After conquering the DCEU, riding shotgun in the Fast and Furious franchise, and taking hackers to task in Netflix’s Heart of Stone, Gal Gadot is locked into a race against time in director Kevin Madonald’s The Runner, an upcoming thriller set up at Amazon MGM Studios. David Kosse produces through his newly established Rockwood Pictures, with Amazon MGM Studios holding the worldwide rights.
Macdonald, whose films include One to One: John & Yoko, The Last King of Scotland, The Mauritanian, and more, directs The Runner from a script by Mark Gibson (The Wild, Snow Dogs). According to Deadline, the plot finds Gadot playing “a high-powered attorney who must race through London, following the cryptic commands of a mysterious Caller, as she fights against time to save her abducted son.”
Before Gal Gadot laced up her sneakers for The Runner, she played the Evil Queen in Disney’s live-action adaptation of its first animated classic, Snow White. The enchanting (and visually questionable) take on Disney’s pioneering princess whistles in theaters on March 21, 2025. Marc Webb directs Snow White, with Rachel Zegler starring as the raven-haired beauty of the forest. Andrew Burnap plays Jonathan, while Lorena Andrea, Colin Michael Carmichael, and Ansu Kabia round out the primary cast.
Gal Gadot recently wrapped production for In the Hand of Dante, a crime drama directed by Julian Schnabel. The plot for the upcoming mystery starring Al Pacino, Gerard Butler, Martin Scorsese, Jason Momoa, John Malkovich, and Oscar Isaac revolves around a handwritten manuscript of Dante Alighieri’s poem “The Divine Comedy” makes its way from a priest to a mob boss in New York City, where Nick Tosches take it after he’s asked to verify its authenticity.
Details for Kevin Macdonald and Gal Gadot’s The Runner are scarce. We hear the movie involves Gadot’s character locked in a fight for her son with a mysterious stranger. While we’ve heard this story before, Macdonald and Gadot could add something new, taking the ticking time bomb approach differently. What do you think about the setup for The Runner? Are you excited to learn more? Let us know in the comments section below.
In the weeks leading up to The Penguin’s debut on HBO, Colin Farrell was very vocal about his reluctance to return for a second season of the series, even going so far as to say, “I never want to put on that f’ing suit and f’ing head again.” However, this seems like it was all a ruse, with Farrell telling THR that he’s all in on a potential second season for The Batman spin-off. “If there’s a great idea [for season two], and the writing was really muscular and as strong or stronger on the page than it was the first season, of course I would do it.”
Farrell also recently stated that he’s heard The Penguin is in The Batman – Part II, but still hasn’t read the script. “I have no idea what the second film is gonna be. I heard Penguin features in it. I haven’t read it.” The Penguin has been a ratings smash for HBO, with many thinking Farrell and co-star Cristin Milioti are shoo-ins for potential Emmy recognition.
In the interview on THR, Farrell says his initial quotes about wanting to leave the role behind were taken out of context and were just him “bitching” to anyone who would listen. Farrell also says he’s pleased with how embraced the show has been by fans, saying, “for me, the bar for success is not very high. It’s, ‘Do most people like it?’ — just the simplicity of that. I love being in things that are critically approved — it’s much better than the alternative — but I’ve been around long enough [to know] that it’s the audience who are really the most important critics.”
The Penguin’s entire first season is now streaming on MAX. What did you think of the finale? Let us know in the comments!
The final season of Marvel‘s animated anthology, What If…, is here to tease one of the studio’s most epic battles as heroes and villains collide for a world-altering showdown. Marvel’s What…If Season 3 trailer comes as Disney’s D23 Brazil event winds to a close after a weekend of surprises, reveals, and hype for the Marcel Cinematic Universe’s future.
Marvel’s What If… Season 3 begins streaming on Disney+ on December 22, with a new episode debuting daily for eight days. You can read Disney’s official synopsis for the series below:
Marvel’s animated series “What If…?” returns in Season 3 for its culminating adventure through the Multiverse. Watch as classic characters make unexpected choices that will mutate their worlds into spectacular alternate versions of the MCU. The Watcher (voice of Jeffrey Wright) will guide viewers as the series traverses new genres, bigger spectacles, and incredible new characters. The series features an incredible voice cast that includes a host of stars who reprise their iconic roles. Season 3 features fan-favorite characters like Captain America/Sam Wilson, The Winter Soldier/Bucky Barnes, Hulk/Bruce Banner, The Red Guardian, Captain Peggy Carter, Agatha Harkness, Shang-Chi, Storm the Goddess of Thunder, and numerous others.
Episodes are directed by Bryan Andrews and Stephan Franck and are written by Matthew Chauncey, Ryan Little, and A.C. Bradley. Executive producers are Brad Winderbaum, Kevin Feige, Louis D’Esposito, Dana Vasquez-Eberhardt, and Bryan Andrews, with co-executive producer Matthew Chauncey, and producers Danielle Costa, Carrie Wassenaar, and Alex Scharf.
Marvel’s What If… Season 3 trailer features heroes and villains from across the Multiverse, including a few surprises like Howard the Duck, Kat Dennings’ Darcy Lewis, Dormammu, Red Guardian, Binary, Winter Soldier, and more! Still, the trailer’s most surprising aspect is the X-Man Storm’s appearance! As Disney works to integrate the X-Men into the MCU, fans can expect more surprises like this in the future.
The first two seasons of Marvel’s What If… are available to stream now on Disney+. The animated anthology series presents audiences with alternate takes on their favorite characters in jaw-dropping animation and action. What do you think about Marvel’s What If… Season 3 trailer? Let us know in the comments section below.
In 2018, A Quiet Place proved that there can be some blockbuster potential in these “monsters invade earth and take over” stories. Alien Invasion’s really needed sprucing up and monsters with a gimmick seem to be the most intriguing solution. While the monsters in A Quiet Place were sound-dependent, murdering whatever moves, the monsters in Elevation are drawn to CO2 and can’t go above 8000 ft. It’s a bit less relatable in that “put yourself in their shoes” way but it means we get a post-apocalyptic movie set in the mountains versus solely deserted suburban towns. This makes for some absolutely stunning visuals. But as you can see from my review, not much else worked.
As someone who lived out in Colorado for 7 years, I had to ask the cast about their timing filming in the Colorado Mountains. Anyone who’s been in high elevation understands how hard physical activity is so Anthony Mackie gets into all the ways he prepared for his sprints up the mountain. And everyone who watches these films always seems to think they can do better than the characters on screen, so I made sure to ask the cast how well they think they’d do within the world of Elevation. I don’t think anyone would be surprised to hear that Captain American himself is confident he’d survive, though the rest claim to be day-one goners. At least the women have realistic expectations. These were great talks that you can check out in the embedded video above.
ELEVATION plot:
The world has changed. The only habitable place left for humanity is in the high mountains, above 8000 feet. Below 8000 feet dwell the creatures that killed 95% of the human population less than three years ago. To save the life of his young son, a father (Anthony Mackie) is forced to venture below “The Line” with a scientist (Morena Baccarin) he despises, but who just might hold the key to defeating the monsters, and a young woman (Maddie Hasson) determined to keep them both alive long enough to save the human race.
ELEVATION IS PLAYING EXCLUSIVELY IN THEATERS ON NOVEMBER 8TH, 2024.
In 2018, A Quiet Place proved that there can be some blockbuster potential in these “monsters invade earth and take over” stories. Alien Invasion’s really needed sprucing up and monsters with a gimmick seem to be the most intriguing solution. While the monsters in A Quiet Place were sound-dependent, murdering whatever moves, the monsters in Elevation are drawn to CO2 and can’t go above 8000 ft. It’s a bit less relatable in that “put yourself in their shoes” way but it means we get a post-apocalyptic movie set in the mountains versus solely deserted suburban towns. This makes for some absolutely stunning visuals. But as you can see from my review, not much else worked.
As someone who lived out in Colorado for 7 years, I had to ask the cast about their timing filming in the Colorado Mountains. Anyone who’s been in high elevation understands how hard physical activity is so Anthony Mackie gets into all the ways he prepared for his sprints up the mountain. And everyone who watches these films always seems to think they can do better than the characters on screen, so I made sure to ask the cast how well they think they’d do within the world of Elevation. I don’t think anyone would be surprised to hear that Captain America himself is confident he’d survive, though the rest claim to be day-one goners. At least the women have realistic expectations. These were great talks that you can check out in the embedded video above.
ELEVATION plot: The world has changed. The only habitable place left for humanity is in the high mountains, above 8000 feet. Below 8000 feet dwell the creatures that killed 95% of the human population less than three years ago. To save the life of his young son, a father (Anthony Mackie) is forced to venture below “The Line” with a scientist (Morena Baccarin) he despises, but who just might hold the key to defeating the monsters, and a young woman (Maddie Hasson) determined to keep them both alive long enough to save the human race.
ELEVATIONIS PLAYING EXCLUSIVELY IN THEATERS ON NOVEMBER 8TH, 2024.
How does one take the temperature of a national cinema? In a year when Greek directors like Yorgos Lanthimos, Athina Rachel Tsangari and Alexandro Avranas popped up on the festival circuit with films shot in languages other than their native one, it feels fitting to bet on a homecoming and look for the answer to this elusive question at Greece’s largest and most prestigeous film festival.
Nested by the shores of the Aegean Sea and with a sprawling beach offering clear views of Mount Olympus, Thessaloniki is a city built upon human resilience and the merging of different cultures. The old docks that now house the city’s Museum of Cinema and the Thessaloniki International Film Festival were once one of the first sights of Jewish people escaping the war – a haven for those in search of freedom. As one walks by the harbour in between the festival’s many screenings, it’s hard not to think of art as a tool of empathy and a shared language.
So, despite the festival’s bountiful crop of Greek features this year — 22 in total, spread across many programmes — two sections feel particularly deserving of a proper rummage to get a deeper understanding of the current state of Greek filmmaking: Meet the Neighbors, comprising first or second features from Greece’s neighbourhood of Southeastern Europe, the Mediterranean and the Middle East and >>Film Forward, prodding at the work of filmmakers challenging our reality and the conventions of genre.
Christos Pitharas’s sophomore narrative feature Hunt, and Daniel Bolda’s Maldives centre around the relationship between lonely men and dogs. The former, a tense drama shot in a tight 4:3 ratio, finds hunter Yannis (Yannis Belis) looking for some peace and quiet following the death of his mother and the overwhelming bureaucracy that succeeds it. Instead, he gets a loud next-door neighbour whose neglected dog barks day and night. The latter trails an elementary music teacher in a small mountainside town who begins to question his sanity once the sorrow coming from the disappearance of his beloved dog brings forth eerie visions of the afterlife.
Both films are infused with a stark sense of how loneliness slithers through community as a quiet, treacherous snake. The two men have their meticulously curated routines interrupted by the sudden loss of a last remaining tie to polite society, somewhat finding a twisted, primitive kind of freedom amongst the heaviness of their grief. While Pitharas roots his terse — both in runtime and pacing — thriller in a highly effective, tangible reality that amplifies Yannis’s descent into violence, Bolda taps into magical realism to play with notions of the real and the dreamlike, seesawing between the nostalgic common ground of a classroom and the lawless, uncanny corners of the forest.
If Hunt and Maldives provide fodder for quiet, moving introspection, Christos Massalas’s Killerwood and Alexandros Tsilifonis’s CAFÉ 404 walk in the opposite direction. These two comedies, although starkly differing in tone and earnestness, parody well-established beats: Killerwood takes a stab at both the classic behind-the-scenes mockumentary and true crime soaps and CAFÉ 404 plays with the all-American trope of a night of escalating chaos at a roadside diner.
Massalas’s satire follows a film crew during prep for a thriller investigating a series of unsolved murders in modern-day Athens and strikes just the right dose of sarcasm with a healthy pinch of self-awareness, handing out throwaway digs at how Greek filmmakers worship at the altar of Lanthimos while painting an amusing caricature of the over-preoccupied millennial wannabe auteur. CAFÉ 404 is rougher-around-the-edges, a spoofy action thriller about a young man who, hoping to keep the doors of the titular café open, is dangerously tempted by a mysterious bag.
There’s a sense of playfulness to both films that is welcome even when misguided, their containment allowing for the kind of risk-taking that speaks directly to the joys and possibilities of filmmaking and thus feeds into our opening question. What is Greek cinema looking like these days? Leaving Thessaloniki, the answer is less a definition and more a feeling, and a very good one at that.
The 2024 Thessaloniki International Film Festival ran from 31 Oct to 10 Nov 2024.
Tomorrow may never die, but for the cast and crew of Bond #18, it was like every day would never end. Hit with constant script rewrites, testy stars, filming locations pulled at the last second, and a seemingly impossible release target, Tomorrow Never Dies felt like it was panning out to be the sophomore slump that neither Pierce Brosnan nor the 007 franchise needed. And yet, it actually turned into a pretty damn good movie…decades after its release, that is. Appreciated and more relevant now than ever, Tomorrow Never Dies may not have lived up to standards in 1997, but is today considered a key entry in the Brosnan era. So what went on behind the scenes, and how exactly did it get there? Let’s shake it up as we find out: What Happened to This Movie?!
Tomorrow Never Dies was greenlit before the previous Bond installment, 1995’s GoldenEye, even hit theaters. But this was really no surprise since the Bond films were pretty much coming out in alternating years (except for Connery’s ‘62-’65 run of four movies). But this wasn’t just to pump out another so fast – it was also a strategic move to coincide with MGM’s public offering. With that, Tomorrow Never Dies had a tight deadline. As producer Michael G. Wilson recalled, “After the last film opened, we were given a release date, and ‘gotta have it on this date’ means the studio depends on you to do it.” With the deadline already on the calendar, the team had to be assembled – and what a team it ended up being…
Directing duties would go to Roger Spottiswood – you know, the dude who made Turner & Hooch and Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot. Granted, he did have a history of editing for Sam Peckinpah, so he was no slouch. Spottiswoode was actually considered for GoldenEye but was passed over for Martin Campbell, who himself was offered the Tomorrow Never Dies gig but opted instead to direct The Mask of Zorro, taking Anthony Hopkins – who was offered the role of Elliot Carver – along with him. One person who would be returning from GoldenEye was screenwriter Bruce Feirstein, although, interestingly, he was not the first choice and would subsequently be fired on multiple occasions… Initially, it seemed like everybody was on the same page, as Feirstein wanted the script “grounded in a nightmare of reality”, while producer Wilson wanted to go for a more small-scale, From Russia with Love-style movie. Unfortunately, the studio – as always seems to be the case – wanted to go big.
Tomorrow Never Dies went through a handful of treatments, one of which – from crime novelist and Oscar nominee for The Grifters Donald E. Westlake – put the setting around the Handover of Hong Kong, the situation that ended British rule. However, MGM reportedly already had a movie centering around that in development; also, by the time Tomorrow Never Dies would have come out, the issue wouldn’t have been timely anymore. Probably a good decision – and the only logical one Henry Kissinger (who served as something of a consultant) ever made. Similarly, another key entity had a say in the script: the Pentagon; the Department of Defense scrubbed a one-liner about the U.S. losing the war in Vietnam. Westlake would use some of this for his novel “Forever and a Death.” Leaving the Hong Kong handover scenario behind prompted a complete change, and at one point, a team of seven writers was assembled to hash out a plan, including Beverly Hills Cop’s Dan Petrie Jr., The Perfect Weapon’s David Campbell Wilson and Mrs. Doubtfire’s Leslie Dixon. Star Trek movie alum Nicholas Meyer also did some rewrites. One of the participants described the weekend as “fun”, which isn’t entirely what you want to hear from someone trying to make a big budget movie on a strict deadline… Oh, and this script that took so many voices and so much time? It wasn’t even complete before the cameras rolled! As Wilson recalled, “We didn’t have a script that was ready to shoot on the first day of filming.” Brosnan – who would have problems even when filming – also noted, “We had a script that was not functioning in certain areas.” Jonathan Pryce – who would be cast as Bond villain Elliot Carver – confirmed that the script he had signed on for wasn’t even close to what he ended up shooting… and not for the better.
Rewrites were constantly being done once cameras rolled. As Feirstein remembered, “I was writing in a tent outside the Bond stage, sending in pages as we were shooting, where Pierce was standing on the deck of the stealth boat, asking ‘Which way do I go? Do I turn left or do I turn right?’ The answer was ‘Wait, we’ll have the pages in a minute.” One person who was comfortable with an unfinished script? Michelle Yeoh was used to working in such a loose way in Hong Kong.
As for the title, one that was being workshopped was Tomorrow Never Lies… but this was actually misread as Tomorrow Never Dies and it stuck!
Also sticking around would be Pierce Brosnan, marking his sophomore outing as 007. Also reprising would be Judi Dench as M, Desmond Llewelyn as Q, and Samantha Bond as Miss Moneypenny. But there would be plenty of newcomers as well. Jonathan Pryce would be mastermind Elliot Carver, whose characteristics have found many comparing him to magnate Rupert Murdoch. However, the actual inspiration is controversial media king Robert Maxwell (whose daughter is Ghislaine, to give you an idea of how messed up that family tree is). This is supported by the parallels between Carver’s reported death and Maxwell’s actual death, having presumably fallen overboard off of his yacht. Stepping into the role of Wai Lain would be Michelle Yeoh, who described her character as “a female version of Bond.” Yeoh was well-known in Hong Kong cinema, especially in action flicks. Through this, extra fight scenes were worked in to capitalize on her skills. Unfortunately, Yeoh wasn’t permitted to do her own stunts despite her request. The other key female role – Paris Carver, wife of Elliot – would be played by Teri Hatcher, beating out Sisters star Sela Ward, Daphne Deckers (who ended up getting a sort of consolation role), and even Monica Bellucci, who Brosnan tested with. (Bellucci would eventually get her Bond moment in 2015’s Spectre, playing Lucia Sciarra.) Hatcher was actually pregnant at the time of filming, which may have been part of the reason why she later claimed she had zero satisfaction from playing the role. She, too, was just coming off of the final episode of The New Adventures of Superman, which wrapped the same week Tomorrow Never Dies started filming.
The supporting cast would feature Götz Otto as tough Richard Stamper, famed magician Ricky Jay as cyber specialist Henry Gupta and the great Vincent Shiavelli as assassin Dr. Kaufman.
Amid studio pressure to hit that target opening date, tabloids declaring the movie was already behind schedule and the unfinished script putting a cloud over the production, principal filming on Tomorrow Never Dies began in April 1997, after a few months of second unit to capture the awesome opening sequence in the French Pyrenees mountain range (initially set in Transylvania!), shot earlier that year under the guidance of Superman and Indiana Jones stuntman Vic Armstrong. Other locales used included Portsmouth, Hampshire, England; Suffolk; Buckinghamshire; Phang Nga Bay off of Thailand; Hamburg; and…Florida. Water sequences used the same tank that James Cameron did for TITANIC, while more filming was completed at England’s famed Pinewood Studios – fittingly, on the dubbed “007 Stage” – and Elstree Studios. One studio they couldn’t land, however, was Leavesden because George Lucas had set up shop there with The Phantom Menace. Hey, MGM’s $110 million budget only had so much pull… Another forbidden location would be in Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam. There were plans to film here but this fell apart when the production was deemed too big for the locale – or that the depiction of Communism wasn’t exactly flattering, depending on which side you want. With every secured location – pegged to be around one-third of the movie – officially off the table, the team had to come up with something – and fast. With that, these scenes were moved to Bangkok, Thailand.
One of the best scenes in Tomorrow Never Dies comes in the motorcycle chase. Coming off of the tank chase in GoldenEye, you’d think the studio would want to go even bigger. Instead, the crew would go much smaller and slimmer… while also taking advantage of their sponsorship with BMW, with that car manufacturer taking over for Aston Martin. (This wasn’t the only notable replacement, as Bond swaps out his favorite Walther, the PPK, for a P99 here.) The model of BMW motorcycle used – the R12000C – had 15 made available, 12 of which were completely wrecked. For these scenes, Jean-Pierre Goy stood in as chief stuntman, while stuntman Vic Armstrong’s wife actually served as Michelle Yeoh’s stand-in. In July, Brosnan got whacked in the face with someone’s motorcycle helmet during a key scene, requiring eight stitches. This is just one of the many reasons that Brosnan said making Tomorrow Never Dies was “like pulling teeth.” The car chase, meanwhile, brought a different kind of intention altogether, as the local fire brigade was called on the production by some people who weren’t hip to the filming of Tomorrow Never Dies.
So, yes, Tomorrow Never Dies had its issues going on. One crew member was quoted saying, “I don’t see how we are ever going to finish the thing. All the happiness and teamwork which is the hallmark of Bond has disappeared completely. We have got ourselves locked into an impossible situation, the like of which I have never witnessed in more than 30 years in the industry.” Another said, “What we are getting is an awful mishmash with changes virtually every day. The actors don’t know if they are coming or going. Pierce, to his credit, has remained calm about the whole thing, as has his co-star Michelle Yeoh. They are there until the end and have to make the best of it.”
Enter Dame Judi Dench, who said:“It was very off-putting indeed to have learnt the script, and at a quarter to ten the night before to get a loud knocking on the door by the courier with a new script.” Even Pierce Brosnan and Teri Hatcher had a brief clash when the latter showed up late to set, causing Brosnan to totally erupt…only to later find out she was late because she was pregnant.
Stitches, baby bumps, and scrambled scripts aside, production on Tomorrow Never Dies wrapped in September 1997, three months before its mandated release date.
The music of the James Bond series is some of the most famous in all of cinema. Knowing that none other than John Barry was approached to return for the first time since 1987’s The Living Daylights, but he and the studio couldn’t reach a financial agreement, and to this day, that Timothy Dalton outing remains his final Bond score. Instead, Barry recommended David Arnold of Stargate and Independence Day fame. For his approach, Arnold wanted to give an update to Barry’s iconic music, composing with “one foot in the ‘60s and one foot in the ‘90s”, writing the music on and off from April to October. Arnold would also put out the compilation “Shaken and Stirred”, which gathered the likes of Aimee Mann, Chrissie Hynde, Iggy Pop, and Pulp to do covers of classic Bond songs. Sheryl Crow, who earned Grammy and Golden Globe nominations, would be handling the title song. Elsewhere, Moby gave an “update” of the iconic James Bond theme, and a k.d. lang song plays over the end credits.
Tomorrow Never Dies would have its world premiere on December 9th, 1997, and its wide release on December 19th, debuting with $25.1 million behind Titanic, although it was only edged out by about $3 million. It would hold the #2 position for a couple more weeks, swatting off various newcomers like As Good as It Gets, Jackie Brown, and An American Werewolf in Paris. Worldwide, it had a haul of $339.5 million, slightly under its predecessor, GoldenEye, and the next Bond entry, The World Is Not Enough.
Just like it Tomorrow Never Dies couldn’t match GoldenEye at the box office, it didn’t sit as well with critics, either. Today, it holds 57% on Rotten Tomatoes, with praise justly going to the action sequences but the movie being panned for being too “by-the-numbers.” Even still, the reputation of Tomorrow Never Dies has improved in the 25+ years since its release. It’s actually considered one of the more prescient of the Bond films, with provisioned takes on web hacking, foreign tech, and the spreading of misinformation/lies (especially as propagated by mainstream media) – and how it could all play a part in how modern wars can launch. And this wasn’t even the most grim Bond!
For now, we do know one thing: James Bond will return in… a future episode of What Happened to This Movie?!
Revenge movies have been a popular feature in mainstream Hollywood for decades, and it’s a genre that has often never shied away from controversy. There have been countless horror movies where a seemingly normal guy, or a full blown creep, lures an unsuspecting female victim back to his place (which is often a creepy lair, or a dungeon, naturally). The genre has seen movies emerge from both the small underground scene to big budget Hollywood pictures. However, some of the most intriguing and memorable revenge films have been the entries that subvert the usual man-tortures-woman traditions of the slasher genre. Over the decades we’ve seen movies such as 1995’s Boy Meets Girl, Lady Vengeance from 2005, 1999’s superb Audition, with its wince inducing torture scenes wonderfully subverting what at first starts as a gentle romance, in a way. Of course, we also have the likes of Kill Bill 1 & 2 and even cult classics like Russ Meyer’s 1965 exploitation flick Faster Pussycat Kill Kill has elements of revenge in its tale of three dancers going on a killing spree in California. However, it’s a movie from 2005 that we’re focusing on in this episode, which features themes of online safety for young people that are an increasing concern nowadays; the well received and thought provoking Hard Candy, directed by David Slade. The film follows a 32-year-old photographer, Jeff, who welcomes 14-year-old Hayley, with whom he has been seductively chatting online, into his house. However, she believes that he’s a pedophile and intends to punish him. Online safety was something the media frequently discussed in the early noughties, so it was only a matter of time before a movie was made that dived into the subject. It’s not an easy subject matter to take on, so had director Slade managed to create a horror movie that managed to entertain, shock and provoke thought among audiences when it was released? Let’s find out here on WTF happened to Hard Candy.
Producer David Higgins first had the idea for the movie when he saw a news story on the American television newsmagazine 20/20, about Japanese girls who lured older businessmen to a specific location, with the promise of meaningful conversation, only to then assault and mug them with a gang of other girls. This led Higgins to ponder the question, “What if the person you expect to be the predator is not who you expect it to be? What if it’s the other person?”. Audiences love movies that are able to subvert their expectations, and with the idea gradually becoming something that could work in a mainstream marketplace, Higgins approached writer Brian Nelson to fast-track a treatment, followed by the finished script.
The pair then approached David Slade to take on the directing hot-seat, and he made his debut with the movie. Like a lot of successful directors, Slade forged a career in filmmaking by directing some cool music videos for the likes of Fatboy Slim, Stone Temple Pilots, Tori Amos, Muse, Stereophonics and System of a Down. The only other official project he’d worked on before Hard Candy, that wasn’t a music video, was a short film called Do Geese See God. I would imagine…they probably don’t. So, it was maybe a slightly risky move to trust a movie with such a controversial narrative, to a director with little to no experience of making mainstream theatrical movies. However, Slade was onboard, and he had the opportunity to show that he could successfully make the difficult transition from music video director, to a more mainstream filmmaker.
With the script not requiring too many elaborate set-ups, the movie was shot in just eighteen days, mostly in sequence and largely by using a soundstage. There was also more of an emphasis on telling the story through creative sound and production design. The soundtrack only features nine minutes of music in its 104 minute runtime, with heavy breathing and other, more atmospheric ambient sounds, making up the bulk of the diegetic audio in the movie. There was also very little dubbing required, with only a handful of lines modified in post-production.
One of the most striking images that’s used in the movie’s marketing campaign is the red, hooded sweatshirt that Elliot Page’s character, Hayley, wears while standing in a giant bear trap. Surprisingly, this wasn’t a deliberate creative choice by the production team, despite it being perfect imagery to sell the movie. It was actually a serendipitous wardrobe choice by the creative team, who only realized how fitting it was later on in the process of marketing the movie. Naturally the international marketing made the most of the fortuitous wardrobe choice, and a great example is the tagline on the Japanese site for the film which reads: “Red Hood traps the Wolf in his own game.” The title of the movie also went through several different incarnations before Hard Candy was ultimately chosen. Writer Nelson’s early working title ideas during the scriptwriting process were Vendetta and another, which would have had guys the world over wincing; Snip Snip. Producer Higgins asked for a title with a “sugar and spice combination and a mixture of harsh roughness, innocence, and vulnerability”. So, Hard Candy it was!
Casting in any movie is always absolutely key, and because of the nature of Hard Candy’s narrative, finding protagonists who could successfully be convincing as a possible paedophile, and the young girl looking to punish him, was potentially very tricky. For the role of Hayley, the production team turned to Ellen Page, who is now Elliot Page of course, and, as I’ll discuss in the review, it’s a great piece of casting. Equally difficult to cast was the character of Jeff which went to the excellent Patrick Wilson. The actor had already featured in a handful of TV shows and movies, including the likes of Angels in America, The Alamo and The Phantom of the Opera, but he was still a relative newcomer to mainstream audiences. It was perhaps a risk then, to take on the role of a guy who had been accused of some truly terrible crimes. Rounding out the cast is the superb character actor, Sandra Oh as Judy Tokuda, plus Jennifer Holmes as Janelle Rogers.
Is it possible for any movie to create sympathy for a guy in his 30s who spends his spare time trolling around the internet looking for underage girls? Plus, more importantly and more to the point – should it really be trying to? Well, they’re the questions being asked of the audience by Hard Candy, a tightly crafted and effective horror movie that attempts to evoke sympathy for both predator and prey. The movie opens with an image of a computer screen showing an instant-message conversation between Patrick Wilson’s Jeff and Elliot Page’s Hayley, who have been flirting online. We next see them meeting face-to-face for the first time in a coffee shop where their conversation continues to be as flirtatious as it is secretly coded, with hidden meaning behind every carefully written sentence in Brian Nelson’s script. They eventually end up back at Jeff’s place where it’s revealed he’s a photographer with an unnerving interest in young girls, as proven by the photos of what seem to be underrage, semi-clothed girls hanging on his walls. However, before Jeff can take their relationship any further, Hayley turns the tables on him that sets both Jeff, and the viewer up for a very uncomfortable experience.
I won’t spoil exactly what the rest of the movie delivers in terms of Hayley’s retribution, her motives and also the exact nature of what she plans to do to Jeff, because if you’ve managed to stay spoiler free from the movie it’s worth going in cold and letting it all unfold. Suffice it to say that the guys watching the movie will be the ones squirming in their seats when the third act kicks in. Director Slade ratchets up the tension expertly, with just a hint of the torture Jeff is enduring and by the end of the sequence it almost makes the viewer wonder whether his actions deserve the punishment he’s enduring. Hard Candy isn’t a pleasant or an easy movie to watch but it’s a very accomplished horror / thriller in its own right. Page is excellent as the vengeful Hayley; going from flirty, innocent and curious towards the beginning of the movie, to cold and calculating towards the end. There are some character decisions that don’t entirely make sense, plus some of the dialogue could have been clunky in the wrong hands, but these are minor complaints. Also, the movie loses some of its tension and becomes a little less scary once Hayley’s true motivations become clear, but for the most part, revisiting Hard Candy has been highly rewarding, albeit in a very uncomfortable way.
The movie premiered at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival with a midnight screening, however audiences had to wait until the site’s failing Dolby Surround system was repaired before it began. It was given a limited release in two theaters in Los Angeles and New York on April 14th, 2006 and achieved the highest per-screen average in the top 50 with almost $30 million per theater. The movie also had an international release and by the end of its run it had grossed a reported total of $8.3 million. The movie also managed to snag some awards recognition, with Page, who was presenting as female at the time, picking up Best Actress at the Austin Film Critics Association Awards, while it also won best film, director, actress and cinematography at the Malaga Film Festival in 2006.
Critically, the movie was met with a largely positive response. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 67% of 147 critic reviews are positive, and the average rating is 6.4/10. The critics consensus reads: “Disturbing, controversial, but entirely engrossing, Hard Candy is well written with strong lead performances, especially that of newcomer Elliot Page. A movie that stays with the viewer long after leaving the theater.” Roger Ebert rated the film 3.5/4 stars, writing “There is undeniable fascination in the situation as it unfolds…Seen as a film, seen as acting and direction, seen as just exactly how it unfolds on the screen, Hard Candy is impressive and effective.” The UK’s Empire Magazine called it a “cracking little thriller” and Variety praised Page’s performance. However, The Chicago Reader’s Jonathan Rosenbaum wasn’t too keen on the themes of torture and mutilation, saying that, “I’d rather have this movie obliterated from my memory”.
At the end of the day, Hard Candy isn’t a movie to be enjoyed necessarily, at least not in the traditional sense. It’s certainly a difficult watch in places, but it does a great job of highlighting an issue that was more than just an increasing concern at the time, and is certainly a prominent issue in today’s more modern digital world. However, the most important opinion we always love to hear is from YOU guys, so what’s your take on Hard Candy? Did the filmmakers create a horror / slash thriller that raises important questions about online safety? Or was it just a touch too uncomfortable to sit through for the most part? Let me know in the comments and I’ll see you wonderful gore-hounds next time. Thanks for watching!
A couple of the previous episodes of What Happened to This Horror Movie? can be seen below. To see more, head over to our JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel – and subscribe while you’re there!
As we honor the men and women of the Armed Forces on Veteran’s Day in the United States, Tom Cruise, Paramount Pictures, and Skydance Entertainment are keeping audiences entertained with a thrilling teaser trailer and poster for Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning. The action-packed trailer features Ethan Hunt (Cruise) in his most dangerous mission yet, with the fate of humanity hanging in the balance as he defies gravity, embraces the unknown, and saves the world.
Plot: Yellowstone chronicles the Dutton family who controls the largest contiguous cattle ranch in the United States. Amid shifting alliances, unsolved murders, open wounds, and hard-earned respect – the ranch is in constant conflict with those it borders – an expanding town, an Indian reservation, and America’s first national park.
Review (SPOILER WARNING): In the almost two years since the eighth episode of Yellowstone‘s fifth season premiered, fans have waited to learn the fate of John Dutton. Kevin Costner entered a very publicized feud with Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan, which was tied to his salary and time away from the series to direct his passion project, Horizon: An American Saga. The first part of that film has come and gone from theaters, but we have still been waiting to see how the second part of Yellowstone‘s fifth and final season would address Costner’s departure. Last night, we finally found out. Simulcast on Paramount Network, Logo, TV Land, and MTV, Yellowstone‘s mid-season premiere revealed that John Dutton, the Governor of Montana, is dead. While Costner’s face is not seen, Sheridan makes it abundantly clear that the patriarch of the Dutton clan will not be returning to wrap up the series’ final run.
As with the final season of Game of Thrones, advanced screeners were not made available for the premiere episode of Yellowstone, titled “Desire is All You Need.” What is noticeable when watching the episode is the accommodations made to the plot to fit in with the lack of Costner’s involvement in these episodes. The episode opens with Beth (Kelly Reilly) and Kayce (Luke Grimes) arriving at the Governor’s residence to a slew of police cars with a cordon to the building. Using his badge as Livestock Commissioner, Kayce and Beth enter to find their father’s body, positioned to make it look like a suicide. Of course, we also see Jamie (West Bentley) receive a phone call confirming the death of his adoptive father. The emotional response from Bentley and Reilly is jarringly realistic and shows how close this cast has become over their years working together. Beth, of course, has an instinct that Jamie is behind the assassination, which sets in motion what is bound to be a massive showdown in the final episodes.
But that is pretty much all we get of substance in this episode. Outside of the opening and closing minutes, the mid-season premiere of Yellowstone flashes back six weeks before the point where the previous episode left off. We follow Rip (Cole Hauser) and his crew heading to Texas for their temporary relocation. The shift to Texas allows for an appearance from Jimmy (Jefferson White) and crew from the 6666 Ranch, another no-so-subtle reminder that a spin-off set there is still in the works from Taylor Sheridan. The Texas plot spends time showcasing the stark geographic difference between the southern state and the mountains of Montana. It allows Rip to wax philosophically on the fading life of cowboys and ranchers. It is a sad moment when he talks about solar farms and importing beef from Brazil, but it also feels a bit like filler after the lengthy wait to visit these characters again. We see Beth get out of community service by drinking and smoking her usual way, but this episode is about it for Beth and Rip.
We get a brief scene with Monica (Kelsey Asbille) and Kayce relocating to a remote ranch on the Dutton property, which features an ominous visit from a wolf in the distance. We also see Thomas Rainwater (Gil Birmingham) scouting the future location of a pipeline through the reservation. The little moments show the quiet on the Dutton Ranch as Lloyd (Forrie J. Smith) looks for things to keep the remaining cowboys busy. At the same time, Rip is in Texas pads the episode before the big sequence featuring Sara Atwood (Dawn Olivieri) meeting with a mysterious man named Grant (Matt Gerald), where they orchestrated the death of John Dutton. It is an intriguingly complex meeting that shows the cutthroat nature of Atwood before it revisits the present day as she meets with Jamie while dressed in lingerie. Jamie reveals that he did not think she would have his father killed, but she convinces him it is for the best. Her cold-blooded nature continues to make Atwood a formidable foe for Beth, but I would not want to be in the middle of that showdown.
The mid-season premiere was written by Taylor Sheridan, who manages the smaller, quieter elements that have always made Yellowstone intriguing to watch between murder scenes, backstabbing, and intrigue. For anyone who does not work on a ranch or in the wide expanses of America, there is a romantic element of cowboy life that Yellowstone beautifully displays. Taylor Sheridan also never lets us forget that the privilege of living the way most Americans do comes on the backs of men like Rip, Lloyd, and the others who work the Dutton Ranch. This monumental episode was directed by Christine Alexandra Voros, who helmed eight other episodes of Yellowstone, as well as entries in 1883 and Lawmen: Bass Reeves. Sheridan has confidence in Voros’ ability to capture the somber in equal measure with the dramatic, which they pull off to great effect with this episode.
The death of John Dutton, which most of us knew was a foregone conclusion, was still handled with a dramatic grace that kept it a shocking moment in Yellowstone history. I had hoped we would see Kevin Costner back in some capacity, but his departure made that impossible. Compared to other series that have handled killing off the main character, like Roseanne and House of Cards, Yellowstone makes it a vital and central part of the plot without ignoring the elephant in the room. Kudos to Taylor Sheridan for making the death feel like it would always happen, even if it did crop up sooner than expected. It is tough to tell how the remaining episodes of this season will compare to this one, but at least Yellowstone is back to keep our Sundays exciting.
Yellowstone debuts new episodes Sundays on Paramount Network.
