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Christopher Nolan’s ‘Tenet’ Stays Put In July, Analysts Project “Possible” $100M Debut

By
Travis Hopson
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As Warner Bros. completely shifts the release dates of The Batman, Wonder Woman 1984 and others, one film has remained firmly rooted in place. Christopher Nolan’s espionage thriller Tenet remains set for July 17th, curious considering the restrictions that are still in place due to the coronavirus outbreak. But as of now, there are no plans for the film to go anywhere, and according to Deadline that could lead to a massive opening weekend.

Maybe.

Here’s the deal: the report says some analysts are projecting a “possible” $100M opening weekend for Tenet. That would be massive under any circumstances, but especially when the world is in the midst of a pandemic. But as states such as Georgia institute plans to reopen some movie theaters on April 27th, Tenet is poised to be the one gigantic must-see movie event of the summer. The problem is that only a few states are considering these plans right now. And even in Georgia, which seems to be more bullish on moving past the pandemic (Way too early, if you ask me), they’re implementing “strict social distancing” guidelines, meaning no more than 10 people can be in a theater at a time. It’s unclear if those same theaters will even have time to rehire staff.

In the country’s two biggest markets, New York and Los Angeles, there are no such plans in the works yet. But let’s say that does happen, and major chains such as AMC and Cinemark open in June or early July, then Tenet is going to be pretty much the only show going. That said, NY and LA will need to be fully invested in this, and theater capacities will need to be much higher, at 50% or more, for $100M to be a possibility.

Keep an eye on this. Where Tenet goes will say a lot about Hollywood’s confidence in business post-outbreak.

‘Venom’ Sequel Gets A New Villainous Title, Replaces ‘The Batman’ In June 2021

By
Travis Hopson
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So now that Warner Bros. has moved The Batman off its June 25th 2021 release date, what do you think happened next? Suddenly, Sony has swooped in and decided that’d be a perfect place to move their upcoming Venom sequel, which now has an official title to along with its delayed release date.

According to Deadline, Sony has moved the sequel, newly-titled Venom: Let There Be Carnage, off its October 2020 date and to June 25th 2021. Taa-daa!! So you lose one superhero movie that weekend, and get another one, albeit with more head-chomping goodness courtesy of Tom Hardy.

The title makes it absurdly clear that Woody Harrelson’s villain, Cletus Kasady aka Carnage, will be the sequel’s chief baddie. I mean, they’re practically hitting us over the head with it. Why they didn’t just go with “Maximum Carnage” or something is beyond me.

One thing to note: the June date is ridiculously close to the July 16th 2021 release for Spider-Man 3. Don’t be surprised if Sony decides to move that to later in the year.

Marvel Terminates Overall Deal With ‘Helstrom’ Showrunner

Is The Marvel Series Doomed For Just One Season?

By
Travis Hopson
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The writing may already be on the wall for Hulu’s Helstrom series, the last live-action TV show produced by Marvel TV before Kevin Feige took full control. THR reports that overall deals have been terminated with The Punisher showrunner Steve Lightfoot and Helstrom‘s Paul Zbyszewski, due to belt-tightening caused by the global pandemic.

Lightfoot’s case isn’t really surprising. He served as showrunner for two seasons on Netflix’s The Punisher before that show was canceled in 2019. He doesn’t have much of a relationship with Marvel beyond that.

Zbyszewki is interesting, though, because his relationship with Marvel stretches back further as an exec-producer on Agents of SHIELD. However, he is also the guy behind the upcoming Marvel series, Helstrom, which managed to complete production before the coronavirus shut everything down. As the final show from former Marvel TV boss Jeph Loeb (all of the others such as Ghost Rider and Howard the Duck were canned) it’s always looked like a target was on Helstrom and that it may only last a single season. This move to end Zbyszewski’s deal seems like a move in that direction.

As for how Marvel can unilaterally terminate contracts like this, it all comes down to the “force majeure” clause, which grants “studios increased latitude to make decisions that are motivated by an unforeseeable incident like the novel coronavirus.”

‘The Wrong Missy’ Trailer: David Spade’s Netflix Comedy Might Be A Relic From The Late ’90s

By
Travis Hopson
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David Spade. Nick Swardson. Rob Schneider. Molly Simms. Netflix’s upcoming comedy The Wrong Missy might’ve been taken straight out of the late ’90s. Are we sure that it wasn’t found in Adam Sandler’s attic? Because I find it hard to believe that somebody in the year 2020 put this archaic-looking movie together and said it was okay to greenlight.

As you can tell, I’m not a fan of this trailer for The Wrong Missy, nor the people in it. The only exception is Spade’s co-star, Lauren Lapkus, who seems to have fallen into a bad habit of starring in really shitty comedies, like when she was the best thing about Holmes & Watson.

Anyway, Spade plays a guy with a pretty terrible job/life, who somehow meets the woman of his dreams, Missy, while stuck at an airport. Later, he invites her through text to join him on a corporate retreate to Hawaii, only he somehow manages to text THE WRONG MISSY, who ends up being a former ex and too much crazy for him to handle.

Ugh.

Along with the folks I already mentioned, the cast includes Geoff Pierson, Jackie Sandler, Sarah Chalke, Chris Witaske, is directed by Tyler Spindel. Spindel previously worked with Spade on another Netflix “comedy”, Father of the Year.

The Wrong Missy hits Netflix on May 13th.

SYNOPSIS: When Tim Morris meets his dream girl and their relationship quickly escalates through texts, he throws caution to the wind and invites her to his company’s corporate retreat on an island resort… However, when a past blind date from hell shows up at the airport for the weekend getaway instead, he learns too late that he’s been texting “The Wrong Missy”.

‘Love Life’ Trailer: Anna Kendrick And Paul Feig’s HBO Max Series Arrives Next Month

By
Travis Hopson
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Here comes HBO Max! The streaming service has been teased for months but today, via a bunch of new trailers that, at least to me look incredibly lame, we know it’ll finally launch on May 27th. And because every new subscription plan needs a big draw, meaning original content you can’t get anywhere else, we have the trailer for Anna Kendrick and Paul Feig’s upcoming series, Love Life.

So what’s the hook of Love Life? Well…it’s basically High Fidelity. Kendrick plays a woman looking for the love of her life, but also navigating the baggage of her past relationships. The hook here is Kendrick in her first scripted series, along with Feig (Bridesmaids, Spy, A Simple Favor) as exec-producer. Acting as showrunner is series creator Sam Boyd, who previously directed the 2018 drama In a Relationship. Also in the cast are the suddenly-ubiquitous Zoe Chao, along with Scoot McNairy, Sasha Compère, and Peter Vack.

At least this looks better than Kendrick’s other streaming series, the Quibi comedy Dummy where she hangs out with a sex doll.

Love Life will be a launch title for HBO Max, so look for it on May 27th. Watch the trailer below, as well as trailers for other shows coming to the streamer.

 

 

 

 

 

Netflix Shells Out Big Bucks To Acquire Melissa McCarthy Drama ‘The Starling’

By
Travis Hopson
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With so many productions ground to a halt, fresh new content is at a premium. Netflix isn’t spared from this situation, and with their need to keep subscribers happy more important than ever, they’re once again dishing out the big bucks for a film with a lot of top-shelf talent. Deadline says Netflix has dropped $20M for the worldwide rights to The Starling, which puts Melissa McCarthy in another dramatic role.

The Starling is based on a Black List script by Matt Harris that has been attracting attention for a few years. It puts McCarthy in the role of Lily, who along with her husband (her Bridesmaids co-star Chris O’Dowd) are trying to recover from the death of their child. While he goes away to recover, she stays home and finds comfort in the beautiful garden she’s growing in the backyard. However, that changes when she is repeatedly attacked by a starling that has built a nearby nest. So Lily seeks help from a local psychiatrist-turned-veterinarian with baggage of his own.

The cast includes Kevin Kline, Timothy Olyphant, Daveed Diggs, Laura Harrier, Skyler Gisondo, Loretta Devine, Rosalind Chao, and Kimberly Quinn.  Behind the camera is Hidden Figures director Ted Melfi, who had his biggest hit with Hidden Figures. He previously directed McCarthy in 2014 comedy St. Vincent.  Earlier versions of The Starling had Keanu Reeves and Isla Fisher attached.

The Marling is already in post-production, making it one of the films that are nearly ready to go. That explains why the price tag was so high for Netflix to buy it against other competing distributors. While no release date has been announced, expect this to arrive in the fall during awards season. McCarthy earned an Oscar nomination for her dramatic performance in Can You Ever Forgive Me, and Netflix would like to see that replicated here.

Backyard Wrestling Series Headed To HBO From Dwayne Johnson And Issa Rae

By
Travis Hopson
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Backyard wrestling, in which untrained aspiring wrestlers ignore those “Please Don’t Try This At Home” warnings, is coming to HBO. And guess what? Dwayne Johnson, one of the most popular wrestlers of all-time, is going to help it get there. Johnson is teaming with fellow HBO vet Issa Rae (Insecure) to produce a series, Tre Cnt, that follows the creation of a backward wrestling promotion in a working-class town.

According to Variety, the series was will be written by Mohamad El Masri with Judah Miller (Crashing) as showrunner. If you’re wondering what Tre Cnt means, it basically means “three count”, as in the three referee counts that conclude a match. I hope they change that name.

SYNOPSIS: The project is currently titled “TRE CNT” (a.k.a “TRE COUNT”) and hails from writer Mohamad El Masri. The series focuses on Cassius Jones, a young dock worker and struggling pro-wrestler, who uses inherited life-insurance money for start-up cash and the deed to a shotgun house from his grandfather to start a hip-hop centric backyard wrestling empire in Houston’s Third Ward (The Tre) with the help of his working-class family, neighbors, and friends.

This could be amazing, but I thought the same thing about Ballers and it just wasn’t. That said, Johnson obviously knows professional wrestling better than most, and he’s shown a willingness to tell great dramatic stories on the sport through Fighting with My Family. Rae’s comedic credentials as creator and star of Insecure make her a pretty valuable member of the team, as well. She and Johnson will exec-produce along with Dany and Hiram Garcia.

My hope is this will be similar to GLOW, which takes the backdrop of professional wrestling to say something about the era and what women were going through trying to make it big. There’s similar potential here. Backyard wrestling is the avenue chosen by a lot of aspiring superstars who can’t afford to go to fancy wrestling schools, won’t ever get noticed playing sports or acting on TV, and have no connections in the business  To be fair, it’s also the path taken by those who are just plain nuts and think swanton diving off a tree branch onto wooden floorboards is just something fun to do.

Natalie Dormer Is The Herald Of Evil In New Trailer for ‘Penny Dreadful: City of Angels’

By
John Nolan
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Pre and post war Los Angeles has always seemed like such an alluring time. Of course, things are rarely as they seem, which is exactly what Penny Dreadful: City of Angels puts front and center. Yeah, sure there was the golden age of film, art deco everywhere, and the time that defined what we think of when we hear Hollywood. BUT, there was also nazi-ism, rampant racism, sexism, hate, and a laundry list of other things that are left off of the post cards. The original series Penny Dreadful was an enigma to me, it’s everything I’d want in a show but I could never get into it. This sequel series, which stars Natalie Dormer, seems to take what I loved (in thought) of the original and adds one of my favorite film timelines. It’s going to be hard to ignore. The series takes the themes of the original and drops it into 1938 Los Angeles, and while the plot hasn’t been fully revealed it’s hard to deny that this trailer makes it seem like Dormer isn’t just evil, but is the catalyst for evil in a few different areas.

Check out the trailer below and watch the premier of Penny Dreadful: City of Angels on April 26th on Showtime!

David Ayer Responds To Criticism Of Over-Sexualized Harley Quinn In ‘Suicide Squad’

By
Travis Hopson
-

Suicide Squad was a bigger hit than many thought it would be, earning nearly $800M at the box office. But the reviews were harsh and four years later director David Ayer is still apologizing for the many mistakes he and his co-creators made. One of those is the over-sexualization of the movie’s breakout character, Harley Quinn, which clashes so completely with her depiction in Birds of Prey.

In response to a tweet (If I were a divisive director like Ayer I would drop all social media), about Harley Quinn being objectified as eye candy, Ayer responded by blaming a messy screenplay…

“Sadly her story arc was eviscerated. It was her movie in so many ways. Look, I tried. I rendered Harley comic book accurate. Everything is political now. Everything. I just want to entertain. I will do better.”

I actually don’t blame Ayer for certain aspects of this. He is right that his depiction of Harley Quinn was comic book accurate. She is, or at least she was, a very sexualized character and combined with her lunacy it’s part of what makes her unique.

But his “I just want to entertain” is pretty weak., We can’t ignore that a look at Ayer’s track record shows he has zero ability to create believable female characters. So he has no real defense when Lauren Humphries-Brooks of the Citizen Dame podcast (co-hosted by friend to the site and occasional writer Karen Peterson) hits him hard in response…

“A female character in an abusive relationship is already political, my dude. The way your camera looked at her was political. The way you used her was political. You treated her as an object and she still rose above it. That was political too.”

Damn. Of course, Harley Quinn “rose above it” because of the tremendous performance by Margot Robbie. And it says something that the more liberated version of the character failed to attract as wide an audience. Kinda sad, actually.

Ayer took the criticism to heart, though, and retweeted Humphries-brooks comment with a few words of his own…

“Retweeting because this is very thoughtfully written. Thank you for this. I am growing and learning in a changing world.”

I’m very curious to see how James Gunn treats Harley Quinn in The Suicide Squad, which opens in August 2021. My guess is he’ll fall somewhere in-between. Harley Quinn is a sexy character, period, but the camera doesn’t need to leer over every inch of her body, which is what happened too often in Suicide Squad. Gunn probably isn’t going to let that happen.

 

 

 

Quentin Tarantino On ‘Grindhouse’ And Why It Failed So Badly

By
Travis Hopson
-

How does a movie that boasts the talents of Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez bomb as hard as Grindhouse did in 2007? I have to admit, I’m a huge fan of Tarantino’s half of the B-movie double-feature, Death Proof, which features an epic performance by Kurt Russell as Stuntman Mike. But the movie was indeed a dud, and Tarantino has some thoughts as to why, which he recently shared with Empire.

Tarantino thinks the big problem is audiences were completely unfamiliar with what “grindhouse” meant, with he and Rodriguez overestimating how big of an impact that would have…

“Well, in America they got Grindhouse. In the UK you got Death Proof. With Grindhouse, I think me and Robert just felt that people had a little more of a concept of the history of double features and exploitation movies. No, they didn’t. At all. They had no idea what the fuck they were watching. It meant nothing to them, alright, what we were doing. So that was a case of being a little too cool for school.”

I think the better way to put it is that audiences had a certain idea of what to expect from Tarantino and Rodriguez, and Grindhouse wasn’t it. Death Proof, as much as I love it, especially the extended cut, is very slow and chatty with very little action. This is coming off two straight Kill Bill movies, and I think that’s what people wanted more of. For Rodriguez, the Planet Terror flick was just too goddamn weird. It also wasn’t very good, despite the fun cast of B-list stars.

 

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