We’re happy to offer our readers the chance to win a Bluray of Cold War spy thriller The Courier, starring Benedict Cumberbatch! The film is directed by Dominic Cooke and also stars Merab Ninidze, Rachel Brosnahan, Jessie Buckley, and Angus Wright.
SYNOPSIS: THE COURIER is a true-life spy thriller, the story of an unassuming British businessman Greville Wynne (Benedict Cumberbatch) recruited into one of the greatest international conflicts in history. At the behest of the UK’s MI-6 and a CIA operative (Rachel Brosnahan), he forms a covert, dangerous partnership with Soviet officer Oleg Penkovsky (Merab Ninidze) in an effort to provide crucial intelligence needed to prevent a nuclear confrontation and defuse the Cuban Missile Crisis.
We’re giving away five Blurays for the upcoming home release on June 1st! If you’d like to enter, simply send an email to punchdrunktrav@gmail.com with your full name and mailing address, your favorite spy movie, and “The Courier Giveaway” in the subject line. Winners will be selected on Saturday, May 22nd and notified by email. Good luck!
Another day, and Knives Out 2 has added another big star. At this point, I sorta feel like I can just copy the previous posts and drop the new name in. This time, that would be Kate Hudson.
Kate Hudson is the latest addition to Rian Johnson’s Knives Out sequel, according to Deadline. She joins the returning Daniel Craig, along with Daniel Craig, Kathryn Hahn, Dave Bautista, Janelle Monae, Leslie Odom Jr., and Edward Norton. Who’s she playing? We don’t know. What’s the movie’s plot? No idea. And I’m okay with that. Just bring on Benoit Blanc and the latest whodunnit!
Hudson most recently earned a Golden Globe nomination for Sia’s controversial (and critically-panned) film Music, but the actress is probably best known for Almost Famous, Nine, and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.
Knives Out 2 is the first of two sequels that will head to Netflix as part of a huge deal, but so far there isn’t a release date.
Brandon Cronenberg has only made two movies in his career, Antiviral and last year’s twisted spy thriller Possessor. Both are pretty messed up, establishing David Cronenberg’s son as a filmmaker who has his father’s eye for horror, but with a sci-fi twist all of his own. And now Cronenberg is moving to event television for his next project, which is definitely right in his wheelhouse.
Deadline reports Cronenberg will write and direct Super-Cannes, an event series based on the book by JG Ballard. The title might suggest a bunch of superheroes hanging out at the ritzy French film festival, but it actually follows a group of European elites who create a utopia in Cannes, only to find it boring and begin engaging in sexual perversion, violence, and more.
Coming full-circle in a way, Ballard’s novel Crash was adapted by David Croneneberg into a 1996 film that won a Special Jury Prize at Cannes. Other Ballard adaptations include When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth, Empire of the Sun, and High-Rise.
No word on a start date or a home for Super-Cannes, but with Brandon Cronenberg attached that should be easy. Check out my previous interview with him here.
What If? has got to have the best potential for fun of all the Marvel TV series shown on the original slate, with the only possible competitor being Loki. The series, and it’s source comic arc(s) are basically a professional version of what everyone did with their friends when sitting around talking comics, “What if that spider bit Harry Osbourne instead?” or “What if Cap never went into the ice?”. These questions are basically ice breakers to some awesome rabbit holes you could fall down.
Now that we are through the first major arc in the MCU, there are plenty of places to derive content for this format. We know a few of the stories they’ll be following for sure, What if Agent Carter got the super soldier serum and became Captain Britain, and What If – Marvel Zombies. We also know that many of the heros will be featured, and Doctor Strange will feature prominently. I have to imagine that this would work if they bookended with live action Doctor Strange going into his “see the future possibilities” yoga seizures, and the animated portion being his view of the things that could have happened.
One thing we know for sure is that no expense was spared in the animation section. The hi-res images we have today are proof of that. There’s definitely something different about the style, it almost seems mo-capped or rotoscopped ala A Scanner Darkly and while I’m usually not on-board with non-traditional animation styles there is something about this that I really dig.
No solid release date has been set, but the promise for Summer 2021 has been made. Looks like current expectations are putting the debut in August. If I had to guess the official premier date announcement will hit at some point during Loki‘s run on Disney+ next month.
The Wire. You know how great it is. Go watch it. Nobody explores the crime and corruption of Baltimore quite like David Simon, and news that he’s going back to the city for another HBO series is like pure gold, especially when you factor in the cast that has been put together.
Deadline reports Jon Bernthal, Josh Charles, and The Wire‘s Jamie Hector will star in We Own This City, a six-hour event series that will look at the rise and fall of Baltimore’s Gun Trace Task Force due to systemic and moral corruption. Baltimore Sun reporter Justin Fenton’s book will serve as the basis. Simon will write and exec-produce along with George Pelecanos, also a producer on The Wire.
Adding to this already vast talent pool is director and exec-producer Reinaldo Marcus Green, whose crime drama Monsters and Men was a standout at Sundance a few years ago. He was also director on the delayed Mark Wahlberg film Good Joe Bell, and upcoming sports drama King Richard with Will Smith.
I’m hyped to see Hector and Simon reunited, because together they created one of the best TV “villains” in Marlo Stanfield.
We Own This City begins shooting in July, and this has Emmy nominations written all over it. Check out the character descriptions below.
Bernthal plays Sgt. Wayne Jenkins of the Baltimore Police Department, perhaps the central figure in the sprawling federal corruption case that centered on the agency’s Gun Trace Task Force, a plainclothes unit that went completely rogue and began hunting and robbing citizens and drug dealers alike as decades of a relentless drug war and mass incarceration in Baltimore spun wildly out of control.
Charles is Daniel Hersl, who was a cocky, swaggering cop known amongst Baltimore residents for his casual brutality and was the subject of multiple citizen complaints. Hersl was effectively banned from the Eastern District before his move to the GTTF.
Hector plays Sean M. Suiter, a Baltimore City Homicide detective who was caught up in the GTTF case and called to testify before a federal grand jury. Tragically, Suiter finds he can’t outrun his past.
The pre-teen adventure film was a staple of my time growing up in the 80’s and 90’s, not being the target audience I didn’t realize that this sub-genre almost disappeared entirely throughout the aughts. I mean, an entire generation with no The Goonies or E.T. of their own? Thankfully that trend seems to be changing in recent years, thanks mostly to streaming services that are catering to the mid-budget films that big studios all but forgot about. Netflix for instance released Finding Ohana, which fit all of the checkmarks for a seminal coming of age adventure. It looks like the studios have noticed the success of that film and are trying it out in theaters again with Let Us In, which we get a quick look at in the trailer released today.
Let Us In follow Emily (Makenzie Moss) and Christopher (O’Neil Monahan) two kids living in a town where a number of teenagers have gone missing. The pair are visited by a group of black eyed teenagers who appear and ask “Let Us In”, their investigation leads them to scary neighborhood guy Mr. Munch (a perfectly cast Tobin Bell) who was around 50 years ago when this last happened. It’s a fairly standard setup, but that’s not what matters, what matters is the execution. While this film does seem like it could end up being a bit more dark than your standard film of it’s type, something in the trailer makes me think it’s going to be alot of fun. Definitely more The Monster Squad then The Goonies but fun nonetheless.
Check out the trailer below and look for Let Us In July 2nd, 2021
Steven Soderbergh’s upcoming crime thriller, No Sudden Move, is coming to the Tribeca Film Festival. The 1950s film starring Don Cheadle, Benicio Del Toro, David Harbour, Jon Hamm, Ray Liotta, Kieran Culkin, Brendan Fraser, Noah Jupe, Julia Fox, and Amy Seimetz will be the Centerpiece Gala film when the festival kicks off next month, and then will hit HBO Max in July.
Penned by Ed Solomon of Bill & Ted fame, No Sudden Move is set in 1955 Detroit and “centers on a group of small-time criminals who are hired to steal what they think is a simple document. When their plan goes horribly wrong, their search for who hired them – and for what ultimate purpose – weaves them through all echelons of the race-torn, rapidly changing city.”
Others in the cast include Matt Damon, who took over for George Clooney in a small role, plus Frankie Shaw, Bill Duke, and the late Craig “muMs” Grant.
It was inevitable that 2015 Sundance Award-winning doc Dark Horse would become a feature film. How could it not? What with its true story of a group of working class Irish folk gathering what few earnings they could must to breed a racehorse, only for it to become the most unlikely of equestrian champions. It’s the stuff underdog sports dramas are made of, right? And so last year, Sundance was once again home to the story of Dream Alliance with the narrative drama, Dream Horse, and it’s a pure charmer if there ever was one.
I’m going to be honest here in that Dream Horse probably is coming around at just the right moment for me. Horse races were a joy for me growing up, and I like them a lot still. But they’ve barely been given a passing thought during the pandemic, and this movie made me want to go back so incredibly badly. If there’s anything that can be said about the film it’s that all of the characters share a passion for horse racing and a love of the animals.
Toni Collette plays Jane, an overworked and bored housewife in Wales who is in need of something to stimulate her again. It certainly won’t come from her dull, couch potato husband Brian (Owen Teale), nor her aging parents who she cares for despite their complete indifference. Jane’s nurturing side extends to animals, as well; she has a dog to feed, some geese, etc., but she really loves horses. So when hotshot ex-racehorse owner Howard (Damian Lewis) begins shooting his mouth off in the pub, Jane takes it upon herself to look into what it takes to buy one.
Hint: they’re expensive. So she gathers up some of the misfit locals, most of whom barely have two nickles to rub together, and convinces them to pitch in a tenner ($10) a week to form a syndicate, sharing in the costs and winnings of this racehorse that is still just a pie-in-the-sky aspiration. After purchasing the broken down mare Rewbell, the team scrounge what they’ve got to have her mated with a thoroughbred. The result is Dream Alliance, a beautiful brown horse that is like all of their hopes and dreams brought to life.
It’s that last aspect, all of these downtrodden people coming together in pursuit of a common hope, that gives Dream Horse that extra emotional punch. That’s it’s also loosely based in fact leaves you feeling that there are still good, wholesome stories to be told out there. Screenwriter Neil McKay and director Euros Lyn aren’t breaking down any genre walls here; you can predict every turn the story takes. There are wealthy racehorse owners who get a bit prickly at the poors being part of their elitist sport, but the screenplay doesn’t dabble too long into the class divide. Cheesy montages take you through Dream Alliance’s early successes, followed by the syndicate’s triumphant victory parties and eruptions into song. And, of course, there must also come a turn for the tragic and a moment that anybody with a love for horses will dread but also see coming a mile away.
What you might not see coming is Lyn’s dynamic camerawork during the horse racing scenes. While it’s hard to distinguish Dream Horse‘s quiet moments from any of a dozen other Irish films set in rural blue collar towns, on the track there’s a different kind of energy. Lyn’s camera captures the speed and the danger of such close-quarters races, but also the wind going through the horses’ manes, the dirt and mud kicked-up with every gallop. Beautiful stuff. I do wish, however, that they could’ve spent at least some time with the jockeys, especially the one riding Dream Alliance. But with so many characters buzzing around that was probably impossible.
You’re not going to get deep characterizations of the syndicate’s members or anything quite like that. One’s the town drunk, another wears weird socks, one’s a butcher, one lady likes to get dressed up; that’s about the extent of it. They’re all light-hearted, eccentric comic relief meant to liven up a movie that’s meant to leave you feeling happy, and if that’s the goal then Dream Horse deserves the winner’s purse.
Bleecker Street will release Dream Horse in theaters on May 21st.
Tim Burton and Netflix’s The Addams Family spinoff has found its Wednesday Addams, and it’s someone the streamer is very familiar with. It was revealed that Jenna Ortega will take the title role in Wednesday, a live-action series centered on the Addams’ morbid child.
Happy Wednesday! @JennaOrtega will play the iconic Wednesday Addams in our upcoming live-action Wednesday series, directed by Tim Burton. pic.twitter.com/yQRJXgnUo4
Wednesday will be a different take on The Addams Family, as it will be more of a coming-of-age teen series centered on Wednesday Addams. If there’s something to compare it to, Netflix’s Chilling Adventures of Sabrina seems like a good bet.
Ortega and Netflix have a strong working relationship already, with the actress having starred in the popular series, You, the family comedy Yes Day, and voicing a character in Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous.
As Warner Bros. looks to expand their slate of DC Comics projects, Green Lantern is front and center. We know the emerald superhero will have a Green Lantern Corps movie at some point, but there’s also an HBO Max series that already has Finn Wittrock set to play the greatest Lantern of all, Guy Gardner. And now, he’s getting some Golden Age back-up.
Deadline confirms an earlier rumor from The Illuminerdi that War Horse actor Jeremy Irvine will play Alan Scott in Green Lantern. Scott is recognized as the first human to rock the power ring, wielding it as a secretly gay FBI agent in the 1940s.
The series will focus on multiple Green Lanterns over the span of decades, including the 1980s with hyper-masculine Gardner and the half-human/half-alien Bree Jarta, who has yet to be cast.
Green Lantern will have Seth Grahame-Smith as showrunner and writer alongside Marc Guggenheim. Greg Berlanti is on board as a producer, although this series is not part of his Arrowverse line of shows.
