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When you play the Game of Thrones, you either win the ratings or you die. According to the network's parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery (via Variety), "House of the Dragon" has now officially become the highest-rated HBO season finale since the series finale of "Game of Thrones" back in 2019.
9.3 million viewers reportedly tuned in to see the Dance of the Dragons in "The Black Queen," the tenth and final episode of "House of the Dragon" season 1. This number includes both HBO viewers and streaming viewers watching the finale on HBO Max. It's still slightly below the 10.2 million viewers of the...
The post House of the Dragon Episode 10 Is HBO's Most-Viewed Finale Since Game of Thrones appeared first on /Film.
"The Sopranos" is known for being one of the best drama series of all time, and it is. But in addition to its darker moments, it's also a show with a surprising thread of humor throughout its six seasons. David Chase's series is as much about the human condition and the dissatisfaction with modern life as it is about mob violence, and in Chase's eyes, modern life can be funny as hell sometimes.
That dark comedy shows up as early as the very first episode of the series, in a scene in which young initiate Christopher Moltisanti (Michael Imperioli) and reliable mobster...
The post Vincent Pastore Is Responsible For One Of The Sopranos' Only Improvised Scenes appeared first on /Film.
We lost a remarkably talented actor, gay icon, and an absolute gem of a human being today, as the incomparable Leslie Jordan passed away at the age of 67. The flirtatious funnyman was in the midst of the third season of the Fox series "Call Me Kat," which is now going on an indefinite pause in the wake of his passing. Jordan had already completed nine episodes of the season at the time of his passing, with four episodes having already aired.
The Fox series stars Mayim Bialik as a fun-loving woman named Kat who uses her entire life's...
The post Call Me Kat Pauses Production of Season 3 Due to the Death of Leslie Jordan appeared first on /Film.
Us "Star Wars" fans have been waiting patiently (okay, some of us not-so-patiently) for any word on what is next for the saga. We're getting a ton of "Star Wars" stories on Disney+ and we can be thankful for all the Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni work there, but what made all of us fall in love with this particularly fascinating galaxy are the movies.
Patty Jenkins's "Rogue Squadron" movie has been delayed to the point where nobody's sure if that's gonna happen anymore and Rian Johnson's proposed spin-off trilogy still shows signs of life from time to time,...
The post Damon Lindelof's Star Wars Movie Will Be Co-Written By The Strain Writer Justin Britt-Gibson, Focused on Post-Skywalker Timeline appeared first on /Film.
Olivia Wilde's latest directorial venture, "Don't Worry Darling," was one of the most talked-about films of the year, mostly due to the off-screen drama surrounding the cast and crew, since the overall film was, as we described in our review, a stylish thriller that fell short of its high-minded ideas. The Florence Pugh ("Little Women"), Harry Styles ("Dunkirk"), Gemma Chan ("Crazy Rich Asians"), KiKi Layne ("The Old Guard"), Chris Pine ("All the Old Knives"), and Wilde ("Babylon"), starring film was inspired by the classic Hollywood films of yesteryear, set in an idealized community called Victory in an alternate 1950s with a sinister secret bubbling beneath its...
The post How to Watch Don't Worry Darling at Home appeared first on /Film.
This article contains spoilers for the "House of the Dragon" season 1 finale.
There were certain promises "House of the Dragon" made before it premiered. It aimed to keep the parts of "Game of Thrones" you loved, but without the baggage from the divisive finale. The show promised political intrigue and epic fantasy battles without the disappointing deus ex machinas, and the last minute character assassinations. It promised family rivalry and incest without -- well, they kept those, actually.
The point is, the show had simultaneously both a very high bar and a very low bar to clear. "Game of Thrones" is one of the biggest shows...
The post The House of the Dragon Finale Finally Delivered Big Dragon Action appeared first on /Film.
Spoilers ahead for "Stranger Things" through season 4.
The Netflix series "Stranger Things" gave us a pretty powerful fourth season, with the gang going up against Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) in the Upside Down, and a look at how friendships morph and twist as kids become teenagers and beyond. What began as an '80s throwback story about the disappearance of a kid and his friends' search to find him is now a fully-realized universe.
Season 4 was not only powerful but expensive -- reportedly costing up to $30 million for each episode. That's a whole lot of money to spend on things...
The post The Duffer Brothers Don't Want To Get Careless With The Massive Budget Of Stranger Things appeared first on /Film.
Singer and songwriter Sufjan Stevens has made quite the name for himself over the years. From his ambitious project where he set out to make an album for every state in America (of which there are only two) to his recent 2017 contributions to the soundtrack for Luca Guadagnino's Oscar nominated "Call Me By Your Name" (of which the song "Mystery of Love" also earned its own Oscar nomination for Best Original Song), Stevens has had an extremely successful career.
Style wise, his songs tend to hover somewhere in an ethereal dream space with songs that are often always filled with Stevens's soft, breathy...
The post How Paul Dano Got Sufjan Stevens On The Little Miss Sunshine Soundtrack appeared first on /Film.
When people talk about the gold standard of superhero movies, they are often referring to "Superman." Even after all these years, the 1978 film remains the bar by which all other movies of the genre are judged. From John Williams' iconic score to the pitch perfect casting of Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder — not to mention its groundbreaking special effects — "Superman" truly made audiences believe a man could fly.
"Superman" and its sequel were largely shot back to back and while I do believe the first film is one of the greatest superhero movies ever made, "Superman II" was always my favorite...
The post Terence Stamp Believes The First Two Superman Films Set A High Benchmark appeared first on /Film.
"How y'all doing?"
Well, I'm emotionally destroyed, Leslie.
At only four feet 11 inches tall, few comedians could tower over a crowd quite like Leslie Jordan. A perennial delight with a trademark Southern accent that came with an audible smile, Jordan was known for his larger-than-life roles in projects like "Sordid Lives," "American Horror Story," "Call Me Kat," and his Emmy-winning performance as Beverly Leslie on "Will & Grace." Jordan was a singular talent whose mere existence brought joy to countless people, with a zest for life that most would be lucky to experience a fraction of, and an unapologetic approach to his queerness that...
The post Leslie Jordan Was One of Our Greatest Queer Icons appeared first on /Film.
Gene Hackman is one of the greatest actors of all time. He's also someone who has reinvented himself for many different generations. Although some great actors have never returned to the highlights of their early work, Hackman continued to prove why he was one of the best for decades after he first broke out in the industry.
Between crime thrillers, stage adaptations, quirky comedies, historical epics, and even a superhero movie franchise, Hackman has left major contributions to nearly every genre. Although Hackman clearly had a commanding dramatic presence, he wasn't afraid to take a chance on comedic roles. His single scene in Mel Brooks' 1974 classic...
The post The 15 Best Gene Hackman Movies, Ranked appeared first on /Film.
No two people get their start in Hollywood the same way. Take Leonardo DiCaprio, for instance, who made his movie acting debut in, of all things, "Critters 3" in 1991. By that point, his peer Christian Bale (who, despite what their dating habits might lead you to believe, was born the same year as DiCaprio) had already worked on films with the likes of directors Steven Spielberg and Kenneth Branagh.
The duo's careers have deviated pretty wildly since then, even as they've evolved into two of the most respected working actors in their age bracket. Where DiCaprio has made it his practice to avoid superhero...
The post Why Christian Bale Says He Owes His Career to Leonardo DiCaprio appeared first on /Film.
This article contains spoilers for the latest episode of "Star Trek: Lower Decks."
"Star Trek: Lower Decks" is a brilliant blend of animated workplace comedy and genuine "Star Trek" series, but the most recent episode, "A Mathematically Perfect Redemption," tried something completely different. It abandoned the entire crew and followed a returning guest character from season 1, going off on a unique adventure and only bringing the U.S.S. Cerritos back in at the end. It's a bold swing, but unfortunately, it just doesn't pay off because the episode feels like it belongs on another adult animated comedy.
In the episode, former...
The post Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 3 Takes Its Biggest Narrative Swing Yet — And It Doesn't Work At All appeared first on /Film.
The format break: it's as loathed as it is loved, if not more. Sometimes self-contained one-off episodes can be done brilliantly, as with the great (yet still polarizing) "Breaking Bad" outing "The Fly." Sometimes they're a mixed bag, as with the one-off obsessed third season of "Atlanta." And sometimes they get dragged to hell, like that time "Stranger Things" paused its climax for a heavily "The Warriors"-inspired interlude, or the much-loathed Nikki and Paolo episode of "Lost."
I've always been a fan of a format-breaking episode, so when my fellow Trek-loving co-workers and I...
The post Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 3 Takes Its Biggest Narrative Swing Yet — And It's a Nice Change of Pace appeared first on /Film.
"Top Gun: Maverick" features sequence after sequence of bravura action filmmaking that has helped it become a true money-making phenomenon, reaching nearly $1.5 billion at the worldwide box office. Generally speaking, these are the scenes that separate it from the common Hollywood blockbuster, and Joseph Kosinski, Tom Cruise, and everyone involved should be commended for raising the bar on what audiences should expect out of big budget moviemaking. However, the action scenes alone do not make for a fully satisfying moviegoing experience. Spectacle can only get you so far. You still need to care and understand the characters at the center.
This...
The post You Have Edgar Wright To Thank For One Of Top Gun: Maverick's Best Needle-Drops appeared first on /Film.
Apple TV+ is still riding high after becoming the first streaming service to win Best Picture at the Oscars earlier this year with "CODA." Now, as fall is upon us and the leaves change, we are starting to get a better sense of which movies will be in the awards season race this year. Apple is seemingly back in the mix with "Causeway," the latest from A24 which serves as a starring vehicle for Oscar-winner Jennifer Lawrence ("Silver Linings Playbook").
This looks to be a particularly somber and dramatic turn for Lawrence, who plays Lynsey, a military engineer who has returned to the U.S....
The post Causeway Trailer: Jennifer Lawrence Returns In A Harrowing War Drama appeared first on /Film.
Sometimes, in the world of horror, you get a franchise that hits the ground running and becomes an almost annual tradition right out of the gate (think "Friday the 13th" or "Saw"). But in other cases, it is more of a slow burn, and after years of playing the long game, a franchise quietly is birthed. Such is the case with "Terrifier," which is finally getting a sequel a full six years after the original slasher was released and nearly a decade after the film's killer, Art the Clown, debuted in the horror anthology "All Hallows Eve."
The post Terrifier 2 Director Damien Leone Brings Art The Clown Back For A Bigger, Bloodier Sequel [Exclusive Interview] appeared first on /Film.
As of now, there are seven Marvel Studios original series available to stream on Disney+, with so much more on the way. After several different attempts, from the edgy Netflix Marvel shows to the more niche Hulu exclusives, it's finally safe to say the Marvel Cinematic Universe has embraced TV. If you're been a longtime fan, however, you'd remember a time when there was just one. One year after 2012's "The Avengers" changed the entertainment industry forever, a spin-off show, "Marvel's Agents of SHIELD" premiered on ABC with big ambitions of being a TV complement to the ever-expanding MCU.
Due to the internal...
The post How The Agents Of SHIELD's Cast Felt About Their Characters' Fates appeared first on /Film.
This post contains spoilers for the latest episode of "She-Hulk."
Secret identities are a pillar of superhero stories, a cornerstone of the genre, and the thing that first set the Marvel Cinematic Universe apart from any other superhero franchise. Before Nick Fury dropped by to reveal a larger universe and tease the creation of the Avengers, it was Tony Stark publicly and willingly proclaiming "I am Iron Man" that forever changed the superhero genre in cinema. From there, the idea of a secret identity fueled both the plot of "Spider-Man: No Way Home," and was the whole raison d'être for "Captain...
The post She-Hulk Just Casually Eliminated the Reason for Captain America: Civil War — What Does This Mean for the MCU? appeared first on /Film.
Stephen Sommers' "The Mummy," a swash-buckling 1999 remake of Karl Freund's 1932 horror movie of the same name, almost works on accident. It's derivative of the "Indiana Jones" films but has just enough quirks and personality to set itself apart. It's tongue-in-cheek, but without being obnoxiously self-aware. Its villain Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo) is even genuinely horrifying at times, though not so much as to give you tonal whiplash when the strapping Rick O'Connell (Brendan Fraser) scares him away with a hissing cat.
This also feels like a good place to mention that everyone in "The Mummy" is extremely hot, which assuredly doesn't hurt its quality, either.
"The Mummy"...
The post The Mummy Returns Was Almost Scrapped By Director Stephen Sommers appeared first on /Film.
41 years after its release in theaters, John Landis' "An American Werewolf in London" seems nearly as modern today as it did in 1981. That's partly because the script wasn't even a product of its own time — Landis came up with the idea in the late '60s, while working on "Kelly's Heroes" as a PA in Yugoslavia. After witnessing a "gypsy funeral," the 18-year-old Landis was taken with the clash between his so-called civilized background and the fervent belief in superstition and the supernatural he witnessed at the funeral.
As the young Landis began his directing career in earnest during the...
The post An American Werewolf In London Traces Its Roots To A 1940s Monster Movie Classic appeared first on /Film.
Billy Eichner and Nicholas Stoller's "Bros" officially opens in cinemas today, and while it's far from the first gay romcom out there, it is the first R-rated gay romcom produced and theatrically distributed by a mainstream studio. The LGBTQ+ community have their own mixed feelings about how that factoid is being used in the marketing, but when one stops to think about how many unapologetically gay ads and posters of the film are everywhere, or just how many theaters the film will be screened across the U.S. this weekend (perhaps reaching out to audiences who wouldn't normally see queer media), the achievement is nothing to scoff...
The post How Bros Reclaims the Funny Gay Sex Scene appeared first on /Film.
If you're not caught up on "The Boys" season 3 yet, be forewarned: there are spoilers here for the fate of Black Noir.
As a character who is mute and has brain damage, Black Noir (Nathan Mitchell) hasn't always read like an open book to viewers of "The Boys." It wasn't until season 3 that the audience really started to get to know him in a meaningful way, as we learned some of his back story with Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) during the Korean War, and saw the world from his perspective, complete with hallucinated cartoon animals. This being "The Boys," Black Noir was not long...
The post Black Noir's Fate In The Boys Season 3 Was Decided At The Last Minute appeared first on /Film.
This article contains major spoilers for episode 7 of "She-Hulk: Attorney At Law"
If there's one thing "She-Hulk: Attorney At Law" has been able to do more than most projects in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it's showing superpowered, supernatural, and otherwise mythical beings just existing within this world. While Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) was one of the first notable lawyers in the MCU, his clients were largely grounded beings, such as Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal).
Although Jennifer Walters (Tatiana Maslany) hasn't been on hand with all of these specific cases, the superpowered law division of Goodman, Lieber, Kurtzberg, and Holliway have already...
The post Has She-Hulk Truly Given Abomination the Biggest Heel-Turn for an MCU Villain? appeared first on /Film.
Taking all the "Treehouse of Horror" segments in "Simpsons" history and narrowing them down to fifteen isn't an easy feat. Whereas most people agree the show's golden era ended around season 8 or 9, the Halloween specials were still pretty great until at least season 20 or so. Even today, the "Treehouse of Horror" episodes are consistently some of the best of each season.
Season 34 is switching the format up a little: instead of one "Treehouse" special, they're going to have two. The first episode will be under the standard format with three separate segments, including parodies of "Death Note" and (for some reason) "Ellen." The...
The post The 15 Best Simpsons Treehouse of Horror Segments, Ranked appeared first on /Film.
Music is one of the most powerful elements of any form of media. "I'll Be There For You" by The Rembrandts became an infectious classic thanks to its usage as the theme song for "Friends," and the symphonic frenzy of "The Simpsons" theme song is recognizable from the first notes. Music helps indicate the mood of a specific scene to an audience, which makes the scorework of a composer absolutely crucial.
Grammy nominated composer Ramin Djawadi is responsible for countless memorable scores, but his work on "Game of Thrones" is without a doubt his most recognizable. Even hearing just a...
The post House of the Dragon's Score Highlights What Separates The Series From Game Of Thrones appeared first on /Film.
Spoilers for episode 6 of "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power."
Love comes to Middle-earth! In episode 6 of "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power," all that tension between Arondir (Ismael Cruz Córdova) and Bronwyn (Nazanin Boniadi) has finally resulted in a smooch. That's pretty chaste as today's TV series go, but the glances and stares between these two have practically melted the screen. This series is full of longing and stares that seem to mean much more than words. Let's examine Bronwyn and Arondir, and Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) and, well, a couple of...
The post The Rings of Power is a Show Full of Sexual Tension and No Kissing (Until Now) appeared first on /Film.
Come for the harfoots; stay for the horror. That seems to be the approach "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" is taking. The series just delivered its best, most action-packed episode yet with "Udûn," and it was all about stakes: making us feel the danger as an army of orcs, led by Benjen Stark Adar (Joseph Mawle), bore down on the Southlands.
Just last week, we were listening to harfoots sing a nice gentle walking song in "The Rings of Power," but they were nowhere to be seen this week. Instead, the elf Arondir (Ismael Cruz Córdova) and...
The post The Rings of Power's Most Brutal Episode Yet Could Even Outdo the Violence in Lord of the Rings appeared first on /Film.
So far, most of the episode titles for "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" have been pretty self-explanatory. In "Adrift," Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) is adrift at sea. In "The Great Wave," Míriel (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) dreamt of a great wave. Sure, most of the show's titles also have more metaphorical double meanings, but on the surface, they've been quite obvious. The meaning behind the title of the latest and darkest episode of the show, "Udûn," is a little bit less transparent — and has a more loaded history — than most.
Though it has a long history in J.R.R. Tolkien's texts, the word Udûn isn't mentioned...
The post The Rings of Power: Udûn Explained appeared first on /Film.
The version of Galadriel in Prime Video's "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" is driven by a need to fight against the darkness. She's a warrior at heart, spending countless centuries tracking down Sauron, the protege of the first evil, Morgoth. Her brother fought him in the battle in the First Age and perished. She's defied her king, alienated her troops, and turned down a chance to live in bliss in Valinor, all to get her revenge. Now she's on a mission and is considering some very dark deeds, including genocide.
This isn't the first time audiences have seen Galadriel go dark. "Rings...
The post The Rings of Power Sows The Seeds Of Galadriel's Dark Side appeared first on /Film.
This post contains spoilers for the season 6 premiere of "Rick and Morty."
"Rick and Morty" stands at a curious place when it comes to animated sitcoms. As a comedy, the show has always known how to deliver hilarious standalone episodes, a craft that's been slowly lost to time in the age of streaming. From "Pickle Rick" to "Total Rickall" to "The Vat of Acid Episode," there are episodes you can easily watch over and over again on their own and they continue to hold up. These stories focus on a simple sci-fi premise and exploit them for every laugh they're worth.
But every once in a while,...
The post Rick & Morty Season 6 Finally Answers a 7-Year-Old Question appeared first on /Film.
Whether it's embracing his dark side or giving improvisation a shot, Sebastian Stan is drawn to roles that scare him. In 2019, the actor starred in "Endings, Beginnings," filmmaker Drake Doremus' relationship drama that also features Shailene Woodley and Jamie Dornan. The film required Stan to think from his character's perspective in more ways than expected, which was a daunting process for him. The film follows Daphne (Woodley) as a woman undergoing a bad break-up before she gets involved with friends Frank (Stan) and Jack (Dornan) and begins a relationship with each of them.
Like several of Doremus' films, "Endings, Beginnings" is mainly improvised, with...
The post All The Improv In Endings, Beginnings Was A Scary Prospect For Sebastian Stan appeared first on /Film.
Mike Judge and Greg Daniels, the duo who brought us "King of the Hill," are collaborating on a brand new adult animated series that will be developed by Peacock (via The Hollywood Reporter). Judge and Daniels have significant comedy credits to their name — while Daniels is recognized for the U.S. version of "The Office," co-creating "Parks and Recreation," and writing for "The Simpsons," Judge is known for shows like "Beavis and Butt-Head" and "Silicon Valley," among others.
The screenwriters' animation company Bandera is getting ready to go into business with Peacock, and if "Best Buds" receives a series...
The post Best Buds: Everything We Know So Far About the Mike Judge Animated Comedy at Peacock appeared first on /Film.
Neil Patrick Harris made his debut in the entertainment business at age 13, opposite Whoopi Goldberg in the 1988 movie "Clara's Heart." But his life at the time was nothing like your typical child actor. Instead of living in Hollywood, Harris lived in Ruidoso, New Mexico, raised by two middle-class lawyers. Harris stumbled into Hollywood when playwright and "Clara's Heart" screenwriter Mark Medoff discovered him in a theater camp and advocated for his casting in the film.
Harris' performance in "Clara's Heart" garnered the novice actor a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor. The impressive debut led to a tantalizing television opportunity the following year. It...
The post Casting Neil Patrick Harris As Doogie Howser Was a Complicated Process appeared first on /Film.
Born Michael Peterson, the British criminal best known as Charles Bronson -- and now going by Charles Salvador -- was once called the most violent prisoner in Britain by the Guardian. Salvador has notoriously spent most of his life in prison, having been convicted for, in the words of the BBC, armed robbery, wounding, wounding with intent, criminal damage, grievous bodily harm, false imprisonment, blackmail, and threatening to kill. Salvador has a penchant for getting into violent fistfights in prison, and was given his movie-star nickname from his brief days on the outside as a professional bare-knuckle fighter. Salvador was also known for his outsized personality,...
The post How Bronson Became A Challenging Four-Year Process For Tom Hardy appeared first on /Film.
On paper, Clint Eastwood seems to have enjoyed a well plotted out career. In the early 1960s, he made himself known to American television viewers via his role as Rowdy Yates on "Rawhide." From there, he segued to the newfangled Spaghetti Westerns of Sergio Leone as the laconic "Man with No Name" in the "Dollars Trilogy." As conventional Westerns faded out of fashion, Eastwood made violent, anti-mythic oaters like "Hang 'Em High" and "The Outlaw Josey Wales," while adopting the persona of Dirty Harry Callahan in a series of cop flicks that both capitalized on and tweaked the country's law-and-order fervor. Then,...
The post Clint Eastwood Doesn't Do Much Thinking When It Comes To Choosing Films appeared first on /Film.
Is anybody else experiencing whiplash? In between the first two episodes of "House of the Dragon," we skipped ahead 6 months to explore the aftermath of Queen Aemma's death. Since we know from promos and trailers that the season will eventually get around to aging up Rhaenyra and Alicent, time skips were always a given but I didn't expect them to feel quite so jarring. When we're welcomed back to Westeros with "Second of His Name," three years have elapsed, a baby boy is turning two, and Westeros has reluctantly entered a war in the Stepstones.
Not everything is...
The post House of the Dragon Allows the Targaryens to Get Bloody In 'Second of His Name' appeared first on /Film.
Mike Flanagan has a gift for creating emotionally-resonant horror dramas that reveal something essential about the human condition. The creator of "The Haunting of Hill House" and "The Haunting of Bly Manor" shot to fame with the aid of several horror entries throughout the years. Be it his hauntingly surreal "Gerald's Game" or his dark, intriguing "Doctor Sleep," Flanagan's body of work has exemplified that horror does not have to be overly reliant on jump scares to be effective. The horror director is currently on a steady path toward releasing two highly-anticipated Netflix series, namely "The Midnight Club" and "The Fall of...
The post Oculus Was A Particularly Tough Horror Movie For Mike Flanagan To Pitch appeared first on /Film.
Created by Mike Judge and Greg Daniels, the animated series "King of the Hill" is remembered for its hilarious, down-to-earth depiction of the everyday life of salesman Hank Hill, who lives in the fictional town of Arlen, Texas, with his family. The comedy series paints a refreshing and relatable picture of suburban Texas life and is recognized for its enduring legacy, and the influence it created on sitcom history.
Since its abrupt cancellation in 2009, "King of the Hill" has stood the test of time for its humble characters and deeply resonant themes. It often depicted quintessential Americana culture with a subtlety...
The post King Of The Hill Based Arlen, Texas On A Very Real Location appeared first on /Film.
While he may not be as well-known today as Alfred Hitchcock or Billy Wilder, director Nicholas Ray had a fantastic run during the '50s working across a range of genres from film noir ("In a Lonely Place") to war saga ("Flying Leathernecks"), coming-of-age teen angst ("Rebel Without a Cause") to westerns, the strangest of which is undoubtedly "Johnny Guitar." Shot in gaudy Trucolor, it stands apart from other studio westerns of the day, maybe because it isn't really a western at all -- It's more like a twisted gothic psychodrama that just happens to be set in the Old West.
Although the title refers...
The post The Real-Life Feud That Gave Joan Crawford's Johnny Guitar a Vicious Edge appeared first on /Film.
Sometimes great movies and TV shows have the most unlikely sources of inspiration. Nick Park and Aardman Animations' masterpiece "Chicken Run" was based on John Sturges' classic POW adventure "The Great Escape," while "Logan" director James Mangold pitched the film as "'Little Miss Sunshine" with Wolverine and Charles Xavier (via Empire). When it came time to screen episodes of his iconic and wildly influential HBO series "The Sopranos" at the Museum of Modern Art, creator David Chase paired it with an unlikely inspiration: the 1940 Laurel and Hardy classic "Saps at Sea."
You might think that "Goodfellas" or "Public Enemy" or "Carlito's Way" might have been a more...
The post The Surreal Laurel and Hardy Comedy That (Apparently) Inspired The Sopranos appeared first on /Film.
Unlike many classic movies about World War 2, "Casablanca" was made during the war. The film was released in 1942, just under a year after America entered the conflict, and is set a year earlier in the eponymous Moroccan city. Club owner Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) discovers that his old flame Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) and her husband Victor Laszlo (Paul Heinrid), both Nazi resistance fighters, are in Casablanca and looking to escape to America.
The film shows Casablanca as a refugee hub, full of unique characters scattered to the winds by Nazi oppression of their homelands. Rick, the sole American in the cast,...
The post How Two World Leaders Helped Casablanca Launch Humphrey Bogart To Superstardom appeared first on /Film.
Buster Keaton was one of the biggest names in early cinema, famous for his physical comedy. He thrived on an ability to improvise these gags; Keaton grew up as a vaudeville performer, and spent his childhood improvising slapstick routines with his father onstage. As a Hollywood filmmaker, Keaton continued to rely on improvisation for his comedy — but this required him to follow one simple rule.
Keaton got his start as an entertainer traveling in a company alongside Harry Houdini. It was here that he learned to improvise fluidly and hilariously. His first time in front of a camera was in Fatty...
The post A Simple Rule Made Sure Buster Keaton Could Always Throw In Some Improv appeared first on /Film.
If you spent any time observing the chaos of the Sterling Cooper offices, then it's probably hard to look at Jon Hamm and not immediately flashback to his days as the suave ad-man with a laundry list of issues. Over the course of seven seasons, "Mad Men" tangled with the impossible task of unpacking the inner life of Don Draper, who proved to be an alcoholic, a serial womanizer, a terrible father, an even worse husband, an abusive boss ... and yet, a sympathetic character.
The magic of "Mad Men" was multifaceted — partially a product of series creator Matthew Weiners's writing...
The post Mad Men Was Almost Finished Before Jon Hamm Got Over His Jitters appeared first on /Film.
In the past decade, network television has failed to compete creatively with the shows available on premium channels and streaming services. The best showrunners and artists in the industry tend to sign deals with the studios that they know will give them the freedom to pursue their ideas to their fullest potential. How can networks like NBC compete with blockbuster shows like HBO's "Game of Thrones" or Netflix's "Stranger Things?"
A rare exception to this trend is NBC's brilliant existential science fiction sitcom "The Good Place." Although it functions as a standard network comedy, "The Good Place" is slyly subversive in the way that it tackles...
The post The 14 Best The Good Place Episodes, Ranked appeared first on /Film.
The box office is starving right now, and not even a National Cinema Day event and the re-release of Marvel mega-blockbuster "Spider-Man: No Way Home" can provide it with much sustenance.
Variety reports that the "More Fun Stuff" version of "Spider-Man: No Way Home" is #1 at the box office this weekend with a take of $6 million. This is even less than last weekend's top-ranked movie, vampire horror "The Invitation," which made its debut with $7 million. "No Way Home" is expected to round out the Labor Day weekend with a total of $7.6 million including Monday, which will be a...
The post Spider-Man: No Way Home Re-Release Leads Another Abysmal Box Office Weekend With $6 Million appeared first on /Film.
A man pushing his body to physical extremes knows he's on his last leg. Plagued by regret, he reaches out to his long-estranged daughter who wants little to do with the man who abandoned her in pursuit of his own adulation. All the while, the man receives emotional support from a patient female service worker who supplies encouragement and exasperation in equal measure as she watches this decision's toll on both his body and soul.
Such is the plot of Darren Aronofsky's "The Whale." But if that description sounds familiar, it's also the rough contours of his previous film "The Wrestler." Like a...
The post The Whale Review: Brendan Fraser Shines in a Derivative Darren Aronofsky Film [Venice] appeared first on /Film.
In moments of extreme duress, human beings are allegedly capable of amazing physical feats. This phenomenon is called "hysterical strength." There can be no accurate study of the condition because the surge of adrenaline (or possibly norepinephrine) is highly situational and momentary. So all we've got to go on are unverified stories of, say, a woman lifting a car that had fallen off its jacks to save her baby — an incredible event comic-book legend Jack Kirby claimed to have witnessed, which led to the creation of the Hulk.
Esteemed actor Edward Norton knows a thing or two about the Hulk....
The post Moonrise Kingdom Needed Some Movie Magic To Get Edward Norton Carrying Harvey Keitel appeared first on /Film.
Soap opera stars don't often break through to the world of film, but that wasn't going to stop Julianne Moore. The actress first gained notoriety for her role as two half-sisters on "As The World Turns," which also led to her first major award, a Daytime Emmy for the dual role.
With four Oscar nominations (and inexplicably, just one win) to her name, Julianne Moore has cemented herself as one of the finest actors in Hollywood. She consistently gives her all to every project she's in and has garnered powerful working partnerships with directors like Todd Haynes and Paul Thomas Anderson. She has had a career full...
The post The 15 Best Julianne Moore Films, Ranked appeared first on /Film.
(Welcome to TV, Interrupted, a series where the /Film team remembers, eulogizes, and makes a case for the revival of TV shows we loved that were canceled far too soon.)
Often, the shows we cover here at TV, Interrupted have been off the air for quite a while. We're here for the Hannibals, the Wonderfalls, and even the Carnivàles. But every now and again, a fresh cancellation feels too acutely unfair to ignore, and some shows are worth celebrating -- and pitching to new networks -- before the dust has even settled. "Rutherford Falls" is one of these rare cases. News of the...
The post TV, Interrupted: Rutherford Falls Deserves a New Place To Call Home appeared first on /Film.
It's one of the tragic moments of adulthood. You sit down to watch a film you idolized in your childhood — and haven't seen in just as long — only to discover a far less magical or even entertaining experience. Luckily, that's absolutely not the case with the 1995 Disney classic "A Goofy Movie," which I recently treated myself to a rewatch of. I am happy to report that the movie is still as heartwarming and hilarious as I remember it. From the big laughs of the Bigfoot scene to the teary eyes I still get when Max and Goofy finally reconcile.
But from the...
The post A Goofy Movie's Success Defied All Of Disney's Expectations appeared first on /Film.
Tom Hardy may be regarded as one of Hollywood's few bonafide movie stars, but the actor has never made it a priority to be a leading man in his films. Sure, he has headlined his own superhero franchise in "Venom," but he has rarely gone out of his way to be the sole acting powerhouse in any given film. In fact, some of his best performances are in a supporting role, across the so-called "leading man." For example, in the three Christopher Nolan projects he's been in — "Inception," "The Dark Knight Rises," and "Dunkirk" — Hardy is relegated to being second (or third)...
The post Being A Leading Man Was Never A Priority For Tom Hardy appeared first on /Film.
By the time of Humphrey Bogart's final film performance, in 1956's "The Harder They Fall," the movie star had fallen gravely ill. His years of smoking and drinking climaxed with what would become fatal esophageal cancer, which cast an unmissable pall on his performance. And yet, he still brings his star-making qualities: the toughness and bitterness, the anger and wry sarcasm.
Because "The Harder They Fall" is just one of many noir-era movies about the boxing underworld, it gets less respect than Bogart's many classics. He hadn't even wanted to be in the movie, focusing his remaining energy in vain on...
The post The Harder They Fall's Cast Made It An Awkward Prospect For Humphrey Bogart appeared first on /Film.
It's astonishing to see how the roster of silent clowns are still influencing how an entire medium is portrayed. From Charlie Chaplin to Harold Lloyd, each of them played an integral part in the pantheon of comedy in the silent era. The stone-faced Buster Keaton always ended up being my favorite. No one could replicate the dispirited look in his eyes, which usually hoodwinked anyone who came across his path.
Buster's experience on the vaudeville stage would ultimately prepare him for one of the most illustrious runs of the silent era. His brand of expressionless deadpan usually kept you at arm's length....
The post Buster Keaton Had To Do Some Digging To Rescue His Early Films appeared first on /Film.
Director Rob Reiner's 1986 coming-of-age film "Stand By Me" elicits emotional themes of mortality and self-preservation. Audiences follow four friends in 1956 who venture on a journey through the rural parts of Castle Rock, Maine to find a dead body. The screenplay is adapted from Stephen King's novella, "The Body" which spotlights the characters' abusive and dysfunctional family backgrounds as they ponder their own shortcomings living in a town that seems to erode away at their future. Previously coming off of the comedic satire "This is Spinal Tap", Reiner embraced a project where he can showcase multi-dimensional characters in order to create...
The post Getting Stand By Me's Cast To Fear A Fake Train Took Some Aggressive Directing appeared first on /Film.
"I felt like I was watching a dream I could never wake up from. Before I knew it, the dream was over."
These words, spoken by Spike Spiegel in Shinichirō Watanabe's genre-hybrid anime series, "Cowboy Bebop," form the crux of his character. Apart from being one of the primary protagonists of the series, Spike is the heart of "Cowboy Bebop," as his troubled nonchalance reinforces several themes in Watanabe's classic. The green-haired space cowboy undergoes quite the personal journey, in which he is forced to confront his murky past and dance with his own demons. This makes Spike Spiegel an extremely beloved character, and...
The post Long Before Cowboy Bebop, Shinichirō Watanabe Had Already Created Spike appeared first on /Film.
(Welcome to ...And More, our no-frills, zero B.S. guide to when and where you can watch upcoming movies and shows, and everything else you could possibly stand to know.)
Ever since the season 4 finale of "Yellowstone" dropped last year, fans of the neo-Western drama have been in anticipation of what happens next. Taylor Sheridan and John Linson's "Yellowstone" has been renewed for a fifth season, which will continue the saga of the Dutton family over the course of 14 episodes. The hype surrounding the upcoming season is all too real, as "Yellowstone" is a huge hit with audiences and has spawned two prequel spin-off shows so...
The post Yellowstone Season 5: Release Date, Cast, And More appeared first on /Film.
"Buffy the Vampire Slayer" was predicated on the idea of the cute blonde who usually dies at the beginning of horror movies finally having the power to fight back. She may have looked like just another flaxen-haired damsel in distress, but Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) didn't run from the demons in the alley: she annihilated them. In a narrative most commonly reserved for men, Buffy is the one girl in all the world who is capable of saving it.
I remember discovering "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and falling in love with a TV show for the very first time. It wasn't just about the...
The post Buffy the Vampire Slayer Ending Explained: Are You Ready to be Strong? appeared first on /Film.
After beginning his career in stage plays around London's West End and earning short-lived roles on random television shows, Tim Curry sashayed into stardom when he portrayed Dr. Frank-N-Furter in the 1975 cult classic film "Rocky Horror Picture Show." Originally debuting as a stage play in London, "The Rocky Horror Picture show" is a unique blend of old-school horror, campy sci-fi, and dramatic musical that no one expected to remain popular for nearly 50 years.
Since 1976, theaters across America and England regularly host midnight showings of the film, where the audience tosses rice, confetti, and insults...
The post Why Tim Curry Got Thrown Out of an After Dark Showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show appeared first on /Film.
One ring to rule them all indeed. Prime Video's highly anticipated Middle-earth series "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" has reportedly earned some epic viewership numbers in its debut on the Amazon streaming service. Variety reports that, according to Amazon, this big budget J.R.R. Tolkien adaptation was viewed by 25 million viewers globally during the first 24 hours that episodes 1 and 2 were available in 240 countries and territories, on September 1 and September 2, 2022 (depending on which of those countries and territories you're in).
It is worth noting a few caveats, though. First,...
The post The Rings of Power Premiere Draws 25 Million Viewers Worldwide In First 24 Hours, According To Amazon appeared first on /Film.
They might just be big fire-breathing lizards, but the three dragons on "Game of Thrones" were beloved by fans, and there are many more dragons in the prequel series, "House of the Dragon." While Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) had to kind of wing it when it came to raising her trio, the characters on "House of the Dragon" have the knowledge of centuries of dragon-rearing passed down from dragonrider to dragonrider. Since dragons are the great weapon of the Targaryen dynasty, they are feared, respected, and (by some) loved.
In the second episode of "House of the Dragon," we learn that the Targaryens always put a dragon...
The post The 5 Most Interesting Bits of Dragon Lore in House of the Dragon appeared first on /Film.
(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.)
The Movie: "President Wolfman"
Where You Can Stream It: TubiTV
The Pitch: Being the President of the United States is a tough job, but for John Wolfman, his political problems are much worse than anything Watergate or even the January 6th insurrection could have brought to the table. President Wolfman is in an uphill battle to prevent his opponents from selling the United States to China through...
The post The Daily Stream: President Wolfman Proves You Don't Even Need a Camera to Make a Great Horror Comedy appeared first on /Film.
When the "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" trailer debuted at San Diego Comic Con this year, it was to a worldwide outpouring of love and emotion. The trailer paid sincere homage to the late actor Chadwick Boseman, and introduced a storyline that looks like it will live up to fans' expectations for the long-anticipated sequel to one of Marvel's best films.
But the "Wakanda Forever" trailer also featured something else that instantly grabbed fans' attention -- or rather, someone else: Namor, a fan-favorite antihero known as much for his perpetual shirtlessness as for his superpowers. Tenoch Huerta ("Narcos: Mexico") will...
The post Black Panther 2 Star Tenoch Huerta Landed the Role of Namor Without Knowing How to Swim appeared first on /Film.
It's been a year and half since Armie Hammer's stardom publicly imploded and somehow, there's already a docuseries about it.
What began with one woman sharing her story eventually led to a snowball effect as many of Hammer's former girlfriends stepped forward to share horrifying accusations and proof of threatening text messages. The actor has since been accused of rape and abuse. He ended up losing his agent, dropping out of multiple projects, and remains at the center of an LAPD sex crimes investigation. The latest word on the matter is the news surrounding "House of Hammer," a three-part Discovery+...
The post One of Armie Hammer's Accusers Says House of Hammer Filmmakers Are Exploiting Her Trauma appeared first on /Film.
Here's a dose of pure euphoria for your day: legendary composer John Williams performed at the Hollywood Bowl last night, and shared a brand new piece of music called "Helena's Theme" from the upcoming fifth Indiana Jones film. This marks the first time Williams has created new music for one of his most beloved franchise collaborations in well over a decade, and the song is remarkably beautiful.
As captured in several audience members' videos, including one uploaded to YouTube by music video and television cinematographer Chuck Ozeas (below), 90-year-old Williams faced the crowd and described a conversation he had with...
The post John Williams Debuts Indiana Jones 5 Song 'Helena's Theme' In Concert At Hollywood Bowl appeared first on /Film.
David Fincher's borderline obsessive strive for perfection has earned him a reputation for being one of Hollywood's most meticulous directors. Michael Alan Kahn, who worked under Fincher as the assistant director during the 1995 crime-mystery "Se7en," provided insight into Fincher's mindset when he recalled to The Ringer a telling exchange the two had on set:
"I went up to Fincher and I said, 'Look at this! Look! It's here! We're here! You did it! We're shooting a movie! There's Morgan Freeman. There's Brad [Pitt]. There's Kevin Spacey ... Isn't this amazing? Isn't this wonderful? This is what you wanted.' And he...
The post Gone Girl's Bloody Sex Scene Was Just as Meticulous as You'd Expect from David Fincher appeared first on /Film.
(Welcome to Tales from the Box Office, our column that examines box office miracles, disasters, and everything in between, as well as what we can learn from them.)
When a movie is initially released, it feels like its financial performance is the biggest measuring stick to determine its success. But we have countless examples of films that failed in their day only to become stone-cold classics that had a rich life well beyond their opening weekend. Let us never forget that "The Thing" and "Blade Runner" both had to open against "E.T." but they were not lost to the sands of...
The post Tales From The Box Office: The Financial Failure Of Dredd Remains A Tragedy appeared first on /Film.
The most revealing moment in Luca Guadagnino's cannibal romance "Bones and All" occurs in a "blink-and-you'll-miss-it" instant. The two young lovers, Taylor Russell's impressionable Maren and Timothée Chalamet's loose cannon Lee, pull closer to kiss for the first time. They come ever nearer, and at the very instant their lips graze on another, Chalamet cheats out toward the camera and betrays a slight grimace. At that very instant, Guadagnino cuts to the next scene.
"Bones and All" remains true to the core of its source material, Camille DeAngelis' young adult novel of the same name. This is still a heterosexual romance...
The post Bones and All Review: A Bloody Brilliant Tale of Young Love on the Run [Venice] appeared first on /Film.
For horror fans, the autumnal season is the time of year when we all get to be the belle of the ball. For a few weeks each year, our expertise in all things creepy and spooky is valued above all other film fanatics, and we're often tasked with providing as many film recommendations as possible for casual horror fans to cram into a month or two of viewing. Sure, there's bound to be requests for "the scariest movie ever," but as new crops of monster kids grow into their own year after year, there's an evergreen need for horror movies that adults...
The post 12 Family-Friendly Horror Movies to Watch With Your Family This Spooky Season appeared first on /Film.
Not a lot of villains on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" manage to make an impression in just one episode, but The Gentlemen were unforgettable. The Emmy-nominated episode, "Hush," features Camden Toy as one of four demons that capture the voices — and the beating hearts — of Sunnydale.
Since these monsters move in silence, their performance rested on their terrifying expressions. Some of the most iconic monsters of all time are silent, from Frankenstein to the shark in Jaws. When you can't hope to communicate with a threat, you feel even more frightened — this is the horrifying effect of the Gentlemen.
The makeup and...
The post Casting Buffy's Gentlemen All Came Down To That Creepy Smile appeared first on /Film.
"The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" premiere is here, and you might have questions! Today we're going to dive into a character that is integral to where we find ourselves — the Second Age of Middle-earth. (Peter Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy and "The Hobbit" trilogy are set in the Third Age, thousands of years after.) That character is Morgoth (meaning "black foe of the world"), originally known as Melkor ("he who arises in might"), the main villain of author J.R.R. Tolkien's work "The Silmarillion." And at the beginning of "The Rings of Power," the character gets name-dropped a lot.
Though he...
The post Who is Morgoth: The Lord of the Rings Villain Explained appeared first on /Film.
"The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" is an ambitious undertaking for Prime Video, but the series is already off to a good start. A blend of old and new ideas, "The Rings of Power" forges its own path to Middle-earth by introducing a set of original (and quintessential) protagonists in the large-scale, overarching narrative. This strategy includes the involvement of several distinct storylines, one of which features a romance between the Silvan Elf Arondir (Ismael Crus Córdova) and a very familiar-looking human, Bronwyn.
The concept of an elf-human relationship is nothing new to "The...
The post Why Does the Actor Who Plays Bronwyn on The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Look Familiar? appeared first on /Film.
Major spoilers for the first two episodes of "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" follow!
Twenty years after the Peter Jackson trilogy changed the entire face of pop culture and blockbuster filmmaking as we know it, "The Lord of the Rings" is back to prove that author J.R.R. Tolkien's epic material still has a place in our ongoing fantasy lexicon. After months and months of cautious optimism turning into outright hype, "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" has finally arrived to tell its giant-sized story on the small screen. Though set thousands of years before...
The post The Best Easter Eggs in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Episodes 1 and 2 appeared first on /Film.
A lot of weird stuff has happened since the start of the pandemic, and studios are already working like clockwork to crank out film adaptations of that weirdness. In one of the most high-profile ventures, "Dumb Money" looks to tell the story of that time in 2021 when a bunch of Reddit investors broke the stock market by causing the stocks in GameStop, a barely surviving company, to skyrocket. Earlier this year, a documentary about the situation called "GameStop: Rise of the Players" became available to watch on Hulu, but this will be the first live-action retelling.
The...
The post Dumb Money: Everything We Know So Far About the New GameStop Movie Starring Seth Rogen and Pete Davidson appeared first on /Film.
Every iconic filmmaker has a ton of projects they never got off the ground, and Kevin Smith is certainly no exception. Of course, there is a vast difference between him and directors like Orson Welles, specifically the fact that the majority of his projects are either low-budget comedies or superhero fare. Still, it can't be denied that Smith is an influential figure that has shaped popular culture through his lengthy filmography.
He also just so happens to have several notable unmade projects under his belt.
Much like Guillermo del Toro, he's been pretty open about them, resulting in some interesting details...
The post Superman Lives, Dogma II, and 10 More Movies & TV Shows Kevin Smith Almost Made appeared first on /Film.
The magic of the elves bestows gifts upon you, mortal. Prime Video has released the first two episodes of "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power," earlier than expected. Though the release date is listed as Friday, September 2, 2022 (the anniversary of the passing of author J.R.R. Tolkien), Prime Video often drops their newest offerings a little early. We lucky fans are getting a bit of a speed boost in our journey to Middle-earth.
The series is set in the Second Age, thousands of years before the events of "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit"...
The post The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Is Now Streaming (Slightly Early) On Prime Video appeared first on /Film.
"Star Trek: Discovery" ended its fourth season back in March, wrapping up a story that involved a mysterious, destructive spatial phenomenon called simply the Dark Matter Anomaly, or DMA. After a good deal of galactic investigation, the crew of the U.S.S. Discovery found that the DMA was created by an outside, non-humanoid, non-verbal alien species called Species 10-C. Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) eventually learned that Species 10-C created the DMA as a means to power a protective supra-shield it had made for itself. They didn't realize the destructive power the DMA had.
At the beginning of season three, the premise of "Discovery" changed. It was no...
The post How Star Trek: Discovery Keeps Its Sci-Fi Stories Feeling Real appeared first on /Film.
Even though it's now widely considered one of the best television series in the history of the medium, if not the very best, David Simon's "The Wire" was frequently on life support. It was a critics' darling, but viewership was never robust, and Emmy voters repeatedly shunned it (the taste-challenged organization coughed up all of two nominations during the show's run). Fortunately, HBO understood the value of committing to a high-quality program regardless of ratings. This is why top-flight artists like Martin Scorsese, Tom Hanks, and David Milch took their network-unfriendly series to the pay-cable channel.
Still, the sword of Damocles hung over "The Wire"...
The post Getting The Wire Renewed Was Always An Uphill Battle appeared first on /Film.
Apologies to anyone who had to pay rent today and is particularly sensitive to blatant displays of egregious wealth, but The Russo Bros. series "Citadel" for Prime Video apparently cost the megacorporation over $200 million thanks to ridiculously expensive reshoots. Amazon's Prime Video intended "Citadel" to become the new flagship series on the platform, but the production has been inundated with problems, including half of the creative team exiting over creative differences. The news broke today at The Hollywood Reporter, which estimates that the "Avengers" directing duo are well on their way to creating one of the most...
The post Amazon Is Spending Over $200 Million On The Russo Bros. Series Citadel Due To Expensive Reshoots appeared first on /Film.
Now I'm not saying that the absence of "King of the Hill" is what got us in this mess, but since the show ended in 2010, America seems to have lost its collective mind. From Karens to Donalds and all the QAnon in between, what we need right now is for Hank Hill to shed a little light on the absurdity of our present day.
The satirical animated series, which ran from 1997 to 2010, examined a plethora of social issues through the perspective of small-town Texas rednecks. America's favorite propane and propane accessory salesman Hank Hill was at...
The post Mike Judge Has A Simple Formula For Writing A Good King Of The Hill Script appeared first on /Film.
Writer/director Mike Flanagan has firmly established himself as Netflix's king of thoughtful, slow-burn horror. The relationship began with Flanagan's 2016 movie "Before I Wake," and continued with his 2017 adaptation of the Stephen King novel "Gerald's Game." But things really kicked off in 2018 with the arrival of "The Haunting of Hill House," a series that was (very) loosely based on the Shirley Jackson book of the same name. This was followed by "The Haunting of Bly Manor," and Flanagan has another house-themed horror adaptation coming soon: "The Fall of the House of Usher."
But first up is "The Midnight Club," a series...
The post The Big Difference Between Midnight Mass and The Midnight Club, According to Mike Flanagan appeared first on /Film.
For the last 15 years, Netflix has survived on monthly subscriptions and commercial-less programming, a major selling point compared to the ad-plagued hellscape known as cable television, but that time is over. The future is now, old man, because Netflix's planned launch for an ad-supported subscription tier has been moved up to November 2022. The more things change, the more things stay the same. Netflix told investors back in July that it was looking to launch the ad-supported plan sometime "around the early part of 2023," but with the ad-supported tier of Disney+ on the horizon, that launch date has been pushed up to beat the...
The post Netflix's Ad-Supported Tier Will Now Launch in November appeared first on /Film.
In many Tim Curry movies, you may not even know he's there. Not because he lacks screen presence -- far from it in fact -- but because in many of his roles his face is concealed. Since his movie debut as Dr. Frank-N-Furter in "The Rocky Horror Picture Show," Curry has been an actor whose roles often require heavy makeup. Throughout both Curry's scene-stealing turn as Pennywise in the 1990 "It" miniseries and in his performance as the devilish Lord of Darkness in Ridley Scott's 1985 fantasy film "Legend," his true face never appears.
However, Curry never lets the makeup do his...
The post Tim Curry Sees Movie Makeup As An Excuse To Fully Let Loose appeared first on /Film.
This is not a drill, horror fans: After well over a decade it seems that a new "Friday the 13th" movie is finally on the way, for real this time. Yes, it has been years and years of back and forth, rumors, hearsay, and uncertainty, but the folks at New Line Cinema just dropped a crystal clear hint that, when coupled with other recent evidence, it becomes extremely obvious that Jason Voorhees is coming back sooner rather than later.
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... The post It Sounds Like A New Friday The 13th Movie Is Officially, And Finally, In The Works appeared first on /Film.
It should come as no surprise to anyone that William Shatner, 91, thinks the original "Star Trek" is the best one. Shatner has, according to various rumors over the years, always felt that "Star Trek" was a three-character show -- Kirk, Spock, and Dr. McCoy -- with Kirk in the center. Anyone who has been to a "Trek" convention have heard stories from most of Shatner's co-stars that he was aloof on set, and that Shatner wasn't too keen on acknowledging the show's entire ensemble. He behaved "the star." One can find a spate of stories from Nichelle Nichols, or George Takei about how...
The post William Shatner Claims Star Trek Creator, Gene Roddenberry, Would be Turning in his Grave appeared first on /Film.
At the end of the 47th season of "Saturday Night Live" earlier this year, the late-night sketch comedy series lost some longtime key players. Kate McKinnon, Aidy Bryant, Kyle Mooney, and Pete Davidson were all given a farewell on the season finale back in May, but now The Hollywood Reporter has learned that three more cast members are leaving "SNL" before the show's 48th season begins.
Repertory players Alex Moffat and Melissa Villaseñor (seen above in an episode with host Octavia Spencer) will not be returning after spending six seasons on the long-running series, and featured player Aristotle Athari has exited the show after just...
The post Saturday Night Live Loses Three More Cast Members Before Season 48 Begins appeared first on /Film.
"Hellraiser" is like many horror franchises in that it starts out with a classic and gets off a couple of worthy sequels before turning into absolute dreck. It is, however, unlike your typical slasher series in that there's no reason it should go sailing off the rails.
The premise is evergreen: in a moment of curiosity, a person futzes around with the Lament Configuration, unleashes the sadomasochistic Cenobites, and scrambles to bargain their way out of, or simply forestall, eternal torture. Clive Barker's first film juxtaposed the wanton sexual adventurousness of Frank (Sean Chapman) and Julia Cotton (Clare Higgins) against the teenage innocence...
The post Hellraiser Reboot Director David Bruckner is Ready to Make a Sequel appeared first on /Film.
"Star Trek: Lower Decks" is kind of an oddity. It is both an animated workplace comedy and a true "Star Trek" series, balancing humor with the important themes of the franchise. The half-hour format is a bit different for "Trek," too, forcing stories and character arcs to move a little more quickly. While all of this leads to a snappy and sarcastic but never mean-spirited "Star Trek," the sitcom-esque focus on the characters also leads to something we don't usually see a lot of in the franchise: character growth. Sure, Kirk (William Shatner) eventually learns to be less racist to Klingons in "Star Trek VI:...
The post Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 3 Shows Off the Series' Greatest Strength appeared first on /Film.
Spider-Man fans who have a little bit of wall space that could use filling, who also happen to have a little bit of extra cash, would do well to pay attention. The folks at Mondo have just unveiled a brand new series of posters from artist Matt Taylor for "Spider-Man: No Way Home," just as the Marvel Cinematic Universe blockbuster is making its way back to theaters tonight for the weekend. Now, fans of the film can add any one of four new posters to their collection that are, in a word, amazing.
The first three timed edition posters (seen...
The post All The Spider-Men Swing Into Matt Taylor's Spider-Man: No Way Home Poster From Mondo appeared first on /Film.
Guess what, spider-heads! "Spider-Man: No Way Home" is coming back to theaters, presumably because cinemas are so desperate for something to show that isn't "Top Gun: Maverick" that they'd resort to just screening movies from last year again with slightly new content and call it a day — and just wait until they re-release a 13-year-old movie and you have to act surprised when James Cameron once again dominates theaters.
The "More Fun Stuff Version" of "No Way Home" is set to include 11 whole minutes of footage, which brings the total runtime of Tom Holland's latest outing as the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man to a whopping 2 hours and 39...
The post Spider-Man: No Way Home Re-Release Will Have a New Post-Credits Scene appeared first on /Film.
Creature features have an unrivaled ability to straddle genres, often combining the best of thrills and frights, science fiction, and black comedy, sometimes inadvertently. Some succeed better than others. Weak scripts, shoddy effects, and monsters who don't deliver on scares are all components that separate the best monster movies from the other guys. Luckily, with the right combination of cheesy dialogue and wonky technical effects, you can accidentally stumble upon some of the best the genre offers. A shark hellbent on revenge? Check. Deadly slugs? Yeah, I guess. Murder turtles? Okay, sure. Often, the more ridiculous the logline, the bigger the payoff.
Films like "Jaws" and "Alien" introduced...
The post 18 Underrated Monster Movies You Need To See appeared first on /Film.
Among the wave of horror franchise reboots, sequels (like "Candyman"), and prequels (like "The Munsters"), it can be hard for moviegoers to orient themselves in the face of a new, reimagined horror classic. With the release of the 11th installment in the Clive Barker-created "Hellraiser" film series on its way come October, David Bruckner's "Hellraiser," fans are sure to have the same question: Where does this sit in the 'Hellraiser" universe?
The story surrounds Riley (Odessa A'zion), who fights daily battles with addiction before stumbling across the infamous Lament Configuration, which never ends well for anyone because that's one of the eternal rules...
The post The Hellraiser Reboot is Not a Remake, and is Set the Original Franchise's Universe appeared first on /Film.
Pop culture baby names are nothing new, but for every set of siblings with relatively common names like Luke and Leia, there's a dozen little kids with painfully specific referential names like Khaleesi or Sansa. During the late 2000s, there was an explosion of fandom-inspired baby names like Bella, Edward, and Hermione, but now it seems like Disney-owned properties have taken the throne as the creative inspiration for new parents.
Thanks to a recent study published by OrganicBabyFormula.com (via Comic Book), one of the Marvel inspired baby names growing in popularity is not a hero like Stark, Parker, or even Banner, but instead the name...
The post An Alarming Number of Parents are Naming Their Children Thanos appeared first on /Film.
"Firefly" was one of those shows I'd sometimes stumble upon late at night — like "Stargate: SG-1" over on the SyFy channel or "Silverhawks" — that really stirred up my love for space operas/westerns. I never did sit down to watch the show in order -- at the time I was beholden to whatever episodes were being aired, although I did end up catching multiple viewings of "Serenity." Back then I had no idea that "Firefly" had barely lasted a season on air before being canceled in 2002, or that the film was Joss Whedon's last-ditch effort to keep the series alive in...
The post Serenity's Small Budget Meant Finding A Way To Make A Hovercraft 'Fly' appeared first on /Film.
It's nearly fall, but the spooky season is already here. Stir-crazed masses battling a lingering pandemic, climate change, and upheaval are pulling out the seasonal decor earlier, eager to change the vibe and settle into the oddly comforting world of the strange and the morbid. Over the coming weeks, theaters across North America will oblige and showcase an "X" prequel, a star-studded Olivia Wilde-directed thriller, the exceedingly creepy-looking psych-thriller "Smile," and Zach Cregger's rental home hellscape "Barbarian." As folks will start to pull out their sweaters and add a little pumpkin to their coffee, and they'll be in need of some at-home...
The post The Best Horror Movies Streaming In September And Where To Watch Them appeared first on /Film.
In the early days of Matt Groening's "The Simpsons," Bart (Nancy Cartwright) was seemingly intended to be the main character of the show. This makes sense when one considers that Groening named the Simpsons after his own family. Groening also has two younger sisters named Lisa and Maggie, his parents are named Margaret and Homer, and his grandfather was named Abraham. His mother's birth name was Wiggum, another name that made its way onto the show (albeit as the last name of Springfield's incompetent police chief and his dim-bulb son Ralph). Groening, then, seemed to be staging himself as the irascible, precocious youth of a...
The post Homer Simpson's Famous D'oh Catchphrase Has a Surprising Unscripted Origin appeared first on /Film.
Before Disney+ and Kevin Feige brought television series into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D" was a fan-favorite network television underdog. Born out of 2012's "The Avengers," the show followed a team of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents assembled by a newly not-dead Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg). Thanks to a strong fanbase, "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." survived cancellation multiple times with rallying cries on social media like #CoulsonLives and #SaveAgentsOfSHIELD.
"Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." had a rough start, but then "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" hit theaters, revealing the MCU's biggest twist thus far. Since S.H.I.E.L.D.'s inception, Hydra had moles on the inside. The show's story exploded from there, exploring how these street-level agents grapple with...
The post Every Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season Ranked Worst to Best appeared first on /Film.
At the end of 2011, the number of digital projectors in movie theaters officially surpassed the number of analog film projectors. This was the final step in a years-long technological revolution that had been raging for the better part of a decade. In the early 2000s, digital film -- while looking grainy and amateurish at the time -- was touted as the Next Big Thing, and many companies began to slowly make the shift. Anyone who saw "Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones" in theaters likely recalls the grainy, dim quality of digital projection at the time.
In Christopher Keneally's 2012...
The post Why Sidney Lumet Championed the Shift Away From Shooting Movies On Film appeared first on /Film.
"Gundam" is finally coming back after a long seven-year journey! "The Witch From Mercury" marks the return of one of Japan's biggest media franchises.
A massive 43-year-old franchise with over 50 installments across film and TV, it can be quite daunting to even attempt to enter the world of Yoshiyuki Tomino's epic robot space opera. Whether you're a returning fan or brand new to the very idea of what a Gundam is, we're here to answer every question you might have about the new show and the franchise it is aiming to revitalize.
So, first up, what is "Gundam"...
The post Gundam is Finally Coming Back After a Seven-Year Absence – Here's What You Need to Know appeared first on /Film.
Jaume Collet-Serra has a fascinating filmography that gets more and more interesting as time goes on. His debut feature was the aughts horror "House of Wax" remake, but he's now at the helm of the DC superhero movie "Black Adam." While the general public may know him best for his films like the Dwayne Johnson-starring "Jungle Cruise" or the Liam Neeson action thrillers "Unknown," "Non-Stop," "Run All Night," and "The Commuter," to horror fans, he'll always be the man behind "Orphan" and "The Shallows." After his foray into the DC Extended Universe, Jaume Collet-Serra is returning to his thrilling roots...
The post Carry On: Everything We Know About the Taron Egerton-Led Netflix Thriller From Jaume Collet-Serra appeared first on /Film.
This is a very precarious time to be getting into the Shia LaBeouf business.
The gifted actor, who's veered from the commercial crap of Michael Bay's "Transformers" movies to daringly non-mainstream films like Andrea Arnold's "American Honey," was accused in 2020 by ex-girlfriend FKA Twigs of sexual battery, assault, and affliction of emotional distress. Over the last five months, he has both denied these allegations and acknowledged on Jon Bernthal's "Real Ones" podcast that he "hurt that woman." LaBeouf also made headlines recently by rebutting, with credible receipts, Olivia Wilde's claim that she fired him from the production of her sophomore directorial...
The post Shia LaBeouf Can't Escape the News, Joins Francis Ford Coppola's Epic Megalopolis appeared first on /Film.
With "Top Gun: Maverick" continuing to deliver at the box office, it's clear the film is far more than your garden variety dad flick. It's, at the risk of hyperbolizing, kind of a flawless film, one that exceeds its "dudes going fast in planes" conceit. Among other things, it's reignited an interest in call signs, the names that pilots adopt for their exploits in the air. A call sign can spring from a disparaging nickname or a notorious reputation, or it could speak to a pilot's particular skill and style.
"Maverick" introduced a handful of new call signs to the world of the films, and if you're a...
The post The Meaning Behind Every Top Gun: Maverick Call Sign appeared first on /Film.
After the September 11, 2001 attacks, the United States was, understandably, on edge. The sudden, terrible scenes of destruction and death rocked the country and made us all realize that no matter what we want to tell ourselves, we are not safe. Of course, that was always true — life is random and often quite cruel. But the attacks opened our eyes in ways we didn't expect, and had us looking over our shoulders for more terrorist boogeymen.
And almost immediately after 9/11, starting on September 18, 2001, a new catalyst for fear arrived. Someone, somewhere, began mailing letters containing anthrax. Targets included...
The post The Anthrax Attacks Review: The Post-9/11 Amerithrax Story Gets the Netflix Doc Treatment appeared first on /Film.
Apple TV+ science fiction drama series "For All Mankind" has been endlessly inventive throughout its three-season run. The series explores an alternate timeline in which a Soviet cosmonaut becomes the first human to land on the moon, devastating the morale at NASA and, in turn, impacting their efforts to catch up. "For All Mankind" imagines the events that would have occurred if the global space race had never ended.
After season 3 premiered to rave reviews from fans and critics, the alternate reality series was renewed for a fourth season and promised a new beginning to its climactic conclusion....
The post For All Mankind Season 4: Everything We Know About the Return of Apple's Sci-Fi Series appeared first on /Film.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is continuing to expand in unexpected ways post-"Avengers: Endgame," but few could have predicted one of the next heroes to get a Disney+ adaptation would be Simon Williams aka Wonder Man. The series was announced earlier this summer with "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" and the upcoming "Avengers: The Kang Dynasty" director Destin Daniel Cretton attached to executive produce with Andrew Guest ("Community," "Hawkeye," and "30 Rock") serving as the head writer. The series is still in the early stages of production, but it was recently announced that Ben Kingsley would be reprising his...
The post 5 Actors We'd Love to See Play Wonder Man in the MCU Series appeared first on /Film.
Casting movie stars can be a tricky proposition, especially if you're making a big-budget film with unproven talent. In 1987, that's exactly what Kevin Costner was. He'd appeared in three box-office bombs in 1985 ("American Flyers," "Silverado," and "Fandango"), and, prior to this, had been cut out of Lawrence Kasdan's Baby Boomer smash "The Big Chill." But after missing out on the more established Don Johnson (who was red hot at the time thanks to "Miami Vice"), Costner wound up being Brian De Palma's Eliot Ness in the hit-hungry director's big-screen rendition of "The Untouchables." And while De Palma had a...
The post Why Bob Hoskins Got Paid for Not Playing Al Capone in The Untouchables appeared first on /Film.
In case anyone was worried that Netflix had lost its edge after acquiring wholesome anime properties like "Kotaro Lives Alone," rest easy knowing that "Cyberpunk: Edgerunners" is here to deliver a relentless, full-tilt anime filled with enough sex and violence to make your brain melt out of your ears. Combining the talents of Studio Trigger ("Little Witch Academia," "Ninja Slayer from Animation," "Star Wars: Visions") and CD Projekt Red's "Cyberpunk 2077," the new 10-episode series "Cyberpunk: Edgerunners" is a sensory assault filled with body modifications, bodily fluids, and an all-out attack on the psyche.
The new series is...
The post Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Trailer: This NSFW Anime Will Melt Your Face Off and Punch Your Guts Out appeared first on /Film.
Studio Ghibli is the most important animation production company in movie history, and I say this with absolutely no hyperbole. The home of living animation legend Hayao Miyazaki and the studio responsible for some of the most brilliant works of animated cinema ever put to screen, Studio Ghibli has consistently broken new ground and completely redefined what stories are possible to tell in animation since its inception in the 1980s. Founded by Miyazaki and Isao Takahata, Studio Ghibli films have become internationally beloved classics, and have even inspired an upcoming theme park set to open in Japan later this year.
Back in...
The post The Full Studio Ghibli Catalogue is Now Available to Rent on Digital appeared first on /Film.
Here's a collaboration that's a match made in heaven. A24 recently announced that they are financing and distributing a new comedy starring Nicolas Cage entitled "Dream Scenario." While plot details other than its genre are being kept a secret, we know that it will be produced by "Hereditary" filmmaker Ari Aster, as well as written and directed by Kristoffer Borgli. Aster will be joined by his producing partner, Lars Knudsen under the duo's Square Peg producing banner.
Come on, try and say that you're not excited about this. Cage's career resurgence over the past few years has seen him dip his toes into all...
The post Nicolas Cage Will Star In Ari Aster-Produced Comedy Dream Scenario appeared first on /Film.
The 1990 romantic comedy "Pretty Woman" helped launch Julia Roberts' career into the stratosphere. Starring opposite Richard Gere, Roberts played Vivian Ward, a streetwalker with a heart of gold who wins the affection of her cold-hearted client. The role earned Roberts a Best Actress Oscar nomination and turned her into an overnight Hollywood sensation. Her performance prompted Roger Ebert to prophetically write, "Actresses who can do that and look great can have whatever they want in Hollywood." Roberts would become synonymous with the romantic comedy genre.
It is hard to imagine anyone other than Roberts in "Pretty Woman" (and possibly even criminal,...
The post Lea Thompson Could Have Starred in Pretty Woman, But She Made One Huge Mistake appeared first on /Film.
If there's one movie that holds a special place in my pandemic memory, it's "The Father." Florian Zeller's film about the fractured and frightening day-to-day experiences of a man living with dementia was the first film I saw in theaters after getting my COVID-19 vaccine, and since I got mine quite early, theaters were still completely empty. That meant no one was around to notice me gasp and scowl and cry my way through the Anthony Hopkins-led film, which is an emotional thriller as much as it is a family drama.
No one was in my theater, but people still...
The post The Son Teaser: The Director of The Father is Back For More Harrowing Family Drama appeared first on /Film.
From the very first episode of "Better Call Saul," viewers were primed to notice points of connection between the prequel and its parent series. If Bob Odenkirk's Jimmy McGill so much as winked a certain way, "Breaking Bad" fans were eager to analyze it. Is this the moment? Is he becoming Saul Goodman in front of our eyes? When a scene of transformation finally did come, it was much later than anyone expected, but series creators Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould made sure to sprinkle in plenty of "Breaking Bad" connections in the meantime.
The series also doled out its...
The post Better Call Saul Season 5 Had A Cool (But Confusing) Breaking Bad Easter Egg appeared first on /Film.
(Welcome to ...And More, our no-frills, zero B.S. guide to when and where you can watch upcoming movies and shows, and everything else you could possibly stand to know.)
From the 1976 adaptation of "Carrie" to 2017's "It," Stephen King's books have always shown great potential for a successful movie. Netflix has seemed aware of this fact ever since they started making original content; they released a film adaptation of King's claustrophobic novel "Gerald's Game" in 2017, and it was just as disturbing as the trailers promised.
At the same time, it's also become clear over the years that novellas and short stories, perhaps...
The post Mr. Harrigan's Phone: Release Date, Cast, and More for the Netflix Stephen King Adaptation appeared first on /Film.
(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.)
The Movie: "Come and See"
Where You Can Stream It: The Criterion Channel, YouTube (free via the official production company, Mosfilm)
The Pitch: A naive teen joins up with the resistance movement in Nazi-occupied Belarus, only to be cast loose amid the horrors of war in Elim Klimov's visceral 1985 nightmare odyssey.
Amid the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, a Soviet anti-war film described by its late director as "a plea for peace" seems like a...
The post The Daily Stream: Come And See Is The Most Harrowing Anti-War Film Ever Made appeared first on /Film.
Don Bluth is one of those directors whose films I find inseparable from my memories of childhood. Just as Disney Animation was hitting a low point in the 1980s, Bluth was churning out animated classics like "The Secret of NIMH," "An American Tail," and "The Land Before Time." These are daring movies full of darkness and whimsy, marrying gorgeous hand-drawn imagery with stories about animal abuse, the plight of Russian-Jewish immigrants traveling to 19th-century America, and the beginning of the end of the age of dinosaurs. His next film after those three, 1989's "All Dogs Go to Heaven," is a parable about no less...
The post The Recurring Theme That Appears in Every Single Don Bluth Movie appeared first on /Film.
Fandom is not an inherently bad thing. There's nothing wrong with admiring a musician or movie star to the extent that you rush out to buy their new album or check out every film they make. It's when you launch a petition to aggressively, belligerently lobby for artists to accede to your demands. At this point, consumers delusionally elevate themselves to the role of creator. That's not how it should ever work, and it is frightening to see this mentality take hold in certain pockets of fandom.
It's probably a good thing John Wayne lived in the pre-social media era. For...
The post Without A Bit Of Blunt Advice, John Wayne Might Have Left Westerns Behind appeared first on /Film.
August 2022 marks the 58th anniversary of Walt Disney's "Mary Poppins." Featuring Julie Andrews as the titular nanny from the beloved P.L. Travers book series, the critically acclaimed live-action/animated hybrid became the highest-grossing movie of 1964 and was the only Walt Disney Studios film to earn a Best Picture nomination at the Academy Awards during the founder's lifetime.
However, like many films of that era and prior, there aren't many pieces of screen used memorabilia left to display and share with the adoring public. Those involved in the productions at the time viewed such items as "just props" to be disposed of when cameras...
The post One of Mary Poppins' Most Notable Props Was Almost Lost to History appeared first on /Film.
As much as the original "Orphan Black" series relied on the multifaceted talent of star Tatiana Maslany, the series was never just a one-woman show. While the current "She-Hulk" actor was doing her thing and embodying multiple different characters with widely divergent personalities, she was assisted by a strong supporting cast made up of the likes of Jordan Gavaris' Felix and especially Maria Doyle Kennedy's mother figure, Siobhan. The previously announced spinoff series, titled "Orphan Black: Echoes," appears to be taking this to heart and is off to a strong start with its newest casting.
Deadline reports that British actor Keeley Hawes, known for her performances in the 2018 miniseries "Bodyguard"...
The post Keeley Hawes Joins Krysten Ritter as Co-Lead in Orphan Black: Echoes appeared first on /Film.
There aren't very many major American animated features that weren't made by Disney, and some of the best were created by animation master Don Bluth. Bluth was a Disney animator who left the company citing "creative differences," and he went on to create classics like "The Secret of NIMH," "An American Tale," and "The Land Before Time." In 1994, Bluth teamed with 20th Century Fox and longtime collaborator Gary Goldman to create Fox Animation Studios. Their first feature was "Anastasia," a historical adventure story about Anastasia Romanov, the daughter of the last Russian Tsar and possibly the only survivor of the mass assassination of her family. The film earned...
The post An Outlandish Demand From Johnny Depp Stopped Him From Starring In Anastasia appeared first on /Film.
The first of author Gregory McDonald's "Fletch" novels was published in 1974. The title character of the McDonald's nine books was Irwin Maurice Fletcher, an ex-Marine investigative journalist with a penchant for disguises. Fletch is a bit of a slovenly cad, and he is constantly outrunning attorneys who seek alimony payments from various ex-wives. The first novel involves Fletch investigating drug traffic on the Los Angeles beaches as well as the mysterious, well-paid request from a dying millionaire that Fletch euthanize him.
"Fletch" was very loosely adapted to film in 1985 with Chevy Chase in the title role and with Michael Ritchie ("The Bad News Bears,"...
The post Why Kevin Smith's Fletch Movie Starring Ben Affleck Fell Apart appeared first on /Film.
(Superhero Bits is a collection of stories, updates, and videos about anything and everything inspired by the comics of Marvel, DC, and more. For comic book movies, TV shows, merchandise, events, and whatever catches our eye, this is the place to find anything that falls through the cracks.)
In this edition of Superhero Bits:
The Harley Quinn boss fight in "Gotham Knights."
John Stamos wants to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
"Pennyworth" is making a time jump in season 3.
Another executive is in the running to head up DC for Warner Bros.
All that and more!
Marvel Comics is doing an...
The post Superhero Bits: Another Possible Candidate To Run DC, She-Hulk Haikus & More appeared first on /Film.
Director Rian Johnson's "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" riled up the "Star Wars" fanbase when it arrived in 2017, but that was also kind of the point. It's a movie that wants to challenge your preconceived ideas about "Star Wars" in order to evolve the franchise and bring it into the future, keeping the parts that still work while learning from the mistakes of the past. "The Last Jedi" was a big swing and one that had the potential to usher in a brave new era of storytelling in a galaxy far, far away on the big screen.
Except, that didn't happen. Instead, the "Last Jedi" sequel...
The post Rian Johnson's Star Wars Trilogy Could Still Get Made appeared first on /Film.
"Curb Your Enthusiasm" may be one of television's longest-running sitcoms, but Larry David originally just intended the show's de facto pilot, an hour-long HBO special, as a joke about his return to stand-up comedy. Structured as a mockumentary, "Larry David: Curb Your Enthusiasm" followed a similar metanarrative as season 4 of "Seinfeld" (the one in which George tries to sell his concept of "a show about nothing" to NBC) and traced Larry's attempts at creating a — you guessed it — an hour-long special for HBO.
David himself wasn't too enthused about the idea of a documentary crew tracking his stand-up...
The post The Original Pitch For Curb Your Enthusiasm Didn't Do Much For Larry David appeared first on /Film.
Though it has contributed to some of the highest-grossing movies of all time, including "Avatar" and "Avengers: Endgame," Peter Jackson's visual effects company, Wētā FX (formerly known as Weta Digital), was still in its infancy when it set to work on "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy. Jackson had co-founded the company with Sir Richard Taylor and Jamie Selkirk in the 1990s, when it handled the effects for his films "Heavenly Creatures" and "The Frighteners," along with the Robert Zemeckis sci-fi adaptation "Contact." However, neither Wētā nor Jackson had attempted anything on the scale of "The Lord of the Rings" before, and the...
The post Most Of The Lord Of The Rings' VFX Team Had Never Made A Movie Before appeared first on /Film.
This article contains spoilers for "House of the Dragon" episode 2.
In episode 2 of "House of the Dragon," aptly titled "The Rogue Prince," Prince Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) defies his elder brother Viserys' (Paddy Considine) orders in a big way. After Daemon's son died a day after his birth, the king declared his daughter Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock) as his heir. The Targaryen heir is supposed to rule at Dragonstone once they come of age, so Daemon decided to take that for his own since he couldn't have the throne. He also stole a dragon egg that had been kept in his late nephew's cradle, though...
The post A Brief History of Dragonstone, Daemon Targaryen's New Home in House of the Dragon appeared first on /Film.
The game that taught you how candlesticks could be used for murder is getting an animated series from Fox.
"Clue," the board game first sold in 1949, was turned into a live-action film back in 1985 and is getting the animation treatment from Hasbro's eOne and Fox Entertainment's Bento Box Entertainment. Don't get this series confused with the 20th Century Studios live-action remake that is set to star Ryan Reynolds, directed by James Bobin ("The Muppets").
If you cast your mind back to childhood, you may recall the board game with teeny tiny murder weapons, rooms where the murder took place, and suspects...
The post Clue: Everything We Know About the Animated Series Version of the Beloved Board Game appeared first on /Film.
(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.)
The Series: "MAS*H"
Where You Can Stream It: Hulu
The Pitch: One of the most vital and beloved sitcoms of all time, "MAS*H" follows a group of rowdy but deeply humane army doctors through the seemingly endless Korean War. The surgical team is headed up by Hawkeye Pierce (Alan Alda), a wise-cracking, martini-swilling playboy who's also a traumatized, unwilling participant in a seemingly endless war. Hawkeye's a surprisingly complex sitcom character, by both 1972's standards and...
The post The Daily Stream: MAS*H is an Endlessly Groundbreaking Anti-War Sitcom appeared first on /Film.
(Superhero Bits is a collection of stories, updates, and videos about anything and everything inspired by the comics of Marvel, DC, and more. For comic book movies, TV shows, merchandise, events, and whatever catches our eye, this is the place to find anything that falls through the cracks.)
In this edition of Superhero Bits:
Megan Thee Stallion is going to be in "She-Hulk."
Target is getting some exclusive new Marvel Funko Pop! figures
"Power Rangers" is coming back for its 30th season in 2023.
Marvel celebrates the 60th anniversary of The Wasp.
All that and more!
One...
The post Superhero Bits: Megan Thee Stallion Joins The MCU, Marvel Celebrates 60 Years Of The Wasp & More appeared first on /Film.
In the era of the "Skip Intro" button, "Game of Thrones" was a rare show where watching the title sequence was an event in and of itself. Flying over the map of Westeros and Essos to see what locations we would be visiting that particular episode was both a thrill and always served as a nice reminder of how this world was laid out. This title sequence didn't just exist as a bit of mood setting to superimpose the names of the creatives onto. It served a practical need. Oh, and it just so happened to have...
The post House Of The Dragon Uses The Classic Game Of Thrones Theme ... But Is That A Good Idea? appeared first on /Film.
Anticipation for the "Game of Thrones" prequel "House of the Dragon" was at an all-time high when it premiered last Sunday. Despite some viewers feeling disappointed with the rushed final season of the original series, and the odd fates of some of the characters, it appears that a whole lot of fans were willing to make the journey back to Westeros.
If you haven't watched it yet, "House of the Dragon" is set a bit less than 200 years before the birth of Daenerys Targaryen. The dragon-riding family is in power over the seven kingdoms, and at this point, they've still got a bunch...
The post House of the Dragon's Second Episode Actually Gained Viewers Over the Premiere appeared first on /Film.
Folks! It is finally happening. One of the best anime shows ever made, as well as the one good adaptation of one of the greatest manga of all time, is finally coming to streaming.
At a time when availability is becoming an important issue in media as big corporations are erasing entire titles from existence with the push of a button, concepts like piracy as historical preservation are being discussed in a new light, even by creators. If there is literally no legal way to watch a show, should you pirate it? Does it hurt a show when, after years of...
The post Netflix's Anime Deal With Nippon TV Brings 13 Beloved Anime Titles to Service, Including Berserk, Monster appeared first on /Film.
Getting sick or injured in the Middle Ages was no picnic, and for the characters in the fantasy world of "House of the Dragon," medicine is still pretty medieval. The series premiere showed audiences just how bloody and brutal birth can be when men take it into their own hands, and the second episode, "The Rogue Prince," delivers a scene depicting the treatment for gangrene and infection. King Viserys (Paddy Considine) has been having a hard time sitting on the Iron Throne without getting little nicks and cuts. The Iron Throne legendarily injures those who aren't fit to sit on it, as the swords that jut...
The post House of the Dragon's Nasty Medical Practices Have a Basis in Reality appeared first on /Film.
One of the biggest comedians in silent cinema, Buster Keaton, was offered a weekly television series at a low point in his career — but, to everyone's surprise, he turned it down.
Keaton was a legend of the silver screen and a master of physical comedy, but things took a turn for the worse when silent film went the way of the dodo. Guest spots on television shows like "The Donna Reed Show" and "The Twilight Zone" presented new opportunities for Keaton to showcase his talents. He was resistant to doing a regular weekly show, but it wasn't because he was reclusive. In fact,...
The post TV Had A Major Limitation Even Buster Keaton Couldn't Overcome appeared first on /Film.
Tom Hardy is an incredibly intense actor. Even if he's making something as goofily mainstream as "Venom," he throws everything he's got into the role. This can be a bit off-putting at times. His thick Brooklyn accent as Eddie Brock is a wildly heightened variation on the character he played in Michaêl R. Roskam's hugely underrated "The Drop"; it takes some getting used to, and some people just can't get there. But, hey, at least you can understand what he's saying, as opposed to his voice-modulated portrayal of Bane in "The Dark Knight Rises."
In any event, be it a comic book...
The post Tom Hardy Took A Leap Of Faith On Christopher Nolan's 'Complex' Inception Script appeared first on /Film.
For every completed film or TV project associated with Clive Barker, there are probably 10 that never saw the light of day. Barker, for those unfamiliar, is the author behind the books "The Great and Secret Show," "Imajica," and "Weaveworld," each of them sprawling, interdimensional fantasy epics full of horror, queerness, sex, and violence. In 1986, Barker wrote the novella "The Hellbound Heart," which he adapted into the feature film "Hellraiser" the following year. Barker also wrote and directed the 1990 film "Night Breed" (based on his 1988 novella "Cabal") and the 1995 film "Lord of Illusions." He also wrote the short story that...
The post Hellraiser Creator Clive Barker Could Have Been Disney's Next Big Thing appeared first on /Film.
If there is one big, lasting legacy to "Game of Thrones," it's how it made fantasy popular and mainstream on TV. Sure, we've had plenty of fantasy shows and movies before — Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy made a ton of money and won a bunch of awards — but HBO's series made knights, dragons, and ice zombies appointment TV. All the sex, political backstabbing, council meetings, and trial by combats were window dressing to make audiences fall for the epic story of a kingdom in disarray as it discovered the return of magic.
Yet, as much as "Game...
The post House of the Dragon Finally Embraces the Weirdest Parts of the Game of Thrones Universe appeared first on /Film.
The relationship between filmmakers and critics has always been a strange one. While many directors do have friendly relationships with film critics who analyze their work, others have made headlines for being rather hostile and combative. It's a tenuous relationship, to be sure, and with social media now playing a role in establishing direct communication between these two parties, it has become even more tenuous.
For Christopher Nolan, that relationship is one that has been worsened because he argues criticism has changed for the worse. In a 2005 interview with Scott Holleran promoting the release of "Batman Begins," he explained that this is why...
The post The Reason Christopher Nolan Stopped Reading Reviews For His Movies appeared first on /Film.
A return to form for the "Predator" franchise, "Prey" did a tremendous job of elevating the original concept to new and improved heights. The subversive prequel manages to be a bloody ode to the first film while packing a ferocious punch that sets itself apart from other entries in the franchise. Moreover, "Prey" blends horror and action through its gruesome visuals and bone-chilling sound, bound together with an epic, adventurous musical score by Sarah Schachner. The composition is not only a deviation from other creature features in the genre, but it came about after director Dan Trachtenberg and composer Schachner realized the...
The post Denis Villeneuve's Sicario Played A Key Role In the Making Of Prey appeared first on /Film.
Paramount has released the trailer for the upcoming psychological thriller "The Infernal Machine," written and directed by Andrew Hunt ("Miles Between Us," "Frost Bite"). Guy Pearce ("The Hurt Locker," "Mare of Easttown") stars as Bruce Cogburn, the writer of a controversial book that was cited as the cause of a teenager murdering 13 people, seemingly from a message contained in the book. Cogburn stopped writing because of it, and has been living a reclusive life ... until the non-stop letters start coming in from a single fan.
If you're not familiar with the phrase "infernal machine," it's a device that...
The post The Infernal Machine Trailer: Guy Pearce Is A Writer Being Stalked By His Number One Fan appeared first on /Film.
The past couple of years have largely been about taking the good with the bad at the box office. Ever since movies like "Tenet" and "The New Mutants" tried (and failed) to get theaters back on their feet, it's been a bumpy ride with a few very big highs, like "Spider-Man: No Way Home," and pretty major lows, like this past weekend when "The Invitation" topped the charts with a mere $7 million. This, despite theaters being totally open and operational in North America. There is no good reason for things to be this bad right now, especially given that...
The post The Box Office Is Suffering Right Now And Hollywood Has Only Itself To Blame appeared first on /Film.
In our age of shared movie and TV universes, there are none quite like Kevin Smith's nearly 30-year-old "View Askewniverse." It's a DIY franchise where actors can play multiple roles, and the heroes are mostly foul-mouthed underachievers. The property can also vary wildly in its tone, from the sentimental and nostalgic later entries to the earlier films, which bring a harder edge to Smith's rude and crude approach to comedy.
Such is the case with "Clerks," the 1994 film that started it all. For as much as its lewd jokes and quotable punchlines stick in one's memory, it's easy to forget just...
The post The Original Idea for Clerks III Had the Quick Stop Destroyed by Hurricane Sandy appeared first on /Film.
As a twice-wounded veteran of the Vietnam War, Oliver Stone had a solemn responsibility to drive home the savagery of this tragically misguided conflict to modern audiences via "Platoon." It had been a little over a decade since the last U.S. helicopter left Saigon, and the filmmaker wanted to make sure no one would forget the myriad of atrocities committed in America's name. This meant he had to place the highest of premiums on authenticity, from the locations down to the cast.
Given that the film was going to be a showcase for numerous young actors, Stone found himself inundated with hungry ingenues...
The post Charlie Sheen's Platoon Casting Depended On The Opinion Of Willem Dafoe appeared first on /Film.
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav's great HBO Max purge continues to send ripples throughout the entertainment industry. Not only are fans annoyed that the highly-anticipated DC Extended Universe film "Batgirl," beloved episodes of "Sesame Street," and a bevy of animated series are no longer on the books for the streamer, but the company is burning bridges left and right with creators.
According to a new report from The Wrap, there is a "deep distrust" among the creative talent in the industry when it comes to WBD at the moment. One anonymous source told them that "the entire company is coming off as distressed. The...
The post Animators Have a 'Deep Distrust' of Warner Bros. After HBO Max Purge appeared first on /Film.
A year after Eddie Murphy revived one of his classic roles in "Coming 2 America," the actor is officially set to bring the world of "Beverly Hills Cop" back from the dead. "Beverly Hills Cop 4" has been in development for several years, but there finally seems to be some momentum on the project, as Deadline reports it now has a name –- "Beverly Hills Cop: Axel Foley" –- and a supporting cast. "Zola" breakout star Taylour Paige will join Murphy in the new film, as will "Super Pumped" star Joseph Gordon-Levitt. (There's no casting info available,...
The post Beverly Hills Cop 4 Is Officially Happening With Eddie Murphy Joined by Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Taylour Paige appeared first on /Film.
No fantasy series can truly thrive without the help of persuasive, fully-formed world building, and "House of the Dragon" is no exception. Whether it's the byzantine assassin underworld filled with honor and rules in "John Wick," the incredibly specific yet wonderfully malleable atmosphere and tone of "Star Wars," or the millennia of prior events influencing Middle-earth in "The Lord of the Rings," audiences wholeheartedly bought into these various universes, in no small part due to the well-worn idea that these stories and settings existed before their respective movies even began and last long after we received (or will receive) our final glimpse of them.
With HBO...
The post House of the Dragon: The Significance of Old Valyria Explained appeared first on /Film.
Tim Curry's portrayal of Pennywise, the dancing clown, the omnipresent, shapeshifting ancient creature and the central antagonist of Stephen King's "It," is one of the most revered performances of the horror genre. Curry's interpretation of Pennywise set a precedent; the actor employed an unnerving combination of humor and horror to add to the fearing image of the child-eating clown.
As a transdimensional entity that solely preys upon children, Pennywise exists to wreak havoc; he shapeshifts and warps the minds and perceptions of his victims, and uses his intelligence and abilities to induce fear that disorients his victims. Playing a character...
The post Tim Curry Had A Very Specific Vision In Mind For IT's Pennywise The Clown appeared first on /Film.
The fourth and final season of "Manifest" is flying your way on Netflix, and now the first official teaser for it is here. Appropriately enough, "Manifest" season 4 will premiere on November 4. It's a date we hear often in the teaser and one that should be familiar to anyone who has watched the show, which involves a commercial flight that hits turbulence in the air, only to land and be told that five and half years have passed since it took off and went missing.
"Manifest" started out as a network drama on NBC, where it lasted for three seasons...
The post Manifest Season 4 Teaser: Adjust Your Tray Tables As The Series Flight Reroutes To Netflix appeared first on /Film.
"Los Angeles, November 2019." These words greet viewers within the first few minutes of Ridley Scott's 1982 dystopian sci-fi, "Blade Runner." The world-building in "Blade Runner" is rightfully lauded for its intricate aesthetics, as the film set a precedent for the science-fiction genre for years to come. Loosely based on Philip K. Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?," "Blade Runner" tells the story of a crumbling metropolis steeped in existential crisis.
Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford, fresh off the success of "Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back" and "Raiders of the Lost Ark") is a retired blade runner who is tasked with "retiring" a...
The post Ridley Scott Doesn't Think Of Blade Runner As A 'Science Fiction' Film appeared first on /Film.
If you've ever seen a movie from homage extraordinaire Quentin Tarantino, then you're probably aware that excess is a crucial part of his DNA. The filmmaker behind "Pulp Fiction" and "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" is a man for which the word "restraint" is unlikely in his lexicon. For better or worse, when Tarantino wants to shock you, he'll find a way to make you flinch. It's been that way ever since his "Reservoir Dogs" days.
When Tarantino unleashes his signature wave of violence, he sure opens the floodgates. In his movies, people don't get shot, they pop like a bloody...
The post There's Just One Subject Quentin Tarantino Thinks Should Never Be Shown On Film appeared first on /Film.
Rob Reiner's 1986 film "Stand By Me" still stands as one of the best coming-of-age films of all time. An adaptation of acclaimed horror author Stephen King's "The Body," the film follows a group of friends who go on a hike to find the dead body of a missing boy. The compelling, deeply-moving film stars actors Will Wheaton (Gordie Lachance), River Phoenix (Chris Chambers), Corey Feldman (Teddy Duchamp), and Jerry O'Connell (Vern Tessio).
The movie is highly regarded for its performances, its authentic take on pre-teens and is a small-scale masterpiece. Aside from critical acclaim, "Stand By Me" earned an Oscar nomination for...
The post The Stand By Me Scene Stephen King Wishes He Had Written appeared first on /Film.
With his old-school clothing and uber cool hairstyle, Paul Bettany's Vision oozed serious hot dad energy (despite being a confused synthezoid most of the time) in "WandaVision." The character's evolution in the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been worth watching; he went from being a voice in Tony Stark's armor to becoming a real-life synthezoid and a fully formed superhero that was born in "Avengers: Age of Ultron."
Like with any other MCU character, bringing Vision to life took time and effort from the creative team at Marvel Studios, who are known to create hundreds of different versions of a...
The post Joss Whedon Wanted Vision to Bare It All in His Avengers: Age of Ultron Debut appeared first on /Film.
It's difficult to nail down the recipe for success when it comes to creating a TV show. If it were easy, every show would be a hit. But in the case of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," the key ingredient has a lot to do with its home at the cable channel FX.
TV shows come in all shapes and sizes, and one of the main things that dictate their direction is if it is a network or cable series. The creative hands of the networks are often tied by the Federal Communications Commission, made famous by George Carlin's...
The post Rob McElhenney Thinks This Is The Key To Keeping It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia's Fresh appeared first on /Film.
As veterans of the terrible world of Westeros, I think we can all agree that we will regularly expect to be horrified by much of what goes down in "House of the Dragon." The Targaryens are at the helm, for Christ's sake, and we all know what they're capable of. But not even the horrors of "Game of Thrones," or the brutality of last week's premiere could prepare me for the ickiest scene in "The Rogue Prince." Surprisingly, I'm not talking about the closeup of maggots eating flesh or even the opening shot of crabs feasting on still-living hostages. Overall,...
The post House Of The Dragon Unleashes Rogue Royals and Horrifying Proposals in 'The Rogue Prince' appeared first on /Film.
Stanley Kubrick was, to put it mildly, an exacting filmmaker. He made it his business to know everything about every aspect of production, and leaned on his collaborators something fierce to deliver to his meticulous standards. Jack Nicholson put it best when he said, "Stanley's good on sound. Stanley's good on the color of the mike. Stanley's good about the merchant he bought the mike from. Stanley's good about the merchant's daughter who needs some dental work. Stanley's good."
While prepping his adaptation of William Makepeace Thackeray's picaresque "The Luck of Barry Lyndon," Kubrick immersed himself in the tale's 18th century period. It...
The post Stanley Kubrick Was Intensely Committed To Getting Barry Lyndon's Costumes Right appeared first on /Film.
In Hollywood, everything is not what it seems. The camera is only a reflection of the reality filmmakers put in front of it, therefore, specific experiences portrayed beyond the cast and crew's reach can sometimes be quite flawed. While the addictive thrill of a "Criminal Minds" episode starring enigmatic TV character actors may come off as smart, real law enforcement professionals might have other opinions.
That's why Vanity Fair interviewed Craig Chretien, a retired Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent, and had him analyze a selection of drug trafficking scenes from popular film and TV to share his findings. Chretien's observations shined light on...
The post How Accurate is Drug Trafficking in TV Shows Like Breaking Bad? appeared first on /Film.
Director Sergio Leone's impact on cinema is still felt thanks to his "Dollars Trilogy" of Westerns: "A Fistful of Dollars," "For A Few Dollars More," and "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly," three films that revolutionized the Western genre and introduced Clint Eastwood as a star to be reckoned with.
But with the enormous success of those films, Leone found himself pigeonholed, only able to find quick financing for further Western adventures and not other types of movies he hoped to make. Leone was less interested in making endless shoot-em-ups than he was in making...
The post A Sergio Leone Toilet Dispute Nearly Caused Robert De Niro to Drop Out of Once Upon A Time In America appeared first on /Film.
Stanley Kubrick's 1975 epic "Barry Lyndon" is one of the most beautifully photographed movies ever committed to celluloid. The film's cinematographer John Alcott had previously shot "2001: A Space Odyssey" and "A Clockwork Orange" for Kubrick, and would win an Academy Award for his work on "Lyndon." Alcott would also shoot "The Shining," as well as the sleazy but gorgeous-looking B-movies "Terror Train," "Vice Squad," and "The Beastmaster."
The warm, dim, flame-dappled, Vermeer-like shimmer of "Barry Lyndon" came from Kubrick's insistence that the film be shot entirely with natural light. Because the film was set in the 1770s and 1780s, that meant there were...
The post Stanley Kubrick Borrowed Some NASA Tech To Capture Barry Lyndon's Natural Look appeared first on /Film.
Darren Aronofsky's "Requiem For A Dream" is an intense film that merited intense preparation on the part of its cast and crew. Adapted from a novel by Hubert Selby Jr., "Requiem for a Dream" tells the story of four people struggling with addiction and how it takes a toll on their hopes and dreams and lives in New York. Harry, Marion, and Tyrone, played by Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly, and Marlon Wayans, respectively, have formed a heroin dependency, while Harry's mother, Sara (Ellen Burstyn in an Oscar-nominated role) develops an addiction to amphetamines as she seeks to suppress her appetite and fit into an old dress...
The post Requiem For A Dream Relied On A Massive Amount Of Rehearsals And Research appeared first on /Film.
Ever since its first disastrous design for the 1987 "Predator" movie, each iteration of the Yautja, known most commonly as "the Predator," has been reworked and reimagined for the screen while also trying to find new ways to make it easier for the performers playing the creature. This has been no easy feat in part due to the overall species' design of the Yautja.
The design itself is thoroughly intimidating. Yautja are generally tall and muscular, with their bodies looming over their prospective victims. They sport hair-like appendages, which, while not exactly intimidating, are striking. To wrap up the terror, the species features mandibles that...
The post How Prey Avoided Putting Its Predator Through Hours In A Makeup Chair appeared first on /Film.
(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.)
The Series: "A League of Their Own" (2022)
Where You Can Stream It: Amazon Prime Video
The Pitch: The year is 1943 and the sport is baseball. If you aren't already a baseball whiz, then prepare to learn your shortstops from your pitchers as the Rockford Peaches come together to play in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. With the men off at war and the country badly in...
The post The Daily Stream: In A League of Their Own, Everyone Is The Hero Of Their Own Story appeared first on /Film.
David Lynch is a director who has always, in a way, been ahead of the curve. His vision throughout both his film and television projects is uncompromising, and even those that had received mixed reception during their release are often warmly regarded today (at least by Lynch fans).
Perhaps the most drastically re-evaluated Lynch film is "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me." The prequel film to his and Mark Frost's seminal series "Twin Peaks" was a critical and commercial flop upon release, with many criticizing its drastic tonal shift and bizarre imagery. What many people...
The post With Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, David Lynch Dismantled The American Dream Through The Eyes of Laura Palmer appeared first on /Film.
With a trio of young actors having to carry a franchise through a decade that encompassed their teenage years, it's something of a miracle that the "Harry Potter" franchise is as good as it is. Facing the enormous pressure of adapting some of the most successful books of all time, producer David Heyman successfully pulled off the near impossible. Gathering a huge ensemble cast of some of the best British actors, including Maggie Smith, Alan Rickman, Gary Oldman, David Thewlis, and Helena Bonham Carter, the franchise maintained a consistent quality over 10 years.
Directors such as Alfonso Cuarón and Mike Newell injected some distinctive visual qualities into their entries,...
The post Every Harry Potter movie ranked worst to best appeared first on /Film.
There are quite a few ways someone could describe the way the NBC series "Community" approached its sitcom status. Call it deconstruction, call it subversion, call it homage, but whatever you do, do not call the series a "spoof."
The show, which ran for five seasons on NBC before hopping over to Yahoo for its final season, played with the sitcom format to create something a little more interesting. Whether an episode played around with tropes or Abed (Danny Pudi) simply pointed out how "real life" was just like a television show, there was always a meta aspect of "Community" that turned the humor into a commentary on, well, humor.
Series...
The post Why Dan Harmon Won't Call Community A Sitcom 'Spoof' appeared first on /Film.
With only 14 episodes to its name, "Firefly" had time to realize just a fraction of its creators' ideas. Since its cancellation, the show's actors and writers have discussed many ideas for unmade episodes. Among them is Alan Tudyk, who played Hoban "Wash" Washburne, the eccentric but very skilled pilot of the starship Serenity.
Wash never got much backstory during the series' abbreviated run — his full name is never even said aloud. The bulk of his character development, including his sole focus episode "War Stories," centered on his relationship with Zoe (Gina Torres). So, Tudyk took initiative in fleshing out his character. As...
The post Alan Tudyk's Dream Wash Scene Never Made It Into Firefly appeared first on /Film.
"Prey" is such a refreshing take on the "Predator" franchise that really the only connection it seems to have to other films is the eponymous alien and a certain flintlock pistol. Set 300 years ago on the Great Plains, this instalment of the series focuses on a Comanche tribe that runs afoul of a Predator's first hunt on Earth. It also embraces the kind of natural horror and terror that comes from such a simple role reversal like the hunter becoming hunted -- something that made the first film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger such an edge-of-your-seat action thriller.
Director Dan Trachtenberg has described "Prey" as...
The post Becoming The Predator in Prey Wasn't Easy On Dane DiLiegro appeared first on /Film.
People say never to judge a book by its cover, but when it comes to TV shows, sometimes it's just as important not to judge them by their titles. "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," for example, doesn't exactly sound like the groundbreaking and celebrated hero's journey that it is. Other shows like "Selfie," "Cougar Town," and the eventually mercifully renamed "Scrotal Recall" (it's called "Lovesick" now) are also way better than their titles would lead one to believe.
The same is true of 2012's short-lived ABC comedy "Don't Trust the B----- in Apartment 23," an outrageous, surreal, fast-paced sitcom...
The post TV, Interrupted: Wild Network Sitcom Don't Trust the B-------- in Apt. 23 Left the Party Early appeared first on /Film.
Before Karl Urban was in "The Boys," he played characters who love swords and shields as much as Billy Butcher loves killing supes. There's his role as Skurge in "Thor: Ragnarok" and as Éomer in "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, as well as the box-office dud "Pathfinder" or any of his various appearances in the Riddick films as Vaako. The reason for Urban's casting in this niche probably has something to do with the two television series that make up a large part of his early career: "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys" and "Xena: Warrior Princess."
Although Urban first appeared in "Hercules"...
The post Karl Urban Isn't The Lord of the Rings' Only Connection To Xena: Warrior Princess appeared first on /Film.
Long before Martin Scorsese and Robert DeNiro, or Wes Anderson and Bill Murray, John Huston and Humphrey Bogart were one of the great director-actor combos of Hollywood's Golden Age. Their first collaboration, "The Maltese Falcon," gave the actor his big breakthrough and one of his defining roles as the cynical private eye, Sam Spade.
It made Bogart a star and five more films followed, with the partnership resulting in Bogie's only Oscar win, playing a booze-soaked riverboat captain in "The African Queen." In between, it was Huston's turn; he picked up the only Academy Awards of his long career for...
The post John Huston Was Unraveling A Real-Life Mystery On The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre Set appeared first on /Film.
Hailed as one of the best television shows of all time, "The Sopranos" followed Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), a ruthless, unapologetic criminal who tortured, murdered, and extorted people for his own thoughtless reasons. He's not the first gangster to have appeared on television, and he was more than that. Tony was an admirer of history, and an antihero, a thief, and a drug dealer. He frequently cheated on his wife, and he committed sin after sin. Still, he genuinely cared for his family. He constantly pretended to be a different person — strong for his family, unfeeling toward his enemies ... and honest...
The post The Sopranos Had One Unbreakable Rule For Filming Tony's Therapy Scenes appeared first on /Film.
"The Dark Knight Rises" is the third and final film in director Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy, bringing a close to the legend that started in 2005's "Batman Begins." Following the massive critical and financial success of the second chapter in the trilogy, "The Dark Knight," anticipation was at an all time high for the epic conclusion. Released in 2012, the film was a financial success. However, the positive critical reception was nowhere near the level of universal acclaim that "The Dark Knight" had received.
It makes sense then that director Christopher Nolan considers Tom Hardy's turn as Bane as overlooked. The villains...
The post Christopher Nolan Doesn't Think Tom Hardy Gets Enough Respect For The Dark Knight Rises appeared first on /Film.
Series creator Julian Fellowes ("The Gilded Age") could have kept "Downton Abbey" going for years. After all, soap operas are notorious for spanning generations. But I admire the restraint to put a pin in the series after six seasons of television. It felt like the perfect place to allow the characters to find their own futures. But as we know now, of course, the future of "Downton Abbey" was far from over.
Since the series finale in 2015, Highclere Castle has opened its doors to the aristocratic Crawleys and their downstairs staff once again with two theatrical feature films ("Downton Abbey: The Motion...
The post This Was Julian Fellowes' Inspiration For the First Downton Abbey Film appeared first on /Film.
For the longest time, "The Handmaid's Tale" viewers have maintained that getting out of Gilead would solve all of June's (Elisabeth Moss) problems. After a tumultuous fourth season, we've seen June finally enjoy a taste of freedom after many years of being subjected to rigorous systemic injustice and violent ordeals. On a more shocking note, June carried out her own form of justice when she avenged herself and countless other women by orchestrating a plan to take down her abuser Fred Waterford (Joseph Fiennes), for good. Here's the thing, though — seeking refuge in Canada has only made June angrier, and it will take...
The post The Handmaid's Tale Season 4 Ending Explained: Justice is Served appeared first on /Film.
With the new film adaptation of "The Munsters" right around the corner, there's been a lot of talk about director Rob Zombie these days. The heavy metal musician-turned-filmmaker now has nine feature films under his belt, as well as his segment for the Quentin Tarantino/Robert Rodriguez "Grindhouse" double feature, and the concert film "The Zombie Horror Picture Show." The value and influence of Zombie's filmography has been hotly debated for nearly two decades, namely due to his remake (and sequel to the remake) of John Carpenter's "Halloween." Horror fans often refer to his two films as "Zombieween" as a way to differentiate the...
The post Rob Zombie's Halloween Frustrations Led Him To The Lords Of Salem appeared first on /Film.
In 2017, Seth MacFarlane created the sci-fi comedy-drama, "The Orville," as a homage to the original "Star Trek" and its "Next Generation" successor. Despite its appreciation for "Stark Trek," "The Orville" never shies away from parodying the source material it is so inspired by, subverting space drama tropes in the process. Season 3 of the show, titled "The Orville: New Horizons," which premiered in June this year, continues the tradition of pushing narrative boundaries and expanding a rich world filled with possibilities.
The basic premise of "The Orville" follows series protagonist Ed Mercer (MacFarlane), the captain of the USS Orville, a space exploratory...
The post Seth MacFarlane Isn't Afraid To Flip The Orville On Its Head appeared first on /Film.
Since the release of Stephen King's novel "Carrie" in 1974, the author has been one of the most famous American horror writers of all time. In his long career, he has created homicidal cars, psychotic clowns, and obsessive fans. King's macabre stories always keep avid readers entertained, and his characters and plots are often adapted into films and television shows.
Since Brian De Palma adapted "Carrie" in 1976, which has become a horror classic, King's novels have inspired dozens of films, miniseries, and TV shows. King's novels are largely critical successes, but the adaptations based on his fiction are very hit and miss. "Carrie,"...
The post Stephen King Doesn't Pay Much Mind To His Movie Adaptations appeared first on /Film.
It's not uncommon to hear of actors being put through boot camp to prepare for war movie roles, but when Oliver Stone made his long-gestating, Academy Award-winning Vietnam film "Platoon," he had his actors undergo training in the real jungle. "Platoon" was inspired by Stone's true-life experiences as a soldier in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, and he wanted the cast to learn survival and bond like an actual military unit. This was harder for some cast members than others.
In a 2022 interview with The Guardian, Charlie Sheen related how he reached the end of his first day of location shooting for...
The post Prepping For Platoon Was Especially Punishing For Forest Whitaker And Willem Dafoe appeared first on /Film.
The fourth season of "Stranger Things" has plenty of highlights, but no episode stands out quite as much as "Dear Billy." The fourth chapter of the season has already become a massive part of the pop cultural zeitgeist since its May debut, thanks largely to a scene in which Max (Sadie Sink) faces off against the villainous Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) with the help of a classic Kate Bush song. But the episode also features one of the most impressive sequences the series has pulled off to date. It's an immersive one-take shot that apparently felt very real to the actors who...
The post The Stranger Things scene that left Noah Schnapp terrified in real life appeared first on /Film.
I have been living a lie. To be fair to myself, I didn't know I was living a lie, but I was. When I was a teenager, I got really into classic Hollywood cinema, as many of us movie lovers do. Pretty early in my cinematic education I watched Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly's 1952 movie musical "Singin' in the Rain." You look at any list compiling the best films of all time, and it will inevitably be on it. The Sight & Sound poll listed it as the 20th best film of all time. The American Film Institute goes even...
The post No, They Didn't Dance In Milk On The Set Of Singin' In The Rain appeared first on /Film.
When it comes to science and mathematics, I'm more of a Philip J. Fry than a Professor Farnsworth, but even I can appreciate the way the writers of "Futurama" clearly know their stuff. It would be easy for the series to completely fudge the details on some of the more scientific concepts, but "Futurama" combines comedy with some seriously nerdy science, in part because showrunner David X. Cohen is a physicist. Along with his team of incredibly intelligent writers, Cohen managed to make "Futurama" the perfect pairing of smart science and silly stereotypes.
While speaking at a conference for the Institute for Pure & Applied Mathematics, Cohen said that sometimes...
The post How Futurama Tried To Save Science's Pop Culture Reputation appeared first on /Film.
In an early issue of Hidenori Kusaka's 1997 manga "Pokémon Adventures," based on the game by Satoshi Tajiri, the definition of a Pokémon was laid down as merely "a mysterious species not recorded in traditional biological taxonomies." A look around the Pokémon universe, however, finds no animals that have been recorded in traditional biological taxonomies, either. There are no cats and dogs in this world, only Pokémon. Some have theorized that Pokémon takes place in a distant future, a post-post-apocalyptic world where animals evolved into superpowered creatures. Others simply repeat to themselves it's just a show and fans should really just relax, understanding that Pokémon exists in a fantasy world.
In this world, 10-year-olds...
The post All 24 Pokémon Movies Ranked Worst to Best appeared first on /Film.
There are plenty of mysteries baked into new thriller "The Invitation." There's the mystery of Evie's (Nathalie Emmanuel) lineage: a quest to figure out her family history that leads her to meet Oliver (Hugh Skinner), an apparent long-lost cousin. There's the mystery of the family gathering she attends with Oliver, an opulent wedding held at an imposing English countryside manor where the dress code seems to be "Eyes Wide Shut" chic. And there are mysteries involving unknown brides and vampiric rituals, too. But there's one small but intriguing mystery we've gotten to the bottom of as the movie hits theaters this weekend: why does...
The post What's Up with the Outlander Reference in The Invitation? [Exclusive] appeared first on /Film.
Though it received a Best Picture nomination at the 94th Academy Awards in 2022, Guillermo del Toro's re-adaptation of the William Lindsay Gresham novel "Nightmare Alley" hit theaters the same day as "Spider-Man: No Way Home" and was overshadowed by that movie's juggernaut success amid the pandemic. It makes the most of those shadows, though, filling them with smoke and "the poetry of disillusionment and existentialism," as del Toro has called it. This is a movie that lives at the carnival, where you're less likely to see any spider-men and more likely to see a woman with a spider's body warning children about the...
The post All the Major Differences Between Guillermo del Toro's Version of Nightmare Alley and the 1947 Original appeared first on /Film.
The August box office is set to end not with a bang but with a whimper, as initial numbers for this weekend indicate barely anyone is going to the movies right now. The weekend's biggest earner is set to be "The Invitation," a Gothic thriller from Sony starring "Game of Thrones" actor Nathalie Emmanuel. The film will be lucky to make upwards of $7 million this weekend, according to Variety.
The weekend's other two notable new releases fared even worse. Cannes standout "Three Thousand Years of Longing" reportedly cost $60 million to make, yet only earned $1.16 million on Friday. Meanwhile, the...
The post The Invitation Leads A Deathly Quiet Box Office Weekend With $6-7 Million Opening appeared first on /Film.
A new take on the Dracula mythos has swept its way into theaters in Jessica M. Thompson's "The Invitation." Serving as a modern-day "Brides of Dracula" type of origin story, viewers are whisked away to the English countryside to follow Evie's (Nathalie Emmanuel) journey in meeting her incredibly wealthy long-lost relatives after discovering a match via a DNA testing service. Things start off awkwardly, with the host, Walter (an ultra-sus Thomas Doherty), finding ways get under Evie's skin.
Of course, what happens is a worst-case scenario. Spoiler alert, but the relatives are all morally compromised individuals in support of maintaining their wealth and good fortune via...
The post An R-Rated Cut of The Invitation Will Eventually Be Released [Exclusive] appeared first on /Film.
In the '90s, Whoopi Goldberg earned her way into the hearts of millennials with her performances in movies such as the "Sister Act" films, "The Lion King," and "The Little Rascals." The star-studded 1997 musical fantasy TV film "Cinderella" was another go-to movie for pizza parties during my elementary school days. The fairy tale remake stars Brandy Norwood as the titular character who, with the help of her Fairy Godmother (Whitney Houston), wins the love of Prince Christopher (Paolo Mantalban). Goldberg plays Queen Constantina, the prince's controlling mother who wants to find him a suitable mate.
"Cinderella" is an all-around funny movie. Cinderella's stepmother (Bernadette Peters), her...
The post How Whoopi Goldberg Made Queen Constantina Uniquely Hers In Cinderella appeared first on /Film.
"If you meet a vampire, don't breathe." This is the sage advice that Master Kau, the Taoist priest played by Lam Ching-ying, gives to his bumbling apprentices, Man-choi (Ricky Hui) and Chau-sang (Chin Siu-ho), in the 1985 Hong Kong action comedy "Mr. Vampire."
Forget everything you know about bloodsuckers; the undead specimens in "Mr. Vampire" are breath-suckers. They have a very deliberate way of hopping with their arms stretched out in front of them, legs also stiff and straight from rigor mortis. In Chinese, these zombie-like revenants are known as the jiangshi; in Japanese, it's kyonshi, while in English, they're sometimes referred...
The post Year of the Vampire: Hold Your Breath For The Hopping Undead In Mr. Vampire appeared first on /Film.
The only thing better than Marvel money is Michael Dorn money, and that's what it would take to get Armin Shimerman back in the "Star Trek" fold as the Ferengi bartender Quark. For whatever reason, "Deep Space Nine" characters like Quark haven't enjoyed as much of a resurgence in the Paramount+ streaming era of "Star Trek," even as familiar faces and voices from "The Next Generation" and "Voyager" have returned to reprise their roles on "Picard" and "Prodigy." You've seen Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine; you've heard Kate Mulgrew voice Captain Janeway again, but it's as if the 'Star Trek" reunion committee just decided to skip...
The post It Would Take 'Michael Dorn' Pay To Get Armin Shimerman's Quark Back On Star Trek appeared first on /Film.
In "Army of Thieves," Nathalie Emmanuel played a jewel thief in a zombie-adjacent world, but in "The Invitation," she's no longer content to be carrying out heists on the sidelines while monsters run amok elsewhere. "The Invitation" puts her right down in the thick of things with a "sexy aristocrat" in the countryside, per the official synopsis. The familiar "Dracula" setup betrays the film's not-so-secret vampire recipe, which is further bolstered by the appearance of fangs and blood-drinking and the name-dropping of Bram Stoker characters in the trailer for "The Invitation."
Emmanuel stars in "The Invitation" as Evie, a woman without family who discovers through a DNA test that she has a long-lost...
The post Many Paintings and Artifacts in The Invitation Have a Hidden Meaning [Exclusive] appeared first on /Film.
Don't hold your breath for "District 10," the sequel to Neill Blomkamp's Oscar-nominated directorial debut, "District 9," unless you're prepared to go without air for another two years or more. "District 9" first hit theaters in mid-August 2009, so it's been over 13 years now since the movie introduced Blomkamp and star Sharlto Copley to the world. Talk of a potential prequel or sequel has been bandied about ever since then, but early last year, things seemingly took a more official turn when news broke that Blomkamp and his writing partner and wife Terri Tatchell were penning the script for "District...
The post The Long Wait For Neill Blomkamp's District 10 Will Be Even Longer to 'Time it Right' appeared first on /Film.
There's a new vampire movie in theaters this weekend, and it happens to share the title of a Karyn Kusama film: "The Invitation." This is not that Dracula project from Kusama, which received a stake to the heart earlier this year, but rather a different spin on the same 125-year-old mythos from director Jessica M. Thompson. "The Invitation" tells the story of a young woman named Evie, played by Nathalie Emmanuel ("Game of Thrones"), who heads out to the English countryside for a wedding with the wealthy white cousin she never knew she had.
Will it be a Red Wedding or something more along the lines...
The post The Invitation is Packed with Dozens of Vampire and Horror Easter Eggs [Exclusive] appeared first on /Film.
Spoilers for "House of the Dragon" episode 1.
The recent "House of the Dragon" premiere garnered the biggest audience in HBO's history. They hit 9.986 million viewers across HBO and HBO Max. The "Game of Thrones" prequel is set almost 200 years before the birth of Daenerys Targaryen, and the premiere set the stage for the downfall of the house of the dragonriders. Whatever you thought of the final season of "Game of Thrones," it's clear from the viewership that at least some of the naysayers are willing to give this franchise another go.
The first series, based...
The post The House of the Dragons Cast Was Caught Off Guard When They Found Out It Was A Game Of Thrones Show appeared first on /Film.
Whether through film or the written word, the importance of visuals cannot be dismissed. Both mediums require us to paint images for the audience to consume and explore. The more memorable the visual image conjured up, the deeper it will embed itself in a person's mind, even years later.
That said, when it comes to film, story is often sacrificed for the sake of strong visuals. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, since film is a visual medium. Images have captivated since the early exploration of filmmaking, leading to the experimentation of still photography, the development of the chronophotographic gun in the Victorian era, and laying...
The post Story Is Secondary When It Comes To A Rob Zombie Horror Film appeared first on /Film.
One of the biggest coups in recent memory is David Gordon Green getting Ellen Burstyn back for his new trilogy of "Exorcist" films. Burstyn was central to the first movie, playing the distraught mother of young Regan (Linda Blair), a poor girl with a little bit of a demon problem. There have been, by my count, four sequels and/or prequels and one surprisingly good TV show that have spun off from that first hugely successful film, but exactly zero of them got Burstyn to return.
So, what changed? Why is she coming back for Green's new trilogy? Was she bedazzled by a brilliant and intricate pitch from Green and...
The post Why Ellen Burstyn Finally Returned for an Exorcist Sequel appeared first on /Film.
Hot on the heels of taking the reins of the new "Fantastic Four" movie in the works at Marvel Studios, "WandaVision" series director Matt Shakman is leaving behind another major franchise project. The Hollywood Reporter has learned that Shakman will no longer be at the helm of "Star Trek 4," the next installment of the sci-fi franchise that was rebooted by J.J. Abrams back in 2008.
Shakman was hired for the sequel in July of 2021, and it was said to be on the fast track towards production, but apparently, things aren't moving fast enough to avoid scheduling conflicts with "Fantastic Four." Paramount Pictures released a statement saying:
"Matt Shakman is... The post Matt Shakman No Longer Directing Star Trek 4 appeared first on /Film.
From January 1989 until March 1996, Neil Gaiman's pivotal goth text "The Sandman" flooded the hearts of Doc Martens-wearing, clove cigarette-smoking, Fields of the Nephilim-listening teens the world over. The comic followed the downbeat, bitter adventures of Dream, a supernatural personification of human dreams, as he escaped a prolonged prison sentence in a fantasy kingdom, and set out traversing multiple dimensions to build up his power again. Dream frequently ran into other personified human concepts like Death, Destiny, Despair, and Delirium, and existed in a vast, complicated mythology world that your "Rocky Horror Picture Show"-attending buddies probably knew better than you.
Because of...
The post A Legendary Pop Star Wanted to Play Morpheus in the Scrapped Sandman Movie appeared first on /Film.
Multiverse storytelling is nothing new, but it sure seems like it's having a moment. Several wildly popular movies and television shows have featured multiverses in the past few years, with even more due to hit theaters soon. Whether it's the animated antics of "Into the Spider-Verse," the heartfelt wackiness of Daniels Kwan and Scheinert, or the Marvel mayhem of "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness," there's more than enough multiverse media to go around. But why now? What inspired this incredible influx of dimension-hopping fun, and will it slow down anytime soon?
Given that the concept behind multiverses is ancient — think...
The post Doctor Strange, The Flash, and Everything: Why Now Is The Moment For Multiverse Films appeared first on /Film.
The short answer to the question posed by the headline is: no, "Resident Evil" is not getting a second season. The reason for this will probably not surprise you.
Deadline has the story that Netflix is not moving forward with "Resident Evil" season 2 and also revealed some curious details about the decision behind that. We all know that Netflix is currently in a bit of a crisis as their competitors close the gap, subscribers are dropping at record rates, and their stock has taken a John Wick-style beating. They've announced they're reining in their spending, and "Resident Evil" apparently didn't make the cut.
The Netflix series debuted July 14, 2022,...
The post Will Netflix's Resident Evil Series Get A Second Season? appeared first on /Film.
Besides his work on the 1978 Diana Ross and Michael Jackson-starring cult classic "The Wiz," I know the late, great director Sidney Lumet for his legal/courtroom dramas such tas "The Verdict" and "Find Me Guilty." I was first introduced to such works in college when a criminal justice professor showed my class Lumet's first feature film, "12 Angry Men." The movie allows viewers to become flies on the wall as a jury who, on the hottest day of the year, is sent into the deliberation room to unanimously decide whether to send an 18-year-old murder suspect to the electric chair.
Though the...
The post How Sidney Lumet Used His One Room Setting In 12 Angry Men To His Advantage appeared first on /Film.
(Welcome to ...And More, our no-frills, zero B.S. guide to when and where you can watch upcoming movies and shows, and everything else you could possibly stand to know.)
Colin Kaepernick is one of few names in professional sports that many, many people who don't otherwise much care about football (or sports at all for that matter) know. Kaepernick was, at one point, one of the most promising quarterbacks in the NFL, taking the San Francisco 49ers to the Super Bowl, with the team losing to the Baltimore Ravens. Even so, Kaepernick appeared to be a rising star in the sport.
Then everything changed.
Kaepernick started taking...
The post Kaepernick & America Release Date, Trailer, And More appeared first on /Film.
In order to prepare for "The Invitation," in theaters now, director Jessica M. Thompson watched "every single vampire film ever made." The co-writer and director behind the horror film, which was originally titled "The Bride," uses elements from past horror lore to tell a more modern vampire tale. The story follows Evie (Nathalie Emmanuel) as she discovers a long lost family of filthy rich bloodsuckers. In other words, it's "Downton Stabby," an online joke Thompson appreciated.
Prior to "The Invitation," Thompson directed "The Light of the Moon" and six episodes of "The End," plus worked on "The Handmaiden's Tale" as an...
The post 'The Invitation' Director Jessica M. Thompson Talks Dracula Easter Eggs, Practical Fang Challenges & More [Exclusive Interview] appeared first on /Film.
Film musicals, as odd as it sounds, were once the superhero movies of Hollywood. In fact, they were more than that. On top of being money-makers, musicals were catnip for Academy Award voters up until the genre's decline in popularity in the 1970s. Thanks to "Moulin Rouge!" in 2001, musicals enjoyed a resurgence in the aughts, with "Chicago" winning the Best Picture Oscar just one year later. But after financial misfires like "Rent" and "The Producers," the genre was back on the naughty list by the time Tim Burton's "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" arrived in 2007.
Adapted...
The post Tim Burton Didn't Want Sweeney Todd to Shy Away from Being a Bloody, R-Rated Musical appeared first on /Film.
James Cameron's 1991 ultra-blockbuster "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" bears some of the usual logical inconsistencies that will come baked into any time travel story, but its premise is easy enough to wrap one's head around. In the future, human beings will invent artificial intelligence in the form of a computer system called Skynet. Resenting humanity, Skynet will immediately wage war on humanity, starting with the explosion of a nuclear bomb on August 29, 1997. By 2029, Earth will be a machine-driven wasteland with the planet's scant human survivors waging a ground war with an army of metallic robot skeleton warriors called Terminators.
In the...
The post Terminator 2: Judgment Day Ending Explained: I Know Now Why You Cry appeared first on /Film.
How about that "Only Murders in the Building" Season 2 finale?! If you thought it couldn't get any crazier, the writers take it up a notch. It was an undeniable roller coaster ride with some standout moments from everyone in the main cast. When we last saw our beloved Mabel (Selena Gomez), Oliver (Martin Short), and Charles (Steven Martin), they were in handcuffs being escorted from the lavish Arconia apartment building when it was discovered Bunny Folger (Jayne Houdyshell), president of the board, had been brutally murdered and discovered in Mabel's apartment.
That set up quite the predicament for our little...
The post Every Main Character In Only Murders In the Building Season 2, Ranked Worst to Best appeared first on /Film.
If you were an unsuspecting late-night Cartoon Network viewer in 2001, you likely witnessed the birth of "Adult Swim." And, if you were there, then it is safe to say that one of your formative introductions to anime involved some loud horns blaring at the stroke of midnight, followed by the funkiest bass strings you'd ever heard. That's when you knew, deep down, that something different was happening.
"Cowboy Bebop" is, without question, one of the most highly regarded anime series of all time. With its rugged, quirky characters, fantastic animation, and epic score, the show has served as a welcome introduction to anime...
The post Anime Shows Like Cowboy Bebop That Are Worth Your Time appeared first on /Film.
Now that "The Sandman" has dropped its excellent bonus episode, fans are anxiously awaiting news of the show being picked up for a second season. Netflix has yet to make a decision unfortunately, but that hasn't stopped creator Neil Gaiman and showrunner Allan Heinberg from plotting season 2 and beyond. Both previously touched on which comic arcs they were most excited to tackle and Heinberg's in particular, were further down the line than even season 2 would likely get.
"The Sandman" bonus episode, which adapted "A Dream of a Thousand Cats" and "Calliope," introduces the titular Muse, but also reveals that not only were Dream (Tom...
The post Neil Gaiman Already Knows Who Should Play Dream's Son in Sandman appeared first on /Film.
Antoine Fuqua might have been known best for his big screen blockbuster work, but in the past few years, he's made a pretty triumphant transition to streaming. Of course, it took some "adjusting" on the director's part — with the Mark Wahlberg starrer "Infinite" quietly released on Paramount+, and the Jake Gyllenhaal-led thriller "The Guilty" making a similar debut on Netflix — but Fuqua has since found a major groove with television. With producer credits on the celebrated "Mayor of Kingstown" and the recent release of Prime Video series "The Terminal List," Fuqua is enjoying the freedom that long-form entertainment affords.
"I found...
The post King Shaka: Everything We Know So Far About the Antoine Fuqua Showtime Series appeared first on /Film.
There is nothing like a good underground story, especially an underground boxing story. There is no thrill quite like watching a boxer becoming stronger, facing adversity, and eventually being the last one standing in the ring.
There are many great sports anime about virtually every sport out there, from association football and volleyball to ping pong and more. But if you want an underdog sports story that mixes the heightened reality of anime with grounded animation, real-life techniques, and a rare story that moves beyond the typical high-school setting, there is none better than "Hajime no Ippo."
The show follows Ippo Makunouchi, a soft-spoken, gentle puppy...
The post Hajime no Ippo Is The Perfect Underdog Anime Story appeared first on /Film.
Everyone's got to start somewhere, and if you were a child actor living in New York City during the 1980s and '90s, there was a decent chance you might get called up to appear on a sketch on NBC's "Late Night" when it was hosted by David Letterman and, later, Conan O'Brien. These hosts and their writing staff loved writing skits where the star got to interact with little children. With Letterman, there was a bit of an aloof, quasi-W.C. Fields vibe, whereas O'Brien was warmer and prone to getting upstaged by his precocious guest. It was a formula...
The post Did You Know Scarlett Johansson Began Her Acting Career on Late Night with Conan O'Brien? appeared first on /Film.
Kevin Lima's "A Goofy Movie" usually isn't listed as part of the Disney Renaissance. The film "wasn't even a B movie. It was a C movie," as Don Hahn (a producer on "Beauty and the Beast" and "The Lion King") recalled to Vanity Fair in honor of the movie's 25th anniversary in 2020. Much of the film's animation was outsourced to Disney Animation's smaller outlets in Paris and Australia, as well as non-Disney studios in Canada and Spain. The whole thing might've been scrapped, too, had it not already been greenlit by the head of Disney's film division, Jeffrey Katzenberg, just prior to his departure...
The post Max Almost Had Some Serious Competition In A Goofy Movie appeared first on /Film.
(Superhero Bits is a collection of stories, updates, and videos about anything and everything inspired by the comics of Marvel, DC, and more. For comic book movies, TV shows, merchandise, events, and whatever catches our eye, this is the place to find anything that falls through the cracks.)
In this edition of Superhero Bits:
A "Batgirl" star makes a plea to Warner Bros.
Olivia Wilde can't say anything about her Marvel movie.
Henry Cavill may have filmed a new Superman scene.
A new "Spider-Man: No Way Home" re-release clip.
All that and more!
With the release of "She-Hulk: Attorney at Law"...
The post Superhero Bits: Olivia Wilde's Secret Marvel Movie, Henry Cavill Superman Rumors & More appeared first on /Film.
(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.)
The Series: "Jackie Chan Adventures"
Where You Can Stream It: Amazon Prime Video
The Pitch: What if world-famous martial arts movie star Jackie Chan was actually an archaeologist on a quest to gather 12 mystical talismans around the world? Oh, and one more thing: A ruthless criminal organization is after them too. And one more thing: A clandestine government organization has hired Jackie to stop the talismans from falling into the wrong hands. And...
The post The Daily Stream: Jackie Chan Adventures is the Greatest Celebrity Cartoon Series of Your Childhood appeared first on /Film.
Of all the filmmakers of the modern era, few have such a recognizable style as Quentin Tarantino. Of course, QT is known to switch things up from time to time, based on the period he wants to emulate in his films. But whether he's paying homage to the martial arts films of the Shaw Brothers, or delivering his own spin on the spaghetti Westerns of the '60s, Tarantino rarely strays from his heightened, highly-stylized look. That's not to say that Tarantino can't apply restraint, or even nuance if he feels so inclined. Compared to the pulpy energy of "Django Unchained" or the "Kill Bill"...
The post Quentin Tarantino Knew His Over-The-Top Style Wouldn't Work For Jackie Brown appeared first on /Film.
"Lost Ollie" is a new animation/live-action hybrid show that tells the story of a lost patchwork bunny embarking on a fantastical adventure to try and reunite with his best friend, a human boy named Billy. Along the way, he faces wonders, horrors, betrayal, action, and more. In her review for /Film, Shania Russell wrote: "'Lost Ollie' doesn't need to be a grand epic or end-of-the-world type quest. It's still a beautiful reminder of what it feels like to be wandering and what it truly means to find your way home."
The show may tread familiar ground compared to stories in "Toy Story" or "The...
The post Lost Ollie Director Peter Ramsey On Treating VFX Teams Like True Collaborators [Exclusive Interview] appeared first on /Film.
If you've spent any time on social media over the last few years, you've probably run across at least one person gushing over English singer/songwriter Harry Styles. Recently, the English-born musician has inspired more than his fair share of Facebook groups, Instagram stories, TikToks, and novels. Styles also inspired Anna Todd's Wattpad story, "After," which was adapted into a popular film in 2019, and his influence on writers and filmmakers will continue in 2022.
Late one night, actress and writer Robinne Lee stumbled across the musician online and was shocked by his "aesthetically perfect" face. Styles' looks and preference...
The post The Idea of You: Everything We Know About Michael Showalter's Next Movie With Anne Hathaway appeared first on /Film.
Throughout the 2000s, there was a bit of a trend of studios greenlighting multiple movies in a franchise at once and having them filmed back-to-back to avoid any long gaps in releases. "The Lord of the Rings" was the most obvious example, with all three films being made at once and released one year after the other. The first two "Matrix" sequels were also produced back-to-back and were released with only a six-month gap between them. By the time "Revolutions" was released, it was clear that this strategy had diminishing returns: both "Matrix" sequels ended up feeling messy and incomplete. They felt like...
The post Gore Verbinski Was In 'Pure Survival Mode' During Pirates Of the Caribbean 3 appeared first on /Film.
It's not incongruous the first time you hear it. It's just a quip, akin to a one-liner fired off by Arnold Schwarzenegger after he offs a bad guy. Most importantly, it gets a laugh! "Looks like meat's back on the menu, boys." It's an Uruk-hai glorying in the beheading of a sniveling orc during a contentious moment in "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers." The Uruk-hai are not dumb creatures. They're an orc-human hybrid. It's not out-of-character for them to have a sense of humor. It's just... when would these slovenly beasts dine in an establishment with menus?
The post How The Lord Of the Rings' Most Memeable Line Wound Up In The Movie appeared first on /Film.
Based on the best-selling, PlayStation-exclusive video game from 2017, "Horizon Zero Dawn" is set to receive a small-screen adaptation on Netflix. The latest effort by PlayStation Studios to repurpose its intellectual properties as full-fledged, live-action franchises is set to revolve around Aloy and her adventures exploring the ruins of a machine-riddled, post-apocalyptic world. The adaptation currently harbors even more secrets than the original story it is based on, but a few key details have trickled out of the anticipated production. For instance, Netflix has hired Steve Blackman to develop "Horizon Zero Dawn," signing him to a multi-year deal after serving...
The post Netflix's Horizon Zero Dawn: Everything We Know So Far About the Video Game Adaptation appeared first on /Film.
Okay, I know what you are thinking. Isn't "The Patient" about someone who kidnaps their therapist? Why yes, it is, which is why it might seem strange that actor Domhnall Gleeson -- who plays the titular patient, Sam -- describes his character as "relatable."
However, let's hear him out before jumping to conclusions. To promote the upcoming limited series on Hulu, Gleeson spoke to The New York Post about his complicated character. As we outlined in /Film's review of the show, Sam is a young man that is seeing Dr. Alan Strauss (Steve Carrell) for treatment for his intense compulsions. However, Gleeson's character isn't...
The post Why Domhnall Gleeson Thinks The Patient's Sam Fortner Is 'Relatable' appeared first on /Film.
Remember when Joe Pesci ("Goodfellas," "My Cousin Vinny") retired from acting in 1999? Thankfully, that didn't last forever. He came back for a cameo in 2006's "The Good Shepherd," 2010's "Love Ranch," a Snickers ad in 2011, voiced Koman in "A Warrior's Tail," and appeared to rave reviews and landed an Oscar nomination for "The Irishman" in 2017. Pesci may have wanted to retire, but we fans are very happy that it never completely stuck.
The Academy Award-winning actor has been cast in yet another project, and it sounds like a blast. Pesci is set to star in the Pete Davidson comedy series "Bupkis," which...
The post Joe Pesci Un-Retires Again, Joins Pete Davidson's Biographical Comedy Series Bupkis appeared first on /Film.
Warning: Major spoilers ahead for episode 2 of "She-Hulk: Attorney at Law."
Fans of the "She-Hulk" comics will be delighted to finally see the superpowered lawyer on the small screen, as Marvel's "She-Hulk: Attorney at Law" premiered last week on Disney+. Apart from following Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk (Tatiana Maslany), the series also features special appearances from The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) and Wong (Benedict Wong), among other superheroes. Apart from this, the show also marks the return of a certain gamma-charged green anti-hero. Yes, Marvel's Abomination (Tim Roth), who first appeared in 2008's "The Incredible Hulk" and made a cameo appearance in "Shang-Chi...
The post Here's What You Need to Remember About The Abomination's History in the MCU appeared first on /Film.
Jack Quaid's Hughie Campbell is far from the most powerful character in "The Boys," but he has what it takes to be a real superhero. Hughie has maintained his humanity through every disastrous event, and it has always been his greatest strength. The former IT employee was once a regular citizen, living his own life, until he was rudely awakened to the horrors caused by the superheroes of the dystopian world. He's awkward, intelligent, and inventive, and despite being surrounded by fame-obsessed, dangerous superheroes, he's pretty badass — and down to earth.
That's a personality trait both actor Jack Quaid and...
The post How A Canceled Pilot Got Jack Quaid Cast As Hughie In The Boys appeared first on /Film.
This article contains spoilers for the season 3 premiere of "Star Trek: Lower Decks."
What a time to be alive as a "Star Trek" fan. Just when it seemed as if nothing could fill the gap left by the extraordinary first season of "Strange New Worlds" -- one of the most universally adored installments of the franchise in recent memory -- "Star Trek: Lower Decks" returns to make it all better. The animated series brings a much more lighthearted and irreverent tone to the exploration-heavy material, all while remaining quintessentially "Trek" -- a balancing act that's much tougher to pull off than it...
The post Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 3 Reveals the Bizarre Future of a Key Trek Location appeared first on /Film.
While "Star Trek: Lower Decks" is a delightful workplace comedy in its own right, Trekkies have been having a ball combing through every episode looking for cute references to classic "Star Trek" episodes. In the first season episode "Veritas," the characters visited a museum of alien artifacts that featured a 50-foot humanoid skeleton that appeared to be wearing a tattered blue Starfleet uniform. This, for the well-trained eye, was a reference to the "Star Trek: The Animated Series" episode "The Infinite Vulcan" (originally aired October 20, 1973, and written by Walter Koenig!) wherein a species of intelligent plant people cloned a...
The post One of Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 3's Geekiest Jokes Hides in Plain Sight appeared first on /Film.
The opening credits of "Star Trek: Lower Decks" establish what kind of a show audiences can expect. Most classic Trek shows feature a bold, adventurous orchestral fanfare paired with gorgeous shots of the U.S.S. Enterprise, Deep Space Nine, or the U.S.S. Voyager inspirationally trekking through vast and awe-inspiring spatial phenomena. Star trekking, if you will. "Lower Decks" features a similar Jerry Goldsmith-inspired piece (composed by Chris Westlake), and depicts similarly inspiring spatial scenes of the U.S.S. Cerritos boldly encountering vast and dangerous situations. In a humorous twist, however, the Cerritos doesn't fare well in said encounters. It looks out over...
The post Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 3's Opening Credits Now Feature Another Classic Star Trek Enemy appeared first on /Film.
Australian actor Geoffrey Rush is legendary for many reasons — he is one of the few performers to have won the Triple Crown of Acting (an Oscar, an Emmy, and a Tony award). He rose to considerable international prominence after his role in Scott Higgins' biopic "Shine" and has played various incredible roles in his career, one of many being that of Captain Hector Barbossa in the "Pirates of the Caribbean" film franchise.
The villainous, ferocious, once-cursed captain of the Black Pearl has a compelling character arc that takes time to evolve. He's not just a mustache-twirling villain existing to vex...
The post Geoffrey Rush Needed A Push To Join The Pirates Of The Caribbean Cast appeared first on /Film.
The current state of streaming is a bit of a chaotic mess. You've got Netflix's stock plummeting in one sector and whatever the hell is happening with HBO Max in the wake of the Discovery merger as they purge beloved shows left and right in another. Streaming on the whole seems to be in a transitional period as audiences can't possibly keep up with all the different streamers available, and we face a new era of paying cable prices for the shows and movies we want to watch.
Universal's streaming service, Peacock, has made some moves lately to fine-tune what its service provides...
The post Peacock to Become the Next-Day Streaming Home for NBC Shows Starting September 19 appeared first on /Film.
The episode of "Futurama" entitled "Jurassic Bark" (that aired on November 17, 2002) was about the unfrozen 20th-century boob Fry (Billy West) going to a museum in the year 3002 to find ancient antiques of the pizza joint where he used to work. There was a pizza paddle, an old dining booth, and, most shockingly, the fossilized remains of his beloved pet dog Seymour. Professor Farnsworth (West) explains that, because Seymour was fossilized so quickly, there may still be a creamy center of organic dog matter somewhere inside Seymour's rock shell. With such matter, Seymour could be cloned and returned to life with his...
The post Futurama's Infamous 'Jurassic Bark' Episode Could Have Been Even More Grim appeared first on /Film.
The "Game of Thrones" prequel "House of the Dragon" premiered to the biggest audience in HBO history. Set almost 200 years before the birth of Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke), the series will show us the downfall of the Targaryens who ruled Westeros. It's not the first attempt at a spinoff of the series based on the novels by George R.R. Martin. A different prequel from Jane Goldman, starring Naomi Watts, never saw the light of day. There is talk of a Jon Snow spinoff, and the development of a "Tales of Dunk and Egg" series based on Martin's novellas set within the...
The post George R.R. Martin Doesn't Want To Be The Game Of Thrones Stan Lee appeared first on /Film.
Anyone who's a fan of Rob Zombie's music career knows the rocker has a playful approach to his material that can dive straight into the humorous and farcical. After all, anyone who entitles a song "Well, Everybody's F***ing in a U.F.O." (a song that features a lead vocal from Zombie performed in a faux-Southern drawl) isn't taking themselves too seriously.
Yet what fans of Rob Zombie (or Robert Bartleh Cummings, if you aren't into the whole brevity thing) also know is that the artist is as multi-faceted as he is talented. His movies, despite existing exclusively within the horror genre, feature a variety...
The post Why Rob Zombie Made It A Point To Remove Humor From His Horror appeared first on /Film.
A24 and Fruit Tree Productions have added several new cast members for the upcoming thriller with the intriguing title of "I Saw the TV Glow." This project comes to us from writer and producer Jane Schoenbrun ("We're All Going to the World's Fair," "A Self-Induced Hallucination"). If "Poltergeist" and "The Ring" made you fear your television and VHS player, you're going to find the synopsis intriguing. That goes double if you love horror television.
The cast isn't just populated with actors, but a bunch of musicians as well, including Fred Durst, indie artist Lindsey Jordan from Snail Mail, the band King Woman, and...
The post I Saw the TV Glow: Everything We Know About the Latest A24 Horror Movie appeared first on /Film.
Although production on the third season of "Euphoria" hasn't officially started yet, it looks like it will feature one less character. In a now-deleted Instagram story, Barbie Ferreira captioned a piece of art made of her character, Kat, by castmate Hunter Schafer with some pretty sad news. Although the answer itself is a bit cagey and indirect, it sounds like she might not be returning to "Euphoria" for its third season.
"After four years of getting to embody the most special and enigmatic character, Kat, I'm having to say a very teary-eyed goodbye," Ferreira wrote. "I hope many of you could see yourself...
The post Euphoria Standout Barbie Ferreira Will Not Be Returning For Season 3 appeared first on /Film.
Science fiction is ultimately the story of good versus evil. Whether it's the conflict between the Jedi and Sith in the "Star Wars" franchise, the war against the machines in "The Terminator" franchise, or the cruelty of HAL-9000 in "2001: A Space Odyssey," sci-fi movies require great heroes and villains. Neo (Keanu Reeves) wouldn't be nearly as heroic in "The Matrix" if he didn't have to face off against Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving).
Unfortunately, not every sci-fi movie can fulfill those expectations. There's nothing worse than a bland protagonist that you can't connect with. Perhaps, a movie like 2003's "Daredevil" wouldn't be nearly as bad...
The post Sci-Fi Movie Heroes That Would Make Way Better Villains appeared first on /Film.
The insanity over at Warner Bros. keeps getting weirder. By now you've heard over and over again about the absolute head-scratcher decision from the new bosses at Warners to scrap "Batgirl," a film that was well into post-production as it was heading towards its expected late 2022 release date. New CEO David Zaslav has been under fire from day one for this decision, which Warners has called a "strategic shift as it relates to the DC Universe and HBO Max."
The optics of this decision are unflattering, to say the least. It takes some gumption to think you can just erase an anticipated comic book movie...
The post Batgirl is Getting Secret 'Funeral Screenings' on the Warner Bros. Lot appeared first on /Film.
It's perhaps no coincidence that John Huston's 1948 film "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" came out the same year that comic book publisher William Gaines took control of EC Comics and began to work the company away from its original moniker, Educational Comics, to a much more commercially viable model -- Entertaining Comics. Both "Treasure" and the books that came out of EC in the late-'40s had a lurid horror bent, exploring the darker recesses of the human soul.
"Treasure" is about a trio of men (Humphrey Bogart, Tim Holt, and Walter Huston, the director's father) who trek into a forbidding, hot...
The post The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre Pushed Humphrey Bogart's Patience To Its Limit appeared first on /Film.
Harry Styles hit the world stage as a member of the band One Direction and made a name for himself with his subsequent solo career. He added acting to his resume, gaining rave reviews for his role in 2017's "Dunkirk," and is about to star in the Olivia Wilde-directed film "Don't Worry Darling." Styles plays Jack Chambers, a man living a seemingly idyllic life with his wife Alice (Florence Pugh) in an experimental 1950s suburb. Alice's world starts to break down when she discovers that not everything is as it should be.
With "Don't Worry, Darling," Styles is mostly acting, but he did draw...
The post Harry Styles Made a Key Contribution to Don't Worry Darling's Score appeared first on /Film.
With other streaming services like Netflix and Disney+ announcing price hikes in August of 2022, and/or adding ad-supported tiers, here's some news you'll likely be happy to hear. Well, for a while, anyway. Peacock, the NBC streaming service which is home to titles like "Modern Family," "The Office," and "They/Them," is about to become the exclusive stop for next day NBC and Bravo show streaming, according to TVLine. The change will happen on September 19, 2022, and will only affect current seasons of shows.
The outlet reports that the streamer will temporarily cut prices for their Premium tier, which you'll need to see those shows the next...
The post Peacock is Slashing the Price on Its Premium Tier appeared first on /Film.
The second season of "Only Murders in the Building" may have just wrapped up, but that doesn't mean that the show is slowing down. If anything, things are just kicking up into high gear. As with season 1's finale, the latest "Murders" episode teased the next season's killing — and it's sure to be a show-stealer. But as much as Mabel, Charles, and Oliver have stolen our hearts, showrunner John Hoffman is planning on taking advantage of the show's wide cast of rich characters, rather than just limiting himself to stories that involve the main trio.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter,...
The post Only Murders in the Building's Showrunner Sees Plenty Of Spin-Off Potential appeared first on /Film.
Rob Zombie's 2012 film "The Lords of Salem" may be the filmmaker's best. In it, Sheri Moon plays Heidi, a woman living in Salem, MA, and recovering from drug addiction. She works as a soft-spoken DJ at the local radio station with Ken Foree and Jeff Daniel Phillips. When they play a mysterious rock record on their show — a record that only plays three scary, deep notes over and over — it awakens something inside Heidi. She begins having surreal visions of Satan. The visions are also, perhaps, being encouraged by a trio of women (Dee Wallace, Patricia Quinn, Judy...
The post Rob Zombie Had To Look Across The Pond For His Lords Of Salem Inspiration appeared first on /Film.
When actor-turned-director Olivia Wilde debuted with the exceedingly well-received "Booksmart" in 2019, the sky seemed to be the limit. Not only was the film a pleasant surprise and a thoroughly confident first feature, but Wilde quickly gained a reputation as a filmmaker who prioritized drama-free sets and a professional working environment for all. (In her own words, she described her approach as abiding by a staunch "No a* policy" in an interview with Variety last year.) She put her money where her mouth is during production of her follow-up, the highly-anticipated "Don't Worry Darling."
Having originally cast troubled star Shia LaBeouf in a significant role, the...
The post Why Olivia Wilde Fired Shia LaBeouf from Don't Worry Darling appeared first on /Film.
(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.)
The Movie: "Booksmart"
Where You Can Stream It: Hulu
The Pitch: Olivia Wilde's feature debut is a raunchy, feminine exploration of balancing business with pleasure. A coming-of-age story about two best friends about to head off to college, "Booksmart" has been referred to as "Superbad" for girls. Sure, the premise is similar: two best friends want to end their high school career with a wild night of excessive partying and shooting their shot with their crush. However,...
The post The Daily Stream: Booksmart is a Hilarious Lesson in Friendship and Folly appeared first on /Film.
(Superhero Bits is a collection of stories, updates, and videos about anything and everything inspired by the comics of Marvel, DC, and more. For comic book movies, TV shows, merchandise, events, and whatever catches our eye, this is the place to find anything that falls through the cracks.)
In this edition of Superhero Bits:
"Gotham Knights" gets a new villain-heavy trailer.
The Spider-Verse may be doomed in Marvel Comics.
"Titans" season 3 is making its way to Blu-ray.
Glen Powell weighs in on those Cyclops rumors.
All that and more!
"Spider-Man: Blue" is widely considered to be one of the...
The post Superhero Bits: Glen Powell On Cyclops Rumors, Gotham Knights Reveals Its Villains & More appeared first on /Film.
It's been five years since "The Handmaid's Tale" first aired and held a mirror to America with its dystopian tale of a post-apocalyptic world where a totalitarian theocracy ravaged the United States, forcing fertile women to work as natal slaves for the ruling class. After years with a relatively small scope focusing on a single woman named June (Elisabeth Moss) trying to escape her unimaginable situation as a Handmaid, last season ended with June finally escaping Gilead, and participating in the brutal killing of her abuser, commander Fred Waterford (Joseph Fiennes).
With the status quo blown wide open, we are entering new territory for "The Handmaid's Tale." The show...
The post The Handmaid's Tale Season 5 Trailer: War Is Coming appeared first on /Film.
In the pantheon of great director-actor pairings, it is hard to match the six-film run of John Huston and Humphrey Bogart. The blustery filmmaker and his brutally handsome star confidently segued from the world-weary noir of "The Maltese Falcon" to the caustically funny misadventure of "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" and on to the rambunctiously romantic banter of "The African Queen." Over their first five films, Huston's style is refreshingly unfussy. He's not trying to knock the viewer out with bravura coups de cinema. Rather, he reads the emotion of his characters, and, if he's cast well, the camera always ends...
The post The Movie That Ended Humphrey Bogart's Creative Relationship With Director John Huston appeared first on /Film.
With so many streaming services to choose from, finding a new show or film to discover is rarely an issue. Especially not on Netflix, the streamer that essentially started it all, and continues to churn out quality originals to add to their already-stacked catalog. Each month on Netflix introduces titles both new and old, but not every title's got a permanent home on the platform. There's also the small issue of Netflix's promotion strategy: With so many movies and shows coming and going with each passing month, there's always the chance that something truly great is going to slip through the cracks. "Blonde"...
The post The Best TV Shows And Movies Coming To Netflix In September 2022 appeared first on /Film.
As the world of film and TV becomes more and more dominated by big franchises that are years old and have dozens of entries, it becomes a daunting proposal for new viewers. The Marvel Cinematic Universe quite literally has a recap show on Disney+ whose entire purpose is to tell you the important parts of the story leading up to new movies because there is too much story out there! Meanwhile, "Star Wars" continues to focus on making new TV shows that connect not only to the movies but to each other, all while continuing story threads from animated shows with dozens of episodes.
This is why...
The post Andor Was Designed as a Gateway for New Star Wars Fans appeared first on /Film.
Spoilers for "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" ahead.
"Andor," the next "Star Wars" Disney+ series, premieres next month, and /Film was able to attend a press conference recently held for the show. During the event, writer/executive producer/showrunner Tony Gilroy gave the world some insight into the character of Cassian Andor (Diego Luna). We know him from "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story," where he, along with the rest of his crew, sacrificed themselves to help the Rebellion. What the show will explore is how he came to be a man so devoted to the fight against the Empire.
In "Andor," we're beginning five years before the events...
The post Here's the Real Life Inspiration for Andor's Home Planet appeared first on /Film.
By his own admission, Tony Gilroy had "no interest" in doing a Star War before he was hired to co-write and oversee the reshoots on "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story." Prior to that, the "Michael Clayton" and "The Bourne Legacy" filmmaker tended to specialize in thrillers that wed morally-complicated characters with grounded conflicts and overly political commentary. With "Rogue One," however, Gilroy got the chance to continue exploring his primary interests as a storyteller while painting on about as large a canvas as one could reasonably hope for.
Gilroy now finds himself back in a galaxy far, far away for "Andor," a series that delves into the...
The post Here's What Inspired Tony Gilroy to Make Andor appeared first on /Film.
Fantasy fans have barely had the chance to catch their breath after the "House of the Dragon" premiere took viewers back to Westeros for the first time in years. Now, a different world of magic is about to make a comeback, with "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power." The new Prime Video series is set to debut September 2, 2022, and thanks to the specifics of the rights deal secured by Amazon Studios, it will pull not from J.R.R. Tolkein's "Lord of the Rings" books, but from lesser-known Middle-earth history texts, like the books'...
The post The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Early Buzz: One Ring to Rule Them All? appeared first on /Film.
In the nearly four decades since the first live-action film starring Brigitte Nielsen and Arnold Schwarzenegger, another adaptation of Dynamite Entertainment's "Red Sonja" has failed to materialize in Hollywood — but it's not for lack of trying. Robert Rodriguez once had a vision that included Rose McGowan in the titular role. Before allegations of sexual assault were brought to light, Bryan Singer was also in line to helm a project based on the character originally created for Marvel Comics in 1973 by writer Roy Thomas and artist Barry Windsor-Smith. And the third attempt in recent history included "Ant-Man and the Wasp" star Hannah...
The post Red Sonja Movie is Still Alive, Finds Its Lead in Matilda Lutz appeared first on /Film.
"Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon" is likely a name many cinephiles have heard over the past few years, but don't know a lot about. That's understandable, since Ana Lily Amirpour's third feature was announced back in 2018, but didn't have its world premiere until a few years later. Premiering at the 2021 Venice Film Festival, the title has been floating around on the festival circuit and was acquired by Saban Films this past March.
While the movie is still a bit mysterious, there are some things we can piece together before its release...
The post Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon: Everything We Know So Far About Ana Lily Amirpour's Next Film Starring Kate Hudson appeared first on /Film.
When "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" debuts on Prime Video next month, it'll mark a milestone in television history, reportedly becoming the most expensive show ever made. With a budget as massive as the one it's working with, the prequel series will be expected to look pretty much flawless to appease wary fans of Peter Jackson's films. That means no wonky CGI, no bad wigs (here's looking at you, "House of the Dragon"), and no distracting continuity errors -- like unrealistic height differences.
Luckily, according to the cast of...
The post Getting Character Height Right In The Lord of the Rings: The Rings Of Power Took Every Trick In The Book [Exclusive] appeared first on /Film.
If you are looking for an adorable series to watch soon, then the Netflix live-action/animated hybrid "Lost Ollie" should be on your watchlist. Try to get through the trailer without at least being on the verge of tears, we dare you.
In all seriousness, "Lost Ollie" looks heartwrenching and sweet, something that might be sorely needed right now. If that wasn't enough, it's got a pretty great cast rounding out the miniseries. On the live-action side, you've got Jake Johnson and Gina Rodriguez playing the parents of a young boy named Billy (newcomer Kesler Talbot), and for the CG-animated segments,...
The post Lost Ollie Actor Tim Blake Nelson Made A Very Specific Request Before Signing On appeared first on /Film.
A new spin on an old classic is in the works at Disney+. According to Variety, the streamer is in the process of developing a live-action King Kong series. While differing rights to "King Kong" stories have resulted in several on-screen versions over the years, including the Legendary-Warner Bros. MonsterVerse saga, the latest iteration is going back to the source material. It will reportedly be based on the original story by Merian C. Cooper, plus more modern "King Kong" novelizations by Joe DeVito, which were made in conjunction with Cooper's estate.
Most interestingly, the new...
The post A King Kong Series is in the Works At Disney+, From James Wan's Atomic Monster and Disney Branded Television appeared first on /Film.
HBO Max and Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav can't seem to keep their names out of the headlines recently, tied exclusively to baffling business decisions like canning the highly-anticipated release of "Batgirl" or absolutely obliterating the streaming platform's animated offerings. Zaslav made it known during the Q2 earnings call that he had hoped to cut $3 billion from HBO Max's operating budget before the inevitable streaming merger with discovery+, which apparently meant annihilating the relationships HBO Max had with Warner Bros. Animation and Cartoon Network.
Learning that your life's work is being wiped out with complete disregard for the artistry...
The post How HBO Max Is Recreating The Problem Cartoon Network Was Created To Solve appeared first on /Film.
The content available on most streaming services changes regularly, and Hulu is no exception. As such, having a handy guide for what to watch each month can be an invaluable resource. And so, without further ado, we present to you the 60 best movies on Hulu right now.
What can you expect from the Hulu catalog specifically? Well, for one, plenty of 20th Century productions, as well as films made under its specialty label, Searchlight Pictures. Ever since Disney bought Fox (which also gave the Mouse House a controlling share of Hulu), the streaming service has been the exclusive streaming destination for all 20th Century...
The post The 60 best movies on Hulu right now (August 2022) appeared first on /Film.
(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.)
The Movie: So Vam
Where You Can Stream It: Shudder
The Pitch: In this micro-budget ode to LGBTQ+ identity, Kurt (Xai) is a young man in a small Australian town that feels trapped in its conservative politics, instead wanting to move to the city to follow his passion of becoming a drag queen. Unfortunately, he ends up getting kidnapped and bitten by Landon (Chris Asimos), a vampire who preys...
The post The Daily Stream: So Vam Paints a Bloody Picture of the Future of Queer and Trans Horror appeared first on /Film.
2015's "Jupiter Ascending" was meant to be a glorious return to ambitious sci-fi for Lilly and Lana Wachowski, the duo that brought us "The Matrix," one of the most significant genre films of all time. Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned for the filmmakers, as the film went on to become one of the biggest bombs of the decade, barely making back its massive production budget in ticket sales, representing huge losses for Warner Bros.
But what went wrong? The movie had a great A-list cast led by Channing Tatum and Mila Kunis, not to mention eventual Oscar-winner Eddie Redmayne....
The post Why Jupiter Ascending Bombed At The Box Office, And What We Can Learn From It appeared first on /Film.
This article includes spoilers for the season 2 finale of "Only Murders in the Building."
"Only Murders in the Building" just ended its second season on a wacky high note, solving one murder (in the most hilariously complex way possible) and leaving neighbors and amateur sleuths Charles (Steve Martin), Oliver (Martin Short), and Mabel (Selena Gomez) smack-dab in the middle of another. The season 3 set-up already looks promising. In the finale's final scene, we see that Mabel, Charles, and Oliver have reunited for the theatrical debut of Oliver's new play, headlined by none other than Paul...
The post Only Murders in the Building Season 3 Will Put Martin Short's Character Back in the Spotlight [Exclusive] appeared first on /Film.
Our latest Blu-ray column is packed with some big new releases, folks. The biggest is perhaps the 4K release of "Heat," Michael Mann's crime epic about guys being dudes. In addition to that, the folks at Shout Factory have released the first three "Child's Play" movies in 4K. Then we have David Cronenberg's long-awaited return to directing, plus a so-so rom-com that tries to get by on charm alone, Ethan Hawke wearing a spooky mask, a polarizing folk horror pic, and a 4K release of Paul W.S. Anderson's best movie.
"Heat" has never gone out of fashion, but Michael Mann's epic...
The post The Best New Blu-ray Releases: Heat 4K, Crimes of the Future, The Black Phone, and More appeared first on /Film.
Just two short decades ago the television landscape was very different. Traditional sitcoms and serial dramas still dominated both cable and network TV. Then along came reality television. It disrupted programming and viewing habits that had been in place for half a century. And a Jim Carrey movie predicted it all.
"The Truman Show" was way ahead of its time. The film was released in 1998, two years before CBS Network's "Survivor" would launch the reality TV boom that changed TV forever. "The Truman Show" poses the question, who defines our world? Its answer: the media.
The movie critiques modern media...
The post Filming The Truman Show's Finale Put Jim Carrey's Actual Life On The Line appeared first on /Film.
Warning: Major spoilers ahead for season 3 of "The Orville."
Seth MacFarlane's "The Orville" is a sci-fi spectacle that takes inspiration from "Star Trek" and other space dramas, but the core of the show is its complex characters. Season 3 of the show, which dropped on Hulu two months ago, continues the story of the USS Orville and its crew's struggles to maintain peace in the galaxy. The Kaylons attacked the ship at the end of season 2 as a part of their plan to destroy biological life-forms, but the crew members managed to survive with the help of Isaac (Mark Jackson), a...
The post Seth MacFarlane Didn't Want The Orville To Try To One-Up Itself appeared first on /Film.
One of the main characters in Matt Groening's and David X. Cohen's animated sci-fi show "Futurama" is the appropriately named Bender, an alcoholic robot played by John DiMaggio. Bender is an amusing, crass rogue, fond of telling the organic beings around him — which he has nicknamed "meatbags" or "pork pouches" — to bite his shiny metal ass. Because of a bizarre design quirk, robots in the future are fueled by alcohol, meaning all the robots on "Futurama" are the tiniest bit drunk at all times. If they don't drink enough, their batteries wear down and they ... also...
The post It Took A Lot Of Trial And Error To Find The Right Voice For Futurama's Bender appeared first on /Film.
Johnny Depp broke into Hollywood by appearing in popular films like "Platoon," and "Nightmare on Elm Street," but he became a star in 1987 when he portrayed Officer Tom Hanson in "21 Jump Street." Uncomfortable with the idea of being a teen magazine pinup, Depp spent the next few decades accepting roles in films that were outside of the mainstream, like, "What's Eating Gilbert Grape," "The Ninth Gate," and "The Astronaut's Wife." Depp stepped back into the spotlight in 2003 when he accepted the role of Jack Sparrow in Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black...
The post Pirates Of The Caribbean Director Gore Verbinski Never Wanted To Make A 'Jack Sparrow Movie' appeared first on /Film.
With "The Hobbit" first published nearly a century ago, J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth is one of fantasy's most enduring worlds. Inspired by the rise of fascism and the horrors of war, Tolkien's fantasy culminates in a battle for good and evil over the Ring of Power, an ancient tool of evil made by Lord Sauron to control and wield power over Middle Earth. When Bilbo Baggins regrettably passes the Ring onto his nephew Frodo, the young hobbit is sent on a quest to destroy the Ring to save Middle Earth.
Thankfully, he's not alone, as a disparate group of heroes comes together to form...
The post Every Fellowship of the Ring member from Lord of the Rings ranked appeared first on /Film.
Oi! Did you hear that the fourth season of "The Boys" is officially in production? If not, then congratulations; everyone's favorite anti-superhero television show will be back for a new season, and it could come sooner than you think. With production on both the main series and its college-based spinoff, "Gen V," underway, "Boys" showrunner Eric Kripke revealed the title for the fourth season premiere in a Twitter post.
Simply captioned "Day One," the tweet revealed that the premiere is being handled by two mainstays of the series; it was written by season 3 writer and producer David Reed, while also...
The post The Boys Season 4 May Feature a Connection to a Real-Life CIA Controversy appeared first on /Film.
John Boyega's feature film debut came in 2011 with the release of Joe Cornish's excellent alien invasion film "Attack the Block." Boyega, striking and intense, immediately caught the attention of those who saw Cornish's film, and he would almost immediately go on to appear in numerous British TV and film projects like "Becoming Human" and "Law & Order: UK." In 2015, he appeared before a global audience with the release of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," one of the biggest box office hits of all time. Despite his immediate high profile, Boyega remained pragmatic, even cynical about his new place in the pop culture...
The post How Nope Star Daniel Kaluuya Changed John Boyega's Approach To Acting appeared first on /Film.
"Big Mouth" is set to return this October, and if you haven't had time to check out its spinoff series "Human Resources" yet, it's time to study up. A new teaser just dropped for the latest season of "Big Mouth," and the puberty monsters are making it very clear that these shows are about to enter crossover territory.
There's not much by way of plot details for the new date announcement promo, which doesn't actually feature any of the kiddos that the show's all about. But it does check in on Connie (Maya Rudolph) and Maury (Nick Kroll), who have...
The post Big Mouth Season 6 Trailer: So Now The Hormone Monsters Are Going Through Changes appeared first on /Film.
If you've been wondering what has been up with that Wes Ball "Planet of the Apes" movie that's been whispered about for over three years now, it looks like we have some movement on that front. The Fox/Disney merger is a likely suspect in the delay of a new run of "Apes" movies, but Deadline has the scoop that Ball and the studio have found their new lead ape in a young actor named Owen Teague.
Teague is probably best known for his roles in a pair of Stephen King adaptations. He had a small part in the "It" films as Patrick...
The post New Planet Of The Apes Installment Finds Andy Serkis' Successor In The Stand's Owen Teague appeared first on /Film.
HBO Max is canceling yet another group of animated series and films? Must be a day that ends in "Y."
After last week's proverbial bloodbath of scrubbing nearly 40 mostly animated series, 20 of which were HBO Max exclusives, from the streaming platform, we've recently learned that the hit to animation hasn't stopped yet. According to Variety, six more upcoming animated projects have been canceled, including "Batman: Caped Crusader," the follow-up to "Batman: The Animated Series" from executive producers Bruce Timm, J.J. Abrams, and Matt Reeves.
Additional projects getting the shaft include "Merry Little Batman," "Did I Do That to the Holidays: A...
The post Batman: Caped Crusader Animated Series Has Been Canceled At HBO Max appeared first on /Film.
Big news just hit the trades (specifically Deadline) that adds yet another name to the cast of Francis Ford Coppola's long-gestating passion project "Megalopolis." This movie has been his white whale for decades and Coppola has finally gotten to a point where he can make it, thanks in large part to his own wealth fueled mostly by his winery. Gotta give the man his due. He's bankrolling this nearly $100 million film himself so as to retain complete artistic control and that's pretty baller.
It's no surprise that a who's who of actors want to work with the "Godfather" and "Apocalypse Now" director on this ambitious project. Coppola...
The post Aubrey Plaza Joins The Cast Of Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis appeared first on /Film.
Mel Gibson's "Braveheart," a loose biography of the 13th century Scottish revolutionary William Wallace, was released in 1995 to much critical laud, with many critics and fans alike praising its dynamic, bloodied look at Scottish history. Actual historians, meanwhile, had a collective aneurysm over how inaccurate screenwriter Randall Wallace's view of history was. Screenwriter Wallace (no relation to William) took many of his cues from a 1488 poem called "The Wallace," written by Blind Harry. "The Wallace" was already an exaggeration of history, and subsequent poems and tales about William Wallace tended to expand the myth rather than seek accuracy. The inaccuracies and historical fudging committed...
The post Some of Braveheart's Best Scenes Never Ended Up On Film appeared first on /Film.
It's been eight long years since Dan Harmon's beloved TV show, "Community," concluded its sixth season, which, per the sage words of Danny Pudi's universe-hopping character Abed, means the show should've given us a series-capping motion picture by now. Fans believed in the six-seasons-and-a-movie dream, but aside from some vague comments here and there, Harmon has yet to confirm that this bold promise will actually be fulfilled.
For a show that eked out a none-too-shabby 110 episodes while under the constant threat of cancellation, asking for anything more feels greedy. After all, series with better ratings have been axed before getting...
The post A Community Movie is merely a Matter of When, According to Dan Harmon appeared first on /Film.
HBO has another massive hit on its hands. Three years after "Game of Thrones" concluded, George R.R. Martin's world of dragons came roaring back in a big way on Sunday. The company has shared via press release that "House of the Dragon" had the biggest premiere of any HBO series ever, a fantastic feat for the long-running pay cable network. Though internally recorded streaming data should of course always be taken with a grain of salt, HBO reports that initial viewership for the show across HBO and streamer HBO Max topped out at 9.986 million viewers last night.
The network notes...
The post House of the Dragon's Had the Biggest Premiere of Any Show in HBO History appeared first on /Film.
10 years after breaking all our hearts as the doomed tribute Rue in "The Hunger Games," Amandla Stenberg has firmly come into her own as an actor. Stenberg has gone on to star in a variety of films as a young adult, including the critically-acclaimed drama "The Hate U Give" and, more recently, the horror-comedy "Bodies Bodies Bodies." Up next, Stenberg will be heading to the "Star Wars" galaxy thanks to her role in the live-action series "The Acolyte," having nearly made a trip into the Marvel Cinematic Universe on the way.
In an interview with Variety in 2018, Stenberg revealed she had previously been in the...
The post The Reason Amandla Stenberg Walked Away From Black Panther appeared first on /Film.
Spoiler for the first episode of "House of the Dragon" follow.
Three years ago, the final season of "Game of Thrones" ended with a handful of polarizing choices that had longtime fans feeling disappointed. Many of us were left wondering if we'd ever care about the world of Westeros again, a feeling that in my case lingered even as HBO started hyping up the show's new Targaryen family prequel series, "House of the Dragon." Yet last night, when "House of the Dragon" finally premiered, fans still tuned in, and then inevitably logged online to share first impressions. The show took...
The post House of the Dragon's Most 'Extreme' Scene Was Intended to be Difficult to Watch appeared first on /Film.
I am utterly obsessed with one little detail in "House of the Dragon."
The show's first episode, "The Heirs of the Dragon," features a plethora of scenes centered on the Small Council in King's Landing. Viewers of "Game of Thrones" are very familiar with the Small Council, which is essentially Westeros' equivalent to a Cabinet meeting. The king sits around with his appointed group of leaders of various branches of the kingdom, and they discuss and debate the various matters concerning the realm, from taxes to celebrations.
The series premiere of "House of the Dragon" institutes something we...
The post Those Little Balls During The House Of The Dragon Council Scenes Sum Up The Best Part Of The Show appeared first on /Film.
Major spoilers for "Beast" follow.
Director Baltasar Kormákur's "Beast" is Hollywood's latest attempt to make audiences afraid of the sheer power and ferocity of nature. The film draws influences from classic creature features like "The Ghost in the Darkness," "Jaws," and even "Jurassic Park." Its 90-minute runtime and straight-to-the-point narrative give viewers a lean, action-packed b-movie featuring A-list talent both in front of and behind the camera.
In "Beast," Idris Elba plays Nate, a father who must protect his family from a vengeful lion on a safari gone awry. Sharlto Copley joins him as Martin, Nate's best friend and resident lion expert. As usual,...
The post The 10 most brutal moments in Idris Elba's Beast, ranked appeared first on /Film.
Everyone knows the big DC superheroes, from Batman to Wonder Woman to Superman, but will no one think of the super-pets? Sure, the news shows the world being saved time and again by the major names in the Justice League, getting them press they don't even need. Meanwhile, dogs, pigs, turtles, and more are working behind the scenes to keep order in the world and their superhero friends on track. Someone get these little buddies a fancy bed, some toys, and all the super snacks they can eat.
The animated film "DC League of Super-Pets" has finally brought us the story of the real heroes;...
The post Here's When You Can Watch DC League of Super-Pets At Home appeared first on /Film.
(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.)
The Series: "The Beatles: Get Back"
Where You Can Stream It: Disney+
The Pitch: On a very basic level, "Get Back" is a vivid, verite-style, three-part docuseries of recovered and revitalized archival footage that documents the making of The Beatles' final album, "Let It Be." It begins with the band's first day in the studio, and ends a few weeks later, with what they...
The post The Daily Stream: The Beatles: Get Back is an Expansive Docuseries That Brings The Biggest Band in History Down To Earth appeared first on /Film.
"The X-Files" is full of terrible creatures pulled directly from the deepest, darkest crevice of humanity's worst fears. The long-running series featured aliens, cryptids, cabals, and pretty much every other myth and nightmare one could possibly imagine. It's a fair assumption that the man responsible for all this nightmare fuel is a certified creeper who collects human organs in glass jars as a side hustle, but Chris Carter is actually a pretty normal guy.
According to Independent, before he decided to pick up a pen and create night terrors, Carter was an editor for a surfing magazine in California, where he worked with...
The post Why Chris Carter Put Himself Through The 'Grinder' Of An X-Files Revival appeared first on /Film.
After a 13-year gap between films, the prequel to Jaume Collet-Serra's hit 2009 killer kid(?) movie "Orphan" debuted on Paramount+ alongside a limited theatrical release this weekend, with "Orphan: First Kill" proving audiences can't get enough of Esther. William Brent Bell of "The Boy," "Stay Alive," and "Separation" fame is in the director's chair this time around, with "Orphan" star Isabelle Fuhrman returning to play the titular role, despite the fact she's now well into her 20s. Even with the day-and-date release, "Orphan: First Kill" managed to bring home $1.6 million in its opening weekend, while playing in only 498 theaters across...
The post Orphan: First Kill Notches a $1.6 Million Opening Weekend in Limited Release appeared first on /Film.
For as much as the films of Alfred Hitchcock are consumed by the psychologies of their protagonists, the "Master of Suspense" was not particularly interested in delving deep into them when it came to working with his actors. To be fair, he was working in a time where the internalization of character was not nearly as important as it is today. Film acting in classic Hollywood was presentational, practical, and technical. The actor was required to showcase emotional truth, not necessarily feel it themselves. Of course, moments where the two collided did occur, but it was not standard practice.
Alfred...
The post Alfred Hitchcock Had Three Rules For Eva Marie Saint On The Set Of North By Northwest appeared first on /Film.
Academy Award and Emmy Award-winner Allison Janney ("Mom," "I, Tonya") is adding action star to her very long resume with the upcoming Netflix film "Lou." The streamer just released a new trailer for the film in which she co-stars with Jurnee Smollett ("Birds of Prey," "Underground").
In "Lou," Janney plays a woman who has left a life of danger behind her, and has settled into a normal existence. That all changes when the mother of a kidnapped daughter (Smollett) begs her to help bring the child home. They'll have to risk everything to survive the rescue mission, a massive storm, and test their own limits to pull...
The post Lou Trailer: Allison Janney Gets Her Own Action Movie appeared first on /Film.
No matter how action films evolve over the years, John Woo remains one of the most influential directors of his generation. The genre wouldn't be what it is today without Woo's elegiac, balletic action sequences, his inventive (not to mention bombastic) use of gunplay, and of course his penchant for slow motion. But Woo's signature style wasn't born in a vacuum. The director has always worn his influences enthusiastically on his sleeve — and endearingly, Woo takes influence from anything he can. When recording commentary for his 1992 hit "Hard-Boiled," Woo admitted that he tries "to get something from everything" he sees. It...
The post How Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch Heavily Inspired John Woo's Hard Boiled appeared first on /Film.
The Adult Swim staple "Rick and Morty" is gearing up to release its sixth season on September 4, 2022, and the series shows no signs of slowing down. Originally premiering in December of 2013, "Rick and Morty" has since gone on to only increase in popularity with the release of each new season. Even though there were sometimes two-year delays between seasons, interest in the show hardly ever waned.
Those long waits between seasons only made anticipation and expectations skyrocket for the episodes to come. Thankfully, the animation, storytelling, and performance quality didn't wane, either. If anything, co-creators Justin Roiland, Dan Harmon, and...
The post Justin Roiland Isn't Looking to End Rick and Morty Anytime Soon appeared first on /Film.
In comic book form, Judge Dredd — created by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra — made his debut in a 1977 issue of the British comic book "2000 A.D." In the future world of Judge Dredd, set in Mega-City One (a satire of the United States), crime has become so bad that street cops have also been given the clout of court officials, arresting suspects and putting them on trial right on the spot. The Judges, as they are called, have every right to execute suspects on a whim, which they do often. Judge Dredd himself is an antihero, serving as a...
The post The Judge Dredd Storylines Karl Urban Wants To See On The Big Screen appeared first on /Film.
One of John Mayer's songs will serve as the basis for a "major" new movie.
During a concert last night, the seven-time Grammy Award winner announced that "Walt Grace's Submarine Test, January 1967," a song from his 2012 album "Born & Raised," is being adapted into a film. The concert was live-streamed online in an effort to raise money to support the Montana community where he's lived for more than a decade, which experienced devastating flooding earlier this summer.
"I want to say one thing that might get me in trouble, 'cause that's what I do," Mayer said after finishing a rendition of "Walt Grace" on...
The post One of John Mayer's Songs Is Being Adapted Into a 'Major Motion Picture' appeared first on /Film.
A little bit of meta-humor and self-awareness can go a long way, and the adult animated series "Rick and Morty" has practically perfected the art. After all, the series frequently hops dimensions and metaverse timelines, so a little fourth-wall breaking isn't exactly going to damage the series' version of reality.
In a roundtable interview attended by /Film's Ethan Anderton, series creator and co-showrunner Justin Roiland detailed the reasons why he doesn't mind making some self-aware jokes about the jokes themselves, creating a kind of meta-humor that has become a part of the "Rick and Morty" experience. The series' protagonist, mad scientist Rick Sanchez (voiced...
The post Why Rick and Morty Creator Justin Roiland Likes Mocking Their Own Jokes Within the Show Itself appeared first on /Film.
In "Game of Thrones," Daenerys Targaryen was a marvel: as the Mother of Dragons and the last-known descendant of Westeros' conquerors, it's no wonder she commanded armies and ruled over cities. She was one-of-a-kind, with her distinctive silver hair and inability to be burned by fire. But on "House of the Dragon," Kings Landing is basically overrun with Targaryens. And don't even get me started on all the dragons. When the prequel series begins, the royal family is at the height of their power, ruling the seven kingdoms uncontested by anyone except each other. So what exactly is it that makes...
The post Can Targaryens See The Future in House of The Dragon? Dragon Dreams Explained appeared first on /Film.
This article contains spoilers for the first episode of "House of the Dragon."
In the premiere episode of the "Game of Thrones" prequel series "House of the Dragon," young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen (Milly Alcock) and her friend, Lady Alicent Hightower (Emily Carey), study the histories of their world together beneath the heart tree in the Godswood of King's Landing. Alicent thinks Rhaenyra hasn't been paying attention, but she quickly impresses her friend by reciting the story they were discussing, complete with all of the details. She recounts the tale of Nymeria, a warrior princess of the Rhoynar who helped found the nation that became Dorne. If the name sounds...
The post Who is Nymeria? The House of the Dragon Legend Explained appeared first on /Film.
The beauty of "Star Trek" is that there's so much of it that a certain percentage has to be good by default. Another beauty of "Star Trek" is that there's so much of it that a certain percentage of it has to be bad or weird or inexplicable by default. The final beauty of "Star Trek" is that both of those elements are key to the franchise's longevity — "Star Trek" has been on for so long, and has told so many stories, that you could literally devote a large chunk of your life to talking about it,...
The post Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 3 Review: The Animated Series is as Funny and Adventurous as Ever appeared first on /Film.
Celebrating over 25 years of gonzo action mayhem, "Con Air" still packs a real punch. The explosive Simon West-directed spectacle sees a group of some of the most dangerous convicts in the state taking control of the transport plane extraditing them, with one man, played by Nicolas Cage, trying to make it back home to his family.
It was right after the year in which Cage starred in both "The Rock" and "Leaving Las Vegas," which won him the Best Actor Oscar. The man was on top of the world, so it's fitting that he gets...
The post John Cusack Wanted His Con Air Character To Stand Out from Other Action Heroes in One Key Way appeared first on /Film.
The Disney Renaissance was a time of great experimentation for the Mouse House — one that saw its animation division tackling all sorts of challenging material, from ancient legends spanning cultures around the world to decidedly dark and mature literary classics by Victor Hugo and Edgar Rice Burroughs. But with great daring comes the risk of committing equal-sized blunders, and that's just what the studio did when it decided to turn the tale of the real-life Indigenous American woman Pocahontas (a nickname passed down by her father) into an animated musical extravaganza.
That's not just the hindsight talking. "Pocahontas" earned a lackluster critical reception upon its...
The post Pocahontas Put The Lion King's Production At A Major Disadvantage appeared first on /Film.
Directed by Cary Fukunaga and written by Nic Pizzolatto, "True Detective" season 1 could be considered the high point of the anthology series, which is in the middle of getting season 4 off the ground. The critically acclaimed first season led to a fast-tracked second season, which ultimately was met with a mixed reception. Season 3 of the show returned to what made a lot of the original season great, but it still didn't quite recapture the initial collaboration between Pizzolatto and Fukunaga, who had done the entirety of season 1 together. Seasons 2 and 3 featured a mix of different directors and...
The post Catching The Killer Was Never Really The Point Of True Detective appeared first on /Film.
The first episode of "House of the Dragon" has aired, and among other things, it introduces us to Paddy Considine's King Viserys — a good man but a not-so-great king.
It was Viserys' complexity that drew Considine to the role and to the "Game of Thrones" universe after he passed on the original "GoT" script over a decade ago. "There's so many characters that are written, and they're just so surface — there's no depth to them," Considine shared during a roundtable discussion I took part in. "I thought there was a lot of depth in Viserys and a lot of...
The post Paddy Considine Breaks Down Those Two Pivotal Scenes In House of The Dragon's First Episode appeared first on /Film.
JJ Abrams' "Star Trek" reboots were a bold and largely successful attempt to bring the franchise back into mainstream relevancy, reimagining the classic sci-fi series as action/adventure blockbusters. Naturally, for a franchise with one of the oldest fandoms, many people were nervous at the prospect of not only putting a new spin on this universe, but reintroducing these legacy characters with different faces. Though the adventurous nature was there, "Star Trek" has always been a slow and philosophical series more than an action-oriented one. Trekkies felt a legitimate fear that the curious spirit of the original show would be watered...
The post Karl Urban Struck A Careful Balance When It Came To Playing Star Trek's Bones appeared first on /Film.
The terror of found footage horror is predicated on the notion that the characters that shot it ultimately met a fatal end, which fills you with a sense of dread. It's the anticipation of something bad happening, and the latest found footage movie to fill me with similar, albeit slightly different, unease is "Creep."
Director Patrick Brice ("There's Someone Inside Your House") is responsible for bringing the effectively tense "Creep" films to the screen, both of which star Mark Duplass ("Paddleton") as an enigmatic, well, creep who hires people to film him doing things around his house before unleashing the full extent of his...
The post Mark Duplass Thinks He Knows Why Audiences Connected With Creep appeared first on /Film.
"Game of Thrones" burned us bad. While it remains the most prominent talking point three years later, the controversial finale was just one fraction of the problem: HBO's hit series was plowing through rough patches way back in its fifth season. By the time it came to a close, lots of fans felt their passion for Westeros fizzle out completely. But even that wasn't enough to stop HBO from plotting a dozen spin-offs to take its place! Despite considering "Thrones" my favorite show for the better part of a decade, I really struggled with the idea of returning to Westeros; it wasn't...
The post House of The Dragon Premieres With A Fiery Blast From The Past appeared first on /Film.
Hopefully you still remember the crafting recipe for shivs, because it'll soon be time to return to the world of "The Last of Us." The critically-acclaimed post-apocalyptic video game from Naughty Dog has been adapted for the screen at HBO, with Pedro Pascal ("The Mandalorian") once again playing a reluctant dad to a scrappy orphan as Joel, and Bella Ramsey ("Game of Thrones") once again playing a scrappy orphan as Ellie.
"The Last of Us" is set in a version of our world that has been ravaged by a fungal pandemic known as the cordyceps brain infection, which turns...
The post The Last Of Us Teaser: Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey Hit the Road as Joel and Ellie appeared first on /Film.
Alfred Hitchcock is behind several decades' worth of celebrated films, but some of the English director's best works were adaptations of stage plays. "Dial M For Murder" was one such adaptation, based on Frederick Knott's Broadway hit concerning an affair, a murder plot, and the trial that followed. Meticulously plotted and visually sparse, the thriller has one of the most satisfying endings of any of Hitchcock's films.
"Dial M For Murder" came to him from one of his previous players. "Notorious" star Cary Grant brought the project to the filmmaker with ambitions to play a hired killer, an appealing role after the suave menace...
The post Why Cary Grant Had To Turn Down Dial M For Murder appeared first on /Film.
Bringing the literary work of Stephen King to life on the big screen is incredibly difficult. King's novels are layered with complex characters, unique locations, and downright bizarre stories. But Frank Darabont seems to have found the right formula. The director responsible for "The Shawshank Redemption" and "The Mist" also brought one of King's most impactful works to life while earning a Best Picture Oscar nomination.
King, always on the cusp of publishing trends, released "The Green Mile" in 1996 as a six-part serial novel. It is told through the eyes of Great Depression-era death row prison guard Paul...
The post Bruce Willis Played A Crucial Part In Getting Michael Clarke Duncan His Green Mile Role appeared first on /Film.
In the marketing for the notorious 1981 horror film "The Evil Dead," director Sam Raimi skewed happily away from modesty, describing his film as "The ultimate experience in grueling terror." As there would be two sequels, it proved to be the antepenultimate experience in grueling terror.
Given the size and power of the cult behind it, it seems almost churlish to put a film like "Evil Dead II" (called "Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn" on the posters) into an introductory context. "Evil Dead II" remains one of the finest horror comedies cinema has yet offered, presenting extreme horror visuals (severed hands, gushing blood, zombie...
The post Why Evil Dead II Couldn't Use Footage From Its Own Franchise appeared first on /Film.
(Welcome to TV, Interrupted, a series where the /Film team remembers, eulogizes, and makes a case for the revival of TV shows we loved that were canceled far too soon.)
Post-apocalyptic stories have never been more popular ... but what about the post-post-apocalypse? What happens when the world has fallen apart temporarily, and been put back together in a slightly new shape? How do you get back to normal? And is it even desirable to do so?
It's a question a lot of us have had to ask ourselves recently. Two years ago I was standing in line for the local pharmacy on an eerily...
The post TV, Interrupted: Post-Zombie Apocalypse Series In The Flesh Was Buried Too Soon appeared first on /Film.
There have been major changes going down at HBO Max because of Warner Bros. merger with Discovery, and animated titles have been a major casualty. A whole slew of shows were removed from the streaming platform without any real reasoning or warning, and fans were shocked and dismayed. It turns out that fans weren't the only ones blindsided by the loss of these shows, but the creators behind them were completely surprised as well. Many creators took to Twitter to voice their frustration at having their hard work made inaccessible out of nowhere, but one showrunner went a step further. "Infinity Train" creator...
The post Infinity Train Creator Says Animation Teams Were Given No Warning Before HBO Max Purge appeared first on /Film.
We all think of Stanley Kubrick as the ultimate mastermind director, someone in complete control of every minute detail of a picture, where every frame sprung entirely from his brain and onto the screen. In reality, he had a whole host of collaborators around him to aid in bringing that vision to life. Kubrick needed dedicated, talented people around him in order to make his films what they were. On his last four pictures, one of those invaluable team members was Leon Vitali, who sadly has passed away at the age of 74.
According to the official Stanley Kubrick Twitter account, Vitali "passed away peacefully in...
The post Leon Vitali, Actor And Stanley Kubrick Collaborator, Dies At 74 appeared first on /Film.
In "The Grey Man," the Russo brothers' latest expansive (and expensive) collaboration with screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, Billy Bob Thornton gets the "and" credit. That's fitting in terms of screentime, but it doesn't capture what Thornton brings to the film. His presence is the skeleton key to unlocking Marcus, McFeely, and the Russos' intentions. Thornton was one of the 1990s most prominent talents, a force in front of and behind the camera — sometimes in the same picture. "The Grey Man" deliberately rips its espionage and quip-to-dialogue ratio from the decade that made Thornton famous. Thornton gets this. He calibrated his whole performance as Donald Fitzroy —...
The post The 12 Best Billy Bob Thornton Movies, Ranked appeared first on /Film.
After a turbulent journey, the third season of Seth MacFarlane's "The Orville" dropped on Hulu in June. A sci-fi lover's tool for decompression after a long day at work, "The Orville"'s return feels like a welcome relief in the midst of, well, have you seen the world lately? With that said, a decent amount of change has happened to the show between seasons. Everything seemed to be running smoothly after its second season wrapped back in April 2019. Alas, fans wouldn't know then that it would be a long time until season 3 arrived.
The most notable change was the network. The show...
The post Why Disney Decided The Orville Needed A Subtitle For Season 3 appeared first on /Film.
(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.)
The Movie: "A Goofy Movie" (1995)
Where You Can Stream It: Disney+
The Pitch: Taking place a few years after the "Goof Troop" series, Goofy all but forces his now-high schooler son, Max, to embark on a road trip with probably the worst timing for any teenager: right after Max asked his crush Roxanne to the school dance. To make matters worse, the teen makes her a promise he is pretty sure he won't...
The post The Daily Stream: A Goofy Movie Is Unique, Touching, and Downright Legendary appeared first on /Film.
When I majored in journalism at Western Michigan University, my professors routinely showed movies in the classroom to complement their lesson plans. In my investigative journalism course, for example, one professor had us watch the 2015 biographical film "Spotlight," which is based on The Boston Globe's uncovering of a child sex abuse scandal committed by local Roman Catholic priests. When it came to lessons on the career-killers plagiarism and fabrication of sources, another professor showed the 2003 biographical drama "Shattered Glass," which recounts disgraced journalist Stephen Glass' professional demise after he fabricates stories for "The New Republic" magazine. The movie was a box...
The post Morgan Freeman's Favorite Role Is One He Never Wanted To Repeat appeared first on /Film.
As much as we try to pretend it's not, television recasting is almost always a big deal. When stage performers get recast in a play, or characters get written out between movie sequels, it's bearable because these types of stories have a natural end point that helps audiences feel some closure about the character who's gone. Yet for TV shows, which encourage binge-watching that blurs the lines between seasons, the change can be jarring and distracting.
The spectrum of effective recasts isn't so much from terrible to great as it is from wildly noticeable to slightly unobtrusive. Whether it's the sudden appearance of...
The post Every Character Recast In The Arrowverse (& Why The Actors Left) appeared first on /Film.
When did you get into "Game of Thrones?" I started watching the show live in its second season. This was when I was in film school, and there were minor rumblings about this fantasy show that wasn't like most fantasy stuff, which was nice to hear since I am not a particularly big fan of the genre. I pulled up the pilot episode on HBO Go (remember HBO Go?), and I was immediately sucked into the world George R.R. Martin had created.
"Game of Thrones" was one of those shows that continued to grow with every passing season as the hype spread...
The post House Of The Dragon Star Paddy Considine Struggled To Get Into Game Of Thrones appeared first on /Film.
In a rarity for the American box office, an anime movie is set to walk away from this weekend with the number one spot. "Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero" is projected to make $21 million by the end of the weekend, beating out competition including the weekend's only new release from a major studio, Universal's lion-fighting thriller "Beast."
The latest Dragon Ball movie has already surpassed expectations with a $10.7 million opening day, which dwarfs the last theatrically released film in the franchise. "Dragon Ball: Broly" premiered in 2019, and raked in just $9.8 million in its entire first weekend. If...
The post Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero Is Number One At The Box Office This Weekend appeared first on /Film.
Stanley Donen's 1952 film "Singin' in the Rain," starring Debbie Reynolds, Donald O'Connor, and the obnoxiously chipper Gene Kelly, was once held up in the pages of /Film as the Platonic ideal of movie musicals. It is a certainly a dance showcase of the highest order, and an unapologetic Hollywood nostalgia piece. Silent films are on the way out, sound pictures are on the way in, and singing and dancing are all set to be the future of cinema. "Singin' on the Rain" is also a jukebox musical. The songs are all old standards, including the title number, which came from...
The post Shooting In Color Caused Some Problems Behind The Scenes Of Singin' In The Rain appeared first on /Film.
When the seminal British TV program "Monty Python's Flying Circus" was still on the air (1969 - 1974), it wasn't yet reaching a massive international audience. To facilitate the show's spread, a feature film consisting of re-staged sketches from the show's first two seasons -- called "And Now for Something Completely Different" -- was released in England in 1971. That film is certainly funny, although it lacks the comedic magic of the TV show.
"Monty Python and the Holy Grail" was put into production after "Flying Circus" went off the air. The special features for the film's 2001 DVD release featured vintage footage...
The post Monty Python and The Holy Grail's Success In America Was All About Timing appeared first on /Film.
They say to never meet your heroes. But for Dakota Johnson, the adage might be better reframed as "never sign on for the finale of a show you enjoy."
Though the actress is best known for starring in major productions like the "50 Shades of Grey" trilogy and Netflix's recent "Persuasion" adaptation, she had a small cameo in finale of "The Office" long before either literary adaptation made it to the big (or medium) screen. Johnson played Dakota — no last name — an accountant hired to replace Kevin. Yet despite the fact that her role was so...
The post Dakota Johnson Spent Two Weeks on The Office Set for Just a Few Minutes of Screentime appeared first on /Film.
Even to this day, there are few powerhouse women in the film industry quite like the late Nora Ephron. The prolific filmmaker and playwright was the queen of the rom-com in her time, writing classics such as "When Harry Met Sally..." and directing crowd-pleasing hits like "Sleepless in Seattle," "Michael," and "You've Got Mail." Her influence can be felt in the works of others, not least of whom is Natasha Lyonne, a fellow New York City-born Jewish multi-talent with a knack for crafting witty, heightened comedies-of-manner that speak to her personal roots.
In an interview with W Magazine (via IndieWire), the "Orange is the...
The post Why Nora Ephron Was 'A Very Significant Figure' In Natasha Lyonne's Story appeared first on /Film.
The "Friday the 13th" franchise has 12 entries in it so far, if we are to count 2003's franchise crossover film, "Freddy vs. Jason." The success of the first two films in the franchise helped solidify the mythos of Jason Voorhees as a slasher villain, and it was up to 1982's "Friday the 13th Part III" to finish the trilogy on a resounding note. This obviously did not end up being the case, as the franchise spawned multiple entries that furthered Jason's legacy over the years. However, the franchise's longevity cannot be attributed to the success of "Part III." While the...
The post Creating Friday the 13th's 3D Sequel Was A Challenge For Director Steve Miner appeared first on /Film.
Tom Hardy is no stranger to putting his body through workout hell in order to bulk up for a role. His performances in "Warrior" and "Bronson" are testaments to that, as they are to his ability to wield the physicality in mesmerizing ways in action scenes. It's one of the reasons why his portrayal of Batman's nemesis Bane in "The Dark Knight Rises" is both menacing and magnetic — not to mention the carefully crafted voice Hardy created for the part.
Hardy forced his body into a demanding transformation to play the typically jacked-up villain with massive arms. While following a...
The post Becoming Bane For The Dark Knight Rises Took Its Toll On Tom Hardy appeared first on /Film.
Cartoon stars Tom and Jerry were invented by Will Hanna and Joe Barbera in 1940 for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Tom, a mute cat, and Jerry, a mute mouse, starred in 114 theatrical shorts in their initial run from '40 to '58, and won seven Academy Awards. Thanks to the gods of Saturday morning, many Tom and Jerry shorts made their way into heavy rotation on television, and the ultraviolent animal combat films became deeply entrenched in the subconsciousness of several new generations. Tom and Jerry cartoons were typically pretty violent, often featuring new and interesting forms of abuse. Unlike the Coyote and Roadrunner cartoons, wherein...
The post Itchy & Scratchy Let The Simpsons Writers Break Every Rule Of TV appeared first on /Film.
Upon the end of HBO drama "The Sopranos," with the falsetto notes of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" still hanging in the air, executive producer and writer Terence Winter was searching for his next project. The massively popular mafia-centric show had concluded at the top of the TV heap, even called "the greatest pop-culture masterpiece of its day" by Peter Biskind. Its complicated leading man Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) was more than the head of an organized criminal clan; he was a husband and a father living in the suburbs, complexities "The Sopranos" explored thoroughly over its six seasons.
Already an Emmy Award-winner...
The post Boardwalk Empire's Creator Saw It As The 'Flip Side' Of The Sopranos appeared first on /Film.
For the 20th anniversary of "The Sopranos," creator David Chase talked about the times he clashed with HBO. The network did not like the title "The Sopranos" because it caused some confusion over what kind of show it would be, but what troubled them the most was the fifth episode in the first season, "College," which critics now regard as one of the greatest in both the series and television history. While taking Meadow on college tours, Tony spots a rat who entered witness protection, Fabian "Febby" Petrulio, and brutally strangles him. "College" is a crucial narrative turning point because it is the first time the audience witnesses Tony kill someone. Chase describes HBO's...
The post The Make-Or-Break Moment For Tony's Character Came Early In The Sopranos appeared first on /Film.
Earlier this year, the Apple TV+ series "The Morning Show" was renewed for a third season, with most of its ensemble cast members set to return. The show features Jennifer Aniston as news anchor Alex Levy and Reese Witherspoon as field reporter Bradley Jackson. It follows Alex struggling to keep her job when a rivalry begins to brew between her and Jackson; an impulsive decision-maker who is quickly rising to the top. The series is an unapologetic, outspoken drama that showcases the ruthless world of morning news through the lens of the people that work there. The series...
The post The Morning Show Season 3: Everything We Know so Far About the Return of the Series appeared first on /Film.
Thanks to the upcoming premiere of "House of the Dragon," George R.R. Martin is back in the press, giving us weekly reminders that yes, he is still hard at work writing the final two installments of "A Song of Fire and Ice." Ad die-hard fans already know, the first book came out in 1996, and the fifth in 2011, so 2022 marks the 11th year of waiting for "The Winds of Winter" to arrive. If you're hoping for an estimate on when book six might be ready, then you must be new here: Martin has no intention of predicting when he'll finish...
The post Why Game of Thrones Will Have A 'Very Different' Ending In The Books appeared first on /Film.
Netflix and "The Sandman" creator Neil Gaiman had a nice little surprise for fans recently, dropping an extra episode of the series onto the streamer that contains two stand-alone stories: "Dream of a Thousand Cats" and "Calliope." Both of these tales are wonderful additions to the lore of "The Sandman," but they don't really fit into the serialized structure of the rest of the series, so releasing them as a bonus episode is a stroke of genius.
"Dream of a Thousand Cats" also provided the team behind "The Sandman" with a chance to include some cameos. The entire story is animated, giving some of the...
The post Neil Gaiman Has The Perfect Cameo Role in The Sandman's Bonus Episode appeared first on /Film.
Laura Chinn has written for projects like "The Mick," "Children's Hospital," and "Florida Girls," which she created and starred in. She's also acted in projects like "Happy Endings," and "Warrior." If that wasn't enough, Chinn had a script selected for 2020's The Black List, a grouping of all the unproduced scripts of note from that year. That script is set to become the upcoming drama film "Suncoast," which will serve as Chinn's directorial debut, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Production for the new film will begin in September through Searchlight Pictures, with a number of big-name actors signing on for roles, including Woody Harrelson ("The...
The post Suncoast: Everything We Know So Far About the Laura Linney, Woody Harrelson Drama appeared first on /Film.
"Top Gun: Maverick" continues to soar to new heights, even after nearly three months in theaters. The "Top Gun" sequel has just hit another milestone. According to Variety, its total domestic box office haul is now $679 million, meaning it's officially the sixth-highest-grossing movie in U.S. box office history. "Avengers: Infinity War" is the latest casualty in the film's seemingly endless climb up the all-time domestic gross chart, as "Top Gun: Maverick" knocked it out of sixth place this weekend.
With its digital release set for this Tuesday, this might be the last major milestone "Top Gun: Maverick" hits in theaters...
The post The Unstoppable Top Gun: Maverick Passes Avengers: Infinity War At The Box Office appeared first on /Film.
"From the dusty mesa,
Her looming shadow grows.
Hidden in the branches of the poison creosote..."
Fans of Nic Pizzolatto's "True Detective" would recognize these lyrics anywhere. "Far From Any Road" by The Handsome Family was used in the opening credits of "True Detective" season 1 to haunting effect, supplemented by striking visuals that highlighted the show's core themes in compelling ways. Although "True Detective" has had a 3-season run so far, season 1 is still considered unparalleled for its startling complexity and grim, somber tone. There's an apocalyptic feel to the first season, reflected in the lives of the characters that inhabit the broken...
The post A Lot Of Thought Went Into True Detective's Opening Credits appeared first on /Film.
(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.)
The Movie: "Burning"
Where You Can Stream It: Kanopy (Free), Pluto TV or Tubi (Free with ads)
The Pitch: An aspiring writer reconnects with a young woman he knew growing up, only to become mired in head games with her mysterious rich friend as she disappears without a trace.
In the wrong hands, ambiguity can be a cop-out and a crutch for weak storytelling. There are times when "open to interpretation" feels like code for "not a lot...
The post The Daily Stream: Burning Funnels Life's Ambiguities Into A Simmering Psychological Thriller appeared first on /Film.
As of 2022, Stephen King's novel "The Stand" — originally published in 1978, then expanded and reworked extensively in 1990 — remains the author's longest. If anything, King is prolific. The novel, a whopping 1,153 pages in length, is an apocalypse story about an eternal struggle between the forces of good and evil, with hundreds of members of humanity serving as their moral foot soldiers. The story follows a vast cast of characters as they respond to a potent virus that quickly wipes out the majority of humankind. The Earth's scant survivors eventually gather together into one of two camps, representing good or evil.
"The Stand"...
The post The Stand Miniseries Let Stephen King Correct A Major Regret appeared first on /Film.
I loved "Driving Miss Daisy" before I even saw the movie, actually. I remember running around as a kid teasing slow drivers — and slow-moving people in general for that matter — by calling them Driving Miss Daisy because I thought the movie was about an old lady who drove slowly and held up traffic. When I finally watched the 1989 comedy-drama, it only reinforced my adoration. Jessica Tandy shined in her role as Daisy Werthan, an elderly but prideful white Jewish widow who, from the late 1940s and into the early '70s, develops a bond with her kindly Black chauffeur, Hoke Colburn (Morgan Freeman)...
The post The Controversy That Clouded Driving Miss Daisy's Commercial Success appeared first on /Film.
Variations on the phrase "Kill your darlings" have been distributed as a piece of writing advice since at least 1914, when author Arthur Quiller-Couch presented it as a practical rule in his lecture "On Style." For showrunner Terence Winter and the writers' room of HBO's "Boardwalk Empire," however, the idea of jettisoning the most precious parts of what they were writing extended beyond dialogue or individual scenes to include whole characters and the actors who played them.
Anytime you have a crime drama involving gangsters, character deaths go with the territory. As such, the Prohibition-set "Boardwalk Empire" killed off many characters throughout its five-season run, but they weren't only expendable redshirts, as "Star...
The post How The Boardwalk Empire Writers Learned To Kill Their Darlings appeared first on /Film.
It has been nearly a year since "The Handmaid's Tale" season 4 ended with the most shocking cliffhanger of all time, surprising viewers with its jaw-dropping conclusion. The series is based on author Margaret Atwood's dystopian novel of the same name and is the first production from Hulu to win significant accolades, including being the first series on a streaming service to win an Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series. "The Handmaid's Tale" has been lauded for its addition of seemingly real-life metaphors and has become synonymous with the unsettling political climate in the United States. The show has come a long way since...
The post What You Need to Remember Before The Handmaid's Tale Season 5 appeared first on /Film.
(Welcome to Tales from the Box Office, our column that examines box office miracles, disasters, and everything in between, as well as what we can learn from them.)
Comedy occupies a pretty fascinating space within the movie world. Sure, comedies have been a part of mainstream cinema pretty much from the very start, dating back to some of the silent era's biggest stars like Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. But comedy isn't as easy to churn out as something like horror. Just about anyone can make a horror movie with a little bit of money and some people willing to...
The post Tales From The Box Office: 15 Years Ago, Superbad Did R-Rated Comedy Super Good appeared first on /Film.
Months before the final half-season of "Better Call Saul" aired, news broke that Aaron Paul and Bryan Cranston would be reprising their "Breaking Bad" roles as Jessie Pinkman and Walter White in the prequel/sequel series. It was no big secret then and it's no big secret now, but while shooting their "Better Call Saul" parts, Paul and Cranston were on lockdown in an Airbnb and they felt like prisoners.
That's the story Paul tells in a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, where the now-42-year-old actor talked about slipping on the baggy clothes of the twentysomething Pinkman one last time. It makes sense that...
The post Aaron Paul And Bryan Cranston Felt Like Prisoners Filming Their Better Call Saul Cameos appeared first on /Film.
There isn't a chance "Chinatown," written by Robert Towne and directed by Roman Polanski, would get made as a feature film today. Its detail-dense narrative about water rights in Southern California, intertwined with the vile dealings of incestuous industrialist Noah Cross (John Huston), would likely be expanded into a series or not made at all. It's a terrific neo-noir, and it works spectacularly for viewers with attention spans, but Towne's slow-burn narrative feels like the kind of material that gets meted out over twelve too-long episodes nowadays.
Interestingly, Towne and star Jack Nicholson did have a long-term plan for nosy private detective Jake Gittes....
The post Jack Nicholson Always Had A Third Chinatown Movie In Mind appeared first on /Film.
2017 was home to four Stephen King adaptations: "It," "Gerald's Game," "The Dark Tower," (I didn't say they were all good adaptations), and the most slept on, "1922." Released without much advance publicity on Netflix ahead of Halloween, the movie had the least source material to draw from. Instead of a tome like "It" or an eight-book series like "The Dark Tower," "1922" was based on a novella from King's collection "Full Dark, No Stars."
Set in, you guessed it, 1922, the film and book star Wilfred James (Thomas Jane in the film), a Nebraskan farmer who murders his wife Arlette (Molly Parker) with...
The post 1922 Wasn't A Story Stephen King Expected To See On Film appeared first on /Film.
Although "Mad Men" was a show that paid a lot of attention to detail, it did mess up on occasion. For instance, the writing on the sign on the Sterling Cooper building in the early seasons is in the Gil Sans font, a font that was not in popular use until the seventies! Boy, I really hope somebody got fired for that blunder. But for the most part, it's a show that successfully immerses its viewers in the crazy world of the sixties, with the clothes, slang, furniture, and the characters' values all consistently era-appropriate.
That pursuit of full immersion extended into the casting of the extras on the...
The post Matthew Weiner Was Very Meticulous About Casting Mad Men's Extras appeared first on /Film.
For the last 15 years, Aaron Paul has been synonymous with Jesse Pinkman, the character he originated on "Breaking Bad" back in 2007. Now, after 64 long hours of television and the "El Camino" feature film, Paul is finally saying goodbye to everyone's favorite b****-dropping boy from "Breaking Bad." Paul recently appeared in the final season of "Better Call Saul," the "Breaking Bad" prequel series starring Bob Odenkirk as James Morgan "Jimmy" McGill, aka Saul Goodman. It had been three years since he revisited the character in "El Camino," but as Paul described in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter,...
The post We Won't See Jesse Pinkman Again After Better Call Saul, According to Aaron Paul appeared first on /Film.
David Lynch's sophomore film "The Elephant Man" has an origin story that's almost as crazy as the film itself. A period piece set in the Victorian era, the epic drama is about a man with significant facial deformity working as a sideshow attraction. He is brutally mistreated by the world around him until a kind surgeon takes him under his wing and their friendship blossoms. A similar dynamic emerged between director David Lynch and a huge producer that took him under his wing.
After completing his surreal and unsettling first film, "Eraserhead," Lynch set out to write a screenplay. "After 'Eraserhead' I wrote a script...
The post How Eraserhead Led David Lynch To The Elephant Man's Script appeared first on /Film.
Some films are so disgusting, repellent, violent, prurient, or tasteless that audiences find themselves unable to easily define them.
Films like Pier Paolo Pasolini's "Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom," Lars Von Trier's "Antichrist," Gaspar Noë's "Irreversible," Ruggerio Deodato's "Cannibal Holocaust," Takashi Miike's "Ichi the Killer," Tom Six's "The Human Centipede" trilogy, or even John Waters' "Pink Flamingos" are all brazenly confrontational films, each seemingly intended not to draw the audience in, but send the audience out. To keep viewers repelled and disgusted. One might argue that such "extreme" cinema seeks not merely to elicit a visceral response from an audience -- as, say, a...
The post Why A Serbian Film is Misunderstood, and More Relevant Than Ever appeared first on /Film.
Before there was prestige TV, there was "The Sopranos." The series effortlessly blends brilliant dialogue with complex, serious plots, proving from the beginning that its creative team trusted the intelligence of their audience. It is continuously ranked near the top of best-of lists, and has been awarded every trophy in the game, including 21 Emmys and two Peabody Awards. "The Sopranos" was the first cable series to win an Emmy for outstanding drama, while leads James Gandolfini and Edie Falco took home three Emmys each. It's a show that changed how we think about television — without it, we likely wouldn't have gotten "Mad Men," "Breaking Bad," or...
The post 15 Underrated Episodes of The Sopranos appeared first on /Film.
This week, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences attempted to right a decades-old wrong with an apology. The Hollywood Reporter broke the news that the Academy privately presented Native American activist and former actress Sacheen Littlefeather with a statement apologizing for her public mistreatment at the 45th Academy Awards. Littlefeather, who is Apache and Yaqui, is 75 years old now, but she was just 26 when she stepped up to the stage to decline Marlon Brando's best actor award and speak about America's mistreatment of Indigenous peoples in 1973.
The actor won the award for his role in "The Godfather," but sent Littlefeather...
The post Why The Academy Owed Sacheen Littlefeather A Long-Overdue Apology appeared first on /Film.
If you were a child of the '90s, there's a high probability that you spent days watching "Casper" on VHS. Every decade comes packaged with those childhood favorites you continue to swear by, and this is undoubtedly one many '90s kids share. The 1995 live-action adaptation of the Famous Studios' character Casper the Friendly Ghost features a stacked cast consisting of Bill Pullman, Devon Sawa, Brad Garrett, and Eric Idle, in addition to a slew of wild cameos.
The performance, however, that many children gravitated towards was Christina Ricci ("Addams Family Values") as Kat, a teenage girl who inadvertently moves into...
The post The Biggest Critic of Christina Ricci in Casper is Christina Ricci Herself, Apparently appeared first on /Film.
One night, at a party, some friends and I were discussing Tim Curry (as all people at parties do, I presume) when we came to realize just how formative he was to all our childhoods. There's no shortage of options to choose from when it comes to his most memorable work, either. Sure, there are his roles in "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" and "Clue," and they're spectacular, no doubt about it. But my all-time favorite Curry moments are the ones where he goes ridiculously hard for no real reason other than ... well, because he can.
We're talking Curry's...
The post The Red Alert Line That Made Tim Curry A Meme Was A Moment Of Exhausted Inspiration appeared first on /Film.
Lightsaber combat is an integral part of Star Wars DNA. The franchise is an amalgamation of many different genres, and a "laser sword" combines the futurism of science fiction with the chivalry of medieval knights. Even if it doesn't feel as exciting today as it was in 1977, Obi-Wan Kenobi's (Sir Alec Guinness) duel with Darth Vader (David Prowse) in "Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope" established a key aspect of the saga. Luke Skywalker's (Mark Hamill) battles with Vader in "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi" are more epic, and conclude with shocking plot twists. Lightsaber combat grew more...
The post What Each Star Wars Character's Lightsaber Fighting Style Really Means appeared first on /Film.
It's a bittersweet day for "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" fans, as the reboot series that was set to star a Black woman as the new Slayer has been put "on pause," according to executive producer Gail Berman. The news was shared on The Hollywood Reporter's TV's Top 5 Podcast (reported via TVLine).
The vision for a new "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" was first shared in 2018, when "Lost" and "Fringe" producer Monica Owusu-Breen was brought on board as showrunner and executive producer. While initial announcements using the word "reboot" made the series sound like a reimagining of the Buffy Summers-led story that carried the seven-season original...
The post The Long-Gestating Buffy the Vampire Slayer Reboot is 'On Pause' appeared first on /Film.
Alfred Hitchcock's 1954 film "Dial M for Murder" is one of the filmmakers' delightfully nasty little thrillers wherein the audience is asked to sympathize — and ultimately kind of care for -- a horrendous villain. Ray Milland plays Tony, a retired tennis player who has learned that his wife Margot (Grace Kelly) has been having an affair with an American named Mark (Robert Cummings). Rather than merely divorce, Tony elects to have Margot murdered. He colludes with an old criminal buddy named Charles (Anthony Dawson) to commit the murder for him. Charles, being blackmailed, agrees.
What follows is a hotbox procedural tracing Tony's...
The post Filming Dial M For Murder In 3D Was A Headache For Alfred Hitchcock appeared first on /Film.
As the longest-running live-action sitcom of all time, "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" forged its own unique path to success. It follows the general outline of the typical comedy, but its cast of crude and despicable characters go above and beyond what other shows in the genre are brave enough to tackle. By making its protagonists irredeemable, it opens the door to introducing darkly funny ideas that are hard to justify in other scenarios. This creative decision was made early in the show's run, at a time when its creators did not have much to lose.
During the first few...
The post It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia Has Never Been Bound By The 'Laws' Of TV appeared first on /Film.
In the early '90s, TV audiences were entranced by the wonderful weirdness of "The X-Files" and the two FBI agents that investigated them. Building on a foundation laid decades earlier by "The Twilight Zone" and "Kolchak: The Night Stalker," the Fox series featured aliens, cryptids, vampires, shapeshifters, and all the other freaks and weirdos that hang out in the deepest, darkest shadows of fear and imagination.
Along with unique supernatural baddies, the series featured intelligent writing, relatable characters, and an enthralling world that held fans' interests for 25 years, which is nothing short of miraculous in the world of television. Critics...
The post Why David Duchovny Will Never Shut The Door On Reprising His X-Files Role appeared first on /Film.
Now that Big has kicked the bucket, "And Just Like That..." is finally free to do what "Sex and the City" should've done years ago: bring back Aidan! Deadline reports that "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" star John Corbett is set to return for several episodes of the popular HBO series' second season.
This will actually be the third chance Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) gets to make things work with the good-natured furniture maker, as she dated him in both season 3 and season 4 of the groundbreaking rom-com show. At one point, the pair were even engaged,...
The post Sex and the City Star John Corbett to Return for ...And Just Like That Season 2 appeared first on /Film.
The first season of "Yellowjackets" left a major impact, telling the haunting story of a girls' soccer team that became stranded in the Ontario woods after a plane crash. The girls soon form cannibalistic clans, and the rest of the show follows both the stranded young women and their adult counterparts (or, at least, the counterparts of the survivors). One of the series' most complex and eerie survivors is the scheming, intelligent outcast Misty Quigley (played by Samantha Hanratty and Christina Ricci). As a young woman, Misty destroyed the plane's black box, a decision that proved pivotal to why the team stayed stranded (and the fateful...
The post Yellowjackets Season 2 Adds Elijah Wood as a 'Citizen Detective' appeared first on /Film.
In his latest film, the action-thriller "Beast," actor Idris Elba faces off against one of nature's deadliest predators: the lion. As Dr. Nate Samuels, Elba takes on the king of the jungle all by himself, but as Idris Elba, actor, he struggled to handle a much smaller beast. While on location shooting "Beast" in Limpopo, South Africa, Elba and his wife tangled with a bat in the bathroom, and Elba abandoned his beloved to deal with the winged mammal all on her own. That's not very heroic behavior, especially when you consider that his wife had flown to Limpopo to help him...
The post Beast Star Idris Elba Had A Bad Encounter With A Bat In His Shower appeared first on /Film.
It wouldn't take much to argue that Nathan Fielder is among the best comedians working today. While observational comedy is often hit or miss, he usually takes it up a notch by actually showcasing the observations he makes throughout American society. While the debate over whether his form of comedy is exploitative or not likely has no clear answer, what is clear is that his schtick puts a mirror up to ourselves and asks whether we are truly the people we say we are.
This comedic ideology is why "The Rehearsal," his first pseudo-documentary series since "Nathan For You" ended in 2017, has become a...
The post Will Nathan Fielder's The Rehearsal Get a Season 2? appeared first on /Film.
In this edition of Star Wars Bits:
"The Book of Boba Fett" Season 2 Favreau & Filoni on The Mandoverse "Star Wars: Visions" Volume 2 Marvel's Upcoming "Star Wars" Comics And More!
There are rumors swirling about a second season of "The Book of Boba Fett." Scooper Daniel Richtman aka @DanielRPK recently revealed via his Patreon that Season 2 is currently in development. Given the show's impressive viewership numbers, and the popularity of the character, this seems like a no-brainer.
As Star Wars News Net points out, actress Ming-Na Wen, who plays bounty hunter Fennec Shand in the series, is hopeful for a second season as...
The post Star Wars Bits: The Book of Boba Fett, The Mandalorian, Ahsoka, Star Wars: Visions, Darth Vader, Light & Magic, and More! appeared first on /Film.
Fans of "The Sandman" won't have to wait long for another entry in the series. That's because Netflix has quietly added a new bonus episode of the series as a tease for its all-but-confirmed second season. This episode combines two standalone stories from the "Dream Country" arc from the original "Sandman" comics, "A Dream of a Thousand Cats" and "Calliope," and they have just as impressive of a creative team as the mainline series.
"A Dream of a Thousand Cats," directed by "Undone" director Hisko Hulsing, is animated using 2D techniques and the implementation of real oil paintings of each frame. In...
The post A Secret Bonus Episode of The Sandman is Now Streaming on Netflix appeared first on /Film.
Many "Game of Thrones" fans felt burned by the HBO series' final season, leaving some to wonder if there's even still an audience for "Game of Thrones" spin-offs. Seven hells, I wondered if "House of the Dragon" was something even I wanted, despite being a die-hard fan of George R. R. Martin's books and the incredible world of Westeros. The series had two things going for it: one, it's based upon "Fire & Blood," a single novel that tells a complete saga; and two, it takes place during the reign of the Targaryens, which means dragons. Lots of dragons. Who doesn't love dragons?
"House of the...
The post House of the Dragon Review: A Bold and Brutal Tale of the Women of Westeros appeared first on /Film.
It's been a little over a week since we learned that actress and four-time Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Olivia Newton-John had passed away at the age of 73. While known for her performances in films like "Xanadu" and "It's My Party," Newton-John became a cinematic icon for her turn as Sandy Olsson in 1978's "Grease." As a way to honor the movie musical legend, AMC Theatres is bringing "Grease" back to the big screen, with a portion of all ticket sales going to charity.
"Grease" will be available in 135 different AMC locations around the country with $5 tickets, and $1...
The post Grease is Heading Back to Theaters for Charity in Honor of the Late Olivia Newton-John appeared first on /Film.
Billy Wilder's "Some Like it Hot" is a game-changing comedy that continues to define the genre over half a century since its release, but it came very close to becoming a totally different picture. The incredible lead performances from Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, and Marilyn Monroe came to define the film, but the casting department almost went in a completely different direction with the role of Jerry/Daphne.
"Some Like it Hot" stars Lemmon and Curtis as two big band musicians looking for a quick buck. When they hear of a traveling band looking for a saxophone and a bass, they think...
The post Jack Lemmon Wasn't the First Choice For His Some Like It Hot Role appeared first on /Film.
Stephen King may be a master of horror, but as stories like "The Body" (which later became "Stand By Me") and "The Green Mile" have shown, King is also a master of the heart. Adapted and directed by Frank Darabont ("The Shawshank Redemption," "The Walking Dead," "The Mist"), "The Green Mile" sees Tom Hanks as Paul Edgecomb, a death row prison guard during the Great Depression who bares witness to inexplicable events after a larger-than-life convict named John Coffey (Michael Clarke Duncan) arrives at his facility to serve his final days. The film was a commercial success at the box...
The post Historical Accuracy Wasn't Tom Hanks' Concern When It Came To His Green Mile Costume appeared first on /Film.
Paul Dano has been a professional actor since age 12 when he appeared in a 1996 Broadway revival of "Inherit the Wind" with Charles Durning and George C. Scott. In film, Dano broke out in 2001 playing the lead role in Michael Cuesta's hard-hitting sexual drama "L.I.E." opposite Brian Cox in a career-best performance. Since then, Dano has made a career playing intense outsiders and occasional weirdos in a long string of highly acclaimed dramas. His appearance as a mute, Nietzsche-obsessed teen in 2006's "Little Miss Sunshine" was a highlight in a film full of them, and his oddball turn as a not-so-timid preacher in Paul...
The post Paul Dano's Directing Approach Isn't That Far Off From Acting appeared first on /Film.
Time has been kind to Alfred Hitchcock's "Vertigo." Dismissed as dull and middling by the critics of 1958, "Vertigo" was named the greatest film of all time by Sight & Sound in 2012. Experimental films can take a while to receive due praise, and "Vertigo" is definitely one of Hitchcock's more experimental films. He even invented a whole new type of shot for it.
In the film's opening, Scottie Ferguson (James Stewart) is hanging off a skyscraper and glances stories down to the alleyway beneath. When he does, the shot distorts and the buildings on opposite sides of the alley seem to stretch. The effect was achieved...
The post Vertigo's Signature Shot Cost Almost $20,000 To Pull Off appeared first on /Film.
Frank Darabont created a heckuva conundrum for himself when his feature directing debut, "The Shawshank Redemption," wound up becoming one of the most beloved movies of all time. For starters, he joined an elite fraternity of filmmakers who'd hit the bullseye with a difficult-to-adapt Stephen King story. More troublesome, King had just launched into another prison yarn, one that begged to become a motion picture. One that fit Darabont like a bespoke suit.
"The Green Mile" was a publishing event in 1996. Between March and August, King released a new, slender volume imparting the tragedy of John Coffey, a gentle giant...
The post The Shawshank Redemption Made The Green Mile A Risky Move For Frank Darabont appeared first on /Film.
Everyone has their favorite incarnation of "Star Trek." There's something to recommend in just about every version, even if it's just the inevitable Jeffrey Combs cameo. Fans who like weirder aliens can enjoy "Prodigy. Those who want to see characters' moralities challenged in times of war have "Deep Space Nine." For some, Patrick Stewart's master thespian skills make "The Next Generation" an undisputed winner, while others may argue that "Star Trek" was never about great acting, but rather broadly operatic sci-fi adventures.
So, which is the best? Beat-for-beat, episode-for-episode, it has to be the very first "Star Trek" show, known to fans...
The post 12 reasons why The Original Series is the best Star Trek show appeared first on /Film.
It seems like after yesterday's gutting of animated programming offered on HBO Max, the streamer is trying to smooth things over with their outraged subscriber base by announcing a new discounted rate like a parent promising a Happy Meal to their rightfully frustrated child. New customers now have the option to sign up for a prepaid annual subscription with a 30% slash on the original price, dropping the no-ads plan to $104.99 and the ad-supported plan to $69.99. The discount is only good for the first year after signing up, which seems acceptable since they've been slowly purging an...
The post HBO Max Tries to Offset Its Purge of Dozens of Titles with a Price Cut appeared first on /Film.
It's hard not to love "Little Miss Sunshine." Sure, some aspects might not have aged as well as others (perhaps most prominently, its depiction of child pageants could be more nuanced), but you can't deny the earnestness and genuine love felt throughout every second of the movie. Made right in the middle of indie filmmaking's mumblecore movement, it seems like a time capsule of a very special time in American film, where you didn't necessarily need a big star producer or director to make your movie; just a good story.
However, it definitely took a while for the movie as...
The post Why Little Miss Sunshine Was Stuck In Limbo For More Than Half A Decade appeared first on /Film.
Over 30 years after "American Gigolo" launched Richard Gere's career, the film is getting a TV adaptation with another suave leading man in the starring role. Jon Bernthal is taking over the reins as Julian Kaye, a former male escort who spent years being the object of affection until a murder charge landed him in prison. The series almost works as a direct sequel to the original film: picking up 15 years later, Julian is exonerated when new evidence comes to light proving he did not commit the murder that got him put away. But while trying to get back into...
The post American Gigolo Trailer: Jon Bernthal Solves A Murder In This Steamy Showtime Thriller appeared first on /Film.
(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.)
The Movie: "Nick of Time" (1995)
Where You Can Stream It: Amazon Prime
The Pitch: You have peak Christopher Walken, pre-problematic Johnny Depp when he was young, hungry and before he got locked into playing every character as broad as a house, John Badham ("WarGames") directing a Patrick Sheane Duncan ("Mr. Holland's Opus") script in a tense, political assassination thriller hung on a gimmick that actually works. The...
The post The Daily Stream: '90s Thriller Nick of Time Reminds Us of a Simpler Time at the Movies appeared first on /Film.
One of the benefits of writing an animated sitcom like "The Simpsons" is that the characters don't age. And one of the downsides is ... the characters don't age. On one hand, the show hasn't had to struggle through many major status quo changes, like the kids going to college or grandpa passing away. But on the other hand, this also means the show has inevitably started running out of fresh storylines; it's been thirty-three years and Bart and Lisa are still going through the same elementary schoolkid problems, and Maggie's still forbidden from having her own compelling storylines on account of her age. (She...
The post The Simpsons Writers Have Never 'Retconned' Anything From The Series appeared first on /Film.
"Better Call Saul" ended with the series finale, "Saul Gone." The prequel/sequel series told the story of James McGill and his descent into deceit and criminality. Jimmy's transformation into Saul Goodman was filled with heartbreak, familial trauma, and many fantastic montages. Interestingly enough, the series finale doesn't just feel like the ending to "Better Call Saul" — it feels like a definitive conclusion to the "Breaking Bad" universe that started in 2008.
"Saul Gone" plays like an episode that knows it will be the last time you see the actors portray these characters on screen, and...
The post The Better Call Saul Finale Didn't Just End the Series – It Closed the Book on Breaking Bad appeared first on /Film.
(Welcome to ...And More, our no-frills, zero B.S. guide to when and where you can watch upcoming movies and shows, and everything else you could possibly stand to know.)
Sidney Poitier arrived in Hollywood in 1950, four years before the injustice of segregation in public schools was challenged in front of the Supreme Court and five years before Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat to a white person. Before Poitier, Black actors were often cast as servants or slaves, but Poitier refused to accept these disrespectful roles. Poitier refused to fade into the background and became a leading man, paving the way for...
The post Sidney Poitier Documentary: Release Date, Cast and More appeared first on /Film.
Drew Goddard's 2011 horror/comedy "The Cabin in the Woods" is a fun, self-aware deconstruction of cabin-in-the-woods horror movies, a subgenre that has been lampooned more often than it has been presented earnestly. The film has an incredibly elaborate setup: A group of college kids is preparing for a vacation in the titular cabin. Each one of the kids fulfills a notable cinematic/literary archetype: The athlete, the fool, the scholar, etc, though they're not full-on cliches, at least not yet. While they pack their bags and hit the road, the college kids are being secretly watched by a group of white-collar lab workers who...
The post Did You Catch This Firefly Easter Egg In Cabin In the Woods? appeared first on /Film.
To this point, few studios can boast that they have as tightly locked-down of a security system as Marvel does these days. Few, if any, have ever managed to spill sensitive information -- superhero movies are very serious business, folks -- and get away with it, unless your name happens to be Mark Ruffalo or Tom Holland, of course. For everyone else subject to the whims of the notorious Marvel snipers or those ever-vigilant DMCA watchdogs on social media, however, you're sorely out of luck.
That even applies to one of the most high-profile stars attached to any Marvel...
The post Owen Wilson Got a Mysterious Text Message From Marvel After Talking a Little Too Much About Loki appeared first on /Film.
When you think of iconic '70s soundtracks, "Chinatown" probably isn't the first film to come to mind. The "Jaws" opening theme might pop into your head, or perhaps even the slow, sultry music in "Taxi Driver." The theme in "Chinatown" isn't nearly as flashy (or as catchy) — instead, it almost seems hypnotizing. A lazy, dreamlike trumpet sounds through the air, dancing between the same few notes as if it were too lethargic to travel much farther. The other instruments seem just as wary. It's almost as though they've been drained of energy — perhaps desperate for water, so harshly affected by the...
The post The Reason Paramount Thought Chinatown Was Going To Be A Disaster appeared first on /Film.
American period drama "Boardwalk Empire" ended its five-season run, plot-wise, with the termination of Prohibition in the early 1930s. Enoch "Nucky" Thompson (Steve Buscemi) and his disreputable associates rose and fell alongside the crest of a nationwide ban on alcoholic beverage sales the decade prior. Speaking to Esquire at the celebrated series' conclusion in 2014, creator Terence Winter recalled Martin Scorsese's involvement in the show, which quickly evolved from producing to directing the pilot:
"HBO told me, 'You're going to go to Martin Scorsese's house and meet him to talk about the show' and I was like a girl going to the prom. What should I... The post Martin Scorsese Gave More Than His Name To Boardwalk Empire appeared first on /Film.
Jimmy McGill evaded consequences for years. He got away with fraud and escalated a conflict that led to the death of his brother. He got away with making deals with the cartel, and spent two years building Walter White's meth empire. But in the end, Carol Burnett finally made "Better Call Saul" face consequences.
Of course, Saul Goodman does not go down without a fight. When he is captured in Nebraska, Saul pulls one last shocking scam, plays the victim card once again, and manages to cut a lifetime in jail down to a seven-year sentence deal. It is the...
The post Here's What Jimmy Was Really Trying to Accomplish in the Better Call Saul Finale appeared first on /Film.
(Welcome to ...And More, our no-frills, zero B.S. guide to when and where you can watch upcoming movies and shows, and everything else you could possibly stand to know.)
Among the rare good things to come out of 2020 was "Enola Holmes," a film that manages to blend the millennial energy of "Dickinson" with the introspective, fourth wall-breaking of "Fleabag" (the latter of which, by no coincidence, shared its director with the movie in Harry Bradbeer). The high-spirited mystery-adventure tells the story of tenacious sleuth Enola Holmes, a character who was created by author Nancy Springer and is technically Sherlock Holmes' sister in the official Arthur Conan Doyle...
The post Enola Holmes 2: Release Date, Cast, and More appeared first on /Film.
Garth Marenghi fans rejoice! The good author is back at it with a newly announced hardcover, ebook and audiobook release titled "Garth Marenghi's Terrortime." I can sense some of you are politely nodding your heads and shining a "I'm happy that you're happy" smile and otherwise have no idea what I'm talking about. To you good people, I humbly request you seek out the early aughts bit of British weirdness that goes by the name of "Garth Marenghi's Darkplace."
Marenghi is a fictional horror writer (think a really, really, reeeaaaalllllyyy dumb Stephen King) played by Matthew Holness whose books are so popular that he's...
The post Undisputed Horror Legend Garth Marenghi is Making His Grand Comeback With TerrorTome appeared first on /Film.
(This article contains spoilers for the first episode of "She-Hulk." Please proceed with caution.)
When Jason Lee's Brodie Bruce meets Stan "The Man" Lee at the local mall in Kevin Smith's "Mallrats," they have an emotional heart to heart talk about love and how some of the iconic Marvel Comics characters created by the legendary writer reflected his own heartbreak and regret. But moments before, the comics-obsessed slacker inquires about the sex habits of some of the Marvel Universe's top heroes.
Many True Believers have likely had similar questions over the years, especially during their formative years. I'll bet questions like these also played a part...
The post She-Hulk Answers the Most Important Captain America Question of All Time appeared first on /Film.
After Netflix gutted their animation department and canceled a slew of their announced projects back in May, HBO Max appears to have taken the "hold my beer" approach and followed suit by absolutely gutting their own animated offerings on the platform. The streamer has already been quietly removing a number of films and series since the merger between Warner Bros. and Discovery, but today's announcement was an absolute bloodbath, with animated projects taking the brunt of it all. Nearly 40 titles either already have been or will be removed from HBO Max by the end of the week, including 20 HBO Max originals.
The post HBO Max Quietly Drops More Titles, Animation Takes A Heavy Hit appeared first on /Film.
Stanley Kubrick's 1964 satire "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb" is now regarded as an American classic, one of a legendary filmmaker's strongest films. The film's comedic treatment of a hot-button global issue was as revolutionary as it was hilarious. Still, the risky subject matter gave the film's production company pause, leading to pushback from the executives over at Columbia Pictures.
"Dr. Strangelove" centers around a worst-case Cold War scenario: what if a loose cannon in the U.S. military triggered a nuclear attack against the Soviet Union? A hodge-podge group of high-ranking personnel must scramble to...
The post Dr. Strangelove's Release Led To A Scrap Between Stanley Kubrick And Studio Execs appeared first on /Film.
That Peter Weir's 1998 film "The Truman Show" managed to claim as many accolades as it did was kind of extraordinary. It was nominated for three Academy Awards -- Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Screenplay -- and won numerous other awards from various other critical bodies. Part comedy, part high-concept sci-fi film, "The Truman Show" followed the everyday life of the good-natured everyman Truman Burbank (Jim Carrey) as he treks to and from work, makes small talk with his neighbors, and enjoys evenings with his wife Meryl (Laura Linney).
Unbeknownst to Truman, however, he is the lone subject of an elaborate, lifetime-long unscripted...
The post The Truman Show Almost Had A Very Different Star and Director appeared first on /Film.
(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.)
The Movie: "The Secret Garden" (1993)
Where You Can Stream It: HBO Max
The Pitch: Young Mary Lennox (Kate Maberly) is an orphan. She was born in British-occupied India, where she was raised by her exceptionally wealthy and thoroughly ineffectual parents who were killed during an earthquake. Mary was always doted on by servants, never wanting for anything ... except basic affection from her mom and dad. In the aftermath of their...
The post The Daily Stream: The Secret Garden Taught A Generation How To Self-Soothe appeared first on /Film.
If you went back in time to 2001 and told a person that "The Fast and the Furious," a mid-budget summer programmer based on a magazine article about street racers that bears a very close resemblance to 1991's "Point Break," would not only become a success but turn into one of the most profitable longest-running film series in history, that person would probably freak out and scream "Help! There's someone here who's gone mad and thinks they can travel through time!"
Mad though you may seem, it would still be the truth: in 2022, the "Fast Saga" (as it's now colloquially...
The post Vin Diesel Sees The Fast & Furious Films As More Than Just a Movie Franchise appeared first on /Film.
There's always a risk when including a joke, gimmick, or punchline in a comedy that the audience won't respond well or find it funny, but featuring a long-running gag that continues throughout the story is one of the greatest cinematic gambles of all. If Biff Tannen getting covered in manure in the "Back to the Future" films didn't get a laugh, or Ted Striker's literal drinking problem in "Airplane!" fell flat, the constant appearance of the joke would only birth resentment from the audience. In the millennial favorite "Superbad," one of the most memorable scenes had to walk a tightrope line between humorous and...
The post Superbad Bet Everything On The Success Of One 'All-Or-Nothing' Scene appeared first on /Film.
There are few cinematic creations more recognizable than the Jedi. Who among us hasn't walked up to an automatic door and "used the Force" to open it? George Lucas created an entire intergalactic order of noble warriors who are known for both their mastery of lightsabers and their various Force abilities. The most advanced of the bunch can even appear as ghosts to haunt — ahem, help —their allies after death.
Countless Jedi have appeared in the Skywalker Saga, the animated and live-action Star Wars television series, the video games, the comics, and the books. If we tried to rank every single one, it...
The post The 12 Best Jedi in the Star Wars Universe, Ranked appeared first on /Film.
The making of "Superbad" was a blessed event. Everything from the heartwarmingly puerile script by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg to the hiring of highly underrated indie filmmaker Greg Mottola (whose critically acclaimed debut, "The Daytrippers," was not just out of print, but a decade in the rearview), seemed to go just right. The high school comedy about two affable, yet far-from-popular best friends (Michael Cera and Jonah Hill) who scheme to deliver a bounty of liquor for a year-end, senior-year bash perfectly captures the uncertain yearning of that strange pre-college summer. The film has since earned its place in the teen comedy firmament...
The post Jonah Hill Pushed Back Hard On Casting Christopher Mintz-Plasse In Superbad appeared first on /Film.
The acclaimed cast of "Little Miss Sunshine" all took their roles very seriously, but some may have taken things a little too far. There's a long history of actors dedicating themselves completely to their roles without incident, with only a few notable cases where a performer stepped over the line and put themselves and others in harm's way. Directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris never could have anticipated that Greg Kinnear would take things quite so far and put his castmates at risk.
Kinnear stars in the hit dramedy as Richard, the father of a dysfunctional family that includes his...
The post Greg Kinnear Was A Little Too Committed To Staying In Character For Little Miss Sunshine appeared first on /Film.
Fifteen years ago, "Superbad" came out and ended up as one of the most beloved teen comedies of all time. Following the story of three high school seniors in their somewhat misguided quest to get laid before college, "Superbad" gave breakout roles to Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, and Emma Stone, and let Bill Hader give one of his most memorable early comedy performances outside of "Saturday Night Live."
Although the movie released in 2007, the script was being written far earlier. The film's executive producer, Judd Apatow, first heard that "Superbad" writers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg were working on an early script back when he...
The post Without Will Ferrell's Talladega Nights, Superbad Might Never Have Been Made appeared first on /Film.
Not long after Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson's comic series "The Boys" debuted in 2006, people were trying to get the series adapted to the big screen. One of those people was Seth Rogen, who pushed for an adaptation for years before finally succeeding in getting it greenlit by Amazon in 2015. He now serves the show as an executive producer and makes questionable cameos roughly once a season.
Another one of those people was Adam McKay, a director who started off with lighthearted comedy films like "Anchorman" and "The Other Guys," before pivoting to more explicitly political projects like "The Big Short," "Vice," and most...
The post Anchorman Director Adam McKay Almost Made A Movie Out Of The Boys appeared first on /Film.
"Better Call Saul" has always made an art form out of not showing its hand too soon. It's a show that rewards patience, not just when it comes to overarching plots and character development, but with specific scenes and episodes, too. Often, chapters will open with con man lawyer Jimmy (Bob Odenkirk) or fixer Mike (Jonathan Banks) working on a detail-oriented task that will only much later be revealed as part of a grand plan, the likes of which we never could've guessed. The series finale employs a similar structure, circling around its center point without revealing it until...
The post Here's When and Why Jimmy Made That Fateful Decision in the Better Call Saul Finale appeared first on /Film.
When Wolfgang Petersen burst onto the scene with his WWII submarine masterpiece "Das Boot," Hollywood came calling. Any director who could pin audiences to their seats for two-and-a-half hours with a film that rarely leaves the interior of a U-boat surely had the skills to enthrall viewers with a mainstream blockbuster. While Petersen proved more than reliable with smashes like "In the Line of Fire," "Outbreak," "Air Force One," and "The Perfect Storm," he occasionally found himself attached to ambitious projects that, for one reason or another, failed to launch or launched without him at the helm.
Petersen,...
The post Batman vs. Superman, The Old Man and the Gun, and More Projects Wolfgang Petersen Almost Directed appeared first on /Film.
(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.)
The Movie: "Heavyweights"
Where You Can Stream It: Disney+
The Pitch: Teenager Gerry Garner (Aaron Schwartz) is excited to hang out with his friends and enjoy his summer vacation, only to come home from the last day of school to an intervention from his parents regarding his weight. Without his knowledge or consent, Gerry is being sent off to Camp Hope, a weight loss camp for boys run by The Bushkins...
The post The Daily Stream: Heavyweights Understood Fat Characters Better in 1995 Than Hollywood Does Today appeared first on /Film.
For seven years, "Better Call Saul" fans have watched with rapt attention as lawyer and con man Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk) transformed into sleazy crime lord Saul Goodman. The change was more gradual than expected, and more emotional, too. By the time the series finally fast-forwarded through the years between Jimmy's breakup with Kim (Rhea Seehorn) and his first encounter with Walter White, we weren't so much thrilled to see the character's reverse evolution take place as we were devastated.
This is why the show's beautiful, subtle, thrilling series finale came as such a surprise. For a while, writer-director Peter Gould let viewers think...
The post The Better Call Saul Finale Was Inspired By a Holiday Classic appeared first on /Film.
David Buckley didn't want a traditional score for "The Sandman." It's an unconventional fantasy series about dreams, so why stay grounded to reality? Buckley wanted to create music that was beautiful, lush, and often strange and indescribable. Most of all, he wanted to respect the audience. He didn't need to always shout at them with music to be excited, to be afraid, or to be wowed.
It's a graceful score from Buckley, who's nothing if not versatile. He previously worked on "The Town," "The Nice Guys," "Nobody," and CBS' "Evil," to name just a few of his many projects. He's scored plenty of action in...
The post The Sandman Composer David Buckley Breaks Down Highlights From Season 1 [Spoiler Interview] appeared first on /Film.
Don't let the wondrous world of Fantasia fool you, "The NeverEnding Story" is a dark, depressing movie. The late, great Wolfgang Petersen's venture into family-friendly fantasy was a groundbreaking marvel of practical effects and mature storytelling, but its serious themes and sincerely traumatic moments are often overshadowed by the iconography of Bastian triumphantly riding on the back of Falkor the luck dragon and the upbeat, catchy theme song. In reality, "The NeverEnding Story" is better classified as "baby's first existential crisis," and it's all thanks to the Nothing.
The Nothing is, as described by G'Mork, "The emptiness that's...
The post The Nothing From The NeverEnding Story Is One Of The Most Insidious Villains Of All Time appeared first on /Film.
The 2001 film "Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" tells a tale of a small, intelligent, talking blue hedgehog — a hedgehog possessed with the ability to run at tremendous speeds — who must protect his bag of mystical golden rings from the forces of evil. The hedgehog's rings allow him to skip merrily between dimensions, and are coveted by the mad scientist Dr. Xu Wenwu (Tony Leung), who possesses a set of ten mystical rings of his own.
Oh, but this has been a merry jest.
One of the more visually striking things about Peter Jackson's sextet of popular...
The post There Was A Secret Second Actor Playing Gimli In The Lord Of The Rings appeared first on /Film.
(Superhero Bits is a collection of stories, updates, and videos about anything and everything inspired by the comics of Marvel, DC, and more. For comic book movies, TV shows, merchandise, events, and whatever catches our eye, this is the place to find anything that falls through the cracks.)
In this edition of Superhero Bits:
Mark Ruffalo is game for a "World War Hulk" movie.
The hierarchy of power in "Multiversus" is about to change.
Bryce Dallas Howard speaks out on returning as Gwen Satcy.
A new look at Atom Smasher in "Black Adam."
All that and more!
We...
The post Superhero Bits: Mark Ruffalo On A World War Hulk Movie, Batgirl's Composer Speaks Out & More appeared first on /Film.
Submarine films were a cliché-ridden subgenre when Wolfgang Petersen's "Das Boot" surfaced in 1981 and shattered our conventional notions of what it's like to serve during wartime in a tin can beneath the surface of the ocean. It is, in short, a sweaty, stinky hell. Films like "On the Beach," "The Enemy Below" and "Run Silent, Run Deep" envisaged a spacious, camera-accommodating environment where the characters had to give voice to their characters' cooped-up anxiety. In general, life on a submarine seemed like a rare adventure. The post-apocalyptic bleakness of "On the Beach" aside, these might as well have been recruiting...
The post With Das Boot, Wolfgang Petersen Directed the Single Greatest Submarine Movie Ever Made appeared first on /Film.
"What would you do if you had a time machine?" It's a question that comes up multiple times during "Saul Gone," the final episode of the masterpiece that is "Better Call Saul." We first hear it during a flashback to the season 5 episode "Bad Choice Road," where Jimmy and Mike are wandering through the desert hauling $7 million of Lalo's money. While pausing to rest at a watering hole, Jimmy asks Mike what he would do, and where he would go, with a time machine. Mike says he'd like to go back to the first time he took a bribe as a cop, presumably to stop...
The post It's Saul Gone in the Better Call Saul Series Finale appeared first on /Film.
The cult of "The Office" has only grown stronger since it debuted in 2005. It's hard to picture these days, but "The Office" was one of those shows that took a minute to find its audience, but when it did it found a very vocal, very dedicated fanbase. There are a dozen questions people still have about the show. You know, things like "What is Kevin's chili recipe?" and "Is that really what she said?" But at the top of the burning questions list is something very romantic and very secretive.
Jim and Pam spent an agonizingly long time figuring out...
The post Jenna Fischer (Kinda) Revealed What Was in Jim's Teapot Note to Pam in The Office appeared first on /Film.
"The Office" ended nearly a decade ago, but Jim Halpert and Pam Beesly still remain one of the most-loved couples in modern sitcom history. John Krasinski's Jim and Jenna Fischer's Pam are so synonymous with TV comedy love that when other people reference them, it's almost always on a first-name basis, no show title needed. We all know Jim and Pam.
Before they were a beloved endgame ship, though, the pair were just a couple of lovebirds trying to figure it out. When they finally did in the season 5 premiere, it was in a simple, beautiful moment. When Pam...
The post Jim's Proposal to Pam on The Office Sparked a Divisive Debate Behind the Scenes appeared first on /Film.
John Wayne is often canonized as one of America's greatest heroes, but this wasn't the case during World War II as his Hollywood star began to rise. As author Garry Wills described in his book "John Wayne's America: The Politics of Celebrity," the combat veterans present during his USO tours in the 1940s were furious with his presence, booing the Duke and jeering as he took the stage. In their eyes, Wayne was a coward and a draft dodger who chose Hollywood stardom over joining the war effort. When the attack on Pearl Harbor signaled the United States' entry into World War II,...
The post How WWII Set The Stage For John Wayne's Rise To Superstardom appeared first on /Film.
(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.)
The movie: "Thoroughbreds"
Where you can stream it: HBO Max
The pitch: There might be no one on this earth more capable of cruelty than a teenage girl, especially a rich and spoiled one. In the pitch-black comedy "Thoroughbreds," first-time writer and director Cory Finley tells the tale of two teenage girls, Lily (Anya Taylor-Joy) and Amanda (Olivia Cooke), who were once childhood friends but have grown apart.
The two were raised in similar social circles in suburban Connecticut, where they live in expansive houses...
The post The Daily Stream: Thoroughbreds Mixes Horses, Humor, and Homicide appeared first on /Film.
The bigger that the Marvel Cinematic Universe becomes, the more stumbling points we seem to find. The early phases still get the brunt of our criticisms, which makes sense, because that was when the franchise was still finding its way. Just look at the evolution of Thor Odinson. The most "out there" of the initial Avengers, Thor's MCU incarnation started out as a cool alien, with Asgard's gilded technology passing for magic. It wasn't until Taika Waititi's "Thor: Ragnarok" that he received a soft reboot and became the God of Thunder that comic fans know and love.
As it's gone on, the MCU's architects have become...
The post MCU franchise moments that still make us angry appeared first on /Film.
Like most hardcore horror fans, Guillermo del Toro loves a good anthology series. From "The Twilight Zone" to "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark," which del Toro produced, the notion of getting a completely different tale of terror each week is too tantalizing to resist. So genre fans should be giddily anticipating the October 25, 2022, Netflix premiere of "Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities," which boasts eight episodes of spine-tingling fright from some of the most talented horror directors working today.
In the newly released teaser, del Toro promises, "Each of the episodes has a whole world." Though...
The post What You Need to Watch (and Read) Before Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities appeared first on /Film.
The Joss Whedon TV series "Firefly" ran for a single season on Fox. It never really had a chance for a successful run on network television; the episodes were run out of order, and three were left unaired. Despite this, enough people loved the show and bought the DVD box set that Universal Pictures gave a green light to a follow-up film, "Serenity."
"Firefly" is set hundreds of years in the future, in a world where humans had to leave Earth and colonize space. Powerful people run the more advanced planets, but those who wanted their freedom, fought (and lost) a war over it. Those...
The post Serenity's Intense Action Scenes Had To Rely On Actors Over CGI appeared first on /Film.
If you think too much about time while watching the later episodes of "The Simpsons," you'll go insane. A recent season 33 episode has Lisa talking to the ghost of Bleeding Gums Murphy (now voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson). Bleeding Gums tells Lisa to search a name up in the phone book, to which Lisa responds, "What's a phone book?" Bleeding Gums remarks to himself, "I have been dead a long time."
At first glance, it's a fun little joke pointing out how irrelevant phone books are in this day and age, but it also forces us to wonder how time works in this...
The post Only One Part Of The Simpsons Canon Really Matters To The Writers appeared first on /Film.
A rather amusing headline in a 2008 issue of The Onion read "Some Old Man Still Churning Out Marmaduke." The joke of the article was that Brad Anderson, then 83, the creator of the long-running dog-centric newspaper strip, was toiling away at his 20,000th monotonous "Marmaduke" comic in complete obscurity. Despite being a staple of the funny papers since 1953, much of Marmaduke's audience had long since ceased paying attention. Incidentally, Anderson continued to draw "Marmaduke" until his death in 2015 at the age of 91. The strip continues under the eye of Paul Anderson, his son.
Matt Groening's "The Simpsons" is — a...
The post The Simpsons Was Never Supposed To Run For More Than 13 Episodes appeared first on /Film.
Legendary filmmaker Akira Kurosawa opened "Seven Samurai" with a group of bandits approaching a small village on horseback. Between the opening credits and the first shot, Kurosawa established the themes of civil unrest and violence that would permeate the film; the bandit scene predicts the brutal savagery that is about to play out. However, this expectation is undercut when the bandits realize they've already looted the village and plan to return later. This change in plans heightens the anxiety surrounding the forthcoming attack, replayed to audiences via a villager overhearing the exchange and running home to warn the residents. Although this scene...
The post Akira Kurosawa Set Out To End One Of Japanese Filmmaking's Biggest Trends appeared first on /Film.
Spoiler culture is a big deal today. While certain studios have leveraged spoiler culture to influence audiences to rush to cinema halls on release day, others use it as means to create buzz and anticipation for a particular film. For obvious reasons, nobody likes spoilers because they most certainly ruin the excitement of watching a movie and take away from its ability to let surprises and secrets unravel naturally. Today, with social media usage at an all-time high, it's nearly impossible to keep a massive movie secret under wraps. Back in the day, however, word of mouth was the only way...
The post How The Star Wars Crew (Tried To) Keep The Darth Vader Reveal Under Wraps appeared first on /Film.
Established during the early heyday of motion pictures, the "star system" is an informal rule of thumb that most movie producers still swear by, even though the elements of a film's package deal in order to get a green light and raise funds have changed in the last 20-odd years. Nowadays, while having an actor with an established fanbase or persona is still a boon to getting a project off the ground, Hollywood is awash with risk-averse producers using an IP to get a movie made — and that IP is usually comic-book superhero material.
Arguably the film that started Hollywood on this superhero-saturated...
The post Everywhere Superman Wanted To Film, Marlon Brando And Guy Hamilton Were Banned appeared first on /Film.
Pretty much ever scene in a comedy movie or at TV show requires the straight man, the normal person who reacts to all the wild stuff going on around them. It's not a role that tends to get the actor a lot of praise thrown their way, but it is an important one. On some shows like "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," the role gets flipped around a lot from moment to moment. Depending on the episode, any member of the gang could be the normal person who helps put the rest of the gang's wackiness into perspective. As the show went on, the...
The post Judy Reyes Didn't Always Love Playing The Serious One On Scrubs appeared first on /Film.
This article contains spoilers for Westworld season 4.
"Westworld" is not an easy show to love. Every season, the series slowly unravels big mysteries and forces us to think differently about narratives, only to completely drop the ball in the finale. The season 1 finale was probably the best of the series, wrapping up the complex storylines and giving a semi-satisfying conclusion to the main character arcs. Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) finally killed her maker, Dr. Ford (Anthony Hopkins.) Maeve (Thandiwe Newton) escaped the park and was on her way to find her host daughter. William (Ed Harris) had found the perfect game at last — one where the stakes...
The post In the Westworld Season 4 Finale, Whatever Will Be, Will Be appeared first on /Film.
In space, no one can hear your space station exploding into a million pieces in the nightmare scenario of humanity's increasingly crowded journey into the stars. The exact orbital physics and logistics that drive much of the action in director Alfonso Cuarón's "Gravity" may not be entirely up to NASA standards -- don't take my word for it, but that of an actual astronaut! -- but the filmmaker certainly went above and beyond to maintain as much scientific accuracy as he possibly could in his space-set 2013 masterpiece.
Of course, the creative team couldn't simply make an entirely silent film punctuated by the breathless radio calls...
The post Gravity's Crew Had To Get Creative To Make Sound Work In Space appeared first on /Film.
James Mangold's 2017 superhero film "Logan" is unique within the genre for the simple fact that it ends.
Inspired by the Mark Millar and Steve McNiven comic book series "Old Man Logan," Mangold's film takes place in a future of the X-Men universe wherein the man once known as Wolverine has grown into a scarred, defeated, sad, kind of pathetic elderly man. Professor X (Patrick Stewart) is pushing 100 and is losing control of his psychic powers, and Logan (Hugh Jackman) can no longer heal quickly. Both men are at the ends of their lives. The world is dry, dusty, and barren, and the X-Men long ago disbanded and...
The post Logan Ending Explained: The X-Men Must End appeared first on /Film.
Of all the characters on "Community," Ken Jeong's Ben Chang changes the most. He's introduced in the second episode as the study group's Spanish professor and was quickly characterized as a rude and eccentric teacher. "I am a Spanish genius!" he screams at the class in his first ever scene with them. "My knowledge will bite her face off," he says, immediately after giving Shirley (Yvette Nicole Brown) a series of strange fake bites around her neck.
As season 1 goes by, it becomes clear that in addition to being a weird guy, Chang is also kind of bad at Spanish. He reveals to Jeff (Joel McHale)...
The post Community Gave Ken Jeong The 'Best Moment' Of His Acting Career appeared first on /Film.
When you look at the sprawling ensemble that is "Downton Abbey," it can be easy to lose track of all of these characters, especially when you're having to alternate between the aristocratic Crawley family and their downstairs staff. But series creator/writer Julian Fellowes ("The Gilded Age") has done a great job of giving both clusters equal attention, as the show hops from one character's plotline to the next. Of course, the breadth of a television show with six seasons allows ample time to make sure no one gets lost in the shuffle.
As the PBS series made the transition to the big screen...
The post Why Laura Carmichael Couldn't Say No To Reprising Her Downton Abbey Role appeared first on /Film.
When Alfonso Cuarón was announced as the director of "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" in 2002, it was a bit of a bold choice. The director of the first two films, Chris Columbus, delivered safe and dependable work. "The Sorcerer's Stone" and "Chamber of Secrets" were both perfectly competent adaptations, if not necessarily ones that blew us away with the camerawork.
Meanwhile, Alfonso Cuarón was not as interested in giving us a faithful adaptation as his predecessor. The very first scene in the movie shows Harry flippantly using magic outside of school, which any big fan of the books can tell you should've been a...
The post How Harry Potter Helped Alfonso Cuarón Understand Children Of Men appeared first on /Film.
PolyGram Filmed Entertainment might be a name you're not entirely familiar with, but they actually had quite a few successful and iconic films under their belt. "An American Werewolf in London," "Fargo," "Dead Man Walking," and countless others were among PolyGram's output until the company finalized deals with MGM and Universal Pictures in 1998. MGM would receive the rights to PolyGram Filmed Entertainment's films released before 1996 (via Sound and Vision), and Universal Pictures would receive the rights to an undisclosed number of movies released afterward (via Variety). It is a bit of a sad situation, but one that is all too common...
The post How Universal Saved Vin Diesel's Pitch Black From A Straight-To-Video Fate appeared first on /Film.
When "Little Miss Sunshine" arrived on the scene in 2006, nabbing both Academy Awards and the hearts of American audiences, it captured an era of mid-aughts indie filmmaking that was defined by quirky comedic dysfunction. From "Garden State" and "Napoleon Dynamite" before it, to "Juno" and "500 Days of Summer" after, the road trip movie seems like the center point of a very specific movie trend.
Surprisingly, though, "Little Miss Sunshine" didn't mean to follow in the footsteps of the offbeat 2000s dramedy, but wanted to captured the essence of a different type of film that came decades earlier. In an interview with the...
The post The Controversial '70s TV Hit That Inspired Little Miss Sunshine appeared first on /Film.
The "Jurassic World" franchise concluded its second set of film trilogies with 2022's "Jurassic World Dominion," which was a massive disappointment for many reasons. For one, "Dominion" chose to sideline the fate of the dinosaurs in favor of some hackneyed, bizarre plot that dragged down the entire narrative. However, the film's utter failure can be chalked up to the franchise not treating the dinosaurs as meaningful, core characters anymore.
The wonder and success of Steven Spielberg's first entry in the franchise, 1993's "Jurassic Park," cannot be replicated. A love letter to human curiosity, and a fantasy about what could have been, "Jurassic Park"...
The post How Steven Spielberg Made Sure Jurassic Park's Dinosaurs Never Became 'Monsters' appeared first on /Film.
Steven Spielberg is a pure visual storyteller. You can watch most of his movies on mute, and figure out the plot via the meticulous composition of each shot and how it flows into the next. Since the advent of sound, the number of directors capable of or interested in crafting a film in this manner has gradually dwindled. Movies nowadays are generally dialogue delivery systems. So we must savor our Spielbergs, and, if this style of filmmaking interests you, learn from them.
Framing and mise-en-scène are critical elements, but guiding your audience from shot to shot is every bit as important. Cutting...
The post The Filmmaker Who Influenced Steven Spielberg Most Didn't Do So By Directing appeared first on /Film.
Dame Maggie Smith is one of the world's most distinguished actresses — with an extensive career in theater and films, the 87-year-old veteran is highly respected for her incredible contributions to cinema. Smith's role as Professor McGonagall in the eight-part "Harry Potter" film franchise catapulted her status from an accomplished English actress to an international sensation, but her role in "Downton Abbey" as the resilient, formidable Dowager Countess has further amplified that. With years of experience under her belt, it is only natural for Smith's colleagues to have felt intimidated around her.
While we have plenty of "Harry Potter" bloopers and behind-the-scenes content...
The post Maggie Smith Had A Scary Reputation On The Harry Potter Set appeared first on /Film.
Ruggero Deodato's 1980 gore flick "Cannibal Holocaust" is one of those rare films that does not lose power with age. Its extreme gore and rough, vérité style are so incredibly raw it landed Deodato in court under the suspicion that he had made a genuine snuff film. This had been compounded by how the cast had — as a bit of a marketing stunt — signed contracts not to conduct any promotional interviews. It wasn't until Deodato was able to produce the "missing" cast members in court that he was exonerated. It's worth noting that "Holocaust" still contains documentary footage of animals being killed, so it's still a...
The post The Cinematic Double-Standard That Inspired Cannibal Holocaust appeared first on /Film.
The American version of "The Office" ran for nine seasons on NBC, and it won four Primetime Emmy Awards. Perhaps you're doing a rewatch along with Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey's podcast about the show, "Office Ladies." The podcast looks back at each episode in order, and in the one for "A Benihana Christmas," which is season 3, episodes 10 and 11, they talk about how they managed to get the rights to use John Mayer's song, "Your Body is a Wonderland."
In the episode, set during the holidays, Michael (Steve Carell) and his girlfriend, Carol (Nancy Walls), break up. Michael, Andy...
The post John Mayer Let The Office Use One of His Songs, But He Had One Condition appeared first on /Film.
Vin Diesel's surprise appearance at the end of "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift" was a bit of a mind-blower at the time. What was initially an unconnected entry in a series about street racing turned out to bridge previously existing characters within a shared universe, predating the "Iron Man" post-credits scene by two years. Unlike the MCU, however, this wasn't at all a planned story map. It turns out this franchise-changing moment was because Vin Diesel desperately wanted to acquire the rights to his labor of love, "Riddick."
Although Diesel's Dominic Toretto has become the face of the "The...
The post How A Fast & Furious Cameo Earned Vin Diesel The Rights To Riddick appeared first on /Film.
Whether as an actor, stuntman, or director, David Leitch has been the architect behind some of the most captivating recent fight scenes in film. His catalog of work spans some of the biggest action movies of the last twenty years, including the last two films in "The Matrix Trilogy," "300," and "Deadpool 2."Although it was in Leitch's directorial debut, "John Wick," where he developed his signature for boldly executed action sequences that both captivate and drive the plot forward, he perfected his process on his second project, "Atomic Blonde."
One scene stands out in particular: the brutal 10-minute stairwell fight Charlize Theron's character, MI6 agent Lorraine Broughton, engages...
The post How Atomic Blonde's Amazing Stairwell Fight Came Together appeared first on /Film.
"Halo" is a story about a super soldier known as Master Chief (aka John-117) who fights aliens in space over ancient technology. You might think from the description that it's a story you've seen many times before. Certainly, "Halo" wears its influences on its sleeve. But don't underestimate the world of the games, which has thus far been the subject of over 30 novels, several comics, and one season of a live-action television show. Bungie cut their teeth directing the "Marathon" trilogy of narratively ambitious first-person shooters. "Halo" was targeted at a wider audience, but its developers still took the time to flesh out the game's...
The post The Proper Reading Order For the Halo Books appeared first on /Film.
1982 was a watershed year in terms of theatrical exhibition. The hit-cluttered summer release schedule -- which included all-timers like "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial," "Poltergeist" and "An Officer and a Gentleman" -- firmly established the season as a commercial goldmine. Tucked in between the blockbusters and bombs was the modest sensation of "Friday the 13th Part 3." Directed by steady studio hand Steve Miner, the second sequel in the Paramount franchise sought to spice up its slasher formula by shooting in native 3D.
The format gamble worked. "Friday the 13th Part 3" opened to a then massive $9.3 million over the August 13...
The post The Friday the 13th Sequel That Kicked Off a Trend in Horror Movies appeared first on /Film.
As of this writing, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (aka, the MCU) consists of 29 films and 7 Disney+ shows, with more than a dozen new projects on the way. That's a lot of content, and it's full of superheroes and villains with varying power sets, as well as the weapons they wield. Honestly, if you're not an avid comic book reader, it can be overwhelming to keep track of it all without a notepad. Thankfully, we're here to help. With the end of Phase 4 quickly approaching, we thought it was time to give a quick rundown of the most powerful weapons in the MCU.
Some of...
The post The 14 most powerful MCU weapons, ranked appeared first on /Film.
Hollywood has a long history of taking stories about other cultures, and, well, white-washing them. In the olden days, they'd straight up just put a white actor in an Asian role, like Mickey Rooney in "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and Peter Lorre as the title character in the Mr. Moto films, which was a series about a Japanese secret agent made in the 1930s, a time notoriously unfriendly to any non-white folks.
In recent times "yellow face" is pretty far in the rearview mirror, culturally speaking, but what we do still see more than we should is recasting, hence the hubbub around...
The post Chad Stahleski Wants to Make the Ghost of Tsushima Movie in Japanese, with a Japanese Cast appeared first on /Film.
There are plenty of things to find unsettling and downright terrifying about "No Country For Old Men" antagonist Anton Chigurh. There's the disturbing grin he eagerly flashes to hide murderous intent and his brutal efficiency with a captive bolt stunner. Not to mention his unfeeling disregard for human life. For these reasons, it's probably no surprise that Javier Bardem's portrayal was even deemed the most realistic of a clinical psychopath in a film by the Journal of Forensic Sciences.
That all goes to explain why the actor nabbed an Oscar for the performance, and also why Chigurh sits at the top...
The post Javier Bardem Had A Hard Time With That No Country For Old Men Haircut appeared first on /Film.
Tim Roth will be part of the supporting cast of "She-Hulk: Attorney at Law" as Emil Blonsky/The Abomination. Blonsky appears as one of Jennifer Walters' supervillain clients, with her trying to get him paroled; the "She-Hulk" trailers show the two meeting while he's imprisoned. Considering Walters is a cousin of Blonsky's nemesis, Bruce Banner, their attorney/client relationship probably isn't going to be the smoothest.
Blonsky was previously the main villain of 2008's "The Incredible Hulk," and the Marvel Cinematic Universe's second big bad after Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges) in "Iron Man." When a villain survives the end of a Marvel movie, it's usually because...
The post Tim Roth Almost Returned To The MCU Far Earlier Than She-Hulk appeared first on /Film.
Waxwork Records is continuing their undefeated streak of releasing soundtracks genre fans would sell their first born child to keep on their shelves, this time with a release for Jordan Peele's sci-fi horror spectacle, "Nope." Waxwork is releasing the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack by Michael Abels in partnership with Back Lot Music.
"Nope" is the third feature film score collaboration of Abels and Peele, following "Us" and "Get Out." In addition to Abels' score, the soundtrack release will also include licensed music featured in the film, including a new version of Corey Hart's classic "Sunglasses at Night (Jean Jacket Mix)," Dionne Warwick's "Walk...
The post The Nope Soundtrack is Coming on Vinyl, With Some Incredible Artwork appeared first on /Film.
Warning: This article contains major spoilers for every "Predator" movie -- including "Prey."
When you're in a "Predator" movie, things can get a little messy. For over 35 years, the intergalactic hunters have endured as one of the great movie monsters, hunting humans, animals, and even other iconic monsters with swift brutality. The species known as Yautja have appeared across five films and two spin-offs in all forms, upgrades, and mutations, with each dispensing their own violent pageantry of cannon firing, one on one combat, and spine ripping.
With the massive success of "Prey," let's take a look at some of the most memorable death scenes...
The post The 10 Greatest Death Scenes in the Predator Franchise appeared first on /Film.
Michael Mann's style is easy to see on screen. It's there in the Tangerine Dream soundtrack to "Thief," the moody color palette of "Manhunter," and, of course, the self-assured mastery of 1995's "Heat." It's the last film that has just landed a sequel, not in the form of a film, but a novel continuation titled "Heat 2." /Film's Jack Giroux spoke with Mann's co-author Meg Gardiner about translating Mann's style into a less visual format.
"What we were trying to do, and I knew that we had to do, was to put on the page the same feeling you get from watching...
The post Heat 2 Set Out to Recreate Michael Mann's Voice On the Page appeared first on /Film.
(Welcome to ...And More, our no-frills, zero B.S. guide to when and where you can watch upcoming movies and shows, and everything else you could possibly stand to know.)
Ryan Gosling is back, baby, and, so far, his return has been ... Well, I won't lie, a tad underwhelming. But fear not! For those not interested in the sequel to "The Gray Man" that Netflix may or may not ever get around to making (it wouldn't be the first time the company ordered a follow-up that never actually came to pass), the Gos has also got Greta Gerwig's "Barbie," a "Wolfman" remake with his "Blue Valentine" and "The Place...
The post The Fall Guy: Release Date, Cast, and More appeared first on /Film.
Two decades beyond its pilot episode, HBO crime drama "The Wire" signaled a creative upheaval in cable TV. Called the great American novel put on screen by some and a Greek tragedy writ large by others, the show explored, in uncommon depth, the social and political nuances of the failed "war on drugs" that had been chugging along since 1971. Focused on an array of Baltimore characters and unpacking a different institution over each of its five seasons, creator David Simon and a formidable team of writers defied the neatly enclosed constraints of episodic television and proved viewers can immerse and invest...
The post One Series Showed David Simon That TV Was Ready For The Wire appeared first on /Film.
Less than a week after the finale of "Physical" season 2, Apple TV+ has renewed the hit series for a third season. Set in 1980s San Diego, "Physical" is a half-hour dramedy starring and executive produced by Rose Byrne ("Insidious," "Neighbors," "Like a Boss") and created by writer and executive producer Annie Weisman ("About a Boy," "Suburgatory," "Desperate Housewives"). The series sees Byrne as Sheila Rubin, the dissatisfied housewife of an ambitious politician, battling horrific personal demons who finds solace in aerobics, and throws herself into building a fitness empire.
"I am thrilled for the opportunity to continue telling Sheila's...
The post Physical Season 3: Everything We Know About the Return of Rose Byrne's Streaming Series appeared first on /Film.
It's not easy being a vampire hunter. Bud Jablonski (Jamie Foxx) drives around in a run-down truck posing as a pool cleaner — but that's all a front for his battle against the blood-sucking undead. Yes, in "Day Shift," the new Netflix horror-comedy from director J. J. Perry, vampires are very real, and apparently all over Los Angeles — although only a select few know the truth. Bud is quite skilled at killing vamps, as we see in a brutal, bloody, funny opening scene in which he tussles with an elderly nosferatu who may look like a sweet old lady, but is in fact an acrobatic...
The post Day Shift Review: Jamie Foxx Hunts Vampires in This Action-Heavy Horror-Comedy appeared first on /Film.
A troublesome production doesn't always mean a bad film. Case in point, "Jaws." The 159-day-long shoot went over budget and behind schedule, with many of the problems stemming from the star special effect: "Bruce" the mechanical shark. The making of "Jaws" was so eventful that there have been multiple books and a stage play recounting it. And yet, the film was still, to put it mildly, a success.
The lessons that director Steven Spielberg learned on "Jaws" influenced how he would make "Jurassic Park" almost 20 years later. According to Joseph McBride's "Steven Spielberg: A Biography," the director's goal with "Jurassic Park"...
The post Jaws Scared Steven Spielberg Into Cutting A Wet And Wild Jurassic Park Scene appeared first on /Film.
"Beauty and the Beast" truly is a tale as old as time, and has been retold in countless ways, like the Ron Perlman and Linda Hamilton TV series of the same name, the Fran Drescher comedy "The Beautician and the Beast," the teen rom-drama "Beastly," or even in an episode of "Hello Kitty's Furry Tale Theater." Recently, legendary Japanese filmmaker Mamoru Hosoda delivered "Belle," a magnificent animated sci-fi fantasy film that thrusts the tale out of the world of old and into the techno future.
The story takes place in the not-so-distant future where the internet has evolved into a legitimate virtual reality...
The post In Praise of the Cast of Belle, and Good Anime Dubbing appeared first on /Film.
Aaron Guzikowski's "Raised By Wolves" may have been cut short by HBO Max after season 2, but the Ridley Scott-produced sci-fi affair was a breath of fresh air for the genre. It was a philosophical horror extravaganza with androids at the center of its narrative: two wannabe parents named, you guessed it, Mother (Amanda Collin) and Father (Abubakar Salim). Sure, convoluted world-building inhabits the series almost to its detriment, but the overwhelming sense of being swept away into a futuristic world fraught with religious and ideological conflict was enticing enough to warrant a watch.
The series' penchant for crafting unique character designs and environments is part of...
The post Raised By Wolves' Android Costumes Weren't Exactly Comfortable appeared first on /Film.
Nicolas Cage has never shied away from a challenging role or unusual situation, but while preparing for the 1997 film "Con Air," things got a little out of control. In the film, Cage plays Army Ranger and ex-con Cameron Poe, who is on a prison plane bound for home when the other dangerous convicts onboard take control of the plane. He just wants to get home to his family, but has to play along with the other prisoners in order to survive. To get prepared for the role, Cage, producer Jerry Bruckheimer, director Simon West, writer Scott Rosenberg went to a real...
The post Researching Prisons Got A Little Too Real For Nicolas Cage And The Con Air Crew appeared first on /Film.
In 2019, The Walt Disney Company officially acquired many of the most prominent entertainment assets from 20th Century Fox. Many percieved it as a dark day for the industry, since merging two industry titans meant thousands of people would lose their jobs, and it's scary to think that only a few corporations will control the future of the entertainment industry.
The merger did add an interesting wrinkle to the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, though: Among the new assets that Disney acquired was Fox's "X-Men" franchise. As it existed since 2000, Fox's X-movies were very different from the universe that Kevin Feige had...
The post Can The X-Men Really Join The MCU Without Disappointing Fans? appeared first on /Film.
"Emily the Criminal" isn't about a glamorous life of crime. It's not about the rocking highs, the one last job, or the score to end all scores. It's a crime story about survival, with its characters just trying to make it through another crummy week. As Chris Evangelista wrote in his review, "Coupled with the prevailing sense of economic hopelessness, 'Emily the Criminal' often feels like a crime saga for the gig economy; a 'Scarface' for people who work at DoorDash, with capitalism as the film's Big Bad."
John Patton Ford is the writer and director behind the throwback crime film, which focuses...
The post Emily the Criminal Director John Patton Ford on Making a Throwback Crime Film [Interview] appeared first on /Film.
Let's face it: For the most part, basketball movies are bad. It's such a beautiful game, filled with such balletic human athleticism, that it seems like a natural fit for cinema. And yet, there are only a handful of great basketball films, and only one real masterpiece.
The reason for the relatively low quality, even compared to football films, seems to be that most serious directors aren't big fans of the game. Spike Lee is the only notable exception. Basketball is otherwise largely a backdrop for mediocre comedies, like Billy Crystal's "Forget Paris," or Whoopi Goldberg's even more forgettable "Eddie." Even Will Ferrell couldn't make the game all...
The post The 21 Best Basketball Movies Ever appeared first on /Film.
"Bodies Bodies Bodies" director Halina Reijn wasn't sure about making a horror movie. It's not a genre she's been drawn to throughout her career, which has ranged from writing, directing, and acting on and off the stage. For her first American film and sophomore directorial effort, she decided to have some genre fun and throw in a few ingredients of her own to make, as she put it, "a cocktail" that audiences will hopefully enjoy.
The film follows a group of Gen-Z friends trying to find a killer among them. Reijn's film has a wicked sense of humor about itself. The...
The post Bodies Bodies Bodies Director Halina Reijn on Her Inspirations and Lighting With Cell Phones [Interview] appeared first on /Film.
Spoilers for "Thor: Love and Thunder" ahead.
In "Thor: Love and Thunder," the children of New Asgard are kidnapped by Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale). When Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and company come to rescue them, he grants them all powers from Zeus' (Russell Crowe) lightning bolt to help fight back. It's a lovely scene, reinforcing the idea that anyone can be a hero.
The crew came up with an interesting technique to film that scene, according to an interview for Marvel Entertainment's YouTube channel with Jake Morrison, the film's visual effects supervisor. It involved lighting the scene in such a way that they...
The post How Thor: Love and Thunder Avoided the Need to Create a Bunch of CG Superpowered Kids appeared first on /Film.
George R.R. Martin created one of the most cherished fantasy worlds in history with "A Song of Fire and Ice," the series of novels that ultimately inspired HBO's "Game of Thrones." For several years, there were few things in pop culture that could compete with the show as it became a true global phenomenon. Yet the eighth season of the show notoriously dropped the ball with fans and tarnished its reputation irrevocably. While correlation doesn't always equal causation, it is worth pointing out that Martin had almost no involvement in the show's last several seasons.
Speaking with...
The post Game of Thrones Author George R.R. Martin Was Left Out Of The Loop During The Later Seasons appeared first on /Film.
Clint Eastwood is justifiably considered one of our greatest living directors. Over his nearly 70-year career, he has received 11 Academy Award nominations and won four times. His revisionist Western "Unforgiven" is widely hailed as the modern apotheosis of the genre. Few filmmakers have left a deeper impact on American cinema. Even fewer have opted to share the screen with a bird-flipping, beer-swilling orangutan that enjoys voiding its bowels in police cars.
It's telling that Eastwood handed off the directorial duties on "Every Which Way But Loose" to his frequent AD James Fargo. You could also argue that Fargo, having done...
The post Every Which Way But Loose Was A Controversial Project For Clint Eastwood To Choose appeared first on /Film.
Everybody makes mistakes. It's a fact of life. People live, learn, and grow because of the mistakes they've made or seen others make. But when the ones making mistakes are celebrities, public figures, and pop culture icons, fans will label them as "problematic faves" by recommending their work or singing their praises with a caveat attached.
An adept producer of problematic faves is Walt Disney Studios. Independent of its famous namesake, who has his own laundry list of problematic behaviors -- such as union busting and getting his employees blacklisted by testifying in the McCarthy trials -- the renowned studio that became famous for its exemplary work in animation has had their fair share...
The post The Song of the South Controversies Explained appeared first on /Film.
"Misery" was Kathy Bates' first big film. Rob Reiner's adaptation of the hit Stephen King novel came in 1990, early on in Bates' five-decade career. "Misery" would precede "Fried Green Tomatoes," King adaptation "Dolores Claiborne," "Titanic," and other films she'd become known for; arguably, her recent five-year run (in various roles) on Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk's "American Horror Story" series has become the genre work she's best known for. But before all of that, she took on the role of one of cinema's greatest villainesses since Nurse Ratched.
As written in King's 1987 novel, Annie Wilkes is an obsessed...
The post There Was More To Kathy Bates' Misery Character Than The Audience Saw On Screen appeared first on /Film.
Love is rarely, truly unconditional. Despite what the social media discourse may have us believe, it is entirely possible to both love a thing and also be entirely aware of its flaws — or maybe, in the best of cases, even be amused by them. In the world of cinema, that's never been truer than when it comes to the DC Extended Universe, or -- depending which parts of the franchise one considers canon -- the Snyder-verse. All of these films have their merits, and just as importantly, their plot holes. We're not just talking about inconsistencies from movie to movie, either, like Harley Quinn's face...
The post The most frustrating plot holes in the DCEU appeared first on /Film.
"Dota: Dragon's Blood" didn't seem to rake significant traction upon its release. Yet another Netflix video game-adapted cartoon riding the fantasy adult animation steam trail left by the "Castlevania" animated adaptation, "Dota: Dragon's Blood" (created by Ashley Edward Miller) pitifully does not duel well against the agile contemporary canon of video game cartoons like the groundbreaking "Arcane." But although its shortcomings have been conspicuous, it isn't necessarily an undeserving production.
Whether or not you're versed with the source material, the "Dota 2" MOBA video game (don't consult me on that lore), "Dota: Dragon's Blood" may intrigue a general follower of...
The post Dota: Dragon's Blood Book 3 Review: Despite Shortcomings, This Video Game Adaptation is Full of Existential Tension appeared first on /Film.
Our first look at the latest Luca Guadagnino just dropped! The Italian filmmaker is heading back to the Venice Film Festival with the world premiere of his much-anticipated cannibal road trip movie, "Bones And All." Based on the novel of the same name by Camille DeAngelis, the coming-of-age romance follows cannibal lovers Maren (Taylor Russell) and Lee (Timothée Chalamet) as they make their way across America using back roads and hidden passageways.
Wonderfully, the upcoming film marks the first reunion of Guadagnino with Chalamet, since the director's 2017 Oscar-nominated movie launched Chalamet into the Hollywood stratosphere. Prior to "Bones...
The post Bones and All Teaser: Timothée Chalamet and Luca Guadagnino Reunite For a Coming-of-Age Horror Film appeared first on /Film.
(Superhero Bits is a collection of stories, updates, and videos about anything and everything inspired by the comics of Marvel, DC, and more. For comic book movies, TV shows, merchandise, events, and whatever catches our eye, this is the place to find anything that falls through the cracks.)
In this edition of Superhero Bits:
Things continue to shift behind the scenes at DC Films.
IDW is approaching its comic-to-TV adaptations in a unique way.
"Gotham Knights" gives Red Hood his very own trailer.
Spider-Man turns 60 today.
All that and more!
Because of Marvel and DC, cinematic universes are all the rage....
The post Superhero Bits: Spider-Man Turns 60, Continuing Uncertainty At DC Films & More appeared first on /Film.
Gene LeBell, a pioneering mixed martial artist and hugely respected Hollywood stuntman, has died at the age of 89. LeBell was a behind-the-scenes giant in films, professional wrestling, and combat sports. He introduced Bruce Lee to the art of grappling, and counted among his students the eclectic likes of Elvis Presley, Chuck Norris, Benny "The Jet" Urquidez, Roddy Piper, and Ronda Rousey. Over a career that spanned more than half a century, LeBell became known as "The Godfather of Grappling." His chokehold technique was legendary, which, allegedly, Steven Seagal learned the hard way.
Born on October 9, 1932, LeBell took to martial...
The post The Legendary Stuntman Who Inspired Brad Pitt's Cliff Booth Has Passed Away appeared first on /Film.
The last few years haven't been great for legacy sequels, but Dan Trachtenberg absolutely knocked it out of the park with "Prey," the prequel film of the "Predator" franchise. Set in 1719, the film centers on a young Comanche woman named Naru (Amber Midthunder) whose desire to become a hunter is put to the ultimate test when her tribe becomes the target of the ultimate Predator as it hunts them all for sport.
The film debuted last week on Hulu to massive acclaim, and has become Hulu's most watched premiere of any new release, ever. It makes sense, as "Prey" is a highly anticipated addition to a beloved...
The post All the Predator Series Easter Eggs In Prey appeared first on /Film.
Somewhere in my parents' attic, there's a dusty VHS tape featuring a New Year's Eve marathon of "South Park" recorded off the TV, with bursts of footage of "KaBLaM!!" from when I flipped to Nickelodeon so my grandma wouldn't know what I was watching. When my elementary school sent out a warning to parents about an "animated show not safe for children," my parents immediately took a "don't tell me how to raise my kid" stance, and we watched it together. The way they saw it, refusing access would only make me want it more, and at least this way, they'd be...
The post Why South Park Has Been a Cultural Rorschach Test For 25 Years appeared first on /Film.
If one could have predicted what Fred Astaire's final motion picture would've been, they likely would've guessed it was a movie musical, or at least something pleasant and frothy. Yet while Astaire was, in his Hollywood heyday, a consummate song-and-dance man, the actor seemed interested in leaving that reputation behind him during the last act of his career.
Of course, Astaire was not so naive as to believe he could change his entire screen persona from his prior decades of film appearances, but during the mid-'70s and early '80s, he nonetheless chose projects and roles that didn't have any musical component to them and certainly didn't require...
The post Fred Astaire's Final Film is a Gothic Gem Worth Watching appeared first on /Film.
Who thought to call it Star Wars Celebration, and not The Boba Fête?
At last recount, the character of Boba Fett was one of thousands of clones extracted from his father, Jango Fett (Temuera Morrison), in "Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones." Boba's childhood wasn't a happy one, however. The kid was present when an army of lightsaber-wielding Jedi attacked, and he got to witness Mace Windu (Samuel L. Jackson) decapitating his father. As an adult, Boba Fett would become a bounty hunter, fall in with criminals, and eventually be fed into the mouth of an awaiting Shai Hulud on the distant...
The post Boba Fett's First-Ever Appearance Actually Wasn't In Star Wars Movies or TV appeared first on /Film.
The script of "Jennifer's Body" said it best, "Hell is a teenage girl." In the latest addition to the teen girl horror movie collection, Elsie Fisher ("Eighth Grade," "Texas Chainsaw Massacre") and Amiah Miller ("The Water Man," "War for the Planet of the Apes") star as besties Abby and Gretchen in "My Best Friend's Exorcism," and one of them may or may not be possessed by a demon. Based on the best-selling book of the same name by Grady Hendrix ("Satanic Panic," "Mohawk") "My Best Friend's Exorcism" takes a page out of the Christopher Pike-esque teenage horror novels of the 1980s,...
The post My Best Friend's Exorcism First Look: Elsie Fisher and Amiah Miller Possess the 1980s appeared first on /Film.
If you've seen the 2004 film "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle," you likely have a deep and abiding love for not only Neil Patrick Harris himself, but the fictional version that he plays in the film. If you haven't been gifted with the vision of him riding a unicorn, you should make an appointment to watch. "Harold & Kumar" stars John Cho and Kal Penn as the title characters, who head out on an adventure-filled trip to reach a White Castle so they can assuage their cravings. There is a lot of marijuana involved and other drugs, an attempted foursome, grand...
The post How Neil Patrick Harris' Classic Harold And Kumar Cameo Came To Be appeared first on /Film.
Early in David Ayer's 2014 war film "Fury," the dead body of an American soldier is seen face-down on a muddy battlefield, the poor soul obliterated by a vicious battle that had taken place earlier in the day. One can make out the vague shape of a human being, but it's largely just blood and pulp at this point. Other soldiers mill around nonchalantly, coldly accustomed to the sight of fallen comrades. Brad Pitt, as Staff Sergeant Don "Wardaddy" Collier, orders the men under his command to climb on board the titular Sherman tank and move out to the next battle. The tank rolls...
The post David Ayer Broke Brad Pitt Down To Prepare Him For Fury appeared first on /Film.
Is "The Dark Knight" Christopher Nolan's magnum opus? Personally, I feel "The Prestige" has emerged over time as the movie that perhaps best encompasses the motifs of Nolan's work (thematic, narrative, and technical). But there's no denying the impact Nolan's Bat-buster had on the film industry in 2008, not least of all the "Batman" franchise. Building on what he had done three years earlier with "Batman Begins," Nolan's movie cemented the modern era of Caped Crusader cinema. Gone are the grotesque Expressionist stylings of Tim Burton or the Day-Glo campiness of Joel Schumacher. Batman films can only be Very Serious now.
It's an odd legacy,...
The post The Dark Knight Ending Explained: Sometimes the Truth Isn't Good Enough appeared first on /Film.
For every blockbuster slasher flick, there's an underrated, criminally-overlooked gem just waiting to be discovered. While such films as "Psycho," "Halloween," and "Friday the 13th" defined the genre as we've come to know and love it, many more have reached the same level of excellence in hack 'n' slash storytelling. Our list for Best Slasher Movies of All Time is only scraping the surface of what the horror subgenre has to offer. If it's buckets of blood and guts you're looking for, there's something to quench your thirst. If you're perhaps seeking something a bit off the beaten path, though, you just have to do a little...
The post 12 Underrated Slasher Movies You Need To Check Out appeared first on /Film.
This article contains spoilers for season 1 of "The Sandman."
John Cameron Mitchell is no stranger to colorful, surreal, mind-bending storytelling, but the "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" director and star was still in for something new with Netflix's "The Sandman." The incredibly intricate 10-episode first season adapted two arcs from Neil Gaiman's "The Sandman" comics: "Preludes & Nocturnes" and "The Doll's House." Mitchell, a long-time friend of Gaiman's who directed an adaptation of his short story "How to Talk to Girls at Parties," was more than game to be a part of "The Sandman" universe, and there just happened to be a perfect role...
The post The Sandman Actor John Cameron Mitchell on Comics, Storytelling, and Breaking the Binary [Spoiler Interview] appeared first on /Film.
(Superhero Bits is a collection of stories, updates, and videos about anything and everything inspired by the comics of Marvel, DC, and more. For comic book movies, TV shows, merchandise, events, and whatever catches our eye, this is the place to find anything that falls through the cracks.)
In this edition of Superhero Bits:
Marvel's "Midnight Suns" video game has been delayed again.
A couple of HBO Max DC shows are still moving forward (for now).
"She-Hulk" looks like it's going to have pretty short episodes.
Some more info on the "Batgirl" cancellation.
All that and more!
The post Superhero Bits: The Fate Of More DC Shows On HBO Max, Marvel's Midnight Suns Delayed & More appeared first on /Film.
Clint Eastwood's 2004 movie "Million Dollar Baby" arrived in theaters with the strength of a knockout blow. The boxing drama was adapted by Paul Haggis from a short story from the book "Rope Burns: Stories From the Corner" by former boxing cutman Jerry Boyd. The film won four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. Co-stars Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman both won Oscars for their performances in the film.
Despite technically being a sports movie, it moves at an incredibly slow pace and is as much a psychological examination of character as it is a look at the...
The post Million Dollar Baby Is A Case Study In How Clint Eastwood Builds A Character appeared first on /Film.
As we inch ever closer to what seems like the definitive ending of the "Breaking Bad" and "Better Call Saul" saga, now seems like as good a time as any to take a look at both series as one cohesive story. "Breaking Bad" and the story of Walter White's ascension to infamy may have been what kickstarted this world, but the latest episodes of the prequel series "Better Call Saul" seem to paint another picture entirely: one that has Walt being a byproduct of Saul's machinations, stemming from his need to take something with dangerous potential and...
The post Better Call Saul Proves That Jimmy McGill is Actually the Main Character of the Breaking Bad Universe appeared first on /Film.
Few things are as unstoppable as "The Office." It's been years since the last time I went through the series, but the perpetual stream of gifs and memes makes it feel like the show truly never left.
Should your rewatch need an extra boost of Dunder Mifflin excitement, Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey have you covered with the podcast "Office Ladies," in which the pair extensively cover one episode every single week, dishing out all of the behind the scenes goodies any "Office" fan could ask for. The series is currently up to season 6 with "The Chump," but the episode...
The post How One of Michael Scott's Jokes on The Office Ended Up Costing $60,000 appeared first on /Film.
It looks like "Five Nights at Freddy's" is about to become real after all. Since acquiring the film rights to the popular horror game franchise back in 2017, Blumhouse's adaptation has had its fair share of roadblocks and delays. Despite these setbacks, such as the loss of director Chris Columbus, producer Jason Blum has long been promising fans that the film is very much still in development.
Well, it looks like those promises finally have some merit to them. Blum recently posted a behind-the-scenes photo from the prestigious Jim Henson's Creature Shop of a designer working on...
The post It Sure Looks Like Jim Henson's Creature Shop is Working on the Five Nights at Freddy's Movie appeared first on /Film.
Sergio Leone and Clint Eastwood owe their film careers to each other. Had the two not come together for "A Fistful of Dollars" in 1964, it's difficult to see how a filmmaker as idiosyncratic as Leone or an actor as impassive as Eastwood would've found success in an industry that discourages anything that deviates too far from the norm. Thankfully, they did hook up, and, in the process, created the spaghetti western, which breathed brash new life into what was then a flagging genre.
Leone and Eastwood parted ways after "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly," freeing them up...
The post Sergio Leone Had an Interesting Take When Comparing Clint Eastwood and Robert De Niro appeared first on /Film.
(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.)
The Movie: "Passing"
Where You Can Stream It: Netflix
The Pitch: Based on Nella Larsen's slim 1929 novel, "Passing" follows two childhood friends who reunite after years apart, only to realize that one of them has been passing as a white woman while the other hasn't. Reenie (Tessa Thompson) has built a life with a Black doctor named Brian (Andre Holland), while Clare (Ruth Negga) has married a wealthy white racist named John...
The post The Daily Stream: Passing is a Deep, Dazzling Take on a Classic appeared first on /Film.
Scott Mann's film "Fall," due in theaters this week, is about two young women (Virginia Gardner and Grace Caroline Currey) who become stranded at the very top of an abandoned 2,000-foot tall radio tower in the middle of the desert. The two characters climb to the top of the tower to scatter the ashes of a beloved late husband when their ladder breaks off and they get stuck. There are likely some acrophobes already having panic attacks reading this very premise.
For a little context, 2,000 feet is about the height of some of the peaks in the Adirondacks. At sea level, oxygen saturation...
The post The Fascinating Way Fall Transformed Its R-Rating to PG-13 Using Deepfake Tech appeared first on /Film.
Don't lie. It's happened to all of us. You're watching the latest must-see horror movie in a dark room, eagerly perched on the edge of your seat with popcorn in hand, and deep down, you're secretly hoping that the bad guy ends up on top.
For most horror movie villains, longevity is the name of the game, and with that comes a certain likeability that's automatically baked into their constantly-rising body counts. Seriously. Freddy, Jason, Chucky, and Michael Myers? Each one of these deranged killers may be why our heroes spend the majority of their respective films sprinting around wide-eyed and panicked, but for viewers,...
The post Horror Movies That Make Us Root For The Villain appeared first on /Film.
The United States is a land of promise and opportunity, but sometimes the road to getting there can be ridiculously challenging. The new Netflix series "Mo" follows Palestinian refugee Mo Najjar as he tries to make his way towards U.S. citizenship while falling between the cracks as a person without papers. Comedian Mo Amer is both the star and executive producer on the series, as the show is based on Amer's own life experiences as a Palestinian refugee growing up in Texas.
A24 is producing the series along with Netflix and Ramy Youssef, who created the Emmy-nominated series "Ramy" for Hulu. This series looks like it will mirror the...
The post Mo Trailer: Finding the Funny in Falling Between the Cracks appeared first on /Film.
The "will-they-won't-they?" narrative between Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) and Pam Beesly (Jenna Fischer) dominated the first several seasons of the hit NBC series "The Office." It took two seasons for a single kiss, and another full season before the two would even go on a formal date. But a heartfelt episode in between that time gave fans just enough to quench their thirst for the potential of the two finally getting together.
"The Office" wasn't shy at pushing the envelope. The show paved the way for the rise of mockumentary-style television. It also asked actors to pull double duty...
The post How One of Pam and Jim's Pivotal Scenes in The Office Became a Logistical Hassle appeared first on /Film.
Never trust what you see on the surface, particularly with teenagers. They could be slaying vampires after cheerleading tryouts like Buffy Summers, or a detective in their spare time like Veronica Mars. They could also be killers. A new indie film is on the way from Screen Media called "Saint Clare," based on Don Roff's popular novel "Clare at Sixteen" (via Deadline). Murders are happening, and the suspect, it seems, isn't who you might expect it to be.
"Saint Clare" is the story of a young woman who has murder on the mind. If you want to get a sense...
The post Saint Clare: Everything We Know So Far About the New Thriller Starring Bella Thorne and Ryan Phillippe appeared first on /Film.
This post contains spoilers for the "Sandman" comics.
Among many of the most unsettling moments in season 1 of "The Sandman" is the revelation that Dream (Tom Sturridge), the all-powerful being who controls the dream realm, has plans to take away Lyta's (Razane Jammal) baby. "The baby was conceived in the Dreaming," he explains to her, but it would've been nice if he'd explained the situation in a bit more detail. With Rose (Vanesu Samunyai) no longer having the powers of a vortex, there doesn't seem to be anything stopping Dream from taking Lyta's child one day. The only question is when.
And so, as Lyta spends every...
The post Everything We Know About Lyta Hall's Baby In The Sandman appeared first on /Film.
Michael Mann's "Heat" is a modern classic — a sprawling, violent, engrossing crime epic that fans have obsessed over for years (example: Blake Howards has an incredible podcast called One Heat Minute that breaks down the entire film minute by minute). It's arguably Mann's most popular movie — the one we return to, again and again, despite (or perhaps because of) its overwhelming runtime. The overstuffed nature of the film hooks us, and makes us feel as if we're part of the world Mann is creating.
Mann's 1995 film, inspired by true events and a reworking of his TV movie "L.A. Takedown,"...
The post Heat 2 Review: An Action-Packed Page-Turner That Feels Just Like a Michael Mann Movie appeared first on /Film.
Casting a show full of high schoolers gives casting directors the unique opportunity of finding and potentially casting fresh, new talent to help catapult to stardom — you know, if the story is any good. It also tasks them, no matter what, with the job of finding the exact right person for each role in the series — which is part of why "Euphoria" casting director Jennifer Venditti almost cast someone else in the role of Rue, now played by Zendaya.
In an interview with Variety, Venditti revealed that despite the fact that someone may be perfect for a role, an actor's mental preparation and preservation...
The post Euphoria Almost Cast Someone Else in Zendaya's Role appeared first on /Film.
Horror fans were treated to some pretty unexpected news recently when it was revealed that "The Strangers," the 2008 home invasion thriller by Bryan Bertino, is getting three more sequels. Yes, not one, but three sequels! The first and only other follow-up came in the form of 2018's "Strangers: Prey at Night," and that film was directed by Johannes Roberts, of "47 Meters Down" fame. Well, it looks like the franchise is going to keep up the tradition of having another new genre director step in to add their flare to it. And in this case we're getting yet...
The post Deep Blue Sea's Renny Harlin Will Direct At Least One Of The New Strangers Sequels appeared first on /Film.
Last week's episode of "Only Murders in the Building," "Flipping the Pieces," kept our podcasting trio of Mabel (Selena Gomez), Charles (Steve Martin), and Oliver (Martin Short) separate while Mabel tried to reclaim her memory just a little bit. But right as they reunited at the conclusion, they were shocked to learn two things. First, Charles' would-be step-daughter Lucy (Zoe Colletti) may be the next target of the mystery person who killed Arconia board president Bunny Folger; and second, New York City just got struck by a blackout. A few episodes ago, we had Oliver reliving the post-Summer of Sam haze from the...
The post Only Murders in the Building Goes Dark in A Blackout Episode appeared first on /Film.
Ari Aster's feature directorial debut "Hereditary" took the world by storm in 2018, rocking the box office and receiving critical acclaim. It was an explosive demonstration of vision and technique from a relatively new director and his talented cast and is arguably one of the stand-out examples of a modern horror revival in mainstream cinema.
If you loved "Hereditary", there's no doubt you're hungry for more of that brand of nerve-searing cinema. Of course, you certainly can't go wrong by checking out Aster's 2020 follow-up, "Midsommar," starring Florence Pugh, but there's a wide world of provocative, terrifying, and artistically brilliant cinema out there. Rather than just recommend the biggest...
The post 12 Movies Like Hereditary That Are Worth Watching appeared first on /Film.
(Welcome to ...And More, our no-frills, zero B.S. guide to when and where you can watch upcoming movies and shows, and everything else you could possibly stand to know.)
In a time where video games are more cinematic and story-driven than ever, it's kind of remarkable "Sonic the Hedgehog" remains one of the few properties to successfully make the leap to the big screen. The original video games are about as simple as they come plot-wise, following Sonic and his allies as they navigate a series of obstacle courses beset by random spikes, lava pits, and more in order to prevent the evil, mustachioed Doctor Robotnik from...
The post Sonic the Hedgehog 3: Release Date, Cast, and More appeared first on /Film.
It's about time we start getting some "Fargo" back in our lives. It's been nearly two years since the crime drama series served us season 4, the latest from the show loosely based on Joel and Ethan Coen's legendary 1996 thriller, and season 5 is finally on the horizon.
Season 4 brought us back to the early 1950s and followed a Black crime syndicate based in Kansas City that went head-to-head with the local Italian mafia. It was wholly different than past seasons, or even the original film, and was critically acclaimed for its departure from the franchise's norms. The exciting story starred Chris Rock, Jesse...
The post Fargo Season 5: Everything We Know So Far appeared first on /Film.
Warning: This article contains major spoilers for the first four episodes of "The Rehearsal."
If you've been following "The Rehearsal" for the past few weeks now, you're probably aware that Nathan Fielder's pseudo-reality puzzle has been the subject of contention for some. The premise of the HBO series initially revolved around the awkward comedian taking people under his wing to meticulously rehearse a scenario until it manifests into the desired outcome in reality, but the way in which Fielder has involved himself in his participants' lives has made this feel much more personal.
It's a mesmerizing, touching and shocking insight into the trials...
The post Is The Rehearsal Manipulative? Let's Reenact This Scenario And Find Out appeared first on /Film.
Another week brings yet another fun fact for everyone involved in "Top Gun: Maverick" to brag about. As if saving the box office isn't notable enough, this film can also tout its status as the seventh biggest film at the box office ever, plus it has the Quentin Tarantino stamp of approval. Showing absolutely no sign of ever slowing down, "Maverick" is once again back in the headlines because fans have learned that a celebrated F1 Driver was once set to enter the danger zone alongside Tom Cruise.
If you run in any Formula One-obsessed circles, then you're no stranger to...
The post Top Gun: Maverick Nearly Featured a Cameo From One of F1's Greatest Drivers appeared first on /Film.
Were you under the impression that circumstances over at Warner Bros. have been a little ... chaotic ... lately? Well, what better way to try and spin the PR cycle into something more positive than by engaging the services of the agent of chaos himself! (You're laughing. Warner Bros. Discovery is in full damage-control mode and you're laughing.)
We recently received word that the sequel to "Joker," the surprising Todd Phillips-directed hit, either elegantly or pretentiously titled (depending on who you talk to) Joker: Folie à Deux, is 100% happening and has already laid claim to a theatrical release date in...
The post Zazie Beetz in Talks to Return in Joker: Folie à Deux, Confirming Her Character is Probably Not Dead appeared first on /Film.
In Robert Zemeckis' 1994 Oscar-winning film "Forrest Gump," based on the novel by Winston Groom, the title character -- Tom Hanks affecting a unique Southern drawl -- shares the folksy wisdom that life is like a box of chocolates, in that you never know what you're going to get. This cutesy axiom is emblematic of the film's tendency to skew clumsy. It presents a simplified, candy apple version Americana wherein anyone, so long as they unwittingly serve as agents of American institutions -- college football teams, business owners, soldiers -- will be blessed with miraculous wealth. Forrest Gump was also responsible for unwittingly aiding in the...
The post Laal Singh Chaddha Review: Forrest Gump, Minus the Mawkishness appeared first on /Film.
Sam Neill is just so good at being bad that it's always a pleasure to see him on screen. From his role of Damien Thorn in "The Omen: III" to the oh-so-sneaky Dr. William Weir in "Event Horizon," we know the guy has a villainous itch to scratch. However, when the actor joined the cast of Netflix's "Peaky Blinders," a more complicated antagonist arose in his portrayal of Inspector Campbell.
As viewers learned while watching the first season, our protagonist, Thomas "Tommy" Shelby, isn't what we'd call a good guy. Then again, neither was his adversary, Inspector Campbell. A guy who believed himself to...
The post Saying Goodbye To Peaky Blinders Wasn't Easy For Sam Neill appeared first on /Film.
"Futurama" is a loving send-up of science fiction, "Star Trek" very much included. The series' parodies of "Trek" got pretty bald, such as the episode "Where No Fan Has Gone Before," which features the Planet Express crew teaming up with the original "Star Trek" cast to fight the alien Trekkie Melllvar. However, the most endemic "Star Trek" parody in "Futurama" is the recurring characters Zapp Brannigan and Kif Kroker. The premise behind Zapp is simple and hilarious: what if William Shatner was captain of the Enterprise instead of James T. Kirk?
Kif, his alien second-in-command, is, in turn, a loose parody of Spock,...
The post Futurama's Kif Started Off A Lot More Like Star Trek's Spock appeared first on /Film.
Welcome back, "Saul" fans. I was on vacation last week, which means you get a double-dose of "Better Call Saul" recaps tonight, with both episode 11, "Breaking Bad," and episode 12, "Waterworks." And of course, it's worth mentioning that tonight's episode is the penultimate ep of the series — yep, there's only one more "Better Call Saul" episode left before the show rides off into the sunset. Time to scream in terror and anxiety!
Seemingly ever since "Better Call Saul" began, fans have wondered: when will Walter White (Bryan Cranston) and Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) show up? It was a foregone conclusion since "Saul"...
The post Better Call Saul Season 6 Breaks Bad and Turns On the Waterworks appeared first on /Film.
When Akira Kurosawa's "Rashomon" won the prestigious Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival in 1951, it allowed Japanese cinema to begin gaining more of a foothold abroad. Throughout his career, Kurosawa incorporated Western influences into his work, with Shakespeare being one ready example as seen in Kurosawa's "Macbeth" and "King Lear" adaptations, "Throne of Blood" and "Ran." The Westerns of John Ford were another major influence on Kurosawa, who managed to combine such inspirations with a local sensibility rooted in his own unique cultural background. In turn, Kurosawa earned the admiration of global audiences and filmmakers, with "The Hidden Fortress" serving as a major inspiration for George...
The post Akira Kurosawa Had A Theory About His Films' International Appeal appeared first on /Film.
(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.)
The Movie: "Mike Judge's Beavis and Butt-Head" (2022)
Where You Can Stream It: Paramount+
The Pitch: Like it or hate it, we live in an era driven by nostalgia and that means a dependable stream of older IP being remade, rebooted, and legacy-sequeled. It's really tough for an older brand to be cleanly resurrected. You have to bring out the thing original fans liked without making it feel...
The post The Daily Stream: Mike Judge's Beavis and Butt-Head is Lewd, Crude and Just As Relevant As Ever appeared first on /Film.
(Welcome to ...And More, our no-frills, zero B.S. guide to when and where you can watch upcoming movies and shows, and everything else you could possibly stand to know.)
If ever there was an animated program intended to be consumed while blitzed on edibles, it was the 2000 Adult Swim series "Aqua Teen Hunger Force." Now nearly forgotten by anyone who wasn't in college in 2000, "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" was a surrealist sitcom about a trio of talking fast food items who found themselves ... kinda doing nothing. Master Shake was the annoying blowhard leader, Frylock was the more clear-thinking character, and Meatwad was...
The post Aqua Teen Forever: Plantasm Release Date, Cast, and More appeared first on /Film.
Olivia Newton-John was a 1970s pop-cultural phenomenon on par with The Bee-Gees. The Australian singer had it all: angelic voice, smoldering beauty, and ... well, she just had "it." Nowadays, we know well enough not to try to quantify "it," and as we mourn the superstar's passing at the age of 73, all I can do is turn you on to her essential works, where you'll either get "it" or be wrong.
Strangely, for a performer of Newton-John's incandescence and broad appeal (she routinely placed hits on Billboard's pop and country charts), she didn't make a lot of memorable films. This wasn't for lack...
The post 5 Essential Olivia Newton-John Projects and Where You Can Watch Them appeared first on /Film.
Did you ever feel envious of someone who is about to watch something from your favorite fandom for the first time? Perhaps you've wondered what it's like for people who love a property so much that they make a film about it. They'll never get to know what it's like to see that project the way the rest of us do. They get to actually make said project, but it's not the same.
Peter Jackson wishes he could have seen "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy as a fan, despite being the one responsible for bringing the J.R.R. Tolkien classic to life for...
The post Peter Jackson Once Considered Hypnosis So He Could Experience Lord of the Rings Fresh appeared first on /Film.
Watching "The Wire" today, it's easy to forget how much of a game-changer it was in a sea of episodic television with tidy resolutions. Created by David Simon and pitched ostensibly as a "cop show" about wiretapping, the Baltimore-based HBO crime drama was a forerunner for what we now call "prestige tv" — the sort of thoughtful literary storytelling that requires viewers to put their phones down and pay attention to a cumulative, carefully constructed narrative. Each chapter in the saga contains a different focal point, from street corners where drugs are sold to the docks where stevedores facilitate distribution of the illicit to the...
The post Why The Wire Had To End After Season 5 appeared first on /Film.
35 years ago, the original "Predator" hit theaters, kick-starting the long-running action horror franchise that's still cranking out new installments today. The movie introduced audiences to a species of extraterrestrial hunters called the Yautja, known most commonly as "the Predator." The massive creatures have a very distinctive look, which includes sharp mandibles, hair-like growths, and a hulking frame that's designed to kill.
As memorable as the Predator creature design is, the aliens didn't always look like the ones audiences are familiar with now. Like many genre classics, the original "Predator" movie featured an earlier version of the creature design that didn't end...
The post The Original Predator Design Was Ridiculous – Here's How They Saved It appeared first on /Film.
While the future of HBO Max has been thrown into absolute chaos over the last week or so, HBO proper continues to march forward with programming that rarely seems to misfire. Even if a show ends up being a dud, HBO has found a way to eventize television watching in a way no other platform has been able to do in the streaming era. When we think of HBO, we tend to think of their overwhelmingly popular dramas: "Succession," "Euphoria," and classics like "The Sopranos" and "The Wire." It is the premiere place for television drama. But lately,...
The post The Franchise: Everything We Know So Far About HBO's Superhero Movie-Making Series From The Creator Of Veep appeared first on /Film.
When readers meet Dream in "The Sandman" comic series, he's a traumatized, wrathful, and sad-sack mythical being who sees no issue in doling out eternally harsh punishments. If the dreams and nightmares that he brought into existence disappoint him, our Robert Smith lookalike often "uncreates" (read: kills) them. (Truly, the worst parent ever.) Neil Gaiman's writing revolves around how Dream, an Endless being fated to exist until existence is no more and serve humanity, resents his purpose. Dream's dour outlook, directly and indirectly, causes a lot of painful misery for others, which eventually causes him to change his tune. Due to this character arc, the series' first two volumes are extremely dark. There...
The post The Biggest Issues With Netflix's The Sandman appeared first on /Film.
Every episode of "South Park" begins with a disclaimer: There might be some celebrity impersonations ahead, and the celebrity probably had nothing to do with it. The animated series has always been known for its biting cultural commentary and has become hugely popular over its two decades-plus on the air, but its irreverent nature has remained in tact. The show continues to be unrelenting in its portrayal of public figures, from Edgar Allan Poe to Britney Spears.
Not all of these depictions have been kind, but many of them have been legendary. Some celebrities have willingly embraced their roles in the series, while others have voiced their...
The post The 10 Best Celebrity Moments on South Park appeared first on /Film.
Director David Leitch had a big bionic arm to fill when casting the role of Cable in "Deadpool 2." Anticipation was high following the massive success of the original "Deadpool, especially considering that the post-credits scene of the 2016 film teased the popular X-Men character's appearance. The tongue-in-cheek scene just has Deadpool listing off potential actors for the role, most of them wholly inappropriate, but it still lit the fires of fan-casters everywhere. Who could play the part?
A myriad of actors were rumored for the role, including General Zod himself: "Man of Steel" star and Oscar nominee Michael Shannon. The rumors...
The post Michael Shannon Was Supposed to Be Deadpool 2's Cable – Here's Why He Dropped Out appeared first on /Film.
Even though "Easter Sunday" is the first mainstream Hollywood movie to prominently feature a Filipino family in a starring role, Filipinos have been around the entertainment industry in America for a long time. In addition to literally laying the foundation of Hollywood brick by brick alongside other immigrants, Filipino performers have been appearing in film, television, and theater for decades. People like Lea Salonga of "Aladdin" and "Mulan" fame and "Hook" star Dante Basco are among those Filipinos that have been grinding for years, but there are plenty more out there.
"Easter Sunday" features a number of Filipino American acting legends....
The post Easter Sunday Stars Tia Carrere and Lydia Gaston on Improv, Filipino Food, and More [Interview] appeared first on /Film.
(Superhero Bits is a collection of stories, updates, and videos about anything and everything inspired by the comics of Marvel, DC, and more. For comic book movies, TV shows, merchandise, events, and whatever catches our eye, this is the place to find anything that falls through the cracks.)
In this edition of Superhero Bits:
The Rock reveals the "DC League of Super-Pets" post-credits scene.
Michael Shannon could have been Cable.
Idris Elba has another DC project in the works.
Marvel Comics is making a "Planet Hulk" sequel.
All that and more!
We have to kick off Monday with a little bit...
The post Superhero Bits: Idris Elba's New DC Project, A Planet Hulk Sequel & More appeared first on /Film.
It's hard to believe that it's been 20 years since "The Wire" first premiered on HBO. The series was part of the first wave of prestige TV as we know it today, laying the groundwork for HBO's present-day cornerstones like "Game of Thrones." Ironically — and despite greenlighting the series in 2002 — HBO didn't fully understand the vision of "The Wire" for quite some time. It was a complicated show, one that took more influence from Greek tragedies and 19th century novels than, say, the serialized dramas that have dominated primetime TV for decades. And it was constantly courting cancellation — at least,...
The post The Wire Might Not Have the Same Writers' Room If It Were Made Today appeared first on /Film.
That classic "Game Over" sound effect you might be hearing right now isn't poor little Pac-Man getting devoured by a hungry ghost, but the sound of Hollywood officially throwing in the towel and embracing the IP craze at any and all costs.
Okay, it's not quite as dire as all that, especially given the plethora of excellent and thoroughly worthwhile cinematic offerings currently available to widespread audiences (even if some of them deserved a theatrical release). That said, despite the surprisingly accurate maxim that a genuinely good story can come from anywhere, any and all cynical reactions to news like this are probably...
The post A Live-Action Pac-Man Movie is Coming to Devour Your Pellets and Eat Your Ghosts appeared first on /Film.
With an array of colorful characters and set pieces, Dominic Lewis rarely had to hit the breaks when it came to composing the score for "Bullet Train," allowing him the ability to explore a variety of creative impulses. As he told us, a few ideas might've gone too far (such as a fantastic-sounding spin on the "Thomas the Tank Engine" theme song), but he's reeling from the creative freedom he had scoring director David Leitch's film.
Lewis, who also scored "DuckTales," "The Man in the High Castle," and "The King's Man," put together a lively score for the "Bullet Train," which...
The post Bullet Train Composer Dominic Lewis Wanted the Score to Have a 'Concept Album Mentality' [Interview] appeared first on /Film.
This post contains spoilers for the "Sandman" comics.
The first season of "The Sandman" has introduced us to more than half of the Endless, the seven siblings who serve as living embodiments of core human concepts. The series focuses on Dream (Tom Sturridge), a man who's personality is shaped by the dreams humans have, and who in return holds the power to shape human dreams. Dream's older sister Death (Kirby Howell-Baptiste) receives her own spotlight episode six episodes in with "The Sound of Her Wings," in which we see her go about her daily job. She's not the one who kills you,...
The post Desire and Despair: What You Can Expect to See of Dream's Troublesome Siblings in The Sandman appeared first on /Film.
If you are anything like us, then you likely watched director Dan Trachtenberg's "Prey" this weekend and thought it rocked. Whether you watched the standard English release or its revolutionary Comanche dub, it's clear that the latest entry of the "Predator" franchise is a much-needed shot in the arm of a franchise that hasn't always had the best reception. Other than the usual misunderstandings or engagement bait about how Naru was unequipped to handle fighting a Yautja, it seems pretty universally liked among those who watched it.
However, what many casual viewers might not expect is the fact that "Prey" is currently the...
The post Prey is the Best-Reviewed Predator Movie, and It's Not Even Close appeared first on /Film.
The global box office for 2022 has a new silver medalist, with "Jurassic World Dominion" officially passing "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" to become the second-highest-grossing film of the year. Yes, "Bullet Train" topped the charts this past weekend, and that was rightfully a major topic of conversation, but not to be lost in that conversation is the fact that these "Jurassic World" movies are consistently making silly amounts of money for Universal Pictures, even when critics don't like them very much.
With the most recent weekend in the books, director Colin Trevorrow's finale to the "Jurassic World"...
The post Jurassic World Dominion Claws Past Doctor Strange 2 As Second Biggest Movie Of 2022 appeared first on /Film.
By the "The Boys" Season 3 finale, the once-united Supe-punching gang is a mess. While Hughie, M.M., Butcher, and Frenchie started Season 1 on a mission to takedown Vought's "heroes," the group now realizes their fight is more complex. Thanks to team members like Maeve, Kimiko, and Annie, the Boys finally understand that their short-term-focused approach to fighting Supes would long-term translate into a devastating genocide for humans who never asked to be Vought's experiments. Yes, Homelander is a huge problem, but that's due to the systemic issues that created him; the Boys have only made his rage worse. But Butcher, just like in the comic run the series is...
The post Our 10 Biggest Predictions For The Boys Season 4 appeared first on /Film.
A modern audience member cannot watch Don Siegel's 1971 cop drama "Dirty Harry" without first being made aware of its politics. The landmark Supreme Court case Miranda v. Arizona had been decided five years earlier, granting certain rights to people in police custody. While the measure protected people from being unduly coerced into confessions by the cops -- they had the right to remain silent, and to have an attorney present prior to police questioning -- many at the time objected to Miranda rights, arguing that cops now had less recourse to apprehend and imprison suspects.
This criticism plays itself out in "Dirty...
The post Terrence Malick Is One Of The Unsung Heroes Behind Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry Role appeared first on /Film.
Season 4 of "Stranger Things" surely packed a punch. The latest season saw the characters spend a lot of time inside the Upside Down, a twisted mirror of the town of Hawkins that is covered in slimy tentacles that share a hive mind and swarming with demobats that are out to get you. All this dark mayhem comes thanks to the VFX team that was extremely committed to upping the ante this season.
VFX Supervisor Julien Hery recently spoke to Collider about one particular shot in "Stranger Things" season 4 that was two years (!) in the making. Hery explained that the VFX...
The post One Stranger Things Season 4 VFX Shot Took a Ridiculously Long Time to Create appeared first on /Film.
Horror fans, particularly those who enjoy the home invasion subgenre, are in for some unexpected (but likely welcome) news. "The Strangers," the 2008 modern genre classic from director Brian Bertino, is getting not just one, but three more sequels. This, according to producer Roy Lee, who recently revealed some rather intriguing information regarding the future of the franchise.
Lee was speaking with Bloody Disgusting in honor of his upcoming movie "Barbarian," which hits theaters next month. During the chat, it was revealed that 2018's "The Strangers: Prey at Night" wasn't the last we've seen of the franchise's trio of masked killers -- not by...
The post The Strangers is Getting Three More Sequels, Production Begins Soon appeared first on /Film.
Almost 30 years ago, Spielberg had one of the most impressive filmmaking years any director has had, releasing the Academy Award-winning films "Schindler's List" and the "Jurassic Park" in the span of just six months. While "Schindler's List" was a passionate and personal project for the filmmaker, his adaptation of Michael Crichton's novel "Jurassic Park" was a groundbreaking blockbuster sci-fi thriller that changed the VFX industry forever.
In case you've been living under a rock the past three decades, "Jurassic Park" follows a wealthy but misguided dreamer who uses his millions to create a theme park filled with genetically engineered dinosaurs. He also has the audacity...
The post Not Much Of Michael Chrichton's Script Made It Into Jurassic Park appeared first on /Film.
When the title character in Tom Shadyac's 2003 comedy film "Bruce Almighty" has a terrible few days, he complains to God that He might not being doing His job properly. In response, God (Morgan Freeman) appears to Bruce (Jim Carrey) and offers him the divine gig for a few days as a way to teach him some humility. (Worry not, Bruce does not cause any major cataclysms). The film is a lighthearted, gently thoughtful comedy romp that proved to be an enormous hit.
The casting of Freeman in the role of God was logical. Thanks to his calming, authoritative screen presence and stentorian, orotund voice, Freeman already had...
The post Morgan Freeman's Famous Voice Didn't Happen By Accident appeared first on /Film.
In the last big weekend at the summer box office, Brad Pitt's "Bullet Train" was the big new release, with Sony Pictures looking to end things on a positive note for original cinema. The good news is, the comedic, action-filled ensemble crime flick did indeed top the charts cementing a damn good summer for non-franchise filmmaking. The bad news is that the studio may have spent a bit too much money on it.
Aside from that, both "Top Gun: Maverick" and "Jurassic World Dominion" passed major milestones, "Minions: The Rise of Gru" and "Nope'' are on the verge of milestones, and...
The post Bullet Train Tops The Box Office, Another Win For Non-Franchise Movies In 2022 appeared first on /Film.
By the time Phase Three of the Marvel Cinematic Universe reached its climax with "Avengers: Endgame," most of Earth's Mightiest Heroes were either dead, retired, or ready to ride off into the proverbial sunset. As such, Phase Four has focused heavily on the passing of the torch from one generation of superheroes to another, bringing in scrappy newcomers like Yelena Belova and Kate Bishop to fill the spots in the Avengers roster left vacant by the likes of the now-deceased Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton (who is not actually dead, but merely too old for this s***).
That trend will continue in Phase...
The post Avengers: Endgame Changed the Arc of Only One Guardians of the Galaxy Character appeared first on /Film.
The enduring legacy of the "Dragon Ball" franchise cannot be overstated. Manga artist Akira Toriyama created the franchise in 1984 and since then, "Dragon Ball" has been regarded as an ever-evolving global phenomenon. While there are innumerable entries into the franchise, "Dragon Ball Z" (DBZ), which follows an adult Son Goku in his adventures, remains endlessly popular and rewatchable.
In order to appeal to a new generation and widen the franchise further, Toei Animation produced a revised version of "DBZ" titled "Dragon Ball Kai" in 2009. The revamped series was created in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of "Dragon Ball Z" and...
The post Some Of Dragon Ball Kai's Animation 'Updates' Weren't Made As An Artistic Choice appeared first on /Film.
Denis Villeneuve has always been a filmmaker who pushed boundaries in his storytelling. This can be seen in his earlier films like "Enemy," telling a story that transfigured feelings of lust and desire in dark and intense ways. The striking imagery accompanying Villeneuve's films matched the story's tone, creating an atmosphere that reels viewers in from the get-go. Such intensity in filmmaking continued to be evident in his big blockbuster productions like "Blade Runner 2049" and "Dune." Both epic sci-fi stories thrive off evocative imagery, constantly teetering on the darker and more ambiguous sides of their themes of humanity, power struggles,...
The post Denis Villeneuve Had To Convince Paul Dano That Prisoners' Darkness Served A Purpose appeared first on /Film.
If you've watched any television at all over the last several years, you've seen multiple shows take advantage of one thing: When you need a quiet, ruthless, and stone-cold villain who lets his facial expressions and body language do most of the talking, you hire Giancarlo Esposito. No lesser shows than "Better Call Saul," "The Mandalorian," and "The Boys" have all tried to tap into the same "Breaking Bad" magic that has made the "Do the Right Thing," "The Usual Suspects," and "Ali" actor into such a known quantity these days. Of course, those who've watched those aforementioned films know that Esposito is a first-class...
The post Giancarlo Esposito Has Spoken With Marvel, and He's Down to Play Professor X appeared first on /Film.
In "Prey," there's a scene where a mouse eats an ant, only to be devoured by a rattlesnake, which, in turn, is impaled by the twin wrist-blades of an invisible-cloaked Predator. It's what the movie itself does to other inferior specimens in the "Predator" franchise. This ain't your grandma's circle of life. Against all odds, writer Patrick Aison, director Dan Trachtenberg, and the "Prey" cast and crew have managed to come along 35 years later and deliver a film that's every bit worthy of the original "Predator."
This sounds easier than it really is. In the age of belated legacy sequels, few movies have...
The post Prey Spoiler Review: There's a New Predator at the Top of the Food Chain appeared first on /Film.
It's no joke, Goose. "Top Gun: Maverick" has officially overtaken James Cameron's legendary disaster film "Titanic" as the seventh-biggest film ever at the domestic box office. The action-adventure film has now earned $662 million in ticket sales to date, according to Variety.
The film has also overtaken "Titanic" as Paramount's biggest film in its 110-year history. That said, the beloved 1997 drama is still doing better than Tom Cruise's latest outside of North America as of now. "Top Gun: Maverick" has so far acquired $1.5 billion at the international box office, which brings its total revenue to $2.2 billion globally.
The blockbuster has been...
The post Top Gun: Maverick Sinks Titanic at the Domestic Box Office appeared first on /Film.
Since 1988, comic book fans have been in love with Dream of the Endless and his dysfunctional family. "The Sandman" is an epic saga that sprawls beyond its titular character and encompasses a universe of diverse characters. With its premiere season live on Netflix, we get to meet them for the first time all over again. With this reunion comes all the emotions we've felt before. There are a lot of them, but it's the heartbreak that makes Morpheus' long journey special. For fans who know how the story ends, the tears we spill matter. Not one is wasted.
Neil Gaiman's new vision for "The Sandman" doesn't miss these moments,...
The post Sandman Moments That Made Us Cry appeared first on /Film.
We haven't seen anything from the 10 episodes in "House of the Dragon" season 1 yet, but that hasn't stopped showrunners Miguel Sapochnik and Ryan Condal from sharing their favorite scenes from the upcoming "Game of Thrones" prequel.
/Film took part in a roundtable discussion with Sapochnik and Condal about their upcoming series. During that conversation, the co-showrunners shared the scenes they most enjoyed shooting and specifically can't wait for people to see. For one of those scenes, Olivia Cooke, who plays Alicent Hightower on the show, also shared how she and co-star Emma D'Arcy spent days "at such high intense emotions" that they...
The post House of the Dragon Showrunners Tease Their Favorite Scenes in Season 1 appeared first on /Film.
The upcoming "Game of Thrones" prequel, "House of the Dragon" centers around the high drama and political intrigue that embroiled House Targaryen almost two centuries before Daenerys Targaryen vied for the Iron Throne.
The family, by any measure, is completely dysfunctional. (And also incestuous. And also prone to murderous intentions when they're not being incestuous or riding dragons.) They also all speak a language called High Valyrian, a language different than the Common Tongue (aka English) they, along with the rest of Westeros, also speak.
There are scenes in "House of the Dragon" where two major characters — Daemon Targaryen...
The post Matt Smith and Emma D'Arcy Say Their House of the Dragon Characters' Love Language is High Valyrian appeared first on /Film.
As its name suggests, the "Game of Thrones" spin-off series "House of the Dragon" will have a helluva a lot of dragons, with at least 17 gracing the screen in the show's first season. These dragons (or at least some of them) belong to members of House Targaryen, the uniquely dysfunctional family that rules Westeros and is pretty comfortable with incest. Each family member has their own special dragon they bond with right when the dragon baby hatches.
For the actors who play Targaryens in "House of the Dragon," that dragon bond meant they spent a lot of time on set "riding" their dragons. However, riding a...
The post Riding Dragons in House of the Dragon is 'Incredibly Mundane' appeared first on /Film.
The third and final season of "Locke & Key" encapsulates all the successes and failures of this adaptation endeavor. There are many good ideas in dialogue with the acclaimed comic series by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodríguez in interesting ways and some heartfelt character moments. Sadly, these are bogged down by poor execution and a mismatched tone and pacing that makes the characters look nonsensically dumb. The result is a disappointing season that brings to mind the worst moments of the last season of "Game of Thrones."
The new season of "Locke & Key" picks up shortly after the events of season 2. We left...
The post Locke & Key Season 3 Review: A Disappointing Mess appeared first on /Film.
The Borg first appeared "Q Who," the 16th episode of the second season of "Star Trek: The Next Generation." Clearly inspired by the artwork of H.R. Giger, the Borg were an indifferent race of cyborgs whose only imperative was to gather technology and biological organisms to absorb into its collective. They all shared a single machine consciousness, and had no discernible human emotions to speak of. By the time Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) and the crew of the Enterprise encountered the Borg, they had already become so overwhelmingly powerful that they were able to slice up the Starfleet vessel without much hesitation. Immediately, the...
The post It Was 'Terrifying' To Bring Star Trek's Borg Queen To TV appeared first on /Film.
If you are a devotée of "Mortal Kombat," you'll be happy to know there is an upcoming sequel to the animated films "Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge," and "Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms." The new film is called "Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind," which is another mouthful of a title. IGN has revealed the cast and synopsis for the film.
It's almost the 30th anniversary of the original title from Midway Games and NetherRealm Studios, which is coming up on October 8, 2022. There have been nine games in the franchise, with the most recent being "Mortal Kombat 11." It came out in 2019...
The post Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind: Everything We Know So Far appeared first on /Film.
Commander Fred Waterford is one of the many bad guys in "The Handmaid's Tale," and the first to receive a well-deserved ending. English actor Joseph Fiennes, who has earned an Emmy nomination for his outstanding performance on the show, bid goodbye to the character after a four-season stint on the Hulu series last year. The consequences of his demise will continue to plague the show's upcoming fifth season, as his wife, Serena (Yvonne Strahovski), endeavors to get revenge, and June (Elisabeth Moss) persists in her attempt to rescue her daughter from the precarious state of Gilead.
As the fate of season...
The post Joseph Fiennes' Time On The Handmaid's Tale All Led Up To One Scene appeared first on /Film.
With the "Harry Potter" movies, one thing was always certain: the magical school for witches and wizards, Hogwarts, would be cozy. This was home for the heroes, who would fall in love, fail classes, and nearly die there -- it was important that the audience feel the same affection for the location that they did. Within its walls, there would be moving staircases, hallways to nowhere, and ghosts, but more importantly, a rich and evocative sense of life orchestrated by production designer Stuart Craig. Even as the movies got darker and different directors came on board, Hogwarts retained its...
The post Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore Had to Recreate Staple Harry Potter Sets with VFX appeared first on /Film.
This piece contains spoilers for "Westworld" season 4.
Season 4 of the HBO series "Westworld" has been a mixed mess, jumping around timelines and realities to create mystery box storytelling that's ultimately about as satisfying as getting a printed piece of cardboard in the bottom of your cereal box instead of the promised toy. I've been a "Westworld" apologist for a long, long time, but season 4 is almost enough to make me jump ship. There's only one episode left this season and no promise of a tomorrow for "Westworld" with the uncertain state of things at HBO, so fans who have followed this series for four...
The post In Westworld Season 4, Episode 7, It All Comes Down to This, Unfortunately appeared first on /Film.
The sitcom format, more than most, asks shows to build upon the work of their predecessors, laying new pieces atop an already-solid existing foundation. American TV sitcoms are almost always in communication with one another. They share punchlines, archetypes, and laugh tracks, but also respond to one another's innovations and cultural shifts. Every sitcom since the early days of television can be counted on to pull from a sitcom that came before it.
When it comes to "That '70s Show," the nostalgic Fox comedy that ran from 1998 to 2006, the show's period-specific setting allows it to wear some of its sitcom influences on...
The post That '70s Show Aimed To Emulate Two Legendary Sitcom Classics appeared first on /Film.
"Six seasons and a movie." What began as a simple throwaway line morphed into a battle cry for "Community" fans amid multiple threats of cancellation. Eventually, when the show's sixth and final season ended, a triumphant "#andamovie" titlecard appeared onscreen — and fans have been asking creator Dan Harmon if that movie is in the works ever since.
But by the time the final season had rolled around, the once-robust ensemble cast was looking a little bare — and despite the show's wholesome name, it wasn't exactly a secret that behind-the-scenes was filled with conflict. For better or for worse, most of the show's main...
The post Community Wasn't Dan Harmon's First Brush With Behind-The-Scenes Conflict appeared first on /Film.
It looks like "Run Sweetheart Run" will finally be released after all. After previously being acquired by Amazon Studios in May 2020, the Blumhouse thriller starring Ella Balinska has been given a release date on the platform.
Why are we surprised about the movie's streaming release? It's because this movie has seemingly been locked away in release purgatory for over two years. The film premiered during the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, its last in-person event before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Few details have been released about "Run Sweetheart Run" in the time since its acquisition a few months later, leaving some to wonder if the film...
The post Run Sweetheart Run: Release Date, Cast, and More appeared first on /Film.
Naruto Uzumaki is a comfort character for many reasons. The knuckleheaded ninja went from being a young troublemaker and failing student to a brave, responsible Hokage of the Leaf Village after helping win the Fourth Shinobi World War. Masashi Kishimoto, who created the "Naruto" manga series, based the titular hero on his own experiences at school while growing up, painting a flawed, lovable character worth rooting for in the process. The subsequent anime adaptations of the manga, "Naruto" and "Naruto Shippuden," succeeded in preserving these foundational tenets of Kishimoto's world and brought the vibrant characters to life rather convincingly, to its credit.
However, what makes...
The post Finding The Right Comedy Ratio Was Crucial For Naruto appeared first on /Film.
Whether the result of an exciting idea or a gimmick to boost ratings, crossovers are a time-honored tradition in television, especially in animation. When I was a kid, you better believe I was hyped for The Jimmy Timmy Power Hour, and plenty of kids and adults loved when "The Flintstones" met "The Jetsons." It can be fun to think about some of our favorite characters hopping from one show to the other for an episode or two. The funny thing about crossovers is that they can be very tricky. Getting two television shows, each saddled with their own team, to compromise on a project that...
The post The Simpsons' Futurama Crossover Came With Some Serious Baggage appeared first on /Film.
One of the more mysterious parts about being a filmmaker is knowing when what you have works. You have been thinking about and crafting a film for years, fixating on every single detail possible. It can be incredibly easy to be swallowed up in the process, a classic missing the forest for the trees scenario. Oftentimes, you can take certain elements of a film for granted because you instinctively know them but have not properly conveyed them to the audience, and they are the ones the movie is ultimately being made for. Some filmmakers value test screenings for this reason, putting...
The post Steven Spielberg Knows A Movie Is Good When He Forgets Steven Spielberg Directed It appeared first on /Film.
Even after dozens of rewatches, it's nearly impossible to keep up with the lightning-paced dialogue of Howard Hawks' screwball comedy, His Girl Friday. Some one-liner gems packed a punch in the 1940s — "Take Hitler and stick him on the funny pages" — while others have stood the test of time — "Oh and I see you've got your rubbers too, always good to be prepared for anything." There are a few self-aware barbs at co-stars throughout the film from Grant, like, "He looks like that fellow in the movies. You know ... Ralph Bellamy," but none quite as satisfying as the one...
The post One Line from His Girl Friday Revealed Cary Grant's True Identity appeared first on /Film.
What a difference a decade makes. It was 10 years ago that London welcomed the world to the 2012 Olympics, a magnificent global event that showcased Britain in such a positive light compared to the divided, Brexit-haunted nation of today. A few months later, one of our greatest cultural exports, James Bond, cleaned up at the box office, with "Skyfall" grossing over $1 billion worldwide. In some senses, the Olympics served as a high-profile publicity stunt for the movie, with 007 (Daniel Craig) making a witty cameo at the opening ceremony as he dutifully escorted Queen Elizabeth II to her chopper for a skydive...
The post Sam Mendes' James Bond Career Could Have Ended With Skyfall appeared first on /Film.
John Logan's conversion camp horror movie "They/Them" hit Peacock this week, and the divisive buzz around the movie has fizzled into a somewhat baffled discourse as viewers finally get to see what all the fuss is about. The latest queer horror offering makes some bold choices, but not the ones anyone was expecting. After all, who would've guessed this seemingly serious movie about the inhumanity of anti-LGBTQ+ conversion practices would feature a spontaneous "Glee"-like sing-a-long to P!nk's "Perfect"?
That's just one of many odd things going on in this movie, which follows a group of young adult attendees -- led by non-binary camper Jordan (Theo Germaine)...
The post They/Them Ending Explained: A Conversion Camp Killer Unmasked appeared first on /Film.
"Buffy the Vampire Slayer" may be rightfully hailed as Joss Whedon's magnum opus, but it's "Firefly" that seems to come up most frequently when there's talk of resurrecting one of his shows. Sure, there's ostensibly a "Buffy" reboot in the works, but not much has been heard about it for quite some time. Whether that's because of the allegations of abusive behavior that have been leveled against Whedon or the realization that perhaps fans don't really want a new version of the beloved show — it's my favorite series, but personally, I hope it remains buried — is unclear.
Of course, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"...
The post Why Joss Whedon Felt He 'Lied' To The Cast Of Firefly appeared first on /Film.
Silent film star Buster Keaton was bred for the spotlight. He was the son of traveling vaudeville performers, who were the stars and co-owners of the Keaton Houdini Medicine Show Company with legendary magician Harry Houdini. Keaton joined his parents' act at the tender age of three, and was frequently tossed around the stage by his father for comedic effect. Here, the actor learned how to take falls without suffering the bruises and breaks of mere mortals and perfected the sullen, deadpan expression that became his trademark. In 1917, Keaton moved his act from the stage to celluloid, and won over audiences with his amazing...
The post How TV Breathed New Life Into Buster Keaton's Career appeared first on /Film.
Jimmy Stewart is remembered for his self-effacing persona, but offscreen he was no shrinking violet. The classic Hollywood actor often played non-threatening characters, from a bumbling statesman in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" to a bedridden journalist in Alfred Hitchcock's "Rear Window."
"Rear Window" was Stewart's second Hitchcock role, having previously played an ethics professor in "Rope." His character succumbs to an injury that puts him in a wheelchair, and he fills his time people-watching. One night, he witnesses what looks like a murder in the apartment across from him and notifies the police. When his claims are met with doubt, he tries to...
The post James Stewart Went Blow-For-Blow With Alfred Hitchcock During Rear Window appeared first on /Film.
Since landing his breakout role on "Silicon Valley" in 2015, Jimmy O. Yang has been on the rise. The actor, writer, and stand-up comedian from Hong Kong has appeared in a number of shows and movies over the years in various roles, including his latest cameo in "Easter Sunday." But now he's also added a new role to his repertoire: executive producer. Along with his partners at the production company Crab Club, Yang was one of the people that got the ball rolling on the dysfunctional family comedy based on the material of Filipino funny man Jo Koy.
Ahead of...
The post Easter Sunday Star And EP Jimmy O. Yang On Getting the Green Light From Steven Spielberg [Interview] appeared first on /Film.
Before "Star Wars: A New Hope" became a permanent fixture in our family VHS recorder, I loved old silent movies as a little kid. Two of my earliest filmic memories are getting scared s***less by Lon Chaney's ghastly face in "The Phantom of the Opera" and crying my eyes out because I thought Harold Lloyd would plunge to his death hanging from that clock in "Safety Last!"
Lloyd was my favorite, even more than Laurel and Hardy, and his films terrified and captivated me in equal measure. His act was a young, clean-cut everyman with a bashful smile, glasses, and a straw boater, who faced life's problems...
The post Silent Comedy Star Harold Lloyd Had A Somewhat NSFW Hobby appeared first on /Film.
(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.)
The Movie: "Coraline"
Where You Can Stream It: Tubi
The Pitch: With the first season of "The Sandman" now available to watch, it is fair to say that it is a pretty good adaptation of Neil Gaiman's comic epic. However, some of the stories that felt enchanting on the page don't exactly translate well on the screen, due to how otherworldly and intense Gaiman's work can be. That being said, there is one...
The post The Daily Stream: Coraline Proves Animation is the Best Way to Adapt Neil Gaiman appeared first on /Film.
At its core, Dan Trachtenberg's "Prey" is about rites of passage. By extension, it's about the biases that inform those rites that are drawn across gender lines, racial divides, and between predators and prey. This makes the movie sound heady. It's not. For all its exquisite thematic resonance, "Prey" is still a movie in which the Predator turns men to mince meat and breaks a brown bear like Bane did Batman. It is gleefully, wincingly brutal.
That's fitting. The "Predator" movies — and the brutal violence they always contain — have been rites of passage for genre film fans since 1987. For seasoned viewers, they carry Olympic-level reverence. To young viewers,...
The post The Most Brutal Moments in Prey, Ranked appeared first on /Film.
Some people are born to act, and the wondrous Laura Dern is one of those people. The daughter of Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd, Laura entered the world of acting at a young age with bit parts in films like "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore" and "White Lightning" before beginning her acting career in earnest years later.
Her career has been impressively varied, and she's worked with many great directors, including Clint Eastwood, Steven Spielberg, and Joyce Chopra. She's also enjoyed a particularly successful collaboration with David Lynch. She's been at the forefront of both independent and blockbuster films, with one of her most famous roles being in Spielberg's...
The post The 15 Best Laura Dern Movies, Ranked appeared first on /Film.
"Forrest Gump" is one the most rewatchable movies to me because of its compelling cast of supporting characters. Yes, Tom Hanks earned his flowers for his portrayal of the slow-witted titular character who unknowingly influences historical U.S. events during the 20th century, but some nights I pop on the 1994 classic and find myself gravitating toward Forrest's elusive love interest, Jenny (played by Hanna R. Hall in childhood and by Robin Wright in adulthood). Other nights I find myself drawn to Forrest's Vietnam War platoon leader, Lieutenant Dan Taylor (Gary Sinise). But at the end of the day, I always circle back...
The post Mykelti Williamson Was A Snake Magnet On The Set Of Forrest Gump appeared first on /Film.
When Tony Gilroy said that the upcoming "Andor" show would not use ILM's StageCraft technology — which uses high-def LED video walls to generate virtual sceneries — there was a wave of celebration on social media. The discourse quickly went from celebrating "Andor" using actual sets to denouncing StageCraft and proclaiming it the second coming of the much-hated green screen. In truth, however, the technology reinvents visual effects in a way we haven't seen happen so fast since the early days of CG.
Recently, Disney+ released a documentary series focused on the history of Industrial Light & Magic, and really,...
The post How ILM's Volume Technology Reinvents Visual Effects (and What It Means for the Future) appeared first on /Film.
I still remember the unreal awe I experienced as a kid watching the spectacle of "The Fellowship of the Ring" come to life in theaters. Its three-hour runtime is virtually a goosebump minefield, from Gandalf's showdown with the Balrog in Moria to the heart-wrenching splitting of the fellowship at Parth Galen. It's also no coincidence that some of the most emotional scenes in Peter Jackson's adaptation of "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy occur within the chaos of battle.
Especially in that first film, the choreography of every fight scene can be summed up as more than just flashy...
The post The Lord Of The Rings' Fight Choreography Had To Do More Than Just Look Cool appeared first on /Film.
When making a show that feels as timeless as "Samurai Jack," a conclusion is not something you have in mind when writing episodes. Genndy Tartakovsky was not allowed to follow a serialized format, with the story of one episode having almost nothing to do with another. Unfortunately, that leads to problems in creating a cohesive story with character development. In the case of "Samurai Jack," solving the lack of a throughline was found in the title character's unwavering will and stoic nature. The initial four-season run felt like the old episodic adventures of television series past. While Jack never truly inched closer...
The post Genndy Tartakovsky Never Had An Ending In Mind For The Original Samurai Jack appeared first on /Film.
When I first watched the 1992 Charlie Chaplin biopic, "Chaplin," I didn't know anything about the slapstick comic and actor besides that he was renowned as a legendary figure. But by the end of the first act, I was already drawing connections between the silent-movie star and entertainers of my generation. "Aye, that's Mr. Noodle!" I yelled at the screen during the scene where Chaplin, played by a 20-something-year-old Robert Downey Jr., auditions for Hollywood comedy producer Mack Sennett (Dan Aykroyd). Mr. Noodle and his brother, Mister Noodle, were played by Bill Irwin and Michael Jeter, respectively, during the "Elmo's...
The post Robert Downey Jr. Pulled Out All The Stops To Prepare For His Chaplin Performance appeared first on /Film.
The "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise is no stranger to cool cameos. After all, they had Rolling Stones legend Keith Richards play Jack Sparrow's (Johnny Depp) father in "At World's End" and "On Stranger Tides." In fact, he was set to come back for "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales." Considering Depp has said a number of times that he based the character of Jack Sparrow on Richards, it made total sense to have the man himself as Papa Sparrow.
As we know, however, Richards didn't return for the 2017 film, which was directed by Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg....
The post Pirates of the Caribbean Didn't Originally Plan on Having a Paul McCartney Cameo appeared first on /Film.
Steven Spielberg had already made at least two World War II classics in "Schindler's List" and "Saving Private Ryan" by the time he had made "War Horse" in 2011. (Six, if you count "Empire of the Sun," two "Indiana Jones" movies, and "1941" as WWII classics.) Throughout those movies, Spielberg seems to have stated very clearly the horrors and the evil prevalent about that conflict. He looked at the plight of persecuted Jews and life inside concentration camps. He explored the horrors of combat. He looked into an internment camp. He used Nazis as villainous stooges destined to be obliterated by God's...
The post Steven Spielberg Had Some Convenient Help Casting The Titular Role For War Horse appeared first on /Film.
"Abraham Lincoln has to think about his whole life before he abolishes slavery and ends the Civil War."
This sentence, I can assure you, is not a real line of dialogue from Steven Spielberg's 2012 film "Lincoln." Nor, for that matter, is "Lincoln" what you would call a typical biopic. The movie takes place over the last four months of Lincoln's life in 1865, yet the titular U.S. president is almost a secondary concern in its story. Rather, the true core of the film is Lincoln and his Republican party's efforts to abolish slavery by passing the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution without sabotaging Lincoln's peace negotiations...
The post Steven Spielberg Never Saw Lincoln As A Biopic appeared first on /Film.
Animator Genndy Tartakovsky began his professional career as an assistant animator on the seminal '90s cartoon "Tiny Toon Adventures," right when the medium was evolving into a new animal. Thanks to the late-'80s and early '90s success of creator-based cartoons like "Beavis and Butt-Head" and "The Ren & Stimpy Show" animators like Tartakovsky suddenly found themselves in a marketplace that was aching for edgier, unique cartoons that were not based on existing IP. In 1996, Tartakovsky created the hit Cartoon Network show "Dexter's Laboratory," and he has been a household name ever since. Tartakovsky went on to create the stoic action series "Samurai Jack,"...
The post Studios Wrongly Thought Genndy Tartakovsky's Fixed Would Need to Be X-Rated appeared first on /Film.
In the harsh light of day, Captain Barbossa's crew in "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" looks like any other bunch of sailors. Under the moonlight, though, the cursed pirates become otherworldly beings, shifting into skeletal buccaneers. What's fascinating about watching these bony lads is that they're still recognizable as individuals. You can see the structure of their faces, dreadlocks hanging down from decaying skulls, and distinct beards covering their ossified jaws. That look came courtesy of the film's award-winning special effects team, visual effects supervisor John Knoll and VFX art director Aaron McBride, who wanted the...
The post How Pirates of the Caribbean's Meaty Special Effects Brought Its Skeleton Crew to Life appeared first on /Film.
It's hard to explain why James Cameron's "The Terminator" has found such a tender spot in pop culture history. Let's be honest: a sci-fi flick about a time-traveling robot killing machine isn't exactly a sure-fire recipe for widespread commercial success. Yet somehow, the metallic assassin found his niche: "The Terminator" was a box office smash back in 1984, earning over $78 million worldwide and numerous fans in the process (via The Numbers).
Beyond introducing us to a terrifyingly determined killer robot, "The Terminator" is also the film that launched Arnold Schwarzenegger into the Hollywood spotlight. While Schwarzenegger had been in movies before,...
The post Arnold Schwarzenegger Didn't Think The Terminator Had A Whole Lot Of Potential appeared first on /Film.
Some friendships are so iconic that they can inspire a whole book's worth of retelling. That's the case with James Stewart and Henry Fonda: "Hank and Jim," a 2017 book by Scott Eyman, chronicles the lifelong friendship of these two Hollywood legends.
In some ways, the two were quite similar: despite their movie star status, they carried themselves with Midwestern modesty. In other ways, they were very different: Stewart was a Republican hawk and Fonda a New Deal Democrat. Despite this, they remained friends for almost five decades until Fonda's death in 1982 (Stewart would pass 15 years later, in 1997). In fact, their...
The post How Broadway Made James Stewart and Henry Fonda Lifelong Friends appeared first on /Film.
The "Predator" franchise is back with fresh blood this summer in the form of "Prey," a 1700s-set prequel that's being hailed as one of the best entries of the franchise. The film stars Native American actress Amber Midthunder, a member of the Fort Peck Sioux Tribe, as a Comanche warrior named Naru. In the male-dominated action world, Midthunder's Naru is a more-than-capable hero. On screen, she braves raging rivers, wields a tomahawk, and faces off against the technologically advanced alien species known as the Predator.
Off screen, Midthunder is apparently just as capable as her character: in an interview with /Film's Ben Pearson, the...
The post /Film Showdown: Here's How the Cast of Prey Survived Predator Boot Camp appeared first on /Film.
The longest film to ever be nominated for an Academy Award was Ezra Edelman's 2016 film "O.J.: Made in America." Running a whopping 467 minutes, "O.J." was presented theatrically in two chunks: one was four hours, the other was three and a half hours. More than a detailed account of O.J. Simpson and his infamous 1994 murder trial, "Made in America" sought to unpack the very nature of race and fame in the United States. It ended up winning the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
Yeah, it's long. Indeed, many Oscar nominees -- outside of the Shorts categories -- tend to be all-day suckers. A study...
The post How An Under-Two-Minute Film Ended Up With An Oscar Nomination appeared first on /Film.
A general rule of thumb is to just avoid people at all cost. Bad things happen in group gatherings, and it's best to just be a hermit to avoid any stressful encounters. Clearly, an introvert is writing this piece, but there is a point to this segue as we launch into conversation about the latest murder mystery, "Bodies Bodies Bodies". In this high-intensity whodunnit, audiences follow a group of 20-somethings (and an adorable just-happy-to-be-there Lee Pace) having a hurricane party in a fancy shmancy mansion. As with most parties, the activities turn towards playing games, with this group taking things to the next cringe-inducing...
The post The Unseen Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire Movie That Inspired Bodies Bodies Bodies appeared first on /Film.
Like any other movie, the first impression of Hayao Miyazaki's "Spirited Away" comes from its title, which, in this case, is the simplified English version of the original Japanese title Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi. "Sen" and "Chihiro" refer to the two given names of the film's young protagonist — emphasis on "given," since her parents and boss hand them to her with her fate from moment to moment.
The movie becomes a bathhouse crucible for forging Chihiro's character: instilling the value of hard work and the perils of greed and forgetting oneself in the struggle to make ends meet or achieve financial success. "Sen,"...
The post Spirited Away Ending Explained: On Earth As It Is In Ghibli appeared first on /Film.
My preferred way to watch "Fullmetal Alchemist" is the English dub. Scripted and recorded by Funimation, both iterations of the classic anime series feature some of the best dubbing around, just behind "Cowboy Bebop." All the voice actors fit their characters like a glove and their performances burn with passion.
However, even the best anime dubs can only offer an approximation of the original. Translate too literally, and you'll end up with poorly phrased, dramatically inert dialogue. Often, subtext and connotation can fall by the wayside in the process. "Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood" was not immune — an important plot point involving "human...
The post A Major Part Of Fullmetal Alchemist Had Its Meaning Lost In Translation appeared first on /Film.
"Samurai Jack" has widely been lauded as one of Genndy Tartakovsky's most significant works, with the Cartoon Network show delivering a fun five-season run filled with incredible animation. Not only that, but the show managed to provide a satisfying conclusion even after ending its original run in 2004. The show would return in 2017 for its final season, giving a definitive conclusion to the story of Samurai Jack and his goal to get back to the past and save his people from the demon Aku. There was only one major drawback to returning to the show after such a long time: the loss of a legendary...
The post Genndy Tartakovsky Didn't Take Recasting Samurai Jack's Aku Lightly appeared first on /Film.
Dan Trachtenberg's "Predator" prequel, "Prey," features two of the most fierce female protagonists in recent cinema history: the Comanche warrior Naru (Amber Midthunder) and her canine companion, Sarii. As Naru battles against a deadly extraterrestrial threat, she has Sarii by her side to help. The two are a regular Predator-fighting team, and who doesn't love a horror movie with a tough, lovable dog? Sarii is one capable canine, but it turns out that the dog who plays her, Coco, took a little bit more wrangling than your average actor.
In an interview with Dexerto, Trachtenberg and Midthunder revealed that...
The post The Dog Actor In Prey Was Adopted Especially For The Movie – And She Was A 'Hot Mess' appeared first on /Film.
(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.)
The Movie: "Blazing Saddles" (1974)
Where You Can Stream It: Hulu
The Pitch: Hollywood cinema of the 1970s was something of a miracle, thanks largely to a suffocatingly restrictive ratings system being dropped and audiences showing up for more challenging stories. On the page, "Blazing Saddles" should have just been a fun, dumb fish-out-of-water comedy, but Mel Brooks and his impressive writing team made something else entirely: a fart-joke comedy...
The post The Daily Stream: The Satire of Blazing Saddles Still Has Bite Nearly 50 Years Later appeared first on /Film.
"No Country For Old Men" is a stand-out film for Joel and Ethan Coen, finally earning the brothers an Academy Award for Best Picture and Best Director. It is also one of their darkest films. The story is similar to "Fargo"— an incompetent man gets drawn into a criminal scheme and tries to make it out with a big payday — but "No Country" is devoid of the black comedy that made "Fargo" so distinctive. Instead, there's only palpable dread, and the unnerving sense that you can't halt pure evil, personified in the film by the hitman Anton Chigurh...
The post The Coen Brothers Used No Country For Old Men As A Sort Of Casting Call appeared first on /Film.
Not every American president gets to serve a second term (thank God), and not every series about American politics gets a second season renewal. With the anthology series "The First Lady," Showtime set out to reveal hard truths about American history by delving behind the scenes on three of the country's most significant marriages. With 46 first ladies to get through and only 3 covered in the first season, this is the kind of show that could theoretically run for many more years. But less than two months after the series aired its season 1 finale, Showtime has elected not to move forward with...
The post Will There be a Second Season of The First Lady? appeared first on /Film.
Details of Warner Bros. Discovery's regulatory filing have been made public this weekend, and according to The Hollywood Reporter, they confirm what many suspected: the company has taken a hefty write-down in the months since the merger, meaning recent cancellations have been helping the company to even out its books.
Apparently, Warner Bros. Discovery has written down $825 million during its second quarter, which covers much of the time since Warner Bros. and Discovery officially merged this spring. That figure includes "content impairments" for projects that were already in production, and development write-offs for titles that were in early stages. It's...
The post Warner Bros. Discovery Has Axed $825 Million Worth Of Content Since The Merger appeared first on /Film.
In the midseason finale of "Better Call Saul" season six, just before Lalo Salamanca paints their living room with doomed lawyer Howard Hamlin's blood, Kim (Rhea Seehorn) and Jimmy (Bob Odenkirk) watch a movie. This isn't unusual for them. Throughout the series' seven-year run, the pair have proven themselves cinephiles, often referencing classic movies in passing and sometimes settling down for a quiet movie night.
On this night, the pair are watching "Born Yesterday," a 1950 comedic drama about the exploits of a possessive crook named Harry (Broderick Crawford), his unrefined girlfriend, Billie (Judy Holliday), and a journalist, Paul (William...
The post What All the Old Movie References in Better Call Saul Say About the Characters appeared first on /Film.
"Paranormal Activity" wasn't the first film to make waves with found footage horror tropes, but it still played a crucial role in popularizing the subgenre. Its shaky camcorders and hyper-realistic performances became a roadmap, as did its masterful approach to slowly building tension, filling its audience with fear and raising their blood pressure just in time for the big finale. The result, after 15 years and seven films? A very complicated legacy.
For one thing, "Paranormal Activity" remains the most profitable horror movie of all time. The film earned a whopping $193 million worldwide on a miniscule...
The post Jason Blum Says The Last Paranormal Activity Movie Was 'Terrible' And It's Time To End the Franchise appeared first on /Film.
(Welcome to Tales from the Box Office, our column that examines box office miracles, disasters, and everything in between, as well as what we can learn from them.)
Brad Pitt may well be the first image that comes to mind for a great many people of a certain age when they hear the words "movie" and "star" in conjunction. The two-time Sexiest Man Alive and Oscar-winner has been a staple of the silver screen for more than three decades, and is arguably doing some of his very best work more recently. Just look at what he accomplished in Quentin...
The post Tales From The Box Office: Deadpool 2 Is, Against All Odds, Brad Pitt's Biggest Movie appeared first on /Film.
Warning: Spoilers ahead for "Bullet Train."
Do we make our own luck, or carry out what fate has in store for us? This question is the essence of "David Leitch's Bullet Train," based on Kōtarō Isaka's novel of the same name. The comedy-action-thriller is chaotic from the get-go: it opens with Kimura aka The Father (Andrew Koji) boarding a Kyoto-bound train to confront the person responsible for pushing his child off a roof. Meanwhile, assassin Ladybug (Brad Pitt) reluctantly gets on the same train to complete his mission of grabbing a suitcase and getting off at the next station. As...
The post Bullet Train Ending Explained: The Only Sure Thing About Luck Is That It Will Change appeared first on /Film.
"Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" underwent various changes throughout its production. The turbulent history of the film started back when Scott Derrickson left the project due to creative differences, with "Spider-Man" and "Evil Dead" director Sam Raimi taking the reins on the project with a new script from Michael Waldron. Not even that would remain stable, as the film would undergo extensive reshoots until it eventually became the Marvel Cinematic Universe film we know today. "Multiverse of Madness" was a wild change of pace from previous MCU outings, with Sam Raimi bringing his signature flair, giving audiences...
The post Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness Could've Featured a Far Grislier Fate for Mordo appeared first on /Film.
Surviving a horror movie is easier than it seems. Most found footage disasters like "The Blair Witch Project" and "Grave Encounters" can be circumvented just by choosing not to visit locales known as Very Bad Places. Ordinary moviegoers don't need to worry about Cenobites in the "Hellraiser" universe; as long as they resist the temptation to open Lemarchand's puzzle box, the sweet, sweet suffering the Priest brings will be reserved only for those searching to expand the limits of their pain kink.
Still, more horror movie curses can be mitigated. "It Follows" relieves its victims if they pass their curse onto a new sexual partner,...
The post 5 Horror Movies The Average Person Would Never Survive appeared first on /Film.
With the release of "Luck," the first foray into feature-length animation from Skydance, the world of animated cinema has another example of something we don't get all too often: a female director (Peggy Holmes) helming the project. We know how notoriously sexist Hollywood is. It's no surprise that female filmmakers continue to struggle, even as they make major steps forward and break glass ceilings. Yet, even as progress comes (albeit at a maddeningly incremental rate), it's still pretty shocking just how wide the gender gap is in the world of animation.
As noted by Women in Animation, an organization that "advocates for a world in which people of all...
The post Why Are There So Few Women in Animation? appeared first on /Film.
Dan Trachtenberg's "Prey," the seventh film in the "Predator" film series, stars Amber Midthunder as Naru, a 1719 Comanche woman who finds herself facing off against a towering space alien that aims to hunt human beings for sport. Ever since 1987, the aliens seen in the "Predator" franchise have become pop culture staples, cropping up sporadically all across the pop culture map, appearing in movies, video games, and comic books. They are typically presented as deadly and aggressive. They do not converse with their human prey. Their only flaw appears to be their hubris; too often, Predators underestimate their homo sapiens quarry.
That is certainly the...
The post Sci-fi Heroes we Want to see Amber Midthunder Play Next appeared first on /Film.
"The Wicker Man" is one of the most influential horror movies of all time, but filming it wasn't a walk in the park for the cast and crew. Though it's set in a place called Summerisle and features talk of spring ceremonies and May Day celebrations, the film was shot in Scotland in the wet cold of October and November — and that's just one of the difficulties the conflicting creative personalities behind it faced.
Famous for its twist ending (spoiler alert!), "The Wicker Man" sees Edward Woodward's Christian police sergeant Neil Howie going up in flames as the victim of a pagan sacrifice. The islanders are...
The post Making The Wicker Man Was Almost As Horrifying As The Movie Itself appeared first on /Film.
In "The Fugitive," when Harrison Ford's protagonist, Dr. Richard Kimble, fishes a green hat out of the trash and joins a St. Patrick's Day Parade in Chicago, it would be easy to think you are witnessing a well-choreographed bit of movie magic. However, director Andrew Davis, a Chicago native, obtained permission from the city to film in a real parade, putting Ford, his costar Tommy Lee Jones, and camera operator Robert Ulland in the middle of the festivities with a Steadicam to capture their chaotic scramble.
The scene leading up to the parade sees Kimble fleeing from deputy U.S. marshal Samuel Gerard (Jones, in an...
The post Harrison Ford Was Acting On The Fly In One Of The Fugitive's Best Scenes appeared first on /Film.
Warning: Spoilers ahead for Netflix's "The Sandman."
"I will be a wise and tolerant monarch, dispensing justice fairly, only setting nightmares to rip out the minds of the evil and wicked. Or just anybody I don't like."
As spoken by John Dee in Neil Gaiman's second issue of "The Sandman," these words perfectly sum up the kind of antagonist Dee is supposed to be. Created by Gardner Fox and Mike Sekowsky, John Dee, also known as Doctor Destiny, is a DC Comics supervillain who first appeared in "Justice League of America Vol. 1 #5." Dee's character in Gaiman's comics series has a...
The post Who is John Dee? The Sandman's Version of the DC Character, Explained appeared first on /Film.
Many martial arts movies show how kung fu is used for more than just self-defense. Often the movies center young hotshot protagonists eager to learn some secret style or special maneuver so they can go out and kick butt, only to be cut down to size by their older, Yoda-esque mentors who uses the teachings of the martial arts to strengthen the pupil's mind, body, and spirit. The protagonists walk away from the film with deeper understandings of concepts such as discipline, self-restraint, and other life lessons. 2006's "Fearless" is the perfect go-to for this kind of movie.
Others employ martial arts as a...
The post Mixing Comedy and Kung Fu Was a Strategic Move For Jackie Chan appeared first on /Film.
Warren R. Schmidt, the title character played from Alexander Payne's 2002 dramedy "About Schmidt," was a large departure for actor Jack Nicholson. Throughout his career, Nicholson has played a wide variety of incredibly intense, sometimes even broad roles. Even when he played characters who are professional or buttoned down, he carries with him an intellectual intensity, a confidence, a terrifying, underlying rage, that often sees his characters emerging as fierce and heightened.
Schmidt is perhaps the only time Nicholson has played a character defined by how plain he is. Warren Schmidt is a man of routine. He works in a room that is little more than...
The post Taking On His About Schmidt Role Left Jack Nicholson 'Terrified' appeared first on /Film.
Sergio Leone only made seven films in his career, but the best of them sealed his reputation as one of the most stylish and influential directors of the 20th century. Like Wim Wenders with the road movie and Paul Verhoeven with sci-fi, he used genre to view America through the eyes of an outsider, using his operatic violence and gallows humor to put his distinct slant on two of the most American genres of them all: the Western and the gangster movie.
Leone's "Dollars" trilogy, ostensibly set in the States but shot in Spain, made the Old Hollywood...
The post Sergio Leone Had To Fight For The Rights To Make Once Upon A Time In America appeared first on /Film.
How do you introduce a new James Bond? It's a delicate balancing act — you have to reassure viewers that this is the same suave agent they know and love, yet forge a distinct enough impression that the new actor isn't overshadowed by his predecessors. Sure, you can take the "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" approach and have the girl run away in the opening shot, only for Bond to shake his head and complain that "this never happened to the other fellow [Sean Connery]." But when director Martin Campbell was tasked with introducing Daniel Craig as the latest 007 agent,...
The post Daniel Craig Learned A Painful Lesson On His First Day As James Bond appeared first on /Film.
Summer is in full swing, and today Disney+ has released the latest animated special from Lucasfilm and the LEGO group's holiday series. In addition to the "LEGO Star Wars: Holiday Special" and "LEGO Star Wars: Terrifying Tales," we now have "LEGO Star Wars: Summer Vacation." The original special is set shortly after the events of "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker," though it clearly jumps between sagas. We've got Rey and Finn, Luke and Leia, Obi-Wan, Darth Vader, and so many others taking their summer vacation and having adventures. There is even a glimpse of a very relaxed-looking Bossk the bounty hunter...
The post Listen To a New Weird Al Song from LEGO Star Wars: Summer Vacation appeared first on /Film.
If the actual news isn't weird enough for you, or you want to feel like you're on an acid trip, Netflix has a new trailer for the second season of "The Cuphead Show!" Let's just say that the exclamation point at the end of the title is very much justified. If you've yet to see it, the series is based on the classic Fleischer rubber hose-style animation, and was adapted from the critically acclaimed video game "Cuphead." You see those two guys with cups for heads and large teeth in the picture above? Those are the lead characters Cuphead and Mugman, and they're the least bizarre...
The post The Cuphead Show! Season 2 Trailer: Let The Chaos Continue appeared first on /Film.
Dan Trachtenberg has created a bold return to form for the "Predator" franchise in "Prey," a film that follows a young female Comanche warrior looking to track down the Predator that's made her Nation's forest into its hunting grounds. The streaming-exclusive movie is filled to the brim with rich social and character dynamics. Part western, part creature feature, and all bloody action, the film successfully checks all the marks of what makes a "Predator" film great. More than that, the film tells an intimate story of one hunter in a society that overlooks her because of her gender. Despite the odds and the indifference...
The post Prey Ending Explained: This Is As Far As You Go appeared first on /Film.
"Peaky Blinders" would be nothing without its main character, Thomas "Tommy" Shelby. The leader of the titular Peaky Blinders group, viewers have watched as Tommy constantly worked to find ways in which he can help elevate his family's status in the world. The end goal, motivated by his time serving during World War I among other things, has always been so that his family would never have to worry about being sacrificed at the altar of the most powerful again.
Over the course of the series, we see the ebbs and flows of his success, and the toll his goals take on him...
The post Cillian Murphy Worried Typecasting Would Cost Him His Shot At Peaky Blinders appeared first on /Film.
August 2, 2022, saw some unprecedented news: the near-complete "Batgirl" film has been canceled and will go unreleased. Apparently, Warner Bros. felt they could more easily recoup the movie's $90 million budget with a tax loophole than by following through with a release and pouring even more money into marketing.
"Batgirl," intended as the next installment of the DC Extended Universe, would've featured Leslie Grace as Barbara Gordon and chronicled her origin to become the titular heroine. She would've been the third actor to play the character in live-action, after Yvonne Craig in the 1960s "Batman" TV show and Alicia Silverstone...
The post The 10 Best Batgirl Comics to Read Now That the Movie is Canceled appeared first on /Film.
Well, this is awkward. In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter's Award Chatter podcast, "The Lord of the Rings" director Peter Jackson discussed the upcoming series "The Rings of Power" and if it will correlate to his Oscar-winning film series. He also made some bold claims about how involved he was in the series, saying that he and writer-producer Fran Walsh were originally asked to be consultants but were later ghosted by Prime Video for undisclosed reasons.
"They asked me if I wanted to be involved — Fran and I — and I said, 'That's an impossible question to...
The post Why Amazon Ghosted Peter Jackson When Making The Lord of the Rings TV Prequel appeared first on /Film.
In some very odd casting news, Deadline reports that James Franco ("The Disaster Artist"), who was accused of sexual misconduct by five women back in 2018, has been cast in the independent film "Alina of Cuba." You'd think that would be enough to raise eyebrows, but there's more. The role Franco is playing is that of Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro. The news was confirmed by Variety, who also bring news of the backlash from fellow actor John Leguizamo ("Encanto," "Moulin Rouge").
Leguizamo spoke out on Instagram against the casting, saying:
"How is this still going on? How is Hollywood excluding us but stealing our...
The post John Leguizamo Slams James Franco's Casting as Fidel Castro: 'How Is This Still Going On?' appeared first on /Film.
Robert Mitchum had opinions, and he shared them freely, without fear of repercussions, because he was Robert Mitchum. Mitchum didn't care much for authority or societal norms. He was one of the first major Hollywood celebrities busted for marijuana possession. He also campaigned for arch-conservative U.S. presidential candidate Barry Goldwater in 1964. Mitchum could be hard to figure out, but if you engaged him in extended conversation, he began to make a fair amount of sense.
Roger Ebert learned this and then some in 1969 when he chatted with Mitchum in Dingle, Ireland, during the shoot of David Lean's "Ryan's Daughter." His profile,...
The post Robert Mitchum Wasn't A Fan Of Working With Most Hollywood Directors appeared first on /Film.
Alfonso Cuarón's 2018 film "Roma" serves two functions. Primarily, it is a nostalgia piece for the director, who set the film in Mexico City in 1971, the time and place of his own childhood. Secondarily, it was a style piece for Cuarón, who modeled a great deal of his film's tone and visuals to the works of Federico Fellini (to whose works some critics compared "Roma").
"Roma" tells the story of Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio), a live-in maid for a relatively wealthy family in Mexico. The film's drama begins with her discovering she is pregnant, but "Roma" takes us out onto beaches, into street fairs, into bedrooms,...
The post The Realism Of Roma's Sets Became An Obsession For Alfonso Cuarón appeared first on /Film.
After a long wait, the highly anticipated adaptation of "The Sandman" has finally hit Netflix. Is it the TV show of your dreams? Well, you'll just have to watch and find out. Based on the DC comic of the same name, "The Sandman" follows Morpheus (Tom Sturridge), also known as Dream of the Endless, and by countless other names. The story begins when Morpheus, the living embodiment of dreams and ruler of The Dreaming, finds himself captured and held prisoner for over a century. When he finally escapes, he must not only track down the powerful objects stolen from him by his captors, but also rebuild his realm,...
The post Will There Be A Sandman Season 2? appeared first on /Film.
Ever since the release of "The Fantastic Four" #1 in 1961, the Marvel Comics universe has exponentially expanded to include countless beloved heroes, villains, worlds, dimensions, and — most importantly — classic stories. From Peter Parker getting bitten by a radioactive spider to Jean Grey sacrificing herself to save the galaxy to Daredevil's fiery rebirth and more, there are so many fan-favorite moments from the comics that have been immortalized in the pages of Marvel Comics throughout the decades.
Despite these many cherished moments, quite a few scenes have wandered into some surprisingly dark and twisted territory. Some of them have treated the more mature...
The post Disturbing Comic Book Moments The MCU Will Never Show You appeared first on /Film.
This article contains spoilers for "The Sandman" comic book series.
Neil Gaiman's comic book series "The Sandman" is expansive, spanning over 75 comic issues and several spin-offs. It would be impossible to introduce every character from this massive universe in the first 10 episodes of a television adaptation, although the Netflix series certainly managed to include quite a few of them.
In the first season of "The Sandman," fans were introduced to The Endless: seven eternal beings who exist because the concepts they represent also exist. The seven siblings are Dream, Despair, Desire, Death, Destruction, Delirium, and Destiny, and "The Sandman" comics eventually show them all in some manner,...
The post The Endless Siblings That Are Missing From Netflix's The Sandman appeared first on /Film.
It'd be slightly overstating the matter to claim that the Marvel Cinematic Universe's take on Thor (Chris Hemsworth) was dead in the water until Taika Waititi showed up. Our first introduction to the God of Thunder with Kenneth Branagh's 2011 film was appropriately Shakespearean in tone, creating a strong foundation that would carry the character through to his next appearance in 2012's "The Avengers" and beyond. The failures of "Thor: The Dark World" and the messiness of "Avengers: Age of Ultron" need no reintroductions, however, and few can deny that the situation improved markedly once Thor and his supporting characters came under the influence...
The post Taika Waititi Looked To His Past To Find Korg's Thor: Ragnarok Voice appeared first on /Film.
Note: This post contains spoilers for "Bullet Train."
It's safe to say that the summer movie season of 2022 has been a bit of a disappointment for action fans. While action buffs got a taste of great filmmaking earlier this year with "Everything Everywhere All at Once," the slate of films released since has been somewhat underwhelming. Outside of "Top Gun: Maverick," films like "The Gray Man," "Thor: Love and Thunder," "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness," and "Jurassic World Dominion" all felt like major disappointments.
That being said, there's a movie coming to save the summer, and that's David Leitch's new action thriller "Bullet...
The post Every Main Character in Bullet Train Ranked Worst to Best appeared first on /Film.
(Superhero Bits is a collection of stories, updates, and videos about anything and everything inspired by the comics of Marvel, DC, and more. For comic book movies, TV shows, merchandise, events, and whatever catches our eye, this is the place to find anything that falls through the cracks.)
In this edition of Superhero Bits:
Walter Hamada may be getting ready to leave DC Films.
Ryan Reynolds has begun training for "Deadpool 3."
"The Flash" movie is still getting released, apparently.
The first teaser for the "Joker" sequel.
All that and more!
PC gamers were given a...
The post Superhero Bits: The Joker: Folie a Deux Teaser, DC Films May Be Losing A Key Figurehead & More appeared first on /Film.
'90s Nicktoons were a special era of animation. Shows like "Rugrats," "The Wild Thornberries," and "Doug" offered colorful, funny stories for kids, but if you watched them long enough, they also occasionally told heartfelt stories with a purpose. Few of those sincere stories have held a place in viewers' hearts and minds decades later quite like "Arnold's Christmas," the "Hey Arnold" holiday special that shared the heartbreaking backstory of one of its characters.
"Arnold's Christmas" aired during the show's first season in 1996, and a simple plot about a Secret Santa gift exchange gave way to one of the series' most emotional...
The post One of Hey Arnold's Most Emotional Episodes Was Nearly Killed By Nickelodeon appeared first on /Film.
Simplicity is best in the "Predator" franchise. Wisely, director Dan Trachtenberg and his team of artists went back to basics with "Prey." Like the original classic, the prequel is a hunt story, featuring a star performance from Amber Midthunder defined by great strength and vulnerability. Cinematographer Jeff Cutter captures Naru's (Midthunder) journey with both natural beauty and dread.
Cutter previously worked with Trachtenberg on "10 Cloverfield Lane" and "The Boys" pilot. During his early days as a cinematographer, he shot some of the biggest musical artists around, including George Michael and Mick Jagger. Now, with "Prey," Cutter helps ground this franchise in...
The post Prey Cinematographer Jeff Cutter on the Challenges of Filming a Predator Movie [Spoiler Interview] appeared first on /Film.
The late 1990s was a golden age for serialized animation for young audiences. Nickelodeon, The Disney Channel, and Cartoon Network were firing on all cylinders, and '90s kids were able to reap the benefits of an explosive new entertainment landscape. In 1997, Walt Disney Television Animation debuted the show "Recess" on ABC, as part of Disney's "One Saturday Morning" block of programming, the last vestige of Saturday Morning Cartoons. The show was a huge hit, centering on the adventures of fourth graders and what happens on the playground during recess. The show was created by Joe Ansolabehere and "Rugrats" co-creator Paul...
The post Disney Freaked Out About This Recess Episode, Calling It a 'Critique of Religion' appeared first on /Film.
(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.)
The Movie: "Honor Society"
Where You Can Stream It: Paramount+
The Pitch: With streaming services and giant studios crumbling before our very eyes, it's the perfect time to give some love to underappreciated streaming platforms and the movies they fail to properly promote but are great fun. Case in point: "Honor Society," a movie that quietly debuted on the platform without the parades and celebrations it deserved, and one of the best high school-set coming-of-age comedies in years.
The post The Daily Stream: Honor Society Mixes Caper Thrills With High School Drama appeared first on /Film.
There's just no stopping the green. More than 30 years after its release, director Steve Barron's live-action 1990 film "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" remains the benchmark for movies featuring anthropomorphic, pizza-loving turtles battling villains named after office equipment. Even its sequels had a hard time replicating the curiously-perfect alchemy of Barron's superhero action-comedy, despite having larger budgets and the power of, uh, Vanilla Ice at their disposal.
One animated feature and two Michael Bay-produced live-action/CGI movies later, the "Teenage Mutant Ninjas Turtles" franchise is headed back to the big screen, this time as an animated romp titled "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant...
The post Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem: Everything We Know About Seth Rogen's Animated Reboot appeared first on /Film.
Here's an absolutely wild hypothetical that would simply be too silly to ever come true: A major studio hires a talented and fast-rising director duo for their next superhero movie, both of whom are coming off a celebrated sequel to a hit action franchise and whose ability to break through into the highest level of the industry stands as an important win for diversity. In the years since their hiring, Marvel Studios similarly scoops them up for a highly-anticipated superhero series and their work receives an added boost in recognition. Then, with their profile higher than ever before and with their superhero movie...
The post Marvel's Kevin Feige Reached Out to Batgirl's Directors After the Film's Cancellation appeared first on /Film.
Nicole Kidman has long been one of the most popular actors of our time, but the popularity she's seen surrounding her new role as the face of the AMC theaters chain is pretty much unprecedented. Her pre-show commercial has become a magical calling card to our love of movies, and it appears that she will continue to inspire us (and make us laugh) through further AMC spots.
On an August 4 earnings call, AMC Entertainment chairman and CEO Adam Aron announced that Kidman's contract as the spokesperson for the major theater chain was renewed for another year following the response...
The post Heartbreak Feels Good for One More Year as Nicole Kidman Renews Contract With AMC appeared first on /Film.
Note: this post contains spoilers for "Bullet Train."
After what seems like a lifetime of waiting and watching different variations of the same trailer, "Bullet Train" has finally arrived in theaters. David Leitch's return to the director's chair is bound to be pretty divisive, but there is a bit of fun that can be had if you know you'll be watching some silly things unfold.
Case in point: the various accents being used by the movie's primarily-American actors. If you are like me and are mildly obsessed with movie accents that don't sound quite right, then "Bullet Train" is the movie for you. None of these accents aren't...
The post The Accents of Bullet Train Ranked appeared first on /Film.
Warning: The below article contains major spoilers for A24's Bodies Bodies Bodies.
Nothing hurts quite like a friend's betrayal. A24's "Bodies Bodies Bodies" dives into the specific pain that arises when those you trust most stab you in the back — and sometimes the throat. Directed by Halina Reijn, "Bodies Bodies Bodies" revolves around a fractured friend group of rich 20-something year-olds. What starts as a raging Gen-Z hurricane party in one of their family's sprawling mansions soon morphs into a kill-or-be-killed kind of night. After a party game goes awry, the group finds a dead body, jumpstarting the story's whodunit plot.
While "Bodies Bodies Bodies" is a dark...
The post Every Kill In A24's Bodies Bodies Bodies Ranked Worst To Best appeared first on /Film.
Hollywood is still reeling from the news that the live-action "Batgirl" movie starring "In the Heights" star Leslie Grace, national treasure Brendan Fraser, and Michael Keaton in his triumphant return as Batman, was canceled and shelved at HBO Max. The news came from the new Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav in an effort to streamline the studio's output.
Other than "Batgirl," the studio also canned a sequel to "Scoob!" co-written by Paul Dini, both of which were supposed to premiere on HBO Max. The studio also announced a merger between Discovery+ and HBO Max, and confirmed a restructuring of the DCEU with a 10-year plan in the works, mimicking...
The post Batgirl Directors Share Image of Barbara Gordon Meeting Michael Keaton's Batman appeared first on /Film.
It's difficult to underestimate just how deeply Steven Spielberg changed the game. The summer blockbuster maestro is responsible for bringing us some of the most iconic visuals the form has ever produced. I certainly can't forget the first time I saw E.T. come to life, or Bruce popping his head out of the water ("Jaws"). The best visual effects balance out with all the other components that make a great film, and Spielberg knew that.
With "Jurassic Park," Spielberg showed us what movies could accomplish. He reinvented the way in which we saw spectacle with an action-adventure thrill ride with dinosaurs...
The post Steven Spielberg Wasn't Going To Let Budget Limit The Scope Of Jurassic Park appeared first on /Film.
After a relatively quiet spring anime season, and a dull summer, it seems the upcoming fall anime season is going to be the hottest club. It's got everything: "Mob Psycho 100," "My Hero Academia," "Spy x Family," the triumphant return of "Bleach," "Blue Lock" delivering another soccer anime, the first "Gundam" show in seven years, "Mobile Suit Gundam: Witch From Mercury." Joining the season is arguably the most anticipated new anime of the year: "Chainsaw Man."
Now that "Attack on Titan" is finally, supposedly, probably, maybe daring to end once and for all, the search for the next big anime hit is underway — from...
The post Chainsaw Man Trailer: A New Demon-Hunting, Blood-Soaking Anime Enters the Ring appeared first on /Film.
"Lightyear" isn't the greatest film Pixar has ever produced in its storied history (or even really close to it), but the story is undeniably a sincere one that's largely about inclusivity, acceptance, and coming together to overcome the odds. It's a shame, then, that not all worldwide audiences will be able to catch the space-faring blockbuster on Disney+.
"Lightyear" debuted in theaters to a rather tepid audience response at the box office, leading to questions over whether a movie that isn't about Buzz lightyear the toy, but -- never forget -- "...the origin story of the human Buzz Lightyear that the toy is based on" was really the best...
The post Lightyear Won't Stream on Disney+ in the Middle East appeared first on /Film.
This post contains spoilers for the first episode of "The Sandman," as well as the opening issue of "The Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes."
When getting into the "Sandman" comics, a lot of fans will warn first-time readers to stick with the series even if the first few issues don't grab you. Volume 1, "Preludes and Nocturnes" is often ranked at the bottom of the list of favorite "Sandman" volumes, and that's because it's a volume that takes a while to fully find its voice. It's also the series at perhaps its darkest; the Dream of this first volume is often cruel and unsympathetic. He mopes...
The post Why You Should Keeping Watching The Sandman After the First Episode appeared first on /Film.
Neil Gaiman's works might just be impossible to adapt. There's an otherworldly magic, or eeriness, or strangeness, or silliness to his books and graphic novels that fail to translate in full to the big and small screen. Perhaps one adaptation might capture the whimsy of his work, but fail to bring that Gaiman edge to it. Another might nail his brand of eccentric comedy, but fall flat on other counts. Still yet another might lose the moody melancholy of Gaiman's original novel in order to craft something new and striking, only to fall victim to Gaiman's own ego (and your...
The post The Sandman Review: Still Dreaming of a Great Neil Gaiman Adaptation — But Getting Closer appeared first on /Film.
It's time to howl at the moon again, with the announcements of the Paramount+ projects "Teen Wolf: The Movie" and the "Teen Wolf" spinoff series "Wolf Pack" from MTV Entertainment Studios off the ground. "Teen Wolf" premiered on MTV in 2011 and ran for six seasons. Now the story will continue, first with the film, and then the subsequent show. The recent panel at San Diego Comic-Con for "Teen Wolf: The Movie" included a surprise guest, according to Deadline's report from the event. "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" star Sarah Michelle Gellar appeared with movie and series writer/executive producer Jeff Davis, and stars Tyler Posey and...
The post Wolf Pack: Everything We Know So Far About the Teen Wolf Spin-Off appeared first on /Film.
After decades in development hell, an English-language remake of "The Killer" has finally made some much-needed progress. On August 4, it was revealed that Omar Sy will be leading John Woo's remake of his own 1989 action classic (per Deadline). While it won't be a direct remake, it also won't be an entirely different story, either -- rather, it is being described as a reimagining of the original, although to what extent is unclear.
Despite much of the movie still being under wraps, the casting of Sy as well as Woo's direct involvement should be exciting to action fans. While there is...
The post The Killer Remake: Everything We Know About John Woo's Movie Starring Omar Sy appeared first on /Film.
"Locke & Key" is almost back, y'all. The third and final season is dropping on August 10, which means that we'll get one last trip to Matheson — and one last adventure with the Locke family's magical keys. But despite the terrifying new villain teased at the end of season 2, the upcoming season has a single core focus: family.
Since the third season of "Locke & Key" finished filming before the second one premiered, showrunners Carlton Cuse and Meredith Averill were able to drop some hints about the show's final season during season 2's promotions last year. They were understandably vague when...
The post Locke & Key Has One Core Focus For Its Final Season appeared first on /Film.
You often hear that there are no new ideas in Hollywood. You could point to the recent boom period of sequels, prequels, reboots, side-boots, and multiverses as proof. Last year, The Atlantic's Derek Thompson outlined that the steady growth of Hollywood blockbusters since 2000 really are primarily sequels, adaptations, and reboots, rather than original works.
Thompson later backtracked from his original thesis that screenwriters are running out of new ideas. He pointed out that the flood of recycled content is market-driven rather than stemming from a lack of originality. Despite the rationale, the numbers prove that a risk-averse Hollywood prefers pre-owned to new,...
The post The Career Frustrations That Pushed Paul Newman Into The Director's Chair appeared first on /Film.
Penny Marshall's 1992 sports dramedy "A League of Their Own" was beloved from the jump. Set largely in the 1940s, "A League of Their Own" tells a fictionalized version of the founding of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, and that league's most successful team, the Rockford Peaches. (Note that this was a time when grown women were actively called girls.) The broad history of the league is accurate, but none of the characters in Marshall's film are based on real people.
Geena Davis played Dottie Hinson, the team's catcher and most capable player. Dottie also served as the team's manager as the original coach the...
The post How A League Of Their Own Changed Geena Davis Life appeared first on /Film.
In a Q2 earnings call with Warner Bros. Discovery investors Thursday afternoon, CEO David Zaslav outlined a bold new vision for the conglomerate he was hired to run only four months ago. The biggest news of the day centered on Zaslav's decision to merge HBO Max's subscriber base (reported in January 2022 at 76.8 million) with Discovery+ (which claimed 24 million subscribers at the same Q1 juncture). Today, the company announced that at the end of Q2, HBO Max and Discovery+ had combined for 92.1 million subscribers.
Do the rudimentary math, and it's obvious which streaming service is more valuable. Tally...
The post Warner Bros. Discovery is 'Doubling Down' on HBO, But What About HBO Max? appeared first on /Film.
Dan Trachtenberg's "Prey," set in 1719, stars indigenous actress Amber Midthunder as a young Comanche woman named Naru who is often rejected from her tribe's hunting excursions because of her sex. This, in spite of her acknowledged tracking skills and tremendous capability with a tomahawk. In the film's early scenes, Naru begins to find evidence that a strange, large animal -- something larger than a bear -- may be lurking in the woods, killing anyone who wanders too far out. The creature is, of course, a space alien (Dane DiLiegro) who has come to Earth to hunt the most sophisticated game it...
The post Prey's Amber Midthunder Says She Was Told to 'Go Do Disney' While Pursuing Acting appeared first on /Film.
The role of James Bond may be one of the most coveted positions in the land, but the auditioning process is remarkably straightforward — at least when it comes to the material. Ever since Sean Connery retired the Bond title in 1967, Bond hopefuls (and even potential Bond girls) have tested for the role with the exact same scene. Bond's fateful meeting with Tatiana Romanova (Daniela Bianchi) in "From Russia With Love" serves as the template for every audition. Not even Daniel Craig was able to skip it.
"It's a tradition, apparently," Craig told Esquire in 2006. "Why? I've never got it out of Barbara [Broccoli]...
The post Daniel Craig Hopes Someone Destroyed His James Bond Screen Test appeared first on /Film.
Clint Eastwood is one of the most celebrated filmmakers in the world, but it wasn't always thus -- especially in America. Having gotten his start on the long-running TV Western "Rawhide," Eastwood subverted his cowboy image via his appearances in Sergio Leone's "Man with No Name Trilogy" (i.e. "A Fistful of Dollars," "For a Few Dollars More," and "The Good, the Bad and The Ugly"). In the 1970s and into the '80s he was best known as "Dirty Harry" Callahan, a renegade, due-process-loathing cop hellbent on cleaning up the scumbag-infested streets of San Francisco. Clint Eastwood was larger than life, and the...
The post Unforgiven Marked The End Of An Era For Clint Eastwood's Film Career appeared first on /Film.
Dark Horse Entertainment and Netflix have seemingly had a successful partnership with each other. Shows like "The Umbrella Academy" and movies such as "Polar" have been hits on the platform, so why not keep this partnership going? According to Variety, the comics company and the streamer recently announced that their collaboration has expanded into a full first-look deal, allowing Netflix the first opportunity to adapt one of Dark Horses' comics for film or television.
Along with this news, two projects were announced to be in development, with one of them only being revealed in the very early stages. However, the other project...
The post Bang!: Everything We Know So Far About Idris Elba's New Action Movie appeared first on /Film.
The overwhelming hold that Marvel Studios has on the release schedule can make its lineup of movies and streaming shows feel overwhelming, but they have this innate ability to keep piquing my interest in some way. With "Ms. Marvel" ending only a few weeks ago, the folks at Marvel already have another television show ready to fill the void with "She-Hulk: Attorney at Law."
The series stars Emmy-winning "Orphan Black" actress Tatiana Maslany as Jennifer Walters, a distinguished lawyer who has to hone her new abilities as She-Hulk after acquiring the gamma genes that made her cousin Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) into the...
The post How She-Hulk Will Present a Different Side of Charlie Cox's Daredevil appeared first on /Film.
For a long time, Ving Rhames was the only actor to traverse the "Mission: Impossible" franchise alongside Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt. Gradually, the series has accrued a collection of characters that now you cannot imagine the movies without, chief among them Simon Pegg's Benji Dunn and Rebecca Ferguson's Ilsa Faust. Now that Christopher McQuarrie has been at the helm of the two most recent sequels and the forthcoming two-part "Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning," he has made a concerted effort to truly make this a serialized franchise and not an episodic one. In the trailer for "Dead Reckoning," we get to see the...
The post A Secret Mission: Impossible – Fallout Character Will Return In Dead Reckoning appeared first on /Film.
David Zaslav is a name that most movie fans probably haven't heard until very recently. Yet, the man's name has been uttered many times as of late, mostly because he is currently serving as the CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, the gigantic media company that formed in early 2022 as a result of the merger between WarnerMedia and Discovery. The high-ranking executive is implementing a new corporate strategy, the repercussions of which have already made major waves in the entertainment industry.
Big movies that were nearly finished, such as "Batgirl" and "Scoob! Holiday Haunt," were...
The post What You Need To Know About The New Warner Bros. Discovery CEO, And What It Means For The Studio appeared first on /Film.
Martin Scorsese is a filmmaker's filmmaker. Watch him rattle off keen insights on "A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies" and "My Voyage to Italy," and you will emerge with a list of vital viewing and a valuable primer to understanding visual storytelling. As John Cassavetes, the godfather of independent cinema, once observed, "Making films is an obsession, and very few people can put everything they have into it. They have other gods, but I think Marty has one god, and that's film."
You'll also find out how much he loves actors. Having been mentored by an actor-director like Cassavetes, Scorsese has always cherished these...
The post 12 Best Performances in Martin Scorsese Movies appeared first on /Film.
The "Dragon Ball" series has only grown more and more popular since its debut in 1984. The hit franchise has had as many evolutions as its main protagonist, spanning three different anime and manga series. Following the original "Dragon Ball," "Dragon Ball Z" turned the series into a full-fledged Shonen, and the massive success of the sequel series led to yet another follow-up, this time titled "Dragon Ball Super." However, with "Super," creator Akira Toriyama would take a break from drawing duties, opting to be in charge of the story while his collaborator Toratayro would draw the manga.
"Dragon Ball Super" would...
The post Akira Toriyama Was Unusually Involved In Dragon Ball Z: Battle Of The Gods appeared first on /Film.
Note: This article contains spoilers for "The Orville: New Horizons."
Longtime fans of "The Orville" likely tuned in to this season's premiere on Hulu expecting more of the things they've come to know and love from the show, like Seth MacFarlane's trademark humor and practical special effects to create the various aliens that inhabit this universe. However, while those elements were certainly present, "The Orville: New Horizons" turned the volume way up on the long-form dramatic storytelling, engaging character development, and heart-wrenching moments.
One of the best examples of this slight shift in tone was seen in Ensign Charly Burke. Following...
The post The Orville: New Horizons Actor Anne Winters on the Arc of Playing a 'Space Racist' [Spoiler Interview] appeared first on /Film.
Humphrey Bogart was not one to mince words. He was a plain-spoken man who excelled at playing plain-spoken characters. When he deigned to opine on a particular subject, you could be absolutely certain that you were getting Bogie's unvarnished take. So when the mega-star of "The Maltese Falcon," "Casablanca" and "The Big Sleep" unloaded on the upstart medium that was television in the 1950s, rest assured he meant every withering word.
What prompted Bogie's ire? It started in 1955, when he agreed to star in a televised production of Robert E. Sherwood's drama "The Petrified Forest." Bogart was reprising the role...
The post Humphrey Bogart Would Have Rather 'Dug Ditches' Than Taken His Career To TV appeared first on /Film.
"Dragon Ball Super: Broly" was a big deal for Shonen fans during its initial release in 2018. Up to that point, Broly, a fan-favorite "Dragon Ball" character, existed outside the franchise canon. Any movies or specials the character appeared in did not affect the mainline "Dragon Ball" series. That didn't stop him from becoming popular, with the character receiving his own trilogy of "Dragon Ball Z" films. The character's design was part of his popularity, with the Saiyan being larger in appearance and sporting green hair. His brutality, strength, and size difference compared to characters like Goku made him an entertaining fighter, albeit...
The post Akira Toriyama Had One Rule For Dragon Ball Super's Broly Redesign appeared first on /Film.
I think it goes without saying that the original "Predator" from 1987 is the best film in the entire franchise. How could it not be? It still stands as a subversive take on the testosterone-fueled action movies of the late 1980s, where machoism is slowly torn apart at the hands of something nearly incomprehensible. Combine this with genuinely great action choreography and a badass alien design, and you've got an iconic action-horror mashup that would develop a powerful fanbase.
By all accounts, "Predator" felt like a good stand-alone movie even if it didn't end up doing well at the box office. There...
The post Why Predator 2 is the Most Underrated Movie in the Predator Franchise appeared first on /Film.
Martin Campbell's 1995 film "GoldenEye" is the one of the best James Bond movies, at least top-three level, and Pierce Brosnan is the best James Bond, full stop. I will be taking no further questions at this time.
Of course Brosnan's 007 debut in "GoldenEye" had a lot of baggage to unpack. The fall of the Berlin Wall in November of 1989 and the coup in the Soviet Union in the summer of 1991 put a damper on the future of James Bond. The character was, after all, invented as an espionage agent when the Cold War was in full swing, and his...
The post GoldenEye Director Martin Campbell Had A Jarring Introduction To The James Bond Fandom appeared first on /Film.
James Gunn once again took to social media to directly answer fan questions, this time making a statement about the status of "Peacemaker" in the wake of all the HBO Max/Discovery+ discussion going around today. We'll know more tomorrow when the new overlords at WB make their first public statements about the big changes coming in the wake of the massive corporate merger, but right now all that's going around the web is some level of "the sky is falling."
There are rumors that HBO Max is going away totally, or that it's going to be folded into Discovery+ and that most scripted shows on the...
The post HBO Ain't Killing Peacemaker Right Now According to James Gunn appeared first on /Film.
Psychological horror movies are, by definition, a head trip. Its protagonist-victims are put through the mental wringer, and their heightened mental disturbia propels most of the story's dread. Watching someone's grip on reality loosen irrevocably is scary by proxy; their dread becomes your dread.
Which psych-horror movies are survivable for the average person? The answer is hard to figure out. Stories in the genre can be intensely individual. The monstrous visions and bumps in the night that Vietnam vet Jacob Singer (Tim Robbins) sees in "Jacob's Ladder" are specific to him and his wartime experiences, so it's hard to say how anyone else might...
The post 5 Psychological Horror Movies The Average Person Would Never Survive appeared first on /Film.
"A League of Their Own" was one of those highly fêted comfort movies that I didn't get around to watching until just a few years ago, and it's pretty astounding how the Penny Marshall-directed sports drama about a group of talented women vying to join the All-American Girls Baseball League still bats a million. It boasts an impeccable cast with Geena Davis, Madonna, Rosie O'Donnell, and Lori Petty showing everyone how it's done, but arguably the film's most iconic performance belongs to Tom Hanks' Jimmy Dugan.
Any conversation involving this movie will almost inevitably lead to someone reciting Hanks'...
The post Nick Offerman Won't Follow In Tom Hanks' Footsteps For Amazon's A League of Their Own appeared first on /Film.
Stephen King has such a broad reach that it's easy to miss some of the subtler nods and easter eggs that pop up in genre storytelling. When watching "Stranger Things," for instance, it's easy to miss the nods to "Firestarter" -- a story all about a secretive government program that studies and trains psychic kids as weapons. Sometimes the references can be in your face, sometimes more subtle, but just about everybody working in genre storytelling in the last 20-30 years has certainly been influenced by King.
2003's "Wrong Turn" is a great example of a film that employs a perfectly executed easter egg...
The post The Stephen King Easter Egg You May Have Missed in Wrong Turn appeared first on /Film.
In the December 12, 1936 issue of The Literary Digest (reprinted on the Reel Classics website), Fred Astaire's infamous rehearsal process for the upcoming film "Shall We Dance?" was recorded in all its difficult glory. Astaire, Hollywood legend has it, was a perfectionist when it came to dancing, and he and his co-stars --- Ginger Rogers in the case of "Shall We Dance?" -- would rehearse until the point of injury. Hermes Pan, the film's choreographer, recalls a moment when Rogers took off her shoe to reveal a bloody sore, with Astaire chiming in that his blisters were about ready to pop. Pan called off rehearsals after that.
Given...
The post Why Fred Astaire Never Enjoyed Watching His Own Movies appeared first on /Film.
The following article contains spoilers for all of Daniel Kaluuya's films, including "Nope."
Daniel Kaluuya is just getting started. Sure, he may already be a pop culture icon thanks to breakthrough performances in "Black Mirror" and "Get Out," but the London-born actor is only 33 years old. That's easy to forget given his illustrious resume — he's already collaborated with prolific directors, has a supporting role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and even won an Oscar — but really, he still has an entire career ahead of him.
It might not be in front of the camera, however. In a 2022 interview with The Hollywood Reporter,...
The post Every Daniel Kaluuya Movie Ranked Worst to Best appeared first on /Film.
Her name is Shea Couleé, and she didn't come to play, she came to slay! The winner of "RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars" season 5 and finalist on the recently ended "RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars All Winners" is joining the cast of the upcoming Marvel Studios TV series "Ironheart" in an undisclosed role. "Beyond excited to be strutting out of the Werkroom right into the Marvel Cinematic Universe," Couleé said in a Twitter post regarding the announcement. "Words cannot express how excited I am to be a part of this amazing project!" Couleé continued by noting "Acting was my first love, and I'm thrilled...
The post Marvel's Ironheart Series Adds Superstar Drag Queen Shea Couleé appeared first on /Film.
There can never be enough zombies in the world. Zombie films and series, anyway. Actual zombies would suck, but watching people run from them is always entertaining. It's a good thing a lot of fans feel this way too, because we're getting another zombie project. Called "As We Know It," the independent horror film takes place during "a nuclear zombie apocalypse," according to Variety. That sounds like it could cost a lot of money in effects if the zombies aren't done practically, but zombies done up with real makeup usually look better anyway.
"As We Know It" comes to us from Josh Monkarsh...
The post As We Know It: Everything We Know So Far About The Nuclear Zombie Apocalypse Movie appeared first on /Film.
In the annals of horror movie lore, 1996's "Scream" is lauded as a watershed moment in the same league as 1978's "Halloween" or 1968's "Rosemary's Baby." Written by Kevin Williamson and directed by Wes Craven, the movie acts as a sort of meeting of the minds between Williamson's fan of the genre and Craven's veteran of horror, the two artists exploring the tropes and conventions of the genre (and specifically the slasher subgenre) from both sides of the screen.
Yet while "Scream" is given credit for taking horror films into a postmodern, meta, self-referential space, it's far from the first example of such a...
The post How Scream Gave Wes Craven's New Nightmare A Second Shot At Success appeared first on /Film.
"The Umbrella Academy" is a very good Netflix show, depending on who you ask. The Umbrella Corporation is a malevolent conglomerate at the heart of Netflix's "Resident Evil" reboot series. They are vastly different from one another, but their aural similarity is striking and, to the average viewer, confusing. It leads to a series of questions: "Is this the show with Elliot Page?" No, it's not. "Wait, was this a movie with the actress from 'Fifth Element?'" It was several.
Herein lies one of the core reasons that Netflix's "Resident Evil" show flopped. Before you can approach its dense web of mythology, pulp science, and splatter-filled horror-action set pieces, you have...
The post Why Netflix's Resident Evil Flopped appeared first on /Film.
When the news broke that Warner Bros. had completely scrapped any kind of release for the nearly completed "Batgirl" film and the "Scoob" sequel, it has set a dangerous precedent for how major Hollywood studios can utilize the works by dedicated artists for their own financial maneuvering. "Batgirl," starring Leslie Grace as the titular character, was a $90 million movie now being canned simply to become a tax write-off. Also, it just so happened to be a film made by DC Entertainment, the only comic book juggernaut that could possibly rival Marvel Studios, and connects to the company's most popular character, Batman. The film was...
The post Is The DC Cinematic Universe Heading For A Total Reboot? appeared first on /Film.
David Simon's "The Wire" is one of the most densely layered television dramas in the history of the medium. Over five seasons, it depicts in enraging and heartbreaking detail how fortunes rise and fall at the top of the civic food chain and at the bottom. We watch in disgust as a ruthless careerist like William Rawls (John Doman) rockets through the ranks of the Baltimore Police Department, and grieve for the hopeless middle-school students of the fourth season who, despite showing great promise in a math class taught by former cop Roland Pryzbylewski (Jim True-Frost), are destined for the streets....
The post Why David Simon Thinks Binging Is The Right Way To Watch The Wire appeared first on /Film.
The film industry is still reeling from the shocking news that Warner Bros. Discovery is shelving two movies that were nearly completed: a sequel to "Scoob!" co-written by legendary comics writer Paul Dini, and the live-action "Batgirl" movie.
It is an unprecedented move to simply cancel the release of a $90 million movie that was meant to launch a new DC franchise and had a stellar cast that included "In the Heights" breakout star Leslie Grace as Barbara Gordon, aka Batgirl, J.K. Simmons returning as James Gordon, Brendan Fraser as a villain, and none other than Michael Keaton once again suiting up as...
The post Batgirl Directors Bilall Fallah and Adil El Arbi Respond to Their Movie Being Shelved appeared first on /Film.
It was announced on August 2 that "Batgirl," originally scheduled for release later this year, has been scrapped entirely. Although nearly complete, and covered optimistically in press releases only a few weeks ago, Warner Bros. has elected to nix the project. This news accompanies other mysterious blows to the current Warner Bros. catalogue, including the cancellation of a "Scoob!" sequel and the vanishing of several notable HBO max originals from their streaming service. The studio seems to be having their own Crisis on Infinite Earths.
The cancelation of "Batgirl," however -- while perhaps baffling -- may denote a new trend that has been playing...
The post Does the Warner Bros. Batgirl Situation Mark the End of Superhero Movie Dominance? appeared first on /Film.
Under Disney, Marvel superhero shows and "Star Wars" have both gone away from the usual Netflix model of debuting a show's entire season all at once in one big, binge-watching haze. While that strategy tends to create scenarios where a hotly-anticipated series dominates the pop culture conversation throughout the "opening weekend" (looking at you, "Stranger Things"), the downside is usually that the property tends to fade away rather quickly in the subsequent days and weeks after release. Disney+ has proven resoundingly that shows like "The Mandalorian" and any number of Marvel stories can thrive and flourish when each episode only comes out...
The post Marvel's She-Hulk Shifts Which Day of the Week It'll Air, So Prepare Accordingly appeared first on /Film.
There's an old playwriting adage that cleanly breaks down narrative structure thusly: Act One -- get your hero up a tree; Act Two -- throw rocks at them; Act Three -- get them down. Would that it were so simple, right?
Well, when you're making a mega-budgeted action movie like "Bullet Train," even if you have a wild cast of characters throwing rocks at Brad Pitt's Ladybug for seemingly disparate reasons, the primary objective is still to simply get your hero out of that tree. Or, in this case, off the train in one piece. The trick in this case is getting this...
The post How Deadpool 2's Domino Helped Prepare David Leitch For Bullet Train appeared first on /Film.
After 327 episodes, 15 seasons, two networks, and one pandemic, the longest-running sci-fi/fantasy series in America came to an end in November 2020. "Supernatural" premiered in September of 2005 on what was then known as The WB. Creator Eric Kripke originally pitched the show as a horror series angled around a reporter, but that quickly changed to two brothers "cruising the country, chasing down these urban legends." The idea morphed into a spooky yet touching family drama with a heavy dose of humor. Due in large part to perfect casting and the infectious chemistry between its two leads, Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki, who play brothers Dean...
The post Every Supernatural Season Ranked Worst To Best appeared first on /Film.
"South Park" turns 25 this year, and for some godforsaken reason, I felt the best way to celebrate would be to binge watch the feature film, play the video games, check out the Paramount+ made-for-TV specials, and consume all TWENTY-FIVE SEASONS of television. Hey, I never said I made good decisions with my free time. Admittedly, I've learned an awful lot by comin' down to South Park and havin' myself a time, and I'm happy to pass on what I've learned with all of you, my dear /Film readers. We've already ranked the best seasons and characters as we reflect on two and a half...
The post The 10 Best South Park Episodes No One Remembers appeared first on /Film.
"I have a very particular set of skills"; Liam Neeson's iconic threat in "Taken" spawned many internet memes, two disastrous sequels, and a complete career shift for one of Hollywood's most respected dramatic actors. Prior to "Taken," Neeson had dabbled in the action genre with films like "Darkman" and "Batman Begins," but he was best known for his more serious projects. He certainly wasn't someone that film fans would compare to Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, or Keanu Reeves.
After the success of "Taken," Neeson became one of the generation's leading action stars. Even though the Irish actor is in his 70s, he's still the...
The post 16 Movies Like Taken That You Should Check Out appeared first on /Film.
The somewhat tarnished legacy of "Game of Thrones" is often credited to the show's controversial ending. In the years since the HBO hit aired its 2019 finale, there's been no shortage of outrage and criticism to prove just how much opinions of the long-time cultural phenomenon have soured. But while there's no denying the way that the ending hangs over the series, I'd point to another culprit that plagued the show through its entire eight-season run: the over-reliance on sexual violence and the casual degradation of women.
In the rough and tumble world of Westeros, everything is on the table. Beheadings, hangings,...
The post House of the Dragon Won't Depict Sexual Violence, Only 'One Instance Off-Screen' appeared first on /Film.
"American Horror Story" is ten seasons in and shows no signs of stopping. Since 2011, the high-concept FX anthology from Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk has covered everything from murderous Los Angeles real estate to rundown circus sideshows to the real-life missing colonists of Roanoke, Virginia. Now, the show is set to return for the first time since last year's twofer, "American Horror Story: Double Feature," told dual tales about vampires and possible extraterrestrial events. To make the storybook even more complicated, a companion series titled "American Horror Stories" featuring episodic shorts is now in its...
The post American Horror Story Season 11: Everything we know so far about the return of the FX horror series appeared first on /Film.
Seven entries deep into its franchise, "Wes Craven's New Nightmare" not only brought Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) back for more slicing and dicing, but the dream demon had more agency than previously allowed. A more menacing antagonist than he was in Craven's 1984 original "A Nightmare on Elm Street," this Freddy reaches his bladed glove beyond Elm Street and the screen itself to wink at jaded audiences who, by 1994, are genre experts.
"New Nightmare" is cognizant of the movies and of Freddy as a character; "Elm Street" heroine Heather Langenkamp and Craven play themselves, reckoning with the films that...
The post The Budget Forced Wes Craven's New Nightmare To Scrap A 'Brilliant' Robert Englund Scene appeared first on /Film.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced its new president today, and the honor goes to Emmy-winning producer Janet Yang. Yang was elected by the Oscar voting organization's Board of Governors, and the exec behind movies like "The Joy Luck Club" and "Over the Moon" is the third woman and second person of color to hold the prestigious title, per The Hollywood Reporter.
Yang has been a part of the producers' branch of the Oscars since 2002, but her career began much earlier. She was a credited project consultant on "Empire of the Sun" in 1987, before moving on to a...
The post Producer Janet Yang Was Just Elected President Of The Academy appeared first on /Film.
After debuting in 2017 and presenting two acclaimed seasons on Fox, Seth MacFarlane's epic space adventure "The Orville" made the jump to Hulu after the Walt Disney Company acquired 20th Century Fox in 2019. However, thanks to the ongoing pandemic, fans were unable to see the newly christened "The Orville: New Horizons" until this year. Now, with the third season finale looming, it seems like Captain Ed Mercer and his crew have a new heading plugged into their navigational systems: Disney+.
During their panel at this year's San Diego Comic-Con, the cast revealed that the Emmy-nominated, fan-favorite sci-fi series would be available to watch on the Mouse...
The post Here's When You Can Stream the Orville on Disney+ appeared first on /Film.
"Stranger Things" has been a smash hit since it premiered on Netflix in 2016. With its fourth season recently coming to a close, the series shows no signs of losing its inceptive luster. In other words, it's just as successful and compelling as it was when it premiered. While "Stranger Things" originally started out as an Amblin-esque sci-fi venture, one aimed at young audiences without talking down to them, the mythology and landscape have shifted considerably. For all intents and purposes, "Stranger Things" is now the Duffer Brothers pantomiming Steven Spielberg's horror roots.
That isn't a bad thing, either. In an era of digital convergence and content for content's sake, "Stanger...
The post The Most Controversial Moments in Stranger Things appeared first on /Film.
There are certain moments in cinema history you remember as real groaners. I believe kids today call it "cringe." Sometimes it's a brief moment from a movie, like the awkward John Cena love scene in "Trainwreck." Other times, you realize the entire direction of the film is about to go very wrong, like when Luke Skywalker chucks his lightsaber over his shoulder in the early moments of "Star Wars: The Last Jedi."
In the case of James Cameron's "Avatar," the cringe moment comes the first time RDA head administrator Parker Selfridge (Giovanni Ribisi) utters the word "unobtanium." It's not so much the plot point of a rare...
The post James Cameron Explains The Origins Behind Avatar's Unobtanium appeared first on /Film.
The CW has spent most of 2022 cleaning house in anticipation of its likely sale, itself a direct result of the newly-finalized Warner Bros. Discovery merger. This has also led to the gradual death of the network's shared DC TV universe, aka the Arrowverse, a process that will culminate with "The Flash" airing its ninth and final season in 2023. It's a bittersweet turn for those who've spent years watching Grant Gustin's Barry Allen and his faithful "Team Flash" save Central City over and over again... but at the same time, it's hard to deny this news is long overdue.
When...
The post How The Flash Went From the Best Superhero Show on TV to a Total Disaster appeared first on /Film.
(Superhero Bits is a collection of stories, updates, and videos about anything and everything inspired by the comics of Marvel, DC, and more. For comic book movies, TV shows, merchandise, events, and whatever catches our eye, this is the place to find anything that falls through the cracks.)
In this edition of Superhero Bits:
Simu Liu hints at a big future for Shang-Chi in the MCU.
The "Harley Quinn" writers are betting big on a fourth season.
Marvel's D23 lineup has been revealed.
Michael Keaton has never watched a full Marvel or DC movie.
All that and more!
The August...
The post Superhero Bits: Colin Farrell's Potential Return As Penguin, Marvel's D23 Expo Lineup & More appeared first on /Film.
Get out the hairspray and shoulder pads: 20th Century Studios is developing a new version of the 1988 film "Working Girl." The project reportedly has "Only Murders in the Building" star and executive producer Selena Gomez in final negotiations to produce the film, with Ilana Peña ("Diary of a Future President") adapting the script. The site doesn't say if Gomez would star in the role made famous by Melanie Griffith, though she would be a great choice, with a very different feel than Griffith had. And a different feel is certainly called for with a new take on this film.
"Working...
The post What Selena Gomez's Working Girl Reboot Needs to Do to Be Relevant For the Here and Now appeared first on /Film.
If prestige TV has taught us anything, it's that rich people problems are all the rage. Coming off of multiple TV series that prove this point, David E. Kelley ("Big Little Lies," "Anatomy of a Scandal") is heading back to Netflix with an adaptation of Tom Wolfe's 1998 novel, "A Man In Full." The series is a joint production with Regina King ("One Night In Miami") who is also set to direct. Together, this talented duo will tell the story of a real estate mogul on the verge of bankruptcy, struggling to maintain his wealth in...
The post A Man in Full: Everything We Know So Far About David E. Kelley and Regina King's Netflix Series appeared first on /Film.
Ever hear that saying about how you've made your bed and now you have to lie in it? Anyway, on a completely different and unrelated note, it would seem that Netflix's preferred viewership metrics may have come back to bite the streaming service with their most recent crown jewel.
Netflix's latest blockbuster offering, "The Gray Man," has been proudly touted as their most expensive film yet (although that claim may be somewhat dubious, as Slate's Sam Adams explained here) and is even set to kickstart a whole new franchise of its own -- presuming that announcement wasn't just a cynical ploy to encourage as...
The post Netflix's $200 Million The Gray Man Only Spent 8 Days Atop Its Streaming Rankings appeared first on /Film.
The original "Law & Order" is second only to spinoff "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" as one of the longest-running scripted primetime television series ever. Twelve years after going off the air, the original series was revived in 2022, with a forthcoming season already announced. Love it or hate it, that's an incredible feat, especially when accounting for the success of subsequent spinoffs. While not every entry has matched the original, "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" and the aforementioned "Special Victims Unit" are part and parcel with the universe itself. When a viewer mentions "Law & Order," they could reasonably be talking about any...
The post The 10 Best ADAs in the Law & Order Universe Ranked appeared first on /Film.
Over the course of just two films, Ari Aster has solidified himself as one of the boldest storytellers in the horror genre, sitting alongside filmmakers like Jordan Peele and Robert Eggers. The director arrived on the scene with 2018's "Hereditary," a horror film that told a frighteningly surreal story about one family dealing with grief and familial trauma. That theme of trauma would carry over into his next horror film in 2019 with "Midsommar." The Florence Pugh-led Swedish folk horror story would find Aster the subject of rave notices once again.
The fact that the two films were released within a year of...
The post Taking A Break Between Hereditary And Midsommar Wasn't An Option For Ari Aster appeared first on /Film.
The final episode of "Star Trek: Enterprise" aired on May 13, 2005, effectively drawing the curtain on the franchise for the foreseeable future. It seemed that "Star Trek" was going to gracefully drift off into the heavens, a pop culture tentpole left comfortably in the past. Thanks to complicated studio politicking, however, Viacom, the company that owned "Star Trek" split in two in 2006, leaving "Star Trek" divided in half. One half of Viacom owned the film rights to "Star Trek" while the other half -- CBS -- owned the TV rights. It was during this time that CBS began heavily pushing Trek DVDs...
The post John Cho's Star Trek Audition Could Have Been His Career's Last appeared first on /Film.
Johnnie Burn is one of the mad geniuses behind Jordan Peele's "Nope." Burn, who knows his undeniably fantastic name sounds like it belongs to a rock star, is the sound designer, re-recording mixer, and supervising sound editor responsible for the science-fiction film. For a movie that blends horror, comedy, fantasy, and family drama, Peele's original story left Burn a lot of room to play.
With only a few notable locations, Burn helps create a vast world full of mystery in one extraordinary valley in California. He wanted truly alien sounds, as well as to capture the beauty and fear that nature can inspire. "Nope"...
The post Nope Sound Designer Johnnie Burn on Balancing Realism and Spectacle [Spoiler Interview] appeared first on /Film.
In the violent, disturbing, and very bloody world of "The Boys," nothing is off the table. Prime Video's subversive superhero satire has quite the reputation for depravity, and three seasons into its run, viewers have seen everything from a full-blown superpowered orgy to hundreds of innocents murdered by so-called heroes. Some of the show's most disturbing moments don't even need blood and guts to shock us — one scene of Homelander with a glass of milk is enough to scar you for life! But that doesn't stop "The Boys" from embracing the darkest depths of violence on a regular basis. Heads explode,...
The post Every Sea Creature The Deep Has Killed (So Far) In The Boys appeared first on /Film.
In 2012, Disney was getting ready to make its biggest franchise play ever with "The Avengers," a film that saw several different individual film franchises crossover with one another to form something greater. This had never been done before in the cinematic space, at least not on this scale. While that movie went on to become a $1.5 billion hit that has defined the following decade of blockbuster filmmaking, it wasn't really Disney's biggest franchise play that year.
Unfortunately for "John Carter" and everyone involved, the bigger play didn't pan out as anyone had hoped.
Rather, "John Carter" went...
The post Why John Carter Bombed At The Box Office, And What We Can Learn From It appeared first on /Film.
Everything is going to continue being everywhere all at once if Universal has anything to say about it: Talented maximalist filmmakers Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert have just signed an exclusive five-year deal with the studio, Variety reports. The team behind "Everything Everywhere All At Once" is having a pretty great week, as that film recently crossed the $100 million mark at the box office and Showtime just greenlit a pilot from the filmmakers yesterday. The Daniels' producing partner Jonathan Wang is also included in the agreement.
The two "Swiss Army Man" filmmakers shared a statement on the...
The post Everything Everywhere All At Once Directors Sign Deal With Universal to Make More Probably Great Movies appeared first on /Film.
Adam Sandler is a polarizing figure among film fans, partly due to the odd pendulum swing of the later stage of his career. He'll make a few shaggy comedies (often so that he can go on vacation), follow those up with a well-received turn in a more prestigious film, and then start the whole cycle over again. There's nothing inherently wrong with making goofy movies with your friends and getting Netflix to pay you to visit beautiful locations — it's an opportunity most people would likely jump at, given the chance.
However, the racism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, fatphobia, and misogyny that run rampant through Sandler's comedies make...
The post Every Adam Sandler Exclusive Netflix Movie Ranked appeared first on /Film.
The hit FX series "Atlanta" is back for a final season, and they've just dropped a trailer and premiere release date. The sharp, often scary satire will return to FX on September 15, 2022, and will be available to stream on Hulu. The series follows young music producer Earn (Donald Glover), his on-and-off girlfriend Van (Zazie Beetz), his rapper cousin Alfred (Brian Tyree-Henry), and Alfred's oddball friend Darius (LaKeith Stanfield) and has been praised by critics and audiences alike for its raw and surreal portrayal of life as a Black American. Glover, who also created the series, once called the show "Twin Peaks for rappers," and that bizarre...
The post Atlanta Season 4 Trailer: The Final Season Heads Back to the ATL appeared first on /Film.
The final episode of the first season of "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" -- titled "A Quality of Mercy" -- ran a "What If...?" scenario that put Captain Pike (Anson Mount) in the Enterprise's captain's chair during the events of the original series episode "Balance of Terror." In this parallel universe (provided by some handy-dandy Klingon time crystals) Pike was also allowed to meet Captain Kirk (Paul Wesley), who was captain of a ship called the U.S.S. Farragut. Pike and Kirk were not only able to converse, but Trekkies also received the opportunity to juxtapose the two men's command styles. Pike, cool-headed...
The post How The Vampire Diaries Prepared Paul Wesley To Play Star Trek's Captain Kirk appeared first on /Film.
Charles Darwin famously theorized that evolution was the result of "survival of the fittest." When it comes to surviving science-fiction horror movies, brains almost exclusively rule over brawn. Science-fiction horror deals with stories that feel beyond the capabilities of our wildest imaginations, but the horrors are often defeated by using the ol' noggin and executing critical thinking skills learned in even the most rudimentary science classes. Sure, there are movies like "Alien" that could be survived by simply "not being an astronaut and staying at home with Jones the cat," or refusing to get the brain operation in "Possessor," but what about the films that throw humanity into the thick...
The post Sci-fi Horror Movies Most People Could Actually Survive appeared first on /Film.
Netflix has released a trailer for the upcoming film "I Came By," starring Hugh Bonneville ("Paddington," "Downton Abbey"), George MacKay ("1917"), and Kelly Macdonald ("Boardwalk Empire"). It's the story of a young graffiti artist (MacKay) who gets pulled into a dangerous situation when he sees the wrong thing at the home of a judge (Bonneville) while hiding in his basement after breaking in. After a zillion horror and suspense films, you have to ask yourself why we even have basements anymore. Their only purpose seems to be for water heaters, crime, and monsters, and the lights just never work correctly.
The tagline in the trailer is,...
The post I Came By Trailer: Basements are clearly for monsters and crime appeared first on /Film.
Leave it to James Gunn to cut through the fan speculation and just flat out lay his cards on the table. Since Kevin Feige revealed the timeline for the next two phases of the MCU, the super-obsessed fans have been pouring over it trying to read between the lines and anticipate surprises over the next couple of years. One of the wildcards in the mix is, of course, Gunn's upcoming "The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special" which is set to air this December on Disney+. Not much is known about it, but it has the...
The post James Gunn Says The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special Is The Epilogue To Phase 4 Of The MCU appeared first on /Film.
One of the most memorable sequences in the classic anime "Naruto" is an early fight in episode 30 between Sasuke, Naruto's rival, and the villainous snake-man Orochimaru. Dramatic camera angles heighten the action, but keep the detailed hand-to-hand combat legible. Sasuke's body springs off-model as he throws kunai and breathes fire with his whole strength. Orochimaru runs so quickly that he outpaces his own dust-cloud, stretching serpent-like across three-dimensional space. Yet Sasuke, by using the all-seeing Sharingan eyes passed through his family lineage, is able to trace Orochimaru's movements. It's an incredible scene that could only have been done in animation, and arguably exceeds "Naruto" creator Masashi Kishimoto's original...
The post The Naruto Fight That Changed Animation History appeared first on /Film.
"Contact" was the first movie Robert Zemeckis directed after winning an Oscar for Best Director on "Forrest Gump" in 1995. The film stars Jodie Foster as Ellie Arroway, a scientist whose lifelong search for proof of extraterrestrial life is vindicated when she uncovers a mysterious signal from Vega, a star system 26 light-years away from Earth. Ellie spends much of the movie debating the validity of this signal and its implications with those in her orbit, including the Christian philosopher and her part-time lover Palmer Joss (Matthew McConaughey). When Ellie argues that he cannot actually prove God exists, Palmer asks Ellie...
The post A Legal Battle With Francis Ford Coppola Could Have Been The End Of Contact appeared first on /Film.
Comedian Ian Abramson is about to become every movie fanatic's favorite funny man. Now, I don't know the guy personally, but I caught his appearance on "Conan," where he performed most of his set while wearing a shock collar and allowing a random audience member to shock him if they didn't find the joke funny. Therefore, I think it's safe to say that Abramson is kind of a weird dude, but in the best way possible.
During the early stages of the 2020 quarantine, Abramson hosted an at-home parody of "Saturday Night Live," which is an infinitely better way...
The post The Alamo Drafthouse LA is Hosting a Movie Mash-Up Sketch Comedy Show and You're Invited appeared first on /Film.
(Superhero Bits is a collection of stories, updates, and videos about anything and everything inspired by the comics of Marvel, DC, and more. For comic book movies, TV shows, merchandise, events, and whatever catches our eye, this is the place to find anything that falls through the cracks.)
In this edition of Superhero Bits:
A big preview of the "Gotham Knights" gameplay.
A certain anti-hero makes his way to "DC League of Super-Pets."
Tony Dalton wants to come back to the MCU.
A new synopsis for Marvel's "Secret Invasion" series.
All that and more!
"DC League of Super-Pets" made its...
The post Superhero Bits: A Massive Gotham Knights Gameplay Video, The Secret Invasion Synopsis & More appeared first on /Film.
"The Sandman" is the comic that got me into comics. While I would go on to consume Marvel, DC, and every indie book in between, that love affair began with Neil Gaiman's magnum opus. I've been extremely nervous about Netflix's upcoming adaptation, because translating this comic from page to screen seems impossible. Gaiman probably put it best when he said in David Hughes' book "Tales From Development Hell" that the process of trying to make "The Sandman" into a movie was "like taking a baby and cutting off both of its arms and one of its legs and nose and trying to cram it...
The post The Future Sandman Storyline Neil Gaiman is Most Excited to See appeared first on /Film.
When "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" came out, fans were excited to see a face they hadn't spied since 2008's "The Incredible Hulk." During a scene in a fight club, Abomination appeared in the ring, brought there by none other than the Sorcerer Supreme Wong (Benedict Wong). While that seems like a shady thing for the guy who is supposed to be running the magic side of things to do, it's Wong we're talking about. Whatever his plan, it's probably a good one.
That was a character I didn't think we'd see again. After all, this was back when Edward Norton,...
The post How the She-Hulk Cast Helped Ease Tim Roth Back Into the MCU appeared first on /Film.
The 10-episode first season of "The Sandman" arrives this Friday, August 5, adapting the first two volumes of the beloved comic series of the same name. In a recent press day attended by fellow /Film writer Danielle Ryan, Kirby Howell-Baptiste spoke about the similarities in how the show and the comics are structured. The actor, who plays Death in the series, explained that this is a show where "there are no small players." Every character plays a key, memorable role, even if they aren't a constant presence.
That's because "The Sandman" isn't structured like a 10-hour movie, but one that embraces the more episodic structure...
The post One Key Aspect The Sandman TV Series Shares With the Comics appeared first on /Film.
To the relief of many people, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have no involvement in the forthcoming series "House of the Dragon." The two shepherded "Game of Thrones" for its eight seasons, and the response to the show's final season showed there was little love remaining from the fans. While I'm not as hard on the final season as a lot of people, I can't deny there was a drop in quality as the show reached its conclusion. After that much time, some other creative folks needed to take the reins and see what they could do with Westeros.
Out of all the proposed...
The post George R.R. Martin Personally Recommended House Of The Dragon's Showrunner To HBO appeared first on /Film.
Comic book fans can be real sticklers for accuracy, and the casting announcements for the Netflix adaptation of "The Sandman" had some fans getting their "Swamp Thing" undies in a twist. Some of the characters had been gender-swapped, including the fallen angel Lucifer (played by "Game of Thrones" star Gwendoline Christie) and the Dreaming's librarian, Lucienne (played by "The One" star Vivienne Acheampong). Fan theories regarding the casting of Jenna Coleman ("Doctor Who") as Johanna Constantine began cropping up all over the internet.
Johanna Constantine appears in "The Sandman" comics at one point, but so does her descendant, John Constantine. In fact, John pops up in the first "Sandman" comic...
The post Why The Sandman Transformed John Constantine Into Johanna Constantine appeared first on /Film.
"Skinamarink" is a kinder trauma experiment put to screen with indescribable contents. Writer and director Kyle Edward Ball epitomizes arthouse classifiers while channeling childhood fears with marvelous rawness. Reader beware, because "Skinamarink" is exquisitely divisive — the kind of film that will balance zero and five-star reviews. That said, those seeking an abstract exploration of lights-out anxieties by lo-fi means should seek this shot-on-film-lookin' curiosity that abides by no conventional filmmaking rules. Imaginative children play and create on their boundless terms anyway because rules are made to be broken, aren't they?
Whatever loose narrative Ball constructs follows siblings Kevin (Lucas Paul) and Kaylee (Dali Rose...
The post Skinamarink Review: An Experimental Kinder Trauma Horror Experience [Fantasia] appeared first on /Film.
Last week the news leaked that "Mindhunter" actor Holt McCallany had joined the cast of "Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning - Part Two," and while we still have no idea what these movies are about, the casting news continue to roll. Writer/director Christopher McQuarrie himself announced on Twitter that none other than Nick Offerman has accepted the mission to join the ensemble cast of the eighth "Mission Impossible" film.
The news comes from the Light the Fuse podcast, where McQuarrie talked about Offerman and McCallany joining the cast — he also revealed on that same tweet that Janet McTeer is also joining the film.
"Nick is quite literally drinking from...
The post Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning - Part Two Has Added Nick Offerman appeared first on /Film.
The filmmaking duo known collectively as Daniels (Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert) struck rhetorical gold with their multiverse-spanning A24 outing "Everything Everywhere All At Once." The film, which just became A24's first film to cross the $100 million mark at the global box office, had remarkable legs — alongside strong critical acclaim — for a mind-bending feature about a woman who starts jumping through her alternate universe lives while struggling with taxes. It's a wonderful surrealist comedy with action and sci-fi elements, showcasing the directors' creativity and talent in one of the best movies of the year.
The dynamic directing duo...
The post Everything Everywhere All At Once Directors Team With Nathan Min and Steven Yeun For A24 Comedy Pilot appeared first on /Film.
This article contains mentions of alcoholism, addiction, suicide, and miscarriage.
Back in the '90s, BoJack Horseman was in a very famous TV-show, but in Netflix's critically-acclaimed "BoJack Horseman," viewers get to know the man (er, horse) behind the sitcom characters: a self-destructive, alcoholic, depressed guy who can't come to terms with the fact that his best days might be behind him. The world of "BoJack Horseman" is a colorful, zany one. Its version of the entertainment industry is much like our own, except this universe is full of anthropomorphized animals living alongside humans. Sometimes, celebrity cameos translate 1:1; after all, how can you improve on Beyoncé? Other times, the show invents new versions...
The post The 14 Best BoJack Horseman Episodes, Ranked appeared first on /Film.
The CW's longest-running drama is coming to an end. "The Flash" will conclude with its upcoming ninth season, The Wrap reports. The series about super-speedy hero Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) just concluded its eighth season in June, and is set to wrap up with just 13 more episodes.
The DC Comics-inspired series was one of just a handful of The CW shows that wasn't axed this past spring, when the network announced the cancellation of seven different scripted series in one day. Among those were three DC shows: newbie "Naomi," Ruby Rose-led "Batwoman," and "Legends of Tomorrow," which was another long-running superhero season with...
The post The Flash Season 9 Will Bring The Series To An End appeared first on /Film.
"Resurrection" is a startling vision. Writer/director Andrew Semans often uses the mundane to create suspense and unease, giving the audience the sense that a monster is always waiting around the corner. In the horror film, the monster (played by Tim Roth) returns from Margaret's (Rebecca Hall) past with a singular goal in mind. Without spoiling it quite yet, let's just say the movie concludes with an ending no one will see coming at the start.
It's an ambitious conclusion. At one point during a recent interview, Semans told us he even "chickened out" and wrote a more conventional finale out of fear it was too much,...
The post Resurrection Director Andrew Semans Always Had That Big Ending in Mind [Interview] appeared first on /Film.
If "Game of Thrones" had an abundance of anything, it was characters. There were enough names and titles (especially titles) to fill an entire library — and make audiences confused about who is who. The show had its fair share of good and innocent characters, evil bastards, criminals, jerks, opportunists, and more. But some of the most memorable characters fell in one of two camps: Smart manipulators like Varys, or chaotic monsters like Ramsay Bolton.
Those characters represented two approaches to the titular game of thrones, exemplifying opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of what a character could do in order to...
The post Matt Smith's Daemon Targaryen Is 'There To Cause Chaos' In House of the Dragon appeared first on /Film.
Sitcom revivals are a dime a dozen these days, but until news broke about Netflix's "That '90s Show," a "That '70s Show" redux has never seemed likely. For one thing, the show already tried as much way back in 2002, with a poorly received spin-off called "That '80s Show" (starring Glenn Howerton, no less). For another, the show had a beautiful send-off after eight seasons, reuniting Eric (Topher Grace) and Donna (Laura Prepon) and ending with the Point Place gang ushering in a new year and a new decade.
Yet, somehow, not only is "That '90s Show" really happening, but it's shaping up to include...
The post Why Ashton Kutcher is Returning For That '90s Show appeared first on /Film.
Just about everyone in Britain can do a Michael Caine impression. With that voice, why wouldn't you throw a random "You're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!" or "Don't throw those bloody spears at me!" into conversation from time to time? Those lines have become so famous, they've almost become separate entities from the films they appeared in ("The Italian Job" and"Zulu," respectively).
Caine is also a pretty good actor, too. While younger audiences probably know him best as Christopher Nolan's go-to man for a little elder statesman gravitas, he had a long and varied career spanning over 50 years before...
The post The Classic Film That Inspired Michael Caine To Be An Actor appeared first on /Film.
Spoilers for season 4 of "Westworld" ahead.
In the fourth episode of season 4 of "Westworld," the various story threads finally came together into a cohesive narrative, and last week's fifth episode, "Zhuangzi," dealt with the fallout of that collision of character arcs, following a number of hosts in Hale's (Tessa Thompson) "perfect world" as they begin to realize that their lives are not all they seem.
Christina (Evan Rachel Wood) went on a date with Teddy (James Marsden) that forced her to question the nature of her reality, while Hale, William (Ed Harris), and Clementine (Angela Sarafyan) handle a bizarre phenomenon they call "outliers," who...
The post In Westworld Season 4, Episode 6, Everyone's 'Fidelity' is Put to the Test appeared first on /Film.
What words could we possibly use to describe Orson Welles? Genius, revolutionary, artist, passionate, and many more might come to mind if you only know about his creative work. That is more than fine, but if you do know about the man in front of and behind the camera, one of the words that probably came to mind was "petty." Perhaps one of the reasons why Welles has been able to resonate so deeply with younger generations of film fans was his tendency to openly criticize and beef with other directors. You don't get that chaotic energy anymore!
He was pretty relentless when it came...
The post Orson Welles Couldn't Understand Why Alfred Hitchcock Was Popular appeared first on /Film.
Mickey Rourke is one of Hollywood's true mavericks. Even in his '80s heyday when most of his contemporaries were so clean cut, he looked like he'd drifted onto set after an all-nighter in a dive bar. His softly mumbling, soulful charisma drew comparisons with Marlon Brando in his early years, but his mysterious presence was more of an all-encompassing vibe than the older actor's magnetic focal point.
Intense yet elusive, he was a rebel and an outlaw spirit whose talent came from a completely different place, maybe because he only took up acting after his boxing career was curtailed. I think of him...
The post Mickey Rourke Went A Little Too Far With His Con Air Audition appeared first on /Film.
Joe and Anthony Russo's path to becoming the kingpins of the Marvel Cinematic Universe was neither direct nor likely. Prior to taking on "Captain America: The Winter Soldier," the brothers had been most successful as single-camera sitcom directors; they won an Emmy for their work on the pilot of "Arrested Development," and shot some of the most beloved episodes of "Community." They were far less successful as filmmakers. Their first feature, "Welcome to Collinwood," a remake of Mario Monicelli's delightful heist flick "Big Deal on Madonna Street" starring William H. Macy, Sam Rockwell and George Clooney, fell flat with critics and audiences. Their second effort,...
The post How Steven Soderbergh Shaped The Russo Brothers' Filmmaking Style appeared first on /Film.
"Doctor Who" is probably one of the most chaotic media franchises ever created, and we don't say that lightly. This is a franchise that has tons of lost episodes because of shoddy recording methods, as well as several plotlines that have either been drastically reduced in scope or completely cut altogether. It's kind of a miracle that it has lasted in popularity and relevance for as long as it has.
Arguably the most chaotic aspect of the franchise is its continuity, which can charitably be described as flimsy. Look, when you've gone through as many actors for one character as the titular Doctor has, that's...
The post The Wild Doctor Who Movie That Was Never Made appeared first on /Film.
Prolific French filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard once said of the filmmaking process, "The cinema is not a craft. It is an art. It does not mean teamwork. One is always alone on the set as before the blank page." It is a belief in cinema known as the auteur theory, an assumption that the director of a film is essentially its author and the sole person responsible for the overall look and style of a film.
The auteur theory is, pardon the pun, a novel concept. But it's also inherently flawed. The theory doesn't account for the necessary collaboration that takes place during a...
The post George Clooney Helped Alfonso Cuarón Craft One Of Gravity's Most Pivotal Scenes appeared first on /Film.
Since the inception of "Star Trek" in the 1960s, part of its core was that humanity had evolved past any kind of cultural divide amongst itself, be it race, religion, or anything else that makes one person hate another. It is still a sentiment that resonates with generations of people who hope that tomorrow will better than today.
The impact of Nichelle Nichols, who sadly passed away at the age of 89, cannot be understated. She played Lieutenant Uhara on "Star Trek: The Original Series." This was a communications specialist working aboard a spaceship with a mission of exploration and the pursuit of knowledge. Yes, we...
The post Nichelle Nichols Inspired The First African-American Woman To Go To Space appeared first on /Film.
The "Ring" franchise is one of the broader and more sprawling in current horror. The timeline on "The Ring" goes back to 1991 with the publication of Koji Suzuki's novel, called merely "Ring," which spawned two sequels called "Spiral" (1995) and "Loop" (1998). "Ring" was first adapted to film in 1995 with the TV movie "Ring: Kanzenban," and then adapted to manga and to audio drama in 1996. A famous film adaptation came out in 1998 which spawned a Korean remake, "The Ring Virus," and a TV series "The Ring: The Final Chapter," both in 1999. In 2002, director Gore Verbinski made an American,...
The post The Himeji Castle Horror Story That Inspired The Ring And Ringu appeared first on /Film.
An actor's performance can change how a character is written — even when that performance is coming from inside a recording booth. Lauren Tom, the voice of Amy Wong on "Futurama," is one such performance. No space travel show is complete without an engineer character, and it seems that early in development, Amy was supposed to be that character on "Futurama."
After casting the more feminine Lauren Tom, the production team of "Futurama" revamped Amy to better fit her comic persona. Speaking to People Magazine in 2018, Lauren Tom recounted that "the concept for Amy, originally, was that she was supposed to...
The post Casting Amy's Futurama Voice Actor Caused Some Major Changes To The Character appeared first on /Film.
Big TV crossover events aren't nearly as ubiquitous as they used to be. Forget about huge interconnected universes like the Arrowverse and don't even get me started on the many Marvel heroes beginning to cross paths on Disney+. I'm talking about the magic of "Scoobynatural," or that time the Simpsons met the Griffins when "Family Guy" and "The Simpsons" came together. My favorite versions of this came from childhood cartoons, in the heyday of Disney and Nickelodeon's animated hits ("The Jimmy Timmy Power Hour," you will always be famous). But while there's not much hope for the Bridgertons to cameo in next...
The post The Brooklyn Nine-Nine and New Girl Crossover Episodes Created Some Problems, Folks appeared first on /Film.
"It was all just a dream" is one of the most annoying plot twists that science fiction movies can use. Even if a great movie precedes it, revealing that nothing in the plot mattered is a pretty good way to leave your audience disappointed. That being said, dreams can be used effectively in science fiction films to foreshadow future events, reveal insights about the characters, and create interesting visual motifs. Even if dreams are occasionally used as a "cop-out," some of the best science fiction movies of all time rely on critical moments from inside a character's subconscious.
Any dream sequence that is taken out of context...
The post The weirdest dream sequences in sci-fi movies appeared first on /Film.
(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.)
The Movie: "The Beastmaster" (1982)
Where You Can Stream It: Amazon Prime
The Pitch: Family entertainment was a bit of a different beast in the '80s, no pun intended. The movies aimed at kids, like "Gremlins" and "The Neverending Story" and "Return to Oz" and even Disney's "The Black Cauldron" were spooky, if not straight-up traumatizing. Then you have the nightmare-inducers like today's title, "The Beastmaster," which is inexplicably rated PG...
The post The Daily Stream: The Beastmaster Remains the Scrappy, Weird Alternative to Conan the Barbarian appeared first on /Film.
If you were at San Diego Comic-Con, you likely saw a large billboard for a new animated series called "Krapopolis" through the windows of the convention center. It showed some characters that looked like they were from ancient Greece, and under the title, the billboard read, "From Dan Harmon, co-creator of 'Rick and Morty,'" which should give you an idea about the show's humor.
"Krapopolis" is coming to Fox, and is going take us back to one of Europe's first bustling cities, where gods, humans, and monsters co-exist. According to the text under the preview clip that was released on YouTube, this show isn't just...
The post Krapopolis: Everything We Know So Far About Dan Harmon's Adult Animated Comedy appeared first on /Film.
When the Wisconsin-born trio of David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker (aka ZAZ) unleashed the comedy hit of 1980 in "Airplane!" (which shockingly outgrossed the higher-profile "Caddyshack"), Hollywood immediately set out to capitalize on the boys' relentless brand of spoofery. ZAZ's gag-a-second style was a dream come true for box-office obsessed studios; the jokes came so fast and hit so hard that the audience's roaring laughter often drowned out the next few jokes. This meant repeat viewings were a must. Paramount begged the filmmakers to deliver an "Airplane!" sequel posthaste. They declined and spent their clout on a...
The post TV, Interrupted: Police Squad! Was The Definitive Parody Of Police Procedurals, And Could Be Again appeared first on /Film.
With its gumption, charm, and an empowering story, 1992's "A League of Their Own" is one of the most lovable sports movies ever made. The Penny Marshall-directed comedic drama stars Geena Davis and Lori Petty as two sisters who make it big in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League in the 1940s. Along the way, they meet a ragtag team of talented gals including Madonna's flirtatious center fielder "All the Way" Mae, Rosie O'Donnell's third baseman Doris, and Tom Hanks' booze-drenched manager, Jimmy Dugan.
Apparently, despite the indelible imprint the vibrant female cast left on pop culture, the team behind the film...
The post Why Columbia Scrapped A Tom Hanks Prequel To A League Of Their Own appeared first on /Film.
If you have any interest in pursuing a career as a director, one of the first books you should read is Sidney Lumet's "Making Movies." It is not a heavily technical guide to the craft. Far from it. It's basically about how to set down a solid foundation that will allow you to withstand the vicissitudes of production. Lumet's process is a tad old-fashioned in that he cut his teeth in Off-Broadway theater before staging adaptations of plays for television. Lumet was not concerned with establishing a signature visual style. He was fixated on conveying the truth of the work. To do so, he prioritized...
The post Preparation Was the Key to Sidney Lumet's Filmmaking Style appeared first on /Film.
Oh, Dexter. That lovable scamp. The Showtime crime drama series that housed the disturbed forensic analyst (played by Michael C. Hall) racked up a sky-high body count over its eight-season run, and even more in its 2021 limited revival series "Dexter: New Blood." Though the first season of the "Dexter" series was based on Jeff Lindsay's "Darkly Dreaming Dexter" novels, the protagonist -- a blood spatter technician with the Miami Metro Police Department, moonlighting as a vigilante killer -- goes beyond the works of his creator, tallying over 140 kills from 2006-2013.
But which season had the most Dexter-responsible deaths of them all? Finding the...
The post The Season of Dexter With the Highest Body Count appeared first on /Film.
The globally acclaimed Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa had a long a fruitful career, but like many artists, it got off to a rocky start. The Japanese government was aligned with the Axis powers in the 1940s and was strongly opposed to Western influences in media. They put extreme censors in place and directors had to gain their approval at each stage of the filmmaking process. For the first several years of his career, Kurosawa had to fight these censors at every turn to get his films made.
Kurosawa's debut film, "Sanshiro Sugata," was not the first original script he submitted to the Japanese...
The post Akira Kurosawa's Early Career Was A Constant Struggle With The Censors appeared first on /Film.
Dan Harmon's "Community" was a show that hid its clever interplay between characters behind the veil of a traditional NBC sitcom. Set in the fictional Greendale Community College, "Community" started as a show revolving around a study group for a Spanish class. This group of characters would eventually find other courses to take together and form a kinship that could only be formed in what is very well the most insane community college in this history of NBC sitcoms.
The series' #sixseasonsandamovie mantra still goes strong to this day, with the turbulent history of the show always being a focal point of discussion. From...
The post Community Cut A Joke That Would Have Completely Changed Shirley's Character appeared first on /Film.
"The Rock," Michael Bay's gloriously over-the-top action hit from 1996, represents a transition stage for Nicolas Cage. Fresh off winning an Academy Award for "Leaving Las Vegas," Cage ventured into blockbuster territory in his follow-up project, then rode the success into nineties action movie stardom with "Con Air and "Face/Off" the following year. It turns out, however, that the already highly established action hero Arnold Schwarzenegger was initially offered Cage's part before turning it down based on the shoddy quality of its screenplay.
It's difficult to say at what point exactly in the writing process Don Simpson, the other of half of a...
The post A Half-Baked Script Wasn't Enough To Sell Arnold Schwarzenegger On The Rock appeared first on /Film.
Every modern-day Whovian knows Russell T. Davies was instrumental in helping revive "Doctor Who" after its 16-year hiatus in 2005. The BBC sci-fi series made a memorable return to television with Christopher Eccleston leading the series as the ninth incarnation of the Time Lord. It was an incredible moment for fans who had been denied new episodes for years, and it helped that "Doctor Who" had been reinvented for an entirely new audience. While the show's essence remained, its lore had been revisited, and the show now used its sci-fi elements to assess the human race. With "Doctor Who" reinvented for a global...
The post Russell T. Davies Had 'Massive Doubts' About Working On Doctor Who appeared first on /Film.
Sidney Lumet was born to the boards. His parents were theatrical professionals who thrust him into Broadway productions before he'd turned 10. But, as a young man, he came to love actors more than he loved acting. In his 20s, he earned acclaim as an Off-Broadway director, which drew the attention of television producers looking to bring quality theater into the homes of Americans not fortunate enough to live in New York City. He thrived, partially due to his facility with performers, but also because he wasn't an auteur eager to stamp his visual imprint on the work. He served the play because, in theater, the...
The post Network's Dialogue Didn't Leave Any Room For Error appeared first on /Film.
The "Deadpool" films were a production that came from a place of passion. The first "Deadpool" film fought tooth and nail to come to fruition. A few leaked demo reels later, director Tim Miller with star Ryan Reynolds brought a true-to-form R-rated "Deadpool" to audiences in 2016, quickly becoming one of the most successful R-rated films of all time. Moreover, "Deadpool" showed the comic book film landscape that you didn't need to be restricted to a PG-13 rating to be successful. When "Deadpool 2" finally came around, creative differences led to director Tim Miller's parting with the franchise.
While screenwriters Rhett Reese and...
The post David Leitch Had A Tightrope To Walk While Directing Deadpool 2 appeared first on /Film.
Across the 700+ episodes of "The Simpsons," you'd be hard-pressed to find one which exists in as much infamy as the second episode of season 9, "The Principal and the Pauper." Principal Seymour Skinner (Harry Shearer) is revealed as an imposter named Armin Tamzarian, a former street punk who took the name of his MIA commanding officer after the Vietnam War. This deception is unveiled when the real Skinner (Martin Sheen) returns to Springfield, but by the episode's end, the townspeople have decided they like the fake Skinner better. Thus, they send the real thing packing and vow to forget the whole episode.
Many have cited...
The post A Simpsons Writer Still Defends This Infamous Episode appeared first on /Film.
After the tragic passing of Chadwick Boseman, Marvel Studios made the decision to move forward with "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" without the replacing the beloved actor as T'Challa. Instead, it appears that the king of the reclusive warrior nation has also passed on to the Ancestral Plane (or as they said in "Moon Knight," the Astral Plane). Now, others in the Marvel Cinematic Universe like Nakia, M'Baku, and Namor will step up to have much larger parts in Ryan Coogler's follow-up to the massively successful 2018 film.
Although, the characters played by Lupita Nyong'o, Winston Duke, and Tenoch Huerta aren't the only...
The post Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Casts UFC Welterweight Champ Kamaru Usman in a Small Role appeared first on /Film.
FX's "Justified" is a series that isn't afraid to swim around in morally murky waters. Its title, after all, comes from the defense deputy U.S. Marshall Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant) has used more than once when tasked with explaining why he shot a civilian. Yet the series is often just as jaded about the myth of the American Western hero as it is inspired by gunslingers of decades past. For every action Raylan takes toward justice, there's Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins), an outlaw man in black ready to take the opposite path. The pair grew up together, and the series ultimately portrays...
The post The One Thing Walton Goggins Found Most Difficult About His Justified Character appeared first on /Film.
We can all agree that a deadly game of red light, green light has lots of theatrical potential, but that doesn't change the fact that somewhere in the world, a very talented musician is slamming the brakes on their plans to write "Squid Game! The Musical." Sorry Broadway — Netflix isn't too keen on musical fan works at the moment, especially those with the potential to make money. Per Reuters, the streamer is now in the process of suing Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear, the Grammy-winning duo behind the internet sensation, "The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical."
On the off chance that you haven't been...
The post Netflix Sues Grammy-Winning Creators of The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical For Copyright Infringement appeared first on /Film.
Another weekend of summer 2022 brings another top movie at the box office. Aside from "Top Gun: Maverick," few films this summer have been able to cling to the top spot for long, and this week appears to be no exception. "DC League of Super-Pets" has taken over the number one domestic slot this weekend, pushing Jordan Peele's "Nope" to second place a week after its release, according to Variety.
Despite its status at the top of the box office, "DC League of Super-Pets" still seems poised to have a pretty tepid first weekend compared to other recent...
The post DC League Of Super-Pets Has A Tough Fight Ahead With $22 Million Projected Box Office Debut appeared first on /Film.
Penny Marshall's 1992 feminist baseball drama "A League of Their Own" is a classic, the kind of movie that uses a very specific experience to tell a universal story. The movie follows the Rockford Peaches, a women's baseball team formed during World War II while all of the men were away fighting. The movie is beloved by fans for its willingness to tackle tough topics and feature so many female protagonists, making it fiercely progressive for 1992. The movie is still close to star Geena Davis' heart, so when talk of the new Prime Video series based on the film started coming out, fans wondered...
The post Why Geena Davis Gave Her Blessing To Amazon's A League Of Their Own appeared first on /Film.
Even if you aren't a horror fan, if you saw Freddy Krueger's shadowy silhouette, you'd be hard pressed not to know that it was him. Stalking nightmares since his debut in "A Nightmare on Elm Street," Krueger has cut a memorable swath through cinema, with his overall visual design haunting our dreams since in ways other slasher villains haven't. Krueger doesn't loom large in foreboding silence with his face covered up. After all, this isn't Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees, where we can easily project our fears of unknown assailants onto these silent villains. No, Krueger is monstrous to behold and relishes...
The post If Robert Englund Hadn't Put His Foot Down, Freddy Krueger's Signature Hat Might Be Different appeared first on /Film.
In the annals of movie history, few titles hold as much weight as "Citizen Kane," which has become shorthand for the Great American Film, like the Great American Novel, and is frequently shortlisted as such. It's not just the American Film Institute that thinks "Citizen Kane" is the best movie ever made. Once every 10 years, the British Film Institute's Sight and Sound magazine compiles its own renowned list of the 100 greatest movies of all time based on an international poll of critics, and from 1962 to 2012, when Alfred Hitchcock's "Vertigo" finally edged it out of the top spot, "Citizen Kane" reigned supreme.
However, when producer, director, star, and...
The post Citizen Kane Wasn't Always Seen As A Cinematic Classic appeared first on /Film.
When it comes to casting, the stakes are never higher than when adapting a much-loved book. That's something Peter Jackson took to heart when he embarked on the monumental quest to bring J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy tale "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy to the big screen. The journey undertaken to create the films was a colossal epic in itself — one that famously saw the director fight tooth and nail to maintain the integrity of Tolkien's story by giving each book its own movie. When it came to casting the roles of such iconic characters, Jackson knew he needed to...
The post Elijah Wood's Lord Of The Rings Audition Was A Little Out Of The Ordinary appeared first on /Film.
(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.)
The Series: "Hey Arnold!"
Where You Can Stream It: Hulu, Paramount+
The Pitch: This Nickelodeon cartoon follows the adventures of Arnold, a fourth-grader living with his grandparents in an inner-city boarding house. The episodes focus on Arnold and his friends' adventures navigating urban life and childhood, exploring the city and its many urban legends and characters. "Hey Arnold!" quietly broke new ground for children's cartoons by introducing more mature stories and combining the highest...
The post The Daily Stream: Hey Arnold! Is a Surprisingly Mature Show About Living In the Big City appeared first on /Film.
Reshoots and rewrites are par for the course in Hollywood, and can be particularly extensive where the Marvel Cinematic Universe is concerned. While the haphazard nature of some last-minute changes to MCU movies and streaming shows may have hard-working VFX artists fed up with the studio at present, the general public can rest assured that this is all part of the normal process -- just another day at the Marvel factory, so to speak. Case in point: "Secret Invasion," the latest Disney+ series to roll off the assembly line from Marvel Studios.
Actor Christopher McDonald, fresh off an Emmy nomination for his guest role on "Hacks," recently spoke with Awards Focus...
The post Secret Invasion Is Undergoing Story-Focused Reshoots With A New Writer appeared first on /Film.
Fandom can be brutal, and when fans think they know who should or shouldn't play a role, they're very vocal about it. Even with roles that are eventually praised, casting announcements often get a lot of backlash, especially when they're based on an existing property. It was no different with the HBO juggernaut "Game of Thrones." Fans of the book series "A Song of Ice and Fire" by George R.R. Martin had definite ideas in their heads about what each character looked like, and they had very strong opinions when the notices came out.
Peter Dinklage won four Emmy Awards for playing...
The post Peter Dinklage Didn't Get A Great First Impression Of The Game Of Thrones Fanbase appeared first on /Film.
"A League of Their Own" is celebrating its 30th anniversary this summer, and in the intervening decades since its release, Penny Marshall's baseball dramedy has found its way into the National Film Registry, while the immortal line, "There's no crying in baseball," has made it onto the American Film Institute's list of the 100 greatest movie quotes of all time. To date, the film has raked in over $130 million on a $40 million budget, which qualifies as at least a triple if not a home run, and its other player stats include a solid 81% Rotten Tomatoes review rating. Prime Video is reviving the...
The post A League Of Their Own Didn't Leave The Legacy Geena Davis Had Hoped For appeared first on /Film.
I've talked about this before, but as a fan of "The Boys," I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with The Deep. While he is one of the many supes on the show that use their abilities to establish dominance and superiority over those he considers to be weaker than him, I can't deny that Chace Crawford's character work is hilarious. He's the perfect comic relief character, a bumbling clown that you can't help but feel bad for because of how reprehensible he really is. Sure, he frequently ends up killing the animals he's sworn to protect, and he doesn't have the greatest love life, but...
The post The Boys' Writers Won't Deny Playing Favorites With The Deep appeared first on /Film.
Screenwriter Kevin Wade and producer Douglas Wick struggled to get the 1988 rom-com "Working Girl" off the ground. The two previously worked together on a project intended to be a thriller, but it never got made, and for a time it appeared their new project about a young New York secretary (Melanie Griffith) who pretends to be her two-timing boss (Sigourney Weaver) to negotiate a major deal with an investment broker (Harrison Ford) would suffer the same fate. Wade came up with the idea for the film while bike riding through Manhattan. In an oral history of the film on the occasion of its 30th...
The post A Real-Life Wall Street Scandal Changed The Fate Of Working Girl appeared first on /Film.
It speaks to the prestige of "Game of Thrones" that the HBO-exclusive series became one of the biggest shows on television of all time. From 2011 to 2019, you couldn't go anywhere without hearing about the Red Wedding or the Battle of the Bastards, whether you had the context of what was going on or not. Each episode garnered discussions about what this spectacular cast of characters was doing each week. If you weren't up to date, then you were left out of the conversation, dodging spoilers at every turn. Naturally, when it came to the final season, expectations were high for the ultimate,...
The post Peter Dinklage Still Has Some Frustrations With The Game of Thrones Fandom appeared first on /Film.
Genndy Tartakovsky has been a champion of animation for nearly 30 years, pushing conventional storytelling's boundaries. Not only has Tartakovsky helped establish animation as a medium for telling compelling stories, but he's also helped to move it forward in style, production value, and overall class. From his early work in "Dexter's Laboratory" to his visceral and kinetic work on "Star Wars: Clone Wars," Tartakovsky has always had a knack for visual storytelling. After serving as a director and creator on "Powerpuff Girls," Tartakovsky moved on to his next project in his still-growing career.
One of his most ambitious projects was "Samurai Jack," airing on Cartoon...
The post Samurai Jack's Initial Run Was Saddled With A Major Story Limitation appeared first on /Film.
Ari Aster's "Midsommar" contains one of the bleakest openings in cinema history. The audience sees, in explicit detail, the tragic deaths of a young woman and her parents by murder/suicide. Dani (Florence Pugh), the young woman's sister, begins the film in a place of deep emotional aching, an ache that is exacerbated by the brash distance kept by her teetering-on-the-brink-of-being-an-ex boyfriend Christian (Jack Reynor). Because he has no better ideas, Christian haphazardly drags Dani on a college research trip to a remote Midsommar festival -- a days long celebration of the summer solstice -- in a distant area of Sweden. Hallucinogens are consumed. Cultural misunderstandings commence....
The post Ari Aster's First Cut Of Midsommar Dwarfed The Theatrical Runtime appeared first on /Film.
It would've been massive. It would've been bloody. It could've been glorious. Instead, it remains unproduced.
Paul Verhoeven's "Crusade" is one of the most tantalizingly unmade films of the 1990s. If everything had gone according to plan, the $100 million-budgeted epic would've been the filmmaker's follow-up to "Basic Instinct." Written by Walon Green ("The Wild Bunch"), the film was to star Arnold Schwarzenegger as Hagen, a medieval serf who, condemned to die for an act of thievery, contrives a miracle that earns him the favor of Pope Urban II (played by Charlton Heston). Hagen is promptly hurtled into the holy war, where...
The post Paul Verhoeven Sunk A Film That Could Have Changed Arnold Schwarzenegger's Career appeared first on /Film.
There have been countless stories about actors doing their own stunts, whether it's for a simple fight scene or anything Tom Cruise wants to do during the "Mission: Impossible" films. However, perhaps no other movie required stunts as potentially dangerous as "Thirteen Lives," Ron Howard's biopic of the 2018 Tham Luang cave rescue mission in the Chiang Rai province of Thailand. The stunts required of actors Viggo Mortensen and Colin Farrell, who play two of the divers that helped rescue the trapped Wild Boars soccer team from the cave, diving equipment and skills that, if not implemented or used properly, could result...
The post Viggo Mortensen and Colin Farrell Made Their Thirteen Lives' Stunt Doubles Obsolete appeared first on /Film.
The dystopian sci-fi series "Raised by Wolves" was a collaborative effort by series creator Aaron Guzikowski and executive producer Ridley Scott, and the latter was heavily involved in the process of creating the look and feel of the show. Exploring android-human relations is not new territory for Scott, as the director has etched detailed, futuristic landscapes in his "Blade Runner" and "Alien," while "Prometheus" and "Alien: Covenant" dived deeper into android psyche with Michael Fassbender's David 8/Walter. Scott and Guzikowski take the concepts further in "Raised by Wolves," in which two androids arrive on an alien planet to create an atheistic colony...
The post Ridley Scott Went Low-Tech To Sell The Reality Of Raised By Wolves appeared first on /Film.
The fourth season of "Snowpiercer" has temporarily suspended production this week according to TNT (via ComicBook.com), as an ongoing heat wave continues to impact the show's British Columbia shooting location. Reports indicate that as many as 14 cast and crew members on the series visited the hospital this week with symptoms of heat exhaustion.
A spokesperson from TNT says that the production will up the number of medical personnel on set, and has advised cast and crew members to speak to them if concerned about heat-related illness. Cooling tents are also apparently being built for those on set. TNT's spokesperson also said the following:
The post Snowpiercer's Final Season Has Been Delayed For a Very Ironic Reason appeared first on /Film.
Horror comedies are difficult to execute well -- there needs to be just the right balance of terrifying scares and lighthearted laughs. But it truly is a wonderful subgenre when that balance is found. Films such as "The Lost Boys," "The Little House of Horrors," and "Shaun of the Dead" stand the test of time for this very reason, by being able to provide viewers with the adrenaline rush of horror, followed by the relief of comedy.
Admittedly, though, many horror comedies stretch their believability in order to create tension. Though there are some movies in the subgenre that the average person could probably survive if they...
The post Comedy Horror Movies The Average Person Would Never Survive appeared first on /Film.
Ant-Man and the Wasp won't return to the big screen until early next year, when they officially kick off Phase Five of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania." But Scott Lang and Hope van Dyne's biggest fans can get their fix ahead of the film's release aboard the Disney Wish.
Disney Cruise Line's latest vessel features the company's first Marvel interactive dining experience, dubbed "Worlds of Marvel – Avengers: Quantum Encounter," and it stars Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly in their popular, Pym tech-wielding roles. I recently took in the show on the ship's christening cruise and returned with all the details ... and...
The post Avengers: Quantum Encounter Combines Ant-Man and Dinner Theater appeared first on /Film.
(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.)
The Series: "The Americans"
Where You Can Stream It: Hulu
The Pitch: Philip and Elizabeth Jennings (Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell) are a prototypical American couple living in the suburbs of Virginia who, on the surface, appear perfectly normal. Their most exciting attribute happens to be that they live next door to a bland FBI agent, Stan Beeman (Noah Emmerich) -- along with the fact that they're actually covert Soviet...
The post The Daily Stream: The Americans Invites You to Come For The Espionage, Stay For The Marriage Metaphor (And The Wigs!) appeared first on /Film.
If you've read /Film's rundown of the best movies and TV shows coming to HBO Max in August 2022 (which, yes, okay, I wrote), you might have noticed there are a whole lot of A24 titles headed to the streamer that month. This is no accident, either: August will mark the indie studio's 10-year anniversary, with no less than 28 (!) A24 movies making their way onto the platform in honor of this special occasion.
A24, for those unfamiliar, has become the go-to home for low-budget director-driven films since it was founded, particularly sci-fi and horror movies deemed too niche or esoteric for mainstream...
The post Here's When You Can Watch Nearly Every A24 Film on HBO Max appeared first on /Film.
One of the more notable real-life Hollywood fairy tales is that of Grace Kelly.
Kelly, sold as one of showbiz's most glamorous performers, broke into feature films at age 22 with Henry Hathaway's 1951 film "Fourteen Hours," and she only acted in 10 additional scripted films over the next five years. She also had a prolific TV career, back when the medium was still chock full of theatrical "mini-movie" anthology programs with names like "Kraft Television Theater" and "Prudential Family Playhouse." She worked with John Ford ("Mogambo") and made three films with Alfred Hitchcock ("Dial M for Murder," "Rear Window," and "To Catch a Thief.")
In 1954, Kelly won...
The post The Reason Grace Kelly Walked Away From Hollywood appeared first on /Film.
Looking back, it's astonishing how large the character of Freddy Krueger loomed over the pop consciousness of the 1980s. Freddy, played by Robert Englund in eight of the nine "A Nightmare on Elm Street" movies, was a serial killer in the fictional town of Springwood, IL who had tortured and killed multiple neighborhood children. The adults of Springwood, in a fit of vigilante justice, ganged up on Freddy and burned him to death. Years thereafter, Freddy — burned and tattered and sporting a homemade glove with long metal claws — began haunting the dreams of Springwood's new generation of teens. Freddy,...
The post The Nightmare On Elm Street Prequel Pitch That Earned Robert Englund's Stamp Of Approval appeared first on /Film.
While "Game of Thrones" maybe wasn't the most intellectually rigorous show ever developed -- it was mainly about sex, dragons, zombies, and smashing people's faces in as gruesome a manner as possible, after all -- I think enough time has passed since its unceremonious end that we can give it a little credit for the things it did right. Remember, those excellent early seasons were largely focused on the nature of power and the question of what kind of person makes a good ruler, forcing viewers to engage with the themes of the story just as much as it...
The post Peter Dinklage Thinks If You Were Mad About the Game of Thrones Finale, You Weren't Paying Attention appeared first on /Film.
Long before Robin Williams portrayed everyone's favorite nanny in "Mrs. Doubtfire" or the Genie with a thousand voices, he was Mork from Ork. First introduced on "Happy Days," Mork was an eccentric alien from the planet Ork, who was sent to Earth to learn about primitive civilizations. This was the perfect platform for Robin Williams to show off his unbelievable talent on riffing on just about anything -- pop culture, politics, and pretty much every other subject you can imagine.
The premise of an alien invading the idyllic times of "Happy Days" sounds nuts, but the audience loved it. After...
The post Robin Williams Found A Clever Way To Sneak Material Past Mork & Mindy's Censors appeared first on /Film.
If you're a wrestling fan, you may know the story of Fritz Von Erich, 23-time world champion, and the sad history of his family. Von Erich was a pro-wrestler whose real name is Jack Barton Adkisson Sr. He played a German heel in the ring early in his career, and had a terribly tragic personal life. A24 is doing a film based on the story called "The Iron Claw." It is written and directed by Sean Durkin ("Martha Marcy May Marlene"), and will star Zac Efron ("The Greatest Showman," "Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile").
The title "The Iron Claw" comes from the nickname...
The post The Iron Claw: Everything We Know So Far About Zac Efron's Wrestling Movie appeared first on /Film.
(Superhero Bits is a collection of stories, updates, and videos about anything and everything inspired by the comics of Marvel, DC, and more. For comic book movies, TV shows, merchandise, events, and whatever catches our eye, this is the place to find anything that falls through the cracks.)
In this edition of Superhero Bits:
"Mrs. Marvel" star Iman Vellani argues with Marvel fans on Reddit.
We might not have seen the last of the Pizza Poppa in the MCU.
The Skrulls have been planning "Secret Invasion" for a long time.
A recent "Batman" villain is getting a...
The post Superhero Bits: More Pizza Poppa In The MCU, Chris Evans Advice For New Marvel Actors & More appeared first on /Film.
Welcome back, Blu-ray fiends. It's time yet again for another super-sized Blu-ray column, where I round up some of the best recent releases on home media. This week, we have the return of Doctor Strange, two 4K Criterion releases, a conspiracy-theory-laden documentary, an animated feature, and a mash-up of horror and film noir. It's a good bunch of movies, let me tell ya!
The prospect of Sam Raimi returning to directing was enough to get me excited for "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness," one of the latest entries in the MCU. However, I was also worried that Marvel's oppressive directing-by-committee style...
The post The Best New Blu-ray Releases: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Raging Bull on the Criterion Collection, and More appeared first on /Film.
For the past three decades, Karl Urban has been a regular face in genre productions. He first came to international attention for "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys" and "Xena: Warrior Princess" — across these shows, he played four different roles, including Julius Caesar and Cupid. He's since enjoyed a steady film career, either as supporting characters or heavies; he's just a bit too sinister to be a leading man.
However, that same presence is why his return to TV, as Billy Butcher on "The Boys," has been so successful. So, what was it that drew him to not just acting, but screen acting in particular? Let's find...
The post How Karl Urban Fell in Love With Filmmaking appeared first on /Film.
When Oliver Assayas first directed "Irma Vep" in 1996, it was a very different world for cinema. Since the takeover of streaming services, the director has noticed a shift in financing and the future of film. He knew that if he was going to return to his most popular project, he would need to adapt to the changing media landscape. The result? The HBO miniseries of the same name, which revisits the same core subjects as the original film while giving them a contemporary spin.
In the original film, Maggie Cheung plays herself, a successful Hong Kong actress. She...
The post Why Olivier Assayas Imagined his Irma Vep Remake as a Series Instead of a Feature appeared first on /Film.
Horror legend Wes Craven ("Scream") released "A Nightmare on Elm Street" to an unsuspecting public in 1984, ensuring that a whole generation of kids thought twice before going to sleep after watching a horror movie. A large portion of the movie monsters audiences had been accustomed to prior were largely regional, or at the very least, bound by the laws of physics and rationality. And now here came a screen slasher that can follow you no matter where you go. Long before "Paranormal Activity" violated the safe space of sleeping in your own bed, Robert Englund gave his all to a new...
The post Robert Englund Still Has Nightmares About The Original Nightmare On Elm Street appeared first on /Film.
Hey, so remember when we discussed how the premature ending of Ben Affleck's turn as Batman seemed like a bad idea? Well, that might be changing thanks to reshoots being made for "Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom." Jason Momoa recently posted a very interesting post on his Instagram feed alongside Affleck with a surprising caption.
"REUNITED bruce and arthur," wrote Momoa. "Love u and miss u Ben WB studio tours just explored the backlot alright. busted on set all great things coming AQUAMAN 2 all my aloha j."
If we are to interpret the caption correctly, it might signal that Batfleck...
The post Jason Momoa Confirms Ben Affleck's Return as Bruce Wayne in Aquaman 2 Reshoots appeared first on /Film.
Binging TV shows is the norm now, but it wasn't always that way. For decades, network TV sustained itself on mostly self-contained dramatic episodes. Take "Law and Order" for example: Every episode, a new case is introduced, and by the end it's solved. The main characters experience incremental growth, but not enough that you'd feel lost if you missed an episode.
That all changed in November of 2001, when "24" debuted on Fox, starring then A-list movie star Kiefer Sutherland as federal agent Jack Bauer. Never before had a network show been so interconnected. Watching every single minute was mandatory if you wanted to understand the...
The post Every Season of 24 Ranked Worst to Best appeared first on /Film.
The rights to "Tomb Raider" are up in the air, and a Hollywood bidding war has erupted regarding who will become the new cinematic home for all things Lara Croft. MGM, the previous company to obtain the rights to the popular video game, had until May of 2022 to greenlight a sequel to their 2018 "Tomb Raider" film, but failed to do so, meaning the rights are back on the market.
The news was broken in an exclusive report from The Wrap, who received word that a bevy of Hollywood players are vying for the chance to make a "Tomb...
The post A 'Complete' Tomb Raider Reboot is in the Works as MGM Loses Movie Rights appeared first on /Film.
With his 2012 film "Argo," Ben Affleck was able to break out of Boston, particularly the crime thrillers on which he'd made his name. As good as "Gone Baby Gone" and "The Town" were, "Argo" was a film of greater scope and ambition, telling a (somewhat) true story set at the height of the 1970s Iranian Revolution. In particular, it deals with the efforts of the CIA to extract six American embassy staffers who evaded mass arrest by the Iranian government by hiding out in the home of Canadian ambassador Ken Taylor.
On the surface, the story (adapted from the Wired article "The Great Escape" by...
The post Why Ben Affleck Bent The Truth With His Argo Adaptation appeared first on /Film.
"She-Hulk: Attorney at Law" is the latest show from the Marvel Cinematic Universe to premiere on Disney+, and it certainly won't be the last. In this live-action debut of the titular superhero comma lawyer, Jennifer Walters (Tatiana Maslany) will be seen taking on bad guys both on the streets and in the courtroom, specifically tackling cases involving superhumans. However, some cases prove to be more dangerous than others, including one involving a familiar-looking man with similar abilities to hers and that of her cousin, Bruce (Mark Ruffalo).
The 30-minute comedy will be a first for the franchise, as MCU shows have typically been dramas lasting around...
The post Where Does She-Hulk Fit in the MCU Timeline? appeared first on /Film.
The third round of the "Creed" movies is taking a little bit longer to cool down before the judges ring that bell once again. "Creed III," the ninth film in the "Rocky" film franchise, has moved its release date from November 23, 2022 to its new spot on March 3, 2023. This is the first "Rocky" film without the presence of Sylvester Stallone, marking the official passing of the torch from Rocky Balboa to Adonis Creed, the son of Balboa's fiercest rival.
The "Creed" films star Michael B. Jordan ("Black Panther," "Fruitvale Station") in the titular role, with "Creed III" also marking...
The post Creed 3 Release Date Knocked Out of 2022, Moves to Spring 2023 appeared first on /Film.
Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa has directed some of the most universally beloved movies of all time, but there was one movie that he wasn't allowed to make. When he first began writing scripts, the Japanese government was deeply militaristic and aligned with the WWII-era Axis powers. Kurosawa struggled with censors and production companies to get his first few projects funded.
The first screenplay he wanted to direct was called "Advance Patrol (Three Hundred Miles Through Enemy Lines)." The story is set at the dawn of the 20th century, during the Russo-Japanese War. A military troop is assembled and assigned to gain intelligence on their...
The post Akira Kurosawa Could Have Had A Very Different Directorial Debut appeared first on /Film.
A24 seems to be moving into the body mod genre. There was the announcement of Darren Aronofsky's next project, "The Whale," starring Brendan Fraser as a 600 pound man, then Rose Glass' "Love Lies Bleeding," starring Kristen Stewart as a bodybuilder, and now there's "A Different Man," a psychological thriller centered around a man (Sebastian Stan) with a condition called neurofibromatosis, which heavily augments the appearance of certain body parts, most noticeably the face. If two is a coincidence but three is a pattern, we've definitely got a pattern on our hands.
Stan already turned heads with a shocking transformation earlier this year when...
The post Sebastian Stan Reveals His Extreme Makeover For A24 Movie A Different Man appeared first on /Film.
The horror genre is vast and expansive, containing countless subgenres guaranteed to keep fans coming back for more. Horror comedies are arguably the most popular subgenre, marrying the laughs with the screams that make for an accessible experience for even the biggest scaredy-cats. Some of the best horror films of all time fall under the horror comedy umbrella, like "The Evil Dead," "An American Werewolf in London," and "Shaun of the Dead."
Horror comedies often work so well because they introduce relatable characters and situations, which allows the audience to imagine how they'd react in similar circumstances. Are you the kind of person who could survive the night in "Werewolves...
The post Comedy Horror Movies Most People Could Actually Survive appeared first on /Film.
Warning: This article contains major spoilers for Jordan Peele's "Nope."
Each of Jordan Peele's films feature an opening that foreshadows, thematically or otherwise, the horrors we're about to see. "Get Out" has Andre's suspenseful nighttime abduction in a predominantly white neighborhood, which gives an indication of what Chris has in store for him at the Armitage home. "Us" sees a young Adelaide finding something terrifying in a hall of mirrors, which sets the stage for the Tethered's bloody takeover of their aboveground selves, and, of course, that big twist in the film's closing moments. But "Nope" features the most striking "buckle up, here we go"...
The post Nope's Opening Moments Were Very Different in the Script appeared first on /Film.
After saving the world with a dance battle, (mostly) conquering their daddy issues, and joining the Avengers, everyone's favorite rag-tag space crew is finally returning to conclude their epic trilogy. "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" is set to arrive in summer 2023, with faces both familiar and new. Former Ravager Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) will be joined by muscle man Drax The Destroyer (Dave Bautista), anthropomorphized trash panda Rocket Raccoon (voiced by Bradley Cooper), teenaged tree dude Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel) and their enemy-turned-BFF Nebula (Karen Gillan). If they're really lucky, they might even get to...
The post Who is the Main Villain in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3? The High Evolutionary Explained appeared first on /Film.
There's a lot of praise that Jordan Peele continues to receive as a writer/director for a variety of reasons: creating likable and interesting characters, crafting stories that contain a good deal of thoughtful social commentary, and balancing comedy and horror in a unique way are just a few of those reasons.
However, there's one important aspect to his films so far that deserves to be pointed out as many times as possible: they're really, really scary.
Peele's latest feature, "Nope," is absolutely no exception to this. It contains some of the most unnerving sequences ever filmed, particularly the movie's centerpiece involving the brutal attack by the chimp known only...
The post Nope's Most Disturbing Moment Wasn't In the Script appeared first on /Film.
The name "USS Enterprise" has a long and storied history. Although two Enterprises briefly served the Colonial Forces and Continental Navy, the first true United States Navy vessel to bear the title came into service in 1799, followed by a schooner in 1831, a screw sloop-of-war in 1874, the 1938 Yorktown-class aircraft carrier that fought with distinction in World War II, and the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in 1961. But barely three years after that last ship was commissioned, Gene Roddenberry gave the name to a fictional spacecraft: the Federation starship USS Enterprise NCC-1701.
Prior to the original Enterprise boldly going to NBC in...
The post Every version of the USS Enterprise ranked worst to best appeared first on /Film.
(Welcome to Ani-time Ani-where, a regular column dedicated to helping the uninitiated understand and appreciate the world of anime.)
Now that we're doing a regular seasonal list of the best new animes, this column will slightly shift focus to be more about older titles. Whether it's forgotten gems or iconic hits, we're all about paying homage to the classics.
That being said, occasionally there will be some anime that are so special and unique — usually while not getting the popularity they deserve — that it's hard not to make an exception for them. The hope is that this column...
The post A Military Strategist Gets Reincarnated As A Pop Star Manager In Ya Boy Kongming! appeared first on /Film.
Perhaps the biggest question going around regarding the upcoming entry in the "Predator" franchise, "Prey," is the reasoning behind its release plan. Instead of having a theatrical release, the film will be released on August 5 directly to Hulu in the U.S. and Disney+ in other territories. Considering the buzz it received after its world premiere at San Diego Comic-Con, it seems surprising that a movie seemingly tailor-made for a communal watching experience will be forgoing it altogether.
In a recent interview with Uproxx, "Prey" director Dan Trachtenberg admitted that the movie was made with a theatrical experience in mind. However, he's not all doom and gloom about the change. "On the downside,...
The post Why Prey is Going Straight to Streaming appeared first on /Film.
The Western genre may not be as prolific as it was half a century ago, but "High Noon" continually remains one of the seminal pieces of American Western cinema. Directed by Fred Zinneman and starring Gary Cooper as Will Kane and Grace Kelly as his wife Amy, "High Noon" is about a former marshal preparing to leave his small New Mexico town with his new wife when he learns that a rough and tumble criminal Frank Miller, someone he put in jail, has been released and is looking for revenge. Kane tries his best to recruit other deputies to assist...
The post Classic Western High Noon is Becoming a Broadway Stage Play From Forrest Gump Writer appeared first on /Film.
(Superhero Bits is a collection of stories, updates, and videos about anything and everything inspired by the comics of Marvel, DC, and more. For comic book movies, TV shows, merchandise, events, and whatever catches our eye, this is the place to find anything that falls through the cracks.)
In this edition of Superhero Bits:
That new "Spawn" movie could become a streaming show instead.
DC is celebrating the Death of Superman.
Marvel releases an "All Out Avengers" trailer.
All that and more!
After more than two years of waiting, "Gotham Knights" is finally arriving for gamers around the world...
The post Superhero Bits: The Latest Spawn Reboot Update, DC Celebrates The Death Of Superman & More appeared first on /Film.
A new project from "Fresh Off the Boat" producer and author Eddie Huang is on the way, according to Deadline. The upcoming drama series is called "Panda," but it's not about the adorable animal filling up our Instagram feeds (and our hearts). This is about a young man selling ecstasy in Orlando, Florida in the late 1990s rave scene. The show is being developed over at Showtime, and will have one hour episodes.
Huang's 2013 book "Fresh Off the Boat: A Memoir" — based on his blog of the same name — was turned into a television show on ABC in 2015. It ran...
The post Panda: Everything We Know So Far About Eddie Huang's New Showtime Series appeared first on /Film.
This post contains major spoilers for "Nope."
Of all the complaints people have had about writer/director Jordan Peele's "Nope," the apparent "uselessness" of the "Gordy's Home" subplot is perhaps the most common. Why does a movie about aliens dedicate so much time to this chimpanzee? Gordy's meltdown on set is the first thing we see in the film, and it's a scene we return to multiple times throughout the movie. We learn that in 1998, there was a sitcom about a family with a chimpanzee called Gordy, and one day the chimp suddenly snapped and started attacking the actors. It violently mutilated the child...
The post The Gordy Scene is Vital to Understanding What's So Great About Nope appeared first on /Film.
Mattel has been around for decades as one of the premier toy makers in the industry. From Barbie to Hot Wheels, and, of course, Masters of the Universe, they control a significant number of brands that have had a huge impact on the pop culture landscape. Beyond that, they are also one of the biggest purveyors of licensed collectibles out there, including "Star Wars," "Jurassic Park," and even "Minecraft." And at this year's San Diego Comic-Con, the company came to demonstrate that they are not playing around when it comes to the business of, well, playing around.
The Mattel booth was...
The post Mattel's Mission To Bring The Big And Small Screen To Life For All [Comic-Con] appeared first on /Film.
When we first met Devi Vishwakumar (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan) in the first season of "Never Have I Ever," she was so bad at processing her emotions that she threw herself in the path of messy teen romance, made terrible life decisions, and basically blew up her life by alienating all of her loved ones. One coyote attack and two boyfriends later, Devi still isn't the best decision-maker in the world, but she's certainly grown up. And somehow in the chaos of it all, she managed to capture the hearts of two different boys: popular swimmer Paxton Hall-Yoshida (Darren Barnett) and her longtime frenemy Ben...
The post Never Have I Ever Season 3 Trailer: #Daxton Goes Instagram Official appeared first on /Film.
Building a shared universe is no easy task, as we've seen from the many failed attempts to emulate the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe these last 10 years (R.I.P. the Dark Universe, the "Amazing Spider-Man"-verse, and so on). Certainly, the DC Extended Universe has gone through its share of trial-and-error since it started with "Man of Steel" and tried to play catch-up with the MCU by rushing directly into "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" and "Justice League." The franchise has since adopted a far looser approach to continuity without fully jettisoning the foundation laid by Zack Snyder's early entries, enough to allow movies like...
The post How DC League of Super-Pets Fits Into The DCEU appeared first on /Film.
I think we can all agree that "Malignant" is a gift to humanity. Don't believe me? Rewatch the jail cell scene. That should quell any doubts that you may have about James Wan's film being a work of art.
Okay, yes, there is a bit of hyperbole being thrown around here, but it's for good reason. "Malignant" really is a pretty great horror movie, even without the crazy twist. It's an absurd movie that came out during extremely absurd times, and although it wasn't a box office or streaming hit (it was released in 2021 during Warner Bros. day-and-date release schedule),...
The post The Malignant Set-Piece James Wan Dropped Because it Was Too Much Like Saw appeared first on /Film.
When Marvel Studios returned to the hallowed halls of San Diego Comic-Con this year, True Believers were expecting some massive announcements, and they certainly weren't disappointed as producer Kevin Feige pulled back the curtain on the roadmap for the newly christened Multiverse Saga. Among those announcements was the official confirmation that Charlie Cox would suit up as the Devil of Hell's Kitchen once again in the 18-episode series "Daredevil: Born Again." However, before the character goes off on another solo adventure, we also learned that he'll be donning the horned helmet (this time in the classic red and yellow) in "She-Hulk: Attorney At Law."
Feige...
The post She-Hulk Writer Confirms That's Charlie Cox's Daredevil in the Yellow Suit appeared first on /Film.
"DC League of Super-Pets" is the first animated theatrical release based on DC Comics characters in some time. The last wide theatrical release for a DC animated movie was "Teen Titans Go! To the Movies," with a slew of direct-to-video releases coming after it. With "League of Super-Pets," DC and Warner Bros. are looking to end the drought of animated comic book adaptations in theaters, with the film boasting an impressive cast and a behind-the-scenes team excited about the potential future of the "Super-Pets" franchise.
Director and co-writer Jared Stern, who previously worked on "The Lego Batman Movie," had access to many...
The post DC League of Super-Pets Director Jared Stern Already Has Story Ideas for a Sequel appeared first on /Film.
It's impossible to overstate just how impactful Akira Kurosawa's body of work has been on cinema. Given how ubiquitous his influence is, it can be easy to forget the specific factors that made Kurosawa such a remarkable filmmaker. Kurosawa could do period pieces set throughout the history of Japan that still register as deeply relevant. Just as impressive was his willingness to explore a wide variety of genres from crime thrillers to intimate dramas to jidaigeki features and everything in between.
Perhaps most important of all is the quiet sense of hopefulness that courses through Kurosawa's work. His movies, especially the dramas set in modern Japanese society coping with the...
The post The 11 Best Akira Kurosawa Movies, Ranked appeared first on /Film.
As Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's Black Adam is fond of saying: the hierarchy of the DC Universe is about to change. It's probably safe to say that the movie star wasn't referring to the upcoming animated "DC League of Super-Pets" movie -- which /Film's Josh Spiegel reviewed here -- but maybe he should've been. Featuring a voice cast that includes Johnson himself as Krypto the Superdog, pal Kevin Hart as Ace, Marc Maron as Lex Luthor, Keanu Reeves as Batman, Daveed Diggs as Cyborg, Jameela Jamil as Wonder Woman, John Krasinski as Superman, and many, many more, "DC League of Super-Pets" packs enough fan-service and references to greater DC lore that viewers (well, kids at least)...
The post DC League of Super-Pets Features A Very Cool Superman Deep-Cut appeared first on /Film.
Now that the Infinity Saga has come to a close and the MCU is on the verge of entering a bigger, more complicated era, we can finally look back fondly on the battle to save the universe from Thanos. Surely everyone's recovered from the traumas of The Blip, by now? If not, then steel yourself for the latest merch announcement out of San Diego Comic-Con — it might just trigger some war flashbacks. Revealed at Marvel's 2022 booth was an item that's been dubbed "one of the rarest collectibles" to ever debut at SDCC: The Infinity Collection of Gemstones.
Thanks to a partnership between...
The post Marvel's $25 Million Infinity Stones Gem Collection Will Break Your Wallet appeared first on /Film.
(Welcome to ...And More, our no-frills, zero B.S. guide to when and where you can watch upcoming movies and shows, and everything else you could possibly stand to know.)
Peter Kosminsky is back with a thriller drama series titled "The Undeclared War," which chronicles a fictional take on the events that might ensue in the near future, within the context of an escalating cyberwar between Russia and the United Kingdom. Set in 2024, the series focuses on a team of cyber analysts at the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) who offer their individual inputs in the midst of a string of cyberattacks on the UK.
Prior to...
The post The Undeclared War Release Date, Cast, and More appeared first on /Film.
Teeming with historic technological firsts and advanced never-before-seen cinematic visuals, James Cameron's "Avatar" is historic in both its scope and success. It's the most successful movie in the world for a reason — and it's coming back with a sequel — and will hopefully pave the way for a film franchise of its own.
Cameron wrote and directed the film, which takes place in the 22nd century when the world is suffering from a major energy crisis, and Pandora, an alien moon home to a highly-valuable natural resource, is the only way humanity can save itself. The lush jungle moon of Pandora is...
The post Avatar's Na'vi Language Left An Unexpected Amount Of Room For Improv appeared first on /Film.
Hulu's "The Handmaid's Tale," an adaptation of Margaret Atwood's dystopian 1985 novel, is nothing short of a horror story. Set in the aftermath of a second civil war, the story follows a theonomic government's establishment of a totalitarian hierarchical regime that is rooted in religious fanaticism. In the state of Gilead, women are stripped of their rights and are enslaved, with the patriarchal government forcing them to surrender to ritualized rape. Whether or not you've seen the show, you've heard whispers of it. The red robes and white bonnets are hard to miss.
Actress Elisabeth Moss leads the series as June Osborne...
The post Elisabeth Moss Reveals The Toughest Day On Set Of The Handmaid's Tale appeared first on /Film.
(Welcome to ...And More, our no-frills, zero B.S. guide to when and where you can watch upcoming movies and shows, and everything else you could possibly stand to know.)
Jacob Batalon cut his teeth on Spider-Man movies — and now they're sharp enough to be considered vampire fangs. Going one step further with the vampire metaphor, you might say Batalon — known for his role as Peter Parker's best bud, Ned Leeds, in the Jon Watts and Tom Holland "Spider-Man" trilogy — is now ready to spread his bat wings and fly solo in "Reginald the Vampire." The upcoming Syfy show is set to premiere the same week as...
The post Reginald the Vampire Release Date, Cast, and More appeared first on /Film.
While I was living in Prague back in 2005, a friend suggested we audition for bit parts in "The Omen" remake, which was filming in the city. I couldn't stand the idea a new version, so I turned the idea down flat, socking it to 20th Century Fox by depriving them of my talents. That'll teach 'em! I had such strong loyalty to the original film because it was one of those scary movies I saw when I was a bit too young, and it scarred me for life. In a good way, that is; it contributed to my lifelong love of horror, which...
The post David Warner's Scene in The Omen Scarred Us for Life appeared first on /Film.
This will contain mild spoilers for "Star Wars: Padawan."
"Star Wars: Padawan," written by Kiersten White, tells the story of Obi-Wan Kenobi's first real mission as a Padawan learner. As the book opens, Obi-Wan is a strict adherent of the rules and struggles with the impenetrable nature of his master, Qui-Gon Jinn. When he discovers a mystery in the Jedi temple left by the long-dead Jedi Wayseeker Orla Jareni, he brings this to Qui-Gon and convinces him to go to a distant planet and investigate, following up on the work of ancient Jedi. Unfortunately, Count Dooku, Qui-Gon's former master who recently left the Jedi order,...
The post Star Wars: Padawan Gives Us A Thrilling Young Obi-Wan Kenobi Adventure appeared first on /Film.
After nearly a decade away from the world of horror, Ti West slashed his way back onto the scene this year with the 1970s-inspired "X," about a group of would-be pornographers who find themselves in a fight for survival after the reclusive elderly couple from whom they rent a farmhouse for production discover exactly what kind of movie these kids are making. The film's protagonist was a porn performer and daughter of a televangelist named Maxine Minx, played beautifully by Mia Goth, who pulled double duty by also playing the villainous hagsploitation antagonist Pearl, thanks to some well placed prosthetics. "X" was a...
The post Pearl Trailer: Mia Goth is the Star She Deserves to Be appeared first on /Film.
We've lost a monumental figure in cinema, with the brilliant Paul Sorvino passing away at the age of 83. A commanding presence on both stage and screen, Sorvino amassed a whopping 172 credits in film and television alone if IMDb is to be believed. Sorvino made a name for himself by playing tough guys, gangsters, and tough-as-nails cops, but every once in a while was given the opportunity to play something a little softer, which really gave him the chance to have fun on screen. His career has spanned across genres and decades, which means some of his greatest films, like William Friedkin's...
The post 5 Brilliant Paul Sorvino Movies and Where You Can Watch Them appeared first on /Film.
Visual effects in movies and TV shows are often taken for granted unless something looks off about them, in which case, it's all too easy to criticize them without even knowing the names of the artists who brought them to life (or the less-than-ideal conditions under which those artists were perhaps working). When we discuss entertainment as viewers, we're usually focused on the end product, what a stage engineer played by Michael Caine might call "The Prestige" part of the magic trick.
Though their efforts might go under-appreciated sometimes, VFX artists are really some of the hardest-working people in show...
The post Lucasfilm's Executive Vice President Agrees That VFX Artists 'Don't Get the Credit They Deserve' [Exclusive] appeared first on /Film.
By the last decade of Orson Welles' life, the legendary actor and filmmaker had seen better days. The last film he directed to be released during his lifetime was "F For Fake," which came in 1973. Until his death in 1985, he tried, and failed, to get more projects off the ground; it took until 2018 for "The Other Side of the Wind" (shot in the 1970s) to see the light of day.
During this time, Welles loaned his magnificent voice to countless documentaries, trailers, and, commercials; he had a previous career on the radio, after all. His final role was a voice for animation, namely...
The post Orson Welles' Final Role Was Yet Another Under-appreciated Film appeared first on /Film.
The cops-and-robbers formula is as reliable a formula as there is in entertainment, regardless of the medium. There are typically two approaches to these kinds of stories. The first is to focus on a detective, who could be anything from stolidly righteous (think Jack Webb's Sergeant Joe Friday) to relentlessly corrupt (they don't get much baser than Harvey Keitel's "Bad Lieutenant"). The other is to zero in on the crook, who could range from a principled thief in the Robin Hood mold to the charismatic murderers of Martin Scorsese's "Goodfellas." There are endless possibilities in either approach, but, generally, a writer has...
The post Michael Mann's Vision For Heat Needed A Different Kind Of Movie Villain appeared first on /Film.
Spoilers for season 4 of "Westworld" ahead.
Season 4 of "Westworld" has been a strange experiment so far, providing a meta-commentary on the show itself while also exploring the same ideas it presents in-world. "Westworld" has always operated on multiple levels and requires a certain willingness to stretch your noodle in order to fully appreciate, but season 4 has taken that obtuse and self-referential mystery to a whole new level. Thankfully, in episode 4, "Generation Loss," we finally got some answers. The potential timelines have been sorted out, and we now know that everyone exists in the same time and place; Caleb's (Aaron Paul) story over...
The post Westworld Season 4, Episode 5 Explores the Nature of Reality appeared first on /Film.
While the talk of this year's San Diego Comic-Con most focused on Marvel announcing Phases 5 and 6 of its neverending cultural saturation (plus releasing a trailer for a little movie called "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" that I hear folks are excited for), we also got to see some stuff from Warner Bros. and DC Films.
To me, the most exciting thing to come out of Comic-Con was the trailer for the upcoming "Shazam! Fury of the Gods," which is set to be released December 21, 2022. The first "Shazam!" was such a breath of fresh air when it came out back...
The post Shazam! Fury of the Gods Trailer Breakdown: A Superhero Adventure For The Whole Family appeared first on /Film.
It's been twenty-five years, but "Titanic" still holds a special place in our hearts. It was the movie that launched Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet into A-list celebrity territory and proved that James Cameron could do no wrong. It's currently the fifth highest-grossing film of all time, proving popular enough for theaters to continue playing it over nine months after its initial release.
One major factor in its box-office success was the fact that it was only rated PG-13. Younger viewers being allowed to see a movie on their own has always helped with box office performances, which explains why none of the top ten highest grossing...
The post James Cameron Doesn't Know If Titanic Would Be PG-13 Today appeared first on /Film.
I assure you this will lead back to "Pitch Black," but first, I open with some context:
In Shane Black's 2005 film "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang," Robert Downey, Jr. plays a down-on-his-luck petty thief who, by sheer chance, stumbles into an audition one night while fleeing from the cops. His genuine panic is enough to vault him into playing a private detective. Late in the film, Val Kilmer, a real P.I. serving as Downey's coach, reveals that Downey's hiring was, in fact, a ruse perpetrated by the studio. Evidently, the studio had been courting Colin Farrell for the role in question, but Farrell wanted...
The post Vin Diesel Was Nearly Robbed Of The Chance To Play Pitch Black's Riddick appeared first on /Film.
Jordan Peele's done it again: his latest horror movie "Nope" debuted in theaters this weekend, and its opening box office haul is the highest of any original film since Peele's last impressive project, 2019's "Us."
"Nope' brought in $44 million this weekend, and with a $68 million budget that means it's on track to at least break even when factoring in the cost of marketing. Though it debuted in a handful of other countries this week, the film's release date was pushed back to mid-August in many parts of the world, including major markets like the U.K., France, South Korea, and Australia....
The post Nope Scores Highest Box Office Opening For An Original Movie Since Jordan Peele's Last Movie appeared first on /Film.
Mike Judge belongs to that cohort of late-era baby boomers who captured the Gen X zeitgeist. Much like Quentin Tarantino and Richard Linklater, Judge had a head start on the next-gen filmmakers. He turned 10 in 1972 and came of age during the advent of the couch-potato age. Reruns of network shows had been syndicated since the late 1950s, but it took a decade or so for the boob tube to wear down parents' defenses. By the early '70s, television had become an after-school babysitter. "Leave It to Beaver," "Mr. Ed," and "The Dick Van Dyke Show" were in heavy daily rotation....
The post Mike Judge Still Sees Beavis And Butt-Head As His Career's Magnum Opus appeared first on /Film.
This year marked the return of San Diego Comic-Con, and with it a number of very exciting, fan-enticing announcements from the major studios. Given the history of the con ("comic" is in the name after all), it seems fitting that Marvel would blow everyone out of the water with some major news about its comic-book-inspired cinematic universe: not only do we have the Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase 6 to look forward to now, we also know it will end with two big "Avengers" movies, with this newly minted Multiverse Saga repeating the pattern of the Infinity Saga. These movies will be titled "Avengers: The...
The post The Russo Brothers Won't Direct The Phase 6 Avengers Movies, Kevin Feige Confirms appeared first on /Film.
The Russo Brothers continued trying to one-up themselves with every Marvel Studios project they took on. Initially joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe with 2014's "Captain America: The Winter Soldier," the Russos would soon finish the "Captain America" trilogy with "Civil War," a film that would be much more of an ensemble piece compared to "Winter Soldier." Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige was undoubtedly impressed with the Russo Brothers' work, moving them to two of the biggest films in development at that point: "Avengers: Infinity War" and "Avengers: Endgame."
A massive two-part story, "Infinity War" and "Endgame," would require the Russos to...
The post Making Two Marvel Movies In Tandem Took Its Toll On The Russo Brothers appeared first on /Film.
(Superhero Bits is a collection of stories, updates, and videos about anything and everything inspired by the comics of Marvel, DC, and more. For comic book movies, TV shows, merchandise, events, and whatever catches our eye, this is the place to find anything that falls through the cracks.)
In this edition of Superhero Bits:
A "Legion of Super-Heroes" movie seems to be on the way.
"The Flash" season 9 is bringing back Iris West.
Yet another new Marvel game may be on the horizon.
"Thor: Love and Thunder" gets a new TV spot.
All that and more!
After being...
The post Superhero Bits: A Possible Legion Of Super-Heroes Movie, A New Marvel Video Game & More appeared first on /Film.
Many rapidly aging folks, like yours truly, will fondly remember the glorious era of the late '70s and early '80s for more than just shoulder pads, synth music, and big hair. It was also the heyday of folks like Columbo and Jessica Fletcher, who built whole empires on the weekly whodunnit. "Murder, She Wrote" was a cornerstone of my childhood. Granted, I spent a lot of time with my grandparents so there was just as much of that, "Matlock," and "The Golden Girls" in my rotation as there was stuff like "Masters of the Universe" and "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles."
But after the success of...
The post Big Bang Theory's Simon Helberg Joins The Cast Of Natasha Lyonne and Rian Johnson's Poker Face appeared first on /Film.
Rob Zombie, you're wild for this one.
"The Munsters" season 1, episode 7 is called "Tin Can Man," and centers on the dilemma of young Eddie Munster (Butch Patrick) who is facing expulsion from school. In a stroke of genius, he and Grandpa Dracula decide that they will build a fully-functional robot for Eddie's science fair project, and create the titular Tin Can Man. As we've learned today, Rob Zombie's anticipated cinematic adaptation of "The Munsters" will feature the ridiculous robot who, in a full circle bit of brilliance, will be played by OG Eddie Munster himself, Butch Patrick....
The post Rob Zombie's The Munsters Reboot Adds Original Cast Member Butch Patrick as Tin Can Man appeared first on /Film.
(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.)
The Series: "Gravity Falls"
Where You Can Stream It: Disney+, Hulu Plus
The Pitch: Created by Alex Hirsch for Disney, "Gravity Falls" is, like its subject matter, an oddity. The animated series follows the misadventures of twin siblings Dipper (Jason Ritter) and Mabel (Kristen Schaal) Pines, who experience a myriad of mysterious phenomena in the unassuming, rural logging town of Gravity Falls. From zombies, to wizards, to shapeshifting horror shows, the series does not shy away from spectacular, imaginative foes for...
The post The Daily Stream: Gravity Falls Is A Dang-Near Perfect Cartoon appeared first on /Film.
Grant Heslov's 2009 comedy "The Men Who Stare at Goats" is based on one of the more peculiar true stories attached to the U.S. military. Taking details from the book by Jon Ronson, "Goats" details an actual effort in the late 1970s and early 1980s to develop human mental superpowers for potential use on the battlefield. A soldier named Jim Channon suggested that such a group be named the First Earth Battalion, and the title comes from an experiment wherein a soldier is assigned to stare at a goat, reach into its mind psychically, and end its life. The real-world operation...
The post Casting Ewan McGregor Could Have Made Things Awkward For The Men Who Stare At Goats appeared first on /Film.
(Welcome to ...And More, our no-frills, zero B.S. guide to when and where you can watch upcoming movies and shows, and everything else you could possibly stand to know.)
"Quantum Leap" is both criminally underrated and extremely influential when it comes to portraying science fiction on television. This series, which originally ran on NBC from 1989 to 1993, centered around the adventures and exploits of Dr. Sam Beckett (Scott Bakula) and Al Calavicci (Dean Stockwell) as they travel through space and time. It wasn't quite an anthology series, but it did have separate stories in each episode that involved Sam's consciousness entering the body of someone...
The post Quantum Leap Reboot: Release Date, Cast, and More appeared first on /Film.
Ridley Scott didn't make his first feature until he was 40, but the now 85-year-old filmmaker has more than made up for lost time. He's currently shooting his 28th movie, "Napoleon," and has a development slate full of projects angling to be number 29. Stanley Kubrick could only muster 13 films over roughly the same period of time (a chunk of which was dedicated to an unmade Napoleon biopic), but his relentless perfectionism spared him the undercooked likes of "Someone to Watch Over Me" and "A Good Year."
Even when Scott (rarely) misses, there's still much to savor in terms...
The post Ridley Scott Believes This is the Most Important Thing When It Comes to Directing appeared first on /Film.
The road to developing "The Bridge on the River Kwai" into a feature film was long. Producer Sam Spiegel, a classic movie mogul for all it entails (flashes of creative brilliance, dictatorial tendencies, and a creepy fixation on teenage girls), saw in Pierre Boulle's 1952 novel the chance to make a truly stirring wartime epic. The book was a highly fictitious retelling of the disastrous building of the Burma Railway by Japan's prisoners of war that softened the real tragedy of the Burma Railway, and maybe a movie would soften it further. But Spiegel had the sensibilities and know-how of a...
The post The Bridge on the River Kwai's Bridge Went Through an Incredible Construction Process appeared first on /Film.
When author Ira Levin ("The Stepford Wives") published his best-selling novel "Rosemary's Baby," the horrific tale of a young pregnant woman unknowingly being used as a vessel to birth the antichrist was immediately sought out to be the next great horror film. The following year, Roman Polanski delivered a cinematic masterpiece, but one that would be forever plagued by the unforgivable crimes of the director off-screen. "Rosemary's Baby" is frequently cited as one of the most important horror films ever made, and helped usher in a wave of religious/cult horror with films like "The Omen" and most notably, "The Exorcist." Despite the religious...
The post Rosemary's Baby Is Apparently Getting a Secret Prequel in Apartment 7A appeared first on /Film.
For genre filmmakers, revenge has been and always will be a plot worth returning to. In terms of storytelling, it makes for a satisfying arc. Someone is wronged, and they set out to right that wrong in what is usually a violent manner, regardless of the degree of the wronging. Revenge makes for easy, clearly defined heroes and villains, and some animal instinct inside of us likes seeing people get what is coming to them, even if the revenge heavily outweighs the initial slight. There's a lot to said about the merits of revenge and whether...
The post RRR Director S.S. Rajamouli Once Made An Action Epic About A Murdered Man Who Is Reincarnated As A Housefly appeared first on /Film.
"Thor: Love and Thunder" finds Chris Hemsworth as the God of Thunder in the midst of a mid-life crisis at the ripe young age of 1,000 (give or take a few decades). Hoping to leave his superhero days behind him, Thor's search for a new life's purpose is interrupted by the arrival of Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale), a figure who's said to be far more sympathetic than your average one-and-done Marvel villain. Further rocking the boat, Thor's quest unexpectedly brings him face to face with an ex whom he still has feelings for.
I'm referring, of course, to Mjolnir.
It was Korg...
The post Thor: Love and Thunder Will Have Thor Dealing With Stormbreaker's 'Adolescent' Mood Swings appeared first on /Film.
The mid-'90s in the UK were totally ace. The music scene was jumping; England were doing all right in the football; the emerging lad culture told us it was okay to lash down 10 pints on a Saturday night, just so long as you didn't get into too much aggro. Doormen were still mug enough to accept fake ID, and there was nothing like hitting the bar with your mates just as the swaggering intro of an Oasis track started blasting out.
Things were on the move and a new, brash, vibrant Britain was all dressed up in the Union Jack and...
The post Ewan McGregor Got Hit By A Car 20 Times On The Trainspotting Set appeared first on /Film.
When Redditors discuss "The GOAT of EDM," they're usually talking about musical artists and who the Greatest of All Time in the Electronic Dance Music genre is. "Thor: Love and Thunder" director Taiki Waititi marches to the beat of a different goat-skinned drum. For him, the Goat of EDM is the spirit of dance music sound effects, made Marvel characters.
With his sequel to "Thor: Ragnarok," Waititi is introducing a new screaming addition to the pantheon of movie goats. Whereas Black Phillip, the devilish goat from "The Witch," prefers to communicate quietly via telepathy, the so-called "goat-kind" in "Love...
The post The Screams of the Goats in Thor: Love and Thunder Come From EDM Songs — or Maybe Taika Waititi appeared first on /Film.
There was a time not so long ago when it seemed like Natalie Portman was done with the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Although Portman's character, Jane Foster, popped up in "Avengers: Endgame" in 2019, it was only in existing footage of her that had gone unused from the production of "Thor: The Dark World." That movie was originally supposed to be helmed by Patty Jenkins, who would have been the MCU's first female director, but she left over creative differences (and went on to direct "Wonder Woman"). This reportedly upset Portman, who had championed Jenkins herself.
We really hadn't seen Portman in new footage...
The post Natalie Portman Relished Playing the 'Danger' of Jane Foster's Thor: Love and Thunder Arc appeared first on /Film.
In "Thor: Love and Thunder," there's a new Thor in town and her name is Jane Foster. After sitting out the three-quel, "Thor: Ragnarok," Natalie Portman's character is back and she's buffed up, sporting goldilocks, and wielding Thor's hammer. As it turns out, Jane's turn as the Mighty Thor may be a hint of things to come in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Producer and Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige recently spoke at a press conference for "Love and Thunder," where /Film's Hoai-Tran Bui was in attendance. Discussion came around to the future of the Thor franchise and the possibility of other Thors beyond Jane and...
The post Kevin Feige Teases 'Plenty of Other Incarnations of Thor' That We've Yet to See appeared first on /Film.
Who's ready to see a proper dance-off, with or without pants, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe? "Eternals" gave us a taste of one with its Bollywood dance number, but in that scene, our heroes stood on the sidelines, watching as immortal-turned-actor Kingo (Kumail Nanjiani) shot a choreographed routine on the set of a film-within-the-film. We have yet to really see a superhero and villain work out their aggressions through dance in the MCU.
At this point, I would settle for an eccentric villain doing an interpretive dance. To hear Christian Bale tell it, something like that was...
The post Taika Waititi and Christian Bale Planned a Gorr Dance Sequence That Was Never Shot for Thor: Love and Thunder appeared first on /Film.
Though some may have recognized him from his feature film debut as George Kirk in the 2009 "Star Trek" reboot, Chris Hemsworth was a relative unknown when he landed the role of Thor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The first "Thor" movie brought in director Kenneth Branagh, seemingly in an effort to lend some Shakespearean gravitas to it. When we first meet Thor, he comes swaggering into a golden throne room, where he winks at his mother Frigga (Rene Russo) while his father Odin (Anthony Hopkins) looks on disapprovingly.
It's as if Hemsworth wanted to say, "Let's not play this so seriously," and was just biding his time...
The post Chris Hemsworth's Innate Comedy Chops Are What Got Thor the Rare Marvel Fourquel appeared first on /Film.
Taika Waititi is figuring things out as he goes. It's why his sets have such a reputation for improv, why he spends months finding his film's tone in post-production, and why his final product might look dramatically different from his original drafts.
"That really just is just months, months of editing the film in different ways," Waititi told me in an interview over Zoom ahead of the release of "Thor: Love and Thunder." It's fitting that his hero in "Thor: Love and Thunder" is similarly trying to figure himself out. "He's lost and he's wanting to know what his purpose is," Waititi explained....
The post Thor: Love and Thunder Director Taika Waititi Wants to Give Thor Purpose [Interview] appeared first on /Film.
Chris Evans recently said that making his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut as the Human Torch — the character he played in two non-MCU "Fantastic Four" movies in the 2000s — would be "an easier sell" for him than coming back to it as Captain America. Evans seems content to end his run as Cap where he left it, with Steve Rogers having aged into an old man after going back in time and living happily ever after with Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) in "Avengers: Endgame." Currently, Evans has no plans that we know of to return to the MCU in any capacity, cameos...
The post Moon Knight Could Have Featured a Chris Evans Cameo as Old Captain America appeared first on /Film.
(Welcome to SlashClips, a series where we bring you exclusive clips from hot new Digital, Blu-ray and theatrical releases you won't see anywhere else!)
In this edition:
Green Ghost and the Masters of the Stone Code Name Banshee Sniper: The White Raven Accepted The Good Neighbor Rubikon Cryo
First up we have an exclusive clip from the superhero comedy "Green Ghost and the Masters of the Stone," directed by award-winning filmmaker Michael D. Olmos ("Filly Brown," "Mayans") and starring Charlie Clark, Danny Trejo ("Spy Kids," "Machete," "Dora and the Lost City of Gold"), Elpidia Carrillo ("Predator," "Predator 2"), Sofia Pernas ("Blood & Treasure," "Age of...
The post Clips Round-Up: Danny Trejo Is A Superhero In Green Ghost And The Masters Of The Stone & More! [Exclusive] appeared first on /Film.
"Westworld" is back, which means it's time for more mysteries, more masterfully crafted metaphors, and probably some more frustration. Many fans of the series, myself included, know that the series is likely to be hindered by a reliance on mystery-box storytelling, with careful story reveals intended to inspire the most Reddit threads and online think-pieces predicting the possibilities. While guessing at the mysteries back in season 1 was a lot of fun, a little straightforward storytelling couldn't hurt now that we're in season 4 of the HBO series, when things have become so complicated that it would take real scholarly effort to...
The post Westworld Season 4 Episode 1 'The Auguries' Present a Mystery Within a Mystery appeared first on /Film.
It's rightfully considered a contender for being one of the most disturbing scenes ever filmed — yet, anyone who has watched "American History X" knows that its curb-stomp scene, though brutally visceral, is far from the only moment of discomfort and horror found in a tale about a Venice Beach gang of neo-Nazis, called the Disciples of Christ (D.O.C.). Every second of the film permeates with their vividly racist rhetoric and cruel acts of terror against the people of color who live in their neighborhoods. The grocery store raid is particularly difficult to watch, especially the tormenting of the female cashier as the men...
The post How American History X Made That Infamous Curb Stomp So Convincing appeared first on /Film.
Sequels get a bad rap, but in the horror genre, they're a place where creativity can flourish. Sure, some of them are terrible, especially when franchises run on for decades. But even the bad ones are fun to talk about, and for every lackluster horror sequel, there's another that's transgressive, unique, cinematic, and -- perhaps most importantly -- scary as hell.
They say that Hollywood has no original ideas anymore, but what if they did have some original ideas that weren't explored enough? Movie history is filled with awesome standalone films, but some of them build their worlds with so much intrigue that it's hard to say...
The post Horror Movie Sequels We're Dying to See appeared first on /Film.
Growing up, 1978's "Game of Death" was my favorite Bruce Lee movie (please, don't judge me). Mainly because of the flawless John Berry-produced soundtrack; not to mention the iconic movie line "You lose, Carl Miller." But more importantly, "Game of Death" was the only Bruce Lee movie I had actually watched from beginning to end. It wasn't until I got older and discovered Wikipedia and YouTube did I realize how comically disastrous of a film Bruce Lee's final movie truly is.
The martial arts legend died while making "Game of Death," so the filmmakers decided to rework the...
The post A Lot Of Cheeseburgers Went Into Chuck Norris And Bruce Lee's Way Of The Dragon Showdown appeared first on /Film.
In news that will surprise exactly no one, "Top Gun: Maverick" has been doing exceedingly well at the box office. The top-grossing film of Tom Cruise's career has officially passed the threshold of $1 billion dollars, according to Deadline. That is a staggering amount of money, and considering the number the pandemic has done on the box office, it's practically a miracle.
That's a whole lot of nostalgia. Last weekend the film passed $900 million, $100 million over Tom Cruise's previous record. The thing is, it can't all be nostalgia. "Top Gun," the film which this is the sequel to, opened 36 years...
The post Top Gun: Maverick Speeds Past the $1 Billion Mark at Worldwide Box Office appeared first on /Film.
Baz Luhrmann is back! The Australian filmmaker is an artist that movie fans have extreme opinions about. Either you love Luhrmann's style, or you hate it. Luhrmann has been subverting expectations ever since he made his filmmaking debut with the 1992 romantic comedy "Strictly Ballroom." Luhrmann took a much different approach to the "dance comedy" than some movie fans were expecting.
Luhrmann's next films got even wilder. Even though Luhrmann's adaptation of William Shakespeare's "Romeo + Juliet" didn't change a word of the original text, the film was set in the modern day. Luhrmann's next film, "Moulin Rouge!" became one of the best movie musicals of...
The post Every Main Character in Elvis Ranked Worst to Best appeared first on /Film.
(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.)
The Movie: "The Departed"
Where You Can Stream It: Netflix, HBO Max
The Pitch: A cop and criminal each risk blowing their cover while acting as informants for the other side of the law in Martin Scorsese's Boston-set "Infernal Affairs" remake.
"The Departed" is a movie where (more than two) characters lead double lives, and double-featuring it with "Infernal Affairs," the Hong Kong film on which it's based, is an experience that gets the...
The post The Daily Stream: The Departed Is A Rare Remake That Matches The Original With Fresh Themes appeared first on /Film.
I've never seen a bad Samuel L. Jackson performance. I've seen bad movies with him in them, but he usually manages to save these films with his golden one-liners. Case in point: "Enough is enough! I have had it with these mutha** snakes on this mutha**** plane!"
2006's "Snakes on a Plane" had one of those campy movie scripts that agents beg their A-list clients to run away from. Jackson, on the other hand, heard merely the title of movie and exclaimed, "Snakes on a Plane. Oh, s***, I need to be in that!'"
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Jackson revealed that when he...
The post Samuel L. Jackson Doesn't Mind Ignoring His Agents' Advice appeared first on /Film.
When Quentin Tarantino began casting for "Pulp Fiction," Miramax wanted a big-name actor attached to the film. When Bruce Willis, a big-name actor who happened to be a big fan of Tarantino's breakout debut film "Reservoir Dogs," found out that the director was prepping for his second film, he wanted a role ... even if it meant taking a pay cut.
As Vanity Fair tells it, Harvey Keitel, who would go on to play the scrupulous clean-up man in "Pulp Fiction," was picking up his daughter from Bruce Willis' home in Malibu when he told him about the upcoming project. Keitel invited Willis to...
The post Bruce Willis' Casting Was Crucial To Getting Pulp Fiction Made appeared first on /Film.
Bringing J.R.R. Tolkien's beloved "The Lord of the Rings" fantasy series to the screen was an enormous undertaking, especially for an indie New Zealand filmmaker who had never made a film with such a pricey budget of $281 million before. But director Peter Jackson's homespun approach to making the epic trilogy actually worked in his favor.
The filmmaker told Fresh Air in 2002 how he was allowed to make the films "the new Zealand way, not the Hollywood way," thus producing one of the greatest cinematic trilogies of all time:
"We made it the New Zealand way, not the Hollywood way ... we still shot it... The post Peter Jackson's Indie Movie Roots Let The Lord Of The Rings Effects Run Wild appeared first on /Film.
"Toy Story" set the blueprint for every Disney/Pixar film that came after. It broke the traditional Disney mold, one that usually followed the love story of a doe-eyed princess, which had proven successful in the studio's early days and again with its animation renaissance in the '80s and '90s. Eschewing the song-and-dance formula, "Toy Story" explored complex feelings of abandonment that resonated with the adults watching with their children. What would become the hallmark of Pixar pathos wouldn't have happened without Tom Hanks.
As the first computer-animated Disney Pixar film, "Toy Story" was already breaking new ground. Its narrative structure also set...
The post Tom Hanks Inspired The Toy Story Team To Break Every Disney Rule appeared first on /Film.
Have you ever read a sentence and realized that sometime in the middle of reading, an alien came from another planet, threw your brain in a blender, poured the contents into a brain shaped Jell-o mold, and then put it back in its place? I hadn't either until today when I learned that Billy Porter and Guy Fieri were going to appear in a comedy road trip movie centered on checks notes Tom Brady. Trust and believe this is not the result of the world's weirdest game of Madlibs, and is in fact,...
The post Billy Porter and Guy Fieri Will Star In The Tom Brady Comedy 80 For Brady, And Yes You Read That Correctly appeared first on /Film.
Fresh off her turn as the Third Sister in "Obi-Wan Kenobi," Moses Ingram is set to star opposite another "Star Wars" franchise alum, Natalie Portman, in the Apple TV+ limited series, "Lady in the Lake." Ingram will take over the role that Lupita Nyong'o vacated just last month.
Based on Laura Lippman's New York Times-bestselling novel, "Lady in the Lake" is in production now and takes place in Baltimore during the 1960s. Apple's press release describes it as a series "where an unsolved murder pushes housewife and mother, Maddie Schwartz (Portman) to reinvent her life as an investigative journalist and sets her on a collision course with Cleo...
The post Obi-Wan Kenobi Star Moses Ingram Joins Natalie Portman in Apple's Lady in the Lake appeared first on /Film.
"Elvis" has entered the building. The new Baz Luhrmann film about the king of rock and roll is the story of his life, and that of Colonel Tom Parker, played by Tom Hanks, the man behind the King's career. Finding someone to embody Elvis Presley, however, was a big ask. A zillion Elvis Presley impersonators are out there, of course, and everyone has their own impression, but how do you take someone larger than life, put your own spin on it, please fans and his surviving family, and put that into a package that looks and sounds like Elvis?
This was the dilemma Luhrmann faced as he...
The post Casting Elvis' Titular Role Was An Almost 'Impossible' Task appeared first on /Film.
The first social media reactions to "Thor: Love and Thunder" have started pouring in after the movie's world premiere in Los Angeles.
With "Love and Thunder," Chris Hemsworth's Marvel superhero becomes the first founding Avenger to get a four-quel. "Thor: Ragnarok" reinvigorated the thunder god's solo franchise by tapping into Hemsworth's latent comedic talents, so instead of stopping at three movies like Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans did with Iron Man and Captain America, the actor decided to keep going with his "Ragnarok" director and co-star, Taika Waititi.
Natalie Portman is making her return to the franchise as...
The post Thor: Love and Thunder Early Buzz: A Funny and Emotional Sequel That Might Lack Some of Its Predecessor's Freshness appeared first on /Film.
Who hasn't been influenced by Stanley Kubrick? That's the real question here. And I'm not just asking that because my own personal aesthetic life has at times veered towards the Kubrickian (no, I'm not going to go into depth on that one, you'll just have to trust me). I'm asking that because when you're one of the greats, the list of people you've influenced becomes longer than the list of people you haven't. That's just math, baby.
Still, it's always fascinating to hear directors talk about their influences. If you're not as familiar with the movies that inspire them, it's a cool lesson, and if you're deeply familiar...
The post How Stanley Kubrick's The Shining Influenced Joseph Kosinski's Spiderhead appeared first on /Film.
Teddy Jackson (Kevin Hart) is down on his luck. He's been in the sales business for 10 years with little to show for it: at his wife's work, they use Teddy as a verb, which means to screw something up. His latest project involves promoting Marty's Gym, which includes some unsuccessful YouTube videos of some ill-designed fitness products, and an expensive flyer that contains neither the address nor phone number for the gym. With this many errors, it's no surprise that Teddy loses his job. His boss remarks "You're a nice guy, you really are, but I need a dude with some...
The post The Man From Toronto Review: An Uninspired Comedy that Wastes its Potential appeared first on /Film.
Trying to remember a world before the Disney corporation was the untouchable corporate god of entertainment is like trying to explain to someone living on a tropical island what it feels like to get caught in a snowstorm. And yet, once upon a time, Disney was just a regular ol' production company making weird movies that didn't define the whole of pop culture.
Back in 1979, Disney really wanted a slice of that "Star Wars" pie, so they concocted a weird little science-fiction movie called "The Black Hole." The film featured the top-notch cast of Maximilian Schell, Robert Forster, Joseph...
The post How Interstellar Ruined a Black Hole Remake From the Director of Top Gun: Maverick appeared first on /Film.
As the streaming home of massive tentpole properties like Star Wars, Marvel, Pixar, National Geographic, and, of course, Disney itself, Disney Plus has amassed an incredible library in the nearly three years the platform has been live with more content available to watch than ever. The streamer boasts a diverse and varied catalogue full of classic series like "Alias" and "Once Upon a Time," docuseries like "The Beatles: Get Back," and beloved Disney comedies like "That's So Raven" and "Boy Meets World," as well as animated series like "The Owl House" and "Recess."
With over 400 classics, reboots, and new original series streaming, it can be overwhelming to...
The post The 35 Best Shows On Disney+ Right Now appeared first on /Film.
Film fans, let's face it, we are in a certifiable drought of films that are unafraid to be as extreme, graphic, twisted, and f* up as the world around us. Just when we had given up on the possibility of ever seeing a movie again that would emotionally scar us beyond recognition and yet send us out into the world to try and chase that high once more, a hero has emerged. After almost four decades, "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer" director John McNaughton is reuniting with "Henry" star Michael Rooker for a new vigilante film called...
The post Michael Rooker is Reuniting With His Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer Director for a New Movie appeared first on /Film.
Samuel L. Jackson and Quentin Tarantino are long-time collaborators who have shared many box office successes, including "Pulp Fiction, "Django Unchained," and "The Hateful Eight." In total, Jackson has appeared in six of the 10 movies Tarantino directed (not including "True Romance," which was written by Tarantino, but not directed by him). Those six movies together grossed more than $1 billion at the box office worldwide.
Some of Tarantino's most popular movies starred Jackson, and in return, some of Samuel L. Jackson's best performances have come out of Tarantino's films. The two Hollywood heavy hitters also appear to have at least a decent personal...
The post Samuel L. Jackson Wasn't A Fan Of Quentin Tarantino's Wig Choices appeared first on /Film.
Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Roy's dystopian sci-fi series, "Westworld" has already had a three-season run, having been renewed for a fourth season set to premiere in a few days. "Westworld" has always been ambitious from the get-go, as the show dives into the perspective of "host" bodies, a module prevalent in first-person video game narratives.
The scope of "Westworld" is extremely wide, as it attempts to capture what our futures would look like in terms of technological advancements, infusing the narrative with a certain essence of timelessness and relevance like no other.
In a press conference attended by /Film ahead of the "Westworld" season 4 premiere,...
The post Evan Rachel Wood Believes Westworld Predicted the Future appeared first on /Film.
Martin Scorsese has made a number of movies that have cost more, but in my mind, his grandest picture is "Gangs of New York." The 2002 gangster epic about anti-Irish immigrant hatred in Civil War-era New York City contains a bevy of period detail set on a massive scale. Famously, production designer Dante Ferretti built a gigantic set over a mile long that feels like the entire production figured out how to go back in time. The story contains so many groups, dozens of different gangs of political factions, that the world feels endless. The film runs close to three hours and...
The post Martin Scorsese Made Sure Gangs Of New York Debuted As His Director's Cut appeared first on /Film.
In the 12th and final chapter of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' "Watchmen," there's a blink and you miss it newspaper. Its headline reveals that a cowboy actor with the initials RR might be running for president. Who is this specifically? Why, Robert Redford of course! Who else could it be?
Damon Lindelof's "Watchmen" HBO miniseries, a sequel to the graphic novel, ran with this. In the world of HBO's "Watchmen," Redford was elected president in 1993. During the alternate 2019 of the series, he's still in office serving his seventh and final term. Though Redford himself never shows up in person, his...
The post Watchmen's Robert Redford Character Was A Risky Decision For Damon Lindelof appeared first on /Film.
Dylan O'Brien may not be reprising the role of Stiles Stilinski in the "Teen Wolf" movie this year, but that doesn't mean he won't be popping up on our TV screens soon. The actor is set to star alongside "Set It Up" star Zoey Deutch in Quinn Shephard's satire "Not Okay," which will premiere exclusively on Hulu in July.
The movie follows Danni Sanders (Deutch), an aspiring writer going through a period of arrested development. When Danni decides to fake a trip to Paris in an attempt to gain Instagram clout, she winds up in the middle of a huge lie...
The post Not Okay Trailer: Dylan O'Brien and Zoey Deutch Star in Influencer Culture Satire appeared first on /Film.
"Finding Nemo" is a funny, lovely, and touching film where the three leads — the neurotic clownfish Marlin, his young son, Nemo, and Dory, a regal blue tang with short-term memory loss — spend nearly every other scene being emotionally traumatized, having their very lives put in danger, or narrowly avoiding being maimed. There's a good reason, in other words, Pixar's beloved animated 2003 movie made the cut more than once on /Film's rundown of the most horrifying underwater scenes in films.
This was no accident, either. "Finding Nemo" more or less originated with director and co-writer Andrew Stanton's desire to create a rebuttal to what he...
The post Lion King Frustrations Built The Foundation For Finding Nemo appeared first on /Film.
(Welcome to SlashClips, a series where we bring you exclusive clips from hot new Digital, Blu-ray and theatrical releases you won't see anywhere else!)
In this edition:
The Bad Guys The Human Trial Dawn Breaks Behind the Eyes Bowen's Heart
First up, Universal Home Entertainment has provided us with a fun exclusive clip from the home video release of their latest animated offering "The Bag Guys," available on digital, 4K, and Blu-ray June 21, 2022. This one features a behind-the-scenes look at the recording process for the character Snake, voiced by "WTF" podcaster and comedian extraordinaire Marc Maron ("Maron," "GLOW")!
Here is the official synopsis:
After a lifetime...
The post Clips Round-Up: Marc Maron's Snake From The Bad Guys Gets The Spotlight & More! [Exclusive] appeared first on /Film.
The fantasy adventure film "Jumanji" was one of the highest grossing family movies of 1995. Starring the late Robin Williams and a teenage Kirsten Dunst, the movie introduced the cinemaverse to the supernatural board game that terrorizes its players by releasing unforgiving wild insects, jungle animals, and catastrophic weather from the game into the real world. The film has spawned sequels and an animated TV series.
In the original film, four unlucky players are forced to finish the dangerous game to stop the aforementioned — and big game hunter Van Pelt (Jonathan Hyde) — from terrorizing them and the community at large. Naturally,...
The post Robin Williams Went The Extra Mile To Protect His Jumanji Co-Stars appeared first on /Film.
One of the crazier success stories in all of TV and film is just how Taylor Sheridan's "Yellowstone" has set the small screen on fire. This series is like crack for dads and grandparents and it's quickly becoming the Boomer MCU as we get more and more spin-off series surrounding the Kevin Costner-starring "Yellowstone." We've already had "1883," which starred Tim McGraw, Sam Elliott, and Faith Hill and now we're getting a show based on yet another generation of Duttons, this time set in the early 1920s and starring Harrison Ford and Dame Helen Mirren.
The Ford/Mirren spin-off series was originally announced as "1932," and for reasons unknown,...
The post Taylor Sheridan's Latest Yellowstone Spin-Off 1932 Switches Digits, is Now Titled 1923 appeared first on /Film.
Well, well, well. We're only a couple of short weeks away from the release of Taika Waititi's "Thor: Love and Thunder," so of course the slow drip of footage to get all of us MCU nerds pumped up is going strong. This fine evening we have the release of a new mini-trailer with more glimpses of what's in store for our favorite God of Thunder this time out.
The trailer is a minute long but doesn't overlap too much with what we've previously seen. There's more Korg, for one thing, which automatically makes it worth your time to watch, and we get a little bit of a...
The post Thor: Love And Thunder Teaser: Pay Attention, Thor's Making a Speech appeared first on /Film.
Hayden Christensen is currently reprising his role as Anakin Skywalker (aka Darth Vader) on the Disney+ limited series "Obi-Wan Kenobi." He first portrayed the iconic character in 2002's "Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones." But the face behind Darth Vader's helmet could have been a totally different person, as Christensen revealed in a recent interview with BBC Radio 1 that he had second thoughts while auditioning for the role.
"Yeah, I mean I auditioned for it, I started auditioning for it when I was 18," Christensen recalled. "I remember, you know, hearing about the part, and I was actually like, 'Is...
The post Hayden Christensen Nearly Talked Himself Out Of Auditioning For Anakin Skywalker appeared first on /Film.
This article contains spoilers through episode 4 of "The Boys" season 3.
Hughie Campbell (Jack Quaid) never wanted to be part of a superhero-killing crusade, but sometimes life just happens. And after the first time you find yourself thoroughly traumatized and covered in whale guts, taking control of your life becomes a big priority — which is exactly why Hughie was so thrilled to take a job at the Federal Bureau of Superhuman Affairs, where he could spend the season filing papers and busting supes with the law, instead of using butt-bombs.
Unfortunately, Hughie exists in the cruel and nasty world of...
The post The Big Difference Between Hughie's Powers in The Boys Show and Comic Explained appeared first on /Film.
(Welcome to Year of the Vampire, a series examining the greatest, strangest, and sometimes overlooked vampire movies of all time in honor of "Nosferatu," which turns 100 this year.)
When it comes to weird movie obsessions, early 2000s vampire flicks tend to be my particular vice. There's something about the Hot Topic-inspired, BDSM-lite aesthetics mixed with healthy doses of camp and gore that make vampire movies from this era so spectacularly fun, even if they're not for everyone.
The 2006 vampires vs. werewolves goth extravaganza "Underworld" is one such film, leaning hard into its goofy premise and campy dialogue while playing it totally straight. "Underworld" is...
The post Year of the Vampire: Underworld is a Deceptively Simple, Stylish Classic appeared first on /Film.
When "Grease 2" was released in 1982, the film didn't stand a chance. Four years had already passed since the John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John starring "Grease" became the highest grossing film of the year, setting an unrealistic standard for any film to follow. In the four years between "Grease" and "Grease 2," the pop culture landscape had completely changed. MTV had launched the year prior, rendering movie musicals "uncool" in a sea of available music videos.
Despite having nearly double the budget of the first film, the thematic changes made for "Grease 2" were a bit too bold and...
The post Grease 2 Star Maxwell Caulfield Celebrates 40 Years of Being Cult Cinema's Cool Rider appeared first on /Film.
Having an eye for the movies must be genetic; "Jurassic World Dominion" star Bryce Dallas Howard seems poised to transition from acting to directing, just like her father, Ron Howard, did before her.
The actress directed two episodes of the highly cinematic "Star Wars" television series "The Mandalorian," as well as an episode of "The Book of Boba Fett" — with the latter largely being regarded as the highlight of the show's debut season. Howard understands how to use the visual medium to tell a story, paying special attention to the pacing and pathos. "The Mandalorian" episode "Chapter 11: The Heiress" expertly balanced its...
The post Why Bryce Dallas Howard Isn't Giving Up Acting (Despite Being an Awesome Director) appeared first on /Film.
HBO's true crime adaptation "The Staircase" continues to draw ire from those involved in the real-life story, as subject Michael Peterson has now shared any angry response via a series of emails to Variety. Peterson's defense attorney David Rudolf and three members of the real-life documentary team that's portrayed in the series -- director Jean-Xavier de Lestrade, producer Allyson Luchak, and editor Scott Stevenson -- all recently spoke publicly about their problems with the Colin Firth-led dramatization. Peterson's son, Todd, took to Instagram to explain his own issues with the series.
The case of Kathleen Peterson, whose 2001 death at the...
The post The Staircase: Michael Peterson Pens Furious Response to HBO Series That 'Trashed Me' appeared first on /Film.
This weekend sees "Jurassic World Dominion" rolling into theaters, which means the franchise is reaching something that feels at least a little bit like a conclusion. While producer Frank Marshall has very much made it clear that Universal intends to make more movies after this, the sixth entry in the "Jurassic" franchise is being billed as the end of a journey that started way back in 1993 with Steven Spielberg's original blockbuster classic. But this is only made possible because in 2015, after a very long hiatus, this series of dino-fueled films returned to the big screen with one of...
The post Tales From The Box Office: Jurassic World Is The Most Successful Legacy Sequel Ever appeared first on /Film.
Sam Peckinpah has left his mark on cinematic history with gritty Westerns, but not without his share of controversy. The filmmaker is known for his hyper-violent films, and his attitude has a crudeness to match. Peckinpah took his disregard for social graces to a new level while shooting his most popular film, "The Wild Bunch."
The 1969 Western tells the tale of an old bandit who sets out for the final heist of his career, only to walk straight into a setup orchestrated by his former partner. This triggers a war between the two posses as the old bandit and his men are...
The post Shooting The Wild Bunch Was a Huge Pain For Sam Peckinpah appeared first on /Film.
Horror, it has been said, serves as an ongoing, and ultimately never-ending exploration of humankind's innate fear of death. No matter the medium, the genre allows audiences to sit in a safe environment and explore their own mortality, so easily snatched away by a woods-dwelling ogre in a hockey mask. Horror, even when accompanied by raunchy, gory, exploitation movie glee, is the most philosophical of genres, staring the Grim Reaper right in its eye sockets, and coming to a deep understanding that death will always be an important part of our existence.
Certain filmmakers understand the morbid poetry the contemplation brings and have constructed beautifully...
The post Horror Movies That Are Just As Beautiful As They Are Terrifying appeared first on /Film.
(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.)
The Show: "Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood"
Where You Can Stream It: Hulu, Funimation, and Crunchyroll
The Pitch: "Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood" takes place in a world similar to western Europe at the turn of the 20th century, but one in which alchemists drive innovation, not engineers. Two of these alchemists, Edward Elric and his little brother Alphonse, are on a quest. A few years prior, they attempted the ultimate taboo: trying to use alchemy to...
The post The Daily Stream: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood Mixes Unrelenting Excitement With Valuable Lessons appeared first on /Film.
"Spider-Man: No Way Home" is returning to theaters this September with "The More Fun Stuff Version." Over Labor Day weekend, "No Way Home" will enjoy a re-release "with added and extended scenes" bringing that fun stuff to the U.S. and Canada. According to the movie's various social media feeds (Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook), more participating countries will be announced soon.
Tickets for "Spider-Man: No Way Home - The More Fun Stuff Version" will go on sale Tuesday, August 9, 2022, with screenings — including some in Premium Large Format theaters — set to begin Friday, September 2, 2022. "No Way Home" is already available on home media,...
The post Spider-Man: No Way Home Swings Back Into Theaters With a 'Fun Stuff' Edition appeared first on /Film.
If you're a fan of Marvel or DC Comics, Hallmark has a new collection of ornaments from your favorite superhero movies and comic books to get you in the holiday spirit. Along with a handful of new ornaments from the films of Marvel Studios, such as "Thor: Love & Thunder" and "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness," there's also a pair of decorations from "The Batman" and a certain canine superhero from "DC's League of Super-Pets."
Check out all the new 2022 Marvel and DC Comics ornaments from Hallmark below.
Batman is probably the only superhero with such deep ties to Christmas....
The post Marvel and DC's New 2022 Hallmark Christmas Ornaments Feature The Batman, Black Panther, Thor & More appeared first on /Film.
"Jurassic World: Dominion" wouldn't be here if it weren't for Steven Spielberg, who obviously directed "Jurassic Park," the movie that started the whole ever-loving dino franchise. Spielberg remains an executive producer on "Dominion," and as the father of the franchise, he had some advice that proved useful for director Colin Trevorrow.
In the past, Trevorrow has said that he sees "Dominion" as "Jurassic Park 6," not just a trilogy ender but the culmination of an entire 29-year saga that began with Spielberg's first film. In our own interview with Trevorrow, he talked about combining casts: bringing back "Jurassic Park" stars Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff...
The post Steven Spielberg's Advice For Colin Trevorrow on Jurassic World Dominion Was Very Spielbergian appeared first on /Film.
The most famous dinosaurs in the "Jurassic Park" series, eclipsing even the Tyrannosaurus rex, are the Velociraptors. These calculating pack hunters have appeared in all six "Jurassic" movies, serving as the most persistent (and terrifying) threat in the "Park" trilogy before being thrust into the unlikely (and ridiculous) role of hero in the following "World" trilogy.
You probably don't need to be told that "Jurassic Park" leaves something to be desired when it comes to scientific accuracy. The Velociraptor's depiction is one of the most egregious. Outside of the name, the cinematic version isn't even a depiction of the real-life animal. So, which...
The post How Realistic Are the Jurassic Movies' Velociraptors? A Paleontologist Has the Answer appeared first on /Film.
You've heard of adapting video games into hit-or-miss movies and TV series, now get ready for a slew series turned into video games! Streaming giant Netflix recently announced its decision to expand its gaming wares during day five of Geeked Week, stating that by the end of this year, it will offer over 50 video games directly on its platform.
The Games are just beginning. By the end of this year there will be 50+ games on Netflix. Here's a taste of what's on the way. #GeekedWeek pic.twitter.com/YhUNQZaDuV
— Netflix Geeked (@NetflixGeeked) June 10, 2022
Additionally, Netflix revealed that four of its series will...
The post Every Netflix Series Being Turned Into a Video Game appeared first on /Film.
As you can see from the photo above, there are seven protagonists in a big scene in "Jurassic World Dominion." That's not only a whole lot of cast members to keep straight in the story, but if you're putting them in one place, particularly a small place, the blocking is going to rival a Broadway dance number. Writer/director Colin Trevorrow had to work hard to keep them all in the shot correctly, which was difficult. He's not the only director to have to balance things like this out, however, as he told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview about the filming...
The post Steven Spielberg Shut Down a Colin Trevorrow Complaint About Jurassic World Dominion in Hilarious Fashion appeared first on /Film.
No, we're not talking about kitchen raptors.
Colin Trevorrow's "Jurassic World Dominion" is now available to see in theaters, and chances are, the biggest selling point outside of dinosaur related hijinks is the return of Drs. Alan Grant, Ian Malcolm, and Ellie Sattler (Sam Neill, Jeff Goldblum, and Laura Dern). The star-studded trio are three of genre film's most beloved characters, and their return to the franchise is surely going to pull on the nostalgia heartstrings of anyone who grew up loving "Jurassic Park." The three are set to team up with the new brand of characters of "Jurassic World" and "Jurassic...
The post Why These Jurassic Park Characters Didn't Make It into Jurassic World Dominion appeared first on /Film.
While "Top Gun: Maverick" retreads some ground from the original 1986 "Top Gun," director Joseph Kosinski chose to depart from franchise tradition when it came to the sport that Tom Cruise and company play on the beach in the 2022 legacy sequel.
One of the most famous — or infamous — scenes in the first "Top Gun" is the homoerotic beach volleyball scene, where the camera fixates on shirtless men as they glisten with sweat and the Kenny Loggins song "Playing with the Boys" enlivens the soundtrack. In his DVD/Blu-Ray commentary, director Tony Scott himself once likened this scene to "soft porn," and...
The post Why Top Gun: Maverick Opted For 'Dog Fight Football' Instead of Another Volleyball Match appeared first on /Film.
I loved "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, but one thing I always wished was to see more of the Mines of Moria in their full glory. A new game is coming out that will allow you to help rescue the riches of Moria and rebuild some of what was lost. Today we have a new trailer for "The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria," which is a survival crafting game set in the Fourth Age of Middle-earth. The title comes to us from Free Range Games and North Beach Games.
In the game, Lord Gimli Lockbearer...
The post The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria Trailer: Survive the Fourth Age of Middle-earth in the New Video Game appeared first on /Film.
Mild spoilers for "Jurassic World Dominion" follow.
Whatever your thoughts on the new film "Jurassic World Dominion" and its two-hour 27-minute runtime, you could have been watching it for even longer. I'm not talking about that five minute-long prologue that was released back in November of 2021. We could have gotten a lot more of an opening act, according to an interview that writer/director Colin Trevorrow did with The Hollywood Reporter.
"Jurassic World Dominion" is the ending of this trilogy, which followed the "Jurassic Park" trilogy. In the film, dinosaurs have become a part of the world now, no longer being contained on Isla Nublar. They're running in herds...
The post Jurassic World Dominion Originally had a Much Longer Beginning appeared first on /Film.
Every good superhero story has to have a killer soundtrack, and "The Boys" is no different, even if it is subverting a lot of superhero tropes. The series' third season features a killer soundtrack that includes music from just about every genre. There's electronica, rap, classic pop ... there's even a Spanish-language cover of a Wham! classic. So if you've been watching "The Boys" and want to know who made all of these great songs and where you can find them, look no further! New episodes of "The Boys" debut on Fridays on Prime Video, and this list will be updated as new episodes drop...
The post How To Listen To Every Song From The Boys Season 3 appeared first on /Film.
The "X-Men" franchise has certainly had some depressing lows to match its incredible highs, but for me, "X2: X-Men United" is the best "X-Men" movie. The 2003 film, very loosely based on the famed graphic novel "X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills," improved on its predecessor in every way. There are plenty of amazing moments and standout performances, but few are as memorable as Alan Cumming's Nightcrawler. That opening scene is one of the most fantastic moments of the entire franchise, and getting to know Nightcrawler is a highlight of the film.
Whether he's giving a Tony Award-winning performance as the Master of Ceremonies in "Cabaret" or...
The post Why the X-Men Franchise Was a Nightmare for Alan Cumming appeared first on /Film.
For "Jurassic World Dominion," Colin Trevorrow has come back onboard to direct the final installment of the trilogy that began in 2015 with the first "Jurassic World." However, there was a time when Trevorrow was set to helm another big trilogy ender: namely, the third movie in Disney's "Star Wars" sequel trilogy, which also began in 2015 with "The Force Awakens."
Trevorrow had written a script called "Duel of the Fates," which took its name from the piece of John Williams music that plays during the two-on-one lightsaber duel with Darth Maul in "The Phantom Menace." He and Lucasfilm parted ways...
The post We Finally Know How Colin Trevorrow Really Felt About His Leaked Star Wars Duel of the Fates Script appeared first on /Film.
Musicals, like rom-coms, have seen better days at the box office. Luckily, however, they've gained a new lease on life thanks to the streaming market. Last year saw "tick, tick... BOOM!" hit Netflix, ushering in the Andrew Garfield renaissance on its way to landing a well-earned pair of Oscar nods. Not long after that, Disney's "Encanto" did sturdy business in theaters for a pandemic-era release, only to explode in popularity upon hitting Disney+. Then came Steven Spielberg's "West Side Story," which crashed and burned during its theatrical run only to find a much larger audience on streaming.
Hulu is now working on "Up Here," a musical rom-com series...
The post Schmigadoon Season 2: Everything We Know So Far appeared first on /Film.
Today, on the final day of Netflix's Geeked Week, the streamer has released an announcement video for a new "Castlevania" series. The new show is called "Castlevania: Nocturne," and is set several centuries after the previous series. "Castlevania: Nocturne" will follow the adventures of Richter Belmont, a descendant of Trevor Belmont and Sypha Belnades. Vampire huntress Maria Renard is going to appear in the series as well.
If these names sound familiar to you, it's because Richter Belmont and Maria Renard are characters from the video games "Castlevania: Symphony of the Night" and "Castlevania: Blood of Rondo" games. Here is the info from Netflix:
The series...
The post Castlevania: Nocturne Teaser: A New Animated Series Rises From the Grave appeared first on /Film.
There are characters in certain films that are almost impossible to imagine in the hands of a different actor. Several performers have since been inextricably linked to some of their most iconic characters. That's definitely the case for the cast of "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy — particularly Viggo Mortensen, whose portrayal of Aragorn in all three movies has left a lifelong impression on so many. No matter what he does, Mortensen will likely always be Aragorn to someone. But there was a time, not long before production began on the first "Lord of the Rings" film, that the...
The post Recasting Aragorn Was A Risky Move Behind The Scenes Of The Lord Of The Rings appeared first on /Film.
What would the Shelby saga be without Cillian Murphy heading up the clan as Tommy? "Peaky Blinders" began its run in 2013 and prepares to take its final bow with season 6, which just hit Netflix after first airing on BBC One. This may be the show's last season, but there is a film continuation in the works to wrap up the story.
Cillian Murphy has played the role of Tommy Shelby for close to a decade. Even more time has passed in the series, which began in the aftermath of World War I. Tommy has evolved quite a bit, moving from criminal gang leader...
The post Cillian Murphy Reveals What Drew Him to His Peaky Blinders Role appeared first on /Film.
The superhero satire "The Boys" is incredibly over-the-top in every way. It's ridiculously violent, features enough nudity to give your grandma palpitations, and has enough creative swearing to make a censor weep. Each season has been more outrageous than the last, so how do the people who make "The Boys" know when they've crossed the line and taken a gag too far? In an interview with CinemaBlend, showrunner Eric Kripke revealed that the studio let them do almost anything they wanted, so it was up to the creative team to decide what was within the bounds of "The Boys" special brand of parody.
This series has...
The post How The Boys' Writers Keep Themselves From Crossing A Line appeared first on /Film.
The "Jurassic Park" franchise moved like clockwork for its first several years of existence. Steven Spielberg's original 1993 blockbuster classic based on Michael Crichton's book of the same name was such a big hit that it was impossible for Universal Pictures not to turn it into a franchise. Four years later in 1997, Spielberg returned to direct "The Lost World," and four years after that, Joe Johnston took over the director's chair for 2001's "Jurassic Park III," a movie that effectively killed the franchise for 14 years until "Jurassic World" arrived in 2015.
But it wasn't so simple as "Jurassic Park III" being...
The post The Very Weird Version Of Jurassic Park 4 We Never Saw appeared first on /Film.
If it feels like your brain is in a blender these days, you are not alone. Maybe it's why watching the trailer for season 2 of the Netflix animated series "The Cuphead Show!" sort of fits into a world where (gestures wildly at everything out there) is happening. I don't mean that to sound negative. Well, the world stuff I do, but the series is the weirdest of delights. I'm not sure what I just watched, but I'm grinning like a madwoman with pudding running out of my ears or something. Between the old timey slang, the talking worm, and whatever else I...
The post The Cuphead Show Season 2 Trailer: Who Drugged My Coffee This Morning? appeared first on /Film.
Are you ready to head back (ugh, I'm so sorry) to the supernatural gothic world of Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman?
To date, the honor of the most famous and well-loved adaptation of the classic short story, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving, simply has to go to the 1997 episode of "Wishbone" titled "Halloween Hound: The Legend of Creepy Collars." Yes, it's true: nobody has yet to even approach surpassing the genius of dressing up a Jack Russell terrier (portrayed by the late, great Soccer the Dog) in period attire and letting him loose in all the greatest literary stories. Come on, people, look deep within...
The post Watch Your Head: Sleepy Hollow Reboot in the Works appeared first on /Film.
When you hear the word "remake," you likely fall into one of two camps: You reject it immediately, or you're hyped to check it out. In online discourse, there is no in-between. Either way, remakes have long been a staple of horror and continue to be integral to the genre's vitality. For every terrible remake, there have been at least a dozen or so that have excelled in bringing in fresh ideas, jump-starting careers, and allowing audiences to rediscover the original.
If you're a highly-coveted IP like "Halloween" or "Friday the 13th," a remake was and is always inevitable, but what about those low-budget cult classics that deserve a...
The post 15 Horror Movies Long Overdue For a Remake appeared first on /Film.
Those of us who are anxiously anticipating the premiere of the ultra-expensive Amazon Prime series "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" may be wondering where exactly in the "Lord of the Rings" timeline the show will be taking place. The short answer is that it takes place during the Second Age of Middle-earth, but if you're not exactly an advanced Tolkien aficionado or Middle-earth historian, that understandably means nothing to you. Luckily, we're here with a far more comprehensive explanation.
Using the six movies that take place in the Tolkien cinematic universe...
The post Where The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Fits in the Franchise Timeline, According to the Creators appeared first on /Film.
Among the many memorable moments in "Predator" is the titular alien hunter's showdown with the Native American tracker Billy Sole (Sonny Landham). By this point, director John McTiernan's 1987 movie has seamlessly evolved from another Reagan-era exercise in machismo and jingoism to a sweat-soaked slasher, with Arnold Schwarzenegger as "Dutch" emerging as the Final Girl. In an effort to give the rest of his team time to escape, Billy stays behind to confront the Predator atop a fallen tree trunk hanging over a deep ravine. He even removes his protective vest and slashes his chest with his knife for good measure.
This ... does...
The post The Predator Scene That Inspired Prey Wasn't Even in the Original Movie appeared first on /Film.
Taika Waititi's highly-anticipated sequel "Thor: Love and Thunder" has a bunch of special cameo roles worth gearing up for already, with some sneaky ones inserted in the trailer (such as The Watcher from "What If...?"). "Love and Thunder" re-introduces Natalie Portman's Jane Foster as the Mighty Thor, while also exploring Thor's (Chris Hemsworth) emotional state after the events of "Avengers: Endgame." But what about other recurring characters from the "Thor" movies?
The trailers already allow a glimpse at Korg (Waititi), the fan-favorite Kronan warrior who is present by his buddy Thor's side, in what seems like a road-trip comedy of sorts. This begs the question...
The post Will Jeff Goldblum Appear in Thor: Love and Thunder? appeared first on /Film.
While we've known for a little while now that a sequel to the 2020 Netflix action film "The Old Guard" was headed our way, and now there's a new reason to get excited. Two new reasons, actually. "The Old Guard" was a neat experiment in female-led action, centered around Charlize Theron's ageless assassin Andy, but the cast for the sequel just stepped things up a notch. In addition to Theron and the rest of the returning cast, Netflix announced that Uma Thurman ("Kill Bill") and Henry Golding ("Crazy Rich Asians") will join the upcoming sequel. The movies are based on the graphic novel series of the same...
The post The Old Guard 2 Adds Uma Thurman and Henry Golding appeared first on /Film.
In the original "Jurassic Park," Laura Dern said one of the best lines in cinema history. Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) muses, "God creates dinosaurs. God destroys dinosaurs. God creates man. Man destroys God. Man creates dinosaurs." Dern, as Dr. Ellie Sattler, adds to the chain of events: "Dinosaurs eat man. Woman inherits the earth."
Dr. Ellie Sattler was a character like very few others that audiences had seen in mainstream cinema at the time. She was powerful, funny, brilliant, and thought for herself. Dern took that seriously, speaking often about how important it was to see a woman like this on the...
The post Steven Spielberg Asked Laura Dern to Come Back for Jurassic World Dominion [Interview] appeared first on /Film.
The development of 3D technology has been both a benefit and a hindrance to the film industry. Like any other piece of technology, 3D is a tool, and when used properly can create an immersive and rewarding cinematic experience for audiences. However, 3D has also become a crutch that some films have leaned on to justify their existence. The use of 3D has a longer history within cinema than some film fans may realize. The first 3D screenings were held in select specialty theaters over 100 years ago. Initially, 3D films began to take off at the box office in the 1950s, thanks to the...
The post The Best And Worst 3D Moments In Sci-Fi Movie History appeared first on /Film.
Karl Urban is probably best known for his work in films with inseparable ensemble casts, and for the New Zealand actor, that's entirely by design. "To me," Urban told The Guardian, "that's the most important thing in life: building a solid connection with people and having a great time doing the thing that you really love."
Urban's no-nonsense intensity has made him a stand-out in ensemble-driven franchises like "Lord of the Rings" and "Star Trek," but there's still one very famous found family that the actor has yet to join: The X-Men. Ever since Hugh Jackman retired from the role of Wolverine...
The post Karl Urban Doesn't Think He'll Get A Shot At Playing Wolverine, Despite Fans' Desire appeared first on /Film.
"Jurassic World Dominion" is looking to keep a very big summer at the box office going strong as it arrives on more than 4,000 screens this weekend. It was always all but guaranteed that this movie was going to be a huge hit, but it is coming out of the gate very strong with $18 million worth of ticket sales from Thursday preview screenings alone. That sets it up for a dino-sized opening weekend haul that may well exceed pre-weekend tracking.
The $18 million figure was reported by Variety, with the outlet also noting that "Dominion," the third...
The post Jurassic World Dominion Takes An $18 Million Bite Out Of The Box Office In Thursday Previews appeared first on /Film.
Faster than a speeding bullet, Prime Video's "The Boys" has been officially renewed for another season of superhero satire, slightly too-real political commentary, and all manner of disgusting gore and unspeakable acts that we've come to expect from the joyously rebellious series. "Daddy's home," as Billy Butcher himself would say.
The news of "The Boys" getting the go-ahead for season 4 comes straight from Prime Video, who made the announcement while the currently ongoing third season has only just begun to air ... with only a little amount of technical difficulty, thanks to overwhelming demand for last night's episode. If anything, that only serves to justify the no-brainer decision to move...
The post The Boys Season 4 Ordered by Amazon appeared first on /Film.
Much like life, this post finds a way ... to discuss major spoilers for "Jurassic World Dominion," that is.
Well, you can't say director Colin Trevorrow and writer Emily Carmichael (with a "story by" credit from Derek Connolly) didn't do everything in their power to end the dino-themed trilogy on a high note with "Jurassic World Dominion." The original trio of Alan Grant (Sam Neill), Ellie Satler (Laura Dern), and Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) make their triumphant returns, the plot takes both new and old characters on a globetrotting adventure far bigger in scope than the previous two films, and the dinosaurs are badder than ever — as Malcolm bemoans...
The post The Best Easter Eggs in Jurassic World Dominion appeared first on /Film.
This post contains spoilers for "The Boys" season 3, as well as "The Boys" comic series, "Breaking Bad" and "Game of Thrones."
The most impressive part of "The Boys" is the way it's developed the character of Homelander (Antony Starr), the all-powerful, indestructible superhero who captains (or co-captains) the Seven. The concept of an evil Superman may not be super fresh territory, but rarely have we seen the character type handled with such consistent competence. For three seasons now, the protagonists of "The Boys" have been fighting against an evil villain who could technically rip them all to shreds at any moment if he desired.
But as of halfway...
The post How Long Can The Boys Keep Homelander Around? appeared first on /Film.
Samuel L. Jackson has never been shy about sharing his opinions about his various movie and TV roles over the years, though I absolutely can't blame him for one grievance he recently aired in a The Hollywood Reporter roundtable with fellow thespians Oscar Isaac, Brian Cox, Tom Hiddleston, Quincy Isaiah, and Michael Keaton. Apparently Jackson was annoyed that his character Nick Fury wasn't in "Captain America: Civil War," the first big Marvel team-up film after "The Avengers" in 2012.
While the screenwriters, Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, told The LA Times that Fury wasn't in "Civil War" because they didn't want to have him take a side...
The post Samuel L. Jackson is Still Annoyed that Nick Fury Wasn't in Captain America: Civil War appeared first on /Film.
"Jurassic World Dominion" is hitting theaters this coming weekend, and it's the end of the second "Jurassic Park" trilogy. There could certainly be more films in the future, but whether or not it would be better to reboot the franchise or continue the story is up for debate. Giving away no spoilers, there could certainly be a continuation of what we see in "Jurassic World Dominion," but a reboot? To be fair, I'm not a huge fan of reboots, particularly with something that's been out since I've been going to the movies. In this case, it seems ridiculous to reboot something that is still very...
The post Colin Trevorrow On Rebooting the Jurassic Franchise: 'Best of Luck' appeared first on /Film.
In 1993, Steven Spielberg's "Jurassic Park" changed movies forever. That's not hyperbole or exaggeration. Spielberg, working with a crack team of special effects artists, made us believe dinosaurs were back, if only for the runtime of the movie. Digital VFX work had been used in films before "Jurassic Park," but it was Spielberg's monster movie opus that displayed such work on such a grand, impressive, immersive scale. In the wake of that film, Hollywood would fully embrace digital effects — for better and, in a lot of cases, for worse. No one would accuse the film, adapted from Michael...
The post Jurassic World Dominion Review: For The Love of T-Rex, It's Time to Let This Franchise Finally Go Extinct appeared first on /Film.
This post contains spoilers for the first three "Dune" books, as well as all of "Star Wars."
During the filming of "Dune," director Denis Villeneuve came into some mild conflict with J.J. Abrams, who was filming "Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker." With "Rise of Skywalker" including scenes in the desert planet of Tatooine, and with "Dune" taking place almost entirely on the desert planet of Arrakis, both movies did a lot of filming in the Wadi Rum desert in Jordan. Villeneuve and his production designer Patrice Vermette arranged a meet-up with some of the "Star Wars" film crew to work things out. Vermette told The Hollywood Reporter:
"We... The post Denis Villeneuve's Dune Had To Solve A Star Wars Problem appeared first on /Film.
When it comes to "Star Trek," few things are more important than continuity. The vast universe of "Trek" films and shows — most of which jump forward and back across the prime timeline — often connect and even intersect, which means that narrative isn't the only thing that has to align across multiple pieces of media. "Star Trek: Discovery," one of the more recent "Trek" shows, takes place earlier than other series. This gave costume designer Gersha Phillips a bit of freedom to establish a distinct style for the show — but she still had to bridge the gap between the functional flight...
The post Star Trek: Discovery Put Some Demands On Strange New Worlds' Costume Design appeared first on /Film.
While Matt Groening's and David X. Cohen's repeatedly resurrected animated sci-fi sitcom "Futurama" may contain more than its fair share of crass jokes, funny "dumb" characters, and all manner of lame puns, it doesn't take a very sophisticated viewer to recognize that it comes from the minds of very smart people. For every crude joke, there will be a deeply intellectual reference, eight-dollar word, or scientific reference that requires a dive to the encyclopedia. To cite one example, a wide shot of Saturn might reveal a tiny sign posted next to the gap in its rings. A close look reveals that it reads "Mind the Keeler...
The post Bender's Serial Number In Futurama Has A Hidden Meaning appeared first on /Film.
The first three seasons of "Stranger Things" overflowed with nightmare-inducing, monster-filled alternate dimensions that intertwined with Spielbergian childlike wonder that brought light and hope into the darkness of The Upside Down. That childhood innocence is noticeably absent in "Stranger Things 4," which is visually and thematically the darkest season of the popular series.
"Stranger Things 4" continues to revolve around Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) and her rag-tag group of underdogs, but life has gotten considerably more complicated for the group. Their days of fearing imaginary D&D monsters are over, as they now face the real things and experience adult boogie...
The post Going Practical With Stranger Things' Vecna Was a Painstaking Process From Start To Finish appeared first on /Film.
Lead sound effects editor Angelo Palazzo is sometimes left speechless by season 4 of "Stranger Things." Palazzo previously won an Emmy for his work on season 3, but for him, season 4 was a whole new different beast. Although he has over 25 years of experience in moviemaking, nothing quite compares to working on the Duffer Brothers' hit Netflix show.
As the series matures with its main audience, season 4 takes a darker turn. As a result, so do the sound effects. Palazzo went darker and harder with the "Stranger Things" soundscape. Monsters are more aggressive and the hits hurt more than...
The post Stranger Things Sound Effects Editor Angelo Palazzo on The Magic of IKEA Furniture and Vegetables [Interview] appeared first on /Film.
One of the best films to come out of 2014 was "Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)," a movie following a former big-name Hollywood actor who tries to make it as a more serious, thoughtful artist performing in theatre. Much like how Michael Keaton once played Batman in the Tim Burton films, his character Riggin is famous for playing the in-universe equivalent superhero Birdman, and is frustrated with his inability to ever escape from that one role. It results in a beautiful, introspective story about what qualifies as real art and what an artist must risk to make it.
But enough about all that --...
The post Birdman's Brutal Filming Method Made Every Mistake That Much Worse appeared first on /Film.
Steve McQueen isn't just a great filmmaker. He's an activist for greater representation within the industry. McQueen recently criticized the discriminatory practices in the British film system during the BAFTA awards. It is no secret that the history of Hollywood is intertwined with systemic discrimination. Artists of color have struggled to see themselves represented on screen since the earliest days of cinema. It is important to support diverse storytellers that offer insights on recent events.
Before he became a narrative filmmaker, McQueen experimented with various forms of visual art, including documentaries, short films, and portraits. He made his directorial debut in 2008 with the film, "Hunger."...
The post Director Steve McQueen's Movies Ranked Worst To Best appeared first on /Film.
Colin Trevorrow does not want for ambition.
The director who brought moviegoers back to the dinosaur-dappled Isla Nublar for the first time in 22 years with 2015's mega-blockbuster "Jurassic World" had all kinds of grand plans for the franchise's second trilogy. One of his big ideas was purely cosmetic: he wanted the titles to be wholly unique. In other words, no "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom" or the colon-less "Jurassic World Dominion." These films had to reflect that they were standalone events (even though they were always going to be a part of a trilogy, but forget...
The post Colin Trevorrow Almost Gave Each Jurassic World Movie Its Own Distinct Title, But 'We Live In A Society' appeared first on /Film.
"Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" is continuing its so-far successful quest to be the most exciting modern Trek show around. The prequel series has just cast Jesse James Keitel in a guest-starring role as a non-binary character, according to Variety.
Keitel is a trans non-binary actor who will be playing the role of non-binary humanitarian aid worker Dr. Aspen, per the outlet. Dr. Aspen apparently used to be a counselor for Starfleet but was moved to change careers after witnessing the realities of the Federation border. The actor will appear in next week's episode of "Star Trek: Strange...
The post Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Adds Queer As Folk's Jesse James Keitel as new nonbinary character appeared first on /Film.
We've all been making this joke since season 2 of "Stranger Things," when it looked like all of the young actors had suddenly aged five years, but this time it sounds like it's really happening — we're getting a time jump! Will they "Riverdale" it and make them adults somehow? Will we get to see them graduate high school? Will they do the reverse "Irishman" and make them all 65-year-old people who are reminiscing about their crazy days as wild youths? I mean, probably not but wouldn't that be something? All of them living in a senior apartment building, still somehow fighting the Upside Down...
The post Stranger Things Season 5 Will Probably Have a Time Jump appeared first on /Film.
It appears "Project Artemis" is not the project for Jason Bateman.
A few months after Apple acquired the production for a cool $100 million, the "Ozark" star is stepping down as director of the space race movie starring the mighty Marvel duo of Scarlett Johansson and Chris Evans. It's yet another one of those "creative difference" scenarios, but according to Deadline, the parting was amicable. Johansson's production company, These Pictures (which she co-runs with Jonathan Lia and Keenan Flynn) has expressed an interest in teaming with Bateman on another project somewhere down the line.
Bateman has been aggressively pursuing directing gigs over the last...
The post Jason Bateman Exits Apple's Space Race Movie Artemis Over Creative Differences appeared first on /Film.
This is an evergreen reminder that no one in Hollywood should be allowed to name their own movies and everyone at /Film should be naming them instead! We're all too smart, funny, and hot. But you know who else is having a smart, funny, and hot moment? Your friends at Apple because they finally locked down the exclusive movie rights they've been chasing since January 2022. Maybe this is a reminder to never give up, but maybe it's also a reminder that it's easier to not give up if you have an indescribable amount of money and resources? So, you...
The post Apple Lands Joseph Kosinski's Untitled Brad Pitt-Starring Formula One Movie, Somehow Not The Pitt Crew appeared first on /Film.
It lives! The long-rumored sequel to Todd Phillips' 2019 film "Joker" is currently in development. Phillips shared a series of photos on his Instagram account, showing the red script cover adorned with the working title, "Joker: Folie à Deux." The second photo he shared was of "Joker" star Joaquin Phoenix seemingly reading the script. Although the post does not confirm whether the project was greenlit or if Phoenix will return to the role that landed him an Oscar, it does confirm that work is being done on the film.
View this post on... The post Todd Phillips Reveals The Working Title For Joker 2, Joaquin Phoenix's Interest Confirmed appeared first on /Film.
Even though Christmas is still a long way off, Hallmark always gets the party started early by revealing the new wave of Keepsake Ornaments that collectors can add to their Christmas tree each year. As always, there's a huge assortment of ornaments inspired by pop culture, and that includes a new line-up of "Star Wars" ornaments. This year, the collection includes moments from "The Mandalorian," with plenty of Grogu to go around, as well as celebrations of "Star Wars: A New Hope" and "Attack of the Clones" in honor of their respective milestone anniversaries.
Let's check out the new 2022 "Star Wars" Hallmark ornaments...
The post New 2022 Star Wars Hallmark Christmas Ornaments Celebrate The Mandalorian, Attack of the Clones & More appeared first on /Film.
Madonna's self-directed biopic has been the subject of speculation for months, specifically when it comes to casting the highly-sought lead role. Now, Variety is reporting that actress Julia Garner has been offered the part of the world-famous pop star.
It's worth noting that, according to Variety, the "Ozark" and "Inventing Anna" actress hasn't officially accepted the role yet, but the offer marks a major step forward for the film that's been in the works since 2020. In March, The Hollywood Reporter apparently got a hold of the short list of actors in competition for the role, which included "Midsommar" star Florence Pugh, "Assassination Nation" lead Odessa Young,...
The post Madonna Biopic Will (Probably) Star Julia Garner appeared first on /Film.
After four long years, actor-writer-rapper Donald Glover's Emmy and Golden Globe-winning dark comedy "Atlanta" has aired its third season. Created, executive produced by, and starring Glover, the series uses the Atlanta rap scene to explore a wide variety of issues like race, racism, identity, class, capitalism, and, of course, the fascinating insider world of music, art, and rap. "Atlanta" draws on Glover's experiences growing up in Georgia before breaking out as a rapper and comedian. Glover's intimate knowledge of the industry combined with the series' frequent tonal shifts and pointed perspective on the Black experience have made "Atlanta" one of television's most unexpected and exciting shows to...
The post Every Atlanta Season 3 Episode Ranked Worst To Best appeared first on /Film.
(Superhero Bits is a collection of stories, updates, and videos about anything and everything inspired by the comics of Marvel, DC, and more. For comic book movies, TV shows, merchandise, events, and whatever catches our eye, this is the place to find anything that falls through the cracks.)
In this edition of Superhero Bits:
"Harley Quinn" season 3 finally arrives this summer.
The "Blade" reboot may finally start filming very soon.
Marvel's "Daredevil" reboot could take on a lighter tone.
The "Black Adam" movie gets a new poster.
All that and more!
Marvel Comics is partnering with Epic Games for "Fortnite...
The post Superhero Bits: The Black Adam Poster, Blade Apparently Begins Filming Soon & More appeared first on /Film.
Not only are we super close to "What We Do in the Shadows" season 4 premiere on FX, but the show has been renewed for a fifth and sixth season! This sounds like it's going to be the biggest season yet, according to a press conference, attended by our own Valerie Ettenhofer. There is one episode in particular that is very elaborate, according to executive producer Paul Simms. That's saying something, after a vampiric council full of celebrities who have played vampires on shows and in films, baby Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch), the cursed witch hat, and so very many...
The post What We Do in the Shadows Season 4 Features the Show's Biggest, Most Elaborate Episode Yet appeared first on /Film.
Movie vampires are never quite as weird as the "real" thing. On screen, the bloodsuckers are sometimes scary but more often sexy. They're strong and sleek and pretty much unstoppable unless confronted with one of their few weaknesses. All in all, most pop culture vamps are not overtly ridiculous.
But the vampires of "What We Do in the Shadows" have always marched to the beat of their own drum. The hilarious FX comedy, which is headed into its fourth season, has explored all sorts of lesser-known facets of real-life vampire mythology, like the creatures' need for ancestral dirt,...
The post The Real Piece of Obscure Vampire Lore What We Do in the Shadows Hasn't Included (Yet) appeared first on /Film.
This post contains minor spoilers for season 4 of "Stranger Things." You have been warned.
It would appear that the creative team behind "Stranger Things" heard the phrase "go big or go home" and took that literally. It was one thing when we learned that Netflix allegedly spent $30 million per episode on the fourth season of the series, and it was another when it was made public that several episodes of season 4 would be longer than some feature films. The record-breaking doesn't seem to be ending anytime soon, as the show's co-creator Matt Duffer told Empire, "The final...
The post Stranger Things Season 4 Finale Has More FX shots than all of Season 3 appeared first on /Film.
(Welcome to ...And More, our no-frills, zero B.S. guide to when and where you can watch upcoming movies and shows, and everything else you could possibly stand to know.)
The day "The Sandman" fans have long (wait for it ...) dreamed about is almost upon us. At last, Neil Gaiman's superb comic books are headed to the small screen after years of failed attempts to wrangle the author's opus on the power of stories into a movie or TV series, with Gaiman himself among the chief creatives. That he's so heavily involved with "The Sandman" could also be seen as a mixed blessing, depending on whether you prefer your...
The post The Sandman: Release Date, Cast, and More appeared first on /Film.
"The Boys" is back with a vengeance in season 3, bloodier, funnier, and more poignant than ever. The show is also scarier than ever before, which is saying something since it tackled actual nazis in season 2. Now Homelander, everyone's favorite psychopath supes, has become unchained after appealing to like-minded supremacists during an unscripted speech.
Meanwhile, with the titular boys falling into doing whatever it takes to fight supes, Starlight is left as the moral center of the show — even as she finds herself in more danger than ever as she starts working more closely with Homelander. Things are dire in the world...
The post The Boys Actors Anthony Starr and Erin Moriarty on Homelander and Starlight's Dynamic [Interview] appeared first on /Film.
The brilliant and hysterical "What We Do in the Shadows" has been renewed for a fifth and sixth season before the fourth season even airs. Not only that, but our own Valerie Ettenhofer joined the press conference for the series and brought back some great info, including the Staten Island mansion's decrepit state and some real raccoons joining the cast.
The series is the story of the adventures of vampires Nandor (Kayvan Novak), Laszlo (Matt Berry), and Nadja (Natasia Demetriou), energy vampire Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch), and Nandor's familiar Guillermo (Harvey Guillén). The group is living in a crumbling old mansion in Staten Island,...
The post What We Do in the Shadows Season 4 Will Wreck the Mansion, Recruit Real Raccoons appeared first on /Film.
(Superhero Bits is a collection of stories, updates, and videos about anything and everything inspired by the comics of Marvel, DC, and more. For comic book movies, TV shows, merchandise, events, and whatever catches our eye, this is the place to find anything that falls through the cracks.)
In this edition of Superhero Bits:
"Deadpool 3" may well still be R-rated under Disney's roof.
"Marvel's Spider-Man" is finally coming to PC.
The Rock continues to tease the "Black Adam" trailer.
Marvel's "Blade" gets a cinematographer.
All that and more!
The folks at Threezero have offered a little tease of their upcoming...
The post Superhero Bits: Deadpool 3 Is Absolutely R-Rated, A New Ms. Marvel Poster & More appeared first on /Film.
When Alejandro González Iñárritu's film "Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)" won the Academy Award for Best Picture in February of 2015, it appeared to be a rebuke of modern blockbuster trends. In the film, a perfectly cast Michael Keaton played an actor named Riggan Thompson who, in the late '80s and early '90s, had risen to fame playing a silly superhero character called Birdman. Ever since, Riggan had been fighting to regain his credibility as a "serious actor," leading him to star in the high-profile Broadway play which serves as the centerpiece of the film. There is a lot of dialogue in "Birdman"...
The post Why Edward Norton Turned Down Starring in an Incredible Hulk Sequel appeared first on /Film.
"What We Do In The Shadows" isn't exactly known for will-they-won't-they dynamics: the bawdy FX comedy features a cast of sexually fluid vampires who seem refreshingly open to any and all sorts of relationship configurations. Yet that orgiastic attitude doesn't seem to extend to one person: Guillermo (Harvey Guillen), Nandor the Relentless' (Kayvan Novak) put-upon human familiar. The comparatively reserved vampire hunter and household servant seems to have eyes only for his boss, leading shipper fans to dub the pair "Nandermo."
At a press conference today ahead of the series' upcoming fourth season, the show's cast and...
The post What We Do in the Shadows Team Says Nandor and Guillermo Aren't Getting Together Anytime Soon, Sorry appeared first on /Film.
Just as William Shakespeare did with "Romeo and Juliet," a surefire sign of brilliant theatrical artistry is an opening monologue that tells the audience exactly what they're about to see. "Welcome to 'Triassic Parq.' It's the story of the dinosaurs of 'Jurassic Park' but we can't call it 'Jurassic Park' because we might get sued."
Originally produced in 2010 at the New York International Fringe Festival, "Triassic Parq" is a musical parody of "Jurassic Park" as told from the perspective of the dinosaurs. While "Jurassic Park" tells the story of Dr. Alan Grant, Dr. Ellie Sattler, Dr. Ian Malcolm, Dr....
The post Triassic Parq is the Musical Retelling of Jurassic Park You Didn't Know You Needed appeared first on /Film.
(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.)
The Movie: "Fantastic Fungi"
Where You Can Stream It: Netflix
The Pitch: You know how "Star Trek: Discovery" season 1 was based around the concept of faster-than-light travel via the power of space mushrooms? Well if you didn't, you do now. I fell off "Star Trek: Discovery" after a couple of seasons due to our present-day curse of Too Much Content, but I loved that idea of science fiction being based around something so humble and down-to-earth...
The post The Daily Stream: Fantastic Fungi is the Netflix Film That Says 'Look Down' appeared first on /Film.
We all have to start somewhere, and for a surprising number of actors, that somewhere is a soap opera. Guy Pearce is one of them: his first-ever role was in the Australian soap "Neighbours" in 1986. Now, Deadline reports he's returning to the show for its final episode in August.
For the uninitiated, Melbourne-set soap "Neighbours" began in 1985 and has run for 38 seasons to date. By the time it ends this summer, the show will have aired nearly 9000 episodes. Pearce, who has since gained fame for his turns in films like "Memento" and "L.A. Confidential," appeared in over 400...
The post Guy Pearce is Returning to Australian Soap Neighbours For the Series Finale appeared first on /Film.
It's starting to feel like "Top Gun: Maverick" really did soar into theaters to save the movies. The first half of 2022 has been an inconsistent time for the box office as American moviegoers continued to figure out what movies they're willing to risk the pandemic to see. There have been impressive hits, like "The Batman," and comparative flops, like "Morbius" and "Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore." But no major studio movie seems to be holding moviegoers' interest quite like "Top Gun: Maverick."
According to The Wrap, the movie is on track to earn an impressive $84.5 million this...
The post Top Gun: Maverick Is Holding Strong With Massive $84.5 Million Second Weekend Box Office appeared first on /Film.
Warning: some truly disturbing spoilers ahead for "The Boys" season 3.
"The Boys" is not a show for the faint of heart — nor is it a show to watch in your family living room, where anyone could stroll past and accidentally glimpse the untold horrors of whale explosions or splattering guts. During the premiere of the "The Boys" season 3, some fans learned this lesson the hard way when they tuned in to meet a super called Termite (who was briefly glimpsed in season 1, though he went unnamed at the time).
Initially, viewers expect the only NSFW...
The post The Boys' Infamous Termite Sex Scene Was Inspired By a Certain Ant-Man & Thanos Meme appeared first on /Film.
Well, this sucks. After it was announced that Sony would rerelease "Morbius" for one weekend, the internet's latest meme obsession starring Jared Leto only grossed an additional $85,000 at the box office on Friday (via The Numbers). While that might sound bad, it gets even worse when taking into consideration that it was released in over a thousand theaters, only averaging around $82 per theater.
So, just how bad is this? Let's do some simple math. Statista reports that the average price of a movie ticket in the U.S. was $9.57 in 2021. Keep in mind that this is kind of...
The post Morbius Adds Just 85,000 Morbucks to its Total Gross in First Day of Re-Release appeared first on /Film.
(Welcome to Tales from the Box Office, our column that examines box office miracles, disasters, and everything in between, as well as what we can learn from them.)
From the earliest days of popular cinema, monsters have been a big draw for audiences. Just look at the classic Universal Monsters films, such as "Dracula," "Frankenstein," and "The Wolfman." And yet, after all these years, we have yet to have a true, blue breakout Bigfoot movie -- at least, not of the horror variety anyhow. Sure, there have been near countless direct to DVD Bigfoot films...
The post Tales from the Box Office: Harry and the Hendersons Is The Only Bigfoot Movie That Ever Made Any Money appeared first on /Film.
I never loved cars, but I did take them for granted. At college in Ohio, cars represented the only means other than an irregular shuttle to go anywhere or do anything outside of school. They are essential to the lives of millions of people in the United States and around the world. But they are also dangerous. According to the World Health Organization, roughly 1.3 million people worldwide die in car accidents each year. In the United States alone, a report by the National Safety Council found that cars killed 42,060 people in 2020.
"Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior" ends...
The post Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior's Stunts Were More Dangerous Than You Think appeared first on /Film.
Our friends at Sideshow Collectibles have flown the Razor Crest to our home planet to deliver one of their coolest Star Wars collectibles yet: The Mandalorian and Grogu Premium Format Statue, which we were lucky enough to get to unbox. As you will see in said unboxing, this pairing of the armored lone wolf Din Djarin and his faithful cub Grogu cuts an iconic pose that will defy gravity once it rests on your shelf.
A hybrid of polystone and ABS (that Grogu pram is made out of light plastic for a reason), The Mandalorian and Grogu Premium Format piece stands at 20" inches tall and...
The post Sideshow's The Mandalorian And Grogu Premium Format Statue Balances The Force [Exclusive] appeared first on /Film.
"Dog Day Afternoon" is a phenomenal piece of 1970s American cinema based on the true story of unsuccessful bank robber John Wojtowicz. In the film, on August 22, 1972, Sonny Wortzik and friend Sal Naturile fail to take the money and run, instead ending up in a showdown with law enforcement and becoming local celebrities. Director Sidney Lumet crafts "Dog Day Afternoon" with a documentary-style realism through the use of natural lighting, lack of flashy angles, and actor improvisation. He often shoots in real time to capture the sense of authenticity as much as possible, to showcase the wild events as they unfold in real...
The post Sidney Lumet Sacrificed Dog Day Afternoon's Score For The Sake Of The Story appeared first on /Film.
The CW giveth and The CW taketh away. Last month the network made headlines by going on an all-out killing spree and canning seven shows in one day. The lucky few titles not on the chopping block might've felt safe for a minute there, but it turns out The CW wasn't quite done trimming down its lineup.
The latest cancellation will be a nostalgia-fueled blow to '90s kids everywhere. After resurrecting the long-lost Nickelodeon adventure game show of their childhood, The CW has now canceled "Legends Of The Hidden Temple." TVLine reports that the reboot will not return for a second...
The post The CW Cancels Its Legends of the Hidden Temple Reboot After One Season appeared first on /Film.
Some of the best filmmakers of all time are known for being total control freaks. "The Shining" director Stanley Kubrick is notoriously dictatorial on set, while David Fincher has a reputation for making actors shoot the same scenes over, and over, and over again. One cinematic master who would strongly disagree with this approach is David Cronenberg, known for body horror cult classics like "The Fly" and "Videodrome."
Cronenberg has directed household names like Debbie Harry of "Blondie," Ralph Fiennes, best known for "Schindler's List," and Jeff Goldblum, who went on to star in blockbusters like "Jurassic Park." This is no...
The post David Cronenberg Has A Simple Philosophy When It Comes To Working With Actors appeared first on /Film.
The fascinating filmmaker David Cronenberg has never had a reputation as a traditionalist. The director is known for subverting the boundaries of conventional cinema in order to create uniquely disturbing and unforgettable imagery. Much of his work was made prior to the streaming boom of the 2010s, when films were made primarily to be shown in theaters. Cronenberg argues that streaming a movie gives it a different texture, but that it is not necessarily better or worse than viewing it in a theater. There are benefits to both the globally accessible nature of digital streaming and the quasi-religious experience of attending the...
The post Why David Cronenberg Doesn't Care If You Watch Movies in a Theater appeared first on /Film.
It's been three years since the last time we visited the town of Hawkins, but "Stranger Things" is finally back with new episodes. Season 4 does many things right, from embracing anime and D&D, to actually being quite scary, to its satanic panic storyline, and everything Maya Hawke and Joe Keery do.
And yet, I couldn't help but think that the show was much better when it was focused on one, maybe two storylines you could easily follow.
You see, this season we've got Eleven and the endless flashbacks to her being bullied, Joyce Byers traveling to Russia to rescue Hopper, Hopper's...
The post The Overstuffed Stranger Things 4 Shows Why Every Series Doesn't Need to be Game of Thrones appeared first on /Film.
Julia Garner won two consecutive Emmy Awards for her performance as Ruth Langmore in Netflix's "Ozark." With a spitfire Missouri accent that permanently bonded itself to the character by accident during her audition, Ruth is a role Garner fully inhabits, so much so that it might surprise some viewers to learn the actress grew up in the Bronx.
To get into Ruth's headspace, Garner did more than just adopt an accent. According to Rolling Stone magazine, she also wrote a diary from Ruth's perspective, as she had done with her Mormon teen character when she had her first lead role in the 2012 independent film, "Electrick Children."
For Garner,...
The post Julia Garner Went Through an Intense Process to Understand Her Ozark Character appeared first on /Film.
Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) was once central to the "Stranger Things" story, as his disappearance into the Upside Down dimension served as the narrative lynchpin for season 1. Since then, however, Will has faded to the background a bit, leading some to suggest that the show is failing his character by keeping him sidelined. It's as if the series has treated Will, the perennial outcast, the way society itself does: not just bullying him, but even forgetting his birthday.
"Stranger Things" creators Matt and Ross Duffer recently spoke with Variety about the show's fourth season, which sees Will in a sad state,...
The post Maybe Will's So Sad in Stranger Things Season 4 Because Even The Duffers Forgot His Birthday appeared first on /Film.
On April 26, 1986, the core of the No. 4 reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant near Pripyat melted down, causing a nuclear accident that released airborne radioactive contamination for about nine days in what is still classified as the worst nuclear disaster in history, both in cost and casualties. Stories around the Chernobyl disaster have been told time and time again, most notably in the critically-acclaimed HBO limited series "Chernobyl." Now, HBO is returning with yet another Chernobyl project, but this time without the dramatization. As part of HBO Documentary films, Emmy-winning filmmaker James...
The post Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes Trailer: A Chilling Never Before Seen Look at One of The World's Greatest Tragedies appeared first on /Film.
Arya Stark once asked "What's west of Westeros?" It's a fair question, but it turns out there's only so much of the "Game of Thrones" world that still needs to be filled in. Amidst a full but ever-shifting development slate featuring several "Game of Thrones" spinoffs and prequels, HBO's VP of Original Programming, Kara Buckley, seems to be putting a lid on the number of new shows we might see.
Buckley spoke at ATX Television Festival today, where /Film's Ryan Scott is reporting. On a panel titled "Futurescape: A Look at What's Ahead in TV," the programming VP...
The post HBO Will Only Pursue More Game of Throne Spin-Offs If Creative, Exciting Concepts Come Up [ATX] appeared first on /Film.
Twenty years ago, HBO's original drama programming consisted of "Oz," "The Sopranos," and "Six Feet Under." The pay-cable outlet had been blazing a daringly original trail comedy-wise with series like "The Larry Sanders Show" and "Mr. Show with Bob and David," but this foray into seriousness shook up an industry that expected hour-long dramas to hew to network broadcast standards. A bare butt and the occasional curse word in "NYPD Blue" was scandalous enough. The penitentiary roughhousing on "Oz?" That was miles beyond the pale. In any event, once top-flight storytellers realized HBO had an appetite for unvarnished...
The post The Wire Couldn't Be Made in the Post-Game of Thrones Age, According to Co-Creator Ed Burns appeared first on /Film.
Horror villains are rarely worthy of our empathy. Most often, the genre's greatest transgressors are simply, unequivocally evil for no good reason, and they commit murders strictly for mayhem's sake. On occasion, however, the big baddies' evil-doing stems from deep-seated pain, trauma, and tragedy incurred earlier in their lives. These characters unleash terror upon the world as a way to achieve some sort of justice and retribution. Villains need their souls cleansed, too.
When filmmakers give their central antagonists a compelling backstory, it heightens the entire story's emotional weight. Whether we're discussing Pamela Voorhees in "Friday the 13th" or the Director in "Cabin in...
The post Horror Villains Who Were More Right Than We Want To Admit appeared first on /Film.
It turns out "Dexter: New Blood," the 10-episode revival of the Michael C. Hall-led series, was quite the success for Showtime. Over the course of eight seasons and 96 episodes, the original "Dexter" series charted the exploits of a Miami police blood pattern analyst who happened to moonlight as a serial killer, one who preyed on other killers. By the end of the show, Hall's character, the eponymous Dexter Morgan, had become a lumberjack, leaving people rather dissatisfied with the outcome of his story. Enter "Dexter: New Blood," which wrapped up back in January.
Our own Ryan Scott was recently in attendance at the ATX Television Festival in Austin,...
The post Timing Was Everything When It Came To The Dexter Reboot [ATX] appeared first on /Film.
When you think of the quintessential embodiment of the '80s action hero, more often than not it tends to be a muscle-bound merchant of death who mows down a swath of nameless bodies with an entire arsenal at their disposal. If you've never seen a "Rambo" movie, it would be easy to think of its machismo lead as such through cultural osmosis alone. Sylvester Stallone's John Rambo is typically associated with glistening muscles and machine guns, due in part to the reputation of its four sequels, which makes it all the more fascinating when you see where "Rambo" initially started.
"First Blood,"...
The post How Sylvester Stallone Saved Rambo (And The Franchise) From An Early Grave appeared first on /Film.
Life is a series of unexpected journeys. Often the path we walk isn't the one we thought we'd be on just a few years prior. Someone who probably would've agreed with my dime store philosophizing is the recently late, always great Ray Liotta. You probably already know Liotta was the star of "Goodfellas" — what else is there to say there? His 21st century run as a character actor was just as enjoyable. I'll go on record as a huge fan of his turn as scummy divorce lawyer Jay Marotta in "Marriage Story." Yet despite appearing in so many great films (and being...
The post Becoming an Actor Wasn't Something Ray Liotta Set Out To Do appeared first on /Film.
Ah, David Cronenberg. When you think of gross body horror or bleak ultraviolence, his name probably comes to mind. The Canadian director has an extensive history of making audiences uncomfortable, grossed out, or even aroused with his movies. "Crimes of the Future," his first movie in eight years, is no exception to this reputation, and what a reputation he carries!
However, Cronenberg is not as one-note as his reputation or the overused Twitter memes about how horny his movies make him out to be. He's delved into other mediums, such as novels and comic books, but perhaps his most intriguing side career has been...
The post An Ode to The Fascinating Acting Career of David Cronenberg appeared first on /Film.
Spoilers for "Stranger Things" 4 follow.
Horror fans were thrilled to hear that Freddy Krueger himself, Robert Englund, would appear in "Stranger Things" season 4. Be warned that there are spoilers ahead for the first seven episodes of the current season. Englund is royalty in the horror world, and with the nods to classic films of the 1980s, including a reference to the boiler room in the film "A Nightmare on Elm Street" in the actual dialogue, it's sort of perfect. What better homage could you pay to an '80s touchstone than to cast him in the series?
What's really fun is how exactly Englund got the role...
The post Here's How Robert Englund Landed His Stranger Things Role appeared first on /Film.
Ghostface's pool of victims just got bigger: Dermot Mulroney is joining the cast of "Scream 6," per The Hollywood Reporter. The "My Best Friends Wedding" actor will play a police officer in the new installment, though further details about the character aren't immediately available.
We do know the next installment of "Scream" will take the survivors of Woodsboro's latest slaying out of the town itself, just as Sidney (Neve Campbell) left her bloodstained hometown after the events of Wes Craven's 1996 film. The new core cast includes resilient final girl Tara (Jenna Ortega), Billy Loomis' daughter Sam (Melissa Barrera), stoner horror geek Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown),...
The post Scream 6 Adds Dermot Mulroney as Potential Victim/Killer appeared first on /Film.
Before he hooked up with Tom Cruise to make "Oblivion" and "Top Gun: Maverick," director Joseph Kosinski made a little movie called "Tron: Legacy." Best remembered, perhaps, for its Daft Punk soundtrack (which still rocks), "Tron: Legacy" hit theaters in late 2010 and functioned as the belated sequel to the original 1982 "Tron." Garrett Hedlund and Olivia Wilde starred alongside Jeff Bridges, who reprised his role as Kevin Flynn, an arcade designer who has a tendency to get digitized and sucked into the mainframe of computer worlds.
If my math is right, we should be due for a third "Tron" movie in...
The post Tron 3 Was Ready to Go, And Then Disney Changed Their Minds appeared first on /Film.
With a purposeful grimace and a terrible sound, he pulls the spitting high-tension wires ... onto YouTube.
The Hanna-Barbera/Henry G. Saperstein animated series "Godzilla" -- also known as "The Godzilla Power Hour," and further known as "Godzilla: The Original Animated Series" -- first aired on September 9, 1978, on NBC. Its broadcast was nestled between the release of "Terror of Mechagodzilla" (the last film in the Showa era) and "The Return of Godzilla" (the first film in the Heisei era), leaving the series in a strange, purgatorial state in terms of "Godzilla" canon. It was also the very first wholly...
The post Season 2 of the Godzilla Animated Series, Never Released on Home Video, is Headed to Youtube appeared first on /Film.
What makes a great heist movie? Stakes. The characters in a heist film need everything to go according to plan. So, what happens when that plan goes awry, or a last-minute complication arises? Well, you have the premise for a pretty exciting movie!
Heist films can cross genres. For example, in Christopher Nolan's 2010 science fiction masterpiece "Inception," Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) isn't trying to steal money. He and his associates have to plant an idea in someone's mind. The Fast and Furious series originally focused on racing, but 2011's "Fast Five" changed things up. Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his fellow drivers pull off a massive...
The post 20 Underrated Heist Movies You Should Check Out appeared first on /Film.
On the June 2, 2022 episode of /Film Daily, /Film editor Ben Pearson is joined by editor Jacob Hall to gather around the virtual water cooler and talk about what they've been up to.
Opening Banter:
At The Water Cooler:
What we've been Doing:Jacob started co-hosting an RPG podcast called Shelbyville.
What we've been Reading:Jacob read Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer.
What we've been Watching: Ben and Jacob have seen RRR, and they'll never be the same.
Jacob watched Peacemaker and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.
Ben watched The Inside Outtakes and Stranger Things 4 Vol. 1.
What we've been Eating: What... The post Daily Podcast: Mini-Water Cooler: Peacemaker, Stranger Things 4, RRR, and More appeared first on /Film.
John Wayne is known for his roles as a stoic man of the Wild West. He played many a jaded and well-seasoned cowboy, so it should come as no shock that his true nature was also quite tough. He developed a reputation for doing his own stunts in his action-heavy movies, at a time when everything relied on practical effects. The Hollywood legend pushed his body to physical extremes to deliver a lifetime of memorable performances.
Perhaps the greatest example of Wayne's ability to test his limits was on the set of the 1973 film "The Train Robbers." Wayne...
The post John Wayne Pushed Through Some Serious Pain To Keep The Train Robbers' Schedule On Track appeared first on /Film.
(Superhero Bits is a collection of stories, updates, and videos about anything and everything inspired by the comics of Marvel, DC, and more. For comic book movies, TV shows, merchandise, events, and whatever catches our eye, this is the place to find anything that falls through the cracks.)
In this edition of Superhero Bits:
The "Fantastic Four" movie gets an update.
"Black Adam" gets a wave of Funko Pop! figures.
The Marvel Netflix shows were quietly upgraded on Disney+.
"The Flash" remains a headache for Warner Bros.
All that and more!
At one point, Colton Haynes had a full-time gig as...
The post Superhero Bits: Black Adam Funko Pop! Figures, A Fantastic Four Update & More appeared first on /Film.
Back when "Breaking Bad" was drawing to a close, who would've thought that we'd be here less than 10 years later and excitedly waiting for the concluding stretch of episodes that will bring its spin-off/prequel series, "Better Call Saul," to a similarly memorable end? The Bob Odenkirk-starring series, centered on the misadventures of the criminal lawyer formerly known as Jimmy McGill (who now goes by the Saul Goodman moniker), recently aired its most shocking and characteristically brutal episode yet with its mid-season finale fittingly titled "Plan And Execution."
But as bittersweet as it is to be nearing the end of...
The post The Full Episode of the Animated Better Call Saul Spin-Off Slippin' Jimmy is Free Online Now appeared first on /Film.
(Welcome to ...And More, our no-frills, zero B.S. guide to when and where you can watch upcoming movies and shows, and everything else you could possibly stand to know.)
Apple TV+ feels like the sleeper cell agents in the streaming wars. While the streamer never makes headlines quite like Netflix or Disney+, they consistently provide some of the best quality output across the streams. The world was quickly smitten with the feel-good comedy "Ted Lasso," which arrived to deliver its wholesome messaging in the midst of the start of the pandemic, when viewers most needed a sense of hope.
Back in February, the streamer introduced the dystopian workplace thriller...
The post Surface: Release Date, Cast, More appeared first on /Film.
For fans of "30 Rock," the show's finale delivered a satisfying, hilarious, and at times touching sendoff. The last two episodes embodied what made the quirky Tina Fey project great: crisp writing, sturdy characterizations, and a strong ensemble cast. But the process of creating those final moments looked more like an episode of "30 Rock" itself, one filled with chaos, late nights, and frenzied rewrites.
In an article for Buzzfeed, former "30 Rock" writer Tom Ceraulo reflected on the last days of the NBC sitcom. Although the last table read was set for the Thursday after Thanksgiving in 2012, the writers had not...
The post Writing 30 Rock's Final Episodes Was a Rush to the Finish appeared first on /Film.
Earth's two biggest giggling cartoon morons are about to go where no two-dimensional doofus has gone before, because Paramount+ has released a trailer for "Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe." While there has been talk of a sequel to the 1996 film "Beavis and Butt-Head Do America" for awhile now, the trailer presents something wildly different than anything we've heard before. Previously, creator Mike Judge had shared some drawings of an older Beavis and Butt-Head, and there was talk of a live-action version, but now the boys are simply ... heading to outer space?! While there are plenty of idiots I wish we could...
The post Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe Trailer: The World's Dumbest Duo are Back appeared first on /Film.
Hello. This is a spoiler warning for "Stranger Things" season 4, specifically episode 4, "Dear Billy." You have been warned.
Music has always been important in the world of "Stranger Things," but the soundtrack to season 4 wouldn't be the same without Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)." Max (Said Sink) has been through a lot after last season's battle at Starcourt Mall which resulted in the death of her stepbrother Billy, and one of the ways she's found solace through it all has been music. "Running Up That Hill" off of Bush's "Hounds of Love"...
The post Sadie Sink Reveals the Song That Could Get Her Out of the Upside Down appeared first on /Film.
You might be very into the mockumentary "Office"-esque version of Quinta Brunson's ABC show "Abbott Elementary," but in an alternate universe somewhere, you're sitting down with a delicious after-work beverage to watch a cartoon version of the show. Sure, lots of shows change between developing pitches, shooting pilots, and being bought by a network (or streaming service), but in an IndieWire interview with Brunson, who created and stars in the series, she explained that she originally imagined the series as a cartoon. "I remember having the initial thought for this series by spending time with my mother before her retirement; she was about a year and a year and a half from...
The post Abbott Elementary Was Nearly a Cartoon appeared first on /Film.
Last year it was announced that Owen Wilson was to star in a family superhero movie for Paramount Pictures called "Secret Headquarters," and today we've learned that it will premiere exclusively on Paramount+. The film focuses on a kid named Charlie who, along with his friends, discovers the headquarters of the world's most powerful superhero has been hidden under his family home the whole time. When supervillains suddenly attack, it's up to Charlie and his friends to join forces, defend the headquarters, and save the world from danger. Additional details are being kept ... secret (I'm sorry, I had to), but all information indicates "Secret...
The post Owen Wilson's Family Superhero Movie Secret Headquarters Moves to Paramount+ appeared first on /Film.
Currently under construction on the grounds of the Expo 2005 Aichi Commemorative Park just outside of Nagoya in the city of Nagakute is Ghibli Park, a theme park based on Studio Ghibli films that will feature attractions based on "My Neighbor Totoro," "Howl's Moving Castle," "Castle in the Sky," "Whisper of the Heart," and many others. Plans for the park were first announced in 2017, with the initial opening slated for 2020. Thanks to the caprices of construction, plus the complication of COVID-19, Ghibli Park had to delay its opening. In February 2022, it was announced that Ghibli Park would open this November.
According to a report...
The post The Studio Ghibli Theme Park Opening Has Been Delayed appeared first on /Film.
(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.)
The Movie: "War of the Worlds" (2005)
Where You Can Stream It: Netflix
The Pitch: Steven Spielberg's aliens have historically been friendly. E.T. and the little grey dudes from "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" were sometimes sad and mysterious, but always family-friendly. Not so much the aliens in "War of the Worlds." This film is not the typical blockbuster awe and spectacle God's eye view that dominated alien invasion movies throughout...
The post The Daily Stream: Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds Remains A Complex, Atypical Blockbuster appeared first on /Film.
On the June 1, 2022 episode of /Film Daily, /Film editorial director Peter Sciretta is joined by /Film's Star Wars expert Bryan Young to have a spoiler-filled discussion about Obi-Wan Kenobi Episodes 1-3.
Opening Banter: Brad could not join us as he's out sick. We hope he gets better soon.
In The Spoiler Room: Obi-Wan Kenobi Episodes 1-3
Brief reactions Celebration premiere
Obi-Wan Kenobi Episode 1 Sends The Exiled Jedi Master On One Final Mission
Obi-Wan Kenobi Episode 2 Stages A Thrilling Cyberpunk Rescue
Obi-Wan Kenobi Episode 3 Delivers Plenty Of Surprises
Breakdown Speculation
Also mentioned:
Ordinary Adventures at Star Wars Celebration
All the other stuff you...
The post Daily Podcast: Obi-Wan Kenobi Episodes 1-3 Spoiler Discussion appeared first on /Film.
DC has become the latest studio to get on board with the popular practice of showing films with a live orchestra performing the score, as recently announced by Warner Bros. Themed Entertainment and TCG Entertainment. As part of a global touring film concert series, a live symphony orchestra will accompany a DC film screening on a larger-than-life screen, allowing fans an immersive experience as the score truly envelops the viewer.
"DC films are global sensations, inspiring audiences and millions of fans around the world with captivating storytelling, characters, and music," said Peter van Roden, senior vice president of Warner Bros. Themed...
The post DC in Concert Will Let You Watch Superhero Movies With a Live Orchestra appeared first on /Film.
Once more unto the wasteland, my friends.
Per Chris Hemsworth's Twitter account, George Miller is officially back in the post-apocalyptic groove. "Furiosa," a prequel spin-off to the magnificent "Mad Max: Fury Road," has begun principal photography in the filmed format of kings aka 35mm! The hotly-anticipated film stars Anya Taylor-Joy in the title role made iconic by Charlize Theron in Miller's 2015 return to glory. While it's fair to be bummed out that Miller chose not to spin his narrative forward with Theron in the lead, Taylor-Joy has been knocking us out since her 2015 big-screen debut in Robert Eggers' "The Witch." It's a...
The post Witness Me! Furiosa Has Begun Production, Shot on Glorious 35mm appeared first on /Film.
John Hughes' "Sixteen Candles" is a beloved teen classic that follows a young girl (Hughes' muse Molly Ringwald) whose sweet sixteen turns sour when her entirely family forgets her birthday during preparations for her sister's wedding. While being relentlessly pursued by a randy geek (Anthony Michael Hall), Samantha pines for the dreamy senior Jake Ryan (Michael Schoeffling). "Sixteen Candles" has some problematic elements, such as the character of Long Duk Dong (Gedde Watanabe) and a scene that makes light of date rape; Molly Ringwald even revisited the film through a post-#MeToo lens in an essay for The New Yorker. Despite that, though, the...
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The last few years have been ... strange, to say the least. So, when movies from the past that were set in the future get some of it right, it's pretty impressive. Sadly, the 2006 comedy "Idiocracy" is often cited as such a film, prompting The Guardian to call it "a disturbingly prophetic look at the future of America." And the 1993 sci-fi action film "Demolition Man" painfully resonates with an increasingly accurate picture of our present day.
In 1996, legendary L.A. police Sergeant John Spartan (Sylvester Stallone), known as the "demolition man" because of his penchant for exploding things while apprehending criminals,...
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There was a really dark period for "Star Wars" fans that occurred between 1983 and 1997. It was after "Return of the Jedi" hit theaters and before the Special Editions were released in theaters. There was virtually nothing big happening with the franchise. Sure, this period gave us Grand Admiral Thrawn in the "Heir to the Empire" trilogy and video games like "Shadows of the Empire," but there was no big event to look forward to. That all changed in 1999 with the release of "The Phantom Menace," The franchise's return with a brand new...
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"Mortal Kombat" is one of the best fighting games out there. It's silly, and ridiculous, and bloody, and it's so much fun! As someone who's been playing the title since it first came out, I love every goofy thing about it, from fatalities, to the weird ways the characters attack each other, to the look on people's faces when they're fans and you say, "Toasty." I used to warn people away from the arcade cabinet so I could read the character biographies as they scrolled by on the screen. This was before wikis, friends. Perhaps you can understand how much I love...
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(Welcome to Year of the Vampire, a series examining the greatest, strangest, and sometimes overlooked vampire movies of all time in honor of "Nosferatu," which turns 100 this year.)
TRIGGER WARNING: Be advised that this article deals with issues of assault and grooming. If you are a survivor there are resources available.
The atmospheric horror thriller "The Hunger" is something of an anomaly in director Tony Scott's filmography. While the late British helmer (who cut his teeth on commercials) made a box office mint on slick action hits like "Top Gun," "Days of Thunder," and "Enemy of the State," his debut feature allowed him to...
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In 2002, the world was looking at M. Night Shyamalan. His 1999 film "The Sixth Sense" was more successful than anyone could have expected, grossing over $670 million worldwide on a $40 million budget. It would go on to be nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (for Haley Joel Osment), Best Supporting Actress (for Toni Collette), Best Screenplay, and Best Editing (for Andrew Mondshein). Shyalaman's follow-up to "The Sixth Sense," 2000's "Unbreakable," was not quite as well-received. But it did receive generally positive reviews, and it accrued a following of fans interested in exploring...
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Nearly 40 years after his role as Cameron in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," actor Alan Ruck has reentered the cultural zeitgeist with his role as Connor in HBO's "Succession" and Jay Rosen in Hulu's "The Dropout."
There are no big gaps in Ruck's resume — the actor spent decades bouncing between supporting parts in moderately successful television shows from "Spin City" to "Greek" — but Ruck had a hard time finding a project as exciting as "Ferris Bueller" to follow up his breakout role. A couple of bad career moves landed the actor down on his luck after the film was...
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With "Downton Abbey: A New Era" set to open in theaters nationwide soon, fans of the British television series-turned-films are excited to see the tremendous ensemble back on the screen. When you have a cast this talented, people are likely to form attachments with some of their favorite characters, and in the world of "Downton Abbey," there's plenty to choose from. There's certainly a huge following for characters like Dan Stevens' Matthew Crawley or Jim Carter's Mr. Carson. I'm partial to the kindhearted Mr. Molesley, played by the ever-charming Kevin Doyle, but for my money, which Robert Crawley (Hugh Bonneville) would happily take...
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The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the ABC network have announced the date for next year's Oscars ceremony, along with the nomination timeline and other key dates for the 2022 awards season. The 95th Academy Awards, honoring the best films of this year, will be broadcast live on ABC and in over 200 territories worldwide from the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on Sunday, March 12, 2023.
The 93rd Academy Awards extended the eligibility period for theatrical releases an additional two months due to the pandemic, so this year's Oscars had a shortened eligibility period of ten months as the event got...
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Trigger warning: the following article includes reference to self harm.
Over a year after making a splash at the Sundance Film Festival, comedian Jerrod Carmichael's feature directorial debut is finally in theaters and on VOD. The highly anticipated indie movie follows an unusual, seemingly bleak plot. In it, two friends, Val (Carmichael) and Kevin (Christopher Abbott), make a suicide pact, but then decide to put off the act for one day that they can spend doing whatever they want. As dark as it sounds, the movie is actually a pitch black comedy co-starring Henry Winkler, Tiffany Haddish, and J.B. Smoove.
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"The Usual Suspects" is a movie with one of the great twist endings of all time, but not everyone was enamored of it back in 1995 when it first built up word-of-mouth buzz among filmgoers. Christopher McQuarrie's mystery-laden script won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, and the Writers Guild of America would go on to rank it one of the 101 best screenplays ever written. However, Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Roger Ebert gave the crime thriller a 1.5-star review and wrote that its flashback-heavy narrative was "so complicated that [he] finally gave up trying to keep track of it." Even some viewers who like "The Usual Suspects"...
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Did you know that the creator of "Barry" once worked on "South Park"? That's right, the guy who played Richie in "It Chapter Two" helped give us the Kanye fish-sticks joke, and worked on the season that gave us the best "Game of Thrones" parody on TV.
Of course, we're talking about Emmy-winner Bill Hader, who joined "South Park" as a creative consultant and producer on season 12, brainstorming ideas during writers retreats that then creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone turn into full episodes.
Unlike most sitcoms, "South Park" does not rotate writers when it comes to the individual screenplays. Instead, as Hader tells it, the writers just bounce ideas off each...
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AMC's "The Walking Dead" may be wrapping up its 11-season run this year, but Samantha Morton's character, Alpha, will live to fight zombies (and perhaps wear their skin?) another day. The upcoming anthology series, "Tales of the Walking Dead," will feature characters new and old, and Morton has signed on to reprise her role as Alpha, the leader of the Whisperers in seasons 9 and 10 of the original flagship "Walking Dead" series.
"Tales of the Walking Dead" is set to run six episodes, and Variety reports that Morton will star in one of them. While the specifics of that episode's plot "are being kept under wraps" for now, we can make an educated guess about when it will be set given how things played out on "The Walking Dead."
Morton was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her work as Hattie in "Sweet and Lowdown," but she gained more mainstream notoriety for her work as a "precog" opposite Tom Cruise in Steven Spielberg's "Minority Report." "Tales of the Walking Dead" has been lining up some interesting guest stars in addition to her, including Cruise's "Top Gun" co-star Anthony Edwards, Terry Crews, and Parker Posey, among others.
AMC executives have referred to the show as a "test kitchen" for future potential spin-offs, but the anthology nature of it also might make it more accessible to casual viewers who just want to check in for one or more standalone episodes, without getting swept up in a big zombie herd of them again. Seasons 10 and 11 of "The Walking Dead," for instance, have both been extended to over 20 episodes, in contrast to previous 16-episode seasons.
Spoilers for "The Walking Dead" season 10 below.
We Probably Know The Time Setting Of Alpha's EpisodeAlpha's grisly fate in "The Walking Dead" would, of course, make it necessary for her episode of "Tales of the Walking Dead" to be some sort of prequel, set before the events of her final appearance. In season 10, episode 12 of "The Walking Dead," Jeffrey Morgan's character, Negan, slit Alpha's throat and decapitated her before toting her zombified head back to Carol (Melissa McBride).
Speaking of Negan and Carol, their adventures will continue beyond the main "Walking Dead" series, as well. Negan will appear in "Isle of the Dead" with Maggie (Lauren Cohen), whose husband, Glenn (Steven Yeun), he famously killed with his signature spiked bat. Carol, meanwhile, will appear in an as-yet-untitled spin-off with Daryl (Norman Reedus.)
On TV, "The Walking Dead" franchise now encompasses those three shows, along with the ongoing spin-off, "Fear the Walking Dead," the comparatively short-lived "The Walking Dead: The World Beyond," and "Tales of the Walking Dead."
"Tales of the Walking Dead" is coming to AMC and AMC+ this summer.
Read this next: The 20 Best Zombie Movies Of All Time
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The Hollywood machine has been trying its hardest to reboot "The Crow" for the better part of a decade now. Yes, this town loves IP, but you have to admit that the original comic and its 1994 adaptation have earned their place in pop culture at this point.
The trick is that so much of the 1994 film rested on the shoulders of its lead, Brandon Lee, who was tragically killed in an on-set accident. In the wake of that, a lot of the mystique around "The Crow" has been tied to that eerie coincidence that Lee died playing a character who was killed in the prime of his life.
But it would seem that after many failed attempts and truly terrible direct-to-video sequels, a full-on, big budgeted reboot of "The Crow" is finally happening. The Hollywood Reporter says that none other than Pennywise himself, Mr. Bill Skarsgård, is set to play Eric Draven in this reboot, which will be directed by Rupert Sanders ("Snow White and the Huntsman" and "Ghost in the Shell") and written by Oscar-nominated "King Richard" screenwriter Zach Baylin.
The film is supposedly set to shoot this summer in Prague and Munich with a budget in the $50 million range.
The Long Road To A Reboot.The series needed a little time to rest after a string of edgelord sequels that starred folks like Vincent Perez, Eric Mabius, and Edward Furlong, but in recent years there have been many rumblings of a resurrection. In 2014, Corin Hardy signed on as director with Luke Evans locked in to star. Evans bowed out shortly thereafter and was replaced by Jack Huston ("Boardwalk Empire"). This version of the movie got far enough to cast the great Andrea Riseborough ("Mandy") as its villain before it, too, fell apart in early 2016.
Hardy was pulled back in by Jason Momoa, who signed on for what they promised would be an R-rated adaptation that would honor the original source material. By 2018, "The Crow" reboot was once again dead as both Mamoa and Hardy departed the project, which stalled out seeking its $40 million budget and a glut of creative differences between the filmmaker and producer, the late Samuel Hadida ("Silent Hill").
Those are just the notable close calls! Over the last ten years, everybody from Rob Zombie and Bradley Cooper to Tom Hiddleston and Channing Tatum has been rumored to be involved in a reboot.
Will This New Version Break The Bad Luck Streak?So the real question is whether or not this iteration will actually make it in front of cameras. I'm inclined to think it has a fighting chance. To put it in frank commercial terms, "The Crow" is known enough that a reboot makes sense in this day and age where there are so many content providers desperate for recognizable movies and TV shows.
The THR story seems pretty confident that the budget is in place and pre-production is in full swing.
I'm most intrigued by Bill Skarsgård in the Eric Draven role. Skarsgård can be intimidating. Heck, he's famous for playing a creepy clown! That quality is very much in line with the Eric Draven from the comics and original film. Momoa would have been a more intimidating version of the character in life than in death, which always made me think he was the wrong choice for the part despite being undeniably charismatic. Skarsgård as a spirit hellbent on revenge is way more off-putting and that is very interesting to me.
We'll see how it all shakes out. So far director Rupert Sanders hasn't impressed me very much with his output, but I'm an optimistic sort. If his heart is in the right place, he certainly has the iconography and a talented leading performer to work with.
Read this next: The 20 Best Dystopian Movies Of All Time
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According to Variety, Will Smith has said he will resign from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
During the Oscars ceremony on March 27, Smith walked on stage and slapped presenter Chris Rock after he had made a joke about Jada Pinkett-Smith's shaved head (the actress has alopecia). Smith was reportedly asked to leave the ceremony, but remained, later accepting his award for Best Actor for his performance in "King Richard." Smith later issued a public apology to Rock via Instagram, saying that he was out of line. He also apologized to the Academy, and to Venus and Serena Williams (whose father he played in "King Richard") for interrupting a "gorgeous journey."
Regardless of Smith's apology, the Academy released a statement declaring that they were seeking disciplinary action against Smith. There was to be a disciplinary meeting held on April 18, giving Smith 15 days to respond in writing. The discipline, the Academy statement said, "may include suspension, expulsion, or other sanctions permitted by the Bylaws and Standards of Conduct." In the fallout of the Harvey Weinstein assault scandal, the Academy changed their bylaws to more strictly oversee its members, and, in the next few years, expelled three additional people for sex crimes. Only five people have ever been expelled from the Academy.
Ahead of the intended disciplinary meeting date, Smith released a statement that he will formally resign. No formal declaration had been made by the Academy to expel Smith.
Smith's StatementIn his statement, Smith said he was heartbroken:
"The list of those I have hurt is long and includes Chris, his family, many of my dear friends and loved ones, all those in attendance, and global audiences at home. I betrayed the trust of the Academy. I deprived other nominees and winners of their opportunity to celebrate and be celebrated for their extraordinary work. I am heartbroken."
Smith, wanting to shift attention back to other Oscar winners that night, regrets that he distracted from their moment, continuing:
"I want to put the focus back on those who deserve attention for their achievements and allow the Academy to get back to the incredible work it does to support creativity and artistry in film. Change takes time and I am committed to doing the work to ensure that I never again allow violence to overtake reason."
According to Variety, the Academy will still hold its disciplinary meeting as previously scheduled.
The Meaning Of ResignationSmith's resignation from the Academy will mean that he will no longer be invited to any Academy functions, including the Oscars ceremony. Traditionally, the Best Actor winner is invited to present the Academy Award for Best Actress the following year. Smith will not be allowed to do so. Smith will also not be allowed to vote in future Academy Awards. It could also potentially mean, most significantly, that Smith will no longer be eligible to win any Academy Awards, and cannot be nominated for his performances.
Smith will not be the first person to resign from the Academy. Following last year's announcement that many categories would not be part of the telecast, sparking outrage from across the organization and from fans of the show, Oscar-winning sound designer Tom Fleischman resigned from the organization.
Only one Oscar has ever been rescinded, and it was on a technicality: A 1969 documentary film called "Young Americans" had its win taken away when it was discovered that its release date was outside of that year's awards eligibility window. Smith's Oscar is likely not at risk.
Smith's next film is "Emancipation," directed by Antoine Fuqua, and will be released on Apple TV+ in 2022.
Read this next: /Film's Top 10 Movies Of 2021
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"Death Note" is among the most famous Japanese manga series in the world. It has sold over 30 million copies in Japan and was adapted into an anime television show that became popular with American audiences.
Created by Tsugumi Obata and Takeshi Obata, "Death Note" has a sinister premise. The story follows Light Yagami, a teen genius and high school student who discovers a mysterious, supernatural notebook called the "Death Note." The book is revealed to have belonged to Ryuk, a Shinigami (a death god) who grants the book's holder the ability to kill anyone by writing their name and cause of death on its pages. Consisting of 37 episodes, the series centers around Light's attempt to carry out a worldwide massacre of immoral individuals (mainly criminals) so he may live in a crime-free society, while the elite Japanese police task force led by a detective named L work to hunt him down.
The anime depicts Light's abuse of his newfound power and how it influences him to take on the alias of a godlike identity known as Kira. The series is compelling and features some seriously twisted characters, and it's so suspenseful you can never predict what happens next.It's one of the best psychological thriller anime series of all time — but even the greatest forms of entertainment can be embroiled in sensational controversy.
Death Note Caused Chaos In Chinese Schools"Death Note" is one of the many manga/anime shows banned in China for its graphic content. In early 2005, the manga stirred significant controversy in the country after students in the Chinese city of Shenyang began creating their own death notes.
Students began purchasing stationery notebooks and followed the manga's instructions, writing names of people they disliked on its pages. In response, the school banned the use of stationery notebooks entirely. While many felt that the ban was an overreaction and completely unnecessary, Chinese parents and teachers approved it, describing the death note as "a poison that creates wicked hearts." They stated that the ban was meant to protect innocent children from the "evil notebook."
The Shenyang Night Report also published a quote from a middle school student who told the publication that many of his classmates owned death note notebooks and wrote down names of teachers they disliked when they got tired of studying.
That Wasn't The End Of The ControversyIn 2007, the popularity of "Death Note" was at an all-time high — the manga's first anime adaptation had been released a year earlier. An extensive news report from a Chinese publication details "Death Note" driving notebook sales in connection to its popularity among students in the Chinese city of Shenzhen.
The well-known notebook found in Takeshi Obata's manga became a preferred toy among elementary and middle school students. When parents and teachers were made aware of the new trend among young students, they began voicing their concern over the effect it could have on children, expressing their apprehensions about it negatively impacting a child's growth.
Days after the report was published, the Cultural Market Administrative Enforcement Department confiscated over 187 death note books from toy and school utensil stores in the city. Chinese authorities further banned stores from producing the notebooks, deeming them illegal products and threatening severe punishment if they were continued to be sold.
While "Death Note" has captured the hearts of anime and manga lovers alike, it certainly does feature a dark tale and several unsettling scenes.
It is more than just a supernatural high school drama — it explores how power can corrupt the most kindhearted and how rapidly a good man can make his descent into evil. Whether it deserves to be banned, however, is a question that remains to be answered.
Read this next: 15 Must-See Horror Anime Movies
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One of the best shows of 2021 is spawning two more series, although they're not sequels: according to a New Yorker profile, the team behind HBO Max's heart-rending limited series "Station Eleven" are set to adapt two more novels by "Station" author Emily St. John Mandel.
Mandel published the National Book Award finalist on which that series was based in 2014, and has since written two more novels, "The Glass Hotel" and "The Sea of Tranquility." Both will get the HBO Max adaptation treatment, with "Station Eleven" writer and showrunner Patrick Somerville returning to co-write.
The Novelist Joins The Writers' RoomThe news comes ahead of the author's latest novel's release later this week. "The Sea of Tranquility" is a centuries-spanning metaphysical story about a young Englishman, a renowned intergalactic author, and a detective in a place called Night City. Kirkus reviews call the book "Even more boldly imagined than 'Station Eleven,'" which is saying something given the creativity that brimmed within the post-apocalyptic world of that book.
The other adaptation in the works is for "The Glass Hotel," which isn't set in a future world, but in a present-day one where two siblings end up caught up in a Ponzi scheme. The 2020 book was well-received, and even made former President Barack Obama's annual list of his favorite reads of the year.
Mandel will co-write these two new series herself, a detail that she expanded upon in a tweet after the New Yorker profile went live. After Somerville screen-capped the portion of the profile related to the new projects, Mandel confirmed the project in a quote-tweet, saying:
"It's true, I just spent a month in L.A. working on TV adaptations of The Glass Hotel and Sea of Tranquility with @patrickerville and the rest of the Station Eleven team, and the project makes me so happy." - @EmilyMandel
Somerville brought the same raw humanity to post-apocalyptic drama "Station Eleven" as he did in his time writing for "The Leftovers," a new cult classic sci-fi drama that grapples with tough ideas about loss. The "Station Eleven" writers' room included three former writers from "The Leftovers," and the result was an awe-inspiring, genuinely transformative limited series.
Though Somerville as of now appears to be co-writing the two new series solely with Mandel, plenty of team members from "Station Eleven" are set to return. Deadline reports that "Station Eleven" director Hiro Murai is set to produce, as are David Eisenberg, Jessica Rhoades, Nate Matteson, Scott Delman, and Scott Steindorff.
Read this next: The 14 Best Sci-Fi Shows On Amazon Prime
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Over the years, "The Crow" has become an undisputed classic. The 1994 film was directed by Alex Proyas ("Dark City") and starred Brandon Lee, who tragically lost his life in an on-set accident while filming. This senseless and horrific event will always cast a long shadow over "The Crow," but the movie also stands as a testament to Lee's tremendous talent, an eternal reminder of a performer we lost far too soon.
"The Crow" is based on the comic series of the same name, written and drawn by the amazing James O'Barr. Though the character debuted in 1989, he was created years earlier as O'Barr's attempt to deal with the loss of his fiancé, who had been killed by a drunk driver. Grief was always intrinsic to this story.
Lee starred as Eric Draven, a musician who is resurrected to exact bloody vengeance on those responsible for the deaths of him and his fiancé. However, "The Crow" is far more than a simple revenge flick. It's a powerful meditation on loss, not only in how that pain shapes us, but also how we mange to survive it. At its core, the film is about a love that transcends death. Not to mention the movie has one of the best soundtracks ever, featuring Nine Inch Nails (covering Joy Division!), The Cure, Violent Femmes, the Jesus and Mary Chain, and many more. Plus, it boasts an incredible score from Graeme Revell.
"The Crow" was an early example of what comic book movies were capable of. It was a highly stylized vision that was also full of heart, keeping the essence of the source material intact, while also tailoring it for another medium. Proyas gave the film a truly unique feel, but he initially had another idea on how it should look, an idea that star Brandon Lee wholeheartedly agreed with. How could "The Crow" have looked different if the studio had listed to Lee and Proyas?
It Can't Rain All The TimeAlthough O'Barr's "The Crow" comic was in black and white, he did differentiate between Eric's past and present. Most of the panels featuring Eric and his fiancé Shelly were painted and had a softness which gave them an almost dreamlike quality, as opposed to the inked panels representing the harsh realities of an Eric who had returned from the grave.
Proyas hoped to mirror the images from the comic, and shoot the entire film in black and white, but flashing back to Eric and Shelly's life in color. Lee had a similar passion for the idea, explaining in "The Crow" DVD behind-the-scenes featurette:
"I would've deeply loved to shoot the whole film in black and white, personally I love black and white, I think it's wonderful. It would've been great to do that and show, perhaps, just the flashbacks — which are a part of Eric's real life, his life when he was alive — show those in color, as contrast. But, unfortunately, due to the realities — the very sh***y realities — of the film world, we weren't given the opportunity to do that."
The studio did outright reject the idea, but that didn't stop Proyas from making the movie he wanted to make. Production designer Alex McDowell said:
"Right from the first meeting I had with Alex we discussed removing the greens and blues and really controlling the palette completely. So, the rain and the steam help out a lot because they just bleach out whatever color's there, but that's definitely been a very important part. We've censored across the board, any cold colors, any blues, greens, or anything like that. We really tried to create a monochromatic palette with red, and so in terms of color, the red is kind of the revenge color.
As for O'Barr, he seemed very happy with Proyas' attempt to translate his work. He revealed:
"When I drew the book I drew it in storyboards and I always intended it to be in black and white with the flashback sequences in technicolor and Alex is pretty much doing exactly that. He's using filters and special optical effects to pretty much wash out all the color to keep this, keep it a really bleak film and then the flashbacks are gonna be in this bright technicolor, vibrant reds and yellows."
"The Crow" does maintain a bleakness throughout thanks to its color palette, and the flashbacks are noticeably different than the rest of the movie, with reds and yellows that are particularly bright. Still, the colors are somewhat muted, which makes it feel more like we're seeing these memories through Eric's grief-stricken eyes.
Will The Crow Reboot Happen?Lee, who undoubtedly would've become a huge star after "The Crow," was only 28 when a prop gun misfired on set, leading to his death. There was understandably doubt as to whether the film would ever see the light of day. However, after taking some time, Proyas couldn't ignore the thought that Lee would've wanted "The Crow," which was almost completed already, to be released. At the urging of Lee's friends and family, the film was finished thanks to some impressive movie magic, though certain aspects needed to be altered.
The movie's popularity spawned three sequels, as well as a television show. The last film released in 2005, and while I've always heard and assumed the worst of these projects, I've never watched any of them, so I can't say with any authority that they're as awful as I think they are.
In the years since, there have been countless attempts to remake/reboot the franchise. One by one, they have all failed, though a new version of "The Crow" does appear to be in the works once again. So much of the success of the film comes down to Lee's fantastic performance and for most fans, it's impossible to imagine anyone else in the role. As much as I love both O'Barr's comic and the 1994 film, I'm hoping they just leave "The Crow" alone.
Read this next: The 15 Most Anticipated Comic Book Movies And Shows Of 2022, Ranked
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April's slate of film and TV releases isn't fooling around.
The month ahead features new movies from iconic auteurs, Nicholas Cage going meta, and David Simon's return to HBO crime dramas set in Baltimore. Those projects alone should be cause for excitement. And yet, there's more. "Morbius" and its creative team seem to have zero chills in advance of its April Fools' Day release. Viola Davis is playing Michelle Obama. All in all, the fourth month of 2022 feels primed to offer meme-worthy messes and thrilling showcases for master craftspeople in equal measure, and it doesn't feel like an accident.
Art usually imitates life, but that changed when COVID-19 showed up. For two years, film and TV fans have had no choice but to watch productions filmed before the pandemic altered our daily routines. That all changes this month. Many of the films and shows dropping over the next few weeks were either filmed at the height of the pandemic or in its wake. We're no longer watching things delayed by COVID. April's offerings were shaped by it, and the resulting dialogue underpins many of the incredible offerings on display this month. With that in mind, here are the 15 most anticipated shows and movies of April 2022, ranked.
Shining GirlsYou should be very excited about the new Apple TV+ series "Shining Girls." That's a bold claim, but let's lay out the facts: The Lauren Beukes novel it's based on is the sort of high-concept thriller that there aren't enough of, one that's ambitious and gritty in equal measure. (It features time travel, murder, and time-traveling murderers.) Bringing the story to the screen is the team of Silka Luisa and Michelle McLaren, the latter of whom is a two-time Emmy-winning director. She's helmed some of the century's most gut-wrenching television, so if you're not stoked to see the woman who helmed the classic "Breaking Bad" episode "One Minute" to make a feminist sci-fi crime saga, check your pulse.
If that's not enough, "Shining Girls" is the latest in a growing collection of thrillers starring Elizabeth Moss. As a performer with the emotional depth to endure untold horrors and the fortitude to survive them, Moss is the genre's ideal heroine. She is both every woman and extraordinary. Joining her is a crackerjack ensemble that includes the incandescent Phillipa Soo and the grand Jamie Bell, so "Shining Girls" doesn't lack for star power, high stakes, or big swings for the fences.
Excited yet?
Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age ChildhoodDoes a unified theory of Richard Linklater exist?
That's a serious question. Trying to explain the director's filmography is a labyrinthian task; once you've linked "Boyhood" and "Waking Life" under the heading of "experimental cinema," you still have to contend with the likes of "The Newton Boys" and "School of Rock." This April, Linklater will add another wrinkle to the fold in the form of "Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood."
On paper, "Apollo 10 1/2" looks like Linklater's love letter to his Houston childhood, one spent in NASA's shadow. That means extended sequences of fantastical space travel rendered via animation, narration courtesy of Jack Black, and a tone that vacillates between wondrous and nostalgic. It all adds up to another surprise from an auteur who zigs the second fans expect him to zag. Maybe there is a unified theory of Linklater after all.
The Flight AttendantThere's a fascinating new trend taking place on television that goes something like this: Produce a show as a limited series. Advertise that show as a limited series. Then, if the show does well, announce a second season ASAP.
"Russian Doll" is coming back. "The White Lotus" is coming back. And, of course, "The Flight Attendant," based on a standalone novel by Chris A. Bohjalian, is coming back. Bohjalian has yet to write a sequel to the book, but that did not stop HBO Max from greenlighting season two of the series.
Seeing what sort of misadventures series creator Steve Yockey and his writing staff will devise for Kaley Cuoco's Cassandra Bowden is half the appeal of the forthcoming season. From the little we know, it appears that the people in charge aren't afraid of change. The show has relocated to Los Angeles. Cassandra is now sober. Her mom will show up, played by none other than Sharon Stone. All of this suggests that the show's second trip will be more than a spin on its initial offerings, meaning it should be more than worth making a reservation for "The Flight Attendant" on April 21.
We're All Going To The World's FairThe horror genre is malleable. People with an aversion to scary movies might doubt this claim, but fans know that creators regularly cycle through a litany of things that scare us based on what's happening in the real world. 9/11 yielded a horde of zombie films. More recently, there has been a rush of stories concerning truth and identity, both online and otherwise. Horror reflects modern society's nightmares, and those fears are always evolving.
Given that, it's stunning that a movie like "We Are All Going to the World's Fair" hasn't popped up sooner. It's about the horrors of being young and online. It draws deeply from creepypastas, TikTok, and even MMORPGs.
None of that would matter if "We Are All Going to the World's Fair" wasn't an excellent film. But it is. The film has haunted me and many others since it hit the film festival circuit a little more than a year ago, and its April wide release will ensure that audiences across the country will learn what the World's Fair is and what they're deeply afraid of, too. Time for new nightmares.
The BubbleWhen the pandemic kicked into high gear in March 2020, Hollywood shut down. Weeks later, it re-opened. "Songbird," a movie produced by Michael Bay and directed by Adam Mason, was conceived mere weeks into the shutdown and filmed just eight weeks later. It told the story of how COVID-19 became COVID-23 and ravaged a dystopian, quarantined Los Angeles. It was sincere, yet utterly distasteful. Most importantly, its existence begged this question: Was a film like "Songbird" worth risking peoples' lives to make?
That isn't what Judd Apatow's forthcoming comedy "The Bubble" is about, but it's hard not to think of "Songbird" when watching the trailer for "The Bubble." The latest film from the prolific comedy legend concerns a quarantined cast and crew who are trying to finish production on "Cliff Beasts 6," but it's really about the lunacy of the filmmakers and their ridiculous, ill-conceived efforts to make a blockbuster. Given that the cast is comprised of a murderer's row of comedic talent that includes Keegan Michael Key, Pedro Pascal, Maria Bakalova, and David Duchovny, it's hard not to be excited about that prospect.
But COVID-19 continues to shape our lives, and that also makes "The Bubble" potentially quite cathartic. There's no telling where it will rank among the rest of either Apatow's work or 2022's already strong list of comedies, but it sounds like an idea we should be glad all involved saw through.
GaslitThere is no such thing as a sure-fire bet. That said, I would wager all the money in my bank account that, in the '90s, no one would've imagined that Julia Roberts would appear on television. Roberts was one of the decade's most essential movie stars. She was talented, beautiful, and bankable. TV was the home of sitcoms and cop dramas; neither felt like Roberts' domain.
Times have changed.
Four years ago, Roberts starred in Prime Video's "Homecoming." It was arguably her best work of the 2010s. This month, she'll topline "Gaslit," a show from the same production company. Like "Homecoming," "Gaslit" is based on a podcast ("Slow Burn," the popular political show by Leon Neyfakh) about the Watergate scandal. That's a thrilling proposition. Few incidents in United States history were as strange or impactful as Watergate.
And strange and impactful is producer Sam Esmail's speed. If "Gaslit" is as on-brand an offering from the "Mr. Robot" creator as it seems, the show should be a welcome homecoming for Roberts indeed.
MorbiusThere is no more perfect release date for Jared Leto's "Morbius" than April Fools' Day. It's a movie that sounds like a "30 Rock" gag. Seriously. Sony Pictures decided to make their own Marvel Cinematic Universe featuring Venom and second-stringers like Madame Web and that skinny creep, Morbius the Living Vampire — and then they cast Jared Leto in the lead role.
In all sincerity, incredulity won't kill "Morbius." Against all odds, it appears that Sony and director Daniel Espinosa ("Safe House," "Life") have built a box-office powerhouse, stoking anticipation through an onslaught of continuity-teasing trailers and Leto's recent run of funhouse acting choices, such as the Wario-tinged theatrics of "House of Gucci." What's more, while the film doesn't necessarily look good, it looks increasingly fun, indebted to the b-movies of the '90s with preening villains like Matt Smith and tons of cheesy one-liners. Inexplicably, "Morbius" has earned the title of "event movie." Dread it. Run from it. On April 1, "Morbius" arrives all the same.
Tokyo ViceMichael Mann returns to television! There are many reasons to be excited about "Tokyo Vice," which premieres on HBO Max on April 7th, but Mann's involvement is the main draw. He is the singular voice behind the still-classic "Miami Vice," which shaped modern crime television. Anyone who enjoys the genre on any level should be waiting with bated breath to see what the creative ace has up his sleeve.
We have some clues where that's concerned. "Tokyo Vice" is adapted from a Jake Adelstein memoir of the same name, which details Adelstein's time reporting on the Yakuza in the '90s. "Vice" should tackle similar terrain. While Mann is only confirmed for the series pilot, "Shang-Chi" director Destin Daniel Cretton is a co-producer on the show, meaning there are plenty of people on the crew with action chops. And with Tony Award-winning scribe J.T. Rogers handling the writing duties, there's good reason to believe the show will be a feast for both the head and the drama-loving heart.
The First LadyCasting Viola Davis as Michele Obama feels inevitable. This is a good thing. The first African-American first lady became a trailblazing icon during the late '00s and early '10s. Davis is an acting institution who broke through in 2008's "Doubt," and has been nominated for four Oscars since then, winning one. The two became powerhouses in parallel to one another. Their paths should meet. In Showtime's "The First Lady," they do.
Here's the thing, though: "The First Lady" isn't just about Michelle Obama. Yes, seeing Davis play Obama is the main attraction, but Showtime is pitching the series as a "revelatory reframing of American leadership through the lens of the First Ladies." That's intriguing. It also boasts Michelle Pfeiffer as Betty Ford and Gillian Anderson as Eleanor Roosevelt, which is thrilling because seeing those two women in anything is cause for celebration. Lastly, Susanne Bier is one of the project's directors, and her resume boasts smash hits ("Bird Box") and indie classics ("After The Wedding") alike. If "The First Lady" can blend provocative incisiveness with pop entertainment, it won't seem inevitable. It will feel genuinely new.
AmbulanceIf you take a drink every time a character in "Ambulance" references a movie directed by Michael Bay, you'll get tipsy. If you down a shot whenever stuffed animals are run over or wounded, you'll get wasted. What does that have to do with two brothers who steal $32 million and drive an EMT vehicle across Los Angeles while chased by the LAPD? More than you might think.
Michael Bay's "Ambulance" is unhinged. It's the closest that Bay will ever come to making "Dog Day Afternoon" without abandoning his inherent Michael Bay-ness. The film features ambitious camerawork and an unwavering sophomoric streak. It's also filled with strangely subtle grace notes. It is a visceral work of cinema that will grab the throats of anyone who sees it in a theater.
There's no world in which "Ambulance" can be denied, and its locomotive power ensures that it will bowl audiences over like few other films coming out this month. Just don't turn it into a drinking game. Trust us.
Russian Doll"Russian Doll" only gets better as time passes, which is really on-point considering its premise. The story of a video game developer named Nadia (Natasha Lyonne) who gets caught in a mysterious time loop in which she perishes every night, "Russian Doll" was a hit when it debuted in 2019. Then, the pandemic happened. Every day felt like a time loop that we could not get out of. As someone living in New York during the worst of it, I can attest that "Russian Doll" took on an eerie resonance when I rewatched it in April 2020.
I also questioned whether the show needed a second season, but based on the cryptic first look that Netflix has given us of the latest episodes, it appears that it does. What information can be gleaned from the teaser is scarce, but it looks like we're in store for more time loops, a menacing version of Charlie Barnett's character, Alan, and a stellar performance by comedic wunderkind Annie Murphy. If season 2 of "Russian Doll" can deliver the goods on April 20, expect it to age just as gracefully as its predecessor.
The Unbearable Weight Of Massive TalentNicholas Cage is having a resurgence. The actor's career has had more ups and downs than you can shake a stick at. He has been a prestige film darling. He has been a meme. He has made video-on-demand films to settle unfathomable debts, some of which actually reminded the public that Cage has always been an incredible actor. As no less than Ethan Hawke once said on Reddit, "[Cage is] the only actor since Marlon Brando that's actually done anything new with the art of acting; he's successfully taken us away from an obsession with naturalism into a kind of presentation style of acting that I imagine was popular with the old troubadours."
Hawke's theory will be tested by April's "The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent," a film in which Nic Cage both plays himself and a de-aged version of himself named Nick Cage. Why the "k" has been added to that character's name is just one of its many mysteries. In the movie, a cash-strapped Cage agrees to appear at the party of a billionaire super-fan (Pedro Pascal). Somehow, the film makes room for Cage, Neil Patrick Harris as Cage's agent, and director David Gordon Green as himself. What does it all mean? We'll find out on April 12.
We Own This CityFew creators are more inexorably linked to a city than David Simon. Simon created "The Wire," and if you don't know what that is, there's a chance you're new to prestige television. The HBO crime saga ran for five golden seasons, searing its indelible portrait of Baltimore and the war on drugs into viewers' minds. It was more than a show. It was a sociological portrait of a major American city. To watch "The Wire" is to take a census of the metropolis it's set in, as well as the country at large. The show is one of the all-time greats.
Does that mean "We Own This City," which marks Simon's return to Baltimore, must meet the standards of its monumental predecessor'? Not necessarily. The six-episode miniseries is its own beast. What's tantalizing, though, is the possibility that it might. There's a serious chance that "We Own This City" might be an instant classic. Simon's last miniseries, "The Plot Against America," proves that he hasn't lost a step, and his return to the fertile ground of Baltimore doesn't suggest he'll stumble.
The NorthmanA few years ago, Martin Scorsese compared superhero movies to roller coasters; the internet imploded. The discourse that resulted in the wake of that statement was loud and pointless. The legendary director wasn't implying that Marvel's movies lack value, but rather that the voice of the brand towers over that of the films' directors. Marty was pining for entertainment with a singular heartbeat. They still exist, he was saying, and you should seek them out.
For example: Robert Eggers' "The Northman." If the first looks are any indication, Eggers and famous Icelandic poet and novelist Sjón have made a nasty and mythic tale as heavy on audience-pleasing action as artistic flourishes. It's the story of a boy whose father, the king (Ethan Hawke), is murdered. That boy goes into exile and grows into a muscle-rich man (Alexander Skarsgard) who eventually returns home seeking vengeance. That's a template for all manner of chaotic, thrilling violence. The trailer promises battles on horseback, a veritable hurricane of spears, and swordfights set against walls of flame. Add in the talents of Anya Taylor-Joy, Willem Dafoe, Nicole Kidman, and Bjork, and you have a star-packed cast that rivals any Avengers or Justice League lineup.
Will audiences beyond the indie film faithful find their way to "The Norseman"? That's a separate question. What appears inarguable is that Eggers' epic will do Scorsese proud, and that makes it worth anticipating. Film fans, assemble.
Better Call SaulWhen previewing the final season of "Better Call Saul" it's tempting to write "Protect Kim Wexler at all costs!" and leave it at that. That's a reflection of how indelible the characters in Vince Gilligan's crime saga are. "Saul" has transcended its spin-off origins, becoming a thrilling and thoughtful work of art in its own right. While few would suggest watching it without catching up on "Breaking Bad" first, it's getting hard to fault those who might. "Better Call Saul" is essential television, full-stop.
It appears as though the show is going to finish strong, even though beloved characters seem destined to fall. Knowing that Bob Odenkirk suffered a heart attack on the set during production only infuses the program's life or death stakes with actual gravitas.
"Better Call Saul" has made us care about each of its lowlifes' lives, from Kim to Saul to Nacho. When the program reaches its end, it will be a kind of death, no matter who survives. Protecting Kim Wexler at all costs is impossible. One way or another, we'll have to let her — and everyone else — go, but seeing how that happens might mean witnessing a masterwork come to its conclusion. Hey, there are worse ways to say goodbye.
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The post The 15 Most Anticipated Movies and Shows of April 2022, Ranked appeared first on /Film.
Based on his 1986 novel "The Hellbound Heart," Clive Barker's 1987 film "Hellraiser" is one of the best and most striking horror films of its decade. Predicated on lust, infidelity, and supernatural acts of sadomasochism, "Hellraiser" plays like a blood-soaked, myth-heavy rendition of Walt Whitman's "I Sing the Body Electric," wherein flesh is the only gauge by which one measures divinity. Or, in the case of "Hellraiser," demonic interior. "Hellraiser," and Tony Randel's 1988 sequel "Hellbound: Hellraiser II," have lost none of their visceral power over the years, and contemporary horror fans may still recoil from the films' extreme blood, open sexuality, and surreal imagery.
"Hellraiser" is about an unhappy married couple, Larry and Julia (Andrew Robinson and Claire Higgins) who are moving back into a previously abandoned property of theirs in England. They discover that Larry's brother Frank (Sean Chapman with skin, Oliver Smith without) has been squatting there and regularly having sex on a mattress on the floor. This awakens lustful thoughts in Julia, who had previously had a very intense affair with Frank prior to her marriage. In the film's introduction, Frank opened up a mysterious puzzle box that seemingly dragged him into a hell dimension where he was ripped apart by meathooks on chains.
When Larry accidentally cuts his hand and bleeds on the floor of an empty room, Frank's half-desiccated corpse emerges from the floorboards. The skinless incubus Frank reveals himself to Julia, and she agrees to lure victims to him so that he may feed on them, grow back more skin, and the two can rekindle their affair. The monkey wrenches in their plan take the form of Kirsty (Ashley Laurence) who senses that something is amiss better than her clueless father, and the Cenobites, a cadre of interdimensional undead S&M enthusiasts who have mastered the ability to blend pain and pleasure. The climax will be a cat-and-mouse game between Frank, Julia, and Kirsty, while Cenobites stalk around menacingly, threatening to return Frank to their hell dimension, and for the heck of it, Julia and Kirsty as well.
The Rebirth Scene"Hellraiser," as one might imagine, had a lot of issues with censorship given its extreme gore and huge amounts of blood; several nude shots and images of violence had to be cut to avoid an "X" rating. There was also a scene wherein skinless Frank and Julia engaged in some sexual spanking that rating boards weren't too fond of. Clive Barker often incorporates explicit sexuality into his stories, frequently ascribing magical qualities to human fluids.
It's clear now that the boards weren't familiar with his work.
One scene that did manage to sidestep censors and uptight review boards was the rebirth scene at the end of the film's first act. While Larry and Julia were moving back into their house, Larry gouges his hand pretty badly on a screw head. He wanders into the empty room where Julia was dreaming about her and Frank, distraught at the sight of his own blood. When the two of them leave to go to the hospital, the camera lingers on Larry's blood, pooled on the floor. The blood is sucked into the floorboards and activates a mysterious, glistening, pulsating human organ underneath the floor that starts to seep a clear, viscous fluid into the room. From a puddle of gelatinous human glop emerge a pair of arm-like bones. A brain slowly begins to form. Bones solidify as the arms merge with the brain. A person is slowly coming together.
At the end of the scene, the top half of a partially-formed Frank hoists itself up into the stark light in the room, wailing like a newborn infant. It is alive again.
Frank's rebirth is not a dull, mechanical affair. It looks like it took him a lot of work to reassemble his body after a spate of near-oblivion. Moreover, it looks like it hurt. As if Frank's very nerves were coming into being just to feel pain for the first time again. And, in keeping with the themes of the movie, after experiencing a level of pain no one can imagine, the first thing Frank can think of next is to ask for sex.
The Hellraiser LegacyEventually, Frank obtains enough victims to grow back everything but his skin. In a fit of impatience, he and Julia end up improvising the last step by merely removing someone else's skin and wrapping it around Frank. It's Kirsty who finds the mysterious Lament Configuration puzzle box, faces the Cenobites and brings about the film's bloody, fiery conclusion.
The many "Hellraiser" sequels (there are nine to date) tipped away from the original's sexual themes pretty quickly. "Hellbound: Hellraiser II" parlayed sexual obsession into a more general obsession (although that film remains the best in the series). "Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth" turned the series into a reductive slasher, where lead Cenobite Pinhead (Doug Bradley) wants to escape the lament configuration's confines to kill people on Earth. "Hellraiser: Bloodline" cleaned up the mythology muddied by "Hell on Earth," but was regarded as silly for sending Pinhead into space (the climax takes place on a space station in the future). After that, the films went straight to video, and the hell in those films became a more traditionally Judeo-Christian version of the place, set up as a punitive measure for committing sins on Earth.
"Inferno," "Hellseeker," and "Deader" all feature the same twist ending (it turns out you were in Hell all along), and "Hellworld" went the meta route, turning "Hellraiser" into a movie that exists in that world the same way "Stab" does in the "Scream" franchise. "Revelations" is more of a remake of the 1987 film, and at least thought to include some kink. It's a pity it's so awful.
"Judgement" features a bizarre bureaucracy at work, as well as ... angels? We've gone very far afield from Barker's original vision.
A remake is currently in the works from director David Bruckner ("The Night House") and starring Jamie Clayton as Pinhead, and it seems more in keeping with Barker's original novel "The Hellbound Heart," which featured a female lead Cenobite. One can cross their fingers and hope against hope that the remake will feature plenty of sex, and that it will feature a scene half as gruesome as Frank's rebirth.
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Everything would have been fine if only those Norwegians hadn't blown up the ice that buried a 100,000-year-old alien spaceship. But, like most of humanity, curiosity got the better of them and they unleashed an alien species hellbent on taking over the world. On a superficial level (there's a prequel that goes into way more depth about this whole thing), this is basically the backstory for the plot of John Carpenter's 1982 science fiction horror movie "The Thing" in which a scrappy team of American arctic explorers discovers they are under attack by a shape-shifting alien that wants to assimilate into human form and bring an end to the human race.
This movie has it all. Suspense and paranoia (sorry, Blair. I simply cannot let you out of the tool shed on account of the fact that you, uh, built a baby spaceship ...? ), killer practical effects (who doesn't love a good carnivorous, hand-chomping, stomach mouth?), Kurt Russell (love you, dude), and an insane ending that will bother you until the end of time (it's you, Childs. It. Is. You.).
It also has aliens (duh), and an entire scene in which the American researchers discover the remains of that same buried spaceship the Norwegians just couldn't leave alone. It's one of the few shots where we get to see some of the men operating outside of the confines of the research station, and the enormity of the ship partially submerged in the ice is very impressive. There's no doubt that MacReady and the rest of the American team are in a lot of danger as they poke around the ship and try to piece together what is happening to them. But the more exciting thing is that the film crew that was actually making the movie was also in a lot of danger as they worked to film those pivotal spaceship scenes.
Becoming A Thing Isn't The Only Way To Die In The ArcticIn the documentary "The Making of 'The Thing,'" production designer John Lloyd talks a little bit about how they filmed those impressive spaceship scenes for the film. It turns out that only a portion of the actual ship was made. It was transported by helicopter to Alaska where filming was taking place, and even though the rest of the ship was added in after the fact by the matte artist Albert Whitlock, the process of filming in the actual snow was still risky. As he put it:
"The big problem is getting the spaceship there. We had to hook up to a helicopter and drop it, and then we went to shoot the matte shots and Albert wanted to wait until evening, you know, 'Let's get the magic hour.' And we waited too long and the helicopter came, was waiting, and we waited, we waited and finally Albert says, 'Once more,' and the guy said, 'Now look this is it we're leaving.' And so I never- they all had this heavy gear and we try to get in a helicopter, I couldn't get the door shut, so regardless of that we took off..."
When it came time to shoot, Whitlock insisted that they wait until the light was just right which in this case meant hanging around into the early evening. The problem, as explained by Lloyd, is that the crew waited around too long, jeopardizing their safety. When Whitlock wanted to do one more take, the pilot of their helicopter told them they had to leave immediately. Not wanting to risk their lives, the crew packed up and started their journey back to civilization. What they didn't realize was that they were running low on fuel.
Lloyd explains the exact moment when the pilot realized their situation saying, "It was the end of the day and then the [pilot] gets partway toward the camp, he said 'My god I think I'm going to run out of fuel,' and then I say, 'Well if we run out of fuel what'll happen?' He said, 'We'll just land and spend the night.' I could imagine spending the night in this helicopter with six or eight people!"
Thankfully though, the crew was able to safely make it back to camp without having to partake in an impromptu arctic slumber party. Still, the pilot wasn't as cool about the whole thing as the rest of the crew. "We finally made it back and everybody was happy," says Lloyd. "Except the helicopter pilot. He said we really didn't realize, really, what kind of trouble we were in. But again, ignorance is bliss." And I suppose if you think about "The Thing" in those terms, maybe becoming an assimilation wouldn't be that bad, after all.
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The post The Thing Crew Risked Their Lives For One Shot of the Spaceship appeared first on /Film.
Gillian Jacobs has been busy. From co-starring in Tarik Saleh's new thriller "The Contractor" to making her feature directorial debut with "More Than Robots" to appearing in the forthcoming Netflix series "Transatlantic" (currently shooting in France), her recent filmography is littered with an eclectic array of unique and wonderful pieces. In "The Contractor," she plays a woman whose ex-Special Forces husband gets drawn into the shady world of military contracting, while "More Than Robots" covers four teams of teenagers who prepare to build robots for the 2020 FIRST® Robotics Competition.
I sat down with the director/actress for a wide-ranging discussion that spans all these diverse projects. We talked about where her "The Contractor" character Brianne stands on the film's central issues, the inspirational kids at the heart of the "More Than Robots" documentary, learning French for the "Transatlantic" shoot, and more.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.
'It Was Really The Collaboration Of Working With Chris And Tarik That Made The Experience So Great'"The Contractor" has a lot of action and thriller elements, but it's way more critical about the contracting world, the military, what it does with veterans, than a lot of other films. What drew you to the project specifically?
I think the opportunity to work with Chris Pine was the thing that drew me to this project the most, because I just think he's an amazing actor. I have been a fan of his for a long time. I think he is one of the most truthful, grounded actors I've ever worked with, and I think he made me better. So my instincts that I would love working with Chris Pine were correct. I had an amazing time working with him. And then Tarik, the director, I also loved the experience of working with him. [...] He and Chris very smartly decided to have rehearsals with the three of us, and we got to sit in a room and talk and that is not standard practice with movies. I loved that experience of getting to work with them, and Tarik and I, it turned out we have a shared love of Ingmar Bergman, so we film nerd emailed back and forth about movies. It was really the collaboration of working with Chris and Tarik that made the experience so great.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Tarik as well. He was wonderful.
He's really cool! I just loved listening to him talk about how he was shooting the scenes, why he was shooting them that way, and he's just such a lovely, kind person. I can't say enough nice things about him.
Absolutely. So your character in the film, Brianne, she's seen too many funerals. She doesn't want our protagonist to do contracting and to get into that world. Let's talk about that.
I think her point is that he knows, as well. It's not that she knows something he doesn't know, but I think that he feels this obligation, this responsibility ... this has been his life for so long. So I think she's trying to get him to acknowledge what he actually does know, which is, I think, the heart of the conflict between the two of them as husband and wife. But it's also grounded with real love and affection for each other, and that they also do genuinely get along, love each other. It's really difficult to be apart [and] have these periods of separation, because there is such love there.
'I Think It's A Valuable Message For All Of Us, Not Just For The Kids'Recently you directed "More Than Robots," your feature-length documentary debut. What drew you to the project?
So, despite the fact that I know nothing about science and technology, really, or computing, I have had this weird kind of parallel career in STEM documentary-interview-things for like six, seven -- I don't even know how long at this point. Over the course of doing all these other interviews with people -- I've gotten to interview astronauts, and people who study volcanoes, and paleontologists -- I've gotten to talk to all kinds of amazing people within the world of STEM, knowing nothing really about what they do beyond a surface level. I became aware of this robotics competition and I thought it would make a great documentary, and I had just done this other documentary for this series called "Marvel 616." I directed an episode of that, and so through that, I found out that Lucasfilm was sponsoring this robotics competition.
I was like, "Oh, this is kind of like perfect for me, I weirdly know about this competition already." But I didn't really, because I knew a little about it but I didn't know it in-depth. I had a lot to learn in a short period of time, and the thing that impressed me the most was that it's a competition that doesn't really value or reward ruthless competition. It's not a "Win at all costs" kind of competition, it's a "Help out the other team" and "What can you do to make your community a better place?" sort of competition, which I found really refreshing. [It] made me fall in love with it even more, because it wasn't just about smart kids who are really high achieving, but they're also compassionate and thoughtful and kind.
I actually was going to ask you a question about that, because its ethos is more, as the creator says, "Coop-ertition."
Yes, coop-ertition!
That's a really healthy approach to kids' sports. Do you think that it's going to make a difference?
I think so. I see it in these kids, and not to spoil my own film, but in the third act of the film, you see really what an impact those values have had on the kids. I related to it, too, because I felt equally passionate about acting as a kid, and being in plays. Being in a play is really that same sort of feeling of "This is all of us, in it together." When you're on stage with someone and something goes wrong, you all have to work together to get through it in that moment. So I related to it a lot, and I think that it was an amazing thing to see. I could see that it had an impact on the adults who were mentoring, too ... it's a great reminder for me as an adult. All these values in the ethos of this competition, I think it's a valuable message for all of us, not just for the kids. I learned a lot. I was inspired by this competition.
'I Love That The Most Prestigious Award You Get Isn't For Building The Best Robot'I also liked that the founder's vision for it was explicitly to give it the positive aspects of other sports' culture, like mascots and a halftime show. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Oh my God. It's so much fun! I only got to go to one competition because of Covid, but even that one, they kept telling me, "Oh, this is tiny. Wait until you go to Worlds -- it's like this times a thousand." They truly have mascots. They're singing songs. They're doing dances. They all make buttons for their team and they give it out, and the kids are wearing all the other team's buttons. And they like to wear capes, which I just loved! It made me so happy. So many of the teams, they wear capes, and they've got the capes covered in buttons from all the other teams. And it really is this exciting, energized, cool, fun environment. And the parents and the other siblings are out, and all the kids on the team are sitting in the stands.
It was really amazing! I never went to a single sporting event in my high school, so I have no idea what a high school sporting event is like. I went to a college that was an arts conservatory and had zero sports, so I don't have a lot of experience with it, but to me it was kind of one of the coolest experiences I'd been a part of and everyone just seemed like they're having a great time. And I love that the most prestigious award you get isn't for building the best robot. It's like "Who did the most for their community," really. That's pretty amazing for a robotics competition to say, "No, the most important award isn't for the best robot, it's for who can bring the spirit, the ethos of this competition to their community to help other people."
I also appreciated the fact that it was a robotic competition that tried really hard not to be classist, because schools have different resources. It's really important.
Yeah. I agree.
So you're in France right now. What are you in the middle of?
I'm working on this project. It's a limited series for Netflix called "Transatlantic," so we are shooting that currently. This is really exciting for me! I'm really working hard to try and learn French, and the crew has been so patient and gracious because my pronunciation is very bad, so I have daily lessons with the crew. I think I'm improving.
Is this an exclusive that you are learning French for "Transatlantic?"
Well, it's not even necessarily for the project as much as it is for me really wanting to be able to order in a restaurant, or know what people are saying to me, and just to try and get my vowel sounds correctly -- get my "R" correct. It's really important to me that by the time I leave France, my French Rs are correct.
Although it's early, is there anything you can tell me about the new project?
I'm trying to remember the press release in my head so I don't tell you anything that's not in the press release. It's got an amazing cast, I can say that. Corey Stoll, Corey Michael Smith, and so many amazing actors from across Europe. So I'm meeting so many terrific people. I think this is one of the nicest groups of people I've ever had the pleasure of working with, and I've gotten to work with a lot of nice people. So I don't know if that's, like, an exclusive, but it's a nice fun fact for my life.
"The Contractor" is in theaters now, and "More Than Robots" is streaming on Disney+.
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The post Gillian Jacobs on Working with Chris Pine in The Contractor, Directing More Than Robots, and More [Interview] appeared first on /Film.
On the March 17, 2022 episode of /Film Daily, /Film editor Ben Pearson is joined by /Film editor Hoai-Tran Bui to talk about what they've been up to at the virtual water cooler.
Opening Banter:
At The Water Cooler:
- What we've been Doing:
- What we've been Reading:
- What we've been Watching:
- Ben watched Ponyo and The Wind Rises.
- HT watched Pachinko, Turning Red, Cyrano, The Outfit, Everything Everywhere All At Once, After Yang, revisited All About Lily Chou-Chou, and has been watching the Star Trek original cast movies.
- What we've been Eating:
- What we've been Playing:
Also mentioned:
All the other stuff you need to know:
- You can find more about all the stories we mentioned on today's show at slashfilm.com, and linked inside the show notes.
- /Film Daily is published every weekday, bringing you the most exciting news from the world of movies and television as well as deeper dives into the great features from slashfilm.com.
- You can subscribe to /Film Daily on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the popular podcast apps (RSS).
- Send your feedback, questions, comments and concerns to us at peter@slashfilm.com. Please leave your name and general geographic location in case we mention the e-mail on the air.
- Please rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts, tell your friends and spread the word!
- Thanks to Sam Hume for our logo.
Read this next: Batman Movies Ranked From Worst To Best
The post Daily Podcast: Mini-Water Cooler: The Wind Rises, Pachinko, Cyrano, After Yang, and More appeared first on /Film.
St. Patrick has truly blessed us on his celebrated day, in the form of the season 3 trailer for the hit U.K. Channel 4 comedy, "Derry Girls." The show exploded in popularity once it hit Netflix, but season 3 will be the series' last. It feels like it's been forever since we got a new crop of "Derry Girls" episodes, and that's because season 2 aired in 2019 and we've all been impatiently waiting for the return of our favorite Northern Irish teens ever since. THANKS, COVID! Based on creator Lisa McGee's own teen years in the 1990s, "Derry Girls" follows Londonderry teens Erin (Saoirse-Monica Jackson), Orla (Louisa Harland), Clare (Nicola Coughlan), Michelle (Jamie-Lee O'Donnell), and James (Dylan Llewellyn) as they navigate the trials and tribulations of typical teen life during the height of the political conflict known as The Troubles. As sad as it is to say farewell, McGee said that this was the plan all along.
"It was always the plan to say goodbye after three series. "Derry Girls" is a coming of age story; following five ridiculous teenagers as they slowly... very slowly... start to become adults, while around them the place they call home starts to change too and Northern Ireland enters a new more hopeful phase – which was a small, magical window of time."
"We lived on the edge back then. We were young, wild, fearless," says James in the Season 3 trailer. With adulthood fast approaching, season 3 looks to be sending our favorite schoolgirls (and James) on one last run of wacky hijinks. Lady Immaculate College will never be the same.
Derry Girls Season 3 TrailerThe trailer teases the snappy humor we've come to know and love, but poses the question, "Remember when you felt unstoppable?" That transitional age between teen years and full-fledged adulthood is a magical time, where you feel simultaneously invincible and somehow more vulnerable than ever before. "Just try to enjoy what time you've left, girls," preaches Sister Michael (Siobhán McSweeney). Well, it's time for us to enjoy what little time we've got left with our faves, and take one last ride when season 3 debuts sometime later this year.
The series also stars Tommy Tiernan, Tara Lynne O'Neill, Ian McElhinney, and Kathy Kiera Clarke. Commissioned for Channel 4 by Ian Katz, Fiona McDermott, Jack Bayles, and Laura Riseam, McGee serves as an executive producer with Caroline Leddy, Liz Lewin, Jimmy Mulville. Brian Falconer will also produce, and Michael Lennox will direct. Seasons 1 and 2 are currently available to stream on Netflix.
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The post Derry Girls Season 3 Trailer: The Derry Girls Are Up to Their Old Tricks appeared first on /Film.
Stephen King is the unquestioned king of horror when it comes to the literary world. Part of what gives him that distinction also makes his books incredibly challenging to adapt to film. King's writing heaps layer upon layer of descriptive narrative and scenery with round, complex characters for our imagination to digest. Several of his novels top 1,000 pages.
To say the least, this depth of character, landscape, and narrative is challenging when it comes to adapting his work to film. In a completely visual world that lasts roughly 90 to 120 minutes, it's nearly impossible to do any King story justice. It certainly takes a special talent to squeeze an entire King narrative into a small cinematic window. The bottom line is this: Anything King cooks up on the page is more horrifying in our imagination than anything we'll see on screen.
Of course, that hasn't stopped many from trying. Last year Vanity Fair ranked the top 20 Stephen King film adaptations, with Rob Reiner's "Stand by Me" coming in at No. 1. So it might have come as a surprise when King revealed his favorite collaborator, it was the director whose film came in at No. 13 (of course) on Vanity Fair's list.
It Was A Match Made In HellI was expecting Frank Darabont to be the author's slamdunk answer. Darabont teamed with Stephen King to direct "The Shawshank Redemption," "The Green Mile," and "The Mist." But two of those stories stray from King's horror roots. Given his body of work, King has a soft spot for horror, which is why he says his favorite collaborator is the king of the zombie flick, George A. Romero.
King and Romero's friendship dates back to the 1970s. According to iHorror, Warner Bros. arranged a meeting between the two after Romero released the vampire film "Martin" and King released the vampire novel "Salem's Lot." It seemed like a match made in heaven (or maybe hell?), and it was, as the two would collaborate on numerous projects and remained good friends until Romero died in 2017.
In the early 1980s, Romero had the idea for a horror anthology based on 1950s EC Comics like "The Vault of Horror" and "Tales From the Crypt," and tasked King with writing the screenplay. The result was the 1982 film "Creepshow." It was two horror masters from different mediums working towards the same goal: scaring the hell out of the audience and having a lot of fun doing it.
As Horror Homeroom notes, there were some near misses for Romero to adapt a full-length King novel after "Creepshow." At one point he was attached to both "Salem's Lot" and "Pet Sematary." It would take more than a decade, however, for the pair to finally produce a full-length film adaptation of a King novel.
George Romero Helped King Exorcise His DemonsKing's novel, "The Dark Half," about a writer's seedy alter ego that materializes as a terrifying murderer, was second on the 1989 fiction best-seller list. The story was also personal to King, who knew a thing or two about having a dark half. He battled substance abuse, famously admitting he barely remembers writing "Cujo." He also wrote five novels under the pseudonym, Richard Bachman. Down to the film's inciting event that mirrors a fan outing King as Richard Bachman, there's no denying the similarities between King's real-life struggles and those of the protagonist in "The Dark Half."
George Romero spent most of his career as an independent filmmaker, giving him the freedom to explore personal and political issues free of studio influence. His influential debut "Night of the Living Dead" created the rules for the modern zombie film while examining racism in America. Given the personal nature of "The Dark Half," it made perfect sense for King to turn to his old friend to bring the story, partially his story, to life on screen.
Although many consider "The Dark Half" one of King's most faithful film adaptations, the movie opened to mixed reviews. The film was one of the few Romero directed for a major studio, Orion Pictures, which might have played a role in the film's tepid performance. Romero would later reveal that he did not have control of the final cut of the film and that it didn't turn out the way he'd planned.
Despite the memorable work produced by the pair, horror fans are still left wondering what might have been.
Romero Almost Directed 'The Stand'During their initial meeting, the horror duo discussed plans for Stephen King's apocalyptic epic novel, "The Stand." It makes sense that King wanted George Romero for his longest and arguably most complex piece of work. Unfortunately, Warner Brothers wasn't willing to take on what they considered a risky project and passed on the idea.
The 1,152-page book would eventually be made into a 1994 TV mini-series to lukewarm reactions and again in 2020 for streaming service CBS All Access. Imagining a Romero-led film adaptation of "The Stand" is perhaps the ultimate case of "what might have been."
Despite the missed opportunities, the two made magic when working together. It's fitting that these masters of horror forged a strong bond. King has gone on record, calling Romero his favorite collaborator.
Two well-timed vampire projects led to the fateful meeting that spawned several collaborations and decades of friendship. In a surprising twist for King and Romero, there's nothing scary about that.
Read this next: All 59 Stephen King Movies Ranked From Worst To Best
The post Stephen King Calls This Director His Favorite Collaborator appeared first on /Film.
"The Harder They Fall" director and co-writer Jeymes Samuel is set to join the adaptation of Boom! Studios' comic book series "Irredeemable" and its spinoff, "Incorruptible," according to THR. The two titles will be combined into one feature, according to the site. The comics come to us from author Mark Waid, with illustrations largely by Peter Krause. "Irredeemable" is the story of The Plutonian, who was a superhero who wasn't emotionally equipped to deal with the fame that comes along with his job and the pressure to save everyone. He ends up as a supervillain. In the spinoff "Incorruptible," supervillain Max Damage (oh, that name is so perfect) deals with the shock of The Plutonian's turn to the dark side by slowly becoming a superhero to stop him. He's also gradually losing his mind, so time is of the essence.
The project will be written by Kemp Powers, who was nominated for an Academy Award for "One Night in Miami," as well as co-writing and co-directing the Academy Award-winning Pixar film "Soul." Powers is deep in the superhero genre at the moment, co-directing "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Part 1," and "Part 2." He will executive produce along with Adam Yoelin.
It will be produced by Samuel, Jay-Z, and James Lassiter, with Stephen Christy and Ross Richie for Boom! Studios. The comic book imprint has a first-look TV deal with Netflix.
The World Needs More Heroes And Also Hero TherapistsThe comic series ran from 2009 to 2012, and it was fantastic. I love the idea that someone we look up to is not only imperfect, but that they also deal with pressures. We've certainly seen what happens when motives for superheroes aren't exactly pristine as we do in "The Boys," but this one speaks to the pressures of saving the world. We all know that American Presidents age like crazy while in office, but imagine what happens to your brain when, say, you have to use the restroom, and miss a call for help. Maybe if you'd just slept one less hour, you could have prevented a catastrophe. What if, instead of eating dinner, you were out doing one more thing?
I think, despite the fact that we're talking about superheroes here, this is relatable for everyone. What if I just took on one more job and didn't miss my rent payment? What if I didn't go on that business trip and didn't miss the signs of something wrong in my relationship? We all have guilt for what we couldn't do or who we couldn't help. Add superpowers into that mix, and nothing good is going to happen. I am beyond excited to watch this one, and I love the creative team!
In case this wasn't enough to make you happy, Boom! has already set up an adaptation of "BRZRKR," which is the comic co-created and co-written by Keanu Reeves. What superhero fatigue? I don't have it! Not sarcasm. I really don't! Give me more superhero content for my eyeballs!
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The post The Harder They Fall Director Jeymes Samuel Will Direct a Comic Book Superhero Film Written By Kemp Powers appeared first on /Film.
Words mean things. They separate us from the invertebrates.
A major dilemma has surfaced in the wake of the classic slasher resurgence: that of confusing movie titles. The new "Scream" is titled the same as the original, and so is David Gordon Green's "Halloween." The latest offender is David Blue Garcia's "Texas Chainsaw Massacre," named exhaustingly close to Tobe Hooper's original 1974 franchise-launcher "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre." For all three slasher franchises, this has not only resulted in turning Google into a gaping hellmouth where research goes to die, but now all posts about any film in the franchise must add a string of qualifiers to pinpoint just which of the multiple sequels, prequels, requels, and reboots is being discussed.
The title is critical.
Garcia is at the ready to churn out a sequel to his 2022 sequel, and so moving forward, we'll need everyone to get on the same page about this chainsaw business. What follows is a list of guidelines for writing titles of the "Chainsaw" movies, mandatory for both /Film staffers and the public at large. We will be monitoring social media feeds and blocking all users who do not respect this boundary. There will be neither forum nor a marketplace of ideas on the subject, as the rules are ironclad; we take our genre guidance from Fangoria, and those nerds are very particular about the details.
When There's No More Room In Hell, The Dead Titles Will Walk The EarthThe "Chainsaw" guidelines are as follows:
- Tobe Hooper is the only one who gets "Chainsaw" cleaved in twain, simple as. When referring to Hooper's 1974 film, it's "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" -- "Chain" and "Saw" are separated, and the whole title is preceded by "The." Yes, a few posters here and there use "Chainsaw," but those are outliers. God help you if you cram "Chain" and "Saw" together on this one.
- The ensuing titles are all variations on the original, but all subsequent sequels use "Chainsaw" as one word.
- If you write out "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" with "The" and a one-word "Chainsaw," you'd be referring to the 2003 Platinum Dunes reboot. The Jessica Biel one.
- The 2006 movie that comes after that has the exact same title with "The Beginning" added.
- Just "Texas Chainsaw?" That's the 3D one from 2013, where Alexandra Daddario told the 6'7" Leatherface, "Do your thing, cuz!" "Texas Chainsaw 3D" is also acceptable.
- When writing about the 2022 legacy sequel, it's "Texas Chainsaw Massacre." No "The." If editors see a "The" here, the beatings will resume.
So, to recap:
"The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" (1974)
"The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2" (1986)
"Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III" (1990)
"Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation" (1995)
"The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" (2003)
"The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning" (2006)
"Texas Chainsaw 3D" (2013)
"Leatherface" (2017)
"Texas Chainsaw Massacre" (2022)
/Film is not into binaries. But when it comes to titles, there is right, and there is wrong. As the single most important thing happening in the world right now, the title epidemic is formidable but not unbeatable. With your compliance, the correct title can go with the correct film, and words can mean things once again.
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The post On Chainsaws and Titles: A Guide to the Correct Spellings of the Texas Chainsaw Movies appeared first on /Film.
The Batsuit is Bruce Wayne's identity in "The Batman." He's in the second year of his gig as the Caped Crusader, but his days as the Bruce Wayne haven't even begun yet. He is The Batman and no one else. In director Matt Reeves' film, we spend more time than ever with the character behind the mask, and Glyn Dillon and David Crossman are the two artists responsible for creating that mask.
Together, the duo strived for realism with this new Batsuit, but they also landed on a deeply cinematic look -- a costume that lives in the shadows. Expectations are always high for the recognizable costume, but without question, they surpassed the high bar here. Dillon and Crossman, who've previously worked on the "Star Wars" franchise, recently told us about creating the new suit and how Adam West inspired it.
'It's Got This Grim Reaper Feel To It'How did Matt Reeves first describe his vision for "The Batman," and how did you want the suit to reflect that vision?
Dillon: From my memory, I definitely remember him saying how much he wanted to play towards it feeling very real, and I remember him saying how he wanted Batman to have freedom to move, and he wanted him to be able to fight like an MMA fighter. I think Dave and I both, from all our jobs previously, we know our taste is very similar. We both like things that feel very real. I think that's one of the reasons why [producer] Simon Emanuel got us this interview with Matt Reeves, because I think we all aligned very much in our taste as to how we could maybe do a newer version of Batman that felt very real.
You took inspiration from the Vietnam War, right?
Crossman: Yes, Vietnam is always in there somewhere. One of the things we took apart was the Vietnam-era flak jacket. Inside the bulletproof material are actually layers of Kevlar fabric, but layered on top of each other, so we thought, "Well, what we can do is form these or cut these into the shapes of the panels that you see on the torso of the Batsuit." The cowl really led the way initially. Often there's all these things, but it's always the head first, and then it leads on to what the suit would be.
Yet, in a way the cowl is slightly more fantastical than the suit, but I think they work well together because you want to retain an element of the Batman and the mystery, but the suit itself is this fully-flexible or functioning bulletproof number. We didn't want it to feel like a muscle suit, but it also gives Robert a good, dominating physicality without making him look pumped up, muscular, without giving him that feel. It just gives him a kind of brutish appearance.
Dillon: With the cowl, it is a more fantastical element of it, inasmuch as I like the idea of it feeling like the grim reaper, so that it's shaped more skull-like, and then maybe with the suggestion that he might have stretched the leather over a skull in order to get those shapes. Then the neck pieces are like vertebrae. So, it's got this grim reaper feel to it, which also then transferred over with [costume designer] Jacqueline [Durran]'s look of him when he's Bruce Wayne, with the eye makeup and the hood up walking through Gotham City.
I just think by the idea of stretching it over a skull, it differentiates itself from previous cinema iterations where the cowl looked much more like the face of a demon with a pointy nose and a furrowed brow. Which, obviously with the cowl, he's trying to intimidate and scare when people look him in the eyes, and I think knowing that he was going to be standing around talking to Gordon and doing all the detective work, I think it might have seemed a bit incongruous to have had a cowl with all of this extra drama built into it.
By doing something like a skull, which is kind of scary anyway but it has a neutral expression, I think it allows Robert to act. You can see great scenes like when he's talking to the Riddler near the end and what he's doing with his eyes, you're not distracted by the cowl. You're just looking at his eyes. I think that's what differentiates our cowl from the previous ones.
Crossman: You get a lot of Robert coming through, you get a lot of his jaw line. There's a lot of history on the cowl. There are a lot of bullet grazes and damage from previous encounters that Batman has had. All of that was built into the cowl from the beginning, so you could see that it's been around, we're in the second year of it and that kind of thing. He has history.
The movie truly lives up to the title, like the Bruce Wayne we know doesn't exist yet. Were you both aware that a large portion of Pattinson's performance was going to be in the suit?
Dillon: It's a long time ago since I read the script, but I don't think it really sunk in at the time just how much he is dressed as Batman throughout it. It was interesting to finally see it, and I'm glad we did what we did with the cowl, because I do think that it allowed Robert to express and emote, and you're just focusing on him, really, and there's not an angry cowl expression getting in the way.
Crossman: It's true. You're always looking at his eyes as reaction, and I think the same thing. I didn't realize until we saw the film just how much he's in it. I do feel you've got Robert through all of that, which I thought was a nice thing, really.
'I Always Wondered What That Little Square Was On Adam West's Nose'What were some early ideas tested? What worked and what didn't?
Dillon: In terms of the drawings of the cowl, it's a bit of a blue sky process where we're just throwing in everything. I did one that actually kind of flared out of the back more like a helmet, but we quite quickly got rid of that, because it felt a bit too "Star Wars," if anything. Quite quickly the face, Matt was pleased with it, how it was. He liked the stitching around the top of the forehead, which was inspired by the Adam West, to be honest.
Having the little piece over the nose, again, that was kind of inspired by the Adam West. I always wondered what that little square was on Adam West's nose, and he obviously had the little arched eyebrows as well. When Matt had said about maybe he should feel like he's an MMA fighter, I liked the idea of it feeling a bit less elegant, a bit more like a bruiser, almost like if you had a Band-Aid stuck across his nose, and which was also the thought behind [Jack Nicholson's character] Jake in "Chinatown." The character Jake has a small bit of dressing on his nose. It was wanting to do something that was just a little bit more f***ed up than previous iterations of Batman, like having that feel a bit more brutal about it. But it was actually inspired by Adam West originally, that little square shape.
You both show a lot of reverence for the Adam West costume [designed by Jan Kemp].
Dillon: For me and Dave, it was the big TV show when we'd come home from school in the '70s. That was the favorite TV show.
Crossman: You were too young to realize that it was comedy or camp. You just thought, "This is great."
And you both managed to use a little yellow for the new suit.
Dillon: We did manage to sneak in some little bits of yellow, yeah. Just little bits of webbing on his arm. There's a little strapping on his arm that is yellow, and some little bits on the wing suit as well.
Capes are tricky, so how'd you two land on the cape he wears?
Crossman: Well, it's often tricky from a practical shooting point of view, because Batman's on a motorbike. You often can't have a full cape on a speeding bike and all that, so you have to work around those issues with visual effects. I think the thing is, you want the cape to reflect enough light and have enough personality. We wanted the cape to match the cowl, I remember that was very much a Matt request -- the cape and the cowl should look the same. So, for the cape, because it has to behave in a different way, we used this lovely faux Japanese leather that we found, and it was a really good weight. It worked well in the wind, and it gave us lots of things that we needed to do.
You had many adaptations of the cape, and sometimes you shoot with no cape if visual effects were going to replace certain things for certain stunts. So, we had various lengths and various styles of cape to accommodate the shooting. But then once again, we didn't deviate from that fabric. That was the first fabric we looked at, and it went very well with the cowl, so we didn't change it.
Dillon: I really love that first fight scene he has with Catwoman. I think it looks really nice, the way that the mayor's house was lit and where they're spinning around fighting. I just thought the cape looked really nice in that scene.
'The Marketing Department Wanted To Add Taller Ears For It'How about the bat logo on the chest? How'd that design come about?
Dillon: That was really fun. When I knew that we were doing it, that was one of the things I was secretly quite excited about. I purposely looked at lots of images of bats in flight to see what shapes they might make. I think I did a sheet of probably about 50 versions, some very stylized in the same way that some previous cinema versions were, and some that were very much taken from bats in flight. This one I think was a nice mixture of slightly stylized, but it was definitely taken from an image of a bat in flight. It did have tiny little ears, because that's literally where the real ears of the bat were. That's the one that we went with in the chest.
Honestly, I remember when it was all being talked about in terms of where it was going to be used elsewhere, I think the marketing department wanted to add taller ears for it, which is actually a shame, because I like the smaller ones. I thought they were different. But that was a really fun part of the job, and it's nice that the one that they use for the searchlight is our one with the tiny ears.
That's funny to hear, the marketing needed bigger ears on the costume. Why? Does it really make a difference?
Dillon: [Laughs] Yeah, it was interesting. I hadn't thought about it before, but when we were looking at it, we realized that one of the really old versions, I can't remember if it was the very first version, but one of the old comics versions didn't have any ears at all. It was just the wing shape. So I thought, "Well, yeah, we can do it with much lower-profile ears."
I do love how we turned it, and Matt wanted everything on the suit to have a use, for it all to be a utilitarian feeling with the suit. So, I think it was a great idea to have it as used as the weapon. Everything on the suit, including the cape, everything had its purpose. It made it very grounded.
Everyone has an expectation, an idea of what the costume should look like. Do you consider those expectations or just do what you and everyone actually involved in the film decides is best?
Crossman: Well, we've done "Star Wars" films before, so we're always constantly looking at characters from the past and seeing how you could adapt them whilst remaining true to the identity of that character. I think our intent is to try and improve slightly, and still kind of keep your fans happy, and then bring about changes that you're satisfied with which make more sense. With the Batsuit, it was always the movement and how you're so aware of the actor wearing the suit, the way they move their shoulders, their neck. I think one of the differences that we tried to do this time is you get more physicality from Robert. You can see more, and you don't feel the weight of this suit all the time. I think you see past it a bit more, and you see the actor within.
Dillon: I agree, and I think the great thing about getting the opportunity to work on a Batsuit is that is that all the years since it first came about in the comics, there have been so many different versions of it, both drawn in the comics and when it became a TV show and other films. I think it's an iconic character that can survive all these different iterations of itself, because it's such a strong initial design.
You're never going to be able to please all the fans all the time. There's some people who will just -- Affleck is their Batman and it doesn't matter what you do, that's it. Which is fair enough, I respect that if that's their thing. So, we have to just be true to ourselves. Then me and Dave, we've both got the same taste, and luckily that aligned with what Matt Reeves was after, which is he wanted it to feel very real. That's exactly the kind of thing that we really like. Dave's a military expert, so Dave's influence is the reality of what soldiers have worn throughout history. I just love that feeling of things feeling real. So, it was great to be given the opportunity to work on such an iconic character and put our spin on it. It's great fun, and who could turn that down?
"The Batman" is now playing in theaters.
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The post The Batman Has a Suit Inspired by Vietnam, Adam West, and the Grim Reaper [Interview] appeared first on /Film.
(Superhero Bits is a collection of stories, updates, and videos about anything and everything inspired by the comics of Marvel, DC, and more. For comic book movies, TV shows, merchandise, events, and whatever catches our eye, this is the place to find anything that falls through the cracks.)
In this edition of Superhero Bits:
- Jane Foster returns as Thor in a new series from Marvel Comics.
- "The Batman" HBO Max release date has seemingly been confirmed.
- A "Daredevil" reboot may well be in the works.
- The "Spider-Man: No Way Home" gag reel.
- All that and more!
Vote On Your Favorite Spider-Man Suit EverAmazingly enough, 2022 marks 60 years of "Spider-Man" in the world and Marvel wants to know what your favorite look for the beloved superhero is. As such, they have launched a poll to determine what fans think is the hero's best suit over the years. Is it the classic blue and red suit? What about his black symbiote suit from "Secret Wars?" The Iron Spider perhaps? Cast your vote now! Those interested in having their voice heard can vote by clicking here.
The Flash Season 8 The Fire Next Time PromoHere is the official promo for the eighth episode of the eighth season of "The Flash" on The CW:
Barry (Grant Gustin) trusts his instincts during a murder investigation, believing the suspect, despite the overwhelming evidence against him, meanwhile Iris (Candice Patton) gives Allegra (Kayla Compton) an opportunity to be a mentor.
David McWhirter directed the episode, which was written by Joshua V. Gilbert.
Jane Foster & The Mighty Thor Series Announced By Marvel ComicsNatalie Portman is making her return to the MCU in this year's "Thor: Love and Thunder," and she will be picking up the mantle as our new Thor. Rather conveniently, Marvel Comics has announced a brand new series with Jane Foster at the center. As revealed by The Mary Sue, "Jane Foster & The Mighty Thor" is set to hit stands this summer, with Torunn Grønbekk on board to write, with Michael Dowling handling the artwork and Ryan Stegman doing covers. The synopsis for the book reads as follows:
When Mjolnir comes crashing through Jane Foster's apartment window, she fears the worst has happened to Thor. As Asgard's greatest enemies—including Hela, Ulik the Troll, and Enchantress—mount an assault on the Golden Realm, Jane must find Thor and save Asgard—even if that means she must once again risk her life to become Thor herself!
"Jane Foster & The Mighty Thor" #1 hits stands in June.
Is This When The Batman Hits HBO Max?This needs to be taken with a grain of salt as it has been chalked up to a "tech glitch" within the Warner Bros. ranks. That having been said, it appears we now know when "The Batman" will be available to stream on HBO Max, as well as when it will air on HBO in broadcast. As noted by sites such as Yahoo, said glitch has revealed that Robert Pattinson's debut as the Dark Knight will be on HBO Max on April 19, with the movie set to air on HBO for the first time on April 23. This does line up with the previous 45-day exclusive theatrical window that had previously been reported, so it makes sense. But we should wait until we get definitive confirmation from someone within the studio's ranks.
The Defenders And Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Get Welcomed To Disney+Disney+ fans recently got a deluge of Marvel content to enjoy as Netflix's loss was Disney's gain. "Daredevil," "Jessica Jones," "Luke Cage," "Iron Fist," "The Punisher," "The Defenders," and "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." are all now exclusively streaming on Disney+, and the above video serves as something of a welcome wagon for the fan-favorite shows. Now, whether or not this ends up leading to them joining the core MCU in the future remains to be seen but, for now, the shows are under the same roof as most of the rest of Marvel's movies and TV shows, which is undoubtedly convenient and sensible.
Did This No Way Home Deleted Scene Tease More Spider-Men In The MCU's Future?Recently, "Spider-Man: no Way Home" was made available to rent and purchase digitally and the home video release includes lots of bonus features, such as some deleted scenes. One of them, as noted by Heroic Hollywood, may have signaled the return of both Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man in the future of the MCU. In the theatrical cut of the movie, as Tom Holland's Peter is saying goodbye to his fellow Peters, he says simply, "I'll see you." However, in an alternate take included on the home video release, the exchange sees Holland saying "I'll see you later." Garfield then replies, "You know where to find us."
Now, this was deleted for a reason and we don't want to read too much into this but it seems this iteration of the scene would have hinted at future appearances from the other Spider-Men. That having been said, given how much money "No Way Home" made it would be shocking if Sony isn't already trying to make other appearances happen.
The Batman Easter Eggs"The Batman" has been in theaters for a couple of weeks now and that means the world is easing up just a little bit in terms of spoilers. To that end, the folks at DC have put together a pretty comprehensive guide to Easter eggs that are scattered throughout director Matt Reeves' reboot of the franchise. Obviously, this is going to be littered with spoilers so only those who have seen the movie should check it out. But those who are interested can click the link in the tweet above and go Easter egg hunting.
A Daredevil Reboot Is Reportedly In The WorksDon't get too excited/upset just yet but it seems that Marvel Studios may well have plans for "Daredevil." While there is very little by way of actual information at the moment, the often reliable industry publication Production Weekly has listed a "Daredevil Reboot" among the projects that are currently gearing up for production. There is no other information to go on at this time and it is worth pointing out that Marvel Studios and Disney have not confirmed this news. That having been said, with Charlie Cox appearing as Matt Murdock in "Spider-Man: No Way Home," this feels inevitable. And it feels highly unlikely that they would recast the role, so don't sweat that term "reboot" too much. Keep your eyes open as we'll be sure to bring more details your way as this situation evolves.
Spider-Man: No Way Home Gag ReelLastly, the folks at Sony have released a new gag reel from "Spider-Man: No Way Home." The video is relatively brief but it shows some behind-the-scenes footage of both the heroes and villains of the massive blockbuster having some fun while making the film. We see Jamie Foxx goofing around as Electro while doing some blue screen work, with Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield making one another laugh a few times. We can expect this and a great many more special features on the upcoming Blu-ray release, for those who are still into physical media. Be sure to check it out for yourself above.
Read this next: The 11 Coolest Easter Eggs In The Batman
The post Superhero Bits: Spider-Man: No Way Home Gag Reel, Daredevil Reboot Rumors & More appeared first on /Film.
"Tony Hawk: Until the Wheels Fall Off" begins in a surprisingly brutal fashion. The skateboarding icon drops into a halfpipe, trying to pull off his most famous, notoriously difficult trick, but he just can't do it. He loses grip of his board, which occasionally bounces off somewhere behind the halfpipe, and he slides down the drop in defeat. He stumbles off his board just as he swoops down the curve. He slams to the ground, screaming mostly in frustration, but likely in pain, too. This happens a bunch of times. After one of his many wipeouts, he simply lays on the floor, his skateboard landing upside down nearby, the wheels still spinning furiously. It's a masterful shot captured on the fly, and it ends with Hawk doing what he's always done: picking himself up and grabbing his board for another run.
Much like this documentary as a whole, this opening is a superb encapsulation of Tony Hawk's life and career. For decades, Hawk has continually gotten back on the board, no matter how much it hurt to fall off. However, with the unfathomable success and fame that made him an integral part of sports history, there's also a price to pay in Hawk's personal life. "Tony Hawk: Until the Wheels Fall Off" doesn't just confirm that Hawk is the greatest skateboarder to ever live, but proves that his life was and is skateboarding, for better and for worse.
A Meteoric RiseThis is the definitive chronicle of Tony Hawk's incredible rise to become the face of modern skateboarding. Yes, there were professional skateboarders before Hawk, but none of them ever saw such a meteoric rise and worldwide recognition for their dedication to the sport, which includes Hawk creating over 100 innovative tricks himself. But would you expect anything less from a kid who became a professional skateboarder at age 14? Hawk raked in so much money from skateboarding as a teen that he was able to purchase his own house when he was a senior in high school. His first skateboard is now in the Smithsonian. That's pretty wild.
"Until the Wheels Fall Off" begins in the 1980s when skateboarding was enjoying one of several peaks in its popularity in the past 40 years. Even Hawk's father got in on the action by creating the National Skateboarding Association to regulate competitions. But despite Hawk's success, to those skateboarders who came before him, he was a nuisance. His lanky figure and unique approach to pool bowl boarding put a target on his back, especially when he started winning competitions and signaling the beginning of the end for the old guard of skaters. Despite finally finding something that he loved, he was an outcast in his own sport.
Since Hawk's career was rising alongside the increasing availability of camcorders and VCRs, there's an endless amount of footage of Hawk skating in his early years. Whether it's from his family's home videos or the underground tapes of The Bones Brigade, the first crew that Hawk joined as a teenager, you get to see this lanky kid pissing off older pros with his upward ollie, which he pioneered only because he was too skinny for inertia to give himself enough height above the bowls to properly do tricks. In fact, there might be a little too much skating footage. That might sound like a weird complaint for a documentary about the world's greatest skateboarder, but with a 135-minute runtime, you start to feel the length after seeing so much sick skateboarding. Thankfully, it's all fueled by a killer soundtrack, featuring a cavalcade of rock from The Clash, The Sex Pistols, Echo and The Bunnymen, Joy Division, Pavement, Oingo Boingo, New Order, and more, so there's plenty of energy to spare.
Perhaps the most engrossing part of the documentary comes from the talking heads of Tony Hawk and his fellow professional skaters. Stacy Peralta, Rodney Mullen, Mike McGill, Lance Mountain, Steve Caballero, Neil Blender, Andy MacDonald, Duane Peters, Sean Mortimer, and Christian Hosoi take you back in time with endless memories about their heydays spent skating, and it's wild to see how these pros have aged without ever really ditching their skateboarder style. Skull caps, t-shirts, bowling shirts, shorts, and more are still worn by this crew, but they've (almost) all certainly done some growing up. Rodney Mullen is the standout, with his soft-spoken, dreamlike voice offering some beautiful insights and philosophies on skateboarding, not just as a sport but as an artistic outlet. Meanwhile, Duane Peters brings the profane, rough-around-the-edges recollections as one of the pros whose skateboarding career came to an end just as Tony Hawk's was rising.
Not Just The Good Ole DaysEven though the documentary spends most of its time relishing the glory days of the past, it's not all celebratory. Hawk's career in particular goes from dizzying heights to financially crunched lows as skateboarding comes in and out of fashion across his more than 40-year career. Like skateboarding itself, it's a whirlwind that lifts you up and brings you crashing down. Hawk goes from owning two houses at an early age to living with roommates and even his parents, forced to embark on a career in video editing for a time. But when skateboarding returns in the 1990s after nearly dying for good, it comes back bigger than ever, complete with Hawk's own skateboarding company, Birdhouse, and a $4.5 million paycheck Hawk received for the first quartet of skateboarding video games that rose to popularity in 1999 and through the early 2000s.
But where "Until the Wheels Fall Off" surprises is in how serious it gets about how skateboarding impacted Hawk's personal life. Alongside the glory of Hawk pulling off the extraordinarily difficult "900" trick, a 2½-revolution (or 900-degree) aerial spin, there are the woes of Hawk's failed marriages and the children that he often had to leave behind while partaking in skating competitions and traveling for extreme sports arena shows. Hawk also openly admits that fame is a hell of a drug that really threw him for a loop. But beyond that, it becomes clear that skateboarding isn't just a passion or even obsession for Hawk — it's an addiction, and it's something that he needed professional help to address.
Let's not forget that Hawk is now in his 50s, and he's still out there jumping into halfpipes. Remember that opening scene? That wasn't an archival clip. It's recent footage of Hawk as a middle-aged man trying to pull off what is easily his most challenging trick, perhaps the most difficult trick in skateboarding, period. And no matter how many times he failed, Hawk refused to stop until he landed it.
Though the documentary could have been tightened up a little bit, "Tony Hawk: Until the Wheels Fall Off" is still a thoroughly captivating film about one of the most famous figures in sports. It has the spirit of skateboarding but told through the lens of hindsight, complete with intimate reflections from Hawk and his extreme sports cohorts. Whether you're a skateboarding fan or not, this is an engrossing look back at the unquestionably remarkable career of a true legend, and his story isn't over yet.
/Film Rating: 8 out of 10
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The post Tony Hawk: Until the Wheels Fall Off Review: It's Skate or Die in This Revealing Portrait of the Skateboarding Icon [SXSW] appeared first on /Film.
John Carpenter's "Halloween" introduced the world to the terrifyingly persistent killer Michael Myers, a human-shaped mass of evil that menaced the suburban residents of Haddonfield, Illinois with a slowly-paced, eerie step. Michael is such an inhuman force that it's easy to forget that there's a real actor behind the mask and coveralls. That person is one Nick Castle, friend and frequent creative collaborator of Carpenter.
Castle attended the University of Southern California film school with Carpenter and worked with him on his earliest productions, including the pre-"Halloween" student project "Dark Star," in which he played a surreal alien shaped like a beach ball. The actor also co-wrote Carpenter's "Escape from New York" and became a screenwriter and filmmaker himself, directing the CG-pioneering "The Last Starfighter" and contributing to the story for Steven Spielberg's "Hook." However, Castle's role as the ultimate boogeyman in"Halloween" is still his most memorable appearance.
Michael The FriendAs with other low-budget indie horror films, the production of "Halloween" was a collaboration between friends (just think of the friendship between Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell, and company during the making of "The Evil Dead"). Producer and co-writer Debra Hill was John Carpenter's girlfriend at the time, and editor-production designer Tommy Lee Wallace played in a band called The Coupe De Villes with Carpenter and Nick Castle. According to an interview published by The New York Times, Carpenter partially chose Castle because his father was a choreographer. The director thought Castle's parentage might lend "a grace to his movements."
Of course, the director also didn't have to pay Castle much, and that was important within the budgetary confines of a $300,000 production. The director mentioned in a Rotten Tomatoes interview that Castle "was free. He was cheap." Castle was paid $25 a day for his role, which was more than he thought he would get. Initially, Castle was "hanging around the set for no money," he states in a Vanity Fair profile on the Michael Myers actors.
Since Carpenter gave him simple directions, Castle was essential in molding Michael's personality. Castle states that he "knew Michael's movements weren't going to be robotic. He was a real guy. He's not rushing." Throughout the years, several actors have taken up the mantle of the legendary slasher, including Tony Moran who briefly plays the unmasked Michael Myers in the 1978 original. Nevertheless, Castle's subtle yet iconic performance is the one that inspired them all.
Read this next: The 15 Best '70s Horror Movies Ranked
The post John Carpenter Didn't Have to Look Far to Find His Michael Myers appeared first on /Film.
I am horrified as I write this, and I'm losing any tiny scrap of belief in the human race that still lingered after these past few years. Karen Fukuhara, who plays Kimiko Miyashiro in the Prime Video series "The Boys" and appeared as Katana in "Suicide Squad," says that she has been assaulted in a hate crime attack. Fukuhara posted about the vile act on Instagram with a text statement about what happened (via Variety). She said that she is "physically fine," but called for the public for help in the ongoing attacks against Asians, particularly women and the elderly.
The attack happened on the street, though Fukuhara doesn't say where. She explained that he came up behind her and hit the back of her head, though there was no interaction between them before that. He then yelled at her and finally left. She says it made her want to take self defense classes, but asked why the victims are the ones who have to think about things like this when it's the perpetrators who should be held accountable. She then replied to her post with the hashtag #stopasianhate.
I'm putting the full text in here in case you can't read it on Instagram because it matters that the word is spread about this.
Karen Fukuhara Shines A Light On Anti-Asian Hate CrimesHere's Karen Fukuhara's statement in full:
Today I was struck in the head by a man (I'm physically fine) & this s*** needs to stop. Us women, Asians, the elderly need your help. I rarely share about my private life but something happened today that I thought was important.
I was walking to a cafe for some coffee and a man struck me in the back of my head. It came out of nowhere. We made no eye contact before, I wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary. It came to my surprise and my hat flew off. By the time I looked back, he was a few feet away from me (he must have kept walking after hitting me). I thought about confronting him first but he started coming towards me and I didn't think it was worth the risk. After a few seconds of staring at each other, and him yelling at me, he eventually walked away.
This is the first time I've been harmed physically, although racial slurs and hurtful actions have been directed to me in the past. I write this, because I've had conversations with multi-racial friends of mine that had no idea these hate crimes happen to everyday, regular people -- people that they share meals with. I felt it was important to raise awareness.
Ultimately I know I got lucky. He could have come back to hit me again. He could have carried a weapon. The shock of this experience has me thinking about taking self defense classes. But why is this something we as "victims" have to think about? What satisfaction are these perpetrators getting from hitting women, Asians, the ELDERLY? They need to be held accountable. What can we do as a community to prevent these horrible crimes?
StopAsianHateSome of Fukuhara's co-stars from "The Boys" posted messages of support including (at the time of this writing) one from Chace Crawford saying, "F this person!! Hope you're okay this is awful," and one from Jack Quaid who said, "Karen thank you for sharing your experience. I'm sorry that happened to you. Love you. Here if you need anything." Laz Alonso said, "This pisses me off. Wish I was there...." So many people have posted with encouragement and outrage at what happened, and I'm glad to see that at least.
You want to know how often this happens? Less than a week ago, the New York Times reported that a woman who was hit in the head 125 times simply because she's Asian, and earlier this year a report by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism (via NBC) found that anti-Asian hate crimes increased 339 percent nationwide last year. Yesterday was exactly one year since a spree shooter targeted Atlanta-area spas and killed eight people, six of whom were Asian women. This latest attack on Fukuhara is unacceptable, as all hate crimes are.
Read this next: The Best Movies Of 2021
The post The Boys Star Karen Fukuhara is Recovering From a Hate Crime Attack appeared first on /Film.
We hope you've dino-proofed your property, because today has brought with it a brand new trailer for "Jurassic World Dominion." This is not only another entry in the long-running "Jurassic" franchise but one that will unite both the old and the new under one blockbuster. Not only that, but this time, dinosaurs are out in the real world -- and we even get to see them in the snow! Enough talking about it, let's see what that looks like in practice, shall we?
Jurassic World Dominion TrailerWhile "Fallen Kingdom" undoubtedly left a lot to be desired for many (even for this moviegoer who absolutely loved "Jurassic World") this latest entry has a lot going for it on paper. Colin Trevorrow is back in the director's chair, not just producing. Most importantly, the original trio of Sam Neill (Alan Grant), Laura Dern (Ellie Sattler), and Jeff Goldblum (Ian Malcolm) are back together for the first time since the original "Jurassic Park." Plus, it has been promised that they will have significant roles alongside returning stars Chris Pratt (Owen Grady) and Bryce Dallas Howard (Claire Dearing).
The box office for these movies suggests there's a gigantic audience around the world. The fact that we are finally going back to where it all began with the trio of characters that started it all, in what seems to be a pretty wild scenario with lots of new dinosaurs, seems exciting. It undoubtedly feels like an improvement over the previous entry in the trilogy, which felt very much like a stepping stone to put the pieces in place for this movie.
The End Of An Era, But Not The FranchiseIn many ways, this is being billed as a conclusive event as it marks the end of the trilogy that began in 2015. That having been said, this actually isn't going to be the end of the franchise as producer Frank Marshall recently revealed that they are looking to do more in the future, specifically with movies as opposed to TV. That in and of itself raises interesting questions about this movie. Is it going to directly set up further stories? Will it feel conclusive and let other stories develop naturally after the fact? Can the whole Pandora's Box of dinosaurs living in the real world be closed again? There is much to consider.
Omar Sy, Justice Smith, Daniella Pineda, and Isabella Sermon Mamoudou Athie, Dichen Lachman, DeWanda Wise, BD Wong, and Campbell Scott also star. Trevorrow co-wrote the screenplay alongside Emily Carmichael ("Pacific Rim: Uprising").
"Jurassic World Dominion" is set to hit theaters on June 10, 2022.
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The post Jurassic World Dominion Trailer: Dinosaurs In The Real World Means Chaos appeared first on /Film.
In Netflix's "The Adam Project," Ryan Reynolds plays time-traveling fighter pilot Adam Reed, who accidentally crash-lands in 2022 and "teams up with his 12-year-old self on a mission to save the future," per the official logline.
Reynolds isn't alone on this time-traveling adventure. For starters, he's got Zoe Saldana with him, and she's ready to point a gun in your face because that's just how her character rolls. Saldana plays Laura, who is the love of Adam's life but who gets mysteriously lost in the timestream. That's what sets Adam on his adventure, where he'll be accompanied by Jennifer Garner, Mark Ruffalo, Catherine Keener, and Walker Scobell as Young Adam.
That's right: you're getting two Adams for the price of one. They don't call it "The Adam Project" for nothing. Check out the trailer below.
The Adam Project Trailer"The Adam Project" reunites Reynolds with Shawn Levy, who directed him in "Free Guy." As a Netflix original movie, it also puts him back on the same streaming platform that teamed him with Dwayne Johnson and Gal Gadot in "Red Notice."
Using its own internal metrics, Netflix touted "Red Notice" as its most successful premiere ever and, eventually, its #1 movie of all time. Clearly, it's eager to stay in the Reynolds business, just as Reynolds is eager to stay in the Levy business. "13 Going on 30" co-stars Garner and Ruffalo are also reunited here as the Young Adam's parents, the latter of whom helped invent time travel.
After years of floundering in forgettable rom-coms and doing test runs in stray superhero films like "Blade Trinity" and "Green Lantern," Reynolds really found his niche playing Deadpool, the reluctant X-Man and fourth-wall-breaking Merc with the Mouth. "The Adam Project" seeks to put his snarky persona to use in a different way. The actor said that Adam uses humor as a defense mechanism but that part of his journey will be about him learning to lower his defenses.
"The Adam Project" hits Netflix on March 11, 2022.
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The post The Adam Project Trailer: A Time-Traveling Ryan Reynolds Crash-Lands With The Rest Of Us Into 2022 appeared first on /Film.
The assification of Sebastian Stan is gloriously upon us. This might be a difficult reality to accept, given Stan's status as a beloved internet boyfriend, but it's time to face the facts: Sebastian Stan makes an excellent douchebag. You know it, I know it and clearly, Craig Gillespie knows it because after seeing the MCU star embrace his sleazy side in "I, Tonya," he called him up for the titular role of abusive creep, Tommy Lee in "Pam & Tommy." The show traces the scandalous tale of "Baywatch" star Pamala Anderson and Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee, whose honeymoon sex tape was famously leaked to the public.
In case you haven't seen the first few episodes of Hulu's new miniseries, just know that there's no shortage of icky hijinks for Stan to partake in. In fact, the rockstar pretty much spends the entire first episode strolling around in a speedo whilst treating everyone around him like utter crap. All the while, it's impossible to look away from Stan, who's giving one of the most compelling performances of his entire career. And when you look back at his other top contenders, you'll notice a neat little pattern: being an absolute a-hole brings out the best in Sebastian Stan.
Now I know what you're thinking: Sebastian Stan? A douche?! Not with that prince charming face of his! That's a great point — it's only a matter of time before we learn he's been cast in the latest live-action adaptation of some fairy tale or other, but I promise it won't be nearly as fun as his next sleazy douchebag role. And you can trust me on that, because I've already seen it happen. But more on that later. The important takeaway is this: being an irredeemable creep is Stan's new niche, and we're just gonna have to accept him for who he is. While his role as Captain American's BFF Bucky Barnes (AKA The Winter Soldier) cemented his internet boyfriend status, darkness is where Stan thrives.
I Can Fix HimAll things considered, Bucky wasn't exactly a boy scout. It's nice that we can chalk up most of his wrongdoings to brainwashing, but that was still Sebastian Stan's fists pounding into all our favorite heroes — and boy did we love it. Let's not pretend that Bucky's 1940s flirting techniques are what caught our eye. People hopped aboard the Stan train because of his appearance in "Captain America: The Winter Soldier," as the relentless antagonist hellbent on wreaking havoc. Who doesn't love a good villain? And that's the thing about Stan — he's been bustling around Hollywood, embracing his villainous side for ages. Long before he committed mass murder as Captain America's BFF, Sebastian Stan became a teen heartthrob the old-fashioned way: by starring in a teen drama.
For a brief yet critical 11 episodes, Stan was a smirking, smooth-talking high society jerk on "Gossip Girl." And he wasn't just your typical a**hole, Stan's Carter Baizen was basically introduced to out-douche Chuck Bass and makes the show's resident douche be the hero for once. Not only is this an early example of Stan's sleazeball talents, but he also got to strike the very important balance between conniving and suave. This is key because, for a lot of his more notable roles, Stan slides into one of his two niche corners: sleazy yet endearing, or suave but secretly sleazy. Carter Baizen is the latter, hiding behind money, blazers, and charm, but ultimately spends his screentime duping the show's lead so he can get into her pants.
In his upcoming movie "Fresh," Stan kinda reprises this irresistibly douchey role as Steve, a romantic counterpart for Daisy Edgar Jones' Noa. The film tracks her trials and tribulations when it comes to the awful world of 21st-century dating, which is terribly unbearable until Stan enters the movie. She has an adorable meet-cute with the handsome plastic surgeon and all seems well — but then the movie derails into uh, pretty nasty territory and we see that Steve isn't half as charming as he seems. Sebastian Stan does some pretty horrific things for the runtime of the film but I'll be honest dear reader, I've never loved him more.
Hear me out — lots of internet boyfriends are known for being approachable awkward sweethearts — who doesn't love a Tom Holland or Timothee Chalamet? — but if the Tumblr era taught us anything, it's how much more fun it is to stick with the jerks. Loki, Hannibal, Edward, Bucky and so many more do terrible things but deep in the recesses of our minds, we can't help but think ... I can fix him. And it's so hard not to have this thought when Stan is so perfectly walking the line between awful and adorkable, so you can understand where I'm coming from. But then there's the other side of his sleazy niche, the one that's much harder to withstand ... but somehow, still irresistible. In his latest Gillespie-directed roles, Stan has gone full scumbag.
Never Mind, He's A MonsterOur first glimpse of Stan's even darker side was in "I, Tonya" where he played the former skating queen's husband, Jeff Gillooly. At first, their relationship is pretty close to charming — mostly because of how terribly Tonya is treated beforehand. The relief of her finding happiness in their budding romance makes it easy to root for them. But it doesn't take long for Gillooly to become abusive, lashing out verbally then physically. Playing this abusive lunatic gives Stan a chance to flex his best acting muscles, delivering a captivating performance. Gillooly is criminally stupid (as he spends the entire film proving) but also maintains a certain amount of charm. He has to draw both Tonya and the audience in, so he can lose us later on. And so Stan hits that sleazy-yet-endearing stride, which he repeats with his lead role in "Pam & Tommy."
This time around, Stan goes fully unhinged as Tommy Lee, an annoying a**hole who's increasingly difficult to look away from. Inhabiting the sleazeball put the actor through hours of SFX makeup preparation but the true magic erupts onscreen when he takes the metamorphosis to the next level with his manic, douchey energy. Lee is the life of the party whether he's banging on a drumset, racing around his mansion in a speedo, or downing shots at a bar. He draws Lily James' Pamela Anderson into his orbit and Stan makes it easy to understand why. He's intoxicating, and Stan doesn't shy away from a single aspect of the man, surprisingly irresistible while being an absolute dirtbag.
While it's fun to watch Stan trade snipes with Anthony Mackie or stare at Chris Evans in utterly confused rage, you haven't truly lived until you've sat back on your couch and marveled at Sebastian Stan maniacally proclaiming his love for a woman he just met to his talking, prosthetic penis. What more can I say? Some people were born to be Prince Charming but others are magic when you slather them in grease, tat them up, and demand the heights of douchebaggery.
Read this next: The 14 Best Film Acting Debuts Of All Time
The post Pam & Tommy Makes It Official, Sebastian Stan Is The Internet's (Sleazy) Boyfriend appeared first on /Film.
Toy alert! You just finished watching "The Book of Boba Fett" finale, and now we have a little treat -- that you can't get for a very long time. Here's some background on The Book of Boba Fett Throne Room from Hasbro Pulse, which will be available for pre-order tomorrow.
Bib Fortuna was a bad Twi'lek, serving as Jabba the Hutt's majordomo. He served the crime lord for a really long time, and when Jabba was strangled by Princess Leia back in "Return of the Jedi," a power vacuum was created. Want to guess who stepped in? None other than Bib Fortuna! He may have indulged a bit, and while I don't want to body shame anyone, let's just say that he's probably been snacking more than was strictly necessary. In "The Mandalorian" episode "The Rescue," which was the final episode in the second season, we got a very important post-credits scene. (It happens at 41:33, in case you want to do a rewatch.)
Boba Fett and Fennec Shand enter the palace. Bib tries to stall by remarking that he thought Boba was dead. Oh Bib, don't you just wish he had been! Boba kills Bib Fortuna, throws him off the throne and takes it himself, giving us an introduction to a series about a new brutal crime lord ... wait, what? Oh right. About a really nice crime lord who doesn't like killing anymore, and just wants to share melons with his friends.
Now you can recreate that crazy "The Book of Boba Fett" set-up all on your own with a new toy from that brief, but important moment.
Boba, I Thought You Were DeadYakFace.com tweeted out some pics from this morning's Hasbro Star Wars livestream. One of them is The Book of Boba Fett Throne Room, which you can pre-order from Hasbro Pulse (in the U.S., U.K., and Canada) starting tomorrow, February 10, 2022 starting at 1 P.M. ET.
As of this writing, there is no page for the pre-order on the site, in case you're looking for it like I was for way too long. This beauty is going to set you back $229.99, so can I come to your house to play with it?
There are 50 accessories, so you can recreate Bib Fortuna's snack time fun before his inevitable demise (via Superhero Hype). The throne is removable and the dais moves. By the way, the site points out that this set will include the first ever "larger" version of Bib Fortuna. (Do keep in mind that the figure is scaled to the 3-3/4 inch vintage collection, not the 6-inch Black Series, as the site points out. I mean "larger" in terms of girth.) The set is 10 inches tall, 20 inches wide and 10.5 inches deep (via Bleeding Cool).
There isn't any info about how many of these have been made, but it will be released in summer of 2023. Seriously, can I come over for a playdate?
Read this next: The 12 Best Boba Fett Moments In Star Wars Shows And Movies
The post New Book of Boba Fett Throne Room Toy Set Lets You Re-Enact the Bib Fortuna Murder appeared first on /Film.
(Welcome to ...And More, our no-frills, zero B.S. guide to when and where you can watch upcoming movies and shows, and everything else you could possibly stand to know.)
If you just felt a great disturbance in the Force, it's because millions of voices suddenly cried out in joy knowing that the highly-anticipated "Obi-Wan Kenobi" series officially has a release date, and it's only a few months away! Sure, we think we know the full story of the master Jedi knight who became the mentor of Luke Skywalker and sacrificed himself in the quest to defeat his former friend, Darth Vader, but it turns out there's a lot more story for us to uncover. Fans were first introduced to the character by Alec Guinness in the original "Star Wars" films, with his early years represented by Ewan McGregor in the prequel films from the late '90s and early '00s. As for all of that time between the two timelines, "Obi-Wan Kenobi" will serve as the missing puzzle piece.
Fans have known about the impending "Obi-Wan Kenobi" series for a few years now, but knowing it's just around the corner feels surreal. With "The Book of Boba Fett" just finishing up, the void left behind by "The Mandalorian" is in desperate need of filling. No offense to the already in-production shows "Ahsoka," "The Acolyte," "Lando," "Star Wars: A Droid Story," and "Andor," but "Star Wars" fans are insatiable and need the sustenance of something like "Obi-Wan Kenobi," to hold them over until the next new series debuts. Here's everything you need to know about "Obi-Wan Kenobi" before the show drops later this May.
Obi-Wan Kenobi Release Date And Where You Can Watch ItWe learned just a few days ago that the new limited series from Lucasfilm would be available sometime in May, with many predicting the show would end up premiering on "Star Wars" Day, May 4, 2022. In actuality, "Obi-Wan Kenobi" will debut May 25, 2022 exclusively on Disney+, just in time for the Star Wars Celebration in Anaheim the following day.
What Is Obi-Wan Kenobi About?"Obi-Wan Kenobi" takes place approximately 10 years after the events of "Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith," where Obi-Wan endured his most spectacular failure, witnessing the corruption of his best friend and Jedi apprentice Anakin Skywalker turn to the dark side and come out the other as the Sith Lord Darth Vader. While specific plot details have been kept under wraps, star Ewan McGregor is confident that fans will love what they've got cooking.
"Oh my gosh, well I loved playing him again. I mean it's quite interesting, after the experience of making the first three films and living through sort of their reception in the world, which wasn't always glowing, I have to say. And then now, meeting the generation who we made those films for, the children then — and now, people in their late teens or early 20s, those people who were kids who we made those films for, they loved them. To them, they're their 'Star Wars' films, you know? For us, it was the original films of the '70s, but for them, it was our films were their 'Star Wars.' So to step back into his shoes again now and do a series, a whole series about Obi-Wan Kenobi for those fans, it just makes me really happy."
Obi-Wan Kenobi Cast"Obi-Wan Kenobi" will feature the reunion of Ewan McGregor in the titular role and Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader for the first time since 2005's "Revenge of the Sith" because this is where the fun begins, my dudes. Joining the two in a joyous reunion are Joel Edgerton as Owen Lars, moisture farmer on Tatooine and the uncle of Luke Skywalker and Bonnie Piesse as Beru Whitesun Lars, Owen's wife and the aunt of Luke Skywalker. Additionally, Moses Ingram, Kumail Nanjiani, Indira Varma, Rupert Friend, O'Shea Jackson Jr., Sung Kang, Simone Kessell, Benny Safdie, Maya Erskine, and Rory Ross have been cast in undisclosed roles.
Obi-Wan Kenobi Director, Writer, And More"Obi-Wan Kenobi" is executive-produced by Kathleen Kennedy, Michelle Rejwan, Deborah Chow, Ewan McGregor, and Joby Harold. The episodes were penned by Joby Harold ("Army of the Dead," "Transformers: Rise of the Beasts"), with Hannah Friedman ("Trolls: The Beat Goes On!," "Willow") and Hossein Amini ("Drive," "47 Ronin") also contributing. The first woman to ever direct a live-action "Star Wars" property, Deborah Chow (who has previously directed episodes of "Mr. Robot," ''Jessica Jones," "Better Call Saul," and "The Mandalorian"), was the sole director for the limited series.
"She really knows the 'Star Wars world,' inside out," McGregor said. "Far more than I do!"
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The post Obi-Wan Kenobi: Release Date, Cast, and More appeared first on /Film.
This article contains spoilers for "Peacemaker" episode 7. Proceed with caution.
It's time to take a break from tongue-kissing hot babes and smoking pot all day because there's a new episode of "Peacemaker" on HBO Max. This season's penultimate episode hits you right in the feels thanks to some huge revelations about White Dragon and Peacemaker's past. Plus, there's that major death scene that definitely was a shot to the heart, Bon Jovi style. And James Gunn is to blame!
But as you comfortingly rock yourself back and forth in the corner of your room while you wait for next week's finale, here's all the music from this week's episode of "Peacemaker."
Episode 7: Stop Dragon My Heart AroundTrack 1: "Home Sweet Home" by Motley Crue
The episode opens with a musical callback to last week's moment of peace for Peacemaker. You know, that one solitary moment that he gets to relax and play the piano before everything hits the fan? But instead of hearing John Cena's impressive piano version, we hear the OG version of Motley Crue's "Home Sweet Home." It plays over a flashback featuring a young Chris Smith rocking out with his brother, Keith. While the Smith brothers bond over records, they get called out to a dirt pit where their s***bag dad and his friends are ready to watch them fight.
However, as we've seen alluded to throughout the season, things quickly take a turn for the worst. Chris punches Keith in the face, which causes the older sibling to have a seizure. Auggie Smith and his gnarly mullet rush over to their son, but it's too late and he blames Christopher for Keith's death.
Track 2: "In My Dreams" by Wig Wam
After hearing them in the show's opening credits sequence every week, Wig Wam returns with a different song this week at 9:29. After seeing the Butterfly-controlled Evergreen PD on TV, Peacemaker drags Economos and Vigilante along to pursue the cow without the others. In the van, Smith rocks out to this track, much to the chagrin of Economos. Noticing the look on his teammate's face, Peacemaker asks, "Are you insinuating that there is a right time and a wrong time to rock?"
Meanwhile, thanks to the tracking device in the Peacemaker helmets, White Dragon's minions are hot on their tail. That is, until the incorrigible villain decides to ram into the van in an effort to kill his son and his pals.
Track 3: "Don't Close Your Eyes" by Kix
After blowing himself up with a grenade of some sort while trying to incapacitate White Dragon, Vigilante steals the white supremacists' car to get away. But he's taken too much damage and passes out while driving as this song plays around 15:18.
Track 4: "Hot Cherie" by Hardline
Down the road and out of the woods after throwing off White Dragon's crew, Jon and Chris reunite with a passed out Adrian, who is on the side of the road, but safe. The trio try to make a getaway and turns up this track at 20:11. However, it appears that this is possibly the wrong time to rock because Vigilante threw Peacemaker's extra helmets in the trunk because he thought they were expensive. Good friend, bad timing.
Track 5: "By The Grace of God" by The Hellacopters
For most of the episode, all the songs were allotted for Peacemaker, Vigilante, and Economos' storyline. While all that was happening, Adebayo and Harcourt had their hands full with Judomaster and the Evergreen PD. Unfortunately, their troubles got the best of them and Murn became a casualty of this wild and crazy war.
Free from danger at the moment, the whole team reunites at an animal hospital because Eagly needs medical attention after his run in with White Dragon. But don't worry! Peacemaker avenged his best friend by finally taking out his father once and for all, no matter how difficult it was.
With Murn gone, the team decides to band together one last time to complete the mission despite all the bad blood. They elect Harcourt as their new team leader and they load up a mobile veterinary clinic to pursue the cow and take care of business. Around 32:35, Economos turns up this track, to the surprise of Harcourt, and declares definitively, "There's no wrong time to rock."
Track 6: "Set The Night on Fire" by Pretty Boy Floyd
The Butterflies are onto Peacemaker and his team's plans, so they're preparing for one final battle. Part of this preparation includes protecting the cow, which we finally see onscreen for the first time. And my oh my was that something that I wasn't fully prepared for. Just as you settle into that final image of the cow, the screen cuts to black and this track plays over the credits at 36:47.
Next time we bring you the music of "Peacemaker," it'll be for the season finale. Business is about to pick up and it's sure to be a slobberknocker. But until then, you can find the official "Peacemaker" playlist on Spotify, where all these songs are currently available. It will be updated every week with the songs from new episodes that debut Thursdays on HBO Max.
Read this next: Superman Movies Ranked From Worst To Best
The post Every Song We Heard In Peacemaker Episode 7 appeared first on /Film.
(The Morning Watch is a recurring feature that highlights a handful of noteworthy videos from around the web. They could be video essays, fan-made productions, featurettes, short films, hilarious sketches, or just anything that has to do with our favorite movies and TV shows.)
In this edition, take a look at the practical effects used to bring a whole field of ghost traps to life in "Ghostbusters: Afterlife." Plus, find out how accurate do-it-yourself medical emergency scenes are in movies like "Cast Away," "Casino Royale," "Die Hard," and more. And finally, listen as Oscar-nominated "West Side Story" co-star Ariana DeBose and "Shang-Chi" leading man Simu Liu interview each other about their rising stars.
A Field Of Ghost TrapsFirst up, Adam Savage and the Tested crew have even more behind-the-scenes goodies from the production of "Ghostbusters: Afterlife." This time, they're getting up close and personal with the dozens of ghost traps that were created to fill the field outside of Egon Spengler's farm house in the climax of the film. Yes, they actually made all those ghost traps and tried to use as many practical effects as possible to make it happen.
Reviewing Emergency Surgery In MoviesNext, Insider had emergency medicine physician Jamie Lee take a look at 10 different emergency, do-it-yourself medical emergency scenes in movies to rate them based on how realistic they are. Find out whether Tom Hanks could really deal with that nasty tooth in "Cast Away," dig into the severed arm from "127 Hours," and find out whether James Bond's near-death experience with poison could really be remedied so swiftly. Plus, check out scenes from "The Wolverine," "Die Hard," "No Country for Old Men," and more.
Actors On Actors: Ariana DeBose And Simu LiuFinally, Variety had "West Side Story" supporting star Ariana DeBose (before her Oscar nomination) and "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" superhero star Simu Liu sit down for a nearly 35-minute chat about their experiences hosting "Saturday Night Live," working with legends like Steven Spielberg, Michelle Yeoh and Tony Leung, and the difficulty in breaking as an actor in modern Hollywood.
Read this next: The Best Movies Streaming Right Now: Malignant, A Hero, And More
The post The Morning Watch: The Practical Ghost Traps of Ghostbusters: Afterlife, DIY Medical Scenes in Movies & More appeared first on /Film.
We're almost at the end of the first season of "Peacemaker," and boy howdy has it been a ride. Over the first six episodes, we've watched Christopher Smith, A.K.A. Peacemaker, go from an unlikable loser who killed his hero to someone actually worth rooting for. Peacemaker's arc has been surprisingly emotionally complex given how crude the humor is, but now we're at the penultimate episode and all bets are off. In episode 7, "Stop Dragon My Heart Around," director Brad Anderson ("Session 9") steps in to bring this redemption story to its climax. Last week, in "Murn After Reading," we saw Peacemaker's enemies gathering in massive numbers. The butterflies have taken over the entire police station, including the jail, and Peacemaker's pop the White Dragon has assembled a whole klan of white supremacists to help him hunt down his son.
Last week's episode delivered a lovely moment with Peacemaker (John Cena) playing "Home Sweet Home" by Mötley Crüe on the piano, and this week starts with the actual song playing in the background. Let's dig into the most action-packed episode of "Peacemaker" yet. I'm not ready for this series to end, but at least it's setting us up for one absolutely bonkers finale.
SPOILERS for "Peacemaker" episode 7 from here on out!
A Quick RecapAfter discovering that the cops have the diary Adebayo planted, Chris goes into the bathroom to have a pretty understandable panic attack about the whole thing. He flashes back to his brother's death, and we see the full scope of the situation for the first time. Auggie (Robert Patrick), Chris's dad, was pitting him against his older brother Keith in bare-knuckle fights, with a whole slew of adults betting on them. Chris punches Keith and he hits his head, going into a seizure. Keith dies and Auggie blames Chris, even though it was clearly an accident that happened because of Auggie's horrible parenting. Peacemaker ends up piecing together that Adebayo (Danielle Brooks) planted the diary and starts storming through the hideout, noticing that Judomaster (Nhut Le) is missing without really caring. He knows that he and Vigilante (Freddie Stroma) need to find somewhere better to hide, and fast.
Meanwhile, Harcourt (Jennifer Holland) shows up at Adebayo's motel room to give her a piece of her mind. She asks Adebayo how she could possibly "lone shooter the poor bastard," and reminds her that Peacemaker was her friend. Adebayo snaps back about the confusing morality of it all, and thankfully Murn shows up to let them know the s*** has hit the fan. He already knew that Adebayo was Waller's daughter and didn't really care, and he starts getting the crew ready to go somewhere safe. Outside, Judomaster is having a spicy Cheeto snack and two chuds make fun of him for his appearance. He ends up beating up one of the guys before the other runs off, and gets a thumbs up from the convenience store cashier inside.
Vigilante, Peacemaker, Eagly, and John Economos (Steve Agee) are headed toward the rest of Project Butterfly in the team van when suddenly Auggie attacks in his White Dragon costume. His suit has most of the same powers as Iron Man's super-suit, so Vigilante, Peacemaker, and Economos really have their work cut out for them. Vigilante pulls a grenade and yells "there is no time to rock," giving Peacemaker and Economos a chance to escape. Thankfully, our favorite little sociopath survives and manages to steal the car the White Dragon's cohorts came in because one of them left the keys in the ignition. Peacemaker ties his helmet to a raccoon upon realizing that his dad is tracking him through the device, and this helps them manage to evade the white supremacists, at least for a little while.
While Peacemaker and company deal with the White Dragon, the butterfly-infested police force descend upon the motel. They come upon Murn (Chukwudi Iwuji) first, who uses a zip-tie to lock his walkie-talkie into the on position for one last pep talk with Harcourt and Adebayo. He tells them he's proud of them and that they need to "kill the f***ing cow," then Sophie Song (Annie Chang) shoots him in the head. The butterfly inside of Murn manages to escape, but Song grabs him and crushes him with her bare hand. The Fitzgibbon (Lochlan Munro) butterfly is shocked, telling Sophie "you murdered him." Adebayo and Harcourt get to Murn after the other butterflies leave, and he holds out his little bug arm to try to touch Harcourt as she picks up his broken body. I'm not crying over a dead bug, someone's just cutting onions in here.
The sad moment doesn't last, however, as Judomaster shows up in the doorway with a feisty "ding dong, b****es!" Harcourt and Judomaster have a knock-down, drag-out brawl that ends when Adebayo tasers Judomaster in the neck. While Harcourt and Adebayo deal with Judomaster, Peacemaker finds Vigilante passed out at the wheel of the stolen car. They all sneak away, but unfortunately, Vigilante had saved all of Peacemaker's helmets and put them in the trunk, which means that the White Dragon is going to be hot on their tail. While Peacemaker's getting rid of the helmets, Eagly escapes and Economos has to try to get him back in the car by shaking a bag of Doritos. Unfortunately, that helps the klansfolk working with the White Dragon figure out where they are, and they all come out of the woods.
The White Dragon tells Peacemaker that he should have killed him 40 years ago, much like he has in previous episodes. Vigilante stabs him in the neck, yelling about the gaps in the armor, which shorts out White Dragon's weaponry. Economos starts mowing down the hooded henchmen with a machine gun, giving Peacemaker the chance to go after his dad. Peacemaker starts screaming at Auggie, who throws slurs in his face. Eventually, Peacemaker shoots his dad in the forehead with a pistol, then breaks down and begins to sob. Vigilante teases him about doing his face exercises and then attempts to console him, in typically awkward Vigilante fashion.
Back at the motel, Adebayo helps Harcourt with her wounds from fighting Judomaster. They discuss the past, and Adebayo reveals that she ran a dog shelter that lost funding before taking this job for her mother. The two have a nice bonding moment, then the whole crew meets up at a local vet clinic to stitch up Eagly, who was injured in the battle with White Dragon. Vigilante wants to kill the vet techs and veterinarian but is talked out of it by the rest of the team. Adebayo goes out into the hallway to call her wife and sees Peacemaker praying over an unconscious Eagly. The eagle eventually stands up and hugs Chris, and Adebayo witnesses the moment, deciding that it's a sign she should stay and help the team finish their mission.
The group unanimously and silently decides that Harcourt is now the leader, and she explains "the cow" to the whole team. The butterflies have some kind of alien cow that creates their food, the "amber goo" we've seen throughout the season. There's only one on the planet, and without it, the butterflies will die. Unfortunately, they now know that Project Butterfly knows about the cow and will try to move it immediately, so they have to get a move on if they're going to ever stop the butterfly invasion. They all unite to go take out the cow, but the camaraderie is gone. Peacemaker feels betrayed by Adebayo, who was the first real friend he's ever had besides Vigilante and Eagly, and the rest of the team are exhausted. He's also grieving his father, who he killed just moments before, so it's understandable that he's a little touchy.
Things aren't looking great for Project Butterfly, and they're going to need to figure out how to be a team again if there's any chance of saving the world.
The SweetA lot happens in "Stop Dragon My Heart Around," and most of it is pretty unpleasant. There are small moments of sweetness sprinkled among all of the awful, however, including some great bonding between Harcourt and Adebayo, and Peacemaker's Eagly scene. We also get to know that Murn's butterfly was proud of the humans he got to know, and their humanity rubbed off on him a bit. His death sequence is brutal but surprisingly tender, and even if we're sad that Murn is gone, we know that his death wasn't in vain because Adebayo and Harcourt are going to take out the cow.
Their conversation about how to survive in such a morally ambiguous world and stay sane is a brilliant one. Early on, Adebayo criticizes Harcourt, saying that it's a "pretty random rule that the only lives that matter are the lives of the ones that fight beside us. That is an incredibly clever way of shutting yourself off from the rest of the world's problems, but for me that doesn't work. I'm not made for this s***."
Harcourt explains that sometimes those tough choices are necessary, and after they chat about the past, she tells Adebayo that it would be a shame if she quit. Adebayo is incredulous, but Harcourt tells her that she's good at the job, and it's a nice moment of warmth between the two characters who were completely at odds at the beginning of the series.
The other majorly sweet scene is Peacemaker's prayer for Eagly. He apologizes to Eagly for being a "bad friend," for leaving him in his father's care, and for not being there. When Eagly hugs Chris, Adebayo's eyes go wide and we get a brief flashback to the first episode, where she told Chris she didn't believe the eagle hugged him. It turns out that Adebayo has to believe in miracles now that she's witnessed one.
Finally, it's revealed that Vigilante can't go pee if clothing is touching his butt, which is sweet in a uniquely "Peacemaker" kind of way.
The SpicyThis episode is plenty spicy, but nothing comes close to the White Dragon's horrific treatment of his son. He proclaims his intentions after hurting Vigilante and Eagly before setting upon Peacemaker, shouting:
"40 years ago God challenged me as he did Abraham. But I was too weak. I knew when you slept with the whores of polluted blood, and men!"
Peacemaker, who has finally realized that his father's abuse for all of these years wasn't his fault, fires back:
"You killed my brother! You killed Keith! You were right only about one thing. I am a piece of s. I'm a piece of s for listening to you for all those years!"
In an attempt to hurt Peacemaker as much as possible, Auggie calls him a f****t, then Peacemaker shoots him in the forehead. (Ironically, it looks like he does so with a Luger, the preferred side-arm of the Nazis!) Poor Chris then breaks down completely, because killing one's own father can never be easy, even when he is a murdering white supremacist monster.
Vigilante's immediate ribbing about his facial exercises is also a bit spicy, even if it's a much-needed bit of comic relief during a painful moment. Even Economos is shocked by Vigilante's total lack of tact, telling him, "he's crying, a**hole." Vigilante tries to comfort his friend by patting him on the shoulder and saying "tender, nice touching," but it's about as effective as Jack Donaghy petting Liz Lemon with a broom on "30 Rock."
Best Lines And Post-Credits SequenceAs always, there were loads of amazing lines of dialogue this week. The back-and-forth between Vigilante, Economos, and Peacemaker is always a delight, and their shared adventures this week led to some great one-liners. Here are the best of the best, rounded up for your reading pleasure:
- Peacemaker's alibi for the diary:"Do I look like the kind of guy to stay up all night collaging Jupiters and aliens and s to put on the front of my fing diary?!"
- Vigilante's collage designs:"I would make a collage of the three of us f***ing some chicks with a bunch of dolphins around us doing beer bongs in a Corvette."
- Economos isn't into extra-species exhibitionism:"I don't want a dolphin watching me f***."
- Economos reacts after Peacemaker gets torn up by a raccoon and proclaims that they are hardcore:"It wasn't inconsistent with what I would imagine if a man just walked up and grabbed a wild raccoon."
- The hostages at the vet clinic discuss their captors:"Surprisingly nice people considering." "Except for the guy in the blue." "That guy's a f***in' mess."
This week's post-credits sequences has the newly-butterflied Captain Locke explaining to the rest of the butterflies in the precinct how to maintain their new flesh suits. It's more than a little creepy, but also kind of funny, in pure "Peacemaker" fashion.
The season finale of "Peacemaker" will premiere Thursday, February 17, 2022, on HBO Max.
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The post Peacemaker Won't 'Stop Dragon My Heart Around' appeared first on /Film.
South Korea has had a massively successful decade in the world of horror and audiences can't seem to get enough of it. In 2021, "Squid Game" became not only the most popular Netflix original series of all time but a cultural phenomenon that inspired the streaming giant to invest over half a billion dollars into South Korean content. "Train to Busan" director Yeon Sang-ho's supernatural horror series "Hellbound" followed shortly after "Squid Game," with Choi Hang-yong's space thriller, "The Silent Sea," captivating audiences thanks to a script from Park Eun-kyo, the same screenwriter behind Bong Joon-ho's "Mother."
While western audiences may be suffering from American zombie fatigue after eleven long seasons of "The Walking Dead," South Korea is having a zombie renaissance. Netflix recently acquired and released the high-octane coming-of-age zombie horror series "All Of Us Are Dead," which freshly became the platform's fifth most popular non-English series debut. Since its premiere on January 28, 2022, "All Of Us Are Dead" has so far been watched for approximately 361 million hours.
Based on the popular webcomic "Now At Our School," "All Of Us Are Dead" follows a group of students from Hyosan High School fighting to survive after their location becomes ground zero for a zombie virus. A lot has changed since "Now At Our School" was published over a decade ago, and the Korean high school experience looks a lot different. Yet even with a newer generation of high schoolers and the whole being-attacked-by-zombies thing, "All Of Us Are Dead" still successfully manages to feel grounded and authentic.
We'll be discussing the show at length, so consider this your spoiler warning.
The Show Reflects Gen Z AnxietiesPark Solomon, who plays Lee Su-hyeok on "All Of Us Are Dead" alongside co-stars Lee Yoo-mi, Park Ji-hu, Yoon Chan-young, and Cho Yi-hyeon, recently spoke with Cosmopolitan Korea about the series and noted that the cast took their roles very seriously. "We tried really hard to act like modern Korean high school students," Solomon said. "Compared to 13 years ago when the webtoon was made, the culture of high school students is different now." Show creators Lee Jae-kyoo, Chun Sung-il, and Kim Nam-su allowed the space for the actors to modify their characters and on-screen relationships to better reflect the current Korean high school culture, as well as modify any necessary language. "We included a lot of improvisations that measure up to today's Korean high schoolers," Solomon concluded.
At one point in the series, Nam-ra, the class president with an icy attitude, turns into a half-zombie and says, "You know how students are not children but not yet adults, either? I'm like that. I'm neither human nor a monster." In an interview with NBC Asian America, Cho Yi-hyun, the actress who plays Nam-ra, highlighted this moment as an example of the dual identity that plagues much of Gen Z. "Everyone faces an identity crisis at one point in their life," she said. "As a teenager, I also felt like an adult but not yet an adult ... in those aspects, I related to Nam-ra."
During a moment when things seem to be at their most bleak, Nam-ra echoes this sentiment by saying, "We won't be the first to be rescued. We're not that important. We're just students. Nothing more." This feeling of helplessness is unfortunately common for a lot of high schoolers not just in South Korea, but across the globe.
High School Is Hard Enough Without ZombiesWhat sets "All Of Us Are Dead" apart from other Korean zombie fare like "Train to Busan," "Kingdom," and "#Alive," is that the show is centered almost exclusively on the young students of Hyosan High.
School is supposed to be a safe sanctuary away from the dangers of the outside world so students can learn and thrive. But it becomes a hallway of horrors when Kim Hyun-joo is bitten by a hamster infected with a virus created by science teacher Lee Byeong-chan, who in turn locks her inside the lab's interior room for days before she escapes, fully zombified.
The reveal that a science teacher was responsible for putting the lives of his students, and the surrounding community in danger paints a bleak picture of the way teen lives are valued during times of crisis. They've been put in harm's way, abandoned by their government, and left to fend for themselves by the adults that should be protecting them. For western viewers, it's difficult not to see this as a metaphor for the ongoing epidemic of school shootings, and how little the government has done to combat it. The only thing high school students should have to worry about is schoolwork, extra-curricular activities, a healthy social life, and taking the time to find themselves. No teenager should ever have to worry about whether or not they're going to be safe when going to school, from an active shooter or a zombie.
Finding Love In A Hopeless Place"All Of Us Are Dead" isn't just a show about surviving the zombie apocalypse, it's also a coming-of-age drama with plenty of typical teen issues. "Squid Game" star Lee Yoo-mi plays the wealthy and arrogant Na-yeon, who frequently bullies classmate Gyeong-su for living in low-income housing. It seems silly to find reasons to bully someone when faced with the end of the world, but if "Yellowjackets" taught us anything, it's that even teenagers trying to survive the impossible are still going to act like teenagers. No matter what carnage surrounds the students of Hyosan High, it doesn't change the fact that their emotional needs are the same. They fight for survival, yes, but they also crave acceptance, friendship, visibility, understanding, and compassion.
Yoon Chan-young and Park Ji-hu have both stated that their favorite moment of the show took place when their characters, Lee Cheong-san and Nam On-jo, locked themselves in an auditorium after Cheong-san watched his mother turn into a zombie. "It's a moment when the two opened their hearts and felt a true connection," Chan-young said. "Even the morning sunlight felt warm."
There's no heartbreak quite like losing your first love, but losing them to a military bombing against a horde of zombies makes that heartbreak even worse. On-jo carries that overwhelming grief with her on her own quest for survival after Cheong-san's death, and "All Of Us Are Dead" refrains from undermining her feelings of loss, honoring them instead as a genuine tragedy that will shape the rest of her life.
Don't Forget What Makes You HumanA lot of zombie properties take themselves way too seriously, and despite the dire circumstances, "All Of Us Are Dead" isn't afraid to laugh. Sure, we know how to salvage resources, look for water, and find weapons for survival, but how do survivors use the bathroom when they're trapped in a classroom and surrounded by flesh-eating monsters?
"All Of Us Are Dead" is unapologetically teenaged in its occasionally sardonic approach to the end of the world, which helps the show feel so relatable to younger audiences. High school can be hell, but a show like "All Of Us Are Dead" tells us that we should be proud of ourselves for getting through it and that it's okay to find moments of joy. Whether it's creating a makeshift toilet, commenting inappropriate nonsense on a YouTuber's livestream of the zombie outbreak, or just taking the time to reminisce and share stories around a fire, "All Of Us Are Dead" keeps it cheerful and reminds us to value what's really important.
"We're still friends even if we're apart, right?"
Read this next: The 20 Best Zombie Movies Of All Time
The post Here's Why All Of Us Are Dead Feels So Real appeared first on /Film.
(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.)
The Movie: "The House"
Where You Can Stream It: Netflix
The Pitch: My youngest son, let's call him "Monster Man," is not a horror movie fan like his mother. He prefers the weird and wonderful world of science fiction, so his Halloween viewing has highlights like "X: The Man With the X-Ray Eyes," and Chuck Russel's 1988 remake of "The Blob." At the tender age of eight, he's getting into more advanced storytelling than "Scooby-Doo!" can offer, and so he's gotten adventurous with movie-watching. When he asked to stay up late one weekend and watch the stop-motion anthology drama "The House" with me on Netflix, I hesitated. Check the trailer: it's not exactly "Charlotte's Web." Is this really appropriate for an eight-year-old? I don't want to give him nightmares, but I also remember my own love of genre movies springing from similar afternoons on the couch with my mom, watching a movie that was not made for my demographic. So I relented and got him a glass of chocolate milk and we started the movie from the beginning.
As the parent, I can confirm: "The House" is not a family movie, per se. But for those minds (young and old) curious enough to check it out, the movie can open the doors to a broader horizon of storytelling.
Why It's Essential ViewingDirected by Emma De Swaef and Marc James Roles armed with Enda Walsh's screenplay, Chapter I is an incredibly dark fairy tale that carries the most intensity of any segment in "The House." This segment starts in the 1800s, a destitute Raymond (Matthew Goode) meets an odd benefactor who makes Faustian promises to return his family to success. What ensues is a "Be careful what you wish for" riff whose central POV is that of the daughter of the family, Mabel (voiced by Mia Goth), who witnesses the metaphorical Monkey's Paw curl its finger and wreak havoc on her parents, inch by inch. It's the same dread-building that Guillermo del Toro put young Ofelia through in "Pan's Labyrinth," the pervasive cosmic danger that an oblivious parent recoils from, but is ever-present for children. Monster Man enjoyed this segment the most, even its incredibly grim (but bloodless) conclusion.
Chapter II rockets forward to the present day, where a property developer is looking to flip the renovated house for quick cash as some unsettling and unexpected guests show up with increasingly bizarre requests. The middle segment of "The House" seizes the rising nervous action of Aronofsky's "Mother!," with director Niki Lindroth von Bahr weaving a more lyrical variation on the themes of identity and transformation. Maybe with its intentionally joyless humor, the better comparison is Jay Roach's "Meet the Parents," ostensibly a comedy but really an introvert's raging nightmare of cringe interactions. In the lead, Jarvis Cocker lays down a meticulous, stratified performance that doesn't seem out of place in the real-world domestic minefields we navigate. It's hard to call Chapter II satisfying, but that's not what it's selling. Like its spiritual kin, Macon Blair's "I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore," the discomfort is part of the entertainment. It didn't turn off Monster Man; instead, he keyed into the unpleasantness without question.
The movie loses some momentum in the third chapter simply because of its tonal shift to whimsy and awe, but director Paloma Baeza tells the tale with graceful yet mighty touches, like the calm pastel palettes in the countryside; they give way to beautifully composed tableaus by the end. The grand finale advances the narrative to the future, where the house sits on a transformed landscape. Landlady Rosa (Susan Wokoma) takes on a Fitzcarraldo-level determination to restore her beloved, busted home to its former glory.
"The House" delivers the viewer to the back of beyond in the hopes that self-discovery blossoms from the journey, and in that sense, the story is successful and makes for productive repeat watches. As /Film's Chris Evangelista praises, this collaborative effort is "creepy, strange, and, in the end, altogether lovely."
"The House" is currently streaming on Netflix.
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