EXCLUSIVE: Queer advocacy group Out in Hollywood released its second annual list of the best unproduced queer-focused television pilot scripts of the past year.
10.06.2022 - 01:55 / variety.com
Sasha Urban editorHBO Max’s “The Staircase,” which concluded Thursday, has its share of revelations for longtime followers of the true crime case. But even for viewers who watched every bit of the 2004 docuseries, one special line from the dramatized version undeniably stands out.
It’s Parker Posey, playing Durham, N.C. prosecutor Freda Black, quoting a line from accused killer, Michael Peterson: “I was in the Marines, like to fuck, suck and rim.”Although Posey grew up in Louisiana and Mississippi, her flawless execution of Black’s Southern drawl (most notable in the delivery of the line “pure-T filth”), was close to effortless — but not quite.
There was a phrase she repeated to herself each day on set before the cameras started rolling. “What would bring me into her voice was: ‘gay military men,’” Posey told Variety, perfectly re-creating her character’s delivery from the show.Posey is perhaps best known for her rolodex of performances in Christopher Guest’s mockumentaries — including “Waiting for Guffman,” which is currently celebrating its 25th anniversary — but none of those, nor any of her other performances, were cut from the same Southern cloth as Posey herself.
She said the experience of playing Black was both a homecoming for her, as well as a distinct honor, as the late prosecutor is one of the only real-life people she’s portrayed in her work. Black died in July 2018 of liver disease as a result of chronic alcoholism.“I am happy that it’s getting a good response, because playing a real person and hearing about her life, you just automatically have empathy,” Posey said.
“That she had died, you know, it was dark. I felt a lot for her, burning bright and then just kind of crashing.”The real Black stood out to
.EXCLUSIVE: Queer advocacy group Out in Hollywood released its second annual list of the best unproduced queer-focused television pilot scripts of the past year.
“Where the Crawdads Sing” has been adapted into a film. Reese’s Book Club designated the novel as a selection back when it was first published in 2018, rocketing it up the NY Times Bestseller list.The movie will bring to life the story of a young girl, abandoned by her family, who learns to live on her own in her family’s old shack in the marsh in 1960s North Carolina.
EXCLUSIVE: Netflix’s have added Andy McQueen (Mrs. Davis, Station Eleven), Fiona Palomo (Control Z, La Negociadora), and Lou Ferrigno Jr. (SWAT, Stargirl) to its Season 3 cast.
The family of an NYC firefighter is in mourning after a freak accident took the patriarch’s life during a family vacation.
A champion-worthy love! NASCAR driver Austin Dillon found love with Whitney Dillon (née Ward) — which has only continued to grow over the years.
Creative Artists Agency (CAA) has promoted Chris Burrus, Inder Gill, Sophie Kavanagh, Zakaria Laaboudi, Arlen Papazian, and Kara Petit from CAA Elevate, the agency’s program for agents and executives in training, to the Agent ranks, the agency announced on Wednesday.The moves include the Music Touring, Media Finance, Commercial Endorsements, Sports, Podcast and Global Television departments.Burrus was promoted to Agent in the Music Touring department and represents many of the world’s leading musicians, including Nate Smith, Tyler Booth, Erin Kinsey, and After Midtown, and is on the teams that support Jake Owen, Matt Koziol, and Brandon Ratcliff. He is based in Nashville, TN, and joined CAA upon graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he earned degrees in Music for Vocal Performance with Distinction, Entrepreneurship, and Creative Writing.
For anyone who has seen the documentary Amazing Grace, it’s hard to imagine a film to rival the one about the making of Aretha Franklin’s gospel album. But the new film Stay Prayed Up contains equally ecstatic moments of a gospel singer in performance, in this case a not widely known but deeply gifted woman referred to as Mother Perry.
After decades of serving as the CEO of the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), Vince McMahon is stepping down.
Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaNewportFILM Outdoors has unveiled its upcoming season of award-winning documentaries. The organization showcases non-fiction features and screens them in dramatic, often opulent settings around Newport, Rhode Island, a legendary summer getaway.
Addie Morfoot ContributorMichael Peterson has spent the last 20 years explaining the death of his wife Kathleen. First, he stood trial for allegedly murdering her, and was convicted in 2003 and sentenced to life.
Addie Morfoot ContributorDisputes over Antonio Campos’ HBO Max adaptation of “The Staircase” have some in the documentary community questioning whether they would readily allow a narrative director to turn their facts into fiction.“The Staircase” revolves around the death of Kathleen Peterson and the murder trial of her husband Michael, as the filmmakers chronicling the case for a docuseries of the same name become central characters in the storytelling. Kathleen Peterson was found dead at the bottom of the staircase of their North Carolina home in 2001, and Michael was convicted of murder in 2003 before accepting an Alford plea for manslaughter charges in 2017, which freed him for good.
Cynthia Littleton Business EditorWhat’s harder to work with when it comes to writing a limited series — true stories taken from real life, or the stuff of fiction? A panel of top writers debated the challenges of working with headline-driven and historical material during the final hour of Variety‘s Night in the Writers’ Room on June 9 at 1 Hotel in West Hollywood.“There’s a little bit of a tightrope-walk in a true story that you don’t necessarily have to walk in fiction,” said Dustin Lance Black, the writer-producer behind FX’s “Under the Banner of Heaven.” He noted that the series, about the 1984 murder of a woman and her infant daughter in Salt Lake City, deals with three intertwined stories, one of which is fictional. “That one to me, I had a slightly easier time with.
Addie Morfoot ContributorAntonio Campos’ depiction of documentary filmmakers Jean-Xavier de Lestrade and Sophie Brunet in HBO Max’s “The Staircase” has led to a public dispute over their portrayal in the miniseries adaptation. But now, the real-life main subject of both series – Michael Peterson – is speaking out in an exclusive series of emails to Variety.Peterson’s wife Kathleen was found dead at the bottom of the staircase of their North Carolina home in 2001.
First time for everything! Joshua Jackson stopped in the middle of a live TV interview to give a sweet shout-out to his and Jodie Turner-Smith‘s daughter.