THE AFTERNOON REPORT For Thursday 9 August 2018


Oscar G/rumblings; Russian captive Ukrainian filmmaker near death; Rushfield on Moonves; Gunn Redux?; The Path To Crazy Rich Asians; Boots Riley likes critics; and more.






"After 87 days without food, hunger-striking Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov, imprisoned in Russia, is 'increasingly frail.' He seeks Russia's release of himself and 64 other Ukrainian 'political prisoners.'" AP

James Gunn Redux: "Sources said that back-channel conversations are taking place between Marvel Studios and Disney." Deadline

Richard Rushfield Just Not Over The Moonves: The Ankler

"The Five-Year Development Odyssey that Brought Crazy Rich Asians To Screen with its Intrinsic Asian-ness Intact" Chris Lee

"If you want to make a bankable mainstream American movie about previously untouchable material (S&M sex, the love lives of Asian people, men who wear bat suits and fight crime) just make sure all the protagonists are extremely wealthy." Emily Yoshida

28 Asian-American Filmmakers You Need To Know Alison Willmore

tronc Prepared To Unload Newspapers Including Chicago Tribune and Baltimore Sun Onto Private Equity Firm Reuters

"Tribune Media withdraws from Sinclair merger, sues for $1 billion" Chicago Tribune

Tokyo Exhibit Lavishes Bond Between Helen Keller And Her Akitas Japan Times

"I think the bigger picture in this business [is that] women have been underrepresented and underpaid and objectified and diminished and humiliated and belittled in a bazillion ways and just generally had a mountain of grief thrown at them forever. And no one was really making too much of a fuss about it, myself included, until a few women with the kind of courage and wisdom to stand up and say, “You know what? Enough is enough.” Casey Affleck On Abuse Lindsey Bahr, AP

 "Eleven years after the first iPhone, why are we still hosting elaborate events for the annual updates to smartphone models?" Bloomberg

"Sorry to Bother You’s Secret Weapon: a Powerhouse with an Eye for New Talent—Meet Forest Whitaker’s producing partner Nina Yang Bongiovi, a potent force in the indie scene—and one of the engines behind Fruitvale Station, Dope and Roxanne Roxanne." Vanity Fair

Actor Gives Statement That Geoffrey Rush Touched Her Inappropriately Guardian

Cinematographer Richard H. Kline (Camelot, King Kong, Body Heat) Was 91 The Reporter

Oscar G/Rumblings

"It’s headache-inducing to actually think about the logistics of creating a fair system to judge what’s eligible for a 'popular' Oscar." The Reporter

"A periodic reminder that the Academy Awards were created to prevent the formation of unions." Vanity Fair
"Some years ago when I was editor of Variety my impatience with Best Picture choices spurred me to create an annual lunch designed to honor the year’s blockbusters. Statuettes were given to the heads of distribution and marketing — remember them? The events were very popular and also very amusing. We were praising campaigns as well as the movies themselves. Campaigns are also an art form, worthy of singling out for praise." Peter Bart
"Yeah, get back to us on that, because it will be interesting to see what your inevitably arbitrary goalposts are going to be on this one. This is the worst of these ham-fisted maneuvers because it’s such a condescending stance toward “popular” cinema to take at a time when the Academy is making as many moves as possible to open the gates to all forms of cinema (i.e., waving in a thousand new members, being aggressively proactive on diversity in the voting ranks, etc.). It’s a stiff backhand to those efforts, in fact, because it outright states that popular films need to be ghettoized." Kristopher Tapley


"Why, Academy, why? In which I struggle to make sense of this stupid "Outstanding Achievement in Popular Film" category." Stephanie Zacharek

And Thus It Was Tweeted



And Not Least, But Last

Lost Film by Vital Female Filmmaker Found: Extended Version Of Doris Wishman's Night To Dismember ("You probably thought this was destroyed in a fire.")
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