Matthew Monagle
David Ayer Is Still Directing ‘Gotham City Sirens’ (For Now)
One of the big items to emerge from last weekend’s Comic-Con was the news that Zack Snyder would be taking a backseat in the DCEU going forward. This report - which falls somewhere between a rumor and a substantiated story - spoke directly to a shifting creative hierarchy behind the scenes at Warner Bros. With Geoff Johns now serving as DC’s answer to Marvel’s Kevin Feige, things look increasingly uncertain for the ‘old guard’ of DCEU filmmakers, including both Snyder and Suicide Squad director David Ayer, despite both directors’ involvement in upcoming films.
The Trailer for ‘The Vault’ Promises One ‘Killer’ Heist Movie
While it probably wouldn’t be fair to say that I enjoy James Franco as an actor, I certainly find him to be one of the more interesting talents working today. Unlike most actors, Franco is entirely immune to decline; he can make an independent horror film or a second-rate biopic and immediately pivot into a new blockbuster franchise or prestige television series. And since his career refuses to conform to any established patterns, it makes it really difficult to know if his upcoming projects are actually any good. Is The Vault an arthouse horror film or a movie elevated from the VOD ranks by Franco’s presence? Who knows?
Will Joss Whedon Get a Co-Director Credit on ‘Justice League’?
With all due respect to everyone on Twitter at Comic-Con, for my money, the hottest of possible hot takes from this past weekend belonged to screenwriter Zack Stentz. “The worst part of Justice League,” Stentz wrote, “is gonna be the fanboys and bad culture writers claiming to know which parts are Snyder and which are Whedon.” It’s true. Even the Comic-Con Justice League trailer seemed to be an inseparable mashup of Zack Snyder and Joss Whedon’s sensibilities, alternating between alpha posturing and awkward self-parody with regularity. The mind already aches with the number of articles that will be written about Justice League attempting to give credit to the author’s preferred filmmaker.
Marvel’s Kevin Feige Addresses the Challenge of Superhero Fatigue
Unless you’ve been taking a break from your phone this past weekend - we all do it from time-to-time, it’s totally healthy to unplug every now and then - you’ve probably been inundated with new superhero movie and television rumors. New Marvel shows! New DC movies! Prequels! Sequels! Reboots! Reimaginings! Yes, whether you’re a global powerhouse like Disney or a smaller boutique studio like Blumhouse, odds are you’ve got at least one superhero adaptation on your slate of films for the next two years.
Check Out the Exclusive ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’ Comic-Con Poster
After a few months of radio silence from Marvel on the Ant-Man and the Wasp front, the last two weeks have seen a flurry of activity. First there was the announcement that Randall Park would be joining the cast as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, then the news that Walton Goggins had signed on for a yet-unknown - but probably evil - part in the movie. All of that was blown away this past weekend with the news that Michelle Pfeiffer and Laurence Fishburne would be joining the cast as contemporaries of Michael Douglas‘ Hank Pym. Man, these Marvel casts just keep getting better and better.
Weekend Box Office Report: ‘Dunkirk’ Wins the Weekend
What did you see this weekend? Was it the dour World War II epic? The raunchy New Orleans sex comedy? Or the movie where Cara Delevingne shoves her head into a telepathic jellyfish’s butt? Truly, with options like this, anyone who complains about the death of cinema has no idea what they’re talking about. Anyways, here’s the box office numbers through Sunday afternoon:
Todd McFarlane’s ‘Spawn’ Won’t, Uh, Feature Much Spawn
When it was announced on Friday that Todd McFarlane would be writing and directing his own Spawn movie for Blumhouse, the non-Weeknd portion of the internet responded with a fair amount of skepticism. Sure, everyone has fond memories of reading Spawn comic books when they were in their teens, but how exactly would an R-rated, low-budget Spawn film stand out from the crowd of bigger and badder superhero movies? Not to mention the fact that McFarlane himself would be directing despite any feature film experience; his entire body of work as a director consists of four music videos shot eight-plus years ago.
Brush Up on Your ‘Blade Runner’ History With the ‘Road to 2049’ Website
Despite the fact that Blade Runner 2049 is only the second movie in this franchise - can we call it a franchise if there’s only two friends? I’m asking for a friend - you’ll be completely forgiven if you’ve lost the thread on the events leading up to this film. Not only will the time jump between Blade Runner and Blade Runner 2049 probably leave a few fans in the dust, the first film was never particularly forthcoming with its own mythology, asking fans to piece together some of the political and technological events that led to the replicant revolution. Like the best science fiction, it was a movie that contained multitudes, even if it wasn’t always compelled to share them.
The ‘Justice League’ Comic-Con Trailer Puts Wonder Woman Front and Center
Say what you will about Warner Bros., but they’ve always saved some of their best Justice League footage for Comic-Con. Last year we were treated to our first extended look at the DCEU entry; this year the studio has raised the stakes, giving us some actual footage of the Justice League villain in action. Oh, and this trailer also seems to emphasize the heck out of the world of Wonder Woman - including a scene set entirely in Themyscira - indicating that they know exactly who their most popular superhero is going forward. It’s probably not a coincidence that there’s more Gal Gadot in this trailer than anyone else.
The First Trailer for ‘Ready Player One’ Is a Glorious Pop Culture Mashup
I’m probably not going to rock your world if I tell you that Hollywood enjoys catering to the nostalgia of audiences. Some of the most successful shows and movies from the last few years - including Stranger Things and Ghostbusters - have succeeded specifically because they were able to recreate things that we loved when we were children. What made Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One such a worldwide phenomenon wasn’t just the author’s grasp of eighties and nineties popular culture, but the way he wove that into the book’s original narrative. His character’s obsession with the past was both his greatest strength and his biggest weakness.