Anyone remember the transition from the SnyderVerse to James Gunn and Peter Safran’s DC Studios? It was a weird time; we didn’t know if Henry Cavill was coming back as Superman, and there were those weird teasers at the end of Shazam 2 and Black Adam. We also weren’t sure about the state of Wonder Woman, even as director Patty Jenkins was sorta fired, sorta not? The whole thing was confusing, especially for Gal Gadot, who talked about it on the Happy Sad Confused podcast.
Based on what Gadot is saying now, it sounds like she wouldn’t do another Wonder Woman movie even if they asked her to. For one thing, she says the exits of Jenkins and Cavill were not handled well at all.
“And, you know, the Henry situation was not handled elegantly, to say the least. Same with Patty. Was not handled elegantly. I feel like, you know, we’re all adults and it’s all good. And it’s not even about them. They are there, and they’re there to do what they believe in, and it’s all good.”
She also said that Gunn and Safran talked about doing Wonder Woman 3 and developing it with her…
“No, they told me the opposite. They were like, ‘We’re going to develop it with you, the third…’ But I saw the way everybody else [was] handled, right?”
Gadot had her eye on the way Jenkins and Cavill were treated, and it left her feeling uncertain that she was being told the truth. Clearly, a movie did not happen and a new film is being written by Ana Nogueira that could have Adria Arjona as the new Wonder Woman. That’s if you believe all of the rumors out there. She’s got an unspecified role in Man of Tomorrow, and it’s being kept secret for a reason, right?
Making matters muddier was the way some actors were carried over, such as Viola Davis as Amanda Waller, Xolo Maridueña as Blue Beetle, and John Cena as Peacemaker. Gadot was the best thing about Batman v Superman, and then went on to star in two largely successful Wonder Woman movies. It’s understandable that she’d be confused as to why she wasn’t asked back when others who did less were.
Gadot has already moved on. She’ll be seen next in the Prime Video thriller The Runner on September 2nd.
Now that Zack Snyder’s The Last Photographhas been announced to premiere at TIFF next month, a full trailer has been released. This is, obviously, much longer than the teaser released a couple of weeks ago.
I’m not sure this helps. The new footage looks wildly pretentious. Snyder, as much as I support the guy, has always had a tendency to try and ape Terrence Malick. Of course, he usually does it while blowing up buildings or while Spartans are on a rampage. With the soft cinematography and overdone narration, it looks like he’s made a commercial for a jungle cruise in a wartorn land.
The film stars Rebel Moon actors Stuart Martin and Fra Fee. Kurt Johnstad (300) wrote the screenplay, with Snyder doing the cinematography himself.
The story centers on an ex-DEA agent who searches the South American mountains for his missing niece and nephew after their parents are murdered. With the help of a war photographer who witnessed the killers, he confronts his past as their journey blurs the line between reality and the surreal.
The Last Photograph isn’t screening for press, I might add. It’s only for the buying public, and ticket prices are steep. Unless I can really dial up the charm it’s not looking good that I’ll see it at TIFF, but I’m going to give it the ol’ college try.
I’ve conjured up something special for DC area readers, a free early screening of Practical Magic 2! The film reunites Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock as the Owens sisters! They are joined by Joey King, Lee Pace, Maisie Williams, Xolo Maridueña, Solly McLeod, with Dianne Wiest and Stockard Channing.
SYNOPSIS: Starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman, PRACTICAL MAGIC 2 returns to a world steeped in moonlit mischief and powerful ancestral magic, as the Owens sisters must confront the dark curse that threatens to unravel their family once and for all in a must-see cinematic event of fun, magic and mayhem.
The screening takes place on Tuesday, September 8th at 7:00pm at Regal Majestic. If you’d like to attend, RSVP at the Warner Bros. site here. Please remember, all screenings are first come first served and you’ll need to arrive early to ensure seating. Enjoy the show!
If you were someone excited about Alien: Romulus and the new direction it took the franchise, well, I’ve got some bad news. Ridley Scott is getting more involved, as he suggested he would be after teasing an Alien: Covenant sequel centered on Michael Fassbender’s psycho android, David.
In a new interview with French outlet AlloCine, Scott kinda thumbed his nose at Fede Alvarez’s Alien: Romulus, and suggested it’s what convinced him to get back to work on his next Alien movie…
“I’m rewriting the next ‘Alien’ film,” Scott said. “Actually, I suddenly went back and got involved. The one that just came out [Alien: Romulus] was OK. I think it needs some help. So, I’ve gone back in.”
It’s worth noting that Scott was a lot more pumped for ‘Romulus’ before it came out, probably because he gets a cut of profits or something. Anyway, he essentially confirmed the next movie will be picking up where he left off with Alien: Covenant.
“So, I’ve already got a footprint for the next ‘Alien,’” he continued. “We did ‘Prometheus,’ and then ‘Alien: Covenant.’ So, I’m picking up where we left off in ‘Alien: Covenant.’ Michael Fassbender’s [character] basically thinks he’s Ozymandias now.”
If it wasn’t clear from watching both Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, Scott isn’t really that interested in Xenomorph stuff as much anymore. He’s fascinated by the the idea of creation, evolution, and AI when it outlasts its creators.
“I like the fact that AI is going off the rails,” he explained. “If we go AI, the moment we discover it goes off the rails, it’s too late. It could switch every digital thing off in the world, like that. You’d have fucking chaos. It’s that kind of stuff that’s scary. You’d have a [shutdown].”
Someone must’ve forgotten to tell Scott that fans largely rejected these movies, even if he dug making them. But you can’t tell him shit right now, apparently. In yet another recent interview with Brut (Scott is everywhere talking up The Dog Stars, which bombed at the box office), he patted himself on the back for making the “best” Alien movie (debatable, bro), and said it was Prometheus that revived the franchise after Alien: Resurrection in 1997.
“I did the best one by far. Full stop. End of the f***ing story,” Scott said. “Then they let it die. After [Alien] 4, they killed it. So I sat there thinking, ‘I’m going to bring it back.’ So I sat down with a very good writer; two guys [and] eventually ended up with Damon Lindelof, and we caught fire and wrote ‘Prometheus.’”
Okay, so after all of this, is Alien: Romulus 2 dead or what? It’s tough to say. Alvarez had always intended to return, but he left due to creative issues, likely with Scott. Rumors were that the film was shelved, but 20th Century Studios recently debunked that report. Michael Sarnoski (The Death of Robin Hood) was attached to direct, but he’s busy with Death Stranding. Evil Dead Burn director Sébastien Vaniček’s name has been mentioned, although he has yet to be confirmed.
What’s clear is that Scott has taken this vacuum left by Alvarez and stepped in to fill the void with the stuff he wants to do, whether audiences want it or not.
Are there a lot of Zack Snyder fans in Canada? If so, we know where they’ll be next month. After the teaser dropped a couple of weeks ago for Snyder’s small-budget indie film, The Last Photograph, it will have its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival at 6:30pm on Sunday, September 13, in the John Bassett Theatre.
TIFF announced the late addition to the lineup this morning. Snyder is still seeking distribution for the jungle thriller starring Rebel Moon actors Stuart Martin and Fra Fee. Kurt Johnstad (300) wrote the screenplay. This is a movie Snyder has been trying to get done for almost two decades.
The story centers on an ex-DEA agent who searches the South American mountains for his missing niece and nephew after their parents are murdered. With the help of a war photographer who witnessed the killers, he confronts his past as their journey blurs the line between reality and the surreal.
Snyder is doing the cinematography himself, as he did with back-to-back Rebel Moon movies and Army of the Dead. The great Hans Zimmer contributed to the score.
This move is clearly designed to help The Last Photograph find a buyer for distribution. That begs the question, does anyone really want to see Snyder do a low-budget movie, with a cost said to be around $10M? I’m not sure there’s much appetite for that, but good reviews out of TIFF could change that.
You probably saw over the weekend that Tom Cruise’s Days of Thunder 2 just got some impressive star power under the hood. Anne Hathaway, who can be seen right now being chased by dinosaurs in The End of Oak Street, has joined the NASCAR drama, a sequel to Tony Scott’s 1990 film. Paramount Pictures has set a June 2nd 2028 release date.
Cruise will reprise his role as racecar driver Cole Trickle…yes, that was and remains his name. Hathaway will play a racecar team owner and engineer
As reported last month, Jonathan Levine was in talks to direct. The gig appears to be his now. He’ll direct from a script by Will Staples, with Jerry Bruckheimer as producer. Bruckheimer and Cruise have been trying to make this movie happen for a while, even though the original wasn’t exactly well-received. It’s more of a cult favorite at this point.
This continues what has been an extremely busy year for Hathaway. She’s starred in four films already: The Devil Wears Prada 2, Mother Mary, The End of Oak Street, and The Odyssey. A fifth, Colleen Hoover adaptation, Verity, opens in October.
Gather a few friends on a Friday evening, and the plan used to write itself: someone picks a film, someone orders pizza, and that’s the night sorted. For decades, that formula was untouchable.
But spend a Saturday night with any group of people under 40 today, and the picture looks very different. The television might still be on, but the activity around it has shifted in ways that would have seemed unthinkable even fifteen years ago. Weekend entertainment has quietly but completely transformed, and the traditional movie night is no longer the anchor it once was!
The Old Traditions Have Changed
Previously, traditional movie nights took real effort. You searched through a physical collection of DVD cases, or made a trip to the video rental store hoping the title you wanted was still on the shelf. That friction made the choice feel meaningful. You’d committed to a film before you even sat down.
Blu-ray extended the format’s life, and digital downloads through services like iTunes let people buy films without leaving home. But streaming was the real disruption. Netflix, which started as a DVD-by-mail service, turned to streaming in 2007 and reshaped everything. Suddenly, thousands of titles were available instantly, on demand, with no late fees and no trip to a store. Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, HBO Max, and a wave of competitors followed, each pulling viewers in different directions. The result wasn’t just convenience; it changed how people related to watching. Scrolling through an endless library reduced the commitment. If a film wasn’t grabbing attention within ten minutes, something else was one click away.
That shift in behavior opened the door for other activities to fill the gaps. With better internet connectivity, larger phone screens, and tablets becoming standard household devices, the living room stopped being a passive viewing space. It became an interactive one. Social gaming, mobile apps, and browser-based experiences moved in alongside (and eventually in competition with) the films themselves. For a significant portion of weekend gatherings today, the television plays a background role while something else commands the group’s focus.
One particularly notable shift has been the rise of casino-style gaming during these casual home sessions. Thanks to platforms highlighted in resources like the Dimers review of legal social gaming sites and similar reputable sources, more players have started exploring casino-style games (mostly slots) as part of their regular weekend routine. Sweepstakes casinos and social gaming platforms have made this accessible without requiring real-money wagers, which lowers the barrier considerably. What was once associated exclusively with physical casinos or dedicated casino apps has become a group activity, with an atmosphere no different from a board game or a trivia night.
Beyond casino-style games, mobile gaming in general has surged as a weekend entertainment option. Titles like Battle Royale (the genre that includes games like PUBG Mobile, Fortnite Mobile, and Call of Duty: Mobile) have built enormous player communities that compete in short, sharp sessions that fit naturally into a social evening. You no longer need a console to play them. A phone, a decent Wi-Fi connection, and fifteen free minutes are enough to drop into a match.
Board Games and the Analog Revival Nobody Saw Coming
Amid all the talk of screens, streaming, and mobile hardware, the most unexpected comeback story in weekend entertainment involves no technology whatsoever.
Board games (the kind that come in cardboard boxes with plastic pieces and paper instructions) have staged one of the most remarkable cultural reversals of the past decade. Hobby game sales have grown consistently year on year since the early 2010s, and Saturday night has become their prime territory.
What changed wasn’t the games themselves, at least not entirely. It was the games that became available. The older generation of family titles (Monopoly, Scrabble, Cluedo) were fine for what they were, but they demanded patience and rewarded little interaction. The newer wave is built differently.
Games like Catan, Ticket to Ride, Codenames, and Wingspan are designed around social tension, negotiation, and decision-making that involves everyone at the table at the same time. Nobody sits waiting for their turn while one player dominates; the design philosophy has shifted toward keeping everyone engaged, all the time.
That design shift matters because it solves the same problem that made traditional movie nights feel passive. In a board game session, every person in the room has agency. You can bluff, betray, cooperate, or compete, and the outcome changes depending on who’s there and what they decide. Two sessions of the same game rarely feel identical. That variability is something a film (however good) simply cannot offer. Once you’ve seen it, you’ve seen it. A board game deepens with repetition rather than exhausting itself.
The social layer is also worth noting. Board games have developed genuine communities around them: local game nights at bars and cafés, dedicated hobby shops that run weekly sessions, and online communities where enthusiasts discuss strategy and recommend new titles.
That infrastructure has legitimized the hobby in a way it never was when it was associated primarily with children’s entertainment. Bringing a well-chosen game to a dinner party now carries a different connotation than it did twenty years ago. It signals taste, not lack of imagination.
The Living Room as a Social Hub
None of this means films have disappeared from weekend culture. They haven’t. Blockbuster releases still drive appointment viewing, and streaming’s own prestige productions attract serious audience engagement.
But films play a less central role in a typical group evening. They are one option among many, rather than the default choice that everything else orbits around.
The shift reflects something broader about how people want to spend their leisure time. Passive consumption is competing hard with active participation. Watching something is less compelling than doing something when the technology to do something interesting is already in your pocket.
As mobile hardware improves, social gaming platforms expand their libraries, and multiplayer mobile games grow more sophisticated, that balance will keep tilting. The living room has become an entertainment hub in the fullest sense, and the DVD player gathering dust in the corner is the clearest symbol of how much has changed.
What’s there left to say? Marvel and Sony’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day took the top spot for the fifth consecutive week, even as it lost hundreds of theaters. It took in another $22M for a domestic haul of $891M, within sight of besting The Force Awakens‘ $936M to become the highest-earning stateside ever. Worldwide, it now has $2.33B, after adding another $44M from foreign markets.
After being shelved by Warner Bros. much to the chagrin of fans, Coyote vs. Acme got a new lease on life from Ketchup Entertainment, which had released The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie just a year earlier. It got much better returns this time. Opening in 3,575 theaters, the live-action/animated courtroom film hit $15.4M. This was driven largely by fan word-of-mouth, curiosity of a film that nearly never got disappeared permanently, and high Rotten Tomatoes scores in the 90s. If WB had held onto it and released it with these numbers, it would’ve been seen as a major flop. But for the upstart Ketchup, this has to be seen as a massive win and one of the year’s best success stories.
Ouch. It must kill someone like Ridley Scott to see his big-budget, star-driven thriller The Dog Stars get nearly doubled by a Wile E. Coyote cartoon. That’s the unfortunate reality for The Dog Stars, which opened with just $8M and only $11M more internationally for an opening weekend of $19M worldwide. The Jacob Elordi-led film, set in a post-apocalyptic world where humanity is scarce, failed to win over critics or audiences based on the low RT scores (40% critical/70% audience), and might vanish from theaters quickly. That said, I have a feeling some of Scott’s fans are waiting patiently for the inevitable Director’s Cut.
Roadside Attractions scored a win with the release of Buddy, the violent horror-comedy satire about a Barney-esque children’s TV show mascot who turns into a psychotic serial killer. I really dug this one at Sundance earlier this year, but always knew it would have to be specially targeted to be a success. The film’s writer/director, Casper Kelly, has tons of fans based on his Adult Swim hits Too Many Cooks and Your Pretty Face Is Going to Hell.
7. The End of Oak Street– $4.9M/$46M
8. PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie– $4.8M/$43.3M
9. Mutiny– $2.7M/$13.2M
10. Tony– $2.2M/$11M
Also…IFC Films didn’t come away looking too bright following the release of Idiots (formerly The Shitheads, a title they should’ve kept). The road trip stoner comedy had some solid buzz coming out of Sundance, but not even with its stars Dave Franco, O’Shea Jackson Jr., and Mason Thames pushing the press rounds hard, the film still only hit $700K at 1,110 locations for a $630 per site average. Ouch. To be honest, I was at the premiere and found it disappointing even then, so my expectations were always low. [BoxOfficeMojo]
Mia’Kate Russell already had a reputation before she shot a single frame of her bloody new Ozploitation flick, Penny Lane is Dead. Having built her career in the Australian makeup and special effects scene, Russell has more than paid her dues getting to this point, and already directed a few short films including Swallow and Maggie May. Penny Lane is Dead is something like an amalgam of the two, dealing with toxic, ruinous female relationships, a queer love story, and of course, murder.
I had the chance to speak with Mia’Kate Russell about Penny Lane is Dead, and we talked about the work she’s put in over the years. We also talked about the nature of female relationships, the unforgettable performances of her cast, some of the film’s most triggering scenes, and why it’s great to have an irredeemable villain you just want to see get their ass kicked.
Shudder is streaming Penny Lane is Dead now! You can check out the interview below, and my review here!
How does Ted Kaczynski go from being a 16-year-old Harvard student to the country’s most notorious domestic terrorist? That dark evolution is at the heart of Netflix’s new film, Unabomber, starring Jacob Tremblay as Kaczynski, alongside Russell Crowe and Shailene Woodley.
Directed by Janus Metz (Borg vs. McEnroe), Unabomber jumps between Kaczynski’s time at Harvard, learning under the tutelage of professor Henry Murray, played by Crowe, and the FBI manhunt that ensued two decades later to stop his bombings. Woodley plays FBI agent Joanne Miller who is on Kaczynski’s trail.
Also in the cast are Annabelle Wallis (the Mutiny actress I just interviewed here) as Harvard Psychological Clinic director Christiana Morgan, along with Alexander Ludwig, Steven Ogg, and Marc Menchaca.
Sam Chalsen and Nelson Greaves (both of the Sleepy Hollow tv series) wrote the screenplay.
Unabomber debuts September 25th on Netflix. Kinda surprising they aren’t giving it even a small theatrical release. Doesn’t exactly scream “confidence” to me. Even so, this looks pretty good and I’m looking forward to seeing it.
