There was a time where hate for Anne Hathaway was confoundingly strong. But what had she really done to deserve all of the backlash? It’s not like she was a one-note star – she balanced crappy rom-comcs with terrific performances in movies like Brokeback Mountain and Rachel Getting Married – or was a problem on the set. And yet people had seemingly decided to turn on her sometime in the early 2010s, with a new term, “Hathahate”, being coined. But one who remained faithful in her as an actress and a professional was Christopher Nolan, who cast her as Selina Kyle aka Catwoman in 2012’s The Dark Knight Rises and again in 2014’s Interstellar. And for that, Anne Hathaway is forever grateful.
In a new Vanity Fair profile, Anne Hathaway said of her time on the outs with Hollywood, “A lot of people wouldn’t give me roles because they were so concerned about how toxic my identity had become online. I had an angel in Christopher Nolan, who did not care about that and gave me one of the most beautiful roles I’ve had in one of the best films that I’ve been a part of.” She added, “I don’t know if he knew that he was backing me at the time, but it had that effect. And my career did not lose momentum the way it could have if he hadn’t backed me.”
While Anne Hathaway’s career hardly had a serious resurgence after her pair of Nolan collaborations, she did sneak in an Oscar win for Les Misérables in 2013, an impressive feat considering she barely has 15 minutes of screen time as Fantine. This win came just two years after co-hosting the Academy Awards, something she really had no business doing. What resulted was one of the worst hosting gigs ever, as she and co-host James Franco had zero chemistry, lacked comedic timing and presented themselves like they were being held hostage, no doubt contributing to the backlash that may have something to do with her overexposure. Such a mess it was, the Academy invited back former mainstay Billy Crystal, who hadn’t hosted since 2004.
Anne Hathaway has a number of projects lined up, including rom-com The Idea of You and David Lowery epic Mother Mary. She is also speculated to be circling season two of Beef.
What’s your position on Anne Hathaway and what do you make of the hate she got during that period?
Several months ago, word leaked out that Maggie Gyllenhaal was set to direct a film called The Bride!, a new take on the concept of the 1935 classic The Bride of Frankenstein (watch it HERE). Once thought to be set up at the Netflix streaming service, this one is actually happening at Warner Bros., and the studio has set the film for a theatrical release, IMAX screens included, on October 3, 2025. We’ve previously heard the names of several cast members, and now Deadline has revealed another one: Julianne Hough. Perhaps best known for her work on the TV series Dancing with the Stars, where she has been a dancer, a judge, and a co-host, Hough also has multiple acting credits to her name, including roles in Burlesque, Footloose, Rock of Ages, Safe Haven, Paradise, Curve, Dirty Grandpa, and Bigger.
Details on the role Hough will be playing in The Bride! have not been revealed.
The first two cast members Gyllenhaal secured for the project were her TheDark Knight co-star Christian Bale and her husband Peter Sarsgaard. Since then, the cast has grown with the additions of Penelope Cruz, Jessie Buckley, and Annette Bening. Quotes from Bale have indicated that he may be playing Frankenstein’s Monster in the film. Production List had reported the following line-up of cast and characters: “Cruz as the bride Myrna, Bale as Frankenstein, and Sarsgaard playing a detective.” But a later report described Buckley as “the star” of the film, so there’s some confusion over who’s playing the titular Bride.
The Bride! has the following synopsis: A lonely Frankenstein travels to 1930s Chicago to seek the aide of a Dr. Euphronius in creating a companion for himself. The two reinvigorate a murdered young woman and the Bride is born. She is beyond what either of them intended, igniting a combustible romance, the attention of the police and a wild and radical social movement.
This isn’t a Universal project, but it wouldn’t be the first Bride of Frankenstein remake to be made by a different company. In 1985, Columbia Pictures brought us another movie simply called The Bride, which starred Sting as Baron Charles Frankenstein, Jennifer Beals as Eva (the bride) and Clancy Brown as Viktor (the monster). A few years ago, it was announced that Scarlett Johansson was going to star in a similar project called Bride for A24 and Apple, but that still hasn’t made it into production.
Are you interested in The Bride? What do you think of Julianne Hough joining the cast? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
I haven’t seen all of Hough’s movies, but I thought she did well in the ones I have watched, so I’m glad to see her getting another film role.
After 2007’s Transformers became a huge box office hit, Hasbro would pull from another of their popular properties that also had a place in pop culture with an 80s cartoon — G.I. Joe. However, G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra would not do the kind of numbers that Transformers had brought in, and the style was surprisingly geared more towards the Michael Bay film with some sci-fi twists rather than a more straight-forward military combat movie with colorfully eccentric characters. The sequel, G.I. Joe: Retaliation, would offer more of what many would come to expect from the property and had actually become more successful commercially (mostly thanks to Dwayne Johnson‘s star power).
Then, 2021 saw a sort of prequel spin-off of one of the most popular characters from the franchise with the solo film Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins. Henry Golding, who shot up to fame with the success of Crazy Rich Asians, would occupy the role of the famously silent ninja soldier. Snake Eyes opened during the height of the pandemic and would fizzle with a box office of just over $40 million dollars. However, According to ScreenRant, Golding recently sat down with ComicBook.com to offer some hope for those looking forward to more Snake Eyes.
Golding told ComicBook.com,
I mean, Lorenzo di Bonaventura is a busy man and a phenomenal producer, and it’s in safe hands. Whatever happens, I think it’s going to be a combination of what has come and what is to come. I think Paramount have some grand, grand plans.”
Since Snake Eyes, the studio has been able to stream original content on Paramount Plus, so if there isn’t a theatrical film, a series or streaming original could be possible. Plus, there was that little easter egg tease at the end of the recent Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, which featured the main character being interviewed for a secret organization that turned out to be the Joes. Steven Caple Jr., the director of that film, addressed, “I had to talk to all the producers and let them know the vision or direction I was going in. I didn’t know all of it at the moment when I had first pitched it or when they first read it, but throughout the process of making this movie, it started to get deeper and deeper. So I knew a little bit more of the direction I wanted to go in with the Joes, but the studio was on board since the beginning. It just took a while to get all the parties on board and settled.”
As Easter Sunday approaches this weekend, we thought we’d “die” your eggs a little a differently. That is, we’re on the great hidden treasure hunt for some of the most colorful and delicious horror movie Easter eggs found in some of our favorite titles. But here’s the thing. We aren’t talking about obscure cameos from people that are hard to miss, or even secretive foreshadowing within a single movie, a la the entire Final Destination franchise. Nor are we talking about mere verbal references to other horror movies. Rather, we’re interested in visual crossover clues found one horror movie that pay homage to another, found tucked away in the background or even hidden in plain sight. You see the distinction. Good. Hopefully you haven’t already seen what’s to follow. Happy holiday y’all, here’s our Top 10 Favorite Crossover Horror Movie Easter Eggs!
#10. SILENT HILL/VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED
Silent Hill may hold the dubious distinction of being another movie that’s inferior to its videogame inspiration, but one thing the movie got right was its respectful ode to Wolf Rilla’s Village of the Damned. Just as James Gunn did with the Thing-poking R.J. MacReady funeral home in Slither, the edifice of the Midwich Elementary School building that Alessa attends is an overt reference to the accursed village where alien-like children with glowing eyes and white hair terrorize the citizenry. GET SILENT HILL HERE
#9. PSYCHO/HALLOWEEN H20
There’s a delicious irony in the fact that golden-era scream queen, Janet Leigh, wanted nothing more than for her daughter to avoid horror movie acting, only to see Jamie Lee Curtis become her own preeminent generational scream queen. The connection between the two is honored in the paltry Halloween H20, in which Janet Leigh is not only cast alongside her daughter, but is further linked to her iconic role of Marion Crane in Hitchcock’s Psycho. Notice the sweet old classic 1957 Ford sedan above that Lee’s flaunting in H20? Yup, that’s the same ride Norman Bates dumped into the swamp after slaughtering Leigh in the shower in Psycho. Same plates an all: NFB 418. GET H20 HERE
#8. SHAUN OF DEAD FULCI/DAWN OF THE DEAD/ZOMBIE
While most know that one year after redefining the zombie subgenre with Shaun of the Dead, star Simon Pegg and director Edgar Wright showed up as rabid zombies in Romero’s Land of the Dead, many may have missed all the subtle visual gags in their own flick. Per the Romero love, take a peek at Pegg’s work-badge. Indeed, that says Foree Electric, as in Ken Foree, star of Romero’s beloved Dawn of the Dead. Further background sight-gags and references can be found, as in the Fulci Restaurant ad spotted in the newspaper directory. Fulci of course helmed Zombie, yet another inspiration behind Shaun of the Dead. GET SHAUN OF THE DEAD HERE
#7. NIGHT OF THE CREEPS/MONSTER SQUAD
Damn I’ve always loved this self-congratulatory shout-out! Do you recall who directed the superb Night of the Creeps? Now do you recount who helmed The Monster Squad one year later? Yessir, Fred Dekker is the man behind both flicks, yet strangely pays homage to a movie of his own that had not even been released yet. “Go Monster Squad!” would make little sense when spotting the clue in 1986, but one year later, the reference makes all the sense in the world. Dekker only directed three films in his career, and these two, both starring Tom Atkins mind you, are some of my all time 80s horror favorites. I’m glad to see Dekker connect the two! GET NIGHT OF THE CREEPS HERE
#6. DEATH PROOF/BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA
I’ll admit, this one freaked me the f*ck out. And it’s not that it’s even scary, it’s just that the visual clue is so obviously in plain sight, and yet, having seen the Grindhouse double feature at least five times (as well as being a fan of the movie referenced), I’ve never once noticed it. But there it is folks. Hanging on the wall right above the table is Jack Burton’s tank-top from John Carpenter’s Big Trouble in Little China. Of course, the meta-reference is made all the more pertinent due to the fact Death Proof also stars the great Kurt Russell. There are even several shots of Russell in the same frame as the tank-top, making the connection even stronger. GET DEATH PROOF HERE
#5. JASON GOES TO HELL/EVIL DEAD
In a prop literally shared across both film franchises, Sam Raimi’s Necronomicon, aka the Book of the Dead that is seen throughout the Evil Dead series, makes a brief appearance in Adam Marcus’ Jason Goes to Hell. The tome pops up late in the film, just before Jason is pulled to hell by Freddy Krueger’s glove (another nice nod, but not nearly as clandestine). Our man Voorhees marauds through the dark moldering abode at the end of the film, quickly coming to a table adorned with ancient texts. The one front and center is indeed Raimi’s Deadite scroll, which as you’ll see below, makes Sam one of the most crossed-referenced horror movie Easter egg purveyors of all! GET JASON GOES TO HELL HERE
#4. SAW/DEAD SILENCE/INSIDIOUS
James-I’ve-been-turning- people-Wan with fear for well over decade now sure loves the legacy left behind by Saw, his breakout horror hit. In specific, Wan loves to subtly tuck the sinister visage of Billy Puppet, the maniacal mascot of the entire Saw franchise, into dark corners of his other titles. The first instance can be found in Wan’s Dead Silence, in which, toward the end, characters amble down a dark corridor and pass by Billy Puppet sitting in the right foreground corner. If that wasn’t alarming enough, in Wan’s Insidious, on the chalkboard behind Josh Lambert’s shoulder in his classroom sits an eerie chalk-sketching of Billy, frilly hair, spiral cheeks and all! GET DEAD SILENCE HERE
#3. PREDATOR 2/ALIEN
Apparently, the murderous merger of two gargantuan horror movie franchises – Alien and Predator – was planted in our collective subconscious as early as 1990. That’s some serious f*cking premarket research right there. Indeed, at the ending of the risibly inferior Predator 2, a trophy case full of collected skeletons includes, for no other reason than to germinate the seeds of a mega-mash-up, a Xenomorph skull. Word is this was director Stephen Hopkins’ idea, as he wanted to pay tribute to the Dark Horse comic already popular Aliens vs. Predator comics. Since Fox owned both properties, a crossover was easy to license, giving round one in the battle to Predator. GET PREDATOR 2 HERE
#2. EVIL DEAD 2/A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET
Sam Raimi and Wes Craven had a playful relationship. In Craven’s seminal horror masterpiece, A Nightmare on Elm Street, one of the movies Nancy watches while desperately trying to stay awake is in fact Raimi’s original Evil Dead. Picking up on the nod, Raimi responded in kind three years later in Evil Dead 2 by hanging Freddy Kreuger’s razor-claw glove on the wall of Ash’s toolshed. The glove is a bit difficult to spot in the background, but Raimi is sure to include it in a number of shots as to leave no doubt of the glove’s portentous presence. Of course, Raimi loves his horror movie Easter eggs, which is why he places his trusty Oldsmobile Delta ’88 (seen atop this page)in damn near every one of his films, including Spider-Man and even Ash Vs. Evil Dead. GET EVIL DEAD 2 HERE
#1. EYES WIDE SHUT/THE SHINING
Well, we’ve arrived at the King of Easter Eggs and encoded subliminal messages. See this shot of Tom Cruise in Stanley Kubrick’s peerless masterwork Eyes Wide Shut? Notice the address is 237, illuminated by Shining Christmas lights? Coincidence? One might think so until learning this building does not exist, but was manufactured on the soundstage at Elstree studio in England, the façade of which is reused later in the film as the Jason Hotel (notice the three arches). Here’s the point. While there are many far-fetched, conspiracy-laden, tin-foil readings of Kubrick’s work (including the movie Room 237), there’s no doubt that Kubrick has used subliminal imagery in his work as far back as Lolita, when the salacious subject matter forced him to rethink the movie in visual innuendos, as a means of avoiding MPAA penalty. Much has been made about Kubrick’s The Shining as a coded confession of his secret relationship with NASA to film the moon landing. But honestly, more needs to be made about grand gestalt that is Eyes Wide Shut. This movie visually references every single Kubrick movie before it, including The Shining and its infamous room 237 (the hospital in the film is also addressed 237, giving us a twinning effect… more Shining allusions). The level of detail and hidden messaging in Eyes Wide Shut is frightening beyond belief! GET EYES WIDE SHUT HERE
Plot: Asphalt City follows Ollie Cross, a young paramedic assigned to the NYC night shift with an uncompromising and seasoned partner Gene Rutkovsky. The dark nights reveal a city in crisis; Rutkovsky guides Cross, as each 911 call is often dangerous and uncertain, putting their lives on the line every day to help others. Cross soon discovers firsthand the chaos and awe of a job that careens from harrowing to heartfelt, testing his relationship with Rutkovsky and the ethical ambiguity that can be the difference between life and death.
Review: Stories about first responders, specifically EMTs, are often material depicted on small-screen procedurals and dramas like 9-1-1 and Chicago Med. Doctors tend to get all the glory on the big screen, except for Martin Scorsese’s haunting 1999 film Bringing Out The Dead. Where that film went down a horror-tinged rabbit hole reminiscent of Scorsese’s Taxi Driver, it managed to evoke the brutality that paramedics face night after night in the sprawl of New York City. Following in the footsteps of Nicolas Cage’s film, Asphalt City is a hard-to-watch look at paramedics’ intense job and its consequences on their psyches. Featuring multiple sequences that some viewers will have difficulty watching, Asphalt City is a film you cannot walk away from without it lingering in your memory.
Asphalt City follows Ollie Cross (Tye Sheridan), a medical student who gets assigned a rotation working as a paramedic during the night shift in a rough part of New York City. Living in a rundown tenement in Chinatown to save money for medical school, Cross is immediately shocked by the brutality of the emergencies he and his partner, Gene Rutkovsky (Sean Penn), encounter night after night. From drug addicts to homeless people, gangsters, and more, Ollie must endure the fact that not everyone is happy when the first responders arrive, nor can they always save the patient. The grind of what Ollie and Gene encounter night after night forces the young man to find outlets for his rage, gradually reaching a breaking point. Over the two-hour running time, Asphalt City pulls no punches and filters almost nothing as we endure what Ollie endures.
Originally released under the title Black Flies, Asphalt City competed for the Palm d’Or at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. Vying for that esteemed prize usually indicates something special in a film that sets it apart from everything else out there. Asphalt City does not reinvent the genre by showing us anything we have not seen in Bringing Out The Dead or Taxi Driver. There is clearly an influence from Paul Schrader and Martin Scorsese in the look and feel of Asphalt City, almost to the point of homage. This film desperately wants to send a message about EMTs’ grueling and nihilistic lives and how they cope with one of the most demanding and challenging jobs out there. Still, it does so by repeating the formulaic storytelling we have seen before. Tye Sheridan is a solid actor, but he spends so much of this film looking broken and angry, while Sean Penn barely raises the temperature of his performance above a grumble.
So much of Asphalt City centers on Sheridan and Penn that every other actor barely registers. Most of the cast features people who look like the filmmakers picked them up right off the street, and almost every scene has a new face as the EMTs roll from one call to the next. This makes the actual recognizable talent in the film feel fleeting as well. The most substantial supporting role is Michael Pitt as a rival EMT with whom Ollie does not get along. Mike Tyson portrays Chief Burroughs in a total of three scenes in which he barely has any dialogue. Gbenga Akinnagbe and Katherine Waterston show up for a couple of scenes that seem unnecessarily added. True Detective: Night Country star Kali Reis shows up in a pivotal but minor role, while Raquel Nave is seen throughout in fully nude sex scenes with Tye Sheridan that are meant to be provocative but instead feel tacked on. In many cases, the non-famous supporting cast helped make this feel more authentic, while the famous actors pulled me out of the story.
Directed by Jean-Stephane Sauvaire, Asphalt City has a European aesthetic despite the New York City setting. With manic editing by Saar Klein and Katherine McQuerrey, Sauvaire, and cinematographer David Ungaro try to blend a documentary-like realism to the medical sequences with an ethereal and dream-like tone. The issue is that so much of the visual approach feels like it has been done countless times before, and it cannot help but feel a bit derivative. The screenplay from Ryan King and Ben Mac Brown keeps the realistic medical elements from Shannon Burke’s novel on which this is based. Still, it cannot help but feel watered down when cliche moments like Ollie screaming but with no sound or the requisite mentor taking the fall sequence. That does not discount the handful of disturbing scenes in this film, which will be a challenge for any viewers sensitive to realistic depictions of dead bodies. It also does not help that the title does not make much sense, whereas the original name, Black Flies, is a recurring motif throughout the movie.
Asphalt City is a tough watch. The message at the center of the film lacks subtlety as it drives home that being a paramedic in New York City is a thankless job fraught with challenges. This is not a film that pulls any punches and would likely dissuade more people from pursuing a career in medicine than it would inspire. Nevertheless, while this movie is tough to watch from a visceral standpoint, it is also not easy to get through because of how familiar it feels. Asphalt City does not tread any ground we have not seen on screen before; instead, it shows us more disturbing twists. While Tye Sheridan and Sean Penn are good, they cannot overcome the weakness of a film that is so weighed down by its own horrors.
Back in 2015, HBO aired Andrew Jarecki, Marc Smerling, and Zac Stuart-Pontier’s six episode true crime docu-series The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst, which focused on real estate heir Robert Durst and investigated “the unsolved 1982 disappearance of Durst’s wife, Kathie McCormack, the 2000 execution-style killing of his longtime friend Susan Berman, and the 2001 death and dismemberment of his neighbor Morris Black”, in Galveston, Texas.” During the making of that docu-series, Durst was caught on tape saying “What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course.” While he had been acquitted of murdering Black in 2003, Durst was arrested the day before the series finale aired and charged with first degree murder in the death of Berman. While the case went to trial, the documentarians kept digging into the Durst story, gathering material for the follow-up series The Jinx: Part Two. The new trailer for the second part has just dropped. The Jinx: Part Two (which will also consist of six episodes) will begin airing on HBO on April 21.
The Jinx: Part Two covers the next eight years of investigations against Durst. The filmmakers continued their investigation, uncovering hidden material, Durst’s prison calls, and interviews with people who had never before come forward.
Jarecki directed the docu-series and executive produced with Zac Stuart-Pontier and Kyle Martin as well as HBO’s Nancy Abraham, Lisa Heller, Sara Rodriguez.
If you don’t want to know what happened to Durst after The Jinx, don’t read beyond this line because there are SPOILERS below:
The Jinx: Part Two will undoubtedly cover the fact that Durst was convicted of murdering Berman and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. After he received that sentence, he was also charged in the disappearance of McCormack – but he passed away in 2022 at the age of 78 before that case could go to trial. Authorities also suspected Durst of committing other murders, but their suspicions were never confirmed.
With cameras rolling on James Gunn’s Superman, the director took to social media to share a special moment and show off a pretty cool gift from people tied directly to the legacy of the character.
James Gunn posted a photo of himself with the grandsons of Jerry Siegel – the famed co-creator (along with Joe Shuster) of Superman – who gifted him an edition of Action Comics #1, where the Man of Steel was first introduced. “A gift from Jerry Siegel’s grandsons Michael and James Larson – a reprint of the first issue of Action Comics signed by Jerry. It’s been great having Mike and Jim around keeping Jerry’s spirit alive in the birth of the DCU! Here we all were on the day of the cast read through.” That’s a nice gesture from the fellas and shows that there is faith within the family for the project and future of DC. Here’s hoping that the gift being a reprint and not an original isn’t a bad omen…
A gift from Jerry Siegel’s grandsons Michael and James Larson – a reprint of the first issue of Action Comics signed by Jerry. It’s been great having Mike and Jim around keeping Jerry’s spirit alive in the birth of the DCU! Here we all were on the day of the cast read through.… pic.twitter.com/8FeSO4gSFn
Formerly titled Superman: Legacy, Gunn’s Superman will take on the heroic task of helping DC “reset” their cinematic brand after an extensive streak of fare that either bombed, tanked with critics or were just too damn dark to even see what was going on! Chapter One of the DC Universe, dubbed “Gods and Monsters”, will also host The Authority, The Brave and the Bold, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, and James Mangold’s Swamp Thing, none of which have official release dates yet.
James Gunn’s Superman is one of the biggest projects lined up by a major studio, with a summer 2025 release on the calendar. And it’s no doubt a huge gamble. While Gunn has disputed the rumored $360+ million budget, much is on the line elsewhere, as the DC co-CEO has a monumental task in turning around the studio’s reputation. With Marvel flailing about and trying to recapture their glory days, this might be the best time for DC to swoop in and save their own day. Superman will be James Gunn’s first directorial effort since leaving Marvel, having bid farewell with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
A copy of Action Comics #1 is up for auction next month and is expected to set a new record for the highest-priced comic book ever.
Can you accept that Anthony Mackie did what he thought was right? Mackie – who has played Sam Wilson aka Falcon (aka Captain America) across six films and one series – has close ties to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, having first played the character a decade ago, but even with his place in the MCU, he knows that pretty much any creativity he wants to bring to Wilson will most like be stifled.
Speaking with Radio Times, Mackie said, “I would say the Marvel thing is completely different, just because it’s such a space of controlled entertainment. Like, there’s only so much you can do. There’s only so much creativity you can bring to the table, because Stan Lee gave us so much content…That’s the hard thing about the Marvel universe. It’s like, you can’t really go outside of the lines of those comic books…You know, when we introduced the Falcon, and the growth of the Falcon to Captain America, all of that had to coincide with what Stan had already gave us. So it’s an interesting juggle to be a part of that world.”
Mackie is primarily comparing his experiences with Marvel to working on the Twisted Metal series, where he’s given more freedom in fleshing out his character, John Doe, who is thrust into the world of carnage and souped-up death machines.
Mackie’s comments about how the structure of Marvel movies and characters works calls to mind Quentin Tarantino’s own take on the studio and part of what makes it work. “Part of the Marvel-ization of Hollywood is…you have all these actors who have become famous playing these characters…But they’re not movie stars. Right? Captain America is the star. Or Thor is the star. I mean, I’m not the first person to say that. I think that’s been said a zillion times…but it’s like, you know, it’s these franchise characters that become a star.”
Do you agree with Anthony Mackie’s assertion on Marvel characters? Are the actors able to give it their all within those restrictions? Share your thoughts below!
Can you accept that Anthony Mackie did what he thought was right? Mackie – who has played Sam Wilson aka Falcon (aka Captain America) across six films and one series – has close ties to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, having first played the character a decade ago, but even with his place in the MCU, he knows that pretty much any creativity he wants to bring to Wilson will most like be stifled.
Speaking with Radio Times, Mackie said, “I would say the Marvel thing is completely different, just because it’s such a space of controlled entertainment. Like, there’s only so much you can do. There’s only so much creativity you can bring to the table, because Stan Lee gave us so much content…That’s the hard thing about the Marvel universe. It’s like, you can’t really go outside of the lines of those comic books…You know, when we introduced the Falcon, and the growth of the Falcon to Captain America, all of that had to coincide with what Stan had already gave us. So it’s an interesting juggle to be a part of that world.”
Mackie is primarily comparing his experiences with Marvel to working on the Twisted Metal series, where he’s given more freedom in fleshing out his character, John Doe, who is thrust into the world of carnage and souped-up death machines.
Mackie’s comments about how the structure of Marvel movies and characters works calls to mind Quentin Tarantino’s own take on the studio and part of what makes it work. “Part of the Marvel-ization of Hollywood is…you have all these actors who have become famous playing these characters…But they’re not movie stars. Right? Captain America is the star. Or Thor is the star. I mean, I’m not the first person to say that. I think that’s been said a zillion times…but it’s like, you know, it’s these franchise characters that become a star.”
Do you agree with Anthony Mackie’s assertion on Marvel characters? Are the actors able to give it their all within those restrictions? Share your thoughts below!
Marvel’s Thunderbolts movie is now in production in Atlanta, and Florence Pugh has shared a sneaky little set video on Instagram, which honestly shows off more than I would have expected. Those Marvel snipers must have been on break.
The Thunderbolts set video begins with Pugh exiting her trailer in full costume, with her hair looking shorter than it was in Black Widow. As she moves into the Atlanta studio, we see pieces of large sets before she comes across director Jake Schreier. You can see the Thunderbolts logo on the back of a chair as well as a brief snippet of footage on the monitor, which shows Yelena pointing a gun at someone. With any other movie, this might not seem particularly revealing, but for a Marvel movie… well, I’d be putting my will in order.
In addition to Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, Thunderbolts also stars Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes, David Harbour as Red Guardian, Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, Wyatt Russell as US Agent, Hannah John-Kamen as Ghost, and Olga Kurylenko as Taskmaster. Geraldine Viswanathan will also make an appearance, replacing Ayo Edebiri, who was originally attached. Lewis Pullman is also on board, taking over for Steven Yeun, who was said to be playing The Sentry before he had to leave. Production was originally slated to kick off last summer but was delayed due to the Hollywood strikes.
Marvel is still recovering from several misfires, with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and The Marvels underperforming. However, the studio is taking action to get things back on track, including reducing the number of projects they release. Captain America: Brave New World, which is slated to hit theaters a few months before Thunderbolts, is also undergoing some fairly extensive reshoots after poor test screenings.
Florence Pugh has had an eventful year. She appeared alongside Cillian Murphy in Christoper Nolan’s Oppenheimer and played Princess Irulan in Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two, which is currently in theaters. Thunderbolts is currently slated to hit theaters on May 2, 2025, as the last movie of Phase Five of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
