Has an inheritance ever been given in a movie without some strings attached? Usually deadly ones? In the upcoming Netflix thriller Dangerous Lies, Riverdale‘s Camila Mendes is given a fortune, only to learn it could put her and the people she loves in harm’s way.
Dangerous Lies is directed by Michael Scott, and stars Mendes, Jessie T. Usher (The Boys), Jamie Chung (Sin City: A Dame to Kill For), Cam Gigandet (Twilight), Sasha Alexander (Rizzolli & Isles), and Elliott Gould (Ocean’s 8).
SYNOPSIS: After losing her waitressing job, Katie Franklin (Camila Mendes) takes a job as a caretaker to a wealthy elderly man in his sprawling, empty Chicago estate. The two grow close, but when he unexpectedly passes away and names Katie as his sole heir, she and her husband Adam (Jessie T. Usher) are pulled into a complex web of lies, deception, and murder. If she’s going to survive, Katie will have to question everyone’s motives — even the people she loves.
Wonder Woman 1984 is one of the most high-profile films to be affected by the pandemic. Originally set to open in June, Warner Bros. has pushed its release back to August 14th 2020. So the marketing campaign pushes on a bit longer, which is cool for us in DC because we’re featured in one of the two brand new photos.
Diana (Gal Gadot) and the surprisingly-resurrected Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) share a midnight dance across from the Lincoln Memorial in one of Empire’s new images. It’s a quiet scene between the two lovers, who never could’ve expected to be reunited after Steve sacrificed his life in the prior film.
Steve’s return is just one of the many emotional challenges Diana faces in the sequel, but as Gadot says, she has evolved in order to meet them…
“The first movie was a coming of age, it was Diana becoming Wonder Woman,” Gadot said. “She was very naive and she didn’t understand the complexities of life. A fish out of water. In this movie, that’s not the case whatsoever. Diana has evolved. She’s much more mature and very wise. However, she’s very lonely. She lost all of her team members and she’s guarded. And then something crazy happens.”
“Chris was an integral part of the movie, and of its success,” she adds. “And because he and I and Patty really enjoyed working together, we all wanted to have him back. And Patty and [co-writer] Geoff Johns found the best way that serves the narrative to bring Steve back.”
Wonder Woman 1984 is directed by Patty Jenkins and co-stars Kristen Wiig, Pedro Pascal, Robin Wright, and Connie Nielsen.
The impact of the coronavirus isn’t just on movies we were anticipating for 2020, but it has bled over into 2021 and beyond. The same goes for Warner Bros., who have their DCEU to manage. A single delay, as we’ve seen with both Black Widow and Wonder Woman 1984, could send shockwaves up and down the schedule. There’s only one director who traverses both Marvel and DC, James Gunn, and he wants to assure fans that his movies are still right on time.
Gunn is the director of both The Suicide Squad and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. The former has a release date of August 6th 2021, while the Marvel film will likely arrive a year later. Based on a pair of tweets by Gunn, fans don’t have to worry about either movie being delayed…
Right now there’s no reason for #TheSuicideSquad release date to move. We are on or ahead of schedule. We were extremely fortunate to wrap shooting & set up editing from our homes (due to a post production team & studio with foresight) before quarantine. https://t.co/URRFXX58r3
Of course, things could change depending on the state of the world, right? Marvel has a logjam of films coming up, and recently added Captain Marvel 2 for July 2022. There’s a lot to consider, that’s all, but for now Gunn has two big superhero films showing up just when he expects them to.
It may not seem like it with so many films being postponed, but there are still some very big movies coming in 2020. Arguably, the most anticipated of them all is Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of Dune, an adaptation of Frank Herbert’s iconic sci-fi novel, and Vanity Fair has our first look.
That first look is of star Timothée Chalamet as Paul Atreides, originally played by Kyle MacLachlan in David Lynch’s 1984 movie. The image shows Paul, not on the harsh desert planet of Arrakis (aka Dune), but on his oceanic home planet of Caladan. Soon, he and the rest of the royal House Atreides will be forced out and moved to Arrakis, where his life will be turned upside down.
Chalamet said, “The immediately appealing thing about Paul was the fact that in a story of such detail and scale and world-building, the protagonist is on an anti-hero’s-journey of sorts.”
He added, “He thinks he’s going to be sort of a young general studying his father and his leadership of a fighting force before he comes of age, hopefully a decade later, or something like that.”
The cast Villeneuve has assembled is incredible and includes Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Zendaya, David Dastmalchian, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Charlotte Rampling, Jason Momoa and Javier Bardem. Villeneuve gives credit to them and everyone in the production when speaking about the movie’s upcoming December 18th release, which as of now has yet to be moved because of the COVID-19 outbreak…
“Dune was made by people from all over the world. Many of these people are like family to me, and they’re very much in my thoughts,” Villeneuve said. “I’m so proud to showcase their hard work. I look forward to a time when we can all get together again as Dune was made to be seen on the big screen.”
Rian Johnson has tackled a different genre with each of his movies: crime, fantasy, sci-fi, mystery. But one thing you’re unlikely to see from him is horror. The Knives Out director chatted with The Invitation filmmaker Karyn Kusama as part of the “Coffee Talk” series from Film Independent, and he gave his reasons why horror just doesn’t speak to him…
“To be honest, it’s a genre that, because my family was really religious when I was growing up, I wasn’t allowed to see a lot of intense stuff. It’s not a genre I have a grounding in emotionally. A lot of friends like [Kusama] included are incredible filmmakers who engage with this genre and make movies that just amaze me. It’s not something that, for whatever reason, has drawn me.”
Johnson doesn’t have any particular dislike for horror, though, which I think leaves him still open to the possibility of directing one someday. For many filmmakers, tackling a genre they aren’t familiar with is part of the challenge. For instance, I never would’ve thought to see Martin Scorsese direct a 3D kids’ movie like Hugo, and yet he did and did so successfully. There’s a lot of time left in Johnson’s career, and I bet he circles around to horror, albeit in his own way.
Todd McFarlane is fighting a perception that his Spawn movie, the one reportedly starring Jamie Foxx, has gone off the rails and even lost its star. For more than two decades McFarlane has been stringing his fans along with promises and teases, with absolutely nothing to show for it. And now with months going by and no information on the production, McFarlane is dangling yet another carrot just to keep Spawn fans interested.
Speaking with Comicbook.com, McFarlane shoots down rumors Foxx has exited Spawn. At the same time, he dangles that an even bigger name may be coming aboard. Who is this big star? He won’t say, but it would be a “grand slam”…
“About a month ago, I had a big fish. I just about got him on deck, right? It was the one that some people misheard and said I lost Jamie, it was like no an addition, an addition,” McFarlane said. “But we lost him and those are always frustrating because whenever you got the fish out of the water, pull them up on deck and the line breaks.”
“We got an offer out to, I think, a bigger fish. So, there weren’t too many bigger than the first guy, but anyway, we’ll see. If I could’ve got the last guy, it would’ve been a home run. If I can get this guy, it will be a grand slam. This one will blow up the Internet.”
For the record, we have no reason to believe anything he says about Spawn. McFarlane is currently running a Kickstarter for an awesomely-detailed Spawn statue. The campaign has been wildly successful, already surpassing $1M. But one way McFarlane keeps people invested in the many different things he does is by teasing big developments on a Spawn movie.
Asked by Forbes why he insists on Spawn being a movie, rather than a TV series like has been done to great acclaim previously, McFarlane admits it’s because he wants to direct it himself, and that has led to some challenges…
“People ask why not a TV show instead of a movie? Part of it is I’ve never directed a feature film. I had an itch to scratch. This might be my only chance. I’ve held on to the rights to attach myself to it. If it works out, we can always bring it over to television. Can we do it as a feature and release to a streamer? Sure, maybe. But there’s something to having your picture on a big screen, assuming that’s still an option once this is all over.”
“I wrote the first draft of the screenplay. If I’d done my job and written a screenplay that mattered, that would have sold it. I’m culpable on that end to start with. Then there’s the fear and risk on the financing side with a first time writer, first time director. That’s why I went to get Jason Blum [of Blumhouse] to produce, and attached Jamie and Jeremy – to add the quality to it. My goal is to continue to add those kind of quality people at all levels. The more I can add those people, the less I become relevant as a risk. Hopefully the studios will see that I am planning accordingly and going about this in a businesslike way to reduce that back-end risk, and at some point, we’ll move forward.”
There seems to be an extraordinary amount of “planning” for just this one movie. I won’t hold my breath, but hopefully McFarlane pulls this off at some point.
How many weeks have we been stuck in the house? The only way to keep track is through new movies now. So this week was TROLLS WORLD TOUR, which Universal dropped on digital and may have blown-up the entire Hollywood distribution model. But is the movie any good? Would we even be talking about TROLLS WORLD TOUR otherwise? Plus, reviews of Alexandra Daddario in WE SUMMON THE DARKNESS and WWE’s new Netflix flick THE MAIN EVENT.
Finally, there’s news on San Diego Comic-Con’s possible cancellation; new HELLRAISER and SALEM’s LOT films, a remake of NIGHT OF THE HUNTER, ROBIN HOOD to Disney+, DOOGIE HOWSER, and more!
Little more than a week ago San Diego Comic-Con organizers were “hopeful” the annual convention could still be held this July. But with the COVID-19 outbreak destroying the fall convention season, and quickly targeting summer, that appears to no longer be the case. According to those same organizers and The San Diego Union-Tribune, an announcement about Comic-Con’s future is expected soon, and cancellation seems imminent.
There are multiple problems with holding an event such as Comic-Con right now, but let’s start with the obvious one. It just isn’t safe for more than 135,000 people to be all crammed in one place together, not right now.
“They are evaluating any financial liability they might have with a cancellation, and once they determine that, they’ll make a decision,” Tourism Authority CEO Joe Terzi said. “Based on our knowledge of the event, it will be very difficult for them to have that event in July. With other events you could do things to keep people separate, but Comic-Con is a whole different animal, it’s a massive sea of people.” At the moment they are still evaluating the situation but sent out an email to more than 50 hotels about cancelation fees. Comic-Con wanted assurances that “any cancellation fees or penalties for this year’s event be waived as we work through this challenging process. Comic-Con continues to be a loyal partner and important economic generator for the City of San Diego and has been for over 50 years.”
Comic-Con said on Thursday that an announcement will happen soon. They could try to do what some recent film festivals and conventions have done, which is attempt an online version.
“We understand that many stakeholders rely upon our conventions as a major portion of their yearly income and livelihood, but we are truly in uncharted territory,” said spokesman David Glanzer. “We do not want to disappoint the people who have saved, planned, and are looking forward to the show this summer, but the primary concern, what is chief among all our concerns, is the health and safety of not only our attendees but the public as well.”
Here’s the thing: many of those people who were saving, planning, and looking forward to Comic-Con now are without jobs. And even if they do have work, it’s doubtful they’re going to be thinking of an expensive trip so they can watch some movie trailers or buy a $500 exclusive toy. Comic-Con is a frivolous expenditure under the best of circumstances.
As I’ve mentioned previously, Comic-Con is the kind of place where one expects to come home with some sort of cold or flu. Having been there many times, there are just too many people for it to be sanitary and illness rips through the Convention Center. It also turns out that the building is being used to house hundreds of San Diego’s homeless, who are also being affected by COVID-19 and have nowhere else to go.
There just doesn’t appear to be a positive way out of this for Comic-Con. The studios don’t have any films they’d be willing to bring and certainly no celebrities are going to risk exposure. Moving an event of this size until later in the year also seems like a mistake, and a gigantic undertaking. I continue to think 2020 will go down as a lost year, and it may be that Sundance was the first and last major festival/convention to take place until 2021.
James Wan is turning to a familiar face to direct his upcoming adaptation of Stephen King horror Salem’s Lot. Last year we learned Wan would produce the vampire tale, with Annabelle Comes Home, The Nun, and It writer Gary Dauberman on the screenplay. Well, when you’ve got a proven genre commodity like Dauberman already on board, why let someone else get behind the camera?
THR reports Dauberman will now direct and write Salem’s Lot, which is one of the most adapted of King’s works. The 1975 novel centers on a writer who returns to his hometown of Jerusalem’s Lot, only to find the residents have been turned into vampires.
Salem’s Lot has been adapted many times. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre‘s Tobe Hooper directed an Emmy-nominated TV miniseries in 1979. Larry Cohen directed TV sequel A Return to Salem’s Lot in 1987, and Rob Lowe starred in a 2004 remake on TNT. An episode of Castle Rock also alluded to the town of Jerusalem’s Lot.
Everything Dauberman touches turns to gold lately, so this makes all the sense in the world. He made his directorial debut with last year’s Annabelle Comes Home.
Growing up there was one Disney animated movie I loved more than the rest: 1973’s Robin Hood. It reimagined the woodland hero as a sly fox, joined by his band of Merry Men, such as Little John the bear and the badger Friar Tuck. I watched the movie a bunch of times, and even had the LP to listen to. To me, it’s still better than every Robin Hood movie since. And now, Disney is making it the latest of their live-action remakes.
THR reports that Blindspotting director Carlos Lopez Estrada will direct the Robin Hood remake for Disney+. He’ll be working from a script by Kari Granlund, writer of Disney’s 2019 remake of Lady and the Tramp. The film will be a live-action/CG hybrid, which is interesting and implies there will be some human characters mixed in. I can’t imagine why.
The 1973 was both comic and musical, elements that Estrada will be bringing back with his version. His work on Blindspotting blended comedy, music, and spoken-word to tell a powerful story of injustice. Pretty sure he can do the same with a story on Sherwood Forest’s greatest hero. Disney has been thinking outside the box with some of their director choices on these remakes. I liken Estrada’s hiring to that of David Lowery on Pete’s Dragon, and that turned out to be a tremendous creative success.
