In today’s Movie News Roundup: Hollywood sets are filthy; 20-year-old Quentin Tarantino interviews a screenwriting master; and a first look at Dune. Also: We have a “podcast,” which is a portmanteau of the words “poor” and “broadcast.”
Dirty Movies: Hollywood sets are often filthy, the Los Angeles Times reports, sharing a dirty little secret that no one wanted to acknowledge until COVID-19.
20-Year-Old Tarantino Interviews John Milius: Quentin Tarantino has posted a 1982 interview he conducted with screenwriter John Milius on the website for his theater, the New Beverly. “This interview with writer-director John Milius was conducted when I was twenty years old (and boy does it show),” writes Tarantino. I dunno, seems pretty terrific to me. Fascinatingly, Milius talks with young QT about how an obscure 1970 bikers-in-Vietnam B-movie called The Losers helped inspire his script for Apocalypse Now.
Dune Patrol: Vanity Fair has a deep-dive into Denis Villeneuve’s Dune that goes far beyond yesterday’s look at Timothée Chalamet in costume as Paul Atreides. Villeneuve tells VF’s Anthony Breznican that the key to his adaptation was splitting the story into two films: “I would not agree to make this adaptation of the book with one single movie,” he says. “The world is too complex. It’s a world that takes its power in details.”
One thing we really like is this new take on an image we posted yesterday. Here’s Kyle MacLachlan and Sean Young in the original David Lynch Dune (1984) alongside Chalamet and Rebecca Ferguson in the new Dune.
The uncivilized barbarians of the old Dune ingest air from the left, unlike the urbane sophisticates of the new Dune.
No Cannes Do: Variety notes that festivals in France will remain banned through mid-July, which means another problem for Cannes, which had aimed to reschedule from May to late June or July. Safety first. The deeper drama: Will Cannes be canceled outright before we run out of Cannes puns?
RIP Ann Sullivan: The Disney animator, who worked on films including The Little Mermaid and The Lion King, has died from complications of COVID-19, according to The Hollywood Reporter. She was 91 and was the third member of the Motion Picture and Television Fund retirement home to die there. The staff called her Giggles because “she had the best laugh of any person I’ve ever known,” said chaplain Dina Kuperstock.
Uncorked: You know how in old movies there’s some well-intentioned weirdo who’s into HAM radios? No? A HAM radio operator was a middle-aged guy (it’s always a middle-aged guy) speaking into a microphone from his tiny room to three or four listeners scattered across the country. It was sad, but harmless. Today, HAM radio operators are known as “podcasters.” I myself co-host a podcast called Low Key with my pals Aaron Lanton and Keith Dennie, and this week we talk about Netflix’s wine v. BBQ drama Uncorked. It’s good! Uncorked writer-director Prentice Penny generously commented on Twitter, “Great podcast.” What else do you need?
You can listen on Apple or Spotify or right here:
https://shows.acast.com/low-key/episodes/netflixs-uncorked-is-a-worthy-memphis-movie
And now, a gentle goodbye wave we like to call “yesterday’s movie news roundup.”
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