No surprise here. Dread Central is reporting, as official, what we all expected: that Kane Parsons will return to direct Backrooms 2 for A24. The original film was A24’s biggest hit by a country mile, earning nearly $400M on a $10M budget. It was no sure thing that adapting the strange internet horror would be a success, but Parsons pulled it off. In his directorial debut, no less.
Parsons built an extensive Backrooms mythology over YouTube, but he’s only just begun to do that on the big screen. The first film starred Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve as people who enter a mysterious doorway beneath a rundown furniture store, leading to a seemingly endless dimension comprised of connected office spaces.
Is there anyone who turned so quickly from a beloved nerd hero into a notorious supervillain hated around the world? Surely, nobody did it faster than Elon Musk, who has used his immense wealth to destroy the lives of the poorest people. Now, famed documentarian Alex Gibney examines the truth and the mythology surrounding him with Musk, and a teaser for it has been released.
Interestingly, the Tesla, X, and SpaceX apartheid bro wanted no part of the film, which he branded a hit piece without having seen any of it. Musk will instead feature interviews with his ex-wife, Justine Musk; his former partner, Ashley St. Clair; tech journalist Kara Swisher; Tesla co-founder Martin Eberhard; journalist Zoë Schiffer; and Nobel Prize-winning computer scientist Geoffrey Hinton.
Musk will take a look at the full scope of the man, his weird public persona, influence, and political endeavors. He was instrumental to Trump worming his way back into the White House, with many suggesting Musk used his wealth and tech expertise to corrupt the election. I agree with that assertion.
Musk will have its world premiere in Venice, and is also part of the TIFF lineup. It clocks in at a whopping 235 minutes, so I won’t be seeing it there. Bleecker Street will then release it into theaters on October 6th.
South Korean filmmakers continue to push the genre envelope, and Na Hong-jin, director of The Wailing, has done just that with his balls-to-the-wall action/sci-fi/horror flick, Hope. Delivering breathless chases, shootouts, and gory monster violence with humor and light-hearted Amblin-esque touches, it’s a film that defies easy description as there’s nothing else quite like it. Clocking in at a robust 160 minutes, Hope is a lot to take in and it can get exhausting, but it’s well worth it for one of the most unique experiences of the year.
The first hour is an incredible, non-stop chase sequence done in real time, as bumbling police chief Bum-seok (Hwang Jung-min) investigates animal slaughters in the sleepy South Korean village of Hope. This quiet town full of heavily-armed retirees near the DMZ is a character in itself. We take in the full breadth and scope of it; ramshackle homes and businesses, along with plentiful fields and deep woods, as Bum-seok talks to the locals who deliver a combination of rumors and local myths. What’s funny is how nobody actually seems to respect the chief, and for good reason; he seems like a goof. We certainly don’t expect to get an action hero out of him.
And then, something changes. Bum-seok figures out that it’s a monster destroying everything and killing the residents. In this moment, the dismissable cop goes away and Bum-seok becomes a surprisingly reliable leader and warrior, unafraid to show how freaked out he is by this madness. What unfolds is a nearly hour-long, relentless pursuit in which we never actually see the creature. This works tremendously in Hope‘s favor for a number of reasons. It builds up anticipation for the moment when we actually do see it, in a moment that will have you questioning who the true monsters really are. But also…because it delays the reveal of the film’s biggest weakness: the visual effects aren’t very good at all, and don’t improve.
I’d be lying if I said the shoddy CGI doesn’t take you out of the film at some points. However, the spectacle Hong-jin creates is so overwhelming that you’ll mostly be able to ignore it. The action cranks up to another level with the introduction of Squid Game breakout and Korean superstar Jung Ho-yeon as Sung-ae, a tough as nails rookie cop introduced in a crowd-pleasing moment saving the day with her trusty grenade launcher. The film begins to take on the shape of a buddy cop procedural, with the duo investigating the origins of the attackers, only to find that humanity’s own actions may have had something to do with it.
Hope isn’t nearly as effective in these quiet moments, and the thinness of the screenplay stands out during interactions among the locals. Fortunately, it’s only a brief respite before another massive hour-long setpiece explodes onto the screen. This one involves hotshot local hunter Sung-ki (Zo In-sung), who gets the film’s wildest sequence, hanging out the side of a speeding vehicle trying to gun down the pursuing monsters. Looking like a true action hero in the superhero mold, it’s understandable why Sung-ae gets googly-eyed for him.
The final act is a complete trainwreck, however, as we learn the real reason for the invasion, teasing an intergalactic crisis that feels like it comes from a completely different movie. Adding to the discord are the instantly recognizable voices of Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander, Taylor Russell, and more. This cosmic revelation undercuts the underdog narrative, the feeling of community coming together to face a seemingly impossible foe, and replaces it withsomething impenetrable. Clearly, the hope for Hope is a larger sequel that ups the scope significantly, possibly going offworld. I’m not sure that’s the wisest idea. Hope is such a special movie, with down-to-earth characters that you instantly fall in love with, engaged in a marathon of monster mayhem that guarantees it will become a cult favorite. It would be a shame to see all of that thrown away for the sake of building a franchise.
It’s like a horror icon jamboree in the new trailer for Last Chance Motel. Halloween star Scout Taylor-Compton, Fangoria Hall of Famer Danielle Harris of Halloween and Hatchet, and genre royalty Heather Langenkamp of A Nightmare on Elm Street come together in the horror film co-starring and co-directed by Taylor-Compton and Harris. That’s three generations of Scream Queens all in one movie. And they are just the beginning of the horror favorites who are part of this film about a dream wedding, a desolate motel in the Nevada desert, and bloody fight for survival.
Also in the Last Chance Motel cast are The Vast of Night‘s Sierra McCormick, Freddy vs. Jason‘s Monica Keena, Dracula 2000‘s Shane West, and Robert Allen Mukes of House of 1000 Corpses. The screenplay is by Taylor-Compton, Harris, and Brandon Slagle.
SYNOPSIS: In “Last Chance Motel,” a newlywed couple whose dream wedding spirals into a bloody nightmare when they uncover that their secluded venue-a desolate motel deep in the Nevada desert-is run by a relentless bloodthirsty family with dark secrets. Bobbi Love, the motel’s relentlessly enthusiastic owner, and her sons go to great lengths to make Andi and Casey’s wedding unforgettable. But the body count rises, Andi and Casey must fight to survive a wedding reception no one was meant to escape.
“While planning my own wedding, I visited several venues that were eerie, isolated, and more than a little unsettling,” says Taylor-Compton. “I couldn’t stop imagining what horrors might lurk behind their walls, and that’s where the idea was born.
Last Chance Motel will play at this month’s Nightcrawler Film Festival before premiering on VOD on October 6th. Check out the trailer below from Fangoria and The Horror Collective!
Danny Boyle has been rolling along at a pretty good clip recently. After a few years away, he’s come storming back with 28 Years Later, and his Rupert Murdoch drama Ink is right around the corner. Boyle also has another project that’s been brewing for a few years, Antarctica, and it seems he’s ready to tackle that next.
Speaking with Indiewire, Boyle mentioned Antarctica as what he’ll possibly take on next. A few years ago, the film was said to be about American adventurer and endurance athlete Colin O’Brady, who on December 26th 2018, completed a solo trek across Antarctica, battling the brutal elements and his rival, Captain Louis Rudd, who was attempting to complete it first. Presumably, that hasn’t changed.
This sounds like a return to the survivalist theme that Boyle has always loved, going back to 127 Hours.
Notably, Boyle doesn’t talk about a 28 Years Later sequel at all. Likely, the box office failure of The Bone Temple drove a nail into any hopes of that for now.
There’s a $100M movie opening this October, Maserati: The Brothers, that boasts Al Pacino, Jessica Alba, Andy Garcia, Anthony Hopkins, and The Housemaid actor Michele Morrone. Where’d this movie come from? You got me, but it’s directed by Bobby Moresco, who co-wrote the Oscar-winning screenplay for Crash alongside Paul Haggis.
Unfortunately, Moresco also directed 2022’s awful Lamborghini: The Legend, starring Frank Grillo. I love Grillo, and enjoyed talking with him about the movie, but it’s terrible and has a 6% on Rotten Tomatoes for a reason.
So this Maserati movie has 36 producers on it, which is quite a lot. It’s one of those random international movies that pops up out of nowhere, has tons of star power but hardly any distribution, and looks like a prime candidate for money laundering or something. Pacino can often be found lurking in these areas.
To be fair to lead producer Andrea Iervolino, he didn’t just produce Lamborghini, he also backed Michael Mann’s Ferrariwhich wasn’t any good, either. At least we know what his interests are.
Obviously, the film will center on the Maserati brothers and what they did to launch the luxury automobile brand. It might turn out to be good…if anybody actually gets to see it. Movies like this, I just sort of wait for the lawsuits to get filed.
Last night at Telluride, Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim’s secret documentary on Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes made its world premiere. Today, A24 has dropped a first-look teaser for the unusual film, titled You Can See Everything, which will hit theaters in October.
So what makes You Can See Everything so strange? Well, we learned over a year ago that Fielder was visiting the infamous Holmes in federal prison. Those visits are just a small piece of the story. Holmes apparently invited a film crew to document her life just 34 days before she was due to report to prison, and what unfolded was much crazier than the filmmakers expected.
SYNOPSIS: Thirty-four days before she’s sent to prison, notorious Silicon Valley founder Elizabeth Holmes invites a skeptical film crew to document her every move. What begins as an intimate portrait of an enigmatic felon becomes a mind-bending three-year journey into the abyss. From boundary-pushing directors Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim comes You Can See Everything.
Fielder is best known for HBO’s surreal docu-comedy The Rehearsal, which suggests this won’t be a typical documentary. Teaming up with Oppenheim, whose controversial Chris Hanson drama Primetime also hit Telluride, only makes this project more interesting.
Peter Parker can’t be stopped! Marvel/Sony’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day held the top spot for a sixth straight week, pulling in $18M over the weekend and an estimated $23M over the four-day holiday. If it does hit that number, $923M will put it within striking distance of 2015’s The Force Awakens for the highest-grossing film domestically ever. Meanwhile, the $2.4B it has earned globally has it at #3 all-time, behind Avatar ($2.9B) and Avengers: Endgame ($2.7B), within striking distance of both.
2. The Odyssey– $13M/$584.7M
3. Coyote vs. Acme– $11.3M/$33.8M
Barely moving an inch from last week, underdog success story Coyote vs. Acme fell just 29% and added another $11M for $33M domestically overall, with another $4M expected through the holiday.
Paramount Pictures dumped cold into theaters the period crime thriller By Any Means, starring Mark Wahlberg as notorious mafia hitman Greg Scarpa and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as the fictional FBI agent teamed with him to solve the murders of civil rights activists in the 1960s South. I’ve said it before, but audiences know when a studio has no faith in a movie, and they won’t show up for it. The shame is that it’s actually pretty good, which is why audiences have it at 87% on Rotten Tomatoes, with critics at just 55%.
5. Insidious: Out of the Further– $6.5M/$54.1M
6. Cars– $6.1M
Pixar re-released one of its biggest hits, Cars, into theaters in celebration of the 20th anniversary (!!!) and brought in $6.1M.
7. Buddy– $5.7M/$14.2M
Riding a wave of strong reviews from the genre crowd, horror-comedy Buddy, about a Barney-esque television show host who goes on a killing spree, added another $5.7M and improved from last week’s solid debut.
8. PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie– $3.3M/$48.4M
9. The End of Oak Street– $2.9M/$50.6M
10. The Dog Stars– $2.7M/$13M
Also…A rough week for new releases continued with Fall 2: Deadpoint, which opened to just $2.3M and is projected to reach $2.8M over the holiday. This isn’t far from what its predecessor, Fall, earned in 2022, on its way to $18M overall based on strong word of mouth.
Finally, Adam Wingard’s return to gritty action flicks was a massive fail. A24 released Onslaught (review) into 1,918 theaters and earned just $1.8M. Ouch. The film, led by Adria Arjona, Dan Stevens, and Rebecca Hall, follows an ex-military sniper and single mom as she defends her neighborhood against three rampaging super-soldiers. Reviews were weak across the board with critics taking it to just 55% and audiences at 62%. [BoxOfficeMojo]
Well, nobody can blame Prime Video’s The Runner for lying to its audience. Directed, somehow, by the usually reliable Kevin Macdonald (The Last King of Scotland, State of Play), The Runner is literally 90-minutes of Gal Gadot running through Scotland. If it were designed to be a travelogue of the city, that would be one thing, and preferable to the embarrassingly stupid thriller that we got instead. There are films that have used the real-time conceit effectively, but when done poorly, the countdown clock serves as an excruciating reminder that this 90-minute movie feels like 3 hours.
You’d think that the leggy Gadot racing through busy London streets would be exciting, or if nothing else, kinetic. It’s insane how much of a drag it actually is, though, with the city serving as little more than a series of manufactured obstacles for her character, Maia, a powerhouse attorney with an important trial set to take place later that day. Her key witness is tucked away safely so that nothing happens to him. However, during her morning run, Maia gets a phone call from a mysterious stranger who says he’s kidnapped her diabetic son. He’s hacked into her phone and has access to everything; he can see Maia wherever she goes and whoever she speaks to. As long as she keeps running through the city, things will be okay. It becomes clear that the caller needs Maia to murder the witness if she wants her son back alive.
What’s the point of making Maia run through the city to achieve this goal? You got me; other than that, there would be no movie called The Runner if she didn’t. Mark Gibson’s screenplay comes up with all sorts of minor roadblocks: traffic, crowded streets, pickpockets snatching Maia’s phone briefly, etc. She overcomes these pretty easily; in one case, taking advantage of London racism to get a Black pursuer off her back. There’s a tease of something violent in Maia’s past that makes her ideal to the caller’s murderous demand, but the reveal is the kind of cheap swerve designed to rescue a lame movie from itself. No dice here.
I’m a fan of Gadot, and feel she’s been unfairly written off for her politics, but also because she’s no longer Wonder Woman, as if that was her decision. People forget she is the main reason those movies succeeded. The problem is that her choices since then have been crap, with Heart of Stone, Red Notice, and Snow White all humiliating flops that did her no favors. The Runner isn’t going to change anyone’s negative perception of Gadot. The screenplay paints Maia as brilliant, resourceful, and ready for anything. It goes to absurd lengths to prove it in the final act because we only see panic and desperation for the rest of the movie.
While watching The Runner, I was reminded of a much better movie that it shares a lot in common with, Run Lola Run, in which Franka Potente has 20 minutes to find enough money to save her boyfriend. The propulsive camerawork had a purpose, carrying the story forward by leaps and bounds and capturing the unpredictability of the moment. The Runner‘s cinematography by Danny Boyle confidante Anthony Dod Mantle accomplishes the opposite. All of the whipping and panning and frenzied shots of Maia screaming don’t ramp up the tension, they just leave you bored.
Gadot deserves better material than this, but hey, she chose to do it. If there’s one good thing to come out of The Runner, it’s that everyone involved with it must’ve gotten a good workout.
Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley have been on the trail promoting this week’s Apple spy comedy, Mayday (which is a lot of fun), and they’ve had a lot to say. Not just their upcoming reboot of the Star Trek franchise for Paramount, but also about their popular Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, which the studio opened in 2023 to a disappointing box office.
Just last month, the duo said they had completed the script for a sequel, but Paramount was uninterested after the first film only made $205M on a $150M budget. Now, while appearing on The Discourse Podcast, they confirm Dungeons & Dragons 2 is being shopped around to other studios…
“Yeah, absolutely,” Goldstein said when asked about finding another financial backer. “I think Hasbro is a big believer in it, and if they can figure out a studio partner to make it work, they’ll want to proceed. As are our producers.”
Daley chimed in, “I mean, look, it’s something that is near and dear to our hearts in that we loved making the first one. We fell in love with the characters, and there’s so much potential in a sequel because the first act isn’t filled with exposition or introduction to this family that we’ve already become accustomed to. So you can kind of launch right into the story, which is really nice.”
At the same time, Daley admitted the financial realities might prevent the sequel from ever happening, “Yes, there are practical realities with the finance contingent, and who knows if it ever gets made, but we were proud of the sequel script and hope that at some point it does find a path.”
Daley also talked about the poor timing of the movie’s release, which was just days ahead of the record-breaking Super Mario Bros. Movie. There were other D&D licensing issues that caused some trouble behind-the-scenes. Frankly, I don’t think that stuff matters more than the fact that D&D has a loyal base of fans who aren’t necessarily moviegoers.
