Dwayne Johnson will be in a lot of movies saving a lot of lives this summer, but right now Sony is thanking him for saving their long-dormant Jumanji franchise. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle has an obscene $880M at this point, and studios everywhere are hoping he can do the same for them. His best shot might be with the monster-ific video game flick Rampage, which has just launched a brand new trailer.
Johnson, boasting the unique title of a primatologist, must come to the rescue when an experiment goes wrong and unleashes a bunch of building-sized mutant creatures on the city. The catch? One of those creatures is his friend, a formerly gentle ape that now has the power to level everything in sight. The film co-stars Naomie Harris, Malin Akerman, Jake Lacy, Joe Manganiello, Jeffrey Dean Morgan. P.J. Byrne, Marley Shelton, Breanne Hill, Jack Quaid, and Matt Gerald. Johnson has struck it big working with director Brad Peyton on Journey 2: The Mysterious Island and San Andreas, so why not shoot for the trifecta?
Here’s the official synopsis: Primatologist Davis Okoye (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, it¹s 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.
Of all the movies that defined me growing up, House Party is at the top of the list. The silly comedy starred rap duo Kid ‘n Play, with Martin Lawrence as their foul-breathed buddy, featured the best dance-off in history, had a decades’ worth of high-top fades and Gumby hairstyles, and was generally just a blast. I still watch it regularly and so do most of my friends. So the idea of a new version doesn’t sit well, especially since it might not include the “Kid ‘n Play kickstep”, but having LeBron James on board the project is at least intriguing.
The future NBA Hall of Famer will produce and possibly appear in the new House Party, which James stresses is NOT a reboot…
“This is definitely not a reboot. It’s an entirely new look for a classic movie. Everyone I grew up with loved House Party. To partner with this creative team to bring a new House Party to a new generation is unbelievable.”
That creative team includes Atlanta writers Stephen Glover and Jamal Olori, although no director has been found at this point. As expected, there will be a star-studded soundtrack put together for the film, with producer Maverick Carter stating they are “trying out ideas” for musicians. Uh oh. The original 1990 movie’s soundtrack boasted a who’s who of rap/R&B stars including Flavor Flav, Today, Full Force, and LL Cool J. The story was simple; two best friends decide to throw a kickass house party, only for Kid to get grounded and have to sneak out to get there. Hijinks ensue.
House Party spawned a handful of sequels, ending with the atrocious House Party 4: Down to the Last Minute which was 100% Kid ‘n Play free. I don’t need to talk about how influential House Party was. Just check out the full dance-off below and get a taste of its greatness. Yes, if I put my mind to it I can still do this whole routine. Let’s hope LeBron doesn’t ruin it. Ain’t my type of hype, baby!
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society sounds like the name of some secret group of X-Men, but it’s actually the title of Annie Barrows and Mary Ann Shaffer’s bestselling WWII book that Hollywood has been trying to adapt for years. At one time Kenneth Branagh was attached, and that felt like the right fit. At various points you had Kate Winslet or Rebecca Ferguson set to star, and that would have been fine, too. However nothing turned out from that group, but what we ended up with doesn’t sound too bad at all. Mike Newell (Great Expectations) is behind the camera with Baby Driver and Darkest Hour star Lily James starring, and a trailer for the anticipated film is here.
James plays spirited journalist Juliet Ashton, who seeks to tell the story of the eccentric book club’s members, whose love of fiction saw them through WWII’s darkest days. The rest of the cast is strong and includes Glen Powell, Matthew Goode, Jessica Brown Findlay, Katherine Parkinson, Tom Courtenay, and Penelope Wilton.
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society hits the UK on April 20th, but no US date just yet. Is it possible after three so many WWII movies in 2017 that we’ve reached overload?
Alicia Vikander may have a blockbuster franchise to call her own with Tomb Raider, but she’s keeping her schedule plenty packed with projects of varying sizes. Her latest sounds like a potential awards contender just based on the talent involved. She’s set to star in The Marsh King’s Daughter, an adaptation of Karen Dionne’s book that will be directed by The Imitation Game’s Morten Tyldum and co-written by The Revenant writer Mark L. Smith.
The bestselling novel follows a woman who must reconcile her past growing up as the daughter of the man known as The Marsh King, who had abducted her mother and held them captive in a forest cabin. Here’s the book synopsis:
Helena Pelletier has a loving husband, two beautiful daughters, and a business that fills her days. But she also has a secret: she is the product of an abduction. Her mother was kidnapped as a teenager by her father and kept in a remote cabin in the marshlands of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Helena, born two years after the abduction, loved her home in nature, and despite her father’s sometimes brutal behavior, she loved him, too…until she learned precisely how savage he could be.
More than twenty years later, she has buried her past so soundly that even her husband doesn’t know the truth. But now her father has killed two guards, escaped from prison, and disappeared into the marsh. The police begin a manhunt, but Helena knows they don’t stand a chance. Knows that only one person has the skills to find the survivalist the world calls the Marsh King—because only one person was ever trained by him: his daughter.
Expect this one to pick up steam quickly. No word on when shooting would begin, though. [Deadline]
When I was a kid growing up, Benji movies were still kind of a big deal. They were innocent, wholesome family movies featuring the brave and heroic pup who has been starring in movies since 1974. But for years Benji has been relegated to straight-to-DVD land or out of the public spotlight at all, however a new reboot for Netflix could change that. Although after watching the trailer, it probably won’t.
Benji features the world’s most helpful canine (Well, Lassie might dispute that) in a new adventure with a brand new family. The orphaned pup is taken in by two New Orleans kids and brought home, much to the disapproval of their mother, an officer on the police force. However she changes her tune when Benji seems like the best shot at finding her kids when they go missing.
The film is directed by Brandon Camp, the son of Benji creator Joe Camp. Oddly enough, this is a Blumhouse production (!!!) and features Kiele Sanchez (Lost), Angus Sampson (Insidious), Gabriel Bateman (Annabelle), and Darby Camp.
Honestly, this doesn’t look very good and if Netflix hadn’t picked it up would probably be on a Walmart shelf right now. But considering how lousy Netflix movies tend to be it had a good chance of being as watchable as say, War Machine.
Got your golden ticket? Because it looks like a return trip to visit Willy Wonka is right around the corner. Warner Bros. has been trying to unwrap a new movie based on Roald Dahl’s oddball candymaker for a while now, and it’s tough to argue with who they’ve found to do it. THR reports director Paul King, who has delivered two wonderfully whimsical and fun Paddington movies, is in final talks for the job.
Dahl wrote a couple of books featuring Wonka, 1964’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and its sequel, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator. Gene Wilder left an unforgettable impression as Wonka in the classic 1971 film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, while Johnny Depp did some weird Michael Jackson-esque thing in the 2005 movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
This new film will have a script by Simon Rich and will reunite King with producer David Heyman, and the hope is they can launch a franchise. It’s been suggested in the past that this might be a prequel, but for now the story is being kept as secret as the formula for Wonka’s Everlasting Gobstopper.
Although we don’t have any new episodes for Supergirl, The Flash, or Arrow for a little while, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow has finally returned. Our favorite group of time traveling heroes was last seen this past December, but after a brief hiatus, they are back to continue to keep all of existence safe. After the death of Stein, Jax was without his Firestorm counterpart and decided that his time on the Wave Rider has come to a close. But when one door closes, another opens. John Constantine, who had his own cult show on NBC before guest-starring on Arrow for a little while, is back, and he needs the Legends help.
Just from the opening credits, it looks like we’re going into the world of the occult. After all, why bring John Constantine in it if he’s not gonna be doing all sorts of weird magic. While that arc didn’t work as well in Arrow, it just might work here on Legends of Tomorrow. Remember, all the magic stuff done on Arrow helped bring us Damien Darhk, and he’s not one of the best villains in the Arrowverse, and Neal McDonough is having a blast playing the character. The episode begins with us catching up with John Constantine, who is still dabbling in the dark arts. He heads to Star City to perform an exorcism on a young girl named Emily, who we find out is possessed by Mallus. As with most possessions from movies like The Exorcist, Mallus taunts Constantine and name drops that he will soon possess Sarah Lance. John decides that he has to seek her out to not only warn her, but enlist her for help.
The Legends decide to team up with Constantine to help with the exorcism. One thing they are finally bringing from the comics is Constantine’s fluid sexuality and his cigarette smoking. It was an integral part of his character that for network TV censorship purposes, was never used for his show on NBC. However, the CW is more LGBT friendly, so they decided to stick with the source material as he flirts with Earth-X Leonard Snart as well as Sarah. Sure, there will be some people in more conservative circles saying the show’s making the character bisexual, but all that proves is they don’t really know his history. Now, most TV shows also censor smoking thanks to the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act made during the 70s, but once again, this is a big part of the character. In tonight’s episode, they have their cake and eat it too as there are many times where he’s about to light up, but gets a funny look from someone on the Legends team. It’s only at the end of the episode that Constantine finally lights up and takes a drag.
The team sneaks into the asylum where Emily is being helped in order to perform the exorcism on her. Soo enough, Mallus shows himself and in full control of Emily causes all hell to break loose. In addition to making everything fly all around the room using some sort of telekinesis, Mallus also uses a spell of his own which transports Snart, Constantine, and Sara to 1969. They have to now figure out a way to get back to their own timeline, and they don’t have the Wave Rider to transport them, and the other Legends don’t know when they are (as they had to go off coms during the exorcism). As they are in an asylum in 1969, they can’t just say they are from the future, because that’s crazy, right? In fact, Snart gets caught trying to place a message on a painting he knows will show up in the future, only to have a nurse prepare to lobotomize him. All while Snart is about to get lobotomized by the Arrowverse’s version of Nurse Ratched, Sarah and Constantine are trying to figure out a way to stop Mallus. They are also growing close, so the two naturally hook up.
In the present, Kuasa has shown up, and after Nate uses Snart’s Cold gun on her, she’s held prisoner. There, she and Amaya are at odds philosophically. With Kusa being Amaya’s granddaughter, she’s more resentful as to how her life ended up, which has made her into a supervillain aligned with Damien Darhk. She reveals to Amaya a little bit about her future, even news about her impending death and how it causes problems for her daughter and granddaughter. Amaya tells her that she will save her Kuasa, which causes her to temporarily stop trying to kill Nate.
In the present, are still in the asylum trying to reach Emily, who it turns out is really a young Nora Darhk, Damien’s daughter. However, she’s still being controlled by Mallus. Mallus uses the same telekinetic powers as previously. When Zari touched Norah, Mallus reveals that she has the ability to hurt him, thanks to the Totems. This means that anyone who has a totem will be needed to take him down. Back in 1969, Sarah realizes that she will need to become possessed by Mallus in order to try and stop him. Constantine uses a spell to bring her to Mallus’s realm so that he can take over her body. There, she runs into Norah as well, and the two work together to fight back against him. Just as they find a way to take their bodies back and the Legends in 1969 find a way back to the present, Damien Darhk comes to take his daughter away. In Nora’s timeline, her father just died, but thanks to time travel, he’s there in the flesh for her. Whatever goodwill Ray and Zari made with her goes out the window as she goes with her father, as we know she will be one of their adversaries when she gets older.
The entire episode Mick has been busy watching a football game and couldn’t be bothered with demons, magic, and possession. Snart decides to head back to his own Earth and marry boyfriend (Earth-X Ray). This will probably be the last time we see Wentworth Miller in the Arrowverse as he was reported to be stepping away from the role. Constantine also departed to continue his own adventure into all the magic going on. However, the Legends have a new problem, Rip Hunter (proven right about the existence of Mallus) has escaped custody of the Time Bureau, so the Legends have to find him.
Next week, the Legends are caught in a time loop, their own Groundhogs Day from hell.
That Kitty Pryde X-Men spinoff we heard about last month? It just became a very real thing, as THR reports longtime Marvel scribe Brian Michael Bendis has been hired to write the script with Deadpool director Tim Miller on board to direct.
Rumors began earlier today as Bendis was hired for a secret X-Men movie project with Tim Miller, codenamed “143”. Let’s just say it wasn’t the best kept secret ever, because X-Men fans instantly knew that Uncanny X-Men #143 is an iconic Kitty Pryde issue. Her first real solo outing, back when she was still known as “Sprite”, saw her battling a N’Garai demon in the X-Mansion while the others are away celebrating Christmas. The issue was penned by Chris Claremont with John Byrne art, and was deliberately designed to be similar to Alien, with Pryde doing her own impression of Ellen Ripley. The issue was important for Pryde because she was the only Jewish member of the team, and was feeling particularly left out during the holiday season.
So yes, this could be a particularly cinematic story to tell and should make all of the Kitty Pryde fans out there very happy. She’s been notably played by Ellen Page in the previous X-Men movies, most recently in X-Men: Days of Future Past, but we might see the role recast. I’d be perfectly fine with Page coming back, though. Ellen Page vs. demons? Yes please.
Something tells me this will go down as a very bad day for Michael Fassbender’s agents. On the one hand, THR reports he’s landed his next gig, which turns out to be a starring role in Kung Fury, a feature-length sequel to David Sandberg’s viral ’80s-inspired martial arts/buddy cop/fantasy short that went from Kickstarter to the Cannes Film Festival. Fassbender will star alongside Sandberg and David Hasselhoff, who also had a role in the short. It’s an odd move for him to make, one that certainly won’t bring the accolades he’s used to, or that his fans are used to seeing showered upon him.
But preceding that news by a few hours was The Daily Beast, which has revived past physical abuse allegations against Fassbender by his former girlfriend Sunawin Andrews in 2010. Andrews filed for a restraining order that would keep the actor away from her and her two children. TMZ covered the story at the time, however they have had little impact on the actor’s career.
Normally we don’t post about all of this stuff unless it directly affects a current or upcoming project, which seems like it might be the case with Fassbender now. I’m curious to see if there will be any impact to X-Men: Dark Phoenix, possibly in the way it’s marketed. Also it shows how tone deaf some in Hollywood still are. The charges of domestic abuse against Fassbender resurface hours earlier, but oh well, business as usual; here’s a press release about the actor’s latest role!
And now here comes the real blowback, because Showbiz411 says Sony are having second thoughts about producing Tarantino’s Manson movie due to all of the bad press swirling around Tarantino right now. There may be more to it, though. For one thing, the movie is hugely expensive for a Tarantino project, hovering around $100M in production costs. Some analyst projections have it needing to hit $375M just to break even. For context, The Hateful Eight only earned $155M worldwide, while his highest-grossing movie was the controversial Django Unchained with $425M.
To be fair, the star power on this one could spur it to big numbers. Leonardo DiCaprio is set to star in the Los Angeles-set film that uses the Manson murders as its backdrop. The story follows a washed-up TV actor who, along with his sidekick/stunt double is looking to break into movies. Margot Robbie is rumored to be playing Sharon Tate, with Al Pacino, Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, and Samuel L. Jackson reportedly up for roles.
Sony is probably just waiting to see which way the wind blows on this. Something tells me even if they bail somebody else would step in. Who know? Maybe Tarantino would have to cave in and turn to Netflix or Amazon, options he was dead set against just months ago.
