Three months after Microsoft unceremoniously shut the studio down, Hi-Fi Rush developer Tango Gameworks is being revived by PUBG publisher Krafton. The company has acquired both the studio and the rights to the Hi-Fi Rush IP, and plans to expand upon the rhythm-based action game as part of the acquisition. So not only…
Last year’s edition of TIFF had an unusually large number of movie premieres that were directed by famous actors. A cynical way of explaining this is that, as the guild strikes were happening, actors could walk the red carpet at the fest if they presented films they directed rather than merely acted in. The movies were a mixed bag. Chris Pine’s Poolman was a disaster, while Michael Keaton’s Knox Goes Away was underrated and unfairly neglected by critics.
But, by far, the best movie there directed by an actor was Anna Kendrick’s true crime tale, Woman of the Hour. An impressively made debut, with a mastery of the craft and gritty vibe one might not have expected from the famously sunny star, it was snapped up by Netflix in a pricy deal. Surprisingly, the streamer held on to the film for a while, but it looks like they’re getting ready to release it, with the Canadian distributor, VVS, finally releasing a trailer. Typically, when a Canadian distributor shares rights with Netflix, they’ll time the release to coincide with the Netflix drop, and while the trailer doesn’t specify when it’s coming out, a fall release seems in the cards.
In Woman of the Hour, Kendrick plays a young actress named Cheryl Bradshaw who, in the seventies, was a contestant on The Dating Game and found herself matched up with a contestant, Rodney Alcala, who was later revealed to be a serial killer. The film depicts both Bradshaw’s life in Los Angeles as well as Alcala’s reign of terror. It’s a really good, unsettling film, and Kendrick’s chops behind the camera are undeniable. It also gives Daniel Zovatto a really solid star turn as the deranged Alcala. Given Netflix’s reputation with the true crime genre, this seems like a slam dunk for them (read my review HERE).
Are you looking forward to Woman of the Hour? Let us know in the comments!
The post Woman of the Hour: Anna Kendrick’s true crime directorial debut gets a trailer appeared first on JoBlo.
Last year’s edition of TIFF had an unusually large number of movie premieres that were directed by famous actors. A cynical way of explaining this is that, as the guild strikes were happening, actors could walk the red carpet at the fest if they presented films they directed rather than merely acted in. The movies were a mixed bag. Chris Pine’s Poolman was a disaster, while Michael Keaton’s Knox Goes Away was underrated and unfairly neglected by critics.
But, by far, the best movie there directed by an actor was Anna Kendrick’s true crime tale, Woman of the Hour. An impressively made debut, with a mastery of the craft and gritty vibe one might not have expected from the famously sunny star, it was snapped up by Netflix in a pricy deal. Surprisingly, the streamer held on to the film for a while, but it looks like they’re getting ready to release it, with the Canadian distributor, VVS, finally releasing a trailer. Typically, when a Canadian distributor shares rights with Netflix, they’ll time the release to coincide with the Netflix drop, and while the trailer doesn’t specify when it’s coming out, a fall release seems in the cards.
In Woman of the Hour, Kendrick plays a young actress named Cheryl Bradshaw who, in the seventies, was a contestant on The Dating Game and found herself matched up with a contestant, Rodney Alcala, who was later revealed to be a serial killer. The film depicts both Bradshaw’s life in Los Angeles as well as Alcala’s reign of terror. It’s a really good, unsettling film, and Kendrick’s chops behind the camera are undeniable. It also gives Daniel Zovatto a really solid star turn as the deranged Alcala. Given Netflix’s reputation with the true crime genre, this seems like a slam dunk for them (read my review HERE).
Are you looking forward to Woman of the Hour? Let us know in the comments!
The post Woman of the Hour: Anna Kendrick’s true crime directorial debut gets a trailer appeared first on JoBlo.
It was husband vs wife this weekend at the top of the box office charts, with Blake Lively’s romantic drama, It Ends With Us, battling it out for the top spot with hubby Ryan Reynolds’s box office behemoth, Deadpool & Wolverine. In the end, the superhero team-up movie managed to hold on to the top spot for a third weekend in a row, grossing an outstanding $54 million, which is only a 44% drop since last week (that’s a great hold), with the film likely to cross the $500 million mark at the domestic box office by mid-week.
However, while it wasn’t able to eke out a win over Deadpool, It Ends With Us, which is adapted from the novel by Colleen Hoover, was still a major win. The Blake Lively vehicle’s $50 million gross makes it one of the highest-grossing romantic dramas in recent memory, with it well on its way to becoming a major counter-programming summer hit in the vein of The Notebook. The film doubled its production cost this weekend alone, and the A-minus CinemaScore rating suggests it’ll have legs at the box office.
However, the weekend’s other new release was a disaster. While no one expected Eli Roth’s Borderlands to set the world on fire, the final $8 million box office take was much worse than we predicted in last week’s box office estimates. With a deadly D+ CinemaScore rating, Borderlands now seems primed to go down as one of the biggest box office disasters of all time. While I doubt the movie’s failure will have too much of an impact on Cate Blanchett or Kevin Hart’s careers, I fully expect Eli Roth to stick to the horror genre from now on, with him already hard at work on Thanksgiving 2.
Borderlands‘ failure was Twisters‘ gain, with the well-received movie holding up nicely at the box office, with a strong $15 million haul and a domestic total in the $222 million range. However, M. Night Shyamalan’s poorly reviewed Trap (despite a powerhouse Josh Hartnett performance) had a hard time in its second weekend, slipping behind Illumination’s Despicable Me 4 to land in sixth place with a $6.7 million haul. While the 56% drop isn’t a disaster, the general consensus seems this isn’t one of Shyamalan’s better movies (although it’s far from his worst).
Pixar’s Inside Out 2 also managed to hold on to its family audience, with the nearly $5 million gross putting it over $636 million domestically. Rival family movie Harold and the Purple Crayon had a disastrous weekend, losing half its audience for a $3.1 million weekend and only a $936 per-screen average (per ComScore’s numbers).
Two horror flicks from Neon rounded out the chart. Their latest movie, Cuckoo, starring Euphoria’s Hunter Schafer, earned a softer-than-expected $3 million, with a C+ CinemaScore that doesn’t inspire much confidence (but our critic Tyler Nichols loved it). At the same time, breakout hit Longlegs rounded out the top 10 with $2 million. It’s now earned over $71 million domestically and should end its run well north of $75 million, making it one of the most profitable indie horror movies of all time.
Next weekend, Alien: Romulus will be released, which relaunches one of the best sci-fi/ horror franchises ever. Do you think it will grow north of $50 million? Let us know in the comments!
The post Weekend Box Office: Deadpool & Wolverine hangs on to the top spot; Borderland a disaster appeared first on JoBlo.
It was husband vs wife this weekend at the top of the box office charts, with Blake Lively’s romantic drama, It Ends With Us, battling it out for the top spot with hubby Ryan Reynolds’s box office behemoth, Deadpool & Wolverine. In the end, the superhero team-up movie managed to hold on to the top spot for a third weekend in a row, grossing an outstanding $54 million, which is only a 44% drop since last week (that’s a great hold), with the film likely to cross the $500 million mark at the domestic box office by mid-week.
However, while it wasn’t able to eke out a win over Deadpool, It Ends With Us, which is adapted from the novel by Colleen Hoover, was still a major win. The Blake Lively vehicle’s $50 million gross makes it one of the highest-grossing romantic dramas in recent memory, with it well on its way to becoming a major counter-programming summer hit in the vein of The Notebook. The film doubled its production cost this weekend alone, and the A-minus CinemaScore rating suggests it’ll have legs at the box office.
However, the weekend’s other new release was a disaster. While no one expected Eli Roth’s Borderlands to set the world on fire, the final $8 million box office take was much worse than we predicted in last week’s box office estimates. With a deadly D+ CinemaScore rating, Borderlands now seems primed to go down as one of the biggest box office disasters of all time. While I doubt the movie’s failure will have too much of an impact on Cate Blanchett or Kevin Hart’s careers, I fully expect Eli Roth to stick to the horror genre from now on, with him already hard at work on Thanksgiving 2.
Borderlands‘ failure was Twisters‘ gain, with the well-received movie holding up nicely at the box office, with a strong $15 million haul and a domestic total in the $222 million range. However, M. Night Shyamalan’s poorly reviewed Trap (despite a powerhouse Josh Hartnett performance) had a hard time in its second weekend, slipping behind Illumination’s Despicable Me 4 to land in sixth place with a $6.7 million haul. While the 56% drop isn’t a disaster, the general consensus seems this isn’t one of Shyamalan’s better movies (although it’s far from his worst).
Pixar’s Inside Out 2 also managed to hold on to its family audience, with the nearly $5 million gross putting it over $636 million domestically. Rival family movie Harold and the Purple Crayon had a disastrous weekend, losing half its audience for a $3.1 million weekend and only a $936 per-screen average (per ComScore’s numbers).
Two horror flicks from Neon rounded out the chart. Their latest movie, Cuckoo, starring Euphoria’s Hunter Schafer, earned a softer-than-expected $3 million, with a C+ CinemaScore that doesn’t inspire much confidence (but our critic Tyler Nichols loved it). At the same time, breakout hit Longlegs rounded out the top 10 with $2 million. It’s now earned over $71 million domestically and should end its run well north of $75 million, making it one of the most profitable indie horror movies of all time.
Next weekend, Alien: Romulus will be released, which relaunches one of the best sci-fi/ horror franchises ever. Do you think it will grow north of $50 million? Let us know in the comments!
The post Weekend Box Office: Deadpool & Wolverine hangs on to the top spot; Borderland a disaster appeared first on JoBlo.
This week, we took the opportunity to gush over immersive sim classic Dishonored 2 after one of the founders of Arkane, the studio behind it, teased that his new studio’s next game is “Fallout meets Dishonored.” We also cheered on the renaissance of retro-style barbarian games happening right now, analyzed the current…
This week, we took the opportunity to gush over immersive sim classic Dishonored 2 after one of the founders of Arkane, the studio behind it, teased that his new studio’s next game is “Fallout meets Dishonored.” We also cheered on the renaissance of retro-style barbarian games happening right now, analyzed the current…
When Logan came out in 2017, it would have been reasonable to assume that it was going to be the last time we’d ever see Hugh Jackman in action as the most iconic member of the X-Men. Of course, it didn’t quite work out that way (which we predicted years ago), with the mutant now anchoring a billion-dollar grossing buddy flick with none other than Ryan Reynolds’s Deadpool.
Yet, as wild as Deadpool & Wolverine is, they made it in a way where Logan can still serve as a powerful ending to Wolverine’s story, and indeed, it’s a movie that stands the test of time. In this episode of Marvel Revisited, written, edited and narrated by Kier Gomes, we dig into the making of one of the edgiest superhero movies of all time.
People may forget now just how controversial it was when it came out. An R-rated Wolverine movie had long been planned, but every time it came close to happening, Marvel and Fox got cold feet. X-Men Origins: Wolverine, was originally supposed to be a dark Darren Aronofsky movie, but it became one of the worst superhero movies ever. When James Mangold signed up to do the sequel, The Wolverine, he was allowed to release an R-rated version on home media, but the theatrical cut was still PG-13. When it came time to do Logan, Mangold was left off the leash and turned it into a dark, violent action movie that perhaps owes as much to classic westerns like Shane as it does to any other superhero movie.
Check out our retrospective and let us know in the comments if you think it still holds up!
The post Logan: Revisiting one of the darkest (and best) superhero movies ever appeared first on JoBlo.
When Logan came out in 2017, it would have been reasonable to assume that it was going to be the last time we’d ever see Hugh Jackman in action as the most iconic member of the X-Men. Of course, it didn’t quite work out that way (which we predicted years ago), with the mutant now anchoring a billion-dollar grossing buddy flick with none other than Ryan Reynolds’s Deadpool.
Yet, as wild as Deadpool & Wolverine is, they made it in a way where Logan can still serve as a powerful ending to Wolverine’s story, and indeed, it’s a movie that stands the test of time. In this episode of Marvel Revisited, written, edited and narrated by Kier Gomes, we dig into the making of one of the edgiest superhero movies of all time.
People may forget now just how controversial it was when it came out. An R-rated Wolverine movie had long been planned, but every time it came close to happening, Marvel and Fox got cold feet. X-Men Origins: Wolverine, was originally supposed to be a dark Darren Aronofsky movie, but it became one of the worst superhero movies ever. When James Mangold signed up to do the sequel, The Wolverine, he was allowed to release an R-rated version on home media, but the theatrical cut was still PG-13. When it came time to do Logan, Mangold was left off the leash and turned it into a dark, violent action movie that perhaps owes as much to classic westerns like Shane as it does to any other superhero movie.
Check out our retrospective and let us know in the comments if you think it still holds up!
The post Logan: Revisiting one of the darkest (and best) superhero movies ever appeared first on JoBlo.
There are a lot of things that Spike don’t like, and one was the way Clint depicted World War II. When Eastwood’s double header Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima came out in 2006, it was his chance to return to a genre he hadn’t touched in decades. But for Spike Lee, Clint Eastwood only served to erase a significant part of history, thus launching a bitter but short-lived feud between the directors that only another cinematic icon could resolve.
Spike Lee’s issue with the movies – particularly Letters from Iwo Jima – was that very few, if any, Black people were depicted, although it has been estimated that no fewer than 700 Black soldiers took part in the namesake 1945 battle. It was, to some, as if Eastwood was limiting the event to the flag raising, captured in Joe Rosenthal’s iconic photograph. As Lee put it, “Clint Eastwood did two films about Iwo Jima back to back and if you blinked you would miss the one Black person that was in it. There were Black marines in Iwo Jima.”
Clint Eastwood, naturally, wouldn’t just sit back and watch Spike Lee run all over his lawn like that, saying, “This guy’s lost his mind…A guy like that should shut his face.” Careful, Clint, you heard what Spike said about Wim Wenders…
Time does heal most wounds, but Spike Lee found a mediator in Steven Spielberg (who we know has no time for BS), who approached the 25th Hour director at an L.A. Lakers game. “He said, ‘Spike, stop talking about Clint Eastwood.’ I said, ‘I’m not…I’ve said all I’m gonna say,’ and that was it.” In a separate interview regarding that same Lakers game, Lee remembered, “I said: ‘Steven, it’s over with Clint Eastwood.’ Steven laughed and said: ‘I’ll call Clint and tell him in the morning.’ I said: ‘It’s over!’”
Spike Lee would get to tell his own side of WWII not long after Clint Eastwood’s films with 2008’s Miracle at St. Anna. Lee maintains that it was never meant to be a rebuttal of any kind, which is possibly true, as one could see the director eventually getting around to the subject matter to help better represent Black soldiers. Lee would return to war – this time using the Vietnam War as a plot device – with 2020’s Da 5 Bloods.
The post Steven Spielberg helped end the feud between Clint Eastwood and Spike Lee appeared first on JoBlo.