Movies Movie News and Notes

Watched Fatman starring Gibson, and I'll throw a review in the review thread in a bit after I rewatch a few key scenes. Not entirely sure how I feel about it yet.
 
I was excited to learn Robert Downey Jr is committing to a Sherlock Holmes Universe and that SHERLOCK HOLMES 3 is eventually gonna get made, albeit delayed.

Then I found out Guy Ritchie's not directing. Sad.

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It's Soap (fresh off of ROCKETMAN)
Interesting news on the Sherlock universe, I've always been a wee feind for his movies, even Dudley Moore and Peter Cook versions. Ever see Roger Moore's Sherlock? Or Sherlock vs Jack The Ripper? Worth a look.
I liked the Guy Ritchie movies, they worked nicely, well written and well cast. Dexter doesn't have much of a CV for directing so far so it is a little worrying, but I'm still game
 
I love the KINGSMAN universe -- but they just announced SEVEN more films in that cinematic universe. That's bananas.

Interesting news on the Sherlock universe, I've always been a wee feind for his movies, even Dudley Moore and Peter Cook versions. Ever see Roger Moore's Sherlock? Or Sherlock vs Jack The Ripper? Worth a look.
I liked the Guy Ritchie movies, they worked nicely, well written and well cast. Dexter doesn't have much of a CV for directing so far so it is a little worrying, but I'm still game
I just discovered Pure Cinema Podcast, and I just listened to a run-down of mysteries that I need to get into. Historically I've preferred the non-Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes characters -- namely HOUSE, with Hugh Laurie as American Dr. Sherlock, and ZERO EFFECT, with Bill Pullman as LoLo Jones AKA Angry Virgin Worst Boss of All Time Sherlock. They hipped me to Sherlock vs Ripper, and I need to look up the George C Scott and Christopher Plummer iterations. But I want to get into 10 LITTLE INDIANS and discover my share in why everyone loves Agatha Christie before that.
 
I love the KINGSMAN universe -- but they just announced SEVEN more films in that cinematic universe. That's bananas.


I just discovered Pure Cinema Podcast, and I just listened to a run-down of mysteries that I need to get into. Historically I've preferred the non-Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes characters -- namely HOUSE, with Hugh Laurie as American Dr. Sherlock, and ZERO EFFECT, with Bill Pullman as LoLo Jones AKA Angry Virgin Worst Boss of All Time Sherlock. They hipped me to Sherlock vs Ripper, and I need to look up the George C Scott and Christopher Plummer iterations. But I want to get into 10 LITTLE INDIANS and discover my share in why everyone loves Agatha Christie before that.
I've still yet to watch any version of 10 Little Indians or And Then There Were None, have them in my collection but we always go back to Evil Under The Sun or Death on The Mile.
I do like a little Agatha, Bill Bixby was in one which wasn't great, Murder Was Easy.
The actress who portrayed Miss Marple in the TV movies used to live near me in a little village called Wivenhoe.
https://www.chewtonrose.co.uk/buying/4-bedroom-house-for-sale/wivenhoe-co7/cwr080211746/
 
Very cool.

I've still yet to watch any version of 10 Little Indians or And Then There Were None
PCP describes it as her best book, with the benefit of having also the best version of the ending since all the adaptations put their little twist on it.
 
Very cool.


PCP describes it as her best book, with the benefit of having also the best version of the ending since all the adaptations put their little twist on it.
I'll have to give those guys a listen, I like the look of the 80's 90's thrillers podcast
 
Alfred Molina's Doctor Octopus Confirmed for SPIDER-MAN 3; Kirsten Dunst Expected to Return

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Alfred Molina is putting the metal arms back on to reprise his role as the villainous Doctor Octopus, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter.

Molina turned in a fan-favorite performance in Sam Raimi's 2004 sequel Spider-Man 2 as Otto Octavius, a brilliant scientist turned eight-limbed villain who pushed Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man to the limits. Molina's involvement in the upcoming Spider-Man movie was first rumored late last month, when GWW reported the actor had been spotted on set.

Tom Holland stars in the film, which Sony has dated for Dec. 17, 2021, which has Spider-Man: Homecoming and Spider-Man: Far From Home director Jon Watts back at the helm. Benedict Cumberbatch will appear in the film as Doctor Strange, while Spider-Man mainstays expected to return include Zendaya, Marisa Tomei, Jacob Batalon and Tony Revolori.

Molina's involvement ties together three generations of Spider-Man movies. Jamie Foxx is returning as Electro after playing the role in 2014's The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which starred Andrew Garfield as the wall crawler, while Molina's Doc Oc terrorized Maguire's version of Spidey. In October, Foxx suggested in a since-deleted Instagram post that three different Spider-Men could appear in the film.

Molina, who earned Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for 2017's Feud: Bette and Joan, starred in Frozen II last year and has Netflix and DreamWorks' Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans due out next year.

Collider's Jeff Sneider (via CBM) reports that The Amazing Spider-Man's Andrew Garfield will return as his take on Peter Parker, while Tobey Maguire is still in talks to reprise his interpretation of the iconic Marvel hero. That's not all, though, because Kirsten Dunst will be on hand as Mary Jane Watson, and Emma Stone is "expected" to step back into the role of Gwen Stacy.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/spider-man-3-alfred-molina-returning-as-doctor-octopus
 
Chloe Grace Moretz Fights Nazis and Plane Gremlin in SHADOW IN THE CLOUD Teaser

 
Viggo Mortensen Makes His Directorial Debut in FALLING; First Trailer

 
Christopher Nolan Rips HBO Max as "Worst Streaming Service," Denounces Warner Bros.' Plan

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For many in the movie business — producers, directors, stars and their representatives — Dec. 3, 2020, is a day that will live in infamy.

“Some of our industry’s biggest filmmakers and most important movie stars went to bed the night before thinking they were working for the greatest movie studio and woke up to find out they were working for the worst streaming service,” filmmaker Christopher Nolan, whose relationship with Warners dates back to Insomnia in 2002, said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter.

Added Nolan: “Warner Bros. had an incredible machine for getting a filmmaker’s work out everywhere, both in theaters and in the home, and they are dismantling it as we speak. They don’t even understand what they’re losing. Their decision makes no economic sense, and even the most casual Wall Street investor can see the difference between disruption and dysfunction.”

On that now-infamous morning, Ann Sarnoff — whose ungainly title is chair and CEO of WarnerMedia Studios and Networks Group — and Warner Bros. film studio chairman Toby Emmerich called the heads of the major agencies to drop a bombshell: Warners was about to smash the theatrical window, sweeping its entire 17-picture 2021 film slate onto its faltering HBO Max streaming service, debuting them on the same day they would open in whatever theaters could admit customers.

Surprisingly to some in the industry, sources say the idea was the brainchild of Warner Bros. COO Carolyn Blackwood who, looking at a relatively weak 2021 slate, saw an opportunity to avoid the humiliation of potentially bad grosses while currying favor with streamer-obsessed higher-ups.

The instant response in Hollywood was outrage and a massive girding for battle. “Warners has made a grave mistake,” says one top talent agent. “Never have this many people been this upset with one entity.” Like others, he had spent much of the day dealing with calls from stunned and angry clients. And that swooshing sound you hear? It’s the lawyers, stropping their blades as they prepare for battle: that Warners was self-dealing in shifting these movies to its own streamer, perhaps, or that the company acted in bad faith. Some talent reps say the decision affects not only profit participants but others who have worked on films as the move might affect residual payments. They expect and hope that the guilds will get involved. (The Writers Guild of America declined to comment.)

The Warners move poses big, maybe even existential questions: How do theaters survive this supposedly onetime, excused-by-the-pandemic move? Genies are hard to put back in the bottle — and no one believes Warners intended this to be temporary, anyway. What damage will be done to exhibitors by training customers that if they sit on their sofas, the biggest movies will come? And will Warners face serious backlash from important producers, filmmakers, guilds and onscreen talent? “Warners was the quintessentially talent-friendly, filmmaker-friendly studio,” says one agent. “Now Warners isn’t the first place, second place or third place you want to go.”

Many in Hollywood think WarnerMedia opted for this drastic move to play to streaming-infatuated Wall Street and redo the botched launch of HBO Max, which has netted a dismal 8.6 million "activated" subscribers so far. But one prominent agent notes that the top executives at WarnerMedia and its parent — AT&T CEO John Stankey, WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar and, of course, Sarnoff — “don’t understand the movie business, and they don’t understand talent relations.”

While Kilar pays what is seen as lip service to movies, industry veterans say Warners is sacrificing the huge profit that comes from selling movies in multiple formats and on multiple platforms around the world.

Even before Warners made its play, there was grumbling among agents that Sarnoff, who has been on the job for more than a year, had yet to get acquainted with key players on the film side or make much of an impression at all. That’s why many are focusing their wrath on Emmerich. “Toby’s passion is only about managing up,” says one agent who represents major Warners talent.

By the weekend following the announcement, Emmerich was calling important filmmakers with projects set for 2022 to assure them that their movies wouldn’t be dropped on the streaming service without warning. “As if anyone would believe he had any control over the situation,” says one producer with a major Warner property. “Toby probably had a really bad weekend, not that I feel bad for him,” says one agent.

According to a source, Emmerich tried to soothe In the Heights director Jon M. Chu by pointing out that the movie was still getting a “global theatrical release.” But industry insiders say the studio is pretending that pirates won’t pounce as soon as these films are streaming on HBO Max. As soon as one does, there's an “excellent version of the movie everywhere immediately,” notes one industry veteran.

WarnerMedia’s decision to attack without warning may be understandable given the blowback that was foreseeable. But to many insiders, blindsiding talent and their reps seemed like an insult. Sources say studio president Courtenay Valenti was the only Warner exec who dared to speak up about the need to reach out to key creative partners, but she was quickly hushed.

Much of this outrage will surely be mitigated if WarnerMedia is prepared to write big checks to all the profit participants in the films that have been moved. “It’s a critical time for them, at the highest level, to make this right with the talent,” says one rep. But agents say the guidance that’s been provided so far suggests that the company isn’t planning to offer what is now called "Wonder Woman money," in honor of the rich deal the studio gave profit participants in Wonder Woman 1984 when that film was moved to HBO Max.

WarnerMedia had to shovel tens of millions at Gal Godot and the other key players because the company wants a third in the series. But that sets the bar high. Sources say even Suicide Squad director James Gunn, who is platform-agnostic, was not pleased when the studio followed its shocking announcement by floating a lackluster formula for compensating him and other profit participants in the film.

At minimum, WarnerMedia has opened the door to arduous negotiations with the major agencies over compensation for multiple profit participants in 17 movies. Did the Warners numbers crunchers, in projecting the cost of premiering its entire 2021 slate on HBO Max, factor in the cost of widely anticipated legal challenges? Industry insiders believe WarnerMedia may have opened itself up to those, especially as it is selling the movies to its own streaming platform when none of the profit participants has had a chance to figure out what Apple or Netflix might have paid for the opportunity to stream their projects day-and-date. Allegations of self-dealing are almost sure to follow.

Many think Legendary will be the first to file a legal challenge. The company fired off a previous lawyer letter after Netflix offered something north of $225 million for the rights to Godzilla vs. Kong, which has seen its release date moved from March 2020 to November to May 2021. Though Legendary financed 75 percent of the movie, Warners had the power to block the sale and did. Legendary asked whether the studio would then give it a deal to stream the movie on HBO Max — and got no clear answer until its executives woke up one December morning to find that the movie was going day-and-date on the service without the benefit of a negotiation. Legendary’s even more expensive picture, Dune, is getting the same treatment. The other companies that finance Warners movies, Village Roadshow and Bron, are also said to be aggrieved parties that might end up going to court.

And then there’s the talent. Dune director Denis Villeneuve is said to be among those who felt most strongly that a traditional big-screen release was essential for his film. Chu, who along with Lin-Manuel Miranda went through an intense courtship with multiple suitors for In the Heights and who had turned down a huge Netflix offer for Crazy Rich Asians because he cherishes the communal theatrical experience, told an associate he was “shell-shocked” after being informed of the Warners decision.

Sources say WarnerMedia insiders have been hoping that Disney will follow its lead and shift its slate to streaming. But Disney, which had seven billion-dollar-grossing movies last year, isn’t about to do that. Instead, it is moving some films to streaming, as it did with Hamilton and Artemis Fowl — likely Cruella and more — but an agent notes that the way Disney has handled the shift stands in stark contrast to what Warners has done. “They didn’t do a unilateral thing,” he says, adding that studio executives made pre-emptive calls to talent and their reps that helped smooth the process.

It’s also worth noting that Disney+, which has dwarfed HBO Max in terms of subscribers, has gotten a lot of mileage out of one original hit, The Mandalorian, which is based on an iconic movie property. “There’s never been a full-fledged franchise blockbuster launched on a streaming service,” observes an executive at a Warners competitor. “It starts with theaters and it starts with opening weekend.” And so far, those blockbusters have been the ones that generated merchandise sales and theme-park attractions.

Warners doesn’t have theme parks but it has reaped big benefits from movies that almost certainly would have been dropped onto HBO Max had the option been available at the time. Consider last year’s megahit Joker. Film studio chief Emmerich was not a fan of the project; it was defended by worldwide marketing president Blair Rich, who was recently pushed out. Emmerich lowballed on the budget to discourage director Todd Phillips from making it, and when the filmmaker persisted, sold off half the movie. Joker then became a cultural phenomenon that grossed more than a billion dollars worldwide, was honored with 11 Academy Award nominations and an Oscar for Joaquin Phoenix. Would any of that have happened had Joker been dropped onto HBO Max?

Despite their assertions to the contrary, many industry insiders believe that neither AT&T chairman Stankey nor Kilar has much interest in the legacy movie business. Kilar has said this move was made for the fans and told CNBC, “If we start our days and end our days focused on the customer, we’re going to lead the industry.”

That brings to mind a line in the new Netflix movie, Mank — a warning delivered to the upstart Orson Welles by grizzled veteran Herman Mankiewicz: “You, my friend, are an outsider, a self-anointed savior-hyphenate. They’re just waiting to loathe you.”

It also leaves out a long-standing Hollywood maxim: Content is king. And content comes from artists who aren’t always motivated purely by money. Says an agent who represents extremely important talent with business at Warners: “You had a decades-long legacy as being known as the most talent-friendly studio. Now you’ve gone from that to a studio that in starburst colors lit up a sign that says, 'We don’t give a fuck about talent.’”

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/n...-streaming-service-denounces-warner-bros-plan


Cliff Notes:

- Nolad said, “some of our industry’s biggest filmmakers and most important movie stars went to bed the night before thinking they were working for the greatest movie studio and woke up to find out they were working for the worst streaming service.”

- A lot of filmmakers and stars were caught unaware and are upset about their films moving to HBO Max. Lawsuits might be in the works or demand for big paychecks for profit loss.

- Only Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins and star Gal Gadot were notified of the decision in advance. Both received "tens of millions" to keep them happy because the studio wants a third WW movie.

- Legendary, which financed 75% of Godzilla vs. Kong, will likely file a legal challenge. Legendary received an offer of $225 million for Godzilla vs. Kong last month but WB blocked the sale.

- WB boss Toby Emmerich was not a fan of Joker and lowballed on the budget to discourage director Todd Phillips from making it. Emmerich then sold off half the movie.

- Joker became a cultural phenomenon that grossed more than a billion dollars worldwide, was honored with 11 Academy Award nominations and an Oscar for Joaquin Phoenix. Would any of that have happened had Joker been dropped onto HBO Max?
 
Full Trailer for WWII Supernatural Action Thriller SHADOW IN THE CLOUD Starring Chloe Grace Moretz

 
Marvel Studios Officially Announces FANTASTIC FOUR Move with Jon Watts to Direct!

Make way for Marvel’s First Family — Reed Richards (Mister Fantastic), Sue Storm (Invisible Woman), Johnny Storm (Human Torch) and Ben Grimm (The Thing)!

Closing out The Walt Disney Company’s Investor Day presentation, Kevin Feige, president, Marvel Studios, and chief creative officer, Marvel, revealed the studio will bring one of Marvel’s most iconic families to the big screen with the release of Marvel Studios’ Fantastic Four!

Spider-Man: Homecoming
and Far From Home filmmaker Jon Watts is on board to direct.

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https://www.marvel.com/articles/movies/marvel-studios-announces-fantastic-four-film-jon-watts
 
New Star Wars Movie ROGUE SQUADRON to Be Directed by Wonder Woman's Patty Jenkins

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Patty Jenkins is leaving the land of the Amazons and heading to a galaxy far, far away. Jenkins, who is weeks away from the release of her Wonder Woman 1984 movie, will direct a Star Wars movie titled Rogue Squadron.

The announcement was made by Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy during Disney’s Investor’s Day in which Disney made numerous creative announcement on a wide-range of brands.

In a video posted on Twitter, Jenkins said she is using her fighter pilot father as an inspiration for the project and has wanted to make the "greatest fighter pilot movie ever made" for quite some time.

The plan is to release the movie on Christmas Day, 2023.

While most of the Star Wars attention is focused on series work, film development is percolating. Rogue Squadron now becomes the second feature in active development after the one being worked on by Taika Waititi. There is also one being developed by Kevin Feige.

Jenkins will become the first woman to act as the principal director of a Star Wars movie.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/star-wars-patty-jenkins-to-direct-rogue-squadron
 
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