Whether you remember it or not, Geena Davis is a treasure, a diverse and talented actress with a filmography that boasted some of the finest movies of the 1980s and early 1990s. Now, Davis is reflecting on some of her career highs and lows, chiefly as they relate to some famous co-stars.
Geena Davis also spoke highly of Brad Pitt, who got his breakout in 1992’s Thelma & Louise. “He was very self-effacing and sweet and kind and whatever. It never felt like he was All That.” (But, of course, he is.) She also heaped praise on co-star Susan Sarandon, who she called “a revelation.”
Books
Talk About “Fight Club”: A New Book Goes Behind the Scenes on the Set of the ’90s Cult Classic
Chuck Palahniuk’s novel Fight Club is a story told by an unreliable narrator about the ways wounded masculinity can become toxic masculinity — and how a populist movement can curdle into something far more violent and authoritarian. It’s an unlikely choice for the source material for a cult-classic film, and yet that’s exactly what it’s become over the years, with David Fincher’s 1999 adaptation of it continuing to spark debate decades after its release.
Adam Nayman’s new book David Fincher: Mind Games explores the director’s work to date, including a detailed look at how his adaptation of Fight Club came together, an excerpt from which recently showed up at Literary Hub.
It’s an intriguing glimpse into the creative process, and, given that both Fincher and Norton would go on to direct other high-profile literary adaptations, it’s also an interesting piece of foreshadowing for the careers that would follow, long after an unexpected cult classic first hit theaters.
Tarantino On His ‘Once Upon A Time In Hollywood’ Novel, Retirement, Fatherhood, And Other Great Tales
Quentin Tarantino long has taken his encyclopedic cinematic influences, including genres and actors from the past, and blended them through his filter to create wildly inventive films that have influenced many up-and-coming filmmakers. Now, he has done a similar thing that I bet will not be copied by other filmmakers. After steeping himself for a half-decade in the lore of ’60s films, stuntmen, Western TV series and the Manson family to create Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Tarantino harkened back to his love for movie novelizations and wrote one for his own movie, after the fact. The book becomes in a way its own singular Tarantino creation: Using his film as a springboard, Tarantino heads into many unexpected directions while satisfyingly expanding and fleshing out the mythology of the world and the characters populated by Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie and others. If you are a fan of the movie, you’ll find it hard to put down a novel that first was published in paperback. Here, Tarantino discusses why he put the same painstaking detail in the book as he did the movie, and where he goes from here.
Read more. Great read, lots of mentions of Brad’s character Cliff Booth.
‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’ Never-Before-Seen Footage Debuts in Trailer for Tarantino’s New Book
Harper Perennial has debuted an official trailer for Quentin Tarantino’s upcoming novelization of “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” and it’s jam-packed with never-before-scene footage from the director’s ninth feature film. “Hollywood” was a critical and commercial hit when it opened theatrically in July 2019 following a world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. The film grossed $374 million worldwide and picked up 10 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director. Brad Pitt won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
The “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” novelization trailer, which can be viewed exclusively on Entertainment Weekly (check the video here), showcases footage Tarantino left on the cutting room floor for the movie’s theatrical cut. “Hollywood” ran 161 minutes in theaters, but Tarantino’s assembly cut was around four hours. Never-before-seen footage featured in the trailer includes new scenes with Al Pacino’s Marvin Schwarz and Damon Herriman’s Charles Manson. Herriman had a lot of buzz going into “Hollywood” for playing the infamous serial killer, but he only appeared in one brief scene in the theatrical cut.
One part of the book Tarantino touted was several chapters fleshing out the backstory of Pitt’s stuntman Cliff Booth. The “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” novel releases June 29 via Harper Perennial.
Mario Testino’s Largest Book Ever Is About Fashionable Men
Stella Tennant with Peru’s presidential guards in Lima. American Vogue, 2012.Photo: © Mario Testino
In the 1980s, fashion photographer Mario Testino shot a woman’s haircut for British Vogue. It was one of his first professional assignments and somewhat of a signifier, as he continued to photograph women throughout his career: Princess Diana, Beyoncé, Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, and many others.But Testino flipped this focus in his book SIR, published by Taschen, which showcases 300 photographs of men — his largest published collection to date. The tome explores the evolution of masculinity in the fashion world over the past 30 years, featuring portraits of Brad Pitt, George Clooney, David Bowie, models, and more celebrity men.
