Steve Carell might be a “name” and his character’s name might be in the title, but Illumination and Universal know that the chattering Minions are the real draw for audiences, who love the little yellow troublemakers.
So, the new trailer for ‘Minions: The Rise of Gru’ naturally goes big on the pill-shaped nuisances here, for some reason at the controls (and working the aisle) of a plane. Naturally, things do not go well in a way that would probably make Tom Cruise’s Maverick cringe. Or possibly, applaud. It’s only once we’ve gotten through a whole sequence of infight madness that the trailer cuts back to Carell’s Gru and his adventures.
Picking up a few years after ‘Minions’ (which you may recall ended with the creatures meeting Gru in his younger days) this new movie is set in the heart of the 1970s, amid a flurry of feathered hair and flared jeans. Gru is growing up in the suburbs. And he’s the biggest fan of supervillain supergroup the Vicious 6, with a plan to become evil enough to join them.
Luckily, he gets some mayhem-making backup from his loyal followers, the Minions. Together, Kevin, Stuart, Bob, and Otto — a new Minion sporting braces and a desperate need to please — deploy their skills as they and Gru build their first lair, experiment with weapons and pull off their first missions.
When the Vicious 6 oust their leader, legendary fighter Wild Knuckles (Alan Arkin), Gru interviews to become their newest member. It doesn’t go well (no shock there), and only gets worse after Gru outsmarts them and suddenly finds himself the mortal enemy of the apex of evil.
On the run, Gru will turn to an unlikely source for guidance, Wild Knuckles himself, and discover that even bad guys need a little help from their friends.
In addition to them, the cast also includes Michelle Yeoh (as a character called Master Chow, a kung fu practicing acupuncturist) and RZA, and the returning likes of Julie Andrews (playing Gru’s mother, Marlena), Russell Brand in the part of Dr. Nefario and Pierre Coffin, who as usual voices the Minions.
Kyle Balda, whose previous directorial career includes the first ‘Minions’, ‘Despicable Me 3’ and various short films featuring the characters, is back at the helm here, with ‘Simpsons’ veteran Dan Ableson and ‘The Secret Life of Pets 2’ Jonathan del Val as co-directors.
The ‘Despicable Me’ franchise (which expands to five movies with this latest entry), has earned more than $3.7 billion at the worldwide box office so far, and seems likely to keep rolling for a few years yet.
Originally scheduled for release in July 2021, ‘The Rise of Gru’ was shifted by Illumination and Universal to avoid the continued closure of cinemas due to the pandemic. Following a premiere at the Annecy animation festival in France this week, the movie will hit theaters in the States on July 1st.
Idris Elba is not a man to take threats lightly on screen. During his time leading UK TV series ‘Luther’, he doggedly hunted serial killers and other criminals, while scowling a lot in shabby cool coats. In theaters, he’s battled Kaiju, gods, monsters, demons, and a severe hit to his dignity (in ‘Cats’).
But is he ready to take on nature at its worst? The answer from the first trailer for man vs. lion thriller ‘Beast’ is a qualified… maybe?
Elba here plays Dr. Nate Daniels, a recently widowed husband who returns to South Africa, where he first met his wife, on a long-planned trip with their daughters to a game reserve managed by Martin Battles (Sharlto Copley), an old family friend and wildlife biologist.
But what begins as a journey of healing jolts into a fearsome fight for survival when a lion, a survivor of blood-thirsty poachers who now sees all humans as the enemy, begins stalking them. The creature is red in tooth and claw, and powerful enough that the locals refer to it as “the devil”. Which means that Nate and his family will have to fight for their lives, because leaving out a few cans of Fancy Feast (other cat foods are available) just won’t get the job done.
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The trailer also, though, suggests that the lion might not be the only thing that Nate and his daughters must worry about. Wrong ‘uns of a more human shape are also lurking in the background, offering just as much of a threat.
Baltasar Kormákur, a man who knows a thing or two about bringing visceral thrills to the screen, having made movies such as ‘Everest’, ‘2 Guns’ and ‘Contraband’, is behind the camera here, working from a script by ‘Rampage’s Ryan Engle, who himself drew from an original story by Jaime Primak Sullivan.
‘Beast’s concept seems simple enough, a basic skeleton on which to build lots of savannah-based running, screaming, shooting and shots of a lion attacking a jeep in the grand tradition of ‘The Ghost and the Darkness’. Elba can certainly handle the action side of things, and we know he’s got the dramatic chops, so fingers crossed this will be a fun one.
Alongside Elba and Copley, the cast also includes ‘The Hate U Give’s Iyana Halley as Daniels’ 18-year-old daughter, Meredith, while ‘Empire’s Leah Sava Jeffries plays his 13-year-old, Norah. Plus, there’s Mel Jarnson, Amara Miller, and Damon Burtley. How many of them will end up as lion fodder? We’ll have to wait and see.
With Will Packer, the prolific producer behind the less lion-centric likes of ‘Girls Trip’, ‘Night School’ and ‘Think Like a Man’ shepherding the movie to our screens, ‘Beast’ is set to roar into theaters on August 19th.
(L to R) Leah Sava Jeffries and Idris Elba in ‘Beast,’ directed by Baltasar Kormákur. Photo: Universal Pictures.(L to R) Idris Elba, Sharlto Copley, Leah Sava Jeffries, and Iyana Halley in Universal Pictures’ ‘Beast.’(L to R) Idris Elba and Sharlto Copley in Universal Pictures’ ‘Beast.’
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As with all the other casting announcements, we don’t yet know what Ritchson will be doing in the movie – whether he’ll be riding alongside Vin Diesel’s Dominic Toretto and his team, or joining the side of the villains, which in this case are represented by a returning Charlize Theron as Cipher, joined by Jason Momoa’s mysterious character.
Most of the news about the new movie has been mixed – director Justin Lin left after roughly two weeks’ worth of filming, citing the industry-standard “creative differences” which have reportedly included clashes with Diesel (who is a controlling producer on the movies and sees himself as their guardian as well as their star) and the studio on scripts.
Alan Ritchson in Prime Video’s ‘Jack Reacher.’
The differences are all the more surprising since Lin is A) a veteran shepherd of the movies, having directed several of them and B) one of the credited writers on the current film’s script alongside Dan Mazeau. He’s still involved as a producer.
Ritchson feels like he could fit into the movie without much hassle – he’s used to getting into fights on screen and there’s always some muscular rumbling to be found amidst the speedy action. Yet will he make his mark and stick around, or be reduced to a one-and-done (so far) like Scott Eastwood?
Aside from ‘Reacher’, Ritchson was previously known for playing Gloss in ‘The Hunger Games: Catching Fire’ and for donning performance capture gear to bring Raphael to life in the two recent live action/CGI ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ movies.
He’s also stepped behind the camera to write and direct last year’s ‘Dark Web: Cicada 3301’.
Ritchson has been at work on new, based-on-truth drama ‘Ordinary Angels’, in which he’ll appear opposite Hilary Swank. That movie doesn’t yet have a release date listed.
‘Fast X’, meanwhile, assuming the director swap hasn’t impacted its schedule too much, will be driving in theaters on May 19th next year.
‘Fast X’ Logo. Courtesy of Vin Diesel’s Instagram account.
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Universal talked a big game at its CinemaCon presentation on Wednesday afternoon – and specifically about big numbers in terms of releases.
The studio has more than 20 movies scheduled for release this year (yes, even more than production powerhouse Disney), and was ready to sell that idea to the assembled theater owners in the audience.
Pairing on-stage filmmaking talent with workers from the boots-on-the-ground cinema world, Universal kicked things off with Jordan Peele’s anticipated next horror, ‘Nope’.
Taking part in a Q&A with Anthony Fykes, co-owner of Next Act Cinema, the first-Black owned cinema in the Baltimore area, Peele outlined his movie-making policy. “I’m always attracted by my favorite movie I haven’t seen before,” said Peele. “My plan is to bring these new ideas and nightmares to the big screen.”
And about his latest? “This is definitely a ride. I like titles that are into how the audience is feeling and reflect on what they are thinking and feeling in the theater,” Peele told the crowd. “I’m going to personally thrive on the amount of times that we hear ‘Nope’ in the theater.”
Peele did ask that the audience not give away anything about the new teaser (which won’t be shown to regular audiences for a few weeks) but so far the story appears to involve workers at a ranch that caters to Hollywood productions being bothered by threats from the sky. Peele revealed that he’d been using new IMAX techniques to bring to the screen shots that no one has seen before.
Somewhere, you can just hear James Cameron muttering, “challenge: accepted!”
‘Nope’ is scheduled to land in theaters on July 2nd.
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Next up was Jamie Lee Curtis, there to promote ‘Halloween Ends’, and from the sounds of her comments, it’s also the big finale for her performance as victim-turned-badass Laurie Strode.
Yet before all of that, Curtis displayed her trademark sense of humor. “Two people got up?! Okay, whatever, it’s only been 44 f*****g years. I’m fine. I’m secure. Its’ fine. It’s really nice to be here again,” she announced upon arriving on stage (to a huge cheer and warm reaction from the audience).
Curtis went on to describe ‘Halloween Ends’, once again directed by David Gordon Green– as “Laurie Strode’s last stand.” The movie stars Curtis and Andi Matichak as Laurie’s granddaughter, Alysson, with the two working to stop stalking killer Michael Myers for good. It’ll wrap up the trilogy kicked off by Green in 2018’s ‘Halloween’ and continued via last year’s ‘Halloween Kills’.
Curtis visibly welled up as she confessed that, “It’s been the ride of my life to portray Laurie Strode,” adding that she knows now why horror movies matter: “Horror lets us confront what we can’t control.”
‘Halloween Ends’ stalks into theaters on October 14th, just in time for… well, you know the holiday it’s named for.
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The horror vibes continued with techno terror ‘M3GAN,’ which like, the recent ‘Halloween’ movies is a Blumhouse production.
Produced by James Wan and directed by ‘Housebound’s Gerard Johnstone, it stars Allison Williams as Gemma, a brilliant roboticist working at a toy company who creates a lifelike doll. When she gains custody of her orphaned niece, she uses the prototype of the doll with unimaginable consequences.
Williams was on stage to introduce the footage – which, somewhat predictably shows the doll reacting badly when someone in the family starts tries to shut it down when it begins behaving oddly – and admitted that despite starring in the likes of this and ‘Get Out’, “I’m genuinely too scared to watch 99 percent of the films in the genre.”
‘M3GAN’ will find its way into theaters on January 13th next year.
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Baltasar Kormakur’s latest, ‘Beast’, stars Idris Elba, and while it had a more muted presentation – really just a trailer – the footage showed Elba’s Dr. Nate Samuels on an African adventure with his wife and daughters when the situation turns desperate, and they are hunted by a lion. Samuels will have to survive and fight back to save his family.
The movie stars David Dastmalchian, Aisling Franciosi, Liam Cunningham, Corey Hawkins, Javier Botet, Jon Briones and more in the story which follows the merchant ship Demeter on a voyage from Carpathia to London. Strange events befall the doomed crew as they attempt to survive the ocean voyage. Probably because a certain vampire is aboard, and takes a liking to some of his fellow passengers…
‘Last Voyage of the Demeter’ sails in on January 27th next year.
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The terror levels decreased significantly (well, depending on how you view stressful family gatherings) thanks to star and executive producer Jo Koy introducing ‘Easter Sunday’.
Bringing the laughs (and making references to Jamie Lee Curtis’ sweary schtick), Koy explained how he planned his outfit – he was clad in his 18-year-old son’s pants to be fashion forward. “But I don’t have my son’s balls. I have 50-year-old balls.”
He continues by saying that Steven Spielberg first caught his stand-up act, and invited the comedian in to pitch his story, a universal one (he’s at the right studio, then). “We all laugh at the same shit,” Koy explained.
After Koy threw sweatshirts out to the crowd, he cued the trailer, which draws from his own life experiences and shows his chaotic Filipino family around the dinner table. The movie, despite its seemingly seasonal title, will be out on August 5, directed by Jay Chandrasekhar.
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Koy was followed by ‘Minions: The Rise of Gru’ voice star Steve Carell, there to promote the latest chapter of the ever-expanding ‘Despicable Me’ franchise. He joked around with a cinema owner, who he challenged to mimic Gru and then introduced a clip from the movie, which arrives on July 1st after being pushed back more than once by pandemic concerns.
Animation was also represented by ‘Puss in Boots: The Last Wish’. Introduced by one of the movie’s voice stars, Harvey Guillen (he’s Perro, a new character, who happens to be a chatty chihuahua), the story follows Puss’ (Antonio Banderas) attempts to secure more lives for himself after all his various scrapes. A new trailer was shown for the ‘toon, which debuts on December 21st.
Billy Eichner was on predictably comic form, arriving at CinemaCon for ‘Bros’, the rom com he wrote and stars in alongside Luke Macfarlane.
As is usual for the event, Eichner brought a clip from the movie, which showed Eichner as a podcast host who gets hired by a movie studio to write a gay romantic comedy in a very meta idea. Eichner’s character lays out his mission statement: “I don’t want any Hollywood bullshit, no scenes where two gay guys are about to hook up and all of a sudden the camera conveniently pulls away.”
‘Bros’ breaks new ground by featuring an all-LGBTQ+ cast, which Eichner talked about on stage. “You don’t believe a gay man can play straight but you suspend disbelief for Chewbacca,” he quipped, touting ‘Bros’ as the first gay rom-com ever to come from a major studio, adding he’s “not talking about the new Buzz Lightyear movie.”
Directed by Nicholas Stoller, ‘Bros’ will be out in theaters on September 30.
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Despite a comparative lack of star power on stage, ‘Ticket to Paradise’ boasts plenty of it on screen, with George Clooney and Julia Roberts as a divorced couple that reunites and travels to Bali to stop their daughter (Kaitlyn Dever), from making the same mistake they think they made 25 years ago by marrying someone she just met. Billie Lourd, Lucas Bravo, Amanda O’Dempsey, Rowan Chapman, Murran Kain and Vanessa Everett round out the cast for that one, which travels to theaters on October 21st.
On a more serious note, that was followed by the first look at ‘She Said’, the drama about the investigative reporters at the New York Times who helped to break the Harvey Weinstein story that kicked off the #MeToo movement.
Stars Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan, who play reporters Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor respectively, were on hand to introduce the film’s trailer, and they talked up the importance of the behind-the-scenes story and Kantor and Twohey’s book on which the film is based.
The trailer showed Twohey and Kantor starting small in trying to peel back the layers on harassment, only to go deeper down the rabbit hole and finding people unwilling to say anything on the record as it turned to accusations about Weinstein.
“The only way these women are going to go on the record,” Kantor says in the trailer, “Is if they all jump together,” Twohey responds.
Maria Schrader directs, with the screenplay by Rebecca Lenkiewicz. The film opens in theaters from Universal on November 18th.
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Universal’s Focus Features had its own section, to debut looks at several of its movies. They included ‘Downton Abbey: A New Era’, due on May 20th, heartwarming comedy ‘Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris’ (July 15th), and ‘Little Children’ director Todd Field’s first film in 15 years, ‘Tár’, set in the world of classical music, starring Cate Blanchett as a conductor. ‘Tár’ will be in theaters on October 15th.
James Gray’s ‘Armageddon Time’ also received a first look of its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. The coming-of-age story about the strength of family and the generational pursuit of the American Dream showcases a cast led by Anthony Hopkins, Jeremy Strong and Anne Hathaway. It has yet to score a general release date.
Following the relatively low-key, prestige Focus offerings, it was back to action chaos for ‘Violent Night’, introduced by star (and ‘Stranger Things’ regular) David Harbour.
Harbour raved about the experience of playing a hammer-swinging Santa who swears up a storm. The tone appeared to be a blend of ‘Die Hard’ and ‘John Wick’ and the movie arrives down theater chimneys on December 2nd.
“We are genuinely very enthused, we are crazed about this movie,” Goldblum told the crowd, revealing that this will be the first movie his kids see in theaters.
And of course, there was room for a little banter after Goldblum mentioned his character Ian Malcolm’s warnings about messing with nature in the original ‘Jurassic Park’. “That wisdom was ignored through subsequent movies,” he pointed out. Said Howard, “What would these moves be if people made the right choices?”
Retorted Goldblum, “You may be on to something. Maybe that’s been the message all this time, that dinosaurs are clever and homo sapiens are ignoramuses, or is it ignorami?”
‘Jurassic World Dominion’ roars into theaters on June 10th.
‘Fast X’ Logo. Courtesy of Vin Diesel’s Instagram account.
Ever the one ready to reveal the slightest hint of ‘Fast & Furious’ news, Vin Diesel has once again taken to Instagram, this time with both title details and word of production cranking into gear of the tenth installment.
So, with a drumroll that somehow also sounds like the revving of a Dodge Charger, the word arrives that the new movie is called… ‘Fast X’.
It’s certainly a striking, short title, but offers little clues as to what the movie itself might be about. And it has, predictably, already fallen afoul of social media jokers, who have likened the title to a pill of some sort.
Not forgetting the camp who would rather the movie have been called ‘Fast 10 Your Seatbelts’.
Shrugging off all such concerns, Diesel simply captioned his logo image with, “Day One…” pointing to the fact that the cameras are now rolling and, if we know anything about this franchise, wheels are already turning. And likely jumping over/off things.
Despite the regular updates from Diesel – AKA family and car-obsessed Dominic Toretto in the movies – nothing has yet been said about the plot for this latest offering of ‘Fast’ fuel.
Given the reportedly returning presence of Charlize Theron’s Cipher, we can reliably predict that Dom and the team will have to thwart her latest nefarious scheme (unless, of course, she’s in the process of switching to Dom’s side, though that seems unlikely for now).
And aiding her this time around will be a new, mysterious baddie brought to booming life by Jason Momoa, who has already expressed his enthusiasm for playing an “amazing” character. “He’s ornery,” Momoa told Entertainment Tonight – when the show caught up with him at the LA premiere of ‘Ambulance’. “He’s misunderstood.” Again, we’re forced to wonder whether he might follow a traditional road of starting out as a villain but ending up helping Dom and the rest.
They’ll be joined by two new faces – at least to this franchise: ‘Captain Marvel’ star and Oscar winner Brie Larson, who chalks up another big franchise and ‘The Suicide Squad’s Daniela Melchior, both of whose characters remain a mystery for now.
Justin Lin, who has directed more of the ‘Fast’ movies than anyone else, is back overseeing this new one and while all involved remain secretive about what we can expect, allow us to speculate that huge vehicular stunts, jokey repartee between Roman and Tej, possibly some dangerous McGuffin to be found/stopped and, of course, more references to “family” than your average Mafia miniseries.
‘Fast X’ will be headed into theaters on May 19th.
The result is Michael Bay’s version of a mash-up between ‘Heat’ and ‘Speed,’ which is mostly entertaining and features impressive performances from Gyllenhaal and Gonzalez, but ultimately falls flat before it reaches the finish line.
The movie begins by introducing us to Will Sharp (Abdul-Mateen II), a war veteran with a small child who is desperate to find money for his wife’s upcoming surgery. With insurance companies reusing to help, he turns to his adopted brother Danny (Gyllenhaal), who is a life-long criminal. Danny agrees to give Will the money, if he helps him with a bank heist that is about to go down with a possible take home over $32 million. Will reluctantly agrees, but the heist goes terribly wrong.
The Special Investigation Section of the LAPD led by Captain Monroe (Garret Dillahunt) are on to Danny and waiting for him and his crew when they leave the bank. After a street shootout with the cops, which leaves their entire crew dead, Danny and Will make their escape by hijacking an ambulance with EMT Cam Thompson (Gonzalez) and a wounded policeman (Jackson White) on board.
Now, with the entire LAPD chasing them through downtown Los Angeles, Danny starts to become unhinged, and Will contemplates how he can get himself out of this situation, while Thompson tries to keep her patient alive. Danny then enacts a dangerous plan to escape, and Will must decide between helping his brother or doing the right thing and ending this horrible ordeal.
(L to R) Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Jake Gyllenhaal in director Michael Bay’s ‘Ambulance.’ Photo Courtesy of Universal Pictures.
Whether you like his movies or not, you must respect Michael Bay as a master director. Bay makes movies on the biggest scale possible, and I’d put him in the same category with filmmakers like James Cameron and Zack Snyder. In some ways, ‘Ambulance’ is the most entertaining and fun movie that Bay has delivered in years and has all of the big action sequences you would expect from the director.
But it also contains a lot of the “Bay-isms” that have plagued his films over the years, like an unbelievably ridiculous plot, characters that only make smart decisions when the script calls for it and putting action above character development.
The filmmaker also makes more than a few meta references to his own films, which seemed strange and takes you right out of the movie. For example, two police officers’ bond over a scene from Bay’s ‘The Rock,’ and later compare themselves to the characters in ‘Bad Boys.’ The references were probably added as fun Easter eggs, but I found them to be unnecessary and a distraction from the rest of the movie.
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II is an amazingly talented actor and I’ve really enjoyed him in films like ‘Aquaman,’ ‘The Matrix Resurrections’ and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7,’ as well as the HBO mini-series ‘Watchmen.’ But unfortunately, his performance in ‘Ambulance’ does not work for me.
He is introduced as our hero but immediately agrees to rob a bank with his brother, and even though we know that he is doing it to save his wife, he still makes some terrible decisions and causes several crimes. The film wants to wash away his involvement in the bank robbery by the end, so that the character of Will can be the true hero of the movie, but at that point it was too late for me to be able to root for him.
Eiza González in ‘Ambulance,’ directed by Michael Bay. Photo Courtesy of Universal Pictures.
Who you do root for in this movie is Eliza Gonzalez’s Cam, who is the true hero of the story and frankly, I would have loved to see a film about just her working as an EMT. She is definitely the breakout star of the movie and is great opposite Gyllenhaal and his frantic energy. The actress does her best to ground the film in some sort of reality, which is no small task considering the outlandishness of the plot.
Jake Gyllenhaal gives a fantastic performance as Danny Sharp, channeling all the crazy energy of Nicolas Cage in ‘Face/Off.’ Gyllenhaal is completely over-the-top, but it works within the parameters of what Bay has created. Again, the problem for me is that I didn’t know who to root for. Danny is clearly the bad guy, but Gyllenhaal is so charismatic compared to Abdul-Mateen II that it’s hard not root for him instead.
Several supporting actors give strong performances, the best coming from Garret Dillahunt who plays police Captain Monroe. Dillahunt is a “that guy” actor and has appeared in countless TV and film projects, so you will recognize him instantly. In a ‘Heat’ analogy, he plays the Al Pacino to Gyllenhaal’s Robert De Niro. Dillahunt has an interesting approach to playing his role that works really well, but unfortunately the character is not given enough screen time.
The same could be said for Keir O’Donnell who gives a very interesting performance as an FBI agent who is also a former friend of Danny Sharp. There is a bit of back and forth between the two characters, but with such an interesting backstory and relationship, again, I wish more time had been invested with this character.
The bank shootout at the beginning of the film is really well choreographed and looks great on screen, but it doesn’t add anything that we didn’t see in Michael Mann’s classic ‘Heat.’ The same can be said for the ambulance chase sequences, which have Bay’s fingerprints all over it, but again, do not add anything that we couldn’t see from watching ‘Speed.’
And if I were to make a ‘Speed’ analogy with this film, I would say that Eliza Gonzalez is really playing the Keanu Reeves role, with Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Sandra Bullock’s character and Jake Gyllenhaal in the Dennis Hopper part.
In the end, ‘Ambulance’ is a fun and entertaining movie that just leaves you a little empty by its conclusion.
‘Ambulance’ receives 3 out of 5 stars.
(L to R) Producer Brad Fischer, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Director/Producer Michael Bay, Eiza González and Jake Gyllenhaal attend Universal Pictures ‘Ambulance’ Premiere at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, CA on Monday, April 4, 2022. Photo: Alex J. Berliner/ABImages.
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(L to R) Jennifer Lopez and Owen Wilson in ‘Marry Me’
‘Marry Me’ is looking to capture some love this coming Friday as Valentine’s weekend kicks off, pairing Jennifer Lopez and Owen Wilson as a seemingly mismatched couple who meet under unusual circumstances.
The movie, directed by Kat Coiro, opens as Kat Valdez (Lopez) is half of the sexiest celebrity power couple on Earth with hot new music supernova Bastian (Colombian singer Maluma). As Kat and Bastian’s inescapable hit single, ‘Marry Me’ climbs the charts, they are about to be wed before a global audience of their fans.
Divorced high-school math teacher Charlie Gilbert (Wilson) has been dragged to the concert by his daughter Lou. When Kat learns, seconds before the ceremony, that Bastian has cheated on her with her assistant, her life turns left as she has a meltdown on stage, questioning love, truth, and loyalty. As her gossamer world falls away, she locks eyes with a stranger, a face in the crowd: Charlie, awkwardly holding a sign reading “Marry Me”. In a moment of inspired insanity, Kat chooses to marry Charlie. What begins as an impulsive reaction evolves into an unexpected romance…
Lopez needs little introduction, given that she’s a musical superstar and actress who has appeared in movies including ‘Out Of Sight, ‘Hustlers’ and ‘Monster-in-Law’.
Wilson, meanwhile, has long established his comedic and dramatic credentials, working regularly alongside old friend Wes Anderson as both writer and actor, and has a lengthy resume including ‘Wedding Crashers’, ‘The Royal Tennenbaums’, all three ‘Meet the Parents’ movies and as the voice of Lightning McQueen in Pixar’s ‘Cars’ movies.
Lopez first crossed paths with her ‘Marry Me’ co-star Wilson in 1997 creature feature ‘Anaconda.’ ‘Marry Me’ promises to be a very different experience.
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The two popular actors recently spoke at a virtual press conference about the new film, here is what they had to say.
Jennifer, you play musical superstar, Kat Valdez in ‘Marry Me.’ Who is she in your eyes? How does her life change from the moment she decides to follow the impulse to marry a stranger?
Jennifer Lopez: In my eyes, Kat Valdez is a very kind of self-assured, recording artist veteran in the industry who has built herself and her life into something that she’s proud of, but it also, in a way, because of her personal life has become a bit unsatisfying. I think for her there’s a beautiful journey here. Once the character that Owen plays, Charlie, comes into her life, it really changes it forever. Changes her perspective, changes her ideas of being caught.
Sometimes you feel you are kind of caught like, “Okay, I’m trapped in this fame. I’m trapped in this life. This is all I can do. I really don’t get to have a life like everybody else or love like everybody else.” I think what Owen’s character teaches her is that she can and that it is possible and that there is hope for her. She could have a real love and a real home, which she’s never had.
How much of Kat is in you and how much of you is in Kat, Jennifer?
JL: I think there’s a lot of us in each other. This wasn’t a role where I had to research what it was like to be a famous recording artist who does branding and who has all of that. I understand what all of that is already. I think the difficult part was the meta part, which was the idea of showing what it’s really like inside my bedroom. When something goes wrong and you suffer a heartbreak like this in front of the whole world, and the media goes to town on you to kind of unearth the story and understand it and poke fun at it.
In some of those moments, even with scenes with me and Owen, where he’s asking, “Don’t, you want to just give up on the whole love thing?” It was just that philosophy that she has. I understand it’s like, “No, if there’s a one in a billion chance, no matter what the numbers are, you’re a math teacher, that’s worth it,” because I think what she has craving is that love and that home. So, there was a lot of moments there where I was able to bring a truth to the character in the emotional life that was authentic and real.
Owen, How do you see the character of Charlie?
Owen Wilson: Charlie’s sort of ordinary, I guess that would be sort of a man of the people. Then Bastian is this singing sensation and engaged to Kat Valdez. Through circumstance somehow, I wind up there at the concert. The next thing you know I’m on stage getting married. It’s such a leap of faith that when you read it, you are kind of, “Oh, I wonder how that’s going to work?” Yet, in the movie, sort of everything that leads up to it, I think you kind of go along with it. I felt it was kind of believable.
Music of course is a key element of the movie, Jennifer. Can you talk about the experience of making an album and a movie at the same time?
JL: That was a first for me, which was such a pleasure. It’s like my two worlds coming together, but making the album, it was great because they really allowed me to input into where and when and what these musical moments would be for this character. They really looked to me to be like, okay, how would this be? How could we make this feel real? Picking the music for the arc of the characters says, nobody understood the character more than I did. Nobody understood what it was to be a musical art artist and be this person within this movie.
Owen, how was your experience with Jennifer this time around?
OW: For me, it was very relaxing. It was nice because Jen assumed so many responsibilities, I didn’t have to worry about anything. She and Elaine (producer Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas) had to bear the brunt of the stress of everything. A lot of times when you work on a movie, you kind of hear it in your head or you have casting ideas. With this, everybody was just spot on. I wasn’t worried about anything. I felt that it was working while we were doing it.
(L to R) Jennifer Lopez and Owen Wilson in ‘Marry Me’
You were mentioning before how Charlie’s this normal guy, and the movie really plays into the idea that opposites attract. Do you believe that in real life?
OW: Well, to an extent. I think opposites attract in a sense from different backgrounds and seemingly very different. But I think in terms of your spirit, I think there must be some sort of overlap either in humor, or the way you look at the world, or what you’re curious about, or sense of adventure. So, in those ways I think sometimes it helps to have a little bit of overlap for that attraction to work.
Jennifer, you’ve starred in some memorable romantic comedies. Is this a homecoming of sorts for you and do you have a special place in your heart for that genre?
JL: Yes, I do. I think that’s why I’ve done so many throughout my career. It’s because I, as a moviegoer, love romantic comedies. Those are some of my favorite movies of all time, whether it’s ‘When Harry met Sally’ or ‘Prelude to a Kiss’ or any of these types of movies, the Meg Ryan era, and the Julia Roberts era, all those movies is what I grew up on. I love them so much.
So, it is kind of a homecoming for me because I haven’t done one in a few years and now I have two coming out. I have this one, ‘Marry Me’ and then ‘Shotgun Wedding’ will be out at some point, which I did with Josh Duhamel. So, I’m excited to be able to do a couple.
Is there a certain element in a romantic comedy script that makes you want to say yes to it, Jennifer?
JL: I think it’s hard to reinvent it every time. How do you make it different than the last one? Because we kind of always know that two people are going to wind up together and that’s going to be the end. So, it’s about how interesting the journey is and the interaction between the two characters and how interesting that is. If that’s written well, that’s what makes me want to do it.
Jennifer, Marry Me has some unforgettable songs. Do you have a favorite one?
JL: It’s hard. I mean, off the top of my head, I love ‘Nobody’s Watching Us.’ I love it so much because I really relate to it. ‘On My Way’, for me is such a life song. It’s one of those perfect sentiments in a song. Yes, it fit well in the movie, but I just thought it was a song that everybody could relate to because we all feel like the mistakes we make are so tragic in our lives.
This is so hopeful because it says that every single mistake that I made was leading me down a yellow brick road to exactly where I needed to be and where I wanted to be, and I do believe in that in life. So, I would have to say, if I had to pick a favorite child, which I would never do, it would be, ‘On My Way.’
Owen, Kat obviously takes a big leap of faith when she marries Charlie. What’s the biggest leap of faith you’ve taken?
OW: I think, for me, I did not study acting. I was an English major, but I always loved movies and I liked writing. So, when my friend and I started writing a movie together, believing that I could act in it, I don’t know that I did necessarily. It was more my friend’s belief that I could do it. Because growing up in Dallas, if you had said, ‘Oh, I want to be in movies,’ I think people would’ve almost laughed at you like, “Yeah, who doesn’t want to be in movies?” But I think that believing that I could maybe have a career doing something creative, that’s not the life that most people lead. So that was a leap of faith.
‘Marry Me’ debuts in theaters and streaming on Peacock February 11, 2022.
Chris Pratt in Universal Pictures’ ‘Jurassic World: Dominion’
“Bigger… Why do they always have to go bigger?” whispers Jeff Goldblum’s Ian Malcolm in the new, full-length trailer for ‘Jurassic World: Dominion’. We suppose the answer would have to be “because they can!” Also, dinosaurs.
Yes, the new look at the latest installment of the ‘Jurassic World’ movie series certainly appears to be going as big as possible as returning co-writer/director ups the stakes to wrap up the trilogy he started in 2015.
Picking up the story from 2018’s ‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’, the world is a very different, dinosaur-impacted place. With the terrible lizards (we’re sure some are very nice, but it’s hard to get past the teeth) stomping all over North America (and elsewhere), Chris Pratt‘s Owen Grady and Bryce Dallas Howard’s Claire Dearing are doing what they can to wrangle the beasts to prevent human casualties.
The bigger selling point here, though – especially for fans of Steven Spielberg’s original ‘Jurassic Park’ – is the return of Sam Neill’s grumpy palaeontologist Alan Grant, Laura Dern’s palaeobotanist Ellie Sattler and, as mentioned, Goldblum’s chaos mathematician (and yes, we know he turned up in ‘Fallen Kingdom’, but that was only for one scene).
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Seeing the old gang back together and interacting with the newer faces of the franchise is something of a thrill, and the movie makes no (dino) bones about throwing in some call-backs to Spielberg’s 1994 movie which kicked it all off, including borrowing voice-over from Park financier John Hammond (the late Richard Attenborough) talking about his aims for the original site.
And the trio aren’t the only people back – B.D. Wong is of course here as fellow franchise veteran Dr. Henry Wu, while ‘World’s Omar Sy and ‘Fallen Kingdom’s Justice Smith and Daniella Pineda also show up. New to the story this time are Dichen Lachman, Kristoffer Polaha and DeWanda Wise. Finally, while Campbell Scott hasn’t appeared in any of the movies before now, he is playing someone we met way back in ’Jurassic Park’ – Lewis Dodgson, the scheming Biosyn executive whose plan to use tech nerd Dennis Nedry to steal dino embryos led to much of the trouble in that first movie. What he’ll be up to in this movie is anyone’s guess, but we doubt it’ll be good.
Of course, the humans are only part of the equation – this is ‘Jurassic World’, after all, so there are plenty of new creatures to menace our heroes. And an old pal in the shape of Blue, the Velociraptor once trained by Owen. It appears she’s since become a mother – keeping her and her child safe will be part of the plot.
Director Colin Trevorrow and his team have certainly crafted some epic visions here: dinosaurs being herded like horses, Blue stalking through a snowy tundra, Pratt’s Owen dodging Atrociraptors on a bike on Malta, a feathered example of the toothy terrors more in keeping with modern thinking of their biology, and, of course, Jeff Goldblum’s hair!
Like life, ‘Jurassic World: Dominion’ finds a way into theaters on June 10.
Bryce Dallas Howard in Universal Pictures’ ‘Jurassic World: Dominion’
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Ryan Kiera Armstrong in “Firestarter’ courtesy of Universal Pictures
There have been so many adaptations of horror master Stephen King’s work at this point that it was inevitable we’d start to see re-adaptations, as happened with the likes of ‘Pet Sematary’ and ‘It’. Today it’s the turn of Blumhouse’s new take on ‘Firestarter’ to make its psychic presence felt with a first trailer and poster.
‘Firestarter’, which King published in 1980, is the story of a girl whose parents participated in clandestine government agency experiments which have granted them certain psychic abilities and given their daughter extraordinary pyrokinetic powers.
From the sounds of the official synopsis, the new movie will follow a similar path to the 1984 version, though it’ll be interesting to see how it deals with them themes of isolation, puberty, and mental health.
Here’s the story: “For more than a decade, parents Andy (Zac Efron) and Vicky (Sydney Lemmon) have been on the run, desperate to hide their daughter Charlie (Ryan Kiera Armstrong) from a shadowy federal agency that wants to harness her unprecedented gift for creating fire into a weapon of mass destruction.
Andy has taught Charlie how to defuse her power, which is triggered by anger or pain. But as Charlie turns 11, the fire becomes harder and harder to control. After an incident reveals the family’s location, a mysterious operative (Michael Greyeyes) is deployed to hunt down the family and seize Charlie once and for all. Charlie has other plans…
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‘Firestarter’s cast also includes Gloria Reuben (who appears to behind the shadowy agency looking to control Charlie’s fiery abilities), Kurtwood Smith and John Beasley.
In keeping with the remake aspect, the new movie’s poster is certainly looking to invoke the 1984 version’s flame-filled theme.
We’ll have to wait and see whether this movie ends up launching a ‘Firestarter’ franchise – the original was followed by one TV-movie sequel, which followed a grown Charlie played by Marguerite Moreau. And this year alone, we have at least one other King adaptation headed to theaters: ‘Salem’s Lot’, with ‘Mr. Harrigan’s Phone’ and the ‘Pet Sematary’ remake sequel filming, plus various others in development.
Produced by Blumhouse, the team behind ‘The Invisible Man’ (and many other recent chillers), the new ‘Firestarter’ will be looking to make sparks in theaters and on Peacock from May 13. Yes, that’s Friday the 13th for anyone keeping track; but don’t tell Jason Voorhees – he’ll just get jealous!
(L to R) Jennifer Lopez and Owen Wilson in ‘Marry Me’
Based on the graphic novel of the same name by Bobby Crosby, ‘Marry Me’ sees star and producer Jennifer Lopez back in her element. Featuring nearly a dozen original songs – mostly performed in their entirety – Lopez stars as lovestruck superstar Kat Valdez.
Set to marry her fiance Bastian (Maluma) in front of 40M people on live television, her world comes crashing down when a video surfaces of him cheating on her. Caught up in the moment, she proposes to a stranger in the crowd holding a marry me sign. Is her whirlwind marriage to hapless math teacher Charlie (Owen Wilson) just a publicity stunt, or did she accidentally find something real?
Director Kat Coiro is no stranger to the romantic comedy genre. Born to bohemian parents in a third floor Manhattan walk-up, Coiro spent much of her childhood living a nomadic existence around the globe. She studied theater and Russian literature at Carnegie Mellon University, and briefly enrolled in the American Film Institute’s MFA program before dropping out to film her first feature ‘L!fe Happens’.
Co-written by Coiro and star Krysten Ritter, the rom-com was partially inspired by their own friendship, as well as Coiro’s experience as a first time mother. She quickly directed two more romances: ‘And While We Were Here’ and ‘A Case of You’ before pivoting to television. Her TV credits include the pilots for comedies’Girls5Eva’ and ‘Florida Girls,’ and the upcoming Disney+ show ‘She Hulk’.
After nearly a decade working solely in television, ‘Marry Me’ is not only a delightful return to the romantic comedy genre for the director, but also a showcase for Coiro’s vivid visual flare and skill at capturing the essence of entertainers at their most spectacular.
Jennifer Lopez at 2015 American Music Awards. (Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images)
Moviefone: What do you look for in the films that you direct in general, and how did you get involved with ‘Marry Me’ in particular?
Kat Coiro: It’s funny because I never really subscribed to a specific genre. I just look for a mix of humor and heart and humanity. I had actually moved into the television space. I’d kind of said I’m not going to do features for a while. But when I read this script, it just really spoke to me in terms of its humanity. Even though it’s this larger than life story about a celebrity, there is something so elementally vulnerable and human and interesting in the heart of the story.
That’s really what drew me to it. Also having Jennifer Lopez play this role that feels like she was born to play. It’s the combination of all of her talents: acting and singing and fashion. She brought so much to it. She was attached when I read the script, so that was really an exciting element, obviously.
MF: I read that she listened to a hundred songs to narrow down the ones featured in the film.
KC: More than that! We listened to probably 400 songs. Our partners at Universal, and then Jennifer’s music team, they inundated us with songs that had been banked songs that were originally written for the film. There were a lot of different songs entitled ‘Marry Me’ that we went through. That was a huge process. It was me and Jennifer and Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas, who’s the producing partner, and then also Mike Knobloch, and Rachel Levy over at Universal and Benny Medina.
We would all get these files, and say here are the top ten from that batch. One of the great parts of the process is that we would all hear the same song and go, this is the one! It was so important that the songs not just be good in and of themselves, but that they tie into the emotional arc of the story. Because while it is a rom com, and it is about a relationship, it’s also about the growth and the progression of an artist.
She starts in this very big, larger than life, spectacle, pop world with songs like “Church’. Slowly as the film goes on, she breaks down to a very simple unproduced version of herself with ‘On My Way’, which ends up being the song that kind of puts her on the map in a new way.
MF: How did you select which songs to present as a spectacle, via social media, in a recording studio, etc?
KC: That ties into the selection of the songs. Where she is at the top of the film, she is this big, famous pop star who’s marrying another big famous pop star, and they’re known for this very flashy kind of radio hit, which is ‘Marry Me’, and then when her world explodes, she has to build back up. It was about finding each song in the sequence that went along with that emotional journey.
One of the most exciting moments for me was during my first time meeting Jennifer. She started singing a song that’s not actually in the movie, but a song called ‘Unlove You’ that had originally been scripted in the film. She was singing along to a Bluetooth and the Bluetooth dropped out and she kept singing and I was four feet away from her. I’ve always known how talented she is and what a good singer she is, but seeing it like that, an acapella Jennifer Lopez in a room singing. It brought tears to my eyes. I got chills. I thought oh my god, if we can bring even a tiny bit of that into the film I think we will have succeeded.
So I always knew that we were working towards this moment where she sits and sings unaccompanied, and she sings for real in the room and we don’t mess with it. It was all moving towards that point of just stripped down and raw Jennifer Lopez.
MF: Earlier you mentioned fashion. Her character has a lot of looks, from the stage spectacle to the wedding dress to her casual walking around New York City style. How did you develop them?
KC: One of the most important things to me was that these concerts feel 100% real. So, to that end, from a lighting standpoint, from a set design standpoint, from a costume standpoint, we actually brought in her concert team for those sequences.
So when she performs ‘Church,’ that was a collaboration between me and the costume designer, Caroline Duncan, but also Rob Zangardi, who does all her costumes for her shows. It was a real collaboration. When you have Jennifer Lopez and her music team, part of your job is to get out of the way and let them do their thing. Where I would weigh in is when it affected the story emotionally.
When you look at ‘Church,’ that is when she’s at the height of this very spectacle driven kind of flashy persona. It was really important to capture the authenticity of the concerts. In terms of her fashion throughout, she obviously has such a great sense of what looks good on her, so it was conversations about where she is in the story. How do these costumes reflect the emotional trajectory? Then let her and her team do their thing.
(L to R) Jennifer Lopez and Owen Wilson in ‘Marry Me’
MF: There’s a stark difference visually between her world and Charlie (Owen Wilson)’s world. Can you talk about that?
KC: One of the motifs that we played with throughout is that she lives in a world that is up high, it’s in the clouds. It’s in the sparkly city lights. You look at her apartment, it’s on the 40th floor. She’s on a private jet. Even when she goes to the press conference, her car is parked on the rooftop. That was something that was scripted in an underground garage, and my cinematographer Florian Ballhaus, and I were like no, we always want her to be up high.
On the other end of the spectrum, we have Charlie who lives in a ground floor apartment. His classroom is on the ground floor of his Brooklyn school. We were constantly playing with this high-low dynamic. She’s always on a stage and he’s down below. That was a huge part of the visual language of the film, with him always looking up at her and she’s looking down at him.
Then we flip it at the very end of the film. She comes into the theater and he’s up on the stage for the first time. When she holds up the sign, she’s down below. It’s really about them having influenced each other’s worlds, and changed each other.
MF: One moment that really struck me because it’s one of my favorite poets, is when we meet Kat she reads from Keats for possible wedding vows, and then later Charlie also loves Keats. Was that always in the script?
KC: Every film I have made has a sliver of classical poetry because it’s something that I love to sneak in. Especially in popular films, I just like to bring in a little of that poetry and romanticism. Keats was a Romantic poet, so to bring that in was important to me. It wasn’t originally scripted that way. But it was also a way of setting up the difference between Kat Valdez and Bastian (Maluma).
For her this is a really romantic venture. She is pouring her whole heart and soul into it. But for him, he’s very young. He’s very famous. It seems like a great press opportunity. It’s not that he doesn’t love her, and that he’s callous, but they are coming at it from different times in their life and from different points of view. I think poetry is a very simple and straightforward way of showing that difference between where they are in their lives.
MF: Both Kat and Charlie have been divorced before. Marriage and remarriage is a classic trope in screwball romantic comedies. Are there any romantic comedies that inspired you while making this film?
KC: Oh, definitely. You can see throughout the film that instead of shying away from the tropes and the cliches we lean into them. There’s a reason that Michelle Buteau opens and closes the jewelry box when Jennifer reaches for it.
KC: There’s a reason he’s holding up a sign or she’s running through the airport. It’s funny, I keep getting asked, is the rom com dead? I always say the rom com is the most sustaining genre that exists in cinema. When you look back at Charlie Chaplin. Those are rom coms. When you look at the musicals of the 30s and 40s, and 50s. Those are rom coms.
When you look at the 80s and 90s, and 2000s. It is a very enduring genre. We wanted to really play into that and say, yes, we’re coming from a tradition of rom com and we embrace it, and we love it. Some of my favorites are ‘When Harry Met Sally. . .’ and ‘Notting Hill’. I think there’s a lot of comparisons between ‘Notting Hill’ and this movie, and I love that and I welcome that.
MF: Why do you think romantic comedies are so enduring?
KC: I think they’re hopeful. I think that they make people happy. I’m always a little shocked by the way that they’re spoken of like they’re lesser than. Because the truth is they are geared towards women, but I think men also love them. In my experience, it’s a very universal genre. Then you add the music that we have in this film, and it becomes not just a rom com, but also kind of a concert experience. I’m really hoping that’s part of what brings people to the theaters. The combination of the glamour, the style, and the genre. It’s about love and it is about hope. It’s as simple as that.
With ‘Marry Me’ you also get to watch songs performed in their entirety, which is something that was also really important to me. A lot of music movies show a snippet, 15 seconds, you just get the sense of the song. I went into it saying no, we have to play out the entire song every single time that we can, because it’s such a fundamental part of who Kat Valdez is, and wanting to draw the audience in that way and really show full performances is something that I think sets this movie apart.
MF: What do you hope people take away when they’re done watching this film?
KC: One of the things that always struck me about the film is that we live in a society that is very fixated on being famous, and on getting lots of followers. I would say that there is an obsession with it that is probably a little bit unhealthy. There’s something about this film where we’re peeling back the curtain, and we’re saying you do pay a price for living in the spotlight the way that Kat Valdez does. It was very important to me that we ended the film on the simplest scene of them sitting on a couch in sweatpants, watching TV with their family.
Originally in the script, it had ended on another big wedding. I really wanted to strip us away from big romantic gestures. Because the truth is life, in its simplicity, is something that we should and can be striving for. It doesn’t all have to be striving to be in the spotlight. So I hope that people walk away and feel like they had a little bit of an escape, but also that they can be happy with a simpler life.
‘Marry Me’ debuts in theaters and streaming on Peacock February 11, 2022.
