You come at the queen, you best not miss. After Martha Stewart spoke out against R.J. Cutler and his latest doc, Martha, the director was all but forced into defending himself. And in doing so, he also went to bat for the entire documentary filmmaking process. 

Speaking on The Town podcast (via EW), Cutler said he and Martha Stewart had a collaboration of sorts during the documentary but their discussions would only play so far into the finished product.  “Guess what? Martha saw the film and she told me what she thought about it. It wasn’t surprising to me that she would’ve made a different film that I made. She gave me her feedback, and she was upset that I didn’t make the changes she wanted to make. But this is the process.”

Some of Martha Stewart’s key criticisms over her namesake documentary were that Cutler focused too much on her 2004 trial as well as spinning it that the subject was in a frail state, using both as hooks to distract or mislead the viewer. On a less damning note, Stewart requested there be a hip hop-centric soundtrack.

Continuing to defend his film, Cutler added, “The subjectivity of being Martha Stewart in this situation, the vulnerability that you’re in, has to be responded to with empathy and support. That doesn’t mean it has to be responded to with changes to the film…It takes a tremendous amount of courage on her part to trust me, I respect that. In return, I share the film with her and have conversations with her about the film. If she has ideas that I think are good ideas and will help the film that I’m making, I’ll take a good idea from anybody.” In other words, it doesn’t seem that Cutler thought Martha Stewart had a whole lot of good ideas…Now come on, R.J., what’s wrong with an all-Snoop score?

Ultimately, it’s R.J. Cutler’s film; and while it would be unethical if he used certain tactics to purposely deceive the viewer – especially in what is ultimately yet another Netflix-backed celeb doc – he can approach the topic however he chooses, even with Stewart’s input. He, too, probably recognized that a lot of people will tune in not for Stewart’s entrepreneurialism but rather her trial and life that followed.

Have you seen Martha? Do you think Cutler did a good job with the subject?

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Some cliche somewhere said that ‘a picture is worth a thousand words.’ This has proven to be the case for me and especially when it comes to fan art. I have always sought out great fan art and have wanted to share it with as many people as possible. “Awesome Art We’ve Found Around The Net” is the outlet for that passion. In this column, I will showcase the kick-ass artwork of some great artists, with the hopes that these artists get the attention they deserve. That’s the aim. If you have any questions or comments, or even suggestions of art or other great artists, feel free to contact me at any time at theodorebond@joblo.com.

Batman: The Animated Series by Tom Walker

The Bride of Frankenstein by Mike Mahle

Evil Dead 2 by Jack C. Gregory

Gambit by Emilio Lopez

Godzilla Minus One by Jean-Baptiste Roux

Indiana Jones and The Raiders of the Lost Ark by Dolson Lewis

Scarface by Tsaqif Baihaqi

Stanley Kubrick by Mark Levy

Star Wars by Amaury Filho

V For Vendetta by Bartos Gyorgy

The post Awesome Art We’ve Found Around The Net: Batman, Godzilla, Indiana Jones, Scarface, Star Wars appeared first on JoBlo.

$3.8 billion. That’s the amount of money Clint Eastwood’s films have grossed at the North American box office throughout his career. A superstar since the 1960s, Eastwood is rare in that almost all of his biggest blockbusters, including all the Dirty Harry movies, were all made for Warner Bros. It’s been his home studio since about the time he made The Outlaw Josey Wales. He’s made everything from Oscar-winners (Unforgiven, Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby) to action movies (Firefox, Sudden Impact, Best Movie You Never Saw fave The Rookie), to movies where he’s chilling with his pal Clyde the Orangutan for them, and they almost always ended up at least breaking even. Sure, he’s had a few flops, but even in his golden years, he still cranked out smash hits for them, with American Sniper making over half a billion dollars, while The Mule and Sully both made over $100 million domestically. Even when his movies didn’t do well, Eastwood keeps his budgets so low that the red ink was minimal. Even something like The 15:17 to Paris managed to make about $56 million worldwide.

With such a solid track record, you’d think that Clint Eastwood, who just made what might be his last movie for Warner Bros, Juror No 2, deserved a little better than having his movie dumped in just a handful of theaters on the way to a quick bow on streaming. Indeed, with solid reviews and a pretty bankable cast, which includes Nicholas Hoult and Toni Collette re-teaming for the first time since About a Boy, you’d think Juror No 2 could have gotten a nice release fitting Clint’s legacy as a director. But no, WB’s dumped the film in so few theatres that they haven’t even been reporting its box office take.

Now, some will say that WB’s head honcho, David Zaslav, won’t give it a wide release because he thinks it’s going to lose money. He previously slammed the studio for agreeing to make Cry Macho, which he called a flop, even if it wasn’t really. Considering it came out during the pandemic and was day and date with HBO Max, its $10 million U.S. take wasn’t awful. Heck, it made more than Reminiscence, Those Who Wish Me Dead, The Many Saints of Newark, and Judas and the Black Messiah did that year, and those movies included huge stars like Hugh Jackman and Angelina Jolie. It grossed only slightly less than The Little Things, starring Denzel Washington, and no one is questioning his star power. 

Here’s the ironic part. While WB hasn’t been reporting Juror No 2’s box office take –  overseas the film has overperformed, making $10 million (so far) despite a low-key release. There’s a very good chance it would have made a decent amount of money domestically (there’s reason to believe it’s per-screen average has been quite good despite the minimal marketing). The fact is, Eastwood has always had a solid sense of what his audience wants to see. Juror No. 2 isn’t one of his best, but it’s a sturdy morality tale with terrific performances from Hoult, Collette, and supporting cast members like Kiefer Sutherland, J.K. Simmons, and Cedric Yarborough of Reno 9-11, who is powerful in an against-type part.  

I think none other than Guillermo Del Toro summed it up best when he posted on Bluesky:

“Went to the theatre to see Juror#2, Clint Eastwood’s latest film. We enjoyed it tremendously.  It’s – in some ways- his Crimes and Misdemeanors.  The film is precisely and assuredly filmed, and it’s Nicolas Hoult’s to lead.  The cast delivers beautifully, and it has an ending that sets the theatre abuzz-Its central dilemma reminded me of the quiet turmoil boiling under Dana Andrews in Preminger Noir of your choice (for me- Where The Sidewalk Ends). It wrestles with it supported by a well-paced structure and well-pondered twists.  Why was this not released widely in the States? We saw at the Grove with a significant crowd that was vocal and responsive all the way.  I truly hope WB can hold it longer.  Eastwood is a master filmmaker and the steady, unfussy craft reveals him still in great form.  Go see it on the big screen!”

Have you seen Juror No 2? Let us know what you think in the comments!

The post WB let Clint Eastwood down by dumping Juror No 2: here’s why appeared first on JoBlo.

UPDATE: And, it looks like the oddsmakers were right, with Jake Paul dominating his eight rounds against Tyson. While Tyson came out strong in the first round, Father Time was not on Tyson’s side, with Jake Paul winning by unanimous decision. Hopefully those of you watching at home actually got to see it, as the streaming was abysmal to say the least!

Original story: In 2024, anything goes – and that means Mike Tyson stepping into the ring with YouTuber Jake Paul. Airing live on Netflix tonight, November 15th, Tyson will face off against Paul in a bout scheduled for eight rounds. And if you’re a betting man, you might want to keep an eye on the odds before making that final bet.

As of this morning, the odds are as follows, according to BetMGM: Mike Tyson at +160, Jake Paul at -150 and a tie at +900. FanDuel, meanwhile, has Tyson at +164 and Paul at -205. For those not familiar with betting odds, that makes Jake Paul the favorite; in the case of the latter odds, you would need to bet $205 to win $100. And with a 30+-year age difference, one can see why Paul is in that position. But that doesn’t mean The Baddest Man in the Planet isn’t ready for what will no doubt be one of the most important bouts of his life.

Who do you think will win? Take our poll:

Mike Tyson hasn’t had a professional bout since 2005, when Jake Paul was just eight years old and was barely in its infancy. More recently, he had an exhibition fight against Roy Jones Jr. at an event where Paul also had a match on the card.

Expectedly, Jake Paul himself said he’s got $40 million on himself – with the ego to match. As he previously stated, “The people think I’m going to get knocked out by this strong, powerful guy. All the people in my comments say, ‘Look at his power. He’s going to get KO’d.’ … This has taken a chance to fight somebody as vicious as Mike can be. You got to risk it for the biscuit. That’s the name of the game. I’m here to make history…He’s vicious. He’s a killer. I know all of these things. He has one-punch knockout power. He’s the greatest heavyweight of all time. But I will prove…all the haters wrong.”

The showdown between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul was first teased last year, with the bout being set for July 2024. However, after Tyson suffered an ulcer flare-up, it had to be postponed until November. And now that time has finally arrived, with Netflix – who has made a major push to host live sporting events as of late – streaming the event live from AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

Who do you think will win between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul? Give us your prediction below!

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It’s been forty years since the release of This Is Spinal Tap, so what have the legendary rockers been up to all this time? We’ll get our answers in Spinal Tap 2, but director Rob Reiner dropped a few hints about the lives of Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest), David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean), and Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer) while speaking with Empire.

“Nigel has been running a cheese and guitar shop,” Reiner said. “David has been writing music for a true-crime podcast called ‘The Trouble With Murder’. And Derek is the curator of a museum of glue. He’s also written a symphony about the fact that the devil wears a bad hairpiece. It’s called ‘Hell Toupée’.” The director, who also reprises his role as filmmaker Martin “Marty” Di Bergi, added that there will be some great new songs, including Derek Smalls’ Rockin’ In the Urn, which is “all about the fact that even after he’s dead, he’s still going to be performing.“

Official plot details for the sequel have largely been kept under wraps, but Reiner did reveal a few details when the project was announced two years ago. “The plan is to do a sequel that comes out on the 40th anniversary of the original film and I can tell you hardly a day goes by without someone saying, why don’t you do another one?” Reiner said. “For so many years, we said, ‘nah.’ It wasn’t until we came up with the right idea how to do this. You don’t want to just do it, to do it. You want to honor the first one and push it a little further with the story.“

Reiner continued, “They haven’t spent any time together recently, and that became the premise. The idea was that Ian Faith, who was their manager, he passed away. In reality, Tony Hendra passed away. Ian’s widow inherited a contract that said Spinal Tap owed them one more concert. She was basically going to sue them if they didn’t. All these years and a lot of bad blood we’ll get into and they’re thrown back together and forced to deal with each other and play this concert.“

Spinal Tap 2 will also feature appearances from plenty of real-life musicians, including Paul McCartney, Elton John, Garth Brooks, and more. The sequel doesn’t have an official release date yet, but Reiner has estimated that it will come out in “late spring or early summer” of 2025.

The post Spinal Tap 2 director teases what the band has been up to for the last 40 years appeared first on JoBlo.

Poorna Jagannathan (The Night Of) has joined the cast of HBO’s Lanterns series in a heavily recurring role.

The live-action Green Lantern series is said to have a True Detective vibe as it “follows new recruit John Stewart and Lantern legend Hal Jordan, two intergalactic cops drawn into a dark, earth-based mystery as they investigate a murder in the American heartland.” Jagannathan will play Zoe, who is described as “effortlessly confident and poised in any setting, even those where she stands out. She is every bit as composed and cunning as the influential men around her.” It’s also rumoured that she may be a love interest for John Stewart.

Kyle Chandler (Friday Night Lights) is set to star in Lanterns as Hal Jordan alongside Aaron Pierre (Rebel Ridge) as John Stewart. Kelly MacDonald (Boardwalk Empire) will also star as Sheriff Kerry, a “no-nonsense woman deeply devoted to her family and close-knit town.” Garret Dillahunt has also joined the series in a recurring role. He will play William Macon, a modern cowboy who is described as “a self-righteous, conspiracy-minded man who masks his ruthless ambition behind a charming and calculated facade.”

Chris Mundy (Ozark) will serve as showrunner and executive producer and will co-write the series alongside Damon Lindelof (The Leftovers) and Tom King (Supergirl), who will also executive produce. James Hawes, a prolific TV director best known for Black Mirror and Slow Horses, will helm the first two episodes.

Lanterns was given an eight-episode straight-to-series order earlier this summer. Casey Bloys, chairman and CEO of HBO and Max content, said: “We are elated to be reuniting with both Chris Mundy and Damon Lindelof as they partner with Tom for this fresh take on DC’s ‘Green Lantern.’ As part of James and Peter’s vision for the DC Universe, this first new live action series will mark an exciting new era.“

In a joint statement, James Gunn and Peter Safran, co-chairmen and co-CEOs of DC Studios, added: “We’re thrilled to bring this seminal DC title to HBO with Chris, Damon and Tom at the helm. John Stewart and Hal Jordan are two of DC’s most compelling characters, and LANTERNS brings them to life in an original detective story that is a foundational part of the unified DCU we’re launching next summer with ‘Superman.’“

The post Lanterns: Poorna Jagannathan joins HBO’s Green Lantern series appeared first on JoBlo.

Disney originally had two Star Wars movies slated for release in 2026, but now it’s down to just one. The studio has pulled the December 18, 2026 project off the calendar, which was believed to be (but wasn’t certain) the one that would feature Daisy Ridley’s return as Rey. Ice Age 6, which was announced at D23 Brazil just last week, will take its place.

The other Star Wars movie still slated for release in 2026 is The Mandalorian & Grogu, which will be released in theaters on May 22, 2026. Honestly, I think it’s for the best. As much as Disney might want Star Wars to be another Marvel-like big-screen franchise, it just isn’t. Plus, given how long it takes Disney to develop these Star Wars projects, I doubt they could keep up that schedule.

There’s no shortage of Star Wars movies in development. It was recently announced that Simon Kinberg (Dark Phoenix) had signed on to write and produce a new Star Wars trilogy. It’s believed that Daisy Ridley will have a role to play in the new trilogy, but she’s also attached to Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s (Ms. Marvel) standalone Rey movie, which takes place fifteen years after the events of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and finds Rey attempting to rebuild the Jedi Order. Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy has previously teased the movie: “The First Order has fallen, the Jedi are in chaos — there’s even a question of how many exist anymore — and Rey’s building the New Jedi Order, based on the training that she was given and that Luke imparted on her.” The project was meant to have been in production already, but it recently lost Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders) as writer.

Some of the other movies which are still in the works include the Lando movie written by Donald Glover, a Taika Waititi project, and a project directed by James Mangold (Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny) that takes place 25,000 years before the Skywalker Saga and explores the first Jedi and the discovery of the Force. “It was something that Jim [Mangold] immediately sparked to, and I think it’s a really nice compliment to what we’re doing with moving into the future with Rey, and then understanding a bit more of where this all came from,” Kennedy explained. “Because it will be at the heart of creating the new Jedi Order, so to get a real sense of where that might have began with the dawn of the Jedi could be pretty cool.“

The post Disney pulls one of its Star Wars movies off the 2026 schedule appeared first on JoBlo.

If you were still holding out hope for the Splinter Cell movie starring Tom Hardy, I’ve got some bad news: it ain’t happening.

Basil Iwanyk, who has been attached as a producer on the Splinter Cell movie for over a decade, told The Direct that they couldn’t get it off the ground. “That movie would have been awesome… Just couldn’t get it right, script-wise, budget-wise,” Iwanyk said. “But it was going to be great. We had a million different versions of it, but it was going to be hardcore and awesome. That’s one of the ones that got away, which is really sad.”

Based on Tom Clancy’s novels, Splinter Cell centers on Sam Fisher, a highly trained special operative in a fictional black-ops division. He and his team battle international terrorists. The project was first announced as a special feature on Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, which was released in early 2005. Hardy signed on to star as Fisher in 2012, so this project has been in development for a long time.

Iwanyk spoke of the challenges of getting the project off the ground in 2017. “The challenge of making Splinter Cell interesting was we didn’t have this IP with a very specific backstory,” he explained. “That allowed us to make up our own world and really augment and fill out the characters. I don’t think one applies to the other because I don’t think our movie will feel like a movie that came out of a video game, I think it’ll feel like a badass, Tom Hardy action movie, which is what we wanted.” He added that they wanted to make their movie stand out from other spy movies like James Bond and Jason Bourne. “The good and the bad news is that, obviously, the Bond movies have had a resurgence and the Jason Bourne movies are the Jason Bourne movies, so we’re trying to stay away from those movies in terms of tone, in terms of bad guys, in terms of settings,” he said. “What’s a world that we haven’t seen yet? What’s an area of the world and a conflict that we haven’t really touched upon in movies in a long time, to make it feel fresh?“

Although the Splinter Cell movie isn’t happening, a Splinter Cell anime series is set to be released on Netflix, with Liev Schreiber voicing the main character.

The post Twenty years after it was first announced, Tom Hardy’s Splinter Cell movie is officially dead appeared first on JoBlo.

Scream (2022) and Scream VI star Melissa Barrera was fired from Scream 7 when comments she made about the Israel-Hamas war didn’t go over well with executives at Spyglass Media, but that doesn’t appear to be slowing her career. She recently starred in the horror rom-com musical Your Monster, which was given a PVOD release earlier this week. She’ll be starring with Simu Liu of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings in an untitled espionage techno-thriller series for the Peacock streaming service and producer James Wan. And Deadline reports that she’ll be starring in a Western thriller called In the Cradle of Granite.

The English-language debut of Costa Rican director Ariel Escalante (Domingo and the Mist), In the Cradle of Granite is based on an original screenplay by Jay Holmes and set in the brutal American west of the late 1800s. The film will see Barrera taking on the role of a young mother who struggles to provide for her family after her husband dies and the local town folk won’t do business with her. But when she finds the body of a notorious wanted outlaw on her homestead, she strikes a deal with the bounty hunter who killed him — setting out across the dangerous frontier in hopes of a big reward and a better future.

Joel David Moore, Rishi Bajaj and Daniel Taborga of Balcony 9 Productions, Jonathan Sadowski and Daniel Pancotto of Ad Lunam Ent, and Gregory Thomas are producing the film, with Chase Hinton, Lynette Gurule-Thomas, and Michael Thomas serving as executive producers.

Barrera told Deadline, “Ariel is a beautifully poetic filmmaker and I am honored to join him in his English language debut. We are both very intentional in the narratives we choose to tell and seek to entertain while giving life to characters and situations that serve as a mirror for society. Jay Holmes’ script is thrilling and hypnotizing and I can’t wait to bring it to the big screen along with the teams at Ad Lunam and Balcony 9.“

Escalante added, “I find Jay Holmes’ script to be the perfect opportunity to bring my directorial vision to the United States. And working alongside such a strong and amazing actress like Melissa Barrera only fuels my desire to turn this into both an exciting contemporary take on the western genre and a bold reflection on colonial violence.“

Does In the Cradle of Granite sound interesting to you? Share your thoughts on this Melissa Barrera Western thriller by leaving a comment below.

The post In the Cradle of Granite: Scream’s Melissa Barrera to star in Western thriller appeared first on JoBlo.

Massive creatures with scales have become the focus of Empire‘s 2025 Preview as the entertainment magazine debuts new looks at Jurassic World Rebirth and Dean DeBlois’ live-action adaptation of How to Train Your Dragon. DeBlois, who directed all three of Dreamworks Animation’s How to Train Your Dragon films, is partnering with co-director Chris Sanders for the anticipated project. Bringing Hiccup and Toothless’ tale to live-action gives DeBlois a chance to share the fantasy epic with audiences with a new dimension, emotionality, and action. “It’s so dialled-up in terms of stakes — having a fully credible, photo-real dragon stomping around trying to kill him,” DeBlois told Empire regarding the film’s central dragon, Toothless, interacting with Hiccup, played by Mason Thames (The Black Phone).

In How to Train Your Dragon, Hiccup discovers dragons aren’t as terrifying as the stories would have him believe. Hiccup is an outsider, so people will likely brush his opinions aside. Still, when he proves to them that dragons are misunderstood and potentially friendly, he ushers in a new era where Vikings and dragons work together to build a shared society. “There was a bit of awkwardness, but also a vulnerability to him which [came] with the fact that he was 15 when we were auditioning him,” says DeBlois about Thames landing the role.

In the new photo for How to Train Your Dragon, we find Thames’s Hiccup in an arena and battle-ready. As the eager crowd looks down from above, Hiccup braces himself for a questionable outcome to the confrontation.

In contrast, Empire debuted a new image of Scarlett Johansson in Gareth Edwards’s Jurassic World Rebirth, a dinosaur action-adventure film set five years after the events of Jurassic World Dominion. In Jurassic World Rebirth, an expedition into isolated equatorial regions to extract DNA from three prehistoric creatures goes awry. Are you remotely surprised? This sort of nonsense happens every time. When will humans learn and leave the dinosaurs alone? Probably never.

Scarlett Johansson’s Zora Bennett carries a massive gun through thick foliage in the new Jurassic World Rebirth photo. The weapon appears to have a giant needle at its tip, seemingly to extract the DNA. I don’t know about you, but you wouldn’t catch my slow-moving ass trying to poke a dinosaur with a giant syringe. Miracle cure or not, humanity can fend for itself.

What do you think about today’s new looks at How to Train Your Dragon and Jurassic World Rebirth? Would you stab a dinosaur’s scaly exterior with that needle gun? Let us know in the comments section below, and be honest.

The post New looks at Scarlett Johansson in Jurassic World Rebirth and Mason Thames as Hiccup for How to Train Your Dragon finally arrive appeared first on JoBlo.