It’s that time again; Holiday Gift Guide time! We kicked off things with Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals and we will also feature guides on Blu-ray, Box Sets, Collectibles, and Toys! But first, here is our list of the best books to buy for the movie fan in your life (or maybe just for yourself!)
If you’re a geek like me, then you’ve probably got rows upon rows of pop culture books that hold a strong sense of nostalgia and importance to your nerd habits. From written works of fiction, behind-the-scenes art books, movie-related tie-ins, or comics and graphic novels, there’s a bevy of book-bound goods that bring joy and happiness to satiate any fanboy/girl and help fill those lonely shelves. This year is no different, with plenty to offer in all those departments. Take a gander at some of the coolest (and timeliest) books for this Holiday season!
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Last month, the directing duo of Adam Schindler and Brian Netto, who worked with the legendary Sam Raimi on episodes of the Raimi-produced anthology series 50 States of Fright and on the thriller Don’t Move, said that they would like to revive Darkman, the superhero action franchise that Raimi started with his 1990 film of the same name. I said at the time that if Schindler and Netto want to make a Darkman movie, they might have to duel Scare Me and Werewolves Within director Josh Ruben over the project, as Ruben is such a Darkman superfan that he even recorded a fan commentary for a Scream Factory 4K and Blu-ray release… and now, Ruben has taken to social media to share his pitch for a Darkman legacy sequel.
Scripted by Sam Raimi with Chuck Pfarrer, Ivan Raimi, Daniel Goldin, and Joshua Goldin, the original Darkman has the following synopsis: When the laboratory of Dr. Peyton Westlake is blown up by gangsters, he is burned beyond recognition. Altered by an experimental medical procedure, he assumes alternate identities in his quest for revenge. Liam Neeson starred in the original film (and would be interested in returning for a legacy sequel), then the title role was taken over by Arnold Vosloo for two direct-to-video sequels. Raimi has said that Universal has been talking about making another sequel.
Over the course of several posts, Ruben revealed that his approach to telling a new Darkman story would be very different than I ever would have expected, drawing inspiration from the likes of A Nightmare on Elm Street and the recent update of The Invisible Man. He wrote, “I wanted to make a legacy sequel (OK, not that original, but there’s more). I wanted to start this… reimagining? like something else. Darkman is a wild concept and we need a reset, a fresh (new) way in. So… I wanted to position this movie like a paranoid thriller about a sweet young woman tortured by recurring nightmares of a disfigured man. She gradually grows convinced that her nightmares may be manifesting into her real life. (It would be) nightmarish, trippy, colorful, fun, weird. Thing is, our lead is going to find out that her nightmare doesn’t just live in her head. She’s drawing on the real thing. Something tied to her childhood. Her mom tells her all about a paranoid era from her formative years. Kinda like the Summer of Sam. Satanic Panic. The “Stranger Danger” epidemic.
Mom tells her all about the dark figure rumored to be a thing of myth – an anti-hero who did exist to wreak havoc; who terrorized unsavory types, brutalized criminals and such (Raimi did create Darkman after not being able to secure Batman rights after all). The one time Darkman was caught on camera was news footage back in 1990. He ostensibly threw an innocent businessman to his death. I compared his being run out of town like Frankenstein by an angry mob. The businessman? Louis Strack. Mom is rehashing this urban myth is because “The Dark Man” has ostensibly emerged from hiding and he’s killing again. There are witnesses. It hits a city-wide nerve of paranoia. Especially because this guy creates skin-real masks and can look like anyone. How awfully triggering for our hero… …but none more triggering than the nightmare coming home. Darkman (conveniently) kills her sweet mother. Our lead gets a brief, shadowy look at him. And our soft-spoken lead (who I loved imagining as a Kindergarten teacher) SNAPS. She vows vengeance. SHE. IS GOING. TO KILL. DARKMAN. I loved the idea of our lead having a suppressed temper and w/ it a character arc adjacent to Westlake’s in the original. The explosion broke him, made him mad. Here, tragedy breaks her. She’s no longer afraid. She’s gonna go head to head with her nightmare. A fun, mad opportunity for our actress…
The order of events that follow are such that — our hero’s fury gets her into danger. She’s rescued by the REAL Darkman. Think “Scary Logan.” He’s gone gradually mad living underground all these years. He promises he didn’t kill anyone. He didn’t kill her mother. Why would he kill the woman he loves? The real Darkman is Peyton Westlake. Our hero is his daughter. They’ve never met. Julie would never put her child in that kind of danger. What starts as a stalking horror turns into a Universal monsters-esque father daughter love story… And then, a dark superhero film. Scary Batman. The snakes come out of the grass. The WORST level of villains emerge to find and kill the real Darkman – and the only thing he has left. His kid. The Darkman copycat is the daughter of Louis Strack. She works in a burn unit. He’s been providing her burn unit synthetic skin to help patients. He confided in her. Who he is and his only family left. Big mistake.“
What do you think of Josh Ruben’s Darkman legacy sequel pitch? Would you like to see his story brought to the screen, or do you think the Darkman revival should take a different approach? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
This morning saw the announcements of the 40th edition of the Film Independent Spirit Awards. The big picture nominees include titles like the film festival darling The Substance, as well as Anora, which is getting high accolades for Mikey Madison‘s performance and Sean Baker’s writing and direction. A24 would naturally snag a ton of nominations that total a whopping 19. This beats last year’s 11-nomination count.
The Independent Spirit Awards will be taking place on Saturday, February 22, 2025, and is set to be held at Santa Monica beach. Former Saturday Night Live cast member Aidy Bryant will return as the host. The in-person ceremony will be available to stream live on IMDb and Film Independent YouTube channels, and across other social platforms. You can find the full list of nominations, courtesy of Deadline, below.
BEST FEATURE (Award given to the producer)
Anora Producers: Sean Baker, Alex Coco, Samantha Quan
I Saw the TV Glow Producers: Ali Herting, Sam Intili, Dave McCary, Emma Stone, Sarah Winshall
Nickel Boys Producers: Joslyn Barnes, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, David Levine
Sing Sing Producers: Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar, Monique Walton
The Substance Producers: Tim Bevan, Coralie Fargeat, Eric Fellner
BEST FIRST FEATURE (Award given to director and producer)
Dìdi Director/Producer: Sean Wang Producers: Valerie Bush, Carlos López Estrada, Josh Peters
In the Summers Director: Alessandra Lacorazza Samudio Producers: Janek Ambros, Lynette Coll, Alexander Dinelaris, Cynthia Fernandez De La Cruz, Cristóbal Güell, Sergio Alberto Lira, Rob Quadrino, Jan Suter, Daniel Tantalean, Nando Vila, Slava Vladimirov, Stephanie Yankwitt
Janet Planet Director/Producer: Annie Baker Producers: Andrew Goldman, Dan Janvey, Derrick Tseng
The Piano Lesson Director: Malcolm Washington Producers: Todd Black, Denzel Washington
Problemista Director/Producer: Julio Torres Producers: Ali Herting, Dave McCary, Emma Stone
JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD – Given to the best feature made for under $1,000,000. (Award given to the writer, director, and producer)
Big Boys Writer/Director/Producer: Corey Sherman Producer: Allison Tate
Ghostlight Writer/Director: Kelly O’Sullivan Director/Producer: Alex Thompson Producers: Pierce Cravens, Ian Keiser, Chelsea Krant, Eddie Linker, Alex Wilson
Girls Will Be Girls Writer/Director/Producer: Shuchi Talati Producers: Richa Chadha, Claire Chassagne
Jazzy Writer/Director/Producer: Morrisa Maltz Writer/Producer: Lainey Shangreaux Writers: Andrew Hajek, Vanara Taing Producers: Miranda Bailey, Tommy Heitkamp, John Way, Natalie Whalen, Elliott Whitton
The People’s Joker Writer/Director: Vera Drew Writer: Bri LeRose Producer: Joey Lyons
BEST DIRECTOR
Ali Abbasi The Apprentice
Sean Baker Anora
Brady Corbet The Brutalist
Alonso Ruizpalacios La Cocina
Jane Schoenbrun I Saw the TV Glow
BEST SCREENPLAY
Scott Beck, Bryan Woods Heretic
Jesse Eisenberg A Real Pain
Megan Park My Old Ass
Aaron Schimberg A Different Man
Jane Schoenbrun I Saw the TV Glow
BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY
Joanna Arnow The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed
Annie Baker Janet Planet
India Donaldson Good One
Julio Torres Problemista
Sean Wang Dìdi
BEST LEAD PERFORMANCE
Amy Adams Nightbitch
Ryan Destiny The Fire Inside
Colman Domingo Sing Sing
Keith Kupferer Ghostlight
Mikey Madison Anora
Demi Moore The Substance
Hunter Schafer Cuckoo
Justice Smith I Saw the TV Glow
June Squibb Thelma
Sebastian Stan The Apprentice
BEST SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE
Yura Borisov Anora
Joan Chen Dìdi
Kieran Culkin A Real Pain
Danielle Deadwyler The Piano Lesson
Carol Kane Between the Temples
Karren Karagulian Anora
Kani Kusruti Girls Will Be Girls
Brigette Lundy-Paine I Saw the TV Glow
Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin Sing Sing
Adam Pearson A Different Man
BEST BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE
Isaac Krasner Big Boys
Katy O’Brian Love Lies Bleeding
Mason Alexander Park National Anthem
René Pérez Joglar In the Summers
Maisy Stella My Old Ass
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Dinh Duy Hung Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell
Jomo Fray Nickel Boys
Maria von Hausswolff Janet Planet
Juan Pablo Ramírez La Cocina
Rina Yang The Fire Inside
BEST EDITING
Laura Colwell, Vanara Taing Jazzy
Olivier Bugge Coutté, Olivia Neergaard-Holm The Apprentice
Anne McCabe Nightbitch
Hansjörg Weissbrich September 5
Arielle Zakowski Dìdi
ROBERT ALTMAN AWARD – Given to one film’s director, casting director, and ensemble cast
His Three Daughters Director: Azazel Jacobs Casting Director: Nicole Arbusto Ensemble Cast: Jovan Adepo, Jasmine Bracey, Carrie Coon, Jose Febus, Rudy Galvan, Natasha Lyonne, Elizabeth Olsen, Randy Ramos Jr., Jay O. Sanders
BEST DOCUMENTARY (Award given to the director and producer)
Gaucho Gaucho Directors/Producers: Michael Dweck, Gregory Kershaw Producers: Christos Konstantakopoulos, Cameron O’Reilly, Matthew Perniciaro
Hummingbirds Directors: Silvia Del Carmen Castaños, Estefanía “Beba” Contreras Co-Directors/Producers: Miguel Drake-McLaughlin, Diane Ng, Ana Rodriguez-Falco, Jillian Schlesinger Producers: Leslie Benavides, Rivkah Beth Medow
No Other Land Directors/Producers: Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel Szor Producers: Fabien Greenberg, Bård Kjøge Rønning
Patrice: The Movie Director: Ted Passon Producers: Kyla Harris, Innbo Shim, Emily Spivack
Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat Director: Johan Grimonprez Producers: Rémi Grellety, Daan Milius
BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM (Award given to the director)
All We Imagine as Light France, India, Netherlands, Luxembourg Director: Payal Kapadia
Black Dog China Director: Guan Hu
Flow Latvia, France, Belgium Director: Gints Zilbalodis
Green Border Poland, France, Czech Republic, Belgium Director: Agnieszka Holland
Hard Truths United Kingdom Director: Mike Leigh
PRODUCERS AWARD – The Producers Award, now in its 28th year, honors emerging producers who, despite highly limited resources, demonstrate the creativity, tenacity, and vision required to produce quality independent films.
Alex Coco Sarah Winshall Zoë Worth
SOMEONE TO WATCH AWARD – The Someone to Watch Award, now in its 31st year, recognizes a talented filmmaker of singular vision who has not yet received appropriate recognition.
Nicholas Colia Director of Griffin in Summer
Sarah Friedland Director of Familiar Touch
Pham Thien An Director of Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell
TRUER THAN FICTION AWARD – The Truer Than Fiction Award, now in its 30th year, is presented to an emerging director of non-fiction features who has not yet received significant recognition.
Julian Brave NoiseCat, Emily Kassie Directors of Sugarcane
Carla Gutiérrez Director of Frida
Rachel Elizabeth Seed Director of A Photographic Memory
BEST NEW NON-SCRIPTED OR DOCUMENTARY SERIES (Award given to the Creator, Executive Producer, Co-Executive Producer)
Erased: WW2’s Heroes of Color Executive Producers: Idris Elba, Johanna Woolford Gibbon, Jamilla Dumbuya, Jos Cushing, Khaled Gad, Matt Robins, Chris Muckle, Sean David Johnson, Simon Raikes Co-Executive Producer: Annabel Hobley
Hollywood Black Executive Producers: Shayla Harris, Dave Sirulnick, Stacey Reiss, Jon Kamen, Justin Simien, Kyle Laursen, Forest Whitaker, Nina Yang Bongiovi, Jeffrey Schwarz, Amy Goodman Kass, Michael Wright, Jill Burkhart Co-Executive Producers: David C. Brown, Laurens Grant
Photographer Executive Producers: Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin, Pagan Harleman, Betsy Forhan Co-Executive Producers: Anna Barnes, Brent Kunkle
Ren Faire Executive Producers: Ronald Bronstein, Benny Safdie, Josh Safdie, Eli Bush, Dani Bernfeld, Lance Oppenheim, David Gauvey Herbert, Nancy Abraham, Lisa Heller, Sara Rodriguez Co-Executive Producers: Abigail Rowe, Christian Vasquez, Max Allman
Social Studies Creator/Executive Producer: Lauren Greenfield Executive Producers: Wallis Annenberg, Regina K. Scully, Andrea van Beuren, Frank Evers, Caryn Capotosto
BEST NEW SCRIPTED SERIES (Award given to the Creator, Executive Producer, Co-Executive Producer) Baby Reindeer Creator/Executive Producer: Richard Gadd Executive Producers: Wim De Greef, Petra Fried, Matt Jarvis, Ed Macdonald
Diarra From Detroit Creator/Executive Producer: Diarra Kilpatrick Executive Producers: Kenya Barris, Miles Orion Feldsott, Darren Goldberg Co-Executive Producers: Ester Lou, Mark Ganek
English Teacher Creator/Executive Producer: Brian Jordan Alvarez Executive Producers: Paul Simms, Jonathan Krisel, Dave King Co-Executive Producers: Kathryn Dean, Jake Bender, Zach Dunn
Fantasmas Creator/Executive Producer: Julio Torres Executive Producers: Emma Stone, Dave McCary, Olivia Gerke, Alex Bach, Daniel Powell Co-Executive Producer: Ali Herting
Shōgun Creators/Executive Producers: Rachel Kondo, Justin Marks Executive Producers: Edward L. McDonnell, Michael De Luca, Michaela Clavell Co-Executive Producers: Shannon Goss, Andrew Macdonald, Allon ReichBEST LEAD PERFORMANCE IN A NEW SCRIPTED SERIES Brian Jordan Alvarez English Teacher
Richard Gadd Baby Reindeer
Lily Gladstone Under the Bridge
Kathryn Hahn Agatha All Along
Cristin Milioti The Penguin
Julianne Moore Mary & George
Hiroyuki Sanada Shōgun
Anna Sawai Shōgun
Andrew Scott Ripley
Julio Torres Fantasmas
BEST SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE IN A NEW SCRIPTED SERIES Tadanobu Asano Shōgun
Enrico Colantoni English Teacher
Betty Gilpin Three Women
Chloe Guidry Under the Bridge
Moeka Hoshi Shōgun
Stephanie Koenig English Teacher
Patti LuPone Agatha All Along
Nava Mau Baby Reindeer
Ruth Negga Presumed Innocent
Brian Tee Expats
BEST BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE IN A NEW SCRIPTED SERIES Jessica Gunning Baby Reindeer
Diarra Kilpatrick Diarra From Detroit
Joe Locke Agatha All Along
Megan Stott Penelope
Hoa Xuande The Sympathizer
BEST ENSEMBLE CAST IN A NEW SCRIPTED SERIES How to Die Alone Ensemble Cast: Melissa DuPrey, Jaylee Hamidi, KeiLyn Durrel Jones, Arkie Kandola, Elle Lorraine, Michelle McLeod, Chris “CP” Powell, Conrad Ricamora, Natasha Rothwell, Jocko Sims
Taika Waititi‘s resume before Thor: Ragnarok doesn’t suggest he would ever be put on the path to helm a multi-million dollar franchise as part of a multi-billion dollar universe in Hollywood. The New Zealand director was famous for his quirky comedies like HBO’s Flight of the Conchords, What We Do in the Shadows and Hunt for the Wilderpeople. He brought a lot of his signature dry humor to Ragnarok with great acclaim, then a whiplash in reception would seem to happen when the consensus was that he brought too much of it for the follow-up Thor: Love and Thunder.
Entertainment Weekly recently sat down with Waititi for a retrospective of his career and he would reflect on the initial reaction that he was going to ruin the Thor franchise. Waititi remembered, “That really propelled me into the nerdosphere, if you will. I was living a really lovely, peaceful life, and as soon as I did this, well boy, did the nerds come for me. They said, ‘This guy’s gonna ruin this. He’s gonna ruin Thor!’” He, then, took a job at the least well-received entry at the time, Thor: The Dark World, “It’s like, ‘What, you mean again?’ And they were like, ‘He’s gonna ruin this for everyone, Thor’s so cool!’ And I said to them on Twitter — before I left Twitter — I said, ‘You don’t know what you want until I give it to you.’”
While Waititi wouldn’t go into depth about what he thought about Love and Thunder, he did run down a list of the things from that entry that he was fond of, “Look how jacked Chris got. One of my favorite things about this is that I so love Natalie [Portman]. Also, Christian Bale. I mean, it’s Christian Bale. Also, Guns N’ Roses, a lot of the songs. I did meet Axl Rose once, actually. He had a lot of stories to tell, which I will not share.”
Last year, Taika would get candid about his real reasoning for joining the MCU as he hadn’t aspired to become a big Hollywood director, but he needed the money. He explained, “You know what? I had no interest in doing one of those films. It wasn’t on my plan for my career as an auteur. But I was poor and I’d just had a second child, and I thought, ‘You know what, this would be a great opportunity to feed these children.’” Waititi added, “And Thor, let’s face it — it was probably the least popular franchise. I never read Thor comics as a kid. That was the comic I’d pick up and be like ‘Ugh.’ And then I did some research on it, and I read one Thor comic or 18 pages, or however long they are.” However, he did find it to be a valuable experience, “But I love Marvel, I love working with them. I love Chris [Hemsworth]. We’re in an open relationship and it’s like, if they want to see other people I’m happy for that. I’d still get back into bed with them one day.”
It took thirty-six years, but director Tim Burton finally got around to making a sequel to his 1988 hit Beetlejuice – and with that sequel, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, having made over $450 million at the global box office, it wouldn’t be surprising to hear that Warner Bros. wants another sequel. Burton has said not to expect Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Beetlejuice from him… but perhaps he could be persuaded. We’ll have to wait and see. In the meantime, Burton has completely ruled out the idea of making sequels to two other films on his résumé, Edward Scissorhands and The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Speaking with IndieWire, Burton said, “There are certain films I don’t want to make a sequel to. I didn’t want to make a sequel to (Edward Scissorhands) because it felt like a one-off thing. I didn’t want to have a sequel for The Nightmare Before Christmas because it also felt like a one-off thing. Certain things are best left on their own and that for me is one of them.“
Burton directed the 1990 film Edward Scissorhands from a script he crafted with novelist Caroline Thompson. The synopsis: A scientist builds an animated human being, the gentle Edward, but dies before he can finish assembling him. This leaves the young man with a freakish appearance accentuated by the scissor blades he has instead of hands. Loving suburban saleswoman Peg discovers Edward and takes him home, where he falls for Peg’s teen daughter. However, despite his kindness and artistic talent, Edward’s hands make him an outcast. The film stars Johnny Depp, Winona Ryder, Dianne Wiest, Anthony Michael Hall, Kathy Baker, Vincent Price, and Alan Arkin.
Although The Nightmare Before Christmas is often mistakenly referred to as one of Burton’s directorial efforts, the stop-motion animated movie was actually directed by Henry Selick. Burton produced it and came up with the story, which was then fleshed out by writers Michael McDowell (who also worked on Beetlejuice) and Caroline Thompson. The film follows the misadventures of Jack Skellington, Halloweentown’s beloved pumpkin king, who has become bored with the same annual routine of frightening people in the “real world.” When Jack accidentally stumbles on Christmastown, all bright colors and warm spirits, he gets a new lease on life. He plots to bring Christmas under his control by kidnapping Santa Claus and taking over the role. But Jack soon discovers even the best-laid plans of mice and skeleton men can go seriously awry. Chris Sarandon, Danny Elfman, Catherine O’Hara, William Hickey, Glenn Shadix, Paul Reubens, Ken Page, Ed Ivory, and Joe Ranft provided the vocal performances.
Burton passionately spoke out against the idea of any further stories being told in the world of The Nightmare Before Christmaslast year, despite the fact that Selick and Sarandon have both expressed interest in making a prequel.
What do you think of Tim Burton ruling out any sort of follow-ups to Edward Scissorhands or The Nightmare Before Christmas? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
One of the many great things Dragon Age: The Veilguard has to offer is its robust character creator. It’s so thorough that some players have spent dozens of hours creating and perfecting their versions of protagonist Rook, as well as the Inquisitor, their hero from Dragon Age: Inquisition. Leading up to launch, fans…
One of the many great things Dragon Age: The Veilguard has to offer is its robust character creator. It’s so thorough that some players have spent dozens of hours creating and perfecting their versions of protagonist Rook, as well as the Inquisitor, their hero from Dragon Age: Inquisition. Leading up to launch, fans…
Sean Penn would like to thank the Academy…for nothing. Despite two Best Actor Oscars — putting him in the company of Marlon Brando and Gary Cooper — Sean Penn is calling out AMPAS for their lack of risk taking.
It’s been more than 15 years since Sean Penn won his last Oscar (for Milk; he won his first for Mystic River), but he keeps himself in the loop enough to have some thoughts on how simple the Academy can be in their choices. “The Academy have exercised really extraordinary cowardice when it comes to being part of the bigger world of expression, and in fact, have largely been part of limiting the imagination and very limiting of different cultural expressions.”
So what does Sean Penn hope to see at this year’s Oscars? Surprisingly, he has some high expectations with what is currently projected to score some major nominations. “I don’t I get very excited about what we’ll call the Academy Awards [except for] when a film like ‘The Florida Project,’ or ‘I’m Still Here,’ or, you know, ‘Emilia Pérez,’ of the things that are likely to happen this year.” Right now, Emilia Pérez is poised to land a slew of nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director (Jacques Audiard) and Best Actress (Karla Sofía Gascón), with Zoe Saldana possibly even looking at a Best Supporting Actress win (yeah, there’s a little bit of category controversy there…). Speaking of The Florida Project, Sean Baker’s latest film, Anora, is also shaping up to capitalize on its Palme d’Or win. You can read our 9/10 review here.
Sean Penn also took the stance that the Oscars should be seen as a “television show first”, suggesting winning a statue doesn’t have the prestige that most think it does. Penn might have a point overall, as a lot of people tend to think that there is still so much campaigning and “buying” of votes that it complicates the whole scene, while there’s also the argument of how you can compare one performance to another. But it’s hard to deny that the Academy Award is still — and always will be — seen as the highest accolade in cinema.
Nomination for the 97th Academy Awards will be announced on January 17th, while the ceremony itself takes place on March 2nd, with Conan O’Brien as host. Just like Sean Penn said: television show first!
What do you make of Sean Penn’s comments about the Oscars?
The Prime Video TV series adaptation of the popular Fallout video game franchise already had a second season in the works before the first season even started streaming – which turned out to be a good move, because Fallout quickly became Prime Video’s second most-watched title (after The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power), drawing in 65 million viewers in its first 16 days of release. Now, we’ve learned that Fallout season 2 has started filming, and we’ve been tipped off by the fact that Walton Goggins, who plays The Ghoul, shared an image on social media that shows him getting back into Ghoul character.
Like the video games on which it is based, the “Fallout” series is set in a world where the future envisioned by Americans in the late 1940s explodes upon itself through a nuclear war in 2077. The TV series is telling an original story that is set in the world of the video games and will be canon to the game franchise. The story plays out in and around a fallout shelter in Los Angeles called Vault 33.
In addition to Fallout, Fallout 2, Fallout 3, and Fallout 4, the video game series also consists of the spin-offs Fallout: New Vegas, Fallout 76, Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel, Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel, Fallout Shelter, and Fallout Pinball. The first game takes place 219 years after nuclear war and is set in a post-apocalyptic Southern California. The protagonist, referred to as the Vault Dweller, is tasked with recovering a water chip in the Wasteland to replace the broken one in their underground shelter home, Vault 13. Afterwards, the Vault Dweller must thwart the plans of a group of mutants, led by a grotesque entity named the Master.
Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner are the showrunners on the Fallout TV series and are executive producing the series with Todd Howard of Bethesda Game Studios, James Altman of Bethesda Softworks, and Athena Wickham, Jonathan Nolan, and Lisa Joy of Kilter Films. Amazon Studios and Kilter Films are producing the series, in association with Bethesda Game Studios and Bethesda Softworks. Nolan and Joy developed the concept for TV, and Nolan directed the first three episodes.
Prime Video’s Fallout stars Ella Purnell (Yellowjackets), Kyle MacLachlan (Twin Peaks), Walton Goggins (Justified), Xelia Mendes-Jones (Sans Comic), Aaron Moten (Father Stu), Moisés Arias (The King of Staten Island), Sarita Choudhury (Homeland), Michael Emerson (Person of Interest), Leslie Uggams (Deadpool), Frances Turner (The Boys), Dave Register (Heightened), Zach Cherry (Severance), Johnny Pemberton (Ant-Man), Rodrigo Luzzi (Dead Ringers), and Annabel O’Hagan (Law & Order: SVU).
Purnell’s character is Lucy, who has lived her entire life inside a subterranean vault, where every need and want has been satisfied while generations and generations await the day when it is safe to surface. When a crisis forces Lucy to venture above on a rescue mission, she finds that the planet above remains a hellscape crawling with giant insects, voracious mutant animal “abominations,” and a human population of sunbaked miscreants who make the manners, morals, and hygiene of the gunslinging Old West look like Downton Abbey. Moten’s character is Maximus, who grew up aboveground but, like Lucy, was also raised in a cloistered “family” of sorts—a brutal collective of warriors called the Brotherhood of Steel. The Brotherhood is made up of battalions of super-soldier knights in shining power armor, who stalk the landscape enforcing the Brotherhood’s notion of order. Maximus serves as a squire. MacLachlan plays Lucy’s father, the overseer of Vault 33, which essentially makes him the mayor of their hometown, while Choudhury is a different kind of leader in this world, willing to sacrifice anything for her band of people. Arias plays Lucy’s inquisitive brother. Emerson is an enigmatic researcher named Wilzig.
As Vanity Fair noted, “in the Fallout games, Ghouls are typically cannon fodder, mindless zombies whose bodies have been mutated by radiation.” Goggins’ character is Cooper Howard, a legendary Ghoul who still retains some of the person he used to be. He’s “a gruesomely scarred roughrider who has a code of honor, but also a ruthless streak. He’s also quite a survivor—having existed for hundreds of years. The show occasionally flashes back to the human being he once was, a father and husband named Cooper Howard, before the nuclear holocaust turned the world into a cinder and transformed him into an undead, noseless sharp-shooting fiend.“
Joining the cast for Fallout season 2 is Home Alone star Macaulay Culkin, who will be playing the recurring role of “a crazy genius-type character.”
Are you a Fallout fan, and are you glad to hear Fallout season 2 is now filming? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
Whether through isolation, financial uncertainty, grief or trepidation over whether life would ever feel the same, the pandemic did a number on all of us. For many artists, there was the added challenge of losing access to the resources needed to make new work, but for some, seeing through their sudden and random bouts of creativity became somewhat a necessity. This was the case for Sam Crane and Mark Oosterveen, two out-of-work actors who, during the UK’s third lockdown, decided to mount a production of Shakespeare’s Hamlet entirely within the virtual world of Grand Theft Auto Online.
We follow Crane and Oosterveen’s avatars who are joined by Crane’s wife, filmmaker Pinny Grylls, her avatar documenting their pursuit with an in-game phone camera. There is much to enjoy in the anarchy of this film, the unsuspecting players that show up to audition while dodging the bullets coming at them from all directions, and the moments of earnest connection and serendipity borne out of banding together to pull this crazy thing off.
The film’s spontaneous spirit is muddied by a sense that some ideas are retroactively staged (like when Crane and Grylls, who live together, have an in-game domestic over how this project is taking over life commitments), but what ultimately stays with you is the actor duo’s commendable ability to find inspiration and poetic gravitas in silliness, horseplay and tomfoolery, even (and especially) in the darkest of times.
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