Here we are in another week of weird and fascinating events in the world of film AND STUFF!
In this week’s “Yay, more Neil Gaiman!” story, Amazon Studios is going to adapt Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchet’s novel Good Omens and turn it into a six-episode limited series. Yay! And what even better is that Neil Gaiman will write it entirely himself – AND be the showrunner! Huzzah!
The 2006 novel takes place in 2018 when the Apocalypse is near and Final Judgment is set to descend upon humanity. The show will air in 2018.
In this week’s “Dwanye Johnson’s career is doing just fine” story, New Line and DC Entertainment are feeling pretty sure of their Shazam! film project -so much so that they are going to produce a a film about Shazam’s arch nemesis, Black Adam – and Dwayne Johnson will star.
So, apparently, since they started talking about doing a Shazam! film back in 2008 when Johnson was attached to play Black Adam, he’s become a massive star, so New Line and DC have reworked the whole Shazam! movie to now include a film dedicated to Black Adam, because, hey, Johnson is too big a star to play a secondary character.
Adam’s screen take involves him being an anti-hero. And it also mirrors recent developments in the DC comics, in stories written by Johns, where Adam, while still a villain, was fighting against enemies who sought to enslave his people.
Dude, this guy’s career is so set. Well, good for him. I usually enjoy whatever he’s doing, mostly because he doesn’t seem to take stuff too seriously.
In this week’s “Aw, man, can death take a fucking break, please?” story, actor Miguel Ferrer has died at the age of 61, of throat cancer. He was commonly known as the guy in Robocop that snorted coke off a couple women, and from the show Crossing Jordan, and most recently in NCIS: Los Angeles.
He also played in a band called the Generators in Los Angeles with Billy Mumy, which I had the pleasure of seeing perform live a couple times. Ferrer was the son of top 1950’s singer Rosemary Clooney and actor Jose Ferrer, and first cousin to George Clooney. Clooney said Ferrer “made the world brighter and funnier” in a statement obtained by Variety.
The bummers continue.
In this week’s “A Dog’s Purpose…Is NOT to be forced into doing things it doesn’t want to do!” story, this week, a video went viral of one of the dogs from the film A Dog’s Purpose, clearly acting like he didn’t want to jump into a turbulent pool of water. The dog, a German Shepard named Hercules, is shown obviously reticent – or downright scared – to jump into the pool churned up by using three outboard boat motors. That would certainly scare the shit out of me. “You want me to jump into what, now?”
You can see the jump in the film’s TV trailer, but when you see this video, it’s a real bummer. The dog is clearly being forced to do something against its’ will. He is shown falling in the water, and then going under. Then some guys jump in the water to go get him.
I surely won’t be seeing this movie so you won’t get a review from me. I can tell you they film already looked WAY to heavy-handed and hokey, but now I just can’t condone or advocate seeing it.
Read this article over at The Wrap for more:
http://www.thewrap.com/dogs-purpose-did-wrong-animal-trainer/
UPDATE: Ladies and gentlemen, Universal has cancelled both the press junket and the weekend’s scheduled premiere of the film. A Dog’s Purpose, based on the best-selling book of the same name, goes wide into theaters on Jan. 27th. The move to keep the press at bay comes as those involved with the film have spoken up in both protest and disgust at what happened during a second unit shoot in Winnipeg that occurred last fall.
Those who have said they were disturbed or outraged actually included producer Gavin Polone, Josh Gad (who provides the voice of the dog), trailer voice talent Anthony Mendez and even the film’s own director Lasse Hallstrom. According to Deadline Hollywood, “whomever took the video only made it public this week. The handlers for the dog on the video (who we’re told also supplied the dog) was Birds & Animals Unlimited, an Acton, CA-based company that has been under heavy scrutiny for a long time from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. PETA also asked that the film be boycotted because of how the dog was handled during the shoot.”
In this week’s “Al Gore is back with more” story, An Inconvenient Sequel, the follow-up to Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, will release in theaters July 28 of this year from Paramount. The sequel, directed by Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk, comes 11 years after “An Inconvenient Truth.” It follows Gore as he continues his decades-long fight to build a more sustainable future for our planet.
In this week’s “Most anticipated giant monster movie Award” story, Anne Hathaway, of all people, is starring in an upcoming monster movie called, Colossal. Get ready for this premise: Hathaway is an alcoholic named Gloria who finds out that her movements are controlling a giant monster terrorizing South Korea.
Yep. That’s it. Sounds crazy. And funny. Written and directed by Nacho Vigalondo, the film also co-stars Dan Stevens, Jason Sudeikis, Austin Stowell, and Tim Blake Nelson.
The movie had its world premiere at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival, and IndieWire’s Eric Kohn called the film “a hilarious monster movie” that “wrestles its absurd premise into a clever and frequently hilarious riff on moody young adults trapped by their insecurities.”
Colossal will screen at Sundance and open in theaters April 7. And I’ll be checking it out for sure.
In this week’s “Speaking of Anne Hathaway” story, she is in talks to join Rebel Wilson in the gender-reversed remake of 1988’s Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, where two con-artists plan to scam a rich person out of their millions.
In this remake, called Nasty Women (Ugh), Hathaway and Wilson will play the con-artists that Steve Martin and Michael Caine played in the original. They will play two woman of different classes looking to swindle a tech prodigy out of his fortune.
That title makes me uneasy. I already feel like they’re going to go REALLY low brow, but like an obvious low brow, not a subtle one.
In this week’s “SHAFT!” story, director Tim Story (Ride Along) has signed on to do a new reboot of the 1971 film Shaft, a smooth private detective who is hired by a drug lord to find his kidnapped daughter.
The film is being produced by John Davis, Ira Napoliello, and “Black-ish” creator Kenya Barris, who wrote the script with Alex Barnow.
Samuel L. Jackson starred in a 2002 reboot for Paramount Pictures. Now New Line has the rights and is speeding this along.
Yeah, but will this reboot have an Oscar-winning theme song? Not likely.
In this week’s “I think we’ve seen this before” story, Nicholas Hoult (now Beast from X-Men, Hux from Mad Max: Fury Road) is starring in Collide, directed by Eran Creevy. The film was supposed to come out a long time ago but was among Retivity Media’s collateral damage when they went bankrupt. Open Road films scooped it up but it’s been bouncing around a while.
While the premise sounds like popcorn-movie fun, it’s anything but original:
After a heist goes terribly wrong, Casey Stein (Nicholas Hoult) finds himself on the run from a ruthless gang headed by mob boss Hagen (Anthony Hopkins). Now Casey has precious cargo that belongs to Hagen, who will stop at nothing to retrieve it. Left with no choice, Casey calls his former employer and drug smuggler Geran (Ben Kingsley) to protect his long-time girlfriend Juliette before Hagen gets his hands on her. Casey sets out on an adrenaline-fueled car chase on the German highways to save the love of his life before it’s too late.
Collide releases Feb. 24, but it sounds like a rental/streaming option.
In this week’s “Another one bites the dust” story, actor Cube Gooding, Jr. has filed for divorce. Apparently his wife, Sara Gooding petitioned for separation back in 2014, so he’s finally just getting around to making things more permanent. He’s ok with spousal support, but there’s a catch. Cuba wants all of his earnings to remain his and his alone from the date Sara filed for separation. That includes O.J. Simpson $$$. This is referring, of course, to his portrayal of Simpson in the series The People vs O J Simpson.
Ok, Cuba, good luck with that!
In this week’s “Oh, Johnny…” story, Johnny Depp thanks fans for their support after his divorce from Amber Heard is finalized.
While accepting the favorite movie icon award at the show’s close, Depp told the audience, “I came here for one reason tonight and one reason only. I came here for you, the people, who through whatever good times or bad, you know, have stood by me, trusted me. Thank you.”
Yeah, you damn well better thank them. Thank them for still caring about you and your nonsense. I will NO thank you for continuing to beat us over the head with Captain Jack Sparrow. ENOUGH already. You can’t possibly need the paycheck THAT badly. Unless you plan on having more divorces, Johnny.
Ok, that’s enough nonsense this week. I’m just barely getting over seeing that new xXx movie. It makes the Fast and Furious movies look like fucking Oscar material.