Month: November 2024

19 Nov

Famous: Nicholas Braun, Debby Ryan, Cory Michael Smith, & more join Zac Efron thriller

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Debby Ryan

Early this year, it was announced that Zac Efron (The Iron Claw) had signed on to star in the A24 thriller Famous for director Jody Hill, and it was revealed that he’ll be playing dual roles in the film, which is based on a novel by Blake Crouch. Phoebe Dynevor (Bridgerton) has since joined the cast, and now that production is underway in Los Angeles, a press release confirms that Nicholas Braun (Succession), Stephanie Koenig (Lessons in Chemistry), Debby Ryan (Insatiable), Mekki Leeper (Jury Duty), and Cory Michael Smith (Saturday Night) also have roles in the film.

Scripted by Chad Hodge, who created the short-lived, Crouch-inspired TV series Wayward Pines back in 2015, Famous has the following synopsis: Lance Dunkquist has one asset that’s about to change his life – he has the face of a movie star. And not just any movie star – Lance is the spitting image of a Hollywood icon, James Jansen. Lance is about to travel to Los Angeles to make his dream come true. Lance is going to be famous, no matter what it takes… The film aims to be a “provocative and highly entertaining Los Angeles-set thriller that explores the dark side of celebrity, and the lengths people will go to attain it.”

Efron is playing both overzealous fan Lance Dunkquist and Hollywood heartthrob James Jansen.

Copies of Crouch’s novel can be purchased at THIS LINK. It has the following description: “My name is Lancelot Blue Dunkquist, and the best thing about me is, when you doll me up right, I look just like the movie star, James Jansen.” Meet Lance. 38-years-old. Works a meaningless job. Still lives above his parents’ garage. By all accounts, a world-class loser. Except for one glaring exception… He has a million-dollar face. Lance has been mistaken twenty-eight times for the Oscar-winning movie star, James Jansen, and for the last 10 years, he’s saved his money, studied Jansen’s films, his moves, his idiosyncrasies, even the way he speaks. Now, after an unceremonious termination from his job, Lance has decided that the time has come to go after his dream. From New York’s ridiculous avant-garde, off-off Broadway scene, to the surreal glitter of Los Angeles, follow Lance on his madcap journey of self-abandonment to become his likeness. Part comedy, part human tragedy, and part suspense, the world through the eyes of Lancelot Blue Dunkquist is like none you’ve ever seen.

Mr. Robot creator / Leave the World Behind director Sam Esmail is producing Famous with Chad Hamilton for Esmail Corp. The company’s Nick Krishnamurthy serves as executive producer. Black Bear will be presenting Famous to potential international distributors at the upcoming European Film Market, while CAA Media Finance and WME Independent represent the U.S. rights.

Jody Hill’s previous directing credits include The Foot Fist Way, Observe and Report, The Legacy of a Whitetail Deer Hunter, and episodes of Eastbound & Down, Vice Principals, The Righteous Gemstones, and Peacemaker.

Are you interested in Famous? What do you think of Nicholas Braun, Stephanie Koenig, Debby Ryan, Mekki Leeper, and Cory Michael Smith joining Zac Efron and Phoebe Dynevor in the cast? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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19 Nov

Netflix unveils a trailer and release date for its violent party royale mobile game Squid Game: Unleashed

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Squid Game: Unleashed, Netflix, video game, mobile

Do you have what it takes to survive the challenges of Squid Game? You’re about to find out when Netflix launched Squid Game: Unleashed, a violent party royale mobile game based on the sensational Korean thriller. Squid Game: Unleashed launches on the Netflix app on December 17, and pre-registration is open! In addition to unveiling the Squid Game: Unleashed release date, Netflix shared a bloody and goofy trailer for the competitive multiplayer mayhem.

In Squid Game: Unleashed, players create cartoonish avatars to compete for 45.6 billion Korean won by completing a series of life-threatening challenges to be the last contestant standing. In the Squid Game: Unleashed trailer, players dodge pig-shaped wrecking balls, play a game of dodgeball while avoiding buzzsaw blades, traverse an M.C. Escher-like maze, play an elaborate game of Frogger with a speeding bus, and more! Players can win prizes as they progress through the game, changing the look of their avatar to reflect their personality and game standings.

Concerning gameplay, Squid Game: Unleashed is a Frankenstein’s monster of titles like Fall Guys, Wreckfest, and Gang Beasts, all with ragdoll physics.

Here’s the official synopsis for Squid Game: Unleashed courtest of Netflix:

“Three years after winning Squid Game, Player 456 gave up going to the States and comes back with a new resolution in his mind. Gi-hun once again dives into the mysterious survival game, starting another life-or-death game with new participants gathered to win the prize of 45.6 billion won.”

How long do you think you would last in a real Squid Game competition? Are you familiar with playing games on the Netflix app? The games division of the app started slow but has grown by leaps and bounds with games like The Almost Gone, Oxenfree, Reigns, Infernax, Link Twin, and more. Adding Squid Game: Unleashed to the mix can only boost the app’s popularity, especially since the game launches nine days before the premiere of Squid Game: Season 2.

You can pre-register for Squid Game: Unleashed to become one of the first players to put their skills to the test in the fight for survival and money.

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19 Nov

LL Cool J wants to come back for a Deep Blue Sea sequel

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ll cool j deep blue sea

2024 marks the 25th anniversary of the release of the Renny Harlin shark thriller Deep Blue Sea (watch it HERE) – and all these years later, one of the film’s stars is still waiting to have a rematch with the genetically engineered mako sharks at the heart of the story. That actor is LL Cool J, whose character Sherman “Preacher” Dudley was originally supposed to die in the movie (and LL Cool J has said that he nearly died for real during filming), but Harlin decided Preacher should be one of the few people to make it all the way to the end credits, which then had an LL Cool J song playing over them.

Directed by Harlin from a screenplay by Duncan Kennedy, Donna Powers, and Wayne Powers, Deep Blue Sea has the following synopsis: On an island research facility, Dr. Susan McAlester is harvesting the brain tissue of DNA-altered sharks as a possible cure for Alzheimer’s disease. When the facility’s backers send an executive to investigate the experiments, a routine procedure goes awry and a shark starts attacking the researchers. Now, with sharks outnumbering their human captors, McAlester and her team must figure out a way to stop them from escaping to the ocean and breeding.

LL Cool J was joined in the cast by Thomas Jane, Saffron Burrows, Jacqueline McKenzie, Michael Rapaport, Stellan Skarsgård, Samuel L. Jackson, and Aida Turturro.

Speaking with The Standard, LL Cool J said, “Deep Blue Sea could be a lot of fun to revise, you know to do a new Deep Blue Sea. Also, In Too Deep could be fun to do a sequel.“

Another 1999 release, In Too Deep was a crime thriller directed by Michael Rymer. It told the story of undercover cop Jeffrey Cole (Omar Epps), who’s out to take down a criminal kingpin named Dwayne Gittens and nicknamed God (that was LL Cool J’s character).

In Too Deep has never gotten a sequel, but Deep Blue Sea has received two direct-to-video sequels over the years.

Would you like to see LL Cool J come back for a new Deep Blue Sea sequel and/or a sequel to In Too Deep? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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19 Nov

Cobra Kai Interviews: Ralph Macchio, William Zabka and the creators on why the Karate Kid legacy lives on

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It’s hard to believe, but The Karate Kid franchise is over forty years old. Despite this fact, the franchise seems to be stronger than ever, with a new movie in the saga, Karate Kid: Legends, due out in 2025. But, before that, the series which kick-started the franchise’s return to the zeitgeist, Cobra Kai, is starting to wrap up its run on Netflix with a super-sized sixth season. The second part of the three-part season made its debut Friday (read our review here), as Sensei Daniel (Ralph Macchio), Johnny (William Zabka) and students of Miyagi-Do head to the Sekai Taikai in Barcelona to take on their arch-enemies, the students of Cobra Kai, and their sensei Kreese.

Recently, we had the chance to sit down with Ralph Macchio and William Zabka to discuss the amazing legacy the franchise has left behind and why it’s endured for over four decades. We also dig into how the show specializes in humanizing its villains and how Johnny has become just as iconic as Daniel in his own way. We also chat with the series creators Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz, and Hayden Schlossberg about their end game in wrapping up the show’s run, and how this season is inspired by some of the classic eighties fight movies like Bloodsport and Best of the Best. We also dig into how the show’s fight choreography has gotten better than ever.

Cobra Kai is now streaming on Netflix!

The post Cobra Kai Interviews: Ralph Macchio, William Zabka and the creators on why the Karate Kid legacy lives on appeared first on JoBlo.

19 Nov

Juror No. 2 sets Max release date; has WB let Clint Eastwood down?

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Juror #2, Clint Eastwood

$3.8 billion. That’s the amount of money Clint Eastwood’s films have grossed at the North American box office throughout his career. A superstar since the 1960s, Eastwood is rare in that almost all of his biggest blockbusters, including all the Dirty Harry movies, were all made for Warner Bros. It’s been his home studio since about the time he made The Outlaw Josey Wales. He’s made everything from Oscar-winners (Unforgiven, Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby) to action movies (Firefox, Sudden Impact, Best Movie You Never Saw fave The Rookie), to movies where he’s chilling with his pal Clyde the Orangutan for them, and they almost always ended up at least breaking even. Sure, he’s had a few flops, but even in his golden years, he still cranked out smash hits for them, with American Sniper making over half a billion dollars, while The Mule and Sully both made over $100 million domestically. Even when his movies didn’t do well, Eastwood keeps his budgets so low that the red ink was minimal. Even something like The 15:17 to Paris managed to make about $56 million worldwide.

With such a solid track record, you’d think that Clint Eastwood, who just made what might be his last movie for Warner Bros, Juror No 2, deserved a little better than having his movie dumped in just a handful of theaters on the way to a quick bow on streaming, with the movie now set for a December 20th bow on MAX. Indeed, with solid reviews and a pretty bankable cast, which includes Nicholas Hoult and Toni Collette re-teaming for the first time since About a Boy, you’d think Juror No 2 could have gotten a nice release fitting Clint’s legacy as a director. But no, WB’s dumped the film in so few theatres that they haven’t even been reporting its box office take.

Now, some will say that WB’s head honcho, David Zaslav, won’t give it a wide release because he thinks it’s going to lose money. He previously slammed the studio for agreeing to make Cry Macho, which he called a flop, even if it wasn’t really. Considering it came out during the pandemic and was day and date with HBO Max, its $10 million U.S. take wasn’t awful. Heck, it made more than Reminiscence, Those Who Wish Me Dead, The Many Saints of Newark, and Judas and the Black Messiah did that year, and those movies included huge stars like Hugh Jackman and Angelina Jolie. It grossed only slightly less than The Little Things, starring Denzel Washington, and no one is questioning his star power. 

Here’s the ironic part. While WB hasn’t been reporting Juror No 2’s box office take –  overseas the film has overperformed, making $10 million (so far) despite a low-key release. There’s a very good chance it would have made a decent amount of money domestically (there’s reason to believe it’s per-screen average has been quite good despite the minimal marketing). The fact is, Eastwood has always had a solid sense of what his audience wants to see. Juror No. 2 isn’t one of his best, but it’s a sturdy morality tale with terrific performances from Hoult, Collette, and supporting cast members like Kiefer Sutherland, J.K. Simmons, and Cedric Yarborough of Reno 9-11, who is powerful in an against-type part.  

I think none other than Guillermo Del Toro summed it up best when he posted on Bluesky:

“Went to the theatre to see Juror#2, Clint Eastwood’s latest film. We enjoyed it tremendously.  It’s – in some ways- his Crimes and Misdemeanors.  The film is precisely and assuredly filmed, and it’s Nicolas Hoult’s to lead.  The cast delivers beautifully, and it has an ending that sets the theatre abuzz-Its central dilemma reminded me of the quiet turmoil boiling under Dana Andrews in Preminger Noir of your choice (for me- Where The Sidewalk Ends). It wrestles with it supported by a well-paced structure and well-pondered twists.  Why was this not released widely in the States? We saw at the Grove with a significant crowd that was vocal and responsive all the way.  I truly hope WB can hold it longer.  Eastwood is a master filmmaker and the steady, unfussy craft reveals him still in great form.  Go see it on the big screen!”

Have you seen Juror No 2? Let us know what you think in the comments!

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19 Nov

The Trip: Jason Segel, Samara Weaving, Timothy Olyphant, and Juliette Lewis star in thriller remake

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Samara Weaving

Production is officially underway on the thriller The Trip, which is coming from 87North, XYZ Films, and director Jorma Taccone (MacGruber and Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping) – and Deadline reveals that Taccone has assembled a cool cast for the film. The line-up includes Jason Segel (How I Met Your Mother), Samara Weaving (Ready or Not), Timothy Olyphant (Justified), Juliette Lewis (From Dusk Till Dawn), Paul Guilfoyle (CSI: Crime Scene Investigation), and retired mixed martial artist Keith Jardine (Godless).

The Trip is based on director Tommy Wirkola’s 2021 Norwegian thriller, I Onde Dager, which starred Noomi Rapace and Aksel Hennie. The screenplay by Wirkola, John Niven, and Nick Ball has been reworked by Nick Kocher and Brian McElhaney. The original film had the following synopsis: Eager to end their marriage by murdering each other, a husband and wife head to a remote cabin — but soon find themselves facing an even bigger threat. Deadline said the remake will follow a dysfunctional couple (Segel and Weaving) who head to a remote cabin to “reconnect”, but each has secret intentions to kill the other.

XYZ is financing and producing the new film with 87North’s Kelly McCormick, Lee Kim, and Guy Danella. Taccone and Wirkola serve as executive producers alongside Jørgen Storm Rosenberg and Kjetil Omberg, who produced the original film for 74 Entertainment. Actress Karen Gillan, who happens to be married to writer Nick Kocher, is co-producing.

The Trip is filming in Tampere, Finland. The project is receiving production incentives from Business Finland, The City of Tampere, and Film Tampere. Films Films Films is providing production services.

Wirkola, who previously worked with 87North when he directed the Santa Claus action movie Violent Night, provided the following statement: “I can’t wait to see Jorma bring his totally singular sensibility to the material. That, combined with this killer cast, makes me beyond excited that this film will truly stand out in the cinematic landscape.“

Taccone added, “I’m a huge fan of Tommy’s work and I love the original film. I have a totally singular sensibility, and I can’t wait to see what I bring to the material.“

What do you think of Jorma Taccone, Jason Segel, Samara Weaving, Timothy Olyphant, Juliette Lewis, Paul Guilfoyle, and Keith Jardine teaming up to bring us a remake of Tommy Wirkola’s I Onde Dager, a.k.a. The Trip? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.

The post The Trip: Jason Segel, Samara Weaving, Timothy Olyphant, and Juliette Lewis star in thriller remake appeared first on JoBlo.

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