“Bardo” Trailer Unveils Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s First Film Since “The Revenant”
You won’t see a more sumptuous, surreal trailer than Bardo anytime soon. This look at director Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s new feature, his first since his masterful 2015 epic The Revenant, received a six-minute standing ovation after its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival. That screening latest three hours, but the new trailer reflects a trimmed-down version of the film (Iñárritu cut 22 minutes) that will be released theatrically in Mexico on October 27,
M. Night Shymalan’s “Knock at the Cabin” Reveals Creepy First Trailer Starring Dave Bautista
A knock at a cabin door is never just a neighbor asking for some sugar in an M. Night Shymalan movie. So, when that first knock arrives in the trailer for his aptly titled Knock at the Cabin, it brings with it a tremor of precognition. Things are about to get very, very bad.
The first look at Shymalan’s latest reveals that the trouble starts even before that fateful knock.
Marvel’s “Fantastic Four” in Full Swing With a Director & Writers On Board
Marvel Studios’ Fantastic Four now has three of its most important pieces in place.
After naming WandaVision director Matt Shakman as the man helming the upcoming reboot of Fantastic Four at Disney’s D23 Expo, Deadline reports that Marvel Studios has tapped Jeff Kaplan and Ian Springer to write the script. The duo is new to Marvel, but they’ve recently had a hot streak,
New “Black Adam” Teaser Opens With a Nod to Batman, Superman & More
The new Black Adam teaser, titled “Legacy,” makes it case plainly from the start. That case is made by none other than Amanda Waller (Viola Davis), the black-ops antihero who led the other antiheroes of The Suicide Squad into battle (twice). “Before a world of heroes and villains, one power ruled it all.” As we hear Waller’s voiceover, what we’re seeing are glimpses of those heroes and villains—Batman’s throwing stars (known as Batarangs),
“The Woman King” Fight Choreographer Jénel Stevens on Raising a Warrior Army
There’s a reason that the battle sequences in The Woman King look so authentic. The actors, from star Viola Davis on down, worked for months to get into physical shape to play an army of women warriors. They learned all the right moves from a team of expert trainers that included fight choreographer Jénel Stevens.
A New York-based personal trainer with an extensive martial arts background, Stevens made the transition to movie stunt performer in 2015.
New “Halloween Ends” Teaser Reveals Laurie Strode’s Final Reckoning With Michael Myers
“It’s a movie about a final reckoning,” Jamie Lee Curtis says at the top of this new look at Halloween Ends, the final film (presumably) that will feature her indomitable Laurie Strode facing off against the seemingly unkillable Michael Myers. “Michael Myers, in that mask, represents pure evil,” Curtis continues, “there is no rhyme or reason.”
That lack of a rhyme or reason is one of the aspects of Myers that has made the character such a potent fixture in our imaginations—the dude is just awful.
Mike Flanagan’s Netflix Horror Series “The Midnight Club” Trailer Revealed
Netflix has a new horror series coming just in time for Halloween.
Doctor Sleep and The Haunting of Hill House director Mike Flanagan’s The Midnight Club will bring 10 episodes worth of supernatural creepiness to the streamer in early October. The series, based on a novel of the same name by Christopher Pike, is centered on a group of terminally ill patients at the Rotterdam Home who comes together—at midnight,
“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” Reveals New Poster & New Image of the Atlanteans
A beautiful, somber new poster has arrived for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
The new poster pays tribute to Chadwick Boseman, who passed away at the age of 43 in August of 2020, cutting off a spectacularly bright career. Boseman, of course, was Black Panther, playing T’Challa in Ryan Coogler’s game-changing 2018 smash hit Black Panther. The new poster reveals T’Challa’s iconic Black Panther mask and claw necklace,
“Confess, Fletch” Cinematographer Sam Levy Modernizes the Crime Caper
Being pegged as the main suspect in a murder may sound worrisome, but some cinematic shooting, scenic locales, and Jon Hamm’s charm can make such a predicament seem seductive, and Confess, Fletch both resurrects and modernizes the classic crime caper. Pulled from the pages of Gregory Mcdonald’s 1970s novels, Fletch now carries a smartphone, but still inhabits an atmospheric world of suspense and adventure.
Cinematographer Sam Levy strikes a noir tone with contemporary clarity.
Trainer Gabriela Mclain on Getting “The Woman King” Cast into Fighting Shape
Talk about reading the room: actress-producer Maria Bello pitched The Woman King directly to Viola Davis in 2015 while standing at the podium to present her with a Women Making History Award. Davis immediately embraced the fact-based story about General Nanisca, who, in the 1820s, led an army of fierce 19th-century women warriors from the West African kingdom of Dahomey (now Benin). On September 16, The Woman King opened with Davis in the title role alongside co-stars Thuso Mbedu,
“The Woman King” Costume Designer Gersha Phillips on Outfitting History’s Fiercest Female Army
Intensity and discipline were trademarks of the Agojie warriors who defended the African Kingdom of Dahomey in the 19th century. Their caliber of combat was so unmatched that one of their most unexpected traits often went undetected by their enemies.
“They fought with male warriors, so they would disguise themselves and look like men,” costume designer Gersha Phillips shared from her research. “There are several accounts of people who said when they came through their camp,
“The Woman King” Director Gina Prince-Bythewood on Her Singular, Sweeping Historical Epic
When director Gina Prince-Bythewood’s most recent film, The Old Guard, premiered on Netflix in July of 2020, the critically acclaimed action drama became one of the top 10 original launches in the platform’s history. Prince-Bythewood is following that with one of the most anticipated films of 2022, the historical epic The Woman King, the story of the Agojie, an elite all-female warrior unit charged with protecting the African Kingdom of Dahomey in the 1800s.
Watch Naomie Ackie Channel Whitney Houston in First “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” Trailer
Talk about big shoes to fill and an unmatchable voice to attempt. In fact, Whitney Houston’s singing chops were so out-of-this-world that she was also known as The Voice. Rising star Naomie Ackie accepted the colossal challenge of playing Houston in director Kasi Lemmons’ I Wanna Dance With Somebody, and Sony Pictures has just released the first trailer. Folks? It passes the “induces chills test” the second we get to the first tune.
“The Woman King” DP Polly Morgan on Lensing Viola Davis in Gina Prince-Bythewood’s Thrilling Epic
A sweeping historical epic that blends intimacy and adventure is the kind of movie that The Woman King cinematographer Polly Morgan dreamed about making while growing up in West Sussex, England.
“My earliest memories were Close Encounters and Empire of the Sun. Spielberg captured my imagination like many of my generation,” said Morgan over the phone from the Toronto International Film Festival, where The Woman King had its world premiere.
“Avengers: The Kang Dynasty” Taps Writer Jeff Loveness
The first new Avengers film since Endgame has its writer.
The Hollywood Reporter reveals that Marvel Studios has named Jeff Loveness its writer for Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. We only just learned the title and the director of the fifth Avengers film back in July, when Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige told the crowd at San Diego Comic-Con that Kang the Conquerer (Jonathan Majors) would be the centerpiece of the film and that Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings director Destin Daniel Cretton would be helming the epic.
“Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” Reactions: Rian Johnson Delivers Another Delicious Whodunnit to Unpeel
Rian Johnson’s Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery made its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival this past weekend, which means that reactions and reviews have already flooded online. Johnson has asked that those who saw the film (and those who reviewed it) to please, please, please keep its many secrets hidden until audiences far and wide get a chance to see it on December 23 on Netflix (it’s getting a theatrical release in select theaters,
“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” Stars Winston Duke & Tenoch Huerta on the Emotional Sequel
It goes without saying that when Ryan Coogler assembled the squad to start filming Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, it was going to be an emotional shoot. The sequel to Coogler’s cultural and commercial juggernaut, 2018’s Black Panther, was forging ahead without its lead, Chadwick Boseman, who tragically passed away at 43 on August 28, 2020. The script had to be rewritten, and although the process has been kept largely under wraps,
“Babylon” Trailer Reveals Brad Pitt & Margot Robbie Getting Wild in 1920s Los Angeles
Writer/director Damien Chazelle is one of the best in the business at threading music through his films, whether in brutal (but astonishing) fashion as he did in Whiplash or of the more elegiac, bittersweet variety as he did in La La Land. In his new, star-studded feature Babylon, Chazelle seems to have found a middle ground between the two, focusing on the depraved, debauched, and delirious times, good and bad,
“Avatar 4” Has Begun Filming
James Cameron is already in production on Avatar 4 (and Avatar 3, mind you), while the world awaits Avatar: The Way of Water, the second film in his epic, decades-in-the-making franchise. The planning alone for Cameron’s three-film follow-up to his 2009 smash hit is astonishing.
Cameron made the announcement at Disney’s D23 Expo, beaming in from New Zealand to give an update on the sweeping production of his Avatar films.
Eric K. Thomas of “The Quintessential Gentleman” on Creating a New Kind of Space for Black Men
Eric K. Thomas was about to go to law school when an internship at a radio station gave him his first taste of the entertainment industry.
“I was like, before I cut this check [for law school] in terms of student loans, let me see if this is something that I actually wanted to do.”
What Thomas actually wanted to do, he found out, was create a space for Black men he didn’t see anywhere else online or on the magazine racks.
