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I’ve been on a journey lately of watching more Australian films.
I just filled in an embarrassing blind spot and watched Picnic at Hanging Rock for the first time, and while I have seen classics like The Castle and Muriel’s Wedding, I know I’m missing some big ones.
So, if there’s an Aussie film you consider essential, reply to this email and let me know! Next on my wildly overdue watchlist: Wake in Fright 🫣
I’ve got 10 seconds
Quote of the week
“To be honest, I don’t fully understand the plot… I saw Florence Pugh… and I said, ‘Gosh, it’s so funny, I’ve never met you, but you lay on top of me, or your body double did.’ And she goes, ‘Yeah, I lay on top of you as well, but it was your body double.’” Scottish actor Alan Cumming on the U.S. digital radio show Morning Mashup about his upcoming return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Cumming, who currently hosts the U.S. version of The Traitors, played the superhero Nightcrawler in X-Men 2 in 2003 and is back for Avengers: Doomsday. Just don’t ask him what it’s about.
Stat of the week
7. The number of MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) Madonna won on Monday, though only three of those wins were during the live broadcast. Despite her ageless appearance, Madge did remind us she’s still a 68-year-old woman with a joke as she accepted the award for Artist of the Year: “I would like to thank my fingers, because I can always count on them.” Ok grandma, let’s get you to bed.
Photo of the week
Our Kylie, the Impossible Princess, performing ahead of the AFL Grand Final at the MCG on Saturday afternoon.
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The group chat TL;DR
The lineup for Laneway is finally here. Next year’s edition of the Aus/NZ travelling festival will be headlined by Irish band Fontaines D.C. and Paramore frontwoman Hayley Williams, and feature Ninajirachi, Slayyyter, and Kim Petras. Some TDA Culture faves further down the poster are Daine, Rachel Chinouriri, and Ecca Vandal; get listening to their catalogues now! Unlike previous years, Laneway won’t be making stops in Adelaide and Perth, with organisers telling the ABC the cost of flying musicians and their gear across the country was too high this time around.
Ella Langley has broken and extended the record for the longest time spent at the top of the Billboard Hot 100, with her ear-wormy single Choosin’ Texas. Langley breezed past Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas Is You, which had accumulated 22 weeks at no.1 from 2019 to 2026. (Side note: It’s wild that that song didn’t hit no.1 until 2019.) These charts are calculated based on radio play, streaming, and both physical and digital sales.
The annual fashion festival Vogue World has sparked controversy this year over one of its sponsors, the U.S. pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly, which manufactures the weight-loss drug Mounjaro. Vogue Magazine has run the World event in different cities each year since 2022, built around a runway presentation with a mix of models and celebs wearing new and vintage looks. This year’s event was held in Milan, with sponsors including Meta Glasses, OpenAI, Alo activewear, and Eli Lilly. Body image expert Charlotte Markey told The Guardian: “For an audience already exposed to intense appearance pressures, that can normalise the idea that changing your body medically is simply another beauty or wellness choice.”
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On the left, Tomi Adeyemi. On the right, the cast and director of Children of Blood and Bone. Amandla Stenberg is second from the right
Why a YA author won’t watch the adaptation of her book
Over the last few months, a minor scandal has been brewing in the Young Adult (YA) fiction world and the film industry.
Nigerian-American writer Tomi Adeyemi has publicly distanced herself from the upcoming film adaptation of her 2018 novel Children of Blood and Bone, saying she will never allow another of her books to be made into a film.
Here’s the story so far.
The book
Children of Blood and Bone (hereafter CBB) is the first book in a YA fantasy series which draws inspiration from West African mythologies. It follows a young woman named Zélie who wants to bring magic back to her homeland, teaming up with a princess named Amari and a prince named Inan. The key thing to know from this point is that in the book, Amari is described as having “dark copper skin”.
The adaptation
A film version of CBB has been in progress since 2017, before the book was even published, a fairly common process in Hollywood. It took until January 2025 for filming to begin (again, pretty normal), with Thuso Mbedu (The Woman King, Task) set to star as Zélie and Amandla Stenberg (The Hunger Games) as Amari.
Stenberg’s casting sparked online discussion, with some readers saying she is lighter-skinned than they had imagined Amari to be. In response, Stenberg posted to TikTok to defend her casting, saying she would “never go after a role that I didn’t feel like was right for me to chase,” and said she had met with Adeyemi about the film. Production went ahead with well-regarded director Gina Prince-Bythewood, and Adeyemi visited set in February 2025.
The drama
This past July, a few weeks out from the film’s trailer dropping, Adeyemi took to TikTok to share her unvarnished thoughts on the adaptation and on Stenberg. She shared a screenshot of texts with Stenberg where the author asked the actor not to contact her any more or mention her name. Adeyemi also said she will not watch the film.
The day after the trailer was released, Adeyemi put out another video with more detail. In it, she said her set visit caused her to experience panic attacks and “severe somatic pain”. She added that she is “still being antagonised behind the scenes,” though she didn’t specify who was antagonising her.
Then, this week, Adeyemi spoke to The Guardian to promote her latest book. She reiterated that she has not watched the film and will never watch it, noting that “with a film, the director makes every decision… with my book I can talk about every choice down to the commas”.
Children of Blood and Bone is out in theatres in January 2027. It remains to be seen if Adeyemi will attend any of the premieres.
Reporting by Lucy Tassell
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Photos: Amazon MGM, Warner Bros, Madman, Lionsgate
TDA Culture’s spring/summer movie preview
Have you noticed a lot of new trailers across your feeds this week? It’s not just you. Lots of major movies are scheduled for this time of year as Hollywood leaves film festivals behind and looks ahead to awards season.
I’ve picked out the most exciting new films to see in the coming months (except The Social Reckoning, which we’ll have more to say about next week). And because your mood on a spring or summer day can change based on your level of hayfever, dehydration, or sunburn, I’ve put them on a sliding scale from Prestige 🎭 to Popcorn🍿.
October
Verity - Based on the Colleen Hoover thriller about a novelist who may or may not be in a vegetative state. Reviewers are calling it high camp. Out today!
Digger - Tom Cruise puts on the prosthetics for the first time since Tropic Thunder. Catch this in cinemas and go out for a drink afterwards to talk about it. Out today!
Sense and Sensibility - Two reasons to see this: Australian author Diana Reid (Love & Virtue) wrote the script, and it was directed by Georgia Oakley, whose 2022 film Blue Jean is worth seeking out. 15 Oct.
Primetime - Robert Pattinson in sicko mode. Enough said. 29 Oct.
November
Wicker - Olivia Colman falls in love with a man made of wicker. Maybe don’t see it with mum. Or do, I don’t know your life. 5 Nov.
The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping - Australia’s own Joseph Zada is playing young Woody Harrelson in an adaptation of, in my opinion, the better Hunger Games prequel. There might even be a JLaw cameo 👀. 19 Nov.
The Fox - Olivia Colman again! This time as the voice of a magic fox in an Australian film from Dario Russo, one of the minds behind Danger 5. 26 Nov.
December
Dune: Part Three - Don’t forget to walk into the theatre without rhythm so you won’t attract the sand worm. 17 Dec.
Avengers: Doomsday - Seven years after we left the ‘vengies behind, they’re back and bigger than ever. Primo school holiday viewing. 17 Dec.
The Debut - Fresh off A Real Pain, Jesse Eisenberg is behind the camera again for this interesting-looking comedy about a community theatre group. Boxing Day.
Reporting by Lucy Tassell
Recommendation of the week
What I’m watching
Feeling down, tired, or just over it? Watch this video of a young Stevie Nicks behind the scenes of a photoshoot, singing a demo of what would become the song Wild Heart. It’s the best video on the internet.
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