Bob Odenkirk in ‘Normal’, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
Bob Odenkirk has been proving for a while that he’s more than just a comedian and comic actor; the depth he brought to Saul Goodman across the ‘Breaking Bad’ TV universe was key, but he also showed real action chops in the two ‘Nobody’ movies.
With ‘Normal’, he’s much more back in the latter two films’ wheelhouse, playing someone who has to confront a violent situation. But while ‘Nobody’ and its sequel certainly have some dark laughs, this latest outing raises the comic stakes and ups the deadly inventiveness.
Script and Direction
Ben Wheatley, director of ‘Normal’, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
Based on an idea by Odenkirk and Derek Kolstad (better known for the ‘John Wick’ franchise, but also responsible for cranking out scripts for the ‘Nobody’ movies and the ‘Die Hart’ outings), ‘Normal’ certainly leans on comedy to leaven the action madness.
While most of the characters are archetypes (and some are disposable cannon fodder), there’s enough care and attention given to the setup to make you invest in the story once the bullets (and more) start flying.
Ben Wheatley, meanwhile, might be best known in the States for ‘Meg 2: The Trench’ and ‘Free Fire,’ but his UK work is deeply rooted in dark humor, and he’s certainly a good choice for this one, bringing a devilish sense of invention to the chaos.
Cast and Performances
Henry Winkler in ‘Normal’, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
Odenkirk obviously gets the lion’s share of character work, bringing to life the troubled Ulysses Richardson, interim sheriff who quickly realizes that the quirky small town he’s been hired to protect has some very deep, dark secrets.
But around him, there are plenty of standout characters, including Henry Winkler’s cheerful, sweary Mayor Kibner, Reena Jolly and Brendan Fletcher as a seemingly criminal couple whose ambitions light the fuse on the powder keg that is the town. Also worth watching? Ryan Allen as Deputy Blaine Anderson, who has one eye on the top job in the town’s law enforcement.
Final Thoughts
Bob Odenkirk in ‘Normal’. Photo: Magnolia Pictures.
Utterly ridiculous but also a lot of fun, ‘Normal’ presents as a crossbreed of ‘Hot Fuzz’ (new lawman confronts a small locale’s dark secrets) and the ‘Final Destination’ franchise (in the sheer invention of some of its deaths).
Don’t go in expecting high art, but it’s a wild ride with plenty to enjoy.
‘Normal’ receives 72 out of 100.
(L to R) Bob Odenkirk and Jess McLeod in ‘Normal’, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
What is the plot of ‘Normal’?
Ulysses (Bob Odenkirk) comes to the sleepy town of Normal, Minnesota to serve as the temporary sheriff after the passing of the original sheriff. A bank robbery in Normal leads Ulysses to find that a criminal underground reaches throughout the entire town.
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(L to R) Bob Odenkirk and Lena Headey star in ‘Normal’.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Bob Odenkirk, Lena Headey and Henry Winkler about their work on ‘Normal’, developing the screenplay, the characters, working with each other, the action sequences and collaborating with director Ben Wheatley.
You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interviews with Odenkirk, Headey, Winkler, and Jess McLeod.
Bob Odenkirk in ‘Normal’, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
Moviefone: To begin with, Bob, can you talk about your first reaction to writer Derek Kolstad’s pitch for this movie and what were some of the elements you helped add in the development process?
Bob Odenkirk: Well, Derek had written an outline for this story, and I liked it because it was unlike a lot of action films. It had story to it. It had character to it. It was almost like three movies in one. The first film is a mystery suspense with comedy, but it’s kind of like a Lake Wobegone town, if you know that reference from Garrison Keillor’s ‘Prairie Home Companion’. It’s a small town in Minnesota. There are funny characters in there, squabbling and being stupid. Then it turns into this action film and then it has horror elements in it in the later part of the film. So, again, unlike a lot of action stories, it had texture and it had character, and some depth to the characters. That’s just different. I mean, that’s not actually something you see in a lot of action films, outlines, or scripts.
Henry Winkler stars in ‘Normal’.
MF: Henry, what was your first reaction to the screenplay and what excited you about playing a character like this?
Henry Winkler: Okay. Bob is a friend; he and Naomi is beautiful wife. We have had pasta together. He called me up, he said, “Henry, I’m doing a movie. Would you be part of it?” I didn’t have to read the script. I just said yes. I went up to Winnipeg. I played the wonderful mayor of the town. He is the interim sheriff. Little does he know there is chaos below the surface. He said, “We’re going to have a confrontation. I’m going to put you in the most comfortable position to have that confrontation. I’m going to put you in a blizzard.” That’s how it goes.
Bob Odenkirk in ‘Normal’, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
MF: Lena, can you talk about your character’s role in this town and how she feels about the new Sheriff?
Lena Headey: I think Bob just wanted someone who would wear a pair of overalls. I love Moira. She’s kind of a little weird. She’s a little eaten by life and when Bob’s character rolls up, there’s a recognition between the two of them and suspicion. Yet, a kind of emotional deficit where they don’t discuss anything they truly like to discuss. So, they kind of skirt around like two snakes a little bit, figuring out who the other is.
(L to R) Brendan Fletcher, Bob Odenkirk and Reena Jolly in ‘Normal’, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
MF: Bob, what is Ulysses’ reaction to meeting Moira and discovering what is really going on in this small town?
BO: She is the smartest character in town. I mean, arguably Henry Winkler’s character is very smart too, but not really. He’s just got it an antenna for things, but Moira sees Ulysses and fully grasps the danger of Ulysses, but just the way he sees the world and the details that he sees. So, they really connect and kind of right away. They’re both people who are, in the case of the character Moira, she’s a bartender, and she talks about, you know, “I spend a lot of time listening to people, and I can pick apart what they’re saying, and I can understand the subtext, essentially.” Ulysses, as you see in the movie ‘Normal’ is also somewhat removed from the world around him and is always observing on a very high level. I think that’d be a good team if they weren’t opposing forces.
(L to R) Lena Headey and Bob Odenkirk in ‘Normal’, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
MF: Lena, what was it like working with Bob on your scenes?
LH: I was only there for a few days, and I was a little nervous because you’re going onto somebody else’s job and story and character and you’re stepping on for a few days. So, it’s always that thing of like, I hope I bring it. But Bob and Ben were both super collaborative and warm and open.
MF: Bob, what was your experience like working with Lena?
BO: I mean, one of us got a master class in acting and I think it was me. She always brings it, you can be sure of that and nobody else could have played this character, Moira, like Lena did. I mean, the depth and the texture and the smile in her performance, and the smile for the audience. They know the purpose of her character right away, which is to cut open the story and lay it bare for you.
Henry Winkler in ‘Normal’, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
MF: Henry, you mentioned you and Bob are friends and you have some intense scenes together. What was it like for you shooting those scenes with Bob?
HW: As an actor your job is to separate the friendship and the reality of where you are, what’s going on in the world, and bring it right in to telling the story, to take the audience with you so that they have a really good time. So, that was not difficult and then when you are in a scene with him, he is so present that you literally just have a conversation with this guy, the interim sheriff, who is figuring out the real problem under the town’s energy.
Ben Wheatley, director of ‘Normal’, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
MF: Finally, Henry, as a director yourself, what did you learn from working with director Ben Wheatley and watching the way he makes movies?
HW: First, Ben is very easygoing and he’s just this big hulk of a guy. He comes up to you and he goes, “Do you think you should bring that down a little? Do you think your energy might be a little high?” Any actor who thinks they can do it without a third eye, is a liar. You need somebody who’s got the vision, and Bob and Ben knew exactly the story they wanted to tell. My job is not just to play the mayor, but my job is to fulfill their vision.
(L to R) Bob Odenkirk and Jess McLeod in ‘Normal’, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
What is the plot of ‘Normal’?
Ulysses (Bob Odenkirk) comes to the sleepy town of Normal, Minnesota to serve as the temporary sheriff after the passing of the original sheriff. A bank robbery in Normal leads Ulysses to find that a criminal underground reaches throughout the entire town.
Beyond Fest is launching a Beyond Chicago spin-off.
Movies including ‘Obsession’ and the new ‘Faces of Death’ will screen.
It’ll run between April 2-5 at the Music Box Theatre.
While we more commonly associate Beyond Fest with its annual fall screening in Los Angeles, the team is looking to take the show on the road.
A new regional spin-off, Beyond Chicago, is planned to happen in the Music Box Theatre venue next month, promising the likes of new Bob Odenkirk-starrer ‘Normal’ and a special 35mm screening of the Shaw Brothers classic, ‘The Kid with the Golden Arm.’
Bob Odenkirk in ‘Normal’. Photo: Magnolia Pictures.
Tied to ‘Normal,’ Odenkirk will be introducing a print of 1974’s original ‘The Taking of Pelham One Two Three’, while the action madness continues via stunt icon k bringing his instantly infamous epic-fight-fest, ‘The Furious’ to Chicago.
In addition to brand new movies, there will also be screenings of restorations, including a 4K version of ‘Speed Racer’ introduced by co-director Lilly Wachowski in person, while a late night screening of 1973’s ‘Flesh for Frankenstein’ in 3D is planned as a tribute to the late Udo Kier.
How can I get tickets for Beyond Chicago?
Emile Hirsch in 2008’s ‘Speed Racer.’
The event runs between April 2-5 at the Music Box.
Tickets are on sale to members on March 5 and general public on March 6. Free tickets for Screen 2 will be available to Music Box members on Wednesday 1 April and general public on Thursday 2 April.
Bob Odenkirk in ‘Nobody.’ Photo: Universal Pictures.
Preview:
Bob Odenkirk’s back action for ‘Normal’.
‘Meg 2: The Trench’ director Ben Wheatley will make the movie.
‘Nobody’ veteran Derek Kolstad wrote the script.
Though we’re more used to seeing Bob Odenkirk use his quick wits than his fists as Jimmy McGill in ‘Breaking Bad’ and ‘Better Call Saul’, he proved he was more than up to the task of getting into clashes with 2021 action movie ‘Nobody’.
That film, directed by Ilya Naishuller and written by ‘John Wick’ veteran Derek Kolstad, saw Odenkirk as a an underestimated and overlooked dad and husband, who when his house is robbed, reveals his past as a government agent and all-round badass who takes on some dangerous Russian thugs.
Though they’ve talked about a sequel to that movie, Odenkirk and Kolstad have now reunited instead for a new action concept called ‘Normal’, which has British filmmaker Ben Wheatley attached to direct.
Bob Odenkirk in ‘Nobody.’ Photo: Universal Pictures.
The new movie follows Ulysses (Odenkirk), who is thrust into the temporary role of the sheriff for the small sleepy town Normal after the previous officer’s untimely death.
When the town’s bank is robbed by an out-of-town couple, Ulysses arrives on the scene to find that the town is hiding much more sinister deep-seated secrets under its surface and everyone –– from the bartender to the priest –– is in on it.
And now Ulysses, who’s up until now focused only on running away from the demons of his past, must uncover the full extent of this criminal conspiracy.
Marc Provissiero, who worked with Odenkirk and Kolstad on ‘Nobody’, is aboard to produce ‘Normal’ alongside them.
WME Independent is representing the movie, and the distribution rights will be on sale at this month’s European Film Market, which kicks off next week. We doubt it’ll be long before someone snaps this up –– might Universal, which saw ‘Nobody’ earn nearly $60 million from a $16 million budget, take a chance?
What has Ben Wheatley worked on before?
2016’s ‘Free Fire.’ Photo: StudioCanal.
US audiences might know Wheatley best from his most recent movie, the Jason Statham-starring giant shark sequel ‘Meg 2: The Trench’, but he’s been something of a genre-hopper.
He got his start in low-budget, high-bloodshed horror movies in the UK, including ‘Down Terrace’ and ‘Kill List’ and has made his way through different styles of films such as social satire ‘High Rise’ and a new adaptation of the Daphne Du Maurier novel ‘Rebecca’, famously previously brought to screens by Alfred Hitchcock.
He proved he can make action movies interesting via 2016’s ‘Free Fire’, which pitched two rival criminal gangs against each other in a shoot-out and a game of survival.
When will ‘Normal’ be in theaters?
Since it has yet to start shooting or find a distributor, there is no scheduled release date for ‘Normal’ just yet.
Bob Odenkirk in ‘Nobody.’ Photo: Universal Pictures.
Opening in theaters on August 4th, ‘Meg 2: The Trench’ largely sticks to the giant monster movie franchise playbook –– which is to say, if your hero faces down one big beast in the original, they have to be confronted by more in the sequel.
And while this example is a largely brain-free, silly summer blockbuster experience, it does offer enough thrills and spills that you won’t feel cheated come the end.
Jason Statham returns as diving expert Jonas Taylor who, along with Jiuming Zhang (Wu Jing) leads a daring research team on an exploratory dive into the deepest depths of the ocean.
Their voyage spirals into chaos when a malevolent mining operation threatens their mission and forces them into a high-stakes battle for survival –– because their enemies are not just from the natural world this time.
Pitted against colossal Megs and relentless environmental plunderers, our heroes must outrun, outsmart, and outswim their merciless predators in a race against time.
With this second movie, ‘The Meg’ films confirm themselves as Jason Statham’s ‘Fast & Furious’ (yes, we know he’s popped up in a few of them and co-starred in spin-off ‘Hobbs & Shaw’). By that, we mean a franchise that treats the laws of physics (and here, nature) like something to be ignored in the name of spectacle and a story that almost everyone else is treating with the tongue-in-cheek style something such as this suggests while the leading man barrels his way through more seriously.
To give Statham some credit, though, even he indulges in how goofy all of this is occasionally, showing more self-awareness than Vin Diesel ever does in the ‘Fast’ movies. His Jonas Taylor embraces more of the team effort this time, joking around with Cliff Curtis’ Mac and Sophia Cai’s Meiying. Jing Wu, meanwhile, fits right in with the gang, bringing his own action chops to the role (at one point, having cameras strapped to his body during one particularly tricky, explosive sequence).
While director Ben Wheatley might seem like an odd choice to direct a movie of this style and scale –– after all, he’s been best known for small-scale British horrors such as ‘Kills List’, ‘A Field in England’ and ‘In the Earth’, though he has shown plenty of versatility in his genre-hopping to date between the satirical likes of ‘High Rise’ and the dramatic trappings of ‘Rebecca’. Here, he brings some level of subversion (alongside submersibles) to a loud, wacky action summer wannabe blockbuster.
Alongside writers Jon Hoeber, Erich Hoeber and Dean Georgaris, he has plenty of fun dreaming up scenarios to put people at risk from the giant sharks, and even (as seen in one of the movie’s trailers) kicks things off by winding the clock back to the Cretaceous period to show a Meg proving to be the alpha predator even in a world where dinosaurs ruled the Earth. Perhaps a sly wink at ‘Jurassic Park’ and its own ‘Jurassic World’ sequel trilogy, the most recent of which had its own nod towards prehistory.
Plus, if you were coming to this for big beasties, the team behind ‘Meg 2’ certainly wants you to go home satisfied, throwing in multiple Megalodons (including one that Jing Wu’s character believes he has tamed after finding it injured as a pup) plus some prehistoric reptilians and a massive cephalopod, all fellow inhabitants of the dark waters of the trench who make it to the surface world through reasons that, let’s be honest really don’t matter.
Naturally, Wheatley can only do so much when it comes to a big studio title such as this, which has an established format and runs on rails much like a theme park ride. Statham’s Taylor is very much your stock, occasionally quippy hero type (after dispatching on particularly resistant baddie, he says, “so long, chum”, which would make even James Bond wince) while everyone else is either in the friend group, and therefore are granted enough personality to make it out alive, or shark bait.
The twists and turns are visible from roughly six miles away (and the villainous characters, with one exception, are pantomime baddies) and there are some logic gaps in the story big enough for a giant, toothy predator to swim through. This is also strictly on the same lines as the original when it comes to the kills: PG-13, which means while Wheatley and the writers have a few inventive moments, it’s an almost entirely bloodless affair where the massive monsters swallow people rather than biting them, and the smaller ones rarely get to do much more than chomp once.
Also, while the trailers have been full of the sharks let loose at an island resort, that is mostly relegated to the final act, the proceeding running time given over to a tense sequence in the trench where our heroes are fighting for their lives against more than just the toothy terrors. It’s perfectly serviceable but never as pleasurable as the full-on Megalodon chaos.
Most disappointingly for a film that wants to be a big-budget version of those Megashark Vs. Giant Dolphin-style movies (think ‘Sharknado’ with ‘Godzilla’ production values), some of the visuals are shockingly basic, a few of the effects less convincing than one of those cheapo cash-in films and the whole thing coming across as rushed and re-shot. It’s also one of those movies that smacks of elements being inserted so that it’ll play well in China –– not a negative per se, but it’s so blindingly obvious at times as to be annoying.
Still, if you enjoyed the first ‘Meg’ back in 2018 and you were hoping that the sequel would offer more of the same, just bigger, louder and with even less of a brain, ‘Meg 2: The Trench’ certainly delivers on that front. And if you’re willing to put up with the more ridiculous elements, it’s worth the dive, even if it isn’t a deep one despite the title.
‘Meg 2: The Trench’ is produced by Apelles Entertainment, Warner Bros. Pictures, di Bonaventura Pictures, and CMC Pictures. It is scheduled to release in theaters on August 4th, 2023.
Last year’s “Tomb Raider” reboot, starring Alicia Vikander as iconic videogame hero Lara Croft, was incredibly forgettable and only did so-so business ($275 million worldwide), but it was enough of a hit to warrant a sequel, apparently. And now MGM has slated a release date and hired a creative team for the follow-up.
The as-yet-untitled “Tomb Raider” sequel has a release date of March 19, 2021, via Deadline. (The first film opened on March 16, 2018, so they clearly stuck with what they know.) But more fascinating than the release date is the creative team MGM has chosen to shepherd the project – it will be directed by Ben Wheatley, the oddball British auteur behind “Kill List,” “High Rise” and “Free Fire” (amongst many others), and written by his partner Amy Jump, who has written many of his projects.
Quite frankly, this decision is so wonderfully out-of-left-field that it makes the sequel one of our most anticipated movies of the forseeable future. Wheatley next has a remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rebecca” for Netflix. Vikander is expected to return.
“The English Patient” star Kristin Scott Thomas is joining the upcoming Netflix/Working Title remake of “Rebecca,” and she’ll be playing one of the most iconic villains in filmdom: Mrs. Danvers.
Alfred Hitchcock’s 1940 film of the same name, which starred Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine, won a Best Picture Oscar. (The director’s only film to win the honor.)
James will play a naive young woman who marries a rich widower and is intimidated by his housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers, who constantly compares her to his late, legendary wife, Rebecca.
Judith Anderson,played the menacing Mrs. Danvers in the 1940 film, a performance that won her a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination.
Among Scott Thomas’s recent roles: Ryan Gosling’s criminal mother in “Only God Forgives” and Churchill’s wife Clementine in “Darkest Hour.”
