It was tough sledding for Captain America: Brave New World, which fell a stunning 68% in week two for just $28M. That was enough to beat out The Monkey, and maybe enough to keep it on track to surpass 2011’s Captain America: The First Avenger‘s $176M domestic total. Worldwide, the fourth Cap entry has $289M and is performing better than some of Marvel’s other recent lows.
Neon’s investment in director Osgood Perkins has paid off, as he now has the two biggest horror debuts in their history. The Monkey opened with $14.2M, which falls just short of Perkins’ hit horror Longlegs which had $22M last year. The horror-comedy adaptation of Stephen King’s short had strong critical reviews, 77% on Rotten Tomatoes, while audiences were slightly less enthusiastic with just 62%.
3. Paddington in Peru– $6.5M/$25.2M
4. Dog Man– $5.9M/$78.7M
5. Ne Zha 2– $4.3M/$14.8M
6. Heart Eyes– $2.8M/$26.7M
7. Chhaava– $2.6M/$4.8M
8. Mufasa: The Lion King– $2.5M/$245.3M
9. The Unbreakable Boy– $2.5M
Zachary Levi was back in faith-based territory with The Unbreakable Boy, which opened with $2.5M. The film, based on the true story of an autistic boy with with brittle bone disease, is by writer/director Jon Gunn, who delivered a solid success last year with Ordinary Angels.
If you haven’t jumped on the Anora bandwagon yet, now might be the time. The momentum continues to build towards the Academy Awards for Sean Baker’s acclaimed dramedy, following last night’s 40th Film Independent Spirit Awards where it was victorious three times.
Anora took Best Feature at the Indie Spirits, along with Best Director for Baker and Best Lead Performance for Mikey Madison. Following big wins at the Critics Choice and BAFTAs, it looks to have moved into the frontrunner position for next week’s Oscars.
Jesse Eisenberg’s A Real Pain also did extremely well, earning Best Screenplay and Best Supporting Performance for Kieran Culkin.
Breakthrough Performance went to Maisy Stella for the comedy My Old Ass.
RaMell Ross’ Nickel Boys won for Best Cinematography. September 5 won Best Editing. Sean Wang won Best First Feature and Best First Screenplay for Didi. The animated masterpiece Flow won Best International Feature.
The Robert Altman Award for director, ensemble, and casting director went to Azazel Jacobs’ Netflix drama His Three Daughters.
The full list of winners on the film and TV sides is below:
Winners
BEST FEATURE (Award given to the producer) Anora
Producers: Sean Baker, Alex Coco, Samantha Quan
BEST LEAD PERFORMANCE
Mikey Madison Anora
BEST LEAD PERFORMANCE IN A NEW SCRIPTED SERIES
Richard Gadd Baby Reindeer
BEST DIRECTOR
Sean Baker Anora
BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM (Award given to the director) Flow
Latvia, France, Belgium
Director: Gints Zilbalodis
BEST SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE
Kieran Culkin A Real Pain
BEST EDITING
Hansjörg Weissbrich September 5
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Jomo Fray Nickel Boys
BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY
Sean Wang Dìdi
BEST NEW NON-SCRIPTED OR DOCUMENTARY SERIES (Award given to the creator, executive producer and co-executive producer) Hollywood Black
Executive Producers: Shayla Harris, Dave Sirulnick, Stacey Reiss, Jon Kamen, Justin Simien, Kyle Laursen, Forest Whitaker, Nina Yang Bongiovi, Jeffrey Schwarz, Amy Goodman Kass, Michael Wright, Jill Burkhart
Co-Executive Producers: David C. Brown, Laurens Grant
BEST NEW SCRIPTED SERIES (Award given to the creator, executive producer and co-executive producer) Shōgun
Creators/Executive Producers: Rachel Kondo, Justin Marks
Executive Producers: Edward L. McDonnell, Michael De Luca, Michaela Clavell
Co-Executive Producers: Shannon Goss, Andrew Macdonald, Allon Reich
BEST SCREENPLAY
Jesse Eisenberg A Real Pain
BEST FIRST FEATURE (Award given to director and producer) Dìdi
Director/Producer: Sean Wang
Producers: Valerie Bush, Carlos López Estrada, Josh Peters
BEST BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE IN A NEW SCRIPTED SERIES
Jessica Gunning Baby Reindeer
BEST SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE IN A NEW SCRIPTED SERIES
Nava Mau Baby Reindeer
BEST DOCUMENTARY No Other Land
Directors/Producers: Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel Szor
Producers: Fabien Greenberg, Bård Kjøge Rønning
BEST BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE
Maisy Stella My Old Ass
BEST ENSEMBLE CAST IN A NEW SCRIPTED SERIES (Previously announced) How to Die Alone
Ensemble Cast: Melissa DuPrey, Jaylee Hamidi, KeiLyn Durrel Jones, Arkie Kandola, Elle Lorraine, Michelle McLeod, Chris “CP” Powell, Conrad Ricamora, Natasha Rothwell, Jocko Sims
PRODUCERS AWARD (Honors emerging producers who, despite highly limited resources, demonstrate the creativity, tenacity and vision required to produce quality independent films; previously announced)
Sarah Winshall
TRUER THAN FICTION AWARD (Presented to an emerging director of non-fiction features who has not yet received significant recognition; previously announced)
Rachel Elizabeth Seed
Director of A Photographic Memory
JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD (Best feature made for under $1 million; award given to the writer, director and producer) Girls Will Be Girls
Writer/Director/Producer: Shuchi Talati
Producers: Richa Chadha, Claire Chassagne
ROBERT ALTMAN AWARD (Given to one film’s director, casting director, and ensemble cast; previously announced) His Three Daughters
Director: Azazel Jacobs
Casting Director: Nicole Arbusto
Ensemble Cast: Jovan Adepo, Jasmine Bracey, Carrie Coon, Jose Febus, Rudy Galvan, Natasha Lyonne, Elizabeth Olsen, Randy Ramos Jr., Jay O. Sanders
SOMEONE TO WATCH AWARD (Recognizes a talented filmmaker of singular vision who has not yet received appropriate recognition; previously announced)
Sarah Friedland
Director of Familiar Touch
The emergence of Apple TV+ as a streaming giant has largely been driven by its successful sci-fi shows, such as Silo, Severance, and Foundation. That continues with the highly-anticipated debut of Murderbot, Apple‘s adaptation of Martha Wells’ The Murderbot Diaries novels, and today we have the first images of star Alexander Skarsgard as the titular self-aware robot.
Murderbot stars Skarsgard as a self-aware security android that must hide its ability for free thought, while completing dangerous missions. The Murderbot also begins to forge relationships with humans and other AI constructs, only to find the emotions that go along with them inconvenient. According to the synopsis, “all it really wants is to be left alone to watch futuristic soap operas and figure out its place in the universe.”
In the two new images we see Skarsgard as Murderbot, both with his helmet and without.
Also in the cast are Noma Dumezweni, David Dastmalchian, Sabrina Wu, Akshay Khanna, Tattiawna Jones, and Tamara Podemski.
The series was created by Chris and Paul Weitz, best known for About a Boy and American Pie. David S. Goyer, creator of Foundation and writer of Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, is an exec-producer.
Apple TV+ premieres Murderbot on May 16th with two episodes.
Last week, we learned the two finalists to direct Clayface for DC Studios were Jeff Wadlow (Imaginary) and James Watkins (Speak No Evil). THR confirms that Watkins has landed the gig, following a final presentation to James Gunn that impressed him. Watkins will have $40M budget to work with on the film, centered on the Batman nemesis.
Watkins will have a script by horror maestro Mike Flanagan, who is too busy working on a reboot of The Exorcist to direct Clayface himself. The film will enter on the infamous Bat-villain, really made popular by Batman: The Animated Series but has yet to be seen in live-action.
The report describes Clayface as “a Hollywood horror tale centering on a B-movie actor who injects himself with a substance to keep himself relevant, only to find out that he can reshape his face and form, becoming a walking piece of clay.”
In our previous story, I suggested Watkins might have the edge, mostly because he’s been good at getting the best performances from his stars. Clayface will need a strong lead performance if it’s going to work. Watkins also has done decently at the box office with two of his prior films. The Woman in Black earned $129M back in 2012, while last year’s remake of Speak No Evil made $76M.
The Fall Guy looked like a sure-fire summer blockbuster last year, but that didn’t work out for some reason. It hasn’t slowed down director David Leitch, who THR reports has found his next project. Shocker, it’s an action flick and it’ll be for Amazon MGM Studios. No, it’s not the next James Bond movie…or is it?
No, it’s not, at least not by the sound of it. The untitled heist action film “centers on a group of savvy bank robbers who use social media to document their heists, playing a cat-and-mouse game with police.”
The script is by Mark Bianculli and has been in the works for a decade. Leitch will also produce through his 87North banner, teaming up with Amazon MGM Studios and Imagine Entertainment.
Leitch is best known for his work on Bullet Train, The Fall Guy, Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2, and John Wick. A former stuntman, he has helped others in his field make the move to directing, such as Extraction director Sam Hargrave and Love Hurts filmmaker Jonathan Eusebio.
This is being eyed as Leitch’s next project, which could jeopardize a reunion with Brad Pitt for Ocean’s 14. It’ll be interesting to see if he reaches out to someone else he’s worked with in the past to lead this new project.
Hollywood is still staggering from yesterday’s news that longtime James Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson had ceded creative control to Amazon MGM Studios. The move was a shock because Broccoli and Wilson had been the guiding forces for many years, and now they’ve allowed Amazon MGM to do basically whatever it wants with the franchise, meaning a potential cinematic universe could be around the corner.
While Wilson is in his 80s and entering retirement, Broccoli is younger and had been active as ever. So what caused them to make such a decision? Well, the answer should be obvious: money. Deadline reports Amazon MGM shelled out an extra $1B billion to Broccoli and Wilson to take a step back and become producers only, kicking open the door for Bond sequels, spinoffs, origin stories, and more.
And like clockwork, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos was on social media to start asking fans who they want to see as the next James Bond. It’s exactly the kind of crowd-sourced, wish-listed approach that Broccoli never would’ve allowed. Since Daniel Craig’s final go as 007 in No Time to Die, Broccoli and Amazon MGM have been at loggerheads as to who should replace him. Sources say it’s a big part of the reason why she stepped down…
“Perhaps,” the source told Deadline, “I do think that it’s possible that if God had sent us a totally no-brainer Bond in the last couple of years, then it might be a different situation.”
Another source says they don’t think there is a current frontrunner to play Bond, and that includes popular pick Aaron Taylor-Johnson.
So what does Craig have to say about these developments? In a statement to Variety, he offered nothing but kindness and respect to Broccoli and Wilson, along with a hope they can work together in the future…
“My respect, admiration and love for Barbara and Michael remain constant and undiminished,” said Craig. “I wish Michael a long, relaxing (and well deserved) retirement and whatever ventures Barbara goes on to do, I know they will be spectacular and I hope I can be part of them.”
For more on the James Bond/Amazon situation, check out the most recent episode of Cinema Royale either on YouTube or anywhere you get your podcasts.
Has James Bond met the one villain he’ll never defeat? A bombshell hit Hollywood yesterday when the franchise’s longtime stewards gave full creative control to Amazon MGM Studios. So what happens now to cinematic icon and the world’s greatest super spy? Is this good news for Bond fans or the beginning of the end of Bond’s golden era? Will we see Amazon MGM unleash a flood of 007 content to theaters and streaming? Or will it retain its unique position in the movie landscape with a “less is more” approach?
Joining in on this episode of Cinema Royale is the ultimate James Bond superfan, Chris Bumbray of Joblo.com! To be perfectly honest, neither of us is high on this news even while acknowledging the good it’ll bring to Amazon. So listen in as we decide which will come first: the Moneypenny spinoff or the James Bond/Citadel crossover.
All of this and more on a new episode of Cinema Royale, which you can find anywhere that you get podcasts.
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Ever since Marvel Studios started having trouble getting some of their announced projects off the ground, they’ve stopped making announcements except for what’s already in motion. Still, it’s a surprise when we learn about something that had been kept in secret such as two TV projects that are now in limbo.
Deadline reports that Marvel Television has hit the pause button on three TV projects. One we already knew about and that’s Nova, about Richard Rider and the intergalactic police force the Nova Corps, seen in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies. Criminal Minds‘ Ed Bernero had been hired as writer and showrunner, with a production start date looming. But then, it was just last summer that Kevin Feige said the series was “three or four years out” so this could be in line with that.
The next two were even less certain, and are also on pause. Strange Academy is an adaptation of the Marvel Comics series about a school to educate youngsters to use their magical abilities. Doctor Strange runs the New Orleans-based school in the comics, but the TV version would’ve focused on Wong, which would’ve been a cool way to keep the popular character in the spotlight. We first heard rumors about this one back in early 2023.
Next is Terror, Inc., based on the 1992 comic by Dan Chichester, Margaret Clark and artist Klaus Janson. The series centered on the antihero Terror, a mystical entity who can absorb the abilities of others through their dismembered limbs. You can probably see why this would be a tough nut to crack for Marvel if it was to appear on Disney+.
None of these projects were officially greenlit, and they could still happen in the future. But Marvel has a lot going on right now. We recently learned that all of Marvel’s Netflix characters could be used again, possibly in new shows. Coming up are two seasons of Daredevil: Born Again and Vision Quest, with more to follow.
Get ready, World Warriors! Legendary’s live-action Street Fighter movie has a new director, and it’s Bad Trip‘s Kitao Sakurai.
Deadline confirms that Sakurai has landed the Street Fighter directing gig, taking over from Talk To Me directors Danny and Michael Philippou who dropped out last year to prioritize their horror film Bring Her Back.
Sakurai at least has some experience adapting popular video games. He’s directed episodes of the Peacock series, Twisted Metal, based on the Sony Playstation demolition derby game. He’s mainly known for directing the 2021 comedy Bad Trip, and for his work on The Eric Andre Show which earned an Emmy nomination.
Launched in 1987 with the original Street Fighter arcade game, the franchise took off in 1991 with Street Fighter II. Multiple sequels and spinoffs have been released, becoming a global phenomenon. This led to a terrible live-action movie in 1994 starring Jean-Claude Van Damme and Raul Julia, followed by an equally horrible 2009 disaster, The Legend of Chun-Li, starring Kristin Kreuk and Chris Klein at his absolute worst.
Legendary has set Street Fighter‘s release date for March 20th 2026, so expect to learn who will be playing Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, and other iconic fighters soon.
What’s the most ridiculous idea you can think of for a Martin Scorsese movie? How about a Scorsese mob film…in Hawaii? That is actually about to happen, because a hot package going around Hollywood now is a Hawaii-set mob film that will be dircted by Scorsese, and star his pal Leonardo DiCaprio, plus Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt. What the Hell is this??
The script will come from journalist Nick Bilton and center on a real-life Hawaiian crime boss who ruled the island underworld in the 1960s and ’70s.
Makes me wonder if the story revolves around The Company, a Hawaiian crime syndicate led until 1973 by Wilford “Nappy” Pulawa.
Here’s Deadline‘s description of the film: To be written by Nick Bilton, the film focuses on a turbulent time on the island paradise when an aspiring mob boss battled rival crime factions to wrest control of the underworld of the Hawaiian islands. It was a bloody battle, the kind of terrain Scorsese covered in both “Goodfellas” and “The Departed.” In 1960s and 70s Hawaii, this formidable and charismatic mob boss rises to build the islands’ most powerful criminal empire, waging a brutal war against mainland corporations and rival syndicates while fighting to preserve his ancestral land. It’s based on the untold true story of a man who fought to preserve his homeland through a ruthless quest for absolute power — igniting the last great American mob saga, where the war for cultural survival takes place in the unlikeliest of places: paradise.
Assuming everything goes forward, this will be Scorsese and DiCaprio’s sixth movie together. The last one was Killers of the Flower Moon which earned ten Academy Award nominations. They have an adaptation of The Devil in the White City in the works, as well.
It will also be a reunion for Johnson and Blunt who worked together on Jungle Cruise and The Smashing Machine. Neither has worked with Scorsese yet, and honestly, I don’t think anyone had Johnson ever starring in one of his movies. We live in strange times, folks.
