“Ma’am, I’m 10 years old, you think I could write this alone? I don’t think so.” The age demographics in Hollywood are about to skew a lot younger because a pre-teen has pitched an idea that is soon enough going to be written for the screen – and it’s a wonder it hasn’t been made yet. Here we have Home Alone meets The Godfather, in which we imagine one scene where Kevin McCallister jumps on his parents’ bed, only to find a decapitated horse head at the foot of it. The title? Little Wiseguy.

But the pitch doesn’t come from a desperate studio suit but rather a 10-year-old named Connor Esterson, who you may actually be familiar with, as he co-starred in last year’s Spy Kids: Armageddon. (Interestingly, that movie’s director, Robert Rodriguez, gave his son, Racer, story credit on 2005’s The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl when he was just eight years old.) And while Esterson has very likely seen Home Alone numerous times around the holiday season, he admits he has yet to see Francis Ford Coppola’s gangster epic.

As wild as a Home Alone / The Godfather mash-up sounds, the real story is the development. Esterson took it upon himself to work on a six-page treatment, which he then got in the hands of producer Joe Isgro, who passed it onto screenwriter Nick Vallelonga, who won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar for Green Book. Vallelonga is teaming with George Gallo – whose credits include Midnight Run, The Whole Ten Yards and, yes, 1986’s Wise Guys – to get the screenplay moved into production. While Esterson will likely at least receive a story credit, he has aspirations to continue on in the future as a director. Who knows, maybe he’ll helm the sequel: Little Wiseguy: Lost in New York, which would see the hero taking out intruders with a garrote instead of a paint can to the face.

Even though Esterson had his tiny foot in the door through Spy Kids and the Quantum Leap reboot, it’s still pretty amazing that he’s seeing his idea of Home Alone clashing with The Godfather go through the entire filmmaking process. Just think about what you were doing in fifth grade – but please, for the love of all that is holy, don’t share that with us!

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In a recent sit-down with GQ, while promoting his new film Knox Goes Away, the great Michael Keaton took some time to look back at his favorite roles. One of them, of course, was Batman, which we wrote about here, but another was the 1996 comedy Multiplicity, which was directed by Harold Ramis. In that film, he plays a busy family man who has himself cloned. 

“Multiplicity – to make it today it would take about seventeen minutes. It’s 96, right? You don’t have all the toys.” 

He said the initial idea was that to play the multiple characters, he would wear make-up and fat suits, but to him, that was the wrong approach. “If you cloned yourself, you’d still have you, but what is the thing that’s not you in that?  That was the premise. What’s the little thing?”

“I loved doing Multiplicity,” he says, remembering how fun it was working with Harold Ramis and the challenge of playing so many different versions of the same character.  “I think two was the testosterone-driven version; the third was really sensitive. The nicest man.” 

Playing the third version raised an interesting conundrum, as Keaton wondered if, perhaps, he should play the character as gay. When he asked Ramis if he thought the character was gay, the director’s response stuck with him. “Harold (Ramis) wisely said, ‘I dunno’. And I said, ‘No, it’ll help me as an actor because I’m good with it.’ And he’d say, ‘I dunno.’ And I went (pause), ‘That’s right – that’s exactly right. It doesn’t matter. He’s just REALLY sensitive! One of my favorite characters of all time, by the way.”

Keaton also said that they used a lot of stand-in actors to help film the movie, and despite the complicated FX work, Ramis encouraged a lot of improvisation. “There was a lot of improvising because Harold comes from a real improv background,” Keaton said. He noted that was a challenge because if he improvised as one character, he’d have to set up the next character to be able to feed off it. 

He also related a weird Ben Stiller story. As Keaton remembers it, he was working on the set and Stiller, whom he had never met before, came by to visit. He asked Keaton what he was working on. Keaton brought him to his trailer to show him a chart he had come up with tracking the various characters he was playing, and as he remembers it, Stiller simply looked at the chart and, without a word, walked out of his trailer, not saying goodbye or anything. “And I’ve never talked to him since! I have no f*cking idea if he went, ‘oh f*ck, I don’t even want to know about that…”

While he loved working with Ramis, Keaton has especially fond memories of working with co-star Andie McDowell, taking special delight in making her laugh. In fact, she told him one day, that he actually made her pee her pants in laughter at one point. “To influence a person’s bladder is such a sense of power!” 

For more from Michael Keaton, check out our exclusive interview with him here!

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Easter Weekend proved to be absolutely gigantic for WB and Legendary’s MonsterVerse, with the fifth film in the franchise (which we ranked here), Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, grossing a massive $80 million domestically. While it was no doubt propelled by the holiday weekend (tomorrow’s grosses should be huge), it can’t be denied that the movie opened way beyond even the most optimistic expectations. Industry estimates (ours included) expected the film to open in the $50 million-ish range, but despite mixed reviews, the movie grossed about $30 million more than anyone expected. 

While this is only the second largest MonsterVerse opening weekend (Godzilla made $93 million in 2014), this is considered a massive win for Warner Bros. To compare things, the last MonsterVerse movie, Godzilla Vs Kong, only opened to $30 million. Granted, that was at the height of the pandemic, and the movie was on the day and date on HBO Max, but no one expected this to do these kinds of numbers. Its opening is in the Dune: Part Two range. Wow.

So far, the CinemaScore rating is a solid A-minus, so it should have decent legs at the box office. It will likely be easy for it to hold on to first place next weekend unless The First Omen and Monkey Man massively overperform. Meanwhile, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire saw its business completely collapse, with it falling a massive 65% following its underwhelming opening. With a $15.7 million weekend, it seems like this entry into the franchise may be its last on the big screen for a while. 

However, one movie that rallied unexpectedly this weekend was Dune: Part Two, which pulled in ahead of Kung Fu Panda 4 to make $11.1 million compared to Panda’s $10.2 million. This was a surprise; many thought family audiences would boost the animated four-quel. Dune 2 has now made over $252 million domestically, with a $300 million finish not out of the question. 

The horror title Immaculate also showed signs of life this weekend. While its opening last weekend was Neon’s biggest, many assumed it would collapse at the box office this weekend. Yet, Neon’s marketing team has been working overtime to play up some of the more controversial aspects of the flick, and it seemed to have worked. The movie only fell 39% this weekend to post a $3.265 weekend, which is good for horror titles (they nearly always fall over 50%). 

Mark Wahlberg’s family title, Arthur the King, has struggled to find an audience, with ComScore revealing it lost 478 screens this weekend, only grossing $2.4 million in 6th place. Perhaps this should have joined other Wahlberg movies like The Family Plan on streaming. Late Night With the Devil, which is IFC/Shudder’s biggest movie ever, continued to perform well, grossing over $2.2 million, with a very small 22% week-to-week decline. The movie hits Shudder in three weeks and might break $10 million domestically, which is quite a coup for a microbudget horror indie. 

Eighth and ninth place belonged to two Indian movies, with the Telugu language rom-com Tillu Square opening to $1.8 million, posting the second-highest per-screen average of the weekend (after Kong). Next up was the female-led Bollywood flick Crew, with a $1.49 million opening. These Indian films are really starting to clean up at the North American box office, with Indian audiences flocking to them. Watching these movies with an audience is a lot of fun, as the screenings tend to be quite raucous. 

Finally, in tenth place is the Blumhose horror flick Imaginary, which is starting to wrap up its theatrical run with $1.4 million for a $26 million gross. 

Next weekend sees the release of the well-received prequel, The First Omen, and Dev Patel’s awesome-looking action flick, Monkey Man. Do you think either has a chance to take out Godzilla x Kong in first place? Let us know in the comments!

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With Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire stomping its way to a massive finish at the box office this weekend, we were curious to think how fans feel it rates in the pantheon of WB/ Legendary’s MonsterVerse movies. Do you think it’s the best, or is another movie in the five-film series better? Vote below and check out our rankings HERE!

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We get it, you’re still probably playing Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, and that’s okay. It’s a big RPG and there are a lot of important choices, side quests, and min/maxing to be done, and we’ve got all the guides you could possible need for Square Enix’s masterpiece.

Read more…

We get it, you’re still probably playing Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, and that’s okay. It’s a big RPG and there are a lot of important choices, side quests, and min/maxing to be done, and we’ve got all the guides you could possible need for Square Enix’s masterpiece.

Read more…

Over the last few months, there’s been some controversy among home theatre enthusiasts about the recent restoration by James Cameron of three of his classics in 4K HDR: Aliens, The Abyss, and True Lies. The release of all three were highly anticipated, largely because both The Abyss and True Lies have never been available in high definition before, much less 4K. While the releases have been largely praised for how stunning the films look in 4K, a lot of film fans are taking issue with the fact that Cameron’s movies have likely been restored with AI assistance and look quite different now than they did before. Notably, film grain has been almost entirely removed from the films, with the colours tuned up in a way some view as too different from how the movies initially looked.

However, only some people think the restorations are bad, and now they have a surprising advocate – noted film preservationist Robert Harris. Harris is the man behind the famous restorations of Lawrence of Arabia, Spartacus, The Godfather trilogy and many more. In a post to Home Theatre Forum, he acknowledged how different they look, but also explained that’s not necessarily a bad thing. On True Lies, “Shot 35 and blown up to 70, the visuals of the new 4k UHD are absolutely not what the film was upon release, but the secret sauce works, and allows a presentation that appears far better than it might without it.”

In a post about Aliens, he elaborated a bit more on why these restorations have his approval. “Original prints were on the grainy side, as a higher speed stock was used. I always thought it looked fine, as that was the look. No problem. But there were those who felt that it was too grainy. Enter the new 4k UHD from Disney via Fox, and it has an entirely new look. And it’s a look that I like.  Very much! The image has been de-grained, with zero loss of resolution, which if anything as been slightly heightened. Color are meticulously reproduced. And there’s an overall clarity that is new to the film.”

As far as Harris is concerned, these restorations have been done the right way, and there is a lot of logic behind what he says. Cameron always favoured shooting his film in a process called Super 35, as it allowed him to print a larger film frame on the stock that would make the home video releases look better. In True Lies or Titanic, he was able to show the films in 2:35:1 scope theatrically. Then, when reformatted to 1:33:1 (the standard TV ratio in the era before widescreen TVs), he could reveal more of the frame at the top and bottom, avoided the pan-and-scan look common at the time, making the films play better at VHS. The downside was Super 35 was grainy. This wasn’t super noticeable on DVD and even 1080p Blu-rays, but it proved problematic on 4K, hence the restoration.

Do you still think Cameron went too far? Let us know in the comments. 

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Chance Perdomo, one of the leads on the Boys spin-off series Gen V, which streams on Prime Video, has died. According to reports, the 27-year-old actor was fatally injured in a motorcycle accident. Perdomo played Andre Anderson, one of the lead characters, who was being set up for a major arc in season two. According to Deadline, the second season will now be pushed due to the tragedy, which I’m sure hits all involved with the show quite hard. 

In addition to Gen V, Perdomo also played a leading role in The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina opposite Kiernan Shipka. In a statement to the trades, the producing team behind Gen V said, “We can’t quite wrap our heads around this. For those of us who knew him and worked with him, Chance was always charming and smiling, an enthusiastic force of nature, an incredibly talented performer, and, more than anything else, just a very kind, lovely person. Even writing about him in the past tense doesn’t make sense. We are so sorry for Chance’s family, and we are grieving the loss of our friend and colleague. Hug your loved ones tonight.”

Indeed, Perdomo’s death hit fans of the show hard, with many of them posting their shock and disbelief on social media. While it’s sad when anyone passes away, the fact that Perdomo was so young and just at the start of his career hits extra hard. Indeed, he seemed like an up-and-comer, with Gen V popular with both fans and critics. His character would have likely become a mainstay of the show, and his career would have taken off in the years to come. To all of Perdomo’s friends, fans and colleagues, we here at JoBlo wish you the best. Rest in peace. 

The post Chance Perdomo, star of Gen V, dead at 27 appeared first on JoBlo.

When we think of the greatest kisses in movie history, there are some genuine classics that come to mind: Lady and the Tramp smooching via spaghetti, Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr embracing on the beach in From Here to Eternity, Michael Corleone sealing brother Fredo’s fate in The Godfather Part II…And up there with all of these is the upside down kiss from 2002’s Spider-Man, in which Kirsten Dunst’s Mary Jane peels up her hero’s mask and plants one in a New York downpour. And as immediately iconic as it was, the scene was something of a pain to shoot.

As Dunst recalled of the famous Spider-Man scene, “I remember Sam Raimi giving me a book of famous kisses to be inspired but also he really wanted to make it special even though it was kind of miserable actually doing it…It was pouring with rain, freezing, Tobey couldn’t breathe so it was almost like I was resuscitating him.” Well there goes that magic!

Even as the series continues to weave its web, the kiss from Spider-Man still remains one of the standout moments, adding to both Peter Parker’s mystique and the budding romance between Mary Jane and her friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.

After playing the pivotal role of Mary Jane Watson throughout Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy, Kirsten Dunst said she would be game for joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe in some capacity, suggesting she feels left out. Considering how Tobey Maguire reprised Peter Parker/Spider-Man for 2021’s No Way Home via the multiverse, it’s totally possible for Dunst to step back into the character. And wouldn’t it be fun to have her and Spidey’s other love interests recreate the famous pointing meme?

Spider-Man was the highest-grossing movie domestically of 2002, playing a pivotal role in the resurgence in interest of superhero movies, leading the way for the MCU, which had its first Spider-Man installment with 2017’s Homecoming, with Tom Holland taking over the role. To date, all of the Spider-Man movies – live-action and animated – have grossed nearly $9 billion worldwide. And to think it all started with a kiss…

What is your favorite scene from 2002’s Spider-Man? Where does that movie rank amongst the rest?

The post Kirsten Dunst: iconic Spider-Man kiss was “miserable” to shoot appeared first on JoBlo.

A few months ago I talked about the onslaught of Public Domain Horror Films we were being subjected to. And while these films would have been relegated to straight to DVD in a different era, Fathom Events has come along and given a platform to these smaller projects. So instead of toiling in the bargain bins at Walmart, they’re given brief theatrical runs. One such film was the recently released Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey 2. Shockingly, the film wasn’t terrible (you can check out my positive review here) but what I was struck by was the brief introduction by the filmmakers.

Star/Producer Scott Chambers and Writer/Director Rhys Frake-Waterfield talk to camera about their plans for what they describe as the Poohniverse. What exactly is the Poohniverse? Well, it’s an MCU-style world where characters like Pooh, Bambi, and Peter Pan exist together and murder people. As proven by Blood and Honey 2, there’s some entertainment to be had watching classic characters murder teens, slasher-style. The bar is pretty low so long as they include a surplus of kills. After taking part in their own individual films, the horror-slanted characters would come together Avengers-style for Poohniverse: Monsters Assemble.

The biggest issue I have is that the filmmakers aren’t simply waiting to see if there’s a want and demand for this, they are simply showing their filmmaker roadmap. And sure, I’m sure there’s a bit of poking fun at the MCU way of doing reveals, but it doesn’t make theirs any less ludicrous. There’s no telling how successful these films will be and, given their heavy reliance on gimmick, it wouldn’t surprise me if the joke quickly dissipates. Because I imagine “classic literary characters killing people” has a shelf life.

Thankfully, unlike the MCU which can sometimes span years ahead, the plan for the Poohniverse simply extends to 2025. But even still, it feels very cocky to even expect to be able to make such dumb movies and expect others to have any semblance of connection to it. One of the appeals to this kind of film is that you can go in without any knowledge of anything, and just enjoy yourself. Bring a group of friends and just laugh at it. But by creating a universe, there’s an expectation placed on the viewer that they need to know past events in order to understand the full story. Even if that’s not the case, the MCU and other series have conditioned general audiences to a different world.

And while it probably seems like I’m picking on the Poohniverse, this is simply the most relevant example. But this could be said for many different attempts at launching a franchise before there was even a desire from audiences for one. In the search for a successful series, companies are looking past the most important element: an audience’s desire for more. And when they know there’s another one around the corner, what’s to get them to buy a ticket?

What do you think? Does every film need its own universe of films? Can we ever just have standalone movies anymore? Has the MCU ruined everything? Let us know in the comments below!

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