Nate Bloom blogs on this week’s Jews in the News.

 

Frankie’s Bride, Fast Action Protector, Professor Problems, More

 

“The Bride” opens in theaters on March 6. This film was written, co-produced, and directed by MAGGIE GYLLENHAAL, 48.  “The Bride” is the second film that she also wrote and directed. The first was “The Lost Daughter” (2021), a psychological drama. She received an Oscar nomination (best adapted screenplay) for this film.

 

The advance publicity says that “The Bride” is an “American Gothic” romance. Here’s the “official” premise: “In the 1930s Chicago, Frankenstein’s monster (Christian Bale) asks Dr. Euphornius (Annette Bening) to create a companion for him. Together, they give life to a murdered woman (Jessie Buckley) as ‘the Bride’. Together they give life to a murdered woman as “The Bride” sparking romance, police interest and radical social change. “

 

Gyllenhaal has not released many “film details”. For example, we only know that JAKE GYLLENHAAL, Maggie’s brother, has a big role because his name appears high on cast lists.  But we don’t know what his character, Ronnie Reed, “does”.

 

JOHN MAGARO, 43, is in the film, but his character isn’t mentioned in advance info. We do know that JEANNIE BERLIN, 76, plays “Greta”, but we don’t know what Greta does. By the way, Berlin’s mother is ELAINE MAY a quite famous actress and comedian. She’s 93 and doing well.

 

Magaro and the Gyllenhaal siblings have a Jewish mother and a non-Jewish father. All three identify as Jewish.

 

“Protector” opens in theaters on March 6. It’s an action thriller. Milla Jovovich stars as Nikki, an ex-soldier who left her violent life to raise her daughter, Chloe.  As the film begins, Chloe (a teenager) is kidnapped and Nikki races through the criminal underworld in search of Chloe. Meanwhile, Nikki is being hunted by police and the military. Advance publicity doesn’t say why the  police and the military are hunting Nikki.

 

The director is ADRIAN GRUNBERG, 60ish. Wikipedia had nothing on his background, other than he now lives in Mexico. However, I discovered that Spanish, on-line publications, provide his interesting life story.

 

Grunberg has lived in Mexico for the last 18 years. He was born in Puerto Rico, but was there for only a few weeks. His parents are Argentine Jews who settled in Spain shortly after Adrian was born. He began his TV and film work in Spain and he then moved in Mexico.

 

He’s directed four English-language movies. The best known are “Get the Gringo” (2012) and “Rambo: Last Blood” (2019). Grunberg co-wrote “Gringo” with Mel Gibson (who also was the movie’s star). It’s about an American criminal who violently crashes the America/Mexico border line and gets thrown in a Mexican prison. “Gringo” got great reviews, but it didn’t make much money.

 

“Rambo; Last Blood” got lousy reviews, but Rambo fans turned out and the last Rambo movie made a lot of money.

 

“Vladimir” is an eight-episode series that premiered on March 5 (Netflix will “drop” all eight episodes on March 5. “Vladimir” was written, created and executive produced by Julia May Jones. Jones wrote the best-selling “Vladimir”, a novel.

 

The first two episodes were directed by Robert Pulcini and SHARI SPRINGER BERMAN, 62. Together, they have written many “quality” films and TV episodes.

 

RACHEL WEISZ plays “M”, a married college professor. Here’s an “official” premise: “When a passionate but reckless professor’s (Rachel Weisz, 55) world begins to unravel, she finds herself dangerously fixated on her magnetic new colleague. As boundaries blur and secrets simmer, she’ll risk everything to bring her most scandalous fantasies to life.”

 

Leo Woodall plays Vladimir, the “magnetic” title character.

 

A  description of the novel provides more “advance” info than Netflix did:  “A provocative, razor-sharp debut novel about a beloved English professor facing a slew of accusations against her professor husband by former students—a situation that becomes more complicated when she herself develops an obsession of her own.” (John Slattery plays the college professor and husband of “M”)

 

In my Feb.13  column I wrote about the HBO series “Neighbors”. It’s  about real people who have feuds with their neighbors.  I wrote: “Dylan Redford and Harrison Fishman created ‘Neighbors’ and they share directing the show’s episodes. Currently, there is very little personal information about these guys. Yes, Fishman sounds like a Jewish name. But not always. Still, my gut is that he’s Jewish. His brother’s name is Sam. That sounds Jewish, too. I’ll keep checking.”

 

Well, a very credible source read my column. That person contacted me and confirmed that HARRISON FISHMAN is Jewish—and so is SAM.