In the New Mutants comics, the “Demon Bear” saga is integral to the origin of the team’s frequent leader, Danielle Moonstar. The Native American mutant is haunted by visions of the Demon Bear, an evil spirit creature created by the malevolent possession of her parents. Moonstar dares to challenge the beast herself and is savagely mauled and left for dead in the blood soaked snow.
Pretty friggin’ harsh for a comic geared towards kids, right? Well, by all accounts Josh Boone’s New Mutants movie is a full-blown psychological horror, with a trailer that’s creepier than any superhero movie I’ve ever seen. And it looks like Boone plans on revisiting Moonstar’s violent first encounter with the Demon Bear, based on this brief new teaser.
The 10-second clip shows the bloody ramifications of an encounter in the snowcapped forest. While it doesn’t explicitly show Moonstar (played by Blu Hunt), it does look like a recreation of her fight with Demon Bear in the comic books. And maybe my eyes deceive me but that looks like a little wooden bear over to the left. Am I just seeing things?
Also starring Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Heaton, Maisie Williams, Henry Zaga, and Alice Braga, The New Mutants opens April 13th 2018.
While her younger sister Elle is the most visible of the Fanning sisters, Dakota has stayed busy with a number of interesting projects. She may be on the verge of a comeback, too, with the TNT series The Alienist drumming up a lot of buzz. I don’t know if there will be the same reaction to her next feature, Please Stand By, but it may draw some interest from Trekkies everywhere.
Directed by Ben Lewin, who turned some heads with The Sessions a few years ago and has The Catcher was a Spy (starring Paul Rudd) headed to Sundance, the film stars Fanning as an autistic woman who flees her caregiver for a very special reason. She’s written a 500-page Star Trek script and she must boldly go out into the world to deliver it in time for a writing competition in Hollywood. Who knows? Maybe her script ends up in the next season of Star Trek Discovery?
Penned by Michael Golamco (Grimm) with Toni Collette, Alice Eve, Jessica Rothe, Tony Revolori, and Patton Oswalt co-starring, Please Stand By hits VOD and theaters on January 26th 2018.
Netflix’s House of Cards has been left in limbo for the last few weeks, in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations made against star Kevin Spacey. The network has been trying to find a way to move forward with the sixth and final season without its most integral character, Spacey’s Frank Underwood, and now it looks as if they’ve found just the right story to tell.
Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos has confirmed season 6 will resume production early next year, running for an abbreviated 8 episodes. Normally the House of Cards seasons have been 13 episodes each. The focus will now shift to Robin Wright as Claire Underwood, and it’s fortunate the end of season 5 left them the perfect avenue to doing so. In last season’s finale she took over as President of the United States, leaving her husband Frank in a tenuous position personally and legally.
For as long as most of us can remember, Star Wars has been the vision of one man: George Lucas. That ended five years ago when Disney purchased Lucasfilm, and since then we’ve seen a number of filmmakers jump into that sandbox, some faring better than others. The latest trilogy began with J.J. Abrams on The Force Awakens, followed by a spinoff (mostly) led by Gareth Edwards, and an upcoming Han Solo spinoff with Ron Howard. But it’s The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson who has earned such a level of trust that his vision will launch a brand new trilogy unlike any we have seen.
It’s still super early on this, of course; Johnson still has to get through the press tour for The Last Jedi, then Abrams will return to wrap up the trilogy with Episode IX. But Collider caught up with him to talk about his plans for this new trilogy of movies, which reportedly will steer clear of the Skywalker clan, and Johnson reveals his pitch to Lucasfilm was incredibly simple and free of hard details…
“We were just generally talking about what could we do and I was like, ‘What would be most interesting to me is…’ and then I just said—it wasn’t even a specific pitch, the pitch was: ‘A new trilogy. Three movies, one story. New characters, new places. Let’s start fresh.’ That was the most exciting thing I could possibly think of and Kathy really responded to that and we’re gonna give it a shot.”
He says that, despite rumors saying otherwise, he was never in line to direct Episode IX. That was always going to go to someone else after the previously-attached Colin Trevorrow (Jurassic World) was booted from the project over creative differences.
With so much freedom being afforded to him, does that mean Johnson plans to direct all three movies? Well, he’s not so sure just yet…
“Honestly I don’t know yet [if I’ll direct all three]. I know I’m gonna come up with the whole thing, the idea is to come up with one big story, but I know I’m gonna write and direct at least the first one. Then I’m gonna have to—even the first one at this point we’re still figuring it out, so I don’t know yet. But I know I want to come up with the whole thing and then we’ll see.”
Something of this size, all placed in the hands of one person, could take a while to pull off. Next year’s Solo: A Star Wars Story and 2019’s Episode IX are the only concrete projects on the way. Yeah, there’s talk of an Obi-Wan spinoff but that doesn’t seem to have progressed very far. If Disney really hopes to have a Star Wars movie every single year, we could see Johnson’s movie perhaps be ready by 2021, assuming a standalone film is released in 2020. Whatever happens, the future for the Star Wars universe is unclear and that’s kind of exciting.
There are lots of great gambling movies that have been made over the years and below you will find our top 10 list and all-time favorites. These include some classic and modern films with topics on everything from cheating casinos to online gambling. We’re sure you’ll agree though, they are entertaining and well worth watching.
21: This gambling movie is based on a true story and is based around a maths professor who trains a group of students to count cards and win big in Las Vegas. It’s based around the card game of blackjack and if this interests you be sure to check out the popular blackjack games for real money.
Casino Royal: This James Bond film stars Daniel Craig and features an awesome high-stakes poker tournament. Filled with the usual 007 action and fighting scenes, this is a great gambling movie that everyone will enjoy.
High Roller: The Stu Ungar Story: This is a great biographical gambling movie that follows the story of Stu Ungar, the only poker player to ever win three WSOP Main Event Tournaments. The movie covers the highs and lows of his rise to fame as well as how he eventually lost most of his money. A great film for poker fans.
The Cooler: This movie is about a man whose luck is so bad that he is employed by casinos to stand at tables of gamblers on winning streaks to help break their luck and return the edge to the casino. Of course, when the cooler’s luck changes so too does everything else in this highly entertaining film.
Rounders: This movie stars Matt Damon and tells the story of an entrepreneur who pays for university by winning at the poker tables. There are plenty of famous actors including Edward Norton and John Malkovich as well as high stakes games and a poker baron to defeat. The authentic depictions of poker strategy make this movie a must see.
Ocean’s Eleven: This movie stars George Clooney who is looking to get revenge on the casino owner that had him put in prison. Clooney gets a crew together in a big to rob three casinos in the one night. Another excellent film with a great cast of big name actors as well as plenty of action.
Killing Them Softly: This movie is all about poker and centres around an amateur crook hired by a poker player that wants to rob a game being hosted by mafia bosses. The mafia aren’t about to let this go unpunished and begin investigating the heist. With lots of action and murder, this gambling movie staring Brad Pitt and Ray Liotta is definitely one to watch.
Hard Eight: This movie is about a pro gambler that is past his prime and features a stunning cast including Samuel L Jackson and Gwyneth Paltrow. It combines black humour with the study of high stakes casino gambling.
Croupier: The star of this move is Clive Owen who plays Jack Manfred, a writer who is forced to fall back on his chip handling skill when his writing career doesn’t take off. The movie sees Jack getting involved with deceit, adultery, and even murder in this casino gambling action film.
The Cincinnati Kid: A classic movie from 1965, The Cincinnati Kid is all about poker and captures the excitement of game. Steve McQueen is the poker prodigy and he does a fantastic job especially during the movie’s iconic last hand scene. This is a definite must watch for poker fans.
That’s our top 10 gambling movies of all time, but there are dozens more that didn’t make the list. You can visit IMDB where you’ll find the ratings and scores for each of these films as well as information on others that we haven’t listed here.
You know me, I don’t care to hype up anybody else’s stuff around here, but Indiewire senior critic David Ehrlich’s Top 25 video countdown is a real treat. I don’t know how he does it (Yes I do, he has loads of time and help) but annually he finds the most perfect music and the best moments, cuts them together perfectly in a way that beautifully captures the essence of what made each movie great.
I rarely find myself agreeing with Ehrlich’s choices, but I’ll admit to audibly shouting “Yes!” when Columbus ranked so high on his chart. Full disclosure: it’s going to be VERY high on mine, too.
Anyway, crank up the volume to 10 and check out his list below!
There was an error at the screening of Pixar’s Coco I attended a couple of weeks ago. The lights went down on the packed theater, surprisingly to us, the short film Olaf’s Frozen Adventure began to run. It went on for about two minutes before it was shut off. It was only meant for general audiences, not the screening crowd. While there were some groans of disapproval, it turns out we were the lucky ones for being spared.
Disney is pulling the not-so-short Olaf’s Frozen Adventure, which clocks in at 21 whopping minutes (!!!), from showing of Coco. There has been an uproar about it for some time because, let’s face it, who the f**k wants to sit down for one movie only to be forced to endure 20 minutes of commercials and trailers, followed by 21 minutes of Josh Gad’s annoying snowman character from Frozen. I’m surprised their weren’t riots and demands for refunds. Think about that; would you sit through 40 minutes of anything before a movie that wasn’t Star Wars or Avengers or something like that? Probably not.
Mashable has confirmed the news, saying the short film will be pulled as of December 8th. It’s such a stupid error for Disney to make. Shorts are fine, and we are accustomed to them ahead of animated movie, but 21 minutes? Why not just turn it into a TV special to air on ABC? Duh. Or make it part of the Coco home release? People are legit excited for Frozen 2, which opens in 2019, so why annoy them with a stunt like this? Come on Disney, I expect smarter from you.
This week’s episode has betrayals, revelations, kidnappings
and another episode with no Bruce Wayne! Good thing Gotham is filled with plenty of delightful characters that can keep
us entertained.
Jim Story arc
featuring Professor Pyg– “Jim, I’m a reflection of you”:
We begin this week’s episode in good ole Arkham Asylum where
Pyg is introducing a little culture and class by playing classical music. Not
all the patients are fans of the music choice, but Pyg quickly gets them in
order.
Back at GCPD, Lucius shows Jim x-rays of Pyg’s face and lets
him know that Pyg has undergone numerous surgeries including having titanium
plates grafted on his face. All of these surgeries have led to Pyg’s appearance
changing significantly. Jim wants Lucius to try and work backwards and see if
he can construct an image of what Pyg used to look like before all of the work
was done.
Sofia comes to visit Jim at the precinct and tells Jim that
she wants to be with him and is planning on removing Penguin from the picture.
Much to her dismay, Jim once again shoots her down. Every time he has done this
in the past, she still somehow manages to get him interested again, so we will
see how long it lasts this time.
Jim goes to visit Pyg at Arkham and Pyg is delighted to see
him. Jim tries some mind games on Pyg, telling him that no one remembers him or
cares about him anymore. As Jim turns to leave, Pyg demands that he stops in a
completely different accent (a Southern one) – giving Jim a glimpse at who he
really is. Jim heads back to GCPD and Lucius shows him the finished sketch of
what Pyg originally looked like. Jim asks him to send it nationwide, but
starting with the South.
Lucius gets a hit from the picture of Pyg. His real name is Lazlo
Valentine and he was being held for murder in the South, but Lazlo did not have
a Pyg persona and did not target Police officers. Lazlo managed to escape from captivity
in the prison he was in and Jim is worried he will do the same at Arkham, so he
races to make sure that Pyg is still in his cozy cell. When Jim gets there, he
sees that he is too late and Pyg is back in the wild.
My thoughts: It’s interesting that Pyg tells Jim that
they are a reflection of each other and Sofia tells Jim that they are the same.
Jim definitely has his demons, and we’ve seen them come out at times – but he
has been able to control them. In recent seasons Jim has rediscovered himself
and has been much more pure of heart. Pyg getting out of Arkham is great for us
viewers, I am looking forward to his continued antics.
Lee story arc – “I
want you cleared out of the Narrows by the end of the day“:
We get a glimpse at Lee as the new head hancho, taking
Cherry’s place. She has created a court and is serving as a pseudo judge
presiding over a case with Grundy and Nygma at her side. A man comes barging in
warning Lee that someone named Sampson has attacked her turf. Nygma suggests
sending Grundy to solve her problems, but Lynn wants to try and handle the
situation civilly.
Lee goes to visit Sampson to try and come to a deal. Sampson
lets her know that he is not negotiating, he is planning on taking everything
from her. Sampson is clearly sick and Lynn uses that to her advantage. They
finally agree that Sampson will take 30% of the fight night money to leave
Lynn’s territory alone. Lynn goes back to her clinic to see it wrecked. Clearly
Sampson did not honor their agreement.
Lee poisons Sampson and she offers to give him the antidote,
only if he and his men leave the Narrows by the end of the day. Sampson quickly
agrees, he didn’t have too much time not to. Lee tells Nygma that there is
nothing wrong with him physically. His issue is all psychological. Nygma is in
the bathroom, and just as he did the first time we met Riddler, sees Riddler
behind him in the mirror.
My thoughts: It looks like Riddler is finally back!
That is not good news for Penguin, who already has his hands full. I also
wonder what this means for Grundy, but I’m assuming Riddler will keep want to
keep him around. This new badass Lee has been a great addition to the show. I
know we’re all anxiously waiting for Jim and her to cross paths.
Penguin story arc – “You
wanted a war, you got one“:
Penguin is waiting for Sofia at her house with Zsasz. After
Martin let Penguin know that Sofia and Jim were kissing at the previous
episode, Penguin realized that Sofia is indeed his enemy and he is on a mission
to make her pay. Penguin has discovered that Jim went down South right before Sofia
arrived in Gotham – he believes that this was the beginning of the two of them
plotting against him. Penguin has brought in ‘the dentist’ to torture Sofia and
find out her plan.
After a brief oral exam, the dentist prepares to begin the
procedure. Sofia spouts some intimate knowledge of the Dentist and his family,
causing him to pause. Sofia lets the Dentist know that if anything happens to
her, his family will be killed. The Dentist lets Sofia go, and Sofia – the
master manipulator – strikes again. As Sofia walks out of the house, she gets
kidnapped by Selina, Barbara, and Tabitha.
Penguin is celebrating taking down Sofia with Martin. He tells
the boy that he can be the heir to his throne. Martin admits to Penguin that Sofia
told him to spill the beans about kissing Jim. Penguin realizes that this must
mean Sofia knew how he would respond and is planning something. Right at that
moment, Barbara calls and lets him know that they have Sofia. If Penguin agrees
to let Barbara & co. operate autonomously, they will return Sofia to him.
Penguin sends Zsasz to take care of the problem and Zsasz uses a rocket
launcher to blow up the gun shop, but not before the four ladies escape. They
hatch up a plan that involves Sofia using Jim and Barbara & co kidnapping Martin
to try and get to Penguin.
Sofia goes to visit Jim asking him to take down Penguin. Jim
realizes that her plan was to pit him and Penguin against each other and start
a war between them (which a certain someone may have hypothesized in a Gotham recap a few weeks ago). Jim
instead decides to visit Penguin to make a deal. Jim wants to put Sofia on a
train out of town, but wants guarantees from Penguin that he will not get
involved. Penguin agrees to let Jim handle the situation. I don’t see why Sofia
couldn’t just take a train back to Gotham, but that’s neither here nor there.
As Sofia is leaving town, she tells Jim that they are the
same and both want power. She believes that Jim is just sending her away
because it is easier for himself. Jim doesn’t let that phase him and puts Sofia
on a train home with a Police escort. On the train, Zsasz comes, demanding to
know where Martin is. Sofia tells him that Penguin should meet her under the
Crown Point Bridge in an hour. Zsasz lets Sofia go, and delivers the message to
Penguin.
Penguin and Zsasz go to meet Sofia and Barbara & co
under the bridge. Sofia demands that Penguin pass control of the underworld to
her or she will kill Martin. Penguin submits and Sofia allows Martin to go to
Penguin, who tells him to wait in the car. Penguin blows up the car and Martin
so Sofia cannot use him as a pawn against Penguin anymore. A firefight ensues,
but all the major players manage to get away unscathed. Shortly after the
fight, we find out that Penguin had a trick up his sleeve, and did not kill
Martin – instead he has Zsasz take him to a safe location. Zsasz wants Penguin
to let him stay and go after Sofia while she is on her heels instead of taking
Martin – but Penguin ensures him that he has a plan for Sofia.
Barbara & co go back to Sofia’s house to try and sort
through the mess. Sofia wants to attack Penguin immediately, while the others
think she is crazy and want to cut her loose. Sofia lets them know if they desert
her, they will never get a piece of Gotham when she is in charge – but who really
knows if that day will ever come?
My thoughts:After
weeks and weeks of Penguin going back and forth on whether he can trust Sofia
or not, the game is finally over. Or you could say it has finally started.
Either way, no more speculating, no more guessing. It’s time to go to all-out
war. We got a glimpse at how dark Sofia can be when she was threatening Martin’s
life, something I did not expect. I think Sofia has a lot of tricks up her
sleeve, and let’s be honest – we really don’t know anything about her or what
she is capable of.
Next weeks on Gotham:
Next week is the fall finale! You know that the episode will be wild, but it also means we’re going to have wait some time before we get our weekly Gotham fix back. It looks like we’ll get to see Bruce and Alfred exchange blows. Joker is back?!? A war is brewing. Man oh man will we be in for a treat!
The guys and gals on the left coast spent their day naming the winners of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards, and it turns out they really love Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me By Your Name.
The swoony summer romance won three awards, Best Picture, Best Actor for Timothee Chalamet, and Guadagnino tied in the Best Director category with Guillermo Del Toro for The Shape of Water. Speaking of which, Del Toro’s fantasy/horror/romance also earned Sally Hawkins a Best Actress victory, in what is becoming an increasingly clouded race for an overall frontrunner. The film also won Best Cinematography, which I think is a surprise given how much praise there’s been for Roger Deakins’ work on Blade Runner 2049. Greta Gerwig got her wish and Laurie Metcalf won Best Supporting Actress for her tremendous work on Lady Bird, and I’m happy to see the momentum continuing to build for Willem Dafoe who is the true champion at the heart of The Florida Project. And I’m happy to see some love being shown to The Breadwinner, when it could, and probably will, be overshadowed by Pixar’s Coco.
Full list of winners and runner-ups are below!
PICTURE: “Call Me by Your Name”
Runner-up: “The Florida Project”
DIRECTOR: Guillermo del Toro, “The Shape of Water” and Luca Guadagnino, “Call Me by Your Name” (tie)”
1. Coco– $26.1M/$108.6M
The week after Thanksgiving is generally pretty soft, and with no new wide releases it made an easy lane for Pixar’s Coco to repeat. The Mexican-themed film earned another $26M and has topped the $100M mark domestically. More importantly it has absolutely soared internationally, topping $280M worldwide.
2. Justice League– $16.5M/$197.3M
In three weeks Warner Bros.’ Justice League has hit $567M, which isn’t terrible but far from what should have been expected by a film of this magnitude. This is not the way they hoped to really expand their cinematic universe, and clearly there needs to be a fix of some kind.
3. Wonder– $12.5M/$88M
4. Thor: Ragnarok– $9.6M/$291.4M
5. Daddy’s Home 2– $7.5M/$82.8M
6. Murder On the Orient Express– $6.7M/$84.7M
7. Lady Bird– $4.54M/$17M
8. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri– $4.53M/$13.6M
9. The Star– $4M/$27.2M
10. A Bad Moms Christmas– $3.4M/$64.8M
In just 19 theaters James Franco’s buzzy The Disaster Artist (review), a loving recreation of Tommy Wiseau’s cult classic The Room, earned $1.2M in just 19 locations. That’s a tremendous start for the well-reviewed film that has Oscar talks swirling around Franco’s over-the-top performance. I’m not sure it’ll connect with a larger mainstream audience who may not have heard of Wiseau’s movie, but maybe if the word-of-mouth is strong enough that could change.
In only 2 locations Guillermo Del Toro’s masterful The Shape of Water opened $166K, while Woody Allen’s 1950s melodrama Wonder Wheel hit $140K in 5 sites.
