Another Mar10 Day has come and gone, and with it came several surprisingly big announcements. While Nintendo celebrated the Italian plumber’s holiday by solidifying release dates for the Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door remake and officially announcing a new animated movie, we here at Kotaku celebrated by asking…
Guy Ritchie’s The Gentlemen was hailed as a return to form when it hit theaters in 2020, and now the gangster franchise is being expanded with an all-new series on Netflix. While it doesn’t feature the same ensemble cast, the show is very much in the same vein as the film, with Ritchie serving as executive producer and director on the first two episodes.
The entire season is now available on Netflix, and to celebrate the release, we sat down with a big chunk of the ensemble cast. First up were Theo James and Daniel Ings, who play the blue-blooded brothers at the show’s core. They play the sons of a late Duke who’s left them somewhat impoverished but land-rich. They discover their late dad was in cahoots with a major marijuana dealer. With the older brother, Ings’s Freddy, heavily in debt to the mob, the younger, more responsible heir, James’ Eddie, must dive head-on into the underworld, something he proves to be good at.
In our chat, we talked a bit about the two guys having grown up watching Ritchie’s movies, along with the Godfather references, with Ings flattered by comparisons to John Cazale’s Fredo. We also speak to Kaya Scodelario, the great Ray Winstone and Harry Goodwins, who represent the gangster contingent. For Scodelario, this is a huge change of pace, but it is one she felt more comfortable diving into, with her saying she could relate more to the material than some of the more fantastical roles she’s taken in the past. Working with Ritchie is a dream for Goodwin, while Winstone proves why he’s such perfect casting as OG gangster Bobby Glass, with him channelling his character in a way that I got a big kick out of.
Check out our review of the seriously fun series right here. The Gentlemen is now streaming!
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Stephen King made it very well known that he wasn’t a fan of Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 adaptation of his book The Shining, so seventeen years later he took the chance to bring the story to the screen himself. He wrote the script for a three-part mini-series that was directed by Mick Garris and aired on ABC back in 1997 – and tomorrow, March 12th, Scream Factory is giving the mini-series version of The Shining a Blu-ray release! Copies are available for purchase at THIS LINK.
The mini-series version of The Shining has the following synopsis: Jack Torrance and his family move into the sprawling, vacant Overlook Hotel to get away from it all. Away from the alcoholism that derails Jack’s writing career. Away from the violent outbursts that mar Jack’s past. But Jack’s young son Danny knows better. He possesses a psychic gift called the shining — a gift the hotel’s vile spirits desperately want. In the hands of Stephen King, the “dead” Overlook comes horrifyingly alive. Phantoms lurk, the message “redrum” appears with scary frequency, and even garden topiary lurches into macabre existence in this atmospheric shocker.
The cast includes Steven Weber, Rebecca De Mornay, Courtland Mead, Wil Horneff, Melvin Van Peebles, Pat Hingle, Elliott Gould, John Durbin, Stanley Anderson, Cynthia Garris, and Miguel Ferrer, with appearances by Shawnee Smith, Sam Raimi, Frank Darabont, and King himself.
Here are the specs for Scream Factory’s The Shining Blu-ray release:
NEW 2K RESTORATION FROM AN INTERPOSITIVE
Audio Commentary by Author Stephen King, Director Mick Garris, Cast Members Steven Weber and Cynthia Garris, and Select Crew
11 Additional Scenes
1080p High Definition (1.33:1)
DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Stereo
English SDH Subtitles
What do you think of the 1997 mini-series version of The Shining? Will you be buying a copy of this Scream Factory Blu-ray release? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
The mini-series has its merits, but I can’t say I’m a fan of it… mainly because I feel that choosing Courtland Mead to play Danny Torrance was one of the worst casting decisions ever made. Apologies for criticizing a kid, but his acting is painful to watch.
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McDonald’s latest attempt at getting kids (and weebs) excited about eating at the fast-food chain involves mixing Hello Kitty characters with Yu-Gi-Oh creatures to create new Happy Meal toys as part of a limited-time collaboration.
McDonald’s latest attempt at getting kids (and weebs) excited about eating at the fast-food chain involves mixing Hello Kitty characters with Yu-Gi-Oh creatures to create new Happy Meal toys as part of a limited-time collaboration.
During the PS4 and PS5 era, PlayStation has established itself as a destination platform for exclusive series like Spider-Man, God of War, and The Last of Us. And now, former PlayStation boss Shawn Layden, who ran Sony’s gaming division from 2014 to 2019, has shared some ambivalent opinions on the nature of console…
During the PS4 and PS5 era, PlayStation has established itself as a destination platform for exclusive series like Spider-Man, God of War, and The Last of Us. And now, former PlayStation boss Shawn Layden, who ran Sony’s gaming division from 2014 to 2019, has shared some ambivalent opinions on the nature of console…
One year ago, it was announced that the Netflix streaming service had renewed the serial killer thriller series You for a fifth season, which will also be the final one. While executive producers Greg Berlanti and Sarah Schechter said that You was always intended to be a “five season journey”, showrunner Sera Gamble decided not to guide the journey to its conclusion. Although she remains attached as an executive producer, she has passed showrunner duties over to fellow executive producers Michael Foley and Justin W. Lo. Thankfully, Foley and Lo are no strangers to You. They have been working on the series since season 1 and season 2, respectively. Now You season 5 is gearing up for production, and Deadline reports that Madeline Brewer – whose credits include The Handmaid’s Tale, Orange Is the New Black, and the horror film Cam – has joined the cast.
Based on a series of novels by Caroline Kepnes (take a look at her work HERE), You was developed by Gamble and Berlanti. The show centers on Joe Goldberg, a man who will do just about anything when love is at stake.
Penn Badgley plays Joe Goldberg. According to Deadline, Brewer is taking on the series regular role of Bronte, an enigmatic and free-spirited playwright who comes to work for Joe Goldberg at his bookstore. As the two connect over literature and loss, she stokes in him a nostalgia for his former self, causing him to question everything his life has become.
Deadline doesn’t mention her, but given the way that season 4 ended, it’s probably a good bet that season 4’s Charlotte Ritchie will continue to have a prominent role in this final season. Ritchie plays heiress Kate Galvin, who ended up in a relationship with Joe.
Peter Friedlander, Netflix’s VP of Scripted Series, had this to say: “You became an instant sensation on Netflix with a resounding cultural impact that has grown season over season. We’re excited — and a bit terrified — to see how it all ends for Joe Goldberg, but one thing is for sure: You are in for an unforgettable ending.“
Coming to us from Warner Bros. Television, You also counts Gina Girolamo and Leslie Morgenstein among its executive producers.
Are you a fan of You? What do you think of Madeline Brewer joining the cast of the final season? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
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No matter how many different iterations of Batman there have been over the years, some folks still see colorful words explode across their memory of the caped crusader: BANG! POW! CRASH! For as dark as the adventures of Batman have progressively become, there’s no forgetting the brief era when the universe of “Batman” was a cartoonish, campy riot filled with tongue-in-cheek dialogue, scenery-chewing performances, and some very snug costumes. Comic books aside, it’s hard to believe that, for years, the TV show was essentially what people thought of when they pictured Gotham’s secretive hero, until 1989, when Tim Burton forever altered the way we view the Dark Knight.
The 60s TV show ran for three seasons on ABC. Still, the world got an extra dose of Batman soon after the first season concluded with Batman: The Movie, essentially a super-sized episode that brought four of Batman’s most famous foes together in one zany, candy-coated package. It contains some of the weirdest, wildest moments you’ll find in a movie about the Caped Crusader, so slip into your favorite spandex suit as we tell you WTF Happened to the very first “Batman” movie.
Batman’s origins go all the way back to 1939 when the character first appeared in issue number 27 of “Detective Comics.” Batman’s first stint in front of the camera came in 1943, with a 15-chapter serial series that played successfully in theaters. It was subsequently re-released in 1965 to considerable enthusiasm, which kickstarted the idea of reviving the character for a brand new series, this time made for television. Assigned to help bring it to life was producer William Dozier, once a film producer who’d turned his attention to the exciting and relatively new world of television in the mid-50s. Dozier reportedly was not excited by the prospect of doing a Batman TV show but soon realized the potential popularity of the title. He figured if he could make it appeal to both children and adults, he’d give ABC the hit show they were desperately seeking.
The series was to be infused with what Dozier called “the pop art technique of the exaggerated cliche,” which was another way of saying it would be campy. He thought doing a straight adaptation of the comics would not work, so he sought to deliberately “over-do” it to appeal to a larger audience. Incidentally, Dozier took on the role as the show’s infamous narrator, teasing the next week’s villains and urging you to tune in during the same Bat-time on the same Bat-channel.
Initially, a Batman movie was going to be shot before the TV series, sort of a larger-than-life pilot to introduce audiences to the vivid new world of the character. But ABC’s ratings were in the toilet at the time, and they sped up production on the TV series in order to get it on the boob tube as quickly as possible. Premiering in January of 1966, the show was an instant success, airing two times a week to the delight of millions of Americans.
The idea of doing a movie returned, this time to help sell the film to an even larger audience, particularly in international markets. Intriguingly, color television wasn’t widespread across the globe until the late 60s, so the movie would be the first chance many people overseas would get to see Batman in all its colorful glory. Additionally, Batman merchandise was selling very well at the time thanks to the success of the series; hence the producers saw an opportunity to really strike while the iron was hot.
In March 1966, Batman The Movie was officially announced in Variety. It was stated that a large portion of the main cast and the bulk of the TV show’s production team would return. What wasn’t known publicly at the time was that the film almost didn’t feature Batman and Robin actors Adam West and Burt Ward. According to a 20th Century Fox memo leaked many years later, the late Adam West was asking for a salary of $150,000, a very large sum indeed for the time. If the studio didn’t agree to that demand, West would accept $100,000, understanding that he would be given a star vehicle the next year at a salary of $125,000. Apparently, Burt Ward was making a similar demand for a substantial raise to star in the film.
Fox balked at this and was prepared to move forward without West or Ward in the roles they made popular. The internal memo revealed they were going to start auditioning new actors immediately in order to stay on schedule… However, deals with the two were met and the dynamic duo went back to the Batcave. West was allegedly paid $100,000, while Ward received $35,000. West did get one of his specific requests met, however: the actor wanted the movie to feature more Bruce Wayne, as the majority of his face was obviously concealed during the TV series. The producers agreed, leading to a handful of extended sequences in the movie featuring Bruce Wayne sans his famous costume.
At the studio’s request, the story was to feature four of the show’s most popular villains; so it went that Burgess Meredith reprised his iconic Penguin, Frank Gorshin came back as the Riddler, Cesar Romero returned as The Joker and Julie Newmar was set to play Catwoman once again.
Principal photography was slated to begin in April of 1966. Still, it was delayed when it became apparent Julie Newmar was not going to be able to fulfill her obligation to the part of Catwoman. The reason why has been debated over the years: Some say it was thanks to a conflict in her schedule, as she was just about to start work on another project, while it’s also been suggested that she had sustained an injury and was unable to perform the physicality needed for the role. Either way, Newmar was replaced with former Miss America Lee Meriwether, and production was pushed back approximately two weeks. Meriwether had only appeared in one movie prior to Batman but was a regular fixture on television. According to the actress, the catsuit was very uncomfortable to wear, so much so that she’d get third-degree burns on her shoulders when outside in the heat. Meeeouch.
The Batman: The Movie script was evidently written in ten days by Lorenzo Semple Jr., who’d written several episodes for the series. Shooting would take place over the course of about 30 days in Los Angeles. The budget for Batman was estimated to be some twenty times the cost of a single episode, indicating the studio’s faith in the project. The larger budget allowed for some cool new Bat-toys to be introduced to the world, such as the Bat-copter and the Bat-boat. The latter was an original creation by a company called Glastron Industries, which was based in Texas. As a thanks to their work on the film, the studio held the world premiere of the film at the company’s headquarters in Austin. The helicopter, however, was an already-functioning vehicle which the studio leased for $750 a day.
One of the film’s most memorable sequences is an absolutely hilarious bit where Batman tries in vain to dispose of a bomb. The sequence goes on for an amusingly long stretch of time, about three minutes, but according to West, shooting it took somewhere in the neighborhood of five hours. West mused that it was fortunate he was in good shape at the time, otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to run around like that all day.
A much scarier incident happened during filming in a water tank on Fox’s ranch in Malibu, when Batman and Robin are infiltrating the Penguin’s submarine. One of the stuntmen playing a henchman of the Penguin’s dove into the water and hit his head on a pole just underneath the water’s surface. He was knocked unconscious and apparently went unnoticed for a brief amount of time; thankfully, when he was retrieved, he was brought to the hospital and ended up okay.
The film’s most infamous sequence involves a rubber shark and, naturally, some shark repellent to get rid of it. While apparently no qualms were raised about this ridiculous-looking effect during production, evidently, producers weren’t happy with the final result of this scene because of the sound effects of Batman punching the shark – because of course, that’s what’s silly about this scene, the sound effects. Adam West reminded them that the shark looked incredibly fake; hence, the sound effects didn’t really matter. After all, this was “Batman.”
One thing Adam West and Burt Ward had to be thankful for was that they only had to focus on one script for the entirety of the shoot. What do we mean by that? On the series, sometimes they would be shooting sequences for multiple episodes on the same day – meaning if they were shooting in a particular location that would pop up in a handful of episodes, shooting material for two or three different episodes that same day would be more efficient. This of course, would lead to some confusion for West and Ward, who sometimes didn’t know which episode they were working on at any given time. This wasn’t a very common phenomenon, but it would happen occasionally out of necessity. Clearly, it wasn’t an issue on the movie set.
Batman The Movie came out in August of ’66, mere months after production had started. As mentioned, the premiere was held in Austin, Texas, where several of the actors actually showed up in costume.
The film didn’t do exceptionally well in the States, but it broke even with around $4 million in gross. One theory for this was that the audience didn’t want to pay for something they were already watching on television. However, the film played better in international territories, where the “Batman” series wasn’t quite well known. At the very least, the brand was expanding.
Even though it wasn’t a box office hit, a sequel to it was tentatively planned by the studio; it would’ve come out between seasons two and three, just as the first movie came out between seasons one and two. But as season two aired, the ratings for the show began to sag. Batman fatigue was settling in. This led to the decision to scrap the Batman Movie sequel, which would have focused on the introduction of Batgirl, Barbara Gordon, who was ultimately brought into the third and final season of the series.
But as we’re well aware, that was far from the end of Batman. Thanks to persevering on the comic book page for decades, Batman returned to big-screen life in 1989 and hasn’t looked back. Having appeared in over a dozen movies in both live-action and animated form, Batman is still probably the most famous superhero in the world. Whether he’s gleefully dancing the Batusi or busting heads in a neo-noir hellscape, the Caped Crusader keeps coming back again and again, and neither a bomb nor a bullet nor a shark can hope to stop him. Holy longevity, Batman!
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Larry David’s popular HBO sitcom Curb Your Enthusiasm is closing the book this season and the final year of the show has been in full swing. This year would also, unfortunately, see the passing of one of the show’s stars and close friend of Larry David, Richard Lewis. As the show makes its final run, it would continue to bring on guest appearances of certain actors to play over-the-top versions of themselves. David would previously have hilarious clashes with famous guest stars like Shaquille O’Neal, Michael J. Fox and the Seinfeld cast. This year brought in Full House star Lori Loughlin as she pokes fun at her college admissions scandal from 2019 (which would also involve Felicity Huffman).
Loughlin uses Larry as a sponsor to enter a country club as she loves to play golf, and hilariously, Loughlin hasn’t learned a thing from her experiences as she keeps cheating. Curb writer Jeff Schaffer explained how the guest spot came about to The Hollywood Reporter, saying, “This was an idea that we loved from a writer named Teddy Bressman. But it’s not going to be funny with some sort of thinly veiled surrogate. It only works if we get Lori. So we called her manager up, who loved it, and who then talked to Lori, and she said: ‘I’m in, I’m totally game.’ And she was. She was so great. Everything we threw at her, she was game to do. She makes the episode. I’m so glad she wanted to do it.”
Schaffer and David would brainstorm the plot with Loughlin in mind. However, whenever they write episodes with special guest stars, they would do so before even approaching them about it. Schaffer admits that this time, their approach was different, “We had a lot of ideas we wanted to do, but we asked Lori first. We pitched the general concept of: ‘You get into the club, and then we find out how ultra-competitive you are, and how you’re willing to bend the rules or break them.’ And then once she agreed, we really started hammering out the details of the script. This time, we finally learned our lesson. We didn’t want to go write the entire episode, and then have to throw it away.”
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