Ah, yes, the age-old question: Are movies too long? Actually, it’s a far more modern concept to ponder. Sure, epic films have been a staple of Hollywood since the silent days, but it does feel like movies have in fact gotten longer (and most studies support this). But from the perspective of Dune director Denis Villeneuve, audiences crave longer films, so why not make more?

Speaking with The Times, Villeneuve – whose Dune: Part Two clocks in at just under two hours and 50 minutes, while the 2021 “original” was 155 minutes – cited Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, which, at 180 minutes, is well on its way to being one of the longest Best Picture winners ever. Putting it into perspective and analyzing modern crowds, he said, “It is a three-hour, rated-R movie about nuclear physics that is mostly talking. But the public was young — that was the movie of the year by far for my kids. There is a trend. The youth love to watch long movies because if they pay, they want to see something substantial. They are craving meaningful content.”

Last year, we asked our readers what they thought about modern movie lengths, with many of you encouraging longer movies provided the story justifies it. That’s part of what Villeneueve is saying here; and while “meaningful content” is subjective, there are billions of dollars worth of numbers to back it up. Take a look at the top 10 all-time highest-grossing movies worldwide and what do you notice? Sure, there are a lot of franchise movies, but something else in common is their length, with the vast majority around two and a half to three+ hours. And no, they didn’t need intermissions…

But Villeneuve doesn’t exactly want to be inspired by Oppenheimer, at least when it comes to dialogue, suggesting it can spoil a movie. “I don’t remember movies because of a good line, I remember movies because of a strong image. I’m not interested in dialogue at all. Pure image and sound, that is the power of cinema, but it is something not obvious when you watch movies today. Movies have been corrupted by television.” So, yes, he would make a completely silent Dune Messiah…But would you see it?

Do you agree with Denis Villeneuve that audiences “love” long movies? Does a film’s length play a factor in whether you see it in theaters or not? Share your thoughts below.

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When Ken Leung was brought in to audition for the role of Commander Zhao in Avatar: The Last Airbender, Netflix kept everything so secret that the actor didn’t even know what he was auditioning for. But when he found out it was for Avatar, he confessed that he thought it was for James Cameron’s Avatar sequels.

“When I first heard it was Avatar, I thought I as going to be blue,” Leung told Deadline, adding that he wasn’t aware of the original animated series at all, but considered it a good thing for his performance. “Looking back, I kind of love that I came in blank,” he said. “Because when you have ideas, you can kind of… corrupt a pure process. When you come in blank, things will come into it that will inform your playing of it, in a way that it might not if you come in with preconceived ideas or plans. So I was grateful for that.” With a few more Avatar sequels on the way, maybe Ken Leung will also get to join that franchise.

“Water. Earth. Fire. Air. The four nations once lived in harmony, with the Avatar, master of all four elements, keeping peace between them. But everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked and wiped out the Air Nomads, the first step taken by the firebenders towards conquering the world,” reads the official description. “With the current incarnation of the Avatar yet to emerge, the world has lost hope. But like a light in the darkness, hope springs forth when Aang, a young Air Nomad — and the last of his kind — reawakens to take his rightful place as the next Avatar. Alongside his newfound friends Sokka and Katara, siblings and members of the Southern Water Tribe, Aang embarks on a fantastical, action-packed quest to save the world and fight back against the fearsome onslaught of Fire Lord Ozai. But with a driven Crown Prince Zuko determined to capture them, it won’t be an easy task. They’ll need the help of the many allies and colorful characters they meet along the way.“

Avatar: The Last Airbender has received mixed reviews, but our own Steve Seigh was a big fan of the live-action series, saying, “I had the pleasure of previewing the first seven episodes of Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender for JoBlo.com and I’m thrilled to say that it’s fantastic! It’s full of outstanding performances, one-to-one shots from the original, and new elements to get excited about! I say this as a die-hard fan of the original animated series. I wholeheartedly love this version of the show. If you’re nervous about it, don’t be! Get excited, show up, and enjoy the ride!” You can check out Seigh’s review right here.

Avatar: The Last Airbender stars Gordon Cormier as Aang, Kiawentiio as Katara, Ian Ousley as Sokka, Dallas Liu as Prince Zuko, Daniel Dae Kim as Fire Lord Ozai, Paul Sun-Hyung Lee as General Iroh, Ken Leung as Commander Zhao, and Elizabeth Yu as Princess Azula. The first season of the live-action series is now streaming on Netflix.

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I never thought I would say it, but I’m really looking forward to the upcoming Road House reboot. With less than a month to go until the release of Road House, Total Film has dropped a few images featuring Jake Gyllenhaal and Conor McGregor in the midst of one hell of a battle. Check them out below!

As seen in the trailer, Road House will feature some fantastic fights, and Gyllenhaal told Total Film that director Doug Liman wanted to do them in a way never before seen. “[Director Doug Liman] always does action in a different way, and he came to me and said, ‘I want to do fights in a way that has never been done before,’” Gyllenhaal said. “He became pretty much obsessed with how the punches would land, and the kicks would land. He didn’t want them to be performed in the way that we have for audiences in the past with that kind of fighting.“

Per the official logline: “In this adrenaline-fueled reimagining of the ’80s cult classic, ex-UFC fighter Dalton (Gyllenhaal) takes a job as a bouncer at a Florida Keys roadhouse, only to discover that this paradise is not all it seems.” In addition to Gyllenhaal and McGregor, Road House stars Daniela Melchior, Billy Magnussen, Jessica Williams, and Joaquim De Almeida. The film aims to pay homage to the original while providing its own unique and exhilarating spin to introduce Dalton, the roadhouse, and all its chaos to a new generation.

While I am looking forward to Road House, it is disappointing that the film won’t be released in theaters. In fact, Doug Liman has criticized that choice, saying he would be boycotting the movie’s premiere at SXSW. Road House reportedly tested higher than any movie in Liman’s career, more than Mr. and Mrs. Smith and The Bourne Identity, and Liman feels that it could be a smash hit in theaters if Amazon would allow it. “Contrary to their public statements, Amazon has no interest in supporting cinemas,” Liman said. “Amazon will exclusively stream Road House on Amazon Prime. Amazon asked me and the film community to trust them and their public statements about supporting cinemas, and then they turned around and are using Road House to sell plumbing fixtures.“

Road House will debut on Prime Video on March 21st in more than 240 territories worldwide.

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Prior to the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, Andor season 2 was previously reported to be on track for an August 2024 release, but the delays caused by the strike obviously pushed that back. So, when will we get to see the second season of Andor? Unfortunately, longer than you might want.

Stellan Skarsgård recently spoke with GamesRadar+ while promoting Dune: Part Two, and the actor revealed when he believes Andor might be returning. “It will probably be out towards the end of the year or early next,” he said. As disappointing as it might be that Andor season 2 might not be released until 2025, I have a feeling that the wait will be worth it.

Skarsgård, who plays Luthen Rael in the series, seems to think that the second season will be just as good as the first. “It’s the last season of it. It ends where Rogue One starts so it’s up to that point,” he said. “I think it will be very good as already the first one was satisfying for me because it’s sort of Star Wars for grown-ups – it’s a more realistic and complicated society that they’re living in and the claustrophobia of the fascist regime is palpable. I think we have a good season ahead of us.“

Although the release of Andor season 2 is still a ways off, we do have another quality sci-fi project featuring Stellan Skarsgård just a few days away — Dune: Part Two. The first reactions to the sequel have been extremely positive, with our own Chris Bumbray giving the film a rave review. “In this day of assembly line blockbusters, it’s a miracle that director Denis Villeneuve has managed to get not one but two incredible, uncompromised epics like this through the studio system,” he wrote. “It works as a tentpole blockbuster, but Dune Part Two is also filmmaking at the highest level. It’s a real cinematic event everyone owes it to themselves to take in and hopefully won’t be forgotten come Oscar time. It’s a masterpiece.” You can check out the rest of Bumbray’s review right here.

Dune: Part Two will “explore the mythic journey of Paul Atreides as he unites with Chani and the Fremen while on a path of revenge against the conspirators who destroyed his family. Facing a choice between the love of his life and the fate of the known universe, he endeavors to prevent a terrible future only he can foresee.” The film will hit theaters on March 1st.

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The slasher mash-up Freddy vs. Jason just celebrated its 20th anniversary six months ago, and now we have some very sad news to share about one of its cast members: Chris Gauthier, who played the Jason victim Shack in the film, has passed away at the age of 48. Variety reports that Gauthier passed away suddenly and unexpectedly from “an unspecified short illness”.

In addition to Freddy vs. Jason, where his character was felled by a flaming machete thrown by Jason during the cornfield rave sequence, Gauthier’s acting credits included 40 Days and 40 Nights, Insomnia, Agent Cody Banks, Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, Dead Like Me, Riding the Bullet, Stargate: Atlantis, Masters of Horror (where he had a role in John Carpenter’s Cigarette Burns), The Butterfly Effect 2, Stargate: The Ark of Truth, Supernatural, Space Buddies, Watchmen, Harper’s Island, Sanctuary, Beyond the Black Rainbow, Iron Golem, Smallville, Continuum, Eureka, R.L. Stine’s The Haunting Hour, Hitched for the Holidays, Nearlyweds, Health Nutz, The Wedding Chapel, After All These Years, Psych, A Fairly Odd Summer, iZombie; Signed, Sealed, Delivered; Signed, Sealed, Delivered: From the Heart; Signed, Sealed, Delivered: Home Again; Hearts of Spring, Christmas Cookies, Monster Trucks, S.W.A.T.: Under Siege, When Calls the Heart, Once Upon a Time, A Series of Unfortunate Events, Benchwarmers 2: Breaking Balls, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, The Christmas House, The Christmas House 2: Deck Those Halls, Charmed, Three Wise Men and a Baby, Joe Pickett, Ms. Christmas Comes to Town, and more. In just 24 years, he managed to rack up over 105 credits.

TriStar Appearances’ Chad Colvin had this to say about Gauthier’s passing: “When his wife reached out to me yesterday with the news, I wept tears of disbelief for hours. It’s taken me til now to fully mentally and emotionally steel myself to write this. Chris was the literal textbook definition of a character actor. You may not have known his name but you knew his face, you knew his voice, and you knew that if he was onscreen, you were in for a helluva ride. Whether he was standing toe-to-toe against Clark Kent on ‘Smallville’ as the Toyman, tormenting Dean on ‘Supernatural,’ on deck with Hook as Smee in ‘Once Upon a Time’ or in guest roles in the countless other productions he was in, he ALWAYS gave it his all when the camera was rolling.“

Gauthier is survived by his wife and children. Our sincere condolences go out to his family, friends, and fans.

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Netflix hasn’t officially pulled the trigger on Beef season 2, but when it does, it could come with a star-studded cast. According to Deadline, the new season will revolve around two feuding couples. Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway are being eyed to play one of the couples, and Charles Melton (May December) and Cailee Spaeny (Priscilla) are being eyed for the other.

As it’s still early on in the process, Deadline admits that there are no deals in place yet but added that the scripts for Beef season 2 were recently turned in. Should everything move ahead, production on the new season could get underway by later summer or fall. Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway have appeared together several times before, most notably in Brokeback Mountain and Love & Other Drugs, so it would be fun to see them share the screen again.

The first season of Beef followed “the aftermath of a road rage incident between two strangers. Danny Cho (Steven Yeun), a failing contractor with a chip on his shoulder, goes head-to-head with Amy Lau (Ali Wong), a self-made entrepreneur with a picturesque life. The increasing stakes of their feud unravel their lives and relationships in this darkly comedic and deeply moving series.” The series has been picking up plenty of awards over the last few months, including eight wins at the Emmy Awards last month, including Outstand Limited or Anthology Series, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for Yeun, and Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for Wong.

Our own Alex Maidy was one of those who loved the first season of Beef. “I can think of a few series that can compare with the amount of funny and tragedy in Beef while presenting two equally stellar performances from the lead actors,” Maidy wrote. “Steven Yeun and Ali Wong had already proven themselves talented, but Lee Sung Jin’s Beef elevates them to a new level. Beef is an incredibly engrossing series from the very first scene and is sure to have everyone talking when it premieres on Netflix. Beef is not the series I was expecting it to be based on the trailer, but it is so much better than I was hoping for.” You can check out the rest of Maidy’s review right here.

Jake Gyllenhaal will next be seen in Road House, which will premiere on Prime Video on March 21st, but many believe that the film should get a theatrical release.

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A few months ago, a terrific book about the golden age of action stars called “The Last Action Heroes” came out (buy it here). Written by Nick De Semlyen, the book takes a very affectionate look at all of the icons we grew up with in the 80s and 90s, with one notable exception. Steven Seagal does not come off well in the book – at all. One of the wildest stories from the book recounts a time when Seagal grew outraged over the fact that a meeting room he wanted was being occupied by the legendary Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau.

The two actors, who would have been in their late sixties then, were participating in a read-through for their hit comedy Grumpy Old Men. According to the book, the vibe in the room was light, with the two old pros cracking up their director, Daniel Petrie and assembled guests. One of them was William Osborne, writer of Twins (and – well – Stop or My Mom Will Shoot), who said the read-through was interrupted by a loud thumping at the door. In walked Seagal, who thundered at the director Petrie, “What’s going on?” Petrie answered that they were trying to do a read-through with Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon, to which he responded, “Well, I don’t care. I have the room.”

As Osbourne remembers, “It was just classic Steven Seagal. He finally stepped out and closed the door. But he was an absolute nutcase. He made those absolutely banging early action films and then went completely batsh*t crazy.”

While it’s pretty funny to think of what Lemmon and Matthau must have thought of the pony-tailed Seagal yelling at them must have been like, there’s a tragic dimension to this story. As Osborne states, those early action movies he made were total classics. I’d wager his first five films, Above the Law, Hard to Kill, Marked for Death, Out for Justice and Under Siege (in which his screen time is surprisingly limited), are all action classics. Yet it was all downhill after that as hubris took over. For a more positive look at Seagal, check out his fantastic interview with fellow action star Scott Adkins. It’s Seagal at his best rather than his worst.

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Three years have gone by since Simu Liu made his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut as Shang-Chi in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and while we’re still waiting to hear when exactly we’re going to see his character again, Liu has been keeping busy outside of the MCU. He recently had roles in Simulant, One True Loves, Barbie, and Arthur the King, he has been making music videos, and now Deadline reports that he’s set to star in an untitled espionage techno-thriller series for the Peacock streaming service and producer James Wan. Jennifer Yale, who has worked as a writer and executive producer on the Apple+ series See and Netflix’s Chambers, just came on board the project to serve as co-showrunner alongside creator/writer/executive producer Thomas Brandon, who was a writer on Legacies.

Said to be set “five minutes in the future”, the series begins with first-generation American intelligence analyst Alexander Hale (Liu) realizing his brain has been hacked, giving the perpetrators access to everything he sees and hears. Caught between his shadowy agency and the unknown hackers, he must maintain a performance 24/7 to flush out who’s responsible and prove where his allegiance lies.

Peacock has given the espionage techno-thriller a straight-to-series order, so it can skip over the usual pilot process. Liu is executive producing the show alongside Brandon, while Wan is executive producing with Michael Clear and Rob Hackett for his company Atomic Monster. Danielle Bozzone is overseeing the project for Atomic Monster. The show is coming our way from UCP, which is a division of Universal Studio Group.

Peacock has also given a straight-to-series order to the Wan-produced horror series Teacup, which is based on the 1988 bestseller Stinger, written by Robert R. McCammon (pick up a copy HERE).

While I’m anxious to see Shang-Chi show up in another MCU project, I’m glad to see Simu Liu doing other interesting projects in the meantime. This untitled espionage techno-thriller show sounds promising to me, and I’m looking forward to seeing how it’s going to turn out.

Are you interested in watching an espionage techno-thriller Peacock series that’s executive produced by James Wan and has Simu Liu in the lead? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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Bill Murray (Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, Groundhog Day) and Naomi Watts (Mulholland Dr., King Kong) are ready to activate their Wonder Twin powers again for The Friend, a new dramatic comedy from director/writer duo Scott McGehee and David Siegel (Montana Story). Murray and Watts lead the project inspired by Sigrid Nunez’s New York Times bestselling novel, with Sarah Pidgeon (Tiny Beautiful Things, Gotham, The Wilds), Constance Wu (Crazy Rich Asians, The Terminal List), Ann Dowd (Garden State, Hereditary), and Noma Dumezweni (The Little Mermaid, Dirty Pretty Things) filling out the primary cast.

According to Deadline’s exclusive report, The Friend “follows a New York writer in the aftermath of her lifelong friend and mentor’s unexpected death. Thereafter, she’s left to deal with his complicated literary legacy, three eccentric ex-wives — and a massive, brokenhearted Great Dane named Apollo.”

For a more detailed description, check out the book’s synopsis:

When a woman unexpectedly loses her lifelong best friend and mentor, she finds herself burdened with the unwanted dog he has left behind. Her own battle against grief is intensified by the mute suffering of the dog, a huge Great Dane traumatized by the inexplicable disappearance of its master, and by the threat of eviction: dogs are prohibited in her apartment building.

While others worry that grief has made her a victim of magical thinking, the woman refuses to be separated from the dog except for brief periods of time. Isolated from the rest of the world, increasingly obsessed with the dog’s care, determined to read its mind and fathom its heart, she comes dangerously close to unraveling. But while troubles abound, rich and surprising rewards lie in store for both of them.

Production for The Friend is happening in New York, with Siegel and McGehee producing via their Big Creek Projects studio. Watts is also a part of the producing effort through her 3dot Productions label.

McGehee and Siegel’s Montana Story focuses on two estranged siblings who return home to the sprawling ranch they once knew and loved, confronting a deep and bitter family legacy against a mythic American backdrop. The gripping drama stars Haley Lu Richardson (Five Feet Apart, Unpegnant, The White Lotus) and Owen Teague (It, Black Mirror, Bloodline).

Bill Murray returns to the Ghostbusters franchise for Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, haunting theaters on March 22. Meanwhile, Naomi Watts features in Audrey Diwan’s Emmanuelle, which follows a woman and the series of erotic fantasies that she entertains. Jamie Campbell Bower and Will Sharpe also star.

Have you read Sigrid Nunez’s novel? Could you handle being in charge of someone’s belongings and legacy after they pass away? The Friend asks many poignant questions about life, death, and moving on. With Murray and Watts in the lead, this film could be an emotional powerhouse in the making.

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Last February, filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan secured a multi-year deal with Warner Bros., and soon after that deal was made, we heard that his first movie for Warner Bros. would be Trap, a “psychological thriller set at a concert”. That project made its way through production toward the end of last year, with lead roles going to Josh Hartnett, fresh off his appearance in Oppenheimer (pictured below), and Shyamalan’s daughter Saleka. Now Hartnett has talked to IndieWire about Trap, describing the thriller as bizarre, dark, and wild.

IndieWire caught up with Harnett at the SAG Awards, and when they asked him about his role in Trap, he replied, “It’s a pivot, but I try to make all of my roles pivots. If you’re playing the same thing again and again, it gets boring to the audience. Working with M. Night was one of the best experiences of my career. I think he’s a true Artist in the capital-A sense of the word. And I think people are gonna be really surprised and excited about the movie we make. It’s very bizarre, very dark, and it’s wild.“

We previously heard (via FilmUpdates) that Saleka – who is an R&B singer/songwriter – plays “a popstar whose concert is at the heart of the story.” Hartnett’s character is “a father who takes his child to a concert, and unwittingly gets caught up in the surrounding events.” Whatever those events may be. Saleka has recorded songs for her father’s previous projects Old and Servant, but this marks her acting debut.

Since Shyamalan produces and finances his own movies, he was able to get a SAG interim agreement for Trap (which filmed under the codename Good Grades) that allowed the project to go into production before the Screen Actors Guild strike wrapped up. His daughter Ishana was also able to get a SAG Interim deal for her feature directorial debut, the gothic fairy tale The Watchers. That film is set up at Warner Bros. as well and has a June 7, 2024 theatrical release date.

While we wait to learn more about the new Shyamalan project, here’s an excerpt from an interview he did with NME: “I have a new idea that I’ve started writing. It’s out in 2024 and it’s very, very exciting. It’s a thriller. It’s very unusual and very new compared to what I’ve been trying to do [recently], but I’m feeling very excited about the story, so much so that I can’t wait to tell it to you guys. I love that feeling, that electricity of ‘wow, I can’t wait for you to see it’. I will say this, the angle into the story is why it’s so exciting. The story might be something that you’ve seen before but the angle is very, very unique – the point of view.“

Are you interested in Trap? Does Josh Hartnett describing the film as bizarre, dark, and wild have any impact on your hype for this one? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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