We shouldn’t be surprised by anybody who turns up in the MCU anymore. They managed to get Robert Redford and Cate Blanchett! Glenn Close! And that should go double when the actor in question has already starred in an entire trilogy of superhero movies. However, it’s still pretty amazing to learn that Christian Bale is in talks to join the cast of Thor: Love & Thunder.
Yep, you read that right. Batman is coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Collider was first to report the news, since confirmed by THR, that Bale is in talks to join Taika Waititi’s Thor sequel. Details on his role are, obviously, being kept under wraps but he’d be starring alongside Chris Hemsworth, Tessa Thompson, and Natalie Portman.
You don’t need me to tell you who Bale is or why this is a big deal. Especially for the Thor franchise, which has boasted so much Oscar-winning talent already, he should feel right at home. The initial thought is that Bale would play the villain, but I feel like that’s just too easy. I’ll throw out a left-field prediction and say he’ll be…Beta Ray Bill.
Thor: Love & Thunder opens November 5th 2021. Bale is currently in the Oscars discussion for his role in Ford v Ferrari.
Bad Boys Bad Boys, whatcha gonna do? Will Smith and Martin Lawrence are together again in Bad Boys for Life, and we’re inviting our DC readers to a free early screening.
SYNOPSIS: The Bad Boys Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) are back together for one last ride in the highly anticipated Bad Boys for Life.
The screening takes place on Tuesday, January 14th at 7:00pm at AMC Mazza Gallerie. If you’d like to attend, enter for passes in the Rafflecopter contest form below. Winners will be selected on Friday, January 10th. Good luck!
Today saw the long-awaited release of the latest trailer for The New Mutants, and I think it looks pretty good; scary and faithful to the comic book fans of the X-Men love. And this is no small thing, because sure as Hell it looked like this was either going to be complete garbage, or simply not come out at all. But it’s happening, and director Josh Boone wants to get ahead of something he knows will come up because it always does when superhero films are involved.
Even with the strong horror vibe The New Mutants is giving off, the film is and always has been designed to be PG-13. There was never any plan for it to be rated ‘R’, despite the success of films such as Joker, Logan, and Deadpool…
This apparently won’t stop the film from being incredibly scary, according to New Mutants artist Bill Sienkiewicz, one of the creators responsible for the storyline that inspired the film. If you know anything about Siendiewicz’s run on that comic, it’s probably his unique art during the “Demon Bear” storyline.
Scary film at PG-13. The atmosphere, mystery, & tone of Josh’s direction makes it work. The cast is stellar, not horror tropes who split from the group 1 by 1 like idiots only to get offed. They’re a team united; forged by the horror, and that’s new take. Bravo Josh & Co. https://t.co/HDpCZNp9Ro
Last year turned out to be pretty good for Kevin Smith. After a few years in the cinematic wilderness, Smith returned to his View Askew roots with Jay and Silent Bob Reboot, and while it wasn’t a critical favorite his fans seemed to love it. That got Smith inspired to finally move forward on that Clerks 3 script he’s been promising for years, and at the time I expressed some skepticism because of that. Well, this latest announcement he’s made is exactly why.
Smith took to Instagram and announced that he’s now also working on a Mallrats sequel, titled Twilight of the Mallrats. Comic book fans are probably seeing that title and guessing it’s a play on Alan Moore’s unpublished series, Twilight of the Superheroes, a Ragnarok-level event that would’ve decimated the heroes of the DC Comics universe. If so, that wouldn’t bode well for forever nerds Brodie Bruce and T.S. Quint, played by Jason Lee and Jeremy London in Smith’s 1995 film.
Mallrats was Smith’s followup to his indie darling, Clerks, and…well, it wasn’t well-received and was a massive failure. It’s now seen as something of a cult classic, and I’ll confess to it being my favorite Smith film for quite a long time.
Here’s what Smith had to say on social media, “It’s gonna be hard for 2020 to measure up to 2019 – but I’m off to a fun start by writing stuff for Brodie Bruce & Co. to say in the new script I’m calling TWILIGHT OF THE MALLRATS! The CLERKS III script is also underway, so we’ll see which flick will be my first film of the roaring 20’s!”
So these are two projects that Smith teased fans with for a very long time, but something else always gets in the way. Now the two projects are getting in one another’s way, and I can’t help but feel like this is a step back for both. I hope I’m wrong.
Over the weekend Rian Johnson’s Knives Out inched closer to the $250M mark at the box office, making this easily the biggest non-Star Wars film of his career. While the star-studded murder mystery doesn’t necessarily demand a sequel, fans certainly are demanding more of Daniel Craig’s peculiar detective, Benoit Blanc, and it looks like they are going to get it.
According to THR, Johnson says he’s already developing a Knives Out sequel, with Craig returning as Benoit Blanc. This is something Johnson has been mulling for a couple of months. Details aren’t available, of course, but the hope is to have it ready to shoot this year, meaning we could see it in 2021. While it isn’t stated, I think we can safely assume another starry cast of suspects, and of course a role for Noah Segan who has been in every one of Johnson’s movies since Brick. Everything depends on Lionsgate green-lighting the project after Johnson works out a script.
Assuming all of this goes according to plan, what does this mean for Johnson’s upcoming Star Wars trilogy? There’s no way he could do both, at least not in a timely fashion, so maybe this means Johnson’s had second thoughts? Given the reaction he continues to get following The Last Jedi, and the success he’s had on his own, would anybody blame him for dropping out?
The first trailer for New Mutants arrived not in 2019…or in 2018…but in the fall of 2017!! That’s crazy to think about. It was an entirely different landscape back then. There were plans for Josh Boone to launch an entire trilogy of films featuring the young X-Men under Charles Xavier’s charge, but the whole thing got derailed with Fox wanting to lean into the darker tone which resembled a superhero horror. Unconfirmed reports of reshoots followed, since denied by some of the cast, then the acquisition of Fox by Disney happened, and the film has pretty much been in limbo ever since. There was even some question whether we would see it at all, following claims that Disney/Marvel was unimpressed by what they had.
After a couple of weeks of promises, the latest New Mutants trailer is here, and the horror elements have definitely been retained. Boone promised the cut we’ll see in theaters is 100% his vision, but exactly how far that extends remains unclear. Does it connect to the MCU in any way? Or is this a standalone that Marvel can ignore? We see the word “mutants’ is definitely being used, and the characters’ origins are recreated faithfully. We see some of Wolfsbane’s religious background, teases of the Demon Bear, and even Magik armoring up and wielding the Soulsword. All of this taking place in a hospital that is clearly not what it appears to be.
The cast Boone has put together is certainly up to the Marvel standard. Anya Taylor-Joy plays Illyana Rasputin aka Magik, Charlie Heaton is Sam Guthrie aka Cannonball, Maisie Williams is Rahne Sinclair aka Wolfsbane, Henry Zaga is Roberto Da Costa aka Sunspot, and Blu Hunt is Danielle Moonstar. Alice Braga plays the X-Men’s resident mutant medical doctor Cecilia Reyes, although, call me crazy, but I think she may end up being Mister Sinister by the end of this.
If you’re a fan of Quentin Tarantino it’s probably a good thing that his movies tend towards the long side. Of late he’s been tinkering around with his films and making them even longer, as he did with the Netflix version of The Hateful Eight, and the recent re-release of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood which added 10 more minutes to the 161-minute runtime. There have been rumblings of an even longer cut out there, one clocking in at around 4-hours, and Tarantino sounds like he’s going to let us see it.
This has been a busy awards season campaign for Tarantino and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which obviously paid off last night with a Best Picture and Best Screenplay win at the Golden Globes. But while he was out there promoting the film at a special FYC screening at the Arclight in Hollywood, Tarantino talked about showing the longer cut to Sony’s top guy, Tom Rothman, who was totally down for it…
“It’s all good. It’s all great. I don’t know if an audience would sit for it, but I love it. So we showed it to Tom Rothman and it was like, ‘OK, here this all is. We know that this is a movie, but maybe you can help us out because we like everything.’”
At that point, Brad Pitt asked the question everybody on everybody’s mind, “The real question is are we going to get to see this one way or another?”
Because nobody wants this to be another Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair, which was only shown to a select group in Beverly Hills but remains unreleased.
Tarantino replied,
“Hey look, it’s all good so once this whole thing is said and done, maybe in a year’s time, we probably will.”
Obviously, there’s nothing concrete in that statement, but it’s something. The possibility is still out there that Tarantino re-edits it into a Netflix series with additional material, just as he did The Hateful Eight. I think the better Once Upon a Time in Hollywood does at the Oscars, the greater the odds. After last night, those odds are definitely looking up. [Collider]
It was a big night for Sam Mendes’ WWI film 1917 at the Golden Globes. The acclaimed war drama, based on stories told by Mendes’ grandfather, won Best Picture Drama, beating out Netflix’s The Irishman, The Two Popes, and Marriage Story. Joker was also a contender in the category.
Mendes also came away with a win for Best Director, besting Martin Scorsese, Parasite director Bong Joon-ho, Quentin Tarantino, and Todd Phillips. Joon-ho’s South Korean thriller would be honored later in the night with a film for Best Foreign Language Film. Joaquin Phoenix’s twisted performance as Batman’s future nemesis in Joker would earn him Best Actor-Drama, while Renee Zellweger’s performance as Hollywood royalty in Judy won her Best Actress-Drama.
History was made when Awkwafina became the first Asian-American to win Best Actress-Musical or Comedy for The Farewell. Brad Pitt. Taron Egerton’s song and dance act as Elton John in Rocketman won him Best Actor-Musical or Comedy. Quentin Tarantino’s ’60s-era Once Upon a Time in Hollywood won Best Picture-Musical or Comedy, as well as Best Screenplay.
The full list of winners is below!
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A TELEVISION SERIES – DRAMA
Jennifer Aniston, “The Morning Show”
Olivia Colman, “The Crown” – WINNER
Jodie Comer, “Killing Eve”
Nicole Kidman, “Big Little Lies”
Reese Witherspoon, “The Morning Show”
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN ANY MOTION PICTURE
Tom Hanks, “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood”
Anthony Hopkins, “The Two Popes”
Al Pacino, “The Irishman”
Joe Pesci, “The Irishman”
Brad Pitt, “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood” – WINNER
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN ANY MOTION PICTURE
Kathy Bates, “Richard Jewell”
Annette Bening, “The Report”
Laura Dern, “Marriage Story” – WINNER
Jennifer Lopez, “Hustlers”
Margot Robbie, “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood”
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MOTION PICTURE – MUSICAL OR COMEDY
Daniel Craig, “Knives Out”
Roman Griffin Davis, “Jojo Rabbit”
Leonardo DiCaprio, “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood”
Taron Egerton, “Rocketman” – WINNER
Eddie Murphy, “Dolemite Is My Name”
BEST MOTION PICTURE – ANIMATED
“Frozen II”
“How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World”
“The Lion King”
“Missing Link” – WINNER
“Toy Story 4”
BEST DIRECTOR – MOTION PICTURE
Bong Jong Hoo, “Parasite”
Sam Mendes, “1917” – WINNER
Todd Phillips, “Joker”
Martin Scorsese, “The Irishman”
Quentin Tarantino, “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood”
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MOTION PICTURE – DRAMA
Christian Bale, “Ford v. Ferrari”
Antonio Banderas, “Pain & Glory”
Adam Driver, “Marriage Story”
Joaquin Phoenix, “Joker” – WINNER
Jonathan Pryce, “The Two Popes”
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MOTION PICTURE – MUSICAL OR COMEDY
Ana De Armas, “Knives Out”
Awkwafina, “The Farewell” – WINNER
Cate Blanchett, “Where’d You Go, Bernadette”
Beanie Feldstein, “Booksmart”
Emma Thompson, “Late Night”
BEST TELEVISION SERIES – DRAMA
“Big Little Lies”
“The Crown”
“Killing Eve”
“The Morning Show”
“Succession” – WINNER
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MOTION PICTURE – DRAMA
Cynthia Erivio, “Harriet”
Scarlett Johansson, “Marriage Story”
Saoirse Ronan, “Little Women”
Charlize Theron, “Bombshell”
Renee Zellweger, “Judy” – WINNER
BEST MOTION PICTURE – MUSICAL OR COMEDY
“Dolemite Is My Name”
“Jojo Rabbit”
“Knives Out”
“Once Upon A Time In Hollywood” – WINNER
“Rocketman”
BEST MOTION PICTURE – DRAMA
“1917” – WINNER
“The Irishman”
“Joker”
“Marriage Story”
“The Two Popes”
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A LIMITED SERIES OR A MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
Christopher Abbott, “Catch-22”
Sacha Baron Cohen, “The Spy”
Russell Crowe, “The Loudest Voice” – WINNER
Jared Harris, “Chernobyl”
Sam Rockwell, “Fosse/Verdon”
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A LIMITED SERIES OR A MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
Kaitlyn Dever, “Unbelievable”
Joey King, “The Act”
Helen Mirren, “Catherine The Great”
Merritt Wever, “Unbelievable”
Michelle Williams, “Fosse/Verdon” – WINNER
BEST TELEVISION LIMITED SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
“Catch-22”
“Chernobyl” – WINNER
“Fosse/Verdon”
“The Loudest Voice”
“Unbelievable”
BEST MOTION PICTURE – FOREIGN LANGUAGE
“The Farewell”
“Les Miserables”
“Pain and Glory”
“Parasite” – WINNER
“Portrait of a Lady on Fire”
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A SERIES, LIMITED SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
Alan Arkin, “The Kominsky Method”
Kieran Culkin, “Succession”
Andrew Scott “Fleabag”
Stellan Skarsgard, “Chernobyl” – WINNER
Henry Winkler, “Barry”
BEST TELEVISION SERIES – MUSICAL OR COMEDY
“Barry”
“Fleabag” – WINNER
“The Kominsky Method”
“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”
“The Politician”
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE – MOTION PICTURE
Alexandre Desplat, “Little Women”
Hildur Gudnadottir, “Joker” – WINNER
Randy Newman, “Marriage Story”
Thomas Newman, “1917”
Daniel Pemberton, “Motherless Brooklyn”
BEST ORIGINAL SONG – MOTION PICTURE
“Beautiful Ghosts,” “Cats”
Music and Lyrics by: Andrew Lloyd Webber, Taylor Swift
“I’m Gonna Love Me Again,” “Rocketman”
Music by: Elton John Lyrics by: Bernie Taupin – WINNER
“Into the Unknown,” “Frozen 2”
Music and Lyrics by: Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Robert Lopez Lyrics
“Spirit, “The Lion King”
Music and Lyrics by: Timothy McKenzie, Ilya Salmanzadeh, Beyoncé
“Stand Up,” “Harriet”
Music and Lyrics by: Joshuah Brian Campbell, Cynthia Erivo
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A SERIES, LIMITED SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
Patricia Arquette, “The Act” – WINNER
Helena Bonham Carter, “The Crown”
Toni Collette, “Unbelievable”
Meryl Streep, “Big Little Lies”
Emily Watson, “Chernobyl”
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A TELEVISION SERIES – MUSICAL OR COMEDY
Michael Douglas, “The Kominsky Method”
Bill Hader, “Barry”
Ben Platt, “The Politician”
Paul Rudd, “Living With Yourself”
Ramy Youssef, “Ramy” – WINNER
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A TELEVISION SERIES – MUSICAL OR COMEDY
Christina Applegate, “Dead to Me”
Rachel Brosnahan, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”
Kirsten Dunst, “On Becoming A God In Central Florida”
Natasha Lyonne, “Russian Doll”
Phoebe Waller-Bridge, “Fleabag” – WINNER
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A TELEVISION SERIES – DRAMA
Brian Cox, “Succession” – WINNER
Kit Harrington, “Game of Thrones”
Rami Malek, “Mr. Robot”
Tobias Menzies, “The Crown”
Billy Porter, “Pose”
BEST SCREENPLAY – MOTION PICTURE
Noah Baumbach, “Marriage Story”
Bong Joon Ho and Han Jin Won, “Parasite”
Anthony McCarten, “The Two Popes”
Quentin Tarantino, “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood” – WINNER
Steven Zaillian, “The Irishman”
It’s the first show of the new year, and the perfect time to look back at the best and worst movies of 2019! Plus, we’ll talk about what some of the top movies of the past decade were, along with a review of THE GRUDGE reboot, and lots more!
You can follow and subscribe to Cinema Royale directly here, or head to Apple ITunes, Spotify, YouTube, and all major podcast outlets. Please like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @punchycritic and @punchdrunkjohn!
1. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker– $33.7M/$450.7M
On a typically quiet weekend, The Rise of Skywalker easily topped the box office with $33.7M, a 53% drop from last week. The film now has $450.7M domestic, which is third-best of the year behind Avengers: Endgame ($858M) and The Lion King ($543M). Worldwide it has amassed $918M, and may end with a number that isn’t wildly superior to a movie like Joker which ended its run at $1.062B. It’ll really have to stretch to get near the $1.3B of the equally-divisive The Last Jedi. I think it’s clear the middling reviews and word-of-mouth have played a role, and Disney is going to have to figure something out as Star Wars enters a transitional phase.
2. Jumanji: The Next Level– $26.5M/$236.2M
3. Little Women– $13.5M/$60M
Over the holidays I heard from more people going to see Greta Gerwig’s Little Women than any other film, and that anecdotal evidence seems to be bearing out. The well-reviewed film had a $13.5M weekend for $60M overall. It seems to be bucking any concern that only female audiences would turn out.
4. The Grudge (review)- $11.3M
The first weekend of the new year is usually owned by low-cost studio horrors that earn, three, four, or five times their budget then quickly disappear. Not so much for The Grudge, however, which opened with just $11M. A reboot of the once-popular franchise that nobody asked for and didn’t show up for, the reviews were across-the-board awful, and speaking for me it just didn’t do anything to justify its existence. What makes this version of The Grudge new and fresh? The film is directed by Nicolas Pesce, a rising star in the horror field, and stars Andrea Riseborough, John Cho, Lin Shaye, Jacki Weaver, and Betty Gilpin. A lot of talent there, but even with some loose connections to the 2004 remake there just wasn’t much to distinguish itself from prior films.
5. Frozen 2– $11.2M/$449.8M
6. Spies in Disguise– $10M/$46.7M
7. Knives Out– $9M/$130.2M
8. Uncut Gems– $7.4M/$36.4M
9. Bombshell– $4M/$24.5M
10. Cats– $2.6M/$24.6M
