Rumors come and go in this business, especially when it comes to Marvel movies. Chloe Zhao’s Eternals hasn’t been free from this, either, and following last night’s red carpet premiere in Hollywood, folks in attendance are blabbing spoilers everywhere. One of them has to do with a long-rumored bit of casting that can now be confirmed.
If it hasn’t already been spoiled for you, now’s your chance to back out!
As we know from Zhao herself, Eternals has a pair of post-credits scenes. One of them is apparently buzzier than the other, as it confirms Harry Styles as the Eternal known as Eros aka Starfox. Why is this a big deal? Because Eros is the brother of Thanos, and could be a major player in the MCU going forward. I mean, you don’t cast Styles at all if the character is only showing up once. He has the power to control a person’s emotions, which he has used in the past as both a hero and an antihero…er, he also stood trial accused of using his powers to force women to have sex with him. Yeah, that was a touchy storyline you can bet Marvel won’t touch now.
The six Oscar nominations for The Trial of the Chicago 7 have established Aaron Sorkin as more than just one of the best screenwriters around, but one of the top directors. And that has put a lot of attention on his followup for Amazon Studios, Being the Ricardos, which stars Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem as legendary comedy couple, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz.
Similar to the layout of Sorkin’s Steve Jobs screenplay, the film covers events during one week of production on classic sitcom, I Love Lucy. The couple face romantic and professional challenges from the script read on Monday to Friday’s episode filming in front of the studio audience. Our first look at Kidman as Lucy comes during a recreation of her classic grape stomping comedy bit.
Also in the cast are JK Simmons as William Frawley, Nina Arianda as Vivian Vance, plus Tony Hale, Alia Shawkat, Jake Lacy, and Clark Gregg.
Being the Ricardos opens in theaters on December 10th, followed by Amazon Prime Video on December 21st.
Family is a nightmare in Stephen Karam’s directorial debut The Humans. Adapting his own one-act Broadway play that brought home four Tony Awards in 2016, Karam’s haunting direction amplifies a talented cast.
The always brilliant Richard Jenkins plays the patriarch of the Blake family, Erik. We first meet him as he silently picks apart his daughter’s new and empty New York apartment. He is there with his wife, Deirdre (Jayne Houdywell), his mother who is suffering from Alzheimer’s (June Squibb), and his bewildered eldest daughter Aimee (Amy Schumer) to celebrate Thanksgiving with youngest daughter and hosts Brigid (Beanie Feldstein) and boyfriend Richard (Steven Yeun). Of course, each member comes with their own baggage and resentment towards the other.
As the night goes on, the old apartment starts to fall apart just like the family’s conversations. Religion, weight, failed careers, 9/11, and insults fly back and forth between them as the meal is cooked and eaten. Jenkins gives a masterclass in driving tension forward, knowing exactly when to lay on and off the gas. Like most of his performances, his role in The Humans proves that he is one of the greatest living character actors working today.
Though known for her standup comedy, Schumer proves she can run with this troop of dramatic actors. Of course, she does have most of the comedic lines that she delivers with expert precision. However, her lingering sadness is the most captivating. Steven Yeun also delivers a solid performance as the supportive boyfriend.
Houdyshell (most recently seen in The Only Murders in the Building) reprises her Tony-Award winning role as mother and caretaker to her mother-in-law played by June Squibb. Though she doesn’t stand out as much as Schumer and Jenkins do, she gives the others the most to play off of.
Karam’s real star is the old and dilapidated Chinatown apartment where the film is set. Unlike the immaculate New York dwellings that are too good to be true for their poor characters to live in in real life, Brigid and Richard’s newest home truly is worse for wear. Lights burn out throughout the night. The paint is chipping, with one particular spot on the wall bubbling up from a leaking pipe. There is hardly any natural light as it faces “an interior courtyard” as Brigid calls it.
Slowly, Karam introduces us to this ghastly apartment, mainly when another character is monologing or insulting another. Often shooting from a distance, the room is always dark and the camera is angled around the corner as if we are voyeurs. It’s one of many techniques the director takes from the horror genre that adds to the calculated claustrophobia and anxiety of the piece.
As of now, A24 and Showtime have yet to announce if The Humans will be an official Oscar contender or if the studios will wait until the Emmys. If the Academy Awards route is chosen, the film could shake up the sound design category. Every creak and drip is amplified adding to Karam’s horror film approach. Silence is used as an auditorial weapon, with very little soundtrack being used. It’s smart and well-done which could give bigger projects like Dune a run for their money.
The Humans main issue is that it is 10 minutes too long. After a while, the horror elements and jump scares, though genius, feel expected. There is a secret held between the parents that is revealed towards the film’s end that doesn’t have the payoff Karam thinks it does.
Overall, The Humans is a brilliantly acted and technically sound film that is just as chilling as it is entertaining.
The Humans will be released on Showtime and in theaters on November 24. Watch the trailer below.
There will certainly be more explosive action flicks in Sylvester Stallone’s future, they just won’t be as part of The Expendables. Stallone has completed his final mission in the 12-year-old action franchise which he started, directing the first movie and helping to write all three. He has completed shooting on the fourth movie and has announced his retirement from them…
Making his announcement on social media, Stallone talked about the “bittersweet” decision, but says he’s ready to ‘pass the baton’ over to co-star Jason Statham, whose Lee Christmas character will be the focus of The Expendables 4. Stallone reprises his role as team leader Barney Ross. Series regulars Dolph Lundgren and Randy Couture are back, joined by new recruits 50 Cent, Megan Fox, Andy Garcia, and Tony Jaa. Scott Waugh (Need for Speed) will direct.
Stallone took The Expendables franchise to over $800M earned worldwide, bringing together many of his favorite co-stars from action flicks across the many decades of his career. Next up for Sly is superhero film Samaritan, which follows his voice role as King Shark in The Suicide Squad.
The Expendables 4 opens in 2022. Check out all of Sly’s message below.
Just when you thought Wes Anderson couldn’t be more Wes Anderson, he goes and makes The French Dispatch. If you love the director’s unique brand of whimsy then spending a couple of hours inside that brain of his will be a treat. Anyone else? Well, you probably are staying as far away from The French Dispatch as possible. But even the most devoted of Anderson’s fans may find this film to be too precious for its own good.
I won’t use the tired “style over substance” to describe The French Dispatch. Substance isn’t the problem, lack of emotion is. Personally, I’ve found Anderson’s films to be completely lacking in genuine adult human emotion, which explains why his best work either involves animals or kids. But here, telling a story about the titular fictional French newspaper in the fictional town of Ennui-sur-Blasé (in English “boring on apathy”, an apt description), Anderson gives fully into the anthology format. His star-studded cast of Anderson regulars and a few new recruits, take part in little stories that amount to articles in the final issue following the death of its editor, Arthur Howitzer Jr.
Pitched as a tribute to journalists, The French Dispatch isn’t really that at all. The Post is a tribute to journalism and journalists. The Paper is, too, and so is Spotlight. That’s not what this is. It’s Anderson’s love letter to the New Yorker, or at least what he liked about it. Unsurprisingly, he liked all the really quirky shit. Murray’s firm-but-fair edtior Howitzer is based on New Yorker founder Harold Ross. Owen Wilson, in one of the film’s skippable interludes, plays a travel writer based on Joseph Mitchell. Wilson’s character bicycles through the city waxing semi-poetic about everything he sees, to ridiculous detail. The French Dispatch is so shrug worthy I almost broke a collarbone.
The stories are divided into multiple sections that represent pieces of the magazine issue: three feature articles, an obituary for the editor, and Wilson’s aforementioned travel guide. To Anderson’s credit, the film genuinely feels like you’re thumbing through the pages of a newspaper supplement, think the Parade section of The Washington Post. Each chapter has its own unique feel and style, with Anderson doing his usual Anderson things: flipping the aspect ratio, transitioning to animation, and employing frequent use of storybook-style production design. There’s no denying Anderson’s directorial gifts are with his stunning visuals and singular aesthetic. Nobody makes movies that look like his. Nobody.
But each story in The French Dispatchfeels completely disconnected from human emotion, and not even the Oscars-level talent can save them. The first story stars Benicio Del Toro as an artistic prison inmate, with Lea Seydoux as a prison guard and his muse. Adrien Brody plays an art dealer who discovers his work and struggles to work with the eccentric prisoner, who is suicidal due to his unrequited love for Seydoux’s character. Shot in black and white with splashes of color for the art pieces, it’s the one section of the film that is both visually and emotionally inert. Tilda Swinton blandly narrates the story from a podium to a crowd of on-lookers who might as well have been sleeping. They know what’s up.
The second has its cheeky moments but has too much going on to properly engage with. Frances McDormand is the author of this story and also one of its central figures, as she romances a young revolutionary played by a wild-haired Timothee Chalamet. What’s he fighting for? Something Anderson-y, I don’t know. The filmmaker is giving a nod to the 1968 students protests, or the May 68 student occupations, but he isn’t really interested in them, just telling an off-centre story that makes it seem like he’s interested.
The third story is the best only because of the incredible Jeffrey Wright, who brings a James Baldwin-esque wisdom and gravitas to the role of Roebuck Wright, a food critic discussing a kidnapping from years earlier. The story is utterly pointless but Wright, playing one of the VERY rare characters of color in a Wes Anderson movie, gets a moment to discuss his experience as a gay Black man in Paris and it’s mesmerizing for feeling like it should be in a totally different movie.
Putting together a starry ensemble usually suggests a slew of great performances but Anderson makes himself the exception in this, too. Other than Wright, nobody does anything memorable because Anderson does not create characters audiences can connect with. They are paper cut-outs in the Wes Anderson pop-up book called The French Dispatch, and luckily for us, its only got one issue and will soon be out of print.
Mel Gibson has entered the John Wick universe. Surprisingly, Deadline reports Gibson has been cast in The Continental, the John Wick prequel series coming to Starz.
Since we know the three-episode series will center on a young Winston Scott, played in the movies by Ian McShane, Gibson’s obviously not playing that role. Instead, he’ll play a character named Cormac, who is somehow involved with the infamous hotel where assassins hang out.
Here’s how the show is being described: “The Continental will explore the origin behind the hotel-for-assassins, which increasingly has become the centerpiece of the John Wick universe. This will be accomplished through the eyes and actions of a young Winston Scott, who is dragged into the Hell-scape of a 1975 New York City to face a past he thought he’d left behind. Winston charts a deadly course through the New York’s mysterious underworld in a harrowing attempt to seize the iconic hotel, which serves as the meeting point for the world’s most dangerous criminals.”
Gibson began his career on Aussie televison shows The Sullivans and Cop Shop, but rarely does TV nowadays other than cameos. He was most recently seen in Joe Carnahan’s action flick Boss Level.
The Continental includes John Wick creators Derek Kolstad, Chad Stahelski, and David Leitch as exec-producers, joined by writers/producers/showrunners Greg Coolidge and Kirk Ward. McShane isn’t officially confirmed to reprise his Winston role, but could do voiceovers. Keanu Reeves definitely won’t show up, but could join as an exec-producer.
Maggie Gyllenhaal is one of those actors you knew would become a director someday. Her parents are both filmmakers, and of course, her brother Jake is one of the top actors in the world and will probably become a director, too. Her directorial debut, The Lost Daughter, has been earning rave reviews since debuting at Venice, and more recently this past weekend at the Middleburg Film Festival.
Based on the book by Italian novelist Elena Ferrante, The Lost Daughter stars Oscar winner Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley, Gyllenhaal’s husband Peter Sarsgaard, and Ed Harris. It tells the story of a vacationing woman who becomes obsessed with a mother and her daughter, who evoke memories terrifying memories of her own motherhood.
Gyllenhaal not only directed but wrote the screenplay. Based on the footage seen here, she made the right choice in hiring Never Rarely Sometimes Always cinematographer Hélène Louvart who has a talent for making the simple look beautiful.
The Lost Daughter opens in select theaters on December 17th, followed by Netflix exclusively on December 31st.
Alone on a seaside vacation, Leda becomes consumed with a young mother and daughter as she watches them on the beach. Unnerved by their compelling relationship, (and their raucous and menacing extended family), Leda is overwhelmed by her own memories of the terror, confusion, and intensity of early motherhood. An impulsive act shocks Leda into the strange and ominous world of her own mind, where she is forced to face the unconventional choices she made as a young mother and their consequences.
Of all the weirdo characters in the Marvel Universe, Hit-Monkey might be the weirdest. The name explains it all: he’s literally a monkey who doubles as an assassin. You probably already guessed that such a character fits neatly in the Deadpool-verse, where the character first had his first major story arc. And now he’s got his own Hulu animated series, at least for a season, which is something Deadpool can’t say.
Hit-Monkey features the voices of George Takei, Jason Sudeikis, Olivia Munn, Ally Maki, Nobi Nakanishi, and Fred Tatasciore. Sudeikis voices Bryce, the ghost of a dead hit-man who had been nursed back to health by a clan of snow monkeys. Now he’s tethered to the snow-monkey who uses the assassin’s skills to get revenge. It’s all as silly as it sounds, which makes it perfect for showrunners Josh Gordon and Will Speck, whose brand of humor includes Office Christmas Party and Blades of Glory.
Hulu will debut Hit-Monkey on November 12th, and will likely stick around for only one season. As it’s a non-MCU series it falls in the same Marvel Television umbrella as Helstrom, MODOK, Agents of SHIELD, and others.
After a Japanese snow monkey’s tribe is slaughtered, he joins forces with the ghost of an American assassin and together, they begin killing their way through the Yakuza underworld.
Disney has made a habit lately of reshuffling the decks of their entire release schedule in one fell swoop, and they are back at it again. What it means is you’ll be waiting a while longer for some of the most anticipated Marvel Studios Phase 4 flicks, and even Indiana Jones 5, which has been delayed constantly, has been pushed back.
So it all starts with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which drops two months to May 6th, 2022. That will be followed by Thor: Love & Thunder, which now opens on July 8th 2022.
One of the films with the most questions marks, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, falls out of its summer slot. Instead of opening July 29th 2022, the sequel hits theaters on November 11th. Captain Marvel sequel, The Marvels, exits 2022 entirely and will now hit on February 17th 2023.
Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania has slid from February 17th 2023 down to July 28th. Also, a pair of untitled future Marvel movies have been pulled from the schedule completely, while a third has moved from October 11th 2023 to November 3rd 2023.
In addition, Harrison Ford’s injury on the set of Indiana Jones 5 may have led to it being pushed to another date. Once set for July 29th 2022, the film now opens June 30th 2023. Honestly, I have no faith in that sticking, either. Why should I after all of this time?
Should we be concerned about this? While COVID-19 isn’t the given reason for these delays, we could be seeing Disney retooling plans as audiences continue getting more comfortable. My question is whether this has any impact on the Disney+ shows, which are so deeply intertwined with Phase 4?
Surprise!! Y: The Last Man has been canceled by FX, before the first season is even completed. Actually, if you’ve watched any of the long-anticipated adaptation of Brian K. Vaughan’s seminal comic book, you probably aren’t surprised at all. It wasn’t very good.
To put a fine point on how little confidence FX has in Y: The Last Man, they canned the show smack in the middle of the first season. If this were a sitcom that wouldn’t mean much, but for a series that was setting up a huge, all-encompassing story about the world following the death of the male species, it’s basically telling viewers not to bother sticking around for the final few episodes. Why bother?
Series showrunner Eliza Clark revealed the news, and vowed to try and find the series a new network…
Clark added, “I have never in my life been more committed to a story, and there’s so much more to tell. FX has been an amazing partner. But we know that someone else is going to be very lucky to have this team and this story. I have never experienced the remarkable solidarity of this many talented people. We are committed to finding ‘Y’ its next home.”
This is pretty incredible. Y: The Last Man made the Hollywood rounds for years as a feature film, but a series of false starts saw it land at FX as a series. Fans of Vaughan’s comic had been salivating for it, myself included. Then the first episode dropped and it was pretty bland.
