Seth Rogen, Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton are aboard ‘The Invite.’
Olivia Wilde is directing it, and the cameras are rolling.
Rashida Jones and Will McCormack adapted the script from a Spanish movie.
Olivia Wilde continues to keep her directorial career bubbling along. Following on her 2022 effort ‘Don’t Worry Darling,’ the actor/filmmaker has narrowed in her next gig, which is already shooting in Los Angeles.
Wilde is both calling the shots for, and appearing in, new comedy ‘The Invite’ and she’s gathered quite the starry cast to lead it.
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Via Variety, Seth Rogen, Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton are all aboard the film, which reunites Wilde with FilmNation, the company behind her directorial debut, ‘Booksmart.’ Annapurna Pictures’ Megan Ellison, David Permut and Patrick Chu are executive producing.
According to the official synopsis, Wilde’s latest directorial effort is about a couple who invites the neighbors over, igniting an evening full of unexpected twists and turns, revealing deeply repressed emotions and unexplored sexuality.
The story has its origins in 2020 Spanish film ‘Sentimental’ (AKA ‘The People Upstairs’), which was written and directed by Cesc Gay.
It has been adapted a variety of times before, including into 2022’s Italian version ‘Vicini di casa,’ 2023’s Swiss effort ‘The Neighbors from Upstairs,’ 2024 French remake ‘Maybe More’ and that same year, a Czech movie called ‘V dobrém i zlém.’
In addition to this latest project, Wilde also has other directorial gigs in development, including Universal Pictures’ Christmas comedy ‘Naughty’ and Warner Bros.’ ‘Avengelyne,’ a film adaptation of the ’90s comic book character, both of which boast the support of Margot Robbie’s LuckyChap production company.
There’s also a new, untitled comedy project she’s been writing with ‘Booksmart’ collaborator Katie Silbermab.
(L to R) Olivia Wilde and Seth Rogen in ‘The Studio,’ premiering March 26, 2025 on Apple TV+.
Rogen is enjoying success with his Apple TV+ Hollywood satire ‘The Studio,’ which he co-created, co-directs and stars in as a newly crowned studio head wrangling with the division between art and business in his job.
The show features an appearance by Wilde, playing a version of herself.
And, as with many of his colleagues, there are a number of projects in development.
When will ‘The Invite’ accept an invitation to appear in theaters?
At this stage, the movie has yet to lock down a distributor, so we’re guessing a deal is forthcoming or the rights will be available at an upcoming film market.
Given the name cast, we doubt it’ll take too long for it to be snapped up.
So when he returns with a new project, you know he’ll be provocative once more. And from the sounds of ‘I Want Your Sex’, which has enlisted ‘Licorice Pizza’ breakout Cooper Hoffman and Olivia Wilde to star, it definitely falls into that category.
“When fresh-faced Elliot (Hoffman) lands an exciting job for renowned artist, icon and provocateur Erika Tracy (Wilde), his fantasies come true as Erika taps him to become her sexual muse. But Elliot soon finds himself out of his depth as Erika takes him on a journey more profound than he ever could have imagined, into a world of sex, obsession, power, betrayal and murder.”
Yup, definitely not a lightweight rom-com where you can predict every plot turn, there.
Who else is working on ‘I Want Your Sex’?
The cast of ‘Now Apocalypse’. Photo: Starz.
Araki has co-written the script with Karley Sciortino, who has worked on movies including ‘Slutever’ and ‘Now Apocalypse’) and it’s described as “blithely exploring desire, domination and fantasy.”
And producers include Seth Caplan, a past winner of the John Cassavetes Award at the Film Independent Spirit Awards, alongside Araki, Sciortino, and Black Bear’s Teddy Schwarzman and Michael Heimler.
Where else have I seen Olivia Wilde and Cooper Hoffman?
Cooper Hoffman in ‘Licorice Pizza.’ Photo: United Artists Releasing.
As for Hoffman –– who also happens to be the son of acclaimed, late actor Philip Seymour Hoffman –– he’s already started to make his own mark on movies, kicking off his career with, as mentioned, Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2021 drama ‘Licorice Pizza.’
‘I Want Your Sex’ is scheduled to start shooting this October in Los Angeles, so when it’ll be released is anyone’s guess (plus it still has to line up distribution), though Araki might be looking to goose the 2025 awards season.
Olivia Wilde as Quorra in ‘Tron: Legacy.’ Photo: Disney.
Olivia Wilde is aboard to direct an adaptation of Rob Liefeld’s ‘Avengelyne’.
‘Barbie’s Margot Robbie is producing via her LuckyChap company.
The movie will be shopped to studios and screeners.
Here’s a compelling package that will soon be looking to find some support. Olivia Wilde, the director of ‘Booksmart’ and ‘Don’t Worry Darling’, is aiming to hop on the superhero genre train, signing on –– at least per The Hollywood Reporter –– to direct an adaptation of Rob Liefeld’s ‘Avengelyne’ character.
And if that wasn’t enough, Wilde has the backing of Margot Robbie’s LuckyChap company, which, let’s not forget, most recently brought us the mega-hit and Oscar-winning ‘Barbie’. While Robbie isn’t currently attached to star (she already has her iconic comic book role in Harley Quinn, don’t forget) she may end up taking a role.
Avengelyne as a character debuted in 1995 and was co-created by ‘Deadpool’s Rob Liefeld alongside Cathy Christian and Tony Lobito.
She’s an angel who fights the forces of evil and often finds herself face-to-face with demons and monsters. She was the most feared warrior in Heaven’s Warhost, having single-handedly broken into Pandemonium, the outer fortress of Hell, to confront the Devil himself.
But now, she finds herself a fallen angel, banished from Heaven by God after being tricked into questioning his love for humans. Stripped of all her angelic abilities other than her great strength and her blood, which, once extracted from her body, could be used as a weapon or a miracle once empowered by quoting verses from the Bible, Avengelyne uses her powers to fight demons on Earth and is being groomed to be humankind’s last hope in a coming Armageddon.
Here’s what Liefeld has said about her in the past:
“Avengelyne resonated so powerfully with the audience because her story of redemption is one that is so relatable. A fallen angel, sentenced to redeem herself by serving humanity, Earth is a foreign environment to her, she must adapt in order to save herself as well as mankind. Her dilemma provides humor amidst the larger plot engine driving her journey.”
Who else is involved with ‘Avengelyne’?
‘Invasion’ series creator Simon Kinberg.
Alongside Robbie, the project has Simon Kinberg, no stranger to superhero movies himself, attached as a producer via his Genre Films company.
And there is reportedly a well-known writer making a deal to crank out the script, though their identity is unknown right now.
What’s next for ‘Avengelyne’?
Rob Liefeld’s ‘Avengelyne’. Photo: Image Comics.
According to the Reporter’s story, the project will be taken out soon to gauge interest from studios and streamers. Given the talent involved (especially the ‘Barbie’ connection), we’d expect this to find a home relatively quickly.
The only issue might be the creeping feel of superhero fatigue, and female-focused genre titles such as ‘Madame Web’ underperforming at the box office.
Olivia Wilde has found a potential new directing job in Christmas comedy ‘Naughty.
It’s being described as ‘Bridesmaids’ at the North Pole.
Margot Robbie’s LuckyChap company will produce the movie.
Olivia Wilde broke out big as a director thanks to ‘Booksmart’ back in 2019, though her cache took a hit after the reviews and controversies of ‘Don’t Worry Darling’ (it’s worth noting that the thriller did make $87 million off of a $20 million budget).
She is still, however, a sought-after filmmaker, and has a few projects in the works (more on that lower down the page) and is adding another potential to the list, agreeing to make Christmas comedy ‘Naughty’, at least according to a report from Deadline.
The film follows Mallory, whose only hope of securing custody of her son from her gaslighting trash-bag ex is to find Santa Claus and convince him to testify in her divorce hearing.
Given how ‘Cocaine Bear’ turned out, we’d expect this to be another wild comedy with a lot of ludicrous behavior.
Who is producing the new film?
Actor/Producer Margot Robbie attends the ‘Barbie’ Press Junket Photo Call at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills, CA. Photo by Eric Charbonneau.
The biggest element to make this one attractive to potential buyers besides the presence of Wilde is word that Margot Robbie’s LuckyChap company is attached to produce the movie.
LuckyChap is behind the year’s biggest box office hit and buzziest movie in ‘Barbie’ (which starred Robbie) and also Emerald Fennell’s follow-up to ‘Promising Young Woman’, ‘Saltburn’, which is on limited release now before going wider on December 22nd.
Whether Robbie ends up acting in the movie remains to be seen –– she hasn’t appeared in every project from the company. But the lead role here is clearly something she could make work.
It remains to be seen which company might pick this one up –– expect plenty of interest from the usual studios and streaming services.
What else is Olivia Wilde working on?
Olivia Wilde in ‘Meadowland.’
Wilde has a few other projects on her To Do list, including sports biopic ‘Perfect’ about gymnast Kerry Strug, which stars Thomasin McKenzie and McKenna Grace and should be shooting in 2024.
There are others in development, including an untitled new comedy that reunites her with ‘Booksmart’s Katie Silberman and a yet-to-be-released movie in Sony’s Spider-Man adjacent universe.
And on the TV front, she’s been linked to adaptations of Jennifer Egan’s novels ‘A Visit from the Goon Squad’ and ‘The Candy House’.
And the new film is a very, very different beast from that initial offering, swapping charming, warm coming-of-age antics and slapstick humor for paranoia, gaslighting and a theme that would feel right at home in a thriller from the 1970s.
We’re introduced to Alice Chambers (Florence Pugh) and husband Jack (Harry Styles) who count themselves lucky to be living in the idealized community of Victory, the experimental company town housing the men who work for the highly top secret Victory Project and their families.
The 1950’s societal optimism espoused by their boss Frank (Chris Pine) – who is equal parts corporate visionary and motivational life coach – influences every aspect of daily life in the tight-knit desert utopia, which is seemingly carved from the landscape in California’s Palm Springs.
While the husbands spend every day inside the Victory Project Headquarters, working on the “development of progressive materials,” their wives, including Frank’s elegant partner, Shelley (Gemma Chan) fill their time enjoying the beauty, luxury and debauchery of their community. Life is perfect, with every resident’s needs met by the company. All they ask in return is discretion and unquestioning commitment to the Victory cause.
Alice and Jack are initially thrilled with their lives, sizzling with sexual chemistry and barely able to keep their hands off each other when they’re at home, and at one point in Frank’s bedroom during a party.
Even though it might seem repetitive – Jack heads off to work, Alice cleans the house and busies herself with cooking, ballet and shopping – it’s so comfortable that no-one questions it. Until Alice starts to.
She’s spurred by the behavior of another wife, KiKi Layne’s Margaret, who has been having serious second thoughts after taking her son out to the restricted desert area outside the community, where he disappeared and is seemingly dead.
As Margaret’s actions grow more out of keeping with everyone else, Alice starts to feel a tingling sense of paranoia. Is this idealized life she’s living as, well, ideal? And her sense of reality starts to crumble.
Given that this is a psychological thriller, you know there will be something going on, but we won’t get into that here – the basic set-up is all you really need.
Wilde weaves a compelling, mysterious and stylish story, stretching a relatively thrifty $20-$30 million budget into an effective, layered world. She drip-feeds tension into the narrative from the off with the mysterious rumbles that shake the houses from time to time, written off by the residents as a side-effect of whatever the men are working on.
She and her team have built something that looks and sounds fabulous, whether it’s cinematographer Matthew Libatique’s sun-bleached visions of this community with its pastel, mid-century modern houses or John Powell’s score, which dials up the creepiness as the narrative moves on. Together with the sound team, it creates a real feeling of unease.
The script, from ‘Booksmart’s Katie Silberman, based on a story by her alongside Carey Van Dyke and Shane Van Dyke (yes, as in Dick Van Dyke – they’re his grandsons) serves as a solid example of the paranoia genre, crafting this world before challenging it.
While ‘Booksmart’ explored female friendship and teenage frustration, ‘Darling’ switches genres and attitude, but still keeps the focus on the experiences of women, taking in divided gender expectations of the past and gaslighting.
Pugh is, of course, fantastic, breathing conflicted life into Alice at every moment, whether she’s happily cooking up a roast, engaging in enthusiastic romance with her husband or seeing a plane crash in the desert that no one else wants to acknowledge.
Styles isn’t quite on her level, but he brings a charm and eagerness to Jack that works for the character, and when he’s called upon to do more than that, he handles it effectively.
Pine, meanwhile, is a smooth guru type, his voice full of a hypnotic, magnetic, confident smoothness that has everyone both ready to hang on his every word and yet remain slightly afraid of him.
The rest of the cast fill their roles well too – Chan playing the alpha wife to the hilt, while Wilde is Alice’s best friend Bunny, an amusing and slightly sarcastic homemaker with two kids and a slight drinking problem (though given the 1950s period, everyone happily guzzles booze, so it’s not as noticeable to them).
Despite being a key element of the story Layne doesn’t get as much to do, Margaret a slightly underserved character who edges towards cliché at times. It’s no fault of the actor, who brings a pained vulnerability to her role.
As the truth begins to dawn on Alice, and on us, the pace speeds up and the overall effect unravels slightly, the final act never quite as compelling as the build-up, the various details undercut in a more straightforward action-focused finale.
You might well figure out ahead of the characters what’s going on, and there are clues here and there sprinkled throughout the movie that verge on the less than subtle. Wilde has plenty of ideas that she wants to unpack, but not all of them arrive completely thought through – when the big revelations start to drop, the cracks in more than just Alice’s reality start to show and you’ll have questions not easily answered by the script.
Yet it still doesn’t diminish what has gone before and Pugh remains as committed as ever, spurring you to empathize with Alice even as she worries that she might be losing her mind. It’s twisted, audacious and, at least until the end, surprising. Ignore the unnecessary noise around the movie and let it transport you.
‘Don’t Worry Darling’ receives 3.5 out of 5 stars.
His name has been all over the headlines of late, mostly thanks to the behind-the-scenes and press conference drama around ‘Don’t Worry Darling’. But Harry Styles has more than one film looking to grab audiences – and potentially awards – this year.
And the new trailer for his other drama – forbidden love tale ‘My Policeman’ – has now arrived.
Spanning two time periods and following its three central characters at different ages, ‘My Policeman’ adapts Bethan Roberts’ novel. With Ron Nyswaner, the man behind such well-regarded movies as ‘Philadelphia’ and ‘The Painted Veil’ writing the script here, and direction from Michael Grandage, it’s certainly positioned as a premium, awards-season possibility.
The story is initially set in Britain in the 1950s. Police officer Tom (Styles), meets and falls for teacher Marion (Emma Corrin of ‘The Crown’). But while they’re very much in love, there’s a complication. Tom also starts a passionate relationship with museum curator Patrick (David Dawson).
Though it looks like he might be able to balance the two sides of his romantic life, the pressure it puts on them all threatens to tear their friendship apart.
And that’s never more evident then when the story moves to the 1990s (with Tom now played by Linus Roache, Marion by Gina McKee, and Patrick by Rupert Everett), where the three are still reeling with longing and regret, but now they have one last chance to repair the damage of the past.
Possibly even more than ‘Darling’ (where the acting workload is reportedly more on Florence Pugh than Styles), this will be the chance for Styles to prove that he’s got what it takes to carry a drama where he’s at the core of the story.
It’s hard to argue with the rest of the cast – Corrin has proved she’s got what it takes across screens big and small, while the likes of McKee, Everett and Roach are old hands at both drama and comedy.
Grandage, meanwhile, is more known for his stage directing, but he’s got some movie work on his resume (including 2016’s ‘Genius’) and from the looks of this, he’s crafted a layered, visually distinctive film. And, of course, he knows how to draw emotive, effective performances from actors.
With festival dates upcoming (see below), we’ll see how the movie goes over with initial audiences, though given its release being split between theaters and streaming, it’s likely not to have to worry so much about box office.
Following premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival and the London Film Festival, the movie will be on limited release in theaters from October 21st before arriving on Prime Video on November 4th.
At lot of recent headlines around Shia LaBeouf have not been positive. There have been the ‘Don’t Worry Darling’ exchanges leaked between LaBeouf and director Olivia Wilde, leading to a she-said, Shia-said story about why he left the movie – she claims she fired him; he argues that he left because there wasn’t enough rehearsal time.
Then there’s his mea culpa on both his abusive treatment of ex-girlfriend, musician FKA Twigs and his admission that his based-on-truth tale ‘Honey Boy’ about his younger days and his troubled relationship with his father was not based on so much truth as he claimed.
Strict story details are sketchy, but the logline is equally ambitious: The fate of Rome haunts a modern world unable to solve its own social problems in this epic story of political ambition, genius, and conflicting interests. To be a little clearer on that, it’ll focus on political and social wrangling in a giant city (modeled on, or even actually, New York) looking to rebuild after a disaster.
The quest to make this one has consumed Coppola in recent years, and he’s pouring a lot of his own money into making the movie. With a budget in the region of $100 million, it’s a project that has seen backers come and go, but he’s finally setting up a shoot for the fall.
Speaking to Deadline, Coppola outlined why he’s really making this movie. What would make me really happy? It’s not winning a lot of Oscars because I already have a lot and maybe more than I deserve. And it’s not that I make a lot of money, although I think over time it will make a lot of money because anything that the people keep looking at and finding new things, that makes money,” he says.
Coppola adds: “So somewhere down the line, way after I’m gone, all I want is for them to discuss ‘Megalopolis’ and, is the society we’re living in the only one available to us? How can we make it better? Education, mental health? What the movie really is proposing is that utopia is not a place. It’s how can we make everything better? Every year, come up with two, three or four ideas that make it better. I would be smiling in my grave if I thought something like that happened, because people talk about what movies really mean if you give them something.”
‘Megalopolis’ has yet to set a release date. As for LaBeouf, he’ll next be seen in Abel Ferrara’s ‘Padre Pio’, due for its debut at the Venice Film Festival’s Venice Days section.
Director Frances Ford Coppola at the 50th Anniversary of ‘The Godfather’ event and historic street naming ceremony the Paramount Theater in Hollywood, CA on February 22nd, 2022. Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for Paramount Pictures.
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You know how it is… you think you’re living the perfect life in an idyllic community with all your needs taken care of and your neighbors a group of the best-looking people around.
And then you start to dig a little deeper and discover that it might all be built on a lie, and that the closer you get to the truth, the more danger there is.
All right, so very few people actually live that sort of life out of the movies, but that’s exactly the quandary that Alice (Florence Pugh) finds herself in in the latest trailer for Olivia Wilde’s ‘Don’t Worry Darling’.
The story for the new movie finds Alice and Jack (Harry Styles), who consider themselves lucky to be living in the idealized community of Victory, the experimental company town housing the men who work for the top-secret Victory Project and their families. The 1950’s societal optimism espoused by their CEO, Frank (Chris Pine) — equal parts corporate visionary and motivational life coach — anchors every aspect of daily life in the tight-knit desert utopia.
While the husbands spend every day inside the Victory Project Headquarters, working on the “development of progressive materials,” their wives — including Frank’s elegant partner, Shelley (Gemma Chan) — get to spend their time enjoying the beauty, luxury, and debauchery of their community. Life is perfect, with every resident’s needs met by the company. All they ask in return is discretion and unquestioning commitment to the Victory cause.
But when cracks in their idyllic life begin to appear, exposing flashes of something much more sinister lurking beneath the attractive façade, Alice can’t help questioning exactly what they’re doing in Victory, and why. Just how much is she willing to lose to expose what’s really going on in this paradise?
Wilde, who broke into directing with ‘Booksmart’ has made what looks like an intriguingly paranoid period thriller with shades of 1970s movies, ‘The Prisoner’ and the style of something that Stanley Kubrick would nod approvingly towards.
She also steps in front of the camera this time, as Mary, one of the wives who seeks to keeps the others from looking to deeply into their situation. Wilde also has Nick Kroll, Douglas Smith, Timothy Simons and KiKi Layne on the roster.
Working with cinematographer Matthew Libatique (a regular collaborator with Darren Aronofsky), and ‘Booksmart’ production designer Katie Byron, Wilde, who has a script from Katie Silberman, Carey Van Dyke, and Shane Van Dyke, certainly appears to have created something exciting, dramatic, and visually arresting.
‘Don’t’ Worry Darling’ will have you questioning the nature of your own reality when it arrives in theaters on September 23rd.
There’s a grand tradition of movies set in the 1950s and 60s that use seemingly perfect suburbia as a hotbed of paranoia and suspicion. Olivia Wilde is adding to it with her new film, ‘Don’t Worry Darling’.
Having launched her directorial career successfully with charming, witty comedy ‘Booksmart’, Wilde has a boosted budget and a starry cast for this new movie, which looks sumptuous and sexy, and promises the sorts of paranoid thrills that can bubble under a manufactured community such as the towns that popped up in remote desert locations near government or military facilities.
The story for the new movie finds Alice (Florence Pugh) and Jack (Harry Styles), who consider themselves lucky to be living in the idealized community of Victory, the experimental company town housing the men who work for the top-secret Victory Project and their families. The 1950’s societal optimism espoused by their CEO, Frank (Chris Pine) — equal parts corporate visionary and motivational life coach — anchors every aspect of daily life in the tight-knit desert utopia.
While the husbands spend every day inside the Victory Project Headquarters, working on the “development of progressive materials,” their wives — including Frank’s elegant partner, Shelley (Gemma Chan) — get to spend their time enjoying the beauty, luxury, and debauchery of their community. Life is perfect, with every resident’s needs met by the company. All they ask in return is discretion and unquestioning commitment to the Victory cause.
But when cracks in their idyllic life begin to appear, exposing flashes of something much more sinister lurking beneath the attractive façade, Alice can’t help questioning exactly what they’re doing in Victory, and why. Just how much is she willing to lose to expose what’s really going on in this paradise?
And the trailer also promises a whole lot of sexy chemistry between Pugh and Styles, who certainly appear to be happily married characters — at least, before Pugh’s Alice starts to wonder what lurks beyond at her husband’s job and soon discovers that the people behind it don’t want anyone digging into their secrets.
Working with cinematographer Matthew Libatique (a regular collaborator with Darren Aronofsky), and ‘Booksmart’ production designer Katie Byron, Wilde, who has a script from Katie Silberman, Carey Van Dyke, and Shane Van Dyke, certainly appears to have created something exciting, dramatic, and stylish. We’re getting similar vibes to ‘The Stepford Wives’ and TV’s ‘The Prisoner’.
‘Don’t Worry Darling’ will be in theaters on September 22nd this year.
‘The Batman’ director Matt Reeves at CinemaCon 2022. Photos: Eric Chardonneau.
In news that should surprise exactly no one, Warner Bros. kicked off its CinemaCon presentation this year with the announcement that a sequel to ‘The Batman’ is in the works.
The first movie’s co-writer/director Matt Reeves took the stage at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas to thank exhibitors for their support and to reveal that star Robert Pattinson will be back for a second round of cowl action and that Reeves will be back behind the camera.
Reeves, who co-wrote and directed ‘The Batman’ is returning to pull similar double duty for the sequel. He offered no details on what the story might entail, nor a potential release date, only hinting that more news would come “in a future CinemaCon”.
‘The Batman’ was all but guaranteed a sequel – it’s one of Warners’ marquee properties and launched to a massive $134 million on its first weekend of release domestically. That still ranks as the biggest opening weekend of 2022, as well as only the second pandemic-era movie to cross the $100 million mark in a single weekend following ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home.’ With $759 million to date at the global box office, ‘The Batman’ is currently the highest grossing movie of the year.
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And Warner Bros. has shown huge faith in the world of the movie, even though it is disconnected from the sprawling DC Extended Universe. More than one HBO Max spin-off is in development based on characters from the film, including a series about Colin Farrell’s Penguin, AKA Oz Cobblepot.
A Batman of a different sort – and universe – was the focus of an early, unfinished trailer for ‘The Flash’, which finds Ezra Miller’s speedster endangering the multiverse to help his family. We’ve known for a while that Michael Keaton is playing Bruce Wayne in the movie, and he shows up in the footage, quoting one of his most famous lines from 1989’s ‘Batman’ – “You wanna get nuts? Let’s get nuts.” ‘The Flash’ should be in theaters on June 23rd, 2023.
In other news, the studio offered the first look at Margot Robbie as the title character in ‘Barbie’. The movie based on the iconic doll range has been shooting in London for a while now, with Greta Gerwig directing.
No concrete details have been revealed for what the movie might include, though there has been chatter that it sees Barbie ejected from her world for not being perfect enough.
From the looks of this, though, the trademark pink of Barbie’s world is present and correct. ‘Barbie’ will be in theaters on July 21st, 2023.
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That’s a change for WB, as ‘Coyote Vs. Acme’, in which the beleaguered cartoon character sues the company who makes his misfiring weapons, had been sitting on that date. The movie, which features John Cena, Will Forte and Lana Condor, is currently in production and doesn’t now have a release date.
Austin Butler from ‘Elvis’ at CinemaCon 2022. Photos By Eric Charbonneau.
Showing up in person to show off their latest wares was Baz Luhrmann, who has ‘Elvis’ headed our way this summer. Luhrmann brought some new footage from the movie, which stars Austin Butler as the iconic rock ‘n’ roller and Tom Hanks as his controversial manager, Colonel Tom Parker.
Ever the consummate showman, Luhrmann had the crowd laughing with his presentation style. “You know, I haven’t actually finished it,” he confessed to the assembled theater owners. “If it feels a little like a superhero film, it is. Elvis is kind of the original superhero. He rises so high, then finds his kryptonite and falls so low and then a beautiful, powerful tragedy ensues. Man can’t live by Batman alone; we need to bring all audiences in the theater!” (He also praised Matt Reeves and ‘The Batman’, so this was only comedy shade).
Luhrmann also joked about Hanks, and how he was “new” to the whole acting thing. “He’s a bit nervy and stuff, I had to coach him a lot to get him out of his shell,” the director quipped. Then he got serious: “I have worked with everyone, all sorts of icons and my god, Tom Hanks — the Rolls Royce of actors.”
‘Elvis’ rocks into theaters on June 24.
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Music was also the focus of the presentation about ‘Wonka’, the ‘Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory’ prequel that stars Timothée Chalamet as the candy man. ‘Paddington’ director Paul King is handling this one, a tune-filled story of Wonka facing down the authorities to bring his love of chocolate to the world. The footage played to enthusiastic audiences, but there will be a wait for this one – it isn’t scheduled for release until December 15th, 2023.
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‘Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom’ director James Wan at CinemaCon 2022. Photos by Eric Charbonneau.
James Wan was on hand to promote two movies – firstly, ‘Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom’. Following a video greeting from Jason Momoa (currently at work in London on, we presume ‘Fast X’), Wan showed up with a quick blast of footage and praise for the advancing special effects that let him create complicated characters without “torturing” his actors on wires.
The superhero sequel, which sees the return of Momoa, Amber Heard and Patrick Wilson, among others, will swim into theaters on March 17 next year.
‘Lot’s story follows Ben Mears, a writer who spent part of his childhood in Jerusalem’s Lot, Maine, also known as Salem’s Lot, has returned after twenty-five years to write a book about the long-abandoned Marsten House, where he had a bad experience as a child. He soon discovers that an ancient evil has also come to town and is turning the residents into vampires. He vows to stop the plague of undead and save the town.
‘Salem’s Lot’ will arrive on September 9th this year.
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(L to R) Asher Angel, Helen Mirren, Jack Dylan Grazer and Zachary Levi from ‘Shazam! Fury of the Gods’ at CinemaCon 2022. Photos by Eric Charbonneau.
Zachary Levi and some of the cast of ‘Shazam! Fury of the Gods’ (including the living legend that is Helen Mirren) turned up to talk up their own superhero sequel, with Mirren admitting that she enjoyed joining the “most wonderful crazy family” and that she wasn’t sure how much she could say about the movie.
The clip shown from the film included some typically meta references to the DC universe (including a dream about ‘Wonder Woman‘) and Mirren, alongside fellow villain Lucy Liu, doing their thing.
‘Shazam! Fury of the Gods’ has bounced around the release schedule but will finally see theaters on December 16th – which slightly worryingly is the same day that the much-anticipated ‘Avatar 2’ is set to land.
Wilde had the trailer to show and enthused about her stars. “You are seeing the birth of a full-fledged movie star,” she said in regard to Pugh, and called Styles “a revelation.” She then joked, “I am also in the movie because I was the only one we could afford when we go that that point.”
‘Don’t Worry Darling’ is due in theaters on September 23rd.
Rounding things off was one of WB’s biggest stars, who had two movies to show off. Dwayne Johnson, ever the charismatic superstar, kicked off his presentation with a fake-out that he was stuck in Hawaii and appearing via video.
Instead, he was in the room, walking through the crowd to applause and talking up both the animated family adventure ‘DC League of Super Pets’.
The cartoon movie, which sees Superman’s faithful hound Krypto (voiced by Johnson) teaming up with other animals to save his master and the Justice League when they’re kidnapped. It soars into theaters on July 29th.
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But most of Johnson’s attention was reserved for his own superhero outing, ‘Black Adam’, which puts a character more known in ‘Shazam’ comics as a villain front and center in a story that focuses on his antihero side.
Yet as the footage showed, the vengeful, righteous character – a slave from an ancient world who is revived and gifted mighty powers in the modern day.
Responding to a character who says, “heroes don’t kill people,” Johnson’s character declares, “Well I do.”
‘Black Adam’s Dwayne Johnson at CinemaCon 2022. Photos by Eric Charbonneau.
‘Black Adam’ will arrive in theaters on October 21st.
