Sony is killin’ right now with the casting for their Venom movie. While it’s been in production for a couple of months already, there is apparently room for a huge new addition. Woody Harrelson is in talks to rejoin his Zombieland director Ruben Fleischer for the Spider-Man spinoff, which already boasts Tom Hardy, Jenny Slate, Riz Ahmed, Michelle Williams, Reid Scott, and Scott Haze.
It’s no coincidence Harrelson is sought to be part of nearly every major franchise: The Hunger Games, Planet of the Apes, Star Wars, and now you can add Marvel to the list. The guy is a workhorse who can do pretty much anything, from action flicks to prestige pieces like the awards-contending Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. Let’s not forget this year has seen him star in LBJ, the aforementioned Planet of the Apes film, Wilson, The Glass Castle, Shock and Awe, and he began the year with his own directorial debut, Lost in London. Wow.
As for his role in Venom, it’s being vaguely described by Variety as “a henchman of sorts”, which means absolutely nothing. We know Harrelson isn’t coming on to play a henchman; he may start out that way but the character is clearly going to be a major one, probably one well-known in the Marvel Universe. Now might be a good time to re-read the “Lethal Protector” and “Planet of the Symbiotes” comics the film draws inspiration from to get an idea of his role.
Is it too early to start the Oscar prognostications for this one? Because I think the combination of Jennifer Lawrence and Call Me By Your Name‘s Luca Guadagnino is destined to be a factor. The two are set to team up on Burial Rites, a film that Lawrence has been attached to for a few years, back when Gary Ross was attached.
Lawrence and Ross had set up several projects to collaborate on after he split from The Hunger Games franchise. One was Burial Rites, another was an adaptation of John Steinbeck’s East of Eden. Both never got going and it seems Lawrence and Ross have gone their separate ways, although he remains on board as a producer. Guadagnino steps in, riding high on the reviews for Call Me By Your Name, to direct the true-crime drama about Agnes Magnusdottir, who in 1830 became the last woman to be publicly executed in Iceland. Agnes had been convicted of killing two men and setting fire to their home. The film will draw largely from Hannah Kent’s 2013 novel, which carries this synopsis:
Set against Iceland’s stark landscape, Hannah Kent brings to vivid life the story of Agnes, who, charged with the brutal murder of her former master, is sent to an isolated farm to await execution.
Horrified at the prospect of housing a convicted murderer, the family at first avoids Agnes. Only Tóti, a priest Agnes has mysteriously chosen to be her spiritual guardian, seeks to understand her. But as Agnes’s death looms, the farmer’s wife and their daughters learn there is another side to the sensational story they’ve heard.
Next up for Guadagnino is his long-awaited Suspiria remake, while Lawrence has X-Men: Dark Phoenix and espionage flick Red Sparrow. After all of that is cleared off their schedules we should see Lawrence and Guadagnino come together on this one. Until then I highly recommend you check out the 1995 film Agnes which chronicles Magnusdottir’s story.
Shocker, right? Who’da thunk that Frank Castle would get a round 2 with the immensely popular Netflix/Marvel series. As a lifelong Punisher fan, who admittedly liked all of the cinematic representations on their own merits, this show was a revelation as to the drama Castle could bring to the small screen. Though, I suppose not really a revelation as much as a relif that someone finally got the character right, and in the right format. It always seemed a no-brainer that the character would flurish in an episodic format as opposed to a one story rushed through film. Just read any of the Garth Ennis arcs and you’ll see what I’m talking about, start with Kitchen Irish.
The Punisher’s twitter page revealed through a single sentence followed by that iconic skull
Some thought that 13 episodes was a bit too much, not me…bring on another 13 just don’t make me wait two years!
Now if we can just get them to lift that amazing scene between he and Cap from Civil War (the comics not the film) and drop it into Infinity War I’ll be in heaven!
Christmas has come early! STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI is here and we’ve got a lot to talk about! I’ll be joined by Flixist.com’s Matt Razak to spoil EVERYTHING!!!! Okay no, we won’t. Seriously, we will try not to ruin anything in our extreme excitement to talk Star Wars. No promises! I mean, that thing Kylo Ren does is sick! That lightsaber fight is just….whoa!!! We can’t wait to tell you about them! But we won’t!
It looks like the “strong female lead” role for the upcomingShaft reboot has been filled. Regina Hall joins Jesse T. Usher, Samuel L. Jackson, Alexandra Shipp, and Richard Roundtree as the mother of the younger Shaft and the ex-lover to Jackson’s John Shaft. The film is really a sequel to the original classic led by Roundtree and the 2000 reboot which starred Jackson. Usher will play the detective’s estranged son, now an FBI agent and cyber expert who is forced to team up with his old school father to solve a case. Directed by Tim Story, Shaft will open on June 14th 2019. [Variety]
After scoring a Golden Globe nomination, 13 Reasons Why‘s breakout star Katherine Langford has landed a new film role. She’ll star in the sci-fi fantasy Spontaneous, about high school girl whose classmates begin to spontaneously combust. Brian Duffield (Jane Got a Gun) will write and direct, adapting the acclaimed novel by Aaron Starmer.
DC’s Shazam! movie has added two more young stars to the cast. Joining Zachary Levi, Asher Angel, Jack Dylan Grazer, Mark Strong, and Grace Fulton are Ian Chen (Fresh Off the Boat) and Jovan Armand. They’ll play Eugene and Pedro, two close friends to Billy Batson, the young boy who transforms into the superhero Shazam, gifted with the powers of ancient gods. Directed by David F. Sandberg, Shazam begins shooting next year.
I’ve heard really good things about the Goosebumps movie, and how it captured the fun and spookiness of R.L. Stine’s horror novels. I didn’t see it because Jack Black, but maybe that will be rectified before the sequel arrives. The followup has just landed a new director and it’s Ari Sandel, who did a great job on the high school comedy, The Duff.
Sandel seems like a no-brainer pick to me, but it seems Sony has one big question left unanswered: Will Jack Black return to play author R.L. Stine? Over the last few months we’ve heard of scheduling conflict that threatens to force him out, and apparently Sony has ordered up parallel scripts, one featuring Stine and one where he doesn’t appear. Sony really wants to trim costs, too, and if they don’t have Black’s star power that might be a smart idea.
We’ll see what happens. Goosebumps 2 is set to open September 21st 2018. [Variety]
Last call, Pitches! We’re happy to offer our DC readers the chance to attend a free advance screening of Pitch Perfect 3!
SYNOPSIS: Now graduated from college and out in the real world where it takes more than a cappella to get by, the Bellas return in Pitch Perfect 3, the next chapter in the beloved series that has taken in more than $400 million at the global box office.
After the highs of winning the World Championships, the Bellas find themselves split apart and discovering there aren’t job prospects for making music with your mouth. But when they get the chance to reunite for an overseas USO tour, this group of awesome nerds will come together to make some music, and some questionable decisions, one last time.
Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, Hailee Steinfeld, Brittany Snow, Anna Camp, Hana Mae Lee, Ester Dean, Alexis Knapp, Chrissie Fit, Kelley Jakle, Shelley Regner, Elizabeth Banks and John Michael Higgins all return and are joined by additions including John Lithgow and Ruby Rose. Pitch Perfect 3 is again produced by Paul Brooks of Gold Circle Entertainment and Max Handelman & Elizabeth Banks of Brownstone Productions, and is directed by Trish Sie (Step Up All In).
The screening takes place on Tuesday, December 19th at 7:30pm at AMC Mazza Gallerie. If you’d like to enter, simply complete the required steps in the Rafflecopter contest form below. Winners will be selected on Friday, December 15th and contacted by email. Good luck!
Just prior to the release of his masterpiece The Shape of Water (which just earned 7 Golden Globes nominations), Guillermo Del Toro revealed that he would be taking a year off from directing. While that still seems to be the case, you wouldn’t know it by the number of projects he’s got on the backburner. And now that he’s adding one more it throws his sabbatical further in question.
Del Toro is set to direct a remake of 1947 crime film, Nightmare Alley. The film noir starred Tyrone Power as a con man who takes great joy in fleecing people with his mentalist act, hooking up with a female psychologist to aid in the scheme. While they make a great team, it soon becomes clear that she is even more corrupt than he, and the tables are quickly turned on him.
It’s an interesting move for Del Toro, taking on a genre he’s never really tackled before. As for when this will shoot, that is still up in the air. He and Kim Morgan need to write the script first, so this may not be his next movie. As an unabashed fan of the original, which was based on William Lindsay Gresham’s book, I’m curious to see how Del Toro puts his stamp on this. Something tells me this won’t be a purely faithful adaptation.
Meanwhile, Del Toro will produce Antlers, a supernatural horror that has Hostiles director Scott Cooper in talks to helm. The story, penned by Henry Chaisson and Nick Antosca from Antosca’s short film, centers on “a young teacher who discovers that her troubled student’s father and younger brother harbor a deadly supernatural secret. Taking the boy into her care, the teacher must fight for their survival against horrors beyond imagination.”
Honestly I’m just excited to see Cooper trying something new. He’s done a series of bleak, moody dramas and could use the change of pace. [Variety]
“This is not going to go the way you think”, warns Luke Skywalker at one critical point in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and it may as well be a statement on this latest chapter of the epic saga. As the middle chapter of the latest trilogy the expectations for writer/director Rian Johnson were to copy the beats of the past, in particular the dire, hopeless stretch of The Empire Strikes Back. But, this doesn’t go the way you think, not by a long shot. The Last Jedi repeatedly goes against your every instinct, takes your emotions for a roller coaster, and takes the characters we know in directions that will blow your mind.
Plenty of movies give me goosebumps but nothing quite like the opening crawl of a Star Wars film, and this one sets up what may be the most exciting opening sequence the franchise has seen yet. A blistering, edge-of-your-seat aerial sequence featuring the cocky X-Wing pilot Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) as he bucks the orders of General Leia (the late Carrie Fisher, magnificent in her final role) sets up what is also the most humanist film in the franchise. Johnson has dedicated his film to defining what the Resistance is really fighting for and showing who they are fighting to protect. With the First Order breathing down their necks, the Resistance is forced into a dangerous gambit with little time to pull off. In some way all of the Star Wars movies are of the “ticking clock” variety, but Johnson adds a new level of urgency, raising the stakes as every crucial hour passes. If the Resistance falls, all hope of peace in the galaxy falls with it.
There are multiple storylines at play here and Johnson gives them all equal footing, even though one promises bigger repercussions for the future. The backdrop of everything is the decimated Resistance fleet and the head-butting between Poe, Leia, and Vice Admiral Holdo (Laura Dern) in trying to find a means of escape. As seen at the finale of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Rey (Daisy Ridley) has journeyed to the hidden island of Ahch-To where she hopes to lure Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) out of his hermit existence to fight again. She also needs training in the Force, although she finds his willingness to be a mentor is lacking. And then there’s the newly-recovered Finn (John Boyega) and technician Rose (Kelly Marie Tran) as they head to the casino planet Canto Bight to find a hacker who break into the First Order’s systems. Meanwhile, Kylo Ren is also in search of something…an equal, an understanding, perhaps even balance? The connection sensed between him and Rey has only grown stronger, and one of the film’s many tantalizing mysteries is exactly why they share such a bond. Johnson, to his credit, does answer a few of the biggest nagging questions while leaving others just out of reach.
Never content to do what is simple or familiar, Johnson takes his crack at Star Wars to explore a much larger landscape, one beyond easy notions of good and evil, light vs. dark. The casino world of Canto Bight, an extravagant haven for the galaxy’s richest, reveals a dark underbelly that profits from the misfortune caused by the ongoing conflicts. Benicio Del Toro’s bizarre “slicer” DJ also fits into a certain grey area, more so than Han Solo or Lando Calrissian or any of the other roguish characters that populate this universe. His presence challenges notions of heroism, and we see that idea repeated in different ways throughout, especially as the defiant Poe challenges the wise council of those more experienced than him.
This is the biggest movie of Johnson’s career, having established his fan-favorite cred quietly with the film noir Brick, storybook heist fantasy The Brothers Bloom, and ambitious sci-fi flick Looper. You can tell he’s having a ball playing on the canvas George Lucas built, but he isn’t beholden to it in the way The Force Awakens was. You can see it in the action scenes which give a fresh angle to X-wing/Tie Fighter battles we’ve so many times before. There are shots here that he and longtime DP Steve Yedlin must have been dreaming up for years, just hoping for the opportunity to use them. They leave behind some truly indelible images and aren’t afraid to reference modern pop culture while doing so. Particularly unforgettable are the Casino Royale-esque Canto Bight, and the red salt planet of Caith. The crimson-scarred battlefield left behind after an epic fight will be seared into your memory. Both locations, not to mention the Dagobah-like Ahch-To, have many more stories left to be told.
Hopefully there won’t be any more stories left featuring the annoying Porgs. The screeching bird creatures are everywhere and are the most useless part of the movie. There’s no way Johnson wrote them into the story himself because they serve literally no purpose other than to sell toys. Keep in mind I’m someone who despises the “adorable” Ewoks, and yet they are a million times better than the Porgs. Your mileage may very on them but I kept hoping they’d end up in Chewbacca’s stomach, not scrambling around the Millennium Falcon. If I had any other major complaints it would be in the pacing, which tends to drag while Johnson juggles three slow-moving storylines. And there’s disappointment in a couple of supporting characters that look awesome but fail to measure up even to Darth Maul’s low bar.
While there aren’t the dizzying influx of new characters like in the prior movie, the ones we do get are significant in different ways. Dern’s Holdo spins the Resistance power structure and places another strong, heady female at the top of the food chain. Meanwhile, I suspect there will be a split reaction to Kelly Marie Tran as Rose. For me I loved seeing an Asian-American character getting some shine and earning her moment in the spotlight. Her adventure alongside Finn has the most swashbuckling fun of them all, but you don’t get that spark between the characters that Johnson was clearly hoping for. On the other hand I love every interaction between Ridley and Driver, both of their characters trying to fill an empty void left behind by family or those they trusted. We’ve never seen a relationship quite like theirs in all of Star Wars; you could make some of the push/pull between the dark and light side of the Force is similar to what Luke Skywalker went through, but he never had an equal counterpart. Speaking of which, Skywalker is crucial to this story in so many ways and the journey he undergoes feels so natural, it makes so much sense. While you may not always like the twists and turns it takes, that’s only the disorientation of seeing everything you knew upended. It’s a good thing.
While Johnson takes Star Wars to uncharted territory, trust that he includes plenty of cornball one-liners, cheesy declarations about destiny, and so forth that we have come to love. They’re a part of why we love these movies, though, and The Last Jedi is going to be loved by millions who will want to revisit it again and again. I know I will.
Lin Shaye’s brassy parasycho…whatever she is has always been the best part of the Insidious movies and following her is the smartest way to extend the franchise. Insidious: Chapter 3 took us back to her paranormal beginnings, and now with Insidious: The Last Key we see her unlocking new secrets about the demonic spirits that haunt The Further.
Directed by Adam Robitel, whose prior film The Taking of Deborah Logan is incredible scary and worth checking out, the latest story takes Elise to New Mexico where she investigates a new supernatural disturbance connected to her childhood. This trailer isn’t as much of a slow burn as the earlier one, relying more on jump scares rather than tension building. Hopefully Robitel has found a way to give us a little bit of both, and plenty of the creepy key-fingered demon.
Also starring Angus Sampson, franchise writer/director Leigh Whannell, Josh Stewart, Kirk Acevedo, Caitlin Gerard, and Spencer Locke, Insidious: The Last Key opens January 5th.
