There are some combinations that are destined to be major factors during the fall awards season. Anytime you get Todd Haynes and Julianne Moore together, you know to expect something great. But throw Natalie Portman into the mix, and you’ve potentially got something special. And that certainly looks to be the case with May December.
Haynes directs Moore for the fifth time in his career, as she plays Gracie, a former teacher who became part of a tabloid scandal when for her salacious romance with a 13-year-old student, who later became her husband. Portman plays an actress researching for an upcoming film in which she’ll play Gracie.
Charles Melton, D.W. Moffett, Piper Curda, and Cory Michael Smith are also in the cast.
Reviews were really strong coming out of Cannes, and now we’ll see the reaction to it at NYFF where it’ll be the Opening Night film. Afterwards, May December will hit theaters on November 17 followed by Netflix on December 1st.
Is 50 years long enough to wait for a reboot? While David Gordon Green’sThe Exorcist: Believeris billed as a direct sequel to the 1973 classic, that it’s ignoring every other sequel or prequel tells you that this is more of a do-over. The hope is that it’ll go better than his recent Halloween trilogy, which ended on a bum note.
A new trailer has arrived that reveals more of the horror film’s plot, revolving around two girls who are possessed by the same demon from the original. Connecting the threads is Ellen Burstyn who returns as Chris MacNeil. She’s joined in the cast by Leslie Odom, Jr., Ann Dowd, Jennifer Nettles, Norbert Leo Butz, Lidya Jewett, and Olivia O’Neill.
Here’s the synopsis: Since the death of his pregnant wife in a Haitian earthquake 12 years ago, Victor Fielding (Tony winner and Oscar® nominee Leslie Odom, Jr.; One Night in Miami, Hamilton) has raised their daughter, Angela (Lidya Jewett, Good Girls) on his own. But when Angela and her friend Katherine (newcomer Olivia O’Neill), disappear in the woods, only to return three days later with no memory of what happened to them, it unleashes a chain of events that will force Victor to confront the nadir of evil and, in his terror and desperation, seek out the only person alive who has witnessed anything like it before: Chris MacNeil. For the first time since the 1973 film, Oscar® winner Ellen Burstyn reprises her iconic role as Chris MacNeil, an actress who has been forever altered by what happened to her daughter Regan five decades before.
The Exorcist: Believer hits theaters on October 6th.
Ava DuVernay’s latest film, Origin, has found a home at Neon. This comes just days after we received first-look images of the drama led by Oscar nominee Aunjanue Ellis in her first major leading role. The Venice Film Festival will be hosting the world premiere tomorrow, while it has also landed a spot on the Toronto Film Festival slate.
An adaptation of Isabel Wilkerson‘s 2020 bestseller Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, the film stars Ellis as Wilkerson, a writer as she travels around the world grieving the loss of a loved one while exploring the topic of race as part of a caste system. A caste system is basically the social categorization of people through hierarchy, race, ethnicity, gender, and more.
Also in the cast are Jon Bernthal, Vera Farmiga, Niecy Nash-Betts, Audra McDonald, Jasmine Cephas Jones, and Nick Offerman.
Neon is planning a release for Origin later this year, when it’ll be a major player in the awards race. As the folks behind Parasite, Portrait of a Lady On Fire, and many other films showered with accolades, Neon really knows what they’re doing this time of year.
Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean franchise has been dormant since 2017’s Dead Men Tell No Tales. But with over $4.5B earned at the global box office, it’s ridiculous to think that’ll last much longer, although when it returns it’ll likely be without Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow. The actor is far too problematic for that.
Recently, we’ve heard about a reboot plan that includes two parallel scripts. One features star Margot Robbie in a female-led adventure. The other is penned by The Last of Us showrunner Craig Mazin. While we don’t know what will ultimately happen, Mazin told Los Angeles Times that he believes Disney is moving forward with his movie despite it being “too weird.”
“We pitched it and thought there’s no way they’re buying it, it’s too weird,” Mazin said. “And they did! And then he wrote a fantastic script and the strike happened and everyone’s waiting around.”
We’ll see about that. Disney is pulling back the reins on some of the bigger, more expensive projects, especially now that Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny has underwhelmed so severely.
As long as the Hollywood strikes persist, any movement on Pirates of the Caribbean will be on hold.
Hard to believe it’s been 23 years since Aardman Animation was put on the map with their stop-motion hit, Chicken Run. Even harder to believe its that it’s taken this long for a sequel, Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget, which aims to equal its predecessor as Aardman’s most successful movie ever.
As the first film was about chickens breaking out of the chicken farm they were being kept in, the sequel finds the feathered fowl friends doing exactly the opposite. They’re attempting to break into an impenetrable bird sanctuary using Mission: Impossible-style tactics.
The impressive voice cast includes Thandiwe Newton, Zachary Levi, Bella Ramsey, Imelda Staunton, Lynn Ferguson, David Bradley, Jane Horrocks, Romesh Ranganathan, Daniel Mays, Josie Sedgwick-Davies, Peter Serafinowicz, Nick Mohammed, and Miranda Richardson.
Making his solo directorial debut is Sam Fell, who co-directed ParaNorman as well as Flushed Away.
Here’s the synopsis: From the multi Academy and BAFTA award-winning Aardman (Creature Comforts, Wallace & Gromit, and Shaun the Sheep), and Academy Award® and BAFTA-nominated director Sam Fell (ParaNorman and Flushed Away, respectively), comes Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget, the eagerly anticipated sequel to the beloved and highest-grossing stop-motion animated film of all time, Chicken Run. Having pulled off a death-defying escape from Tweedy’s farm, Ginger has finally found her dream – a peaceful island sanctuary for the whole flock, far from the dangers of the human world. When she and Rocky hatch a little girl called Molly, Ginger’s happy ending seems complete. But back on the mainland the whole of chicken-kind faces a new and terrible threat. For Ginger and her team, even if it means putting their own hard-won freedom at risk – this time, they’re breaking in!
Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget hits Netflix on December 15th.
I’ll be honest; it’s been really hard for me to get back into Godzilla. The problem is that the American take on the king of all kaiju has been sorta…well, friendly? He doesn’t come across as the devastating force of nature that he did in those Japanese classics. Sure, he destroys a lot of stuff and can slug it out with King Kong, but ultimately you don’t fear Godzilla.
Well, that all changes in the utterly terrifying trailer for Godzilla Minus One, which Toho has dropped today. Writer / director Takashi Yamazaki’s take is a throwback to those kaiju classics which served as a metaphor for Japan’s post-war recovery after the atomic bombings. The film takes place in the fallout of WWII when a struggling recovery is made staggeringly worse by the arrival of Godzilla, stomping flat an already-devastated country.
I feel like this take on Godzilla is especially hard-hitting in the wake of Oppenheimer. In this trailer there’s a very clear emphasis on the visual devastation caused by nuclear attack, and that feels like a statement that is being made. Mainly, though, Godzilla looks like an absolute monster and not like he’s destined for a cool team-up movie crossover.
Godzilla Minus One opens here on December 1st, following a Japanese release on November 3rd.
People love to watch Denzel Washington murdering people. The Equalizer 3 cleaned up at the box office in its debut weekend with $34.5M over three days, and an estimated $42M across the four-day holiday, the second best ever for Labor Day weekend. Overall, the film has $68M worldwide. This franchise has been remarkably consistent over the years. The first movie in 2014 opened with $34M on its way to a $192M run. The 2018 sequel launched with $36M on the way to $190M. It seems the same trajectory is in store now. The Washington/Fuqua connection has been successful largely due to the R-rating and maturer themes, rather than trying to target a PG-13 audience.
2. Barbie– $10.6M/$609.5M
Greta Gerwig’s Barbie continues to shatter records, and now has surpassed The Super Mario Bros Movie as the film’s highest-grossing movie with $1.36B.
3. Blue Beetle– $7.2M/$56.5M
After three weeks, Blue Beetle finally has crossed the $100M mark. A sad tally for a film that has generally received good reviews, but the brand is really tainted right now. It’ll be tough for anyone to break it.
4. Gran Turismo– $6.5M/$28.6M
After a single week at the top, Gran Turismo fell 62% and only brought in $6.5M. While the domestic total of $28M is still disappointing, globally it’s doing considerably better and has $80M.
Leaping into the top 10this week is the raunchy queer comedy Bottoms. Starring The Bear breakout Ayo Edibiri and Shiva Baby‘s Rachel Sennott, the sex comedy with shades of Fight Club expanded into over 700 theaters in its second week.
8. Meg 2: The Trench– $2.9M/$78.4M
9. Strays– $2.5M/$20.7M
10. Talk to Me– $1.7M/$44.1M
There’s a new champion over at A24! Talk to Me has supplanted Ari Aster’s Hereditary as their top-grossing horror film. Given the studio’s knack for finding buzzy titles that exceed expetations, this is quite an accomplishment and justifies the move towards a sequel.
It’s Denzel vs. the Mob!!! You know we’re gonna be down for this one! On this week’s episode of Cinema Royale, I’m joined by my homie Chris Bumbray of Joblo.com to praise Denzel Washington and Antoine Fuqua’s The Equalizer 3! Look, we love these movies, no b.s., and watching Denzel murder the mafia and eat pasta is pretty much perfect for us.
But we don’t just stop there. We also talk about Neill Blomkamp’s Gran Turismo, which is sorta based on the Sony video games. And we also lament the fall of Liam Neeson in Retribution.
Whether through narrative features such as Selma and Middle of Nowhere, or through documentaries as with Colin in Black & White, or television series such as When They See Us, Ava DuVernay has explored race from many different angles. It’s one of the things I respect about her most. The issue or race relations in this country is complicated and multi-faceted, and DuVernay has given proper respect to that fact. And now she’s doing it again by adapting one of the most important recent books to tackle the subject, Isabel Wilkerson‘s 2020 bestseller Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents.
But Origin will not be your ordinary adaptation, which would probably look a lot like a documentary. Instead, DuVernay has penned a story that takes an intimate approach seen through the life of Wilkerson, played by recent Oscar nominee Aunjanue Ellis.
In Ellis’ first leading role, she plays Isabel Wilkerson, a writer as she travels around the world grieving the loss of a loved one while exploring the topic of race as part of a caste system. A caste system is basically the social categorization of people through hierarchy, race, ethnicity, gender, and more.
Also in the cast are Jon Bernthal, Vera Farmiga, Niecy Nash-Betts, Audra McDonald, Jasmine Cephas Jones, and Nick Offerman
Vanity Fair has revealed our first look at Origin before the film’s world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival, where DuVernay will be the first African-American filmmaker to premiere their film in competition for the prestigious Golden Lion.
The Hollywood strikes have caused chaos throughout the industry, and we’ve seen loads of major projects knocked off track. If you recall, Marvel Studios unveiled an ambitious slate of Phase 5 and Phase 6 shows for Disney+, but now many of those are being shuffled off to later dates as they try to space out each project to account for the strikes, but also to make each show feel like more of an event.
Nothing’s happening with the most-anticipated series of them all, Loki season two. The Tom Hiddleston series will be the only one to debut this fall on October 6th. So fans won’t have to wait long to see Loki’s further adventures with the Multiverse.
Originally slated for an early 2023 debut, the second season of Emmy-winning animated series What If…? will instead drop around Christmas Day. The animated anthology will continue to explore the rich history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but with slight twists across alternate timelines.
Next up is the long-awaited Hawkeye spinoff, Echo, starring Alaqua Cox as the former Kingpin henchwoman. Originally due to debut in November, it will instead hit Disney+ in January 2024, with all episodes available to be binged. The story finds Echo returning to her Native American roots in Oklahoma to deal with matters of the past. Look for appearances by Daredevil (Charlie Cox) and Kingpin (Vincent D’onofrio) among others.
Does it feel like we’ve been waiting for X-Men ’97 forever? Well, pretty close. First announced in 2021 to a ton of fanfare, the animated series that continues the beloved 1990s cartoon was to drop this fall, but instead will arrive in early 2024.
Kathryn Hahn’s WandaVision spinoff has a new date and a new title. Formerly Agatha: House of Harkness and then Agatha: Agent of Chaos, the series is now known as Agatha: Darkhold Diaries. Why the change? Who knows? Probably a shift in focus as priorities within the MCU change due to delays and such. Once slated to arrive last winter, the series will arrive next year around Halloween.
Sadly, Ironheart, the series following genius inventor Riri Williams who was first introduced in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, is off the schedule. Starring Dominique Thorne, the series was to have premiered this fall. Filming is actually finished on it, but post-production has been held up by the strikes.
And finally, Daredevil: Born Again, a continuation of the Marvel Netflix series starring Charlie Cox, and the upcoming Wonder Man show starring Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, have both been halted mid-production due to the strikes. [THR]
