Trashcan Man revealed
Just under a month before the CBS All Access remake of The Stand starts streaming, there has been a cast reveal. Ezra Miller is playing Trashcan Man. There had been speculation that Marilyn Manson (better known as Paul from the Wonder Years…) was secretly cast in the role.
Read: EW
Alright alright alright
Comedian Patton Oswalt reviews the new oral history book about the making of Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused.
Linklater remembers meeting with Jim Jacks, who would go on to be one of the producers of “Dazed”: “We had just had lunch when Jim introduced me to Tom Pollock, the head of Universal. We walked over to his table, and he was like, ‘Oh yeah, “Slacker.” That made some money, right?’ I don’t think he’d seen it, but he recognized the title from looking at Variety.
“And I was like, ‘Yeah, it was a success! I’m Mr. Money. When you think of me, think of positive box office money!’”
Read: NYT
Two seasons and a movie?
David Fincher hasn’t given up on Netflix series Mindhunter just yet. While he keeps reiterating the point that the show was time-consuming, costly, and didn’t deliver the audience numbers Netflix were after, he does also talk about getting back to Mindhunter. I’d expect it might be more in movie form than as another series.
“At some point I’d love to revisit it,” says Fincher. “The hope was to get all the way up to the late 90’s, early 2000’s, hopefully get all the way up to people knocking on the door at Dennis Rader’s house.”
Read: Variety
30 years of Pennywise
The 3oth anniversary of It has resulted in a couple of retrospective pieces published around the place in the past 24 hours.
The best of them is a piece by Michael Pementel at Bloody Disgusting that looks at both the original mini-series and the original TV series as a way of explaining why the original mini, as dated as some aspects of it are, still resonates today.
2017 and 2019 It come across more Hollywood-esque in their creepiness; spooky music begins playing and then some sort of monster is introduced. The set-up is all very predictable. In ‘90s It however, there is an odd, uncomfortable delivery to each scare. Thinking of Eddie’s shower scene or Ben seeing his dead dad near the dam, these moments come on as naturally eerie. Watching the camera transition back from Ben to Ben’s father as the latter morphs into Pennywise is unnerving. The CGI monsters in both remakes are good fun (some more effective than others), but they don’t get under the skin in the same manner that ‘90s It does. Really, the miniseries is superb in presenting a psychological spin to its horror.
Read: Bloody Disgusting
TeeVee Snacks
- New series Big Sky might have had huge interest in its trailer on YouTube, but the viewership was a little quiet with just over four million viewers. I suspect this one will be a grower. Read: Variety
- HBO Max’s The Flight Attendant will stream its first episode online for free (in the US). Read: thefutoncritic
- Amazon show Hunters and the Disney+ TV remake of The Right Stuff will move production on their respective second seasons to LA for tax credits. Read: Deadline
- NBCU’s new content team structure has been announced. Read: TBI
- Letterkenny is back for season 9 from Dec 26. Read: TV Line
- Happy Days, Mork & Mindy, and more classic older sitcoms are coming to Pluto TV, the linear streaming service in the US. I talk a lot about Pluto TV on ABW - I legitimately think it is the most exciting product to launch in the streaming space in some time. Read: Vulture
Trailer Park
The Godfather: Coda is Francis Ford-Coppola’s new edit of The Godfather Part 3. I was blown away by his recent Apocalypse Now: Final Cut, so will eagerly check this one out.
Batman: Soul of The Dragon debuts Jan 12. This trailer is kinda fun.
The Wilds debuts Dec 11 on Amazon Prime Video.
Docuseries The Ripper debuts on Netflix Dec 16. It’s from the same team that made Don’t F**k With Cats.
For five years, between 1975 to 1980, the Yorkshire Ripper murders cast a dark shadow over the lives of women in the North of England. 13 women were dead and the police seemed incapable of catching the killer. No one felt safe - and every man was a suspect.
The Grand Tour Presents: A Massive Hunt debuts 18 Dec on Amazon Prime Video. I thought all three of them were massive hunts.
Leyla Everlasting debuts on Netflix Dec 4.
What’s next?
