A movie based on the Just Cause video game franchise has been in the works for years, but it’s gotten back on track with a new director at the helm. Ángel Manuel Soto (Blue Beetle) is set to direct the adaptation for Universal Pictures, with David Leitch and Kelly McCormick producing through their 87North banner.
Just Cause puts you in the shoes of Rico Rodriguez, a secret operative who is deployed to various fictional island nations to help overthrow tyrannical dictators who are backed by The Black Hand, a lethal mercenary group. With a variety of gadgets, such as a grappling hook and wingsuit, Rico zips, races, and shoots his way through various missions, which typically involve over-the-top explosives and wacky stunts. It’s a lot of fun.
As I mentioned above, the Just Cause movie has been in development for quite some time. The project first emerged close to fifteen years ago, but never seemed to get off the ground. At one point, Jason Momoa (Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom) was set to star in the movie for Constantin Film, which would have been directed by Brad Peyton (Atlas). Both later dropped out of the project, and Derek Kolstad (John Wick) was hired to pen a new script, with Michael Dowse (Goon) stepping into the director’s chair. That version also struggled to get going, and the rights eventually lapsed, leaving Universal free to scoop them up. Hopefully they have better luck.
In a time when layoffs are running rampant through the video game industry and it feels like every studio you like is posting a giant wall of text on social media to deliver bad news, Wildermyth developer Worldwalker Games has somewhat bucked the trend. The team behind the 2021 tactics RPG has announced the game is no…
In a time when layoffs are running rampant through the video game industry and it feels like every studio you like is posting a giant wall of text on social media to deliver bad news, Wildermyth developer Worldwalker Games has somewhat bucked the trend. The team behind the 2021 tactics RPG has announced the game is no…
That was fast. Just five days ago, it was announced that Jeffrey Wright, whose credits include American Fiction, Westworld, Basquiat, Shaft, The Batman, and multiple James Bond and Hunger Games movies, was joining the cast of season 2 of the HBO series adaptation of the video game The Last of Us to play a character named Isaac. A character Wright provided the vocal performance for when he appeared in the video game The Last of Us Part II. Now Wright has been spotted on the set of The Last of Us season 2, and a spy pic gives us our first look at him in character now that he’s playing Isaac in the flesh:
Wright’s character Isaac is “the quietly powerful leader of a large militia group, known in the video game as the Washington Liberation Front, who sought liberty but instead has become mired in an endless war against a surprisingly resourceful enemy.“
The story of the The Last of Us video game is set years after a fungal plague wiped out much of humanity, transforming most into vicious zombie-like monsters, the story follows Joel, who’s living in a militarized quarantine zone. He has a close relationship with Tess, who operates in the black market of this community. Together, they’ve become known by the local criminal underworld for their ruthlessness. On a mission to reclaim their stolen guns, they run into the leader of the Fireflies, a resistance group, who tasks them with smuggling a young girl named Ellie out of the zone. This mission soon becomes much more than they were prepared for.
For the HBO series, Pedro Pascal plays Joel, who is “tormented by past trauma and failure. He must trek across a pandemic-ravaged America, all the while protecting a girl who represents the last hope of humanity”. He is joined in the cast by Bella Ramsey as Ellie, “an orphan who has never known anything but a ravaged planet and who struggles to balance her instinct for anger and defiance with her need for connection and belonging… as well as the newfound reality that she may be the key to saving the world”; Anna Torv as Tess, “a smuggler and hardened survivor in a post-pandemic world”; Gabriel Luna as Joel’s brother Tommy, “a former soldier who hasn’t lost his sense of idealism and hope for a better world”; Merle Dandridge as Marlene, “the head of the Fireflies, a resistance movement struggling for freedom against an oppressive military regime”; Nico Parker as Joel’s daughter Sarah; Jeffrey Pierce as Perry, “a rebel in a quarantine zone”; Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett as Bill and Frank, “two post-pandemic survivalists living alone in their own isolated town”; and Storm Reid as Ellie’s best friend Riley.
Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson, who did the motion-capture performances for Joel and Ellie in the video game, are also in the cast of the show. Baker plays James, “a senior member of a group of settlers who must fight to keep their community alive in the face of increasingly brutal odds.” Baker also hosts a podcast that serves as a companion to the TV series. Johnson’s character is Anna, “a pregnant woman, alone and on the run, who must give birth under the most terrifying of circumstances.”
Wright’s fellow new season 2 cast members include Isabela Merced (Madame Web) as Dina, a romantic love interest for the Ellie character; Kaitlyn Dever (Booksmart and No One Will Save You) as Abby Anderson, a major character from the video game who is described as being “a skilled soldier whose black-and-white view of the world is challenged as she seeks vengeance for those she loved”; Danny Ramirez (Top Gun: Maverick) as soldier named Manny, Ariela Barer (How To Blow Up a Pipeline) as young doctor Mel, Tati Gabrielle (You) as military medic Nora, Spencer Lord (Riverdale) as Owen, “a gentle soul trapped in a warrior’s body,” and Young Mazino of Beef as Jesse, “a pillar of his community who puts everyone else’s needs before his own, sometimes at terrible cost.” (Jesse also happens to be Dina’s ex.) Schitt’s Creek Emmy winner Catherine O’Hara is also in there, in an unspecified role. Merced said Dever is “one of the most talented actors I’ve ever worked with.”
Are you looking forward to watching Jeffrey Wright bring Isaac to life in The Last of Us season 2? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
Pearl Jam was in a state of love and trust at a recent show, inviting Bradley Cooper on stage to sing a song from A Star Is Born with the band’s lead singer, Eddie Vedder.
Pearl Jam has kept a consistent format on the Dark Matter Tour, with the majority of their first encores kicking off with covers: Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down”, Warren Zevon’s “Keep Me In Your Heart”, Tom Waits’ “Picture In a Frame”…But with their recent gig at BottleRock Napa Valley, the band built off of “Last Kiss” with yet another cover: “Maybe It’s Time” from 2018’s A Star Is Born, bringing out Bradley Cooper to help nail the soundtrack song.
By and large, reception for Bradley Cooper joining Pearl Jam (or, at least, Eddie Vedder) has been quite receptive, especially as he helped boost the festival. It should be noted here and now that Pearl Jam doesn’t put on bad shows by any stretch, but festivals shows have a certain reputation as not exactly being the ones to see if you are going to try to get tickets. (At the same time, leading with “Lukin” shows they exceed pretty much all expectations when it comes to such shows.)
The Napa show was an appropriate reunion for both Bradley Cooper and Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder, who served as an inspiration for the former’s A Star Is Born character. As Cooper previously said of how he tried to get into character, “I went up to Seattle and spent four or five days with [Vedder] and I asked him 9,000 questions. And he gave me minor, little things that only musicians know about what to do, just aesthetically and the inner workings.”
While Bradley Cooper and Pearl Jam went with “Maybe It’s Time” from A Star Is Born, it was “Shallow” that proved to be the biggest hit, winning an Academy Award, a Golden Globe and two Grammys – although some don’t think it deserved anything…
Pearl Jam wraps up the first North American leg of their tour this week before heading to Europe. They’ll return to the States in August.
What did you think of Bradley Cooper teaming up with Pearl Jam for a live performance? Which cover would you like to see them take on?
Writer/director Kevin S. Tenney’s 1986 horror film Witchboard is one of my all-time favorites, and I also enjoy the 1993 sequel Witchboard 2: The Devil’s Doorway, which has previously received a Blu-ray release from Olive Films. Yesterday, Tenney took to his Facebook account to share a picture of him with Witchboard 2 star Ami Dolenz and reveal that a Blu-ray re-release was in the works at some unspecified company… but, unfortunately, has been postponed indefinitely for reasons Tenney didn’t reveal.
Tenney wrote, “Hung out with the lovely and talented Ami Dolenz while she gave an on-camera interview in her living room for a Blu-ray re-release of Witchboard 2, which was due to come out earlier this year. This is the only on-camera interview she’s ever recorded for our film as far as I know, but unfortunately its release has been postponed indefinitely for the time being…“
The previous Blu-ray release of Witchboard 2 contained deleted scenes, a behind-the-scenes featurette, and a commentary with Tenney and Dolenz’s co-stars Julie Michaels (Jason Goes to Hell) and John Gatins (who went on to receive an Academy Award nomination for writing Flight after starring in Witchboard 2 and Leprechaun 3), but it would be great to watch this new on-camera interview with Dolenz. So here’s hoping whatever issues there are will be worked out and we’ll be able to see this new Witchboard 2 Blu-ray before long.
Written and directed by Tenney, Witchboard 2 has the following synopsis: A beautiful young woman unlocks a passageway to pure evil in the spine-tingling supernatural sequel to the popular hit, Witchboard. When Paige Benedict (Ami Dolenz, Ticks, She’s Out of Control) moves into her new artist’s loft, the only thing on her mind is her art and her slightly loopy landlady Elaine (Laraine Newman, Saturday Night Live). But when she finds an old Ouija board buried in her closet, she discovers that this new apartment isn’t hers at all. Through the board, Paige in contacted by the spirit of a former tenant who claims she was murdered there. Against the advice of her ex-boyfriend Mitch (Timothy Gibbs, The Kindred), Paige is drawn deeper into the mystery as she finds her dreams overtaken with vivid, erotic and brutal visions of unspeakable horror. And when other tenants in the building begin falling prey to violent, mysterious deaths, Paige realizes that only she can seal the door to the terrifying nightmare she has unwittingly unleashed and the price may be her soul. Stylishly directed by horror veteran Kevin S. Tenney (Night of the Demons).
Would you like to see Witchboard 2 get a new Blu-ray release featuring the on-camera interview with Ami Dolenz? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
Is space ample enough to withstand the power of two of Hollywood’s brightest stars? We’re about to find out when Oscar-nominated actress Sandra Hüller (Anatomy of a Fall) co-stars alongside Ryan Gosling (The Fall Guy, Stay, Barbie) for the upcoming interstellar epic Project Hail Mary. The feature-length project hails from Amazon MGM Studios, with Amy Pascal, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, and Aditya Sood producing.
Lord and Miller will direct Project Hail Mary from a script by Drew Goddard (The Martian, Bad Times at the El Royale, The Cabin in the Woods). The film will be shot in IMAX and released wide on March 20, 2026. It is based on the Andy Weir novel of the same name—that’s right, the same guy who wrote The Martian. According to Deadline‘s exclusive report, the plot revolves around “a middle school science teacher, Ryland Grace (Gosling), who wakes up on a spaceship with no memory of who he is or how he got there. He must figure out how to complete his interstellar mission to save Earth from an astronomical catastrophe completely alone, until he meets a mysterious alien who has traveled light years to save his own species from the same fate.”
Man, the science fiction genre has given me trust issues. My first thought is that this alien is doing its best to ensure humankind’s extinction. I hope I’m wrong, but like I said, trust issues.
German actress Sandra Hüller brought the house down with her show-stopping performance in last year’s Anatomy of a Fall, focusing on a woman suspected of murder after her husband’s death. In the intense drama, the woman’s half-blind son is her only salvation as the sole witness to the incident. Hüller brings the goods to the Justine Triet-directed thriller, starring Swann Arlaud, Milo Machado-Graner, Antoine Reinartz, and Samuel Theis.
What do you think about Sandra Hüller joining Ryan Gosling for Project Hail Mary? What would you do if you woke up alone on a spacecraft floating in space? Would you succumb to space madness? Gather your wits and attempt to radio home. Find the nearest airlock and eject yourself into the void. I’d give an honest shot at survival until finally giving up the ghost and preparing myself for a leisurely spacewalk. Let us know how you’d react in the comments below.
There’s nothing definitively wrong with being an iterative clone of something else people already love. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and all that. So I don’t really mind that on the surface, the new gacha open-world RPG Wuthering Waves looks to be a flattering copy of HoYoverse’s widely popular Genshin…
There’s nothing definitively wrong with being an iterative clone of something else people already love. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and all that. So I don’t really mind that on the surface, the new gacha open-world RPG Wuthering Waves looks to be a flattering copy of HoYoverse’s widely popular Genshin…
Deadline reports that Hero Fiennes Tiffin of the After film series has signed on to star in the Young Sherlock series that has been ordered by Prime Video – and to clear up any possible confusion before it can arise: no, this is not a series reboot or continuation of the 1985 film Young Sherlock Holmes, which came to us from director Barry Levinson, screenwriter Chris Columbus, and producer Steven Spielberg. Rather, this is an adaptation of the Young Sherlock series of novels that author Andrew Lane started writing in 2010. That series was a response to the success Charlie Higson was having with his series of Young James Bond novels. Guy Ritchie is on board to direct and executive produce all eight episodes of Young Sherlock‘s first season. Ritchie, of course, has prior Sherlock Holmes experience, having directed Robert Downey Jr. as the iconic character in the 2009 film Sherlock Holmes and its 2011 sequel Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. Since this series is an adaptation of Lane’s work, it’s probably not connected to Ritchie’s movies.
Written and executive produced by showrunner Matthew Parkhill (Deep State), Young Sherlock is said to be an irreverent, action-packed origin story of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s beloved detective in an explosive re-imagining of this iconic character. At age 19, Sherlock Holmes is disgraced, raw, unfiltered, and unformed, when he finds himself caught up in a murder mystery at Oxford University which threatens his freedom. Diving into his first-ever case with a wild lack of discipline, Sherlock manages to unravel a globe-trotting conspiracy that will change his life forever.
Ritchie provided the following statement: “In Young Sherlock we’re going to see an exhilarating new version of the detective everyone thinks they know in a way they’ve never imagined before. We’re going to crack open this enigmatic character, find out what makes him tick, and learn how he becomes the genius we all love.“
Simon Kelton, Ivan Atkinson, Simon Maxwell, Dhana Gilbert, Colin Wilson, and Marc Resteghini serve as executive producers with Parkhill. Harriet Creelman is co-executive producer.
Vernon Sanders, head of television at Amazon MGM Studios, had this to say: “This exciting, new chapter about one of the world’s best-known literary characters, will delight our global customers with its captivating storytelling. With the brilliant creative team, led by Guy Ritchie and Matthew Parkhill, we will explore untold mysteries of how young Sherlock found his way to a life of truth-seeking.“
What do you think of Hero Fiennes Tiffin being cast as Young Sherlock while Guy Ritchie takes the helm? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
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