Film
Netflix Lands Knives Out Sequels for $450 Million
Netflix has purchased the rights for two sequels to Rian Johnson’s 2019 murder mystery, Knives Out, for a cool $450 million, according to Variety. Johnson will write and direct both sequel movies, with Daniel Craig returning as Southern detective Benoit Blanc. According to Deadline, casting will begin immediately and the first movie will begin shooting on June 28th in Greece. One of the best films of 2019, the Oscar-nominated Knives Out raked in $311.4 million on a $40 million budget. An apparent bidding war between Netflix, Apple, and Amazon drastically drove the prices up for the sequels. The first Knives Out film is centered around the murder of late mystery novelist Harlan Thrombey, with his entire family falling under suspicion for the crime. Blanc attempts to crack the case...
Ranking: Every Godzilla Movie from Worst to Best
Godzilla vs. Kong (HBO Max) Godzilla is an icon. Over 65 years and through 33 movies, the creature has come to define the kaiju subgenre, while mining potent metaphors from rubber-suited destruction. The big guy even earned himself a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame along the way. From his origins as a specter of the atom bomb to the lovable defender of Tokyo from hosts of malevolent monsters and everything in between, Godzilla is almost always at his most entertaining when the destruction ramps up and the fighting begins. As Godzilla vs. Kong roars into theaters and living rooms to reunite the legend with his famous friends and foes, here’s how all of the live-action films stack up against one another. 33. All Monsters Attack (1969) [embedded content] It turns out even Godzilla is not i...
Britney Spears Responds to Documentary: “I Cried for Two Weeks”
Framing Britney Spears, the documentary exploring Britney Spears’ controversial conservatorship, premiered back on February 5th. Since then, nearly everyone has commented on the film, including her father Jamie Spears, media stars, and even Justin Timberlake. However, one crucial voice has been missing from the discourse on the documentary — Britney Spears herself — and now she’s finally speaking up about it. In a new post on Instagram, Spears revealed that she’s only seen parts of Framing Britney Spears. Understandably, she had been putting it off due to the overwhelming nature of its content and the massive response from viewers. “My life has always been very speculated… watched… and judged really my whole life,” reads the caption. “I didn’t watch the documentary but from what ...
Chris Rock Hunts for Jigsaw in New Trailer for Spiral: From the Book of Saw: Watch
Spiral: From the Book of Saw is the upcoming ninth installment in the Saw horror franchise, starring Chris Rock, Samuel L. Jackson, and 21 Savage. The film has been finished for a while now, but its release was delayed over a year due to the pandemic. It’s finally set to hit theaters on May 14th, 2021, and to drum up anticipation, Lionsgate has unveiled a new trailer. Watch it below. Spiral is directed by Darren Lynn Bousman, who previously helmed Saw II, III, and IV. Rock himself conceived the screenplay, which casts him as a police detective hot on Jigsaw’s trail after being personally contacted by the psychotic serial killer. Jackson plays his father, who himself is a veteran of the police force, while Max Minghella rounds out the cast as Rock’s partner. Watch the tr...
Thundercats Movie in the Works from Godzilla vs. Kong’s Adam Wingard
Thundercats are coming to the big screen. A feature film adaptation of the beloved animated series is officially in the works from Godzilla vs. Kong director Adam Wingard, who happens to be a lifelong Thundercats superfan. As Deadline reports, the Warner Bros. production will be a combination of CGI and animation. Wingard is currently writing the script with his frequent collaborator Simon Barrett, who previously teamed up for the horror flicks You’re Next (2011) and The Guest (2014). Wingard will also be working with producers Roy Lee and Dan Lin, thus recreating the trio that brought us that Death Note movie in 2017. Wingard’s films haven’t always been well-received by critics, but it seems like a Thundercats movie is the project he was born t...
Godzilla vs. Kong Is Punch-Drunk Fun: Review
The Pitch: Godzilla and Kong square off in battle to determine who will be the planet’s apex predator. Five years have passed since the events of Godzilla: King of the Monsters when Godzilla established himself as Earth’s alpha Titan. Presently, only Godzilla and Kong remain active, and both are continuously monitored by Monarch, the scientific organization that tracks and studies Titans. Kong now resides in a large dome on Skull Island, designed to look like his natural habitat before the island’s climate shifted into near-constant hurricanes, but also to protect him from Godzilla. Doctor Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall) oversees his daily life along with her adopted, deaf daughter Jia (Kaylee Hottle), who can communicate with Kong through sign language. Jia and Kong’s connection is unmistake...
HBO’s Tina Is a Disappointing Slog for a Vibrant Legend: Review
The Pitch: You can’t keep Tina Turner down. Born Anna Mae Bullock in Brownsville, Tennessee to a sharecropper, her mother left when she was 11 years old to escape the clutches of her abusive husband. Bullock would later visit her mother in St Louis wherein she met Ike Turner at a nightclub. From there: The pair began a tumultuous, abusive relationship on the part of Ike. Bullock, by then known as Tina Turner, became entrapped but eventually escaped, rebuilt her music career, and performed one of the most unlikely comebacks in music history. Her story is one of survival, one of resilience, and one too often defined by Ike and not under the banner of Turner. The hardest working woman in show business bids adieu and recounts her life in T. J. Martin and Daniel Lindsay’s HBO documentary — Tina...
Disney Channel Film “Spin” Follows Young Indian Woman’s Journey to Become a DJ
A groundbreaking new Disney Channel film, slated for release this year, follows the story of an Indian-American teen who learns to harness her inner talent for DJing and producing music. Spin marks the first Disney Channel film to center around an Indian lead actress, Avantika Vandanapu. Vandanapu’s character, Rhea, finds a unique cultural angle for her productions, which involves weaving sonic elements into her music derived from her Indian heritage. Vandanapu shared that she felt a sense of deep alignment with her character’s affinity for dance music and the arts. “I grew up being a dancer, I still am, and I love working with rhythm and beats,” Vandanapu told Entertainment Tonight. “DJing weaves music production into all the other melodic elements that ...
Michael Mann’s Thief: James Caan and James Belushi Return to Chicago 40 Years Later
Neon lights across Wabash. Coffee and donuts by the Adler. Midnight blues on Lincoln Ave. Car light chats in the West Loop. The streets are wet. The night is blue. The men are dangerous. This is the world of Michael Mann’s Thief. Inspired by Frank Hohimer’s 1975 true crime book The Home Invaders: Confessions of a Cat Burglar, the feature film debut of the Chicago veteran is a bridge between two times: a boiling point for ’70s crime thrillers and a fever dream of the ’80s to come. In 1980, Mann knew exactly where he was going when he set out to play in his hometown. From the prescient use of Tangerine Dream to the lone wolf archetype he gave to James Caan, Thief serves as a blueprint for everything that defines his CV. A CV, mind you, that would not only go on to define the ’80s but recalib...
R.I.P. Craig “muMs” Grant, Oz Actor and Poet Dead at 52
Craig Grant, the actor and poet best known for his work on the HBO drama Oz and who went by “muMs da Schemer” in slam-poetry competitions, has died at 52. He passed away on Wednesday, according to his representative Pam Ellis-Evenas. A cause of death has not yet been determined. Born and raised in New York City in 1968, Grant fell in love with poetry in his youth and was a well-known poet in the local scene by the time he left Mount St. Michael Academy High School. As part of the acclaimed Nuyorican Poetry Slam team, he was featured in the 1998 documentary SlamNation and on HBO’s Def Poetry Jam series, both of which propelled Grant’s career and positioned him as an inspiration to aspiring poets. Grant’s breakout moment in Hollywood came courtesy of his featured role as Poet, a heroin addic...
R.I.P. Houston Tumlin, Talladega Nights Actor Dead at 28
Former child actor Houston Tumlin, who famously played Will Ferrell’s son Walker in Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, has died at 28 years old. According to TMZ, Tumlin took his own life in his Alabama home on Tuesday afternoon by shooting himself in the head. As of now, investigators haven’t found a note, but his girlfriend was reportedly present in the house at the time of his death. His role as Walker Bobby, the potty-mouthed son of Will Ferrell’s Ricky Bobby character, was Tumlin’s only acting credit. He starred alongside Grayson Russell in the 2006 comedy, who played Ricky’s other son Texas Ranger. Although the cast included A-listers like Ferrell, John C. Reilly, and Sacha Baron Cohen, Tumlin starred in many of the flick’s most memorable scenes, including the not...
Tokyo Ghost Comic Book to Get Movie Adaptation from Cary Fukunaga
Tokyo Ghost, the futuristic sci-fi comic book series released in 2015 by Image Comics, is being adapted into a feature film. No Time to Die director Cary Fukunaga is onboard to helm the movie and the series’ author, Rick Remender, will pen the script. Set in 2089 when humanity is addicted to technology, Tokyo Ghost follows the story of Debbie Decay and Led Dent, two peacekeepers in the Isles of Los Angeles, who are assigned a job that will take them to the last tech-free country on the planet: the garden nation of Tokyo. Remender has previously summarized the comic book series as being a “a big, visual, exciting story that at the heart of it is hiding the fact that it’s really a love story.” According to The Hollywood Reporter, the cyberpunk series adaptation will be produced by Fukunaga, ...
