My Dinner With Werner

Alec Baldwin is sued over the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the Rust set; watch an exclusive scene from the new horror film A Banquet; also watch a charming short film about Werner Herzog called My Dinner With Werner; new Star Trek and A Quiet Place films are coming. All in today’s Movie News Rundown.

But First: Anna Sorokin is a Jonathan Franzen fan, which I can’t imagine Jonathan Franzen being happy about. Margeaux Sippell has this fun story about what the scammer at the center of Netflix’s Inventing Anna is reading during her time in ICE custody.

Rust Lawsuit: The family of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins has sued Alec Baldwin and other producers of the movie Rust, accusing them of  a “callous” disregard for safety that led to her death. Attorneys for Hutchins’ husband, Matthew, and 9-year-old son, Andros, said that Baldwin refused training for the type of “cross-draw” he was doing when he fired the shot that killed her. Baldwin’s attorney tells The Associated Press that allegations the actor was reckless are “entirely false.”

Texts: Trying to show a pattern of negligence, the suit cites what it says was a text exchange between a Rust camera operator and unit production manager. Plaintiffs say the operator texted, “We’ve now had 3 accidental discharges. This is super unsafe,” and that the UPM responded sarcastically, “Accidental discharge on the firearm? Awesome. Sounds good.”

A Banquet Exclusive: We’re proud to share this exclusive (and disturbing) scene from first-time filmmaker Ruth Paxton’s A Banquet, which will be out theatrically and on-demand starting this Friday. The 2021 Toronto International Film Festival breakout, starring Resident Evil’s Sienna Guillory, explores fierce maternal love during a struggle over food, power and purpose. You can be among the first to see this scene, right now:

Is Chevy Chase a Jerk? CBS Sunday Morning correspondent Jim Axelrod asks the Vacation and Three Amigos star about criticisms by others in the industry about of his on-set behavior. The complaints go all the way back to his Saturday Night Live days and continued through his stint on Community. “I guess you’d have to ask them,” Chase says, scoffing. “I don’t give a crap!” Axelrod notes that it’s hard to tell when Chase is kidding, and you can judge for yourself here, at the 6:40 mark.

I Can’t Believe I’m Going to Post a Joe Rogan Thing in Our Current Very Sensitive Climate: But you may enjoy this Quentin Tarantino analysis of Chevy Chase films and Bill Murray films.

A Quiet Place 3: Will be out in 2025, Paramount Pictures say, per Variety. So that’s something nice to look forward to.

More Star Trek: Can you reboot a reboot? TheWrap reports that six years after Star Trek Beyond, producer JJ Abrams has announced a fourth installment in the series that stars Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Zoe Saldana, John Cho and Simon Pegg, with all in talks to return. Game of Thrones and WandaVision veteran Matt Shakman will direct.

‘Where Was the Stiff Acting’? This Onion story that accompanied the first JJ Abrams Star Trek film always makes me laugh.

Another Thing That Makes Me Laugh: Is that indie filmmaker and die-hard cinephile Maverick Moore made a short film about Werner Herzog that devoutly explores and upends the Herzog mystique in 17 amusing and then suddenly violent minutes. It starts with a solid Stroszek joke (I think?) and the references get more beautifully esoteric from there. We’re thrilled to share the entire film here after a successful festival run where it picked up more than 40 awards. Matthew Sanders delivers a pretty excellent Herzog impersonation, and Chynna Walker is fabulous as his conflicted dining companion.

Listen to the Real Werner: If you want to do a voice comparison, you can hear to me blissfully lob questions at the actual Werner Herzog on Apple or Spotify or below. During our talk, he dismissed media portrayals of him as a “grim, dark sort of Teutonic guy… the Doomsday-sayer.” He seemed like he’d be a fun and delightful person to have dinner with.

Parenting Advice From Werner Herzog: He also advised me to play music for my kids all the time. Sometimes when things are quiet I think of Werner Herzog and do just that.

Main image: Matthew Sanders as Werner Herzog and Andrew Perez as Klaus Kinski in My Dinner With Werner.

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