I don’t know if there’s a ton of excitement for a Maleficent sequel, but Angelina Jolie, Elle Fanning, and now Michelle Pfeiffer is one way to change that. Pfeiffer is in talks to play the queen in the followup, and I’m guessing she’s going to be a big ol’ meanie.
Considering the first movie went out of its way to paint Maleficent as the wronged party, even ending with her becoming a saintly fairy godmother, somebody’s got to play the shit heel and Pfeiffer is good at playing bad. She’s not the only new face to the franchise as Ed Skrein previously joined in a villainous role. I’m going to go out on a limb and say they’re working together somehow.
Maleficent 2 will be directed by Joachim Ronning (Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales) from a script by Jez Butterworth and Linda Woolverton. Pfeiffer will be seen next in another sequel, Marvel’s Ant-Man and the Wasp. [THR]
Well damn, that came out of nowhere! We should know that in Fear The Walking Dead that no one is safe (especially since the show isn’t bound by a previously established comic book), but this one was a shocker, and a sad one at that. More on that in a sec…..
Last week’s episode ended with Morgan and his newfound friends Althea and John being taken captive by Alicia, Nick, Strand, and Luciana as they mistakenly thought that they were associated with the newfound bad guys, The Vultures. After being forced to leave “The Diamond,” they came across Morgan and company and wanted some vengeance on them. Althea quickly told them that the flag with the mysterious number was not theirs as they came across it as well. Althea seems to be a journalist, but she didn’t last this long without some killer survival instincts. After getting the drop on Nick and holding him hostage, but a crash with some zombies on the road made roles get reversed as Alicia and company then became hostages.
Not wanting to be at odds with their newfound “friends” Althea proposes that the group work together to get her SWAT van out of the ditch and search for supplies to help tow the armored vehicle. Nick has to stay behind as a hostage (she isn’t stupid). Morgan remained behind to watch him as his leg is still badly injured while the rest of the groups operated as one to get the necessary things to resolve their situation. Nick tries to flex his muscle, but even an injured Morgan is a dangerous one. He uses his staff to knock Nick in his place a few times. However, the horn going off from the crash is luring more zombies to their location. After one scuffle with the zombies, Nick high tails it out of there, leaving an injured Morgan all alone. Nick gets overrun by zombies only for Morgan to save his neck.
This episode (and hopefully more episodes) operate on two different timelines. The flashback takes us to when The Vultures started camping out at The Diamond to wait out Madison and her group. With the weevils eating all the remaining crops they have, Nick knows he needs to contribute and goes out with his mother to look for supplies. As they leave, The Vulture’s leader Mel taunts them that there aren’t many supplies around. He also gives back the book that Luciana left for little miss cute turncoat spy Charlie, affirming that she’s with them. Madison is holding onto hope that Charlie will see that her group is better. As they go looking for supplies, they get beat by one of The Vultures who fills his truck with the supplies while taunting Nick and Madison. This angers Nick who holds a knife to his throat, only for Madison to stop her son. Turns out, this specific Vulture is Charlie’s surrogate father as he rescued her and he boasts that Madison and Nick can’t turn her so easily.
Back in the present while looking for a place to lay low, Nick reveals to Morgan that he wants to enact vengeance against The Vultures, specifically the guy who taunted him with the blue car. Morgan tries to coach him out of that thought process. He tells Nick that he doesn’t kill. But Nick knows that Morgan has killed in the past. In fact, he watched the video of Althea’s interview with Morgan. When he presses Morgan, he shuts the conversation down.
The blended group looking for supplies comes across a garage that has a semi with a towing cable that will help them get the SWAT car out of the ditch. While they are working on getting it together, Althea reveals he reasoning for documenting “the truth.” Strand is the most inquisitive as he sees no point to it all, yet Althea is dedicated to her mission. The team arrives at the SWAT car with the semi and after killing many zombies (with Alicia as bait), they manage to get the car out. At first fearful that Morgan and Nick are killed by the zombies, Morgan had made a makeshift sign pointing them in their direction.
Morgan notices the blue car and the Vulture we have come to hate. He warns the man to walk away as walk away soon. The arrogant man pays to attention to Morgan, until Nick shows up. Morgan does his best to try and get Nick to walk away as nothing good will come of it. Nick asks Morgan is he going to go all the way to stop him. Morgan relents and lets Nick go ahead. Then Nick confronts the Vulture and the two go at it hard. During the struggle, Nick impales the man on a pair of deer antlers killing him. In the aftermath, he tells Nick of a better way, the way he learned from the one guy who taught him to focus himself and use the staff as a weapon of peace (even though Morgan has killed many with it). He gives Nick a copy of “The Art of Peace” telling him it’s not too late to come back.
This is where it gets tough…..
The group catches up to Morgan and Nick. Althea had a mild freakout as she wanted to make sure her tapes were safe, especially a group of tapes labeled “The Bog,” which we’ll surely find out what that means. Nick sits in another area reading Morgan’s book, seemingly ready to turn back around. Just then a shot rings out. Nick’s taken a blast to the chest. The shooter… little Charlie!! Nick then slumps to the ground just as Alicia, Strand, and Luciana see him. Charlie ran away so they couldn’t get her. There’s nothing they can do but watch him die.
This is a doozy as Nick has been with us since the beginning. In fact, he was the first person we saw in the original episode. Like Travis last year, Nick’s death is a shocking one. Since we are watching the show in two different timelines, we’ll probably see him in flashbacks (we still haven’t seen Madison in the present, maybe she’s dead too), but for our current timeline, his death is a tough one. RIP Nick!
If you didn’t know that Ricardo “The Dragon” Diaz was a bad MF on Arrow, last week gave us an exposition dump in a Diaz-centric episode where we not only saw the return of the flashbacks, but also got to see him at his most ruthless. Diaz went from an orphan, to Cayden James’ supposed henchman, to really being the man behind the curtain, to gaining leverage on everyone in Star City and becoming the guy who runs everything in the city with ultimate power, to now being a member of The Quadrant: a criminal empire that spans across the whole country. Talk about starting from the bottom!
With so much time spent on Diaz last week, we get back to Oliver in his quest to “save the city” as he’s continuing his mission solo. He heads to Russia where he’s operating in a Season One gray zone, doing a job for the Bratva. He’s not going back to the dark side for no reason, he needs to make up for betraying them, and he also needs to get Anatoly back on his side. Him doing their dirty work was to convince them to forgive his former friend so that he can leave America and be allowed back into the criminal organization. Oliver returns back to the states where he meets up with Anatoly, telling him that his debt has been forgiven, and also that he needs to jump ship from Diaz’s fold as The Dragon will ultimately betray him in search of more power as he did Cayden James. While Anatoly entertains the idea, he had his own plans and uses a taser on Oliver, setting him up for Diaz. Looks like Anatoly is fine where he is at.
With Oliver impeached as mayor (thanks to Diaz’s mechanizations), Quentin is now the leader of the city. Diaz pays him a visit, revealing to him that his Earth-2 daughter’s counterpart was working with him all along, twisting the knife further as he was beginning to trust her. Diaz approaches Quentin with the proposal of signing a piece of property over to him. Laurel is a little on the fence with Diaz, having seen him burn a man alive in last week’s episode, she’s realizing that he’s a psychopath and her adoptive multiverse father would be killed if he didn’t comply, she pleads with him to sign the documents. Feeling betrayed, he tells her to leave him and not be home when he comes home.
Renee finally makes it home from the hospital and the Outsiders are once again whole. After Dinah and Curtis fill him in on Team Arrow officially disbanding, they decide to continue their mission to take down Diaz. They receive word that he’s trying to buy more drugs and decide to shut down his operation at a buy. At the same time, Diggle (working for ARGUS) is going to launch a raid at the same place. When they get there, there’s a firefight between Diaz’s gang and a rival as well. However, with The Quadrant’s backing, Diaz has superior firepower. The team is forced to evacuate with Diggle’s help. Renee however, is going through some extreme PTSD and is hesitant to get back into the fight 100%. Diggle, being a soldier understands completely. Renee isn’t worried about dying, he’s worried about leaving his daughter an orphan. Renee site their follow up raid while the team takes down a drug shipment in the Glades.
While in Anatoly’s custody, Oliver appeals to his sense of honor. Thinking that he’s not to far gone, he believes that Anatoly can help him take Diaz down. Anatoly doesn’t come all the way through, but when he turns Oliver over to Diaz, he convinces Diaz to have a fight out with Oliver for control of the city. Diaz agrees and states that whoever loses will have to leave Star City. The battle is brutal as the two give their all against each other. Oliver proves to be the victor as he’s about to take Diaz down and is choking him out. Just then, Diaz cheats by pulling out a knife and stabs Oliver. This causes Diaz to win, but Anatoly doesn’t look too pleased. Diaz then orders his police officers to arrest Oliver to stand trial for being the Green Arrow, reneging on his word which further troubles Anatoly. Denied bail, Oliver will now have to face his trial.
The last time we heard anything of consequence regarding an adaptation of Alvin Schwartz’s teen horror novels Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, it was when Guillermo Del Toro pulled out of directing. That was disappointing to see the Oscar-winning The Shape of Water director go, but it was tempered by Andre Ovredal (Trollhunter, The Autopsy of Jane Doe) replacing him. Solid move, for sure. But now there’s more good news, as Del Toro is back on board in a different capacity as the project takes a big step forward.
Variety reports Del Toro will co-write and produce Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, joining the writing team of Daniel and Kevin Hageman. I’m curious to see how Del Toro and Oredal will look to emulate those bone-chilling illustrations by Stephen Gammell that surely had kids keeping the night light on at bedtime. The story “follows a group of young teens who must solve the mystery surrounding sudden and macabre deaths in their small town.”
The Annabelle franchise has now surpassed the franchise it spunoff from. While development on a third Conjuring film are still in the earliest stages, Warner Bros. has now confirmed Annabelle 3 is in the works. The first of the low-budget horrors earned $84M while its sequel/prequel, Annabelle: Creation, earned $102M.
James Wan will continue on as producer, but it’s the directorial debut of Gary Dauberman that is the interesting news here. Dauberman wrote both of the previous Annabelle movies, while also co-writing the script for last year’s smash horror, It, and the upcoming sequel It: Chapter Two. Whether he can carryover that success behind the camera is what we’re all going to find out. He’s also writing another Conjuring spinoff, The Nun, which opens this September.
Halle Berry has always been drawn to major action franchises, whether it’ the X-Men movies where she played Storm, her role as Jinx in James Bond film Die Another Day, or Kingsman: The Golden Circle. And now she may be on the verge of joining another, John Wick, if the latest rumor from That Hashtag Show turns out to be true.
The rumor is that Berry is being considered for the female lead in John Wick: Chapter 3, which we just received some fresh plot details on. The Oscar winner would be joining Keanu Reeves in the film, along with the returning Ian McShane and reportedly a few others like Laurence Fishburne, Common, and Ruby Rose. A few months ago Hiroyuki Sanada, who worked with Reeves in 47 Ronin, was rumored to be the villain. It’s unclear what Berry’s part in the Chad Stahelski-directed film would be.
Berry can be seen right now in Kings, the new L.A. Riots drama co-starring Daniel Craig.
It’s safe to say there will never be another voice quite like Whitney Houston’s. The remarkably talented singer burst onto the scene in the mid ’80s and music industry would never be the same. She went on to sell more than 200 million albums, establish a successful acting career, and become the most awarded female vocalist of all-time. But she was also plagued by personal demons that became very public, and they would ultimately catch up with her in 2012.
Debuting at Cannes is the documentary, Whitney, from director Kevin Macdonald, best known for The Last King of Scotland and Touching the Void. The Houston estate gave him unprecedented access to details of her life and the people closest to her, from her mother to her ex-husband Bobby Brown and even Kevin Costner, who starred with her in The Bodyguard. Here’s the synopsis:
Whitney Houston broke more music industry records than any other female singer in history. With over 200 million album sales worldwide, she was the only artist to chart seven consecutive U.S. No. 1 singles. She also starred in several blockbuster movies before her brilliant career gave way to erratic behavior, scandals and death at age 48. The documentary feature Whitney is an intimate, unflinching portrait of Houston and her family that probes beyond familiar tabloid headlines and sheds new light on the spellbinding trajectory of Houston’s life. Using never-before-seen archival footage, exclusive demo recordings, rare performances, audio archives and original interviews with the people who knew her best, Oscar®-winning filmmaker Kevin Macdonald unravels the mystery behind “The Voice,” who thrilled millions even as she struggled to make peace with her own troubled past.
Whitney will hit theaters on July 6th after its Cannes premiere next month.
The Marvel movies have always had a very tenuous relationship with their TV cousins. While early episodes of Agents of SHIELD would reflect major events in their own way, say the emergence of HYDRA as series villains or the occasional guest appearance by Maria Hill or Sif, it’s largely kept to itself. The Netflix shows might as well be on another planet, other than a passing reference or two to the “New York incident” from The Avengers six years ago.
Avengers: Infinity War throws a giant purple monkeywrench into things, though, because you simply can’t ignore what happened at the end of the movie. Period. Full stop. Half the universe is dead, including mainstay heroes like Spider-Man, Black Panther, and more. You mean to tell me nobody in Hell’s Kitchen got turned to dust? Nah, son. My imagination doesn’t stretch that far.
So what’s the deal? Agents of SHIELD co-creator Jed Whedon spoke with Digital Spy and he says not to expect much…
“It is one universe and so the events of that film will affect us, but over the years we’ve become more separate, or have become our own story,” he explained. “Initially we were really tying in just to branch off of [the movies] but now we’re much more interested and we think it’s much more rewarding that we’re more self-contained…I think it’ll change some of our characters’ motivations, and it’ll change our trajectory a little bit.”
That’s got to be a joke. A little bit? They might as well begin next season with a disclaimer that reads “Although this series set in the Marvel Universe, it’s really like an offshoot Marvel Universe, like Heroes Reborn or some shit like that.”
It’s not like anybody would mourn if Iron Fist vanished and never came back.
Peter Livolsi’s directorial debut, The House of Tomorrow, based on the novel of the same name by Peter Bognanni, is a well-cast classic coming-of-age film in an unconventional setting. Sebastian (Asa Butterfield) lives with his grandmother Josephine (Ellen Burstyn) in a geodesic dome called the House of Tomorrow, where they give tours of the futuristic-in-the-past structure. More importantly, after the death of his parents, Sebastian spends his time nearly exclusively in the House of Tomorrow with only his Nana and the occasional tour group for company. He is a mild-mannered teenager when he meets a church youth group led by Alan Whitcomb (Nick Offerman). If Sebastian didn’t know that his life would change when Alan’s daughter, Meredith (Maude Apatow) offers to read his palm, he knows it when her punk rock brother, Jared (Alex Wolff) challenges his Nana’s ideas about working towards a sustainable future, in the middle of which she suffers a stroke. It’s at the hospital that we see the moment that we’ve been waiting for: Jared gives Sebastian a listen to punk, the first time he’s heard music that isn’t whale songs or classical music.
We see Sebastian and Jared’s friendship grow as Sebastian is desperate for companionship and to learn more about the anger that is communicated in punk rock and Jared is desperate to start a punk rock band before his precarious heart condition renders him unable to channel his angst. Jared’s heart condition seems like a tired trope at first, but the performances of Offerman, Apatow, and Wolff really sell the depth of each character and family dynamic. The writing wasn’t very strong and other actors would have easily made this movie feel made-for-tv-campy but the cast shone and gave great nuanced performances. I was also impressed with Asa Butterfield, whose Sebastian slowly changes from the almost alien-like sheltered boy at the beginning to a punk rock teen at the end. I only wish that the pacing at the beginning of the movie was better, as I found it very slow to the point of near boredom until Sebastian begins his friendship with Jared, which takes quite a while to happen. I understand that it is appropriate for his idyllic life at the House of Tomorrow, but even then things take a while to pick up.
The premise is far from original and you aren’t in for any big surprises or twists, but the strong cast pull tell an endearing story. If you’re a fan of punk rock, geodesic domes like the one at Epcot, and a nice take on an old story, I’d recommend checking out The House of Tomorrow.
Supercon is the tale of a group of former stars of some cult
classics braving the scene at a comic convention named, you guessed it,
Supercon. Keith Mahar (Russell Peters) used to play Haji, the child sidekick of
US Marshall Tex Johnson, played by the big hit of the convention – Adam King (Clancy Brown). I
think it is fair to say that the relationship between Keith and Adam has soured
over time. Adam has let his stardom go to his head, only caring about the money
and not the fans. The person in charge of the convention,
Gil (Mike Epps), and Adam have a very profitable well-oiled machine going at Supercon. Adam
is obsessed with money and bleeding his fans dry – he charges for every little
thing and mentions money constantly. Gil and Adam take cuts from the top so
they are making quite the bankroll off of Supercon.
Keith can’t stand these
conventions and dreads them. Unfortunately his personal life has been falling
apart – his wife filed for divorce and kicked him out – and he really needs the
income. Even though Keith finds the whole experience belittling, often only being
known as the ball cancer boy from an infamous episode of his show, he stills
finds himself sitting at his table time and time again. Keith does have some
friends that make the conventions more bearable. All of them also have some sort
of tie with current or past cult hits. There is Wheeler (Ryan Kwanten), Keith’s cool friend that
has the lines and swagger, Brock (Brooks Braselman), and Allison (Maggie Grace). When an unfortunate incident
goes down between the group and Adam, they end up getting fired from Supercon by Gil. Gil would do anything to keep his cash cow happy, and that
includes canning the four of them. The group decides that they need to fight
back, and the best way to do so would be to hit Gil and Adam where it hurts
most – in their wallets. To pull off a robbery of Supercon, they may need help from a few more
people, but with all the bridges that Adam has burned – help might not be too
hard to find.
Supercon, which is supposedly based on a true story, has its
moments. I found myself enjoying some of the hijinks and absurdity that our
cast of heroes gets through. Supercon gives
an interesting insight into the backend of these comic conventions. It makes you
stop and look at what all of these cult classic stars think and feel when the
lights and cameras are off. We get to see how their lives might be after their 15 minutes
of fame are over. These characters live on and people still love them, but the
person that portrays them must go on with their lives. You hear all the time
about actors getting typecast and only recognized as the characters they
portray – Supercon dives into what
it’s like when actors are recognized and when they drift away into obscurity. Supercon looks at the world of
conventions in a truly clever way – it shows how this world differs from the
‘typical’ stereotypes we’re used to, like the jocks being losers and the sci-fi
nerds being the talk of the town. Throw in some clever cinematography and
decent humor and writer/director Zak Knutson and writers Andy Spies and Dana
Snyder have a pretty enjoyable flick on their hands. Not to mention we get some
John Malkovich time, and who doesn’t love that? Supercon has some laughs and is not the worst option for a rainy
afternoon, but keep expectations in check.
