Final Fantasy VII has always been an extremely weird game, from the impromptu snowboarding excursion to fighting a Triceratops fused with a truck. That sense of weirdness seeps into every aspect of the game and often rears its head as a strange—and, more often than not, janky—minigame. The 1997 game takes a “throw…
The hype leading up to The Dark Knight in 2008 was the closest we’ve come to reliving Bat-Mania that took over pop culture in 1989 leading up to the first Batman. Much of the hype came from the revelation of Heath Ledger’s take on the Joker. Christopher Nolan’s star was on the rise as people resonated with his 2005 reboot Batman Begins, and his interpretation of the clown prince of crime was a fresh burst of energy. A number of photos and a teaser from the film was released when the world was dealt the devastating news about the passing of Heath Ledger. Ledger’s career had gained immense steam after performances in Monster’s Ball and Brokeback Mountain.
A new detail was revealed about the day Heath Ledger was found unresponsive as Stephen Gaghan, the Oscar-winning writer of Traffic, appeared on a new limited series podcast called Development Hell. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the host of the podcast, Malcolm Gladwell, would examine how his book, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, would not come to realization as a film adaptation. Gaghan revealed that he and Ledger were in the midst of developing a movie based on Gladwell’s book and when Ledger was found dead inside a Manhattan apartment on January 22, 2008, a copy Gladwell’s book was sitting on Ledger’s nightstand and a draft of Gaghan’s screenplay was lying next to him on the bed.
He recalled getting a curious phone call from Ledger’s father, who told him the devastating news, “They were there with the body and our script was in bed with him, and your book was on the bedside table. I think my number was on the script, like written. These guys, as you can imagine, they are in shock and they dialed that number and I don’t know why.” Gaghan continued, “I’m in an airport with my wife [Minnie Mortimer] just going from one place to another, and I literally just collapse, never happened to me before or since. My feet went out from under me. I just literally sat down because I was like, what? The emotion, what they were going through, I should not have been a party to in any way really, and yet as a human or as somebody who just cares, I just was there and I was listening and my wife was looking at me. I remember her face and I was just like, I was speechless. I just listened and listened and listened. It was just really, really sad. And it’s still sad. For me, I just had to put a pin in it.”
Gaghan revealed that the package deal of the production included having Leonardo DiCaprio signed on as a producer of the film. However, for Gaghan, when the news broke of Ledger’s passing, he would decide to let go of the project. “I’d gotten to be very, very close with him instantly. I just had a real connection with him that was kind of unusual and really special to me. I got really excited and I started seeing him as the main character. Once I started seeing that I couldn’t unsee it, and obviously it was very delicate in a way.”
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If you want to view paradise, simply go and buy a ticket…That’s right, a sequel to last year’s Wonka – a surprise smash in the candy-coated eyes of many, raking in nearly $620 million worldwide – may be in the works, which should come as no surprise. But what could we expect from everybody’s favorite chocolatier? Its director may have some ideas in the vat…
As Paul King told ComicBook.com, a Wonka sequel may be inevitable based on its success and reception. At the same time, he and fellow minds behind the movie don’t see a need to rush it into production. “It’s definitely something we’re thinking about…One of the things I love most about David Heyman, my producer, is that he has made so many great movies that he doesn’t feel the pressure to just make a movie because it can be made. He has this great saying which reassures me enormously where he goes, ‘We’ll have a think, see what we can come up with, and then see if we want to make it,’ and it’s incredibly liberating…”
And if Wonka doesn’t get a sequel? Well, so be it because making the movie that has the greatest chocolate shop the world has ever seen may be enough. “We can wait a beat, and if we don’t come up with a story, this is a movie with a beginning, a middle, and end that works on its own…Of course there are some ideas sloshing around, but we don’t have a story yet, so we’ll see what happens.”
Wonka absolutely has potential for a sequel, as the movie only explored the earliest days of Willy, leaving plenty of room to dive into what came after these events. Heck, Wonka creator Roald Dahl even continued the adventures in book form. The nice thing here is that the filmmakers wouldn’t have to rely strictly on Dahl’s words, as they can interpret and mold the character as they wish. After all, Timothée Chalamet is going to be the Wonka for generations to come, with all due respect to the great Gene Wilder, of course.
Do you think Wonka is deserving of a sequel? Where do you see the story going? Give us your hopes for a second movie below!
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PLOT: After not leaving the palace for quite some time, Chancellor Elena Vernham has grown increasingly paranoid and unstable when she turns to a volatile soldier, Herbert Zubak, as an unlikely confidant. As Zubak’s influence over the chancellor continues to grow, Elena’s attempts to expand her power eventually result in both the palace and the country fracturing around her.
REVIEW: Politics, violence, sex, and humor are all elements that have made quality programming ranging from Game of Thrones to Veep. In The Regime, these elements are played for laughs as much as they are chills and provides a platform for Kate Winslet to deliver her most distinct role yet. As Elena Vernham, the Chancellor of a fictional European country, Winslet portrays an autocrat who thinks she has more power than she actually does. By showing the clearly decadent and sometimes silly decision-making, The Regime gives new meaning to absolute power having the ability to corrupt absolutely. A darkly comedic satire about the dangers of political oppression, The Regime is a surreal story that eerily echoes some far too-real leaders in the world today. With a standout performance from Matthias Schoenaerts, The Regime is a smartly written tale that chronicles the downfall of a country in a matter of months using comedy to tell a bleakly possible tale.
Told across six hour-long episodes, The Regime opens with the arrival of Herbert Zubak (Matthias Schoenaerts), a soldier responsible for an atrocity within the borders of the Central European country. Brought to the palace, Zubak meets Elena Vernham (Kate Winslet), the Chancellor in power after defeating the prior leader, Edward Keplinger (Hugh Grant). Taking control back, Elena follows in her late father’s footsteps, as he was chancellor before Keplinger. It becomes evident immediately that Elena has issues as she is dreadfully afraid of mold and other pathogens, leading to her having not left the grounds of the palace in a very long time. Elena is aided by her cabinet of ministers as well as Agnes (Andrea Riseborough), her aide and manager. Agnes’ son serves as Elena’s surrogate child while Elena’s husband, Nick (Guillaume Gallienne) works at no-profit causes in his capacity as first spouse. Elena immediately feels a connection to Zubak and he in turn is infatuated with her. At the start, there is a distance between the aristocratic chancellor and the working-class Zubak, but that changes by the end of the first episode.
As the series progresses, time jumps of weeks and months show the rising power of Zubak over Elena which ebbs and wanes, leading the chancellor to take on more control of her country, much to the dismay of her cabinet. With rising tensions between Vernham and private business leaders in her country as well as the United States, in the form of Martha Plimpton as an emissary from the President, Elena’s mental state becomes more and more absurd. It is fascinating to watch as Kate Winslet portrays Elena as both a spoof of real political leaders as well as making her a villainous personality. The dynamic between Winslet and Schoenaerts is quite something as their differing political ideals conflict with their personal connection to one another, leading to increasing tension among those closest to them. Each episode jumps forward weeks or months in time as we see the decisions made by Vernham quickly disintegrate her country from stable to the brink of destruction. The shifting alliances and allegiances allow the story to cover a wide swath in a short amount of time which also works against the series.
As front and center Kate Winslet and Matthias Schoenaerts are, other characters seem destined for more substantial arcs that do not work quite as well, most notably Andrea Riseborough. The Oscar-nominated actress has the most distinct physical appearance in the series and her character bridges the upstairs/downstairs gap between those who work in the palace versus those in power. Each episode sets Riseborough up for some key developments which sadly are left unresolved by the end of the series. The same goes for the spouses and cabinet members who all seem to exist merely to propel the Vernham and Zubak characters toward their fates at the conclusion of the series. That may ultimately be the goal for the story that The Regime set out to tell, but it feels lopsided when subplots end up going nowhere in favor of the main narrative. This may also explain why Riseborough is the most recognizable actor in the cast after Winslet and Schoenaerts. Hugh Grant’s brief role in the series gets more attention in the trailer than Riseborough even though he is limited to a single episode.
Creator Will Tracy is no stranger to dark satire having co-wrote 2022’s The Menu alongside Seth Reiss. Tracy scripted three of the six episodes of The Regime with the others credited to Seth Reiss, Sarah DeLappe (Bodies Bodies Bodies), Juli Weiner (Last Week Tonight with John Oliver), Jen Spyra, and novelist Gary Shteyngart. Directing duties are split between Jessica Hobbs (The Crown) and Stephen Frears. Frears is best known for helming Dangerous Liaisons, The Grifters, High Fidelity, and The Queen. Both Frears and Hobbs bring experience helming palace intrigue tales to this fictional story that is surreally realistic. While set in a fictional country, the touches in the production design call to mind Russia as much as England while also putting the United States in its place. Filmed in a way that keeps the focus on the characters as much as the descent into totalitarianism, The Regime is beautifully filmed.
A concise and biting satire, The Regime starts as a comedy and incrementally transforms into a drama. The balance of humor keeps the narrative moving along through all six chapters and will consistently have you questioning whether you should be laughing or if you should be scared at how close to reality much of this story truly is. The best stories are the ones that hit the right level of tone and The Regime does so across multiple. While I had hoped many of the subplots introduced focused on supporting characters had been wrapped more satisfyingly, there is no doubt as to how good Kate Winslet and Matthias Schoenaerts are as these characters. The Regime is a wonderfully disturbing dramatic comedy and a shockingly prescient comedic drama. This is a story that will keep you guessing until the very last scene.
The Regime premieres on March 3rd on HBO.
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They say you should never meet your idols. But it probably can’t hurt if they’ve endlessly hyped your movie. Earlier this month, Godzilla Minus One director Takashi Yamazaki got to meet one of his cinematic heroes, Steven Spielberg, bringing a full circle moment for the Japanese filmmaker.
Takashi Yamazaki had the chance to meet Steven Spielberg at the Oscar Nominees Luncheon, with the former receiving an invitation due to Godzilla Minus One being nominated for Best Visual Effects – a first for any movie in the franchise’s now-70-year history – and Spielberg up for producing Maestro. That’s monumental enough, but that Spielberg had high praise for the movie takes the experience to another level. In a social media caption, Takashi Yamazaki wrote (via Google Translate), “I met God. What should I do now? Cry…Moreover, he has seen Godzilla three times. He said he liked the characters. He also happily received a Godzilla figure…” Now the right thing for Spielberg would be to send Yamazaki an E.T. doll…
Yamazaki also said at the event (via The A.V. Club), “Steven Spielberg said, ‘Oh, you’re the director of Godzilla. I saw it three times.’ I couldn’t believe it, because Spielberg is like a god to me, just for what he’s done for the film industry. But it sounded very real. [Spielberg went on to say,] ‘I saw it once in my home, and then I had to go see it again in IMAX, then Dolby Atmos.’ You can’t make that up.”
OK, this is straight-up awesome for Yamazaki, who has been working in the film industry since the mid-’80s. After moving from visual effects departments into writing and directing in the early part of the century, Yamazaki marked himself as one of the modern visionaries of Japanese cinema. As such, he earned the spot to direct Godzilla Minus One, which takes partial influence from, yes, works by Steven Spielberg.
Godzilla Minus One stands as one of the best-reviewed movies of last year, earning an astounding 98% on Rotten Tomatoes from both critics and audiences. It, too, received an 8/10 from our own Tyler Nichols. It is also the highest-grossing live-action Japanese movie in North America.
What did you think of Godzilla Minus One? Give us your mini review in the comments section below!
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Final Fantasy VII Rebirth has finally arrived. The second installment of Square Enix’s attempt to remake one of the most celebrated video games of all time is here for PlayStation 5. The massive RPG offers damn near close to (if not more) than 100 hours of gameplay. Now you might be asking yourself: Do I race to the…
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth has finally arrived. The second installment of Square Enix’s attempt to remake one of the most celebrated video games of all time is here for PlayStation 5. The massive RPG offers damn near close to (if not more) than 100 hours of gameplay. Now you might be asking yourself: Do I race to the…
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is out today. If you’re a big fan, you’re probably already playing it and aren’t looking at this article. If you’re a casual fan or onlooker who is mainly just interested in how it handles certain events of the original game, you’re probably wondering what happens to Aerith in the Remake retel…
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is out today. If you’re a big fan, you’re probably already playing it and aren’t looking at this article. If you’re a casual fan or onlooker who is mainly just interested in how it handles certain events of the original game, you’re probably wondering what happens to Aerith in the Remake retel…
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Square Enix’s latest RPG, is an enormous game. And like any huge adventure, there are dozens of subsystems, features, and layers to navigate. If you’ve played the first game in the new trilogy, Final Fantasy VII Remake, you already have a good handle on the basics of modern FF7. But whether…