The X-Men have survived an Apocalypse, but they face the greatest threat yet in in the form of “Dark Phoenix.”
The trailer for the latest entry in the “X-Men” series shows the sheer havoc caused by Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) after she is imbued with a cosmic force that leads her to tap into her dark side. She loses control and wreaks havoc, leading to the death of a major character (more on that later). The X-Men must find a way to save Jean before she can destroy everything.
That major character who dies is Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence). And no, the trailer isn’t using any trickery. Director Simon Kinberg confirmed the death in an interview with Entertainment Weekly.
“This is a movie that is unlike other X-Men movies,” he said. “It’s a movie where shocking things happen, where intense, dramatic things happen.”
Mystique’s death is definitely a big happening and, as Kinberg notes, will affect every other character, notably Professor X (James McAvoy) and Magneto (Michael Fassbender).
But while writing out a star like Lawrence seems like a shocking move, the future of the current “X-Men” franchise is up in the air. With Disney’s purchase of 20th Century Fox, the characters will fall under the control over Marvel. It’s entirely possible that this iteration of the “X-Men” is at an end.
A new trailer for upcoming “X-Men” spinoff “Dark Phoenix” is set to debut later this week, and filmmakers have unveiled a new poster for the flick to mark the occasion.
This latest one-sheet is actually remarkably similar to the international poster for Comic Con Brazil, which featured a cool riff on classic comics covers. Though the new one isn’t illustrated in a pen and ink style, it does also depict Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) front and center, surrounded on either side by the two powerful men vying for control of her newfound abilities: Professor X (James McAvoy) and Magneto (Michael Fassbender).
20th Century Fox
Of course, this poster works just as well on its own, even without the comic reference, since it makes it clear that Jean’s inner struggle as she embraces her Dark Phoenix identity will be the film’s main focus. All of the characters who stand on either side of that divide lurk ominously in the background. (Though oddly, not Jessica Chastain‘s ice blonde shapeshifting villain.)
In a tweet revealing the poster, the official “X-Men” films Twitter account also teased that a new trailer would be dropping on Wednesday night. Keep your eyes peeled for that tomorrow.
The BBC released the first teaser trailer for its big-budget adaptation of Philip Pullman’s fantasy epic. The sneak peek shows glimpses of stars Dafne Keen, James McAvoy, Ruth Wilson and Lin-Manuel Miranda.
The teaser doesn’t get much into the plot. But Pullman’s books are set in an alternate universe where human souls take the form of animal companions called daemons. Lyra (Keen) and Will are two ordinary children on a perilous journey through shimmering haunted otherworlds. They will meet witches and armored bears, fallen angels and soul-eating specters. And in the end, the fate of both the living—and the dead—will rely on them.
There have been attempts to adapt Pullman’s work before; you may recollect the 2007 “Golden Compass” film starring Nicole Kidman (or maybe, you wish to forget).
But it seems BBC, with an assist from producing partner HBO, has pulled out all the stops (and thrown a lot of money) at this version. Certainly, the cast is top-notch and even the mere glimpses the teaser gives of McAvoy, Wilson, and Miranda glowering pensively are a treat.
The teaser did not include a premiere date for the miniseries on BBC, nor a corresponding premiere date on HBO in the U.S.
“Glass” marks the culmination of a story that began 19 years ago with the release of “Unbreakable,” M. Night Shyamalan’s tribute to superheroes and more broadly, the visual and narrative language of comic books. Though the prospect of completing its mythology once seemed unlikely, the success of 2016’s “Split,” a psychological thriller that featured a few important overlapping details (including a cameo from Bruce Willis as David Dunn) catapulted it back into the public consciousness. After finally arriving in theaters this weekend, Shyamalan’s long-awaited follow-up answers some lingering questions, clarifies important details about these characters, their lives and their connections to one another, and paints a fuller backdrop for this burgeoning world of super-powered individuals. Beware of spoilers if you have NOT seen “Glass” yet, but here are just a few of the motifs, themes and threads that tie these films together:
Elijah Price
Before he played “Avengers” assemblyman Nick Fury, Samuel L. Jackson helped find Shyamalan’s motley crew of super-powered individuals as Elijah Price. Elijah’s own origin story is built on twin interlocked pillars of unhappiness and pain — he was born with a disease that makes his bones susceptible to breaks, ostracizing him from other children. But it’s his resulting escape into comic books that drives the discovery, at a terrible cost, of his eventual adversary, and later, the proof that what he has read on the page of thousands of comics is a thinly-veiled version of reality. After the events of “Unbreakable ,” Elijah’s triumphant epiphany is undercut by almost two decades of institutionalization, but an introduction to Kevin Wendell Crumb (James McAvoy) rekindles his determination to show the world that heroes — and villains — do actually exist.
David Dunn
Bruce Willis had long since become one of Hollywood’s toughest guys by the time he took the role of David Dunn, a melancholy security guard who learns he has extraordinary abilities. If “Unbreakable” unveils not just his powers but his purpose, “Glass” gives his efforts meaning: after taking on the responsibility of combating evildoers, he faces his greatest opponent in Crumb, whose strength and endurance rival his own, but whose ferocity as The Beast counterbalances his resolve and moral clarity. Price eventually pits David and Kevin against each other in order to push them to show the true extent of their powers — both to themselves, and to the world at large.
Kevin Wendell Crumb
Like Jackson, James McAvoy was no stranger to superheroes before taking the role of Kevin Wendell Crumb, a young man who suffers from Dissociative Identity Disorder whose multiple personalities are in a constant battle for control of his body, which they call “the Light.” Shyamalan actually conceived the character at the time that he was writing “Unbreakable” but eventually cut that story down to focus on the balance of good and evil between that film’s two main characters, David and Elijah. In “Split,” many of Crumb’s personalities were showcased, as well as just a hint of his powers as The Beast, a creature with heightened strength, speed and abilities who’s believed to be the next step in man’s evolution. Because those abilities are largely demonstrated in the service of kidnapping young women whose bodies are later eaten, he soon finds himself in conflict with David; at the same time, Elijah provides his dueling personalities with a clear-eyed authoritative presence to drive them forward, leading to the showdown that occurs during the climax of “Glass.”
Supporting Cast
Though David and Elijah anchor the superhero dialectic in “Unbreakable,” a handful of supporting characters throughout that and “Split” play important roles in nudging them towards not just self-discovery but their destinies. Mrs. Price (Charlayne Woodard), Elijah’s mother, introduces him to comic books as a child as a way to get him to venture outside into a very frightening and dangerous world, paving the way for his expertise and even obsession with their conventions as an adult. Joseph Dunn (Spencer Treat Clark), David’s son, becomes his closest confidante as he begins to realize what he has been hiding (even from himself), and Joseph both idolizes him and encourages him to share those gifts with the world.
And then from “Split,” Casey Cooke (Anya Taylor-Joy) is the only young woman to survive kidnapping by Crumb, and later, to be freed by The Beast. She becomes an unlikely ally after the three are detained, providing Crumb — or at least his buried “real” personality — with much of the unconditional love that he was refused that subsequently unleashed his violent alternates. Meanwhile, there’s also Jai (Shyamalan), a young drug dealer David briefly detains in “Unbreakable” who by the time of “Split” and “Glass” has turned his life around, and now himself works in security. Bonus trivia: the same character appeared in the non-“Unbreakable”-connected “The Village!” How’s that for a twist?
Colors, Images and Sounds
Shyamalan’s creation of the world of these characters was very detailed and deliberate, and as far back as “Unbreakable” he associated specific colors with each of the characters — in David’s case, the green of his poncho that conceals his identity, and in Elijah’s, various shades of purple (a color that just viscerally stands out on screen but is used particularly often with villains in comic books). He later adds another color to this landscape with Kevin, whose multiple personalities all in different ways seem to gravitate to some shade of yellow.
Though he uses a different composer for “Unbreakable” than for “Split” and “Glass” (West Dylan Thorsdon), in the final film Shyamalan skillfully integrates cues from the first two to reinforce the continuity of the characters and to underscore thematic ideas like David’s understated pursuit of criminals. Finally, Shyamalan uses two scenes originally deleted from “Unbreakable” as a look inside the minds of David and Elijah at two particularly fraught moments in their journey in “Glass” that amplify the emotional intensity of their continued, individual and collective search for meaning.
Eastrail 177
Unofficially, “Unbreakable,” “Split” and “Glass” form what is known as the “Eastrail 177” trilogy, because it’s the train crash from “Unbreakable” that sets these characters on their path: Elijah, hoping to uncover news of a Super, sabotaged the train, causing all of its passengers except for David to die. Though he is ultimately — and horrifyingly — elated to discover what he’s been searching for, Elijah unexpectedly created two super-powered beings that day, because Kevin’s father died in the crash, leaving the then-child to deal with his mother’s own mental illnesses, which eventually caused his own. The Beast’s eventual discovery of this fact in the final scenes of “Glass” brings not just his own or David’s stories full circle, but Elijah’s, as the unhinged mastermind fulfills his destiny and finally exposes the world to superheroes — even as it comes at the ultimate cost.
This week sees the release of “Glass” and with it culmination of M. Night Shyamalan‘s shared cinematic universe, which began with “Unbreakable” back in 2000 and continued, to everyone’s surprise, with 2016’s “Split.” And while the big draw is obviously the scenes shared between Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson and James McAvoy, there are new characters introduced in this final chapter, the biggest of which is Dr. Ellie Staple, a psychiatrist treating all three of them for what she perceives as their delusional tendencies. As portrayed by the always-brilliant Sarah Paulson, the doctor is sharp, efficient and harboring (of course) some very huge secrets. She wants to unlock their potential by destroying the notion that any of them are special; it’s an intriguing concept brought to fully-formed life by Paulson.
We were lucky enough to talk to Paulson about her character, her relationship to the franchise before signing on, and whether or not she’d want to continue playing in the “Unbreakable” sandbox.
Moviefone: Were you a fan of these movies before you had signed on?
Paulson: I was obsessed with “Unbreakable.” “Split” I saw in the theater, reluctantly, because the trailer scared the sh*t out of me and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go there. But my friend Pedro Pascal said, “Come on! We’re going to go!” So we went and I was absolutely entranced by it and I remember Bruce Willis was sitting there, the audience went bananas. And I turned to Pedro and said, “Wait wait wait – what does that mean?” He broke into the most sly smile and said, “It means this is the sequel to ‘Unbreakable.’” I went, “Whaaaat?” and started freaking out. So “Unbreakable” is my favorite of Night’s movies, so it was exciting to watch it three more times before starting this movie just to really immerse myself in that world.
It’s interesting that you were scared of “Split,” considering you do so many scary things.
I know, everyone says that. But it’s funny because one really has nothing to do with the other. It’s so fascinating to me, because creating fear for someone who is already frightened, isn’t that hard to imagine. It’s really at the ready for me, because everything terrifies me. It’s a very real thing, folks. Very real.
You hear about Night’s movies being very secretive and huh-hush. So what was that experience like for you on “Glass?”
Well I said yes to it before I read it because I met with Night. I was shooting “American Horror Story: Cult” and this movie called “The Post” at the same time — that was in New York and ‘Cult’ was in Los Angeles and Night was coming to LA. He had asked my agent if he could meet with me and I had not a moment of free time because the schedule was so crazy, so he came and had lunch with me in my trailer at work. He didn’t really tell me much about the movie but when he left we exchanged phone numbers and he said, “Listen, in the spirit of full disclosure, I don’t know that this part will even be played by a woman, it might be played by a man. I just want you to know that, since I’m still writing it.” So I thought, There’s nothing I can do about that. You lose a part to another actor, what can you do? But if you’re looking for a man, I’d like to imagine I could pull that off for you but I’m not sure if I can.
But eventually he called me and said, “I want you to do it.” And I said without having read the script. So that’s really the truth – I didn’t know anything about the movie until I was handed the script by a little man in a backpack and a baseball hat, knocked on the door of the hotel I was staying at and handed me the script. I’m sure he practically waited outside while I read it.
I was worried the last five pages might be missing or I’d heard that he sometimes gives you multiple endings, and you don’t know which one is true. But I got the full script, the whole story was there and the ending included.
So when he first met you did he lay out the character at all?
He did. He said the role would be of a doctor who is helping these patients and all three of the characters are from “Unbreakable” and “Split.” I said, “Wait what?” But, again, he said, “It may be a man, it may be a woman, I’m not sure.” But I was like, “You’re telling me that I could be in a movie connected to ‘Unbreakable’ and ‘Split’ and I have to wait until you decide if it’s a man or a woman? Okay. I’ll try to sit tight. Sure.”
Universal/Disney
You’ve played characters who have multiple identities or have played multiple characters in the same project, but what was it like working with James during those scenes where he’s toggling between those characters?
That’s one of the more extraordinary things I’ve ever borne witness to. And that’s the truth. I’ve worked with arguably some of the greatest actors in the world and I have been lucky enough to look into their faces while they’re working and it’s really special. This was like an Olympic event it felt like. And someone should hand him a gold medal. He literally goes in and out of these personalities without taking a breath. It was awe-inspiring and totally irritating because, really, nobody should be that talented, it was kind of annoying.
When you finally got to do some scenes with Sam and Bruce did you let them know that you were obsessed with “Unbreakable?”
No I tried to keep it cool because being around Samuel L. Jackson is intimidating enough. The man is about 7-foot-10 and you’ve seen him in every movie that’s ever been made basically. He’s just a legend. But of course he’s the nicest man alive and you both start talking about how much you love “Game of Thrones” and the next thing you know, you’re best friends. I’m the queen of not being able to keep my cool. I tried my best to keep it a little bit under wraps so as not to totally embarrass myself. But it’s not easy for me. It’s not my safe space.
This movie does open up the world of the “Unbreakable” universe. Has Night talked to you about coming back?
Well, nothing would make me happier, I have not heard one peep about that. Maybe I can ply Night with enough booze tonight at the premiere where he’ll say, “Well maybe if I were to do it …” But what I think matters is just that people go to this movie and if they go to the movie … If people go to the movie, then they make other movies. So …
And that’s not all – check back on Monday for more with Paulson, including a breakdown of the movie’s big twist.
James McAvoy will soon be coming to you live from New York.
The “Glass” star has been tapped to host “Saturday Night Live” on Jan. 26. The show’s official Twitter account announced the news Monday, Jan. 14. The tweet also revealed that Meek Mill will be the episode’s musical guest.
It will be McAvoy’s first time hosting the show. While he may not be an “SNL” vet, he’s had a long career in front of the camera. The actor’s credits include roles in the X-Men movies, “Atomic Blonde,” “Atonement,” and more. He also stars in the upcoming “It: Chapter Two.”
“SNL” Season 44 is on break till Jan. 19, when it will return with “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” star Rachel Brosnahan as host. McAvoy’s episode will be the next after that. So far, none of the season’s other upcoming hosts have been announced.
“Saturday Night Live” is live on both coasts on Saturdays at 11:30 p.m. ET/8:30 p.m. PT on NBC.
There is a good film to be made about superheroes existing in the “real” world, and the phenomenon, or perhaps disorder, where ordinary people believe they possess extraordinary abilities. “Glass” is not that film, despite how seriously writer-director M. Night Shyamalan takes both of those ideas, and as always, himself. An overlong, underdeveloped mash-up (or more charitably, payoff) of his brilliant “Unbreakable” and the pulpy “Split,” Shyamalan tries to examine, and rekindle, the magic and intrigue of comic books in the pre-Marvel Cinematic Universe era. But he spends so much time discussing, deconstructing and still somehow indulging their now-boilerplate storytelling conventions that the end result is a movie that feels even less tethered to reality than the ones that it so snobbishly looks down upon.
Bruce Willis plays David Dunn, a Philadelphia security expert-turned-vigilante in search of Kevin Wendell Crumb (James McAvoy), a serial killer suffering from multiple personality disorder. David’s superhuman abilities soon bring the two men together, but before he can fully defeat Crumb’s monstrous alter ego, The Beast, they’re both apprehended by local police and thrown into an institution for the criminally insane. Once there, David is unwittingly reunited with Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson), the homicidal comic book aficionado who sparked his heroic self-discovery decades ago, and all three are offered the opportunity to confront what psychologist Dr. Ellie Staple (Sarah Paulson) believes are delusional beliefs in their own preternatural talents.
Universal/Disney
David, Kevin and Elijah begin the difficult process of explaining to Staple how they’re capable of accomplishing such extraordinary feats, and they soon find themselves questioning if what they’ve done is all a matter of serendipity and circumstance. But after Elijah becomes convinced that The Beast is not only a bona fide super human, but somehow the key to all three of them unlocking their full potential, he puts into motion a string of events that threatens the safety of thousands of innocent people and once again forces David to step in and try and prevent his plan from becoming a deadly reality.
After 20 years of mainstream moviemaking and an approach to storytelling that feels defiantly unchanged in the face of numerous failures (both critical and commercial), it’s clear that Shyamalan believes there’s nothing you can show that cannot be over-explained. The technique worked in “Unbreakable” because it was both providing context for Elijah’s processing of the world — that is, via the visual and narrative mythmaking of comic books — and skillfully foreshadowing revelations that it seems only fair to acknowledge were not the “twists” for which the filmmaker became reductively known. But Shyamalan’s instinct to acknowledge tropes as he’s using them hasn’t aged well, and in “Glass,” he actively undermines the dramatic weight of what should be a moment of self-actualization and culmination of purpose for these three characters. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a film more determined to talk itself out of embracing what it is, and all of the things that make it special.
But worse than that, the film is just thoughtlessly conceived, poorly paced and badly constructed. Approximately 90 percent of its running time takes place in the institution where Staple has detained her three would-be Supers, including a protracted breakout sequence and an overlong showdown between David and The Beast that never gains momentum or feels remotely exciting. (The fact that both of them are “just” strong means that when they finally face each other, they mostly push the other one around against a van.) And for a movie obsessed with the real-world implications, and consequences, of individuals acting upon the belief that they possess super powers, procedurally almost nothing feels believable, from the supervision and “treatment” they receive at Staple’s facility to the basic reactions and motivations of both our heroes and the authorities trying to come to terms with their behavior.
Universal/Disney
Although I’m not convinced he’s actually in all of the scenes in which his character performs feats of heroism (that poncho covers his face pretty well), Willis moderately rouses from his usual paycheck slumber for the director who gave him some of his biggest hits, and breathes some life into David as he patrols the city and dispenses justice. McAvoy’s ability to shuffle between Kevin’s many personalities remains the remarkable feat of acting that it was in “Split,” but Shyamalan offers almost too many opportunities for him to showcase that talent — it becomes less an expression of internal turmoil than an impressive party trick. Jackson, meanwhile, reconnects with the intense, intimidating calm that made Elijah such an unsettling character in “Unbreakable,” and seems to be having the most fun of the three as he returns to this world.
Paulson is saddled with what I’m sure seemed like a meaty role on the page, but it proves thankless; she literally spends the entire film trying to convince the characters (and the audience) that there’s nothing special or exceptional about anything that they’re doing, or watching. Unfortunately, she succeeds. Shyamalan also intriguingly brings back not only Anya-Taylor Joy’s Casey from “Split,” but Spencer Treat Clark’s Joseph Dunn from “Unbreakable,” but as witnesses, confidantes and eventually participants in this story, they’re never given enough to do, and their reasons for becoming involved end up feeling overstated and yet largely unjustified.
From “The Sixth Sense” to “The Village” (yeah, I know), Shyamalan enjoyed an uninterrupted string of hits that took conventions audiences didn’t realize had become part of their movie-watching DNA and somehow delivered the exact kinds of thrills that he seemed to be deconstructing. “Unbreakable,” released at a time before comic book adaptations were an integral part of our moviegoing diet (and daresay, the pop culture firmament), was the film of his that seemed most deserving of a sequel, or some sort of continuation. But “Glass” arrives too late for its own good, both in terms of his career evolution (or lack theerof) and the genre he still seems to think is not taken seriously enough.
Ultimately, not only does Shyamalan seem to have forgotten what made its two predecessors work so well, but he fails to realize that it’s his lack of imagination, not audiences’, that keeps them from believing in superheroes. All of which is why for better or worse, “Glass” delivers a follow-up that effectively delivers everything that we should have expected, but also proves that the ideas that kept us intrigued for the last 19 years have long since been conclusively and satisfyingly explored.
“Are … you … ready?” Samuel L. Jackson asks in a new international trailer for “Glass.” To which we say: hell yeah!
The trailer is set primarily in the mental institution that houses Jackson’s brilliant but unstable Elijah Price, Bruce Willis’s “Unbreakable” David Dunn, and James McAvoy’s “Split” villain Kevin Wendell Crumb. We see flashes of their sessions with Dr. Ellie Staple (Sarah Paulson) and just how much therapy isn’t working on them.
Elijah, the titular Mr. Glass, uses that big brain of his to put a nefarious plan into motion, relying on the chaos sown by Kevin. But you know what they say about the devil you don’t know.
The new trailer just adds to the anticipation of seeing M. Night Shyamalan’s “Unbreakable” and “Split” universes coalesce.
Universal released a new trailer for “Glass,” the follow-up to both 2000’s “Unbreakable” and 2016’s “Split.” It lays out more of the M. Night Shyamalan’s story, which centers on Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson) aka the villainous Mr. Glass.
Elijah is locked up in an asylum, seemingly sedated until the arrival of two new inmates. The first is nemesis David Dunn (Bruce Willis), who has superhuman strength. But more interesting is Kevin Wendell Crumb (James McAvoy), who exhibits multiple personalities. And Mr. Glass plans to use one of them, the fearsome Beast, to unleash his nefarious plans on the world.
Everyone was surprised when “Split” turned out to exist in the same universe as “Unbreakable,” but it looks like “Glass” brings those two tonally different movies together in an entertaining and compelling way. And it’ll certainly be a treat to see Mr. Glass and the Beast collaborating in their diabolical ways.
Calling Dunn “The Overseer” took fans by surprise, with a few saying they’d still rather call him The Unbreakable.
Universal Pictures
M. Night Shyamalan shared the first “Glass” photos and poster over the summer, leading up to the first trailer debut July at San Diego Comic-Con. Now — or at least tomorrow, October 11 — we’re finally getting another look at the horror-thriller.
Supporting Cast
Though he uses a different composer for “Unbreakable” than for “Split” and “Glass” (West Dylan Thorsdon), in the final film Shyamalan skillfully integrates cues from the first two to reinforce the continuity of the characters and to underscore thematic ideas like David’s understated pursuit of criminals. Finally, Shyamalan uses two scenes originally deleted from “Unbreakable” as a look inside the minds of David and Elijah at two particularly fraught moments in their journey in “Glass” that amplify the emotional intensity of their continued, individual and collective search for meaning.
