Fox And Disney Approve $71.3B Merger: Here Come The X-Men And Fantastic Four

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July 27, 2018

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is about to get a lot bigger. After months of negotiations, shareholders for Disney and Fox voted today to approve the $71.3B deal bringing 21st Century Fox assets under the control of the Walt Disney Company. Yes, that’s a roundabout way of saying the X-Men, Fantastic Four and other related Marvel characters are on the way home.

Fox will continue on, but their focus will shift to other properties, such as Fox Sports, Fox “News”, and more. Let’s be honest, none of us care about that. We care about the film properties that will begin to move under the Disney umbrella. While the X-Men and Fantastic Four are what most people will be talking about, Fox is a storied studio with tons of big-money franchises. Disney not only gains the theatrical and home release rights to the original Star Wars movies, but major tentpoles like Planet of the Apes, The Predator, and more. James Cameron’s Avatar? That’s coming over, too. This simply can’t be overlooked. Disney is about to blow up in a big way, ya’ll. And you can bet most of this will be used to pump up their online streaming network in 2019.

This isn’t quite over yet, but the path is certainly clear. The government has already approved the merger, so that’s one thing that doesn’t need to be worried about. A few regulatory hurdles remain, but these shouldn’t be a huge issue. Certainly, we won’t have to go through weeks of hair-pulling like when Comcast threatened to steal Fox away at the last minute.

We’re closer than ever to an Avengers vs. X-Men movie! It’ll be a few years, maybe even longer than that, but it wasn’t long ago the very idea was inconceivable. I’ve always said the X-Men would never return to Marvel Studios because Fox would be dumb to let a cash cow like that go. Well, I still think they’re pretty dumb, but if it unites the House of Marvel once and for all that’s okay with me.

Expect more analysis of this in the very near future. The deal shouldn’t be signed, sealed, and delivered until early next year so there’s plenty of time. Tell me, what do you want to see out of this historic deal? [Deadline]

‘I Am Paul Walker’ Trailer: Get Ready To Cry Over The Beloved ‘Fast & Furious’ Star

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John Nolan

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July 27, 2018

Get ready to cry tears over Paul Walker again, in a big way. Five years have passed since the Fast & Furious actor was killed in an auto accident, sending shockwaves throughout Hollywood and an outpouring of love and memories from those who knew him best. Whether you saw him as a great actor or not, there’s no denying the impact he had on people’s lives, and we see how big of a presence he was to them in the new documentary, I Am Paul Walker.

I’ll be honest, my eyes started swelling right from the jump of this trailer, when we see a 15-year-old Walker’s happy, smiling face. And all he’s doing is talking about the darn date. From there we see glimpses of interviews with friends, his family who all look like clones of one another, and the people he worked with who all grew to love him. It paints a picture of a guy who was happy, charismatic, and comfortable in his own skin. He had a lust for life that made him the perfect centerpiece of the franchise that would define his career, and by the time members of the Fast & Furious cast start popping up it’s really hard to keep a dry eye.

The film was directed by Adrian Buitenhuis and will hit the Paramount Network on August 11th.

Final Action-Packed ‘Mile 22’ Trailer Has Mark Wahlberg And Iko Uwais Going The Distance

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John Nolan

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July 27, 2018

STX is in the final mile of their marketing for action flick Mile 22 because they’ve just released the last trailer. The latest teamup of director Peter Berg and Mark Wahlberg, the film has been high on my radar since day one because of the supporting cast. Ronda Rousey, The Raid‘s Iko Uwais, The Walking Dead‘s Lauren Cohan, and John Malkovich co-star.

Wahlberg stars as part of an elite CIA team that must escort a highly-prized asset (Uwais) to a secure location 22 dangerous miles away. The one thing I look for in an action movie is credibility and this cast is one of the most credible around. Plus, it’s been a while since Berg has done a straight-up action flick like this, not since Battleship. He’ll be itching to blow up as much as possible. I just hope he leaves enough time for Uwais to beat some people up.

Mile 22 opens August 17th.

‘Slender Man’ Trailer: Old Internet Meme Hopes To Spark A New Wave Of Terror

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John Nolan

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July 27, 2018

Is there anyone out there still excited for internet meme-turned horror movie, Slender Man? Forget the delays that have hampered its release, the lousy trailers, and total lack of buzz, the film has been deemed insensitive because of its very existence. Let’s not forget that the Slender Man urban legend inspired a couple of girls to brutally stab another as a sacrifice to it. The father of one of the attackers has rightfully condemned the movie for making light of that. Plus, the movie just looks terrible, and this new trailer isn’t going to help.

Looking like a poor man’s Evil Dead remake, Slender Man takes place in a small Massachusetts town where four girls try to summon the Slender Man in hopes of debunking the myth. However, one when one of them goes missing they start to think Slender Man may actually be behind the disappearance. The first trailer was well-crafted enough to keep the titular baddie hidden in shadow, and they should have stuck with that because he looks downright cheesy here.

The Slender Man meme has pretty much faded from notoriety, so I’m guessing anyone who sees this is doing it because they’re fans of the genre.

Directed by Sylvain White (Stomp the Yard) and starring Joey King, Julia Goldani Telles, Jaz Sinclair, Talitha Bateman, and Annalisse Basso, Slender Man opens August 10th.

‘To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before’ Trailer: X-Men’s Lana Condor Deals With Awkward Teen Romance

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John Nolan

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July 27, 2018

How embarrassing would it be if everyone you had secretly been crushing on found out all at once? Pretty bad, right? Well, that’s the premise behind Netflix’s latest grab for the teen-lit audience, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, which gives star Lana Condor her first big leading role.

Condor, for those who may not recognize her off the bat, played Jubilee in X-Men: Apocalypse. Here she’s Lara Jean Song Covey, a high schooler content to go through her days in anonymity, dreaming about the five boys she has a crush on and writing them love letters which she keeps hidden. That is until those letters are discovered and made public, and she must deal with the humiliating fallout. Although, of course, there’s always potential that her feelings will be reciprocated?

The film is based on the book by Jenny Han, and directed by Susan Johnson, a producer who made her directorial debut with the Bel Powley comedy, Carrie Pilby. On the surface this looks like something Powley would be in, but I’m happy to see Hollywood pushing for more films like this led by Asian-Americans and other women of color. The book produced two sequels and it makes me wonder if there’s potential in seeing those adapted, as well.

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before hits Netflix on August 17th.

New ‘Buffy’ Showrunner Teases It’s Time For “A New Slayer”

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John Nolan

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July 26, 2018

We exist in a world now where toxic fandom get angry that Star Wars has female leads in it, and heaven forbid one of them be Asian. So you know there was an uproar when news of a Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot, with a black woman potentially in the lead role and *gasp* another black woman Monica Owusu-Breen to act as showrunner. Of course, there are those on the other side of the argument who were happy about the moves, but it looks like somewhere in the announcement there was a break in communication.

Owusu-Breen hit Twitter and judging by her words, it sounds like there may be a brand new Slayer, not a rebooted version of Buffy…

pic.twitter.com/Sdz4oKh3gM

— monicaowusubreen (@monicabreen) July 26, 2018

That sounds like a new generation of Slayer, maybe? And it has to leave the door open to Sarah Michelle Gellar returning as the O.G., right? While part of me hates that Owusu-Breen even had to calm the nerves of fans like this, I have to admit to being much happier that the Buffy lineage seems to be continuing rather than being redone.

‘Operation Finale’ Trailer: Oscar Isaac Is Out To Kill Ben Kingsley

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John Nolan

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July 26, 2018

Stop me if it seems like this plot has been overdone: a Nazi war criminal is being tracked by a man sent to kill him. It’s been done. A lot. And Kingsley, who played an escaped war criminal just a couple of months ago in A Simple Man, could do this kind of thing in his sleep. And yet the more I see if Chris Weitz’s thriller Operation Finale the more I can’t wait to see this recognizable story yet again.

The film stars Kingsley as Adolph Eichmann with Oscar Isaac as the man commissioned to track him down and bring him back to Israel for trial. This trailer opens with a nerve-wracking shaving scene and never really lets up. I can’t wait to see these two screen heavyweights go at it. The rest of the cast is pretty great, too, and includes Melanie Laurent, Nick Kroll, Joe Alwyn, Haley Lu Richardson, Greta Scacchi and Lior Raz.

Operation Finale opens August 29th.

Elizabeth Banks’ ‘Charlie’s Angels’ Reboot Adds Kristen Stewart, Naomi Scott, And Ella Balinkska

By

John Nolan

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July 26, 2018

It’s official, the Charlie’s Angels are back! We haven’t heard much about Elizabeth Banks’ Charlie’s Angels reboot since late last year when Lupita Nyong’o and Kristen Stewart were said to be part of the team. And now it’s official…that Stewart is indeed joining her. As for Nyong’o, she’s got other things to do.

Variety reports Banks will direct, co-write, and star as Bosley, who is the liaison between Charlie and his trio of badass crime-fighting ladies. The role was played by Bill Murray in the 2000 film and then after that by Bernie Mac in the 2003 sequel. Yes, it was weird. Banks will be joined by Stewart, Banks’ Power Rangers co-star and live-action Aladdin star Naomi Scott, and British newcomer Ella Balinska. For Balinka this will be the biggest role of her career after starring in a couple of U.K. television series.

And this is moving pretty quickly with a release date set for September 27th 2019. Hopefully there won’t be any Tom Green cameos in this one.

Here’s Banks’ statement on the news and her reason for wanting to revive the brand…

“’Charlie’s Angels,’ for me, is one of the original brands to celebrate the empowered woman since its debut in the ’70s,” Banks said. “This film honors the legacy of Charles Townsend and his agency while introducing a new era of modern and global Angels. I couldn’t be more excited to work with Kristen, Naomi and Ella to bring this chapter to fans around the world.”

Ryan Reynolds Eyes R-Rated ‘Home Alone’-esque Comedy ‘Stoned Alone’

By

John Nolan

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July 26, 2018

Fox could do worse than having Ryan Reynolds put an R-rated spin on just about anything. Hey, he’s the guy who helped turn Deadpool into the most successful R-rated film ever. But an adult-oriented remake of Christmas classic Home Alone? That idea doesn’t sound so great, and yet it’s happening.

Reynolds is set to produce and possibly star in Stoned Alone, which already sounds like it should be on the shelf next to a copy of Half-Baked. The R-rated riff was dreamed up by Fox exec Matt Reilly, who shoved some money at writers Kevin Burrows and Matt Mider to pen the script about a stoned loser who must thwart thieves trying to break into his house over the holidays.

I don’t much see the point, but there are a couple of potential upsides. Reynolds is hella funny and if he stars it is guaranteed a few laughs. The second is the director, Augustine Frizzell, who floored critics at Sundance and SXSW with his female stoner comedy Never Goin’ Back. Hopefully Frizzell can take what sounds like a dumb idea and make something good out of it.

Here’s the synopsis for Stoned Alone according to Deadline.

Stoned Alone is reminiscent of that hallowed comedy classic. It centers around a twenty-something weed growing loser who misses the plane for his holiday ski trip. He makes the best of things by getting high. Paranoia sets in and he believes he hears someone break into his house. Turns out thieves have broken in. Fully stoned and fueled by paranoia, he tries to thwart the thieves and defend his castle.

‘Hunter Killer’ Trailer: Gerard Butler Goes Underwater To Save The Russian President

By

John Nolan

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July 26, 2018

Philip Noyce, Martin Campbell, Antoine Fuqua, McG…a lot of names have been attached to direct Hunter Killer, an adaptation of the Don Keith and George Wallace novel Firing Point. As you probably guessed, with that many names it means this is a project already kinda long in the tooth. Pretty sure it was 2011 when I first started paying attention to it. Now all of these years later and suddenly there is a trailer, with Gerard Butler and Gary Oldman all crammed into a submarine.

Behind the camera is Donovan Marsh, a South African filmmaker who directed the 2010 comedy Spud, and is looking to make his first big splash stateside. The Tom Clancy-esque Hunter Killer finds a U.S. submarine captain teaming up with Navy Seals to locate the missing Russian president. Along with Butler and Oldman the film’s cast is pretty great with Linda Cardellini, Common, the late Michael Nyqvist, and Zane Holtz.

For those wondering why it took so long for the film to finally get made, it’s a pretty boring story involving Relativity’s bankruptcy, and contracts that were set in motion during their struggles. If I had a dollar for every film ruined during that time period…well, I’d have a few bucks on my hands.

Given his recent creds it’s tough to get excited over Gerard Butler movies. That said, I’m a sucker for a good submarine film and this looks to have the kind of tension I look for in one.

Hunter Killer opens October 26th.