November of course means Novembeard–where participants grow beards to raise awareness of men’s health issues. Or, just because beards are cool and it’s become an annual tradition. So who better to celebrate than the actor who has made a beard work for him throughout his career? That would be Kurt Russell. As Snake Plisskin in Escape from New York. As MacReady in The Thing. As Jack Burton in Big Trouble in Little China (stubble counts). (Russell only had a moustache in Tombstone so we’ll skip that one). As the sheriff in Bone Tomahawk. As John Ruth in The Hateful Eight. As Ego in Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2. Even his son Wyatt knows how to sport a cool beard–He wore won this year as the star of Lodge 49. So what’s left for the guy with the cool beard to take on next? How about playing the guy with the best beard of all time? That’s Santa Claus, of course.
The best part? In this trailer for Netflix’s new The Christmas Chronicles, Russell isn’t playing just another “Bad Santa” role. Sure, it looks like a traditional family Christmas show, but Russell revealing how cool Santa is (and always has been) and lines that sound like they were written for Jack Burton? That’s an inspired choice.
He knows when you’ve been bad or good, so you’d better clean up your act right now.
The movie stars Benji star Darby Camp and The Babysitter’sJudah Lewis as kids who want to film Santa in action. Look for co-stars Kimberly Williams-Paisley(Father of the Bride, Darrow & Darrow) as their mom, plus Lamorne Morris (New Girl, The Guild) and Martin Roach (Kick-Ass 2, The Shape of Water).
Check out this new trailer for The Christmas Chronicles:
Guillermo del Toro’s At Home With Monsters was an eye-opening look at the depths to which the renowned fantasy film director has gone to immerse himself in the creative process, revealing images of his own personal collection of the strange, creepy, and unique from scree-used artifacts to oversized recreations of the Universal Monsters that inspired him early on. The book (reviewed here at borg.com) was a great entryway to prepare readers and audiences for his latest film, The Shape of Water, nominated for thirteen Academy Awards and reviewed earlier here this week. The latest look into the mind of del Toro explores this movie from its inception to the final filming decisions. It all can be found in Insight Editions’ new volume The Shape of Water: Creating a Fairy Tale for Troubled Times, by Gina McIntyre.
In a year that saw a failed re-launch of the Universal Studios famed monster movies with the first installment The Mummy (reviewed here), it would be del Toro who brought forth a worthy retelling of sorts of that studio’s Creature from the Black Lagoon. The idea for a story of an Amphibian Man and Beauty and the Beast story where the creature is united with a mute janitorial worker began in 2011 in a simple conversation. As time went on del Toro and screenplay co-writer Vanessa Taylor built a story, and del Toro singled out actors for key roles. First and foremost was Sally Hawkins as lead character Elisa, who oddly enough was writing her own story about a mermaid that didn’t know she was a mermaid. del Toro and Hawkins began working together at that point. As with his other films, del Toro creates biography sheets for his characters. Included in McIntyre’s book are tipped-in pages of some of these biographies, allowing readers and writers to examine how much the actors were given about their roles as backstory.
Along with the genesis of the story,The Shape of Water: Creating a Fairy Tale for Troubled Times examines the creation of the four suits worn by Doug Jones as the creature. Hawkins, Jones, and co-stars Richard Jenkins, Octavia Spencer, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Michael Shannon, all describe their takes on their roles, their work with del Toro, and their interaction with other performers. McIntyre includes interviews with del Toro, the key cast and production crew, including insight rarely seen in behind the scenes movie books, like rationale for costume designs, provided here by costume designer Luis Sequiera. del Toro not only significantly backed the production for years financially, he was involved in every key decision in the film. He kept costs down by in part utilizing the sets for the television series The Strain.
The book examines the unique color palette that audiences will take away as a hallmark of this film. A highlight is the discussion of the black and white scene from the film, unthinkably shot in a single day. Much of the film relied on old-school practical effects, including actual underwater filming with Doug Jones in costume, but del Toro also incorporated digital effects for the more dangerous scenes and clean-up work. The multi-year process for designing and revising the creature suit from clay to prosthetics, foam, and rubber is well documented in the book.
