DDL gives a titanic performance in that film, of course, but I think all the performances are great. The kids, the townspeople, the other oil men. Jim Downey as the local real estate guy who hitches his wagon to Plainview’s star! One of PTA’s great gifts is how he casts his films.

Tarantino’s comments were very mean but also he just seemed to misunderstand the film. It’s not a two-hander and Eli isn’t Plainview’s equal. Maybe Eli *thinks* he is but that’s part of what drives Plainview to hate him so much. He knows Eli is beneath him & resents him for pretending otherwise

I’ve always wanted a coat bath

My debut novel comes out in May. Part SF, part satire, it's about living in worlds built by misinformation us.macmillan.com/books/978125...

SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE is a silly movie (I don't love the subgenre of "artist can only write a masterpiece by living through it first") but my favorite bits of it are all the Stoppard jokes about theater, actors, etc. There's a John Webster joke in there basically only for English majors, for example

It doesn’t come out until May, but my novel is part satire, part SFF adventure about a Hollywood film franchise that’s grown so large it’s become real and about how freeing people from misinformation is difficult and maybe even impossible! us.macmillan.com/books/978125...

I don’t even care if you are atheist or agnostic. That’s not the point. You either appreciate the wonder that is your ability to comprehend and engage with the universe or you don’t. If you do, don’t use Generative AI.

I you don’t…I dunno. That makes me very sad.

WICKED and WIZARD OF OZ are two tonally very distinct things and people don’t mind. One existing doesn’t hurt the other. Do it for STAR WARS, Disney. Be heroes.

Disney will never do this because they don’t remake Star Wars movies, but maybe they should? We have so many Batmen and Spider-Men, surely we can do multiple versions of these stories, too.

If you want to be VERY bold you then remake A NEW HOPE as, essentially, Andor season 4, a multi-episode arc with the same tone as the show. That way you can pull in Mon Mothma, General Draden, the Ben Brett Organa…maybe Bix comes back into it?

Of course if you really wanted to go for it, replace the cast of the film with all Andor characters: Wilmon and Kleya and Vel, along with K2, can make up the Rogue One squad. Drop the Vader stuff, etc.