Freddie Mercury will still get Somebody to Love. Under pressure, Fox has hired a new director to replace Bryan Singer on “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

The new director is Dexter Fletcher, who made the much admired “Sunshine on Leith” with music from the Proclaimers. That film scored a 93 on Rotten Tomatoes with 40 reviews. It was a hit at festivals Fletcher’s only made a couple of films, and from his pictures it looks like he really needs a comb. But he has only has a couple of weeks left to film.

Singer is who knows where, doing who knows what. His career is kind of wrecked as he’s been tossed from his Fox offices. But since Fox is going to be sold, it’s doubtful he would have stayed– especially at Disney.

The DGA will have to rule about who made “Bohemian Rhapsody.” At least they didn’t have to reshoot Rami Malek’s scenes using Christopher Plummer, although that would have been interesting.

 

The spin is on for John Travolta’s “Gotti” movie, which Lions Gate sold back to its owners (including some incredibly disreputable ex-cons).

On Deadline.com, Travolta opines: “I found there were a lot of good will gestures on [Gotti’s] part…there was a humane side to him.

On April 2, 1992, John Gotti was convicted on all charges: five murders, conspiracy to murder  loansharking, illegal gambling, obstruction of justice, bribery and tax evasion.

What people forget: “The Godfather” was based on fiction, a novel by Mario Puzo. The novel had real life influences, but the Corleones, their friends and enemies, were made up. They didn’t really exist.

John Gotti was real. The murders, the crimes, all happened. There were really victims, real life people. There is no happy or even poetic ending.

Gotti’s Wikipedia page will tell you the rest. John Gotti is not an anti-hero. He was a demented criminal. To spin it any other way is insane.

As for the “Gotti” movie, whoever puts money in it now has to accept the 38 producers, including the Fiores and Fay Devlin, not to mention other people who invested in it, like the estate of Marty Ingells, who feel ripped off.

BEST PICTURE

The Big Sick

Call Me by Your Name

Darkest Hour

Dunkirk

The Florida Project

Get Out

Lady Bird

The Post

The Shape of Water

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

BEST ACTOR

Timothée Chalamet – Call Me by Your Name

James Franco – The Disaster Artist

Jake Gyllenhaal – Stronger

Tom Hanks – The Post

Daniel Kaluuya – Get Out

Daniel Day-Lewis – Phantom Thread

Gary Oldman – Darkest Hour

BEST ACTRESS

Jessica Chastain – Molly’s Game

Sally Hawkins – The Shape of Water

Frances McDormand – Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Margot Robbie – I, Tonya

Saoirse Ronan – Lady Bird

Meryl Streep – The Post

 

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Willem Dafoe – The Florida Project

Armie Hammer – Call Me By Your Name

Richard Jenkins – The Shape of Water

Sam Rockwell – Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Patrick Stewart – Logan

Michael Stuhlbarg – Call Me by Your Name

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Mary J. Blige – Mudbound

Hong Chau – Downsizing

Tiffany Haddish – Girls Trip

Holly Hunter – The Big Sick

Allison Janney – I, Tonya

Laurie Metcalf – Lady Bird

Octavia Spencer – The Shape of Water

 

BEST YOUNG ACTOR/ACTRESS

Mckenna Grace – Gifted

Dafne Keen – Logan

Brooklynn Prince – The Florida Project

Millicent Simmonds – Wonderstruck

Jacob Tremblay – Wonder

BEST ACTING ENSEMBLE

Dunkirk

Lady Bird

Mudbound

The Post

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

BEST DIRECTOR

Guillermo del Toro – The Shape of Water

Greta Gerwig – Lady Bird

Martin McDonagh – Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Christopher Nolan – Dunkirk

Luca Guadagnino – Call Me By Your Name

Jordan Peele – Get Out

Steven Spielberg – The Post

 

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Guillermo del Toro and Vanessa Taylor – The Shape of Water

Greta Gerwig – Lady Bird

Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani – The Big Sick

Liz Hannah and Josh Singer – The Post

Martin McDonagh – Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Jordan Peele – Get Out

 

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

James Ivory – Call Me by Your Name

Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber – The Disaster Artist

Dee Rees and Virgil Williams – Mudbound

Aaron Sorkin – Molly’s Game

Jack Thorne, Steve Conrad, Stephen Chbosky – Wonder

 

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Roger Deakins – Blade Runner 2049

Hoyte van Hoytema – Dunkirk

Dan Laustsen – The Shape of Water

Rachel Morrison – Mudbound

Sayombhu Mukdeeprom – Call Me By Your Name

 

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

Paul Denham Austerberry, Shane Vieau, Jeff Melvin – The Shape of Water

Jim Clay, Rebecca Alleway – Murder on the Orient Express

Nathan Crowley, Gary Fettis – Dunkirk

Dennis Gassner, Alessandra Querzola – Blade Runner 2049

Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer – Beauty and the Beast

Mark Tildesley, Véronique Melery – Phantom Thread

 

BEST EDITING

Michael Kahn, Sarah Broshar – The Post

Paul Machliss, Jonathan Amos – Baby Driver

Lee Smith – Dunkirk

Joe Walker – Blade Runner 2049

Sidney Wolinsky – The Shape of Water

 

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

Renée April – Blade Runner 2049

Mark Bridges – Phantom Thread

Jacqueline Durran – Beauty and the Beast

Lindy Hemming – Wonder Woman

Luis Sequeira – The Shape of Water

 

BEST HAIR AND MAKEUP

Beauty and the Beast

Darkest Hour

I, Tonya

The Shape of Water

Wonder

 

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

Blade Runner 2049

Dunkirk

The Shape of Water

Thor: Ragnarok

War for the Planet of the Apes

Wonder Woman

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

The Breadwinner

Coco

Despicable Me 3

The LEGO Batman Movie

Loving Vincent

BEST ACTION MOVIE

Baby Driver

Logan

Thor: Ragnarok

War for the Planet of the Apes

Wonder Woman

BEST COMEDY

The Big Sick

The Disaster Artist

Girls Trip

I, Tonya

Lady Bird

 

BEST ACTOR IN A COMEDY

Steve Carell – Battle of the Sexes

James Franco – The Disaster Artist

Chris Hemsworth – Thor: Ragnarok

Kumail Nanjiani – The Big Sick

Adam Sandler – The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)

 

BEST ACTRESS IN A COMEDY

Tiffany Haddish – Girls Trip

Zoe Kazan – The Big Sick

Margot Robbie – I, Tonya

Saoirse Ronan – Lady Bird

Emma Stone – Battle of the Sexes

 

BEST SCI-FI OR HORROR MOVIE

Blade Runner 2049

Get Out

It

The Shape of Water

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

BPM (Beats Per Minute)

A Fantastic Woman

First They Killed My Father

In the Fade

The Square

Thelma

 

BEST SONG

Evermore – Beauty and the Beast

Mystery of Love – Call Me By Your Name

Remember Me – Coco

Stand Up for Something – Marshall

This Is Me – The Greatest Showman

BEST SCORE

Alexandre Desplat – The Shape of Water

Jonny Greenwood – Phantom Thread

Dario Marianelli – Darkest Hour

Benjamin Wallfisch and Hans Zimmer – Blade Runner 2049

John Williams – The Post

Hans Zimmer – Dunkirk

Steven Spielberg shot “The Post,” about how the Washington Post bucked Richard Nixon and published the Pentagon Papers, in just a couple of months. He started in July, and here it is, ready for release and the Oscars. It was a killer shoot but it was worth it.

The minute Meryl Streep comes onto the screen as publisher Katharine Graham, you feel bad for the other actresses who are so good this season and have been getting so much attention. That’s because Streep somehow does it again, she embodies a person we only knew publicly to the point where you’re sure it’s that person– it’s Graham herself mourning her husband (who committed suicide) and her father (who gave running of the paper to the husband, not to her, because she was a woman). And you see Graham’s story arc clearly from silenced and mousy to brave and defiant. It’s wonderful.

Tom Hanks is sensational as Ben Bradlee, the editor of the Post who a year after this story ended had to confront an even bigger one with Watergate. Hanks makes everything look easy but make no mistake– his Bradlee is a real construct, built from the editor’s brashness and determination. Hanks started this work on Broadway a couple of years ago as Mike McAlary in Nora Ephron’s “Lucky Guy.” He’s got the temperament of throwback newsmen on all the right notes.

“The Post” should be a big hit simply because Spielberg has made it a rallying cry against Fake News. It’s an endorsement of the Press as the watchdog of Washington, and shows the mechanism that brings a story like the Pentagon Papers to life. If you don’t already, in sum: Robert McNamara (played here by Bruce Greenwood just brilliantly) commissioned a study on the history of the Vietnam War and why we were still in it, in 1971. From the study he knew were losing the war, that it was unwinnable, but lied to the country that we were making progress.

Daniel Ellsberg (Matthew Rhys, excellent) was the whistleblower who turned the study over the to New York Times. They published it and Richard Nixon retaliated by getting an injunction against them. Ellsberg got more of the papers to the Post, and they defied Nixon’s White House. At the time, Graham was taking the Post public on the American Stock Exchange, and there was fear that the scandal of butting heads with Nixon would kill the deal. The paper, as the movie states, was near insolvency.

Of course, it’s easy to look back and say it all worked out. But in real time, then, things were not so clear. Nixon, like Trump, was a tyrant. Spielberg has the luxury now of using the real Nixon tapes so we can hear his plotting with cronies to destroy press freedoms. But when it really happened, we were scared– no one knew what Nixon was doing, or what the outcome would be. These (mostly) men and women put their careers on the line to get the truth about Vietnam to the people.

And then Watergate happened, which figures in this movie very cleverly. In many ways “The Post” is the prequel to “All the President’s Men.” Its ending is a little like Princess Leia at the end of “Rogue Nation,” handing off the plans to the Death Star.

Well, I really love “Dunkirk” and “Lady Bird” and “Phantom Thread,” “The Shape of Things,” etc. But the Best Picture is the movie with the Big Idea. “The Post” is that Big Idea. It gets a standing ovation.

PS Special mention to Bob Odenkirk, who’s wonderful as Ben Bagdikian, who pushed the story along at the paper. Also Michael Stulhbarg as Abe Rosenthal, and all the other well cast supporting parts. Greenwood has really become Benjamin Button. He’s top notch as McNamara, whose friendship with Graham gives texture and (information) to the film.

The “Gotti” movie again sleeps with the fishes.

Lions Gate has sold the John Travolta biopic directed by Kevin Connolly back to its producers and investors. The movie lists 38 names as producers of various levels.

Last week Lions Gate dropped “Gotti” from the December schedule. It’s said to be quite awful.  Travolta’s wife, Kelly Preston, and daughter, Ella Bleu Travolta, co-star with him.

Emmett Furla/Oasis, Highland Pictures and Fiore Films are the listed companies. Marc Fiore, an ex con with ties to the mob, runs the latter outfit. The movie is his labor of love. His brother, Thomas Fiore, indicted years ago with connections to the Bonnano family, is also a producer. So is Fay Devlin.

“Gotti” has a long and colorful history that includes gypsies, tramps and thieves, so to speak. One former player in it gave me a long interview in 2011, then was was indicted for fraud in a $4.6 million money laundering scheme. (As they say, doesn’t make him a bad guy!) Will we ever see it? Maybe on VOD. Or if someone makes us an offer we can’t refuse!