Forget Brat summer, it’s time for “Bee My Honey” summer. The pop song that serves as the background music to one of Final Fantasy 14’s new raids is an undeniable ear worm that I, and many other players, can’t stop listening to. To make it even better, the song is sung by the adorable Honey B. Lovely, the latest…
Forget Brat summer, it’s time for “Bee My Honey” summer. The pop song that serves as the background music to one of Final Fantasy 14’s new raids is an undeniable ear worm that I, and many other players, can’t stop listening to. To make it even better, the song is sung by the adorable Honey B. Lovely, the latest…
More than two years have gone by since we heard that Marvel Studios had hired Moon Knight writer Sabir Pirzada to start developing a Disney+ TV series that would center on the character Nova… but we never heard anything more about Nova until earlier this year, when Brad Winderbaum, the head of streaming, television, and animation at Marvel, told the Phase Zero podcast, “We love Nova. We are in really early development on Nova.” Now, during an interview with ComicBook.com, Kevin Feige, the President of Marvel Studios, has confirmed that a Nova TV series is “happening, it’s coming together.” Since there has been more than one Nova in Marvel comics, Feige also specified that the show will center on the Richard Rider version of the character.
Nova / Richard Rider is a member of the intergalactic police force called the Nova Corps, which was brought into the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Guardians of the Galaxy back in 2014 – so fans of the character have been clamoring for him to make his MCU debut ever since.
If you’re not familiar with Richard Rider, Marvel Fandom provides some background information: “Richard Rider was born in Hempstead, New York. As a teenager, he was chosen at random by the alien Rhomann Dey, last surviving Centurion of the planet Xandar’s elite Nova Corps, to inherit his power and succeed him in the rank of Nova Prime following the destruction of his world by the intergalactic pirate Zorr. Having been mortally wounded in the battle that tore Xandar apart, Dey succeeded in tracking Zorr to Earth, but he was unable to exact vengeance himself due to the extent of his injuries. At death’s door, Dey had little choice but to transfer his power to an unsuspecting human on the planet below, gambling that whoever he found would be willing to take up his cause and prove worthy of the powers he had given their recipient.” Wikipedia adds that the power Rider inherited from Dey gives him “access to the Nova Force and superhuman abilities including enhanced strength, flight and resistance to injury.“
In the MCU, Thanos already made a mess of Xandar and the Nova Corps back during the Avengers: Infinity War days, so the TV show could use that event as the set-up instead of an attack by Zorr… but Avengers: Infinity War was several years ago and Thanos was killed off, so they might want to make the event that forces Dey to pass his powers to Rider something more recent, and something that involves a villain who’s still alive.
Winderbaum had made sure that fans wouldn’t get their hopes up too high for Nova, telling Phase Zero it might not make it into production at all. He said, “We have a new system behind the scenes at Marvel Studios. We’re more like a traditional studio now. We are developing more than we actually will produce. So, there are plans to develop Nova. I love Nova too. I love Rich Rider too. I hope it gets to the screen. You know, the world is chaos. There’s always things. It’s hard to make anything. You’ve got to kind of conjure these things to make them happen, But, I would like to see a Nova show one day.” Feige was more hopeful, telling ComicBook.com that “It’s three or four years out.“
Are you a fan of the Richard Rider character, and would you like to see the Nova TV series make it into production? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
The post Kevin Feige confirms Marvel is developing a Nova TV series appeared first on JoBlo.
Actress Justine Bateman is among those who have spoken against the growing use of AI in movies and TV. Earlier this year, Apple had announced the release of a new iPad Pro product, and in their ad for it, which boasted about its computing power, the commercial symbolically showed how the new advancements in their technology would revolutionize art and “crush” human creativity. The ad suffered backlash and Bateman was among those in the entertainment community who showed displeasure with the message.
Deadline has reported that the Family Ties alum will go a step further to promote human-based art with a new film festival that she is launching. The CREDO 23 Film Festival will be debuting in Los Angeles next year and submissions for the event will be opening next week. This new event professes to be “a filmmaker-first, no-AI event” that is “real, and raw.” Bateman told Deadline, “With studios, streamers, and now film festivals, embracing generative AI, it was time for the CREDO 23 Film Festival. It creates a tunnel for human artists through the theft-based, job-replacing AI destruction. The festival honors the incredible human artists who make films, and will financially grant recourses to human filmmakers to continue to do so.”
Per Deadline, Running from March 28- 30, 2025 at the American Legion, Post 43, in Hollywood, the C23FF will be accepting submissions from August 1 to Halloween, October 31, 2024. You can submit your AI-free film here. Badges for film fans will go on sale on November 1.
The CREDO 23 Council will include Bateman, as well as actress Juliette Lewis, Mad Men boss Matt Weiner, Handmaid’s Tale helmer Reed Morano and Once Upon a Time In Hollywood costume designer Arianne Phillips. The CREDO 23 event is described as “a collection of film and series professionals that hold filmmaking sacred, and understand their responsibility to preserve the art form.”
Bateman had stated to Deadline, “I’ve maintained from the very beginning, when I started talking to actors about what would happen, that’s the key to the front door. […] You can do all these renovations in the house. You can get all these other gains in the contract. But if you don’t get that, if you don’t get control of what they can do without you based on 100 years of performances…you put in a prompt and you get out this Frankenstein amalgamation of performances. I said that if you don’t get that, you’ve given them the front key to the house, because it’s not just the actors. It’s the crew, it’s the drivers, it’s everybody. If you don’t have to shoot an actor, you don’t need a set. You don’t need a crew. You don’t need drivers.”
The post Justine Bateman launches the CREDO 23 Film Festival, which will not allow any AI use appeared first on JoBlo.
If you want to take down everything that stands in your way in soulslike Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn, you’ll need to gather everything in the game that can upgrade your skill tree in combat. Choosing the right skills and using the best weapons will go a long way to ensuring you’ll stay on top of every fight, but…
If you want to take down everything that stands in your way in soulslike Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn, you’ll need to gather everything in the game that can upgrade your skill tree in combat. Choosing the right skills and using the best weapons will go a long way to ensuring you’ll stay on top of every fight, but…
There are some actors who you recognize immediately. They are unique, iconic, and simply stand out because they have a magic about them that can’t be replicated. Sadly we lost one of these icons recently when the news was reported that Shelley Duvall had passed away at the age of 75. Duvall had gone out of the public eye for a number of years until quite recently. But with her passing the world lost an actress that was unique, talented, and brought to the screen a special sort of magic that’s hard to find. So in celebration of the life of Shelley Duvall, let’s take a look back on Whatever Happened to This Horror Star.
Shelley Duvall was born in 1949 in Blanco, Texas. Shelley was the oldest child of her parents Bobbie Ruth and Robert Duvall. Her other three siblings were all sons, Scott, Shane, and Stewart. I guess names starting with S were important. Shelley hadn’t gone to school for acting but actually majored in nutrition in college. She was discovered during a party in the early 70s by director Robert Alman. She’d had no other acting experience at the time other than some things in High School, but she was game to try and was cast in Brewster McCloud with Bud Cort. The movie is just as strange as you you’ve probably heard and Shelley and Bud Cort are a duo not to be missed. The film involves Brewster trying to fly, the police being a bunch of idiots, and someone committing murders in the Houston area. Bud Cort in this just makes me think of Where’s Waldo and I can’t think of why. The cast is impressive with Sally Kellerman, Margaret Hamilton, Rene Auberjonois, Michael Murphy and basically every 70s-character actor you could think of.
Her work on Brewster McCloud would lead to Duvall being cast in a number of films alongside other iconic actors with Altman coming back to work with her a few times over the years including the 1975 classic Nashville. She’d wind up hosting an episode of Saturday Night Live in 1977 as well as co-starring in Annie Hall. It would be the following decade though that would see Duvall take the role that would nearly define her career and place her in the pantheon of horror with what many consider one of the best horror films of all time. The Shining would introduce audiences to Stanley Kubrick and Stephen King unleashed on a big screen with a big budget. The story of an alcoholic writer who finds himself and his family staying alone over the closed season of a massive and possibly haunted (is it the demons of the hotel or the demons of Jack Torrance’s mind?) is a terrifying descent into madness and horror.
The Shining is a classic that to this day has it’s own sort of mythology and legacy. There’re still discussions as well full-on documentary films that discuss what the movie is actually about and all the things that are hidden within it. But one thing was abundantly clear and that was the shoot was a marathon for Duvall’s nerves. Kubrick would work Duvall to tears through the grueling year (yes, a full year) of shooting for the film. Stanley Kubrick was a known perfectionist and this would come through in multiple takes and editing. Wendy Torrence was, at least to me, one massive walking nerve of emotion who like to smoke but not really smoke (Wendy’s cigarette ash is almost as famous as the Twins.)
Over the course of the shoot Shelley Duvall would actually have her hair start falling out due to the massive stress she was put under. Her scenes were intense and required her to convey absolute hysterical terror. Besides the hair loss she’d actually become ill with exhaustion. Jack Nicholson himself would say years later that her role as Wendy was one of the hardest, he’d ever see anyone take on. An example would be the scene where Wendy would be threatening the now crazy Jack with a baseball bat. Duvall would have to shoot this scene 127 times. Years later Duvall would actually state that even with the issues with Kubrick and what she went through on the set she was glad for the experience. In her mind, Kubrick was singling her out for this treatment to really bring out the torment that a woman like Wendy had been through. Even before The Overlook, Wendy had already been through abuse at the hands of her husband and had seen that abuse happen to her son without any way of stopping it. When we as the audience come into the picture, we’re seeing Wendy already a the end of her rope. Duvall stated that the experience made her a better actor, but she’d never go through it again.
Duvall’s work as Wendy Torrence is more than a final girl, though she is in the end. She’s a real survivor not of just a supernatural force, but of an abusive relationship and toxic marriage. She saves herself and her son. It’s raw, emotional, and brutal in that realism that comes through on screen.
The same year The Shining was released, 1980, Duvall returned to director Robert Altman to create a cartoon come to life when she played Olive Oyl opposite Robin Williams in the live action Popeye. While Popeye isn’t a horror film, the effects that turned Robin Williams into Popeye are sort of creepy (them arms, man…) The film was a musical and I will always remember Duvall’s singing “He’s Large.” Duvall with her thin and lanky frame and big eyes seemed genetically engineered to play the character. Popeye wasn’t a complete flop when it released, making three times its budget back but it was heavily panned by many. Today though it’s become a cult classic. The music was written by Harry Nilsson and the look of the film was based on the comic strips that the story of Popeye came from rather than the cartoons many were familiar with. The movie looks like the strip come to life and Williams and Duvall are literally the characters made real. It’s forgotten by a number of people that this was an early comic book adaptation and a musical one no less.
In 1981 Duvall would enter another fantasy world as Pansy, the unlucky lady who crosses paths with the thieves in Time Bandits. Duvall would actually be very unlucky during filming of the movie when director Terry Gilliam, to prove a point about a stunt involving Duvall who was supposed to have Michael Palin land NEXT to her during a shoot, climbed up and jumped off a scaffolding and landed ON the actress. Duvall was nearly paralyzed by the incident and wound-up having pain in her head and ears for weeks after.
In 1982 though, Shelley Duvall would help create one of the greatest things I think she ever did and something that would stick with me and a number of my fellow Gen X’rs with Fairy Tale Theater. Duvall looked like she’d walked out of a fairy tale herself and she had a natural sweetness and innocence that came across in her roles. Here, she would host a series of episodes based on classic Fairy Tales that would be acted by some of the biggest names of the day. Duvall herself would appear in a number of episodes not only as host but as characters. The series would run for 6 seasons and within these episodes were some really beautiful and terrifying stories. Here’s some standouts for me: The series retelling of Beauty and The Beast was actually a massive homage to Jean Cocteau’s film of the same name, to the point that the Beast (played by freaking Klaus Kinski) was redoing of the films make up. Many of the sets recreated the look of Cocteau’s film. Beauty was played by Susan Sarandon. The episode was actually directed by Roger Vadim. The Boy Who Left Home To Find Out About The Shivers tells a story about a boy who doesn’t know how to feel fear. This cast list is insane. Peter MacNicol, Dana Hill, Christopher Lee, David Warner, Frank Zappa…no really…and it’s all narrated by Vincent Price. Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp would, naturally, be the story of Aladdin. But this was directed by Tim Burton. Robert Carradine, James Earl Jones, Leonard Nimoy and Valerie Bertinelli would star.
I can’t tell you how much I loved this series. It was a great way to introduce kids to these stories in more depth and it had enough humor and star power that parents could watch along. It felt very Muppet Show in how there was just enough adult humor to keep things interesting. They were beautifully done.
Duvall would follow up Fairy Tale Theater in 1985 with Tall Tales and Legends. This would only last two seasons but would continue with the star power within episodes and behind the camera. Most of these are based on more North American fare when it came to the stories save for the Ponce De Leon and the Search for the Fountain of Youth episode (which had the late Dr. Ruth in the cast.) One of the standouts here was Johnny Appleseed which had Martin Short as the title character and would co-star Rob Reiner, Michael McKean and Molly Ringwald. The episode was directed by McKean’s Spinal Tap bandmate Christopher Guest. Duvall would star as Clemintine in the story Darlin Clemintine which would be narrated by Randy Newman. The Annie Oakley episode would star Jamie Lee Curtis as the title character alongside Brian Dennehy and Cliff DeYoung.
Duvall would continue working steadily through the 80s and would team up with that young Tim Burton guy for a short film called Frankenweenie as the mother of the young boy whose dog is killed and resurrected. It’s ironic that Disney fired Burton after this project was made as they felt it wasn’t family friendly enough. Nearly 30 years later, Disney would make a stop motion film adaptation of it with Burton directing and producing.
Towards the end of the decade Shelley Duvall made yet another of my favorite things (that I only wished there were more of) with Nightmare Classics. This, as well as Fairy Tale Theater and Tall Tales and Legends would be part of the Showtime network. These weren’t as family friendly as the first two series and were for more mature, teenage audiences as these were unabashed horror stories. Yet again, these had a number of name actors in the roles. While there were only four episodes made, these were longer and basically feature length telling’s of classic horror stories. The first episode was The Turn of the Screw and would star Amy Iring, David Hemmings, and Balthazar Getty. The next was Carmilla, the female vampire story which would inspire Dracula. This would have Ione Skye, Meg Tilly, Roy Dotrice and Roddy McDowall. The third entry would be The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde…and I’m not going to lie, this is probably my favorite because Anthony Andrews rules in the lead role. It would co-star Nicholas Guest, Laura Dern and Rue McClanahan. The final episode was The Eyes of the Panther which is a western werewolf story from the late 1800’s. This would star John Stockwell, C Thomas Howell and Daphne Zuniga. While you can find most of these uploaded on YouTube, no DVD release has ever been done as opposed to Fairy Tale Theater. Each of the episodes of Nightmare Classics did get a VHS release though.
In the 90s Duvall would continue championing Fairy Tales with works like Mother Goose Rock N Rhyme and Shelley Duvall’s Bedtime Stories. She’d take roles in feature films and television through the decade and would co-star in Casper Meets Wendy, the direct to video follow up to the live action Casper film. She’s also appear alongside Christopher Lee, Sean Pertwee and Jason Scott Lee in Russell Mulcahy’s Tale of the Mummy. She’d also co-star in the teen horror comedy Boltneck which would have not only Richard Moll and Matthew Lawrence in the cast but a guy by the name of Ryan Reynolds is in fact…Boltneck. If the name Boltneck didn’t give it away, this was a redo of the Frankenstein story but with a lot more comedy…and a lot more Ryan Reynolds.
It was in the 2000’s that Duvall made an exit from public life. During production of Mother Goose Rock N Ryme she began a relationship with musician Dan Gilroy which would continue until her death. An earthquake scare in the 90s and her brother’s cancer diagnosis led to Shelley leaving California and heading back to her home state of Texas.
Shelley would be interviewed by Doctor Phil in an infamous piece of exploitative tabloid TV. Duvall had had issues with mental health over the years and in this interview in 2016 many felt Doctor Phil should have just not aired any of it. Friends and fans were scared for Duvall’s well-being. Following the interview Duvall herself even said it was a mistake and she should have listened to Gilroy who told her not to do it.
It would be 21 years since her last acting role, but Shelley would be a part of an independent horror film shot in 2023 called The Forest Hills in the role of Mama. The film, which sadly was her last, will be released October of this year. It co-stars Edward Furlong, Dee Wallace, Stacey Nelkin, and Felissa Rose. The films story focuses on a man tormented with visions of murder and possibly being a werewolf.
Duvall did one or two more interviews before her passing which showed her as a woman who was kind, private, and with a treasure trove of stories to share from a career that touched many. She was singer, an actress, a writer and to many an inspiration.
To me, Shelley Duvall was a story sharer who wanted to bring to everyone the magic of tales and legends. To show the light and the dark side of stories, for both young and old. She was a final girl who fought. She was a host to guide us through the Grimm’s brothers collection and the nightmare wing of the library. And she was a person who deserves respect and appreciation for what she gave us.
So thank you, Shelley Duvall. Your stories will keep going.
The post What Happened to Shelley Duvall? appeared first on JoBlo.
The second trailer for Joker 2 is here and more twisted than a six-pack of hard iced tea. It pulls back the curtain a bit more on how the canonical love story/abusive relationship between Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker and Lady Gaga’s Harley Quinn will take center stage in the sequel, but who’s going to be trying to fix who?
The second trailer for Joker 2 is here and more twisted than a six-pack of hard iced tea. It pulls back the curtain a bit more on how the canonical love story/abusive relationship between Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker and Lady Gaga’s Harley Quinn will take center stage in the sequel, but who’s going to be trying to fix who?
Actor Clark Duke made his feature directorial debut with the 2020 crime film Arkansas (you can read our 8/10 review at THIS LINK), and now Deadline reports that he has just wrapped production on his second feature, a comedic thriller called Stranglehold, which also happens to be set in Arkansas. The cast includes Ashley Benson (Pretty Little Liars), Justin Long (Barbarian), Jake Lacy (Apples Never Fall), and Ron Perlman (Hellboy).
Described as “a Southern-fried siege, with shades of Dog Day Afternoon and Die Hard,” while also being “in the vein of the Coen Brothers’s oeuvre,” Stranglehold follows Bailey (Benson), an exotic dancer with big dreams. She and her Army vet husband Tim (Lacy) are fed up with their lives of barely getting by in small-town Arkansas, so they decide to rob the strip club that employs her. Clark Duke wrote the screenplay with Chandler Duke and Billington Garrett.
Coming our way from Yale Productions, the film is being produced by Jordan Yale Levine, Jordan Beckerman, and Michael Day, along with Clark Duke. Executive producers include Rabbits Black’s Lawrence Minicone, Ronnie Exley, Jeremy Ross, and Sean Krajewski, as well as Will Hirschfeld, Edmund Lowell, Aden Darmody, Michael Becker, Jeffrey Tussi, Michael J. Rothstein, Nick Donnermeyer, Andy Rich, David Nazar, Jason Kringstein, Scott Levenson, and Brian S. Unger. Jourdan Henderson is co-producing, with Carol and Joseph Tufaro serving as co-executive producers.
Levine and Beckerman provided the following statement: “Clark Duke is a phenomenal talent, we are thrilled to be working with him, along with this fantastic cast. Stranglehold is a singular film– it is equal parts action-packed, horrifying, and hilarious — from a singular filmmaking voice.“
Clark Duke added, “I am thrilled to be making my follow-up to Arkansas with such an amazing cast. Stranglehold is a continuation of many themes I explored in Arkansas, very much a movie about where we are right now, and I cannot wait for people to see it.“
In addition to directing the film, Duke starred in Arkansas alongside Liam Hemsworth, John Malkovich, Eden Brolin, and Vince Vaughn. Scripted by Duke, Andrew Boonkrong, and John Brandon, that movie told the following story: Kyle and Swin live by the orders of an Arkansas-based drug kingpin named Frog, whom they’ve never met. But when a deal goes horribly wrong, the consequences are deadly.
Have you seen Arkansas, and does Stranglehold sound interesting to you? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.
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