Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio) is mayor, Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) isn’t Daredevil, and Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson) looks like he’s in incredible shape. These are only a few of the details about Disney+’s Daredevil: Born Again highlighted in its brutal new trailer.
While the attention should be rightfully paid to the first responders and the victims of the recent ongoing wildfire devastations in Los Angeles, a lot of rearranging is also being thrown around in the entertainment industry, which has been in the warpath of the blaze. This past week has seen events like movie premieres and awards shows getting either canceled or delayed until further notice. Earlier today, it was announced that the Critics Choice Awards has been pushed back a second time as the situation rages on.
The Hollywood Reporter has now brought attention to a story that claims the Academy has taken the action of canceling the Oscars this year as this crisis continues. The U.K. tabloid newspaper, The Sun, has reportedly released a story on their website, which was classified as an “exclusive,” that sports the eye-catching headline, “OSCARS THREAT Oscars 2025 on verge of being cancelled as bosses secretly plot major changes to ceremony after LA wildfires.” The story went on to report that “A secret ‘contingency strategy’ is in place for the March 3rd Awards to be called off.” That claim also gave an inaccurate date. Then, they elaborated, “The Oscars awards ceremony is on the verge of being cancelled for the first time in its 96-year history… Official Academy Award committees are monitoring the situation daily, led by stars including Tom Hanks, Emma Stone, Meryl Streep and Steven Spielberg.”
THR has contacted senior figures at the Academy, as well as individuals close to some of the A-listers name-dropped in the article, and the publication has reported that the claims made in The Sun hold absolutely no weight as “no such plan is being contemplated and no such advisory committee exists.”
An official letter from CEO Bill Kramer from last week reads: “Dear Academy members, We want to offer our deepest condolences to those who have been impacted by the devastating fires across Southern California. So many of our members and industry colleagues live and work in the Los Angeles area, and we are thinking of you. Given the fire situation, we want to share some updates regarding an extension to the Oscars nominations voting window as well as updated information on Oscars Shortlist Screenings, Oscars Bake-Offs, and the Academy Museum.“
Kramer continued, “Nominations voting for the 97th Oscars opened this morning at 9am PT. We will be extending the voting window by two days to give members more time to cast their ballots. Voting will now close on Tuesday, January 14 at 5pm PT. As such, our Oscars Nominations Announcement will move from Friday, January 17 to Sunday, January 19. More information on the announcement will follow soon.“
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Fortune’s Run is a sci-fi immersive sim about surviving the industrial wreckage of Earth after humanity has escaped to the stars. The shooter RPG blew some critics away when they tried the demo back in 2023. Now the early access game’s future has been plunged into uncertainty after its developer revealed she’s going…
Fortune’s Run is a sci-fi immersive sim about surviving the industrial wreckage of Earth after humanity has escaped to the stars. The shooter RPG blew some critics away when they tried the demo back in 2023. Now the early access game’s future has been plunged into uncertainty after its developer revealed they’re going…
About a year and a half ago, word leaked out that Maggie Gyllenhaal was set to write and direct a film called The Bride!, a new take on the concept of the 1935 classic The Bride of Frankenstein (watch it HERE). Once thought to be set up at the Netflix streaming service, this one is actually happening at Warner Bros., and the studio has set the film for a theatrical release, IMAX screens included, on October 3, 2025. Gyllenhaal has assembled a strong cast for the film that includes Penelope Cruz, Annette Bening, Peter Sarsgaard, Julianne Hough, John Magaro, Jeannie Berlin, and her brother Jake Gyllenhaal, with Jessie Buckley as The Bride and Christian Bale as Frankenstein’s Monster. Magaro is currently doing press for the film September 5, where he shares the screen with Sarsgaard, and he told The Hollywood Reporter that The Bride! is wild, fun, and bonkers – and also compared it to some classic films.
The Bride! has the following synopsis: A lonely Frankenstein travels to 1930s Chicago to seek the aide of a Dr. Euphronius in creating a companion for himself. The two reinvigorate a murdered young woman and the Bride is born. She is beyond what either of them intended, igniting a combustible romance, the attention of the police and a wild and radical social movement.
This isn’t a Universal project, but it wouldn’t be the first Bride of Frankenstein remake to be made by a different company. In 1985, Columbia Pictures brought us another movie simply called The Bride, which starred Sting as Baron Charles Frankenstein, Jennifer Beals as Eva (the bride) and Clancy Brown as Viktor (the monster). A few years ago, it was announced that Scarlett Johansson was going to star in a similar project called Bride for A24 and Apple, but that still hasn’t made it into production.
Magaro told The Hollywood Reporter, “Peter [Sarsgaard] was kind enough to recommend me to his wife [Maggie Gyllenhaal] for The Bride!, so I had a really good time shooting it last spring. It’s a wild movie. It’s very different than The Lost Daughter, Maggie’s previous film that she directed. It’s like a mix of a Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers movie, Young Frankenstein, Frankenstein, Bonnie and Clyde, and Badlands. It’s just a wild, fun ride, and at the helm is Christian Bale and the amazing Jessie Buckley. It’s something that people haven’t seen before, and I’m really excited to get it in front of an audience. It’s bonkers.“
What do you think of Magaro’s description of The Bride!? Share your thoughts on this wild ride by leaving a comment below.
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The next addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Captain America: Brave New World, is set to reach theatres on February 14, 2025 – and this one is going to be keeping viewers in theatres for a shorter time than previous films in the Captain America franchise have. Theatre listings have revealed that Captain America: Brave New World has a running time of 118 minutes (1 hour, 58 minutes), so it comes in at 6 minutes shorter than Captain America: The First Avenger (124 minutes), 18 minutes shorter than Captain America: The Winter Soldier (136 minutes), and 30 minutes shorter than Captain America: Civil War (148 minutes). While it ranks on the lower end of Marvel Cinematic Universe running times, there are several MCU movies that are shorter than 118 minutes: The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Thor: The Dark World, Ant-Man, Doctor Strange, and The Marvels (which is the shortest of all, at 105 minutes).
Captain America: Brave New World went into production in March of 2023, with filming lasting through June. In December of ’23, another screenwriter was brought onto the project to write new material for reshoots, and those reshoots seemed to be quite substantial, lasting from May 2024 through November. It was said that the reshoots were primarily done to rework three major action sequences – and this included adding Giancarlo Esposito into the mix as Sidewinder, the leader of the Serpent Society, while also dropping a Serpent Society character that was played by wrestler Seth Rollins.
Here’s the official information on Captain America: Brave New World, straight from Marvel: Anthony Mackie returns as the high-flying hero, who’s officially taken up the mantle of Captain America. Harrison Ford makes his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut as newly-elected U.S. President Thaddeus Ross, a role originated by the late William Hurt. Ross and Sam have a bit of a history: In his previous role as Secretary of State, Ross was responsible for arresting Sam and his fellow Avengers during the events of Captain America: Civil War. Now as president, Ross is eager to work with Sam, hoping to make Captain America an official military position. But that tentative alliance is jeopardized when Sam finds himself in the middle of an international incident, with friend and retired super-soldier Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly) as the prime suspect. Sam’s investigation send him on a dangerous chase, and (leading to) a deadly showdown and a tease of the menacing Red Hulk. Danny Ramirez returns as former Air Force lieutenant Joaquin Torres, who’s picked up Sam’s old wings and taken on the role of Falcon. Tim Blake Nelson is also back as Samuel Sterns, AKA The Leader, appearing in the MCU for the first time since 2008’s The Incredible Hulk. New to the cast is Shira Haas, who joins as Ruth Bat-Seraph. A former Black Widow, Ruth is now a high-ranking U.S. government official who has the trust of President Ross. Giancarlo Esposito, Liv Tyler, and Xosha Roquemore also star. The film is directed by Julius Onah and produced by Kevin Feige and Nate Moore. Louis D’Esposito and Charles Newirth serve as executive producers. Malcolm Spellman, Dalan Musson, and Rob Edwards crafted the story for the film. Onah receives screenplay credit alongside Peter Glanz and Matthew Orton (Orton being the writer who was brought on for the reshoots).
What do you think of Captain America: Brave New World ending up with a shorter running time than the previous Captain America movies? Does this have any effect on your interest in the film? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
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The San Diego Comic-Con will stay in San Diego for a few more years, as local hotels agreed to make enough rooms available
Putting a dystopian future on the big screen was nothing new in the early 2000s, especially when set in the realm of science-fiction. But making it work also within the action genre is a monumental ask. Really, how often did an all-out action flick want to make its viewers think…especially when the plot revolves around thinking be illegal.
But Kurt Wimmer gave it a go with Equilibrium, which wondered what the world might look like under a totalitarian rule…if there was a lot of gunplay involved. Brushed aside by the studio, critics and moviegoers, Equilibrium has gone on to become a minor cult favorite (including here on JoBlo), something Wimmer could have never seen coming…Just don’t go comparing it to The Matrix in front of him…
So, take off your thinking cap and load up your pistols as we find out: WTF Happened to This Movie?!
Originally titled Librium, Equilibrium was first conceived in 1999, the same year that The Matrix came out – but we don’t dwell too much on that, lest Equilibrium’s writer/director, Kurt Wimmer, goes all gun kata on us.
The movie was originally said to be planned to be offered to Fox, but this didn’t pan out. Instead, the project would be set up at Miramax, particularly its Dimension Films offshoot. It, too, would receive major backing from Speed and Twister director Jan de Bont’s production company, Blue Tulip Productions, benefiting from a Dutch tax incentive stemming from de Bont’s heritage.
But this would be no easy sell. For starters, Wimmer was taking inspiration from the dystopian worlds of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and George Orwell’s 1984, sources that don’t exactly scream “action movie”. Set in Libria (Latin for balance), Equilibrium is set in a world where it is illegal to have any emotions of any kind – and it is enforced. And it will take one man to break free and lead an inevitable uprising…
The general idea actually stemmed from Wimmer entirely giving up on the art world, having studied Art History at the University of South Florida. He had started to find it all so phony and pretentious and so sought to remove himself. But he would soon find it ridiculous to rid himself of such feelings and emotions, although found further inspiration in the state of America, the idea of free thought being diminished reflecting the country at the time. As Wimmer put it: “At its core, Equilibrium is about a man learning to feel something for the first time. The entire futuristic world of Libria is really a convention we created to tell a powerful human story. Obviously, the film takes a certain amount of inspiration from Huxley, Orwell and Bradbury, who also used the paradigm of a future society, but this film has its own story to tell, the story of a man rediscovering what makes him human.”
Wimmer wouldn’t just find inspiration in literature; he also went to Hong Kong cinema, finding influence in the samurai lifestyle’s strict codes and conducts. “That’s how I developed the idea of a society ruled by a group of Warrior Monks who have honed themselves into rocks, physically and emotionally.”
Another hurdle would be Kurt Wimmer himself. While he had written The Thomas Crown Affair remake and served as story writer for Sphere, he only had one directing gig to his credit: an HBO movie starring Brian Bosworth…
Wimmer, too, would give it his best shot at not dating the story or setting, something we’ve seen far too many sci-fi movies fall victim to. That’s why he decided not to include futuristic tools, weapons or machinery, so it could conceivably take place at any point in the future. But for clarification’s sake, this “alternate reality” is set in 2072 after World War III. So we’ll see how well he did in another five decades!
As for why the title changed from Librium to Equilibrium: a pharmaceutical company actually already had the name!
Leading the cause would be John Preston, played by Christian Bale, who actually landed the job because of American Psycho. Everybody involved, chiefly Kurt Wimmer, knew Bale could handle the significant shift that Preston makes in the movie. Bale himself saw it as a challenge in how much he could reveal about the character without giving too much away about his inner self and his journey. Expectedly, Bale underwent extensive training in the ways of Asian-influenced fighting, including an eight-week course in judo.
Another key role – that of Andrew Brandt – would go to Taye Diggs, who had started to break through with roles in The Best Man and The House on Haunted Hill. While Diggs would be drawn to the screenplay, it was his smile of all things that led him to be cast. Like Bale, Diggs did his necessary research, further going on to read some of the books that inspired Wimmer’s script. As he put it, “I liked the combo of high octane action in a solid story with serious underpinnings. What really got me is that the core of the piece is the dynamics of human emotion, the idea that you have to let the human spirit thrive.”
Rounding out the central cast would be Bale’s Metroland co-star Emily Watson, who isn’t exactly known for her action prowess…but that’s because she’s never given a chance. But Watson still felt comfortable, saying, “She’s not that different from the intense, emotional and sacrificial women I’ve played in the past, but this time I also learned about the rigorous nature of special effects and action.”
The supporting cast would also feature Angus Macfadyen, Sean Bean, Matthew Harbour, and William Fichtner.
Armed with a $20 million budget, filming on Equilibrium began on October 19th, 2000 and wrapped up less than two months later on December 10th. By and large – and judging from the wealth of behind-the-scenes footage that was shot during the making of the movie – things went fairly smoothly during the production of Equilibrium.
One thing to note is the clever use of locations, particularly in Berlin, which has a lot of architecture that’s stuck in a certain era – that is, World War II. While Germany’s capital does have modern architecture, so much of it is directly linked to that era. Take, for example, the Olympiastadion, constructed for the 1936 Winter Olympics, which of course has direct ties to Nazi Germany; and the Tempelhof Airport, which underwent reconstruction by the Nazi government. That Libria’s flag has a stark resemblance to the Nazi flag is certainly no coincidence. Even in Rome the filmmakers couldn’t help but see ties to fascism, filming in the city’s Esposizione Universale Roma, a pet project of Benito Mussolini’s once chosen as the site of the 1942 World’s Fair. VFX supervisor Tim McGovern also made it his job to build on “fascist architecture”, which he was able to expand on during post-production, creating a world that is empowering over its people in deep and cold ways.
But we couldn’t talk about Equilibrium without its most notable elements: “gun kata”, a twist on the “gun fu” phase popularized in 1980s Hong Kong action flicks where guns serve as an extension of martial arts. On this, Wimmer, in an extensive interview, said, “Hong Kong action movies brought out the idea that if a man has two hands, he can shoot two guns but that’s as far as they took it. I wondered: Have we really hit the envelope for gun-play or is there somewhere new it could go?”
So what exactly is going on with it? As explained in the movie: “Each fluid position representing a maximum kill zone, inflicting maximum damage on the maximum number of opponents while keeping the defender clear of the statistically traditional trajectories of return fire. By the rote mastery of this art, your firing efficiency will rise by no less than 120%. The difference of a 63% increase to lethal proficiency makes the master of the gun katas an adversary not to be taken lightly.” If that doesn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense, don’t worry: it looks cool!
As for the extensive fight scenes, most of them were done in just one take because they didn’t have the time or the budget to set up any more. Thankfully, most of it worked out. Besides, Wimmer gave credit to Bale for, well, bailing him out of many shots by getting it in that one take.
So how do you market an action movie set in a post-WWIII dystopia? It’s not easy – and Miramax knew this. Wimmer would go on to claim that Miramax had no clue how to market a movie with both action and “intellectual depth.” Wimmer remembered Equilibrium testing through the roof, but that Miramax never saw a need to find a clear marketing strategy. While it was no doubt dumped unceremoniously into theaters, Miramax had also earned back money in foreign pre-sales, meaning they wouldn’t have to do anything special – or, as it turned out, anything at all – in the States, lest they be investing money they could easily lose.
And so, on December 6th, 2002, Miramax did release Equilibrium…on just over 300 screens. As such, on opening weekend, it took in $541,512, landing at 20th place, just behind Bowling for Columbine…then in its 9th week. For the numbers-savvy, that comes out to just $1,799 per screen. It would drop to 63rd before being yanked entirely by the end of the month. Its total pull? $1.2 million domestic and $4.2 million international.
As for the reviews, it currently sits at a 40% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes, with many lazily trying to draw comparisons to 1999’s The Matrix, something that Wimmer totally rejects, saying those that try it lack the knowledge of action cinema to be able to form a reasonable argument. (You can try to link it to The Matrix all you want, but if anything, it feels more like a precursor for Christian Bale to star in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy.)
Then again, Wimmer hates critics – or as he calls them: parasites. “F*ck the critics. Why would I make a movie for someone I wouldn’t want to hang out with? Have you ever met a critic who you wanted to party with? I haven’t.” When further asked what the solution to mankind’s problems would be, he added, “Killing all the mother fucking critics.”
While the critics score is a 40%, the audience score is double at 81%, in due part to the minor cult fandom EQUILIBRIUM has developed over the years. As Wimmer remembered, “The paying customers seemed to get it.” It’s just too bad so few actually paid to see it at the time.
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Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk face off once again in Marvel Television’s all-new series Daredevil: Born Again, premiering on Disney+ on March 4 at 6 p.m. PT/9 p.m. ET. Check out the intense, hard-hitting, bone-crushing new trailer. If there was any concern about Disney toning down the violence of the show, let this trailer lay your fears to rest.
In Daredevil: Born Again, Murdock, a blind lawyer with heightened abilities, is fighting for justice through his bustling law firm, while former mob boss Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio) pursues his own political endeavors in New York. When their past identities begin to emerge, both men find themselves on an inevitable collision course.
The series also stars Margarita Levieva, Deborah Ann Woll, Elden Henson, Wilson Bethel, Zabryna Guevara, Nikki M. James, Genneya Walton, Arty Froushan, Clark Johnson, Michael Gandolfini, with Ayelet Zurer and Jon Bernthal. Dario Scardapane is showrunner. Episodes are directed by Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead, Michael Cuesta, Jeffrey Nachmanoff, and David Boyd; and executive producers are Kevin Feige, Louis D’Esposito, Brad Winderbaum, Sana Amanat, Chris Gary, Dario Scardapane, Matt Corman & Chris Ord, and Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead.
Dario Scardapane, who worked on Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan and the Netflix series The Punisher, was brought in to serve as showrunner on Daredevil: Born Again during the creative overhaul. The behind-the-scenes shake-up also led to Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, the directing team who were at the helm of multiple episodes of Moon Knight and Loki season 2, being hired as directors on the show. Matt Corman and Chris Ord were previously the head writers on the show, but they were let go. Scaradapane had this to say about the creative overhaul: “It had been conceived as more of a legal procedural, and we really brought it back towards an action-based New York crime story. The real trick was to have the DNA of the old Netflix show, but then push it forward into something very new.“
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Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League’s final update is live, and with that its true ending has been revealed. Was the comic book finale worth the grind the live-service game’s diehard fans have been toiling through across four seasons? Nope. Not even a little bit.