I don’t know that many folks expected Helldivers 2 to be one of the biggest games of the year. Massive games like Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, even Palworld, have come and gone in about the same time, but everyone still seems to be playing Helldivers 2 months after release. And for at least one person, that ubiquity is…
I don’t know that many folks expected Helldivers 2 to be one of the biggest games of the year. Massive games like Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, even Palworld, have come and gone in about the same time, but everyone still seems to be playing Helldivers 2 months after release. And for at least one person, that ubiquity is…
By now, everyone agrees that 1985’s Fletch, starring Chevy Chase, is a classic comedy. Indeed, the mixture of thriller and comedy made the movie iconic in its own way, with it an adaptation of the classic series by Gregory Mcdonald. In it, Chase played investigative reporter Irwin M. Fletcher, who is hired to kill a millionaire in a case of mistaken identity and is able to uncover a conspiracy involving corrupt cops, drug trafficking, and more. What made the movie unique compared to many eighties comedies was the compelling storyline, which came from Mcdonald’s book, the solid mixture of action and comedy, and that amazing soundtrack by Harold Faltermeyer.
It was such a big hit that in 1989, it got a sequel, Fletch Lives. However, while the first film is considered a classic, many maintain that the sequel is terrible, mostly because it didn’t bother to adapt one of Mcdonald’s novels and just became another Chevy Chase comedy. Indeed, the film is lacking the action that made the first film so unique in Chase’s career, with it being replaced by more disguises and pratfalls. The film was poorly received by critics and seemed to end what should have been a long-running series for Chase, with no further Fletch films being made until the recent Confess, Fletch starring Jon Hamm. But, as our host Kier Gomes maintains, the movie is a bit of a classic in its own way, with it consistently funny (maybe even more so than the original), with a lot of the elements that made the first film work featured just as strongly here. While many believe the film was a flop, it actually opened in first place at the box office, and outgrossed other classics from the year, such as Road House and the James Bond movie Licence to Kill. So why is its reputation so bad? We dig into it in this deep dive into Fletch Lives!
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Oh, Captain, my Captain! Hayley Atwell (Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, Captain America: The First Avenger) is joining the cast of Netflix’s Heartstopper, and she’s bringing Jonathan Bailey (Bridgerton, Jurassic World 4, Wicked) and Eddie Marsan (21 Grams, The World’s End, Happy-Go-Lucky) along for the ride.
Heartstopper is about love, friendship, loyalty, and mental illness. It encompasses all the small stories of Nick and Charlie’s lives that make something more significant. Charlie (Joe Locke) and Nick (Kit Connor) attend the same school but only meet the day they’re made to sit together. Sparks (or leaves) begin to fly, and soon, the duo falls in love and embarks on a relationship worth aspiring to. Netflix’s Heartstopper also expands the roles of Nick and Charlie’s friends, who each have challenges to overcome throughout the series.
When Hayley Atwell joins Heartstopper Season 3, she’ll play Diane, Nick’s aunt, who takes him on a summer holiday to Menorca and imparts some tough advice about his relationship with Charlie. Eddie Marsan plays Geoff, Charlie’s wise and straight-talking therapist. In Season 2, Charlie’s secrets come to light, frightening his boyfriend Nick and their tight-knit group of friends. Vowing to get help and explore his options, Charlie turns to Geoff for guidance. Finally, Jonathan Bailey makes a cameo in Season 3 as Maddox, an Instagram-famous classicist and celebrity crush of Charlie.
Here’s the official description for Heartstopper Season 3:
“Charlie would like to tell Nick that he loves him. Nick also has something important to say to Charlie. As the summer holiday ends and the months race on, the friends begin to realize that the school year will come with both its joys and its challenges. As they learn more about each other and their relationships, plan social events and parties and start thinking about university choices, everyone must learn to lean on those they love when life doesn’t go to plan.”
Alice Oseman created Heartstopper with her page-turning graphic novel series and Webtoon real estate. While Olivia Coleman won’t return for Season 3, William Gao, Yasmin Finney, Corinna Brown, Kizzy Edgell, Tobie Donovan, Jenny Walser, Rhea Norwood, and Leila Khan remain cast members.
We’re massive Heartstopper fans in my house, and I can’t wait to watch Season 3! I’ve read all the books and look forward to seeing how Nick and Charlie’s relationship evolves in live-action. Netflix’s Heartstopper is one of the best page-to-screen adaptations I’ve seen, and I’m freaking out about Hayley Atwell joining the cast! LFG!
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Gears of War has been dormant for a fair while. The last mainline game in Xbox’s much-beloved third-person shooter series was 2019’s Gears 5. Developer The Coalition also put out the strategy game Gears Tactics alongside Splash Damage in 2020, but in terms of a new shooter, things have been quiet for almost half a…
Gears of War has been dormant for a fair while. The last mainline game in Xbox’s much-beloved third-person shooter series was 2019’s Gears 5. Developer The Coalition also put out the strategy game Gears Tactics alongside Splash Damage in 2020, but in terms of a new shooter, things have been quiet for almost half a…
While Epic Games’ now ubiquitous battle royale shooter Fortnite may dominate the genre, it was PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds that started the trend. Originally released in 2013 as a mod for military shooter Arma 2 and its sequel Arma 3, the full game was released in 2017 mere months before Fortnite followed in its…
While Epic Games’ now ubiquitous battle royale shooter Fortnite may dominate the genre, it was PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds that started the trend. Originally released in 2013 as a mod for military shooter Arma 2 and its sequel Arma 3, the full game was released in 2017 mere months before Fortnite followed in its…
Last year saw just under 830 million movie tickets sold domestically, a sure sign that people were indeed ready to get back to the cinema. But we all know that streaming is the sort of gargantuan player in the movie industry that it has been jockeying to be for quite some time now. After all, there’s a reason that Netflix started releasing viewing numbers and why we cover them alongside opening weekends at the box office. So how does streaming success – or failure – get you your next movie? Turns out, it really doesn’t, at least not at the rate that filmmakers might hope. So what do studios do when they don’t have box office numbers to work from? They rely on the critics.
In a new article from The Hollywood Reporter, their journalistic research found that producers and other movie industry bigwigs are leaning more on aggregate sites like Rotten Tomatoes to determine if a director has it. As one rep stated, “Critical acclaim is now gamified. The Rotten Tomatoes score is the first thing people look at when I go pitch a director. It inevitably affects decision-making around hiring a director.” Another put it, “When you hire a director, all you have is their past work and a meeting.”
Streaming numbers – however accurate they truly are – can only gauge so much, with one studio rep stating, “No one cares if your movie did well on streaming.” In other words, a film may have been through the roof with its millions and millions of viewers, but if you plan to stick around in the movie industry, you better be certified fresh. That’s quite interesting and shows a serious shift in the business, something we may never see it come out of.
Rotten Tomatoes can be a divisive website – do they matter? are they accurate? – but it no doubt is playing a significant role in the modern movie industry. In theory, it sounds great: the directors of great movies keep working in the industry even if the film is a financial failure, while blockbusters deemed “rotten” aren’t permitted to progress into franchise mode. But we all know that’s not what it means, nor is it something many of us would truly want when it comes down to it. It’s just a sign of how the movie industry has evolved, for good or bad.
What do you think of this approach? Share your thoughts with us below.
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Freaky and Happy Death Day director Christopher Landon was supposed to be heading into production on Scream 7 soon – but that project has turned out to be so troubled, he had to activate his ejector seat and get out of there. While he has since been replaced on Scream 7 by Kevin Williamson, he has been busy lining up other genre projects, signing on to direct the werewolf thriller Big Bad and the “fast-paced thriller” Drop. Coming our way from Blumhouse and Platinum Dunes, the production company team that has previously brought us the Purge franchise, Drop is moving forward first, and we’ve previously heard that it’s set to star Meghann Fahy (The White Lotus season 2), Violett Beane (The Flash), Brandon Sklenar (1923), and newcomer Jacob Robinson, who has a large following on his parent-run Tik Tok account. Now Deadline reports that Jeffery Self of Search Party and The Horror of Dolores Roach and Gabrielle Ryan of Power Book IV: Force and Bonding have also joined the cast.
In addition to the acting roles mentioned above, Self was a writer and producer on the Funny or Die series Billy on the Street and has written the books Straight People: A Spotter’s Guide to the Fascinating World of Heterosexuals, 50 Shades of Gay, Drag Teen, and A Very, Very Bad Thing.
Details on the story Drop will be telling have not been revealed. All we know is the “fast-paced thriller” description and the fact that the screenplay has been written by Jillian Jacobs and Chris Roach, a writing duo that has previously worked with Blumhouse on the horror projects Truth or Dare and Fantasy Island.
Blumhouse founder Jason Blum is producing the film alongside Platinum Dunes’ Michael Bay, Bradley Fuller, and Cameron Fuller, with Cameron being acknowledged as the person who brought the Jacobs / Roach script to Platinum Dunes in the first place. Sam Lerner serves as executive producer. Drop is set up at Universal.
Landon has a lot of experience working with Blumhouse, as the company was not only behind his films Freaky, Happy Death Day, and Happy Death Day 2U, but he wrote and directed Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones for them and wrote Paranormal Activity 2, Paranormal Activity 3, Paranormal Activity 4, and Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin for the company. I really enjoyed Freaky, the Happy Death Day movies, and Landon’s film Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse, so I’m glad to see him get something else together so quickly after Scream 7 crumbled around him.
Are you interested in Drop? What do you think of Jeffery Self and Gabrielle Ryan joining the cast? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
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