Obsidian Entertainment, the developer responsible for sprawling RPGs likeFallout: New Vegas, released its medieval murder mystery title Pentiment in November 2022. A smaller and more reserved title compared to the rest of Obsidian’s catalog, and an expertly written story that offers the player choices in how they…
Author Django Wexler’s novel How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying – which has been described as “Groundhog Day meets Guardians of the Galaxy” – won’t be reaching store shelves until May 21st (you can pre-order a copy at THIS LINK), but Deadline reports that Legendary has already come out the winner in a bidding war over the adaptation rights. A TV series adaptation is now in development, with Legendary’s Godzilla vs. Kong director Adam Wingard heading up the project and producing with his manager Jeremy Platt.
How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying is said to be a “laugh-out-loud fantasy tale about a young woman who, tired of defending humanity from the Dark Lord, decides to become the Dark Lord herself.” Here’s the book’s description: Davi has done this all before. She’s tried to be the hero and take down the all-powerful Dark Lord. A hundred times she’s rallied humanity and made the final charge. But the time loop always gets her in the end. Sometimes she’s killed quickly. Sometimes it takes a while. But she’s been defeated every time. This time? She’s done being the hero and done being stuck in this endless time loop. If the Dark Lord always wins, then maybe that’s who she needs to be. It’s Davi’s turn to play on the winning side.
Wexler’s previous novels include The Shadow Campaigns, The Forbidden Library, The Wells of Sorcery, and Emperor of Ruin.
Wingard is also working with Legendary on the Godzilla vs. Kong sequel Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, which is set to reach theatres on March 29th. His previous credits include Death Note, Blair Witch, The Guest, You’re Next, A Horrible Way to Die, Pop Skull, and Home Sick. He’s also developing a sequel to Face/Off.
Are you a fan of Adam Wingard and/or Django Wexler, and does the How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying TV series sound interesting to you? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.
I’m not familiar with Wexler’s work, but I’ve been following Wingard’s career since he made his feature directorial debut with Home Sick and it’s been interesting to watch him make his way up to the massive projects he’s working on now.
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Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions are planning an April 26th theatrical release for director Moritz Mohr’s dystopian action thriller Boy Kills World, which stars Bill Skarsgard (It) and Jessica Rothe (Happy Death Day) – and with that release date just two months away, a trailer for the film has arrived online and can be seen in the embed above. JoBlo’s own Chris Bumbray already had the chance to see Boy Kills World a few months ago, and you can read his 8/10 review at THIS LINK.
Produced by the legendary Sam Raimi, Boy Kills World was scripted by Arend Remmers (Sløborn) and Tyler Burton Smith (Kung Fury: The Movie). The story takes place in a bizarre, dark dystopian universe and centers on a deaf and mute character, Boy (Skarsgård), who navigates this depressing world with his otherworldly imagination. Tragedy strikes when Boy’s family is brutally murdered. When his fight or flight instincts kick in, Boy finds himself on a life-threatening trek into the darkly forested jungle. There, he meets a shaman (Ruhian) who takes Boy under his wing and launches him into a cutthroat coming of age journey where he encourages his new pupil to leave his youth behind and pick up the baton as a highly trained assassin.
Skarsgard and Rothe are joined in the cast by Yayan Ruhian (The Raid: Redemption), Andrew Koji (Warrior), Isaiah Mustafa (It: Chapter Two), Famke Janssen (The Faculty), Brett Gelman (Stranger Things), Sharlto Copley (District 9), Quinn Copeland (Punky Brewster), twin brothers Cameron and Nicholas Crovetti (Big Little Lies), and Michelle Dockery (Downton Abbey). Dockery plays Melanie, “the sister of the film’s Van der Koy family. Melanie is a satirical powerhouse and sociopath who tries to project a powerful cohesive family image to hide the desperation behind their decaying dynasty.” Janssen, Gelman, and Copley are also members of the antagonistic Van Der Koy family, with Janssen as matriarch Hilda, and Gelman and Copley as Gideon and Glen, respectively.
Sam Raimi and Zainab Azizi are producing Boy Kills World through Raimi Productions, Roy Lee is producing for Vertigo Entertainment, Simon Swart and Wayne Fitzjohn are producing through Nthibah Pictures, and Alex Lebovici is producing through Hammerstone Studios. Stuart Manashil and Dan Kagan are also producers. Reza Brojerdi of Ventaro Film and Andrew Childs are executive producers.
Boy Kills World has been rated R for strong bloody violence and gore throughout, language, some drug use and sexual references.
What did you think of the Boy Kills World trailer? Will you be seeing this movie when it comes out in a couple months? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
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Enter the fast and turbulent world of underground crime in the new trailer from the Netflix original series The Gentlemen. The new show is inspired by Guy Ritchie‘s film of the same name. The trailer sees an unsuspecting chap get in over his head as he unintentionally becomes involved with his family’s drug dealings. This new peek at the series showcases the signature aggressive manic style of Guy Ritchie’s gangster films. Ritchie himself is wearing multiple hats behind the scenes as the creator, writer, and executive producer. He has also directed the first two episodes of the series. The show was also previously known to premiere sometime next month, but we now have a release date as Netflix announced the premiere will be on March 7.
The official logline from Netflix reads,
“THE GENTLEMEN sees Eddie Horniman (Theo James) unexpectedly inherit his father’s sizable country estate – only to discover it’s part of a clandestine cannabis empire. Moreover, many unsavory characters from Britain’s criminal underworld want a piece of the operation. Determined to extricate his family from their clutches, Eddie tries to play the gangsters at their own game. However, as he gets sucked into the world of criminality, he begins to find a taste for it.”
Ray Winstone joins a host of on-screen talent, led by Emmy-nominated The White Lotus 2 star Theo James as The Duke of Halstead, Eddie Horniman, who finds himself embroiled in criminality after inheriting his father’s estate, and Kaya Scodelario (Crawl, The Pale Horse) who plays Susie Glass, Bobby’s effortlessly stylish and steely daughter who runs the day-to-day business of the empire.
The series also stars Daniel Ings (I Hate Suzie), Joely Richardson (Lady Chatterley’s Lover), Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels actor Vinnie Jones, Giancarlo Esposito (Better Call Saul), Chanel Cresswell (This is England), Michael Vu, Max Beesley (Hijack), Jasmine Blackborow (Marie Antoinette), Harry Goodwins (In His Hands: The Emergence), Dar Salim (The Covenant), Pearce Quigley (Detectorists), Ruby Sear and Peter Serafinowicz (The Tick).
Writers on the show include Guy Ritchie and Matthew Read, with Haleema Mirza, Billy and Theo Mason Wood, Stuart Carolan and John Jackson. Directing episodes along with Ritchie will be Nima Nourizadeh, Eran Creevy and David Caffrey. Executive producers on the show include Guy Ritchie, Will Gould, Matthew Read, Frith Tiplady, Marc Helwig, Bill Block, Ivan Atkinson and Marn Davies. The Gentlemen is a co-production from Netflix, Moonage Pictures, and Miramax TV.
The series will feature eight episodes and will be premiering on Netflix on March 7.
The post The Gentlemen: Disassociate with criminals by becoming a criminal in the new trailer for the Guy Ritchie Netflix series appeared first on JoBlo.
Regarding the most polarizing cinematic visions in the past decade or so, it’s hard not to think of Cloud Atlas – the ambitious, centuries-spanning Sci-Fi epic directed by Tom Tykver and the Wachowski sisters. Also recorded as one of the most expensive independent films ever produced, the bold spiritual journey at the heart of Cloud Atlas divided audiences down the middle, leaving many to scratch their heads and ponder what the fate of the characters meant in the end. After all, the star-studded ensemble cast played multiple roles in the film across various timelines, with the story spanning from 1849 to 2321 in ways that intrinsically crossover and connect to a cerebral puzzle piece for viewers to solve. As such, a movie like Cloud Atlas warrants repeat viewings like no other.
Although recent reappraisals of the film have been more favorable in retrospect, a lot went into the making of Cloud Atlas that even the most hardcore fanatics may have missed. Between the development of the project, independent financing, and rising budgetary costs, to the altered shooting schedule resulting from an A-list injury, last-minute character changes, and casting decisions, to the division of directorial labor, musical compositions, and Warner Bros. nearly abandoning the project several times, why not look up to the sky and wonder once and for all…What The F*ck Happened to Cloud Atlas!
Now, for those unaware, Cloud Atlas is adapted from the 2004 novel of the same name by English author, David Mitchell. In 2005, star Natalie Portman read the novel and gave a copy of the book to Lana Wachowski while they were making V for Vendetta together. Lana was instantly hooked by the premise of the lofty project and by 2006, Lana and Lily Wachowski each penned a screenplay draft. Around the same time, the Wachowskis invited their friend and fellow filmmaker Tom Tykver to collaborate on subsequent drafts of the script. Portman was also familiar with Tykver, having worked together in a segment for the romantic anthology film Paris, Je T’aime in 2006.
By 2009, Tykver confirmed that he intended to work on the project with the Wachowskis, who had obtained the rights to the novel at the time. According to The New Yorker, Tykver and the Wachowskis took a vacation in Costa Rica to iron out the script and focus the six disparate tales into one unified whole. The result bloomed into a “Zen garden of index cards,” in which countless scenes from the novel were printed onto color-coordinated note cards that were constantly rearranged by the filmmakers until the story found its shape. According to the three directors, “We knew we had a finished script when every single scene in the script was our favorite scene,” with Lana adding, “Every scene was the most important reason for making the movie.”
During the movie’s four-year development period, Natalie Portman was attached to star in the film as the character Sonmi-451, a role that ultimately went to Korean actress Doona Bae. The primary reason Portman was forced to bow out of the project was due to her pregnancy in 2010.
By June 2010, Tykver began recruiting A-list talent to play the supremely challenging, multi-character arcs featured in the six interconnected stories. Tom Hanks and Halle Berry were among the first to be approached for the film, two bona fide Oscar winners who helped secure independent financing for the daring project. Meanwhile, James McAvoy and Sir Ian McKellan were asked to play parts in the picture, but they didn’t make it into the movie for one reason or another.
By April 2011, Tykver officially agreed to co-direct Cloud Atlas. One month later, Hanks and Berry were joined by actors Hugo Weaving, Jim Broadbent, Ben Winshaw, Doona Bae, and Susan Sarandon. As for Hugh Grant, he joined the cast just one day before principal photography commenced. Grant also convinced the filmmakers to add him to the fourth story, set in 2012 London, after his characters were limited to five chapters in the original script.
Despite the star-studded cast the filmmakers rounded up, the risky nature of the material made it very difficult to secure funding for the film. As such, the Wachowskis waived their directorial fees and invested $7 million of their own money into the project, indicating how passionate they were about the movie. Meanwhile, Warner Bros. nearly pulled out and cancelled the project several times before filming began when they expressed concerns about the escalating costs and box office uncertainty. According to the Wachowskis:
“Warner Bros. calls and, through our agent, says they’ve looked at the math and decided that they don’t like this deal. They’re pulling all of the money away, rescinding the offer. I was shaking. I heard, ‘Are you saying the movie is dead?’ They were like, ‘Yes, the movie is dead.”
As a result of Warner Bros.’s wavering, a huge portion of the budget came from the German government and various German production companies. In May 2011, Variety reported that the budget for Cloud Atlas had bloomed to a whopping $140 million, quite a price tag for a wholly original independent movie not based on a built-in IP. The Wachowskis credit Tom Hanks for enthusiastically championing the movie and never giving up on it even when it seemed more and more improbable.
“At the end of the meeting (with WB), Tom says, ‘Let’s do it. I’m in. When do we start?’ … Tom said this unabashed, enthusiastic ‘Yes!’ which put our hearts back together. We walked away thinking, this movie is dead but somehow, it’s alive and we’re going to make it. Every single time, Tom Hanks was the first who said, ‘I’m getting on the plane.’ And then once he said he was getting on the plane, basically everyone said, ‘Well, Tom’s on the plane, we’re on the plane.’ And so everyone flew [to Berlin to begin the film]. It was like this giant leap of faith. From all over the globe.”
It’s worth noting that Hanks was initially drawn to the project after having a conversation about two other fictional masterpieces with the directors in his office while casting was underway. Hanks was reportedly reading Herman Melville’s epic novel Moby Dick at the time. Following a lengthy discussion about the novel, Lana pointed to a poster of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey hanging in Hanks’ office and said, “Moby Dick and this, that’s what we want to do.” After originally expressing reluctance about joining the project, Hanks instantly said, “I’m in.” Somewhat ironically, Melville is referenced by Timothy Cavendish to Dermott in Cloud Atlas. Of course, much like Cloud Atlas, Melville’s Moby Dick was dismissed at the time it was published only for it to be appreciated much later. Oh, how life imitates art!
After reworking the financial figures through tax credits and government incentives, the budget was eventually reduced to roughly $102 million as principal photography approached. By the time marketing and distribution costs were factored in, the overall budget for Cloud Atlas was roughly $146 million.
Given the geographical expanse of the movie, the massive logistical undertaking required filming to take place in various countries across multiple continents. Both real locations and fabricated studio sets were used in conjunction with each other. Principal photography on Cloud Atlas began on September 16, 2011, and lasted until December 2011. Filming began in Germany, where Studio Babelsberg served as the base camp for the entire production. Additional German locations included Berlin, Dusseldorf, and Saxon Switzerland.
Other filming locations in Europe took place in Glasgow and Edinburgh, Scotland. Believe it or not, the city of Glasgow doubled for the portions of the film set in San Francisco and London. For the Big Island and Pacific Island storylines, filming took place on the island of Majorca off the coast of Spain. As for the opening scene of the film, in which Adam Ewing meets Henry Goose, filming took place on Sa Calobra Beach in Majorca. When the ship was seen docking in the Pacific Island sequence, filming occurred in Port de Soller.
Even more interesting than the film locations is how the directorial duties were divided on Cloud Atlas. Rather than working as one unit, Tom Tykver went off with one film crew and was responsible for directing the film segments that took place in 1936, 1973, and 2012. Meanwhile, Lana and Lily Wachowski recruited a separate film crew and simultaneously set off to direct the stories set in 1849, 2144, and 2321. Oddly enough, Tykver and the Wachowskis were only on set together one time during the entire film shoot. When one of Tykver’s actors fell ill on the day of filming, he was forced to cancel and had enough free time to visit Lana and Lilly on the set and watch them work for a day. Despite producing segments independent of each other, it’s a true testament to Tykver and the Wachowskis that the film retains a unified vision and feels like one contiguous whole. Remember, Cloud Atlas is one of the few movies in cinematic history to have three directors credited for the same movie. Yet, it feels like the focused work of a single-minded auteur thanks to Tykver and the Wachowskis working together closely during the post-production and editing process.
As for the directorial differences between Tykver and the Wachowskis on Cloud Atlas, Halle Berry noted:
“Tom Tykver talked before we shot and Lana and Lily had you shoot first and then they talked about what they saw you did. They added their opinion and you did it again. It was very different but they had one cohesive vision. They were very clear about the movie they were making.”
Meanwhile, Hanks found the Wachowskis so pleasant and in control while making the movie that he began referring to them as “Mom and Dad” on set due to how well they worked together and fostered a cordial, family-like atmosphere.
Now, one of the biggest production shake-ups on Cloud Atlas occurred after Halle Berry suddenly broke five bones in her foot less than 48 hours before she was scheduled to begin filming. The movie was originally intended to be shot in chronological order. However, due to Berry’s abrupt injury, plans hastily changed and the film was shot out of sequence. Berry was mortified that she would be fired and replaced by another actor, stating: “I did think I was going to be recast,” adding, “I sat there in my bed, foot up in the air, and I got a call that Tom, Lana, and Lilly want to come talk to you. I thought, ‘They’re going to give me my walking papers and say, Love you but there are too many people involved, too many schedules have been made, so we’re bringing in Angela Bassett or somebody. But they said we love you and we want you to stay and we’re gonna work this out.”
Berry went on to credit Hanks for nursing her back to health while making the movie, stating:
“Tom [Hanks] would play nurse to me. He really took care of me. He would bring me coffee and soup and just stay with me during breaks in shooting because it was difficult for me to move around, especially at the beginning. I basically had to be helped back to my chair after every take, but you learn to adapt to the situation. But with Tom at my side, I was really able to go beyond my own expectations of what I was capable of as an actress.”
Speaking of the connection between Hanks and Berry on Cloud Atlas, the role of Dr. Ovid played by Berry in the penultimate segment was originally intended to be a female character played by Hanks. According to Berry, “I wasn’t always Dr. Ovid. At one point Tom was going to play Dr. Ovid and she was going to be a woman. And somewhere along the line, they said, ‘No, no you have to be Ovid because of your soul’s journey.” Hanks agreed, adding, “I could not be good at that point. I could not be servicing the heroes.”
While on the subject of the Neo-Seoul segment, it’s worth noting that Cloud Atlas author, David Mitchell, makes a brief cameo appearance as a freedom fighter who locks eyes with Sonmi-451 while walking down the stairs in the penultimate story.
To inhabit the physical appearance of each different character, the main cast underwent three days of wardrobe and make-up tests before cameras rolled. According to Hanks, “You’d walk in and you’d see 6 or 7 different versions of the character. Then you, the director, and the two heads of the make-up crews would start picking and choosing and you’d slowly build it with their help. And at the end, you’re looking at a different person.”
Part of the physical transformations that actors experienced involved contact lenses to alter eye color and appearance. According to Susan Sarandon, there were two separate teams of contact lens handlers on the set at all times because “there were so many flying around.”
Another cool tidbit about Cloud Atlas pertains to its casting director, Lori Kennedy. Because the movie lives and dies through the stellar performances of its international cast, the Wachowskis were so grateful for Kennedy’s work that they honored her with an official producer credit.
Speaking of amazing jobs, one of the most universally praised aspects of the movie includes the score and soundtrack, which includes over 2 hours of original music. For those unaware, Tom Tykver composed the score along with his longtime musical partners, Reinhold Heil and Johnny Klimek; a collective known as Pale 3 that had arranged music for many of Tykver’s previous films. Pale 3 also created music for the Wachowskis’ Matrix Revolutions in 2003, almost a decade before the filmmakers joined forces on Cloud Atlas. The music for Cloud Atlas was recorded in Leipzig, Germany, and was orchestrated by famed composer Gene Pritsker. Unfortunately, the soundtrack to Cloud Atlas was received far more favorably than the daring visionary movie itself.
Despite premiering to a 10-minute standing ovation at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2012 (which JoBlo was there for!), Cloud Atlas deeply divided critics and performed disastrously at the domestic box office when it was officially released in the U.S. on October 26, 2012. Although it was expected to be a smash hit, the movie earned an abysmal $27.1 million against a $146 million budget in North America. While Cloud Atlas ultimately grossed a total of $130.5 million worldwide, the movie is still considered a financial failure as one of the most expensive independent movies ever produced. What’s extra galling about the movie’s poor reception is how the Wachowskis broke their no-press policy to promote the picture, going so far as to introduce the movie along with Tykver in a six-minute trailer that Lana and Lilly wrote, produced, directed, shot, and edited. In the end, their promotional efforts mattered little when it came to the movie’s underwhelming box office performance. Adding insult to injury, both Time Magazine and the Village Voice named Cloud Atlas the worst movie of 2012.
And yet, in retrospect, Cloud Atlas has become a bit less polarizing and more popular in the past decade. Beyond the critical reassessments of the film, Tom Hanks continues to claim that Cloud Atlas was one of the most enjoyable times he had while making a movie, along with A League of Their Own and Cast Away. Hanks also stated that Cloud Atlas is one of his favorite movies that he’s starred in and one of the only films he’s been in that he’s seen more than twice.
Per the Bill Simmons Podcast in 2021, Hanks fondly romanticized:
“We shot (Cloud Atlas) on a hope and a dream and nothing but a circle of love. We were part of this big, massive ensemble of fantastic people who were just trying to do the hardest, best work on a deep throw…that whole movie was such a deep throw that making it was magical.”
Alas, despite the magical outcome Cloud Atlas produced at the time, the bold and unique vision by Tom Tykver, Lana, and Lilly Wachowski never received the credit they deserved for making such a daring cinematic expression of the human condition. Despite the passion and painstaking efforts made to bring an original independent epic to the masses, 2012 marked a transitional period in Hollywood where even the most talented and proven filmmakers stood little chance of competing with the likes of soulless comic-book tentpoles and formulaic superhero movies made for children. The saddest part about What The F*ck Happened to Cloud Atlas is that it proved there was less of an appetite for original, cerebrally challenging epics than there was for mindless entertainment based on preestablished properties. Not to sound too gloomy as we ring in a new year, but If such a troubling trend doesn’t reverse soon, the true artistry of filmmakers like Tykver and the Wachowskis will continue to be an endangered species in the future of Hollywood.
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Up on Variety a few months ago, there was an interesting interview with the German distributor of the Expendables and John Wick movies. Fred Kogel, who runs Leonine Studios, noted that all the top action heroes now, Keanu Reeves, Sylvester Stallone, Tom Cruise, and Harrison Ford, are the same ones we had in the eighties and nineties. But with Stallone and Ford in their late seventies, who will be the new action stars when the icons are done with the genre? For his part, Kogel doesn’t believe distributors and studios have done enough to build up a new crop of action heroes, noting that for the older stars, there was “a great deal of identification with the type of the actor, with the physicality of the actor so that you could relate to that.” With CGI-laden superhero movies, Kogel believes that kind of identification is gone. “I think it’s on us to build up new stars again, with the physicality, with the looks and with the sympathetic, great-acting factor – you need that. It’s in our own hands.”
He has a point. Of the iconic action heroes he mentions, Keanu Reeves is the youngest by a long shot, being 59. With him looking to retire John Wick, will Reeves continue in the genre? It’s hard to say. If you look at Expend4bles, the movie is built around Jason Statham, who’s 56 and theoretically could keep doing action movies for decades, with him recently having a hit with The Beekeeper. However, for me, part of the issue with Statham is that his characters aren’t vulnerable enough. He falls into the same trap Steven Seagal did, where his battles became ludicrously one-sided (although Beekeeper was admittedly great). One of the things people love about John Wick is his emotional vulnerability, and he always takes his licks. Newbies Jake Gyllenhaal and Dev Patel are about to give the genre a shot in the next few weeks with the Road House remake and Monkey Man. Will either movie make a big impression on audiences?
In some ways, modern audiences have maybe forgotten what action really is. It’s interesting to note that recently, Rachel Zegler took home a People’s Choice Award for Best Movie Action Star of the year, which raised some eyebrows among action fans. Is The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes really an action movie? The fact that an audience voted this way over the more traditional action of Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning, John Wick: Chapter 4, or even Gal Gadot’s physically gruelling Heart of Stone says a lot. Audiences are used to fantasy now and CGI. To them THAT is action.
So, who does that leave? There’s Dwayne Johnson, but, like Statham, it feels like audiences are growing a bit weary of the fact that he plays the same character repeatedly. Indeed, Johnson himself seems to realize this, with him opting to make the terrific-sounding The Smashing Machine with Benny Safdie. If you go back to Stallone, Schwarzenegger, Reeves and Ford, you’ll note that while they each had multiple franchises, you’d never mistake one character for another. Rocky and Rambo are entirely different, like The Terminator and Conan, or Indiana Jones and Han Solo (or Jack Ryan). The same thing goes with Neo and John Wick. But is there a huge difference between Johnson’s Luke Hobbs (from the Fast & Furious series) and the characters he played in Red Notice, Rampage or San Andreas? There’s still Tom Cruise, and arguably, he’s the most iconic of everyone, given that he does his own stunts, but at 61, how long will he be able to keep punishing himself physically? The silver lining for Cruise is that Top Gun: Maverick, which didn’t have any major physical action scenes, was his highest-grossing movie ever, so maybe he’s not as reliant on stunts as people seem to think. With him signing a new mega-deal with Warner Bros, it seems Cruise has many years to go on his career, even if fans are hoping he might dip back into drama and the types of movies he led in the nineties.
One interesting up-and-comer is Ryan Gosling, who dipped into the genre with The Gray Man last year and returns with the new reboot of the old TV series The Fall Guy in May. There’s also Chris Hemsworth, who has the Extraction franchise going and, of the Marvel heroes, feels most likely to remain an action hero once he’s done in the MCU. Michael B. Jordan and John David Washington have potential in the genre, and Charlize Theron has become iconic in her own right, but can they all anchor global franchises the way the old-timers did? Theron’s Atomic Blonde was only a minor box office success, but then again, so was the first John Wick. Maybe they should give that character another shot? Another guy who seems like a natural for the genre is Zac Efron, whose The Iron Claw shows he has box office muscle, a great actor, and a physique that puts many action heroes to shame. Yet,the next movies in the pipeline for Efron seem to be returning him to comedic territory, with him attached to a remake of Three Men and a Baby for Disney. John Cena also has some potential, but his recent solo actioner, Freelance, barely made a blip.
And what about new female action stars? One of the ones everyone is excited about is Ana de Armas in Ballerina, but that got pushed back a year. One person to maybe consider is Kristen Stewart. Yeah, I know. The Charlie’s Angels reboot sucked (she agrees) but when you see her in Love Lies Bleeding you might be surprised at how badass she can be. She was actually a terrific Ripley-esque heroine in the underrated Underwater. Maybe she can take a shot at the genre? This morning also saw the release of the Boy Kills World trailer. We caught this movie back at TIFF and it presents a really good action vehicle for Bill Skarsgård and Jessica Rothe, who could take on the genre. Another one people like is Samara Weaving, who was really cool in an obscure actioner called Guns Akimbo.
Returning to Kogel’s comments, perhaps studios need to bank on actors with mixed box office track records, as you never know when the right vehicle might boost someone unexpectedly. Let’s not forget that before John Wick, Keanu Reeves was flirting with DTV material. As Kogel says in the interview, “See ‘John Wick.’ ‘John Wick’ really created a completely new kind of action genre. Who would have known 10 or 12 years ago, after ‘Matrix,’ that Keanu could pull it off again with his most successful franchise?” Maybe enough hasn’t been done to sell someone like Scott Adkins or Idris Elba as major action heroes.
Who do you think will be the next great action hero? Let us know in the comments.
The post New Action Stars: who will carry the mantle when the legends are gone? appeared first on JoBlo.
If you aren’t playing Hello Kitty Island Adventure, you are missing out on one of the best mobile games available right now. Released in July of last year, Island Adventure is an Apple Arcade exclusive title that blends Animal Crossing and Breath of the Wild-inspired mechanics and throws them into an adorable world…
If you aren’t playing Hello Kitty Island Adventure, you are missing out on one of the best mobile games available right now. Released in July of last year, Island Adventure is an Apple Arcade exclusive title that blends Animal Crossing and Breath of the Wild-inspired mechanics and throws them into an adorable world…
All eyes of comic book movie fans are on James Gunn as he takes up the task of rebooting the whole DC film universe. Regardless of the perception of Gunn by the devoted DC followers, the filmmaker has a habit of engaging with fans directly on social media. He has a tendency to answer questions, dispel rumors, gauge public opinion, get involved with debates and just be as transparent as he can. Part of the fun for Gunn has also been teasing the little nuggets of information that he’ll drop here and there about the projects he’s working on. Now that he’s especially under the microscope with his Superman: Legacy film, people online pick up on what information can be given for this anchor entry into the new universe.
Gunn also has to walk a fine line with speculation being made with every new post he makes. ComicBook.com has reported on a photo that Gunn posted on his Instagram, where he took a selfie with two of his actors from the DC series, Peacemaker, as they visited the set of Superman: Legacy. This may have led to some rumblings amongst people online, but Gunn was quick to clarify that these actors were merely taking a tour of the production and are not involved with the film. His photo has a caption that reads, “With Freddie Stroma & @jenniferlholland showing them around the #Superman sets (no they’re not in the movie).”
While the DC film universe gets its overhaul, two projects remain in the revamping. Last year’s Blue Beetle, which was originally conceived and made for the DCEU, is officially part of the new DCU. And Gunn’s own series, Peacemaker, which is a spin-off of his DCEU film The Suicide Squad, is due to return on HBO and Max. Holland had expressed her excitement about her character’s arc, “I love her character arc through the whole season. I think it’s really, really nuanced and it doesn’t rush itself. I really love the way that it was written into the whole series. I think, for me, I didn’t want to hold back. I wanted Harcourt to be as cold and closed off as she could be in the earlier episodes, because I wanted her to really have that full character arc throughout the season.”
Additionally, Gunn insists that the existence of Peacemaker won’t make things confusing with the new universe getting rebooted. Gunn said, “You’ll have to wait and see how that works out!” Gunn was then asked why he doesn’t just make a different show instead of risking confusion with the shift between universe. He answered, “Because it’s my favorite thing to do, it’s the biggest original Max show ever, and I have a way in. It won’t be confusing.“
Superman: Legacy flies into theaters on July 11, 2025.
The post Superman: Legacy: James Gunn confirms two Peacemaker stars who aren’t involved with the film appeared first on JoBlo.
Xbox recently announced that four of its older titles would be going multiplatform, and finally detailed which games would be making the leap earlier this week. Among the games is Hi-Fi Rush, Bethesda and Tango Gameworks’ surprising rhythm-action game that came out of nowhere early last year. However, when Hi-Fi Rush…