Newly minted DC Studios co-chief James Gunn will be writing and directing Superman: Legacy in one of the studio’s most marquee upcoming movies.
Legacy will feature a younger actor in the role of Clark Kent, will be Gunn’s next directorial effort, and is one of the most important new films for the revamped studio under the new vision Gunn is implementing alongside his DC Studios co-chief Peter Safran. Gunn has been working on the script for a while now—since before he and Safran took the reigns at DC—and it’ll be the first film in their tenure and the first new stand-alone Superman film since Zack Snyder’s 2013 Man of Steel, which starred Henry Cavill. Cavill went on to portray Superman in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) and Justice League (2017) and had a brief cameo in Black Adam (2022). Cavill’s time as Clark Kent has come to an end, and the role will now be one of the most sought-after in Hollywood.
Superman: Legacy will focus on this younger version of the iconic character, which Safran described this way to reporters in January when he and Gunn unveiled the first part of their DC Studios slate: “It focuses on Superman balancing his Kryptonian heritage with his human upbringing. He is the embodiment of truth, justice, and the American way. He is kindness in a world that thinks that kindness is old-fashioned.”
Gunn is no stranger to the superhero realm, of course, with his third and final Guardians of the Galaxy installment coming out this May 5 for Marvel Studios. He also helmed The Suicide Squad in 2021 for DC Studios—well before he took over—and both the Guardians franchise and Suicide Squad allowed him to play with some of the lesser-known, goofier superheroes in the Marvel and DC canon.
Clearly, that will not be the case with Superman: Legacy, which features arguably the most iconic superhero of them all (Batman die-hards will quibble) and will present Gunn a chance to meld his offbeat sensibility with a character his own co-chief described as literally embodying kindness. It will be fun to see what the man who brought us a talking tree (the Guardians‘ Groot), a talking raccoon (the Guardians‘ Rocket), and all those weirdos in The Suicide Squad does with such a beloved, wholesome American hero.
Superman: Legacy is slated for a July 11, 2025 release date and will be the first feature for DC Studios under Gunn and Safran’s leadership.
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Featured image: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – AUGUST 02: James Gunn attends the Warner Bros. premiere of “The Suicide Squad” at Regency Village Theatre on August 02, 2021 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images)
Quentin Tarantino has long said he would eventually stop making films, even offering a specific timeline for his retirement—either 10 films or by the time he was 60. Well, he’s made nine films thus far, and he turns 60 later this month. So, as he preps his new film, there’s widespread speculation that this will indeed be Tarantino’s final film.
The auteur behind some of the most iconic features of the last thirty years, from Pulp Fiction to Inglourious Basterds to his surprisingly lovely (but yes, still bloody) portrait of Tinsel Town in 1969 in his 2019 hit Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, is nearing the moment where he’ll share his latest screenplay to potential buyers. This process requires studio executives to travel to the office of Tarantino’s agent in Beverly Hills and read the script in the conference room. This secretive process was put in place after the script for Tarantino’s 2015 film The Hateful Eightgot leaked.
This is the same approach Tarantino took with Once Upon a Time, in which he’ll want both a healthy theatrical release window and eventual ownership of the film’s copyright. With Sony Pictures’ Once Upon a Time, Tarantino struck a deal that will revert the copyright back to him after 20 years.
The Hollywood Reporterscoops that the film is titled The Movie Critic and will be set in Los Angeles in the late 1970s with a female lead, but any further details are being kept under lock and key. THR speculates that the film could focus on the legendary movie critic, essayist, and novelist Pauline Kael, who worked briefly as a consultant for Paramount in the late 1970s—a position she took after a prompt from Warren Beatty. Kael was a brilliant and fearless writer and critic, and THR writes that Tarantino is known to have an abiding respect for her.
Tarantino has the ability to cast pretty much anybody he wants for decades now. Margot Robbie, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Brad Pitt starred in Once Upon a Time, and he’s got a longstanding partnership with Samuel L. Jackson, along with a slew of other massive stars. If The Movie Critic is indeed Tarantino’s final film, there is likely not a single actor alive who wouldn’t leap at the chance to be a part of the movie.
Who will end up with the project is anyone’s guess, but Tarantino has a good relationship with Sonyand boss Tom Rothman. That film garnered 10 Oscar nominations, two wins, and made more than $377 million worldwide. There’s always immense interest in any Tarantino film, but his last? Movie lovers far and wide will make sure they see it, and our guess is they’ll want to see it in the theater.
Amazon’s Blade Runner 2099 has landed a director who knows a thing or two about pulling off an extremely ambitious series. Four-time Emmy nominee Jeremy Podeswa—you can read our interview with him about directing Game of Thrones here—will direct the pilot and serve as the series’ producing director and executive producer. Podeswa will also be a vital cog for the creative team in creating the first-ever television series adaptation of one of the most iconic sci-fi film franchises of them all.
The series boasts the original Blade Runner director Ridley Scott as executive producer, with Silka Luisa (Shining Girls) serving as showrunner, and Blade Runner 2049 screenwriter Michael Green as a non-writing executive producer. Tom Spezialy is also on the team, serving as an executive producer and writer.
The series will follow the events depicted in Blade Runner 2049 and the anime series Blade Runner: Black Lotus. Considering the names and talent involved, the series will aim to look every bit as iconically distressed and dystopic as the original films did.
Podeswa is a veteran director who helmed some of Game of Thrones‘ meatiest episodes (including the season seven finale) and HBO’s other epic mafia series, Boardwalk Empire, as well their WWII miniseries The Pacific and Apple’s The Mosquito Coast.
There haven’t been any cast announcements yet for the series, which has been in the work now for a few years. Scott first revealed that he was working on bringing Blade Runner to the small screen back in November 2021, and then Amazon said it was in development there in February 2022. There’s also still no description of the plot, but you can be sure that when we hear something, we’ll share it.
For more on Amazon Prime Video, check out these stories:
Cinematographer C. Kim Miles has shot everything from TV superhero The Flash and Robert Zemeckis’ miniaturized soldier epic Welcome to Marwen to teen cannibalism drama Yellowjackets and Michelle Yeoh‘s upcoming miniseries The Brothers Sun, which he describes as “Crazy Rich Asians meets John Wick.” But until director Bobby Farrelly’s Champions came along, Miles had never worked with a cast of developmentally challenged actors. “It was one of the most inspiring experiences I’ve ever had on a movie set,” Miles tells The Credits.
Champions, based on the 2018 Spanish comedy Compeones,features Woody Harrelson as a disgraced coach in charge of The Friends, a team of basketball players with disabilities that include Down syndrome and autism. Assisted by a player’s sister (Kaitlin Olson) and rec center manager (Cheech Marin), Harrelson’s Marcus learns to respect the athletes (portrayed by Kevin Iannucci, James Day Keith, Madison Tevlin, Tom Sinclair, Joshua Felder, Ashton Gunning, Matthew Von Der Ahe, Alex Hintz, Casey Metcalfe, and Bradley Edens) in their bid to compete in the Special Olympics.
Miles, raised in Malaysia, shot his first TV commercial at the age of 15, then migrated to British Columbia and studied photography at the University of Victoria before working his way up from gaffer and camera operator jobs to become an ASC Award-winning DP. Speaking from the Georgia set of a new Farrelly-directed movie-in-progress, Miles talks about the thrill of capturing Champions’ pure performances and the chills of shooting on location in Canada during the dead of winter.
You’ve handled a wide range of genres but the field of comedy—not so much. Did you have a specific approach in mind for capturing the comedic beats in Champions?
Not really. The main motivating force for me was to keep it honest and to keep things rooted so it didn’t feel like too much of a comedy. I didn’t want The Friends, in particular, to come across as cartoonish so we were very careful about how we legitimatized these actors on set while still trying to pull some comedy out of the story and make something light-hearted. I think we mostly got there. There were times when I was thinking: “Hmm, I wonder if this is too much?” But all in all, I was pretty happy with how it worked out.
Did you have concerns about working with intellectually challenged actors?
My concerns were obvious: Are we going to be able to make our days? The first day we met the cast, it was sort of what I expected. They’re very private people, sort of withdrawn, a function of not having [much of] a social network. Your world is your immediate family and your co-workers, and now all of a sudden you’re coming to [a movie set] every day with 100 some people — I can’t imagine anything more intimidating. But over the 35 or 40 days of shooting our movie, these actors just blossomed. they were able to express emotion with such purity, and that’s all Bobby because of the care he takes in giving these people the respect they deserve.
(L to R) Actors James Day Keith, Tom Sinclair, Kevin Iannucci, Matthew von der Ahe, Ashton Gunning, Casey Metcalfe, Bradley Edens, Alex Hintz, Joshua Felder, and director Bobby Farrelly on the set of CHAMPIONS, a Focus Features release. Credit : Shauna Townley/Focus Features
If I understand correctly, Woody Harrelson met these actors live on camera at the same time his character Marcus meets the basketball players. Is that scene in the movie an art-imitating-life moment?
I think it was, actually, and the scene went off like gangbusters. The kids really took to Woody. The funny thing was, they knew his lines better than he did. “Come on Woody; your line goes like this.”
Looking back on Champions, what are your favorite scenes?
Moving the camera around for the basketball stuff was fun, and all the stuff between Woody and Katilin was fun because those two had great chemistry. And any time The Friends were on set, that was always a treat—if we could get them to stop bouncing the basketballs. That was the thing. On day three of the shoot, as soon as they saw basketballs, they started shooting hoops. It took Bobby fifteen minutes to calm them down. Then Woody shows up, and what’s the first thing he does? Starts shooting hoops [laughing].
You compose some lovely ensemble shots of The Friends that convey each character’s individuality in a very vivid way. Were you deliberately aiming to capture the spirit of this group?
Very much. Their body language was so indicative of what their characters were going through, so we wanted to stay a bit wider and include all of that. Because it’s very much an ensemble thing, we went with a 2:39 aspect ratio, so the frame’s a little bit wider. Bobby likes to go wide, which felt right for Champions in part because it was an ensemble piece and also because of the basketball sequences—we wanted the wide landscape to hold the courts. Plus wide screen gives you more storytelling opportunities within a particular frame because you’re not cutting quite as much. All those reasons led us to go with 2:39.
(L to R) Alex Hintz as Arthur, Casey Metcalfe as Marlon, Matthew von der Ahe as Craig, Ashton Gunning as Cody, Tom Sinclair as Blair, Joshua Felder as Darius, James Day Keith as Benny, Madison Tevlin as Cosentino, Kevin Iannucci as Johnathan, and Bradley Edens as Showtime in director Bobby Farrelly’s CHAMPIONS, a Focus Features release. Credit : Courtesy of Focus Features
Did you work with storyboards?
We had some boards and got through three or four scenes until Bobby looked up and said, “What are we doing this for? I’m not going to look at them every ten minutes.” So no, very little storyboarding,
How would you map out a day’s shoot?
I’d get to set in the morning and run through all the scenes with my script before anyone else got there. Then Bobby would show up and go, “Okay, C. Kim, how are we going to do this?” I’d pitch him how I imagined it could work; we’d discuss and eventually find a way to shoot each scene. For me, it was nice because I had more creative input than normal. And I think Bobby was grateful for not having to conceptualize everything by himself.
What kind of camera did you use to achieve Champions‘ filmic look?
We shot with ARRI Alexa LF, large format cameras, which I’d also used on Yellowjackets. The beauty of the Alexa is they behave in a way that’s reminiscent of film.
Lenses?
We found two sets of lenses that were built for Moviecam back in the eighties. I’d never heard of these things, but they’d been re-housed to work on large format cameras. We tested them and fell in love because they’re sharp, well-resolving lenses, but they still have a warmth and a vintage-y feel to them. And they take a flare in a warm, soulful way, which is hard to explain, but you know it when you see it.
How did you approach camera movement?
We carried two cameras, but I’m kind of an A-camera hog. I like to use one camera and move it around to develop shots rather than getting too reliant on the editorial process to tell the story. We did a bunch of handheld stuff to keep things off-kilter early on when Marcus is getting to know The Friends. As the show progressed, we went with more Steadicam and then Technocrane and dollies as the story settled in.
(L to R) Casey Metcalfe as Marlon, James Day Keith as Benny, Woody Harrelson as Marcus, Ashton Gunning as Cody, and Tom Sinclair as Blair in director Bobby Farrelly’s CHAMPIONS, a Focus Features release. Credit : Courtesy of Focus Features
Basketball is basically a winter sport, so it’s appropriate that Champions has a wintry feel. What was it like shooting this movie in and around Winnipeg, Manitoba?
Cold. [Laughing].I got to Winnipeg in October, and within two weeks, the temperature dropped from 75 or 80 down into the teens. The scene where the bus drops the kids off on the side of the road? It was twenty degrees out, and the wind was blowing 30 knots—that was a feat of endurance. But we didn’t want to fight the time of year, which you often have to do. We just embraced the color palette that was in the air.
Shortly before Champions, you filmed half ofYellowjackets‘ first season, and the show became a streaming sensation. Was that a fun shoot?
Yellowjackets was not an easy show. We had to manage all these different looks for different time periods: present day, flashbacks before the accidents, and flashbacks after the accident. There were very specific rules: In the forest, we were always handheld; the present day was always shot on dollies with spherical lenses. And the logistics of shooting in the woods were tricky. Sometimes you’d have fourteen cast members in one seven-page scene. The cast and the crew were great, so it was lots of fun, but that show was tough.
Back to Champions. You had not worked before with Bobby Farrelly. How did you get the gig?
My agent submitted my name, so I was on a list. We had an interview over Zoom. I’d read the script and looked at the Spanish movie Champions is based on. There were some things I thought we could do a little better or differently, so we compared notes on that. And we talked about being respectful of the subject matter. He was very clear that we didn’t want to make The Friends into caricatures or objects of ridicule. I took that to heart right away.
Champions is in theaters now.
For more on Universal Pictures, Peacock, and Focus Features projects, check out these stories:
Featured image: (L to R) Kevin Iannucci as Johnathan, Kaitlin Olson as Alex, James Day Keith as Benny, and Woody Harrelson as Marcus in director Bobby Farrelly’s CHAMPIONS, a Focus Features release. Credit : Shauna Townley/Focus Features
If any current franchise out there rivals Mission: Impossible and Fast & Furious for the sheer audacity of their action set pieces, it is John Wick. The series, centered on Keanu Reeves’ un-retirable hitman, is set to release its fourth chapter, and critics are saying it’s the craziest, biggest, boldest installment yet. How good is John Wick: Chapter 4? IndieWire‘s Rafael Motamayor writes that it’s the best action blockbuster since Mad Max: Fury Road. Considering Fury Road is widely considered the best action blockbuster of the 21st century, this is not a minor statement.
Wick’s rival in John Wick: Chapter 4 is Bill Skarsgård’s villain Marquis de Gramont, and he’ll be sending a legion of top-flight assassins after our humble, un-killable hero, who will once again be deploying the gun-fu style he’s been honing for years now. Director Chad Stahelski returns to shepherd the mayhem in Chapter 4, with Marquis de Gramont offering Wick his freedom, but only if he can defeat foes from across the world who appear as skilled in the deadly arts as he is. The set-up lets Wick prep for the big match like a boxer preparing for his title fight. You want nunchucks, car chases, battles on horseback, fighting with axes and swords? Chapter 4 brings all that and more.
Chapter 4 was written by Shay Hatten and Michael Finch. Joining Reeves and Skarsgård are Ian McShane, Donnie Yen (who critics are saying is the film’s standout), Laurence Fishburne, Hiroyuki Sanada, Shamier Anderson, Lance Reddick, Rina Sawayama, and Scott Adkins.
Now, let’s take a quick peek at what the critics are saying:
I was blown away by many of the action sequences in #JohnWickChapter4. This is definitely the biggest & most badass JOHN WICK movie yet w/ a runtime near 3 hours & an ending everyone will be talking about. No one does action like this – it’s on another level. Part 4 simply rules. pic.twitter.com/OWTkO3nuOt
JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4 is going to make every action filmmaker not named Chris McQuarrie lose sleep. I have no idea how they pulled off the final hour. If you liked the first three (and of course you did), you’ll have a blast. Keanu forever.
JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4 is a stunning feat of action filmmaking. The ambitious stunts, cinematography, & sound have never been better. Keanu Reeves continues to push his body to the limit while Donnie Yen & Hiroyuki Sanada add real gravitas to the most epic film of the franchise yet pic.twitter.com/mSIOXWMWpR
I had reservations about John Wick: Chapter 4’s nearly three hour runtime, but the movie earns it. It’s an epic with smart pacing that never lets the action feel exhausting, and the set pieces are phenomenal. Great cast of series newcomers, but Donnie Yen is the MVP. #JohnWick4pic.twitter.com/xyMbLXmXUM
JOHN WICK – CHAPTER 4: The last hour of this is so incredibly conceived and executed that my jaw basically dropped for the whole thing. Pure cinema. It’s phenomenal.
JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4 is a friggin’ AMAZING kick-ass action movie! The most epic JW yet with stunts that will rock your world & the #SXSW crowd really went wild! These “John Wick” movies keep getting better & better, but will this be the last?? #JohnWick4#KeanuReevespic.twitter.com/gcAncUxaG8
JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4 is an absolute banger. Earns every bit of that runtime, with Keanu Reeves once again performing the most insane stunts and Chad Stahelski providing some of the best action filmmaking. The third act and finale had the whole crowd cheering like no other #SXSWpic.twitter.com/UmzKGSR7Ds
After the horror of “When We Are in Need,” the eighth episode of The Last of Us, which found Ellie (Bella Ramsey) fighting off a sadistic cannibal preacher she’s forced to stab, repeatedly, in a fit of sorrow and rage, one hoped that the season finale, “Look for the Light,” would give the resilient but battered teenager a well-deserved break from carnage and horror. And, in a sense, that’s what Ellie got, but only because she’d been anesthetized into a deep sleep for an operation she was both unaware of and would never wake up from. It’s not easy being “The Cure” in a zombie-infested hellscape.
Enter Joel (Pedro Pascal), who had finally embraced Ellie as his family at the bloody, brutal end of “When We Are in Need” and was going to stop at nothing to save her life, even if it meant demolishing humanity’s last hope for a cure to the Cordyceps plague, which it turns out to exist not in Ellie’s blood but in her brain. The contingent of Fireflies who promised a way to safely transfer Ellie’s immunity to the plague to the world at large, the very people who Joel and Ellie spent all season moving towards, at great personal cost, to give humanity a fighting chance against the zombie plague, could only perform their miracle by killing Ellie in the process. It was a sacrifice Joel wasn’t willing to make and one Ellie was never given a say in.
And so, after Ellie survived the horror of the preacher’s cannibal community, there she was, drugged into her final slumber with Joel being marched out of the Salt Lake City hospital at gunpoint, powerless to stop it. But having already survived his daughter’s murder, which he never stopped blaming himself for, and after having nearly given up on himself as being capable protecting of Ellie, nothing, nothing was going to stop Joel from getting her out of that hospital. So Joel goes on a killing spree, dispatching every single armed combatant in the place, plus a doctor who was stupid enough to grab a scalpel, leaving only two terrified nurses (more on them in a second) alive and spirits Ellie out of Salt Lake City to take her back to his brother’s compound in Wyoming.
Then Ellie finally comes to in the SUV Joel took from the Fireflies and asks him what happened; he spins her a tale about how it turns out she’s not that special, that there are dozens of other people who have the same immunity to Cordyceps that she does, and, that the Fireflies realized there was no way to transfer that immunity to anybody else. Then, accounting for the need to escape the hospital, Joel tells her that some raiders attacked, and he was lucky to get them both out alive.
The season ends with Joel and Ellie finally making it back to his brother Tommy (Gabriel Luna)’s Wyoming compound. They’re safe at last, but their entire mission was for naught, and something is just not sitting right with Ellie. In the season’s final seconds, she asks him one last time to tell her the truth about what happened when she was unconscious—was the place really attacked by raiders, did the Fireflies really reveal that Ellie’s blood couldn’t help them, and was there really no hope for a cure? Joel looks like he’s about to waver; a moment’s hesitation and a flicker of heartbreak pass on his face, but then he lies to her and says that yes, that’s precisely what happened, even if we see the gleam in Ellie’s eye that she knows he’s lying. It was a hugely bittersweet finale, with Joel and Ellie alive but at such a terrible cost, and the hint of discord to come when Ellie inevitably finds out what really happened.
Creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann have revealed that they’ll be lifting storylines from the original video game’s sequel, The Last of Us: Part II, to tell a much larger story going forward, one that will take more than just one season. The second installment in the video game arrived on PlayStation 4 in 2020, seven years after the original, and boasts characters, more flashbacks, bigger action set pieces, and more infected. Speaking with GQ, Mazin and Druckmann confirmed that adapting Part II will require multiple seasons, but they wouldn’t share just how many it would take.
Part II of the video game includes some of the core characters from the original game, most crucially Joel, Ellie, Tommy, and Maria (Rutina Wesley). It was also revealed that one of the actors from Part II, Laura Bailey, who plays a character named Abby, was one of the nurses in the operating room where Ellie is being prepped for surgery. Might Abby ultimately reveal what Joel did at the Salt Lake City hospital, a story that will get back to Ellie?
Season two will likely be a bloodier affair, too. Not that season one didn’t have its moments (see above), but Mazin and Druckmann teased that in future seasons, viewers can expect a lot more infected on the screen, and different kinds, too. Considering many of us are still having nightmares about the clickers, this is both a blessing and a curse.
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Now that the first season of The Last of Us has wrapped up, we can take a step back and marvel at not only the robust viewership numbers but what was the greatest video game adaptation (by a wide margin) and one of the most compelling new dramas on TV. Oh, and not for nothing, The Last of Us can make a credible claim for joining the pantheon of the greatest zombie stories ever put on the screen, thanks, in large part, to focusing so passionately on the relationship between its still human characters, specifically hardened smuggler Joel (Pedro Pascal) and his “cargo,” the teenage Ellie (Bella Ramsey). Their journey and the complexity of their relationship as it slowly, painfully began to grow over the course of the season turned The Last of Us into one of the most satisfying new series of this year and years previous.
Now let’s take a quick peek at those viewership numbers. The season finale set another benchmark for the series, drawing a series high 8.2 million viewers across HBO Max and linear telecasts, based on Nielsen and first-party data, the largest of the season (the premiere drew 4.7 million viewers in January). This makes Sunday night’s finale audience a 75% increase in debut night viewing compared to the premiere. The premiere, by the way, was hardly a slouch.
The first six episodes of the series even bested another major new release for HBO, topping the Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon. The first six episodes of The Last of Us averaged 30.4 million viewers since the January 15 premiere, and there’s every reason to expect that once the final numbers are tallied, the last three episodes will not diminish those numbers. At 30.4 million viewers, that’s a touch more than the 29 million that House of the Dragon averaged in cross-platform viewers over its run in the late summer and fall of 2022.
The Last of Us‘s cumulative audience is the biggest for any HBO series since—you guessed it—the final season of Game of Thrones in 2019, which averaged more than 44 million viewers. Needless to say, The Last of Us has been a critical and commercial smash, and you can expect not just a second season but likely multiple seasons more.
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We have our first look at the official poster for Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, and it teases what is arguably the most insane stunt Tom Cruise has done in the entire franchise.
This is a statement neither Paramount nor we would make lightly, considering the history of lunacy Cruise and the Mission: Impossible stunt team has compiled. The poster captures the moment after Cruise’s Ethan Hunt has ridden a motorcycle off a cliff—in order to BASE jump. “This is far and away the most dangerous thing we’ve ever attempted,” Cruise said in a behind-the-scenes video that captured the stunt. You heard it from the man himself.
Here’s the official poster capturing Cruise’s gonzo bike-to-BASE jump stunt:
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is the first in the final two-part conclusion to Cruise’s career as Ethan Hunt. The film’s plot has been kept pretty tightly under wraps, and that’s even despite the release of the first trailer. Dead Reckoning Part One finds writer/director Christopher McQuarrie back at the helm, guiding Cruise’s Ethan Hunt and many of his longtime allies, including Rebecca Ferguson as Isla Faust, Simon Pegg as Benji Dunn, and Ving Rhames as Luther Stickell. Vanesa Kirby also returns as the White Widow, and the cast gets a boost with newcomers Pom Klementieff, Hayley Atwell, Shea Whigham, Indira Varma, and Cary Elwes. The trailer doesn’t give us much more of the plot than showing us Hunt being aggressively put out to pasture (good luck with that), but it does give us glimpses of the action, which has become the hallmark of the franchise, including another stunt, this one involving a train plunging off a cliff that McQuarrie has mentioned as one of the most insane in the franchise’s history. Add it to the list.
The practical stunts depicted in the franchise, many done by Cruise himself and guided by veteran stunt coordinatorWade Eastwood, have become the stuff of legend. For the motorcycle off a cliff into a BASE jump stunt, Eastwood explained in the video (embedded below) that it required a year of BASE training, advanced skydive training, canopy control, and a slew of other skills. While Cruise is the center of attention, the video shows how it takes a team of experts to deliver a stunt like this while keeping everyone safe.
Here’s a look at the BASE jump stunt. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One arrives in theaters on July 14:
For more on Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One & Two, check out these stories:
The vibes were very, very good at the 95th Academy Awards last night, and one of the moments that was most emblematic of the evening’s warmth was the reunion between newly minted Oscar winner Ke Huy Quan and his Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom co-star, a gentleman by the name of Harrison Ford.
The two performers embraced on the Dolby Theater Stage after Ford presented the Best Picture category, which Everything Everywhere All At Once won. It was a moment of pure joy and catharsis in a night filled with them, capping off an evening that saw EEAAO win seven awards (the most by a Best Picture winner since 2008’s Slumdog Millionaire), including Michelle Yeoh’s historic win for Best Actress and Jamie Lee Curtis’s career-defining win for Best Supporting Actress. Both Yeoh and Curtis delivered moving speeches, as did Quan, whose heartfelt, emotional acceptance speech for his Best Supporting Actor win set the tone for the entire night. By the time Quan bounded on stage alongside the rest of the EEAAO cast, writer/directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, and producer Jonathan Wang for the night’s final award,everything had gone right for him and the film, and the embrace with his former co-star seemed like the Hollywood-style ending the night deserved.
HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA – MARCH 12: Ke Huy Quan (R) accepts the award for Best Picture for “Everything Everywhere All at Once” from Harrison Ford onstage during the 95th Annual Academy Awards at Dolby Theatre on March 12, 2023 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
Forty years after starring together in Temple of Doom, Quan cheered as Ford took the stage to present the Best Picture category. Once Ford revealed that EEAAO had taken the night’s final award, the duo was locked in a warm hug moments later. In Temple of Doom, Quan played Wan Li, a young pickpocket in Shanghai nicknamed Short Round, who settles on Indiana Jones as his next target. Although Quan would also co-star in another iconic film from the 1980s, The Goonies, his career didn’t take off until decades later, when he was cast as Waymand Wang in the Daniels now historic sci-fi indie film. While every single person in the building and millions more at home were overjoyed for Quan, you have to imagine Ford was especially happy to be on hand to witness Quan’s big night.
It was one glorious moment in a night that seemed lit from within by warmth. Another such moment was Ruth E. Carter’s historic second Academy Award after winning Best Costume Design for her work in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, four years after winning the same award for the first Black Panther film back in 2019. The second award made Carter the first Black woman to win multiple Oscars, and she dedicated the award to her mom, who recently passed away at the age of 101. “This past week, Mable Carter became an ancestor. This film prepared me for this moment. Chadwick, please take care of Mom,” Carter said during her acceptance speech, referring, of course, to the late Chadwick Boseman, star of the first Black Panther, who tragically passed away in August of 2020 before he could get to work on the sequel.
It was, in sum, an uplifting, emotional evening, a far cry from last year’s telecast. This year’s Oscars will be remembered for moments as moving as Carter’s speech and as joyous as Quan and Ford’s reunion on stage. Love and acceptance, two of the foundational themes that powered Everything Everywhere All At Once to its historic night, also felt like the guiding principles of the entire evening.
For more on all things Oscars, check out these stories:
Featured image: HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA – MARCH 12: Ke Huy Quan (R) accepts the award for Best Picture for “Everything Everywhere All at Once” from Harrison Ford onstage during the 95th Annual Academy Awards at Dolby Theatre on March 12, 2023 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
Paramount has revealed that Optimus Prime and his more feral cousin, Optimal Primal, are in Austin, Texas.
Ahead of the studios’ release of Transformers: Rise of the Beasts this summer, Paramount is setting up shop, so to speak, in Austin for the SXSW Festival, with massive Optimus Prime and Optimus Primal statues unveiled by some of the film’s cast and crew. Stars Anthony Ramos, Dominique Fishback, and Tobe Nwigwe were in Austin for the unveiling, alongside director Steven Caple Jr. and producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura. The stars and Autobot statues will be rolling into cities across the world, including Mexico City, New York, Sydney, Berlin, Madrid, and Tokyo.
We learned a bit about the seventh installment of the Transformers franchise when the trailer dropped, boasting snippets of a Biggie Smalls classic while it revealed the beastly Transformers that will be a major part of the film. Rise of the Beasts is inspired by the ’90s Beast Wars cartoon and also boasts a fresh new cast, led by aforementioned stars Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback, with new transformers voiced by none other than Michelle Yeoh (!!) and Pete Davidson.
Director Steven Caple Jr steers this new Transformers story from the streets of Brooklyn to Machu Picchu, Peru. The action is set after 2018’s spinoff Bumblebeeand introduces the Maximals and Predacons, who, you’ve probably guessed, take the form of colossal metal animals. The film will explore not only these new factions in the larger war between the Autobots and Decepticons but the origins of the Autobots’ connection to Earth. Rise of the Beasts also includes the introduction of the Terrorcons, a sub-group of the Decepticons that transform into metallic monsters.
Rise of the Beasts is set before the action of all of Michael Bay’s Transformers films, so you don’t need to know the history of these warring metal aliens to enjoy the spectacle.
The cast also includes Peter Cullen, returning as Optimus Prime, Tobe Nwigwe, Ron Perlman, Peter Dinklage, Liza Koshy, John DiMaggio, David Sobolov, Michaela Jaé Rodriguez, and Cristo Fernández. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts roars into theaters on June 9, 2023.
Check out the creation of the Optimus Prime and Primal statues at SXSW here:
Here’s the official synopsis for Transformers: Rise of the Beasts:
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts will take audiences on a ‘90s globetrotting adventure with the Autobots and introduce a whole new breed of Transformer – the Maximals – to the existing battle on earth between Autobots and Decepticons. Directed by Steven Caple Jr. and starring Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback, the film arrives in theatres June 9, 2023.
For more on the Transformers franchise, check out these stories:
The Little Mermaid stars Halle Bailey and Melissa McCarthy were on hand at last night’s 95th Academy Awards to reveal the official trailer for their highly-anticipated film, and the trailer didn’t disappoint. With Disney celebrating their centennial and ABC hosting the Academy Awards telecast, it was the perfect time to unveil the longest look yet at director Rob Marshall’s upcoming film.
Bailey stars as Ariel in the iconic story of a young mermaid, the youngest daughter of King Triton (Javier Bardem) and the most defiant, who harbors a desire to learn more about the world beyond the sea. Ariel’s curiosity leads to her visiting the surface and falling in love with Prince Eric (Jonah Hauer-King) after saving him from a shipwreck. This is a massive no-no; in the world in which Ariel lives, mermaids are not allowed to interact with humans, let alone fall in love with them. So, Ariel makes a choice that will change all their fates when she strikes a deal with the evil sea witch Ursula (Melissa McCarthy), which will allow Ariel to experience life on land, but which will also throw her father’s kingdom into jeopardy.
The trailer revealed the full bounty of Marshall’s vision and the most diverse cast to ever perform in an iteration of the film, which is based on the legendary short story by Hans Christian Andersen, and was written by two-time Oscar nominee David Magee (Life of Pi, FindingNeverland).
Joining Bailey, McCarthy, Bardem, and Hauer-King are Jude Akuwudike as Grimsby, Daveed Diggs as Sebastian, Jacob Tremblay as Flounder, Awkwafina as Scuttle, Lorena Andrea as Perla, and Kasja Mohammar as Karina. These latter two characters are new additions created for this film.
Check out the trailer below. The Little Mermaid hits theaters on May 26:
For more on The Little Mermaid, check out these stories:
In what was one of the smoothest, most genuinely pleasant Oscars telecasts in recent memory, Michelle Yeoh made history, Everything Everywhere All At Once won just about everything everywhere, and the 95th Academy Awards rolled into the history books with nary a bump in the road and backed by a gentle breeze.
Yeoh became the first Asian person to win an Academy Award in the lead actress or actor category, taking home her first Oscar for Best Actress for her astonishing performance in Everything Everywhere All At Once. The multiversal drama from the directing duo the Daniels (Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert) is centered on Yeoh’s Evelyn Wang, a laundromat owner under duress as the target of an overzealous IRS agent (played by newly minted Oscar-winner Jamie Lee Curtis) and a fraying relationship with her daughter, Joy (a phenomenal, Oscar-nominated Stephanie Hsu). Evelyn ultimately settles all her accounts by zipping through parallel universes, patching up her relationship with her daughter, and preventing a cataclysm in the joyous, emotionally abundant sci-fi romp.
“For all the little boys and girls who look like me watching tonight, this is a beacon of hope and possibilities,” Yeoh said from the stage. “This is proof that dreams do come true. And ladies, don’t let anybody tell you that you are ever past your prime. Never give up.”
The film earned not only Yeoh an Oscar but also scooped up two more in the acting characters, with Ke Huy Quan’s emotional win for Best Supporting Actor for playing Waymond Wang, Evelyn’s husband, and Jamie Lee Curtis’s win for playing the IRS agent Deirdre Beabeirdre. Quan, a child actor who flourished in Goonies and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, had a long hiatus from acting, which he described in his emotional, moving acceptance speech that set the tone for the entire night.
“My journey started on a boat. I spent a year in a refugee camp, and somehow, I ended up here on Hollywood’s biggest stage,” Quan said through tears, while even presenter Ariana DeBose, standing behind him, was visibly emotional herself. For a relentlessly inventive sci-fi romp, Everything Everywhere All At Once struck a chord with audiences and the Academy because its central messages and most enduring themes were about acceptance and love. These were messages that came across loud and clear in Quan’s beautiful acceptance speech and were mentioned by the people we spoke to who worked on the film, from Stephanie Hsu to the film’s hair and makeup department heads.
The Daniels took home the Oscar for Best Director (the first duo to share the award since Joel and Ethan Coen won for No Country for Old Men in 2008), shared the Best Picture win along with producer Jonathan Wang, and won Best Original Screenplay. Joining them, Yeoh, Quan, and Curtis was editor Paul Rogers, who won for what he revealed was only his second feature film. Everything Everywhere All At Once ended the evening with seven wins (out of its 11 nominations), the most wins or nominations for a film co-directed by an Asian man and featuring a cast that was almost entirely Asian.
There were plenty of emotional moments that didn’t directly involve Everything—Brendan Fraser’s emotional acceptance speech for his Best Oscar win for The Whale stood out. As did the night’s more low-key winners, each of whom brought a genuine warmth to the stage, perhaps exemplified in its purest form when the Oscar-winning filmmakers Tom Berkely and Ross White, the duo behind An Irish Goodbye, which won in the Short Film (Live Action) category, cut their own speeches short to sing “Happy Birthday” to the film’s star, James Martin.
It was a very good night for Hollywood, especially after last year’s Oscars, which was shadowed during and after by Will Smith slapping Chris Rock. Host Jimmy Kimmel kept things light, and performances from Rihanna, Lady Gaga, David Byrne and Stephanie Hsu, and Lenny Kravitz injected the night with some short but potent bursts of beauty, and the award winners, to a man and woman, seemed to exude genuine joy and love for not only their fellow nominees and colleagues, but all the people not present at Hollywood’s biggest night who make it possible for them to be there in the first place. “I owe everything to the love of my life, my wife Echo,” Ke Huy Quan said during his speech. “Who, month after month, year after year for 20 years, told me that one day my time will come.”
Featured image: HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA – MARCH 12: Michelle Yeoh accepts the Best Actress award for “Everything Everywhere All at Once” onstage during the 95th Annual Academy Awards at Dolby Theatre on March 12, 2023 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
Ted Lasso star Hannah Waddingham is going from the front office of the fictional AFC Richmond squad to the high-octane world of international espionage. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 2 writer/director Christopher McQuarrie has revealed that Waddingham will be in the final installment of his Tom Cruise-led franchise via Instagram.
We’d only recently learned that McQuarrie, Cruise, and the rest of the Mission: Impossible team are filming scenes for Dead Reckoning Part 2 on the U.S.S. George H.W Bush; now, McQuarrie has revealed that Waddingham is on board the vessel—or we should say a vessel, it’s not 100% clear if it’s the warship—in an undisclosed role.
Little is known about the plot for Dead Reckoning Part 2—we’ve only seen the trailer for Part One (embedded below)—but we do know both films will feature the customary gonzo stunts and that Part 2 will be Tom Cruise’s final Mission.
Waddingham was one of our favorite interview subjects from 2021. She’s a multi-talented performer, gifted with the comedic chops required to spar with Jason Sudeikis and the rest of the Lasso squad, the singing voice to star in West End productions in London of iconic plays like Spamalot, Into the Woods, and The Wizard of Oz, and the gravitas to transform into one of Game of Thrones more terrifying characters, Septa Unella, a tormentor of Cersei Lannister. There’s no doubt she’ll be a great addition to one of the greatest action franchises of all time.
Check out the trailer for Dead Reckoning Part One below, which hits theaters on July 14, 2023. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 2 arrives on June 28, 2024:
For more on the Mission: Impossible series, check out these stories:
Jenna Ortega and Tim Burton are becoming quite the potent duo. The Wednesday star is circling Burton’s Beetlejuice 2, the long-awaited sequel to his 1988 comedy that starred Michael Keaton as a malicious spirit trying to help a pair of recently deceased husband and wife (played by Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis) and scare some people out of their former house.
The Hollywood Reporter scoops that multiple sources have confirmed that Ortega is looking seriously at a role in the film. This news comes as Ortega is set to have a huge weekend, first, with her returning role as Tara Carpenter in Scream VI and then with her debut hosting performance on Saturday Night Live.
Beetlejuice 2 is expected to find both Burton and Keaton returning, with a production beginning in late May or early June and set to film in London. THR says that Ortega would be playing the daughter of Lydia, the moody but un-spookable teen that Winona Ryder played in the 1988 original.
The potential sequel has been bandied about for years, with Burton himself unsure if he’d return to direct or even be involved in the film. Yet now, on the heels of his smashing success with Ortega in Netflix’s Wednesday, which Burton directed, the time is apparently ripe. And Ortega is a star on the rise who clearly relishes her opportunity to work with Burton.
Here’s hoping we get to see Ortega in Beetlejuice 2, and, if we’re allowed to be greedy, that Winona Ryder returns and the two get to share the screen together as mother and daughter.
Now that details about director Andy Muschietti’s The Flash are coming to light—a film the new DC Studios co-chief James Gunn has called one of the best superhero movies he’s ever seen—we know that Michael Keaton’s return as Batman isn’t the only Michael reprising a role in the film. Michael Shannon also returns as the Superman nemesis General Zod, and the news surprised not just everyone who saw Zod die in Man of Steel but Shannon himself.
Speaking with Looper, Shannon revealed a little confusion when he was first approached. “I was a little confused,” Shannon told Looper. “I said, ‘As memory serves me, I think I died in Man of Steel. Are they sure they got the right guy?’ But then they explained to me the whole multiverse phenomenon, which I was a little behind the times on that. I can’t say that I’m a huge consumer of this genre of films — not that I have anything against them. If I’m going to watch a movie, the odds are it’s not going to be one of those, but I sure love making them.”
The “whole multiverse phenomenon” that Shannon is referring to is, of course, the way both DC Studios and Marvel have been playing with the conceit of a multiverse, one deployed by comic book writers for decades, in which a character might have died in one universe, but can be alive and well in another. For The Flash, Barry Allen (Ezra Miller), better known as the Flash, will use his super speed to race back in time to try and change the course of history and save his mother’s life. In doing so, however, Barry will wind up in an alternate universe in which Zod is very much alive and determined to wipe out Barry and anyone else standing in his way. Oh, also, in this universe, there are no other meta-humans (that is, superheroes like Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, etc.) which is why Barry has to recruit the only other superhero around who happens to be decidedly human and non-meta—Michael Keaton’s aging Batman.
Shannon’s reprising his role, but he’s not playing the same General Zod from Man of Steel. This is the nature of the multiverse and why there can be multiple Batmen (Ben Affleck also appears as Bruce Wayne in the film) and multiple Spider-Men over in Sony/Marvel’s Spider-Man: No Way Home. Here’s what Shannon said about the role to Looper:
“I tried to get back into his skin,” Shannon said. “He’s a little different in this film. He’s a little more…I don’t know how to put it. You don’t spend as much time with him, so you don’t really get to know as much about what he’s thinking. It’s not necessarily his movie. That’s the thing with these multiverse movies — you get a little bit of this and a little bit of that. But it’s really Ezra [Miller’s] movie.”
Featured image: DEAUVILLE, FRANCE – SEPTEMBER 11: Michael Shannon poses during the unveiling of his dedicated beach locker room on the Promenade des Planches during the 47th Deauville American Film Festival on September 11, 2021 in Deauville, France. (Photo by Francois Durand/Getty Images)
Daniel Brühl is a chameleon, able to disappear into roles, and now he’ll be stepping into the polished boots and high, starched collar of the larger-than-life fashion icon Karl Lagerfeld.
Brühl is set to star in Disney+’s Kaiser Karl, a new series that will focus on the fashion icon’s life in Paris in the 1970s, before he was an icon, when he was first trying to break into the fashion world. The series is based on Raphaëlle Bacqué’s eponymous biography of Lagerfeld, and was adapted for the screen by Bacqué, Isaure Pisani-Ferry (Kaboul Kitchen), and Jennifer Have (The Red Band Society). Pisani-Ferry led the writing team and is credited as co-writer on all the scripts with Have, Dominique Baumard (The Bureau—one of the best spy series ever, by the way), and Nathalie Hertzberg (Farewell, De Gaulle, Farewell).
Lagerfeld was born in Germany and ultimately went on to become one of the most recognizable figures in the fashion world for decades. His signature look—white hair, black sunglasses, and those high, starched collars—was a part of the fashion firmament. His highest profile job was as creative director for the French fashion house Chanel, which he held from 1983 until his death in 2019.
Brühl will be sharing the screen with performers playing some of the most crucial and formative people in Lagerfeld’s life and the fashion world in general. Arnaud Valois will play Yves Saint Laurent, and Alex Lutz will play Pierre Bergé, two of Lagerfeld’s rivals. Théodore Pellerin is playing Lagerfeld’s romantic partner Jacques de Bascher. And Agnés Jaoui is playing Gaby Aghion, founder of the Chloé fashion brand, credited with being one of the first people to see major potential in the then-unknown fashion designer.
The six-part series will be produced by Gaumont and Jour Premier for Disney+ France, with Jérôme Salle (Totems) and Audrey Estrougo (upcoming Disney+ series Tout va bien), and is currently shooting in France, Monaco, and Italy.
For more stories on Century Studios, Searchlight Pictures, Marvel Studios and what’s streaming or coming to
Featured image: ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – SEPTEMBER 23: Daniel Brühl attends the premiere of “Im Westen nichts Neues” during the 18th Zurich Film Festival at Kongresshaus on September 23, 2022 in Zurich, Switzerland. (Photo by Thomas Lohnes/Getty Images for ZFF)
Releasing in theaters March 10th, the heartwarming and acerbic dramedy Champions, directed by Bobby Farrelly, comes just in time to cheer those sick of winter and in the need for a little spring in their step. Based on the 2018 Spanish film Campeones, which won top awards and was the biggest hit of the year in that country, Champions stars Woody Harrelson and Kaitlin Olson and features an ensemble cast that includes ten performers with developmental disabilities.
Harrelson plays short-fused basketball coach Marcus, who is sentenced to community service coaching a Special Olympics basketball team called The Friends after a DUI. At first, he just wants to get through his experience as quickly and uneventfully as possible, but working with these players proves transformational. Olson is Alex, Marcus’s love interest, a funny, straight-talking Shakespearean actress living with and caring for her brother Johnny (Kevin Iannucci). Johnny has Down Syndrome and is a member of the close-knit and committed Friends team.
In a chat with The Credits, Kaitlin Olson, who has a strong background in improvisation, talks about using improv with Woody Harrelson, which came really easily for the Disabled performers playing members of The Friends, the need for strong, multi-dimensional female leads over 40 in film, and more.
Whatwas the first scene you shot, and how did that help set the tone for the rest of the shoot?
The first scene I shot was an incredibly emotional breakup scene with Woody, in which I was supposed to be very upset and teary, and afterward, all the producers came up and were like, “We are so sorry we threw you right into the deep end with that one.” But it was great because I remember Woody walking away and saying to Bobby, “Oh, my God, she’s giving it 100%, and she’s so good!” It was so lovely to overhear. I know that he didn’t mean for me to hear that, and it just made me feel really good. I think it was just nice to be a part of something where everybody was appreciative that you were there. It was a hard scene, and when the camera was just on me and not on Woody, he was still there, fully engaged and giving me 100%. He didn’t have to do that. Not everyone does that. It was a lovely way to be welcomed because I came after they started shooting, so they had all been working together for about a week by the time I got there.
In our introduction to Alex and in several of her subsequent conversations with Marcus, she reveals some of the challenges of being a 40-something woman in our world. Can you talk a bit about that aspect of Alex and the importance of characters like her existing onscreen?
Inclusivity is important, and I think that that goes for unmarried women in their 40s who are living at home. This is just a woman who has given her life over to taking care of her brother, and so what ended up happening is that she has sort of given up a lot of what she would have done if she were being selfish. There’s something very selfless and beautiful about that because she doesn’t consider herself a martyr. She’s doing it because she feels like it’s the right thing to do.
(L to R) Kevin Iannucci as Johnathan, Kaitlin Olson as Alex, James Day Keith as Benny, and Woody Harrelson as Marcus in director Bobby Farrelly’s CHAMPIONS, a Focus Features release. Credit : Shauna Townley/Focus Features
There aren’t enough of those kinds of female characters on-screen. She’s very complicated. She’s not wholly good or bad but mixed, like most of the real women in the world.
I love that she unapologetically explained her situation and what was going on. This is what it is, I don’t feel sorry for myself, but we don’t have a lot of time to mess around. Do you want this to happen or not? It was very bold. And, you know, she wasn’t waiting around for him to ask her back out on another date. She was just like, “This is what we’re doing. Let’s do it or don’t. Get out or stay in.”
You’ve mentioned working with Woody is a very collaborative and balanced experience. Can you point to a few ways in which that collaboration showed up onscreen?
I think Woody gets a little bit scared when you start improvising, and so it was fun to do things that would make him laugh and then make him loosen up and sort of give him the freedom to start playing around back with me. He’s just such a talented person that he can deliver what is on the paper so beautifully, and then going off script was also a really amazing experience, and I think maybe even surprised him a little bit. I don’t think he’s used to that.
(L to R) Matt Cook as Sonny, Kaitlin Olson as Alex, Woody Harrelson as Marcus, and Cheech Marin as Julio in director Bobby Farrelly’s CHAMPIONS, a Focus Features release. Credit : Courtesy of Focus Features
You come from an improvisational background, and there was a lot of improvisation and thinking on your feet in the film. Can you give some examples of moments made better by that or things that wound up on screen that were improvised?
A lot of the stuff with The Friends was improvised. We had cameras rolling all the time, so we were capturing just everything that was being said, so there was a lot that wasn’t scripted that ended up in there, which was really fun to see. But there was a scene with Woody, an intimate scene where we were kissing, and we stop and have a conversation, and a lot of that was improvised. It was just fun because the scene is supposed to be awkward, and it was kind of awkward because I was changing what I was saying, and he was saying something different. That was particularly fun. It’s also just fun to intimidate Woody.
Alex is a Shakespeare geek, and she performs it and drives a Shakespeare van. What’s your connection to the bard?
I showed up and saw that van was like, “This is so amazing.” She basically lives there. It’s her heaven. She’s probably the most comfortable in her van, and it definitely went along with the wardrobe. I was a theater major in school, and my school specialized in theater and Shakespeare. I wasn’t a huge Shakespeare fan, but I went to the University of Oregon. It’s very close to Ashland, Oregon, which is just like Shakespeare city. You had to pretend that you were interested in Shakespeare to get the head of the program to like you, so I did, and I did a lot of it. I felt very, very grateful for my accidental Shakespeare background shooting this movie.
Kevin Iannucci was wonderful as Johnny, Alex’s brother. How did you come to the authenticity needed as brother and sister, and how was it bouncing off each other in your scenes together?
I really wanted to meet Kevin before we were working together, and on the day that I was going to fly up there, Bobby called and said that Kevin wanted to meet with me before we worked together. And I was like, “Oh, that’s great.” So I met him with him and his mother, who is amazing, and we just spent some time together. You fall in love with Kevin the second that you meet him. It’s impossible not to. He is a gem. He is kind, and he is so funny. He’s up for anything. We fell in love instantly. He’s a good friend. We text. We FaceTimed on Christmas. We’ve become very close. It wasn’t hard to have a bond with him instantly. And also, he was nervous sometimes. He had big scenes. So, just as a more seasoned actor, I felt very protective of him. All of that came very easily and very naturally.
Champions, from Focus Features, is in theaters nationwide on March 10th.
For more on Universal Pictures, Peacock, and Focus Features projects, check out these stories:
House of the Dragon showrunner and co-creator Ryan Condal has promised a five-pack of new dragons for season two of HBO’s hit Game of Thrones spinoff.
Condal appeared at an FYC event on Tuesday alongside George R.R. Martin and stars of the series and revealed this white-hot little nugget for fans. “You’re going to meet five new dragons,” Condal said at the event in Los Angeles. He also revealed that season two was going to begin filming soon.
Joining Condal and Martin at the event were House of the Dragon stars Matt Smith (Daemon Targaryen), Olivia Cooke (Alicent Hightower), Paddy Considine (King Viserys/Targaryen), Eve Best (Rhaenys Targaryen), Rhys Ifans (Otto Hightower), Steve Toussaint (Corlys Velaryon), Fabien Frankel (Criston Cole), and Emily Carey (young Alicent Hightower). They screened the eighth episode of season one, “Lord of the Tides,” and Condal, Martin, and the stars joined Josh Gad for a panel discussion.
Martin told the crowd that “Lord of the Tides” was a favorite episode for him. “I thought it was really powerful. This guy [Condal] has an amazing writing staff,” Martin told the audience. “Because if you read my book Fire & Blood, which you should, it’s a fake history. So there’s a lot of the details that are in this that are absolutely wonderful and moving that are not in the book. They added stuff, and they added good stuff, which is important.”
Martin also joked about his long (long) simmering final installment in his “A Song of Ice and Fire” novel series, which he’s been working on for years. There was, undoubtedly, a tremendous amount of pressure on the House of the Dragon team to come up with a worthy follow-up to the record-smashing Game of Thrones, but Martin said it paled in comparison to what he’s dealing with on the novel side.
“The pressure of trying to follow the original series is nothing compared to the pressure of trying to finish the novel,” Martin joked. “That has me sleepless at nights. The show? That’s Ryan’s problem.”
For more on House of the Dragon, check out these stories:
The Radio Silence team that brought you last year’s Scream (the fifth installment in the franchise, although it lacked a number in the title) are back, and it seems they’ve delivered an even nastier, naughtier, more tightly-wound slasher with Scream VI. With reviews no longer under embargo, critics have begun weighing in on what the first film in the franchise to be set outside of Woodsboro, California, delivers now that the action has moved to New York City.
The directing team of Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin have made the most of their decision to bring Ghostface to the Big Apple, and they sic him on some familiar faces. 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 back in Woodsboro, as well as Mindy Meeks-Martin (Jasmin Savoy Brown) and Chad Meeks-Martin (Mason Gooding). And then there’s the glorious return of Kirby Reed (Hayden Panettiere), back after surviving the bloodbath in Scream 4 (2011) and her Easter egg appearance, via a photograph, in the last Scream.
Newcomers include Jack Champion, Henry Czerny, Liana Liberato, Dermot Mulroney, Devyn Nekoda, Tony Revolori, Josh Segarra, and Samara Weaving. All of them have their hands full with a seemingly even more sadistic and unhinged Ghostface as the franchise, now firmly in meta mode and helmed by two Scream superfans who know what they’re doing, put all these characters through the wringer.
TheIndependent‘s Clarisse Loughrey writes that the sequel is “wholly satisfying and ridiculously fun.” Staying on the far side of the pond, the London Evening Standard‘s Charlotte O’Sullivan writes, “Bloody hell. Number 6 in the post-modern horror Scream series is gory… as well as hot-under-the-arms tense and properly funny.”
Stateside, the Chicago Sun-TimesRichard Roeper says that Scream VI is a “gruesome and wickedly funny horror film that still hits all the right notes we’ve come to expect from the franchise.” IndieWire‘s Christian Zilko says, “If they keep making ’em like Scream VI, the future is as bright as it is bloody.”
Now let’s take a quick peek at what some critics are Tweeting:
Leaving Woodsboro behind to go to New York City, #ScreamVI makes it clear there’s still fresh blood left in this franchise. Our review: https://t.co/aPIxNjWrsa
My non-spoiler review of #ScreamVI is up! Much to discuss …
– Melissa Barrera’s standout work.
– That Gale/Ghostface scene from the trailer.
– Kirby’s return.
– Core Four. ♥️
– How damn good Radio Silence is at making #Scream movies.
– And more!
#ScreamVI is an awesome addition to the franchise. Pays loving homage to all the entries that came before it while being something ENTIRELY new for the series. So many kickass action scenes, an incredible opening sequence, and very violent kills. It’s good to be a Scream fan.
Do you like scary movies? Because SCREAM VI is AWESOME!! Bloody & brutal, but great fun & even better than I expected! Some really great scenes here! Moving the action to NYC really rejuvenated the franchise! The 3rd best SCREAM in the series after SCREAM 1 & SCREAM 2! #Scream6pic.twitter.com/Hiauoygm9A
Honey, I Shrunk the Baddest Supervillain in the Multiverse might have been the alternate title for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Evil things come in little packages – but with big punchlines – in the pivotal first entry in Marvel’s Phase 5.
Screenwriter Jeff Loveness was tasked with introducing a new supervillain into the MCU that has to top Thanos, but don’t expect him to do it with a straight face. He takes tons of detours to give the most eccentric creatures in the Quantum Realm their moment in the sun.
We drop in on a regular-sized Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) with an inflated ego after his role in thwarting the big snap, but his biggest challenge yet is about to suck him back into the fray.
“[Scott Lang] thinks he’s won. He thinks he’s doing pretty well, and he gets pulled back into it, and he just doesn’t want to lose any more time,” Loveness explained. “It just felt like a great way to make him grow and be compelling as a character. I think if we had done the same thing where he’s fighting on top of a pencil eraser – yeah, maybe people would have liked it, but it would not have been new or interesting or divisive. I’m glad that we got to put the smallest Avenger, quite literally, in an Avengers movie by himself being tortured by this top-tier villain with his daughter there.”
Since Iron Man kicked off the modern era of Marvel films fifteen years ago, it had all been leading to a showdown with Thanos. With the Infinity Stone collector finally vanquished in Avengers: Endgame, Loveness had to find a way to escalate the threat to our heroes.
Enter Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors), who has a secret history with Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) and a brooding plot to dominate, well, everything ever. Loveness turned from brawn to brain, giving us an unsettling, conversational introduction to Kang.
“There’s going to be plenty of time in Avenger movies for time travel and blue face and lasers and variants and all that fun multiverse stuff,” Loveness promised. “I thought that it would be really important just to showcase him as a vulnerable human man. Thanos is fantastic, but he is a big motion-captured purple CGI space alien. I think the way to beat that is to do the opposite of it and really focus on the human face and really focus on the humanity of this guy.”
That means getting a good deal of face time with the character. Kang strikes an instantly iconic pose on a makeshift throne inside his marooned ship of an exasperated but intellectual threat lying in wait. Always plotting, we see his manipulative tactics unfold.
“I love that so much of the movie, he gets to actually talk to Michelle Pfeiffer for a while and he actually gets to talk to Scott Lang for a while,” Loveness observed. “He has almost that Faust energy to him. He can really pull you in. You’ve got Jonathan Majors, who is just the most electric actor working right now, so I felt like I was just super lucky.”
Loveness was discovered in college via a viral video that showcased his ability to match an established comic character with a quirky tone. When it was announced that he would also pen Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, he tweeted a link to the skit saying, “Make that thing with your friends. You never know.”
Wise words as he now stands poised to shape the trajectory of the Avengers’ collision course with Kang.
“At the time I wrote [Quantumania], I didn’t have Avengers, so you are kind of building railroad tracks. You don’t know where that train is going, but I did have a general idea for what I thought it should be and where I thought it should go,” Loveness explained. “So, when the Avengers pitch came around, and they offered me the chance to go for it, I was able to pick up from there and take it where I thought the Kang story should go. But I really just tried to focus on this guy right here and what’s going on, and you lay in some mystery. He’s such a nonlinear character. It seemed really fun to do.”
The Rick and Morty and Jimmy Kimmel Live! alum started writing Marvel comics nearly a decade ago. While there are plenty of classic characters in the film that started on the page, Loveness injected the script with a few originals that have the undeniable stamp of his style.
The most wholesome – and hole obsessed – is a goop guy named Veb (David Dastmalchian). His ritualistic chant turns out to be an earnest urging to help Scott and Cassie (Kathryn Newton) speak his language.
“It was the potential of the Quantum Realm. If this is a place of limitless biology and limitless evolution, what are other life forms, and what would that mean? I got to really dive into that. Also, I was just really high,” Loveness laughed. “I think I was really high when I came up with that, so maybe that shows.”
Veb’s fellow freedom fighter, Quaz, is an empath with an attitude. His special ability proves useful but causes him some personal grievance.
“I am just such a huge X-Men fan, so that’s what led to the William Jackson Harper character because if you actually could read the minds of everyone around you, you would not be as calm and serene as Patrick Stewart I don’t think,” Loveness joked. “You would hate everybody. You would be annoyed. I’m so glad [director] Peyton [Reed] and Marvel was down to make a goofy road trip comedy in a way.”
Quantumania is an ensemble film with three generations of Pym particle experts taking their best shots at Kang. It’s good that they all took an interest in the superpowered technology because this fight is all hands on deck.
“Ant-Man and The Wasp (Evangeline Lilly) are fighting for their lives. Cassie tries to help. None of them can beat this guy dead on,” Loveness noted. “Oh, but it turns out those ants we forgot about, they have a fighting chance. They come in with Hank (Michael Douglas), the guy who’s been kind of comic relief the whole movie – and the whole trilogy, really. The whole trilogy is making fun of ants and discounting them. What if you’re in a place where the ants are really big, almost Starship Trooper ants mixed with a Lord of the Rings cavalry charge, but even that’s not enough to beat him because he still has his forcefield and he’s still very powerful.”
Hank still can’t resist pausing mid-battle to dive into his passionate observations about ant colonies and their social structure.
“I would go to the mat for those socialist ants,” Loveness asserted. “I don’t care what the internet says. They’re great.”
In the end, Scott and his family will need help from the inside to claim victory. Loveness was nearly deliriously joyful to write the bizarre character M.O.D.O.K. (Corey Stoll) – an acronym for Mechanized Organism Designed Only for Killing. From the name, you might expect a ruthless, unstoppable android, but instead, we find the inflated face of a dejected and bitter Darren Cross. He uses more emotional jabs than firepower to attack Scott, but in the end, there’s an opportunity for him to rise a hero.
“Cassie Lang just finally broke into M.O.D.O.K.’s dumb head like, ‘Hey, don’t be such a fucking dick, man.’ She just finally got to give him that pitiful intervention,” Loveness explained. “Because he has Kang technology that we’ve set up, he’s able to just for a brief second blow open his shield, and that’s what allows them to rush him. That, to me, felt really fun and something you can only do in an Ant-Man movie. Even then, [Kang] still gets up and just beats Scott’s ass. It’s basically his own hubris and his own overconfidence.”
No one commits to a dark, gruesome, prolonged joke quite like Loveness. When M.O.D.O.K falls, he falls hard, rife with unresolved jealousies and unfulfilled dreams. Bruised and sputtering bile, he still lobbies for acceptance. It’s a moment of black – and bleak – comedy that shines.
“[Scott has] got everything Darren would ever want, and Darren is just a big head, and he just feels shitty about himself,” Loveness recognized. “I thought it would be very funny to do really the tightrope walk of it’s so sad, no one can say the truth, so they have to throw him a bone. This guy is so desperate for any connection. They have to give it to him. My favorite part is Darren keeps asking for more. Then he assumes he’s an Avenger. They’re like, ‘Yeah, you’re in.’”
Perhaps, in the end, that’s enough. “He is an Avenger now, right?” I asked. “Maybe we should give it to him?”
“I won’t. No. He’s not. They lied. They lied to a dying big head,” Loveness refuted.
Sorry, Darren. I tried. R.I.P. M.O.D.O.K.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is blasting onto the big screen in theaters now.
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