With Love, Death & Robots, Big Mouth, and Bojack Horseman, Netflix has shown their affinity for offbeat, mature animated shows. Well, they don’t get more offbeat than Pendleton Ward’s Adventure Time, but it’s clear his Cartoon Network series was the tip of the psychedelic iceberg, and he was just waiting to cut loose at Netflix with The Midnight Gospel.
A surreal, trippy visual feast, The Midnight Gospel is Pendleton Ward’s long-awaited followup to Adventure Time. Once again teaming up with comedian/podcaster Duncan Trussell , and the folks at Titmouse studio (known for their work on Big Mouth) Ward takes on a weird, strangely introspective trip across time and space. Here’s the synopsis:
“The Midnight Gospel is the story of Clancy, a spacecaster with a malfunctioning multiverse simulator who leaves the comfort of his extra-dimensional home on the Chromatic Ribbon to interview beings living in other worlds.”
The Midnight Gospel hits Netflix beginning April 20th.
When a rumor surfaced that Tom Hooper’s Cats, one of the most humiliatingly viral films in history, had a cut featuring CGI buttholes on feline bods, didn’t you just know it HAD to be true? I mean, this is a movie that was already about as misguided as it gets, what’s one more embarrassment to heap on it? Well, now we know…the butthole cut was real.
The Daily Beast has the inside story on the Cats butthole cut, noting a source who worked on the movie’s visual effects. The poor beleaguered butthole-spotter says the movie was halfway finished before anyone noticed, and that brought things to a screeching halt…
“We paused it,” the source said. “We went to call our supervisor, and we’re like, ‘There’s a fucking asshole in there! There’s buttholes!’ It wasn’t prominent but you saw it… And you [were] just like, ‘What the hell is that?… There’s a fucking butthole in there.’ It wasn’t in your face—but at the same time, too, if you’re looking, you’ll see it.”
Yes, you tend to see buttholes when they’re made visible. And once you see them, you can’t unsee them. So it was probably a good idea to have some sad sad person remove them, although the source does say nobody outright ordered the buttholes into existence. While that may be true, multiple producers (and likely Hooper, too) had to have signed off on the cats’ complete look, buttholes included.
Speaking of Hooper, he apparently was a huge hindrance to the VFX team. His misunderstanding of how effects work, and poor treatment of others is said to have made an overall “horrible” experience.
“Before visual effects artists fully render sequences for animated films, they normally show directors playblasts—preview renderings that feature characters without color or texture. That allows the director to evaluate the motion before hours of work are done to flesh out things like color, texture, and lighting. Hooper, however, did not seem to grasp that process. Any time the visual effects team wanted to show the director any animatics, the source said, they had to fully render it. Otherwise, he’d say things like, “What’s this garbage?” and “I don’t understand— where’s the fur?””
So Cats is available on digital now. If you want to watch it and imagine Tom Hooper angrily screaming about the lack of sphincters, feel free.
Chris Hemsworth is a long way from Asgard in the new trailer for Extraction. The Netflix action flick finds Hemsworth as a mercenary, still struggling with his past, who is hired on a suicidal mission to rescue a powerful Bangladeshi crime lord’s kidnapped son. Given Hemsworth’s physicality in past roles, it’s not surprising he looks pretty good in this, too. But what’s more interesting is the talent Hemsworth is working with.
Extraction, formerly-titled Dhaka, is produced by Avengers directors Joe and Anthony Russo. Joe Russo wrote the script himself, and making his directorial debut is renowned stuntman/coordinator Sam Hargrave. Hargrave worked with the Russos on Avengers: Endgame and Captain America: Civil War, while also doing stuntwork for Atomic Blonde. Action is his thing, so let’s see how he handles this huge opportunity.
Hemsworth is joined in the cast by David Harbour, Golshifteh Farahani, Derek Luke, Manoj Bajpayee, Fay Masterson, Rudhraksh Jaiswal, and Priyanshu Painyulli.
Extraction hits Netflix on April 24th.
SYNOPSIS: Tyler Rake (Chris Hemsworth) is a fearless black market mercenary with nothing left to lose when his skills are solicited to rescue the kidnapped son of an imprisoned international crime lord. But in the murky underworld of weapons dealers and drug traffickers, an already deadly mission approaches the impossible, forever altering the lives of Rake and the boy.
I, like everybody else, have been obsessed with Netflix’s Tiger King docuseries. It’s a little disturbing how much we are all into these insane big cat-obsessed people, especially since they’re all pretty awful, but what’s not surprising is to see others try to get in on the action. We already know about a series adaptation featuring Kristen Wiig as Carole Baskin, and rumors (from a VERY unreliable source, mind you) of a new episode this week, but now Investigatigation Discovery is putting their own spin on the Tiger King story.
Investigation Discovery is launching a Tiger King sequel docuseries, but rather than focus on the bizarre criminal exploits of Joe Exotic, it will turn to one of his frequent targets: Carole Baskin. That’s right, the mystery surrounding the Big Cat Rescue founder’s missing husband Don Lewis is being put in the spotlight. In Tiger King, we saw Joe Exotic go nutso terrorizing Baskin about Lewis’ disappearance, outright accusing her of murdering him and feeding his body to her tigers. But is there any weight to those accusations? That’s where ID comes in.
Titled Investigating the Strange World of Joe Exotic, the series promises “the investigation you didn’t get to see, revealing the secrets only Joe knows and the exclusive footage that has never been shown.”
“Love her or hate her, Carole is now in the center ring of the big cat circus,” ID said in a statement. “Is she a selfless crusader and protector of animals, who found unimaginable strength despite the mysterious disappearance of her husband? Or are we witnessing Carole Baskin’s master plan finally take effect? Despite her claims of innocence, did she orchestrate the disappearance of Don Lewis to seize control of his fortune, consolidate power and lay waste to her foes? No one seems to be talking – except for one man – and that man is the center of ID’s upcoming investigative series.”
So basically, this seems to be giving a platform to Joe Exotic to spout whatever conspiratorial nonsense wants, without Baskin getting much of a say. She has repeatedly denied any involvement in her former husband’s 1987 disappearance, but the way Tiger King frames her…well, she looks pretty guilty. She’ll probably look worse after this.
I’ve been leery of anybody who thinks Joe Exotic a victim in any way. This is the same guy who sold tiger cubs out the back of a truck, is credibly accused of burning down his own facility to hide crucial evidence against him, and oh yeah, tried to hire a hitman to have Baskin assassinated. He’s not worthy of our sympathy, nor is anybody else on that show regardless of the sob stories they spun.
It’ll be interesting to see what Investigation Discovery does with Baskin’s story, and what the fallout will be. Suffice it to say, Hollywood is not done with Tiger King and may not be for a long time. A movie is inevitable.
Richard Kelly had one of the most inexplicable cult-favorite films ever, at least to me, with 2001’s Donnie Darko. There are a handful of terrible movies that I feel groupthink played a part in their success, and Donnie Darko was one. Kelly followed it up, and proved his inadequacy as a filmmaker, with 2006’s wildly incoherent Southland Tales, which was critically-reviled by all. He would go on to direct just one more movie, 2009’s decent-but-forgettable The Box, but has been quiet ever since. Now he hopes to return with a sequel absolutely nobody is asking for.
According to The Film Stage, Kelly recently hosted a viewing party of Southland Tales. Good lord. He explained that he and his team have completed a 4K restoration of the 158-minute Cannes cut of the film, and that he’s also been working on an “ambitious” prequel script that he hopes to direct.
We have completed 4K restorations of both the theatrical and Cannes versions. The 158 minute Cannes cut is rough with many unfinished visual effects. It *will* be released for posterity… but my focus has been on preparing the epic Version 3.0 of #SouthlandTales. #SouthlandNow
#SouthlandTales is a six-chapter saga. The existing film covers the second half. I wrote graphic novels with @brettweldele that cover the first three chapters. I have completed an ambitious new script that uses the novels as a blueprint for an ambitious new film. #SouthlandNow
My *hope* is to direct a new #SouthlandTales prequel film using a hybrid of animation and live-action. This new film could be released in tandem with an expanded version of the existing film with significant new content. #SouthlandNow
Note the emphasis on “hope” there. I think Kelly knows that no studio is going to finance anything involving Southland Tales. The Film Stage does note that Kelly was reportedly talking to an unnamed studio a year ago about this project. It was Mubi that hosted his viewing party, so maybe it’s them? Seems a bit out of their scope, but who knows? As unappealing as a new Richard Kelly movie is to me, there’s a certain group of people who will really be into this.
The Kingdom Keepers series of novels, which began in 2005 by author Ridley Pearson, always reminded me of the Disney version of Night at the Museum. The books follow a group of five teenage holograms; by day they work as hosts in Disney theme parks, but at night they fight to stop Disney villains from taking over. I only read the first book, but it was pretty cool, and I always wondered why they never adapted it. Well, Kevin Smith has now told us why.
In a group of tweets, Smith revealed that he was hired to adapt The Kingdom Keepers as a series for Disney+. However, the series was killed by a new exec who had a really interesting gripe…
That was a blast to write 2 years ago. It was planned as one of the first shows to launch on what would become @disneyplus. Then a new exec was put in charge of the app and he killed KK. Said we used too much @Disney IP in one project (every character in the park comes to life). https://t.co/8izGTsg10H
Thanks, man! It was written with love by a kid who grew up watching “The Wonderful World of Disney” with his family every Sunday night. I renamed the main characters after the original team of Imagineers who worked w/ Walt. Felt like they overpaid me to write @Disney fan fiction! https://t.co/GpZypWuWYK
On the one hand, I get it; using so much Disney IP in one franchise could be jarring to casual audiences. On the other hand, it didn’t stop them from making a bunch of Kingdom Hearts video games. And let’s face it, this would be a really cool series to adapt. With some tweaking they could even find a way to limit the number of Disney characters that show up. I’d love to see this happen, with Smith still attached.
Last night’s episode of The Walking Dead is the last one fans will get for a while. Due to the coronavirus outbreak, production on the season finale had to be halted, and that means it’s going to be a wait before we see the anticipated return of Lauren Cohan as Maggie.
Maggie, who left during season 9 to help build another community, is implored to return and help out her old friends in this extended sneak peek of the season 10 finale. Cohan had left the show to star in ABC’s short-lived Whiskey Cavalier, but quickly returned to The Walking Dead when that was canceled.
It’ll be interesting to see how Maggie feels about Negan still being around, considering he bashed her husband Glenn in the head with a bat. We’ll update you when AMC sets a date for the season 10 finale.
Luke Cage is a Marvel character whose origin goes back to the blaxploitation, and for decades since he was on the bottom tier. That changed in the pages of New Avengers, and his surge of popularity continued with Netflix’s series, as played by Mike Colter. But before that, back in the ’90s, Quentin Tarantino had wanted to do a Luke Cage film, and given the character’s origins you can understand why.
Sadly, it never happened, but in a recent episode of Amy Schumer’s podcast, Tarantino talked about what attracted him to do a Luke Cage movie, why he wanted Laurence Fishburne to star in it, and ultimately what turned him off to it…
“There was a time before all this Marvel shit was coming out,” Tarantino said. “It was after ‘Reservoir Dogs,’ it was before ‘Pulp Fiction,’ and I had thought about doing ‘Luke Cage.’ Growing up I was a big comic-book collector, and my two favorite [comic books] were ‘Luke Cage: Hero for Hire,’ later ‘Luke Cage: Power Man,’ and ‘Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu.’…My only hero was Luke Cage.”
“Actually, ‘Luke Cage’ would have been my ‘Jackie Brown,’ after ‘Pulp Fiction.’ What dissuaded me … was my comic-geek friends talked me out of it. Because I had an idea that Larry Fishburne would’ve been the perfect guy to play Luke Cage… But all my friends were like, ‘It’s got to be Wesley Snipes.’ And I go, ‘Look, I like Wesley Snipes, but I mean, Larry Fishburne is practically Marlon Brando. I think Fish is the man.’ And they’re like, ‘Yeah, but he’d have to get in shape in a big way. Snipes is that way already!’ And I go, ‘Fuck that! That’s not that important! Fuck you, you ruined the whole damn thing!’”
I agree with Tarantino here, by the way. Fishburne would’ve been a kick-ass Power Man. Dude is made of steel-hard skin! Who cares if he has big muscles!? Anyway, count this as just one of those lost Tarantino projects that would’ve been awesome if they had ever happened. Luke Cage will inevitably return to the MCU, probably with a new actor, but I won’t be able to forget that we could’ve had a Tarantino and Fishburne version.
Celebrities get caught on tape doing stupid, sometimes violent shit all of the time. Frankly, it’s not our bag. We don’t post about personal issues unless they are going to affect a film production, and in this case, I feel like that could be happening sooner rather than later. Why? Because Ezra Miller, who has a Flash movie on the way and is a key figure in the Fantastic Beasts franchise, was caught on tape choking a fan.
I woke up and wondered why Ezra Miller was trending on Twitter. It didn’t take long to find out why. A video surfaced today of Miller grabbing a female fan by the throat and throwing her to the ground. Unless it was an impromptu WrestleMania dark match or something, there’s really no good way to spin this. The incident took place at an Icelandic bar called Prikið Kaffihús, and here is some added context provided by Variety who spoke to people who were there…
“According to a source at the bar, the altercation took place after the individual, identified as Miller, was confronted by a group of eager fans, who were “quite pushy.” Things then escalated, with Miller losing his temper at one woman in particular.
Prikið staff escorted the actor, who was upset and angry, off the premises following the incident.”
Pushy, aggressive fans, an actor who may be having a bad day…it rarely works out well. We’ve yet to hear from Miller on this, or from Warner Bros., but expect something to happen. This won’t be allowed to sit idle for long. Miller is part of two very fan-friendly pop culture franchises, and being caught treating a fan this way isn’t a good look. The vid is below. Watch it if you’re not someone particularly sensitive to violence.
A video of Ezra Miller choking a fan and throwing her on the ground has surfaced. According to the person who took the video, he also spit on them multiple times. pic.twitter.com/gQl53ngvrd
Oh yeah, Trolls World Tour comes out this week! Seriously, it had completely slipped my mind, and it’s not like this is just another sequel we must endure. Universal made the huge step to release the film in both theaters and digitally. That seemed like a much bigger deal a few weeks ago when we thought there might be theatrical releases, but now it’s mainly just a pain in the butt to exhibitors who would’ve preferred it be delayed.
So in a way, we’re pretty fortunate to get one of the year’s bigger movies right now, even if it is Trolls World Tour. The sequel returns Anna Kendrick, Justin Timberlake, James Corden and more as the pop music-loving Trolls. They come to learn the world is a much bigger place than they knew, and other troll villages have their own forms of music. Queen Barb (Rachel Bloom), queen of the Hard Rock trolls, plans to upstage them all and turn everyone into hard rock zombies.
In the two newly-released clips, we see the remaining pop trolls coming to grips with the kidnapping of Queen Poppy (Kendrick). The second finds the trolls engaging in a little pop medley, which gets thumbs up from me for using the Spice Girls’ “Wannabe”, even as it gets the gas face for using “Who Let the Dogs Out.” That song should be forever banned.
Trolls World Tour hits theaters and VOD on April 10th.
