Month: April 2024

Dwayne Johnson, late, Red One

Dwayne Johnson is typically seen as an extremely hard-working dude who juggles a variety of projects ranging from movies, TV shows, the WWE, and even his own brand of tequila, but a new report alleges that the actor’s work ethic actually leaves something to be desired.

According to an extensive report by The Wrap, Dwayne Johnson suffers from “chronic lateness,” allegedly showing up to set as much as eight hours late. This behaviour reportedly contributed to the budget of Red One, his upcoming Christmas movie for Amazon MGM, spiralling over $250 million. Yikes.

The only thing Dwayne was consistent at was being chronically late,” said one insider. The report states that Johnson was late on average of seven to eight hours per day and even missed several entire days. According to the insiders quoted in the report, this cost the production at least $50 million. “It was a f***ing disaster,” the insider said. “Dwayne truly doesn’t give a f***.” However, other sources say that Johnson was never more than an hour late to set and a spokesperson for Amazon MGM flat out denied any issues.

Dwayne Johnson and Seven Bucks have been incredible partners on ‘Red One’—a film that audiences of all ages are going to love this holiday season,” the spokesperson said. “Our testing has been very strong — the reaction from CinemaCon speaks for itself — and we couldn’t have made it without Dwayne’s constant work and support. Any reporting that implies that we got to this point with him showing up seven-eight hours late to set is both ridiculous and false.

Johnson’s issue with tardiness aren’t just confined to Red One, as other sources say he exhibited similar behaviour on other projects, including Ballers. A former production assistant on the HBO series said Johnson was “regularly three to four hours late to set. Keeping 100+ crew members waiting for no reason.” One of Johnson’s co-stars on Rampage even kept a record of when Dwayne would show up on set, which was reportedly an average of four to five hours late daily. As for the reason why, one studio insider said it stems from “his absolute refusal to work more than a four-or-five hour day,” with another suggesting, “It’s a control thing.

The chronic lateness contributed to fights with costars, including Vin Diesel on the Fast & Furious movies and Ryan Reynolds on Red Notice. The report added that Johnson and Reynolds had a “huge fight” on set after Reynolds was fed up with Johnson’s tardiness, but that the pair later patched things up.

In addition to the chronic lateness, the report also claims that Johnson has another habit on set — peeing in water bottles. “On set, away from his trailer, if he needs to pee, he doesn’t go to the public bathroom,” one insider said. “He pees in a Voss water bottle and his team or a PA has to dispose of it.” This is something the actor has previously admitted to during his workouts in order to save time, but another insider claimed that Johnson would never ask a production assistant or anyone else to dispose of his pee bottles.

What do you make of this? Does Dwayne Johnson strike you as someone who would show up eight hours late?

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Mufasa: The Lion King, Barry Jenkins

Barry Jenkins, the director behind movies such as Moonlight and If Beale Street Could Talk, may not have seemed like the obvious choice to helm Mufasa: The Lion King, but he’s not about to let people accuse him of selling out.

The first teaser trailer for Mufasa: The Lion King officially debuted yesterday, and Barry Jenkins shared it on social media. This prompted some to say that the director is “too good and talented for [Bob] Iger’s soulless machine,” but Jenkins was quick to defend himself. “There is nothing soulless about The Lion King,” Jenkins wrote on X. “For decades children have sat in theaters all over the world experiencing collective grief for the first time, engaging Shakespeare for the first time, across aisles in myriad languages. A most potent vessel for communal empathy.

Another commenter chimed in, saying, “Come on man. I interviewed you when you premiered Moonlight at TIFF, and that Barry Jenkins wouldn’t have said what you just said. You can do a Disney movie for the check, in order to work on your passion projects at a later time, but you don’t have to shill like this.” In response, Jenkins said, “Bruh what kind of logic is that?

Jenkins appeared on CinemaCon in Las Vegas earlier this month to promote Mufasa: The Lion King, explaining that he had seen the original Disney animated movie over 200 times and knew he had to take the job. “When the script came to me I was fascinated by watching these complex people dealing with complex emotions…this film explores Mufasa rise to become the heroic king that we know,” Jenkins said.

Mufasa: The Lion King enlists Rafiki to relay the legend of Mufasa to young lion cub Kiara, daughter of Simba and Nala, with Timon and Pumbaa lending their signature schtick,” reads the synopsis. “Told in flashbacks, the story introduces Mufasa as an orphaned cub, lost and alone until he meets a sympathetic lion named Taka—the heir to a royal bloodline. The chance meeting sets in motion an expansive journey of an extraordinary group of misfits searching for their destiny—their bonds will be tested as they work together to evade a threatening and deadly foe.

Mufasa: The Lion King will hit theaters on December 20th.

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Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, mo-cap edition

We’re still a week away from the theatrical release of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, but director Wes Ball already has a fun idea for the Blu-ray release of the film. While speaking with Ape Nation (via GamesRadar), Ball revealed that he’s working on a special feature for the home-media release which will allow viewers to watch the entire movie without CGI. This means that audiences will get to watch Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes with every actor in their mo-cap suits prior to being transformed into apes by Weta FX.

I’m doing a little thing for the DVD where you can watch the movie – the entire movie – with the raw dailies,” Ball said. “I’m working on that, where you’ll be able to watch and see both the final [cut] and the raw dailies. You can see how close they get, what they do, and how they stitch everything together. It’s amazing, and you can just sit there and enjoy it.

Ball continued: “I’ll do some commentary over it with Erik [Winquist], our VFX [supervisor]. I think it’s gonna be great. For geeks like us, it’s gonna be a first. They’ve never seen this kind of thing. Some of the hardest stuff in VFX is how you get CG characters to interact with others. So we have a human girl hugging a CG ape and it’s like, ‘How do you do that?’” We’ve certainly seen plenty of mo-cap footage in behind-the-scenes features from the prior Apes movies, but to see Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes in its entirety in that format? That’s fun.

Our own Chris Bumbray caught an extended preview of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes at CinemaCon in Las Vegas and was impressed, calling the footage “pretty jaw-dropping” and a worthy continuation of the modern trilogy.

Directed by Wes Ball, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apesbreathes new life into the global, epic franchise set several generations in the future following Caesar’s reign, in which apes are the dominant species living harmoniously and humans have been reduced to living in the shadows. As a new tyrannical ape leader builds his empire, one young ape undertakes a harrowing journey that will cause him to question all that he has known about the past and to make choices that will define a future for apes and humans alike.Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes will hit theaters on May 10th.

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Jenna Ortega is heading into production on season 2 of the Addams Family-inspired Netflix series Wednesday and has a prominent role in the long-awaited sequel Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, but she’s no longer a part of two other franchises. After starring in Scream (2022) and Scream VI, she reportedly asked for a substantial pay raise to return for Scream 7, despite knowing that request wouldn’t go over well with the producers at Spyglass Media – and sure enough, Spyglass opted not to bring her back for Scream 7. Now the full trailer for the upcoming Netflix animated series Jurassic World: Chaos Theory – which serves as a follow-up to the animated series Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous – reveals that Ortega’s Camp Cretaceous character Brooklynn has been killed off! You can watch the trailer in the embed above.

Jurassic World: Chaos Theory will be released through Netflix by the end of 2024. Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous, set in the world of the Jurassic Park and Jurassic World movies, ran for five seasons and a total of forty-nine episodes (plus one special), wrapping up in 2022.

Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous told the story of dinosaur fanatic Darius Bowman, who was given the opportunity to visit Camp Cretaceous, an exclusive adventure dinosaur camp on Isla Nublar. Once there, Darius met five other teenagers—Ben, Yaz, Brooklynn, Kenji, and Sammy—who were also chosen for the once-in-a-lifetime experience. However, when the dinosaurs broke free from their habitats, the campers were stranded and forced to venture across the island without any help in the hopes of finding a way out aliveJurassic World: Chaos Theory takes place after the park has closed, after the kingdom has fallen, and a new era of chaos begins…

Scott Kreamer, a showrunner on both series, told Entertainment Weekly, “Bringing Camp Cretaceous to life was an absolutely amazing experience, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to begin an exciting new chapter with Jurassic World: Chaos Theory.” Kreamer executive produces Chaos Theory with fellow showrunner Aaron Hammersley, as well as Steven Spielberg, Colin Trevorrow, and Frank Marshall. DreamWorks Animation is the animation studio. The series is produced by Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment.

Have you watched all five seasons of Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous, and are you looking forward to Jurassic World: Chaos Theory? What do you think of Jenna Ortega’s character being killed off? Check out the trailer, then share your thoughts by leaving a comment below.

Jurassic World: Chaos Theory

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