It should come as no surprise that Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero is chock-full of easter eggs and fun references. A few of the more subtle examples can be found in the scant special throws available—these feature more cinematic animations and potentially different combo extensions, but just like the special finishers,…
Dragon Age: The Veilguard has a ton of side quests throughout its multiple hub worlds, but one stands apart as probably the most important in the game, if not the entirety of BioWare’s fantasy RPG series. If you’re concerned about spoilers, don’t worry, we won’t get into them here. This is just a PSA to everyone…
Dragon Age: The Veilguard has a ton of side quests throughout its multiple hub worlds, but one stands apart as probably the most important in the game, if not the entirety of BioWare’s fantasy RPG series. If you’re concerned about spoilers, don’t worry, we won’t get into them here. This is just a PSA to everyone…
Skeleton Crew never say die! At least, that’s what the inspiration behind the new Disney+ series from Lucasfilm seems to be. According to executive producer Jon Favreau, Skeleton Crew took its cue from famous ‘80s coming-of-age favorites, particularly those produced by Steven Spielberg and his Amblin company. A new trailer for Skeleton Crew has just been released by Disney+. A glimpse of a suburban setting, a school, and the upbeat trailer song really drives home the “family adventure” tone for this show. Favreau and Spider-Man: No Way Home director Jon Watts also use the classic mystery and exploration tropes in this Star Wars galaxy. The latest live-action series will premiere on Disney+ on December 3.
The official synopsis for Star Wars: Skeleton Crew reads: “When four kids make a mysterious discovery on their seemingly safe home planet, they get lost in a strange and dangerous galaxy. Finding their way home, meeting unlikely allies and enemies will be a greater adventure than they ever imagined.”
Skeleton Crew also has Jude Law joining the Star Wars universe. The Closer and The Grand Budapest Hotel actor will be playing Jod Na Nawood, a human Jedi who helps the kids (Neel, Fern, Wim, and KB) navigate a complicated world during destructive times. Joining Law for the adventure are Ravi Cabot-Conyers (Wim), Kyriana Kratter (KB), Robert Timothy Smith (Neel), and Ryan Kiera Armstrong (Fern).
When asked to describe the upcoming series, Law told People that Star Wars: Skeleton Crew is “joyful.” He says audiences will enjoy watching the kids get into mischief while approaching places in the Star Wars Universe they should not be. “It is a fun place to be, the universe of Star Wars,” Law said, smiling. “And there are great references to old films and recent episodes and series. There’s a lot of originality and I hope that will bring the feeling of fun to those who watch it.”
Speaking on why he decided to finally join the Star Wars force, so to speak, Jude Law said it took a lot of contemplation because of the scale of the series. “I don’t think I would have dived in willy-nilly. I wanted it to be right. I didn’t want to be the guy that dropped the ball on Star Wars.” Law said there were plenty of challenges in bringing it to the screen. “It’s technically complicated to get those things right — you’re dealing with animatronics and puppets and machines and huge, complicated worlds. I’m the guy that wants to see how the wizard does it.” He, too, got to see how the cinematographer worked in a way like he has never seen before, which further alllwed himself to be immersed in the saga. “There are certain shots they don’t allow you to do if you’re the director. You can’t pass through the glass of the spaceship; you have to stay on the outside or inside. I love that. You see the shot and go, ‘Oh, I’m in Star Wars.”
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PLOT: The events and people who occupy a single spot of land are followed from pre-history to 2024.
REVIEW: Robert Zemeckis is a director who’s always been well ahead of the industry regarding technical innovation. Many of his movies, including Back to the Future, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and, yes, even Forrest Gump, are classics. With Here, he once again tries to innovate, with a static shot of a single spot of land being followed from the dinosaur era to today. Most of the film revolves around the inhabitants of a colonial home built for the son of Benjamin Franklin. Eventually, it is occupied by many different families, with the most significant emphasis being placed on the Young Family.
It’s here that Zemeckis once again tries to innovate in terms of VFX. He uses AI-enhanced de-aging technology to depict about eighty years in the life of this family, with Paul Bettany, Kelly Reilly, Tom Hanks, and Robin Wright all playing their characters at various stages in their lives.
The saga of the Young Family initially starts off as somewhat stilted and frustrating, with Bettany’s Al an alcoholic war veteran who – while well-meaning – is so unhappy that no one in his orbit seems capable of fulfilling themselves. His son, Richard, who’s played by Hanks from age 18 to 80, is utterly unable ever to leave the family nest behind, even once he starts a family of his own with his wife Margaret (Robin Wright), whose dissatisfaction eventually leads to deep fissures in their marriage.
Here, which is adapted from Richard McGuire’s graphic novel by Zemeckis and his Forrest Gump collaborator Eric Roth, tries to tell us a deeply human story about the changing dynamics of a family in crisis. But it’s too scattershot ever to be truly effective. The chunks of the story focused on Hanks and Wright are affecting, thanks both to their superb chemistry and performances, but they have to compete with other storylines from different eras, none of which can really hold our attention. A chapter involving an inventor (David Flynn) and his wife (Ophelia Lovibond) is mainly played as a screwball comedy, while a chunk involving Benjamin Franklin feels like a reject from Hulu’s awful History of the World Part 2. It detracts from the premise more than enhances it. The entire movie should have been devoted to the Young Family.
As for the much talked about AI de-aging, it’s a mixed bag. Certainly, the de-aging here is far better than we’ve seen in anything else, including Scorsese’s The Irishman, and in long shots, the results are striking. At times, Hanks looks like he has just walked off the set of Bosom Buddies. But, in close-up, the CGI suffers from the same dead-eye uncanny valley effect we’ve seen repeatedly in films of this ilk. It should have been used more sparingly, even on Paul Bettany and Kelly Reilly, to make them look like they’re in their twenties. Both are young enough that a bit of makeup would have been enough to do a more convincing job than the CGI.
Overall, I’d say that about forty minutes of this 100-minute movie really work. At his best, Zemeckis is still able to tell a solid story, even if his needle drops, as always, are a little too on the nose (using “Our House” by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young is way too obvious). As it is, the movie is too scattershot to work, with many of the sequences not involving Hanks and Wright falling flat or feeling tacked on. It’s an interesting experiment, and with a tighter, more disciplined focus, it might have really been something.
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Once upon a time, there was talk of HBO’s hit Game of Thrones series concluding with a trilogy of movies instead of its ultimately ill-fated eighth season. It sounds like Warner Bros. is now revisiting the prospect of some kind of film adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s books, even if the project is still in the…
Once upon a time, there was talk of HBO’s hit Game of Thrones series concluding with a trilogy of movies instead of its ultimately ill-fated eighth season. It sounds like Warner Bros. is now revisiting the prospect of some kind of film adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s books, even if the project is still in the…
Disney was in a strange place in the mid-eighties. The younger audiences that were once their bread and butter were tired of the old Disney fare, with many of them thinking their movies were “for babies.” Indeed, the success of Star Wars had changed the game, as family-friendly fantasy – with an edge – was all the rage at the big studios, and Disney was still stuck producing antiquated G-movies like Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo. They tried to make their own Star Wars-style movie with The Black Hole, as well as a James Bond-style action movie with Condorman, but neither were successful. Their big SFX-driven extravaganza, Tron, was too costly to turn a profit, so Disney dipped their toe into darker fare, such as Something Wicked This Way Comes, and the movie we’re highlighting in this edition of Fantasizing About Fantasy Films, Return to Oz.
To be sure, Disney had nothing to do with the original film version of The Wizard of Oz, but they were able to obtain the rights to the novels by L. Frank Baum. Rather than remake The Wizard of Oz, they opted to adapt one of the sequel novels, Ozma of Oz, albeit with a much harder edge than was found in the Judy Garland original. Disney wanted to be provocative, so Return to Oz had twisted visuals and a darker tone, but in the end, audiences still stayed away, and it became a costly flop.
However, in the years since its release Return to Oz has become a major cult film, especially for those who grew up in the eighties. In this episode of Fantasizing About Fantasy Films, our own Jessica Dwyer takes a deep dive into a film she considers one of the pivotal fantasy films of its era.
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About a year and half ago, it was announced that The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman will be producing a remake of the 1956 horror film The Mole People (watch it HERE) for Universal Pictures… and while we wait for further updates on that project, Deadline has revealed that there’s a different “mole people” project coming our way from Rob Savage, the director of the Stephen King adaptation The Boogeyman and the screen life horror films Host and Dashcam. This one is called Molepeople and has Anthony Ramos (Twisters) and Ben Mendelsohn (Animal Kingdom) attached to star in it.
Described as telling the story of one man’s nightmarish descent into the abandoned tunnels beneath the streets of New York City, where a twisted society lurks, Molepeople brings to mind not only The Mole People but also the 1984 film C.H.U.D., which involved people living in the tunnels beneath NYC, and the 1972 film Death Line (a.k.a. Raw Meat), which explored the tunnels under London. Savage will be directing this film from an original screenplay by Nathan Elston (Succession). Details on the characters Ramos and Mendelsohn will be playing haven’t been revealed.
Raphael Margules and J.D Lifshitz of BoulderLight Pictures are producing Molepeople with Rough House Pictures. Embankment Films is handling international sales and CAA Media Finance, Range, and WME will co-represent North American distribution rights at the upcoming American Film Market.
Embankment’s Hugo Grumbar provided the following statement: “Molepeople fuels a modern audience with shocks and thrills, captivating, heightened feelings of fear. Rob’s direction is stylish; BoulderLight’s understanding of modern audiences is unmatched – and together the filmmakers are best in class.“
Margules and Lifshitz added: “There’s something uniquely terrifying about urban isolation – the idea that in one of the world’s busiest cities, you could vanish without a trace. With Anthony Ramos – who’s quickly becoming one of Hollywood’s most commanding leading men – alongside the legendary Ben Mendelsohn, we have the perfect contemporary combination to bring this nightmare to life.“
Does Molepeople sound interesting to you? What do you think of the fact that there are currently two separate mole people projects in the works? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
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Remember those classic Christmas music compilation album commercials of yesteryear? The medley of Christmas songs in those commercials would jumpstart your holiday spirit and prepare you for the yuletide season. Now, Netflix has released a parody of the nostalgic commercials with a twist, in which they promote their upcoming slate of releases for the next two months to celebrate the jolly end of the year. The parody features their stars, including Lindsay Lohan and Lacey Chabert. Head over to the streamer’s Tudum site for a more comprehensive list of their releases.
However you celebrate, the holidays start on Netflix. And this year, they’re bigger than ever. Whether it’s watching heartwarming holiday rom-coms like The Merry Gentlemen, Our Little Secret, Meet Me Next Christmas and Hot Frosty with friends and wine, or holiday animation like Spellbound and That Christmas while snuggling with the kids by the fire, we’ve got you covered. We even have the Christmas Eve set thrillers Carry-On and Black Doves for the adrenaline junkies.
And it doesn’t stop there. We have two Christmas Day NFL Games to get your live sports fix, a cozy new holiday game, A Virgin River Christmas, and please, please, please enjoy your new favorite holiday variety music special A Nonsense Christmas with Sabrina Carpenter. When you’ve maxed out on eggnog and are looking for the ultimate dead-week binge, let the games begin with season 2 of our Most Popular series of all time, Squid Game, or curl up on the couch with season 6 of Virgin River.
From onscreen to under the tree, we’ve also got the perfect gifts for the Netflix megafan in your life. Help bring The Ton to life with The Official Bridgerton Cookbook, the Bridgerton x Williams Sonoma hosting collection, or tickets to experience the iconic soundtrack IRL at the sensational Bridgerton Candlelight concert. Cheers your favorite player with a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black Label Squid Game Edition or gift your favorite New Yorker tickets to Squid Game: The Experience. Bring The Upside Down inside with the Polly Pocket x Stranger Things compact playset or a Demogorgon Squishmallow. Countdown to Christmas with the Netflix Collectibles Advent Calendar. Check out Netflix.Shop for even more.
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