BY Women and Hollywood
Second Mary Shelley Biopic to Star Game of Thrones’ Sophie Turner
There are now officially two Mary Shelley biopics in the works, both focusing on the young author’s work of writing Frankenstein and her romance with the older poet Percy Shelley (who would later...
Trailer Watch: US Trailer for Juliette Binoche’s 1,000 Times Goodnight
RIP: Lauren Bacall — Check out Some Career Highlights
Toronto Film Fest Announces More Women-Directed Films
When the 39th Toronto International Film Festival (September 4–14) released its first two rounds of programming at this year’s events, we were initially unimpressed by the paltry representation...
Jennifer Lawrence Close to Starring in Adaptation of Jeannette Walls’ The Glass Castle
Lionsgate, the studio behind The Hunger Games, is inching closer to signing Jennifer Lawrence to the big-screen adaptation of Jeannette Walls’ The Glass Castle. Walls’ best-selling 2005 memoir...
Outlander Pilot Drew Male and Female Viewers in Equal Numbers — And Lots of Them
If there was any question whether Outlander’s reputation as a female-centric historical bodice ripper would attract a lopsided audience, the answer is a resounding no. To quote Orange is the New...
Lyle Director Stewart Thorndike on Making the Lesbian Version of Rosemary’s Baby and the Need for Feminist Horror
You’veheard the story before: A pregnant woman suspects her neighbors are part of aSatanic cult, and they want her unborn child. As her paranoia grows, so doesthe danger. But is she truly the...
Outreach Coordinator Position Available
Position Summary The Athena Film Festival is seeking an outgoing and creative individual to serve as the Outreach Coordinator for the 2015 Festival (Feb. 5–8, 2015). The Outreach Coordinator works...
Crosspost: Where’s Gamora?
The following is crossposted from the author’s site with her permission. After seeing Guardians of the Galaxy, my four-year-old daughter wanted a Gamora action figurine and my son wanted...
Does Amazon Already Have a Female Creator Problem?
Amazon announced today five new pilots that it plans to debut at the end of the month. Though the two dramas and three comedies have little in common, they do share one similarity — they’re...
Trailer Watch: I Am Eleven is a Charming Look at Being Between Childhood and Adolescence
Australian documentarian Genevieve Bailey found herself dispirited working for a newspaper as a college student, reading bad news day after day. She worried especially about how that bad news would...
Geena Davis Checks Into Grey’s Anatomy
Oscar winner Geena Davis has joined Grey’s Anatomy for its 11th season. Davis’ last series television appearance was as the President in Commander in Chief. Davis will reportedly enjoy a...
Trailer Watch: Kristen Stewart Heads to Guantanamo in Camp X-Ray
Since the end of Twilight, Kristen Stewart has returned to her indie roots for the next chapter of her career. That seems like a good move for her, since her best notices were always in...
Weekly Update for August 8: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening The Maid’s Room In this examination of morality, racism, and privilege, Drina (Paula Garces), a young Colombian immigrant, accepts a position as maid to the wealthy...
Watch: Actual Superheroine Can’t Get a Movie Made About Her in Hollywood
Angelfire is a superheroine who knows her worth. And that worth? The center spotlight in a movie all about her — not as a sidekick, a recurring pair of boobs, or a sacrificial love interest to...
John Oliver’s Search for New Voices in Late Night
John Oliver’s HBO show Last Week Tonight isn’t like much else on TV — because it’s better than most things on TV. In the wake of his critical and viral success, Oliver revealed that he...
Happy Friday: Mad Men’s Christina Hendricks Attempts to Make It in the Modern Office
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Director Mitra Farahani on Legendary Painter Bahman Mohassess and the Artist’s Plight in Iran
Nakedlimbs, tangled, dancing; gaping mouths; and sightless eyes — much of Iranianartist Bahman Mohassess’ work strikes the first-time viewer alternately as acelebration of the human...
Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman Team Up to Tell Big Little Lies
Ever wonder what kind of moms the Heathers might have grown up to be? Australian writer Liane Moriarty’s bestselling, critically acclaimed comic novel Big Little Lies seems to imagine precisely...
Guest Post: One for the Girls: Women Directors Group Spreads to London
This year the news has been bad for UK female film directors. Statistics have revealed, in article after article, the depressingly low numbers of women directing feature films. I look at the slates...
Jenji Kohan Talks Equal Pay and Being Told Men Are Funnier
There is an awesome profile in the current issue of The Hollywood Reporter on Jenji Kohan, the creator and showrunner of Orange is the New Black. I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to say...
Only 2 of the 25 Top-Earning Indies This Year Directed by Women
Things are supposed to be easier for female narrative directors in the indie world, but that just often isn’t the case. Peter Knegt published a list of the 25 top-earning indie productions of the...
The Honourable Woman: Upending the Sexy Spy Drama
Hunger Games Studio Lionsgate Options Another Potential Female-Led YA Blockbuster
A thirteen-year-old girl becomes the center of world attention when she’s caught on tape able to miracle-heal in novelist Jason Mott’s The Wonder of All Things. Though the book won’t be...
Study: Latina Women Most Likely to Be Naked On Screen
A new study spearheaded by Dr. Stacy L. Smith at USC’s Annenberg School confirms what we already know: Hollywood sucks at portraying racial diversity. But here’s a surprise: It doesn’t suck...
Portlandia’s Carrie Brownstein to Finish One of Nora Ephron’s Last Scripts
Carrie Brownstein has been tapped to posthumously complete one of Nora Ephron’s last projects, a big-screen adaptation of the British miniseries Lost in Austen. The proposed film, which centers on...
Katharine Hepburn Biopic in the Works
Katharine Hepburn starred in some of the best films Hollywood has ever made, but the film industry has thus far only made her an accessory in stories about men, namely those of producer David O....
Cheryl Boone Isaacs Re-Elected as Academy President
Cheryl Boone Isaacs, the third female and first black president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, has been elected for a second year-long term. Boone Isaacs received that vote of...
Quote of the Day: Christina Hendricks: “There’s Sexual Harassment at Work Every Single Day” in Hollywood
A new interview with Christina Hendricks in The Guardian is making the rounds because of the (schadenfreude-tastic) revelation that the actress was dropped by her agency when she signed up to play...
Frozen Director Jennifer Lee to Adapt A Wrinkle in Time
Writer-director Jennifer Lee has finally announced her first post-Frozen project: an adaptation of Madeleine L’Engle’s beloved sci-fi children’s classic A Wrinkle in Time for Disney. At this...
Keke Palmer to Become Broadway’s First Black Cinderella
After making entertainment history as television’s youngest-ever talk-show host, 20-year-old Keke Palmer will set another record as Broadway’s first black Cinderella in Rodgers and...
An Open Letter to Sony Chief Amy Pascal: Here’s Your Opportunity to Be a Leader for Women
Dear Amy Pascal, I read the exciting news yesterday that your studio, Sony, will be making a female superhero movie set in the Spider-Man universe. This is great news for those of us who have been...
Quote of the Day: Octavia Spencer on How Her Oscar Changed Nothing
What’s the point of winning your industry’s highest honor if it doesn’t open up any more opportunities to succeed? That’s the sad but inevitable response to a new interview with Octavia...
Ellen Pompeo Developing Drama for ABC Family
Debt is as much a mainstay of modern American life as potable drinking water or people acting like buffoons on reality TV. Ellen Pompeo is looking to dramatize our indebted condition with a new...
Paul Feig Rumored to Direct Female-Led Ghostbusters Reboot
Bridesmaids and The Heat director Paul Feig is reportedly in talks to helm Ghostbusters 3, currently planned as a female reboot of the franchise, which is much to the chagrin of Mike Fleming at...
Marvel Chief Says He Wants a Female-Led Superhero Movie… Just Not Right Now
Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige knows there’s a groundswell of support for a superheroine movie. He also knows that films with female protagonists can make boatloads of money. And he most...
Sight and Sound Publishes Top 50 Documentaries List
UK’s Sight and Sound magazine published a “Greatest Documentaries of All Time” list last week to accompany their famed catalog of the “Greatest Films Ever.” The top 50...
Meredith Vieira Returning to Daytime TV
Former Today and The View host Meredith Vieira will headline her own daytime series starting September 8. The afternoon syndicated show will be a mix of interviews, giveaways, humor, and social...
Weekly Update for August 1: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening Around the Block — Written and Directed by Sarah Spillane Writer-director Sarah Spillane explores Australian racism today in Around the Block, a drama about an...
Stephenie Meyer to Produce Lois Duncan’s Down a Dark Hall
Though the Twilight film series wrapped up in 2012, Stephenie Meyer continues to flex her producing muscles in Hollywood. Up next for the YA author is an adaptaion of Lois Duncan’s 1974...
August 2014 Film Preview
The summer blockbuster movie season may be winding to an end, but the multiplexes offer a refreshingly diverse selection of films by and about women for August. The month blasts off (literally) with...
Clear Your Thursday Nights for Shonda Rhimes
Sometime during Scandal’s feverish sophomore season, Shonda Rhimes became more than a brand — she became a powerhouse. Sure, she was already a known commodity from the wildly popular...
Sundance Award-Winning Rich Hill Director Tracy Droz Tragos on the Injustice of Rural Poverty and How Motherhood Can Open Doors to Documentarians
“People expect me to have a better future than Ido. I don’t know what to do anymore.” So declares a twelve-year-old boy lessthan five minutes into this film, and at once we are ruthlessly...
Trailer Watch: Sleeping with the Fishes Captures La Vida Loca in a Latino-Jewish Family
I Love Lucy debuted over 60 years ago, and yet there are still so few movies and TV shows about mixed-race families, especially from a female POV. Writer-director Nicole Gomez Fisher helps fill in...
New Research Shows a Six-Year Low for Women Directors, 98% of Films Feature More Male than Female Characters
When I started the site nearly seven(!) years ago, research on women onscreen and behind the scenes was sparse. The good news is that, today, studies on this subject arrive regularly from all types...
Elle Fanning to Play Mary Shelley in Haifaa Al-Mansour’s Biopic of Frankenstein Author
Elle Fanning continues to impress with her film choices. Her latest anounced project is Wadjda director Haifaa al-Mansour’s A Storm in the Stars, a biopic of Frankenstein author Mary Shelley. A...
Director Leigh Silverman on Mounting the Broadway Musical Violet and Working with Sutton Foster
Violet is one of those rare Broadway shows where less is more. The sparsely set stage is a perfect showcase for veteran Broadway actress Sutton Foster to soar in her Tony-nominated role. Foster...
Trailer Watch: Mercenaries Beats ExpendaBelles to the Big Screen
While we wait for The ExpendaBelles to arrive, mockbuster-factory The Asylum has churned out Mercenaries, a prison break-out-then-break-in action thriller starring Kristanna Loken, Zoe Bell, Vivica...
Biopic of Anna May Wong, First Chinese-American Star, in the Works
Anna May Wong, Hollywood’s first Chinese-American star, never got her due. After attracting notice as a slave in the 1924 Douglas Fairbanks swashbuckler film The Thief of Bagdad, she became a...
Quote of the Day: Sandra Adair on Hollywood’s Slippery Career Ladder for Women
Variety published a long-ish article yesterday on the difficulties many female crewmembers face in the film industry, from blatant chauvinism and dismissive assumptions to the long hours and lower...
Jessica Lange to Be Honored at Santa Barbara Film Festival
American Horror Story co-star Jessica Lange will become the first female recipient of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival’s Kirk Douglas Award for Excellence in Film. Lange boasts two...