When Warner Bros. announced it would be releasing its entire 2021 film slate in theaters and simultaneously on HBO Max, it sent shockwaves through the film industry – and the reverberations were felt most strongly by the people who were directly involved with many of those movies, because none of them were told about the decision before it became public. Several big-name directors and actors (and their representatives) were none too pleased about potentially losing out on the financial bonuses they would normally receive from their movie hitting certain performance benchmarks at the box office, and now, weeks later, WB is still scrambling to clean up its own mess. Read More »
Doug Liman changed the game with The Bourne Identity. The director’s grounded vision for what many eventually came to see as “America’s James Bond” influenced action movies for years, and arguably still continues to do so. When James Bond was rebooted with Casino Royale and beyond, audiences and critics spotted an unmistakable Bourne influence. More inner conflict, more brutal hand-to-hand combat, and the gadgets and toys flew out the window. 007 became a spy in the modern world, similar to the tone Liman struck with his Robert Ludlum adaptation.
To this day, Liman doesn’t know how to feel about it.
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Netflix’s adaptation of the musical version of Matilda has finally found a young star to take on the lead role of a precocious young girl with advanced reading skills and telekinetic abilities who feels like she doesn’t belong in her family of idiotic gamblers and crooks. Relatively unknown 11-year old actress Alisha Weir has landed the role of Matilda, but there’s already been a change with the casting of one of the other key characters, with Emma Thompson taking the role of the nasty headmistress Miss Trunchbull. Read More »
WandaVision premieres on Disney+ today with the first two episodes of the Marvel Studios series focusing on Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany) in the aftermath of Avengers: Endgame. To drum up some more hype and interest for the series, in case the positive reactions weren’t enough, a new WandaVision featurette has arrived to take us behind the scenes of the series. It’s mostly pretty standard making-of stuff, but if you keep your eyes peeled, you just might catch some Wonder Man art lingering in the background. Read More »
Have you ever wanted to see Nicolas Cage fight some murderous animatronic animals? Well then, here’s a film for you: Willy’s Wonderland. The premise – which sure sounds awfully similar to the premise of the video game Five Nights at Freddy’s – finds Cage playing a janitor who has to battle it out against evil, sentient animatronic animals at an abandoned family fun center. Lots of screaming, fighting, and, uh, dancing, follows. Watch the Willy’s Wonderland trailer below.
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Mortal Kombat is getting ready to dole out some R-rated fatalities. Director Simon McQuoid‘s new adaptation of the classic video game series is not holding back on the “gore, blood, and fatalities,” the filmmaker said, promising that the upcoming martial arts film is “definitely not gonna get a PG-13 rating.” Get a glimpse of that blood and gore in the new Mortal Kombat first look images below.
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Posted on Friday, January 15th, 2021 by Fred Topel
The good news was that Cobra Kai season 3 premiered on Netflix earlier than previously annoyed. The bad news was that meant we couldn’t schedule an interview with creators Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg and Josh Heald until the new year. It was a small price to pay for getting Cobra Kai early, especially for the fans who’ve been waiting almost two years since season 2 on YouTube.
Season 3 dealt with the aftermath of the high school battle royale that ended the previous season and left Miguel (Xolo Maridueña) in the hospital. Daniel (Ralph Macchio) went to Okinawa to save his auto dealership and reconnected with some Karate Kid II characters. The Cobra Kai and Miyagi-Do kids kept fighting throughout the season, but the season finale set up a new battle for the future.
Hurwitz, Schlossberg and Heald spoke with /Film by phone this week about season 3 of Cobra Kai and where things might be headed in season 4, which Netflix has already ordered. Cobra Kai seasons 1 through 3 are on Netflix now.
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Bottleneck Gallery is going batty today with the release of several new Batman prints inspired by the Dark Knight’s various appearances in film and television over the years. Mark Chilcott has delivered a batch of incredible cityscapes featuring the Caped Crusader keeping watch over Gotham City and cruising the streets in a couple trademark vehicles from Tim Burton’s Batman and Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight. Meanwhile, Ben Wills puts a minimalist spin on the rivalry between The Penguin and Batman and Ann Bembi lets Michelle Pfeiffer’s Catwoman from Batman Returns out of the bag.
Check out all of the new Bottleneck Gallery Batman posters below and find out how you can get them. Read More »
WandaVision premiered today to plenty of rave reviews but even more questions. Why are Wanda and Vision living in this strange suburban sitcom? Who are those people behind the monitor? And what is up with those creepy commercials? The fake WandaVision commercials that appear at the halfway mark of every episode initially appear to just be a satire of classic ’50s or ’60s ads. Or are they?
Spoilers ahead, of course.
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David O. Russell, the filmmaker behind films like American Hustle, Three Kings, The Fighter, and Silver Linings Playbook, has been relatively MIA from Hollywood since directing 2015’s Joy. But he’s back to direct a new mystery movie that might have one of the most stacked casts ever, and it’s just strengthened its ranks.
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