‘The Whale’ Director Darren Aronofsky Defends Brendan Fraser Casting, Says Role Would Be ‘Impossible’ for Obese Actor

Best FeatureAftersunCharlotte Wells, director; Adele Romanski, Amy Jackson, Barry Jenkins, Mark Ceryak, producers (A24)The CathedralRicky D’Ambrose, director; Graham Swon, producer (MUBI)Dos EstacionesJuan Pablo González, director; Ilana Coleman, Jamie Gonçalves, Bruna Haddad, Makena Buchanan, producers (Cinema Guild)Everything Everywhere All At OnceDaniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert, directors; Joe Russo, Anthony Russo, Mike Larocca, Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert, Jonathan Wang, producers (A24)TárTodd Field, director; Alexandra Milchan, Scott Lambert, Todd Field, producers (Focus Features)Best Documentary FeatureAll That BreathesShaunak Sen, director; Aman Mann, Shaunak Sen, Teddy Leifer producers (A Sideshow & Submarine Deluxe Release in Association with HBO Documentary Films)All the Beauty and the BloodshedLaura Poitras, director; Howard Gertler, John Lyons, Nan Goldin, Yoni Golijov, Laura Poitras, producers (NEON)I Didn’t See You ThereReid Davenport, director; Keith Wilson, producer (RePort Media)The TerritoryAlex Pritz, director; Alex Pritz, Darren Aronofsky, Sigrid Dyekjær, Will N. Miller, Gabriel Uchida, Lizzie Gillett, producers (National Geographic Documentary Films)What We Leave BehindIliana Sosa, director; Emma D.

The 2022 Gotham Award nominations are out this morning — the October noms and late November event are industry bellwethers, coming at the start of awards season following fall festival buzz. More to come, but here’s the list below.

After facing backlash for wearing a fat suit, celebrities such as Chris Sullivan and Sarah Paulson opened up about taking on their respective roles.

Eddie Redmayne and Jessica Chastain hit the latest premiere for their movie, The Good Nurse, held at Paris Theater on Tuesday night (October 18) in New York City.

Clayton Davis Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan are splitting up, at least in terms of their Oscar campaign. “She Said,” which premiered at the New York Film Festival, and then one day later at the Middleburg Film Festival in Virginia, will be campaigned by Universal Pictures in the highly competitive best actress category for Kazan while Mulligan will seek attention in the wide-open supporting actress race.  Directed by Maria Schrader, “She Said” tells the story of New York Times reporters Megan Twohey (Mulligan) and Jodi Kantor (Kazan), who helped launched the #MeToo movement by exposing the silence surrounding sexual assault in Hollywood, and particularly Harvey Weinstein. 

experiencing a career renaissance thanks to Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale, which is allowing both fans (and the actor himself) to go back and consider those films he made back when he was a star the first time around. There’s been a lot of talk about Fraser’s time with The Mummy franchise, but the actor took a recent opportunity in the San Francisco bay area to apologize for something that went wrong while filming George of the Jungle, and in doing so made a brand new error. Fraser recently attended the Mill Valley Film Festival (via SFGate) where The Whale was set to be screened.

Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz maintain one of Hollywood's most private marriages and are very rarely photographed together.So, fans were delighted to see a candid snapshot of the couple on Sunday as they attended an afterparty for Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery – Daniel's latest project. WATCH: Love Life Lowdown: Rachel WeiszDaniel, 54, and Rachel, 52, were seen sat side-by-side on a sofa alongside Barbara Broccoli, an American film and stage producer, best known internationally for her work on the James Bond film series.Daniel has his arm resting behind Rachel, who looks stunning in a form-fitting, long-sleeved black dress, with the trio are all smiling slightly for the camera. The couple have been married since June 2011, having started dating in December 2010. Just four guests were in attendance at their nuptials, including Daniel’s daughter Ella, 30, from his relationship with Fiona Loudon, and Rachel's son Henry, now 16, from her previous romance with director Darren Aronofsky.Daniel and Rachel went on to welcome their own child together, a little girl, in September 2018.

Last month, Darren Aronofsky‘s first film in five years, “The Whale,” had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, with critics praising Brendan Fraser‘s performance as a 600-pound gay man. But EW reports (via an interview with Variety), that Aronofsky initially attempted to cast an obese actor in the part before going with Fraser.

Elizabeth Hurley and Brendan Fraser reunite at a special screening of The Whale at The Ham Yard Hotel on Monday (October 10) in London, England.

Brendan Fraser first took on the role of Rick O'Connell in back in 1999, and while he went on to star in two other films in the action-adventure franchise, he hasn't reprised the beloved character since 2008’s . Now, nearly 15 years later, the 53-year-old actor is opening up about whether he'd ever revisit the role again.«I don’t know how it would work,” Fraser tells in an interview published Wednesday. “But I’d be open to it if someone came up with the right conceit.”When the franchise was rebooted in 2017, it was Tom Cruise who took on the challenge of playing the lead in the film.

Brendan Fraser first took on the role of Rick O'Connell in The Mummy back in 1999, and while he went to star in two other films in the action-adventure franchise, he hasn't reprised the beloved character since 2008’s “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor." Now, nearly 15 years later, the 53-year-old actor is opening up about whether or not he'd revisit the role again.«I don’t know how it would work,” Fraser told in an interview published Wednesday. “But I’d be open to it if someone came up with the right conceit.”When the franchise was rebooted in 2017, it was Tom Cruise who took on the challenge of playing the lead in the new film.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Hong Chau has joined the cast of the anticipated new film from “The Favourite” and “The Lobster” director Yorgos Lanthimos. Chau, who has been prolific in recent years, joins a stacked ensemble featuring Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe and Margaret Qualley. Plot details are (frustratingly) under wraps from the Greek master of subversion, who has also given us “The Killing of a Sacred Deer” and “Dogtooth.” Lanthimos directs from a script he wrote with Efthimis Filippou (reuniting after both “Lobster” and “Sacred Deer”). Searchlight Pictures is financing and distributing the project with Element Pictures and Film4. Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe of Element, Kasia Malipan and Lanthimos are producing. Principal photography begins this month in Chau’s native New Orleans.

Folks might have forgotten now since it’s been nearly 20 years since the original reports, but way back when, Darren Aronofsky was attached to a reboot of the “Batman” franchise that would have been incredibly unique. This was before Matt Reeves and Christopher Nolan took their shots at the character and would have featured a much more adult version of the Caped Crusader.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Oscar-nominated director Darren Aronofsky and his longtime creative partner, Ari Handel, are on a mission. At their production company, Protozoa Pictures, the two want to use movies and television to make science cool at a time when it’s under attack. “There’s a lens that we look at things through,” says Handel. “A lot of our work is pro-science or involves technology or the environment. Morally, we think the world can use that right now.” Some of that has to do with the backgrounds of the pair — Aronofsky did field research as a student at Harvard, and Handel has a Ph.D. in neuroscience. But that embrace of empiricism was also something the two felt had become important during the Trump era, when the government was often at odds with experts.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Both Brendan Fraser and Darren Aronofsky have had some high-profile setbacks when it comes to the comic book genre. The two men, who are collaborating on the acclaimed indie drama “The Whale,” opened up about their struggles during recent interviews with Variety. Fraser spent months in Glasgow, Scotland portraying Firefly, a pyromaniac who faces off against Leslie Grace’s costumed heroine in “Batgirl.” That film was supposed to debut on HBO Max, but it was scrapped, a victim of the merger between Discovery and WarnerMedia, the streaming service’s parent company. “It’s tragic,” Fraser told Variety as part of a cover story on “The Whale.” “It doesn’t engender trust among filmmakers and the studio. Leslie Grace was fantastic. She’s a dynamo, just a spot-on performer. Everything that we shot was real and exciting and just the antithesis of doing a straightforward digital all green screen thing. They ran firetrucks around downtown Glasgow at 3 in the morning and they had flamethrowers. It was a big-budget movie, but one that was just stripped down to the essentials.”   

Clayton Davis The depth of Hugh Jackman, the Australian leading man whose multi-talented arsenal has graced the screen and stages over the last three decades, is one of the entertainment industry’s most versatile actors. His movies have a collective gross of more than $5 billion worldwide, placing him in the top 25 earners of all time.   To celebrate Jackman’s birthday, Variety ranks his 12 best film performances of his career so far.   His big break came when he landed the superhero Wolverine in 20th Century Fox’s inaugural “X-Men” (2000), which was followed by several sequels and spin-offs, most notably “Logan” (2017).   An actor’s actor, he’s worked alongside some of the industry’s finest actors such as Nicole Kidman (“Australia”) and Meg Ryan (“Kate and Leopold”) and visionary directors like Christopher Nolan (“The Prestige”) and Denis Villeneuve (“Prisoners”).   After hosting the 81st Academy Awards in 2009, his personal invitation to the Oscars when he took on the famous role of Frenchman and former prisoner Jean Valjean in Tom Hooper’s “Les Misérables” (2012), which earned him a best actor nomination, in addition to a Golden Globe prize for lead actor (comedy/musical).

his role in “The Whale.”After the screening of the film at the London Film Festival on Tuesday, the audience gave a five-minute standing ovation, according to the Daily Mail.The 53-year-old actor broke down in tears as he bowed to the audience’s cheers and applause. This isn’t the first time Fraser was moved to tears by a standing ovation. At the Venice Film Festival in early September, he got emotional during a six-minute standing ovation for his performance in the film. Audience members got déjà vu from the standing ovation.“Am I at Venice? 5 min standing ovation for Brendan Fraser’s masterpiece performance in #TheWhale.