Oscar Watch (first, last, and only): Black Panther gets Best Picture nomination.

Surprisingly presumably nobody, Black Panther got nominated for Best Picture. One of seven Oscar nominations (the rest being tech stuff); you can see all the other nominations here, but honestly it’s going to be this and who wins Best Animated Picture* that I expect most people reading this site will care about.  If I had to guess: if Black Panther doesn’t win then BlacKkKlansman will.  I heard that that movie was actually good, too.  You can’t always count on that happening. Continue reading Oscar Watch (first, last, and only): Black Panther gets Best Picture nomination.

Marvel shows Scarlett Johansson the money: $15M for standalone film.

(Via @gabrielmalor.) Nice hunk of change, that: “Scarlett Johansson, who has appeared in six movies as Black Widow, is finally landing a $15 million payday for an upcoming stand-alone film centered on the Marvel superheroine, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.” This is Thor and Captain America-level cash; it also makes a good deal of sense, because I’m pretty sure that every person who reads this who also goes to movies in the theater will be planning to watch Black Widow acrobatically beat up a remarkable number of bad guys.

They’re also bringing back Ryan Coogler for Black Panther 2: “…Coogler’s camp shook off the peer pressure and took its time in making a deal, which occurred under the radar some time ago. Sources say the plan at this stage is for Coogler to write the script next year with an eye to start production in either late 2019 or early 2020.” To paraphrase somebody or other, the negotiations probably involved just how many dump trucks full of money Coogler would be getting.  ScarJo, Ryan, bubbelehs: your rule of thumb here should be all that the traffic will bear.  Make ’em make it rain.

 

 

Hey yeah if you were planning to go see Black Panther next week…

…go get your tickets nowBlack Panther is selling out fast; I had to get tickets from a different theater than the one I usually go to.  That didn’t happen when I went to go see The Force Awakens the day after it opened.  This may not mean anything — I’m getting seats for an evening performance this time, and usually I buy tickets for 10 AM showings — but Marvel can’t be anything but pleased about how their first-day grosses are looking right now.

Another ‘Black Panther’ trailer drops.

Excuse me while I be slightly male: there is something incredibly hot about a tall, lithe woman in a red dress who knows how to use a goram quarterstaff. I could watch quarterstaff battles in nightclubs all day. Or at least for the seven minute extended scene that I know is going to show up in the Black Panther movie, and that’s all right with me.

Continue reading Another ‘Black Panther’ trailer drops.