During today’s Nintendo Partner Showcase, which confirmed that former Xbox exclusives Grounded and Pentiment will launch on the Switch this year, the company also announced that five Rare classics are downloadable right now for folks with an active Nintendo Switch Online membership. It’s a blast from the past, y’all,…
During today’s Nintendo Partner Showcase, which confirmed that former Xbox exclusives Grounded and Pentiment will launch on the Switch this year, the company also announced that five Rare classics are downloadable right now for folks with an active Nintendo Switch Online membership. It’s a blast from the past, y’all,…
Filming wrapped on director Eli Roth‘s adaptation of the Borderlands video game series from Gearbox and 2K way back in June of 2021. A year and a half later, Deadpool director Tim Miller had to step in to handle the project’s two weeks of reshoots because Roth had the chance to finally – after sixteen years – make a feature based on the Thanksgiving faux trailer he put together for the Quentin Tarantino / Robert Rodriguez collaboration Grindhouse. The Borderlands reshoots have been completed, Thanksgiving has come and gone, and Lionsgate is now gearing up to finally release Borderlands into the world on August 9th. With just over five months to go until that date arrives, Lionsgate has unveiled a trailer for the film, and you can check that out in the embed above.
The Last of Us showrunner Craig Mazin wrote the initial screenplay for Borderlands, but removed his name from the project after the script was rewritten by Roth, Juel Taylor, Tony Rettenmaier, Joe Crombie, Chris Bremner, and Sam Levinson. Zak Olkewicz wrote scenes for Miller during the reshoots. Elements from drafts Aaron Berg and Oren Uziel wrote before Mazin have reportedly made their way into the film as well. So there were a lot of cooks in the kitchen on this one.
The film stars Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Edgar Ramirez, Jamie Lee Curtis, Ariana Greenblatt, Florian Munteanu, Haley Bennett, Olivier Richters, Gina Gershon, Cheyenne Jackson, Charles Babalola, Benjamin Byron Davis, Steven Boyer, Bobby Lee, Ryann Redmond, Penn Jillette, and Janina Gavankar, who plays “a new, key character” called Commander Knoxx, someone who has not been in the video games. Jack Black provides the voice of the robot Claptrap. Here’s the synopsis: Lilith (Blanchett), an infamous outlaw with a mysterious past, reluctantly returns to her home planet of Pandora to find the missing daughter of the universe’s most powerful S.O.B., Atlas (Ramirez). Lilith forms an alliance with an unexpected team – Roland (Hart), a former elite mercenary, now desperate for redemption; Tiny Tina (Greenblatt), a feral pre-teen demolitionist; Krieg (Munteanu), Tina’s musclebound, rhetorically challenged protector; Tannis (Curtis), the scientist with a tenuous grip on sanity; and Claptrap (Black), a persistently wiseass robot. These unlikely heroes must battle alien monsters and dangerous bandits to find and protect the missing girl, who may hold the key to unimaginable power. The fate of the universe could be in their hands – but they’ll be fighting for something more: each other.
Borderlands is produced by Arad Productions’ Avi Arad and Ari Arad, along with PICTURESTART’s Erik Feig. Gearbox founder Randy Pitchford serves as executive producer with Strauss Zelnick of Take-Two Interactive. James Myers and Aaron Edmonds are overseeing the project for Lionsgate, while Emmy Yu does the same for Arad Productions and Lucy Kitada and Royce Reeves-Darby are overseeing for PICTURESTART.
Are you looking forward to Borderlands? What did you think of the trailer? Let us know by leaving a comment below – and check out these character posters while you’re scrolling down:
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PLOT: Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) continues his war against the Harkonens. But, he realizes that the Fremen consider him more of a messiah than a leader and is tormented by not only the prospect of defeat but of victory too.
REVIEW: Back in the dark days of the pandemic, one of the true moviegoing tragedies was that enough people didn’t see Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part One on the big screen. With many of the set pieces being shot for IMAX, it was an altogether different experience in cinemas than it was streaming. Had it come out at a different time, it would have made at least double the still impressive $108 million it made domestically. With the sequel hitting theatres, this will likely be the first time a huge chunk of the audience is seeing Villeneuve’s adaptation of the Frank Herbert classic the way it was meant to be seen, with the desert vistas of Arakkis all the more stunning on a giant IMAX screen. As such, I’m expecting a massive box office jump for this, especially with the two young stars, Timothee Chalamet and Zendaya, being significantly bigger now than they were in 2021.
Quality-wise, Dune: Part Two is a stunning achievement. A much more action-driven story than the exposition-heavy first film, it wastes no time plunging us directly into the war between the Freman and the Harkonens, picking up in the immediate aftermath of Paul’s knife fight with the Freeman warrior Jamis. Many are comparing it to The Empire Strikes Back, and that’s pretty fair, as it picks up in the middle of a chaotic war and has a conclusion that leaves us anticipating a third film (which is to be based on Dune Messiah).
Indeed, I can only think of a handful of times in recent years when I’ve been so immersed in a film. I don’t think it ever really happened to me last year outside of maybe Oppenheimer, and the scale and verisimilitude of Villeneuve’s work is staggering. By design, it feels like half of a bigger whole with the first film. Even still, I think those who might have found the first Dune too talky might find this the kind of quality jump The Dark Knight made from Batman Begins. It really grabs you right off the bat and doesn’t let go until the end credits.
Villeneuve has shot the entire film with IMAX cameras this time, giving it a staggering visual look that needs to be seen on the biggest screen possible. This might be the best-looking film Greig Fraser has ever shot, and that’s saying something considering his filmography. The cast is uniformly excellent, from the returnees to the new additions.
Timothée Chalamet was always ideally cast as Paul Atreides, and in Dune 2, he makes a convincing transition, as he has to go from the boy duke of the first film to a leader crushed under the weight of destiny. The theme of this film makes it much different from David Lynch’s adaptation of the same material. That was a heroic take on the messianic themes of the novel. By contrast, Villeneuve’s movie shows the devastating cost to Paul, with him a more reluctant leader here than we’ve seen before.
Chalamet is expertly supported, with Rebecca Ferguson’s Lady Jessica more of a schemer this time with an unhinged lust for power that doesn’t make her all that different from the Harkonens, putting her at odds with her heroic son. Zendaya’s Chani grounds him, with her evoking both her character’s deep, almost star-crossed love for Paul, as well as her bittersweet knowledge of the fact that Paul’s destiny may take him far away from her or make him a different man than the one she fell in love with. Physically, she and Chalamet look amazing together, with the fight scenes the two are in expertly shot, with the moves perfectly complimenting each other in a way that shows the character’s connection even extends to the battlefield.
Meanwhile, Javier Bardem and Josh Brolin are touching as Paul’s two pseudo-father figures. Bardem is Stilgar, the Fremen leader convinced Paul is the messiah they’ve been waiting for, while Brolin’s Gurney is his last connection to the House of Atreides. Both men give the impression of being willing to sacrifice everything, including their lives, for Paul, making their performances tremendously affecting. Bardem also finds a few moments of humour here and there to lighten the mood a bit, as overall, this is pretty heavy stuff.
As far as the baddies go, Dave Bautista and Stellan Skarsgård have bigger roles this time, even if, in terms of menace, they can’t help but be eaten alive by the saga’s newest addition. Indeed, Austin Butler’s Feyd-Rautha may be the role that finally gets people to stop looking at him as Elvis, with him playing a sadistic baddie who’s about as far removed from The King of rock n’ roll as you can get. His intensity and sadism push the boundaries of the PG-13 rating, and the final confrontation with Paul will likely rank highly among the best action scenes of the year.
Meanwhile, other new additions to the cast, including Christopher Walken and Florence Pugh have comparably less screen time as the Emperor and his daughter. Still, both convey the scheming, calculating natures of the characters with aplomb (Pugh is set to have a much larger role in the sequel). The casting in the entire saga has been impeccable all the way through. Plus, the score by Hans Zimmer remains the perfect soundtrack for what – should it get a third instalment as expected – may well end up being the great sci-fi trilogy of our generation, being up there with the original Star Wars and Lord of the Rings.
In this day of assembly line blockbusters, it’s a miracle that director Denis Villeneuve has managed to get not one but two incredible, uncompromised epics like this through the studio system. It works as a tentpole blockbuster, but Dune Part Two is also filmmaking at the highest level. It’s a real cinematic event everyone owes it to themselves to take in and hopefully won’t be forgotten come Oscar time. It’s a masterpiece.
The post Dune: Part Two Review appeared first on JoBlo.
I’ve been thinking a lot about how great actors end up in bad movies. Maybe it was prompted by Madame Web somehow trapping Euphoria star Sydney Sweeney, but it’s always sad seeing someone whose craft you admire working with bad material. Anyway, the first Borderlands live-action movie trailer is out today, and it…
I’ve been thinking a lot about how great actors end up in bad movies. Maybe it was prompted by Madame Web somehow trapping Euphoria star Sydney Sweeney, but it’s always sad seeing someone whose craft you admire working with bad material. Anyway, the first Borderlands live-action movie trailer is out today, and it…
Although it seemed like the DCEU was down for the count after the theatrical release of Justice League in 2017, the universe found more solid footing in several films afterward. However, one thread they didn’t get to pick up on was the tease of Joe Manganiello’s Deathstroke in the post-credits scene in which Jesse Eisenberg returned as Lex Luthor and proposed a league of their own. The DCEU has officially concluded with Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom and James Gunn’s reign with his DCU will be kickstarting with Superman: Legacy.
However, ComicBook.com reveals that Manganiello now has a new opportunity to continue his Slade Wilson incarnation despite the DCEU being dissolved. When Affleck’s in-universe version of The Batman fell through, in which Deathstroke was set to appear as the main antagonist, Manganiello wrote his own Deathstroke screenplay, which reportedly was well-received at Warner Bros. before the big studio shake-up. Since Gunn’s DCU is taking over, Manganiello now reveals that DC Comics is interested in having him take his screenplay and adapt it into a graphic novel series. Although this new plan had him remain hopeful that he could gain traction from his graphic novel and parlay it into the possibility of still playing Deathstroke on screen, his friend James Gunn would intervene with some Sage advice.
Manganiello explains, “James [Gunn] is my buddy, and James and I had a conversation about it because Jim lee over at DC Comics wanted me to create a graphic novel series based on the screenplay that I wrote for the Deathstroke origin film that, when they were dismantling the DCEU, that went to the wayside as well. Jim read it, and wanted it to be a graphic novel series, but no one could assure me that, if it garnered the attention of directors and producers, that I couldn’t be attached. So I had to let it go. James Gunn was just like, ‘Let it go.’”
Reacher star Alan Ritchson has been gathering a ton of online support to be cast as the next incarnation of Batman. James Gunn is currently concentrating on his Superman film and hasn’t made any new announcements on The Brave and the Bold. It has been reported that The Flash director Andy Muschietti will be getting a second chance in the new universe as the director of the film. Even with Gunn’s advice, perhaps a throwdown between a Ritchson Batman and a Manganiello Deathstroke could be a card to have in the back pocket.
The post Joe Manganiello’s Deathstroke may still have life after the DCEU, but not in a way you may think appeared first on JoBlo.
When you think of Ashlee Simpson, there’s probably only one image that comes to mind: her lip-syncing snafu on SNL, in which she went to perform her second song of the night, only for the playback to trigger her first song, “Pieces of Me”. She had been caught going full Milli Vanilli. And to get herself out of the situation, Simpson basically la-la’d her way off stage while doing a jig, leaving her band behind to “play”. Twenty years after the incident, Simpson is remembering the moment as a life lesson. But this may not be the case for others who also made some serious bonehead moves on SNL…
It’s extremely rare for musical guests on SNL to go through gaffes of Ashlee Simpson’s magnitude: musicians like Elvis Costello would instead raise intentional hell by playing whatever song he wanted, while Sinead O’Connor used her moment to send a message. More often than not, it’s the guest hosts who goof, leading to humiliation and sometimes lifetime bans.
Let’s start with Martin Lawrence, who led off his 1991 stint as host with a monologue that went completely off script, riffing on feminine hygiene and John and Lorena Bobbitt, the latter of whom had cut off her husband’s penis (the subject of many-a Weekend Update segment). Yes, Martin Lawrence has a permanent ban. Another host saved his gaffe for later on in the show. In 2003, Adrien Brody tried to pay homage to the Jamaican roots of musical guest Sean Paul, turning up in full rastafarian mode, complete with dreadlocks and a faux accent that was of course immediately deemed to be inappropriate and racist. He, too, would be banned.
Sometimes the presence of a host alone can be enough for controversy, as was the case with Andrew Dice Clay, whose 1990 gig prompted SNL cast members like Nora Dunn to refuse to work that week. Clay would go on with the show but numerous protests were spawned due to the comedian’s act containing derogatory remarks about women. Steven Seagal also caused trouble behind the scenes, proving a true pain in the ass to the cast. Lorne Michaels would go on to take the understandable stance that Seagal was the worst SNL host ever.
But gaffes have done plenty of SNL cast members dirty, too. In 1981, player Charles Rocket erred by dropping the f-bomb during the closing monologue; he would be fired from the show after just one season. In 1997, Weekend Update host Norm Macdonald slipped after making a strange noise, saying, “What the f*ck was that?” Knowing he goofed immediately, Macdonald joked that it would be his “farewell performance”…he would be fired later that season (although part of that had to do with slamming NBC president Don Ohlmer’s buddy O.J. Simpson).
On her own SNL incident, Ashlee Simpson – appearing on Broad Ideas with Rachel Bilson & Olivia Allen (via People) – said of the moment, “It taught me humility, it taught me so much about myself and my own personal strength,” adding that it gave her resiliency in terms of dusting off her boots. As for why she opted not to sing at all, she cites a case of acid reflux, leaving her without proper vocals. Steven Seagal could not make the same claim…
But these are only a fraction of those who suffered embarrassing incidents on SNL. Which guest or host do you think had the most damaging on-air flub? Give us your picks below!
The post Ashlee Simpson and other SNL gaffes we’ll never forget appeared first on JoBlo.
The PlayStation Pulse Elite doesn’t look like any headset I’ve ever owned before, and I’ve owned tons. The $150 wireless headset has a ‘60s-esque “vision of the future” vibe that stands out from a sea of black-and-neon designs and blinking LEDs. Its architectural shape and sleek simplicity means it’s even visually…
The PlayStation Pulse Elite doesn’t look like any headset I’ve ever owned before, and I’ve owned tons. The $150 wireless headset has a ‘60s-esque “vision of the future” vibe that stands out from a sea of black-and-neon designs and blinking LEDs. Its architectural shape and sleek simplicity means it’s even visually…