You know how NFL coaches hate it when their star player signs with a division rival as a free agent, knowing they’ll be super motivated to play their former team? That may be a little bit of what Marvel is feeling right now as The Wrap reports fired Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn is in talks to take over the Suicide Squad sequel.
This is pretty much what social media has been hoping for out of Gunn, isn’t it? He is now said to be in talks to write and possibly direct Suicide Squad 2, with Warner Bros. clearly hoping he can work the same magic that turned Marvel’s B-list bunch of a-holes into a billion dollar franchise. He’ll be given free rein to offer a “new take” on DC’s team of villains, which could mean a roster shakeup. Presumably the film’s biggest stars, Will Smith as Deadshot and Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, will return for more. Here’s hoping he keeps around Jai Courtney’s Captain Boomerang, too.
It does sound like Gavin O’Connor is getting bumped off the project, though. He wrote the previous version of the script and was slotted to replace David Ayer as director, but seems to be out of the picture now.
Potentially huge news here as Gunn could be a game-changing filmmaker for the struggling DCEU. The first Suicide Squad seemed to be trying to ape the offbeat style Gunn captured with Guardians, but couldn’t quite match it. The film still went on to earn nearly $750M and become one of the DCEU’s most successful properties. With Gunn on board who knows how far he could take this.
As I said in my review of Drew Goddard’s new filmBad Times at the El Royale, “we can only hope there are bad times in store for Marvel’s merry mutants.” Goddard has been attached to an X-Force movie for a while now, but as far as actual updates on it go there haven’t been many. And now speaking with Fandango, the director does give one…except, well, it isn’t really one because there isn’t really one to give.
“There’s no real update to be honest. I tend to focus very intensely on one movie at a time. We’re just sort of finishing ‘Bad Times’ now, Ryan [Reynolds] is off shooting a movie and everyone sort of scattered, like dandelions to the wind. I think as we finish this up, we’ll all get together and start hammering out what we want to do next, but there’s no real update at this point.”
Some of that is to be expected. Goddard has been busy with El Royale while Reynolds is off shooting Michael Bay’s 6 Underground. Without the Deadpool actor and Goddard around there wasn’t going to be much movement on X-Force, anyway. But it also sounds like Goddard is a little uncertain about the future with Disney’s acquisition of Fox looming. Any decisions regarding the X-Men movies are going to be out of his control
That said, Goddard says he and Reynolds are down whenever they get a full go.
“I can’t imagine there’s going to be a world where there aren’t more ‘Deadpool’ movies because, boy, Ryan Reynolds is extraordinary, and so, we’ll just see.”
Goddard’s Bad Times at the El Royale opens this weekend, while you can see Reynolds’ Deadpool in a PG-13 cut of Deadpool 2 in theaters this Christmas.
Batman who? When there’s this much excitement over the casting of Ruby Rose as Batwoman, why keep the fans waiting? CW has released the first image of Ruby Rose in full Batwoman costume, and I have to admit it looks pretty great.
If you can barely see Rose underneath the black mask and scarlet red wig, well, that’s the point. Award-winning designer Coleen Atwood has come up with a look that is both faithful to the comics and streamlined to fit with the majority of other Arrowverse characters. I dig it.
Batwoman will appear in the December 9th Arrowverse crossover episode featuring The Flash, Arrow, Supergirl, and Legends of Tomorrow. If the fan reaction is what we expect it to be, a solo Batwoman series from writer Caroline Dries (The Vampire Diaries) will follow. Here’s the series description via THR:
“[Batwoman] centers on Kate Kane, who, armed with a passion for social justice and flair for speaking her mind, soars onto the streets of Gotham as Batwoman, an out lesbian and highly trained street fighter primed to snuff out the failing city’s criminal resurgence. But don’t call her a hero yet — in a city desperate for a savior, Kate must overcome her own demons before embracing the call to be Gotham’s symbol of hope.”
With Steven Soderbergh making the inevitable leap to Netflix for his basketball drama High Flying Bird, the newly-formed partnership must already be going swimmingly. A lot of attention has been placed on his Panama Papers film, The Laundromat, which was eyeing Gary Oldman, Meryl Streep, and Antonio Banderas for key roles. Well now we not only have confirmation of their participation but more additions to the star-studded cast, as well as where you’ll be able to see the movie. Surely by now you’ve figured it out.
Netflix will be the home for Soderbergh’s The Laundromat, which we know will star Oldman, Banderas, Streep, and David Schwimmer. Will Forte and Riley Keough are close to signing on, as well. Scott Z. Burns (Contagion) adapted Jake Bernstein’s book about the money laundering scheme involving Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca A whistleblower’s document leak detailed trillions of dollars hidden in offshore accounts by celebrities, politicians, and other powerful members of the global society.
This move is hardly suprising as Soderbergh’s brand of film is probably best suited for Netflix, anyway. This guarantees the most people will see his movie, and I think that’s all he really cares about at this point. [Deadline]
Drew Goddard is back in his deconstructionist comfort zone with the wildly entertaining, stylish 1960s romp with the awesome title, Bad Times at the El Royale. Like his prior film Cabin in the Woods, Goddard peels back the genre layers and forces his audience to act as voyeurs to all of the craziness he exposes. But even if you aren’t hip to every aspect of this wild genre mashup, there are so many big pulpy performances you’ll be checked in for the long haul.
The beauty of Bad Times at the El Royale is in the details, because it’s clear Goddard had so much fun creating them. From the 1969 setting, at the height of social paranoia about the country’s future, to the titular rundown hotel itself, every facet adds so much rich texture. Take the El Royale, which straddles the California and Nevada state lines with wholly different laws regulating whichever side the guest decides to stay in. Once a popular night spot frequented by Rat Packers and other Hollywood elites, the El Royale now resembles a cheap Howard Johnson’s, a last refuge for those in dire straits one way or another. It’s the perfect place for some shady dealing, shady characters, shady everything.
The clichés are all part of what’s great, and it starts right from the beginning as a criminal (played by Nick Offerman in a glorified cameo) buries a bag of cash in the seedy hotel’s floorboards. The characters who come hovering around in the wake of the shocking brutality that soon follows are also familiar archetypes of genre thrillers: Jeff Bridges plays the forgetful priest, Father Flynn; Tony winner Cynthia Erivo is troubled backup singer Darlene Sweet; Jon Hamm is motor-mouthed vacuum salesman Laramie Seymour Sullivan; Dakota Johnson is badass hippy Emily who is lugging the kidnapped Rose (Cailee Spaeny) in the trunk of her car; all checking in with the creepy hotel cashier/clerk/tour guide/drug addict Miles (Lewis Pullman), who is entirely too enthusiastic for someone working at such a dump. It’s not a good sign, but then, do any of these people deserve a good sign? Surely some of them will not survive the night, but do any of them deserve the night of Hell that awaits? Maybe they all do.
Pinballing through multiple narratives, chapters, and perspectives you can see Bad Times at the El Royale as an echo of the Tarantino thrillers of the ’90s that inspired so many copycats. To be honest, it’s done so well here that I expect we’ll see their revival in some way soon. They’ll have a tough time matching Goddard’s delicate weaving of crime, espionage, horror, and musical tropes. Nor will they be able to boast a shirtless thunder god like Chris Hemsworth as a charismatic Manson-esque cult leader, who wanders into the hotel bringing anything but good vibes to the nocturnal proceedings.
While the deliberate pacing can be a drag and the overlong finale a bit of a buzzkill, figuring out the who’s who and what’s what of Bad Times at the El Royale is a huge part of its charm. Goddard may be treading on somewhat familiar turf for his sophomore effort, but he’s one of the best at it, and the only question now is what genre will he turn his attentions to next? With an X-Force movie in his immediate future we can only hope there are bad times in store for Marvel’s merry mutants.
Sony’s hit Venom movie very nearly had a totally different opening sequence and origin for the alien symbiote. The film opened with a space shuttle for the Life Foundation crash-landing to Earth after a mission in space, carrying one of the alien symbiotes in a canister. When a cleanup crew comes to claim the canister, they find that one of the astronauts is already infected by a symbiote, which then leaps from him to another host before escaping.
In an interview with CinemaBlend, director Ruben Fleischer reveals the alternate opening that would have taken us all the way to a distant symbiote planet, and would have gone into greater detail about what they are…
“The beginning of the movie was a hard one. Like, how much do we want to tell the backstory? There was a version where there was a planet crawling with tons of symbiotes that were collected and taken back to Earth by the Life Foundation. They had encountered them. But it kind of felt like, my instinct was it would be better to keep it more mysterious and just know that they’ve retrieved something from space. We don’t know exactly by what means or how. Jenny [Slate]’s character later says they encountered it on a comet that was passing, and they retrieved these samples and brought it back to Earth. But yeah, I thought it was better just leave it a little bit mysterious, the backstory of the aliens.”
To be honest, I missed the opening few minutes at our screening and had to catch up with it later. When I did it didn’t seem like I had missed all that much. The introductory sequence worked at keeping the symbiote mysterious, but it didn’t really stand out as crucial to the story. I think it was probably the best way to go for long-term story planning (and for keeping the budget down) and going to an actual symbiote world would have cut off a potentially cool future storyline.
Michael Pena is about to make all of your wildest dreams come true. Blumhouse’s Fantasy Island remake has just cast the Ant-Man actor in the role of Mr. Roarke, the mysterious benefactor made famous by Ricardo Montalban in the classic TV series.
So this could be interesting, because Blumhouse’s Jason Blum has suggested a slightly more horror-esque take on the TV series’ premise, while the casting of Pena certainly suggests comedy. In case you forgot, Fantasy Island takes place on a hidden island owned by the mysterious, possibly immortal, Mr. Roarke. He has the power to make the fantasies of his guests come true, for a price, of course. He is joined on the island by his diminutive sidekick, Tattoo, originally played by Hervé Villechaize.
Even the plot synopsis for this new Fantasy Island sounds sinister. THR says “The new movie will follow a group of guests who are warned by the island’s overseer, Mr. Roarke, that their fantasies may not play out how they expect.”
Yep, sounds like every Wishmaster movie I ever saw.
Fantasy Island has no set release date but will be directed by Truth or Dare‘s Jeff Wadlow.
The rumor machine never stops, especially for a film like The Batman. Earlier today That Hashtag Show dropped a pretty big rumor, that Unbroken and Godless star Jack O’Connell had met with Warner Bros. about a role in The Batman, as a Bat-family member or possibly the lead role replacing Ben Affleck who wants to pass the torch. While that would have been an intriguing pick, Heroic Hollywood confirms the rumor to be “100 percent incorrect”.
The site notes that Warner Bros. aren’t ready to move forward on casting yet, as they are focused on perfecting Matt Reeves’ script, which was turned in just a few weeks ago. It’s expected the story will center on a much younger Bruce Wayne, and will not feature Affleck in the role. At this point nothing has been confirmed, however.
This is a time of change over at DC Films, with Henry Cavill reportedly out as Superman and Affleck apparently done as Batman. They’ve got a number of projects coming up that speak to the changing face of the franchise, with Joker, Aquaman, Wonder Woman 1984, Birds of Prey, Green Lantern Corps, and a Flash solo film.
Like I previously said, the current DC regime is dedicated to nailing the script down first before going out to talent.
I’m still not convinced Affleck is finished, especially now that he’s out of rehab and ready to get back to work. We’ll probably start hearing more about his future career path in the very near future, and how that will impact Reeves’s plans for The Batman.
Try as I might to ignore most TV out there, when a project comes along like The Little Drummer Girl that becomes impossible. The talent alone is more than enough to pique anybody’s interest. Oldboy director Park Chan-wook is accompanied by stars Alexander Skarsgard, Michael Shannon, Florence Pugh, Charles Dance, and Max Irons in an adaptation of the spy novel by espionage master, John Le Carre.
Check please. Here is the official synopsis:
Based on John le Carré’s best-selling literary masterpiece of the same name and directed by visionary filmmaker Park Chan-wook (Oldboy, The Handmaiden, Stoker), The Little Drummer Girl weaves a suspenseful and explosive story of espionage and high-stakes international intrigue. Set in the late 1970s, the pulsating thriller follows Charlie (BAFTA-nominate Florence Pugh), a fiery actress and idealist whose resolve is tested after she meets the mysterious Becker (Emmy® and Golden Globe®Award-winner Alexander Skarsgård) while on holiday in Greece. It quickly becomes apparent that his intentions are not what they seem, and her encounter with him entangles her in a complex plot devised by the spy mastermind Kurtz (twice Academy Award-nominated Michael Shannon). Charlie takes on the role of a lifetime as a double agent while remaining uncertain of her own loyalties.
AMC is doing something a little bit different with this one. Rather than stretch the six hour-long episodes over a few weeks they are offering the series in two-hour blocks for three straight days. It’s not quite binge watching, but it’s close and I like it.
The Little Drummer Girl premieres on November 19th.
The potential in a pairing of Robert Pattinson with French auteur Claire Denis was always sky high, but the early reviews of High Life have been stratospheric. Unfortunately, we’ve still got a long wait until the sci-fi film arrives stateside, but with a French release around the corner we at least have the first teaser.
While brief, it’s clear to see this is going to be quite the existential journey full of mesmerizing imagery. The story follows a group of criminals sent into space to find an alternative energy source, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. From what I’m hearing it may be a good idea to avoid spoilers on this one, so just heed that warning before checking out the below synopsis:
Deep space. Beyond our solar system. Monte and his infant daughter Willow live together aboard a spacecraft, in complete isolation. A solitary man, whose strict self-discipline is a protection against desire – his own and that of others – Monte fathered the girl against his will. His sperm was used to inseminate Boyse, the young woman who gave birth to her. They were members of a crew of prisoners: space convicts, death row inmates. Guinea pigs sent on a mission to the black hole closest to Earth. Now only Monte and Willow remain. And Monte is changed. Through his daughter, for the first time, he experiences the birth of an all-powerful love. Willow grows, becoming a young girl, then a young woman. Together, alone, father and daughter approach their destination – the black hole in which all time and space cease to exist.
Juliette Binoche, Mia Goth, Andre Benjamin, and Lars Eidinger co-star. High Life opens in France next month, but won’t open here until some time in 2019.
