When Steven Carell makes a play for the awards season the results have been pretty mixed. He earned a nomination for Foxcatcher a few years ago but subsequent attempts in The Big Short, Battle of the Sexes, and Last Flag Flying have fallen short. But he’ll be back this season with Robert Zemeckis’s Welcome to Marwen, a dramatic adaptation of the acclaimed documentary Marwencol.
The first trailer has arrived and it’s a pretty odd mix of emotions, as one might expect for the story of a man who tries to overcome memory loss and PTSD by building a miniaturized town called Marwen where he lives out fantastical adventures. It’s the story of Mark Hogancamp, who was the victim of a brutal attack by a group of Nazis that left him in such a traumatized state. By living out his wildest fantasies in Marwen it gives Mark the strength to move on and face reality.
It’s a tremendous story but I’m not feeling this trailer, which is like a poor man’s Michel Gondry. The human emotions feel out of place in the “toy” world, and the live-action scenes are melodramatic to a fault, probably because of the heavy-handed musical cues. This could all just be a fault of the trailer and the movie itself could be significantly better. But at the same time I know that Zemeckis isn’t exactly known for his subtlety.
Also starring Leslie Mann, Eiza González, Janelle Monáe, Falk Hentschel, Gwendoline Christie, Neil Jackson, Diane Kruger and Merritt Wever, Welcome to Marwen opens November 21st.
If you’re going to make a movie about the discovery of a giant prehistoric shark and cast Jason Statham as the hero, there’s really only one way to do it. Fortunately, The Meg looks to be running with the downright ludicrous nature of the plot.
Directed by Jon Turteltaub and co-starring Li Bingbing, Rainn Wilson, Winston Chao, Ruby Rose, Cliff Curtis, and Masi Oka, the film sets Statham and a team of scientists against a Megalodon before it can devour everybody in its path. The tone reminds me of Piranha 3D, which is exactly what it should be like, although I’m sad over the lame PG-13 rating. I’m no huge fan of Turteltaub, but every now and then like with the National Treasure movies he gets it right.
So I promised not to write about any 21st Century Fox deals with Disney or Comcast unless there were significant updates, and so here I am. Most recently Comcast had fanboys shook when they topped Disney’s previous offer with a $65B bid, topping the previous offer of $52B. Fox’s board met yesterday to consider Comcast’s latest offer, which also gave Disney a few days to match or surpass it with more cash in addition to the stock-based plan they have on the table. Well, Disney didn’t need a few days.
Fox has accepted a new $71.3B offer from Disney, besting Comcast’s by a substantial margin, and also includes Disney taking on about $13B of Fox’s debt. That ups the bid to roughly $85B, and “gives Fox shareholders the option to take their payment in the form of cash or stock, up to a 50-50 level.”
So now the ball is in Comcast’s court. How badly do they want it? One analyst speaking with Bloomberg calls Disney’s offer “very aggressive”, and suggests Comcast may not have the capital to go much further…
“Comcast’s balance sheet may preclude it from bidding much higher,” analyst Paul Sweeney said. “Further hampering Comcast’s ability to respond is its position that it does not want to use its stock in a deal at these low levels.”
More on this the next time something substantial happens. At this rate the next update might be that a deal is done.
While its future is still uncertain, MoviePass has undoubtedly changed the way people go to the movies with its monthly subscription service. I don’t know if it has translated to more money at the box office, but definitely more people I know are going to the movies than ever before. And now it looks like they are going to have more options courtesy of AMC, the largest movie exhibitor in the world. Remember when AMC threatened to sue MoviePass at one point? Ahhhh how times have changed.
The movie chain is moving forward with Premiere A-List, an upgrade of their popular Stubs program that will allow its members to see a select number of movies for a monthly subscription fee of $19.99. For that price members will be able to see three movies a week at AMC theaters, which is a downgrade from MoviePass, except that you will be able to see the same movie more than once including multiple times in a single day provided there is a 2-hour break in-between. Those who are already enrolled in the current AMC Premiere program will continue to receive the same benefits associated with purchases.
Here’s a rundown of the AMC Premiere A-List program. Thanks to Slashfilm for the info:
Can be used at all AMC, AMC Dine-in and AMC Classic theatres in the United States
Includes all of AMC’s premium offerings including IMAX, Dolby Cinema, RealD 3D, Prime and BigD
AMC Stubs A-List members can book tickets online in advance, and at AMC Theatres with reserved seating specific seats can be booked as well
Includes all the benefits of AMC Stubs Premiere, with VIP service levels at AMC’s theatres, no
online ticketing fees, and significant food and beverage savings… with the normal $15 Premiere annual fee being waived
No waiting after enrollment and no special credit card to be carried, AMC Stubs A-List is web and smartphone based
I don’t use MoviePass or any subscription service but I can see the upside if you go to a lot of movies. Premiere A-List costs more than MoviePass and allows for fewer movies to be seen, but the Stubs points program and the ability to see the same movie multiple times are a real plus. The competition between both programs should only offer users more perks in the long run.
It looks like the A-List program will kick off on June 26th if the below tweet is accurate:
An adaptation of Roald Dahl’s The Witches can be counted as one of the many projects Guillermo Del Toro has attached himself to over the years. And like so many of those, it ain’t gonna happen with him at the helm, and so it may be passing down to Robert Zemeckis who is in final talks to direct.
If Zemeckis signs on he’ll be getting support from Oscar winners Del Toro and Alfonso Cuarton, two of today’s best directors when it comes to telling dark fairy tale stories for kids and adults alike. They’ll produce the adaptation of Dahl’s 1983 novel which Zemeckis would both direct and write. The film was previously adapted for the screen in a 1990 film led by Anjelica Huston, in which she plays the leader of all witches on the planet as they face a young boy and his Norwegian grandmother. If you haven’t seen it you should check it out both for Huston’s lively performance and some of the puppet work by the Jim Henson team. Whoever lands the role of the Grand High Witch for this new film is going to have a ball.
No word on when this will begin, but likely sometime after Zemeckis’s latest film, Welcome to Marwen, hits theaters in November. [Variety]
Any doubts about reviving the Rocky franchise with Creed were left staring up at the lights when the film arrived in 2015. The second of three vital teamup between director Ryan Coogler and star Michael B. Jordan (including Frutvale Station and Black Panther), the film took the underdog paradigm and gave it a fresh new set of trunks, casting Rocky Balboa in the role of mentor to Adonis Creed, the angry but talented son to his legendary friend/rival Apollo Creed. The film was an astonishing success, but not the most natural start for a new series of movies. And yet here we are with Creed 2, and the legacy of Rocky Balboa is being reworked once again.
Creed 2 continues the boxing career of Adonis, only this time he’s gearing up for a fight against Viktor Drago, the son of Rocky 4 nemesis Ivan Drago. Ivan is once again played by Dolph Lundgren with real-life boxer Florian Munteanu as his son, and the story will find Rocky and Adonis re-examining those past bouts with Ivan Drago, both the one that cost Apollo his life and Rocky’s fight for vengeance that followed. Tessa Thompson is back in the cast, and the biggest change is behind the camera as Steven Caple Jr. (The Land) steps in for Coogler. Stallone and Luke Cage‘s Cheo Hodari Coker wrote the script.
Here’s the synopsis: Life has become a balancing act for Adonis Creed. Between personal obligations and training for his next big fight, he is up against the challenge of his life. Facing an opponent with ties to his family’s past only intensifies his impending battle in the ring. Rocky Balboa is there by his side through it all and, together, Rocky and Adonis will confront their shared legacy, question what’s worth fighting for, and discover that nothing’s more important than family. Creed II is about going back to basics to rediscover what made you a champion in the first place, and remembering that, no matter where you go, you can’t escape your history.
For a franchise that revolves around the idea of evolution, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom reveals that it is still very much stuck in amber. 2015’s Jurassic World was predictably crowd-pleasing in its monstrous dino-effects and shapeless in terms of an actual plot. Two decades since the original Jurassic Park movies had ended, the revival’s $1B+ box office wasn’t going to inspire Universal to change much for its sequel, but they made the killer move of hiring talented director J.A. Bayona, he of disaster film The Impossible and horror The Orphanage, as an upgrade to Trevorrow’s middling direction. And while the action has been given a serious upgrade for the sequel, it’s Trevorrrow’s lousy screenplay that has this Fallen Kingdom sunk in the mud.
A reason why I don’t buy into the hype from filmmakers about their upcoming blockbusters is put on display in Fallen Kingdom. Trevorrow waxed grandiose about his plans for the film, talking about “open source dinosaurs” and other such nonsense that would broaden this franchise’s scope. None of that plays out at all, and what we get is a middling thriller that *shocker* reveals that the homemade dinosaurs of Jurassic Park are being exploited for profit. Whhhaaaaa?? You don’t say? Hasn’t that been a core theme since the beginning? Oh, and the dinosaurs find themselves relocated in a way that has some very familiar echoes. This is a “been there, done that” situation if there ever was one.
To paraphrase the great and recently-returned Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum), “Retread finds a way.”
And yet the choreographed set pieces are off the charts incredible thanks to Bayona, and a cast who are accustomed to diving away from gnashing teeth and fangs. A few years have passed since the last movie’s conclusion, which saw over $800M in payouts to victims of the dinosaur crisis, and now Isla Nublar is on the verge of becoming a smoldering ruin due to an exploding volcano. While politicians bluster and animal rights groups gather, Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) is approached by a wealthy benefactor to help lead a mission to rescue the dinosaurs from the island. She’s tasked with recruiting beefcake animal behaviorist Owen (Chris Pratt) to lead the way and help rescue Blue, the intelligent velociraptor he helped raise since “birth”. Joined by snarky paleo-veterinarian Zia (Daniella Pineda) and dorky tech dude Franklin (Justice Smith), Claire and Owen’s rescue soon goes belly up because, you guessed it, humans suck and can’t be trusted. They’re far more dangerous than dinosaurs, which is saying something because they are stampeding everywhere to try and escape the island before it becomes slag.
Anything outside of a life-or-death situation is rendered emotionless and dull by Trevorrow and co-writer Derek Connolly’s script. They manage to make the appearance by the aforementioned Ian Malcolm seem perfunctory rather than a reason for nostalgic bliss. Tonally all over the map, it’s also impossible to figure out just how high the stakes are. Dinosaurs being sold to the highest bidder? Bad idea. But the comical way in which that case is made, with a room full of Russian mobsters, shady arms dealers, and wealthy fat cats having an auction like an episode of Storage Wars is ridiculous. Plus, there is a super important, human race-shattering reveal that involves someone close to original Park founder Benjamin Lockwood (James Cromwell) that is given nary a second thought when it should be the basis of an entire movie. It’s hard to figure out what this movie’s priorities are, exactly. Should we be concerned whether dinosaurs go extinct again? Concerned they’ll fall in the wrong hands? Worried they’ll make humans extinct in the process? Fearful of an out of control evolutionary process? All of these issues are brought up and dumped sideways like one of those Jurassic Park tour cars at a T-Rex’s nudging.
Fortunately, Bayona’s horror sensibilities save the day, and he has no doubts about the kind of movie he’s trying to make. Bringing a much darker touch than Trevorrow could ever hope to, he pulls from classic genre to compose some terrifying scenes of dinosaur mayhem. The best finds a new souped-up dinosaur lurking in a young girl’s bedroom, its silhouette against the light of the moon like a feral wolfman. It’s Bayona’s moodier touches that add a depth to the necessary abundance of CGI, making this the scariest Jurassic movie by far. I’d be happy with seeing the entire franchise go off in a horror direction, leaving all the philosophizing claptrap behind.
I do like the semi-evolution seen in both Owen and Claire. Not that she was helpless in the first movie but she’s definitely more confident (and sans high heels!!) this time around. Owen seems to have softened up some of his rougher edges. He doesn’t get as many heroic moments this time, but that may be because this is a smaller movie with less people to chase around and save. He’s only got a dinosaur to look after and Blue is pretty self-sufficient.
Maybe it’s unfair to say Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is stuck in amber. That would imply that it’s merely stagnant, when the franchise has very clearly taken a step backwards. With some amazing, gigantic visuals and a cast we already love, it is still undeniably entertaining and will rock the worlds of its share of audiences. But we’re seeing diminishing returns, and the awe we once felt over these movies is fading fast.
Far be it from me to ever claim that Marvel did something wrong (They do…all the time. Okay, I said it.), but the ending of Avengers: Infinity War really has them in a very unique bind. The Thanos Snap wiped out half of the universe’s population and that includes many characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, characters that we know have sequels coming up. That has put creators in the position of trying to front like the deaths are all permanent when we know damn well they aren’t.
Most recently it was the Russo Brothers playing this silly game as if we were a bunch of noobz. Anthony Russo told HuffPo…
“Here’s the thing, I think it’s important to remember anything is possible in the MCU [Marvel Cinematic Universe]. Just because there’s a sequel on the books doesn’t mean … people become accustomed to time moving linearly in the MCU. That doesn’t necessarily have to be the case. There’s a lot of very inventive ways of where the story can go.”
Yeah, tell us another one! So it’s bullshit, and even Chris Pratt tried to help them sell this lie, telling MTV that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3“might take place in the past.”
Anyway, one person not willing to take part in this charade is James Gunn, who wasted no time telling a fan that Vol. 3 does indeed take place after Infinity War. I mean, why bullshit around?
We’re not idiots, and I appreciate Gunn treating us like we know what’s up. Since we all know these characters are coming back, it’s up to him and Marvel to pull it off in a way that blows our minds. That’s all. I think most of knew going in that a lot of heroes were going to die in Infinity War, and yet none of us were prepared to see it happen. Marvel can do that again, just in reverse I guess.
Last year Kevin Spacey was one of the highest-profile celebrities to be hit hard by allegations of sexual assault. Not only was he dropped from Netflix’s House of Cards, but he was removed from Ridley Scott’s All the Money in the World and replaced by Christopher Plummer. For all intents and purposes we had seen the last of Spacey in anything new for a while. Or so we thought.
A couple of years ago Spacey shot the crime film Billionaire Boys Club, which also stars Taron Egerton, Ansel Elgort, Billie Lourd, Suki Waterhouse, and more with Wonderland director James Cox behind the camera. Not a bad cast, but Spacey’s involvement basically forced distributor Vertical Entertainment to keep it on the shelf. Well, they’re done with that now, and the film will be opening later this summer. The story follows a group of rich Los Angeles private school boys who set up a Ponzi scheme in the 1980s, only to end up murdering their benefactor.
Here’s Vertical Entertainment’s statement on the release: “We hope these distressing allegations pertaining to one person’s behavior — that were not publicly known when the film was made almost 2.5 years ago — do not tarnish the release.”
“We don’t condone sexual harassment on any level and we fully support victims of it. At the same time, this is neither an easy nor insensitive decision to release this film in theaters, but we believe in giving the cast, as well as hundreds of crew members who worked hard on the film, the chance to see their final product reach audiences,” the statement continued. “In the end, we hope audiences make up their own minds as to the reprehensible allegations of one person’s past, but not at the expense of the entire cast and crew present on this film.”
I actually don’t think Vertical has anything to apologize for or explain. I don’t hold them responsible for Spacey’s actions anymore than I would if someone else in the cast did something awful. They should be free to release the movie without scrutiny so that people who want to see it can do so. I for one really do want to check this out and will be doing so when it hits VOD and select cities on August 17th. Looks like some Wolf of Wall Street/Boiler Room shit and that’s my jam.
You can check out a trailer for last week’s international release below.
Black Panther writer Joe Robert Cole is capitalizing on that Marvel film’s succcess by scoring new projects alongside Netflix. A couple of months ago he and Michael B. Jordan brought the streaming network their adaptation of Vault Comics title Failsafe. And now Cole will make his sophomore directing effort with crime film All Day and a Night.
Cole will write and direct the film which “is set in three parallel narratives and follows a young criminal after his arrival in prison as he looks back on the days preceding his arrest and the circumstances of his childhood to find clues to his way forward in life and his survival.” The style sounds similar to Cole’s directorial debut, the 2011 thriller Amber Lake which told a murder story from multiple perspectives.
No word on a start date but I’m curious to see if Cole brings in any of his Black Panther stars to be part of this project, too. Sounds like the smart way to go. [THR]
