Sony Pictures is not having a very good 2015, but they look to turn the company around with the announcement of dates for 16 films today.
Fans get not one, but two Bad Boys films. The Dark Tower could be another franchise that could pull in some serious box office numbers as well.
The Dark Tower is a series of books written by Stephen King, which incorporates themes from multiple genres, including fantasy, science fantasy, horror, and Western.
The full list of films and their release dates added to the slate includes:
Money Monster – 4/8/16
The Shallows – 6/24/16
Ghostbusters – 7/15/16
Patient Zero – 9/2/16
The Magnificent Seven – 9/23/16
Underworld 5 – 10/21/16
Passengers – 12/21/16
Jumanji – 12/25/16
The Dark Tower – 1/13/17
Resident Evil 6 – 1/27/17
Bad Boys 3 – 2/17/17
Baby Driver – 3/17/17
Barbie – 6/2/17
Uncharted – 6/30/17
The Lamb – 12/8/17
Bad Boys 4 – 7/3/19
NSFW – The one thing you can expect from Bad Boys is a shootout!
Joel and Ethan Coen have teamed with Warner Bros. to adapt Ross MacDonald’s Black Money. It will be the Coens’ next project following their release of the George Clooney comedy, Hail Ceasar!, according to the report at Deadline.
Here is a synopsis for MacDonald’s 1966 crime novel, courtesy of Amazon:
When Lew Archer is hired to get the goods on the suspiciously suave Frenchman who’s run off with his client’s girlfriend, it looks like a simple case of alienated affections. Things look different when the mysterious foreigner turns out to be connected to a seven-year-old suicide and a mountain of gambling debts. Black Money is Ross Macdonald at his finest.
Joel Silver will produce the film, and there is no shooting schedule for Black Money at this point. Hail Ceasar! is scheduled to hit theaters this February, and stars Scarlett Johansson, Channing Tatum, Tilda Swinton, Jonah Hill, Ralph Fiennes, Josh Brolin, and Dolph Lundgren (of all people), alongside Clooney.
If all the reports are true, this is a theory based on evidence that the Spider-Man reboot will be a trilogy using the comic book story Kraven’s Last Hunt as the main story arc.
If you haven’t read the comic and or don’t want the trilogy spoiled for you, stop reading now!
Heroic Hollywood is reporting that Karen Moy, the Vice President of Creative Affairs over at Sony, purchased a copy of Kraven’s Last Hunt trade paperback on Amazon.
“Right now we’re interested in seeing villains we haven’t seen before,” Kevin Feige, the mastermind behind the Marvel Cinematic Universe told Devin Faraci of Birth.Death.Movies.
Facts we know: The film with feature a new villain and Sony is researching Kraven.
We can postulate that Hollywood loves trilogies and (Spoiler) to kill Kraven in the first film would be dumb. What would makes more sense is to introduce Kraven in the first film as the main villain, have him be a presence in the sequel and then have Kraven’s Last Hunt as the third film. This would give time to develop both Spider-Man and Kraven. In the comic, Kraven defeats Spider-Man and then buries him alive. Peter Parker’s drive to dig himself out of a grave is his love for Mary Jane, his wife at the time. Visually, Kraven’s Last Hunt could be a cinematic masterpiece. Just look at the cover below. If John Francis Daley and Jonathan M. Goldstein want to take the Spider-Man franchise to the heights it deserves this would be the direction to go.
The themes would need to be changed due to youth of the current Spider-Man, i.e. what would be the motivation for Peter to crawl out of a grave. Also, would Marvel and Sony be confident enough in the story to leave in Kraven’s suicide? Marvel has shied away from darker films as they completely avoid the Demon in a Bottle storyline with the Iron Man franchise.
Denis Leary was on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Tuesday night and Leary did his best to convince Stewart not to retire.
“It’s not too late,” said Leary. “We give [new Daily Show host] Trevor [Noah] some other show, okay? I’m telling you, me and Colin Quinn and Chris Rock will write this f—ing show for you for like [$25 million].”
“What the f—’s wrong with you? Do you know how much f—ing therapy you could buy for your kids with $50 million? They’re going to hate your guts into perpetuity. Who cares? They [could] have mansions to hate your guts in,” said Leary.
Writer/Director Adam McKay (Anchorman, Talladega Nights, You’re Welcome America) and Funny Or Die have joined forces with Archie Comics, one of the most popular comics ever produced, to bring Archie, Betty, Veronica, Jughead and the Riverdale gang to Broadway in an all-new musical. McKay is slated to bring his singular brand of comedy to the musical, writing the book for the show, with a creative team and timing for a New York run to be announced at a later date.
Funny Or Die will serve as a presenting partner. CEO Jon Goldwater and CCO Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa will oversee for Archie Comics. The partnership was packaged by Triptyk Studios (An American in Paris, You’re Welcome America, Xanadu) who will reteam with their You’re Welcome America partners for the endeavor. Tara Smith, B. Swibel and Adam Westbrook will oversee development for the company and present on Broadway.
Adam McKay said, “Archie represents a bygone era of America. And like all bygone eras, there are elements we miss and elements that should be bygone. This will be a musical that deals with both those realities in a bright, colorful and slightly demented way.”
Jon Goldwater, Archie Comics CEO/Publisher, said, “We couldn’t be more excited to partner with Adam McKay and Funny Or Die to finally bring Archie to the stage. We’ve always thought that Archie was destined to be a big Broadway star – and now that moment has come! I’ve long admired Adam’s work and the pairing of Archie’s world with his brilliant humor and sensibility is the perfect fit. We look forward to developing this project together with this incredible team.”
Source: Archie Comics Media
Hopefully McKay doesn’t use either one of these for inspiration.
Jughead does hip-hop “Sugar Sugar” (1990) Archie reunion
Rising star Shanice Williams, an 18-year-old New Jersey native who has been raised and trained in musical theater, is the new Dorothy in NBC’s upcoming holiday production of “The Wiz Live!,” set for Thursday, Dec. 3.
Williams was selected out of hundreds of applicants nationwide who had auditioned to portray the iconic role of a Kansas farm girl who gets swept up in a tornado and is sent to the mysterious land of Oz.
With five years of musical training that also includes extensive dance and piano, Williams has co-starred in several local productions, including “West Side Story,” “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown,” “42nd Street,” “Seussical” and “Pippin.”
Last year Williams was nominated for best leading actress in a musical at the Paper Mill Playhouse’s annual Rising Star Awards.
Michael Jackson – You Can’t Win – The Wiz
NBC recently raised the project’s star quotient in a big way by adding multi-award winners and A-list stars Queen Latifah and Mary J. Blige to the telecast.
Queen Latifah stars as the Wiz, the mysterious and powerful wizard who holds the keys to the Emerald City, but whose metamorphosis from ordinary to extraordinary is itself a hoax. She rose to her lofty position after being transported by accident to Oz in a hot air balloon during a snowstorm.
Mary J. Blige will play Evillene, the Wicked Witch of the West, who holds sway over the Winkies and the Winged Monkeys that do her bidding. She captures Dorothy and her friends to avenge the unintentional murder of her evil sister, Evvamean, and to get back the powerful silver slippers given to Dorothy by the Good Witch of the North.
David Alan Grier will play the Cowardly Lion, who asks Dorothy if he can join her in her journey down the Yellow Brick Road and ask the Wiz for some courage, which he is severely lacking.
Stephanie Mills was previously announced to portray Auntie Em in “The Wiz Live!” Mills is best known to many for playing Dorothy in the original Broadway production of “The Wiz.”
“The Wiz Live!” is adapted from “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” by L. Frank Baum, with a book by William F. Brown, and music and lyrics by Charlie Smalls. The production opened on Broadway in 1975 at the Majestic Theatre and won seven Tonys, including Best Musical.
Craig Zadan and Neil Meron (“The Sound of Music Live!,” “Peter Pan Live!,” Oscar-winning “Chicago”) will executive produce. Kenny Leon (Tony winner, “A Raisin in the Sun”) is stage director and Matthew Diamond is TV director, with Harvey Fierstein (three-time Tony winner, “Torch Song Trilogy,” “Hairspray” and “La Cage aux Folles”) providing new written material.
Esteemed choreographer Fatima Robinson (“Dreamgirls,” “Ali”) is also on board, along with music producer Harvey Mason Jr. (“Dreamgirls, “Pitch Perfect 2”) and Stephen Oremus (“The Book of Mormon,” “Kinky Boots”) as music director, orchestrator and co-producer of the music.
“The Wiz Live!” is produced by Universal Television in association with Cirque Du Soleil Theatrical.
I’m sure the premise for Ricki and the Flash made a lot of sense to a lot of people. You have a mother who abandons her husband and kids to pursue her rock and roll fantasy, only to come home to a family in turmoil. Throw in a couple of family meltdowns and redemption moments and presto! You’ve got a great story. However, often what was envisioned and what we end up with can be two different things.
Writer Diablo Cody and Director Johnathan Demme assemble what amounts to be a box of spare parts. And the parts are plentiful; they almost have the makings of something that resemble layered characters, but the result is, ultimately, a very disappointing movie.
The role of Ricki Rendazzo, on the surface, must have looked like an amazing opportunity for Meryl Streep to showcase her talents. But one can only do so much with a role that was written inconsistently, and forces Streep to wear hideous fake braids that are reminiscent of Ewan Mcgregor in The Phantom Menace. Streep is, without question, one of the most gifted of all actresses, and she is believable in just about anything she does on screen. However, even Streep has limitations; she can’t pull this one off.
Decades after ditching her family to attempt to make it big in Los Angeles, Ricki gets a call from her ex-husband Pete (Kevin Kilne) to return to the Midwest to visit their daughter Julie (Mamie Gummer – her real life daughter), who’s suicidal after being abandoned by her husband. This allows Ricki to catch up with her sons: Adam (Nick Westrate) who’s gay and loathes his mother and Josh (Sebastian Stan of Captain America: The Winter Soldier) who’s about to be married and doesn’t want his mother to attend the wedding. Oh, did I mention that at that moment in the film, for no apparent reason, we learn that Ricki is this ultra-conservative? Yep, makes a ton of sense to me too.
This movie appears to be one where the main character is supposed to transform from being bitter/broken to being adored by everyone. Diablo Cody manages to take a very formulaic plot and turn the film into a mystifying collection of pretense. Instead of adoring Ricki toward the end of film, I found myself hyper-focused on just how selfish her character was. Casting Meryl Streep as a hard-on-her-luck rocker makes as much sense as hiring me to be a spokesperson for hair products.
Diablo Cody seems so focused on fitting in all these loose ideas into the plot that she masks the obvious holes in the script by having these long musical interludes of Ricki (Meryl Streep) and her boyfriend ( Rick Springfield) rocking out. At first you think, “wow … Streep is good,” but after seeing it a dozen times you are thinking, “Okay… I get it… she can sing.” Under normal circumstances I would probably write that the repetitious nature of the musical numbers took away from the plot but that of course would mean that Ricki and the Flash had some sort discernible plot.
Ricki and the Flash is a band not worth listening to.
Lance Gross wants to be a Green Lantern in Warner Bros’ Green Lantern Corps., and what better way to tell the world than with Instagram. The actor posted a very leafy Green Lantern symbol on his account with the quote “In Brightest Day.” Gross is best known for the TV series House of Payne.
The Deadpool trailer we all watched from weird angles, with crowd noise and reverb and poor lighting emanating from Hall H at the San Diego Comic Con, finally has its official red band trailer. Ryan Reynolds debuted Deadpool to the world tonight on Conan, and this thing looks even better in hi-res.
Here it is, the trailer, NSFW:
For anyone jumping into this property brand new, here is an official synopsis:
Based upon Marvel Comics’ most unconventional anti-hero, DEADPOOL tells the origin story of former Special Forces operative turned mercenary Wade Wilson, who after being subjected to a rogue experiment that leaves him with accelerated healing powers, adopts the alter ego Deadpool. Armed with his new abilities and a dark, twisted sense of humor, Deadpool hunts down the man who nearly destroyed his life.
The trailer assures fans that Deadpool’s humor will be front and center, along with his violent, skull-cracking tactics. We’ll see if Ryan Reynolds can get himself back in the good graces of fanboy nation when Deadpool hits theaters this February.
Is Gordo (Joel Edgerton), who works as emcee on trivia night at a local bar, a person who’s willing to let go of the past? Or, is he something or someone much more dangerous? This question hovers over The Gift, a razor-sharp new thriller and a respite for those looking for something other than superheroes in the dog days of summer. The more we learn about Gordo, the more we realize that he’s just a very socially awkward man with a broken heart, but his victims seem to think he’s more of a threat.
The “victims” are Simon (Jason Bateman) and Robyn (Rebecca Hall), a married couple freshly relocated from Chicago to Southern California. They are out one day at what looks to be a Pottery Barn when Simon runs into Gordo, a guy he knew from High School. They exchange pleasantries, Simon takes Gordo’s number , and the three go about their day. But then, gifts start showing up at the house, and when the couple doesn’t say thank you in a timely fashion, Gordo stops by for a visit. Even though Simon severs ties with Gordo in an incrediably uncomfortable scene, the needy Gordo refuses to leave them be.
The super fans of this genre are probably saying to themselves they canpredict what is on the horizon.. I’m sure they are all anticipating this movie to take a turn down that Fatal Attraction path, where someone ends up being deranged sociopath and manages to tear the happy family apart with manipulation and violence. I commend Edgerton, who wrote and directed the film as well for going in an entirely different direction. Edgerton peels away the onion layers of each of the main characters rather than resort to simple good versus evil ,and as we quickly learn , these characters are not who appear to be. What was wonderful about The Gift was the more it veered away from a traditional thriller the more compelling the movie became. I applaud Edgerton for creating a film that zigs when the audience expects it to zag.
I can see why Jason Bateman signed on for this movie, attempting to flex his dramatic muscles in a quality screenplay . His serious roles are few and far between, and most of them (Disconnect, The Kingdom) fall flat. Bateman’s smarmy nature is a perfect cover for what we learn later on about Simon. Meanwhile, Rebecca Hall provides the perfect foil to Jason Bateman’s prickly persona .
Edgerton’s cinematography (by Eduard Grau) is utilitarian, not flashy. He does a wonderful job creating the right atmosphere for the film by expressing those subtle visual cues, indicating that someone might be lurking in the dark.
In a world where it seems Hollywood is more and more formulaic, it’s quite refreshing to see something original, in August no less. The Gift will satisfy the biggest of thriller fans and keep audiences entertained until the very end (and yes, for anyone wondering, the end is quite shocking). Edgerton’s The Gift is most unique suspense film, bordering on true horror. Sometimes just being unique can be the best gift of all.
