“Just 25 years ago, Baldwin’s quiet growl was so uncommon that The Larry Sanders Show made a running gag of it, with Larry wrestling the upper hand from the much more attractive Baldwin by insulting his ability to project. Nowadays, Talking Like This is so ubiquitous that Will Arnett is about to launch a new children’s franchise based entirely on Batman’s harsh whisper. How did Talking Like This take over the male acting world?” Slate talks to voice (and stage and screen) actor James Urbaniak, something of a historian of acting styles. (includes video)
Category: media
This Year’s Oscar Best Picture Nominees – Not Exactly Box Office Winners
“For only the second time in the last 10 years, none of the best picture nominees — at the time of nomination — has grossed more than $100 million domestically. And that first time was in 2015, and that’s only because American Sniper had just opened in wide release; it would go on to gross $346.7 million in North America.”
Jill Soloway Says Male Directors Should Just Stop Making Movies About Rape (Then She Womansplains Why They Do It)
On a panel at Sundance, the writer/producer (Transparent, United States of Tara, Six Feet Under) said, “We get it, guys. You want us to stay inside because you want us to be afraid we’re going to get raped. We get it! Stop making movies and TV shows about rape. Let women make those movies if they want to.” Then she started talking about why she thinks Paul Verhoeven made Elle …
After Outcry, Roman Polanski Withdraws From France’s Academy Awards
“Roman Polanski has stepped down from presiding over next month’s César awards, France’s equivalent of the Oscars, after his nomination to the prestigious role sparked outrage, a 61,000-signature petition and calls to boycott the event.”
Amazon Makes History With Oscar Nomination
To be sure, “Manchester By the Sea,” up for awards including lead actor, lead actress and director, is not streaming yet on the Amazon Prime service. Unlike Netflix, Amazon’s movie business follows the traditional windowing model where movies run exclusively in theaters before landing on home video outlets.
Sundance Festival Shows Virtual Realities Challenges, Suggests Potential
“While New Frontier has shone a spotlight on VR for the past five years, 2017 represents a particularly crucial juncture for the technology. This year’s showcase comes after a full year of availability for all sorts of hardware dedicated to VR viewing. What throughout its tortured history seemed about as commercially viable as jetpacks is now a reality, bringing a newfound urgency to the content exhibited at New Frontier.”
This Year’s Oscar Nominations – Some Surprises
“Amid all the yuk-yuks and song-and-dance numbers, there are some highly-coveted gold-ish statuettes to be handed out, and this year the largely white, largely old, largely male Academy, which has taken recent steps to diversify, seems to have learned a lesson from the loud #OscarsSoWhite backlash: black stories matter.”
The Anti-Oscars: Here Are The 2017 Razzie Award Nominees
Zoolander 2 may be the leading property for this year’s Golden Raspberries (nine nominations), yet surely the champion, with three nominations in his own name (including a Worst Actor nod for playing himself) and another two for his movie, is the immensely deserving Dinesh D’Souza.
Netflix Is Adding Subscribers At A Record Pace. And Investing Billions More In Original Shows
“In 2016, Netflix spent $5 billion on original programming. Five of the 10 shows people searched for most often last year are Netflix originals, company officials said, citing Google data during an earnings call. Eager to build on that, Netflix plans to spend $6 billion creating 1000 hours of new content this year, more than doubling its 2016 lineup.”
So Your Movie Was A Hit At Sundance? (You’re Still Not Going To Make Any Money)
“Most Sundance films these days are lucky to earn six figures at the box office — in total. For instance, the comedy “Wiener-Dog,” a follow-up to the 1995 indie hit “Welcome to the Dollhouse,” collected $470,575 last summer before arriving on Amazon. Have streaming and video on demand made up the art-house slack? Or even broadened the audience?”