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Nancy Meyers scammed Netflix into spending $130 million on a rom-com

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Michael Fassbender hasn’t acted in years, not since X-Men: Dark Phoenix, which was released in 2019. Before that, he was the lead in 2017’s The Snowman (awful movie). He’s semi-retired and he spends most of his time with his wife Alicia Vikander and their son, plus he races too. Well, Fassbender might be coming back to acting… and he’ll do it in a Nancy Meyers rom-com? That’s not even the weirdest part of the story though. The weirdest part is that Nancy Meyers somehow convinced Netflix that she needed $130 million to make a romantic comedy set in Los Angeles. This is bonkers from start to finish.

Nancy Meyers’ return to the director’s chair is getting underway. After not directing a movie since 2015’s The Intern, the filmmaker known for her upscale romantic comedies is back with a project that is attracting A-list talent. Scarlett Johansson is circling the lead role in Meyers’ upcoming feature for Netflix, multiple sources tell The Hollywood Reporter, with Penélope Cruz, Owen Wilson and Michael Fassbender also eying the project. Netflix had no comment.

Meyers will write, direct and produce the comedy, which is currently known as Paris Paramount, although it is not clear if that’s the actual title, a working title or a code name.

Sources say the story centers on a talented young writer-director who falls in love with a producer, with the pair making several successful films before calling it quits romantically and professionally. The two are forced back together, however, when a great new project arises, and they find themselves teamed up again and having to deal with high stakes and volatile stars.

The project is currently eying a budget in the $130 million to $150 million range — meaning it could be the most expensive romantic comedy to come out of Hollywood — with the studio and filmmakers going back and forth over costs, as first reported by Puck. It has been in the works for some time, with the studio first announcing the feature in April of last year. A previous incarnation circling late last year had Jennifer Lawrence eyed for the lead before the Oscar winner fell out for unspecified reasons.

Romantic comedies have long been the realm of the midbudget, but Meyers has commanded prices on the higher end for the genre. Her productions have earned a lofty place in the rom-com annals, with Architectural Digest-worthy production design and call sheets featuring massive stars a la Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep.

[From THR]

Yeah, the only reason why a romantic comedy would need a $130 million budget is if that figure included everybody’s $20 million paycheck, because what the hell? Maybe she’s intending to shoot in far-flung locations – Paris, Tahiti, Cairo, Bangkok? I would love to see Nancy Meyers design a Moroccan-style kitchen on a Marrakech set. No, but seriously – Netflix is overpaying for films which should be mid-budget. Like, I loved Glass Onion, but Netflix had no business spending $450 million just for the RIGHTS to two Knives Out sequels.

Also: from the sound of it, I would assume that ScarJo and Owen Wilson would be the leads and Cruz and Fassbender are the “volatile stars” of the film-within-the-film.

Photos courtesy of AvalonRed.

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Alicia Vikander confirms that she & Michael Fassbender welcomed a Fassbaby

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In early August, paparazzi got some photos of Alicia Vikander and Michael Fassbender on the set of Alicia’s latest movie. Michael was seen holding a baby and there were some questions about whether it was a stunt baby, a prop baby, his own baby or perhaps just a baby of some friend or relation. Photographers ended up getting pics of both Michael and Alicia holding said baby, so it seemed pretty clear that it was their baby after all. Now Alicia has confirmed: she gave birth to a child and she’s very happy about it.

Alicia Vikander is opening up about becoming a mom. The fiercely private star, 32, quietly welcomed her first child with husband Michael Fassbender, 44, earlier this year and says she’s embracing her happy new life changes daily.

“I now have a whole new understanding of life in general,” the Swedish star tells PEOPLE in the latest issue. “That’s pretty beautiful, and obviously will give a lot to any of my work in the future.”

The actress is currently promoting her new emotional film, Blue Bayou, in which she plays an expectant mother opposite writer/director Justin Chon (Gook, Twilight).

Asked to sum up exactly how much life has changed having a baby, Vikander says she’s keeping the finer details to herself, but doing her best to live in the moment with each new milestone.

“No, I think I’ll wait with that one,” she says. “I’m enjoying finding it out in the moment right now, more than anything.”

[From People]

I’ll admit that I was surprised when we saw the photos last month. I was surprised that they “hid” a whole-ass pregnancy, although commenters told me that there were photos of Alicia last year (I guess) looking pretty pregnant. Alicia and Michael married in October 2017 after meeting on the set of The Light Between Oceans in 2014. I still haven’t seen that film! I LOATHED the book. We read the book for our now-defunct Celebitchy Book Club and that book was so bad, we ended the book club shortly after that. Anyway, where was I? Oh, yes, the Fassbaby. From the paparazzi photos, the baby doesn’t have much hair, so you can’t really tell if the Fassbaby is a ginger like his or her dad. I hope the ginger genes are strong!

Alicia Vikander and Michael Fassbender at 'The Light Between Oceans' film premiere, London, UK

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.

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It appears as if Michael Fassbender & Alicia Vikander quietly welcomed a baby

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Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander got married three years ago, in a lowkey ceremony in Portugal. They moved to Portugal in, like, 2015 or 2016? It was a while ago, and it was around the same time that Fassbender really started walking away from movies in a big way. He still works now and then, but mostly he just hangs out in Portugal with Alicia and races cars. Alicia has worked inconsistently in recent years too, and the last time we saw them on a red carpet was March 2020. There were some paparazzi photos of them last fall and I do remember some minor gossip about whether Alicia “looked pregnant” in those pics. Well, she probably was preg. And now Fassbender has been seen with a baby on the set of Alicia’s new series.

Michael Fassbender was pictured cradling a baby on Monday as he supported Alicia Vikander on the set of Irma Vep in Paris. The actor, 44, looked in good spirits as he held onto the tot while watching his wife work on her upcoming HBO series. While Michael walked around the set with the baby, Alicia, 32, was seen making her way to her trailer in a fluffy white robe and sliders.

It is the first time Michael has been seen out with a baby and no further details are known. Michael and Alicia have lived in Lisbon, Portugal, since marrying three years ago and have not previously spoken about whether they would have children together. The couple were last pictured together in October 2020 when they were seen enjoying a stroll in Alicia’s native Sweden.

[From The Daily Mail]

Yeah, I think they had a baby and they didn’t announce anything because they’re both wary of getting press for anything these days. Fassbender was supposed to be the big guy of his generation, the next DeNiro, the next Jack Nicholson. But a combination of bad choices and lack of desire for stardom (I think) made him leave that all behind for a quieter life with his wife and baby. God bless and congrats to them.

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Alicia Vikander and Michael Fassbender reportedly welcomed their first child together **FILE PHOTOS**

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.

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“Jennifer Lawrence will want a lot of money to play Mystique again” links

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Jennifer Lawrence, James McAvoy & Michael Fassbender made a pact about doing more X-Men movies. As in, all have to sign on or none of them will do it.

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Alicia Vikander cast as the new, rebooted Lara Croft: great choice or meh?

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The last time we heard anything about the reboot of the Lara Croft franchise, it was last month, when we learned that Daisy Ridley was in talks to play Lara. The reboot, we heard, would focus on Lara’s earlier years, her college-student years, before she became the buxom Tomb Raider played by Angelina Jolie. Daisy is 24 years old, and while petite, would have been able to handle the physicality of the role. But producers decided to go with someone else: 27-year-old Alicia Vikander, a Swede. Vikander is fresh off the awards season, and this is the first role she’s landed since winning the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for The Danish Girl. Vikander also landed a supporting role in Jason Bourne, which filmed late last year and early this year, but I don’t think her part was very physical? I’m just saying… Vikander is a veteran of costume dramas, not physical action work. But I guess she impressed producers.

Also… The Light Between Oceans got pushed back for a fall release? I wonder if a lot of people want TLBO to just disappear. Given the absolutely awful source book, the movie was never going to be good.

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Alicia Vikander did 5 films in a row without speaking to another woman on-camera

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Here are some shots from Alicia Vikander’s DuJour Magazine cover profile. She’s gotten to the point where she’s blanketing the media, which is interesting because one month ago, she had barely any new interviews out. I get that the interviews were on hold until The Danish Girl’s release, but next time her publicist might want to try to spread them out a little more so that five major interviews aren’t released in a three-day span. Anyway, this DuJour cover story is a breezy read, except it’s haunted by the physical specter of Harvey Weinstein, who bookends the brief interview. At the beginning, Harvey is trying to get his son to say hello to Alicia (the child refuses). At the end, the journalist and Vikander are told that their bill has been paid by Harvey. Dun dun dun!! You can read the full Du Jour piece here.

What else? She talks about ballet again, because that’s her go-to subject these days. She loves to cook chili (???), she “hoards” home-design magazines (ditto), she loves playing board games and she carries a deck of cards in her purse. And just in case you didn’t get the message from her Vogue interview, Michael Fassbender is once again given the title of “her beau,” without Alicia having to say one word about him on the record. A much better read is Alicia’s Guardian interview, where (praise be!) there are no references to “her beau” or “boyfriend” or “lover.” She actually goes on the record about feminism and more. Some highlights:

She’s still so “stunned” about the awards season: “Up until 18 months ago, I thought the term ‘awards season’ was a kind of joke. I had never really reflected that a certain kind of serious film came out later in the year. I just thought fall seemed like a good time to go to the movies. It’s colder, after all.”

Working with women/the Bechdel test: “Of course I’ve had a run of great opportunities and characters to play, but I was shooting this scene with Holliday Grainger that just felt like something new. It just came so easily, and we were having so much fun. And only when we were chatting afterwards did I suddenly realise why: I’d just made five films in a row, and this was the first one where I had a scene with another woman… I just felt so embarrassed that I hadn’t realised that earlier. Women talking together – apparently it is a reality! Who knew? And while we talk about the lack of female leads in films today, male domination is just as strong in supporting roles.”

Her feminism is “essential”: “Where I grew up, it’s a word of equality for men and women, not something to question.”

She tires of the “strong woman” label: “I don’t think so much about whether I’m playing a strong person or not – it’s not that the character needs to be loud or straightforward. It can be a fragile, flawed person, but if they have enough dimension, and depth that you understand them even at their weakest, that’s a strong character to me. Then you have something to play, and play with. It’s about not being ‘the girl’.”

[From The Guardian]

As I said in the Vogue post, I can’t exactly put my finger on what I find “off” about Vikander. Part of it might be that from what I’ve seen of her performances, she doesn’t really live up to her hype. Part of it might be what the Guardian journalist refers to as Alicia being a “savvy operator.” She does come across as very tightly wound, very controlled, very savvy. Not bad qualities necessarily, but it does come across as… affected?

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Photos courtesy of DuJour.

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Was Michael Fassbender’s casting in ‘Steve Jobs’ the reason why it flopped?

BFI London Film Festival - 'Steve Jobs' - Premiere and Closing Gala Featuring: Kate Winslet, Michael Fassbender Where: London, United Kingdom When: 18 Oct 2015 Credit: Lia Toby/WENN.com

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Nearly all of the critics liked Steve Jobs. The critics believe that Michael Fassbender is now one of the leading contenders for an Oscar nomination for playing Jobs, and other possible nominations could go to Kate Winslet and Seth Rogen. I believe that if there’s money going into an Oscar campaign, it will probably be for Fassbender, and possibly Aaron Sorkin for the screenplay.

Unfortunately, when Steve Jobs had its wider release this past weekend, it sort of bombed at the box office. While the film only cost $30 million to make (not including promotional/ad costs), people are still worried. The opening weekend box office? $7.3 million. They were hoping for just shy of $20 million, although I’m not sure why. This film was always going to be a slow-burner meant for people who enjoy awards-baity performances. It was never going to be a huge financial success. Variety noted: “Steve Jobs was too brainy, too cold, and too expensive to make it a success. Moreover, Michael Fassbender, the electrifying Irish actor who replaced Bale as Jobs, lacks the drawing power to open the picture.” Ouch. Variety wrote that in a piece analyzing whether the crappy box office will affect Fassbender’s shot at an Oscar nomination – you can read the full Variety piece here. Basically, they’re hoping that if the film gets nominated for some awards, it will do better at the box office, and if it does better at the box office, it will get nominated for more awards. It’s like a snake eating its tail! Variety also writes:

Few would fault Fassbender’s performance, but his casting may have been disastrous from a commercial standpoint. An Oscar nominee with a series of compelling turns in the likes of “Shame” and “12 Years a Slave,” Fassbender has yet to establish himself as a bankable actor. In fact, a study by Piedmont Media Research found that audiences’ interest in seeing “Steve Jobs” dipped after they found out Fassbender was headlining the drama. Having a DiCaprio or a Robert Downey Jr. in the title role may have broadened “Steve Jobs’” appeal.

[From Variety]

For what it’s worth, I was one of the few who went to see Steve Jobs last weekend and I enjoyed it. Steve Jobs the man was a terrible a—hole to almost everyone around him, but the film itself was good and I thought Fassy was and is deserving of some awards consideration. I thought Winslet did a decent enough job but I actually hope that she doesn’t get nominated for anything. Her accent work was all over the place and she shouldn’t be rewarded for being “brave” enough to wear brown wigs. The script is classic Sorkin, almost by-the-books Sorkin, full of Sorkin-esque dialogue and Sorkin-esque tropes (oh, his relationship with his daughter ends up being significant? Shocking). I did think it was “smart” and I enjoyed the fact that it didn’t feel like they were talking down to the audience.