A few days before the 96th Academy Awards ceremony, Yorgos Lanthimos’s Best Picture nominee, Poor Things, makes its streaming debut on Hulu on March 7. Akin to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein tale, Poor Things tells an unbelievable story about the fantastical evolution of Bella Baxter, a young woman brought back to life by the brilliant and unorthodox scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter. Under Baxter’s protection, Bella is eager to learn. Hungry for the worldliness she is lacking, Bella runs off with Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo), a slick and debauched lawyer, on a whirlwind adventure across the continents. Free from the prejudices of her times, Bella grows steadfast in her purpose to stand for equality and liberation.
Poor Things could dominate the Oscars this year with 11 nominations in various categories. You can check out the complete list of potential awards for this bizarrely charming film below:
Performance by an actress in a leading role — Emma Stone
Performance by an actor in a supporting role — Mark Ruffalo
Achievement in cinematography — Robbie Ryan
Achievement in costume design — Holly Waddington
Achievement in directing — Yorgos Lanthimos
Achievement in film editing — Yorgos Mavropsaridis
Achievement in makeup and hairstyling — Nadia Stacey, Mark Coulier and Josh Weston
Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score) — Jerskin Fendrix
Achievement in production design — James Price and Shona Heath; Set Decoration: Zsuzsa Mihalek
Best motion picture of the year — Ed Guiney, Andrew Lowe, Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone, Producers
Yorgos Lanthimos’s Poor Things earned $99.6M worldwide, with critics and audiences raving about Emma Stone’s captivating performance as Bella and Mark Ruffalo’s twisted Duncan Wedderburn. With awards for acting, costume design, cinematography, makeup, hairstyling, and more, Poor Things is a total package movie-going experience, continuing a streak of innovative content like Everything Everywhere All At Once, Barbie, Saltburn, and more.
Emma Stone is joined in the cast by Willem Dafoe (Spider-Man: No Way Home) as Dr. Godwin Baxter and Mark Ruffalo (The Avengers) as Duncan Wedderburn. Ramy Youssef (Ramy), Jerrod Carmichael (The Carmichael Show), Margaret Qualley (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood), Suzy Bemba (Kandisha), and Christopher Abbott (Possessor) are also in the cast.
Will you watch Poor Things before this year’s Oscars ceremony? Are you excited about Poor Things debuting on Hulu on March 7? Let us know in the comments section below.
McCanna Sinise – better known to those closest to him as “Mac” – the son of actor Gary Sinise, has passed away after a battle with Chordoma cancer. He was 33 years old.
In a lengthy statement posted on the official Gary Sinise Foundation website, the actor wrote of his son, “In sharing our story, we hope to shine a little bit of light on what has been a difficult time for us as Mac was truly a light for all of us. An incredible inspiration to those who knew and loved him, he faced his battle with grace, courage, and love. Even with one setback after another, he never stopped living and learning, creating, and giving, and loving.”
Gary Sinise added that Mac was an avid fan of playing the drums, sitting in for his dad’s Lt. Dan Band, Gary Sinise’s band named after his Forrest Gump character and which leans on playing USO shows. He, too, sought to complete an album titled Resurrection & Revival.
Chordoma cancer is an extremely rare form that only 300 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with every year, according to WebMD. It centers around bones around the spine and skull. Mac Sinise was diagnosed back in 2018 and passed away in January. Through the years, Mac underwent numerous procedures, although the spread of the cancer proved to be too much.
To close his touching tribute to his son, Sinise wrote, “He gave his family and friends so much during his 33 years, and he accomplished great things in those final months. With a glorious teaming of two old pals from college, his vision for this beautiful music was realized…Mac’s inspiring parting gift to us….Thank you, Mac. You did it. Resurrection & Revival will live on. And so will you. In our hearts forever. We were blessed to have you in our lives as son, brother, and friend…and we will miss you and love you for eternity.”
Support for Gary Sinise has been expectedly overwhelming, with fans, collaborators and those within the industry offering their words. You can leave your own in the comments section below.
We’ve already seen multiple posters for the Ghostbusters: Afterlife (watch it HERE) sequel Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (which, of course, also serves as a sequel to the original Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II), but the marketing department at Sony Pictures thought we needed a couple more, so now they’ve unveiled two new posters that feature a Mini-Puft and the iconic ghost Slimer. You can check them out in the embed at the bottom of this article. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is set to reach theatres on March 22nd.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife stars Finn Wolfhard and Mckenna Grace are back for the sequel, reprising the roles of Trevor and Phoebe. They’re joined in the cast by Carrie Coon, playing Trevor and Phoebe’s mom Callie; Paul Rudd, back as his Afterlife character Gary Grooberson; William Atherton as Walter Peck, the antagonistic EPA inspector from the first Ghostbusters film; Celeste O’Connor as Trevor’s friend Lucky Domingo; Logan Kim as Phoebe’s friend Podcast; Annie Potts as Janine Melnitz; and new additions Kumail Nanjiani (The Big Sick), Patton Oswalt (The King of Queens), James Acaster (Hypothetical), and Emily Alyn Lind (Doctor Sleep). And yes, original Ghostbusters Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Ernie Hudson are in the film as well, and it looks like they have more prominent roles than they had in the previous movie – in fact, the director has said they’re “actual characters” in this one.
At first, Afterlife director Jason Reitman was expected to take the helm of Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, once again directing from a screenplay he was writing with Gil Kenan – but then it was revealed that Kenan would actually be directing the new film. He previously directed the animated movie Monster House, the live-action films City of Ember, A Boy Called Christmas, and the remake of Poltergeist, and an episode of the Scream TV series. Kenan has said that he drew inspiration from the Real Ghostbusters animated series and its willingness to be weird and wild when they were coming up with the ghostly threats in this film.
Are you looking forward to Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire? What do you think of the new Slimer and Mini-Puft posters? Let us know by leaving a comment below – and while you’re at it, let us know which of the many posters happens to be your favorite.
A project that has been decades in the making, the most expensive film in the history of producer Charles Band‘s company Full Moon, the stop-motion epic The Primevals made its festival premiere last summer – and soon it will be time for the film to reach a wider audience! Full Moon is teaming up with the Alamo Drafthouse cinema chain to give The Primevals a theatrical release across the United States on March 11th (and more dates, depending on the location)! To find out where the movie will be screening, and to secure advance tickets, head over to Drafthouse.com.
The Primevals (read our review HERE) was a passion project for visual effects artist David Allen, who earned an Oscar nomination for his work on the 1985 film Young Sherlock Holmes. He spent around twenty years thinking of and working on this sci-fi fantasy film. He first came up with the idea – a film that would combine live action with stop-motion animation to tell a story of time travel, Eskimos, yetis, robots, and giant lizards – in the 1960s or ’70s. Filming of the live action scenes were completed in 1994, and he was working on the special effects right up until he passed away from cancer at the age of 54 in 1999. Then the project sat dormant for almost another twenty years… until Charles Band and Allen’s longtime associate Chris Endicott (Avengers: Infinity War) were able to start putting the finishing touches on the film.
Here’s the official synopsis: Deep in the Himalayas, a group of Sherpas subdue and kill a towering humanoid creature. Its remains — including a brain that appears to have undergone some kind of surgery — wind up under the supervision of Dr. Claire Collier (Juliet Mills), who believes it to be one of the legendary Yeti. Joined by her former student Matt Connor (Richard Joseph Paul), a longtime believer in the creatures’ existence, big-game hunter Rondo Montana (Leon Russom), and others, Dr. Collier leads an expedition into the mountains to track down more of the abominable snowmen. Their trek results in an encounter with a tribe of primitive hominids — which in turn leads to the far more frightening discovery of beings they never could have expected or imagined.
Allen directed the film from a screenplay by Randall William Cook.
Will you be heading out to see The Primevals during its Alamo Drafthouse theatrical release? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
As we prepare for the anticipated release of Guy Ritchie’s The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare in theaters on April 19, the Snatch and Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels director is ready to return to television for a Ray Donovan spin-off series. Loosely based on the hit Showtime series starring Liev Schreiber, The Donovans extends the show’s “fixer” premise to an elite family unit.
Here’s the official description for The Donovans:
“With the most powerful clients in Europe, The Donovans will see family fortunes and reputations at risk, odd alliances unfold, and betrayal around every corner; and while the family might be London’s most elite fixers today, the nature of their business means there is no guarantee what’s in store tomorrow.”
That’s the thing about empires; they can come crashing down anytime. You must be slick and think several steps ahead of opponents to keep the walls from tumbling down. Guy Ritchie directs the 10-episode series written by Ronan Bennett (Top Boy, Public Enemies, Gunpowder), who recently spoke about The Donovans, saying, “We’re going to deliver a show which provides massive thrills, entertainment and a huge rush of adrenaline for audiences around the world.”
“At the same time, I’m totally focused on exploring real characters, in body and in soul, and I’m committed to writing stories with deep dramatic impact,” Bennett continued. “We’re going to get under the skin of the criminal underworld, in a way which will show you the bone-deep truths of how they live and how it sometimes will – inevitably – impact on our own lives.”
Chris McCarthy, President of Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios, is excited about launching The Donovans on Paramount+ later this year. Guy Ritchie’s stylish directorial approach and Bennett’s brilliant and concise writing should make for a killer combination. After a successful seven-season run, There are plenty of stories to tell in the Ray Donovan universe, and the new series plans to share those dramatic tales with fans.
Are you a Ray Donovan fan? What do you think about Guy Ritchie getting behind cameras for The Donovans? Do you believe Liev Schreiber’s character will appear in the new show? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
Last week, it was revealed that American Beauty and Skyfall director Sam Mendes conceived and has signed on to take on the monumental task of telling the story of arguably the most popular rock band of all time, The Beatles. His epic concept was not to have just one biopic but to make four separate movies, with each film focusing on a member of the group. Not many details have been announced beyond that, but as Mendes pitched his idea to Hollywood, Sony Pictures would end up outbidding the other studios for the chance to release these movies.
The Hollywood Reporter now reveals that Sony head Tom Rothman is betting big on this project by releasing all four movies in the same year. Rothman told THR, “You have to match the boldness of the idea with a bold release strategy. There hasn’t been an enterprise like this before, and you can’t think about it in traditional releasing terms.” The Beatles have a famously pricey catalog of songs to license and having access to the library of music plus their life stories is a giant investment for the studio. Sony hopes to start shooting in the U.K. in mid-2025 for a planned 2027 release for all four biopics. They will all shoot together like Lord of the Rings. However, besides Mendes, no writers have been signed on for the project yet, and the studio will not have an estimate of the budget until the scripts are written.
Mendes’ vision involves having each movie tell the story from each Beatle’s point of view and will interconnect with the other films. The 1917 director conceived of this grand idea and had pitched it to Hollywood, but it was Tom Rothman and Elizabeth Gabler at Sony Pictures who would end up winning the chance to take on this massive project. Mendes spoke with Deadline about the deal coming together, “We went out to L.A. just before Christmas to pitch the project, and it’s fair to say we were met with universal enthusiasm. The reason Sony stood out from competing offers was down to Tom and Elizabeth’s passion for the idea, and commitment to propelling these films theatrically in an innovative and exciting way.”
Sam Mendes’ production company, Neal Street Productions, will be partnering up with Sony Pictures Entertainment for the films, and Mendes will be on board as the director of all four. According to Deadline, this will be marking the first time Apple Corps Ltd. and Beatles members – Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, as well as the families of John Lennon and George Harrison – have granted the full life story and music rights for a scripted film.
A remake of the 1991 Christina Applegate cult classic Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead (watch it HERE) is coming our way as a BET+ Original Film – and Iconic Events Releasing has announced that they will be giving the film a theatrical release on April 12th. Along with this announcement comes the unveiling of a teaser trailer for the new Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead, and you can check it out in the embed above. If you like what you see, head over to DontTellMomFilm.com to purchase tickets to see the movie on the big screen!
Directed by Wade Allain-Marcus (French Dirty) from a script by Emmy-nominated writer Chuck Hayward, whose credits include Ted Lasso and WandaVision, this remake has the following synopsis: Seventeen-year-old Tanya Crandell can’t wait to spend the summer living it up with her friends in Spain before heading to Howard University in the fall. But when her mom decides to head to a much-needed wellness retreat in Thailand, Tanya is forced to stay home with her three siblings instead. Following the unexpected death of their elderly babysitter, Tanya gets a job working for the confident and ambitious Rose. Juggling work, family, and a complicated romance, Tanya faces the responsibility of adulthood at the cost of her summer of freedom.
Simone Joy Jones (Anything’s Possible) stars as Tanya Crandell and is joined in the cast by comedian Ms. Pat (The Ms. Pat Show) as Tanya’s mom, June Squibb (Thelma) as the ill-fated babysitter, and Nicole Richie (The Simple Life) as Rose. Also in the cast are Donielle Tremaine Hansley (Charm City Kings), Jermaine Fowler (The Blackening), Tyriq Withers (The Game), Gus Kenworthy (American Horror Story), Miles Fowler (Women of the Movement), and Iantha Richardson (Will Trent).
The Don’t Tell the Babysitter’s Dead remake was produced, in partnership with BET+’s Original Films, by Juliet Berman, Oren Segal, Justin Nappi, and Juliana Maio. Michael Phillips and Tova Laiter serve as senior executive producers, with Ryan Huffman executive producing and Eric Tosstorff and Kim Coleman co-producing. Tyra Banks is executive producing the film through her company SMiZE Productions.
Last month, we learned that, while the original film was rated PG-13, the remake has earned an R rating for “teen drug use, language and some sexual references.”
What did you think of the teaser trailer for the Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead remake? Will you be catching this movie on the big screen in April? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
The first time I saw Denis Villeneuve’s take on Frank Herbert’s Dune, I was mesmerized. Going to the cinema and finding yourself lost in the story, you know they’ve succeeded. You can see from our own Chris Bumbray’s take on Dune: Part 2, the second installment does not disappoint. It is a bold and thrilling new chapter in Villeneuve’s three part series. The new film features an incredible ensemble including newcomers to the story, Florence Pugh, Austin Butler, and Christopher Walken. The visual effects, the brilliant story, and the on-screen talent all add to something truly special.
I loved Dune: Part 2 and I was thrilled to cover the second installation as it’s a world I highly enjoy visiting. First up, we sat down with Dave Bautista. The actor continues to impress me. Every time we speak, his commitment to the craft is incredible. And it shows. He opened up about taking on the role of Beast Rabban, and how he has approached the character. It is always wonderful to speak to this fine performer.
Next up, it was an honor to speak to the great Stellan Skarsgård. He opened up about creating this villain and working with Villeneuve. He discussed working under the make-up and bringing a bit of humanity to the powerful role. The way he talked about the film and the respect he has for Denis’ work makes it clear why these films work so well.
Denis Villeneuve has become one of my favorite filmmakers. The man behind Arrival and Blade Runner 2049 has brought the incredible text from Herbert to life in a fantastical way. He may not be known as a franchise director, he sees the world of Dune as something unique and atypical when it comes to blockbusters. He has succeeded marvelously thus far.
One of the best performances in the new film is from the talented Rebecca Ferguson. With all the other talent interviews in-person, they had Ms. Ferguson set up for virtual interviews. This made for a fun interaction. As I sat down at the other end of the Zoom call, Rebecca claimed she thought I had a certain resemblance to Mr. Villeneuve. I’ll take it. And yes, this wonderful actress was incredibly kind to speak with. She discussed bringing Jessica to a whole new level in the latest chapter, and what a performance she gives.
Dune: Part 2 opens this Friday in theatres. And yes, it’s worth seeing on the biggest and best screen available.
It’s been a big year for Martin Scorsese as his movie Killers of the Flower Moon received countless amount of accolades. The film also nabbed nine Academy Award nominations, including Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, Best Actress and the big one, Best Picture. Scorsese is getting rare praise that he’s still on top of his game at 81 years old. His next project, a biblical film about Jesus Christ, shows that he’s not taking it any easier at this point in his career. The film that finally brought him his Oscar, The Departed, is getting a new 4K UltraHD Blu-ray release from Warner Bros. Blu-ray.com has now revealed the special features as well as the technical specs of this upcoming release.
The special features and specs include:
HDR PRESENTATION OF THE FILM
Guilt and Betrayal: Looking into The Departed – Fetaurette
Stranger Than Fiction:
The True Story of Whitey Bulger
Southie and The Departed
Crossing Criminal Cultures
Nine Additional Scenes with Introduction by Marty Scorsese
Optional English SDH, Spanish, and French subtitles for the main feature Video
The film’s synopsis reads, “In South Boston, the state police wants to end the reign of powerful mob boss Frank Costello. A young rookie, Billy Costigan, is assigned to infiltrate Costello’s mob. Another young cop, Colin Sullivan, is among a handful of elite officers whose mission is to bring Costello down. But Colin is working for Costello, keeping the crime boss one step ahead of the police. Each man becomes consumed by his double life, but when it becomes clear to both the mob and the cops that they have moles in their midst, Billy and Colin must race to uncover the identity of the other man in time to save themselves.”
The 4K UltraHD Blu-ray will go on sale on April 23.
Hello again, everybody. JoBlo.com here bidding you a big Wahoo welcome to WTF Happened to This Movie?! That’s right, the Cleveland Indians are well on their way to clinching the AL East – which means the 1989 sports comedy Major League is well on its way to becoming a classic of the genre.
But how did Major League reach this status? How did it become one of the most quotable comedies of the decade? How did the cast pull off pitching, swinging and winning like a professional baseball team? How did it go on to represent Cleveland even though it wasn’t even shot there? And why did they have to make those sequels? Well, let’s go juuuuuust a bit outside to find out: WTF Happened to this Movie?!
You might be surprised to know that Major League comes courtesy of the same guy who won an Oscar for writing TheSting. But David S. Ward is a huge Cleveland Indians (now Guardians) fan, even though they’re far from being the pride of the city, as they hadn’t been to a World Series since 1954 by the time Major League came out. Hey, according to Harry Doyle, they offered free admission to anyone alive when the Indians last won the pennant! But it’s this “Cleveland disease” that pushed Ward to write Major League, saying, “I wanted to do a film about an underdog team and I can’t think of a more underdog team than Cleveland.” Ward also knew the Indians doing so well would have to be a comedy!
Still, studios didn’t think people would want to see a baseball movie, as the MLB was hitting its stride on national television. But there was at least some precedence in the ‘80s, as both The Natural and Bull Durham were hits.
Once Ward finished the screenplay – which he started writing in 1984 – it had to get approval from Bob DiBiasio, senior vice president of public affairs for the Indians. After that, it went out, attracting Charlie Sheen early on, with the eventual Rick “Wild Thing” Vaughn saying it was as good as Platoon’s and even comparing it to crack.
As for Vaughn, the uncontrollable pitcher from the California Penal League was a perfect role for Sheen, who actually played high school ball – although he couldn’t throw faster than 88 mph, practically a lob compared to Vaugn’s 101. Joining Sheen would be fellow Platoon co-star Tom Berenger as aging catcher Jake Taylor (right after he made the underrated Shoot to Kill). Manning third base – except when he’s purposely missing ground balls so as not to ruin his pretty face – was Roger Dorn, played by Corbin Bernsen.
The notables taking to the outfield (the rest of those in the dirt didn’t get much screen time) were Willie Mays Hays and Pedro Cerrano. Wesley Snipes actually turned down a role in Do The Right Thing to play Hays, partly inspired, of course, by Willie Mays. But his audition was far from easy, as he was made to run bases – except he wasn’t in any baseball gear, and so couldn’t gain traction (Hays fared much better in his pyjamas). Haysbert, as the voodoo-loving Cuban Cerrano, was based on the famed Alou brothers and even Wade Boggs, who had his own superstitious habits. Like Sheen, Snipes and Haysbert proved they were perfectly cast, as the former caught a near-homerun and the latter was smacking home runs, including the one in the climactic game.
These skills were discovered during a modified two-week spring training session led by Dodgers catcher Steve Yeager (who was also cast as the team’s third base coach and would even serve as Berenger’s stand-in at points). He coached the prospects in learning more about the game and conditioning. After all, Ward needed a cast who could, well, throw a ball and handle a bat. As he said, “It was really important to us to get a group of guys who looked like they could actually play. They’re not professional quality, but you aren’t going to look at them and say, ‘That guy can’t play.’” But not everybody could {ahem} swing it, like Skip Griparis, who landed Bob Uecker’s co-color commentator Monte instead. And Jeremy Piven didn’t make an impression at all, as his scenes as a heckler were cut. When Vaughn isn’t on the mound, there’s spitballer (or is it snotballer?) Eddie Harris, played by Chelchie Ross.
Handling manager duties as Lou Brown – formerly of the Toledo Mudhens – would be James Gammon, while ex-showgirl-turned-owner Rachel Phelps was played by Margaret Whitton, who saw the character as a mix of controversial Cincinnati Reds owner Marge Schott (eventually ousted for being a racist Nazi lover) and Yankees icon George Steinbrenner. Speaking of Steinbrenner, the production had to get his approval to use the Yankees as the team the Indians beat in the AL East clincher; Steinbrenner agreed, apparently because of his Cleveland roots. One standout in that game was Yankees slugger Clu Haywood, who was played by Cy Young winner Pete Vuckovich.
Another MLB face in a key supporting role is the aforementioned Bob Uecker, who plays announcer Harry Doyle. Uecker is actually still the Milwaukee Brewers’ announcer, having started his major league career with them. And as you can expect, he ad-libbed most of his own classic lines. Rene Russo made her big screen debut as Lynn Weslin, Jake Taylor’s ex. The rest of the supporting cast includes Charles Cyphers, Andy Romano, and even Neil Flynn, later better known as Janitor on Scrubs. And of course, there’s Jobu, who has become a fan favorite of the Indians. In fact, the team, taking a cue from Cerrano, put up their own makeshift shrine with Jobu during the 2016 World Series. His magic did not work…
With a budget of $11 million, Major League began production in the hot summer of 1988…in Milwaukee. That’s right, the movie based around the Cleveland Indians was shot where the Milwaukee Brewers play, as Milwaukee County Stadium stood in for Cleveland Stadium. (Keen eyes will notice a sign for WTMJ-TV, a station based out of Milwaukee.) There were a few reasons for this. For starters, the production couldn’t properly work around the schedules of the Indians and the Brown, who also played at the stadium. As it turns out, the Browns had started pre-season, so yard markings were already on the field. There, too, were union issues within Cleveland, while it also cost less to film in Wisconsin.
But Cleveland still gets its due on the screen, with the opening credits sequence – set to Randy Newman’s “Burn On”, a reference to a 1969 fire on the Cuyahoga River – showing the city’s character. Baseball-wise, some exteriors and footage were taken at their stadium, including an aerial shot done on July 3rd with 50,000+ fans in attendance. As for fans at Milwaukee County Stadium, extras came out in droves at the start…but began to dwindle once they found out they had to buy their own stadium food! Another tie to Cleveland is in Tucson, Arizona, as their then-spring training facility was at Hi Corbett Field.
Filming Major League was fairly smooth, with most of the cast having fond memories of the shoot. And how could they not, with poker games and late-night partying, like every night they went out was as if they had just won the division. The biggest drinker of them all, though, was the skipper. Beloved by the entire cast as a “manager on-screen and off”, James Gammon came in remarkably hungover on at least one documented occasion. Such were his powers that Sheen called him a “f*cking warlock.” Sheen himself kept busy by figuring out how to juggle the flight schedules of the various women he had flown in so they wouldn’t run into each other.
Sheen also took up another hobby, using steroids during the six to eight weeks of filming to enhance his performance. And while it increased his fastball speed, he admits it also brought his “asshole meter” way up. But he was a bit testy anyway, as his Rick Vaughn haircut made him the subject of harassment in bars.
On the on-set factoid side, while Sheen had an arm, the home plate was moved up 10 feet to give the illusion of faster throws. Others got some help from the production team as well in the editing room, as Willie Mays Hays’ running scenes were all put in slow-mo because Wesley Snipes wasn’t very fast.
With filming wrapped, it was time to put Major League in front of an audience…where one aspect was so reviled that Ward and company changed it and were forced into reshoots. Originally, Major League ended with a twist: Rachel Phelps never intended to move the Indians to Miami after all; in fact, she was rooting for them to win, using her string-pulling to motivate the team to victory. But a test screening revealed that audiences hated giving her a heart, which we know she didn’t have anyway based on her cardboard cutout…As such, additional reaction shots of Rachel being pissed off at the team’s success were filmed.
With the better ending in place, Major League slid into theaters on April 7th, 1989, the same week as the start of the MLB season. The movie opened at #1 with $8.8 million, beating out fellow newcomers The Dream Team, Cyborg, Dead Calm, and Rain Man, getting a post-Oscars boost. It would hold the #1 spot for another week before eventually grossing a total of $49.8 million. The Indians, for their part, would go 73-89 that season.
In the 35 years since its release, Major League would become one of the most beloved sports movies ever. The American Film Institute would nominate it as one of the 50 best ever, while an ESPN reader poll ranked it the second best baseball movie ever, not far behind Field of Dreams, which was actually released one month after Major League. From her viewpoint, Rene Russo said, “Out of all the movies I’ve ever done, that’s the one that more people come up to me to talk about. It really is a cult classic. Not even cult, really. Everybody just loves that film.”
But not everybody loves the sequels, beginning with 1994’s Major League II, which reunited the director with most of the core cast, with the notable exception of Wesley Snipes, who was replaced by Omar Epps. Turns out Snipes had developed a bit of an ego; as Corbin Bernsen put it, “He’d become Wesley Snipes. That rubbed me the wrong way.” While it’s considered a dud (5% on Rotten Tomatoes), 1998’s Back to the Minors is even more distinct for just how bad it is. Even Ward – who had no involvement (unlike Corbin Bernsen, Dennis Haysbert, Bob Uecker, and Takaaki Ishibashi from Major League II) – doesn’t even consider it a real sequel. The title doesn’t even make sense!
But Ward would still absolutely revisit the series. There was even talk before of a planned third movie – a real one, that is – that would find the Indians actually winning the World Series, something he didn’t think would be logical for the first movie (hey, even dreamers have to be realistic sometimes). In 2011, cast members Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger, Corbin Bernsen, Wesley Snipes, and even Bob Uecker all reportedly expressed interest, with Sheen saying the script was “pure gold”. This time around, we’d find Rick Vaughn trying to mentor his reluctant illegitimate son, who is also an ace pitcher.
Major League has had an impact on the world of baseball itself, too. Aside from various tributes and spoofs within the community, the city of Milwaukee has embraced the movie nearly as much as Cleveland has, hosting theme nights based around the movie. Topps even released a set of trading cards to celebrate the 25th anniversary. Ward himself also takes credit for the popularity of relief pitchers using walk-on music. And yes, Mitch Williams, who also went by “Wild Thing” and wore #99, walked out to the same song as Rick Vaughn. And according to Sheen: “That f*ckin’ guy never gave me credit.”
Poor Charlie Sheen, the star of Major League, seems to keep getting benched when it comes to the movie. When the Indians went to the World Series in 2016, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to have Sheen – as Rick “Wild Thing” Vaughn – throw out the ceremonial first pitch. And yet management never even invited him to the mound. Maybe with all that tiger blood they thought he was a Detroit fan?