Author: Christopher Marc

Posted on in Film News

Warner Bros. Is Withholding ‘Tenet’s Actual Opening Weekend Box Office Numbers

We were a little underwhelmed last weekend when Christopher Nolan’s massive action film Tenet had an estimated $20.2 million three-day weekend. However, what was shocking it had been released over Labor Day domestically and we never saw the actual box office returns from the studio. Normally, with this data studios are extremely happy to share given the nature of a holiday long weekend boosts attendance. 

It was indeed underwhelming because that number would make Tenet the lowest box office opening for a Nolan film in the last twenty years, slightly below Insomnia’s $20.8 million back in 2002. You also have to factor in Tenet’s massive production of reportedly over $200 million that makes it extremely tough to turn a profit during a global pandemic. 

Here is a rundown of Christopher Nolan’s domestic box office openings. 

  • THE DARK KNIGHT RISES $160.8 MILLION
  • THE DARK KNIGHT – $158.4 MILLION
  • INCEPTION – $62.7 MILLION
  • DUNKIRK – $50.5 MILLION
  • BATMAN BEGINS – $48.7 MILLION
  • INTERSTELLAR – $47.5 MILLION
  • THE PRESTIGE – $40 MILLION
  • INSOMNIA – $20.8 MILLION
  • TENET – $20.2 MILLION 
  • MEMENTO – $ 235K

Almost a week later and Warner Bros. still hasn’t given up that data which might suggest they were bullish with that estimate of $20.2 million and are trying to make the film’s opening weekend seem stronger than it was. This would also include how well the film has done over the last two weeks in Canada as those numbers haven’t been made public by Warner Bros. either and are generally lumped into the U.S./North American total, a number the studio has yet to make public.

Variety is now pointing towards the studio potentially worried their iffy numbers will be spun by outlets and journalists as hurdling towards a flop as weaker numbers would suggest given the scale of the film and the timing of the release. 

The studio, however, was concerned that reporters and rivals would misinterpret or unfairly analyze the results — leading to headlines that may incorrectly label Tenet’s debut as a flop. 

Warner Bros. also recently bumped Wonder Woman 1984’s release date from October 2nd to Christmas Day. The move most likely happened because of this Tenet data they are now refusing to share with the public and rival studios. The report from Variety adds that the rival studios are complaining of the lack of transparency because they were hoping on making release schedule adjustments based on Tenet’s performance. 

This is really on Warner Bros. as they were warned about releasing their massive film too soon during the pandemic/theater reopening as most of the summer movies bailed to 2021 and reports of infighting within the studio seemed more like a weird PR move if anything else.

Posted on in Film News

Regina King, Zazie Beetz, Lakeith Stanfield, and Delroy Lindo Join ‘The Harder They Fall’ – Netflix Western Led By Idris Elba and Jonathan Majors

Deadline reports a large group of additions to the cast of Netflix’s all-black western titled The Harder They Fall, which stars The Suicide Squad’s Idris Elba and Lovecraft Country’s Jonathan Majors. 

Outlaw Nat Love (Majors) who discovers that the man (Elba) who killed his parents two decades ago is being released from prison, he reunites with his gang to track his enemy down and seek his revenge.

The new additions to the cast are Oscar-winner Regina King (If Beale Street Could Talk), Zazie Beetz (Joker), Delroy Lindo (Da 5 Bloods), Lakeith Stanfield (Get Out), Danielle Deadwyler (Watchmen), Edi Gathegi (X-Men: First Class), and RJ Cyler (White Boy Rick). 

Majors and Lindo played father and son in Spike Lee’s fantastic Da 5 Bloods that was also released by Netflix. Delory’s performance in that film will likely be in consideration for an Oscar.

Jeymes Samuel will be directing the western from a script penned by Samuel Yakin and Boaz Yakin. 

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

Halle Berry’s First Directorial Effort ‘Bruised’ Heading To Netflix – The MMA Drama Picked Up In Big Eight-Figure Deal

Deadline reports that Netflix has secured Halle Berry’s directorial debut Bruised with an eight-figure deal. They state the deal is for under $20 million which is extremely impressive for a festival pick-up and could speak volumes for the quality of the film after Netflix got an early look at it before a work-in-progress is set to premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. 

Jackie Justice (Berry) is a disgraced MMA fighter who has failed at the one thing she’s ever been good at – fighting. When 6-year-old Manny, the son she walked out on years ago, returns to her doorstep, Jackie has to conquer her own demons, face one of the fiercest rising stars of the MMA world, and ultimately fight to become the mother the boy deserves. The film is a Rocky-esque story of redemption, of a woman’s grueling MMA training in New Jersey to get into the kind of shape necessary to battle much younger opponents.

Berry is an Oscar-winning actress best known globally for the X-Men films, the James Bond flick Die Another Day, and won her Best Actress Oscar for the drama Monster’s Ball. More recently Halle got a bit of a career boost from her supporting role in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum and is now taking a directorial crown as well with Bruised. 

It sounds like she has a huge directorial career ahead of her. 

SOURCE: DEADLINE 

Posted on in Film News

Harry Styles Replaces Shia LaBeouf In Olivia Wilde’s 1950s Thriller ‘Don’t Worry Darling’

Deadline reports that Shia LaBeouf had to exit the upcoming thriller Don’t Worry Darling from director Olivia Wilde and will now be replaced by Dunkirk actor Harry Styles.

The rest of the cast includes Florence Pugh, Chris Pine, and Wilde has a supporting role.

Don’t Worry Darling is set in an isolated, utopian community in the 1950s California desert.

Olivia Wilde made waves with with debut effort Booksmart and recently closed a deal to direct a Marvel film for Sony Pictures said to be Spider-Woman.

The New Line Cinema pic hasn’t landed an official release date.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

WB Moves ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ To Christmas and Keeps ‘Dune’ In December 18th Spot

This seems like a horrible idea but Warner Bros. has moved Wonder Woman 1984 to December 25th from it’s former October 2nd spot announced via The Hollywood Reporter. The interesting angle here is that the massive film Dune is still slated to be released on December 18th.

This would certainly hurt one or both films releasing them so closely to each other.

I suspect Warner Bros. will realize the issue and bump Dune to another date in 2021 and just hasn’t figured out where to place it.

The Wonder Woman 1984 move sounds like a direct response to Tenet’s weak domestic opening of $20.2 million (estimated) and they’ll be hopeful that things will be better in December.

WONDER WOMAN 1984 – Fast forward to the 1980s as Wonder Woman’s next big screen adventure finds her facing two all-new foes: Max Lord and The Cheetah. With director Patty Jenkins back at the helm and Gal Gadot returning in the title role, “Wonder Woman 1984” is Warner Bros. Pictures’ follow up to the DC Super Hero’s first outing, 2017’s record-breaking “Wonder Woman,” which took in $822 million at the worldwide box office. The film also stars Chris Pine as Steve Trevor, Kristen Wiig as The Cheetah, Pedro Pascal as Max Lord, Robin Wright as Antiope, and Connie Nielsen as Hippolyta.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Posted on in Film News

Anne Hathaway To Lead Doug Liman’s Pandemic Heist Flick ‘Lockdown’ – Penned By ‘Eastern Promises’ Screenwriter Steven Knight

It was recently reported by Deadline that Oscar-winner Anne Hathaway is in final talks to take a lead role in director Doug Liman’s next film a pandemic-themed heist movie titled Lockdown. Hathaway recently did the heist film Ocean’s 8 and played thief Selina Kyle aka Catwoman in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises. 

The new film is referred to as a romantic comedy and was written by screenwriter Steven Knight, who is known for Eastern Promises, Locke, Peaky Blinders, Taboo, Allied, and The Girl In The Spider’s Web. 

They also mention that filming could begin before the end of the month in London with a budget of under $10 million. 

Director Doug Liman has been busy with the feature film adaptation of Chaos Walking starring Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley, which had undergone extensive reshoots. He is also planning on shooting an action-pic in space starring Tom Cruise and had been developing a sequel to Edge of Tomorrow. 

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

Neve Campbell Finally Confirmed For ‘Scream 5’ Return and Other Cast Members Announced

Back in May, Scream franchise actress Neve Campbell confirmed talks with Spyglass Media for a return to the Sidney Prescott role in Scream 5. 

That interview was then deleted from YouTube and it was all but assumed that Campbell would be back after it was announced that original cast members David Arquette and Courtney Cox were returning for what looks to be a continuation of the satirical horror franchise. 

Yesterday, Bloody Disgusting was finally able to confirm Neve’s return. 

She’ll be joining a cast that also includes Jack Quaid, Melissa Barrera, Jenna Ortega, Dylan Minnette, Mason Gooding, Mikey Madison, Kyle Gallner, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Marley Shelton, and Mikey Madison. 

Ready or Not’s Matthew Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett are directing from a script penned by James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick.

The original film from Wes Craven followed Sidney Prescott and her group of high school friends as a killer “Ghostface” is going around town killing students which leads to Cox’s tabloid reporter Gale Weathers to return to the town after writing a sleazy tell-all-book about the murder of Sidney’s mother. Craven’s take on the slasher was to be more of a send-up/satire of the genre itself and harped on the troupes as rules to stay alive.

I wouldn’t hold out any hope that the original characters will survive the new installment. 

The horror pic will be released on January 14th, 2022 by Paramount Pictures.

SOURCE: BLOODY DISGUSTING 

Posted on in Television News

‘Kenobi’ Filming Start Bumped To Spring and Will Have A Single Season Confirms Ewan McGregor

Earlier in the year, Obi-Wan Kenobi actor Ewan McGregor said on the red carpet of Birds of Prey that the Star Wars series unofficially referred to as Kenobi would begin shooting in January of 2021. 

Ewan recently spoke with Entertainment Tonight to promote Apple TV+’s Long Way Up, where he revealed that production on Kenobi has been pushed to the spring and is indeed being planned as a single standalone season. 

MCGREGOR: “Spring next year we start, I’m really excited about it. It’s gonna be great, I think. As I understand, it’s a standalone season. We’ll see. Who knows?” 

While speaking with ACE Universe back in June he confirmed that they would be implementing the StageCraft technology used on The Mandalorian. 

MCGREGOR: “[The prequels] were all blue screen and green screen and it was hard to imagine, but nowadays I think things have moved on so much, and I think a lot of what you see is gonna be what we see on the set. I don’t know if you’ve seen the behind-the-scenes of The Mandalorian series, but they employ that incredible screen…it’s pretty amazing. It makes you feel like you’re in the place, it’s going to feel realer for us, as actors. And I think we’ll be using some of that technology on our show.”

Screenwriter Joby Harold (King Arthur: Legend of The Sword, Army of The Dead) had been recently hired to do rewrites for the Star Wars series after there were reported delays due to script issues. 

It’s still set to be directed by Deborah Chow (The Mandalorian). 

While the Cassian Andor series has been hiring multiple actors for their cast, the Kenobi series has yet to have any names announced. The Mandalorian beings airing on Disney+ starting on October 30th and its third season is already in the pre-production stages.  

SOURCE: ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT

Posted on in Film News

TRAILER: First ‘Dune’ Footage Explores Fantastic World of The Sci-Fi Epic

Today, Legendary and Warner Bros. have finally revealed the first official trailer for Denis Villeneuve’s new feature film iteration of Frank Herbert’s science fiction fantasy masterpiece Dune. 

You can watch the first trailer below along with an interview from super-fan Stephen Colbert as Twitter Movies is streaming the reveal event.

The studio is splitting the first novel into two movies with the sequel expected to be titled Dune: Part Two and is currently being worked on by screenwriter Jon Spaihts. 

Author Frank Herbert left the Denis and Legendary plenty of material to use as he wrote six rather hefty novels before son Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson took over the franchise writing multiple installments in various points in the mythology. 

A spinoff series in the works for HBO Max called Dune: The Sisterhood that will see Denis direct the pilot and produce the series. 

Dune is set for release on December 18th, but there is a shot it could be delayed to 2021 like a majority of other 2020 films. 

DUNE – A mythic and emotionally charged hero’s journey, Dune tells the story of Paul Atreides, a brilliant and gifted young man born into a great destiny beyond his understanding, who must travel to the most dangerous planet in the universe to ensure the future of his family and his people. As malevolent forces explode into conflict over the planet’s exclusive supply of the most precious resource in existence—a commodity capable of unlocking humanity’s greatest potential—only those who can conquer their fear will survive.

The film stars Oscar nominee Timothée Chalamet (“Call Me by Your Name,” “Little Women”), Rebecca Ferguson (“Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep,” “Mission: Impossible – Fallout”), Oscar Isaac (the “Star Wars” franchise) Oscar nominee Josh Brolin (“Milk,” “Avengers: Infinity War”), Stellan Skarsgård (HBO’s “Chernobyl,” “Avengers: Age of Ultron”), Dave Bautista (the “Guardians of the Galaxy” films, “Avengers: Endgame”), Stephen McKinley Henderson (“Fences,” “Lady Bird”), Zendaya (“Spider-Man: Homecoming,” HBO’s “Euphoria”), David Dastmalchian (“Blade Runner 2049,” “The Dark Knight”), Chang Chen (“Mr. Long,” “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”), Sharon Duncan-Brewster (“Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” Netflix’s “Sex Education”), with Oscar nominee Charlotte Rampling (“45 Years,” “Assassin’s Creed”), with Jason Momoa (“Aquaman,” HBO’s “Game of Thrones”), and Oscar winner Javier Bardem (“No Country for Old Men,” “Skyfall”).

SOURCE: WARNER BROS

Posted on in Television News

‘RoboCop’ Co-Creator Ed Neumeier Developing Prequel Series Focused On OCP and Dick Jones For MGM

While the RoboCop direct sequel RoboCop Returns has been in some state of limbo since director Neill Blomkamp left the MGM film, it looks like co-creator Ed Neumeier is looking to get the ball rolling on an untitled prequel series set in that world. 

During an interview with Moviehole, Ed has revealed he is currently working with writers Dave Parkin and Rob Gibbs to develop a new series that will explore the origins of OCP the corporation that created RoboCop and the original film’s villain Dick Jones. 

NEUMEIER: “I’m working at MGM on it. It has all the cool stuff about RoboCop except no RoboCop. I’m working with these two writers, Dave Parkin and Rob Gibbs, who bought this idea to a TV producer friend of mine, who then brought it to me. The first time I heard it I knew it was a cool idea because I could see a lot of things you could do with it. It’s such an interesting character.”

“There’s the idea of doing things about business and law enforcement in the city of Detroit a minute-and-a-half in the future, it would be a way to do all sorts of stories about business and tech, Silicon Valley, corporations, snakes in suits, cops, all that. It’s a wonderful rich tapestry.”

“So we’ve been talking about it and I think we have an interesting story. It’s fun to work with a younger version of the Dick Jones we meet in RoboCop. He’s an actualized corporate predator [in the movie] but nobody necessarily starts out being the bad guy. So it’s going to be about the evolution of Richard Jones to Dick Jones, the story of OCP, and how the world moves into the future, how the corporate world behaves.”

However, as Ed points out MGM hasn’t officially signed off the project. 

NEUMEIER: “With any luck, if MGM is willing, if we can find the partners, if we can get this pilot made, if we can convince a bunch of people – it’s amazing how many people you have to convince – if that all works out maybe we’ll get a TV show up.”

At one point, Ed had teased a desire and development on a Starship Troopers sequel series with the original cast members, but there hasn’t been much in the way of updates on that recently. 

After MGM announced that Australian director Abe Forsythe (Little Monsters) would be replacing Neill Blomkamp on RoboCop Returns we haven’t really got much in the way of any updates on the movie.

SOURCE: MOVIEHOLE