Excluding the last couple of hugely successful Deadpool flicks, the last few years have been tough for Fox’s X-Men franchise. The last major team film, X-Men: Apocalypse, was a disappointment financially and creatively, which had much of the cast contemplating their departure. Meanwhile, problems plagued films New Mutants and Dark Phoenix, which have suffered from rewrites, reshoots, and delays. At least we’ve seen something of the former, even if that footage may no longer matter. It’s the latter, Dark Phoenix, that has suffered the most, which is why there’s been so much anticipation for tonight’s trailer, to see if the course has been corrected and Fox’s lucrative superhero series saved.
The new trailer promises a vast improvement over X-Men: The Last Stand, which was the first attempt to crack Chris Claremont’s classic “Dark Phoenix” storyline. We see the return of James McAvoy as Professor Charles Xavier, who has taken drastic steps to protect, likely suppress, the raging emotions within a young Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) after the deaths of her parents in a car accident. As Jean grows older and more powerful, those feelings can no longer be held in check, and her powers start to flare out of control. We see her approaching Magneto (Michael Fassbender) for help, and the mysterious unnamed character played by Jessica Chastain has a few choice words, as well, that seem to be driving Jean over the edge.
The footage also offers glimpses of Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique, Nicholas Hoult as Beast, Tye Sheridan as Cyclops, Alexandra Shipp as Storm, and Kodi Smit-McPhee as Nightcrawler. Longtime producer/writer Simon Kinberg makes his directorial debut and has promised a more grounded approach to the story, but it’s one that will also see the team soaring into the cosmos.
I’m excited again for the X-Men, so let’s hope Dark Phoenix measures up when it opens on February 14th 2019.
So how’s that Hellboy movie coming along, eh? Been a long wait for it, right? No trailers, no nothin’. Well, we have an idea why now, as the David Harbour-led, Guilermo Del Toro-free movie has been pushed back three months.
THR reports Neil Marshall’s take on the popular brick-handed comic book character will arrive on April 12th 2019, three months after its original January 11th date. As for the reasons why, that we don’t know yet but this move can be seen a couple of different ways. Either Lionsgate is super happy and wanted to get it out of the January dumps, or there are very real problems that need time to be corrected. Until we know more you can take your pick.
This move puts Hellboy in close competiton with DC’s Shazam film, which opens a week later on April 29th. It goes directly against Robert Downey Jr.’s Voyage of Doctor Doolittle, which we also haven’t seen anything of.
There’s a chance we may get a Hellboy trailer at next week’s New York Comic-Con, so fingers crossed!
It’s official. Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn is no longer the only member of the Birds of Prey. After a short list of contenders emerged just days ago, now Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Jurnee Smollett-Bell have joined the cast.
Deadline reports Winstead has won the role of Huntress aka Helena Bertinelli, daughter of a Gotham crime boss who becomes the violent hero after her family is killed in a mob hit. Winstead is no stranger to studio projects or comic book movies, having starred in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Smollett-Bell will take on the role of Dinah Lance aka Black Canary, usually seen as the leader of the team and a skilled combatant with the power of a “canary cry”, a sonic scream that incapacitates foes. Smollett-Bell starred in The Great Debaters with Denzel Washington, and can be seen now in the hit series, Underground.
Winstead beat out a group of actresses that included Margaret Qualley, Cristin Milioti, and Sofia Boutella, while Smollett-Bell won out over Gugu Mbatha-Raw.
The roles of Cassandra Cain and detective Renee Montoya are still up in the air. Justina Machado and Roberta Colindrez are said to be up for the Montoya role. Meanwhile, Variety’s Justin Kroll suggests Ewan McGregor or Sharlto Copley could play villain Black Mask. Stay tuned!
Birds of Prey opens February 7th 2020, directed by Cathy Yan.
Still have Renee Montoya and Cassandra Cain’s roles to cast as well as the crime lord up against the team. Hearing names like Sharlto and Ewan McGreggor are actors they like for the role but have only started meeting actors for that part https://t.co/OaVfpTfkyM
Whereas many a Sundance film has aimed for timelessness at the festival, this year it’s clear timeliness is key. After day one’s rousing premiere of Blindspotting which looks at the impact of an unarmed black man’s death at the hands of cops, debut director Reinaldo Marcus Green’s Monsters and Men offers a more textured, multi-faceted view. While it lacks the aforementioned film’s passion and intensity, it is no less hard-hitting as a call for more understanding, and failing that, more activism.
Set in Brooklyn’s Bed-Stuy neighborhood, Green’s film is inspired by the tragic death of Eric Garner, the unarmed New York man whose chokehold death at the hands of police gave birth to the “I Can’t Breathe” movement. Interweaving three tales in the wake of a similar accident, the story follows Dennis, an African-American NYPD officer conflicted with the job in the wake of the killing. Frequently harassed when not in uniform, the film actually begins with him being pulled over for questionable reasons, Dennis is stuck between his sense of loyalty to the badge and the reality he sees on the street.
The most effective, and sadly least complete, segment follows Manny (Anthony Ramos), who videotaped the killing and uploads it to Youtube, sparking city-wide riots. But his decision has dire repercussions just as his life is starting to turn around; a new job with which to take care of his wife (Jasmine Cephas Jones, basically playing the same role she had in Blindspotting) and daughter suddenly goes up in smoke when the cops arrest him on false charges as means of payback.
Initially there’s a disconnect with the third perspective, that of high school baseball phenom Zee (Kelvin Harrison Jr.), who has a life away from the racially-charged madness if he just keeps his head down. His father (Mudbound‘s Rob Morgan, great once again) certainly encourages his son to shut everything else out, but Zee can’t ignore what’s happening to the city around him and joins with a local activist (Chante Adams) to protest the man’s death.
An alum of Sundance’s Screenwriters Lab and Sundance Institute Directors, Green drew from his own experiences growing up in New York, while also expanding on his 2015 short film Stop, which deals with racial profiling. He handles the difficult material like a seasoned pro; many first-time filmmakers would have felt the need to turn up the heat and send an obvious message. But there’s nothing easy about any of the stories Green tells, and all come with surprising revelations.
Dennis’ story has the benefit of the charismatic John David Washington (in a twist on his BlacKkKlansman role), channeling his father Denzel’s constant swagger and commanding presence. A genuinely good cop, who breaks into impromptu pickup basketball games with the locals, he’s nevertheless a staunch backer of police tactics when he’s cornered in an argument. But even then, Washington convinces us of what is truly in Dennis’ heart. “The job isn’t a choice”, he tells his wife (Nicole Beharie), who just wants her husband home safe and out of the growing conflict.
But I was particularly struck by Anthony Ramos as Manny. Ramos, another native New Yorker just like Green, brings a realness that can’t be faked. It’s not hard to imagine that he’s seen his share of racial injustice, in fact in the Q&A following the film’s world premiere he spoke about what he’s been through. And it comes through in his heartbreaking performance, as Manny gives a view that we’ve never seen on film before. We forget about the people who, sometimes at great risk, record police misconduct and make it public. Their stories deserve to be told, too.
Green doesn’t go out of his way to tell a complete narrative, which is frustrating, especially in the case of Manny. And despite Green’s best efforts, the title of the movie gives away at least a little bit of bias. Dennis may be a good cop but what’s he going to do about the bad cops that make him and others look bad? That question is never posed and it desperately needed to be. But then, Dennis’ story isn’t over. None of these stories are over, they will keep going on. There will always be racism, there will always be injustice, and there will be triumphs. Monsters and Men recognizes that these are just small moments in a greater tale yet to be written.
Creed could have easily been such a disaster, and a weak attempt to spinoff the dormant Rocky franchise. I mean, who would want to watch a movie about the son of Apollo Creed? It sounds like a bad joke, not one of the best boxing dramas in recent memory. Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan, then teaming up for just the second time (it would be a couple years later before that Black Panther move you might’ve heard of) recaptured the underdog spirit that made the Rocky movies work.
Now a new challenge awaits with Creed II, a film that boasts a new director in Steven Caple Jr., (The Land), and a deeper connection to the Rocky legacy. The sequel finds Adonis squaring off against the son of Ivan Drago, the man who years ago killed his father in the squared circle. On paper, it sounds a little bit silly. The fight against Drago was such an over-the-top, flag-waving spectacle common to ’80s flicks where Russians were perceived as the enemy, but could that work again in 2018?
Forget everything going on in the world right now and just look at the trailer, and you’ll see the answer is definitely “yes.”. Rather than posed as a showdown of national importance, the fight is seen as a personal war for Adonis to overcome as he grapples with his father’s legacy. Jordan looks jacked for the role, and Stallone is still convincing in his fatherly role as Rocky Balboa.
“He broke things in me that ain’t never been fixed. It ain’t worth it”, he says while advising Adonis not to take the fight. But of course, the stubborn fighter, much like a young Rocky, has too much to prove to turn it down. This has the potential of being better than Creed, and I don’t say that lightly because I love that movie.
Also starring Dolph Lundgren Tessa Thompson, Phylicia Rashad, Brigitte Nielsen, Milo Ventimiglia, and Florian Munteanu as Viktor Drago, Creed II opens November 21st.
Tonight 20th Century Fox will unveil the first trailer for the long-delayed, much-maligned X-Men: Dark Phoenix, or just Dark Phoenix, whatever it’s going to be called. But before that happens they have released this brief teaser, which heralds the arrival of a terrible evil.
Longtime writer/producer Simon Kinberg makes his directorial debut, an interesting choice to have him on a project of this size. But then again it couldn’t be worse than what was done on X-Men: Apocalypse, could it? This is the second crack at adapting the famous Dark Phoenix storyline, after it was so badly botched in X-Men: The Last Stand. The story finds Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) possessed by a powerful cosmic force that could threaten the entire universe.
Returning, and heard in this teaser, are James McAvoy as Professor Xavier, Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique, and Michael Fassbender as Magneto. For a while it looked as if they were all done with this franchise, but were lured back for at least one more go. It remains unclear what their future in these movies will be, especially with the Fox/Disney merger looming.
Also starring Jessica Chastain, Tye Sheridan, and Nicholas Hoult, Dark Phoenix opens February 14th 2019. Check back later for the full trailer!
Sometimes I get angry at the seemingly pointless fights that get picked, in particular over race, when choosing bigger battles to wage would be a better strategy. And then a situation like this arrives and I realize sometimes I’m an idiot who needs to take in the whole picture. A few weeks ago Disney faced an unexpected controversy from an unlikely source, sequel Ralph Breaks the Internet, and it had to do with the way Princess Tiana from Princess and the Frog was depicted in the scenes featuring all of the Disney princesses.
To see her in those trailers and images, you would never recognize that this was the same Tiana. It was clear that her African-American features had been altered drastically, her hair curlier, her skin lightened, and her facial features softened so that she resembled all of the other white princesses in Disney’s canon. And fans noticed. They noticed like shit, and got mad as Hell about it over social media.
The uproar did reach the Disney offices, and according to Anika Noni Rose, who voiced Tiana in the original film and in Ralph Breaks the Internet, changes are being made to correct the issue. Rose said that she met with Disney reps to voice her concern, and frankly she does a better job explaining why Tiana is important to black women and black girls than I ever could…
“…I was able to express how important it is to the little girls (and let’s face it, grown women) who felt represented by her that her skin tone stay as rich as it had been, and that her nose continue to be the little round nose that Mark so beautifully rendered in the movie; the same nose on my very own face and on many other little brown faces around the world, that we so rarely get to see represented in fantasy.”
“I also appreciate that this far into the process Disney had enough care and respect for all who love Princess Tiana and her legacy to spend the time and money to make the adjustments necessary.”
Good on her, and good on Disney for listening to what people had to say on this issue, taking it seriously, and doing something about it. Movies have incredible power to influence the way we perceive ourselves, and accurate representation in Hollywood is a very big deal. Hopefully this sets a new standard not just for animation but for live-action films as well.
Through two seasons I think it’s safe to say Daredevil has been Marvel’s best Netflix series, with Charlie Cox’s gritty take on the hero perfectly matched by Vincent D’Onofrio’s performance as the villainous Kingpin. But without Kingpin for much of season two, it was also obvious how badly one needed the other, which makes Wilson Fisk’s return for the upcoming third season all the more exciting. That they appear to be adapting the epic “Born Again” storyline should have fan anticipation through the roof.
If you recall that lackluster Defenders miniseries, and it’s okay if you don’t, it ended with what appeared to be Daredevil’s demise. Shocker, reports of his demise have been greatly exaggerated, and Daredevil season 3 picks up months later with Matt Murdock a broken man, and as you can see from the teaser, back in black duds. Meanwhile, Kingpin is out of prison and looking good and sporting his iconic spiffy white threads, making for a black/white contrast that I’m sure wasn’t intentional at all. Nope, not at all.
While it’s barely alluded to here, it does appear that Frank Miller’s classic “Born Again” storyline will be a driving force behind this season. For those unfamiliar, it finds Kingpin discovering Daredevil’s civilian identity, and rather than outing him publicly he uses the information to slowly destroy everything and everyone in his life.
Here’s the season synopsis: Missing for months, Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) reemerges a broken man, putting into question his future as both vigilante Daredevil and lawyer Matthew Murdock. But when his archenemy Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio) is released from prison, Matt must choose between hiding from the world or embracing his destiny as a hero.
This season sees the return of Deborah Ann Woll as Karen Page, a character who is integral to and utterly transformed by the “Born Again” plot, and Elden Henson as Foggy Nelson, plus Annabella Sciorra as gangster Rosalie Carbone and Wilson Bethel as Bullseye.
South Korean zombie flick Train to Busan was an international hit in 2016, earning $85M worldwide with a small chunk of that here in America. But its biggest gains came later, as strong word of mouth turned it into a cult favorite, and it wasn’t long before word broke that an English-language remake was in the works. Now as multiple studios fight over the film’s rights it has gained some big name talent in James Wan and writer Gary Dauberman.
Deadline reports The Conjuring, Saw, and Insidious mastermind, as well as current Aquaman director James Wan has joined Train to Busan as a producer. He’ll be joined by The Nun and It: Chapter Two writer Gary Dauberman, penning the story of a zombie outbreak on a packed passenger train from Seoul to Busan. It’s unclear if Dauberman will also direct, but he’s currently set to helm the next Annabelle movie which he’s also writing. Paramount, Lionsgate and Screen Gems are all in the mix to attain the remake’s rights, but New Line appears to be the frontrunner.
I’m curious to see what cultural changes will be made to San-ho Yeon’s film, and if some of the batshit insanity will be toned down for American audiences. Will they perhaps change the location, as well? Train to Albuquerque, maybe?
It took a lot of years and plenty of missteps, but Warner Bros. has FINALLY figured out what the DCEU has been lacking all of this time. There simply aren’t enough puking scenes in their movies. Really, James Wan’s Aquaman movie will apparently feature multiple scenes of water being vomited up because….uh, better to let the director explain.
“People would ask me, you know, ‘So when they talk, is it bubbles that come out of their mouth?’ And I’m like, ‘No because there’s no air in your lungs, so there wouldn’t be any bubbles.’ Right? So then in that sequence where you saw Mera open up this air pocket… when [Orm] lands in that, he’s breathing air. The first thing he does is, he’s in an air pocket, so he’d puke out all the water that’s in his lungs. So that’s the first step. We think about all these little details and stuff like that. And then when he’s screaming [when the water returns], we want bubbles coming out of his mouth because now there’s actually air in his lungs.”
Apparently, one of those who will also vomit up some H2O is Nicole Kidman’s character when she first meets the human male who eventually becomes Aquaman’s father. Now that’s a meet cute story for ya.
On the one hand, I get it. James Wan and Co. gave this movie a really serious think and decided it’s best to be super technical about how the whole breathing underwater thing works. That’s kinda cool and I appreciate it. On the other hand, this is a comic book movie we’re talking about here, and stuff like that shouldn’t be important to anybody. And if the audience does have time to sit and think about the science of underwater breathing then the rest of the story must be pretty damned dull.
Anyway, get ready for water puke when Aquaman arrives on December 21st. [ScreenRant]
