WANTED for gangsters… >>> Johnny Depp: Lucky Luciano, Mobsters. Robert Downey Jr, Al Pacino, Sylvester Stallone: Gotti. Robert Duvall, Dennis Hopper as The Krays. Robert Mitchum: Dillinger. Bob Hoskins: Al Capone, The Untouchables. Frank Sinatra: Baby Face Nelson. Orson Welles: Al Capone, The St Valentine’s Day Massacre. Oh, and Ray Liotta, Michael Rispoli and “Little Stevie” Van Zandt for… Tony Soprano. <<< |
TOY TOWN!
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Mattel’s Barbie gives Marvel the finger. She’s so polite. Wrong digit.
Scary news from Hollywood. Looks like it’s changing its name to Toy Town... Even before the unbelievable triumph of Greta Gerwig’s Barb and Kenny, the Mattel toy company (#2 in the world) had completed deals for a whole bucketful of other toy stories. Which is where I really have to ask: Can you name any other Mattel toy? Well, yes, OK, Thomas The Tank Engine. But what else? We’ll know soon enough. Eighteen of them are thundering our way. Plus another forty-five are in development. Thankfully, they may not all be made. Although quite a few Names That Should Know Better are leaping aboard this silly new meal ticket. Skydance, the Top Gun company, is tackling Matchbox Cars. Lena Dunham directs Polly Pocket. Even the once mighty J J Abrams is revving up Hot Wheels – “something emotional and grounded and gritty”! Daniel Kaluuya is producing a “surrealistic” Barney the Purple Dinosaur. Even Tom Hanks, Hollywood’s Mr Seal of Approval, is becoming 1966”s Major Matt Mason, pitched as “a Close Encounters of the Third Kind-esque drama for adults”. Oh really. (The similar sounding Matt Maston was one of the three Mattel creators in 1945). Lesser known directors (for now) Aaron and Adam Nee are playing with the He-Man and Masters of the Universe – just as they did as kids. He-Man, born in 1982, is Mattel’s golden fleece, its Star Wars. As a toy, that is. On-screen, it disappeared up its nether regions in 1987. So good luck with that, guys! Kevin McKeon, Mattel’s answer to Marvel’s Kevin Feige, told The New Yorker’s Alex Barasch: “Our top priority is to make really good movies… that matter and that make a cultural footprint“ Not sure what Magic 8 Ball and the Boglins (Dwork, Vlobb, Drool, etc) have to do with culture. They’re not Barbie. “Our second priority,” added McKeon, “is to make sure that we do no disservice to the brands.” In short, these feature-length commercials must sell more toys. No, no, says Mattel, not all. Ah so. Then why has that purple dinosaur suddenly been re-launched? Films of comics was bad enough. But at least, at source level, comics have to be read. Toys are made for tiny tots who can barely talk. Dolls, figurines, cars, rockets, light sabers, race cars, etc, they are normally inspired by movies (like Mattel’s Disney range), not vice-versa. Because that, quite frankly, is insulting!
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BARB 2
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Barba Rella |
Now this is better… A Barbarella re-make is bejng promised. Yes, OK, based on a French comic book. (Although it was more oggled than read as it was based on Brigitte Bardot). Various new versions were announced since 1967 when Jane Fonda played the curvaceous outer space outlaw because Bardot and Virna Lisa fled, Sophia Loren was pregnant and Raquel Welch was Myra Breckenridge. Fonda's husband (and Bardot's ex) Roger Vadim directed. After the divorce, he attempted a cheekily named sequel, Barbarella Goes Down, with Drew Barrymore or Sherilyn Fenn. Later, Robert Rodriguez tried with Rose McGowan. Now Sydney Sweeny (super savvy) has done (without realising it) what another actor-producer, Margot Robbie, was doing with Ms Pink – getting a major studio keen on a blonde heroine with box-office potential. For the moment, the rest is silence. First, Syd (the minx from the first White Lotus and Euphoria) is making two other Sony projects – Madame Webb and The Registration. If they fail, she's toast. Which would be a great shame, although I must admit to seeing her as more of a new Candy than Barbarella. What? Oh sure, this Barb has a Ken, too. A tall, blind angel called Pygar. With huge wings. As white as his hair. And his loin-cloth. |
CINEMA ON STAGE
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Jaws is in the theatre? Well, almost. Except in the Ian Shaw-Joseph Nixon play – born in Brighton in 2019 and finally hitting Broadway - The Shark Is Broken… But then the mechanical beast, famously nicknamed Bruce, was always busting its guts – and making the film's three stars extremely tetchy, waiting for the damn thing to function again. As Deadline critic Greg Evans put it, the trio spent their downtime drinking (Robert Shaw), snorting (Richard Dreyfus) and coming quietly unglued (Roy Scheider). Ian Shaw plays his dad (and has done ever since 2019) and Colin Donnell is such an amazing Scheider clone you'd actually think his ghost was on-stage. |
There's a new Marilyn - in the Bungalow 21 play in Paris. It might become a movie, possibly directed by Roman Polanski - as his wife, Emmanuelle Seigner, is playing Marilyn Monroe, opposite her sister, Mathilde, as Simone Signoret. In 1960, these fine ladies and their husbands (Arthur Miller and Yves Montand), lived in adjacent bungalows at the Beverly Hills Hotel while Monroe and Montand shot Let's Make Love… and took the title way too literally. We never heard about this affair in the UK at the time but it remains the #1 love story in Paris showbiz history. Although love had very little to do with it. |
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JIMMY SINGS … in his test, but Dean lost the 1955 Oklahoma! musical to Broadway singer Gordon MacRea.
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SWEET MARILYN She lost Baby Doll, Can-Can, Freud, Harlow. So what! She was sublime in Some Like It Hot.
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HALE HALLE Halle Berry lost the Tina Turner biopic, but won Introducing Dorothy Dandridge. (And James Bond).
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STEVE McGUARD Kevin Costner beat Rutger Hauer but the singer's Bodyguard was first aimed at McQueen.
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HONG KONG KING
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Chow Yun-Fat and Danny Lee, The Killer and the cop, in the 1988 Hong Kong classic.
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Chinese director John Woo is back! Ever since he made a killing with The Killer, Hollywood has wanted to re-hash it. Richard Gere, John Travolta, Denzel Washington… they never happened. And Keanu Reeves a $7million pay day! All very odd as it is extremely cinematic, somewhat of a riff on Hollywood's classic 1935 weepie, Magnificent Obsession, yet so bloody it was dedicated it to Martin Scorsese! Finally, John Woo decided to re-make himself. With Lupita Nyong'o as the cool assassin with a troubled conscience. That notion fell by the wayside, so he moved it to France. Perfect as The Killer is wholly inspired by Jean-Pierre Melville's Le samourai. The excellent Omar Sy is now the hit-man agreeing to one more job in order to buy surgery for a woman he unintentionally blinded in his previous shoot-out. (There's your weepie bit.) Incidentally, John Woo's thriller is not related to Michael Fassbinder's The Killer. Sheer larceny using the classic's title, though… |
WHICH DOCTOR?
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THREEGETHER
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Time to welcome Dr Ncuti Gatwa, aka Doc14 (and one of the Kens). Like us, he knows all his Whovian predecessors. But he (and you) may not know that back in the day Docandidates included… Billy Connolly, Jason Connery, James Corden, Michael Crawford, Idris Elba, Richard E Grant, Rupert Grint, Tom Hanks, Eddie Izzard, the great Paterson Joseph, Ian McKellen, Kyle MacLachlan, Eddie Murphy, Sam Neil, Wesley Snipes, Jason Statham, Patrick Stewart (also up for The Master). Russell Tovey, David Walliams (twice)…. Plus Sean Pertwee (son of Jon, Doc3), Sam Troughton (grandson of Patrick, Doc2); three Sherlocks: Jeremy Brett, Rupert Everett, Matt Frewer; four Oscar-winners: Jim Broadbent, Ben Kingsley, Olivja Colman, Peter Ustinov. Plus… Rowan Atkinson! |
Film of the Hour is definitely Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon. George Clooney, Brad Pitt were in the mix for what is another reunion of De Niro and Di Caprio. When they were making This Boy's Life in 1992, Leo was only actor ever recommended by Bob to Marty. "The kid is really good. You must work with him sometime." (Leo today is the same age, 50, as De Niro was back then). His career was launched by doing that film, says Leo. "Working with Bob, watching his professionalism and the way he created his character was one of the most influential experiences of my life and career. It got me to do all these [six] films with Marty and now, 30 years later…" |
IN GOOD COMPANY
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Charlize Theron is the boss of Denver and Delilah Productions (heavily into TV with Mindhunter, Murder Mystery, etc). Michael B Jordan runs Outlier Society Kaley Cucoco's Norman Productions is named after one of her rescue dogs. As for our guest stars today: Gerard Butler runs G Base and Felicity Jones owns Piecrust Pictures… sounds llke she also makes The Great British Bake Off. |
ENTER THE BBIOPIC
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… And God Created… a series about Brigitte Bardot. Six episodes of the BB saga (now on Netflix), from ages 15 to 25, as she set the planet aflame as the most famous French movie star of all time. With a huge impact on sex, music, fashion and, for the last 37 years, animal care. At 23, Julia de Nunez was unknown when answering a social media search for "an actress between 18 and 22 years old, with a temperament." She's a staggering (if large) BB clone. "I've always resembled her." As usual in such bios, the famous names are on the wrong side of the cast list, as actors portray Roger Vadim, Christian Marquand, Jean-Louis Trintignant (the team from the 1965 BBreakthrough ...And God Created Woman) and her early lovers, singers Gilbert Becaud, Sacha Distel, actors Jacques Charrier, Sami Frey.

Brigitte Bardot? No, it's Julia de Nunez
Unfortunately, apart from BB, Vadim and her agent "Mama" Olga, no one resembles the other real people they are supposed to be. It's like playing who's who? Brigitte retired 50 years ago at 39. She remains untouched in our memories. The essence of youth. Her youth; our youth. A hank of hair, lank of leg, a dream mouth, an androgynous figure of unbridled sensuality. Her 48 films alternated between lightweight comedies - stripteasing with a distinct pleasure of her own torso – and often turgid dramas, always as the sexual catalyst , offering her indolent, challenge to the double-standards of "morality". She succeeded in both strata, as, clearly, herself.
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Lost biopix >>> Greta Garbo: Madame Curie. Mel Gibson: Amadeus (!). Audrey Hepburn: Isadora (Duncan). Dustin Hoffman: Gandhi. Nicole Kidman: The Queen (Elizabeth II). Bill Murray: Hitchcock. Gary Oldman: James Dean. Jane Russell: singer Lilian Roth, I'll Cry Tomorrow. Spencer Tracy: The Story of Will Rogers. Mamie Van Doren: Saint Joan (!!) <<< |
Roll ©redits:
All The President's Men montage: Reg Oliver; Halle Berry: Eon-Danjaq-MGM, 2002; Julia de Nunez: Federation Entertainment-France Television-G Films, 2022; Marilyn Monroe: 20th Century Fox, 1962; Anita: SK Global Entertainment, 2022; Barbie: Warner Bros, 2022; James Dean, Warner Bros, 1955; Barbarella, Paramount, 1967; The Killing: Golden Princess Film Production, 1988; The Lost Weekend: A Love Story, Briarcliff Entertainment, 2023; Steve McQueen, Warner Bros/Seven Arts, 1968; Jack Nicholson: Paramount, 1973; Gloria Paul: Eon Productions, 1965; Taylor Sheridan: Festival de Cannes, 2024; Sydney Sweeney, Harper's Bazaar, 2023. TC sketch: Graham Marsh, 1976; Plus enormous thanks to The Man: Daniel Bouteiller.
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WELCOME to a unique directory of what you never saw on-screen. The films the stars did not make. The movies that never were. The most definitive collation of casting stories ... Check up on all the films - of yesterday, today and tomorrow - that your favourite stars never made... A cast of thousands - 8,080 actors - to click on... More than 40 years in the making!! And 3,438,208 words of spirited text. The ultimate in movie trivia ... Better! Exactly the kind of history that Hollywood deserves. Back to front. Upside-down. Inside out. Full of flashbacks, close-ups, tracking shots (and, alas some badly edited sequences - sorry about that!) forming a fascinating, new and often bizarre flip-side perspective on your treasured movies and stars.
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This is the film that bred this site ... after Robert Redford told me he'd planned a little black-white version - with Robert De Niro, and Michael Moriarty as Woodstein.
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BOND LADY
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Gloria Paul, the Briitsh gift to Italian movies, was among the final few testing as Thunderball’s Domino in 1964. She previously auditioned for Tatiana in From Russia With Love – won in 1963 by a genuine Italian, Daniela Bianchi. Gloria worked with the UK comics Benny Hill, Morecambe and Wise and their Roman counterparts. She also made spaghetti Westerns. Gloria retired in 1996 after a freak accident left her semi-paralysed. |

“There are people who adore Barbie, people who hate Barbie – but the bottom line is everyone knows Barbie.” – Margot Robbie.
“I’d always thought that the whole point was to kind of get it so wrong that it ends up being original. I think that’s basically what my career has been attempting.” – Phoebe Waller-Bridge.
“I’m not one to sit around doin’ nothin’, I would never retire, I’ll just hopefully drop dead in the middle of a song onstage, someday, hopefully one I’ve written.” – Dolly Parton.
“Playing it safe doesn’t necessarily get you anywhere. You have to take chances. especially if you’re a black woman, you have no choice.” – Halle Berry.
“It was funny to come to New York and they said, ‘Oh, Birkin – like the bag?’ I said, ‘Yes. Now the bag is going to sing’.” – Jane Birkin
“I, as Debra Jo Rupp, have had the same hairdo for 40 years. I was not one of those beautiful people. So I could never be an Angel, but I could be a Bosley or whatever. “ – Debra Jo Rupp, aka Kitty Forman in That ‘70s (and 90s) Show.
“I’m glad I like my name because it gets shouted in my face a lot here. I think it’s a nice name. Thanks, mom and dad.” – Julia Roberts on Cannes festival photo-calls.
“I signed up to do a very different version of the film we ended up making.” – Dakota Johnson on Fifty Shades…
“I didn’t start in this business to play just one thing” – Kate Hudson
“She never affected, she never overacts, and that gives you the feeling that something escapes you. She has a sadness, something that she carries with her, a certain melancholy that sticks with her. That moves me a lot.” – French director Mia Hansen-Løve on Léa Seydoux. the busiest of all French actresses.
“I feel that for the last 10 years of my life, I’ve been just stuck… doing these franchises. I’m very grateful for. But I felt artistically stuck in my craft of not being able to expand or grow or challenge myself by playing different sorts of genres and different roles.” – Zoe Saldaña, Avatar’s Neytiri.
“People want dirt in plays, so I give ‘em dirt. See? They can be dull at home, but in the theatre they want excitement. They want to feel, not think. Know what I mean?” – Mae West… in 1928.
CCC CLIPS

>> “I’ve been called a witch, a slut and a murderer. I’ve been hounded by the police and slandered by the press.” And that’s just the start of Anita, a powerful documentary – rather than biopic – about Anita Pallenberg, the German 60s icon: the fifth Rolling Stone; lover, wife, mother, actress… remember Performance? And she was also Barbarella’s tyrannical Black Queen Scarlett Johansson narrates as Anita, from her unpublished memoir.
>> Good TV news. Looks like a third Timothy Olyphant storyline is brewing. – when writers are allowed to write it. And like the end of Justified: City Primeval, It means Walton Goggins will continue reprising Boyd Crowder – friend-cum-foe-cum-ditto of Tim’s US Marshall Raylan Givens. They’re more exciting than Tim and his lawyer lady Aunjanue Ellis.

>> Another must-see doc is The Lost Weekend: A Love Story, concerning the 18 month love affair - actually ordered by Yoko in 1973 - of John Lennon and their 23-year-old assistant, May Pang. “After 50 years, I finally get to share my story of John and myself through my eyes and my voice,” With a little help from her friends: Alice Cooper, Mick Jagger, Julian Lennon, Paul McCartney. Available from October 13, five days after John’s 77th birthday.
>> Congratulations to Alberto Barbera, boss of the Venice film festival, for having the guts to do what Cannes didn’t dare do – selecting Woody Allen’s new film,Coup de chance. The fact that Cannes chief Thierry Frémaux refused Woody’s 50th film - maybe his last, but more importantly, the first in French from one of France’s favourite directors – was absolutely disgraceful. The man has been cleared - twice - of sexual abuse of a child and allowed to adopt two children which, surely, underlines his innocence.
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