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02 Apr 22:32

It’s Hellboy day!! He looks pretty damn good for battling hell...



It’s Hellboy day!! He looks pretty damn good for battling hell on earth for the past 25 years. Here’s a tiki-inspired mask of our favorite half-demon made out of resin. #hellboy #hellboyday #tiki #tikimask #hellboy25 @artofmm
https://www.instagram.com/p/BvXGsJdFv4a/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=7anf2ja33qx2

28 Mar 23:59

The GOOD OMENS Trailer Is Here To Bring About The Apocalypse

by Scott Wampler

Amazon's Terry Pratchett/Neil Gaiman adaptation looks pretty good!

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25 Mar 01:46

A High School in New Jersey Turned Alien Into a Gigerific Stage Play

by Julie Muncy

Generally speaking, creating unlicensed adaptations of film properties is frowned upon in local theater scenes. But sometimes, you get away with it by creating something super rad, which is what happened in the case of Alien: The Play, a full-length adaptation of Ridley Scott’s
Alien helmed by Perfecto Cuervo, an…

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22 Mar 21:48

‘Jiu Jitsu’ Will See Nicolas Cage Fighting an Alien that Returns to Earth Every Six Years

by Chris Evangelista
Corey

Wait, what?

Jiu Jitsu movie

Nicolas Cage refuses to make a boring movie. His eternal quest to have audiences say “What the hell is this?” continues with Jiu Jitsu, a sci-fi action film in which Cage will team-up with a martial artist to fight an alien – an alien that comes to earth every six years, looking for a fight.

Does this sound like the best movie ever made? Yes. Yes it does.

THR reports that the Jiu Jitsu movie will hail from writer-director Dimitri Logothetis, a filmmaker responsible for work on several Kickboxer sequels, which seems appropriate here. Alain Moussi, an actor and stuntman, will play “a Jiu Jitsu fighter who every six years must face off against an alien invader, Brax.” Nicolas Cage will play a character who “teams up with him in a battle to defeat Brax.” I’m a little disappointed Cage isn’t playing the Jiu Jitsu fighter himself, but hey, beggars can’t be choosers.

“After we successfully reintroduced the Kickboxer franchise to a new generation of martial arts fans with the sixth and seventh entries in the series, we set out to up the ante with a sci-fi martial arts franchise that could bring the same kind of intensity and longevity to a new arena,” Logothetis said. Jiu Jitsu is based on a comic of the same name, written by Logothetis and Jim McGrath. Here’s an excerpt from the comic’s synopsis, which offers more insight into this story:

Jake McCall is a combat vet who now works as an assistant wrestling coach for a small college whose major claim is its wrestling team. He is married to a beautiful, caring wife and has a precocious five-year-old boy, and his life with them in a peaceful college town is idyllic (perfect outcome for a combat vet with PTSD). Or so he believes.

Long ago, floating particles from outer space took forms in human brains and have controlled human bodies by altering MEMORIES. A violent world-takeover now looms, an apocalyptic day that has been set for over a century. The players in this multi-generational plan are known only to each other, and only at certain times.

Jake McCall is at the center of the resistance to this plan, the lynchpin of the whole operation. And he has no idea.

The aliens have taken him, cloaked his brain with an array of false memories and perceptions, and robbed his life of the one thing he needs to save the world.

Jiu Jitsu.

Yes, this does sound amazing. Cage has been on a roll lately. His performance in Mandy is dynamite, and the film itself received a heap of praise – more so than any recent Cage film, in fact. He also appeared in the absolutely bonkers Between Worlds, in which he plays a truck driver who starts an affair with a teen girl who claims to be possessed by the ghost of his dead wife. Coming up, Cage has the Sion Sono film Prisoners of the Ghostland, which Cage himself describes as “the wildest movie I’ve ever made.” In that movie, Cage plays a character who “is sent to rescue an abducted girl who has disappeared into a dark supernatural universe, they must break the evil curse that binds them and escape the mysterious revenants that rule the Ghostland.”

And that’s not all. The actor also has the H.P. Lovecraft adaptation The Colour Out of Space in the works, with director Richard Stanley at the helm. In short, it’s a good time to be a Nic Cage fan.

The post ‘Jiu Jitsu’ Will See Nicolas Cage Fighting an Alien that Returns to Earth Every Six Years appeared first on /Film.

22 Mar 21:45

‘Deadwood’ Movie Trailer Reveals Tense New Footage, Confirms May Premiere Date

by Chris Evangelista
Corey

Yeeeeees!!

deadwood movie trailer

Alright, I guess it’s time to admit the Deadwood movie is really, finally happening. There’s even a new trailer! And a premiere date! I never thought this day would come. HBO’s new film will reunite almost the entire original cast of the Shakespearian Western for one last hurrah, thirteen years after the series was cancelled. The movie premieres this May. Watch the Deadwood movie trailer below.

Dead Movie Trailer

I was already excited to return to Deadwood, but this brief trailer cranked that excitement through the roof. As a huge fan of the original series, I’ve been waiting so long for this day to come, while also just accepting that it would probably never happen. But after much rumor and delay, Deadwood: The Movie is a reality. In the film, “the indelible characters of the show are reunited after a decade to celebrate South Dakota’s statehood. Former rivalries are reignited, alliances are tested and old wounds reopened as all are left to navigate the inevitable changes that modernity and time have wrought.”

Returning cast members include Ian McShane, Timothy Olyphant, Molly Parker, Paula Malcomson, John Hawkes, Anna Gunn, Dayton Callie, Brad Dourif, Robin Weigert, William Sanderson, Kim Dickens, Gerald McRaney, Sean Bridgers, W. Earl Brown and Keone Young, among others. The film will also feature new cast member Jade Pettyjohn.

Deadwood ran for three seasons between 2004 and 2006, and was among the first crop of great HBO original shows that kicked-off with The Sopranos. While The Sopranos has had a much bigger cultural impact, I liked Deadwood just a tiny bit more (no disrespect to Tony and the guys). The brilliant performances coupled with the heightened, vulgar dialogue courtesy of creator David Milch made for some of the most engrossing, enthralling and entertaining television I had ever seen. I was heartbroken when the series was cancelled, but took solace in Milch’s assurance that he and HBO had discussed making possible movies to wrap things up.

Except, that never happened. Years ticked on, and while talk of at least one movie would pop-up from time to time, it seemed highly unlikely – until last year, when HBO Programming president Casey Bloys confirmed the long-awaited Deadwood movie was definitely happening. “All of these people worked hard to get this together,” Bloys said. “It’s been a logistics nightmare getting all the cast members’ schedules together but we are there. It is greenlit.”

The Deadwood movie arrives on HBO May 31, 2019.

The post ‘Deadwood’ Movie Trailer Reveals Tense New Footage, Confirms May Premiere Date appeared first on /Film.

20 Mar 22:10

In the First Stranger Things Season 3 Trailer, It's All Fun and Games Until the Monsters Show up

by Charles Pulliam-Moore

When last we caught up with Stranger Things’ heroes of Hawkins, they’d successfully managed to fend off yet another inter-dimensional threat seeking to breach the divide and enter our world. For about a few seconds it seemed as if Eleven and her friends were going to be able to enjoy their childhoods in peace. This…

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20 Mar 22:06

With No U.S. Release Planned, Japanese Zombie Comedy One Cut Of the Dead Heads Toward a Remake

by Germain Lussier

In my opinion, Japanese horror comedy One Cut of the Dead belongs in the pantheon of great zombie movies. It reinvents the genre much like Shaun of the Dead did, adding humor and smarts to the horror, with a whole dose of spoilery surprises. And yet, as of now, there are no plans for a (legal) release stateside. That…

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20 Mar 14:38

‘The Boys’: Amazon Series Unleashing World Premiere at 2019 Tribeca Film Festival

by Ray Flook

With Amazon Prime Video‘s adaptation of Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson‘s comic book series The Boys set to premiere Summer 2019, cast members Karl Urban, Jack Quaid, Antony Starr, Erin Moriarty, Jessie T. Usher, Laz Alonso, Chace Crawford, Karen Fukuhara, and Elisabeth Shue as well as executive producer/showrunner Eric Kripke are set to invade the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival, presented by AT&T for the series’ world premiere.

TheBoys_June28_Ep102_D10_JT_0348-Pano.dng

On Monday, April 29, at 8:45 p.m., the SVA Theatre will serve as the home for the series’ world premiere. Following the screening, Kripke and the cast will discuss the series and take questions from the audience.

In a world where superheroes embrace the darker side of their massive celebrity and fame, THE BOYS centers on a group of vigilantes known informally as “The Boys,” who set out to take down corrupt superheroes with no more than their blue-collar grit and a willingness to fight dirty. THE BOYS is a fun and irreverent take on what happens when superheroes – who are as popular as celebrities, as influential as politicians and as revered as Gods – abuse their superpowers rather than use them for good. It’s the powerless against the super powerful as The Boys embark on a heroic quest to expose the truth about “The Seven,” and Vought – the multi-billion dollar conglomerate that manages these superheroes.

the boys
TheBoys_June18_Ep102_D02_JT_0642.RAF

On the side of The Boys, Karl Urban’s Billy Butcher is mysterious and brutal, hiding a personal agenda as he approaches potential new recruit Hughie (Jack Quaid), claiming to be a shadowy government operative. Butcher capitalizes on Hughie’s rage over his girlfriend Robin’s accidental death at the hands of Superhero A-Train and enlists Hughie as part of his plan to bring down the super-hero franchise.

Rounding out Butcher’s team are Laz Alonso (The Mysteries of Laura) as second-in-command Mother’s Milk; Karen Fukuhara (Suicide Squad) as The Female, a young Asian assassin with blistering fighting skills who happens to have superpowers; and Tomer Capon as unpredictable wild card Frenchie, a brutal warrior when who lives a life of no attachments or responsibilities.

On the flip side, The Seven are Antony Starr (American Gothic) as Homelander, leader of the main superhero team, The Seven; Dominique McElligott (The Last Tycoon) as Queen Maeve, a member of The Seven; Chace Crawford (Gossip Girl) as The Seven member The Deep, an aquatic hero; Jesse T. Usher (Survivor’s Remorse) as speedster with a major PR problem, A-Train; and Nathan Mitchell (iZombie) as Black Noir, a masked superhero with fighting and Set martial arts skills.

Erin Moriarty (Jessica Jones) joins the cast as Starlight/Annie, a young woman who can make lightning bolts flash from her eyes and dreams of being a “real superhero” like the famous Seven; Elisabeth Shue‘s (CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Karate Kid) super-hero handler Madelyn Stillwell is the Vice President of Hero Management for Vought and the person responsible for cleaning up after the “heroes.” Jennifer Esposito (NCIS, Blindspot) has also been cast in the recurring role of CIA Agent Susan Raynor, with Billy Zane (Titanic) also set to make a guest appearance this season.

the boys
TheBoys_Jun04_Ep101_D10_JT_0702.RAF

The post ‘The Boys’: Amazon Series Unleashing World Premiere at 2019 Tribeca Film Festival appeared first on Bleeding Cool News And Rumors.

20 Mar 03:33

Buy Fyre Fest Items During Auction to Pay for Billy MacFarland’s Debts

by Mary Anne Butler

Just when you thought we were done with Fyre Fest for the year-

There will apparently be an auction [at some point] in the near future consisting of the sole holdings of CEO/founder Billy MacFarland, which include (according to a court filing) “two large boxes containing Fyre-branded T-shirts, sweatshirts, shorts and other clothing items that were intended for sale at the Fyre Festival.”

According to Vulture, a spokesman for the United States Marshals Service’s Manhattan office told them in an email the auction will consist of:

“An assortment of the ‘real thing’ Fyre Festival-branded tee-shirts, sweatpants, sweatshirts, hats, wristbands and medallions .We know that there is tremendous interest in these items in the NY metro area in particular.”

The auction is planned to raise money to pay for the over $26 million MacFarland still owes investors.

The spokesman continued, saying:

“The USMS will dispose (or sell) the Fyre merchandise in the most efficient, cost-effective way in the best interests of the U.S. Government. We utilize our contracted partners to handle the marketing and sale and it will be an online auction.”

No images of the merchandise have been released yet, no doubt to prevent fraudulent sales of knock-off of the items.

There also was not a date announced for the auction yet, but we’ll let you know what we hear.

Both documentaries about the failed Fyre Festival are available for streaming now on both Hulu and Netflix.

The post Buy Fyre Fest Items During Auction to Pay for Billy MacFarland’s Debts appeared first on Bleeding Cool News And Rumors.

19 Mar 21:30

Man’s Fall Down Hoboken Staircase Captured On Google Maps

by Eric Kiefer
This man’s tumble down a set of stairs at an apartment building in New Jersey may live in infamy for a very long time. Let's hope he's OK.
19 Mar 13:46

Sundance Review: THE UNTITLED AMAZING JOHNATHAN DOCUMENTARY - Whatever This Is, It Is Amazing

by Evan Saathoff

Please put this one on your radar.

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18 Mar 14:43

Jordan Peele’s ‘Us’ Soundtrack Releases That Creepy Version of “I Got 5 On It”

by Ethan Anderton

Us Soundtrack

We’ve got one more week until Jordan Peele blows us all away again with his sophomore directing effort Us. The film has received rave reviews after its world premiere at South by Southwest, and audiences are eager to see what the comedian-turned-horror-mastermind has up his sleeve. But until then, we’ve got a good way to pass the time.

The official soundtrack for Us is available today, and while you might want to hold off on listening to the score until you actually see the movie (that’s a personal rule of mine), there’s one track you can listen to absolutely guilt-free. In fact, it’s a song you’ve heard several times before: “I Got 5 On It” by Luniz. But the hip-hop track was made to be truly chilling with a creepy remix in the first trailer for Us. And that’s the version that has been released online today. Listen to the song from the Us soundtrack below.

Us Soundtrack – “I Got 5 On It” (Tethered Mix)

I absolutely love this version of “I Got 5 On It.” The song works so well in the trailer as the horror slowly reveals itself and the suspense builds right up to the end. From the plucking of the strings to the heavier electric guitar, and especially the echo on the lyrics, it’s just the perfect remixing of a familiar tack.

If you’re curious about the rest of the soundtrack, it’s mostly comprised of the score from Michael Abels. Entertainment Weekly actually has two tracks from the score you can listen to right now. But it does include the original version of “I Got 5 On It” by Luniz (featuring Michael Marshall), as well as the Janelle Monáe song “I Like That,” and the classic 1970s song “Les Fleur” by Minnie Riperton. You can find the full tracklist below (via Pitchfork), but beware that the track titles might include spoilers for the movie.

  1. Michael Abels: “Anthem”
  2. Janelle Monáe: “I Like That”
  3. Michael Abels: “Outernet”
  4. Michael Abels: “Spider”
  5. Michael Abels: “Ballet Memory”
  6. Luniz: “I Got 5 on It” [ft. Michael Marshall]
  7. Michael Abels: “Beach Walk”
  8. Michael Abels: “First Man Standing”
  9. Michael Abels: “Back to the House”
  10. Michael Abels: “Keep You Safe”
  11. Michael Abels: “Don’t Feel Like Myself”
  12. Michael Abels: “She Tried to Kill Me”
  13. Michael Abels: “Boogieman’s Family”
  14. Michael Abels: “Home Invasion”
  15. Michael Abels: “Once Upon a Time”
  16. Michael Abels: “Run”
  17. Michael Abels: “Into the Water”
  18. Michael Abels: “Spark in the Closet”
  19. Michael Abels: “Escape to the Boast”
  20. Michael Abels: “Femme Fatale”
  21. Michael Abels: “Silent Scream”
  22. Michael Abels: “News Report”
  23. Michael Abels: “Zora Drives”
  24. Michael Abels: “Death of Umbrae”
  25. Michael Abels: “Somber Ride”
  26. Michael Abels: “Immolation”
  27. Michael Abels: “Down the Rabbit Hole”
  28. Michael Abels: “Performance Art”
  29. Michael Abels: “Human”
  30. Michael Abels: “Battle Plan”
  31. Michael Abels: “Pas de Deux”
  32. Michael Abels: “They Can’t Hurt You”
  33. Michael Abels: “Finale”
  34. Minnie Riperton: “Les Fleur”
  35. Luniz: “I Got 5 on It (Tethered Mix From US)” [ft. Michael Marshall] (Bonus Track)

You can pick up the soundtrack from online and in-store retailers today, but we’re hoping for a vinyl release.

The post Jordan Peele’s ‘Us’ Soundtrack Releases That Creepy Version of “I Got 5 On It” appeared first on /Film.

15 Mar 20:42

James Gunn Reinstated as Director of Guardians of The Galaxy Vol. 3 by Disney

by Jeremy Konrad
Corey

Wooooo

James Gunn has been reinstated as director of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 by Disney, according to a report from Deadline. The director was fired after tweets he made years ago about pedophilia and rape resurfaced online when by alt-right journalists went viral. This has been seemingly confirmed by both Marvel Studios and Gunn’s people. Gunn showed remorse and was very apologetic in the aftermath, but lost the job regardless.

Even after the firing, the studio had confirmed that they were still going to use his already-penned script for the film to begin with. Apparently Marvel Studios never met with another director to direct Guardians 3 after Gunn’s firing, despite reports that they were meeting with Taika Waititi and others to possible take the job. Further complicating matters is that Warner Bros. quickly snatched up James Gunn to direct Suicide Squad 2, and the same Deadline report claims that Marvel Studios will hold off on putting Guardians 3 in front of cameras until he is done with SS2.

At the end of the day, does this mean Guardians 3 moves to the back of the line and becomes a Phase 5 movie? Does Dave Bautista calm down now and stay with the franchise, after so publicly stating he would quit the MCU if James Gunn was not rehired? A thousand questions still to be answered. For now though, Gunn is back, thrilling many I am sure.

More to come…

The post James Gunn Reinstated as Director of Guardians of The Galaxy Vol. 3 by Disney appeared first on Bleeding Cool News And Rumors.

15 Mar 15:43

It’s Official: WB’s Moving Forward With An EDGE OF TOMORROW Sequel

by Scott Wampler
Corey

Loved the first one.

We will be there DAY ONE.

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15 Mar 15:23

The SOPRANOS Prequel Movie Is Now Called NEWARK

by Scott Wampler

And it arrives next September.

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15 Mar 14:54

Have Prime? Click Two Buttons To Get a FREE $3 Amazon Credit. 

by Shep McAllister on Kinja Deals, shared by Tercius to io9

Want $3 to spend on Amazon for free? Just visit this page, click the “Borrow Your First Book” button to jump to Amazon’s Prime Reading library, then pick any book or magazine to add to your library. They’re all free, and once you “borrow” one, you’ll receive an email confirming that a $3 Amazon credit has been added…

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14 Mar 20:36

What we’re reading, Personal Message Michael Dumontier and...

14 Mar 20:32

Scarfolk Recipes

14 Mar 20:31

Grappling Hook, Banksy

14 Mar 15:07

‘Victory’ Remake in the Works from ‘Unknown’ Director Jaume Collet-Serra

by Ethan Anderton
Corey

Remember when Elias said this was a movie and no one believed him??

Victory Remake

Director Jaume Collet-Serra is best known for delivering action thrillers with Liam Neeson that are more than a little unbelievable. Unknown, Non-Stop, Run All Night and The Commuter all hail from the Spanish filmmaker, but it seems like he’s switching gears in his career a little bit. Coming up, we’ll see what Collet-Serra can do with Disney and Dwayne Johnson in the theme park ride adaptation Jungle Cruise, and soon he’ll be tackling a hybrid sports drama and prison escape remake called Victory at Warner Bros. Pictures.

Back in 1981, John Huston directed the original Victory. The World War II-set film follows Karl von Steiner (Max Von Sydow), the head of a German POW camp and soccer enthusiast as he organizes a game between Nazi players and their captives from the Allied forces in Paris. It’s all in an effort to make the Third Reich look superior to the rest of the world by defeating an impressive team that includes John Colby (Michael Caine), a veteran British player and Luis Fernandez (the famous soccer player Pelé) of Trinidad.

Though the game is the focus of the movie, there’s a bit of an Argo situation happening here, because team trainer Robert Hatch (Sylvester Stallone) tries to plan a mass escape for the entire team at the end of the game. But the players might have to choose between humiliating the Nazis on the soccer field in front of the whole world or escaping with their lives. Or maybe there’s a way they can do both.

Even though an uplifting sports drama doesn’t sound like it’s up Jaume Collet-Serra’s alley, the nature of a group of POWs escaping custody through a soccer game with Nazis sounds unbelievable enough to fit with the rest of his filmography. There’s even room for Liam Neeson to take the Michael Caine or Sylvester Stallone role if he so desired.

This sounds like it has the potential to be a lot of fun, combining aspects of both sports dramas and heist movies. There’s also the opportunity to put together a great ensemble cast here. The original movie also featured a lot of real profession soccer players, but it remains to be seen if that’s what will happen with the remake. Either way, having the Allied forces make fools of some Nazis sounds like exactly what this country needs right now.

The Wrap says Anthony Tambakis is working on a rewrite of the script that he worked on with Gavin O’Connor back in 2017. Gianni Nunnari and Bernie Goldmann are producing the Victory remake, but there’s no indication as to when it might get in front of cameras at Warner Bros.

The post ‘Victory’ Remake in the Works from ‘Unknown’ Director Jaume Collet-Serra appeared first on /Film.

14 Mar 15:05

‘Stuber’ Work-In-Progress Screening: Put Kumail Nanjiani and Dave Bautista In Everything, You Cowards [SXSW]

by Meredith Borders

Stuber review

This isn’t quite a review, because what we saw at last night’s SXSW screening of Stuber wasn’t quite a finished film. But the work-in-progress print of Michael Dowse’s action buddy comedy felt finished enough to establish that stars Dave Bautista and Kumail Nanjiani have the best possible comedic chemistry. Listen up, Oscars 2020.

Nanjiani plays Stu, a fastidious Uber driver lovesick over his best friend (Betty Gilpin). Bautista is Vic, a detective who’s been zeroing in on a heroin dealer for years, slowly sacrificing everything else in his life, including his relationship with his daughter (Natalie Morales), to get his man. After a Lasik appointment leaves Vic out of commission right as he gets a lead on the dealer, he hails an Uber, promptly ruining Stu’s day and threatening his five-star rating.

Depending on how you feel about action comedies of the ‘80s and ‘90s (I’m for ‘em), Stuber might hit just the right nostalgia chord for you, though the jokes feel freshened up for 2019. The laughs are huge, the action is major (did I mention The Raid’s Iko Uwais is in this movie? And not for nothing, so is Mira Sorvino!), and it’s got a giant, goofy heart in the middle of it. Sure, you’ve seen this story before (although all the Uber references are certainly new), and intentionally so, because Stuber gives a big, joyful nod to the films that came before it, from 48 Hours to Rush Hour.

But the really inspired part comes in Bautista and Nanjiani’s casting, a pairing that might feel unlikely on paper but registers as instantly legendary onscreen. Comedies can’t fake this kind of chemistry, and boy, have they tried. The two actors are just so funny together, with Nanjiani’s mild straight-man routine bumping up perfectly against Bautista’s grouchy bombast. And they’re sweet together, too, a sort of winsome, weird, reluctant friendship, like when you see a video of a Labrador and an elephant cuddling on the internet.

With any work-in-progress screening (and SXSW has hosted quite a few over the years), we can assume that there will still be some editing needs, some pacing adjustments, some coloring and sound fixes that remain. That makes for an illuminating viewing, because we’re left with just a raw story, one that isn’t polished up yet for mass consumption. None of the stuff that remains to be done affected the comedy of Stuber in the slightest, because there’s a natural charisma to the movie that doesn’t need to be found in the edit. And it certainly didn’t affect the action, which is tight, the ideal combo of thrilling, shocking and hilarious. So it’ll be interesting to see what makes it to Stuber’s final version – but I suspect after the way the movie played with this crowd, Dowse won’t feel the need to make too many changes.

Okay, so seriously, about the Oscars…

The post ‘Stuber’ Work-In-Progress Screening: Put Kumail Nanjiani and Dave Bautista In Everything, You Cowards [SXSW] appeared first on /Film.

14 Mar 15:03

Wayne’s World director Penelope Spheeris on leaving Hollywood behind: “They can blow me”

by Katie Rife on Film, shared by Cheryl Eddy to io9

Pioneering punk film director Penelope Spheeris ran out of fucks to give a long time ago—around the time she started getting script notes from Harvey Weinstein, as she recalls. There’s visible disgust on her face recalling the disrespect the Weinsteins showed her on the set of her 1998 movie Senseless, which would end…

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12 Mar 21:25

‘NOS4A2’ Pilot Review: AMC Brings Joe Hill’s Horror Novel to the Small Screen With Creepy, Emotional Results [SXSW]

by Meredith Borders

NOS4A2 Review

Joe Hill‘s NOS4A2 is a dense, twisty, unlikely tale, so it feels exactly right that the pilot episode of AMC’s adaptation should be so stubbornly unwilling to explain itself to viewers unfamiliar with the source material. Nothing is spelled out here; nothing is synopsized or tidily introduced. Unlike so many pilots – that act as a string of bite-sized quotes built in service of future “Previously on…” segments – NOS4A2 is interested only in telling this story at its own pace, with an admirable confidence that the audience will eventually catch up to where it’s going.

But even for those new to the world of Christmasland, to Charlie Manx and his Rolls-Royce Wraith, this first episode is deeply compelling, hooking viewers on an emotional, visceral level well before the plot fully reveals itself.

Ashleigh Cummings plays sky-eyed teenager Vic McQueen (genre fans may recognize Cummings as another Vicki in the excellent Hounds of Love), forced to play peacekeeper to her perpetually combative parents. Vic wants to go to art school; her mother (Virginia Kull) scoffs that college costs money the family can’t afford, while her father (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) supports Vic’s dreams. But there’s a gradually revealed complication to this conventional good cop/bad cop dynamic, made even more complicated by Vic’s apparent ability to locate lost items by riding her dirt bike over a covered bridge that, by all accounts, was torn down decades ago. Meanwhile, a ghoulish old man named Charlie Manx (Zachary Quinto) abducts a lonesome young boy and grows shockingly less decrepit as his unwilling ward begins to wither. Oh, and there’s also a librarian named Maggie (Jahkara Smith), who seems to intuit the future thanks to a bottomless bag of portentous Scrabble tiles.

So yeah, NOS4A2 isn’t too arsed with making sure you can follow the dangling threads of these weird, separate yarns just yet. Nonetheless, the first episode is almost urgently engaging, with pilot director Kari Skogland (The Handmaid’s Tale) offering an impressionistic, deeply felt hint at a story very much already in motion. It’s strange and scary, mysterious and human. In the post-screening Q&A, Hill defined horror as being “about extreme empathy,” and it’s a turn of phrase that’s rattled around in my brain ever since. The best horror isn’t inhuman. It isn’t senseless. We’re truly terrified by the stories that we relate to, that resonate deep within our most unthinking and instinctual places.

NOS4A2 – showrun by Flesh and Bone and Fear the Walking Dead’s Jami O’Brien – understands this. Before preoccupying itself with plot intricacies or horror money shots, the series weaves a suggestion of intrinsic dread, giving us a character that we immediately care about – Cummings’ hopeful, resentful, powerfully plausible Vic – and convincing us, without a word, that she’ll soon be in danger, and that we’ll really hate it when she is. There’s plenty of other interesting stuff going on: Kull and Moss-Bachrach are fascinating and heartbreaking as Vic’s parents, and there’s a knotty townie classicism thing going on with Vic’s wealthy friend Willa (Paulina Singer), whose house is cleaned by Vic’s mom. And all of that’s before we even get into Quinto as Manx, a villain who starts out in uncanny valley territory before aging down into a far more familiar bad guy, one who’s uncanny in a whole other, more sinister, way. But the crux of this pilot, of this story, is Vic herself – how much we care about her, how much we want her to be happy, and how certain we are that NOS4A2 is going to put her through the wringer long before she’ll ever make it to that art school.

In short, Hill and King Constant Readers, here’s what you want to know: beautifully sketched title cards and narrative maps place NOS4A2 firmly in the universe of ItHornsLocke & Key and other familial fictions. We see no glimpse of Vic as an adult just yet, but we were told that Season One will cover about a third of Hill’s novel, so there’s plenty more to come. And yes, this feels like a fair and generous adaptation that “gets” the marvelous book it’s adapting.

As for those of you who have never read the book, and who just want to know if it’s a good show: based on the strength of this first episode, yeah, it’s that, too. It’s inscrutable and unnerving and almost scarily propulsive. And it’s too bad we all have to wait until April to see any more of it.

/Film Rating: 9 out of 10

The post ‘NOS4A2’ Pilot Review: AMC Brings Joe Hill’s Horror Novel to the Small Screen With Creepy, Emotional Results [SXSW] appeared first on /Film.

12 Mar 19:38

Taika Waititi Just Gave Apple's Time Bandits TV Series a Huge Boost

by Cheryl Eddy

The last nugget we got on the long-proposed TV series based on Terry Gilliam’s dark time-travel fantasy Time Bandits came last summer—until today, with a huge update: Taika Waititi has come aboard the in-development Apple series to co-write and direct the pilot.

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12 Mar 19:31

David Tennant Says He Won't Be in Jessica Jones' Final Season

by James Whitbrook
Corey

Lame

The specter of David Tennant’s Jessica Jones villain—Kilgrave, the mind-dominating Purple Man—has lingered across both seasons of the show so far. The character has become almost as inextricable from the series as Jess herself. But according to Tennant, that won’t be the case in its now-final season.

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12 Mar 19:31

A Brand New Orphan Black Series Could Be Happening...on AMC

by James Whitbrook

The Clone Club lives on even after BBC America’s Orphan Black wrapped. But now it looks like fans could get a brand new jolt of DNA.

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07 Mar 22:47

Brightburn's Latest Trailer Might Be the Best Spin on Superman in Years

by Charles Pulliam-Moore

Raising a child is a terrifying, thrilling experience for all first-time parents because there’s no one way to make sure that you’re doing everything the “right” way and what said way would even necessarily look like. For the Breyers, the family at the center of David Yarovesky’s sci-fi/horror film Brightburn, the…

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06 Mar 04:33

‘Warrior’: Cinemax’s Bruce Lee-Inspired Martial Arts Western Unleashes Official Trailer

by Tom Chang

It’s been over 40 years since Bruce Lee’s passing, but the television series he originally envisioned in Warrior will finally see the light of day for Cinemax. The network released the show’s first trailer from creator Jonathan Tropper (Banshee) for Tropper Ink Productions. Joining him to executive produce is Justin Lin (The Fast and the Furious) of Perfect Storm Entertainment, according to Deadline Hollywood.

Adapted from Lee’s writings, Warrior is set in the Tong Wars of San Francisco’s Chinatown during the second half of the 19th century. Ah Sahm (Andrew Koji) emigrates from China to San Francisco under mysterious circumstances becoming a hatchet man for one of China’s most tongs (Chinese organized crime family).

Warrior - Cinemax Poster 1
Cinemax

The trailer mixes elements of action, martial arts, and drama as there is multiple conflicts among the tongs and local Whites with racial tensions looking to play a role.

In a 1971 interview on The Pierre Berton Show, Lee said he pitched the concept of a Chinese martial artist dealing with problems in the Old West in The Warrior, but he couldn’t sell the idea to Warner Bros. and Paramount. With the lack of leading roles due to Hollywood’s racism, the legendary founder of Jeet Kun Do decided to take his talents to Hong Kong to star in films for Raymond Chow’s Golden Harvest Studios.

warrior
Cinemax

Warner Bros. took Lee’s idea and developed Kung Fu in 1972, which ran for three seasons, two spinoffs and a movie, which starred David Carradine, who confirmed studios passed over Lee for the role.

Ironically, Warner Bros. saw Lee’s box office success overseas and pitched Enter the Dragon to him while he made Game of Death. He accepted and completed the film, but died tragically before the film’s release in 1973.

Warrior stars Koji, Kieran Bew, Olivia Cheng, Dianne Doan, Dean Jagger, Langley Kirkwood, Hoon Lee, Christian McKay, Joe Taslim, Jason Tobin, Joanna Vanderham, Tom Weston-Jones, and Perry Yung.

How much of Lee’s ideas will be retained for Tropper’s series remains to be seen… viewers will get a chance to find out for themselves when Warrior debuts April 5, 2019.

The post ‘Warrior’: Cinemax’s Bruce Lee-Inspired Martial Arts Western Unleashes Official Trailer appeared first on Bleeding Cool News And Rumors.

01 Mar 06:09

The Tick Season 2 Trailer Reveals New Heroes, New Team-Ups, and Shenanigans Galore

by Cheryl Eddy

Hug fight!

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01 Mar 06:08

The New Red-Band Hellboy Trailer Is as Gleeful as It Is Gory 

by Cheryl Eddy

The second trailer for Neil Marshall’s R-rated Hellboy reboot is here, and like the first trailer in December, it features glimpses at the main characters (especially David Harbour as you-know-who), and it’s gory and full of monsters. But this trailer’s also got way more of Milla Jovovich’s sinister sorceress,…

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