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.“
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.
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.
Fear Street: Prom Queen, the continuation of the Fear Street film franchise that began with the release of the trilogy of Fear Street Part One: 1994, Fear Street Part Two: 1978, and Fear Street Part Three: 1666 on the Netflix streaming service back in the summer of 2021, made its way through production last year, and while Netflix hasn’t announced a specific release date for the film yet, it has just taken one big step toward release: it has gotten its rating from the Motion Picture Association ratings board. Fear Street: Prom Queen has been rated R for strong bloody violence and gore, teen drug use, language and some sexual references.
Author R.L. Stine has written over 100 books that have been published under the various Fear Street banners. While the initial trilogy of films wasn’t directly based on any specific Fear Street book, the new movie will be telling a version of the story Stine crafted for his 1992 book The Prom Queen. Here’s the description: A spring night… soft moonlight… five beautiful Prom Queen candidates… dancing couples at the Shadyside High prom — these should be the ingredients for romance. But stir in one brutal murder — then another, and another — and the recipe quickly turns to horror. Lizzie McVay realizes that someone is murdering the five Prom Queen candidates one by one — and that she may be next on the list! Can she stop the murderer before the dance is over — for good? The official synopsis says Fear Street: Prom Queen takes us back to the town of Shadyside, Ohio, where prom season at Shadyside High is underway and the school’s wolfpack of It Girls is busy with its usual sweet and vicious campaigns for the crown. But when a gutsy outsider is unexpectedly nominated to the court, and the other girls start mysteriously disappearing, the class of ’88 is suddenly in for one hell of a prom night.
Back in 2022, we heard that Chloe Okuno, who recently made her feature directorial debut with the thriller Watcher, would be directing the next Fear Street movie, but she left the street behind at some point in the last couple years. The film is actually being directed by Matthew Palmer, who made his feature directorial debut with the 2018 Netflix thriller Calibre. Palmer has written the screenplay with Calibre cast member Donald McLeary.
Peter Chernin, Jenno Topping, and Kori Adelson of Chernin Entertainment are producing Fear Street: Prom Queen, with Yvonne Bernard, Joan Waricha, and Jane Stine serving as executive producers. Caroline Pitofsky is overseeing the production for Chernin Entertainment.
The cast of Fear Street: Prom Queen includes Katherine Waterston (Alien: Covenant), Lili Taylor (The Conjuring), Chris Klein (American Pie), India Fowler (The Nevers), Suzanna Son (Red Rocket), Fina Strazza (Paper Girls), David Iacono (The Summer I Turned Pretty), Ariana Greenblatt (Barbie), and Ella Rubin (The Idea of You).
Are you looking forward to Fear Street: Prom Queen, and are you glad to hear that it has secured an R rating? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
Fans of Clint Eastwood, do you feel lucky? Well, do ya? Because Blu-ray.com has reported that two classics from the cinema icon are getting the 4K treatment as Dirty Harry and Pale Rider have been announced to be released on ultra-HD Blu-ray sometime in the future from Warner Bros.
The description for Dirty Harry reads, “Cop Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood) attempts to track down a psychopathic rooftop killer before a kidnapped girl dies. When he is found Harry abuses the murderer’s civil rights putting him back on the streets. Once he is released he hijacks a school bus and Harry must go after him again. The only way to stop this vicious killer is in cold blood.”
There haven’t been any special features announced yet, but the specs can be seen below. Additionally, Clint himself revealed temporary, crude box art concepts:
Video Codec: HEVC / H.265 Resolution: Native 4K (2160p) HDR: HDR10 Aspect ratio: 2.40:1 Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Audio TBA
Subtitles French, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish
Discs 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc Two-disc set (1 BD-66, 1 BD-50)
Packaging SteelBook
Playback 4K Blu-ray: Region free
The description for Pale Rider reads, “When property owner Coy LaHood (Richard Dysart) starts using a band of hooligans to terrorize a group of small-town gold miners into giving up their territory, an enigmatic man named ‘Preacher’ (Clint Eastwood) arrives in town. Preacher fends off the attacks, and then goes directly to LaHood to negotiate. When the miners, led by Hull Barret (Michael Moriarty), refuse the terms, LaHood sends in Marshall Stockburn (John Russell) to take down Preacher and the others.”
Also with this film, there haven’t been any special features announced yet, but the specs can be seen below. Clint also revealed temporary, crude box art concepts:
Video Codec: HEVC / H.265 Resolution: 4K (2160p) HDR: HDR10 Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Audio TBA
Subtitles None
Disc 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc
Packaging SteelBook
Playback 4K Blu-ray: Region free
Recently, Eastwood sat down in a rare reflection of his career where he addressed some of his not-so-well received movies that are mixed in with his legacy. “After you get a few films that are reasonably successful, people kind of stick with you. But if you’re grinding out turkeys, they don’t stick with you.” The Hollywood legend continued, “That would be up to them, to the audiences, to answer. Up to the people on the outside. I just kind of go along. I consider this, again, emotional. It comes upon you. You have a story, you make a movie of it. You have to just go for it. If you think too much about how it happened you might ruin it. I go back and look at films I’ve made, and I could easily ask, ‘Why the heck did I make this?’ I don’t remember! It might have been a long time ago…” Then, he concludes, “I’m sure I’ve had disappointments. If I did, I wouldn’t dwell on them.”
With the incredibly unfortunate situation of wildfires continuing to rage in Southern California, a lot of events are being postponed this year for the safety of the public. For this particular time of the year in the entertainment industry, it means withholding the awards show circuit. Several of the notable industry award events have been rescheduled, including the Academy Awards nominations announcements. The Hollywood Reporter has revealed this morning that the Critics Choice Awards, which have already been postponed from January 14 to January 26, are postponed yet again as the emergency situation has yet to subside.
The event from the Critics Choice Association, which our EIC Chris Bumbray is a voting member of, was originally scheduled to be held in Santa Monica, but the new date has not yet been announced. Critics Choice Association CEO Joey Berlin said in a statement last week, “This unfolding tragedy has already had a profound impact on our community. All our thoughts and prayers are with those battling the devastating fires and with all who have been affected.” According to THR, “The event was set to be held at Barker Hangar, which is located just a few miles from the Pacific Palisades where thousands have been evacuated and many homes destroyed, along with a separate fire that is ravaging the Pasadena-Altadena area.”
Other than awards shows, movie premieres in Hollywood have also been canceled during this crisis, which include movies like Wolf Man and Unstoppable last Tuesday; Better Man, The Pitt and On Call on Wednesday; and The Last Showgirl on Thursday. The Screen Actors Guild canceled their live nominations announcements last week and opted to post the news on their official site. They also included a message that provided a link to anyone who is interested in helping, “We want to take a moment to acknowledge the devastating fires affecting Los Angeles and surrounding areas. Our thoughts are with everyone impacted — the residents, first responders, and all those working tirelessly to protect the community. Please consider donating to a charity of your choice to help those in need. To support impacted members of our artist community, donations can be made to the SAG-AFTRA Foundation, which operates a natural disaster relief fund. Donate HERE.“
A crafty high-schooler was able to do something I didn’t think was possible: They got Doom running inside a PDF file. Seriously. And weirdly, it works better than you might expect!
A crafty high-schooler was able to do something I didn’t think was possible: They got Doom running inside a PDF file. Seriously. And weirdly, it works better than you might expect!
Plot: Ingrid and Martha were close friends in their youth, when they worked together at the same magazine. Ingrid went on to become an autofiction novelist while Martha became a war reporter. Eventually, they were separated by the circumstances of life. After years of being out of touch, they meet again in an extreme but strangely sweet situation.
Review: The films of prolific director Pedro Almodovar are something of an acquired taste. The Spanish filmmaker is known for imbuing his female-centric stories with melodramatic dialogue and a sense of humor that is as bold as the visuals on screen. For his first feature-length project performed entirely in English, Almodovar cast two of the most talented actors working today, Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton, to portray friends reunited after years apart under very difficult circumstances. Leaning heavily into his signature melodrama, Almodovar guides the viewer through a beautifully shot tale of grief and friendship that struggles beneath awkward dialogue about mortality and aging. If not for the strength of the performances from Moore and Swinton, The Room Next Door may not be as critically lauded as it has been.
The Room Next Door opens with author Ingrid (Julianne Moore) at a book signing for her latest novel. Running into an old acquaintance, Ingrid learns that her mutual friend Martha (Tilda Swinton) is in the hospital undergoing treatment for cervical cancer. Not seeing Martha for years, Ingrid decides to visit her, much to Martha’s pleasure. The two instantly fall back into the rhythms of their friendship forged in their twenties as they worked at the same magazine. Since then, Martha became a war correspondent while Martha’s literary career took off. Martha lives solitary, estranged from her adult daughter Michelle (also Swinton). As they spend time together, Martha learns her diagnosis has gotten worse, and she decides she wants to end her own life. Not wanting to depart alone, she asks Ingrid to go away with her, and when Martha decides to end her life, she will have Ingrid in the titular room next door. Honored but wary of the request, Ingrid weighs what she should do, eventually supporting her friend’s decision.
Much of The Room Next Door is focused on casual conversations between Ingrid and Martha. Julianne Moore plays Ingrid as a pleasant person who does not let her emotions alter her mask of support and empathy. As her friend and former lover Damian (John Turturro) says in the film, Ingrid is the only person who can suffer without making others feel guilty about it. After years apart, Ingrid must absorb all of the weight of death and loss emanating from Martha, who has come to terms with the end of her life. Moore is a brilliant actress and has played melodrama well, notably in Todd Haynes’ Far From Heaven, but she vacillates here between over-the-top and subtly resilient. Tilda Swinton, who earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress for this film, shifts in her performance as Martha. She relates stories about her time during the war in Iraq or the tale of her younger self (portrayed by Esther McGregor) and Fred, the father of her daughter, Swinton borders on a comically broad emotional performance. But, in the very next scenes, as she copes with trying to find her euthanasia pill or questioning if it is the right day to die, she brings a calm and even-keeled heft to her portrayal of a woman in the final days of her existence. It is moving at once and is a beautiful performance.
For everything that rings true about the characters and events in The Room Next Door, so much of it feels artificial and wooden. While Pedro Almodovar’s recent short film Strange Way of Life starring Pedro Pascal and Ethan Hawke elicited a solid response from critics and audiences, I struggled with Much of The Room Next Door. As good as Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore have been over their careers, most of their lines in this film cannot be rescued by their acting abilities. Both Ingrid and Martha are wealthy and live with little outside of their means, including renting a massive cabin on Airbnb for a full month replete with a curated selection of movies ranging from Buster Keaton classics to John Huston’s The Dead, the film adaptation of the story that Martha referenced earlier in the film. The home even has a painting that the two debate as to whether it is an original or a replica. The rest of the film is either characters walking, sitting, or talking on the phone. Every conversation is between two individuals outside of three scenes with three characters. Almodovar’s focus on back and forth and monologues often slows the film’s pacing but gives the actors meaty material to dig into. Unfortunately, most of those monologues are littered with cumbersome phrasing and inauthentic reactions.
Almodovar is clearly aiming for a narrative about what it means to enter the final stage of life, with Swinton’s Martha waxing about accepting her fate while John Turturro’s Damian elucidates on the state of the world post-pandemic and the plight of dealing with the climate crisis and the far right political landscape. So much of the film is meant to be about acceptance and dying with dignity, but the political and social messaging feels forced. The ending involving a police investigation also feels out of place to the rest of the story, with the American setting of the film populated by non-American actors outside of Swinton, Moore, and Turturro. The cinematography from Edu Grau is bright and vibrant, and the score by Alberto Iglesias is hauntingly perfect, complimenting the sometimes dour subject matter. A flashback sequence involving a burning house feels like a painting that has come to life, representing so much of Almodovar’s cinematic work. This is a beautiful film to look at.
The Room Next Door is as intriguing as all of Pedro Almodovar’s films, but the move from Spanish to English betrays some of the gaps in the legendary filmmaker’s writing talents. If you go into this film unprepared for the style of acting from the director’s library of films, you may be unprepared to appreciate this project. If not for the subpar dialogue throughout the film, The Room Next Door deals with heavy subject matter and does so respectfully,t if not as subtlety as it could have. Moore and Swinton are good, with the latter continuing to show her talents as a performer through physical presence, even more so than through speaking. This is not a film for everyone, but it shows that dying does not always have to be dark and that filmmakers like Almodovar can even find positivity and hope in sadness.
Did Principal Strickland ever have hair? And were the McFlys always slackers? The answers nearly came true at FanExpo New Orleans over the weekend, as Michael J. Fox and James Tolkan reunited, recreating their famous showdown at Hill Valley High.
In the photo (seen below), Michael J. Fox and James Tolkan joined up to give a modern recreation of the scene in which Principal Strickland gives Marty McFly a verbal berating in the hallway, telling him, “You got a real attitude problem, McFly; you’re a slacker. You remind me of your father when he went here; he was a slacker, too.” Really the only thing that would have made this shot better was if Claudia Wells (Jennifer Parker) was by Fox’s side. As the caption reads: “Slackers never change and Mr. Strickland will be sure to remind you. Michael J. Fox and James Tolkan reunited at #FANEXPONewOrleans2025 today and it was just like old times”.
Michael J. Fox has taken part in many Back to the Future reunions over the years, notably gathering with Christopher Lloyd (Emmett “Doc” Brown), Thomas F. Wilson (Biff Tannen) and Lea Thompson (Lorraine Baines-McFly) back in 2023 at FAN EXPO Portland. But there was little recreation going on there, so this one is especially cool.
Now 91, James Tolkan’s career has slowed down quite a bit over the years, with his last onscreen credit being in 2015’s Bone Tomahawk. As we know, Michael J. Fox’s has as well as he continues his battle with Parkinson’s, although he has been far from out of the spotlight. He was recently a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his contributions to the cause.
As with so many of the other Back to the Future cast members, James Tolkan appeared in all three movies, playing Gerald Strickland in the first two and Chief Marshal James Strickland – ancestor to the thorny principal – in Part III. Other screen credits for Tolkan include WarGames, Top Gun and Problem Child 2.
What is your favorite scene in the entire Back to the Future trilogy? What are your memories of watching the movies as a kid? Let us know in the comments section below!
