Velma in the series "Scooby-Doo: Mystery Corporation"
Chucky kills everyone again, Pedro Almodovar works with Tilda Swinton, Idris Elba is against censorship, and Velma from Scooby-Doo is a lesbian. Here's what happened in the world of cinema in a week.
"Pretty woman in shock"
The first trailer for the Russian comedy "Pretty Woman at Stroke" with Yulia Alexandrova in the title role - the domestic version of the American film "Pretty Woman for the Whole Head" starring Amy Schumer, has been released.
As in the original film, in the remake, the main character is an ordinary girl who has many complexes about her own appearance (although she is slim and looks absolutely conventional, unlike the heroine Amy Schumer, who was worried about being overweight). One day she receives a strong blow to the head and, waking up, suddenly realizes that she has changed: she has become a real beauty, as she always dreamed of. Of course, this is an illusion, but the heroine now sees herself in the mirror in a completely different way, which ultimately launches a chain of cardinal changes in the girl's life.
In addition to Alexandrova, Andrei Burkovsky, Grigory Kalinin, Taisiya Vilkova, Yanina Studilina, Yana Koshkina and others played in the film. The director was Yana Gladkikh - this is her debut in full length.
The premiere will take place on 13 August.
Yulia Aleksandrova in the film "Pretty Woman in Stroke"
Scooby-Doo's Velma turns out to be a lesbian
In the days of the "new ethics" everything secret becomes clear: what previously had to be hidden for the sake of commercial success, the laws of the market and conservative morality, can now be voiced publicly, without fear of public condemnation. So, already a number of characters, whom for many years everyone considered strictly heterosexual, "changed" their orientation. And if about some there are fierce disputes (as, for example, in the case of SpongeBob, who was written down as homosexual - according to some fans, it is unfair). Then in the case of Velma from "Scooby-Doo" everything is very clear: this character has long been suspected of belonging to the LGBT community.
The project's producer, Tony Cervone, confirmed the fan's speculation: he stated that Velma, in the 2010 animated series Scooby-Doo: Mystery, Inc., which relaunched the classic 1969 comic strip, has always been a lesbian. He emphasized that the character was originally created as homosexual:
- he wrote on Instagram.
Velma's homosexuality has been a topic of discussion since the very first appearance of this character in the original comics, but has never been emphasized: in the 2010 series, on the contrary, they decided to emphasize this.
Velma was supposed to be a lesbian in the 2002 film by James Gunn, but the producers forbade the heroine to "leave the closet": all hints of the character's homosexual orientation were prohibited, and then Velma had a boyfriend.
Pedro Almodovar is filming a film with Tilda Swinton in the title role
Spanish director Pedro Almodovar started a new job - shooting the short film "The Human Voice" based on the play of the same name by the cult French playwright (poet, writer, director and generally one of the outstanding figures of the 20th century) Jean Cocteau. The master invited Tilda Swinton for the main role, who else is involved in the project is still unknown.
The film will become the first English-language project of the author of the films "All About My Mother", "Talk to Her", "The Skin I Live in", "Bad Education" and other works that have already entered the golden fund of the XX-XXI centuries.
Pedro Almodovar and Tilda Swinton on the set of the film "The Human Voice"
The action of Cocteau's play unfolds in one act: the main character calls her lover for the last time, who is to marry another the next day. Almodovar, together with Tilda Swinton, adapted the plot to modern realities (in Cocteau's play it was about the 1930s), but the emphasis on the psychological component was left.
This play has been a source of inspiration for the director for many years: allusions to it can be seen in his films The Law of Desire and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.
When the premiere of the project will take place, it is not known - filming started only this week in Madrid, although it should have started back in April.
Idris Elba spoke out against the censorship of racist scenes in old films
The story around the film "Gone with the Wind", which needed a special warning about the racist stereotypes broadcast in it, became a precedent and sparked a discussion: how to relate to the cult works of cinema and literature, in which. For all their artistic merit, they contain outdated views that are often considered criminal today. The misogyny of Ernest Hemingway, the benevolent racism of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" ... You can list it for a long time.
Actor Idris Elba recently intervened in the discussion, aggravated by the Black Lives Matter movement: he believes that it is impossible to delete, as some have suggested, scenes and episodes in which there are racist prejudices. According to the "Luther" star, people should be aware of outdated views - this will help to understand what path society has traveled in the struggle for equal rights for all. However, such films must be labeled: the corresponding rating must warn about the presence of offensive content.
Idris Elba
Recall that the death of black George Floyd at the hands of a police officer led to large-scale protests in support of the black population in the United States. This also affected culture: many streaming services began to massively cut out individual scenes and remove from their catalogs TV shows with blackface - make-up, with the help of which white actors portray black heroes.
Chucky returns
The first teaser of the series "Chucky", which was based on the "Children's Games" franchise about the doll-killer Chucky, has appeared on the network. The production will be handled by the author of the original version, Don Mancini, so that the attitude to the original should be careful.
The series will tell about the events that took place after the final of the last film, in which the revived doll Chucky staged a bloody massacre, destroying the inhabitants of a small town.
Who plays in the project is still unknown. The premiere is expected to take place in 2021.