The WWE’s first ever Bash in Berlin Premium Live Event took centerstage this past weekend in front of a packed house in Germany, and it did not disappoint. We ended the event with new Women’s Tag Team Champions, retribution for the Terror Twins, an uncontroversial finish between Gunther and Randy Orton, and, perhaps…
It’s official: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom don’t fit on any previous Legend of Zelda timeline. As revealed by Nintendo this weekend, the two open-world games that bookended the Switch’s lifespan stand alone in their own version of reality. Which means all that time you spent trying to work out how they…
It’s official: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom don’t fit on any previous Legend of Zelda timeline. As revealed by Nintendo this weekend, the two open-world games that bookended the Switch’s lifespan stand alone in their own version of reality. Which means all that time you spent trying to work out how they…
There is nothing — and we mean nothing more American than a hot dog eating competition. That’s why the most famous of them all, Nathan’s Famous International Hot Dog Eating Contest, is held on the Fourth of July. But with some controversies in the world of competitive eating, there will also be another showdown on Labor Day weekend, which so happens to be one of the other most dangerous holidays in the United States. USA! USA!
On Labor Day 2024, Joey Chestnut will face off against his number one rival, Japan’s Takeru Kobayashi, with the two being some of the most prominent in all of competitive eating. For the record, Chestnut has won Nathan’s contest a record 16 times, while Kobayashi has taken home the title six times. As far as the similarities and differences between Netflix’s Unfinished Beef hot dog eating contest, both do have a 10-minute time limit and enforce a no puking rule. Netflix’s contest will take it a unique step further, however, by taking into account any signifcant crumbs left behind. They, too, will not allow any dunking into liquid, which is commonly seen at Nathan’s.
To date, Chestnut holds more than 50 world records, including sucking down 141 hard-boiled eggs in eight minutes (so suck on that, Cool Hand Luke!). Kobayashi holds his own, however, somehow choking down more than 17 pounds in cow brains in 15 minutes, which, speaking as someone who has never had the pleasure, seems like an awful lot.
Ahead of the hot dog contest, Chestnut stated, “Through all of my years in competitive eating, Kobayashi stands out as my fiercest rival. Competing against him pushed me to be so much better. I know that fans have waited a long time for another chapter of our rivalry and I can’t wait for our massive showdown live on Netflix! It’s time to give the people what they want!” Meanwhile, Kobayashi — who had previously announced his retirement from competitive eating — said, “Retiring for me will only happen after I take him down one last time. This rivalry has been brewing for a long time. Competing against Joey live on Netflix means fans all over the world can watch me knock him out.”
WWE superstars Rey Mysterio and Omos will present the winner of this hot dog eating contest with a custom championship belt. Netflix will begin hosting WWE Raw next year.
Who do you have your money on in this Netflix-hosted hot dog contest? Will Joey Chestnut do his country justice or will Kobayashi serve another upset?
The post Joey Chestnut and Takeru Kobayashi have “unfinished beef” in Netflix hot dog contest. Who will be the top dog this Labor Day? appeared first on JoBlo.
This episode of WTF Happened to This Horror Movie? is covering Terminator Genisys. Written by Mike Holtz, Narrated by Tyler Nichols, Edited by Victoria Verduzco, Produced by Andrew Hatfield and John Fallon, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.
It’s very apropos that a franchise about timelines and time travel would continuously go back and try to erase their mistakes to begin anew. This is exactly what the Terminator franchise has done repeatedly in an attempt to find a worthy successor to what many consider the greatest action film of all time, Terminator 2: Judgement Day. Today’s film is more of a hodge podge of different ideas coming together to remake, reimagine, and give honor to, while getting rid of….you know what? It’s a mess. Here is WTF Happened to Terminator Genisys.
For starters, who in the hell spells Genesis with a Y? Are you actively trying to confuse people out of seeing your movie? Are you trying to make this a HARD thing to Google? Producer David Ellison later admitted as much when he said the film’s spelling “Didn’t work” and was a “kind of playing on words a la Google.” Oh…..well when you put it like that. I was hoping for a better reason. Anyway.
When a movie starring Christian Bale as John Connor isn’t a success, it has to leave the franchise Ricky Bobby-ing, wondering what the Hell to do with itself Clip here of “I don’t know what to do with my hands. In the case of the current at the time franchise owner, the Halcyon Company, the bankruptcy court pulled up, reached out their hand, and said “come with me if you want to live” and Haylcon obliged. The company sold its rights to one of its biggest creditors, a company called Pacificor, on the agreement it would erase its debt AND offer it 5 million dollars for every Terminator film produced going forward.
Then, out of nowhere, like Sting from the Rafters, in 2010, Chief Executive Officer of Hannover House, Eric Parkinson, announced they were making a PG-13 3D animated Terminator film called Terminator 3000. Great name! I’m not going to lie. But you can’t just wake up one day and decide you own the rights to the Terminator franchise. In reality, though, he thought he had a shot at it because he was also the Chief Executive Officer of Hemdale in 1984, who handled the distribution of the original Terminator and had negotiated himself a nice little contract for those rights. He would explain: “The animation rights were excluded when Hemdale sold Terminator to Carolco and when I left Hemdale, part of my settlement was that I got those rights. However, the way the rest of the contractual rights are written, it would be dangerous for us to do this without Pacificor’s approval. They have certain intellectual rights. The best way to put it is, they can’t make an animated film without me, and we might not be able to make it without them.”
Pacificor promptly sent out a crisp cease and desist letter to Parkinson and despite a rejected 20–30 million dollar offer to make the film, Hannover House didn’t fight, releasing a statement saying “Contrary to internet reports, Hannover House does not own or control any of the motion picture rights to the Terminator franchise, and the company does not have the ability to proceed with a proposed animated feature film without the expressed approval or license from the rights holders.”
Fast forward to 2011, Universal Studios was circling the franchise, considering taking it the Fast and Furious route with director Justin Lin and writer Chris Morgan. Thankfully, from a personal standpoint, that never came to fruition (though Lin remained involved for a while, eventually leaving to direct Fast 6), and eventually Megan Ellison’s Annapurna Pictures stepped in to acquire the franchise (although by the time the film released Annapurna’s name would no longer be attached) and did so for a bit of a discount due to fears that new copyright laws would legally revert the franchise to James Cameron in 2019. Megan’s brother, David of Skydance Pictures, agreed to help produce the film, and you can’t say Skydance without saying Paramount, who also jumped in on this sweet deal as the distributor. A June 26, 2015, release date was set, and we were off into the sunset…or the fiery death of the entire human race. It’s whatever. But someone’s going to have to write and direct this sh*t.
After being persuaded by James Cameron himself, who David and Megan had consulted with about a direction for the franchise, Drive Angry and My Bloody Valentine’s Patrick Lussier alongside Shudder Island writer and Avatar Executive Producer Laeta Kalogridis agreed to write the film after being recommended by Cameron. Kalogridis would later say some of the inspiration from the film actually came from Back to the Future II after McFly visited an alternate timeline affected by that big asshole Biff Tannen. This, alongside cherry-picking what they considered to be the best elements of the first two Terminator films, would be their North Star.
Producers Ellison and Dana Goldberg would work hand in hand with the writers on the story (and time will show the studios would be heavily involved in most aspects of the film). It won’t surprise you that one of the film’s most impressive ideas came from Cameron himself, who recommended they make Arnold a central character by creating a Terminator whose living tissue is vulnerable to aging. After much consideration, the writers decided to pretty much ignore both the Terminator 3 and Salvation storylines and instead wrote a story that brought in the multiverse. Yes, I saw you gag on your coffee just now. I know we’re all very tired. But this was a few years ago, to be fair, and an interesting idea in the scope of the Terminator franchise. For a moment. So long as it doesn’t get convoluted and confusing as shit, that’s exactly what happened.
The film would feature a whopping seven different time periods. One executive tried to explain it in the marketing process as “not a traditional remake, nor is it a continuation. Or a sequel. Nor is it a reboot. In a sense, it’s a re-imagining”. And I want to throw myself out of a window. The story would involve Skynet finding a timeline in which to utilize the human’s best weapon, John Connor to their benefit, which made for a pretty cool bad guy…but a very uncomfortable thing to do with such a staple good guy character. Arnold’s Terminator would become more of a father figure type to Sarah Connor, having protected her growing up and really trying to play on the emotion we felt at the end of Terminator 2….a theme the film would be consistently guilty of. On one hand, the script, a kind of reimagined remake of select parts of each of the first two films, was fun…in a nostalgic way. On the other hand, it sometimes merely comes off as a reminder of how great those films were, rather than making a case for themselves. Not to mention the weird way it attempts to replace them as canon. As David Ellison himself would say, “For us, this is Terminator 1…not Terminator 5.” That’s a bold strategy, Cotton. Let’s see if it pays off.
After a selection process that considered esteemed directors Rian Johnson, Ang Lee, and Denis Villeneuve (my GOD could you imagine!?!), a choice was made. And that choice was Game of Thrones frequent collaborator Alan Taylor fresh off…..Thor: The Dark World. Mmkay. Despite his girlfriend trying to get him to reconsider after reading the script, Taylor moved forward with the project for one main reason…..one that almost none of us can disagree with…..he wanted to work with Arnold f*cking Schwarzenegger on a Terminator film. This and his deep love for the first two films led him to believe he could fix the issues he had with the script. What’s that screaming you say? That’s the writers getting thrown under a moving bus! Move along now, they are used to it.
Speaking of Arnold, the Austrian Oak and father figure to most males my age, agreed to do the film in 2013 after being impressed with the script. He would once again give everything he had to make it as believable as possible. Arnold worked out three hours a day for six months to gain the same measurements and size he had for Terminator 2 back in 1991. He was 67 years old at the time of filming Genysis.
Still yet, for an impressive visual feat that featured ‘today Arnold’ taking on the version of himself from the original film, dangling member and all, the production had to find a body double for his 1984 self. Actor and bodybuilder Brett Azar (who recently played the legendary Iron Sheik in the Young Rock TV series) would win the role after winning an open casting call for actors with the same body measurements as Arnold. Not only that, he would have to send in a video of himself recreating the 1984 scene and lip-syncing the classic line. Azar was even asked back to do the same thing for Dark Fate, having his face removed in post-production on both films and replaced, obviously with Arnolds.
John Connor is a character that Jim Carrey in Liar Liar would adequately put has been “ridden more than Seattle Slew” in terms of actors stepping inside the role. Christian Bale understandably wanted no part of the character going forward after the famed Terminator Salvation set issues, and at one point, Tom Hardy had been Alan Taylor’s choice to play the character in Terminator Genisys across from Tron Legacy’s Garrett Hedlund as Kyle Reese. Both Hedlund and Nicholas Hoult were considered for the role of Reese, but neither accepted an invitation to even screen test for the role. Ouch.
The role of Connor would eventually go to the talented Dawn of the Planet of the Apes star Jason Clarke after he impressed Producer David Ellison with his role in Cameron’s ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty. The role once inhabited by the acting legend Michael Biehn would eventually go to A Good Day to Die Hard star Jai Courtney. And in no way was that a sarcastic sentence. Courtney would actually have to slim down a bit to appear less imposing in the film. This makes sense, considering one of the most interesting aspects of the 1984 film was the every-man feel of Reese versus this unstoppable machine. Having a superhero-looking dude kind of ruins the effect. JK Simmons was hired to play disgraced Detective Obrien, and he would have a little bit of fun with the role, too; Often adlibbing his lines for some extra comedic levity to the film. Matt Smith of Doctor Who fame was cast as the physical form of Skynet alongside Dayo Okeniyi as Danny Dyson and Lee Byung-hun as an alternate universe version of the T-1000.
The role of Sarah Connor was a bit more drama-filled as Paramount was looking for Captain Marvel’s Brie Larson to be in the role, with Alan Taylor wanting Emilia Clarke to portray the legendary action character. Tatiana Maslany was also at one point up for it, as was Emily Blunt and Margot Robbie, allegedly. Eventually, Taylor was able to secure the actress he’d wanted in the charismatic Emilia Clarke after enjoying his experiences working with her as Daenerys on Game of Thrones. Both Clarke, Clark, and Courtney would go through training for weapons and stunts and Jason Clarke would use Edward Furlong’s performance in Terminator 2 Judgement Day as inspiration.
Terminator Genisys and all seven of its timelines were shot mostly in New Orleans over 90 days, and some scenes were even shot in a NASA facility, as it was the only place tall enough in the city to fit the set. They also used some exterior shots of the Oracle Corporation Headquarters as a stand in for Cyberdyne. Some of the scenes would be filmed at the actual locations of the Bay Bridge and Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco but a 500-foot replica of the Golden Gate had to be built from scratch in New Orleans for a scene in which a school bus flips and dangles in the air with our heroes fighting John Connor inside; a scene amazingly created without the use of visual effects.
One of the most interesting and nostalgically pleasing parts of the film, before things get all wonky in the timelines, involves the recreation of some major scenes in Cameron’s 1984 classic. The aforementioned moment of Arnold taking on Arnold was recreated on the New Orleans set, sadly missing the great Bill Paxton but ultimately feeling like an awesomely entertaining invasion of the 1984 set and a cool moment for fans of the original. Also recreated was Kyle Reese’s arrival to this timeline, which created a surprising challenge amongst many others: those sweet-ass Nikes he steals from the store after raw dogging a homeless guy’s pants in the street. That will never not bother me. And I’m not even sure he showered before mating with Sarah in the original….we’re getting off-topic. Costume Designer Susan Matheson knew how important those Nikes were and eventually, with the help of Paramount, convinced the company to recreate twenty-five pairs of Vandal sneakers for the movie. Cue the Bud Light Real American Hero music.
Tasked with the insanely rough job of recreating the look and feel of Cameron’s original classics, the studio hired John Rosengrant and Stan Winston Studio successors Legacy Effects to handle the robotic and makeup effects. Esteemed Visual Effects Supervisor of The Matrix fame, Janek Sirrs handled around 1.200 visual effects shots via multiple companies, including, of course, Industrial Light & Magic, with Double Negative being the lead horse, accomplishing over 900 shots. Their handling of the T-3000 would require up to twenty hours of work for a single frame. But it did look damn cool. Say what you want about the story and missteps of Terminator Genisys including spelling it with a “Y” but the film did accomplish quite a few impressive visual feats that make it watchable on its own.
The digital recreation of the original Terminator alone, handled by Moving Picture Company, took twelve months, with the final print being submitted thirty minutes before the film was handed over to the studio. Arnold was scanned while reading his lines, and the studio studied Arnold’s movements in both The Terminator and Pumping Iron alongside a plaster cast of him, which I would pay good money for, and in no way is that weird. Shut up. The marketing for Genisys was a bit clunky and the trailer spoiled the heel turn of John Connor which pretty much everyone was upset with. Understandably. Thank god studios learned their lesson about spoiling films in the marketing since then. Shot of Jim from the Office staring at the camera sarcastically Despite all this, it goes without saying that Arnold did his damnedest to promote the film as he always does with multiple marketing appearances worldwide.
James Cameron also took to the campaign trail for the film during the marketing blitz, saying, “I feel like the franchise has been reinvigorated, like this is a renaissance”, calling it the official third film in the franchise and saying, “If you like the Terminator films, you’re going to love this movie”. All while assuring that he had no involvement in making the film. Later, he would semi-reject this notion, hinting he only supported these films for his buddy, Arnold. Finally, when Terminator Genisys premiered, it was met with….not so open arms. Holding a “Rotten” score in both the critics and audiences scores on review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes; the lower of which sporting a 26%….Genisys was panned for its poor retreading of previous films and muddled timelines. Words like “unwatchable”, “headache-inducing”, and “hackery” were used often. In all fairness, audiences did give the film a B+ score on the usually much nicer CinemaScore rating. So, there’s that
The film made $440 million at the box office, with only $90 million being domestic. On one end, it was the most the franchise had raked in since Terminator 2: Judgement Day. However, it was reported the film had to make at least $450 million to break even. Sequels scheduled to release in 2017 and ambitiously in 2018 tentatively titled Terminator 2 and Terminator 3, as well as a TV series, were subsequently canceled. Actress Emilia Clarke would add salt to the wounds by later telling Vanity Fair she was “relieved” she didn’t have to return for any planned sequels, even divulging that the folks on the famously troubled production of 2015’s Fantastic Four donned jackets that read “At Least We’re Not On Terminator” while on their own sets.
Jason Clarke sounded at least a little more upset about the situation, painting a picture of what future sequels could have been, saying, “What I remember was that second one was going to be about John’s journey after he was taken by Skynet…like going down to what he became; half machine, half man. That’s where the second one was going to start, and that’s about all I knew. It’s such a bummer we didn’t get to do that.” In the end, the rights went back to James Cameron as previously foretold and he and David Ellison went on to disregard Ellison and Co’s creation with a new, NEW third film in the franchise, Terminator: Dark Fate. Also meant to provide a brand new trilogy of Terminator films; Also, reaching the same “dark fate”. They were canceled due to poor box office. More on that later from JoBlo! But for now, that is just Terminator Genisys WTF!
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As another Lord of the Rings film nears production with The Hunt of Gollum, we are still left wondering who from Peter Jackson’s original trilogy will return. By and large, most have been open to it. But at 85 and 10 years removed from Gandalf, is Ian McKellen still seeking it, seeking it? Or is it more the fans whose thoughts are bent on it?
Speaking with the UK’s Big Issue (via Deadline), Ian McKellen said that he is aware of the upcoming film but there are too many mysteries surrounding it for him to confirm or deny. As McKellen put it, “I’ve just been told there are going to be more films and Gandalf will be involved and they hope that I’ll be playing him. When? I don’t know. What the script is? It’s not written yet. So they better be quick!”
Quick is right if Andy Serkis – who is taking over directing duties from Peter Jackson – and his team want to nab Ian McKellen for Gandalf. McKellen himself has been open to reprising the character but added a grim twist by saying, “If I’m alive.” The following week he took an unfortunate fall on stage while performing in Player Kings.
That situation caused McKellen to ponder his fate immediately. As he remembered in a separate interview, “It’s emotionally that I’ve got some residue that I’ve got to deal with. I said to myself as I tripped and slid off the stage, ‘This is the end’. These were the words in my mind, ‘This is the end. ‘And apparently I shouted out, ‘My neck is broken, I’m dying.’ I don’t remember saying that, so there was a lot going on in my head as the body responded to the fall.”
As Gandalf, Ian McKellen has been a fan favorite in the Lord of the Rings films, not only playing him in the first trilogy – earning an Oscar nomination for The Fellowship of the Ring – but also in The Hobbit films: An Unexpected Journey, The Desolation of Smaug and The Battle of the Five Armies.
Do you think Ian McKellen still has it in him for another go as Gandalf? How would that enhance The Hunt for Gollum?
The post Ian McKellen says “they better be quick” if he’s to return as Gandalf appeared first on JoBlo.
A great science fiction movie might scare you. It might inspire you. It might speculate about the nature of the human race, and what lies beyond our limited knowledge of the universe around us. It might propose an alternate past or a potential future. It might introduce you to an extraterrestrial or a brand-new…
A great science fiction movie might scare you. It might inspire you. It might speculate about the nature of the human race, and what lies beyond our limited knowledge of the universe around us. It might propose an alternate past or a potential future. It might introduce you to an extraterrestrial or a brand-new…
Yesterday, we posted a poll asking readers what they thought was the best summer 2024 movie. By a landslide, the winner was Deadpool & Wolverine, but the runner-up was George Miller’s Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, which was an infamously giant flop earlier this summer. In this case, the box office result didn’t do justice to the quality of the film itself – at least according to us here at JoBlo. But Furiosa wasn’t the only good movie that came out this summer that get enough love.
Here are five underrated summer 2024 movies:
Kevin Costner’s ambitious, multi-part western saga landed with a bit of a thud when it opened earlier this summer, with the grosses so feeble that the planned August release of Horizon: Chapter 2 was scrapped. No one knows when the already-shot sequel will come out, but Costner will try and relaunch the series at the Venice Film Festival this week. While I’ll admit that the first instalment of what Costner plans as a five-part saga was uneven, I still found myself pretty enraptured by his deliberately old-fashioned western, which is more in the vein of John Ford than edgier Western directors like Sergio Leone or Sam Peckinpah. The second instalment is (supposedly) even better than the first, so I suppose there’s still a glimmer of hope that Costner could put the sequel out in theatres and earn enough to get back to shooting Chapter 3 (which he’s already filmed a good chunk of).
This big-screen reboot of the classic Lee Majors TV series was supposed to be the summer’s first big hit. After all, it followed hot on the heels of star Ryan Gosling’s biggest hit ever, playing Ken in Barbie, while it also co-starred the fantastic Emily Blunt. Director David Leitch’s movie isn’t perfect. It’s too long and perhaps has an overemphasis on comedy. Still, the action sequences are impeccable, such as a fantastic chase mid-movie brilliantly scored by the Phil Collins classic, “Against All Odds.” While box office pundits called it a flop, it made a solid chunk of change at the box office ($92 million domestically towards a $180 million international total). The problem is it costs a heck of a lot and, as such, will likely lose the studio a ton of cash, which is too bad. It’s a good movie.
The Bikeriders had a strange path to theatres. It was supposed to come out via one of Disney’s adult affiliates last fall, but the studio felt they couldn’t market it correctly. They sold it to Focus Features, which released it as a solid summer counter-programming. It’s one of the highest-grossing specialty releases of the year, making over $20 million domestically. Still, given the star-studded cast, including Tom Hardy, Austin Butler and Jodi Comer, it should have done better. To me, it’s another great Jeff Nichols movie, and it tells a compelling true story. Hopefully, folks will discover it now that it’s streaming, as it is a nice little gem of a flick whose reputation (I think) will grow over time.
Searchlight made a mistake in making Yorgos Lanthimos’s latest mind-bender a summer movie release. Perhaps coming off of his hit, Poor Things, the studio thought they had a nifty counter-programming smash on their hands. Still, despite a strong opening, it only made about $5 million domestically. That’s too bad, as Lanthimos’s triptych of tales is one of the more compelling movies I saw this summer. While I’d wager that only the second of the three mini-movies is genuinely remarkable, Jesse Plemons, in three roles, delivers a powerhouse performance. Emma Stone, Margaret Qualley, the great Hong Chau, and Willem Dafoe are pretty stunning, too. Alas, the movie didn’t have the hook that Poor Things did, as it’s not easy to market a movie which is really just three short films strung together. Of all the movies on this list, this one has the most potential to become a future cult classic.
The fact that George Miller’s prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road whiffed at the box office is one of the more tragic box office stories of the year. It seems Miller and WB gravely misjudged the public’s appetite in a Mad Max movie that didn’t star the titular Road Warrior. Many rolled their eyes at the fact that they were making a Furiosa movie without Charlize Theron reprising her iconic role. Still, those who did bother to check it out were rocked by another epic post-apocalyptic adventure from Miller. Indeed, it’s the movie JoBlo readers have picked as the second best of the summer, with Anya Taylor-Joy terrific as the young Furiosa, while Chris Hemsworth has a whale of a time as the villainous Dementus. For me, one of the movie’s breakout stars who deserved more buzz was Tom Burke as the Max-like hero Praetorian Jack, who serves as Furiosa’s quasi-love interest and mentor. Like a lot of other movies on this list, it’s one that I hope more people will discover now that it’s streaming.
What do you think was the most underrated movie of the year? Let us know in the comments!
The post The Five Most Underrated Movies of Summer 2024 appeared first on JoBlo.
Capcom’s ambition to bring some of its big-hitting AAA games to mobile devices is certainly to be applauded. It’s a bold ambition, to see Resident Evil 7 on a tablet. So it’s a shame the project has been pretty disastrous, the games barely shifting any copies. And Capcom’s reaction? Make it far, far more inconvenient…