It looks like Matthew Vaughn’s Argylle will walk away with an easy win this Super Bowl weekend, with it coming in (slightly) ahead of our expectations to lead the box office with $6.5 million, posting a steep 63% decline in its second weekend. So far, the movie has grossed $28 million domestically, with about a $40-45 million finish in sight. That’s not great for a movie with a rumoured $200 million price tag.
However, it still did much better than Lisa Frankenstein. This retro-styled horror comedy, which is directed by Zelda Williams (Robin’s daughter) from a script by Diablo Cody, would have done much better had it not been hampered by pretty terrible reviews. However, our own Tyler Nichols had an ok time with it. The $3.8 million opening (good enough for second place) is far below tracking, and it seems like the film is destined for a sub-$10 million total. However, it could, theoretically, become a cult hit down the line, similar to Cody’s other horror romp, Jennifer’s Body.
It’s worth noting that Super Bowl weekend is a notoriously slow one in theaters, but even still, this is one of the worst weekends on record since the bad old-pandemic days. Amazon-MGM’s Jason Statham flick, The Beekeeper, showed pretty strong legs, with a $3.4 million finish in third place. It’s grossed $54 million domestically so far, which puts it ahead of all of Statham’s Transporter and Crank films, with it his highest-grossing solo vehicle outside of The Meg. Meanwhile, Fathom Releasing’s The Chosen Season 4, episodes 1-3 have continued to do well, earning $3.1 million in fourth place. These big-screen releases of the remarkably popular Christian show have proven to be a box office bonanza, with episodes 4 through 6 opening this Wednesday. I wonder if more secular-style shows will follow suit. I could imagine something like House of the Dragon doing well if they released episodes theatrically.
Meanwhile, the Timothee Chalamet Wonka prequel has held up well at the box office, finishing in fifth place with $3.1 million, with the film blasting past $200 million at the domestic box office, making it the biggest hit of the holiday season. Migration did $3.02 million in 6th place, with it now crossing $110 million domestically, which is only a so-so number for an Illumination Studios film. The rom-com Anyone But You, starring newly minted stars Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney continues to hold up well, with it earning $2.7 million in 7th place, for a running total of $80 million. Expect this one to do big business on Valentine’s Day. Could it eventually cross $100 million domestically? Stranger things have happened, but clearly, audiences missed good old-fashioned rom-coms.
In 8th place is Mean Girls with $1.9 million and a grand total near $70 million, which is a great number for a movie that was planned for streaming. Oscar hopefuls American Fiction and Poor Things rounded out the top 10 with $1.3 million and $1.1 million a piece. Both films have done respectable business at the art-house box office, even if neither seems to have really crossed over to mainstream audiences. Maybe the Oscars will help?
At any rate, the box office seems set for a boost, with Valentine’s Day a popular date night at the movies. Sony’s superhero flick, Madame Web, is expected to have a $20 million plus opening, but nothing is expected to be a blockbuster under Dune Part 2 opens in March.
Did you go see anything this weekend? Let us know in the comments!
HUGE POTENTIAL SPOILERS AFTER THE BREAK – SO BE WARNED!
He’s been Han Solo, Indiana Jones, and Jack Ryan, and now it looks like Harrison Ford is officially hulking out in Captain America: Brave New World. While it had been speculated that Ford would eventually play the character due to his casting as General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross (filling in for the late William Hurt), according to online rumours, the Red Hulk’s appearance in Brave New World has been confirmed. But how? According to a Marvel Studios Spoiler thread on Reedit, a crew member was spotted wearing an official movie jacket with Brave New World written in Red Hulk-style font, seemingly confirming the character’s appearance.
Now, to be sure, this isn’t much of a spoiler. Did anyone really think that Red Hulk wouldn’t be making an appearance when Ford was cast in the role? It would be a huge missed opportunity to cast one of the most legendary actors in screen history and not have him play some kind of superhero, even if he is in his 80s. As Red Hulk would be mostly CGI, it wouldn’t be too taxing for Ford physically, but it would allow him to put his own definitive mark on the MCU.
And really, let’s face it – the MCU needs something like this. Whether a Captain America movie without Steve Rogers will prove to be the box office smash, Marvel needs is still a big question. Brave New World is in the middle of a pretty fraught production, with a new writer, Matthew Orton, being hired in December and heavy reshoots planned for this summer. Something similar is happening with the Marvel movie coming hot on the heels of this one, Thunderbolts, which also has Ford in the cast. It would be smart to introduce Red Hulk as an antagonist in this one and perhaps have him redeemed as a more heroic character in Thunderbolts, but we’ll see.
Captain America: Brave New World, directed by Julius Onah (The Cloverfield Paradox), is set to hit theaters in exactly one year, February 14th, 2025, with Thunderbolts following it on July 25th, 2025.
Do you think Red Hulk being in BraveNew World will help win over skeptical fans? Let us know in the comments.
In 1989, the movie Best of the Best had a somewhat abbreviated run in theaters. Only grossing a mere $1.7 million, the movie was a major hit on home video and cable. That’s why, three years later, a sequel, Best of the Best 2, hit theaters… for a while. While the first film has maintained a certain cult status, the sequel, and the two more that followed, have been largely forgotten – until now on this edition of The Best Movie You Never Saw.
Best of the Best 2 came from the same creative team behind the original, including director Robert Radler and producer/ star Philip Rhee. Intriguingly, it was co-written by a TV actor of the time named John Allen Nelson, who starred on Baywatch for a few seasons, played Paul The Wine Guy on Friends, and has shown up as a guest actor on most of the biggest shows on TV. In the nineties, he had a nice sideline as a writer of B-action movies. But I digress.
Best of the Best 2 picks up where the first film left off, with the US Karate Team being crowned the victors of their international competition by their rivals, the Koreans, who admire their courage and brotherhood in the ring. The three leads from the last film, Eric Roberts’ Alex Grady, Philip Rhee’s Tommy Lee, and Chris Penn’s Travis Brickley, have gone into business together, operating a Karate School in Las Vegas, where Alex’s son, Walter, is a prized student. Being a massive fan of the first film, there’s something oddly touching about the three guys joining together to raise Alex’s son, especially given that Travis was a virulent racist originally, who has been wholly redeemed by the second film and is now a peach of a guy. But, alas, Chris Penn is still not a convincing martial artist, something the movie plays into when Travis gets in over his head competing in underground cage matches at a fight club called the Coliseum, which is lorded over by a brutal killer named Brakus, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger’s old training partner, Ralf Moeller, who would later be cast – to great effect — in Ridley Scott’s Gladiator. Travis is killed while poor Walter watches, sending Tommy and Alex on the warpath.
So here’s the thing – Best of the Best 2 is quite different from the first movie. That one was a Karate Kid/Rocky-style sports movie, while this is much more of a martial arts-driven action film in the vein of Kickboxer or Bloodsport. It shouldn’t really work, but it does, mainly due to the terrific acting from leads Eric Roberts and Philip Rhee. Both men are often sneered at as DTV guys, but they brought a lot of heart to the Best of the Best movies, making them a cut above the average action fare you might have found at a video store in the nineties.
Eric Roberts, in particular, is one of the most sensitive action heroes of all time, with him breaking into tears at the drop of a hat. He does so repeatedly in both movies, but it’s oddly touching. As a former martial arts student, I remember finding it immensely affecting in the early sequences when Walter fails his test for his next belt but takes it gracefully, leading to a teary-eyed speech by his dad about how he showed him what a winner really is. It’s cheesy but lovely and a good message in tune with the first film.
But, again, the film is much more of an action film, with Tommy and Alex trying to avenge their friend’s death at the hands of Brakus and his handler, a Vegas smoothie played by none other than Wayne Newton. The two, with Walter, the only witness, in tow, have to high tail it to the desert to stay with Tommy’s Native American grandmother, with his uncle, played by Predator star Sonny Landham, conveniently revealed as a one-time fighter who managed to defeat the un-beatable Brakus back in the day, leading to him training Alex and Tommy to fight him.
One notable thing is how Eric Roberts, despite being the bigger star, takes the backseat here in action to the more trained Phillip Rhee, who’s abducted by Brakus’s men and forced into a series of brutal fights at the Coliseum, while Alex looks for him. Roberts gets some gunplay, which seems more of his comfort zone than the Karate in the first film, but the big fights all go to Rhee, who’s an excellent fighter but also has a vulnerability many of his contemporaries didn’t have. The battle between him and Brakus almost has a tragic vibe to it, as Tommy doesn’t want to kill, but fate makes him a killer. The sequel, Best of the Best 3, is all about Tommy leaving his friends behind and taking a trip across America to come to terms with the fact that he had to kill. However, in a weird twist, he ends up fighting the KKK in a small town in addition to the franchise that seems to have more modeled on First Blood than the other films.
Best of the Best 2 is different from the first film. Still, it has lots of moments that pay off for fans, such as Tommy’s opponent from the first film, Dae Han (played by Rhee’s real-life brother Simon), helping Alex save Tommy, as he swore a blood oath at the end of the first film to replace the brother he initially killed in the ring. It’s nice to see him live up to the oath so that the brotherhood aspect of the first film wasn’t just ditched. Roberts also gets a good love interest in Meg Foster as a TV reporter who, initially, seems to turn on him, only to go to bat for him in the end.
Surprisingly, Best of the Best 2 did a lot better than the first film theatrically, making about five times as much at the box office. However, considering how low the gross was on the first film, it only amounted to about $6 million. But, again, it was a significant hit on video, spawning two more direct-to-video sequels, although sadly, they didn’t have all that much in common with the first two movies.
Taken together, the two Best of the Best movies are solid, sporting a couple of great performances from Roberts and Rhee and some nifty fights. If you haven’t checked them out but enjoy fight movies from that era or a show like Cobra Kai, which feels more like the Best of the Best movies than The Karate Kid, I recommend it.
With The Beekeeper proving to be one of the year’s biggest sleeper hits (we loved it), Jason Statham’s status as an action star is again on solid ground. I say again because Expend4bles, Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre, and a few other movies of his whiffed at the box office. Nevertheless, The Beekeeper proved that Statham can still ace the right vehicle, so we thought now would be a great time to look at his action filmography and choose his best action flick. To note, movies like Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels aren’t included, as they aren’t traditional action movies.
Hey, remember Foamstars? The Square Enix shooter from Summer Game Fest last year that everyone joked was a Splatoon clone? Well, it’s out now, and it turns out that “Splatoon clone” may have been a smidge too optimistic. Also, Team Green is going through it as we all wait on pins and needles to find out if Phil…
Hey, remember Foamstars? The Square Enix shooter from Summer Game Fest last year that everyone joked was a Splatoon clone? Well, it’s out now, and it turns out that “Splatoon clone” may have been a smidge too optimistic. Also, Team Green is going through it as we all wait on pins and needles to find out if Phil…
The fact that there was going to be a Blade reboot as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe came as a huge surprise when the announcement was made at the San Diego Comic-Con back in July of 2019 – but all these years later, we’re still waiting on the film to make its way into production. Filming is supposedly going to commence soon, though, so we figured it was time to put together a list of Everything We Know About Blade (the MCU reboot, that is).
MAHERSHALA ALI
The Blade character was previously played by Wesley Snipes in three feature films and by Sticky Fingaz in a short-lived television series. This time around, he’s going to be played by Mahershala Ali, who was already attached to the project when it was announced in 2019… and while there was no indication online that Ali has been interested in playing Blade, this was actually a role he had been chasing for a couple years by that point. During an interview on The Tight Rope podcast, he revealed that he had first asked what Marvel was thinking of doing anything new with Blade on the day the Marvel / Netflix series Luke Cage (where Ali played Cornell “Cottonmouth” Stokes) premiered, which would have been on September 30, 2016. At that time, Ali was told that Marvel was considering making a new Blade TV series. He wanted to play the character, but in a movie. Soon after he won an Oscar for his performance in the film Green Book at the start of 2019, he was able to get a meeting with Marvel Studios mastermind Kevin Feige to talk about Blade. That’s when the movie deal started to come together.
Although some fans were upset to hear that Wesley Snipes wouldn’t be reprising the title role in Blade, Snipes himself wasn’t bothered. Speaking to Yahoo, Snipes said, “I’m cool with it. I don’t walk around as Blade, so I’m not attached to the character like that, you know? I feel no emotional loss. Zero. I’m happy that he’s been cast, and more than likely he’ll do a great job.” Snipes and Ali did talk about the character, with Snipes giving his successor some advice: make sure you’re in shape, try not to get hurt, and enjoy it while it lasts.
SUPPORTING CAST
Delroy Lindo has been signed on to appear in Blade alongside Ali since November of 2021, and is apparently still attached to the project. The same isn’t said for Aaron Pierre, who was said to have landed a highly coveted role in the film back in February of 2022… but it seems that his character has since been dropped over the course of the multiple rewrites the script has gone through. Mia Goth was cast in the film back in April of 2023, and rumors have been swirling that she’ll be playing the villainous character Lilith.
At the start of 2022, the folks at Murphy’s Multiverse got their hands on character descriptions that were supposedly being used as part of the casting process. The characters they heard about were: “Abid”, described as a burly, South Asian character who has taken a vow of silence after a turbulent life; “Huntley”, described as a man, 40-60; and “Faiza”, a French-speaking North African female between 20 and 40. They speculated that these characters would actually be Blade’s fellow vampire hunters, introduced in the pages of the comic book Tomb of Dracula. They suspected that “Abid” was Taj Nital, “Huntley” was Quincy Harker, and “Faiza” was Rachel van Helsing. “Taj was indeed a burly, South Asian character who was first introduced in Tomb of Dracula #3, who did not speak; however, in the comics, he didn’t speak because he had his throat ripped out by vampires, so a slight change there. Taj, along with Rachel van Helsing, the granddaughter of great vampire hunter Abraham van Helsing, worked with Quincy Harker to hunt down the world’s oldest vampire threat, Dracula. Harker, the son of Jonathan and Mina Harker from Bram Stoker’s Dracula, eventually worked with Frank Drake, a descendant of Dracula, and Blade to take on the vampire nation.” But if these characters were ever in the script, there’s a chance they have been written out, like the one Aaron Pierre was going to play.
Ali made his debut as Blade with a vocal cameo at the end of Eternals, where he interrupts the character Dane Whitman (played by Kit Harington) before he can touch a mystical sword called the Ebony Blade. In the comics, Whitman becomes the Black Knight while wielding that sword, so some fans thought he might show up as the Black Knight in Blade. However, Harington has said that the Black Knight was never meant to be in the movie. The Ebony Blade, on the other hand, might be a different story…
WRITER(S)
The movie was announced in July of 2019, but it wasn’t until after we got through the 2020 lockdowns that a writer was hired to work on the film. In February of 2021, we heard that Stacy Osei-Kuffour, known for her work on the TV shows Watchmen and PEN15, was writing the script. Since then, we’ve heard that drafts have also been written by Michael Starrbury (When They See Us), True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto (who worked with Ali on season 3 of that show), and Beau DeMayo (The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf).
At one point, we heard that Blade would start filming in September of 2021. Then it got pushed to July of 2022, with filming to take place in Atlanta, Georgia and New Orleans, Louisiana. There was a delay due to creative issues, and then it would start filming in 2023. It was just weeks away from filming when the production had to be delayed due to the writer’s strike, followed by the actor’s strike… once the writer’s strike ended, it was announced that a new writer, Michael Green (Logan), had been hired to start the script over from scratch.
That’s when Variety reported on some of the problems that had been holding Blade back, including five writers, two directors, and a shutdown six weeks before production was to star. It sounds like there were too many cooks in the kitchen, with perhaps the braintrust at Marvel looking to go a little too P.C: “One person familiar with the script permutations says the story at one point morphed into a narrative led by women and filled with life lessons. Blade was relegated to the fourth lead, a bizarre idea considering that the studio had two-time Oscar winner Ali on board. Amid reports that Ali was ready to exit over script issues, Feige went back to the drawing board and hired Michael Green, the Oscar-nominated writer of Logan, to start anew.”
Starrbury took to social media to say that he never saw a script that didn’t have Blade as the lead, but maybe such a script did exist at some point when he wasn’t involved. Whatever the case, it looks like Green might be the writer whose script gets filmed.
DIRECTOR(S)
As Variety mentioned, the project has been through two directors on its way to the screen. John Wick‘s uncredited co-director David Leitch, who has gone on to make films like Deadpool 2 and Hobbs & Shaw, said he would “love to” direct Blade. Chad Stahelski, who directed all of the John Wick movies and was also second unit director on Captain America: Civil War, said Blade was the one Marvel property that he would be really interested in taking the helm of. But instead of those experienced action directors, Marvel turned to Bassam Tariq, a documentarian who made his narrative feature debut with the 2020 drama Mogul Mowgli. Tariq was hired in July of 2021, but stepped away from the project in September of 2022, citing scheduling issues. Two months later, Yann Demange (White Boy Rick) signed on to direct the film, and it looks like he’s going to see it through production.
RATED R
It wasn’t always a sure thing that the MCU Blade was going to be rated R like the previous Blade movies were. But when Demange came on board as director, he got Marvel to agree to let him make an R rated movie. As he told Deadline, “They gave me the R, which is so important. … We are going to have fun, because Mahershala is such a deep actor. I’m excited to show a kind of ruthlessness, a roughness he has, that allows him to walk the earth in a particular way. I love him for that. He’s got dignity and integrity, but there is a ferocity there that he usually keeps under the surface. I want to unleash that and put it on the screen.”
STORY (MAYBE)
Now that Blade seems to be moving forward smoothly with Yann Demange set to direct, Michael Green writing the script, and Mahershala Ali, Delroy Lindo, and Mia Goth cast, industry scooper Daniel Richtman has also shared details on what he hears the story is going to be. According to his Patreon report, Blade is an R-rated period piece that will tell the story of “Lilith going after Blade’s daughter’s blood to create an army of Daywalkers.” Lilith’s weapon will apparently be the Ebony Blade, which was previously featured in Eternals.
Blade has had several release dates over the year, but as far as we know, right now, it’s on track to start filming soon, aiming for a November 7, 2025 theatrical release date.
And that’s everything we know about Blade… so far…
Last year, Paramount Pictures and Spyglass Media revived the Scream franchise with a new entry (the fifth) that was a box office hit, earning almost $139 million at the global box office. Fourteen months later, Scream VI came along – and became an even bigger hit, pulling in almost $169 million at the global box office, a number that was up there with the series’ heyday, when the first Scream and Scream 2 made just over $170 million. (Scream 3 also made over $160 million – only Scream 4 failed to crack $100 million.) So, of course, the companies are moving full steam ahead with Scream 7. While the movie seemed, initially, to be on the fast-track to success, having a fan favorite director at the helm and a returning cast of hot stars, the recent firing of lead actress Melissa Barrera has cast a shadow over the film.
Here’s everything we know about this increasingly controversial addition to the franchise:
WHO IS THE DIRECTOR?
There is no director! Indeed, Christopher Landon, who made Happy Death Day and Freaky was supposed to make the movie, he ended up quitting, saying “it was a dream job that turned into a nightmare.” Why? We’ll get into those reasons later.
While the first four Scream films were directed by the late, great Wes Craven, Scream (2022) and Scream VI were both directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, who form the Radio Silence team with producer Chad Villella. At the Scream VI premiere, Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett were asked about the possibility of Scream 7 happening. They replied, “We hope (there will be a Scream 7). We want to be watching Scream movies, whether we’re involved or not, for the rest of our lives.” They wanted to direct the next sequel, but they got wrapped up in making their Universal Monster movie (a project once known as Dracula’s Daughter). With that film completed, perhaps Radio Silence will return to continue the franchise. Whatever the case, Radio Silence remains attached to the project as executive producers. Most recently, it was revealed that John Hyams, who previously collaborated with Kevin Williamson on the indie Sick was being considered alongside an “unidentified female director.”
MELISSA BARRERA FIRED
Melissa Barrera entered the franchise with the fifth Scream as a character named Samantha Carpenter, who turns out to have been the daughter of original Ghostface killer Billy Loomis and Christina Carpenter, a character who has not yet appeared on screen in any of the films. Barrera was back as Sam in Scream VI and was expected to return for Scream 7… but she won’t be. On November 21st, Spyglass Media confirmed that Barrera had been fired from the project. Their reasoning: “Spyglass’ stance is unequivocally clear: We have zero tolerance for antisemitism or the incitement of hate in any form, including false references to genocide, ethnic cleansing, Holocaust distortion or anything that flagrantly crosses the line into hate speech.” Apparently Barrera had made comments on social media regarding the situation in Israel and Gaza that didn’t go over well with Spyglass.
When Barrera was still expected to be in the movie, she was hoping Samantha’s mom Christina (who is also the mother of Sam’s sister Tara, played by Jenna Ortega) would be showing up in the film as well. She even knew who she’d like to see play Christina: Salma Hayek. That’s very unlikely to happen now. Barrera was also hoping the next sequel would explore Sam’s mental health.
Whatever the case, Barrera does not seem to have been cowed by her firing, with her joining a pro-palestinian protest at Sundance, where her latest (well-received) movie Your Monster premiere. She’s also got another movie with her Scream directors Radio Silence, coming out in April. That film, Abigail, is getting good buzz and she’s been front and center in the advertising campaign. Many of the stars seem to be on Barrera’s side, with her recently reuniting with much of the cast at a gala event, while Hayden Panettiere, who co-stared in Scream VI, called it “unfair and upsetting”.
JENNA ORTEGA WANTED (AND DESERVED) MORE MONEY
The day after Melissa Barrera’s firing was confirmed, it was revealed that her co-star Jenna Ortega had also exited the project. In addition to playing Tara in the Scream movies, Ortega plays the title character in Netflix’s Addams Family series Wednesday – and since season 2 of Wednesday is scheduled to film in Ireland through the spring and summer next year, her Scream 7 absence is blamed on scheduling conflicts. About a week later, it was confirmed that Ortega, who’s not only starring on Wednesday but is also a lead in Beetlejuice 2, wanted a substantial salary increase. Spyglass, who seem to be rather tight-fisted with actor salaries refused, so Ortega walked away. So we won’t be seeing either of the Carpenter sisters – who formed the “core four” group of characters with the Meeks-Martin twins (Jasmin Savoy Brown as Mindy and Mason Gooding as Chad) – in this next film.
NEVE CAMPBELL TO RETURN… WITH PATRICK DEMPSEY?
Neve Campbell played heroine Sidney Prescott in the first five Scream films, and was expected to reprise the role of Scream VI… but then she dropped out of the sequel over a pay dispute. When asked if Campbell might be brought back for a Scream 7 or if the filmmakers had given up on her, Bettinelli-Olpin replied, “We’d never give up on her. We love Neve, and we love Sidney. So we’d love to be able to make another movie with her, and we’re not giving up.“ Original Scream screenwriter Kevin Williamson, who has been involved with several of the sequels in some capacity, has spoken out in support of Campbell. He said, “I totally respect her opinion… I know exactly where she’s coming from, I know her well. I love and adore her and that’s what she did. It’s right for her. I love everyone involved in Scream and all I can say is, pay her the money. That’s what I would do, I would give her the money.” For her part, Campbell holds no ill will towards the films, recently praising the 6th film.
With Barrera and Ortega out of Scream 7, new reports suggest that Spyglass is indeed trying to entice Neve Campbell to return, along with newly minted Sexiest Man Alive, Patrick Dempsey, who played her love interest in Scream 3. The character, a cop named Mark Kincaid, is widely believed to be married to Sidney is the Scream universe, with her name-dropping her husband, Mark, in the fifth film. Most fans believe she’s referring to Dempsey’s character, and that the two got married and started a family following the third film.
So now the big question remains, will the Meeks-Martin siblings be back without their pals?Don’t get your hopes up, with Jasmin Savoy-Brown recently revealing that she hasn’t received a call from Spyglass. We’ll have to wait see, but we’re thinking this Scream movie is going to be shelved indefinitely.
Do you think we’ll get a Scream VII in 2025? Let us know in the comments.
What’s faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound? That would be Superman, of course, but you might not know it from the drawings. But it might be worth a look, as storyboards from 1978’s Superman are up for auction this weekend.
Through Peter Harrington Rare Books, 18 storyboards from Richard Donner’s classic Superman will be up for auction at the California International Antiquarian Book Fair. But you’ll need some major coin, as the collection is valued at a little more than $31,500 (£25,000.00).
Here are some details on the Superman storyboards, as per the Peter Harrington website (where you can also check out the artwork): “Together 18 leaves (approx. 202 x 300 mm), hole-punched left. 17 pencil sketches on transparency (14 with opaque backing paper) and 1 leaf with “Final Shooting Sequence” written in manuscript fibre-tip. Stains from adhesive on backing paper, edges occasionally toned and slightly foxed with a few nicks, largely very well preserved.” The scene depicted is when Jor-El (Marlon Brando) and Lara (Susannah York) send their son, Kal-El (aka Superman aka Clark Kent), to Earth.
Undoubtedly these are incredible items. The Superman storyboards are by Ivor Beddoes, the British artist who – whether he got credit or not – worked on an array of films that include Powell & Pressburger’s The Red Shoes, Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon and two Star Wars movies from the original trilogy. As Beddoes died in 1982, these Superman storyboards would have been some of the last he did.
1978’s Superman could very well be seeing a resurgence in interest this year. Not only is DC at work on Superman: Legacy, but its star was the focus of the Sundance hit documentary Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story (you can read our own Chris Bumbray’s 9/10 review here).
Superman marked a major transition in the world of superhero movies. While the genre had decades to go before it reached its heights, credit has to be given to the 1978 film, which showed the box office potential of such fare – and just how bad sequels could get…
What is your favorite scene from Superman? Give us your pick below!
It used to be said that every movie, no matter how badly it did at the box office or critically, went to heaven. Heaven, of course, meant physical media. First, it was VHS, then it was Laserdisc, then DVD, Blu-ray, and now 4K Blu-rays; every movie would get some kind of physical media release. After all, rentals and sales were important to a film’s profitability. In fact, some movies that tanked theatrically did so well on DVD that they became perennials, such as Donnie Darko or The Transporter, with the DVD sales of that movie directly influencing the studio to greenlight a sequel and give Jason Statham a legit career as an action star.
Yet, despite physical media making a comeback, it’s worth noting that some of the most popular movies in recent memory have never gotten a physical media release. And we’re not only talking about movies that all but disappeared when they hit streaming. Oscar winners aren’t getting released on physical media. In fact, the only streaming movies that reliably hit Blu-ray are the ones Netflix lets Criterion put out. Still, unless your name is Martin Scorsese or Noah Baumbach, so many HUGE movies haven’t gotten physical media releases, so let’s take a look at ten that REALLY need some kind of physical release.
10. Outlaw King:
It’s worth noting that the version of this movie I saw at TIFF in 2018 isn’t the version that hit streaming, with 20 minutes being excised from the film before its general release. Given that it’s a quasi-sequel to Braveheart and the fact that its stars, Chris Pine, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Florence Pugh, are even bigger now than they were back then, this seems like a movie that’s ripe for the re-appraisal a Blu-ray release could give it.
9. The King:
The same thing goes for this superb historical drama, which – quite honestly – was the movie that sold me on Timothee Chalamet. This David Michod movie is loosely based on Shakespeare’s Henry V, and Chalamet is so good that a lot of us think the action-driven drama might have played a big hand in his Dune casting. Again, Chalamet is much bigger now than he was in 2019, so why not polish it off with a new release? Joel Edgerton has rarely been better than he is in this as Falstaff, and it has an incredible score by Nicholas Britell.
8. Glass Onion:
Again, this seems like a no-brainer, given how popular Knives Out was on physical media. You’d think Rian Johnson would push for this one to get an extras-packed release, but no dice so far from Netflix. You have to think that the people who bought the first film would love to have it in their collection, with a Rian Johnson commentary track.
7. Dolemite is My Name:
Now, this one is really inexplicable. Dolemite is My Name is begging for a Criterion release with a ribald Eddie Murphy commentary track and some deleted scenes. The original Dolemite isn’t streaming on Netflix either, making a Blu-ray set that included it a must for collectors.
6. 6 Underground:
I’m surprised Michael Bay hasn’t pushed for a physical release for his would-be franchise starter, which Netflix apparently considered a misfire. Given the fact that it’s a Ryan Reynolds action flick, this would certainly sell well, especially for home theater enthusiasts.
5. The Gray Man:
Another misfired franchise starter; given how Ryan Gosling is riding a new wave of popularity following Barbie, one assumes this high-profile action flick would sell a bunch of 4k discs. I suppose Netflix hopes more people will check it out on the streaming service, but it feels like a missed opportunity for disc.
4. Extraction 1 & 2:
The same thing goes for the Extraction films. This has proven to be a solid franchise for the streamer, but action fans are collectors. Both of these movies would certainly make a mint on 4K Blu-ray. Give these flicks to Arrow Video, and let them do a special-feature loaded double bill. It would SELL.
3. Triple Frontier:
J.C. Chandor’s star-studded heist flick has gotten some renewed attention, with star Charlie Hunnam hyping a potential sequel. Again, some of the actors in this, notably Oscar Isaac and Pedro Pascal, are way more popular now than they were a few years ago. It’s a great movie, and frankly, this is one I’d actually like to add to my own personal collection.
2. Coda:
Apple’s Coda is the only Best Picture winner at the Oscars that you can’t get on physical media. I know from posts on X that this drives collectors crazy, so this charming film would certainly sell well, especially given that far fewer people subscribe to Apple TV Plus than Netflix. This would be a sharp way to make a little extra bread.
1. Barbarian:
This one boggles the mind. Barbarian was a solid box office hit and a pop culture phenom once it hit Hulu. Horror fans love physical media, and a loaded-up Blu-ray of this movie would sell like hotcakes. That said, of every film on this list, I think this has the best chance of maybe eventually coming to physical media, with Disney putting out Prey not too long ago.
What other streaming movies do you think should be out on physical media? Let us know in the comments!
