‘Prey’ director Dan Trachtenberg has shot both follow-up ‘Badlands’ and a new secret movie.
The other movie is likely to arrive via streaming.
20th Century boss Steve Asbell offered other updates in a new interview.
Ever since ‘10 Cloverfield Lane’ director Dan Trachtenberg brought the ‘Predator’ franchise roaring back to life with 2022’s ‘Prey’ (a prequel to the franchise entries that landed on Hulu to huge viewing figures), we’ve been waiting for more news about his follow-up.
Then, back in June this year, word arrived that Elle Fanning was in talks for the next movie to come from Trachtenberg, ‘Predator: Badlands.’ It’s a stand-alone that features no connective tissue to ‘Prey’ other than the appearance of at least one of the movies’ trademark toothy hunters.
According to Asbell, there will indeed be two ‘Predator’ movies headed our way next year.
One is ‘Badlands,’ which wrapped recently in New Zealand and, yes, features Fanning. The other? That’s more of a mystery for now.
This is what Asbell said:
“After ‘Prey’ became a success, Dan came back and said he didn’t want to do ‘Prey 2.’ And we’re like, ‘What do you want to do?’ And he rattled off a bunch of ideas that were really crazy but really cool. We’ve actually done two of them.”
He had no other real details on the second film, other than to say Trachtenberg directed it before heading out to make ‘Badlands’ and that it probably won’t be released theatrically, which is the destination for ‘Badlands.’
Little has been released about the plot for ‘Badlands,’ and indeed Asbell offers not much by way of detail, other than to say:
“It is an absolutely bonkers idea. It is a sci-fi thing, but it’s not what everybody thinks it is. And I mean, it’s awesome. It is so nuts. But in Dan, we trust.”
One of the other big 20th Century sci-fi franchises, ‘Alien,’ also saw love this year.
‘Alien: Romulus,’ directed by Fede Alvarez, was a success at the box office, and a sequel is in the works.
This is what Asbell had to say about the future of the franchise:
“We’re working on a sequel idea now. We haven’t quite closed our deal with Fede, but we are going to, and he has an idea that we’re working on. The two survivors, Rain and Andy, played by Cailee Spaeny and David Jonsson, were real highlights of the film. And so I always think of it like, ‘Wow, where do people want to see them go next?’ We know there’s going to be aliens. We know there’s going to be great horror set pieces. But I fell in love with both of them and I want to see what their story is.”
That would also make people think about the times that the ‘Alien’ and ‘Predator’ franchises have crossed over –– but according to Asbell, while he and his team are thinking about it, don’t expect them to rush into the idea:
“It wouldn’t be in the way you think. That’s the thing. Not in the way that it will just be called ‘Alien vs. Predator’ or anything like the original movies. If we do this, they’ll be organically created out of these two franchises that we’ve continued with characters that we fall in love with, and those characters will combine… perhaps. But we haven’t gotten to that point.”
The ‘Alien’ franchise has gotten especially convoluted in the 21st century, with spinoffs (‘Alien vs. Predator’), origin stories (‘Prometheus’) and sequels to prequels (‘Alien: Covenant’) clogging up the trajectory of what started out as something simple and elegant: a haunted house movie set in space. ‘Alien: Romulus,’ directed by Fede Álvarez, works hard to bring the brand back to the basics. And in many ways, Álvarez succeeds: working off a script he co-wrote with Rodo Sayagues, Álvarez has created a mostly tense, atmospheric, and to-the-point monster movie that – much like the first ‘Alien’ – has a terrific central character at its core.
But Álvarez also makes the mistake of leaning too heavily on nostalgia, with ‘Alien: Romulus’ – particularly in its second half – playing like the franchise equivalent of a greatest hits package and showing a decided lack of imagination in its callbacks to not just the first ‘Alien,’ but ‘Aliens,’ ‘Alien: Resurrection,’ and even the controversial ‘Prometheus.’ And one creative choice in particular is not only incredibly distracting and jarring, but bordering on unethical – and also a spoiler.
Story and Direction
Director Fede Álvarez at the San Diego Comic-Con 2024 ‘Alien: Romulus’ panel. Photo: Disney.
‘Alien: Romulus,’ we find out fairly early on, is set around 20 years after the events of the first ‘Alien.’ It opens on a mining colony on a brutal, storm-tossed world where it’s hard enough for humans to survive, let alone work. Rain Carradine (Cailee Spaeny) works for, of course, the ever-present Weyland-Yutani Corporation, and gets the bad news that her contract – more like indentured servitude – has been extended another six years without her knowledge.
Devastated by the news that she cannot get herself and her child-like (because he’s been damaged in the past) android “brother” Andy (David Jonsson) off the planet, Rain joins a group of four other young co-workers who have detected an abandoned space station drifting above the planet. Their plan: fly their own ship up to the derelict, break in and load its cryosleep pods into their vessel, and fly off to the distant planet Yvaga, where life is presumably more pleasant and one can actually see a sunrise instead of round-the-clock darkness.
We’ve already glimpsed that space station in a brief prologue, and it’s no spoiler to tell you that our young friends find out the hard way that while there is no crew in sight, the spacecraft is definitely inhabited. The initial buildup of the story is brief, with the six colonists getting up to the station in relatively short order. The exploration of its darkened, abandoned corridors is one of the highlights of the film and most reminiscent in spirit of both the original ‘Alien’ and the space Marines’ foray into the deserted colony on LV-426 in ‘Aliens’ (although why no one else seems to know this rather large space station is floating above the colony is a mystery that the film never answers).
The pace continues to pick up as our friends make their first contact with Xenomorphs (come on, it’s right in the trailer) in their facehugger form, ending in a bad way for one of their number. There are other revelations to come as well, including how a Xenomorph first got on the station, what the station’s purpose was, and how the seemingly innocent Andy undergoes an upgrade that suddenly has Rain wondering if her adopted mechanical sibling can be trusted even to save her life.
A lot of exposition comes courtesy of a plot device we won’t discuss in detail here, but is the one that audiences – ‘Alien’ fans in particular, but also people with a conscience in general – may find difficult to reckon with. Yes, that’s the one we mention above that’s distracting and frankly ghoulish; we can only hope the right people got paid well for it, but even then it may set a terrible precedent. That in turn opens the floodgates for a series of callbacks to various other ‘Alien’ movies as Rain, Andy, and their dwindling band try to escape the growing infestation of Xenomorphs and the station itself, which in time-honored ‘Alien’ tradition is on a path to destruction in less than the two hours it takes to watch ‘Alien: Romulus.’
Some of the homages are subtle and kind of neat, like a reference to the events of ‘Prometheus’ that works in context. Others, however, approach ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ levels of inanity and over-slavish fan service, while another climactic reveal channels the last plot turn you’d expect from one of the less popular entries in the series.
In fairness, Álvarez – who has covered this kind of territory before with his underrated 2013 ‘Evil Dead’ remake – keeps the action moving, the shocks visceral, and the atmosphere grimy and bleak, aided by Galo Olivares’ excellent cinematography and Benjamin Wallfisch’s score. Both effortlessly channel the vibe and tone of the early ‘Alien’ movies. In many respects, this is the most intense and effective film in the series since the first two, which makes the decision to lean hard into blatant nostalgia bait down the stretch all the more irritating.
Following her recent sterling work in ‘Priscilla’ and ‘Civil War,’ Cailee Spaeny is a bit flat here as Rain. Like the rest of the cast, she seems a bit too young to have been laboring for years already under Weyland-Yutani, although the future’s child labor laws may have started her in the field at a young age. She’s clearly meant to continue the time-honored ‘Alien’ tradition started by Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley, but her character isn’t given enough development early on and her line readings tend to veer toward monotone. Spaeny does handle her eventual (and expected) transformation into action-oriented warrior well, and she’s still an engaging screen presence.
Even though Spaeny is top-billed, the movie belongs to David Jonsson as Andy. It’s also been a feature of the ‘Alien’ films that its synthetic characters are among its best, and Andy follows in the tradition laid down by Ash, Bishop, and David. But he’s also his own unique creation: found “in the trash” by Rain’s late father and adopted as a sort of little brother with intellectual disabilities that she must take care of, Andy undergoes the best, most fully realized (and arguably only) character arc in the film, an arc that creates its own narrative tension and makes for the most compelling parts of the story. Jonsson is spectacular throughout, handling Andy’s transformation with nuance, mystery, and a mix of empathy and unease. It’s also interesting to see more of the ‘Alien’ universe here, in terms of how synthetics are perceived and treated, which opens up all kinds of possibilities should the series continue.
As for the rest of the small cast, they also unfortunately follow a time-honored ‘Alien’ tradition of simply being Xenomorph fodder. But while previous installments were often peppered with seasoned character actors who could make something out of nothing (Harry Dean Stanton, Jenette Goldstein, and many others say hello), this crew is largely forgettable, as hard as they try and as fully as they commit.
On the other hand, special props should go to the actors and operators behind the practical and animatronic Xenomorph manifestations – it’s refreshing to see Álvarez return to physical creations on set, which also keeps ‘Romulus’ in line with the franchise’s initial, classic entries.
As we said earlier, as so many legacy sequels and franchises are prone to do, Álvarez’s film feels the need to rely on obvious and even silly callbacks in the name of fan service. Like so many filmmakers nowadays, he seems to worry that the fan base may not be perceptive enough to handle new ideas without reassuring them that he’s not straying too far. This, along with that one unsettling element we mentioned earlier, hurts ‘Alien: Romulus,’ but not fatally.
Yet there is a lot to like in the movie too; in a series that’s yielded far more disappointments and squandered opportunities than not, it’s nice to see an entry fashioned by a filmmaker who’s clearly passionate about this mythology and legacy. ‘Alien: Romulus’ is an often exciting, suspenseful, and gruesome crowd-pleaser that fits well into the existing canon and works hard – almost too hard – to recreate the experience of watching the saga’s best films.
‘Alien: Romulus’ receives 6.5 out of 10 stars.
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What is the plot of ‘Alien: Romulus’?
A group of young space colonists hatch a plan to salvage technology from an abandoned space station and inadvertently come face to face with an incredibly dangerous life form that threatens all their lives.
Kiefer Sutherland as Jack Bauer in ’24’. Photo: 20th Century Fox Television.
Preview:
A ‘24’ is in the works.
The movie adapts the action thriller series.
Star Kiefer Sutherland has yet to be confirmed as returning.
It’s been a few years since we saw Kiefer Sutherland running around and barking orders into a phone on ‘24‘, while a relentless digital clock ticked down and danger lurked off every exit of Los Angeles’ freeways.
Now, though, Brian Grazer –– whose Imagine Entertainment company produced the show –– has told CNBC show ‘Squawk Box’ that he and 20th Century Studios are in the early stages of development on a movie based on the show.
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What’s the story of ‘24’?
The cast of ’24’. Photo: 20th Century Fox Television.
The original series, created by Joel Surnow and Robert Cochran for Fox television, originally ran for nine seasons between 2001 and 2014, and spawned a television film called ‘Redemption’ in 2008.
Sutherland starred as Jack Bauer, an agent from the U.S. government’s fictitious Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU). His usual missions involved running around Los Angeles and beyond thwarting terrorist threats such as a nuclear explosion. Each season depicted 24 hours in real time (though you thankfully didn’t see him go to the toilet).
Bauer was famous for his slightly violent attitude to law enforcement, and he wasn’t above torturing suspects to get the information he needed.
And other characters, such as his daughter Kim (played by Elisha Cuthbert) sometimes found themselves in more ridiculous situations (just say the word “cougar” to any fan and they’ll know what you mean).
What has Kiefer Sutherland previously said about a new take on ‘24’?
Kiefer Sutherland as Jack Bauer in ’24’. Photo: 20th Century Fox Television.
Sutherland has commented in the past that he’d be up to return, though perhaps not as the star this time, especially given the physical toll involved in bringing Bauer to screens.
“Howard [Gordon] and I talk all the time and invariably it comes up. The idea of him being brought back –– I’m just spitballing –– I think that’s an interesting idea. You introduce a new cast of people in their effort to get him out, and it lives on from that point. There’s a lot of ways to go about it. I also think it’s such a great idea to take a 24-hour moment in somebody’s life that is desperate –– and that could be a fireman; that could be so many different circumstances. It boggles my mind that someone hasn’t come along and said, ‘Well, we need to do *this* with it.’ So whether it involves me or not, I just think that to do something in real time is so clever –– difficult, but clever –– that I find it kind of shocking that it hasn’t manifested itself into something else and/or bigger.”
With the movie at such an early stage, even Disney wouldn’t set a release date just yet. And you’d probably need Jack Bauer-level skills to discover their plans.
Kiefer Sutherland as Jack Bauer in ’24’. Photo: 20th Century Fox Television.
Dan Trachtenberg is making a new ‘Predator’ movie.
It won’t be a direct sequel to his hit ‘Prey’.
Patrick Aison is writing the script.
Back in 2022, director Dan Trachtenberg brought the ‘Predator’ franchise roaring back to life with ‘Prey’, a bold, fresh take on the idea of the aliens visiting Earth to hunt.
‘Prey’, though it was originally targeted for a theatrical release, found itself moved to streaming once 20th Century Fox was bought by Disney and the company decided not to let it go to HBO (where there was a deal for Fox releases after their cinematic run).
The result was record viewing figures for streaming service Hulu and a renewed interest in all things ‘Predator’.
Now Trachtenberg is back and has a new movie in the works called ‘Badlands’.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the plot for the new film is being kept hidden for now. We do know that it is not planned as a direct sequel to ‘Prey’, which you might recall was set in 1719 and saw a Comanche woman (Amber Midthunder) dealing with the dismissive attitudes of the men around her, encroaching human threats and, oh yes, a skilled extraterrestrial hunter on the planet for sport.
But given Trachtenberg’s return (and that of writer Patrick Aison, who has crafted the new script from a story he worked on with the director), there’s every chance it could have some link to the 2022 movie.
All that is concrete about the new movie is that it’s set at some point in the future and will once more focus on a female human lead character.
All being well, Trachtenberg is aiming to have the movie shooting in July.
While ‘Badlands’ is the one confirmed project to move from development into pre-production, Trachtenberg is reportedly also overseeing other potential ‘Predator’ concepts that could be handed off to other creative teams. This is Disney, after all, which rarely likes to let a chance for a new (or in this case, renewed) franchise to slip through its fingers.
If ‘Badlands’ is a success, expect plenty more ‘Predator’ projects to switch off their cloak of invisibility and start stalking our screens.
When will ‘Badlands’ be released?
Disney and 20th Century Studios have yet to announce a release date, nor confirm if it’ll be in theaters (but we figure it’s a good bet). With shooting set for this year, a 2025 slot seems likely.
‘The Boogeyman’, in theaters June 2nd, is just the latest adaptation of the work by prolific horror master Stephen King. And to stand out in an incredibly, and increasingly crowded field, the new movie needed to be something special.
Long in development (long enough that it was being worked on when 20th Century Fox was still its own studio, only to be cancelled and revived by the now Disney-owned 20th Century Studios), it’s unfortunate to report that this latest attempt at a scary story is somewhat of a dud, with cheap scares that draw laughter more than screams and some big logic issues.
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What happens in ‘The Boogeyman’?
‘The Boogeyman’ is adapted (by ‘A Quiet Place’s Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, with the most recent work from ‘Black Swan’s Mark Heyman) from King’s short story. Originally published in ‘Cavalier’ magazine in 1973, it was later collected into ‘Night Shift’ in 1978.
Focused on a 1970s take on an alpha male called Lester Billings who has been traumatized by the death of his children at –– according to him –– the hands (or claws) of a terrifying creature, it’s a swift, brutal tale with a twist, one that the movie takes as its basic concept then expands upon.
Chris Messina plays Dr. Will Harper a therapist in mourning for his wife, who recently died in a car accident. He’s raising daughters Sadie (Sophie Thatcher) and Sawyer (Vivien Lyra Blair).
Into Dr. Harper’s office stumbles Lester Billings (David Dastmalchian), who has a horrific story to tell: his children are dead, and while people will think he did it, they were actually slaughtered by a mysterious shadow creature that lurked in the darkness and toyed with him and his family.
Harper calls the authorities, but Billings appears to kill himself in a secluded closet within the Harper house, traumatizing the good doctor and his daughters further.
But that’s only the start of their problems –– both Sadie and Sawyer start seeing strange things, with Sawyer convinced she’s being haunted by the same creature that ruined Billings’ life. But is it all just a projection of their grief? And how does Billings’ widow (Marin Ireland) fit in?
A big plus for the film would seem to be the presence of canny British director Rob Savage, who made a splash in 2020 with his creative, entertaining horror movie ‘Host’ in which a zoom seance held between friends during lockdown goes supernaturally, bloodily and mortally wrong.
Savage followed that up with DASHCAM, the story of a rude, opinionated live-streaming DJ who encounters something awful when she offers a ride in her car to an old woman. Both movies play out entirely on computer (or phone) screens and are chillingly effective uses of that particular horror genre.
Yet given both the budget and the scope to expand beyond that, Savage here falters, let down by a corny script that has more tropes than it does storyline and more archetypes than it does characters.
While Savage brings some level of artistry to it all –– tilting camera shots, effective and evocative use of lighting in some scenes and a genuine sense of unease in one early moment –– it’s not enough to save a story that goes to ridiculous lengths to try and evoke some terror.
Messina and his younger co-stars do what they can to breathe life into their characters (Blair, a veteran of ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ and ‘Yellowjackets’), Thatcher appropriately acting scared when needed, but it’s all a losing cause in a movie that will evoke giggles more than a desire to find covers to hide beneath.
The movie also fails to follow its own internal logic; when Sawyer is introduced as the grieving young girl sleeping with a variety of lights on even before she’s haunted and hunted by the titular creature, it makes absolutely no sense that she’d later be content to sit alone in a darkened room with just the meagre light of a TV screen where she’s playing a PlayStation game to make her feel safe.
Then there are the usual horror movie conventions wheeled out for the 700th time –– the girls screaming and making noise while their father is oblivious in another room, characters noticing creepy black tendrils littering a hallway and stairway but deciding to investigate anyway. And in a scene that could come out of a horror spoof, Sadie is driven by a friend to a particular house she’s investigating, one littered with graffiti calling the occupant a murderer and with a mailbox bent over on its pole by a vandal, only to asked, “is this the house”? Yes, young lady, we’re pretty sure it’s the house .
It all builds to something increasingly silly and chaotic, characters making stupid decisions when a clear threat is lurking, and the creature itself switching tactics midway through with no discernible reason. And don’t get us started on the therapist who decides that the best way to cure a traumatized child with issues to do with the dark is immediately to plunge them into a darkened room. The movie makes far too many silly choices such as this to be credible.
Final Thoughts
There are plenty of great Stephen King adaptations out there, on screens big and small. ‘The Boogeyman’ is, sorry to report, not among them. This is one nightmare that’s more likely to be lurking in the bargain bin than on anyone’s must re-watch list.
Even as it continues its habit of shifting some movies (such as the upcoming ‘Peter Pan & Wendy’) to Disney+ as a lure for subscribers, Disney is still seeing big box office for its major releases (if a little lower for, say, recent Marvel and Pixar movies).
So, the company –– which of course boasts those two big franchises plus Lucasfilm, 20th Century Studios, Searchlight under its giant banner –– is expectedly touting the huge success of ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ and pointing to all the films it has headed our way this year.
Tony Chambers, the company’s head of theatrical distribution led the presentation, highlighting the fact that this year marks the first time since 2019 that they are releasing movies from all seven labels.
The show kicked off with a new clip from a certain incoming Marvel release…
‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’
Marvel Studio’s ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3.’ Photo courtesy of Marvel.com.
And the mention of ‘Guardians’ was understandably small given that the movie will be in theaters next week (May 5th, to be exact), with just a new clip shown to the audience at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas. The footage features Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) and the different version of Gamora (Zoe Saldana) we met in ‘Avengers: Endgame’ on a planet in space suits. “I know you don’t remember any of it. You were everything to me, I miss you so much.,” he tells her, pouring out his heart. The funny kicks in with the rest of the gang –– Drax (Dave Bautista), Nebula (Karen Gillan) and Mantis (Pom Klementieff) –– revealed to be listening to Peter’s expression of love.
The focus on Marvel continued with the recently released trailer for ‘The Marvels’, though that of course had already been seen. Expect more from that one and other MCU titles when Comic-Con rolls around this summer.
Following that, it was on to Disney’s main animated arm…
Disney Feature Animation has the original fantasy film ‘Wish‘ headed our way later this year. Though the movie was originally announced at last year’s D23, Disney has been drip-feeding information ever since, and CinemaCon is no exception.
The movie, which is also a musical comedy, introduces Asha (Ariana DeBose), a sharp-witted idealist who makes a wish so powerful that it is answered by a cosmic force — a little ball of boundless energy called Star. Together, Asha and Star set out to prove that when the will of one courageous human connects with the magic of the stars, wondrous things can happen. All with the help of Asha’s goat pal Valentino (voiced by current animation lucky charm Alan Tudyk).
A clip was shown, featuring DeBose’s character singing one of her featured tunes, ‘So I Made This Wish’ –– aka the ‘I Want’ song so traditional to Disney princesses with some beautiful sky and scenery around that elicited applause from the crowd.
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And Chambers also announced that Chris Pine is part of the voice cast, playing King Magnifico, the ruler of Rosas, a magical kingdom where wishes really do come true.
Said Jennifer Lee, DWA boss and co-writer of the movie about Pine in a press release from the studio,
“As the most powerful person in the kingdom, King Magnifico needed to be played by someone who could give all the charm, cleverness and charisma to this magnanimous character, and Chris is beautifully bringing all of that and then some.”
‘Wish’, directed by Chris Buck and Fawn Veerasunthorn, will be in theaters on November 22nd, filling the traditional Disney Thanksgiving slot.
Melissa McCarthy arrived on stage to talk up Rob Marshall’s live action/CG re-imagining of the fairy tale so famously brought to animated life by Disney in 1989. While Halle Bailey plays the titular Ariel, McCarthy is scheming sea witch Ursula.
Here’s what McCarthy had to say about her character.
“Did someone say my name… I had something in my throat. It was an honor to play one of Disney’s most delicious and iconic villains. You can’t help but love her. Ursula is everything — she’s dishy, she’s a conniving broad, maybe that’s why I relate to her.”
McCarthy cued up a new clip from the movie, which fittingly featured her character in the sequence where Ursula grants Ariel’s wish to become a human, and Ursula’s song ‘Poor Unfortunate Souls’.
Despite the less-than-stellar results from ‘Lightyear’, Disney continues to see Pixar as a pillar of its schedule, and demonstrated that belief with 20 minutes of impressive, 3D footage from the upcoming ‘Elemental’.
As for the story, it transports us to Element City, where a host of elements live and work. The trailer showcases each element — air, earth, water and fire — and what sets them apart according to Ember Lumen (Lewis), a quick-witted and fiery woman who’s always stayed close to home in Firetown. She finally ventures out of her comfort zone to explore and meets go-with-the-flow water guy Wade Ripple (Athie). Elements are not supposed to mix, but Ember and Wade forge a connection – one that could cause problems for them and their families.
‘Elemental’ will close out this year’s Cannes Film Festival before arriving in theaters on June 16th.
The movie follows the American Samoa soccer team, infamous for their brutal 31-0 FIFA loss in 2001. With the World Cup Qualifiers approaching, the team hires down-on-his-luck, maverick coach Thomas Rongen (Michael Fassbender) hoping he will turn the world’s worst soccer team around. The underdog comedy heads to theaters November 17th, and you can watch the trailer below.
Kenneth Branagh’s latest Agatha Christie adaptation sees his Hercule Poirot headed to the floating city, where there are terrifying goings-on.
A first trailer was shown for the movie, which unlike most of the other footage shown today, has gone online.
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This time, a disconsolate Poirot finds himself at a Halloween party in one of the city’s creepier palazzos during a thunderstorm and, as it turns out, a seance. This palazzo is an orphanage, you see, and like all orphanages in ghost stories it’s got a deep, dark secret. A mother searching for a lost child thinks she can make contact through a medium, and over the course of an evening secrets start to unravel.
As was the case with Branagh-Poirot’s last two cases, the cast is stacked: Michelle Yeoh –– or, to give her her full title, Best Actress Oscar-winner and all-round goddess Michelle Yeoh –– will be that medium, Joyce Reynolds, and the cast also includes Jamie Dornan, Tina Fey, Camille Cottin and Jude Hill, who played the nine-year-old lead in Branagh’s ‘Belfast’.
Next was the first look footage and trailer for 20th Century Studios’ ‘The Creator’, the new sci-fi thriller from ‘Godzilla’ director Gareth Edwards.
Retitled from ‘True Love’, the movie finds humans facing off against robots.
In the trailer shown to audiences, John David Washington is reflecting on heaven with his wife and daughter. The daughter is an android, with a half-head. Gorgeous battle scenes akin to Edwards’ ‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story‘ see spaceship fighters attacking tropical locales. It looks astonishing and will hopefully arrive online before too long.
‘The Creator’ will land in theaters on September 29th.
Chambers closed out the presentation by introducing a video greeting from Indy himself –– AKA Harrison Ford, who praised the latest movie and cued up an action-packed clip.
The sneak peek showed Indiana Jones and his goddaughter Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) bickering with each other as they dodge gunfire and slow-moving camels in a bazaar in Tangier. As an army of mooks chases them, they chase after the Nazi Jurgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen), who has the Dial in his possession. But Helena and Indy don’t seem to be on the same page when it comes to the dial. Helena is engaged to an unscrupulous man who wants the dial to make a fortune, and she has her own reasons for wanting to make the sale. Indy wants the dial because, presumably, it belongs in a museum.
And while Helena has the most death-defying moment in the scene as she jumps onto Jurgen’s car, Indy isn’t taking it easy as he drives a small cart through narrow streets and reaches out to grab the dial without getting shot by Jurgen’s right-hand man, Klaber, played by Boyd Holbrook.
The clip got a rousing reaction from theater owners, and ‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny‘ is headed to Cannes before landing in theaters on June 30th.
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And that was it for the main presentation, though the company had one final treat up its sleeve –– a screening of new Stephen King adaptation ‘The Boogeyman’. That one will be scaring audiences in theaters from June 2nd.
Arriving in theaters on December 16th, ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ represents James Cameron attempting the same high wire trick he pulled with the 2009 original, with the added pressure of 13 years between releases.
But as the old maxim in Hollywood goes, it’s best not to bet against Jim Cameron! This is a man who was told that his film about a troubled, true-life ship would sink without trace. That he couldn’t come up with a solid sequel to a movie about a killer cyborg. And, most tellingly, that no one could turn 3D from a gimmick to a worthwhile format, especially not with a movie about some blue creatures whose storyline seemed to be an expensive, live-action remake of ‘FernGully: The Last Rainforest’.
It’s safe to say that, while the original may not have left the same lasting cultural crater as it did on the box office (it took until ‘Avengers: Endgame‘ to truly dethrone it, and a recent re-release has seen Cameron claim the crown back again), ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ looks set to go over just as well.
The story picks up more than a decade after the events of the original film (for those who somehow find themselves in a theater watching the new movie without having seen that, there is a helpful exposition dump from Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) himself.
Jake, see, was a paraplegic human brought to the moon of Pandora to replace his late brother, a marine who was part a mission to subdue the local populace, known as Na’vi, so humanity could continue strip-mining the place. Your basic colonialist narrative with the added wrinkle of “Avatars”, lab-grown versions of the Na’vi to which a human consciousness can be connected – one of which had been earmarked for Jake’s sibling.
Instead, Jake encountered the Na’Vi, met warrior Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) fell in love and fought back against the human forces, led on the military front by Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), a burly, blustering marine who sees it has his job to take down the Na’vi.
‘The Way of Water’ fills in some of the gaps between movies––Jake and Neytiri have a family, including three kids of their own (Jamie Flatters as eldest son Neteyam, Britain Dalton as Lo’ak, second-born son and Trinity Jo-Li Bliss as Tuktirey/“Tuk”, their eight-year-old daughter) plus adoptive teenage daughter Kiri, played by Sigourney Weaver. And yes, she has a connection to Weaver’s character Dr. Grace Augustine from the first movie that we won’t specify here.
Sigourney Weaver plays Jake and Neytiri’s adopted teenage Na’vi daughter In ‘Avatar: The Way of Water.’ Photo courtesy of Empire Magazine.
Though the family and their tribe have lived peacefully in the intervening years, humanity––and Quaritch, who was killed by Neytiri at the end of the first movie––are back to finish the job. Soon, Jake and his brood are running for their lives, ending up with the Metkayina clan (led by Cliff Curtis’ Tonowari and Kate Winslet’s Ronal), who live and thrive around and in Pandora’s voluminous oceans.
As for the film itself, it shares both the many strengths and some crucial weaknesses of the original.
On the positive side of things, this shoves the “spectacle” right back into “spectacular”––Cameron and his technological and creative team have pushed the boundaries of what’s possible once again, realizing truly dazzling visuals that will absolutely be held up as groundbreaking and state of the art.
Cameron has plenty of experience of his own in the water, and he brings all of it to making the oceanic scenes look as real as possible. It’s clear that team ‘Avatar’ didn’t spend all this time sitting on their laurels––mammoth amounts of research and development have gone into making the Na’vi look even more lifelike this time (and figuring out clever ways the Metkayina would differ from Jake and Neytiri’s tribe, such as their more powerful tails, which aid in swimming).
The world around them is brimming with fresh creatures, which are just as incredible as the forest-dwellers from the first run-around. And when the humans arrive to cause problems, they do so in machinery that looks chunky, real-world and immaculately designed.
3D hasn’t really been much of a thing these past few years, but ‘The Way of Water’ uses it in such a way as to draw you right back in. And while the high frame rate still has some issues at moments, this is lightyears ahead of the likes of ‘The Hobbit’.
Yet we did mention the weaknesses, and this first sequel (Cameron currently plans three more) carries them over too. Primarily it’s in the storyline, and despite the director assembling a writers room to help crank out an overarching story and four distinct outings, the characters and plot remain lacking.
With a script for this one credited to Cameron, Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver (who were part of the ‘Avatar’ sequel creative quorum and also wrote on the likes of ‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’), you might have hoped for more polish. Instead what we’re offered are a second helping of basic tropes, easily foreseeable plot turns and embarrassingly base-level initial squabbling between the kids from the tribes before they learn to put aside their differences.
‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ opens in theaters on December 16th. Photo courtesy of the movie’s Twitter account.
Lang, though he immerses himself in the role despite being big and blue this time, is still saddled with cheesy dialogue and first-draft motivations.
And while the likes of Weaver and the rest of the Sully-Neytiri clan are the focus here, spare a thought for poor Saldana who, aside from some heroic third-act moments, is mostly called upon to worry.
And while the visuals are near-flawless, you could be forgiven, at times when humans are sharing the screen with Na’vi, for thinking that you’re watching the movie that plays before a theme park ride. Then there’s several character and action moments that feel like the director making a greatest hits album––the chatty marines and sturdy tech of ‘Aliens’, the parental worries of ‘Terminator 2’ and the watery finale of ‘Titanic’ all sharing space here.
Those quibbles aside, if you give yourself over to the action, the lavish (virtual) locales and the rush of emotions that Cameron is looking to generate, and is mostly successful in doing so, ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ will give you reason to celebrate returning to Pandora.
‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ receives 4 out of 5 stars.
‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ opens in theaters on December 16th. Photo courtesy of the movie’s Twitter account.
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Set in the 1930’s, the new movie stars Bale as Burt Berendsen, a doctor with a prosthetic eye, who along with his friends Harold Woodsman (John David Washington), a lawyer, and Valerie Voze (Margot Robbie), a nurse, become the prime suspects in the murder of US Senator Bill Meekins (Ed Begley Jr.).
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Christian Bale about his work on ‘Amsterdam,’ why he likes collaborating with filmmaker David O. Russell, how he creates a character, and what ‘Amsterdam’ means to him.
(L to R) Christian Bale and his wife, Sibi Blažić at the Los Angeles premiere of director David O. Russell’s ‘Amsterdam.’
You can read the full interview below or click on the player above to watch a video of our interview with Christian Bale about ‘Amsterdam.’
Moviefone: To begin with, this is your third film with director David O. Russell, what is it about working with David that brings out the best in your performances?
Christian Bale: He’s a real circular thinker and I love the way that he does think. He doesn’t forget a thing. He’s very passionate about what he does. We just have a good dynamic. I think it’s a good yin and yang. We complement each other. On this one we decided to get much more involved than any other previous project. We started putting this together, it was five, six years ago, and just building it right from nothing. I just enjoy working with him so much, and it’s always fun.
You never know exactly what’s going to happen on the day. I wouldn’t call it improvisation so much, as he just likes you to know the character so much that he can chuck out different ideas. Sometimes I’d riff, but most of the time he’s chucking out lines or kicking me in the leg or something. It’s just something that creates a very lively, colorful, beautiful but unpolished look at humanity. He loves people. He loves people and characters and so do I, so telling stories with him is just a joy.
(L-R): Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, and John David Washington in 20th Century Studios’ ‘Amsterdam.’ Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
MF: Where does the creation of a character begin for you? Is it in the voice? Is it the hair, the facial hair, the accent? What is it?
CB: I don’t know what I do. I don’t have any particular way of doing it. I make it up each time with every job. I begin each job going, “Oh my God, someone hired me again.” I don’t even know what I’m doing. I never really trained, so I don’t really have a particular technique. People often say, “Oh, Bale, he’s a method actor.” I’m not a method actor. I would’ve had to train to do that. I just do whatever is necessary for each and every day.
But gradually all the bits and pieces come together. I don’t have a particular order. But, of course you’ve got the history, the mannerisms, the voice, the body language and the walk, and when you prep something as much as David and I did on this, that was what was great. David would suggest storylines and then ask me, “What do you think Burt would do with that?” I knew it well enough by that point that I’d be able to help him out. It really gives you a nice sense of freedom, of total ownership when you’re making the film.
(L-R): Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, and John David Washington in 20th Century Studios’ ‘Amsterdam.’ Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
MF: Finally, in the movie, Amsterdam is a very important place for the characters. Where is your Amsterdam?
CB: Well, I mean, obviously in the film, Amsterdam is the halcyon days for these people, when life is as it is meant to be, and how they dreamed it to be, and what they’re striving for life to become like. For me it’s any moment when you’re totally dedicated to what you’re doing.
That’s when you’re so absorbed in what you’re doing that you can’t think of anything else. I get that kick out of acting. When I was allowed to before accidents, I used to get that out of motorcycles and racing them and stuff. I get that kick out of my family as well.
Christian Bale stars in director David O. Russell’s ‘Amsterdam.’
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It’s no surprise that Disney would view the ‘Apes’ films as an important asset in its stable – originally adapted from Pierre Boulle’s novel, the 1968 original film featured Charlton Heston as astronaut George Taylor, who crash lands on a mysterious planet where intelligent apes rule and savage humans are their slaves.
That movie ends with one of the biggest and most famous twists in science fiction history (spoiler alert for those who have not watched it and somehow don’t know): the planet is Earth in the far future, where mankind has ruined civilization and apes have risen to dominate.
‘Planet of the Apes’ was a big hit, spawning a franchise of several follow-up films and a TV series.
1968’s ‘Planet of the Apes.’
In 2011, Fox started charting how humans fell with ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ directed by Rupert Wyatt, which switched the origin for mankind’s problems to a virus spreading across the globe. Andy Serkis donned performance capture gear to play main ape Caesar.
‘The Maze Runner’ director Wes Ball landed the job of handling the next film in the series, and since jumping aboard in 2019, he’s been writing the script and figuring out how to follow in Matt Reeves’ footsteps, working with VFX experts to design the various ape characters and more.
Screenplay-wise, Ball has ‘War of the Worlds’ Josh Friedman (who more recently worked on a little movie called ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’), ‘Prey’s Patrick Aison and Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver (the writers behind ‘Rise’ and ‘Dawn’ from the most recent trilogy) on hand. The story this time turns the clock forward to years after the time of Andy Serkis’ Caesar.
“‘Planet of the Apes’ is one of the most iconic and storied science fiction franchises in film history, as well as being an indelible part of our studio’s legacy,” says 20th Century president Steve Asbell. “With ‘Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes’ we are privileged to continue the series’ tradition of imaginative, thought-provoking cinema, and can’t wait to share Wes’ extraordinary vision for this new chapter with audiences in 2024.”
So… yes. The ‘Apes’ world will be back in a couple of years.
Andy Serkis as Caesar in 2011’s ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes.’
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D23 Expo 2022 achieved peak genre fan love today with the Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, and 20th Century Studios presentation in the jam-packed Anaheim Convention Center.
You can watch Moviefone’s exclusive backstage interviews with talent by clicking on the video player above.
Disney chairman Alan Bergman took the stage of the center’s Arena to welcome fans and introduce tons of upcoming offerings from the House of Mouse’s most successful studios.
Lucasfilm got things started with a first look at what the ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Indiana Jones’ are up to. Lucasfilm president Kathy Kennedy presented a new look at ‘Andor.’ Debuting in just 11 days on Disney+, it begins five years prior to the events of ‘Rogue One.’
Courtesy of Lucasfilm.
Stars Genevieve O’Reilly (Mon Mothma) and Diego Luna (Cassian Andor) described it as the tale of “a revolutionary [learning] there’s a purpose. That there’s something to fight for.”
The two were joined by co-star Adria Arjona, whose character Bix Caleen has feelings for Andor. “She cares deeply for him,” said the actress, “sometimes to her own detriment. It’s complicated.”
The film’s final trailer was tenser and grittier than most ‘Star Wars’ we’ve seen before, with nary a cute sidekick in sight. The first three episodes debut on September, 21st.
Next up was a detour from ‘Star Wars’ with another Disney+ spinoff series – the return of ‘Willow.’ The 1987 film’s stars Warwick Davis and Joanne Whalley appeared – “At last we have some scenes together,” laughed Davis – alongside new co-star Christian Slater and presented a new trailer. It featured the returning Brownies, knights, sword fights, and a far greater number of female warriors than the original movie.
Courtesy of Lucasfilm.
There was lots more ‘Star Wars’ presented to fans when writer-producer-Force guru Dave Filoni appeared in his trademark cowboy hat and announced the first two episodes of the 16-episode second season of the animated ‘Bad Batch’ will drop on January 4th.
Filoni also offered a peek at a six-episode series of animated shorts called ‘Tales of the Jedi,’ half of which will star fan-fave Jedi Ahsoka Andu, with the other three featuring Count Dooku. All episodes drop on October 26th, and the trailer promises appearances by Anakin Skywalker, Mace Windu, Yoda, Bail Organa, and Darth Maul.
Filoni’s co-producer on ‘The Mandalorian,’ Jon Favreau, arrived from the midst of shooting the ‘Ahsoka’ live-action series starring Rosario Dawson. And ‘Spider-Man‘ director Jon Watts and actor Jude Law showed up to rep ‘Skeleton Crew.’ A live-action show about a group of kids who get lost in the ‘Star Wars’ galaxy, it’s a new story set, like Ahsoka, in the New Republic era.
Then it was turn for the cast of the third season of ‘The Mandalorian’ to take the spotlight: including Katee Sackhoff, Amy Sedaris, Giancarlo Esposito, and everyone’s favorite Mando, Pedro Pascal. The season’s first teaser revealed a platoon of sky-diving, jetpack firing Mandos, Mando and Grogu in a chase through space, lots more of Swallow’s mysterious Armorer, Sackhoff’s Bo-Katan Kryze taking command, and a regal-looking Carl Weathers.
Fans thrilled to the sight of a horsebound Ford racing though a subway, chases along the tops of trains, motorcycles chasing planes, the welcome John Rhys-Davies back as Sallah, and a very Toht-like Mads Mikkersen as the baddie.
A visibly choked up Ford returned the audience’s gratitude. ”No, thank you, said the veteran actor, “for making these films such an incredible experience. I’m very proud to say that this one is fantastic. And [Phoebe Waller-Bridge] is one of the reasons. Indiana Jones films are about mystery and adventure but they’re also about heart. I’m really happy that we have a really human story to tell as well as a movie that will kick your ass.”
“This is it!” he joked of his return to his most iconic role, “I will not fall down for you again! But thank you so much. Thank you James Mangold for picking up the pieces and making a spectacular film.”
Courtesy of Lucasfilm.
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Not to be outdone by Indy, it was then Marvel Studios turn on stage, with chief Kevin Feige introducing a live musical presentation of “Rogers: The Musical,’ with composer Mark Shaman conducting as a full Broadway cast cavorted on stage.
The most anticipated Marvel release followed – with a new look at November’s ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.’ The scene consisted of Angela Bassett’s Queen Ramonda defending Wakanda’s Vibranium reserve before an international committee, as the Dora Milaje thwart a mercenary attack on a Wakandan research center.
“Chadwick [Boseman] was with us every step of the way,” saidBassett of her late co-star. “He showed us the way.”
“I’m excited for my bro to look down on us and smile,” added Wright.
Courtesy of Marvel Studios.
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Coogler is also responsible for ‘Ironheart,’ the upcoming Disney+ series featuring Riri Willaims, Tony Stark’s genius-inventor successor in the MCU. A first look saw star Dominique Thorne confronting antagonist The Hood, played by ‘Hamilton’ star Anthony Ramos, a practitioner of the dark arts. Expect a unique battle of tech versus magic when the show drops next year.
A first look depicted Scott Lang flying high after the success of his autobiography, the return of his frenemy Jimmy Woo (Randall Park), and his daughter Cassie (now played by Kathryn Newton) opening up a whole world of trouble when she sends a signal to the Quantum realm, drawing the attention of the fearsome Kang, the cybernetic MODOK, new co-star Bill Murray, who plays an an old friend Michelle Pfeiffer’s Janet van Dyne.
“Have I killed you before?” asks Kang upon first meeting Ant-Man.
Courtesy of Marvel Studios.
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Fans won’t have so long to wait for Marvel’s first Halloween “Special Presentation” – ‘Werewolf by Night.’ Stars Gael Garcia Bernal and Laura Donnelly hit the stage alongside director Michael Giacchino, best known as the composer of many beloved Pixar film scores.
Shot in retro-style black and white, debut footage was reminiscent of classic Universal Monster movies – and revealed a quick shot of Marvel Comics’ Man-Thing in his MCU debut.
‘Secret Invasion’ next wowed fans, with star Don Cheadle offering a first look at the upcoming Disney+ series. Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury, Olivia Coleman, and ‘Captain Marvel’ Skrull Ben Medohlson appeared in footage that took the espionage side of the MCU to a new level.
“Sorry, I’m so confused right now,” said Quan, who debuted in 1984’s ‘Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.’ “Is this NOT the ‘Indiana Jones’ panel?”
The footage featured the return of actors Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Wunmi Mosaku, along with the intriguing return of Kang as a sculpture Loki uncovers.
Marvel had more in store for Disney+ subscribers with ‘Echo,’ spinning off the deaf villain of ‘Hawkeye’ into her own series. Stars Alaqua Cox, Graham Greene, and Vincent D’Onofrio debuted footage that saw the return of D’Onofrio’s Kingpin (with a bandaged eye after the events of ‘Hawkeye’).
“To bring Fisk and Maya back together again was a thrill,” said the actor. “We had some crazy scenes.”
Though nothing was revealed of another Kingpin-starring project – ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ – star Charlie Cox presented a look at his blind hero’s appearance in TV’s ‘She-Hulk.’ The scene showed Daredevil flirting with Jennifer Walters during a stakeout, as he described his ability to hear heartbeats.
Courtesy of Marvel Studios.
More Marvel movies arrived with ‘Captain America: New World Order’ stars Anthony Mackie, Shira Haas (as Israeli superhero Sabra), Danny Ramirez, Carl Lumbly, and Tim Blake Nelson – back in the MCU after 14 years as The Leader.
“It’s amazing,” said Mackie of bringing his Cap to the big screen. “I’m nervous. It’s exciting. It’s everything I expected it to be.”
“I had such an amazing time with these beautiful women – inside and out. It was so nice to have a team. I have a team!”
Footage from the July release opened with Monica Rambeau in a space on a mission for Fury, before being suddenly body swapped with Ms. Marvel.
Courtesy of Marvel Studios.
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Last but not least… The panel concluded with a treat from 20th Century Studios, with director James Cameron dialing in from New Zealand, where he’s finishing the first of several ‘Avatar’ sequels, ‘The Way of Water,’
“Right now it’s pretty hectic around here. We’re finishing up a five-year production cycle. This has been a bit of an odyssey. Shooting and capturing for movie 2, movie 3, and the first part of movie 4. We’re finishing up movie 2.”
Several scenes of 3D were presented of the films’ new Na’vi warriors, with underwater footage drawing gasps from the audience.
“The whole movie deals with the protection of family and protection of familial love,” said Sam Worthington.
