While Hollywood has mostly ground to a halt, Cate Blanchett is busier than ever. She can be seen right now in the terrific FX series Mrs. America, and is currently in talks to star in a movie based on the hit Borderlandsvideo games. Now she may be about to join two more projects from acclaimed filmmakers, Adam McKay and James Gray.
First up, Collider says Blanchett is in talks to join the upcoming Netflix comedy Don’t Look Up, from Oscar-winning The Big Short director Adam McKay. She would be co-starring alongside Jennifer Lawrence, with the story following two astronomers as they try to warn the world of a humanity-destroying asteroid due to hit the planet in six months. Of course, nobody wants to listen to them.
As if that wasn’t big enough, Variety reports Blanchett is also close to joining Armageddon Time, James Gray’s followup to Ad Astra. The memoir-like film is set in the ’80s during Gray’s time at the Kew-Forest School where Donald Trump was an alumnus and his father Fred Trump served on the school board.
No word on when either movie will roll as productions are still largely in shutdown mode, but these are both high-profile projects that Blanchett will be at the center of. Count on them to have a lot of attention, and perhaps earn the Oscar-winner even more accolades.
As we learned yesterday, James Cameron is gearing up to continue filming on his Avatar sequels now that New Zealand is lifting restrictions. But will it happen fast enough? And has the delay caused by the outbreak been too much for his ambitious four-film slate to hit their target release dates? The first sequel is still scheduled to hit theaters on December 2021, and Cameron tells Empire the delay has definitely had an impact…
“It’s putting a major crimp in our stride here. I want to get back to work on Avatar, which right now we’re not allowed to do under state emergency laws or rules. So it’s all on hold right now.”
Cameron has basically been working on these sequels since the first film crushed box office records in 2009. Since the delay, he’s been working on visual effects and virtual production, but the resumption of live-action shooting has him optimistic about staying on track…
“On the bright side, New Zealand seems to have been very effective in controlling the virus and their goal is not mitigation, but eradication, which they believe that they can do with aggressive contact tracing and testing,” he explained. “So there’s a very good chance that our shoot might be delayed a couple of months, but we can still do it. So that’s good news.” And with so much of the film’s world being brought to life by VFX artists, digital work on the film is still underway. “We’ve got everybody – everybody at Weta Digital and Lightstorm – working from home to the extent that that is possible. But my work is on the stage doing the virtual cameras and so on, so I can do a bit of editing, but it’s not great for me.”
Avatar 2 opens December 27th 2021 with sequels planned for 2023, 2025, and 2027.
It’s pretty safe to say the first season of Jordan Peele’s The Twilight Zone fared better than other attempts to revive Rod Serling’s iconic genre series. Using the cred he built through Get Out and Us, Peele enlisted a number of today’s top filmmakers and stars to escort audiences into the weird world of the paranormal, and now he’s back and doing the same for season two.
Today being National Twilight Zone Day (f’real, that’s a real thing), the timing couldn’t be better for a tease of the show’s return. Directors including Ana Lily Amirpour (The Bad Batch) and Oz Perkins (Gretel & Hansel) will join an incredible cast featuring Morena Baccarin, Kylie Bunbury, Jenna Elfman, Ethan Embry, Sky Ferreira, Tavi Gevinson, Topher Grace, Tony Hale, Gillian Jacobs, David Krumholtz, Thomas Lennon, Sophia Macy, Natalie Martinez, Joel McHale, Chris Meloni, Gretchen Mol, Paula Newsome, Billy Porter, Jimmi Simpson, Jurnee Smollett, Daniel Sunjata, and Damon Wayans, Jr.
The series is exclusive to CBS All-Access, so if you want in you’ll have to subscribe or pray for a free trial. All 10 episodes will debut on June 25th.
SYNOPSIS: “The series’ second season uses introspection and self-exploration to usher viewers into a dimension filled with endless possibilities.”
They don’t make politicians like John Lewis anymore. Few have the stature he does, as a civil rights icon who literally shed blood to fight for a cause. If anybody is deserving of a movie made about him, it’s Lewis, and that’s what he gets in the documentary John Lewis: Good Trouble.
Directed by Dawn Porter (Gideon’s Army), the doc focuses on John Lewis as the congressman engages in “good trouble”, fighting to protect voting rights, enact smart gun control legislation, and much more. Porter engages in interviews with the 80-year-old Lewis, his family, and his colleagues in the U.S. Congress who have seen his strength and resiliency first-hand.
Lewis’ exploits were captured in the graphic novel series, March, for which I met him in 2013 at Comic-Con. He was portrayed by Stephan James in Ava Duvernay’s Selma, and was seen recently in the documentary Bobby Kennedy for President.
SYNOPSIS: Using interviews and rare archival footage, JOHN LEWIS: GOOD TROUBLE chronicles Lewis’ 60-plus years of social activism and legislative action on civil rights, voting rights, gun control, health-care reform and immigration. Using present-day interviews with Lewis, now 80 years old, Porter explores his childhood experiences, his inspiring family and his fateful meeting with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1957. In addition to her interviews with Lewis and his family, Porter’s primarily cinéma verité film also includes interviews with political leaders, Congressional colleagues, and other people who figure prominently in his life.
John Lewis: Good Trouble hits VOD and theaters on July 3rd.
The legendary mobster Al Capone sees his legacy covered in piss and sh*t in Josh Trank’s bizarre, fascinating psycho-drama Capone. Formerly titled Fonzo, the film features a ferocious performance by Tom Hardy, one that finds him mumbling his way through virtually every line of dialogue like Bane with a mouthful of Jell-O pudding. But his attitude remains, and drives this nonsensical fever dream set in the final year of the decrepit mobster’s life.
If you go into Capone thinking it’ll be a gangster movie, you’ll leave sorely disappointed. Actually, you might leave disappointed, anyway. Think Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman taken to the extreme, with little of the pathos which drove that mob drama. There’s very little of anything related to Al Capone that drives Trank’s movie, which explains why it never comes together to form much of a narrative, just a collection of twisted interludes connected by bowel movements and fainting spells.
After doing an 11-year bid in a federal penitentiary, Capone is left a broken man, rotting inside and out. Dementia racks his brain while syphilis destroys his physical form, leaving a shell of his former, imposing self. He’s in a state of confusion most of the time, physically and verbally assaulting his wife (Linda Cardellini, thankless role) in the worst of it, playing joyfully with kids at moments of lucidity. Somewhere in the middle of this, he’s also trying to recall the location of $10M he stashed away and can no longer find. It’s a mystery that, ultimately, amounts to very little.
Capone is very tough to endure, because there’s zero insight into the infamous gangster. Hardy overpowers his co-stars at every turn, growling through scenes and, as is often the case with him, acting as if he read a totally different script than everybody else who are busy playing it straight. When we look back at Hardy’s career, it’s a performance that will sit alongside Venom for sheer peculiarity. Nobody other than Hardy or maybe Nic Cage could pull-off a demented Al Capone blasting a golden Tommy Gunn will chomping on a carrot cigar. That’s a real thing that happens.
While Hardy’s psychotic portrayal is compelling and worth the price of admission, much of Capone is sloppy and pretty dull. Josh Trank is a director I’ve always rooted for, and still think has a long and successful career ahead of him. Chronicle is one of the best debut films I’ve ever seen, and Fantastic Four had interesting ideas that didn’t pan out. It’s amazing how much ink has been spilled about him for a guy who has only made three features. Personal issues aside, the guy is talented and Capone shows it in spurts. A surreal jazz number with Capone and Louis Armstrong is evocative of the hazy nightclub scene of the era, so much that it would’ve been fun to luxuriate in that time for a while longer. But Trank is also messy when moving between reality and Capone’s breaks from it. Characters, some real some imagined, slip in and out confusingly with little explanation and even less impact.
I’m not sure who Capone is designed to serve, but certainly, it’s not meant for general audience consumption. It wouldn’t be fair to try and read Trank’s mind on why he decided this was the Al Capone story he wanted to tell, although I’m sure a thousand thinkpieces will be written to try and explain his thought process. What audiences will take away isn’t anything about the subject himself, and that’s a shame. They’ll simply remember it as another off-the-wall entry in Hardy’s growing filmography.
Andy Serkis has been part of nearly every major pop culture franchise in recent memory: Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Marvel, Planet of the Apes, soon he’ll direct Venom 2, and next year he’ll be seen as Alfred Pennyworth in Matt Reeves’ The Batman. There have been many different portrayals of Bruce Wayne’s famous butler, the character even has his own TV series, but Serkis says his take will be different. Part of the reason is that Reeves’ film is darker than anything that has come before.
Speaking with LADbible, Serkis was asked if The Batman will be “darker, broodier” than prior films, and the actor responded, “I would say that’s not far from the truth.”
He continued, “It’s very much about the emotional connection between Alfred and Bruce. That’s really at the centre of it. And it is a really exquisite script that Matt has written.”
Every portrayal of Alfred focuses on a different aspect of his persona and personal history. Michael Caine’s was more of a personal mentor and father-figure, while the most-recent one played by Jeremy Irons was more of an armorer and strategist. Serkis says his will be different, as well…
“He [Caine] was fantastic. His Alfred was legendary, I couldn’t even begin to go there, really. You find it for yourself. It’s like playing these iconic roles in Shakespeare, you go back, you revisit them and you have to make it your own, and see what it is about the character that connects with you and your personal venn diagram.”
The second season of The Mandalorian is sorta turning into a continuation of The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels. The return of Ahsoka Tano, reportedly played by Rosario Dawson (she isn’t signed, last we heard) could lead to the continuation of some long-held storylines, while the recent addition of Temuera Morrison as Boba Fett may have opened the door for more. Why? Because Morrison voiced another key Star Wars character who could be coming back.
So take this with a grain of salt despite Nerdist claiming the source “reliable”, but Jordan Maison of Cinelinx says Morrison will play another role in The Mandalorian, with the implication it could be Captain Rex, the Clone Commander and loyal confidante to Ahsoka Tano. Rex, like all of the clone troopers, was modeled from the DNA of Jango Fett, who was played by Morrison in Attack of the Clones. That Morrison is much older now and approximately the age of Rex as we saw him in Star Wars Rebels, makes this almost too perfect.
How can you have Ahsoka Tano and not have Captain Rex by her side? He resisted Order 66 for her! It just makes sense. Rumors persist that Tano will be joined by Sabine Wren, as well, with WWE superstar Sasha Banks’ name still being mentioned for the role.
*Looks around*
*Whispers a small tidbit I also heard*
Boba Fett isn’t the only role Temuera Morrison will play in the show….#StarWars
Got my female wrestlers confused, LOL. Sasha Banks has a role in THE MANDALORIAN, so now, the Sabine rumor makes a little more sense. pic.twitter.com/RsUdzOHSeT
Adapting the works of famous horror authors has been very good to Mike Flanagan. The director of The Haunting of Hill House, based on Shirley Jackson’s book, plus two Stephen King adaptations in Gerald’s Game and Doctor Sleep is returning to the well once more with Revival, also based on a page-turner by King.
THR reports Flanagan will write, with the option to direct, an adaptation of Stephen King’s Lovecraftian novel, Revival, for Warner Bros. The story follows the relationship between a preacher-turned-con artist/faith healer and a drug-addicted musician he helped using unorthodox electrical treatments. The cure turns out to be even worse, as those who have been treated are affected by strange, supernatural consequences.
The book was published in 2014, when it received good reviews for channeling the likes of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and H.P. Lovecraft’s cosmic-horrors. Flanagan, who is currently working on a Hill House followup series The Haunting of Bly Manor, has quickly put himself on a level with James Wan as one of the true masters of fright. For this, he’ll be reuniting with his longtime collaborator, producer Trevor Macy. No word on a start date.
James Cameron makes big movies. All of his movies are big; big in size, big in scope, big in box office, and big in cost. Terminator 2 and Titanic broke records for their astronomical budgets, and in the case of the latter, it led to a record-breaking box office. The numbers for Avatar were huge, as well, and it will come as no surprise the same goes for the upcoming sequels.
According to Deadline, the four upcoming Avatar sequels will have a combined production budget of $1B. This news comes as the New Zealand government is taking steps to allow film productions to commence again after a hiatus due to the coronavirus outbreak. The island nation has been at the forefront in defeating the virus, with only 1500 total cases and 20 deaths. Some film and TV productions “are already safely underway.”
Cameron will be returning to complete live-action work on the film after spending weeks on visual effects and virtual content in California. Amazon’s Lord of the Rings series, expected to be the most expensive show ever, should be continuing production in New Zealand soon, as well.
So this sounds like a ton of money, and it is, but if broken down per movie it amounts to basically what the first Avatar cost. That went on to be more than worth it, as it topped charts with $2.79B when all was said and done. More than a decade have passed since then, however, and the concern is whether audiences care about a return to Pandora as much as Cameron does. Are they going to be willing to invest in four more movies across six additional years? As we saw very recently with Terminator: Dark Fate and Alita: Batle Angel, Cameron’s name doesn’t carry the weight that it used to.
The first Avatar sequel arrives on December 17th 2021, with followups in 2023, 2025, and 2027.
From the set of the sequels: @JimCameron directing the actors before they dive underwater for performance capture.
Fun fact: That layer of white on the water's surface is comprised of floating balls that prevent lights from interfering with filming underwater. pic.twitter.com/dOBwS6qOXF
The original Valley Girl of 1983 is best remembered nowadays as that time Nicolas Cage was a teen heartthrob, the edgy guy who teaches the shallow valley girl to expand her horizons. But at the time it was quite groundbreaking, combining new wave music and teen problems in a way that would set the standard for generations. Glee probably wouldn’t exist if there was no Valley Girl, no High School Musical, and many others. And certainly, there wouldn’t be this modern remake by director Rachel Lee Goldenberg, which takes a bitchin’ soundtrack and stellar cast to create something that is like totally grody.
Valley Girl starts out promisingly, though, with a storybook conceit straight out of The Princess Bride. Julie (Alicia Silverstone, once the ultimate val gal of the ’90s in Clueless), helps her teen daughter (Camila Morrone) deal with a bad break-up with a story of her first love in the 1980s. The film quickly brightens up, hot pinks, wild hair, and a sugar-coated dreamland where singing your feelings is the norm. It’s a brilliant way to play up the corny nostalgia of the time by presenting them as mom’s old memories, “That’s how I remember it!” she says, as her daughter warns against too much hot pink in the story.
Teenage Julie isn’t completely happy with her life in the San Fernando Valley. Although she has a core group of friends (including Agents of SHIELD‘s Chloe Bennet, Riverdale‘s Ashleigh Murray, and Better Caul Saul‘s Jessie Ennis) who are just as obsessed with clothes, guys, and Madonna, Julie has an independent streak the others lack. She doesn’t totally fit into that world, but perhaps punk rock bad boy Randy (Josh Whitehouse) can show her there’s more to life? They hit it off quickly, and the film speeds through a bevy of era-specific classics to show their growing relationship, even while acknowledging the problems that come with first love.
Right away, the problem with Valley Girl becomes pretty clear. Talented actors does not automatically mean talented singers or dancers, as a flat shopping mall performance of “We Got the Beat” tells us. A beachside rendition of “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” doesn’t fare much better, and two lousy karaoke-level attempts at what should be easy layup songs…it doesn’t bode well for the rest of the movie.
Fun performances, bouncy atmosphere, and songs good enough to sing-a-long too should be cake for a movie like Valley Girl. Oddly enough, it’s best when the actors aren’t belting out tunes. Rothe and Whitehouse have chemistry that’s different than Nic Cage and Deborah Foreman (who has a very tiny cameo) from the original. Whitehouse is more upbeat than the brooding Cage, while Rothe brings the sarcastic, feminist energy she brought to Happy Death Day. The addition of Mae Whitman, in a gender-flipped role as Randy’s lesbian best friend and bandmate, adds diversity that was lacking in the earlier movie. Casting all around is great, but the choreography is surprisingly bland. Valley Girl repeatedly whiffs on the simple stuff; a roller skating sequence set to Men Without Hats’ “The Safety Dance” falls way short. Much better is an ensemble take on “Under Pressure” which melds all of the various storylines as characters prepare for an epic prom night that will change their lives.
Despite a collection of nostalgic jams and a talented roster of rising stars, Valley Girl can’t escape the shadow of its predecessor. As a jukebox musical it might work for those who don’t have a deep affection for the original, and don’t mind bad covers of some of the era’s defining hits.
