There are going to be a lot of villains taking up seats on this Jungle Cruise. Not long after Edgar Ramirez boarded the Disney adventure as a bad guy, Other People and Game Night star Jesse Plemons has joined as another.
Plemons joins what is shaping up to be a stellar cast that includes Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, and Jack Whitehall. The film is based on the Disney theme park attraction and is seen as the start of a new franchise, just like Pirates Of The Caribbean. Johnson plays a boat captain escorting siblings to a tree that supposedly has healing properties, but others are after it, too.
Shooting on Jungle Cruise begins this summer with Jaume Collet-Serra behind the camera. He’s the guy who usually does those thrillers with Liam Neeson where he’s stuck in a moving vehicle. How has Neeson not been cast for this one yet?
For me and other fans of Japanese director Hirokazu Koreeda this is a great moment in time. The filmmaker was just confirmed to be directing a new film with French icons Juliette Binoche and Catherine Deneuve, and his courtroom thriller The Third Murder will hopefully be stateside soon. But the kicker is that he’s returning to Cannes with his latest family drama, Shoplifters, and we have an international trailer for it.
Reunited with the stars from many of his previous films, Koreeda tells the story of a family of shoplifters who invite an orphan into their tight-knit group. Lily Franky, Sakura Ando, Kengo Kora, Sosuke Ikematsu, Chizuru Ikewaki, Yuki Yamada, Yoko Moriguchi and Akira Emoto round out the cast. Here’s the synopsis, followed by the trailer which is in Japanese but you’ll get the idea.
After one of their shoplifting sessions, Osamu and his son come across a little girl in the freezing cold. At first reluctant to shelter the girl, Osamu’s wife agrees to take care of her after learning of the hardships she faces. Although the family is poor, barely making enough money to survive through petty crime, they seem to live happily together until an unforeseen incident reveals hidden secrets, testing the bonds that unite them…
It used to be that you could count on just about every Lars Von Trier making its debut at Cannes, but in 2011 he was banned from the festival after some comments he made went over like a fart in a crowded elevator. He hasn’t been back since, but the last few days there have been rumblings of his latest, The House That Jack Built, making its way to the festival. And now it’s been confirmed, with a teaser to back it up.
Starring Matt Damon and Uma Thurman, the film centers on the murderous career of a hyper-intelligent serial killer. The brief 23-second teaser doesn’t show much, but it’s creepy enough with Dillon’s evil smirk covered in blood.
Cannes hasn’t let The House That Jack Built be part of the official competition slate but this is a good start to mending fences.
While it would have been amazing to see Tom Hardy transform into Elton John for biopic Rocketman, that’s not going to happen. The film is moving forward at Paramount, though, only it will be with Kingsman: The Secret Service star Taron Egerton playing the legendary entertainer.
Egerton will don a flashy pair of glasses and tickle the ivories as Elton John in a film that will follow the flashy entertainer’s growth from a prodigy at the Royal Academy of Music to a global superstar, through his influential and enduring musical partnership with his songwriting collaborator Bernie Taupin. The film is quite a reunion for Egerton, as Matthew Vaughn will produce and Dexter Fletcher is on board to direct. Vaughn directed Egerton in both Kingsman movies, while Fletcher was at the helm of 2016’s Eddie the Eagle.
Shooting begins in August, and apparently Egerton will be performing the songs himself. Maybe he picked up a few pointers on the set of Kingsman: The Golden Circle which had Elton John in a bizarre supporting role as himself. [Deadline]
Is it really worth getting excited about the announcement of new directors for Masters Of The Universe? A movie based on the popular ’80s line of action figures has been in the works for years, with multiple names attached including John M. Chu, McG, and most recently David Goyer who wrote the latest script. Now Variety reports brothers Aaron and Adam Nee will take the helm, but let’s see if it actually happens.
The Nee Brothers are actually a pretty inspired choice. They last directed Band of Robbers, an offbeat crime comedy featuring grown-up versions of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. I was kinda lukewarm to it but it has grown on me upon further viewings because it’s such a fun idea to play with, and the Nees recognized that. Hopefully they can bring the same spirit to He-Man and the Masters of the Universe because characters like Ram Man, Skeletor, and Beast Man should be a little bit silly.
The film previously held a December 18th 2019 release date but that will definitely be changing. Not that the Nees couldn’t get it done in time I think, but because it runs up against a little something called Star Wars: Episode 9.
David Leitch is the most sought after director in Hollywood. After co-directing John Wick he set off on his own with Atomic Blonde, and has Deadpool 2 right around the corner. His name has been rumored for a number of big projects but recently agreed to direct the Fast & Furious spinoff with Dwayne Johnson. Now he’s signed up for another big film, the video game adaptation The Division, which already has two huge stars attached.
It’s been a couple of years since Jessica Chastain and Jake Gyllenhaal signed up to star in The Division, based on the popular first-person shooter game series. At the time it was Stephen Gaghan (Syriana) on board to direct, and at the time I argued it was a terrible choice for UbiSoft after they went with an indie filmmaker for Assassin’s Creed. Leitch makes a lot more sense because he has the blockbuster style and knows how to shoot an action scene like a champ.
Tom Clancy’s The Division is a military shooter game/RPG set in a dystopian New York City in the aftermath of a lethal smallpox outbreak transmitted through paper money. In the months that follow the city has descended into chaos, and a special task force known as The Division is sent in to help restore order.
The plan is for Leitch to begin shooting in early 2019. [Variety]
For the record, this isn’t breaking my previously stated promise not to do anymore Infinity War stories because this pertains to Josh Brolin and Avengers 4. With two Marvel movies on the way in the next few weeks, Brolin has been doing an insane amount of interviews, dropping details on Infinity War and Deadpool 2 all over the place. Somebody ought to rein him in, especially now that he’s spoiling stuff about Avengers 4.
While Brolin has previously said not to expect Thanos to stick around very long, it’s been up in the air whether the villain would survive the events of Infinity War. Well, Brolin pretty much confirmed it to Total Film while talking about the motion capture process, along with spoiling who he shares integral scenes with…
“You’ve got to walk around in a onesie and imagine yourself as an actor with some impact. It starts messing with your head. I’m Josh, who’s got dots on him, and a onesie, and a helmet can, and I’ve got Scarlett right there, and I’ve got Brie, and Don Cheadle, and [Chris] Hemsworth, and Chris Evans, and [Robert] Downey…I’m sitting there and I’m looking like I look, which is not 700lb and purple and eight feet tall.”
Oh, thanks for that, Josh. So it looks like the events of Infinity War will carryover to Avengers 4 in a more direct way than we knew. He also confirmed Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel is definitely in the fourth Avengers movie, since we know she isn’t in the third. So again, thanks Josh.
Avengers: Infinity War opens April 27th, with Avengers 4 arriving in May 2019.
Before I ever saw Hamilton the one thing I knew about Daveed Diggs was his rapping ability. His lyricism was already well-known and he has found a way to meld it into his acting career pretty seamlessly. And there is no better example than in his new film, Blindspotting, which opened Sundance earlier this year to rave reviews, including from yours truly.
Joined by his frequent collaborator Rafael Casal, the film will be part of the continued national conversation about race relations and law enforcement. Set against the backdrop of gentrified Oakland, it follows two best friends, one white and the other African-American, and the varying experiences they have in the wake of a police shooting that killed an unarmed black man. The trailer gives you a hint of director Carlos López Estrada’s energetic visual style. It starts off with kind of a loose, Friday sort of feel but the intensity picks up towards the end. The one thing we don’t get a sense of Diggs’ character rapping through some of the film’s most crucial scenes, including the big payoff moment that is one of the most powerful things I’ve seen all year and is sure to wake a lot of people up.
Imagine you leave behind a life you don’t want to live anymore: an ex-husband, a soon-to-be-ex, and a house full of memories you’d rather leave behind. You decide to start over, buy a fixer-upper with a gorgeous view of the water, meet someone new and wonderful, and feel more than abundantly content in this new home and routine. Then imagine being told that your home – and the homes of your neighbors – are being taken and bulldozed so that a private corporation can set up shop there instead.
That is the true story of Suzette Kelo, portrayed magnificently by Catherine Keener, in Little Pink House, based on the book by Jeff Benedict. At first glance, even from the trailers, the movie seems predictable, even if you know the outcome of the real-life case, like a classic David-and-Goliath, small town folks take on The Man and Big Corporate.
What sets Little Pink House apart is the nuance brought to the opposing sides by the actors. Catherine Keener’s Suzette Kelo is strong but fragile at the same time, humble but willing to step into the spotlight to be the voice of the movement to protect not only her home and her neighbors’ homes but the houses of homeowners across America and the world as her case goes to the US Supreme Court. On the other side, Jeanne Tripplehorn’s Dr. Charlotte Wells is hired by the governor to court a big company to invest money in Kelo’s economically failing town. She could have easily played Wells as being cold and calculating, but that would bely the kind and charming nature of the woman who was chosen to perform this task for those exact traits. As a viewer, you can especially feel the grey of the dilemma when watching Wells argue for investing in the town, bringing more opportunities to people who have not had the chance to prove themselves or sufficiently provide for their families for a long time. I also appreciate the performance of Callum Keith Rennie, who brings a warm depth to Suzette’s stoic boyfriend, Tim.
I do wish this movie was a little tighter. The pacing is rather slow and, while the choice makes sense for the setting and the character of Suzette Kelo, it was difficult to feel engaged with the story until about halfway through. It also made the jumps in time rather awkward, as there are years of conflict between when Suzette paints her house pink and when her case reaches the Supreme Court. Additionally, while I liked Rennie’s performance and his character fleshed out Suzette’s personality further, Keener was strong enough in delivering this character that scenes with Tim felt like a small and unnecessary subplot. The cast of characters also started growing quite a bit towards the end as the momentum of the film picked up, but by then there wasn’t much time to develop them, which was a shame considering how much time was wasted in the beginning of the film.
All in all, I was surprised that I didn’t know anything about this case and found myself looking up the Kelo v. City of New London case, eminent domain, and the subsequent legislation that was passed as a result right after watching. It’s a political issue that isn’t talked about often but is not quite irrelevant in today’s climate, so it’s worth a watch to learn about what the precedent is as far as what got it to the Supreme Court and to see the strong acting performances.
It’s starting to feel like Halloween again with the return of Michael Myers. The legendary slasher returns on the first poster for Danny McBride and David Gordon Green’s Halloween, a sequel that takes place years after the first movie and ignores everything that happened in earlier films. Becoming quite the common practice lately, isn’t it?
There aren’t a ton of story details but we know Jamie Lee Curtis is back as Laurie Strode, along with Judy Greer as her daughter. Both of them, along with Laurie’s granddaughter, are once under threat when Myers makes his return. I assume he’ll be carrying his trusty butcher knife? Only this time Laurie is ready for him, or at least that’s what Curtis said in her latest tweet.
