Movies

NASA and Tom Cruise have had discussions about shooting a film at the International Space Station, NASA’s administrator, Jim Bridenstine, said on Tuesday.The message highlighted NASA’s growing interest in finding additional commercial ventures for the space program during the Trump administration. But it follows a variety of earlier attempts to produce entertainment in space that have failed to get off the film lot or the launchpad.Deadline, a Hollywood trade publication, first reported on Monday the possibility of an out-of-this-world Tom Cruise movie. Deadline said it would be an action-adventure, but not part of the “Mission: Impossible” film series that Mr. Cruise has starred in since 1996.NASA is excited to work with @TomCruise on a film aboard the @Space_Station! We need popular media to inspire a new generation of engineers and scientists to make @NASA’s ambitious plans a reality. pic.twitter.com/CaPwfXtfUv— Jim Bridenstine (@JimBridenstine) May 5, 2020
Deadline reported that the project also involved SpaceX, the rocket company started by Elon Musk, but that the film was still in its early stages and no movie studio was involved yet.SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment.NASA declined to provide additional details. “Not at this time,” Matthew Rydin, the press secretary for Mr. Bridenstine, wrote in an email. “We will say more about the project at the appropriate time.”NASA has been looking to open the International Space Station to wider commercial use, beyond scientific research for new drugs and novel materials that can only be grown in zero-gravity conditions. That includes space tourism.Axiom Space, a start-up run by a former NASA space station manager, has been selected to build a commercial module with Philippe Starck-designed interiors that would be attached to the International Station. Even before its completion, the company is selling $55 million tickets on the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft to tourists wanting to visit the more austere accommodations currently available. That flight is more than a year away.An Axiom spokesman declined to comment if the company was involved with Mr. Cruise’s movie plans.In 2018 remarks, Mr. Bridenstine raised the possibility of NASA selling naming rights to its spacecraft to companies or allowing astronauts to sign endorsement deals, but the agency has since not made any moves in those directions.Space has long had an allure for the entertainment business. Although footage for documentaries and even television commercials has been shot in orbit, Mr. Cruise’s project, if it goes into production, would be the first space film shoot for a narrative feature film.In 2000, Mark Burnett, the producer of “Survivor” and “The Apprentice,” had sold NBC on the idea of a reality-television series that would culminate with sending a contestant to Mir, the decaying Russian space station. But those plans fell through when Mir was abandoned and deorbited, splashing in the Pacific in 2001.More recently, a Dutch venture, Mars One, claimed it would finance a Mars colony through a television series, but it never even raised enough money for the final selection of potential astronauts. The company entered into bankruptcy in 2019.In January, Yusaku Maezawa, a Japanese fashion billionaire who is paying SpaceX to fly him around the moon, posted an online advertisement asking for a date to accompany him on the flight. He said a video-streaming website would make a documentary of his quest called “Full Moon Lovers.” SpaceX is aiming to launch Mr. Maezawa in 2023, but the giant Starship spacecraft that would be required is still in early development.A couple of weeks later, he apologized and asked for the show’s cancellation “due to personal reasons.”The plot of Mr. Cruise’s film is unknown, but some of his previous movies have involved close cooperation with the federal government. The United States Navy helped with the making of both “Top Gun” in 1986 as well as its forthcoming sequel, “Top Gun: Maverick,” which Mr. Cruise co-produced. More

For our latest Weekend Watch Party, we revisited the broiling Brooklyn of Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing,” a film whose unflinching, complex depiction of racial tension has not dated much in 31 years. What has changed is that the movie, enormously controversial when it was released in 1989, has been embraced as a classic.It’s part of the curriculum now: we received comments from high school students who watched it for class as well as remarks from some teachers. The students had a lot to say about Lee’s painful themes and arguments, which, among other things, dynamically put Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X into play.Unlike too many contemporary (OK, white) critics who focused on their own racial fears, the students also appreciated Lee’s art. Badly made films seldom make history, and one reason that “Do the Right Thing” remains resonant is that it is still, as Vincent Canby said in his New York Times review, “one terrific movie.”I’ve come to the conclusion that Lee believes that the “right thing” is actually less important than the action of “doing the right thing,” which X and King themselves both embraced through constant direct action against racism. — Kaylan N, Sunnyvale, CA (senior at the Harker School in San Jose, Calif.)A.O. SCOTT I saw “Do the Right Thing” for the first time in Baltimore, the week it opened. Of course, I remember what we’re now in the habit of calling “the discourse” — the critics and commentators warning that it would provoke riots; the TV news panels about the State of Race in America; Spike Lee’s disinclination to play nice in the media — but mostly I remember the excitement of feeling that I was watching one of the great films of my lifetime.After this last viewing — I lost count a long time ago — I still feel that way. But what I also felt, maybe for the first time, was something like nostalgia. Bill Nunn and Danny Aiello, who played Radio Raheem and Sal, are both gone, following Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee and Robin Harris. Looking at some of the other faces, I marvel at how young they look, and also at Lee’s often underrated skill as a director of actors. There is so much life and personality here, a truthfulness that bursts out of the narrow conventions of realism and turns into something else. More

LOS ANGELES — Last year at this time, Disney was celebrating the record-breaking arrival of “Avengers: Endgame” in theaters. On Tuesday, with movie theaters closed worldwide, along with theme parks, Disney said that its quarterly profit fell more than 90 percent.And that was for a period that was only partly affected by the coronavirus.“Our businesses have been hugely impacted,” Bob Chapek, Disney’s new chief executive, told analysts on a conference call, noting that theme park employees had been furloughed (an analyst-estimated 100,000 of them) and executives have taken steep pay cuts. “We’re doing everything we can to mitigate the impact of the cash burn.”Disney said its board had voted to forgo payment of its summer dividend, preserving about $1.6 billion in cash.Mr. Chapek declined to say when Walt Disney World in Florida or Disneyland in California might reopen. (They closed in mid-March.) What about production on large-scale movies? When might shooting resume? “No projections,” he said.Because of its size and lack of diversification, Disney has been badly hobbled by the coronavirus pandemic. But the quarter that ended on March 30 was broadly affected for only a couple of weeks. Walt Disney World, for instance, was closed for 17 days of the period; the vast resort could be closed for the entirety of the current quarter. More

“Blue Story,” set against a backdrop of gang wars in southeast London, tells the story of two close friends who become violent rivals. Although their vendettas escalate, the rift’s origins are fundamentally arbitrary: The public-housing authorities placed them “on different ends,” in areas that would give them perceived different allegiances.That bit of narration is rapped by Andrew Onwubolu, the writer-director, who goes by Rapman and hails from southeast London. He appears onscreen periodically to comment on the action. “Blue Story” began as a 2014 series on YouTube, where Rapman’s videos brought him a following that led to this first feature.[embedded content]Initially, Timmy (Stephen Odubola) and Marco (Micheal Ward) are inseparable, though Marco’s brother (Eric Kofi-Abrefa), a gang leader, doesn’t like the idea that Marco is hanging out in Timmy’s part of town. The friends’ loyalty to each other dominates all else: When, at a party, the shy Timmy is at last dancing with the girl he likes (Karla-Simone Spence), he has to stop to defend Marco in a fight.Premonitions of tragedy hover over everything: Which character — or characters — will be senselessly killed? The film has a powerful sense of place, with details that feel authentic and, in some cases, lived through. Yet Rapman’s civic-minded lyrics (“There really ain’t no winners when you’re playing with them guns”) have a habit of reducing the drama to tidy morals.The movie was the subject of controversy in Britain last fall — some theater chains pulled it, with one, Vue, doing so after a fight broke out at a theater in Birmingham, England, though Rapman challenged the idea that the incident had anything do with “Blue Story.” While theaters aren’t part of the picture now, either fighting or canceled screenings would seem odd reactions to a movie with an earnest pacifist message.Blue StoryRated R. Cyclical bloodshed. Running time: 1 hour 31 minutes. Rent or buy on Amazon Prime Video, iTunes, Google Play and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators. More

In her new film, “How to Build a Girl,” (available in some drive-in theaters and on demand May 8), Beanie Feldstein plays a high school student in Wolverhampton, England, who makes a name for herself as a rock critic during the 1990s by writing virulently negative reviews of bands. It’s a stretch for the actress in more ways than one.“I’m so American,” she said in a recent telephone interview from her native Los Angeles. “Doing a very regionally specific British accent was the scariest thing I’ve ever tried, and that’s exactly why I did it.”The character’s snark also didn’t come naturally to the perpetually upbeat Feldstein. But she showed her typical enthusiasm when asked to choose her 10 most cherished cultural items. “I worked very hard on my list,” she said, sounding a lot like the teenage overachiever she played in the acclaimed 2019 comedy “Booksmart.”Though she’s only 26, Feldstein is proud to be known as an old soul. “I’m the youngest in my family, and there’s quite a gap between me and my next sibling,” she says of her brother, the actor Jonah Hill, 36. “So I was always around older people.”Perhaps that explains why she’s following up “How to Build a Girl” with another ’90s period piece; she’ll play Monica Lewinsky in FX’s coming “American Crime Story: Impeachment.” “I’m exploring the decade when I was born,” she said. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.1. My RingsI started building my collection at 14, and I now have 12 rings that I wear every single day. I feel naked without them, and they all carry beautiful, sentimental memories. My pinkie has none, but my ring finger has three. I can’t even tell you why. I feel like they’re a map of my adolescence and adulthood. They’re all gold or rose gold, no silver, and they’re all very different.2. A Stuffed Dog Named BuddyI picked him out when I was 4, and he hasn’t left my side since. I named him Buddy, then we named our dog we got right after that Buddy, so there were two Buddys for a while, but they got along. He’s a yellow lab stuffed animal, and I think he’s the root of all my superstitious routines. When I’m working, he doesn’t come to watch, but he has to be in every room that I will sleep in.3. “Will You Love Me Tomorrow?” by Gerry Goffin and Carole KingJames Taylor and Joni Mitchell sing backup on the version from the “Tapestry” album, and it is the trifecta of ’70s perfection. My parents mostly played me ’50s and ’70s music growing up, so that’s the heartbeat and foundation of my musical taste. Carole King is an idol of mine, and even when I was little, her songs always struck me on a very deep personal level.4. Carrot Cake at Peacefood CafeIt was one of those things from childhood where you’re like, “I don’t like carrot cake!” Then you get in your 20s and you’re like: “Why? Have I even tried it in years?” I always go to Peacefood, and one day I was in the mood to try new things, so I tried the carrot cake, and I loved it! I’m allergic to dairy, so I can only eat dairy-free cake, and it is quite literally Heaven.5. “Gilmore Girls”I watch it every single night before I go to bed. It’s my relaxing, comfort food show. I watch the episodes in order. It’s such a warm and cozy experience, but it’s also really mentally engaging because the dialogue is so rapid-fire and filled with pop culture references. It feels like a witty hug.6. “Bridesmaids”I feel like it opened a door for me. It showed me that my dream of being a comedic actress could be real and that a movie with women could make everyone laugh just as hard as they did at all the boy movies. I will never forget my first viewing experience. My best friends from high school and I went to the midnight showing the day it came out. We are the biggest Kristen Wiig fans, and we were so excited. I fell out of my chair, I was laughing so hard. We looked at each other like, “Oh, this is a movie we haven’t seen before.”7. Hugo’s in Los AngelesThis is the place where my best friends and I go when we are all in L.A. We sit outside and catch up and share cinnamon swirl French toast. It’s our Central Perk. Also, when I was doing “Booksmart,” Kaitlyn Dever and I lived near there together, and it was our spot, too. We later learned it was where our director, Olivia Wilde, and the screenwriter Katie Silberman had all their script meetings, so it was the place that made “Booksmart” happen.8. Stephen Sondheim’s musicalsNo one captures the complexity of human experience through song better. The ones I return to most often are “Company,” “Into the Woods” and “Sunday in the Park With George.” We did “Into the Woods” when I was in 10th grade, and I played Little Red Riding Hood. It was high school theater magic. We’re all in our mid-20s now, and we still talk about it.9. “Put On Your Sunday Clothes” from “Hello, Dolly”I did “Hello, Dolly!” on Broadway for a year, and this was the song right before my entrance. It was the greatest joy of that experience to watch it every night. That song just encapsulates hope. It’s perfect musical theater, an old-school traditional show tune. It just soars. I’ve probably heard it 30,000 times, and every time I do, it still makes me cry.10. Linda, the Bra LadyGrowing up, if you couldn’t fit into the Victoria’s Secret bras, it was such a bummer. Then I found Linda’s in my early college years, and I have turned every woman I know on to this shop. It is the holy grail of bra stores. As any full-chested woman knows, if you don’t have a good bra, there are life activities you just can’t do. I’ve never felt more taken care of than when I walk into Linda’s. Her girls are there for you — they have your size, they have a range of colors, they want to chat. It is a safe space for those of us who never got to shop at the other stores. Maybe Linda will give me a free bra now! More