For multiple generations, Star Wars has been the go-to sci-fi franchise. Now, with the success of Denis Villenueve’s Dune movies, it might have its own legs as the quintessential sci-fi experience. But there is a common link: Christopher Walken. OK, so Walken didn’t board the Millennium Falcon, but he did at least audition for the role of Han Solo, which he’s glad he didn’t get.
Speaking with Vanity Fair, Christopher Walken remembered that he did in fact do a screen test for Star Wars alongside Jodie Foster (auditioning for Princess Leia), saying, “I’m not sure we did a scene. Maybe we just sat in front of, in those days, those old videotape cameras…We might have just sat there and did the name, rank, and serial number type of thing. I would say that, Yes, I did audition for Star Wars, but so did about 500 other actors. It was lots of people doing that.” Instead, that year he would play Diane Keaton’s brother in Annie Hall, petrifying Woody Allen with his visions of driving into oncoming traffic.
And so while Christopher Walken may not have spent any time on the desert planet of Tatooine, he does now officially have ties to Arrakis. As for what drew him out of a four-year hiatus from the screen, the actor (who turns 81 this month) said he was a fan of Villeueve and the cast…and the short time on set didn’t hurt, either. “I had, of course, seen the first Dune a number of times. I loved it, and I admired [Villeneuve’s] movies. Arrival, I thought, was wonderful…And to be with all those terrific actors —Javier Bardem and Josh Brolin, Timothée Chalamet, Florence Pugh, and Stellan Skarsgård—and to go to Budapest, which is a beautiful city. And of course, that’s what I do for a living. It was only, I think, three weeks. So, everything about it was attractive.”
Christopher Walken has brought us some of the more fascinating sci-fi performances of the ‘80s, turning up compelling work in The Dead Zone and Brainstorm. There’s also the little-seen The Mind Snatchers, actually Walken’s first starring role and one well worth checking out. But no, he had no business playing Han Solo.
What is your favorite sci-fi or horror performance from Christopher Walken? Give us your pick below!
For multiple generations, Star Wars has been the go-to sci-fi franchise. Now, with the success of Denis Villenueve’s Dune movies, it might have its own legs as the quintessential sci-fi experience. But there is a common link: Christopher Walken. OK, so Walken didn’t board the Millennium Falcon, but he did at least audition for the role of Han Solo, which he’s glad he didn’t get.
Speaking with Vanity Fair, Christopher Walken remembered that he did in fact do a screen test for Star Wars alongside Jodie Foster (auditioning for Princess Leia), saying, “I’m not sure we did a scene. Maybe we just sat in front of, in those days, those old videotape cameras…We might have just sat there and did the name, rank, and serial number type of thing. I would say that, Yes, I did audition for Star Wars, but so did about 500 other actors. It was lots of people doing that.” Instead, that year he would play Diane Keaton’s brother in Annie Hall, petrifying Woody Allen with his visions of driving into oncoming traffic.
And so while Christopher Walken may not have spent any time on the desert planet of Tatooine, he does now officially have ties to Arrakis. As for what drew him out of a four-year hiatus from the screen, the actor (who turns 81 this month) said he was a fan of Villeueve and the cast…and the short time on set didn’t hurt, either. “I had, of course, seen the first Dune a number of times. I loved it, and I admired [Villeneuve’s] movies. Arrival, I thought, was wonderful…And to be with all those terrific actors —Javier Bardem and Josh Brolin, Timothée Chalamet, Florence Pugh, and Stellan Skarsgård—and to go to Budapest, which is a beautiful city. And of course, that’s what I do for a living. It was only, I think, three weeks. So, everything about it was attractive.”
Christopher Walken has brought us some of the more fascinating sci-fi performances of the ‘80s, turning up compelling work in The Dead Zone and Brainstorm. There’s also the little-seen The Mind Snatchers, actually Walken’s first starring role and one well worth checking out. But no, he had no business playing Han Solo.
What is your favorite sci-fi or horror performance from Christopher Walken? Give us your pick below!
Akira Toriyama, the creator of the Dragon Ball franchise and character designer for video games like Chrono Trigger and Dragon Quest, has died at the age of 68.
Akira Toriyama, the creator of the Dragon Ball franchise and character designer for video games like Chrono Trigger and Dragon Quest, has died at the age of 68.
Margaret Qualley will play Amanda Knox in an eight-episode limited series ordered at Hulu. The show is “based on the true story of how Knox was wrongfully convicted for the murder of her roommate Meredith Kercher and her 16-year odyssey to set herself free.“
The series was created by KJ Steinberg (This Is Us), who will serve as writer and executive producer. In addition to starring as Amanda Knox, Qualley will also executive produce alongside Steinberg, Warren Littlefield, Lisa Harrison, Ann Johnson, and Graham Littlefield. Monica Lewinsky is also onboard as an executive producer, with Amanda Knox and Chris Robinson producing via Knox Robinson Productions.
Amanda Knox commented on the series in a series of since-deleted posts on social media, saying that previous adaptations of her story haven’t felt true to what she experienced. “When I first came home from prison, I was approached by big players in Hollywood who wanted to tell my story,” she wrote. “I turned them down. It didn’t feel like MY story. It felt like the story of a bunch of other people’s mistakes and the consequences that I and others suffered as a result. It felt like a story I was trapped in.” Previous projects dealing with Knox’s story include Amanda Knox: Murder on Trial for Lifetime and the Netflix documentary Amanda Knox.
Knox credits Monica Lewinsky with getting the ball rolling on the Hulu series. “[Lewinsky] deeply understood the stakes, and had a keen talent for storytelling herself,” she said. “She connected us with 20th Television and Hulu, and we were off to the races!” Knox is also thrilled that Qualley will play her in the series. “Margaret Qualley, who is magical in everything she’s starred in, from Maid, to Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, to the new Drive Away Dolls,” Knox said. “I still can’t quite believe she said yes.“
Margaret Qualley was recently seen in Drive Away Dolls, a comedy directed by Ethan Coen, which he also co-wrote with Tricia Cooke. The film follows Jamie, an uninhibited free spirit bemoaning yet another breakup with a girlfriend, and her demure friend Marian who desperately needs to loosen up. In search of a fresh start, the two embark on an impromptu road trip to Tallahassee, but things quickly go awry when they cross paths with a group of inept criminals along the way.
PLOT: A dutiful damsel agrees to marry a handsome prince, only to find the royal family has recruited her as a sacrifice to repay an ancient debt. Thrown into a cave with a fire-breathing dragon, she must rely on her wits and will to survive.
REVIEW: The idea of the anti-fairy tale is nothing new. From the grounded Cinderella tale Ever After starring Drew Barrymore to the John Wick-inspired The Princess starring Joey King, outdated stories of helpless maidens needing to be rescued by Prince Charming have lost their appeal in recent years. With empowerment narratives sometimes going too far in the opposite direction, striking a balance between good storytelling without archaic stereotypes is a tricky endeavor. While Disney has tried to flip the script with animated projects like Frozen or the live-action Maleficent, Netflix has delivered an update to the age-old stories of dragons, royalty, and knights with their dark fantasy Damsel. Led by Millie Bobby Brown, Damsel is a rousing adventure that is full of action, blood, and fire. While it may not be a new benchmark for the modern fairy tale story, it is a solid genre outing that is fun from beginning to end.
With much of Damsel’s narrative twist spoiled in the trailer, you likely already know that the story follows Lord Bayford (Ray Winstone) and his daughters Elodie (Millie Bobby Brown) and Floria (Brooke Carter) as well as their stepmother (Angela Bassett). With their realm suffering, Lord Bayford accepts an invitation from Queen Isabelle (Robin Wright) to have Elodie marry their son, Prince Henry (Nick Robinson). Unbeknownst to Elodie, her father has struck a deal for gold in exchange for her life as a sacrifice to a dragon. As part of a ritual going back generations, Elodie is far from the first to be given up to the fire-breathing beast, but she may be the last. Surviving her initial descent, Elodie quickly uses her wits to elude the monstrous creature and plot her escape from its mountain lair. While you would think this would be the bulk of Damsel‘s running time, much of the second half of the film upends expectations with some interesting decisions.
For the majority of Damsel, Millie Bobby Brown is alone. After the opening act follows an expected formula for a fairy tale, the film kicks into gear once Elodie encounters the massive dragon. Voiced by Shohreh Aghdashloo, the dragon is more than just an animal and may be the most intriguing CGI character since Smaug in The Hobbit films. Not nearly as expressive as Benedict Cumberbatch’s motion-captured performance, Aghdashloo’s signature gravelly voice gives the beast a depth of character that is at once frightening and intriguing. Brown, who has been a solid lead for Netflix in Stranger Things as well as the two Enola Holmes films, is very good here as a princess who is anything but conventional. But, while we have seen the unconventional princess cliche before, Elodie does not come across as stereotypical. Yes, she wants to marry for love instead of politics and yes she is as smart as she is beautiful, but her journey to escape from the dragon is wrought with failures, obstacles, and injuries. This adds some much-needed tension as do a couple of twists along the way that keep the story lively.
The film also boasts some good supporting performances, especially from Angela Bassett and Robin Wright. Playing the stepmother, Bassett could have been a throwaway role for a much less talented actor but she manages to make Lady Bayford an interesting element in the story. Robin Wright, best known as Buttercup in The Princess Bride, does her best to channel that film’s Chris Sarandon as a duplicitous monarch. Wright has played many heroic roles in her career, but Queen Isabelle is the closest she has found to her acclaimed House of Cards role. Wright’s role is key to this story. Nick Robinson, as the charming Prince Henry, does not have much to do here but that may be because Damsel is a female-centric story that focuses on the role of the women in this fairy tale. While not exclusionary to male characters, their existence in this film is more to further the plot rather than actively engage in it.
At just under two hours, Damsel benefits from solid special effects work. Not just in regards to streaming films, Damsel boasts CGI that would look just as good on the big screen as it does on your television. There are a few instances where the budgetary limits show, but the production values make up for that. The script by Dan Mazeau (Fast X) kept me interested to see where things would go and, for the most part, did not disappoint. Much of the story is familiar and you will likely see where things are going, but Mazeau never lets the twists and turns feel telegraphed too far ahead. Director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (28 Weeks Later) gives Damsel a look that starts bright and clean like a Disney fairy tale before devolving into the murk and dark of the mountain caves with a look straight out of Peter Jackson’s playbook. Damsel also pushes the envelope of the PG-13 rating with some truly gruesome death sequences that may be harsh for younger audiences. Overall, this is a fun movie that should appeal to a wide audience, many of whom may enjoy it until the very final scene. That is where things come apart.
Damsel kept my attention almost all of the way through until the end. While it is not a bad ending, perse, it does leave a lot of questions open. Maybe I need to chalk things up to suspension of disbelief, but the final fifteen minutes of Damsel left me scratching my head a bit. Odds are that most viewers won’t think much of what happens to wrap up this story, but I was left feeling like things were too open-ended. Regardless of that, Damsel manages to deliver an adventure that will appeal to all ages and tells a modern fairy tale story that Disney has struggled to do with their live-action remakes. Millie Bobby Brown is a very capable heroine who has the acting talent to make Elodie believable and the physical presence to pull this story off. Damsel is a good movie from Netflix that is just the right running time and looks every bit as good as any big-screen production out there.
The Night Court revival has seen the return of several characters from the original series, but I think fans are going to be most excited by the appearance of Brent Spiner and Annie O’Donnell as Bob and June Wheeler, the perpetually down-on-their-luck couple who always have a wild story about their misfortunes.
Brent Spiner and Annie O’Donnell will appear in next week’s episode, “Wheelers of Fortune,” you can check out some photos of their Night Court return below.
Kate Micucci joins the pair as their daughter Carol Ann. “Huge surprises are in store for Dan when he’s tasked with representing Bob and June Wheeler, the notoriously unfortunate couple from the original iteration who resurface – this time with daughter Carol Ann in tow,” reads the episode’s synopsis. “While 30 years may have elapsed, their bad luck undoubtedly continues to plague them.“
The new Night Court series revolves around “unapologetic optimist judge Abby Stone (Melissa Rauch), the daughter of the late Harry Stone, who follows in her father’s footsteps as she presides over the night shift of a Manhattan arraignment court and tries to bring order to its crew of oddballs and cynics, most notably former night court prosecutor Dan Fielding (John Larroquette).” The launch of the series gave NBC their best comedy premiere since Will & Grace in 2017, so it was no surprise when they renewed the series for a second season.
“It’s such a dream getting to be on set with Brent and Annie, seeing them walk into the courtroom and stand in front of the judge’s bench that I’m sitting at,” Rauch told UPI in an interview. “It feels like I stepped into a time machine.“
Our own Alex Maidy reviewed the series and was pleasantly surprised. “Night Court is a broad, multi-camera sitcom that mugs for the camera, makes silly jokes, and manages to feel like an homage to all the funny shows we watched in the 1980s and 1990s,” Maidy wrote. “Unlike some recent reboots like Murphy Brown and Will & Grace, Night Court works because it blends the classic elements of the series that inspired it by bringing back legacy characters but also adding in a new main cast who echo the original series without being carbon copies. Fans of Night Court should enjoy this new series quite a bit, but I hesitate to think many new viewers will be as enamored by the old-school style and jokes of this throwback.” You can check out the rest of Maidy’s review right here.
Disney CEO Bob Iger recently revealed that the studio has secretly “killed a few projects” that they didn’t think were strong enough. Could one of those projects have been the live-action adaptation of The Sword in the Stone?
28 Weeks Later director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo was attached to direct the live-action adaptation of The Sword in the Stone, but he recently told Collider that Disney has put the project on hold for now. “I was attached a long time ago, and I prepped a lot for Disney for that movie,” Fresnadillo said. “I don’t know exactly what happened, but the studio decided to hold the project. So right now it’s in a holding situation, and I don’t know what’s going to happen, to be honest. But I think it’s a great story. I would be so keen to make it if they decided to greenlight the project.“
Fresnadillo continued, “This industry is always dealing with many projects, and you don’t know exactly which are the ones that are going to make it. So, yeah, The Sword in the Stone, I really hope that that happens because I think there is a big fanbase waiting for that.“
Although Fresnadillo won’t get to explore the realm of fantasy with The Sword in the Stone, he will get that chance with Damsel. The upcoming fantasy stars Millie Bobby Brown (Stranger Things) as a dutiful damsel who agrees to marry a handsome prince, only to find that the royal family has recruited her as a sacrifice to repay an ancient debut. She must rely on her wits and will to survive after being thrown into a cave with a fire-breathing dragon.
Fresnadillo explained to Tudum why he wanted to make the movie: “What I really loved in the script from Dan Mazeau was embracing the idea of a fantasy adventure and a princess and dragon story, but taking it into a place [where] it’s completely upside down. It was a very intense journey that I was so excited to design and to develop. At the core, this is such a beautiful story about a young woman becoming a strong, independent, and empowered adult. Elodie doesn’t have any kind of support. It’s a real survival experience.” Damsel will debut on Netflix tomorrow.
300 was a highly stylized retelling of the Battle of Thermopylae adapted from the comic by Frank Miller, and director Zack Snyder recently spoke about the movie on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast. Although historians have found plenty of evidence of homosexuality in Ancient Greece, 300 doesn’t really touch upon it. When asked if he ever thought “about putting a bunch of gay stuff in there,” Snyder replied that he was adapting a comic, not real history. However, the director did say that he’s been talking about a 300 series which would include more of those elements.
“It’s Frank’s book. I made what Frank wrote,” Snyder said. “And we’ve been talking about doing a series where I really wanted to introduce those concepts a lot more because I just feel like it’s important. If we go forward and do more in the ‘300’ universe, I would want to bring that part in. I think it just shakes it up again. Like, ‘What?!’ Right when you thought you knew how to feel, I’m going to make you feel another way.“
Snyder continued, “As we go forward, I would love to just kind of stress…Look, ‘300’ in some ways is one of the gayest movies ever made. It is incredibly male-centric, male-obsessed. You really feel very strong male energy from that movie, even though Gorgo (Lena Headey) is an incredibly strong female character. Maybe that was just me understanding, doing the research and understanding Spartan culture that that energy was in there. It was important to make sure there was a visceral sexuality to the way the men actually interacted. Regardless of whether you acknowledge it, it’s there.“
The director had once planned on returning to the 300 universe with one final movie, but Warner Bros. passed on the script. The project had evolved into a love story about the relationship between Alexander the Great and Hephaestion, and Snyder actually regained the rights to the script last year. “I just couldn’t really get my teeth into it,” Snyder said in 2021. “Over the pandemic, I had a deal with Warner Brothers and I wrote what was essentially going to be the final chapter in ‘300.’ But when I sat down to write it I actually wrote a different movie. I was writing this thing about Alexander the Great, and it just turned into a movie about the relationship between Hephaestion and Alexander. It turned out to be a love story. So it really didn’t fit in as the third movie.“
It doesn’t sound like the 300 series is being talked about on any serious level, but you never know what might happen.
You ever look at video game food and immediately start salivating because it looks so delicious? Yeah, me neither. Or at least I hadn’t, until I saw some steaks getting chef’d up on an open flame in Dragon’s Dogma 2, the meat glistening and marbling in such a lifelike way that I was sure it was expertly crafted CGI.…
