This is going to be a very busy year for Josh Brolin as he finds himself in the middle of a handful of franchises, something he’s never been huge on. He’ll play Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War before jumping to another Marvel flick, Deadpool 2, in which he plays Cable. And he’s also got the unexpected sequel Sicario 2: Soldado, in which he reunites with Benicio Del Toro. Like I said, busy guy.
So what convinced him to sign on to play Cable if he doesn’t like being part of franchises? Brolin tells Empire the reason is Cable’s extended storyarc, which gives the character a chance for growth…
“We think about it in four movie terms. We tried to think of Cable as a full arc, not just in this movie, but in the trajectory of four films. That made it a lot more fun for me.”
On the other hand, the chief reason he agreed to play the Mad Titan Thanos is the complete opposite in that the role doesn’t require him to stick around very long…
“I don’t like the idea of a franchise, personally,” Brolin said. “That’s what makes the Thanos thing really great. It’s a finite thing, and I like that.”
So the Infinity War title is one big red herring. Damn you, Marvel.
Basically it sounds like Thanos buys it either by the end of Infinity War or in Avengers 4, probably the latter.
I don’t think anybody expected this news today or any day, but Steven Spielberg may be directing a DC Comics film. Deadline and other sources are reporting Spielberg will produce and potentially direct a film based on the WWII-era character Blackhawk. Spielberg will be developing the film through his Amblin Entertainment label.
So how is this happening? Turns out Spielberg had a Hell of a time working with Warner Bros. on Ready Player One, which now has $476M worldwide. He said in a statement…
“It was wonderful working with the team at Warner Bros. to bring Ready Player One to the screen. They bring a blend of passion and professionalism to everything they do and have a tremendous history in this genre. I am excited to reunite with them on Blackhawk.”
First appearing in the first issue of 1941’s Military Comics, the Blackhawks are a team of WWII ace fighter pilots of different nationalities. The Blackhawk Squadron was led by a mysterious figure known simply as Blackhawk. Most recently Lady Blackhawk, the lone female member of the team, emerges in modern times and becomes pilot for the Birds of Prey. At the height of their popularity the Blackhawks were DC’s top-selling comic book.
The script will be written by longtime Spielberg collaborator David Koepp, who will also write Indiana Jones 5.. The tone is right in Spielberg’s wheelhouse, and should make an easy entry for him into the world of comic book movies. Just how closely this will tie into the DCEU, or if it will at all, remains to be seen but I’m guessing not. Regardless this is a huge coup for Warner Bros.
So why are Cable and Deadpool going toe-to-bionic toe in Deadpool 2, anyway? The whole thing seems to be about a kid, played by Hunt for the Wilderpeople‘s Julian Dennison, a fire-controlling mutant that Cable needs to kill for some reason and Deadpool decides to protect. So who is this kid? Is he a known character from the Marvel comics? Well, a couple of recent TV spots may have given us his identity.
A bunch of TV spots aired during The Walking Dead over the weekend, and one of them actually revealed the kid’s name: Russell. Here’s that spot now…
Okay so his name is Russell. What does that prove? Nothing, but there is a relatively well-known mutant with those powers, that name, and a connection to X-Force. That would be Russell “Rusty” Collins, who briefly went by the name Firefist. A pyrokinetic, he first comes to the attention of X-Factor who help him get control of his dangerous powers. He forges a lasting relationship with fellow mutant Sally “Skids” Blevins (they were inseparable) and they stick around with the team for a while. They would eventually break off and hook up with the New Mutants who would eventually become the X-Force. He would later be brainwashed by Stryfe, the evil clone of Cable (!!!), and forced to become a villain. Firefist is later killed by Holocaust, the time-displaced son of Apocalypse.
So maybe it’s him, maybe he’s just some kid named Russell. Who knows? We’ll find out for sure when Deadpool 2 opens on May 18th. Check out another “Kid”-focused TV spot below.
Patriarchy beware! The Female Liberation Army is here and they’re looking to hit where it hurts! Of all the crazy trailers you might see this week none of them will prepare you for The Misandrists, LGBTQ icon Bruce LaBruce’s in-your-face film that has been making the festival rounds and riling up crowds to promote the liberation of all women.
Like a Femi-Nazi take on The Beguiled, the film introduces us to the Female Liberation Army, a radical militant group of lesbians whose main objective is to dismantle Germany’s patriarchy no matter what the cost. Men are not allowed on their commune at all, so when one of their number falls in love with a boy and hides him in the basement it sets off all kinds of fireworks. The film stars Susanne Sachße, Viva Ruiz, Kembra Pfahler, Kita Updike, Til Schindler, Caprice Crawford, and Grete Gehrke. Here’s the synopsis:
In Ger(wo)many, when an army of radical females is preparing for a final revolution and a utopian world without men, a young male soldier arrives seeking refuge at the convent.
While the plot is insane enough, it’s LaBruce’s visuals that will win you over. Looking like a cross between Spring Breakers and the early work of Gregg Araki, the film will open on May 25 in New York and June 1st in Los Angeles.
Of the many mysteries surrounding Avengers: Infinity War, the most befuddling may be how long the damn thing is. At one point we heard it would be 150 minutes, an incredibly long film and the longest in the MCU ever. The film wasn’t locked at that point, though, nor was it when another report from Fandango increased the time to 156 minutes. And now another run time has surfaced and it may not be final, either.
The latest, from Britain’s BBFC and the Irish Film Classification Office list Infinity War as running 149 minutes. However, the folks at ScreenRant checked with Disney who say the 156 minutes is legit. So what’s the deal? My guess is that there are different cuts for different regions and that is causing a mix up.
No matter what you’re going to want to pack a lunch, hit the restroom early, do whatever you need to do before Infinity War starts because you’ll be in that chair for every single minute of it.
Also, and this could be considered a minor SPOILER so beware. But a look at the BBFC’s cast listing notes the inclusion of someone who Marvel has previously failed to confirm. Who might that be? Paul Rudd, meaning Ant-Man will be making an appearance in the film somewhere, although Evangeline Lilly isn’t listed so maybe he’ll be flying solo.
I think it’s fair to say that Warner Bros. has totally fucked up the DCEU. They’ve got the most popular comic book heroes in the world, but have managed, at best, one undeniably good movie and a bunch of mediocre to bad ones. But if there’s a definite highlight it’s the performance of Margot Robbie in the surprisingly robust Suicide Squad. She’s been pegged for a number of different spinoffs ever since, but now the “main” one has just taken a big step forward with an actual director.
In an unexpected move, indie filmmaker Cathy Yan has been set to direct the Harley Quinn spinoff based on the Birds of Prey comic. Yan is a newcomer to the biz, having made her directorial debut at Sundance with Dead Pigs, a Chinese film that starred Deadpool 2‘s Zazie Beetz. The film was well received and Yan eyed as a potential breakout. Well, here she is with a much bigger gig.
Birds of Prey is an all-female team created in 1995 and has usually included Oracle/Barbara Gordon/Batgirl, Huntress, and Black Canary as the core membership. Just how close to the comic the movie will stick is unclear but expect Harley Quinn to be the central figure. Christina Hodson, the red-hot writer recently hired to pen Batgirl, will write this as well.
There have been so many shakeups within the DCEU that I can’t keep track but I think this is the project formerly known as Gotham City Sirens? Or maybe not? Last we heard of that it was being replaced by a David Ayer-directed Harley Quinn/Joker spinoff that nobody’s talking about anymore. So maybe somebody else can clue me in if I went off-course here.
I think this is a really brilliant move on WB’s part. Yan becomes the first Asian woman to direct a DCEU film, which is sure to get them some attention, and you can see them moving further away from the Zack Snyder era with this move. That’s what people want to see more evidence of. [THR]
Meryl Streep stars in Speiberg’s acclaimed new drama as Katharine
Graham, the real life first female publisher of a major American newspaper —
The Washington Post. With help from editor Ben Bradlee (Tom Hanks), Graham
races to catch up with The New York Times to expose a massive cover-up of
government secrets that spans thirty years of lies concerning the Vietnam War. Is
the truth worth the danger publishing the papers would put them in? This
exciting political thriller tells a story just as relevant today as it was
when it happened over four decades ago.
We Said: “While its
imperfections glare like the marker corrections of an overworked copy editor, The
Post is an important, necessary statement on journalism’s place in
strengthening democracy by speaking truth to power.” Rating: 3 out of 5
This winter’s Liam Neeson thriller stars America’s favorite
Irish action icon as a lowly insurance salesman named Michael, who, on his
daily commute home, finds himself wrapped up in a dangerous puzzle that
threatens the lives of every other commuter on the train. When a stranger (Vera
Farmiga) offers him a large sum of money to identify a hidden passenger on the
train before the last stop. Unfortunately, her offer is darker than it seemed,
and soon turns into a deadly race against the clock.
.We Said: “Ever
since [Liam Neeson] became an unexpected action star with Taken, he’s delivered one
easily disposable diversion after another, particularly alongside Spanish
helmer Jaume Collet-Serra. That’s fine, they’re effective for what they are
meant to be, but even so we deserve better than The Commuter, which is
like the dumb cousin to Murder On the Orient Express.” Rating: 2 out of 5
Is Hereditary the next great indie horror? A24 certainly think so, and quickly snapped up the rights after it made a splash at Sundance earlier this year. The art house distributor has shown a skilled hand at finding just the right movie at the right price and releasing them at the right time, just as they did a few years ago when The Witch became a sensation. If you’re looking for big scares to go along with your blockbusters this summer, the new trailer for Hereditary needs to be seen.
The chilling clip focuses heavily on the child at the center of the film, the creepy Charlie played by newcomer Milly Shapiro. He’s drawn some kind of connection to an evil spirit terrorizing the family in the wake of the matriarch’s death. Toni Collette, Alex Wolff, Gabriel Byrne, and Ann Dowd also star in the film about family secrets that come with a terrible price. Here’s the synopsis:
When Ellen, the matriarch of the Graham family, passes away, her daughter’s family begins to unravel cryptic and increasingly terrifying secrets about their ancestry. The more they discover, the more they find themselves trying to outrun the sinister fate they seem to have inherited. Making his feature debut, writer-director Ari Aster unleashes a nightmare vision of a domestic breakdown that exhibits the craft and precision of a nascent auteur, transforming a familial tragedy into something ominous and deeply disquieting, and pushing the horror movie into chilling new terrain with its shattering portrait of heritage gone to hell.
Written and directed by Ari Aster, Hereditary opens June 8th.
You’d better buy the latest wave of Black Panther Pops from Funko or M’Baku will feed you to his children! That’s right, the almighty gorilla M’Baku is finally getting his own Funko Pop! Vinyl collectible, along with Andy Serkis’ Ulysses Klaue and a new version of Erik Killmonger.
Played brilliantly by Winston Duke in the film, M’Baku is the leader of the feared Jabari tribe, and now he can lord over your Funko collection, too. We also get villain Ulysses Klaue with his special sonic hand cannon. And we also get a new version of Michael B. Jordan’s Killmonger, in which he shows off the scars that represent the people he’s killed on the way to trying to overtake Wakanda.
So how long do we have to wait for an Everett Ross? Make it happen, Funko!
If you’re as Pop! Vinyl obsessed as me, the best places to go are our friends at Entertainment Earth. Our friends have the deepest inventory of Pops, including exclusives, at the best prices anywhere on the Internet. When you click on any of our below links and make a purchase we get a small commission that helps us keep the lights on, at no cost to you at all. Every little bit helps, and we thank all of you continue to support us and our sponsors. Thanks!
I think I might have just seen the weirdest movie of the
year. Krystal tells the story of Taylor, a clean-cut 18-year-old with
a heart condition (Nick Robinson) who meets and falls in love with the titular
Krystal (Rosario Dawson), a recovering addict and former prostitute. Taylor does
everything he can to impress her, including lying about his own non-existent
alcoholism and addiction. In short, this is a comedy in which the kid from Love, Simon fakes a drug problem in
order to get with Rosario Dawson, and therefore, is the year’s weirdest movie.
The film begins on a terrible yet fateful day in the lives
of our protagonists, as Taylor narrates to us the story of his heart condition,
which he blames at least partially on the literal devil following him around. Meanwhile,
Krystal and her partner have a violent breakup, which is shown out of focus and
in the background. She comes to Taylor seeking help, triggering an episode with
his condition, and the two wind up at the hospital. Now Taylor is obsessed with
the woman who saved his life, and Krystal wants nothing to do with the kid who
almost died in front of her.
It’s a very interesting opening that really brought me into
what I assumed the world of the movie was going to be. However, Taylor then
begins his borderline stalker-like pursuit of Krystal’s affection, pretending
to be a bad-boy rebel addict himself to impress her. The film seems to expect
us to find this really funny.
Honestly, I think the comedy element of the film is its
weirdest aspect. This movie is trying to be a wild, madcap farce… but it’s about
emotionally manipulating and further abusing a recovering addict, which is,
inherently, one of the least funny things in the world. So that being said, Krystal is a little hard to watch.
The film is confidently and clearly shot and edited, with
serviceable performances from everyone, particularly Dawson. What doesn’t work,
however, is the script, which is so deeply strange I can’t wrap my head around
its existence. It kind of feels like the game Exquisite Corpse, where you can
only see part of what someone drew, and yet you have to blindly add to it. It’s
a fun exercise that creates surreal images or poems. Not films, though. Yet Krystal is just so freaking bizarre in its plot structure, it feels as if a
round of Exquisite Corpse is the only sensible way it could have come into
creation.
Maybe if the subject matter where handled more delicately, a
film like this could have worked. Or maybe it was being handled with an awkward
amount of restraint, and needed to go even further. Regardless, there’s
something really off about Krystal, a movie where (I truly
can’t emphasize this enough) the kid from Love, Simon lies about a drug
problem to seduce a woman 20 years older than him, while the literal devil follows
him around. Oh, it also stars Kathy Bates, the rapper T.I., and Willim H. Macy, who also directed it.
If you read those last few sentences and still haven’t given
up, then by all means check out this weird as hell movie. Maybe it’ll turn out
to be your kind of odd. For me, however, it just felt in poor taste.
