King Kong ain’t got nothin’ on Denzel! But maybe The Bone Collector does…Denzel Washington has had one hell of a movie career, breaking out in the ‘80s and soon becoming one of the few Black actors to win an Academy Award at the time. But before he would become the first Black actor to win two Oscars, Denzel Washington had to go through some true crap. But that’s not us talking, that’s Denzel himself.

Speaking with The Times, Denzel Washington admitted that he spent a lot of the ‘90s making movies for the paycheck. “After Malcolm X I made some real clunkers. Look them up — I won’t say their names…They are all in the 1990s. But I was earning. I had responsibilities.” Denzel may not want to list any particular titles, but we can imagine the list includes The Pelican Brief, Virtuosity, Fallen, The Bone Collector, and a few others.

We all know Denzel Washington takes his craft seriously, but we also can’t blame him for doing those paycheck movies. After all, that’s kind of part of the business. “In life, you learn, earn and then you return — as in give back. So if your life is 90 years long, up until 30 you learn and from 30 to 60 you earn. So in that era I was earning. With a great agent, my career built into making money and so the earning kicked in and then life also kicked in, with bills, four kids and a house …”

It can’t be denied that Denzel Washington led plenty of bad movies in the ‘90s, but he might be acting a bit too hard on himself, as there was still plenty of strong work in the ‘90s: Philadelphia, Crimson Tide, Courage Under Fire, He Got Game, etc.

Whatever Denzel Washington thinks of certain eras of his career, one he is putting serious attention on is the current one, as he has pointed to his retirement after just a handful more movies, all of which sound like must-sees, including Spike Lee’s remake of High and Low, a collaboration with Steve McQueen and a third Black Panther, for which Denzel says Ryan Coogler specifically wrote a part for him.

What is your favorite Denzel Washington movie? What was his strongest decade?

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SPOILER WARNING: This article will contain some spoilers for Gladiator II, particularly in how it may set up Gladiator III.

It’s no surprise that Ridley Scott plans to give Gladiator II a director’s cut. Nor is it a shock that he wants to expand on the universe even further with a Gladiator III. But what might be is the inspiration behind the future of the films, as Scott is looking towards one of the greatest trilogies ever.

For Gladiator III – which we should note hasn’t officially been greenlit – Ridley Scott is taking inspiration from Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather saga, particularly as it relates to the central character’s arc. As he told The Hollywood Reporter. “There’s already an idea. I always had this idea that The Godfather ends with Michael not wanting the job. He sits there, and there’s this push-in on Al. He’s already had his hand kissed. He’s betrayed his wife with lies. [Lucius] isn’t quite that evil at all. He’s wondering, ‘Father, what do I do?’ Paul not wanting the job is a good place to start.”

For his part, Paul Mescal – who plays Lucius, son to murdered father Maximus – has said he is “massively down” for a Gladiator III but hopes it won’t be another quarter-century until we get it. And with Ridley Scott at 86 right now, he definitely won’t have time to let his plans for Gladiator III sit.

While we wait for the final box office numbers to come in, Gladiator II is tracking around $60 million, which would be well over what 2000’s Gladiator made on opening weekend. With that, we can probably expect the sequel to fare better at the overall box office as well despite the original pulling in over $450 million worldwide. With numbers like that, a Gladiator III does seem like a given, especially with how Gladiator II ended. Scott even said that he had to keep Lucius alive and kill off his mother Lucilla (Connie Nielsen) to help develop the character, suggesting it will help propel actions for another film.

Did you see Gladiator II on opening weekend? Do you see potential in a Gladiator III? Let us know below!

The post Ridley Scott says The Godfather trilogy is inspiring Gladiator III appeared first on JoBlo.

SPOILER WARNING: This article will contain some spoilers for Gladiator II, particularly in how it may set up Gladiator III.

It’s no surprise that Ridley Scott plans to give Gladiator II a director’s cut. Nor is it a shock that he wants to expand on the universe even further with a Gladiator III. But what might be is the inspiration behind the future of the films, as Scott is looking towards one of the greatest trilogies ever.

For Gladiator III – which we should note hasn’t officially been greenlit – Ridley Scott is taking inspiration from Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather saga, particularly as it relates to the central character’s arc. As he told The Hollywood Reporter. “There’s already an idea. I always had this idea that The Godfather ends with Michael not wanting the job. He sits there, and there’s this push-in on Al. He’s already had his hand kissed. He’s betrayed his wife with lies. [Lucius] isn’t quite that evil at all. He’s wondering, ‘Father, what do I do?’ Paul not wanting the job is a good place to start.”

For his part, Paul Mescal – who plays Lucius, son to murdered father Maximus – has said he is “massively down” for a Gladiator III but hopes it won’t be another quarter-century until we get it. And with Ridley Scott at 86 right now, he definitely won’t have time to let his plans for Gladiator III sit.

While we wait for the final box office numbers to come in, Gladiator II is tracking around $60 million, which would be well over what 2000’s Gladiator made on opening weekend. With that, we can probably expect the sequel to fare better at the overall box office as well despite the original pulling in over $450 million worldwide. With numbers like that, a Gladiator III does seem like a given, especially with how Gladiator II ended. Scott even said that he had to keep Lucius alive and kill off his mother Lucilla (Connie Nielsen) to help develop the character, suggesting it will help propel actions for another film.

Did you see Gladiator II on opening weekend? Do you see potential in a Gladiator III? Let us know below!

The post Ridley Scott says The Godfather trilogy is inspiring Gladiator III appeared first on JoBlo.

Recently, I had the great pleasure of talking with the legendary Ron Perlman, who has two movies open at the moment – Absolution with Liam Neeson and Day of the Fight, co-starring Michael Pitt and Joe Pesci (that one comes out soon, and we’ll have loads of interviews in the lead-up). While teasing his new films, Perlman, a great guy, was thrilled when I brought up the fact that, when I was in high school here in Montreal, our history teacher used to show us Quest for Fire to teach us about early man.

Made in 1981, this movie happened to be Perlman’s first, and in it he plays Amoukar, one of a tribe of cavemen sent to find fire, as they do not have the knowledge needed to create fire themselves. Shot entirely without conventional dialogue, Quest for Fire is an amazing movie that’s ripe for rediscovery, and Perlman was happy to give us a little insight in to the making of the film.

“What is extraordinary about the making of that film comes down to one human being, Jean- Jacques Annaud,” said Perlman, “who got the itch to identify what things might be like in this very pivotal moment of our evolution where the Cro-Magnon was turning into the Neanderthal, and it’s right at that at that juncture so that we are going from a kind of good luck situation where, you know,  thank God we have some fire to cook our food and keep us warm to like, oh, wow, we can now make fire.”

Perlman continues: “That was the juncture that he became obsessed with. And then once he decided that that was the story he wanted to tell, he assembled the greatest people on earth. People who were able to take the biggest guess as to what exactly behaviorally and humanly that might have looked like. So we had Desmond Morris, who is the number one anthropologist at the time we had Anthony Burgess, who was the number one linguist at the time, and we had an assemblage of really great minds.”

When I told him that I thought the film held up pretty brilliantly forty-three years later, he said “this is all completely due to Jean-Jacques and his approach to like, if I’m going to do this, I want to do this in a way that is as authentic as it can be given the information we have in hand.”

Quest for Fire is currently streaming on Prime Video. Absolution is now available on VOD (read our review and check out our Liam Neeson interview), and Day of the Fight hits theaters on December 6th. 

The post Quest for Fire: Ron Perlman looks back at his first film appeared first on JoBlo.

Recently, I had the great pleasure of talking with the legendary Ron Perlman, who has two movies open at the moment – Absolution with Liam Neeson and Day of the Fight, co-starring Michael Pitt and Joe Pesci (that one comes out soon, and we’ll have loads of interviews in the lead-up). While teasing his new films, Perlman, a great guy, was thrilled when I brought up the fact that, when I was in high school here in Montreal, our history teacher used to show us Quest for Fire to teach us about early man.

Made in 1981, this movie happened to be Perlman’s first, and in it he plays Amoukar, one of a tribe of cavemen sent to find fire, as they do not have the knowledge needed to create fire themselves. Shot entirely without conventional dialogue, Quest for Fire is an amazing movie that’s ripe for rediscovery, and Perlman was happy to give us a little insight in to the making of the film.

“What is extraordinary about the making of that film comes down to one human being, Jean- Jacques Annaud,” said Perlman, “who got the itch to identify what things might be like in this very pivotal moment of our evolution where the Cro-Magnon was turning into the Neanderthal, and it’s right at that at that juncture so that we are going from a kind of good luck situation where, you know,  thank God we have some fire to cook our food and keep us warm to like, oh, wow, we can now make fire.”

Perlman continues: “That was the juncture that he became obsessed with. And then once he decided that that was the story he wanted to tell, he assembled the greatest people on earth. People who were able to take the biggest guess as to what exactly behaviorally and humanly that might have looked like. So we had Desmond Morris, who is the number one anthropologist at the time we had Anthony Burgess, who was the number one linguist at the time, and we had an assemblage of really great minds.”

When I told him that I thought the film held up pretty brilliantly forty-three years later, he said “this is all completely due to Jean-Jacques and his approach to like, if I’m going to do this, I want to do this in a way that is as authentic as it can be given the information we have in hand.”

Quest for Fire is currently streaming on Prime Video. Absolution is now available on VOD (read our review and check out our Liam Neeson interview), and Day of the Fight hits theaters on December 6th. 

The post Quest for Fire: Ron Perlman looks back at his first film appeared first on JoBlo.

If there’s one thing that Hollywood can’t help themselves following: it’s trends. As soon as something is popular, they want to milk it for all its worth. That’s why, after The Penguin‘s success, the focus is on more Penguin versus just doing another spinoff in the Batman world. And when those execs start to complain about “Penguin fatigue” they’ll have no one to blame except themselves. There’s another trend going on right now and that’s popular horror films being adapted into television shows. The Creep Files was recently released to Shudder, and it got me thinking about other horror franchises that could thrive on television. And clearly, I’m not the only one.

Recently it was announced that Mike Flanagan would be making a Carrie TV show. But that’s far from the only thing in development. Javier Bardem is set to play Max Cady in a Cape Fear TV series, A24 has been developing Crystal Lake (the Friday the 13th prequel series) for years, and even Pennywise is making the jump to television with Welcome to Derry. And these aren’t just low-budget, cheap adaptations. Bardem is an A-list actor and Bill Skarsgaard is actually reprising his role of Pennywise. This is a far cry from the days of the Friday the 13th series, which had no real connection to the Voorhees slasher series outside of crew. Hell, we’re getting an Alien series from Fargo showrunner Noah Hawley!

But with those series already in production, what other horror franchises/films would work well on television? We’ve seen Chucky and Ash vs Evil Dead prove that you don’t even have to start over, you can just continue the same canon. I dove into the depths of the horror world to try and come up with some fun ones so let’s get started!

A Nightmare on Elm Street

Last weekend I got into why I feel like A Nightmare On Elm Street is absolutely perfect for television. Check that out if you want even more detail but long story short, Elm Street has the most potential of any series. You can tell a multi-season story arc a la Stranger Things or you can even do an anthology series, with Freddy haunting the nightmares of different characters in each episode.

Predator

With Alien coming to TV in 2025, I’d say it’s also time to see the Predator come to the small screen. The Predator species is so interesting because their sole purpose to hunt and challenge themselves. They explore the universe to find prey, which means the possibilities are limitless with what to do with them. Dan Tratchenberg is exploring this a bit in cinema, taking a look at a different time period and set of humans in his Predator films, so taking this concept to television isn’t too out of the norm. Put it on various Alien worlds, with some Earth appearances every now and then. The Predator series has proven to be quite versatile despite its simplicity.

Underworld

More of the action/horror variety, the Underworld franchise has really struggled with what to do with its narrative. I’d argue one of the biggest issues is that they tried to do too much with it. Taking it to television will allow it to focus on a more grounded look at the vampire/werewolf feud. The lower budget would mean they have to get creative with the usage of the Werewolves (I’d recommend taking a look at Werewolves as an example of how to do things right).

Hellboy

The recently released Hellboy: The Crooked Man showed us that Hellboy can be done on a budget. And anyone who’s read the graphic novels knows that he has many grounded stories that can be done for much cheaper than the GDT films would have you believe. Like the Crooked Man, this can simply be a detective series involving Hellboy. One of the greatest appeals about Hellboy is the characterization of the lead, so you can put him up against all sorts of creatures of the week and it’s sure to be entertaining. He’s not the Chosen One, he’s simply a monster from Hell, whose only place on earth is to help take out monsters. His loneliness can be explored in more long-form content and would allow the audience more human moments with a very larger-than-life character.

Candyman

This may be a sore subject with the recent passing of Tony Todd, but I’ve always felt the Candyman series was better than the whole of its parts have let on. While the first is an incredible take on the legend of Candyman, the sequels are more-or-less silly slasher films. And what makes the first so great is it’s a journey film for Virginia Madsen’s Helen Lyle. She investigates the legend of Candyman before being put in his sights. With how supernatural he is, there isn’t a concern about police involvement ruining the logic of the world (meanwhile a slasher spread throughout a season is likely to get the FBI called in). We can just watch a slow descent into madness as Candyman obsesses over some poor woman.

What Horror Films/Franchises do YOU think should come to Television? WHY do you think they’d work so well in the format? Let us know in the comments!

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The buzz has been steadily rising the last few weeks for Jon M. Chu’s Wicked Part I, the long-anticipated big-screen adaptation of the hit Broadway show. In our weekly box office predictions column, we forecast the movie opening to $120 million, and the film opened just a little bit below that, with an estimated $114 million weekend. That makes it only the fourth film this year to open north of $100 million, and positions it well to keep earning big bucks over the upcoming holiday weekend. While it will see big competition from Moana 2, I expect Wicked to show big staying power, with it possible that the movie will end its domestic run north of $300 million, which is a significant number. While I was wary of it, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it (read my review), and audiences seem to agree, earning an A CinemaScore rating. 

By contrast, Gladiator II opened slightly above our predictions, with an estimated $55.5 million weekend, a solid (if unspectacular) debut for an R-rated historical drama. It marks Ridley Scott’s second biggest domestic opening, below 2001’s Hannibal, which opened with $58 million. It’s co-star Denzel Washington’s biggest opener ever, with it beating his last collaboration with Ridley Scott, American Gangster, which opened with $43 million. 

Given the opening, whether or not we ever get a Gladiator III likely depends on how it performs domestically over the next few weeks, and how good the international box office take is. The $55 million opening is good, but whether or not it earns enough money to justify another film remains to be seen. The CinemaScore is B, which is decent, but again – unspectacular. 

Given the increased competition, it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that Red One, this Christmas action flick starring Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans, tumbled a big 59% this weekend for a poor $13.2 million weekend and a $53 million total. Unless the Thanksgiving attendance is huge, this $200 million flick will finish its run way under $100 million domestic.

Fourth place on the chart went to Angel Studios, with their faith-based historical drama, Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin earning a solid $5.1 million. The indie studio also has another big swing prepped for the holiday season, with them releasing Homestead around Christmastime, which will also get a companion TV series which will be released online in the same way as their breakout hit, The Chosen. 

Venom: The Last Dance slipped to fifth place, making $4 million for a $133 million domestic total. It seems likely the movie will end its run around $145-50 million, which makes it the lowest domestic grosser in the series, although the international box office take has been good. 

The faith-based Best Christmas Pageant even slipped to sixth place, with it facing strong competition from Wicked. It made $3.5 million for a $25.5 million total. With a reported $10 million budget, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is likely one of Lionsgate’s more profitable movies this year.

A24’s Heretic continued to perform well, making $2.3 million for a domestic total just under $25 million. The Wild Robot made $2 million for a $140 million total as it wraps up its (successful) domestic run. Smile 2 made $1.11 million for a $67 million total, while Jesse Eisenberg’s A Real Pain rounded out the top 10 with $1.1 million for a $4.9 million total.

Next weekend is likely going to be one of the biggest of the year, with Moana 2, Wicked, and Gladiator II all expected to bring in big bucks. What are you planning to go see? Let us know in the comments!

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The buzz has been steadily rising the last few weeks for Jon M. Chu’s Wicked: Part I, the long-anticipated big-screen adaptation of the hit Broadway show. In our weekly box office predictions column, we forecast the movie opening to $120 million, and the film opened just a little bit below that, with an estimated $114 million weekend. That makes it only the fourth film this year to open north of $100 million, and positions it well to keep earning big bucks over the upcoming holiday weekend. While it will see big competition from Moana 2, I expect Wicked to show big staying power, with it possible that the movie will end its domestic run north of $300 million, which is a significant number. While I was wary of it, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it (read my review), and audiences seem to agree, earning an A CinemaScore rating. 

By contrast, Gladiator II opened slightly above our predictions, with an estimated $55 million weekend, a solid (if unspectacular) debut for an R-rated historical drama. It marks Ridley Scott’s second biggest domestic opening, below 2001’s Hannibal, which opened with $58 million. It’s co-star Denzel Washington’s biggest opener ever, with it beating his last collaboration with Ridley Scott, American Gangster, which opened with $43 million. 

Given the opening, whether or not we ever get a Gladiator III likely depends on how it performs domestically over the next few weeks, and how good the international box office take is. The $55 million opening is good, but whether or not it earns enough money to justify another film remains to be seen. The CinemaScore is B, which is decent, but again – unspectacular. 

Given the increased competition, it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that Red One, this Christmas action flick starring Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans, tumbled a big 59% this weekend for a poor $13 million weekend and a $53 million total. Unless the Thanksgiving attendance is huge, this $200 million flick will finish its run way under $100 million domestic.

Fourth place on the chart went to Angel Studios, with their faith-based historical drama, Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin earning a solid $5.1 million. The indie studio also has another big swing prepped for the holiday season, with them releasing Homestead around Christmastime, which will also get a companion TV series which will be released online in the same way as their breakout hit, The Chosen. 

Venom: The Last Dance slipped to fifth place, making $4 million for a $133 million domestic total. It seems likely the movie will end its run around $145-50 million, which makes it the lowest domestic grosser in the series, although the international box office take has been good. 

The faith-based Best Christmas Pageant even slipped to sixth place, with it facing strong competition from Wicked. It made $3.5 million for a $25.5 million total. This likely makes it a bit of a disappointment given the following of its director, Dallas Jenkins, the man behind The Chosen. 

A24’s Heretic continued to perform well, making $2.3 million for a domestic total just under $25 million. The Wild Robot made $2 million for a $140 million total as it wraps up its (successful) domestic run. Focus Features’ Conclave made $1.15 million for a domestic total just shy of $30 million – which is solid for an adult-oriented drama. Finally, Smile 2 made $1.13 million for a $67 million total.

Next weekend is likely going to be one of the biggest of the year, with Moana 2, Wicked, and Gladiator II all expected to bring in big bucks. What are you planning to go see? Let us know in the comments!

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This weekend sees the release of Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II, with many hailing it as one of the director’s best movies in recent years. So far, the box office take has been impressive, and yesterday we did an article about Ridley Scott’s best-ever director’s cuts. The reaction to that got us thinking about which Ridley Scott movie is the favorite of our readers. While many of us would say it’s a no-brainer to pick either Alien or Blade Runner, younger visitors to the site may feel different, with Gladiator perhaps a classic of the same stature to a younger generation of readers. Then again, some folks might prefer the deeper cuts, like Black Rain, Legend, or even Kingdom of Heaven, whose reputation was enhanced after its amazing director’s cut was released. So, with that in mind, take our poll below and let us know what your favorite is!

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This week, perhaps nothing sparked more discussion than the announcement of the 2024 Game Awards nominees. We weighed in ourselves with a breakdown of the seven biggest surprises in what got nominated, and what didn’t. Also this week, both Sony and Microsoft announced new forays into game streaming, and we took a look…

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