Updated: 05/28/2024, 10:10 a.m. ET: It’s now official. After accidentally releasing its payload a little early, Microsoft has officially confirmed Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will be a day one release for Game Pass.

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Anyone paying attention would already have guessed that the recently announced Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 would be coming to Game Pass on release. However, this has never been officially confirmed by Microsoft, owners of both Xbox and CoD publishers Activision, until today, by accident.

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Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga may technically be winning the weekend box office; however, the film has performed quite a bit below the projected expectations. Despite the total numbers of its debut weekend, another version of Furiosa may also become available for fans in the future. Some may recall that George Miller’s previous entry, Mad Max: Fury Road, received a black & white version over a year later, which was dubbed “Black & Chrome.” The black & white version of Fury Road was a vision that Miller had intended, but the studio would not allow it. Instead, Miller had released a post-apocalyptic movie that had a rare rich color saturation.

With the release of Furiosa and its close ties with Fury Road, many fans of Miller’s would wonder if he’d plan on releasing a similar black & white version. ScreenRant has revealed that it is indeed in the cards. Miller has recently made an appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, where he stated,

We’ve done it already. It’s the last thing I did on this film, and I call it ‘Tinted Black & Chrome,’ or I want to call it Tinted Black & Chrome. I must say, it’s really interesting. I’m still trying to demystify why the black and white, for me, has something more elemental to it. I still can’t quite put my finger on it. It’s not because they look like old black-and-white movies, it’s something else. It’s like if we took a picture of ourselves right now, it might look a little more dramatic if it was black and white.”

Miller has not yet revealed when the “Tinted Black & Chrome” version will be released. The Mad Max: Fury Road – Black & Chrome edition would get a special Blu-ray release in 2016 after its initial release. However, with the kind of performance that Furiosa is having in theaters at the moment, a special theatrical release could be something that kicks its numbers up a notch. Earlier this year, the Japanese film Godzilla Minus One became a hit and was the highest-grossing of their American Godzilla releases. Then, it would be punctuated later with its own black & white version called Godzilla Minus One/ Minus Color that also went to theaters.

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It seems like any time a younger version of a character appears on screen, we can’t help but immediately compare with the one we’re more familiar with. How often have you said, “That looks nothing like them!”? And while digital de-aging can be done to achieve the desired outcome (depending on the age gap), modern technology has offered yet another way: yes, we’re talking about artificial intelligence. And that’s just what was used to get Anya Taylor-Joy and Alyla Brown in Furiosa to match as closely as possible.

Appearing on The Kelly Clarkson Show (via Variety), Anya Taylor-Joy said that Furiosa presented the opportunity for the filmmakers to try something out. “George Miller had the idea very early on. The audience was already getting used to a new Furiosa,” referring to herself taking over the role as a younger version of Charlize Theron’s character. “He wanted the transition from both actors [herself and Browne] playing her to be seamless. And so I did two days of the craziest things you could ever possibly imagine. And they mixed our faces together.” As for when and how often AI was used, Taylor-Joy noted that the beginning of the movie uses around 35% of her features on Brown while it hits upwards of 80% before the complete transition.

So, why didn’t Miller just de-age Theron’s Furiosa and ditch Anya Taylor-Joy altogether? That was actually on the table, but the director didn’t see it being as effective. “It definitely would have been Charlize. I began thinking, ‘Oh, maybe we could do de-aging.’ Then I watched really masterful filmmakers like Ang Lee and Martin Scorsese, doing Gemini Man and The Irishman, and I saw that it hadn’t been licked. All you’d be watching is, ‘Look how well the technology works?’ It would not have been persuasive.”

Of course, it seems like any use of artificial intelligence within the movie business immediately raises questions and eyebrows from viewers. But Anya Taylor-Joy is making a point of being transparent with how it was used in Furiosa, adding, “There’s a reason that our industry went on strike. It is something that is frightening, and I think if you’re going to use it you have to be honest about it and it always has to be consensual. It’s the lack of consent in anything in life that is the scary thing.”

Do you think the use of AI in Furiosa was effective? Did you even notice it? Let us know below.

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While George Miller’s Fury Road has been rightly celebrated as one of the greatest action movies of all time, its path to theaters back in 2015 was not easy. While the behind-the-scenes battles between stars Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron are legendary, they weren’t the only headaches Miller had to deal with while making his epic. As documented in the excellent book, “Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road” by Kyle Buchanan (buy it HERE), the biggest battle Miller had to fight was in post-production. The studio wanted the movie cut way down, with them notoriously demanding a PG-13 cut from Miller and his editor, Margaret Sixel (also his wife). 

Ironically, Miller wasn’t opposed to a PG-13, as that was the rating he had aimed for, and he was surprised the MPAA didn’t grant it. “I thought it was a PG-13 film,” said Miller. “I honestly did, because there was no nudity, there’re no curse worlds, there was no overt violence on humans, there was no blood. There were two or three films that ended up PG-13 that were on the border, and I thought we’d cover that.” 

Miller wasn’t opposed to that rating, having previously made Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, which nabbed a PG-13 rating, but was seen as quite tame by most fans, who consider it the worst movie of the saga. Even still, one can understand why Miller assumed a PG-13 was achievable.

According to interviews in the book, the main issue was that the masks the bad guys wore were “too scary”, and the studio wanted other cuts as well, and indeed, they made their own shorter cut of the film with a different mix team and musical score. “They wanted it shorter, and they wanted to take out anything that was too dubious,” said Miller. “They took out the Milking Meads at the beginning of the film. Moreover, the War Boy who commits suicide and says, ‘Witness me,’ they wanted that cut.”

Luckily, when the studio showed their alternate cut, it was a disaster, with the studio releasing him from his obligation to make the film PG-13. The result, as they say, was history, with the 120-minute film considered one of the most perfectly composed and efficiently edited movies in recent memory, with Sixel winning a much-deserved Oscar for Best Film Editing.

Do you think the R-rating for Fury Road was justified? Is it really all that much more violent than some of the Marvel/DC movies, or the last few James Bond movies? Let us know in the comments?

The post Fury Road: George Miller thought he was making a PG-13 movie appeared first on JoBlo.

Deadpool & Wolverine has been a long time comin’. From comic book history to big screen sightings to actor-on-actor ribbing, it was really only a matter of time before we got Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman in character for a movie. Sure, Jackman had said he was done playing Logan, but there’s only so much hounding a grown Australian man can take! As such, moviegoers will get Deadpool & Wolverine on July 26th, a full 15 years after they first shared the screen.

Hugh Jackman admitted to Rotten Tomatoes that while he was absolutely sure he would never don the claws again, he couldn’t resist the chance to team with Ryan Reynolds in a more complete form. “Literally just like a bolt of lightning came this knowing, deep in my gut, that I wanted to do this film with Ryan, for Deadpool and Wolverine to come together…I swear to you, when I said I was done, I really thought I was done.”

Jackman confirmed in 2015 that Logan would be his last go as Wolverine, yet seeing that following year’s Deadpool made him come to regret his words. “I was like, ‘Those two characters together…’ I knew it, I knew the fans wanted it. Ever since I put on the claws people have talked about these two. So that had always been there, but I just knew. I literally could not wait to arrive. As soon as I arrived, I rang Ryan and I just said, ‘Let’s do it.’ Like, I hadn’t rung my agent, no one…I had to ring my agent [after] and say, ‘Oh, by the way, I’ve just committed to a movie.’”

A Wolverine and Deadpool reunion has been circling for quite some time, with the characters first appearing on the big screen in 2009’s X-Men: Origins. While nothing developed from there and Wade Wilson was just a shell of who Reynolds would turn him into, Reynolds would continue to nudge Jackman out of retirement. And fans couldn’t be more excited, with ticket sales breaking Fandango records.

Will you be checking out Deadpool & Wolverine on opening weekend? Did you always have a feeling that Hugh Jackman would reprise his character? Let us know below!

The post Hugh Jackman knew fans needed Wolverine and Deadpool together appeared first on JoBlo.

Deadpool & Wolverine has been a long time comin’. From comic book history to big screen sightings to actor-on-actor ribbing, it was really only a matter of time before we got Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman in character for a movie. Sure, Jackman had said he was done playing Logan, but there’s only so much hounding a grown Australian man can take! As such, moviegoers will get Deadpool & Wolverine on July 26th, a full 15 years after they first shared the screen.

Hugh Jackman admitted to Rotten Tomatoes that while he was absolutely sure he would never don the claws again, he couldn’t resist the chance to team with Ryan Reynolds in a more complete form. “Literally just like a bolt of lightning came this knowing, deep in my gut, that I wanted to do this film with Ryan, for Deadpool and Wolverine to come together…I swear to you, when I said I was done, I really thought I was done.”

Jackman confirmed in 2015 that Logan would be his last go as Wolverine, yet seeing that following year’s Deadpool made him come to regret his words. “I was like, ‘Those two characters together…’ I knew it, I knew the fans wanted it. Ever since I put on the claws people have talked about these two. So that had always been there, but I just knew. I literally could not wait to arrive. As soon as I arrived, I rang Ryan and I just said, ‘Let’s do it.’ Like, I hadn’t rung my agent, no one…I had to ring my agent [after] and say, ‘Oh, by the way, I’ve just committed to a movie.’”

A Wolverine and Deadpool reunion has been circling for quite some time, with the characters first appearing on the big screen in 2009’s X-Men: Origins. While nothing developed from there and Wade Wilson was just a shell of who Reynolds would turn him into, Reynolds would continue to nudge Jackman out of retirement. And fans couldn’t be more excited, with ticket sales breaking Fandango records.

Will you be checking out Deadpool & Wolverine on opening weekend? Did you always have a feeling that Hugh Jackman would reprise his character? Let us know below!

The post Hugh Jackman knew fans needed Wolverine and Deadpool together appeared first on JoBlo.

Lovin’ is what Sublime fans got this week, as their first song in nearly 30 years was released on Friday. More extraordinarily, the track, titled “Feel Like That”, features the late Bradley Nowell on vocals via outtakes from a 1996 jam session.

“Feel Like That” is actually a collaboration between Sublime and reggae band Stick Figure, with vocals from three different people, including Nowell’s son Jakob, who was less than one year old when his father died from a heroin overdose in May 1996. After a lengthy hiatus solely because of the loss of their frontman, Sublime took on Jakob as lead singer this year with the intent to build a future for the band.

Speaking with Rolling Stone, Sublime bassist Eric Wilson expressed gratitude for having a collection of outtakes that can be heard – in some form or another – by fans. “We are blessed that we still have all these old recordings and that we were able to stumble upon an outtake that has been sitting there waiting for all these years. They say timing is everything, and I think they were right! It’s super awesome to hear Brad and Jakob singing side by side on the same track. I’m sure this song is gonna set the mood for the summer.”

Sublime for sure has some of the essential summer jams from the ‘90s, including “Doin’ Time”, “Badfish” and, depending on your daily habits, “Smoke Two Joints.” On the new track itself, Jakob Nowell stated, “My dad has a verse and then I have a verse and then Stick closes out the song…It’s a beautiful thing.”

In their short run, the band released just three studio albums: 1992’s 40 Oz. to Freedom, 1994’s Robbin’ the Hood and 1996’s self-titled, released two months after Bradley Nowell’s death. “What I Got” would win the MTV Video Music Award for Best Alternative Video.

This venture calls to mind “Now and Then”, the 2023 Beatles’ release which, like Sublime, was their first new song in 28 years. While that track was dubbed “the last Beatles song”, there’s hope for continuation with Sublime depending on fan reaction to “Feel Like That”.

What do you think of “Feel Like That”? Do you want to see Sublime continue with Jakob Nowell on vocals?

The post Sublime releases first new song in nearly 30 years — with Bradley Nowell on vocals (via outtakes) appeared first on JoBlo.

Lovin’ is what Sublime fans got this week, as their first song in nearly 30 years was released on Friday. More extraordinarily, the track, titled “Feel Like That”, features the late Bradley Nowell on vocals via outtakes from a 1996 jam session.

“Feel Like That” is actually a collaboration between Sublime and reggae band Stick Figure, with vocals from three different people, including Nowell’s son Jakob, who was less than one year old when his father died from a heroin overdose in May 1996. After a lengthy hiatus solely because of the loss of their frontman, Sublime took on Jakob as lead singer this year with the intent to build a future for the band.

Speaking with Rolling Stone, Sublime bassist Eric Wilson expressed gratitude for having a collection of outtakes that can be heard – in some form or another – by fans. “We are blessed that we still have all these old recordings and that we were able to stumble upon an outtake that has been sitting there waiting for all these years. They say timing is everything, and I think they were right! It’s super awesome to hear Brad and Jakob singing side by side on the same track. I’m sure this song is gonna set the mood for the summer.”

Sublime for sure has some of the essential summer jams from the ‘90s, including “Doin’ Time”, “Badfish” and, depending on your daily habits, “Smoke Two Joints.” On the new track itself, Jakob Nowell stated, “My dad has a verse and then I have a verse and then Stick closes out the song…It’s a beautiful thing.”

In their short run, the band released just three studio albums: 1992’s 40 Oz. to Freedom, 1994’s Robbin’ the Hood and 1996’s self-titled, released two months after Bradley Nowell’s death. “What I Got” would win the MTV Video Music Award for Best Alternative Video.

This venture calls to mind “Now and Then”, the 2023 Beatles’ release which, like Sublime, was their first new song in 28 years. While that track was dubbed “the last Beatles song”, there’s hope for continuation with Sublime depending on fan reaction to “Feel Like That”.

What do you think of “Feel Like That”? Do you want to see Sublime continue with Jakob Nowell on vocals?

The post Sublime releases first new song in nearly 30 years — with Bradley Nowell on vocals (via outtakes) appeared first on JoBlo.

UPDATE: Comscore has just released the official box office results for the 4-day Memorial Day holiday weekend, and despite some box office pundits predicting that The Garfield Movie would top Furiosa, in the end the George Miller epic was able to hold on to a narrow lead. Comscore has Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga earning $32 million compared to Garfield‘s $31.1 million. However, it should be noted that The Garfield Movie only cost about a third of what Furiosa did, so it’s unlikely distributor Sony Pictures will chalk up a loss on this one.

Furiosa will depend heavily on foreign receipts if it’s going to break even, with the movie grossing $33 million internationally. Mad Max: Fury Road made a total of $379 million worldwide, a number that the prequel will likely have a hard time equalling unless word of mouth and repeat business are strong. The silver lining for Furiosa is that there’s not much competition next weekend, so it could, theoretically, hold onto the top spot with a modest decline.

ORIGINAL POST: As I mentioned in my early box office report yesterday, the Memorial Day holiday box office is a disaster. This weekend’s number 1 movie, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, will be the lowest-grossing new movie to top the charts on this holiday weekend since Return of the Jedi back in 1983 (not adjusted for inflation). Indeed, the opening for George Miller’s epic Mad Max prequel has drastically fallen short of industry expectations (including our own), with no one thinking this could possibly open to less than $40 million. In the end, Furiosa is looking at only $25.55 million for the weekend, which is even lower than what The Fall Guy opened with earlier this month.

The good news—for now—is that Furiosa at least beat The Garfield Movie, with the animated flick grossing $24.775. However, the margin is so slim that many think the Chris Pratt-voiced movie will top the four-day box office due to holiday matinees. 

So what happened? 

Both Furiosa and Garfield managed good (but not great) B+ CinemaScore ratings, which prove their intended audiences mostly like (but don’t love) the movies. Furiosa seems to be provoking very mixed reactions, with some hating it and others absolutely loving it. We’re in the “loving it” camp here. Still, as our own Tyler Nichols wrote in his think piece yesterday, the studio likely made a mistake marketing the film around Anya Taylor-Joy, as it had people thinking it was a star vehicle for her. She’s really just part of an ensemble (she only shows up an hour into the movie). In fact, some box office prognosticators think the girl power vibe of the marketing might have hurt the film, which is a shame as the movie defies easy categorization. Also, Anya Taylor-Joy is wonderful in it. Hopefully, word-of-mouth will pick up in the coming weeks, as we need movies like this to be hits.

As for The Garfield Movie, while it only opened with a fraction of what The Super Mario Bros Movie did, it will make a solid amount of coin for Sony, who kept the budget in the $60 million-ish range. The furry orange feline’s only real competition until Despicable Me 4 opens in July is John Krasinski’s IF, which showed strong staying power (thanks to that A CinemaScore) only falling 52%. With a $58 million gross so far, it will certainly make more money domestically than most of this month’s other films, including The Fall Guy and Furiosa. 

So far, the summer’s only bonafide hit has been Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, which still managed over $13 million this weekend despite losing all its premium format screens to Furiosa. With a domestic total of $122.8 million, it should finish with a solid (but not exceptional) $160 million. The Fall Guy, which has already hit VOD, lost over 800 screens this weekend, finishing in fifth place with $5.9 million, with a domestic total of $72 million. It should end up with around $90 million total, falling shy of $100 million. 

Lionsgate’s The Strangers: Chapter 1, lost less of its audience than anticipated, with the 53% decline putting it in sixth place with $5.6 million, for a $21 million total. It should top out north of $30 million, which is solid for a low-budget horror flick, and bodes well for the rest of Renny Harlin’s already-shot trilogy. In a bit of counter-programming, Angel Studios released the faith-based Sight, but a lack of marketing doomed it to a lacklustre 7th place opening, with only $2.6 million. It seems unlikely this will be the next Sound of Freedom, which had the benefit of appealing to action fans as well as the Christian audience. 

In eighth place, Challengers, which also hit VOD, starting to wrap up its run with $1.3 million, with the $46 million total coming close to a $50 million finish, which put it in the same zone as MGM-Amazon’s Air, which turned into a blockbuster when it hit Prime Video. The same seems to be in the cards for this Zendaya-movie. Meanwhile, Neon’s comedy, Babes, failed to break out, with a weekend just north of $1 million. At the same time, the Amy Winehouse biopic, Back to Black, continued to show serious weakness at the box office, coming in tenth place with only slightly over $1 million for a $4.9 million domestic total.

Given that it’s a holiday weekend, we’ll be back with a full wrap-up of the box office tomorrow. Do you think Furiosa can hold on to first place? Let us know in the comments!

The post Memorial Day Box Office: Furiosa beats Garfield by under $1 million for the 4-day weekend appeared first on JoBlo.