You’re welcome… again. Disney CEO Bob Iger announced today that Moana 2 is in the works. The original animated movie was released in 2016 and proved to be quite the hit, grossing $682 million worldwide, and featured more than a few earworms. The sequel is clearly further along than expected, as Iger revealed that the animated movie will actually hit theaters later this year on November 27th.

“Moana remains an incredibly popular franchise,” said Iger, “and we can’t wait to give you more of Moana and Maui when Moana 2 comes to theaters this November.” A first-look image and a special look at the film have also been released; you can check those out below.

Moana 2 will take “audiences on an expansive new voyage with Moana, Maui and a brand-new crew of unlikely seafarers. After receiving an unexpected call from her wayfinding ancestors, Moana must journey to the far seas of Oceania and into dangerous, long-lost waters for an adventure unlike anything she’s ever faced.” Dave Derrick Jr. directed the sequel, with music by Abigail Barlow, Emily Bear, Opetaia Foa’i, and Mark Mancina.

While you would think that Dwayne Johnson and Auliʻi Cravalho would be back to reprise their roles of Maui and Moana, the press release makes no mention of them or any cast members. Here’s hoping that we’ll get an official announcement of their return at a later date.

If you’re wondering how the sequel seemingly came out of nowhere, Iger mentioned that it had originally been developed as a TV series for Disney+ before they decided to transform it into a feature film. In addition to Moana 2, there’s also a live-action Moana movie in development. Hamilton director Thomas Kail is slated to direct the movie, and Dwayne Johnson will reprise his role of Maui in addition to producing through his Seven Bucks Productions banner.

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Image Nation Abu Dhabi and Spooky Pictures recently teamed up to produce the horror film Late Night With the Devil, headed up by the Australian writing and directing duo of Colin and Cameron Cairnes (100 Bloody Acres) and starring David Dastmalchian – whose previous credits include The Boogeyman, The Last Voyage of the Demeter, and The Suicide Squad. One of my most highly anticipated releases of the year, Late Night With the Devil is set to reach theatres, courtesy of IFC Films, on March 22nd, then will be heading to the Shudder streaming service on April 19th. With those dates drawing near, a promo for Late Night With the Devil has made its way online and can be seen in the embed at the bottom of this article… and it promises that Halloween 1977 is going to be a hell of a night, thanks to the TV programming schedule.

Late Night With the Devil is a “supernatural chiller” that tells the story of the live broadcast of a late-night talk show in 1977 that goes horribly wrong, unleashing evil into the nation’s living rooms. Dastmalchian plays Jack Delroy, the host of the show Night Owls.

Colin and Cameron Cairnes provided the following statement: “In the ’70s and ’80s there was something slightly dangerous about late-night TV. Talk shows in particular were a window into some strange adult world. We thought combining that charged, live-to-air atmosphere with the supernatural could make for a uniquely frightening film experience.”

Late Night With the Devil has been making the festival rounds, racking up awards as it goes. The film had its premiere South by Southwest, won best screenplay at Sitges Film Festival, and won both best feature film and best lead performance (for Dastmalchian) at Toronto After Dark.

Dastmalchian had this to say about the IFC Films and Shudder distribution deal: “Playing Jack Delroy in Late Night With the Devil was a once-in-a-lifetime role that haunted me and changed the way I look at my work forever. IFC Films and Shudder are the perfect partners to bring this film to audiences. I’m so grateful to the Cairnes brothers for their craftsmanship and to all of the festival fans who have created an incredible rumble about Late Night With the Devil!“

Spooky Pictures was founded by It producer Roy Lee and the Paranormal Activity franchise’s Steven Schneider. They are producing Late Night With the Devil alongside John Molloy, Derek Dauchy, and Future Pictures’ Mat Govoni and Adam White. Dastmalchian serves as an executive producer with Rami Yasin and Lake Mungo director Joel Anderson.

Are you looking forward to Late Night With the Devil? Check out this promo, then let us know by leaving a comment below:

The post Late Night With the Devil promo promises Halloween 1977 is going to be a hell of a night appeared first on JoBlo.

Dakota Johnson is giving audiences something to chew on about Hollywood’s inner workings when she’s not in the Amazon researching spiders with her mom. Speaking with L’Officiel, the Madame Web star got candid about the challenges of movie making and how executives could be stifling creative minds in the streaming arena. Last year, Johnson’s experience with her film Daddio opened her eyes to several problems plaguing the film industry. The film, which also stars Sean Penn, encountered several challenges during production, highlighting the uphill battle of selling a “riskier” idea to studios.

“We made a movie called ‘Daddio ‘that was sold at Telluride to Sony Classics, which was amazing, but it took a lot of fighting to get that made,” Johnson said. “People are just so afraid, and I’m like, ‘Why? What’s going to happen if you do something brave?’ It just feels like nobody knows what to do and everyone’s afraid. That’s what it feels like. Everyone who makes decisions is afraid. They want to do the safe thing and the safe thing is really boring.”

Unafraid to mention the elephant in the room, Johnson added that she’s “discovering that it’s really f*cking bleak in this industry. It is majorly disheartening.”

“The people who run streaming platforms don’t trust creative people or artists to know what’s going to work, and that is just going to make us implode,” she continued. “It’s really heartbreaking. It’s just f*cking so hard. It’s so hard to get anything made. All of the stuff I’m interested in making is really different, and it’s unique and it’s very forward in whatever it is.”

Speaking of risk, Dakota Johnson’s Marvel movie Madame Web spins a web in theaters on Valentine’s Day, and audiences are already nervous about Sony’s latest chapter of the studio’s expanding Spider-Verse. After Sony and Marvel’s Morbius left red in Sony’s ledger, fans of superhero cinema are less inclined to give the live-action Spider-Verse the benefit of the doubt. However, Dakota Johnson says some aspects of the film have made her feel confident about the project.

“When the script came along, I loved the idea of a superhero being a young woman whose mind was extremely powerful. I liked the dynamic between her and these three young women; how they genuinely protect and support and care for each other,” Johnson said about taking the lead in Sony and Marvel’s Madame Web. “And so, it just seemed different to me and it was way more grounded and real and gritty. I just thought it was an interesting way to experience that world.”

“In a switch from the typical genre, Madame Web tells the standalone origin story of one of Marvel publishing’s most enigmatic heroines. The suspense-driven thriller stars Dakota Johnson as Cassandra Webb, a paramedic in Manhattan who may have clairvoyant abilities. Forced to confront revelations about her past, she forges a relationship with three young women destined for powerful futures… if they can all survive a deadly present.”

Madame Web features Dakota Johnson as Cassandra Webb, Isabela Merced as Anya Corazon, Emma Roberts as Mary Parker, and Adam Scott as Ben Parker. Zosia Mamet, Jill Hennessy, Tahar Rahim, Celeste O’Connor, and Mike Epps star as primary cast members.

Do you agree with Dakota Johnson’s assessment of Hollywood? Would you like to see studios take more risks to create original entertainment? Let us know in the comments below.

The post Dakota Johnson thinks Hollywood is a bleak arena where streaming execs don’t trust creative people appeared first on JoBlo.

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 on PlayStation 5 is getting the much-requested and previously teased New Game+ option in March, as well as some other “highly requested features” and new suits for Spidey.

Read more…

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 on PlayStation 5 is getting the much-requested and previously teased New Game+ option in March, as well as some other “highly requested features” and new suits for Spidey.

Read more…

Rebel Moon Part One: A Child of Fire (read our review HERE), the first part of director Zack Snyder’s two-part sci-fi epic, has been available to watch on the Netflix streaming service for over a month, and now we’re getting ready for the April 19th release of the follow-up Rebel Moon Part Two: The Scargiver. With its release date just two months away, Rebel Moon Part Two has received its official rating from the Motion Picture Association ratings board: PG-13 for sequences of strong violence, brief strong language and suicide. Also earning a PG-13 rating this week is the Blumhouse horror film Imaginary, which reaches theatres on March 8th. Imaginary got its PG-13 for some violent content, drug material and language.

Neither one of these ratings comes as a surprise. Many Blumhouse movies, from Insidious to Five Nights at Freddy’s, M3GAN, and Night Swim have PG-13 ratings. As for Rebel Moon, not only did the first movie have a PG-13 rating, but we already know these films are going to have extended, R-rated cuts down the line. The three hour, R-rated version of Rebel Moon Part One: A Child of Fire is expected to be released this summer.

Snyder has always been open about the fact that he’s hoping “a massive IP and a universe that can be built out” from the foundation of Rebel Moon. He crafted the story for Rebel Moon with 300 co-writer Kurt Johnstad, and the pair wrote the screenplay with Army of the Dead co-writer Shay Hatten. The events of the two films, which draw inspiration from Seven Samurai, are set in motion when a peaceful colony on the edge of the galaxy is threatened by the armies of a tyrannical regent named Balisarius. Desperate, the colonists dispatch a young woman with a mysterious past to seek out warriors from neighboring planets to help them make a stand.

Rebel Moon Part Two: The Scargiver continues the epic saga of Kora and the surviving warriors as they prepare to sacrifice everything, fighting alongside the brave people of Veldt to defend a once peaceful village, a newfound homeland for those who have lost their own in the fight against the Motherworld. On the eve of their battle, the warriors must face the truths of their pasts, each revealing why they fight. As the full force of the Realm bears down on the burgeoning rebellion, unbreakable bonds are forged, heroes emerge, and legends are made.

The films star Sofia Boutella (The Mummy), Charlie Hunnam (Sons of Anarchy), Djimon Hounsou (A Quiet Place Part II), Ray Fisher (Justice League), Doona Bae (The Host), Jena Malone (Sucker Punch), Staz Nair (Supergirl), E. Duffy (whose previous credits are all short films), Charlotte Maggi (MaveriX), Sky Yang (Tomb Raider), Michiel Huisman (Game of Thrones), Alfonso Herrera (Ozark), Cary Elwes (Saw), Corey Stoll (Ant-Man), Ed Skrein (Deadpool), Anthony Hopkins (Hannibal), and Stuart Martin (Army of Thieves).

Imaginary is the latest team-up between Blumhouse and director Jeff Wadlow – who had previously collaborated on the 2018 film Truth or Dare and the 2020 horror version of Fantasy Island. The film sees DeWanda Wise of Jurassic World: Dominion taking on the role of Jessica, who moves back into her childhood home with her family, and her youngest stepdaughter Alice develops an eerie attachment to a stuffed bear named Chauncey. Alice starts playing games with Chauncey that become increasingly sinister. As Alice’s behavior becomes more concerning, Jessica intervenes, only to realize Chauncey is much more than the stuffed toy bear she believes him to be.

Wadlow wrote the screenplay for Imaginary with Greg Erb and Jason Oremland.

Are you looking forward to Rebel Moon Part Two: The Scargiver and/or Imaginary? What do you think of these movies receiving PG-13 ratings? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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Strap in Sonic Adventure 2 sickos, the main theme from the series’ 3D platformer is going to be in the Sonic the Hedgehog 3 live-action movie. Were you worried we’d get some terrible needle drop during a climactic moment? Were you mentally bracing yourself to hear Bonnie Tyler’s “Holding Out For A Hero” as Sonic and…

Read more…

Strap in Sonic Adventure 2 sickos, the main theme from the series’ 3D platformer is going to be in the Sonic the Hedgehog 3 live-action movie. Were you worried we’d get some terrible needle drop during a climactic moment? Were you mentally bracing yourself to hear Bonnie Tyler’s “Holding Out For A Hero” as Sonic and…

Read more…

We’re just weeks away from the March 1st theatrical release of Dune: Part Two, the second half of director Denis Villeneuve’s two-part adaptation of the Frank Herbert novel Dune… and the whole time we’ve been gearing up to see this movie, one element of it that has been getting a lot of hype is the presence of sandworms. Cast member Javier Bardem said he wanted to ride a sandworm in the film, the actors said the production included “a main unit, a second unit, and a sandworm unit“, and there are tie-in popcorn buckets designed to look like sandworms. Now an extended sneak preview has made its way online, and it features a clip from the film where our hero Paul Atreides learns to ride a sandworm! You can check it out in the embed at the bottom of this article.

Scripted by Villeneuve, Eric Roth, and Jon Spaihts, Dune: Part One (watch or buy it HERE) introduced viewers to Paul Atreides (played by Timothée Chalamet), “a brilliant and gifted young man born into a great destiny beyond his understanding”, who must travel to the most dangerous planet in the universe to ensure the future of his family and his people. As malevolent forces explode into conflict over the planet’s exclusive supply of the most precious resource in existence – a commodity capable of unlocking humanity’s greatest potential – only those who can conquer their fear will survive. Coming to us from Warner Bros. and Legendary Entertainment, Dune: Part Two will explore the mythic journey of Paul Atreides as he unites with Chani and the Fremen while on a path of revenge against the conspirators who destroyed his family. Facing a choice between the love of his life and the fate of the known universe, he endeavors to prevent a terrible future only he can foresee.

Chalamet and Bardem are joined in the cast by Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Charlotte Rampling, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Josh Brolin, Florence Pugh, Austin Butler, Tim Blake Nelson, Christopher Walken, Souheila Yacoub, and Léa Seydoux.

Villeneuve is producing Dune: Part Two with Mary Parent, Cale Boyter, Tanya Lapointe, and Patrick McCormick. Spaihts serves as executive producer alongside Josh Grode, Herbert W. Gains, Brian Herbert, Byron Merritt, Kim Herbert, Thomas Tull, Richard P. Rubinstein, and John Harrison. Kevin J. Anderson is creative consultant.

Villeneuve and Spaihts wrote the screenplay for Dune: Part Two, and The Last of Us showrunner Craig Mazin has revealed that he worked on the script as well.

Are you interested in Dune: Part Two, and are you looking forward to seeing the sandworm action on the big screen? Let us know by leaving a comment below – but first, check out this preview clip:

The post Dune: Part Two sneak preview shows Paul catching a ride on a sandworm appeared first on JoBlo.

Pachinko and After Yang director Kogonada is ready to begin work on his next feature, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, and he’s bringing Academy Award nominees Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell along for the ride. The acting duo stars in Kogonada’s new project, with production by Imperative Entertainment. The endeavor boasts an original script by The Menu writer Seth Reiss, with Kogonada behind the camera.

Plot details remain a mystery, though Deadline says A Big Bold Beautiful Journey is described as “an imaginative tale of two strangers and the unbelievable journey that connects them.” Cameras roll in the Spring in California, with 30West financing the feature.

Margot Robbie’s participation in Kogonada’s film is intriguing because last month, The Suicide Squad and Barbie actress said she was considering taking a short break from acting. Robbie is concerned people are “probably getting sick of her,” and she does not want to outstay her welcome.

“This is the longest I haven’t acted on a set because we finished Barbie in October of 2022,” Robbie revealed. “So, it’s already been more than a year since I was on set as an actor, and other than Covid, that’s the first time that’s ever happened.” Robbie told Deadline in January. It would seem that enough time has ticked by for Robbie to get back in front of the cameras, and with Colin Farrell as her co-star, it’s shaping up to be one hell of a return.

Meanwhile, Colin Farrell and Kogonada worked together on 2021’s After Yang, a drama set in the near future where a family reckons with questions of love, connection, and loss after their A.I. helper unexpectedly breaks down. Farrell’s next acting gig is for the upcoming Apple TV+ series Sugar. Sugar is a contemporary, unique take on one of the most popular and significant genres in literary, motion picture, and television history: the private detective story. Colin Farrell stars as John Sugar, an American private investigator on the heels of the mysterious disappearance of Olivia Siegel, the beloved granddaughter of legendary Hollywood producer Jonathan Siegel. As Sugar tries to determine what happened to Olivia, he will also unearth Siegel’s family secrets, some very recent, others long-buried.

The series also stars Kirby, Amy Ryan, James Cromwell, Anna Gunn, Dennis Boutsikaris, Nate Corddry, Sydney Chandler, and Alex Hernandez.

What do you think about Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell teaming up for Kogonada’s next feature? Did you see After Yang? What did you think? Let us know in the comments section below.

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