Moviefone Editorial

Tag: james-mcavoy

  • Samuel L. Jackson Updates on ‘Unbreakable’ Sequel: ‘Let’s Get It On’

    It has been more than 16 years since M. Night Shyamalan released his superhero/supervillain epic “Unbreakable,” and Samuel L. Jackson is ready to return for a sequel. There’s been talk of an “Unbreakable 2” for years, but now not only are stars Jackson and Bruce Willis ready to go, Shyamalan is working on a script, and Disney and Universal are reportedly ready to partner on the film.

    Why now? Well, you probably can guess, but … in case you can’t …

    SPOILER ALERT!

    Spoilers ahead from Shyamalan’s latest movie “Split.” Stop reading now if you don’t want to know anything about that movie, as well as the first “Unbreakable” movie.

    “Split” stars James McAvoy as Kevin Wendle Crumb, a guy with multiple personalities whom police nickname The Horde. At the end of the movie, someone recalls another crazy guy nicknamed by police. Some guy in a wheelchair 15 years ago… Then the camera reveals Bruce Willis’s “Unbreakable” character, David Dunn, who says the man’s name was Mr. Glass. Yep, “Split” and “Unbreakable” are part of the same universe. And now that “Split” has made a crapload of money — more than $170M at this point, off a $9M budget — everyone is ready to combine the worlds for a combined “Split 2″/”Unbreakable 2” movie.

    Turns out, Sam Jackson found out about the twist the same way audiences did. He shared the story with Collider:

    “I got a call and [Shyamalan] said, ‘Call me I wanna talk to you about something.’ And I called him, because I always do when I get a message from him always hoping [it’s ‘Unbreakable 2’], and he said, ‘I just did this film called Split, I want you to see it,’ and I was like ‘OK, I’m down with that.’ I had no idea what Split was about or anything else, and he said, ‘We’ll talk after you see it.’ So I went to the arranged screening and I called him immediately and was like, ‘OK dude does this mean what I think it means?’ and he was like, ‘Well first we gotta see how the movie does’. And I think the movie’s done well enough now to merit the ‘OK, let’s put this together.’”

    Jackson told Collider he considers Kevin/The Horde “an adequate foe for what Bruce’s ‘Unbreakable’ character is in terms of him being sort of unbreakable too in that kind of way,” but now “It’s just a matter of breaking [Elijah’s] ass out of wherever that mental institution was they had me locked up and let’s get it on, let’s see what happens!”

    The Wall Street Journal reports that Universal Pictures and Disney hoping to combine forces on the sequel, since “Unbreakable” was a Disney movie, and Universal distributed “Split.” A source told WSJ, “Disney expects to work with Universal as a partner, and participant in the profits. The two studios have yet to hammer out a deal for a sequel, in which Mr. Willis’s character likely would feature much more prominently, because Mr. Shyamalan is still in the planning stages.”

    Shyamalan recently tweeted about the outline for his next movie, meaning his follow-up to “Split.”
    In January, Shyamalan had a Q&A with The Hollywood Reporter about the plans for a “final” movie to combine worlds:

    Did you always conceive of [‘Split’] as being part of the ‘Unbreakable’ universe?

    This was always part of the “Unbreakable” world. Kevin Wendle Crumb was a part of the original, original script for “Unbreakable.” I pulled him out because it just wasn’t balancing right. But a bunch of the scenes that are in this movie, I wrote 15 years ago. They were as is. Patricia opening the door. Hedwig’s first scene. Those were all written already. And it’s literally from the same moment that I created all the characters, all three of those characters. But I knew I wanted to do a movie about him because I just loved him so much, and I thought it’s a rich world for storytelling, so I was super, super excited to finally make it.

    You’ve teased an Unbreakable sequel for years. Was this it? Or are we going to see another one with Bruce Willis as the star?

    This is down the line, but my hope is to make one final movie that combines the two.

    It doesn’t sound like it’s too far down the line.

    By the way, back in 2015 comedian Patton Oswalt shared an idea for an “Unbreakable” trilogy, picking up from the reference at the end of the first movie about other “Unbreakables” in the world. He suggested a sequel called “Unbreakables” with David Dunn assembling other superpowered people while Samuel L. Jackson’s Elijah/Mr. Glass forms his own master plan from the asylum. At the time, Shyamalan liked the idea. Who knows, maybe grains of it will still be included in this “Split”/”Unbreakable” sequel.

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  • M. Night Shyamalan Tweets ‘Split’ Sequel Tease

    'Split' New York Premiere - Arrivals“Split” is destroying expectations at the box office, and M. Night Shyamalan is “humbled and grateful” about the response. The James McAvoy horror film, written and directed by Shyamalan, just topped the box office for its third weekend in a row. The idea of a “Split” follow-up film makes sense, and not just because this movie is making so much cash. So fans were happy to see these tweets from Shyamalan about his “next film”:

    What’s next? No spoilers here, but plenty of spoilers here if you want to discuss “Split” and what exactly this next film might entail.

    “Split” only cost about $9-$10 million to make, and worldwide it has earned more than $142 million so far. TheWrap reports that “Split” is Shyamalan’s second film to top the box office for three consecutive weeks since 1999’s “The Sixth Sense.” It’s never a bad thing to be compared to your first big hit, so no wonder M. Night feels “humbled and grateful.” Now he just has to live up to his own potential.

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  • How Twist Master M. Night Shyamalan Found His Funny Bone in Split

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    M. Night Shyamalan Embraces Humor in The Visit and Split

    In this movie about multiple personalities it only makes sense that M. Night Shyamalan wants audiences to experience mixed emotions.

    The director best known for plot twists and surprise endings has embraced humor in the horror hit “Split,” picking up on what he felt worked in his previous fright flick, “The Visit.”

    “I’m really into that right now,” Shyamalan tells Made in Hollywood reporter Kylie Erica Mar. “‘ The Visit’ and ‘Split’ are meant to be very funny — kind of like you’re scared and laughing at the same time. I don’t know what that’s called. I’ve got to come up with a term for when you laugh but you’re scared. It’s not just nervous laughter. It’s kind of like inappropriate humor, as you’re giggle, but this is totally wrong.”

    Split Stars James McAvoy as a Man with 23 Personalities

    In “Split,” James McAvoy channels 23 personalities, male and female, including a young boy and the actor’s favorite, Patricia, whom he describes as an “ever-so-slightly kinky nun” in high heels. Night, who wrote the script, says he has long been fascinated by multiple personality disorders.

    “It’s a very controversial disorder,” he says. “Writing a thriller based on this concept, I want to talk about his disorder, and how powerful and poignant it is, but how amazing. It’s a very extraordinary thing, the connection between the mind and the body and what we’re capable of.”

    How M. Night Shyamalan Helped James McAvoy Keep His Personalities Straight in Split

    To help McAvoy kept the personalities straight, Shyamalan shot some of the film out of sequence.

    “He did mostly do one character on a day,” the director says. “So I make sure he was just the 10-year-boy on this day, then he was the religious fanatic woman on this day, and then the tough guy with OCD on this day.”

    But unlike McAvoy, Shymalan can’t commit to a favorite personality.

    “He’s so brilliant in the part; it’s hard to say because he’s so powerful in it,” he says. “There is one scene in the movie where James becomes a lot of different personalities, they’re all fighting to come to the consciousness, and he’s so extraordinary in the scene. That’s probably my favorite moment with him. That’s a very difficult scene.”

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  • 5 Reasons Why ‘Split’ Crushed Vin Diesel’s ‘xXx: Return of Xander Cage’

    Do today’s moviegoers even remember what the movie landscape was like 15 years ago? That’s how long it’s been since Vin Diesel‘s last “xXx” movie, as well as M. Night Shyamalan‘s last monster hit.

    This weekend saw both Diesel and Shyamalan test moviegoers’ memories, and while pundits predicted modest successes for both “xXx: The Return of Xander Cage” and Shyamalan’s “Split,” the competition wasn’t even close. “Xander Cage” opened as expected, with an estimated $20.0 million, but “Split” earned more than twice as much, topping the box office chart (and exceeding expectations) with an estimated $40.2 million. That’s the fourth biggest January opening of all time.

    How did “Split,” a low-budget ($5 million) horror movie with no box office stars to speak of (sorry, James McAvoy, but it’s true), leave “Fast and Furious” mainstay Diesel’s return to his other big action franchise in the dust? Here are some of the ways.

    1. January Is a Good Month for Scary Fare
    Or at least decent quality horror. Which is why “The Bye Bye Man” was the top new release last weekend — and why “Underworld: Blood Wars” is unlikely to recoup its $35 million budget in North American ticket sales. In any case, with January’s multiplex usually filled with prestige Oscar hopefuls and leftover holiday blockbusters, horror looks increasingly like smart counter-programming.

    2. Young Female Appeal
    One reason horror fills a niche at this time of year is that no other genre targets young women so directly. Look at “Split,” with its three young heroines.

    By contrast, “Xander Cage” stars a 49-year-old man, returning to the spy-movie action fare that he sold, perhaps more convincingly, when he was 34. And unlike “Xander Cage,” “Split” wasn’t trying to draw viewers who were more likely to spend this weekend watching NFL playoffs.

    3. Blumhouse
    In any case, the real star of “Split” isn’t “X-Men” regular McAvoy or the three little-known actresses who confront the kidnapper he plays; it’s writer/director Shyamalan and low-budget hitmaker Blumhouse.

    The “Sixth Sense” creator is a brand name, albeit a tarnished one. His last huge hit, “Signs,” was 15 years ago, and his creative overreach with such flops as “Lady in the Water” and “The Happening” made him appear less the master of twisty suspense than the butt of jokes. But over the past few years, he’s teamed with producer Jason Blum, a godfather of low-budget horror hits who’s been able to keep the once-profligate Shyamalan more disciplined. The results have been movies such as 2015’s “The Visit,” a horror hit that helped restore the director’s reputation.

    Indeed, while it’s not clear if today’s young audiences remember “The Sixth Sense,” “Signs,” or “Unbreakable” (which gets one hell of a callback in “Split”), they do seem to have forgotten “Lady” and “Happening.”
    Meanwhile, Diesel has done tremendously well with the “Fast and Furious” franchise, but he’s had trouble turning his other franchises, notably the “Riddick” movies, into domestic hits. (All luring in crowds when he’s not behind the wheel of his hit action franchise.)

    The “xXx” franchise doesn’t have a lot of good will, even though the film that launched it earned $142 million back in 2002. That’s because Diesel dropped out of the second film, the terrible “xXx: State of the Union,” leaving Ice Cube to carry the movie. It flopped domestically with just $27 million, and there hasn’t been another “xXx” film since 2005. The title of the new film touts the return of Diesel’s character, but that wasn’t enough to sell the franchise to newbies or make older viewers care. Maybe his fans are saving their money for the next “Furious” installment, due in April.

    4. Good Reviews and THAT FREAKIN’ ENDING
    Not that horror or action fans really care about reviews, but “Split” did score a healthy 76 percent “Fresh” rating at Rotten Tomatoes, while “Xander Cage” earned just 42 percent.

    The reviews do suggest, however, that the opinions of older moviegoers mattered more than pundits predicted. After all, they’re the ones who still read what critics have to say. They’re also probably the ones who helped “Split” cross over well beyond its target audience to reach $40.2 million. And they’re the ones “Xander Cage” was depending on to come see a middle-aged star revive a long-dormant franchise.

    Buzz about the film’s surprise ending hit fever-pitch late Thursday/early Friday, prompting several entertainment sites to post interviews and/or think-pieces about the ballsy, out-of-left-field sequence. The writer-director is known for twist endings, and the online chatter may have lead many ticketbuyers to see his latest WTF surprise.

    5. The State of the Marketplace
    The Cheeto may have stressed “America First” and “Buy American” during his inauguration speech on Friday, but as this column has noted, that’s not the principle that drives big-studio franchise filmmaking anymore. For movies with lavish budgets and expensive stars, the overseas audience is now much more important than the domestic one.

    Exhibit A is the recent “Underworld” sequel, which few viewers here cared about, but which had earned more than $40 million abroad before it even opened in the U.S. and has so far earned 62 percent of its total take from foreign filmgoers.

    So it is with Diesel, whose movies tend to do much better outside America than inside. That’s why Paramount, which has been on a chilly streak lately, was willing to pick up the “xXx” franchise rights from Sony and spend $85 million on “Xander Cage.” And it’s a gamble that’s already paying off, with $50.0 million earned from 53 foreign markets, more than the double what the movie has earned here.

    Not that “Split” isn’t looking for an overseas payoff as well, but Universal did make the American release a priority, generating homegrown word-of-mouth by screening it at Fantastic Fest in Austin last September and by hosting 24 sneak previews since (one for each of McAvoy’s character’s multiple personalities).

    As a result, “Split” has earned 87 percent of its take so far in North America. Trump may have become president because of voter concerns over outsourcing, but when it comes to low-budget thrillers, we’re still number one.

  • How James McAvoy Survived and Thrived in High Heels in Split

    James McAvoy from Split
    James McAvoy from Split

    James McAvoy Tested His Acting Chops and Feet in Split

    It was bad enough to have at least 23 personalities. But did one have to walk in heels?

    In “Split,” James McAvoy put his feet as well as his acting chops to the test as a lunatic kidnapper with a multiple personality disorder in “Split,” channeling all sorts of people, male and female, including his favorite, Patricia, whom he describes as an “ever-so-slightly kinky nun.”

    “She was difficult partly because I wanted her to be kind of funny as well but not too over the top,” McAvoy tells Made in Hollywood reporter Kylie Erica Mar. “But she had to be a little bit over the top because she’s enjoying her time in the light. She is slightly performing as well.”

    James McAvoy Gets No Sympathy from Women on Split Set

    It was Patricia’s wardrobe that posed the biggest challenge.

    “I hated wearing heels,” he says. “I didn’t really expect it to be that painful. I had to do it for one other film once, just for like a night. It was fine. It kind of left me. But for this I had to wear heels a lot and it’s really painful.”

    Any hopes of sympathy from female colleagues were quickly dashed.

    “I kept getting told by the women on set that I was wearing very comfortable heels,” McAvoy says. “And I was just like: You have to be kidding me. These are comfortable? And that did weirdly make playing the character quite difficult.”

    James McAvoy Reveals His Favorite Personality from Split

    His favorite personality was that of a 9-year-old boy named Hedwig. “Just because I got to be so goofy with him,” he says, “and I got to do bad dancing and I got to do that sincere childlike thing of thinking you’re really cool when you’re not.”

    Director M. Night Shyamalan kept a tight rein on the actors, warning them not to veer from the script that he also wrote, which meant McAvoy had to focus on filling in the gaps between the lines.

    “I did a lot of physical stuff,” he says. “I like to create and I like to make stuff up on set. Most film directors on sets are actually encouraging you to do that a little bit. Night is the opposite. If I managed to get in an extra line or something, it was a big moment. I knew he loved it if I got anything in. So, yeah, I was off to physically and mugging that way.”

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  • New ‘Split’ Trailer: James McAvoy Will Scare You With 23 Personalities

    James McAvoy is one scary man with at least 23 dangerous personalities in the new trailer for “Split.”

    Universal Pictures dropped the latest trailer on Wednesday, and it highlights the ominous plot: a trio of girls abducted and held captive by a man with at numerous personalities and an unknown one likely to take over the rest. We see several of the different sides to Kevin (McAvoy) in the preview, and each seems more chilling than the last.

    Led by Casey (Anya Taylor-Joy), the girls come up with a plan: to convince one of Kevin’s personalities to let them go. However, there seems to be a lot of trial-and-error — emphasis on error — in the teaser, so prepare yourself for a lot of dark twists and turns. With M. Night Shymamalan (“The Sixth Sense”, “The Visit”) having served as writer, director, and producer, that should be a given.

    Let McAvoy freak you in the trailer.

    “Split” is headed to theaters on Jan. 20.

  • M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘Split’ Trailer Turns James McAvoy Into Crazy Creep

    SplitM. Night Shyamalan is back to scare the living daylights out of you.

    The director follows last year’s found footage horror flick “The Visit” with another psychological thriller, “Split.” The first trailer introduces James McAvoy as a super creepy, very crazy man named Kevin, who abducts three young women. They are horrified to learn that Kevin has 23 personalities, ranging from a 9-year-old named Hedwig to a motherly woman to a priest. Some of them could help the women escape, but others mean to do them harm.'Split' (2017) Trailer

    Since this is Shyamalan, no doubt there is some twist involved. But regardless, McAvoy’s performance looks stunning, even from the bits we can see in the trailer. “The Witch” star Anya Taylor-Joy plays the main kidnapped girl. Betty Buckley, Jessica Sula, and Haley Lu Richardson round out the rest of the cast.

    “Split” opens in theaters January 20, 2017.

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  • ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ Stars Jennifer Lawrence, James McAvoy Reveal Secrets of Epic Final Battle

    [SPOILER ALERT: Don’t read any further if you have yet to see the movie.]

    “X-Men: Apocalypse” owes a lot to “X-Men: First Class.” Especially its ending.

    After hijacking the world’s nuclear arsenal and assembling his Four Horsemen, Alpha mutant Apocalypse (Oscar Issac) uses Magneto (Michael Fassbender) and a swirl of CG to literally build a new world from what’s left of the humanity’s old one. And after several punch-happy attempts to physically stop Apocalypse, Professor X must battle him in the psychic realm.

    This type of showdown is one fans of the comics and the ’90s animated series have been dying to see for years. In fact, as James McAvoy revealed exclusively in an interview with Moviefone, audiences almost saw a version of this fight in his first “X-Men movie.

    “We had a mind battle written into ‘First Class,’ between [Charles] and Emma Frost, and it was fairly epic — and cataclysmic,” McAvoy said. He elaborated that the battle between the two mutants would have taken place within a “city of the mind kind of thing,” as the two would be “tearing each other through walls and buildings and all that stuff.”

    So why didn’t the battle make it into “First Class?” Blame Christopher Nolan.
    “‘Inception came out, while we were planning it, and [the studio] just cut it,” McAvoy said. “And this amazing action sequence that I was so pleased about doing — it was the only action sequence I had — turned into us just staring hard at each other. So I was glad we got a little bit of mind battle in it, and that was something I fought for to get into this movie.”

    What the actors didn’t have to fight for is to ensure that their characters didn’t get lost in the shuffle, as new mutants were added to the X-Men’s already very-deep bench. From Jean Grey to Nightcrawler, several fan-favorite characters joined the roster, in a movie that has to service at least three main characters and an epic baddie making his first long-awaited, live-action appearance.

    “There’s so much trust. I just get my script in the mail [and do what is there],” Jennifer Lawrence revealed. “Oscar — he was really involved, though, in shaping his character. Because he was going to be in so much make-up, he was meeting with [co-writer and producer] Simon [Kinberg] a lot — he was more creatively involved than any of us were.”
    McAvoy chimed in: “There’s room to get involved [with the story] once we’re there, on set. There’s room to move things around and inject things. And really, we all trust Simon because Simon is the guy who comes up with the great stuff every time we do it, so we trust ‘im.”

    So we know McAvoy’s favorite scene, but was Lawrence’s?

    “I loved doing our scene where I come to see [Charles] in his office, I felt that there was a lot of growth to our characters where we recognize that we differ in ideals — but have more patience with each other.’

    J-Law’s hardest scene? “Being strangled by Apocalypse. That was the hardest, because I was in a harness, being lifted by my genitalia.” Ouch.

    While a fourth film in this series has yet to be officially announced, McAvoy has at least one idea for a scene between Raven and Xavier that he would like to see.

    “I’d quite like to, one day, get us back to where we were in ‘First Class’ and actually just be like: ‘Hey, give us a cuddle.’ I don’t mean like lovers, I mean like brother and sister.”

    “You want more cuddles,” Lawrence joked. “You are so precious.”

    “X-Men: Apocalypse” smashes into theaters Friday.

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  • Best of Late Night TV: Jimmy Fallon Rides Bald James McAvoy, Jesse Eisenberg’s Vegan ‘Thanksliving’

    If you’re like us and value your sleep, you probably nodded off into your Ambien dreamland before the party started on post-prime time TV. Don’t worry; we’ve got you covered. Here’s the best of what happened last night on late night.

    On Tuesday, Daniel Radcliffe was on “The Tonight Show” playing Water War, and on Wednesday his “Victor Frankenstein” co-star James McAvoy gave Jimmy Fallon a ride on his shoulders. Fallon clearly has the best job ever. Both James and DanRad shaved their heads for different movies. James said his wife kinda likes his bald head and his son likes it because, when he rides on James’s shoulders, he can rub the spikes on his head. So James asked Jimmy if he’d like to try it. Let us all try! Although, it is slightly creepy to see Fallon gleefully rubbing McAvoy’s head like that.
    Then they showed how James would look with different hairstyles — including The Trump, Questlove, and Guy Fieri. He’s a much better Guy Fieri than Guy Fieri. Jimmy Fallon broke into his suggestion box and read off several ideas, putting a few into action. One was a request from a fan to bring out The Undertaker from WWE to “Tombstone” a guy in a turkey outfit on the show. Rob Lowe has a gold McDonald’s card that guarantees him free food for a year. He explained to Jimmy Kimmel how he got it, and it involves the inventor of the Egg McMuffin. Kimmel improved the latest Republican debate by taking the audio and setting it to “Wacky Races.” Adam Levine talked about “The Voice” Season 9 and confirmed that, to him, “Blake’s still an idiot.” And did you know that Adam was a writer’s assistant on “Judging Amy” and a guest star on “90210”? Lou Diamond Phillips can do a perfect(ly sexy) impression of Antonio Banderas, and he showed it off to Conan O’Brien: Jesse Eisenberg, who is “95 percent vegetarian,” talked about his family’s vegan Thanksgiving, that they call “Thanksliving,” buying and saving turkeys and putting their photos on the table. THAT IS ADORABLE. Sorry, meat-eaters but that is awesome and he wins for this. Then they eat tofu as the main meal, which can be delicious if made well but you have to get creative. Carey Mulligan wrote a fan letter to Eminem once. She was 16 and had just seen “8 Mile” so she penned an earnest note to “Mr. Eminem.” James Corden said she’s “Stan.” Last but not least, did you know that Christoph Waltz is obsessed with the bass player on “The Late Late Show”? He interrupted James Corden the last time he was there, to get an introduction, and he returned to the show last night to make it clear he’s there for Hagar Ben Ari. At least he has good taste. But isn’t he married?
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  • James McAvoy, Daniel Radcliffe Create a Monster in ‘Victor Frankenstein’ Trailer

    “It’s alive!” Daniel Radcliffe exclaims of the monster he and James McAvoy have created in “Victor Frankenstein.”

    “Yes, that’s rather obvious,” a bloodied McAvoy deadpans. Now how do they get rid of it?

    The first trailer for the movie was released today, and the story will be familiar to pretty much everyone: Scientist Victor (McAvoy) and his faithful assistant, Igor (Radcliffe), use human body parts to engineer a live being — to horrific results.

    Watch the trailer.

    The story’s outline doesn’t deviate too much from Mary Shelley’s classic tale; it’s the tone that gets a 21st century update. The trailer has the feel of “Sherlock Holmes” — witty, zany, madcap adventure with a bromance at the heart of it. Certainly, McAvoy and Radcliffe exhibit the same kind of easy chemistry of Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law.

    “Victor Frankenstein” opens in theaters November 25.

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