Well, I didn’t go to SXSW expecting to see the most grisly animated film I’ve ever witnessed, but that’s what The Spine of Night delivered. Perhaps the title should’ve been a warning? Philip Gelatt and Morgan Galen King’s grim epic fantasy comprises multiple tales of brutality, magic, tyranny, and heroic sacrifice set across what appears to be multiple centuries across time. The hyper-realistic, rotoscoping animation of Ralph Bakshi would seem a clear influence, but the film stands on its own as an astonishingly unforgiving tale of power run amok.
The Spine of Night is, first and foremost, about storytelling. Everybody has one, and they all center on “the Bloom”, a magical blue flower with extraordinary powers. The first we hear is from the naked swamp mage Tzod (Lucy Lawless) as she approaches a skull-shaped cave and its ancient Guardian (Richard E. Grant) in search of the flower’s gifts. Rather than fight, as he’s warily done for years, they exchange stories. Hers involves a petty prince (Patton Oswalt) who massacres her tribe with the help of a mercenary (Joe Manganiello), all to steal the power of the Bloom from her. It’s then that her path crosses with Ghal-sur (Jordan Douglas Smith), a seemingly innocent scholar whose intentions are malevolent to be sure, and spell doom for the entire world.
Each story told by Tzod and the Guardian presents a different phase of the Bloom, from it falling into Ghal-Sur’s hands, to his abuse of its power and the horrors he unleashes on the people, to the small band of fighters who attempt to stop him. Each is more horrific and cruel than the last. Even the minor diversions into smaller, seemingly-hopeful tales, such as one with the last two survivors of a Ghal-Sur massacre, end in slaughter. It can be a bit much to take consuming this much rampant bloodshed, and the filmmakers take it to the extreme. You’ll see countless decapitations, mutilations, immolations, and yes, there’s worse.
And yet, the Fire and Ice-inspired animation is never less than sheer aristry and wonderfully detailed in its depictions of sorcery and violence. Free from the restrictions of live-action filmmaking, Gelatt and King go wild with eye-popping displays, and allow their A-list cast of voice actors to express with gusto. If there’s an over-arching theme of these stories it’s that the cycle of violence is never-ending, and wielded by both the good and the bad. These cycles create the legends, fables, and myths that civilizations are built upon. Ultimately, The Spine of Night is set apart by how its visual beauty works in symphony with the gruesome imagery on display. This one is sure to be a winner with fans of this art style and the rare adult-themed fantasy epic.
If you were like the rest of the world and left completely unsatisfied by the final season of Game of Thrones, you now have three more shows taking place in Westeros you can feel disappointed by. (I’m kidding. We’ll give them a chance.)
Deadline is reporting HBO is developing three new shows set in George R.R. Martin’s universe. The first and most fully formed of the three is 9 Voyages also called Sea Snake. Long time TV writer and producer Bruno Heller (Rome, The Mentalist, Gotham, Pennyworth) is attached to the show’s creative team. Despite his grievances with how Game of Thrones ended, Martin is also involved in the project.
The title of the series refers to “the great voyages at sea made by Corlys Velaryon aboard the Sea Snake ship.Velaryon journeyed to places including Pentos, Dragonstone and around the bottom of Westeros as well as to Lys, Tyrosh and Myr. He reached the fabled lands of Yi Ti and Leng, whose wealth doubled that of the House Velaryon, and him and the Ice Wolf headed north searching for passage around the top of Westeros, only to find frozen seas and icebergs as big as mountains.”
Flea Bottom would take us back into the capital of Kings Landing. Instead of focusing on the goings on of the Red Keep, the series will take place in Flea Bottom, the poor area of the city. Fans of the original show will know that fan favorites Davos Seaworth and Gendry Waters grew up in that neighborhood. However don’t get your hopes up that those characters will return (though I would watch Joe Dempsie’s Gendry anytime). All three new series will be prequels.
In the last final seasons of Game of Thrones many fans tried to predict the series’s ending using the show’s lore and Westerosi History. Of course they didn’t use any of that, but the new series 10,000 Ships is said by Variety to revolve around Princess Nymeria, the warrior Princess who inspired Ayra Stark to the point of naming her direwolf after her. Like Flea Bottom, 10,000 Ships does not have a screenwriter attached to it yet.
If any of these shows appeal to you, hold your dragons. None of them have been officially greenlit yet. However, House of the Dragon, another prequel series is set to air in 2022. According to the show’s official website, it is “based on George R.R. Martin’s book Fire & Blood, the series will tell the story of House Targaryen (a.k.a. the House that gave us the Mother of Dragons herself, Daenerys Targaryen) and take place 300 years before the events of Game of Thrones.”
Paddy Considine (The Outside), Olivia Cooke (Ready Player One), Emma D’Arcy (Truth Seekers), Matt Smith (The Crown), Steve Toussaint (Doctor Who), Eve Best (Nurse Jackie, The King’s Speech), Rhys Ifans (Notting Hill, The Amazing Spider-Man) and Sonoya Mizuno (Ex Machina, Crazy Rich Asians) are set to star in the series.
Everybody has one, although we don’t always listen to it. It’s the voice in your head; your mom may have called it the angel on your shoulder. Sometimes that angel is really a devil, corrupting your instincts, your intuition, and even the thoughts you have about your own self-worth. In actress-turned-director Justine Bateman’s film Violet, that voice sounds an awful lot like Justin Theroux, and he’s tearing poor Olivia Munn apart from the inside as she tries to make it in the most judgemental place in the world: Hollywood.
Violet is a fascinating mess, one with valuable insights on mental health, female objectification, sexism, and more. Munn, who has dealt with more than her share of these issues quite publicly, is the perfect choice to play the title character. Violet is a 32-year-old head of production at a major movie studio in Hollywood, the kind of job that one might think affords a certain level of self-confidence. But Violet is completely the opposite. At every turn she doubts herself, devalues her own opinion, and gives in to those who don’t deserve it. She lets her subordinates walk all over her at work. She ignores the obvious romantic feelings she has towards her filmmaker friend Red (Luke Bracey) in favor of a smug Universal Studios exec (Peter Jacobsen) who doesn’t give a shit about her.
So why does she do this? The Committee. That’s the name she gives to the voice in her head that tells her to defy her every whim, and to never be open with anybody. To always keep her armor up, or worse, to drive them away altogether as she does an ex (Simon Quarterman) who has approached her in good faith. Bateman scrawls Violet’s thoughts across the screen in big, bold unmissable cursive. It’s a distraction, and too often an obtrusion into genuinely affecting scenes that need to stand on their own. Worse, this movie literally defines itself by telling you all of the things it could be showing you. Munn is more than capable of pulling off the conflicts within Violet, and pulls off one of her finest performances despite having all of the emotions she needs to portray spelled out for the audience. Bateman, who not only makes her directorial debut but wrote the Violet script, has a good idea that might have been better served with a more experienced hand behind the camera, one that trusts its audience a bit more.
Sadly, when the Guardians of the Galaxy return, they’ll be without Michael Rooker’s blue-skinned Ravager, Yondu. Not that it should come as any surprise given the way things turned out for him in the previous film, but the space pirate definitely won’t be coming back according to director James Gunn.
This is something both Gunn and Rooker have talked about before, with both in agreement that Yondu should stay dead. But it was re-emphasized by Gunn in a tweet to a fan asking the question…
As I’ve said before, Yondu is dead & will stay dead as long as I’m involved with the Guardians. His death means something to people & I’m not about to diminish that. https://t.co/27Xem0vX7l
The fan’s question isn’t totally out of left field. We are talking Marvel superheroes after all, right? They come back all of the time. Just look at Quicksilver…oh wait.
I think Gunn has the right idea, though. Yondu made the heroic sacrifice to save Star-Lord in Guardians of the Galaxy 2. Having him come right back would undermine the whole thing.
Gunn recently wrapped up on The Suicide Squad and has turned his attentions to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 which arrives in 2023.
Full disclosure, I seriously dig the 1999 teen comedy She’s All That. It was just a great time for those movies back then, and it’s sad to think this was pretty much the pinnacle of Rachael Leigh Cook’s career, and among the best for Freddie Prinze Jr. and Matthew Lillard, as well. Do we need a remake of it? Not at all. Do we need one with a gender-swapped spin? Definitely not. And do we need it to star some “TikTok sensation” in her acting debut? Of course not. However, we do need the return of Cook and Lillard, which makes things a little bit okay.
The She’s All That remake is titled, what else, He’s All That, and is coming to Netflix. Of course it is. Basically a modernized take on Pygmalion, the story followed a popular high school guy who decided to turn a social outcast into someone cool by befriending her and changing everything about her. He did this by giving her a new fashion sense and encouraging her to be more confident until the truth of his ruse was made public. You bet your ass there were lessons learned about not judging books by their cover and respecting people for who they are. Those lessons are more important than ever right now, so I can see why a remake could make sense.
This new version will flip things around, though, so it’s a cool girl out to change a loser dude. The cast includes the aforementioned TikToker, Addison Rae (who???), plus Tanner Buchanan, Madison Pettis, Peyton Meyer, Isabella Crovetti, Annie Jacob, and Myra Molloy. Cook and Lillard return but as completely different characters, which seems like a missed opportunity.
Back to write the script is the original film’s screenwriter, R. Lee Fleming Jr., who is also responsible for another underrated teen comedy from that era, 2001’s Get Over It. Behind the camera is Freaky Friday and Mean Girls director Mark Waters. Look for He’s All That to hit Netflix later this year, with a trailer likely right around the corner.
When we think of “fear” in horror movies, it’s generally the usual suspects: monsters, serial killers, etc. After all, they tend to generate the most scares as they are fantastical things that exist outside our normal everyday life. When’s the last time you saw a werewolf? That’s why they terrify some people when seen on the big screen. However, when you actually think of fears (or the clinical term of phobias), there are a huge plethora of things that disturb you. Hell, I didn’t even know what trypophobia is, but I sure as hell know that the sight of multiple holes makes me itchy and I desperately hate the visual. Even thinking about holes can fill me with dread! So, there are all sorts of real-life phobias that exist in our real world, and that’s what the Vertical Entertainment film Phobias tries to explore.
Operating as an anthology film, Phobias is directed by 5 different directors as it centers on 5 different types of phobias. Director Joe Sill takes a stab at “Robophobia” (fear or robots, drones, robot-like mechanics or artificial intelligence). Director Maritte Lee Go tackles “Vehophobia” (fear of driving). Director Chris von Hoffmann showcases “Ephebiphobia” (fear of teenagers). Director Camilla Belle explores “Hoplophobia” (fear of guns and firearms). Finally, director Jess Varley films “Atelophobia” (fear of not doing something right or the fear of not being good enough) as well as scenes filmed at the “Outpost 37” location, where mad scientist Dr. Wright (Ross Partridge) is trying to force his patients to relive their fears over and over in the hopes of weaponizing fear as a gaseous weapon. Who does he think he is, Jonathan Crane???
In the first phobia presented: Robophobia, actor Leonardo Nam is a computer programmer who’s constantly bullied and beaten up for being Asian by racist locals in his area (talk about poor timing), when he starts to be contacted by a mysterious AI that wants to “be his friend,” but at the same time, commits heinous crimes on his behalf. The film first seems like it’s solely going to be about Nam’s character, but then he wakes up at a facility where we get to meet the other unwilling patients at the mysterious Outpost 37. In the Vehophobia segment, Hannah Mae Lee plays a young woman who’s having car issues and constantly freaking out after her boyfriend leaves her. At first, it feels like we are going into Christine territory as this car is doing very strange things all on its own, but slowly but surely her backstory is revealed, and we find out that maybe she’s not as innocent as one would believe. The Ephebiphobia portion explores a woman (Lauren Miller Roge) who’s on the receiving end of a home invasion by a bunch of Children of the Corn type of teenagers who are ready to slice and dice her up. As this part of Phobias is explored though it’s revealed that she also is not as innocent in her actions and the kids kind of have a point (they just shouldn’t go on a murderous rampage to make it though). In the Hoplophobia segment of Phobias, reluctant patient Alma (Martina Garcia) is a former SWAT officer who now has severe PTSD after a raid goes bad and she kills an innocent kid for shooting blindly (again, talk about poor timing) and as a result, is now is forced to relive that worst moment of her life and how it affects her everyday life with her son. In Atelophobia, a manager (Macy Gray, yes that Macy Gray) at an architecture firm is dealing with new employees as she demands perfection. She just happens to go through extreme lengths in order to achieve it. As each of the patients has to explore their phobia for the sake of the cruel doctor’s experiments, they decide they have to find a way out of this place.
While each of the segments is directed well by each director and has some strong performances throughout each segment, Phobias has a weird “episode of the week” feel that would work for Black Mirror or some sort of television show that could focus on one phobia each episode, but not as a feature film, especially when it tries to tie everything together at the end. But making it an anthology film that then tries to tie everything together doesn’t work overall. Unfortunately, Phobias definitely has a “too many cooks” feel to it. It is interesting that the premise of the film can also shed light on the idea that there are different phobias that affect people in their everyday lives, and offer a different perspective on mental illness and mental health.
While the gore is well done and bloody when needed, Phobias also doesn’t really deliver in the scare department. For a film to be titled Phobias, it should be scary and perhaps delivers one semi-effective jump scare through its 1 hour 25-minute runtime. In addition, we are supposed to identify with these patients, but as their phobia is explored and we learn each of their backstories, it’s very hard to have sympathy for any of them as they all have done heinous things that led them to end up at Outpost 37. Sure, Dr. Wright and the soldiers detaining them are horrible, but they really aren’t that much better people than their captors. And that’s probably the biggest fallacy with Phobias, there really are no real “heroes” in the film. The only one close is the Robophobia character, and he has a pet AI that kills people for him without his consent. The characters in the film are just a bunch of bad guys that you have to kind of pick, who is more terrible than the other.
Overall, Phobias is challenged to make an engaging film showcasing different talents to provide a new perspective of fear, but unfortunately also tries to do too much and too little at the same time. And the film will probably not have the desired effect that it wants to have.
Phobias is currently available On Demand and in select theaters
Nick Cassavetes’s new film God Is A Bullet just got an all-star cast. Jamie Foxx, January Jones, Maika Monroe, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, and Andrew Dice Clay just joined the action-thriller.
Based off of Boston Teran’s book of the same name, the project will be written and directed by Cassavetes. Game of Thrones’s Coster-Waldau will play vice detective Bob Hightower who tries to find the ties between his kidnapped ex-wife and daughter and a satanic cult. His character infiltrates the cult with the help of the cult’s only female escapee, played by Monroe. Fox is set to play a character called “The Ferryman.”
“I am excited to get God Is A Bullet into production with my friend and producer/financer, Michael Mendelsohn. It’s a magnificent, ultra-dark work that is somehow both intensely frightening and literate, inspired by true events, with the most amazing cast of actors,” Nick Cassavetes said about the project.
XYZ films and Patriot Pictures are set to present and present the film. Pre-production for God Is A Bullet has already started in Mexico with a May 24 shooting date. [Deadline]
Tom Hiddleston is no stranger to comic book adaptions. This experience will come in handy with his next project. Announced earlier today, Hiddleston will be joining Claire Danes in Apple’s adaption of Sarah Perry’s novel The Essex Serpent.
Danes will play a newly widowed abuse survivor, who relocates from Victorian London to a small village in Essex. She grows increasingly interested in the local superstition of the Essex Serpent. Hiddleston will play Will Ransome, a trusted leaser of the community.
The series marks Hiddleston’s return to TV after starring in The Night Manager and The Hollow Crown. His new series Loki, in which he reprised his role from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, for Disney+ is set to air in June.
Danes is taking over the role for Keira Knightley, who left the project for personal reasons. Clio Bernard is set to direct The Essex Serpent with Anna Symon as head writer. Production started March 15th. [Variety]
All rise, all rise, all rise. Matthew McConaughey is headed back to the courtroom. The Texan native is attrached to reprise his role of Jake Brigance from 1996’s A Time To Kill in a new HBO series. Like its predecessor, this new series is based off of a John Grisham novel, A Time For Mercy. The show will take the same name.
The 2020 book is the third Grisham work to center on attorney Jake Brigance, after A Time To Kill and Sycamore Row. In it, Jake must defend a young man accused of killing his mother’s boyfriend. A screenwriter has yet to be announced for the adaption.
The film version of A Time To Kill was one of McConaughey’s breakout roles. His Brigance defended a black man (Samuel L Jackson) on trial for killing two white men who raped his young daughter. Sandra Bullock also starred in the legal drama.
McConaughey is no stranger to HBO legal dramas having starred in the critically acclaimed first season of True Detective with Woody Harrelson.
WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 06: Thousands of Donald Trump supporters storm the United States Capitol building following a "Stop the Steal" rally on January 06, 2021 in Washington, DC. The protesters stormed the historic building, breaking windows and clashing with police. Trump supporters had gathered in the nation's capital today to protest the ratification of President-elect Joe Biden's Electoral College victory over President Trump in the 2020 election. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Well, that didn’t take long did it? The U.S. Capitol insurrection on January 6th is a stain on this country’s democracy and it isn’t likely to ever be forgotten, despite some elected officials’ attempts to move on from it. Not only will the American people never forget where they were when thousands of Trump supporters attempted an armed coup, but Hollywood is going to make sure we remember it with tons of movies and shows on the subject.
And it starts now as The Comey Rule‘s Billy Ray and Shane Salerno are developing a Showtime series on the U.S. Capitol attack. The series will look at the final frenzied days of the failed Trump administration, and at the insurrection from multiple perspectives.
Billy Ray and Shane Salerno were writers on Showtime series The Comey Rule, which dealt with the FBI Director James Comey and his relationship with the previous occupant of the White House. Ray will write and direct the series with Salerno on board as exec-producer.
The investigations into the attack are still ongoing, with hundreds of people arrested and more likely to come. With so much that we just don’t know yet, like which Republicans in Congress aided the attackers before and after, there’s potential for this to be an evolving project right up until it’s ready to shoot. Will there be a character based on the QAnon Shaman? We can only hope. [Deadline]
