If there’s any director who needs to return to his roots, it’s Luc Besson. The French filmmaker behind The Professional, La Femme Nikita, Lucy, and more, went a little too big with his massive sci-fi filmValerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. But he returns to the gritty world of dangerous loners with Dogman, which stars Caleb Landry Jones in what looks to be a tour de force performance.
The story centers on Douglas, a New Jersey man who had been abused as a child for his love of dogs, which he freely admits is greater than his love of family. Literally thrown to the dogs, they protected him rather than attacked him. Douglas would reciprocate that love in kind, but only for canines. Humans, on the other hand, better watch out.
Also in the cast are Jojo T. Gibbs, Christopher Denham, Clemens Schick, John Charles Aguilar, Grace Palma, Iris Bry, Marisa Berenson, Alexander Settineri, Michael Garza, and Tom Leeb.
Dogman opens in select theaters on March 29th, with a wider rollout on April 5th. As a huge Besson fan, this movie has me pumped to see him return to form.
With roles in Barbarian, It, and John Wick: Chapter 4, Bill Skarsgard has gained his fame by exploring his creepy side. A far cry from his brother Alex and father Stellan, whose careers have taken a slightly different route. But it’s all coming together for Bill, too, and his next film, Boy Kills World, a pulpy B-movie revenge flick compared by some to The Raid, could be what makes him the Skarsgard everyone is talking about.
It doesn’t take long to see where comparisons to The Raid come from. Set in a post-apocalyptic society, Skarsgard plays a man seeking violent revenge against the matriarch of an elite dynasty for killing his family and leaving him deaf and mute as a child. The action sequences are fast, over-the-top violent like something out of a video game, and even feature martial arts killer Yayan Ruhian who starred in The Raid 1 & 2.
Also joining Skarsgard in the cast are Happy Death Day‘s Jessica Rothe, Michelle Dockery, Famke Janssen, Sharlto Copley, Brett Gelman, Isaiah Mustafa, and Andrew Koji.
The film is directed by Moritz Mohr from a script by Arend Remmers and Tyler Burton Smith. Sam Raimi is aboard as one of the producers.
Here’s the synopsis: Skarsgård stars as “Boy” who vows revenge after his family is murdered by Hilda Van Der Koy (Janssen), the deranged matriarch of a corrupt post-apocalyptic dynasty that left the boy orphaned, deaf and voiceless. Driven by his inner voice, one which he co-opted from his favorite childhood video game, Boy trains with a mysterious shaman (Ruhian) to become an instrument of death and is set loose on the eve of the annual culling of dissidents. Bedlam ensues as Boy commits bloody martial arts mayhem, inciting a wrath of carnage and blood-letting. As he tries to get his bearings in this delirious realm, Boy soon falls in with a desperate resistance group, all the while bickering with the apparent ghost of his rebellious little sister.
I can’t wait for someone to make a queer version of Ethan Coen’s Drive Away Dolls. You’re probably thinking, “Cortland, that film is about to come out and has two lesbian women as its protagonists.” You’re not wrong. However, the first solo film from Ethan Coen, one-half of the revered Coen Brothers, doesn’t cash in on the potential of its premise in a way a queer director would.
Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan play two lesbian friends, one recovering from a break-up, the other sexually repressed, who need some time away from Philadelphia and must figure out how to get to Tallahassee. Instead of renting a car, Jamie (Margaret Qualley) suggests they do a drive away, a service that pairs travelers with vehicles that both are heading in the same direction.
Of course, their timing is terrible and the man behind the counter (an underused but great Bill Camp) pairs them with a car meant for someone else. Buried under the spare tire is a mysterious case. As they travel most of the way to Florida without knowing henchmen (led by Colman Domingo) are on their tail, the two friends stop, drink, and reflect on their relationship.
The premise is rife with jokes: gay jokes, crime jokes, Matt Damon penis jokes, and except for a few scattered laughs, Drive Away Dolls doesn’t deliver. Part of this problem derives from my previous point that Ethan Coen is not a lesbian and doesn’t know where, when, and how to find comedic moments from his leading ladies. The majority of the jokes that are made feel stale and inauthentic.
It’s as if Coen is trying to recreate a Coen Brothers film but instead pulls off the fresh out-of-film school version. Margaret Qualley is playing a Frances McDormand type, complete with a blunt bob haircut. Henchmen debate their relationship in the car, resorting to violence that fails to be comedic. The box’s contents is more of a McGuffin than anything else. Coen, who co-wrote the script with his wife and editor Tricia Cooke, inserts Coen brother-esque characters and tropes into the script without much care or precision. Instead of trying something different, like his brother Joel did in The Tragedy of Macbeth, Ethan rests on his laurels.
As leads, Viswanathan and Qualley play more archetypes than characters which makes them more tedious than endearing to wash. The former, who is normally hilariously charming, is annoyingly morose and overwhelming one note. Qualley tries to play the playboy character we’re used to seeing in a road movie but it’s not endearing. Her Texas accent has a similar effect to Juno Temple’s Fargo accent, which sounds off-putting when you initially hear it. Unlike Temple, you never get used to Qualley’s drawl.
The supporting cast is absolutely having a great time here. Pedro Pascal has a blast in a small but grisly cameo, while Colman Domingo feels like the weathered, tough but fair, worthy opponent we are used to seeing in Coen Brother’s films. Beanie Feldstein plays the part of the scorn lesbian perfectly, though her character’s presence doesn’t feel necessary.
When the film ends, the end titles eventually change from Drive Away Dolls to Drive Away Dykes and though feelings around the slur have changed, I’m not quite sure the previous 84 minutes have earned Ethan Coen the right to use it.
Drive-Away Dolls is in theaters this Friday. Watch the trailer below.
If you’ve not felt the solo work of the Coen Brothers so far; Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth, and Ethan Coen’s new comedy Drive-Away Dolls and Jerry Lee Lewis doc Trouble in Mind, then it’s time to celebrate. The Coen Brothers are reuniting on a new horror movie, and no, this isn’t some old screenplay they had in a drawer somewhere. It’s a totally new project that they worked on together.
Ethan revealed the news in an AP interview promoting Drive-Away Dolls…
“We talked about it for a long time, but we hadn’t actually written anything. We talked about the starting point. It was in a mental drawer.”
“It wasn’t breaking up. It was just me going, ‘Uaaagghh,’” Coen said of the solo journey he and his brother went on. “It was great. It’s always great. But it’s not like we were out of contact. We see each other all the time, talk all the time.”
Ethan already has his next film lined up. He’ll next direct Honey Don’t! starring Aubrey Plaza, Chris Evans, and Margaret Qualley. Shooting is rumored to begin this fall, and after that, Ethan and Joel will reunite.
The AP describes their horror movie as harkening “back to the Coens’ 1984 debut, “Blood Simple.” That doesn’t sound quite right to me, since Blood Simple isn’t a horror, but without knowing more they could be saying pretty much anything. Perhaps they mean in terms of size, budget, and style.
You might recall that Tom Cruise was once very close to starring in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, probalbly in the Brad Pitt role, but things ultimately didn’t work out. That doesn’t mean the desire for the two of them to work together has gone away, and rumors sprang up last week that Cruise could join Tarantino’s final film, The Movie Critic. Well, according to a new Variety piece, that could very well be the plan.
The news comes in an extensive piece on Warner Bros. and the ballooning budget of Todd Phillips’ Joker Folie à Deux. Cruise has entered a non-exclusive strategic partnership with the studio, and recently met with studio chiefs Pam Abdy and Michael De Luca about potential projects. One of those was a role in The Movie Critic, while another option was the long-awaited Edge of Tomorrow sequel. I’m pretty sure that movie will never happen, but I digress.
An expensive bidding war for the distribution rights to The Movie Critic is expected, and Warner Bros. is sure to be in the mix. If Tarantino and Cruise want it badly enough, Warner Bros. is going to make sure that this happens.
There are so many layers to this, with things that could work in the deal’s favor and others that don’t. But here’s one thing that caught my attention; David Zaslav and the potential sale of Warner Bros…
“But sources who have done recent business with the studio say the mandate to spare no expense to land big talent comes via Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav.
“The strategy at Warner Bros. right now and the reason they made some of these big star deals is they’re basically playing with other people’s money,” says one insider. “They’re shopping for Quentin or Cruise with the notion they can use it as a shiny object that is going to be additive when Zaslav sells the company.”
Another source says that Cruise really wants to start branching out and doing more than action movies again, including a possible reunion with Paul Thomas Anderson, who directed him to his last Oscar nomination for Magnolia.
So there’s a lot in the cards here, and following the manuevers of Warner Bros. is going to be very interesting.
With the embargo having lifted on next week’s Dune: Part Two, it’s no shock that MGM has dropped a new trailer for Challengers. The only real connection between the two vastly different films is Zendaya, who is poised to become an even bigger star when the sci-fi sequel hits theaters. But with Challengers she’s starring in a tennis comedy that also doubles as a sex comedy, from Luca Guadagnino of all people.
And what’s being served up? A throuple, that’s what. Zendaya’s character finds herself in the middle of the romantic triad with co-stars Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist. The film, penned by Justin Kuritzkes, centers on a former tennis pro-turned-manager to her Grand Slam champion husband who she has entered into a tournament event against her former lover.
You could say this scans as a change-of-pace for Guadagnino, but that would suggest he has a specific genre he sticks to. The filmmaker has done pretty much everything, from arthouse dramas (I Am Love, Call Me By Your Name) to horror (Suspiria) to romantic thrillers (Bones & All). There’s every reason to believe he can make something like Challengers work.
Here’s the synopsis: From visionary filmmaker, Challengers stars Zendaya as Tashi Duncan, a former tennis prodigy turned coach and a force of nature who makes no apologies for her game on and off the court. Married to a champion on a losing streak (Mike Faist – West Side Story), Tashi’s strategy for her husband’s redemption takes a surprising turn when he must face off against the washed-up Patrick (Josh O’Connor – The Crown) – his former best friend and Tashi’s former boyfriend. As their pasts and presents collide, and tensions run high, Tashi must ask herself, what will it cost to win.
The easy shorthand for Denis Villeneue’s Dune: Part Two will be a comparison to The Empire Strikes Back. That’s both fair and staggeringly incorrect. George Lucas wishes his space opera was as complex as this, with its dark warnings about false prophets, imperialism, and the familiar danger of fascism. But this is undoubtedly a grim, bleak chapter full of rebel alliances, guerrilla tactics, heroes, and romance in the time of war. I’ve said it before that Frank Herbert’s Dune has never meant anything to me. I found his writing trite and the predictable result of an adaptation the comical 1980s movie we still ridicule. What Villeneuve, working with screenwriter Jon Spaihts, has done is lend gravitas and spectacle to the universe that Herbert created. Whether you love sci-fi or not, Dune: Part Two is simply a movie that cannot be missed.
Picking up after the events of 2021’s Dune: Part One, we’re thrust into another jaw-dropping desert battle. Timothee Chalamet returns as Paul Atreides, the apparent sole-surviving member of House Atreides, the noble house who saw their commitment to duty on the spice planet Arrakis be their downfall. The first movie, which equates to the first half of Herbert’s novel, introduced us to the conflict between Atreides and House Harkonnen. But the central struggle is taking place within Paul, who grapples with a duty he didn’t ask for and a prophecy thrust upon him. He never saw himself as a messiah figure, even as the Fremen, led by Stilgar (Javier Bardem) saw it within him.
That struggle takes a different shape in Part Two, as Paul becomes exposed to the mystical spice that saturates the planet. The schemes of his pregnant mother Bene Gesserit Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) are steering Paul closer to acceptance of this fate, as the religious fervor of the Fremen grows with his every miraculous deed on the battlefield. And miraculous they are indeed, as Paul learns their ways and battlefield strategies like he was born to them. But as he grows more comfortable and arrogant with his position of power, it begins to push away Chani (Zendaya), the Fremen warrior who has grown to love the outsider despite herself. Paul is no Luke Skywalker. He’s a more complex figure than that, grappling as well with a desire for vengeance that could consume him.
Dune: Part Two is a massive expansion of the first movie, with more characters, more storylines, and a vast increase in conflicting agendas. Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam (Charlotte Rampling) moves the chess pieces around from the shadows to ensure the Bene Gesserit’s power, even if it means conspiring with the emperor (Christopher Walken) to wipe out House Atreides. Meanwhile, his daughter Princess Irulan (Florence Pugh), also a member of the Bene Gesserit because all women are apparently, is stuck in the middle. There’s also a small role for Léa Seydoux as a member of that secretive group, but it’s one of many that feels like a glorified cameo. The Harkonnens are in some ways crueler than ever, with the Baron’s (Stellan Skarsgard) lust for power pushing him to more destructive assaults on Arrakis. As legend grows surrounding Paul and his incredible feats, we see the power of such myth-making on the Baron’s nephew Glossu Rabban (Dave Bautista), whose spine has grown weak compared to his monstrous nature in the first movie. That leaves an opening for the psychotic Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler) to prove himself in gladiatorial combat and ultimately in vicious attacks against the Fremen.
For a film that largely takes place over a barren desert and vast seas of nothingness, Dune Part Two is jaw-droppingly beautiful. The sound booms in your ears as the thumper pounds sand to call the deadly sandworms. They are more crucial in this story than before, and feature in two of the most exhilarating moments that had me wanting to leap out of my seat like the Millennium Falcon’s heroic save in Return of the Jedi. Once again filmed by cinematographer Greg Fraser, the heavy use of shadow and light perfectly complements Hans Zimmer’s deafening, ominous tones.
If anything, Dune: Part Two takes on too much and grows a bit unwieldy in the final act. The film grapples with so many big concepts in subplots that brutally collide that it’s easy to lose track of where the story is headed. There are teases of future Dune stories, which may or may not happen depending on how successful this film is, and at least one will mean absolutely nothing to casual moviegoers…despite the cameo appearance of an A-list actor in a key role. So much is happening that the love story between Paul and Chani feels cheated like there’s another cut where they get more focused attention. And while the eventual war on Arrakis is stunning for the level of technical detail and war choreography, it ends in rushed fashion with an anticipated showdown falling just short of expectations. At nearly 3-hours in length, you don’t feel any drag but you do leave feeling that Villeneuve has more that he wants to do.
Did any of these small issues affect my enjoyment of Dune: Part Two? Not at all! I remain shocked by how awesome Villeneuve has made Dune, and how much he has made me care for the characters and this conflict. I mean, Timothee Chalamet believable as a fearsome warrior, lover, and savior? I believed all of it and am willing to accept anything and everything as long as Villeneuve presents it with the seriousness and deft command that he has presented all of Dune! He has created an exceptional film and a franchise that has set a new standard for sci-fi, one that will surely be copied in the way Star Wars was aped for decades after. If Villeneuve doesn’t want to return to make Dune: Messiah, Warner Bros. should do whatever it takes to make sure that he does.
Unless you’re already a fan of the Borderlands franchise of looter-shooter games, it’s tough to know whether the movie is worth getting excited over. On the plus side, it has an absolutely stacked cast led by Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Ariana Greenblatt, Edgar Ramirez, Jamie Lee Curtis, Florian Munteanu, and Gina Gershon. Lionsgate clearly wants you to focus on that, which is why the star power is front and center in the first official images, poster, and trailer.
People dropped the first photos from Borderlands yesterday. One features Blanchett sporting Lillith’s fiery red hair. The other gives us a shot of the entire team of vault hunters, in what I like to call “beatdown view”, as they peer down a well. There be loot down that well! What we get in the images and trailer are Blanchett as Lillith Hart as elite mercenary Roland, Black as the wise-cracking robot Claptrap, Curtis as the psychotic Dr. Tannis, Greenblatt as the feral Tiny Tina, and Munteanu as the muscle-bound Krieg.
The film is directed by Eli Roth, with shooting having begun back in 2021. So it’s been a while waiting for this one, and there have been concerns about the weeks of reshoots, not by Roth but by Deadpool director Tim Miller. Before anyone goes crazy over that, Roth was busy shooting Thanksgiving which is why he couldn’t do them himself. New script pages were penned by Zak Olkewicz, as well. Of some concern is the previously attached Craig Mazin (The Last of Us), who took his name off the project and was replaced by co-writer Joe Crombie.
I’ll be honest, it looks sorta generic to me, but I’m not a fan of the games and perhaps it will speak more to those who are.
Here’s the synopsis: Lilith (Blanchett), an infamous bounty hunter with a mysterious past, reluctantly returns to her home, Pandora, the most chaotic planet in the galaxy. Her mission is to find the missing daughter of Atlas (Ramírez), the universe’s most powerful S.O.B. Lilith forms an unexpected alliance with a ragtag team of misfits – Roland (Hart), a seasoned mercenary on a mission; Tiny Tina (Greenblatt), a feral pre-teen demolitionist; Krieg (Munteanu), Tina’s musclebound protector; Tannis (Curtis), the oddball scientist who’s seen it all; and Claptrap (Black), a wiseass robot. Together, these unlikely heroes must battle an alien species and dangerous bandits to uncover one of Pandora’s most explosive secrets. The fate of the universe could be in their hands – but they’ll be fighting for something more: each other. Based on one of the best-selling videogame franchises of all time, welcome to BORDERLANDS.
Lionsgate will release Borderlands into theaters on August 9th.
Let’s just say that 2023 was not a good year for Marvel. Bob Iger has said they “lost a little focus”, and has reorganized future plans to include fewer movies per year, there’s only one in 2024, and fewer shows on Disney+. It’s all too little too late to correct a year that saw The Marvels become their lowest-grossing movie ever, Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania disappoint critically and financially, and Secret Invasion get some of the worst reviews of any Marvel project. There are a number of changes still to come as Marvel attempts to recover, and THR has details on what those will entail. The first is one that many have been predicting for months.
The writing has been on the wall since before Jonathan Majors was found guilty in his domestic abuse trial. Avengers: The Kang Dynasty will undergo a title change, and probably see the villain’s role in the film reduced since that’s what Marvel was trying to do, anyway. Fans didn’t really take to him in Ant-Man 3, either. The film is still scheduled to open in summer 2026, although it still needs a director since Destin Daniel Dretton dropped out.
With Marvel having finally found its Fantastic Four with Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, and Joseph Quinn, the script is getting a rewrite. Eric Pearson, who is basically Marvel’s clean-up hitter, has come in give the screenplay a pass. He’s already done work on Black Widow, Thor: Ragnarok, and Thunderbolts. Speaking of which…
Thunderbolts is getting a bit of help from The Bear co-showrunner Joanna Calo, who will take a shot at the script. The film centers on a team of antiheroes and villains, including Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), Black Widow (Florence Pugh), Red Guardian (David Harbour), USAgent (Wyatt Russell) and more as they try to work as a team for the government.
“The focus is internal this year,” an insider said about the initiative going on at Marvel Studios.
Part of that means fewer projects overall. Only Deadpool & Wolverine is on the calendar for 2024. Thunderbolts arrives in May 2025, while Fantastic Four is in July of the same year, but they shouldn’t have a ton of company as Blade is expected to move into 2026.
Following his tumultuous experience directing Rogue One, Gareth Edwards decided to step away from Hollywood for a while. He reemerged last year with The Creator, an original sci-fi work that was one of the year’s best films. However, it underperformed at the box office, which has led many to speculate on Edwards’ future. Well, it turns out the call to blockbusters is strong.
Edwards has taken over Universal’s new Jurassic World movie, the one that recently saw director David Leitch exit due to creative differences. You can’t fault Universal and Amblin for seeking out Edwards, who has a ton of blockbuster experience under his belt. He also directed 2015’s Godzilla film that launched the MonsterVerse.
So while on the one hand, it’s disappointing to see him drawn back into the style of filmmaking he sought to leave behind, perhaps he’s scratching a particular itch. Jurassic Park is one of the great all-time franchises, and he’ll get to work with the likes of Steven Spielberg. That’s gotta be tough to refuse.
The new Jurassic World movie is set for July 2nd 2025, and will have an entirely new cast. Edwards will have to get moving quickly so expect news on that very soon.
