‘Hawkeye’: Hailee Steinfeld Is Reportedly Set For Kate Bishop Role

By

-

July 28, 2020

Has Marvel finally found their Kate Bishop? For months, it hasn’t been clear whether Hailee Steinfeld would sign on to join Jeremy Renner in Disney+ series Hawkeye. While it looked like a sure thing at first, the actress has played very coy, going so far as to say she was unsure she would do it.

A new report by The Illuminerdi says Steinfeld has officially agreed to play Kate Bishop in the Hawkeye series. Take that with a grain of salt, of course. The role of Bishop is an important one, both for the show and possibly for the MCU as a whole. Bishop trains as Clint Barton’s protegee, and eventually takes on the mantle of Hawkeye. The last we saw of Hawkeye was in Avengers: Endgame, where he ditched the codename and became the costumed vigilante, Ronin. He also suffered tremendous losses, including the life of his best friend, Black Widow. But at least he got his family back after they had been snapped out of existence.

Assuming this is true, that would mean Steinfeld’s commitments to Apple TV+ and her series Dickinson are no longer an obstacle. Marvel hopes to begin production on Hawkeye in October, with a Disney+ debut in 2021.

Adam McKay Teams With HBO For Series On Global Hunt For A Coronavirus Vaccine

By

Travis Hopson

-

July 28, 2020

You know it was going to happen that Hollywood would leap on dramatizations of the current COVID-19 crisis, but did you expect it to be this soon? There isn’t even a coronavirus vaccine yet, and already HBO and Oscar-winning director Adam McKay are developing a limited series about the quest to find one.

Deadline reports HBO has optioned The First Shot, based on the non-fiction book by The Atlantic and New York Times journalist Brendan Borrell, exploring the global race to find a COVID-19 vaccine.

The actual series has yet to be given a title, currently going by “Untitled Vaccine Project”. No information on episode count, casting, etc., has been detailed as of yet. McKay will produce through his Hyperobject Industries label, and will exec-produce, as well.

Add this to the growing list of projects McKay has cooking with HBO. Most notably, he’s working with director Bong Joon-ho on a Parasite series. He also has a miniseries about Jeffrey Epstein, a Los Angeles Lakers drama, and more.

Meanwhile, HBO is going all-in on coronavirus-related content. The network also has Coastal Elites, a comedy special starring Bette Midler, Sarah Paulson, Kaitlyn Dever, Dan Levy, and Issa Rae due to release in September.

‘Mandibules’ Teaser: The Director Of ‘Rubber’ Is Back With A Weird Movie About A Giant Fly

By

Travis Hopson

-

July 28, 2020

If you don’t know Quentin Dupieux, you probably know his weird, absurdist films including Rubber, Wrong, and Deerskin. Well, the musician-turned-filmmaker is back with another bizarre film, Mandibules, which has just been announced as part of the upcoming Venice Film Festival.

In the few seconds we see of Mandibules, Dupieux promises a giant fly drinking from a fountain. It’s pretty gross if you have a thing about insects, but sets the stage for what could be the weirdest friendship story since…Swiss Army Man?

SYNOPSIS: Jean-Gab and Manu, two simple-minded friends, find a giant fly stuck in the trunk of a car and decide to train it to earn money with it.

Mandibules will be released in France on December 2nd, and we’ll eventually see it stateside as we have Dupieux’s other films.

‘Watchmen’, ‘The Mandalorian’ Dominate The 2020 Emmy Nominations

By

Travis Hopson

-

July 28, 2020

We don’t normally cover the Emmy nominations around here, but this year had to be an exception given the delightfully weird and superheroic projects that dominated. The Television Academy has announced the nominees for the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards, and if you are a galactic bounty hunter or a costumed vigilante fighting to stop a race war, this was a very good day.

HBO’s Watchmen pulled off a clean friggin’ sweep with 26 nominations across 19 categories (!!!), including Best Lead Actress for Regina King in her role as Angela Abar, and Best Lead Actor for Jeremy Irons as Adrien Veidt. Nods for Outstanding Limited Series, and Outstanding Writing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic Special were also included for what many believe to be the best miniseries in recent memory.

In something we’ve never seen happen before, a Star Wars TV series is also now an Emmy nominee. The Mandalorian was a huge success on Disney+, and now it has earned 15 Emmy nominations across 13 categories, including Best Visual Effects. If it wins, imagine the t-shirts of Baby Yoda holding the spoils of victory! The series earned nods for Outstanding Drama, Original Dramatic Score, and even a voice-acting nod for Taika Waititi as IG-11. Giancarlo Esposito’s brief role as Moff Gideon earned him a nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor In A Drama Series.

Overall, Netflix led all networks with 160 nominations, easily besting HBO which had 107. For the complete rundown of Emmy nominees, go to the TCA website here.

‘Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous’ Teaser: T-Rex Attacks Teenage Campers In Netflix’s Animated Series

By

Travis Hopson

-

July 28, 2020

Every kid loves dinosaurs. But maybe every parent doesn’t want their child watching people get eaten in the big screen Jurassic World franchise, which can be a little bit scary. The franchise is expanding in a more kid-friendly way with Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous, a light-hearted animated series for Netflix that has dropped its first teaser.

Executive produced by some guys named Steven Spielberg, Colin Trevorrow and Frank Marshall, Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous is as light-hearted as a children’s show can be where the characters are under constant threat of being eaten by dinosaurs.

The 8-episode series follows a group of six teens chosen for a “once-in-a-lifetime” camp adventure at Isla Nublar. But true to form, the dinosaurs break loose and wreak havoc on the island. To survive, the campers will have to band together until they can reach the outside world.

Okay, it doesn’t sound very light-hearted at all, really. How is this for kids again?

The series was developed by Zack Stentz (writer on Thor, X-Men: First Class) with Scott Kreamer and Aaron Hammersley as showrunners. Providing voices are Paul-Mikél Williams as dinosaur expert Darius, Jenna Ortega plays “social media sensation” Brooklynn, Ryan Potter is “self-appointed VIP” Kenji, Raini Rodriguez voices the “gregarious and enthusiastic” Sammy, Sean Giambrone is “sensitive and bookish” Ben, and Kausar Mohammed plays world-class athlete Yaz. Jameela Jamil and Glen Powell have recurring roles as camp counselors.

Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous comes to Netflix on September 18th.

Josh Boone Reveals Why ‘The New Mutants’ Can’t Go Straight To Digital

By

Travis Hopson

-

July 28, 2020

When The New Mutants panel at Comic-Con happened and it was once again confirmed the film would be in theaters on August 28th, some people were confused. Many have expected Disney to release it straight-to-digital, either on Disney+ or Hulu, as a means of avoiding the embarrassing box office of Dark Phoenix. Director Josh Boone has weighed in on this with Collider, and he has a reason why Disney absolutely will put The New Mutants in theaters.

“With most movies, you sign contracts that guarantee a theatrical release, so it needs to open to ever go digital in the first place,” Boone said. “We just, too, would like to see people to see it in the theater. But it needs to obviously be at the right time when it’s safe to go back.”

So Disney is contractually bound to release The New Mutants in theaters first before it can go streaming. While the easy thing would be to just drop it in a handful of open theaters, at least they’re trying to find a pathway to it being a success. I had begun to think, with the severe lack of any advertising, that Disney was intentionally cutting the film off at the knees.

Sadly, Comic-Con @ Home Was A Massive Failure

By

Travis Hopson

-

July 28, 2020

What is San Diego Comic-Con without the San Diego? A huge flop, apparently. Comic-Con @ Home, the digital version of the annual pop culture showcase failed to lure in crowds to check out ZOOM panels of their various fandoms, with social engagement way down and a shockingly low average of YouTube viewers.

Variety reports Comic-Con @ Home had a disappointing inaugural (and hopefully only) edition. The virtual convention saw social engagement plummet 94% compared to last year. ListenFirst’s analysis shows that tweets mentioning Comic-Con @ Home were down 95% from 2019’s on-location convention — just 93,681 tweets against 1,719,000 tweets in 2019. Tweets about the top 10 TV events dropped 93%, while it was a 99% drop in tweets over the top 5 movie events.

Meanwhile, it was pretty ugly in terms of YouTube viewership. Thursday was the busiest day for livestream panels, but the average number of people watching was just 15,000. While YouTube notes that number is considerably more than the number who cram into Hall H each year, the difference is attendance is free and available to the world right now. A popular YouTube video might get views in the millions.

So there are a bunch of theories why Comic-Con @ Home didn’t work out. You could blame COVID-19, which causes the event to go digital in the first place. Maybe people just have more important things on their mind than watching celebrities talk about their upcoming movies or TV shows. It also doesn’t help that Marvel, Warner Bros., and many of the studios provided little to no content.

That’s not the real reason, though. Comic-Con is an experience. All of us who attend each year go for the feeling of being there, amongst our tribe. We go to walk the floors, to see the cosplay, to check out the exhibits, to be in the same room with our favorite stars. That feeling can never be captured by watching a video on your phone or sitting at your desk. And if, God help us, we’re still going through this nightmare next year, it might be a good idea to just skip it altogether.

Kevin Smith Braves The World Of Horror Once More With ‘Killroy Was Here’

By

John Nolan

-

July 27, 2020

While he’s not exactly a name you associate with horror Kevin Smith has shown some real love for the genre and has proven himself to be adept at shooting that which scares us. Ok, so Yoga Hosers wasn’t really a horror film, and Tusk is not exactly a fan favorite, but Red State now that’s movie that brought something new and terrifying. You know what, rewind that Tusk may have had some pacing problems but that movie has a truly disturbing story and pay-off. All this is to say I think Smith deserves another bite at the apple, I mean 1.5 out of 3 ain’t bad…I guess. Ok, I’m not really fighting my fight right now. So we should let the trailer below do the talking.

Killroy Was Here is an upcoming horror anthology. The film’s title of course comes from some of the most well known graffiti and perhaps the world’s first meme from way back in World War II. That little fella was written on everything from bombs to bunkers. Now he’s the inspriation for the series of stories depicted within. The trailer doesn’t really draw clear lines between the stories, but it would appear one takes place in a high school, and I’m sure there’s a story dedicated to Chris Jericho’s Gator Guy youtuber. I’m a schill for Smith so of course I’ll see this but honestly something about the feel of this trailer makes me think there’s a chance Smith may have his first bonafide cult classic horror film on it’s hands. There’s definitely a whiff of Trick R Treat to all this.

Plus you gotta give it to a guy that machete’s his own daughter for the sake of horror.

Killroy Was Here is set to be released on VOD on a yet to be released date in 2020

For more on Kevin Smith and his projects, click here!

‘The Kissing Booth 3’ Already Shot In Secret, To Be Released In 2021

By

Cortland Jacoby

-

July 27, 2020

Even though The Kissing Booth 2 came out on Friday, that doesn’t mean Netflix can’t tease us with what’s to come next in the franchise. Netflix not only announced that the teen rom-com is getting a third movie, but yesterday the streaming service said that that movie has already been shot. The Kissing Booth 3 was filmed with its previous installment in South Africa and will be released next year.

In the clip, Elle, Noah, Lee, and Rachel are all enjoying their graduation trip, when Elle receives a call from the Harvard admissions office. Despite telling her boyfriend, Noah, and her best friend, Lee, that she has been waitlisted at both Harvard and the University of California, where they will both respectively attend, the latest film ended with Elle making it into both colleges, setting up a sticky situation for the next movie.

The third installment will be written and directed by Vince Marcelllo, who wrote and directed the first two films. Joey King, who plays Elle, will return along with the original cast including Jacob Elordi, Joel Courtney, Meganne Young, Molly Ringwald, Taylor Zakhar Perez, and Maisie Richardson-Sellers. The series is based on Beth Reekles’ novels.

If you are jonesing for more Kissing Booth content, check out the panel that the cast of the second movie participated in over the weekend below.

Teaser For ‘Zack Snyder’s Justice League’ To Debut Next Month

By

Travis Hopson

-

July 27, 2020

Was the brief look at Superman’s black suit in Zack Snyder’s Justice League not enough? After years of clamoring for the “Snyder Cut”, and finally getting what they’ve been begging for, it’s understandable that fans want more, and they want it right now. Well, they’re going to have to wait until next month and the inaugural DC Fandome event.

One of many shoes to drop at last weekend’s Justice Con event, Zack Snyder revealed that a legit teaser of his Justice League film will debut at the DC FanDome event on August 22nd. Snyder has been working on the trailer ever since his cut of the movie was confirmed for HBO Max next year.

“There will be more footage [at FanDome] so you can look forward to a bigger meal, if you will,” Snyder said. “You don’t have to watch just the same three shots over and over again… That clip [the black suit Superman clip] is more for fans…it’s the realization of an idea.”

Snyder has teased so much over the years that I’m anxious to see if he can restrain himself now and keep some surprises quiet.