The upcoming reboot of 1994’s The Crow has been almost exclusively blasted. Be it the look of Eric Draven ‘24 or the sheer idea of even considering touching the original film, it seems like every reveal has been met with sheer negativity. But it can’t rain all the time. As it turns out, one decision that was made for the production is one that we can all get behind.

With the tragic accidental death of Brandon Lee on the set of Alex Proyas’ film – and the 2021 death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of western Rust – the move was made to ensure that no real firearms were anywhere near filming locations for The Crow. This was spearheaded by director Rupert Sanders, who told Variety that such an environment is dangerous enough as it is. “Film sets are very dangerous. There are fast moving cars with cranes stuck on the top. There are stunt guys falling on high wires down steps. Even just walking around a set at night with rain machines and lights — you’re working in an industrial environment. So it’s dangerous. You have to be safe.”

Adding to this, Sanders said that safety had to be a number one priority on the set of The Crow. “So I said, categorically, ‘We will have no firing weapons on set,’ which means we didn’t have one gun that could have had a live round or a blank round anywhere near it ever, so that no projectile could go in. They’re all Airsoft guns, and some of them are just rubber or metal decoys that are functional but have no firing mechanism…You have to add a muzzle flash and smoke, but that was a price worth paying. It took a fair bit of money out of my very limited visual effects budget, but I think it was worth it.”

The death of Hutchins saw numerous lawsuits take place, with Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed being found guilty of manslaughter and Alec Baldwin’s case ultimately being dismissed. Despite these verdicts and decisions, the entire situation has truly yet to cool and will haunt the movie’s eventual release. The silver lining here is that it did further outline the need for gun safety on movie sets, so it is encouraging that Rupert Sanders would insist that The Crow help pave the way. Hopefully this continues to hold in Hollywood.

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Halle Berry starred alongside Pierce Brosnan in Die Another Day, which was the actor’s final outing as the secret agent, and it’s safe to say that Berry is a big fan of her co-star. While speaking with Wired, Berry even said that Brosnan “restored my faith in men on that movie.“

“He will always be my Bond, always. I’m a Pierce Brosnan fan,” Berry said. “He restored my faith in men on that movie. There couldn’t be a human who is more of a gentleman than Pierce Brosnan.” Berry played Jinx Johnson in Die Another Day, an NSA agent who teams up with Bond to take down the villainous Gustav Graves.

Berry added, “Bond wasn’t on my wishlist, no, to be in one, but I loved the movies always. But having been in one, I feel like I’m a part of cinematic history. Those movies are iconic. They will forever be a part of our history, and I’m really honored to have been a part of one, especially with Pierce.“

James Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson even pushed for a Jinx spinoff movie, but MGM ultimately wasn’t willing to pony up the $80 million needed to get the project started. “It was very disappointing,” said Berry in 2020. “It was ahead of its time. Nobody was ready to sink that kind of money into a Black female action star. They just weren’t sure of its value. That’s where we were then.“

Berry currently stars alongside Mark Wahlberg in The Union. The action comedy debuted on Netflix last week and follows Mike (Wahlberg), a New Jersey construction worker whose simple life is upended when his long-lost high-school sweetheart, Roxanne (Halle Berry), shows up to recruit him for a dangerous intelligence mission in Europe. The film easily became Netflix’s most-watched movie of the week with 33.1 million views, but reviews were mixed.

Our own Alex Maidy wasn’t a big fan of The Union, but said that it would have worked better “had the story done away with Wahlberg’s Mike entirely and made this a vehicle for Halle Berry on her own.” Maidy continued, “The Union feels forced and never turns into the thrill ride it should have been. While the final half-hour is pretty fun, it cannot salvage the weak movie that preceded it. Halle Berry remains an entrancing screen presence, which should have been a franchise-starter for her and her alone. I wish I had enjoyed this movie more, but it is another bland action movie on Netflix that is mercifully less than two hours long. You are in trouble when the brisk running time is all you can say positively about a film.” You can check out the rest of his review right here.

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Prepare yourself to be regurgitated by a giant snake all over again! Paul Rudd and Jack Black are in early talks to star in a new Anaconda movie based on the 1997 adventure horror starring Jennifer Lopez, Ice Cube, and Jon Voight. However, it appears that there will be something of a meta twist with this project.

According to sources, “the new story involves a group of friends facing mid-life crises who are remaking their favorite movie from their youth. They head to the rainforest only to find themselves into a fight for their lives against natural disasters, giant snakes and violent criminals.” As for who Jack Black and Paul Rudd could be playing in the Anaconda movie, details are sparse, but sources mention two characters: a director stuck in his job as a wedding videographer and an actor who once did a stint on a police procedural who now sees his Hollywood dreams slipping away. Rudd was actually mentioned with this project over a year ago when there were rumblings that he would star alongside Pedro Pascal.

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent director Tom Gormican is set to direct the project as well as co-write the script with Kevin Ettin. The project has apparently been in the works since early 2023, going through a lot of rewrites as they try to strike the correct tone.

The original Anaconda movie spawned a handful of sequels, including Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid, Anaconda 3: Offspring, Anacondas: Trial of Blood, and Lake Placid vs. Anaconda. There was also a Chinese remake released earlier this year which centered around a group of circus performers pitting against a giant snake. “A group of circus performers, on their way to what they think is a new performance location, become stranded in a lush rainforest after the boat they were on, and the captain leading the way, are eaten and destroyed by an anaconda with a special red marking,” reads a description. “They cross paths with a deadly poacher who is hunting the anaconda, who realises that he might now have enough bait to catch him. But being circus performers, they have a few survival tricks up their sleeves.“

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Update: That was quick. Lionsgate has decided to pull the trailer for Megalopolis due to the made-up quotes which appear. “Lionsgate is immediately recalling our trailer for Megalopolis,” said a Lionsgate spokesperson. “We offer our sincere apologies to the critics involved and to Francis Ford Coppola and American Zoetrope for this inexcusable error in our vetting process. We screwed up. We are sorry.“

— original article follows —

Lionsgate dropped the new trailer for Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis earlier today. The trailer begins with quotes from negative reviews of Coppola’s previous movies, such as The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, and Bram Stoker’s Dracula, seemingly positioning Megalopolis as another future classic. That’s all well and good, except for the fact that the quotes appear to have been made up. Uh oh.

The Megalopolis trailer includes a quote from iconic critic Pauline Kael, who is cited as saying that The Godfather is “diminished by its artsiness.” Not only did Kael not say that, but her original review of The Godfather was very complimentary. The Village Voice critic Andrew Sarris is also quoted, trashing The Godfather as a “sloppy self-indulgent movie” that “doesn’t know what it wants to be.” Once again, those quotes do not appear in Sarris’ review.

Although Rex Reed didn’t mince words when it came to Apocalypse Now, the words “an epic piece of trash” don’t appear in his review. He did call it a “gumbo of pretentious twaddle,” which… come on, that would have been so much better to use. Roger Ebert is also quoted as calling Bram Stoker’s Dracula a “triumph of style over substance,” but it appears that quote was pulled from his review of Tim Burton’s Batman movie.

Variety’s Owen Gleiberman is also quoted in the Megalopolis trailer, calling Bram Stoker’s Dracula a “beautiful mess” while also commenting on its “absurdity.” His original review for Entertainment Weekly doesn’t contain these quotes. “Even if you’re one of those people who don’t like critics, we hardly deserve to have words put in our mouths. Then again, the trivial scandal of all this is that the whole ‘Megalopolis’ trailer is built on a false narrative,” Gleiberman said. “Critics loved ‘The Godfather.’ And though ‘Apocalypse Now’ was divisive, it received a lot of crucial critical support. As far as me calling ‘Bram Stoker’s Dracula’ ‘a beautiful mess,’ I only wish I’d said that! Regarding that film, it now sounds kind.“

The official synopsis for Megalopolis reads: “Megalopolis is a Roman Epic fable set in an imagined Modern America. The City of New Rome must change, causing conflict between Cesar Catilina, a genius artist who seeks to leap into a utopian, idealistic future, and his opposition, Mayor Franklyn Cicero, who remains committed to a regressive status quo, perpetuating greed, special interests, and partisan warfare. Torn between them is socialite Julia Cicero, the mayor’s daughter, whose love for Cesar has divided her loyalties, forcing her to discover what she truly believes humanity deserves.” The film is currently slated to hit theaters on September 27th.

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In just a few days, a brand-new reboot of The Crow will finally arrive in theaters. The project has had a long road, with numerous directors, writers, and actors attached over the decades. Unfortunately, the film hasn’t exactly been accepted with open arms, with some members of the original movie even speaking out against it, which came as a surprise to producer Molly Hassell.

“It should make people proud,” Hassell told THR. “I’m surprised it hasn’t made the original filmmakers more proud, because it’s a step in a different direction, but it’s a necessary step to deal with the age-old themes of love and loss.“

Alex Proyas, director of the original 1994 movie, took to social media earlier this year to say that The Crow should remain the legacy of Brandon Lee, who died during the production. “I really don’t get any joy from seeing negativity about any fellow filmmakers work,” Proyas wrote. “And I’m certain the cast and crew really had all good intentions, as we all do on any film. So it pains me to say any more on this topic, but I think the fan’s response speaks volumes. THE CROW is not just a movie. Brandon Lee died making it, and it was finished as a testament to his lost brilliance and tragic loss. It is his legacy. That’s how it should remain.“

Cliff Dorfman, who was once attached to pen the script for The Crow reboot, apparently saw the film earlier this summer and called it “horrible” and “unwatchable.“

Starring Bill Skarsgård and FKA twigs, the modern reimagining of the original graphic novel of The Crow by James O’Barr was directed by Rupert Sanders from a script by Zach Baylin and William Schneider. Here’s the synopsis: “Soulmates Eric Draven (Skarsgård) and Shelly Webster (FKA twigs) are brutally murdered when the demons of her dark past catch up with them. Given the chance to save his true love by sacrificing himself, Eric sets out to seek merciless revenge on their killers, traversing the worlds of the living and the dead to put the wrong things right.“

Co-writer William Schneider told THR that the original movie was a “touchstone” for him when he was growing up, but wanted to be sure Zach Baylin and himself left their own mark on the story. “We didn’t want to go the same route, because we felt like that did a disservice to the film,” Schneider said. “Instead, we wanted to chart our own course almost as a way to sort of celebrate it and say, ‘Hey, we found a new way into the story, and we want them both to exist with their own voices, with their own set of fans.’“

With all the negative press, The Crow is facing an uphill battle at the box office and isn’t expected to dethrone any of the recent blockbusters upon its release on August 23rd.

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Director Fede Alvarez’s contribution to the Alien franchise, Alien: Romulus (you can read our review HERE), is currently in theatres – and this isn’t the first time he has added to a popular genre franchise. Not only did he make his feature directorial debut with the 2013 version of Evil Dead, but two years ago he teamed with Legendary Pictures and the Netflix streaming service to bring us a Texas Chainsaw Massacre film, which he produced and crafted the story for alongside his frequent collaborator Rodo Sayagues. Now Legendary is working with the Six Flags theme park company to bring an experience inspired by that Texas Chainsaw Massacre film to Six Flags Great Adventure and Six Flags Over Texas – and we’ve gotten our hands on a batch of images that offer a preview of the experience! You can check them out at the bottom of this article. The experience will be running from early September through November 3rd.

Scripted by Chris Thomas Devlin (based on the story by Alvarez and Sayagues), this Texas Chainsaw Massacre had the following official synopsis: After nearly 50 years of hiding, Leatherface returns to terrorize a group of idealistic young friends who accidentally disrupt his carefully shielded world in a remote Texas town. Melody (Sarah Yarkin), her teenage sister Lila (Elsie Fisher), and their friends Dante (Jacob Latimore) and Ruth (Nell Hudson), head to the remote town of Harlow, Texas to start an idealistic new business venture. But their dream soon turns into a waking nightmare when they accidentally disrupt the home of Leatherface, the deranged serial killer whose blood-soaked legacy continues to haunt the area’s residents — including Sally Hardesty (Olwen Fouéré), the sole survivor of his infamous 1973 massacre who’s hell-bent on seeking revenge. The film was directed by David Blue Garcia.

Here’s a description of the Six Flags experience: In this forgotten corner of Texas, secrets are buried deep, and the tales they don’t speak of come to life. They dismiss it as the ramblings of an old timer, but some laugh knowing the dark truth that lurks beneath: the face of madness has returned, Leatherface lives. In this new experience based on the 2022 Netflix & Legendary Entertainment‘s Texas Chainsaw Massacre guests are cast as visitors to Harlow on the heels of the influencers set on revitalizing the town. However, the dilapidated windows conceal a horrifying secret: the worst kind of monster haunts Harlow, and your arrival has driven him to slaughter. As parkgoers navigate Harlow, they will step into iconic scenes from the film, including the barn, sunflower field, the “crawl of death” and “dead street,” before facing the epic final showdown with one of horror’s most notorious killers: Leatherface.

During this year’s Fright Fest at Six Flags parks, guests will also have the chance to check out experiences inspired by Netflix’s Stranger Things and Army of the Dead, Legendary’s Trick ‘r Treat, Lionsgate’s Saw, and Warner Bros./New Line’s The Conjuring universe. “Specific mazes DO vary by park, so please check local websites for full details.“

Amado Trevino, Director of Interactive Media & Experiences at Legendary Entertainment, provided the following statement: “We’re thrilled to partner with Six Flags for the first-ever haunted maze experience of Netflix’s and Legendary’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022) at this year’s Fright Fest extravaganza. Get ready for an unforgettable, heart-pounding adventure where the scares and thrills won’t hold back!”

You will be stopping by a Six Flags that has the Texas Chainsaw Massacre experience this year? Let us know by leaving a comment below – but first, take a look at these images:

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There’s a fairly good chance that you, like us, keep forgetting that Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is a first-person game. Each time we see any footage, it’s a jarring moment to remember that this isn’t a reskinned Tomb Raider or Uncharted, but instead puts us directly inside Dr. Jones’ head. This is exacerbated…

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There’s a fairly good chance that you, like us, keep forgetting that Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is a first-person game. Each time we see any footage, it’s a jarring moment to remember that this isn’t a reskinned Tomb Raider or Uncharted, but instead puts us directly inside Dr. Jones’ head. This is exacerbated…

Read more…

Close your door, draw the curtains, and prepare for a brutal, bloody, and saucy preview as the red band trailer for Zack Snyder’s Twilight of the Gods ushers you onto a ruthless battlefield of destruction. Today’s preview gives Heavy Metal vibes with its mature themes, fantasy action intensity, and beautiful warriors stripping themselves of armor to make love in the light of dragon fire.

Watch a brand-new preview of Zack Snyder's upcoming animated series Twilight of the Gods in all its bloody glory. Just… maybe not at your desk… pic.twitter.com/0rOIMprQ5P

— Netflix (@netflix) August 21, 2024

Zack Snyder’s Twilight of the Gods is an all-new, daring, and spectacular animated vision of Norse mythology. In a mythical world of great battles, great deeds, and great despair, Leif, a mortal King, is saved on the battlefield by Sigrid, an iron-willed warrior with whom he falls in love. On their wedding night, Sigrid and Leif survive a wrath of terror from Thor, which sets them – and a crew of crusaders – on an against-all-odds and merciless mission for vengeance. This heroic story of love, loss, and revenge is a journey to Hell and beyond… across fantastical lands, fierce and bloody battlefields, and wars against Gods and demons.

Twilight of the Gods features Sylvia Hoeks as Sigrid, Start Martin as Leif, Rahul Kohli as Egill, Paterson Joseph as Loki, Jamie Clayton as Seid-Kona, Pilou Asbæk as Thor, Birgitte Hjort Sørensen as Hervor, Kristofer Hivju as Andvari, Thea Sofie Loch Næss as Thyra, John Noble as Odin, and Peter Stormare as Ulfr, among others.

The red band trailer for Twilight of the Gods depicts a blood-soaked epic of godly proportions as Sigrid vows revenge against the ones that wronged her. Unleashing a hellstorm of rage-fueled retaliation, Sigrid carves through hordes of minions, massive dragons, and gods desperately needing a power check. As dragon guts spill onto the battlefield, a rag-tag group of adventurers vows to spill every drop of blackened blood until the last deed ends.

I’ll give Twilight of the Gods this: it’s got style. I definitely feel some Heavy Metal influences, along with a touch of Cartoon Saloon’s The Secret of Kells. Twilight of the Gods marches onto Netflix on September 19. Will you join Sigrid in her war against the gods? Let us know in the comments section below.

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Shattered Space, the upcoming first major expansion to Starfield, feels like Bethesda returning to an old, comfy chair. Albeit a horror-driven, combat-intensive chair set in a half-destroyed capital city that’s the victim of a tear in space-time. But rather than another galaxy-wide sprawling set of adventures like the…

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