Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today…to tell you about this Prince jukebox musical headed our way. It has been announced that Ryan Coogler will be producing a new film for Universal that will rely heavily on the music of The Purple One.
No plot or cast details have been made public, but considering just how expansive Prince’s catalog is, no doubt there will be a wealth of tracks to choose from to help guide the film. Hopefully it can be a little more creative than having Darling Nikki driving a little red Corvette while wearing a raspberry beret as purple rain falls…
Considering how successful, controversial and eccentric Prince was, it’s a bit of a surprise that no proper biopic has been made. Then again, he has always been extremely protective of his image. But, really, who could capture the essence of Prince, let alone even try to play ping pong as well as him? As such, a jukebox musical does seem like the perfect way to go, with the music normally guiding us through a designated moment, like how Across the Universe used the Beatles to hit the tumultuous ‘60s or how Mamma Mia! used ABBA to figure out who Amanda Seyfried’s dad was. One of the big questions now is, When will this film take place and how will Prince’s music be the lead? Whatever ends up being the case, it’ll be brimming with however much sex appeal 5’2” can hold.
This Prince jukebox musical has actually been in the works for several years now, first coming to our attention in 2018. There, too, was a planned documentary on His Royal Badness from Ava DuVernay, but she left over “creative differences.” Prince died in 2016 at the age of 57 from an accidental fentanyl overdose.
Prince had his first gold record with 1979’s “I Wanna Be Your Lover”, hitting #1 five years later with back-to-back hits “When Doves Cry” and “Let’s Go Crazy”, solidifying himself as one of the most popular and best-selling artists ever. And who can forget the Batdance?!
Which Prince songs do you want to see featured in this jukebox musical? Give us your dream set list below!
THE STORY: A New York cop is unwillingly recruited as an assassin for a top-secret government agency, CURE. Re-christened Remo Williams (Fred Ward), he’s sent on the trail of an unscrupulous weapons dealer, but first must survive his training with Chiun (Joel Grey) master of Sinanju.
THE PLAYERS: Starring: Fred Ward, Joel Grey, Kate Mulgrew & Wilford Brimley. Music by Craig Safan. Directed by Guy Hamilton.
THE HISTORY: THE ADVENTURE BEGINS…and ends, with this, the lone big-screen adventure of Remo Williams, the veteran of well over a hundred pulp novels (published as “The Destroyer” series – written by Warren Murphy & Richard Sapir). This was an attempt by Dick Clark (of all people) and the then-fledgling Orion Pictures to launch their own James Bond-style series of adventures. While people may laugh at the attempt now, they definitely had reason to think this could work, with the brain trust at Orion the same bunch who worked at United Artists when the Bond films were greenlit. They even managed to get some legit 007 veterans, like director Guy Hamilton, who did four Bonds (including Goldfinger), and writer Christopher Wood (The Spy Who Loved Me and – ahem – Moonraker).
Despite some good reviews, Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins was a flop, opening in fourth place at the box office (behind Commando, Jagged Edge & Silver Bullet), eventually eking out only $14 million, not nearly enough to sustain a franchise. It eventually did well enough on cable and VHS that a pilot TV movie with a different cast was made, but it ultimately went nowhere.
WHY IT’S GREAT: Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins was a movie I loved as a kid. As a young’un, I remember catching a chunk of it on TBS one evening, which encouraged me to go rent the VHS, and I just about wore the bloody thing out with how much I watched it that weekend. What I liked about it then (and now) is how Remo is such a unique Hollywood hero, especially for the eighties. The middle-aged Fred Ward looks like a blue-collar, regular guy, and his recruitment and eventual transformation into an unstoppable hero (able to breathe underwater for an hour and dodge bullets at close range) was exciting escapism for me at the time.
More than thirty years after its initial release Remo Williams holds up, with some caveats. The elephant in the room is the very white Joel Grey as the Korean Chiun. His performance was so well-received at the time that he garnered a Golden Globe nomination (the makeup used on him was nominated for an Oscar). His chemistry with Ward is excellent, and their banter is fun (I always enjoyed Chiun’s love of American soap operas), but it’s dated.
If you can ignore this, Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins has a lot to offer, such as great stunt work, a few really good set pieces, and an amazing score by Craig Safan, which ranks as one of the best action scores of the eighties. Sadly, the production apparently ran out of money towards the end of the shoot, meaning the conclusion is anti-climactic, and the villain is the generic type you’d see every week on “The A-Team”. Still, this is a damn fun slice of eighties nostalgia, and something of a seminal title for film geeks of my generation. Also, the late Fred Ward is amazing in a film that really should have launched him as a proper action star.
Great heroes need great villains; our movie villain was a guy selling cheap rifles to the government. We told them about that out there in Lala Land but of course they were all geniuses so nobody would listen to us. Too bad. – Interview with Warren Murphy
BEST SCENE: In the mid-eighties, the Statue of Liberty was undergoing construction, which meant it had a giant scaffolding surrounding it. The production was able to use this to brilliant effect in a show-stopping scene where Remo has to dodge assassins (one is Jon Polito!) while being chased all over – in a moment worthy of Hitchcock. Nothing else in the movie is quite able to match up to it, but it’s such a classic moment I can’t, in good conscience, post it here – as it needs to be seen in the film proper.
I had one day. But I was doing the one day on the Statue Of Liberty, which was in the process of being refurbished, so the island was closed to people, for the most part. I mean, there was nobody there. We only used the actors that were given permission to shoot. All I really did was chase the lead guy [Fred Ward] all over the Statue Of Liberty. So I had nothing really to do. The funny part about that movie is, I’m kind of known at this point for my voice, my gravelly voice. But in fact, they dubbed in my first line with some actor from England. – Jon Polito- Random Roles Interview
SEE IT: Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins is a niche title, but it’s fared well on Blu-ray. You can easily find it and it’s also streaming as well.
PARTING SHOT: Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins is a flawed, but exciting, piece of eighties action cinema. Fred Ward makes for a truly unique action hero, and the movie is fast-paced and fun, although the casting of Chiun is…problematic. If you can watch it in the right context, you’ll have a lot of fun with it.
Recently, I had the chance to sit down with Paul Rudd and Carrie Coon, who are out promoting Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. Both Rudd and Coon have been outspoken in their love of the original Ghostbusters, as well as the original cast, and I couldn’t help but put them both on the spot a little bit. Given that young audiences are discovering the original Ghostbusters thanks to these new movies, I wondered which classic comedy featuring some of the cast Rudd and Coon might suggest younger audiences check out next.
“I love so many of them. I might say Stripes because of the Harold Ramis connection there. But, you can also do Groundhog Day because of the Harold Ramis connection. Or Caddyshack. I mean, my God, there’s so many! And with Aykroyd, The Blues Brothers is obviously such a major thing.”
Coon also chimed in, mentioning that the old SCTV stuff featuring Ramis as part of the ensemble is well worth checking out. “That’s all so funny, that’s great stuff,” said Coon.
Rudd added, “Yeah and then you can say, ‘Oh, you like Rick Moranis? You think he’s funny? Look at this!”
All that makes me wonder, what Bill Murray, Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd movies are essential? Certainly, Rudd is right in citing Stripes, as without that movie being a hit, I wonder if Ghostbusters would have ever been made. It was also directed by Ghostbusters’ director Ivan Reitman. And speaking of Reitman, how about Meatballs? It’s maybe more dated than some of the others, but it’s worth checking out. Caddyshack is also a stone-cold classic, and Groundhog Day is a masterpiece. As for Aykroyd, Blues Brothers remains a staple, and I’d also add Trading Places with Eddie Murphy to that list. Heck, if you want to get really weird and take a deep dive into his stuff, you might want to check out Nothing But Trouble, which he also directed, but don’t say I didn’t warn you. Indeed, all involved made many classics well worth checking out.
Which comedies listed here would you say are essential? Let us know in the comments!
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is opening in line with our box office predictions, and that’s not necessarily a good thing. After posting a pretty solid preview number on Thursday, Deadline is reporting that the movie’s box office has cooled a bit, with it only on track for an opening in the $42-44 million range. That’s below what Ghostbusters: Afterlife opened with in 2021, and the pandemic badly hampered those figures. Sony was likely hoping for a finish in the $60 million-ish range, which would have boded well for the extended Ghostbusters universe the company is building with their Ghost Corps brand.
Most troubling is that Frozen Empire has only managed a B+ CinemaScore, a stark contrast to the “A” score recent hits like Bob Marley: One Love and Dune: Part Two managed. Afterlife managed an A – score, suggesting audiences don’t like this sequel as much as they enjoyed the last one (check out our Ghostbusters rankings here). While a $40 million plus opening isn’t a disaster, if the movie doesn’t hit at least $100 million domestically, it seems unlikely the Ghostbusters franchise will continue on the big screen anytime soon unless they greatly reduce the budget. The movie has a reported $100 million budget, meaning it should break even by the time the foreign grosses come in, but so far, this is a middling opening.
However, the weekend’s only other wide new-release movie, Immaculate, is tanking, with Deadline projecting a $5 million finish at best. The deadly C CinemaScore suggests horror fans are not satisfied with this artsy Neon-produced chiller. The movie would have likely been an arthouse release were it not for the fact that Sydney Sweeney’s career has gone into overdrive following the success of her rom-com, Anyone But You. Despite its horror trappings, that was a pretty mainstream flick, and Immaculate is anything but.
Check back for our full box office wrap-up tomorrow!
Star Wars fans haven’t seen Lando Calrissian – that is, the Billy Dee Williams version – on the big screen in five years. But will we ever again? With so many Star Wars projects on the horizon, it’s possible that Lando could turn up in some corner of the galaxy…But would Williams ever don the cape again? Sure – provided you show him the dough.
As Billy Dee Williams told Radio Times on any potential return to the character, “Pay me a lot of money and I’ll sell my soul.” As portrayed by Williams, Lando Calrissian first appeared in 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back, a former friend of Han Solo’s and one-time owner of the Millennium Falcon, the lore of which would be explored later in the Star Wars saga. Williams would return as Lando for 1983’s Return of the Jedi but wouldn’t reprise the character again – in the flesh, at least – until the third entry in the latest trilogy, 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker.
But Billy Dee Williams has made a career out of Lando Calrissian, albeit primarily through voice work, having appeared in a number of Lego Star Wars productions (both on TV and in video games), not to mention odd one-offs on Robot Chicken and The Cleveland Show.
As of late, timeline shifts have bumped Williams for Donald Glover, who took over Lando for 2018’s Solo: A Star Wars Story. On Glover, Williams said, “He’s part of a whole new generation. He’ll create whatever he needs to create, to bring appeal to the character. He’s a very talented young lad and very imaginative. I mean, it’s not for me to say what he should do with the character at this stage. I took care of the 20th century, now he’s got to take care of the 21st.” And that he will, as the planned Lando Calrissian TV series has morphed into a planned movie.
Still, Williams keeps Lando close, and while he does have praise for Glover, there’s really only one man that comes to mind when you think of the character. “He’s a delightful young man. Extremely talented. But I don’t see him…I mean, when it comes to Lando Calrissian there’s only one Lando Calrissian. I created that character.”
Are you ready for Billy Dee Williams to return as Lando Calrissian or has that Falcon sailed? Drop your thoughts below!
Some cliche somewhere said that ‘a picture is worth a thousand words.’ This has proven to be the case for me and especially when it comes to fan art. I have always sought out great fan art and have wanted to share it with as many people as possible. “Awesome Art We’ve Found Around The Net” is the outlet for that passion. In this column, I will showcase the kick-ass artwork of some great artists, with the hopes that these artists get the attention they deserve. That’s the aim. If you have any questions or comments, or even suggestions of art or other great artists, feel free to contact me at any time at theodorebond@joblo.com.
This weekend sees the release of Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. Some will say this is the fourth Ghostbusters film, but of course, we all know it’s actually the fifth, as you have to count Paul Feig’s reboot to a certain extent. While critics have been cool on Gil Kenan’s addition to the franchise, fans seem to really be enjoying the film, which gives the OG Ghostbusters enhanced roles. All this got me thinking: what are the best Ghostbusters films? So, I had to do it – here’s my Ghostbusters Movies Ranked list. I’m sure this will inspire a little debate, so let me know what you think of this list in the comments below – even if you hate it. Note that this list is from worst to best.
Ghostbusters (2016):
Let me be clear: I didn’t hate Paul Feig’s female-led reboot as much as a lot of people did. I remember this being one of the most debated films of all time here on JoBlo, and when I gave this a mildly positive review I got angry emails for years! I’m not kidding. Even now, I sometimes get comments on YouTube saying, “We can’t trust this guy because he liked Feig’s Ghostbusters.” That said, it was a bad idea. I don’t know what possessed Sony to attempt to remake the original film with an all-female cast, but it was all but sure to torpedo at the box office as the discourse behind it became so politicized. I actually think this would have done okay had it kept the original Ghostbusters film canon. Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, Melissa McCarthy and Leslie Jones all do their best here, and Chris Hemsworth is actually funny as their dopey secretary, but it was doomed to fail right from the get-go.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire:
So, in my review, I gave this a 6/10, but I was maybe “a little” harsh, as some Ghostbusters-fanatic friends of mine dragged me kicking and screaming to it earlier this week, and I actually had fun watching this with a crowd. Do I think it’s a great movie? No, as there’s way too much world-building going on, but Dan Aykroyd’s extended role is touching, and the ending re-teaming the original Ghostbusters put a smile on my face.
Ghostbusters 2:
For a long time, the popular sentiment was that this was a bad sequel, but it’s not at all. While it’s nowhere near as good as the original, it has some great moments. The first third of the film is legitimately great, with us seeing the now broke, depressed Ghostbusters trying to eke out a living, with Bill Murray especially good at showing Venkman becoming a hack TV psychic host. I also like Venkman’s believably shitty New York apartment, with empty beer bottles beside the bed, expertly conveying how depressed he’s been since Sigourney Weaver’s Dana left him (I’ve been there, bro). That said, they made a massive mistake not bringing Elmer Bernstein back to do the score. I think if this had the old Ghostbusters themes, people would have liked it a lot more. I also like the romance angle between Rick Moranis’s Louis and Annie Potts’ Janine.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife:
One of the reasons I liked Afterlife so much was that Jason Reitman hit exactly the right tone, giving us a legit sense of threat, but also a nice American Graffiti meets Ghostbusters vibe that hit the perfect note for me. The ending, which reunites the OG guys with Egon’s ghost, hit me in the feels, and I really think this is an underrated movie. If you want to reboot a series in a way that brings in new characters but also doesn’t piss off the old fans, this is pretty textbook.
Ghostbusters:
Gee, did anyone actually wonder what my pick for the best Ghostbusters movie would be? Fact this, this movie is a masterpiece, with it hitting the sweet spot between comedy and horror so perfectly that it inspired many clones that could never pull it off like Ivan Reitman could. The score is great, the soundtrack is phenomenal, and the cast is God-tier. If you’ve never seen this movie theatrically, I highly recommend taking the opportunity to see it with an audience if you get a chance. I’ll never forget seeing this at TIFF a few years back with Bill Murray himself in attendance. It was magical.
So there you go. What would be your rankings? Let us know in the comments!
This year marks the 40th anniversary of Footloose, the iconic ’80s movie which starred Kevin Bacon as a teenager who attempts to overturn a ban on dancing in a small town. Footloose was shot at Payson High School in Utah, and the students have been campaigning on social media to get Kevin Bacon to visit the school on prom day. And you’d better believe he’ll be there.
The actor announced to the Today Show that he will be returning to Payson High School for prom. “I have been so impressed with everything that’s been going on there with this crazy idea to get me to come back,” Bacon said. “I’ve been amazing at the work that all of you have been putting into this, with the musical and the flash mobs and the re-creations.“
He continued, “It hasn’t gone unnoticed by me, not to mention the fact that you tied in SixDegrees.org, our foundation, and are trying to figure out ways to give back to your community. It’s really inspirational, so thank you. Thank you. And I’m gonna come. I gotta come!” It also happens that Payson High School will soon be relocating to a new building, so this will be the last chance for Kevin Bacon to attend prom at the original Footloose school.
Although Bacon has embraced Footloose, it wasn’t always so. He initially rejected the movie as he wanted to be seen as a serious actor. “When I became a pop star, the last thing I wanted to be was a pop star. I had already moved into, ‘I want to be Dustin Hoffman or Meryl or John Cazale or De Niro. I want to work with Scorsese. I want to do Chekhov.’ You know what I mean? I was so into what my idea of a serious actor was, and all of a sudden I was given this thing that was completely not a serious actor,” Bacon said last year. “So I rejected it, full on. I tried to self-sabotage that piece of myself and my popularity.I was very, very uncomfortable with photo shoots and magazines, and all these things that I dreamed of as a kid. Everything that I had dreamed of gave me a tremendous amount of self-doubt and anxiety.“
He added that he wasn’t even aware Footloose was going to be a “dance movie” when he auditioned. “When I did the dance movie, I was not a dancer. I wasn’t trained as a dancer. If I’m being honest, I didn’t even really understand that it was a dance movie. I thought it was just a movie, and then, where they would indicate that there was dancing, I would just get up,” Bacon said. “They said something about a choreographer and I said, ‘You don’t really need a choreographer. I’ll just get up and dance. It’s not a big deal. Just play the record for me and I’ll jump around.’ So I was definitely not trained by any stretch of the imagination.“
When it was revealed that Joker: Folie à Deux would have elements of a musical, fans weren’t quite sure how far the sequel would lean into that aspect. Well, according to Variety, the film will be “mostly a jukebox musical” as it will include “at least 15 reinterpretations of very well-known songs.“
Insiders tell Variety that one of those songs is said to be “That’s Entertainment” from the 1953 musical The Band Wagon. While it seems that most of the songs will be covers of existing tunes, the door is apparently open for the addition of an original song or two. Who would have thought that Joker: Folie à Deux might be joining the likes of musicals such as Mamma Mia and Moulin Rouge?
The report also states that early discussions are underway for Joker: Folie à Deux to premiere at the Venice International Film Festival later this year, but nothing is official yet. The first movie also premiered at the festival, where it received an eight-minute standing ovation and won the Golden Lion award.
Anticipation for the Joker sequel is high, especially after the first movie received 11 Academy Award nominations and became the first R-rated flick to gross over $1 billion worldwide. Warner Bros. has pumped a lot of money into the sequel, with recent reports stating the budget has grown to nearly $200 million; quite the leap from the $60 million budget of the first movie.
Joker: Folie à Deux features the return of Joaquin Phoenix as the title character. He’s joined by Lady Gaga, who is said to be playing Harley Quinn. The rest of the cast includes Brendan Gleeson, Catherine Keener, Jacob Lofland, and Harry Lawtey. Zazie Beetz also returned to reprise her role as Sophie Dumond from the first movie, a love interest for Arthur. Plot details are being kept under wraps, but it’s been said that much of the sequel will take place within Arkham Asylum, which is where we left Arthur in the last film. Joker: Folie à Deux will hit theaters on October 4th. Find out everything we know about the movie right here!
The first trailer for Star Wars: The Acolyte dropped earlier this week, and according to Lucasfilm, it actually broke a major record, besting every trailer for The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, Andor, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Ahsoka, but unfortunately, it also racked up quite a few dislikes on YouTube.
“The trailer for The Acolyte garnered 51.3 million views in its first 24 hours,” reads the Lucasfilm announcement. “This is a new digital-only record for any Lucasfilm Disney+ series, surpassing every trailer for The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, Andor, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Ahsoka. We’re grateful for your support, and can’t wait for you to experience the series.“
As I write this, The Acolyte trailer has 166k likes on YouTube, but it also has over 365k dislikes. Yikes. A portion of these dislikes could be down to review bombing, but the trailer did receive a rather mixed response upon release. Now, this is just our first glimpse at the series, so I’m hoping that the reception will be more positive as we get to see more. I’ll admit that the trailer didn’t exactly wow me, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed for the series, as I’ve really wanted to see more Star Wars stories set outside the timelines covered in the Skywalker Saga.
Set hundreds of years before the events of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, The Acolyte takes place during the High Republic era of the franchise. This era has been explored in books and comics, but showrunner Lesyle Headland has said, “You don’t need to know too much to enter the story [of The Acolyte].” The series stars Amandla Stenberg (Bodies Bodies Bodies), Lee Jung-jae (Squid Game), Manny Jacinto (The Good Place), Dafne Keen (Logan), Charlie Barnett (You), Jodie Turner-Smith (Anne Boleyn), Rebecca Henderson (Russian Doll), Dean-Charles Chapman (Game of Thrones), Joonas Suotamon (Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker), and Carrie-Anne Moss (The Matrix Resurrections).
The Acolyte logline reads: “An investigation into a shocking crime spree pits a respected Jedi Master (Lee) against a dangerous warrior from his past (Stenberg). As more clues emerge, they travel down a dark path where sinister forces reveal all is not what it seems.” The Acolyte will premiere on Disney+ on June 4th
