As Pokémon TCG Pocket completes its second week since launch, players have found the game’s grooves and solid patterns have begun to develop. Core to these are four specific decks that are dominating in online battles, forming a meta that looks unlikely to shift until January’s delivery of a whole new set of cards.…
Is there a busier director out there than Guy Ritchie? This year saw the release of his epic The League of Ungentlemanly Warfare and his TV adaptation of The Gentlemen. He also already has two movies wrapped for 2025. There’s In The Grey, which teams Jake Gyllenhaal and Henry Cavill, and then there’s Fountain of Youth with Natalie Portman and John Krasinski. Plus, he’s shooting two more series this year – Young Sherlock for Prime Video and the all-star The Associates for Paramount Plus. Now, we can add one more movie to his slate for next year – Wife & Dog, which is set to star Benedict Cumberbatch, Rosamund Pike and Anthony Hopkins.
According to a release from BlackBear, the company financing the film, Ritchie, who is also writing, will start shooting the film in February. The film is set in the back-stabbing world of the English aristocracy, which is familiar territory for the director, having been the milieu of both the movie and TV versions of The Gentlemen. That series was one of Netflix’s biggest hits of 2024, and it will also be getting a second season, although there is no news yet on when it will film.
In many ways, Ritchie seems to be taking a page from Taylor Sheridan. He has established his own universe of content broaching both TV and film, much of it carrying a distinct flavour that sets him apart. Ritchie doesn’t seem like a guy who rests on his laurels, so it’s not a surprise he’s gotten a film going while he works on his TV projects, which at least allows him to share directing and writing duties.
One interesting thing about Ritchie is that he seems to have found a smart way to consistently get his films financed. This usually involves slicing up territories for the eventual release, with streaming rights being a big piece of the pie. The League of Ungentlemanly Warfare was a Prime Video original in most territories outside of the U.S.
This will be Ritchie’s first collaboration with Cumberbatch and Hopkins. Pike co-stars in his upcoming In The Grey, which comes out January 17th, 2025.
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Stranger Things and Ghostbusters: Afterlife / Frozen Empire actor Finn Wolfhard recently made his feature directorial debut with a horror comedy called Hell of a Summer, which he directed alongside Billy Bryk, who also appeared in Ghostbusters: Afterlife. JoBlo’s own Chris Bumbray had the chance to watch the movie at the Toronto International Film Festival last year and gave it a 5/10 review than can be read at THIS LINK. Hell of a Summer has secured a U.S. distribution deal with NEON, and will receive a theatrical release sometime in 2025… and while we wait to find out the exact release date, Variety has broken the news that Sony Pictures has hired Wolfhard and Bryk to write an Idle Hands remake, which they might also direct. The Ghostbusters franchise’s Jason Reitman is on board to produce the film.
Directed by Rodman Flender – who also directed Leprechaun 2 and happens to be the uncle of Dune star Timothée Chalamet – from a screenplay by Terri Hughes and Ron Milbauer, the original Idle Hands was released in 1999 and has the following synopsis: When slacker teen Anton Tobias has his right hand possessed by a demonic force, he finds that his life gets a lot more interesting. While Anton himself is an amiable guy, his hand proves to be an appendage of death, killing his two best buddies, Pnub and Mick, who return to life as wisecracking zombies. In addition to murdering those closest to him, Anton’s evil hand significantly hinders his chances with lovely neighbor Molly.
The film stars Devon Sawa, Seth Green, Elden Henson, Jessica Alba, Vivica A. Fox, Jack Noseworthy, Steve Van Wormer, Fred Willard, Connie Ray, Katie Wright, Kelly Monaco, Sean Whalen, Nick Sadler, Randy Oglesby, Timothy Stack, Mindy Sterling, Joey Slotnick, Tom DeLonge, and Kyle Gass, with Christopher Hart as The Hand. There’s also a special appearance by the band The Offspring.
Reitman is producing the Idle Hands remake with Jennifer Todd and Suzanne Todd, under their Team Todd banner. Reitman’s Ghostbusters collaborator (and Frozen Empire director) Gil Keenan is also a producer on the project. Maia Eyre is overseeing for Sony.
What do you think of Finn Wolfhard, Billy Bryk, and Jason Reitman reteaming to remake Idle Hands? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.
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Russell Crowe is ready to get fitted for gilded armor again after signing on for The Last Druid, an upcoming action film set in his old stomping grounds, the Roman Empire. It’s been 25 years since Crowe took up his sword and shield for Ridley Scott’s Gladiator. Still, that won’t keep him from exploring a time of blood, sand, and violence.
Underwater director Will Eubank will direct The Last Druid from a script by Phil Gawthorne and Carlyle Eubank. Filming will commence next year. According to Deadline, The Last Druid depicts “how an Emperor discovers a secluded Druid stronghold in the mountains of Caledonia. A peaceful Celtic elder (Crowe) must take up arms to protect his family and people from annihilation.”
Emperors, man. Why are they always looking to take what isn’t theirs? Imposing your will on innocent people and overtaking territory is a great way to end up on somebody’s s**t list. Here’s hoping Crowe’s character gives the invaders what for and teaches anyone else looking to claim their land.
“This one was exceptionally well received by the international distributors who were fired up at the idea of Russell in this role and responded enthusiastically to the screenplay’sscreenplay’s skillful marriage of action and heart,” said AGC’s Stuart Ford.
Before Russell Crowe prepares for war in The Last Druid, he stars as Nikolai Kravinoff in Sony’s Kraven the Hunter. The upcoming superhero action film explores Kraven’s (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) complex relationship with his ruthless father (Crowe), who starts him down a path of vengeance with brutal consequences, motivating him to become not only the most excellent hunter in the world but also one of its most feared. Fred Hechinger also stars, with Ariana DeBose playing Calypso, Christopher Abbott as The Foreigner, and Alessandro Nivola as Aleksei Sytsevich, The Rhino.
If you have yet to see 2020’s Underwater, I highly recommend it. It’s an intense and action-packed creature feature that never stops from the moment it starts with the destruction of a facility in the murky ocean depths.
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Ben Stiller went uncredited on the 1996 comedy Happy Gilmore, where he had a small role as Hal L., a nursing home orderly who torments the elderly people in his care, dropping lines like, “You can trouble me for a warm glass of shut-the-hell-up!” Nearly thirty years later, Stiller is bringing Hal L. back to life, as he has been spotted on the set of the currently-filming Happy Gilmore 2!
Here’s what Stiller’s Hal L. is looking like these days:
While the original Happy Gilmore was directed by Dennis Dugan from a screenplay by Tim Herlihy and star Adam Sandler, for this one Dugan – who also worked with Sandler on Big Daddy, The Benchwarmers (Sandler produced that one but didn’t star in it), I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, You Don’t Mess with the Zohan, Grown Ups, Just Go with It, Jack and Jill, and Grown Ups 2 – has passed the helm over to Kyle Newacheck, whose credits include the What We Do in the Shadows TV series and Game Over, Man! Herlihy and Sandler have written the script for the new film.
Sandler is also back in the title role of Happy Gilmore. We don’t have a synopsis for the sequel yet, so we’ll just remind you that the original Happy Gilmore focuses on Happy, a hockey player with anger management issues who, with the help of golf legend Chubbs Peterson, joins the PGA Tour to earn enough money to save his grandmother’s house. Happy isn’t precisely a conventional golfer, and his aggressive, slapshot style of play clashes with PGA favorite Shooter McGavin, a self-important asshat in desperate need of a kick in the golf balls. As Happy and Shooter prepare to face one another for the top prize, Shooter uses every dirty trick in the book to keep his title and sabotage Happy’s possible victory.
Joining Sandler in the cast of Happy Gilmore 2 are Benito Martínez Ocasio (a.k.a. rapper Bad Bunny), Nick Swardson, Benny Safdie, Margaret Qualley, AEW star Maxwell Jacob Friedman, Scott Mescudi (a.k.a. Kid Cudi), Travis Kelce, John Daly, and, as we saw above, Ben Stiller. Dennis Dugan also shows up as Doug Thompson, the pro golf tour commissioner he played in the first movie.
Sandler and Herlihy are producing the film with Robert Simonds and Jack Giarraputo. Happy Gilmore 2 is set up at the Netflix streaming service.
Are you glad to know that Ben Stiller is back for Happy Gilmore 2? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.
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Sony has announced that it’s lowering the suggested retail price of the PlayStation 5 Slim Digital Edition as we enter the holiday shopping season. But you’ll want to act fast, as the discount ends Christmas Eve, and is only available while supplies last.
Who doesn’t love a fun action movie? With John Wick and The Fast Saga changing the game for what audiences have come to expect from big-budget action movies, other movies are often relegated to second-class efforts. Luc Besson, the creator of The Transporter and Taken franchises, has cemented his own brand of action movie that has been around for decades. Partnering with co-writer and director George Huang, Besson has produced the new movie Weekend in Taipei, which mines the classic style of nineties-era action movies for a fun, brisk movie experience (check out our review HERE).
Weekend in Taipei follows DEA agent John Lawlor (Luke Evans) as he returns to Taiwan after fifteen years away. The last time he was there, he had a romance with criminal transporter Joey (Gwei Lun-mei). Lawlor is in town to pick up evidence to take down drug kingpin Kwang (Sung Kang). Unbeknownst to John, Joey is not only married to Kwang, but he also has a son whom he knows nothing about. Reuniting with his former love and son, Lawlor must try to escape from Taipei with the evidence to take Kwang down.
I got the chance to speak with the cast and crew of Weekend in Taipei. Wyatt Yang, who plays young Raymond, talked about being scared of Sung Kang’s method acting and what it was like filming his first movie. Star Luke Evans talked about playing a hero with Kang as the villain, the inverse of their Fast Saga relationship, and whether he hopes this movie turns into a franchise. Sung Kang talked about why playing villains is more fun while director George Huang gives a shout out to JoBlo.com while explaining the method behind his first action movie. Check out the full interviews in the embed above.
Weekend in Taipei premieres in theaters on November 8th.
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With Thanksgiving just a couple of weeks away, Nintendo has announced its Black Friday 2024 highlights. While there aren’t any standout deals among them, there’s still some decent discounts for anyone who was planning on buying a new Switch or a critically acclaimed game from the console’s back catalog.
With Thanksgiving just a couple of weeks away, Nintendo has announced its Black Friday 2024 highlights. While there aren’t any standout deals among them, there’s still some decent discounts for anyone who was planning on buying a new Switch or a critically acclaimed game from the console’s back catalog.
The Witch, The Lighthouse, and The Northman writer/director Robert Eggers‘ remake of F.W. Murnau’s 1922 silent classic Nosferatu (watch it HERE) is set to reach theatres on Wednesday, December 25th – and while there has been a lot of talk about the transformation Bill Skarsgard (It) underwent to play the title character (Skarsgard himself has said that playing Nosferatu / Count Orlok was like “conjuring pure evil. It took a while for me to shake off the demon that had been conjured inside of me. … I do not think people are gonna recognize me in it.“), it has been confirmed that we won’t be seeing a good shot of the dead Transylvanian nobleman until the movie reaches the big screen.
An unofficial adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the original Nosferatu has the following synopsis: In this highly influential silent horror film, the mysterious Count Orlok (Max Schreck) summons Thomas Hutter (Gustav von Wangenheim) to his remote Transylvanian castle in the mountains. The eerie Orlok seeks to buy a house near Hutter and his wife, Ellen (Greta Schroeder). After Orlok reveals his vampire nature, Hutter struggles to escape the castle, knowing that Ellen is in grave danger. Meanwhile Orlok’s servant, Knock (Alexander Granach), prepares for his master to arrive at his new home. Werner Herzog directed his own remake of the film in 1979.
Eggers’ take on Nosferatu is a gothic tale of obsession between a haunted young woman in 19th century Germany and the ancient Transylvanian vampire who stalks her, bringing untold horror with him.
Eggers told Vanity Fair, “This Orlok is more of a folk vampire than any other film version. That means he’s a dead person. And he’s not like, ‘I look great and I’m dead.’ Folk vampires in some ways are more visually similar to zombies. The reason why he looks the way he looks and he dresses the way he’s dressed is because for the first time in a Dracula or Nosferatu story, this guy looks like a dead Transylvanian nobleman . Every single thing he’s wearing down to the heels on his shoes is what he would’ve worn. That’s never been done.” Entertainment Weekly then learned, “Only when audiences arrive in theaters on premiere day this Christmas will the general public see the results of the full hair, make-up, and prosthetics.“
Skarsgard agrees with the decision to keep his character hidden in the marketing. “I think the best way to discover Orlok is through the movie for the first time. The movie functions on that, as well. He lives in the shadows for a long time, and it teases the reveal of the character as the movie progresses.“
Skarsgard is joined in the cast by Willem Dafoe (Spider-Man: No Way Home) as crazy vampire hunter Von Franz, Lily-Rose Depp (The Idol) as Ellen Hutter and Nicholas Hoult (Renfield) as her husband Thomas – a role Skarsgard was going to play at one point. Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Bullet Train) is in there as Thomas’s friend Friedrich Harding, with Emma Corrin (The Crown) as Friedrich’s wife Anna, Ralph Ineson (The Witch) as Von Franz’s cohort Dr. Wilhelm Sievers, and Simon McBurney (The Conjuring 2) in an unspecified role. The first reactions to the film recently made their way online, and they were very positive.
Are you looking forward to Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu remake, and are you glad to hear that Bill Skarsgard’s character is going to be concealed until the movie reaches the big screen? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
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