In Ruben Ostlund’s art world satire The Square, Claes Bang’s character isn’t a bad guy, he’s just not a particularly good one. Chances are he will clearly be evil in his next role as the villain of The Girl in the Spider’s Web, the sequel to David Fincher’s The Girl in the Dragon Tattoo. Bad guys in the Millennium Trilogy and its adaptations can be counted on to be really terrible people who do awful things, particularly to women.
Bang joins Golden Globe winner Claire Foy, who takes over from Rooney Mara as tatted-up hacker/vigilante Lisbeth Salander. While no one has been cast to replace Daniel Craig as Mikael Blomkvist, Blade Runner 2049‘s Sylvia Hoeks is in talks to play Lisbeth’s twin sister.
Expect any casting to be cleared up soon as production begins in January with Fede Alvarez as director. The Girl in the Spider’s Web opens October 19th 2018. [Variety]
Your parents are about to be very happy! Kenneth Branagh’s Murder On the Orient Express has performed well with $148M worldwide in two weeks, and now it looks like we’ll be booking a ticket on another Agatha Christie mystery. THR reports Fox are ready to move on a sequel, this time adapting Christie’s 1937 book, “Death On the Nile”, which again features Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot.
At this point Branagh isn’t signed on to return, but since he both directed and gave a devilishly enjoyable performance as Poirot, it’s likely he will. Michael Green wrote the previous film and will also pen this one, which finds Poirot again attempting a vacation, only this time in Egypt. Once again he’s roped into a murder mystery, this one involving the death of someone engaged in a love triangle.
Maybe since Angelina Jolie had to drop out of the last movie she can take part in this one? No word on when shooting could begin but I expect Fox will want to jump on this quick.
I’m way behind on DCTV right now, so it should probably be Khalil, who does our weekly recaps, to be posting this. But I’m here and so here we go with the new trailer for the annual Arrowverse crossover, titled Crisis on Earth-X! Obviously a play on the classic DC Comics “Crisis on Infinite Earths” storyline, it all kicks off with the wedding event of the Multiverse between Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) and Iris West (Candace Patton). Do weddings EVER go well in comic books? Of course not. Bring on the villains!
Here’s the synopsis: Barry (guest star Grant Gustin) and Iris’s (guest star Candice Patton) wedding brings the gang together, but things go awry when villains from Earth-X attack the ceremony. All of the superheroes band together with help from their super friends like Citizen Cold (guest star Wentworth Miller), The Ray (guest star Russell Tovey), Felicity Smoak (guest star Emily Bett Rickards), Iris West and Alex Danvers (Chyler Leigh) to take on their most formidable villains yet. Earth’s mightiest heroes – Green Arrow (guest star Stephen Amell), Supergirl (Melissa Benoist), The Flash (guest star Grant Gustin) and White Canary (guest star Caity Lotz) – lead their teams into battle to save the world.
I’ll say this; this looks incredibly fun, and I bet there will be a bunch of people out there who wish the Arrowverse team had made Justice League.
The event kicks off on Supergirl this Monday, November 27th, and continues in Arrow, The Flash, and finally DC’s Legends of Tomorrow.
Last week in the Arrowverse, many things got set up for future arcs for each show, or they just had a bunch of fun!
We got to see the breakup between Alex and Maggie on Supergirl as they finally decided that whether or not to have children is a big decision that both parties need to be on the same page for. It resulted in the two of them calling off their marriage and permanently breaking up.
Last week on The Flash the boys and the girls had their own separate adventures. The guys had a bachelor party, thanks to Ralph, ended up at a strip club and then later on in jail. The girls had a more eventful bachelorette party, which ended up with them going on an adventure and facing off against metahuman gangsters to save both Killer Frost, and a metahuman who was being mined for drugs.
On Legends of Tomorrow, the Legends went to the 1800s and went vampire hunting. Much to Rory’s disappointment, it wasn’t a vampire, something much worse. Damien Darhk was instead resurrected and once again is the main bad guy for the group for the remainder of the season.
Finally, on Arrow, Oliver goes on a trip with Slade Wilson to help find his missing son in a foreign country. While Oliver is going as Oliver Queen the politician and not Green Arrow, he still can’t help but scratch his itch to get into some action and Slade finds out his son was kidnapped by a group called The Jackals. The catch is, that Slade’s son is actually the leader of the nefarious group.
This week in the Arrowverse, some episodes were a lot of fun, some were very heavy. So how did the Arrowverse go this week?
Supergirl: “Midvale
There are some folks who had been complaining that the Maggie/Alex storyline was overshadowing Kara’s adventures on Supergirl. Others complained that it was the producers being “social justice warriors” by simply showing a relationship between two lesbians. It seems that we are getting them scaled back as last week the couple broke up over the fact that Alex wanted kids and Maggie didn’t. Maggie naturally is a mess as the result of breaking up with the one true love. So Kara decides that the best thing would be for them to get out of National City for a few days and head back to their hometown of Midvale for a little R&R.
While Alex spends some time just nursing her wounds by getting drunk, Kara tries to help her out. In Alex’s outburst, she makes the point that Kara has no right to tell Alex she should get back into the swing of things, when she spent so much time mourning the loss of her love Mon-El and shutting everyone down as well. While the two were having an argument about loss and letting people in their childhood bedroom, Kara proceeded to focus on a telescope still in the bedroom.
Then, we are treated to an extensive flashback (for the rest of the episode) showing Alex and Kara when they were both young children. Alex was very rough on Kara, to the point that she continuously reminded her that they weren’t sisters, and resenting Kara for being an alien. For one thing, the two young actresses they hired for the episode: Izabela Vidovic (Kara) and Olivia Nikkanen (Alex) were spot on in regards to looking and sounding/mannerisms like their adult counterparts. The episode was pretty much carried by the two young actresses as they went on their own adventure.
Young Kara has no friends at school (not even Alex). That all changes when she meets Kenny, another young loner/outcast and they share a special bond. She even goes on a date with the young man. That all comes to a break when Kenny shows up the next day dead. Kara ops to use her superhuman abilities along with Alex (using her newly discovered detective abilities) to try and solve the crime. They uncover a pot-smoking football player and a teacher sleeping with one of his students. Ultimately, the real culprit was the “friendly” cop who happened to be drug dealing and caught by the inquisitive Kenny.
This flashback is important to Alex and Kara because it is the first time that the two of them worked together and even more important, it’s the first time that the Alex acknowledged that Kara was her sister. Kara realized that she should use her powers for heroics and Alex realized that she has a knack for police work and solving crimes, leading her to join the DEO. Going forward with the two teens solving the problem, they became irreplaceable.
The next day Alex and Kara reminisce about Kenny being the first time the two of them dealt with loss, as well the two of them experiencing their first adventure together. They realize that no matter what, they are sisters and love each other very much. The two decide it’s time to head back to National City and enjoy Gwen Stefani’s “Sweet Escape” for the ride home.
The Flash: “When Harry Met Harry”
As Barry has a new protégé Ralph (they still did Wally dirty), he has to train the slacker to become a real hero. The episode begins with Ralph once again not paying for coffee at Jitters. As the two are arguing about who is supposed to pay for the next round, a mugger holds the two of them at gunpoint to rob them for their money. Knowing the poor guy has no way of overpowering the two of them, he pulls Ralph aside to see if he can use his “Plastic Man” powers to take the guy down. As they are discussing how to stop the attacker, he takes a shot at Ralph, who thanks to his powers is bulletproof. As the bullet enters Ralph, he absorbs it and it deflects back to the shooter, hitting him in the leg. From Ralph’s respective, the bad guy got his due. Barry, of course, thinking like The Flash wants to get the guy some help for his injury, starting his training of how to make Ralph a “hero” who looks out for all people (hero or villain) no matter the circumstances.
This week introduces yet another Dark Matter metahuman. This one, however, I can’t really fault for why they are being the “bad guy.” Well, maybe because they are doing some killing. Enter: Black Bison. Black Bison is a former college professor-turned-extreme activist who is primarily interested in securing Native American artifacts that were stolen. She just happens to have the metahuman ability to bring an inanimate object to life and be able to control them. She uses her power frequently in this week’s episode: bringing a concrete jaguar to life to maul a victim, bringing a knight’s armor to life, even bringing dinosaur bones to life to give Ralph a run. She’s really just trying to get her people’s artifacts back as they have been stolen via the slaughter of Native Americans throughout history. However, because she is hurting people in the process, she’s the bad guy.
In more than one occasion trying to stop Black Bison, Ralph tries to apprehend her, instead of focusing on helping people either injured or in danger as their fights carried on. Ralph is thinking like a former police officer, not a hero. Barry gives him a stern talking to in regards to first being there for people and the bad guy is secondary. It’s only when a little girl I injured does he realize the error of his ways.
Meanwhile, there’s still the DeVoe problem to deal with. Of course, there’s probably a hundred people with the name DeVoe in Central City. It’s going to take a lot of effort (and smarts) to try and figure out who this DeVoe character that is puppet-mastering everything really is. Lucky for Team Flash, they have Earth-2’s Harry Wells, and he has his own set of friends who can help, Enter: The Council of Wells. This is very reminiscent of Rick and Morty in regards to having multiple versions of a character who are all different, interact with each other. This gives actor Tom Cavanagh a chance to really shine as he not only played Earth-2’s Wells, but also Wells from Earth-12, Earth-27, and Earth-22. Each Wells had a distinct personality. Earth-2 was a German intellectual, Earth-37 was a womanizing Matthew McConaughey-type, Earth-22 was “Wells 2.0” half-machine/half human from a post-apocalyptic in the multiverse. They first bicker with each other, but then put their great minds to work and figured out who the real DeVoe is: Clifford DeVoe. Of course, being the Thinker, DeVoe was already waiting for them when they came to his house.
Legends of Tomorrow: “Helen Hunt”
This week, the Legends head to Hollywood in a fun play of words. This weeks’ time-travel event is focused on Hellen of Troy, as she ended up in 1937 Hollywood. Instead of a Trojan war over her beauty, it’s a war between competing movie studios. Believe it or not, even movies affect history. So the Legends have to go back in time to get Helen back and also make sure the time anachronism doesn’t cause further damage.
The best part of the episode focused on Firestorm. Jax and Stein are working on a way to separate themselves so that Stein can have a normal life (and actor Victor Garber can gracefully leave the show). As they are performing an experiment, an explosion happens. This causes the two to switch bodies. This allows actors Victor Garber and Franz Drameh to have some fun imitating each other for the entirety of the episode. Franz does a pretty good Stein impression.
As the group enters Hollywood, they realize that Helen staying there will cause all sorts of ripple effects to the timeline. For one, there would be no Wi-Fi as Hedy Lamarr was getting passed up thanks to Helen and on the verge of quitting. Lamarr was not only an actress, but an inventor who would ultimately re responsible for us always asking, “What’s your Wi-Fi password?” In addition to that, they Helen doesn’t want to go back as she’s tired of men fighting each other to the death over her. She’s also got a new agent. It also turns out that Stein (in Jax’s body) has a major crush on Lamarr. He even tells Jax that she was his “hall pass” from his wife. He makes it his mission to talk her back into being an actress.
If anyone could make it in the cutthroat world of Hollywood, it’s Damien Darhk. He wants to set up a parlay with Sara so that there can be no further fighting and possible bloodshed. Sarah realizes that if he wants to take a break, then he’s got something to hide. She plays ball for the time being. While that goes on, Amaya also has a face to face with Kuasa, who it turns out is Amaya’s granddaughter from the future. Sara and Damien Darhk end up fighting with the promise of “no magic” which his daughter promptly finds a way to cheat. As they corner Sara and are about to kill her, Firestorm merges, this time with Stein being the driver and Jax is in his head. As they make Darhk and his daughter leave, they have saved Hellen, and therefore, saved the future.
Zari secretly travels with Hellen, who doesn’t want to return back to her time. Lucky for Hellen, there’s no history of where she ends up. As a result, Zari drops her off to a place where all “warrior women” can live and flourish in peace: Themyscira 1253 BC, the home of DC’s own, Wonder Woman
Arrow: “Promises Kept”
SPOILER!! With the big reveal that the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) was going to have Deathstroke teaming up with a newly escaped Lex Luthor to form a “league of their own” for the DC movies, let’s hope that Joe Manganiello can bring Deathstroke with the same depth and excitement for the big screen that Manu Bennett has on Arrow.
This week was primarily about Slade, Oliver, and his son Joe, who now goes by Kane and runs The Jackals, a terrorist group. This week continues and focuses on the relationship between Slade and his son. While last week’s flashback was about a camping trip between the two, this week focused on Slade when he got back from Lian Yu full of regret for not being there for his son. We even got to see Shado (in Slade’s mind).
Slade’s son and the Jackals try to steal some Semtex to be used. Knowing that it’s probably not a good idea to let terrorists gain Semtex, Oliver and Slade try to stop them. Slade is somewhat torn as this is his son of course. Oliver reassures him that he is no longer Deathstroke (The Terminator) and he has worked very hard to be on the better side. Instead of joining his son (at his son’s request), Slade and Oliver try to take him down.
Meanwhile, Team Arrow is busy trying to face off against a new player called Dragon, who is trying to make an impact on the drug market. Remember, Diggle has been dependent on a new steroid to deal with his right hand. Turns out, the new drug boss guy has just what John needs. However, Team Arrow needs to bust him. John has a dilemma, come clean with his team and seek the help he needs, or work against his team to satisfy his need for the drug. John has a heart to heart with his wife Lyla (where’s she been all season?), who is angry with him that he’s willing to give Dragon a pass to satisfy his need. Later on, the team faces off against Dragon once again at a warehouse and the drugs catch on fire, destroying his supply.
In the aftermath, John fesses up to the team telling them about his hand as well as his need for the drugs. Everyone is understanding and Curtis volunteers to help him. He did get Felicity to walk after being shot in the spine after all. Looks like Diggle will be all right after all.
Slade an Oliver opt to stop the Jackals. Oliver goes for the main brunt of the bad guys while Slade and his son face off. Kane reveals to his father what we all knew from last week. Kane saw his father in action as Deathstroke way back during their camping trip. He also reveals that he has another brother, one that Slade’s wife kept secret from him. Kane gets the drop on his father and just before he is about to kill him, Oliver rescues him, allowing Kane to escape. Slade tells Oliver to go home and be with his son, while he goes off in search of Kane and his other son.
It’s taken years but Channing Tatum’s long-awaited, at least by him, Gambit movie is finally happening. The X-Men spinoff has gone through a few incarnations, and one would have had Rupert Wyatt directing and Lea Seydoux as the female lead of Belladonna Boudreaux. That version died some time ago, and now it looks as if this version will have Tatum co-starring with Master of Sex and Now You See Me 2‘s Lizzy Caplan.
Caplan has joined Tatum in the film, but her role is being kept under wraps. There’s been so much work done on Gambit that I can’t say for sure if the female role is still Belladonna or if it’s been changed to someone else. But let’s assume it hasn’t changed; Belladonna is a member of the Assassins Guild, the rivals of the Thieves Guild that Gambit, aka Remy Lebeau, belongs to. The two are childhood sweethearts and grew to become lovers, despite tensions within their groups. Of course, it would all fall apart and she would end up hating Gambit, but that’s a long story.
Directed by Gore Verbinski, Gambit opens Valentine’s Day 2019. [Variety]
The episode finally took the time to flesh out of Negan and his psychotically misled good intentions. We saw a bit of this last season in his interactions with Carl but this episode really put to light how Negan views himself, as a Savior (you see, his gang isn’t just using it as a catchy name!). He sees himself as the only one that can keep people from dying, and if he has to kill 1 or 2 to save 100, then that’s a fair trade. We even got a quick look at his life before the apocalypse, something the comics devoted an entire mini-series to. In order to convince Gabriel to help him get back to the Sanctuary Negan tells him what he thinks is his biggest sin. In a super rare moment of emotional vulnerability Negan relays how much he loved his wife, Lucille, for whom he named his bat, and how he cheated on her even though she was terminally ill and when she eventually died and turned he couldn’t finish her off. You almost expect him to break into laughter at some point, it’s only at the end that you realize the truth in his pain. What makes Negan so damn interesting is that he is so evil, but so clearly thinks that what he’s doing is the way to save lives. If nothing else this episode made abundantly clear that Rick and Negan share more similarities then the Atlanta Sherriff would like to admit. The main difference between the two is that Negan makes no effort to hide the fact that he ejoys the things he has to do while Rick seems to lament them…in the end the result is the same. I mean look at the recent assaults on the savior outposts, indiscriminate killing, no attempt to pursue a peaceful resolution. I mean even in war there are supposed to be prisoners…only Jesus gave pause to ending lives. If it wasn’t clear enough through Negan’s revelations, all you have to do is look at Rick’s first scene with Daryl wherein they “interrogate” a injured and now helpless savior.
The setup around the Gabriel/Negan scenes was pulled off beautifully. The trailer itself slowly becomes more degraded throughout with more and more walker arms reaching in. You can feel the claustrophobia and imminent doom approaching. Though that wasn’t my favorite part. Gabriel opens the conversation by asking Negan if he’d like to take confession, which he unsurprisingly balks at. The director manages to force Negan into confession by having Gabriel escape to a closet at one point, so when Negan finally confesses to Gabriel he’s doing so through a door….exactly like one would do in a Catholic confessional.
Dwight begins to show some real leadership ability. The character always had a bit of depth but this new layer makes you think that maybe there’s more lying in wait for the scarred one then just the lot of a turncoat spy.
The Bad
Gregory. Just Gregory. I suppose it’s a testament to the Xander Berkely’s performance but I really, really can’t stand that guy. Every moment on screen is just cringe-inducing. Speaking of…
Eugene. Whatever charm that Harvard hillbilly speak ever had has long worn off. They need to scale it back and have him either do something worthwhile or die. Wow, that sounds way harsh when I read it back but…you know what, still accurate.
Daryl going rouge and fighting Rick. It may have been short lived, and I get that he’s always toed the line of a team player and a loaner but he’s built a strong relationship and changed his character over 8 long seasons, I wish he’d have been stronger for a little longer, showing that Negan broke him diminishes all of that and just makes for more conflict in an already full field of story that is starting to draw itself out.
The Dead
Not much to see as far as walkers go with most of the episode showing only arms reaching into the trailer where Negan and Gabriel are hold up. We do get the unwelcome return of the blood and guts camouflage we first saw in season 1. The sound effects are the real winner here with a gross squish sound emanating from the corpse as Negan digs around to cover himself in the entrails of some nameless zombie. Patience is a virtue and once they make their escape from the trailer we get some great looks at some of the most decayed corpses we’ve seen thus far. Walker of the night goes to the one I’m calling concrete zombie…not sure what the deal with him was but he has some caked on concrete barnacles stuck to its face, grayed from time and rot. Just gnarly!
While I may have a slightly more positive outlook than most, the box office for Justice League is disappointing by any measure. Who knows where Warner Bros. will take the DCEU next, but a certain group of fans already have an idea what they should do right now. An online petition has been started to release Zack Snyder’s original cut of the movie, along with the original Junkie XL score, which would make sense if there was one.
I guess the fan who created the petition doesn’t realize what it meant when Joss Whedon came aboard as director. Snyder left the project unfinished due to a family tragedy, and Whedon performed mop up duty along with some reshoots of varying degree. But the petition, which hits you with bursts of CAPS LOCK fury, seems to think there is an Ultimate Edition laying around somewhere like there was for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Ain’t happenin’, hoss.
It’s possible that a new version of the film could be assembled, though. I mean, Warner Bros. isn’t going to drop yet more cash on a movie they’ve essentially shot and paid for twice already, but theoretically all of the scenes that were seen in trailers and TV spots that didn’t make it into the final cut could be added back in. But that still wouldn’t be Snyder’s cut, just one put together by some guy in an editing bay.
But speaking of those scenes that didn’t make it in, damn there are a lot. Remember the awesome “No Lanterns, no Kryptonian” moment from the post-Comic Con trailer? Nowhere to be found. And the scene with Alfred greeting a mysterious stranger with “He said you’d come”? Nope. Clark Kent and Lois Lane’s marriage proposal in the cornfield? Nope. Cyborg’s football playing past? Nah, son. For a complete list, check out CBM‘s breakdown. It’s pretty thorough. And after you’re done being blown away by what’s not in the movie, check below to see all of the Easter Eggs that did make it in.
Here’s something to be thankful for this Thanksgiving week, a new trailer for Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread. The film reunites Anderson with Daniel Day-Lewis, a partnership first forged with the amazing There Will Be Blood, and if there’s a reason why they work so well together it’s because both are cinematic chameleons. It’s impossible to figure what either will do next, but no matter what they take to it with ease.
Can the same be said for a London fashion world drama set in the 1950s? Probably, but we’ll just have to wait and see. There are reasons to be a little more skeptical than usual. Anderson’s Inherent Vice was a rare misfire, and other than Day-Lewis he isn’t working with a familiar team of actors. Day-Lewis plays a dressmaker who caters to the elite, with Vicky Krieps playing his young love interest and muse, while Lesley Manville is his sister.
After previews on November 24th, Phantom Thread opens Christmas Day.
*UPDATE* The box office for Justice League was adjusted to $94M, lower than the already-disappointing $96M reported earlier. It’s unclear what this means for Warner Bros. and DC Films, but not even hitting the $100M mark is a sign that maybe something needs to change. My thoughts on what could be are below.*
1. Justice League (review)- $96M
This is no good. How is a $96M domestic, $281M worldwide opening a massive failure? When that movie is Justice League, and it’s the lowest-grossing debut of Warner Bros. DC Films franchise. Think about that. It earned less than Man of Steel, Batman v Superman, Suicide Squad, and Wonder Woman. And this is the film that combines all of DC’s top heroes into their Avengers-esque squad, it should be bigger than them all. It’s probably fair to say that many people stayed away because they don’t like director Zack Snyder or the previous films he’s done, which may explain why they came back for the movies that featured different directors. That may be the wrinkle Warner Bros. focuses on next, moving away from Snyder and letting other directors play in this sandbox. With Aquaman coming along next year directed by James Wan, it will be a good litmus test to see if Snyder is the anvil holding things back. My hope is they don’t overreact and blow everything up, because Justice League, despite poor critic reviews, has an 86% from audiences. So those who actually went out to see it had a good time, and may seek out a second viewing while spreading the word. We could see it have a leggy stint, but the threat of Pixar’s Coco looms large, Thor: Ragnarok is still hanging around, and Wonder is perhaps the best-suited movie for this holiday season. I also expect we’ll see more of an emphasis on Wonder Woman in the future, and maybe a revival of the Gotham City Sirens movie that seems to be in limbo right now, in order to tap into the powerful and influential female audience.
2. Wonder (review)- $27M
This one always looked like a no-brainer hit to me. Wonder, the new adaptation of R.J. Palacio’s beloved bestseller about a 10-year-old boy with facial deformities, just scored a huge win with $27M. The film stars Julia Roberts, Owen Wilson, and Jacob Tremblay, with Stephen Chbosky (The Perks of Being a Wallflower) at the helm, and it’s perfect for this holiday season, pushing themes of kindness, forgiveness, family, and friendship. Reviews have been great, including my own, and there’s every reason to think this will be the counter-programming to Justice League. What will be interesting is to see how it fares against Coco next week, since they’ll be targeting the same audience.
3. Thor: Ragnarok– $21.7M/$247.3M
4. Daddy’s Home 2– $14.8M/$50.5M
Can someone explain to me why this cost $69M? It takes place in two locations: a house and a mall. Anyway, if it were cheaper we’d be calling it a hit, but at that price it may need help from overseas box offices.
5. Murder On the Orient Express– $13.8M/$51.7M
Get ready for more of Hercule Poirot’s mustache. Kenneth Branagh’s Murder on the Orient Express held well and earned $13.8M for $51M domestic. More importantly it has $148M worldwide, solid reviews, and a colorful lead character that could be the centerpiece of a franchise skewing towards adults.
6. The Star (review)- $10M
Sony’s animated nativity film, The Star, the one about talking animals celebrating the birth of the baby Jesus, opened with just $10M. It boasts an impressive array of voice talent, including Oprah Winfrey (!!!), but starry voicework doesn’t always translate to animated movie success. Fortunately, the film only cost $20M and the faith-based crowd could carry it through to Christmas.
7. A Bad Moms Christmas– $6.8M/$50.9M
8. Lady Bird– $2.5M/$4.7M
Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird continues to be a platform dynamo. The wonderful coming-of-age film added another 201 theaters and $2.5M for $4.7M overall. Word of mouth is going to keep this one going for a long time, and as it expands into wide release over the holidays I expect we’ll see an Oscars bump, too. Big things happening here.
9. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (review)- $1.1M/$1.5M
The Oscar movies continue their slow build, and one of the buzziest is Martin McDonagh’s excellent Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. The Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, and Sam Rockwell dramedy about a mother who goes to unusual lengths to get the cops to investigate her daughter’s murder, has some of the year’s best reviews that should translate well when it rolls into more theaters.
10. Jigsaw– $1M/$36.4M
Hey, what timing. Just hours after psychopath Charles Manson finally jumped into the rocket sled to Hell, we’re getting further details on Quentin Tarantino’s new movie which has the Manson murders as a backdrop. Just a few days ago Tarantino jumped ship from Weinstein over to Sony Pictures after a fierce bidding war for his ninth movie, and now we’re getting a little bit of insight into what they paid a truckload of money to get.
Vanity Fair has the details, coming from a source who has supposedly read Tarantino’s screenplay:
“Set in Los Angeles in the summer of 1969, Tarantino’s upcoming movie focuses on a male TV actor who’s had one hit series and his looking for a way to get into the film business. His sidekick—who’s also his stunt double—is looking for the same thing. The horrific murder of Sharon Tate and four of her friends by Charles Manson’s cult of followers serves as a backdrop to the main story.”
So like Tarantino has been saying, the movie isn’t about Charles Manson, just set in 1969 as the Manson family were taking taking a knife to the peaceful “flower power” era. That could be interesting, especially if Tarantino keeps both feet rooted in reality, something he hasn’t done in a very long time. But something tells me an exaggerated narrative will emerge at some point because that’s just how Tarantino likes to tackle issues now.
Reportedly budgeted at $100M, the film has Margot Robbie being sought to play Sharon Tate, while Jennifer Lawrence, Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, and Leonardo DiCaprio are up for other roles.
