Blonde Is NC-17; Oscars Goodie Bags; Batman Deleted Scene

Blonde, the Marilyn Monroe movie directed by Andrew Dominik, has an NC-17 rating from the MPA; the goodie bags for some Oscar nominees are worth the price of a home in West Virginia; a deleted scene from Matt Reeves’ The Batman features Barry Keoghan as The Joker. All in today’s Movie News Rundown.

Seth and Aziz: Seth Rogen is joining the cast of Being Immortal, Aziz Ansari’s directorial debut from Searchlight Pictures which he also wrote and is co-producing with Youree Henley. It’s based on real-life surgeon Atul Gawande’s non-fiction book Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End, which examines death, the role of medicine in our lives, and the importance of living life to the fullest.

Sounds Pretty Good: I don’t know anything else about this movie so far except for what you just read above, but I loved Master of None and An American Pickle and I trust Ansari to make a really quality movie that I’m sure will only be improved by Rogen’s presence.

Blonde Is Officially NC-17: Just as director Andrew Dominik predicted. The MPA rated the Netflix film starring Ana de Armas as Marilyn Monroe as NC-17 on Wednesday, which would make it the first Netflix-produced film ever to be rated as such, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Blonde, which is all about Monroe’s life, is based on Joyce Carol Oates’ 2000 novel of the same name. Oates’ novel was called “the definitive study of American celebrity” by The New Yorker, so expectations will be high for the adults-only film, even if it doesn’t make it to Cannes.

Oscar Nominee Goodie Bags: Are always extravagant, but this year Forbes says their value has dropped $65,000 from last year, making them worth only $140,000 — truly a number only Veruca Salt or maybe Anna Sorokin could sneeze at, considering that much could buy you a nice house in beautiful West Virginia. These goodie bags will be delivered to the homes of the 25 Oscar nominees for best actor/actress, best-supporting actor/actress, and best director this week ahead of the Oscars on Sunday.

So, What’s in the Bag?: According to Forbes, nominees can own a small plot of protected land in Scotland, which comes with the title of Laird, Lord or Lady of Glencoe; a $50,000 all-inclusive stay at Turin Castle in Scotland complete with butler service; a $15,600 stay at the Golden Door resort hotel in San Marcos, California; a $15,000 wellness retreat; $12,000 worth of liposuction; $10,000 worth of skin treatments; a year’s supply of Oxygenetix makeup; one session with a “self-love coach” valued at over $1,000, and many other lovely things that will make them feel just a little bit better if they don’t win an Oscar.

Batman Deleted Scene: Director Matt Reeves released a deleted scene from The Batman featuring a Manhunter-esque conversation between Robert Pattinson’s caped crusader and Barry Keoghan as the Joker. The riddles on Reeves’ Riddler-style website rataalada.com are really hard to crack, so if you want to skip the mind-games, you can just watch the scene here.

Just Don’t Get Your Hopes Up: About seeing Keoghan play the Joker in another Reeves Batman film. “It’s not an Easter egg scene,” Reeves told Variety. “It’s not one of those end credits Marvel or DC scenes where it’s going, like, ‘Hey, here’s the next movie!’ In fact, I have no idea when or if we would return to that character in the movies.”

To My Fellow Love Is Blind Fans: Our beloved Netflix reality show in which people get engaged without ever seeing each other has been renewed through Season 5, according to Variety. I am very pleased.

I’ll Leave You With This: The trailer for Barry Levinson’s HBO film The Survivor, out April 27, based on the true story of Holocaust survivor and boxer Harry Haft. I’ve seen the movie and can attest that it’s very good.

Main Image: Marilyn Monroe in 1953’s Niagara