Things are looking up for DC Studios following the success of Superman, and now it’s time to put some attention on the TV side where The Penguin racked up loads of Emmy nominations and where the Lanterns series is in the works. Deadline reports Our Flag Means Death writer David Jenkins has been hired to writethe Booster Gold pilot for the HBO Max comedy series.
Jenkins is only hired to write the pilot episode at this point, but if Booster Gold goes to series he’ll act as showrunner. A director has not been named, nor do we know who will play Michael Jon “Booster” Carter, the ex-football player from a future Gotham City who became a superhero after getting expelled for gambling. He is a glory hound obsessed with his own fame.
Jenkins excitedly confirmed the news on his social media…
“It’s true, y’all! I’m writing a pilot about this lovable goofball for HBO Max. Honored to work for James Gunn and very happy to inherit this project from Danny McBride, two of my creative heroes.”
This puts Jenkins back in the Warner Bros. Discovery fold as he was writer on Taika Waititi’s series Our Flag Means Death until it was canceled after two seasons.
Other DCU TV projects in the works include a second season of Peacemaker, the Wonder Woman/Amazonians series Paradise Lost, and a show focused on Viola Davis’ Amanda Waller character.
Chad Stahelski is branching out in a big way from the John Wick franchise he helped launch. He’s got multiple action projects in the works, and now he’s added one more. THR reports Stahelski will produce an adaptation of the 2017 California resistance comic book, Calexit.
If Calexit sounds a bit too much like our reality right now, well, that’s probably the point. The story takes place in a near-future fictional California that refuses to be ruled by the fascist President of the United States.
Stahelski will produce from a script by Matteo Pizzolo, who also co-created the comic with artist Amancay Nahuelpan.
SYNOPSIS: What if a fascist, autocratic President took over the United States? And what if that President lost California, the sixth largest economy on Earth, by nearly 2-to-1…a margin of almost 3 1/2 million votes? What if the day after that President took power, the largest mass demonstration in history occurred, and the state with the largest turnout was California. And then, the following week, two of the largest international airports in the world, California’s LAX and SFO, were blockaded by protesters. What if California refused to be ruled?
Add this to Stahelski’s loaded schedule. Coming up, he has his Highlander remake with Henry Cavill, a Rainbow Six movie with Michael B. Jordan, a big-screen adaptation of the hit Playstation video game Ghosts of Tsushima, and of course, John Wick 5.
Fans have been clamoring for an update on The Batman Part II, so much so that James Gunn had to tell everyone to stop nagging writer/director Matt Reeves. Well, the wait is finally over, kiddos. Reeves and co-writer Mattson Tomlin have turned in their script, and now we’re learning a bit about what’s in store for Bruce Wayne and Gotham City.
Speaking with SFX Magazine [via Comingsoon], Reeves talked about The Batman Part II and how he intends for the film to be a “grounded” exploration of the “deeper corruption” within Gotham City…
“It’s going to dig into the epic story about deeper corruption, and it goes into places he couldn’t even anticipate in the first one,” Reeves said.
As for villains? While some are hoping to see some of the wilder foes like Mr. Freeze or Killer Croc, would that really fit with Reeves’ vision seen in the first movie? Not really, and he explains that there’s no intention to go “full fantastical”…
“What was important to me was to find a way to take these pop icons, these mythic characters that everybody knows, and translate it so that Gotham feels like a place in our world…It’s meant to feel quite grounded.”
Reeves managed to make The Penguin, who is sorta silly in the comics and earlier iterations, feel like a real, complex human being which is why that spinoff series earned multiple Emmy nominations. There’s every reason to believe that Reeves can do the same with other characters in Batman’s Rogue’s Gallery. It would be interesting to see what he does with Barry Keoghan’s version of Joker, assuming that character returns.
In HBO’s hit series The White Lotus, Italian actress Beatrice Grannò entered the seemingly dreamlike paradise of the titular luxury resort. In Nacho Vigalondo’s surreal sci-fi drama Daniela Forever, open in theaters right now, Grannò enters the dreams of a grieving Henry Golding, who has used lucid dreaming to reconstruct his deceased girlfriend and exist by her side again.
The role of Daniela is a challenging one, as Grannò told me in the interview I had with her. Daniela Forever is Grannò’s first English-language film, and Daniela is a character who we never really get to meet except as a memory. In our conversation, we talked about her fascination with Vigalondo’s many complex films, such as Colossal, which utilize magical realism as a key component. She also talked about working alongside Golding, her American breakout role in The White Lotus, expanding her profile as an actress, and her own personal experiences with lucid dreaming!
I had a great time talking with Beatrice Grannò about Daniela Forever. Check out the interview below!
Fact: people love Mortal Kombat. The ultra-violent fighting video game that made “Finish Him!!” part of the lexicon has had a grip on fans since debuting in 1992, and extended to the original live-action film in 1995, and the most recent reboot in 2021 that made $84M worldwide and had a red band trailer that scored over 100M views. That fanbase is back in equally high numbers for the sequel, Mortal Kombat II, as the red band trailer released last week scored 106.8M in its first 24 hours of release.
The Mortal Kombat II trailer dropped last week on July 17th while I was out of town, so I was one of the few who missed it, apparently. The data from WaveMetrix (via Deadline) indicates that the 106.8M views is an all-time record for a red band trailer. Mortal Kombat was also a red-band record breaker, attracting 116M views in the first week.
Simon McQuoid returns to direct Mortal Kombat II, joined by writer Jeremy Slater. Jessica McNamee, Josh Lawson, Ludi Lin, Mehcad Brooks, Lewis Tan, Damon Herriman, Chin Han, Tadanobu Asano, Joe Taslim, and Hiroyuki Sanada, return, joined by new additions Karl Urban, Adeline Rudolph, and Tati Gabrielle.
These numbers are a good sign. The first film was released simultaneously in theaters and HBO Max streaming, and yet it still managed to find success. When Mortal Kombat II opens on October 24th, we’ll get to see what the full potential of this franchise is on the big screen.
Is a woman in a relationship crazy or do they have craziness thrust upon them? That is the crux of the question at the center of Sophie Brooks’ sophomore feature, Oh, Hi! Starring Theater Camp and The Bear’s Molly Gordon and Logan Lerman (Perks of Being a Wallflower, Percy Jackson), the film follows a relatively new couple, Iris and Isaac, as they embark on their first trip together.
They are a cute couple. They make out in the lake, disturbing a slightly creepy David Cross. They buy way too many strawberries after running into a fruit stand. They talk of making jam and he makes her scallops on the first night. All signs indicate that this couple is getting serious, including their time in the bedroom, when Isaac introduces hand and leg cuffs to their lovemaking.
It isn’t until sexy-time is over on the first night that it is revealed that Iris is the only one who sees a future between them. As Isaac makes excuses, she leaves him cuffed until the next morning, when she proposes that he stay cuffed for the next 12 hours as she attempts to change his mind.
Iris isn’t anything new for Molly Gordon. Honestly, this part is a combination of her characters from Theater Camp and The Bear. Iris is quirky, needy, and devoted to everyone around her. Gordon doesn’t bring any new dimension to the part, but to be fair to her, Sophie Brooks’ script restricts her to playing the familiar.
While Gordon has played this unhinged character before, it’s nice to see Lerman break out of his comfort zone. He plays Isaac sweet but douchy, aware that he is leading his partner on but unwilling to take responsibility for it. This turn away from earnest heroes and endearing leading men is honestly one of the more interesting parts of Oh, Hi! As Lerman harmonizes to “Islands in the Stream”, you think he is playing a sweet rom-com lead, so when the other shoe drops, you are genuinely surprised. This is genius casting, akin to Promising Young Woman. If Oh, Hi! is any indication that a darker, comedic character lurks somewhere within him.
The two comic standouts are Geraldine Viswanathan and John Reynolds. If you follow Viswanathan and Reynolds’ work in things like Miracle Workers, Blockers, and Search Party, you know both are strong comedically. While Viswanathan played the same kind of best friend role in Cat Person a few years ago, she completely switches the tropes on its head here, playing the sweet and dedicated friend who is willing to ride with her bestie on the crazy train. Reynolds is hysterical as the former’s devoted boyfriend, who is sympathetic to Isaac’s predicament but doesn’t want to leave his girlfriend high and dry with a possible felony for aiding and abetting.
Overall, the tonal turn that Oh, Hi! takes isn’t nearly as interesting as it thinks it is. While it wants to believe it is almost a comedic version of Misery, it doesn’t have the balls to cross the lines it needs to do that. Brooks has some good ideas; she’s just chained to conventional storytelling.
The success of James Gunn’s Superman has suddenly made the other DC Studios projects in development seem a lot more viable. One that is already set in motion is the body horror Clayface, and following the news that Tom Rhys Harries will play the shapeshifting Bat-villain, we’re now learning that Mickey 17 star Naomi Ackie will be joining him.
Deadline reports Ackie is in early talks to star in Clayface alongside Harries in the DC Comics horror movie. The film will be directed by James Watkins (Speak No Evil) and was initially written by The Life of Chuck‘s Mike Flanagan. As we reported some weeks back, Flanagan moved on and subsequent drafts were written by Oscar-nominated writer Hossein Amini (Drive).
This is the latest huge role for Ackie, who broke out playing Jannah in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Since then, she starred as Whitney Houston in the biopic I Wanna Dance with Somebody, Zoe Kravitz’s Blink Twice, Bong Joon Ho’s Mickey 17, and can be seen right now in Eva Victor’s acclaimed dramedy Sorry, Baby. Her upward trajectory has been incredible.
Clayface is expected to hit theaters on September 11th 2026.
What’s a good way to get some distance from playing the ultimate, unkillable assassin John Wick? How about playing a guardian angel? That’s what Keanu Reeves is doing in Aziz Ansari’s new comedy, Good Fortune, which opens in theaters this October.
Not that Reeves’ guardian angel is any good at his job. Quite the contrary, actually, as he’s a budget guardian angel tasked with helping those who text and drive.
The film marks Ansari’s directorial debut. He’s also the writer, producer, and star alongside Reeves, Seth Rogen, Sandra Oh, Keke Palmer, and Sherry Cola.
SYNOPSIS: A well-meaning but rather inept angel named Gabriel (Keanu Reeves) meddles in the lives of a struggling gig worker (Aziz Ansari) and a wealthy venture capitalist (Seth Rogen).
Ansari is hoping to have better luck with Good Fortune than his previous attempted directorial debut, Being Mortal. That film, you may recall, got shelved in 2022 due to allegations against Bill Murray about inappropriate behavior during production.
Lionsgate will release Good Fortune into theaters on October 17th, following its world premiere at TIFF in September.
Three years after winning Best Director at Cannes with his acclaimed feature, Decision to Leave, South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook is back. He’s set to bring his latest film, No Other Choice, to the Venice Film Festival for its world premiere, and the first teaser for it has arrived.
A change of pace for the filmmaker, No Other Choice is based on the horror novel The Ax by author Donald E. Westlake. The story follows a man’s violent hunt for a new job after he gets laid off from the company he’s worked at for 25 years. Best way to do that? Literally take out the competition.
Squid Game‘s Lee Byung-Hun leads the cast, joined by Son Ye-jin, Park Hee-soon, Lee Sung-min, Yeom Hye-ran, Cha Seung-won, and Yoo Yeon-seok.
Here’s the brief synopsis: A man gets laid off from the paper company where he worked for 25 years. Some time later, and still jobless, he hits on a solution: to genuinely eliminate his competition.
NEON will release No Other Choice into theaters later this year.
Warner Bros. is doing something weird with Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another. Or at least it’s doing something weird in the marketing for the film, which finally sees Anderson team up with Leonardo DiCaprio after the duo have been trying to for so long. The new trailer was quietly released over a week ago (!!!) with no promotion, and it’s been playing in front of Superman showings. But the trailer is totally unlisted, making it virtually impossible to find unless you know to look for it. That said, it does have six million views so people managed to find it, anyway.
Is WB getting cold feet over the film, or what?
One Battle After Another stars DiCaprio alongside Benicio Del Toro, Sean Penn, Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor, Chase Infiniti, Wood Harris, Shayna McHale, and Alana Haim who Anderson reunites with after the divisive Licorice Pizza.
Here’s a synopsis for the film, which is a loose adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s book, Vineland. It marks Anderson’s second Pynchon adaptation after Inherent Vice…
“When their evil enemy resurfaces after 16 years, a group of ex-revolutionaries reunites to rescue one of their own’s daughter.”
One Battle After Another hits theaters on September 26th. Pick up the pace, WB!
