The bad blood between Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively has spilled over into the Void, with the actor’s lawyer doubling down that the character of Nicepool in Deadpool & Wolverine was a deliberate attempt to mock the actor.

Variety reports that Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, has sent a litigation hold letter to Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige and Disney CEO Bob Iger, demanding that the studio “preserve evidence” related to the character of Nicepool, including:

• Any and all documents relating to the development of the “Nicepool” character in Deadpool & Wolverine, including without limitation all documents and communications relating to the development, writing, and filming of storylines and scenes featuring “Nicepool’
• Any and all documents relating to or reflecting any deliberate attempt to link the character of “Nicepool” to Justin Baldoni
• Any and all documents relating to or reflecting a deliberate attempt to mock, harass, ridicule, intimidate, or bully Baldoni through the character of “Nicepool”

The letter also asks for “all documents and communications relating to complaints of sexual or other harassment asserted against Ryan Reynolds by any person.” During an appearance on The Megyn Kelly Show, Freedman said that he plans to sue Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively “into oblivion.”

It’s been speculated that Nicepool was inspired by Justin Baldoni, which the actor and his lawyer clearly believe is the case. During his introduction in the film, Nicepool says, “In here, everybody calls me Nicepool. Oh my goodness, wait ’till you see Ladypool. She is gorgeous. She just had a baby too, and you can’t even tell.” Deadpool says, “I don’t think you can say that,” to which Nicepool responds, “That’s okay, I identify as a feminist.” The dialogue may reference Baldoni’s behaviour on the set of It Ends With Us, where he’s accused of sexually harassing and fat-shaming Lively’s post-partum body.

“What I make of that, is that if your wife is sexually harassed, you don’t make fun of Justin Baldoni,” Freedman said. “There’s no question it relates to Justin. I mean, anybody that watched that hair bun — if somebody is seriously sexually harassed, you don’t make fun of it. It’s a serious issue.“

We clearly haven’t heard the last of this legal battle between the two actors, especially now that Disney may be dragged into it.

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Deadline reports that Faran Tahir is set to return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Marvel’s upcoming Vision series. He will reprise the role of Raza, the leader of the Ten Rings who kidnapped Tony Stark in the original Iron Man movie. I think this might set a new MCU record for the longest stretch between appearances.

Not much is known about the Vision series at this time. Paul Bettany will naturally be returning as Vision, but the series will also include James Spader as Ultron. Beyond brief mentions, we haven’t seen Ultron in any live-action MCU project since his introduction in Avengers: Age of Ultron ten years ago. Todd Stashwick has also joined the cast, and while it’s not known who he will be playing, previous reports have stated that he will be “an assassin who is on the trail of the android and the technology he possesses.“

It’s not clear how Raza will factor into the series, particularly as we’ve learned so much more about the Ten Rings organization thanks to Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Raza was mentioned in a deleted scene from that movie, but that’s pretty much the last time we heard of the character.

Jac Schaeffer, who created WandaVision and Agatha All Along, won’t be returning for the Vision series. Instead, Star Trek: Picard‘s Terry Matalas will be taking the helm. It was Matalas’ work on the third season of Picard which brought him to the attention of Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige. “That’s how I got to know him,” Feige told Inverse last year. “It was from his amazing work on Picard Season 3. I said: This is incredible. I don’t know how this exists. Let me find the person who made this.“

While we’re talking about Tahir reprising roles from over fifteen years ago, does anyone else wish we’d seen more of him as Captain Richard Robau in the 2009 Star Trek movie? He was only seen in the opening scene as the captain of the USS Kelvin before they killed him off, but he certainly made an impression. I always wanted to know more about that character.

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We’ve got more Osgood Perkins to look forward to with The Monkey, but the director has teased that the upcoming horror film will be very different from Longlegs. Not only that, but it’s going to be gory in an over-the-top way.

“If you’re going for comedy then you’re going for extremes. Not subtlety,” Perkins told Empire. “We are guilty of putting far more blood in our human bodies than is really in a human body. When someone explodes in this movie — and a couple of people do — there’s a lot of mess. All the death set-pieces were hard to do. They all have a Rube Goldbergian connectivity — this happens, then this happens, then this happens…” The film has already earned an R rating for “strong bloody violent content, gore, language throughout and some sexual references.” Bring on the exploding humans!

Perkins continued, “I honestly feel f***ing great about [how different The Monkey is from Longlegs]. I can’t think of another morbidly surreal horror comedy that’s also heartwarming and redemptive and stars a bona-fide movie hunk. That’s the best news I can offer to people who liked Longlegs — we make all kinds. Why would anyone want to be fed the same meal every day?“

Based on the short story by Stephen King, The Monkeys stars Theo James (The White Lotus) as twin brothers Hal and Bill. After discovering “their father’s old monkey toy in the attic, a series of gruesome deaths start occurring all around them. The brothers decide to throw the monkey away and move on with their lives, growing apart over the years. But when the mysterious deaths begin again, the brothers must reunite to find a way to destroy the monkey for good before it takes the lives of everyone close to them.” Written and directed by Osgood Perkins, the film also stars Tatiana Maslany (She-Hulk: Attorney at Law), Elijah Wood (Maniac), Christian Convery (Sweet Tooth), Colin O’Brien (Wonka), Rohan Campbell (Halloween Ends) and Sarah Levy (Schitt’s Creek).

The Monkey will hit theaters on February 21st.

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Ke Huy Quan rose to fame playing Short Road in Steven Spielberg’s Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Data in Richard Donner’s The Goonies, but the actor’s big-screen career didn’t take off as he had hoped. Quan even quit acting for nearly two decades before he returned to great acclaim with Everything Everywhere All at Once. The film won Quan an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, and suddenly everyone wanted a piece of him. Quan’s next project will see him starring in Love Hurts, an action comedy in which he plays a seemingly mild-mannered realtor with a dark secret that he is desperate to leave behind. It wasn’t a choice Quan made lightly, and he even reached out to an old friend for advice.

“I was at an event with Steven Spielberg and he was asking me, ‘Ke, how are you doing?’ I said, ‘Steven, I’m not doing so well.’ Because of all the love and support that I had gotten during that whole award season, I was so worried that whatever I was going to do next, I would disappoint,” Quan told Empire. “Steven was very generous. He said, ‘Ke, let’s have lunch.’ And I told him about this project and kind of pitched it to him. He said, ‘Ke, it’s great. Do it.’“

Quan continued, “I didn’t think anybody that looks like me could star in this role. Luckily, they didn’t give up on me. They came back for a third time. I went in and they had these really elaborate slides with me as the main character. That’s when I started to see it a different way. ‘Oh, they’re trying to create a different kind of action hero. Not the type that we’ve seen for decades, but something new.’“

“Quan stars as Marvin Gable, a realtor working the Milwaukee suburbs, where ‘For Sale’ signs bloom. Gable receives a crimson envelope from Rose (Ariana DeBose), a former partner-in-crime that he had left for dead. She’s not happy,” reads the Love Hurts synopsis. “Now, Marvin is thrust back into a world of ruthless hitmen, filled with double-crosses and open houses turned into deadly warzones. With his brother Knuckles (Daniel Wu), a volatile crime lord, hunting him, Marvin must confront the choices that haunt him and the history he never truly buried.” The film is set to hit theaters on February 7th.

Quan is also set to star alongside Chris Pratt and Millie Bobby Brown in The Electric State. Directed by the Russo brothers, the film is set in an alternate, retro-futuristic version of the 1990s, where sentient robots resembling cartoons and mascots, who once served peacefully among humans, now live in exile following a failed uprising. The film will debut on Netflix on March 14th.

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Ridley Scott was originally slated to follow up Gladiator II with a biopic about the Bee Gees, the iconic musical group formed by brothers Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb. However, Scott’s next project will instead be The Dog Stars. So, what happened? Turns out there has been some tension with Paramount Pictures, and Scott has been doing this long enough that he doesn’t have time for games, so he walked.

“The deal — the studio changed the goalposts,” Scott told GQ. “I said, ‘You can’t do that.’ They insisted. I said, ‘Well, I’m going to warn you, I will walk, because I will go on to the next movie.’ They didn’t believe me, and I did. I was being asked to go too far. And I said, ‘No. Next!’ They didn’t like my deal. So I said, I’ll move on. I’m expensive, but I’m f***ing good.“

This doesn’t mean that the Bee Gees movie is dead. Scott’s representative told Variety that the director has simply swapped the order of the projects and will still helm the movie later this year.

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Scott also explained why a biopic about the Bee Gees appealed to him. “I liked the working-class side of the Bee Gees. It’s all about competition with brothers,” Scott said. “And then they lose Andy — Andy OD’d at 30. … It’s more about the gift than the luck, right? It’s a fantastic story.” The project would actually be a full-circle moment for the director. Back when he was getting started, Scott had a connection with Bee Gees manager Robert Stigwood, who wanted him to direct a medieval movie that would have starred the three brothers. However, the project fell apart, and Scott went on to direct The Duellists instead.

As for The Dog Stars, the project takes place in the near future after a pandemic has decimated American Society. Jacob Elordi will star as Hig, a pilot who lives on an abandoned airbase with his dog and a dour gunman. They must defend themselves from a band of scavengers known as The Reapers, but when a random transmission comes through the radio, Hig risks everything to follow its static-broken trail.

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Director Fede Álvarez’s contribution to the Alien franchise, Alien: Romulus (you can read our review HERE), was a success – so it was no surprise to hear, just a couple of months after the film’s theatrical release, that 20th Century Studios was working with Álvarez to develop a sequel to the film. Now, Álvarez has commented on the sequel, promising that it will take the Alien series into uncharted waters.

It has been said that the story Álvarez and co-writer Rodo Sayagues crafted for Alien: Romulus is not directly connected to the other films in the Alien franchise (which isn’t exactly true), but it’s not ignoring any of the other entries, either. Álvarez has been clear about the fact that his story takes place within the established franchise continuity. In fact, it slots right in between the events of Alien and Aliens. It has the following official logline: The sci-fi/horror-thriller takes the phenomenally successful “Alien” franchise back to its roots: While scavenging the deep ends of a derelict space station, a group of young space colonizers come face to face with the most terrifying life form in the universe. The cast includes Cailee Spaeny (Priscilla), Isabela Merced (Madame Web), David Jonsson (Industry), Archie Renaux (Shadow and Bone), Spike Fearn (The Batman), and Aileen Wu (Away from Home).

Speaking with Empire, Álvarez confirmed that he and Sayagues are working on the script for the Alien: Romulus sequel. He said, “We’re excited about where it can go. We’ve almost checked all of the boxes of things that I want to see [in Romulus], and brought back a lot of the things I hadn’t seen in a while. Wherever we go now, we can go into uncharted waters. I think it’ll be so exciting to go with characters you know from this movie, to a place in the Alien franchise that we’ve never been before, and to discover things that you’ve never seen before.”

The reference to “characters you know” means that, yes, the plan is for the sequel to center on Alien: Romulus survivors Rain (Spaeny) and Andy (Jonsson). Álvarez went on to promise to Empire that he’s not making this sequel just because the success of the previous movie means he can, but because they have “a really good idea for it, something that’s worthy of the title.“

Are you looking forward to seeing Fede Álvarez head into uncharted waters with the Alien: Romulus sequel? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.

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If you haven’t made The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott part of your weekday schedule, you’re missing out on Severance Easter eggs that could alter your perception of some of the show’s most memorable moments. After revealing that Apple didn’t want Adam Scott on the show, and that the original pilot…

Read more…

If you haven’t made The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott part of your weekday schedule, you’re missing out on Severance Easter eggs that could alter your perception of some of the show’s most memorable moments. After revealing that Apple didn’t want Adam Scott on the show, and that the original pilot…

Read more…

In addition to releasing some of the greatest movies of the past decade and a change, A24 is making history on January 17, 2025, by simultaneously releasing its “unforgettable” drama, Sing Sing, in theaters and prisons. Say what? You heard me. Director Greg Kwedar’s impactful film about a prison theater group returns to 500 theaters later this week and will be available to nearly a million incarcerated individuals across the United States.

Sing Sing follows Divine G, a man imprisoned at Sing Sing for a crime he didn’t commit. While there, he finds purpose by acting in a theater group alongside other incarcerated men for a story of resilience, humanity, and the transformative power of art.

According to The Hollywood Reporter‘s exclusive report, the film’s historical re-release happens courtesy of A24, Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA), the real-life nonprofit organization on which the film is based, and Edovo. This nonprofit creates curricula for incarcerated people to access via tablets in more than 1100 correctional facilities nationwide. Sing Sing will screen in correctional facilities in California, New York, Texas, and 43 other states.

“Storytelling has an incredible way of sparking hope and building connections, even in the toughest circumstances,” says Edovo founder and CEO Brian Hill. “With Sing Sing, we’re giving incarcerated individuals an opportunity to see themselves in a story of resilience and transformation, and to feel inspired to imagine new possibilities for their own lives.”

Interestingly, in addition to Hollywood actors Colman Domingo (Fear the Walking Dead, The Running Man) and Paul Raci (Sound of Metal, The Secret Art of Human Flight), Sing Sing features formerly incarcerated performers, including Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin and Jon-Adrian “JJ” Velazquez.

Move over, Gilda, there’s a new movie coming to the United States prison system! Hailed as an emotional and inspiring powerhouse, Sing Sing is a rare treat for the silver screen. The film promotes positive change, belief in a good life after serving a sentence, and making peace with the sins of the past. If you can watch Sing Sing, I highly recommend it.

What do you think about Sing Sing coming to prisons in the United States? Let us know in the comments section below.

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Alex Essoe has a lot of horror credits to her name. Starry Eyes, Tales of Halloween, Doctor Sleep, Death of Me, The Haunting of Bly Manor, Midnight Mass, The Midnight Club, Trim Season, The Pope’s Exorcist… the list goes on. Lou Taylor Pucci’s genre credits include the 2013 Evil Dead and episodes of American Horror Story. And now, Essoe and Pucci are going to earn a new horror credit together, as they’re set to star in a horror film called The Avalanche.

The Avalanche will mark the feature directorial debut of Johnny Coffeen, who has previously directed several short films (his 2016 short The Swan Girl was screened at David Lynch’s Festival Of Disruption and won a Student Academy Award) and worked as an Assistant Editor on Destin Daniel Cretton’s Short Term 12. Deadline reports that this psychological horror film will center on two former lovers forced together by an avalanche that cuts them off from the world. 

Here’s the synopsis: As the weight of their shared history begins to crack the thin veneer of civility, strange apparitions stir in the dark corners of their shelter. Reality and paranoia bleed together as buried secrets claw their way to the surface, leaving them to question whether the true danger lies outside the cabin—or within.

Jamie Parslow is producing The Avalanche, with Emily Zercher and Shane Brady serving as co-producers. Deadline adds that the cinematographer is Evan Zissimopulos (Breathing Happy), the art designer is Danielle Lopez (Disney+’s Stan Lee), and this project will be the production design debut of fine art sculptor John Frame (Lyric Opera of Chicago production of Faust).

The Avalanche will be filming by the end of this month.

I’m a fan of Essoe’s work and Pucci did well dealing with Deadites in Evil Dead (even though he was fool enough to read the Book of the Dead out loud), so I’m looking forward to seeing how this project is going to turn out.

Does The Avalanche sound interesting to you? Share your thoughts on this Alex Essoe / Lou Taylor Pucci psychological horror project by leaving a comment below.

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