Horror’s biggest producers may merge their companies; Quentin Tarantino names the best Quentin Tarantino movie; Martin Scorsese and Gordon Lightfoot turn 80 and 84, today, respectively, and we celebrate by sharing 17 movie clips and one song, respectively. All in today’s Movie News Rundown.
But First: Here’s Terence Winter, who wrote Scorsese’s Wolf of Wall Street, on tapping into the real Sylvester Stallone for Tulsa King, the new Western mob show created by Yellowstone boss Taylor Sheridan. Winter, who also worked on the Sopranos and Boardwalk Empire, learned to tell crime stories by listening to real gangsters tell them.
17 Great Martin Scorsese Scenes: Happy Birthday to the greatest. Yesterday we asked for your favorite Scorsese scenes, and today we present them in their immaculate majesty, with minimal commentary. If you don’t want to click the link, here’s a taste:
The Best Quentin Tarantino Movie: Is Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, according to Quentin Tarantino, who is determined to go out on top and avoid the fate Rick Dalton fears most.
House of Blum and Wan: Hollywood’s top movie producers, Jason Blum and James Wan, are in “advanced talks to merge their companies,” The New York Times reports. Both are already partnered with Universal Pictures. “James is probably 70 to 80 percent artist and 30 to 20 percent business person, and I am the reverse,” Blum, who is behind the Paranormal Activity and Purge franchises, as well as Get Out, told the Times. Wan, who is behind the Conjuring and Saw franchises, added: “We really do complement each other, yin and yang, which is part of what makes this so exciting.”
M’Baku the Wise: Winston Duke, who plays mountain man M’Baku in the Black Panther movies, says in a new Esquire interview that he wishes some fans hadn’t so pushy in their calls for T’Challa to be recast after the unexpected death of Chadwick Boseman. He believes leaving the role unfilled was a matter of respect — but also believes that “there’s no way they’ll never remake Black Panther in the future. … There’s no way that the saga and interpretation of T’Challa, King of Wakanda, will end. He is canon. So trust that it’ll come. But allow this to be a human experience.”
Dear Diary: For those not already gacked at the news of a new Freaky Friday, now comes news of another early aughts teen girl fantasy sequel: We’re also getting a Princess Diaries 3.
Happy Birthday Gordon Lightfoot, Who Turns 84 Today: His music turns up in lots of movies — it really popped in Bad Times at the El Royale — and he was the subject of the very enjoyable 2020 documentary If You Could Read My Mind. There, that should be enough justification for dropping this all-time banger in a movie newsletter: