Moviefone Editorial

Tag: danny-glover

  • San Diego Comic-Con 2025: ‘Predator: Badlands’

    (L to R) Alec Gillis, Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi, Elle Fanning and director Dan Trachtenberg at San Diego Comic-Con 2025 Hall H panel for 'Predator: Badlands'. Photo: Disney.
    (L to R) Alec Gillis, Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi, Elle Fanning and director Dan Trachtenberg at San Diego Comic-Con 2025 Hall H panel for ‘Predator: Badlands’. Photo: Disney.

    Preview:

    • ‘Predator: Badlands’ showed off new footage at Comic-Con.
    • Director Dan Trachtenberg and star Elle Fanning were on the panel.
    • Fresh information was revealed.

    ‘Prey’ director Dan Trachtenberg has become something of a ‘Predator’ specialist, having also made animated adventure ‘Predator: Killer of Killers’.

    He’s back with a second outing this year, ‘Predator: Badlands’, which naturally took the opportunity to bring some footage and guests to Comic-Con to make sure audiences are primed.

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    ‘Badlands’, which stars Elle Fanning and Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi, is live-action entry, and promises plenty of action.

    Related Article: Movie Review: ‘Predator: Killer of Killers’

    What’s the story of ‘Predator: Badlands’?

    (L to R) Thia (Elle Fanning) and Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) in 20th Century Studios' 'Predator: Badlands' film. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2025 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
    (L to R) Thia (Elle Fanning) and Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) in 20th Century Studios’ ‘Predator: Badlands’ film. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2025 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.

    In the future on a remote planet, a young Predator, outcast from his clan, finds an unlikely ally in artificial being Thia (Fanning) and embarks on a treacherous journey in search of the ultimate adversary.

    What happened at the ‘Predator: Badlands’ panel?

    (L to R) Director Dan Trachtenberg, Elle Fanning, Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi and Alec Gillis at San Diego Comic-Con 2025 Hall H panel for 'Predator: Badlands'. Photo: Disney.
    (L to R) Director Dan Trachtenberg, Elle Fanning, Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi and Alec Gillis at San Diego Comic-Con 2025 Hall H panel for ‘Predator: Badlands’. Photo: Disney.

    Predator masks were handed out to the crowd at the start of the panel, which came in handy since a Predator took the stage to menace the assembled audience.

    Filmmaker Kevin Smith moderated the panel, and admitted up front that ‘Badlands’ was his favorite ‘Predator’ movie so far.

    Smith introduced Trachtenberg, who admitted how excited he was to be promoting a movie at Comic-Con after years attending as a fan:

    “You could imagine bringing a movie to Hall H would be a dream for me. It’s something I’m really proud of, and I’m so happy to share it with all of you.”

    The Predator carrying Fanning’s character (or half of her) on his back was inspired by Chewbacca carrying C-3PO in ‘The Empire Strikes Back’.

    (L to R) Director Dan Trachtenberg and Elle Fanning at San Diego Comic-Con 2025 Hall H panel for 'Predator: Badlands'. Photo: Disney.
    (L to R) Director Dan Trachtenberg and Elle Fanning at San Diego Comic-Con 2025 Hall H panel for ‘Predator: Badlands’. Photo: Disney.

    Here’s what Fanning had to say about taking the role:

    “Reading the script, what really drew me in was the heart and emotions… there’s no humans. I’m a synthetic android, he’s a Predator. But there’s so much humanity in these characters.”

    Trachtenberg was also thinking about emotions- particularly having the Predator face be uncovered a lot more this time, so as to display both the digital work and performance.

    The panel closed out with the first 15 minutes of ‘Badlands’ shown to the crowd, which cheered the Predator-y goodness.

    In related ‘Predator’ news, ‘Killer of Killers’ will be updated on Hulu with an additional post-credits scene featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s Dutch and Danny Glover‘s Mike Harrigan.

    When will ‘Predator: Badlands’ be in theaters?

    This latest ‘Predator’ outing stalks into cinemas on November 7th.

    (L to R) Director Dan Trachtenberg, Elle Fanning, Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi and Alec Gillis at San Diego Comic-Con 2025 Hall H panel for 'Predator: Badlands'. Photo: Disney.
    (L to R) Director Dan Trachtenberg, Elle Fanning, Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi and Alec Gillis at San Diego Comic-Con 2025 Hall H panel for ‘Predator: Badlands’. Photo: Disney.

    List of Movies in the ‘Predator’ Franchise:

    Buy ‘Predator’ Movies on Amazon

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  • Lewis Pullman Talks ‘Press Play’

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    Opening in theaters, on demand and digital June 24th is the new romantic drama ‘Press Play,’ from writer/director Greg Bjorkman, based on a story by Josh Boone (‘The New Mutants’).

    After Harrison (Lewis Pullman) dies in an accident, his girlfriend Laura (Clara Rugaard) finds a mix-tape that allows her to travel back in time. Using the tape, she tries to change Harrison’s future, which doesn’t go as planned.

    In addition to Pullman and Rugaard, the cast also includes Lyrica Okano, Christina Chang, Matt Walsh, and Danny Glover.

    Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Lewis Pullman about his work on ‘Press Play,’ as well as being in the biggest grossing movie of the year, ‘Top Gun: Maverick.’

    Lewis Pullman in ‘Press Play.'
    Lewis Pullman in ‘Press Play.’

    You can read the full interview with Lewis Pullman below or click on the video player above to watch our interviews with Pullman, Clara Rugaard, Lyrica Okano, and writer/director Greg Bjorkman.

    Moviefone: To begin with, how did you get involved with this project and what was your first reaction to the time-traveling screenplay?

    Lewis Pullman: I first read the screenplay and auditioned for it. Then I met up with Greg Bjorkman. My first reaction to the script was, I love these two genres, and to see them welded together is so interesting. I think it really pulls on the heartstrings in a lot of ways, but it also really taps into the human instincts that we all can pray victim too of wanting to live in the past or wanting to change the past. Or thinking that if we could just go back for a minute or for a song’s length of time, we could maybe change the future. I think it’s just fun to watch somebody be able to explore that.

    When I found out Clara was attached, I watched ‘I Am Mother’ and I was blown away by her and her ability to kind of walk into these incredibly mind-altering universes and really play it out in her mind really well. So, I was like, “She did that so incredibly in ‘I am mother.’” I was like, “Well, she’s only going to be able to do it better in this. I’d love to be a part of that and work with her and Greg.” I sat down with Greg and he had a lot of real personal attachments to this story and had injected a lot of his own experience into it. So, I thought that was a cool way in. That was interesting to me.

    MF: Do you subscribe to the theory that music allows the listener a form of time travel?

    LP: Absolutely. I do think so. It’s almost a scent where you can put it on. I’m in Massachusetts now and I haven’t been out here since October. When I was out here in October, I was listening to the same three albums over and over again. Then I out listened to them and I stopped. I got back here last week, and I was like, “should I put those albums on again?” It had been just enough time for their juice to kind of be reinvigorated. It was literally like all my memories were so palpable and colorful. I think it really is in a lot of ways a real-life time travel machine.

    Lewis Pullman and Clara Rugaard in ‘Press Play.'
    (L to R) Lewis Pullman and Clara Rugaard in ‘Press Play.’

    MF: Can you talk about Harrison’s reaction when Laura claims to have traveled from the future?

    LP: Those scenes were a lot of fun to shoot. That was also a huge attraction for me that a lot of these scenes are so far from anything we can really draw from in our real lives. So, how do you put those pieces together? The disbelief, and it’s almost like hearing somebody try and tell you about a conspiracy theory or something. At first, you’re like, “You’re crazy. This is not real.” You have to sit down and take a breath. Then, in this case, trying to really go through that domino effect of thoughts and putting the pieces together. Then all of a sudden having your mind completely blown and your idea of reality totally turned upside down was a really fun challenge.

    To do it with Clara who’s so good at that was really fun. It was like a game. It was like a fun sparring session. So, Clara was really good about keeping track of where we were at, and so was Greg. So, that was also challenging. I think a big task of mine personally was, because after a certain point in the story I kind of come in and out and there’s huge gaps in between where you don’t see what Harrison is doing or how he’s processing this new information. So, I kind of had to map those out on my own. Where is he in terms of how he’s grappling with all this information? That was pretty interesting and helped a lot.

    MF: The movie jumps around to different moments in Laura and Harrison’s relationship, and is at times shown from two different points of view. As an actor, did it ever get confusing for you going from scene to scene like that?

    LP: I mean, it was kind of discombobulating. Because there’s a lot of scenes but generally, each of these scenes we would do twice in two completely different ways. So, every day we’d walk in and do the original version of the scene, and then we’d finish that. Then we would do the time travel version of the scene. So, that was helpful to be able to track in terms of where you were at the original point, and then where you are at the end.

    That’s already hard enough to do with a normal story arc. Sometimes you’re just like, “I cannot grasp what is going on right now. Where are we right now?” I think that’s what a lot of Laura and Harrison are kind of experiencing. So, I think that lent itself to it a little bit.

    (L to R) Clara Rugaard and Lewis Pullman in ‘Press Play.'
    (L to R) Clara Rugaard and Lewis Pullman in ‘Press Play.’

    MF: Can you talk about working with writer/director Greg Bjorkman and watching him execute his vision for this project?

    LP: Greg and James Bachelor wrote this thing together and they did a really good job at getting the graph paper out and trying to make sure they could erase any sort of plot holes or anything like that. Time travel’s such a complex thing to write, and I thought they did a great job.

    Greg had a lot of really personal connection to this story. I think he was constantly drawing into his own life and his own experiences, which I thought was great because you can’t really go into the time travel element with your own experiences. So, he had a very specific idea as to how he wanted it all to go. How he wanted their relationship to look and what their arc looked like. So, it was cool to watch him take something grandiose and draw it back down into this grounded personal space.

    MF: Are you a Tape-Head? Do you collect tapes or vinyl, or just listen to music digitally?

    LP: I don’t. I mean, I learned how to make a mix-tape on this thing. But, I’ve got vinyl, but I’m a Spotify guy. I realized you don’t really know what albums your favorite songs are on when you can just download the song, and you don’t get the context of the song as a whole. So, I kind of did relate to some of Harrison’s ideas on that end of things.

    MF: Finally, what is it like being in one of the most successful movies of all-time with ‘Top Gun: Maverick?’

    LP: Absolutely mind blowing, man. I’m just trying to soak it in. I know that these things come and go and I’m just trying to enjoy it while it’s here. I celebrate with the whole cast as much as possible because we worked so hard on that thing. So, it’s a kind of a unicorn of an experience to be able to have all that hard work payoff in such an extreme crescendo. It’s about as cool as it gets, man!

    Lewis Pullman plays "BOB" in 'Top Gun: Maverick' from Paramount Pictures, Skydance and Jerry Bruckheimer Films.
    Lewis Pullman plays “BOB” in ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ from Paramount Pictures, Skydance and Jerry Bruckheimer Films.
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  • First ‘Jumanji: The Next Level’ Trailer Is a Game-Changer

    First ‘Jumanji: The Next Level’ Trailer Is a Game-Changer

    Sony Pictures

    “Jumanji: The Next Level” is bringing its A-game.

    The sequel to 2017’s “Welcome to the Jungle” does indeed take the game to the next level by introducing new players to take over the avatars embodied by Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, and Karen Gillan.

    The teens played by Alex Wolff, Madison Iseman, Ser’Darius Blain, and Morgan Turner all return, but this time, there’s a twist. Wolff’s character has a cranky old grandfather (Danny DeVito) who gets sucked into the game, alongside his pal (Danny Glover).

    They respectively inhabit Johnson and Hart’s avatars, so yes, we can smell what The Rock is cooking and it’s a Danny DeVito impersonation.

    The movie also brings back Nick Jonas as pilot Jefferson “Seaplane” McDonough and brings in franchise newcomer Awkwafina.

    “Jumanji: The Next Level” opens in theaters December 13.

  • ‘Jumanji’ Sequel Adds Danny Glover to the Mix

    ‘Jumanji’ Sequel Adds Danny Glover to the Mix

    Screen Gems

    “Lethal Weapon” star Danny Glover joins Danny DeVito (and Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart) in the upcoming “Jumanji” sequel.

    We don’t yet know what role he’ll be playing, but it’ll be fun to see him (potentially) share the screen with Awkwafina , Karen Gillan and Jack Black.

    “From Awkafina to Danny DeVito to now one of my action heroes, Danny Glover — it’s been awesome having so many actors and OG legends raise their hands wanting to come and play in our Jumanji universe,” star and producer Johnson told The Hollywood Reporter. “‘Who turns into who?’ will always be the fun magic sauce for our audience.”

    The 72-year-old Glover is not slowing down: Last year he costarred in “The Old Man & the Gun,” “Sorry to Bother You,” and “Proud Mary.” And he executive-produced the Oscar-nominated documentary “Strong Island.”

    His upcoming movies include Jim Jarmusch’s “The Dead Don’t Die,” “The Last Black Man in San Francisco,” and the thriller “The Lighthouse,” directed by his younger brother, Martin Glover.

    [Via THR]

  • 11 Things You Never Knew About ‘Lethal Weapon’

    Hard as it is to believe, the original “Lethal Weapon” turns 30 this year. Well, maybe not that hard when you take a gander at Mel Gibson’s mullet…

    But even after all these decades, Detectives Riggs and Murtaugh are anything but too old for this s***. To celebrate this milestone, join us as we explore some interesting facts you might not know about this classic buddy-cop action movie.
    1. Mel Gibson can thank Riggs for landing him the juicy lead role in 1990’s “Hamlet.” Director Franco Zeffirelli was impressed by Gibson’s acting in the scene where Riggs considers committing suicide.

    2. Most aspiring filmmakers have to work for years to get a foothold into the industry, but writer Shane Black wrote the “Lethal Weapon” screenplay shortly after graduating from UCLA and almost immediately caught the eye of producer Joel Silver. Some guys have all the luck…3. For all that his character complained about being “too old for this s***,” Danny Glover was only 40-years-old when “Lethal Weapon” was filmed. No wonder Murtaugh didn’t actually wind up retiring until 1997’s “Lethal Weapon 4.”

    4. It’s just as well Glover was still a spring chicken, as he and Gibson had to go through some pretty intense physical training for their roles. Both actors spent months training and studied martial arts forms like Capoeira, Brazilian jiu-jitsu. and something called “Jailhouse Rock.”5. “Star Trek” icon Leonard Nimoy was approached to direct “Lethal Weapon,” but he was apparently turned off by the film’s violence. Instead, Nimoy went on to direct the hit comedy “Three Men and a Baby.”

    6. We very nearly lived in a world where Bruce Willis played Detective Riggs and Mel Gibson was the face of the “Die Hard” franchise. Willis turned down the part of Riggs to star in “Die Hard,” while Gibson turned down the part of John McClane to star in “Lethal Weapon.”

    7. Willis was hardly the only one to turn down the part of Riggs. Other candidates included Jeff Goldblum, Christopher Reeve, Patrick Swayze, Pierce Brosnan, and Michael Douglas.8. During the course of the movie, Murtaugh tells Riggs a story about surviving a battle in Ia Drang Valley during the Vietnam War. Funnily enough, Mel Gibson would eventually go on to star in 2002’s “We Were Soldiers,” which depicts that particular battle (above).
    9. The film once featured completely different opening and ending scenes. Originally, the movie ended with Riggs and Murtaugh bidding farewell rather than Riggs showing up for Christmas dinner at the Murtaugh household.

    10. Riggs is very good at cheating death. An earlier draft of the script had Riggs dying at the end, and Black also contemplated killing off the character in 1989’s “Lethal Weapon 2.”11. While we’ll probably never see a “Lethal Weapon 5,” now that the franchise has been rebooted for TV, Shane Black apparently did write a story for a new sequel. In an interview with Nerdist’s The Writer’s Panel podcast, Black revealed that he co-wrote a 62-page treatment that would reunite the iconic cops in what the filmmaker thought would make for a “very good movie.”

    “It was essentially an older Riggs and Murtagh in New York City during the worst blizzard in east coast history, fighting a team of expert Blackwater guys from Afghanistan that’s smuggling antiquities,” Black said. “And we had a young character that actually counter-pointed them.”

    So why did the movie not happen? “I didn’t wanna do what people do when they’re trying to transition which is, they sorta put the two older guys in the movie, but really it’s about their son!” Black said. “And he’s gonna take over and we’re gonna do a spinoff. F**k that, if they’re gonna be in the movie, they’re gonna be in the movie — I don’t care how old they are.”

  • Mo’Nique Gets Naughty in Exclusive ‘Almost Christmas’ Clip

    The holiday season means the return of wintry weather, exchanging gifts, and spending time with family and friends. Just how much you enjoy that latter tradition depends on your DNA, and for the family at the heart of “Almost Christmas,” it will be a miracle if they make it out of the proceedings alive.

    The comedy, which centers around the Meyers family, features the patriarch (Danny Glover) asking his loved ones for only one present this year: To get along with each other. But as we see in this clip, premiering today exclusively on Moviefone and Aol, they can’t even make it through a pickup football game without some shenanigans.

    Trash talking about fashion choices, inappropriate touching, showing off gymnastics moves, and some odd flirting all find their way into the proceedings. And that’s before Aunt May (played by Oscar winner Mo’Nique) fires off a naughty (and NSFW) one-liner that leaves her fellow sideline spectators in stitches. Clearly, there’s never a dull moment with the Meyers crew.

    “Almost Christmas,” which also stars Gabrielle Union, Kimberly Elise, J.B. Smoove, John Michael Higgins, Romany Malco, Omar Epps, Nicole Ari Parker, Jessie T. Usher, and DC Young Fly, hits theaters on November 11.almost christmasPhoto credit: Universal

  • The 10 Best Aging Action Stars Ever, Ranked

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    Stars who made their names beating up bad guys three decades ago may be in their fifties and sixties now, but they’re still big box office draws, at least to overseas audiences (where Hollywood makes most of its money anyway) and to older North American viewers (increasingly, a dependable group of moviegoers with disposable income).

    So it’s no wonder that recent releases are action thrillers starring hardcore heroes who look like your dad. Call them “dadcore” heroes. It’s not just ’80s stalwarts like Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Bruce Willis, either, but also thespians like Liam Neeson and Danny Glover, guys who can actually act.

    Either way, their years give them a sense of experience and worldliness that makes up for their lessened speed and agility. Here’s a countdown of the top 10 among these senior silver-screen tough guys.