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No, ‘X-Men: Dark Phoenix’ And ‘New Mutants’ Aren’t Canceled

This is why we say to be skeptical of everything. Recently I posted a series of rumors about Fox’s New Mutants and X-Men: Dark Phoenix, which as I noted then was by a poster on the SuperheroHype Forums, which made them instantly dubious but worth keeping tabs on, especially with the Fox/Disney deal wrapping up. Turns out those rumors were just that, and both movies have not been canceled.

ScreenRant says don’t believe the hype, and their reasons are sound…mainly because they echo my own. First of all, the supposed inside source at Fox who reported on the various dysfunctions of New Mutants and Dark Phoenix provided no evidence of anything. While there has undoubtedly been trouble with both films, there’s nothing to suggest Fox has pulled them from the schedule. In fact, it looks like Dark Phoenix is going back to Montreal for reshoots next month. Pretty dumb to set reshoots on a movie that isn’t coming out.  I would disregard EVERYTHING in those rumors, including the stuff about Gambit, Deadpool 3, beef on the New Mutants set….all of it.

Second, it makes no sense for Fox to cancel both films after investing north of $300M in them. That’s not just bad business, it’s positively Trump-ian in its financial incoherence. Third, there was the suggestion that Disney wanted both films axed now that the X-Men and Fantastic Four will be making their way home to Marvel Studios. That’s just not how things work, though. The Fox/Disney deal won’t finalize until 2019, and both companies MUST proceed forward as if nothing is going on. Disney can’t start meddling with Fox properties in hopes of making things easier for themselves later. And as we’ve seen over the last year of these negotiations, Fox has been launching new franchises left and right without so much as a care about Disney.

So, X-Men: Dark Phoenix is first out of the gate, opening in February 2019 with Simon Kinberg directing. It’s his directorial debut, which I think has a lot of ears perked up for signs of trouble. The delays and a lack of any promo footage is a worrying sign, as well as the general silence about the movie in general. I mean, do we really know what it’s about other than it will be another chance to get the Dark Phoenix storyline right?  This is basically the “core” X-Men franchise now, with James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, and more moving the timeline ahead to the 1990s.

New Mutants still looks like an issue to me, but it’s still going to happen. The Josh Boone-directed superhero horror brings to the big screen the X-Men’s youngest charges: Anya Taylor-Joy as Magik, Maisie Williams as Wolfsbane, Charlie Heaton as Cannonball, Henry Zaga as Sunspot, Blu Hunt as Danielle Moonstar, and Alice Braga as Cecilia Reyes with Antonio Banderas as the mysterious villain. An early trailer that showed the team trapped in a haunted psycho ward was met with a tepid response, and reshoots were ordered up that caused the release date to get moved a couple of times. As of now it’s set to open in August 2019.

‘The Night Is Short, Walk On Girl’ Trailer: Love, Adventure, And Cocktails During A Wild Night In Kyoto

Get ready for a rom-com experience unlike any other. The Night is Short, Walk On Girl is the latest surreal animated experience from director Masaaki Yuasa, who may be best known here in America for the Netflix series Devil: Crybaby or his episode of Adventure Time.  And based on this wild,

Exploding with colors and an enchanting, free-flowing energy, the film follows a girl known simply as The Girl with Black Hair, as she experiences one crazy night of love, adventure, romance, and cocktails in Kyoto. There’s so much going on in every frame that you want to rewind the trailer multiple times just to catch it all. Combining elements of teen and screwball comedy with the dreamlike qualities we’ve come to expect from Japanese anime, this is shaping up to be one of the year’s must-see animated films.

Here’s the synopsis: “As a group of teens go out for a night on the town, a sophomore known only as ‘The Girl with Black Hair’ experiences a series of surreal encounters with the local nightlife… all the while unaware of the romantic longings of Senpai, a fellow student who has been creating increasingly fantastic and contrived reasons to run into her, in an effort to win her heart.”

The Night is Short, Walk On Girl opens August 22nd.

Keri Russell Confirmed for ‘Star Wars IX’

Fresh on the heels of the news that both Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher (through archival footage) will be featured in the closing chapter of the latest set of Star Wars saga films we have confirmation that Felicity herself and star of the recently completed The Americans, Keri Russell will be joining the cast for Episode IX. The rumors which have been circulating for a week or so now, with many people guessing that Russell will be portraying Rey’s mother, were just confirmed via StarWars.com. Russell’s deal was apparently not complete when the other casting news broke so she got to have the spotlight all to herself for this headline. I think the chances of her being Rey’s Mom are slim, and not because Kylo Ren was telling the truth…we all know that was BS, but because I think it’s just too spot on. The resemblance between Russell and Daisy Ridley is strong to the point of being obvious, for something that sure to be such a big plot point I feel like they would have hidden this casting if that were the case, not to mention the ages don’t seem right, Keri Russell could definitely play Rey’s older sister, or aunt even, but Mom? Nah, not quite yet. My bet is she plays a strong willed leader in the resistance or, on a sexier note, a domineering First Order officer! Whatever the role we are sure to be inundated with news on the last chapter of the Rey/Ren saga as production gears up.

Shooting for Star Wars: Episode IX begins next week in London.

‘Star Wars: Episode 9’ Cast Reveals Mark Hamill And Carrie Fisher’s Return, Plus New Additions

Here we go. The cast has been revealed for J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars: Episode 9, and while many of the names are familiar there are a few surprises.  Here are just a couple of the biggies: Mark Hamill is returning as Luke Skywalker, and Carrie Fisher is back as Leia, albeit using previously unreleased footage from The Force Awakens. We also get confirmation of Billy Dee Williams’ comeback as Lando Calrissian, and a surprising omission. See if you catch it. Here’s the roster, including a few words by Abrams…

Returning cast members include Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong’o, Domhnall Gleeson, Kelly Marie Tran, Joonas Suotamo, and Billie Lourd. Joining the cast of Episode IX are Naomi Ackie and Richard E. Grant, who will be joined by veteran Star Wars actors Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels, and Billy Dee Williams, who will reprise his role as Lando Calrissian.


The role of Leia Organa will once again be played by Carrie Fisher, using previously unreleased footage shot for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. “We desperately loved Carrie Fisher,” says Abrams. “Finding a truly satisfying conclusion to the Skywalker saga without her eluded us. We were never going to recast, or use a CG character. With the support and blessing from her daughter, Billie, we have found a way to honor Carrie’s legacy and role as Leia in Episode IX by using unseen footage we shot together in Episode VII.”


Notice it? Yeah, there’s nothing on Keri Russell, who was reported to have joined the cast a few weeks ago. Her addition seemed like a lock given her past history with Abrams, but maybe the deal fell through? Or perhaps her role is small enough to be excluded? Hard to say, but if she’s not given prominence that is very disappointing to me.

Hamill’s inclusion suggests a few things. Maybe Abrams is writing off what happened to Luke in The Last Jedi, the way some (including myself) have speculated? Or Luke will return as a creepy Force Ghost or in flashback. These options seem most likely.

And what about Carrie Fisher? I thought they would take the easy route and have Leia die between movies, so we wouldn’t have to witness it and go through that heartbreak. The tease of her death in The Last Jedi was hard enough. If Abrams is using unused footage of her it suggests Leia’s role will be small. Perhaps she will be seen in flashback, as well?

I have no clue about the characters played by the awesome Richard E. Grant, who played a key role in last year’s Logan. He’s also pretty great in Spice World. Yes, that Spice World.  I don’t know anything about Naomi Ackie, other than her role in the historical drama Lady Macbeth.

Star Wars: Episode 9 opens December 20th 2019, and don’t think it missed my attention that Abrams calls it “conclusion to the Skywalker saga”. We’ll see about that.

Review: ‘Generation Wealth’, Lauren Greenfield’s Look Into Money And Culture


Generation Wealth is
the newest of the Amazon studios documentaries. The film, made by photographer Lauren
Greenfield (The Queen of Versailles, Thin), examines the accumulation of wealth
and the excesses of our culture. Over the past twenty five years Greenfield has
been working on documenting stories that seemed to always relate to money and
wealth. Greenfield is from Los Angeles and much of her work highlights
different aspects of LA’s culture, but that doesn’t stop her from exploring
areas around the globe.
Throughout Generation
Wealth
, Greenfield focuses on specific stories that she has encountered
through her career from former multimillionaire hedge fund managers who lost it
all to bus drivers using all their wealth – plus some – to go down to Brazil for
thousands of dollars in plastic surgery, to a mother and daughter team riding
the child beauty pageant circuit, Greenfield manages to incorporate stories
from all areas of the socioeconomic spectrum. This diversity was welcomed and
provided an interesting insight into how wealth and image can affect those from
different backgrounds. Greenfield is able to show how perceptions of wealth and
value can change in Generation Wealth by
tracking down some high school students that she captured early in her career
flaunting money and trying to fit in with the Los Angele’s elite as well as an
aspiring rapper who rapped about only caring about money and status. This
dynamic works extremely well and these stories add an interesting aspect to the
film. Greenfield touches on what the desire for wealth and status have done to
the world and how they have changed culture. Has money and wealth slowly
shifted the paradigm to become synonymous with culture? Can money itself, or
the desire for it, be a cultural aspect?
Generation Wealth
suffers from not having a clear singular vision. Many of the individual stories
are interesting, but some I could have done without. Greenfield scoured through
thousands of photographs that she has taken throughout her career to find
subjects and images to feature throughout Generation
Wealth
and the work is apparent, there is an eclectic mix that spans
decades. Unfortunately many of the photos/stories are just used to shock and
surprise with not much added depth to them. I struggled to find a rhythm
throughout the film – I was interested in the subject matter itself and found
some of the photos and people discussed to be compelling, yet there was
something missing. It is possible that the topic is just too large to be
captured in a single documentary and Greenfield could have benefitted from
narrowing her focus to a particular aspect of wealth. By the end of Generation Wealth we see the outcomes
for many of the subjects in the film. Their tales do not always end on a
positive note, but it seems that many of them learned valuable lessons about
what wealth really is. Generation Wealth
has some interesting aspects to it, but they are not enough to vault it into the
must see category.
Rating: 2.5 out of 5

‘Avengers: Infinity War’ Deleted Scene Has Drax And Star-Lord Fighting Over Ace Frehley

Can you believe it? The Avengers: Infinity War home release is just days away. Weren’t we all just in our seats gobsmacked by the Thanos Snap? And yet here we are, with the digital release coming on July 31st and the Blu-Ray on August 14th. There are expected to be a wealth of features, of course, and that includes deleted scenes. Today we have just the first.

The scene finds the Guardians of the Galaxy crew doing what they do best: bickering. Actually, in this case it’s just Drax (Dave Bautista) and Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) fighting over the latter’s obsession with the track “New York Groove”. Star-Lord thinks he needs the Ace Frehley cover to get back into the groove after their first encounter with Thanos ended in disaster.  The discovery of secret coded messages, which have been sitting unanswered for hours, only makes things worse, or funnier depending on how you look at it.

Watch the scene below, then pre-order your copy of Avengers: Infinity War here!

‘Cloak And Dagger’ S1E9: “Back Breaker”

Last week Cloak and Dagger ended with the good guys seemingly winning.  Tyrone, finally got corrupt police officer Connors to admit on tape the murder and cover-up of his brother’s death that has been tormenting him for the past eight years.  Tandy confronted Roxxon executive Scarborough, but instead of burying him, she took a payout.  Having resolved their problems that stemmed from that night when their lives changed forever, both of them looks to be ready to move on.  Of course, happy endings aren’t always on the horizon…..

The episode begins with Chantelle walking through the streets with a bottle of vodka.  While she may look like a normal partier just having an episode of day drinking through New Orleans, that’s not the case it’s voodoo related.  She’s taking a swig, spitting (some of) it out, and marking the sidewalk as she strolls about.  She senses something bad is about to happen.  As she drunkenly talks with her niece Evita later on, she says that a disaster is coming for the city and only the “divine pairing” can save them.  She asks Evita is Tyrone has met Tandy yet, telling her to ask him.

It’s ironic that while the episode focuses on Tyrone and Tandy, the narration is being told by Father Delgado as he’s instructing a class on heroes and myths.  He even uses Odysseus, Dorothy, and Rick and Morty (of all heroes) as examples.  He mentions the trials and tribulations that a hero has to go through.  To paraphrase Thomas Wayne from Batman Begins, they have to “fall to get back up.”  This episode was most certainly about the heroes falling, so they can rise once again to be the heroes the city needs them to be.

Tandy is suffering from the revelation that her father isn’t the nice wholesome person she envisioned from her childhood.  Last week when she and Tyrone touched her mother, they both saw her hopes and fears.  Her father was nice and loving to her mother, yet beat her at the same time.  She proceeds to burn a picture of her father, and go back to snorting opiates.  With that bundle of cash she received from the Roxxon executive, she had plenty of cash to burn for her drug habit.  She also learned to develop her powers a little.  In addition to seeing a person’s hopes, she not could enter their minds and remove them, as she did on an unsuspecting guy she was conning.  Oh, and she’s back to conning people.

Tyron is also at a rough spot.  He thought getting Connor’s arrested would mean everything would work out and he and his parents could finally put the loss of his brother behind them.  As they are being briefed by someone at the police department, both his parents are skeptical that anything will come out of this.  His father mentions that he’s heard all this before.  Tyrone is upset with his parents for not believing him all these years, and also, because they don’t seem to care that the guy was arrested.

Thing’s aren’t bad for just them, O’Reilly is also having a terrible time.  She discovered her boyfriend, Officer Fuchs was murdered and stuffed in the refrigerator.  To nurse this pain, she’s drinking heavily.  During the funeral, she’s very drunk and things only get worse when she runs into Connors at the wake.  For one, he’s not in jail, meaning he once again has some of the blue line in his corner, and two he taunts her that her “YouTube video” means nothing.  The exchange of words turns into an exchange of fists and Connors beats her up pretty bad, with all the other cops looking on.  She’s definitely on her own.

Tandy goes to the police station and bails Liam (remember him?) out.  While she’s there, she notices the same woman who was a Roxoon assassin that shot her mother’s boyfriend walking out, meaning this isn’t over.  She and Liam have a unique reunion as he’s resentful that she took so long to help him out.  At first, he thought she skipped town, now he realizes she was avoiding him.  She reassures him that she needed to raise the necessary money and shows him where he stash is (big mistake).  The two share a touch and she then sees his hopes again centering on marriage.  Meanwhile, Tyrone is having problems.  The anger surrounding his brother’s death not really being solved has led to a fight at school.  He goes to Father Delgado’s office for counseling.  As he rages on, he takes a swing at the priest.  As the two engage in a struggle, Tyrone touches him and sees his dark fears.  Turns out, Father Delgado at one time was a drinker, and his drunk driving led to the death of a young girl.  At the same time, Tandy’s touching of Liam has caused their two realities to start shaking and once again Tandy and Tyrone are pulled in together.  This time, it’s not a happy reunion as they spend more time yelling at each other and promising to leave each other alone.  Later on, as the two are arguing in the real world, Evita comes to talk with them in which Tandy is hostile towards her.  Tandy touches her as to see her hopes (and probably take them away) and sees Evita as a doctor in a hospital.  As she goes to touch her, Evita tells her “no,” meaning that she has the ability to enter this reality as well.

Tandy leaves and goes back to her home, only to see that Liam has ransacked it and stolen all the money.  She goes to her mother’s house to finally have a conversation about her father and notices that the Roxxon assassin her a gun to her mother’s head telling her to come out.  Tandy lights up one of her daggers.

Tyrone heads home to talk with his mother about his brother and his death.  She wants him to move on not because she doesn’t care about his brother, but because of how the world works.  She and her father know that in a Black Lives Matter world, the police don’t get justice for their crimes, and if Connors had the resources to cover up his brother’s death, there’s nothing to stop him from being killed as well.  Just then, SWAT approaches the house.  Tyrone was been (falsely) accused of killing Fuchs and is now on the run!

Next week is the explosive season one finale.  Tyrone and Tandy have to save the city from Roxxon’s experiments.

‘Wonder Woman 1984’: Gabriella Wilde, Ravi Patel, & Natasha Rothwell Join Cast

To be perfectly honest, I wasn’t impressed by the Wonder Woman 1984 footage screened at Comic-Con last week, but the produciton only just began and the effects were very early. They probably shouldn’t have shown anything. That said, I’m hugely impressed by the cast being assembled to join returning stars Gal Gadot and Chris Pine. We know Kristen Wiig will bear her claws as the Cheetah, while Pedro Pascal has an undisclosed role. Now the cast has grown bigger with three more additions.

According to Deadline, the film has added Gabriella Wilde, Natasha Rothwell, and Ravi Patel, although we have no idea who they’ll be playing. Wilde may be best known for the recent Endless Love remake that saw her co-star with Alex Pettyfer. Patel wrote, directed, and was featured in the hit documentary Meet the Patels, which is now being turned into a feature film. Rothwell is a producer and co-star on HBO’s Insecure, but she was really great as a scene-stealer in the teen comedy Love, Simon.

I have a funny feeling about the casting of Wilde, in that she looks like someone who could be a fellow Amazon just like Gadot’s Diana.  Perhaps Cassie Sandsmark aka Wonder Girl? Or am I just thinking like an idiot fanboy?

Wonder Woman 1984 opens November 1st 2019.

Netflix Makes Huge Move Acquiring Andy Serkis’ ‘Mowgli’ From Warner Bros.

In another example of both Netflix’s surprising power and the shifting landscape around major Hollywood blockbusters, the streaming giant has just purchased from Warner Bros. the worldwide rights to Andy Serkis’ Jungle Book reimagining, Mowgli. While they’ve made a lot of acquisitions of completed movies this is the biggest purchase they’ve made thus far.

Set to feature the voices and motion-capture performances of Serkis, Benedict Cumberbatch, Christian Bale, Idris Elba, Cate Blanchett, and more, Mowgli was to be a huge blockbuster event later this year. Instead, Netflix will move it off the October 19th release date and open it in 2019 on their streaming service, plus a theatrical component so the film can be seen in 3D as Serkis originally intended.

This is huge, but you can see why Warner Bros. would be quick to unload it. Originally titled Jungle Book: Origins, the film has always been running in the shadows of Disney’s acclaimed, Jon Favreau-directed The Jungle Book. Serkis’ film was always intended to be a darker, adult-oriented take on Kipling’s stories, which naturally limits the potential audience. But the biggest hurdle was simply following in the wake of Disney’s movie, which is still very fresh in audience’s minds.

Serkis tells Deadline that he’s happy to see his film head to Netflix where it’s free to be aimed at older audiences…

“I’m really excited about Netflix for Mowgli,” Serkis said. “Now, we avoid comparisons to the other movie and it’s a relief not to have the pressure. I’ve seen the 3D version, and it’s exceptional, a different view from the 2D version, really lush and with great depth, and there will be some kind of theatrical component for that. What excites me most is the forward thinking at Netflix in how to present this, and the message of the movie. They understand this is a darker telling that doesn’t fit it into a four quadrant slot. It’s really not meant for young kids, though I think it’s possible that 10 or above can watch it. It was always meant to be PG-13, and this allows us to go deeper, with darker themes, to be scary and frightening in moments. The violence between animals is not gratuitous, but it’s definitely there. This way of going allows us to get the film out without compromise.”

“I think this is their largest acquisition, it’s a big movie,” Serkis said. “But I never looked at it as a big blockbuster movie. It’s hard to quantify. It has the scale of a blockbuster, but it’s somewhere between Life of Pi and an Apes movie. It has that reality to it, same as Okja had. We are talking about 2019 and circling dates. Netflix has allowed the film making that I wanted to do, to exist and they’ve created an atmosphere for me kind of storytelling I set out to do. “


This is nothing new for Netflix, which is gaining a reputation as the place to be for projects deemed as potential money losers. Already this year they’ve released two troubled films, Annihilation and The Cloverfield Paradox, with both generating a decent amount of buzz. More importantly, they give Netflix the swagger of a go-to studio for blockbuster content. 

MoviePass Ran Out Of Money Last Night, Did You Notice?

Did a whole bunch of you try to use your MoviePass last night to see Mission: Impossible-Fallout? How’d that go for you? Because for many subscribers to the service found that the only thing impossible was their ability to do so.  In short, MoviePass ran out of money last night.

That’s right, according to an SEC filing, parent company Helios & Matheson had to borrow $5M just to keep operations running, just as thousands of subscribers were hitting theaters to watch Tom Cruise kill himself for our entertainment pleasure. During the “service interruption” those subscribers were unable to check-in to the MoviePass app. Here’s the statement from the official filing:

“The $5.0 million cash proceeds received from the Demand Note will be used by the Company to pay the Company’s merchant and fulfillment processors. If the Company is unable to make required payments to its merchant and fulfillment processors, the merchant and fulfillment processors may cease processing payments for MoviePass, Inc. (‘MoviePass’), which would cause a MoviePass service interruption. Such a service interruption occurred on July 26, 2018.”

MoviePass tried to hide what happened by tweeting that the difficulties were technical rather than financial. Because how quickly would their subscribers flee if the company tweeted “Who got snaps on the petro?” like MC Eiht in Menace II Society?


Actually, that would be kinda awesome.

Financial issues have always dogged MoviePass, and the emergence of similar competitors hasn’t helped. But Helios & Matheson have always maintained they were flush with cash and in it for the long haul. This does not appear to be the case.

I’d say to rush out and use those subscriptions while you can, but that’s what caused the problem in the first place! [Business Insider]