Right up to the day of Jojo Rabbit‘s theatrical release, Fox Searchlight keeps rolling out the clips and featurettes, this time giving a peek into the making of Taika Waititi‘s anti-hate satire. But the new Jojo Rabbit featurette, which gives a behind-the-scenes look at the production of the film alongside the requisite glowing words from the stars, actually does a good job of addressing some of the criticisms levied against the movie. Watch the Jojo Rabbit featurette below.
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Damon Lindelof‘s hyper-anticipated sequel/remix series Watchmen premieres on HBO this weekend, and it’s already been getting terrific reviews – including our own rave, which says it’s “destined to be one of the year’s most compelling shows.” To celebrate the forthcoming premiere, original Watchmen illustrator Dave Gibbons broke out his tools and drew his version of one of the new show’s characters: Sister Night, the vigilante played by Regina King. Read More »
French maestro Olivier Assayas did not cement his status as a cinephile favorite over the last quarter-century through the mechanics of his film’s plots. Rather, he’s become a festival darling because of the singular sensation left lingering from watching his work. What happens in an Assayas film is never as important as how it happens – the technique, the intellection, the panache.
Assayas must have had his reasons for taking on a project like Wasp Network, a tale of espionage and counterterrorism. Whatever they were, however, do not come through clearly. The film offers few pleasures beyond the crossing of wires in its tale of tangled alliances in post-Cold War Cuba. Assayas becomes so subservient to the sheer volume of events and information he must bring to life that the film completely subsumes any sense of personal style or voice. The producers could have put any workman studio director’s name over the closing credits, and I would not have bat an eyelid.
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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 »
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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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