Adam Wingard wants you to be his guest again — no, really this time. A sequel for his 2014 thriller has been talked about for quite a while now and has at various points seemed as close as ever to going before cameras. And while we’re far from an official greenlight, Wingard is still toiling away with The Guest 2.

Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Wingard said that he and writer Simon Barrett have been tinkering with an idea that could make The Guest 2 work. Even still, he feels there is a missing component: the late Lance Reddick, who passed away just over one year ago and who also appeared in Wingard’s Godzilla vs. Kong. “It’s unfortunate that Lance Reddick died last year. It was very sad, and I loved Lance. So I wish that we could have made [The Guest 2] happen in his lifetime, because we would’ve definitely carried him over into the film.” It’s absolutely worth pointing out that (spoiler alert) Reddick’s character was killed in the first movie, potentially suggesting that The Guest 2 could be set up as a prequel or have varying timelines.

Still, Wingard did throw fans of the first movie a bone when he released the soundtrack to The Guest 2 in 2022. Even more salivating is that he has used a cue from it in this month’s Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. “I did do one special thing for the fans as a tee up for a potential Guest series, not knowing when we will actually get around to it. We did a soundtrack, and one of those songs from The Guest II soundtrack ended up in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. I temped it into the movie, and it’s in the scene where the characters are walking towards the Hollow Earth vehicle in slow motion. So that’s actually a song from The Guest II soundtrack, but it wasn’t a ploy for me to try to sell Guest II soundtracks. (Laughs.) We just couldn’t beat it in the editorial, and so it ended up making it through the whole process.”

Whether that soundtrack will serve as the only version of The Guest 2 we ever get remains to be seen but we do hope that it continues in a visual form. I can see a limited TV series working, but at the same time Wingard and Barrett’s involvement would be key.

Do you think The Guest 2 is a worthwhile project to explore or was one enough?

The post Adam Wingard still toying with The Guest 2, wishes Lance Reddick could be in it appeared first on JoBlo.

While you’ve been reading our reviews for over twenty-five years now and hopefully using our movie database to keep track of every new movie that’s coming out, it’s time for you to have your say. That’s right! At long last, we here at JoBlo are giving you the chance to rate movies when they get released! Given how passionate and intriguing the votes were for the recent Golden Schmoes Awards, we decided that giving our readers the opportunity to rate new movies was long overdue!

As of right now, you can check out our New Movies section and add your ratings. All you need to do is click on the title you want to rate. You’ll see our JoBlo rating (based on our published reviews), and you can add your own user rating.

The whole process is pretty simple, and you can just use your existing Google Accounts. To note, you can only vote on movies that have already opened in theaters (or been released to streaming). We don’t want people voting on films they haven’t seen. As each new movie opens, we’ll enable functionality to allow you to vote. For instance, this weekend, we see the release of Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. The screenings begin on Thursday night, so starting Friday morning, you’ll be able to add your rating. You can also rate any film in our database that’s already been released. 

You can also rate new movies by clicking the star rating at the bottom of our film reviews:

Hopefully, you all will find this a fun new way to offer your opinions on all the latest Hollywood has to offer. We put a lot of value into what our readers think of the current crop of movies, so we think this might be a really interesting way to keep track of what people think of all the movies that are coming out!

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It may seem sacrilegious to reboot The Naked Gun, but if anyone can fill the brilliantly deadpan shoes of Leslie Nielsen, it will be Liam Neeson. The actor has been attached to the reboot for a few years, but the project finally seems to be moving forward, with production expected to kick off later this year.

While speaking with THR, Liam Neeson was asked why he wanted to tackle a flat-out comedy such as The Naked Gun.

“It’s funny because right before Christmas, my sons and I were looking through the Academy screeners and trying to find something silly, some silly, stupid movie that we could giggle at,” Neeson explained. “There was none, of course, as they were all very heavy and international. I mean, brilliant movies but all very heavy. When Seth MacFarlane approached me about it — this was about two years ago, now — I thought, yeah, I guess I could do that as long as I play it dead seriously and not try and imitate Mr. Leslie Nielsen. He was wonderful. Akiva Schaffer is directing it and he’s from the [Saturday Night Live] world. I’m looking forward to it. It’s a good script, and there’s a few laugh out loud moments in it.“

As Neeson mentioned, Akiva Schaffer is set to direct The Naked Gun reboot, which Dan Gregor and Doug Mand will script.

While Liam Neeson certainly has experience in the realm of comedy, with roles in A Million Ways to Die in the West, Ted 2, Life’s Too Short, and others, this will be his first time starring in a comedic role, which he recently confessed has left him feeling a little nervous. “I’m honored to be offered the part of Frank Drebin, and a little bit nervous about it because I’ve done a couple of skits before that were just very short TV things, but this would be, I don’t know, 95, 100 minutes of a film,” Neeson said. “They’re still casting it so hopefully my other cast members will be funny and sexy so that I could just be dead absolutely straight.“

The Naked Gun is slated for a July 18, 2025 release.

The post The Naked Gun: Liam Neeson on why he wanted to star in the reboot appeared first on JoBlo.

Scott Derrickson is set to direct a new adaptation of Davis Grubb’s classic 1953 crime novel, The Night of the Hunter.

The Night of the Hunter tells the twisted story of Harry Powell, a serial killer who poses as a preacher and marries a widow in order to get his hands on her deceased husband’s hidden fortune. Unfortunately, Powell’s new stepchildren, John and Pearl, grow suspicious and quickly become his targets. The novel was previously adapted in 1955 with Robert Mitchum starring as Powell and delivering one of his very best performances. Although the film is now considered to be one of the best of all time (and one of my personal favourites), it received negative reviews upon its release. Acclaimed actor Charles Laughton made his directorial debut with the film, but he took the failure personally and never directed another movie again.

Scott Derrickson will co-write the script for The Night of the Hunter with frequent collaborator C. Robert Cargill. Given the esteemed status of the original movie, Derrickson and Cargill have their work cut out for them. However, as they will be going back to the novel, the pair will be able to do things that just weren’t possible in the ’50s. “For those unfamiliar, NIGHT OF THE HUNTER was based on a novel that was *MUCH DARKER* than the 1950s would allow,” Cargill said on X. “Very excited about this project and thrilled we can finally talk about it.“

Derrickson and Cargill are currently working on the script for Black Phone 2, which will see much of the original cast returning, including Mason Thames as Finney, Madeleine McGraw as Gwen, Jeremy Davies as Terrence, Miguel Mora as Robin, and Ethan Hawke as everyone’s favourite child-killer, The Grabber. A Black Phone sequel wasn’t always in the cards, but Joe Hill, who wrote the short story on which the film is based, knew there would be one as soon as he saw the mask worn by The Grabber. “As soon as I saw the mask, which was designed by Tom Savini and Jason Baker, as soon as I saw the mask, I thought, ‘If this film is a hit, there’ll be a sequel,’ because the mask is so iconic,” Hill said.

The Black Phone 2 is currently slated for a June 27, 2025 release.

The post Scott Derrickson to direct new adaptation of The Night of the Hunter appeared first on JoBlo.

Isn’t it about time we had a movie about The Boss? Following rumours earlier this year, Deadline reports that Scott Cooper (The Pale Blue Eye) is set to direct a movie about Bruce Springsteen, with Jeremy Allen White (The Bear) reportedly the top choice to star. Negotiations with White haven’t yet begun, but talks are underway with A24 to make the movie.

Titled Deliver Me From Nowhere, the movie will be about “Bruce Springsteen and the long effort to put together his seminal Nebraska album, which started to take shape as he and the E Street Band were laying down tracks for his massive hit album Born in the USA.” It will be an adaptation of Deliver Me from Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska by Warren Zanes, which was published last year.

Should Jeremy Allen White sign on, it’s expected that he would be available to shoot the movie in New Jersey this fall after he completes work on the fourth season of The Bear. The project will be the first major movie from Scott Stuber since he departed Netflix at the beginning of the year. He has teamed with Ellen Goldsmith-Vein and Eric Robinson of Gotham Group for the Bruce Springsteen movie. As for Springsteen himself, the report states that he and his manager Jon Landau are “actively involved” in the project, which hopefully means that the movie will have access to all the relevant music.

Jeremy Allen White is currently shooting the third season of The Bear, the acclaimed comedy-drama series. The show was quietly renewed for a fourth season earlier this month, which will be shot back-to-back with the third season. As the main stars of the series are in high demand, it made sense for FX to get another season in the can while they have them.

The Bear follows an award-winning chef who returns to his hometown of Chicago to manage the chaotic kitchen at his deceased brother’s sandwich shop. The series has proven to be quite the hit. It took home ten awards at the Emmy ceremonies earlier this year, including Best Comedy Series, Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (Jeremy Allen White), Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series (Ayo Edebiri), and more.

The post Bruce Springsteen movie in the works from director Scott Cooper with Jeremy Allen White eyed to star appeared first on JoBlo.

On April 5th, 20th Century Studios will be giving a theatrical release to The First Omen, which serves as a prequel to the 1976 horror classic The Omen (watch it HERE) – and the studio is embracing the film’s ’70s roots in their latest pieces of marketing, as they have unveiled both a ’70s-style trailer, which you can check out in the embed above, and a retro poster, which can be found at the bottom of this article.

The film stars Nell Tiger Free of the Apple TV+ series Servant, and will be hitting the big screen with an R rating for violent content, grisly/disturbing images, and brief graphic nudity… although it nearly got an NC-17.

The First Omen was directed by Arkasha Stevenson, based on characters created by David Seltzer. Here’s the synopsis: When a young American woman is sent to Rome to begin a life of service to the church, she encounters a darkness that causes her to question her own faith and uncovers a terrifying conspiracy that hopes to bring about the birth of evil incarnate.

Free is joined in the cast by Tawfeek Barhom (Mary Magdalene), Sonia Braga (Kiss of the Spider Woman), Ralph Ineson (The Northman), and Bill Nighy (Living).

The film was produced by David S. Goyer and Keith Levine, with Tim Smith serving as executive producer with Whitney Brown and Gracie Wheelan. We first heard that a prequel to The Omen was in development way back in 2016. At that time, Antonio Campos (The Devil All the Time) was in talks to direct First Omen from a script by Ben Jacoby (Bleed). Later The Conjuring writers Chad and Carey Hayes came on board to work on the script, and they were followed by author Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl). The film ended up in the hands of Arkasha Stevenson – who has previously directed episodes of the genre shows Channel Zero, Legion, and Brand New Cherry Flavor. Stevenson rewrote the script with her writing partner Tim Smith, then Firestarter‘s Keith Thomas worked on it as well.

The Omen (1976) was followed by Damien: Omen II in 1978, Omen III: The Final Conflict in 1981, Omen IV: The Awakening in 1991, and a 2006 remake. So this is the sixth entry in the film franchise.

What do you think of the retro, ’70s-style trailer and poster for The First Omen? Will you be watching this movie when it hits the big screen next month? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

The post The First Omen gets a 70s style trailer and poster appeared first on JoBlo.

Nickelodeon first adapted the Harry Potter-esque series, The Spiderwick Chronicles, back in 2008 with Freddie Highmore in the starring role. Now, a new limited-episode adaptation comes to us as a Roku Original series. This new adaptation features a cast that includes Joy Bryant, Lyon Daniels, Noah Cottrell, Mychala Lee, Jack Dylan Grazer, Christian Slater, Alyvia Alyn Lind and Charlayne Woodard. The series is produced by Paramount Television Studios & 20th Television and the new trailer has dropped. The show will have eight episodes and will be available to stream on April 19.

The official synopsis from Roku reads,
“The Grace family moves from Brooklyn, New York, to their ancestral home in Henson, Michigan, the Spiderwick Estate. Helen makes the move with her 15-year-old fraternal twin boys, Jared and Simon, and her older daughter, Mallory. Shortly after moving to the Spiderwick Estate Jared discovers a boggart and realizes that magical creatures are real! The only one to believe him is his great-aunt Lucinda who implores Jared to find the pages of her father’s field guide to magical creatures and protect them from the murderous Ogre, Mulgarath.”

The series comes from showrunner Aron Eli Coleite. Kat Coiro is on board as the director for the first two episodes. Both Coleite and Coiro are also serving as executive producers of the series along with Tony DiTerlizzi, Holly Black, Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Jeremy Bell, D.J. Goldberg, Julie Kane-Ritsch and Grace Gilroy.

“It is an honor to bring The Spiderwick Chronicles, a spectacular adventure-filled story led by the incredible Christian Slater and Joy Bryant, exclusively to The Roku Channel,” said Brian Tannenbaum, Head of Originals, Roku Media. “We cannot wait to introduce this exquisitely crafted series, imagined by a world-class creative team, to millions of streamers.“
 
“We are elated that The Spiderwick Chronicles has found a new home and want to thank The Roku Channel for their passionate partnership,” said Nicole Clemens, President of Paramount Television Studios and Paramount+ Original Scripted Series. “Our showrunner Aron Eli Coleite has crafted a beautiful series full of all the enchantment that made the books so beloved, and we can’t wait for audiences to meet these wonderful characters.“

The post The Spiderwick Chronicles Roku series unleashes a new trailer appeared first on JoBlo.

Nickelodeon first adapted the Harry Potter-esque series, The Spiderwick Chronicles, back in 2008 with Freddie Highmore in the starring role. Now, a new limited-episode adaptation comes to us as a Roku Original series. This new adaptation features a cast that includes Joy Bryant, Lyon Daniels, Noah Cottrell, Mychala Lee, Jack Dylan Grazer, Christian Slater, Alyvia Alyn Lind and Charlayne Woodard. The series is produced by Paramount Television Studios & 20th Television and the new trailer has dropped. The show will have eight episodes and will be available to stream on April 19.

The official synopsis from Roku reads,
“The Grace family moves from Brooklyn, New York, to their ancestral home in Henson, Michigan, the Spiderwick Estate. Helen makes the move with her 15-year-old fraternal twin boys, Jared and Simon, and her older daughter, Mallory. Shortly after moving to the Spiderwick Estate Jared discovers a boggart and realizes that magical creatures are real! The only one to believe him is his great-aunt Lucinda who implores Jared to find the pages of her father’s field guide to magical creatures and protect them from the murderous Ogre, Mulgarath.”

The series comes from showrunner Aron Eli Coleite. Kat Coiro is on board as the director for the first two episodes. Both Coleite and Coiro are also serving as executive producers of the series along with Tony DiTerlizzi, Holly Black, Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Jeremy Bell, D.J. Goldberg, Julie Kane-Ritsch and Grace Gilroy.

“It is an honor to bring The Spiderwick Chronicles, a spectacular adventure-filled story led by the incredible Christian Slater and Joy Bryant, exclusively to The Roku Channel,” said Brian Tannenbaum, Head of Originals, Roku Media. “We cannot wait to introduce this exquisitely crafted series, imagined by a world-class creative team, to millions of streamers.“
 
“We are elated that The Spiderwick Chronicles has found a new home and want to thank The Roku Channel for their passionate partnership,” said Nicole Clemens, President of Paramount Television Studios and Paramount+ Original Scripted Series. “Our showrunner Aron Eli Coleite has crafted a beautiful series full of all the enchantment that made the books so beloved, and we can’t wait for audiences to meet these wonderful characters.“

What did you think of the The Spiderwick Chronicles trailer? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

The post The Spiderwick Chronicles Roku series unleashes a new trailer appeared first on JoBlo.

Elizabeth Taylor remains one of the most iconic actresses to ever grace the silver screen. And she knew it, coming out of a partial retirement to play the role of Pearl Slaghoople – the mother to Elizabeth Perkins’ Wilma and mother-in-law to John Goodman’s Fred – in 1994’s The Flintstones, an adaptation of the Hanna-Barbera production. But getting such prestige comes at a high cost. Like, a present every day she was on set-level of cost.

While Elizabeth Taylor isn’t in much of The Flintstones, her sheer stature put her in a position to demand just about anything she wanted, to which producer Bruce Cohen was happy to oblige. Kyle MacLachlan – who played Slate & Co.’s VP Cliff Vandercave in The Flintstones – remembered, “The cast was crazy. Bruce got Elizabeth Taylor to do that movie. It was amazing. She had to have a gift every day. A gift every day. And she had to have, in the dressing room trailers, everything was green, she had to have greenery around her…Jewelry. This is secondhand now. Bruce probably told me and said, ‘Don’t ever tell anybody that.’ Too late. It’s too late.” Cohen had actually previously mentioned Elizabeth Taylor’s The Flintstones gifts on the occasion of the legend’s 2011 death, at one point recruiting executive producer Steven Spielberg (who went credited as Steven Spielrock…) to write a personal check so the gifts didn’t show up in the movie’s budget.

Others reportedly considered for the role were Bewitched’s Elizabeth Montgomery and The Honeymooners’ Audrey Meadows, although we’d imagine the latter would be sent straight to the moon if she demanded such lavish items.

The Flintstones would end up being Elizabeth Taylor’s final role on the big screen in a career that found her winning two Best Actress Oscars. And to cap it all off, she received a Razzie nomination for Worst Supporting Actress, “losing” to Rosie O’Donnell’s triple whopper of Car 54, Where Are You?, Exit to Eden and, yes, The Flintstones. The movie was also nominated for Worst Remake or Sequel and Worst Screenplay, winning that one.

What are your memories of watching the live-action adaptation of The Flintstones? Is it as bad as most of us remember?

The post Elizabeth Taylor had to be pampered with gifts every day while making The Flintstones appeared first on JoBlo.

Elizabeth Taylor remains one of the most iconic actresses to ever grace the silver screen. And she knew it, coming out of a partial retirement to play the role of Pearl Slaghoople – the mother to Elizabeth Perkins’ Wilma and mother-in-law to John Goodman’s Fred – in 1994’s The Flintstones, an adaptation of the Hanna-Barbera production. But getting such prestige comes at a high cost. Like, a present every day she was on set-level of cost.

While Elizabeth Taylor isn’t in much of The Flintstones, her sheer stature put her in a position to demand just about anything she wanted, to which producer Bruce Cohen was happy to oblige. Kyle MacLachlan – who played Slate & Co.’s VP Cliff Vandercave in The Flintstones – remembered, “The cast was crazy. Bruce got Elizabeth Taylor to do that movie. It was amazing. She had to have a gift every day. A gift every day. And she had to have, in the dressing room trailers, everything was green, she had to have greenery around her…Jewelry. This is secondhand now. Bruce probably told me and said, ‘Don’t ever tell anybody that.’ Too late. It’s too late.” Cohen had actually previously mentioned Elizabeth Taylor’s The Flintstones gifts on the occasion of the legend’s 2011 death, at one point recruiting executive producer Steven Spielberg (who went credited as Steven Spielrock…) to write a personal check so the gifts didn’t show up in the movie’s budget.

Others reportedly considered for the role were Bewitched’s Elizabeth Montgomery and The Honeymooners’ Audrey Meadows, although we’d imagine the latter would be sent straight to the moon if she demanded such lavish items.

The Flintstones would end up being Elizabeth Taylor’s final role on the big screen in a career that found her winning two Best Actress Oscars. And to cap it all off, she received a Razzie nomination for Worst Supporting Actress, “losing” to Rosie O’Donnell’s triple whopper of Car 54, Where Are You?, Exit to Eden and, yes, The Flintstones. The movie was also nominated for Worst Remake or Sequel and Worst Screenplay, winning that one.

What are your memories of watching the live-action adaptation of The Flintstones? Is it as bad as most of us remember?

The post Elizabeth Taylor had to be pampered with gifts every day while making The Flintstones appeared first on JoBlo.