Review: Sorkin goes behind the scenes of Lucy and Desi

Ever since Todd Black got into the film business as a producer, he wanted to work with Aaron Sorkin.

Marlo Thomas Guest ColumnistFor Variety‘s Writers on Writers, Marlo Thomas pens a tribute to “Being the Ricardos” (screenplay by Aaron Sorkin). There is a wonderful scene in “Being the Ricardos” — Aaron Sorkin’s wrenching chronicle of the pioneering TV comedy series “I Love Lucy” — in which Lucy drags two of her co-stars to the studio at 2 a.m., during a thunderstorm, to re-block a comic moment in a dinner scene that hadn’t gone well in rehearsal.

The director of “Being the Ricardos” is pushing back on criticism of the film’s casting.

Academy Award-winning actor Javier Bardem experienced a reawakening while becoming intimately acquainted with Desi Arnaz, the I Love Lucy star who Bardem brings to life in Amazon’s Being the Ricardos. And it all happened while the past and present collided during multiple musical numbers including “Babalu” and “Cuban Pete,” and while listening to private audio recordings shared by Lucy and Desi’s daughter, Lucie Arnaz.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film WriterFollowing a limited theatrical release and a well-received bow to awards voters,”Being the Ricardos” finally dances its way to Amazon Prime Video subscribers on Tuesday.While Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem topline the Aaron Sorkin drama, one of the major takeaways in both critical reviews and early audience reaction has been the unexpected potency and drama of Vivian Vance — portrayed by “Goliath” and “Billions” star Nina Arianda.Vance was best friend to Lucy

While the film doesn’t seem to have the awards season legs that Amazon hoped it would, “Being the Ricardos” is still gaining a lot of attention, particularly for the lead roles played by Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem. However, those casting choices also came with a fair amount of controversy, particularly with choosing the Spanish Bardem to play real-life Cuban actor Desi Arnaz.

Here’s a collection curated by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists of what’s arriving on TV, streaming services and music platforms this week.MOVIES— Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem star as Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz in Aaron Sorkin’s “Being the Ricardos,” a smart and quippy showbiz pic that takes audiences behind the curtains of a tricky relationship on an especially fraught week of “I Love Lucy.” Neither of the stars especially look like the icons they’re portraying, and the

Kate Aurthur editorFor Variety’s FYC Fest, screenwriters Aaron Sorkin (“Being the Ricardos”), Paolo Sorrentino (“The Hand of God”), Adam McKay (“Don’t Look Up”), Tracey Scott Wilson (“Respect”) and Kenneth Branagh (“Belfast”) gathered virtually to discuss their own individual movies, as well as the state of the film business.McKay kicked off the conversation by talking about how he’d adjusted “Don’t Look Up” — his Netflix comedy-tragedy about a comet hurtling toward Earth — because of COVID-19,

For Javier Bardem and Nicole Kidman, the pressure of taking on one of the most iconic sitcoms of all time came with a lot of pressure.

Succession’s Jeremy Strong. The story in The New Yorker provided an entertaining if not somewhat troubling look at the actor’s eccentric approach to getting into character.

A recent profile from The New Yorker on Succession star Jeremy Strong, which revealed the unusual lengths he goes to for his craft, has sparked quite a lot of conversation online…

Succession actor Jeremy Strong following a divisive profile in The New Yorker.Speaking about playing Kendall Roy in the HBO series, Strong said: “To me, the stakes are life and death. I take him as seriously as I take my own life.”Those claims were backed up in the article – written by Michael Schulman – by Strong’s co-star Brian Cox, who said: “I just worry about what (Strong) does to himself.

The New Yorker, slamming the piece as a “distorted picture” in a lengthy statement posted online. “After reading Michael Schulman’s profile of Jeremy Strong — a profile in which I participated — I wanted to speak up,” Sorkin wrote.

Aaron Sorkin posted an open letter today disputing what he calls the “distorted picture” of actor Jeremy Strong created by a recent New Yorker profile. Strong is currently receiving raves for his work on HBO’s Succession, to which the profile is pegged.

endorsed the film, written and directed by Aaron Sorkin, in an Instagram post. The film follows one week of production on an episode of “I Love Lucy” and the chaos that surrounds both the show and Lucy and Desi’s lives.

Aaron Sorkin and starring Nicole Kidman as Lucille Ball and Javier Bardem as Desi Arnaz, is set during one week of production as the couple films an episode of. The season 1 episode, “Fred and Ethel Fight,” is just one of three episodes partially recreated onscreen, while the film refers to two other key moments from the series as it jumps back and forth through time to show the couple dealing with major developments in their lives.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans EditorTurning Nicole Kidman into Lucille Ball and Javier Bardem into Desi Arnaz in “Being the Ricardos” wasn’t only about creating a facsimile of the iconic 1950s TV duo.Rather, director Aaron Sorkin instructed hair department head Teressa Hill and makeup department head Ana Lozano, “We are not taking a photograph; we are painting a picture.” The approach is generating awards buzz for the below-the-line duo.The film, opening Dec.

“It was a scary goddamn week,” explains a trio of “I Love Lucy” showrunners in a fictional present-day documentary. Aaron Sorkin’s snappy, slick, crowd-pleasing biopic, “Being the Ricardos,” through unfailing comedic precision yet uneven dramatic tension, recounts those terrifying seven days during October 1953, when news broke of Lucille Ball being a member of the Communist Party.