According to Mick Garris’s Post Mortem podcast, Neil Marshall’s Hellboy: Rise of the Blood Queen intends on differentiating itself from its predecessors (directed by Guillermo del Toro).
NEIL MARSHALL’S HELLBOY
Neil Marshall said to Garris,
“We’ve been granted permission to do it R-rated, which for me is just like taking the cuffs off. It’s like, okay, so now we can just make the movie we want to make. Nobody’s going to stop us…But, also, when you go back the original material, it is kind of bloody, so I’m going to embrace that.”
He also said that the movie would be made with as many practical effects and as little CGI as possible.
“I love to do stuff in camera whenever I possibly can, and use CG as the amazing tool that it is, to enhance or expand upon the world, but not to use it to replace reality, when you can do it [for] real.”
Paired with the announcement of David Harbour (“Stranger Things”) as Hellboy, it’s easy to see that Marshall is attempting to make a different movie from the popular cult classics Hellboy (2004)and Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008). But is he succeeding?
DEL TORO’S HELLBOY
One of the most intriguing things about Del Toro’s Hellboy is that like Marshall’s promise, the 2004 movie depended largely on practical effects. It’s well-known that Doug Jones (Abe Sapien) spent upwards of 5 hours in the makeup chair for the first movie alone. He played three separate characters in the second movie.
Marshall’s comment, then, strikes somewhat the wrong tone. The main reason behind the final cancellation of Hellboy III, after all, was supposedly money. While practical effects are cooler and more interesting, they’re also far less cost-effective. Why is a brand new Hellboy reboot being made when Del Toro – a master of practical effects and creator of some of the most well-loved subculture movies to date – was denied the opportunity to finish his trilogy?
It’s too soon to decide whether Neil Marshall’s Hellboy will hold up to the high standards set by its predecessor. However, less than six months after the final nail in the coffin on Del Toro’s trilogy, it feels more like a cash-in. Deadpool and Logan have made R-rated movies profitable again. Movie studios are churning out reboot after reboot of Batman and Spiderman. It’s just a pity to see Hellboy join them.
Hellboy: Rise of the Blood Queen is coming in 2018.
Along with Secret Empire #5, Amazing Spider-Man #29 comes out this week. Peter Parker finally gets involved with the Marvel crossover event while dealing with his crumbling tech empire.
I’m going to start this piece off with two less-than-popular opinions. Personally, I think Secret Empire has been highly entertaining (including tie-ins). I also think this volume of Dan Slott’s Amazing Spider-Man is more good than bad. I know, I must some sort of idiot, right?
ASM #29 finally fits Peter Parker and company into the Hydra takeover. Anna Maria is struggling to keep Parker Industries afloat. She forces Pete to go on tv and address the recent public disasters the company has been involved in. The hostile Hydra takeover begins and Parker finds himself face-to-face with the Superior Octopus.
After being a major player in previous Marvel events, Spidey takes a back seat this time. Miles Morales has been getting the event spotlight recently.
Despite how stupid Superior Octopus is, Otto Octavius has returned to take his company back from Peter. The entire concept of the international Spidey adventures is fallout from when Otto was the Superior Spider-Man. While I’ve enjoyed the change of scenery (for the most part) and am not overly nostalgic for high school Peter (for the most part), it’s about time to close down Parker Industries.
The writing has been on the wall for a while. From the events of The Clone Conspiracy to aiding Silver Sable in the prevention of a Norman Osborn coup of Symkaria, Parker Industries is on a path of self destruction.
Amazing Spider-Man #29 sees that come to fruition with the rebranded Baxter Building being left in a pile of rubble thanks to Superior Ock. If Otto can’t have the company, nobody can.
As someone who wasn’t particularly blown away by Zdarsky’s first issue of Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man, having the ol’ Parker luck kick in is a good sign. It’s been fun and different seeing Spider-Man pretend to be Iron Man for a while, but a major fall from grace is an enticing direction.
How Secret Empire eventually shakes out will set Marvel up in more of a return to form. Having Parker lose his company and likely starting back from square one will play a big part in making Marvel feel like it used to. Spidey is a pillar in the comic book foundation, if his situation is more familiar and approachable to readers, the rest of the line will be easier to explore.
ASM going forward, as far as Secret Empire involvement, could potentially be a lot of fun. Whether it’s Pete getting involved with the resistance, focusing on Superior Ock, or just the continuous downward spiral for Parker Industries, you can color me excited.
If you’re in the camp that can’t stand the direction Dan Slott has taken the character for 29 issues, at least you know it’s coming to an end. In the mean time you can at least enjoy the art, which has been consistently solid.
It’s great to see Spider-Man finally get involved with the United States Of Hydra. It’s even better seeing that there is a major shift ahead for ol’ web head. With this piece, Marvel knows they at least have one fan still on board despite the disaster that was Marvel Legacy reveals.
Two weeks ago we told you about the Popcorn Frights Film Festival. The horror movie extravaganza gets started August 11th in Miami, Florida. The festival made its first wave of announcements that featured a new Wolf Cop movie, a film from acclaimed filmmaker Rodney Ascher (Room 237), Michael Keating’s new slasher-fest Psychopaths, and so much more. But all that was just the beginning! Popcorn Frights Film Festival released their second wave of announcements this week bringing the total cinematic body count to forty short films and features!
“We couldn’t be more thrilled with this year’s Popcorn Frights Film Festival program as it offers something exciting for every horror lover. These films brilliantly showcase the breadth and quality of genre work being produced worldwide and serve as a great reminder that the genre form is both thriving and continuously evolving. We’re honored to share the vision and voices of this remarkable group of American and international filmmakers and look forward to them creating many memorable moments this year.” – Igor Shteyrenberg & Marc Ferman, Co-Founders & Co-Directors of the Popcorn Frights Film Festival.
Check out what else is coming to the soon-to-be blood-soaked beaches of South Florida cinema:
Dead Shack
US PREMIERE. Three kids on a weekend getaway are holed up at a run-down cottage in the woods and must save their hard-partying parents from a shotgun-toting psycho (Lauren Holly) who wants to feed them to her slavering zombies.
The Hatred
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE. From the producer of Halloween comes the terrifying new feature centering on four young women who travel to their college professor’s new country home for a weekend getaway, only to discover that the house has a malevolent past. Featuring Andrew Divoff (Wes Craven’s Wishmaster), David Naughton (An American Werewolf in London), and Amanda Wyss (A Nightmare on Elm Street).
The Bride
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE. A young woman travels with her soon-to-be husband to his family home in the outskirts and becomes increasingly suspicious of their strange behavior. Sheer psychological terror soon overwhelms her as she starts witnessing terrifying visions when his family prepares her for a mysterious ritual ceremony.
68 Kill
SOUTH FLORIDA PREMIERE. This southern-fried caper focuses on infatuated nice guy Chip and his crazy girlfriend, Liza, whose relationship takes a sharp turn into homicide when they try to rob Liza’s sugar daddy – only to end up with two corpses, a hostage, and $68,000 in stolen cash.
Jackals
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE. A potent ’80s-set psychological thriller that centers on an estranged family who hires a cult de-programmer (Stephen Dorff) to get back their teenage son from a murderous cult, only to find themselves under siege when the cultists surround their cabin, demanding the boy back.
Preacher Feature is a weekly analysis of the AMC show Preacher based on the comic book of the same name by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon. In this column, we will give a breakdown of the events from the previous night’s show, including how they relate to the comics, and speculate as to what’s going on and what might be coming up. This is to say that there will be spoilers, both actual and potential. If you have not yet watched the episode in question or are watching the show without reading the comics and don’t want to have any foreknowledge of what might happen to Jesse and company, then you would do well to stop reading this now.
Shootout at the Relax Inn
This episode picks up where the season premiere ended, with Jesse futilely trying to use Genesis on The Saint of Killers. Luckily for Jesse, his hotel is housing a number of members of The Greater Association of Gun Aficionados. Most of them come outside, armed to the teeth, to see what in the Hell (or out of it, as the case may be) is going on after a bullet intended for Jesse ends up in the skull of a delivery driver whose van then crushes The Saint against a lamppost. The thing about unstoppable killing machines, though, is that they are very hard to stop. The van doesn’t do the trick, nor does the flurry of bullets (and at least one grenade) fired by the gun nuts. While Jesse escapes once again, The Saint cuts the membership of GAGA down to basically nothing. Before escaping, Jesse and Tulip see on TV that their hometown of Annville has been destroyed by a methane explosion (Let that be a lesson to you: never watch TV). Of course, it’s not easy to process your grief while a seven foot tall, seemingly unkillable cowboy is chasing after you in a slow but inexorable fashion.
A Cure for the Blues
Meanwhile, wayward angel Fiore (or is it DeBlanc? It’s so easy to get them mixed up) finds himself in the titular Mumbai Sky Tower. In a sequence both hilarious and heart-breaking, Fiore, despondent over the death of his best and only friend DeBlanc at the hands of The Saint, tries to kill himself over and over. But in the world of Preacher, asphyxiation, electrocution, and even an old-fashioned bullet to the head (if it’s fired from an earthly weapon) are not enough to kill an angel for good, and Fiore is resurrected each time. After one of these attempts the crowd at the casino mistakes his death and rebirth for a magic trick and Fiore finds himself performing to sold-out crowds as an illusionist named Ganesh. Jesse and Cassidy confront Fiore and find out that he is the one who hired The Saint to kill Jesse, and so is the only one who can call him off. Cassidy has a plan to cheer Fiore up, and that is a little bonding to help him get over the loss of DeBlanc. And how does a 120-year-old vampire bond with a suicidal angel? With pillow forts, Archie Comics, and enough drugs to fill a mule’s rectum.
After a gleeful bonding montage, Fiore agrees to call off the Saint of Killers.
Goin’ to the Chapel
Now, Fiore isn’t the only one who is feeling down over the loss of a loved one. Tulip, having time now to digest the loss of Annville and with it Walter, her only real family, is sadly drinking in the casino. Jesse needs a way to cheer her up and the solution he arrives at is for them to get married in the hotel chapel. Shortly before the ceremony, however, Tulip recognizes Gary and, clearly not wanting Jesse to see this man, she makes an excuse and heads up to her hotel room. We the audience don’t find out exactly what the connection between this large man and Tulip is, but it has something to do with another mystery man named Victor.
Gary says Tulip needs to call Victor now and when Tulip declines, he gets violent. After getting thrown around the hotel room, Tulip gains the upper hand and bludgeons Gary to death with the wedding chapel pager. While waiting for Tulip, Jesse tells Fiore that he plans to keep using Genesis after The Saint has been taken off his tail. Tulip returns and tells Jesse that getting married is stupid and so the wedding is off.
Next Stop: New Orleans
Since we found out last episode that God loves jazz, the gang decides to find him in New Orleans. Tulip seems as hesitant to go to The Big Easy as she did to let Jesse find out about Gary and Victor. As they head out, Jesse uses Genesis on Fiore, telling him to “find peace”. The Saint, using Genesis as a beacon finds his way to The Mumbai Sky Tower and Fiore. Fiore has a change of heart and tells The Saint where is Jesse is heading and that instead of one less killing, he wants The Saint to perform one more: Fiore himself. During his next performance, Fiore is killed (for good) by a bullet from The Saint’s gun.
Easter Eggs/Connections to Comics
As seen at the end of season one, Fiore is picked up for relocation at the same spot as Walter White in Breaking Bad (another brilliant show made in part by Preacher co-creator Sam Catlin).
On the wall in Fiore/Ganesh’s dressing room is a picture of comedian/iconoclast Bill Hicks. Bill Hicks is mentioned in the comics as a favorite of both Jesse and Cassidy and, as Ennis pointed out in the comics, was something of a preacher himself.
Questions and Theories
I think the biggest questions after episode two are ‘who is Gary’ and ‘why is Tulip so concerned about keeping Jesse and him from finding out about each other?’ Could it be that Miss O’Hare got secretly married and is no longer ‘Miss’ at all? Or maybe Gary and Victor were involved with Tulip in a criminal enterprise so heinous (foreskin recycling?) she can’t stand the idea of Jesse finding out about it.
STX Entertainment has released the first official trailer for A Bad Moms Christmas, giving us our first look at the return of Mila Kunis, Kathryn Hahn, and Kristen Bell as the titular mothers. This time around, rather than stressing out about PTA meetings, they’re stressing out about the upcoming holidays.
Welcome to the second episode of the Comic Show by Monkeys Fighting Robots! Anthony and Matt have a lot to discuss with you today: Marvel Legacy, Black Magick #6, Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man #1, How to fix the Fantastic Four, and MFR Anime Editor Tony Wendel joins the show to talk about Boom! and IDW.
Buckle up, True Believers! Episode 2 of the COMIC SHOW by Monkeys Fighting Robots is here.
Episode Breakdown:
04:48 – Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man Review
Matt – 3 out of 5 Robots
Anthony – 3.5 out of 5 Monkeys
20:00 – Black Magick #6 Review
Matt – 4 out of 5 Robots
Anthony – 4.75 of 5 Monkeys
33:39 – MFR Anime Editor Tony Wendel joins the show to talk about Boom! and IDW.
50:15 – Marvel Legacy reaction
59:00 – How to fix the Fantastic Four
Thank you for listening!
Do you want to be our FAN of the week? All you have to do is comment on this podcast to be eligible.
Do you have a question that you would like answered during the show? Email your questions to matt@popaxiom.com.
About the Comic Show Podcast:
A comic journalist in the twilight of his career still grasping for his first Eisner runs into a young buck that mildly reminds him of his youth. Their warped enthusiasm for the comic book industry unites them to spread the good word to the inter-web. Realistically, we are two nerds that love comic books and want to entertain you with quality recommendations, creator interviews, and reports from your favorite publisher. For diehard fans and comic newbs; all are welcome to the Comics Show on Monkeys Fighting Robots! Hosts, Matthew Sardo and Anthony Composto.
Steven Soderbergh’s return to cinema is only a few weeks away with Logan Lucky, a redneck heist movie that had a pretty amazing trailer a few weeks back. Now, we have another full trailer, and it is somehow even better than the first.
Check it out:
“I Am IN. CAR. CER. ATED.”
“The Logans are a hardscrabble family from the hills of West Virginia, and their clan has been famous for its bad luck for nearly 90 years. But the conniving Jimmy Logan (Channing Tatum) decides its time to turn the family’s luck around, and with a little help from his friends, the Redneck Robbers, he plans to steal $14 million from the Charlotte Motor Speedway.”
This looks like a total blast. Everyone looks like they’re having fun in these Coen-esque idiot savant roles, but Daniel Craig stands out to me more than anyone. Who knew he had this sort of performance in him?
Steve Soderbergh has been in the midst of one of the worst retirements of all time. He allegedly retired from the movies after his small thriller Side Effects in 2013. But then he followed up this announcement with the HBO movie Behind the Candelabra, the masterpiece Cinemax series The Knick, and he managed to produce dozens of films and TV shows in the meantime. Whatever the case, he is back, and everyone should rejoice.
While it’s subjective to state that Veep is currently the best comedy on television, the critical reception and accolades the show has garnered speak for themselves. Julia Louis-Dreyfus has won the ‘Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series’ Emmy Award every single year since the show’s debut for her portrayal of Vice President, and then President, Selina Meyer, while the show itself has been nominated for the ‘Outstanding Comedy Series’ Emmy Award every year, winning it twice. Personally, it’s one of my favorite television shows.
Given the spectacular quality of the writing during its first five seasons, fans were excited to see how the series would back itself out of the corner the writers trapped themselves in at the end of season five: Selina Meyer lost the presidency and, for the first time in the show’s run, no longer held any political office. Season six picks up exactly one year after the historic vote that cost Selina her title of Commander in Chief, and a lot has changed in her life – and the lives of her staff – since then.
After it was revealed that Carnage will have a role in Sony’s Venom film, fans have began to speculate about who might be playing the character. After a tweet, it looks like we already have a campaign for Cameron Monaghan, from Gotham, to portray the role.
20th Century Fox has released the first official trailer for The Greatest Showman, giving us our first look at Hugh Jackman’s upcoming true story/musical. The film has been a passion project of Jackman’s for several years and is finally making its way to the big screen.
Directed by Michael Gracey, The Greatest Showman tells the true story of P.T. Barnum, who founded the circus that became the famous travelling Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. The film will be Jackman’s first since leaving the role of Wolverine in Logan and will be the first cinematic musical that the actor has done since Les Misérables.
Watch the trailer below and discover that no one the same and everyone is special!
Inspired by the imagination of P.T. Barnum, The Greatest Showman is an original musical that celebrates the birth of show business & tells of a visionary who rose from nothing to create a spectacle that became a worldwide sensation.
Directed by Michael Gracey, the film stars Hugh Jackman (Logan), Zac Efron (Baywatch), Zendaya (Spider-Man:Homecoming)and Michelle Williams (Manchester By The Sea). The film will land in theatres on Christmas day!
