When a director exits over creative differences and a new filmmaker brought in, it usually means a change in screenwriter, as well. Such is the case for Marvel’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which recently saw Scott Derrickson exit and Sam Raimi enter talks to replace him. With that move, we’re also seeing a different writer come aboard, and it’s one who is already busy with another corner of the MCU.
Michael Waldron, creator of Marvel’s Loki series on Disney+, has been brought on to rewrite the Doctor Strange sequel originally penned by Jade Bartlett. The movie was expected to include horror elements, which would make sense given Derrickson and Raimi’s track records, but it’s unclear if that will continue with Waldron. Considering both of Waldron’s Marvel projects center heavily on the Multiverse, we could see him link them more closely together than they already were.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness opens May 7th 2021, and will see the return of Benedict Cumberbatch as Stephen Strange, Chiwetel Ejiofor as Karl Mordo, Benedict Wong as Wong, and the addition of Elizabeth Olsen’s Scarlet Witch, connecting to her upcoming WandaVision series.
The 2020 Independent Spirit Awards were handed out tonight, hosted for the second straight year by the hilarious Aubrey Plaza, and for the most part it went according to plan. In her opening bit, Plaza poked fun at the changing landscape for independent cinema, a popular target for show hosts, with the emergence of so many streaming services. Some of that was reflected in the winners, with a good number of them debuting on subscription platforms.
It was a big night for Lulu Wang’s The Farewell, which took home the Best Feature Award, and a surprising victory for Zhao Shuzhen in the Best Supporting Actress category. Despite a campaign to get her recognized, Shuzhen was snubbed by the Oscars. Taking Best Director was the Safdie Brothers for their high-energy New York thriller, Uncut Gems, which also earned Adam Sandler the Best Actor win. In what is likely a prelude to Oscar night, Renee Zellweger won Best Female Lead for her performance in Judy. Shocking no one, Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite won for Best International Film, a title it’s likely to claim from the Academy, as well.
As far as surprises go, the Spike Lee-produced sci-fi film See You Yesterday winning Best First Screenplay was a welcome one. Olivia Wilde overcame a very contentious field to win Best First Feature for her comedy Booksmart, while popular pick The Last Black Man in San Francisco ended the night empty-handed.
Full list of winners below!
BEST FEATURE – The Farewell
BEST FIRST FEATURE – Booksmart
BEST FEMALE LEAD – Renee Zellweger, Judy
BEST MALE LEAD – Adam Sandler, Uncut Gems
BEST DIRECTOR Benny and Josh Safdie – Uncut Gems
BEST DOCUMENTARY – American Factory, directors Julia Reichart, Steven Bognar
BEST SUPPORTING MALE – Willem Dafoe, The Lighthouse
BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE – Zhao Shuzhen, The Farewell
BEST SCREENPLAY- Marriage Story, Noah Baumbach
BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY – See You Yesterday, Fredrica Bailey, Stefon Bristol
BEST EDITING: Uncut Gems – Benny Safdie, Ronald Bronstein
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY – Jarin Blaschke, The Lighthouse
BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM – Parasite, Bong Joon Ho
ROBERT ALTMAN AWARD – Marriage Story
Noah Baumbach, Douglas Aibel, Francine Maisler, Alan Alda, Laura Dern, Adam Driver, Julie Hagerty, Scarlett Johansson, Ray Liotta, Azhy Robertson, Merritt Wever
JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD – Give Me Liberty
PRODUCERS AWARD — Mollye Asher
SOMEONE TO WATCH AWARD -Rashaad Ernesto Green, director of Premature
TRUER THAN FICTION AWARD Nadia Shihab, director of Jabboland
Birds of Prey could end up a major disappointment for Warner Bros. and the DCEU. After early projections had the star-studded all-girl flick opening at roughly $50M, a Friday debut of just $13M (which includes the $4M from Thursday previews) has lowered those expectations to $34M. That would be the weakest launch for any DCEU movie, and the lowest for any DC Comics movie since Jonah Hex‘s $5.3M in 2010, and that only opened in 2800 theaters.
Assuming these numbers hold, this would be a huge setback when Warner Bros. was really on a roll following the successes of Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and Shazam. The assumption going in was that Birds of Prey was a lock to follow in their footsteps. Margot Robbie returned as the popular Harley Quinn, joined by a cast that includes fan-favorite actress Mary Elizabeth Wintead, Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Rosie Perez, and Ewan McGregor. Trailers suggested an irreverent, high-octane R-rated movie in the vein of Deadpool, only with a lot more Girl Power.
Reviews have been strong across the board, as well. Audiences have graded it a B+ with Cinemascore, and it currently stands at 81% on Rotten Tomatoes. So those who have seen the film, really dig it quite a lot. Perhaps it’s all about spreading the word and it’ll have a lengthy theatrical run? If not, it’s unclear what the future could hold for these characters.
I’m baffled, to be perfectly honest. Anecdotally I know some of my guy friends, and some of our readers who have messaged me, have expressed disinterest or outright scorn. Hopefully, we’re not seeing the same sort of backlash that has hurt other studio films with predominantly female casts. You can check out my review of Birds of Preyhere.
Tom Hardy is currently filming his return as the salivating symbiote in Venom 2, and dropping some really dull set photos for the fans. He can’t live on superhero movies alone, though, and has already lined up his next big project, a biopic on famous Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton.
Variety reports Hardy will star in Shackleton, a project that has been kicking around Hollywood for a while. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy‘s Oscar-nominated screenwriter Peter Straughan will write the script, which will center on Shackleton, a major figure in the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration which began in the late 19th century and concluded with the Shackleton-Rowett Exploration in 1922. While his exploits have largely been ignored by time, Shackleton’s mostly remembered for the 1917 Imperial Trans-Antarctic expedition, an attempted land crossing of the Antarctic. It ended in disaster, with Shackleton’s ship the Endurance trapped in an ice pack and his men stranded for a time.
At one point, Shackleton was going to be a reunion between Leonardo DiCaprio and The Revenant writer Mark L. Smith. It’s interesting that Hardy, who co-starred with DiCaprio in that film, would take this on now and if DiCaprio had any hand in making it happen. They’re buddies, after all.
This is still very early on. No word on a director yet, but Straughan is an interesting choice as writer. He’s been a mixed bag, with the highlights being ‘Tinker Tailor’ and the music comedy Frank. Low points were The Snowman and last year’s debacle, The Goldfinch. I’m also curious to see if Hardy will sport an Irish accent or just mumble into his parka or something.
A twist of fate more than a decade ago and the MCU might have been a very different place, and John Krasinski’s career could be unrecognizable from it is now. You may recall Krasinski was a finalist alongside Chris Evans for the role of Captain America, a gig he obviously did not get. Ultimately, it worked out for everybody involved. Krasinski’s doing pretty damn well, and that Evans guy gave us multiple Captain America movies, four Avengers movies, and “America’s Ass.”
Is there a chance, all this time later, that Krasinski could find his way to Marvel? Maybe as part of a Fantastic Four reboot? If there’s even a tiny chance, Krasinski is ready and would “love” to do it…
“You’re like, ‘Do you have any interest in not shattering people’s dreams?’” Krasinski said to Total Film (via GamesRadar). “I would love to be in the Marvel universe. I love those movies because they’re fun, but I also think they’re really well done. And certainly a lot of my friends are in those movies. I have no idea what [Marvel] are thinking. But if they are considering me for Mr. Fantastic, continue to consider me because I would love it.”
Before his role as the protective patriarch in A Quiet Place would any of us have thought of Krasinski as Reed Richards? Now I won’t be able to consider anybody else. Maybe he can even direct it?
“Oh man, directing one of those things? I don’t think I’m your guy. But if I was to act in one? I’d have so much fun,” Krasinski said.
One might think a story about legendary French mime Marcel Marceau might focus on his career. Surely, it couldn’t have been easy. People hate mimes. But Marceau’s life gets far more interesting the further back you go, and the film Resistance details his heroic acts during WWII that many might not know about.
The role of a young Marceau is played by Jesse Eisenberg, making it another unexpected role for the former Lex Luthor. Behind the camera is Jonathan Jakubowicz, who previously directed the boxing drama Hands of Stone. Eisenberg is joined in the cast by Ed Harris, Edgar Ramirez, and Clemence Posey.
SYNOPSIS: “Resistance” is a true story of heroism in which a group of Girls and Boy Scouts created a network that ended up saving the lives of around ten thousand orphans whose parents had been killed by the Nazis in the Second World War. At the center of the movie we find an aspiring Jewish actor whose desperate need to help the children lead him into the world of pantomime, and who will later and, thanks to this experience, become the legendary French mime Marcel Marceau.
The last time we heard anything about the long-developing Scarface remake, it was director Antoine Fuqua opining that he couldn’t cast his The Equalizer star Denzel Washington. That might’ve been Fuqua’s way of helping to shove then-star Diego Luna out the door, as he was already headed in that direction, anyway. And now Luna has confirmed once and for all that he won’t be playing the infamous drug lord.
When asked by Collider whether he was still attached to Scarface, Luna simply replied “No, no I’m not.” Well, that about sums it up, eh? Most people already know what Scarface is all about. The 1983 film led by Al Pacino is the most famous version, but it and the 1932 Howard Hawkes movie both follow a small-time criminal’s violent rise to power.
No word on what the reboot’s current status is, but given that updates have been few I’m guessing it’s dead for now. That’s okay, Luna can get his gangster fix in the upcoming season of Narcos: Mexico, in which he plays notorious Mexican drug lord Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, leader of the Guadalajara Cartel.
We previously covered how horror icon Leatherface is getting another bite at the….corpse (get it, he’s a cannibal) with Fede Alvarez (Evil Dead) producing. Still, it surprised me to see a headline about the planned reboot today, I figured it would die at announcement, it’s got to be soon for a second reboot, right? That’s when I realized that the time elapsed between the original and the Platinum Dunes remake isn’t that much farther apart then we are now from that wonderful showcase of Jessica Biel’s talents. If you haven’t seen The Dig, you’re not alone but it’s worth a look, especially if you want to see what to expect from the Sawyer clan this time around. The directors of that film, Ryan and Andy Tohill, have officially signed on to direct the film and from what they’ve done before have that grity, dirty type of filming, you know, the one where you can almost smell it, down pat so if nothing else you won’t leave the theater feeling fresh and fancy-free. [EW]
2020 has kicked off with a bang for It and Sharp Objects actress Sophia Lillis. She can be seen right now in the horror Gretel & Hansel, and a trailer for her upcoming Netflix series I Am Not Okay With This was just released. And now you can add to her busy slate a role in The Thicket, a thriller that will cast her alongside Peter Dinklage, Noomi Rapace, and Looking for Alaska‘s Charlie Plummer.
The Thicket is based on the book by Joe R. Lansdale, whose work has already been adapted into the macho thrillers Bubba Ho-Tep, Cold in July, and series Hap & Leonard. If you dig his stuff, then this will probably be for you. According to Deadline, the story follows “an innocent young man named Jack ( Plummer) who goes on an epic quest to rescue his sister (Lillis) after she is kidnapped by violent killer “Cut Throat Bill” (Rapace) and her gang. Jack enlists the help of a crafty bounty hunter named Reginald Jones (Dinklage), a grave-digging alcoholic son of an ex-slave, and a street-smart prostitute. The three track the girl into the deadly no-man’s land known as The Big Thicket — a place where blood and chaos reign.”
Pre-production is already underway, with Elliot Lester directing. He’s best known for the Jason Statham action film Blitz, David Oyelowo’s HBO drama Nightingale, and most recently the Arnold Schwarzenegger drama Aftermath.
So many TV spots later we have the official trailer for Blumhouse’s upcoming The Invisible Man, and it’s more of the same in the most terrifying way. This is how you do a remake, you find what made the original scary and put a modern twist on it. They’ve taken the lamest of the Universal monsters, who’s mainly been portrayed as a malicious prankster and pervert, and turned him into a sociopathic abusive ex-boyfriend who’s obsessed with our main character. Add to that he’s faked his death, which is of course being blamed on her, and you have something that’s terrifying, thought-provoking, and as realistic as an invisible man can be.
The Invisible Man Hits Theaters February 28th, 2020
