Zombieland: Double Tap is in theaters now, bringing back Woody Harrelson, Jessie Eisenberg, Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin for more zombie apocalypse action. It’s been 10 years since the original movie hit theaters, but writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick (the duo behind the Deadpool franchise) were hired almost immediately to write the sequel. Since it took a decade to finally get this movie finished, the script went through plenty of changes as time passed, and one of those changes resulted in nixing a hilarious but tragic scene that would have given us a Ghostbusters reunion.
Beware, in order to discuss this scene in question, we’re providing a spoiler alert for a certain cameo made in the sequel. But if you saw the most recent theatrical trailer for Zombieland: Double Tap, then you already know what we’re talking about. Either way, you’ve been warned. Read More »
Watch out The Addams Family! There’s only one true animated film about a severed hand, and it’s the Netflix film I Lost My Body. Jeremy Clapin’s impressive first feature, this French animated movie is an artsy, macabre, mostly very emotional story told from the point of view of a severed hand with a case of reverse missing limb, who is on an epic quest to reunite with its owner.
Taking a minimalist, nearly lyrical approach to storytelling, Clapin opens his movie with a black-and-white flashback (one of many throughout the film) of a young Moroccan boy, Naoufel (Hakim Faris) whose father is teaching him how to capture a fly with his bare hands. Then we cut forward to a fridge in a small room, out of which comes a severed hand. After freeing itself from a plastic packaging and jumping out a window, it begins an arduous and frenetic journey through Paris. It’s a series of misadventures as the film flashes back and forth between the hand’s travels and Naoufel’s youth and moments leading to him being separated from his hand.
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It’s been four years since Disney announced that Pinocchio would be getting the live-action remake treatment that the studio is obsessed with these days. Since then, directors like Sam Mendes (Skyfall) and Paul King (Paddington) have been linked to the project, but they both eventually fell away. Now Disney has lined up a new director, and this one has a hit or miss past with Disney.
Robert Zemeckis is now in early talks to direct Disney’s live-action Pinocchio, the story of a wooden puppet who magically comes to life and wishes to become a real boy. After the hellish and abysmal Welcome to Marwen, I’m not sure I want to see Zemeckis tackle a movie that has anything remotely resembling a doll or a puppet. But here we are. Read More »
Later this year, we’ll see John Boyega back in space in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. We’re not sure what his future in a galaxy far, far away holds after that, but over at Netflix, he’ll be playing with a different kind of sci-fi as the lead of one of their new original movies.
They Cloned Tyrone is said to be a “pulpy, sci-fi mystery caper” that has been described as being something akin to Friday mixed with Get Out. John Boyega will be taking the lead role, which was previously in the hands of Widows and If Beale Street Could Talk co-star Brian Tyree Henry. Find out more about the movie below. Read More »
Today’s Disney+ non-fiction presentation in Hollywood provided a plethora of information about more upcoming projects for the nascent streaming service, including news that a new Mickey Mouse documentary is in the works with the high aspiration of being “the definitive analysis of Mickey as a cultural icon.” The untitled movie will be directed by Jeff Malmberg, the filmmaker behind the 2010 doc Marwencol, and produced by Morgan Neville, who is perhaps best known for last year’s beloved Mr. Rogers doc Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
Plus, we learned that actors Gillian Jacob (Community, Love) and Paul Scheer (The League, Veep) will be directing episodes of Marvel’s 616. Get the details below.
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Today, I attended a Disney+ presentation in Hollywood, where we learned that the upcoming streaming service will be the home of two interesting documentaries.
Don Hahn, the producer of Disney animation movies like The Lion King and The Hunchback of Notre Dame and a talented director in his own right, directed a film about the life of Howard Ashman, the acclaimed lyricist behind films like Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin, and that movie will be available next year on Disney+. And filmmaker David Gelb, who directed the 2011 documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi, is returning to profile another famous chef in a new doc about Wolfgang Puck. Read More »
After spending the last few years only producing horror films, Sam Raimi appears ready to get back in the director’s chair. The Evil Dead filmmaker is set to direct a new horror movie set on an island from writers Mark Swift and Damian Shannon. Specific plot details are being kept under wraps, but the project is being described as Misery meets Cast Away. I can only assume that means the movie involves Tom Hanks having his ankles broken by Kathy Bates.
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Just one week before production was slated to begin, Nebraska director Alexander Payne‘s new untitled film has been canceled by Netflix. The film would have followed Mads Mikkelsen as a Danish journalist who goes on a road trip with his teenage daughter across America while he works on a story for a newspaper. Unfortunately, it looks like a rights issue is the issue and it appears that it will not be able to recover. Read More »
(Welcome to Pop Culture Imports, a column that compiles the best foreign movies and TV streaming right now.)
The Western has long evolved out of its uniquely American trappings, and we get to see two shining examples of that in this week’s Pop Culture Imports. The first is Sholay, a genre-mixing ’70s “Curry Western” classic widely considered the best Bollywood movie of all time, and the second is a 2018 Belgian film comprised of even more genre influences, with spaghetti westerns, hard-boiled Italian cop dramas, and Tarantino all bumping uglies in Let the Corpses Tan. Joining them is the 2016 K-drama police procedural sensation Signal; Japanese provocateur Sion Sono‘s latest thriller; and a spectacularly badly titled Netflix crime drama.
Switch off Netflix’s default dub versions (please stop that), fire up those subtitles, and let’s get streaming.
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Cool Posts From Around the Web:
On the October 18, 2019 episode of /Film Daily, /Film senior writer Ben Pearson is joined by /Film weekend editor Brad Oman and writers Hoai-Tran Bui and Chris Evangelista to discuss the latest film and TV news, including Venom 2 casting, MoviePass’s latest shady dealings, a new Barney movie, Black Adam’s possible start of production, and more controversy for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Read More »
