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Rachel in 2017: A Year In Review

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It’s time for our annual year in review again. This year probably marks one of the quietest years of Rachel’s career thus far. This year none of Rachel’s movies got released in theaters, but “Disobedience” screened during the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival. Rachel filmed the movie in the beginning of this year in the UK and also filmed “Game Night” in the first half of this year. We will give you a summary and review of Rachel’s career in 2017 on the last day of the year.

Read our full review after the jump/inside.

2017 began with the announcement of Rachel joining the cast of “Game Night” alongside costar Jason Bateman with Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley set to direct. January also saw the on DVD/Blu-Ray/Demand release of “Doctor Strange“. “Disobedience” began filming in January and wrapped up filming mid-February with director of photography/cinematographer Danny Cohen confirmed to be the DP. The movie filmed on-location in London and a few days in New York. Late May it was announced that “Disobedience” was sold internationally, including in the UK.

Additional casting for “Game Night” was announced mid-February, which included Kylie Bunbury and Jesse Plemons with Lamorne Morris, Billy Magnussen, Kyle Chandler and Sharon Horgan joining in March. Principal photography for the movie began early April in Atlanta with New Line Cinema confirming the news and cast a few days later. The movie was originally set to be released on February 14, 2018 but Warner Bros eventually set the release for February 23, 2018. The movie wrapped up filming late May. The directors confirmed Michael C. Hall was also part of the cast early July. The studio hosted several test screenings for the movie throughout the Summer/Fall of this year. According to the screenwriter the test screenings went well with the audience noting the movie was “unexpected”. The movie finished post-production mid-December and received a r-rating.

Rachel continued to support (non-profit) organizations throughout the year. Rachel donated to the Tie One On Toronto mid-May with the charity releasing a photo of Rachel on what seems to be the set of “Game Night“. Furthermore, she also joined NBC’s The Red Nose Day Special in May, which was founded by “About Time” director Richard Curtis. The special aired on May 27th and Rachel’s segment was prerecorded on-set of “Game Night“. Late August Rachel appeared in a PSA broadcast aired during the Mayweather versus McGregor fight to support tolerance and stop hate. Rachel also continued her work with NRDC. Rachel and NRDC asked people to join the NRDC Action Fund to ask representatives in Congress to say NO to weakening the landmark Marine Mammal Protection Act to fast-track oil and gas drilling.

Rachel made her first official appearance early June in Los Angeles. Rachel attended AFI 45th Life Achievement Award Gala Tribute to Diane Keaton. Rachel worked with Diane Keaton twice: in “The Family Stone” and “Morning Glory“. Other attendees included Meryl Streep, Reese Witherspoon and her former co-stars Emma Stone (Aloha) and Jane Seymour (Wedding Crashers). The tribute aired during the summer with Rachel being one of the people paying tribute.

Mid-July marked the 12 anniversary of “Wedding Crashers” – which was released on July 15, 2005 in the USA – and director David Dobkin talked about the possibility of a sequel in June. Another project of Rachel that might see a follow-up is “Slings & Arrows” with the creators hinting at a possibility of a prequel. One of the creators confirmed the development of the sequel late November. Late July it was confirmed “Disobedience” was set to have it’s world premiere during the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival. Ahead of it’s premiere the movie received buzz. “Mean Girls” was also added as special screening to the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival line-up.

In September Rachel attended the Toronto International Film Festival to promote “Disobedience” alongside costars Rachel Weisz and Alessandro Nivola and director Sebastián Lelio. First stop was Variety Studio for a joint interview. After a day of press, the cast and director attended the world premiere red carpet. After the first screenings, the movie received praise from the critics. The movie currently holds a 92% rating (with 14 reviews) at Rotten Tomatoes and 81 score at Meta Critics (with 7 reviews). The cast and director attended Deadline’s Conversations Panel the day after the premiere. While promoting the movie they also were photographed by various photographers, including for The Hollywood Reporter. The cast and director also sat down for various (joint) interviews to promote the movie. The movie was acquired by Bleecker Street late September and set the release for April 27, 2018 in the USA.

This year two of Rachel’s projects continued to receive acclaim. “The Little Prince” continued it’s succes Europe and received a British Academy Children’s Awards nomination for Best Feature. The movie ended up winning the BAFTA award with the director taking the stage to accept the award. Furthermore, the 38th Annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards Nominations were announced in late July and “Sonic Sea” received 3 nominations, including for Outstanding Nature Documentary. The documentary ended up taking home 2 awards. Rachel is the narrator of the documentary.

Late October Vanity Fair published an in-depth interview with Rachel and Selma Blair in which they shared their traumatic encounters with director James Toback early in their careers. Rachel urged for acknowledgement: “This has all got to stop. We need to start acknowledging what an epidemic this is, and what a deep-seated problem this is.”

New Line/Warner Bros released the first official look for “Game Night” early November. Additionally, the first (teaser) trailer was released. At least part of the cast and crew filmed additional scenes and/or reshoots early November in Atlanta. It was not announced or confirmed if Rachel was part of the filming. The end of the year brought the 15 year anniversary of “The Hot Chick“.

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Favorites of 2017

Just like previous years we would also like to share our favorites of this year. We would love to hear yours as well, so be sure to share them in the comments!

Best Red Carpet Look
This year Rachel, sadly, did not attend many events. Our favorite look has to be during the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival. She wore a beautiful red dress by Fendi from the Fall 2017 Ready to Wear Collection with killer heels by Le Silla. Styling by her usual glam squad: styling by Rob Zangardi & Mariel Haenn with makeup by her sister Kayleen McAdams.

Best News
The best news is probably a tie between “Disobedience” officially starting principal photography and Rachel joining the cast of “Game Night“. The latter project has us excited because it has been a while since Rachel has done a comedy and we think her comedic skills are underrated. “Morning Glory” and “Mean Girls” remain one of our favorite performances by Rachel so we can’t wait to see what “Game Night” will have in store for us.

Photoshoot
One of the things about covering film festivals is getting brand new portraits and 2017 TIFF delivered with beautiful new outtakes of Rachel alongside her “Disobedience” costars and director Lelio.

Best Interview(s)
Our favorite interviews have to be Rachel’s joint interviews alongside the “Disobedience” cast and director Lelio during the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival.

Best Quote
In light of the #MeToo movement, Vanity Fair published an in-depth interview with Rachel and Selma Blair. In case you are in need of support we would like to highlight the RAINN Sexual Assault Hotline and the “Spotlight” survivor resources page.

“This has all got to stop. We need to start acknowledging what an epidemic this is, and what a deep-seated problem this is. You have to get it all out in the open and in the light so that we can really understand how pervasive this is. I think we almost have to exhaust ourselves sharing our experiences before the rebuilding can begin. And hopefully we never slip back into this darkness again.”
-Rachel McAdams, Vanity Fair

Best Quote on Rachel
Another highlight is Rachel getting the opportunity to work with the incredibly talented Rachel Weisz. Rachel herself expressed how lucky she felt working with Rachel Weisz: “I’m a lucky girl. She’s amazing. I coudlnt’ imagine a better partner to go into this journey with.”

“We really had each other’s backs and that’s a form of love, I guess. I couldn’t have done this with anyone else ”
–Rachel Weisz, Deadline Conversation Panel

“She’s so wonderful. She’s … I think everyone’s sweetheart. Let’s face it! You can’t just have her in Canada, you have to share a little bit! [laughs]”
–Rachel Weisz, Etalk

Best Project
While none of Rachel’s projects were released this year our favorite project has to be “Disobedience“. We are really excited to see Rachel working with Rachel Weisz and even more so after the acclaim from the critics. We can’t wait to see this movie ourselves when it gets released.

Best Social Media Post
While Rachel is not active on social media, it is always nice to see Rachel featured on the social media of costars or filmmakers she has worked with. The “Game Night” cast and crew were very active while filming and it was nice we got a glimpse of Rachel on-set every now and then.


A honourable mention has to go to Emma Freud, script editor and partner of Richard Curtis, who agreed that “About Time” set the “nicest film” she worked on and called the movie her “favorite of all our [with Richard Curtis movies.”




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You can (re)read our previews year in reviews by following these links: 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010. We also want to give a shout-out and thank you to our friends Frederik and Jess for inspiring us to start the ‘A Year in Review’ in the first place. We would also give a special thank you to our friends Luciana, Claudia, Nicole, Amanda & Lou, and Haylie for all their donations this past year (and previous years!).