When I interviewed Nicolas Cage for Mandya couple of months ago, one of the things I picked up on was how self-aware he was. He knows how good, or not so good, every single movie he’s been in is. He’s not going into anything blind. At this point in his career he’s also brutally honest about the choices he’s made.
Joblo caught up with Cage and talked to him about his two failed Ghost Rider movies, which are pretty horrible by just about any measure. Cage really thinks the Spirit of Vengeance needs to to come back to the big screen, but admits it should be R-rated and definitely with somebody other than himself sporting the flaming skull.
“Y’know, GHOST RIDER was a movie that always should’ve been an R-rated movie. David Goyer had a brilliant script, which I wanted to do with David and for whatever reason they just didn’t let us make the movie. But that movie is a still a movie that should be made, not with me obviously, but it should be an R-rated movie-heck, DEADPOOL was R-rated and that did great. GHOST RIDER was designed to be a scary superhero with an R-rating and edge and they just didn’t have it worked out back then.”
Personally, I always thought Drive Angry was the perfect template for what a Ghost Rider movie should be. R-rated, over-the-top, Biblical and ridiculous with lots of cool rides. The character had a red-hot bunch of appearances in Agents of SHIELD so he’s officially part of the MCU, and maybe one day we’ll see him race onto the big screen. It just won’t be with Nicolas Cage.
As movie fans it’s hard not to be pumped at the idea of Star Trek movie by Quentin Tarantino, but the reality is that we may never see it happen. Simon Pegg threw a cold bucket of water on the idea a couple of weeks ago, basically saying that a lot is going on with the franchise right now and nothing is certain. And now it’s Zachary Quinto’s turn to impart some Spock-like wisdom on the situation, meaning we should probably temper our expectations. He tells ET Canada…
“First of all, I think there’s a couple of scripts. Because there was a script being written before Quentin Tarantino came up with his idea for a potential film. And so I think they are kind of developing more than one. So I don’t know what is going to happen. Quentin is off doing another movie. So, I feel like we are in a state of anticipation. All of us are really excited about the idea of working with Quentin on a Trek film, but I know Simon Pegg and Doug Jung, who wrote the last film, are writing a script and there are another set of writers writing a script. So, I don’t know. I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Echoes much of what Pegg said, with a couple of newsie tidbits thrown in. The first being that Simon Pegg and Doug Junk are following up their script with another, and that a third script, likely by Patrick McKay and JD Payne, is also in the mix. That would leave Tarantino’s as the one least advanced since he’s busy developing Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Still no mention of The Revenant writer Mark L. Smith who was reportedly hired to do the actual scripting on Tarantino’s Star Trek, which leads me to believe that was somewhat overblown.
Joaquin Phoenix has been getting hounded to star in a superhero movie for years, and every time it wasn’t worked out. Could that change with Todd Phillips’ upcoming Joker origin movie? Phoenix’s name came up for the role a couple of months ago, but expressed total ignorance when asked about it in a recent interview. Now he’s changed up his tune a little bit, and has decided playing coy is the best way to go.
Speaking with Fandango, Phoenix says the Joker role is “interesting”, but wouldn’t admit that he’s even in negotiations or anything…
“I don’t know… it could be an interesting character, I don’t know”, he said mischievously, or at least the journalist read it as mischievous. Phoenix went on to add…
“I see it as any other movie. I wouldn’t say… “I won’t do Westerns.” It depends on what it is. I don’t really care about the genre, I care about the character and the filmmaker. If you have the ability to transcend the genre, then that’s what you want to do. So I wouldn’t say, hands down, no – I wouldn’t do that kind of movie. There are things where I’ve flirted with the possibility where there was the potential for this to be… something that’s actually interesting to me. But then for whatever reason they never got to that place where everyone else feels the same way. And that’s key. Everyone has to want to explore the same thing or else it just doesn’t f**king work. I’m not opposed to it. I don’t make decisions on budget or things like that – it’s really the filmmaker and the character.”
If this were just your normal everyday Batman movie then certainly Phoenix wouldn’t do it. This is different, however; an origin story that casts Joker as a failed comedian who turns to a life of crime. It’s based loosely on Martin Scorsese’s The King of Comedy, and even boasts Scorsese as a producer. Something tell me the chance to work with Scorsese could be the difference-maker in getting Phoenix to sign on the dotted line.
Next up for Phoenix is his terrific vengeance thriller You Were Never Really Here, followed by Gus Van Sant’s Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far On Foot which opens this summer.
You know by now that I hate posting set photos here unless they truly have something consequential in them. And that is VERY rare. More often than not it’s better to wait for an officially released image. One of the reasons is that, regardless of the image’s quality (most look like shit, but some are tops) there is always going to be post-production work done on any costumes, CGI characters, etc. So when fans starting knocking set photos of Zachary Levi in his Shazam! costume, I thought it was premature and silly.
Apparently, Levi agrees. The actor was holding a live Q&A with fans and replied angrily to one jerk who asked him why he’s wearing a “crap suit.” I love his response, and I hope it wins him some new fans…
“‘Why the crap suit?’ WOW! Okay, well I don’t think it’s a crap suit. I think my suit is f—in’ bomb, to be perfectly honest. I know that there hasn’t been an officially released photo yet, but there have been incredibly high quality photos that have been released. And I think any of you people out there who are still hung up on what the suit looks like are just wanting to be angry for angry’s sake. I think you’re very insecure, you probably are dealing with some stuff in your own life, and you feel a little powerless, and I’m sorry that you do. Wherever you’re at and whatever you’re going through, I’m sorry that you’re going through that.
“But, I do think you should probably take a second and reflect on why you’re as negative as you are about maybe anything in life, and then re-look at the suit and go, ‘Actually hey, you know what? They’re trying really hard to make something that’s awesome and that pleases a lot of different people,’ because Captain Marvel’s been around for a really long time and has had a whole bunch of different iterations of suits. So, you can’t win ’em all, but you can at least hope that people will give you a fair shake. For any of you out there that still don’t think you’ve been given a fair shake, and don’t wanna give us a fair shake, well then, sucks to your assmar, I don’t know what to tell you.”
For the record, the suit’s not crap. It’s big, bulky with fake muscles, red, has a long flowing white cape, and the iconic lightning bolt on the chest. It looks like a kid’s idea of what a superhero would look like, which makes sense considering the kid-friendly source material. And as I said before, there will be visual effects work that still needs to be done.
Levi’s response was the right one because at least it shows he’s passionate about the movie and will defend it. Regardless of what some others will tell you, fans need to see that stuff, not the typical toeing of the company line. Good for him.
Shazam! opens April 5th 2019.
Zac just killed the ones who keep trashing the shazam suit. “I think my suit is fucking bomb” I FUCKING ADORE HIM!!!!! pic.twitter.com/wv0UHxcl7O
The casting for Sony’s Venom movie has been spot on, and top of the list was the addition of Woody Harrelson in an unspecified role. While he was described as playing a henchman “of sorts” at the time, mounting speculation has been that he’d be playing fellow villainous symbiote, Carnage, because obviously you hire Harrelson for a major role.
Now a new rumor from Bleeding Cool says Harrelson has been confirmed to play Carnage. They don’t offer up a ton of support for the claim, other than to say they were told “in a very confirm-y way” which is hardly official. That said, I put a lot of trust in Rich Johnston to post legit stuff, so this is a pretty good bet.
In the comics, Carnage is a piece of the Venom symbiote that bonds with sadistic serial killer Cletus Kassady, making for a deadly combination. Of course, Carnage clashes with Venom not long after the latter’s reformation into an antihero, joined by Spider-Man who is never far behind when a symbiote war breaks out.
We’ll see if this story holds up. Venom opens October 5th and stars Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams, Riz Ahmed, Jenny Slate, and more.
Last week on Legends of Tomorrow, there were some surprising revelations as well as an unfortunate loss. Time Bureau agent Ava Sharpe found out that she’s a clone from 2213, and it looks like Rip Hunter knew that all along. That would surely cause some friction between the two of them for the foreseeable future. Also, Amaya’s relative Kuasa was killed by Nora/Mallus as she betrayed the demon trapped in time to try and save her family (more on that theme later). With the loss of Kuasa, Amaya realized that she would have to break the rules of time, and travel to 1992 and save her village from a massacre, which would have devastating results.
This week, while building on the overall season-wide arc of the Legends against the imprisoned demon Mallus, this was also one of the campiest, cheesiest, most interestingly fun episodes of the season. From the beginning of the episode, we knew we were in for a fun rude. While Amaya was on her mission to save her family throughout history, the Legends had to save a very famous first black president of the united states from being murdered by a telepathic metahuman gorilla. Yes, that’s right, Gorilla Grodd went back in time to Occidental College to try and murder Barak Obama. Just typing that remarks on how crazy this show is. While the young actor didn’t look anything like a young Barry, he did capture the mannerisms quite well. The trailer made it seem like the whole episode was going to focus on saving young Barak, it gets resolved rather quickly. There is a running theme of explaining time travel and ancient demons to Obama and then erasing his memory. You can tell the writers are fans of Barak as he even uses some of his “Obama logic” to counsel Sarah when she has a dilemma.
While saving Barak from an angry gorilla was fun, the main part of the story centered on Mallus and how to stop him. Amaya wanted to save her village from a massacre by marauders, as it was supposed to happen in history. If that even changed from history, it would create a time aberration that would free Mallus from his prison, and unleashing chaos on the world. At the same time, the Legends want to support their teammate. At first, Zarii tries to think of any time loophole that would allow history to be changed without creating additional problems. Nate and Wally meet up with Amaya to try and talk her out, and end up helping her. There Nate meets an older Amaya who doesn’t recognize him, nor does she remember any of her adventures with the Legends. This means that one day, she will stop her adventures with the Legends, and will willingly have her memory erased so that she’s not suffering from any heartbreak of leaving her newfound family.
A surprising addition to the Legends in this episode is none other than Damien Dahrk. As he sees what is happening to his daughter, the ice cold bad guy doesn’t want the demon to take over his daughter and opts to help the Legends stop Mallus. For Sarah, this is a hard pill to swallow. Remember, he killed her sister Laurel Lance on Arrow way back when and Sarah has had to deal with that pain for quite some time. She’s had many opportunities to try and kill him, and now would have to end up working with him. After receiving some counseling from Barak Obama, she decides to work with her enemy but promises him that she’s going to kill him eventually, something that Damien knows is fair at this point.
And this is where Legends of Tomorrow once again gets weird!
Norah is under the control of Mallus and Damien knows that neither he nor the Legends can reach her as she can only hear Mallus in her head. That’s when they notice Rory has been watching Lord of the Rings on the television most of the episode. They all realize that Mallus’ voice is eerily similar to actor John Noble’s voice as he played Lord Denethor in the Oscar-winning film. Now with actor John Noble providing his vocal talents for the voice of Mallus, this allowed the show to go full-on camp and have him guest star as himself, hence the title of the episode. Ray goes to New Zealand while Lord of the Rings is being filmed and catches up with John Noble and tells him that there are a few script re-writes needed and records Noble following a script that he created, specific to Norah. Then, working with Damien Dahrk, they kidnap Norah, put her in one of Constantine’s “magic prisons” and have Ray use his atom suit to travel into her ear she hears Noble’s new lines, trapping her.
The Legends then decide that they are going to help Amaya save her village. Even though it would destroy the time prison Mallus is stuck into, they could all use the totems to defeat him once and for all. With Damien Dahrk using the death totem, they all would have a chance to stop the monster once and for all. They head to 1992 Zambesi to help Amaya and her daughter to stop the slaughter of her village and prepare to face off against Mallus. Ava leaves as she finally confronts Rip Hunter and finds out that she’s the 12th Ava clone that he has used making her feel worthless. While Sara does reveal her love for her, she still departs. As Amaya’s daughter wields the totem and faces off against the marauders, Mallus still hasn’t been released. Them Damien reveals that he betrayed the team, freeing Grodd, who then starts attacking the Zambesi people. While Amaya’s daughter fights off against Grodd, he is telepathic and is able to use his mind powers to telepathically stop her from fighting him. Nate uses the Earth totem to stop and defeat Grodd. And with that, the village is saved. Now, this is a major change in the Arrowverse as this changes all of the history for the Vixen character. This might have “Flashpoint” like effects on the timeline. With the timeline changed, Mallus is able to be freed from his prison, and now the Legends will have to face him head-on.
Next week is the season finale for Legends of Tomorrow and the Legends will face off against their enemy!
Martin Freeman has battle orcs, giant dragons, aliens, and angry Wakandans, but he’s returning to fight an older foe. Notably, Freeman had a small part in Edgar Wright’s Shaun of the Dead, but now he gets the undead all to himself in the survival drama, Cargo, which is about to premiere at Tribeca before hitting Netflix.
The film is based on Ben Howling and Yolanda Ramke’s devastating short film, expanded to a feature-length narrative with both acting as co-directors. The story takes place in a place not unlike The Walking Dead, where the zombies roam free. The difference is you have 48 hours before turning once you’ve been bitten, so when Freeman’s character gets infected he has a couple of days to find someone to care for his infant daughter.
Oooh boy this looks good and power packed with tough emotions. Hopefully this will be one of the handful of decent movies Netflix puts out during the year. Cargo hits Netflix on May 18th.
This is pretty much the definition of “having a moment.” Zazie Beetz, who was pretty much unknown before her terrific turns in FX’s Atlanta, rocketed to the top of fanboys’ attentions when she was cast as Domino in Deadpool 2. And now she’s using that newfound notoriety to lock in major supporting roles opposite two of today’s biggest stars: Natalie Portman and Kristen Stewart.
First up, Beetz will join Portman and Jon Hamm in Noah Hawley’s sci-fi drama Pale Blue Dot. The film centers on an astronaut returned to Earth after a long time in space on a mission. Upon returning she begins an affair with another astronaut, only to enter a downward spiral as she loses her connection to her family. Things only get worse when her lover begins an affair with a trainee, played by Beetz. Love triangle alert!
Next up, Beetz will be sharing the screen with Kristen Stewart in the Jean Seberg biopic, Against All Enemies. Stewart plays the Hollywood actress who became a target of the FBI because of her public support of the Black Panther Party. The film will center on their attempts to discredit her, which basically got her blacklisted from Hollywood. Beetz joins the previously-cast Anthony Mackie, Jack O’Connell, Margaret Qualley, and Colm Meaney in the film to be directed by Benedict Andrews. [THR/Variety]
Summary: I guess it’s appropriate that this episode fell on April Fool’s Day, we’ve seen for a while now the steady vilification of Rick and little hints of Negan’s well-meaning core. This week that is all put on Front Street. As we saw two weeks ago Jadis, aka Queen Trash, had captured Negan intending to take revenge for the slaughter of her people in his name by Simon. Their part of the episode displays some more of the undead ingenuity of the residents of the heaps…err, I guess that is just resident now, and unveils more of that softer side of Negan we’ve seen flashes of here and there. Jadis brings Negan back to the heaps and has him tied down on a mechanics creeper, she plans to burn his beloved bat Lucille in front of him before letting the walkers have lunch on his neck. Negan immediately seems shocked and angry that Simon had the entire population of the heaps massacred. Something Jadis doesn’t buy, it’s not until he breaks down and explains the significance of the bat that she starts to believe him. The bat, it turns out, is named after Negan’s late wife, and it’s all he has left of her. His monologues throughout remove any doubt that his altruistic goals were fake. He REALLY is just a misguided soul. Sure, he killed Glenn and Abraham, but in his mind asserting that dominance by taking on life is better than losing 20 lives because they don’t want to follow his plan. He is wrong, of course, but it’s almost like he doesn’t know any better. It’s blatantly apparent that, contrary to his swagger, he doesn’t like being the bad guy, he sees himself as a necessary evil.
On the other side of the fence Rick and Morgan, go off on a mission to round up the Saviors that broke free during the Zombie outbreak at the hilltop. Rick’s tumble from the moral high ground is something that’s been touched on repeatedly throughout the series but his actions here end up putting him past a line of redemption in my opinion. After being captured by the escaped saviors Rick and Morgan convince them to let them loose thanks to the walker horde collapsing on their location. Even before it became life or death most of the savior’s in attendance voiced their conflicting thoughts on who the bad guy was, Rick or Negan. In the midst of being overrun by walkers Rick and Morgan help the saviors thing the heard, with one of the Savior’s even going out of their way to save Rick as he was being attacked. To thank them for this Rick and Morgan wait until everything settles down and then murder no less than 5 saviors in cold blood. The difference here is motivation. Negan truly has no personal gratification in killing; he wants as many people to live as possible. Rick, on the other hand, has gone off the deep end, his sole motivation is revenge and protecting his inner circle at any cost, something that’s COMPLETELY the opposite of his son’s dying words.
The Good:
Negan’s entire arc during this episode. I know people disliked Jeffery Dean Morgan’s portrayal right off the bat but he really is bringing the character home. His ability to signify the subtle inner pain Negan has is just short of amazing. He’s taken the most hated character on TV and turned him into an empathetic anti-hero.
The helicopter. In a surprising twist a helicopter hovers overhead during the events in the heaps. I didn’t realize until this just how long it has been since we’ve seen advanced technology on display here. The possibilities of what this signifies are endless and nprovide some real mystery and possible hope to the show.
Rick and Morgan aka the Terminators. Contradictory to what I will say about this later, on a purely action fanboy level this paring is awesome. Neither actor is intimidating by nature but the way these two turn into Jo Schmo Rambo’s is always fun to see. They work so well together and are both ice cold helping you to believe that they actually could attain the legendary level they hold in the apocalypse.
Tara’s turn on Dwight. In the only scenes outside of the two main arcs we get a quick look at Tara and Daryll discussing Dwight and the magical “clean arrow” he shot her with during the battle. Daryl is still predictably suspicious but I was glad to see Tara come to her senses. Her whole death grudge with Dwight was becoming tiresome and she’s much better in that ‘Angel on your shoulder” role.
The Bad:
I think I’ve made it pretty clear but I think this villainous turn made by Rick is going to hurt. You need to be able to identify and side with him. There was a way to do this right and have the same outcome, but they seemed to really want to nail home the fact that Rick knew this was wrong and went through with it anyway to give himself some short term relief. No less than 3 other characters give him a choice and guidance throughout the episode prior to his killing of the saviors, all of which he ignores. To make matters worse he doesn’t seem the least bit remorseful.
The Dead:
This week’s highlight comes from a repeat feature on this section, the walkers of the heaps! Jadis aptitude for all things artistic has been showcased a time or two but it wasn’t until this episode that I realized the walkers they armour up and convert into Mad Max extras are actually, art. With Negan strapped to the creeper Jadis rolls out a cart, the type you see at Home depot for moving lumber, with a walker pinned to it an a completely unnatural angle. It’s got steel plates on it’s face and some kind of brace stuck to it’s head…really the stuff of nightmares.
We get a second entry this week thanks to the slowest, most gruesome death I’ve seen in some time. When walkers trap the savior who killed Henry’s brother, Morgan holds his only means of escape, a chain link fence, closed. The walkers encircle him and slowly start ripping flesh, starting with an agonizing uncut shot of his cheek being ripped off. The gore effects here were top notch but it had to been his slow, pleading screams that tapered off to deathly silence that really made this scene unnerving.
I think more than a few of us have been quietly waiting to hear about a remake of Penny Marshall’s classic, imminently quotable baseball comedy, A League Of Their Own. Well, we’re now getting it. Kinda. Amazon is developing a TV series based on the 1992 film, and while that’s pretty distressing (“There’s no crying in baseball”, or movies either.) the talent involved is encouraging.
Broad City‘s Abbi Jacobsen and Mozart In The Jungle‘s Will Graham will co-write and exec-produce the series, described as a half-hour comedy. The original movie starred Tom Hanks, Madonna, Geena Davis, Lori Petty, and Rosie O’Donnell as members of an all-female baseball league started during WWII as most Major League players were sent off to fight. The film is not only one of the best of Hank’s career, I think it’s the best for just about everybody involved, and I would put Penny Marshall on that list. You can watch it today and it’s just as entertaining now as 20 years ago.
So maybe this won’t be so bad? Sadly, THR says Jacobsen won’t take a role in front of the camera, which is kinda odd. Maybe that will change as the series rounds the bases. Here’s a synopsis straight from Amazon:
“A League of Their Own” is a half-hour comedy infusing the warmth, humor and DNA of the classic film, while taking a contemporary spin on the stories of the women surrounding the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. The show will begin with the formation of the league in 1943 and follows the Rockford Peaches, season to season as they struggle to keep the team alive through close games, injuries, late night bar crawls, sexual awakenings, not crying and road trips across a rapidly changing United States. The series dives deeper into the issues facing the country while following a ragtag team of women figuring themselves out while fighting to realize their dreams of playing professional baseball.
