Adam Sandler has done some of the best work of his career through his partnership with Netflix. While he’s occasionally shown us that he can be an incredible dramatic actor when given the right material, since signing on with the streamer he’s delivered more than ever. And that looks to be happening again with Spaceman, a sci-fi drama about an astronaut who gets some unusual help in figuring out what his life should be back on Earth.
Three years ago it was announced that Sandler would lead Spaceman, a sci-fi drama from Chernobyl director Johan Renck. Sandler stars with Carey Mulligan, Paul Dano, Kunal Nayyar, Lena Olin, and Isabella Rossellini in the film about a lonely astronaut on a faraway research mission in outer space, while at home his marriage is falling apart. Fortunately, he has some help in dealing with all of this, and it’s a mysterious creature that lurks in the shadows of his ship.
Sandler does some of his best acting when playing characters with one foot in reality, while Mulligan is simply one of the best actors in the world and a contender to receive an Oscar nomination for her recent performance in Maestro.
The film was penned by Colby Day, and adapted from Jaroslav Kalfař’s 2017 book, Spaceman of Bohemia.
Here is the synopsis: Six months into a solitary research mission to the edge of the solar system, an astronaut, Jakub (Adam Sandler), realizes that the marriage he left behind might not be waiting for him when he returns to Earth. Desperate to fix things with his wife, Lenka (Carey Mulligan), he is helped by a mysterious creature from the beginning of time he finds hiding in the bowels of his ship. Hanuš (voiced by Paul Dano) works with Jakub to make sense of what went wrong before it is too late.
Netflix will begin streaming Spaceman on March 1st and you can find out more here.
Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions and Universal are ready to make Marlon Wayans the GOAT. Deadline reports that Wayans will star in the psychological horror pic that Peele will produce. The film will be directed by Justin Tipping from an original spec script by Zack Akers and Skip Bronkie.
In GOAT, Wayans will play a retiring star, one of the greatest of all-time, who must train a promising young athlete. No word yet as to who will play the upstart athlete, but reports say that Wayans was always the top choice for the living legend role.
Wayans recently had a key role in another sports-related film, Ben Affleck’s Air, in which he played Basketball Hall of Fame player/coach George Raveling, who helped Nike recruit a young Michael Jordan. Along with a number of hit stand-up comedy specials, Wayans spent part of 2023 as a guest host on The Daily Show after Trevor Noah’s departure.
Tipping is primarily a television director on such shows as The Chi, Joe vs. Carole, Black Monday, and Dear White People. He made his feature directing debut with the 2016 sneaker drama, Kicks.
We’ve known about two untitled Monkeypaw productions in development. The other is a mystery project directed by Peele himself that should arrive later this year.
Guy Ritchie continues to work at a blistering pace. Just days ago it was revealed that he would direct Fountain of Youth, an adventure movie John Krasinski and Natalie Portman. But he already has two movies that could arrive this year, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, and an untitled action-comedy with Henry Cavill, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Eiza Gonzalez. With so much going on for Ritchie, it’s easy to forget that he also has a Netflix series, The Gentlemen, a spinoff based on his hit 2019 movie.
This new version of The Gentlemen stars Theo James, Kaya Scodelario, Daniel Ings, Joely Richardson, Giancarlo Esposito, Peter Serafinowicz, Max Beesley, Chanel Cresswell, and Vinnie Jones. It’s unclear how or if the show will tie-in to the original movie led by Matthew McConaughey, but the gangster comedy’s tone is definitely in place. I remember the movie being like the English version of a stoner crime comedy.
With the release of today’s trailer, Netflix has also confirmed Ray Winstone as part of the cast. He’ll play Bobby Glass, father to Scodelario’s Susie Glass, and an East London career criminal with an industrial cannabis empire.
Ritchie is aboard to direct and co-write the pilot episode with Matthew Read.
Here’s the synopsis: THE GENTLEMEN sees Eddie Horniman (Theo James) unexpectedly inherit his father’s sizable country estate – only to discover it’s part of a clandestine cannabis empire. Moreover, many unsavory characters from Britain’s criminal underworld want a piece of the operation. Determined to extricate his family from their clutches, Eddie tries to play the gangsters at their own game. However, as he gets sucked into the world of criminality, he begins to find a taste for it.
There are two things I know to count on every single Martin Luther King holiday. One: the WWE will put on its most awkward episode of Monday Night Raw of the year. And two: loads and loads of MLK dramas and docs. NatGeo has chosen today to release a new trailer for their upcoming anthology series Genius: MLK/X, a major project featuring Kelvin Harrison Jr. as MLK Jr., and Aaron Pierre as Malcolm X.
This is the fourth season of the Genius brand. The first season centered on Albert Einstein, with the second on Pablo Picasso, and the third on Aretha Franklin.
For the fourth, the focus shifts to Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, two sides of the coin in the battle for civil rights. These are crucial roles for both Harrison, known for Waves, Chevalier, and Monster, and for Pierre who most recently starred in Foe and Barry Jenkins’ The Underground Railroad.
Here’s the synopsis: Genius: MLK/X follows both King and X from their formative years, where they were molded by strong fathers and traumatic injustices, to their rich, parallel stories as they shaped their identities and became the change they wished to see in the world. Influenced as children by different upbringings and experiences: King by the Jim Crow-era South and life in the church before finding his voice at Morehouse and Boston University, and X growing up under the constant, deadly violence of the Klan and falling into a life of vice and incarceration where he was introduced to the Nation of Islam and found his voice. The two visionaries ultimately rose to pioneer a movement.
The cast also features Weruche Opia as Coretta Scott King, Jayme Lawson as Betty Shabazz, and the late Ron Cephas Jones as Elijah Muhammad.
Genius: MLK/X hits National Geographic on February 1st with two episodes in the eight-episode series.
Astronauts who have been to space and had a chance to see Earth, this tiny spec in the vastness of space, have often come home with a broader view of our place in the universe and the fragility of life. It’s something called the Overview Effect, and in Gabriela Cowperthwait’s tense new sci-fi thriller I.S.S., Americans and Russian explorers experience it in all of its terrifying repercussions as they watch the planet flare up with nuclear explosions. What is essentially World War III has broken out while they are aboard the International Space Station, this symbol of scientific and exploratory partnership between rival nations. From their vantage point, it’s impossible to not take in the global ramifications of such a conflict, until they are forced to experience it for themselves on a micro scale inside this cramped, claustrophobic vessel.
Oscar winner Ariana DeBose is Dr. Kira Foster, joined by fellow American astronauts Christian Campbell (John Gallagher) and their leader, Gordon Barrett (Chris Messina). Foster is a newbie boarding the space station, where she encounters their Russian counterparts, scientists Weronika Vetrov (Masha Mashkova), Alexy Pulov (Pilou Asbaek), and Nicholai Pulov (Costa Ronin), who have been stationed there for quite some time. Both sides work together pretty easily, despite the language barriers and tight working conditions. Kira is there to study regenerative medicine in zero-gravity, with Alexy on a similar tract, albeit with that stern Russian disposition that makes him seem cold.
Nick Shafir’s screenplay quickly disentangles the various relationships. In such close quarters it’s hard to keep anything secret, like the flirtiness between Barrett and Vetrov that is a sign of something more. But connections like that become heightened after Kira notices flashes of light all across Earth, signs of explosions, that throws the entire ship crew into a panic. A Cold War of sorts breaks out as both sides begin speaking in hush tones. The Americans receive a secret communique with orders to take the I.S.S. at all costs. With the world on fire below them, accidents occur that only heighten suspicion aboard the station, and factions begin to take shape with nobody sure who can be trusted and if any of them will get home safe…or if there will even be a home to return to.
Cowpetherthwaite, a seasoned filmmaker who made Blackfish, an incrediblly nerve racking documentary about an orca at SeaWorld, as well as narrative features Megan Leavey and Our Friend, knows how to ratchet up emotions and elevate tensions. This is never more true than the moment the Americans get their marching orders, and they silently assess what they must do and question if the Russians have received the same grim commands. There’s also something viscerally unnerving about the lack of gravity, with objects and people floating unsteadily everywhere. There’s this sense that even if you needed to get away from danger, you wouldn’t be able to. There’s nowhere to run, and no ability to run at all.
Problems arise just about everywhere else, though. DeBose is a charismatic actress, as seen in her Oscar-winning performance in West Side Story, but she’s given really bland dialogue and gives wooden line delivery. We learn of her character’s background, full of tragedy, of course, which leads to a stint in the military, and perhaps that informs why she’s so reserved. It just seems like the wrong type of character for someone like DeBose to play. Unfortuantely, she is the focal point of the story and the others don’t have nearly as much to work with.
Furthermore, at only about 95-minutes in total, I.S.S. isn’t afforded nearly enough time to take in the full scope of this high-pressure situation. These are all people with shifting allegiances and conflicts, but the film doesn’t allow enough room for them to take shape and breathe. So we get a lot of characters who change on a dime without explanation, others who die without leaving an impression, and it’s just disappointing because the central premise of this movie has so much potential. While it is initially met and appears to be a solid entry in the sci-fi horror space, I.S.S. eventually crashes back down to Earth.
Just a few days ago, Selena Gomez began teasing a role as singer Linda Ronstadt by posting an image of her 2013 memoir, Simple Dreams. Soon after, Gomez was confirmed to be playing Ronstadt in an upcoming biopic. And now we know it’ll be David O. Russell who will be directing her in that film.
Ronstadt is an 11-time Grammy winner, known for rock, country, and Latin hits. Like Gomez, she is of Mexican descent. The film has Ronstadt’s manager John Boylan aboard, as well as James Keach who produced the Ronstadt doc, The Sound of My Voice.
This will be Gomez’s first major movie lead role in years. Other than voicing all four Hotel Transylvania movies, her last leading screen roles were in 2019 in Woody Allen’s A Rainy Day in New York and Jim Jarmusch’s The Dead Don’t Die. She has been starring in Hulu’s hit series Only Murders In the Building for three seasons with a fourth on the way.
Russell has previously earned three Oscar nominations for Best Director, for The Fighter, Silver Linings Playbook, and American Hustle. However, he’s coming off the disastrous Amsterdam, which was a critical and box office bomb. He has Super Toys with Keke Palmer and Sacha Baron Cohen coming up, but this Ronstadt movie may take priority.
The reveal of a new Star Wars movie, The Mandalorian and Grogu, has sent shockwaves throughout Hollywood. It also opened up a lot of questions about the future of The Mandalorian and other Lucasfilm projects. So what happens to season four? Will this cause a delay in the upcoming Rey Skywalker movie? And what about Dave Filoni’s film, as well as other shows he works on such as Ahsoka season two?
According to THR’s Heatvision blog, Jon Favreau, who will direct and co-write The Mandalorian and Grogu, had already finished the scripts for The Mandalorian‘s fourth season. We sorta already knew that since Favreau began early, but now we know Lucasfilm reevaluated and decided on a movie instead. That makes sense as the focus for Disney has been to make more movies again. But what happens to season four? Will the idea for that wind up on the big screen? It’s unclear if it’ll happen at all. If the film is a huge hit then sequels are more likely to be the way of the future.
Filoni will be co-writing the Grogu script along with Favreau, and it seems there’ll be an impact on what he has coming up. His movie, which was to tie together the various storylines from all of his shows, is still happening but it won’t be until after Ahsoka‘s second season, which likely won’t happen until 2025 or later. So it could be as far as 2027 before we see Filoni’s movie.
What we do know for sure is that The Mandalorian and Grogu is next, and likely to arrive in the May 2026 slot that Lucasfilm has open. That could be followed later in the year by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s Rey Skywalker Movie, in the open December date. After that, there’s an open December 2027 spot that could go to Filoni, or possibly James Mangold’s Old Republic movie, assuming his Bob Dylan biopic is finished fast enough.
Jason Statham has been pretty awesome for more than two decades, but is The Beekeeper his best movie yet? To talk about Statham’s latest occupational ass-kicker movie, which should be a loose-knit trilogy with The Transporter and The Mechanic, is my action homie Chris Bumbray of Joblo.com!
Of course, we talk about The Beekeeper and what makes it so amazing, the crazy mythology it sets up, the insane direction it takes, and the chances of Statham returning to kick the nest a second time! Are audiences sleeping on this one, or what? Is this Statham’s next great franchise? And what are the chances we can get David Ayer to come on and talk to us about it?
All of this and a lot more. You know how we do! We tend to veer off and talk about anything and everything under the cinematic sun!
All of this and more on a new episode of Cinema Royale!
Who says movie musicals are dead? The truth is that this genre is more alive than ever, with Mean Girls joining Wonka and The Color Purple in successful recent musical releases. The adaptation of the Broadway Musical based on the 2004 classic high school comedy won the weekend with $28M, on its way to as high as $32M through the 4-day holiday. Worldwide, it added another $6.5M. Overall, this isn’t bad at all for a movie that cost $35M with Fey, who returned as screenwriter, as its biggest name.
Jason Statham stung the box office with a personal best $16.7M debut weekend for The Beekeeper, and a likely $19M through the holiday. Okay, it’s Statham’s best for a movie that isn’t part of the Meg franchise, and to the best of my knowledge his best R-rated opening ever. I freely admit that I couldn’t be happier for him and director David Ayer, both who hit it out of the park with this ass-kicking, truly original actioner that lays it all out on the line fearlessly. This movie is so much fun, and I’ll be going to see it again very soon, and my suspicion is that I won’t be the only one. We’ll see how it plays in weekend two.
3. Wonka– $8.3M/$176.1M
Timthee Chalamet and director Paul King deserve a sweet reward, as Wonka surpassed the $500M mark globally after five weeks.
It was a blasphemous debut for Jeymes Samuel’s The Book of Clarence, his Biblical satire starring LaKeith Stanfield as a petty grifter passing himself as a messiah ala Jesus Christ. The film opened with a paltry $2.5M in over 2000 theaters, and might’ve been better served as a streamer like Samuel’s killer debut, the stylish Western film The Harder They Fall.
After a year of dominating box offices, Barbenheimer showed its collective strength at tonight’s Critics Choice Awards! The Critics Choice Association (of which I am a member) awarded eight awards to Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, while Barbie drove off with six victories.
Oppenheimer may have established its Oscars frontrunner position by winning Best Picture at the Critics Choice, while Nolan won for Best Director. The film also earned Best Supporting Actor for Robert Downey Jr., Best Acting Ensemble, Best Editing, Best Cinematography, Best Score, and Best Visual Effects.
As for Barbie, it had the second most wins of the night with six, including a win for Best Comedy. The top-grossing movie of 2023 also won for Production Design, Costume Design, Hair and Makeup, Best Song for Ryan Gosling’s “I’m Just Ken”, and Original Screenplay.
In what some will consider an upset, Emma Stone’s performance in Poor Things beat out Golden Globes winnner Lily Gladstone for Best Actress. Paul Giamatti, who joked about going viral for his stop at a fast food joint after the Golden Globes, won Best Actor once again for The Holdovers. Giamatti’s The Holdovers co-star Da’Vine Joy Randolph also continued to show awards season strength by winning for Best Supporting Actress. Alexander Payne’s dramedy added a third acting award when Dominic Sessa won for Best Young Actor.
Other awards on the night went to Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse for Best Animated Feature, while the Best Foreign Language award went to Anatomy of a Fall. Cord Jefferson’s feature debut American Fiction earned Best Adapted Screenplay.
The full list of winners including the TV side is below! Go here for more on the Critics Choice Association.
BEST PICTURE Oppenheimer
BEST DIRECTOR
Christopher Nolan – Oppenheimer
BEST ACTOR
Paul Giamatti – The Holdovers
BEST ACTRESS
Emma Stone – Poor Things
BEST LIMITED SERIES
Beef (Netflix)
BEST DRAMA SERIES
Succession (HBO | Max)
BEST COMEDY SERIES
The Bear (FX)
BEST ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
Kieran Culkin – Succession (HBO | Max)
BEST ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES
Sarah Snook – Succession (HBO | Max)
BEST ACTING ENSEMBLE
Oppenheimer
BEST ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
Jeremy Allen White – The Bear (FX)
BEST ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES
Ayo Edebiri – The Bear (FX)
BEST SONG
“I’m Just Ken” – Barbie
BEST ACTOR IN A LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE MADE FOR TELEVISION
Steven Yeun – Beef (Netflix)
BEST ACTRESS IN A LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE MADE FOR TELEVISION
Ali Wong – Beef (Netflix)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
Ebon Moss-Bachrach – The Bear (FX)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES
Meryl Streep – Only Murders in the Building (Hulu)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
Billy Crudup – The Morning Show (Apple TV+)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES
Elizabeth Debicki – The Crown (Netflix)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE MADE FOR TELEVISION
Maria Bello – Beef (Netflix)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE MADE FOR TELEVISION
Jonathan Bailey – Fellow Travelers (Showtime)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Robert Downey Jr. – Oppenheimer
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Da’Vine Joy Randolph – The Holdovers
BEST COMEDY (non-televised)
Barbie
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY (non-televised)
Greta Gerwig & Noah Baumbach – Barbie
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY (non-televised)
Cord Jefferson – American Fiction
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE (non-televised)
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM (non-televised)
Anatomy of a Fall
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS (non-televised)
Oppenheimer
BEST EDITING (non-televised)
Jennifer Lame – Oppenheimer
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY (non-televised)
Hoyte van Hoytema – Oppenheimer
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN (non-televised)
Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer – Barbie
BEST COSTUME DESIGN (non-televised)
Jacqueline Durran – Barbie
BEST HAIR AND MAKEUP (non-televised)
Barbie
BEST SCORE (non-televised)
Ludwig Göransson – Oppenheimer
BEST YOUNG ACTOR/ACTRESS (non-televised)
Dominic Sessa – The Holdovers
BEST TALK SHOW (non-televised)
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO | Max)
BEST MOVIE MADE FOR TELEVISION (non-televised)
Quiz Lady (Hulu)
BEST ANIMATED SERIES (non-televised)
Scott Pilgrim Takes Off (Netflix)
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE SERIES (non-televised)
Lupin (Netflix)
BEST COMEDY SPECIAL (non-televised)
John Mulaney: Baby J (Netflix)
