Moviefone Editorial

Tag: spectre

  • ‘Empire Strikes Back’ Gets Bond Treatment in Fan-Made Opening Credits

    Empire Strikes BackHere’s Vader, Darth Vader — and he likes his martinis shaken, not stirred.

    Designer Kurt Rauffer reimagined the opening credits for “The Empire Strikes Back” in the style of a James Bond film. It was his senior year project at the New York School of Visual Arts, and video marries “Star Wars” themes with the moody music and mesmerizing graphics of Bond movies.

    “The style and tone of the animation was inspired by the James Bond title sequences. The music was a rejected song from the newest Bond film, ‘Spectre,’ sung by Radiohead,” Rauffer wrote. “I really wanted to play on the concept of Luke trying to find himself and true purpose, so the music and inspiration felt fitting.”

    Star Wars – Episode V “The Empire Strikes Back” Homage (Title Sequence) from KROFL on Vimeo.

    It’s a fun mashup of two iconic franchises, but we doubt director Rian Johnson will copy it for “Episode VIII.” After all, “Star Wars” wouldn’t be “Star Wars” without that distinctive title crawl.

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  • Sam Smith Apologizes, Takes Twitter Break After Oscars Speech ‘Hiccup’

    88th Annual Academy Awards - Red CarpetSam Smith had the best of intentions, but when picking up his Oscar for Best Original Song for “Spectre,” he misquoted Ian McKellen and got shaken and stirred by the Internet.

    “I read an article a few months ago by Sir Ian McKellen and he said that no openly gay man had ever won an Oscar, and if this is the case, even if it isn’t the case, I want to dedicate this to the LGBT community all around the world,” Smith said in his speech. “I stand here tonight as a proud gay man, and I hope we can all stand together as equals one day.”

    Backstage, Smith reacted to winning on a night of diversity, during a year when there was an increase in LGBT visibility with films like “Carol” and “The Danish Girl”: “It means the world to me. When I read the Ian McKellen piece, I was just bowled over by it, and I wanted to take this opportunity to show how much I care about my community. In the past in my career, people have said at the beginning that I didn’t and stuff, and I just wanted to make it clear how much I truly do care about the LGBT community.”

    It was a moving speech, and a worthy sentiment, but Smith was far from the first openly gay man to win an Oscar. As The Hollywood Reporter noted, “Elton John, Dustin Lance Black, Howard Ashman, and Scott Rudin were all openly gay when they accepted their Oscars. John and Ashman both won best original song Oscars, as have fellow openly gay artists Melissa Etheridge (in 2007 for ‘I Need To Wake Up’ from An Inconvenient Truth) and Stephen Sondheim.”

    Sir Ian, being simply The Best at all times, kept things positive when gently correcting Smith on his own original quote:


    Smith responded to McKellen:


    However, some viewers were more frustrated with Smith, and called him out for being oblivious of history. Oscar winner Dustin Lance Black issued a couple of sharp tweets:


    Smith replied to Black, and further tried to bring attention back to the intentions of his speech:


    Ultimately, whether from being sick of the online chatter or just to celebrate privately, Smith announced that he was temporarily stepping away from Twitter:


    Sometimes it’s best just to leave the Twitterverse to itself. Hopefully he’s now enjoying his moment in peace and quiet — or out partying with Sir Ian McKellen.

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  • Oscars 2016: Best Original Song Winner Is ‘Writing’s On the Wall’ From ‘Spectre’

    88th Annual Academy Awards - Arrivals And the winner for Best Original Song at the 2016 Oscars is “Writing’s on the Wall” from “Spectre.”

    The five nominees at this year’s Academy Awards were “Earned It” from “Fifty Shades Of Grey,” “Manta Ray” from “Racing Extinction,” “Simple Song #3” from “Youth,” “Til It Happens To You” from “The Hunting Ground,” and “Writing’s On The Wall” from “Spectre.”

    Jimmy Napes and performer Sam Smith took home the big award, and this is the second Bond film to win Best Song since “Skyfall.” This is the first Oscar for British singer Smith, who has already won four Grammy Awards, as well as the Golden Globe earlier this year.
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  • The 15 Worst Movies of 2015 (So Far)

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    A great many movies flopped at the box office this year — including Zac Efron‘s “We Are Your Friends,” “Jem and the Holograms” and the Hugh Jackman movies “Pan” and “Chappie” — but, let’s be honest, a lot of moneymakers were also not that great.

    With the help of scores on Rotten Tomatoes, here are some of the worst (or at least most disappointing) movies of 2015 — Some we had high hopes for, and others we rightly suspected all along were going to suck.

  • Former James Bond Pierce Brosnan Did Not Like ‘Spectre’

    Special Screening Of NO ESCAPE In New YorkThe latest James Bond outing, “Spectre,” is a hit with crowds, but not so much with critics. Joining the latter camp is former 007 Pierce Brosnan, who revealed in a recent interview that he didn’t really care for the newest Bond flick.

    Brosnan, who played the spy in four films between 1995 and 2000, told HitFix that he was initially excited to see “Spectre” — but that excitement faded once he watched the film.

    “I was looking forward to it enormously,” Brosnan told the site. “I thought it was too long. The story was kind of weak — it could have been condensed. It kind of went on too long. It really did.”

    Despite his dislike for the film itself, Brosnan had nothing but praise for current franchise star Daniel Craig. The actor noted that Craig clearly has “ownership” of the iconic role in his fourth outing — he just needs a better movie around him to really showcase his skills.

    “He’s a mighty warrior, and I think he found a great sense of himself in this one with the one-liners and a nice playfulness there,” Brosnan said of Craig. “Just get a tighter story, and he’ll have another classic.”

    That’s if Craig sticks around for another film. The jury’s still out on that one — and on who’ll replace him if he does leave — but it’s good to know that the actor has the support of one of his forebears.

    [via: HitFix]

    Photo credit: Getty Images for Weinstein

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  • Box Office: Why This Weekend Was Full of Surprises

    This was the weekend that nothing went as expected at the box office — hinting that the multiplex may be in for a wild ride this winter.

    Even though many predicted that none of this weekend’s new releases were going to dislodge “Spectre” and “The Peanuts Movie” from the top two spots, those films still surprised. “Spectre” held on better than anyone thought, losing just 50 percent of last week’s business instead of the 60 that many predicted, to finish with an estimated $35.4 million for the weekend. On the other hand, “Peanuts” was supposed to lose just 35 percent of last week’s business, but it plunged 45 percent, to an estimated $24.2 million.

    It’s possible that “Love the Coopers” ate into the “Peanuts” family audience. Instead of debuting at $6 or $7 million, it earned an estimated $8.4 million, good for third place. Despite its unclear title, the movie was well-marketed; viewers knew that it was a Christmas-themed family comedy, and as the first such film of the season, it had an advantage. An all-star cast (including Diane Keaton and John Goodman) didn’t hurt.
    “The 33” premiered in fifth place, with $5.8 million — less than the $10 million analysts pegged it to earn. Despite being based on the gripping true story of the successful rescue of the Chilean miners who were trapped below ground for 69 days in 2010, the movie had limited appeal. The title was weak, the marketing was nearly invisible, and the reviews were lackluster, which hurt among the older audience the film targeted. The waning star power of Antonio Banderas wasn’t enough to overcome those liabilities.

    The weekend’s biggest surprise? The Bollywood romantic epic “Prem Ratan Dhan Payo.” The Hindi-language musical cracked the top ten, landing in eighth placed with an estimated $2.4 million. That take is all the more impressive considering that it’s playing on just 286 screens, and that “Prem” is three hours long — meaning fewer showings per day. Give credit to Salman Khan and Sonam Kapoor, two of India’s biggest stars, as the romantic leads.

    Failing to crack the top 10, despite opening on 1,565 screens, was period football drama “My All American.” It debuted in 12th place with just $1.4 million, meaning it earned just $889 per theater. The movie had a pedigree — writer/director Angelo Pizzo is the screenwriter behind such tearjerking sports-drama classics as “Hoosiers” and “Rudy” — but he’s not a household name. And the movie opened while the similar “Woodlawn” is still doing decent business (it’s earned $13.6 million over five weeks, including another estimated $635,000 this weekend).Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt‘s much-anticipated marital drama “By the Sea” was a box office dud, to be expected considering it only premiered on 10 screens, earning an estimated $95,440, or $9,544 per screen. That seems like a good per-screen average — “Spectre” earned $9,010 per screen this weekend — but it pales in comparison to other recent art-house movies that opened with $20,000 or more in limited release.

    The movie’s underwhelming reviews may have kept viewers away, and the numbers suggest that, even when the movie is playing nationwide, fascination with Brangelina won’t be enough to draw audiences curious about whether the couple’s on-screen turmoil sheds light on their off-screen relationship.

    Overall, the box office was down nearly 35 percent from last week’s surge. Does that mean last week was a fluke, and that we’re still in the midst of a deep slump? Not necessarily.

    Next weekend should spike again with the release of “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 2.” And 2015 is still on track to beat the yearly record set in 2013. But beyond sure things like “Mockingjay” and “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” how the rest of the year will play out is anybody’s guess.
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  • ‘Spectre’ Breaks Guinness World Record for Largest Film Explosion Ever

    ‘Spectre’ Breaks Guinness World Record for Largest Film Explosion Ever

    The 007 franchise is used to breaking records at the box office, but now it’s breaking records for a different kind of achievement.

    “Spectre,” the 24th installment of the James Bond series, was recognized in a ceremony Tuesday by Guinness World Records as having the largest film stunt explosion ever. The honor goes to the spy flick’s special effects and miniature effects supervisor Chris Corbould.

    The blast took place in Erfoud, Morocco, and had a total yield of 68.47 tons of TNT equivalent and was the result of detonating 8,418 litres of kerosene with 33 kg of powder explosives. The dramatic explosion lasted for more than 7.5 seconds.

    Director Sam Mendes broke down the record-breaking blast in the simplest way possible in a behind-the-scenes featurette. “All one shot, come up the stairs, line of dialog, largest explosion in the history of movies, exit frame, cut,” he said.

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  • How James Bond and Charlie Brown Saved the Box Office

    As expected, James Bond and Charlie Brown conquered the box office this weekend.

    After the slump of the last few weeks, including the catastrophic finish a week ago that marked one of Hollywood’s worst weekends in seven years, audiences returned in droves and put the 2015 box office back on track for a record-breaking year. So why is there still a sense that the other shoe is waiting to drop?

    On the surface, it seems like there should be nothing to complain about regarding this week’s box office. The Bond franchise proved it’s alive and well in its 53rd year with “Spectre,” whose estimated $73.0 million debut is just about equal to the entire box office from last weekend. It’s the second biggest opening ever for a 007 movie, after the $88.3 million earned by 2012’s “Skyfall.” Daniel Craig may be tired of playing the super-spy, but audiences clearly aren’t tired of seeing him.

    At No. 2, “The Peanuts Movie” also opened big, with an estimated $45.0 million. That $118 million total for the top two movies is very strong, showing that there’s plenty of room in the marketplace for both an action film that plays to all ages and a family film based on a beloved franchise at the same time. “Peanuts” scored even better audience word-of-mouth than “Spectre,” earning an A grade at CinemaScore.

    Even the remaining top five movies — holdovers “The Martian,” “Goosebumps,” and “Bridge of Spies” — did well this weekend. None lost more than 30 percent of last weekend’s business, an indication that all three movies are holding up well, even after four to six weeks of release. Overall, this week’s box office receipts totaled an estimated $164.5 million, a jump of 122 percent from last weekend’s crater. It’s the best weekend at the multiplex since “Ant-Man” opened in July. Plus, the year-to-date box office stands at $9.1 billion, nearly 5 percent ahead of this time last year and 1.3 percent ahead of 2013, the biggest box office year ever.

    That said, there are still some caveats to this weekend’s results.
    As well as “Spectre” did, it was widely expected to do better. Distributor Sony gave an absurdly lowball prediction of $65 million that allowed it to spin this weekend’s results as outperforming expectations, but most tracking services predicted the movie would open between $80 and $85 million. Adjusting for ticket price inflation, “Spectre” actually opened below 2008’s “Quantum of Solace,” ($78.1 million at 2015 prices), a movie that most Bond fans found disappointing.

    Reviews of “Spectre” have been okay (62 percent fresh at Rotten Tomatoes, compared to 93 percent for “Skyfall”), and given the nostalgic appeal of the franchise to older audiences who still trust critics, that less-than-enthusiastic response could have discouraged some viewers.

    As for “Peanuts,” its $45 million debut falls at the low end of expectations, which ran from $45 to $55 million. Some older viewers have grumbled that they found the 3D computer animation off-putting after half a century of watching Charlie Brown and Snoopy in hand-drawn 2D.
    This is supposed to be the season when adult-oriented dramas open strongly in art-houses, generate strong reviews and word-of-mouth, then platform to wide release and enjoy modest nationwide success. That hasn’t happened this year with most award-hopefuls, with movies like “Steve Jobs” opening with strong reviews and high per-screen averages in a handful of theaters, only to stumble as they expand into general release. Only the crime thriller “Sicario” has done well this fall on the traditional platform pattern.

    This weekend saw strong limited art-house openings from “Spotlight,” “Brooklyn,” and “Trumbo,” but except for period romance “Brooklyn,” it’s hard to imagine these movies doing much better in wide release. Like this fall’s other platform flops, “Spotlight” and “Trumbo” deal with difficult, uncommercial topics, and they’re not so obviously cinematic that people feel they need to see them on the big screen instead of waiting until they’re available at home.

    The big lesson here, from both the art-house failures and the big-budget bombs, is that you can’t force people to see movies they’re not interested in.

    Even well-marketed, highly-anticipated films like “Spectre” and “The Peanuts Movie” can draw only so big an audience if they’re flawed in execution. People have too many other entertainment options to mandate that they come to the multiplex for any movie that sounds like a less-than-compelling big-screen experience. There’ll be a handful of such event-movies over the next couple of months, but the Hollywood business plan of letting a handful of such events make up for slates of mostly lackluster movies isn’t sustainable forever.
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  • Top 24 James Bond Villains, Ranked From Worst to Best

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    Bond movies are only as good as their villains. The world’s greatest spy needs an adversary worthy of his talents, effort and frequent-flyer miles.

    For the most part, Bond has fought some world-class foes, supervillains who have cool secret lairs to dispatch their plans for world domination — and give a Bond an excuse to judo chop or Q gadget them into oblivion. Some Bond villains, of course, are more fun than others, and some are scarier than others, and some represent more credible and realistic threats than others. We’ve taken all that into account in the gallery below, which ranks the 007 movie villains from worst to best.

  • Every James Bond Movie, Ranked From Worst to Best

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    He has driven an invisible car, ran across crocodiles, and made love in space. Is there anything James Bond can’t do?

    For over 50 years, the number one cause of death for Euro-trash supervillains who reside in swanky volcano lairs has kept the world safe on the big screen with his unique brand of espionage. From Sean Connery to Daniel Craig, it looks like the only thing 007 can’t do is stop making movies.

    With “Spectre” hitting theaters, we’ve ranked every Bond adventure released by EON — and one “unofficial” entry/remake of “Thunderball.” (The ’80s were a hell of a time.)