Exclusive: Becky Ann Baker Returning as Lena Dunham's Mother in New Season of HBO's 'Girls'

Happy Thursday, folks!

I’m working on another newsletter for tomorrow, but first, I’ve got a little scoop about one of my favorite TV shows.

Before we get to that, let’s recap some recent headlines.

Josh Brolin is preparing to have the worst case of shrinkage ever, as he’ll star opposite Jeremy Renner in the indie movie A Speck in the Sea, about a guy who fell off a fishing boat in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, in the middle of the night, while his buddy (Renner) was sleeping. Imagine All Is Lost without the boat, Cast Away without the island, and Open Water without the sharks. Who are we kidding? There will probably be a shark at some point…

Nicholas Galitzine is going to play Ichabod Crane in Hollow, an erotic thriller starring Sydney Sweeney that reimagines The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. No details yet, but I’m guessing the “Horseman” won’t be “headless” after all? The Sony project is based on an upcoming novel by Lindsey Anderson Beer, who is also directing.

Maya Hawke has landed the lead role in Matt Johnson’s Magic: The Gathering movie from Legendary and Hasbro. I kinda love this, as Hawke has geek cred thanks to Stranger Things. I didn’t grow up playing Myst or Halo or Dungeons & Dragons, but I did play Magic for a year or two, and can recall getting into a big fight with my brother over a powerful Nightmare card that is now fairly valuable.

Francis Galluppi is set to write a new Constantine movie for DC Studios, which pretty much puts the nail in Constantine 2, a movie that was always a ridiculous proposition. Keanu Reeves is way too old to play the character — sorry.

I’d heard Glen Powell has been in talks with DC about a big role that requires a major commitment/multiple options. He’s the right age for the new Batman (if there is one — wink), but I could also see him playing John Constantine, a role that comes with far less baggage and fewer expectations. It would also allow Powell to let his freak flag fly…

My question is whether Powell would put his superhero eligibility (if you will) in the hands of a relatively new director. I liked Galluppi’s indie movie, The Last Stop in Yuma County, and his Evil Dead Wrath has good buzz heading into 2028 — even though that franchise is starting to feel a little played out. I imagine Galluppi is being eyed to direct this Constantine movie as well.

If you’re a star on Powell’s level, I really think you have to be committing to projects based on who is directing them, not just what the role is. He’d be a good fit for Constantine, but does that movie really need a star on his level? After all, Clayface was led by a relative unknown, and it’s doing just fine in relation to its budget…

Elsewhere, congrats to director Vincent Grashaw and the producers of The Brand for not giving up that old Kimberly Peirce project, which has been resurrected with none other than Nicolas Cage starring alongside Gabriel Basso, Alexander Ludwig, and Maria Bakalova.

Based on a New Yorker article by David Grann, this movie is about a white prison gang, and it’s going to be fucking terrifying. Not only have I been a fan of this project for a decade, but I’ve been following Grashaw’s career ever since he produced Bellflower back in 2011. I dug his indies Coldwater, Bang Bang, and Gangland, and it’s great to see him land this project, as he deserves this opportunity. I’m excited for this one…

And finally, World of Reel ran a great article this week about Wild Horse Nine filmmaker Martin McDonagh, who says political correctness has “gotten worse” and defended racist language in his work (not racism in real life, mind you).

McDonagh is absolutely right, of course. It is absolutely wild what I see each day on Twitter, which is my particular window into humanity. It’s the window through which I see “the world,” and guess what? The world is burning to the ground and going to hell. It’s legitimately nuts out there.

Yes, I think it’s awful that someone in Hollywood offered 11-year-old Dafne Keen cocaine, and Drew Barrymore before her, too. But does it surprise me one bit? No, it doesn’t. That’s Hollywood for you, folks. There are a lot of genuinely good people out here, but the idea that this is a virtuous business full of virtuous people is hilarious.

That’s the myth this city has been selling about itself since the dawn of motion pictures. It’s what drew me here and what keeps me here, too. Every day, I see people’s dreams come true, and sometimes — just sometimes — I even get to play a small part. But this town is truly crazy sometimes, and the only thing you can do is joke about it.

And yeah, sometimes the jokes are dark. Welcome to my sense of humor. I came of age at a time when David Spade was making JonBenet jokes a year after her death. If you don’t like it, you can stop following me on Twitter. But my page isn’t someone else’s safe space — it’s mine. And I don’t really understand the fixation that some people have with me on Twitter, or why I’d be on some moron’s mind the morning after Election Day.

Each time I look around, I see more and more woke scolds with no sense of humor. Who knew the morality police would end up being a bunch of entertainment journalists with no idea how to be entertaining themselves? Taika Waititi was wrong about film critics this week, but he’s right about the worrisome hive mind mentality developing in our community, one that stymies nuance and leaves little room for original thinkers.

So kudos to McDonagh, who may have tapped into something with his latest protagonist — a blunt bastard who tells it like it is and doesn’t give a fuck what other people think. Personally, I don’t know if people will be able to handle it, which is why John Malkovich isn’t a lock to win in my book just yet. He may be a bit too prickly…

Honestly, I don’t know if his Wild Horse Nine co-star, Sam Rockwell, would still win an Oscar for playing a racist cop in 2017’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, had that movie come out this year. I’d like to think he would, but it’s hard to have faith in humanity if you saw what I see day in and day out on Twitter, where people with zero experience inside a cockpit suddenly feel comfortable judging experienced pilots.

All I can do is beg you to use your brains and think back to a time when AI didn’t do our thinking for us. That’s the only explanation for the stupidity I see each day, whether I’m scrolling Twitter or risking my life by driving on the 405.

Thankfully, today’s scoop is about a really smart TV show that will soon make a welcome return to HBO. Not everyone is coming back to Girls, but I know at least one actor who is. Premium subscribers may now continue reading…

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