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*UPDATE* Frances McDormand Not Part Of ‘Godzilla Vs. Kong’ Cast

By
John Nolan
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*UPDATE: This is why we say to take stories from unconfirmed sources with a grain of salt. And you know that I’ve been suspicious of That Hashtag Show as a source for a while now. It’s because of stuff like this. They’ve just had to make an embarrassing retraction of this story, and honestly their attempts to explain it away didn’t help them.  Original story is below, and after that you can see the string of tweets from Collider’s Jeff Sneider, an actual reporter, that reads them the riot act.*

The cast for Godzilla vs. Kong may have just gotten some Oscar-winning help. The monster crossover film has reportedly added two-time Best Actress winner Frances McDormand, according to That Hashtag Show. Of course, take that with a grain until it’s been confirmed by the folks at Legendary.

If this turns out to be solid, McDormand would join a cast that is already very impressive. Kyle Chandler, Millie Bobby Brown, and Julian Dennison are set for what would be the fourth movie in the franchise, following Godzilla, Kong: Skull Island, and Godzilla: King of the Monsters which opens next year.

While this may seem like an outlier for McDormand, let’s not forget she’s previously starred in both Aeon Flux and Transformers: Dark of the Moon, she isn’t averse to the occasional blockbuster studio flick. She won her most recent Oscar for her lead performance in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, and won previously for 1997’s Fargo.

Scarlett Johansson To Star In Biopic ‘Rub & Tug’ From ‘Ghost In The Shell’ Director

By
Travis Hopson
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When the remake of Ghost in the Shell opened last year it had been hobbled by months of controversy surrounding its star, Scarlett Johansson. Not that she did anything wrong, but claims of white-washing dogged the manga adaptation’s production, and that undoubtedly had an effect on its low $169M box office. The disappointing numbers aside, Johansson clearly got along with director Rupert Sanders because they are about to work together again on a new film provocatively titled Rub & Tug.

Sanders will direct Johansson in the biopic of infamous Pittsburgh criminal Jean Marie Gill, and as you might have guessed she’s known for running a bunch of illegal massage parlors in the 1970s. These parlors were all part of a steroids ring that the Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers became swept up in. To crack the male dominated business Gill posed as a man, using connections within the gay community to grow her power base. Through all of this she had the support of her girlfriend, Cynthia, and their impassioned romance will serve as the movie’s emotional core. The screenplay is by Gary Spinelli, who wrote last year’s underrated American Made with Tom Cruise.

Johansson continues to make interesting choices away from the Marvel stuff that dominates so much of her career. She’s currently filming Taika Waititi’s comedy Jojo Rabbit, and earlier this year lent her voice to Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs. She will also star with Adam Driver in Noah Baumbach’s upcoming film this fall.  Production on Rub & Tug begins in February. [Deadline]

DC Readers: Win Passes To A Free Screening Of ‘Skyscraper’

By
John Nolan
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We’re happy to offer our DC readers the chance to attend a free advance screening of Skyscraper, starring Dwayne Johnson. The film is directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber who worked with Johnson on Central Intelligence.

SYNOPSIS: Global icon Dwayne Johnson leads the cast of Legendary’s Skyscraper as former FBI Hostage Rescue Team leader and U.S. war veteran Will Sawyer, who now assesses security for skyscrapers.  On assignment in China he finds the tallest, safest building in the world suddenly ablaze, and he’s been framed for it.  A wanted man on the run, Will must find those responsible, clear his name and somehow rescue his family who is trapped inside the building…above the fire line.


The screening takes place on Tuesday, July 10th at 7:30pm at AMC Mazza Gallerie. If you’d like to attend, simply enter through the Rafflecopter contest form below. Winners will be selected on Friday, July 6th and notified by email. Good luck!

Skyscraper opens July 13th.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Michael Moore Reveals Details On His Anti-Trump Doc, ‘Fahrenheit 11/9’

By
John Nolan
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Michael Moore has a dire warning for America. If we don’t get our shit together, Donald Trump will be re-elected in 2020, and for a lot of us out there (the majority, actually) that’s just unthinkable. So Moore is doing what he can to fight back and prevent it from happening. He’ll be dropping his latest documentary, titled Fahrenheit 11/9, which is all about Trump’s election in 2016 and…Roseanne Barr?

Moore appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and revealed the film will hit theaters on September 21st. That’s just a couple of months ahead of the all-important midterm elections when the Democratic Party hopes to reclaim the House and Senate so as to put a check on Trump’s actions.  But this won’t just be an anti-Trump movie, it will also connect the President with Barr, a known Trump supporter recently fired from her sitcom for making racist statements. He teased the connection in May during a Facebook video that showed Trump and Moore as guests on Barr’s short-lived talk show in 1998. He captioned the video, “I know Roseanne. And I know Trump. And they are about to rue the day they ever knew me.”


Those are big words, but Moore has backed them up in the past. The title of his film is clearly a reference to his smash 2004 documentary Fahrenheit 9/11, which not only won the Palme d’Or that year but became the highest-grossing doc of all-time with $222M.  Moore’s movies since then have failed to come close to reaching that number.

Moore has done a complete overhaul on the film from when it was shown last year at Cannes. Since then its distributor The Weinstein Company collapsed, and now it will be released by Briarcliff, a new label looking to make a splash.

I expect a lot from Moore, but since Sicko his movies have felt a little uninspired. Perhaps having a target that is such a clear and present danger will bring out the impassioned storyteller we know he can be. Watch Moore’s appearance on Colbert below, as well as his guest spot with Bill Maher that is equally terrifying.

‘Skyscraper’ Final Trailer: Dwayne Johnson Does His Best Tom Cruise Impression

By
John Nolan
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Dwayne Johnson will put the summer blockbuster season into another headlock next week with Skyscraper, and even though it’s so close Universal feels the need for one more trailer. As if this will be the one that finds the magic formula to box office success. Hello! The only ingredient in this formula is Johnson himself, and if you dig him then chances are you’re buying a ticket.

The film finds Johnson doing his best Tom Cruise impression, scaling a burning skyscraper in Hong Kong to rescue his kidnapped family. And then leaping from it! He has to do it with only one leg, but that’s cool because his prosthetic makes for a pretty good weapon or a lifeline in a pinch.

The duo of Johnson and director Rawson Marshall Thurber had a hit on their hands last time with Central Intelligence, and obviously the idea is they can do it again in a different genre and without Kevin Hart. At a budget of $125M they’ll have a much steeper mountain to climb.

Also starring Neve Campbell, Chan Han, Byron Mann, and Pablo Schreiber, Skyscraper opens July 13th.

Kumail Nanjiani Is Suiting Up For The ‘Men In Black’ Spinoff

By
John Nolan
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If there’s one thing we know about the untitled Men in Black spinoff that Sony has coming up, it ought to be damn funny. Joining Chris Hemsworth, Tessa Thompson, and Liam Neeson is The Big Sick‘s  Kumail Nanjiani and Rafe Spall of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.

There still isn’t a lot that we know about the film, but the cast is reaching the point of being so good that it doesn’t matter. It’s expected to take place in London and be more of an ensemble than the previous films, though, which hopefully means Nanjiani will get plenty of screen time with Hemsworth and Thompson. The script is by Iron Man duo of Art Mancum and Matt Holloway with F. Gary Gray directing.

The Men in Black spinoff opens June 14th 2019. [TheWrap/THR]

Colin Trevorrow Explains How ‘Book Of Henry’ And ‘Star Wars’ Are The Same

By
John Nolan
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I know, even the headline is ridiculous. But look, I can appreciate Colin Trevorrow for seeing something in The Book of Henry, a film that failed on just about every level, that you or I didn’t see. Trevorrow caught the attention of everyone with his Sundance indie, Safety Not Guaranteed, a film that I absolutely loved. He immediately jumped to the big time with Jurassic World and broke box office records. He followed that up with The Book of Henry, which bombed, and he was removed from writing and directing Star Wars: Episode 9 soon after. He says the two things aren’t connected, but who knows if that’s true.

Trevorrow, in a Twitter exchange with Thor writer Zack Stentz made a claim that The Book of Henry is “a carbon copy of A New Hope.”  On its face the claim is absurd, but give it up to Trevorrow for giving it the old college try in explaining where he’s coming from. He reluctantly answered Slashfilm’s questions on the matter like this…

“I mean, it is, it’s a foundational myth. It’s a noble ghost story. Where a character lives on after death in order to guide a hero to find their strength and defeat ultimate evil. And structurally, I can’t…but you’re gonna print this, unfortunately. I’m saying this now. But the way that I look at movies, I do see ‘Avatar’ and ‘Titanic’ and ‘Jurassic World’ [as] very similar movies. Henry was Obi-Wan Kenobi. And he died in the middle. And he left a set of instructions on how to take out the Death Star where Darth Vader was holding a Princess captive. And at the very end, when he had the target in his sights, he had to remember his training. Guided by this ghostly voice. And then Han Solo comes in with the Rube Goldberg machine and gives him the moment. And ultimately the Princess saves herself.”


Okay, sure, they are similar on the most basic, most surface of levels. But a carbon copy? I think most of us recognize that Star Wars itself a classic example of Joseph Campbell’s “Hero’s Journey” (read The Hero with a Thousand Faces if you haven’t yet), and takes many of its cues from myths and legends passed down across generations. That is how all of storytelling is built. So Trevorrow isn’t really saying anything here, at least not to my mind he isn’t. I imagine if this were his explanation to Stentz it would have been highly disappointing.

That said, if Trevorrow wanted to find a way to jumpstart The Book of Henry‘s Bluray rentals then this was a good way to do it.

Two Clips From ‘Ant-Man And The Wasp’ Deliver Big Marvel Action

By
John Nolan
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Marvel’s grip on the summer blockbuster season continues in just a few days with Ant-Man and the Wasp. The latest clips do a good job of teasing a little bit of the film’s action, which I think is better than in the previous movie. And they also offer better looks at two of the movie’s villains, Hannah John-Kamen as the mysterious Ghost, and Walton Goggins as Sonny Burch.

The first clip shows a fight between Evangeline Lilly’s Hope van Dyne and Ghost, a battle that makes it clear the villain won’t be easy to take down. Or even to lay a hand on. She possesses strange phasing powers that make her virtually impossible to hit, but there’s a lot to the origin of those powers. The second clip is part of the chase scene that has become a big part of the movie’s marketing.  We get to see Paul Rudd’s Scott Lang in Giant-Man mode, chasing down Burch and his goons using a truck as a scooter. We also see Michael Pena as Luis, who appears taken with how easily Hope takes out Burch’s men.

Directed by Peyton Reed, Ant-Man and the Wasp opens July 6th.

Box Office: ‘Jurassic World 2’ Rules Yet Again; ‘Sicario 2’ Outscores ‘Uncle Drew’

By
John Nolan
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1. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom– $60M/$264.7M
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom had a 60% bite taken out of it but still managed $60M for a $264M domestic tally. Overseas is where it continues to do the biggest amount of damage and it currently has $932M worldwide. The dino-sequel is unlikely to match the $1.6B of its predecessor but it doesn’t really need to. A third film has already been confirmed and even if it slides a bit Universal is all but guaranteed another monster-sized smash.
2. Incredibles 2– $45.5M/$439.7M
3. Sicario: Day of the Soldado (review)- $19M
The unexpected and less meaty sequel Sicario: Day of the Soldado opened with a muscular $19M in its first weekend. That’s a helluva start for a film that most probably didn’t think need to happen, as 2015’s Sicario wrapped up pretty well the story of its off-the-books drug enforcement agents and their war against Mexican cartels. The sequel brings back Josh Brolin and Benicio Del Toro, arguably the most interesting characters, and goes in a slightly different direction that has split critics down the middle. Even I’m torn on it. Regardless of the reviews, this is a robust start for a movie that only cost $35M, and should justify a third and presumably final chapter.
4. Uncle Drew (review)- $15.5M
I’ve been surprised by the number of critics who have told me that Uncle Drew, which is the Kyrie Irving basketball comedy based on a Pepsi commercial, actually isn’t terrible. And this $15.5M start is damn good, because sports comedies generally don’t do that well anymore. It’s why nobody makes them. But when they hit, they tend to launch franchises and I expect we will see Uncle Drew 2 somewhere down the line with more NBA legends and celebrity cameos.
5. Ocean’s 8– $8M/$114.7M
6. Tag– $5.6M/$40.8M
7. Deadpool 2– $3.4M/$310.3M
8. Sanju– $2.5M
Making a surprise appearance in the top 10 this week with $2.5M is Sanju, the biopic on famous Bollywood actor Sanja Dutt, who faced charges of terrorism related to a series of bombings in 1993.
9. Solo: A Star Wars Story– $2.293M/$207.2M
10. Won’t You Be My Neighbor?– $2.290/$7.4M

Podcast: Going Off the Grid with LEAVE NO TRACE and SICARIO: DAY OF THE SOLDADO

By
John Nolan
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On this week’s Cinema Royale it’s all about two movies that arrive on opposite ends of the anticipation scale. First up, SICARIO: DAY OF THE SOLDADO is the sequel to 2015’s intense film that nobody thought had more story to tell. Can Josh Brolin and Benicio Del Toro live up to the original and possibly build a franchise?  Next is LEAVE NO TRACE starring Ben Foster and newcomer Thomasin McKenzie. Fans of Debra Granik have been waiting eight long years since her last film, WINTER’S BONE. Was the wait worth it?
Plus news on Sony’s growing SPIDER-VERSE,INDIANA JONES 5, and more! 
I’m joined this week by fellow Punch Drunk Critic and Pajiba writer Roxana Hadadi so honestly we might end up talking about ANYTHING.  Join in for another great episode of Cinema Royale! And be sure to follow my podcast Cinema Royale here on Blogtalkradio as part of Critical: The Movie Critics Network!

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