The Lego cinematic universe as you know it is no more. Late last year the once-lucrative deal between Lego and Warner Bros., which got off to such a great start with The Lego Movie but faltered down the stretch, came to an end. The toy company began eyeing deals elsewhere and Universal seemed like a possible new home. Well, everything appears to have snapped into place perfectly.
Deadline reports that a deal has been struck between Lego and Universal that’ll see feature films made centered on the popular building block toys. This is interesting because now we could see Universal’s library of franchises transformed into fun Lego characters, such as Fast & Furious, Jurassic World, and others.
Personally, I’d kill to see M. Night Shyamalan’s Unbreakable characters Lego-style, or perhaps Pacific Rim?
Lego and Warner Bros. had a pretty good run of it, though, with over $1B earned at the box office across The Lego Movie, The Lego Batman Movie, The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part, and The Lego Ninjago Movie. But the numbers were dwindling, and a move needed to be made. Perhaps Universal can breathe new life into Lego on the big screen.
The next time you see Will Ferrell and Paul Rudd together, it won’t be in Anchorman 3 (thank goodness). It’ll be in the comedy series The Shrink Next Door, and Apple TV+ is where you’ll need to go to get it.
Apple TV+ has acquired comedy The Shrink Next Door, which was revealed earlier this year. The first eight-episode season is based on the Wondery true-crime podcast about a charismatic celebrity psychiatrist (Rudd) who charms his way into the life of his client (Ferrell) and takes it over.
Succession writer Georgia Pritchett will act as showrunner, with Michael Showalter (The Big Sick, The Lovebirds) directing episodes. No word on when Apple TV+ will debut the series, but given the service’s quiet launch they’ll probably make it pretty soon.
Who doesn’t love royals behaving badly? As proven by the numerous Oscar wins by The Favourite, a lot of people do. And now the writer of that film is back with another humorous take on real-life palace intrigue with The Great.
The Hulu miniseries stars Elle Fanning as Catherine the Great, who would become the longest-reigning female ruler in Russia’s history. She’s joined by Nicholas Hoult as her ineffectual husband Peter III, and much the series’ dark humor will come from Catherine’s attempts to overthrow him. Hoult, who played Robert Harley in The Favourite, is joined in the cast by Phoebe Fox, Gwilym Lee, Louis Hynes, Sacha Dhawan, and Charity Wakefield.
I remember the buzz surrounding Makoto Nagahisa’s crazy directorial debut We Are Little Zombies at Sundance last year. Nobody knew quite what to make of it, or how to explain it to me what it was. And now I see why. The story follows four orphans who get over the deaths of their parents by indulging in rock music, but that is just the barest explanation for a bizarre 8-bit ride so full of flash and color, Oscilloscope is offering a coloring book to go with it.
Literally, the synth sounds of Nintendo Entertainment System fuel much of the music, more than 90 songs, that power this strange, nostalgic journey. The trailer begins with one of the orphaned kids reliving the moment he found out about his parents’ death as if it were an episode of Punk’d, and that’s just the tip of the weirdness iceberg.
SYNOPSIS: When four young orphans—Hikari, Ikuko, Ishi, and Takemura—first meet, their parents’ bodies are being turned into dust, like fine Parmesan atop a plate of spaghetti Bolognese, and yet none of them can shed a tear. They are like zombies; devoid of all emotion. With no family, no future, no dreams, and no way to move forward, the young teens decide that the first level of this new existence involves salvaging a gaming console, an old electric bass, and a charred wok from their former homes—just enough to start a band-and then conquer the world.
The cast includes Keita Ninomiya, Satoshi Mizuno, Mondo Okumura, Sena Nakajima, Rinko Kikuchi, and more. Oscilloscope has yet to give We Are Little Zombies a set release date, but probably later this year.
Oh Tom Hardy, you scamp! The actor is famous for wild teases shared on social media (his Fonzo/Capone stuff was great), and he’s back at it again and, at least to me, deliberately plucking at the nerves of Marvel fans on purpose. How so? By teasing, and then immediately deleting, images that suggest a Venom/Spider-Man crossover is about to happen.
Multiple times Hardy has posted an image, clearly showing him as Venom from the hit 2018 movie, chomping to death a certain webslinger. Each time Hardy’s posted this he’s taken it right down, but Brandon Davis of Comicbook.com was able to screengrab that shit.
Tom Hardy shared this post from his Instagram account and immediately deleted it. He signaled that Spider-Man will also be in the movie Venom: Let There Be Carnage!
This has, as you might expect, riled up the fanboy community into thinking Tom Holland’s Spider-Man will appear in sequel Venom: Let There Be Carnage.
There is NOTHING in Hardy’s image that supports such a thing. He’s prone to posting fan art just like this all of the time. That said, we already know Michael Keaton’s Vulture will be coming over from the MCU in Sony’s upcoming Morbius film, which features other references to Spider-Man. So a Venom/Spidey teamup isn’t out of the question.
We’ll find out when Venom: Let There Be Carnage opens June 25th 2021.
One hears that Ryan Murphy and Jason Blum are teaming on a project together, and, oh, it must be a season of American Horror Story or something. Sounds like the kind of thing they’d fit perfectly together on. But no, the duo came together for the documentary A Secret Love, about a lesbian relationship that grew within the baseball league made famous by A League of Their Own. Wow.
Originally planned to debut at SXSW, A Secret Love now has a home at Netflix, which seems like the perfect place for it. This real-life story centers on Terry Donahue and Pat Henschel, who fell in love while Terry was a player on the all-female women’s baseball league, and kept it hidden for decades because of the times in which they lived. In the present, they face new challenges, including coming out to their conservative families and deciding whether to get married.
Murphy produced the film with Blum, best known as the top dude at Blumhouse, serves as exec-producer.
A Secret Love hits Netflix on April 29th.
SYNOPSIS: A SECRET LOVE tells an incredible love story between Terry Donahue and Pat Henschel, whose relationship spans nearly seven decades. Terry played in the women’s professional baseball league, inspiring the hit movie A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN. But the film did not tell the real-life story of the women who remained closeted for most of their lives. This documentary follows Terry and Pat back to when they met for the first time, through their professional lives in Chicago, coming out to their conservative families and grappling with whether or not to get married. Facing the hardships of aging and illness, their love proves resilient as they enter the home stretch. Directed by Chris Bolan and produced by Alexa L. Fogel, Brendan Mason and Ryan Murphy. Executive produced by Blumhouse, and in association with Now This.
Real talk: I’m so sick of Snowpiercer promos at this point. The long-troubled series, based on Bong Joon-ho’s dystopian 2013 film, has been delayed frequently, lost numerous directors (including Scott Derrickson), and switched networks a couple of times. Now firmly set to air on TNT, they’ve since teased it to death. I can’t get through an episode of AEW Dynamite without a thousand commercials for it.
Complaint over. There’s a reason why TNT is pushing Snowpiercer so hard. The potential for greatness is clear, with stars Jennifer Connelly and Daveed Diggs leading an epic story of class warfare on a train holding the last remnants of humanity after an apocalyptic climate disaster. Having Joon-ho’s name attached, after his Oscar wins for Parasite, doesn’t hurt, either. This could be great.
TNT will premiere Snowpiercer on May 17th.
SYNOPSIS: Set more than seven years after the world has become a frozen wasteland, Snowpiercer centers on the remnants of humanity who inhabit a perpetually moving train, with 1001 cars, that circles the globe. Class warfare, social injustice and the politics of survival play out in this riveting television adaptation.
It only took a single season of The Mandalorian for it to be the biggest thing to hit Star Wars since The Force Awakens. Not only that, but the series is probably the reason so many people are still subscribed to Disney+. Because of that, keeping those people happy until season 2 finally arrives is key, and Disney is doing that with docuseries Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian.
As previously reported, Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian arrives on May 4th, better known to Force users everywhere as Star Wars Day. The eight-episode series takes us behind the scenes with creator Jon Favreau to explore the innovative technology and creative storytelling that made The Mandalorian such a phenomenon. Favreau talks with the many crewmembers and filmmakers (check a roundtable with Deborah Chow, Taika Waititi, Bryce Dallas Howard, and more) who helped bring this corner of the Star Wars universe to life. If you ever wanted to see Werner Herzog directing the animatronic Baby Yoda puppet, this is the place to be.
SYNOPSIS: In “Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian,” Executive Producer Jon Favreau invites the cast and crew to share an unprecedented look at the making of the series which quickly became a pop culture phenomenon after premiering in November. Debuting on the day that a worldwide community of fans celebrate all-things-Star Wars — Monday, May 4 — “Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian” is an eight-episode documentary series that pulls back the curtain on the first season of “The Mandalorian.” Each chapter explores a different facet of the first live-action Star Wars television show through interviews, never-before-seen footage, and roundtable conversations hosted by Favreau.
After the May 4th debut, new episodes will hit Disney+ every Friday.
Thanos creator Jim Starlin has been fairly accurate in predicting where the Mad Titan will pop up in the MCU. But now, even though his greatest comic book creation (of many great cosmic characters) has been destroyed as of Avengers: Endgame, Starlin thinks Thanos’ story is far from over.
Speaking with Comicbook.com, Starlin brought up a rumor of Thanos appearing in next year’s Eternals, albeit in a different form than we’re used to…
“Well, I understand that the story’s not completely ended,” Starlin said. “They’ve already announced that. I think a young Thanos appears in The Eternals. I remember reading that somewhere.”
That is definitely a rumor but as I said before, Starlin seems to be a good predictor of Thanos’ big-screen appearances. He continued on by giving a pretty good rationale for why he thinks Thanos will return: $$$.
“They made a shit load of money off this guy. So I don’t see them retiring him anytime soon. Comic book characters tend to have an extended lifespan beyond the actors who work on them. I’m half expecting to see much more Thanos down the line.”
So there ya go, and it’s hard to argue with him. Teasing Thanos’ return, even through flashback, is an easy hook that Eternals could really use. It’s such a high-concept, strange premise that Thanos could be what makes the movie feel more familiar. Plus, he’s an important part of the Eternals’ story as the most dangerous of their warmongering cousins, the Deviants. Hard to tell their story without him.
Eternals was recently delayed and will hit theaters on February 12th 2021.
During Netflix’s rapid ascent to the top of Hollywood’s power structure, they’ve managed to corner the market on many different things: teen rom-coms, prestige TV, and more. But one area where they’ve been lagging is in the true blockbuster action franchise. Extraction, the explosive action flick from Marvel directors the Russo Brothers and their longtime stunt coordinator Sam Hargrave may be what they’re looking for, as it proves to be a straight-forward, if silly role for Chris Hemsworth to chew on and spit out.
To enjoy Extraction and see it as more than just a dumb-headed “merc on a mission” movie, one has to be willing to accept the goofy zen warrior bullcrap of Hemsworth’s troubled ex-soldier, Tyler Rake. No, really. That’s his name. When we’re first introduced to him he’s being shot in the back during a dangerous operation. Some time later, we see him waking up from a drunken stupor, from which he immediately walks over to a high ledge and dives from the top of a waterfall. Why? So he can meditate at the bottom of the lake, cross-legged like a victorious Dhalsim or the Mahatma. You expect Keanu Reeves to do some shit like that, but Hemsworth?
From that moment on it’s pretty clear that Extraction, for all of its bullets and blood and death, of which there is quite a lot, is going at this with tongue firmly in cheek. That said, the generic nature of the plot and grim screenplay hamper efforts for it to be more fun than it is. Rake is hired by a former flame (the excellent and underrated Golshifteh Farahani) to rescue Ovi (Rudhraksh Jaiswal), the kidnapped son of an imprisoned drug lord in Bangladesh. The op is complicated by Saju (Bollywood actor Randeep Hooda), an ex-special forces guy who seeks to make the rescue himself to impress the boss. Oh yeah, and the streets of Dhaka are teeming with armed goons itching to put a bullet in the good-looking American dude who looks like that guy from those Avengers movies.
Hargrave makes his directorial debut here, and it’s clear where his influences come from. He’s straight from the Russo Brothers/Gareth Evans school of barely-controlled chaos, which makes for some wildly thrilling and gory sequences. Blunt edges and sharp objects find plenty of flesh to rip into, with our hero at the business end of some of it himself. Tyler’s rescue of Ovi comes after the merc has littered the streets with freshly-minted corpses, before bursting into the enemy hideout for some brutal fisticuffs.
While the stuntwork and fight choreography are incredible, the script is bare-bones and pretty dumb, while some of the acting leaves much to be desired. Hemsworth is…well, he’s fine. Obviously, he can more than handle the role’s physicality, bringing a tough-guy machismo like genre stars from the ’80s used to. Thankfully, Hemsworth isn’t asked to say too much, because when he does, like during a somber, melodramatic breakdown between Tyler and Ovi, it’s laughably insincere. I also don’t know why Stranger Things and Black Widow actor David Harbour was here. His role, small as it was, could’ve been done by anybody and it seemed like Harbour knew it, too.
Extraction has mid-budget franchise written all over it, though. I could’ve easily seen this performing well in theaters, and that’s exactly the kind of movie Netflix needs more of. Hemsworth has a spotty track record outside of Marvel (although Blackhat and Bad Times At the El Royale are pretty great), but he may have found himself another role to sink into for the long haul.
