Sony has big Hollywood plans for its hit gaming franchises. The PlayStation 5 maker announced a series of new movie spin-offs at CES 2025 this week, including movie versions of Helldivers 2 and Horizon Zero Dawn, as well as an anime spin-off of Ghost of Tsushima.
Sony has big Hollywood plans for its hit gaming franchises. The PlayStation 5 maker announced a series of new movie spin-offs at CES 2025 this week, including movie versions of Helldivers 2 and Horizon Zero Dawn, as well as an anime spin-off of Ghost of Tsushima.
HBO’s adaptation of The Last of Us returns for season 2 in just a few months. Sony revealed the hit horror game will be back on TV with fresh episodes beginning in April and dropped a new trailer for fans to pore over in the meantime.
HBO’s adaptation of The Last of Us returns for season 2 in just a few months. Sony revealed the hit horror game will be back on TV with fresh episodes beginning in April and dropped a new trailer for fans to pore over in the meantime.
Two days after the death of writer/director Jeff Baena, Aubrey Plaza has released a brief statement responding to the death of her husband. The statement, which is attributed to Plaza and the Baena/Stern family, reads: “This is an unimaginable tragedy. We are deeply grateful to everyone who has offered support. Please respect our privacy during this time.“
Baena was found dead in a Los Angeles residence on January 3rd, and the L.A. County Coroner’s Office determined the cause of death to be suicide. He was 47.
Baena got his start as a production assistant for Robert Zemeckis before becoming an assistant editor for David O. Russell. However, after a minor car accident injured one of Baena’s eyes, Russell encouraged him to start writing. “He was super-generous, creatively. He allowed me to advocate for any ideas that were in conflict with his ideas,” Baena said of Russell. “We were on the same wavelength, had the same style and interests…It allowed me to have the feeling that I deserved to be there, as opposed to just riding someone’s coattails.” The pair wrote I Heart Huckabees together, which put Baena on the map.
He made his directorial debut with Life After Beth, a zombie comedy starring his future wife, Aubrey Plaza. Baena went on to write and direct Joshy, The Little Hours, Horse Girl, and Spin Me Round. He also created Cinema Toast, an anthology series which told new stories with re-edited, re-scored, and re-dubbed performances from public domain movies.
Plaza has previously said that working in the same industry as Baena allowed them to understand each other more. “Obviously, you are able to support each other and really understand kind of the journey that we’re both on. But, you know, working with your partner can always be challenging. There’s a lot of things we do separately and I think that it’s all about balance,” she said in 2019. “One of the great things about our careers is that we are forced to be independent, take little breaks, go off and do our things and come back. So it’s kind of fun. Nothing is ever the same. You don’t want to spend too much time apart. But I think that there’s a way that it can work and there’s a balance in that.“
Suicide is preventable and support can be found through a list of helplines here, and information on suicide prevention from the National Institute of Mental Health can be found here. For additional support, visit the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, call 800-273-8255 or Chat with Lifeline via text.
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Fresh off its win at the 82nd Golden Globe Awards, it’s been announced that A Real Pain will make its streaming debut on Hulu on January 16th. The film stars Jesse Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin as mismatched cousins who reunite for a tour through Poland to honour their beloved grandmother. However, the adventures take a turn when the odd couple’s old tensions resurface against the backdrop of their family history.
In addition to starring in A Real Pain, Eisenberg also wrote and directed the film. It received four Golden Globe nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actor, with Culkin winning the latter award. “Oh thanks, this is incredible. I’m feeling a little – my wife and I did a shot of tequila with Mario Lopez, definitely feeling that,” Culkin said in his acceptance speech. “Whole speech is gone – terrific Kieran, you’re doing fine. I love the Golden Globes. The first ever acknowledgment I got as an actor was a Golden Globe nomination when I was basically a kid, and that meant a lot so this has a special place. Now it’s like the best date night my wife and I ever have, so thanks Golden Globe people, you guys are nuts! In the best way, keep doing what you’re doing.“
“At its heart, the film is a character study, allowing Jesse Eisenberg’s David and Kieran Culkin’s Benji to spar over eighty minutes without making their holiday too earth-shattering an event, with characters ending the film just as broken (or not) as the movie began,” wrote our own Chris Bumbray in his review. “It’s one of the few films I’ve seen in recent memory to get the vibe of a holiday just right, as when you end a trip – no matter how intense the journey has been – there’s a moment when you arrive back home and realize that you’re the same person you were when you left. This can either be a reassuring feeling or a melancholy one.“
Bumbray continued, “One of the impressive things about A Real Pain is how Eisenberg doesn’t seem to be overreaching with his narrative. He’s not trying to break your heart or rivet you. He’s simply showing you an intelligent, empathetic slice of life that says a lot without needing to say much at all. I wouldn’t be surprised if this film turns into a nice little hit for Searchlight, with both Culkin and Eisenberg delivering superb performances.” You can check out the rest of Bumbray’s review right here.
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Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu has been a big success, but the director once considered remaking another iconic monster movie: Frankenstein.
During a recent interview with Curzon (Dax?), Eggers revealed that he started working on his own Frankenstein movie before calling it quits after just two weeks because, and I quote, it “sucked.“
“Sometimes you know you’ve got a dud,” Eggers explained. “I’m super, super excited for Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein. But when my son was born, I had an unconscious urge, I’m sure because of that, but as I started writing, I was like, ‘Oh yeah, this is why.’ But as I started to try to do Frankenstein, which after two weeks, I was like, ‘There’s no way I can do this, it’s impossible.’ It definitely sucked, I’ll tell you that.“
As Eggers mentioned, Guillermo del Toro has finally completed his long-awaited Frankenstein movie, which will debut on Netflix later this year. The movie boasts an all-star cast that includes Oscar Isaac, Mia Goth, Christoph Waltz, and Jacob Elordi as Frankenstein’s monster. I’ll admit to being intrigued by Eggers tackling a Frankenstein project, but I’ve been dreaming of del Toro’s Frankenstein for years.
Nosferatu has been earning rave reviews and has become the director’s highest-grossing movie, having already reached the $100 million mark worldwide. Our own Chris Bumbray is a big fan of the film, calling it the “scariest vampire movie in ages” in his review. “This is one of the most lovingly made horror films in some time, with Eggers likely having set out to create a definitive version of the tale,” Bumbray wrote. “It’s long been his passion project, and you can tell. For me, this is up there with the best films of the year, and probably the only horror film I’ve seen recently that sent a true chill up my spine. Of all the films I’ve seen this year – and there have been a lot – this one seems to have the best chance of becoming a classic.” You can check out the rest of his glowing review right here, and be sure to tell us what you think of the film as well.
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Sonic the Hedgehog 3 hit theaters late last month and has already grossed more than $300 million worldwide, pushing the film series based on Sega’s popular video games past the one-billion mark and making it one of Paramount’s biggest ongoing franchises.
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 hit theaters late last month and has already grossed more than $300 million worldwide, pushing the film series based on Sega’s popular video games past the one-billion mark and making it one of Paramount’s biggest ongoing franchises.
It’s been fifteen years since it was first announced that David Fincher would be tackling an adaptation of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea for Disney. The project didn’t move forward, and Fincher explained why while speaking with Letterboxd. Long story short, Fincher quickly realized that Disney wasn’t on the same page.
“Look, I really wanted to do Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea because what we had in mind was really kind of gross and cool and wet and steampunk and all that,” Fincher said. “But I got to do [Love, Death & Robots episode] ‘Bad Travelling’ on Netflix, and that scratched that itch. I was fine just doing that. You can’t make people be excited about the risks that you’re excited about. Disney was in a place where they were saying, ‘We need to know that there’s a thing that we know how to exploit snout to tail, and you’re going to have to check these boxes for us.’“
Fincher continued, “And I was like, ‘You’ve read Jules Verne, right?’ [Laughs] This is a story about an Indian prince who has real issues with white imperialism, and that’s what we want to do. And they were like, ‘Yeah, yeah, fine. As long as there’s a lot less of that in it.’ So you get to a point where you go, ‘Look, I can’t fudge this, and I don’t want you to discover at the premiere what it is that you’ve financed. It doesn’t make any sense because it’s just going to be pulling teeth for the next two years.’ And I don’t want to do that. I mean, life’s too short.” Indeed it is. As much as I would have loved to have seen Fincher’s take on Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, I can appreciate that he didn’t want another awful studio experience after Alien 3.
Speaking of Fincher, the long-awaited release of Se7en on 4K Ultra HD will officially drop tomorrow. Our own Chris Bumbray recently watched an IMAX screening of the remastered film and was blown away revisiting the film thirty years after its original release.
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