Wonder Woman 1984 really took a beating when it opened late last year, largely due to constant delays because of the coronavirus, and uncertainty about Warner Bros. release plan. Director Patty Jenkins fought hard for a very long time to secure an exclusively theatrical release, but ultimately it arrived simultaneously on HBO Max. This being the first major test case for that strategy, the results weren’t good with just $166M worldwide, and Jenkins still isn’t happy about it.
Appearing at CinemaCon, Jenkins expressed her frustration (via Deadline) and made it clear that she won’t be doing any day-and-date released in the future, not for a major studio and not for a streamer like Netflix.
Jenkins called it “It was the best choice in a bunch of bad choices at the moment” and a “heartbreaking experience.”
“It was detrimental to the movie. I knew that could have happened…I don’t think it plays the same on streaming, ever. I’m not a fan of day-and-date and I hope to avoid it forever. I make movies for the big-screen experience.”
When pressed about possibly making a movie for Netflix, with a shortened theatrical window before streaming, Jenkins responded
“I won’t make one. I like working with Netflix for television, I wouldn’t make a movie there or any streaming service with those terms. It’s hard to market a movie when it has a limited run.”
The box office on Wonder Woman 1984 was shockingly low, and I can understand why Jenkins is still upset. You can bet she’s worked out something with Disney on her upcoming Star Wars movie, Rogue Squadron, for it to be a theatrical exclusive. And if there’s going to be a reunion with Gal Gadot for Wonder Woman 3, a similar deal will have to be struck.
The Mandalorian was the first must-see hit for Disney+, and who knows how many subscribers it brought to the streamer all by itself. Season 2 proved to be amazing, as well, introducing Ahsoka Tano into the live-action realm, seeing the return of Boba Fett, and of course who can forget that moment when Luke Skywalker arrived to take Grogu under his wing. All of that, and Din Djarin took his rightful place as holder of the Darksaber. A lot of plot threads have been set in motion,but a new rumor says there may only be one last season to wrap them up.
Take this with a grain of salt, but StarWarsOnly says it has learned The Mandalorian will end with season 3 when it arrives in 2022. With so many storylines still hanging out there, would that mean The Book of Boba Fett, which has been described as The Mandalorian 2.5, is where some of those will be wrapped up?
On the one hand, it’s surprising that Disney would let such a hugely important show end this early. The amount they’re making on Baby Yoda merchandise must be astronomical. But then again, that can and will continue long after the series is finished.
On the other hand, The Mandalorian‘s premise doesn’t seem built for the long haul, but to get from point A to point B. With the Darksaber now in Djarin’s possession, this third season will definitely take him to Mandalore to fight alongside his fellow Mandalorians.
With so many Star Wars shows on the way, such as Ahsoka, Andor, and Obi-Wan Kenobi, perhaps Disney/Lucasfilm are trying not to oversaturate the streaming space?
If you thought John Cena was hilarious as the brutal Peacemaker in The Suicide Squad just wait until you experience him inVacation Friends. The new Hulu comedy from director Clay Tarver is a perfect showcase for Cena and how perfectly suited he is for the raunchy R-rated space, playing off his good-boy image and intimidating/welcoming physique. He gives off serious “dude bro” energy here and shows a willingness to do anything if it makes audiences smile. While he’s not chugging beers through his ass like in Blockers, Cena keeps us laughing so much it’ll help you forget how boring and drone-like he was in F9. No more dull action movies for him, please. Comedy is where it’s at.
Vacation Friends, believe it or not, has been hanging around since 2014 when it was originally to star then-married couple Chris Pratt and Anna Faris. A number of things have changed with it over the years, but I quite like that their roles fell on Cena and co-star Meredith Hagner (Search Party), who play cliff-diving, gun-toting, cocaine snorting duo Ron and Kyla. They totally hijack the planned romantic Mexico getaway for the straight-laced Marcus and his girlfriend Emily, played Lil Rel Howery and Insecure‘s Yvonne Orji. While it takes some convincing, and a healthy amount of drugs (“Why doesn’t the salt on these margaritas taste salty?”, “Because it’s cocaine.”), the two totally mismatched couple have an epic week that finds Ron and Kyla in their unhinged comfort zone and Marcus and Emily cutting loose like never before. When the whole thing is over, the latter are eager to get back to their normal lives, plan a simple wedding ceremony, and forget that Mexico ever happened.
“You guys are in our lives now. That’s never gonna change”, Ron says. He means it, sincerely, earnestly. It’s sorta scary. He and Kyla are super clingy. They can’t let go of anything or anybody. This isn’t going to end, is it?
Of course not, they literally come crashing into the wedding party and before long it’s awkward Best Man speeches and weird drugs being given to grandma. Marcus and Emily just want that vacation part of their lives to be a distant memory, but it’s right here in front of them and threatens to ruin their perfectly-careful lives. It could be the set up for a Jordan Peele-esque social horror movie with these irresponsible white people bulldozing their way into the lives of respectable, if incredibly snobby, Black folks just trying to move on. The stakes for Vacation Friends are pretty low and the jokes are predictable if you’ve seen anything in the Wedding Crashers or Couples Retreat vein. It’ll come as no surprise that there’s more to Ron and Kyla than meets the eye, and it will be revealed with enough melodrama to match the film’s gonzo energy. Such is the way of co-writers John Francis Daly and Jonathan Goldstein (Vacation, Horrible Bosses), part of an army of five screenwriters working with director Clay Tarver, best known as a showrunner on Silicon Valley.
They really don’t make buddy comedies like Vacation Friends too often anymore. Long gone are the Owen Wilson/Vince Vaughn pairings, and anything that comes close has to be dressed up with Hobbs & Shaw/Hitman’s Bodyguard levels of vulgarity and violence. In a way it makes this feel like a throwback when movies had only a single agenda and that’s to entertain. In the pandemic era when these films are even scarcer, there’s something refreshing about that.
Not just because he’s the size of a freakin’ house, Cena engulfs every single scene he’s in. As Ron he’s just such a huge presence, always on the edge of doing something totally insane, saying the exact wrong thing at the worst moment, or grabbing someone in for a big bear hug. He’s like a gigantic teddy bear that’s always buzzing. Hagner is just as manic as the oversharing Kyla. Together she and Cena create this perfectly imperfect couple who would be terrible for anybody else in the world, but are just right for one another. Howery, who just finished playing the wizened pal to Ryan Reynolds in Free Guy, settles into the uptight straight man role comfortably, while Orji’s role as Emily gets the short shrift, a common occurrence for women in comedies aimed at men.
Fortunately, Vacation Friends isn’t looking to be an unwelcome guest. It’s the kind of film that is there for a good time, not for a long time, but is there if you ever want to recall that moment Cena got stoned on mushrooms and went on a fox hunt. Stuff like that just doesn’t happen in every day life, only during vacay.
Vacation Friends is available on Hulu now.
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(L-R): Yvonne Orji as Emily, John Cena as Ron, Lil Rel Howery as Marcus and Meredith Hagner as Kyla
There are a lot of people out there who still aren’t happy with Disney for remaking The Lion King, regardless of the box office and accolades heaped on it. And certainly they are probably less than ecstatic about the upcoming prequel, even with a filmmaker the quality of Barry Jenkins behind it. Well, that film is moving ahead no matter what, and now the two key voice roles have been cast.
Deadline reports Waves star Kelvin Harrison Jr. will voice a young Taka aka Scar, while The Underground Railroad actor Aaron Pierre will voice Mufasa. Plot details are under wraps, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the story draws elements from the book A Tale of Two Brothers, which to the best of my knowledge is the first time we hear of Scar’s real name. Other casting is underway and you can bet plenty of A-listers will be involved.
Coming back to take part in the prequel are screenwriter Jeff Nathanson, along with composer Hans Zimmer. He’ll be joined on the music by Pharrell and Nicholas Britell.
Netflix really cut loose with the summer blockbusters last year, and the result was some of the highest viewer totals in the streamer’s history. And one of the biggest projects to emerge from that was The Old Guard, the Charlize Theron/Kiki Layne action flick about a race of immortals fighting to survive against one of their own. While it was inevitable that a sequel would happen, it is now official but without original director Gina Prince-Bythewood.
Deadline reports The Old Guard 2 will now be directed by Victoria Mahoney, who you may have heard of for being the first Black woman director to work on the Star Wars franchise. She worked second-unit on The Rise of Skywalker and has used that experience to take on other projects for herself. This is by far the biggest.
The Old Guard sequel will see the return of Charlize Theron, KiKi Layne, Matthias Schoenaerts, Marwan Kenzari, Luca Marinelli, Veronica Ngo, and Chiwetel Ejiofor. It’s unclear where the story goes, and if it will be an adaptation of a specific story from comic creators Greg Rucka and Leandro Fernández, or something entirely new.
If you listened to my interview with Prince-Bythewood you know how deep her feelings run for The Old Guard, which makes her decision not to return pretty surprising. But she does intend to stay on in a producer capacity…
“I love ‘The Old Guard’ and the story and characters I was honored to put into the world. It was exciting to disrupt the genre,” said Prince-Bythewood. “I have decided not to direct the sequel, but will stay on as a producer. I leave our franchise in good hands as my girl Vic Mahoney takes on this next chapter.”
“Genuinely blown backwards by the collective levels of talent, skill, and savvy that went into carving ‘The Old Guard,’” Mahoney added. “I must’ve watched it over a hundred times, and as such, cannot communicate the true measure of my excitement–being invited on ‘The Old Guard’ journey alongside ferocious badasses. Ever eager to continue pushing the genre for action-loving audiences. Warmly tipping my hat to the world Gina, Charlize, Rucka, Fernández, Skydance, Netflix, Marc Evans Productions, Denver & Delilah Films and the entire Team daringly put forward.”
Mahoney has already signed on to direct a new TV series from Ava DuVernay, plus the action flicks Kill Them All and Shadow Force. However, something like The Old Guard 2 could jump the line ahead of them.
You’re going to be hearing Nia DaCosta’s name a lot. Following her breakout drama Little Woods, and the buzz she’s already receiving for this week’s Candyman (from me and our reviewer), DaCosta is moving to the big leagues and the MCU with The Marvels, a sorta-sequel to Captain Marvel that she looks at as a huge opportunity to get away from some of what she has had to face as a Black female filmmaker.
In an interview with The Guardian, DaCosta talked about her experiences on Candyman and, while a film produced by Jordan Peele, the racism she still faced from others on set…
“It’s not necessarily overtly racist, but it is shocking the way people have talked to me in my position as a director. People who work for me,” she explained. “Especially on a movie like this, where Jordan was the only other person of color at the level of decision-making on the movie. And that’s unacceptable, frankly.”
But working on something like The Marvels offers a unique opportunity, not just for her but for all Black directors to do more than tell stories about trauma faced by Black people…
“We should be able to make different kinds of movies, so I’m really happy I got to make ‘The Marvels’ because it’s like, I genuinely can just make a movie that doesn’t have to traffic in Black pain,” DaCosta said. “And I feel like a lot of Black filmmakers are asked to or expected to do that.”
She continued, “This would not be my career five years ago. I’ve been very lucky and I’ve worked really hard, and I’m really happy that I’ve had the experiences that I’ve had. Well … the good ones at least. At the same time, as well as I’m doing, this should be happening for more people who are like me.”
The Marvels will reunite DaCosta with Candyman actress Teyonah Parris, reprising her WandaVision role of Monica Rambeau. She’s joined by Brie Larson as Captain Marvel and Iman Vellani as Ms. Marvel. The film arrives in theaters on November 11th 2022.
Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larrain has been turning out critically acclaimed films for years, including No, The Club, Neruda, and Ema which debuted in 2019 but only just arrived stateside last week. His films don’t tend to be a big priority here unless they’re about powerful women surrounded by tragedy, such as 2016’s Jackie which earned Natalie Portman an Oscar nomination. And you can bet the same attention will be heaped upon Spencer, which stars Kristen Stewart as the late Princess Diana.
Stewart is such an unlikely actress to play Diana, and yet what we’ve seen from her in promos and in this trailer suggests she might have been absolutely perfect. Certainly, Stewart is no stranger to the kind of intense public scrutiny that comes with fame.
The script by Steven Knight takes a similar approach to Jackie in that it centers around a pivotal event in Diana’s life, this being the Christmas weekend she decides to leave her husband Charles, the Prince of Wales.
Also in the cast are Jack Farthing, Olga Hellsing, Thomas Douglas, Sally Hawkins, Sean Harris, Timothy Spall, and Amy Manson.
Spencer opens in theaters on November 5th.
December, 1991:The Prince and Princess of Wales’ marriage has long since grown cold. Though rumors of affairs and a divorce abound, peace is ordained for the Christmas festivities at Sandringham Estate. There’s eating and drinking, shooting and hunting. Diana knows the game. This year, things will be a whole lot different.
We’re happy to offer our readers the chance to attend a free advance screening of Marvel Studios’ Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings! Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, the film stars Simu Liu as the Master of Kung Fu himself, alongside Awkwafina, Tony Leung, and Michelle Yeoh.
SYNOPSIS: Marvel Studios’ “Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings” stars Simu Liu as Shang-Chi, who must confront the past he thought he left behind when he is drawn into the web of the mysterious Ten Rings organization.
The screening takes place on Wednesday, September 1st at 7:30pm at AMC Tysons Corner. If you’d like to attend, register at the Gofobo ticketing site here. Please remember all screenings are first come first served and you will need to arrive early to ensure seating. Enjoy the show!
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings opens in theaters on September 3rd.
Truth be told, I keep forgetting about The King’s Man. Matthew Vaughn’s offbeat spy prequel has been punted up and down the schedule so much that it’s been lost in the shuffle, but the film is currently slated for December 22nd, and a new red band trailer is a reminder of what to get excited over.
While The King’s Man isn’t a direct sequel to Kingsman: The Secret Service or The Golden Circle, it does take us back to the formation of the top intelligence agency in the early 20th century. Some of the world’s worst tyrants have joined forces to launch a war that could wipe out millions, leading to the need for an organization such as Kingsman to fight against them.
Unlike previous Kingsman films, this one takes a historical angle with much of the cast playing real-life figures such as Rasputin, Nicholas II, and even Gavrilo Princip, the man whose murderous actions led to the outbreak of WWI.
Vaughn directs a killer cast that includes Ralph Fiennes, Gemma Arterton, Rhys Ifans, Matthew Goode, Tom Hollander, Harris Dickinson, Daniel Brühl, with Djimon Hounsou, and Charles Dance.
The King’s Man hits theaters on December 22nd, and by God let’s hope it actually comes out because this is the sixth trailer (!!!) and that’s about five too many.
As a collection of history’s worst tyrants and criminal masterminds gather to plot a war to wipe out millions, one man must race against time to stop them. Discover the origins of the very first independent intelligence agency in The King’s Man.
Hard to believe it’s been twelve years since Jane Campion’s last feature, that being the terrific (and criminally underrated) Bright Star. Not that she’s been lazy, having completed two seasons of Top of the Lake, itself also very good. But now she’s back in a big way with The Power of the Dog, which is set to make a splash at Venice next month before becoming a major awards season contender for Netflix.
The film stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Jesse Plemons, Thomasin McKenzie, Keith Carradine, Frances Conroy, Peter Carrol and Adam Beach. Cumberbatch plays a cruel ranch owner who unleashes his fury upon his timid brother’s new wife and son.
Here’s the official synopsis: Severe, pale-eyed, handsome, Phil Burbank is brutally beguiling. All of Phil’s romance, power, and fragility is trapped in the past and in the land: He can castrate a bull calf with two swift slashes of his knife; he swims naked in the river, smearing his body with mud. He is a cowboy as raw as his hides.
The year is 1925. The Burbank brothers are wealthy ranchers in Montana. At the Red Mill restaurant on their way to market, the brothers meet Rose, the widowed proprietress, and her impressionable son Peter. Phil behaves so cruelly he drives them both to tears, reveling in their hurt and rousing his fellow cowhands to laughter – all except his brother George, who comforts Rose then returns to marry her.
As Phil swings between fury and cunning, his taunting of Rose takes an eerie form – he hovers at the edges of her vision, whistling a tune she can no longer play. His mockery of her son is more overt, amplified by the cheering of Phil’s cowhand disciples. Then Phil appears to take the boy under his wing. Is this latest gesture a softening that leaves Phil exposed, or a plot-twisting further into menace?
Netflix has big plans for The Power of the Dog, setting it for a theatrical release on November 17th before streaming on December 1st.
Official poster for 'THE POWER OF THE DOG' starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst & Jesse Plemons. #ThePowerOfTheDog. In Select Theatres on November 17, On Netflix December 1. pic.twitter.com/fnOMTcZ5na
