Spiegel Stuff: The Word Is Out About Louis C.K.

Vanity Fair

ESSENTIAL INDUSTRY and AWARD NEWS FROM HOLLYWOOD, compiled by REBECCA KEEGAN

Thursday, November 9, 2017

It's Thursday, and Christopher Plummer is no longer available to sing at my holiday party!

Hello from Los Angeles, where we're canceling our Louis C.K. R.S.V.P.s, looking forward to a Justice League movie that won't require a bathroom break, and stealing style tips from the new Dr. Who.

LOUIS'S MOMENT

The New York Times has published a report detailing accusations from five different women against comedian Louis C.K. In the story by Melena Ryzik, Cara Buckley, and Jodi Kantor, the women claim that C.K. masturbated in front of them, or asked if he could. "Because of this moment, as gross as it is, we feel compelled to speak," comedian Julia Wolov told the Times, detailing an experience she and her comedy partner, Dana Min Goodman, had with C.K. at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colorado, in 2002. Hours before the story broke Thursday, as V.F.'s Nicole Sperling writes, the New York premiere of C.K.'s new film, I Love You, Daddy, was canceled. He also canceled an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and a planned interview with L.A. Times writer Glenn Whipp.

When I Love You, Daddy premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, some critics pointed out its cringe-worthy subject matter, in which Chloë Grace Moretz plays C.K.'s character's daughter, who is seduced by a much older, creepy director played by John Malkovich, in what appears to be a Woody Allen homage. In the ensuing weeks, as scandals surrounding Harvey Weinstein and others broke, the timing for the film's release seemingly couldn't have been worse. But it was C.K.'s own backstory, ultimately, that has stymied the distributor the Orchard's promotional plans. Calls to C.K.'s manager Thursday were not immediately returned. C.K. declined to comment to The New York Times.

RIDDLE ME THIS

Ridley Scott has come up with an elegant solution to the scandal that threatened to torpedo his new movie: recasting. Just a day ago, it seemed as if the sexual misconduct allegations against Kevin Spacey, who plays a supporting role as billionaire J. Paul Getty in Scott's crime drama All the Money in World, would require Sony to dump Scott's finished film unceremoniously. The studio had already backed out of a closing night slot at AFI Fest and ditched the awards campaign for Spacey's performance, which included a dramatic age makeup transformation. But on Wednesday, Deadline's Mike Fleming Jr. reported that Scott has decided to replace Spacey with Christopher Plummer, an unprecedented move that will require reshooting and re-editing Spacey's scenes. Even bolder, Scott, who turns 80 this month and whose other 2017 movie, Alien: Covenant, opened in May, still intends to make his planned December 22 release date. How on earth will he do it? Well, as the director told V.F.'s Katey Rich back in October, before the Spacey story broke, "I'm super fast."

According to The Hollywood Reporter's Mia Galuppo, Pamela McClintock, and Carolyn Giardina, Scott made the decision unilaterally and only notified Sony late Wednesday afternoon. Plummer, they write, was actually Scott's first choice for the role, but he was vetoed when studio execs wanted a bigger name. The 87-year-old Canadian actor certainly bears a closer resemblance to the oil tycoon during the time period when the movie is set; J. Paul Getty was 70 when his grandson was kidnapped. Scott had shot Spacey's scenes over three and a half weeks in July, in between seasons of House of Cards. Plummer doesn't need the age makeup, so presumably the production will move even faster this time. Leads Michelle Williams and Mark Wahlberg are on board for the small amount of screen time they will share with Plummer. And Scott will get to stick to the breakneck schedule he enjoys. "I've been twiddling my thumbs now for nearly a month," he told Rich in October. "I'm already noodling with what I'm going to do next." Problem solved!

DOCTOR OOH-LA-LA

V.F.'s Laura Bradley writes:

Whovians, great news: the BBC just unveiled its first photo of the newly minted 13th Doctor, Jodie Whittaker, in full costume. Feast your eyes on those suspenders! The enviable trench coat! The playful socks sheathed within practical brown boots! Whittaker is, of course, the franchise's first female Doctor, and so far she's off to a great (and stylish) start. Whittaker's inter-dimensional ringleader will also have not one, but three companions, played by Bradley Walsh, Mandip Gill, and Tosin Cole when the new season premieres next fall—and for dedicated fans, not a moment too soon.

JUSTICE FOR SHORT ATTENTION SPANS

V.F.'s Hillary Busis writes:

This morning, The Guardian's Stuart Heritage applauded the upcoming Justice League for its unusually concise run time: unlike its immediate predecessor, the crushingly protracted Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice (151 minutes!), the upcoming film will clock in at a relatively zippy two hours. The decree for a shorter length apparently came from on high; according to an earlier report from Ben Fritz at The Wall Street Journal, Warner Bros. CEO Kevin Tsujihara mandated that the new movie come in shorter. This seems like a good sign for the troubled production, which has weathered a lot during its long road to the screen—because whatever critics say about the movie, at least they won't be able to fault Justice League for being too long. Right?

THOSE BASMATI BLUES

V.F.'s Yohana Desta writes:

A new trailer for an old Brie Larson movie has surfaced, likely to the chagrin of the Oscar-winning star. The film is Basmati Blues, a movie the actress signed up for in 2013—right on the cusp of her indie breakout Short Term 12. It stars Larson as a corporate scientist who moves to India to sell a new form of genetically modified rice to the locals, and has all the trappings of a textbook white savior/fish out of water story—Larson's character can't handle spicy food, warily learns new customs, and does a big Bollywood dance number at the end, all while helping the local people fight the power. As BuzzFeed points out, there have already been quite a few irritated tweets about the film and the way its trailer rehashes tired tropes and stereotypes. Basmati Blues, directed by Dan Baron and co-starring Donald Sutherland and Utkarsh Ambudkar, doesn't yet have a release date, but the trailer has quickly been making the rounds on social media—so prepare for a deluge of tweets over the next few days.

BITE AND SMILE

V.F.'s Katey Rich writes:

Almost 25 years ago, a young ad agency art director named Craig Gillespie found himself at a Canadian ice rink, watching Nancy Kerrigan bodycheck a hockey player, as part of a Campbell's Soup ad he had come up with. Now Gillespie is a film director—and a chief defender of Kerrigan's onetime rival Tonya Harding, thanks to his Margot Robbie-starring biopic I, Tonya. It's a bizarre case of things coming full circle, and though Gillespie actively avoided focusing his film too closely on the Tonya-Nancy tabloid story, he didn't want to leave Harding's nemesis out of the story, either. "Having met her, I was just acutely aware we were dealing with Nancy, too, as a human being," he told me. Watch the commercial and read more of my interview with Gillespie here.

That's the news for this sunny Thursday in L.A. What are you seeing out there? Send tips, comments, and rejected Motown supergroup names to ‪Rebecca_Keegan@condenast.com. Follow me on Twitter @thatrebecca.