The next Call of Duty, believed to be a Black Ops sequel set during the Gulf War, will be the first new entry in the popular online shooter to be on Xbox Game Pass. That’s according to a report by The Wall Street Journal today, which said the announcement will be made at Microsoft’s big annual Xbox Showcase in June.
The next Call of Duty, believed to be a Black Ops sequel set during the Gulf War, will be the first new entry in the popular online shooter to be on Xbox Game Pass. That’s according to a report by The Wall Street Journal today, which said the announcement will be made at Microsoft’s big annual Xbox Showcase in June.
98 years walking on this earth and over 70 of those working in the industry that he and we all love. How do you talk about a man who had his hands in everything and gave us so much? He was an honorary Oscar winner and heavily involved in the Academy itself. He gave us New Concorde and New World Pictures. Roger Corman was a master of the independent and low budget film and known lovingly as the King of Cult. He gave countless actors, writers, and directors their start and was still making appearances right up to his passing. Theres so much to go over but I think that the best way to honor the man is to bring this video in on time and underbudget, bonus Corman points if we can re-use some of the footage from this one in another one of our videos. I cant see a more fitting way to honor the man who would do just the same.
We are going to break Corman down into three main categories. Our favorite movies he produced, our favorite movies he wrote or directed, and our favorite on screen appearances, starting with that last one because the man wasn’t known as an actor. While he was never and would never be the star attraction, he did enjoy showing up in some of the movies by directors that got their start with him. Some of the best of these include his appearance as a Senator in The Godfather Part II, his unforgettable turn as Man in Phone Booth for The Howling, and as FBI Director Hayden Burke in The Silence of the Lambs. Joe Dante, Francis Ford Coppola, and Jonathan Demme have had huge careers, but John Carpenter, Wes Craven, and Ron Howard have also used the Pope of Pop Cinema in their movies.
As a producer, he is unmatched in both his output and range of what types of movies he put his name on. Horror, sci-fi, comedies, westerns, dramas, and all of the standard genre fare would have movies from Corman to be found but he had so many others. You want woman in prison movies? He has you covered. Beatnik horror? He has you covered. Sword and sandal movies? Roger Corman is your guy. He also was a fan of movies from all over the world and was instrumental in showcasing powerhouse directors from all over the world. He helped get movies to American audiences from the likes of Kurosawa, Fellini, and Bergman. This was huge for both us as audiences and how foreign movies were marketed in the US.
His biggest contribution as a producer may have been understanding the market and how to capitalize. While he was very good at making low budget movies, he was also very passionate about being successful. He jumped on the sci-fi aliens and western wagons as early as the 50s because those were the movies that were doing well. As horror turned to full color with blood, there was Corman to give us the thrills and chills we wanted and that would be the case all the way through the excessive 80s where his movies would give horror fans the blood, kills, and nudity we were all looking for. When Star Wars was huge, we would get Starcrash and Battle Beyond the Stars. When slashers hit it big, we were gifted The Slumber Party Massacre. When dinosaurs were the big thing in 1993, well, I have a Carnosaur for that and the list goes on. The man had nearly 500 producing credits in his career and whether or not you knew it, I guarantee you’ve experienced a Roger Corman produced movie at some point in your life.
The final leg of this journey was as a director and while that may be much, much smaller than his role as a producer, it’s no less important. While he stepped behind the camera for all manner of genres like westerns, sex comedies, and gangster films, it was his work with horror and sci-fi that will always stand out when discussing his contribution as a director. He was there the Day the World Ended, or when Crab Monsters attacked. He was the one who was behind It conquering the world and gave us a War of the Satellites. While these are often silly to look at, they have charm for days and can be enjoyed by anyone at any time. Where he lives in the hearts of us horror fans are the collaborations he had with two other masters of horror. Edgar Allan Poe and Vincent Price.
While he made things like The Terror or his final directorial effort Frankenstein Unbound throughout his career, it was his 8-film run from 1960 to 1964 that almost all starred Vincent Price that have him stand out in our memories. We either watched these as kids on TV with our parents or discovered them as they were put out in various collections on DVD. For many of us, it was an introduction to the people behind them like Price, Poe, Corman or even Karloff and Peter Lorre. They look incredible and are well written, shot, and mostly well-acted. The production of that many quality horror titles from the same team is unheard of and still unmatched today. While we have a resurgence in lower budget horror from multiple companies including things like Shudder or A24, we will never have a run like that again.
Roger Corman was a one of a kind who was as good of a businessman as his movies were varied and fun. I’ll leave you with a quote from the man that shows both a great understanding of the industry and a plea to not let him be the last great independent filmmaker. “The film industry will always exist, but it will no longer be the film industry. It will be digital or possibly virtual reality, or holograms. I think of it as an industry, a business, and an art form. Today, the business end of it has become more powerful than the art form. I think what we need to save it – although it’s making real money and it’s not in real trouble – to reinvigorate it is to remember this is an art form as well as a business. You can’t continually spend $100 or $200 million on a superhero picture. You’ve got to at least let some films come through that are closer to art.”
As I look at the poster of The Terror that one of my best friends got me that hangs above my desk where I do all my writing, all I can think to say is Thank you, Roger. You were a true artist in every sense of the word.
The post Roger Corman Tribute appeared first on JoBlo.
PLOT: A young girl (Cailey Fleming) going through a difficult life experience discovers that she can see a whole world of IFs (imaginary friends) who’ve been forgotten by their childhood friends as they grew older. Now, with the help of their mysterious adult named Cal (Ryan Reynolds), she seeks to unite these IFs with new children.
REVIEW: One cannot fault writer-director-star John Krasinski for a lack of ambition. He’s parlayed the success of his A Quiet Place franchise into this big-budget family film, which seems to aspire to be a live-action Pixar flick. However, in attempting to appeal to both children and adults, he’s made a movie targeting too vague an audience. IF is too childish for adults, but it is also likely too serious and dramatic to keep kids entertained.
As such, IF could be categorized as an interesting failure. Like Brad Bird’s Tomorrowland, which also seemed inspired by Pixar, you never doubt the talent of all involved, but at best, the film comes off as “cute,” and at worst, mawkish and manipulative.
It also suffers from one of the most obvious plot twists in some time, with the big third-act reveal impossible not to guess right off the bat thanks to how plainly telegraphed it is.
The movie is led by young Cailey Fleming, who plays a 12-year-old named Bea, whose father (Krasinski) is in the hospital awaiting an important heart operation. She’s recently lost her mother to cancer and is terrified that her dad may not survive his operation. For his part, he utterly refuses to take anything seriously, constantly trying to make her laugh by breaking into a song-and-dance routine while in the hospital and making light of his operation.
She’s being watched by her grandmother (Fiona Shaw – delivering the movie’s most genuinely moving performance) when she realizes that the apartment just above her is occupied by unwanted IFs and their human friend, played by Reynolds.
To give Krasinski credit, the IFs are beautifully designed, and voiced by a who’s who of Hollywood stars, including Matt Damon, Sam Rockwell, Emily Blunt and many more. The main IFs are Steve Carell’s Blue, a purple, furry monster who misses his colour-blind kid (hence the name), Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Blossom, and the late Louis Gossett Jr as Lewis, an elderly teddy bear who runs a retirement home for IFs.
If kids enjoy this movie at all, it will be for Carell’s hi jinx as Blue, but ironically, it’s these same jokes that will make the movie come off as too childlike for adults, who seem to be the audience ultimately being targeted. The film’s message seems to be that in an increasingly difficult time, it’s important to hang on to some sense of child-like wonder, and not get worn down by cynicism. In fact, it seems to have been born out of Krasinski’s own COVID project, his web series, “Some Good News”, which aimed to keep spirits up during the pandemic. Yet, this blend of sugary sweet sentimentality doesn’t always play well in a feature, with it lacking the necessary bite to make it really effective. As they always say, “Without the bitter, the sweet ain’t as sweet.”
Nevertheless, Krasinski makes a bold swing. The film has one big bravura sequence, where Reynolds’ cynical Cal finds himself wrapped up in a fantastical musical number set to Tina Turner’s ‘Better Be Good to Me’. This sequence alone demonstrates Krasinski’s skill behind the camera. Technically, the film is impeccable, with excellent CGI and gorgeous cinematography by Janusz Kamiński (although the score by Michael Giacchino is over the top as it tries to tug on the heartstrings). He also brings out a nice quality in Reynolds, who shows a bit of pathos as the film goes on, even if his role feels strangely minor. The movie is stolen by some of the supporting actors, such as Shaw, Bobby Moynihan (in a small but crucial part) and The Bear’s Liza Colón-Zayas as a sympathetic nurse.
In the end, IF is nowhere near as bad as some of its detractors will say it is (people are already calling it the worst movie of the year), but it’s not that great, either. It’s an interesting misfire from a director who clearly has some major chops and a huge career ahead of him.
Kevin Costner‘s two-part western epic passion project is just over the horizon. The first part of Horizon: An American Saga premieres next month and Warner Bros. has just released the new official second trailer for the film. The Yellowstone actor has returned to the director’s seat for the first time in over twenty years for these films. Costner began work on this story in 1988 and he has more movies planned. The main character that he invented for this film in 1988 was so important to him that he even named his son, Hayes, after him. He hopes the movies can be a big franchise and that years from now, people can binge-watch hours of Horizon in theaters.
In addition to directing and starring in the two-film saga, Kevin Costner also produced the project and co-wrote the script alongside Jon Baird. “In the great tradition of Warner Bros. Pictures’ iconic Westerns, Horizon: An American Saga explores the lure of the Old West and how it was won—and lost—through the blood, sweat, and tears of many,” reads the official synopsis. “Spanning the four years of the Civil War, from 1861 to 1865, Kevin Costner’s ambitious cinematic adventure will take audiences on an emotional journey across a country at war with itself, experienced through the lens of families, friends, and foes all attempting to discover what it truly means to be the United States of America.”
Horizon also boasts quite the epic ensemble cast, which includes Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Giovanni Ribisi, Jena Malone, Danny Huston, Michael Rooker, Will Patton, Owen Crow Shoe, Tatanka Means, Ella Hunt, Tim Guinee, Colin Cunningham, Scott Haze, Tom Payne, Abbey Lee, Georgia MacPhail, Douglas Smith, Luke Wilson, Isabelle Fuhrman, Jamie Campbell Bower, Alejandro Edda, Wasé Winyan Chief, Michael Anganaro, Angus Macfadyen, Jon Beavers, Alex Nibley, Kathleen Quinlan, Etienne Kellici, Amos Jason Charging Cloud, Bodhi Okuma Linton, Gregory Cruz, James Russo, Jeff Fahey, David O’Hara, Chris Conner, Leroy M. Silva, Bernardo Velasco, Tom Everett, Glynn Turman, and more. Phew.
The first part of Horizon: An America Saga will be released in theaters on June 28th, followed by the second part on August 16th.
The post Horizon: An American Saga – Part 1 trailer takes you on a journey that built America appeared first on JoBlo.
The time has come for audiences to finally get a look at Francis Ford Coppola’s new passion project, Megalopolis. The buzz has always given the impression that it would be an incredibly divisive movie and from the sounds of the first reactions coming out of Cannes from its premiere, it has been. Critics have been throwing around terms like “mess,” “bloated” and “boring.” However, they also throw around words like “stunning” and “engaged.” This sounds like the kind of madness that the filmmaker aimed to bring to unsuspecting audiences, and as Coppola self-funded this film, he had no suits looking over his shoulder in the making of it.
Coppola experienced the kind of freedom his friend Martin Scorsese had gotten when working with Netflix and Apple. When asked about his thoughts on streaming services, Coppola foresees a future where movie studios face their own “Megalopolis.” According to Deadline, the Godfather director spoke at Cannes and said, “Streaming is what we use to call home video.” He also hopes that his film can find a home in a “large theater with 600 to 700 people.” He continues, “I feel the film industry is about people getting hired to meet debt obligations — their job isn’t to make good movies, but to pay their debt. These new companies — Amazon, Apple, Microsoft — they have plenty of money. But the studios that we know for so long, may not be here in the future.”
When asked about the kind of risk he took in making Megalopolis, which had been kicking in his mind for 40 years and cost $120 million to make (plus asking for distributors to invest $100 million in marketing), Coppola owed it to the wineries that he had opened in Napa and Sonoma. In the 80s, he took out a loan of $20 million and “built a winery like Tivoli Gardens with swimming pools, a place where the kids would go, then grandparents. .. I created a place that now every winery tries to duplicate. I took the money from that, and I put the risk from that [into Megalopolis].”
The risk seems to be pretty non-existent for Coppola as he stated that Megalopolis will leave him with “no problems” financially and that his family, which includes his children Sophia and Roman and their children, “have wonderful careers without a fortune.”
The post Francis Ford Coppola thinks movie studios will eventually succumb to streaming companies appeared first on JoBlo.
Back in January of 2022, we heard that Insidious franchise creator James Wan was producing a “Back to the Future meets Aliens” project that was set to be written and directed by Jeremy Slater, creator of the The Exorcist television series and head writer on the Marvel / Disney+ show Moon Knight. As the Wan / Blumhouse collaboration Insidious: The Red Door, the fifth film in that series, made its way out into the world last year, it was revealed that Slater’s movie was a spin-off called Thread: An Insidious Tale, which had Mandy Moore (This Is Us) and Kumail Nanjiani (Eternals) on board to star in it. Now Deadline reports that Sony has announced an August 29, 2025 release date for the next Insidious movie – and since Thread already had a writer/director and stars attached by mid-2023, it seems logical that it would be the movie with the 2025 release date. But Deadline says that’s not the case. This summer 2025 Insidious movie is something else.
No further details have been revealed… and we have no idea what’s going on with Thread: An Insidious Tale.
Thread would see Moore and Nanjiani play a husband and wife who enlist the help of a spell to travel back in time, such that they can prevent the death of their young daughter. The consequences, of course, prove to be severe.
Wan told Screen Rant that Thread could turn out to be the first of several Insidious spin-offs. He said, “Thread basically kind of takes off from the world of The Further in the same way that when I look at my Conjuring films, I go, “Hey, the Warrens have a haunted museum, there’s so many different haunted artifacts that we can kind of spin off stories from,” and Thread really is something in that same spirit. Leigh Whannell and I had kind of built this place called The Further in the Insidious world, and we just felt like there were many stories within that that we can tell, and this is one of the potential stories that we’re hoping to kind of get out there with the spinoff.“
So the new Insidious movie coming in 2025 could be another spin-off, or it could be the sixth installment in the core series… we’ll have to wait and see. In the meantime, we hope to hear what’s going on with Thread: An Insidious Tale.
Are you glad to hear another Insidious movie is coming in 2025, and are you curious about Thread: An Insidious Tale? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
The post New Insidious movie gets a summer 2025 release date appeared first on JoBlo.
Phase Six is going to be a crucial one for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with half of the projects announced so far being reboots. But after The Fantastic Four serves as Marvel’s big summer blockbuster there will be Blade, with Mahershala Ali in the title role, taking over one of Wesley Snipes’ signature characters. But will Snipes step in for a cameo?
This week, Wesley Snipes responded to an article that reported that he was “already signed to do some stuff” in next year’s Blade by writing, “Whuhuuuut?” along with the side eye emoji.
Whuhuuuut?
https://t.co/B8X9PRK9pb
— Wesley Snipes (@wesleysnipes) May 15, 2024
Now, this doesn’t necessarily confirm anything and right now his involvement is all hearsay. And, really, Snipes’ comment over his Blade involvement could be read in one of two ways: either he is signed on and playing coy or it’s the first he’s hearing of it. Regardless, it’s just the latest move in the rumor mill over the reboot.
Snipes has commented on Yann Demange’s Blade before, saying back in 2022 that there was a possibility that he could return. “Never say never. Long as I’m healthy and in shape, I can rock with them.” He also suggested that it is was now Ali’s time to wield the sword. “I’m cool with it. I don’t walk around as Blade, so I’m not attached to the character like that, you know? I feel no emotional loss. Zero. I’m happy that he’s been cast, and more than likely he’ll do a great job.”
A new Blade movie has been through a lot of directors, writers and stalls, but now seems to be on track for its November 7th, 2025. As of now, it will be joined by the aforementioned The Fantastic Four and two Avengers movies as part of Phase Six, a continuation of the Multiverse Saga which is currently in Phase Five and has three entries left: this summer’s Deadpool & Wolverine and next year’s Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts*.
Do you think Wesley Snipes should return for the MCU’s Blade or would it take away from Mahershala Ali’s spotlight? Give us your thoughts in the comments section below.
The post Wesley Snipes dropping hints he is in Blade reboot? appeared first on JoBlo.
Phase Six is going to be a crucial one for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with half of the projects announced so far being reboots. But after The Fantastic Four serves as Marvel’s big summer blockbuster there will be Blade, with Mahershala Ali in the title role, taking over one of Wesley Snipes’ signature characters. But will Snipes step in for a cameo?
This week, Wesley Snipes responded to an article that reported that he was “already signed to do some stuff” in next year’s Blade by writing, “Whuhuuuut?” along with the side eye emoji.
Whuhuuuut?
— Wesley Snipes (@wesleysnipes) May 15, 2024
Now, this doesn’t necessarily confirm anything and right now his involvement is all hearsay. And, really, Snipes’ comment over his Blade involvement could be read in one of two ways: either he is signed on and playing coy or it’s the first he’s hearing of it. Regardless, it’s just the latest move in the rumor mill over the reboot.
Snipes has commented on Yann Demange’s Blade before, saying back in 2022 that there was a possibility that he could return. “Never say never. Long as I’m healthy and in shape, I can rock with them.” He also suggested that it is was now Ali’s time to wield the sword. “I’m cool with it. I don’t walk around as Blade, so I’m not attached to the character like that, you know? I feel no emotional loss. Zero. I’m happy that he’s been cast, and more than likely he’ll do a great job.”
A new Blade movie has been through a lot of directors, writers and stalls, but now seems to be on track for its November 7th, 2025. As of now, it will be joined by the aforementioned The Fantastic Four and two Avengers movies as part of Phase Six, a continuation of the Multiverse Saga which is currently in Phase Five and has three entries left: this summer’s Deadpool & Wolverine and next year’s Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts*.
Do you think Wesley Snipes should return for the MCU’s Blade or would it take away from Mahershala Ali’s spotlight? Give us your thoughts in the comments section below.
The post Wesley Snipes droppings hints he is in Blade reboot? appeared first on JoBlo.
Two years after Silk: Spider Society was officially announced, the live-action Spider-Man series has been scrapped.
Silk: Spider Society was poised to become the first of several live-action Marvel shows based on Sony Pictures’ library of Spidey characters, but that honour will (likely) now go to Noir, the recently announced series starring Nicholas Cage.
Based on characters created by Dan Slott and Humberto Ramos, the series would have followed Cindy Moon, a Korean-American woman bitten by the same spider that bit Peter Parker, as she escapes imprisonment and searches for her missing family on her way to becoming the superhero known as Silk. As to why the series has been scrapped, that’s unknown, but Deadline believes the lengthy development period didn’t do it any favours.
Sony originally tasked Lauren Moon (Atypical) with writing the adaptation of the project and later hired Tom Spezialy (The Leftovers) to serve as showrunner. However, when the series was officially ordered, The Walking Dead‘s Angela Kang was in charge. The project then went through “at least three versions,” with one of them apparently reconfigured not to involve Silk so heavily. The project was also delayed by the WGA strike last year, but Amazon didn’t immediately reopen the writers’ room once the strike concluded. Although Kang’s latest pitch for the series was reportedly well-received, the studio chose to devote its resources to Noir instead. It’s possible that the series could be shopped elsewhere, but I wouldn’t hold your breath.
As for Noir, that series will “tell the story of an aging and down on his luck private investigator (Cage) in 1930s New York, who is forced to grapple with his past life as the city’s one and only superhero.” Vernon Sanders, the head of television at Amazon MGM Studios said, “Expanding the Marvel universe with Noir is a uniquely special opportunity and we are honored to bring this series to our global Prime Video customers. The extremely talented Nicolas Cage is an ideal choice for our new superhero and the accomplished producing team with Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, Amy Pascal, and the incredible team at Sony is dedicated to expanding this franchise in the most authentic way.“
How do you feel about Silk: Spider Society getting scrapped?
The post Silk: Spider Society series has been scrapped at Amazon appeared first on JoBlo.