This news will come as a shock to no one, but Deadline is reporting early projections of $200M domestic for Avengers: Infinity War’s opening weekend. That’s, um, that’s pretty good. But it isn’t GREAT. Why? Because Black Panther did $202M back in February, and the expectations for Infinity War are much higher.
If the numbers hold it will be an April record, besting the $147M debut of Furious 7. It’s worth noting that Disney is downplaying expectations by setting projections between $175M-$200M. Gee, thanks for that, Disney. Whatever will you do?
But there is some disappointment in these numbers because they don’t blow away Black Panther, and I think that’s ridiculous. Black Panther is a special case, and I’ve predicted all along that it would finish the year ahead of Infinity War. The simple reason is that Black Panther appeals to your typical MCU fan who sees everything, but also an all-new audience who don’t really care about superheroes. I have members of my family who have seen it three our four times and couldn’t tell you the difference between Captain America and Captain Kangaroo. Infinity War, for all its decade-long buildup, doesn’t touch that audience one bit.
No matter what, there will be plenty of bonuses handed out to Marvel Studios employees at year’s end. Avengers: Infinity War opens April 27th. Got your ticket yet?
HBO’s Fahrenheit 451 combines the talents of 99 Homes and At Any Price director Ramin Bahrani with stars Michael Shannon and Michael B. Jordan. That’s a powerhouse trio if there ever was one, and their adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s dystopian classic looks like an Emmy winner waiting to happen.
Not surprising that Shannon, coming off his scary turn in The Shape of Water, strikes an imposing figure as Beatty, leader of a squad of “firemen” charged with burning all books in a totalitarian society where knowledge is outlawed. Jordan, coming off the success of Black Panther, plays fireman Guy Montag who begins to question his orders, putting him at odds with Beatty.
Bahrani seems to have stolen a page or two from the Blade Runner playbook in the production design, and honestly there’s nothing wrong with that. He’s stuck to domestic dramas for his entire career and this is his first crack at something larger in a different genre, although the themes will be recognizable to fans of his earlier movies.
Could you imagine your life without movies? It’s a fate worse than death if you ask me, but Saudi Arabia has had a ban on movie theaters for the last 35 years. Thankfully, because everybody should have to fill their bellies with artificial butter flavoring, that ban is about to be lifted and the first movie theater in years will open and the first movie they’ll be showing is Black Panther.
Of course! What better way to launch the first movie theater in decades than with the $1B+ grossing Marvel hit? AMC will open the theater on April 18th in Riyadh’s King Abdullah Financial District, having converted a standalone symphony concert hall. If all goes well AMC hopes to open as many as 100 theaters in Saudi Arabia by 2030.
This is pretty cool, right? Black Panther expands its global influence in a brand new market, and you just know Avengers: Infinity War will be there next. There’s a chance the Middle Eastern nation could become the next big international market, so don’t be surprised if you start seeing more blockbusters tailored to their audience. Maybe Marvel will get cracking on that Arabian Knight solo movie? Eh, probably not. [THR]
When Amazon plunked down $250M and locked in a multi-season deal to develop a Lord of the Rings TV series, we knew it was going to be a massive undertaking on the scale of HBO’s Game of Thrones. And now in a new report by THR we’re starting to get details on the scale of this project, the true cost, the headaches of getting it ready fairly quickly, and the possible involvement of Peter Jackson.
So what we know is that this will be a prequel series set in Middle Earth prior to events in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring. The deal Amazon struck with the Tolkien estate, publisher HarperCollins, and New Line Cinema demands five seasons of TV minimum, and requires for production to begin within two years. So they’re already looking at about $1B in costs when you factor in the pricey production, casting, visual effects, marketing, and other factors, but then the two-year start period practically requires Amazon to speed the process along. That’s not good when you’re talking about a show of this size with such a high degree of difficulty. Nobody wants this to turn into another Inhumans debacle, do they?
The deal also allows for Amazon to develop spinoffs, which they are already looking into so as not to be caught off-guard if the series is a smashing hit. The want to be ready to move on these as soon as possible to help recoup costs, but also to take advantage of the moment. Game of Thrones is also seen as the model here as Amazon’s Jeff Bezos really wants to emulate their success, but be quicker on expanding the series than HBO has been.
It’s possible we’ll see Peter Jackson come on board as an exec-producer. To me it’s shocking that he isn’t already. Amazon may need to use some material from his three highly-regarded movies, meaning they also had to send some of that $250M to Warner Bros/New Line, who own the movie rights but none for TV. By “material” it could mean footage, or maybe some aspects of Jackson’s New Zealand sets. Jackson is apparently having “a dialogue” with Amazon and it’s really up to him what happens with that, but it seems like a no-brainer, right? Jackson crafted three beloved Lord of the Rings movies and three…well, let’s call them competent Hobbit movies. No filmmaker knows Middle Earth quite like Jackson and his assistance would be invaluable, especially if he can bring along LOTR co-writer Phillipa Boyens and producer Fran Walsh.
Well, I thought the timing of The Man Who Killed Don Quixote‘s trailer was oddly timed, and now we see why. The trailer hit today when announcements regarding next month’s Cannes Film Festival really started to pick up, suggesting the film would also be there as part of the lineup. This despite a recent report that its release was delayed due to a legal dispute with a disgruntled producer. Turns out the film may be able to make the festival, after all.
An “imminent” festival premiere is promised in a new statement by the film’s producers, which suggests we may see it at Cannes. The statement further accuses producer Paul Branco, who claims to hold the film’s rights, of attempting to block the film’s release so as to receive a $4M payout. They say there is no court judgement that can keep Gilliam’s movie from opening. It concludes sternly with, “The producers and distributors of the film will not be intimidated by this intimidation and vigorously defend the work of Terry Gilliam for 25 years.”
And that’s really what this is all about, right? The 25 years Gilliam has been fighting to see this movie have its day in the sun is all that really matters here, and it’s good to see that it may finally be around the corner.
Marvel dropped an incredible 22 posters for Avengers: Infinity War yesterday, but apparently that wasn’t enough. Empire Online has debuted one more, this one for the film’s IMAX release, and it features pretty much everybody who got their own poster before. It also has a few secret Easter Eggs, four hidden IMAX logos that will do something, I guess.
Maybe if you click on them they reveal a hidden Hawkeye poster? For more info you’ll want to follow IMAX’s Twitter feed here.
The first trailer for Terry Gilliam’s long-troubled but finally-completed The Man Who Killed Don Quixote arrives at an awkward time. I think its release was probably timed to coincide with the first information we’re receiving about Cannes, which is when the film was expected to premiere. However, the film is currently tied up in litigation and doesn’t look to be debuting any time soon. Oh well. At least we’re finally seeing footage of it, right?
After literally decades of trying, Gilliam managed to complete the film with stars Jonathan Pryce and Adam Driver, along with Stellan Skarsgard, Olga Kurylenko, and Oscar Jaenada. Driver’s role as an exec sent back in time and mistaken for Don Quixote’s sidekick Sancho Panza has had Johnny Depp, Jack O’Connell, and Ewan McGregor cast previously. None of them are involved with the film in any capacity now.
This looks gorgeous and surreal like most of Gilliam’s movies do, but it also looks like the kind of film that will go mostly ignored by the public at large…also like most of Gilliam’s movies. I think getting it done and released is the accomplishment here, not box office or even good critical reviews. Sad that the bar is so low but that’s what happens when a movie takes 30 years.
Watch the trailer below followed by the unnecessarily long synopsis.
SYNOPSIS: Once upon a time, Toby was an idealistic young film student. His great achievement, a lyrical re-working of the Don Quixote story set in a quaint old Spanish village. But that was then; these days he is a jaded, arrogant and over-sexed commercials director. Money and glamour have derailed him, and now he juggles his boss’s wife Jacqui, a biblical storm and his own ego as he tries to complete a new commercial shoot in Spain. Until a mysterious Gypsy approaches him with an ancient copy of Toby’s student film: Toby is moved and sets off to find the little village where he made his primary opus all those years ago. To Toby’s horror, his little film has had a terrible effect on the sleepy village; Angelica, the young girl who was innocence personified, now works as a high class call-girl, and the old man who played Quixote has now gone completely mad, believing he really is the ‘Knight of the Mournful Countenance’. A series of accidents leads to a fire that threatens to destroy the village. The police come for Toby, but he is ‘rescued’ by the deluded old man, who, mistaking him for his loyal squire Sancho, leads Toby away into the countryside on the quest for his perfect lady, Dulcinea. On their quest, Toby comes face to face with demons, both real and imagined, modern and medieval. Damsels are rescued, jousts are fought, giants are slain and women have beards! Reality and fantasy blur on this bizarre road trip which leads to a phantasmagorical finale.
Don’t worry, fans of Iranian director Asghar Farhadi. His latest film, Everybody Knows, may not have a distributor right now but it will very soon. The director behind some of the best dramas in recent years such as A Separation, The Past, and The Salesman (Remember his Oscars protest of Donald Trump’s Muslim ban from a couple of years ago? Classy as shit.) is the kind of filmmaker distributors want to be in business with because his movies always attract attention at awards season.
The first trailer for Everybody Knows has arrived, and with Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz leading it this looks like his most accessible film yet. The story follows a Spanish woman from Buenos Aires who returns to her hometown near Madrid with her husband and kids, only for the trip to be upset with unexpected events and revealed secrets. Family turmoil and emotionally traumatic events? Sounds like Farhadi right in his wheelhouse.
The film will open this year’s Cannes Film Festival, and you can bet that’s when the bidding war will begin, so stay tuned.
Découvrez la bande-annonce d’Everybody Knows d’Asghar Farhadi, avec Penelope Cruz, Javier Bardem et Ricardo Darín. Le film sera projeté en ouverture de la 71e édition du Festival de Cannes et présenté en Compétition ! #Cannes2018 ?
The slow-witted secret agent Johnny English is back, and for the life of me I can’t figure out why. The Johnny English movies are mostly a U.K. phenomenon, with the two Rowan Atkinson spy comedies combining for $320M combined, only about $30M of that from the U.S. So chances are the same will be the case for Johnny English Strikes Back, which has released its first trailer.
Directed by David Kerr with Emma Thompson, Olga Kurylenko, Ben Miller, and Jake Lacy co-starring, the film finds Johnny English retired and working as a prep school teacher until all of Britain’s undercover agents are exposed, making him the Secret Service’s last hope. Not a particularly capable guy in the best of circumstances, English must now deal with the challenge of modern technology, like magnetic boots, virtual reality…and airbags.
Growing up two of my favorite movies had to do with video games, Cloak and Dagger and The Last Starfighter. Both had to do with kids who found that the video games they played led to real-life adventures. I’ve expected somebody to remake both at some point, but it’s The Last Starfighter that is the first to be announced, rather nonchalantly, by Rogue One screenwriter Gary Whitta.
Whitta tweeted that he’s working on a remake of The Last Starfighter with Jonathan Betuel, screenwriter of the 1984 classic. He went on to drop some stunning pieces of concept art, designed by Rogue One‘s lead concept artist Matt Allsopp.
Okay, probably shouldn’t show you this so early but here’s a little something I’ve been tinkering on with my co-writer Jonathan Betuel. You might recognize the ships. Thanks to the amazing Matt Allsopp (lead concept artist on ROGUE ONE) for creating these images for us. pic.twitter.com/CIobLYYRHk
People seemed excited by the first tweet so here’s a tiny bit more of Matt’s concept art. Can’t show anything more after this, it’s all too spoilery 🙂 #GreetingsStarfighterpic.twitter.com/FydxLwEfrt
I just drooled a little bit. When I was a kid I always wanted to hop into the cockpit of a Gunstar and join the Rylan Star League. For those unfamiliar, The Last Starfighter centered on a video game ace who learns that the Starfighter game he’s mastered represents an actual war raging in outer space, and was a test to find a warrior possessing “the gift”. He’s taken to the planet Rylos and recruited into their fight against the evil Ko-Dan Armada.
There aren’t a ton of details on the project at this point, and to be fair similar attempts by Betuel have been made in the past. It was just a few years ago he was involved in a TV reboot that went nowhere. Whitta has also been trying for years to spark a remake without much succcess. So we’ll see if this ever gets off the ground. Legal issues over film rights have been the major hurdle, but according to Whitta those issues may have been cleared up. He tells i09…
“The simple answer to that is Jonathan Betuel. Jon created and wrote the original movie, it was all his idea, a spec script he wrote while he was working as a waiter in Hollywood in the early ’80s. There was a whole bidding war over that script. In all the years hence, whenever I’ve brought up the idea of a Starfighter reboot in meetings, people would always convey excitement and then say that it’s impossible because the rights are a mess. It’s true that it’s not simple, but part of the key to it is, as I understand it (and I’m not a lawyer), Jon still retains some piece of ownership of the original IP, so no one can make a new movie without his participation. I happened to track Jon down, and after I was done pestering him with all my fanboy questions about the original film we started to talk about what a new version might look like. Since then we’ve spent so many hours working on it I’ve long since lost count, but right now we have a fully developed story that is a combination of reboot and sequel that we both think honors the legacy of the original film while passing the torch to a new generation. We’re both very excited about it creatively.”
