AD
Home Blog Page 1198

History-Making ‘Star Wars’ Filmmaker Victoria Mahoney To Direct Action Flick ‘Kill Them All’

By
Travis Hopson
-

If you don’t know the name Victoria Mahoney, well that’s a damn shame but it’s about to change. Mahoney worked with JJ Abrams as second unit director on Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, becoming the first woman of color in such a position for the blockbuster franchise. Now she’s on her way to tackling her first big studio gig as director, with Paramount’s action flick Kill Them All.

THR reports Mahoney is in talks to direct Kill Them All for Paramount, which is being described as “a love letter to ’90s action movies.” The film is an adaptation of Kyle Starks’ graphic novel about “a betrayed murderess on a revenge campaign and a hard-drinking former cop who team up to take down a crime lord. Their nemesis rules from atop a 15-story Miami high-rise, so the duo must go floor by floor cutting through assassins, murderers, Luchadore gang bosses, ex-boyfriends and office workers.”

Sounds a lot like The Raid, which is perfectly okay with me.

The script is by James Coyne, with veteran action screenwriters Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec (Mission: Impossible-Ghost Protocol, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) on board as producers.

But this is about Mahoney, who made her solo directing debut with 2011’s semi-autobiographical indie Yelling to the Sky. From there, Mahoney worked on various unscripted shows before moving on to scripted drama, including Ava DuVernay’s Queen Sugar. It was DuVernay who suggested Mahoney to Abrams for The Rise of Skywalker. You can also find Mahoney acting in episodes of Seinfeld and Sliders, as well as 2001’s Legally Blonde. Up next for her is directing an episode of HBO series Lovecraft Country, as well as an adaptation of Octavia E. Butler’s sci-fi novel Dawn as an Amazon series.

 

‘Just Mercy’ With Michael B. Jordan & Jamie Foxx Is Free On VOD In Response To George Floyd Murder

By
Travis Hopson
-

Unless your head has been buried in the sand for the last week, you’ve undoubtedly heard of the murder of George Floyd. While the killing of an unarmed black man has become all-too-commonplace, Floyd’d death seems to have been the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back, leading to days of protests not only against police brutality, but those empower who allow it and encourage it.  Many in Hollywood have responded in their own way, some with vocal shows of support, some by making films on the issue, and at least in the case of Just Mercy by making it available to all to see.

Just Mercy, which stars Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Foxx, and Brie Larson, has been made available for free on all VOD platforms as a response to George Floyd’s murder. So what’s the connection here? The 2019 legal drama centers on the true story of civil rights attorney Bryan Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, who has dedicated his life to defending those falsely convicted of crimes, especially those who may have been poorly represented due to race.

This may seem like a small thing, and in the overall scheme of things it is, but this is a tremendous way of making a statement in the way one knows how. Just Mercy is a really good film, too, directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, that was surprisingly overlooked during awards season. Take this time to check it out while you can.

‘Daddy Issues’ Trailer: A Stand-Up Comedian Jokes Her Way Through Grief And Unexpected Inheritance

By
Travis Hopson
-

Movies about standup comedians largely serve one purpose. There’s a belief that comedians are so funny because they’ve been through enough personal struggle to see the world from an angle most of us can’t fathom. That seems to be the point of the upcoming film Daddy Issues, as well.

Marking the directorial debut of writer Laura Holliday, Daddy Issues stars Kimberley Datnow as Henri, a London-based comedian who returns home to Los Angles to take over the family business. Unfortunately, it comes at the death of her estranged father, someone whose approval she still seeks even after he’s gone.

So the fun of this is going to be Henri cracking jokes to cope with her father’s death, a new business, a return to big city life, and her accident-prone 20s. This looks like fun, and like something Judd Apatow would take a shine to.  The cast also includes Tanner Rittenhouse, Alice Carroll Johnson, and Francis Lloyd Corby.

Daddy Issues opens June 23rd on VOD.

‘WandaVision’ May Have Cast ‘X-Men’ Quicksilver Actor Evan Peters

Is He...Quicksilver Once More?

By
Travis Hopson
-

Take this one with a grain of salt, but a rumor from Murphy’s Multiverse (told you, grain of salt) says Evan Peters, who played Quicksilver in three X-Men movies, has joined the cast of WandaVision.

Is it possible…nah…no way. He couldn’t be playing Quicksilver again, could he?

If the rumor is even true it’s doubtful he’s playing Quicksilver, but that speculation will run rampant for obvious reasons. Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch are siblings, after all. Aaron Taylor-Johnson played him in Avengers: Age of Ultron but the character was killed off. However, with Wanda’s power levels being amped up in the MCU enough for her to create the weird 1950s life she has in WandaVision, it would make sense for her to conjure Quicksilver back.

Peters played Quicksilver Fox’s X-Men: Days of Future Past, X-Men: Apocalypse, and Dark Phoenix, each highlighted by clever rescue scene in which time slows down for the mutant speedster. It would be pretty cool to see Peters do something similar in the MCU, I think. Chances are he’s playing somebody else, though.

Spike Lee’s Powerful Short Film Revisits ‘Do The Right Thing’ With Modern Police Brutality

By
Travis Hopson
-

If you’ve been following the news over the last week, it kinda feels like the country is on fire. With the arrival of the summer heat has also come a new wave of racial tensions, which have boiled over in violent and tragic ways. You may have thought it feels a little bit like the events in Spike Lee’s 1989 classic, Do the Right Thing. Lee not only agrees with you on that, he has made a short film about it.

Lee’s movie, 3 Brothers, draws comparisons to the real-life murders of Eric Garner and George Floyd with the fictional choking death of Radio Raheem in Do the Right Thing. Like Raheem, Garner and Floyd had the life literally choked out of them by white cops.

It’s a powerful movie, and isn’t for the faint of heart. Footage from the deaths of Garner and Young are used, which is hard to watch even for the toughest of us. So just be prepared.

Lee has put his craft to good use over the last few weeks, droppin’ knowledge at a time when we need it most. His previous short, filmed while most of America was on lockdown, showed his beloved New York during the height of the coronavirus outbreak. He’s doing some of the best work of his career right now, and the timing couldn’t be better.

Lee’s next film, Da 5 Bloods, hits Netflix on June 12th.

Patty Jenkins On The ‘Justice League’ Film She Turned Down, Explains Why She Won’t Go To Marvel

By
Travis Hopson
-

Patty Jenkins hasn’t made a lot of superhero movies. In fact, she’s only made one up to this point, 2017’s Wonder Woman, which will be followed up soon by sequel Wonder Woman 1984. She came close to directing Thor: The Dark World for Marvel, but…well, that didn’t work out so hot. Despite the success she’s found, Jenkins is not some die-hard comic book fan and has to connect with something for her to take one on.

Jenkins said as much in a recent interview with Premiere, in which she talks about turning down a Justice League movie that was offered to her…

“I love comics, but I’ve come to superheroes through films. There is in me this desire to emulate compared to the movies I saw as a child. A certain spirit that reigned in those times. Is that relevant when I shoot? I don’t know. The point is, unlike other directors, I don’t really care about shared universes, continuity, and that kind of detail. I’ve been contacted to make a ‘Justice League’ movie in the past, and it doesn’t connect to me. Too many characters.”

Speaking of that past bad experience with Marvel, in which she left over creative differences, Jenkins still has some lingering feelings about it. Basically, don’t look for her to be part of the MCU any time soon…

“I really like the people who work [at Marvel Studios], but they want full control over their movies. The director is under control,” she explained. “Yes, it can happen. Furthermore, It shows immediately if a director cannot impose his/her vision. When this is the case, I get the impression that these people are doing a different job than me. But with ‘Wonder Woman 1984,’ I think I did exactly what I wanted. And then, everything a superhero movie needs comes naturally to me: I love shooting great action scenes versus great sets. I really enjoy it.”

Wonder Woman 1984 opens August 12th.

Josh Boone Holds Out Hope For A ‘New Mutants’ Trilogy

By
Travis Hopson
-

It’s only taken a few years, loads of horrifically bad buzz, multiple delays, the selloff of its original distributor, and the very-real possibility it may not be released at all, but New Mutants has somehow survived. The long-awaited X-Men spinoff will be released on August 28th, and will probably be the last remnant of Fox’s mutant franchise. When director Josh Boone first envisioned it, the plan was much deeper than that, and he still holds out hope that can be made a reality.

Boone chatted with SFX Magazine, and said he still hopes for the best for New Mutants, and that this won’t be the last time he gets to direct these characters…

“Ultimately, after all this time, I was able to make MY New Mutants film, and I’m am proud of it,” Boone said. “What I’m hoping for now is that it will be successful enough so the studio will allow me to complete a trilogy. I’ve got all planned out.”

The good news, as Boone said, is that the version we are getting is the one he always intended. Strong horror elements are present in the story which has a junior league of X-Men trapped inside of a mysterious hospital facility. We know the Demon Bear will be one villain they’ll face, and a trip to the Hellish landscape known as Limbo is also in the cards.

Unfortunately, the chances of Boone getting his wish are pretty slim. Now that Marvel has access of Fox’s Marvel characters, they’re going to want to do their own thing with the X-Men. I think that they’re willing to release New Mutants at all, in the form Boone wants, suggests they could be willing to incorporate it into the MCU if the movie is a hit. I just hope if it’s not we don’t start hearing cries for “Boone Cut” to be released on Disney+.

The cast includes Anya Taylor-Joy, Maisie Williams, Henry Zaga, Charlie Heaton, Blu Hunt, and Alice Braga.

 

‘Birds Of Prey’ Director Suggests WB Jacked-Up Her Cut Of The Film, Too

By
Travis Hopson
-
Birds of Prey

So apparently this is going to be a thing now, with every DCEU movie director complaining their cut of the movie wasn’t allowed to see the light of day. Following Zack Snyder’s Justice League and David Ayer’s Suicide Squad, it’s Birds of Prey director Cathy Yan’s turn. She showed solidarity with Ayer when he tweeted complaints that he had to reshoot scenes which were “too dark”, and suggested she went through the same thing…

What’s funny about this is it kicked off a whole exchange between Yan and “journalist” Grace Randolph (she may be a fellow CCA member but I’m not a fan) who tried to use the director’s tweet as confirmation of a rumor she’d like to take credit for. That rumor involved the editing out of a storyline centered on villain Black Mask (Ewan McGregor) and some lost dick pics. Another aspect of it had young Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco) swallowing the dick pics, which some claimed was akin to pedophilia.

Anyway, Yan clarified what was really going on but she and Randolph (who was backed by her legion of apparent followers?) kept going at it anyway. Since I’m 100% certain Randolph didn’t have shit to do with the script, and has probably never seen it, I’m going to side with Yan on this one. The problem seems to be that Randolph can’t admit a rumor she helped spread was wrong, and Yan didn’t do a very good job of explaining why it was wrong straight from the beginning.

You can read the whole Twitter thread below.

David Ayer Regrets His “Soulful” Cut Of ‘Suicide Squad’ Was “Beaten Into A Comedy”

By
Travis Hopson
-

Warner Bros. opened the Pandora’s Box when they greenlit Zack Snyder’s Justice League for HBO Max, and ever since fans have been begging for more. Next film they’ve targeted is David Ayer’s original cut of Suicide Squad, which was heavily edited in post-production to create something unrecognizable by the director. Ayer has been pretty vocal about wanting to see his vision of the film finally revealed, and has been responding to fans’ calls for its release.

In one such exchange, Ayer referred to the Comic-Con trailer released way back in 2015. A fan told him that was the movie’s “greatest isolated piece” of promo material (I concur, by the way), and Ayer was quick to jump in and talk about how the movie was taken out of his hands and pounded into something other than what he intended..

Here is that Comic-Con trailer, just to refresh your memory because it has been a while…

Now look, I don’t know how much of a “soulful” film Suicide Squad was ever going to be, but the tone of this trailer suggests it very well could’ve been. Instead, what we got was something that desperately wanted to be Deadpool meets Guardians of the Galaxy. I think it’s still mostly successful as an edgy R-rated comedy, and it went on to be a box office hit (and Oscar winner), but if Ayer’s version fixes problems with the final act then it needs to be seen.

JK Simmons Signed For Multiple ‘Spider-Man’ Sequels, But Unsure He’ll Be Used

By
Travis Hopson
-

JK Simmons had one of the biggest surprises of 2019 when he reprised his role of J. Jonah Jameson in Spider-Man: Far from Home. He first played the role way back in Sam Raimi’s trilogy of Spidey flicks for Sony, and had recently crossed over to DC to play Commissioner Jim Gordon in Justice League, so to see him back and hating on the wallcrawler was a huge shock. But wat that appearance just a one-off standalone? Or will he be sticking around the MCU for the long haul?

Turns out…nobody knows, not even Simmons.  The Oscar-winner revealed on PeopleTV’s Couch Surfing that he is signed on for multiple Spider-Man sequels, but they are under no obligation to use him and isn’t sure whether he should “expect’ it to happen…

“I don’t know if I would use the word ‘expect’…“It’s great to have the opportunity, as these things evolve, to be one of the holdovers from the previous version.”

I find it hard to believe that Disney/Marvel wouldn’t take advantage of having someone like Simmons at the ready. Add to it that this version of Jameson is something different than we’ve seen before, boasting a Rush Limbaugh/Alex Jones-style online media presence, and there are just so many ways to go with Spider-Man interactions.

Hopefully Simmons will be there when the next Spider-Man sequel opens November 5th 2021.

1...1,1971,1981,199...1,882Page 1,198 of 1,882
Want To Advertise With Punch Drunk Critics?
Contact us: info@punchdrunkcritics.com
Facebook Instagram Mail Twitter Youtube
© Copyright 2020 PDC Entertainment