By now, many of you have undoubtedly watched Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F on Netflix. While jam-packed with easter eggs that will please fans of the series, the movie also contains an unusual cameo that left a lot of fans scratching their heads, as it seems to suggest that another highly anticipated Netflix sequel takes place in the same universe as Axel F.
That movie, of course, is Happy Gilmore 2. In Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, Christopher McDonald shows up as an irate Beverly Hills golfer, with many assuming he’s, in fact, playing the famous Happy Gilmore antagonist Shooter McGavin. Indeed, he certainly looks like Shooter and acts like Shooter, so could he be playing the same guy?
Given that Netflix is behind Happy Gilmore 2 and Axel F, it seems reasonable to assume that this cameo is more than just a coincidence. Murphy and Adam Sandler both did time on Saturday Night Live, so who knows, maybe Axel (or someone like Judge Reinhold’s Billy Rosewood) could show up in a tiny cameo in the upcoming sequel. For his part, Axel F director Mark Molloy told THR that while McDonald was certainly cast due to his notoriety as Shooter, he had no idea the streamer was developing a sequel:
I had no idea that they were making Happy Gilmore 2. I was talking with Mary Vernieu, our casting director, about the golfer role that we knew we had, and I said, “I’d love a great cameo.” So we started talking about it, and then we were like, “Christopher McDonald!? Oh, yes! That would be amazing.” And fans love it. I’ve heard the reaction when people see Chris come on the screen, and it’s just a really fun cameo. So there’s no bigger story behind it, apart from me wanting to have some fun.
Do you like to think Axel F and Happy Gilmore take place in the same cinematic universe? Let us know in the comments!
One of the most anticipated movies for 2025 is undoubtedly the big-budget Formula One drama produced by Apple. Brad Pitt stars in what everyone involved no doubt hopes will become the definitive F1 movie, with it seemingly cut from the same cloth as classics like John Frankenheimer’s Grand Prix or the Steve McQueen passion project, Le Mans. Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski is directing, with none other than Jerry Bruckheimer producing.
Yet, despite the high pedigree, very little has been revealed about the production – until now that is, with new distributor Warner Bros finally unveiling the movie’s first teaser poster, which reveals the film’s simple and direct title, F1the director Set for a June 25, 2025 release, we’ll be getting our first look at the film when WB and Apple release the first teaser trailer this Sunday, during the Formula 1 British Grand Prix this weekend. Here’s the poster:
Notably, the film was produced in collaboration with F1, with them filming at actual races, allowing them to make what everyone no doubt hopes will be one of the most immersive racing movies ever. It’s also getting an IMAX release. Here’s the studio’s official synopsis and full reveal of the stacked supporting cast:
From Apple Original Films, “F1” stars Academy Award winner Brad Pitt as a former driver who returns to Formula 1, alongside Damson Idris as his teammate at APXGP, a fictional team on the grid. The feature is being shot during actual Grand Prix weekends as the team competes against the titans of the sport. The star-studded cast also includes Academy Award nominee Kerry Condon, Academy Award winner Javier Bardem, and Emmy Award winner Tobias Menzies, Emmy Award nominee Sarah Niles, Kim Bodnia and Samson Kayo.
Joseph Kosinski (“Top Gun: Maverick”) directs and produces the feature alongside Jerry Bruckheimer and Chad Oman of Jerry Bruckheimer Films; Pitt, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner for Plan B Entertainment; and Lewis Hamilton under his Dawn Apollo Films banner. The film is made in collaboration with Formula 1® and the F1 community, including the 10 F1 teams and their drivers, the FIA, and race promoters. Copper CEO Penni Thow serves as executive producer.
Are you looking forward to F1? Let us know in the comments!
The poor Wii U. That inexplicable console that was simultaneously too confusing to be useful, but too unexceptional to be inspiring. Meaninglessly carrying the weight of the name of the phenomenal success of the Nintendo Wii, it was—by most metrics—a rare miss and a colossal flop. And now you can’t even get it fixed.
The poor Wii U. That inexplicable console that was simultaneously too confusing to be useful, but too unexceptional to be inspiring. Meaninglessly carrying the weight of the name of the phenomenal success of the Nintendo Wii, it was—by most metrics—a rare miss and a colossal flop. And now you can’t even get it fixed.
The biggest names in all of celebritydom would kill for the chance to have some anonymity. No longer would a paparazzo flash his camera in your face when you’re just not having a good day. No more would you have to deal with incessant, autograph-hungry “fans” who are just going to toss your scribbled napkin on eBay. But, really, would it be worth it if you can’t get a reservation at the hottest restaurant or have to {gasp} wait in line? For Kevin Bacon, not a shot.
Kevin Bacon is by definition the center of the universe, so he’s one of the more recognizable actors out there. But he wanted to experiment a bit and see what it would be like to go about the day at a popular Los Angeles mall as one of us, a totally normal dude just going about his day. As he told Vanity Fair, “I’m not complaining, but I have a face that’s pretty recognizable. Putting my hat and glasses on is only going to work to a certain extent…I went to a special effects makeup artist, had consultations, and asked him to make me a prosthetic disguise.”
So how did Kevin Bacon’s day of normality go? Well, something like most of ours. “Nobody recognized me…People were kind of pushing past me, not being nice. Nobody said, ‘I love you.’ I had to wait in line to, I don’t know, buy a f*cking coffee or whatever. I was like, This sucks. I want to go back to being famous.” Certainly Bacon is also poking fun at the often ridiculous elements of fame but we have to admit that waiting in line for anything does indeed suck.
The disguise may have worked but Kevin Bacon has never not been recognizable in any other situation, proving to be one of the most consistent presences on the big screen for four decades. And this hasn’t slowed down in 2024, as he co-stars in two major – and very different – movies that are currently out: comedy Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F and Ti West’s horror threequel Maxxxine.
Which movie first comes to mind when you think of Kevin Bacon? Let us know your top choice and why he stands out for you.
Yoshiyuki Momose’s The Imaginary arrives on Netflix today, and it’s one of the most magical animated experiences you’ll find on screens this year. Based on the book of the same name by A. F. Harrold with art by Emily Gravett, The Imaginary is a fantasy epic on part with some of Studio Ghibli and Don Bluth’s best and most impactful works. Studio Ponoc’s The Imaginary portrays the depths of humanity and creativity through the eyes of young Amanda and her imaginary companion, Rudger, a boy no one can see imagined by Amanda to share her thrilling make-believe adventures. But when Rudger, suddenly alone, arrives at The Town of Imaginaries, where forgotten Imaginaries live and find work, he faces a mysterious threat.
We are honored to be joined by Studio Ponoc founder and The Imaginary writer Yoshiaki Nishimura for this in-depth interview into the world of make-believe, dream-devouring demons and connections that span generations. During our time with Mr. Nishimura, we discuss his love for animation, the challenges of adapting Harrold’s enigmatic tale, the inner workings of the film’s villain, Mr. Bunting (Jeremy Strong), Mr. Nishimura’s dream project, and much, much more.
The following interview is transcribed from an on-camera video interview with Mr. Nishimura and his interpreter. For our full review of The Imaginary, click here!
JoBlo: You’ve produced some of the most epic and heartfelt animated films in the past several years. What attracts you to this genre of filmmaking?
Nishimura: Wow! That’s a very hard question! Initially, as a student, I spent my time thinking I’d do live-action films. But once, I saw children looking at a TV screen and screaming, “Please help that little boy! Please, help!” Then I thought, ‘Oh, wow, that power animation has on a child is so strong.’ Then I remembered something about myself from when I was ten years old. When I was ten, I watched Grave of the Fireflies by Isao Takahata. I’ve seen that film more than 100 times. At that point in my life, I didn’t trust grown-ups or society. When I saw Grave of the Fireflies, I thought, ‘Whoever made this film could be trusted.’ If I’m able to create a film that makes children feel like, ‘Oh, this film was made for me,’ then that is worth spending my life on.
Nishimura and I then bonded over the beauty and emotional trauma of Grave of the Fireflies, a film I’ve only seen once because it scarred me that deeply.
JoBlo: What were some challenges you faced while writing The Imaginary? Was it difficult to adapt the source material while making the story your own?
Nishimura: This story is interesting because there are stories where humans meet Martians, like E.T., but The Imaginary comes from the perspective of a boy who is imagined by a girl. What felt very special to me was that if this girl hadn’t imagined this boy, he wouldn’t have existed anywhere in the world. I felt that if I could utilize this situation, we could depict so many things in the world that are important but unseen. That’s how I started scripting The Imaginary.
Creating a fantasy world in animation is easy, but the difficult part is making sure the reality where human beings are creating Imaginaries is grounded. That was the most important balance when you’re going between the imaginary world and that of human beings.
JoBlo: Did you have an imaginary friend growing up? If so, could you tell us about them?
Nishimura: I did not have any imaginary friends, but in the bathroom, I was always traveling through my “Imagination world.” I would think, what if there are five special boys in the world, and I’m one of them? So, this is a world that’s familiar to me. I have children. The world that they live in is very close to me. I didn’t have an imaginary friend, but playing with my imagination was something I was very familiar with.
JoBlo: The film’s villain, Mr. Bunting, is incredibly sinister. At any point, did you have to keep yourself from going too far with his evil intent and actions?
Nishimura: Fantasy literature in England always has some level of something scary. In my opinion, English literature tries to depict the reality of the world of children. It was a challenging task for me to take the fun part of the fantasy and combine it with the scary. One thing I always had in my mind was that we cannot lie to children. Children now are different from how we were. They’re often surrounded by scary visuals and things that evoke fear. Rather than lying to them and saying the world you live in is happy and beautiful, I wanted to communicate to them that the world you live in might have scary things that exist, but you have the power to overcome them.
I created Bunting so he would exist as a metaphor for scary things in the real world. When you’re growing up, what is this being that might be consistently following you? Through that idea, I said, ah, Bunting, and ensured he was there. I owe so much to Jeremy Swift. This character could have been a really scary being, but with his brilliant acting, he was this creepy, scary being, but at the same time, somewhat comical. I thought that was magnificent.
Next, Nishimura and I spoke about Mr. Bunting’s imaginary friend, a ghostly figure not unlike an undead schoolgirl with unimaginable power. I asked Nishimura if there was a story behind her character, and he told me this.
Nishimura: In the illustration that Emily [Gravett] drew in the original book there was a depiction of Bunting’s imaginary friend. When I saw that, I said, ‘Oh my God, this is Sadako [Yamamura] from Japanese horror films. It took me an entire year to create Bunting’s background. I imagined a girl taken away as a child, and now that child is an adult.
JoBlo: Can you recall your proudest moment while working on The Imaginary?
Nishimura: About my happiest or proudest moment, this current piece is very challenging to us. I assume you’re familiar with Japanese animation from the T-shirt you’re wearing [a black-and-white Spirited Away shirt featuring Chihiro and No Face riding a train]. Within the past several decades, the Japanese animation style hasn’t changed much. The backgrounds and illustrations have become more refined, yet the characters and their design have remained simple. I was always thinking, ‘I wish I could do something to push that forward or present something different.
Then I found this technology of light and shading that was developed by a French company. The first thing I thought was, ‘if I use this technology, I can bring more texture to the hand-painted animation, giving it more depth. What was important is that if we used this technique to control the shadows and lighting, we could create images that could control human emotions more. After I found this technique, I called Momose-san, and I said, ‘I want to use this!’ Then Momose-san said, ‘Oh, this is great! The production pipeline had already been established and begun. People said, ‘Why are we changing this? Why now?’ When they saw the first rush of film that we tried out, they said, ‘Wow! This is really going to change something. I was very happy and felt like we’d accomplished something. That was the moment when I felt confident about the work that we were creating.
JoBlo: Is there another story or novel you’d jump at the chance of adapting into an animated film? Something from your childhood?
Nishimura: I do have one, yes. My favorite children’s story that I’ve read is by a German author named Erich Kästner, called The Flying Classroom. I love this story, and Mr. Miyazaki [Hayao Miyazaki of Ghibli Studios] loves it too. So, if I had an opportunity to create this, I think that would be the final accomplishment of my filmmaking life. I feel that’s something further down the road.
Steven Soderbergh and Taylor Swift are never, ever, ever getting back together. Soderbergh, who admitted he has a fascination with the aura of Swift, is desperately trying to catch The Eras Tour but, like many of us, can’t seem to snag a seat.
Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Steven Soderbergh said he would absolutely see Taylor Swift live “if I could. I can’t get in [because tickets sell out so quickly]. But I watched the film.” According to his annual watchlist, Soderbergh caught The Eras Tour on December 13th. The Eras Tour – which is officially the highest-grossing ever, topping Elton John’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour – is currently on its European leg before it comes back to North America. Across the globe, Soderbergh has heard nothing but praise. “David Koepp [writer of the Soderbergh-directed Kimi and Presence] took his teenage daughter to see this show. And he was like, ‘You cannot believe what it’s like to be there. It is elemental. To be with that many people with that level of emotion. You cannot not be a part of it. It’s just overwhelming.’ He loved it.”
But even if Soderbergh can’t manage to grab a ticket for The Eras Tour, he recognizes just what sort of impact Swift is having, even citing the tour as a demonstration of the human ability to cooperate and collaborate on a large scale, saying, “You look at a Taylor Swift concert, well look at that whole tour, and just go, ‘Okay, it works.’ All these people, all this effort, the coordination of it, and it works.” He added that there is a lot to learn from the pop icon. “Look, people laugh at how there’s a college class being taught about her in business school. There should be. What she has done, what she’s doing in the way she’s doing it, nobody has ever done this before. The amount of control that she has taken. And she’s doing this all herself. Nobody has ever done this. It’s working. And it’s a great model…I would like to know more about how she is on a granular level, how is she doing all of this? How does the business work? What’s her brain trust? How is the money? How does all the money move? How does it work? I’m fascinated by that because it’s a success story.”
Steven Soderbergh might be taking it to a level that most Taylor Swift fans don’t – they’re a bit more into bracelets than financial analytics – but that’s just how he operates.
What do you make of the Taylor Swift phenomenon? Does it have more of a positive or negative impact?
PLOT: Tiffany “Rex” Simpson has always dreamed of going to space, and her “doctored” application lands her in NASA’s ultra-competitive astronaut training program. Will she get to the cosmos before she blows her cover?
REVIEW: Space is often the setting for epic fantasies or the terror it can provide. But there’s one subgenre that’s been sorely missing over the years: the space comedy. Space has gotten so serious that I miss the days of Harland Williams going to Mars in Rocketman due to a cacophony of errors. And Space Cadet follows in those similar footsteps. Sure, if you bring any logic to the party then you’re going to have a bad time but if you just want a lighthearted romantic comedy, then this may just be for you.
Space Cadet follows Tiffany “Rex” Simpson (Roberts) as she’s working at a bar in Florida. But after her doctored application gets her into the NASA space program, she braces for the consequences. But somehow she just makes it further and further, bonding with other astronaut hopefuls. The stakes are really low at all times. I mean so low that you won’t even think about tension once during the film’s runtime. Even when the space crew is in danger, every character’s reaction to it makes it not a big deal. Space Cadet feels like an old Disney Channel original movie akin to Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century or Luck of the Irish. That’s either going to send you running for the hills or at least a little intrigued. Probably depends on your relationship with early 2000s Disney.
Emma Roberts is charismatic as Rex and provides a fun energy. I tend to be down on her performances but this seems right in her wheelhouse. Rex is chaotic good, whose ignorance seems to just be getting her further and further in life. It can be a little frustrating how she just falls into situations with little resistance. Most of the laughs come from Poppy Liu’s Nadine, who steals the show as Rex’s best friend. Gabrielle Union fails to really stand out from the litany of side characters. Meanwhile, Dave Foley makes the most out of his limited screen time and proves why he’s so valuable to any production.
Tom Hopper does a great job acting against type as the dorky science guy, Logan. I know him from more actiony roles so I really got a kick of his buffoonery. There’s a love story set up between Rex and Logan but it feels forced. The actors have chemistry but the story does very little to convince that these characters would fall in love. There’s one scene involving karaoke that works well because it’s got a little bit of ugliness to it. Otherwise, their romantic ties don’t have a very believable A to B. Requiring the viewer to just accept that they’ve somehow found a meaningful connection off-screen versus showing.
Space Cadet is the kind of movie that probably would have really annoyed me prior to 2020. Something about that dumpster fire year made me much more accepting of these low-stakes comedies that are just meant to have a good time. While I was still annoyed by the complete lack of logic present throughout, it’s relatively harmless. There are times when it gets very adult out of nowhere which clashes with the silly tone. So outside of being aimed at women, I’m not sure which age group this is for. Maybe those who want to go to space but don’t actually want anything involving the reality of it?
SPACE CADET IS STREAMING ON PRIME VIDEO ON JULY 4TH, 2024.
And make sure to check out my interviews with Emma Roberts, Poppy Liu, Tom Hopper and director Liz W. Garcia, up later this week!
It was thrilling the first time I witnessed Ti West’s X. It was a fun slasher flick that offered a refreshing take on the sub-genre. And then came Pearl. Here we are, a surprise double feature that stood high above most horror sequels. And now there is MaXXXine. The modern fright fest is the third collaboration between the amazing Mia Goth and Mr. West is a gift. I went into the third film wondering if it would connect as the trailer wasn’t what I expected. Thankfully, it was better than anticipated. The latest adventures of MaXXXine Minx (Goth) is a dream with an incredible atmospheric journey into the dark side of Hollywood in the 80’s. Amazing flick! While I dug it a bit more than our own Chris Bumbray did – you can read his take here – but I highly recommend going in as cold as possible.
A few days ago, I stopped by the legendary Rainbow Bar & Grill in Hollywood. I even picked up a kick ass Lemmy shirt, so that’s cool. I also happened to chat with a few of the talented team that brought MaXXXine to life. Unfortunately, the brilliant and Academy Award worthy, Mia Goth, couldn’t make it due to production issues. That said, all those in attendance were a blast to chat with at this rock and roll inspired location. If you happen to be in Los Angeles, you might want to check the iconic Rainbow to get a taste of Hollywood.
First up, I sat down with Kevin Bacon and Elizabeth Debicki to talk about the film. Aside from me shamefully forgetting the last name of Amy Holden Jones and mixing it up with the writer of Slumber Party Massacre, Rita Mae Brown, it was a terrific conversation. The talented Ms. Debicki discussed taking on her role as an ambitious director in the new film. And she’s great. Speaking of great, Mr. Bacon once again proves why he is a legend. And what I love about Mr. Bacon, he truly embraces horror, and he even claimed he seeks it out. No wonder why the man is so damn cool.
Finally, we sat down with Ti West, Giancarlo Esposito, and Moses Sumney. I truly admire Ti West’s work, and it’s always a joy to chat with him. In fact, this is by far, my favorite modern horror trilogy. Perhaps even of all-time. It works and it deserves a whole lot of acclaim. During our conversation, I talked with all three of these fine talents about creating this film. For the incredible Esposito, he talked about being a part of this fantastic project and it was thrilling to listen to him.
MaXXXine opens this Friday and it’s an utter blast! I dug the hell out of this flick, and I’m looking forward to doing a triple feature with X, Pearl, and the latest ASAP.
Astonishingly, this is the fourthyear in a row Kotaku has celebrated Indie-Penance Day, since the holiday was invented to mark the liberation of gaming from the cruel rule of the British monarchy. To mark the occasion, we’ve picked a selection of some of the most interesting, enticing, unknown upcoming indie games…
