New “Mortal Kombat” Video Invites You To “Meet the Kast”
If you’re not already up to speed on Warner Bros. reboot of Mortal Kombat (the original 1995 film was directed by Paul W. S. Anderson), this new video will help you figure out who’s who in what promises to be a gnarly, fun update to the franchise. Director Simon McQuoid’s film, adapted from the iconic video game, will be making its theatrical debut on the same day it premieres on HBO Max on April 23. The trailer promised what’s likely going to be a bloody good time,...
New “Loki” Trailer Revels in Time-Traveling Mischief
For all you Loki fans out there—and just about every MCU aficionado counts—Marvel has just released the official trailer for Loki, and you’re going to be quite pleased. Tom Hiddleston’s mischievous antihero, the yin to Thor’s yang, highlights this freewheeling, time-traveling trailer. With this longer look at Loki, it’s now clear just how wonderfully different Marvel’s first three series are from each other. WandaVision was a deceptively deep comedy/drama, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is an adrenalin-pumping action/thriller,...
Leap With LeBron Into First Trailer For “Space Jam: A New Legacy”
The King has arrived…only his throne shall be animated. We’re talking, of course, about LeBron James in the first official trailer for Space Jam: A New Legacy, which finds the NBA legend mixing it up with some legendary Looney Tunes characters, led by a legend in his own right, Bugs Bunny. Director Malcolm D. Lee’s film follows in the Air Jordans of Joe Pytka’s 1996 original, which starred the then reigning king of the NBA, Michael Jordan. In Lee’s film,...
“Godzilla vs. Kong” Smashes Pandemic-Era Box Office Record
You can credit good timing, the enduring appeal of watching cinema’s biggest monsters on the big screen, and a solid job by director Adam Wingard and his cast and crew for the box office success of Godzilla vs. Kong. The two ferocious titans smashed their way to a pandemic-era box office record, and have ignited hope in the process that the film’s success might signal a return to audiences flocking back to theaters.
Godzilla vs...
Watch The Entire Joker Scene in “Zack Snyder’s Justice League”
We’ve interviewed Justice League‘s sound designer and cinematographer, we’ve written more than a dozen pieces on the film’s long, winding road to its HBO Max release, and now we share what could be a fitting coda to the entire Justice League experience. At long last, the entire Joker scene starring Jared Leto, provided by Zack Snyder himself.
Joker’s appearance in Snyder’s impassioned, four-hour-long cut came at the very end...
“Concrete Cowboy” Director Ricky Staub Saddles Up in Feature Debut
Westerns have a long and prominent role in cinematic history. The genre tends to conjure images of white hat vigilantes wrangling wild stallions in wide-open plains, but Concrete Cowboy (premiering April 2 on Netflix) starring Idris Elba will challenge all of your preconceived notions. The real-life men who inspire the film ride horseback at the Fletcher Street Stables through the middle of inner-city Philadelphia.
Writer/director Ricky Staub took note of the unusual riders years ago. He established Neighborhood Film Co...
Find The Crazy One in New “The Suicide Squad” Trailer
It was only last week when The Suicide Squad’s first trailer made us re-appreciate Steely Dan’s deathless song “Dirty Work,” and now the gang’s back with another fresh look. This trailer, unlike the red band version we got last week, is almost suitable for work. It also comes with a few brand new moments and the same looniness that has folks so excited for writer/director James Gunn’s first dip into the DC universe...
Composer Keefus Ciancia Releases Two-Volume Soundtrack for HBO Max’s “Made For Love”
Composer Keefus Ciancia is no stranger to dark material. In 2019 Ciancia won a BAFTA for Best Television Soundtrack for his work on Phoebe Waller-Bridge‘s deliciously diabolical Killing Eve and was nominated for an Emmy for his work on season three of HBO’s True Detective. Now, Ciancia is the composer behind another twisty HBO Max series, Made For Love, based on Alissa Nutting’s novel (she executive produces and writes on the series). ...
Oscar-Nominated Cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt on “Mank” – Part II
As mentioned in part I of our interview, director David Fincher and cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt didn’t want to spend the entirety of Mank trying to make it appear as if Citizen Kane DP Gregg Toland had shot it, “But there were things that we wanted to embrace holistically – like deep focus – where it made sense to do so,” the Messerschmidt explains. “It was never an ‘Oh, great, now we get to do Toland.’ It was more like,...
Oscar-Nominated Cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt on “Mank” – Part I
Actors Gary Oldman and Amanda Seyfried go for their characters’ leisurely evening stroll outside San Marino’s Huntington Library, which is subbing in for William Randolph Hearst’s Hearst Castle at San Simeon. The only thing is, it’s not night – and the actors are wearing custom-tinted contact lenses to help them avoid squinting, due to the additional bright lights director of photography Erik Messerschmidt has added to make his day-for-night photography appear correct in the final image.
Day-for-night is not the only classic technique the Oscar-nominated cinematographer utilized on David Fincher’s Oscar-nominated movie,...
Costume Designer Deborah Newhall on Dressing the Dastardly in “I Care A Lot”
Writer/director J. Blakeson’s I Care A Lot is a gleefully cynical uppercut against late-stage capitalism that is also, incredibly, a blast to watch. The con artist at its center, Rosamund Pike’s Marla Grayson, would be hard to root for if both her performance and the film itself weren’t so infectiously committed to its amorality. One of I Care A Lot‘s central themes is that the heart of capitalism isn’t healthy competition or ingenuity or hard work—it’s exploitation...
New “The Suicide Squad” TV Spots Reveal Thinker & Ratcatcher 2
We know that James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad boasts a lot of oddball characters, including a humanoid shark, so even a little bit of new information or footage is welcome. To that end, Gunn shared two new TV spots that introduce Peter Capaldi’s Thinker and reference Daniela Melchior’s Ratcatcher II. Unlike Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn or Viola Davis’s Amanda Waller, Thinker and Ratcatcher II are newcomers, and for non-comics readers, you probably have never heard of them before...
Cinematographer Fabian Wagner on “Zack Snyder’s Justice League”
A lot of people are professing surprise at the success of Zack Snyder’s Justice League on HBO Max, not only in terms of the critical praise it’s getting, being called “operatic” or as richly imagined as Lord of the Rings, but even in the calls to continue the film’s teased sequels, and pursue a #Snyderverse on HBO Max.
As this was being written, no less than the Washington Post’s opinion pages ran a column from its culture &...
Director Shaka King Breaks Down the Magic Trick Behind “Judas and the Black Messiah”
Judas and the Black Messiah opened last month and quickly galvanized moviegoers with its fact-based story about Black Panther leader Fred Hampton, whose betrayal by an FBI informant led to his 1969 death by gunfire at age 21 while sleeping in his own Chicago apartment. The film racked up six Oscar nominations including Best Picture. Director Shaka King earned a nomination for co-writing the screenplay and steered co-stars Daniel Kaluuya and Lakeith Stanfield to their own Oscar nods in the Best Supporting Actor category...
The Full “Obi-Wan Kenobi” Cast Revealed
The full cast of Disney+’s upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi has been revealed, and it boasts some well-known stars and some up-and-coming talent. The long-gestating series is really ramping up, which will catch up with the Jedi master 10 years after he bested Annakin Skywalker in a lightsaber duel in Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith.
We’ve known for a while now that Hayden Christensen would be reprising his role of Annakin Skywalker, who ultimately became Darth Vader at the very end of Revenge of the Sith. ...
James Gunn on King Shark’s Creation in “The Suicide Squad”
When Warner Bros. revealed the trailer for writer/director James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad on Friday, one thing became immediately clear—King Shark was a star. It was immediately apparent that King Shark not only looked oddly adorable, but there also was something endearing, and familiar, about his voice. Then Gunn revealed to the world that King Shark’s voice comes from a little-known actor named Sylvester Stallone. Upon learning this, you couldn’t help think, of course. Who better to lend their vocal chops to the lovable lunk than Sly,...
Sound Designer Scott Hecker on Going Big in “Zack Snyder’s Justice League”
At four hours long, HBO Max’s Zack Snyder’s Justice League, a reworked version of the 2017 film started by director Snyder but finished by Joss Whedon, differs most obviously from its predecessor in length. Those two extra hours, however, do much more than simply pile up the story, even if the overall plot remains mostly the same. In revisiting what started as his film and now has definitively ended as such, Snyder added context, fundamentally changed the tone,...
Dwayne Johnson Reveals “Black Adam” Release Date
We now have an official release date for director Jaume Collet-Serra and Dwayne Johnson’s supersized superhero collaboration—Black Adam will hit theaters on July 29, 2022. “A disruptive and unstoppable force of a message from the man in black himself,” Johnson wrote in an Instagram post that revealed a teaser playing across multiple digital billboards in Times Square. “The hierarchy of power in the DC Universe is about to change.” It’s a pretty awesome way to reveal the release date...
“The Suicide Squad” Trailer Rallies the Troops
Writer/director James Gunn promised us The Suicide Squad trailer today, and voila, here it is. Our first proper look at Gunn’s vision for DC’s most unscrupulous antiheroes, villains, and weirdos looks as gonzo as promised. Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn, Viola Davis’s Amanda Waller, Jai Courtney’s Captain Boomerang, and Joel Kinnaman’s Rick Flag return from 2016’s Suicide Squad and are joined by a who’s who of DC’s most offbeat characters. Sure, Idris Elba’s Bloodsport is a proper antihero,...
James Gunn Reveals “The Suicide Squad” Poster & Release Date, Trailer Arrives Today
The Suicide Squad writer/director James Gunn took to Twitter yesterday to inform us that the release date is official, and the first trailer for the movie is dropping soon. Soon as in today. March 26. As for the release date, The Suicide Squad will be hitting theaters and HBO Max on August 6. He also revealed the film’s new poster, which shows the entire gang all suited up and ready to go.
We’ve been eagerly awaiting Gunn’s first foray into the DC universe for a long time now,...
