Costuming Black Panther and Coming 2 America; Bo Burnham as Larry Bird; RIP Jessica Walter

In today’s Movie News Rundown: Oscar winner Ruth Carter on outfitting everyone in Wakanda and Zamunda; Bo Burnham joins the ridiculously great cast of a new Lakers series; R.I.P. Jessica Walter.
But First: Here are the writer-directors of the new revenge thriller Violation on how their film, out today, upends the genre.
Well, This Is Great Casting: Bo Burnham will play Larry Bird in the new HBO series about the Showtime-era Lakers that I could not be more excited for. Collider notes that Burnham, who was excellent in Promising Young Woman, is 6’5, just four inches shorter than the Boston Celtics icon.
Wakanda Meets Zamunda: Oscar winner Ruth Carter, who designed costumes for both Black Panther and Coming 2 America, explains how she created the fashions of the fictional African kingdoms of Wakanda and Zamunda — and made sure they didn’t overlap. “On Black Panther I would say to everyone, ‘This is not Coming to America. Don’t think of it like that, it’s different.’” she says. “And then I got Coming 2 America, and I was like, ‘This is not Black Panther!’”
Kristen Stewart as Princess Diana: Shoebox Films has released another shot of the actress in Pablo Larraín’s Spencer, due out this autumn, just ahead of the 25th anniversary next year of Diana’s death.

How Is This Different From My Favorite Program, The Crown? Here’s a summary from the production, which is in its final days of filming: “December, 1991: The Prince and Princess of Wales’ marriage has long since grown cold. Though rumours of affairs and a divorce abound, peace is ordained for the Christmas festivities at Sandringham Estate. There’s eating and drinking, shooting and hunting. Diana knows the game. This year, things will be a whole lot different.”
R.I.P. Jessica Walter: The Emmy-winning actress, perhaps best known for her hilariously assured turn as manipulative matriarch Lucille Bluth on Arrested Development, has died at 80. “A working actor for over six decades, her greatest pleasure was bringing joy to others through her storytelling both on screen and off. While her legacy will live on through her body of work, she will also be remembered by many for her wit, class and overall joie de vivre,” said her daughter, Brooke Bowman. In film, Walter was best known for her role as an obsessed fan in Clint Eastwood’s 1971 Play Misty for Me. She won her Emmy for 1975’s Amy Prentiss, and earned three additional Emmy nominations, including for Arrested Development.
Comment of the Day: Robert says of our story about how that was not Chuck Norris at the U.S. Capitol: “He was barricading people with the Total Gym®.” This made me laugh but can anyone explain to me why there was a big uptick this week in people reading this old story?
Main Image, above: Ruth E. Carter posing with costumes she designed for Black Panther at SCAD Atlanta’s “Afrofuturism in Costume Design” exhibition, courtesy of SCAD.