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Who doesn’t love a fun action movie? With John Wick and The Fast Saga changing the game for what audiences have come to expect from big-budget action movies, other movies are often relegated to second-class efforts. Luc Besson, the creator of The Transporter and Taken franchises, has cemented his own brand of action movie that has been around for decades. Partnering with co-writer and director George Huang, Besson has produced the new movie Weekend in Taipei, which mines the classic style of nineties-era action movies for a fun, brisk movie experience (check out our review HERE).

Weekend in Taipei follows DEA agent John Lawlor (Luke Evans) as he returns to Taiwan after fifteen years away. The last time he was there, he had a romance with criminal transporter Joey (Gwei Lun-mei). Lawlor is in town to pick up evidence to take down drug kingpin Kwang (Sung Kang). Unbeknownst to John, Joey is not only married to Kwang, but he also has a son whom he knows nothing about. Reuniting with his former love and son, Lawlor must try to escape from Taipei with the evidence to take Kwang down.

I got the chance to speak with the cast and crew of Weekend in Taipei. Wyatt Yang, who plays young Raymond, talked about being scared of Sung Kang’s method acting and what it was like filming his first movie. Star Luke Evans talked about playing a hero with Kang as the villain, the inverse of their Fast Saga relationship, and whether he hopes this movie turns into a franchise. Sung Kang talked about why playing villains is more fun while director George Huang gives a shout out to JoBlo.com while explaining the method behind his first action movie. Check out the full interviews in the embed above.

Weekend in Taipei premieres in theaters on November 8th.

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Nosferatu

The WitchThe Lighthouse, and The Northman writer/director Robert Eggers‘ remake of F.W. Murnau’s 1922 silent classic Nosferatu (watch it HERE) is set to reach theatres on Wednesday, December 25th – and while there has been a lot of talk about the transformation Bill Skarsgard (It) underwent to play the title character (Skarsgard himself has said that playing Nosferatu / Count Orlok was like “conjuring pure evil. It took a while for me to shake off the demon that had been conjured inside of me. … I do not think people are gonna recognize me in it.“), it has been confirmed that we won’t be seeing a good shot of the dead Transylvanian nobleman until the movie reaches the big screen.

An unofficial adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the original Nosferatu has the following synopsis: In this highly influential silent horror film, the mysterious Count Orlok (Max Schreck) summons Thomas Hutter (Gustav von Wangenheim) to his remote Transylvanian castle in the mountains. The eerie Orlok seeks to buy a house near Hutter and his wife, Ellen (Greta Schroeder). After Orlok reveals his vampire nature, Hutter struggles to escape the castle, knowing that Ellen is in grave danger. Meanwhile Orlok’s servant, Knock (Alexander Granach), prepares for his master to arrive at his new home. Werner Herzog directed his own remake of the film in 1979.

Eggers’ take on Nosferatu is a gothic tale of obsession between a haunted young woman in 19th century Germany and the ancient Transylvanian vampire who stalks her, bringing untold horror with him.

Eggers told Vanity Fair, “This Orlok is more of a folk vampire than any other film version. That means he’s a dead person. And he’s not like, ‘I look great and I’m dead.’ Folk vampires in some ways are more visually similar to zombies. The reason why he looks the way he looks and he dresses the way he’s dressed is because for the first time in a Dracula or Nosferatu story, this guy looks like a dead Transylvanian nobleman . Every single thing he’s wearing down to the heels on his shoes is what he would’ve worn. That’s never been done.Entertainment Weekly then learned, “Only when audiences arrive in theaters on premiere day this Christmas will the general public see the results of the full hair, make-up, and prosthetics.

Skarsgard agrees with the decision to keep his character hidden in the marketing. “I think the best way to discover Orlok is through the movie for the first time. The movie functions on that, as well. He lives in the shadows for a long time, and it teases the reveal of the character as the movie progresses.

Skarsgard is joined in the cast by Willem Dafoe (Spider-Man: No Way Home) as crazy vampire hunter Von Franz, Lily-Rose Depp (The Idol) as Ellen Hutter and Nicholas Hoult (Renfield) as her husband Thomas – a role Skarsgard was going to play at one point. Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Bullet Train) is in there as Thomas’s friend Friedrich Harding, with Emma Corrin (The Crown) as Friedrich’s wife Anna, Ralph Ineson (The Witch) as Von Franz’s cohort Dr. Wilhelm Sievers, and Simon McBurney (The Conjuring 2) in an unspecified role. The first reactions to the film recently made their way online, and they were very positive.

Are you looking forward to Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu remake, and are you glad to hear that Bill Skarsgard’s character is going to be concealed until the movie reaches the big screen? Let us know by leaving a comment below. 

The post Bill Skarsgard’s Nosferatu looks like a dead Transylvanian nobleman, and we won’t see him until the movie is released appeared first on JoBlo.

Two-time Academy Award winner Renée Zellweger returns to the role that established a romantic-comedy heroine for the ages, a woman whose inimitable approach to life and love redefined an entire film genre.   
  
But in Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, Bridget is alone once again, widowed four years ago, when Mark (Oscar winner Colin Firth) was killed on a humanitarian mission in the Sudan. She’s now a single mother to 9-year-old Billy and 4-year-old Mabel, and is stuck in a state of emotional limbo, raising her children with help from her loyal friends and even her former lover, Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant).  
 
Pressured by her Urban Family —Shazzer, Jude and Tom, her work colleague Miranda, her mother, and her gynecologist Dr. Rawlings (Oscar winner Emma Thompson) — to forge a new path toward life and love, Bridget goes back to work and even tries out the dating apps, where she’s soon pursued by a dreamy and enthusiastic younger man (White Lotus’s Leo Woodall). Now juggling work, home and romance, Bridget grapples with the judgment of the perfect mums at school, worries about Billy as he struggles with the absence of his father, and engages in a series of awkward interactions with her son’s rational-to-a-fault science teacher (Oscar® nominee Chiwetel Ejiofor). The returning cast includes Oscar® winner Jim Broadbent and BAFTA winner Gemma Jones as Bridget’s parents and, as a new character, Isla Fisher (Now You See Me, The Great Gatsby, Dog Man) as Rebecca, Bridget’s neighbor.   
 
Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy is directed by acclaimed filmmaker Michael Morris (To LeslieBetter Call Saul), from a screenplay by BAFTA nominee Helen Fielding, based on her novel, with contributions from Emmy winner Abi Morgan (The Iron Lady, Eric) and Oscar nominee Dan Mazer (I Give it A Year, Bridget Jones’s Baby).  

The film is produced for Working Title by Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner, whose films, including The Danish GirlDarkest HourFargoLes Misérables and The Theory of Everything, among others, have earned 14 Academy Awards® and six Best Picture nominations. The film is also produced by Jo Wallett (Wicked Little LettersCatherine Called Birdy). The film is executive produced by Helen Fielding, Renée Zellweger, Amelia Granger and Sarah-Jane Wright. Working Title has produced all the Bridget Jones films.  
 
Universal Pictures and StudioCanal and Miramax present a Working Title production, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy. The film will be released in theaters internationally by Universal Pictures and will stream exclusively on Peacock in the U.S. The three previous Bridget Jones films—Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001), Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004) and Bridget Jones’s Baby (2016)—have earned more than $800 million worldwide.  

BRIDGET JONES: MAD ABOUT THE BOY — (l-r) Director Michael Morris, Renée Zellweger as Bridget Jones — (Photo by: Jay Maidment/Universal Pictures)
BRIDGET JONES: MAD ABOUT THE BOY — (l-r) Renée Zellweger as Bridget Jones, Leo Woodall as Roxster — (Photo By: Jay Maidment/Universal Pictures)
BRIDGET JONES: MAD ABOUT THE BOY — (l-r) Chiwetel Ejiofor as Mr. Walliker, Renée Zellweger as Bridget Jones — (Photo By: Jay Maidment/Universal Pictures)

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Dog Soldiers

Director Neil Marshall made one of the all-time coolest werewolf movies with his 2002 film Dog Soldiers (watch it HERE), so it’s shocking that we’ve never gotten a sequel, especially considering we’re living in a world where An American Werewolf in Paris exists, and there have been eight Howling movies. A few years ago, Marshall said there was “more of a chance” of the sequel happening than ever before… but in a recent interview, he said he feared that Dog Soldiers 2 is dead in the water. Now, he has taken to social media to confirm that there’s little to no hope of Dog Soldiers 2 ever happening – so he’s going to make a different werewolf movie, The Werewolves of London, instead.

There have been rumors and premature announcements about a sequel to Dog Soldiers ever since the film made its debut in 2002. Oddly, for several years the plans for a sequel never seemed to involve Marshall, despite the fact that he had ideas for a trilogy. A screenplay for a sequel was written (not by Marshall), the project passed through the hands of directors Andy Armstrong, M.J. Bassett, and Rob Green, but the film – referred to as Dog Soldiers: Fresh Meat – never made it into production. Later, there was an attempt to make a web series called Dog Soldiers: Legacy. It didn’t pan out any better than Fresh Meat did. In 2020, the sequel talks finally circled back to Marshall… but then he had trouble getting a follow-up off the ground as well.

Marshall wrote on Instagram, “Since so many fans keep asking, I figured I couldn’t keep the disappointing news to myself any longer. Your unwavering loyalty deserves better. For the past 6 years myself and original UK producer of Dog Soldiers, Christopher Figg, have been working tirelessly to negotiate for the rights to make a sequel with the US Producer/rights holder David E. Allen and his company Dash. 6 years!! That’s as long as it took to write and make the first movie. Unfortunately these negotiations came to a sudden and unexpected halt when, earlier this year, we were due to finalize and sign the agreements and….they disappeared. Vanished. Cut off all communication. Refuse to answer emails or calls. Why, you ask. I don’t know why. That’s the point. We simply don’t know what happened or why, but the end result is that we don’t have the rights to make a sequel without this deal in place, thus rendering it effectively dead. I’m sorry. We tried. We really did. And in Chris Figg’s case spent a lot of money on legal fees doing so. We wanted this for you. For all the countless fans who’ve asked for it. But in the end, perhaps it’s just not meant to be. The original film was lightning in a bottle, and perhaps lightning doesn’t, and in some cases shouldn’t, strike twice. So there it is…

Nineteen hours later, he revealed that he hopes to make a separate project called The Werewolves of London. “Since I dropped such a clanger last night, I thought I’d give fans a little moonlight at the end of the tunnel today… While I do not have the rights to make a Dog Soldiers sequel, there’s nothing to stop me making another werewolf movie…. Which is exactly what I intend to do. It’s early days and I’m not giving away any plot details just yet, the plan is to bring as many of the original team back for this as possible, and then all we need is the money to make it!

Are you sad to hear that Dog Soldiers 2 is dead, but glad to hear that Marshall intends to make The Werewolves of London instead? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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James Mangold’s A Complete Unknown not only explores Bob Dylan’s life, but also the notable people who surrounded him. Names like Joan Baez, Johnny Cash and Pete Seeger are included in the story and Mangold has a cast of actors worth promoting. ScreenRant now reveals on their social media the new character posters for the characters from A Complete Unknown, which includes a new incarnation of Johhny Cash after Mangold already covered his story in Walk the Line with Joaquin Phoenix in the role.

A Complete Unknown, which stars Timothée Chalamet, Edward Norton, Elle Fanning and Monica Barbaro. The film also co-stars Boyd Holbrook, Dan Fogler, Norbert Leo Butz and Scoot McNairy, with the studio also giving it a December 25th wide release. Given how well Chalamet’s Wonka did during the holiday season last year, the studio is likely hoping that lightning will strike twice. The date also gives is peak visibility during award season.

Here’s the official synopsis: “Set in the influential New York music scene of the early 60s, A Complete Unknown follows 19-year-old Minnesota musician Bob Dylan’s (Timothée Chalamet) meteoric rise as a folk singer to concert halls and the top of the charts – his songs and mystique becoming a worldwide sensation – culminating in his groundbreaking electric rock and roll performance at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965.”

James Mangold directs from a screenplay written by him and Jay Cocks, who is known for working with Martin Scorsese on projects such as Gangs of New York and Silence. Producers on the film include Range’s Fred Berger, The Picture Company’s Alex Heineman, Veritas Entertainment Group’s Peter Jaysen, Bob Bookman, Alan Gasmer, Bob Dylan’s longtime representative Jeff Rosen, Chalamet, and Mangold via his Turnpike Films. Michael Bederman, Brian Kavanaugh-Jones, and Andrew Rona are on board as executive producers.

Mangold recently talked about the setting of the film, saying,  “It’s such an amazing time in American culture, and the story of Bob’s — a young, 19-year-old Bob Dylan coming to New York with two dollars in his pocket and becoming a worldwide sensation within three years…First being embraced into a family of folk music in New York and of course kind of outrunning him at a certain point as his star rises so beyond belief.”

The post Take a look at the cast of James Mangold’s A Complete Unknown in the newly released character posters appeared first on JoBlo.

Last year, it was announced that the 1987 cult classic horror comedy Street Trash (buy it HERE) would be getting a remake from Ryan Kruger, the director of the 2020 body horror film Fried Barry! Kruger’s take on the concept, which moves the story from Brooklyn to South Africa, is now ready to make its way out into the world, as Cineverse holds the North American distribution rights and they’re planning to release the film through the Screambox streaming service on November 19th. With the release date swiftly approaching, Kruger sat down for an interview with our friends at Bloody Disgusting – and during this conversation, he revealed that he considers the new Street Trash to be a sequel to the original movie, not a remake of it.

The original Street Trash was directed by J. Michael Muro from a screenplay by Roy Frumkes. Fourteen years ago, Frumkes said he was working on the script for Street Trash 2… but that sequel never made it into production. Thankfully, Muro and Frumkes are both involved with the remake. They served as executive producers alongside Bad Dragon and Vinegar Syndrome.

The Street Trash remake follows a group of homeless misfits as they fight for survival when they discover a plot to exterminate every homeless person in the cityVariety assured that this new take on the concept “stays true to the original plot — which chronicles the disgusting decay of New York wanderers after ingesting bottles of toxic alcohol — but expounds the gore to create a metaphor for something much larger.”

When the project was first announced, Kruger provided the following statement: “Our reimagining of Street Trash takes place in Cape Town, South Africa where the growing divide between rich and poor has changed the world as we know it. I was a huge fan of the original Street Trash when I was a kid, and I couldn’t be more thrilled to introduce a whole new generation to the melted gonzo goodness that made the original such a classic. While our reimagining features new, exciting plot elements that give the film many bizarre twists and turns, the core of the film lies with our diverse and unique cast of characters. As a director, I am very character centric and I can’t wait to see our strange and hilarious ensemble on screen together as they navigate the hostile streets of Cape Town. Our version of Street Trash will be raw, hilarious, packed with vibrant characters and multi-colored explosions of gooey greatness.

Fans of the Shudder series The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs might point out the fact that Fried Barry and the original Street Trash have both been screened on that show – and it’s no coincidence, as the Street Trash remake is being produced by The Last Drive-In producers Justin Martell and Matt Manjourides of Not the Funeral Home. Cineverse’s Chris McGurk, Brandon Hill, Brad Miska, and Yolanda Macias also serve as executive producers. Production in South Africa was handled by Protagonist Studios and Stage Five Films.

Kruger told Bloody Disgusting, “It’s in the same world as the 1987 original film. We actually mention stuff from the original film. So for me, it’s always been more of a sequel. For the original fans, it’s actually a sequel. For a new audience it can be a standalone film.” While he was making the movie, he endeavored to make it as ’80s as possible, using old school prosthetics (and multi-colored goo) for the gore sequences and shooting on 35mm film.

Are you looking forward to the new Street Trash, and are you glad to hear that the director considers it to be a sequel rather than a remake? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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Slitterhead offers something unique. It’s an indie horror game focusing on body horror and possession but with far more action-combat than most horror titles, making it easily accessible and approachable for those who don’t often lean into the genre. It’s not altogether terrifying, thanks to the ability to…

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