Overwatch 2’s entire concept as a sequel was based on it offering new modes, seasonal cycles, and new monetization plans through battle passes and an overhauled cosmetics shop. Two of those pillars are very much intact, but many of the new game modes have not panned out over the past year and a half. Blizzard’s…
Martin Scorsese’s epic Killers of the Flower Moon shined a light on one of the lesser-known dark chapters of American history – the wholesale slaughter of dozens of members of the Osage Indian Nation by their supposed guardians, neighbors and friends. A dramatic gut-punch of a film, it was adapted by Scorsese and Eric Roth from the 2017 David Grann book of the same name. The book took about five years to research, and the film took just as long to arrive on the big screen, with both taking great pains to authentically communicate the tragic nature of the Osage murders. While the film obviously takes a handful of liberties necessary to dramatize Grann’s book, by all accounts it’s an incredibly faithful telling of the story, accurately recreating the book’s major events as realistically as possible. Let’s take a look at What Really Happened to Killers of the Flower Moon.
Right from the start, Flower Moon gets right just about every aspect of what the Osage people went through, starting with their unexpected discovery of oil underneath what was supposed to be worthless land. As depicted in the film, the Osage were the wealthiest people in the entire country then; collectively worth about $30 million at the time, which would be about $400 million in today’s dollars. They hired white people to be their servants and chauffeurs and spent their money freely – when they were allowed to. The U.S. government deemed the Osage unfit to look after their own funds, so they were often assigned quote-unquote guardians to help them with their money. These so-called guardians were usually local lawyers and businessmen, and they were known to help themselves to the Osage fortune as long as they didn’t get caught. Sadly, plenty of them weren’t content to stop at simple theft, eventually graduating to murder, killings committed with such heartlessness that Scorsese’s movie didn’t need to embellish any of the facts.
The film stars Lily Gladstone as Mollie Kyle, a full-blooded Indian and member of one of the more prosperous families in Osage County. As the film depicts, Mollie was eventually swept off her feet by WWI veteran-turned-taxi driver Ernest Burkhart, played by Leonardo DiCaprio. Burkhart was the nephew of William Hale, aka “King,” one of the wealthiest white businessmen in the county. Played by Robert De Niro, Hale was in his 50s during this time period while De Niro was in his late 70s during production, though surely no one really minds that slight discrepancy.
Hale’s considerable wealth didn’t stop him from kicking off what was eventually known as the “Reign of Terror,” a murderous scheme to inherit the Osage people’s money via any means possible. Scorsese’s movie accurately dramatizes these murders very accurately and frankly. For example, the bombing of Mollie’s sister Rita’s house, which ultimately killed three people; the slow poisoning of Mollie’s mother, Lizzie, and Mollie’s own subsequent poisoning by her husband, are all based in truth. There’s also the stunningly casual assassination of Mollie’s sister, Anna Brown, by her ex Byron Burkhart and his accomplice Kelsie Morrison. The film even goes so far as to stage the scene in a location eerily similar to where the actual shooting took place.
Kelsie Morrison features in the movie’s most morbidly amusing scene, when the man callously tries to figure out if he will inherit the incoming fortunes of his deceased wife’s children – assuming they die under mysterious circumstances. Shockingly, Morrison really did investigate this idea, although in a less cinematic manner: he wrote letters to William Hale asking his advice regarding how he could get his hands on the money the children were going to be inheriting, hinting that he could kidnap and presumably murder them.
When the murders became too obvious to ignore, the Osage implored white businessman Barney McBride to head to Washington D.C. to seek assistance from the government. But, just as the film depicts, McBride was assaulted soon after he got there and was found dead with a sack over his head after being severely beaten and stabbed.
Also featured in the movie is the sobering realization that just about the entire white side of the county was complicit in the murders in one way or another; the Shoun brothers were the local doctors and indeed played a major role in poisoning members of the Osage, specifically Mollie Burkhart with bogus insulin. When Mollie was able to get away from her confines, she gradually returned to health. Though it was clear Ernest was responsible for her poisoning, he never admitted guilt to this particular crime, though he did eventually cop to various other crimes, implicating his uncle in the process.
Since local law enforcement couldn’t be trusted and the reign of terror showed no signs of slowing down, the case of the Osage murders got to the FBI, then in its infancy. Director J. Edgar Hoover sent former Texas Ranger Tom White, played in the film by Jesse Plemons, to investigate the situation. Knowing he couldn’t trust the locals, White brought with him a handful of agents who went undercover in the county to find out everything they could. White and his agents ultimately apprehended many of the main assailants, including Hale, the Burkhart brothers, and Kelsie Morrison, but there’s little doubt that plenty of perpetrators walked free. In fact, the amount of Osage killed during the reign of terror has been a question that may never be answered, with the number ranging from 30 to 60 to maybe even 100. While Scorsese’s film doesn’t dramatize every one of those deaths, the ones he does spotlight are brutal enough to represent them all.
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The hit and miss nature of both early 2000s horror and the premise are quite obvious in today’s selection. While the original Willard and its sequel Ben are known entities, it’s not like they are the heaviest of hitters in terms of horror property. In fact, Willard is EXACTLY the type of property that I will always argue needs a remake. Well, needs is a strong word, but it lends itself better to a remake than something as perfect as the first Halloween or Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Willard is a solid movie but underseen by today’s audience and would have maybe been more attractive to the audiences of 21 years ago who maybe grew up with the original. Sadly, that didn’t happen as it was arguably one of 2003’s biggest flops and that’s a huge bummer because not only is the movie fun with great, mostly practical effects, but it is a great performance by one of cinema’s most strange performers. Crispin Glover as an outcast and kind of a weirdo who is difficult to work with but may snap at any moment is perfect casting and is one of the many reasons why Willard (watch it HERE) is a black sheep of the highest order.
Let’s go back and look at the genesis of this project. It started as a short novel called Ratman’s Notebook, written by Stephen Gilbert, in 1968. This was scooped up Bing Crosby Productions and churned into a movie that came out in 1971. That movie stars a young Bruce Davison as Willard and Ernest Borgnine in the role of his oppressive boss and the former business partner of his father. The movie did well enough that it got a sequel called Ben in 1972 which was not nearly as successful. Fast forward to 2003 and we got one of the most unlikely remakes in the beginning of the heavy remake era. The remake was produced by James Wong and Glen Morgan who have done quite a lot in the world of horror. They helped write and produce a ton of X-Files and Millennium episodes but also were behind the Final Destination series. Morgan chose to write and direct this one himself and the only other time that combination happened from him was with the 2006 Black Christmas remake, another favorite of ours here at the channel.
The cast is a fun one. Crispin Glover plays the titular rat whisperer, and it could not be better. He has a certain weirdness to him the entire movie, but he also has some growth and a bit of an arc too. He has some great subtlety like when we first see him in the house, and he doesn’t even speak for longer than the main character of a movie should. When he does talk, it’s as unhinged as you might expect what with knowing what we know about Glover the person. While there were reports of him laughing behind the scenes when R Lee Ermey was doing his yelling, it sounds like it wasn’t that weird otherwise. He wasn’t even originally going to play the part or at the very least he wasn’t the first choice. Machuly Culkin and Joaquin Phoenix both turned down the role but even before that it was written, on the set of Jet Li vehicle The One, for Doug Hutchison. That name probably doesn’t jump out as quickly but he’s the awful Percy from The Green Mile as well as Eugene Toombs from The X-Files which is one of the more memorable monster of the week villains.
Glover getting the role is a wonder but works perfectly and his own book about rats can be seen in the opening credits which is just a fun touch. Willard takes care of his old and sick mother while working at the company his father co-owned with Frank Martin. Martin had an agreement with Willards dad that he would keep him there as long as his mother was still alive. We never see his father, even in flashbacks, but he does show up in a painting in the house and its clearly Bruce Davison which is another brilliant nod. It shows the cleverness we had come to expect from Glen Morgan the writer. He takes care of his mother even though she doesn’t think very highly of him, even saying he should change his name and even calling him by this new name that he never agreed to. At work he is a pariah and even the boss, who is the only one that will talk to him, dresses him down every chance he gets. That boss, Frank Martin, is played by the legendary R. Lee Ermey.
Ermey had a heck of a career with well over 100 roles that he fit in over 30 years. Obviously his most famous role, one that he himself poked fun at in multiple other roles, was that of the colorful and overzealous Sergeant Hartman in Full Metal Jacket. His other horror output would be in the likes of The Terror Within 2, the Body Snatchers remake from the 90s, an episode of Tales from the Crypt, The Frighteners, Seven, and the Texas Chainsaw remake from the same year as Willard among others. He dabbled in all genres and was worthy in them all including video games. While I’m here and since I never get to mention it, he also plays Bruce Campbell’s father in Brisco County. Go watch Brisco County. Willard sets rat traps in his basement to rid the house of the vermin problem but ends up helping the very first one that gets caught, a white rat that he names Socrates due to the intelligence of the creature. He finally has a real friend and also learns that he has a modicum of control over Socrates and the other rats. He continues to be late to work and berated and a new temp at work takes pity on Willard but also seems to genuinely like him.
That woman is Catherine, and she is played by Mulholland Drive’s Laura Herring. In what could have been a throwaway role, certainly since she is overshadowed by both Ermey and Glover. It’s the role of the one decent person out of the human characters and it’s definitely not as fun as the other ones. After getting pushed just a little too far this time, Willard stews in the basement and figures out that the rats will not only listen to him but can be used as weapons too. He loads them up and it’s here that we get the first look at Ben who is thicc with two c’s and is actually played by a real rat. It’s a Gambian Pouch rat and boy, are those guys not known to be small. Something to call out is that while there is some CGI throughout the movie, a lot of the stuff was done practically and looks great. Willard takes his rat army to Frank’s house and they chew into his garage and destroy the wheels on his car which makes him late to work for a change.
His mom dies and that starts the final spiral of destruction for Willard. He’s the main character we follow, sure, but I struggle to call him the protagonist or antagonist. Ben is probably the closest thing we have to a main villain in the movie besides Martin. With the death of his mother, Martin sees the opportunity to finally release Willard of his services. At this point Willard has started to take Socrates everywhere with him, including work, and at the same time that Willard has his employment ended, so too does Socrates have his little rat life snuffed out. He is found in the stockroom by one of the employees and Martin is able to corner and stab him to death. Ben silently blames Willard for it and Willard still treats Ben like a failure instead of the new leader after the death of his friend.
Willard takes the whole crew to the office after hours and Frank is cornered by Willard and his army of rats. They overpower him in a pretty cool scene and the revenge is complete. Unlike in the original movie where Willard is disgusted by the death and his power, this new Willard is compelled by his fear of getting caught and decides to kill the rest of the rats. The movie only has 2 deaths in the entire runtime but makes good use of them for both emotional punch with his mother and story progression and horror with Martin. The movie was actually intended to be an R rated affair, but the studio asked for the blood, violence, and language to be toned down in order to hit that PG-13 mark that had begun to be popular. Even with things toned down though, it all works. One of my favorite parts that uses that limitation to its benefit is when Willard find the envelope of what happened to his father. Without explicit explanation, we are shown a blood rusted pocketknife that tells us everything we need to know followed by a hell of an emotional haymaker when Willard starts to get emotional and push the thing against his own wrist. It’s a great scene and a part of a great performance that includes the deepest sadness here all the way to an almost orgasmic release of laughter when his boss is made a fool of.
Willard thinks he is free of the rats but finds that not only is Ben alive but has brought more with him. The police come to question him, and Cathryn comes to warn and comfort him, but the house is locked down and the police bail when they see the rats. Ben now leads the rats, and the final battle ensues with Willard coming out victorious but with nowhere to go but the asylum. He befriends another white rat, but the movie ends and we would get no sequel. Not with how badly the movie underperformed at the box office and with critics. We got a special edition DVD and Blu-ray with deleted scenes and alternate endings. While these add extra blood, they don’t make or break. The movie does just fine with its rating and content. The biggest change in the alternative scenes has the movie ending like the original did with Ben being victorious over Willard and, sequel baiting aside, I’m glad the final product was changed.
Even with its failing both critically and commercially, it is nonetheless a good viewing experience over 20 years after its release. It’s a wonderful performance from one of our most misunderstood stars and is a fun, under the radar remake that does exactly what it sets out to do. The preview alone is what seals the deal for me with the best and most obvious use of Smashing Pumpkins “Bullet with Butterfly Wings.” The world may not be a vampire but lets make sure the rat doesn’t stay in its cage.
A couple of the previous episodes of The Black Sheep can be seen at the bottom of this article. To see more, head over to the JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel – and subscribe while you’re there!
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Top Gun: Maverick‘s Glen Powell has been in the spotlight a lot lately for his projects and the projects that he’s been announced to be in. He’s got both Hit Man and Twisters this year alone. He’s also been reported to star in a remake of The Running Man from Edgar Wright, a thriller called Huntington, a legal drama titled Monsanto, and he’s recently been announced to be starring in an updated reimagining of the Warren Beatty film Heaven Can Wait. While he’s currently riding the wave of his Top Gun breakout with movies like Anyone But You, and despite having so much on his docket, Powell feels he’s earned the reputation of being picky after turning down some tentpole franchises.
In a recent profile from The Hollywood Reporter, the Twisters star is clear about the kinds of projects he would want to do and wouldn’t want to do. It is reported that Powell aims to steel clear of pandering Oscar bait and Marvel roles. He was revealed to have turned down roles in the upcoming Jurassic World reboot as well as a planned Bourne Identity update. Powell explains,
Jurassic is one of my favorite movies. It’s one of the things I’ve wanted to do my whole life. I’m not doing that movie because I read the script and I immediately was like, my presence in this movie doesn’t help it. And the script’s great. The movie’s going to fucking kill. It’s not about that. It’s about choosing where you’re going to make an audience happy and where you’re going to make yourself happy.”
Powell can be seen in a couple of new projects this year with Netflix’s Hit Man from Richard Linklater and the Lee Issac Chung movie Twisters. Hit Man was also co-written by Powell and our own Chris Bumbray shared how impressed he was with the film in his review. He stated, “It’s one of the most crowd-pleasing films I’ve seen at a film festival this year. Powell could even emerge as a dark horse Oscar contender, although the movie might ultimately be too light to win over the Academy. Whatever the case, it seems like a surefire hit – whether in theaters or on streaming. I have a feeling this may wind-up one of Netflix’s most popular movies ever.”
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Netflix has teamed up with Sonia Friedman Productions to produce the stage play Stranger Things: The First Shadow, which is “rooted in the mythology” of the hit streaming series Stranger Things and opened at the Phoenix Theatre in London’s West End back in December. The show has been breaking box office records and recently won several awards, including the Olivier Awards for Best Entertainment and Best Set Design, the Critics’ Circle Awards for Best Set Design and Most Promising Newcomer, and the WhatsOnStage Award for Best New Play. Due to unprecedented demand, the stage play’s run has just been extended into 2025, with Phoenix Theatre booking it until February 16. Along with the extension comes the unveiling of a trailer, which can be seen in the embed above and allows the show’s “groundbreaking theatrical special effects to be teased on film for the first time.”
A while back, Deadline heard that Stranger Things: The First Shadow “will be the first instalment in a trilogy exploring the dark underbelly of Hawkins, Indiana. Breaking Baz can reveal parts two and three are set to follow the inaugural play in two or three year intervals, according to insiders associated with the production. The stage sequels will launch in London first. Meanwhile, there are already plans for Stranger Things: The First Shadow to transfer to Broadway.”
Written by Stranger Things writer and co-executive producer Kate Trefry from an original story she crafted with the Duffer Brothers and Jack Thorne, Stranger Things: The First Shadow has the following synopsis: Hawkins, 1959: a regular town with regular worries. Young Jim Hopper’s car won’t start, Bob Newby’s sister won’t take his radio show seriously and Joyce Maldonado just wants to graduate and get the hell out of town. When new student Henry Creel arrives, his family finds that a fresh start isn’t so easy… and the shadows of the past have a very long reach. Brought to life by a multi-award-winning creative team, who take theatrical storytelling and stagecraft to a whole new dimension, this gripping new adventure will take you right back to the beginning of the Stranger Things story – and may hold the key to the end.
Here’s the cast: Shane Attwooll (Chief Hopper), Kemi Awoderu (Sue Anderson), Chase Brown (Lonnie Byers), Christopher Buckley (Bob Newby), Ammar Duffus (Charles Sinclair), Gilles Geary (Ted Wheeler), Florence Guy (Karen Childress), Max Harwood (Allen Munson), Michael Jibson (Victor Creel), Oscar Lloyd (James Hopper, Jr.), Louis McCartney (Henry Creel), Isabella Pappas (Joyce Maldonado), Matthew Pidgeon (Father Newby), Calum Ross (Walter Henderson), Maisie Norma Seaton (Claudia Henderson), Patrick Vaill (Dr. Brenner), Lauren Ward (Virginia Creel), and Ella Karuna Williams (Patty Newby). Taking on unspecified roles are Tricia Adele-Turner, Lauren Arney, Reya-Nyomi Brown, Patricia Castro, Lydia Fraser, Isaac Gryn, Mark Hammersley, Tom Peters, Kingdom Sibanda, Tiana Simone, Danny Sykes, and Meesha Turner.
Stranger Things creators the Duffer Brothers are creative producers on the play, and the show’s producers at 21 Laps get an associate producer credit. The play is being directed by Stephen Daldry, with Justin Martin co-directing.
Are you interested in Stranger Things: The First Shadow? What did you think of the trailer? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
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The highly anticipated Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree DLC releases in a month, and we just got a brand-new story trailer from developer FromSoftware to unpack while we wait.
The highly anticipated Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree DLC releases in a month, and we just got a brand-new story trailer from developer FromSoftware to unpack while we wait.
One of the most gripping elements of 1976’s Taxi Driver — which we still debate nearly 50 years later — is the ending. The ambiguity for many has left a number of questions: Did Travis survive the shootout? Was the final scene with him and Betsy just a fantasy? According to Robert De Niro, not only did Travis survive (and perhaps his encounter with Betsy real), but the character still had a number of moments worth exploring in a sequel to Taxi Driver.
According to Taxi Driver scribe Paul Schrader (via IndieWire), he never once wanted to expand on that world, saying it was all the doing of De Niro. “Now, I don’t want to slag De Niro, but a lot of his decisions sometimes have financial motivations. I’m sure someone had said to him, ‘You know, if you do ‘Taxi Driver 2,’ they can pay.’” Apparently, director Martin Scorsese — of course a close friend and collaborator of De Niro — urged Schrader to sit down with the actor over the potential for a Taxi Driver sequel. “So we had dinner at Bob’s restaurant and Bob was talking about it. I said, ‘Wow, that’s the worst f*cking idea I’ve ever heard. That character dies at the end of that movie or dies shortly thereafter. He’s gone.’”
Schrader took the opportunity to pitch his own Taxi Driver sequel idea to De Niro and Scorsese, which also highlighted just how ridiculous the whole idea is. “Oh, but maybe there is a version of him that I could do. Maybe he became Ted Kaczynski and maybe he’s in a cabin somewhere and just sitting there, making letter bombs. Now, that would be cool. That would be a nice Travis. He doesn’t have a cab anymore. He just sits there [laughs] making letter bombs.”
Fortunately, a sequel to Taxi Driver never left the depot, and so what remains is a singular work that stands as one of the greatest films ever and the quintessential portrayal of isolation and the muddled interpretations of heroism.
What are your own interpretations of the ending to Taxi Driver? Could a sequel have ever made sense? Give us your thoughts in the comments section below.
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Last year, renowned actor Gary Oldman appeared on the Happy Sad Confused podcast with a humbled opinion of one of his performances. Oldman would discuss his run as the character of Sirius Black in the Harry Potter film series and gave himself a self-deprecating opinion of his portrayal. “I think my work is mediocre in it,” says Oldman. “No, I do. Maybe if I had read the books like Alan, if I had got ahead of the curve, if I had known what’s coming, I honestly think I would have played it differently.” Oldman told Horowitz, “I’ll tell you what it is,” he says. “It’s like anything if I sat and watched myself in something and said, ‘My god, I’m amazing,’ that would be a very sad day because you want to make the next thing better.”
In a press conference given at Cannes for his new film, Parthenope, Oldman would clarify his comments for the fans who felt put off by his opinion. According to Deadline, Oldman expounded that his comments were not intended to “disparage anyone out there who are fans of Harry Potter and the films and the character who I think is much beloved.” He stated, “What I meant by that is, as any artist or any actor or painter, you are always hypercritical of your own work. If you’re not, and you’re satisfied with what you’re doing, that would be death to me. If I watched a performance of myself and thought, ‘My God, I’m fantastic in this,’ that would be a sad day.”
Oldman continued to explain, “There was such secrecy that was shrouded around the novels, they were under lock and key. And had I known from the very beginning, if I had read the five books and I had seen the arc of the character, I might have approached it differently. I may have looked at it differently and painted in a different color. So when I started Harry Potter, all I had was the book, The Prisoner of Azkaban, and that one representation of that man. One book in the library of Sirius Black. And that’s kind of what I meant by it. It’s not me looking at the movie and saying it’s a terrible film or I’m terrible, I just wish it had been under different circumstances. That’s what I meant, not to be rude to any of the people out there who like that film.”
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An investigation is being launched by the LAPD and DEA to determine more which led to the death of Matthew Perry, who died last October.
While the autopsy revealed that Matthew Perry had a high level of ketamine in his system at the time of death, this joint criminal investigation is trying to figure out the exact source of the anesthetic. According to TMZ, investigators are actively pursuing people within the community who could provide any information that would aid in their search.
Perry was found unresponsive in his hot tub at his Los Angeles home last fall. While the initial suspicion was that he had drowned, the autopsy report had more details on the causes, particularly as they related to ketamine and other factors. While details on the investigation over Matthew Perry’s death are slim at this point, if there is a party to be found as far as how he obtained the ketamine, hopefully justice can be done. We saw this happen just last year when multiple men tied to the 2021 accidental overdose death of Michael K. Williams were found guilty and sentenced to prison.
In the wake of Matthew Perry’s death, a namesake foundation was established to try to help others with addiction, something the Friends star struggled with for a long time. “In the spirit of Matthew Perry’s enduring commitment to helping others struggling with the disease of addiction, we embark on a journey to honor his legacy by establishing the Matthew Perry Foundation, guided by his own words and experiences, and driven by his passion for making a difference in as many lives as possible.”
Matthew Perry had been extremely candid about his history of drug use, detailing it on various talk shows and his memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, released the year prior to his death.
Expectedly, tributes to Matthew Perry poured in following his death, with fans and co-workers reacting to the tragic news to remember just how funny, talented and loved he was both on and off the camera.
What is your favorite Matthew Perry performance on the big and small screen?
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