“Mary Magdalene,” one of the last remaining orphans from The Weinstein Company, has found a new home.
IFC Films has acquired the U.S. rights to the drama, which stars Rooney Mara as the titular Biblical figure and Joaquin Phoenix as Jesus. “Mary Magdalene” will open in theaters April 12.
The movie has undergone a long, tumultuous journey. TWC acquired it in February 2016 and set an American release date for Easter 2018.
However, TWC was rocked by the downfall of Harvey Weinstein. As the company went into disarray, “Mary Magdalene’s” American release was put on hold along with several other films.
The drama follows Mary Magdalene, who flees the marriage her family has arranged for her and finds a sense of purpose in a radical new movement led by Jesus of Nazareth. The sole woman among his band of disciples, she undergoes a spiritual awakening and becomes drawn into conflict with Jesus’ apostles.
Nicolas Cage is known to be a massive Superman fan. He named one of his sons Kal-El, in honor of Superman’s birth name. He sold a copy of Superan’s debut comic for a record $2.1 million. He was supposed to play Clark Kent in Tim Burton’s “Superman Lives.” He finally did get to voice Superman in “Teen Titans GO! to the Movies,” which opened this past summer. But, at age 54, he has yet to play the superhero on screen.
Henry Cavill is possibly out at as the DCEU’s Superman, but Nicolas Cage isn’t interested in picking up his cape. Not anymore.
Cage just talked to The Guardian while promoting his new film “Mandy,” and the reporter mentioned an online campaign to make him the next Superman:
“Oh, I think my Superman days are long gone,” he laughs with a little pat of his belly. He would be an amazing villain in it, I reply. His eyes light up. “Oh, that would be GREAT! I’d make a great Lex Luthor!”
Yes. He could go Full Cage as Lex Luthor.
When he was announced to voice “Teen Titans” we floated the idea of Nic as the DC world’s next Lex Luthor. Crazy minds think alike. There’s no saying DC *has* to go younger with the new Man of Steel (if there is one) so it’s still possible Cage could be an older Superman. If not in the DC Extended Universe, maybe under the same separate banner that is turning Joaquin Phoenix into the “Joker.”
Imagine Joaquin Phoenix and Nicolas Cage hamming it up in the same supervillain film. We don’t even deserve it.
“The Sisters Brothers” is one of the year’s very best movies, dark and hilarious, contemplative and wild, and very soon it’ll be coming to a theater near you. And in celebration of that rollout, we are absolutely thrilled to debut an exclusive featurette about the making of the movie and the history that inspired it. This clip gives a great outline of what the central storyline is, with great anecdotes by costar and producer John C. Reilly. If you aren’t excited about seeing “The Sisters Brothers” yet, after watching this, you will be positively jazzed.
In “The Sisters Brothers,” Reilly and Joaquin Phoenix play outlaw siblings hired by their boss to kill a prospector (Riz Ahmed), who has come up with a scientific formula for discovering gold. This puts one of the brothers’ confederates (Jake Gyllenhaal) in a sticky situation; he’s been hired by the brothers to keep an eye on the prospector. At turns violent, hilarious, and deeply beautiful, Jacques Audiard’s “The Sisters Brothers” is a movie you simply cannot miss and while it’s playing in Los Angeles and New York City now, it’ll be rolling out more and more in the next few weeks (see the complete list below). Yee-haw!
Now we can see the Joker in “full white” makeup. This may not be his final look, since “Joker” is an origin story about Arthur finding his crazy self. Plus, they just started filming.
In the first set photos, we saw Phoenix’s Arthur have some kind of altercation with a clown. That could be where he picks up the idea for this new look.
Phillips has been doing an A+ job teasing out “Joker” photos so far — just enough — so hopefully he keeps this up without going overboard by the time the film releases in theaters on October 4th, 2019.
Veteran character actor Brett Cullen is the latest star to join the upcoming “Joker” standalone flick, taking over the part originally — and very, very briefly — assigned to Alec Baldwin.
ComicBook.com reports that Warner Bros. has confirmed Cullen’s casting, replacing Baldwin as Thomas Wayne, the father of Bruce Wayne (a.k.a. the future Batman). Baldwin was only attached to the part for a few days late last month before he exited the flick, thanks to a scheduling conflict.
Maybe, though, Baldwin simply wanted to take a break from playing the current president, since rumored character descriptions for this version of Thomas Wayne have pegged him as a “cheesy and tanned businessman who is more in the mold of a 1980s Donald Trump.” It didn’t take WB and DC long to find their man in Cullen, who’s no stranger to comic book fare, having appeared in “Ghost Rider” and “The Dark Knight Rises.”
Though Cullen — who’s also had roles on TV series including “Lost” and “Person of Interest” — isn’t exactly a household name, the rest of the cast is certainly pretty starry. “Joker” features big names including Joaquin Phoenix (playing the titular role), Robert De Niro, Frances Conroy, Marc Maron, and Zazie Beetz.
“Joker” currently has a release date in the cards for October 4, 2019.
This official photo comes in tandem with Just Jared’s new gallery of set photos, showing Arthur Fleck with a clown. He takes the clown’s red nose, and apparently irritates the guy:
It looks like Joaquin Phoenix has started filming as the Joker for the standalone #Joker movie! https://t.co/0uwG4l34o0
Here’s some background and speculation from Screen Rant:
“Some clown makeup is included as Phoenix antagonizes a clown in an alley, after visiting Ha-Ha’s Talent Booking in Amusement Mile. The talent agency Phoenix visits is likely the one run by Marc Maron’s character. For all fans know, it’s the clown in the set photos that eventually influences Arthur to don a similar look.”
Maybe. “Joker” is now filming, so this should be the start of many official and unofficial photos, and — eventually — trailers.
This DC/Warner Bros. standalone movie is separate from the DCEU of Jared Leto‘s Joker, Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, etc. “Joker” is scheduled for release in theaters on October 4, 2019.
Marking the English-language directorial debut of Jacques Audiard (“A Prophet”), this Western is poised to give audiences a very fresh and inspired take on the Wild West, with two of our favorite actors along for the ride.
In addition to the crazy-talented cast and director, what also makes this one of the fall’s most anticipated movies is that it comes from distributor Annapurna, the folks that can’t stop putting out good things (“Zero Dark Thirty” and “Sorry to Bother You,” just to name a few.)
Check out the poster below:
Annapurna
We’ve seen the movie — it’s pretty great — so we won’t spoil it for you here. But here’s the official synopsis:
It is 1851, and Charlie and Eli Sisters (Joaquin Phoenix and John C. Reilly) are both brothers and assassins, boys grown to men in a savage and hostile world. They have blood on their hands: that of criminals, that of innocents…and they know no state of existence other than being gunmen. The older of the two, introspective Eli (Reilly) rides hard with his younger sibling, yet dares to dream of a normal life. The younger of the two, hard-drinking Charlie (Phoenix), has taken charge with gusto as lead man on the duo’s assignments. Each increasingly questions, and quibbles with, the other’s methods.
The Sisters brothers find themselves on a journey through the Northwest, bringing them to the mountains of Oregon, a dangerous brothel in the small town of Mayfield, and eventually, the Gold Rush land of California — a journey that will test the deadly family ties that bind. But, can it also be the path to rediscovering what remains of their humanity?
No joke, Alec Baldwin has dropped out of the “Joker” movie that he reportedly only joined a few days ago.
On Monday, Deadline reported that Baldwin was set to play Thomas Wayne, Batman’s dad, in director Todd Phillips’s film opposite Joaquin Phoenix as the titular villain. The cast includes Robert De Niro, Frances Conroy, Marc Maron, and Zazie Beetz.
But Baldwin himself threw cold water on the casting report earlier today on Twitter:
Let me state, for the record, that I have NOT been hired to play a role in Todd Phillips’ JOKER as some Donald Trump manque. That is not happening. Not. Happening.
USA Today confirmed with the actor that he dropped out due to scheduling conflicts.
“I’m no longer doing that movie,” he said. “I’m sure there are 25 guys who can play that part.”
Production begins on Sept. 10, so Phillips had better find a replacement soon. Not much is known about the movie, other than that it is a “gritty character study.” But Baldwin’s tweet seems to confirm rumors that Thomas Wayne will be portrayed as a “cheesy and tanned businessman who is more in the mold of a 1980s Donald Trump.”
The supporting cast of Joaquin Phoenix’s upcoming Joker spinoff flick is shaping up to be quite the impressive – and eclectic – bunch, with the latest rumored addition to the ensemble bringing a comedic background to the gritty drama.
Variety reports that Marc Maron — best known for his popular “WTF” podcast, as well as TV comedies like “GLOW” and his eponymous IFC series — is now circling the project, in which he would play yet another figure from the Joker’s pre-villainous past. Here’s the scoop on the character, according to the trade:
According to sources, Maron would be portraying an agent on Robert De Niro’s talk show who plays a part in booking Phoenix’s character, and eventually causing him to go mad and become the Clown Prince of Crime.
As Variety also reported last week, De Niro is rumored to be playing a talk show host character that’s a direct homage to the Oscar winner’s 1982 film, “The King of Comedy.” In that feature, a popular talk show host is kidnapped by a failing comedian played by De Niro; in the Joker film, De Niro would instead be playing the host.
No word yet on a title or an official synopsis for the flick, though Phoenix alluded to plenty of mystery surrounding the movie in an interview with Moviefone earlier this month. Guess we’ll have to wait for more intel whenever filmmakers are ready to talk.
The spinoff is set to begin production in September, and slated for release on October 4, 2019.
Joaquin Phoenix‘s gritty reimagining of the villainous Joker is apparently catnip for award-winning actors: After reports swirled on Monday morning that none other than Robert De Niro was circling the project, there appears to be yet another celebrated star in the mix.
TheWrap is reporting that Frances Conroy is currently in talks to play Penny, the mother of Phoenix’s Joker, in the film. Conroy won several Screen Actors Guild Awards and a Golden Globe for her role on HBO series “Six Feet Under,” and has also starred in dozens of episodes of “American Horror Story,” among other high-profile projects.
If cast, the actress would add to the already-impressive lineup led by Phoenix and De Niro. “Deadpool 2” star Zazie Beetz is also in talks to join the feature.
Despite its aim to attract big names to the ensemble, this Joker flick is positioning itself as a bit of an outlier to the bigger, flashier fare that DC has released in recent years. This film being billed as more of a crime thriller than a big-budget superhero feature, and is reportedly taking some inspiration from Alan Moore’s graphic novel “The Killing Joke,” as well as the De Niro film “The King of Comedy.”
Production is slated to start this fall. Stay tuned for more intel as it becomes available.
