From “Thunderbolts*” to “The New Avengers”: Inside the Sudden Superhero Title Swap
Thunderbolts* SPOILERS AHEAD
Who knew an asterisk packed such a punch? Thunderbolts* rolled into theaters this weekend and just as quickly rolled out a new movie title. The mysterious asterisk that hung on the end of the film’s title left some fans perplexed—that was, until the last ten minutes of the film.
Today, Marvel branding and marketing from billboards to posters to online ticket services have all changed the Thunderbolts* title to the newly revealed real title for the movie: The New Avengers.
“Highest 2 Lowest” Trailer Reveals Spike Lee’s New Joint With Denzel Washington
You want to get film nerds salivating? Drop a new trailer for a Spike Lee joint starring Denzel Washington that reveals Lee’s latest, which is a riff on the work of another film legend, Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low. Lee’s film, produced by A24 and set to hit theaters on August 22 before streaming on Apple TV+ (with a world premiere set for Cannes), stars Washington as a music industry titan who is targeted in a ransom plot,
“Thunderbolts*” Director Jake Schreier: From “Beef’s” Parking Lot Rage to Superhero Trauma
With critics praising Thunderbolts* ahead of its May 2 release as something decidedly new (and according to its Rotten Tomatoes score, decidedly fresh) in the MCU, director Jake Schreier has opened up the aperture on how he approached his Marvel debut. Schreier is a seasoned, respected indie helmer with a string of critically acclaimed titles to his name. After launching his career with the Sundance hit Robot &
Soul Transcendent: How DP Autumn Durald Arkapaw Captured Black Music’s Timeless Continuum in “Sinners”
In part one of our interview with Sinners cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw, the groundbreaking DP discussed how she leveled up to frame Coogler’s soulful supernatural epic by learning to use the largest film format available. Coogler’s ambitions for his vampire thriller, starring Michael B. Jordan as twin brothers Smoke and Stack, were massive. The brothers return to Clarksdale, Mississippi, after serving in World War I and then taking their talents to Chicago,
Marvel’s Misfits Hit Big: Florence Pugh-Led “Thunderbolts*” Strikes a Chord With Critics
The reviews for Thunderbolts* are hitting the internet like so many lightning strikes, and Marvel Studios is very much liking the weather report. Director Jake Schreier’s film about this assemblage of Marvel misfits—Rolling Stone‘s David Fear calls them the “off-brand Avengers“—who were all scooped from previous MCU outings and thrown together like possibly toxic leftover ingredients, has resulted in something satisfying. Thunderbolts* is being hailed as a surprisingly soulful,
Blues, Blood, & Big Formats: How DP Autumn Durald Arkapaw Brought “Sinners” to Epic, IMAX-Sized Life
Yes, there are vampires, but Sinners also excels as a period piece, a history lesson, a romance, a drama, an action movie, and a music-driven drama in ways that have made director Ryan Coogler‘s fifth movie the top-grossing original film of the decade. Based on his own script about gangster twins Smoke and Stack (played by Michael B. Jordan) who return to their Mississippi roots with a bag of ill-gotten cash and a plan to start their own juke joint in the middle of the woods,
Dwayne Johnson Enters the Ring in First Trailer for Benny Safdie’s “The Smashing Machine”
A24 has revealed the first trailer for Benny Safdie’s The Smashing Machine, which stars Dwayne Johnson as MMA legend Mark Kerr, sporting a prosthetic and an accent in his first turn, potentially marking an intriguing career pivot into prestige films. (Johnson is part of a potential all-star cast for a projected Martin Scorsese-directed gangster film set in Hawaii.)
Kerr was one of the seminal early stars of the UFC,
“Sinners” Takes a Big Second Bite: Ryan Coogler’s Vampire Thriller Has Historic Second Weekend
Writer/director Ryan Coogler has officially gone five for five.
The 39-year old auteur can now make the very rare claim to have had five consecutive hit films in his first five attempts, as his wildly ambitious, beautifully composed fifth feature, the R-rated supernatural period thriller Sinners, just boasted the most impressive second weekend for any film in well over a decade, pulling in $45 million for the smallest drop for a movie’s second weekend since James Cameron’s 2009 film Avatar.
Ledgers and Lethal Force: Gavin O’Connor on Directing Ben Affleck in “The Accountant 2”
Almost a decade after they first worked together, the action sequel The Accountant 2 reunites director Gavin O’Connor and star Ben Affleck for a third time. First announced seven years ago, the journey to bring the follow-up to the screen has been challenging, but it’s one the Warrior filmmaker is grateful for.
Set and filmed in Los Angeles, Affleck returns as Christian Wolff, the titular number-crunching hero with a brilliant mind and a talent for solving complex problems,
No Heroes Available: “Thunderbolts*” Clip Showcases Marvel’s First Villain-Centered Film
The vibe of director Jake Schreier’s Thunderbolts* (more on that asterisk in a second) is very much evident in this brief but potent minute-long clip just released by Marvel Studios. In the clip, we find Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s Valentina Allegra de Fontaine being encircled and seemingly entrapped by the misfit antiheroes, the Thunderbolts, she assembled for a mission. The formidable triple agent spy, who has practiced the dark arts of her work in Black Widow,
From Barbie to Blasters: What to Know About Ryan Gosling’s Standalone “Star Wars” Film
Ryan Gosling is going from the world of Barbie and Ken to Leia and Kenobi.
With the Star Wars Celebration in Tokyo delivering a galaxy’s worth of news, including a new series from Lost co-creator Carlton Cuse and his son, Nick, a veteran of Watchmen and Station Eleven, it would require an interdiction beam (look it up, Star Wars nubes) to pull all the information together.
Dawn of a New DC: Go Behind-the-Scenes of James Gunn’s “Superman”
Did you notice something in the sky on April 18? It wasn’t a bird or a plane, it was, of course, Superman, officially soaring for DC Studios to celebrate his special day. April 18 is Superman Day, in case you were unaware, and to that end, DC Studios gave us a sneak-peak behind-the-scenes of James Gunn’s upcoming Superman, the first feature film to fly out of the gate for the newly unified DC Studios,
Ryan Coogler Does it Again: The Auteur’s Ambitious Epic “Sinners” Wins Box Office Crown
There was a reason why studios were competing to land Ryan Coogler’s ambitious new film, Sinners, when the writer-director and his star, Michael B. Jordan, were shopping the script in Hollywood. Coogler’s earned the respect of audiences across the world, having put out four excellent films in precisely four attempts, beginning with his 2013 breakout film Fruitvale Station and carrying through his subsequent three films,
Along With “The Amateur,” Sate Your Spy Appetite With These 6 Can’t-Miss Classics
In the wake of the release of director James Hawes’ The Amateur, starring Rami Malek as a CIA decoder who sets out to avenge his wife’s murder despite reluctance from his CIA superiors, now is the perfect time to revisit the genre’s rich history. From breathtaking sets to complex narratives complete with moral dilemmas and characters emblematic of the struggle between good and evil, the spy genre has everything a viewer could want.
From Script to Scream: Stephanie Allain on Producing Blumhouse’s Latest Nightmare, “The Woman in the Yard”
Stephanie Allain is a trailblazing producer. She was the Senior Vice President of Production at Columbia Pictures, where she oversaw films such as Boyz N The Hood and Desperado. From there, she became the President of Henson Pictures and eventually launched her production company, Homegrown Films. Homegrown Films is behind Hustle & Flow, Beyond the Lights, and Exhibiting Forgiveness, a film Allain is deeply proud of.
The Architecture of Espionage: Maria Djurkovic on Designing Rami Malek’s Revenge in “The Amateur”
Bohemian Rhapsody Oscar winner Rami Malik switches it up in The Amateur to play buttoned-down CIA analyst-turned-warrior Charlie Heller, who goes rogue in Europe to hunt down the terrorists responsible for the murder of his wife (Rachel Brosnahan). Tough-as-nails CIA handler (Laurence Fishburne) spearheads the Agency’s efforts to squash Charlie’s self-appointed mission, but he soon learns he’s dealing with a determined, lethally intelligent, and remarkably savvy operator who isn’t above blackmailing his own agency to get the revenge he seeks.
Calculated Frames: DP Martin Ruhe on Capturing “The Amateur’s” Deadly Chess Game
In the first part of our conversation with cinematographer Martin Ruhe about his latest film, The Amateur, he discussed director James Hawes’ grounded approach to Rami Malek’s CIA analyst-turned-vigilante by focusing on how his character’s humanity and intelligence were the keys to his playing a deadly game with trained spies and assassins. He’s able to do this not only because of his superior intelligence, but also because he blackmails his superiors (who have been ordering unsanctioned black ops) who know more than he does about the specifics of spycraft,
Lethal Intelligence: How DP Martin Ruhe Shot a Decoder’s Revenge in “The Amateur”
Tapping into nostalgia for ‘90s spy thrillers of late, 20th Century Studios’ globe-trotting espionage revenge thriller features Rami Malek’s quietly ingenious CIA decryption analyst as the everyman reluctant hero. “He’s not a killer, he’s not trained with weapons, he probably wouldn’t survive in a fist fight. So, he has to be smarter than everybody else,” says German cinematographer Martin Ruhe (Showtime series The Agency, The Tender Bar) of Malek’s Charlie Heller.
Cannes Lineup Revealed: Ari Aster, Richard Linklater, Scarlett Johansson, Wes Anderson & More
The 78th Cannes Film Festival has announced its lineup, and once again, the South of France will be home to some of the biggest stars and most sought-after directors, including directorial debuts for two great performers and a first-time for the festival itself in its opening film.
Some of the well-known directors heading to the Croisette this year are Wes Anderson, arriving with his caper The Phoenician Scheme, Richard Linklater for his new film Nouvelle Vague,
“Connecticut’s Cinema Secret: How Dillon Bentlage’s “Watching Mr. Pearson” Found Its Perfect Location
Dementia was part of writer-director Dillon Bentlage’s family, his grandmother struggling with its early stages before passing away from cancer. Watching Mr. Pearson is a love letter to those living with symptoms and the people around them wanting to give them their best life. The feature stars Hugo Armstrong as Robert Pearson, a former Hollywood legend battling mental decline. When one of his caregivers, Caroline (Dominika Zawada), finds out that performing scenes from his film work gives him new life,
