Disney CEO Bob Iger recently revealed that the studio has secretly “killed a few projects” that they didn’t think were strong enough. Could one of those projects have been the live-action adaptation of The Sword in the Stone?
28 Weeks Later director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo was attached to direct the live-action adaptation of The Sword in the Stone, but he recently told Collider that Disney has put the project on hold for now. “I was attached a long time ago, and I prepped a lot for Disney for that movie,” Fresnadillo said. “I don’t know exactly what happened, but the studio decided to hold the project. So right now it’s in a holding situation, and I don’t know what’s going to happen, to be honest. But I think it’s a great story. I would be so keen to make it if they decided to greenlight the project.“
Fresnadillo continued, “This industry is always dealing with many projects, and you don’t know exactly which are the ones that are going to make it. So, yeah, The Sword in the Stone, I really hope that that happens because I think there is a big fanbase waiting for that.“
Although Fresnadillo won’t get to explore the realm of fantasy with The Sword in the Stone, he will get that chance with Damsel. The upcoming fantasy stars Millie Bobby Brown (Stranger Things) as a dutiful damsel who agrees to marry a handsome prince, only to find that the royal family has recruited her as a sacrifice to repay an ancient debut. She must rely on her wits and will to survive after being thrown into a cave with a fire-breathing dragon.
Fresnadillo explained to Tudum why he wanted to make the movie: “What I really loved in the script from Dan Mazeau was embracing the idea of a fantasy adventure and a princess and dragon story, but taking it into a place [where] it’s completely upside down. It was a very intense journey that I was so excited to design and to develop. At the core, this is such a beautiful story about a young woman becoming a strong, independent, and empowered adult. Elodie doesn’t have any kind of support. It’s a real survival experience.” Damsel will debut on Netflix tomorrow.
300 was a highly stylized retelling of the Battle of Thermopylae adapted from the comic by Frank Miller, and director Zack Snyder recently spoke about the movie on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast. Although historians have found plenty of evidence of homosexuality in Ancient Greece, 300 doesn’t really touch upon it. When asked if he ever thought “about putting a bunch of gay stuff in there,” Snyder replied that he was adapting a comic, not real history. However, the director did say that he’s been talking about a 300 series which would include more of those elements.
“It’s Frank’s book. I made what Frank wrote,” Snyder said. “And we’ve been talking about doing a series where I really wanted to introduce those concepts a lot more because I just feel like it’s important. If we go forward and do more in the ‘300’ universe, I would want to bring that part in. I think it just shakes it up again. Like, ‘What?!’ Right when you thought you knew how to feel, I’m going to make you feel another way.“
Snyder continued, “As we go forward, I would love to just kind of stress…Look, ‘300’ in some ways is one of the gayest movies ever made. It is incredibly male-centric, male-obsessed. You really feel very strong male energy from that movie, even though Gorgo (Lena Headey) is an incredibly strong female character. Maybe that was just me understanding, doing the research and understanding Spartan culture that that energy was in there. It was important to make sure there was a visceral sexuality to the way the men actually interacted. Regardless of whether you acknowledge it, it’s there.“
The director had once planned on returning to the 300 universe with one final movie, but Warner Bros. passed on the script. The project had evolved into a love story about the relationship between Alexander the Great and Hephaestion, and Snyder actually regained the rights to the script last year. “I just couldn’t really get my teeth into it,” Snyder said in 2021. “Over the pandemic, I had a deal with Warner Brothers and I wrote what was essentially going to be the final chapter in ‘300.’ But when I sat down to write it I actually wrote a different movie. I was writing this thing about Alexander the Great, and it just turned into a movie about the relationship between Hephaestion and Alexander. It turned out to be a love story. So it really didn’t fit in as the third movie.“
It doesn’t sound like the 300 series is being talked about on any serious level, but you never know what might happen.
Nine years after the release of Mad Max: Fury Road, the Mad Max franchise will be getting a new entry with the May 24, 2024 theatrical release of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga – a film which isn’t about the Mad Max character, but is actually a Fury Road prequel that focuses on the Furiosa character, who was played by Charlize Theron in Mad Max: Fury Road and is now played by Anya Taylor-Joy. We’ve heard some positive test screening reactions and earlier this week we saw a new image of Chris Hemsworth as Warlord Dementus. Now Empire has unveiled a new image of Taylor-Joy as Furiosa, and you can check that out at the bottom of this article.
Directed by Miller from a screenplay he wrote with Nico Lathouris, Furiosa has the following synopsis: As the world fell, young Furiosa is snatched from the Green Place of Many Mothers and falls into the hands of a great Biker Horde led by the Warlord Dementus. Sweeping through the Wasteland they come across the Citadel presided over by the Immortan Joe. While the two Tyrants war for dominance, Furiosa must survive many trials as she puts together the means to find her way home.
Taylor-Joy (The Witch) and Hemsworth (Thor) are joined in the cast by Tom Burke (C.B. Strike) and Quaden Bayles (Three Thousand Years of Longing), with Alyla Browne (The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart) as a younger Furiosa. Nathan Jones and Angus Sampson are said to reprise their Fury Road roles of Rictus Erectus and The Organic Mechanic. Miller hasn’t revealed whether or not Mad Max himself will be appearing in the movie, he has only teased that, “Max is lurking there in the background.”
If you’re anxious to see more Mad Max, there’s some good news: Miller has confirmed that he has another Mad Max story written, which would presumably be the Mad Max: The Wasteland story that he has referenced here and there ever since Fury Road was released. Now that Furiosa is making its way out into the world, here’s hoping that Miller or a protégé (Miller has said he has three different directors in mind that he would like to see make movies set in the world of his franchise) will get Mad Max: The Wasteland into production sooner than later.
Are you looking forward to Furiosa? Let us know by leaving a comment below – and take a look at this new image while you’re scrolling down:
Fantasy fans rejoice! Astrid Lindgren‘s beloved classic novel The Brothers Lionheart is getting an event-limited TV series adaptation! Academy Award winner Thomas Vinterberg (Another Round, The Hunt) will direct and co-write the adaptation with Tony and Olivier Award winner Simon Stephens (Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime). Both will serve as Executive Producers alongside Michael Ellenberg, Lars Blomgren, Lindsey Springer of Media Res, and The Astrid Lindgren Company.
Per today’s official press release for The Brothers Lionheart courtesy of Media Res:
A beloved family classic in Scandinavia and around the world, The Brothers Lionheart has been translated into 50 languages and takes place in the fantasy tradition of magic, myth, poetry, and adventure where the work of C. S. Lewis, J.R. Tolkien, and Hayao Miyazaki reside. It is a breathtaking coming-of-age tale nestled inside an epic fantasy adventure story. The novel tells the story of two brothers – Karl and Jonathan Lion – as they leave the natural world and embark on the adventure of a lifetime in the mythical land of Nangiyala. Lindgren’s saga explores classic themes of love and loss, fear and courage, tyranny and rebellion, as the brothers must mature quickly to evade, uncover, and defeat the dark, mystical forces threatening to terrorize the good people of the Wild Rose Valley.
“The Brothers Lionheart is possibly the most important cultural legacy from my parents’ generation,” said Thomas Vinterberg. “It stands as a milestone from my childhood, shining vividly in my memory. The project is a great responsibility and, at the same time, a significant dream-come-true to create the series based on this immense and moving tale – and in that way, help pass it on to my children’s generation.”
“Astrid Lindgren is one of the most widely read authors in the world, and The Brothers Lionheart is an iconic work that’s moved, inspired and delighted generations of parents and children,” said Max Hallén, CEO of The Astrid Lindgren Company. “We are thrilled that the adaptation will be led by the visionary filmmaker Thomas Vinterberg in partnership with the remarkable team at Media Res. Simply put, this is a perfect match for this cherished tale and we greatly look forward to seeing Thomas’ vision come to life.”
If Astrid Lindgren’s name sounds familiar, she’s the Swedish writer who wrote the children’s books Pippi Longstocking (my favorite), Six Bullerby Children, Mio: My Son, Ronia the Robber’s Daughter, and more! Her influence on the literary community spans generations, with Pippi Longstocking being a staple of ’80s youth thanks partly to Ken Annakin’s fantasy musical film The New Adventures of Pippi Longstocking. Vinterberg is an outstanding selection to tackle The Brothers Lionheart, and I can’t wait to see what he does with Lindgren’s enigmatic and heartfelt story.
This weekend, it’s Muad’Dib vs Kung Fu Panda at the box office, with the second frame of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two set to face some competition for the top spot. While Kung Fu Panda is certainly going for a younger audience than Dune, it’s worth noting that since Wonka and Migration back over the Christmas holidays, the multiplexes have been curiously short of family fare. As such, Kung Fu Panda 4 has a real shot at opening better than any film in the franchise since the original way back in 2008. The last two sequels only opened in the 40-million-ish range, but given that the franchise has been dormant for eight years, pent-up demand may drive it to a strong start, although it seems very unlikely to cross $50 million.
Nevertheless, most box office forecasters are predicting a close race between Dune Part Two and Kung Fu Panda 4, with each film looking to gross anywhere from $40 to $50 million. As it’s March break in a lot of places, I think Kung Fu Panda 4 will eke out a victory with a $48 million start, while Dune Part Two should earn about $44 million in its second weekend, which would be a great result for the well-reviewed blockbuster sequel.
Given the A CinemaScore rating, it seems like Dune 2 is all but sure to earn north of $40 million on the lower end this weekend. The top two films will propel the overall sluggish 2024 box office this weekend, although nothing else this weekend seems likely to do particularly well. The new Blumhouse horror film, Imaginary, will have to overcome poor word of mouth to open much better than their last film, Night Swim, with it likely earning about $11 million for the weekend. While it has a teddy bear bad guy, the movie hasn’t caught on like M3GAN did, with Lionsgate lacking the marketing muscle of regular Blumhouse distributor Universal Pictures.
The other big question mark this weekend is how Angel Studios will do with Cabrini. The film comes from Sound of Freedom director Alejandro Monteverde (check out our interview with him), but since it’s about a Catholic Saint in the late 19th century, it doesn’t have the same action hook as the previous film. We’re expecting a modest $4 million start, which should put it below holdover Bob Marley: One Love, which may draw a family audience over this March break weekend.
Here are our predictions:
Kung Fu Panda 4: $48 million
Dune: Part Two: $44 million
Imaginary: $11 million
Bob Marley: One Love: $5 million
Cabrini: $4 million
Do you think Dune will beat Panda or vice versa? Let us know in the comments!
“Some days you just can’t get rid of a bomb!” Zack Snyder lit the fuse of several fandoms while appearing on The Joe Rogan Experience after saying Batman is “irrelevant” if he can’t kill, and more people saw Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire on Netflix than Greta Gerwig’s billion-dollar cinematic sensation, Barbie, in theaters. During his chin-wag with Rogan, Snyder expressed his gratitude for partnering with Netflix for several projects, including Army of the Dead, Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire, and upcoming features like Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas, Planet of the Dead, and Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver.
According to Zack Snyder, he’s done the math and believes more people streamed the first chapter of his Rebel Moon saga on Netflix than Gerwig’s $1.4 billion grossing pink-coded box office blockbuster. Math was never my strong subject in school, but something tells me the numbers don’t add up. If you want a window into Snyder’s logic, you can read the quote below:
“You think about Netflix, for instance, where you push a button […] ‘Rebel Moon,’ right? Say, right now, it’s almost at 90 million views, right? 80 or 90 million accounts turned it on, give or take. They assume two viewers per screening, right? That’s the kind of math. So you think if that movie was in the theater as a distribution model, that’s like 160,000,000 people supposedly watching based on that math. 160,000,000 people at $10 a ticket would be…what is that math? I don’t know. 160,000,000 times ten. That’s 1.6 billion. So more people probably saw ‘Rebel Moon’ than saw ‘Barbie’ in the theater, right?”
Then there’s the Batman business. While speaking with Rogan, Snyder said many fans take umbrage with his “deconstructivist” approach to the Dark Knight. Snyder insists he’s showing his love for the character by taking him apart and breaking him down to his base components. To be fair, plenty of Batman comic book writers take this same approach. I’m looking at you, Tom King! Also, I love your run, Tom. It was a hell of a ride! Snyder disagrees with people clinging to the rule that Batman can’t kill and thinks abiding by this ordinance is foolish.
“Batman can’t kill is canon. And I’m like, ‘okay, the first thing I wanna do when you say that is I wanna see what happens’. And they go, ‘well don’t put him in a situation where he has to kill someone’,” Snyder explained to Rogan.
“You’re protecting your god in a weird way, right? You’re making your god irrelevant if he can’t be in that situation. He has to now deal with that. If he does do that what does that mean? What does it tell you, does he stand up to it? Does he survive that as a god? As your god, can Batman survive that?”
The “Can Batman kill” trolley problem is a time-honored argument in the geek community, and I’m not convinced we’ll ever come to a unified consensus. The character exists in many forms, with different creators presenting the protector of Gotham in multitudes. I think a Batman who kills and one who does not are both interesting, and there’s room in this world for both iterations to exist. That’s why we have Elseworld stories and reboots. Part of the magic of comics, and Batman for that matter, is you can take the character in one direction and do something different with him during the following story. This scenario with Snyder has me wondering if the filmmaker prefers Superman with or without his red trunks, but that’s a battle for another day.
What do you think about Zack Snyder’s remarks? Does his math add up? Can Batman kill? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
Thirteen months have already gone by since it was announced that the 1997 slasher I Know What You Did Last Summer (watch it HERE) was getting a new sequel with Jennifer Kaytin Robinson (Do Revenge) set to direct from a screenplay by Leah McKendrick (M.F.A.) and Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr. in talks to reprise the roles of Julie James and Ray Bronson. We haven’t heard much about the project since then, except when Prinze said he hadn’t actually gotten an offer yet and Hewitt said she would gladly come back for another sequel. There’s no word on when or if this sequel will be going into production – but during a recent interview with Collider, McKendrick did talk about making her pitch, collaborating with Robinson, and her reason for pursuing the job.
McKendrick had been working on a Grease prequel called Summer Lovin’ at Paramount that was cancelled, and after that experience she thought she was done working on properties she didn’t own. Then the opportunity to pitch for a new I Know What You Did Last Summer sequel came up. She told Collider, “The reason I was able to go in is because it was a Sony film, I have a relationship with Sony, and the producers I also had a relationship with. And I found out it was (Robinson) that was gonna be directing it. And more than anything I thought, ‘Because my love is so deep for I Know What You Did Last Summer, I have to protect it. I must protect it. I can’t let this be, like, cheesy and a cash grab.’ … When it’s like they’re rebooting something that you love so deeply from your childhood, you’re like, ‘I know how we can do this and not make it cheesy, and it can stay true to the mythology, and we can bring back the OGs, and it can be a culmination.’ You have all these ideas. So I met with (Robinson). She is so cool, she is so smart. She is just, like, down to try some edgy, cool-ass shit. And I was like, ‘I’m gonna give this my best shot,’ and I pitched. All they told me was they were like, ‘We need to know the accident, the event that kicks it off, and know who the killer is.’ Because they knew that if I had to do a whole fleshed out process of pitching, I was probably just not gonna do it because my heart had been so broken by the reboot game. But when they told me that, I was like, ‘I know what I’m gonna do.’ And no spoilers, but I will say that I think if you’re an OG fan, I think you’re gonna be happy. I think you’re gonna get it.“
She went on to say that Robinson is “thinking spectacle” for this sequel is ready to “knock out some really complicated ideas” while ensuring the film is a wild, fun ride. She said the story deals with “beautiful people behaving badly,” just like the original film, and “it really reckons with some big ideas about hero and villain, right and wrong, how your skeletons come back to haunt you. And in the age of the internet and the age where fame is such a revered concept, the creation of TikTok and social media, who is Julie James in a world where there are no secrets anymore?“
Are you interested in this new sequel to I Know What You Did Last Summer? What do you think of the things Leah McKendrick had to say about the project? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
The episode of WTF Happened to This Horror Movie? covering Hannibal Rising was Written, Narrated, and Edited by Mike Holtz, Produced by Andrew Hatfield and John Fallon, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.
Remember that time Rob Zombie, The Weinstein Company, and Dimension Films got hopped up enough to make some bad decisions together and decided “Hey, you know Michael Myers? The character whose mystique is in large part because we don’t know where, how, or why his evil exists? We should make a film explaining that it’s all because his family sucked and his house smelled like old bologna!” I’m paraphrasing a little. Well, just a few months beforehand the same choice, to explain and demystify the background of one of horror’s most mysterious monsters was made for Hannibal Lecter as well. At least with this version, however, that story would at the very least come from the character’s creator himself; novelist Thomas Harris. Even if he was being forced to do so out of the fear that if he didn’t, those duties could be handed off to another rock star with even tighter leather pants. Just kidding, Rob Zombie. I loved 2007’s Halloween. For better or worse. I wish I could say the same for Hannibal Rising (watch it HERE). In a tale as old as time that will probably reincarnate itself over and over until the end of time… Hell hath no fury like a producer who wants a sequel. Prequel. Remake. Whatever. This is the story of WTF Happened to Hannibal Rising. Or “the one without Anthony Hopkins”.
You’ve probably heard the name Dino De Laurentiis before, especially if you’ve been following our Hannibal Lecter series. He’s the producer who had Manhunter made, then when it didn’t do well at the box office, lent the rights to its follow-up, The Silence of the Lambs, to Orion Pictures for free. Then when that became one of the greatest films of all time, he pulled out all the stops to make sure he and his wife Martha were involved in the sequel. Oh, and he’s produced nearly two hundred projects in everything from Halloween II to Army of Darkness to Serpico. He’s a man who knows what he wants and this time he wanted a Hannibal Lecter prequel that goes back to his childhood.
Up to this point in the franchise, all of the films had been adaptations of Thomas Harris novels. It would be silly to start making films without his novels now… kind of like it would be silly to have someone other than Anthony Hopkins play Hannibal Lecter at this point. But we’ll get to that later, won’t we? There was only one problem. As legend would have it Thomas Harris had no interest in writing another Hannibal story. But De Laurentiis told him if he didn’t put the lotion in the basket he was going to get the hose again. Meaning (as everyone knows), that if he didn’t write the novel, De Laurentiis (who owned the rights to the character), would just have someone else do it. Who knows? Maybe Spielberg. Maybe Rob Zombie. Maybe he’d put his character in the hands of his cousin Eddie who works at the local Piggly Wiggly and had a “good idea” during Thanksgiving dinner. The thought had to be horrifying. Dino wasn’t ashamed of it either, proudly telling Entertainment Weekly “I say to Thomas, if you don’t do (the prequel), I will do it with someone else… I don’t want to lose this franchise. And the audience wants it… He said, ‘No, I’m sorry.’ And I said, ‘I will do it with somebody else.’ And then he said, ‘Let me think about it. I will come up with an idea.’” Harris would go on to not only write the novel but for the first time ever, the screenplay as well for a movie that would release a mere one year later.
To understand exactly why the casting and production of Hannibal Rising turned out the way it did, you might have to first understand the story Harris concocted for the prequel. The story goes back to 1944 and an eight-year-old Hannibal Lecter. His family evacuates their castle and goes to hide out in a lodge in the woods as the war wages on around them. The war manages to find them anyway and a tragic event leads to his parents both being killed and he and his younger sister Mischa being held hostage by a group of militiamen with bad intentions and likely an even worse smell. They chain the children up but quickly realize there is no food to eat and that the icy weather conditions outside would make it impossible to attain any. We all know where this is going and it isn’t an Uber Eats commercial. They eat Hannibal’s little sister. No, seriously. They ate the little kid. That’s… that happened. We’ll find out later they even fed some of her to Hannibal in a soup, unbeknownst to him, of course. You have to check the ingredient lists on the labels of these things. High sodium. Sugars. Family members.
In one of the world’s most awkward time jumps ever, we’re soon in 1952 Lithuania and Hannibal’s family castle has been taken from him and turned into an orphanage of which he is now a member. Super awkward. Everyone there sucks and he stabs a bully with a fork before escaping and finding his super attractive widowed aunt, Lady Murasaki, where the two start flirting and eventually… wait, am I reading the wrong script? This is JoBlo, right? For a second there I thought I was talking about a film on a completely different kind of website. You know the one. “Help, I’m stuck in the dryer!” So, his Aunt takes him in and starts training him in Japanese martial arts and life is pretty good for Hannibal, all things considered. He’s hanging out all day, crushing it at school, flirting with his aunt, learning how to use Samurai swords. I don’t know if Thomas Harris was just on a big Steven Seagal movie kick at the time or what… but this is how we spend our time until Hannibal finally decides to let his freak flag fly and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Cuts A Dude’s Head Off in the woods. Lucky for him, Lady Murasaki seems totally into creepy dudes who make murder face at the camera a lot and she even helps him dispose of the victim’s head. Eventually, Hannibal becomes successful in his studies (which at this point is apparently just cutting up dead bodies all day long, legally) and the two head to France where all of this wild shit finally gets to the point where Hannibal remembers the men who wronged him and decides to track them down and torture them one by one and OH MY GOD IT’S THE PLOT OF SAW X. This is only shocking because Saw X worked decades later. Why didn’t it work here? I have two words for you. Or rather the lack of two words… Anthony Hopkins. Sir Anthony Hopkins if you’re nasty.
Hopkins had just played Hannibal for a third time in Red Dragon and while there is no official reason for his departure from the role online, one can just imagine that he was quite over it at this point. Not to mention the vast jump in age between himself and this iteration of the character. I know, I know. We should have just thrown a backward hat on him and called it a day Tobin Bell style but I don’t think they wore those in the 50s. The studio did have some plans to bring in Anthony Hopkins for a bookend cameo but whether they just decided against it or Hopkins told them to go fly a kite is unknown. All we know is it didn’t happen and a new Hannibal Lecter was cast in Gaspard Ulliel.
Ulliel was cast after a long search and screen tests that included actors Hayden Christensen, Macaulay Culkin and even Hugh Dancy (who would later go on to star in the Hannibal TV show as Will Graham) took place. Dino De Laurentiis said he was chosen in part because they were looking for a mysterious yet charming face who could also be believable as a murderer. Uh… thanks? Thank you? I guess? Once De Laurentiis and friends watched Ulliel in the French film A Very Long Engagement (which coincidentally is what watching Hannibal Rising feels like) they were assured this was their man. Then they had to convince Ulliel to take on the role, who was understandably hesitant. As director Peter Webber said, “It took us a while to persuade Gaspar to do it. I have to say that he was concerned. It’s a big thing to try and take on your shoulders you know? There’s a lot of people who are going to be looking at him and kind of measuring up against Anthony Hopkins.”
Ulliel would prepare for the audition and the role by studying Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs but didn’t want to merely provide an impression of the character, saying,“The idea was to pick a few details from his character and the idea was to pick a few details from his character and then mix it to my own recipe.” Ulliel was also taking a liking to some of the interests of Hannibal himself according to Webber who had sent him to watch some actual autopsies take place in a classroom, saying, “He was lit up with the excitement of having cut this body up. I realized that we had picked the right man for the role. I began to get a bit worried at that point.. Because he came back and he enjoyed it so much he asked to be sent back the next day. That’s when I started locking the hotel door at that point.” I feel it necessary to tell you that Webber was laughing when he said this and did not blink twice when asked if he was in any danger.
The result of all this wasn’t a bad effort on the part of the late Ulliel (whom the world would lose to a tragic ski accident in 2022). You can see in the performance the attempt at certain mannerisms and personality traits Hopkins had previously brought to the role of Lecter. Unfortunately, as an audience member, it just feels like one of the biggest casting misfires of all time. None of this felt natural to the character of Lecter. What we once saw as a monster behind a plexiglass shield yet still able to make our skin crawl with a mere look was reduced to a character that was completely and utterly non-threatening even when holding a knife to your throat. It’s all very, very awkward in all the wrong ways. It simply does not work.
All this despite some beautiful cinematography and period piece work that featured a lot of dark World War II imagery and elaborate set pieces from set designer Allan Starski. While the direction of Peter Webber and the work of the entire crew made for a beautifully shot film with Hannibal Rising, the film was unfortunately critically hampered by the inability to recreate a believable teenage Lecter character and the question of whether or not this story ever needed to exist in the first place. Hannibal Rising ultimately ends up feeling like some sort of superhero origin story where we’re asked to root for the very person we’re supposed to be afraid of. The idea was clearly to make the bad guys so damn bad that you’d root for pretty much anyone to kill them. And make no mistake the bad guys here were well crafted. Rhys Ifans was cast as the leader of this child-eating militia, and the loveable chain-smoking kicker from The Replacements turned in a great performance. I mean, you wanted to climb into the screen and kick this guy’s ass yourself. All-time supreme bad guy Richard Brake, who you’ll remember from multiple Rob Zombie films as well as the recent Barbarian, was also cast as one of the lead dudes that you wanna see die in heinous ways. And in heinous ways, they do indeed die. From some good old-fashioned chest carving to a horse-rope-scenario that leads to a head popping like a Gusher’s fruit snack… all the workings of a good revenge flick are there, but Hannibal Rising is never able to sell us on the fact that this character is very scary or much less that he’s Hannibal Lecter. And don’t even get me started on them trying to make him sexy. Like, literally. Sexy Hannibal. A CILF if you will. “Cannibal I’d like to f….” You get the idea.
I’d love to blame this whole subplot misfire on Bate’s Motel, but that version of Norman Bates wasn’t trying to make out with his own mom until six years later in 2013. Hannibal Rising featured a constant attempt at sexual smoldering between Lecter and his Aunt who was played by the wonderful Gong Li of Mulan and Memoirs of a Geisha to her best abilities. To no fault of her own, this entire situation was just uncomfortable in all the wrong ways, unfortunately. She’s a joy to watch on screen but when she and Hannibal are making goo-goo eyes at each other you kind of just want to light yourself on fire and take a nosedive into a swimming pool full of broken glass to get away from it. Or something like that. It’s just what popped into my head.
Ninja fighting, aunt flirting, children eating and all, Hannibal Rising unleashed itself upon the world in 2007. The film made $13 million on a $50 million budget in its opening weekend coming in second place to… you guessed it… Norbit. Yes, Norbit. That stings in a special way, but Rising did end up making over $82 million worldwide in the end. Still, yet, it may have provided the final theatrical nail in the franchise coffin with De Laurentiis admitting, “It was disappointing. We haven’t talked about another movie. We have to wait before I know the future of the franchise”. And as we all know the next time we’d see Hannibal on any screen would be in Bryan Fuller’s 2013s TV show Hannibal.
The reactions weren’t great critically, either. Many reviewers loathed the amount of gore and violence in the film which, to me, was some of its most redeemable qualities. But to each their own. Although I will say that I could have used five or six fewer flashbacks of Rhys Ifans biting into a live bird while staring directly into the eyes of the children. For God’s sake, man we get the point! Others bemoaned that reducing all of Hannibal Lecter’s psyche and motive down to a rough childhood was lazy and demystifying, to which I would agree, full stop. While we watched Hopkins wax philosophical about his upbringing at times in the films, I never felt it was quite that simple. There always seemed to be so much more to him we would never be capable of understanding and Hannibal Rising just kind of says, “Nah, his childhood sucked and he’s weird.” Not quite enough.
Though I do admire the work the cast and crew put in on the look and feel of Hannibal Rising, it feels as if the ingredients to make a full meal were never quite there. In the end the franchise, you could say, ate itself. And that is WTF happened to Hannibal Rising. Thanks for watching and please let us know, what is your least favorite horror character explanation attempt of all time? Remember when they made Michael Myers sleep with his own niece? Gross! Well, this is awkward now. Oh, hey. Big Gulps, huh? Alright! Welp, see ya later!
A couple of the previous episodes of WTF Happened to This Horror Movie? can be seen below. To see more, head over to our JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel – and subscribe while you’re there!
Get out your whiteboard and get ready to “Beautiful Mind” with Ben Affleck for The Accountant 2! According to Deadline, Ben Affleck, J.K. Simmons, Jon Bernthal, and Cynthia Addai-Robinson have signed on to star in a surprise sequel to the Gavin O’Connor-directed action thriller The Accountant. The project is getting set up at Amazon MGM Studios in partnership with Affleck and Matt Damon’s Artists Equity.
As you may recall, Gavin O’Connor directed the 2016 original. The original film’s screenwriter, Bill Dubuque, is also returning to crunch more bones and numbers.
The Accountant 2, starring Ben Affleck, J.K. Simmons, Jon Bernthal, and Cynthia Addai-Robinson, is happening at Amazon MGM Studios. The Accountant focuses on a math savant, Christian Wolff (Affleck), who uncooks the books for a new client. When the Treasury Department closes in on his activities, the body count starts to rise, and Wolff uses his “special set of skills” to survive the conflict.
As for the plot of The Accountant 2, the sequel “is thrust into motion when Medina’s former boss is killed by unknown assassins, and she’s forced to contact Christian to solve the murder. With the help of his estranged but highly lethal brother Brax, Chris applies his brilliant mind and less-than-legal methods to piece together the unsolved puzzle. As they get closer to the truth, the trio draws the attention of some of the most ruthless killers alive — all intent on putting a stop to their search.” (via Deadline)
Back in 1983, legendary producer Roger Corman brought the world a sword and sorcery film with an awesome title: Deathstalker. It was so successful, it paved the way for three sequels: Deathstalker II: Duel of the Titans (1987), Deathstalker and the Warriors from Hell (1988), and Deathstalker IV: Match of the Titans (1991). The franchise has been dormant for over thirty years… but it won’t be for much longer. A press release reveals that filmmaker Steven Kostanski – whose previous credits include Manborg, Father’s Day, The Void, Leprechaun Returns,Psycho Goreman, and episodes of the short-lived Day of the Dead TV series – is set to write and direct a Deathstalker remake, with Daniel Bernhardt (John Wick) on board to play the title character!
“A newly reimagined installment of the cult sword and sorcery series of the same name,” the Deathstalker remake will see Bernhardt taking on the role of a barbarian who finds himself cursed by a magical talisman that draws him into conflict with a malevolent wizard and a clan of monstrous assassins.
Konstanski had this to say: “The Deathstalker universe is such a fun sandbox to play in. Every installment has played so fast and loose with its lore, which means that there’s no limit to my imagination when it comes to what I can pit Deathstalker against.“
Bernhardt added, “I am thrilled to be working with Steven. I love this genre, and what Steven has been making in his creature shop is mind-blowing. I am so excited to do battle as a Deathstalker who is more of a grizzled war veteran in this story.“
The Deathstalker remake is expected to start filming in late April. The press release notes that this take on the concept will put a greater emphasis on the fantasy setting, which will be filled with monsters brought to the screen through practical effects. Kostanski’s Action Pants FX shop is creating those monsters, and you can get a preview of them at Bloody Disgusting. A Kickstarter campaign will be launching soon to raise funds to make sure the monsters will be as cool as possible.
In addition to this film, there’s also going to be a Deathstalker comic book series from Vault Comics. Kostanski is on the comic’s creative team with writer Tim Seeley, artist Jim Terry, and Slash of Guns N’ Roses.
The Deathstalker remake is coming our way from Hangar 18 Media. Pasha Patriki, Avi Federgreen, and Michael Pazst are producing the film, with Slash and Rodrigo Gudiño of Berserkergang Films serving as executive producers alongside Andrew Thomas Hunt, James Fler, Josh Viola, and Peter Kuplowsky. Scott Weatherall is an associate producer and Melissa A. Smith a co-producer. Raven Banner will be handling international sales and Canadian distribution.
What do you think of the idea of a Deathstalker remake directed by Psycho Goreman‘s Steven Kostanski? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
