Director Bart Freundlich, wife Julianne Moore, Michelle Williams, Billy Crudup open Aug. 9 in a shocker drama titled “After the Wedding”. . . Aug. 14 is Perri Peltz’s doc “Alternate Endings: Six New Ways To Die in America” with green burials, living wakes, ashes shot into space or onto coral reefs. Listen, you can do a nice happy double feature.
“Depraved,” Sept. 13, is another sweet thing based on Frankenstein. Or Olivia Colman (last year’s Best Actress for “The Favourite”) and Jim Gaffigan immortalizing a sect that handles venomous snakes to prove themselves to God in “Them That Follow.” Friday . . . Something light? “Brian Banks.” A school football star, jailed for a crime he didn’t commit, gets helped by Greg Kinnear. That’s Aug. 9.
“Unmasking Jihadi John: Anatomy of a Terrorist” is Wednesday’s HBO doc about Brit school student Mohammed Emwazi, whose extremism — known to US authorities — became Syria’s brutal, masked ISIS terrorist “Jihadi John,” responsible for 2014-15’s horrific beheadings. This features surviving hostages, families of those executed, torture, interviews, Gen. David Petraeus, CIA, Pentagon and officials who have not before spoken publicly.
Sept. 6. The star-crossed “Blink of an Eye.” NASCAR’s iconic Dale Earnhardt Sr. and its losingest driver, Michael Waltrip, who broke his 462-race losing streak at the Daytona 500 the very day best friend Earnhardt had a fatal crash in the final lap.
Plus Demi Moore, Ed Helms, Jessica Williams in “Corporate Animals,” a thing about a company retreat that goes really ca-ca. It’s out Sept. 20.
Prefer something light? Tune into CNN.
Please pay attention
Ariana DeBose, who has the major Anita role in Spielberg’s coming film “West Side Story”: “What’s difficult filming on the streets of New York is dancing with cement under your shoes” . . .
Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison, with as many houses as he has wallets, bought yet another waterside mansion in Newport, RI. Paying a miserly give or take $9 mil, he’s now spending $100 million renovating the thing. It’s to house his 18th-century art collection. Also his billfold.
Amazing new artist
Emmanuel Kelly. Coldplay’s Chris Martin discovered him. Sunday he’ll put a show on YouTube and Periscope. Next up comes his debut album, musical, book and reality-TV show.
Don’t know him? Baby Emmanuel, born with undeveloped limbs due to chemical warfare, was found in a box in Iraq. No ID. In Baghdad’s Mother Teresa orphanage he saw the worst — murders, bodies thrown into a mass grave.
Humanitarian Moira Kelly brought him to Australia. After six surgeries and 14 years, he can walk and feed himself. His “X-Factor” audition singing “Imagine” went viral, was viewed all over the world, and Billboard featured it.
And that’s who Emmanuel Kelly is.
What I hear
From one who for years worked for, and thus knows, the longtime close buddybuddy pal of Jeffrey Epstein: “Leslie Wexner was not outgoing. Not one for rah-rah bigtime noise. That relationship has to have been based on business opportunities for Leslie.”
A friend sent me a decorative wall-hanging ceramic plaque, which bears this loving legend: “I would like to apologize to anyone I have not yet offended. Please be patient. I will get to you shortly.”
My plan? Keep the plaque and lose the friend — only in New York, kids, only in New York.