Max Barbakow, whose debut effort was the Hulu film, Palm Springs, returns with another comedy that’s star studded with Brothers. The film stars Josh Brolin, Peter Dinklage, Glenn Close, Brendan Fraser, Taylour Paige, E. Emmet Walsh, and Jennifer Landon. Per Entertainment Weekly, the film’s plot reads “Moke (Brolin), a reformed criminal trying to live on the straight and narrow, is forced back into the game by his scheming sibling, Jady (Dinklage), with the promise of a one-and-done job that could set them up for life. They embark on a cross-country road trip, dodging bullets, the law, and an overbearing mother (Close’s Cath) along the way as they attempt to heal their fractured relationship…before they kill each other.”
Barbakow would also marvel at how silly and weird the set became, even with all these esteemed actors in the cast. He told EW, “In between setups, Josh somehow commandeered a techno crane and chased Peter around with it, wearing a pink wig, voguing for the camera. Glenn was so surprising in terms of how willing she was to try things, make a fool of herself, and go there. I think she mooned all of us at a certain point. It was remarkable.”
The director also recalled the first day of filming when Brolin set the tone for the incredibly wild tone of the rest of the production. He explained, “The very first scene we shot was with the brothers in a motel room, taking turns using the shower. Josh calls me on the way to work and he’s like, ‘I think I should be in my tighty-whities in this scene. I think that would be appropriate. And I think I should be eating a nutter butter or something like that. Can we make it work?’ And Josh, I should also say, gained like 20 lbs. for this movie, so he had the perfect dad bod.”
He had summed up that the cast was “like a murderer’s row of esteemed actors who were so down to get silly and weird. It is quite a romp.”
Brothers opens in select theaters on October 10 and on Prime Video on October 17.
TV series adaptations of the George R. R. Martin stories set in the A Song of Ice and Fire universe have been a big deal for several years now, bringing shows like Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon to HBO, with more spin-offs to come. While speaking with WinterIsComing.net, Martin revealed that one of his books that’s set outside of the A Song of Ice and Fire universe that he would be excited to see get a big budget film adaptation is the 1982 vampire novel Fevre Dream – and he’s hoping Guillermo del Toro would be the director of that adaptation!
Martin said, “I love Fevre Dream, and I’ve had numerous meetings. I’ve written a screenplay for Fevre Dream, we did develop it at one point. They didn’t make the screenplay of course, but the rights reverted to me, so I own it. … I’ve had meetings with Guillermo del Toro about Fevre Dream. He loves it, he says he wants to do it…but he doesn’t want to do it now. He always has this project first and that project first, and then this other project. But eventually he’ll do Fevre Dream,if he lives that long and I live that long and movies live that long, I don’t know… I think Fevre Dream would be great.” He added that there’s a major role for a del Toro regular in there as well: “We wanna star Ron Perlman, we’ve even cast it! My friend Ron Perlman as Abner Marsh. Ron wants to do it. Everybody wants to do it, all we need is $100 million.“
As described by Winter Is Coming, Fevre Dream is a vampire novel set along the Mississippi River in the mid-1800s, which dials deep into Martin’s strengths as a horror writer. The story follows a grizzled, down-on-his-luck steamboat captain named Abner Marsh, who’s contracted by a mysterious man named Joshua York to ferry him up and down the river so that he can fulfill a secretive agenda. Marsh unwittingly becomes wrapped up in a wider world of vampiric politics, filled with twists and turns that would make any Song of Ice and Fire reader feel right at home.
Copies of the book are available at THIS LINK. It has the following official description: Abner Marsh, a struggling riverboat captain, suspects that something’s amiss when he is approached by a wealthy aristocrat with a lucrative offer. The hauntingly pale, steely-eyed Joshua York doesn’t care that the icy winter of 1857 has wiped out all but one of Marsh’s dilapidated fleet; nor does he care that he won’t earn back his investment in a decade. York’s reasons for traversing the powerful Mississippi are to be none of Marsh’s concern–no matter how bizarre, arbitrary, or capricious York’s actions may prove. Not until the maiden voyage of Fevre Dream does Marsh realize that he has joined a mission both more sinister, and perhaps more noble, than his most fantastic nightmare–and humankind’s most impossible dream.
Have you read Fevre Dream, and would you like to see George R. R. Martin and Guillermo del Toro (along with Ron Perlman) team up for a film adaptation? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.
Nineteen years after the release of the DC Comics adaptation Constantine (watch it HERE), a sequel is finally moving ahead with director Francis Lawrence back at the helm and star Keanu Reeves reprising the role of occult expert John Constantine… but it’s moving ahead slowly, because it has already been a couple of years since this project was first announced. Now it has taken a big step forward, as executive producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura revealed to ComicBook.com that the Constantine 2 script has been delivered. He just hasn’t read it yet.
The producer told ComicBook.com, “You know, (the script is) in my inbox right now. Funny enough, I’m too scared to read it, though. I want it to be good so bad. I probably read it in the next few days. When I get on an airplane.“
Scripted by Kevin Brodbin and Frank Cappello, the first Constantine had the following synopsis: As a suicide survivor, demon hunter John Constantine has literally been to hell and back — and he knows that when he dies, he’s got a one-way ticket to Satan’s realm unless he can earn enough goodwill to climb God’s stairway to heaven. While helping policewoman Angela Dodson investigate her identical twin’s apparent suicide, Constantine becomes caught up in a supernatural plot involving both demonic and angelic forces. Based on the DC/Vertigo “Hellblazer” comics. Reeves was joined in the cast by Rachel Weisz, Shia LaBeouf, Tilda Swinton, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Djimon Hounsou, Gavin Rossdale, and Peter Stormare.
Constantine producer Akiva Goldsman is writing Constantine 2 and is also producing the film with J.J. Abrams and Hannah Minghella. Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Erwin Stoff serve as executive producers.
Francis Lawrence has previously said that his biggest regret about the first Constantine was the fact that it was shot for a PG-13 rating but ended up receiving an R rating anyway. With this sequel, he intends to aim for an R rating from the start.
Are you glad to hear that the Constantine 2 script is ready for executive producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura to read, when he gets to it? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.
As Dwayne Johnson breaks from his usual big-budget blockbusters and attempts to show off his more serious side in Benny Safdie’s upcoming film, The Smashing Machine, Johnson says that Maui, his character from Moana, has a story arc in this November’s Moana 2 that helped him to reflect on his own vulnerabilities and his own insecurities. At this year’s CinemaCon, he would announce how personal this sequel was for him. “It’s so much deeper of a movie to me, and it’s so much deeper of a movie to Disney as well,” Johnson said. “We are so excited to welcome back audiences all over the world to a new adventure.”
In Entertainment Weekly‘s preview of the new Disney film, Johnson elaborates on how he reflected on himself through Maui’s journey in this new story. In the movie, Maui has to set pride aside and ask Moana for help on confronting his past, “Sometimes the hardest thing in life is to ask for help. It puts us automatically in that position of vulnerability. The idea of jumping into vulnerability isn’t necessarily always our [first choice], and it doesn’t come easy.”
He continues, “This guy is a demi-god. He can do whatever he wants, have whatever he wants, live the life. But it’s all stripped away in this one moment. He can either continue to live life how he lives, or he can strip it all away and say, ‘I really need help.’ That’s a hard thing to do — when you’re that low and you feel like you’ve fit rock bottom. It’s an important moment for people to see that you can be strong, you can be big, you can be independent, but it’s okay to ask for help. When you do finally ask for help, and you put yourself in that position of being vulnerable and being open, the universe has a way of meeting you halfway.”
The official synopsis from Disney reads, “Opening only in theaters Nov. 27, 2024, Moana 2 reunites Moana and Maui three years later for an expansive new voyage alongside a crew of unlikely seafarers. After receiving an unexpected call from her wayfinding ancestors, Moana must journey to the far seas of Oceania and into dangerous, long-lost waters for an adventure unlike anything she’s ever faced. Directed by David Derrick Jr., Jason Hand and Dana Ledoux Miller, and produced by Christina Chen and Yvett Merino, Moana 2 features music by Grammy® winners Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear, Grammy nominee Opetaia Foaʻi, and three-time Grammy winner Mark Mancina.”
Do you really wanna, do you really wanna taste it? Yes!…but why has it taken so long? It has been more than a year and a half since the first season of Peacemaker concluded, leaving fans clamoring for more. And since most of us are accustomed to one season per year, most of us were wondering just what was taking season two so long. Now that it has been announced and filming has begun, Peacemaker star John Cena wants to assure fans that there was good reason behind the break.
Speaking with Variety, John Cena said that some behind-the-scenes moves led to a delay in Peacemaker, although it will benefit the sophomore season. “What you got to understand and keep in mind is I’m the guy who plays Peacemaker. So when we come out with a show and it’s the No. 1 show on Max and, finally, we take a character who is supposed to be dead, bring Peacemaker back to life, and people enjoy the universe and want to see more of it — but then you have a shift in the structure of who is calling the shots over at DC. James and Peter actually both called me and said, ‘You know what, we want to take some time to do this right. But it’s just going to take a little time.’ So it was crazy to know we did something people want, they want more of it, let’s do it again. And everybody’s like, ‘No wait, we just got to do a few things first. And we have this whole plan, and it’s all going to work together. So if you just trust us, we’ll be okay.’ And it seems like forever ago, now that we’re filming every day, it seems like it will be just right around the corner that we’re watching Season 2.”
Not only is DC now being headed by James Gunn and Peter Safran, but the studio has undergone a much-needed rebrand that they are hoping can put them at the top of the superhero game where they always thought they should be. But worry not, as Gunn has said that transforming the DCEU into the DCU won’t be confusing…
Even with its imminent release, season two of Peacemaker won’t be launching the DCU. Instead, that honor and pressure falls on fellow TV series Creature Commandos, which will debut on December 5th on Max. After that, you can expect to see James Gunn’s Superman soar to screens on July 11th, 2025.
Are you looking forward to season two of Peacemaker? Do you think the delay ruined the momentum?
One of the best things The Pokémon Company ever did was make life-sized plushies of some of its monsters. I feel this way not because I think the plushies themselves are that practical—they’re not—but because the photoshoots the company uses to show them off are always incredible meme fodder. Who can forget the life-si…
One of the best things The Pokémon Company ever did was make life-sized plushies of some of its monsters. I feel this way not because I think the plushies themselves are that practical—they’re not—but because the photoshoots the company uses to show them off are always incredible meme fodder. Who can forget the life-si…
The video game adaptation Five Nights at Freddy’s (read our review HERE) quickly became Blumhouse Productions’ highest-grossing movie when it reached theatres and the Peacock streaming service back in October, surpassing the likes of Split, The Invisible Man, The Black Phone, M3GAN, the recent Halloween sequel trilogy, and the Paranormal Activity, Insidious, and The Purge franchises with its haul of $295 million. So, of course, there’s a sequel coming our way, aiming for a December 5, 2025 theatrical release. Returning cast member Matthew Lillard (Scream) recently revealed that filming on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 will begin in October – and now Games Radar has dug up the information that production is scheduled to take place in Louisiana from October 28, 2024 through January 31, 2025.
The project is listed on the Louisiana entertainment website under the title Music Box – and, as Games Radar notes, “a Music Box was an item first used in – you guessed it – the Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 video game to ward off the Puppet.”
Five Nights at Freddy’s stars Lillard alongside Josh Hutcherson (The Hunger Games), Mary Stuart Masterson (Benny & Joon), Elizabeth Lail (You), Piper Rubio (Holly & Ivy), and Kat Conner Sterling (A Week Away). The film follows a troubled security guard as he begins working at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. While spending his first night on the job, he realizes the night shift at Freddy’s won’t be so easy to make it through.
Stunt performers Kevin Foster (WandaVision), Jade Kindar-Martin (Interview with the Vampire), and Jess Weiss (Mayfair Witches) play the animatronics Freddy Fazbear, Bonnie, and Chica. Fans are speculating that characters called Toy Chica and Mangle might be in the sequel, but their involvement has not been confirmed.
The video game takes place in Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, a darker version of Chuck-E-Cheese, where an animatronic animal band performs kiddy songs by day, and goes on murderous rampages by night. The goal of the game is survive a night locked inside, knowing that a furry death machine might jump out of the dark at any moment.
The adaptation was originally set up at Warner Bros., where Gil Kenan (Monster House) was going to direct the film from a screenplay he was writing with Tyler Burton Smith (the Child’s Play remake). Then the project moved over to Blumhouse, where Chris Columbus (Home Alone) was attached to direct it for several years. It finally went into production with Emma Tammi – director of The Wind, Into the Dark: Delivered, and Into the Dark: Blood Moon – at the helm, working from a screenplay she wrote with Seth Cuddeback (Mateo) and video game creator Scott Cawthon. Tragedy Girls writers Tyler MacIntyre and Chris Lee Hill share story credit with Cawthon.
Five Nights at Freddy’s was produced by Blumhouse, in association with Striker Entertainment. Cawthon is a producer alongside Blumhouse founder Jason Blum. Russell Binder is executive producing. Jim Henson’s Creature Shop handled the special effects that bring the homicidal animatronic animals to life on the screen.
Are you looking forward to Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, and are you glad to hear that this sequel will be heading into production in October, with filming to continue through January? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.
Director Ridley Scott told Deadline in 2023 that he’d been offered to direct superhero movies, but that it wasn’t for him, after telling them in 2021 that modern superhero movies are “no fucking good” and “boring as shit.” He said he’d already directed at least 3 superheroes: Ellen Ripley in Alien, Rick Deckard in Blade Runner, and Maximus Decimus Meridius in Gladiator. “The difference is,” Scott said, “the f*cking stories are better.”
The case can certainly be made that Ridley Scott has brought some of the best stories to screen that we’ve ever seen, and Alien, Blade Runner, and Gladiator are among them, but what about his more modern fare? Are the stories for House of Gucci, The Last Duel, and Napoleon “better”? Ridley Scott hasn’t had a movie achieve both critical and commercial success since 2015’s The Martian, which begs the question: WTF happened to Ridley Scott? Did tragedy take his passion on an afternoon in August of 2012? Is this just a seasonal lull before his next great effort, or has the industry passed him by?
We can’t know if it’s ended without knowing how it started, so let’s start at the beginning.
Ridley Scott was born to a military family on November 30, 1937, in South Shields, England. He grew up with an older brother, Frank, and a younger brother, Tony, who followed Ridley into the directing profession and with whom Ridley forged a bond of friendship. Tony followed Ridley to the Royal College of Art and then to his commercial production company, Ridley Scott Associates (RSA). Early on, Ridley received the advice to “take no prisoners. Apologize for nothing. And be assertive.” Scott took it to heart.
Scott leveraged his commercial success to commission Gerald Vaughan-Hughes to write an adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s short story The Duel. Scott and producer David Puttman pitched it as The Duellists to Paramount and secured $800k in funding and lead actors Keith Carradine and Harvey Keitel.
2023’s Napoleon has been referred to as “Ridley Scott’s Barry Lyndon,” but he already made him in 1977. For The Duellists, he considered 1975’s Barry Lyndon an inspiration and his movie an homage. Some scenes and shots from each movie look like they could be transplanted into the other. Ridley was also inspired by Western films, particularly John Ford’s The Searchers.
As a standalone movie, critics say The Duellistspresents as methodical and intimate, if a bit uneven in its pacing and approach. It features gorgeous settings, meticulous staging, and visceral action. It would net Ridley Scott the “Best First Work” award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1977 and was nominated for the Palm d’Or, the festival’s greatest prize. Though it wasn’t a commercial success, The Duellists legitimized Ridley Scott as a film director well worth investing in.
Ridley Scott would offer a tremendous return on the investment with his next film. 1979’s Alien wasn’t the first horror science fiction, but it was perhaps the first to blend the genres so proficiently as to be considered by audiences and critics as both one of the greatest horror movies and one of the greatest science fiction movies of all time. It spawned a franchise that has persisted for over 45 years.
Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley was not the first female action hero, but Alien stands as a landmark film for depicting tough, capable women in film. Critics found Alien to be brilliantly atmospheric, legitimately scary, genuinely surprising, and truly memorable, a landmark seminal film across genres. H. R. Giger’s conception and Carlo Rambaldi’s execution of the titular Alien won them the Oscar for Visual Effects. The film was also nominated for Art Direction.
Ridley’s next project, 1982’s Blade Runner, was underappreciated upon its release, but the film has a reach far exceeding its initial reception. Few films have aged better, stylistically or thematically.
Blade Runneris, according to critics, an intriguing story wrapped in an incredible production. The movie explores the inadequacies and futility of our definition of humanity. The groundbreaking visuals and unforgettable soundtrack combine to present a mysterious, daunting look at a potential future that leaves a lasting impact on viewers. Author and philosopher Mark Rowlands called the “tears in rain” monologue “the most moving death soliloquy in cinematic history.” 2017’s Blade Runner 2049, directed by Denis Villeneuve, is a worthy successor, and it makes you wonder why Ridley’s own recent films haven’t consistently captured some of his original magic.
Scott helped introduce the Apple Macintosh into the public consciousness with a landmark Super Bowl commercial in 1984. Titled 1984and a direct invocation of George Orwell’s novel of the same name, it presents the Apple Macintosh personal computer as the redeemer against the tech establishment, then dominated by IBM. The commercial reportedly carried a budget greater than Ridley Scott’s first feature, The Duellists. 1984 would turn Apple into a household name. Apple would go on to become the biggest company in the world by many measures, and Ridley Scott’s direction was a catalyst. Ridley Scott continued to direct commercials, earning over 2000 commercial credits in his illustrious career.
Ridley Scott next directed 1985’s Legend, which is standard fantasy fare that doesn’t offer much substantive or innovative when it comes to the story. Because it’s Ridley Scott, the production design is largely unassailed by critics. The makeup and costuming for Tim Curry as Darkness stands out. Critics would say that Ridley Scott could have taken a great command of his actors’ delivery, which could have made the outlandish story and setting at least a bit sympathetic.
1987’s Someone to Watch Over Me was a distilled police thriller with romance as central to the story and also a financial flop. It’s hard to blame Ridley Scott here for the lack of success, as the depiction of Manhattan and the lead actors’ performance was well-praised.
Ridley Scott released the similarly shallow but stylish Black Rain in 1989, but this film was a box office smash, bringing in over $134M on a $30M budget. It would also earn Oscar nominations for Best Sound and Best Sound Editing. If you want a cop drama that is equally gritty, glitzy, and just SO 80s, this might be the film for you.
Scott would next direct the 1991 film, Thelma and Louise. Like Alien before it, Scott took typically male-dominated archetypes and instead presented the palpable chemistry present in the on-screen friendship born from fate. Geena Davis’ Thelma and Susan Sarandon’s Louise were universally praised for their portrayals. They were presented in a way that was rare before and even rare since, empowered by violence and in the driver’s seat of their own fates, even as they’re pursued by “the man.” Critics would praise Ridley Scott for painting the setting with an able brush. The movie was a critical and box office success, earning over $45M on a $16.5M budget. It also granted Ridley Scott his first Best Director Oscar nomination.
1992’s 1492: Conquest of Paradise isn’t as beloved, particularly because, as critics would say, it’s not a nuanced or balanced portrayal of Gérard Depardieu’s as Christopher Columbus. Because it’s Ridley Scott, the settings were praised as both grand and fitting, but the movie had a tremendous opportunity to say something and didn’t.
Scott directed 1996’s White Squall, which received mixed reviews and performed poorly at the box office. Critics called it a visceral experience, and Jeff Bridges shines in the lead role. It was released during a low season and against tough competition, and audiences were perhaps turned off by its long runtime and heavy-handed messaging. The marketing struggled to offer a selling point that worked.
Ridley Scott continued to champion strong female leads with 1997’s G.I. Jane. The film performed poorly upon release but has since garnered a cult following. According to critics, the pacing can be distractingly uneven, but the actors play off each other well, the message resonates, and Demi Moore is well-suited for the demeanor and physical presence of the lead role.
Scott returned to form with 2000’s Gladiator. It grossed a lifetime of $766M on a $103M budget. It earned Scott another Best Director nomination at the Academy Awards and won 5 Oscars, including Best Picture. It speaks to Gladiator’s longevity and impact that a 2022 re-release exclusive to the United Kingdom grossed nearly $40M.
Ridley Scott’s craft shines throughout Gladiator, as he proficiently transports the viewer into Ancient Rome and, according to critics, gets star-making performances out of Russell Crowe and Joaquin Phoenix. The action, the set pieces, and the intimate moments all approach perfection in a film that is as engaging as it is meticulously executed.
Anticipation and excitement for a sequel to Jonathan Demme’s 1991 masterpiece The Silence of the Lambs bore fruit for Ridley Scott’s next project, the 2001 sequel Hannibal. It grossed over $350M on an $87M budget. Critics were less kind than audiences, citing the film’s inability to stand alone, as it lacks the subtlety and the chemistry between Anthony Hopkins’ Hannibal Lecter and Jodie Foster’s Clarice Starling that helped make the initial entry so beloved. Instead, Hannibal leans more into camp and gore, with mixed results.
Scott continued his string of hits with 2001’s Black Hawk Down, which earned $212M at the box office on a $92M budget and earned him his third Best Director Oscar nomination. The film was praised for its tight action and its modern depiction of warfare. Black Hawk Down isn’t perfect (many of the characters are either empty or a caricature), but it grabs you and never lets you go.
Ridley Scott’s next project was 2003’s Matchstick Men. Well-received by critics, it faced stiff competition at the box office, including the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, Finding Nemo, and The Matrix Revolutions. Critics found it easy to get into Matchstick Men’s characters due to the performances Ridley Scott was able to get out of Nicolas Cage, Sam Rockwell, and Alison Lohman. The film competently oscillates between multiple genres, from black comedy to crime drama. It’s enjoyable without asking too much of the viewing audience.
With 2005’s Kingdom of Heaven, Ridley Scott took on a risky subject matter and delivered his usual grand spectacle. Though the movie underperformed in the United States, it found its audience in Europe. Critics would say the battle scenes stand up to Scott’s best, but Orlando Bloom’s leading performance underwhelmed, the movie suffers from distracting lulls, and it misses an opportunity to make a larger statement on its themes.
Scott would next collaborate with Russell Crowe for the second time in 2006’s A Good Year. Unfortunately, critics would find both Scott and Crowe poorly suited for the romantic comedy, and this was reflected in its critical and commercial success. Scott presents the film with his usual visual flair, but the film’s predictable plot discourages investment.
2007’s American Gangster is worth investing in. Critics found it to be respectful to the gangster movies that proceed with it, while presenting an intelligence and lead performance by Denzel Washington compares favorably to any of them. The rivalry and moral contrast between Washington’s Frank Lucas and Russell Crowe’s Richie Roberts focus the film. One of the few criticisms of the film is that Washington comes across as too likable for a ruthless criminal. American Gangster is tightly produced and paced, drawing you into its world as few movies do.
Ridley Scott next directed 2008’s Body of Lies. Despite Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe in top billing, the movie failed to resonate with critics or audiences. Audiences had begun to sour on the film’s “spy vs terrorist organization” premise, which the movie underexplored, instead relying on cliché approaches to telling the story. Critics would say that Crowe underperformed in his role, and the movie is often predictable. It doesn’t lack for spectacle, but it does lack much of a point.
Scott and Crowe returned to the big screen in 2010 with Robin Hood. It made $322M at the box office, but it barely broke even with a massive $200M production budget. Critics said the movie offers an original take on the titular character, but the overarching narrative has been told before and since. Scott delivers the violence with a deft hand but doesn’t offer the pure enjoyment of some of his other offerings.
June 2012 saw the release of Ridley Scott’s Prometheus, a prequel to Alien. It was praised as a visually stunning movie that, unfortunately, affected major implications for the Alien cinematic universe that not all fans appreciated. It probably would have been fine if it wasn’t an Alien movie. But it is! So, it sucks. It didn’t suck at the box office, raking in over $400M. Apart from the visuals, much of the movie comes off as underdeveloped, such as the inconsistent script and unlikable characters. But primarily the forced connection to the Alien franchise alienated some film fans.
In August of 2012, Ridley Scott was on the phone with his brother and business partner Tony Scott, a fantastic director in his own right, who directed back-to-back hits Top Gunand Beverly Hills Cop IIand the fantastic True Romance and Crimson Tide. The treatment for and ravages of Tony’s third cancer diagnosis had left him unable to do what he loved, to create consistently and especially to mountain and rock climb, a practice that helped motivate and focus him. In 2023, Ridley recounted climbing with Tony in their youth, losing his footing, and his younger brother repeatedly telling him, “I got you.” On the phone call, Ridley noticed a somber tone in his brother’s voice and worked to encourage him by suggesting projects for him. What Ridley didn’t know is that, immediately after hanging up the call, Tony would take his own life.
The world lost an influential director that day, and I think Ridley Scott lost a piece of himself. Remembering his brother in 2014, Ridley told Variety of Tony’s “inexplicable” passing, “I miss a friend.” Not a brother, not a business partner, a friend.
Ridley Scott’s next directorial effort was The Counselor in 2013. For this era of Scott, it ran a low budget, at a lean $25M. I would think most of that went to the loaded cast featuring Javier Bardem, Penélope Cruz, Cameron Diaz, Michael Fassbender, and Brad Pitt. Scott blames the marketing for the movie’s poor performance, but critics blame it on uneven execution and tone, overreliance on extended dialogue and on the source material, and a lack of originality.
Movies based on biblical stories can tend to do better at the box office than with critics, and 2014’s Exodus: Gods and Kings is no exception. It earned back its massive budget and presents a brilliantly realized Ancient Egypt. Critics said it just struggled to justify the retelling of an age-old story or to give audiences someone to root for absent the established context.
Ridley Scott’s latest great movie was 2015’s The Martian. Critics praised it as epic yet intimate, successfully wrapping the mundane with the spectacular, balancing bleakness with humor, especially from Matt Damon’s Mark Watney. The escalation to the climax is earned and the climax itself is brilliantly presented. It grossed $631M on a $108M budget, was nominated for 7 Oscars, including Best Picture, and stands as a true win for Ridley Scott during a trying time in his life.
Like Prometheus before it, 2017’s Alien: Covenant probably bothered fans of the first two Alienfilms more than anyone else. It ignored some of their conventions and tried to introduce unwelcome new ones. Critics found that, somehow, the Androids are the only compelling characters, but the action and visuals are well-executed.
All the Money in the World didn’t make “All the Money in the World” – $57M worldwide box office against a $50M production budget –but critics adored it, especially Christopher Plummer’s performance, with some implying that it worked because Ridley Scott got out of the way of the performances and script. How they could possibly know that is beyond me.
The Last Duel in 2021 was similarly a financial flop – earning $30M on a $100M budget – and a critical success. Critics would praise the cast that lives up to their billing, even if it feels like Ben Affleck is playing himself. It would be easy to say this movie is what would happen. The Duellists took place 400 years earlier and were produced 45 years later, but the core grievance is a much more substantial one, so the violence isn’t as futile. The film offers a welcome focus on the women whose fates are dictated by the brutality and stubbornness of men, especially Jodie Comer’s Marguerite de Carrouges. The movie can be a slog, but the titular duel is a testament to Ridley Scott’s craft, beautiful and elegant, brutal and epic.
Ridley Scott blamed millennials for The Last Duel’s lack of financial success, but it was more likely down to the market climate, the marketing, or the movie itself. It’s extremely dark, not just literally, but thematically, with graphic depictions of sexual and physical violence, and maybe that’s not what most audience members were looking for, in the middle of a “global pandemic”.
House of Guccisaw moderate success and was met with mixed reviews. Adam Driver and Lady Gaga’s performances and chemistry were praised, and some critics liked the shifts between melodrama and classic drama. In contrast, some considered the film disjointed tonally and inadequate on both fronts.
Ridley Scott’s 2023 epic Napoleon couldn’t make back its $200 production budget. Critics would praise the spectacle, action, and world-building. Reviews of Joaquin Phoenix’s performance were mixed at best, and the movie compared unfavorably to other biopics, with its detached story that lacks a true soul. Scott would say to critics of the film’s historical inaccuracies, “Were you there? No. Well, shut the fuck up, then.”
In many ways, Napoleon Bonaparte parallels Ridley Scott, from their rapid ascent to their, at times, irrational confidence, especially to make something out of nothing. Scott admits that he makes hasty, seemingly random decisions. They’re both tough to pin down, with Scott expressing diverse themes and styles in his movies that span nearly every genre. Scott’s sets have been described as militaristic, and he firmly believes that there needs to be one definitive voice commanding the effort.
All these years and movies later, Ridley Scott still says, “I love the physicality of the job.” Even if his recent failures outweigh his recent successes, his resume and don’t give a f*ck attitude command respect. Many criticisms of his less-successful films come down to issues with writing rather than direction, and often, box office success comes down to marketing and timing. Should he have been more discerning? Is, as Shakespeare writes, discretion the better part of valor?
Furthermore, is directing, as Quentin Tarantino says, “A young man’s game”? Or, as Ridley Scott pushes 90 and his director credits eclipse 30, not to mention his 100s of Producer credits and over 2000 commercials, are there still great movies on the horizon for him? I certainly hope so, starting with Gladiator 2 in November of 2024.
Although he’s predominantly played comedic characters in some fairly light-hearted films, Dave Bautista is taking his crossover into movies seriously. The muscular star, who is one of the few truly successful wrestler-turned-actors, has a new action-comedy coming out with J.J. Perry’s The Killer’s Game, in which he takes on a bevy of hitmen looking to close on a price on his head. While he remained bulked up for the film, fans may be noticing how slimmer and trimmer the former WWE and Guardians of the Galaxy star is looking while on press tour and for the premiere.
According to Variety, Bautista is strategically trimming down in order to play more diverse roles in his career going forward. He explains, “I started trimming down because I got really big for a role. Uncomfortably big. For Knock at the Cabin I got really big. I was around 315 pounds…I put the weight on really fast and I put on an uncomfortable amount of weight and it took forever to shed it out.” He continues, “The more I trimmed down the better I looked on camera and the better I looked next to other actors. I’m still a large human being. At 6’4 and 240 pounds next to your typical actor, I look like a gorilla and it’s distracting. I’ll probably lose a few more pounds. I’m just killing myself to be this trim. I’m training hard.”
Recently, Bautista spoke about how he never gets offered against-type roles like a romantic lead, and after he addressed that aspect of his career, the universe would answer back. At the Los Angeles premiere of The Killer’s Game, he found himself surprised when he said his comments “sparked quite a conversation, but I started getting a lot of phone calls after that.” He continues, “I said that and started getting calls immediately. So we’ve got a couple that we’re developing that are actually really funny.” Finally, he said he’s “making his way there, like a full-on rom-com. Not like an action rom-com, a full-on rom-com.”
The synopsis of The Killer’s Game reads, “In the new action-comedy THE KILLER’S GAME, when top hitman Joe Flood (Dave Bautista) is diagnosed with a terminal illness, he decides to take matters into his own hands – by taking a hit out on himself. But when the very hitmen he hired also target his ex-girlfriend (Sofia Boutella), he must fend off an army of assassin colleagues and win back the love of his life before it’s too late.”
