jordan Peele’s “Get Out” crosses the $100 million line today. It finished the weekend at $111 million. It was made for $4.5 million.
“Get Out” comes from the demonic production company owned by Jason Blum, and his Blumhouse. I knew Jason when he was working for Harvey and Bob Weinstein. He obviously learned a lot.
Blumhouse has its name on series like “Paranormal Activity,” “The Purge,” and “Insidious.” They’re the kings of low budget high quality horror films. This year they’re going to bring back a new “Amityville Horror” film. Next year they’ve gor “Halloween.”
“Get Out” has only been in theatres for two weeks, so they’re just getting started. And sequels are a dead certainty as Peele & Co. have built in many possibilities. Plus Peele says he has ideas for four other movies along the lines of “Get Out.” I’m just wondering if the white audiences are getting the message of the film– especially in the current political environment. But Hollywood will get the message as the money flows in.
And star Daniel Kaluuya? His career is set now. Congrats!
This morning reclusive director Terrence Malick is part of a public panel at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas. Malick was once a legend for directing the most beautiful film of the 70s, “Days of Heaven,” and for “Badlands.” Malick hasn’t been seen in public or interviewed in YEARS. Decades, really. So this is a big deal down in his hometown of Austin.
Today he’s promoting his new film, “Song to Song.” It’s the latest of his self indulgent films og the 2000s that has big Hollywood stars doing nothing and speaking little dialogue. I’m sure it looks great. But the reviews overnight were tepid, to say the best of them. Twitter reaction to the two and a half hour vanity project: boring and awful.
He said at the panel this morning that the first cut of “Song to Song” was eight hours. That says everything.
As I’ve said before I hope Del Shannon’s family really got paid well for use of “Runaway.” It makes the whole trailer. I doubt the movie has that kind of energy.
Erik Davis from Fandango is posting a lot from the panel. He obviously likes the movie on some level. The adrenaline from seeing Malick in public must be overwhelming. No one has seen him in years. But the reality of the film will be like “To the Wonder,” “Knight of Cups,” “Tree of Life,” and “Voyage.”
Following the death of Bill Paxton, CBS is dumping the series by sending it to Saturday nights. The show wasn’t a ratings hit yet, but with time it might have built an audience. The chances of that are over, so that’s that.
“Training Day” is based on the Antoine Fuqua movie that brought an Oscar to Denzel Washington and a nomination for Ethan Hawke. Had it morphed into a success, the series would have been a sweet payoff to the original producers. But then came what no one would have predicted: Paxton dying. And that’s that.
A picture says a thousand words. And boy, this picture of Sean “Spicy” Spicer at today’s White House press conference is shouting some words– like SOS, Help, everything is upside down including the spokesman’s flag pin. Is it a false flag? Is it a desperate signal to get him out of there? Melissa McCarthy, get on the next flight to NY. We need you!
You don’t see the great Patty Smyth on stage every day. The rocking star of the group Scandal from the 80s married tennis great John McEnroe and took over a family of six kids. But she’s still got it, more than ever. Last night at the all star mega rock show at the Beacon for God’s Love We Deliver, Patty staged a performance of Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love” for the records books. It was blistering and she was better than ever.
Only one problem. The announcer introduced her as “Patti Smith.” Uh, that’s someone else, as we know.
Our Patty was not pleased. She joked about it to the audience. But I’m told backstage, among the 30 or so stars stacked up to sing, she told off the stage managers. It didn’t help that she was joined on stage by a guitar playing McEnroe, who has a notorious temper. The long married duo did not stay for the big end of the show jam session when the 4-and-half-hour proceedings were over.
Otherwise, Love Rocks 2017, went off pretty well considering how long it was and how many people were involved. “Letterman” and “SNL” band star Will Lee was the musical director, Paul Shaffer shined on keyboards (he was great), legendary Steve Gad was on drums. Think of this: they were required to play blues, rock and R&B, everything from Motown to Van Morrison to ZZ Top to the Stones, Dylan, Beatles, Curtis Mayfield, BB King, and Joe Walsh’s “Life’s Been Good.” There wasn’t even a bathroom break!
Willis was the unofficial emcee. Murray showed up later for amusing pleas to donate money to the cause.
Some highlights: Warren Haynes on “Soulshine.” Michael McDonald with Catherine Russell on “AIn’t No Mountain High Enough.” Sam Moore singing Sam Cooke’s “Good News,” then having Walsh join him on Soul Man with Bruce Willis on harmonica. Later, Moore, Susan Tedeschi, and Derek Trucks tore down the house on “Lovelight.” (See video)
That wasn’t all. Lisa Fischer maybe stole the whole show with “Gimme Shelter.” She peeled the gold leaf painting off the Beacon’s walls. Anthony Hamilton and Russell complemented each other nicely on “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.”
There was a lot of virtuoso guitar playing from Gary Clark, Jr, Billy Gibbons, and Trucks. Dr. John was astonishing on “Such a Night” given his permanent state of addled blues aristocracy.
There was no theme for the shoe particularly. Originally it was going to be a night of Sam Cooke songs, but the folks who control his music objected to that in the same week Aretha Franklin was saluted at Carnegie Hall. That made for a kind of blues-rock jukebox, but it worked in the end because the roster– including Mavis Staples, Cece Winans, William Bell, Keb Mo, Jackson Browne, the Blind Boys of Alabama, Aaron Neville, and Amy Helms (daughter of the late Levon Helms and songwriter Libby Titus) — were so exceptional.
Indeed. So I hear that Crosby, Stills, Nash, AND Neil Young– all of whom hate each other and have publicly slagged one another off– are considering a mega reunion tour.
That’s right. It’s Deja Vu all over again. Why, why, why? Our House is not a very happy house. Nash and Young have been hobbled financially by massive divorce settlements. They each parted from 30 year- plus marriages in the last couple of years.
Plus Neil has that whole Pono disaster. He’s had to have lost a ton on manufacturing a portable music player no one wanted, and looks like a Toblerone candy bar. The PonoMusic site still says “Under Construction.” Meantime, Neil’s campaign for uncompressed streaming and downloading has already been realized by HDTracks.com, Tidal, and even Spotify is jumping in.
When would this tour take place? It could be early this summer, but my guess is beginning after Labor Day. Stills has dates booked with ex flame Judy Collins for August. Plus, if they get this right, CSNY could be part of the next Desert Trip at Coachella come October. (Remember, you read that here first.)
They will have to get over all the nasty things they’ve said about each other. But, you know, for the right price, they can have that magic wand from “Men in Black” erase all that. Plenty of acts have toured without speaking to each other off stage. (See: The Police, Simon & Garfunkel, and so on.)
And think of the ancillaries: live album, some kind of video special, pay-for-view, etc. This is the year to do it, too. No one’s getting any younger.
Pop stars Pink and Sia star in a super single released today from legendary hit producers Stargate.
Stargate is really two Norwegian writer-producers named Tor Erik Hermansen and Mikkel Storleer Eriksen. Usually you see the Stargate name in the credits of acts like Beyonce, Rihanna and Katy Perry. They don’t just work with female singers. Stargate claims production credit on all of Coldplay’s “albumn ” A Head Full of Dreams” in 2015.
But now it’s time for them to go out on their own. “Waterfall” is a little repetitive, but it’s catchy. And Pink and Sia are no slouches.
Hollywood’s quick fix is not working out. The plan was to lure Chinese money in for new investments, but it turns out the Chinese have other ideas.
Seems like the $1 billion deal between the Wanda Group and Dick Clark Productions is coming to an end. Wanda was supposed to pony up the amazing amount of money so they could own the Golden Globes and the American Music Awards.
Dick Clark’s parent, Eldridge, really needs the money as they try to sell the Hollywood Reporter and Billboard, as well. But Deadline is reporting that DCP was priced too high, and maybe the Chinese are figuring out that second-tier awards shows aren’t worth all that much.
Eldridge has a similar problem with those magazines. I’m told their natural buyer, Penske Media, which owns Variety and Deadline, thinks the price there is too high, too. Meanwhile, The Hollywood Reporter loses $20 million or more a year.
At the same time, Kim Masters reports in THR that the Paramount deal with Shanghai Film Group and Huahua Media– also for a billion dollars– is coming apart. So far the Chinese are worried that no one is in charge of the movie studio and they want a meeting with parent Viacom. Former Fox chief Jim Gianopolous and “Fifty Shades” producer Mike DeLuca may be coming in to run the studio. But the Chinese want to know what the plan is besides making a new “Mission: Impossible” movie. They’re probably not fans of “Florence Foster Jenkins.”
So there is trouble on the horizon and getting closer all the time–especially if the Trump Administration continues to antagonize China over imports, exports, and everything else (except human rights violations, which the TA is ok with presumably). Donald Trump would like nothing better than to see Hollywood suffer financially because of him, despite his new Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin being tied in closely to Tinsel Town success.
“Kong: Skull Island” opens tonight and expect Warner Brothers to add to their financial coffers in a massive way. Bottom line, Kong comes through like the chest beating and at times endearing icon he is. The human actors, including Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, Brie Larson, John Goodman, Corey Hawkings, John Ortiz and the always funny John T Reilly, all play their predictable parts with dimension and personality. “Kong,” directed by Jordan Vogt Roberts, is most definitely a gloried B-movie, and it smartly knows exactly what lane it’s supposed to be in, which shows from the first scene.
The story, written by Dan Gilroy, Max Borenstein and Derek Connolly, borrows from the 1933 “King Kong” original but revamps it a bit to take place in the turbulent 70’s (the soundtrack is first rate from the beginning, starting with Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit”). Starting with the crusading scientist, (John Goodman) convincing the reluctant US government to allow him and the US military to trek out to an uncharted island to get to the truth of the massive monste, (a multitude of monsters as it turns out.)
Hunky Hiddleston is the professional tracker, Jackson is the macho officer in charge, Larson is the feminist anti-war photographer who hitched a ride on the helicopter in order to document the journey and always reliable Reilly is quippy as the stranded WW2 Veteran. The spectacular effects, by Industrial Light and Magic, are first rate, engaging, frightening and fun. The photography and the direction of this story are too, because every piece checks off its box with cheeky and at times way scary perfection.
So you have an old school monstrous B-movie being relevant once again (the last one was Peter Jackson’s in 2005) which by judging the rapturous reception it got last night at the premiere in LA where I saw it, fans in 2017 will most certainly flock to.
