Angelina Jolie becomes “one of the greatest artists who ever lived” in teaser to Netflix’s ‘Maria’
Netflix/Pablo Larraín
In a teaser that only features two lines of dialogue, but more glowing critical quotes and film festival bona fides to already land the film in next year’s Oscar race, Netflix has revealedAngelina Jolie as opera great Maria Callas.
In Maria, which was directed by Pablo Larraín, who helmed the movies Jackie and Spencer, Jolie portrays no less than “one of the greatest artists who ever lived,” according to the teaser.
She’s first shown striding onto a stage in an empty performance venue, with a pianist asking her, “Maria: What do you want to sing?”
What follows is montage of the film, Callas in various costumes standing before sold-out crowds; being crushed by adoring fans; and sobbing by herself.
Back to that empty space, Maria waves her hand to the musician and tells him “Not today” before striding away.
According to Netflix, “The film follows the American-Greek soprano as she retreats to Paris after a glamorous and tumultuous life in the public eye,” adding the film “reimagines the legendary soprano in her final days as the diva reckons with her identity and life.”
The premiere of the film was met with an eight-minute standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival in August that left Jolie in tears.
Maria debuts in select theaters in November and on Netflix Dec. 11.
If you just can’t wait until Christmas Day to see the Bob Dylan movie A Complete Unknown, there’s now a chance to catch it earlier … and bigger.
The film, starring Timothée Chalamet as the iconic singer, is set to play in IMAX theaters starting Dec. 18, a week earlier than its Dec. 25 official release day.
A Complete Unknown: IMAX Early Access will screen in select AMC, Regal, Cineplex and Cinemark theaters in 19 major cities, including Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Boston, Detroit, Nashville, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C.
All screenings will be followed by a prerecorded Q&A with the cast, and attendees will get a commemorative mini poster and lanyard with their ticket.
A Complete Unknown, directed by James Mangold, follows a 19-year-old Dylan as he arrives in New York from Minnesota and tracks his rise as a folk singer during the ’60s to the top of the charts, ending with his electric rock ‘n’ roll performance at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965.
The film also stars Edward Norton as Pete Seeger, Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez, Elle Fanning as a character named Sylvie Russo, Boyd Holbrook as Johnny Cash and Nick Offerman as Alan Lomax.
Back in June, Sir Ian McKellen seemed to downplay a fall off a London stage during a performance of the Shakespeare adaptation Player Kings. A statement at the time said he was in good spirits and would make a speedy recovery. But now, several months later, McKellen reveals the whole thing was pretty scary.
“Apparently, I’m told by the company manager who’s holding my head as I lay on the floor, I said to her, ‘I’ve broken my neck. I’m dying,'” McKellen told ABC Audio in an interview from his home in London. “Now, I don’t remember saying that, but I must have felt it.”
He says he’s fine now, after fracturing his wrist and hurting his back, crediting the fat suit he was wearing in order to play rotund Knight John Falstaff with protecting his ribs and hips in the fall. And while physically he’s almost completely back to normal, the mental effects linger.
“I’m left with some disappointment,” McKellen confesses. “I’m ashamed that I didn’t complete — you know, my pride was bruised. How could this happen to me?” he asks with a chuckle. “And I suspect that although physically I’m healing, I wonder whether deep down there’s something mental or emotional that was jolted that needs to be attended to. And I’m attending to it by not working at the moment and resting.”
McKellen appears to be in a reflective mood as he discusses the fall, and his new film The Critic, in which he plays a prominent 1930s London theater critic named Jimmy Erskine, a once feared and respected tastemaker trying to recapture his glory days. Reviews, McKellen reveals, are a necessary evil for actors.
“We are seeking for approval. And we’re probably rather pathetic people who need that approval. We’re not confident enough of ourselves. So if you get a good review — oh, it’s an added pleasure. And if you get a bad review, it can be very hurtful,” McKellen admits.
And although he hasn’t been on the receiving end of a lot of bad reviews, the ones he has had are seared in his brain. Take for instance his turn in a Bernard Shaw revival in London’s West End when he was much younger. He starred in the play alongside a pre-Dame Judi Dench and recalls how he overheard a few fellow actors discussing his performance one night at a restaurant.
“One of them was going on and on and on about how dreadful I’d been. And I was typical of these modern young actors, using my voice in the wrong way and drawing attention to myself. And he just simply hadn’t enjoyed it.” McKellen says he laughed off the criticism, but the next night onstage it crept into his consciousness. “And as I looked into the audience talking away, I suddenly thought, ‘My God, every single person in this audience agrees with that actor that I heard last night. They all think I’m rubbish. I shouldn’t be here.’” He says he froze, forgot his lines and Dench had to rescue him.
Still, he swears if there’s a bad review out there, he’s going to read it. “I like to know. If people haven’t enjoyed the film of Cats I’d like to know about it.” 2019’s film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Broadway musical Cats was savaged by critics, probably the worst-reviewed film McKellen has ever been in. McKellen didn’t get the blame, though. His portrayal of Gus the Theater Cat was mostly praised. And he may be returning to a role that garnered him some of the most praise of his film career: the mighty wizard Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings movies.
“There are going to be a couple of more films, I think, with some of the same characters in it. And I’ve been asked to stand by,” McKellen says. “But there’s no script that I read, and no date. All I can say, as far as I’m concerned, they better be quick.”
Quick, because at 85 years old, McKellen isn’t sure how much time he has left. “I’m rather living a year at a time, rather than two or three years at a time,” he says.
Gandalf is a part of his legacy, so if he can, he’s going to go to New Zealand and put on the robes. Legacy is a theme in The Critic, as well. In his downtime, legacy and what’s next are things McKellen has been thinking about a lot. He remembers going to visit a friend in the hospital, a friend who was dying, and asking him what he was thinking about as his life neared the end.
“And he said, ‘I don’t want to miss anything.’ And that’s rather my view,” McKellen says wistfully. He wants to know what’s going to happen. “How is AI going to really take over? I mean, what is life going to be like? When is the world going to settle down? Is the world going to survive? I won’t know. I won’t know. And I suppose I won’t care because I won’t exist.”
ABC News’ parent company Disney is mum so far, but Deadline says Raya and the Last Dragon director Adele Lim will be calling the shots on The Princess Diaries 3.
Lim also directed the hit R-rated road trip comedy Joy Ride, which featured four Asian leads, and wrote the blockbuster Crazy Rich Asians, which was hailed for its cultural representation.
She tells the trade, “As a diehard fan of the original Princess Diaries, I’m beyond excited to be a part of bringing the third iteration of this beloved franchise to life. We look forward to celebrating its core tenants of female power, joy and mentorship with audiences worldwide.”
The late Garry Marshall directed Anne Hathaway in both 2001’s The Princess Diaries and its hit 2004 sequel, The Princess Diaries: Royal Engagement. Hathaway played a teen who finds out she’s the heir to the throne of the fictional country Genovia.
