Now that Austin Powers has safely moved past its “overexposure through incessant quoting” phase, there’s a lot to love about the movie. The peppy flute theme from Quincy Jones, Myers’ screwloose double-turn as the International Man of Mystery and his pinky-brandishing nemesis, the kitschy ’60s-by-way-of-’90s design, it‘s all a pretty good time. (Not to mention that the tactfully obscured nude scene is a marvel of blocking and composition.) A recent oral history has gotten Myers’ most beloved comic creation back in the public eye, and amidst rumors that a sequel may be in the cards at some indeterminate point in the future, another surprising discovery has been made.
As if American Horror Story retelling an allegorical version of the 2016 election weren’t enough, HBO is about to take things much more literally. The producers of 2012's Game Change (including Tom Hanks!) have set their sights on an HBO miniseries of the 2016 election, because let’s face it, you can never escape.
For a brief moment, Ava DuVernay was attached to direct Intelligent Life for Amblin with Lupita Nyong’o on board to star, but when the former departed the project to focus on Disney’s A Wrinkle in Time, the latter also jumped ship — leaving the film in flux. But the sci-fi project has found new life with Jay Roach, who has signed on rewrite and potentially direct Intelligent Life based on Colin Trevorrow and Derek Connolly’s screenplay.
Unlike most comedy sequels, the Austin Powers franchise only became more successful at the box office with each additional outing (sorry, Neighbors 2), with Austin Powers in Goldmember generating $300 million worldwide. It’s been 14 years since Mike Myers last donned the mop-top and spouted a bunch of delightfully cheesy innuendoes, and though we may not be any closer to a fourth Austin Powers outing, director Jay Roach says it could still very much happen.
When the first trailer for Jay Roach’s Trumbo dropped this past summer, I thought I was getting a brief peek at what would become one of fall’s most buzzed about biopics and with an Oscar-worthy leading role. After all, it stars Bryan Cranston as Dalton Trumbo, the politically undeterred Hollywood screenwriter blacklisted for his Communist beliefs during the Red Scare. A movie about movies with a great cast, what could go wrong? But that’s just the thing with biopics, especially ones about Hollywood, which face the risk of mistaking homage for pastiche.
The Brink may have succeeded in staving off its titular precipice for a second season, but HBO surprisingly seems to have pushed the Jack Black - Tim Robbins geopolitical comedy right back over. The network has officially rescinded its Season 2 renewal, opting instead to cancel The Brink outright.