All things Daniel Radcliffe; David Zaslav has his eye on more Harry Potter movies; Does the likability of Hollywood’s elite really matter? All in today’s Movie News Rundown.
Out Today: Weird: The Al Yankovic Story starring Daniel Radcliffe arrives today on The Roku Channel. It’s hilarious and I highly recommend watching it. In case you missed it, the director Eric Appel told me in no uncertain terms that the movie contains “absolutely no research on Al’s actual life.” It’s basically a Weird Al parody of the music biopic genre, and it’s amazing.
More Potter: So goes David Zaslav’s chant from the top of Warner Bros. Discovery mountain. The gist of the point he made in an investor call on Thursday was that because the Harry Potter and Superman franchises did really well for Warner Bros. in the early 2000s, they should go back to the sure thing and keep making more of those, according to The Hollywood Reporter. That is, if J.K. Rowling will give them the O.K.
My Two Cents: Don’t get me wrong, I love the Harry Potter movies. But if I’ve said this once, I’ve said it a thousand times — whatever happened to letting a good thing die? Sure, Warner Bros. Discovery stands to make a lot of profit if they add more content to the Harry Potter franchise. But the quality of the franchise will almost certainly suffer.
Speaking of Daniel Radcliffe: He told IndieWire about his very brave and interesting choices of roles since the end of Harry Potter and starring in the Daniels’ experimental debut feature Swiss Army Man: “There’s something great about being able to draw attention to a story, and if some people go and see a weird movie because you are in it that they might not have seen if you were not, then that’s awesome,” Radcliffe said. “But… when I do indie movies, I’m not thinking: ‘I am doing you a huge favor. I will uplift.’ I am getting easily as much out of it as they are, to my mind.”
More Daniel Radcliffe: This is my chant, rather than More Potter. Vulture compiled a ranked list of Radcliffe’s post-Potter roles, from Guns Akimbo to Kill Your Darlings, which also doubles as a great list of things to watch this weekend. Personally, one of my favorite things about Daniel Radcliffe is that he’s a big fan of The Bachelor — so much so that he and his girlfriend Erin Darke went on a Bachelor recap podcast to talk about my favorite reality show which is, in my opinion, the jewel of The Bachelor franchise: Bachelor in Paradise. (I’m rooting for Johnny and Victoria this season, not that anyone asked).
Does Likability Matter?: Peter Bart’s Deadline commentary about whether the likeability of Hollywood honchos really matters is thought-provoking and interesting. He examines the recent follies of James Cordon and Ellen Degeneres and even recalls a long-ago dinner conversation with Jimmy Carson. Then there’s John Mulaney’s touring show, “Likability Is a Jail.” All of this asks: Does it really matter whether we like Hollywood’s powerful people or not?
Causeway: Lila Neugebauer makes her feature directorial debut after an impressive career directing plays on and off-Broadway with Causeway, a new Apple TV+ film about a wounded soldier starring Jennifer Lawrence and Brian Tyree Henry. She gushed about Lawrence’s “tremendous discipline” and Henry’s “astonishing depth of spirit” in a Q&A at one of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival’s Cinema Society events. Read more here.
I’ll Leave You With This: Daniel Radcliffe breaking down his most iconic characters for GQ.
Main Image: Daniel Radcliffe in Harry Potter. Photo Credit: Warner Bros.
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