Kate Beckinsale Still Hoping for an ‘Underworld’-‘Blade’ Crossover Movie: ‘What a Duo That Would Be’
Welcome to this week’s “Just for Variety.”
Kate Beckinsale is “highly” doubtful that another “Underworld” will be made, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t up for playing Selene in a sixth movie. “I really wanted them to do an ‘Underworld’-‘Blade’ mashup. What a duo that would be,” she told me at the premiere of her action thriller “Jolt” at the San Vicente Bungalows. “I would definitely do that, but I think they just wanted to reboot ‘Blade’ as ‘Blade’ so they didn’t go for it.” Beckinsale also revealed that it wouldn’t be hard for her to slip into Selene’s signature black leather pants because she still has a pair. “I know exactly where they are,” she said. “You never know who you want to impress.”
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Cynthia Erivo has not only never played the Hollywood Bowl — she’s never even been to the iconic venue in the Cahuenga Pass. That’s all about to change on July 30 when she headlines with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The concert will include her own music as well as songs made famous by Aretha Franklin, Mary J. Blige and Roberta Flack. “It’s going to be a really special, beautiful night, and I can’t wait,” she tells me from her home in Los Angeles. “We were supposed to do it a couple of years ago, and then with the pandemic and whatnot, it didn’t happen. But now it feels like the perfect time actually.” Ricky Minor is directing and “full-on” floral arrangements on the stage will be designed by Maurice Harris of the Echo Park-based Bloom & Plume. Her pre-show morning workout will usually include a run because “that warms everything up,” Erivo says. On Erivo’s playlist these days are Nao, Allegra, The Story, Shakka and Faith Evans. “I’m an eclectic audience,” she says. “I will listen to many things.”
I spoke with Erivo just days after she earned an Emmy nomination for her work as Franklin in “Genius: Aretha.” Fellow nominees are Kate Winslet (“Mare of Easttown”), Anya Taylor-Joy (“The Queen’s Gambit”), Elizabeth Olsen (“WandaVision”) and Michaela Coel (“I May Destroy You”). “This list is crazy,” Erivo says. “These women are incredible.” She and Coel are longtime friends. “We’ve known each other since we were 15 or 16,” Erivo says. “We’re really, really close. She’s like family. She was on the phone [after the nominations were announced] going, ‘Babe, babe. What is this life?’”
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Candace Bushnell is getting really close to a New York opening for her solo show “Is There Still Sex In the City?,” based on her 2019 book of the same name. She just wrapped a sold-out workshop run at Bucks County Playhouse in New Hope, Pa. Bushnell says she can’t believe she received standing ovations: “I didn’t know what to do. I was embarrassed. I was like, ‘Oh, wow,’ and then I just kind of skittled off the stage.” That said, she’s always had dreams of performing theater. “When I first came to New York in 1977 and I was a kid, I thought about being an actress and being on Broadway,” she tells me. “My dream was to be a playwright. But that just seemed impossible.” It’s not as if writing didn’t work out for her — 24 years ago next month she published her anthology “Sex and the City,” which was the basis for the HBO series and two movies. A revival for HBO Max is being shot in NYC. “They’re rebooting every- thing else. If they didn’t reboot ‘Sex and the City,’ it’s like, come on,” Bushnell says. “It’s a no-brainer.” Bushnell chooses her words carefully when talking about the original “SATC,” which ran for six seasons before ending in 2004. “I think back on the pilot,” she says. “The pilot is so different than how it evolved. The pilot was a dark, independent movie directed by Susan Seidelman, who was one of the only like 4 percent women directors in America. That was so cool. It looked so cool. Nobody knew exactly what it was about. All of the characters were from the book. I think half or three quarters of the lines of the pilot were from the book. It was so New York. I don’t know anything about the reboot because I’m not involved. But I see the photos and it’s a huge glossy show. It’s like ‘Star Wars.’”
Bushnell would like to see “Is There Still Sex in the City?” follow the path of Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s play-turned-television-series “Fleabag”: “I’d love to do it in a creative and very hands-on way for me, with maybe me acting in it.”
Producers of the stage show include Alexander Fraser, Robyn Goodman, Josh Fiedler and Marc Johnson. “We knew Candace had a following, but the surprise is how even audiences who don’t know ‘Sex in the City’ love the show and Candace’s story of rebuilding her life after 50,” Fraser tells me. “We’ve doubled our original box office goals! “
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