Dragon Age: Dreadwolf is no longer the name of the fourth game in BioWare’s fantasy RPG series. Now, it’s something that sounds way less cool and doesn’t roll off the tongue. The developer has announced that it’s going to be called Dragon Age: The Veilguard.
South Korean filmmaker Yeon Sang-ho has worked on multiple genre projects in his home country, making his feature directorial debut with the animated thriller The King of Pigs and following that up with the likes of RedaKai, The Fake, Psychokinesis, Hellbound, Jung_E, and Parasyte: The Grey. His most popular work is the live-action 2016 zombie film Train to Busan, and he has also directed a live-action follow-up to that film, titled Peninsula, and an animated prequel, titled Seoul Station. Now Yeon Sang-ho is ready to make his English-language debut, and Deadline reports that he’ll be doing so with a horror action film called 35th Street.
35th Street is set up at TriStar Pictures, and Yeon will be directing the film from a screenplay he’s writing with Ryu Yong-jae, who he previously collaborated with on Peninsula and Parasyte: The Grey. Plot details are being kept under wraps, so the “action horror” description is all the information we have at this point. We don’t even know which 35th Street the title might be referencing – although the first possibility that comes to mind is 35th Street in Manhattan, which “runs from FDR Drive to Eleventh Avenue. Notable locations include East River Ferry, Mercy University Manhattan Campus, and the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center.”
Train to Busan is the only Yeon project I have watched to date; I still haven’t even gotten around to checking out Peninsula or Seoul Station. But I was very impressed by what he did with Train to Busan and look forward to seeing how his English-language debut is going to turn out. (And yes, I am going to watch Peninsula and Seoul Station one of these days.)
Are you a fan of Yeon Sang-ho’s work? What do you think of him making his English-language debut with an action horror film called 35th Street? Let us know by leaving a comment below. And if there are Yeon projects you would recommend watching beyond the Train to Busan films, drop those titles in the comments as well.
35th Street is being produced by Appian Way, which was founded by Leonardo DiCaprio, and the Seoul-based company WOW POINT.
The post 35th Street: Train to Busan director Yeon Sang-ho to helm English-language action horror film appeared first on JoBlo.
The year was 1989 when Michael Keaton first donned the cape and cowl for Tim Burton’s Batman, Cher wanted to turn back time, and Marty McFly bungled the most sure-fire get-rich-quick scheme in cinematic history in Robert Zemeckis’ Back to the Future Part II.
After the monumental success of Back to the Future, Univeral Studios approached Robert Zemeckis about creating a sequel to his film that had quickly become a pop culture touchstone. Hesitant about capturing lightning in a bottle twice, Zemeckis said he wouldn’t make the film unless Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd returned as Marty McFly and Doc Brown, respectively. Thankfully, both were game to gas up the DeLorean and push the speedometer to 88mph for another excursion through time. With Fox and Lloyd confirmed, Zemeckis arranged his ceremonial objects to summon his writing partner, Bob Gale, to determine where Marty and Doc would travel next.
While Zemeckis was filming his hybrid animated masterpiece Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Gale began scripting the time-traveling sequel. To the duo’s dismay, they quickly remembered that Marty’s girlfriend, Jennifer, played by Claudia Wells in the original, sits shotgun with Marty in the DeLorean in the classic film’s final scenes. Like it or not, Jennifer needed to be a part of the next clock-manipulating caper. Embracing the circumstances, Gale and Zemeckis began developing a plot to take Doc, Marty, and Jennifer into the hereafter to change a pivotal event in the couple’s future.
Speaking of the future, Back to the Future Part II abandons the cardigans and poodle skirts of the 1950s for an ambitious look at 2015, the year promising hoverboards, self-cleaning smart jackets, and holographic screenings of Jaws 19. While feeling excited about presenting audiences with a radical glimpse of the future, Zemeckis and Gale grew nervous about making far-flung predictions regarding technology and transportation in 2015. Some divinations, like hands-free gaming, waste-fuel cars, and biometric devices, came to fruition. Still, many await a world populated by robotic dog walkers, food hydrators, and flying cars. However, do we trust casual drivers to own and operate flying automobiles? Imagine the cost of gas, infrastructure planning, and the frustration of flying behind student drivers. I’ll stick to rubber tires on pavement, thank you very much!
The fact that I still remember my first screening of Back to the Future Part II is a testament to the sequel’s impact and lasting appeal. Ask anyone who knows me about my memory, and they’ll tell you it’s laughable garbage. Add a strong case of inattentive ADHD to the mix, and you’ve got a recipe for an unreliable narrator. However, theater experiences tend to stick with me, and I’ll always remember when and where I watched Back to the Future Part II for the first time.
Released on November 22, 1989, as a pre-game to Thanksgiving in the United States, Back to the Future Part II sent 1.21 gigawatts to my brain as my imagination ran wild with visions of the years to come. At eight years old, my mom and I saw Back to the Future Part II at the Brookhaven Multiplex in Medford, New York. While Zemeckis’ time-traveling sequel played in a packed theater, the film reunited audiences with Doc and Marty and teased a radical future filled with tech that could alter the everyday lives of millions.
While audiences sat slack-jawed at the promise of a tech-driven future and marveled at the cleanliness of Hill Valley’s busy city streets, Zemeckis’s sequel erred on the side of hope. It presented an ideal future where climate change is the stuff of science fiction, and the Chicago Cubs stand a chance of winning the World Series. Funnily enough, the Cubs achieved this feat in 2016, one year after Zemeckis’s playful jab at the players led by Clark, the mascot bear with the backward baseball cap.
Speaking about his depiction of the future on the film’s audio commentary, Zemeckis said the future scenes were his least enjoyable to film in the trilogy because he didn’t like predicting what lies ahead. Like in A Clockwork Orange, he preferred Kubrick’s depiction with an aesthetic akin to IKEA and NASA partnering for a fall collection of designer furniture. Rather than striving for precision, Zemeckis and Gale leaned into far-flung concepts, pipe dreams, and predictions made by actual scientists. Zemeckis’s school of thought was he could present the future as funny while possibly inaccurate.
Astonishingly, Back to the Future Part II was produced on a $40 million budget, which some would consider couch change by today’s lofty standards for a blockbuster film. The set-building and scripting process lasted two years, with the sequel serving as a landmark project for Industrial Light & Magic. While the effects shown in Back to the Future Part II appear dated compared to effects powerhouses like James Cameron’s Avatar franchise and Marvel’s superhero slugfests, Doc and Marty’s sophomore adventure was nothing short of jaw-dropping at the time of release. I can still hear the random gasps of audience members from my screening and recall my wide-eyed wonderment as Marty shredded through Hill Valley Square atop a “borrowed” pink and orange Mattel hoverboard.
One of the crowning achievements of Back to the Future Part II was the film’s ability to make audiences believe that Zemeckis’s future was possible. The public desperately wanted to dream about driving flying cars or tricking like Tony Hawk with an anti-gravitational skateboard. Zemeckis fanned the flames of imagination in a behind-the-scenes featurette, saying the hoverboards featured in the film were real but would only be released to the public once the government could determine safety regulations. People fell for what was later dubbed the “Hoverboard Hoax,” hassling toy outlets like Toys ‘R’ Us and KB Toys for stock updates and expectations.
Other technological milestones include ILM’s maiden voyage into digital compositing, combining multiple images into a final display, and using the VistaGlide motion control camera system to film scenes featuring an actor playing numerous roles simultaneously. While Zemeckis used VistaGlide to film a scene of Michael J. Fox playing three separate characters at the same time, the characters Marty Sr., Marty Jr., and Marlene, a better example of this filming method is the 1996 comedy Multiplicity, starring Michael Keaton as a clone-happy contractor using science to gain more free time.
While planning Back to the Future Part II, screenwriter Bob Gale proposed adding a fourth act set in the Wild West. However, taking Doc and Marty to the American frontier meant pushing the runtime to two and a half hours with an estimated $60 million budget. When Universal shot the idea down faster than Marty, channeling his Wild Gunman skills to ping targets at Colt’s Patent Firearms, Gale returned to the drawing board. Reluctant to sunset his ideas for traveling to the Old West, Gale split the script in half, turning Back to the Future into a trilogy. Each film cost the studio $40 million to produce, with the projects shooting back-to-back over 11 months. Universal, while hesitant to pony up the dough, saw dollar signs in turning an already beloved property into a triple threat.
The day I saw Back to the Future Part II at the Brookhaven Multiplex, Universal attached a preview of the third film to tease audiences about the story’s continuation. If memory serves, this was the first time I’d seen a preview for a sequel attached to a film. I was only a kid, so I had yet to learn if foreknowledge was circulating throughout the science-fiction cinema community. I wasn’t the only one in the audience who was surprised because the moment the Back to the Future Part III teaser popped up, I remember hearing confusion and excitement amidst the crowd. My mom and I looked at each other then, silently understanding we’d return for Part III the following year.
Among the complications of filming Back to the Future Part II was what I’ll call the “Jennifer Problem.” As I’d said, Zemeckis and Gale never banked on making a Back to the Future sequel, so including Jennifer in the final scenes was of no consequence. When the sequel got green-lighted, Claudia Wells agreed to reprise her role, only a family cancer crisis kept her from returning. After bringing Elisabeth Shue aboard, Zemeckis re-shot the closing scenes of the original film to pair them with the sequel.
Another casting conundrum arose when Crispin Glover was asked to reprise the role of George McFly. Glover was interested but became reluctant when the producers offered him less than half the pay of other returning actors. However, Gale told reporters Glover’s reprisal came alongside superfluous demands that the studio was unprepared to meet. Instead, Jeffrey Weissman joined the cast as Glover’s replacement. Weissman wore a prosthetic chin, nose, and cheekbones to mirror Glover’s pointed features, with the character appearing in a limited capacity or in scenes where he’s obscured in some way.
Getting replaced didn’t sit well with Glover, who filed a lawsuit, saying the studio didn’t have the likeness rights to impersonate him for the film. The studio resolved the case outside the court, but only after clauses in the Screen Actors Guild had introduced guidelines for future complications within the industry.
While Zemeckis and Gale’s first vision of the future is bright, tidy, and brimming with optimism, an alternate version in the film’s latter half depicts a dystopian hellscape where Biff Tannen uses Marty’s Sports Almanac to amass a fortune and seize control of Hill Valley. Gale told reporters he took inspiration from Donald Trump for Biff’s radical depiction of a wealthy tycoon, blissfully unaware of the mogul’s position of influence in the years to come.
Back to the Future Part II earned $332 million worldwide, but critics and audiences were equally divided on the sequel’s quality. While some were delighted by the film’s slapstick comedy, far-fetched visions of the future, and whip-smart chemistry between Doc and Marty, others dogged the sequel for failing to capture the original’s magic. One critic condemned Zemeckis for scenes featuring Micheal J. Fox in drag, referring to when the actor plays Marty’s daughter in the future. The same critic noted one of my chief concerns with the film, and that’s how Jennifer’s role is reduced to little more than a sleeping beauty to circumvent her involvement with pivotal events. In my opinion, the Bobs could have spent more time on Jennifer’s participation and portrayed her as more than a confused and fainting bystander in her own destiny.
While Back to the Future Part II does not hold as much nostalgic cache for me as the original, I still adore the film for its bold swings, creative storytelling, and outstanding character chemistry. While other movies set in the future tend to take the concept to foreign and unattainable places, Back to the Future Part II gave audiences a hereafter people could believe in. I doubt I’ll see a flying car in my lifetime, but try to imagine watching this film in 1989 and not feeling like much of what was on screen is achievable.
In 1989, what dazzled me most about cinema was the medium’s ability to transport us into remarkable worlds populated by what-ifs and energized by imagination. Having always been a freak for special effects, Back to the Future Part II introduced me to untold levels of ingenuity and execution of ideas. When you pair that magic with lovable characters, madcap story elements, and the promise of taking the setting of the third film in a radically different direction, you’ve got a recipe for one of cinema’s most enigmatic and inspiring experiments. Back to the Future Part II might not be perfect, but it’s a moment in time that could last an eternity in pop culture, and I’ll be damned if Doc and Marty’s second trip through time didn’t pave the way for science fiction cinema to go big or go home on the silver screen.
The post Back to the Future Part II Revisited – Is the sequel better than the original? appeared first on JoBlo.
It’s graduation night, and for the students at Huntington Hills High School, there’s one last hurrah before going off to college. The 1998 comedy Can’t Hardly Wait carried on the tradition of John Hughes 80s classics with ageless themes of longing, alienation, optimism and fear amongst teenage angst as they all come crashing together at a house party. The movie was also a big follow-up for the star Jennifer Love Hewitt, who became the 90s “It Girl” after starring in Party of Five and I Know What You Did Last Summer. Sony has now announced the all-new 4K UltraHD Blu-ray release of Can’t Hardly Wait, which is set to be released on August 20. The studio has released all the details and specs that will be included in this new Blu-ray.
The official synopsis reads,
“It’s graduation day at Huntington Hills High– a time for Pomp and Circumstance, tassels and mortarboards, and serious introspection about the future. But tonight, the seniors will leave all that behind for the things that really matter; romance, revenge and rock ‘n’ roll. Ethan Embry, Charlie Korsmo, Lauren Ambrose, Peter Facinelli, Seth Green and Jennifer Love Hewitt star in one raucous comedy about the ultimate teen party, a once-in-a-lifetime alternate universe where class nerds become class studs, super-jocks are humiliated, and freshman crushes blossom into grown-up romance. From meathead to misfit, everyone will be there for a hormone-charged bash tapped for out-of-control fun.”
DISC DETAILS AND BONUS MATERIALS
4K ULTRA HD DISC
SPECS
Run Time: Approx. 100 minutes
Rating: PG-13 for teen drinking and sexuality, and for language
4K UHD Feature Picture: 2160p Ultra High Definition, 1.85:1
4K UHD Feature Audio: English Dolby Atmos, English 5.1 DTS-HD MA
The post Can’t Hardly Wait will be partying it up with the new 4K UltraHD release from Sony appeared first on JoBlo.
Square Enix’s hit MMORPG, Final Fantasy XIV, is known for taking inspiration from the franchise’s long history. Past expansions have pulled heavily on specific games, such as 2019 expansion Shadowbringers offering a reinterpretation of Final Fantasy III. But with Dawntrail, the next expansion releasing this summer,…
Square Enix’s hit MMORPG, Final Fantasy XIV, is known for taking inspiration from the franchise’s long history. Past expansions have pulled heavily on specific games, such as 2019 expansion Shadowbringers offering a reinterpretation of Final Fantasy III. But with Dawntrail, the next expansion releasing this summer,…
A couple of months ago, Paramount and Miramax announced that they are reviving the Scary Movie horror parody series to bring a Scary Movie 6 to theatres sometime in 2025 – so we felt this was the perfect time to give the first movie in the franchise, the 2000 release Scary Movie (watch it HERE), the Revisited treatment. You can hear all about it in the video embedded above!
Directed by Keenen Ivory Wayans from a screenplay written by the team of Shawn Wayans, Marlon Wayans, Buddy Johnson, Phil Beauman, Jason Friedberg, and Aaron Seltzer, Scary Movie has the following synopsis: Defying the very notion of good taste, Scary Movie out-parodies the pop culture parodies with a no-holds barred assault on the most popular images and talked-about moments from recent films, television and commercials. The film boldly fires barbs at the classic scenes from Scream, The Sixth Sense, The Matrix, I Know What You Did Last Summer, and The Blair Witch Project, then goes on to mock a whole myriad of teen movie clichés, no matter the genre.
The film stars Anna Faris, Jon Abrahams, Marlon Wayans, Regina Hall, Shawn Wayans, Shannon Elizabeth, Lochlyn Munro, Dave Sheridan, Cheri Oteri, Carmen Electra, Kurt Fuller, Rick Ducommun, David L. Lander, Andrea Nemeth, Dan Joffre, Marissa Jaret Winokur, Keenen Ivory Wayans, Jayne Trcka, Kelly Coffield Park, Tanja Reichert, James Van Der Beek, and Anthony McKay.
The Scary Movie episode of Revisited was Written, Narrated, and Edited by Tyler Nichols, Produced by Tyler Nichols and John Fallon, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.
What do you think of Scary Movie? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
Two previous episodes of Revisited can be seen below. To see more of our shows, head over to the JoBlo Horror Originals channel – and subscribe while you’re at it!
The post Scary Movie (2000) Revisited – Horror Parody Review appeared first on JoBlo.
One of the films that Michael Keaton had done before donning the cape and cowl in Tim Burton’s Batman is the 1986 cultural merging comedy Gung Ho. The movie came from Ron Howard after making a splash with….well, Splash — a Tom Hanks/Daryll Hannah comedy from 1983. Then, Howard went on to direct the hit film Cocoon with Steve Guttenberg in 1985. Cocoon is also a film that we’ve headlined in our column about hard-to-find movies. However, in a strong step for this Ron Howard film, the video label Kino has announced the release of a 4K restoration on Bluray for Gung Ho.
The movie would open at number one at the box office in March of 1986 with a $7 million opening and finish its run with $36 million. Interestingly, a TV series based on the film would actually premiere later that year in December of 1986. That version would star Scott Bakula in the Michael Keaton role and feature Ron’s brother, Clint Howard in a different part than he had in the film. The show lasted one season and ended in 1987. The movie would play on cable here and there, but the comedy would somewhat fade into obscurity. The movie would also star Gedde Watanabe, George Wendt, Mimi Rogers, and John Turturro.
The synopsis from Blu-ray.com reads,
“When a western Pennsylvania auto plant is acquired by a Japanese company, brokering auto worker Hunt Stevenson (Michael Keaton) faces the tricky challenge of mediating the assimilation of two clashing corporate cultures. At one end is the Japanese plant manager (Gedde Watanabe) and the sycophant (Sab Shimono) who is angling for his position. At the other, a number of disgruntled long-time union members (George Wendt, John Turturro) struggle with the new exigencies of Japanese quality control. NEW 4K RESTORATION BY PARAMOUNT.“
The specs include:
Video
Codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Resolution: 1080p
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Audio
TBA
Subtitles
English SDH
Discs
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD-50)
Playback
2K Blu-ray: Region A
The Blu-ray is set to hit the market later this year.
The post Gung Ho: 1986 Ron Howard comedy starring Michael Keaton is set to be released on Bluray with a 4K restoration from Kino appeared first on JoBlo.
One of the films that Michael Keaton had done before donning the cape and cowl in Tim Burton’s Batman is the 1986 cultural merging comedy Gung Ho. The movie came from Ron Howard after making a splash with….well, Splash — a Tom Hanks/Daryll Hannah comedy from 1983. Then, Howard went on to direct the hit film Cocoon with Steve Guttenberg in 1985. Cocoon is also a film that we’ve headlined in our column about hard-to-find movies. However, in a strong step for this Ron Howard film, the video label Kino has announced the release of a 4K restoration on Bluray for Gung Ho.
The movie would open at number one at the box office in March of 1986 with a $7 million opening and finish its run with $36 million. Interestingly, a TV series based on the film would actually premiere later that year in December of 1986. That version would star Scott Bakula in the Michael Keaton role and feature Ron’s brother, Clint Howard in a different part than he had in the film. The show lasted one season and ended in 1987. The movie would play on cable here and there, but the comedy would somewhat fade into obscurity. The movie would also star Gedde Watanabe, George Wendt, Mimi Rogers, and John Turturro.
The synopsis from Blu-ray.com reads,
“When a western Pennsylvania auto plant is acquired by a Japanese company, brokering auto worker Hunt Stevenson (Michael Keaton) faces the tricky challenge of mediating the assimilation of two clashing corporate cultures. At one end is the Japanese plant manager (Gedde Watanabe) and the sycophant (Sab Shimono) who is angling for his position. At the other, a number of disgruntled long-time union members (George Wendt, John Turturro) struggle with the new exigencies of Japanese quality control. NEW 4K RESTORATION BY PARAMOUNT.“
The specs include:
Video
Codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Resolution: 1080p
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Audio
TBA
Subtitles
English SDH
Discs
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD-50)
Playback
2K Blu-ray: Region A
The Blu-ray is set to hit the market later this year.
The post Gung Ho: 1986 Ron Howard comedy starring Michael Keaton is set to be released on Bluray with a 4K restoration from Kino appeared first on JoBlo.
In MultiVersus, Warner Bros. crossover fighter, there’s a feature that lets you pay real money to refill your lives during its campaign missions. That sounds scummy, right? Well after fans were rightfully annoyed by it, developer Player First Games has claimed that the feature was a “bug” and not intended as part of…