‘Tesla’ Trailer: Ethan Hawke Brings The Electricity In Michael Almereyda’s Unconventional Biopic

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July 10, 2020

In case you didn’t know, today marks the 164th birthday of the great electrical engineer and inventor Nikola Tesla. Sooooo uhhh flip on a generator in his honor, I guess? Or you can go the easy route and just check out the new trailer for Tesla, which reunites director Michael Almereyda with his Hamlet and Cymbeline star Ethan Hawke.

Hawke stars as Nikola Tesla, the brooding inventor whose revolutionary ideas would define the future of electricity. The film charts his rivalry with Thomas Edison, played by Kyle Machlachlan, but the story is told through the eyes of J.P. Morgan’s daughter Anne, played by The Knick actress Eve Hewson. Also in the cast are Jim Gaffigan, Donnie Keshawarz , Hannah Gross, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Josh Hamilton, Lois Smith, and James Urbaniak.

Almereyda has been more experimental than ever of late, taking new creative approaches with his films Experimenter and Marjorie Prime. For his work on Tesla he won the Alfred P. Sloan Award at Sundance, where the film made its world premiere.

Tesla hits theaters and VOD on August 21st.

Matt Reeves And ‘Boardwalk Empire’ Creator Developing ‘The Batman’ Spinoff Series For HBO Max

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Travis Hopson

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July 10, 2020

Matt Reeves’ The Batman doesn’t arrive for a year, but there’s reason to be optimistic. While rumors have often swirled whether there would be some expansion of the universe Reeves is creating, either through sequels or inclusion into the wider DCEU, we now know it will indeed happen. However, it’ll be as a spinoff drama series for HBO Max, and it won’t necessarily focus on the Caped Crusader.

Variety reports that Warner Bros. is moving forward on a drama series for HBO Max that takes place in the same universe Reeves is creating for The Batman. In what sounds like a reboot of Gotham, the show will “build on the film’s examination of the anatomy of corruption in Gotham City.”

Reeves will exec-produce, working alongside writer/exec-producer Terence Winter, best known as creator of Boardwalk Empire and chief writer on The Sopranos. Given the legacy of award-winning content he’s created for HBO, it’s easy to see why WB is eager to have him on a project like this.

Reeves had this to say, “This is an amazing opportunity, not only to expand the vision of the world I am creating in the film, but to explore it in the kind of depth and detail that only a longform format can afford — and getting to work with the incredibly talented Terence Winter, who has written so insightfully and powerfully about worlds of crime and corruption, is an absolute dream.”

The untitled series is still early on so there’s no info on a release date. This is all just fuel for the anticipated release of The Batman on October 1st 2021.

‘The Old Guard’ Interview: Gina Prince-Bythewood And Kiki Layne On Their Immortal Action Flick, Diversity, And That Huge Fight Scene

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Travis Hopson

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July 10, 2020

The Old Guard is a superhero movie…but then, not quite. The film by director Gina Prince-Bythewood follows a group of immortal warriors who have been fighting the good fight for millennia, only now in the present they find their long lives threatened like never before. At the same time, a new member of their small circle has been found, and adapting her to her new life is proving very dangerous.

The film is an adaptation of Greg Rucka’s graphic novel, and stars Charlize Theron, Kiki Layne, Matthias Schoenaerts, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and more. My review went up last week and I’ve been blown away by the response. Not necessarily to my review, but by the anticipation people have for this movie. Part of the reason, I’m sure, is the lack of big blockbuster movies in the time of COVID-19, but also because people know to expect only the best from Prince-Bythewood.

The film’s diverse casting has also caught the eye of a lot of people, and that’s something I wanted to speak with Prince-Bythewood and Layne about in the interview I had with them yesterday. Not only did we discuss the movie’s diverse array of characters, which includes a young black woman and Marine, a Belgian man, plus Middle Eastern and Italian men who have been lovers across the ages.

I had the chance to talk with Layne about what it was like to take on her first big action movie, and to have an epic throwdown with Theron, arguably the top action star in the world. And what about sequels? Would they be willing to come back for more if Netflix came calling?

In case you can’t tell, The Old Guard is a movie I dig a lot. Listen to my interview with Gina Prince-Bythewood and Kiki Layne below! And then check out the movie on Netflix today!

Listen to “THE OLD GUARD Interview: Gina Prince-Bythewood And Kiki Layne On Their Immortal Action Flick” on Spreaker.

Review: ‘The Beach House’
Liana Liberato’s Beach Vacation Turns Into A Pandemic Nightmare

By
Jake Sokolsky
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You’d think some time away from the hustle and bustle of the real world would be a good idea, right? That’s exactly what Emily (Liana Liberato) and Randall (Noah Le Gros) have in mind in The Beach House. Things have been rocky for the two of them so a romantic few days at Randall’s family’s beach house is just what the doctor ordered. Unfortunately for Emily and Randall, Mitch (Jake Weber) and his wife Jane (Maryann Nagel) crash the party. Unbeknownst to Randall, his father is old friends with Mitch and let them stay at the house. Almost immediately Jane seems off, staring into space and her eyes seeming a million miles away behind her smile. Emily also stumbles upon a plethora of pills that Jane is on, but not sure what they are for.

On Emily and Randall’s first night there was a beautiful, and mysterious, glow that filled the ocean and the trees. All four of them went outside to explore and were surrounded by dense fog. The fog began to become thicker, and smell worse, affecting all the members of the house. Almost immediately things start to take a turn for the worse. Not only are Emily and Randall essentially living with strangers, but everyone is feeling ill – must have been the oysters! Jane is hit the hardest and becomes incredibly sick. Emily stars to realize that something is amiss, and this is no ordinary illness…the question is, what is it?

The Beach House has a lot going for it and is a very strong feature length debut for writer and director Jeffrey A. Brown. Most notably, the acting throughout the film is very good, with Liberato delivering an especially fantastic performance. Liberato carries a lot of the film forward and we get to see a wide range of emotion from her. Liberato is surely a name to keep an eye out for and performances like this one are why. She was entirely believable and helped create the atmosphere of dread throughout The Beach House. Brown lulls the audience in with the peacefulness of the beach town, before building up the terror. Water plays a big role and Brown makes sure we know it. He juxtaposes the soothing sounds of waves and wind with intense, ominous, noises and closeups of water.

Brown does a noble job with what he had to work with. The film only has a few locations and very minimal cast, but sometimes less is more. The issue is, while everything that The Beach House gives you is enjoyable, there just simply isn’t enough. The film could have benefited with an additional 20 minutes added and another chapter to the story. Without it, the audience is left largely unfulfilled. It’s admittedly a double edge sword. On one hand, the simplicity is admirable, and it isn’t full of unnecessary nonsense that takes away from the story. On the other hand, not enough happens to set The Beach House apart. There needed to be a happy medium and unfortunately The Beach House doesn’t find it. The film is enjoyable and absolutely worth a watch, but expect to be wanting more once the credits roll.

‘Endless’ Trailer: Alexandra Shipp & Nicholas Hamilton Have A Love That Won’t Die

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Travis Hopson

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July 9, 2020

We’re taught that when a loved one dies, they’re never truly gone and will always be with us. That concept has been the basis of many a ghost story, and that is certainly true for Endless, a romance that stars Alexandra Shipp as a woman whose dead boyfriend just won’t cross over to the other side.

Endless pairs Shipp alongside Nicholas Hamilton (Captain Fantastic) as a pair of lovers who are separated by a tragic accident, only to find that their love transcends life and death. The film is directed by Scott Speer, probably best known for Step Up Revolution and Midnight Sun. Also in the cast is another X-Men alum, Famke Janssen, and DeRon Horton of Dear White People.

Endless opens in select theaters and VOD on August 14th.

SYNOPSIS: Endless follows love-struck high school graduates Riley (Alexandra Shipp) and Chris (Nicholas Hamilton). When they are separated by a tragic car accident, Riley blames herself for her boyfriend’s death while Chris is stranded in limbo. Miraculously, the two find a way to connect. In a love story that transcends life and death, both Riley and Chris are forced to learn the hardest lesson of all: letting go.

Review: ‘Relic’
A Terrifying, Touching Intergenerational Haunted House Story

By
Travis Hopson
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What’s our greatest fear about growing old? It’s not dying; that’s the easy part. It’s being alone and abandoned by those we love. In Natalie Erika James creepy, confident debut Relic, three generations of women struggle to deal with the reality of one’s descent into dementia, while facing the possibility they could turn out the same. The legacy of familial pain is a staple of the horror genre, but James’ ability to blend haunted house and body horror elements prove especially effective at creating an atmosphere that will chill you to the bone.

The Japanese-Australian filmmaker sets her film on the outskirts of Melbourne in a creaky, decrepit country home. It’s here that Relic unpeels its many layers, like crumbling drywall. Theatre actress Robyn Nevin plays octogenarian Edna, who has vanished from the home and not been seen in days. The police call her distressed daughter Kay (Emily Mortimer) and granddaughter Sam (Bella Heathcote), who drive up to take part in a search party. When they get to the home, what they find is a place that is untouched other than the Post-It notes acting as reminders to do little simple tasks, and others that suggest something strange is going on. But mostly, Kay and Sam don’t do much but shuffle around until suddenly out of nowhere Edna returns, and yet it isn’t a total cause for celebration.

What’s interesting about Relic is the connection it makes between Edna’s mental state and that of the house itself. She returns, covered in black bruises that look like rot, much like the corrosion that is infecting the walls. One moment, Edna can be completely herself, the next she’s violent, wild, and the house seems to shift to match her aggression. While Edna is completely unpredictable from one moment to the next, Kay’s concern for her mother is often supplanted by dark nightmares, possibly visions, that haunt her at all times of the day.

James shows incredible restraint in building the suspense slowly, lingering on her characters’ concerned, shadowy faces for a beat or two past the point of comfort. In her and cinematographer Charlie Sarroff’s hands, a home that was once a thing of joy becomes a thing of terror, even mundane tasks like making breakfast or having a bath take on an ominous tone. But the bleak, grim palette does become hard to take and you wish someone would just plug in a night light or something. Coupled with the slow pace, it can make for a much longer than the 89-minute runtime would suggest.

What makes Relic work are the changing relationships between Edna, Kay, and Sam. Kay’s worry over what to do about her mother only increase tension as the older woman rejects being treated like an invalid. There’s unspoken pain between them, but you see it in Kay’s eyes and in Edna during her brief bouts of lucidity. Meanwhile, Sam gets along with her grandmother much better, and is just happy to see her home and alive. Unlike Kay, she’s still too young to have those same fears about what getting older will be like. The resentment from looking at a parent and seeing an older, enfeebled, future of yourself is what’s truly scary. Relic is awash in dark tidings, but there are brief glimmers of hope and selfless acts of love. When all that we were has been taken from us, who will be left to take care of us? To remember who we once were? While Relic is too measured and its frights too oblique to have the same popular impact as the similar Hereditary, it shows James’ ability to use genre to confront uncomfortable truths.

Oscar Isaac And Michelle Williams To Star In HBO Series Remake Of ‘Scenes From A Marriage’

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Travis Hopson

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July 9, 2020

A forerunner when it comes to adapting TV for the big screen, the great Ingmar Bergman took his 1973 film Scenes from a Marriage and edited it into a movie that received international acclaim. Now Ingmar’s classic is being reimagined for the small-screen, with HBO casting the powerhouse duo of Michelle Williams and Oscar Isaac as the lead couple in the midst of a disintegrating marriage.

This latest version of Scenes from a Marriage will be a miniseries, written and directed by The Affair creator Hagai Levi. Williams and Isaac will play a married couple as they go through the ups and downs of their relationship: love, anger, betrayal, divorce, and desire.

The original version starred Liv Ullmann and Erland Josephson, with Bergman pulling from his own troubled marriage to Ullmann. That personal quality is what gave the series, and the film version, its passionate edge. While this new take won’t have that, is there any doubt a Williams and Isaac can’t replicate it? This is a series that seems primed for awards contention already, doesn’t it?

Janelle Monae Really Wants To Play Storm When The X-Men Join The MCU

By

Travis Hopson

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July 9, 2020

Ever since Disney acquired 20th Century Fox’s collection of Marvel characters, fans have been wondering when and how they would introduce the X-Men into the MCU. There’s no simple way to do it. The X-Men are such a popular group they sustained their own movie franchise for two decades, and fans have a lot of actors that they still like in those roles. But one actress who really hopes to play the X-Men leader Storm is Janelle Monae, and she’s making it known that it needs to happen.

Monae is another bestselling, world-class singer who has made the successful jump to acting. She’s starred in films such as Hidden Figures, Moonlight, and Harriet, but what she really wants is to play Ororo “Storm” Munroe, the weather-controlling mutant and co-leader of the X-Men. Speaking with Empire, Monae says she’s even talked with Black Panther director Ryan Coogler about helping her to make that a reality…

“One of my dreams has always been to play Storm. I don’t know if she comes in Black Panther, but it would be a dream to have her in it. I don’t know where they are with that. A lot of women have played Storm and they’ve done an exceptional job, and I would love to be in that line of artists and get to do Storm justice.”

Monae revealed that while she was recording her Dirty Computer album, Black Panther stars Lupita Nyong’o, Chadwick Boseman, and Michael B. Jordan would visit her in the studio. That was her chance to begin some conversations about playing Storm.

When asked if she had talked with Coogler about it, Monae said “I definitely have thrown it out there.”

Introducing Storm in a Black Panther sequel might be the easiest route to introducing Marvel’s merry mutants. Storm is revered as a goddess by the African people because of her weather-manipulating abilities. She and T’Challa (played by Chadwick Boseman in the movies) are old friends, and for a short time they were even married. I could see Coogler adding Storm into the mix, causing some romantic tension between T’Challa and Nakia (Nyong’o).

As much as I love Halle Berry as Storm, that time is over. Sadly, it’s also over for Alexandra Shipp, who only got a couple of shots at the role and has expressed a little interest in returning.

Next up for Monae is thriller Antebellum which opens August 21st.

New ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ Image Teases ‘Amazon Olympics’, Possible Animated Series In The Works

By

Travis Hopson

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July 9, 2020

While Wonder Woman 1984 will send Diana (Gal Gadot) rocketing into the ’80s, there will be time to flashback to her past on the Amazonian island of Themyscira, as well. A new image was released by Empire that shows Diana hurling a spear in what director Patty Jenkins refers to as the Amazon Olympics. She also discusses the Amazon spinoff movie, story ideas for a sequel, and a possible animated series.

“What I love about the Amazon Olympics is everything that we got to really celebrate in the first movie… ,” Jenkins said. “Here are these people who are incredibly powerful and capable, but different in how they approach things. If you’ve been training for hundreds of years because of an impending invasion, you’re going to be constantly working on all these skill sets. So, to me, every year, they would have these Olympics to see who’s doing the best on horses or swimming the fastest, and seeing new tricks people have figured out.”

We know that Robin Wright and Connie Nielsen are back for the sequel, reprising their roles as Antiope and Queen Hippolyta. Perhaps we’ll see them racing hurdles or something.

While it’s unclear if current-day Diana will ever return to her homeland, the Jenkins is far from done with the Amazons’ story. A spinoff movie has been talked about already that would be “part of the in-world story of Wonder Woman”. There is also talk of an animated series centering on the Amazons, although no details are immediately available.

Jenkins has recently expressed some doubt whether she would direct a third Wonder Woman movie, but that hasn’t stopped her from coming up with story ideas alongside Gadot…

“You’re enjoying the movie you’re making and also reflecting on what could be different or better in the [real] world,” Jenkins said. “And therefore what story you want to tell… That’s the greatest thing to me about superhero stories. You’re able to have a dialogue about what a hero would be right now. So yes, I have ideas for what I’d like to say, and Gal does too.”

‘Malcolm & Marie’: Zendaya And John David Washington Star In ‘Euphoria’ Creator’s Film Shot During Quarantine

By

Travis Hopson

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July 9, 2020

The outbreak of COVID-19 and the quarantine that followed hasn’t stopped some very creative people from doing what they do best. Sam Levinson, director of Assassination Nation and creator of HBO’s Euphoria, used the lockdown to shoot a secret movie with two big stars, Zendaya and John David Washington.

Levinson filmed a movie titled Malcolm & Marie, led by Zendaya, (Levinson’s Euphoria star) and John David Washington, best known for BlacKkKlansman and Tenet. Deadline doesn’t have any specific plot details, but describe it as having “some echoes of Netflix’s Marriage Story, while resonating a number of social themes that the world is experiencing right now.”

This whole thing came together pretty quickly, too. It was back in March when Levinson learned that season 2 of Euphoria had been shutdown. Soon after, he was called by Zendaya who asked if he could write and direct a film during the quarantine. Six days later, he had already cracked the script. Financing was secured soon after (including by Kid Cudi), and John David Washington brought in to star. New Regency Chairman and CEO Yariv Milchan and president Michael Schaefer came aboard as exec-producers, with the plan to donate any proceeds to charity.

As for the actual shoot, it was all done under the safest possible guidelines due to COVID-19 restrictions. The cast and crew all received multiple coronavirus tests before heading to Monterey, California, where they then spent a couple of weeks in quarantine. The number of people allowed on set was limited, and everyone wore masks, except for the stars when they were performing.

The film is in the editing room now, and with this level of talent involved there will surely be a studio looking to distribute it. Just look at everything Levinson and co. had to go through to get a little production like this made within the safety protocols. Just imagine how difficult it’s going to be for a Marvel movie or another blockbuster.