I’m happy to offer DC area readers the chance to attend tomorrow’s free screening of Mutiny, starring Jason Statham!
SYNOPSIS: In MUTINY, after witnessing his billionaire boss’s murder and being framed for the crime, Cole Reed (Jason Statham) boards a cargo ship on a one-man crusade to avenge his boss’ death only to discover an international conspiracy.
The screening takes place tomorrow, August 18th, at 7:00pm at Regal Majestic in Silver Spring. If you’d like to attend, RSVP at the Lionsgate site here. Please remember, all screenings are first come first served and you’ll need to arrive early to ensure seating. Enjoy the show!
Extremely sad news tonight, as TMZ has reported that Hayden Panettiere, the actress who rose to prominence as the indestructible Claire Bennet on Heroes, and starred as Kirby Reed in the Scream movies, has died. She was only 36 years old.
Details on Panettiere’s death were not available, but over recent years she has been open about her struggles with “postpartum depression, addiction and recovery, trauma, domestic abuse, and loss,” as noted in her memoir released in May.
Panettiere began acting when she was just 11 months old in television commercials. That led to a role on the daytime soaps One Life to Live and Guiding Light. One of her early breakthrough performances was in the TV drama If You Believe, for which she was nominated for the Young Artist Award.
But it was her role as the tough-as-nails cheerleader Claire Bennet on Heroes that took her career to the next level. Panettiere was arguably the most recognizable face on the popular show during its four-season run. After that concluded, she landed on another long-running series, Nashville, opposite Connie Britton six seasons.
The move to feature films took off in 2000 when she was cast in Disney’s Remember the Titans, and led to roles in Raising Helen, Bring It On: All or Nothing, and I Love You, Beth Cooper.
Panettiere will also be remembered for her role as Ghostface target Kirby Reed in 2011’s Scream 4, a role she reprised recently in Scream 6.
We here at Punch Drunk Critics send our condolences to Panettiere’s friends and family.
It’s funny to be writing this literally moments after seeing Spider-Man: Brand New Day again, in a nearly-packed theater during the movie’s third week of release. It simply shows no signs of slowing down, adding another $70M to hit $785.8M, making it the fourth highest-grossing domestic earner, topping the original Avatar and only a few million away from besting Spider-Man: No Way Home‘s $804M. Not only that, but at $2.02B worldwide it’s the fastest to ever cross the $2B mark.
Just barely edging out PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie was a very different dinosaur flick. Warner Bros. released The End of Oak Street, David Robert Mitchell’s suburban thriller/dino horror, to $21M in 3,446 theaters. Stars Ewan McGregor and Anne Hathaway were a big draw, but so was JJ Abrams’ as producer, promising the kind of “mystery box” experience he has become known for Super 8 and the Cloverfield franchise. Critics loved it, scoring an 85% on Rotten Tomatoes while audiences were less enthused at 77%. Worldwide, the film has $47M.
4. PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie– $20.5M
Paramount Pictures went to the PAW Patrol well for the third time with The Dino Movie, opening with $20.5M. That’s pretty close to what the previous films have done, following 2021’s PAW Patrol: The Movie which opened with $13M on its way to $151M globally, and last year’s PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie which opened with $22.7M on its way to $205M.
5. Katseye: Wild Hearts– $3.9M
6. Six: The Musical Live!– $3M
7. The Brink of War– $2.6M
Angel Studios, still riding high on the success of Young Washington ($47M), got back to more recent politics with The Brink of War. Jeff Daniels stars as Ronald Reagan with Jared Harris as Mikhail Gorbachev as they intend the Reykjavík Summit in 1986. The drama from director Michael Russell Gunn opened with $2.6M.
8. Toy Story 5– $2.3M/$475.4M
9. One Night Only– $2M/$9.8M
10. Vishwanath and Sons– $1.6M
Also…Black Bear Pictures released the critically acclaimed bluegrass musical/crime film The Rivals of Amziah King (review) into 632 theaters for just $1M. There’s some buzz out there for the lead performances by Matthew McConaughey and newcomer Angelina Lookingglass, and we’ll have to see if this can carry it through for a long, lucrative run.
The Kristen Stewart/Alia Shawkat stoner comedy The Wrong Girls opened in 520 theaters and earned just $406K. Not a great start for the latest leap of faith by NEON, which didn’t even bother to screen it here in DC or give it much of a release.
Finally, Oscilloscope saw pretty decent returns for Union County (review), the Will Poulter/Noah Centineo drama about a pair of drug-addicted brothers in Ohio as they navigate the complicated court system as well as their own recovery. Opening in just ten sites, the film had a $6.8K per site average for $68K. [BoxOfficeMojo]
The first five minutes of Coyote vs. Acme had me howling. The shelved, nearly-lost comedy begins with my favorite Looney Tunes character, Wile E. Coyote (Super Genius!!!) and his endless failed attempts to capture his forever nemesis, Road Runner, and presumably eat him. Of course, these failed ventures are fueled by loads of malfunctioning ACME gadgets like the infamous rocket-powered skates and the magnet gloves. It ends as they always do, Wile E. plummeting to his death, the magnet attracting all sorts of metal objects he hadn’t planned on, and crushed by boulders to boot. Yes, this is the Looney Tunes that I love so much.
Coyote vs. Acme has been a cinematic obsession ever since Warner Bros. tried to drop the film to get a tax write-off, making the opening crawl about WB being a corporate subsidiary of ACME Corporation a bit ironic. Ketchup Entertainment, which had released WB Animation’s The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie just last year, saw the clamor and swooped in. Whether the film is a box office hit or not (likely not), they did the right thing. While Who Framed Roger Rabbit is the standard-bearer for the collision of animation and live-action, Coyote vs. Acme follows closely in its footsteps. In the same way that 1989 classic beautifully mixed cartoonish antics with a compelling mystery, so too does this film capture the Looney Tunes spirit while presenting an engrossing legal thriller and a true underdog story of one Coyote vs. Big Business.
Credit goes to screenwriter Samy Burch, who somehow envisioned Wile E. Coyote as a representation of the “little guy”, the everyman fighting against evil, corrupt corporations. Sick and tired of his gadgets failing, Wile E. sees a televsion ad for the law firm of Avery, Jones & Maltese (three of the best Looney Tunes directors), and hires attorney Kevin Avery (Will Forte), who specializes in cartoon lawsuits. Kevin might be a specialist, but what he’s really good at is settling, hardly ever taking his cases to court. He manages to secure a sizable payout for a minor offense ACME is willing to concede to, but when his intern and niece Paige (Lana Condor) files a much larger suit, and Wile E. refuses to accept the settlement, the corporation unleashes its heavy hitter, top attorney Buddy Crane, a douchebag played by John Cena. The more of an a-hole that Buddy becomes, the bigger his bolo ties seem to get.
It turns out that the ACME Corporation has tons of corrupt secrets its trying to keep under wraps, but they aren’t the only ones with devious motives. Wile E. Coyote is who he is for a reason, and he has an agenda for going through all of this, too. While we’re drawn to these mysteries, Kevin has his own evolution from disaffected paper pusher to a courageous legal eagle willing to fight the good fight and not get a piano dropped on his head, or fall into a portable hole. ACME has a lot of tricks up its sleeve.
I’m not going to sit here and pretend that Coyote vs. Acme keeps up the machine gun rate of jokes as in the first few minutes. Some jumbled plot mechanics and a lot of courtroom drama get in the way of that. At the same time, this movie picks and chooses its spots, utilizing many of Looney Tunes’ wackiest characters to the fullest.
Directed by Dave Green, the film is shot like an episode of Ally McBeal, only with animated players in the courtroom proceedings. While it would’ve been more dazzling on the eyes to have live-action characters in a fully-animated world like Toon Town, it’s equally fun to have it set in Albuquerque, a place Bugs Bunny devotees will appreciate. That’s the feeling you get while watching Coyote vs. Acme; it’s a movie made for the people who appreciate the long Looney Tunes lineage, and understand its characters and sense of humor. It’s a movie made by people who clearly love these cartoon icons, and if that means Wile E. Coyote will get into legal trouble once again, we’ll all be better off for it.
“The world of Zootopia is about to go to the birds,” Disney Animation teased the latest additions to come when Zootopia 3 arrives in theaters. That’s right, at D23 it was announced that a sequel to last year’s $1.8B hit Zootopia 2 was in the works. Ginnifer Goodwin, Ke Huy Quan, and Disney Animation chief Jared Bush were on hand for the announcement.
No release date was confirmed, nor did we learn anything on the creative front, although it’s likely that Bush will be heavily involved as he was with the first two movies. Zootopia 2 introduced snakes into the fold, after they were missing from the first movie. Now, we’re finally getting feathered friends, in case you hadn’t noticed birds have been absent, too.
If I learned anything while attending the last movie’s world premiere, fans are serious about their WildeHoops romantic fantasies. Expect the bunny and fox’s relationship to get addressed in a major way.
The bunny and the snake are back🐰🐍… and they’ve got some feathery fliers coming in Zootopia 3! #D23pic.twitter.com/fA219IKvUo
The other huge news to drop at D23 was more information on Frozen 3, which hits theaters on November 24th 2027. From the Disney presentation, we know that Anna and Kristoff will finally get married, and there’s a new villain stirring up trouble with ice powers that rival Elsa’s. Perhaps part of the same family tree? Also, there’s a new romantic interest, Samantha, and a new song for Olaf, performed by Josh Gad.
Disney’s original animated feature Hexed got a major update from star Hailee Steinfeld. Steinfeld voices Billie, a teenage who learns that all of the strangeness in her life is magical in nature. Rashida Jones voices her mother, Alice, with Walton Goggins as Beef Roger Crummchuk, Billie’s green, three-eyed feline protector. And the legendary Jodie Foster will voice the villain, Queen Celeste, making her Disney animation debut. The film opens November 25th, directed by Josie Trinidad and Jason Hand.
Something magical just happened at #D23 ✨Hailee Steinfeld introduces the newest voices in #Hexed, Walton Goggins and Jodie Foster! See it only in theaters November 25 pic.twitter.com/aozhFBC5sb
Something magical just happened at #D23 ✨Hailee Steinfeld introduces the newest voices in #Hexed, Walton Goggins and Jodie Foster! See it only in theaters November 25 pic.twitter.com/aozhFBC5sb
A few more things worth noting but aren’t exactly high on my radar. Disney revealed a new animated film, Clay, featuring Oscar winner Kieran Culkin as Flip, the world’s worst mentor, tasked with aiding a newly formed ball of clay through a magical forest. The film is directed by Fawn Veerasunthorn, known for Raya and the Last Dragon. It’s expected to open in November 2028.
Disney set its live-action Tangled for March 31st 2028. Kathryn Hahn was on hand to put her version of Mother Gothel on display. Directed by Michael Gracey, the film stars Teagan Croft as Rapunzel with Milo Manheim as Flynn Rider.
A May 28th 2028 release date was set for Lilo & Stitch 2, the sequel to Disney’s live-action smash which earned over $1B last year. Chris Sanders, the long-running voice of Stitch, is taking over as director.
Jon Favreau is doing something interesting with Oswald, a 3-part Disney+ miniseries based around Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Who is that? It’s the character Walt Disney created before Mickey Mouse. The show will be a mix of live-action and animation, arriving in February 2027.
Also, there will be a new Simpsons movie, literally titled The New Simpsons Movie, arriving in September 2027. Ice Age: Boiling Point, the first theatrical film in the smash animated franchise in over a decade, will arrive on February 5th 2027.
And, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Kingdom Hearts fans are eatin’ good right now! Not only is Kingdom Hearts IV finally on the horizon for 2027 (featuring Disney’s Coco!), but Disney just announced an original anime series coming to Disney Channel and Disney+
Meet Flip and Mushy from Disney’s Clay, starring Kieran Culkin, in this new concept art and coming to theaters November 2028. #D23pic.twitter.com/A6nA6vzJHs
Pixar is finally getting into the supernatural horror game. At D23, Pixar announced Ghost Market, an original supernatural animated film hitting theaters in spring 2028.
The film was teased with a cute video where an Asian boy basically makes the Ghost Market sales pitch. Presumably, this kid is Ono? The film was originally titled Ono Ghost Market before Pixar went a simpler route. Good idea.
Pixar is officially diving into the supernatural with their very first ghost movie: Ghost Market, arriving in Spring 2028! 👻 #D23pic.twitter.com/7qhea6LurP
The story centers around hungry ghosts, restless spirits with insatiable appetites, an idea based in Asian folklore. The tone feels similar to something like Monster House, the tremendous animated horror for kids that opened in 2006. In short, expect a lot more comedy than scary stuff that will scar you for life.
Also announced at D23 was Coco 2, which will hit theaters on November 21st 2029. Lee Unkrich returns to direct alongside co-director Adrian Molina, while Benjamin Bratt returns as Ernesto de la Cruz, the magician who served as a guide to Miguel in his journey through the Land of the Dead. The sequel will find a now-teenaged Miguel returning to the afterlife.
Finally, Pete Docter gave an update on Incredibles 3, which will be directed by Peter Sohn. The super-powered Parr family is back for more adventure; however, the focus will shift to the kids: Violet, Dash, and Jack-Jack. Now older, they enter a world very similar to that of The Boys. Superheroes are legal again, but backed by corporate sponsorships where business interests take precedence over heroics.
Remember Ahsoka? It’s been four years since we last saw Rosario Dawson’s loner Jedi, stranded with Sabine Wren on Peridea. That changed today at D23, as Disney and Lucasfilm revealed the trailer for Ahsoka season two, which will arrive on January 20th 2027 on Disney+.
The new footage shows Ahsoka is still grappling with the presence of her former master, Anakin Skywalker, the future Darth Vader played by Hayden Christensen. We also see Lars Mikkelsen as Grand Admiral Thrawn, who has begun reassembling the remnants of the fallen Empire against the Republic.
Also returning to the cast are Natasha Liu Bordizzo as Sabine, Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Hera Syndulla, and Eman Esfandi as Ezra Bridger. Notably, this season will introduce Rory McCann as Baylan Skoll, replacing the late Ray Stevenson as the fallen Jedi.
Also expect to see other key Star Wars characters such as Admiral Ackbar, Captain Enoch, Chopper, Huyang, and Zeb who recently hit the big screen in The Mandalorian & Grogu.
All eight episodes of Ahsoka were written by guru Dave Filoni, with episodes directed by Filoni, Bryce Dallas Howard, Jennifer Getzinger, and Anders Engström.
It’s never been easy for Vision throughout his time in the MCU. A synthezoid born of the genocidal Ultron, the unfeeling android nevertheless found love, lost it, was utterly destroyed, then reborn into the unnatural world of Westview. Last we saw of him, his memories had been restored and he had flown away to reevaluate his purpose, but what does that mean for someone like him? In the upcoming Disney+ series, VisionQuest, we’re going to find out.
The eight-episode VisionQuest series wraps the trilogy that began with WandaVision and continued with Agatha All Along. Vision, once again played by Paul Bettany, has a mind full of memories and personas of those who have touched him, including Ultron, but he has no emotional ability to connect with any of them. It’s clear that the show will deal with Vision’s identity crisis, which manifests in the form of a mansion landscape populated by figures from his past.
James Spader returns as Ultron, joined by Todd Stashwick as Paladin, T’Nia Miller as Jocasta, Emily Hampshire as EDITH, Orla Brady as FRIDAY, James D’Arcy as JARVIS, Faran Tahir as Raza, Ruaridh Mollica as Vision’s reincarnated son Tommy aka the Young Avenger known as Speed. Also in the cast are Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, Mary McDonnell, Diane Morgan, and Lauren Morai.
The series was created by showrunner Terry Matalas (Star Trek: Picard) from his own script. VisionQuest hits Disney+ on October 14th.
As if there won’t be enough firepower going into the fight against Doom in Avengers: Doomsday, two more heavy-hitters just enlisted. In hilarious videos shown at D23 (check ’em out below), Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds confirmed they are also in the cast, bringing Wolverine and Deadpool onto the team alongside the Avengers, Fantastic Four, Black Panther, the X-Men, and more.
Unfortunately, neither Wolverine nor Deadpool is in the latest “special look” trailer, because that would’ve been too much cool. What we did get was the best look yet at Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom, as he goes toe-to-toe against Chris Hemsworth’s Thor, and literally raises an army of mutant-hunting Sentinels from the ground.
The tone Marvel is setting for Doomsday is extremely grim, similar to those early teasers for Avengers: Infinity War.
The film is directed by Joe and Anthony Russo, from a script by Stephen McFeely, Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers.
One of the good things about the massive ensemble is that it still leaves room for surprises. While we know Hayley Atwell’s Agent Carter and Chris Evans’ Captain America will return, we don’t know the context. Also, we might see characters such as Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, and Iron Fist appear following their jump from the Marvel Netflix run.
Avengers: Doomsday hits theaters on December 18th. It will be followed by Avengers: Secret Wars on December 17th 2027.
To me, my X-Men!! Marvel Studios has officially announced the cast of its upcoming X-Men reboot directed by Jake Schreier. The reveal was made at D23, Disney’s own personal Comic-Con, where loads of Marvel and Star Wars-related news has already dropped, and confirmed the film will hit theaters on May 5th 2028.
So, along with the previous announcements of Kit Connor as Scott Summers/Cyclops, and Samara Weaving as Emma Frost, the X-Men will include Christopher Abbott as Professsor Charles Xavier, Inde Navarrette as Rogue, Maya Boyd as Ororo Munroe/Storm, and Adam Driver as Nathaniel Essex aka Mister Sinister.
Abbott takes on a role previously played spectacularly by Patrick Stewart and James McAvoy, so he’s got pretty big shoes to fill. Xavier is the “father” of all mutants, and the Omega-level telepath who formed the X-Men.
Driver, in his first major Disney role since Star Wars, takes on Mister Sinister, a master geneticist with a wide range of powers, possibile immortality, and an obsession with the Summers bloodline. The character was teased heavily in X-Men: Days of Future Past, with never got his full on-screen debut.
Abbott and Driver are a lot a like in the approach to their careers. They both were co-stars, playing best friends, on the HBO series Girls. They have both largely avoided the spotlight, preferring to work in smaller films and only occasionally branching out to larger franchises. For Abbott, he recently starred in Universal’s failed Wolf Man reboot and Sony’s Kraven the Hunter.
Speaking of Obsession, Navarrette was the breakout star of that $400M-grossing horror sensation. She takes on the role of Rogue, memorably played by Anna Paquin in the Fox movies. Rogue was an orphan taken in by the villain Mystique. She has the ability to drain the powers, memories, emotions of anyone she touches.
Boyd, a theatre actress and a former contestant on America’s Got Talent, takes on the role of Storm, previously played by Halle Berry and Alexandra Shipp. This will be her big-screen feature debut. Storm has control of the weather, a power that has seen her looked upon as a god to the people of Africa. She grew up as a pickpocket in Cairo, but grew up to become, arguably, the X-Men’s most consistent leader.
Along with Sadie Sink’s Jean Grey, introduced in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, the X-Men is clearly going for a youth movement, as it should.
Schreier earned strong reviews for his work on Thunderbolts, and has been entrusted with the keys to X-Men. If done right, it should be the next major narrative driving force of the MCU, similar to The Avengers in previous phases. Michael Lesslie wrote the initital script, but it has since been taken over by Beef creator Lee Sung Jin and The Bear writer Joanna Calo.
