The X-Files: Fight the Future (watch it HERE). Mulder and Scully on the big screen. That’s it. Need I say more? After 119 episodes, a movie was inevitable. While Chris Carter was happy with the success that the show had generated, he wanted to make more x-philes. Carter saw the movie as an opportunity to reach an even wider audience and make any skeptics true believers, but also reward current fans. Crafting a feature film also meant the ability to be able to dive deeper into the alien mythology that the series had been slowly weaving.

Making the leap from the small screen to the big screen was quite the undertaking. Carter explained that since they had been writing mini-movies, creating a full-length feature film felt like the next logical progression. Juggling the production of 24 episodes for The X-Files and another 24 for the spin-off Millennium was no easy feat. So, Carter and his partner-in-crime, Frank Spotnitz, decided to hunker down in Hawaii over Christmas break to hash out the story. Once they had the blueprint in place, Carter spent about two weeks pouring his heart into writing the screenplay draft. What I particularly enjoy about this part of the story is how Carter and Spotnitz stuck to their tried and true method of using 3×5 index cards for storyboarding. When it came to the screenplay, Carter managed to churn out half of the 124-page script in just 10 days. Wow. It’s impressive, isn’t it? Being fully immersed in that world day in and day out, coupled with the excitement of expanding the mythology, undoubtedly fueled his swift progress.

Quite a bit of effort went into shrouding the movie, codenamed Project Blackwood, in secrecy. Scripts were printed on red paper to prevent copying or Xeroxing, as they’d say in the 90s. Despite the creators insisting it had no significant meaning, fans still managed to decipher it anyway. Additionally, a ton of misinformation about the ending and the story itself was spread to keep everyone guessing.

The movie serves as a bridge between the end of season five and beginning of season six. The X-Files have officially been shut down, and Mulder and Scully have to act according to protocol. Yawn. Been there, done that. Nothing is going to stop Spooky Mulder from continuing to be Spooky– not even mundane FBI work. With that said, let’s find out if we were prepared, or had been prepared, to Fight the Future.

The movie plays like a bigger budget episode of the series, but a regular episode nonetheless. This extra special episode commences in North Texas around 35,000 B.C., where two cavemen hunters are seen sprinting uphill amidst the snow. They find themselves deep in a cave with some not so friendly alien life forms. What does this lead to? Nothing good. Both cavemen meet a terrible fate– one is killed and the other one is infected with some seriously deadly black goo. Cut to 1998 and little Lucas Black has fallen into the same cave and inevitably meets a similar fate. When the firefighters show up to save him, it’s that moment in all horror films when you know a group of people shouldn’t go into a dark scary cave, but they do! Enter our sci-fi protocol and the guys in the hazmat suits come in, take the bodies, and pretend like nothing happened.

Cut to Terry O’Quinn’s “We won’t get fooled again” moment as he confidently strides onto the screen portraying Special Agent Darius Michaud, tasked with leading the investigation into a bomb threat in Dallas, home of conspiracy theories. While Quinn’s screentime here isn’t the longest, he continues to prove that just his presence at times is rather commanding. Don’t feel bad though– Quinn is a frequent visitor to the land of the X-Files and even its crossover, Millennium. But who’s here to support John Locke and everyone’s favorite Stepfather? Scully enters first, followed by Mulder two minutes later, engaging in banter during what rapidly evolves into a highly serious event. Yes, as we covered before the X-Files have been disbanded and Samantha Mulder’s file was burnt to a crisp. When Mulder and Scully find out that the building across the street is the one with the actual bomb, Scully takes charge. No, this is not merely a footnote, but a major highlight. Scully isn’t fucking around. Gillian Anderson took cues from the character of Clarice Starling and shaped Dana Scully into a sci-fi icon, undoubtedly ranking her among the top 5 female television characters of all time. That’s not just a personal take– it’s basically common knowledge at this point.

After the building explodes, rest in pieces special agent Terry O’Quinn, Scully and Mulder find themselves on trial as the government scrambles to assign blame quickly, specifically citing the Oklahoma City bombing for their reasoning. But wait, why is it the fault of Scully and Mulder? Well, the government claims 3 firemen and a young boy were found dead in the building. BACK THE TRUCK UP. Exsqueeze me, baking powder? How weird that’s the exact same total of bodies found in the extraterrestrial f*ckery cave. This is only proven by Dr. Alvin Kurtzweil, played by the magnificent Martin Landau, who spends a good deal of the movie dropping little tidbits to Mulder. Landau is a perfect fit for this part and you almost think maybe his character was always a part of the series.

Oh, while all this is going on, the Cigarette Smoking Man played by legend of legends, William B. Davis, has flown into North Texas to observe if a vaccine will cure the alien virus. If it doesn’t, oh well, just burn the body. Davis only amps up the coldness of his character. This movie would not be complete without him, or Mitch Pileggi as Agent Skinner to which I always have to say, “It’s Skinner” every time I see him on screen.

This whole time you’ve had a loose hang on what is actually going on. It isn’t until Mulder and Scully take their trip back to Texas at 3 AM that we’re hitting warp speed. After a visit back to the original extraterrestrial f*ckery cave and a brief chat with Lucas Black’s friends, the duo follow the route of a train carrying some gas and then head first into a cornfield where they run into some bright tents in the middle of nowhere. It’s Texas. We’ve got a lot of that here. After entering the tent and Mulder touching stuff, vents open and unleash bees upon both of them. And we’ve made it to the kiss that never happens thanks to a hitchhiking bee.

In a deleted scene, Mulder and Scully finally kiss passionately in Mulder’s hallway. They didn’t leave that in the movie. But it’s free to watch on the internet as many times as you want. There’s always someone chiming in about this scene, especially since it’s been a hot topic among shippers and non-shippers for a while now. *coughs* The almost kiss is nearly as joyful as the actual one, but we cut for a bee sting? I mean, yeah, good opportunity to get things moving and to get us all bunched up for several reasons but that bee sting is one that fans will never forget. I will never forgive Frank Spotnitz for being so smug.

To this point, the biggest sell of the series aside from monsters of the week and alien autopsies was the natural chemistry between Anderson and David Duchovny. I’m going to fangirl here for a quick second: when Duchovny delivers the line, “I owe you everything, and Scully, you owe me nothing” it’s so genuine and lovely, and frankly, I become hypnotized. It’s Duchovny for crying out loud! Okay, getting back on track, even at the weirdest, most over the top moments, the star crossed lovers always sell it. I mean, you guys saw some of the episodes of the latter seasons, right? That’s not a critique, merely an observation.

After the sting of the century, Scully is kidnapped and taken away, but not before Mulder is shot and left for dead in the middle of the street. When Mulder awakens, he opens his eyes and we see the Lone Gunmen *squee* to which Mulder of course makes a smart ass comment. With the help of the Lone Gunmen and Skinner, Mulder escapes the hospital and on the way out gets the vaccine from the Well Manicured Man along with the location to where they took Scully.

Mulder travels to Antarctica and finds Scully entombed in a seriously weird capsule. He gives her the vaccine and they both make their way out. This disrupts the deep sleep of one of the aliens, and to quote Arnie, it is one ugly motherf*cker. We’ve gotta give major credit to the effects here and throughout the movie. The X-Files have always delivered in terms of effects, and there’s a list of episodes within the series that supports this. The movie gets to accomplish this on a grander scale as intended. The location scenes, along with the helicopter chase in the cornfield, this is big budget X-Files and we deserved it. This is also all thanks to our director, Rob Bowman, who we should all be well acquainted with.

Mulder and Scully escape and before Scully awakens, Mulder observes a rather gargantuan alien spacecraft blast from beneath the ice and then disappear as soon as it appears. Scully missed it and would likely have joked that it was a weather balloon. The spacecraft isn’t all that convincing, but it is 1998 so I think we can forgive it. I mean, we are being asked to suspend our disbelief here, right?

After getting Scully back safely, a final committee meeting is held. Blythe Danner, who is always selling that snooty lady commentary, is ready to full on deny any of Scully’s findings along with any and all evidence in Texas. This is, until Scully presents her with the bee that stung her and basically says, “Wouldn’t it be nice if there was some sort of division that could look into this?” Mic drop moment, and Scully is out looking for Mulder. Mulder is about to give it all up after reading in the paper that everything in Texas is being covered up. Again, classic Mulder. Scully gets the band back together by throwing Mulder’s words back at him: “If we give up, they win.”

The X-Files are now open again. The Cigarette Smoking Man has more work to do.

Upon reviewing X-Files for At the Movies, Gene Siskel gave praise to the movie but stated that the story needed a prequel, a sequel, and cliffs notes. What Siskel didn’t know is that’s a typical night with the series itself, but his observation was pretty on the nose. Carter wanted to bring viewers into the world of the X-Files without alienating them. I unapologetically love this movie even though what Siskel said is basically the biggest flaw/fault. If we want to pinpoint this as the time when the X-Files went off the tracks then we need to seriously have a sit down.

I would be remiss if I did not mention the soundtrack for the film. At the time of its release, several outlets that may or may not be competitors had ranked the album as abysmal or not weird enough. I think they missed the mark and maybe the entirety of the 90s especially the late nineties. If The Cure, Bjork, Filter, Soul Coughing, Better Than Ezra, Tonic, and Ween are not eclectic enough for you then you’ve been living in a crater on a remote asteroid. The highlight here is absolutely, the reworked version of Foo Fighters Walking After You. The video and song perfectly score the relationship between Mulder and Scully. And also, as we all know, Dave Grohl did in fact derive the name of his band from the World War II term for UFOs.

Fight the Future was released in 1998 and performed moderately well at the box office. It grossed over $189 million worldwide against a production budget of approximately $66 million. While it didn’t break any records, it was considered a success, especially considering its cult following and the popularity of the series. The home video release added to this and brought more fans to the fold. I’m pretty certain that almost every other home had the movie on VHS or DVD.

While this wasn’t the first film to transition from TV to the big screen, it was a pioneer of sorts. While earlier movies like Star Trek: The Motion Picture and The Brady Bunch Movie had made the leap, The X-Files capitalized on its TV series’ popularity in a significant way. It continued the storyline fans loved on a larger scale, setting a precedent for other TV series to follow suit in the future like Serenity or El Camino.

I may never be the biggest X-Files nerd of all time. I envision a guy with a ponytail in front of a computer, sporting an early X-Files shirt – an image that I could swear I once stumbled upon online at one point. Perhaps it’s a Mandela effect, perhaps it’s Langley, or perhaps it’s Graeme Barrett. Though reality may blur with fiction, and the truth is indeed still out there, I’ll never be as cool as the image of that guy. In the end, the X-Files movie was everything it needed to be, and we, the fans, were quite content with our reward.

Two previous episodes of Revisited can be seen below. To see more of our shows, head over to the JoBlo Horror Originals channel – and subscribe while you’re at it!

The post The X-Files: Fight the Future (1998) Revisited – Horror Movie Review appeared first on JoBlo.

It’s funny to think that after 70 years of the Godzilla franchise, we’ve reached a point where not only do Japan and Hollywood have a parallel run of the series going, but America is now partaking in the more schlocky, monster action aspects while Japan’s last two films have been prestigious award winners. Nevertheless, it’s not just Godzilla’s franchise now, but cinema legend King Kong as well. Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire features a second meeting of the gargantuas after they clashed in 2021’s Godzilla vs Kong. But will the MonsterVerse duo end with this upcoming film? Director Adam Wingard is hoping not.

Deadline reports that Wingard address future plans for the two monsters continuing to crossover at the premiere of Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire. On the subject of a possible follow-up, Wingard says, “Only time will tell. I think the seductive thing as a filmmaker when you’ve done two movies is to complete it as this trilogy — that’s always what everybody expects.” The director continues, “We’ll see. It really depends on how the movie does. I think that there’s a lot of really cool ideas we have [about] where we would go with it. I’m open to it and excited for what the future brings.”

Wingard would go on to reveal that “ever since I was a little kid, I was obsessed with monster movies.” He reflects that as he got older, his perspective of the movies would notably change as his viewing of childhood favorites would refine. His sensibilities as a filmmaker would also inevitably evolve as he matured. However, for the second move with Godzilla and Kong, he would think back to his younger days and tried “to retain all these thoughts and ideas that I had.” He continued, “I knew that I needed to stylistically do something I’ve never seen before, which was tell a film from that monster POV that I’d always wanted to see.”

When JoBlo got to spend some time with Wingard, he elaborated more on that concept, “One of my other big influences is the movie They Live, that’s my favorite film of all time. The thing I love about They Live is that the best sequence in the movie is not about the hero versus the villain. It’s the heroes fighting each other because of a misunderstanding. And so this rematch is more complicated than that, and you’ll see what I mean when you understand the way they lived and how they met up again in this film. So, for the world here, this is the payoff, really, of what this inspiration wall set up.”

The post Godzilla X Kong director Adam Wingard discusses plans for a possible third movie to seal the trilogy appeared first on JoBlo.

1995 will mark the 30th anniversary of the first film in the Bad Boys action franchise – but they’re not waiting around another year to release a sequel. Sony Pictures is set to celebrate the 29th anniversary of the first movie by giving Bad Boys 4 a theatrical release on June 7th (a date that puts it direct opening weekend competition with The Crow remake). With that date right around the corner, a trailer for Bad Boys 4 has arrived online, and you can check it out in the embed above! The trailer reveals that the film has officially been titled Bad Boys Ride or Die.

The new sequel sees Will Smith and Martin Lawrence back in the roles of Miami narcotics detectives Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett, and they’re joined in the cast by Vanessa Hudgens, Alexander Ludwig, Paola Núñez, and Joe Pantoliano. New additions to the cast include Eric Dane, Ioan Gruffudd, and Rhea Seehorn. Tasha Smith is also on board to play Marcus Burnett’s wife, replacing Theresa Randle, who played the character in the first three movies in the franchise.

While Michael Bay directed the first two movies in this franchise, the duo of Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah took the helm for the third movie, and they’re returned for Bad Boys 4. The directors have teased that Bad Boys Ride or Die will have a lighter tone than its predecessor. “I think that there’s going to be way more comedy,” El Arbi said. “The third one had the dramatic tone. With this one, it’s really our purpose to get people laughing and having a good time in the theater. Martin [Lawrence] is going to a higher level in this one. This is the culmination of the Marcus Burnett arc.“ The directors had previously said that Bad Boys Ride or Die was a title they liked for the movie, but they were kicking themselves for using Bad Boys for Life on the third movie when it would have been perfect for the fourth one. Because, you know, Bad Boys 4 Life.

The screenplay was written by Chris Bremner. The producers on Bad Boys Ride or Die include Jerry Bruckheimer, Smith and Doug Belgrad. Executive producers on board for this entry are Lawrence, James Lassiter, Chad Oman, Mike Stenson, Barry Waldman and Jon Mone.

What did you think of the Bad Boys Ride or Die trailer – and what do you think of that title? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

The post Bad Boys Ride or Die: 4th film in the action franchise gets a trailer and an official title! appeared first on JoBlo.

The name Henson is one that the world recognizes when it comes to creating magic.  Brian Henson carries on what his father started by doing just that.  Over the years, The Creature Shop (which we recently visited) has designed and brought to life some of the most beautiful and ingenious creations that audiences have ever seen.  

Brian Henson grew up making worlds like those in Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, and more, and he would be one of the keys in creating the boundary-breaking now iconic series Farscape 25 years ago.  Since then, The Creature Shop has gone on to return to the world of The Dark Crystal with The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, bringing to life a slightly more sinister batch of creatures with The Curious Creations of Christine McConnell and some VERY sinister ones with Five Nights at Freddy’s.

But Farscape took things to another level for Henson and his crew and remains a strange and beautiful jewel in the crown of the shop’s legacy.  

I had the honour and pleasure to speak with Brian Henson about what went into the creation of Farscape as it hits the quarter-century mark, as well as some of the other works that helped lead to taking on such a project.

JoBlo:  I’m just overwhelmed that it’s 25 years because that’s basically half of my life that this show has been part of the fandom.  How did you wrap your arms around the scope of it? Because it’s so big.

BH:  Well, it didn’t come to us. We generated it internally. And the original idea was try to capture a little bit of the character insanity from, like, the Star Wars bar. And then that was sort of a jumping-off point, but do it in a Hensony kind of way. And then as we tried to work out sort of what the formula was, it was Rockne’s idea to put a human from our time as the main point of view, because otherwise, weird isn’t weird, you know, shocking and unexpected may not be shocking and unexpected to the characters. And I think that was genius. So that you always have John Crichton there going, oh, my God, what are you? Whereas everybody else you know, if he wasn’t there, you maybe wouldn’t be able to do that. You wouldn’t be able to enjoy this very weird, unexpected universe that we had created. So then, in terms of how will we wrap our heads around the size of it? Well, part of it was we needed to produce very efficiently because this would be the first TV series that the Sci-Fi channel in America was going to license. And so they couldn’t afford what a US license fee for Star Trek was or anything like that.

So we had to work very efficiently. And that meant leaning very hard on the character relationships. Let’s say you’re in a battle sequence. You want to make sure that the most interesting part about the battle sequence is Aeryn and John fighting with each other. Having an argument while shooting. So that you don’t really have to show the battle. You know, that sort of thing. So it’s like we needed to put much more emphasis on the character dynamic. As opposed to the bigger stories that they were playing so that we could produce more efficiently. But it was one of those where we basically had to make 23 episodes or 22. We had to make 22 episodes for it to make any sense at all, budget wise. Because just to make that first one is like. That’s like the budget of a whole movie. Because you have to make all the creatures. You have to make all the sets. So the way we set off doing it was we knew we were going to basically make 22 episodes. Or rather, Sci-Fi had a big penalty they would have to pay if they decided to cancel it after 13.

So it was technically a 13 pickup. But then they would add the other nine to avoid a penalty. That’s the way we jumped into it. And it was years. We were pitching for five years, Rockne and I. And then eventually David Kemper came into the mix. But, yeah, we’d been sculpting maquettes and figuring out what everything looked like. It was a big lift to convince anyone to license it. Also because it was totally so dramatically different. Because we wanted something that was totally, completely different from Star Trek which was the dominant science fiction on television at the time. We wanted something that was much more primal and emotional and wilder and more unexpected and creepier at times. We kind of wanted to amp up all of that. And do something quite special and quite different than what had been on television up to then.

JoBlo:  Well, one thing that kind of leading into that, and I’d asked Rockne about this because I’d spoken to him a little while ago, was he told me the writing aspect of this. But I’m just curious for you, because it’s more physical in your world. The design that goes into these creatures. Do you do any sort of looking into the biology aspect when designing these creatures?  How deep do you go when designing them?

BH:  Everyone, every different one is different. I can tell you the ones that were on the ship that being Rigel, Zhaan, D’argo, Pilot so of those four, we did enormous, enormous amounts of backstory and back study and biology study. Lots and lots of work on Zhaan and what Zhaan looks like, because she’s actually a plant. So what does she look like when she blooms? We did so much work, basically, on all of them. And what’s the backstory of their planets and their cultures? Because all of that can inform, obviously, as you’re trying to make multiple episodes. Now on the episode specific creatures, as television often is true, it’d be like, look, this creature has one scene to do. What can you do that’s just really cool that you can make quickly? It’s only got to do one scene. And I call that the Creature Revolving Door. And just like on the Muppet Show, this is how we discovered that penguins were great Muppets. Was we made one for one little thing, or this is how we figured out the cows are really funny Muppets, because we made one cow and went, oh, my God, this is so funny.

So sometimes we would make a creature very quickly to do one episode and then be really blown away and think, oh, this is a really fun creature. We didn’t expect this to be that good.

JoBlo:  Well, and kind of going along with that. And again, as I’ve stated, growing up with the work that you and your family have done, it felt neat to have these characters who became friends to you. And within Farscape, I think that was really personified, where you have these people that become a family of oddballs. And I just was curious about the emotional aspects of that. You make these inanimate objects come to life in these shows and the things that you do. Can you talk about imbuing them with life and emotion and how that works in Farscape?

BH:  Well, I think it’s always hard for writers and filmmakers to invest enough depth in the realizing of a creature, and you’ll see that all the time. But this is a lesson we’ve learned from puppetry over the years. You have to treat them with the same amount of respect that you would a character that’s going to be portrayed by an actor. And there’s so much that just automatically comes when you’re working with actors. Their accent tells you an awful lot. The way they dress tells you an awful lot. There’s an awful lot of information that your audience is going to get from that character just automatically. And the filmmakers often, and the writers often don’t, they take that for granted. So when you have a creature, you kind of have to make sure you’ve done the same amount of work, even if it’s not obvious to the audience, even if it all just looks alien to them. You can quickly get a sense of that real depth of personality, and then you can make it funny, and then you can do all that work and then have it be Rigel and have him be a grumpy one liner, rude, self-centered, and a jerk.

But you do have the full sense of him as a deep and real character, and I think that’s what’s needed in order to be able to emotionally invest in them. And I think this is what my dad proved over and over, that it doesn’t matter how realistic the character is physically. It matters how realistic the character is personality-wise. And attitudinally, do you believe it? Like Kermit The Frog? Everyone believes Kermit The Frog. They believe him as a living, emotional being, even though he’s just made of felt and ping-pong balls. Perhaps that’s where we have a little bit of an edge, because most people who make creatures make creatures that eat things, eat people or jump out of things. That’s why creatures are more in the horror genre than where we go. Whereas what we like to do is create characters, real characters that you believe their personality, but that has to be reflected in the writing and directing well.

JoBlo:  And also kind of bouncing off of that. You were part of one of my favorite TV series of all time, The Storyteller. And I love thinking about how shows like Farscape are kind of like the new mythology, and you’re creating those old tales, these are our old tales coming into the future. And I was just curious what your thought about that. You’ve created this mythology within this series.

BH:  Well, yeah, it’s universe-creating. That’s the fun. When you’re creating a universe, can you make it believable? Can you make it a living, believable universe that people want to be part of? And with science fiction, with the great science fiction writers as a kid growing up, it was like, oh, my God, every one of those universes, the good ones, it was like, oh, I so believe this universe. And I get how the politics are bouncing around. So that is a lot of fun. But definitely creating worlds is something that our company, starting with my dad, of course, has always been doing, and then sort of amped it up with Dark Crystal into a more realistic, richer visual realization of both characters and environments. And that went on to Labyrinth, that went on to Storyteller. And Storyteller was fantastic because each one of those episodes, there’s nine episodes. Each one is a feature film. Each one has an incredible epic story with great characters and creatures. And so we had a lot of fun making that because it was like making nine mini features back-to-back.

JoBlo:   Hans My Hedgehog is still to this day, like, one of my favorites. I thought that was so beautiful.

BH:  Yeah, that’s a great one.

JoBlo:  I’m going to gush a little bit about that because I really love it.

BH:  It’s such a wonderful series, and it really pulled us, the Creature Shop in London. That’s really who I was working with exclusively at that time. It really pulled us together and focused us on how good we could realize something and how quickly it helped us really better our game, if that’s the right term. And then we went basically from Storyteller to Ninja Turtles. Very ambitious project. Not enough money or time to really do it the way we wanted to. But, boy, we did some ambitious stuff in that then doing Dinosaurs, where we were able to relax a little bit and do it a little bit more properly. But it was comedy, it was a sitcom. So it was really fun to sort of take what we were learning there about world-building and character-building, but then take it into a much more dramatic genre and into science fiction, which is just a lot sharper than fantasy. Fantasy can be very exciting and dangerous, but science fiction, almost automatically is always very exciting and dangerous.

JoBlo:  Exactly. Well, sir, thank you so much again for taking the time. It was amazing to get to talk to you about this and thank you again for all the work. I mean, you helped create worlds, as you said, for a lot of us. So thank you.

BH:  Well, you’re welcome. It’s lovely to talk to you, Jessica.

If you want to revisit Farscape yourself, Shout TV has you covered! In celebration of the anniversary, Shout! TV will be introducing new commercial break interstitials to Farscape TV, including trivia, production memories, and more featuring Ben Browder and Gigi Edgley. Farscape is available to stream at Farscape.TV and through the Shout! TV app.

The post Interview: Brian Henson remembers Farscape on its 25th anniversary appeared first on JoBlo.

4K just got a whole lot sharper, as Sony will release Luc Besson’s 1990 action-thriller La Femme Nikita on the format in June, joining other Besson films like 1994’s The Professional and 1997’s The Fifth Element on the format. This release — which comes in a slick steel book — is restored from the original camera negative, with a 4K image that boasts 2160p Ultra High Definition.

Here is Sony’s official writeup for the movie: “From director Luc Besson (The Fifth Element) comes the must-see thriller about a vicious street punk turned sexy, sophisticated and lethally dangerous assassin. Starring Anne Parillaud, Jeanne Moreau and Jean Reno, La Femme Nikita is “slick, stylish and tremendously entertaining” (The New York Times)! Rescued from death row by a top-secret agency, Nikita (Anne Parillaud) is slowly transformed from a cop-killing junkie into a cold-blooded bombshell with a license to kill. But when she begins the deadliest mission of her career, only to fall for a man who knows nothing of her true identity, Nikita discovers that in the dark and ruthless world of espionage, the greatest casualty of all…is true love.”

Unfortunately for fans of La Femme Nikita, the disc has zero special features. This is a bit disappointing, especially since the 2008 Blu-ray (also from Sony) also lacked supplemental material.

La Femme Nikita has a strong following, spawning a remake in 1993 called Point of No Return, the double shot of which we named as some of the essentials to watch alongside John Wick: Chapter 4. It, too, launched a pair of TV adaptations; first there was USA’s namesake version in the late ‘90s into the early 2000s with Peta Wilson, followed up by The CW’s Nikita (so named for the movie’s French title), which lasted four seasons.

Star Anne Parillaud was married to Besson during filming; the couple divorced the following year.

La Femme Nikita will arrive on 4K Blu-ray on June 11th.

Will you be picking up La Femme Nikita on 4K? Which other Luc Besson movies do you hope to see make their way to the format? Let us know in the comments section below!

The post Luc Besson’s La Femme Nikita shoots to 4K Blu-ray in June appeared first on JoBlo.

The Fantastic Four are called Marvel’s First Family because, well, they actually are. Back in 1961, the company formerly known as Timely Comics transitioned into Marvel Comics. They kept some of their titles, such as Journey Into Mystery, but began a new approach to superhero comics with The Fantastic Four. These new titles would show the internal drama between the characters and not just their superheroics. After these characters became a big hit, the company created other heroes such as The Incredible Hulk, Spider-Man, and Iron Man.

Fox would end up with the movie rights to bring these characters to the big screen but ultimately would produce content that really didn’t live up to what the comics promised. After four attempts (ironic), the rights have finally reverted back to Marvel Studios through Disney’s purchase of Twentieth Century Studios. Now that the MCU is around, fans are interested in seeing how the family will fit into the complex web of continuity that has become a bigger problem for Marvel.

Who Are The Fantastic Four?

While there have been some replacement characters throughout the years, the main cast of the FF (as they are often referred to in comics) are the primary family members. Sometimes, when rights become sticky, you’ll get a H.E.R.B.I.E. robot that was created for the 1978 animated series. Or, in the comics, a storyline will come up that will require Spider-Man, Wolverine, Hulk, and Ghost Rider to take over the mantle of the team when they go missing. Even sometimes Marvel will decide not to use the name Fantastic Four since Fox had the movie rights, and they wanted to lessen the popularity of the brand. Corporations can be shady.

Mister Fantastic Reed Richards

When the team went on a space mission and was bombarded with cosmic rays, the family patriarch, Reed Richards, gained the ability to stretch his body like a rubber band. His intellect is second to none, and he is considered the most intelligent person in the entire Marvel Universe. This has gotten him and the family in plenty of trouble on numerous occasions. He’s usually considered dull by a lot of his peers, as his absent-mindedness causes issues between his friends and family. His single focus on science has caused more than one Earth-shattering problem.

He was played by Ioan Gruffudd in the early 2000s and by Miles Teller in the last iteration. Lots of speculation was attached to the role as the internet fandom had attached John Krasinki to the role before. It gained enough of a groundswell that he would end up playing the character in Doctor Strange And The Multiverse Of Madness. With the family getting their own title now in the MCU, some even thought Adam Driver might be a front-runner for the role. In the end, it would go to someone who is well-known for jumping into well-known properties.

Pedro Pascal will be Reed Richards for the upcoming film. Being a big part of Star Wars, The Last Of Us, Game of Thrones, and the last Wonder Woman film just wasn’t enough for him. He truly is the Thanos of collecting massive fandom roles. How his Reed will differ from the others remains to be seen, but he has shown he can lead a family, even if it takes him a while to get there. Just ask Grogu and Ellie.

The Invisible Woman Sue Storm

Sue is considered one of the most powerful female superheroes in the Marvel Universe. During the group’s trip to outer space, Sue would gain invisibility. She can turn herself invisible and generate invisible force fields. This can sort of act as a form of telekinesis. Invisible barriers can push people apart or even trap them. She is married to Reed, and they have a couple of children in Franklin and Valeria.

When it comes to the family, Sue is thought of as the one who keeps the group together. With Reed’s aforementioned obsession with making new scientific discoveries, her hot-headed brother (literally), and her friendship with Ben Grimm, she is able to keep everyone from fracturing. Although when she has become the interest of Namor, whom we met in the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever film, it has proven that the family will put their differences aside to save her.

Jessica Alba and Kate Mara have both played her, but Vanessa Kirby will be portraying her in the upcoming film. This is fitting as renowned comic book artist Jack Kirby (no relation) was responsible for a lot of the early Fantastic Four comics. It should be interesting to see if Marvel has any ideas for setting her apart from previous character adaptations.

The Human Torch Johnny Storm

Sue’s younger brother was part of the team and found he had the ability to set himself ablaze when he returned home from the group’s mission. He would take on the moniker of The Human Torch, but he is actually not the first Marvel hero to use it. Back when the company was still known as Timely Comics, a character was already known as The Human Torch. This was an android named Jim Hammond. A scientist created him, and he could catch fire. The character was retired in the 50s, and Stan Lee reused the name and power set for the new characters he had come up with.

Johnny is usually shown as a brash character who sometimes acts before he thinks. This causes all sorts of issues and can cause tension on the team from Ben Grimm. His recklessness has made him form a friendship with Spider-Man, and the characters constantly try to outperform each other. This competition has made the duo a fan-favorite buddy team whenever they appear in a comic together.

Chris Evans previously played Johnny Storm in the early 2000s films. Fans hope for a cameo appearance as the character in the upcoming Marvel Multiverse film Secret Wars. For the 2015 film, Michael B. Jordan was cast as Sue’s adopted brother. Maybe we can get all the Johnny Storms together for this one? For the upcoming film, we’ll see Stranger Things Joseph Quinn takes on the role. His popularity on the show should bring a lot of fans in to see what he brings to the character.

The Thing Ben Grimm

The most sympathetic of the group, Ben Grimm, transforms into the living rock formation The Thing. You would think they would name him something else since he is very sensitive about his appearance. He would often be portrayed as the group member who suffered the most from their newfound powers. While he is now strong enough to go toe-to-toe with The Hulk on numerous occasions, they show that this is a burden rather than a gift for him.

Even with his new body affliction, he would find love numerous times in the comics, even if it usually was never meant to be. His rivalry with Johnny usually plays a lot of the comic relief in the comics. Their banter back and forth is hilarious and some of the best parts of the books. Seeing a good version of this on screen would be a great addition to the MCU.

Michael Chiklis and Jamie Bell played the character before. This time out, we’ll see Ebon Moss-Bachrach from The Bear take on the role. From the numerous roles he has been known for, this version of the character should be interesting. Rather than trying to find an actor with a larger frame to play the role, they are going with someone who seems to have a large personality. He has confirmed that he will use motion capture to play The Thing. How it looks on screen will determine how successful the character is.

What’s It About?

That’s the big question. With all the Earth-threatening situations we have already seen in the MCU, we have to assume they are not present in the MCU at this moment. The excuse they used with The Eternals of them being told not to interfere with human problems isn’t going to cut it this time around. Let’s be honest, it didn’t really work the last time around.

From the teaser art that Marvel put out on Instagram when they announced the main cast, it could be assumed that the film will take place in the 1960s. The retro feel of the decor in the picture and the clothing the characters are wearing seem to indicate it. Could something have happened to cause the team to disappear? It’s not exactly the same thing, but it would be like putting Captain America on ice. The team is lost in the 60s and returns back to the world of 2024. It’s easy to see how this could be part of the story that leads into Secret Wars.

How Do They Fit Into Secret Wars?

The upcoming film Secret Wars is the focal point, similar to how Endgame was years ago, and this indicates that The Fantastic Four will play a pivotal role in the MCU. There has been no mention of who plays Doctor Doom when the FF hits the MCU. In the Secret Wars crossover, Doom plays an essential role. The universe is destroyed, but Doom is granted almost God-like powers to reassemble it. He grabs parts of alternate worlds to piece them together. So, for our understanding, it would be like he would grab part of the Fox X-Men universe, part of the Sony Spider-Man Universe, and part of the MCU and slap them together.

With Doctor Doom being such a big part of that story, it only makes sense that The Fantastic Four would play a pivotal role in Secret Wars. Rumors suggest Javier Bardem is being eyed to play Galactus for their solo film. This is one of the most famous Fantastic Four stories, so trying and getting that story on film would only make sense. Bardem can be a pretty stoic guy when the role calls for it. Just look at No Country For Old Men. Anything would have to be better than the cloud we saw the last time out.

When Can We See It?

As of now, the plan is for it to be released on July 25th, 2025. Still a ways out, but as we’ve seen with numerous Marvel films (looking at you Blade), release dates can shift at any time. With Marvel still trying to figure out what they are doing in the future after the firing of Jonathan Majors, next summer would be a great time to bring in the First Family to course-correct their direction. As the Avengers seem to be winding down in the MCU, it’s a good time to bring in the FF and the X-Men to push forward in a new direction. Hopefully, it will keep fans interested since the last couple of films don’t seem to be doing so well.

Are you excited for a new Fantastic Four film? Let us know in the comments. And yes, I didn’t talk about the Roger Corman film because that deserves its own column.

The post Everything We Know About The Fantastic Four appeared first on JoBlo.

Rapper Diddy is facing mo problems than before, as officials raided his homes in Los Angeles and Miami on Monday, stemming from sex trafficking allegations, with former girlfriend Cassie Ventura one of the most vocal alleged victims. 

According to a spokesperson for Homeland Security (via Rolling Stone), who was tasked with conducting the raids, “Earlier today, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) New York executed law enforcement actions as part of an ongoing investigation, with assistance from HSI Los Angeles, HSI Miami, and our local law enforcement partners. We will provide further information as it becomes available.”

While there’s no precise telling just what will come of these raids against Diddy’s properties, it’s believed that if the aforementioned New York branches are zeroing in on the mogul, he is going to have a tough road ahead of him.

As per a representative of Cassie’s and an unnamed accuser, “We will always support law enforcement when it seeks to prosecute those that have violated the law. Hopefully, this is the beginning of a process that will hold Mr. Combs responsible for his depraved conduct.” According to reports, numerous unnamed individuals had been interviewed by investigators in New York, while others even still are awaiting their own sitdowns. As for the properties, it is unclear if Diddy was actually on either of the premises, although photos and video footage don’t appear to support this.

Cassie’s allegations against Diddy came out late last year, with the singer claiming that Diddy tried to keep the extensive abuse silent by paying her off, with the amount said to be in the eight-figure range. Even more recently, former collaborator Rodney Jones, Jr. filed a $30 million lawsuit against Diddy over sexually and financially taking advantage of him. One of the others named in the lawsuit was Diddy’s son Justin, who footage shows at one of the properties during the raid. Expectedly, Diddy is denying all claims from the multiple parties.

Whatever comes of these raids, Diddy is in some serious legal trouble that will see his career stalled at the bare minimum. His most recent release, last year’s The Love Album: Off the Grid — which Jones’ lawsuit has roots in — was his first in seven years, the longest gap between albums of his career. With so much working against him, one wonders if that will be his last one.

Do you think Diddy has a chance to press through these allegations and lawsuits? Share your thoughts below.

The post Multiple homes of Diddy raided by Homeland Security appeared first on JoBlo.

Could Kevin Costner return for the final season of Yellowstone? Perhaps. Despite exiting the series last year, a new report from Puck claims that Costner has expressed a willingness to return for a cameo or “possibly more” in the final season.

As Kevin Costner was always expected to return as John Dutton for the final episodes of Yellowstone, this would give fans the chance to get a little closure. However, before you get too excited, the report states there are no plans for Costner’s return at this time. The scripts for the final season are complete, and production is expected to get underway soon, so there would obviously need to be some rewriting if Costner did come back.

Yellowstone co-creator Taylor Sheridan opened up about the unfortunate drama regarding Costner’s exit. “My opinion of Kevin as an actor hasn’t altered. His creation of John Dutton is symbolic and powerful … and I’ve never had an issue with Kevin that he and I couldn’t work out on the phone,” Sheridan explained. “But once lawyers get involved, then people don’t get to talk to each other and start saying things that aren’t true and attempt to shift blame based on how the press or public seem to be reacting. He took a lot of this on the chin and I don’t know that anyone deserves it. His movie seems to be a great priority to him and he wants to shift focus. I sure hope [the movie is] worth it — and that it’s a good one.“

The reason behind Costner’s exit in the first place came down to money and scheduling. The actor wanted to have enough time to shoot his Western epic, Horizon, but couldn’t come to an agreement with the network. Further reports stated he also wanted the right to review, approve, and potentially veto every Yellowstone script, which didn’t sit well with Sheridan. While the relationship between Sheridan and Costner might be strained due to all of this drama, fans would surely embrace the possibility of John Dutton returning, if only to properly wrap up his character.

Would you like to see Kevin Costner return for the final season of Yellowstone?

The post Yellowstone: Kevin Costner reportedly wants to return for final season appeared first on JoBlo.

It’s been over two years since the last episodes of Euphoria, so fans have been anxiously awaiting the return of the HBO series for some time. Unfortunately, it was confirmed earlier today that production on Euphoria season 3 has been officially paused, and new information has emerged which hints that when the series does finally return after this delay, there will be a major change.

According to The Wrap, Euphoria creator Sam Levinson is planning on a time jump between the second and third seasons, which will find the characters out of high school. Sources told The Wrap that HBO wanted to give Levinson “more time to break the story, because there’s a lot more back and forth now that the show is changing in this way,” hence the delay. Production was originally slated to begin in the next couple of months, but the cast has been allowed to “pursue other opportunities” while the new scripts come together.

As Euphoria stars Zendaya, Sydney Sweeny, and Jacob Elordi have seen their careers take off in major ways, some have wondered if they don’t have time for the series anymore. But the cast has always expressed their willingness to return and in a statement, HBO said that it “remains committed to making an exceptional third season.“

In an interview with GQ last month, Euphoria recurring guest star Colman Domingo described Levison’s writing style, saying that he’s someone “who writes and rewrites and writes and rewrites again,” adding that he is “interested in the existential question of who we are right now. Our souls, That’s what he wants to figure out with season 3.” It remains to be seen when production will begin on Euphoria season 3 after this delay, but I think fans would rather Levinson take his time to get it right. As it stands, it’s expected that the new season will premiere sometime in 2025.

The post Euphoria season 3 delay due to creator Sam Levinson moving the series out of high school appeared first on JoBlo.

Fresh off his Oscar win for Oppenheimer, Deadline reports that Cillian Murphy has set up one of his next projects, a feature adaptation of Blood Runs Coal: The Yablonski Murders and the Battle for the United Mine Workers of America by Mark A. Bradley.

Blood Runs Coal takes place in the late 1960s and will feature Cillian Murphy playing Chip Yablonski, a labor attorney who fights to get justice for his father, Jock Yablonski. The elder Yablonski was a second-generation coal miner and activist who fought for better working conditions and health benefits for his fellow miners. However, he butted heads with union president Tony Boyle, and when Yablonski decided to run against him, Boyle used embezzled union funds to order the murder of his opponent. Yablonski was killed, along with his wife and daughter, with Chip Yablonski barely escaping the same fate as he had left the house the day prior. Jez Butterworth will pen the script for Blood Runs Coal with John-Henry Butterworth

In addition to Best Actor for Cillian Murphy, Oppenheimer took home seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, and Best Original Score.

Murphy has plenty of projects on his slate, including Small Things Like These, a historical drama in which he plays a devoted father and coal merchant who discovers startling secrets kept by the convent in his town, along with some shocking truths of his own. The film made its debut at the Berlin International Film Festival last month. He will also star in Steve for Netflix as a headteacher of a last-chance reform school who struggles to keep his students in line, while also grappling with his spiraling mental health. It’s also expected that he will reprise his role of Thomas Shelby in the upcoming Peaky Blinders movie.

There’s also a chance Murphy might appear in the long-awaited 28 Days Later sequel, 28 Years Later. While he’s onboard the project as an executive producer, it hasn’t been revealed if he’ll make an appearance in the film as well. “It’s for [Danny Boyle and Alex Garland] to speak about, I suppose, but I think it’s been brewing for a while,” Murphy said last month. “The first movie was so important for me as an actor. I love working with those guys. Alex has an idea, and Danny directing is just huge. Watch this space.“

The post Cillian Murphy to star in Blood Runs Coal, a true story of corruption and murder appeared first on JoBlo.