Forget the Super Bowl, great as it was, the biggest shock of the night came when Netflix dropped that trailer for The Cloverfield Paradox and announced it was debuting right after the game. That instantly set Film Twitter aflame with posts about the news, and gave Netflix the free marketing they needed, because they damn sure spent a pretty penny on the third Cloverfield movie. According to Heat Vision, Netflix spent a whopping $50M to acquire the sci-fi movie from Paramount and J.J. Abrams’s Bad Robot, who were probably laughing all the way to the bank.
Formerly known as God Particle, the film was the third in Abrams’ franchise of low-budget thrillers spawned from his 2008 movie. However, this one saw its budget skyrocket to $40M, and after repeated delays and reshoots to retrofit it into the Cloverfield theme, Paramount decided to cut its losses and actually came out ahead in the deal. Not only that, but they retain the Chinese and home entertainment rights so they can still drop it in the biggest market in the world and on Blu-Ray/DVD where it’s likely to perform really well.
The surprise move has had some wondering if streaming is the future of the Cloverfield franchise. Well, not so much. The planned fourth movie, currently titled Overlord, is still set for a theatrical release. The WWII-set film is directed by Julius Avery with a script by Billy Ray and Mark L. Smith that follows Allied soldiers who face supernatural forces after they are shot behind enemy lines. Wyatt Russell, Pilou Asbæk and Bokeem Woodbine are currently attached to star.
The Cloverfield Paradox is getting hammered by critics, currently sitting at 20% on Rotten Tomatoes. Our reviewer Zack Walsh loved it, though. He and I will just have to agree to disagree on that one!
There were a handful of movies I truly loved at Sundance this year and one was Assassination Nation, a fu**ed up revenge tale about the dangers of social media and the court of public opinion. So I’m happy to see there’s going to be a reunion of at least some of its cast in Mary Harron’s upcoming Charles Manson film, Charlie Says, as Suki Waterhouse and Odessa Young have come aboard.
In addition, Matt Smith has taken on the role of the sadistic cult leader Charles Manson, with personal favorites Hannah Murray (Detroit, God Save the Girl), and Merritt Wever (Nurse Jackie) joining him. Marianne Rendon, Carla Gugino, and Kaylie Carter have also joined the film’s cast.
The story penned by American Author screenwriter Guinevere Turner, follows the three women who were sentenced to the death penalty for taking part in Manson’s horrific killing spree. The sentences were later changed to life imprisonment, which is where they met Karlene Faith, a graduate student and activist sent there to teach them and help them see the error of their ways. [THR]
The days of living in secret are long over for Jessica Jones, if that kid’s question to her is anything to go by. Marvel has debuted a terrific trailer for the second season of Jessica Jones, bringing back Krysten Ritter as the private eye superhero with a list of personal demons a mile long.
Picking up after the events of The Defenders, where she had to put up with Iron Fist’s dumb ass for 10 episodes, Jones finds herself with an ugly reputation and her business all out there on the street, which is no good for someone like her. Remember, she doesn’t have a drinking problem. She has a drinking solution.
Marvel may have been behind the eight-ball of the modern women’s movement we’re experiencing right now, but they’re making amends by having every episode of Jessica Jones’s second season directed by a woman.
Ritter will be joined by co-stars Rachael Taylor, Carrie-Anne Moss, Eka Darville and new additions Janet McTeer and J.R. Ramirez with David Tennant returning as the mind-manipulating Killgrave. Get ready to binge on Jessica Jones when it hits Netflix on March 8th.
Thank goodness, no more “Joy of Painting” parodies, it’s time for Deadpool 2 to get serious. Or as serious as Deadpool can possibly get when the latest trailer features an action figure battle between the mouth merc and Josh Brolin’s Cable.
The latest teaser finally gives us a look at Cable in action, and he comes across like the badass part man-part machine warrior from the future he oughta be. Of course, his grim ‘n gritty attitude doesn’t exactly fit with Deadpool’s whole vibe, but that’s what makes these two such a great pairing. We also get a look at Zazie Beetz as the luck-manipulating Domino and the returning Brianna Hildebrand as Negasonic Teenage Warhead. TJ Miller returns as Weasel, so does Morena Baccarin as Vanessa, Lesley Uggams as Blind Al, and Jack Kesy plays the villain we know jack squat about. Do villains really matter in a Deadpool movie?
Directed by David Leitch, Deadpool 2 opens May 16th.
We’re happy to offer our DC readers the chance to attend one of the most anticipated screenings of the year, Marvel’s Black Panther! The film stars Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira, Daniel Kaluuya, Andy Serkis, Latitia Wright, Martin Freeman, Forest Whitaker, Angela Bassett, and more, with Ryan Coogler (Creed, Fruitvale Station) directing.
SYNOPSIS: Marvel Studios’ “Black Panther” follows T’Challa who, after the death of his father, the King of Wakanda, returns home to the isolated, technologically advanced African nation to succeed to the throne and take his rightful place as king. But when a powerful old enemy reappears, T’Challa’s mettle as king—and Black Panther—is tested when he is drawn into a formidable conflict that puts the fate of Wakanda and the entire world at risk. Faced with treachery and danger, the young king must rally his allies and release the full power of Black Panther to defeat his foes and secure the safety of his people and their way of life.
The screening takes place on Tuesday, February 13th at 7:30pm at Regal Majestic in Silver Spring. If you’d like to attend, simply complete the required steps in the Rafflecopter contest form below. Winners will be selected on Friday, February 9th and notified by email. Good luck!
At the end of last week’s episode of The Flash, Barry’s secret identity was found out by the corrupt prison warden, Warden Wolfe. Despite Barry not wanting to use his heroic alter ego as his trump card during his trial, it still was revealed after he used his power to help Big Sir escape from Iron Heights. As a result, Barry was now at the warden’s whims, and he didn’t have any nice plans for him.
Warden Wolfe struck a deal with Amunet Black to sell the metahumans in his prison to the highest bidder, which she will then sell to various criminal organizations to use at their leisure. In this new wing of the prison (which blocks them from using their powers) are all the metahumans from the bus accident that we have met this season: Kilg%re, Becky, Dwarfstar, and Mina. Most of these metahumans were in the prison as a result of Barry stopping them. Now he has to figure out a way to help them escape so that they avoid becoming slaves to Central City’s criminal underworld.
Lucky for them, they have a CSI on their team. After Barry causes his toilet to flood, he manages to sneak the maintenance worker’s batteries to create acid which he then uses to help them escape. Knowing that the metahuman wing of the prison is on top of the sewer system of the prison, allowing them to escape. Most of the prisoners are eager to return back to their previous lives of crime, Becky, the metahuman who can alter probability in her favor, wants to go back to a simple life, one free of crime.
Iris, Cecile, and the rest of Team Flash are none the wiser about Warden Wolfe’s hidden plans for Barry and plan for their usual meeting with him. Wolfe tells them that Barry got into a fight at the prison and it’s “policy” that he’s on lockdown. While the story sells well, Cecile has her new metahuman pregnancy mind reading powers and learns about his plans. They have to figure out a way to try and get Barry out before they lose him for good. Lucky for them, they also have an ace in their sleeves that they didn’t know about. Ralph, after running into one of his former shady associates, gets angry telling Team Flash about his encounter, actually develops the ability to shape-shift into the guy using his “Elongated Man” powers. Team Flash comes up with the idea that Ralph shape-shift into Wolfe and convince Amunet Black to hold off on purchasing the metahuman prisoners.
The problem with Ralph is that he’s having a crisis of conscience. His former friend reminded him about his own shady past. He manages to shape-shift into Wolfe, but he is unable to convince Amunet Black as he is having trouble not only keeping shape, but he can barely walk. Ralph manages to escape, but at that point, he calls it quits. Caitlin comes to give him a pep talk, but when she can’t reach him, her alter ego Killer Frost gives him some straight talk which convinces him to find another way to help Barry out.
Barry and his team manage to almost succeed in their prison escape, only for Warden Wolfe to be waiting for him. After he shoots a power blocker on Barry, the other metas are about to attack him. Wolfe then drops the truth as to who Barry is to them, he’s The Flash and the one responsible for them being imprisoned. They then turn on Barry, all except Becky who uses her luck powers to stop them. Just then, The Thinker shows up and uses his chair to drains them of their powers. He then uses the chair to transfer his consciousness into Becky and escape. The Thinker now has a new body, and a whole bunch of new powers, probably why he wanted them created in the bus dark matter accident. Because Wolfe wanted to sell the metas, The Thinker decides to kill him, something that makes his wife Marlize feel uneasy as the two were having problems with each other throughout the episode.
Cecile managed to have another hearing for Barry release in court, despite not having any new evidence. Just when the judge is about to dismiss the motion, in wheels DeVoe. Ralph manages to use his shape-shifting powers to impersonate Devoe’s body. With the seemingly alive DeVoe, the judge dismisses Barry’s sentence. There’s a celebration at the house for Barry’s release, but he’s a little concerned that The Thinker only took the bus metas when he had a plethora of metahuman prisoners to choose from. He obviously has some ulterior motive. However, there’s one meta whose powers he didn’t steal yet, Ralph.
The Flash will be on break for the next 3 weeks where Barry will try to save a “Country Girl” meta.
Black Lightning continues to not only excel as a superhero show operating independent of the rest of the Arrowverse, but also a socially relevant TV show dealing with many important issues. Previous episodes have shown the perils of gang violence and police brutality. This week focused primarily on drugs within the community as well as the bureaucracy within the urban school system.
The episode begins with students at Jefferson’s school running in terror. At first, you could think that The One Hundred have broken into the school again. Instead, it’s a student going through a really bad trip. The young man is spasming off of a new dug that’s flooding Freeland called Green Light. The young man manages to rip a sink out of the wall and try to attack Jefferson. He’s forced to use his Black Lightning powers to stop the young man, twice. Lucky for Jefferson, the kid was tripping and probably won’t remember being lightning blasted, which could be explained away as him being high on drugs either way. Jefferson will have to tackle this spread of this drug on two fronts: as the principle as well as Black Lightning.
Meanwhile, Tobias is not having a good week. He is once again summoned to Lady Eve where she confronts him on the fact that Black Lightning is still alive. It’s revealed that she gave him the One Hundred because he “killed” Black Lightning 7 years ago. His entire criminal reputation (as he once was a local politician) was built on the fact that he supposedly killed Black Lightning. Lady Eve addresses his albinism with yet another historical fact about the treatment of albinos throughout history. If he doesn’t address his Black Lightning problem, she will lose faith in him. The weirdest thing about that entire scene is that Lady Eve was performing an autopsy on a body, but at the end, the body opened its eyes. Tobias is visited by his sister Tori visit him from Miami. Because Tobias is too high profile, he can’t kill Black Lighting, but the two of them come up with the idea to turn the public against him and that will cause someone else from the community to want to kill him.
As principal, Jefferson is speaking with the young man Bernard in the aftermath of his drug episode. The school district has a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to infractions, which means he’ll be expelled, even though he’s receiving college acceptance letters. Jefferson, who believes in his school kids, tells Bernard that he will not be expelled. A conversation with his vice-principle reveals that it’s not that easy. While he has the final say when it comes to disciplinary issues, this is going to be something he will have to fight the school board with.
Bernard told Jefferson the name of the drug dealer who gave him the Green Light, even though it was against the “no snitch” policy of the streets. As Black Lightning, Jefferson roughs up many local drug dealers as he realizes that he doesn’t know that many big players above street level. Jefferson learns that a childhood friend is a mid-level manager. At first, he approaches “2 Bits” as Jefferson Pearce, but doesn’t get any luck with that, so he then approaches him as Black Lightning. 2 Bits gives up the goods, but not before asking to take a selfie with Black Lightning before getting knocked out.
Anissa is continuing her own heroic origin story. She is still learning about her new powers and decides to put them to the test. She’s tired of kicking washing machines, and goes after some drug dealers who she caught selling Green Light to her students. When confronting them, she dispatches them with ease, but she realizes that she will need to dial her powers down as she almost kills them with one simple kick and punch. When she’s later out with Grace, a few people harass them for being lesbians at Grace’s bar, and she once again uses her powers to deal with them. This fight causes such a commotion that Jefferson thinks a bomb is going off and stops surveilling The One Hundred’s drug warehouse. Gambirewinds views the security footage and sees Anissa, but he lies to Jefferson about what happened. This is the second lie in as many weeks.
Khalil, who find out that he will never walk again, gets a new benefactor. All his hospital bills are paid for and she gets all sorts of gifts from him. Tobias later comes to Khalil’s hospital room telling him that Black Lightning is responsible for his pain, and he will help him get through it.
Next week, it looks like Jennifer might be getting powers soon.
This has been a big day for Star Wars news, as only hours ago we learned of a brand new series that would be developed by Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. And while we have a minor update from Disney CEO Bob Iger on what that series may entail, he dropped even bigger news to investors.
Iger revealed that Disney has multiple Star Wars shows in the works for their streaming network due to be launched next year. We knew there would be at least one but this is the first we’re hearing of there being more than that, and Iger adds that we could get an official announcement soon…
“We are developing not just one, but a few Star Wars series specifically for the Disney direct-to-consumer app. We’ve mentioned that and we are close to being able to reveal at least one of the entities that is developing that for us. Because the deal isn’t completely closed, we can’t be specific about that. I think you’ll find the level of talent… on the television front will be rather significant as well.”
Meanwhile, Iger also mentioned the upcoming series by Benioff and Weiss, giving perhaps a small glimmer of hope to those who are hoping it will take place during the Knights of the Old Republic time period…
“Their interest was in creating a series of films that are Star Wars-based and we’ve actually been talking to them for a long time. To my knowledge they didn’t express interest in creating a series. They have an idea for number of films and at some later date I’m sure we’ll disclose to all of you just what those are. They are focused on a point in time in the Star Wars mythology and taking it from there.”
This is going to be a ways off, probably, but it should consume the duo long enough that their proposed, and very controversial, HBO series Confederate is unlikely to happen. Maybe they can find a way to somehow adapt aspects of it to fit into Star Wars? Oh the angry thinkpieces that would be written! [THR]
If you’ve been paying attention, you might have noticed that 20th Century Fox is proceeding with a “Disney deal? What Disney deal?” sort of attitude. At the same time, Marvel’s Kevin Feige isn’t acting like he’s about to have a bunch of X-Men dumped into the MCU. While there was a collective nerdgasm over Disney’s proposed deal to purchase Fox, the truth is that the deal isn’t done, won’t be done for months, and may not happen at all. To further prove that point, a better offer may be on the table.
CNBC reports that Comcast is ready to outbid Disney for the right to purchase Fox’s assets, which include their film and TV divisions, National Geographic, FX, regional sports, and more. If that were to happen Disney would likely make a counteroffer, but the point is this thing is far from over and there are billions of dollars left to be spent.
Whoever ends up with Fox is in the position to be a major power player for years to come, so expect this to get heated before it truly comes to an end. You may not get that Wolverine/Captain America teamup movie you’ve been dreaming of for quite some time, if ever.
The action flick Hummingbirdcan’t seem to hold on to leading lady, but it speaks to the number of badass actresses out there that it never goes long without a star. Originally it was Zoe Saldana set to lead the film from Black List scribe John McClain, however last fall she was replaced by Olivia Munn due to scheduling conflicts with the Avatar sequels. Now it’s Munn who is forced to drop out, and she’s been replaced by a veteran when it comes to leading her own action franchise, Milla Jojovich.
The Resident Evil star takes over the lead in Hummingbird, with her husband Paul W.S. Anderson doing rewrites on the script. Hey, at this point he should have a pretty good idea what kind of movie she likes, right? Swedish directing duo Markus Kryler and Fredrik Akerstrom will get behind the camera for the film about a Black Ops assassin forced to confront her true identity while on her final assignment.
Producers say Hummingbird will be similar to Lucy and the Bourne movies. Of course they will. Production kicks off this summer.
