It might have been 31 years since Michael Keaton last donned the cape and cowl in Tim Burton’s Batman Returns in 1992, but the Batsuit still fits the man perfectly. Keaton returns to the role in director Andy Muschietti’s The Flash thanks to some multiverse meddling by Ezra Miller’s titular Flash. The reason the Flash is using his superpowers to race across time is personal and tragic—he’s trying to go back in time to save his mother’s life. This will end up causing some major problems, and it’ll bring Barry into a universe where Keaton’s Bruce Wayne is still the only Batman in Gotham.
Keaton isn’t the only one getting the poster treatment, of course, as The Flash is focused on a few superheroes. Miller’s titular Flash gets his own poster, of course, as does Sasha Calle’s Supergirl. The trio will be uniting to stop General Zod (Michael Shannon), the lunatic who tried his damndest to kill Supergirl’s cousin, a gent by the name of Superman, in 2013’s Man of Steel. Zod is alive and meaner than ever in The Fash, thanks to Barry’s racing across time and multiverses and ending up in a universe where Zod beat Superman. This is why Barry will need to recruit Batman out of retirement (and rely on Supergirl’s immense powers) to defeat Zod.
The Flash is inspired by the “Flashpoint” storyline from the comics, which saw Barry’s attempts to save his mother’s life threaten to shred the multiverse and unleash all sorts of unwanted chaos. What’s it given us, however, is a chance to see Keaton return to a role that made him an icon. The poster gives us a closer look at the particular Batsuit Keaton will wear in the film, which includes the classic yellow emblem that recent iterations of the character, played by Christian Bale in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy and Robert Pattinson in Matt Reeves’ The Batman, have eschewed.
Meanwhile, Sasha Calle’s Supergirl dons a new supersuit, which is mainly red and blue and has echoes of the suit Henry Cavill wore as Superman, while Ezra Miller’s Flash wears a supersuit closer to what the character wears in the comics, with a yellow and white emblem and yellow lightning bolts.
The Flash speeds into theaters on June 16. Check out the posters below.
Michael Keaton returns as Batman in “The Flash.” Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures.Sashe Calle is Supergirl in “The Flash.” Courtesy Warner Bros.Ezra Miller is “The Flash.” Courtesy Warner Bros.
Stunt coordinator Freddie Poole has worked long enough with Sylvester Stallone that, although he may not be able to finish the actor’s sentences, he can sure finish his punches. So when the call came to oversee the action on the Paramount+ series Tulsa King, Poole didn’t hesitate.
Stallone stars as Dwight “The General” Manfredi, an NYC mob capo who, after serving a 25-year prison sentence, is exiled to Tulsa, Oklahoma by his new crime bosses. Created by Taylor Sheridan (Yellowstone) and run by Terence Winter (The Sopranos), Poole knew there’d be plenty of action. Via Zoom, Poole talks about creating the Tulsa King stunts and doubling for Stallone. He also offers a preview of The Bikeriders, his upcoming feature starring Austin Butler and Tom Hardy.
Freddie Poole.
How much of the Tulsa King action was on the page?
The majority — what’s on the page is the framework and then, of course, you add your touch. I would sit with Sly, share ideas, and talk things through. Nowadays, we do previz [pre-visulization]. The action team brings what’s on the page to life and presents it to the director and producers. Sometimes a show takes it almost shot by shot, or, they’ll tweak it depending onthings the director may want to add.
Tell us about your favorite action sequences.
Episode three — the car chase — was a lot of fun. I directed our second unit. We had some roadblocks — no pun intended. Lightning delays shut us down for three hours. Fortunately, we got the majority of what we needed. A lot of that was due to planning ahead. A major component of our success relies on the prep. I didn’t double Stallone here. It was too much pressure tobe the second unit director, stunt coordinator, and stunt double. I felt it was better for me to stay behind the camera so I could manage it all.
So you let Sylvester do the driving?
He did a couple of things. For the big pieces, I brought in Corey Eubanks. He was actually Sly’s stunt driver for Cobra and Get Carter. We got lucky. When I called, he was available. Episode four — “The Big Brawl” at the Ogallala-Land Festival — was a lot of prep, a lot of moving pieces. So many people were involved — the cast, their stunt doubles, and the biker gang. We had around 20 guys. The biker gang is made up of all stunt guys. Our director handpicked them all. I was bringing him photo after photo. I doubled and coordinated at the same time. Dwight hands the bats out and then there’s a shot with a couple of guys loading tanks in a van. He takes a swing at one of them and everything breaks loose — both sides come together almost like a battlefield. We had a nice, cool tracking shot of that happening.
Can you talk about the scene after Dwight learns his daughter was abused by Nico (John Cenatiempo)?
It was intense, very intense. We discussed how that would enrage any father. We took that emotion into the scene and went through the beats with the director and our showrunner. The scene itself was just so brutal — throwing Nico’s face on the burner and his head through the glass. Sly put his stamp on it. The foot stomp at the end and then the line, “You clean it up.” That was all him. He was throwing ideas out all season… which I love. The trip-wire gag in the finale is Sylvester’s. His character, “The General,” is nicknamed after Dwight Eisenhower. One of our conversations was, “He’s the general. He’s looking after his team. He’s got to outsmart the opposition.” And that was our approach. How do we give Dwight’s crew the upper hand?
On the set of “The Tulsa King.” Photo credit: Brian Douglas/Paramount+
You also doubled Stallone in the fight sequences.
I usually double him stateside. I doubled him on Samaritan. I know what he likes. It’s easy to see he likes a brawl. I know what he doesn’t like. He’ll say, “Hey look, I’m not a karate guy.” If you ever see Sylvester Stallone doing martial arts — that’s going to be a first. We always take that into account. It’s always going to be that big punch.
Explain transforming Freddie Poole into Sylvester Stallone.
It takes two and a half hours to apply the prosthetics — six pieces. During prep, production flew me out to Los Angeles and I spent the day doing a head cast. Our hair is very similar, so they styled and colored it and then applied a small hairpiece in the front. I would say I probably doubled him in seven episodes. But you’re talking about multiple times within an episode. I could be going through that process two, three days in a row. We used prosthetics because it doesn’t impede anything. I have full vision. We used a pullover mask on Samaritan. It really affected what you could see peripherally. It was a big challenge if dust or dirt got into those little eye holes. With the mask, you’ve only got one expression. You have some facial movement with the prosthetic. Taking a mask on and off is much easier, but from a performance standpoint, I’d rather be in the prosthetic.
Have you developed a Sylvester Stallone imitation?
People go, “Oh, wow, you move like him.” It’s one of those things I’ve really worked on. The walk and the way he carries himself are things I really pay attention to because it makes the process seamless. Sometimes someone would come up from behind or be next to me and start talking and not realize I’m not Sly. “You’re talking to the wrong person.”
What’s Sly’s reaction?
When you get to know Sylvester Stallone, he’s very funny. He’s like, “Do I really look like that?” He’s taking pictures when I’m half ready. I’m not in the full-on prosthetic and he’s snapping a photo with him in the frame.
Is there more Tulsa King action in your future?
It looks like season two will start filming sometime in the spring. I had an opportunity in our last episode to throw out some ideas. We didn’t have time to shoot the original concept. Once I get to read the season two scripts, we’ll all come to the table and figure out something even better.
Finally, you’ve got The Bikeriders coming out, a big film with a lot of stars. Were there a lot of stunt challenges in it?
It’s a period piece based on a book called The Bikeriders. It’s about The Outlaws, one of the first biker clubs in the Midwest. It starts in the late 50s when they were basically a riding club — a bunch of greasers tinkering with their bikes and hanging out. Then they become more gang-like. We had all those period bikes — kick starts, panhead, flathead — a lot of big pack rides that we had to figure out. The number of motorcycles was a first for me. I’ve done plenty of motorcycle work. We have motorcycles all over Tulsa King. Here, it was overseeing 40 riders. It was a lot of planning because safety is such a huge thing. We got to do a lot of fun shots. We had dirt bikes on tracks and things of that nature. We did a chase with Austin Butler. That was a single motorcycle with cop cars.
Tulsa King is currently streaming on Paramount+.
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“You ready for an adventure?” Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) asks Grogu (or Baby Yoda, if you prefer), and the little guy must have answered the affirmative considering what’s on display here. A brand new teaser for season 3 of The Mandalorian takes us on a dizzying tour of the galaxy and the dangers that lie ahead for our favorite cosmic buddies.
The teaser wastes no time in setting up the adventures to come, providing not just a glimpse of the reunion between Din Djarin and Grogu, but also serving us a slew of Jedis, a bunch of Mandalorians, a ferocious beast stepping up on Grogu in a cave (a mistake, it turns out), and some serious aerial combat with a squadron of TIE-Fighters. There’s a reason why The Mandalorian has become such a global hit and paved the way for all the live-action Star Wars series that have followed—it’s a giddy delight for any Star Wars fan.
Season three also boasts a new infusion of talent behind the scenes. New episodic directors include Black Panther cinematographer Rachel Morrison, Minari writer/director Lee Isaac Chung, The Mandalorian co-star Carl Weathers, and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse co-director Peter Ramsey. Returning directors include Bryce Dallas Howard and Rick Famuyiwa.
“A Mandalorian has to know their way around,” Din Djarin says in the new teaser. “That way, you’ll never be lost.” One of the journeys that Din Djarin and Grogu will need to make is to head back to Mandalore, where Din will see about being forgiven for his transgressions against the Mandalorian way. It looks like he’s going to need his former comrades’ help.
Returning alongside Pascal are Katee Sackhoff, Carl Weathers, Amy Sedaris, Emily Swallow, and Giancarlo Esposito.
The Mandalorian season 3 arrives on Disney+ on March 1. Check out the new teaser below:
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“There may have been a time when Damian had your back, but he doesn’t anymore.”
These are words of wisdom that Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan) is likely going to learn the hard way in Creed III, Jordan’s directorial debut, no less, and the third installment in the Creed trilogy. The Damian referenced in the above line and in the new trailer released during the Super Bowl is Jonathan Majors‘ Damian Anderson. And he has a very specific and long-simmering beef with Adonis that he wants to settle, once and for all, in the ring.
So who is Damian Anderson? One answer is he’s going to be an even greater challenge than Viktor Drago (Florian Munteanu) was in Creed II. If Viktor represented a chance for Adonis to make Ivan Drago pay for killing his father by beating the daylights out of his colossal son, then Damian presents a more complicated battle, with Adonis’s own past. Adonis and Damian were once friends, but their paths diverged on a fateful night, and now Adonis feels a tremendous amount of guilt for having the life he has compared to his former friend. So, he begins Creed III by trying to help get Damian back in the ring. He’ll soon see the wisdom in the words above about Damian’s true intentions. That’s the crux of Creed III, a battle between a man who feels he was wronged and ready to fight for everything he believes he’s owed.
Jordan directs from a script by Keenan Coogler and Zach Baylin, from a story they worked on with original Creed director Ryan Coogler. Joining Jordan and Majors are past Creed alumni, including Tessa Thompson as Bianca, Florian Munteanu as the aforementioned Viktor Drago, and Phylicia Rashad, as Mary Anne Creed. The biggest name not here is Sylvester Stallone, who has officially retired from his Rocky role.
Creed III will hit theaters on March 3, 2023. Check out the new trailer below.
“My memory’s a little fuzzy…are you still a Nazi?” You know that Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford, of course) doesn’t mince words, so it comes as no surprise that this is how he puts a question to Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen), the villain in Ford’s fifth and final turn as the professor of archeology and adventurer extraordinaire.
The new teaser, which dropped during the Super Bowl, reveals a new glimpse at the first film in the franchise to be directed by someone other than Steven Spielberg. Stepping in for the legend is one of the best directors working today, James Mangold, and the teaser once again reminds us that Indy’s adventuring days aren’t entirely behind him. Yet Indy’s hardly the only one with a can-do spirit. Joining him on a plane that’s about to crash is Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), who gamely hopped on board in order to save him. The brief but lively teaser gives us a glimpse of Indy’s final quest and how it connects to adventures past and offers plenty of hope that Mangold has crafted a thrilling sendoff.
Joining Ford, Mikkelsen, and Waller-Bridge in the cast are Antonio Banderas as Renaldo, Toby Jones as Basil, John Rhys-Davies as Sallah, Thomas Kretschmann as Colonel Weber, and Boyd Holbrook (so effective in Mangold’s Logan) as Klaber. We’ve known for a while that Mangold and his team used de-aging technology for at least one scene, reportedly set in 1944, roughly 8 years after the events in Raiders of the Lost Ark. The rest of the film takes place in 1969, with Ford at his current age.
The Dial of Destiny is the fifth film in the franchise, following Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), The Temple of Doom (1984), The Last Crusade (1989), and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008). There’s every reason to believe that Mangold will deliver something special here for Ford’s final turn as Indy. It’s easily one of the most eagerly anticipated films of the year.
Check out the teaser below. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny whips into theaters on June 30, 2023.:
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Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) is in a reflective mood at the top of the new trailer for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. He recounts how he started the Guardians, met a girl (Zoe Saldana’s Gamora), fell in love, and then that girl died. So it’s a sad story. But wait, she came back! But the problem is, according to Star-Lord, she came back….”a total d*ck.” Rude. Unsurprisingly, Gamora’s not having it. You know who agrees? Her sister, Nebula (Karen Gillan). This sets up the trailer’s great twist, which arrives at the very end.
Thus the tone is set for the final cosmic adventure for our not-so-merry band of galactic goofballs. Writer/director James Gunn has, of course, moved on to DC Studios where he’s now the new boss, along with producer Peter Safran, of the entire DC Studios slate. So Vol. 3 is not just the last go-round for our Guardians, but for Gunn’s tour with Marvel Studios. The trailer shows what made the very first Guardians film such a hoot—these oddball characters can’t help but save the universe, even if they can barely stand each other half the time. Along with Star-Lord, Gamora, and Nebula are Drax (Dave Bautista), Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel), Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper), and Mantis (Pom Klementieff). Their new mission will pit them against Adam Warlock (Will Poulter) and a slew of challenges that they’ll only be able to survive if they stick together.
Vol 3. will also reveal Rocket’s tragic backstory, which is connected to the High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji)’s mission to create a perfect society. As Rocket attests, the High Evolutionary’s real motivation wasn’t perfection, but hating the universe as it was. This led to the experiments that turned Rocket into a talking, weapons-loving raccoon.
The Guardians will lay it all on the line for this final hurrah, one that includes a hilarious new wrinkle that was teased at the top of the trailer—when the current iteration of Gamora says it seems like Star-Lord and Nebula are the ones actually in love, there’s a moment where Star-Lord wonders, wait, are we?
The joy of the Guardians films has always been in the banter that surrounds the chaos and mischief and heroics, which will be here in spades. Also, there’s freedom in saying goodbye. Gunn and his collaborators knew that this was it, and Vol. 3 will therefore hold nothing back.
Check out the trailer below. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 hits theaters on May 5:
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“Tell me something, you can go anywhere. Another timeline, another universe. So why do you want to stay and fight to save this one?”
This is the question that Bruce Wayne (Michael Keaton) puts to Barry Miller (Ezra Miller) at the top of the official trailer for The Flash. The answer Barry gives this iteration of Batman? “Because this is the world where my mom lives. I’m not going to lose her again.”
Such are the stakes—personal, heartbreaking—that give The Flash its potency. It’s why Barry Miller will race across timelines, against all odds, to try and right a wrong he can’t live with, that his mother died in a universe he believes he can course correct. It’s why Barry literally runs into Michael Keaton’s Batman to begin with.
“Time has a pattern that it can’t help reliving. Different people, different worlds, drawn to each other like magnets.” This is what Barry says as we see him as a little kid, then as a young man, then facing himself, literally, as he begins to meddle with the multiverse. Barry’s meddling with multiple timelines is extremely dangerous, a point made to him by another version of Batman (Ben Affleck) in another timeline. When Barry tells this Batman he can fix things, he’s reminded he can also destroy them. In fact, he could destroy everything.
And that’s precisely what appears to happen, as Barry ends up unleashing none other than General Zoe (Michael Shannon), the villain that Superman (Henry Cavill) tangled with in Man of Steel. Barry’s messing about with the past and multiple timelines ended up creating a universe with no meta-humans (no Superman, no Wonder Woman, no Aquaman, etcetera), which means he’s the only one who can save the world. Well, Barry and an old/new friend-Micheal Keaton’s Batman.
And then, just as the trailer is unleashing all this madness and it looks as if Barry and Batman are outnumbered and certainly outgunned, it offers another major reveal—Kara Zor-El (Sasha Calle), also known as Supergirl, who arrives to help out Barry, Batman, and the universe they’re defending.
In short, the trailer for The Flash is about as riveting as you could hope for, one that lends credence to DC Studios co-chief James Gunn’s recent declaration that The Flash is one of the best superhero movies he’s ever seen.
Check out the full trailer below. The Flash races into theaters on June 16:
The Fast family is facing their toughest challenge yet, and his name is Dante.
In the first trailer for Fast X, Jason Momoa’s villain Dante is front and center and he’s furious. Dante’s beef with Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) goes back years, and the trailer reveals that his vendetta against Dom and the family began way back during the events of Fast Five (2011) when Dom and the crew took down the Brazilian drug kingpin Hernan Reyes (Joaquim de Almeida) in Rio de Janeiro. Unbeknownst to them, a blood feud began then, because Reyes’ son Dante (Momoa) watched the entire thing go down, and he’s spent the past dozen years planning his revenge on Dom.
The tenth installment in Universal’s mega-popular franchise will once again find Dom and the crew scattered all over the globe, from LA to Rome, Brazil to London, Portugal to Antarctica. Dante’s vengeance is so intense that no one, man, woman, or child, is safe. This includes Dom’s 8-year-old son, Brian (Leo Abelo Perry).
Fast X comes from director Louis Leterrier (Clash of the Titans, The Incredible Hulk) and boasts a stellar ensemble. The returning champions are Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Nathalie Emmanuel, Jordana Brewster, Sung Kang, Jason Statham, John Cena, Scott Eastwood, Helen Mirren, and Charlize Theron. Newcomers joining Momoa include Brie Larson (Captain Marvel, Room) as Tess, a rogue representative from the Agency; Alan Richtson (Reacher) as Aimes, the new head of the Agency; Daniela Melchior (The Suicide Squad) as a Brazilian street racer connected to Dom’s past; and the icon Rita Moreno as Dom and Mia’s Abuelita Toretto.
Check out the trailer below. Fast X zooms into theaters on May 19.
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This week, LeBron James broke Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s all-time NBA scoring record, but one superstar stat seems unlikely to be eclipsed any time soon: the late Bill Russell’s collection of 11 NBA Championship rings. One of the league’s first Black players, Russell led the Boston Celtics from 1957 through the sixties. The team’s reign culminated in 1969 after Russell became the league’s first Black player-coach and led the Celtics to a come-from-behind victory over arch-rivals the Los Angeles Lakers. To celebrate the fiercely competitive six-foot-nine center, documentary maker Sam Pollard directed Bill Russell: Legend, now streaming on Netflix.
Russell, who died in 2022, used his platform as a sports hero to champion civil rights. Honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011 by Barack Obama, Russell marched with Martin Luther King and fought racism at the hands of Boston-area suburbanites who resented his presence in their mostly-segregated community. The two-part series, narrated by Jeffrey Wright and Corey Stoll, tracks Russell’s evolution as an athlete/activist through archival clips; interviews with NBA superstars including Steph Curry, Chris Paul, Magic Johnson, Jerry West, Larry Bird; and commentary from critics like Nelson George, who contextualize his impact on American culture.
Speaking from a New York City hotel room, Pollard delves into the thrills of making a biopic about one of his childhood heroes.
Sam Pollard. Courtesy Netflix.
The documentary features lots of archival game footage featuring Bill Russell in his prime. Did you grow up watching him and the Celtics on TV?
Oh yeah. I remember watching him starting when I was ten years old. Every time we heard Bill Russell was going up against Wilt Chamberlain, we were like wow. In my neighborhood, East Harlem, we used to have discussions about who was the better center. And for me, I always said Bill Russell.
Wilt scored the most points, but Bill Russell won the championships.
Their rivalry was legendary but your documentary points out that Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain actually liked to hang out together when they weren’t competing on the court.
Up until 1969, any time the Celtics came to Philadelphia, Wilt would invite Bill over to his house. When they’d go leave the house, Wilt’s mother would say, “Don’t beat up on my son.” Which is ironic because Bill was six-nine and weighed 40 pounds less than Wilt, who was seven-two. Who’s going to beat up on who?
How did you go about piecing together the life and times of Bill Russell?
There were many books about Bill Russell including his own autobiographies, so I did a lot of reading. Once we understood his trajectory from Monroe, Louisiana to Oakland, California to the University of San Francisco to the 1956 U.S. Olympics to the Boston Celtics, I brought on a team of people to help visualize the story. That included our wonderful archival producer Helen Russell, who did a deep dive to find fantastic footage of Bill Russell going all the way back to the University of San Francisco. You have to do a tremendous amount of homework before you shoot anything.
And then, of course, you conducted interviews. That must have been fun.
It was one of the great pleasures of my long career to sit in a room and interview Julius Erving, Bill Walton, Isiah Thomas, and Larry Bird. And Shaquille O’Neal! Listen, man: I’m six-four, and there I am in Atlanta at 5:30 in the afternoon. Shaq comes in and I’m like “What? This man is huge!” Same thing in California when I went to interview Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. I have a picture of me next to Kareem. I look like I’m five-three!
When he wasn’t busy playing basketball, Bill Russell threw himself into the civil rights struggle.
He did. Bill Russell’s evolution as a phenomenal basketball player parallels the rise of the civil rights movement. Some people might blinders on and say “I’m only going to stick with what I know,” but Bill wasn’t going to just stand on the sidelines. He became an active participant.
Bill Russell: Legend. (L) Bill Russell in Bill Russell: Legend. Cr. Library of Congress/Courtesy of Netflix
Bill Russell had personal reasons to fight racism, given his experiences in the Boston suburb of Reading, right?
After a couple of seasons, Bill bought a home in Reading where he hoped to live a comfortable life with his family. But there was resistance because he was Black. It wasn’t the same level of Jim Crow [racism] as in the south, where he was born, but there was de facto segregation in the north. At one point someone broke into his house, defecated on his bed, and wrote things on the wall. And when Bill decided to move to another house, there was resistance from the community saying they didn’t want him there. These kinds of things fueled him and made him an angry black man. He took that anger and focused it on his game. And he took that anger into this [civil rights] movement. We see him going to the march in Washington listening to Martin Luther King, going to Jackson, Mississippi at the behest of [slain civil rights activist Medgar Evers’ brother] Charles Evers, you see him speaking out about the Boston busing issue, you see him with other Black athletes like Jim Brown and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar at the Cleveland Summit, where Muhammad Ali articulated why he didn’t go into the military service. Bill was front and center. That took a lot of guts.
Professional basketball player Bill Russell, left, speaks with boxer Muhammad Ali during a news conference of top African-American athletes in support of Ali’s refusal to fight in Vietnam on June 4, 1967, in Cleveland. Cr. Tony Tomsic/AP Images/Courtesy of Netflix
Russell even led an impromptu civil rights protest in Lexington, Kentucky when the Celtics were supposed to play an exhibition game there. Can you talk about that incident?
Lexington was segregated at the time. When Bill and the other Black players went down to the hotel restaurant, they were refused service. Bill told Red. Red told hotel management, Bill and [Celtics teammate] Satch Sanders went back to the restaurant, the man said, “We’ll let you eat here.” Then Bill said, “Oh we’re just kidding, we’re not really with the team.” And they were refused again. Then Bill got the support of black players from the other team and they refused to play the game, so you had two all-white teams in this exhibition match. None of this was calculated. It’s just something that happened and Bill took a stand.
Bill Russell had his own way of doing things. He refused to give autographs. And even after all his success with the Celtics, he was not necessarily super popular with fans and sportswriters.
He was not well-liked. That’s one reason he had this level of resentment toward the Boston fans. That’s why he said, “I loved playing for the Celtics, but I didn’t love Boston.”
Bill Russell’s mother died when he was just twelve years old so his father raised him. How did that impact Bill’s character development?
It’s very simply this: Growing up in Monroe, Louisiana, Bill saw his father as a stand-up Black man. After his mother passed away, his father raised Bill and his brother, which was unusual at the time because usually children would be sent to go live with one of their aunts. Bill admired and respected his father and this gave him the ability to say “I’m going to stand up for things too.”
Your film showcases the fruitful collaboration between Bill Russell and Celtics coach Red Auerbach. How did Russell benefit from Auerbach’s guidance?
Red Auerbach understood that every player had his own skill set and knew how to use that skill set to its best advantage for the team. He didn’t bring on Bill Russell because he thought he was the greatest shooter. He saw Bill’s ability to be a great blocker, a great rebounder who could get the ball down the court to someone like K.C. Jones or Bob Cousy and they would score the basket. When he explained that to Bill early on, it took the burden off. Nowadays in basketball, it’s about who’s the best three-point shooter on the team. But Bill Russell wasn’t about being a great shooter. He’s about being a great defender.
Is it true, as the documentary reports, that Bill Russell got cut from the junior varsity team in high school?
Yeah, he did get cut.
How could that possibly be?
Think back to the time — it was a different way to play basketball. His USF coach saw Bill jumping up and said, “No you have to stay on the ground. Play a horizontal game.” This coach didn’t realize that Bill Russell was revolutionizing the game of basketball. As the critic Nelson George says in our film, Bill Russell, Elgin Baylor, Oscar Robertson, and Wilt Chamberlain brought to the NBA a Black athlete aesthetic. It was a completely different way to play the game.
President Barack Obama reaches up to present a 2010 Presidential Medal of Freedom to basketball hall of fame member, former Boston Celtics coach and captain Bill Russell, Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2011, during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington. Cr. Charles Dharapak/AP Images/Courtesy of Netflix
Featured image: Bill Russell, member of the University of San Francisco basketball team, shows how he scores baskets on Feb. 23, 1956. The 6-foot, 10-inch center, ranked one of the best, has helped his team win 20 straight games during the current season. Cr. AP Images/Courtesy of Netflix
65 hours before the Super Bowl, Sony Pictures has revealed a new teaser for 65 that reveals a very different type of big game.
The new spot dropped precisely 65 hours before the Philadelphia Eagles play the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl (go Birds). The symmetry between timing and title has to do with the film’s premise, which posits a scenario in which Driver plays Mills, the pilot of a spaceship who crashes on a mysterious planet filled with extremely massive, strong, and fast predators. Those predators? They’re dinosaurs. The planet? Earth. The timeframe? 65 million years ago. The question? How is this possible?
The how question is the central mystery of 65, which finds Driver’s spaceship pilot Mills now solely responsible for Koa (Arianna Greenblatt), the only other survivor from their ship which once housed 35 souls. Are Mills and Greenblatt human beings who somehow traveled back through time? Did humans evolve to technological maturity 65 million years ago, travel off planet, then crash land back on Earth accidentally? They’ve got the high-tech weaponry to suggest they certainly aren’t from 65 million years ago, unless, humans had evolved on another planet entirely (which would make them aliens) and ended up on Earth by accident. So many questions!
65 comes from directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, the duo who previously co-wrote, along with John Krasinski, A Quiet Place. The film is produced by none other than Sam Raimi. With these creative forces leading the ship, 65 has the potential to be an early-year thriller that’s fun, fast-paced, pared-down, and tense. Beck and Woods have traded those sound-hunting aliens from A Quiet Place for prehistoric carnivores, but there’s no doubt they’ve deployed what they learned from their critically acclaimed work in that film to great effect here.
And besides—Adam Driver versus dinosaurs? That’s a premise we can get behind. The mystery of how all this is possible is yet more reason to go see 65.
Check out the new teaser below. 65 hits theaters on March 10:
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A very different version of your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man is swinging over to Amazon.
Sony Pictures Television and Amazon Studios are going to bring a live-action Spider-Man Noir series to the streaming service, based on a script from The Lost City and Mortal Kombat scribe Oren Uziel. The first time we met Spider-Man noir was in animated form in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (voiced by Nicolas Cage, no less), and the producers of that film, Chris Miller and Phil Lord (the latter of whom also co-wrote the Into the Spider-Verse script) are developing the series with Uziel and will executive produce with him, alongside Amy Pascal.
Spider-Man Noir first swung onto the pages of a Marvel comic in 2009, and he operates in an alternate Noir universe in which iconic Marvel characters exist as, you guessed it, pulpy noir characters, all set in that most noir of decades, the 1930s. While still named Peter Parker, Spider-Man Noir is a hardboiled character, far from the sometimes goofy but ultimately heroic New York teenager we’ve seen in the past, who solves crimes and takes no guff.
This will be one of many Spider-Man-related stories that Sony and Amazon will be teaming up to tell, including Silk: Spider Society, from The Walking Dead showrunner Angela Kang. Considering Spider-Man is one of the most iconic comic creations of all time, with a slew of characters within his orbit (Sony says more than 900), you can expect a massive web of upcoming stories.
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The first trailer for Airhas arrived, the latest team-up between Ben Affleck and Matt Damon (they last sparred together in Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel, which they also wrote with Nicole Holofcener), only this time, the two are on the same side as they tell one of the greatest sports marketing and business stories of all time.
Affleck and Damon are teaming up to tell the true-life story of Nike co-founder Phil Knight (Affleck) and former Nike executive Sonny Vaccaro (Damon), centered on Vaccaro’s energetic efforts to sign a young phenom by the name of Michael Jordan.
When Nike was courting Jordan, he had yet to become the most transformational player of his time. In fact, he’d never played in an NBA game. Yet Nike at the time was well out of its league against the NBA’s shoe company of record, so to speak, Converse, or Adiddas for that matter, and they needed a signature athlete to help expand their basketball shoe division. It was Vaccaro who saw something nobody else did at the time—the young kid from North Carolina was the future. The key was for Vaccaro to nab Jordan before he signed with Converse or anybody else.
So how does he do it? The personal touch—Vaccaro shows up at the doorstep of the Jordan family, where Michael’s parents Deloris (Viola Davis) and James (Julius Tennon) are going to need to be convinced Nike is the right choice for their son. Vaccaro doesn’t just want to win over Michael’s parents, but he dreams of building an entire shoe line just around Jordan. It seemed pie-in-the-sky at the time, but we now know it was a stroke of genius. Jordan ultimately did sign with Nike, and the deal became the most lucrative, game-changing relationship between an athlete and a brand in history, and helped launch a sneaker industry that has become a global colossus, supercharging the NBA’s image across the world.
Affleck directs from a script by Alex Convery, and the cast includes some stellar performers alongside the aforementioned Affleck, Damon, Davis, and Tennon. They include Jason Bateman, Chris Messina, Chris Tucker, Marlon Wayans, and Jessica Green.
If you’re curious about who plays Michael Jordan, well, nobody does. As THRreported last April, Jordan will be “a mythic figure hovering above the movie and never seen, even as Vaccaro tries to reach him by gaining access to those close to him and around him.”
Check out the trailer below. Air hits theaters on April 5, and then will move to Prime Video after that.
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The beer-guzzling creep is one of the worst dog owners in the world, as evidenced by his treatment of Reggie (Will Ferrell), his border terrier that he verbally abuses and routinely drives to the middle of nowhere and abandons. For a while, Reggie believes it’s a game, but once he meets new pals Bug (Jamie Foxx), Maggie (Isla Fisher), and Hunter (Randall Park), he learns that he, like them, is a stray. The sweet-natured Reggie is suddenly filled with rage, and he hatches a plan to get back at Doug in the one way he knows will really hurt his former owner. Those details, it turns out, are pretty raunchy, and Strays itself is that rare talking dog movie that has enough curse words to make Quentin Tarantino proud.
Strays comes from director Josh Greenbaum (Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar) and writer Dan Perrault (American Vandal), and neither has skimped on the shenanigans a bunch of stray dogs can get into. The world is their oyster (if that oystery was sourced from a trashcan), and along with revenge, they really just want to have fun. Their version of fun includes doing unmentionable things to garden gnomes, and Strays seems to revel in the debauchery that is a dog’s life.
Joining Ferrell, Forte, Foxx, Fisher, and Park are Harvey Guillén, Brett Gelman, Rob Riggle, Josh God, Sofia Vergara, and Jamie Demetriou. Super producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller are also on board.
Check out the trailer below. Strays hits theaters this June 9.
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Disney is dialing up a slew of its most revered animated franchises.
Disney CEO Bob Iger revealed that some of the biggest hits in Disney animation history are getting second, third, and even fifth installments. Zootopia 2, Frozen 3, and Toy Story 5 are all in the works Iger said on an investors call. “We are leaning into our unrivaled brands,” the Disney chief said.
Toy Story is perhaps the single most venerated animated franchise of the modern era, ushering in an era of increasingly sophisticated storytelling, animation technology, and voice acting to deliver hit after hit. The first film, starring Tom Hanks as the toy cowboy Woody and Tim Allen as the toy space adventurer Buzz Lightyear, bowed in 1995, stunning audiences, and each iteration has only burnished the franchise’s reputation as the cream of the animation crop. Toy Story 4, which hit theaters in 2019, was a critical and commercial smash, bringing in more than $1 billion at the box office.
After Frozen‘s gangbusters debut in 2013, Frozen II arrived in 2019, once again starring Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel,and drew huge audiences and critical acclaim, ending with $1.4 billion.
Zootopia was released to critical acclaim in 2016, earning more than $1 billion with a cast led by Jason Bateman and Gennifer Goodwin.
Disney is looking to get back to the animation franchises that audiences have loved, but there are still new titles on the horizon. Pixar’s Elemental is due in theaters on June 16, while Disney Animation’s Wish arrives on November 22.
Iger also revealed a new Avatar experience headed to Disneyland in Anaheim, California. This would be Disney’s second Avatar-related immersive world, with The World of Avatar already operating at Disney World in Orlando, Florida.
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While Owen Wilson might be playing a man named Carl Nargle in the first trailer for Paint, legions of folks of a certain age will recognize the inspiration for the character, the legendary, beloved painter Bob Ross. Ross was the lovable, be-permed host of PBS’s “The Joy of Painting” for eleven years, from 1983 to 1994, until he passed away, far too young, at 52 years old in 1995. For those of us who grew up in the 80s, Ross was a curious, impossibly likable character who made painting seem, if not easy, then at least fun and relaxing.
In Paint, Wilson’s Nargle is an equally beloved TV painter, headlining a public access show in Vermont, and the state is in his thrall and the world is his canvass. With Wilson’s offbeat charm and the guiding light that was Bob Ross’s soothing TV persona, Paint looks like a loving tribute to a man who made the world seem like a more beautiful place.
However, Paint isn’t merely an homage to a beloved icon of yesteryear. It’s a comedy, and soon enough, Nargle’s time in the spotlight is threatened when a younger artist burst onto the scene. Enter Ambrosia (Ciara Renée), a newcomer with a pleasing demeanor, painting skills, and someone who’s equally telegenic. Suddenly, Vermont is enthralled with Ambrosia’s show, and Carl’s hold on the state begins to slip.
Paint was written and directed by Brit McAdams. The cast also includes Michaela Watkins (Werewolves Within), Wendi McLendon-Covey (Bridesmaids), Lusia Strus (Search Party), Stephen Root (Barry), and newcomer Lucy Freyer.
Check out the trailer for Paint, which hits theaters on April 7.
Here’s the synopsis from IFC Films:
Owen Wilson stars as Carl Nargle, Vermont’s #1 public TV painter who is convinced he has it all: a signature perm, custom van, and fans hanging on his every stroke… until a younger, better artist steals everything (and everyone) Carl loves.
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While the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs are doing battle on the field in Glendale Arizona at the Super Bowl (go Birds), Ghostface is going to be invading New York City. Paramount Pictures has released its big Super Bowl spot for Scream VI, and it reveals a super-charged Ghostface haunting the mean streets.
The latest installment in the venerable slasher franchise comes only a year after the successful Scream (technically the fifth installment, although it didn’t include a number in the title), and that same directing team of Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin are back, bringing Ghostface to the Big Apple.
Gayle Weathers (Courtney Cox) returns, alongside sisters Sam Carpenter (Melissa Barrera) and Tara Carpenter (Jenna Ortega), who moved to New York to rebuild their lives after the horrific events in the California suburbs of Woodsboro. Returning characters also include Mindy Meeks-Martin (Jasmin Savoy Brown), and Chad Meeks-Martin (Mason Gooding). Newcomers include Jack Champion, Henry Czerny, Liana Liberato, Dermot Mulroney, Devyn Nekoda, Tony Revolori, Josh Segarra, and Samara Weaving. They’ll all be dealing with a seemingly even more sadistic and unhinged Ghostface, who will be stalking them in the streets (and the subways) of the biggest city in the country.
Paramount released the Super Bowl spot early, which makes the case clear that this time around, all bets are off. As producer Chad Villella promised The Hollywood Reporterin the past, Scream VI will “subvert things that have been established as the new rules and play outside those parameters. Let’s break the rules now that we just re-created. And just go for it. I think you have to really go there.”
Check out the Super Bowl spot below. Scream VI arrives on March 10.
WandaVision director Matt Shakman feels like the perfect fit to breathe life back into one of the most iconic super-groupings in the Marvel canon. So, it’s exciting to hear that Shakman has confirmed with Colliderthat his Fantastic Four is on pace to start filming next year.
Shakman was talking with Collider about his upcoming series The Consultanton Prime Video. When asked about how his feature film debut for the MCU was going, Shakman said that filming for Fantastic Four will begin “early next year.” Shakman is coming off his Emmy-nominated run helming the very first Marvel Studios series on Disney+, the aforementioned WandaVision, which pulled off the seemingly impossible task of meshing a slew of beloved older sitcoms into a Marvel-ian world of Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen)’s making, as she essentially trapped a New Jersey suburb in a liminal zone between reality and fiction so she could live out a peaceful life with the love of her life, a resurrected Vision (Paul Bettany).
Pulling off WandaVision has prepared Shakman for the rigors of re-introducing the Fantastic Four into the MCU. Before that, Shakman’s not only been working on The Consultant but Apple TV’s upcoming untitled Godzilla series which follows the events of Godzilla vs. Kong. Once he’s cleared his plate of that, his attention will fully turn to Fantastic Four.
“Fantastic Four is pretty much my life until Valentine’s Day of 2025,” Shakman said to Collider about his near future and the release date for the hotly anticipated film. If you’re hoping that he dished on who, exactly, would be playing the title four characters, Shakman was staying mum. Despite John Krasinski playing Mr. Fantastic in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, the actor has said it wasn’t anything more than his chance to play in the Marvel sandbox for a day, and Shakman hasn’t given any casting updates. “All the casting stuff you see is just rumors,” he told Collider. “We are early in our process there. We have nothing to announce right now, and certainly, when we do we’ll let you know.”
Next out for Marvel Studios is Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantuamania, which introduces Phase 5’s Big Bad, Jonathan Majors’ Kang the Conqueror. The film lands on February 17. We’ll let you know when we hear anything else on Shakman’s Fantastic Four, which should be one of Phase 6’s most crucial films.
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Becky Cline knows a thing or two about wearing multiple hats in her long, successful career at Disney. In fact, as the Director of the Walt Disney Archives, Cline is responsible for one of the most iconic hats of all time (belonging to a certain magical British nanny—more on her later), and a treasure trove of other iconic props, costumes, and more. Cline’s remit is sweeping, as she’s charged with collecting and preserving the entire breadth of Disney history and making sure this treasure trove is available to documentarians and other filmmakers, historians, writers, and fans all over the world.
Cline’s also a passionate advocate for the preservation of these priceless cultural artifacts and brings genuine joy to what she calls her dream job. We had a chance to chat with her about the tireless but never boring work of an archivist, how her job has changed alongside filmmaking technology, and the movie that ignited her enchantment with all things Disney.
Adriana Caselotti was the live-action reference model for the character of Snow White
You’ve devoted a large portion of your career to Disney, and I’d love to hear what your work means to you.
I’ve been with Disney since 1989. I started not too long after college, so I’ve been here for 33 years, and 29 of that in the Walt Disney Archives. So, it’s obviously very important to me, a very big part of my life. I’m very emotionally attached to Disney; I love the company, and I love what I do. I often get questioned by people who say, ‘Oh, you have my dream job.’ And I have to admit that, well, yes, I do. I have my dream job. It’s such an honor and a real blessing in my life to be able to work with the people that I work with. I think probably my favorite part is working with all these extremely talented people and supporting the work that they do.
Disney is one of the most recognizable companies and brands in the world, with a long, rich history. How do you help not only preserve that history but share it with the world?
A very large part of our job is the conservation and preservation of assets and making them available. But one of our directives is to help the company keep its history alive and to make sure it’s accurate. We rely on our history so much—when you think about a film like Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs, that came out in 1937. That’s a very old film, but because it’s animation and because it’s still so relevant to children today, whether it’s theme park attractions or streaming on Disney+, it’s really important that the history of that film is still available to our filmmakers, to our marketing and press and publicity and publishing people, to the people who make toys, and those who do attractions at the park. A well-indexed collection of our history is really important to Disney, probably more so than anywhere else I can think of.
Color still depicting a press release for Walt Disney’s animated feature Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Courtesy Disney; Walter Elias, Lillian Bounds
Let’s talk about the nitty-gritty of the work you do, especially considering what a deep archive Disney has. What’s an average day like for you?
I’ll go back a few years before Covid because running an archive remotely was a challenge, but we managed. On a normal day, I never really know what’s going to happen when I walk in the door. We oversee everything worldwide for the company from a historical standpoint. So, it’s not just the Disney brand; it’s also the Archivesfor ABC, Fox, Lucasfilm, Marvel, Walt Disney Imagineering, National Geographic, and all of these big, big groups that fall under the Walt Disney Company umbrella. We get calls from all over the world, and, we also end up being a clearing house for information and get a lot of calls from within the company. Where can I get this photo? What book should I look in to find this?’ And then I have meetings where I touch base with researchers and filmmakers, documentarians, people who come in to look at some of the merchandise assets that we have to support an effort with our consumer products area, or we’ll talk to Disney publishing, as we do a lot of proofreading and fact-checking for publications and magazines. We also work very closely with D23, which is the official Disney fan club.
And you still haven’t gotten to the work you do with the actual assets you take care of from film and TV productions.
Yes, our regular work is bringing in all the sample materials and assets from our film productions, television sets, and theme parks. Whenever a park attraction is reimagined, you know, often the iconic pieces from those attractions that aren’t going to be reused, so they come back to the Archivesfor preservation. When a film wraps or when a television season ends, we go in and make our selections of what assets we’d like to keep to share the history of that film or series down the road in exhibitions or in books. We have a collections team; we have an exhibitions team, and we also have our research team, and a digitization lab. We have a huge photo library that now has about 25 million images that we oversee. So, there’s a lot going on at any given time.
Walt Disney holding cels from Walt Disney’s animated feature Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Courtesy Walt Disney Studios
When a film or television series wraps, tell me about the asset collection process. How are those decisions made on what gets preserved from, say, a Disney+ series like Moon Knight or a film like Jungle Cruise?
One of the obvious things that we do is make sure that we watch everything. Fortunately, we have a fairly large staff now, so one person doesn’t have to watch every single thing, but we do have a manager of acquisitions, and we make wish lists. I’ll sit down and watch a film and say, ‘Okay, these are the things that are important to the plot or the story.’ We’ll also look at who are the people that are in the film, especially in cameo roles. Mary Poppins Returns is a great example. You know, there are cameo roles sprinkled throughout the film. Of course, we want the costumes of the major stars, but if somebody like Angela Lansbury is making a cameo appearance, we want to get Angela’s costume because she’s a big Disney star. Even if it’s a tiny little role, who wore it is important.
Angela Lansbury in “Mary Poppins Returns.” Courtesy Walt Disney Studios
Mary Poppins Returns is an interesting case in that your archives were actually used in the film?
Yes. Sometimes, old costumes and props will show up in new films. If you look at the opening credits for Mary Poppins Returns, some of the artwork that you see came from the original 1964 film. Or when you watch a film like Saving Mr. Banks, the filmmakers came to the archives to research the period and to research the people, because they had to recreate Pamela Travers [the author of the “Mary Poppins” books] and Walt Disney himself.
Concept art for Walt Disney’s live-action/animated feature Mary Poppins. Courtesy Walt Disney Archives.
And what about props?
Props are a little different. If a film is named after a prop, like if you’re watching Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, we better have the Dead Man’s Chest. Or The Curse of the Black Pearl, we have the Black Pearl. If it’s important to the plot of the story, then we make sure to ask for it. It’s a very carefully curated wish list based on a number of criteria.
Mackenzie Crook, Lee Arenberg holding the Dead Man’s Chest in “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.” Courtesy of Walt Disney Studios.
Can you give me an example of the criteria?
The main thing I look at is, down the road, if I was going to do an exhibit about this film 10 years from now, what would I expect to see in that exhibit? And then that kind of informs the things that we ask for. We also ask if we need supporting materials, or maybe there’s a sequence where somebody is performing, and there are background dancers. Well, should we get some of the background dancers so that we can make a vignette in an exhibit?
You’ve worked at the Disney archives since the pre-digital age, how has your job changed as filmmaking and computer technology have changed so dramatically?
When I started at the archives, if somebody needed to know how many cherries were on Mary Poppins’ hat, they would call us because there was nowhere else to find that out. Now, one of our focuses is digitizing the material that we have, which is millions of pieces and getting all of that into a format where it can be shared internationally, directly into people’s homes, it’s a worthy goal, but it’s going to take some time.
Mary Poppins Hat. This is one of the hats worn by Julie Andrews in Mary Poppins (1964). Walt Disney Archives staff members found the piece in the Disney Studio’s Wardrobe Department just a few short years ago. It is a black straw hat with faux cherries and flower blossoms, and was featured in the film as part of Mary’s instantly recognizable “traveling costume.” Courtesy Walt Disney Archives.
Do you have any favorite props or costumes?
Just from a geek standpoint, the original storybook that opens Sleeping Beauty, which was also one of my favorite films as a child. It’s a gorgeous piece of artwork, with Eyvind Earle’s beautiful original art inside. There’s a live-action shot at the beginning of the film, and it’s this book, and it opens up to show this original art, and then you go into the art and the rest of the film is animated. And then, obviously, I’m a fan of Mary Poppins. It was the very first film I saw as a child, and I was absolutely enchanted and fell in love with it. So, the materials that are in the collection from Mary Poppins are very dear to me. And my favorite prop from Mary Poppins is probably the snow globe, which almost got thrown away, but was saved at the last second by a janitor who found it in a trash can back in the early 70s. He didn’t know what it was, but he thought it was cute, so he put it up on the shelf. Then when the Archives was founded in 1970, Dave Smith, who was our original founder, saw it, knew what it was, and said, ‘I need to keep this for the Archives.’ So that’s a piece that is very, very dear to me. Mary Poppins is one of our crown jewels and encapsulated in that little snow globe is the entire theme of the film, which is that it doesn’t take much to show your love. It’s such a simple thought, but it’s all in that little piece, and the fact that one little object from a film could mean so much to a film that is so important to our history.
The original snow globe in “Mary Poppins.” Courtesy Walt Disney Archives.
Featured image: A black and white still depicting an Ink & Paint artist holding a painting of the Seven Dwarfs for Walt Disney’s animated feature Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Courtesy Walt Disney Archives, Photo Library.
Dichen Lachman was perfectly cast in Severance as Ms. Casey, a fully severed (in the series’ parlance) employee of Lumon Industries who ran the nefarious company’s Wellness Sessions. Imposingly calm and deeply connected to Lumon’s chilling strategy for creating the most efficient and pliable workforce, to be brought to Ms. Casey’s office for a Wellness Session was one of the series’ most unsettling events. It would turn out, by the end of the excellent first season, that Lachman’s role in Severance was key to the entire season’s mystery.
Now, The Hollywood Reporter has the scoop that Lachman is trading in her corporate attire and impenetrable demeanor for director Wes Ball’s upcoming Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, which posits a world where humans are not only not in control, but they’ve been overtaken by numerous societies of apes.
The latest Apes film follows the events in the third and final film in the rebooted trilogy, War for the Planet of the Apes, in which The Batman director Matt Reeves delivered the stunning conclusion to the story of Caesar (Andy Serkis), the chimpanzee who led his fellow apes into a hard-won independence from human beings. In Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, the story will pick up many years after Caesar’s final battle with the human world, with various ape societies using (or contorting) Caesar’s beliefs and efforts to build a just ape society into flourishing empires. Humanity, meanwhile, has been reduced to an even more brutal existence, outmaneuvered, outsmarted, and defeated by the apes.
The apes are hardly a perfect society in this new film, however, as THR reveals the film will focus on one brutal ape leader who enslaves his fellow apes, and a young human woman caught in another ape’s journey to find freedom. The script comes from Josh Friedman, Amanda Silver, Rick Jaffa, and Patrick Aison.
Lachman joins cast members Freya Allen, William H. Macy, Kevin Durand, and Owen Teague. There’s no word yet on who Dichen is playing, but we know she’ll bring the goods. As we mentioned, her role in Severance turned out to be one of the keys to the entire saga, with her connection to Adam Scott’s Mark revealing one of season one’s most crucial mysteries. She’s a star worth watching.
Talk about a major swap of star power in TV’s top-rated drama.
Deadline reports that Yellowstoneco-creator and showrunner Taylor Sheridan is looking to make a major change in the hugely popular western, ending the current series with its current crop of stars, including lead Kevin Costner, and moving next season—its’ sixth—with Matthew McConaughey in talks to star. It’s not yet clear how many current cast members from the series would continue on in the one led by McConaughey.
So far, this is technically speculation and word-of-mouth, as a Paramount Network spokesperson told Deadline the following: “We have no news to report. Kevin Costner is a big part of Yellowstone and we hope that’s the case for a long time to come. Thanks to the brilliant mind of Taylor Sheridan, we are always working on franchise expansions of this incredible world he has built. Matthew McConaughey is a phenomenal talent with whom we’d love to partner.”
Costner stars as John Dutton in the series, alongside Luke Grimes, Kelly Reilly, Wes Bentley, Cole Hauser, Kelsey Asbille, and Gil Birmingham. He is currently directing and starring in a multi-part Western called Horizon for Warner Bros. Pictures and New Line. According to Deadline, scheduling issues have led to the decision to move on to the new version of Yellowstone with McConaughey starring. He’d be stepping into Sheridan’s sprawling Western universe that also includes the two prequel series, 1883 and 1923.
Costner’s turn as the weathered hitman John Dutton has been the fulcrum around which the drama has swirled in the series, bringing the Dutton Family no small amount of danger. Their Montana ranch has been attacked, both violently and through shady political and legal schemes, with various factions trying to rip the ranch away. Deadline isn’t sure whether the McConaughey-led franchise extension would be set on the Dutton ranch in Montana or somewhere else.
Sheridan’s one of the busiest people in the business, having already created 1883 within the Yellowstone universe, which was a limited series that bowed in December 2021 and starred Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, and Sam Elliott and revealed how the Duttons came to own the land upon which the Yellowstone ranch was built. Then with 1923, which bowed in December of 2022, Harrison Ford and Hellen Mirren starred as the generation of Duttons that survived prohibition, the Great Depression, and all the trauma and turmoil of that era. There are two more potential series, set in the 1940s and 1960s, being worked out.
There’s yet more in Sheridan’s universe, including Bass Reeves, starring David Oyelowo as the titular Black deputy U.S. Marshall, a contemporary western titled 6666 set on the Four Sixes Ranch in Texas, and freestanding contemporary series Tulsa King, starring Sylvester Stallone, Mayor of Kingstown, starring Jeremy Renner, and Lioness, an espionage series starring Nicole Kidman, Zoe Saldana, and Morgan Freeman.
And now it sounds as if Matthew McConaughey is going to join the Sheridan Universe. Who could blame him?
Featured image: SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – NOVEMBER 20: Matthew McConoughey launched an off-grid cabin he co-designed with Wild Turkey’s charity initiative, With Thanks, at The Royal Botanic Gardens November 19, 2019 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Brendon Thorne/Getty Images for Wild Turkey)
