In today’s Movie News Rundown: Oliver Stone looks back on Scarface, a film that threatened his relationships with Al Pacino and others; a sneak look at a great talk between Barry Jenkins and Dave Franco; and the film industry is still rolling. Plus: What do you consider the best-ever opening scenes in movies?
‘Oliver Knows Nothing About Film’: In this exclusive excerpt from his new memoir Chasing the Light, Oliver Stone looks back on Scarface, the 1983 cocaine epic he wrote and then fought to save after an early test screening that tested loyalties between him, star Al Pacino, director Brian De Palma, and producer Marty Bregman. Stone recalls a meeting with Pacino: “He told me Marty and Brian had apparently discredited us to each other, saying, ‘Oliver knows nothing about film’ and ‘Al is a lunatic.'” But it turned out that audiences loved Scarface, and still do.
Barry Jenkins Interviews Dave Franco: Jenkins, who directed Franco in If Beale Street Could Talk, interviewed Franco about his directorial debut The Rental for the upcoming issue of MovieMaker. We’re sharing it here with you before we start promoting it everywhere — we absolutely loved this conversation. The Rental is out Friday and we’re going to be writing about it a lot.
Keep Rolling: The film industry is still pressing forward in states including California, New York and Georgia, despite COVID-19 rollbacks in other businesses, The Hollywood Reporter says. (Here are nine guidelines all of these productions should be following.)
‘Best Opening Scene in Movie History. Go’: That prompt from the Twitter account Super 70s Sports led to a very fun discussion. We encourage you to read through this thread and dive in if you like with your picks for best opening scenes. Or just tell us your pick in the comments below. Some of the films that quite reasonably came up were The Godfather, Goodfellas, and Saving Private Ryan. I’m gonna go with The Dark Knight Rises.
Toronto Opening: The Toronto International Film Festival will open Sept. 10 with Spike Lee’s presentation of the David Byrne Broadway show American Utopia. Will it be an in-person screening? That remains to be seen.
Hair and Makeup Representation: “It took three seasons to get someone in the hair department who knew how to work with textured hair,” wrote The Bold Type star Aisha Dee in a call for more diversity across all departments. She’s quoted in a great Variety piece about the need for more Black representation in hair and makeup.
Comment of the Day: “Couples working together wonderfully in this business, Roger and Julie Corman since 1970. Good topic. (THUMBS UP),” says Tom Luca, commenting on the item about Dave Franco and Alison Brie in yesterday’s movie news.
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The opening scene of "Come and See" by Elem Klimov is pretty perfect. It sets us up wonderfully to be sucker-punched by the rest of the movie (which if you can make it though without being traumatized might indicate that you are an android.)