Oh look! Another week of beguiling and sarcasm-inducing film news! Let’s do this!
In this week’s “Awesome” story, AMC has renewed Preacher for a second season! YAY!
In this week’s “Pot calling the kettle black” story, regarding The Force Awakens, James Cameron has said of that “JJ Abrams’s reboot lacked the “innovative visual imagination” of the original films”. Really, James? WTF. This coming from the guy whose film, Avatar, was basically just Pocahontas in Space, and is planning FOUR Avatar sequels. FOUR. Dude, shut up.
In this week’s (today) “Happy Birthday” story, actress Olivia de Havilland celebrates her 100th birhday today! The 5-time Oscar nominated actress has starred in dozens of films such as, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1935), The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), The Snake Pit (1947), among many others. Happy Birthday, Olivia!
In this week’s “Weird guy stars in a new movie” story, Shia LeBouf starred in A24’s newly acquired American Honey, and will release the film September 30, 2016, in time for Oscar season. The film, directed by Andrea Arnold from her own script, premiered at last months Cannes Festival and won the jury prize. LaBeouf, Riley Keough and newcomer Sasha Lane play hard-partying characters selling magazines in the Midwest amid a lifestyle of sex, intoxication and occasional law-breaking. Are we sure this isn’t just found footage of LaBouf on a weekend bender involving some kind of “performance art”? Or just a Tuesday?
In this week’s “Stormtroopers and Kaiju” story, actor John Boyega, who played Finn in The Force Awakens, is joining the cast of Pacific Rim 2. Legendary and Universal have set the release date of February 23, 2018, so mark your calendars now. Pacific Rim 2 will be directed by Steven DeKnight (Daredevil on Netflix) and produced by Thomas Tull, Guillermo del Toro and Mary Planet.
In this week’s story about yet another Disney sequel, Wreck It Ralph director Rich Moore, and writer Phil Johnston and actor John C. Reilly announced that they are currently working on the sequel. Disney has set a release date of March 9, 2018. This time, Ralph wrecks the internet! It will be made by the same creative team, so that’s a good sign.
In this week’s “Crazy man makes good?” story, Mel Gibson’s new film, Hacksaw Ridge, opens November 4. Yes, it looks like he’s trying for an Oscar run. Hacksaw Ridge is a WWII drama, focusing on combat medic Desmond Doss, who, without ever firing a shot and being a conscientious objector, was given the Medal of Honor. The film stars Andrew Garfield, Vince Vaughn, and Hugo Weaving, and is Gibson’s first directorial effort since Apocalypto and his infamous meltdown in Malibu.
So, has it been long enough for people to like Mel again? We’ll see, but people still go see Woody Allen’s films as well Roman Polanski’s. Apparently pedophilia (alleged or not) isn’t enough to keep fans away, but being a drunken racist is.
In this week’s “Mystery project” story, Director Peter Jackson is apparently working on some Secret Project for Steven Spielberg, and it’s NOT Tintin 2. We could speculate all day and not really know what it is, but whatever he’s working on for Spielberg right now, Tintin 2 will likely come after that, according to Amblin Entertainment.
In this week’s “Are they still making those?” story, Underworld: Blood Wars has had their release date pushed from October, 14, 2016, to January 6, 2017. That’s usually a bad sign, but when you think that three of the four Underworld movies have come out in January, you, uh, pretty much tin the same thing, because let’s face it, the Underworld movies are kind of hit or miss. I suspect the date change will not cause the loss of too much sleep.
In this week’s “Dog Adoption” story, Paramount Pictures has given Clifford, the Big Red Dog a permanent home. That’s right, Paramount is going to make a live-action/CG adaptation of the popular kid’s book series about, you know, a really big red dog. Justin Malen (Baywatch) will write the script. Paramount picked up the project after Universal gave it up.
I had some of these Clifford books as a kid, but I don’t know if that will make me have any interest in this kid-friendly project.
In this week’s “I’d buy THAT for a dollar!” story, Scarlett Johansson is now the highest-grossing female star of All Time, according to Box Office Mojo. She pushed Cameron Diaz out of the top spot, perhaps due to Captain America: Civil War. How long ago had Diaz gotten on the list? It’s not like she’s been starring huge hits lately. Of course, if you include male actors, Johansson’s $ 3.3 billion cume barely puts her in the top ten. What a weird list, anyway. If you happen to star in a film that makes a bunch of money, you get the credit. I get if you’re the lead star, but the list seems kind of random. Let’s get more leading ladies on that list, ok, Hollywood?
In this week’s “Whatever it takes” story, Netflix will be streaming seven of Albert Brooks films starting July 1. In a video, Brooks jokingly discloses that he may have resorted to some nefarious methods to get Netflix to host his films. If you’d like to see Albert Brook’s video, you can watch it here: https://youtu.be/ed4YKD7WWvE
In this week’s “That could be interesting” story, composer Cliff Martinez has been hired to score the music for Wolverine 3. Martinez is Nicolas Winding Refn’s favorite composer, and has hired him to score The Neon Demon, Drive, and Only God Forgives, but he has also scored a bunch of Steven Soderbergh films including The Limey, Traffic, Solaris, and even other films like Narc and The Lincoln Lawyer. I feel like that could add an interesting dimension to a Wolverine movie. The music to The Neon Demon is really cool and trippy.
In this week’s “Teaching by proxy ” story, Matthew McConaughy has officially been signed on as a teacher at University of Texas at Austin. He’ll be teaching a filmmaking class alongside Hunger Games director Gary Ross. But wait; he’ll be teaching the class via recorded videos! So, he won’t actually be IN the classroom. However, the university has said that he will make at least one visit to the campus for class. So the university says. *shrug*
McConaughy is currently filming Stephen King’s The Dark Tower with Idris Elba.
And in this week’s “Token TV show” story, Netflix has ordered 10 episodes of…a new Lost In Space series! It will be the same premise as the original 1960 one hour sci-fi drama, and follow the Robinson family, as they are forced to come together in a time of crisis. Stranded light years from their intended destination, they find themselves battling a strange alien environment as well as their own personal demons. Sort of equal parts family drama and sci-fi adventure.
This new Lost In Space series is being called a ‘re-imaging’ of the original, and the showrunner will be Zack Estrie (Prison Break). That’s not bad, but it’s to be written by Mark Sazama and Burke Sharpless, those behind such winning scripts for Dracula Untold and The Last Witch Hunter. In the immortal words of Dr. Smith; “Oh, the pain, the pain…”
~ Neil T Weakley, your average movie-goer, on the lookout for more weird news for next time!