The plundering of every Stephen King property continues as a means of capitalizing on the success of last year’s It. There’s a high level of quality the studios are putting into them that simply wasn’t there, and that continues with Blumhouse’s hiring of award-winning director Fatih Akin to direct a remake of Firestarter
The German director is best known for In the Fade, which won the Golden Globe earlier this year for Best Foreign Language Film. Akin replaces Akiva Goldsman, who was attached to the project with the previous update. This new version will be penned by Scott Teems (Rectify), and will draw more from the 1980 novel than the 1984 film that starred Drew Barrymore. The basic premise of a young girl with fire-starting pyrokinetic abilities remains the same.
The only thing I or anybody else should need to know about Netflix’s new series Wu Assassins is that it stars Iko Uwais. Check. Please. Uwais is the star of the two best action movies in recent memory, The Raid and The Raid 2, not to mention impressively kicking ass in Beyond Skyline. He’ll likely upstage Mark Wahlberg in next month’s Mile 22, as well.
Netflix has ordered up Wu Assassins which hails from writer John Wirth (The Sarah Connor Chronicles) and Stephen Fung (Tai Chi 0) who will direct the first two episodes. There will be 10 total episodes in the first season. Uwais will play an aspiring chef (!!!) “who becomes the latest and last Wu Assassin, chosen to round up the powers of an ancient triad and restore balance once again.”
So it’s like Kitchen Confidential meets Into the Badlands, and that’s okay with me.
Uwais will have a vast amount of creative input, as well. He’ll not only star but act as the show’s fight choreographer and stunt coordinator, as well as producer. Also part of the cast is Byron Mann, a Hong Kong actor you may recognize from The Man with the Iron Fists, The Big Short, and AMC’s Hell on Wheels.
Production on Wu Assassins begins in August, and I can only hope they ask Gareth Evans to direct an episode. ::fingers crossed::
If you’ve heard anything about Debra Granik’s powerful father/daughter tale Leave No Trace, it likely has to do with the performances. Granik’s first film in eight years, following on the incredible success of Winter’s Bone, stars Ben Foster and Thomasin McKenzie as a father and daughter living off the land in the forests of Portland, OR. He’s a war veteran suffering from PTSD, she’s a strong-headed girl with all of the swirling emotions teens have. When they are discovered by the authorities, it forces them to have to reintegrate into a society they’ve fought hard to avoid.
Foster has proven himself to be one of the greatest actors we have working today, slipping comfortably into a myriad of roles each more different than the next. As Will, Foster plays a man trying to escape his past by unplugging from the rest of the world and getting closer to nature. But he’s still held to the responsibilities that come with being a father.
McKenzie has been around for a bit but she is still a relative newcomer, and chances are you’ve already heard comparisons to Jennifer Lawrence’s breakout performance in Winter’s Bone. Undoubtedly, McKenzie is yet another terrific discovery from Granik, both carry a strength and personal confidence that is undeniable. But the comparisons end there, and McKenzie deserves to shine in her own right. As Tom, the bulk of the film’s sparse dialogue falls on her, and I think it’s safe to say she more than holds her own opposite Foster.
I had the chance to talk with Foster and McKenzie about Leave No Trace, how they came to work with the reclusive Granik, and how the film affected their lives personally. In Foster’s case, he couldn’t escape that this film was happening at the time of the birth of his own child, and it impacted him deeply. For McKenzie, it was the biggest role of her career, and an opportunity she dove into with an obvious enthusiasm.
You can listen to my interview with them both below, and read my review of Leave No Tracehere!
Jim Carrey loves playing villains, and to be honest he’s damn good at it. Whether it’s as The Riddler, The Grinch, or Scrooge, Carrey is at his best when his dark side is allowed to come out and play. And that makes his casting in the new Sonic the Hedgehog movie very intriguing, because he’ll be playing one of the most recognizable video game villains ever, Dr. Robotnik.
Carrey is in talks to play Robotnik aka Eggman in the live-action movie based on Sega’s popular Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. He joins James Marsden and Tika Sumpter in the film from Oscar-nominated director Jeff Fowler and Deadpool‘s Tim Miller as exec-producer. Robotnik has been Sonic’s primary foe since the first game in 1991. He’s usually on some kind of mad quest to retrieve the powerful Chaos crystals, using all sorts of crazy technology to fend off Sonic.
This will be Carrey’s biggest screen role in years as he’s mostly retreated from the spotlight. He most recently starred in the thriller Dark Crimes, and will headling Showtime series Kidding this fall.
Sonic the Hedgehog opens November 5th 2019. [Deadline]
The success of Stranger Things has led to a number of nostalgic coming-of-age stories set around the same time period. You can count Summer of ’84 among them, and I think it’s a film that will prove very divisive if the reviews out of Sundance are any indication. While the throwback tone will feel very familiar to fans of Netflix’s hit series, it thrusts a group of neighborhood kids in a situation that is even darker if you can believe it.
Directed by François Simard, Anouk Whissell, and Yoann-Karl Whissell (collectively known as RKSS), the story takes place in the summer of 1984 when a group of friends begin to suspect one of their neighbors is a serial killer. Graham Verchere, Judah Lewis, Caleb Emery, Cory Gruter-Andrew, Tiera Skovbye, and Rich Sommer star. So not much in the way of big stars but it’s the tone that is the major appeal here. If you don’t know these directors they’re the same folks behind Turbo Kid, and the vibe is very similar.
So as I said before, the reaction to it at Sundance was very divisive. That was where I saw it, having no idea what to expect, and basically left not feeling much of anything for about 80% of it. And then….damn, does this thing get dark!! It just hits you across the face with a surprising level of violence that makes you wish the entire thing had taken such risks.
Summer of ’84 opens August 10th before a VOD release August 24th.
Greta Gerwig’s solo directing debut went as well as anybody could have hoped. Lady Bird was not only one of the best reviewed films of 2017, it made $76M, earned five Oscar nominations and ended up on many “Best of” lists for the year. While she could easily take a step back and do something safe, Gerwig is going bigger with her followup, an adaptation of classic novel Little Women, and she’s already got an all-star cast for it.
Variety reports Sony is eyeing Gerwig to direct and write Little Women, which will star Meryl Streep, Emma Stone, and Lady Bird standouts Saoirse Ronan and Timothee Chalamet. Damn. Florence Pugh (Lady Macbeth) is also in talks for a role. Gerwig was initially hired just as screenwriter but her success convinced Sony to just give her complete control over the Louisa May Alcott adaptation, one of the most adapted works of all-time.
Gerwig isn’t going to catch anybody by surprise this time, especially with a cast like this. Assuming everything comes together it’s practically guaranteed for the award season.
I’m a big fan of M. Night Shyamalan and his many “twist” endings. Always have been, even when it became cool to hate on his movies. But the biggest trick he ever pulled was seen at the conclusion of his hit psychological thriller Split when it was revealed to be set in the same universe as his 2000 superhero origin, Unbreakable. Fans had been asking for a sequel to the Bruce Willis/Samuel L. Jackson flick for years, and this was a clever way of springing the surprise.
Now the third and presumably final chapter in the story is coming up with Glass, and a new poster has debuted that is simply amazing. The image features James McAvoy as Kevin Wendell Crumb aka The Beast, Samuel L. Jackson as Elijah Price aka Mr. Glass, and Bruce Willis as the hero David Dunn. All three look to be locked away together in some kind of asylum as a reflection reveals the other/darker side to their personas. Shyamalan stated at CinemaCon that all three characters did spend time together in an asylum, so the image makes sense.
Not only did we get this new poster but Shyamalan took to Twitter and confirmed Glass will be at Comic-Con, which is everything I had been hoping for. Expect that to be when we get the first trailer. Here’s hoping I can corner Shyamalan for a few questions because I have soooooo many.
Glass hits theaters on January 18th 2019.
I’m so excited to tell you that @GlassMovie will be at #ComicCon. I will be in Hall H on July 20th with the cast! You can expect a surprise as well…
— M. Night Shyamalan (@MNightShyamalan) June 29, 2018
Marvel Studios may be skipping San Diego Comic-Con this year, but that doesn’t mean Hall H will be Marvel free. As expected, Sony Pictures has confirmed they will be bringing their Spidey-verse titles to Comic-Con with a Hall H panel on Friday, July 20th at 6:15pm, moderated by Nerdist’s Jessica Chobot.
Sony will have footage of Venom and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, the first two movies in Sony’s newly launched cinematic universe. Venom stars Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock, who bonds with an alien symbiote to become the violent antihero. There’s a pretty good chance Hardy will show up, although panelists haven’t been confirmed. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is the animated film from Phil Lord and Chris Miller. While the classic Peter Parker does feature in the story, under the Spider-Man mask is fan-favorite Brooklyn teen Miles Morales.
Deadline thinks there’s a good chance Tom Holland makes an appearance as part of Sony’s buildup to Spider-Man: Far From Home, which only recently began production. Then again that’s dangerous because Holland might spoil the entire plot if he takes questions.
There’s an opportunity for Sony to make a huge impact. What if Jared Leto arrives to talk about his role in the upcoming Morbius, the Living Vampire? Or what if Sony reveals information on Silver & Black, Nightwatch, or Silk? Lots of potential here for a game-breaking panel and I hope Sony takes advantage of it.
You and your friends probably made this lame boast to one another as kids, and maybe back then you thought maybe one day the situation would arise when neighborhood dads would actually come to blows. Only in the movies does that happen, and the folks at Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison think it makes a great idea to center an entire comedy around. And so we have Father of the Year, a Netflix film that stars Sandler’s buddy David Spade and…Nat Faxon? Wait, no Sandler???
Nope, Sandler doesn’t feature in the film at all. In fact it’s woefully short on the usual Sandler pals who cling to his every movie. The premise is simple enough. A pair of college grads get into a heated argumnent over which one’s Dad would win in a fight, and their respective fathers, who both appear to be losers in different ways, take it too seriously.
Here’s the synopsis: When a drunken debate between two recent college graduates about whose father would win in a fight is taken seriously by their idiot dads, jobs are lost, relationships ruined, futures destroyed, and best friends come of age as they come to grips with who their fathers really are. Starring David Spade, Nat Faxon, Joey Bragg, Matt Shively, and Bridgit Mendler.
I think it’s worth noting there are no credited writers on this. You can’t find ’em on Wikipedia or on IMDB. And maybe I could find them if I did some digging but it says something that they aren’t featured more prominently. It’s almost like the script doesn’t matter all that much.
Ethan Hawke is always a major presence at Sundance, and this year was no different. While he’s received the most attention for Blaze, the musical biopic he directed, he also starred in the comedy Juliet, Naked. As an adaptation of a novel by Nick Hornby (High Fidelity), it should come as no surprise it’s also about music.
Directed by Jesse Peretz (Our Idiot Brother), the film stars Hawke as rocker Tucker Crowe, who comes between a couple due to the man’s longtime obsession with his music. When Crowe actually pays them visit, something unexpected happens that throws their relationship into chaos. Playing the couple are Chris O’Dowd and Rose Byrne, who have starred together previously in Bridesmaids.
While it doesn’t look like a film that demands a lot of screenwriting help, the talent involved in the process is substantial and impressive. Along with Peretz’s sister Evgenia the co-writers include Oscar nominee Tamara Jenkins (The Savages), Oscar winner Jim Taylor (Sideways), and another Oscar nominee Phil Alden Robinson (Field of Dreams). Damn.
