Warner Bros. has revealed the second official trailer for Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, the third film in the Fantastic Beasts franchise. The secret weapon of the new film is, in our humble opinion, the addition of the great Mads Mikkelsen as the dastardly Gellert Grindewald, whose legions of followers are growing. The Secrets of Dumbledore comes from veteran Harry Potter director David Yates—the man directed six films in the Potter franchise, including the final four—and continues following the adventures of Eddie Redmayne’s Newt Scamander. As the title suggests, The Secrets of Dumbledore will spend considerable time with the younger Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law), as he contends with Grindewald’s increasing threat.
The second trailer gives us a taste of how Grindewald is whipping his followers into a frenzy as he prepares them for a war with the Muggles (the non-magic, for those of you not fluent in Potter-verse). The team that Dumbledore assemble to take down the most dangerous living wizard seems a little threadbare at first. Joining Newt is his brother Theseus (Callum Turner), Bunty (Victoria Yeates), Yusuf Kama (William Nadylam), Professor Eulalie “Lally” Hicks (Jessica Williams), and beloved Beasts veteran, Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler). Former Fantastic Beasts friends are here as well, including Queenie (Alison Sudol) and Credence Barebone (Ezra Miller).
The cast is aces, yet a movie like this really needs a great villain, and you can’t do better on that score than Mikkelsen, one of the most compelling performers of his generation.
The Secrets of Dumbledore was written by J.K. Rowling and Steve Kloves, the latter a scribe on seven of the eight Harry Potter films. Check out the trailer below. Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore hits theaters on April 15.
Here’s the official synopsis from Warner Bros.:
Professor Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) knows the powerful Dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald (Mads Mikkelsen) is moving to seize control of the wizarding world. Unable to stop him alone, he entrusts Magizoologist Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) to lead an intrepid team of wizards, witches and one brave Muggle baker on a dangerous mission, where they encounter old and new beasts and clash with Grindelwald’s growing legion of followers. But with the stakes so high, how long can Dumbledore remain on the sidelines?
Featured image: Caption: MADS MIKKELSEN as Gellert Grindelwald in Warner Bros. Pictures’ fantasy adventure “FANTASTIC BEASTS: THE SECRETS OF DUMBLEDORE,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
Sony Pictures has released the final Morbius trailer, giving us a last look at Jared Leto’s Dr. Michael Morbius before he becomes the latest entrant into both Sony’s Spider-Man Universe and the larger MCU. The trailer kicks off with a quick shot of Michael Keaton’s Adrian Toomes, better known as the Vulture, the very first villain Tom Holland’s Spider-Man fought in Spider-Man: Homecoming. Toomes is here to give Michael some very villainous advice—”discover who you’re meant to be.” Who Toomes believes Morbius is meant to be is a bad guy, but as we learned last Friday, Morbius is a bit more complicated than just a straight-up villain. As the first character in Marvel comics history to represent the more supernatural end of the storytelling spectrum, Morbius went from a villain to an antihero in the comics, and will likely serve a similar role in the film.
Doctor Michael Morbius is a dying man who, through his own ingenuity, transforms himself into the superhuman antihero Morbius. The transformation is not without its victims, however. As we’ve seen previously, the final trailer shows us the moment that Dr. Morbius, on a freighter at sea in a last-ditch effort to find a cure to save his own life. He’s being monitored by fellow doctor Martine Bancroft (Adria Arjona). Using a serum that Morbius has created, Dr. Bancroft straps him into a chair and begins the transfusion. When a nosy security guy barges into the hold where the transfusion is being performed, things go haywire. Dr. Morbius has survived the transfusion, but the security guard doesn’t. Thus begins the doctor’s double life as a man of science committed to helping people, and a “living Vampire” imbued with superhuman abilities but, alas, some nasty tendencies to boot.
Morbius comes from director Daniel Espinosa, based on a script by Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless. The film will soon join the Venom franchise in Sony’s expanding Spider-Man Universe, offering audiences a potential web of interconnecting stories starring Spidey and the gang of antiheroes.
Joining Keaton, Leto and Arjona are Jared Harris, Matt Smith, and Tyrese Gibson.
Check out the final trailer below. Morbius swoops into theaters on April 1.
Ever wondered what your name might look like if it were cast in the same color and font as Warner Bros.’s upcoming The Batman? Well, good news regardless, because now you can see for yourself. The results are, in our humble opinion, pretty cool.
The title design for The Batman caught our eye the moment it was revealed, going with a very bold, arresting red and black color scheme and the new Bat symbol placed in the middle. Now, thanks to The Batman‘s logo-creator website, you can use that same font and color scheme to create your own Batman-style title design. Check out ours:
You can now write your own name in the style of The Batman’s logo!
It’s a pretty cool way of getting fans just a little bit more excited (like you’re not already) for the upcoming film. Because guess what, Batheads? The Batman hits theaters on March 4, just a few days away, which is incredible considering how long we’ve been tracking this film’s development. Writer/director Matt Reeves will be giving us something different in this Batman reboot, dropping us into the life of Bruce Wayne (Robert Pattinson) during year two of his nightly transformation into Batman. Joining Pattinson is a stellar cast that includes Zoë Kravitz as Selina Kyle/Catwoman, Paul Dano as Edward Nashton/The Riddler, Colin Farrell as Oswald Cobblepot/The Penguin, Jeffrey Wright as Jim Gordon, John Turturro as Carmine Falcone, Peter Sarsgaard as district attorney Gil Colson, and Andy Serkis as Alfred Pennyworth.
Soon enough, we’ll be getting a sense of just how hard The Batman rocks when the reviews start pouring online. For now, it’s the calm before the storm.
And that’s a wrap for Indiana Jones 5. Producer Frank Marshall has revealed director James Mangold’s Indy has finished principal photography, a major step for the secretive, highly-intriguing fifth installment in the venerable franchise. The cast alone is reason enough to be excited, but Mangold is a very special director, too, so it’s really the combination of talent involved that makes this project so much more than an attempt to revive the franchise. Mangold did wonders for a grizzled, beloved character in the nearly flawless Logan, and while Indiana Jones isn’t quite a Marvel superhero, he’s still a piece of the pop-culture firmament and is in good hands with Mangold at the helm.
Joining Harrison Ford is a veritable who’s who of acting talent. The cast includes Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Mads Mikkelsen, Boyd Holbrook, Shaunette Renée Wilson, Toby Jones, and Antonio Banderas. Marshall took to Twitter to reveal that production had wrapped, meaning we’re one step closer to the long-awaited film’s release (which isn’t, alas, until June 30, 2023.)
This news comes after a few setbacks for the film, including a pandemic-caused pushback on the release date, and a shoulder injury sustained by Ford while filming a fight sequence. Yet like the good Doctor Jones himself, all included carried on and now Indiana Jones 5 is headed into post-production.
Very little is known about the plot. There has been talk that sequences will show a digitally de-aged Ford for a few scenes, which suggests we may be getting some flashbacks to a few of Indy’s previous adventures. The script comes from Mangold and writing partners Jez and John-Henry Butterworth. It’ll be a while until we get a peek at the film via a teaser or trailer, so for now, we’ll just rejoice that we’re a little bit closer today to seeing Indy’s latest adventure.
For more stories on Century Studios, Searchlight Pictures, Marvel Studios and what’s streaming or coming to Disney+, check these out:
When Dr. Michael Morbius first appeared in Marvel comics, he was very much a bad guy, appearing in “The Amazing Spider-Man” in 1971. Yet as Jared Leto explains in a new Morbius vignette, the character soon underwent an evolution from a straight-up villain to a more complicated antihero. What’s more, Leto explains how Marvel was, up until the creation of Morbius, “forbidden from using characters considered more on the supernatural side.” With Leto starring in the upcoming Morbius, Marvel Studios is now set to tap into the rich history of supernatural characters in their comics canon, one that began, more or less, with Morbius himself. Soon, the MCU will include not only Morbius, but the supernatural comings and goings of Moon Knight, starring Oscar Isaac, on Disney+ on March 30, and Blade, starring Mahershala Ali, which will be part of Marvel’s Phase 4 film slate.
Director Daniel Espinosa’s Morbius, which is a Sony/Marvel collaboration, will put the spotlight on Leto’s transformation from the brilliant but sickly doctor into the bloodthirsty antihero. We’ve seen a clip of his transformation, which revealed that Morbius will skew much closer to outright horror than any previous MCU installment. “He was part of a much darker turn for Marvel,” Leto explains in the video, “one that, fortunately, fans fully embraced…after all, everyone loves a good monster story.”
Now that Marvel has become a cinematic juggernaut, a whole new legion of fans will get to embrace one of the most monstrous characters in their comics canon. Morbius swoops into theaters on April 1. Check out the new video below:
For more on Morbius, check out these stories below:
Michael Keaton has gently reminded the world that Robert Pattinson isn’t the only Batman coming to theaters. While Pattinson is starring as Bruce Wayne in The Batman, one of the year’s most eagerly-awaited films, Keaton is reprising his version of Bruce Wayne for another DCEU film, The Flash. Keaton returns to the role after 30-years, having last donned the Batsuit in Tim Burton’s 1992 film Batman Returns. In director Andy Muschietti’s The Flash, Keaton reprises the role thanks to some multiverse-meddling by Barry Allen (Ezra Miller)’s supersonic superhero, who ends up crossing through the multiverse and enters a realm where Keaton’s Bruce Wayne is still plying his trade as Batman in Gotham.
Keaton took to Instagram to tease his return as the Caped Crusader, revealing his silhouette in the Batsuit:
We saw just how huge a role Keaton’s Batman will have in The Flash teaser, which showed Barry Allen arriving at Wayne Manor and a glimpse of the iconic cowl Keaton wore in Tim Burton’s two Batman films smashed into pieces on the ground. There has already been a lot of speculation that Keaton’s Batman will be wearing a whole new Batsuit in The Flash, but we’ve seen nothing official from Warner Bros. yet, and doubt we will before The Flash actually premieres.
Keaton and Pattinson will be complementing each other in their dueling Batman roles. The Batman exists on a different timeline, with writer/director Matt Reeves rebooting the character not in an origin story, but during the second year of his brutal work as the Caped Crusader. For The Flash, we get an older Batman in Keaton, one who has been protecting Gotham for decades. The Batman arrives first, on March 4, while Keaton’s version arrives, at long last, when The Flash zooms into theaters on November 4.
For more on The Flash and Michael Keaton reprising his role as Batman, check out these stories:
Featured image: Featured image: Michael Keaton attends the premiere of Columbia Pictures’ “Spider-Man: Homecoming” at TCL Chinese Theatre on June 28, 2017 in Hollywood, California. Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)
Director Joe Wright, known best for emotional period films like Atonement and Pride & Prejudice, has brought a new musical version of Cyrano to the screen, starring Peter Dinklage in the title role. Dinklage is receiving rave reviews for his part in the romantic classic, bringing a new depth to the brilliant wordsmith and swordsman who loves his best friend, the gorgeous Roxanne (Haley Bennett), from afar. The film is based on a theatrical version directed and written by Erica Schmidt, which she adapted from the 1897 Edmond Rostand play.
Relationships play an important role in both the story and the production of Cyrano. Screenwriter Schmidt is married to Peter Dinklage, and both he and Haley Bennett also starred in her play. Cyrano was first brought to Wright’s attention when he attended a performance to see Bennett, his life partner, as Roxanne. The music is written by twins Bryce and Aaron Dessner, best known as founding members of the band The National. The song lyrics are written by The National frontman Matt Berninger and his wife Carin Besser. It is a labor of love in more ways than one. This epic musical takes place in the 1600s, a challenging undertaking in the best of circumstances, but Cyrano was filmed in the midst of a pandemic, on the Sicilian island of Noto, using a cast of hundreds of dancers, actors, and singers.
The Credits spoke to Aaron Dessner about how Cyrano benefitted from these emotional connections, the challenges of pandemic filmmaking on a grand scale, and his part in reinterpreting Schmidt’s play for the big screen.
Aaron and Bryce Dessner. Courtesy Aaron Dessner.
How did the project get started in the first place, in terms of you and your brother’s roles in creating music for the play, and how was it reshaped for the film?
We’d shared unfinished instrumental sketches with Erica Schmidt, because she wanted to make some sort of hybrid musical, creating a new version of the classic play with songs. This idea emerged to underscore the narrative with our music, so as the actors were reading the early script, she just pressed play on a playlist of music my brother and I made over the years. It was weirdly compelling, emotional music underneath this beautiful story. Then she rewrote songs with Matt and Carin for the theater version, but none of that original music from back then is in the film version. The score is entirely new, and most of the songs were at least altered. Erica and Joe worked on the screenplay a lot, and it evolved from the theatrical version. A number of the songs are either totally different or heavily adapted.
What are some of the ways in which the songs changed for the film, and what led to those choices?
For example, “When I Was Born,” which is the song that Peter as Cyrano sings during the duel, is totally unrelated to the theatrical version musically. We changed the tempo and the stylistic world that it sits in, and the chorus that the audience sings didn’t exist in the theatrical version. It wasn’t in the New York version at all. It was all about trying to optimize the songs and make them more in the service of the way Joe was structuring the film. “Wherever I Fall” is another one, which is in the scene before the battle. It evolved from being one minute long to becoming this epic, nine-minute piece. It was really just re-envisioning things to suit the narrative arc of the movie, and how grand and cathartic it really is. Also “Every Letter,” which is the trio song, was in the theatrical version, but it’s radically different musically, and it was originally just sung by Roxanne. It became a trio between the three of them, with new words.
How did you and your brother Bryce work together on this project?
I was in upstate New York, and Bryce was in France, where he lives. We did a lot of work initially with Joe to rewrite the songs and focus them with Matt and Corin. We were remotely recording the pre-records of the music that they would use as the basis for singing on set. Bryce went to Noto for three weeks of rehearsals and was collaborating heavily with Joe on arrangements. My brother orchestrated the score, and I did more song production and vocal work, and then eventually we came together in France to finish the score, but we’re so lucky to be used to working together remotely. In the band, because of the nature of how we work, we’re used to this process of working in isolation, then sharing something over Dropbox or email.
The choice of instrumentation has a huge impact on the arc of the story. The music for the movie includes a diversity of styles, but it really holds together.
The instrumentation was something that it took a while to zero in on. We tried different things. Joe’s very musical as a director. He encouraged us to be bolder at times than we might otherwise have been. We can be subtle and internal, but there are bolder gestures in some of this music than may have been our natural state, but that was really good to embrace. In the opening scene, we used celeste and harmonium. Later, with the military, there’s a lot of drumming, and snare rolls, and there are quite a number of cues that have mixed meter, but it still feels very related to the sound world of the opening, but it’s in a military context. In the cue that you hear in the convent towards the end, there’s a really beautiful sequence with Cyrano, and its strings and piano. There’s a range from small to big sounds because there’s intimacy, but also grandeur and catharsis, and we had to figure out how to achieve that. Joe also wanted at times for there to be electric guitar. “What I Deserve” almost feels like Tom Waits song. It’s rough and brash, and it feels the closest thing to rock and roll in the piece, but somehow very much belongs. We loved that diversity.
“Wherever I Fall” is exquisite. What an intense, emotional song, and as you say, it’s 9 minutes long.
In Erica’s adaptation of Cyrano, the war features more prominently. I think the reason it has such a role in the film is because of the strength of the song. Joe had the idea to film it on the battlefield. When we were thinking about who we wanted to sing that song, and we thought of Glen Hansard. We had known him a long time, and he’s a great actor, singer, and songwriter, and it just felt like Glen would do it justice. When he jumped at the chance, we knew it could be really special. Then Sam Amidon, who is the second soldier who sings, is another of our favorite folk singers, and someone we’ve collaborated with a lot over the years. The third singer is Scott Folan. The three of them together all have very different voices and are meant to represent different ages, and the cruelty of war as experienced by different types of soldiers. They’re saying goodbye to loved ones, knowing they’ll probably die. The song is just this very powerful meditation of what it must be like to face death and loss. The idea that, wherever someone falls in battle, as they die they’re thinking of those they love, is also in a way very hopeful and beautiful.
What was it like to have the dynamic of couples, partners, and, of course, brothers involved in the creative process? How did that impact the experience?
Erica Schmidt really created this Cyrano. None of this would exist without Erica. She really inspired us to write the songs, and then Peter brought life to it all as Cyrano. Haley played Roxanne in the onstage version, and that’s when Joe saw it. They had fallen in love and were expecting their child, and Virginia was born not long after that. Our real-life relationships feel very deeply connected and interwoven with the creative process, and I don’t see any reason for separation between your personal life and your creative life, because why not? It’s just the life you’re living in, so I love the fact that these three relationships were very much a part of this process. Then also my brother and I shared a room until we were 18 and remain so close, and work so closely together, and for us, we’re able to do these projects because of an unspoken understanding. We often don’t have to talk, we can just do. We get a lot done because we’re able to embrace these emotional or creative challenges and see them through together. For Joe, I think he wanted to make something that was sincere, not cynical, just as you should be towards your partner. That was something very aspirational or hopeful about it, even though it’s a tragic story.
Cyrano had an exclusive one-week theatrical release in Los Angeles starting December 17th and is scheduled for a US limited theatrical release on February 25, 2022.
How unrecognizable is Colin Farrell in The Batman? The usually svelte, handsome actor is playing Oswald Cobblepot/the Penguin in the upcoming reboot, and he’s balding, portly, pockmarked, and scarred. The makeup and prosthetics took as long as four hours to apply, transforming the dapper Irishman into Gotham’s hulking villain. Farrell revealed to Colliderthat after his first day of doing prosthetics and makeup tests with designer Mike Marino, the two of them went to a Starbucks in Burbank to test how well they’d transformed Farrell into a believably obese Cobblepot. Here’s what Farrell had to say:
“The first day we tried the whole thing out, we took it for a drive, a spin metaphorically speaking. We did it in Burbank. It took about six or eight hours. It was a team of ten or fifteen people. And it was really fun. I went into Starbucks and ordered myself a very un-Oswald drink, an oat milk latte with two stevia sweeteners. I got a couple of stares but only because it’s such an imposing look. Mike (Marino) did so much of the work for me on this, so much of the heavy lifting.”
Marino’s dazzling work proved up to the challenge. If you can not only make Colin Farrell so unrecognizable nobody in a Burbank Starbucks even notices it’s him but does find the heavy-set old guy intimidating, you’ve done your job.
Marino and Farrell’s work on the character is far from finished. The Penguin will his part to play in writer/director Matt Reeves’s The Batman, for sure, but a larger exploration of the character awaits via an HBO Max spinoff series. At that point, it might be a little harder for Farrell, in full Penguin prosthetics, to get through an oat milk latte order without someone asking for an autograph (or at least discreetly snapping a photo).
As for The Batman, Farrell shares the villainous spotlight with Paul Dano’s Edward Nashton/The Riddler, while Robert Pattison leads the way as Bruce Wayne, and Zoë Kravitz plays Selina Kyle/Catwoman.
Cyrano (in theaters on February 25) boasts megawatt talent – notably, Peter Dinklage in the title role – but newly minted Oscar-nominee, costume designer Massimo Cantini Parrini, may be the film’s secret weapon. Parrini has won a bundle of European awards, mostly for his work in his native Italy. He came to Hollywood’s attention in 2020 when he was nominated for an Oscar for his costumes for Pinocchio, starring Roberto Benigni.
“Massimo’s work is stunning,” says Cyrano director Joe Wright, no small compliment from the man behind lush period epics such as Pride and Prejudice, Atonement, and Anna Karenina.
Like Pinocchio, the story of Cyrano has been told over and over and over. Edmund Rostand’s play Cyranode Bergerac was first performed in 1897. In the more than 100 years since, there have been dozens of retellings and adaptations in every major format – opera, radio, musicals, film, television, cartoons – worldwide. Playwright Erica Schmidt had written her own musical adaptation of Cyrano and was tapped by Wright to write a feature film about the oft-told, yet inexhaustible love triangle.
Parrini avoided looking at past Cyranos. “I do not want to be influenced by other people’s depictions of that same theme… I did not draw inspiration from anything that was made previously,” he says. “I only featured in my work what was the result of my vision and the director’s vision. We worked together to concoct this essential way of designing the costumes.”
Although Rostand’s play is set in the 17th Century, Wright and his creative team aimed to evoke 18th Century aesthetics, allowing Parrini to revel in the light, playful pastels of rococo. Another change: it isn’t his large nose that Cyrano regrets but his 4-foot 5-inch stature. Otherwise, the story is familiar: Cyrano is a military officer in love with Roxanne (Haley Bennett). He believes that Roxanne could never love him because of his appearance, and he is right to worry. Roxanne keeps him solidly in the friend zone while falling for Christian (Kelvin Harrison Jr.), a gorgeous new-in-town soldier with whom she’s never exchanged a word. Thus ensues the famous plot in which Cyrano feeds Christian the seductively eloquent words with which to woo her into marriage, to Cyrano’s torturous regret.
Cyrano is one of the great romantic, sentimental love stories. In conceiving of their 2022 retelling, Parrini and Wright recognized that, in our current moment, such a hoary tale would succeed through a “less is more” approach. “The love story is so powerful, that’s what had to stand out. I thought that we did not need more than that – the great challenge here that I had to win or lose was that of eliminating and taking away rather than adding things,” Parrini said.
Wright exploits the naked, sundrenched ruins and facades of the Italian hill town, Noto, where Cyrano was shot. Parrini, for his part, edited down and edited down his costumes. He explains with a note of pride that, remarkably, none of the aristocratic characters in the film wear any jewelry. Instead, their superior status is conveyed via layers of transparent or sheer fabric that emphasize or expose the rigid structures – corsets, bustiers, paniers – required for the silhouettes of the period.
“In a way, I have designed my costumes as if they were an X-ray view of the costume itself, so you could see from the outside, the inside, the bones of the structure … this idea of modernity that we wanted to convey,” he says. He adds, “It is practically impossible to use the same laces, the same embroideries that were so sumptuous at the time, the same fabrics – they are all gone. I thought it was far better to go to the essence and go to the bone in this literal sense.”
Parrini’s concept also mirrors the preoccupations of Cyrano – the difference between who we are inside and out, and the cost of not reconciling the two. That said, Cyrano is, of course, still a romantic, often comedic, musical. It needs to stay light on its feet, literally and metaphorically. Despite the restrictions of period fashion, when the characters burst into song and dance, thanks to Parrini, their clothing appears light as a feather.
That lightness comes in part from fabric choices, for example, the use of Indian organza. “This is a special organza. The effect and appearance of it is incredible because it allows you to have this look which is both sheer and transparent, but still compact in its volumes. So when the actors move around wearing these costumes, it’s as if a whole air bubble is moving around,” he says.
Director Wright capitalizes on Parrini’s choices– in the rousing women’s anthem, “I Need More,” the color and whoosh of the women’s sleeves as they sweep their arms harmonizes theme, music, choreography, costume, and character. “I learned so much about the performance of numerous types of fabrics during the shoots of the dances, and so now, I really only want to work on musicals,” Parrini says with a laugh.
One major challenge for Parrini was to engagingly dress hundreds of soldiers, including Cyrano and Christian, who wear their military uniforms for almost the entire movie. Parrini’s solution: Buttons of varying colors and textures (depending on the uniform) at the seams of shoulders and the bottom of jackets, so that sleeves and coattails could be removed or added to create subtle variations. In one particularly beautiful number, “Someone to Say,” soldiers dance with each other in the vest version of their uniform. The sheer fabric covering their arms gives their motions with a magical grace.
Parrini is a roll-up-your-sleeves craftsman. He and his team dyed hundreds of yards of fabric to get the right shade of red necessary for the soldier’s uniforms. He oversaw the creation of some 700 costumes from scratch, rather than hiring from a costume house. Parrini’s passion for his work is written on his face when he answers questions. Although he speaks English, he prefers a translator for English interviews. “I want to be as refined as possible when speaking about my job,” he says. “I want this passion to shine out and shine through my words. I want to hold true to the passion that moves me.”
With Cyrano, Parrini recognizes that he has reached a career milestone. His joyous constructions hark back to MGM’s grand-musical tradition. One of Parrini’s heroes was MGM’s Gilbert Adrian, the legendary costume designer behind everything from Joan Crawford’s signature shoulder pads to Judy Garland’s ruby slippers in the Wizard of Oz. “In my idea of film and cinema, MGM is like the grande dame, like the Holy Mary of cinema… So for me, working on [Cyrano] was like a dream come true,” he says.
If you’re going to announce the digital and Blu-ray release dates for one of the most successful films of all time, why not recreate an iconic meme to do so? That’s what Sony Pictures has done with the below tweet, recreating a cartoon meme in which a multitude of Spider-Men point at each other. This meme has been used a lot over the years, deployed most often to point out blatant hypocrisy. In No Way Home, there is a moment where Tom Holland, Tobey Maguire, and Andrew Garfield’s three Spider-Men point at each other, but it doesn’t recreate the now-iconic meme.
The tweet reveals that the biggest Spider-Man of all time is coming home in a little less than a month via digital, but you’ll have to wait a bit longer for that Blu-ray:
of course, we got THE meme. #SpiderManNoWayHome swings home on Digital March 22 and on 4K UHD & Blu-ray on April 12!
Spider-Man: No Way Home has become the highest-grossing film of the pandemic era, the highest-grossing Spider-Man film ever, and is currently the sixth highest-grossing film of all time. It was also nominated for an Oscar for Best Visual Effects. And soon, it’ll be available for your at-home viewing pleasure.
For more on Spider-Man: No Way Home, check out these stories:
Cameras are officially rolling on Christopher Nolan‘s Oppenheimer, starring Cillian Murphy as the titular American scientist and looking at his role in creating the atomic bomb. Universal Pictures revealed the first image from the film, which shows Murphy’s J. Robert Oppenheimer with a cigarette dangling out of his mouth. Oppenheimer was a notorious chain smoker, and would eventually suffer from throat cancer.
As always in a Nolan film, Murphy is part of a sprawling, sensational cast filled, several of whom are Nolan veterans. Along with Murphy, who worked with Nolan in both Inception and Dunkirk, Nolan has tapped past players like current Oscar-nominee Kenneth Branagh (Dunkirk and Tenet) in an unspecified role, Matt Damon (Interstellar) as Gen. Leslie Groves Jr., director of the Manhattan Project, and Matthew Modine (The Dark KnightRises) in an unspecified role.
Yet Oppenheimer features a slew of great actors in their first Nolan film. They include Emily Blunt as botanist and biologist Katherine “Kitty” Oppenheimer, Robert Downey, Jr. as Lewis Strauss, one of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission’s founding commissioners, Florence Pugh as psychiatrist Jean Tatlock, Benny Safdie as theoretical physicist Edward Teller, Michael Angarano as physicist Robert Serber, and Josh Hartnett as American nuclear scientist Ernest Lawrence. Then there are more great actors joining Nolan for the first time whose roles remain unspecified—Rami Malek, Dane DeHaan, Dylan Arnold, David Krumholtz, Alden Ehrenreich.
Oppenheimer will film across the U.S., from New Jersey to New Mexico and California, and serves as the kind of thoughtful epic Nolan has built his career on. Yet unlike his mind-bending films like Tenet, Interstellar, or Inception, or even his fact-based, critically and commercially successful 2017 film Dunkirk, Oppenheimer will eschew time-melting puzzles or even the sense of giddy relief that the end of Dunkirk offered. Instead, Oppenheimer will take us inside the creation of the most catastrophic weapon humanity has ever created, likely offering little in the way of celebration. Nolan’s film is based on Kai Bird and the late Martin J. Sherwin’s book “American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer.”
Still, movie lovers love going to see a Christopher Nolan movie, and Oppenheimer will offer a writer/director at the top of his game tackling a very rich, troubling story with an amazing cast and crew.
Oppenheimer is due in theaters on July 21, 2023.
Featured image: Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer in OPPENHEIMER, written and directed by Christopher Nolan. Courtesy of Universal Pictures.
Imagine what you would do if, at one of the most pivotal moments in your life, you find out you’re at risk for a life-threatening disease? Jared Frieder turned the experience into a movie. That movie, Three Months, is out today on Paramount+.
Three Months, a funny and touching coming-of-age story, tells the story of Caleb (Troye Sivan), an unruly, gay high school senior who is days away from graduation and ready to pursue his dream of becoming a photographer. That is until a night of drunken carelessness finds Caleb sleeping with a complete stranger and learning shortly thereafter that his one-night stand has resulted in a positive HIV test. Now, instead of looking forward to the future, Caleb is dreading it. During a visit to the local LGBTQ clinic, he discovers he must wait three months for antibodies to develop to prove he has contracted the virus.
As his summer in limbo unfolds, Caleb emotionally unravels. He lashes out at all those dear to him, including his grandmother (Ellen Burstyn), who took Caleb in after his father died and his mother abandoned him; her live-in significant other (Louis Gossett Jr.) and Caleb’s only friend Dara (Brianne Tju), an insecure gay teen who works with Caleb at his South Florida town’s minimarket. Looking for solace at the clinic’s support group, Caleb meets Estha (Viveik Kalra), a reserved Indian teen also awaiting his HIV results. The two enjoy a mutual attraction, making Caleb believe that there just might be a life after three months.
For Frieder, who wrote the screenplay and is making his directorial debut, Three Months addresses a void he felt when he was coming of age and discovering who he was.
“It was really important to tell the kind of story that I wished I could have watched when I was a little kid that would have made me feel less alone and more understood,” Frieder said during a recent Zoom interview. “I think this is a universal story about love and friendship and chosen family. I hope it makes queer kids feel a little less alone. And I hope it helps people walk in Caleb’s shoes for two hours and have a great time while doing it. Have a blast. But also have more empathy for the people around us.”
Describing himself as a very nice Jewish boy from Hollywood, Florida, Frieder explains that his two leads incorporate the different sides of his personality. “I wrote Caleb as the kid I wished I could have been in high school. He’s aspirational for me,” he says. “Whereas, Estha is the kid I was in high school. You know, two sides of the same very gay coin. Yes, coins can be gay just in case you’re wondering.”
Troye Sivan & Viveik Kalra in “Three Months.” Courtesy Paramount+
Three Months sprung from Frieder’s own agonizing experience of worrying whether he was HIV positive. But little did he realize that when he conceived this story about waiting that it would take almost a decade to make it.
“It’s been such a long journey to get it to this point,” continues Frieder. “Gay movies with LGBTQ protagonists are incredibly challenging to make. That was always the biggest hurdle for me… finding people who were willing to finance a movie that had a protagonist that we had never quite seen before.”
Initially, Frieder envisioned Three Months as a film. But after a streamer expressed interest, he sold it as a TV series. When that didn’t work out, Frieder shopped it again as a feature.Producer Daniel Dubiecki, who received an Oscar nomination for Up in the Air, and his producing partner Lara Alameddine (Money Monster, Please Stand By) came onboard. MTV Entertainment Studios agreed to fund it and in March 2020 cameras started to roll. Two weeks later, the COVID pandemic shut production down.
“We had to go on hiatus for seven months never knowing if we would ever finish,” says Frieder. “And Godspeed, we did. It’s been a roller coaster, but I’m so grateful to be here.”
On the bright side, if Three Months had been made when Frieder first wrote it, he wouldn’t have directed it. Still, in his early 20s, he was considered too inexperienced. Frieder credits Dubiecki and Alameddine, as well as MTV’s Pamela Post, an executive producer on the film, for encouraging him to take on that role.
“Honestly, they were like, ‘Would you want to direct this’? And I was like, ‘Yes!,’” says Frieder. “Who gets to direct their own film? It feels like sort of something that happens to other people. It was pretty wild, but I’ve got the directing bug now and I want to direct until I literally drop.”
And the timing might have been right for another reason. It afforded Frieder the opportunity to assemble what he describes as his “dream cast” — beginning with his lead.
Describing himself as the “biggest Troy Silvan fan in the entire universe,” Frieder was thrilled when the Australian singer, songwriter, and YouTube sensation signed on to play Caleb.
“Like I said, I wrote the kid I wished I could have been in high school and that is literally Troy,” explains Frieder. “He just gave the character that X factor that makes you immediately fall in love with him. Caleb can be a little bratty. He’s flawed and he is uppity even though he means well. To me, this comes from a place of honesty. And Troy was able to tap into that, but exude compassion and exude love. And that is not something that every actor can do.”
Troye Sivan & Brianne Tju in “Three Months.” Courtesy Paramount+
The praise doesn’t stop there. Frieder calls out Tju and Kalra as ”funny and real” and describes Gossett Jr. as “a legend who oozes charisma,” particularly citing an emotional monologue Gossett Jr. delivers at the film’s midpoint that really connects the audience to this makeshift family.”
But perhaps the ultimate casting coup was getting Ellen Burstyn to play Caleb’s grandmother. “I mean, she’s a hero of mine,” Frieder says, pointing over his shoulder to a framed movie poster of Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore hanging on his wall. “She’s like a titan of cinema. Her performance in Requiem for a Dream still haunts me. I don’t think I’ve ever been so affected by a performance. And to work with her and to learn from her and to listen to her. She elevates this movie and her character to a degree that fills it with heart and compassion — a hope for the future.”
And that may be the message Frieder most wants Three Months to send. “For me, the most obvious takeaway is that HIV is no longer a death sentence,” he says. “In our modern world, with access to health care, people living with HIV can find love and live long, happy lives where they pursue their dreams. We have to continue to fight the stigma and shame around the disease by having conversations like the kind that I hope this movie starts. I’m so grateful to be able to get the word out about this film — on Paramount+, February 23rd — And I just can’t wait for people to see it.”
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A big piece of casting news has dropped on one of Marvel Studios’ most intriguing, most hush-hush upcoming films. The Underground Railroad and Krypton star Aaron Pierre has joined two-time Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali in Blade. Pierre joins both Ali and the great Delroy Lindo in the revamped MCU film about the titular character, the first Blade film since Wesley Snipes’s last turn as the half-vampire hunter in 2004’s Blade: Trinity.
There’s still no word on who Pierre will play, as Marvel Studios has been keeping the development of Blade very, very quiet. We’ve seen little more than an illustration Ali shared of himself as Blade, and the original big reveal, way back during Comic-Con 2019, when Ali’s casting was first announced. Pierre, meanwhile, has been building a strong reputation as an ace performer, not only from his meaty role in Barry Jenkins’ sensational adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad, but also in M. Night Shyamalan’s recent film Old. He’ll be re-teaming with Jenkins to voice Mufasa in Disney’s upcoming The Lion King prequel.
Blade will be directed by Bassam Tariq from a script by Watchmen scribe Stacy Osei-Kuffour. While Wesley Snipes’ portrayal of the character is by far the most well-known, Blade has a rich history in the comics. Blade first appeared in 1973, when creators Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan introduced him as a supporting character in “The Tomb of Dracula.” Soon enough, he had his own storylines, and as a “dhampir”—that is a vampire/human hybrid—Blade devoted his life to hunting vampires.
What we do know about this version of Blade is that it will exist within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Adding vampires to the MCU? Sure, why not. After the weirdness of everything from Thor: Ragnaork to WandaVision to the upcoming Egyptology-obsessed Moon Knight and universe-melting Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Blade will simply further stretch the limits of what the Marvel Cinematic Universe can contain. And of course, there’s the Jared Leto-led Morbius coming out, with the good Doctor Michael Morbius (Leto) becoming a vampire himself. It would seem like Blade and Morbius have obvious crossover potential.
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Featured image: NEW YORK, NEW YORK – JULY 19: Aaron Pierre attends the “Old” New York Premiere at Jazz at Lincoln Center on July 19, 2021 in New York City. (Photo by Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images)
If you ever wanted to look like Batman without submitting yourself to straight-up cosplay, we’ve got some news for you. You can own the official Batman Tourbillon Watch, made by Swiss design studio and manufacturer Kross Studio, for a cool $100,000. The design of the watch is inspired by the new Bat-Signal you’ll be seeing in writer/director Matt Reeves’s upcoming The Batman.
If you happen to be both a massive Batman fan and someone who can spend $100K on a watch, then not only will the Tourbillo purchase include the black and red watch, but also a fully functional aluminum sculpture of the Bat-Signal which also works. The two pieces make up the limited-edition Batman Collector Set, with only 10 being produced. Two of the ten have already been sold.
Kross Studio Bat Signal and Kross Studio Batman Tourbillon. Courtesy of Kross Studio.
The watch itself is a 45mm hand-wound piece, made of grade 5 titanium, that has juice to last for five days and is water resistant up to 30 meters/98 feet. The bat emblem is located on the louvered tourbillon cage. The watch is comprised of 283 parts, each of which is hand-made and assembled in Switzerland.
“We wanted to create a link between the wearer of the watch and the Batman himself,” Marco Tedeschi, founder and creator of Kross Studio, told The Hollywood Reporter. “We thought it would be really fun if the Bat-Signal was there, that you [feel you] could call the Batman if needed. That was the starting point of the inspiration in our design.”
Who hasn’t dreamed of calling in Batman at one point in their lives? Alas, for most of us, we’ll happily arrive watch-less (or with a more humble Casio) to see The Batman when it arrives in theaters on March 4.
For editor Joe Walker, cutting Dune was about finding a resonating balance between the epic nature of the story and the intimacy of the characters’ journey. When we interviewed Walker on two occasions back in October of 2021, Dune had just been released and writer/director Denis Villeneuve’s vision for a second and final part had yet to be greenlit. A lot has changed since then. Dune was both a critical and commercial smash, Warner Bros. said an emphatic yes to part two (it’s set to begin filming this summer), and the film garnered 10 Oscar nominations. Walker earned one of those nominations for his stellar work finding that balance between the majestic and domestic, the epic and the emotional.
Villeneuve’s decision to break his adaption of Frank Herbert’s iconic and dense science-fiction novel into two parts was a brilliant narrative move. In part one, we’re plunged into a coming of age story set thousands of years in the future where the natural resource “Spice” is an interstellar currency and those who control its production own the keys to space travel and commerce. The drama is set into motion when House Atreides, led by Duke Atreides (Oscar Isaac), is appointed to replace House Harkonnen, led by Baron Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård) and take over the harvesting of Spice on the arid, dangerous planet of Arrakis. This starts a war between House Atreides and House Harkonnen, with the planet’s native inhabitants, the Fremen, caught in the middle. Soon the fate of the planet seems to fall into the hands of our young protagonist Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet), as the battle for the planet, and the future of the cosmos, begins in earnest.
“For me, something worth talking about in Denis’s films is how there’s a base of emotion that’s simulated,” Walker told us. “I can remember on Sicario, it was the use of the shot from behind when you’re looking at the vulnerability of someone’s neck. We dwell on it a little longer and make you feel that massive vulnerability. It’s something that’s deeply charged in Denis’s imagery.”
It was Walker’s job to find those deeply charged moments and let them breathe. He succeeded. Here’s an edited excerpt from our conversation with the now thrice-Oscar-nominated Walker about how he found the heart of an epic cosmic war story.
Featured image: Caption: (L-r) REBECCA FERGUSON as Lady Jessica Atreides and OSCAR ISAAC as Duke Leto Atreides in Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Legendary Pictures’ action adventure “DUNE,” a Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary release. Photo Credit: Chiabella James
It is one of the dramatic arts’ most famous and heartbreaking love triangles: Cyrano de Bergerac, in love with Roxanne, who loves Christian and he her, aided in his pursuit by Cyrano’s eloquent written and spoken words. Edmond Rostand’s 1897 play about the brilliant wordsmith and his unrequited passion has been adapted over the past century-plus for many stages and screens.
Director Joe Wright (Atonement) is the latest filmmaker to tackle the tale with MGM’s Cyrano (in theaters on February 25), a sweeping musical spectacular starring Peter Dinklage in the titular role, Haley Bennett as Roxanne, and Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Christian. Wright armed the project with a screenwriter who truly understands the story inside and out: Erica Schmidt. She had previously adapted and directed a stage musical about Cyrano de Bergerac, which Wright saw and which prompted him to approach her about working with him on a film version. He also wanted Dinklage, Schmidt’s husband, and Bennett, who both appeared in her play, to come on board. The package included, as well, brothers Aaron and Bryce Dessner to compose the score and Matt Berninger and Carin Besser to pen the lyrics.
Though nearly derailed by the pandemic, cast and crew spent fall 2020 shooting safely on location in Sicily. Swiftly on course was Schmidt’s screenplay, in which she modified Rostand’s story in several ways, most notably regarding the lead character: Where Cyrano is typically visualized as a man with a large nose, here he is a man of short stature. What definitively remains the same are the story’s underlying themes of values, virtue, and the ways we disguise ourselves.
Schmidt recently spoke with The Credits about transitioning from stage to screen, writing for Wright, and learning from her characters. Edited interview excerpts follow.
When did you first read the play by Edmond Rostand and what resonated with you?
I remember seeing the Gerard Depardieu film and loving it, and I read the play and I loved it. I was looking for something to adapt and Michael Gennaro (former president and CEO of the Papermill Playhouse in New Jersey) commissioned me to do an adaptation, to make it into a musical. I guess what I initially loved about it was the unrequited love, or requited but not in the way that is desired, and the emphasis on poetry and words and letters, and that really moved me. And also the comedy, I really loved how funny it was. And I like all the grand style, the swordfights and the big dresses. I just was really interested in all of that stuff and wanted to spend time in that world.
You had adapted and directed Cyrano for the stage, in a production at the Goodspeed in Connecticut, where director Joe Wright saw it. Tell me about when he approached you about writing the story for film and your first reaction to this opportunity.
Well, he saw it and he said, ‘I want to make a film of your version of Cyrano, and I want you to write it and I want Haley and Peter to be in it.’ I was really shocked, I was so surprised. I couldn’t believe it, quite honestly. I still have trouble believing it. It was really wonderful to learn how to write a screenplay and to take these characters and this world that I love so much and continue to work on them in a different medium.
How was it working on the script with him?
We had a lot of conversations and went through every page of the script. He was very, very invested in every detail. It was kind of an amazing process. And then the pandemic happened. In June we’d been in lockdown for three months, and he called and said I think I can make this film happen in the pandemic and asked for the next draft. And I thought, ‘That’s mad but very exciting.’ I wasn’t working, I was home and I was like, yes, of course, let’s do it. So I sent it to him 10 days later and he called me and said I think it’s ready. I was really surprised, I assumed we would spend many months working on it more. He gave it to Working Title and then it was sold to MGM within a week, and then three months later in September we left for Sicily to start filming. So it was a very quick turnaround, all down to Joe really being very determined to make the film.
What was easiest and what was hardest in transitioning the story from stage to screen?
What was easiest was that world. I’d spent a lot of time working on the play and on Rostand’s words and had looked at every version that existed out there multiple, multiple times. I loved the characters, and I had really distilled it way down to a cast of 10 and really focused on the love triangle. There were also certain big cuts that I’d made: Roxanne not arriving at the front, cutting the nose, and changing the end. What was challenging was that I had never written a screenplay before, so I had to learn the form, which is really, really daunting, especially when you’re under the watchful eye of someone who knows it so well. That was a lot of pressure, but a great challenge. And then also writing something for someone else to direct. When I write or adapt, I do it in the theater to direct it myself, so to learn what I had done that Joe liked, what he wanted to see different, and what he was going to do in terms of the location and the kind of spectacle of it, while at the same time balancing Rostand’s language and Matt and Carin’s lyrics, balancing all of those things was challenging.
Much of the story is told through song. What impact did the music and lyrics have on the script?
Our theater production was a through-composed play with songs. The songs that are in the movie were in the play, but they’re never intended to be for a traditional musical. They’re much more their own thing, and I actually think that they’re more successful in the film than they were on stage because you can continue the narrative story while they’re being sung in the film in a way that you simply can’t on stage. For example, the first song that Roxanne sings happens at the same time that she’s journeying to the theater. It helps you to hear the songs and also feel that you’re having a private moment with the character, while at the same time you’re gaining all of this information. When I was writing what the action was within the songs, that was really, really joyful for me in the screenplay process, because it’s something you could never do on stage in the same way.
You said in a featurette about the film that Peter is good with words. Knowing him as you do, did this capability influence the dialogue in the script at all?
Actually, not in the way you would think. The kind of verbosity that Cyrano has, he’ll take an idea and then he’ll restate it 36 different ways, which is part of what makes the character so wonderful, but Peter didn’t have a lot of interest in that. So I had to really distill it down to the essence of what the character was trying to say, and then allow the songs to be the more verbose moments. We definitely worked on that when we were doing the play version. He wanted to talk less is the point (laughs).
You’ve lived with these characters for many years now. What have they taught you along the way?
Well, I’m really intrigued by the way that Roxanne and Cyrano allow themselves to live their whole lives within a beautiful lie. She wants so badly to believe in this fairytale and this beautiful dream, that the perfect package can deliver the perfect message and be exactly what she wants to hear. And Cyrano never has to really reckon with what it is to actually love someone. He puts her on a pedestal, and he’s unwilling to ever trust her with the truth. I really admire the way Christian follows his own truth. He cannot live with the lie, he cannot abide the deception. He isn’t an artist, he’s a soldier, and to him, there’s a right and a wrong. I think the essential conflict is, is it preferable to live in a beautiful deception, to allow there to be a false image of yourself, an idealized version, a curated version, a version that you think makes you lovable? Or should we agree that there’s truth and there are lies and there’s right and there’s wrong, even if it kills us? I think it’s a really interesting question that I have learned from the piece and that I kind of struggle with all the time.
Outside of George Lucas, there are few people as deeply connected to the Star Wars galaxy as composer John Williams. Now, Varietyconfirms that the legendary composer has created the theme song for Obi-Wan Kenobi, the highly-anticipated upcoming series on Disney+. Williams is only three years removed from work on his 9th Star Wars film, The Rise of Skywalker, and there is no one alive better suited to nail the musical signature for Ewan McGregor’s return to the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi, which he last played in Lucas’s third and final prequel film, 2005’s The Revenge of the Sith.
Variety reports that Williams has already constructed the theme song for the show, which he recorded last week with the Los Angeles orchestra. The five-time Oscar winner (including for Best Original Score for Lucas’s first entrant, 1977’s Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope) has nabbed an Oscar nomination for the three original films and the three films in the sequel trilogy. Yet he rarely composes for television, so getting him for Obi-Wan Kenobi, even if he feels like the only possible choice, is a major coup.
Whether or not Williams plucked the theme he wrote for Obi-Wan from the original trilogy when he was played by Alec Guinness, or, if the theme will be connected to McGregor’s younger version of the character in the prequel trilogy, is a mystery. He could have combined both themes, or, perhaps he’s written something entirely new. What we do know is nobody outside of the folks in the Los Angeles orchestra and the Obi-Wan Kenobi team has any idea.
Williams remains incredibly busy into his 90th year (he just had his birthday on February 8), including composing the score for Steven Spielberg’s upcoming personal drama The Fabermans and for the fifth installment of Indiana Jones (due in 2023). Then there’s his work conducting live music, which he’s doing with the Vienna Philharmonic in March, the Philadelphia Orchestra in April, the Pittsburgh Symphony in April, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic in September.
Obi-Wan Kenobi not only features the return of McGregor as the venerable Jedi in the years after Revenge of the Sith but also sees the return of Hayden Christensen to the role of Anakin Skywalker, who goes by another name by the time Obi-Wan picks up—Darth Vader.
It’s still unknown who will be composing for Obi-Wan Kenobi‘s six episodes, but we at least know the theme song will be coming from a musical Jedi master.
The first time we see treasure hunter Nathan Drake (Tom Holland) in his element he’s knocked unconscious. When he wakes, he realizes his foot is caught in the netting of loose airplane cargo that’s whipping in the air like a tail on a kite. The timely snag has saved his life. He murmurs one of his famous Drake-isms: “Oh, crap.”
Director Ruben Fleischer (Venom, Zombieland) is at the helm of Uncharted (in theaters February 18), an adaption of the immensely popular video game series from Naughty Dog and Sony Interactive that has sold millions of copies worldwide. Development for the silver screen version dates back to 2008 with attempts from David O. Russell and David Guggenheim before getting off the ground in 2020 with a screenplay from Rafe Judkins, Art Marcum, and Matt Holloway that’s packed with high-energy treasure hunts, kick-ass villains, plenty of laughter and unexpected twists.
Akin to an origin story, a young Nathan Drake is approached by Victor Sullivan (Mark Wahlberg), aka Sully, one night working as a bartender. He’s looking for information about one of the greatest missing treasures in history – the forgotten fleet of Spanish explorer Ferdinand Magellan – that is worth billions if found. Sully had been searching for it with Nate’s older brother Sam (Rudy Pankow), who Nate hasn’t seen in years. Sam has now disappeared and Sully hopes Nate might have clues that Sam passed along. Motivated to find his missing brother, Nate helps Sully hunt down the treasure.
L-r: Mark Wahlberg and Tom Holland in “Uncharted.” Courtesy Sony Pictures.
In reading the script Fleischer says he was “absolutely thrilled” by the adventure. “I felt very lucky even while it was a video game adaption to have the opportunity to make a great treasure hunting film.” The story introduces the characters before they’ve become the legendary treasure hunters known in the video game series, a premise that gives a fresh perspective for the entire audience. And quite possibly sets up sequels (so be sure to stay through the credits).
“Tom was clear from the beginning that he didn’t want to do an impression of the video game, but he wanted to create his own version of Nathan Drake. I think he did a terrific job as such,” Fleischer tells The Credits. The natural on-screen chemistry between Holland and Wahlberg helped shape their characters. Mark being a veteran of the industry and Tom being relatively new paralleled the Nate-Sully relationship where Sully was teaching the kid tricks of the trade while Nate still had his own ideas up his sleeve.
The director also tuned into the humor found in the Uncharted series. “It’s always been known as being a funny video game with great characters and great banter. So when you’re working with talented actors such as Mark and Tom, who have such an aptitude with comedy, being able to cultivate that banter on screen was really fun.”
In sculpting the visual aesthetic, Fleischer tapped production designer Shepherd Frankel (Ant-Man) and cinematographer Chung-hoon Chung, who he previously worked with on Zombieland: Double Tap. Chung is one of the best DPs out there, made evident in his work in director Park Chan-wook’s now-iconic 2013 masterpiece Oldboy, the moody looks he created for Andy Muschietti’s brilliant reboot It, and the punchy palettes he shot for Edgar Wright’s Last Night in Soho. For Uncharted, vivid colors are paired with a wide aspect ratio (2.39:1) to bring scale to the story. Sequences were shot with ARRI Alexa cameras, and at times, framed for IMAX.
“For me, scale is essential to a big-action adventure movie no matter what it’s based on,” Fleischer says. “Whether it’s a Bond film, Mission Impossible or Indiana Jones, I think that those globetrotting adventures rely on scale to sell the escapist entertainment and feeling you get when you’re with the heroes in the film.”
The story has a big movie experience with the characters jumping through a number of locations. Whether it’s creating a diversion during a New York City auction (which the Deutsche Telekom building in Berlin stood in for),racing over the Barcelona rooftops to retrieve a stolen key, searching the catacombs for the lost treasure, or flying centuries-old ships with a helicopter over the South Pacific, constructing the thrill-seeking sequences demanded visual creativity.
Tom Holland and Sophia Taylor Ali star in Columbia Pictures’ UNCHARTED. Photo by: Clay Enos
Fleischer paid homage to the game with sequences that will be familiar to players but adapted for cinema. For instance, the aforementioned moment when Nate is falling out of a plane, trying to rescue himself by leaping over cargo boxes. It’s a scene from Uncharted 3, and with the help of visual effects overseen by VFX production supervisor Chas Jarrett, as well as on-set supervisors Giles Harding and Neil Impey, they were able to recreate the daring moment.
Tom Holland stars as Nathan Drake in Columbia Pictures’ UNCHARTED.
To pull it off, a set with a number of high-powered fans was designed around a blue screen so the action could be recorded safely near the ground. Holland was lifted into the air with wires, attached to a cargo box. Then a robotic arm would toss him around until he fell off creating a more realistic moment to the stunt. Visual effects then composited the background environment as if Nate was escaping death amongst the clouds.
“The set pieces are so involved and it’s a real combined effort of visual and practical special effects,” says Fleisher. “On set, whether that’s moving a giant pirate ship so it feels like its floating in the sky or hanging your actors off a four-story chandelier in an atrium of a building, you always look to add as much reality to the camera so the visual effects build off of something you created.”
For those who’ve played the game there’s an understanding that Nathan Drake always finds a way to get out of a sticky situation, but Fleisher added a number of twists in the film to keep the audience guessing. “It’s essential for these kinds of movies to keep the audience kind of on their toes,” he says.“Hopefully you can’t predict what’s going to come next, whether it’s a betrayal of trust or an expected turn on their path that leads to problems.”
There’s plenty of Easter Eggs as well, from Nolan North (the voice of Nathan Drake in the game) making an appearance to Nate walking passed a sign that says Kitty Got Wet. These nuggets are scattered throughout the movie and offer fans a chance to channel their inner Nathan Drake and say, “Well, well, well.”
Featured image: Director Ruben Fleischer and Tom Holland on the set of Columbi Pictures UNCHARTED. Photo by: Clay Enos
We finally know when Stranger Things season 4 is premiering on Netflix. It’s been three years since season 3 bowed, so it’s safe to say Stranger Things fans will be happy to hear they won’t be waiting much longer. And, we also now know that season 5 will cap Netflix’s juggernaut sci-fi show. Don’t fret quite yet, Stranger-heads—there’s a potential spinoff series in the works.
Netflix revealed the release date for season 4 via Twitter, which will be arriving in two parts. It looks like we’ll be spending a chunk of our summers with the gang from Hawkins, Indiana, in what will be the biggest season yet:
Stranger Things fans, at long last we can finally reveal when the new season will be premiering!!
Stranger Things 4 is coming to you in two parts: Volume 1 premieres May 27 & Volume 2 quickly follows on July 1. pic.twitter.com/FSG6UOE1yU
Stranger Things creators Ross and Matt Duffer had this to say in an open letter to fans:
“Seven years ago, we planned out the complete story arc for Stranger Things. At the time, we predicted the story would last four to five seasons. It proved too large to tell in four but — as you’ll see for yourselves — we are now hurtling toward our finale.”
As for staggering season four into two parts, the Duffer Brothers explained the reason for the approach:
“It’s been a little while. With nine scripts, over eight hundred pages, almost two years of filming, thousands of visual effects shots, and a runtime nearly twice the length of any previous season, Stranger Things 4 was the most challenging season yet, but also the most rewarding one. Everyone involved is incredibly proud of the results, and we can’t wait to share it with you. Given the unprecedented length, and to get it to you as soon as possible, Season 4 will be released in two volumes.”
As for the potential for spinoff series, the Duffer Brothers teased that, too:
“There are still many more exciting stories to tell within the world of Stranger Things: new mysteries, new adventures, new unexpected heroes. But first, we hope that you stay with us as we finish this tale of a powerful girl named Eleven and her brave friends, of a broken police chief and a ferocious mom, of a small town called Hawkins and an alternate dimension known only as the Upside Down.”
So what’s season 4 going to focus on? Here’s the synopsis:
It’s been six months since the Battle of Starcourt, which brought terror and destruction to Hawkins. Struggling with the aftermath, our group of friends are separated for the first time — and navigating the complexities of high school hasn’t made things any easier. In this most vulnerable time, a new and horrifying supernatural threat surfaces, presenting a gruesome mystery that, if solved, might finally put an end to the horrors of the Upside Down.
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The first voice you hear in Elvis‘s official trailer doesn’t belong to the King himself (played by Austin Butler), but that of Colonel Tom Parker (Tom Hanks), Elvis’s notoriously unscrupulous manager. “There are some who’d make me out to be the villain of this here story,” the Colonel says at the outstart. “Are you born with a destiny,” Parker continues, “or does it just come knocking at your door?” For Parker, his destiny came in the form of a young musician from Memphis, Tennessee.
Hanks is nearly unrecognizable as Parker, but Austin Butler, sporting Elvis’s iconic pompadour, looks born to play the part. The first trailer provides a rocking, ritous introduction to Luhrmann’s film, and the director doesn’t appear to have skimped on his vibrant, maximalist approach in telling the story of the King and the Colonel. Elvis will explore their relationship, one that had an indelible effect on popular culture at large, against the backdrop of a quickly changing America.
Elvis looks like a star-making vehicle for Butler, who seems to have no trouble stepping into the platform shoes of one of the most iconic performers of all time. And what a scene partner he’s got in Hanks, who gets the rare opportunity here to play someone we all don’t wish was our favorite uncle. The supporting cast is excellent, including Helen Thomson as Elvis’s mother, Gladys, Richard Roxburgh as Elvis’s father, Vernon, and DeJonge as Priscilla Presley. For the non-family members, the cast includes Kelvin Harrison Jr. as B.B. King and recent Oscar-nominee Kodi Smit-McPhee as Jimmie Rodgers Snow.
Check out the rocking trailer below. Elvis hits theaters on June 24.
Here’s the official synopsis from Warner Bros.:
The film explores the life and music of Elvis Presley (Austin Butler), seen through the prism of his complicated relationship with his enigmatic manager, Colonel Tom Parker (Hanks). The story delves into the complex dynamic between Presley and Parker spanning over 20 years, from Presley’s rise to fame to his unprecedented stardom, against the backdrop of the evolving cultural landscape and loss of innocence in America. Central to that journey is one of the most significant and influential people in Elvis’s life, Priscilla Presley (Olivia DeJonge).
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