Hollywood Hotline - Week of June 20, 2024
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Howdy Hotliners,
RIP actor Donald Sutherland (1935-2024) who passed away today at age 88 in his home, after a long undisclosed illness. Never had the tension of working with him but heard he did not suffer fools gladly. He gave all his directors a run for their money. If he wore a hat in one take, he might take it off in the next take, thus ruining your precious continuity, but he didn't care. You definitely had to be on the ball with dealing with him. He’s been in so many movies, however the first scene that popped into my mind when I heard he passed was his amazing speech as a minister presiding over a new age wedding in actor Alan Arkin’s (1934-2023) directorial feature debut LITTLE MURDERS (1971)
Without further ado, let’s check the hotline:
Didn’t They Already Make RIP with Ryan Reynolds and Jeff Bridges?
How are Matt Damon and Ben Affleck not reuniting for GOODWILL HUNTING PART II? Where they have to go on the run after uncovering some CIA conspiracy complete with Force-Ghost Robin Williams guiding them along the way like some genie from beyond the grave?
“Hi, I'm SOULM8TE and I'm your friend till the end. Hi-de-ho! Ha, Ha, Ha!”
Sounds like our robo-American-doll-killer, M3GAN is getting a playmate named SOULM8TE. Or at least her horny lonely dad is. Can’t wait for the sequel after this one where M3GAN and SOULM8TE team up!
Studios Start Sniffing Around Your Sweet Letterboxd
While reading this piece I couldn’t help but fact check something that journalist Kimberly Aguirre claimed, when she stated that YouTube film critic, Karsten Runquist, is “one of the most popular members on the [Letterboxd] site with 190,000 followers.” 190k!? Really!? OK. So I look up Runquist’s Letterboxd profile and see that they have. . . 1,396 followers. That’s a pretty big discrepancy. Over on YouTube Runquist has 692,000 subscribers? So maybe Aguirre was referring to that? Either way, numbers still don’t add up. I know journalism is dead and copy writers and editors no longer exist and that peeps just publish shit without proofreading, but still, it’s the LA Times! Not the LOL Times!
I Was Today Years Old When I Found Out Denis Villenvue Had a Director Brother
So Jonathan Majors is back already. . . in a film called, MERCILESS??? OKaaaaaaay. . . but who’s distributing it? Oh. One of the SOUND OF FREEDOM (2023) guys. Got it. Great package. All that’s missing is Frank Stallone!
Jay Penske: The Monopolist of Hollywood Industry Trades
Dude looks like Bradley Cooper’s spray-tanned stunt double. I can’t believe he bought Nikki Finke’s Deadline Hollywood site from her for less than $1MM! I thought she got like $10MM. Damn. What a steal. And he neutered her too before taking her out back and putting her out of her misery when she was at the height of her venomous powers. I love how every morning I read Variety, Hollywood Reporter, and Deadline, like they’re all giving me different information when it’s all the same shit packaged and laid out a little differently. You can’t help but wonder if Penske saw CITIZEN KANE (1941) as a boy, which obviously had a profound effect on him.
Winner-winnder-chicken-dinner! Pack it in, boys! Tubi’s on top!
COMING SOON:
THE FRONT ROOM - Robert Eggers twin brothers making their mark by casting the Billy Madison lunch lady as an eccentric Mother-in-Law
KNEECAP - No one told me Irish Gaelic sounded like vaguely threatening or annoyed gibberish!
BURDEN OF DREAMS 4k Restoration - One of those rare instances where the documentary is better than the finished film it’s chronicling (HEARTS OF DARKNESS: A FILMMAKER’S APOCALYPSE (1991) being the other one)
Until next week, Hotliners! Thanks for calling in.
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