As of right now, the fate of Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD is very much up in the air. When it goes, Marvel will see their biggest and longest-running broadcast series come to an end. Fortunately, they are building something new with Freeform, teaming up with the network on a New Warriors sitcom and the more promising Cloak & Dagger series.
Cloak & Dagger features Beyond the Lights director Gina Prince-Bythewood on the pilot episode, penned by Heroes writer Joe Pokaski. Olivia Holt and Aubrey Joseph play Tandy Bowen aka Dagger and Tyrone Johnson aka Cloak, two misfit teens dealing with the burden of their romance and the strange superpowers they’ve developed. Here’s the synopsis:
“Described as a superhero love story, Cloak and Dagger is based on the titular comic book duo (also known as Tandy Bowen and Tyrone Johnson) who have appeared in Marvel Comics classics, including Spiderman and X-Men stories. The live-action interracial romance follows the duo, two teenagers from very different backgrounds, who find themselves burdened and awakened to newly acquired superpowers while falling in love. Tandy can emit light daggers and Tyrone has the ability to engulf others in darkness. They quickly learn they are better together than apart, but their feelings for each other make their already complicated world even more challenging.”
These were two of my favorite characters growing up because they always seemed to be coping with real world problems, like racism, physical abuse, and drug addiction. It looks like the TV series will follow the same pattern. Cloak & Dagger premieres on June 7th.
It took three solo Thor movies, but Marvel’s Thor: Ragnarok finally figured out the best way to use the physicality and comic timing of star Chris Hemsworth. Speaking of timing, it sucks because he’s likely finished with Marvel after Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers 4, a sad thought for fans of the blond, blue-eyed thunder god. But Hemsworth is too good to not have another franchise lined up, and Sony has swooped in to nab him for their long-developing Men in Black spinoff which is now speeding into production.
F. Gary Gray (Straight Outta Compton) is set to direct Hemsworth in the film, assuming talks go through smoothly. Matt Holloway and Art Marcum (Iron Man) have long been on board to write the script, which has undergone a number of iterations from an all-female reboot to a crossover with 21 Jump Street. The take Sony is going for will have Hemsworth alongside a black female co-star. Hopefully somebody is on the phone with Tiffany Haddish or Letitia Wright right now.
Men in Black: The Dark World or whatever it will be called opens June 14th 2019. [TheTrackingBoard]
Political scandals are a daily reality we have to live with thanks to the current occupants of the White House, so it’ll be interesting to see if audiences show up for a movie about one that impacted a politician people actually liked. Chappaquiddick stars Jason Clarke as Senator Ted Kennedy, who in 1969 left a late night party and drove off a one-lane bridge right into the channel. While he survived, his companion, young campaign worker Mary Jo Kopechne, wasn’t so fortunate.
John Curran (Tracks) directs the film which attempts to unveil the truth of what happened that tragic evening. In the days that followed, Kennedy would face scrutiny for waiting more than 10 hours before reporting the accident, and then stonewalling the police investigation at every turn. Kate Mara plays Kopechne, with Ed Helms, Jim Gaffigan, Taylor Nichols, Olivia Thirlby, Clancy Brown, and Bruce Dern co-starring as various Kennedy confidantes who helped keep him out of too much trouble.
Israeli filmmaker Samuel Maoz doesn’t make a lot of movies, only two features in the last nine years, but when he does they hit like the force of a grenade. His 2009 debut film Lebanon came out of nowhere to win the Golden Lion Award at Venice, and established him as a director whose antiwar sentiments were a much-needed addition on the international stage. Maoz essentially vanished afterwards, but it’s clear that a lot has been on his mind in the years since. Foxtrot, which took the Grand Jury Prize at Venice and was recently snubbed by the Oscars, is Maoz again exploring the Israeli and Lebanon conflict, using absurdist humor to inflict maximum emotional damage.
In a haunting opening shot, we follow Daphna Feldman (Sarah Adler) as she goes to answer a doorbell at the front door. She already knows what it could mean, the pain and worry are etched on her face long before she ever gets there. Random doorbells are not a good thing when so many of the country’s young men have been sent to serve in the armed forces, including her teenaged son, Jonathan (Yonatan Shiray). Sure enough, she answers the door and is given the bad news by the Israeli Defense Forces. Jonathan has been killed in action, and Daphna immediately faints from the shock. Maoz shoots it in almost a comical way, but it’s a humor that burns in your gut. The sensation doesn’t go away any time soon as Jonathan’s father, Michael (Lior Ashkenazi), begins his grieving process. It starts with a sharp, brutal kick to their dog. If that doesn’t make you hate Michael, at least in the beginning, nothing will. We get where his pain is coming from, and even his need to share it with others, but it’s a tough scene to get over.
Maoz follows their pain through the entirety of the first of three acts, a gutsy decision because it could be tough for anyone to sit through. Fortunately Maoz, who also wrote the screenplay, relieves us in the second act with a dose of comedy. It’s then that we’re taken to Jonathan and his platoon out in some military outpost in the middle of nowhere. We find out their little squad is closer to Beetle Bailey or Gomer Pyle than Full Metal Jacket, as the soldiers pass the boredom by observing the absurdities of their situation. The sinking headquarters they live in is the size of shipping container, and nothing much seems to happen. Most of the time they only have to let through a passing camel or two, but if there’s one message Maoz wants to get across it’s that violence can find you anywhere. Whether you be safe and as far away from war as Daphna and Michael, or at an abandoned outpost where the only form of entertainment is breaking out into the foxtrot on occasion.
Visually, Maoz and cinematographer Giora Bejach twist the emotional knife by putting us right in the shoes of those caught in the grips of despair. To his credit, Maoz doesn’t let up and trusts his audience to see it through and pick up on the tiny strands of joy that he leaves behind like breadcrumbs. In a bold visual he brings to animated life one of Jonathan’s notebooks, where we see how talented of an artist he is and could be if he got out of that Hellhole. It’s a bittersweet note, but one that pays off in the final act where Maoz examines the ripple effects caused by war. If there’s an issue it’s also here, as Maoz seems to be in the same boat as his grieving characters, just trying to make sense of it all. To cover he takes liberties with one unnecessary twist after another, and goes at least one step too far.
Surreal imagery and unrelenting sorrow make for a powerful combination, with Foxtrot hitting on some intense emotional truths about the enduring cost of war. Maoz, who fought in the 1982 Lebanon War, clearly has a lot left that he wants to say, and here’s hoping he gets the chance to do it again soon.
In case you haven’t noticed, there is no more personal privacy. The Internet and social media have seen to that, with most of us willingly signing over our privacy rights for easier ways to buy things or just to play video games on our smartphones. It’s pretty bad, but Andrew Niccol (Gattaca, Lord of War), who knows a thing or two about making movies about oppressive futures, has envisioned worse in his new movie Anon, and now we have the first trailer.
Starring Clive Owen and Amanda Seyfried, the latter having starred in Niccol’s underrated In Time, the film takes place in a Soviet-style society where crime is fought by eliminating all privacy, creating a surveillance state. Owen plays tough cop Sal Frieland who is trying to solve a series of murders and encounters a hacker named The Girl (Seyfried), who appears to have found a way around the system. Through her Sal is led on a dangerous journey that may force him to blow the whistle on his own government.
Niccol always comes with big ideas but execution has often been the problem. I’m a big fan of the ambition he shows, and it looks like he’s aiming high with this one, too. Anon hits Netflix later this year.
We’re happy to offer our DC readers the chance to attend a free advance screening of Disney’s A Wrinkle in Time. The anticipated film is directed by Ava DuVernay and based on the celebrated novel. Storm Reid, Oprah Winfrey, Mindy Kaling, Reese Witherspoon, Chris Pine, Zach Galifianakis, and Gugu Mbatha-Raw star!
SYNOPSIS: From visionary director Ava DuVernay comes Disney’s “A Wrinkle in Time,” an epic adventure based on Madeleine L’Engle’s timeless classic which takes audiences across dimensions of time and space, examining the nature of darkness versus light and, ultimately, the triumph of love. Through one girl’s transformative journey led by three celestial guides, we discover that strength comes from embracing one’s individuality and that the best way to triumph over fear is to travel by one’s own light.
The screening takes place on Tuesday, March 6th at 7:00pm at Regal Majestic in Silver Spring. If you’d like a chance to win, simply complete the required steps in the Rafflecopter form below. Winners will be selected on Friday, March 2nd and notified by email. Good luck!
Video game movies still haven’t had their moment to shine, and it should be becoming clearer that a direct adaptation isn’t the best way to go about it. Instead, building a story that incorporates video games and video game culture may be the best way to go about it, like with Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One or Disney’s proven hit, Wreck-It Ralph. The latter took the viewer straight into the world of coin-op arcade games, and audiences couldn’t wait to plunk down quarters to be a part of Ralph’s adventures. Now the ham-fisted hero is back with Ralph Breaks The Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2, which as you probably guessed sees him getting stuck in the world wide web.
John C. Reilly returns as Ralph, with Sarah Silverman as the plucky glitch Vanellope von Schweetz, as they traverse the world of online gaming. Taraji P. Henson stars as a brand new character named Yesss, while Jack McBrayer and Jane Lynch return as Fit-It Felix Jr. and Sgt. Calhoun. Here’s the synopsis:
“Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2” leaves Litwak’s video arcade behind, venturing into the uncharted, expansive and thrilling world of the internet —which may or may not survive Ralph’s wrecking. Video game bad guy Ralph (voice of John C. Reilly) and fellow misfit Vanellope von Schweetz (voice of Sarah Silverman) must risk it all by traveling to the world wide web in search of a replacement part to save Vanellope’s video game, Sugar Rush. In way over their heads, Ralph and Vanellope rely on the citizens of the internet—the netizens—to help navigate their way, including a webite entrepreneur named Yesss (voice of Taraji P. Henson), who is the head algorithm and the heart and soul of trend-making site “BuzzzTube.”
Because of the change of scenery we probably won’t see as many familiar video game characters, in fact there isn’t a single Pac-Man, Q-Bert, or Bowser to be found in the trailer. But already this looks like great fun and can’t wait to see what kind of trouble Ralph and Venellope get into, besides stuffing digital kitties with pancakes.
Directed by Rich Moore and Phil Johnston, Ralph Breaks The Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2 boots up on November 21st.
After a few weeks off, The Flash returns! Just before the break, things were not looking too great for Barry. Sure, he managed to finally be released from prison (thanks to Ralph shapeshifting into the deceased DeVoe and testifying that he was “still alive”), but most of the metahumans from the Dark Matter bus accident were now absorbed by DeVoe, adding more powers to his collection. We still don’t know DeVoe’s endgame, but we know that he wants to kill and take the powers of everyone who was on that bus, which means that Ralph might be next.
The episode begins with Barry trying to return back to his normal life as a CSI for the Central City police department. We should have known just from the side eyes and dirty looks he was getting from his former coworkers that it wasn’t going to be that easy. He is immediately called into the captain’s office who tells him that many take DeVoe’s return as “fake news,” and the new mayor of Central City wants to project a new image. Barry had a very public trial, with his name dragged through the mud, and it won’t be so easy for him to return back to the life he once had. As a result, Captain Singh orders Barry to take a permeant leave of absence. The unemployed Barry now has a lot of free time to work on stopping DeVoe.
With a target on Ralph’s back, Cisco has opted to being his babysitter. While Cisco is not a fan of Ralph’s lifestyle, he’s still a pretty cool private eye. Ralph decides to go through the metahuman bus’s lost and found to see if they can figure out who else will be on DeVoe’s watchlist. They discover “Subject 9,” a country singer named Izzy. Ralph and Barry go to her incognito to try and warn her of DeVoe and offer her their protection. She quickly reveals her power and shows why she might not need their help. Izzy has the ability to create a sonic scream. While her scream might have killed a normal person, Barry and Ralph recover quickly thanks to their powers. After tracking her down again, they once again try to talk with her. This time, Ralph takes the lead and tells her just how good Team Flash has been to him (don’t kill Ralph!). Izzy decides to come on board to Team Flash. Barry opts to train her in preparation for DeVoe (after she manages to knock him in Becky’s body). However, Barry is very driven to stop DeVoe and has to be reigned in for how much he’s driving her, alienating her in the process.
Harry has returned from Earth-2 and runs into Cecile in the coffee shop. She is having problems controlling her pregnancy-induced mind-reading powers as she not only can ready mind when people are awake, she can also do that when they are asleep. Joe’s been having dreams that are keeping her awake. Lucky for her, she’s friends with one of the brightest minds in the multiverse. Harry opts to create a device to help her. Then Team Flash realizes that he’s creating the cerebral inhibitor that Savitar mentioned last season. Savitar mentions that this device stops DeVoe, so Team Flash now thinks they have an ace up their sleeve.
Thanks to Barry’s training and Ralph’s pep talks, Izzy believes that she has the ability to stop DeVoe and goes on her own to take down the Thinker. Knowing that even if she has the ability to hurt DeVoe, this is something that’s already been thought of and planned through. Ralph and Barry go to try and help Izzy. As they fight DeVoe, they aren’t just fighting him. They are fighting all the metahuman powers he absorbed, making it still an uneven fight in the Thinker’s favor. They manage to use the cerebral inhibitor on DeVoe, who then uses Kilg%re’s powers to electronically burn out the device. So much for Savitar’s promise that it would work. Ralph and Barry and beaten by DeVoe who then turns his attention to Izzy. DeVoe uses his chair to attack Izzay, transfer his consciousness into her body, absorb her powers, and kill her. Ralph, who obviously liked her is forced to watch in horror as she dies.
All is not lost though. Cisco manages to discover that when DeVoe teleports in and out of the area, he’s actually traveling vie dimensional teleportation. Now that they know this, they can find a way to track where DeVoe’s secret lair in another dimension is. Maybe, just maybe, Team Flash can finally have the upper hand to take him on.
Next week, Barry has to try and stop a bomb. The only problem is that if he slows down, it’s going to go off.
Thanks to the Olympics, we’ve had to wait an extra week to see what happened to Jefferson from the last episode of Black Lightning. With new modifications to his suit, Jefferson was getting his Iron Man on and able to fly across the city and continue to take the fight to the One Hundred. After receiving a tip from Inspector Henderson, Jefferson was able to track down Toledo, Tobias’ right-hand man. While in the process of kicking the crap out of him, Jefferson starts to have massive headaches. This allows Toledo to escape while Jefferson is left on the ground outside of a club in agony.
The episode begins with the police receiving an “anonymous tip” that Black Lightning is outside of a club and is not responsive. Being that he’s been a vigilante for more than 20 years, this is the perfect time for them to take him down. Inspector Henderson is on the task force, but noticing the extreme firepower the police are prepping, he asks his captain for the source of the top, which he doesn’t tell him. Something tells me that Henderson is the only officer not in Tobias’ pocket. Lucky for Jefferson, Gambi is able to save him just in time for the police to arrive.
While Gambi is helping Jefferson recuperate, he’s now focused on a mission, he knows that with Toledo still in Freeland, that means that Tobias is still around. Tobias is responsible for his father’s death. Now, it’s not about saving the city for Jefferson. Now, it’s personal, and he wants justice done: Punisher style. Gambi is trying to keep Tobias’ off Jefferson’s radar, but he also doesn’t want Jefferson to do the one thing that will be crossing the line. If Jefferson goes forward and kills Tobias, he will lose a part of his soul. Gambia tries to enlist Lynn to try and talk Jefferson out of it, but she’s so angry with him returning back to his vigilante activities, she doesn’t want any part of it.
While Black Lightning is a defiantly black show, this week they went extra, and in a good way. While Anissa is still investigating her grandfather’s death for investigating genetic manipulation, this week she gets to do a little extra, thanks to her protesting activities. Coming straight out of our very real life, she’s a part of a group that is protesting Confederate statues at her college. She gets arrested for shooting water guns filled with red ink at the Confederate status. After bailing her out of jail, Jefferson gives her “the talk,” and it seems like it’s not the first time he’s had it with her. He explains to her that all it takes is one trigger-happy cop, who thinks her water gun is a real gun, and her black skin will be more threatening than it really is, and she would be killed. Meanwhile, Jennifer is having her own drama. Because Khalil was paralyzed as a result of attending the protest against the One Hundred, he’s angry with her for asking him to come. He posts a clip on social media calling her a white girl and “Becky” for being the daughter of the school principal and an overachiever. Jefferson talks with his younger daughter about the “crabs in a barrel” mentality. He offers her advice to give him some space so he can work out his anger. Of course, she does the opposite, and he lashes out at her even more. White nationalists protest Anissa’s group’s protest, which pretty much echoes last years Charlottesville riot, to the point that they having one of them kill one of the protesters by driving a car through a crowd. This is very bold for a CW show! This sets Anissa over the edge. She costumes up and destroys the statue with one stomp. She’s still in pain from the events and knows that now is the time to talk with her mother about what she has been doing and her powers.
Jefferson is dead set on killing Tobias. He manages to discover one of Tobias’ doctors who treats him for his albinism, and tells the doctor to set up for Tobias to come to his office so that Jefferson can kill him. Just before he can proceed with a lightning strike, Gambi gets Lynne to talk him off the cliff. Just as she’s just about reached him, someone breaks into her office, forcing Jefferson to call it off. Anissa comes to her mom’s office (still in costume) just as the henchmen have tied her up and she easily beats them. Jefferson arrives and thinks that Anissa is the person attacking his wife. This causes Jefferson to attack his own daughter. She is impervious to not only bullets, but also to his lightning powers. Because the two are wearing masks, neither can tell who the other is. Jefferson beats his daughter and once the dust settles, realizes who she is. When she awakens in her home from a concussion, he father is waiting by her side in his full Black Lightning costume. The two will have a very interesting conversation next week.
Next week, Anissa and her father will have a heart to heart. Hopefully, this means that the two will start fighting crime together. Just wait until Jennifer realizes her powers and they become an unstoppable trio!
Matt Reeves’ next directorial effort will be The Batman….we think. We’ve heard so little about it lately, and frankly still have no idea who will star in it, that who knows what will become of it. Seriously, would anybody be shocked if it quietly went away? Fortunately, Reeves isn’t sitting around and is busy lining up other films to take part in, and he’s just scored a seriously hot sci-fi property that will be going to Netflix.
Reeves recently joined Netflix for a first look multi-picture deal, and the first film to emerge out of that is Life Sentence, based on the sci-fi short story by Matthew Baker. A fierce bidding war took place for the rights to this one, with Apple, Amazon, Warner Bros., Fox2000, and others taking their best shots. Some thought it would be best adapted into a TV series, but Baker wanted to see his vision come to life as a movie so he went with Netflix in the final round of bidding. This will be the third short story Baker has seen Hollywood jump at producing. His first, 2016’s Transition, has Noah Hawley (Fargo, Legion) producing and Joe Epstein scripting for Amazon Studios. His second, The Appearance, is also in the works.
Life Sentence is “about a futuristic program where the memories of criminals are erased, instead of sending them to prison. The story focuses on one such man, who finds himself trying to reconcile his past actions and relationships.” Sounds a lot like Total Recall, nothing wrong with that.
It’s too early to know who will adapt and direct the film, but you can bet Reeves will be intimately involved. He may even decide to direct it himself if it can fit between The Batman and a potential fourth Planet of the Apes movie. [Deadline]
