Jeff Bridges, Allison Janney and Jesse Eisenberg will voice characters in ‘Minions & Monsters’.
It’s the latest ‘Despicable Me’ spin-off featuring the chattering creatures.
The movie will arrive on July 1.
There’s no keeping those Minions down. The chattering characters from the ‘Despicable Me’ franchise who have had a few of their own spin-off movies are back later this year for another new entry, ‘Minions & Monsters’.
A prequel to 2010’s ‘Despicable Me’ and sequel to 2022’s ‘Minions: The Rise of Gru,’ the newest adventure is set in the world of 1920s Hollywood as the yellow underlings work to find the lead of their monster movie.
Described as “rambunctious, ridiculous and totally true,” the story follows how the Minions conquered the entertainment industry and became movie stars… only to lose everything and unleash monsters onto the world before they banded together to save the planet from their mayhem.
When will ‘Monsters & Minions’ be in theaters?
Universal has confirmed a July 1 release date for the new animated outing.
Guillermo del Toro has been waiting to adapt ‘Frankenstein’ to the screen his entire life. Themes, ideas, and imagery from Mary Shelley’s classic tale of Gothic horror – one of the genre’s seminal texts – run through many of Del Toro’s previous 12 films, and while ‘Frankenstein’ has been on his bucket list of movies to make, he’s never had the opportunity until now.
And once offered it, Del Toro seized the chance with both hands to make an extraordinary, gorgeous, deeply moving version of the tale that may end up being the definitive screen version in a long line of previous adaptations. His ‘Frankenstein’ is not slavishly faithful to the book – and in fact Del Toro brings a very personal stamp to the narrative that changes its meaning in deeply profound ways – but it’s loyal to the spirit and tone of the story, bringing out its many layers through an incredible cast and a sumptuous production that immerses the viewer fully in the world of Victor Frankenstein and his doomed creation.
The story follows the outline of Shelley’s novel, beginning with a prelude in which the crew of a ship trapped in Arctic ice comes upon a badly injured, dying man who identifies himself as Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac). The ship is soon besieged by a towering, humanoid, seemingly indestructible figure who is after Frankenstein. From there, both parties tell their side of the tale to the ship’s captain (Lars Mikkelsen).
It’s a tale told many times, with which we’re all broadly familiar: Frankenstein, devastated as a boy by the death of his mother and emotionally wounded by his cold, distant father (Charles Dance), sets out to find a way to bring back life to the dead. Ostracized by the medical community, he finds backing from a wealthy arms dealer named Heinrich Harlander (Christoph Waltz) and his own younger brother William (Felix Kammerer), who now controls the family estate in the wake of their father’s passing. But less enthused is William’s alluring, enigmatic fiancée — and Harlander’s niece — Elizabeth (Mia Goth), who suspects that Victor is tampering with aspects of nature that he dares not try to control.
But Victor presses forward, and eventually succeeds at creating a nameless being (Jacob Elordi) out of the parts of many different dead men. This is where Del Toro not so much diverges from the novel but brings one of its many underlying themes to the forefront: the nature of the relationship between a parent and a child. The creature is seemingly unable to learn words, only plaintively repeating his creator’s name over and over. Like his father before him, Victor becomes impatient and actively abusive toward what he fails to see as his own son. Only Elizabeth sees the true nature of the creature, and her compassion at least gives it a glimpse of a better humanity.
Victor ultimately cannot abide what he sees as a failure and attempts to destroy his creation, which escapes into the countryside and – thanks to the kindness of a blind man who cannot see his new friend’s hideous visage – learns to read, speak, think, and finally try to figure out its place in what is largely a cold, uncaring world. When he seeks out his creator again, only for Victor to rebuff the creature’s request for a mate to allay his intense loneliness, the creature is consumed with rage, setting out on a rampage to destroy everything in his maker’s life while making Victor watch.
Other versions of the story have touched on the idea that the creature is a misunderstood and misguided child, but Del Toro makes this the focus of his adaptation, turning it into the most emotional ‘Frankenstein’ to ever hit the screen. Despite his monstrous appearance and often insensate rage – a fury which also makes this the goriest ‘Frankenstein’ we’ve ever watched – the creature is a sympathetic figure throughout. Unloved by his father and rejected by those who see only his appearance, Frankenstein’s creation is a walking metaphor for so many lonely, abused, outcast people in the world today.
The movie, which runs nearly two and a half hours, begins somewhat slowly; at times one may wonder if Del Toro is overcomplicating some of the table-setting of the first act (it took us a while to figure out whether or not, for example, Harlander actually had a purpose in the story). But it picks up momentum and achieves an operatic grandeur as we get to the creation sequence and everything after that. Once the creature – played to perfection by an unrecognizable Elordi in mostly prosthetic makeup – arrives, the dominant conflict of the film takes it to soaring new heights of melodrama. This isn’t a horror movie, per se, despite the Gothic settings, intense production design, and rivers of blood and viscera that run through it; this is a tragedy, and it’s almost impossible to remain unmoved by the creature, his plight, and the endgame between what both creator and creation finally recognize as father and son.
Del Toro couldn’t have cast his three leads better, but we have to begin with Elordi as the creature. Strongly inspired by Shelley’s own description, the creature looks like a walking anatomy drawing gone haywire, with stitching and mismatched slabs of flesh crisscrossing his tall, lean, meat-colored body. He’s not human, but he has the spark of humanity in him. Elordi is nothing less than riveting every time he’s onscreen, conveying the creature’s pain, loneliness, anger, and emotional need with great power even through the makeup. It’s a brilliant performance that deserves to become as iconic as that of Boris Karloff.
Oscar Isaac brings his customary fire and passion to the role of Victor, a man so tormented by the lack of loving parents in his life that he realizes far too late that he’s become one himself and must adjust accordingly. A bundle of ego, raw energy, and intellectual superiority, you can’t quite hate Isaac’s Victor even as you recognize his fatal flaws.
Elizabeth, meanwhile, has been expanded from the book, no longer Victor’s devoted fiancée but a progressive woman who can see the beauty in nature – even when it’s not immediately apparent – and has an almost ethereal sense of the boundaries between life and death. Mia Goth, after her earthier turns in the ‘X’ trilogy and ‘Infinity Pool,’ looks like she stepped out of a 19th century painting and provides a sole, empathetic voice of wisdom (Goth also briefly plays Victor’s mother in a neat dual performance).
On every level, this is a superb film. Costumes, production design, and score are all top-notch. The visual effects, particularly those involving the creature, are nearly as impressive – only two scenes involving clearly CG wolves mar the film in that respect. The world of the movie is immersive, with Del Toro using his customary painterly colors to give this period epic a mix of the grotesque and the glorious.
But it’s the story, its themes, the actors, and the rising tide of emotional power that make this ‘Frankenstein’ unlike any that has come before. Del Toro has said that he’s wanted to make his version of Mary Shelley’s literary landmark for 30 years. He’s not only done the book justice and then some, but he’s created his own masterwork that – like a loving parent – he should be proud to send out into the world.
A brilliant but egotistical scientist (Oscar Isaac) brings a creature (Jacob Elordi) to life in a monstrous experiment that ultimately leads to the undoing of both the creator and his tragic creation.
(L to R) Selena Gomez, Steve Martin and Martin Short in ‘Only Murders in the Building’ Season 5. Photo: Disney/Patrick Harbron.
Launching on Hulu on September 9th with the first three episodes (seven more debut once weekly), ‘Only Murders in the Building’ returns for a fifth season of mysterious death, quirky characters and, this time at least, the intersection of old mob ways with New York’s modern powerbrokers.
Steve Martin in ‘Only Murders in the Building’ Season 5. Photo: Disney/Patrick Harbron.
For the last few years, ‘Only Murders in the Building’ has been a reliable provider of murder mystery mixed with the vaudeville comedy of Steve Martin and Martin Short, plus a side of eye-rolling millennial reactions from Selena Gomez. The combination has worked extremely well, providing confounding cases and lots of laughs.
The question is, however, does the fifth season do enough to differentiate itself from what has gone before, or should we be happy that we’re getting more of the same if it’s still entertaining?
Script and Direction
Renée Zellweger in ‘Only Murders in the Building’ Season 5. Photo: Disney/Patrick Harbron.
There remains a lot to like about ‘Only Murders’ –– the scripts remain witty and the central mystery thorny –– in this case, the death of longtime doorman Lester (Teddy Coluca).
Yet there are some problems with the season this time around –– it’s just not as fresh as it usually feels. The new characters are fine, but compared to previous examples of guest casting, they just don’t have the same amount of zing.
The show’s direction remains on point –– but with the focus on the Arconia once more (even given some new locations discovered), there’s only so much you can do to keep it interesting.
Cast and Performances
Christoph Waltz in ‘Only Murders in the Building’ Season 5. Photo: Disney/Patrick Harbron.
Martin, Short and Gomez are still great in the lead roles; the issue is that much of what they get to do here is a variation on previous work.
Naturally, Martin has some funny physical business, Short gets to be extra in all ways, and Gomez is still the best at a blend of vulnerability and heart, plus her ability to side-eye her older companions.
Of the new faces this year, Logan Lerman makes the most impact as a young billionaire, while the likes of Christoph Waltz and Renée Zellweger don’t get as much to, but have fun with their roles.
Final Thoughts
(L to R) Selena Gomez and Logan Lerman in ‘Only Murders in the Building’ Season 5. Photo: Disney/Patrick Harbron.
‘Only Murders in the Building’ is definitely starting to show its age –– the concept only has so much flexibility in it.
It’s still a very fun show to watch, but its best days may now be behind it.
‘Only Murders in the Building’ Season 5 receives 65 out of 100.
Tea Leoni in ‘Only Murders in the Building’ Season 5. Photo: Disney/Patrick Harbron.
What’s the plot of ‘Only Murders in the Building’ Season 5?
After their beloved doorman, Lester (Teddy Coluca), dies under suspicious circumstances, Charles (Steve Martin), Oliver (Martin Short), and Mabel (Selena Gomez) refuse to believe it was an accident. Their investigation plunges them into the shadowy corners of New York and beyond — where the trio uncovers a dangerous web of secrets connecting powerful billionaires, old-school mobsters, and the mysterious residents of the Arconia.
The trio discovers a deeper divide between their storied city they thought they knew and the new New York evolving around them — one where the old mob fights to hold on as newer, even more dangerous players emerge.
Who stars in ‘Only Murders in the Building’ Season 5?
(Left) Renée Zellweger as Bridget Jones in ‘Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy’. Photo: Jay Maidment / Universal Pictures. (Right) Charles (Steve Martin), Mabel (Selena Gomez) and Oliver (Martin Short) on Hulu’s ‘Only Murders In The Building’. Photo: Craig Blankenhorn/Hulu.
Preview:
Renée Zellweger will appear in ‘Only Murders in the Building’s fifth season.
She joins stars Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez.
And that’s without mentioning returning guest stars such as Paul Rudd and Meryl Streep.
Meryl Streep as Loretta in Hulu’s ‘Only Murders in the Building.’ Photo by: Patrick Harbron/Hulu.
So it should be little surprise that the fifth season of the show will boast some suitably big names –– with Renée Zellweger the latest addition, according to Deadline.
The new season recently started rolling its cameras in New York, following the show’s success at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, where it won Comedy Series Ensemble and a Male Actor in a Comedy Series gong for Short.
What’s the story of ‘Only Murders in the Building’?
(L to R) Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez in Hulu’s ‘Only Murders In The Building’ season 2. Photo: Patrick Harbron/Hulu.
‘Only Murders in the Building,’ which started in August 2021, focuses on a trio of strangers –– Charles-Haden Savage (Martin), a misanthropic semi-retired actor who was the star of the popular 1990s crime drama, Oliver Putnam, (Short) an ambitious but financially struggling Broadway director and Mabel Mora, (Gomez) a young artist and apartment renovator living alone in her aunt’s unit, who was part of a quartet that solved pretend mysteries throughout her childhood and teenage years –– with a shared interest in true crime podcasts.
The three become unlikely friends while investigating a succession of suspicious murders in the Arconia, their upscale apartment building on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, and producing their own podcast about the cases, titled ‘Only Murders in the Building.’
Through the previous four seasons, they’ve investigated several mysterious slayings, including an old friend of Mabel’s in the first, another building resident in the second, an egotistical actor in the third and Charles’ good friend and colleague, stuntwoman Sazz Pataki (Jane Lynch).
As is usual for the show, the end of Season 4 set up the new mystery for the fifth –– and it’s really the only solid information we have on the season.
In the final episode of the season, Charles, Mabel and Oliver discover the body of Lester, (Teddy Coluca) the Arconia doorman, dead in the building’s fountain.
This is what ‘Only Murders’ showrunner Jordan Hoffman told The Wrap about Season 5:
“We’re trying to tell a particular kind of take from a New York angle. Season Five will hit on some very current things going on within New York, specifically very relevant things that are happening in the city right now, in ways that honestly we couldn’t have even predicted. We built our story and then certain things revealed themselves, and vice versa. It’s a little bit more reflective, deeply New York, both historically and the modern New York right now too. The show has always been classic meets modern.”
Who else will show up on ‘Only Murders in the Building’ Season 5?
(L to R) Cooper Hoffman and Christoph Waltz in the Action/Comedy film ‘Old Guy’, a The Avenue release. Photo courtesy of The Avenue.
But the creative team is staying quiet about who the new arrivals will be playing, looking to maintain the surprise.
In the past, some of the guests have played themselves, while others added to the quirky ensemble of characters who make up the world of ‘Only Murders.’
Where else will we see Renée Zellweger?
(L to R) Renée Zellweger as Bridget Jones and Leo Woodall as Roxster in ‘Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy’. Photo: Alex Bailey/Universal Pictures.
Zellweger was recently back on our screens in possibly her most well-known role, that of Bridget Jones in fourth franchise entry ‘Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy.’
And while ‘Only Murders’ is the only confirmed next job for her, she does have several movies and shows in development including ‘The Back Nine,’ about a golfer getting back to her career and ‘Heft,’ about a mother reaching to her former writing professor to help with her son.
When will Season 5 of ‘Only Murders in the Building’ hit Hulu?
Hulu has yet to officially announce the launch date for the new season, but a March production start offers a clue.
Season 4 started filming the same time last year, and was on screens the following August. So if we were to guess, we’d say to expect more murder, mayhem and comedy in late August.
(L to R) Oliver (Martin Short), Mabel (Selena Gomez) and Charles (Steve Martin) on Hulu’s ‘Only Murders In The Building’. Photo: Craig Blankenhorn/Hulu.
Movies and TV Shows Similar to ‘Only Murders in the Building’:
Is there anything left to say in the crime genre, more specifically in stories about hitmen? Well, last year’s ‘Hit Man,’ in fact, tried some different, sexy, and refreshing things, but this year’s ‘Old Guy’ seems content to recycle the same old tropes that we’ve seen a million times before.
Directed by Simon West – best known for disposable action fests like ‘Con Air,’ the first ‘Tomb Raider,’ and ‘The Expendables 2’ – ‘Old Guy’ isn’t exactly awful, and has some great actors in it. Yet it lives up to its title by exuding exhaustion from every frame. The progression of the plot is easy to predict from the word “go,” and the movie offers nothing particularly insightful or witty to counteract that. It’s the kind of material that you might find yourself second-screening on Netflix one day, and if that’s enough, then ‘Old Guy’ might be for you.
Story and Direction
(L to R) Director Simon West and Christoph Waltz behind the scenes on the set of the Action/Comedy film ‘Old Guy’, a The Avenue release. Photo courtesy of The Avenue.
Danny Dolinski (Christoph Waltz) is an aging, legendary hitman just coming back from surgery on his hand. Since it was his gun hand, Danny’s been unable to work for a couple of months, but when he shows up at the British countryside home of his boss Opal (Ann Akinjirin) ready for duty, he’s in for a shock: with Danny getting older and potentially less effective, she’s teaming him with a young killer named Wihlborg (Cooper Hoffman) who she wants Danny to train and observe in the field, although Danny senses that he’s ultimately going to be replaced.
Naturally, Danny does not take to this well, especially when Wihlborg turns out to be a croc-wearing, nail-painting hipster who looks like he’d be more at home at a Marias concert than the bars and nightclubs Danny likes to frequent. Unlike his would-be mentor, Wihlborg doesn’t drink, smoke, or show much interest in women (even being around alcohol makes him “uncomfortable,” he says) and takes his work very seriously: “This is a craft for me. Actually more like an art,” he tells Danny, who quickly retorts: “We’re no artists. We’re sanitation workers. We take out the garbage.”
Christoph Waltz in the Action/Comedy film ‘Old Guy’, a The Avenue release. Photo courtesy of The Avenue.
Typically, their first job together – which takes them to Belfast — does not go according to plan: Danny has Wihlborg wait in the car against Opal’s wishes, but when he screws up the kill due to his hand still healing, Wihlborg comes on the scene and dispatches the target and two bodyguards with ruthless efficiency. As a result, Danny develops a grudging respect for his younger partner, while still offering him advice when needed.
It turns out that the pair are going to need each other. That first target was the No. 3 man in a Belfast-based crime organization that Opal wants to take out so that she can consolidate her own empire. The next targets are Nos. 1 and 2. But there’s also a mole inside Opal’s organization who betrays everyone – forcing Danny and Wihlborg to work together to save their own skins. Also involved in all this is Anata (Lucy Liu), a bar owner who’s Danny’s weapon supplier and his great unrequited love. She improbably comes along on the trip to Belfast for a date with a doctor she’s met there — Danny is squarely in the friend zone for her — but it’s not long before her life is in danger as well.
Much of ‘Old Guy’ is taken up by the usual double-crosses, shootouts, chases, standoffs and escapes, with Danny finding his mojo again as the stakes are raised for him, Anata, and Wihlborg. The best thing we can say is that West shoots it all efficiently enough, with some gorgeous Northern Ireland scenery to gaze at when the action upfront falls flat, which is often the case.
The Cast and Performances
(L to R) Lucy Liu and Christoph Waltz in the Action/Comedy film ‘Old Guy’, a The Avenue release. Photo courtesy of The Avenue.
Ever since veteran Austrian-German actor Christoph Waltz burst into Hollywood with his stunning performance as the sadistic SS officer Hans Landa in Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Inglourious Basterds’ in 2009, his career on this side of the Atlantic has been a checkered one. While winning the Oscar for both ‘Basterds’ and his second Tarantino performance as King Schultz in 2012’s ‘Django Unchained,’ Waltz has also turned in scenery-chewing, hammy work in films like ‘The Green Hornet,’ ‘Downsizing,’ and the lasttwo James Bond film, where he played an unfortunately reinvented Blofeld.
Waltz can be an engaging, charismatic presence, and is a bit more restrained in ‘Old Guy’ than he’s been before. But the character is a cliché: the aging assassin who still has a moral code but finds the world moving past him, he’s disdainful of rules dictating what he can and can’t say, suspicious of people who don’t like to drink as prodigiously as him, and wary of working for criminals who treat their regimes almost as corporate entities. We’ve seen this before, and Waltz doesn’t offer any surprises in the role.
Cooper Hoffman in the Action/Comedy film ‘Old Guy’, a The Avenue release. Photo courtesy of The Avenue.
More interesting is Cooper Hoffman’s Wihlborg, although the idea that a young fellow who wears pajama pants on jobs can be taken seriously as a killer is a bit of a stretch. But rising star Hoffman does bring some shading to a somewhat underwritten role, showing some glimpses of the psychopath lurking under his soft exterior who’s at one point willing to kill a child.
On the other hand, the fabulous Lucy Liu is wasted in her role as Anata, the love interest who comes along on the ride for no other reason than to be placed in danger so that Danny can rescue her and make her realize that he’s been there for her all along. Liu is always magnetic to watch, but she deserves better and seems disinterested in this one-dimensional role.
Final Thoughts
Christoph Waltz in the Action/Comedy film ‘Old Guy’, a The Avenue release. Photo courtesy of The Avenue.
Crime as a numbers-crunching game, gangsters who still go home to see mom, wise-cracking banter, and hip-sounding needle drops – all elements that have played out over and over again in better movies. Even a cast that features top names like Waltz, Liu, and Hoffman can’t do anything but make this somewhat more watchable, although you know what’s going to happen every step of the way.
If there’s any word that describes ‘Old Guy,’ it’s “unambitious.” As we suggested earlier, this is the kind of movie that ends up as streaming fodder, perfect for background noise on a weekend afternoon while you do other things. It’s a shame that the cast and filmmakers can’t do much to rise above that.
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What is the plot of ‘Old Guy’?
An aging assassin (Christoph Waltz ) is teamed up by his boss with a younger, brasher killer (Cooper Hoffman) to ostensibly train him, but suspects that he’s ultimately going to be ‘retired’ by his prodigal partner. The two must work together to stay alive, however, when they’re betrayed from within the company itself.
(L to R) Lucy Liu and Christoph Waltz in the Action/Comedy film ‘Old Guy’, a The Avenue release. Photo courtesy of The Avenue.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Christoph Waltz and Lucy Liu about their work on ‘Old Guy’, their first reactions to the screenplay, their characters, Danny and Anata’s friendship, Danny’s reluctant partnership with his replacement, and working with Cooper Hoffman.
You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interviews.
Christoph Waltz in the Action/Comedy film ‘Old Guy’, a The Avenue release. Photo courtesy of The Avenue.
Moviefone: To begin with, Christoph, what was your first reaction to the screenplay and what appealed to you about playing this character?
Christoph Waltz: Frankly, it’s been a while, so I don’t really recall my first reaction, but somewhere during the events I must have thought, “Yeah, I can do that.” I liked that he’s old and that he must deal with it. He does and that’s inspiring. I’m practicing.
MF: Lucy, what was your first reaction to the screenplay and what was your approach to playing Anata?
Lucy Liu: Well, knowing that Christoph was already connected to the movie was exciting to me. When I read the role of Anata, I really thought that she was just the right amount of condiment in the movie. They didn’t need a lot more. The amount of spice that she added and the connection that she had was enough. Because a lot of people said, “It’s a smaller role.” But I think that the relationship is really between him and Wihlborg. I liked that she was not the main event and that she came on board and was sort of the third wheel, and that it became something much deeper. I also love the idea of doing independent movies. It gets less diluted because sometimes when you’re working on a bigger movie, there’s so many people giving their thoughts and their opinions, it starts to lose what you originally read. I think Simon was able to hold onto what he had originally.
Lucy Liu in the Action/Comedy film ‘Old Guy’, a The Avenue release. Photo courtesy of The Avenue.
MF: Lucy, can you talk about Anata’s friendship with Danny and what she sees in him?
LL: I think she’s great. She’s very raw, and I think she doesn’t want to be vulnerable, but it turns out that she is, and it hurts. I think she’s passed her prime, and I think that when that gentleman says to her, “We can still go back to the hotel,” she realizes he just thinks of her as a prostitute, nothing more than that. Like a good time and it really destroys her and breaks her heart.
MF: Christoph, can you talk about Danny’s reluctant partnership with Wihlborg, who is the person sent to replace him?
CW: I can, but you won’t understand. You’re too young. The moment comes when you’re being pushed aside, and not because you’re lacking anything other than maybe muscle tone. But you have more experience, you have seen how the world works, all of that. Yet you’re being pushed aside because someone just is younger than you are, which is not a good reason. Interestingly in industry, and I hesitate to say normal society because I think that concept is going out the window, but in any case, in our lives, you see that. Sure enough, youth does have to take over sooner or later. That does not necessarily mean that the generation above must be pushed aside. Those are the reasonable arguments. The unreasonable emotional argument is, it hurts to be discarded, to be thrown on the heap with the rest of the old iron. It hurts and it’s difficult to come to terms with that hurt.
Cooper Hoffman in the Action/Comedy film ‘Old Guy’, a The Avenue release. Photo courtesy of The Avenue.
MF: Finally, Christoph, what was it like working with Cooper Hoffman?
CW: Same thing. Same thing, by the way.
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What is the plot of ‘Old Guy’?
An aging assassin (Christoph Waltz ) is teamed up by his boss with a younger, brasher killer (Cooper Hoffman) to ostensibly train him, but suspects that he’s ultimately going to be ‘retired’ by his prodigal partner. The two must work together to stay alive, however, when they’re betrayed from within the company itself.
Based on Stoker’s iconic novel, the movie will chart the dark Prince who is condemned to eternal life. It’s apparently an origin story element exploring in more depth the gothic romance between Prince Vladimir and his wife, whose loss turns him to curse God and become a member of the fang club.
This being Besson, it won’t be a small-scale period drama, instead it’s planned as a hefty-budget, large-scale movie with impressive set-pieces and action.
Who is in ‘Dracula – A Love Tale’?
Christoph Waltz in ‘Inglourious Basterds.’ Photo: The Weinstein Company.
So far, the cast includes Caleb Landry Jones and Christoph Waltz, and while that might set you eagerly anticipating what Waltz might do as the legendary vampire, we must shoot those down with the news that Landry is taking the main role of the prince.
No information is available yet about Waltz’s role, but perhaps he’ll be an associate of the prince. But if we had a magic wand, we’d make him Dracula’s legendary nemesis, the vampire hunter Van Helsing. Of course, that’s assuming Van Helsing is even in the movie.
Jones is not much of a surprise, since he starred in a recent Besson movie, the revenge thriller ‘DogMan’. This will mark the first time that Waltz has worked with the director.
While Besson is looking to shoot the movie this year, there is no indication for a release date yet. That’s mostly because the rights for this one are for sale at the European Film Market at the Berlin International Film Festival.
But following on from its own festival run, ‘DogMan’ will be on limited release in the US on March 29th ahead of a wide launch on April 5th.
And Besson fans can also anticipate another movie from the director, ‘June and John’, an experimental film he shot during Covid lockdown.
(Left) Jacob Elordi as Felix Catton in ‘Saltburn.’ Photo: Amazon MGM Studios. Amazon MGM Studios. (Right) 1931’s ‘Frankenstein.’ Photo: Universal Pictures.
Preview:
‘Saltburn’s Jacob Elordi has boarded Guillermo del Toro’s ‘Frankenstein’.
He replaces Andrew Garfield in playing the monster.
Oscar Isaac, Mia Goth and Christoph Waltz are all aboard the Netflix film.
Mary Shelley’s classic, literary horror-genre-goosing novel ‘Frankenstein’ is something that filmmaker Guillermo del Toro has had on his To-Do list for more than a decade.
Now, Deadline reports that Garfield has had to drop out, just one more ripple effect of last year’s strikes still impacting schedules. But the good news for the director is that Jacob Elordi, whose star is on the rise thanks to ‘Saltburn’ and ‘Priscilla’, is now lined up to step in.
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What’s the story of ‘Frankenstein’?
1931’s ‘Frankenstein.’ Photo: Universal Pictures.
Shelly’s literary game-changer follows Victor Frankenstein (Isaac), a brilliant but egotistical scientist who brings a creature (Elordi) to life in a monstrous experiment that ultimately leads to the undoing of both the creator and his tragic creation.
Del Toro is writing, directing and producing alongside J. Miles Dale, who served as a producer on del Toro’s ‘Cabinet of Curiosities’ for Netflix, where this new movie is also based.
Who else is in Guillermo del Toro’s ‘Frankenstein’?
What has del Toro said about ‘Frankenstein’ in the past?
Director Guillermo del Toro for ‘Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio.’
“The only way to do the Shelley novel is to actually do a four-hour miniseries,” he told MTV in 2008. “But I think there are permutations in which you can tell the myth in a different way.”
Obviously, he’s clearly found a way to make the story work as a movie –– and has now cracked the script.
It’ll need to be something fresh –– Shelley’s book has been adapted many times in many ways for all sorts of media. But we can trust del Toro will bring his distinctive stamp to the story of the doctor who reanimates dead bodies and the creature he creates that faces hatred from the local villagers.
Guillermo del Toro poses backstage with the Oscar® for Animated Feature Film during the live ABC telecast of the 95th Oscars® at Dolby® Theatre at Ovation Hollywood on Sunday, March 12, 2023.
Quite what he intends to do with it is a mystery for now, but he may choose to tweak it in a modern-day setting or stick to more of a period feel. Either way, this is certainly something we know this director can do.
And hopefully, Netflix will give the result some proper big-screen treatment before it ends up on the company’s servers, and we’re glad del Toro is getting to tick another long-held dream film off his list.
As for Elordi, he’s worked on Paul Schrader’s next film, ‘Oh Canada’ and indie drama ‘On Swift Horses’. He’ll also be back for the next season of HBO’s ‘Euphoria’, due in 2025.
A stop-motion-animated adaptation of Carlo Collodi’s 1883 fairy tale novel of the same name, the film is a long-in-development passion project of Del Toro, who’s co-directed it with veteran animation director Mark Gustafson.
Pinocchio reworks the classic fable into a tale of fathers and sons, of the virtue of disobedience, and – like so much of Del Toro’s work – of the dangers of fascism.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Guillermo Del Toro about the film’s inspirations and its unique style of animation.
Director Guillermo del Toro for ‘Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio.’
You can read our full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interview with Del Toro about ‘Pinocchio.’
Moviefone: One of the interesting things about ‘Pinocchio’ is that rather than recall other animated movies, it shares the emotional immediacy of Italian Neorealism and Luis Bunuel‘s films from the 1950s. How did you approach balancing its real life horrors with its fantasy elements? Did you take much the same approach you did with ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’?
Guillermo del Toro: Yeah, it’s very much the same. I mean, it’s instinctual partially, certainly in shaping the first iterations of the tale. Then you’re really, really careful on the composition of the scenes and how they flow from one another. Tonally, it’s a movie that is going to fluctuate between moments of musical comedy or comedy to drama, to melodrama, to conversations that have a gravity for me and an importance for me that is almost existential.
So you have to be able to circulate between Mussolini arriving in a Tex Avery Warner Brothers Cartoon limousine and Pinocchio having a conversation with a fellow bedmate in a fascist reeducation youth camp. So that’s what is difficult. But every time I think about one of my movies, it is that disparity of flavors that attracts me. ‘Shape of Water’ was a love story between a cleaning woman and an amphibian man done by Douglas Sirk with musical numbers. So it is not exactly easy, but it’s what I do. I don’t know if I do it well or not, but I do it.
MF: You’ve said that in making this film you sought to avoid the pantomime shorthand that infects so many animated films today and overly hip characters and how instead you called upon the animators to animate silence and “failed physical acts.” How did you develop this technique?
GDT: It started when I was younger and I saw ‘My Neighbor Totoro’ for the first time. (Director Hayao) Miyazaki has a moment in which the father goes to put on a shoe and he fails to get the shoe in the first and the second time, and finally gets the shoe in. I was transfixed. I thought, “This is amazing.” I read more about Miyazaki of course, and at one point or another, the master Miyazaki said, “If you animate the ordinary, it will be extraordinary.” I decided that real life, in animation, lives in the portions that nobody animates in North America, in the West, in the
industrial animation scene. I started trying it on ‘Tales of Arcadia’ – ‘Troll Hunters,’ ‘3Below,’ and ‘Wizards’ – which were three series that we developed for Netflix and Dreamworks. Little by little I realized, A, how difficult it was, and B, how rewarding it was. So we decided to put eight rules of animation together for the animated crew on ‘Pinocchio.’ I guaranteed them that no one would interfere with our movie, that I would protect it from notes or previews or changes that we didn’t want. I guaranteed them that and I was able to deliver and they invested themselves into animating it as subtle and as naturalistic as they possibly could.
Arriving on Netflix (following a brief theatrical run) on December 9th, Guillermo del Toro’s adaptation of ‘Pinocchio’ marks the second major adaptation to arrive this year.
And this is, by a long distance, a much more satisfying, very different version than the Disney offering that landed on Disney+ back in September.
In fact, we’ll go so far as to say that there is more inventiveness, care and technique in one wooden finger of this passion project from the director of ‘Hellboy’, ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ and ‘The Shape of Water’ than in the entire Disney effort, which offered minor charms and little reason to justify its existence.
A passion project of the Mexican director for many years, representing several false starts and financial frustrations, that it’s arriving at all is miracle enough, but that it’s this good is even more reason to celebrate.
Yet this is also no sanitized, completely family-friendly affair. There is a darkness and element of horror at the heart of del Toro’s film, which feels even more in keeping with Carlo Collodi’s moral fable.
Drawing on the classic tale, the stop-motion musical follows the extraordinary journey of a wooden boy magically brought to life by a father’s wish. Brought, it should be said, to life by a wood sprite creature that wouldn’t look out of place in one of del Toro’s live-action fantasies, and voiced by Tilda Swinton, whose character has a sibling in the spirit of Death, whom Pinocchio meets more than once on his travels.
And continuing a theme he established in ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’, del Toro uses war and totalitarianism as the backdrop for the narrative. Set during the rise of Fascism in Mussolini’s Italy, this is a story of love and disobedience as Pinocchio (voiced by Gregory Mann) struggles to live up to his father Geppetto’s (David Bradley) expectations.
If Disney’s take featured the now-iconic version animated version of the main character overlaid with a CG sheen, its hard angles lovely sanded down to a smooth, kiddie-pleasing finish, so del Toro and co-director Mark Gustafson opt for a gnarly, more realistic puppet that looks like it was carved from waste wood, all knots and stumpy bits of carpentry. Though this living marionette is no less appealing.
An agent of chaos from the off, Mann’s Pinocchio chafes against rules and regulations, finding fun in disobedience, and needing to learn that there’s a time and place for such behavior.
Still, he’s a loveable lad, singing his way through some memorable numbers and encountering fear from the townsfolk. And he has his conscience present and correct––living (literally) in his heart––in the shape of Ewan McGregor’s Cricket.
The expected beats of the story––Pinocchio tempted away from attending school by the lure of fame from manipulative, cruel showman Count Volpe (Christoph Waltz)––are all found here, but this take on the take expands it beyond those boundaries to explore death, disobedience and those (such as Ron Perlman’s Podesta, who fervently believes in the darkness spreading across his country) would champion hurtful ideologies. After all, it’s not every adaptation of ‘Pinocchio’ that would dare to have Mussolini as a character, and then have the lead sing a song that roundly insults him.
Del Toro worked on the screenplay Patrick McHale and Matthew Robbins, and the result of their toil is a clear-eyed and timeless fable.
Voice-wise, the cast is spot on. Mann (doing double duty as Geppetto’s late son Carlo in a flashback to how the poor land died and as the central character) is charming without ever tipping over into precociousness.
David Bradley, who might be better known to audiences as the grumpy Argus Filch from the ‘Harry Potter’ franchise, here infuses Geppetto with real humanity: by turns mournful or frustrated, loving and chastising. Around them, there are the talents of actors such as Waltz, Swinton, McGregor, John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson, Burn Gorman and voiceover regular Tom Kenny.
When you have Oscar winner Cate Blanchett showing up to provide guttural screeches for simian character Spazzatura, you know the phrase “embarrassment of riches” creeps into the casting discussion (and yes, Blanchett is excellent).
But the voices would be nothing without the beautiful animation and it’s here that that the new effort truly comes alive. Like its central figure (and again, in keeping with its co-director’s sensibilities), this is an authentic, very practical and darkly hewed world, bursting with fascinating little details, such as the skeletal rabbits who guard the link between the world of the living and the dead (and amuse themselves with card games).
Every single puppet, prop, landscape, building and gesture is created with deep attention to detail, and lavish craft.
Though the running time is a hefty one for a movie aimed at families at nearly two hours, it doesn’t waste a moment of that time. And yes, while parents might find themselves having difficult discussions with children about the subjects of death and hatred (and whether Mussolini was a poopy baby), they are themes worth exploring, and the film does so with heart and brains.
There really is no comparison between the two ‘Pinocchio’ films––for all the Disney-friendly fun offered by the Robert Zemeckis movie, del Toro’s makes it look like a bargain bin knock-off with plastic parts. This movie, for all its grungy, darker elements, bears the seal of quality and careful carving. An artisan piece of work that skips pretentiousness and instead bristles with chaos and imagination.
If you only watch one (of the approximately 572) adaptations of Collodi’s story, we recommend this one. Del Toro has been planning this one for nearly two decades––and it has been more than worth the wait and effort.
‘Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio’ receives 4.5 out of 5 stars.
