Before the rescue of 12 boys and their soccer coach from a Thailand cave was even a day old, Hollywood already had two movie projects in the works. This is how it works now. The Chilean miner movie The 33 was put in development while they were still stuck, and this isn’t much different. According to Variety, Crazy Rich Asians director Jon M. Chu will take the helm of the second rescue film, in hopes of preventing Hollywood from whitewashing the story.
So no role for Scarlett Johansson then? Maybe she can be part of the recue op? Or a PR rep?
I refuse to let Hollywood #whitewashout the Thai Cave rescue story! No way. Not on our watch. That won’t happen or we’ll give them hell. There’s a beautiful story abt human beings saving other human beings. So anyone thinking abt the story better approach it right & respectfully.
This comes a day after the faith-based studio PureFlix announced plans for their own movie centered on the rescue. I’m guessing that one will have all the whitewashing an exec can buy. In fact, its CEO Michael Scott practically promised it, saying it would be “a major Hollywood film with A-list stars.”
Chu’s film will be quite different, though. He’s teaming up with Ivanhoe Pictures to tell the story of the international rescue mission that captured the world’s attention. The soccer team and their coach were trapped inside Thailand’s Tham Luang Cave for two weeks due to rising flood waters. The dangerous rescue operation involved more than 100 engineers and divers, with one volunteer diver, a former Thai navy SEAL, dying in the attempt.
Season 9 of The Walking Dead is sure to be unlike any other. That was bound to be the case with Andrew Lincoln and Lauren Cohan’s departures from the show, leaving a void that will be very tough to fill. On top of that, incoming showrunner Angela Kang has promised one more significant change, and it comes in the form of a time jump. Kang talks to EW about what that means for Rick Grimes’ crew, while also debuting the first official image from season 9.
“We’ll explore what happened as man made objects and structures break down. Infrastructure like roads and bridges are changing and crumbling. And we’ll also explore what happens as resources are getting low. There’s a fun Western vibe that has emerged. We are going into a period where a lot of the things that we’ve seen in previous seasons have broken down, so they’ve got these horses and carriages that are being drawn around instead of cars. Things are lit with oil lamps. People are using different kinds of weaponry. There’s a real grittiness to it that I think will be fun and fresh for the viewers.”
The image features star Danai Gurira on horseback leading other members of her party. Something tells me they won’t be using too many cars or motorcycles this season. Missing from the image is Andrew Lincoln’s Rick Grimes, her longtime companion. Lincoln is only expected to appear in a handful of episodes. The same goes for Cohan who has the new ABC series Whiskey Cavalier.
Rick has a utopian vision that he wants to see fulfilled, the one that his son Carl wished for before his death last season. But as Kang point out, that vision may not hold up for long…
“We’ll see our group together working in unity in a lot of ways, but you’ll also see some changes in the way that they deal with each other. In some ways, you’ll see that the vision has succeeded beyond anybody’s wildest imagination. But you’ll also see the cracks in that.”
It wouldn’t be much of a show if everything was peaceful, would it?
There should be a lot more information revealed at The Walking Dead‘s usual panel in Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con next week. That’s when we’ll probably get the first trailer and confirmation of an October return on AMC.
Rob Liefeld’s created a bunch of characters that went on to be more popular after he had nothing to do with them. You might know some of them, like Deadpool, Cable, Domino, and X-Force. Another one that vastly improved after him was Prophet, his Captain America ripoff created in 1992 and published as part of his Extreme Comics line. Prophet is just the latest of Liefeld’s characters headed to the big screen in a new deal struck with Studio 8.
Some like to call Prophet the anti-Captain America, but really he was just Captain America to the EXTREME!!!! Born John Prophet, he was a homeless man during WWII who agreed to take part in a super-soldier program led by a scientist from the future. Transformed into a weapon of war, Prophet was cryogenically frozen so as to be awakened for a mission in the far-flung future, but is instead woken prematurely in a time he doesn’t recognize.
The plan, naturally, is for Prophet to launch a new movie franchise. To be perfectly fair, Prophet is one of Liefeld’s better creations, or at least others have made it one. A reboot of the comic in 2012 ditched most of the poor man’s Captain America stuff and sent Prophet thousands of years into the future. The story became heavily based in sci-fi weirdness, and that is when the comic received much of its acclaim. Liefeld, who is on board as a producer, says there won’t be any particular Prophet storyline they’ll be adapting. Instead they will take the best elements of the character and use them to make the best possible movie…
“We’re taking the best of Prophet to create the best cinematic version of Prophet that we can. He’s very pure in his motives to help out his family and ends up becoming something completely different.” [THR]
Trick or treat season is right around the corner, and along with an uptick in the amount of times The Geto Boys’ “Mind Playing Tricks on Me” gets played on the radio, there will be a lot more Halloween movies. That makes this the perfect time for a new trailer for Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween, a sequel to 2015’s hit film.
You may recall there was some confusion surrounding Jack Black’s role in the sequel. Two scripts were written, one that would have him returning as Goosebumps author R.L. Stine, and another in which he’s cut out completely. It seems as if Black is indeed back but only as the voice of the possessed ventriloquist dummy Slappy, who is the film’s villain. A new trio of kids is at the heart of this story, played by Jeremy Ray Taylor (It), Madison Iseman (Jumanji 2), and Caleel Harris (Kirby Buckets). The plot is pretty much the same as before; a group of kids unearth one of Stine’s books in an abandoned house, accidentally unleashing Slappy and a horde of monsters on the neighborhood.
Previous stars Dylan Minnette and Odeya Rush supposedly make appearances but they’re nowhere to be found in this footage. Nor are co-stars Ken Jeong, Wendi Mclendon-Covey, and Chris Parnell.
Directed by Ari Sandel, Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween opens October 12th.
*NOTE: This is a reprint of my review from the Sundance Film Festival. The film opens in DC on July 20th.*
Gus Van Sant is one of those filmmakers we are constantly told is one of the greats, in fact at today’s world premiere of Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far On Foot he was introduced as such. But more often than not it isn’t remotely true and the last ten years have been especially grim. Sea of Trees, anyone? But when Van Sant hits, he can be one of the greats. He just needs the right material. Milk was the right material. To Die For was the right material. Don’t Worry, which finds Van Sant reunited with To Die For‘s Joaquin Phoenix, is also the right material, and despite a few cliches from the “triumph of the human spirit” rulebook, he’s delivered a crowd pleasing movie with two potentially awards-worthy performances.
In the works for years, and once with Robin Williams eyed for the lead role, Don’t Worry centers on controversial Portland cartoonist John Callahan and his triumphs over alcoholism. Actually, it’s more than that, John must also triumph over being a quadriplegic, and from being abandoned by his mother at a young age. All of these life hurdles make up just a fraction of the massive story Van Sant aims to tell, broken down into mixed-up timelines that follow him as a hardcore alcoholic, to getting into a nasty car accident with his buddy Dexter (Jack Black), to learning to overcome it through the Alcoholics Anonymous 12-Step Program, and finally his career as a cartoonist.
Most of the narrative goes through John’s AA meetings, as he recounts his tale of woe to his sponsor Donnie (Jonah Hill), and the group’s other members, referred to as “piglets”, and not in a way that is derogatory by any means. And these folks won’t take any of John’s crap, nor will they just sit back and listen to his sob stories. Udo Kier, the fantastic Beth Ditto, Kim Gordon, and Mark Webber make up the core members of the group, and the film is at its best when everything is set up through these scenes.
Otherwise it becomes a little bit of a mess because Van Sant just has too much to say. He also explores Callahan’s relationship with Annu (Rooney Mara, given nothing to do), a flight attendant who just drifts into the hospital one day and becomes his lover for some reason. There’s also Callahan’s quest to find his real mother, the one who left him an orphan, and whose mystical presence he attributes to his decision to quit drinking once and for all. There’s actually a lot more going on, too, while somehow Van Sant finds tons of time to show Callahan racing around town in his wheelchair just goofing off. Like tons of time. Too much. Taking a page from American Splendor, Van Sant intercuts cartoons featuring many of Callahan’s most notable pieces, almost as signposts to each stage of his life.
It gets unwieldy, but when that happens Van Sant turns to the performances by Phoenix and Hill to hold everything together. Phoenix has never been better, wonderfully capturing John’s evolution from reckless drunk to sober-but-divisive cartoonist, all while never losing his biting sense of humor. I would say the script, penned by Van Sant himself, does John a disservice in the early going. All we see of him is being a fall-down stupid drunk and not much else. It’s hard to see what makes John special. But as he begins to grow into his own, with the help of the 12 Steps, we finally get to see why so many people seem to be rooting for him to succeed.
At this point it’s not fair to call Jonah Hill a revelation every time he has a strong role. He’s been so go so often that we should be used to it, but I think his performance as Donnie is the best he’s been. Portraying the flamboyantly gay Donnie could have led to a misguided stereotype of a character, but Hill never slips into caricature. Of the many characters that arrive to help John in his many moments of need, Donnie leaves the most emotional impact.
You can see Van Sant’s admiration of Callahan in every frame. There’s just so much that he wants to share about Callahan that he can’t bear to let anything go. And while that prevents Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far On Foot from being great, Van Sant will have audiences cheering (and crying) in tribute to Callahan’s life.
To be honest I’ve never quite understood the fascination with Stranger Things’ dearly-departed Barb, but I totally get the Emmy-nominated love for the actress who plays her, Shannon Purser. Purser has become a darling of the pop culture crowd, appearing on episodes of CW’s Riverdale and NBC’s short-lived series, Rise. She’s finally about to get the spotlight all to herself in Netflix’s latest teen rom-com, Sierra Burgess is a Loser, which actually looks like a winner.
In what looks head and shoulders better than Netflix’s awful but inexplicably-popular The Kissing Booth, the film stars Purser as Sierra Burgess, a brilliant young high school senior who has always had to deal with being a misfit to the cool kids. With graduation upon her, she’s suddenly thrust into an unexpected romance with Jamey, the school football star, who thinks he’s actually speaking with Veronica, resident mean girl and cheerleader. It’s a teen-sized twist on the familiar Cyrano de Bergerac tale, which could be annoying if it weren’t for the cast. Along with Purser the film stars RJ Cyler, Kristine Froseth, Noah Centineo, Chrissy Metz, and Lea Thompson.
This marks the directorial debut of short film director Ian Samuels. Most intriguing is the first-time screenplay by Lindsey Beer, who has a slew of major projects coming up including Chaos Walking, Godzilla vs. Kong, and Sony’s Silver & Black. She was also part of Paramount’s Transformers writing room.
Sierra Burgess is a Loser hits Netflix on September 7th.
Chadwick Boseman has a long and likely very lucrative future ahead with Marvel Studios, but he still finds time for the occasional film that doesn’t involve superheroes. For his next one, the action flick 17 Bridges, he’ll be working with two other Marvel alums, Avengers: Infinity War directors the Russo Brothers, on one of the many projects that marks their post-Marvel career.
Boseman will star in and produce 17 Bridges, with the Russos also on board as producers. Directing will be Brian Kirk, best known for his TV work on Game of Thrones, with a script by newcomer Adam Mervis that centers on a disgraced NYPD cop who seeks redemption while tracking a cop killer. Maybe he crosses 17 bridges along the way? I don’t know. Boseman and the Russos first worked together on Captain America: Civil War.
Add this to Boseman’s busy slate which includes Avengers 4, the inevitable Black Panther 2, and the hijacking thriller Expatriate from Moonlight director Barry Jenkins. [Deadline]
Brian K. Vaughan’s immensely popular comic series Y: The Last Man has been a hot property around Hollywood for years. Attempts to launch it as a film and TV series have failed despite some big time talent, but things seem to be moving forward for real over at FX. The last we’d heard was a rumor that Jodie Foster might take one of the lead roles, and while that didn’t pan out, the cast has indeed been filled out by some impressive stars, led by Dunkirk and American Animals’ Barry Keoghan.
That’s right, Barry Keoghan, who also upped the creep factor in Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Killing of a Sacred Deer, will play Yorick Brown in Y: The Last Man. He’ll be joined by Diane Lane (!!) in the role of Yorick’s mother, Senator Jennifer Brown; Imogen Poots (!!!) plays Yorick’s sister, Hero Brown; Lashana Lynch (Captain Marvel) is mysterious Agent 355; Juliana Canfield (Succession) as Beth, Yorick’s longtime girlfriend and the woman he hopes to be reunited with; and Marin Ireland (Sneaky Pete) as Nora, an assistant to the President.
The series will be written by Michael Green (Logan), and takes place in the aftermath of a plague that wipes out any mammal with a Y chromosome. Only Yorick and his pet monkey Ampersand survive to exist in a world completely made up of women. It’s not as fun as it sounds. The pilot will be directed by Melina Matsoukas (Insecure) and you can bet FX is going to want to move on this sooner rather than later. [THR]
History is filled with stories of talented women whose creative voice was buried simply because of their gender. In too many of those cases it was their less-talented husbands who reaped the rewards of their spouses’ work, and another of those unfortunate tales is recounted in Colette, which stars Keira Knightley as the famous novelist.
Debuting earlier this year at Sundance, Colette is the first film by writer/director Wash Westmoreland since 2014’s Still Alice, which earned Julianne Moore an Oscar for Best Actress. Knightley plays Gabrielle Colette, who is convinced to ghostwrite a novel for her abusive husband Willy, only for it to become a huge hit. Later she fights for the freedom to express herself creatively and sexually as she falls in love with another woman.
Considering Knightley’s awards season success with period dramas Atonement, Pride & Prejudice, Anna Karenina, and The Imitation Game you can bet distributor Bleecker Street will make a big push for her this fall. Colette hits theaters on September 21st, and co-stars Dominic West, Fiona Shaw, Denise Gough, Aiysha Hart, Robert Pugh, and Eleanor Tomlinson.
So with this news is MGM saying the recent Robocop was a big old dud? Why, that’s just crazy talk. Obviously, the Joel Kinnaman-led reboot from a few years ago was no way to revitalize the franchise built on Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 classic, one of the best pure pieces of satire you’ll find on the big screen. Earlier this year we heard from original Robocop writer Ed Neumeier that he and co-writer Michael Miner were working on a new film that would bring the hero back, and he wasn’t lying. It’s happening, and Neill Blomkamp is attached, too.
Blomkamp will direct Robocop Returns, which is based on a decades old script by Neumeier and Miner. Justin Rhodes, of the upcoming Terminator reboot, will give the script a fresh rewrite. This must feel pretty good to Blomkamp, who gets a shot at another iconic franchise after his Alien sequel went nowhere. Deadline describes the plot as “anarchy reigns and the fate of Detroit hangs in the balance as RoboCop makes his triumphant return to fight crime and corruption.”
In case it hasn’t been made clear, this is an old script that was originally intended as a sequel to Verhoeven’s film, and that’s what the plan is now. The terrible Robocop sequels and reboot that followed are being ignored, as they probably should be. Neumeier explains in great detail why their script wasn’t used back in the first place…
“Verhoeven felt at the time that making one would be de classe and he wasn’t interested in the politics of a sequel. Then, the writers strike came along in 1988 and we were force majeured off the project. They brought in Frank Miller on a waiver. He wrote a draft and then another with Walon Green, and it got made by Irvin Kershner, who directed The Empire Strikes Back. I went off and did Starship Troopers with Paul.”
He continues that what it really boiled down to was the election of Donald Trump, because in the end all things circle back to Trump…
“Right when Trump was about to be elected president he called me and said, ‘Did you actually predict in your sequel script that a reality star would run for president and win?’ We had. So Mike and I wrote a draft and gave one interview in Barbados and I think the only person who read it was Neill Blomkamp, and that set this in motion.”
The original Robocop earned three Oscar nominations, including a win for Best Sound Editing. I don’t know if that’s in this new movie’s future, but if Blomkamp is a director more than capable of reaching those heights.
