Potential projects come and go in the DCEU, so that we have no clear idea what’s really going on. I mean, is Gotham City Sirens still a thing? One of the most promising films we learned about last year is Deathstroke, starring Joe Manganiello as the skilled assassin last seen in the Justice League post-credits scene. With The Raid director Gareth Evans at the helm, this has the potential to be amazing. Too bad we haven’t heard anything about it since.
Until now, that is. Manganiello was at the red carpet premiere for Rampage, and revealed to Variety that a Deathstroke movie is still in development…
He doesn’t seem very enthusiastic about it, probably because he’s being asked about Slade Wilson while at the premiere of a completely different movie. But it’s something, and let’s us know that at least for a Deathstroke film is still in the cards. Here’s hoping Manganiello doesn’t get jerked around like he was over The Batman.
Now isn’t the most fertile ground to be launching a new YA franchise, even one with Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley, two of the hottest young stars in Hollywood. But that’s what Lionsgate is attempting with Chaos Walking, an adaptation of Patrick Ness’s novel set, you guessed it, in a dystopian future. And so the studio is going to do whatever it takes to make sure they get it right, even if that means increasing their investment of time and money.
THR reports that massive “significant” reshoots are planned for Chaos Walking, bringing in Holland, Ridley, and director Doug Liman for a few weeks. They’re even going so far as to bring in Ness to write new pages for additional scenes. The only hurdle is timing, because Holland is busy with Avengers 4 reshoots and production on Spider-Man: Homecoming 2, while Ridley has Star Wars 9 coming up. Finding a window between all of that is going to be tough so the reshoots may not start until late this year or January 2019.
You may recall this is the project that boasted early on the presence of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind screenwriter Charlie Kaufman. Since then a bunch of other writers have done rewrites on the story of a future society in which everybody can hear one another’s thoughts in a stream of sounds, images, and words. In this dystopian world there is only one person who is free from The Noise, and along with an unlikely companion she must go on the run to uncover a secret truth.
The plan is for Chaos Walking to open in March 2019 but that is obviously in doubt.
So we know that Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye is actually in Avengers: Infinity War, and that he’s made choices in the wake of Civil Warthat necessitate he be hidden from the film’s marketing. Okay, great. but come on! Marvel released 22 character posters today and guess who isn’t featured on a single one? Yeah, one Mr. Clint Barton.
Otherwise these are pretty sleek images and include the typical favorites like Iron Man, Black Widow, and the bearded nomad version of Captain America, along with newer characters like Shuri, teen Groot, and Okoye. Even Wong has a poster before Hawkeye! That’s just a low blow. My guess/hope is they’ll release an image of Hawkeye as Ronin a day before the movie hits theaters.
Because I look at everything through the lens of professional wrestling, the Fast & the Furious movies are the Bullet Club of movie franchises. They may not be the biggest, or even the best, but they have the loudest, most devoted fanbase and are always entertaining. Plus, they have a pair of super Alpha Male egos butting heads that threaten to ruin the whole thing. Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson have been clashing for years, ever since Johnson called Diesel a “candyass” for his on-set behavior, but it exploded with The Fate of the Furious, which saw it go public in an ugly way.
Reports surfaced that Johnson and Diesel refused to shoot scenes together in the film, and audiences could tell because neither Dom Toretto or Luke Hobbs ever shared the screen. Weird for the franchise’s two most popular characters. Things got worse when Johnson and co-star Jason Statham were given their own spinoff movie, without Diesel, who wields tremendous power over the movies, having much of a say. While it seemed like the beef between Johnson and Diesel was squashed, there is clearly some tension still in the air.
Johnson first confirmed with Rolling Stone that he and Diesel did not have a single scene together in The Fate of the Furious, saying “That is correct. We were not in any scenes together.”
As for where things stand now, Johnson says he and Diesel had a heart-to-heart conversation, and that’s when he realized things between them may be too far gone…
“Vin and I had a few discussions, including an important face-to-face in my trailer. And what I came to realize is that we have a fundamental difference in philosophies on how we approach moviemaking and collaborating. It took me some time, but I’m grateful for that clarity. Whether we work together again or not.”
It’s that last bit which caught the interviewer’s attention, and Johnson revealed that he may not return for Fast & Furious 9. Instead he’s fully setting his mind on his Hobbs/Shaw spinoff flick with Statham. He’s still not happy with Diesel, though…
“Right now I’m concentrating on making the [Fast and Furious Hobbs and Shaw] spinoff as good as it can be,” Johnson said. “I wish [Diesel] all the best and I harbor no ill will there, just because of the clarity we have. Actually, you can erase that last part about ‘no ill will.’ We’ll just keep it with the clarity.”
Oh, why can’t Cody and Kenny Omega just get along?? Anyway, the Fast & Furious movies will survive with our without Johnson, and in fact they may become bigger and more successful if this spinoff takes (It will) like producers hope. And you can bet that no matter what, enough cash will be thrown around that someday we will see Diesel and Johnson’s bald heads on the same set again.
Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One is in theaters now, but a lot of attention is already focused on a different nostalgia property: Indiana Jones. The franchise’s fifth film is next on the director’s list, but all we really know is that it will bring back Harrison Ford for what will likely be his last time cracking the whip. While some in Lucasfilm would have you believe Ford is the only one who will ever play the role, that is obviously not going to be true. So what happens after Ford hangs up his hat? How about a female Indiana Jones?
Spielberg digs the idea of a female taking over the role. He tells The Sun…
“We’d have to change the name from Jones to Joan. And there would be nothing wrong with that”…“This will be Harrison Ford’s last Indiana Jones movie, I am pretty sure, but it will certainly continue after that.”
A reboot is clearly what will have to happen, and who’s to say it couldn’t be with a woman? Spielberg goes on to talk about his other productions and the equal representation afford to women, not to mention the equal pay they share with their male co-stars. That includes on Ready Player One and in his recent Oscar nominee, The Post…
“Everyone was equally paid. And on ‘The Post,’ Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep got the same paycheck exactly, right down to the perks.”
Have heads started exploding yet? Obviously there would be a huge backlash if Indiana Jones was a woman, the kind of backlash that killed any hope of Ghostbusters, another popular franchise, from being rebooted successfully. I don’t think Lucasfilm will go this route no matter how much Spielberg approves of it, but you never know. Anything can happen, and at least it would mean no more Shia.
A primary complaint about the current Star Wars trilogy, the first from Lucasfilm under the Disney banner, is that it feels like they are flying by the seat of their pants. Unlike when George Lucas was in control, there’s no master plan, a point A to point B narrative already mapped out. We saw some of that when the reins passed from J.J. Abrams to Rian Johnson with The Last Jedi. From what we’ve been able to tell, Johnson was given a wide creative freedom and basically tossed out most of Abrams’ ideas for the story and rewrote the script entirely. So when fans complain that Johnson’s ideas seem to discard much of the Star Wars mythos fans love, and that Abrams so lovingly nurtured with The Force Awakens, that’s where they’re coming from.
But is that really the case? Did Johnson actually do away with some big plan that Abrams had come up with? Well…yeah, he did. At least that’s what Simon Pegg says on the recent Happy Sad Confused podcast. Pegg reveals that Abrams had very clear thoughts on Rey’s parentage, something fans have been obsessing about for a couple of years but Johnson pretty much dismissed…
“I know what J.J. intended or at least [the idea of] what was being chucked around. “I think that’s been undone slightly by the [‘The Last Jedi’].” He continued, “Well, there was some talk about a kind of relevant lineage for her. But I honestly don’t know, and I don’t know if anyone knows, we’ll see.”
Oof, that’s going to piss some people off. Johnson’s decision to make Rey’s parents irrelevant is probably the one thing he did that angered fans the most, even more than killing Snoke. I think he did the right thing by having her be unconnected to some famous Star Wars lineage because it makes her a truly unique character. One of the things I hated most about Lucas’ prequels is they took this simple farm boy, Luke Skywalker, and built this expansive backstory to prove how special he was, when the thing that made his story great is that he WASN’T special. He was ordinary. That said, I do like the idea
Anyway, I fear Abrams will come in and undo most of what Johnson did, and now it sounds like he has more incentive to do so.
The R-rated teen comedy hasn’t suddenly made a comeback, it’s been around for decades, but this might be the first teen sex comedy where the adults get the most action. Blockers has been eyed as potentially problematic since the day it was first announced, then titled The Pact. Troublesome because having guys write a teen comedy about a sex pact between three high school girls sounds like the starting point for a Dateline special, especially in today’s enlightened environment. But Blockers, despite its raunch and butt-chugging hijinks, manages to be progressive in its politics, smart in its gender-swapping humor, and hilarious for introducing John Cena as the most uncool dad since Eugene Levy in American Pie.
As a longtime and forever wrestling fan, watching the former Doctor of Thugonomics portray a doting helicopter dad is surreal. I kept waiting for him to rip off the collared shirt and khakis, reveal a basketball jersey and jorts, and bust out a “You can’t see me”! Cena makes a case for starring in more Apatow-style (Apatow has nothing to do with this, but Seth Rogen does as producer) comedies as Mitch, a meathead with a sensitive soul, at least when it comes to his daughter Kayla (Geraldine Viswanathan). Mitch and his wife (Sarayu Blue) have raised Kayla to be tough and independent, also a sports freak her like her father. Then there’s flaky single mom Lisa (Leslie Mann) who dreads the empty nest left behind by her daughter Julie (Kathryn Newton) when she goes away to college. Finally, there’s negligent dad Hunter (Ike Barinholtz), who is desperate to get back into the life of his daughter Sam (Gideon Adlon).
It’s prom night, and guys, we know what that means, don’t we fellas? In any teen sex comedy, prom night is when all of the dudes make some kind of vow to get laid. Well, that’s what the daughters do here, pledging to all lose their virginities on the same night. When their emoji-fueled texts are found and deciphered (Mitch’s desperate guesswork is a riot), the three parental units decide to be cockblockers and prevent their daughters from making a life-ruining choice.
Blockers is directed by Kay Cannon, making her directorial debut after writing all of the Pitch Perfect movies. How much input she had on the screenplay here is unclear, but I feel like if there was any it was heavily tilted towards the teens, not the parents. Surprisingly, the film does a good job of portraying them as young women capable of making their own choices, and not damsels in need of rescue. Kayla is strong and competitive like her father, even when she’s baked off her date’s assortment of edible treats. Julie is in a semi-serious, committed relationship with her prom date, and more than of an age to make the decision to have sex. Meanwhile, Sam is trying to figure out where her attractions truly are; with the boy she brought to prom, or the hot girl wearing the nerdy cape? The actual prom night escapades are inclusive, insightful, and not all that funny. Seriously, a group vomit scene is about as wild as it gets, although there’s a terrific reference to American Beauty and a bed covered in rose petals.
The best stuff is saved for the parents, who are twice as old and twice as immature as their kids. I’m convinced the small army of five male writers (!!!) were left undisturbed to dream up one immature scenario after another with which to embarrass Cena. To his credit, the WWE poster boy lets his freak flag fly, especially in a scene where he’s forced to chug beer through his butthole (“I can’t open up!”), a riotous highlight that people have been talking about since the film’s debut at SXSW. There’s all sorts of parental bonding going on as they endure car accidents, kinky sex games with Gina Gershon and Gary Cole, the occasional home invasion, and multiple occasions where they try not to look like NARCs raiding a high school party.
“Untuck your shirt. You look like a youth minister”, Lisa cautions Mitch, who counters that his plaid shirt wasn’t made to be untucked. Cena’s earnest dorkiness is just about perfect if slightly overused, while Mann and Barinholtz are natural cornballs. It’s impossible to overlook how much more enjoyable Blockers is when it gets away from the younger actors. Not their fault as they are all pretty good, but clearly the adults had more to work with.
Even Superbad, what I consider the undisputed champion of the genre, had to give in to its sweet and sentimental side. Blockers does, too, with varying degrees of success. While the handling of Sam’s homosexuality, and subsequent reveal to her father, is handled with unexpected care and honesty, other resolutions don’t fare so well. Mitch’s dim-witted “I don’t know” when asked by his daughter why sex is so important isn’t a great moment, especially since he’s just spent an entire night of Hell (with an anus full of lager) to stop her from having it. But then I guess that is kind of the point. Parents don’t have all of the answers, and in some cases they don’t even know what the questions are. They may be grown ups but growing wiser doesn’t always come with age.
We’re happy to offer our DC readers the chance to attend a free early screening of Rampage, starring Dwayne Johnson in a roaring action flick based on the classic video game. The film reunites Johnson with director Brad Peyton (San Andreas, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island) and co-stars Naomie Harris, Malin Akerman, Joe Manganiello and Jeffrey Dean Morgan.
SYNOPSIS: Primatologist Davis Okoye (Dwayne Johnson), a man who keeps people at a distance, shares an unshakable bond with George, the extraordinarily intelligent, silverback gorilla who has been in his care since birth. But a rogue genetic experiment gone awry mutates this gentle ape into a raging creature of enormous size. To make matters worse, it’s soon discovered there are other similarly altered animals. As these newly created alpha predators tear across North America, destroying everything in their path, Okoye teams with a discredited genetic engineer to secure an antidote, fighting his way through an ever-changing battlefield, not only to halt a global catastrophe but to save the fearsome creature that was once his friend.
The screening takes place on Monday, April 9th at 7:00pm at AMC Mazza Gallerie. If you’d like to attend, simply complete the Rafflecopter contest form below. Winners will be selected on Friday, April 6th and notified by email. Good luck!
*UPDATE* It’s official. Deadline reports Adam Sandler has been officially cast in Uncut Gems, the followup film from Good Time directors the Safdie Brothers. The report doesn’t mention the previously-cast Jonah Hill, so we can probably assume Sandler has replaced him as suspected. You can read the original story below.
Is trading Jonah Hill for Adam Sandler a lateral move or what? We may be about to find out, because buried in yesterday’s report of Sandler’s new comedy with Jennifer Aniston was the suggestion he may replace Hill in the Safdie Brothers’ followup to Good Time.
Titled Uncut Gems, the project already has Martin Scorsese backing it as a producer, and is set in the corrupt world of New York City’s diamond district. Hill would be taking the lead role unless Sandler replaces him. The Safdies will direct and co-wrote the script with regular collaborator Ronald Bronstein.
Sandler’s starting to get a little unpredictable lately, going from his silly (and awful) comedies to The Meyerowitz Stories and possibly working with the Safdies. We could be looking at an interesting new phase of his career.
Of course! You didn’t think after twenty years of unfathomable troubles Terry Gilliam’s The Man Who Killed Don Quixote would actually hit theaters without some last minute drama, did you? Unfortunately, his long-awaited passion project is in danger once more, and it may be a while before it sees the light of day.
A recent report from French site France Inter has the details, and it’s mostly legal stuff that is too boring to get into the woods on. But the gist is that Gilliam went to producer Paulo Branco in 2016 to secure funding for this latest attempt at the film. The agreement struck said that Branco would put up the money and retain rights to the film, in exchange for giving Gilliam full creative freedom.
However, Branco never put up the coin and Gilliam got funding elsewhere. The shoot was completed, and a release date set for next month with a likely appearance at Cannes. But now Branco is back and saying the film can’t be released without his permission because he owns the rights based on the prior agreement. Gilliam sued for control since Branco never provided any money, but the judge’s ruling won’t be handed down until June at the earliest. And from there, who knows? These things can be tied up in courts for months, maybe years.
So, it looks like The Man Who Killed Don Quixote is stuck in a holding pattern for now. I feel bad for Gilliam, but I can’t help but chuckle at all of this. It’s comical at this point. [via ThePlaylist]
