If you’re curious as to what new movie this week might be best for you, Moviefone is here to help you find it and watch it. This week’s films feature heavy drama, child stars, pretend werewolves, young entrepreneurs, and off-beat parenting. Here are the movies we’re suggesting this week:
Cherry (Apple TV+)
Tom Holland in ‘Cherry’
If it seems like Tom Holland is everywhere these days, he is. In fact, he’s standing right behind you. This week on Apple TV+, he plays an Iraq veteran who returns home a war hero with serious PTSD. Fortunately for him, his true love Emily (Ciara Bravo) is there for him, but their life together isn’t without challenges. He spirals into drug use and crime, and keeps the worst possible company, and ends up in danger of losing the only things that keep him going.
Watch It If: You love the collaboration of Tom Holland along with directors Anthony and Joe Russo of Marvel fame, and would love to see something a little (a lot) grittier than Spidey.
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Kid 90 (Hulu)
Soleil Moon Frye in ‘kid 90’
If it cheers you up to think of better days gone by, tune into Hulu for this documentary made by a former child star about herself and other kids on the precipice of fame in the 90s. Soleil Moon Frye from Punky Brewster (available now as a reboot, of course) filmed every second of her life before it was cool or common, and she captured friends like Mark Paul Gosselar and Bryan Austin Green, plus other recognizable faces from kids with only two names.
Watch It If: You enjoy intimate portraits of people who assume every aspect of their lives is going to fascinate you (and it probably will), and if you consider it a sport to yell at the TV giving warnings to people who can’t hear you about the directions their shows and careers would take.
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Yes Day (Netflix)
(L to R) Edgar Ramirez, Jenna Ortega, Everly Carganilla, Julian Lerner, and Jennifer Garner in ‘Yes Day’
Parents are so lame, always wanting to keep their kids from doing cool stuff like breaking limbs, costing them a fortune in cleaning bills, and eating candy for every meal. Jennifer Garner and Edgar Ramirez are two such buzzkill parents, so when their kids challenge them to a day of saying only yes, they have their work cut out for them. Chaos ensues, taking the family on one adventure after another–and certainly a couple of massive cleaning bills along the way.
Watch It If: As a parent, you love giving your children terrible ideas. And if you don’t have kids, it’s just fun stuff to do when you can start having parties again.
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Own the Room (Disney+)
Daniela Blanco, Co-founder of Sunthetics in ‘Own the Room’
The Global Student Entrepreneur Awards are being held in Macau, China, and this Nat Geo documentary chronicles the lives of five entrants from all across the globe. Audiences will meet Alondra in Puerto Rico who works at her family bakery, Santosh, a Nepalese farmer, Henry, a programming genius from Nairobi, Jason from Greece who loves marketing, and Daniela, an immigrant fleeing the crisis in Venezuela. They’re competing for a $100,000 prize that will change their lives and make their businesses a reality.
Watch It If: You need a dose of inspiration and want to feel like the future is bright, and have children who will join the movement.
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The Dead of Night (On Demand, Digital)
Lance Henriksen and Colby Crain in ‘The Dead of Night’
Siblings Tommy (Jake Etheridge) and June (Colby Crain) run a ranch in an isolated part of the country. Nearby, some shady drifters have donned wolf masks and are beginning a murder spree that’s going to turn the town upside down. They leave some bodies near the ranch, spurring fear and condemnation from the community, and then the lycanthropic wannabes set their sights on the ranch and the siblings that live on it.
Watch It If: You feel compelled to howl at the moon, and at some appearances by Lance Henriksen and Matthew Lawrence.
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Trust (In Theaters and On Demand)
Victoria Justice and Lucien Laviscount in ‘Trust’
Victoria Justice plays Brooke, a strong woman who has it all–great husband Owen (Matthew Daddario), successful art gallery, and in this movie, a new artist (Lucien Laviscount) she signed that promises to be very good for business and very bad for her marriage. While she is away on a business trip to Paris with the painter who clearly wants to make her the subject of one of his racy, intimate paintings, Owen runs into some temptation of his own in the form of a journalist (Katherine McNamara).
Watch It If: You grew up seeing Victoria Justice on Nickelodeon’s Victorious and are ready to see her tackle entrepreneurship and infidelity, or if you’ve had to sop up the drool after seeing Lucien Laviscount on Coronation Street.
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Adverse (VOD & DVD/Blu-ray)
Mickey Rourke in ‘Adverse’
Ethan (Thomas Nicholas) is a rideshare driver trying to make ends meet and take care of his sister Mia (Kelly Arjen). When he learns that she has gotten tangled up with a crazy drug dealer named Kaden (Mickey Rourke) and disappears, he becomes desperate to find her. He creates a plan to become close to Kaden as his driver and obliterate his team in the process.
Watch It If: You’re in the mood for a crime thriller and/or Thomas Nicholas dropping his middle name (Ian) intrigues you.
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After close to a decade of untouchable box office dominance, “Avatar” has finally given up its crown as the biggest box office earner of all time. And now, its director is heaping praise on the film’s successor.
After a re-release that helped it squeak past “Avatar”‘s previous world record of $2.789 billion, “Avengers: Endgame” officially became the biggest movie ever over the weekend, earning a staggering $2.791 billion. As he did with other records of his that “Endgame” had previously broken, “Avatar” mastermind James Cameron acknowledged the feat in a social media post.
Addressing the folks at Marvel Studios with a Na’vi greeting, Cameron shared an image of Iron Man covered in wood sprites from Pandora.
“I see you Marvel,” the director wrote. “Congratulations to Avengers Endgame on becoming the new box-office king.”
“Endgame” directors Joe Russo and Anthony Russo took to Instagram to praise Cameron right back, sharing several images of themselves in silhouette, marveling over Cameron’s previous films.
Addressing Cameron directly, the Russo brothers called him “a monumental reason why we fell in love with film in the first place,” and thanked the filmmaker for “inspiring us and opening the world’s eyes to what’s possible.” The duo closed out their message by saying, “We can’t wait to see where you take us next…”
That would be back to Pandora, with Cameron currently working on four planned “Avatar” sequels, which have been in various stages of development — but finally seem to be moving along — for ages. If all goes according to plan, the first follow-up will hit theaters at the end of 2021.
With so much additional content to come from both Marvel and Cameron, we have a feeling that the filmmakers may be trading records for the foreseeable future.
Netflix is teaming up with Joe and Anthony Russo (“Avengers: Endgame”) to develop an animated series based on the popular trading card game.
Originally released in 1993, the game has been played by millions of players around the world and has spawned a video game, comic book series, and a best-selling novel.
The Russo brothers will serve as executive producers on the series, which will tell “an all new storyline and expand on the stories of the Planeswalkers, which are Magic’s unique magic-wielding heroes and villains as they contend with stakes larger than any one world can hold.”
The show will “cross the genres of suspenseful thriller, horror, and drama with deeply developed characters the likes of which are not often seen in animation.”
“Magic: The Gathering’s” parent company Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro’s Allspark Animation are also on board the project.
“We have been huge fans and players of Magic: The Gathering for as long as it has been around, so being able to help bring these stories to life through animation is a true passion project for us,” said the Russo brothers.
The brothers recently spoke to Business Insider and were faced with an interesting hypothetical about whether or not there were any Fox characters they wish they could have used. “Endgame” was produced prior to Disney’s acquisition of key Fox assets, including the rights to Marvel superhero properties such as X-Men and Deadpool. It turns out, though, the Russos feel good about the timing.
“We love all the Fox characters, but there were so many characters in this film,” Joe said. “I don’t know if we could have handled adding any more characters, especially characters that weren’t developed in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.”
That seems reasonable. There were already a lot of loose ends to tie up — so many that the film’s run time stretched to three hours. We can’t imagine what a challenge it would have been for the Russos to add in even more.
Although Joe wasn’t disappointed by the lack of Marvel superheroes from Fox in “Endgame,” he added that he’d “love to [use them] in the future.” His comment comes after the Anthony told GamesRadar in March that they “don’t have any plans for now to make any more Marvel movies” but left the door open for future projects. They two directors are apparently on the same page when it comes to returning for more MCU fun.
For now, the Russos won’t be working with any Marvel characters, from former Fox properties or otherwise. They’ll next direct the dark drama “Cherry” starring the MCU’s Tom Holland.
This weekend, Marvel’s “Avengers: Endgame” opens everywhere and it’s hard to remember a movie that was more hotly anticipated or obsessed-over. (Seriously, some projections have it making $1 billion worldwide in its opening weekend.) Not only is the conclusion to last summer’s “Avengers: Infinity War” but it also serves as a literal and metaphorical capper to the last ten years of Marvel Studios (and the 22 films that encompassed it). It’s incredible to think of the pressure that comes along with this film, pressure that rests largely on the shoulders of Joe and Anthony Russo, the filmmaking team behind both of these recent “Avengers” films, as well as “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” and “Captain America: Civil War.” (Not too shabby, right?)
We were lucky enough to sit down with the brothers at the recent “Avengers: Endgame” press junket, where we talked about the role of pre-visualization methods and second units in a film of this scale, making the movie feel different than “Infinity War,” and the difficulty in keeping the movie a secret (especially since toys have to be made ahead of time). Please keep in mind that when we conducted the interview, we had only been shown two very short scenes from very early in the movie, and nothing else. Now that we’ve seen all of the film, we have many more questions for them, and so much more adoration.
Can you talk about the role of pre-visualization in making these movies?
Anthony Russo: Well, to the degree that everything is all thought out ahead of time, we’re directing what’s thought out ahead of time as much as we’re directing what happens on set. But yeah, it’s extremely extensive. Obviously these movies, they’re so complicated whether on a physical production level, if you’re doing real stunts or on a visual effects level and all that stuff in order to look that great and be good and also be safe in the case of stunts, you have to very thoroughly planned for it. So we go through a process where we go through very extensive drawing. We do a lot of traditional storyboarding, but we also do very extensive animation. We call it pre-viz, where we track all the sequences that way and sort of develop it. It’s a tool for us to figure out how we want to shoot it, what we want, what we want to move to be at a visual level. But then it also becomes a document in the same way that the script is a document that tells everybody what to do. All the actors know their lines, the, the production designer knows whether we’re inside the building, outside the building, et cetera. This is also a document that tells everybody involved in the movie how we’re shooting something, right? And that’s really what it is and that’s how we treat it. So once Joe and I get to the point where we feel like, Oh yeah, we’ve got this pre-viz in the zone of what we want, how we want to execute it. Meaning, is it telling people the scope of what we’re going after? Is it seeing as much of a set as we want to have prepared? Is it seeing the number of extras that we have available to us? Is it showing the kind of camera movements that we want everybody to be prepared to do? Et cetera. Once we get it to that point, then we’re done with it. That document is good enough for us to go to set with. When we go to set, we have this process by which were basically throw it out when we get to set.
Really?
Anthony Russo: Yeah, because when you’re on set, whether it’s a stage or an actual location, you have things that are available to you for the first time that you never had available to you before in the creative process of planning this. Now these things are real and not only are they real, but now you’re actually seeing them in relationship to one another. And most importantly, you’re finally seeing the actors in those spaces, interacting with them. So we tend to go through a very thorough rehearsal process onset where we’ll start our shoot day, where we’ll bring the actors out, have all the tools there.
Typically we tell the crew to just take a break so that we can have space to work and we’ll just start playing with the scene. We’ll start reading, talking about how we thought we would lay it out. And sometimes the way we thought we had lay out is already different from what the pre-viz is because Joe and I had been scouting the actual location as the elements of all come together over the previous couple of days. And we’ve got new ideas about how we wanted to lay it out in that space. And then we’ll go from there. And the great thing is like our team is so good that they can adapt to things like that. Our visual effects capacity so high that we could use visual effects to a plug holes that we may have created by changing the plan in such a way. But yeah, but that’s basically our process. So, but that document is critical. Otherwise you would never be able to have a team this large be ready to actually execute something.
Marvel Studios
But nobody’s going “where’s that shot?” Or ILM isn’t saying “we already finished that sequence” or something?
Joe Russo: No, if it’s a fully CGI shot we’ll turn it over prior to going to set because we’re not shooting anything for it. But that gets approved through an iterative process where we will go through, seven or eight passes at the shot and then the we’re happy with it, then say, great, this can go off and get started and then we’ll shoot the rest of this when we get to set.
How crucial are those second-unit guys? There’s been a lot of talk about people wanting a stunt category at the Oscars.
Joe Russo: think it’s sad because it’s a highly technical craft and very specific and requires an incredible amount of artistry. Second units are invaluable to movies of the scale or valuable whether it’s “Star Wars” or “Lord of the Rings.” There’s a lot of the great work being done by the second unit.
Can you talk about the visual language of the movie? Is it a carryover of what you did on “Avengers: Infinity War?”
Joe Russo: We won’t talk about the style. We’ll say that like trap of movies like this where that are, you know, shot back-to-back and tied together through a serialized narrative, is they can feel like the same movie. And one of the ways that you can differentiate movies is through tone and another is point of view. And this will be a different tone and a different point of view.
Setting off on these two movies has it been harder than you thought? Easier? Did something surprise you in terms of challenges?
Joe Russo: Challenges certainly, I mean without question, doing physical aspect of it, shooting two movies back to back for a year straight, it’s crazy. And you know, I think working in television for so long prepared us for the grueling hours, but it’s not something that we’d ever wish on anybody. It can cause presidential aging. It’s accelerates exponentially the aging process. One thing we’ve learned is that lthis is probably a once in a lifetime experience.
You’re obviously doing a smaller movie next but is there an allure to coming back to a big movie like this?
Anthony Russo: It’s so funny because when we grew up film fans, we had dual loves. One was the sort of big Hollywood epics that everyone else loved. And then we also had this geeky art movie side of ourselves where we love the obscure movies that most people have never heard of it. But yeah, we love making movies at this scale where you can engage global audiences. It’s thrilling to us, to be able to craft stories like this. And we also love the tools that are available to make great movies like this at this budget level. So this is something that I think we’ll return to again and again as filmmakers. But yeah, we’re definitely going to go through a little bit of a cycle here where we are using different muscles for a little while.
Marvel Studios
Were you surprised at all by the reaction to “Infinity War?”
Joe Russo: There’s a very simple math to it. It’s disruption. It’s taking our expectations that, okay, this one of the most expensive movies made. And commercial movies are commercial because they ended optimistic. So their expectation is that we’re going to give an optimistic ending. And then we play on those beats throughout the entire film. It’s very calculating how we’re trying to set up Thor for victory in the movie or your belief that like he could potentially come to save the day with his magic ax. And then we pull the rug out from underneath. I think that the preconceptions of the audience going into that theater about what kind of movie that was and what the expectations have been for 50 years of commercial storytelling and that we played against those expectations is what caused that response.
Do you have a favorite response?
Joe Russo: Yeah, Mark Ruffalo told this crazy story that he is in New York on a Friday night of opening weekend. He’s in a cap and glasses and he’s in the theater with this 16-year-old son and all of his buddies. And he said it got to the end of the movie and the lights went out and he said the whole theater just sat there in silence. And then people started getting angry, it was sort of New York crowd. And then he said a guy got so angry that he ripped his shirt off his body and started screaming at the screen, “Why? Why?” And then the Ruffalo said at that point and felt like he needed to theater, lest he be recognized and his safety be in jeopardy.
Have you been involved in the marketing for this? I can’t think of a movie that has shown so little.
Joe Russo: That was always the intention.
Anthony Russo: Yeah, we talked about it quite a bit. Because this is so unconventional and of course there is a level of risk involved on a financial level for Disney. But yeah, we’ve talked about it extensively. But everybody was very much on board with it. The idea that like the story needs to be protected, the integrity of the viewing experience of the audience needs to be protected.
Joe Russo: Especially in a culture that’s really driven to spoil.
Well it’s amazing too with so many toys and books and stuff.
Anthony Russo: It’s very complicated for them to try and bottle that.
Joe Russo: It’s so interesting. It’s so weird though, sometimes toys will be based on a draft that he threw out years ago or they just make a toy because they think it’s going to sell. So sometimes there will be spoilers with that stuff. But a lot of times it’s…
Anthony Russo: Phantom limbs.
Is that what happened with the toy of the Hulk bursting out of the Hulkbuster armor?
Joe Russo: Yeah it’s a phantom limb of an idea we explored a year earlier. But that’s the lead time for toys and then the idea goes away but there’s a toy. So ultimately we don’t get that worried about it. And frankly, beyond like, the most ravenous fan base, people aren’t paying attention to that level.
“Avengers: Endgame” is in theaters starting tomorrow night. But you already knew that.
The countdown is on to the release of the final chapter in the “Avengers” saga, “Avengers: Endgame,” and unfortunately, that means that some spoilers have already started leaking from the film. But the movie’s directors are now pleading directly with fans to help keep the flick’s secrets, and not ruin anything for others.
In a heartfelt open letter shared on social media on Tuesday, the Russo Brothers — a.k.a. co-directors Joe Russo and Anthony Russo — did not address any of the leaks directly. But, like they did before the release of last year’s “Infinity War,” they instead appealed directly to fans’ own desire not to have the film ruined for themselves.
Calling MCU devotees “the greatest fans in the world,” the directors detailed the work that went into making the film, and their desire to see fans enjoy it on its own merits. The letter said, in part:
Please know that the two of us, along with everyone involved in Endgame, have worked tirelessly for the last three years with the sole intention of delivering a surprising and emotionally powerful conclusion to the Infinity Saga.
Because so many of you have invested your time, your hearts, and your souls into these stories, we’re once again asking for your help.
When you see Endgame in the coming weeks, please don’t spoil it for others, the same way you wouldn’t want it spoiled for you.
The directors ended their letter with the hashtag, #DontSpoilTheEndgame, which has already spiked significantly on Twitter. We expect to see it in even more as the release date looms.
“Avengers: Endgame” is due in theaters on April 26.
Now that it’s “Endgame,” the Russo brothers are figuring out their post-Marvel lives.
Directors Joe and Anthony Russo, who have directed four MCU films (including the upcoming “Avengers: Endgame”), have signed a deal that will make them “spiritual creative architects” of iconic properties in the MGM library, according to Deadline.
Their production company, AGBO, will embark on “a multi-film non-exclusive creative partnership to co-develop, co-produce and co-finance a slate of projects.”
The first film to fall under the partnership will be a reimagining of “The Thomas Crown Affair” starring Michael B. Jordan, which has been in development for several years.
The Russos could end up directing that remake, as they both love the 1968 original starring Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway.
AGBO will also develop James Madigan’s live action/animation take on “The Rats Of Nimh,” based on the award-winning books by author Robert C. O’Brien, as well as the original film “Hacienda.”
Currently, AGBO has several projects in the pipeline, including the mystery thriller “21 Bridges” with Chadwick Boseman, Sienna Miller, and Taylor Kitsch.
Never mind the fact that “Avengers 4” is still several months from being released — there’s been a plot twist.
Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige assured fans in late October that the upcoming film’s trailer would arrive “before the end of the year,” but now that doesn’t look so certain. Joe Russo, who directed the film alongside his brother Anthony Russo, has complicated everything we thought we knew. During a Q&A on Thursday, Nov. 8 in his Los Angeles bar Duello, Russo indicated that the trailer might not actually arrive in 2018, as Comicbook.com reports.
“When can we expect to see the Avengers 4 trailer?” the director said. “You may or may not see it before the calendar turns to 2019.”
Apparently, the editing process is such a huge undertaking that they’re only about halfway through. Russo said they’re “really just scratching the surface” on their visual effects shots, and there are “more than 300” in the superhero flick. They’ve also only begun to work on the score, he said.
There are still nearly two months left in 2018, so fans can keep hoping for a trailer sooner rather than later. That said, you may not want to count on Feige’s earlier guarantee; a lot of work still has to be done.
At least there’s still an official title reveal to look forward to. We expect that will still come by year’s end.
Reshoots = done. All of your favorites = done whatever they are going to do. Now post-production work kicks into high gear and continues into 2019.
But the intense fan speculation has only just begun.
It’s a good thing Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige has movies planned until at least 2025. If the whole MCU ended with “Avengers 4” we’d miss the stars and characters, but we’d REALLY miss the obsessed fans.
MCU fans are a special breed — in a good way — and they tackle any clue with gusto. Sometimes they take it very seriously, sometimes they turn it into a joke. No matter what, they make the whole process fun.
The Russo Brothers understand this. They aren’t very active on social media, but when they do post something, they like it to be vague. They did this not too long ago with a black-and-white behind-the-scenes set photo, telling fans to “look hard.” They didn’t even say there were “Avengers 4” title clues involved, but fans came up with title clues anyway.
So Anthony Russo and Joe Russo decided to mark the official end of “Avengers” filming with this photo:
Seriously. They don’t need to market the film at all. Don’t bother telling us the title. No trailer. Just keep posting random shots of crap around set and we’ll do the rest.
“Avengers 4” is currently scheduled for release May 3, 2019.
Put on your Science Bro thinking caps and solve this puzzle. It may be a title clue for “Avengers 4.” It also may not. Those are the options!
Directors Anthony Russo and Joe Russo are hard at work on “Avengers 4” — but also opening a new restaurant, see below — and shared a new mystery with fans.
That “End Game” might be a slight stretch, but we love it anyway. End Game for the win. One word or two, though?
Marvel Studios
You may have also noticed that Joe Russo is now co-owner of a restaurant in downtown Los Angeles, and he worked his Rolodex to get several MCU stars in early, before this Thursday’s grand opening:
