Despite Dredd being a hit with fans of the comic, the film didn’t make much money at the box office. It’s still gone on to become a cult favorite, largely due to Karl Urban’s perfect casting as the violent purveyor of justice. With the announcement of the Mega-City One series set in the world of Judge Dredd, there was some hope that Urban might don the helmet once more. Despite some initial talks heading in that direction, it sounds like Urban doesn’t have anything to do with the show.
“I’m not attached to it, although I did have a preliminary round of conversations with them,” he told Trek Movie. “I am interested in doing it. There are a lot of great stories to tell there… their idea for Mega-City One is basically to build the show around more rookie judges and young, new judges and Dredd would come in and out and I said that I’ll do it, but it has to be done in a meaningful way.”
So the door is still open, and honestly I’m not sure there will be much heat for a Judge Dredd TV series without Judge Dredd in it. There already doesn’t seem to be a lot of interest as no networks have bought in yet, but if they can get Urban to join that could change things in a hurry.
“Don’t you appreciate a little gunfire before breakfast?”
There isn’t just gunfire before breakfast, but at lunch, dinner, and in-between meals in Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani’s deliriously stylish shoot ’em up, Let the Corpses Tan. A Western unlike any other you’re likely to see or hear, sensory overload hits you within the first few minutes and never really lets up as the directors splash the screen in vibrant colors and break-neck camera angles, style pouring out of every frame. Only the barest contours of a plot take shape but that’s not what is clearly at interest here, rather to throw the viewer into a kamikaze cinematic experience that defies simple labels.
It’s virtually impossible to tell exactly what’s going on here, except that everybody seems to hate everyone else and people start dying. There’s also a satchel full of stolen gold bars, an apparent angel of death who occasionally pees on people, a bored writer named Bernier (Marc Barbé) and his Tilda Swinton-esque muse Madam Luce (Elina Löwensohn), and lot of gunfire. Set somewhere out in the Mediterranean, Luce’s paradise home becomes a gang hideout when the bullish Rhino (Stéphane Ferrara) and his cohorts crash there after pulling off a violent gold heist. Also unexpectedly showing up to the party are Bernier’s wife and kids, a timid lawyer Luce is involved with, and eventually a pair of motorcycle cops (Hervé Sogne and Dominique Troyes) who don’t understand the Hell they’ve just rode into.
Sex and violence dance together devilishly; the eerily sensual silhouette of a woman’s body (women are harbingers of doom and pleasure, naturally) is often the last thing seen before the snap-bang of a trigger pull, followed by the ugly splash of blood (or in some cases, rainbow colors) on the stony ground. Cattet and Forzani show little interest in any kind of strict narrative structure, despite this being their first work adapted from another’s source material. The amorphous results are largely the same as their earlier giallo-inspired films, Amer and The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears. And yet this is also their most mainstream effort yet, although that should be seen as purely relative. I personally found their previous efforts to be so abstract as to be unwatchable, but Let the Corpses Tan hits you with so many indelible images right off the bat you can’t help but be gripped by it. While the characters are barely sketched out, you quickly find yourself wanting to know who survives this cinematic orgy of violence and deviant behavior.
A flurry of betrayals, double-crosses, and shifting allegiances make it nearly impossible to know who is on whose side. You often won’t figure out what’s going on until somebody ends up on the wrong end of a gun barrel. A Rashomon style is employed to clue us in on multiple perspectives but it only makes things more confusing, as does a ridiculous timestamp that frequently breaks up the action. The hallucinatory effect created by Cattet and Forzani is all part of the package, and they clearly want nothing more than to take you on an eyeball-searing trip. As an exercise in style vs. substance, it’s clear what side Let the Corpses Tan falls on. You can admire or even love it for what it sets out and accomplishes, rather than burying it like a corpse for what it doesn’t.
For six seasons Downton Abbey was appointment viewing for millions of fans who love stuffy British drama. Focus Features is hoping those same people will drop some coin to be reunited with their favorite characters on the big screen, as production on a movie is about to kick off soon. But first there have been some new additions to the cast, and a change in director to deal with.
While the show’s original cast are all expected to return, some new faces have been added that include Oscar nominee Imelda Staunton (Vera Drake), Geraldine James (Rogue One), Simon Jones (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy), David Haig (Killing Eve), Tuppence Middleton (The Imitation Game), Kate Philips (The Crown), and Stephen Campbell Moore (History Boys).
The biggest change is in director, where Michael Engler has stepped in to replace Brian Percival who was originally hired for the job. No reason was given, but the movie does make some sense. Percival slides over into an exec-producer role, giving Engler a chance to reunite with creator and screenwriter Julian Fellowes. He and Fellowes worked together on the NBC pilot for The Gilded Age, and the film The Chaperone which Fellowes scripted. Engler has also directed four episodes of Downton Abbey, including the Christmas special/series finale, so he’s familiar with the material.
No official release date has been set but we can probably expect the Downton Abbey movie to arrive later next year.
The simple fact of the matter is that as long as Bruce Willis is making movies, there will be a Die Hard franchise. And when he’s gone, the franchise will likely get rebooted. For now he’s still around, and while nobody was asking for a Die Hard 6 we are definitely getting one. The long-in-the-works prequel/sequel Die Hard: Year One is still searching for its young John McClane, but at least the film now has an official title.
According to producer Lorenzo diBonaventura in an interview with Empire, the film’s title is simply McClane.
“You can tell our intention by the fact that the title page we handed in says, McClane. We want you to get invested in John McClane more than ever before. I don’t know how you do Die Hard without Bruce – the idea that he’s not very significant in this movie is not accurate at all. We are gonna explore John McClane in his twenties. But just as prominent is the 60-year-old version.”
While the early rumors suggested the film would be a total prequel, based on the eight-issue comic series Die Hard: Year One, did anybody really think Bruce Willis wouldn’t be involved? Of course not. In fact, it’s him along with director Len Wiseman who are deciding on the actor to play young McClane. Willis will feature in the contemporary portion of the story, although the extent of his role is unclear. I’m guessing they won’t cast anybody who will outshine Willis, so my hope they’ll pull a Looper and just hire Joseph Gordon-Levitt is probably for nothing.
Sincer her breakout role in The Hunger Games, Amandla Stenberg has used her fame to champion causes important to her, while taking on roles that parallel those same issues. Her most recent film The Darkest Minds may not have attracted much of an audience but it was another story that found Stenberg as an outsider in a world that refuses to understand her. She’s beginning to earn buzz already for two more such films arriving later this year, including the YA adaptation The Hate U Give, and the one that will arrive first, WWII drama Where Hands Touch.
Where Hands Touch is directed by Amma Asante, who has explored mixed-race heritage in films Belle and A United Kingdom. Set in 1944 Nazi Germany, the story follows the daughter of a white German woman and an African man, who forges an unlikely bond with a compassionate member of the Hitler Youth. The new trailer begins with a tense search for the girl by Nazi soldiers while she hides under her home’s floorboards. Even when she and her family move away to Berlin to be “invisible”, she still experiences first hand the prejudice instilled by Hitler’s regime. The film co-stars Abbie Cornish, George MacKay, Christopher Eccleston, and Tom Sweet.
Where Hands Touch will debut at TIFF on September 9th before opening five days later in select theaters.
I continue to be fascinated by Dave Bautista’s sustained verbal assault against Disney for firing Guardians of the Galaxy director, James Gunn. Dude hasn’t been this relentless since he challenged Triple H for the WWE World Title, and I mentioned before how his attitude reminds me the way he was outspoken during his wrestling career. Clearly Bautista doesn’t care if Disney fires him and kills off Drax, because he just can’t stop talking.
Speaking with Jonathan Ross, Bautista, who has already threatened to quit the franchise once, admitted that he’s not even sure he wants to work for Disney anymore. Oof. This is getting ugly.
”There’s a bit of an issue. It’s a bittersweet conversation. No – it’s a bitter, bitter conversation, because I’m not really happy with what they’ve done with James Gunn. They’re putting the movie off. It’s on hold indefinitely. To be honest with you, I don’t know if I want to work for Disney… I’ve been very vocal about the way I feel. I’m not afraid to admit the way I feel. “
I mean, it’s possible he’s just fucking with all of our heads here but I doubt it. What would be the benefit? Bautista has been clear and vocal in his support of Gunn and utter disgust at Disney’s caving in to pressure from questionable sources. Regardless of what you think about what Gunn or Disney has done, this situation only seems to be getting worse, and with Bautista teasing big changes to Avengers 4 he may have been hinting at a storyline exit for his character.
1. Crazy Rich Asians (review)- $22.2M/$110M
2 weeks at #1 is impressive enough, but this week Crazy Rich Asians crosses into a much smaller club of films who held the top spot for 3. It sounds like a small thing but holding that past week 2 is rare to say the least. Add to that the total box office take, surpassing $100M this weekend, and you have yet another sign that the audience wants more!
2. The Meg– $10.5M/$120M
3. Mission Impossible: Fallout- $7M/$178M
In an odd occurance Mission Impossible gains a week in the numbers, stepping back up to the #3 spot which was held by Mile 22 last week. I guess audiences were looking for a good action flick for Labor Day Weekend, which tells you what folks thought of Mile 22
4. Operation Finale (Review)– $6M
While it’s not surprising giving the lack of exposure it’s still disappointing to watch this film open so low. It’s cast alone should have warranted a top 3 finish but here we are. This is where timing really comes into things. One can’t help but to think what the results would look like at the very start of awards season when people are hungry for this type of film.
5. Searching– $5.7M/$6.2M
6. Disney’s Christopher Robin– $5M/$85.4M
7. Alpha– $4.4M/$27.3M
8. The Happytime Murders– $4.4M/$17M
So no miracle box office jump in the second week….I guess the whole ‘Naughty Puppet’ renaissance is dead before it began
9. BlackKkKlansman– $4.1M/$38.3M
10. Mile 22– $3.5M/$31.7M
Special Mention:
13. Kin (Review)- $3M
It’s not often we have to add a special section for a major release on it’s debut week, Kin wanted to make an exception apparently. A solid and fun sci-fi action film Kin really deserved better, I can’t help but to blame the same thing that marred the week’s other major release, poor marketing. So few people knew this was coming out, even fewer knew anything about it. That’s not how you sell a movie that was basically built for this time of the year.
With James Gunn’s firing from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, it was inevitable that there would be some changes. The film has been put on indefinite hold while a search for a new director takes place, with the possibility they will want to start on a brand new script. The uncertainty surrounding the film isn’t isolated, either, as the characters are also involved in Avengers 4 (most of them are currently dust in the wind), and with reshoots coming some of them may not return.
Obviously, the one we all half-expect to stay dead is Drax, since star Dave Bautista has repeatedly needled Disney over their decision to fire Gunn. Speaking with Digital Spy, Bautista teases the possibility of changes to Avengers 4‘s ending because of the Gunn situation…
“It’s kind of a strange situation to be in now where we’ve lost our director for ‘Guardians.’ ’Guardians 3’ is really up in the air and I don’t know what they’re going to do with it. It’s on permanent hold for now, and that may make a difference in what they do with our characters in ‘Avengers 4.’ To be honest with you, right now I really don’t know.”
He continues, “But I know I’m in ‘Avengers 4.’ I’ve shot most of it already. I do have two days of reshoots. But other than that, I have some really great scenes that I hope they use. But I guess that it remains to be seen what they’ll do with the characters.”
To me this sounds like Bautista preparing his fans for the possibility that his time with Marvel may be coming to an end. He’s certainly talked his way out of their good graces if that’s the case. With the future of the Guardians franchise in doubt, we could see most if not all of the cast dispersed to other areas. Maybe Star-Lord becomes an Avenger? Rocket and Groot spinoff into a new team with Thor or something? Who knows? The cool thing is, the future of the MCU is so wide open that anything could happen.
Like before, we’re gonna try our hardest not to compare Ozark to Breaking Bad, but I can’t help myself.
Ozark came last summer and gave us something familiar, but something brand new at the same time. Financial planner Marty Byrde (Jason Bateman) under pressure from the Mexican cartel to wash their money, upends his family from the Chicago suburbs to the Missouri Ozarks with the promise of washing their money, or else he and his family will be killed. In the process, the seemingly nice banker delves into the underworld way more than he was used to. The show was a sleeper hit as it gave us an everyman and turned him into an antihero, one step away from his house of cards falling down, but manages to always come out on top.
Partnering with local criminal families the Langmores and the Snells, he and his family dip closer and closer to the dark side of the south and make good on his promise for the cartel to move $500 million into clean cash. Negotiating a partnership with the Snell family and the cartel, they will open a legal casino to wash cartel money and have the local big shots the Snell family to be their local heroin supplier. Unfortunately, Mexicans and Southerners don’t exactly mix well, slurs are exchanged, and the Cartel boss is murdered by momma bear, Darlene (Lisa Emery).
The second season begins immediately in the aftermath of Del’s murder. Now the Snells and Marty have to cover up a cartel murder, as well as keep the drugs and money moving, or everyone will be toast. Meanwhile, Marty has to continue Walter Whiting to continue to buy cash-based businesses (stripping, real estate, funeral homes) to launder their money, and now get into an even dirtier criminal world: politics. Lucky for him, his wife Wendy (Laura Linney) is skilled in that arena and they start schmoozing up to the right players to get their casino built. While Walter White kept his family in the dark about his illegal l activities (until later seasons), the Bryde family might as well be the Gambinos. Laura this season, is a full-on partner, helping planning and execute (literally) their plans to take over the area and she works with the Cartels and the Snells just as well as Marty does (sometimes even better). Their children Charlotte (Sofia Hublitz) and Jonah (Skylar Gaertner), clueless last season as to all their parents’ criminal shenanigans, are well aware of everything, and it affects them in different ways. Jonah thinks it’s “cool,” and even learns about how to move money through foreign bank accounts, and starts doing his own little thing. Charlotte, on the other hand, is not on board with everything and is further alienated from her parents. Events throughout the season cause huge family drama that threatens to tear them apart.
With Cartel boss Del murdered last season, Marty has a new enemy/friend in the form of Cartel attorney Helen (Janet McTeer most recently seen on the second season of Jessica Jones). Helen operates as a pragmatic person, but you absolutely do not want to cross her as a local gas station clerk finds out the hard way. On paper, she’s a lawyer, but she operates like a cartel boss as she makes literal life and death decisions in every scene she is in. Marty is always one bad meeting away from being killed by her. He knows it, and more importantly, she knows it as well. After she learns the truth of Del, she keeps Marty as well as the Snells on a tight leash to make sure the casino deal goes through.
In fact, all of the women this season are fierce. Last season showcased the male players as ruthless but this season it’s the women that you should fear. Ruth (Julia Garner), our favorite foul-mouthed member of the Langmore family is back, and after killing her own uncle for being an informant, digs in deeper with Marty as she continues to learn the tricks on the trade. As we hoped, she said the F-word pretty much every 3 minutes, and it’s glorious. As Marty’s right hand, she manages the strip club and makes sure everything runs smoothly. Although she’s less than a buck-oh-five soaking wet, she manages to intimidate everyone around her, she even stands tall against the cartel when challenged. Ruth has her own problems when her screwup father Cade (Trevor Long) is released from jail and threatens to derail the whole enterprise. She can’t bring herself to stop up to him, but she knows he’s gotta go. He preys on her vulnerability to disastrous results. As said before, Marty’s wife Wendy goes from being an unwilling wife to full on mafia wife. Using her political skills, she will stop at nothing to get this casino deal done. Everything from bribing politicians, to working behind Marty’s back to make sure things get done, even arranging murders. The true villainess is Darlene Snell, who was never on board with the Snells getting involved with the cartel. She is reckless, impulsive, and murderous. After all, the season ended with her killing cartel boss Del for calling her family Rednecks. Much of the conflict this season between the Snells, the cartel, and Marty is due to her inability to play ball and do things her own way.
Other familiar players return. Deranged FBI agent Roy Petty (Jason Butler Harner) returns, even more determined to bring Marty and the cartel down. Enlisting Rachel (Jordana Spiro), Marty’s unwilling business partner as an unwilling informant after she gets busted for crashing while high, and after she stole some of Marty’s cartel cash last season. Marty dragged her through hell last season, this time Roy does that as he forces her to play ball or face some serious jail time. Buddy (Harris Yulin) the terminally ill person who lives with Marty’s family who tells it like it is returned. This time, less inappropriate racism and he becomes more of a member of the family. Pastor Mason Young (Michael Mosley) returns as a shell of his former self. After dealing with the Marty and the Snells last season, he lost his congregation, as well as his wife, and left preaching on the street. This season, his rage against Marty boils over to surprising results.
While most shows fall into a “sophomore slump” for their second season, the second season of Ozarks manages to rise above and even be just as fascinating as the first season. a few episodes play with time as they show us the ending of the episode and then give the entire episode to show us how we got there. One episode gives a visual history of a drug overdose, which is visually amazing to show how many hands drugs pass before they get to the user, something most shows usually don’t show: the suffering of drug users (looking at you Breaking Bad). The Missouri Ozarks is always breathtaking and they will probably see an uptick once again in tourism there. Overall, Ozarks continues to catch lightning in a bottle and sets the stakes up even higher for the third season.
I’ve been on the road all day, only stopping periodically to see what the buzz is all about, and each time the weirdest headline kept grabbing me, “Chazelle’s First Man is un-American! Ryan Gosling Defends Film”. Mind blown over what the Hell this could possibly be about, I found out that some were claiming his film, which depicts Neil Armstrong’s historic flight to the moon, doesn’t show the unforgettable moment when he plants the American flag. And of course, this is an outrage. Or at least it’s a Twitter outrage, not a real one.
The truth is that First Man does have the American flag in it throughout. But does it have that iconic moment when Armstrong actually plants the flag? No, it doesn’t. Is this somehow a “politically correct” way to paint this uniquely American moment? Not at all, but a creative choice by director Damien Chazelle who wanted to focus on the parts of Armstrong’s life that we haven’t seen a thousand times before. Here’s part of his statment…
“I wanted the primary focus in that scene to be on Neil’s solitary moments on the moon — his point of view as he first exited the LEM, his time spent at Little West Crater, the memories that may have crossed his mind during his lunar EVA.”
Seems reasonable to me, so what was it that caused this Twitter shit storm? Probably some comments by Gosing during a press conference, specifically these…
“I think this was widely regarded in the end as a human achievement [and] that’s how we chose to view it. I also think Neil was extremely humble, as were many of these astronauts, and time and time again he deferred the focus from himself to the 400,000 people who made the mission possible.”
“So I don’t think that Neil viewed himself as an American hero. From my interviews with his family and people that knew him, it was quite the opposite. And we wanted the film to reflect Neil.”
Because we’re talking about Twitter outrage, and faux-conservative outrage at that, of course this was blown out of proporation and slanted to mean that Chazelle was trying to strip America of this incredible feat. That’s obviously absurd, even for a movie that will play globally, but you can see how Gosling opened the film up to criticism. I’m sure he was just trying to talk to the audience, and since he was at the Venice Film Festival it was a gaggle of international press.
The take home from this debacle? Maybe it’s best to watch the movie before you shit all over it. Oh, and Neil Armstrong’s sons? They don’t think the film is anti-American in the least. See their statement below. [Deadline]
We’ve read a number of comments about the film today and specifically about the absence of the flag planting scene, made largely by people who haven’t seen the movie. As we’ve seen it multiple times, we thought maybe we should weigh in.
This is a film that focuses on what you don’t know about Neil Armstrong. It’s a film that focuses on things you didn’t see or may not remember about Neil’s journey to the moon. The filmmakers spent years doing extensive research to get at the man behind the myth, to get at the story behind the story. It’s a movie that gives you unique insight into the Armstrong family and fallen American Heroes like Elliot See and Ed White. It’s a very personal movie about our dad’s journey, seen through his eyes.
This story is human and it is universal. Of course, it celebrates an America achievement. It also celebrates an achievement “for all mankind,” as it says on the plaque Neil and Buzz left on the moon. It is a story about an ordinary man who makes profound sacrifices and suffers through intense loss in order to achieve the impossible.
Although Neil didn’t see himself that way, he was an American hero. He was also an engineer and a pilot, a father, and a friend, a man who suffered privately through great tragedies with incredible grace. This is why, though there are numerous shots of the American flag on the moon, the filmmakers chose to focus on Neil looking back at the earth, his walk to Little West Crater, his unique, personal experience of completing this journey, a journey that has seen so many incredible highs and devastating lows.
In short, we do not feel this movie is anti-American in the slightest. Quite the opposite. But don’t take our word for it. We’d encourage everyone to go see this remarkable film and see for themselves.
