“Justice League” Ben Affleck Stunt Double Says Zack Snyder Cut Exists

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Joss Whedon‘s extensive reshoots on “Justice League” no doubt clashed with Zack Snyder‘s original vision. Among the changes, Jesse Eisenberg‘s return as Lex Luthor was reportedly axed, and Gal Gadot‘s Wonder Woman is said to have received more scenes and screentime. It’s not just the characters, the overall mood was rumored to get a lighter makeover with Whedon deviating away from Snyder’s darker palettes for a more colorful tone. “Justice League,” in short, was the mix of two visions and you could see that while watching the film. Sure there’s Zack Snyder’s use of ultra slow-mo, the dark interiors and exteriors he so loves to use, and his penchant for the camera zooming in and out of action  sequences, but Whedon crashed the party by pulling back on some of that, so much so that as you’re watching the movie you can tell exactly who shot what. The work of these two titan directors that couldn’t be more different, resulted in the “Justice League” that we got. 

Now Richard Cetrone, Benn Affleck's stunt double, is saying that a Zack Snyder cut does exist:

Stan Lee Accused of Groping Nurses

Stan Lee on NBC's Today Show in 2017 (YouTube screenshot)
Marvel comics mastermind Stan Lee has been accused of sexually harassing and groping nurses who care for him.
The Daily Mail reported Tuesday that the 95-year-old groped young women who worked at his home, asked them to perform oral sex on him and walked naked before them. The actions have led to a legal dispute between Lee and the care company, the Mail reported.
“He’s also very handsy and has groped some of the women, it’s unacceptable behavior, especially from an icon like Stan.”“There has been a stream of young nurses coming to his house in West Hollywood and he has been sexually harassing them. He finds it funny. He walks around naked and is vulgar towards the women, he asks them for oral sex in the shower and wants to be pleasured in his bedroom,” the source said.
Lee has denied the claims outright.
The Jewish creator of Spider-Man, the Hulk, the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Thor and the X-Men issued a statement through his lawyer, in which he intoned that the accusations were an attempt at blackmail.
“Mr. Lee categorically denies these false and despicable allegations and he fully intends to fight to protect his stellar good name and impeccable character,” attorney Tom Lallas said.
“We are not aware of anyone filing a civil action, or reporting these issues to the police, which for any genuine claim would be the more appropriate way for it to be handled,” Lallas said.
“Instead, Mr. Lee has received demands to pay money and threats that if he does not do so, the accuser will go to the media. Mr Lee will not be extorted or blackmailed, and will pay no money to anyone because he has done absolutely nothing wrong.”

Greta Gerwig Says She Regrets Working With Woody Allen

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As she is about to nab a Best Director nomination for the Oscars, Greta Gerwig is trying to swipe everything on her path to glory, including the assertion that she "regrets" working with Woody Allen on "To Rome With Love." Even though accusations against Allen have always been shady.


The excerpt from the 34-year-old writer director's New York Times OP-ED
I would like to speak specifically to the Woody Allen question, which I have been asked about a couple of times recently, as I worked for him on a film that came out in 2012. It is something that I take very seriously and have been thinking deeply about, and it has taken me time to gather my thoughts and say what I mean to say. I can only speak for myself and what I’ve come to is this: If I had known then what I know now, I would not have acted in the film. I have not worked for him again, and I will not work for him again. Dylan Farrow’s two different pieces made me realize that I increased another woman’s pain, and I was heartbroken by that realization. I grew up on his movies, and they have informed me as an artist, and I cannot change that fact now, but I can make different decisions moving forward.
Because it's a Woody Allen thread, all this needs to be stated, again:
  • Mia alleged that Woody had always been like that towards Dylan, but that didn't stop her both maintaining a relationship and push Allen to adopt both Dylan and Ronan. It was this adoption case that was ongoing when Farrow found out about Allen and Soon-Yi - which then prompted her story about Allen's behavior with Dylan.
  • No accusations were ever made until Woody began dating Soon Yi. At this time, he and Mia had not been living together for a decade. They were just about to finalize a custody agreement when Mia found out. In both testimony and her at the time biography, Farrow said that Allen was not around in the lives of her adopted children with Andrew Previn, least of all Soon Yi, whom Allen didn't meet until she was around 18-19 years old.
  • A series of things happened then: first, Mia assaulted Soon Yi, beating her and calling her a whore. She painted "pedophile" on the guest room door that had been Woody's room. She tried to get Woody's previous GF to lie in court about their relationship. She told staff that anyone that didn't testify to Woody touching Dylan would be fired. She sent threatening letters to Woody. She then announced that the adoption hearing was off because Allen had molested Dylan.
  • A group of doctors over five months investigated the situation and found that they couldn't decide was Dylan lying or bring fed the story. There was no evidence of abuse. Mia refused a polygraph. She only submitted a video she had edited together of Dylan saying that Woody touched her. At a interview, Dylan told the doctors she liked to make stuff up.
  • The judge, a friend of Mia's, decided to call the findings of the doctors inconclusive (because the doctors couldn't decide was Dylan lying or coached) and proceeded to berate Woody for his relationship with Soon Yi, despite it not having anything to do with the case. The findings by the Yale doctors to this day say very clearly that there was no physical evidence of any kind, which is directly in contradiction to the story by Dylan Farrow.
  • Later, Moses Farrow left his mother, publicly stating that she spent every day forcing the story on her kids that Woody is a monster and that not a single word of hers can be believed. Moses is now a family psychiatrist and is adamant that no abuse took place.
  • After the hubbub had died down, Mia Farrow campaigned heavily to get a part in Allen's next film.
  • Years later, when the Emmys wanted to play a compilation of Woody's films in a celebration, they contacted Mia for permission. She granted it without problems. The night of the show, she and Ronan launched their online attack on Allen, followed by a statement from Dylan the next day.
So, let's be honest here, Woody has been investigated over and over, and there's no evidence of guilt. Mia on the other hand, is not such a clear case. There is a clear victim here, and it is Dylan, but it's not by Allen's hand.

Christian Bale bashes “Terminator: Salvation” - It was a “great thorn on my side”

The “Terminator” franchise has been a catastrophe ever since Arnie and James Cameron left.. The last two films, “Terminator: Salvation” and “Terminator: Genisys,” were, well, they were soul-crushing. 

Christian Bale on “Terminator Salvation”:

“I said no three times. I thought that the franchise…I went ‘Nah, there’s no story there.’ I’d seen seen the first one and enjoyed that back in England, I’d been to the movies and seen the second one. It was an unfortunate series of events involving the writers’ strike, involving Jonah Nolan, who was able to come on, and really start to write a wonderful script, but then got called away for a prior commitment that he had,” Bale explained. “And it’s a great thorn in my side, because I wish we could have reinvigorated [the franchise]. And unfortunately, during production, you could tell that wasn’t happening. It’s a great shame.”

“There’s a perverse side to me, where people were telling me that, there’s no way on God’s Earth that I should take that role, and I was thinking the same thing,” he continued. “But when people started verbalizing that to me, I started to go, ‘Oh really? All right, well watch this then.’ So there was a little bit of that involved in the choice.”

T.J. Miller Won’t Be Replaced On ‘Deadpool 2’ Following Sexual Assault Allegations

“Deadpool” co-star T.J. Miller was recently accused of sexual assault, however, Miller’s performance will not be replaced or erased in the sequel. All this despite the fact that Scott did the same with almost impossible time-constraints, as the film was weeks away from release when the Spacey-Plummer switcheroo occurred. “Deadpool 2” lands in less than six months, but its producer Lauren Shuler Donner told Rotten Tomatoes that being in “final editing stages” would make it impossible for this to occur. In short, as she says: “I don’t think so.”

I wrote a whole recap of this situation for The Playlist.

How in Trouble is “Solo: A Star Wars Story”? It is 4 months until it is released and there hasn’t been any promotional material for it at all

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Sure, we had that picture of the cast in the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon, easy snap to take, but that’s it. We've had no teasers, no trailers, no posters, no pictures, no plot details, nothing. nada. zilch. For such an important Disney-backed film, especially a Star Wars movie, this feels very off. My guess? Disney acknowledges that this film will be a mess no matter when it is released, so they're really pushing for that summer release to finally happen, it'll make money no matter what, and rolling the dice on Ron Howard, a stable director, could make for a good, watchable movie ala "Rogue One."

Fired directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller had turned the character of Han Solo into an Ace Ventura-like slapstick character and LucasFilm head Kathleen Kennedy wanted none of that, but Oh, how I wish that version of the film was released ...

Main actor [Alden Ehrenreich] started to worry that Lord & Miller’s screwball comedy angle was starting to interfere with the spirit of what the Han Solo character was meant to be, The Wrap said “even if this was a younger, more reckless take on the character than the one we met in that Cantina on Tatooine. One source described it as being oddly comparable to Jim Carrey’s performance in Ace Ventura at times.”

To make matters worse, Lucasfilm hired an acting coach for Alden Ehrenreich, as they were not happy with the performance he was giving. Am I surprised? Sadly, not. He was a standout in the Coen Brothers’ “Hail, Caesar,” but ever since then, Ehrenreich hasn’t impressed me in the least bit. First, in “Rules Don’t Apply,” I found his performance was undercooked and not involving at all and then at this year’s Sundance Film Festival he starred in the Iraq-War movie “The Yellow Birds,” which was considered by many, including myself, as one of the worst films in competition. Ehrenreich’s performance? very underwhelming, no charisma and just plain boredom in his delivery. So, sadly enough, I can see Disney’s concerns here ...

Here's The Wrap again:

"Matters were coming to a head in May as the production moved from London to the Canary Islands. Lucasfilm replaced editor Chris Dickens (Macbeth) with Oscar-winner Pietro Scalia, a veteran of Ridley Scott films including Alien: Covenant and The Martian. And, not entirely satisfied with the performance that the directors were eliciting from Rules Don't Apply star Alden Ehrenreich, Lucasfilm decided to bring in an acting coach. (Hiring a coach is not unusual; hiring one that late in production is.) Lord and Miller suggested writer-director Maggie Kiley, who worked with them on 21 Jump Street.”

Catherine Deneuve and 100+ Women From The French Film Industry Slam Post-Wenstein Witch Hunt, #MeToo Movement, As “Attack on Sexual Freedom.”

Deneuve, Millet, Lahaie… ces femmes qui défendent

The French want to tell the world that the #MeToo movement is attacking sexual freedom. At least that's what a group of more than 100 "prominent French women," from the industry and beyond, are saying, making the argument that "clumsy flirting" is not "macho aggression." Writer/clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst  Sarah Chiche wrote the text that was signed on by many prominent women from Catherine Deneuve to Catherine Robbe-Grillet. Insisting on "la liberte d'importuner," the letter decries a new Puritanism being unleashed on the world.

This open letter published in "Le Monde" today not only mentions "puritanism," but also insists that “Rape is a crime,” and that “Insistently or awkwardly hitting on someone is not,” additionally blaming the #MeToo campaign for “expeditious justice” to men who “may have touched a knee, tried to steal a kiss” or “spoken of ‘intimate’ things during a professional dinner.” The women further elaborate that they are trying to defend "sexual freedom.”

Other excerpts from the "manifesto" read as follows:

"Men have been dragged through the mud, they argued, for "talking about intimate subjects during professional dinners or for sending sexually-charged messages to women who did not return their
attention."

"Instead of helping women, this frenzy to send these (male chauvinist) 'pigs' to the abattoir actually helps the enemies of sexual liberty -- religious extremists and the worst sort of reactionaries," the collective of women who signed the letter said.

"As women we do not recognize ourselves in this feminism, which beyond denouncing the abuse of power, takes on a hatred of men and of sexuality."

“As women, we don’t recognize ourselves in this feminism that, beyond the denunciation of abuses of power, takes the face of a hatred of men and sexuality. We believe that the freedom to say no to a sexual proposition is not without the freedom to importune. And we consider that one must know how to respond to this freedom to annoy other than by closing ourselves off in the role of the prey.”

“The purifying wave seems to know no limit… We censor an Egon Schiele nude on a poster… we seek the cancellation of a retrospective of Roman Polanski’s works… an academic finds Michelangelo Antonioni’s film Blow-Up ‘misogynistic’ and ‘unacceptable.’”

“Already, publishers are asking some of us to make our male characters less ‘sexist,’ to speak of sexuality and love with less disproportion or even to make it so that ‘trauma experienced by the female characters’ is made more obvious.”

“Above all, we are conscious that the human being is not monolithic: a woman can in the same day lead a professional team and enjoy being the sexual object of a man without being a ‘slut’ nor a vile accomplice of the patriarchy. She can ensure that her salary is equal to that of a man, but not feel forever traumatized by a rub on the subway, even if it’s considered a crime. She can even see it as the expression of a great sexual misery, or a non-event.”

The #MeToo campaign, the group says, has led to “denunciations and public accusations of people who, without giving them the possibility of responding or defending themselves, have been placed on exactly the same level as sex offenders. This expeditious justice already has its victims, men sanctioned in their job functions, forced to resign, etc, while their only wrong is to have touched a knee, tried to steal a kiss, spoken of ‘intimate’ things during a professional dinner or to have sent sexually suggestive messages to a woman whose attraction was not reciprocal.”

This has led to a “fever to send the ‘pigs’ to the slaughter,” which the opinion piece contends is “far from helping women to empower themselves,” and rather “serves the interests of the enemies of sexual freedom.”

That's all fine and dandy, but the reality of it is that for many young women, trying to make it in the industry by having to sleep with dirty pigs to get cast, being a normalcy, that is a problem that shouldn't just be condemned at all costs, but gotten rid of asap. Also, just because some women are willing to sell themselves to get ahead, shouldn't mean that powerful rich men should get to abuse their power over others.  However, there’s nothing in the statement that necessarily mentions that kind of behavior. These women are somewhat right, that many men are now afraid to talk to or even look at women as the #MeToo movement is in full swing. It's a catch-22 kind of situation. They even further acknowledge that “as a result of the Weinstein affair there has been a legitimate raising of awareness of sexual violence against women,” notably in the workplace. “This was necessary,” they say. “But this liberation of speech is turning on itself: People are being intimidated to speak in the right way or to stay silent on what makes them angry. Those who refuse to comply with such injunctions are looked upon as traitors, accomplices!”

The constant bickering happening about this topic on social media is truly revealing, fascinating and opens up a lot of questions about what is right and what is wrong. The French always seem to be such polarizing and interesting figures when it comes to sexuality and male/female relations and this latest manifesto is no exception.

[The Local]

Box Office Week: After 3 weeks Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle is finally #1 with impressive $36M, passing $500M worldwide. Insidious: The Last Key opens at #2 with excellent $29.2M, and Star Wars: The Last Jedi drops to #3 with $23.5M, a drop of 55% from last weekend.

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 1. “Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle” — $36 million
2. “Insidious: The Last Key” — $29.2 million
3. “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” — $23.5 million
4. “The Greatest Showman” — $13.8 million
5. “Pitch Perfect 3” — $10.2 million 
6. “Ferdinand” — $7.7 million
7. “Molly’s Game” — $7 million
8. “Darkest Hour” — $6.3 million 
9. “Coco” — $5.5 million
10. “All The Money In The World” — $3.5 million

David Ayer Talks ‘Suicide Squad’ Reviews: “I Got My Throat Cut”

On the "Suicide Squad" reviews:
“It was shit,” said Ayer. “Yeah, it was shit reviews. I got my throat cut. It was a super polarizing movie. Incredibly polarizing. It’s like going to the boxing ring and getting knocked out is how it felt. And I had to go into the ring again. And directing is a confidence game, because you’re selling everyone on something that only exists in your head. The actors have to feel that confidence to trust that you know what you’re doing, and so does your crew. As a director, you set the tone. Really, it’s coming off that movie, I understood the pitfalls, I understood the dangers, I knew where the alligators hide, you know? And so I made damn sure I didn’t repeat any mistakes.”
You can read my full write-up on The Playlist.

Ridley Scott Wants To Make Another “Blade Runner” Movie

I wrote this for The Playlist. Ridley Scott, the man that never sleeps, wants to make another "Blade Runner" movie. Even after criticizing Denis Villeneuve's "Blade Runner 2049," Scott doesn't want to let go of the universe and, I presume, won't have Villeneuve back.

After all of that, you’d think Scott would be done with the “Blade Runner” world, just as he’s, more or less, decided to move on from the “Alien” franchise (at least in some respects), but no. Speaking to Digital Spy, Scott says he hopes there’s more to come and that he even has a new story to tackle when it comes to that Dystopian world. “I hope so, I think there is another story.” he said. “I’ve got another one ready to evolve and be developed, so there is certainly one to be done for sure.”

The full article can be found HERE.

At the first Academy Awards in 1929, the Academy actually altered the vote for Best Actor and didn’t give it to the leading vote-getter. The reason? They voted for Rin-Tin-Tin (yes, the dog).


Rin-Tin-Tin was crazy prolific! He was in 11 films between 1928-1929. At the first Academy Awards in 1929, the Academy actually altered the vote for Best Actor and didn’t give it to the leading vote-getter. The reason? They voted for Rin-Tin-Tin (yes, the dog). He deserved that award. The New York Times had this to say about the strange story of the first ever Best Actor winner:

 ¨Can a dog deserve an Oscar? At the first Academy Awards, presented in 1929, the charismatic German shepherd who fought off gangs of villains in movies like “Clash of the Wolves” and “Jaws of Steel” won the vote count for best actor, but the Academy blinked, recalculated and gave the honor instead to Emil Jannings. Not that the public would have necessarily protested an Oscar for Rin Tin Tin. “He is a human dog,” one fan wrote to his trainer, “human in the real big sense of the word.” As for Jannings and his colleagues, there may have been some doubt. A few years earlier, Movie magazine ran a feature asking “Are Actors People?”

Ben-Hur was released in 1959, 59 years ago, and still the chariot race scene looks like it was filmed yesterday. Fantastic cinematography, direction, editing and camerawork.

The chariot arena was built by more than 1,000 workers beginning in January 1958, according to some reports. It was 2,000 feet long by 65 feet wide and covered 18 acres, the largest single set in motion picture history to that time. Reputedly, 40,000 tons of white sand was imported from Mexico for the track. [...] Because the main set for the chariot race was still being built, an identical track was constructed next to it to train horses and drivers and lay out camera shots. [...] The chariot scene alone cost about $4 million, or about a fourth of the entire budget, and took 10 weeks to shoot.

You can read more here.

Producers Guild of America: “Wonder Woman” Just Became an Oscar Contender With Its PGA Nomination

I ain't kidding. The PGA is usually the most accurate way to predict the Oscar nominees for Best Picture. Thousands of industry producers vote for the PGA awards and guess who votes for the Best Picture award at the Oscars? Those same producers that voted for the PGA. "Wonder Woman" can make it.

It’s also  time we start taking “Big Sick,” “I, Tonya,” and “Molly’s Game” as very serious Best Picture contenders, also we possibly say goodbye to “Mudbound,” “Florida Project”, “Darkest Hour,” “Disaster Artist,” and “All the Money in the World.”

"Wonder Woman" notwithstanding, "Molly's Game" and "I, Tonya" being nominated is also unmerited. Both had their debut at TIFF, and both were met by yours truly with mixed reviews. I doubt they would crack the final Best Picture nominees come the last week of January.

The Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures:

“The Big Sick”
Producers: Judd Apatow, Barry Mendel

“Call Me By Your Name”
Producers: Peter Spears, Luca Guadagnino, Emilie Georges, Marco Morabito

“Dunkirk”
Producers: Emma Thomas, Christopher Nolan

“Get Out”
Producers: Sean McKittrick & Edward H. Hamm, Jr., Jason Blum, Jordan Peele

“I, Tonya”
Producers: Bryan Unkeless, Steven Rogers, Margot Robbie, Tom Ackerley

“Lady Bird”
Producers: Scott Rudin, Eli Bush, Evelyn O’Neill

“Molly’s Game”
Producers: Mark Gordon, Amy Pascal, Matt Jackson

“The Post”
Producers: Amy Pascal, Steven Spielberg, Kristie Macosko Krieger

“The Shape Of Water”
Producers: Guillermo del Toro, J. Miles Dale

“Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”
Producers: Graham Broadbent & Pete Czernin, Martin McDonagh

“Wonder Woman”
Producers: Charles Roven & Richard Suckle, Zack Snyder & Deborah Snyder

The following were last year's nominated films:

Arrival, Deadpool, Fences, Hacksaw Ridge, Hell or High Water, Hidden Figures, La La Land, Lion, Manchester by the Sea, Moonlight

Gold Derby:

2015 the guild foresaw seven of the eight Oscar contenders: “The Big Short,” “Bridge of Spies,” “Brooklyn,” “Mad Max; Fury Road,” “The Martian,” “The Revenant” and “Spotlight.” It missed “Room,” opting instead for “Ex Machina,” “Sicario” and “Straight Outta Compton.” While “The Big Short” won over the producers, academy voters opted for “Spotlight.”

Likewise, in 2014, the PGA went seven for eight: “American Sniper,” “Boyhood,” “Birdman,” “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” “The Imitation Game,” “The Theory of Everything” and “Whiplash.” It went with “Foxcatcher,” “Gone Girl” and “Nightcrawler” over eventual Oscar nominee “Selma.” “Birdman” was the top pick for best pic with both groups.

In 2013, eight of the PGA nominees made the cut with academy: eventual Best Picture winner “12 Years a Slave,” as well as “Gravity” (which had tied with it at the PGA), “American Hustle,” “Captain Phillips,”  “Dallas Buyers Club” “Her,” “Nebraska,” and “The Wolf of Wall Street.” The other two PGA contenders — “Blue Jasmine” and “Saving Mr. Banks” — were snubbed by the academy. Rather, Brit hit “Philomena” was the ninth Oscar nominee.

National Society of Film Critics: ‘Lady Bird’ Wins Best Picture, Best Screenplay, Best Supporting Actress - Becomes Oscar Frontrunner

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Best Film: “Lady Bird” (Runners-up: “Get Out”; “Phantom Thread”)

Best Director: Greta Gerwig, “Lady Bird” (Runners-up: Paul Thomas Anderson, “Phantom Thread”; Jordan Peele, “Get Out”)

Best Actor: Daniel Kaluuya, “Get Out” (Runners-up: Daniel Day-Lewis, “Phantom Thread”; Timothée Chalamet, “Call Me by Your Name”)

Best Actress: Sally Hawkins, “The Shape of Water” (Runners-up: Saoirse Ronan, “Lady Bird”; Cynthia Nixon, “A Quiet Passion”; Frances McDormand, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”)

Best Supporting Actor: Willem Dafoe, “The Florida Project” (Runners-up: Michael Stuhlbarg, “Call Me by Your Name,” “The Shape of Water” and “The Post”; Sam Rockwell, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”)

Best Supporting Actress: Laurie Metcalf, “Lady Bird” (Runners-up: Lesley Manville, “Phantom Thread”; Allison Janney, “I, Tonya”)

Best Screenplay: Greta Gerwig, “Lady Bird” (Runners-up: Jordan Peele, “Get Out”; Paul Thomas Anderson, “Phantom Thread”)

Best Foreign Language Film: “Graduation” (Runners-up: “Faces Places”; “BPM (Beats Per Minute)”)

Best Non-Fiction Film: “Faces Places” (Runners-up: “Ex Libris – The New York Public Library”; “Dawson City: Frozen Time”)

Best Cinematography: Roger Deakins, “Blade Runner 2049” (Runners-up: Hoyta van Hoytema, “Dunkirk”; Alexis Zabe, “The Florida Project”)

Film Heritage Award: Dan Talbot, for his pioneering work as an exhibitor and distributor in bringing worldwide cinema to the United States.