Movies

During the commercial break that came after Cynthia Erivo’s performance at the Academy Awards Sunday night, audiences watching at home got their first taste of one of Erivo’s upcoming projects: Her portrayal of Aretha Franklin in the National Geographic series “Genius.”A teaser trailer for the series’s third season that aired during the Oscars telecast begins in what looks like a recording studio, with Erivo asking “Do you want to take it from the top?” But the video largely focuses on Erivo’s Franklin outside the studio and offstage, offering up flashes of her dancing, posing and, in one instance, shoving, generally doing all it can to hint that there will be high drama ahead. It includes a handful of shots that appear to be scenes of Franklin as a child.[embedded content]What it doesn’t include is any instance of Erivo singing in character. That is the exact opposite of the approach that another upcoming Franklin project, the biopic “Respect,” took when it released its own, exclusively singing-oriented teaser late last year. That movie, which stars Jennifer Hudson in the lead role, is also due out this year.“Genius” is an anthology series, with each season centered on a different historical figure. The previous, second season cast Antonio Banderas as Pablo Picasso; the first gave Geoffrey Rush a mane of gray hair, a busy mustache and a big brain (yes, he was Albert Einstein).The third season of “Genius,” with Erivo as Franklin, is set to debut on Memorial Day, and will air over four consecutive nights.The trailer ends with Erivo’s Franklin saying “I want to make hits, Mr. Wexler,” apparently addressing the record producer Jerry Wexler, who will be played in the series by David Cross. We know that she succeeded; expect the series to showcase how it was done. More

LOS ANGELES — The long-delayed Academy Museum of Motion Pictures will open on Dec. 14, completing a nine-decade quest by the Hollywood establishment to celebrate itself year-round.Tom Hanks announced the opening date during the 92nd Academy Awards on Sunday night. “It’s going to be a very big deal,” he said. “We’ll see you there.”The museum was initially scheduled to open in 2017 and cost $250 million. Setbacks have included sparring architects, a ballooning budget (now at least $388 million), construction difficulties and the forced departure of the institution’s inaugural director, Kerry Brougher, last summer.The academy recently announced that it had reached 95 percent of its fund-raising goal; Robert A. Iger, Disney’s chief executive, has overseen the campaign. The museum is also working on another bond offering of roughly $100 million, according to Deadline, an entertainment news site, that would push the project’s cost to around $450 million, unless some new money is used to retire debt.The museum could attract in the vicinity of 1 million visitors annually. It is next to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and features a 1,000-seat theater inside a spherical building designed by Renzo Piano that has been likened to the Death Star. (Piano prefers to think of it as a “soap bubble.”)Anchoring the six-floor Academy Museum will be a 30,000-square-foot exhibition tracing the artistic and scientific history of cinema from a filmmaker’s perspective, starting in the late 1800s in France, and including an array of movie installations. Galleries will focus on early female directors, international silent film, Soviet cinema, the Hollywood studio system and Indian independent film, among other topics. The museum will also feature temporary exhibitions, starting with a retrospective on Hayao Miyazaki, the Japanese animation titan behind films like ‘’Spirited Away’‘ (2001) and ‘’The Wind Rises’‘ (2013).The motion picture academy will have local competition. The Los Angeles County Museum has its own film program and has hosted popular movie-related exhibitions like one on the filmmaker Tim Burton. Well-established local organizations like American Cinematheque already coordinate public screenings of significant art films. And construction has begun near downtown Los Angeles on the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, which will house items collected by George Lucas, including 20th-century American illustrations, comic books, costumes, storyboards, stage sets and other archival material from ‘’Star Wars’‘ and other movies. The Lucas Museum, shaped (without question) like a ‘’Star Wars’‘ vessel, and its surrounding campus will cost an estimated $1 billion.But the motion picture academy — with a collection that includes 190,000 film and video assets and 61,000 posters — has wanted its own museum for decades. More

The opening musical number of the Oscars on Sunday had all the glitz and glam associated with the biggest night in Hollywood: the singer-songwriter Janelle Monáe in a tuxedo top, a large cast of backup dancers and sparks flying from the back of the stage.It was also unusually self-aware. Some dancers’ costumes referenced films that had been snubbed in the Academy Award nominations, and there were clear references to the lack of diversity among the contenders.Monáe made a pointed comment about female filmmakers, who were noticeably absent from the best director category. “We celebrate all the women who directed phenomenal films,” said the performer, draped in a shawl fashioned from a bright assortment of flowers and wearing a flower crown, a reference to the horror film “Midsommar,” which wasn’t nominated.She then touched on the lack of people of color in the running for prizes.“I’m so proud to stand here as a black, queer artist telling stories,” Monáe said. “Happy Black History Month.”The cast of performers onstage, which included Billy Porter, was noticeably more diverse than the acting nominees. Only one actor of color — Cynthia Erivo of “Harriet” — was nominated.At one point, Monáe seemed to throw into the lyrics a reference to #OscarsSoWhite, the viral hashtag that spurred a cultural reckoning in the film industry five years ago.The dancers behind Monáe were dressed as characters from notable 2019 films, some of which were otherwise overlooked at the ceremony. Dancers were dressed in the red jumpsuits from the horror film “Us,” slick suits and period dresses reminiscent of the looks in the Eddie Murphy biopic “Dolemite Is My Name” and outfits from “Queen & Slim” — three films that did not receive any nominations.Other costumes nodded to films that were not short on Oscars recognition. Performers dressed in the suit and face paint in “Joker” and others wore militaristic attire that looked like the British World War I-era uniforms seen in “1917.” (Some viewers wondered online if those costumes were actually Nazi uniforms seen in “Jojo Rabbit.”) More

And they told us there wouldn’t be hosts!The 2020 Oscars got off to a decidedly traditional start in Sunday night when, after Janelle Monáe’s musical opening number, Chris Rock and Steve Martin — two comedians who have hosted the ceremony before — took the stage and traded one-liners. Martin and Rock shouted out several nominees, made current events jokes and punched at the lack of representation for people of color. Martin closed out their bits with, “Well, we’ve had a great time not hosting tonight.”Here is the full text:CHRIS ROCK Wow. Janelle Monae. Incredible. That was incredible. That was incredible. While we were backstage watching it, Steve says to me, “J-Lo is killing it two weeks in a row!”STEVE MARTIN You know, I was thinking today, Chris, that we both have hosted the Oscars before and this is such an incredible demotion. They don’t really have hosts anymore. Why is that?ROCK Twitter. Everybody’s got an embarrassing tweet somewhere. I know I do.MARTIN A couple of years ago, there was a big disaster here at the Oscars where they accidentally read out the wrong name, and it was nobody’s fault, but they have guaranteed that this will not happen this year, because the Academy has switched to the new Iowa caucus app. But what a night!ROCK I don’t know, Steve. I’m a little conflicted, you know? I was driving here tonight and seeing the terrible homeless problem in L.A. —MARTIN Thank you, Chris. So many stars! Oh my god, there’s Brad Pitt. It’s like looking in a mirror.ROCK Mahershala Ali is here tonight. Mahershala has two Oscars. You know what that means when the cops pull him over? Nothing. Jeff Bezos is here.MARTIN Oh, wow, great actor.ROCK He’s got cash. When he writes the check, the bank bounces. Jeff Bezos is so rich, he got divorced and he’s still the richest man in the world. He saw “Marriage Story” and thought it was a comedy. Steve, do you have anything you want to add about Mr. Bezos?MARTIN No, I like getting my packages on time. And Marty Scorsese is here, somewhere, where is he? Genius, wow.ROCK Marty Scorsese. Marty, I got to tell you, I loved the first season of “The Irishman.”MARTIN Oh, “The Irishman.” that’s that new Ray Romano movie. Such a great supporting cast.ROCK Steve, did you see “The Joker”?MARTIN I can’t wait to see it. It sounds so funny. I’m laughing already. Joker.ROCK There’s so many — so many great directors nominated this year.MARTIN I don’t know, Chris, I thought there was something missing from the list this year.ROCK Vaginas?MARTIN Yes, yes.ROCK “Ford v Ferrari” is nominated. I’ve got to tell you. I’ve got a Ford. I’ve got a Ferrari. It ain’t even close. It’s like Halle Berry versus gum disease.MARTIN Cynthia Erivo is here tonight.ROCK Yes, Cynthia Erivo is here tonight. Cynthia did such a great job in “Harriet” hiding black people that the Academy got her to hide all the black nominees. Cynthia, is Eddie Murphy under this stage?MARTIN Eddie, I loved you in “Dolemite.” Well, you know, Chris, think how much the Oscars have changed in the past 92 years.ROCK Yeah, they’ve changed a lot, Steve.MARTIN Yeah, they have. In 1929, there were no black acting nominees.ROCK And now, in 2020, we got one.MARTIN Yeah. Amazing growth! Well, we’ve had a great time not hosting tonight. More