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Tag: bad-moms

Another ‘Bad Moms’ Sequel, ‘Bad Moms’ Moms,’ Is in the Works

STX Films

STX Films is staying in the “Bad Moms” business, expanding the franchise with a third film that focuses on the grandmother characters introduced in 2017’s “A Bad Moms Christmas.”

The company announced the news at CinemaCon in Las Vegas on Tuesday, revealing that the film, “Bad Moms’ Moms,” would feature Christine Baranski, Susan Sarandon, and Cheryl Hines, who will reprise their roles from the last film. The series was launched with the first “Bad Moms” in 2016, starring Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell, Kathryn Hahn, as the titular offbeat parents.

It’s unclear if Kunis, Bell, and Hahn will also be reprising their roles, but Variety reports that STX Films chief Adam Fogelson told the CinemaCon crowd that the film was “A whole new adventure that is attracting all sorts of great talent.” According to TheWrap, Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, the writer-directors of the first two films, will be back for “Bad Moms’ Moms.”

The “Bad Moms” films have been a huge moneymaker for STX, with the first flick raking in $183 million on a $22 million budget. “A Bad Moms Christmas” made about $130 million, on a budget of less than $30 million.

STX had previously announced plans to make a father-focused spinoff called “Bad Dads,” but appears to have since abandoned that plan — and that’s probably for the best. After all, when you have talent like Baranski, Sarandon, and Hines waiting in the wings, why mess with success?

No word yet on a production schedule or potential release date.

[via: Variety, TheWrap]

April 2, 2019
We Spent One Crazy Night With Kristen Bell on the Set of ‘Bad Moms Christmas’

Christmastime is always one of the most stressful times of year. There are the presents, trying to wrap up work so you can actually spend some quality time with the people you love, cooking, and never feeling like anything you’re doing is actually good enough.

But there’s nobody who feels that pressure quite like a mother. They are, after all, the people who everybody turns to; they’re the ones doing most of the cooking and cleaning and shopping and prepping. They are the heroes of the holidays (and pretty much every other day too). And where better to investigate this phenomenon than in “A Bad Moms Christmas,” the sequel to last year’s surprise hit, “Bad Moms“?

What’s more, I got to travel to Atlanta to the set of “A Bad Moms Christmas.” And it was good.

If you haven’t seen the trailers for the film yet, this year’s entry in what we can all assume will be a long and profitable franchise, follows original moms Amy (Mila Kunis), Kiki (Kristen Bell), and Carla (Kathryn Hahn) as they prepare for the holidays. Adding in even more stress and befuddlement is the fact that their moms are along for the ride this time, too — Christine Baranski is Amy’s mom, Cheryl Hines is Kiki’s mom, and Susan Sarandon is Carla’s mom. If you wanted more moms in the follow-up, you will not be disappointed.

When we visited the movie’s filming location in early May, the elder moms were not present, but they were on everyone’s mind. It was a ritzy shopping center in Atlanta, Georgia, and from the looks of it, the moms had already reached their breaking point and were starting to go wild. (If you saw that shot of them in the trailer, downing trial-size shots, that’s what we were watching. It was the middle of the night and the mall was closed, which gave it an eerie, “Are You Afraid of the Dark?”-type vibe.)

At one point, we stopped and had a Skype chat with producer Suzanne Todd, who confirmed that early reports that the sequel would instead follow bad dads, was something cooked up by the studio and not part of the filmmakers’ plan.

“We wanted to give people a little bit of what they liked from the first movie, but we had a lot of conversations about comedy sequels — where they do the same thing again — and it’s, ultimately, not very satisfying,” Todd said. “So, we have a few new elements to this. There’s this idea of Christmas, and the idea of the three girls, and their relationship with their mother.”

This was something that was stressed time and time again during our set visit — that this was not some lame comedy sequel, full of recycled jokes and threadbare scenarios. Later in the night (or was it morning at this point?), co-director Jon Lucas said they were very conscious of not falling into “making the same movie again.”

One thing that Todd wanted to maintain, though, was its progressiveness. While the first movie might not seem like a grand trailblazer, it was unafraid in showing the many dimensions to motherhood, with some of them unflattering or downright ugly. It was a fully formed, deeply realized portrayal and the overwhelming response to the movie was proof that it struck a chord with audiences.

“I think that like the first movie the idea [with the sequel] is to tear down some of these personal and societal and cultural norms of both torturing ourselves about not being good enough,” Todd explained.

And what of the new moms on the scene?

“We talked a lot with the actresses who they thought their mom would be,” Todd said. “Amy’s mom is very overbearing and Kiki’s mom has no boundaries; Carla’s mom is the explanation for why Carla is the way she is. The nice thing for us is that we had so many great actresses who wanted to be involved in the project. It was actually really, really fun. They’re also slightly different ages — Cheryl is closer to Kristen Bell’s age and the other are a slightly different spread. They were grandmas from a different decade.”

During a break in filming the original moms — Kunis, Bell, and Hahn — took a few minutes to talk to us about their experience on the movie. They were in a small, disused storefront, which was packed with lighting equipment and make-up and camera stuff. It was surreal that a space that could have been a Spencer’s Gifts was now a critical junction for a major motion picture production.

Echoing Todd’s statements, Kunis said that the sequel is taking the complexity of the characters into consideration: “I think that embracing that characters are flawed and allowing the women to not be the perfect, stay-at-home mom character is important.” She then added, “I think it’s important to show real life.”

Bell said: “There’s nothing funny about perfection,” and then hastily added that while that phrase is really good she didn’t come up with it.”

The addition of their mothers has added even more to their characters, according to the actresses. “I think it’s made my character more dimensional. You saw the journey we went on the first one where we were taking charge of our lives and we weren’t going to be pegged down,” Bell said. With the addition of the mothers, she said, “You see these characters very much out of their element.” Hahn remarked that, “There’s only one woman who would make Carla feel small and that’s her mother.”

Other differences for the sequel: Bell’s character wears “a little bit more eye make-up in this movie” and the fact that Kunis’ character doesn’t “get action,” if ya know what she means.

When the topic of avoiding comedy sequel fatigue was brought up, Bell was quick to say that the additional mothers sets it apart from the original pretty spectacularly.

“It creates an entirely different layer for each of our characters, with our relationships with each other and the dynamic with each other,” Bell said. Then Kunis added: “The thing that people would have assumed with the sequel is, ‘And then the mothers go to Hawaii,’ or, ‘And then the mothers go to Vegas.’ And it’s not that. I think what makes this one different is that it stays true to the story. It’s not like a shtick, where they go on a different adventure.”

With that the bad moms were pulled out of the former Brookstone or Sees Candies and went back into the mall, to fight and yell and drink heavily. Hey, Christmas will do that to you, even if you’re in Atlanta in the middle of summer.

October 11, 2017
‘A Bad Moms Christmas’ Trailer Is a Raunchy Holiday Extravaganza

Baby, it’s cold outside … but it’s hot in heerrrre for the “Bad Moms.”

Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell, and Kathryn Hahn reunite for “A Bad Moms Christmas,” the holiday-themed sequel to their raunchy hit comedy. Christmas is hard enough on the three moms, but things get a lot worse with the arrival of their own mothers.

Kunis is trying to stand up to her perfectionist mom (Christine Baranski), while Bell’s mama (Cheryl Hines) is way too clingy. And then there’s Hahn’s mother (Susan Sarandon), who’s too busy boozin’ and cruisin’ to realize it’s not Easter.

The trio just want to let loose and have fun for the holiday. “Let’s put the ‘ass’ back in ‘Christm-ass,’” Hahn declares. And she gets that and some more thanks to the studly Justin Hartley, who puts on a very “Magic Mike”-like show for them.

“Bad Moms Christmas” opens in theaters November 3.

September 6, 2017
Kathryn Hahn Pretty Much Loved ‘I Love Dick’ Immediately

I Love Dick” pretty much had her by the title alone.

Of course, the major selling point that lured Hahn to her new, provocatively titled streaming series on Amazon was the fresh opportunity to work again with executive producer Transparent.”

Drawing from Chris Kraus’s bestselling pseudo-memoir/novel of the same name chronicling a married woman’s increasingly obsessive and consuming sexual fixation on a guru-like artist and media theorist (Kevin Bacon) who has offered her philosopher husband (Griffin Dunne) a berth in his organization, “I Love Dick” casts Hahn as Krause — or a version thereof — and gives her some of the most unique and challenging opportunities of her career, while flipping the usual male-gaze oriented narrative in terms of psycho-sexual objectification.

Hahn joined Moviefone for a look at why she felt drawn to the material, how she navigated some of its more risqué elements, and working with an all-too-rare female-led team behind the scenes.

Moviefone: I want to know what made this role a must-do? What was that thing that you immediately grabbed on to and said, “This is going to test me.This is going to push me”?

Kathryn Hahn: All of it! For one, it was because it was Jill Soloway, and I always know whatever world I dove into with her is going to stretch, and challenge, and push me, and it’s going to feel the most satisfying on the drive home for sure, creatively, and intellectually.

I was not familiar with this book before Jill handed it to me as something to consider. There was a couple things that we were thinking about book-wise, and this was one of the titles. Of course I gravitated towards just the title alone! I was very curious.

Then I was just like flabbergasted by the material. I loved Chris Kraus’s voice so much. I just loved how loud, and fearless, and vulnerable, and hilarious, and messy, and complicated, and just relentless she was as a character, and messy. I could not wait to get in there.

How deep into research did you go with this? Did you meet Chris? Did you try to get a little bit more info than what was in the book, or did you just work with what was available on the page?

Sure. I did a little bit, because I knew whatever the series, how it was going to develop, after reading the pilot, the amazing pilot that our producer Sarah Gubbins wrote, I knew that it was going to depart significantly from the source material. But I also knew that I just had brilliant, literal diaries, basically, of this woman’s life.

So “I Love Dick” is kind of what Chris Kraus would consider one of a trilogy. The other two books, there’s a book called “Aliens & Anorexia,” and another one called “Torpor.” So I read all three, which kind of just, in varying ways, describe her relationship with her marriage. That was incredibly helpful. I met with Chris a couple times, and I fell madly in love. She’s just a phenomenal human being. She came to the set, which was incredible, and kind of told us how we were doing, kind of how it really, actually went down, which was very helpful.

It was really trippy. There was a flashback scene in which Chris was there that day, I was there playing Chris, and then another young actress was playing my younger self. So to have the three of us together in a photograph was pretty trippy.

Was there one sort of essential turnkey element that helped you unlock it all and get where you needed to go with this role? Was there something that made you truly get it and know what you needed to do to pull it off?

Any one of these ventures is certainly a leap of faith. I’m trying to think what the one turnkey would be, because there’s so many things I had in my head! I think I described it as being like Richard Dreyfuss in “Close Encounters.”

Then, when we met with all the women, it was an all-female writers’ room, which was incredible, and when we met to kind of talk about experience, we talked a lot about, even there’s so many writings of nuns’ kind of deep love devotion to Christ. So, many of those things just felt like whatever that kind of obsession feeling was, I just kind of tried to tap into that — that feeling of having the entire world before this person or thing that you’re obsessed with.

It’s like when you become obsessed, the entire world is seen through that lens — the lens that you want to share it with or for that person. So yeah, kind of just to jump into that feeling.

When you’re playing a role like this that has a considerable sexual element, and you know you’re going to be putting yourself out there, physically, how do you prepare yourself for that aspect of it all?

Besides, like, a wax job? [Laughs] I would say, I think there is something about it, and I was talking about this last night with Kevin Bacon, that the emotional kind of reveal certainly feels scarier, sometimes — in most things — for me.

I don’t know what that means, but there is something about it, especially in this environment, where you know that every eyeball looking at you behind the monitor, or behind the camera, is looking at you with love, and empathy, and not judgment, where you don’t feel, for a second, self-conscious, because you know that everybody in the room is there to support this journey, whether it be nude or not, it’s the same kind of feeling. I just trusted people so profoundly, that it really wasn’t that big of a deal.

Also, I’ve had two children, so it’s like, “Who hasn’t seen it at this point?”

Talk to me a little bit about finding those emotional spaces with Kevin and with Griffin. You’ve got two leading men here that you have some pretty intense work to do with.

You never know, chemistry-wise, how things are going to land. I also think, as an actor, for me, I can do as much homework as I desire, or as I want, but it’s going to change, the alchemy is going to change whenever you meet whoever that person is. You are so much who you’re playing with, I think. I really found Chris through Griffin and through Kevin, for sure. I’m sure they would say the same thing about their characters, and any actor would say that, I’m sure, about their work. You can’t work or act in a vacuum, I don’t think, unless you’re like an ’80s comedy male movie star.

I think, mostly, it’s more fun to find yourself with who you’re acting with. So I didn’t meet Griffin until the day of the first table read, and we immediately just felt like family. He’s a phenomenal bird, just an incredible brain, and so fast, and funny, and vulnerable, and game.

Same with Kevin. I met Kevin, I knew Kevin a little bit more because we had met randomly at a party before, and we kind of went through the Sylvere audition process together, so we got to work together while we were auditioning, trying to find our Sylvere. We walked into that first table read having known each other, having sniffed each other creatively, for quite some time. But still, there was just enough mystery, I think, to make it work.

I think we kind of just subconsciously withheld a lot from each other, because we knew that that bubble was so profound to making this work, that alchemy and that mystery. They’re both phenomenal, phenomenal performers. I learned so much from being in scenes with them, for sure, and they made me feel brave.

Tell me what was pleasurable about this very female-driven production. It’s rare that you get to have that many women involved in telling a woman’s story.

Which is insane to me, you know what I mean? It should all be the people who are telling their own stories, should be the ones that are making the decisions behind about the content of the stories. It’s just insane to me. It’s like, “Oh, it’s so rare for women to be behind a woman’s story.”

I think it’s not as rare, certainly, as it was. It seems like a very galvanizing moment in our cultural history, for sure, and there are so many things I’m dying to see that women are in front and behind, not only making the decisions, but being the creative birds in front, and all of those things.

We had an all-women writers’ room, which was pretty profound. I think it just added, when you know that you are the subject, and not the object, it makes the kind of work that we were being asked to do just that much safer, because you just know that there’s empathy and agency from behind the camera. You just don’t feel that weird handwringing judgement, or just someone that doesn’t quite know, or thinks knows. It just felt that much safer.

They’re all really funny humans, too. All of them are deeply funny, which I was very buoyed by. Even in the reading of the book, I remember thinking, God, this is hilarious. It’s so hilarious because it’s so cringe-worthy. You’re just so embarrassed for this person who has no embarrassment herself. I feel like the women in that writers’ room are very giddy to dig into that.

I was talking to your friend Kristen Bell about the genius of setting the second “Bad Moms” film at Christmas time. Tell me what you responded to when that idea was floated your way.

We’d been all kind of sniffing about a sequel for a while, because we were like, “Come on!” because we were so excited about the success of the first one. Then, when we heard that it was going to be holiday theme, I was so excited. There’s no other time of the year that I feel like a mom would deserve and need to get the hell out of the house. There’s so much!

I remember as a kid tearing open the Christmas presents so fast. We barely opened the presents from Santa, and my mom was already sweating in the kitchen trying to put bacon and eggs on. There’s no moment to savor the magic you’re creating for everybody else. So I’m really excited for the moms to get a chance to go out and have some mulled wine and enjoy a night out.

“I Love Dick” streams on Amazon May 12th.

May 9, 2017
Dax Shepard Encouraged Wife Kristen Bell to ‘Suck Off Josh Duhamel’s Mustache’ in ‘CHiPs’

If you ask Kristen Bell, her Good Place is working alongside her husband.

Her previous collaborations with her actor/writer/director hubby Dax Shepard have included her films “When in Rome” and “Veronica Mars,” his film “Hit & Run,” commercials for various Samsung products and that epic homemade African vacation video set to Toto’s “Africa.” And now, Bell’s got a choice, bitchy role in “CHiPs” (out Friday), Shepard’s latest on-screen and behind-the-lens project, playing the indifferent, almost-single-and-already-mingling soon-to-be ex-wife to his motorcycle officer Jon Baker.

And after a considerably great career year that included the success of solo projects, like her clever new series “The Good Place” and her film “Bad Moms,” Bell reveals that she’d have no qualms if the couple worked side-by-side as often as they’re able for the rest of their careers: for example, he even handpicked the hot, handsome actor she gets to make out with in front of him without batting a jealous eye.

But, as she reveals to Moviefone, “Dateline NBC’s” Keith Morrison could have a shot … if only his wife were more flexible.

Moviefone: I want you to walk me through this. Usually, you’ll get a gig, and you’ve got to say to Dax, “I’m going to be kissing this guy in this movie, this is what the director needs from me.” The situation’s is a little different with this one. Did you get to pick the guy you get to kiss?

Kristen Bell: Sort of. Weirdly, Dax is very disconnected from sexual interactions on camera. He doesn’t really think they count, and, in a way, they don’t. But he very much encouraged me to try and suck off Josh Duhamel‘s mustache.

We knew we needed a babe. Josh is the No. 1 babe we know. We just called him out of the blue and said, “Would you do a day on ‘CHiPs’? Can we write you in? Because we need a hunk.” He said, “Of course!” We were very grateful.

Then I just adore him so much, and he played that part so sincerely. That’s why it was so funny, because when you’re hearing Jon moan in the background in pain and Karen is ignoring him, and Josh’s character Rick is like, “Is he OK?” It’s so real, it’s heartbreakingly funny.

Were you testing Dax at any point to see how far you can go with this and see if I can get any kind of reaction?

I know for a fact I would never get a reaction. I could have put my hands down Josh’s pants, and the only person I would have surprised — or offended — is Josh.

Does it work the other way around, when you see him do love scenes?

Sometimes. At one point on “Parenthood” I was like, when he was making out with Minka Kelly, I’m like, “Oh, you didn’t let me know that this happened.” And he was like, “Am I supposed to just announce it to you?”

It is a weird, touchy situation because you should technically tell your spouse, but at the same time, you don’t want to make a big deal out of it. But you know what? I think that if he gets a freebie here and there, good for him. Good for him!

Do you guys have certain rules or philosophies about when you work together, like there’s a professional mode you try to be in?

Because we’re in the acting world, a lot more slides. We’re allowed to have PDA. Yeah, if we were at an accounting firm or a lawyer’s firm, we probably couldn’t have as much PDA as we have on set. But because it’s a community of artists, a lot more is taken with a grain of salt. We don’t actually separate anything. I married him because I enjoy spending time with him, and I trust him. Those are the same reasons I want to work with him.I think a lot of people in Hollywood are afraid to work with their significant others — they don’t want to appear to come as a packaged deal always, or whatever. Do you guys feel that way? Or would you rather do almost everything together?

I would do everything together. I’m not sitting in the audience of my life. I’m not watching how I’m being perceived, I’m not tracking how I’m being perceived. I don’t really care. I care if I wake up happy and I go to bed happy. So I could try to keep tabs on this idea of who people think I am, or where they think I fit, but it’s all so meaningless, and it changes with the wind. I just care much more about being happy on a day-to-day basis, so I want to be with and work with my husband.

What is especially fun about working with him, just him as the creative artist?

That he creates a dynamic on set where the No. 1 priority is fun. He has a meeting, I guess it’s about once a week, with everybody on set, where he calls everyone to a huddle and he says, listen, “We are here to have fun. First and foremost, we are making movies. Everyone wants to do this. We are the lucky ones, which means we have a responsibility to have fun. If you’re not having fun, come see me, let me know how I can help. If you don’t want to be here, you’re welcome to go. God speed in everything that you do. But let’s accomplish this day with having a lot of fun.”

It makes me just levitate with pride to see the man I love conduct himself like that, and be an influence of joy over so many people.

Where do you fit into his world of being a gearhead with cars and motorcycles? Is there any place in there for you?

No, the blender confuses me! That is not my world. I have no interest. I like that he likes them. I watch a lot of motorcycle videos with him, and I smile, and I nod. I love him so much, and all of his cute interests.

Are you seeing your kids being drawn into that? As the protective mom, are you like, “Um, hey …”?

Our oldest daughter just learned to ride a bike, yesterday actually. No, it’s not something I hesitate on, because they wear their helmets. If they’re interested in it, my hesitancy isn’t going to make them uninterested in it. I think you have to follow the kid. They’re not going to do anything too dangerous that I’d ever have to be worried about.

Do you see little actors in them yet?

Yeah, they both have a flair for drama. But I think all two and three-year-olds do. But yeah, they do both like to tell jokes, which is kind of cool.

Are they good at telling their jokes?

For a two and three-year-old, yeah. Like calling things different names, pulling the one-two switcheroo. Yeah, they’re pretty decent at it.

What’s the fun of playing a shitty person?

It’s just so exciting to be that selfish. It also feels very wrong, and very, what’s the word? It feels risky, and a little scary, which is what makes it fun. Because I would never act that way in real life, because I’m too worried about the consequences. But in pretend mode, there are no consequences.

You had a real high-wire act of doing that on “The Good Place.” But keeping her somebody that we still are invested in, and talk about a payoff. That season was fantastic.

Oh, I’m so happy!

Tell me about finding how to indulge in her worst attributes, but still keep the audience invested in her.

That’s what I love most of all, is seeing someone on paper who is inherently unlikable, and figuring out how I can force you to invest in her. How do I captivate you enough that you’ll root for me, despite doing all these hideous things?

It’s just one of my favorite challenges, and I think that a lot of it is something I can’t describe, that I can only sort of feel when I’m doing something that is likable, or emotionally interesting, or when I can bate someone to root for me. I can’t really describe when I’m doing that, but I feel like when I’m reading characters, like when I read “[Forgetting] Sarah Marshall,” or I read Eleanor from “Good Place,” I inherently know where to place those things.

Were you watching closely the reaction to the finale? Were you keeping an eye on social media and that kind of thing?

A little bit. I looked at it the day after, and I was very, very happy with the response. Because I was worried people would figure it out.

How much do you know about what’s ahead? Are you at full stop like the rest of us, or … ?

More than I wish I did!

Really?

Mike Schur just pitched me Season 2 and possibly Season 3, then also threw out a couple actual endings of where it could go. I don’t know if ending is the right word. He is an incredibly impressive individual, and it is very exciting to be a part of a show that literally has no boundaries, because you can do anything.

When we’re having this pitch conversation, I’m like, “How are you even going to show that? What do you even mean?” The ideas are very big. They always relate to a lesson in ethics or morality. It always ties in with something greater. Its heartbeat is still comedic, and I’m just unendingly impressed with our writers’ room for thinking of these weird, weird-ass ideas.

You mentioned the ethical conundrums that “The Good Place” brings up, and we’re in interesting moment in the world, ethically, where I think we’re all looking at what’s right and what’s not right. What do you think people can draw from looking at a character like Eleanor, who seems like a crappy person on the surface, but has redeeming features? How do we apply that to the world that we’re living in now?

I believe in second chances. I think that’s what this show also explores. I also believe in symbiotic relationships, and that the world has to be a compromise. And that it’s very dangerous when you put one person’s needs above another’s, because there’s that book they keep quoting, “What We Owe to Each Other.” It’s important and necessary for our survival for us to live a harmonious life, and I think as long as that’s valued, everything can get better.

But that also requires listening to the people you disagree with, from both sides. My takeaway from the last year of Earth is, I’ve refused to be in an echo chamber. I don’t believe people are inherently evil. I want to listen to people with opposing viewpoints. I want to understand why they believe that.

Because something we’ve forgotten is that most of us want the same things for our country. We want better education. We want better healthcare. We want everyone to be safer on the streets. So we just have to figure out the best solution. Not tear each other down, while also not accomplishing anything.

It’s not easy to break out of those echo chambers, because I’ve been actively attempting to do just that.

It’s still hard. But you have to do it. There is no solution if you don’t do it.

And “Bad Moms” — when I heard the next one was going to have the Christmas element, I’m like, that is genius on a story level, that’s genius on a marketing level. What gets you excited about putting those characters in the holiday context?

Yeah! Particularly Kiki, because she’s so easily stressed out, and she’s such a people-pleaser. Those are the two things you need to put to bed in order to survive the holidays. I’m excited just to work with everybody again, but I think that’s the only place it could go. It’s the one thing that’s bigger than the mom drama, is holiday drama.

Tell me about your opportunity to interview “Dateline’s” Keith Morrison. Everything you hoped for and more?

Everything! Sweeter than I imagined. Absolutely sweeter, and more nervous than I imagined. He was very nervous, more nervous to be in the seat of the interviewee than I was to be in the seat of the interviewer.

You were ready — that was apparent.

But I didn’t feel it. Look at him. I was like, this is the guy to be interviewed by, and I’ve got to flip the script here.

Where did your Keith fandom begin?

We love true crime, and I think, over the last 10 years, we’ve watched a lot of television. We stumbled upon “Dateline.” It’s on every night of the week. It used to be our nightly show. That’s kind of morbid, but it was also very interesting, and we just were captivated by this storyteller who his narration was incomparable to anyone else’s, his vocabulary, his smoky pipes. It was just, you wanted him to narrate your life. So it’s no surprise that he’s the voice of Waze now. That’s who you want to tell you how to get where. Yeah, and we just both slowly fell in love with him.

What was the fun fact that you walked out of there with about Keith?

That he’s as in love with his wife as I am with my husband. Because we were talking about how lucky in love we are, and how that matters above all else, and he said the sweetest thing: because I’ve said he’s my hall pass before, he said, “You know what my wife said to me as I left this morning?” He goes, “‘Hey, you’re nobody’s hall pass.’” And I said, “God, I respect her so much. That’s exactly what she should say to you. That is exactly what she should say to you.”

You’re going to take some time off in the fall. Can we expect a new vacation video from you guys?

If we get on vacation, I will do my damnedest! Yeah, we’ve blown it a couple times, because we’ve gone to places where we were like, “We should have looked up a song to do here.” After we did it, we tried to make a commitment, but we blew it. We blew it.

You’ve been working so much lately. What do you want to do? What parts of your life to you want to connect more with or expand out with some time off?

I really want to learn to sew. Probably wasn’t the answer you were expecting, but I do. I’ve been really thinking about how to research to buy a good sewing machine, because I really want to learn to sew. I don’t know why. I just want to.

I love doing stuff with my hands. I do a ton of crafts with my kids. That stuff makes me happy. I’m feeling my nurturer-gatherer, want to like use glitter and sew at home. I don’t know. I’ll probably have a line of, like, kitten puffy paint sweatshirts on Etsy by the fall. I really want to learn to sew. And we really want to go on an RV trip with our family — like, drive around the country.

If you don’t shoot that — come on! You’ve got to shoot that.

Oh yeah, we’ll shoot that for sure, for sure, for sure! Yeah, we really want to take our kids in an RV.

There’s not much I’m feeling I’m lacking — other than the sewing machine — because we go to the sand dunes a couple times a year, so he gets to off-road. That means we get to live in the motor home, which we love. We travel for work. We see cool places. I get to play dress-up for premieres. The other days of the week, I take my kids to school. So I feel pretty fulfilled.

March 21, 2017
‘Bad Moms’ Spinoff ‘Bad Dads’ Is Coming in 2017

“Bad Moms” was a modest hit this summer, connecting with female audiences and scoring at the box office. Parent studio STX Entertainment has decided to capitalize on that success with a follow-up flick, though in a head-scratching move, it’s eschewing plans for a traditional sequel in favor of targeting a different demographic entirely.

Deadline reports that instead of “Bad Moms 2,” STX is making a spinoff called “Bad Dads,” essentially copying the format of the original — which starred Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell, Christina Applegate, and Kathryn Hahn — but replacing the leads with a bunch of offbeat dudes. The flick is currently looking for its stars, with a casting announcement planned sometime in the next few weeks.

According to the studio, there’s a method to its madness. In a statement, STX said:

“Where other studios have automatically green lit traditional and significantly more expensive sequels, STX has determined those sequels on average are grossing 68% less than the originals. Instead, STX has chosen to focus on extending consumer passion for the Bad Moms brand with a series of film spin-offs, a reality television show, short form digital content, and a robust consumer products program.”

While we agree that the endless parade of sequels is getting old, it does seem odd for STX to essentially ignore what made “Bad Moms” a success — appealing to an under-served female audience looking for an original comedy — in favor of once again chasing the male moviegoer. And what does “robust consumer products program” even mean?

We’ll have to wait until next summer to see how “Bad Dads” measures up against its predecessor. The flick is due in theaters on July 14, 2017.

[via: Deadline]

October 10, 2016
Here’s Why ‘Jason Bourne’ Is Both a Box-Office Hit and a Disappointment

Remember what we noted last week about sequel fatigue? The seemingly strong return of the “Bourne” franchise with “Jason Bourne” doesn’t disprove that. Indeed, it might have done even better if it didn’t have to compete for women’s attention against a non-sequel comedy, “Bad Moms.”

“Jason Bourne” opened near the higher end of expectations with an estimated $60.0 million. That’s better than a lot of live-action sequels this year, which have struggled to open above $50 million. It also outdid many of this year’s sequels in that it opened with bigger numbers than the last installment, 2012’s “The Bourne Legacy,” which debuted with $38.1 million.

Then again, that film starred Jeremy Renner and was directed by Tony Gilroy, attempting to make the franchise work without mainstays Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass. This year, we’ve seen over and over what happens when sequels lose one or more major players: you get box office disappointments like “The Huntsman: Winter’s War,” “Alice Through the Looking Glass,” or “Independence Day: Resurgence.”
It’s clear that the main reason for the new “Bourne’s” robust premiere is the return of Damon and Greengrass for the first time since 2007’s “The Bourne Ultimatum.” As a result, “Bourne” earned a healthy A- at CinemaScore, indicating strong word-of-mouth from ticketbuyers.

Even so, “Ultimatum” opened nearly $10 million higher, with $69.3 million — playing on nearly 400 fewer screens than “Bourne” and at ticket prices 20 percent lower than today’s. If you view “Jason Bourne” as the nine-years-in-the-making follow-up to “Bourne Ultimatum” (since I guess we’re all supposed to pretend “Legacy” didn’t happen), then it actually does fit the sequel-fatigue pattern we’ve seen all year.

One possible reason more moviegoers didn’t feel the “Bourne” is that it didn’t have the appeal to both sexes that everyone assumed it did. Sure, it’s the fifth installment in a popular action franchise, and “The Martian” star Damon is beloved by men and women alike. And yet, according to studio exit polling, the “Bourne” audience this weekend was only 45 percent female.

Where did the women go? Maybe to “Bad Moms,” which premiered in third place with an estimated $23.4 million, just a hair behind the second-week returns for “Star Trek Beyond” (an estimated $24.0 million). That’s a good number for a film that cost only a reported $20 million to make. While it was marketed as something of a gender-switched version of “The Hangover,” “Moms” was still an original comedy, not subject to sequel fatigue.
Indeed, ever since “Bridesmaids,” Hollywood always seems surprised to discover there’s an audience for a female-driven ensemble comedy. Nonetheless, “Moms” enjoyed a bigger debut than any R-rated comedy in the past 13 months, save for Melissa McCarthy‘s “The Boss” and Amy Schumer‘s “Trainwreck.”

The movie earned the best reviews of the week among wide releases (63 percent fresh at Rotten Tomatoes) and the best customer word-of-mouth (an A at CinemaScore). Even with fellow all-gal comedy “Ghostbusters” still in the top 10 (in its third weekend, the reboot came in at No. 7 with an estimated $9.8 million), “Moms” was still able to draw plenty of women to the multiplex.

Also drawing women was another new, original movie, thriller “Scream Queens” star Emma Roberts and strong word-of-mouth (an A- CinemaScore) stemming from the film’s mid-week opening, “Nerve” enjoyed an estimated $9.0 million debut (coming in eighth, a shade behind “Ghostbusters”), for a total of $15.1 million since it premiered on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, “Lights Out,” an original movie starring Teresa Palmer, continued to do well. In its second weekend, it came in fifth with an estimated $10.8 million. Horror movies, of course, tend to sell more tickets to women. Indeed, if you look at the whole top 10 this weekend, including “Bad Moms,” “Lights Out,” “Ghostbusters,” “Nerve,” and “The Legend of Tarzan” (starring Alexander Skarsgård‘s abs), at least five of the ten movies have strong appeal to women, and three of those are original stories.

None of this is going to stop Hollywood from churning out more “Jason Bourne”-type action movies that appeal primarily to men and draw upon familiar titles and performers. As expensive as “Bourne” was to make (a reported $120 million, or about six times as much as “Bad Moms”), it will most likely earn more than “Bad Moms,” “Nerve,” and “Lights Out” put together.

Still, this week’s results suggest that there are only so many times a franchise can return to the well before it runs dry, and that the studios ignore female audiences and original storytelling at their peril.

July 31, 2016
Weekend Box Office: ‘Jason Bourne’ Explodes to No. 1, ‘Bad Moms’ Surprises

By Brent Lang

LOS ANGELES, July 31 (Variety.com) – Audiences turned out in force to see Matt Damon in “Jason Bourne,” pushing the spy sequel to a sterling $60 million debut.

The film marked the actor’s return to the action franchise after a nine-year hiatus, during which he repeatedly hinted that he might be done with his most popular role. He and director Paul Greengrass argued that 2007’s “The Bourne Ultimatum” had brought the character full circle by filling in him on the shadowy bureaucratic maneuvers that transformed him into a killing machine. What was left?

Be it creative spark or big paydays, the pair were somehow lured back to the series. That’s good news for Universal, which ran the risk of losing a Tiffany franchise without Damon’s involvement. In the interim, the studio had made an ill-conceived attempt at cinematic universe building with “The Bourne Legacy,” introducing Jeremy Renner as another amnesic ass-kicker dubbed Aaron Cross. The crowds didn’t exactly flock to see this sub-Bourne, and the film grossed about $150 million less than “The Bourne Ultimatum” globally.

As a sign of Damon’s appeal, audience surveys reveal that the actor’s presence above-the-title was the second most frequently cited reason that people turned up for “Jason Bourne.”

“It’s no secret that people were anticipating a reunion of [Damon and Greengrass],” said Nick Carpou, Universal’s domestic distribution chief, adding “Putting the team back together made smart business sense.”

“Jason Bourne” marks the series’ second highest opening, behind “The Bourne Ultimatum’s” $69.3 million debut. When adjusted for inflation, however, it trails all but “The Bourne Legacy’s” opening weekends. Universal spent $120 million to make the latest installment and released it in 4,026 theaters.

“It proves that this is a franchise that’s still viable and that it can continue if they want to keep making them,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at ComScore. “‘Jason Bourne’ is the perfect title for this film, because that’s who everyone wanted to see return.”

Aaron Cross…not so much.

Even with Bourne’s resurgence commanding most of the attention, the weekend’s other major new wide release managed to score a respectable debut. STX Entertainment’s “Bad Moms” opened to a healthy $23.4 million and a third place finish. That’s a strong return on the film’s $20 million production budget. It also gives STX Entertainment a much needed win after its other summer release, the Civil War drama “Free State of Jones” collapsed at multiplexes.

“Bad Moms” originally was set up at Paramount Pictures and was intended to star Leslie Mann with the actress’ husband and frequent collaborator Judd Apatow producing. But Mann dropped out, as did Apatow, and the project migrated to STX. It stars Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell, and Kathryn Hahn as women who reject the pressure to be perfect parents, and instead indulge in hard partying and a more relaxed, Chablis-fueled approach to child-rearing.

“It is a terrific movie that has a lot of heart and a lot of laughs and it plays great across the board,” said Kevin Grayson, STX’s domestic distribution chief.

Grayson believes the film will continue to draw crowds in the coming weeks, because there are no other raunchy comedies with female leads on deck. That could help the picture withstand “Suicide Squad‘s” opening next weekend. The comic book movie is tracking to open to as much as $125 million, establishing a new record for an August launch.

STX is the brainchild of Robert Simonds, the producer of “Cheaper by the Dozen” and “The Pink Panther” films. Armed with backing from the likes of TPG, Hony Capital and Huayi Brothers, the studio has ambitions to spend as much as $1.1 billion annually on producing, marketing and self-distributing its films by 2017. So far, its early efforts have been mixed. It scored with low-budget horror films such as “The Gift” and “The Boy,” but lost money on the thriller “The Secret in Their Eyes” and the point-of-view action film “Hardcore Henry.”

Among newcomers, Lionsgate fielded “Nerve,” a $20 million thriller about a digital truth or dare-style game that takes a deadly turn. The film stars Dave Franco and Emma Roberts. It opened Wednesday in order to get a jumpstart on the competition, earning $15 million over its first five days and $9 million over the weekend.

“We felt the best approach was to let the movie do the heavy lifting and let word of mouth carry it,” said David Spitz, co-president of domestic theatrical distribution at Lionsgate. “If you read all the comments whether it’s on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter, the response is amazing. The audience loves the film. “

In holdover news, Paramount’s “Star Trek Beyond” slipped roughly 60% in its second weekend to gross $24 million and nab second place. That brings the sci-fi sequel’s domestic haul to $105.7 million. With a hefty $185 million budget, the film needs to resonate overseas if it wants to make a profit, because, as it stands, that kind of a result doesn’t justify sequels or guarantee profits.

Illumination and Universal’s “The Secret Life of Pets” continues to be one of the biggest hits of the summer. The animated offering took fourth place with $18.2 million. The look at what pets do when their owners are at work has earned $296.2 million and seems destined to inspire more installments in the furry friend saga. After shattering records in 2015, Universal got off to a more modest start this year, with films like “The Huntsman: Winter’s War” and “Warcraft” failing to catch fire. However, the studio has bounced back in recent weeks, revived by the success of “The Secret Life of Pets” and “Jason Bourne.”

“Lights Out,” a horror film from New Line, rounded out the top five, picking up $10.8 million to bring its total to $42.8 million after two weeks.

On the art house front, Summit and Roadside Attractions opened “Indignation to $89,072, for a $22,268 per-screen average. The drama about a precocious college student who clashes with the conservative head of his college marks the directorial debut of former Focus chief James Schamus.

This summer has been a mixed bag from a box office perspective. The industry has been in a funk as high-profile films such as “Alice Through the Looking Glass,” “The Legend of Tarzan,” and “The BFG” have flopped. However, this weekend’s receipts are an improvement on the year ago period when “Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation” led the box office. Sales are up roughly 30% thanks to the one-two punch of “Jason Bourne” and “Bad Moms.”

“We’re starting to chip away at the summer deficit,” said Dergarabedian. “Maybe with ‘Suicide Squad’ opening, we’ll see the end to all this volatility.”

July 31, 2016
‘Bad Moms’ Stars Get Real About Motherhood Under the Microscope

The role of motherhood as portrayed in film and television has often taken either a saintly approach (“The Donna Reed Show,” June Cleaver in “Leave It to Beaver”) or one so horrible that it terrifies you for years to come (“Mommy Dearest,” and “Psycho”). Neither are completely accurate, and neither truly resemble what moms go through on a day-to-day basis. “Bad Moms,” the new comedy written by “The Hangover” duo Scott Moore and Jon Lucas, tries to not only poke a little fun at the “mommy war” lens so popular on social media, but also offer a hilarious, slightly offbeat look into what real moms go through.

We sat down with the leading ladies of “Bad Moms,” Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell, and Kathryn Hahn, to talk about their feelings on having men write the script, navigating motherhood in Hollywood, and getting cool points with their kids for knowing Princess Anna.

Moviefone: I’m a mom of an eight-year-old girl, so I related to so much of the movie. But, let me ask you something: What were your reactions when you first read the script and saw that it was written by two men?

Mila Kunis: The first time I read the script I was not aware that it was written by two men. I read it and I was thought, What a great movie, this should be done and I’m so excited this is going to happen. Then I flipped to the front cover to see who had written it. I looked at it and I thought Oh, wow! Not at all what I expected. Let alone the guys who wrote “The Hangover,” where you’re thinking I can’t believe these two movies live in the same human’s brain, but you meet them and they’re so wonderful and so smart and so kind. They so wrote this as a love letter to their wives because they have these amazing, wonderful partners in life that help with their kids and they interviewed hundreds of women to get the story together. It ended up making sense once you get to know them. In the beginning, I was a little shocked.

Kristen Bell: I thought it was a great example of defying all obstacles. I’m all for promoting women in the workplace and diversity, because different perspectives are very, very important. But I also think its okay to acknowledge when two men do a brilliant job of telling a female’s story. That should be acknowledged; they actually were uniquely observant and took our feedback as moms and they were open and not ego-driven at all during the process. They wanted to learn and I think that’s why they made such a great script.

Mentioning that, was there a key moment when you guys actually went back and said, “No, a mom would not do this,” or “I would definitely not do this … my character wouldn’t do this”?

Kathryn Hahn: No … for me at least, there was no … it’s such an escape, the movie, it feels like such an awesome, fun, wish fulfillment, that all of it felt like “Oh wouldn’t that be … ” so nothing felt unrealistic because it all felt like something that was a dream. It just felt so fun.

That being said, there’s a lot of stories to be told about motherhood. Are there any stories that you would want to tell about motherhood yourselves?

Mila Kunis: I’ve got a long way to go before I tell a story. Ask my mom, she’d have better ones. I think I have been a mom for too little time.

Kristen Bell: I think this one is a really important story: I think having become a mom I have so much respect for my mom now because I think the hardest thing to do on planet Earth is to birth, nurture, and care for a child then release it into the world and reaccept it as an adult. I think that’s probably the hardest thing on the planet; I think it’s the hardest thing I’ll ever do; I know it’s the hardest thing my mom has ever done, and I think that’s maybe a story worth telling.

Kathryn Hahn: Any time a woman’s story is told as complicated and rich and full as they deserve to be told, I’m all for. So a period of a woman’s life when she’s a mother is an enormous period that is also complicated and messy and beautiful and hilarious and painful and all of it in one. So yes, I think there are many more stories.

I have to give you props as mothers. As women, you’ve navigated Hollywood so wonderfully. But I want to know, how does it affect you? Because, as moms, we’re already under a microscope. You guys have got to be under an even heavier microscope. Does that change how you perceive going out to work, or how you parent?

Kathryn Hahn: They handle it so well, these two.

Mila Kunis: It doesn’t change the way I parent, because, at the end of the day, my number one priority is raising a good human being. But I will say, yes, there are times when I can’t always go to the park with my kid. There’s that issue, but only for her safety, not for anything else. Other than that, I will never sacrifice my ability to raise her as a decent person due to my concerns about what other people think.

Kristen Bell: My specific take is that I think I realized a few years ago that I was the one holding the microscope and that if I just put the microscope down it was so freeing because, in truth, my healthiest place is “I don’t care if you judge me because as long as I’m comfortable with my actions and I’m doing estimable acts in my life then I will have self-confidence and self-esteem.” So it was an epiphany for me when I realized I was the one allowing the microscope to exist and once I put that down it felt liberating.

So Mila and Kathryn, have you earned any cool points with your kids now that you know Princess Anna?

Mila Kunis: Mine has the attention span of a gnat. She’s only 21 months old, so she hasn’t been able to sit through … “Peppa Pig” is the only thing she sits through because it spans seven minutes. But boy, let me tell you, when she watches “Frozen,” I’m going to be like “That’s mama’s friend.” Not only that, but it’s no doubt, it’s the coolest thing, [Kristen] came over for a birthday party, we were swimming, and my girlfriend had her seven-year-old there. I cannot express to you what happens to these kids when they figure out that this is the real-life Princess Anna. It’s like a different existence occurs … the seven-year-old almost started crying …

Kathryn Hahn: Beatles nothing!

Mila Kunis: Nothing. Kristen Bell walks in and they’re like “Uhhhhh” — it’s just this other … I can’t explain it. Mine is too little, but I’ve seen it happen firsthand, and it is wonderful and I can’t wait to abuse this friendship.

Can you talk a little bit about what’s going on with “Frozen 2,” or do you not know yet?

Kristen Bell: I wish I knew. I know that they are taking a very long and diligent and specific time to write the script — to get it right — because this team is so committed to having the script be valuable and a story that needs to be told. They’re not settling, so we haven’t actually seen the script yet.

Mila Kunis: That’s exciting!

“Bad Moms” opens on July 29th.

July 26, 2016
Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell Are Mothers Gone Wild in ‘Bad Moms’ Trailer

Moms just wanna have fun, too.

The first red-band trailer for “Bad Moms” shows what happens when a trio of mothers decides to let their hair down, hold a shot of whiskey up, and throw the gluten-free, nut-free, sugar-free cookies out the window.

Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell, and Kathryn Hahn star as stressed-out, under-appreciated moms who decide to stop trying to be so perfect all the time. This puts them in direct conflict with the put-together, uptight types at their school’s PTA, like Christina Applegate, who is determined to rule over the bake sale.Everybody in the cast is so likable, and watching Kunis and Bell deploy their talents at physical comedy in the same film is a dream.

There’s some raunchy humor, too, involving some body parts getting folded. NSFW! Annie Mumolo and Jada Pinkett Smith also star.

“Bad Moms” opens in theaters July 29.

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May 3, 2016