In the 30+ years since Cliffhanger arrived, a lot has changed, including star Sylvester Stallone now being in his 70s and the action genre transforming significantly. But Cliffhanger director Renny Harlin has another worry entirely for the upcoming sequel: technology, expressing concern that it may rely too much on CGI.
Speaking with ComingSoon.net, Harlin said that while he isn’t attached to Cliffhanger 2, he is still holding out hope for the production’s success, further saying he isn’t confident that the studio will maintain the “real” quality of the 1993 original. “Now, of course, it’s a long time later, so I have no idea what kind of a story they are planning to tell or what Sly’s role in it is. But I wish them the best of luck. I hope they don’t try to replace what we did with a lot of CG. Because I think the audience will be able to tell that we did everything for real. We shot at 12,000 foot peaks in the Italian Alps. It was real stuff, like the opening sequence with the girl falling. It was done for real. That was at 8,000 feet, that wire…It’s so easy for the studios to say now, ‘We’ll do everything blue screen and create everything digitally.’ I hope they don’t do that because it deserves a sequel with the same spirit of the original.”
Cliffhanger – which pulled in an astounding $255 million worldwide and would place in the top 10 highest-grossing movies of 1993 – had a sequel planned as far back as 1994. This version obviously never happened but now that a variation of Cliffhanger 2 is officially moving forward – with Stallone reprising Gabe Walker and Plane and Assault on Precinct 13 remake director Jean-Francois Richet at the helm – fans might have some hope.
The Cliffhanger sequel will reportedly put the focus on Walker’s daughter, who will have to rescue her father via the mountain climbing skills he taught her.
Do you expect the Cliffhanger sequel to rely too much on CGI or do you think the filmmakers will respect the original’s style? Are you looking forward to Cliffhanger 2? Let us know your thoughts!
Holiday Matsuri (or Holmat) is an annual cosplay convention held in Orlando, Florida that tends to close out the year with a bang. As it’s the biggest cosplay convention in the state, and always falls near the end of December (it’s nice and toasty in Florida that time of year, trust me), HolMat is the de facto period…
Holiday Matsuri (or Holmat) is an annual cosplay convention held in Orlando, Florida that tends to close out the year with a bang. As it’s the biggest cosplay convention in the state, and always falls near the end of December (it’s nice and toasty in Florida that time of year, trust me), HolMat is the de facto period…
A new episode of the Revisited video series has just made its way online, and with this one we’re celebrating the birthday of the late, great director Tobe Hooper (who would have turned 81 today, but sadly passed away in 2017) by looking at one of his more underrated horror films: the 2004 release Toolbox Murders (watch it HERE)! You can hear all about it in the embed above.
Toolbox Murders is technically a remake of the 1978 film The Toolbox Murders, but it’s very different from the source material. Written by Jace Anderson and Adam Gierasch, this one has the following synopsis: Young couple Steve and Nell move into a once fashionable, but now decaying, apartment block in Los Angeles, and soon realise that a number of young female residents have met unusually violent deaths. Before long, Nell makes some disturbing discoveries about the building’s manager and her fellow tenants.
The film stars Angela Bettis, Brent Roam, Marco Rodríguez, Rance Howard, Juliet Landau, Greg Travis, Chris Doyle, Adam Weisman, Christina Venuti, Sara Downing, Jamison Reeves, Stephanie Silverman, Alan Polonsky, Charlie Paulson, Eric Ladin, Price Carson, Carlease Burke, Ralph Morris, Bob McMinn, screenwriter Adam Gierasch, and Sheri Moon Zombie – making a rare appearance in a film not directed by her husband, Rob Zombie.
In addition to Toolbox Murders, Tobe Hooper’s directing credits included The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Eaten Alive, Salem’s Lot, The Funhouse, Poltergeist, Lifeforce, Invaders from Mars, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, Spontaneous Combustion, Body Bags, The Mangler, Mortuary, and more.
The Toolbox Murders episode of Revisited was Written, Narrated, and Edited by Lance Vlcek, Produced by Lance Vlcek and John Fallon, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.
Two previous episodes of Revisited can be seen below. To see more of our shows, head over to the JoBlo Horror Originals channel – and subscribe while you’re at it!
Anthony Hopkins returns in a trailer for the film based on an extraordinary true story. Bleecker Street has released the new preview for One Life. The film showcases Hopkins as a man who happened upon a tragically developing encounter with refugee Jewish children who are in the path of Nazi occupation in Prague. Amazingly Hopkins’ younger version of the character had taken it upon himself to embark on a mission to save the children from the growing threat.
The official synopsis from Bleecker Street reads, “Based on the book If It’s Not Impossible…: The Life of Sir Nicholas Winton by Barbara Winton, ONE LIFE tells the incredible, emotional true story of Nicholas ‘Nicky’ Winton (Flynn), a young London broker who visits Prague in December 1938. In a race against time, Winton convinces Trevor Chadwick (Sharp) and Doreen Warriner (Garai) of the British Committee for Refugees in Czechoslovakia to rescue hundreds of predominantly Jewish children before Nazi occupation closes the borders. Fifty years later, Nicky (Hopkins) is haunted by the fate of the children he wasn’t able to bring to safety in England. It’s not until the BBC show That’s Life! re-introduces him to some of those he helped rescue that he finally begins to come to terms with the guilt and grief he carried – all the while skyrocketing from anonymity to a national hero.”
The film sports a cast that includes Anthony Hopkins, Johnny Flynn, Lena Olin, Romola Garai, Alex Sharp, Marthe Keller, Jonathan Pryce and Helena Bonham Carter. James Hawes directs from a screenplay by Lucina Coxon and Nick Drake. Joanna Laurie, lain Canning, Emile Sherman and Guy Heeley are all on board as producers. The executive producers of the film include Simon Gillis, Eva Yates, Barbara Winton, Maria Logan, Anne Sheehan and Peter Hampden.
Producer, Joanna Laurie, would describe the main challenge of development on the project. She remarked, “We had to do the thing which Nicholas found difficult: singling himself out. He really didn’t see himself as a hero, so our challenge was telling this extraordinary story while honoring his humility. The title of this film, ONE LIFE, could mean different things to different people but I think the movie asks us all to reflect, as Nicky did, about our choices as individuals and as a community. ”
This is it, folks! It’s time to blow the dust off the fedora, oil the whip, and venture into the unknown one last time as we celebrate the end of an era with a look back at the fifth film in the Indiana Jones franchise, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny!
Unleashed 15 years after Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and presented as Harrison Ford’s final performance as Dr. Henry Walton “Indiana” Jones Jr., Dial of Destiny finds a disillusioned Indy haunted by a villain from his past and pulled into a chase to recover the Antikythera, an Ancient Greek hand-powered orrery capable of predicting astronomical patterns and eclipses in advance. Commonly referred to as the first analog computer, the Antikythera is more than it seems in Dial of Destiny. In the film, the Antikythera can chart fissures in the fabric of space-time. Open for a brief measure of seconds; the apertures help transport explorers through history. Using the Antikythera, one could map a course through the past, possibly manipulating pivotal events. For a moment, imagine this device in the hands of the wrong people and feel the shivers run down your spine.
As a way of bucking tradition, Dial of Destiny is the first feature in the Indiana Jones franchise directed by someone other than Steven Spielberg. Shocking as this is, the answer to why Spielberg relinquished the reins to another director is simple: he wanted to pass the torch. Feeling it was time for a new generation to decide Indy’s fate, Spielberg exited directorial duties for Dial of Destiny in 2020 after several delays due to the Covid-19 pandemic. James Mangold quickly took hold of the production as the project’s new director, with Mangold, David Koepp, John-Henry Butterworth, and Jex Butterworth penning the script.
The deal to make a fifth Indiana Jones movie dates back to 1979 when Spielberg and George Lucas signed an agreement with Paramount for four sequels to 1981’s Raiders of the Lost Ark. Initially, George Lucas imagined Indy and Marion Ravenwood’s son, Mutt Williams, as the hero of the fifth chapter of the film series. However, Lucas changed his mind about making the combative greaser played by Shia LaBeouf in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull shortly after the divisive sequel’s theatrical release. While Lucas never gave an official reason for abandoning his idea for Mutt to pick up the whip, adverse fan reactions to the character could have played a part.
Speaking with MTV three weeks after Kingdom of the Crystal Skull debuted in theaters, Lucas commented on his decision to euthanize his plans for Mutt, saying, “Indiana Jones is Indiana Jones. Harrison Ford is Indiana Jones. If it was Mutt Williams it would be ‘Mutt Williams and the Search for Elvis’ or something.” In the end, LaBeouf didn’t hand-jive his way to becoming the frontrunner of the franchise, which is a good thing, as his problematic reputation would have lent poorly to playing the central character for a decades-long commitment.
During the film’s planning stage, Spielberg and Lucas disagreed about where the next chapter could go. Lucas wanted the franchise to retain its supernatural roots while presenting an archaeological and historical bent. While Spielberg agreed, the two creatives began pulling Indy in different directions, with Lucas looking toward the future and Spielberg wanting to return to the past.
In an interview with the Times Online, Lucas explained the duo’s divide: “I’m in the future; Steven’s in the past. He’s trying to drag it back to the way they were, I’m trying to push it to a whole different place. So, still we have a sort of tension. This recent one came out of that. It’s kind of a hybrid of our own two ideas, so we’ll see where we are able to take the next one.”
The schism left Ford’s final Indy film in limbo, and during the creative lull, the Walt Disney Company obtained Lucasfilm, giving rights to the character’s upcoming odyssey to the House of Mouse. Then, in another move, Walt Disney Studios snagged the distribution and marketing rights to future installments of the Indiana Jones franchise from Paramount. With Walt Disney Pictures and Lucasfilm agreeing to co-produce the fifth film, Lucas relinquished the long-gestating film project to Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy. Collectively, the creative forces in charge of Indy’s fate felt the character needed one more adventure before hanging his hat on a line.
With the Antikythera chosen as the film’s MacGuffin, it was time to get the band back together and add a few new players to the cast. Without question, Ford would return as Dr. Jones for one last trip into danger. Still, the 80-year-old actor is no spring chicken and would require a body double to film Dial of Destiny’s extended opening sequence set in 1944. In addition to using state-of-the-art de-aging technology on Ford, Anthony Ingruber played Ford’s body double for select scenes.
The effects-driven sequence finds a younger Indiana Jones aboard a speeding train occupied by Nazis. There to rescue his Oxford colleague Basil Shaw (played by English actor Toby Jones) and retrieve the Lance of Longinus, a holy spear said to have pierced the side of Jesus Christ during the biblical figure’s crucifixion, Indy traverses the racing deathtrap with vigilance. The opening segment peacocks the film industry’s ability to delight and deceive, featuring close-calls, fisticuffs, and close-up shots of Disney‘s uncanny VFX magic.
Making her debut in the Indiana Jones franchise is Fleabag and Killing Eve actress Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who plays Helena Shaw, Indy’s opportunistic and brash goddaughter. Throughout Dial of Destiny, Helena acts as a thorn in Indy’s side by ignoring his instructions and carving a path toward a lucrative payday for selling the Antikythera to the highest bidder.
Much like how Indy travels with Short Round in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Helena partners with Teddy Kumar, a young Morrocan pickpocket and sidekick played by Ethann Isidore. Like Short Round, Teddy pulls his weight throughout the mission by navigating the backstreets of Tangier like a pro and making good use of his fake amateur pilot’s license.
Playing the part of the film’s primary protagonist, Jürgen Voller, is Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen. As a German scholar, scientist, and astrophysicist, Voller operates below the radar to achieve his lofty goal of reshaping the world in his image. After arriving in America, Voller adopted the name Schmidt and joined NASA to oversee the organization’s moon landing operation. Aware of the Antikythera’s power, Voller aims to rewrite history, correcting what he sees as past mistakes made by other genocidal dictators and tragically influential figures.
Other players in Dial of Destiny include Antonio Banderas as Renaldo, an old friend of Indy’s and an experienced frogman of watery depths. John-Rhys-Davies returns as Sallah, Indy’s long-time compatriot and grandchild wrangler, with a warm disposition and infinite stories to share. Karen Allen comes back to the franchise as Marion Ravenwood, Indy’s estranged wife and mother to the couple’s dearly departed son, Mutt, who died in the Vietnam War.
Working as Voller’s lapdog enforcer is Boyd Holbrook’s Klaber, a Neo-Nazi unafraid to get his hands dirty at his master’s behest. Shaunette Renée Wilson plays Agent Mason, a CIA agent assigned to keep Voller’s nose clean in the face of his erratic behavior and habit of going off-script. Unfortunately, Wilson’s hypnotic presence is wasted in Dial of Destiny, resulting in one of the film’s most significant missteps. Finally, there’s Olivier Richters as Hauke, Klaber’s silent muscle and brick shithouse in desperate need of swimming lessons.
With much of the cast assembled and Mangold ready to make history as the first director besides Spielberg to helm an Indiana Jones feature, filming began in the United States, with the challenges of a global pandemic infecting aspects of the project’s production. Thanks partly to extended safety precautions during the COVID-19 crisis, Mangold established a remote location scouting system to limit the travel needed to secure filming environments. For this process, camera operators shot prospective settings and then sent the footage to Mangold and production designer Adam Stockhausen for review.
Other filming locations for Dial of Destiny include England’s famous Pinewood Studios, Bamburgh Castle in Northumberland, the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, the Leaderfoot Viaduct over the River Tweed near Melrose in the Scottish Isles. Much like Indy’s exploration throughout cinematic history, filming for Dial of Destiny found cast and crew members traveling to different parts of the globe, including sections of Scotland, Italy, the Kingdom of Morocco, and even the depths of the Mediterranean Sea.
Mangold wanted to film on location as much as possible despite the looming pandemic threat. He shied away from using Industrial Light & Magic’s Stagecraft technology in favor of practical effects, saying part of what made past Indy films exciting was seeing the actors performing in tangible environments. While rehearsing for the effects-heavy flashback sequence depicting Indy’s search for the Lance of Longinus and his compatriot Basil Shaw, Harrison Ford honored the tradition of hurting himself while filming an Indy movie by injuring his shoulder during a fight scene. Mangold reconfigured the filming schedule as needed while Ford healed the damage, a casualty of the actor insisting on doing most of his stunts.
The filming process for Marion Ravenwood’s reunion with Dr. Jones only lasted a day and a half. Allen kept her part in the movie confidential for years, later saying the secrecy often “felt like torture.” Whenever the press would ask her about returning for Mangold’s film, she’d like to say, “I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you.” Allen also said she was delighted to reprise Marion for the sequel, though she would have liked a more prominent part.
Rather than pairing Indy and Marion for Ford’s final mission, Mangold and the Butterworths created Helena Shaw specifically for Phoebe Waller-Bridge. Written as an homage to Marion Ravenwood, Shaw executes most of the extreme action in Dial of Destiny. She’s mysterious and opportunistic, unafraid of risking life and limb to get what she wants. She puts Indy through his paces, reminding him of the good old days when fate fed you a boulder and monkey brains for breakfast. Rumors about Waller-Bridge leading an Indy spin-off continue to circulate on the internet, though we have yet to hear official word on the concept. Speaking with Variety, Kathleen Kennedy said it was “entirely possible” for Shaw to star in her own film.
On the musical end of the spectrum, Spielberg announced in 2016 that, like other chapters in the franchise, John Williams would return to compose the score. In 2022, Williams said Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny would be his final film project, with plans to retire on the horizon. However, Williams retracted his statement at the start of 2023, saying, “You can’t ‘retire’ from music. It’s like breathing. It’s your life. It’s my life. A day without music is a mistake.” Williams’ Dial of Destiny score is among my favorites in the franchise. The soundtrack contains thrilling hooks, creative variations on old arrangements, and a sense of whimsy that places audiences at the heart of the action.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny contains 2,350 effects shots created and arranged by Industrial Light & Magic. Among the film’s most impressive effects (though some would disagree) is the de-aging technology used to depict Indy during World War II. Initially, the scene was 5 minutes long. Then Mangold expanded the sequence to 25 minutes, creating a jaw-dropping display of how far Disney can take us into the Uncanny Valley. While the effect isn’t perfect, it’s leaps and bounds ahead of Rogue One‘s Grand Moff Tarkin incident, the inhuman baby Renesmee of Twilight fame, or Dwayne Johnson’s Scorpion King from The Mummy Returns.
Over 100 artists worked on the opening sequence for more than three years. The team used artificial technology to scan and archive Ford’s character from previous films and a recent scan of Ford’s face, de-aged by VFX experts. Next, expert lighting technicians toiled day and night to light the scene, hiding seams with shadow and tempering Indy’s complexion using simulated light. It’s a stunning sequence and a testament to how far we’ve come since the days of spirit-summoning arks and Nazis melting faster than a snowman in the Sahara.
Oddly, some fans took issue with the film’s time-traveling mechanic. I say “oddly” because after encountering dark magic, cannibals, an ageless Grail Knight, and interdimensional beings, you’d think that time travel would be par for the course. Still, some viewers were disturbed by characters accidentally traveling to the Siege of Syracuse in 212 BC, where Archimedes and his compatriots engaged in battle with the Romans. Filmed in Sicily, early rumblings about Romans patrolling the Dial of Destiny set confused fans before the film’s release, with many wondering if Mangold’s time-traveling mechanic was too far-fetched for an Indy movie.
Thankfully, the Siege of Syracuse sequence presents one of the film’s strongest emotional payoffs, as Indy attempts to convince Helena to leave him in the past. Unfortunately for Dr. Jones, remaining in the past would create a time paradox, possibly rewriting future events to catastrophic effect. Aware of the damage Indy could cause by staying behind, Helena knocks her godfather out with some chin music and returns him to his proper time and place.
When Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny premiered at the 76th Cannes Film Festival, the film received a five-minute standing ovation alongside mixed reactions from critics. The tepid response to Mangold’s sequel quickly spread like wildfire across the internet, sewing seeds of doubt in fans and press members awaiting their early screenings. Adding to the film’s weak reception was a call to boycott Dial of Destiny for a list of peculiar reasons. Some in the boycott camp claim Mangold used the film to take political potshots by having Helena point out the process of capitalism when talking about how the Antikythera exchanged hands throughout history. Others say Dial sold its soul to set up spin-off potential for Helena while reducing Indy to an angry, washed-up drunk. The list continues, but I’ll leave it up to you to tumble down that dark rabbit hole. Despite its franchise legacy, Dial of Destiny underperformed with a global total of $384 million against the long-gestating project’s $294.7 million budget.
It isn’t easy to share a positive opinion about Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny without feeling like Flynn Rider from that “Surrounded By Swords” meme, but here I am. I enjoyed the hell out of Ford’s swan song when I saw the movie in theaters and liked it even more during my most recent rewatch. Is it the ideal ending? Probably not, but what were the chances of this project satisfying Indy fans from every faction?
I applaud the Indiana Jones franchise for never shying away from the character’s age and think Dial of Destiny makes excellent use of the senior adventure’s experience and world-weariness. Like Woody’s fear of being replaced by Buzz Lightyear, Indy feels like a cobweb-covered relic in an age of space races, rockstar worship, and cult-related serial killings. Dial of Destiny taps into the aging explorer’s insecurities, but once the race to recover the Antikythera gets rolling, he’s reborn alongside scrappy, torch-carrying companions.
While not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, with Shaunette Renée Wilson’s Agent Mason all but wasted, uneven emotional beats and strained nods to previous films in the franchise, Dial of Destiny still manages to feel like a roller coaster fueled by thrills and nostalgia. I love seeing the band back together, as fleeting as Marion and Sallah’s roles might be. Mangold’s film sets out to remind fans of the good times while closing the book on one of cinema’s most memorable characters, and Dial of Destiny delivers on those fronts and more.
Expectations can act like a poison while anticipating the end of an era, especially for something as iconic as the Indiana Jones franchise. I think Dial of Destiny is a great Indiana Jones film, and I shudder to think of when we’ll get another adventure film series worthy of spanning four decades and change. May your contributions to cinema and the imaginations of fans and filmmakers be long remembered, Dr. Jones. Thanks for everything, and rest knowing your place in history is shining, immovable, and eternal.
Another day, another layoff. This time, the staff cuts are happening at Microsoft, with IGN reporting that nearly 2,000 employees at the Xbox maker were let go.
Another day, another layoff. This time, the staff cuts are happening at Microsoft, with IGN reporting that nearly 2,000 employees at the Xbox maker were let go.
The original Road House movie starring Patrick Swayze is a classic, so I’ll admit to being more than a little skeptical of the upcoming remake starring Jake Gyllenhaal. Well, Amazon MGM Studios has released the first trailer for the new Road House movie and damn if it hasn’t won me over completely.
You’ve got Jake Gyllenhaal slapping the shit out of everyone, a colourful Florida location filled with alligators, hard-hitting action you can actually follow, and Conor McGregor chewing the scenery in his first film role; I love it.
Per the official logline: “In this adrenaline-fueled reimagining of the ’80s cult classic, ex-UFC fighter Dalton (Gyllenhaal) takes a job as a bouncer at a Florida Keys roadhouse, only to discover that this paradise is not all it seems.” In addition to Gyllenhaal, Road House stars Daniela Melchior, Billy Magnussen, Jessica Williams, Joaquim De Almeida, and Conor McGregor. The film aims to pay homage to the original while providing its own unique and exhilarating spin to introduce Dalton, the roadhouse, and all its chaos to a new generation.
Now that we’ve got a look at how fun the movie appears to be, it’s all the more disappointing that it won’t be released in theaters. In fact, Doug Liman criticized that choice yesterday, saying he will be boycotting the movie’s premiere at SXSW. Road House reportedly tested higher than any movie in Liman’s career, more than Mr. and Mrs. Smith and The Bourne Identity, and Liman feels that it could be a smash hit in theaters if Amazon would allow it. “Contrary to their public statements, Amazon has no interest in supporting cinemas,” Liman said. “Amazon will exclusively stream Road House on Amazon Prime. Amazon asked me and the film community to trust them and their public statements about supporting cinemas, and then they turned around and are using Road House to sell plumbing fixtures.“
Road House will debut on Prime Video on March 21st in more than 240 territories worldwide.
Thanks to a growing roster of shows from Marvel (your WandaVisions) and the Star Wars camp (your Andors), along with a cache of beloved series, from Alias to Black-ish, there are plenty of gems on this streamer worth watching beyond classic Disney films. To help figure out where to start, we present the best ones on…
