If you’ve been perusing the Internet today you probably noticed what was reported to be a leaked, cleaner version of James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad trailer. I left them alone, assuming they were probably part of some silly April Fools’ Day prank. Well, they weren’t a prank. They were real, and rather than let an ugly leak sit out there, Warner Bros. and Gunn have decided to just release an official version of the green band trailer.
It’s not too different, but if you’ve got something against F-bombs and King Shark devouring people this one’s for you. There’s also a bit more of Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchian) in action. The film stars Idris Elba, Margot Robbie, Viola Davis, Joel Kinnaman, Jai Courtney, Peter Capaldi, John Cena, and loads of others as the DCEU’s resident team of expendables. Sylvester Stallone, who voices King Shark, should feel right at home.
The Suicide Squad opens in theaters and HBO Max on August 6th.
Adam Wingard’s first major studio film Godzilla vs. Kong appears to be a critical and box office hit, opening with the biggest debut since the pandemic. But it almost wasn’t his first trip into the MonsterVerse, because it turns out that Peter Jackson had handpicked Wingard to direct a sequel to his 2005 King Kong remake. Wingard told Slashfilm…
“I think in a lot of ways, the reason for [me not having to do a pitch for Godzilla vs. Kong], we have to travel back in time to 2013 or so when You’re Next was about to come out in theaters. Somehow, Peter Jackson had seen an early version of You’re Next, and he was interested in me directing a sequel to his King Kong film. It was just going to be called Skull Island. Simon Barrett was going to write it. Mary Parent, who runs Legendary now and produced this movie, was on board with that. But this movie was set up at Universal, and the King Kong rights somehow ended up at Warner Bros. That movie went to the wayside, and so did I. In a long roundabout way, I think getting that vote of confidence from Peter Jackson stuck in Mary Parent’s mind. “
Just goes to show the winding road some of these projects take, and how even an aborted project can lead to something bigger. We do know that Joe Cornish (Attack the Block) had been eyed to direct Skull Island at one point, and Jackson was interested in Guillermo Del Toro doing it. The two had an association at the time because of the ‘Hobbit‘ films. Ultimately, Skull Island became part of Legendary’s MonsterVerse with Jordan Vogt-Roberts at the helm.
It all worked out in the end. Godzilla vs. Kong is available in theaters and HBO Max right now.
It was only a little over a month ago that Funko revealed their “Justice is Gray” line of black & white Pops for Zack Snyder’s Justice League. And now, as expected, they’ve dropped those figures in full color, while adding a new Darkseid atop his mighty throne.
The new Funkos include Superman in his black recovery suit, Diana Prince, Darkseid, and the villain Desaad. You’ll have no problem getting these, either, as they’re all commonly available. Thank goodness, because lord knows I’m sick of having to jump through hoops to get Funkos that are only available at one website for a limited time and in limited quantities. Fuck all of that.
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Seriously? Did we think this was actually going to happen? Look, I know there’s a whole generation that’s of age now that grew up on the prequels. I know that’s translated into a wide-spread affection for what was once hated (though I’ve always been a prequel apologist). Did we really think that was going to translate into new life for everyone’s least favorite Gungan?
At some point rumors started to swirl that amongst the characters featuring in the upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi series at Disney+ would be Jar Jar Binks. Well, Jar Jar actor Ahmed Best, who has one of the most unfairly sad stories in Hollywood and is a template for the problems with toxic fandom, has put those rumors to rest. Best, leaving no room for interpretation, straight up responds that no, he will not be in the series, in a recent post on Twitter.
Thanks for the love, but I will not be in this series. As much as I would’ve loved to be a part of it. But I’m ecstatic to see folks who I love dearly back together doing great things. https://t.co/5bzLq9yslh
Honestly, I can think of no good spot or reason for Jar Jar to return BUT I would really like to see the redemption of Ahmed Best. Redemption is not even the right word. Here’s a guy that got his big break performing as the first fully CG realized character in freaking STAR WARS of all things. He gave his all and did what he could with the spot only to be eviscerated by toxic fans blaming him for the characters downfalls to the point where the guy became suicidal. He deserves a second run in the galaxy far far away, as a character with actual depth and appeal. He’s earned it.
The Transformers franchise is definitely growing, and quite fast it seems. Following news just days ago that a new film was in the works from Charm City Kings director Angel Manuel Soto, comes worth that Hamilton breakout Anthony Ramos is in talks to lead the other Transformers movie from Creed II director Steven Caple Jr.
Deadline has the news on Ramos, who is in final negotiations for Caple’s Transformers movie which is apparently in the same universe as Michael Bay’s films and the Bumblebee spinoff. Ramos was Caple’s top choice right from the beginning, and now his female co-star needs to be found. Names in the mix are Dominique Fishback (Judas and the Black Messiah) and Kiki Layne (The Old Guard). Both awesome choices, and you can see they are looking to bring some diversity to a franchise that has been lacking in it.
Paramount set two scripts for the film in motion, one by Joby Harold and the other by James Vanderbilt, with Harold’s winning out. There’s also an animated Transformers movie from Toy Story 4 writer Josh Cooley.
Ramos has been on a rocket lately, with the release of Hamilton on Disney+ only adding to it. He also had a small role in A Star is Born, and is set for even bigger things when th adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights arrives later this year.
Jamie Foxx has a lot on his plate already, with a Netflix sitcom on the way, a Mike Tyson drama series, producing supernatural thriller Geechee, and a role in something called Spider-Man: No Way Home. Heard of it? On top of all of that, he also has the vampire hunter film Day Shift, which is also set up at the streamer and has just landed a key co-star.
Deadline reports Dave Franco has joined the Day Shift cast, along with Natasha Liu Bordizzo (Guns Akimbo), Oliver Masucci (Look Who’s Back), Steve Howey (DOA: Dead or Alive), and C.S. Lee (Dexter). The film stars Foxx as a suburban dad and pool cleaner by day, and a vampire hunter by night. Making his directorial debut is J.J. Perry working from a script by Tyler Tice.
Onboard to produce is Chad Stahelski, best known as director of each John Wick film and a producer on the current action hit, Nobody, so maybe this is an indicator of what to expect?
Franco was last seen in Michael Bay’s Netflix flick 6 Underground, and recently made a successful directorial debut with vacation thriller, The Rental.
From out of nowhere, Blumhouse has dropped the totally unexpected trailer for El Chupacabras, the new film by renowned Tigers Are Not Afraid director Issa Lopez! The film is based on the Latin American legend of the creature that devours everything in its path, including livestock. Check out this gruesome footage below!
April Fools! Okay, don’t get mad at me, get mad at Blumhouse and Lopez who pulled off this April Fools’ Day prank, using footage from Fantasy Island, Insidious: The Last Key, The Lords of Salem, Dark Skies, and I think there’s some of The Green Inferno in there?
It’s a silly gag, but Blumhouse and Lopez really are working together. Lopez is set to adapt and direct Our Lady of Tears, based on a true story of “a mass hysteria epidemic with supernatural roots” spread throughout a Roman Catholic School for girls in Mexico City.
The way we farm has changed significantly from the idea that has been planted (no pun intended) in our minds. More often than not, the soil, seeds, and plants are as much a technological invention as any machine, and that comes with all sorts of intellectual property rights and other legal nonsense we don’t want to think about when it comes to food. But those court battles matter, as seen in the trailer for Percy Vs. Goliath, about one farmer’s fight against the corporate giant Monsanto.
Starring Christopher Walken as Percy Schmeiser, the film centers on the aging small-town farmer as he is targeted by multinational agrochemical company Monsanto, who accuse him of using their lab-created seeds for his crops, and they expect payment. The protracted legal battle was key in establishing farmers’ rights, the regulation of transgenic crops, and bringing attention to genetically engineered food.
Also in the cast are Zach Braff (this seems like a movie he would’ve directed, honestly), Christina Ricci, Luke Kirby, Adam Beach, and Martin Donovan. Behind the camera is veteran actor/director Clark Johnson, best-known for directing S.W.A.T., The Sentinel, and episodes of The Wire. To me he’ll always be Detective Meldrick Lewis on Homicide: Life On the Street.
Percy Vs. Goliath opens in theaters and VOD on April 30th.
Academy Award® Winner Christopher Walken*, Zach Braff and Christina Ricci star in the true story of a small-town farmer taking on one of the largest agricultural and food manufacturing corporations. Percy Schmeiser (Walken), a third-generation farmer, is sued by a corporate giant for allegedly using their patented seeds. With little resources to fight the giant legal battle, Percy joins forces with up-and-coming attorney Jackson Weaver (Braff) and environmental activist Rebecca Salcau (Ricci) to fight one of the most monumental cases all the way up to the Supreme Court.
Chances are, an isolated 19th-century farmhouse sold at a remarkably low price has something wrong with it. Like it’s probably haunted. In the movies, that’s never going to be enough to stop some short-sighted folks from buying it anyway, and that’s what happens in the upcoming Netflix thriller, Things Heard & Seen.
The most interesting thing about this haunted horror is the talent attached to it. American Splendor duo Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini directed and wrote the script in a departure from their usual fare. The cast is led by Oscar-nominated Mank star Amanda Seyfried, along with Little Women‘s James Norton, Stranger Things’ Natalia Dyer, Alex Neustaedter, Rhea Seehorn, Michael O’Keefe, Karen Allen, Jack Gore, F. Murray Abraham, James Urbaniak, and Ana Sophia Heger.
Things Heard & Seen hits Netflix on April 29th!
Catherine Clare (Academy Award®-nominee Amanda Seyfried) reluctantly trades life in 1980s Manhattan for a remote home in the tiny hamlet of Chosen, New York, after her husband George (James Norton) lands a job teaching art history at a small Hudson Valley college. Even as she does her best to transform the old dairy farm into a place where young daughter Franny will be happy, Catherine increasingly finds herself isolated and alone. She soon comes to sense a sinister darkness lurking both in the walls of the ramshackle property—and in her marriage to George.
The entire world was devastated by the sudden death of Chadwick Boseman, leaving behind a short but profound legacy as an actor and as a good person. For those who worked with him closest and knew him best, that loss has been tough to overcome, such as Black Panther director Ryan Coogler. The sequel moves on without Boseman, and with Coogler having written a new script that moves on without T’Challa. Exactly how that happens, we have no idea, but Coogler explains to THR his decision to return and tell that story…
“It’s difficult. You’ve got to keep going when you lose loved ones. I know Chad wouldn’t have wanted us to stop. He was somebody who was so about the collective. ‘Black Panther,’ that was his movie. He was hired to play that role before anybody else was even thought of, before I was hired, before any of the actresses were hired.”
“On that set, he was all about everybody else. Even though he was going through what he was going through, he was checking in on them, making sure they were good. If we cut his coverage, he would stick around and read lines off-camera [to help other actors with their performances]. So it would be harder for me to stop. Truthfully. I’d feel him yelling at me, like, ‘What are you doing?’ So you keep going.”
I feel like Coogler is getting asked this same question a lot. He said pretty much the same thing in another interview just a couple of weeks ago. Questions about the absence of Boseman are understandable and that set is going to be incredibly emotional. I just hope there’s a time when Coogler is allowed to just make the best movie he can and honor Boseman in the way he sees fit.
