In today’s Movie News Rundown: David Fincher is back with Mank; Oscar buzz for Regina King, Vanessa Kirby and Frances McDormand; and Tenet earns a weird $20 million. Plus: When Charlie Kaufman said no to John Malkovich.
Tenet Makes $20 Million: The Christopher Nolan release made $20.2 million domestically in its opening weekend, which would be very low if not for, you know, everything. It is approaching $150 million globally. THR has more details.
Mank: David Fincher has been hard at work on TV shows including Netflix’s Mindhunter, but hasn’t made a film since 2015’s Gone Girl. That changes with the upcoming release of Mank, a film about Citizen Kane screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz (Gary Oldman) written by Fincher’s late father, Jack Fincher. One of the first images is below; more are here; and Mank seems a sure bet come awards season if those humble Oscar voters can possibly stand to watch another movie about moviemaking.
More Oscar Buzz: Regina King’s directorial debut One Night in Miami is a fictional account of Muhammad Ali (Eli Goree), Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge), Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom, Jr.) and Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir) getting together one night in you-guessed-it in February 1964. “The drama seems poised to go far in this year’s awards race,” says Variety‘s Clayton Davis. The film also premiered at the Venice Film Festival.
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Additional Oscar Buzz: Vanessa Kirby is getting lots of nice write-ups from outlets like The Hollywood Reporter and IndieWire for her role as half of a couple dealing with a terrible tragedy in Pieces of a Woman. Here’s the first clip out of the Venice Film Festival, where you can catch nice little glimpses of her acting amid Shia LaBeouf’s character just going on and on.
Yet More?: This just arrived — the new trailer for Chloe Zhao’s Nomadland, starring Oscar winner Frances McDormand as a woman who packs up her van and hits the road following the economic collapse of the company town where she lived in rural Nevada. Go see Zhao’s The Rider if you haven’t? Best movie of 2017.
Friday Meets Get Out: Is the pitch for the Netflix sci-fi comedy They Cloned Tyrone. Jamie Foxx and Teyonah Parris just joined John Beyoga in the cast, THR says.
Being Unwilling to Change John Malkovich: MovieMaker managing editor Caleb Hammond’s in-depth interview with Charlie Kaufman sent me down a rabbit hole that led to this John Malkovich interview, in which he says he offered to produce and direct Being John Malkovich… if Kaufman would change the titular character to someone other than John Malkovich. Kaufman said no.
Happy Star Trek Day!: How shameless of Gene Roddenberry to sneak all these silly scenes into Star Trek episodes half a century ago in the hopes that they would someday become memes. He’s shaped the future yet again.
What a stellar #StarTrekDay tribute. What's your favorite #StarTrek episode, friends? pic.twitter.com/OAoSRmIDdL
— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) September 7, 2020