Film
Ice Cube Says Chris Tucker Declined Next Friday Over “Religious Reasons”
Next Friday — the 2000 sequel to Ice Cube’s beloved stoner comedy, Friday — had a conspicuous missing piece with the absence of Chris Tucker. Though the original 1995 film was made on a small budget, its smash success meant a follow-up had more cash to work with. Still, it wasn’t enough to bring Tucker back, who Ice Cube recently said backed out of the franchise over “religious reasons.” “We were ready to pay Chris Tucker $10-12m to do Next Friday but he turned us down for religious reasons,” Ice Cube wrote in a tweet Wednesday, December 29th. “He didn’t want to cuss or smoke weed on camera anymore.” Considering Tucker’s character in Friday was literally named Smokey, it’s no wonder the sequel’s script didn’t align with his beliefs. He even confirmed himself that weed w...
Keanu Reeves and The Matrix Resurrections Producer Say There’s No Sequel Planned
The Matrix Resurrections just debuted in theaters and on HBO Max last week, but fans have already been anticipating a sequel due to the open-ended nature of the final moments. In separate interviews, however, both Keanu Reeves and producer James McTeigue attempted to put any speculation to rest. During an appearance on the Empire podcast, Reeves said he didn’t think director Lana Wachowski was interested in doing another Matrix movie. “If I had to cast a ballot — no, not a ballot, a vote — I would say that Lana would not do another Matrix,” he said. When co-star Carrie-Anne Moss pointed out that they once thought the same thing about Resurrections, Reeves added, “I’m there if it’s there… If she invites me again, I’m in.” Advertisement Related Video McTeigue was more direct in his...
Denzel Washington’s Top 10 Performances, From Malcolm X to Macbeth
This feature originally ran in September 2014. We’re reposting it in celebration of Denzel Washington’s 67th birthday today. Top Performances is a recurring feature in which we definitively handpick the very best performances from an iconic actor or actress. Six-time Academy Award nominee and two-time winner. Can play it over-the-top, but knows when he needs to play it cool, to play down. One of the more gracious actors you’ll ever see on the big screen. I’m talking, of course, about Denzel Washington, and through careful consideration, Leah Pickett and I have gone through his filmography to select his 10 finest performances. Keep in mind these rankings are based on Washington’s performances, not the movies in which he performed. Did we forget anything? Did we place a performanc...
R.I.P. Jean-Marc Vallée, Dallas Buyers Club and Big Little Lies Director Dead at 58
Jean-Marc Vallée, the Canadian filmmaker behind films such as Dallas Buyers Club and Wild, as well as the HBO series Big Little Lies and Sharp Objects, has died at the age of 58. Vallée died suddenly over the weekend in his cabin near Quebec City, according to The Hollywood Reporter. His cause of death was not immediately disclosed. In a statement announcing his passing, Vallée’s longtime producer partner Nathan Ross wrote, “Jean-Marc stood for creativity, authenticity and trying things differently. He was a true artist and a generous, loving guy. Everyone who worked with him couldn’t help but see the talent and vision he possessed. He was a friend, creative partner and an older brother to me. The maestro will sorely be missed but it comforts knowing his beautiful style and impactful work ...
New Trailer for The Batman Offers Most Extensive Preview Yet of Upcoming Comic Epic: Watch
Warner Bros. has shared a new trailer for Matt Reeves’ The Batman ahead of the film’s March 4th, 2022 release. Clocking it at just under three minutes in length, “The Bat and the Cat Trailer” offers the most revealing look yet at the upcoming comic epic, including new footage of Robert Pattinson’s Kurt Cobain-inspired Bruce Wayne / Batman, Zoë Kravitz’s nature doc-influenced Catwoman, and Paul Dano as the menacing Riddler. There’s also plenty of new footage of the Batmobile, as well as intriguing scenes featuring Colin Farrell as Penguin, Andy Serkis as Alfred, and Jeffrey Wright as Commissioner Gordon. Watch the full trailer below, or head to Reeves’ Vimeo page to see it in 4K. Initially conceived as a standalone film, the anticipation surrounding The Batman already has Warner Bros. plott...
Timothée Chalamet’s 10 Most Iconic Roles (So Far)
It might seem a bit premature to be doing a best roles tribute to Timothée Chalamet, given that he’s only just reached the age of 26 today (December 27th). But in his time working in both film and television, the actor has quickly established himself as a force to be reckoned with, taking on complex and nuanced roles to which other younger actors might have only been able to give a surface-level performance. It of course takes a great director to draw out his best qualities, as seen with Wes Anderson in The French Dispatch, Denis Villeneuve in Dune, and Greta Gerwig in two of her films. But, even when playing a very small role in a large ensemble, Chalamet has a way of taking what he’s given and making the very most out of it — earning acclaim often by simply bringing a very mature approac...
Tom Holland Claps Back at Martin Scorsese’s Criticism of Marvel Movies
Tom Holland has a message for Martin Scorsese, courtesy of your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man: don’t knock it till you try it. In the wake of Spider-Man: No Way Home’s massive arrival at the box office, the Marvel star responded to the director’s belief that the superhero films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe don’t qualify as art. “You can ask [Martin] Scorsese ‘Would you want to make a Marvel movie?’ But he doesn’t know what it’s like because he’s never made one,” Holland asserted in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “I’ve made Marvel movies and I’ve also made movies that have been in the conversation in the world of the Oscars, and the only difference, really, is one is much more expensive than the other. But the way I break down the character, the way the director etches out...
The MCU’s Marvelous Year of Representation: How 2021 Amplified New Voices and Told New Stories
With each passing year, the Marvel Cinematic Universe expands its domination over pop culture, and in 2021, the franchise made some huge new strides. Not only did Marvel start taking full advantage of both theaters and Disney+ as platforms for storytelling, delivering five new TV series in addition to four films, but there was a whole new sense of inclusion both on screen and behind the camera. With nearly every release, the MCU amplified representation of different genders, races, sexualities, and abilities like never before. To be clear, there is still a lot of progress to be made across all these categories. But the dominant force in pop culture (at least, if box office receipts are any measurement) put serious focus on ensuring that a larger contingent of the global audience feels seen...
New Uncharted Trailer Adds a Pirates of the Caribbean Touch to the Video Game Adaptation: Watch
In the lull before Christmas really gets into gear, Sony has delivered a new trailer for what it hopes will be a new action-adventure franchise, starring its very own Spider-Man. Uncharted features Tom Holland as a young Nathan Drake, who gets swept up in a treasure hunt by his new partner Victor “Sully” Sullivan (Mark Wahlberg). The new trailer expands upon the first one by showcasing Nathan and Sully’s meet-cute, followed by them getting into some puzzle-solving adventures with a young woman named Chloe (Sophia Ali), who will presumably have more than one line of dialogue in the actual film (unlike this trailer). The hard sell here is the chemistry between Holland and Wahlberg, and to the trailer’s credit it does look like a lot of fun is in store there. Plus, for those who have missed t...
James Franco Addresses Sexual Misconduct Allegations, Says He Has a Sex Addiction
James Franco recently agreed to his first interview in nearly four years, during which he addressed the sexual misconduct allegations leveled against him back in January 2018. In a sitdown with SiriusXM’s Jess Cagle, the actor claimed he is a changed man, and while he didn’t explicitly apologize, he said he’s been “doing a lot of work,” which involves being in recovery from sex addiction since 2016. Franco also continued to dismiss the accusations of sexually exploitive behavior put forth in a 2019 lawsuit from two former students of his now-defunct acting school. “There were people that were upset with me and I needed to listen,” Franco said, when asked why he has mostly remained silent about the accusations. “When something like this happens, like the natural human instinct is to just ma...
Michael Keaton Bringing Batman Back for Batgirl Movie
Holy Bat-nostalgia! Michael Keaton is reportedly reprising his iconic role as Bruce Wayne/Batman for the upcoming Batgirl movie. As The Hollywood Reporter has it, production on the film is already underway in London, but a new cast list sent to media includes Keaton’s surprise appearance. The actor is already dusting off the ol’ cape and cowl from 1989’s Batman and 1992’s Batman Returns for his upcoming multiversal role in The Flash movie. It now appears it’ll be a little while longer before the suit goes back in the closet, though it’s unclear exactly how it will all work. Batgirl is rumored to be set within the Snyderverse of Justice League (seemingly confirmed by J.K. Simmons reprising his role as Commissioner Jim Gordon), so how Keaton’s Batman will factor into a world p...
The Matrix Resurrections Ending Explained: How Exactly Did Neo and Trinity Return to Do Kung Fu?
[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for The Matrix Resurrections.] The Matrix movies are, well, dense — a veritable gumbo of artistic influences and philosophical musings on the nature of identity couched in dingy cyberpunk and some of the slickest, most revolutionary action Hollywood had to offer at the turn of the millennium. It’s the same series that paired high-kicking setpieces and epic-length freeway chases alongside Keanu Reeves standing in a room with a bearded Colonel Sanders lookalike to talk about the preprogrammed choices we’re given throughout our lives. It’s no surprise, then, that The Matrix Resurrections, Lana Wachowski‘s bold, messy, ambitious, romantic return to the series for the first time in almost twenty years, is just as complicated and unwieldy. Not only...
