After having one of his classic comedy franchises revived by a streamer with Amazon’s Coming 2 America, Eddie Murphy also has Netflix digging up Beverly Hills Cop. And while the film is still a long ways off, Empire brings the first look at Murphy who is back for Beverly Hills Cop: Axel Foley.
The film arrives thirty years after the first movie introduced us to Murphy’s street-smart cop Axel Foley, and twenty years after the most recent sequel. So what has Foley back on the case this time? The death of an old friend has Foley heading back to Beverly Hills to investigate corruption in their police department.
Old pals Judge Reinhold, Paul Reiser, John Ashton, and Bronson Pinchot are returning to join Murphy. At the same time, new cast members include Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Kevin Bacon, and Taylour Paige as Foley’s estranged daughter Jane, who happens to be part of the Beverly Hills Police Department.
The film is directed by Mark Molloy, who replaced Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah who wanted to focus their energy on Batgirl. Gee, how’d that work out?
Add this to the growing list of nostalgia franchises brought back over the last few years, including Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Top Gun: Maverick, and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. The results have been mixed.
Look for Beverly Hills Cop: Axel Foley to hit Netflix in 2024.
The distance between the $1.2B total of Captain Marvel in 2019 and the combined $161M for The Marvels after two weeks has shocked analysts. Rarely have we ever seen such a huge drop in audience after such a successful first movie. But could we see a repeat of that when Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom arrives next month? Following the $1.1B of 2018’s Aquaman, it’s been a rough go for DC superhero films. This year has been especially terrible with Shazam: Fury of the Gods, Blue Beetle, and The Flash all tanking, and leaving little confidence that this sequel will fare any better.
But WB is keeping hope alive by dropping yet another trailer, featuring the return of Jason Momoa as Arthur Curry aka Aquaman, king of Atlantis. We do get a slightly wider look at the overall story, which finds Arthur protecting his kingdom and his new family, as he’s a father now, against the threat of Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) who is more powerful than before. To do it, Arthur will have to team up with his brother Orm (Patrick Wilson) who was the villain of the previous movie.
The film arrives at a curious time since we know it’ll be the last DCEU film before James Gunn reboots things with his new DCU. As such, Momoa won’t be reprising the role, which could give fans even less incentive to show up. What’s the point of checking out what is essentially a dead franchise?
Here’s the synopsis: Having failed to defeat Aquaman the first time, Black Manta, still driven by the need to avenge his father’s death, will stop at nothing to take Aquaman down once and for all. This time Black Manta is more formidable than ever before, wielding the power of the mythic Black Trident, which unleashes an ancient and malevolent force. To defeat him, Aquaman will turn to his imprisoned brother Orm, the former King of Atlantis, to forge an unlikely alliance. Together, they must set aside their differences in order to protect their kingdom and save Aquaman’s family, and the world, from irreversible destruction.
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom opens on December 22nd.
Just as Sylvester Stallone did before him with Rocky, Michael B. Jordan took the directing reins of his signature boxing franchise with Creed III. Back in February, before the film even was released, Jordan was already promising that Creed 4 would be happening. So perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that he’ll also step into the director role once again.
The news was confirmed by producer Irwin Winkler during the Deadline Contenders showcase, with an update on when the film will actually begin shooting…
“I’m not supposed to say, but he will be”, Winkler teased to a laughing crowd.
He added that filming was planning to take place in about a year.
“We think we have a really good story, a really good plot,” he said.
Creed III saw Jordan make his directorial debut while also returning to star as Adonis Creed, son of boxer Apollo Creed, best friend to Rocky Balboa. This was the first movie in the franchise not to feature Stallone as Rocky, largely due to creative differences. The film was still a success with $275M worldwide.
It’s unclear which characters will be returning for Creed 4, but you can expect Tessa Thompson as Adonis’ wife, Bianca, probably Wood Harris as trainer Little Duke Evers, Mila Davis-Kent as daughter Amara Creed, and maybe even Florian Munteanu as Viktor Drago, son of former Rocky foe Ivan Drago. Doubtful we’ll see Jonathan Majors as Adonis’ friend-turned-foe Dame Anderson, but one never knows.
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (review)- $44M
While it’s not an opening to rival its predecessors, the prequel film to one of the biggest franchises of the last 20 years still pulled ahead and a very full pre-holiday weekend. Still, The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes continues a trend of disappointing legacy titles as it’s $44M opening is less then half of what the last film in the franchise, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 made back in 2015 with it’s $102m opening weekend pull.
All things considered, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes should really count its blessings. My money this weekend was on Trolls Band Together pulling the upset. Easily one of, if not THE, most popular animated franchise of the last 5 years the Justin Timberlake/Anna Kendrick led music-packed adventure was almost a sure thing given the proximity to the holiday and the number of kids who are getting cabin fever from being in school for three months straight.
3. The Marvels– $10.2M/$65M
Yowzers, the hits keep coming for the once impenetrable MCU. Not only did their latest film, The Marvels not have a $100M opening weekend but its second weekend saw a 77.9% drop in box office (the highest for any Marvel film). It’s going to take a Thanksgiving miracle for this super trio to cross the $100M during its full run, something that would have been unheard of even 3 years ago.
Box office numbers are relative, really. The other new releases this weekend were higher on the list but more of a disappointment in numbers. Eli Roth’s latest, Thanksgiving, the full length version of a film we were teased way back in 2005 during his and Quentin Tarantino’s love letter to the grunge cinema of the 70s, Grindhouse. 10 million for a film referenced almost 20 years ago with a very specific niche is pretty damn astounding if you ask me. That’s without mentioning that, of all the films on this weeks list, this one has the best chance to increase revenue next week with both the great word of mouth and the actual holiday of it’s namesake happening.
If Tay Tay’s latest miracle doesn’t usher in a revival of the concert film, I don’t know what will. $175M for a product you’ve already sold to live audiences? No brainer.
Of the many films impacted by the SAG-Aftra and writer strikes, Dune: Part Two was the biggest. Warner Bros. moved the film out of its November 2023 spot all the way to March 15th 2024, with the expectation that things would be wrapped up by then and normal promotional activities could occur. Well, that gamble has paid off, and now the film is actually being moved up, as another big film gets pushed back.
THR reports that Dune: Part Two is moving up two weeks to March 1st 2024. Denis Villeneuve’s sequel is taking the spot of The Fall Guy, which Universal has moved from the date all the way to May 3rd.
At that date, Dune 2 should be one of the first big hits of the year, especially with it dominating most of the IMAX theaters at the time. As far as competition goes, it doesn’t have any other major film to compete with. There’s genuine enthusiasm for the sequel to 2021’s sci-fi epic, a star-studded adaptation of Frank Herbert’s novel led by Timothee Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Dave Bautista, Jason Momoa, and more. The film would go on to gross $402M worldwide and win six Academy Awards.
The sequel is even bigger, adding Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Christopher Walken, and Lea Seydoux to the cast.
We’re happy to offer our DC readers the chance to attend a free early screening of Wish, Disney’s magical musical-comedy featuring the voices of Ariana DeBose and Chris Pine. The film reunites Frozen director Chris Buck with writer Jennifer Lee, along with co-director Fawn Veerasunthorn.
SYNOPSIS: Walt Disney Animation Studios’ “Wish” is an all-new musical-comedy welcoming audiences to the magical kingdom of Rosas, where Asha, a sharp-witted idealist, makes a wish so powerful that it is answered by a cosmic force—a little ball of boundless energy called Star. Together, Asha and Star confront a most formidable foe—the ruler of Rosas, King Magnifico—to save her community and prove that when the will of one courageous human connects with the magic of the stars, wondrous things can happen. Featuring the voices of Academy Award®-winning actor Ariana DeBose as Asha, Chris Pine as Magnifico, and Alan Tudyk as Asha’s favorite goat, Valentino, the film is helmed by Oscar®-winning director Chris Buck (“Frozen,” “Frozen 2”) and Fawn Veerasunthorn (“Raya and the Last Dragon”), and produced by Peter Del Vecho (“Frozen,” “Frozen 2”) and Juan Pablo Reyes Lancaster Jones (“Encanto”). With a screenplay by Jennifer Lee (“Frozen,” “Frozen 2”) and Allison Moore (“Night Sky,” “Manhunt”), original songs by Grammy®-nominated singer/songwriter Julia Michaels and Grammy- winning producer/songwriter/musician Benjamin Rice, plus original score by composer Dave Metzger, “Wish” opens only in theaters on Nov. 22, 2023.
The screening takes place on Monday, November 20th at 7:00pm at AMC Tysons Corner. If you’d like to attend, RSVP at the Gofobo site here. Please remember all screenings are first come first served and you’ll need to arrive early to ensure seating. Or you could just wish really really really hard!
The funny thing about Nicolas Cage is that at this stage of his career, after many strange, off-the-wall performances in bizarre movies, he’s kinda ubiquitous in a way. We see him everywhere, in movies, commercials, viral memes. And that makes him just the right guy for a movie like Dream Scenario, in which his regular joe Paul Matthews suddenly begins appearing in everyone’s dreams. Kristoffer Borgli’s third feature explores our obsession with celebrity, especially in the social media age, and how that fame impacts someone who is, by all accounts, pretty ordinary and invisible.
Borgli has a lot of fun with this idea, and so does Cage. Paul is a fascinatingly weird and deeply-flawed guy, and fame only makes it worse. A guy who is obsessed with looking weak, especially in front of his wife Janet (Julianne Nicholson) and two daughters, and definitely feels short-changed by his academic career, Paul sees this newfound celebrity as an avenue to greater success. And for a while, it works. Paul is thrust into the limelight by appearing in the dreams of millions. He doesn’t actually do anything in these dreams; he’s a passive observer. That passivity matches his personality to a tee. For all of his protestations, Paul eats up the attention. In class he basically holds court, listening to stories about his exploits in the heads of others. He does TV news, and explores offers to expand into branding during a strange meeting with an upstart company led by a douchey Michael Cera.
The upward swing is too brief, however. Borgli gives up on the fun quirkiness of the conceit early, allowing a much darker observation to occur. Before long, Paul is experiencing an ugly, nightmarish side of celebrity. Those fans who were begging for selfies earlier, are now terrified of him. Some even want to hurt him.
Dream Scenario looks at the consequences of Paul’s embrace of fame, not just for him but for his family. They are innocent victims in all of this, too, and we’re left to ponder how accountable Paul should be for that. He becomes an overnight sensation for doing absolutely nothing, not unlike your average everyday Youtube star. And like a lot of them, the fame goes to his head.
Borgli meshes high-concept comedy and sci-fi with dashes of oft-scary horror, and the mix isn’t always perfect. But in Cage you have an actor who walks in all of those worlds quite well, and the further he ventures into weird and wild territory, the better. Alongside him is the always-reliable Nicholson as his poor wife, standing fast by her guy even as it throws her life and career into upheaval. This strange phenomenon changes everyone, so much so that it’s unclear how the film is going to end. Borgli seems to be struggling with it, too, making for a final act that takes an unfortunate narrative leap that might’ve made more sense if things were better explained. It feels like a shortcut to get to the conclusion that Borgli wants, rather than one that makes sense. Dream Scenariois a special kind of offbeat experience the likes of which wouldn’t be possible with anyone other than Nicolas Cage, and we’re lucky to have him.
A24 has released Dream Scenario into select theaters and DC, expanding it nationwide on November 24th.
If Nell Tiger Free looks as if she’s about to be swallowed whole in this image, you’re not wrong. It was last year that we learned of a prequel to the 1976 horror classic, The Omen, from 20th Century Studios and director Arkasha Stevenson. Well, now we have our first official look at the cleverly-titled The First Omen, along with news that it will open in theaters on April 5th 2024, a date that Disney had been holding on to throughout the recent strikes.
The film stars Nell Tiger Free (Servant), along with Tawfeek Barhom (Mary Magdalene), Sonia Braga (Kiss of the Spider Woman), Ralph Ineson (The Northman) and Bill Nighy (Living). Stevenson directed and co-wrote the script with Keith Thomas and Tim Smith.
Free is no stranger to creepy projects, having starred in M. Night Shyamalan’s Servant through four seasons, and it was her performance in that which reportedly won her the role.
Here’s the synopsis: When a young American woman is sent to Rome to begin a life of service to the church, she encounters a darkness that causes her to question her own faith and uncovers a terrifying conspiracy that hopes to bring about the birth of evil incarnate.
The original film starred Gregory Peck and centered on a young American boy, Damien Thorne, who is found to be the Antichrist after a series of violent deaths and mysterious occurrences. Made on a budget of less than $3M, The Omen was a huge hit with $60M worldwide. It led to a trio of sequels that were not as well-received, and one remake in 2006 that is really terrible despite Julia Stiles’ best efforts.
Can The First Omen bring this classic franchise back to prominence? We’ll find out in just a few months.
Even if you’ve never heard of Scott Frank, it’s likely that you love one of his film or TV projects. Maybe it’s his 2007 thriller The Lookout; or his Western series Godless; or his biggest hit of all, the acclaimed chess drama Queen’s Gambit. Frank might just have a new favorite for you to choose from with Monsieur Spade, a detective series led by Clive Owen as one of the most famous fictional detectives ever: Sam Spade.
Monsieur Spade finds Owen as author Dashiell Hammett’s popular private detective, Sam Spade. His most famous and only full-length book appearance was in the 1930 novel The Maltese Falcon, which was later adapted twice: a 1931 movie led by Ricardo Cortez, and a more famous one in 1941 starring Humphrey Bogart.
The 6-episode series is set to premiere on January 14th on AMC, AMC+, and Acorn TV.
Frank co-created Monsieur Spade with Tom Fontana (Oz, Homicide: Life On the Street), and will serve as writer, exec-producer, and director.
Joining Owen in the cast are Denis Ménochet, Louis Bourgoin, and Chiara Mastroianni, with Alfre Woodard and Dean Winters in guest roles.
Here’s the synopsis: Monsieur Spade centers around the infamous protagonist of American writer Dashiell Hammett’s 1930 classic novel The Maltese Falcon. The year is 1963, and the legendary Detective Sam Spade (Owen) is enjoying his retirement in the South of France. By contrast to his days as a private eye in San Francisco, Spade’s life in Bozouls is peaceful and quiet. But the rumored return of his old adversary will change everything. Six beloved nuns have been brutally murdered at the local convent. As the town grieves, secrets emerge, and new leads are established. Spade learns that the murders are somehow connected to a mysterious child who is believed to possess great powers.
The list of Star Wars movies that have been teased but don’t appear to ever be happening is growing so long it’s tough to keep track. There were the planned trilogies by DB Weiss and David Benioff, along with the one from Rian Johnson. Patty Jenkins’ Rogue Squadron film was ultimately scrapped, as well as a movie from Marvel head Kevin Feige. And firmly established in that group is a movie by Taika Waititi that he has bene mulling over for a long time with very little actual movement, while keeping fans on the hook with lots of public statements.
And now there’s another that has some convinced the film will indeed become a reality, even though nothing Waititi says suggests that to be true. While speaking with Variety at the premiere of his soccer comedy Next Goal Wins, Waititi was asked about his Star Wars movie and said…
“It will be…dramatic pause…a Taika Waititi film.”
Waititi would then add, jokingly, “It’s gonna p*ss people off.”
Whatever that means from a story standpoint, who knows? But Waititi knows, after the polarizing reaction to his Marvel films Thor: Ragnarok and Thor: Love & Thunder, that his style can rub some fans the wrong way. It’s a given that he’d anger Star Wars fans, too, and all he needs to do is look at their reaction to the most recent Skywaker Trilogy. They are a fickle, often angry bunch if you don’t give them the meat and potatoes they’re used to, and Waititi doesn’t do meat and potatoes. That’s one of the cool things about him as a filmmaker, even if it doesn’t always work out as planned.
Basically, Waititi is saying something without saying much of anything. It was just days ago that Waititi confirmed he won’t be directing a fifth Thor movie, while at the same time admitting that he’s still “marinating” on whatever his Star Wars project will be. Nothing has progressed far enough for Lucasfilm to give it a green light, much less to set a release date.
Here’s hoping that changes soon, because after stints in The Mandalorian we know Waititi can find ways to have fun with the galaxy far far away. What’s the worst thing he could do to anger people, though? Cast himself in the lead role as the greatest, most powerful Jedi Knight ever? He wouldn’t do that…right?
