Jane Campion hates superhero movies, but Pedro Almodovar is open to making a Batgirl film; Nancy Meyers will direct her next feature for Netflix; Severance will return; what movies changed your life?
Life-Changing Movies: The Atlantic‘s Conor Friedersdorf recently asked people to list movies that changed their lives, and the responses include everything from Road House to American Beauty to Pump Up the Volume — for various reasons.
What Movie Changed Your Life? Tell us in the comments below. I guess I’ll say The Princess Bride. The characters joking through every danger, no matter how grim, is absurdist and inspiring. I saw it with my mom when I was 12 and it’s still one of my favorite things.
Full Frame: The Durham, North Carolina-based documentary film festival starts tomorrow and runs through Sunday, and features films ranging from Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes to The Panola Project, about one woman’s extraordinary work to convince her convince her friends and neighbors to get the COVID vaccine. The lineup also includes two great films we’ve previously covered: Navalny, about a poisoned and imprisoned critic of Vladimir Putin, and Mija, about a music manager trying to help her undocumented family. You can read more at the festival website.
Nancy Meyers to Netflix: The auteur behind It’s Complicated and Something’s Gotta Give is the latest filmmaker to take her skills to Netflix. She will write, direct and produce her next film for the streaming service, though no details have been released. It’s been seven years since her last feature, The Intern, which made me cry on a plane, though she did direct Father of the Bride Part 3(ish), a short sequel to the first two Father of the Bride, which she co-wrote. It was released on Netflix’s social channels to raise money for World Central Kitchen, which felt like a brilliant and sophisticated meta troll since she’d like everyone to stop obsessing over her movie kitchens.
Speaking of Directors Who Recently Made Netflix Deals: Variety reports that the latest Oscar winner for Best Director, Jane Campion, will never make a superhero movie because, she says, “I actually hate them.” That means there’s no chance the Power of the Dog director will follow the path of last year’s Best Director Oscar winner, Chloe Zhao, who followed up Best Picture winner Nomadland with the Marvel movie Eternals, a critical and box office disappointment.
Parallel Batgirls: Variety‘s Marc Malkin reports that Pedro Almodovar, however, is open to to making a superhero movie: “I would like to do something with Batgirl, but I would have to do it in my own way,” he told Malkin. A Pedro Almodovar Batgirl movie of course sounds cool, but Warner Bros. already has a Batgirl movie in the works with Leslie Grace in the lead and Michael Keaton as Batman — and they couldn’t possibly want two different Batgirls, right? That would be like having three different Batmans.
Penelope Cruz Is In: Malkin also asked Penelope Cruz , star of Parallel Mothers and many more Almodovar movies, if she would appear in Almodovar’s totally hypothetical Batgirl film. “That sounds so cool,” she replied. “I don’t even need to read that script… I haven’t done that genre, but with Pedro it would be revolutionary.” If a Pedro Almodovar and Penelope Cruz Batgirl movie somehow happens, I sure hope Marc Malkin gets a producer credit for putting it all together.
Speaking of Superheroes: Tickets went on sale today for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, who also starred in The Power of the Dog for… Jane Campion. Who, I guess, hates his Marvel movies. Doctor Strange arrives in a month, on May 5, and I wouldn’t be at all excited for it at all except that Sam Raimi directed it and people are recklessly theorizing that Tom Cruise plays Iron Man.
Severance Renewed: Apple TV+ today announced a second season of Severance, the workplace sci-fi thriller from creator and writer Dan Erickson and director and executive producer Ben Stiller. Stiller recently said on Dana Carvey and David Spade’s terrific Saturday Night Live-focused podcast, Fly on the Wall, that he first read Severance when Erickson sent it to his company as a writing sample. Wow. The Season 1 finale of Severance airs this Friday.
Stiller Says in a Statement: “It’s really exciting to see the response from people who are loving the show — and the level of fan engagement. It has been a long road bringing Severance to television. I first read Dan’s pilot over five years ago. It has always been a multi season story, and I’m really happy we get to continue it. I’m grateful to our partners at Apple TV+ who have been behind it the whole way. Praise Keir!”
‘Praise Keir’: This is where I admit I haven’t been watching Severance and have no idea what this means. Has anyone seen it? It is good? Please let us know in the comments. Apple TV+ describes Severance thusly: “In Severance, Mark Scout (Adam Scott) leads a team at Lumon Industries, whose employees have undergone a severance procedure, which surgically divides their memories between their work and personal lives. This daring experiment in ‘work-life balance’ is called into question as Mark finds himself at the center of an unraveling mystery that will force him to confront the true nature of his work… and of himself. ”
Do They Have Internships, Though? Here’s Bobby D and his crew of wiseguys pulling off a home invasion with a little help from Catwoman.
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