This might have been a difficult week for you to keep up with news and necessary stories. Between Mardi Gras and Valentine’s Day celebrating, you could have been busy with king cakes and candies, revelry and romance. Also, it had to be difficult to navigate through all the posts and lists related to these holidays, which include our own look at cynical Valentine’s Day films and a Commentary Commentary column devoted to (500) Days of Summer and post-Valentine’s romance tips from Sasha Grey.
Of course, now you’re probably too busy this weekend with your free Criterion Collection marathon viewing to review the week in movie discussions, but that’s okay because this Reject Recap post doesn’t self-destruct after today. It’s here for your convenience whenever you’ve got the time. But at some point, check out the biggest and best stories and original content from the past week, from FSR and our friends around the web:
Marvel of Thrones: Dinklage and Momoa Cast in Comic Book Movies
Two stars of the series Game of Throneswere said to be cast in Marvel Comics movies this week. While it’s not confirmed by the studio, Jason Momoa is said to be starring in The Guardians of the Galaxy as Drax the Destroyer. Nathan commented that this “could ultimately prove to be a big feather in Momoa’s cap as far as the race to establish the next generation of big action stars goes.” And then there was the news (tweeted by the director so it’s official) that Peter Dinklage is playing the villain in X-Men: Days of Future Past. Scott speculated on who he’d play: “there’s a chance he may play Boliver Trask, the inventor of Sentinels (the robots designed to kill all mutants). If so, he could have a truly fantastic character arc, one befitting Dinklage’s immense talent.”
Star Wars: Ensemble Han Solo and Black Han Solo
This week’s obligatory Star Wars slot once again is partly devoted to Han Solo, as Harrison Ford is all but confirmed to be returning for Star Wars Episode VII. Scott welcomed his reprisal: “It’s clear that the guy doesn’t take jobs he doesn’t have to, and the last time I interviewed him, he laughed at the suggestion that taking roles (including the re-up of Indiana Jones) had anything to do with a sense of nostalgia or longing for the past. The point? If he’s really in for the new Star Wars films, he’s in it for his own reasons and on his own terms.”
More on Star Wars:
Lawrence Kasdan: New ‘Star Wars’ Will Start From the Drawing Board
The Empire Strikes Black: Imagining A Blaxploitation ‘Star Wars’
Counting Down to the Oscars
The Academy Awards are one week from tomorrow, and all next week FSR is counting down with lots of predictions and other posts devoted to the big night. This week, though, we still saw some other late-game offerings, such as Daniel’s column on overdue first-time nominees. Did you know this is Chile’s first time represented in the foreign category? Dan wrote: “Anyone who has seen anything by Pablo Larraín, Raúl Ruiz, Patricio Guzmán, Sebastián Silva or any number of other important Chilean directors knows that they do. However, the fact that the Academy so rarely recognizes work from Latin America and has never called on this nation in particular is about as ridiculous as the category as a whole”… “it’s exciting to see Chile and Larraín’s excellent No in this usually Europe-dominated category.”
More Oscar coverage:
Olly Moss Poster Turns Every Best Picture Winner Into an Oscar Statue
Car Chase POV Supercut
Hollywood’s Limitations Are Forcing Established Directors Out of the System
In the latest Culture Warrior column, Landon looked at recent career turns of established filmmakers like Steven Spielberg, Ridley Scott and Francis Ford Coppola. On that last one: “Are Youth Without Youth, Tetro, and Twixt the next The Conversation? No, but studios stopped making films like The Conversation a long time ago, and these movies are a fuck-ton more interesting than The Rainmaker. Coppola’s new films are risky, original, audacious, super audacious, and totally unaccountable to anybody but himself. It’s a glimpse at what a director might do if the usual constraints didn’t exist, and these certainly don’t represent the types of films Coppola would make if he didn’t have the economic power to leave the industry.”