A small film production company you’ve never heard of called Stellarblade is suing Sony and Shift Up over the use of Stellar Blade in this year’s hit action-adventure.

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Visions of Mana is a predominantly linear game, but Chapter Seven throws a curveball. With three boss fights against the Benevodons down and only five to go, you can choose to take on the next four elemental demons in any order you like. It’s a vaguely Mega Man style structure, since each boss will unlock valuable…

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Visions of Mana is a predominantly linear game, but Chapter Seven throws a curveball. With three boss fights against the Benevodons down and only five to go, you can choose to take on the next four elemental demons in any order you like. It’s a vaguely Mega Man style structure, since each boss will unlock valuable…

Read more…

Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan have proven to be an extraordinary team, and yesterday Warner Bros. took to social media to confirm that the first trailer for their next big project, Sinners, would be unleashed today. True to their word, Warner Bros. has now dropped the trailer online, and you can check it out in the embed above!

Plot details for Sinners have largely been kept under wraps, but the project has been described as a period thriller involving vampires. Here’s the official synopsis: Trying to leave their troubled lives behind, twin brothers (Jordan) return to their hometown to start again, only to discover that an even greater evil is waiting to welcome them back. “You keep dancing with the devil, one day he’s gonna follow you home.” Insiders reported that the film would be set in the “Jim Crow-era South and possibly involve both vampires and Southern supernatural traditions.” In addition to Jordan in a dual role, the film is also set to star Delroy Lindo, Jack O’Connell, Hailee Steinfeld, Lola Kirke, Wunmi Mosaku, and more.

Coogler has worked with Jordan on each of his movies, including Fruitvale Station, Creed, Black Panther, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. I can’t wait to see what they have in store for us with Sinners!

Coogler has several other projects in the works. He’s set to produce an adaptation of A Vicious Circle, a graphic novel series published by BOOM! Studios created by Mattson Tomlin and Lee Bermejo. The project will be a “two-hander action thriller about assassins from the future hunting each other through time” which is being described as John Wick meets Looper.

He’s also developing a reboot of The X-Files, the iconic sci-fi series starring David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson. While original creator Chris Carter isn’t involved in the project, he has given it his blessing. Carter has said that he had a “really nice conversation” with Coogler when the reboot was first pitched to Fox. When it comes to passing the reins to someone else, Carter is more than happy to do so. “It’s interesting, people say, ‘Aren’t you possessive of it?’ And I say, ‘No, I’m looking forward to seeing what somebody else does with is.” He added that Coogler has some good ideas, but has an uphill battle when it comes to casting. “No matter what, he’d got a hard job,” Carter said. “Casting is a hard job. Mounting it is a hard job. All the problems that I dealt with are going to be his problems.“

Sinners is being produced by Coogler and frequent collaborators Sev Ohanian and Zinzi Coogler. The executive producers are Ludwig Göransson, Will Greenfield, and Rebecca Cho. The film has a theatrical release date of March 7th.

What did you think of the Sinners trailer? Will you be watching this movie when it’s released next March? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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The Russo brothers have quite a bit on their plate. Not only are they returning to one of the biggest franchises in movies with future Avengers films, but the brothers’ artist-led production company, AGBO, is also bringing the Citadel franchise to Prime Video with its many incarnations, as well as finally releasing their long-awaited sci-fi film, The Electric State, next year in March. The Chris Pratt and Millie Bobby Brown film would finally secure a rating from the MPA with a PG-13 for sci-fi violence/action, language and some thematic material.

The Hollywood Reporter recently got to sit down with the Russo’s sister, Angela Russo-Otstot, who is the Creative Chief for AGBO, as she talks about the upcoming projects from their company. Russo-Otstot would divulge some details about The Electric State. She calls the film “a really interesting exploration of a world where service robots live alongside humans. Within their time performing specific services for humans, the robots start to realize that they may want something more than the purpose they [were made] for, and the humans begin to fear this. So, eventually, a conflict plays out. There’s a war between the humans and the robots, and the humans leverage technology to win, and they take all of the robots and banish them into an exclusion zone in the middle of a desert wasteland in the center of the U.S. But it’s a global conflict as well. So there are other stories and narratives that can play out in different countries around the world, but we witness the U.S. story in this film.”

Russo-Otstot also mentions that the robots “have a real nostalgia to them.” Some of them are based on actual brands, like Woody Harrelson’s Mr. Peanut-inspired robot. “And I remember when we had to approach Hormel to ask permission to do this. We were like: ‘It has to be Mr. Peanut. We have to make this work.’ And fortunately, it did work out.”

The Russo sister also talks a bit of the background behind the film, saying, “It’s a wonderfully imaginative alternate history that takes place in the 1990s. It’s based on an illustrated novel by an artist [from Sweden] named Simon Stålenhag.” It was adapted by frequent Russo and Marvel collaborators Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. “They were the writers that did all four of the Marvel movies that Anthony and Joe directed. They work at our company as the co-presidents of story department. Christopher found this book on Facebook in a crowdfunding. And he said, there’s a movie here. And so we optioned the book, and he and Stephen built out a really rich mythology. There was an existing mythology in the book, but they expanded upon it.”

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Get busy livin’ or get busy dyin’. Ironically enough, The Shawshank Redemption was far from livin’ when it was released in 1994, yet, that didn’t mean it was busy dyin’. The Shawshank Redemption may have had a slow crawl through the pipes before it gained the following it has now, but those that knew knew – and they made sure others did, too. Even still, it only peaked at #8 at the box office, only slowly accumulating the wide fanbase it has now. Really, only years after its initial release did people truly come around. And with that, we mark another anniversary, with The Shawshank Redemption celebrating its 30th this month.

As The Shawshank Redemption director Frank Darabont told The Daily Beast, the movie lives on in a way that the awards season couldn’t have predicted. “It hasn’t really gone away. Its initial release wasn’t that successful. In fact, I wouldn’t even call it a success. It was kind of a marginal failure in 1994 yet it became the most rented video of 1995. I think that was for a number of reasons, primarily because it was nominated for seven Academy Awards. We didn’t win a stinking award but it really piqued people’s interest.”

Instead, The Shawshank Redemption lost every one of its Oscars to everything from Forrest Gump (four of the seven) to Speed (Best Sound). And while 1994 is still one of the greatest years in movie history and every one of its losses was anticipated, The Shawshank Redemption remains one of the best of that year. In fact, it just narrowly lost to Pulp Fiction in a JoBlo.com poll of the greatest films of 1994 – so suck on that, Forrest Gump!

The legacy that The Shawshank Redemption has developed in the three decades since its release – no doubt in due part to TNT’s steady airings – is something that Darabont can’t help but notice. “It kind of put it in the same category as The Wizard of Oz or Casablanca. Not in terms of quality, but once you get played regularly on television, audiences can really discover it and that’s what happened to Shawshank. I’m delighted people love it so much.”

Where would you rank The Shawshank Redemption in the list of best films of 1994? Why do you think it endures 30 years on? Get busy commenting below!

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In just two months, Gladiator II will be hitting theaters. However, Ridley Scott first began considering a Gladiator sequel two decades ago… and it would have been absolutely bizarre, bringing Maximus (Russell Crowe) back from the dead in a supernatural tale full of Roman gods and mythology.

After first considering a prequel about Maximus’s early days in the military and a sequel which focused on corruption and politics in Rome, Scott shifted gears when he tapped Nick Cave to pen the script. The result was unlike anything you would have expected.

The script for the proposed Gladiator sequel would have opened with Maximus awakening in the afterlife, but not the one he imagined in the first movie. Instead, it’s a rain-soaked purgatory filled with miserable souls. He meets a guide named Mordecai, who takes him to meet Jupiter, Apollo, Mars, Pluto, Neptune, Mercury, and Bacchus. The deities aren’t looking so great as they’ve been betrayed by Hephaestus. They task Maximus with killing him, promising that they’ll reunite him with his wife and son if he does so. However, when Maximus does find Hephaestus, he suddenly finds himself back in the land of the living more than a decade after his own death. He rises out of the body of a dying Christian in the midst of a massacre led by Lucius, who has grown up to be just as evil as his uncle Commodus.

This persecution was inspired by a real-life event known as the Decian persecution, in which Emperor Decius issued an edict that required everyone in the Empire to perform a sacrifice to the Roman gods and the well-being of the Emperor. Those who refused were either killed or forced into hiding. In Nick Cave’s script, this serves as a plot to expose Christians and supply victims to the Colosseum. Speaking of the Colosseum, it naturally makes a return, but it’s been flooded for a mock naval battle between gladiators and Christian prisoners. As we’ve seen in the trailers for Gladiator II, Scott was able to repurpose this scene.

Maximus later meets up with his son, Marius, who is now alive, as well as Juba, the former gladiator played by Djimon Hounsou in the first movie. Together, they train an army of Christian soldiers for an epic and bloody showdown with Lucius’ forces. The ending is perhaps crazier than anything else in the entire movie. We see a montage of Maximus fighting in battles throughout the centuries, including the Crusades, both World Wars, and the Vietnam War. It ends with Maximus working at the modern-day Pentagon, cursed to participate in an unending cycle of conflict and bloodshed. According to Nick Cave, Russell Crowe’s reaction was brief, simply saying, “Don’t like it, mate.” Cave later said he enjoyed writing the script so much because he knew it was too crazy to get made. Sure enough, the script was rejected.

Could this Gladiator sequel have worked? Perhaps, but it would take another decade before Scott began entertaining the idea of returning to the world.

“From legendary director Ridley Scott, Gladiator II continues the epic saga of power, intrigue, and vengeance set in Ancient Rome,” reads the official Gladiator II synopsis. “Years after witnessing the death of the revered hero Maximus at the hands of his uncle, Lucius (Paul Mescal) is forced to enter the Colosseum after his home is conquered by the tyrannical Emperors who now lead Rome with an iron fist. With rage in his heart and the future of the Empire at stake, Lucius must look to his past to find strength and honor to return the glory of Rome to its people.” The film is set to hit theaters on November 22nd.

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Richard Harris played Albus Dumbledore in the first two Harry Potter movies until his death forced the studio to recast the role with Michael Gambon. With the upcoming Harry Potter TV series starting the casting process, some fans have thought that Harris’ son, Jared Harris, would make for a good Dumbledore.

During an interview on the The Independent series Go to Bat, Jared Harris was asked if he’d be down to play Dumbledore in the Harry Potter TV series. His response should shut down any more fan casting. “No, thank you,” he said. “Also, I mean, why do it? I don’t understand. The films were fantastic – leave them alone.” Although Harris doesn’t seem keen on the idea of a TV series, he did acknowledge that “a lot of storytelling” was left out of the movie franchise.

While Harris may not be an option to play Dumbledore, Gary Oldman (who played Sirius Black in the movie franchise) recently teased that he will soon be old enough to play the Hogwarts headmaster in the TV series.

As I mentioned above, the casting process for the Harry Potter TV series has begun. An open call was put out for children who are residents of the U.K. and Ireland and will be between the ages of 9 and 11 in April 2025 to play Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger. “We are committed to inclusive, diverse casting,” the notice reads. “For every role, please submit qualified performers, without regard to ethnicity, sex, disability, race, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other basis protected by law unless otherwise specifically indicated.“

It was revealed earlier this summer that Succession‘s Francesca Gardiner had been tapped to serve as writer and showrunner, while Mark Mylod signed on to executive produce and direct multiple episodes. The project was originally developed for Max but made the leap to HBO (along with a variety of other Max shows) in June.

Each season of the Harry Potter TV series is said to cover one of J.K. Rowling’s novels, for a total of seven seasons. While the movies were able to fit quite a lot in, there were plenty of moments cut from the novels that the TV series will finally be able to bring to life. Last year, the studio released a statement saying, “Each season will be authentic to the original books and bring Harry Potter and these incredible adventures to new audiences around the world, while the original, classic and beloved films will remain at the core of the franchise and available to watch globally.“

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PLOT: In a futuristic metropolis named New Rome, the city’s mayor, Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito), battles an idealistic architect named Cesar Catilina (Adam Driver), who wants to create a sustainable utopia.

REVIEW: One of the most unique things about Francis Ford Coppola as a director is the fact that he’s probably the only one I can think of who’s made at least four outright masterpieces and probably an equal number of disasters. For every Godfather, there’s a One from the Heart, but Coppola, to his credit, has never allowed critics or audiences to dictate the movies he makes, and for better or worse, this is exactly the film he wanted. Whether or not anyone else will understand or appreciate what he’s doing is another question. I must admit that even though I can find merit in almost all of his work, Megalopolis escaped me.

An ambitious futuristic “fable” (which is what it’s called on-screen), the film imagines a kind of uncanny, futuristic New York City crossed with the politics and intrigue of Ancient Rome. New Rome seems to exist outside of the laws of gravity, with Adam Driver’s Cesar able to stop time at will and seeking to create a utopian society within the city. This seems equally inspired by Fritz Lang’s Metropolis and what Coppola himself tried to pull off with his production company, American Zoetrope, in the seventies and early eighties. 

Watching Megalopolis, it wasn’t hard to see the thematic parallels between Driver’s Cesar and Coppola, especially if you know his work. People condemn Cesar for his ego and the scope of his vision, which happened to Coppola numerous times over his career (including now), with him risking disaster almost every time he made a movie.

Indeed, I despise the fact that Megalopolis turned out to be such an unwieldy mess, as the last thing I wanted to do at this year’s TIFF was join the choir of Coppola haters – of which I’ll never be one, even if I didn’t like his movie.

Megalopolis is ambitious, but it’s exhausting and almost incomprehensible. It feels like a six-hour movie Coppola cut down to 138 minutes, with characters, such as Dustin Hoffman as the mayor’s fixer, getting oddly unceremonious exits and noted character actors like James Remar stuck in walk-ons.

The first half of Megalopolis is better than the second, as for a while, you get caught up in the movie’s scope, with Coppola creating a beautifully stylized world. He invested a good chunk of his fortune in it, and he and DP Mihai Mălaimare Jr. have created a visual feast, especially on IMAX. However, the film’s content is nearly incomprehensible, drowning in metaphors, montages, and camp performances that are embarrassing for those involved. Jon Voight, in particular, as the man bankrolling Cesar’s vision, gets some howlers, particularly an unfortunate scene with a bow-and-arrow. The same goes for Nathalie Emmanuel, who seems bewildered by her strange role as the mayor’s daughter who falls in love with Cesar (and at one point masquerades as a sixth-grader). Ditto for Giancarlo Esposito, who attempts to underplay his highly melodramatic role, but again, I hesitate to blame either of them. 

Adam Driver at least has the gravitas to play his iconoclastic role. Still, he’s a lot more convincing when he’s playing Cesar as a genius than lengthy bits where we’re expected to believe he’s also a drug-addled playboy. Of everyone, the two actors who fare the best are Shia LaBeouf and Aubrey Plaza. They play the two most over-the-top characters and seem to have a whale of a time. LaBeouf plays Cesar’s cousin, a socialite who lusts for Emmanuel’s Julia and control over the city. Plaza is a TV presenter (named Wow Platinum) who is scorned by Driver and wants revenge. Both seem to know what kind of movie they’re in, and I can imagine Coppola cackling with glee and screaming “more” and “more” whenever they start getting really crazy on camera.

As this is still a Coppola movie, there are some impressively mounted set pieces, such as a sprawling one at New Rome’s version of Madison Square Garden, where a Taylor Swift-style pop star (played by Grace VanderWaal) auctions her virginity. Many Coppola regulars show up, including Laurence Fishburne, Cesar’s chauffeur, who also narrates the movie, plus Talia Shire and even Jason Schwartzman. There’s even a live theatre component where, at the screening I attended, an actor shows up in the theatre to interact with Driver’s character on-screen. 

In the last forty minutes, Megalopolis becomes a real disaster, with so much jam-packed into the movie’s third act that it becomes almost impossible to keep up with it. It becomes nonsensical as it races towards its ending. Again, one can’t fault Coppola for his ambition. He financed the movie with money he earned, so he had every right to make exactly the film he wanted to make. But it’s hard to imagine this ever connecting with anyone other than hardcore Coppola devotees or maybe connoisseurs of bad cinema. 

Megalopolis

BELOW AVERAGE

5

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The first reviews of Joker: Folie à Deux have hinted that audiences may find the ending a little divisive, and director Todd Phillips is all too aware of how some fans will react.

“For the people that have seen this movie in general … at the end, they sit and they don’t move for about three to five minutes,” Phillips said during a Q&A (via /Film). “Then they text me, the ones that know me, or email me and go, ‘I need a minute to process the movie.’” Phillips added, “I think it’s going to leave you with a very unsettling … I think it’s unsettling.” Certain outlets appear to have outright spoiled the ending for Joker: Folie à Deux in their reviews, so the reason for this potential reaction is easy to find, but I won’t be sharing it here.

It remains to be seen if Joker: Folie à Deux will be as successful as the first movie (which was the first R-rated movie to gross over $1 billion), but you shouldn’t keep your fingers crossed for Joker 3 as Phillips doesn’t intend on returning. “It was fun to play in this sort of sandbox for two movies,” Phillips said last month, “but I think we’ve said what we wanted to say in this world.“

Although Arthur and Lee (Lady Gaga) frequently break into songs such as Get Happy, For Once in My Life, and That’s Life, Phillips has avoided labelling the sequel as a full-blown musical. “Most of the music in the movie is really just dialogue,” Phillips said. “It’s just Arthur not having the words to say what he wants to say, so he sings them instead.” Phillips added, “I just don’t want people to think that it’s like ‘In the Heights,’ where the lady in the bodega starts to sing and they take it out onto the street, and the police are dancing. No disrespect, because I loved ‘In the Heights.’“

In addition to Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga, Joker: Folie À Deux also stars Brendan Gleeson, Catherine Keener, Jacob Lofland, and Harry Lawtey. Zazie Beetz also returns to reprise her role as Sophie Dumond from the first movie, a love interest for Arthur. Plot details are being kept under wraps, but it’s been said that much of the sequel will take place within Arkham Asylum, which is where we left Arthur in the last film. Joker: Folie à Deux will hit theaters on October 4th.

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