Matthew Monagle
Will Ferrell Drops Out of ‘Captain Dad’ Days Before Shooting Starts
Imagine you’re a film producer and you’ve spent the last weeks and months lining everything up for your next movie. You’ve booked location shoots with with the city and local businesses, hired local talent to serve on set, and arranged for flights and accommodations for all your cast and crew. And then, days before you’re set to start filming, you get a frantic call saying that Will Ferrell, one of the biggest names in Hollywood, is dropping out unexpectedly at the last minute. On days like this, do you regret ever going into film production as a career?
Bryan Cranston Still Wants to Play ‘X-Men’ Villain Mr. Sinister
Every comic book studio has the thing they do that frustrates fans. Marvel refuses to give the Black Widow her own spin-off movie; the DC Cinematic Universe keeps selling us on a version of Superman that breaks necks and gets freaky in bathtubs; 20th Century Fox casts incredible actors and buries them beneath layers of makeup and prosthetics. The last one is particularly frustrating when a great actor all-but shouts that he’s cool with hours in the makeup trailer and they still don’t seem to have a place for him.
Chris Pratt Would Like Peter Quill to Meet the Punisher in ‘Avengers: Infinity War’
As good as many of the Marvel movies have been — and they’ve been very, very good — perhaps my favorite part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is its complicated web of secrecy and lies. Each cast member has to be prepared to talk about Marvel movies at a moment’s notice, to speak to the entire design of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, without giving away proprietary information or giving entertainment reporters the wrong kind of soundbite. If Disney were smart, they would launch an Aaron Sorkin-produced television series about the politics of press junkets. I would watch the heck out of that.
‘Big Hero 6’ Actor Ryan Potter Just Used YouTube to Audition for the Role of Robin in ‘Batman’
One of the big questions surrounding that standalone Ben Affleck Batman movie is whether they will bring a version of Robin into the fold. Thanks to Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, we know that the character of Robin exists in the DC Cinematic Universe, but the level of violence in that film seemed at odds with the more lighthearted camaraderie that comes with an adolescent sidekick. Then again, a recent interview with DC Films’ Geoff Johns described Batman as a less grim figure going forward. Could Robin play a key role in making DC’s Batman more of a superhero and less of a vigilante in a cape?
Watch the Trailer for Netflix’s Justin Timberlake Concert Film ‘Justin Timberlake and the Tennessee Kids’
I don’t think it’s a particularly bold statement to say that Justin Timberlake is one of the great all-around talents currently working today. Everyone knows his music and his hilarious appearances on Saturday Night Live, but with a filmography that includes everything from Inside Llewyn Davis to The Social Network, Timberlake has also proven himself several times over as an actor. Whatever Timberlake decides to do, odds are he will do it very, very well.
Chris Pratt Thinks ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2’ Will Be the ‘Biggest Spectacle Movie of All Time’
Guys, you’re never going to believe what just happened. One of the actors in an upcoming Hollywood blockbuster just predicted that his new movie will be full of incredible special effects and awesome set pieces! This changes everything we thought we knew about Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. And here I thought the sequel was going to be a hard-hitting expose on Peter Quill’s abandonment issues with his father, the giant face planet played by Kurt Russell. You know, real somber stuff.
The Original ‘Powers Rangers’ Cast Were Not Invited Back for the New Movie
These days, if you reboot a franchise, you give the original cast members a couple of seconds of screen time. It’s pretty much a win-win scenario as far as producers are concerned. Fans who believe that sequels and remakes are heresy will be somewhat satiated by the involvement of original cast members, while newcomers won’t have any idea why the crowd around them is cheering for that background character. Sure, it’s fan service, but let’s be honest: some properties need a little bit of fan service more than others.
Michael Pena Confirmed for ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’
It’s a testament to the Marvel Cinematic Universe that Ant-Man was a critical and commercial success despite its highly publicized production issues. While many of the other films in the series deal with world domination or destruction, Ant-Man lowered the stakes a little bit and gave us an old-fashioned heist film about a group of lovable losers and an evil corporation. And none of these losers were quite so lovable as Michael Pena’s Luis, who stole an entire film from both Michael Douglas and Paul Rudd.
Tom Cruise’s Salary Negotiations Have Shut Down ‘Mission: Impossible 6’
At this point in his career, there shouldn’t be much cause for behind-the-scenes drama when it comes to Tom Cruise movies. Cruise wants to star in another Jack Reacher movie? Pay the man. Cruise wants to play a special forces operative fighting a centuries-old mummy? Pay the man. Cruise wants to release a movie where all he does is run for two hours? By all that is holy and good in this world, pay the man!
The ‘Fast 8’ Cast Photo Is the Very Definition of Cool
Throughout the production of Fast 8, the cast and crew of the upcoming Fast and the Furious sequel have used their Fridays as a time to share some pretty great photos and video on the movie’s Facebook page. Some of these posts have been behind-the-scenes videos of a shot in progress; others have been footage of the cast involved in charity work in the various countries they have visited. Each post not only suggests the size and scale of the movie, but the impact of the film series on the entire world.
Seth Rogen Has His Eye on ‘Sausage Party 2’, More R-Rated Animated Movies
With Sausage Party setting an August box office record this past weekend, that sound you hear is doors across Hollywood opening for R-rated animated movies. This is probably an overdue development. Movies from studios like Pixar and Studio Ghibli have long been praised by people of all ages for the maturity of their themes; it was only a matter of time until someone with a proven track record and a bit of vision — a filthy, filthy vision — pushed animated movies right off into the deep end.
Check Out the First Photos of Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence in ‘Passengers’
While it’s not an officially recognized movie genre, the type of film that I’ve come to think of as ‘Being Lonely in Space’ is one of the few genres that can bring together the artistic and the commercial audiences (think of movies like Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar or Ridley Scott’s Alien). This is the kind of company Sony hopes will be kept by Passengers, its upcoming sci-fi release with Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt.