Month: December 2024

jurassic world, scarlett johansson

Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey, Mahershala Ali, and Rupert Friend may never know how close to death they were while shooting Jurassic World Rebirth. Well, they will after reading Entertainment Weekly‘s latest feature about the anticipated Jurassic World standalone sequel. It turns out there were things more dangerous than dinosaurs on the set of Edwards’s new film, and after reading about them, my skin is still crawling.

“I’m allowed to say this now that we’re on the other side of it, but we shot in rivers and these mangrove swamps,” Edwards told Entertainment Weekly about filming Jurassic World Rebirth. “When we were scouting them, we saw poisonous water snakes, massive ones that we had to catch. We kept it quiet from the actors as they spent a whole day wading through the same area. And there were giant spiders that were poisonous and stuff on the edge of the trees. You just wouldn’t point them out if you saw them. Just keep going!”

Um, what? How is this okay? You wouldn’t catch my ass swimming with poisonous snakes while avoiding giant spiders falling from trees. No, sir!

One of the most interesting things about this new Jurassic movie is that it boasts a script written by original Jurassic Park screenwriter David Koepp, who is returning to the franchise for the first time since The Lost World: Jurassic Park. After sitting out the last four movies, Koepp has come back to tell the following story: Five years after the events of Jurassic World Dominion, the planet’s ecology has proven largely inhospitable to dinosaurs. Those remaining exist in isolated equatorial environments with climates resembling where they once thrived. The three most colossal creatures within that tropical biosphere hold the key to a drug that will bring miraculous life-saving benefits to humankind. This action-packed new chapter in the franchise sees an intrepid team racing to secure DNA samples from the three most colossal creatures across land, sea, and air.

Jurassic World Rebirth, Scarlett Johansson
Jurassic World Rebirth, Janathan Bailey

Alongside Edwards’s horrifying admission about the Jurassic World Rebirth set, EW unleashed a batch of new images from the upcoming film. In the photos, Scarlett Johansson and Jonathan Bailey science the sh*t out of an escalating situation. Like any other Jurassic movie, things inevitably go sideways, forcing our characters to run for their lives from sharp teeth and killer survival instincts. The gallery also includes a photo of Rupert Friend, Mahershala Ali, and Bechir Sylvain smiling from ear to ear. I assume they’re marveling at a dinosaur before that tall grass part, revealing a hungry predator or two. The new photos feature shades of Gareth Edwards’s signature style and visuals, with everything looking relatively clean despite the area’s harsh conditions.

Jurassic Park did lead the way with computer graphics, but I feel like we got lost along the way with the arms race to a spectacle,” Edwards says about returning to basics for Rebirth. “Jurassic actually only had just a few dozen VFX shots in it, and it’s such a powerful film. So, it was trying to go back to all those tricks and ideas that tease the audience, that creates suspense and tension that get you on the edge of your seat. I just wanted to create that feeling I had when I was young of being in awe of these things.”

On a scale of 1 to 10, how excited are you about Jurassic World Rebirth? Let us know in the comments section below.

The post Gareth Edwards reveals the dangers of filming Jurassic World Rebirth as a new batch of images are unleashed appeared first on JoBlo.

Kevin Smith Clerk

Filmmaker Kevin Smith has been the owner of a comic book store called Jay & Silent Bob’s Secret Stash for decades, and for seven seasons AMC aired a reality show that was based around the store and the characters that inhabited it, a show called Comic Book Men. Now, Variety reports that Smith is drawing inspiration from his own comic book store again while developing a new TV series called Local Heroes. Smith is a writer and executive producer on the new show, alongside 30 Rock alums Josh Siegal and Dylan Morgan. Set up at Universal, the show is being developed for NBC.

Hazy Mills’ Sean Hayes and Todd Milliner are also behind the project, as is Jordan Cerf.

Local Heroes is said to be about a group of comic book store regulars who band together to solve crimes in their hometown.

Jim Donnelly, Universal TV comedy development executive vice president, provided the following statement: “We pride ourselves on facilitating collaborations. Sean Hayes’ company has been here for a long time. Josh and Dylan are overall deal writers who have worked in Mike Schur’s and Tina Fey’s camps. And Kevin Smith is a hero of mine and has his finger on the pulse of the genre world. This murder mystery show in a comic book store really fits into NBC’s single-camera workplace, large-ensemble shows.

Local Heroes is part of an “uptick in the output” of Universal’s comedy division, emboldened by an Emmy win for their show Hacks earlier this year, which was the first time the company had won that award since 30 Rock got the honor in 2009. Donnelly says the key ingredient for a Universal comedy is that it should have an “underlying positivity.” “Our shows tend not to be caustic. We think of comedy as, it makes you feel good at the end of the episode or at end of the season. I think that all our shows do that pretty successfully.

In addition to Hacks, other comedies Universal is currently having success with include A Man on the Inside, St. Denis Medical, Happy’s Place, and Loot. Their show Laid, starring Stephanie Hsu as a woman whose lovers are mysteriously dying, one by one, is set to premiere on Peacock on December 19th, and The Four Seasons, starring Tina Fey and Steve Carell, will reach Netflix next year. They’re also working with Greg Daniels and Michael Koman on a new comedy set in the world of The Office.

What do you think of Universal’s comedy line-up? Does the Kevin Smith series Local Heroes sound interesting to you? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

I have been a dedicated Kevin Smith fan for thirty years, so I’m looking forward to seeing how Local Heroes will turn out… and hoping that this association with Universal will somehow also get him a greenlight for the Mallrats sequel he has been wanting to make for years.

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Reminders of Him, Colleen Hoover, Vanessa Caswill

Butterflies are circling as Hollywood continues to fall in love with It Ends With Us author Colleen Hoover. Despite mixed reviews, It Ends With Us grossed $80 million on a $25 million budget, making the unconventional romance film one of 2024’s most talked-about cinematic experiences. While plenty of people bought tickets for It Ends With Us, Hoover’s fans showed up in droves to support the author’s work. That success has led to several of Hoover’s novels getting optioned for feature film adaptations, including today’s announcement for an adaptation of Reminders of Him, with Flea and Love at First Sight helmer Vanessa Caswill directing.

Reminders of Him hails from Universal, with a Valentine’s Day window release on Friday, February 13, 2026. What’s the story about? Check out the synopsis for Hoover’s book below, courtesy of Amazon:

After serving five years in prison for a tragic mistake, Kenna Rowan returns to the town where it all went wrong, hoping to reunite with her four-year-old daughter. But the bridges Kenna burned are proving impossible to rebuild. Everyone in her daughter’s life is determined to shut Kenna out, no matter how hard she works to prove herself.

The only person who hasn’t closed the door on her completely is Ledger Ward, a local bar owner and one of the few remaining links to Kenna’s daughter. But if anyone were to discover how Ledger is slowly becoming an important part of Kenna’s life, both would risk losing the trust of everyone important to them.

The two form a connection despite the pressure surrounding them, but as their romance grows, so does the risk. Kenna must find a way to absolve the mistakes of her past in order to build a future out of hope and healing.

Woof! What do you think Kenna went to prison for? What are she and Ledger up to that could ruin their already rocky union? Your guess is as good as mine.

In addition to It Ends With Us and Reminders of Him, Amazon MGM Studios will adapt Hoover’s Verity, with Anne Hathaway in the lead role. Verity follows Verity Crawford, a famous author who is unable to finish her latest thriller novel after a car accident leaves her badly injured and incapacitated. So her husband Jeremy offers a struggling writer named Lowen a huge sum of money to complete the remaining books in the series. Lowen accepts the gig but uncovers dark secrets — including an unfinished manuscript that hints at chilling admissions about Verity and her family’s past — leaving Lowen to determine if Verity is a gifted fictionist or a deranged psychopath.

Hoover’s Regretting You is also getting an adaptation, with Josh Boone directing Mckenna Grace, Allison Williams, and Dave Franco as the lead characters. Regretting You centers on the strained relationship between young mother Morgan Grant and her teenage daughter Clara, exacerbated by Morgan’s husband Chris’s tragic death, forcing them to navigate life’s challenges together.

Boy, oh, boy. Colleen Hoover certainly knows how to write deep-rooted trauma. It’s no wonder people find her stories so compelling. As the project develops, we’ll watch for more news about Vanessa Caswill’s Reminders of Him.

The post An adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s Reminders of Him lands Flea and Gold Digger director Vanessa Caswill appeared first on JoBlo.

PLOT: In the aftermath of WW2, László Tóth (Adrien Brody), a Hungarian-born Jewish architect who survived the holocaust, emigrates to America. While there, he gets a taste of the American dream from a wealthy benefactor (Guy Pearce), although success may carry a price too difficult to bear.

REVIEW: It would be fair to say there hasn’t been a movie like The Brutalist in about forty years. One-time actor Brady Corbet, who emerged as a director following The Childhood of a Leader and the underrated Vox Lux, makes movies in the vein of David Lean, with this telling a deeply personal story on an epic scale the likes of which we haven’t seen in a long time. Shooting in 70mm VistaVision, The Brutalist is a three-and-a-half hour masterwork (with an intermission) that will go a long way towards establishing Corbett as one of the great modern directors. 

Indeed, The Brutalist is a full meal (I skipped all the TIFF screenings after it because I needed to digest what I’d seen for a while). It’s a whole lot of movie, but right from the opening scenes, where Adrien Brody’s Toth arrives at Ellis Island and gets a first glimpse at the Statue of Liberty as Daniel Blumberg’s masterful score blares, you know you’re in the hands of a master of his craft.

Adrien Brody has his best role since The Pianist as Toth, who’s survived the holocaust and now has to make do in an America that views him as an interloper. Going to work for his Americanized cousin (Alessandro Nivola), he gets lucky when he scores a gig designing a library at the urging of a Pennsylvania playboy (Joe Alwyn) who wants to surprise his father (Guy Pearce). When the patriarch sees the Bauhaus-style library, he has a fit but eventually sees the light and becomes Laszlo’s benefactor. 

the brutalist

However, the man, Harrison Lee Van Buren, is a tyrant, castigating Laszlo for employing a black man (Isaac De Bankolé) as his assistant and never letting him forget who his boss is. Brody and Pearce are electric opposite each other, with both clearly relishing sinking their teeth into truly great roles after years of toiling (at times) is smaller-scaled fare. Pearce, in particular, has never played a role like Van Buren, with him hiding his sadism behind a polished mid-Atlantic accent similar to the one used by John Huston when he played one of the screen’s great villains in Chinatown. Pearce plays him as a man of great charisma but little in the way of scruples. Yet, he’s not two-dimensional; he is also capable of great compassion, even if it comes with an asterisk. 

While Brody dominates The Brutalist as Laszlo toils for his place in post-war America, with the wounds of the holocaust driving him towards self-destruction through a horrible heroin habit, he has an amazing foil in this movie. Felicity Jones plays Laszlo’s wife, Erzsébet, who finally rejoins them (with their mute niece – played by Raffey Cassidy- in tow) after many years. While physically weak, with her wheelchair-bound, she’s portrayed as a woman of great intellectual and mental strength. She only shows up in the film’s second half (after its intermission), but she has a few of the film’s most arresting moments.

Corbet, who wrote the movie with his partner Mona Fastvold (an accomplished filmmaker in her own right), does an excellent job crafting an allegorical tale that can be applied to anyone who’s ever struggled to overcome personal trauma by creating meaningful work. Technically, this is impeccable, with cinematography by Lol Crawley that makes the most of the 70mm format and the locations filmed in Budapest, Italy and more. Truly, this is a sprawling work.

The Brutalist was the toast of the Venice Film Festival and is already taking TIFF by storm. If it comes out this year and it’s given a proper push, it would be reasonable to expect it to be a major Oscar contender in most categories, with acting nods a no-brainer for Brody, Pearce and Jones. However, it also demands to be seen theatrically, as more than any movie since Oppenheimer, it’s been designed to be enjoyed as a cinematic event – and those belong on the big screen. Hopefully, audiences can see it how intended, as this is pretty close to being a masterpiece. 


Adrien Brody

AMAZING

9

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Magazine Dreams, Jonathan Majors, release date, Briarcliff Entertainment

After some rearranging, Jonathan Majors’s Magazine Dreams will be released on March 21, 2025, courtesy of Briarcliff Entertainment. Previously, the bodybuilder drama focused on Killian Maddox’s life and struggles premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival with talk of a Best Actor nod at the Oscars for Majors’ powerful performance. Unfortunately, Majors’s Hollywood cache quickly fell when he was found guilty of two misdemeanor counts of assault and harassment against his ex-girlfriend, Grace Jabbari. Searchlight dropped its distribution of Magazine Dreams shortly after Majors’ story made headlines, making Briarcliff Entertainment a knight in shining armor.

On the bright side, audiences will see the hard work of everyone involved with the film early next year. Elijah Bynum directs Magazine Dreams from his script, with Haley Bennett, Taylour Paige, and four-time Mr. Universe Mike O’Hearn co-starring.

“Dozens of incredibly talented people poured their time, energy, and creativity into bringing this film to life, and I am immensely proud of their work,” Bynum said. “I’m grateful to Tom Ortenberg and Briarcliff Entertainment for their unwavering support, passion, and for giving this film the opportunity to reach a wider audience.”

In Magazine Dreams, an amateur bodybuilder (Jonathan Majors) struggles with severe psychological issues while dreaming of stardom. Harrison Page, Harriet Sansom Harris, Haley Bennett, and Michael O’Hearn join Majors as primary cast members. Our own Chris Bumbray experienced the Elijah Bynum-directed film during Sundance, saying it’s “the kind of film that will likely inspire a lot of discourse, with buzz out of Sundance being overwhelmingly positive.”

There’s no telling how audiences will react to Magazine Dreams until the film’s release on March 21. Will the parallels between Maddox’s fragile mental state and Majors’s real-world actions be too similar for audiences to ignore? Most folks have a short memory these days, and if the film is as good as people say it is, Majors could launch a Hollywood comeback. Setting Majors aside, knowing that hundreds of people who worked on the film will see their names in lights is comforting. It takes an army to make a movie of this magnitude, and they all deserve their chance to shine.

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