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1 Nov

New Godzilla movie coming from the director of Godzilla Minus One

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Godzilla Minus One

Last year, Toho released a new Godzilla film, titled Godzilla Minus One (read our review HERE), in Japan on November 3rd, which happens to be Godzilla Day, the anniversary of the 1954 release of the original Godzilla movie. That was the 69th anniversary – and since this year marks the 70th anniversary of the original film, Godzilla Minus One is returning to theatres this weekend… and that’s not the only way Toho is celebrating the anniversary. Today, they have also announced that they’ve given the greenlight to a new Godzilla movie that will be written and directed by Godzilla Minus One mastermind Takashi Yamazaki, who will also be handling the visual effects! The announcement can be seen right here:

Godzilla Minus One saw an already devastated postwar Japan facing a new threat in the form of Godzilla. Toho’s Koji Ueda provided the synopsis: “Set in a post-war Japan, Godzilla Minus One will once again show us a Godzilla that is a terrifying and overwhelming force, which you already get a sense of from the teaser trailer and poster. The concept is that Japan, which had already been devastated by the war, faces a new threat with Godzilla, bringing the country into the ‘minus.’“ The film stars Ryunosuke Kamiki, Minami Hamabe, Yuki Yamada, Munetaka Aoki, Hidetaka Yoshioka, Sakura Ando, and Kuranosuke Sasaki, with music by Naoki Sato. Interestingly, one of Yamazaki’s previous credits is the 2007 film Always: Sunset on Third Street 2, which features a Godzilla cameo in a fantasy sequence. 

Details on Yamazaki’s follow-up have not been revealed, but Yamazaki has always been open about the fact that he was hoping to get the chance to make a sequel. He has said, “I would certainly like to see what the sequel would look like. I know that Shikishima’s war seems over, and we’ve reached this state of peace and calm – but perhaps [it’s the] calm before the storm, and the characters have not yet been forgiven for what has been imposed upon them. … I don’t know that anyone has pulled off a more serious tone of kaiju-versus-kaiju with human drama, and that challenge is something that I’d like to explore. When you have movies that feature [kaiju battles], I think it’s very easy to put the spotlight and the camera on this massive spectacle, and it detaches itself from the human drama component.” He went on to say that he would have to “make sure that the human drama and whatever’s happening between [the] kaiju both have meaning, and both are able to affect one another in terms of plot development.“

Are you glad to hear that Takashi Yamazaki will be making a new Godzilla movie? Share your thoughts on this news by leaving a comment below.

The post New Godzilla movie coming from the director of Godzilla Minus One appeared first on JoBlo.

1 Nov

Star Wars: Skeleton Crew trailer gives us an Amblin-like adventure in a galaxy far, far away

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Skeleton Crew never say die! At least, that’s what the inspiration behind the new Disney+ series from Lucasfilm seems to be. According to executive producer Jon Favreau, Skeleton Crew took its cue from famous ‘80s coming-of-age favorites, particularly those produced by Steven Spielberg and his Amblin company. A new trailer for Skeleton Crew has just been released by Disney+. A glimpse of a suburban setting, a school, and the upbeat trailer song really drives home the “family adventure” tone for this show. Favreau and Spider-Man: No Way Home director Jon Watts also use the classic mystery and exploration tropes in this Star Wars galaxy. The latest live-action series will premiere on Disney+ on December 3.

The official synopsis for Star Wars: Skeleton Crew reads: “When four kids make a mysterious discovery on their seemingly safe home planet, they get lost in a strange and dangerous galaxy. Finding their way home, meeting unlikely allies and enemies will be a greater adventure than they ever imagined.”

Skeleton Crew also has Jude Law joining the Star Wars universe. The Closer and The Grand Budapest Hotel actor will be playing Jod Na Nawood, a human Jedi who helps the kids (Neel, Fern, Wim, and KB) navigate a complicated world during destructive times. Joining Law for the adventure are Ravi Cabot-Conyers (Wim), Kyriana Kratter (KB), Robert Timothy Smith (Neel), and Ryan Kiera Armstrong (Fern).

When asked to describe the upcoming series, Law told People that Star Wars: Skeleton Crew is “joyful.” He says audiences will enjoy watching the kids get into mischief while approaching places in the Star Wars Universe they should not be. “It is a fun place to be, the universe of Star Wars,” Law said, smiling. “And there are great references to old films and recent episodes and series. There’s a lot of originality and I hope that will bring the feeling of fun to those who watch it.”

Speaking on why he decided to finally join the Star Wars force, so to speak, Jude Law said it took a lot of contemplation because of the scale of the series. “I don’t think I would have dived in willy-nilly. I wanted it to be right. I didn’t want to be the guy that dropped the ball on Star Wars.” Law said there were plenty of challenges in bringing it to the screen. “It’s technically complicated to get those things right — you’re dealing with animatronics and puppets and machines and huge, complicated worlds. I’m the guy that wants to see how the wizard does it.” He, too, got to see how the cinematographer worked in a way like he has never seen before, which further alllwed himself to be immersed in the saga. “There are certain shots they don’t allow you to do if you’re the director. You can’t pass through the glass of the spaceship; you have to stay on the outside or inside. I love that. You see the shot and go, ‘Oh, I’m in Star Wars.”

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1 Nov

Here Review: The AI de-aging is cool, but the film is uneven

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PLOT: The events and people who occupy a single spot of land are followed from pre-history to 2024.

REVIEW: Robert Zemeckis is a director who’s always been well ahead of the industry regarding technical innovation. Many of his movies, including Back to the Future, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and, yes, even Forrest Gump, are classics. With Here, he once again tries to innovate, with a static shot of a single spot of land being followed from the dinosaur era to today. Most of the film revolves around the inhabitants of a colonial home built for the son of Benjamin Franklin. Eventually, it is occupied by many different families, with the most significant emphasis being placed on the Young Family.

It’s here that Zemeckis once again tries to innovate in terms of VFX. He uses AI-enhanced de-aging technology to depict about eighty years in the life of this family, with Paul Bettany, Kelly Reilly, Tom Hanks, and Robin Wright all playing their characters at various stages in their lives. 

The saga of the Young Family initially starts off as somewhat stilted and frustrating, with Bettany’s Al an alcoholic war veteran who – while well-meaning – is so unhappy that no one in his orbit seems capable of fulfilling themselves. His son, Richard, who’s played by Hanks from age 18 to 80, is utterly unable ever to leave the family nest behind, even once he starts a family of his own with his wife Margaret (Robin Wright), whose dissatisfaction eventually leads to deep fissures in their marriage.

The first batch of images from director Robert Zemeckis's new film Here feature Tom Hanks and Robin Wright

Here, which is adapted from Richard McGuire’s graphic novel by Zemeckis and his Forrest Gump collaborator Eric Roth, tries to tell us a deeply human story about the changing dynamics of a family in crisis. But it’s too scattershot ever to be truly effective. The chunks of the story focused on Hanks and Wright are affecting, thanks both to their superb chemistry and performances, but they have to compete with other storylines from different eras, none of which can really hold our attention. A chapter involving an inventor (David Flynn) and his wife (Ophelia Lovibond) is mainly played as a screwball comedy, while a chunk involving Benjamin Franklin feels like a reject from Hulu’s awful History of the World Part 2. It detracts from the premise more than enhances it. The entire movie should have been devoted to the Young Family.

As for the much talked about AI de-aging, it’s a mixed bag. Certainly, the de-aging here is far better than we’ve seen in anything else, including Scorsese’s The Irishman, and in long shots, the results are striking. At times, Hanks looks like he has just walked off the set of Bosom Buddies. But, in close-up, the CGI suffers from the same dead-eye uncanny valley effect we’ve seen repeatedly in films of this ilk. It should have been used more sparingly, even on Paul Bettany and Kelly Reilly, to make them look like they’re in their twenties. Both are young enough that a bit of makeup would have been enough to do a more convincing job than the CGI.

Overall, I’d say that about forty minutes of this 100-minute movie really work. At his best, Zemeckis is still able to tell a solid story, even if his needle drops, as always, are a little too on the nose (using “Our House” by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young is way too obvious). As it is, the movie is too scattershot to work, with many of the sequences not involving Hanks and Wright falling flat or feeling tacked on. It’s an interesting experiment, and with a tighter, more disciplined focus, it might have really been something. 

The first batch of images from director Robert Zemeckis's new film Here feature Tom Hanks and Robin Wright


Here

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1 Nov

Return to Oz: Revisiting a twisted cult classic from Disney’s darker period

By . FilmTV No Comments

Disney was in a strange place in the mid-eighties. The younger audiences that were once their bread and butter were tired of the old Disney fare, with many of them thinking their movies were “for babies.” Indeed, the success of Star Wars had changed the game, as family-friendly fantasy – with an edge – was all the rage at the big studios, and Disney was still stuck producing antiquated G-movies like Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo. They tried to make their own Star Wars-style movie with The Black Hole, as well as a James Bond-style action movie with Condorman, but neither were successful. Their big SFX-driven extravaganza, Tron, was too costly to turn a profit, so Disney dipped their toe into darker fare, such as Something Wicked This Way Comes, and the movie we’re highlighting in this edition of Fantasizing About Fantasy Films, Return to Oz.

To be sure, Disney had nothing to do with the original film version of The Wizard of Oz, but they were able to obtain the rights to the novels by L. Frank Baum. Rather than remake The Wizard of Oz, they opted to adapt one of the sequel novels, Ozma of Oz, albeit with a much harder edge than was found in the Judy Garland original. Disney wanted to be provocative, so Return to Oz had twisted visuals and a darker tone, but in the end, audiences still stayed away, and it became a costly flop.

However, in the years since its release Return to Oz has become a major cult film, especially for those who grew up in the eighties. In this episode of Fantasizing About Fantasy Films, our own Jessica Dwyer takes a deep dive into a film she considers one of the pivotal fantasy films of its era. 

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