Alone in the Dark, a 2024 reimagining of the 1992 survival horror classic that paved the way for generations of horror games after it, is out on March 20, 2024 on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Windows. Following the story of either Emily Hartwood (played by actress Jodie Comer from Killing Eve) or Edward Carnby (played by…
Alone in the Dark, a 2024 reimagining of the 1992 survival horror classic that paved the way for generations of horror games after it, is out on March 20, 2024 on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Windows. Following the story of either Emily Hartwood (played by actress Jodie Comer from Killing Eve) or Edward Carnby (played by…
Back in January, it was revealed that frequent collaborators Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan – who have worked on Fruitvale Station, Creed, Black Panther, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever together as director and cast member, and have other collaborations that Coogler didn’t direct – have been developing a new project in secret. Coogler has written the script for this project, which is being described as a genre picture that Coogler will be directing and Jordan is attached to star in. The movie found a home at Warner Bros., and we’ve heard that it’s expected to have a budget of $90 million. Now we know when Warner Bros. is going to send it out into the world, as Deadline reports that it’s scheduled for a theatrical release on March 7, 2025.
Deadline hears that “the script is a period genre film that is a true star vehicle for Jordan.” There is so much secrecy surrounding this genre project, it was previously reported that “executives and buyers were forced to make the pilgrimage to the Beverly Hills offices of WME, the agency that represents Coogler and Jordan, in order to take a gander on the script and get details.” When the project was looking for a studio, there was talk of “potential co-ownership of the IP,” so it sounds like Coogler and Jordan could be aiming at starting a franchise.
There have been rumblings and rumors that this could turn out to be a vampire movie, but that hasn’t been confirmed.
Coogler (who is also developing a reboot of the TV series The X-Files) will be producing the film with Proximity Media partners Zinzi Coogler and Sev Ohanian. Rebecca Cho serves as executive producer alongside Will Greenfield and two-time Oscar-winning composer Ludwig Goransson (who won his first Oscar for his work on Coogler’s Black Panther and his second for Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer). Production is set to begin in April.
Are you interested in this mysterious genre project from Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan? Are you hoping it does turn out to be a vampire movie when it reaches the big screen in 2025? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
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When news of Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama’s sudden passing hit social media, I found myself staring at a black-and-white photograph of the legendary artist. Toriyama’s iconic work has always been immediately recognizable, a charming calling card that defines everything from Chrono Trigger’s larger-than-life…
When news of Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama’s sudden passing hit social media, I found myself staring at a black-and-white photograph of the legendary artist. Toriyama’s iconic work has always been immediately recognizable, a charming calling card that defines everything from Chrono Trigger’s larger-than-life…
The 1979 children’s fantasy classic will be getting new life as a rebooted series of films. The new franchise will be coming from Michael Ende Productions and will be based on his source material. The novel saw a live-action adaptation in 1984 with Wolfgang Petersen co-writing and directing the film. Then, in 1990, George Miller (not Furiosa‘s George Miller) would direct a sequel that starred Jonathan Brandis. And finally, a third movie starring Free Willy‘s Jason James Richter would follow in 1994.
According to Deadline, the series of films are set to be produced by Iain Canning and Emile Sherman for their production company See-Saw. Meanwhile, Roman Hocke and Ralph Gassmann will also be on board for Michael Ende Productions. Michael Ende Productions and See-Saw are set to collaborate with Lorenzo De Maio, who will serve as an executive producer on all the films. Wolf-Dieter Von Gronau, See-Saw’s Simon Gillis and Helen Gregory are also set to serve as EPs on the upcoming franchise.
The producers, Canning and Sherman, expressed their excitement for the project, saying, “The Neverending Story is a beloved book that has captured the imagination of generations of fans all over the world. Bringing literary worlds to screen is part of See-Saw’s DNA, and we are passionate about cinematic storytelling and entertaining audiences. We have such love for the book and are honored to be working with Michael Ende Productions on this collaboration to bring audiences back to Fantastica.”
Roman Hocke would add on, “The Neverending Story is more than just a story. It is THE story of all stories, because it tells us, alongside the breathtaking journey of Atréju and Bastian in a fantasy world, the real reason why stories play such an important role in our lives that we want to internalize them in all shapes and forms throughout our lives. Without stories, there would be no individuality, no personalities, no sense of meaning in the world. We want to transform this unique story into a great cinematic work of art for a wide audience. We feel lucky to have See-Saw Films by our side for this great task!”
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PLOT: After having relocated to NYC to fight ghosts, the Spengler (Carrie Coon, Paul Rudd, McKenna Grace & Finn Wolfhard) find themselves tangling with an old nemesis of the Ghostbusters, Mayor Walter Peck (William Atherton), who wants to shut them down for good. Meanwhile, an ancient evil will be unleashed over the city, releasing all the spirits caught over the last forty years.
REVIEW: I was a big fan of Ghostbusters: Afterlife. Jason Reitman’s film skillfully blended nostalgia with a new take on the franchise that opened up the Ghostbusters universe in an inclusive way. It welcomed new fans without alienating old ones, something the 2016 reboot notoriously failed at. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire seems to be aimed at building the franchise out more extensively. While it’s still a fun, nostalgia-driven return to the Ghostbusting universe, it’s not as good as the last film and spreads itself too thin to do the new characters justice.
One thing fans are excited about is that the original surviving Ghostbusters have more screen time. That’s partly true. Ernie Hudson’s Winston and Dan Aykroyd’s Ray are part of the ensemble here, with significant arcs of their own. Murray, as Venkman, is still turning in more of a glorified cameo, with his role welcome but ultimately inconsequential. It’s too bad because the OG guys still have the dynamite chemistry that made the original film such a hit. Murray seems like he’s having fun, especially when Annie Potts suits up as Janine towards the end, and it’s great to see that the old gang still has it.
But, it can’t be denied that they can’t help but steal the thunder of the new cast, as when they show up at the end, you forget about the new characters, some of whom have very little to do in this instalment. Finn Wolfhard, in particular, seems to have a limited role, with him primarily busy chasing Slimer around the old firehouse and barely figuring into the plot. The same goes for Celeste O’Connor and Logan Kim, who return as Lucky and Podcast, with the plot stretching to explain why these Oklahoma kids are suddenly in New York.
A lot of the new screen time is swallowed by Kumail Nanjiani, who seems like he’s being soft-launched as the potential star of his own spinoff, playing the hapless, ne’er-do-well descendant of an ancient family with a connection to the movie’s big bad, a spirit named Garraka that can freeze people to death with the power of fright. Nanjiani is likeable and funny, but with so many characters, the under two-hour running time is packed. His role, coupled with a lot of time devoted to Winston’s high-tech ghost-busting organization, all feels almost Marvel-ish in how transparent they are about planting the seeds for future spin-offs.
McKenna Grace’s Phoebe remains the defacto lead, with her going through some growing pains because she’s being sidelined from the family biz due to William Atherton’s Peck and his machinations. Her subplot is the most affecting part of the film, especially once she becomes involved with a tragic ghost (played by Emily Alyn Lind) with a link to Garraka, who ultimately doesn’t amount to much of a villain. Making the bad guy a giant CGI creature doesn’t do the film any favours, as if you think of the classic Ghostbusters villains, like Gozer and Vigo; they always had recognizably human avatars.
Even Paul Rudd and Carrie Coon feel like they have less to do this time, as both have become these kinds of idealized parental figures, as opposed to the more complicated versions they played in the last film. They just go with the flow here, although Rudd and Coon can’t help but be likeable. I wish co-writers Jason Reitman and new director Gil Kenan did more with them.
All that said, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is still entertaining, even if it takes a solid hour of exposition for the film to feel like it’s moving. Gil Kenan does a good job directing, even if it lacks the unique American Graffiti meets Ghostbusters vibe Reitman brought to the last film. This one feels more like a run-of-the-mill studio film, although I like that they’re still using many of the old Elmer Bernstein themes on the soundtrack, along with Ray Parker Jr’s song.
Another plus is that Ernie Hudson has his meatiest Ghostbusters role to date, and the idea of Winston, Ray, Janine and Venkman all still being pals in their golden years is touching, as is the idea here that – just because someone’s gotten old doesn’t mean they have to pass the torch. The film is being billed as a Ghost Corps production, which I suppose means Sony will try to make this an MCU-style franchise. If they want to make a spin-off, doing a proper Ghostbusters 3 focused on the now-elderly original characters would be amazing. Everyone still seems game, and if you let them do their own thing in another movie, maybe it would give the new characters established in these new movies a chance to come into their own in a Creed 3-style follow-up.
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Boy is about to meet Doc, as it has been announced that a documentary on the popular series Boy Meets World could be headed our way. But before you get too excited about revisiting Cory, Topanga and Shawn, those behind the project aren’t even sure if and when it will come out.
Appearing at 90s Con, Pod Meets World hosts Danielle Fishel (Topanga Lawrence), Will Friedle (Eric Matthews) and Rider Strong (Shawn Hunter) unveiled that a crew is indeed working on a documentary about Boy Meets World, compiling what little behind-the-scenes footage there is and interviewing fans. As Fishel put it, “We aren’t even sure if it’s ever gonna go anywhere or not. We’re not necessarily intending on doing anything with it…It really kicked into high gear last year when we started the podcast and we started doing some live shows.”
Strong encouraged the project, adding, “I think there’s going to be a time whether it’s in five years, 10 years or another 30 years where we’re going to look back on the experience that we’re all having now and wish we could relive it and experience it again.” As will fans, so here’s hoping that a Boy Meets World doc could be made available for us and not just kept as a visual memory book for the cast.
The Pod Meets World trio was joined by Trina McGee (Angela Moore), the 96-year-old William Daniels (beloved teacher/neighbor Mr. Feeny), William Russ and Betsy Randle (Alan and Amy Matthews), Anthony Tyler Quinn (Jonathan Turner, who vanished after season four’s “Cult Fiction”), and Bonnie Bartlett Daniels (Dean Lila Bolander), who I actually did not realize was married to William Daniels (since 1951!).
That’s a huge chunk of the core Boy Meets World cast, but you might be wondering where the boy was. No, not Stuart Minkus, but rather Ben Savage, who has done just about everything to avoid being part of the continued Boy Meets World fandom, chiefly by entering politics. The team has subsequently said that Savage “ghosted” them. As for Maitland Ward (Rachel McGuire), well, she’s still in the entertainment business…
Did you watch Boy Meets World? Do you hope the documentary gets seen by its fans?
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Plot: Professor Charles Xavier is dead, and his Children of X, led by Cyclops and Jean Grey, honor his memory by ushering the X-Men into a new era. When Magneto reveals that Charles left him everything, including the Xavier Institute and a fractured team of mourning mutants, the two sides must work together to overcome adversity and fulfill a promise to their fallen father figure and friend to strive for peace and equality in a broken world.
Review: Please fetch me my flannel, a chain wallet, and a pair of 18-hole Oxblood Dr. Martens because it’s the ’90s all over again! When Marvel Studios announced plans to revive its classic X-Men animated series, childhoods trembled inside fragile minds. Can Marvel recapture the feeling of waking up on a Saturday morning, a respite from educational prisons, to fight for equality alongside mutantkind? Is this series nothing more than a nostalgia play as Marvel hopes to win back fans exhausted by the Marvel Cinematic Universe? I’m pleased to say that fans will pop their claws for X-Men ’97, and there are many reasons to be excited about this revival.
Before we get too deep in the weeds, I’ve only seen the first three episodes of X-Men ’97 Season 1 at the time of this review. I would have happily watched more, but three action-packed episodes were all Disney sent to press outlets. Thankfully, I only needed two episodes to become convinced that what Marvel is doing with X-Men ’97 is nothing short of love letter brilliance.
Smartly, X-Men ’97 is a continuation of the original series. The classic X-Men theme song from the jump transports you back to 1997, when the fifth and “final” season concluded. While not a one-to-one recreation of the original, the art retains the original show’s ’90s aesthetic, though characters and environments are polished. The mixture of hand-drawn art and CGI is seamless, giving the series a look and feel that complements the original presentation. Overall, X-Men ’97 displays a vibrancy the original series could not achieve due to technological restrictions.
For better or worse, the characters look, act, and sound like you would expect or remember. I say “for worse” because I find some personalities grating, like Cyclops’ “boy scout” routine or Morph’s inability to read a room. Still, this is who those characters are, and the writing team does an excellent job of capturing what makes each member of the X-Men iconic, if overtly dramatic, at all times. If you think villain monologuing is obnoxious, wait until Cyclops (Ray Chase) regales you with woes about managing the X-Men in Xavier’s stead. Or, how about Morph (JP Karliak) lecturing you as your dead mentor and father figure before your morning cup of coffee?
The first episode, “To Me, My X-Men,” onboards new viewers, with Roberto da Costa (Sunspot) as a conduit for those who might not be familiar with the mutant struggle. In some ways, X-Men ’97 assumes you’ve seen the original series. The decision to pick up the story where things left off in 1997 was a blessing and a curse. Yes, you can stream X-Men on Disney+, but what about audiences looking to dive directly into the new stuff or young audiences who missed the original series entirely? I was shocked that Disney failed to provide a recap of pivotal events from the original series before diving into the revival, though maybe that’s part of the official Disney+ launch.
While X-Men ’97 is big on superhero spectacle, personality clashes, and societal strife, it also shares a gripping story about othering, meaning how some people treat others as intrinsically different from themselves. X-Men, at their core, are an allegory for racism and nonconformity. Despite their numbers (which are forever in jeopardy), mutants represent the minority, the individuals who wish to coexist without prejudice and hatred haunting their every step. X-Men ’97 embraces the mutant struggle and confronts it head-on via Roberto’s fear of rejection or Magneto walking a new path based on a promise to a fallen friend.
The show also takes time to get personal with some mutants and touch on their inner turmoil. Whether we’re exploring the depths of Rogue’s loneliness and desire to experience physical touch, the nerfing of Storm (you’ll see), or Jean’s identity crisis (again, you’ll see), X-Men ’97 lets characters breathe and develop beyond their part in the ongoing war for equality. There’s also plenty of relationship drama, which I greatly enjoy. Who doesn’t love a toxic mutant love triangle? I can’t tell you how many times I shouted, “Just bone already,” at my monitor. That’s the good stuff.
Speaking of Magneto (Matthew Watterson), the move to position the Master of Magnetism as the new leader of the X-Men and owner of Xavier’s institute is fantastic. Here is a mutant born from rage and hatred who feels honor-bound to his greatest frenemy and all the change that oath brings. Not only must Magneto prove his sincerity to the X-Men, but he must also prove it to himself. This dynamic presents some excellent pathos as Magneto’s memories of genocide and near-extinction stobe inside his skull.
Other members of the team featured in X-Men ’97 include Jean Grey (Jennifer Hale), Rogue (Lenore Zann), Gambit (A.J. LoCascio), Wolverine (Cal Dodd), Beast (George Buza), Bishop (Isaac Robinson-Smith), Jubille (Holly Chou), and Storm (Allison Sealy-Smith), so far. I can appreciate why some fans would take umbrage with select voice actors from the original series not returning for X-Men ’97, though the cast does bring a unique flare to each character. At least Dodd, Sealy-Smith, and Zann return, alongside a handful of others.
Another outstanding aspect of X-Men ’97 is the action. The synergistic displays of power during combat had smiling from ear to ear. Here’s an example: During a fight, Wolverine imbues his claws with Gambit’s pure light kinetic energy, then modifies the classic attack, the “Fast Ball Special,” into a deadly display of explosive power. It’s a real “Holy sh*t” moment, and there’s plenty of them.
When you combine X-Men ’97‘s synthesized ’90s-inspired score with an animation team able to reproduce the look and feel of the original show, you have something special. While I hope X-Men ’97 takes more narrative risks as the story continues, I’m somewhat astonished by what the creative team achieved with this revival. It’s rare for a project this risky to arrive as polished and on-point as I view it to be. The series is off to a solid start, with much room to grow and give everyone a taste of what they want. I’ll definitely tune in for the remainder of the season when it drops onto Disney+, and I look forward to seeing how fans react when one of their most beloved animated series returns for more mutant-related mayhem and sociopolitical commentary.
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The first official trailer for Star Wars: The Acolyte was finally released earlier today, and the reaction seems to be fairly mixed, with some loving it and others saying they won’t be watching. However, series creator Leslye Headland told the official Star Wars website that The Acolyte isn’t what you think it is, teasing plenty of mysteries to come.
“Whatever you think The Acolyte is, it’s not that,” Headland said. “It’s a drop in the bucket, baby. Just hang in there and check it out.” The creator also teased that The Acolyte will include more than a few nods to the Star Wars Extended Universe. “There’s also some EU lore that I decided to put in because I thought it was so cool and no one told me I couldn’t,” she said. “There are a couple of really big EU ideas that are utilized both early on in the series and later in the series.“
While speaking with THR, Headland teased the mystery aspect of the series, as well as its samurai-movie influences. “One thing to know about the show is that we’ve been talking about it as a mystery-thriller. It is a serialized story, so each episode gives you more information about the story,” she said. “We were obviously influenced by samurai films and wuxia films, but also films like Rashomon, where you see one story and then you see it done a different way. So, what separates [Star Wars: The Acolyte] from some of the other Star Wars series is that it’s told in that particular way.“
Set hundreds of years before the events of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, The Acolyte takes place during the High Republic era of the franchise. This era has been explored in books and comics, but Headland said, “You don’t need to know too much to enter the story [of The Acolyte].” The series stars Amandla Stenberg (Bodies Bodies Bodies), Lee Jung-jae (Squid Game), Manny Jacinto (The Good Place), Dafne Keen (Logan), Charlie Barnett (You), Jodie Turner-Smith (Anne Boleyn), Rebecca Henderson (Russian Doll), Dean-Charles Chapman (Game of Thrones), Joonas Suotamon (Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker), and Carrie-Anne Moss (The Matrix Resurrections).
The Acolyte logline reads: “An investigation into a shocking crime spree pits a respected Jedi Master (Lee) against a dangerous warrior from his past (Stenberg). As more clues emerge, they travel down a dark path where sinister forces reveal all is not what it seems.” The Acolyte will premiere on Disney+ on June 4th
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