Guillermo del Toro on Why He Set “Pinocchio” in a World of Fascism
Guillermo del Toro was never going to make a wooden Pinocchio. What we mean by that admittedly bad pun is that the visionary director was always going to take the deathless story of Pinocchio and mold it into something unique and personal. And Pinocchio is deeply personal to the auteur, who has said that it’s the story that probably shaped him more than any other. “No art form has influenced my life and my work more than animation,...
“Black Adam” Early Reactions: Dwayne Johnson Delivers a Game-Changer for the DCEU
Black Adam has arrived, and the DCEU won’t be the same again. Dwayne Johnson’s titular antihero had its world premiere last night in New York City, and the first reactions to his long-awaited debut as the ancient, unyielding superhero arrive with him. The Rock has been preparing for the role for ten years, and it sounds as if the wait was worth it.
A quick synopsis for you Black Adam freshmen: The film features Johnson as the titular,...
“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” Teaser Sees Shuri Telling Namor to Bring It
“They think we’re vulnerable. They’re welcome to find out.”
This challenge is issued by Shuri (Letitia Wright) in a new Black Panther: Wakanda Forever teaser, which Marvel released today to celebrate the film’s rapidly approaching release date just a month away. It’s a thrilling, bite-sized glimpse of the film, and it offers us a few closer looks at not only Wakandan heroes like Shuri, M’Baku (Winston Duke), Ramonda (Angela Bassett), Okoye (Danai Gurira), and newcomer Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) but also the film’s presumed villain,...
Brendan Gleeson on Why He Joined “Joker 2”
Brendan Gleeson is having quite a moment. The highly regarded performer just hosted Saturday Night Live, and he’s been making the rounds promoting his starring role in director Martin McDonagh’s critically acclaimed black comedy The Banshees of Inisherin. That film, which sees Gleeson re-teaming with his In Bruges co-star Colin Farrell (which McDonagh directed), is getting serious Oscar buzz, which is no surprise considering the talent involved. It’s currently sitting at 98% fresh on RottenTomatoes...
“Dune: Part Two” Will Arrive Two Weeks Early in November 2023
There’s a lot of movement in next year’s movie slate. The bright news comes from Warner Bros, with the studio revealing that Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two will now open on November 3, 2023, rather than its original release date of November 17, 2023. The move comes on the heels of Marvel Studios announcing that Blade, starring Mahershala Ali, will now be pushed back from its November 3, 2023, release as the studio searches for a new director...
New “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” Video Reveals Shots of Ironheart, Kingdom of Talocan & More
There are times when a movie can feel like more than a movie, and that’s certainly the case with Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Made in the wake of star Chadwick Boseman’s death in August of 2020, Wakanda Forever was completely re-envisioned and made into something vastly different from what the sequel was supposed to be with Boseman as its star. The result of Coogler’s work with his cast and crew will be seen in exactly a month,...
New “Black Adam” Images Showcase Dwayne Johnson’s Thunderous Arrival to the DCEU
We know the core details of Black Adam’s backstory thanks to both the comics and, more crucially, the teasers and trailers that Warner Bros. has released thus far. Black Adam (Dwayne Johnson) was born a slave, executed, and resurrected by his son’s sacrifice. This is an antihero as powerful as any member of the Justice League (or the Justice Society, who we’ll get to in a minute), possibly even more so. What’s more, he’s angry. Awoken after 5,000 years of slumber,...
Tina Fey, Michelle Yeoh, Jamie Dornan & More Join Kenneth Branagh’s 3rd Hercule Poirot Film
Kenneth Branagh is slipping back into a dual role that he’s come to know inside and out—directing and starring in his third Hercule Poirot murder mystery for 20th Century Studios. A Haunting in Venice will make the esteemed performer and auteur’s Agatha Christie adaptations a proper trilogy, and he’s bringing along another A-list cast of suspects to populate his whodunit.
Following Branagh’s first two Christie adaptations, Murder on the Orient Express (2017) and Death on the Nile (2022), ...
New “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” Images Hint at the Future of the MCU
With co-writer/director Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever now just a month away, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is about to enter Phase Five. Coogler’s film, the last installment in the MCU’s Phase Four, was always going to expand the world of Wakanda that he and his creative team explored so masterfully in 2018’s Black Panther, but that was a world led by Chadwick Boseman’s T’Challa. With Boseman’s tragic passing in August of 2020, Coogler and his Wakanda Forever cast and crew had to reimagine what that world would look like without Boseman...
“Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” Starts Production in Australia
The Planet of the Apes franchise is getting a new installment. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes has begun production at Disney Studios in Australia (formerly Fox Studios in Australia) in Sydney. This new installment will begin an all-new chapter in the epic saga that was last directed by The Batman helmer Matt Reeves in his excellent 2017 trilogy capper War for the Planet of the Apes.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is being directed by Wes Ball (director of the Maze Runner trilogy) from a script by Josh Friedman,...
Chris Pratt is Mario in First “Super Mario Bros.” Trailer
“It’s a-me!”
The Super Mario Bros. Movie has released its official trailer, revealing the first animated take on the iconic video game with a star-studded voice cast. That cast is led by Chris Pratt as the indefatigable plumber-turned-hero Mario, and he’s joined by a slew of stars. They include Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach, Charlie Day as Luigi, Jack Black as Bowser, Keegan-Michael Key as Toad, Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong, Fred Armisen as Cranky Kong,...
Jamie Foxx’s “Spawn” Movie Gets Three Big Time Superhero Writers
You know a great way to hatch the long-gestating superhero project? Get three big-time superhero writers to team up on the script.
That’s precisely what’s happened for Blumhouse’s Spawn, based on Todd McFarlane’s comic book character, with none other than Jamie Foxx attached. The potential film now has three major stars collaborating on the script—The Falcon and the Winter Soldier‘s scribe Malcolm Spellman (he’s also co-writer on the upcoming Captain America: New World Order), ...
“Avatar 2” Producer Jon Landau Shows Off 15 Minutes Of James Cameron’s Mega Sequel
It was a good day to be an attendee at the Busan Film Festival in South Korea. Select audience members at the fest paid $5 for a pair of 3-D glasses for a chance to see 15 minutes of James Cameron’s Avatar sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water.
It goes without saying at this point that Cameron’s been working long and hard, along with his cast and crew, to bring off a sequel that won’t only match his 2009 epic but exceed it in all ways...
The Next James Bond Will Be in his 30s
Now that Daniel Craig has finished his run as James Bond with 2021’s emotional sendoff No Time To Die, attention has naturally turned to who will become the next 007. This past June, franchise producer Barbara Broccoli said that a new Bond film was at least two years away and that casting was going to take time because they were doing a complete “reinvention of Bond.”
“Nobody’s in the running,” Broccoli said to Deadline at the time...
Jonás Cuarón Will Direct Bad Bunny in Sony’s Marvel Film “El Muerto”
Sony Pictures is putting together quite a collaboration. The studio has tapped Jonás Cuarón to direct their upcoming Marvel Studios film El Muerto, starring Bad Bunny (aka Benito A Martínez Ocasio), Deadline reports. Bad Bunny is coming off his first big movie role in Sony’s Bullet Train, co-starring with a little-known actor named [checking notes] Brad Pitt.
Cuarón, the director of the 2015 thriller Desierto, is the son of Oscar winner Alfonso Cuarón and knows a thing or two about filmmaking...
“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” Co-writer/Director Ryan Coogler on Losing Chadwick Boseman & Carrying On
Now that Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is a mere month and change from its release, the excitement for the sequel is palpable. This week we’ve seen the release of the film’s official trailer, a gorgeous, somber, and riveting sneak peek at co-writer/director Ryan Coogler’s follow-up to his 2018 global juggernaut. Yet, unlike any movie in Marvel Studios’ vaunted MCU, and frankly, unlike most movies, period, Wakanda Forever arrives with an equal amount of grief.
The loss of Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman,...
“Coco” and “Encanto” Composer Germaine Franco on Finding Musical Inspiration at its Source
In 2016, composer and multi-instrumentalist Germaine Franco was the first Latina and first woman of color invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences music branch. With 2021’s Encanto, she was the first woman to score a Disney animated feature and the first Latina to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Score. In a world where female composers still make up only a fraction of those hired for studio projects,...
“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”: A Closer Look at the New Black Panther
At the end of the official trailer for co-writer/director Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, there’s a jaw-dropping moment when a new Black Panther arrives on the scene. While her identity remains a mystery, it is clear that this new person in a uniquely stylized Black Panther super-suit is a woman, and now, thanks to the character’s reveal, one of the pressing questions going into a film with a bunch of them will be, “who is she?”...
Will Smith’s “Emancipation” Reveals Trailer & Surprise Release Date
Apple TV has revealed the first trailer for the Will Smith-led, Antonie Fuqua-directed Emancipation, which will be landing in 2022 after all. This is a bit of surprise, considering that Apple wasn’t quite sure how they would handle the film’s release after Smith slapped Chris Rock during the Oscars ceremony.
The first trailer gives us a sustained look at the film, which was a hot commodity after it debuted in the Cannes virtual market in 2020...
New “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” Images Reveal Villain Namor & More
Today has given us a bounty of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever news. First, the official trailer dropped, revealing a Wakanda mourning the loss of T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) after the star’s tragic passing in August of 2020. The trailer not only showed us how Wakanda grieves a fallen hero and king but also the new faces that will be both welcome in Wakanda, like Dominque Thorne’s Riri Williams, aka Ironheart, and unwelcome, which is certainly the case with Tenoch Huerta’s villain Namor...
