Martin Campbell is an outstanding action orchestrator on the silver screen, having directed films like Goldeneye, Casino Royale, and Verticle Limit. He’s ready to cut to the quick with concise shooting and cuts that allow the impact on-screen to reverberate in your bones. His latest action-oriented feature for Lionsgate, Dirty Angels, takes a more grounded approach to the genre, with Eva Green, Maria Bakalova, and others fighting for the safe return of a group of women taken hostage by ISIS.
We are delighted to be in Martin Campbell and Maria Bakalova’s company for this exclusive interview, which focuses on Dirty Angels and their excitement about working together on a gripping action blockbuster. During our conversation, Campbell talks about wanting to make a realistic female-led action movie that doesn’t have the group doing unconvincing feats. Campbell wants Dirty Angels to appear raw, grounded, and brutal.
We also discuss how Maria Bakalova is excited about her first real-deal action role and to kick ass alongside Eva Green, Ruby Rose, Jojo T. Gibbs, and Rona-Lee Shimon. She also says working with Campbell is a thrill after he made her favorite James Bond film, Casino Royale.
“From Martin Campbell, director of Casino Royale, comes this tense action-thriller,” reads Lionsgate’s official synopsis for Dirty Angels. “When a group of schoolgirls is taken hostage in Afghanistan, an American soldier named Jake (Eva Green) joins a unit of all-women commandos to liberate them. The plan: Gain the trust of the terrorists by posing as members of a relief organization. But double-crosses, tragedies, and the ghosts of Jake’s past complicate the rescue in this do-or-die mission.”
Dirty Angels goes behind enemy lines and into theaters, Digital, and On Demand on December 13, 2024.
Plot: A new adult-animated anthology series featuring original stories set within the worlds of some of the world’s most beloved video games. From the creative minds behind LOVE, DEATH + ROBOTS, each of the 15 episodes is a celebration of games and gamers.
Review: Deadpool director Tim Miller is a major animation supporter and spent a decade trying to bring a new feature film anthology based on the cult classic film Heavy Metal, based on the long-running magazine of the same name, to the big screen. When that project failed to come together, Miller helped develop Love, Death + Robots at Netflix, a concept similar to Heavy Metal but with a focus on contemporary animation styles. The three-volume animated anthology was popular with genre fans and had some cross-over appeal with mainstream audiences. Miller aims to reach a different subculture with animated shorts collected in the new Prime Video series Secret Level. Each of the fifteen short films in the series, which will debut with two films a week, is based on a popular video game. Secret Level is an ambitious and diverse mix of stories in various styles, with some source material debuting in the 1970s and others hitting computers and consoles just in the last few years. While some of the films are innovative, others are pretty generic and cliche-ridden, resulting in a series that is not nearly as cool as it could have been.
Having seen the entirety of Secret Level‘s first season, I enjoyed some more entries than others. While I have an affinity for some of the games and have never played others, I found that the episodes that worked better for me were the ones that tried to exist within the world of the game that inspired it. As the title alludes, Secret Level is designed to be viewed like chapters from video game universes not seen in the games themselves or experienced from a different vantage point. Most of the films in this volume of Secret Level have the unwieldy challenge of condensing the full mythology of a game into less than twenty minutes of running time, a daunting task for any short film. That means that some of these shorts end up feeling like little more than extended cut scenes rather than a well-rounded film that can be enjoyed on its own. Of course, fans of each specific game may enjoy the films more because it is a new foray into that world, but it is confusing for the average viewer.
While knowing the games is secondary to enjoying these shorts, the animation steals the show here. Aside from the film set in the world of Sifu, every Secret Level chapter uses photorealistic CGI. Most of the episodes have human characters with varying degrees of realistic visuals, with some chapters, namely the episodes based on The Outer Worlds, Mega Man, and Unreal Tournament, opting for a slightly more cartoonish look. In some episodes, the actor portraying the character is clearly a model for the animators, especially the Armored Core episode, which showcases an uncannily accurate avatar of Keanu Reeves and the New World film, which slightly alters the character of King Aelstrom from Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s youthful appearance. Most of the episodes have recognizable talent, including Kevin Hart, Claudia Doumit, Michael Beach, Temuera Morrison, and more. Still, most of the characters are not based on the actor’s physical appearance. The double-edged sword lies in the uncanny valley effect, which has diminished in the last decade as animation advances. However, there is still something a little off in how the photorealistic characters display facial expressions.
The short running time for each film ranges from seven minutes to almost twenty, but the length does not seem to be a determining quality factor. The Pac-Man film “Circle” clocks in at ten minutes and may be the best entry in Secret Level. By using the classic arcade game as a starting point, directors Victor Maldonado and Alfredo Torres craft a body horror story that is very far from pastel ghosts and eating round spheres. The Mega Man film, “Start”, also clocks in at less than ten minutes but feels like a tease of a longer film we never get. The Armored Core film “Asset Management” gives us a great performance from Keanu Reeves that is very different from what we usually see from the actor but also feels like it is part one of a longer movie. In contrast, the films inspired by The Outer Worlds and Warhammer 40,000 work without needing any context of the larger game narrative, while the Dungeons & Dragons, Unreal Tournament, and Crossfire films only work for those intimately familiar with the source material.
With a wide range of animation houses working on these shorts, including Digic Pictures, Platige Image, Illusorium, Unit Image, Blur Studio, and more, it is exciting to see a platform for animators outside the big studio productions. More than half of the series is written by J.T. Petty or Justin Rhodes, and creator and producer Tim Miller does not have a directorial or writing credit for any of the episodes. What is striking is that with over a dozen films included, Secret Level does not boast much variety in visual style or storytelling. The weakest episodes of Secret Level are the ones that do not do much besides painstakingly creating a world but fail to give it any life. The Crossfire film “Good Conflict” is a prime example, as it tells a story about mercenaries facing off against armed soldiers in a rain-soaked urban environment. It looks good, but the story is forgettable and unengaging. Others, like The Outer Worlds short “The Company We Keep,” exist within the world of the video game but forge a wholly original story that adds to the games without relying on them.
Secret Level is a cool concept that should have been much better than it is. Thankfully, each short film requires minimal investment, which may also contribute to what is so underwhelming about it. With technology allowing for video games to feature cutscenes that rival even big-budget movies, these films do not separate themselves from what video games have already done. A lot of the games that inspired these stories are first-person shooters, which makes telling an engaging story all the more difficult, with only a few succeeding. Many of the more recognizable video game franchises are too lucrative to have been fodder for Secret Level. Still, I could name two dozen games that would have been better jumping-off points for films in this anthology. For Secret Level to warrant a second volume of films, I would hope Tim Miller and his creative team would opt for a wider range of game styles and animation approaches to avoid every episode looking like guns, swords, and robots. He already made that series for Netflix.
Secret Level premieres with the first eight episodes starting December 10thon Prime Video with the remaining seven debuting on December 17th.
Plot: A new adult-animated anthology series featuring original stories set within the worlds of some of the world’s most beloved video games. From the creative minds behind LOVE, DEATH + ROBOTS, each of the 15 episodes is a celebration of games and gamers.
Review: Deadpool director Tim Miller is a major animation supporter and spent a decade trying to bring a new feature film anthology based on the cult classic film Heavy Metal, based on the long-running magazine of the same name, to the big screen. When that project failed to come together, Miller helped develop Love, Death + Robots at Netflix, a concept similar to Heavy Metal but with a focus on contemporary animation styles. The three-volume animated anthology was popular with genre fans and had some cross-over appeal with mainstream audiences. Miller aims to reach a different subculture with animated shorts collected in the new Prime Video series Secret Level. Each of the fifteen short films in the series, which will debut with two films a week, is based on a popular video game. Secret Level is an ambitious and diverse mix of stories in various styles, with some source material debuting in the 1970s and others hitting computers and consoles just in the last few years. While some of the films are innovative, others are pretty generic and cliche-ridden, resulting in a series that is not nearly as cool as it could have been.
Having seen the entirety of Secret Level‘s first season, I enjoyed some more entries than others. While I have an affinity for some of the games and have never played others, I found that the episodes that worked better for me were the ones that tried to exist within the world of the game that inspired it. As the title alludes, Secret Level is designed to be viewed like chapters from video game universes not seen in the games themselves or experienced from a different vantage point. Most of the films in this volume of Secret Level have the unwieldy challenge of condensing the full mythology of a game into less than twenty minutes of running time, a daunting task for any short film. That means that some of these shorts end up feeling like little more than extended cut scenes rather than a well-rounded film that can be enjoyed on its own. Of course, fans of each specific game may enjoy the films more because it is a new foray into that world, but it is confusing for the average viewer.
While knowing the games is secondary to enjoying these shorts, the animation steals the show here. Aside from the film set in the world of Sifu, every Secret Level chapter uses photorealistic CGI. Most of the episodes have human characters with varying degrees of realistic visuals, with some chapters, namely the episodes based on The Outer Worlds, Mega Man, and Unreal Tournament, opting for a slightly more cartoonish look. In some episodes, the actor portraying the character is clearly a model for the animators, especially the Armored Core episode, which showcases an uncannily accurate avatar of Keanu Reeves and the New World film, which slightly alters the character of King Aelstrom from Arnold Schwarzenegger’s youthful appearance. Most of the episodes have recognizable talent, including Kevin Hart, Claudia Doumit, Michael Beach, Temuera Morrison, and more. Still, most of the characters are not based on the actor’s physical appearance. The double-edged sword lies in the uncanny valley effect, which has diminished in the last decade as animation advances. However, there is still something a little off in how the photorealistic characters display facial expressions.
The short running time for each film ranges from seven minutes to almost twenty, but the length does not seem to be a determining quality factor. The Pac-Man film “Circle” clocks in at ten minutes and may be the best entry in Secret Level. By using the classic arcade game as a starting point, directors Victor Maldonado and Alfredo Torres craft a body horror story that is very far from pastel ghosts and eating round spheres. The Mega Man film, “Start”, also clocks in at less than ten minutes but feels like a tease of a longer film we never get. The Armored Core film “Asset Management” gives us a great performance from Keanu Reeves that is very different from what we usually see from the actor but also feels like it is part one of a longer movie. In contrast, the films inspired by The Outer Worlds and Warhammer 40,000 work without needing any context of the larger game narrative, while the Dungeons & Dragons, Unreal Tournament, and Crossfire films only work for those intimately familiar with the source material.
With a wide range of animation houses working on these shorts, including Digic Pictures, Platige Image, Illusorium, Unit Image, Blur Studio, and more, it is exciting to see a platform for animators outside the big studio productions. More than half of the series is written by J.T. Petty or Justin Rhodes, and creator and producer Tim Miller does not have a directorial or writing credit for any of the episodes. What is striking is that with over a dozen films included, Secret Level does not boast much variety in visual style or storytelling. The weakest episodes of Secret Level are the ones that do not do much besides painstakingly creating a world but fail to give it any life. The Crossfire film “Good Conflict” is a prime example, as it tells a story about mercenaries facing off against armed soldiers in a rain-soaked urban environment. It looks good, but the story is forgettable and unengaging. Others, like The Outer Worlds short “The Company We Keep,” exist within the world of the video game but forge a wholly original story that adds to the games without relying on them.
Secret Level is a cool concept that should have been much better than it is. Thankfully, each short film requires minimal investment, which may also contribute to what is so underwhelming about it. With technology allowing for video games to feature cutscenes that rival even big-budget movies, these films do not separate themselves from what video games have already done. A lot of the games that inspired these stories are first-person shooters, which makes telling an engaging story all the more difficult, with only a few succeeding. Many of the more recognizable video game franchises are too lucrative to have been fodder for Secret Level. Still, I could name two dozen games that would have been better jumping-off points for films in this anthology. For Secret Level to warrant a second volume of films, I would hope Tim Miller and his creative team would opt for a wider range of game styles and animation approaches to avoid every episode looking like guns, swords, and robots. He already made that series for Netflix.
Secret Level premieres with the first eight episodes starting December 10th on Prime Video with the remaining seven debuting on December 17th.
Taylor Sheridan’s newest show, Landman, follows his motif of powerful industries and the politics that shape certain aspects of how things are run in today’s hectic world. From Sicario to Yellowstone, his writing also tend to present the drama as kind of a modern day western. His newest Paramount+ series takes a look at the world of the oil business. Some controversy has been stirred up as a season one episode featured a speech about how the ideal fight against using fossil fuels is quite an uphill battle. It was a speech that seemed to have caused some talkback from viewers.
Collider reports on the show’s star, Billy Bob Thornton, as he addresses the reactions to Deadline. Thornton was inquired if Sheridan had worked his views into the show perhaps too overtly, to which Thornton replied, “There’s another side to this, and here’s what it is. People more so these days than ever watch movies or TV or listen to music and read novels from the point of view of their own agenda. I mean, if you’re doing a movie about a serial killer and the guy plays an amazing serial killer, it’s not like they’re saying we’re promoting serial killers. We’re just showing you a piece of entertainment that’s supposed to move you in some way or entertain you in some way.”
Thornton’s defense was that the show emphasized that it’s important to look at all sides of an issue, no matter how uncomfortable. Additionally, some have pointed to the scene of getting statistics incorrect, although in the grand scheme of things, Thornton thinks the controversial scene will get people thinking and talking about the issue despite the details given in the speech. He stated, “I think you just have to watch this as a thing that presents to you how it works in the oil business. That speech stirred up controversy, which of course is always good for a piece of entertainment in our world. It stirred up controversy because some people said, those statistics aren’t right. And then some other PhD says, well, actually they are. So it starts a conversation, which I think is always a good thing.”
Narnia’s been done. First as a set of BBC movies and later as an incomplete set of Hollywood blockbusters amid the Harry Potter-fueled YA fiction adaptation goldrush. So if it’s going to come back, it might as well be a completely different spin on the C.S. Lewis books about kids, witches, and talking lions.
Narnia’s been done. First as a set of BBC movies and later as an incomplete set of Hollywood blockbusters amid the Harry Potter-fueled YA fiction adaptation goldrush. So if it’s going to come back, it might as well be a completely different spin on the C.S. Lewis books about kids, witches, and talking lions.
Back in 1975, director Bill Rebane brought the world The Giant Spider Invasion, an independent sci-fi action horror film that managed to get network play on both ABC and CBS, was mocked on Mystery Science Theater 3000, and made somewhere in the range of 15 to 22 million dollars on a budget of $300,000. Now, Julien’s Auctions has announced that the rights to the film are going up for public auction this week! This includes remake and sequel rights. The winning bidder will also receive the original 35mm negative of the film. The rights to The Giant Spider Invasion are being offered by the current rights holder, who happens to be Rebane.
This auction is part of the Julien’s Auctions and Turner Classic Movies collaboration A Week of Hollywood Legends: Sci-Fi, Horror, & Action, which will take place at the Waldorf Astoria in Beverly Hills, California on December 12th. The man-eating spider prop, which is said to be in museum-quality shape because it has been partially refurbished by the Merrill Historical Society in Wisconsin, is also going up for auction.
Directed by Rebane from a script by Richard L. Huff and Robert Easton, The Giant Spider Invasion has the following synopsis: After a black hole strikes, it opens up another dimension in a rural Wisconsin town, and soon there is an invasion of gigantic arachnids who crave human flesh. NASA scientists Dr. Vance and Dr. Jenny Langer try their best to save humanity as a romance blooms between them. Meanwhile, local Dan Kester squabbles with his wife, Ev, and has a dalliance with local bartender Helga.
Steve Brodie, Barbara Hale, Robert Easton, Leslie Parrish, Alan Hale, Bill Williams, Kevin Brodie, Dianne Lee Hart, Tain Bodkin, Paul Bentzen, J. Stewart Taylor, Christiana Schmidtmer, and William W. Gillett, Jr. star.
The rights to the film are expected to go for an amount somewhere in the $75,000 – $95,000 range. The spider prop might pull in another $20,000 – $30,000.
Would you like to own the rights to The Giant Spider Invasion, including the remake and sequel rights? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.
As What We Do in the Shadows nears the end of its sixth and final season, fans are looking back at just how successful it was in adapting a well-loved movie into more than 60 hours of bloodsucking hilarity. But if it seems surprising to us, Taika Waititi really can’t believe it, sucking the energy out of it faster than Colin Robinson.
Waititi, who co-wrote and co-directed the original What We Do in the Shadows movie, suggested that FX has milked the property for what feels like an eternity, saying, “This went on for far too long, but I’m proud of it. I thought that the movie, when we were making the movie, I said to Jemaine [Clement], ‘This feels like this is like a five-minute idea that we’re stretching out into a movie.’ Next thing, we made six seasons of the same idea.”
That “same idea” worked incredibly well not just in 2014’s What We Do in the Shadows but also the show, which has remained consistent in its six-season run. While the characters do have their defining traits that they carry throughout the series, to say it’s a one-trick bat is a total disservice to the series. And to think that the show is going out on such a high note (our TV critic Alex Maidy gave the final season a 9/10) is pretty incredible and shows the dedication the writers, directors and cast have to it.
While Taika Waititi had a lead role in the What We Do in the Shadows movie as – ready for this? – Viago von Dorna Schmarten Scheden Heimburg, he has only appeared in three episodes of the show, also directing three in the first season. That not only gave others a chance to run with the characters and story but also Waititi a break from the makeup. “My favorite memory was not having to put vampire teeth in, and making other people do it. That was probably my favorite thing. And also, just these guys were possibly funnier than us.”
I definitely don’t think What We Do in the Shadows has overstayed its welcome, seeing it as a perfect expansion of the movie that also introduced some hilarious characters. Bat!
As What We Do in the Shadows nears the end of its sixth and final season, fans are looking back at just how successful it was in adapting a well-loved movie into more than 60 hours of bloodsucking hilarity. But if it seems surprising to us, Taika Waititi really can’t believe it, sucking the energy out of it faster than Colin Robinson.
Waititi, who co-wrote and co-directed the original What We Do in the Shadows movie, suggested that FX has milked the property for what feels like an eternity, saying, “This went on for far too long, but I’m proud of it. I thought that the movie, when we were making the movie, I said to Jemaine [Clement], ‘This feels like this is like a five-minute idea that we’re stretching out into a movie.’ Next thing, we made six seasons of the same idea.”
That “same idea” worked incredibly well not just in 2014’s What We Do in the Shadows but also the show, which has remained consistent in its six-season run. While the characters do have their defining traits that they carry throughout the series, to say it’s a one-trick bat is a total disservice to the series. And to think that the show is going out on such a high note (our TV critic Alex Maidy gave the final season a 9/10) is pretty incredible and shows the dedication the writers, directors and cast have to it.
While Taika Waititi had a lead role in the What We Do in the Shadows movie as – ready for this? – Viago von Dorna Schmarten Scheden Heimburg, he has only appeared in three episodes of the show, also directing three in the first season. That not only gave others a chance to run with the characters and story but also Waititi a break from the makeup. “My favorite memory was not having to put vampire teeth in, and making other people do it. That was probably my favorite thing. And also, just these guys were possibly funnier than us.”
I definitely don’t think What We Do in the Shadows has overstayed its welcome, seeing it as a perfect expansion of the movie that also introduced some hilarious characters. Bat!
A24 has unveiled the newest trailer for Brady Corbet’s critical darling, The Brutalist. The three-and-a-half-hour drama was shot on 70mm and it was made for under $10 million. It became a sensation at this year’s Venice Film Festival, garnering a 12-minute standing ovation and winning the Silver Lion, which goes to the film’s director. Now, we see more of the plot and the powerful performances by Adrian Brody and Guy Pearce. The Brutalist is a post-WWII epic that many critics are having a hard time finding the right films to compare it to.
Here is the official plot of The Brutalist: “Escaping post-war Europe, visionary architect László Toth arrives in America to rebuild his life, his work, and his marriage to his wife Erzsébet after being forced apart during wartime by shifting borders and regimes. On his own in a strange new country, László settles in Pennsylvania, where the wealthy and prominent industrialist Harrison Lee Van Buren recognizes his talent for building. But power and legacy come at a heavy cost…”
The Brutalist stars Adrien Brody as Tóth, marking what looks to be just the sort of return to glory that has too-long eluded him since winning Best Actor back in 2003 for The Pianist, another WWII-set film. Felicity Jones – who earned an Oscar nod for The Theory of Everything – plays his wife, while Guy Pearce is the aforementioned industrialist. Joining them is a cast that includes Joe Alwyn, Raffey Cassidy, Stacy Martin, Emma Laird, with Isaach De Bankolé and Alessandro Nivola.
JoBlo’s Chris Bumbray loved the film and stressed that the 70mm should be experienced when he said in his review, “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.”
Corbet explained how he made a historical epic on such a scope for under $10 million, “We’re not reinventing the wheel. The reality is that we would have been happier and more comfortable if we had more money.” He expounded, “It came at a great personal, physical expense at times because the number of sleepless nights in the last seven years. You have to have blind faith for getting this thing which is completely malnourished across the finish line.” One of Corbet’s advantages was to use the benefits of tax credits when shooting the film in Hungary.
The Brutalist is slated for a December 20 limited release.
