Director Guillermo del Toro is moving ahead with one of his dream projects, an adaptation of Mary Shelley’s classic tale Frankenstein that is set up at the Netflix streaming service. We’ve heard that Frankenstein is expected to start filming (possibly under the working title Prodigal Father) on February 12th. The production will last nearly five months, wrapping up on July 5th. Filming will take place in Ontario, Canada, and possibly in London, England as well. It looks like Canada will be the first filming location, as del Toro recently took cast members Oscar Isaac (Moon Knight), Mia Goth (Pearl), Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds), and Charles Dance (Game of Thrones) to eat at a Toronto restaurant, where they posed for a picture with the staff. You can take a look at the picture at the bottom of this article.
Del Toro’s Frankenstein might have the following logline: Set in Eastern Europe in the 19th Century, the story of Dr. Pretorius, who needs to track down Frankenstein’s monster- who is believed to have died in a fire forty years before–in order to continue the experiments of Dr. Frankenstein.
Whats on Netflix previously reported that Isaac would play the Monster and Goth will be the Bride, with Andrew Garfield (who has since had to drop out of the cast) as Dr. Frankenstein. Their intel seems to have been slightly off, though, because when Garfield left and was replaced by Jacob Elordi (Saltburn), it was said that the role Garfield had passed over to Elordi was the Monster.
Del Toro has been talking about making a new version of Frankenstein for more than a decade. At one point, he did have the project set up at Universal, with Doug Jones (The Shape of Water) on board to play Frankenstein’s Monster. The movie got far enough into pre-production that Jones even saw a bust of the Monster that was inspired by Bernie Wrightson’s artwork in an illustrated adaptation of Shelley’s novel that Wrightson spent seven years working on. But then the project fell apart. Now it’s finally happening at the Netflix streaming service, which previously teamed with del Toro on Pinocchio and the anthology series Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities.
Are you looking forward to Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein? What do you think of the cast del Toro has assembled? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
Plot: Jaycen “Two Js” Jennings is a washed-up ex-professional football star who has hit rock bottom. When Jaycen is sentenced to community service coaching the Underdoggs, an unruly pee-wee football team in his hometown of Long Beach, California, he sees it as an opportunity to rebuild his public image and turn his life around. As Jaycen works to transform the foul-mouthed Underdoggs into top-notch champions, he reconnects with his past, including an old flame and a few of his ex-teammates, and rediscovers his love of the game.
Review: Underdog stories have always been popular fodder for movies. Redemption stories about athletes and tales of scrappy kids needing a mentor are equally popular. From The Bad News Bears to Little Giants and The Mighty Ducks, sports comedies have always found success. With The Underdoggs, that appeal is tested by taking the formula that made those aforementioned films successful and injecting them with enough profanity to garner an R rating. Inspired by Snoop Dogg’s love of sports, including his experience as a coach and running a league for underprivileged youth in Los Angeles, The Underdoggs has all the hallmarks of classic sports movies. It also, unfortunately, has all of the cliches as well. With a cast of child actors who seem to be having a blast dropping f-bombs and emulating Snoop himself, this movie is just too generic to be inspirational.
The concept, down to the dee oh double gees in the title, comes from the story pitch with Snoop Dogg and Constance Schwartz-Morini. With Snoop aboard as producer with Black-ish creator Kenya Barris and others, The Underdoggs was originally envisioned as a theatrical release, Snoop Dogg’s first since 2004’s Soul Plane. A shift was made to Prime Video when the producers realized an R-rated comedy would be a hard sell at the post-pandemic box office. This was likely the best decision as the film is not all that funny. The film opens with a disclaimer about the profanity in the film before saying this is how kids really talk and dropping some f-bombs of its own. We then get a crash course in the rise and fall of Jaycen Jennings, a high school football player who makes an amazing catch and parlays it into a college and NFL career. Long looking out for himself, Two Js alienates himself from every team he plays for and is relegated to making a podcast, hoping his agent, Ryan Kaufman (Kal Penn), can get him a commentator role on television. When things don’t pan out, Two Js is involved in a car accident and sentenced to community service in his old Long Beach neighborhood.
Two Js run into his old friend Kareem (Mike Epps), high school coach (George Lopez), and former girlfriend Cherise (Tika Sumpter) while visiting a pee-wee football team in need of a new coach. Realizing that the good PR from coaching underprivileged kids could get him back in the limelight, Two Js anoints himself as their new celebrity mentor. Right off the bat, Two Js learns that coaching is much more challenging than expected. Each of the kids on the team has their own issues they are dealing with, which allows Two Js to give them nicknames in accordance with their issues. There is Ghost (Kylah Davila), who never removes their helmet; Tony (Adan James Carrillo), who drops the ball and thus earns the name Titties; and Cherise’s son Tre (Jonigan Booth), whom Two Js shares a lot in common with. The rest of the kids on the team check off the formulaic cliches every movie like this has, including the nerdy kid, the flashy kid who can’t ball, and the poor kid hiding that he lives in a trailer park. As the challenges ramp up, including the rival team, the Colonels, who are coached by Two Js’ nemesis Chip Collins (Andrew Schulz).
You can tell that The Underdoggs had higher aspirations than a direct-to-streaming debut, as evidenced by the big-name NFL cameos, including Tony Gonzalez, Deion Sanders, Terry Bradshaw, Curt Menefee, Michael Strahan, Howie Long, and Jay Glazer. Aside from some scenes filmed inside the NFL on FOX sets, most of the action in this series takes place on a small football field. Much of the charm of this movie is reliant on Snoop Dogg learning lessons and giving things to the kids both in mentorship and blinged-out swag, like new jerseys sponsored by Raising Canes Chicken Fingers. There is certainly ambition to tell a feel-good story here, but it is stunted by the unnecessary profanity that earned this film its R rating. Snoop plays a lot of himself as Two Js, including unrelenting swearing and weed smoking. While the drugs and kids don’t mix on screen, the swearing loses its charm pretty quickly and cannot hide the weak script beneath it.
The creative talent behind The Underdoggs is shocking in that they didn’t help the finished product become more than a cookie-cutter project with extra swearing. Producers Kenya Barris and Jonathan Glickman (Creed III) have solid track records with successful and well-made films and series, but that does not help this movie. Screenwriters Isaac Schamis and Danny Segal, veterans of Barris’ series Grown-ish and film #BlackAF, mine the countless sports films before The Underdoggs and reuse all their tropes and jokes. Early in The Underdoggs, there is even a direct reference to Emilio Estevez in The Mighty Ducks, so it was not lost on the writers where these ideas came from. Director Charles Stone III made his directorial debut in 2002 with the solid film Drumline before making successful comedies like Mr. 3000 and Uncle Drew while working on the NBC series Friday Night Lights and Kenya Barris series Black-ish and Mixed-ish. Stone is familiar with sports movies and comedies and working with the producers and writers of The Underdoggs. Yet, even he cannot overcome the mediocre material he was given.
The uneven first half of The Underdoggs makes it very difficult to give the movie an opportunity to rise above its weak script, but it starts to find some momentum when Two Js realizes the error of his ways. Still, the kid characters never really get to develop past superficial challenges, and the romance between Two Js and Cherise barely rises above a simmer. Mike Epps seems to be having the most fun of anyone in the cast, and when Snoop Dogg stops trying to act and is just natural, the film works better. Unfortunately, it is a little too late as the ending of The Underdoggs is much better than the movie that came before it. As the end credits played photos from Snoop’s youth football league and shared a positive message about teamwork, sports, and supporting underprivileged kids, I was touched and wondered why there wasn’t more of that in the movie I had just watched. The Underdoggs is mediocre at best despite having its heart in the right place.
The new spy thriller Chief of Station is set to hit stateside. The film, which stars Aaron Eckhart and Olga Kurylenko, comes from the production companies Bee Holder Productions and Concourse Media Film. The movie has now also secured a distributor as Vertical purchased the U.S. rights and has plans to release the project domestically in May 2024. Matthew Shreder, a producer on the film, says, “Chief of Station is an elevated spy thriller that delivers impressive action, suspense and Bond-esque vibes. Vertical is the perfect partner to bring this film to audiences nationwide and we look forward to seeing them launch it in a few months.”
According to Deadline, in the plot of the film, “Eckhart plays Ben, a former CIA European Station Chief whose world comes crumbling down after his wife, a former operative, dies in a terrible accident. After receiving cryptic information that his wife’s death might not have been an accident, Ben heads back into the shadowy underworld of Eastern Europe, teaming up with a former adversary to unravel a conspiracy that challenges everything he thought he knew about his wife and the agency he worked at for more than 20 years.”
Along with Eckhart and Kurylenko, Chief of Station also stars Alex Pettyfer, Nick Moran, Chris Petrovski, Daniel Bernhardt, James Faulkner, Laetitia Eido, Isobel Wood and Nina Bergman. Jesse V. Johnson, who has helmed action films such as Triple Threat, Accident Man and Avengement, directs the spy flick from a screenplay by George Mahaffey, whose credits include Heatseekers. Steve Lee Jones of Bee Holder and Matthew Shreder of Concourse are the producers on the film. The executive producers on board include Jack Christian, D.J. McPherson, Rob McGillivray, Ben Stranahan, Julien P. Bourgon, Matthew E. Chausse, Juliana Lubin, Walter Josten, Patrick Josten, and Joseph Lanius. Co-producers include Tyler Condon, Kevin Human and Evangelo Kioussis.
Vertical’s SVP of Acquisitions, Tony Piantedosi, spoke of the film, “After our recent success working with Aaron on our release of The Bricklayer, we’re looking forward to bringing another must-see film to action fans looking for their next adrenaline hit. And Chief of Station certainly delivers it.”
A few months ago, right before the horror film Stopmotion had its world premiere screening at Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas, we learned that IFC Films had acquired North American and select International distribution rights to the film, with the plan being to give Stopmotion a theatrical release before it heads over to the Shudder streaming service. Now we know the exact dates for those releases: the movie will be reaching theatres on February 23rd, then will be available to watch on Shudder as of May 31st. With the release date information comes the unveiling of a trailer, and you can check that out in the embed above.
Aisling Franciosi of The Nightingale andThe Last Voyage of the Demeter stars in Stopmotion, taking on the role of Ella Blake, a stop-motion animator who is struggling to control her demons after the loss of her overbearing mother. Suddenly alone in the world, she creates a macabre new puppet film, while struggling to maintain her sanity. As Ella’s mind starts to fracture, the characters in her animated film take on a terrifying life of their own, and the unleashed power of her imagination threatens to destroy her.
IFC Films and Shudder are both owned by AMC, and AMC Networks’ Scott Shooman had this to say about the distribution deal: “IFC and Shudder are ecstatic to bring Robert Morgan’s riveting live-action/animation hybrid to audiences everywhere. Stopmotion is excellent as it weaves together a unique, psychological-horror with unbelievable visuals. The film joins the ranks of critically acclaimed titles such as Mad God and The Wolf House – breaking ground for how we perceive stop-motion in horror. We are thrilled to distribute Robert Morgan’s first full-length feature for its theatrical release and presence on our streaming platform, Shudder.“
As Shooman mentioned, this is the feature debut of director Robert Morgan, who also wrote the screenplay with Robin King. Morgan has directed multiple short films over the last thirty years, including the “D is for Deloused” segment from the anthology film ABCs of Death 2.
Morgan provided the following statement: “IFC’s superb back catalogue speaks for itself, and Shudder’s embracing of the weirder and distinctive side of horror cinema means this is the perfect home for my first feature. I’m thrilled to be teaming up with them, and I’m excited to share Stopmotion with audiences very soon.“
Stopmotion was produced by Alain de la Mata and Christopher Granier-Deferre of BlueLight.
What did you think of the Stopmotion trailer? Does this look like a movie you’d want to watch? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
Kevin Spacey is set to make his first convention appearance next month, appearing at the Mad Monster Party in North Carolina less than one year after he was acquitted of sexual assault charges. However, the reaction from fans attending the convention has been mixed to say the least.
In a Facebook post from Mad Monster, the group announced that Kevin Spacey will be available for a few gimmicky photo ops for fans, “Mad Monster is excited to welcome Two-Time Academy Award-winning actor Kevin Spacey (Se7en, The Usual Suspects, American Beauty, House of Cards). Kevin will be joining us all 3 days, and he does NOT offer table selfies. We will be offering House of Cards, The Usual Suspects “Line Up,” and Se7en “What’s in the Box?” Pro Photo-Ops.” According to TMZ, the photos – which can only be taken by the professional on-hand – will cost $225.
While some were excited for Kevin Spacey’s con appearance, many expressed their anger with Mad Monster over an apparent support of the actor, whose reputation and career took a nosedive when allegations of sexual assault began coming out publicly in 2017. It’s important to note that while Spacey was acquitted in London courts last year, the two-time Oscar winner will always have that cloud hovering over him.
Mad Monster has meant so much to me. I tell my cancer patients the story of how Elvira helped me during chemo. It was the one con I never missed. Their decision to bring in Kevin Spacey, delete all comments objecting, and block those seeking refunds breaks my heart. So long pic.twitter.com/dLtVXeKUlh
Really, it is hard to believe that Kevin Spacey is eager to be part of a convention like this, even at this point in his career when he’s essentially Hollywood poison. One imagines that he had to realize this event would draw a ton of scrutiny. And yet there he is on the Mad Monster website, right between The Dukes of Hazzard’s John Schneider and Kiefer Sutherland. It is worth mentioning that Spacey is pretty far down on the website, just barely edging out The Dukes of Hazzard’s Tom Wopat…
Kevin Spacey’s next movie, Peter Five Eight, comes out in March. Given the reaction, we were wondering what our readers felt about Spacey showing up at such a convention. Do you think Spacey is a victim of “cancel culture?” While many are condemning the con for inviting Spacey, doesn’t he still have the right to earn some kind of living given how limited his acting opportunities have become? Does someone like Spacey deserve redemption? These are all loaded questions, so we’re throwing them out to you dear readers.
Let is us in the comments what you think of Kevin Spacey hitting the convention scene and whether you would ever grab a photo with him at this point.
Back in 2021, a Netflix production called The Mothership was filmed with Halle Berry in the lead role and Bridge of Spies writer Matthew Charman at the helm, making his feature directorial debut. Unfortunately, there have been “multiple delays in post-production” for unspecified reasons… and now Variety has confirmed that Netflix has made the decision to scrap the film instead of completing post-production.
Most people thought it was a questionable move when Warner Bros. decided to scrap the films Coyote vs. Acme, Batgirl, and Scoob! Holiday Haunt for the purpose of tax write-offs, but apparently Netflix thought it was a good idea, since they’ve decided to do the same thing with this project.
If we had the chance to watch The Mothership, we would have found that the story of the sci-fi movie took place one year after the husband of Berry’s character mysteriously vanishes from their rural farm. Now a single mother, Sara Morse and her children discover an extraterrestrial object underneath their home. It (hopefully) leads them to discover the truth about the patriarch’s disappearance.
Berry was joined in the cast by Molly Parker, John Ortiz, Sydney Lemmon, Omari Hardwick, and Paul Guilfoyle.
Brian Kavanaugh-Jones and Fred Berger produced The Mothership, with Berry serving as executive producer alongside Gemma Levinson and Daniel M. Stillman.
Despite this mess with The Mothership, Berry is set to work with Netflix again on the Mark Wahlberg action movie The Union, in which “a construction worker is roped into the espionage world by his former high school girlfriend”. Netflix also backed Berry’s 2020 feature directorial debut Bruised, a sports drama about “a disgraced MMA fighter who reconnects with her estranged son and reclaims her power”. After the successful release of that film, Netflix and Berry made a multi-picture deal. As of this writing, Berry hasn’t yet made a comment about Netflix deciding not to finish The Mothership.
What do you think of The Mothership being scrapped, and this new trend of movies being tossed aside after they’ve already been filmed? Share your thoughts on all of this by leaving a comment below.
In the 30+ years since Cliffhanger arrived, a lot has changed, including star Sylvester Stallone now being in his 70s and the action genre transforming significantly. But Cliffhanger director Renny Harlin has another worry entirely for the upcoming sequel: technology, expressing concern that it may rely too much on CGI.
Speaking with ComingSoon.net, Harlin said that while he isn’t attached to Cliffhanger 2, he is still holding out hope for the production’s success, further saying he isn’t confident that the studio will maintain the “real” quality of the 1993 original. “Now, of course, it’s a long time later, so I have no idea what kind of a story they are planning to tell or what Sly’s role in it is. But I wish them the best of luck. I hope they don’t try to replace what we did with a lot of CG. Because I think the audience will be able to tell that we did everything for real. We shot at 12,000 foot peaks in the Italian Alps. It was real stuff, like the opening sequence with the girl falling. It was done for real. That was at 8,000 feet, that wire…It’s so easy for the studios to say now, ‘We’ll do everything blue screen and create everything digitally.’ I hope they don’t do that because it deserves a sequel with the same spirit of the original.”
Cliffhanger – which pulled in an astounding $255 million worldwide and would place in the top 10 highest-grossing movies of 1993 – had a sequel planned as far back as 1994. This version obviously never happened but now that a variation of Cliffhanger 2 is officially moving forward – with Stallone reprising Gabe Walker and Plane and Assault on Precinct 13 remake director Jean-Francois Richet at the helm – fans might have some hope.
The Cliffhanger sequel will reportedly put the focus on Walker’s daughter, who will have to rescue her father via the mountain climbing skills he taught her.
Do you expect the Cliffhanger sequel to rely too much on CGI or do you think the filmmakers will respect the original’s style? Are you looking forward to Cliffhanger 2? Let us know your thoughts!
A new episode of the Revisited video series has just made its way online, and with this one we’re celebrating the birthday of the late, great director Tobe Hooper (who would have turned 81 today, but sadly passed away in 2017) by looking at one of his more underrated horror films: the 2004 release Toolbox Murders (watch it HERE)! You can hear all about it in the embed above.
Toolbox Murders is technically a remake of the 1978 film The Toolbox Murders, but it’s very different from the source material. Written by Jace Anderson and Adam Gierasch, this one has the following synopsis: Young couple Steve and Nell move into a once fashionable, but now decaying, apartment block in Los Angeles, and soon realise that a number of young female residents have met unusually violent deaths. Before long, Nell makes some disturbing discoveries about the building’s manager and her fellow tenants.
The film stars Angela Bettis, Brent Roam, Marco Rodríguez, Rance Howard, Juliet Landau, Greg Travis, Chris Doyle, Adam Weisman, Christina Venuti, Sara Downing, Jamison Reeves, Stephanie Silverman, Alan Polonsky, Charlie Paulson, Eric Ladin, Price Carson, Carlease Burke, Ralph Morris, Bob McMinn, screenwriter Adam Gierasch, and Sheri Moon Zombie – making a rare appearance in a film not directed by her husband, Rob Zombie.
In addition to Toolbox Murders, Tobe Hooper’s directing credits included The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Eaten Alive, Salem’s Lot, The Funhouse, Poltergeist, Lifeforce, Invaders from Mars, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, Spontaneous Combustion, Body Bags, The Mangler, Mortuary, and more.
The Toolbox Murders episode of Revisited was Written, Narrated, and Edited by Lance Vlcek, Produced by Lance Vlcek and John Fallon, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.
Two previous episodes of Revisited can be seen below. To see more of our shows, head over to the JoBlo Horror Originals channel – and subscribe while you’re at it!
Anthony Hopkins returns in a trailer for the film based on an extraordinary true story. Bleecker Street has released the new preview for One Life. The film showcases Hopkins as a man who happened upon a tragically developing encounter with refugee Jewish children who are in the path of Nazi occupation in Prague. Amazingly Hopkins’ younger version of the character had taken it upon himself to embark on a mission to save the children from the growing threat.
The official synopsis from Bleecker Street reads, “Based on the book If It’s Not Impossible…: The Life of Sir Nicholas Winton by Barbara Winton, ONE LIFE tells the incredible, emotional true story of Nicholas ‘Nicky’ Winton (Flynn), a young London broker who visits Prague in December 1938. In a race against time, Winton convinces Trevor Chadwick (Sharp) and Doreen Warriner (Garai) of the British Committee for Refugees in Czechoslovakia to rescue hundreds of predominantly Jewish children before Nazi occupation closes the borders. Fifty years later, Nicky (Hopkins) is haunted by the fate of the children he wasn’t able to bring to safety in England. It’s not until the BBC show That’s Life! re-introduces him to some of those he helped rescue that he finally begins to come to terms with the guilt and grief he carried – all the while skyrocketing from anonymity to a national hero.”
The film sports a cast that includes Anthony Hopkins, Johnny Flynn, Lena Olin, Romola Garai, Alex Sharp, Marthe Keller, Jonathan Pryce and Helena Bonham Carter. James Hawes directs from a screenplay by Lucina Coxon and Nick Drake. Joanna Laurie, lain Canning, Emile Sherman and Guy Heeley are all on board as producers. The executive producers of the film include Simon Gillis, Eva Yates, Barbara Winton, Maria Logan, Anne Sheehan and Peter Hampden.
Producer, Joanna Laurie, would describe the main challenge of development on the project. She remarked, “We had to do the thing which Nicholas found difficult: singling himself out. He really didn’t see himself as a hero, so our challenge was telling this extraordinary story while honoring his humility. The title of this film, ONE LIFE, could mean different things to different people but I think the movie asks us all to reflect, as Nicky did, about our choices as individuals and as a community. ”
This is it, folks! It’s time to blow the dust off the fedora, oil the whip, and venture into the unknown one last time as we celebrate the end of an era with a look back at the fifth film in the Indiana Jones franchise, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny!
Unleashed 15 years after Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and presented as Harrison Ford’s final performance as Dr. Henry Walton “Indiana” Jones Jr., Dial of Destiny finds a disillusioned Indy haunted by a villain from his past and pulled into a chase to recover the Antikythera, an Ancient Greek hand-powered orrery capable of predicting astronomical patterns and eclipses in advance. Commonly referred to as the first analog computer, the Antikythera is more than it seems in Dial of Destiny. In the film, the Antikythera can chart fissures in the fabric of space-time. Open for a brief measure of seconds; the apertures help transport explorers through history. Using the Antikythera, one could map a course through the past, possibly manipulating pivotal events. For a moment, imagine this device in the hands of the wrong people and feel the shivers run down your spine.
As a way of bucking tradition, Dial of Destiny is the first feature in the Indiana Jones franchise directed by someone other than Steven Spielberg. Shocking as this is, the answer to why Spielberg relinquished the reins to another director is simple: he wanted to pass the torch. Feeling it was time for a new generation to decide Indy’s fate, Spielberg exited directorial duties for Dial of Destiny in 2020 after several delays due to the Covid-19 pandemic. James Mangold quickly took hold of the production as the project’s new director, with Mangold, David Koepp, John-Henry Butterworth, and Jex Butterworth penning the script.
The deal to make a fifth Indiana Jones movie dates back to 1979 when Spielberg and George Lucas signed an agreement with Paramount for four sequels to 1981’s Raiders of the Lost Ark. Initially, George Lucas imagined Indy and Marion Ravenwood’s son, Mutt Williams, as the hero of the fifth chapter of the film series. However, Lucas changed his mind about making the combative greaser played by Shia LaBeouf in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull shortly after the divisive sequel’s theatrical release. While Lucas never gave an official reason for abandoning his idea for Mutt to pick up the whip, adverse fan reactions to the character could have played a part.
Speaking with MTV three weeks after Kingdom of the Crystal Skull debuted in theaters, Lucas commented on his decision to euthanize his plans for Mutt, saying, “Indiana Jones is Indiana Jones. Harrison Ford is Indiana Jones. If it was Mutt Williams it would be ‘Mutt Williams and the Search for Elvis’ or something.” In the end, LaBeouf didn’t hand-jive his way to becoming the frontrunner of the franchise, which is a good thing, as his problematic reputation would have lent poorly to playing the central character for a decades-long commitment.
During the film’s planning stage, Spielberg and Lucas disagreed about where the next chapter could go. Lucas wanted the franchise to retain its supernatural roots while presenting an archaeological and historical bent. While Spielberg agreed, the two creatives began pulling Indy in different directions, with Lucas looking toward the future and Spielberg wanting to return to the past.
In an interview with the Times Online, Lucas explained the duo’s divide: “I’m in the future; Steven’s in the past. He’s trying to drag it back to the way they were, I’m trying to push it to a whole different place. So, still we have a sort of tension. This recent one came out of that. It’s kind of a hybrid of our own two ideas, so we’ll see where we are able to take the next one.”
The schism left Ford’s final Indy film in limbo, and during the creative lull, the Walt Disney Company obtained Lucasfilm, giving rights to the character’s upcoming odyssey to the House of Mouse. Then, in another move, Walt Disney Studios snagged the distribution and marketing rights to future installments of the Indiana Jones franchise from Paramount. With Walt Disney Pictures and Lucasfilm agreeing to co-produce the fifth film, Lucas relinquished the long-gestating film project to Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy. Collectively, the creative forces in charge of Indy’s fate felt the character needed one more adventure before hanging his hat on a line.
With the Antikythera chosen as the film’s MacGuffin, it was time to get the band back together and add a few new players to the cast. Without question, Ford would return as Dr. Jones for one last trip into danger. Still, the 80-year-old actor is no spring chicken and would require a body double to film Dial of Destiny’s extended opening sequence set in 1944. In addition to using state-of-the-art de-aging technology on Ford, Anthony Ingruber played Ford’s body double for select scenes.
The effects-driven sequence finds a younger Indiana Jones aboard a speeding train occupied by Nazis. There to rescue his Oxford colleague Basil Shaw (played by English actor Toby Jones) and retrieve the Lance of Longinus, a holy spear said to have pierced the side of Jesus Christ during the biblical figure’s crucifixion, Indy traverses the racing deathtrap with vigilance. The opening segment peacocks the film industry’s ability to delight and deceive, featuring close-calls, fisticuffs, and close-up shots of Disney‘s uncanny VFX magic.
Making her debut in the Indiana Jones franchise is Fleabag and Killing Eve actress Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who plays Helena Shaw, Indy’s opportunistic and brash goddaughter. Throughout Dial of Destiny, Helena acts as a thorn in Indy’s side by ignoring his instructions and carving a path toward a lucrative payday for selling the Antikythera to the highest bidder.
Much like how Indy travels with Short Round in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Helena partners with Teddy Kumar, a young Morrocan pickpocket and sidekick played by Ethann Isidore. Like Short Round, Teddy pulls his weight throughout the mission by navigating the backstreets of Tangier like a pro and making good use of his fake amateur pilot’s license.
Playing the part of the film’s primary protagonist, Jürgen Voller, is Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen. As a German scholar, scientist, and astrophysicist, Voller operates below the radar to achieve his lofty goal of reshaping the world in his image. After arriving in America, Voller adopted the name Schmidt and joined NASA to oversee the organization’s moon landing operation. Aware of the Antikythera’s power, Voller aims to rewrite history, correcting what he sees as past mistakes made by other genocidal dictators and tragically influential figures.
Other players in Dial of Destiny include Antonio Banderas as Renaldo, an old friend of Indy’s and an experienced frogman of watery depths. John-Rhys-Davies returns as Sallah, Indy’s long-time compatriot and grandchild wrangler, with a warm disposition and infinite stories to share. Karen Allen comes back to the franchise as Marion Ravenwood, Indy’s estranged wife and mother to the couple’s dearly departed son, Mutt, who died in the Vietnam War.
Working as Voller’s lapdog enforcer is Boyd Holbrook’s Klaber, a Neo-Nazi unafraid to get his hands dirty at his master’s behest. Shaunette Renée Wilson plays Agent Mason, a CIA agent assigned to keep Voller’s nose clean in the face of his erratic behavior and habit of going off-script. Unfortunately, Wilson’s hypnotic presence is wasted in Dial of Destiny, resulting in one of the film’s most significant missteps. Finally, there’s Olivier Richters as Hauke, Klaber’s silent muscle and brick shithouse in desperate need of swimming lessons.
With much of the cast assembled and Mangold ready to make history as the first director besides Spielberg to helm an Indiana Jones feature, filming began in the United States, with the challenges of a global pandemic infecting aspects of the project’s production. Thanks partly to extended safety precautions during the COVID-19 crisis, Mangold established a remote location scouting system to limit the travel needed to secure filming environments. For this process, camera operators shot prospective settings and then sent the footage to Mangold and production designer Adam Stockhausen for review.
Other filming locations for Dial of Destiny include England’s famous Pinewood Studios, Bamburgh Castle in Northumberland, the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, the Leaderfoot Viaduct over the River Tweed near Melrose in the Scottish Isles. Much like Indy’s exploration throughout cinematic history, filming for Dial of Destiny found cast and crew members traveling to different parts of the globe, including sections of Scotland, Italy, the Kingdom of Morocco, and even the depths of the Mediterranean Sea.
Mangold wanted to film on location as much as possible despite the looming pandemic threat. He shied away from using Industrial Light & Magic’s Stagecraft technology in favor of practical effects, saying part of what made past Indy films exciting was seeing the actors performing in tangible environments. While rehearsing for the effects-heavy flashback sequence depicting Indy’s search for the Lance of Longinus and his compatriot Basil Shaw, Harrison Ford honored the tradition of hurting himself while filming an Indy movie by injuring his shoulder during a fight scene. Mangold reconfigured the filming schedule as needed while Ford healed the damage, a casualty of the actor insisting on doing most of his stunts.
The filming process for Marion Ravenwood’s reunion with Dr. Jones only lasted a day and a half. Allen kept her part in the movie confidential for years, later saying the secrecy often “felt like torture.” Whenever the press would ask her about returning for Mangold’s film, she’d like to say, “I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you.” Allen also said she was delighted to reprise Marion for the sequel, though she would have liked a more prominent part.
Rather than pairing Indy and Marion for Ford’s final mission, Mangold and the Butterworths created Helena Shaw specifically for Phoebe Waller-Bridge. Written as an homage to Marion Ravenwood, Shaw executes most of the extreme action in Dial of Destiny. She’s mysterious and opportunistic, unafraid of risking life and limb to get what she wants. She puts Indy through his paces, reminding him of the good old days when fate fed you a boulder and monkey brains for breakfast. Rumors about Waller-Bridge leading an Indy spin-off continue to circulate on the internet, though we have yet to hear official word on the concept. Speaking with Variety, Kathleen Kennedy said it was “entirely possible” for Shaw to star in her own film.
On the musical end of the spectrum, Spielberg announced in 2016 that, like other chapters in the franchise, John Williams would return to compose the score. In 2022, Williams said Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny would be his final film project, with plans to retire on the horizon. However, Williams retracted his statement at the start of 2023, saying, “You can’t ‘retire’ from music. It’s like breathing. It’s your life. It’s my life. A day without music is a mistake.” Williams’ Dial of Destiny score is among my favorites in the franchise. The soundtrack contains thrilling hooks, creative variations on old arrangements, and a sense of whimsy that places audiences at the heart of the action.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny contains 2,350 effects shots created and arranged by Industrial Light & Magic. Among the film’s most impressive effects (though some would disagree) is the de-aging technology used to depict Indy during World War II. Initially, the scene was 5 minutes long. Then Mangold expanded the sequence to 25 minutes, creating a jaw-dropping display of how far Disney can take us into the Uncanny Valley. While the effect isn’t perfect, it’s leaps and bounds ahead of Rogue One‘s Grand Moff Tarkin incident, the inhuman baby Renesmee of Twilight fame, or Dwayne Johnson’s Scorpion King from The Mummy Returns.
Over 100 artists worked on the opening sequence for more than three years. The team used artificial technology to scan and archive Ford’s character from previous films and a recent scan of Ford’s face, de-aged by VFX experts. Next, expert lighting technicians toiled day and night to light the scene, hiding seams with shadow and tempering Indy’s complexion using simulated light. It’s a stunning sequence and a testament to how far we’ve come since the days of spirit-summoning arks and Nazis melting faster than a snowman in the Sahara.
Oddly, some fans took issue with the film’s time-traveling mechanic. I say “oddly” because after encountering dark magic, cannibals, an ageless Grail Knight, and interdimensional beings, you’d think that time travel would be par for the course. Still, some viewers were disturbed by characters accidentally traveling to the Siege of Syracuse in 212 BC, where Archimedes and his compatriots engaged in battle with the Romans. Filmed in Sicily, early rumblings about Romans patrolling the Dial of Destiny set confused fans before the film’s release, with many wondering if Mangold’s time-traveling mechanic was too far-fetched for an Indy movie.
Thankfully, the Siege of Syracuse sequence presents one of the film’s strongest emotional payoffs, as Indy attempts to convince Helena to leave him in the past. Unfortunately for Dr. Jones, remaining in the past would create a time paradox, possibly rewriting future events to catastrophic effect. Aware of the damage Indy could cause by staying behind, Helena knocks her godfather out with some chin music and returns him to his proper time and place.
When Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny premiered at the 76th Cannes Film Festival, the film received a five-minute standing ovation alongside mixed reactions from critics. The tepid response to Mangold’s sequel quickly spread like wildfire across the internet, sewing seeds of doubt in fans and press members awaiting their early screenings. Adding to the film’s weak reception was a call to boycott Dial of Destiny for a list of peculiar reasons. Some in the boycott camp claim Mangold used the film to take political potshots by having Helena point out the process of capitalism when talking about how the Antikythera exchanged hands throughout history. Others say Dial sold its soul to set up spin-off potential for Helena while reducing Indy to an angry, washed-up drunk. The list continues, but I’ll leave it up to you to tumble down that dark rabbit hole. Despite its franchise legacy, Dial of Destiny underperformed with a global total of $384 million against the long-gestating project’s $294.7 million budget.
It isn’t easy to share a positive opinion about Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny without feeling like Flynn Rider from that “Surrounded By Swords” meme, but here I am. I enjoyed the hell out of Ford’s swan song when I saw the movie in theaters and liked it even more during my most recent rewatch. Is it the ideal ending? Probably not, but what were the chances of this project satisfying Indy fans from every faction?
I applaud the Indiana Jones franchise for never shying away from the character’s age and think Dial of Destiny makes excellent use of the senior adventure’s experience and world-weariness. Like Woody’s fear of being replaced by Buzz Lightyear, Indy feels like a cobweb-covered relic in an age of space races, rockstar worship, and cult-related serial killings. Dial of Destiny taps into the aging explorer’s insecurities, but once the race to recover the Antikythera gets rolling, he’s reborn alongside scrappy, torch-carrying companions.
While not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, with Shaunette Renée Wilson’s Agent Mason all but wasted, uneven emotional beats and strained nods to previous films in the franchise, Dial of Destiny still manages to feel like a roller coaster fueled by thrills and nostalgia. I love seeing the band back together, as fleeting as Marion and Sallah’s roles might be. Mangold’s film sets out to remind fans of the good times while closing the book on one of cinema’s most memorable characters, and Dial of Destiny delivers on those fronts and more.
Expectations can act like a poison while anticipating the end of an era, especially for something as iconic as the Indiana Jones franchise. I think Dial of Destiny is a great Indiana Jones film, and I shudder to think of when we’ll get another adventure film series worthy of spanning four decades and change. May your contributions to cinema and the imaginations of fans and filmmakers be long remembered, Dr. Jones. Thanks for everything, and rest knowing your place in history is shining, immovable, and eternal.
