This week, after days of swirling rumors and fan speculation, Phil Spencer and other Xbox bigwigs finally pulled back the curtain (a little bit, at least) on what the future holds for the console and the Xbox brand. Sony also hinted at what 2025 will bring for the PlayStation 5 (or at least what it won’t) while Helldiv…

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Just when we thought physical media had devolved into the final frontier, it seems it is well worth exploring once again. In further proof that streaming services are no guarantee that you’ll always have access to your favorite movies, Paramount+ has removed one of its most prolific franchises – Star Trek – from its service. This, rightfully, has prompted outcry from fans, who have threatened to leave Paramount+ or just pirate the movies.

As noted by HD Report, Paramount+ has dropped the Star Trek properties over streaming rights, which they apparently didn’t even bother to think much of. “We apologize for the inconvenience. At this time, some Star Trek films aren’t available due to streaming rights,” before pasting a blanket statement about all of the amazing content Paramount has to offer. “However, Paramount+ has over 45,000 episodes and movies on demand, plus live sports and exclusive originals. Stay tuned for more!” For those looking to find Star Trek, they are now available on Max. They are also currently available on Paramount Plus in Canada, although they’ve been pulled many times over the years.

Paramount continued to be absolutely useless in helping out Star Trek fans in the following exchange:

Paramount also seems to be deleting some posts that are criticizing this move over Star Trek, which, unfortunately, is just the latest instance of movies being taken off of streaming seemingly out of nowhere. Now, we all know that licensing rights expire, but for a studio to ditch its own property is absurd and absolutely something movie and TV fans should be pissed off about. This underlines just how harsh streaming services can be when it comes to content, something we truly started seeing developing at a more rapid pace last year. And if you think purchasing your favorite movie online makes that copy yours, forget it – you don’t even own it, as so many found out when their purchased Warner Bros./Discovery titles on Playstation were deleted from their libraries. As illegal as this seems – imagine David Zaslav raiding your Blu-ray shelf in the middle of the night – there’s really only one true thing we movie lovers can do: buy physical media.

Still, there is plenty to be excited about in the world of physical media, as boutique labels like Arrow, Shout Factory, Kino Lorber, Criterion, Severin, Vinegar Syndrome, and more are keeping the scene alive. There are a wealth out there – a number of which are getting rights to major movies that one would think studio labels could easily make money off of – but it’s going to take time and money for them to continue to succeed. Unfortunately – and, admittedly, idiotically – I ditched the bulk of my DVD/Blu-ray collection when streaming really picked up. To recoup would be one hell of an undertaking, especially when so many have gone out of print…

What are your thoughts on Paramount+ ditching Star Trek? Do cases like this make you want to leave some streaming services and redirect to physical media? Do you still purchase Blu-rays and 4K discs?

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Believe it or not, but it’s been nearly eight years since the release of Gore Verbinski’s last movie — the underrated A Cure for Wellness — but the director finally has a new project in the works. Deadline reports that Verbinski has assembled a fantastic ensemble of actors for his action-adventure movie titled Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die.

Sam Rockwell, one of my all-time favourite actors, will be leading the cast, which includes Haley Lu Richardson (The White Lotus), Juno Temple (Fargo), Michael Peña (Ant-Man and the Wasp), and Zazie Beetz (Joker). Rockwell will star as a “man from the future” who arrives at a Los Angeles diner to recruit a “precise combination of disgruntled patrons to join him on a one-night-six-block quest to save the world from the terminal threat of a rogue artificial intelligence.“

Matthew Robinson (Love & Monsters) has penned the script for Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die, with production set to kick off later this year in Cape Town, South Africa.

Gore Verbinski is best known for helming the first three installments of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, as well as the American remake of The Ring, the excellent animated movie Rango, and notorious box-office bomb The Lone Ranger. It’s not like the director has been kicking up his heels all this time, as he’s had numerous projects in the works that have fallen apart. He was attached to a live-action adaptation of Bioshock for many years before the project was shelved and was also in talks to direct the Gambit movie starring Channing Tatum. One of the last projects Verbinski was said to be working on was an adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s The Sandkings for Netflix, but we haven’t heard any updates on the project for a while.

Sam Rockwell can currently be seen starring in Matthew Vaughn’s Argylle. The film follows Bryce Dallas Howard as Elly Conway, a reclusive author of a series of best-selling espionage novels whose idea of bliss is a night at home with her computer and her cat, Alfie. But when the plots of Elly’s fictional books — which center on secret agent Argylle (Cavill) and his mission to unravel a global spy syndicate — begin to mirror the covert actions of a real-life spy organization, quiet evenings at home become a thing of the past. Rockwell plays Aiden, a cat-allergic spy who races across the world to stay one step ahead of the killers as the line between Elly’s fictional world and her real one begins to blur. You can check out a review from our own Chris Bumbray right here.

The post Sam Rockwell, Haley Lu Richardson, Juno Temple & more to star in new Gore Verbinski movie appeared first on JoBlo.

As far as conspiracy theories go, very few have had as much of a life as the notion that NASA faked the Apollo moon landing. In some ways, one can understand why people felt this way, as it was one of the most critical events in human history, and the only witness was a TV camera. Back then, people distrusted anything they couldn’t see with their own eyes. In the seventies, conspiracy theories started to get famous, especially as far as the government went, with this the era of Watergate. People no longer trusted authority, and into this fraught environment came Capricorn One, a sci-fi-tinged conspiracy thriller that was one of the most popular films of 1977 but has since been largely forgotten – save for a small cult of devoted fans.

The film is directed by Best Movie You Never Saw favorite Peter Hyams, who also made Outland, 2010, Running Scared, and other legit gems. The movie centres around a crew of astronauts who, on the eve of the first manned mission to Mars, are taken to a television studio by NASA and told that due to a faulty life support system, the mission would have failed. Due to a potential cut in funding, they proceed to fake the mission, with the astronauts told that if they don’t cooperate, their families will be killed. Sounds like a pretty good premise, right?

Capricorn One is a real gem as far as movies of this kind go. In the late seventies and early eighties, there was a whole slew of movies produced by financier Lew Grade. These were technically independent films, but they were made on a lavish scale, with movie stars, and were the precursors to companies like Carolco. Only one problem, most of the Lew Grade movies sucked. People used to refer to him as Low Grade. He made some giant flops, including a Lone Ranger movie featuring an actor memorably named Klinton Spilsbury in the lead, whose voice ended up being dubbed. An even bigger flop was Raise the Titanic, which was an early attempt to film Clive Cussler’s Dirk Pitt. The movie was one of the most expensive films of the era and was such a flop that Grade snapped – “Raise the Titanic? It would have been cheaper to lower the ocean.”

One exception was Capricorn One, which was a significant financial success. It was an unlikely hit, as the two leading men, Elliott Gould and James Brolin, were in the middle of career slumps. Gould had been one of the biggest stars of the early 70s following MASH, but he made a movie called A Glimpse of the Tiger that was shut down mid-production and damaged his credibility. The fact that a series of financial flops followed it didn’t help, but around this time, he was mainly working in Canada on movies financed by tax shelters, like the excellent thriller The Silent Partner, and on movies in Europe. As for Brolin, he was ending his run on Marcus Welby, MD and was seen as a TV actor. This movie would be good for him, leading to his biggest hit, The Amityville Horror, shortly afterward. Interestingly, both men have marriages with Barbara Streisand in common, with Gould married to her from 1963 to 1971, while Brolin has been married to her since 1998.

The rest of the cast was an unusual jumble of seventies stars. Sam Waterston, who would become a beloved character actor, and the somewhat less beloved O.J. Simpson play Brolin’s crewmates, while Hal Holbrook plays the NASA bad guy. Brenda Vaccaro plays Brolin’s wife, Karen Black is Gould’s love interest, and best of all is a cameo by Telly Savalas, who was riding high at the time as the beloved bald detective Kojack. Savalas apparently only worked a day, but he gets to play a crop duster pilot who participates in the movie’s best action scene, a hair-raising chase between a bi-plane and two helicopters and also gets to save the day.

So, as for the elephant in the room, what the heck is O.J Simpson doing in this movie? Let’s not forget that O.J, at the time, was better known as a beloved football star rather than a murderer, but I digress. He was a popular pitchman in this era and shown up in The Towering Inferno as a heroic security guard who rescues a kitten. He was trying to become an actor, and while Hyams said, at first, that he didn’t want to cast him, the two became friends, and this jumpstarted a solid career as an actor for OJ until – you know – he killed his wife.

One interesting thing about the movie is that despite them being portrayed as the movie’s villains, NASA was allaboard for Capricorn One. They provided technical assistance, mock-up vehicles and more, which is amazing as they portrayed as both dangerously incompetent and evil.

The movie runs a shade too long at just over two hours, but overall, it’s a pretty neat conspiracy thriller. The cast is perfect, as Brolin, Simpson and Waterston all look like they could have walked off a Wheaties box with their all-American looks. Gould is an interesting contrast, being more of a New York Jewish type, and the film really belongs to him as he uncovers the mystery. If you only know Gould from Friends or as daffy older types, you should check out his seventies output, with MASH, The Long Goodbye, California Split, The Silent Partner and this one all worth a look. There’s no one like him. Imagine Adam Sandler if he didn’t do comedies but did thrillers and dramas instead. That’s what you get with Gould.

The movie has some nifty action scenes, including that tremendous bi-plane helicopter chase. It’s all tied together by a fantastic score by Jerry Goldsmith, with this being one of his finest works. The movie is very good, but the score is a masterpiece. Hyams, as usual, makes the film impeccably crafted, with Bill Butler, who shot Jaws, being his DP. Hyams had a reputation for usurping his DPs, but this one doesn’t have his usual look, making me think Butler got to shoot a lot of it.

One thing about Capricorn One is that it’s easy to find. Lew Grade’s ITC went out of business in the mid-eighties, and the rights to his movies have bounced around a lot and the package for them is pretty cheap, given how awful most of them are. You can find this movie streaming on TubiTV, Peacock, Roku, and even Plex.

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The long-awaited premiere of Netflix’s live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender is less than a week away, and the first reactions to the series have been trickling out. After original creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino exited the project in 2020 due to creative differences, fans were a little apprehensive, but it sounds like the streaming service has largely gotten it right, or, at the very least, it’s better than M. Night Shyamalan’s movie.

Our own Steve Seigh was a big fan, saying, “I had the pleasure of previewing the first seven episodes of Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender for JoBlo.com and I’m thrilled to say that it’s fantastic! It’s full of outstanding performances, one-to-one shots from the original, and new elements to get excited about! I say this as a die-hard fan of the original animated series. I wholeheartedly love this version of the show. If you’re nervous about it, don’t be! Get excited, show up, and enjoy the ride!” Use those… screen-bending powers and scroll on down for some more Avatar: The Last Airbender first reactions.

“Water. Earth. Fire. Air. The four nations once lived in harmony, with the Avatar, master of all four elements, keeping peace between them. But everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked and wiped out the Air Nomads, the first step taken by the firebenders towards conquering the world,” reads the official description. “With the current incarnation of the Avatar yet to emerge, the world has lost hope. But like a light in the darkness, hope springs forth when Aang, a young Air Nomad — and the last of his kind — reawakens to take his rightful place as the next Avatar. Alongside his newfound friends Sokka and Katara, siblings and members of the Southern Water Tribe, Aang embarks on a fantastical, action-packed quest to save the world and fight back against the fearsome onslaught of Fire Lord Ozai. But with a driven Crown Prince Zuko determined to capture them, it won’t be an easy task. They’ll need the help of the many allies and colorful characters they meet along the way.“

Avatar: The Last Airbender stars Gordon Cormier as Aang, Kiawentiio as Katara, Ian Ousley as Sokka, Dallas Liu as Prince Zuko, Daniel Dae Kim as Fire Lord Ozai, Paul Sun-Hyung Lee as General Iroh, Ken Leung as Commander Zhao, and Elizabeth Yu as Princess Azula. The live-action series will debut on Netflix on February 22nd.

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After making small, but vital, appearances in Ghostbusters: Afterlife, the original cast of Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Ernie Hudson will return for Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, but this time, they’ll thankfully have bigger roles.

While speaking with SFX Magazine, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire director Gil Kenan promised that the original Ghostbusters cast will feel “more fully fleshed out” in the Frozen Empire. “That’s the moment that’s really thrilling for me as a Ghostbusters fan: watching their involvement in the story redefine itself, grow and become more fully fleshed out in a way that speaks to the promise of the original Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters 2, and what was glimpsed in the fields outside of Summerville in Afterlife,” Kenan explained. “There’s a direct line from there into who they are now and how they act here in our new story.“

The director said that the OG team would be treated as “actual characters” this time around, adding, “We had a duty to make those legendary characters integral to this story.“

Gil Kenan also said that audiences should prepare themselves for some pretty big scares to go along with those laughs. “This is a scary Ghostbusters movie, I set out to go for the thrills,” Kenan said. “As a big-screen experience, I think it’s going to play like a scary, funny movie. The secret is that the scarier a scene is, the funnier the next joke is going to play. That’s the way that the pendulum swings with tone. Twisting that lever to make sure that the scares land is a way of making sure that the jokes are funnier.“

Per the official Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire synopsis: “The Spengler family returns to where it all started – the iconic New York City firehouse – to team up with the original Ghostbusters, who’ve developed a top-secret research lab to take busting ghosts to the next level. But when the discovery of an ancient artifact unleashes an evil force, Ghostbusters new and old must join forces to protect their home and save the world from a second Ice Age.” In addition to the original Ghostbusters, the film also stars Carrie Coon, Paul Rudd, Finn Wolfhard, Mckenna Grace, Kumail Nanjiani, Patton Oswalt, Celeste O’Connor, Logan Kim, and Annie Potts.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire will hit theaters on March 22nd.

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The Brave and the Bold will introduce the new Dark Knight of the DCU, and fans have some strong opinions on who that should be. One popular choice to take on the role of Batman is none other than Reacher‘s Alan Ritchson, and the actor responded to the interest while speaking on BroBible’s Post Credit Podcast.

“The fact that people are interested in me playing Batman is a real honor and privilege,” Ritchson said. “It’s one of the first characters I fell in love with as a child: I still remember the big, long pistol coming out of Joker’s pants as he goes to shoot down the Batplane.“

Ritchson continued: “Those iconic moments really resonated with me as a child. For there to even be a conversation or a rumor mill surrounding this role, for me… all I can do is laugh. I just think it’s wild that’s where we are.” When the actor expressed that perhaps he’s too old to play the character now, the hosts reminded him that Batman will have a kid in The Brave and the Bold. “Okay, then, you know… I would love to,” Ritchson said. “I would absolutely love to. It’s one of the coolest characters of all time.“

There have been plenty of rumours swirling regarding The Brave and the Bold, but DC Studios co-chief James Gunn squashed them in December, saying that there wasn’t even a script yet. However, the film does have a director, as The Flash’s Andy Muschietti signed on to helm The Brave and the Bold last year. “It’s a magnificent film (The Flash) — funny, emotional, thrilling — and Andy’s affinity and passion for these characters and this world just resonates through every frame,” read a statement from DC. “So when it came time to find a director for The Brave and the Bold, there was really only one choice. They’re an extraordinary team, and we couldn’t have better or more inspiring partners as we embark on this thrilling new adventure in the DCU.” In addition to Alan Ritchson, Jensen Ackles has also thrown his hat in the ring for the role of Batman.

Ritchson’s star has risen considerably in recent years thanks to the success of the Reacher series on Prime Video. The third season is currently shooting in Toronto and is based on Persuader, the seventh book in the Jack Reacher series written by Lee Child.

Could you see Alan Ritchson playing Batman in The Brave and the Bold?

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Nearly two years have gone by since we heard that production had wrapped on Cuckoo, a new horror film from writer/director Tilman Singer that stars Hunter Schafer (Euphoria), Dan Stevens (The Guest), Jessica Henwick (Love and Monsters), Marton Csókás (Freelance), Greta Fernández (Santo), and Jan Bluthardt (Tatort) – but we’re finally going to have the chance to see it very soon, as Neon will be giving Cuckoo a theatrical release on May 3rd. The film has been shrouded in secrecy this whole time, but during a new interview with Variety Schafer has revealed some new details… like the fact that Cuckoo sees her getting covered in blood and facing off with a bird-like monster!

First, here’s a refresher on the official synopsis: Reluctantly, 17-year-old Gretchen leaves her American home to live with her father, who has just moved into a resort in the German Alps with his new family. Arriving at their future residence, they are greeted by Mr. König, her father’s boss, who takes an inexplicable interest in Gretchen’s mute half-sister Alma. Something doesn’t seem right in this tranquil vacation paradise. Gretchen is plagued by strange noises and bloody visions until she discovers a shocking secret that also concerns her own family.

Now, here’s what Variety revealed: the film sees Schafer face off against a mysterious bird-like monster with a scream-like call who seeks to impregnate women with her evil spawn. The story, written by Singer, is based off the lore of the cuckoo bird, some of which are brood parasites, meaning they lay their eggs in the nests of other species. This information has greatly increased my Cuckoo anticipation level.

Schafer told them, “It’s really a freaky thing that that’s just in nature and birds are just out here being complete dicks to other birds and giving them their own babies to raise. Are you kidding? That’s psycho!” She added, “I loved being covered in blood for half the movie and the intensity of it. Another first for this was having to do more action sequences, like simulating violence and stuff, which I loved as far as the choreography goes. You know, there’s moments where I felt like a real badass.“

Schafer is joined in the cast by Dan Stevens (The Guest), Jessica Henwick (Love and Monsters), Marton Csókás (Freelance), Greta Fernández (Santo), and Jan Bluthardt (Tatort). A press release notes that Dan Stevens turns in a “brilliant and terrifying” performance in the film.

At one point, it was announced that Gemma Chan (Eternals), Sofia Boutella (The Mummy 2017), Zita Hanrot (Love, Death & Robots), Proschat Madani (Walking on Sunshine), and John Malkovich (Being John Malkovich) would be in the movie as well, but it looks like most of them had to drop out of the project before filming began.

This is the second feature for Singer, following the 2018 supernatural horror film Luz, which Bluthardt had a role in. Luz told the story of “a young cab driver fleeing from the grasp of a possessed woman, whose confession could endanger the lives of everyone who crosses her path.” Several of Singer’s Luz collaborators joined him on Cuckoo. In addition to Bluthardt, also returning from Luz were cinematographer Paul Faltz, composer Simon Waskow, and production designer Dario Mendez Acosta.

Cuckoo was financed by Neon. The film is being produced by Markus Halberschmidt, Josh Rosenbaum, Maria Tsigka, Ken Kao, Thor Bradwell, Ben Rimmer, in a cooperation between Germany’s Fiction Park and the States’ Waypoint Entertainment. It’s executive produced by Tom Quinn, Jeff Deutchman, Emily Thomas, and Ryan Friscia for Neon. Additional funding came from the Film und Medien Stiftung NRW, HessenFilm, and the German Federal Film Fund.

Are you interested in Cuckoo? What did you think of the newly revealed details? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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We’re just six weeks in to 2024, and we’ve already seen the release of some absolulte bangers, including Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth and Persona 3 Reload. But the year’s biggest surprise so far has been a game most observers wrote off as a Pokémon-knockoff—until millions of people realized there was a lot more…

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We’re just six weeks in to 2024, and we’ve already seen the release of some absolulte bangers, including Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth and Persona 3 Reload. But the year’s biggest surprise so far has been a game most observers wrote off as a Pokémon-knockoff—until millions of people realized there was a lot more…

Read more…