Sunday, July 17, 2016

Streep promoting "Florence Foster Jenkins"

Over the past few days, a pair of videos have become available of promotional activities in which Meryl has participated for Florence Foster Jenkins. With the U.S. release of the film less than a month away now, it's not surprising that there's a bit of a boost in visibility for the film.  Having been in Paris this week, for example, Meryl's face was on every street corner promoting the Bastille Day release of the film, which was nice to see.  Today, there was a spot about Jenkins and the film on CBS Sunday Morning, including a brief interview with Meryl:



The other video of interest was a press confernece in New York which included Meryl, Hugh Grant and Simon Helberg.  Unfortunately, I haven't found a way to embed that video but it can be found here on Simply Streep.

In case you were wondering, there is no other news on future projects.  Grrr.

9 comments:

  1. Long Winded PessimistJuly 20, 2016 at 1:41 AM

    For those of you who've seen FFJ, what do you think Meryl's chances at the Oscar nomination are? I had originally thought it would be a lock, but despite great reviews, I'm growing less and less confident that Meryl will even be at the Oscars this year. Is the role simply too light and not baity enough for the Academy you think? So depressing to think Meryl could miss at the Oscars yet again this year especially with nothing in the pipeline which is growing increasingly perplexing and frustrating at the same time. Why does it seem like everyone else is getting all the baitier roles in better movies? It seems like everyone is dying to work with Meryl and yet nothing is planned. Do people think she'll live forever? I mean she's nearing 70. The time is now. I feel like she'll never get her 4th Oscar at this point when it feels like even a 20th nomination could be out of reach at the expense of baitier roles in more Academy friendly movies. Where did all the projects go? She was everywhere a few years ago.It doesn't seem like she's gotten any less popular. I guess at least we'll get her 30th GG nom this year- although with La La land now a win seems unlikely. I'm longing for the days of 2006-2012 when we could count on her to be nominated and winning awards. I miss her acceptance speeches. I think the public perception is that she wins awards all the time but assuming she doesn't win anything for Florence, it'll be about 5 years since she's had an award winning performance. I guess I just wasn't expecting such a dry spell and its disappointing to be in it.

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  2. So my opinion : Meryl said she will do a break this year so I think that's the reason why there aren't movie projects published. But I think they are some but we just don't know about them !
    But I'm sure that she is still will do movies and also will win again a lot of awards ..
    And in my opinion Florence Foster Jenkins is a good Oscar movie and I'm pretty sure she will be nominated .. I think that in the next months or years will come a lot

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  3. Jeff what do you think of Meryl winning an Oscar for Florence Foster ? I have the feeling that she has good chances and maybe will win because of the movie it's so good and it's also an true story like the Iron Lady ...

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  4. I think the likelihood of Merly being nominated for an Oscar for FFJ is greater than 50%. My favorite, and probably most accuracte resource for predicting nominations, is AwardsWatch:
    http://awardswatch.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?4-FILM-pred

    Historically the averages/predictions from this site are very accurate. Right now Meryl is trending third behind both Viola Davis (Fences) and Ruth Negga (Loving).

    So while Meryl's chances for a nom are good, her chances for a win are almost 0%. Especially with the #OscarsSoWhite fiasco of last year, I'd be shocked if either Davis or Negga didn't take the trophy. Davis is likely considered by many to be overdue, and I'm personally pulling for her. Hopefully Fences lives up to the hype.

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    1. I agree with this. FFJ is an excellently made and very entertaining movie with lovely performances. We shouldn't expect every piece Meryl does to attract awards as what do they even mean at this point in such an unparalleled career?

      Also, given she had to wait 29 years for that third win I don't think any of us should be on the edge of our seats for the fourth. All good things in time!

      And let's not forget that between 1983 and 2003 Meryl won barely anything yet this period yielded some of her most iconic roles.

      That being said, she stands a very strong chance of nabbing a 9th (!) Golden Globe for her work, rest assured she won't be overlooked like last year!

      And finally, I think it would probably mean a lot to Meryl if Viola actually won. Fences is meant to be a great work.

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  5. Long Winded PessimistJuly 23, 2016 at 10:54 PM

    I don't know. I just think you guys are over-estimating the box office potential for this. It hasn't been doing very well overseas despite stellar reviews, popular stars, and a lot of marketing. I feel like Meryl may have lost her star status when it comes to box office in recent years. For reasons unfathomable to me, her films just don't seem to do as well these days. Without box office, I worry that an Oscar nomination this year will be a hard sell since the film is being marketed as a comedy which really pisses me off because duplicating Florence's voice alone should merit a nomination in my opinion.

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    1. You're right about box office abroad. I was in Paris last week and they were clearly marketing the hell out of this...her face was on every block. But it opened to poor returns. It may be too much to hope for Julie & Julia numbers, although that probably isn't a fair comparison considering Julia Child was a national icon and far more recognizable than Jenkins. I'm hoping for FFJ to make a respectable showing in cinemas,if it got past $40m, it would be a modest success I think. After all box office has never been the deciding factor on Streep nominations, but as you've said Long Winded Pessimist, we may be in in a new era.

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    2. Long Winded PessimistJuly 24, 2016 at 1:48 PM

      I just think they misfired on this one... which seems to be a pattern with Meryl's movies now. It's like they took out any real depth to make a movie for the masses who aren't going to see it (no one outside the elite arts world really knows who Florence was)and doing so took them out of any serious awards consideration. So now it seems this movie, though well done, will miss on both the box office and awards fronts. Its just so extremely frustrating to me the way Meryl's career is going. Not only is she failing to produce at the box office, but she's also failing to garner awards with these over the top characters. And now still we have nothing on the horizon... It just doesn't inspire a lot of confidence in her career projectory. I feel like she still has so much to give and these film choices/lack of are letting her down. What also sucks is all the momentum of her being an older woman and dominating at the BO and awards has been lost by all these less than stellar projects in the last 5 years.

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  6. C'mon let's give Meryl a break she so deserves. Even if she decides to retire for good, I'll be happy to have been wowed by her all these decades. Yes I agree with LWP that her roles in recent years have been largely over the top (since Doubt/Mamma Mia) but I'm also aware that it's her choice and I respect that, although I would rather watch any of her earlier films over the likes of August, Iron Lady, Julia/Julie or Ricki. Eg.I just saw August again on TV and I cringed at her performance (as much as it pains me to say that). Nevertheless, it's nice to know she has a personal life and she can spend her time however she wants it. Let's just enjoy FFJ for now.

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