In a week that included a Geoff Keighley-led showcase and dozens of announcements, the most talked-about topic in games was Black Myth: Wukong, the Chinese action-RPG that earned a mixed Kotaku review for at times undermining its own epic ambitions. As those ambitions have awed some players and absolutely wrecked…
I had to look it up, but the upcoming Beetlejuice sequel is actually Tim Burton’s first movie since Dumbo. That was five years ago. The live-action adaptation was released by Disney in 2019, and in another world, it could have been Burton’s final movie. While speaking with Variety, the director admitted that he considered retiring after Dumbo.
“Honestly, after ‘Dumbo,’ I really didn’t know,” Burton said. “I thought that could have been it, really. I could have retired, or become… well, I wouldn’t have become an animator again, that’s over.” The director added that working on the Wednesday series for Netflix helped reconnect him to making things. “We went off to Romania and it felt like it was a creative health camp,” Burton said. “It went so well.”
Burton continued, “Oftentimes, when you get into Hollywood, you try to be responsible to what you’re doing with the budget and everything else but sometimes you might lose yourself a little bit. This reinforced the feeling for me that it’s important that I do what I want to do, because then everybody will benefit.“
Dumbo received mixed reviews upon its release, but our own Chris Bumbray was a fan. “It’s really a return to form for the oft-imitated director and his most affecting film in a long while,” Bumbray wrote. “I thoroughly enjoyed it, and this is coming from someone a bit burnt-out on his more recent work.” You can read the rest of his review right here.
Here’s the official synopsis for Beetlejuice Beetljuice: “Beetlejuice is back! After an unexpected family tragedy, three generations of the Deetz family return home to Winter River. Still haunted by Beetlejuice, Lydia’s life is turned upside down when her rebellious teenage daughter, Astrid, discovers the mysterious model of the town in the attic and the portal to the Afterlife is accidentally opened. With trouble brewing in both realms, it’s only a matter of time until someone says Beetlejuice’s name three times and the mischievous demon returns to unleash his very own brand of mayhem.” The film will be released in U.S. theaters on September 6th.
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While we typically associate Michael Bay with over-the-top explosions and slick action, the director has done something a little different for his next project: interview an actual serial killer. Michael Bay is the executive producer of Born Evil: The Serial Killer and the Savior, an upcoming docuseries set to premiere on ID next month. You can check out a trailer for the series above.
Born Evil: The Serial Killer and the Savior focuses on Hadden Clark, a lesser-known serial killer who is serving two 30-year sentences for two murders, although he later confessed to dozens more. The series also includes interviews with Jack Truitt, a former cellmate who Clark believed to be Jesus. Michael Bay conducted private, recorded conversations with Clark, and while we don’t hear much from Bay in the trailer, it’s some pretty unsettling stuff.
“Featuring a deep dive into the actions of Hadden Clark, a lesser-known serial killer, BORN EVIL explores his life and crimes. Anchored in exclusive access to Clark himself through private, recorded conversations initiated and conducted by Michael Bay, BORN EVIL: THE SERIAL KILLER AND THE SAVIOR showcases a chilling portrait of one of the most terrifying serial killers in recent decades,” reads the official description. “The docuseries, which will also be available to stream on Max, offers insight into Clark’s traumatic childhood, a violent family history, and unpacks the many unsolved cold cases linked to his prison confessions. Explosive interviews with key individuals are also layered throughout, with Hadden’s brother Geoff Clark going on the record and then, most jarring, the recipient of Clark’s confessions, his former cellmate Jack Truitt whom Clark believed to be ‘Jesus’ and his personal savior.“
“Throughout my career, I’ve always focused on meeting real people — from scientists of all kinds to alligator wranglers, law enforcement agents to bank robbers, and even kings and queens — gaining true insights for my films,” Bay said in a statement. “‘Born Evil’ is my first venture into the documentary world, and it revolves around a serial killing family you have never heard of. The focus of this five-hour series is on the youngest son, Hadden Clark, whom I spent countless hours personally speaking to in prison so that I could get into the mind and psychology of a person who the FBI refers to as ‘a person of interest’ in over 20 states. ‘Born Evil’ could potentially open the door to solving many cold case murders.“
Born Evil: The Serial Killer and the Savior will premiere on ID across three nights beginning on September 2nd at 9/8c.
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Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney are good pals, so it came as no surprise that McElhenney made a cameo appearance in Deadpool & Wolverine as a TVA soldier. However, McElhenney’s cameo wound up on the cutting room floor and Reynolds took to social media to explain why.
“A word on my ‘darling’ friend, Rob McElhenney. Rob very kindly did a cameo in Deadpool & Wolverine which will hopefully live on in the digital extras,” Reynolds explained. “While editing a movie, they say you ‘sometimes have to kill your darlings.’ And with a heavy heart (and through great outside intervention) I had to kill a darling with this cameo.”
Reynolds continued, “The sequence wasn’t working the way we’d originally constructed it. Rob was the only reason it stayed in the cut for as long as it did, because even under a TVA mask and helmet, you can feel him smoldering with a raw and almost infinite reservoir of talent, writerly wit and “I create hit tv shows” swagger. Don’t even get me started on Wrexham. I wouldn’t know a love like Wrexham@ if it weren’t for Rob McElhenney.“
“Anyway, I loved making this movie but it wasn’t without stress. There was a lot of expectation — and I’m pretty sure the most well written villain in cinema history is ‘Expectation’. And when you do stressful stuff, it feels good when friends are nearby,” Reynolds said. “And even though I’m mortified he flew all the way to London for a cameo that wasn’t meant to be, I’m grateful my friend was there with me on that set. When I see Rob, my heart-rate slows and my nervous system stops yelling at me. He shows up for people. And he showed up for me.” Reynolds also suggested that McElhenney’s character “begged for his life before Alioth snatched his unsuspecting body into the air, swallowing him whole, eventually digesting and converting him into Alioth-poo.” Bring on the McElhenney cut!
Taking place six years after the events of the last movie, Deadpool & Wolverine finds Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) toiling away in civilian life with his days as Deadpool behind him. But when his homeworld faces an existential threat, he must suit up once again and convince a reluctant Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) to help save his universe. In addition to Reynolds and Jackman, the cast also includes Matthew Macfadyen, Emma Corrin, Morena Baccarin, Leslie Uggams, Karan Soni, Brianna Hildebrand, Shioli Kutsuna, Rob Delany, Stefan Kapičić, and more.
Our own Chris Bumbray had a lot of fun with Deadpool & Wolverine, which sounds like a real crowd-pleaser. “Have you ever been to a concert and wished that your favourite band would stop playing their not-as-good new stuff and play the hits? That’s exactly what Marvel is doing with Deadpool & Wolverine,” Bumbray wrote in his review. “After a rough run of movies, with many saying their Phase 5 has been disastrous, this feels like an everything but the kitchen-sink attempt by the company to win back those fans who feel alienated by the new direction the company seemed to be heading in. With this, you have a rock ‘em, sock ‘em thrill ride that delivers fans exactly the movie they wanted to see, with nary a message to be found amidst all the charred, sliced and diced corpses our heroes leave in their wake. It’s glorious fun.” You can check out the rest of Bumbray’s spoiler-free review right here, and don’t forget to let us know what you think of Deadpool & Wolverine as well!
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Apocalypse Now director Francis Ford Coppola’s sci-fi passion project Megalopolis continues to be one of Hollywood’s biggest train wrecks. The latest derailment was a trailer that had to be pulled for fabricating quotes. It’s now being reported that, surprise, the trailer quotes were generated by AI.
Apocalypse Now director Francis Ford Coppola’s sci-fi passion project Megalopolis continues to be one of Hollywood’s biggest train wrecks. The latest derailment was a trailer that had to be pulled for fabricating quotes. It’s now being reported that, surprise, the trailer quotes were generated by AI.
The Acolyte was officially cancelled earlier this week, and although it wasn’t a huge shock to some, Lee Jung-jae was surprised that the Star Wars series actually got the axe. I should probably put a SPOILER warning here. Lee played Jedi Master Sol and was one of the highlights of the series. Although it was unlikely that his character would have returned for a second season, he was still hoping to see it.
“As you know, my character had died already in the first season,” Lee told Entertainment Weekly. “So I wouldn’t have appeared in the second season if there was one anyway. But personally speaking, I really loved Leslye’s writing. I thought that she was a great writer and director who was very talented in the storytelling, as well as creating characters and creating meaningful structures within the story. So I was actually personally really looking forward to watching a season 2 with her at the helm.“
Although Lee Jung-jae was “quite surprised” at the cancellation, he remains hopeful that we could see more of The Acolyte. “Honestly, I am hoping that maybe there could be changes in the future,” Lee said. “Because you never know what’s going to happen. So on a personal level, I really hope we could get to see further stories of Leslye’s second season.“
The Acolyte takes place 100 years before the events of The Phantom Menace and follows Jedi Master who investigates a shocking crime spree which pits him against a dangerous warrior from his past. The series stars Amandla Stenberg, Lee Jung-jae, Manny Jacinto, Jodie Turner-Smith, Dafne Keen, Rebecca Henderson, Charlie Barnett, Dean-Charles Chapman, and Carrie-Anne Moss. You can check out a review from our own Alex Maidy right here.
Showrunner Leslye Headland had spoken about a potential second season just last month, confirming that she had heard “nothing” from Lucasfilm but didn’t necessarily see that as a bad thing at the time. “You have to take a break,” Headland said. “Especially after something like this. I don’t even know how many years my brain has been going, Star Wars, Star Wars, Star Wars, Acolyte, Acolyte, Acolyte — just constantly solving problems, constantly thinking about it. It is very weird to now be in a place where I don’t need to do that. I always say to budding writers, ‘The most important thing that you can do is sit around and do nothing. Because the second you start to manufacture a story, you’re going to get stressed out, and the story can’t start that way.’“
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Earlier this year, it was announced that actor Jay Hernandez, whose credits include Magnum P.I., Hostel, and Suicide Squad, would be making his feature directorial debut with with the survival horror thriller Night Comes, working from a screenplay he wrote with Jason Bourque and Nancy Isaak. At the time, it was said that the film would star Dafne Keen (Deadpool & Wolverine, Logan, Star Wars: The Acolyte) and Samantha Lorraine (Dora and the Search for Sol Dorado, You are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah, The Walking Dead). Now it has been revealed that Alexander Ludwig (The Hunger Games, Bad Boys for Life, Vikings) is also in the cast.
Coming our way from Impossible Dream Entertainment and the production and financing outfit Big Picture Cinema Group, Night Comes will unfold against the backdrop of a cataclysmic event that threatens to engulf humanity. Two sisters manage to escape the horror only find themselves thrust into a perilous struggle for survival, tasked with a mission that holds the fate of mankind in the balance. Drawing inspiration from genre-defining classics like Birdbox and The Descent, Night Comes promises to deliver a spine-chilling, edge-of-your-seat experience that will leave audiences breathless.
Impossible Dream Entertainment partners Shaun Redick and Yvette Yates Redick are producing the film alongside Big Picture Cinema Group partners Jayce Barreiro and Jacky Lai. Hernandez and Keen serve as executive producers with Jared Zhang, Graem Luis, Jason Bourque, Joseph Tuck, Steve Read, and Matthew Chow. Big Picture Cinema Group is co-financing the movie with Versatile Media. The Exchange is handling worldwide sales and will be introducing the project to global distributors at the upcoming Toronto International Film Festival.
Night Comes is expected to start filming in Vancouver sometime next month.
Big Picture Cinema Group President and Co-Founder Jayce Barreiro had this to say about the casting of Ludwig: “Alexander has so much range and gravitas –its going to be fun for audiences to see the depths he goes to opposite Dafne and Samantha on this intense ride.“
Hernandez previously told Deadline, “With Night Comes we have a chance to do two unique things simultaneously. We have a visually stunning exploration of genre, with edge of your seat action coupled with what I see to be a character study in a world where rules, gender roles and order no longer exist. And it’s a journey into how these two young women define sisterhood.“
Barriero said, “From the first minute we read it, we were captivated by the world Night Comes brings people into, and the potential of a film so relentless and action-packed for its genre. Jay has such an amazing vision for this movie and Dafne and Samantha are the perfect duo to bring this to life in memorable, eventized fashion.“
Does Night Comes sound interesting to you? What do you think of Alexander Ludwig joining Dafne Keen and Samantha Lorraine in the cast? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
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All good husbands support their wives, but Jerry O’Connell has taken it to a different level entirely, confirming that he has enough figures of Mystique – the X-Men character Rebecca Romijn played across three movies – to warrant an entire shelf. And no, she doesn’t love it.
Speaking with ComicBook.com, Jerry O’Connell revealed that his collection has become part of tradition any time he travels to a convention. “My wife was Mystique in X-Men, and whenever I come to a con, I look for obscure, unique Mystique figures and figurines. And we collect them and I put them up…So if anyone has a line on [a cool figure]…I put it up, it’s mine, and my wife is a little embarrassed by it, but it’s my Mystique shelf.” But before you go getting any ideas in your head, O’Connell did confirm, “I don’t do weird things with the figurines, I just collect them.” Yeah, the dude is a fan:
It has been a few years, but Rebecca Romijn has said she would be down to return as Mystique should the opportunity arise. It would seem that Deadpool & Wolverine could have offered her a spot considering all of the other cameos, but she – like so many, so it wasn’t a slight of any kind – didn’t make the cut. Certainly Romijn would be even more willing now that Brett Ratner – the director of X-Men: The Last Stand who she had a hard time working with – is out of the picture and the characters are being implemented in the MCU.
Mystique made her debut in 1978 via the Ms. Marvel series and first appeared on the screen in X-Men: The Animated Series before being brought to the big screen via Romijn. After her run ended, Jennifer Lawrence took over beginning with 2011’s X-Men: First Class.
Rebecca Romijn currently stars on Paramount+’s Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, which Jerry O’Connell provided a voice cameo on, reprising his role of Jack Ransom from animated series Lower Decks.
What do you think of Jerry O’Connell’s collection of Mystique figures: weird or charming? Chime in below!
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The summer is winding down, the days are starting to grow shorter, and there’s a new chill in the air at night. It’s the perfect time to catch up on some older games ahead of the September onslaught that kicks off with Star Wars Outlaws’ launch next week.