(Left) Director Steven Caple Jr. on the set of ‘Transformers: Rise of the Beasts.’ Paramount Pictures and Skydance Present in association with Hasbro and New Republic Pictures, a di Bonaventura Pictures Production, a Tom Desanto /Don Murphy Production, a Bay Films Production. (Right) Will Smith in 2007’s ‘I Am Legend.’
Preview:
‘Transformers: Rise of the Beasts’ director Steven Caple Jr. is being considered for ‘I Am Legend 2’.
Will Smith and Michael B. Jordan are starring in and producing the movie.
Akiva Goldsman’s writing the script and shepherding the film.
Given that the last proper update on an attempt to make a sequel to 2007 post-apocalyptic Will Smith thriller ‘I Am Legend’ was all the way back in 2022, you might be forgiven for having forgotten it was happening at all.
Yet, despite the excitement back then (especially with word that Smith is returning to star and will be joined this time by ‘Creed’ and ‘Black Panther’ actor Michael B. Jordan) and the occasional mild update on its status, things have been largely quiet until now.
Writer and producer Akiva Goldsman used an appearance on a Collider producers’ panel at this weekend’s San Diego Comic-Con to reveal that he was still busy writing, having met with Smith and Jordan and cracked into a second draft.
Now, according to Deadline, there is a new name in the mix, as ‘Transformers: Rise of the Beasts’ director Steven Caple Jr., who had been in early talks to direct a follow-up melding the Robots in Disguise with the ‘G.I. Joe’ movie franchise, is now Warner Bros.’ top pick to handle ‘I Am Legend 2’.
The trade site is at pains to point out that it’s early days for this and that the studio met with other directors, but Caple Jr. has one helpful advantage in that he worked with Jordan on ‘Creed II’.
‘I am Legend’, in case it has slipped into the cloudy recesses of your memory, saw writers Goldsman and Mark Protosevich adapting Richard Matheson’s much-praised 1954 novel, which posited a world where a devastating virus had wiped out almost all of humanity and turned the rest into vampire-like mutants who roam the world looking for victims.
Robert Neville, the focus of the story, goes on a mission to find the scientific basis for the pandemic that caused all this, and chronicles his increasingly stressed encounters with his fellow former humans.
The book was adapted several times into movies, including 1964’s ‘The Last Man on Earth’, 1971’s ‘The Omega Man’ and then the 2007 movie.
In that adaptation, directed by ‘Constantine’s Lawrence, Smith plays Neville, who is an army virologist surviving in a ruined New York and looking to find a cure for the virus that caused all the trouble – which was originally a mutated measles strain intended to cure cancer. His wife and daughter died in a helicopter crash as they attempted to flee a quarantine of Manhattan and Neville has company in the shape of his German Shepherd dog Sam.
And so as to avoid spoilers for the film (even if it is 17 years old now), we’ll just say that things don’t go so well for Neville. Yet there was an alternate ending (seen on some home entertainment releases) in which he survived.
Where will ‘I Am Legend 2’ go?
Will Smith in 2007’s ‘I Am Legend.’
According to writer Goldsman, the plan for the new movie is to continue the story in the world where Smith’s character lives and trying to survive in the vampire-infested landscape is still not easy.
Here’s what Goldsman said at Comic-Con about the idea:
“The world returns in a way that is kind of spectacular –– an exciting playground for all of us –– not your father’s ‘I Am Legend’.”
When will ‘I Am Legend 2’ be in theaters?
The ‘I Am Legend’ follow-up does not, as yet, have a release date set.
Director Steven Caple Jr. on the set of ‘Transformers: Rise of the Beasts.’ Paramount Pictures and Skydance Present in association with Hasbro and New Republic Pictures, a di Bonaventura Pictures Production, a Tom Desanto /Don Murphy Production, a Bay Films Production.
Last month, we brought news of him taking a role in director Stefano Sollima’s new crime/action movie ‘Sugar Bandits’ and now he’s also circling the lead in a new sci-fi thriller called ‘Resistor’.
Science fiction has been a mostly reliable genre for Smith –– it helped launch into the star stratosphere with the likes of ‘Independence Day’ and ‘Men in Black’, though more recent efforts have not been as impressive to critics or to studio bank balances (‘Gemini Man’ and ‘After Earth’, to name two.)
Yet this new project, which Sony is ramping up its development schedule so as to stay in business with the actor who just helped deliver the company a success with action comedy sequel ‘Bad Boys: Ride or Die’, sounds like it could be an interesting one.
‘Resistor’ will adapt Daniel Suarez’ 2014 sci-fi thriller novel (which is actually titled ‘Influx’). It follows physicist Jon Grady and his team, who have discovered a device that can reflect gravity — a breakthrough that will revolutionize the field of physics and change the future. But instead of acclaim, Grady’s lab is locked down by a covert organization known as the Bureau of Technology Control.
The bureau’s mission: suppress the truth of sudden technological progress and prevent the social upheaval it would trigger (read: it wants to keep the advance’s benefits for the rich and powerful).
When Grady refuses to join the BTC, he’s thrown into a nightmarish high-tech prison housing other doomed rebel intellects. Now, as the only hope to usher humanity out of its artificial dark age, Grady and his fellow prisoners must try to expose the secrets of an unimaginable enemy — one that wields a technological advantage half a century in the making.
Who is making ‘Resistor’?
Tom Cruise plays Capt. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell in ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ from Paramount Pictures, Skydance and Jerry Bruckheimer Films.
‘Bullet Train’ writer Zak Olkewicz was the first person to submit a script on the movie, while Eric Warren Singer (who contributed to ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ and wrote ‘American Hustle’) has crafted the most recent version, which got Sony executives interested enough to pitch it to Smith.
The actor will also produce the movie via his Westbrook company, though according to Deadline, this won’t be the next film he makes, since ‘Sugar Bandits’ would seem to be in much better shape to shoot.
‘Resistor’ still needs to lock down a director, and the studio is expected to start meeting with potential filmmakers in the next few weeks.
No one was more surprised than us when we walked out of 2020’s ‘Bad Boys for Life’ having enjoyed the film. Especially coming some 17 years after the unpleasant ‘Bad Boys II,’ and with Michael Bay abdicating the director’s chair to Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah (credited as Adil & Bilall), the third entry in the franchise was as mayhemic (if not Bayhemic) as ever, but actually offered up some character development, a decently structured plot, and yes, plenty of eye-watering yet well-staged action and violence, not to mention the undeniable Will Smith-Martin Lawrence chemistry.
Flash forward five years and it seems the ‘Bad Boys’ franchise has actually flashed back a bit: ‘Bad Boys: Ride or Die’ is more frenzied, sillier, and more mind-numbing than its predecessor. The returning Adil & Bilall (along with encoring screenwriter Chris Bremmer, this time working with Will Beall, whose less-than-sparkling credits include ‘Gangster Squad’ and ‘Aquaman’) seem to be leaning into the style of the first two ‘Bad Boys’ entries, and while Smith and Lawrence still have their act down, it’s starting to feel a little like a parody of itself. ‘Bad Boys: Ride or Die’ still manages to be fairly entertaining, but it feels like eating too much of a meal you weren’t even sure you wanted.
You want story? ‘Bad Boys: Ride or Die’ gives you plenty – or least piles on incidents and plot points like a wobbly Jenga game. Just in the first 15 minutes alone, perennial bachelor and lead Bad Boy Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) gets hitched – a lot happened in the last four years, we guess – while his partner in detective work and destruction, Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) has a heart attack while dancing at Mike’s wedding. A near-death vision of the late Captain Howard (Joe Pantoliano, picking up a paycheck) convinces Marcus to channel his inner Jeff Bridges circa ‘Fearless’ and walk on the ledge of the hospital roof after he recovers, while we also discover that Mike is now suffering from panic attacks – you know, the kind that always pop up at critical life-or-death moments in a movie like this.
It turns out that Marcus’ vision isn’t the last we’ll see of Joey Pants; after it comes out that Captain Howard is, for some reason, being investigated after his death for colluding with the drug cartels, Mike and Marcus are sent a recording that Howard made before his death in which he says he’s the one who’s been investigating the corruption and it goes all the way up the food chain of Miami P.D. and perhaps higher. That, it turns out, is the real reason why he was shot to death by Mike’s illegitimate son Armando (Jacob Scipio) in ‘Bad Boys for Life,’ in a neat bit of comic-book-style retconning.
Before you can say ‘plot contrivance,’ Mike and Marcus find themselves targeted for investigation, while the real villains – a shadowy militia unit led by former DEA officer and cartel prisoner James McGrath (Eric Dane) – are setting them up as well, placing a bounty on their heads with every gang in Miami. Soon the Bad Boys are on the run, joined along the way by Armando, who has been sprung from federal prison to help his father catch the true conspirators.
All of this, as well as the increasingly chaotic action, Smith and Lawrence’s banter breaks, and the introduction or re-introduction of a lot of characters we don’t really need, is presented almost as an ongoing recap of the movie you’re watching as you watch it.
Adil & Bilall move everything along at breakneck speed, with one scene practically butting into another before the previous one is finished, and while there’s a certain energy to it all, it also feels numbing after a while. Mike and Marcus seem to get out of almost every situation they’re in, making the stakes feel less substantial than they are, and for the grand climax at an abandoned amusement park (complete with 16-foot alligator still lurking on the grounds), the pair all but assemble their own version of the Avengers for the big shootout, even including high-tech battle drones.
Yes, the movie is insane, more so than ‘Bad Boys for Life,’ but we can’t say we weren’t intermittently entertained along the way. When we can actually see the action (it feels far more muddled this time than in ‘For Life’), some of it’s quite exciting: perhaps the best moment is when Marcus’ Marine son-in-law Reggie (Dennis McDonald) takes on 15 assassins by himself in a clear audition for ‘Bad Boys: The Next Generation’ (Jacob Scipio’s Armando seems to be auditioning for that project as well). And while a lot of the jokes fall kind of flat, there are a few laugh-out-loud moments here as well.
This is only Will Smith’s second film (following the ill-fated ‘Emancipation’) to arrive after the infamous Oscar slap that was heard around the world. While it kind of works for Lowrey, who has at least shown some character growth in the series, Smith seems to have lost some of his usual infectious energy here and comes across a bit muted. He’s still a compelling presence, and while he still has that chemistry with Lawrence, he (or his character) seems more impatient with the latter this time out.
As well he should: Lawrence is embarrassing. His Marcus is more or less played as a complete fool now, whether he’s standing bare-assed on a roof or immersed in hip-deep water while facing an alligator. Lawrence still manages to get off a few good lines (“He’s racist!” he exclaims after his confrontation with the gator doesn’t end well) and when he focuses, he can play off Smith well, but focus is his problem: Marcus is less a character and more a collection of pratfalls and extended bits that go nowhere.
The problem with the rest of the cast – aside from the fact that there are too many of them — is that they either don’t get time to do much or have their true nature telegraphed far too early in the film. Vanessa Hudgens’ Kelly, Alexander Ludwig’s Dorn, and Paola Nuñez’s Rita Secada (who’s now the Bad Boys’ captain) are simply the support system for the stars, while other returning cast members (and one returning filmmaker) just show up for glorified cameos. Only Armando, Lowrey’s son, has something resembling a character arc this time out, and the dynamic between father and son provide the film’s fleeting moments of genuine emotion and introspection.
But c’mon, you don’t come to a ‘Bad Boys’ movie for introspection, right? As we said earlier, this is a movie that is overstuffed – with plot, with characters, with action, with crazy camera moves. It starts at around 60mph and quickly escalates from there, but there’s simply never enough time for the viewer to truly feel anything (and since most of it was filmed in Georgia, the Miami flavor and bouncing soundtrack set the scene but never quite suffuse the movie).
Nevertheless, there’s just enough action and, in the third act, suspense to keep us going for two hours. Smith is certainly still watchable, even if Lawrence has become a chore. When Adil & Bilall get the mix of violence, character, and comedy right – as they did in ‘For Life’ – this can be an entertaining buddy-cop crowd-pleaser. At the very least, the ‘Bad Boys’ franchise seems to be the last one standing in a once-popular genre that has since fallen on hard times. But this cinematic fast-food meal might leave you feeling full and empty at the same time.
‘Bad Boys: Ride or Die’ receives 6 out of 10 stars.
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What is the plot of ‘Bad Boys: Ride or Die’?
When the late Captain Howard (Joe Pantoliano) is implicated in a longstanding string of drug-related crimes, the Bad Boys — Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) — attempt to clear his name, only to find themselves framed as well. With a bounty on their heads, they’re forced to go on the run from the drug cartel, the local gangs, and their fellow officers in the Miami PD.
Will Smith accepts the Best Actor award for ‘King Richard’ onstage during the 27th Annual Critics Choice Awards at Fairmont Century Plaza on March 13, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. Photo by Amy Sussman/Getty Images for Critics Choice Association.
Preview:
Will Smith has boarded action thriller ‘Sugar Bandits’.
Stefano Sollima will direct.
It’s based on a book by ‘The Town’s Chuck Hogan.
It’s not often the likes of Will Smith grace the casts of indie movies (and with an $80 million budget, it’s not exactly a tiny little project), but he will be taking a role in a new action thriller called ‘Sugar Bandits’.
The movie, which follows veteran soldiers banding together to tackle the drug trade in Boston (putting their lives once more at serious risk), is now looking to lock up distribution at the Cannes market.
(L to R) Ben Affleck and Jeremy Renner in ‘The Town’. Photo: Warner Bros.
‘Sugar Bandits’ is the story of Neal Maven and a crew of fellow Special Forces Iraq War veterans, who begin ripping off Boston-area drug dealers for profit, throwing their lives into jeopardy.
As Maven’s involvement deepens, two worrisome things he begins to suspect that their leader has a sinister ulterior motive, and he lusts after the leader’s girl — a tough former model with a drug problem. As the rip-off jobs get riskier, Maven and his crew are soon pursued by both a smart federal DEA agent and by a pair of psychopathic Jamaican hit men on a drug lords’ payroll.
When everything goes bad — and it goes very bad — Maven embarks on a one-man crusade to right the wrongs in which he unwittingly participated. Not everyone will survive his crusade, and Maven himself may not live to see the final outcome…
The movie is adapted by Chuck Hogan from his novel ‘Devils in Exile’. If Hogan’s name sounds familiar, it might be because his Boston-set work was previously adapted into ‘The Town’, which was directed by and starred Ben Affleck.
Who is making ‘Sugar Bandits’?
(L to R) Jamie Bell as Robert Ritter and Michael B. Jordan as John Kelly in Prime Video’s ‘Without Remorse.’
Shortly before the Cannes market kicked off, Italian director Stefano Sollima, who previously handled the likes of ‘Without Remorse’, ‘Sicario: Day of the Soldado’ and hit TV series ‘Gomorrah’, signed on to handle the movie.
That, in turn, has sparked a host of distribution deals for the indie movie, including Amazon’s Prime Video service snapping up the rights to the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, among other places.
There’s no word yet on a domestic distributor, but the movie is forging ahead, with a fall shoot planned in Montreal and Boston, with the aforementioned $80 million price tag.
What else is Will Smith working on?
(L to R) Will Smith and Martin Lawrence in ‘Bad Boys: Ride or Die.’ Photo: Sony Pictures Releasing.
It would appear that Smith is certainly shifting up a gear now that the impact of his Oscarsslap incident with Chris Rock is starting to dissipate. He’ll be back on our screens in ‘Bad Boys: Ride or Die’ on June 7th.
According to Deadline, Smith won’t take the lead in this one, but is instead opting for a co-starring role.
When will ‘Sugar Bandits’ be in theaters?
Given that it has only just started to make distribution deals –– and isn’t even in production yet, we’d guess it’ll be arriving either late in 2025 or in 2026.
(L to R) Martin Lawrence and Will Smith in ‘Bad Boys: Ride or Die.’ Photo: Sony Pictures Releasing.
The movie, which featured the likes of Margot Robbie (in her first outing as Harley Quinn), Will Smith and Viola Davis, arrived in theaters and was quickly given a drubbing by critics. It went on to earn a respectable $746.8 million worldwide at the box office, but when you factor in budget (around $175 million) and marketing costs, it wasn’t seen as a big success. Ayer attributed a lot of that to the studio interfering with his vision, demanding a new cut and releasing an inferior version.
You can find his statement on that via twitter here:
Viola Davis as Amanda Waller in 2016’s ‘Suicide Squad.’
For years, the director has stoked the fires of support for what he calls the “Ayer Cut” of ‘Squad’ to see the light of day, and smacked down detractors who wish he’d stop, especially in light of Warner Bros. and DC moving on with James Gunn’s 2021 effort ‘The Suicide Squad’.
Here’s what Ayer said to someone who questioned his ongoing crusade:
“There’s a genuine curiosity and interest from a lot of people. And I’m aware there is another group of people that have fun mocking the film. Your comment is a perfect example of how many are magnetically drawn to the 2016 film in a negative way. Have you ever had an experience in life that didn’t until the way you wanted, that dragged you, that made you rethink everything? I have.”
He then went on to drop Gunn’s name as a supporter of the film after reportedly having talks with the man in charge of the current iteration of the DC universe on big and small screens:
“All I know is my unseen film plays much better than the studio release. The interest in my cut being show seems real and organic. And Gunn told me it would have it’s time to be shared. He absolutely deserves to launch his DC universe without more drama about old projects. In a way I’m chained to this thing. I’m riding a tiger here and navigating this situation the best I can. Life is a very strange journey.”
You can find Ayer’s full statement on social media here:
Whether the director’s preferred cut ever actually comes out is another matter. There is certainly interest in seeing it, but Gunn’s reassurances do feel a little like a parent telling a child they can have that candy if they behave. Still, there were plenty of naysayers when Snyder was talking up his ‘Justice League’ cut, so stranger things have happened.
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The cast of director David Ayer’s 2016 ‘Suicide Squad.’ Photo courtesy of Warner Bros.
Sony’s 2023 CinemaCon Presentation. Photos courtesy of Sony Pictures.
With audiences returning to theaters properly and box office returns climbing out of the trough of COVID, it was only natural that studio bosses were going to be bullish at this year’s CinemaCon event in Las Vegas.
First out of the gate this time was Sony, whose chairman Tom Rothman was in an upbeat, triumphant mood. “For the past three years, as the punditocracy pissed on your business, we at Sony held fast,” Rothman boasted. “We are the only studio that held entirely to theatrical. We were sure that movies in theaters would not only survive but triumph. Well, whaddaya know?”
Sony remains on the theatrical train, with several big releases planned.
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‘The Equalizer 3’
Among the biggest is ‘The Equalizer 3’, which represents that unusual franchise where the star –– in this case, Denzel Washington –– is actually bigger than the property. In an age of superheroes and ‘Star Wars’ selling seats, he’s an outlier.
The studio had Washington and co-star Dakota Fanning on stage to thank cinema executives for their support and, perhaps more crucially, to highlight the fact that it represents a reunion for the ‘Man on Fire’ stars. And a trailer played, which went online today…
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‘The Equalizer 3’ catches up with Washington’s government assassin-turned-kick-ass-do-gooder Robert McCall in Italy, where he’s trying to enjoy some downtime on the picturesque Amalfi coast and not be asked to take on villains.
Sadly, for McCall, that’s not the way his life goes, and he’s soon caught up helping some locals with Mafia goons and violence. Which means McCall has to break out his particular set of skills and lay the smack down on members of the criminal clan known as the Camorra (think an even more dangerous offshoot of the Mafia).
And while there are some very wild, violent thugs looking to tackle McCall, none of them are quite ready for what he brings to the table. Literally in one case, as we witness him applying nerve pressure to one of the enforcers. “That’s level three”, he tells the anguished henchman. “If “If it goes to level four, you will shit on yourself.” Thanks Denz!
But the highlight, as mentioned above, is in the reunion between Washington and Fanning. The latter was just 10 when she shared the screen with Washington ‘Man on Fire’ in 2004. Now, for ‘The Equalizer 3’, she’s playing a young CIA agent drawn to the village because of all the reports of violence.
And the two actors’ connection was clear, since they have stayed friends all these years. “She’s like a daughter to him, he loves her,” Antoine Fuquatold Empire of the off-screen dynamic between Washington and Fanning. “It was so beautiful to watch them together on the set, just talking, laughing. And they’re both so talented, they just get into it, they didn’t skip a beat. What was weird for me looking through the lens and seeing Dakota as a grown-up! She’s fantastic and watching them together was a joy because she’s a samurai. She knows it, she’s there, she’s pleasant, she does her thing. And it was a bonus her relationship with Denzel. She’s friends with his kids. It was very easy with those two.”
‘The Equalizer 3’ will be in theaters on September 1st.
Denzel Washington in ‘The Equalizer 3.’ Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures.
‘Bad Boys 4’
While ‘Bad Boys for Life’ represented one of the few hits as the pandemic began to bite, Sony was naturally excited to roll out word of the next movie. The movie is now filming (with ‘For Life’ directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah returning) but isn’t yet at a stage where the studio can show a trailer. Still, it had stars Will Smith and Martin Lawrence ebullient in a video introduction.
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‘Gran Turismo’
Sony’s 2023 CinemaCon Presentation. Photos courtesy of Sony Pictures.
‘Gran Turismo’, adapted from the Sony racing game is much further along, though while the trailer played to the presentation audience, it has yet to head online.
The film will tell the story of Jann Mardenborough ( ‘Midsommar’s Archie Madekwe), a British teenager who in 2011 entered GT Academy, an esports tournament created to find ‘Gran Turismo’ players who were good enough at the game to be able to competitively drive real-life race cars. Mardenborough was victorious in the GT Academy competition and became a race car driver for Nissan, competing in the Dubai 24 Hour endurance race.
In the trailer, we see Jann arriving with other GT Academy contestants and being put through the wringer by racing trainer Jack Salter (David Harbour) who puts them through a rigorous boot camp to get them in shape. It’s one thing to know how to hit every corner on a world-class racetrack and to overtake in a simulation of a Nissan GT-R LM, but as Jann finds out, it’s hard to do it when the g-forces and hot temperatures of an actual race car are bearing down on you.
“If you miss a racing line in a game you can reset,” warns Jack. “If you miss it in a real race, you could die.”
‘Gran Turismo’ drives into theaters on August 11th.
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‘No Hard Feelings’
Sony’s 2023 CinemaCon Presentation. Photos courtesy of Sony Pictures.
Jennifer Lawrence and ‘No Hard Feelings’ director Gene Stupnitsky swapped onstage banter before introducing a new clip from the raunchy comedy about two helicopter parents who hire a woman to “date” their introverted 19-year-old son, so he doesn’t leave for college as a virgin. The comedy hits theaters on June 23.
Sony’s 2023 CinemaCon Presentation. Photos courtesy of Sony Pictures.
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‘Kraven The Hunter’
Also on display, Sony/Marvel Spider-adjacent superhero pic ‘Kraven The Hunter’, with star Aaron Taylor-Johnson playing the title character. He introduced the first look at the movie, enthusing that it’s Rated R.
In the footage, Taylor-Johnson’s Kraven is a tactical stalker with a penchant for cropped leather vests and five-star hair. He shreds his victims viscerally, often with primitive claw-shaped weapons. Blood pours freely over the screen and, at one intense moment, Taylor-Johnson rips the flesh off a target’s neck with his teeth and spits it out. Definitely an R-rating, then.
‘Kraven the Hunter’ will be in theaters on October 26.
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‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’
Sony’s 2023 CinemaCon Presentation. Photos courtesy of Sony Pictures.
Co-director Kemp Powers was joined by voice stars Shameik Moore (who plays Miles Morales), and Hailee Steinfeld (Gwen Stacey), and new recruit Issa Rae (Jessica Drew) to show off 14 impressive minutes of footage from the sequel, which be followed by another movie in 2024.
“It’s been over a year since the events of first movie and he’s still trying to learn to be a superhero,” Moore added, saying that this movie shows that “how you wear the mask is what makes you a hero.”
‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’ will swing into theaters on June 2nd this year, with ‘Beyond the Spider-Verse’ due next year.
Sony’s 2023 CinemaCon Presentation. Photos courtesy of Sony Pictures.
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‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’ Sequel
There was also a video from Jason Reitman and the team making the sequel to ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’ (on which Reitman and co-writer Gil Kenan have swapped jobs this time, Kenan directing while Reitman produces) confirming the story’s return to the New York haunts of the original 1984 ‘Ghostbusters’. The new film –– whatever its title –– hits theaters on December 20th.
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‘Napoleon’
While ‘The Equalizer 3’ wrapped things up, there was also room for a big get by the Sony executives, who had scored the chance to release Ridley Scott’s Joaquin Phoenix-starring ‘Napoleon’ in partnership with Apple.
“I know that he can do things cinematically that filmmakers half his age, can’t do,” Rothman said of the 85-year-old director.
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The clip shown had Joaquin Phoenix’s title character commanding the French army in a foggy, blurry wintery epic battle with the Russian and Austrian forces. Napoleon knows it’s coming; he has invited the attack. Lots of bayonets slicing and soldiers falling in the icy water.
‘Napoleon’ should be in theaters this Thanksgiving, followed by its arrival on Apple TV+ after that.
All in all, some big moves, and big movies from Sony.
Sony’s 2023 CinemaCon Presentation. Photos courtesy of Sony Pictures.
Movies Presented at Sony Pictures 2023 CinemaCon Presentation:
Keanu Reeves as John Constantine in 2005’s ‘Constantine.’
Business-heavy stories about producers renewing the deals with studios don’t usually offer up too many interesting nuggets of news. But when that filmmaker is Akiva Goldsman, and he’s involved with two big franchises in ‘Constantine’ and ‘I Am Legend’––and is happy to talk about them––that’s a different situation.
So with Goldsman’s Weed Road company returning to Warner Bros. (which is almost news in itself given the company’s recent round of cost-cutting and tax write-offs), there is an update on both the comic book adaptation starring Keanu Reeves and the post-apocalyptic thriller that, seemingly against the odds given how the first movie ended, appears set to return Will Smith to screens.
2005’s ‘Constantine’ brought the character first created by Alan Moore, Stephen R. Bissette, Rick Veitch, and John Totleben (and developed by Garth Ennis and Jamie Delano’s ‘Hellblazer’ comics) to screens.
He’s as supernatural exorcist and demonologist, and something of a detective, though his personal life is a mess and his personal grooming leaves something to be desired.
In the movie, Reeves’ Constantine is approached by Detective Angela Dodson (Rachel Weisz) who needs his help to prove that her twin sister Isabel’s (also Weisz) death was not a suicide. As he looks into Isabel’s death, he realizes demons are trying to break through to the human world, and his battles lead him into the middle of a conflict between the Angel Gabriel (Tilda Swinton) and Satan (Peter Stomare).
“This is a credit to Keanu, who endlessly has said, ‘this is the character I want to return to.’ Finally, he said it enough times that it stuck. The character is very much Keanu and the way he and Francis saw the world of good and evil, and the wonderful and authentic noir where there is a world behind the world of good and evil coexist with our world right up close. Beyond that, we are still discovering it as I am writing the script.”
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What’s new with the ‘I Am Legend’ sequel?
‘I Am Legend,’ meanwhile, was a 2007 horror action thriller, coincidentally also directed by Lawrence. It adapted Richard Matheson’s much-praised 1954 novel, which posited a world where a devastating virus had wiped out almost all of humanity and turned the rest into vampire-like mutants who roam the world looking for victims.
Robert Neville, the focus of the story, goes on a mission to find the scientific basis for the pandemic that caused all this, and chronicles his increasingly stressed encounters with his fellow former humans.
In the movie, Smith plays Neville, who is an army virologist surviving in a ruined New York and looking to find a cure for the virus that caused all the trouble––which was originally a mutated measles strain intended to cure cancer. His wife and daughter died in a helicopter crash as they attempted to flee a quarantine of Manhattan and Neville has company in the shape of his German Shepherd dog Sam.
We learned about a potential sequel nearly a year ago, but at that point speculated that it seemed unlikely to star Smith since (spoiler alert) his character appeared to die at the end, heroically sacrificing his life after finally finding a cure so other survivors (Alice Braga’s Anna and her son, Ethan, played by Charlie Tahan) may live.
Yet that was in the cinematic cut––a later home entertainment release has an alternate where In the ending that wasn’t included in the theatrical cut, the zombies leave Smith’s Neville alone once he returns the body he was testing the cure on back to them. Smith, Anna and Ethan travel to Vermont to spread the cure.
Goldsman, who is also writing that movie (Lawrence is not attached to direct, at least not yet), didn’t specify exactly how Smith’s character story would continue, nor did he offer up any details as to how fellow attached star Michael B. Jordan might fit in.
Goldsman had this to say about the movie,
“This will start a few decades later than the first. “I’m obsessed with ‘The Last of Us,’ where we see the world just post-apocalypse but also after a 20-30-year lapse. You see how the earth reclaims the world, and there’s something beautiful in the question of, as man steps away from being the primary tenant, what happens? That will be especially visual in New York. I don’t know if they’ll climb up to the empire state building, but the possibilities are endless. We trace back to the original Matheson book, and the alternate ending as opposed to the released ending in the original film. What Matheson was talking about was that man’s time on the planet as the dominant species had come to an end. That’s a really interesting thing we’re going to get to explore. There will be a little more fidelity to the original text.”
It’s perhaps no surprise that the huge HBO Max hit video game adaptation would be a touchstone, even though the new ‘Legend’ has been in development long before it infected the pop cultural consciousness.
We’ll have to wait and see what exactly happens with the ‘Legend’ follow-up. Given how busy Goldsman is (he also juggles time spent working on ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ series for Paramount+ and a wealth of other projects in development), it could be a while before either movie is ready to go before cameras. We’d predict that the ‘Constantine’ follow-up would be first.
Will Smith in 2007’s ‘I Am Legend.’
Other Movies Similar to ‘Constantine’ and ‘I Am Legend:’
“Bad Boys, Bad Boys, wotcha gonna do?” If you’re Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, apparently you’re gonna make a fourth movie in the successful action comedy franchise.
Yes, with Will Smith seemingly persona grata again despite that little incident at last year’s Oscar ceremony, the actor took enthusiastically to Instagram for a new video which included him driving to Martin Lawrence’s house to announce that a fourth ‘Bad Boys’ is indeed now in the works.
Featuring a funny moment where the pair realize that it might have been a mistake to call the last movie ‘Bad Boys for Life’ (since ‘Bad Boys 4 Life’ would really work for this one), it’s mostly the excited actor teasing fans about what he’s actually announcing.
(L to R) Martin Lawrence as Detective Lieutenant Marcus Miles Burnett and Will Smith as Detective Lieutenant Michael Eugene ‘Mike’ Lowrey in ‘Bad Boys for Life.’
But whatever it ends up being called, the fourth film will see the return of directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, who oversaw that last movie, which ended up being one of the few movies released in 2020 ahead of the incoming pandemic and making more than $426 million worldwide. So of course Sony and producer Jerry Bruckheimer would want to try and get another going.
‘Bad Boys For Life’ saw an older Mike (Smith) and Marcus (Lawrence) tackling their latest case, a mother-son drug trafficking duo who proved to be a dangerous threat.
Nothing is yet known about what the cops will be dealing with this time, but the script will come from ‘For Life’s Chris Bremner. And we’re all but guaranteed cars crashing and things blowing up, plus comedy squabbling between our heroes. Will anyone be slapped? Let’s find out!
It’s certainly better news for the directors, who have had mixed fortunes of late. Following the praise and box office bonanza of ‘For Life’, they were in demand, squeezing in indie movie ‘Rebel’, worked on episodes of ‘Ms. Marvel’ (which boasted a fun visual style) and also cranked out ‘Batgirl’ with high hopes for more cinematic success.
(L to R) Leslie Grace, co-director Adil El Arbi, and Michael Keaton on the set of ‘Batgirl.’ Photo courtesy of Adil El Arbi’s Instagram.
Yet ‘Batgirl’ not only fell victim to Warner Bros. Discovery cost-cutting, consigned to the shelf when still in post-production.
And the knocks have kept coming. The movie, which stars Leslie Grace, Brendan Fraser, J.K. Simmons, and Michael Keaton has now been described as “ not releasable” by producer and DC Studios co-CEO Peter Safran. Having spent a couple of months figuring out the future of the DC movie, TV and video game universe with James Gunn––who outlined their plans yesterday––Safran was doing press for the big new announcement when he was asked about the ‘Batgirl’ situation.
“I saw the movie,” he said. “There are a lot of incredibly talented people in front of and behind the camera in that film, but that was not releasable. It happens sometimes. “I think [Warner Discovery CEO David] Zaslav and the team made a bold and courageous decision to cancel it, because it would have hurt DC and those people involved. I spoke to Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah last week. We’d love to be in business with all of them.”
It’s an unusually candid answer for a controversial subject, especially about a movie that plenty of fans still want to see. But perhaps El Arbi and Fallah will get a do-over at DC. Once they finish wrangling Smith and Lawrence, that is.
Directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah from Disney+’s ‘Ms. Marvel.’
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Jimmy Kimmel to Host the 95th Oscars. Photo: ABC/Jeff Lipsky.
Given that the first time Jimmy Kimmel hosted the Oscars, we got the memorable ‘La La Land’/’Moonlight’ Best Picture mix-up, you might think he’d be wary of coming back.
But that was in 2017, and Kimmel actually came back in 2018 for a less dramatic ceremony. Now, after five years away, he will once more lead the show for the 95th Oscars, which will be held next year.
The announcement was made by Glenn Weiss and Ricky Kirshner, the executive producers and showrunners for the next show.
Kimmel, who hosts popular late-night show ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ joins a three-peat club that also includes Jerry Lewis, Steve Martin, Conrad Nagel and David Niven. He has some way to go, however, to compete with the likes of Billy Crystal, who has wrangled the show nine times and Bob Hope, who hosted 11 times in his career.
“Being invited to host the Oscars for a third time is either a great honor or a trap,” Kimmel says in a statement. “Either way, I am grateful to the Academy for asking me so quickly after everyone good said no.”
“We’re super thrilled to have Jimmy score his hat trick on this global stage,” Weiss and Kirshner said in a joint statement. “We know he will be funny and ready for anything.”
“Jimmy is the perfect host to help us recognize the incredible artists and films of our 95th Oscars,” Academy CEO Bill Kramer and Academy president Janet Yang enthuse. “His love of movies, live TV expertise, and ability to connect with our global audiences will create an unforgettable experience for our millions of viewers worldwide.”
Chris Rock presents the Oscar® for Documentary Feature during the live ABC telecast of the 94th Oscars® at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood in Los Angeles, CA, on Sunday, March 27, 2022. Photo Credit: Blaine Ohigashi / A.M.P.A.S.
Naturally, neither the Academy nor the producers are speaking as to whether anyone was asked before Kimmel, though there had been speculation that producers reached out to Chris Rock in the wake of last year’s Will Smithslap incident.
The Academy and those running the show have struggled with plummeting ratings and finding the right hosts in recent years. In 2020, the show relied on a variety of hosts after first choice Kevin Hart left the gig under fire for problematic attitudes on social media.
In 2021, the pandemic forced the ceremony out of its usual Dolby Theatre home and once again employed a changing roster of presenters instead of the traditional host for a muted ceremony. This year represented a return to a more normal ceremony, albeit with three hosts – Amy Schumer, Regina Hall and Wanda Sykes.
The 95th Oscar nominations will be announced on January 24th, 2023, with the ceremony to be held on March 12th.
Will Smith accepts the Oscar® for Actor in a Leading Role during the live ABC telecast of the 94th Oscars® at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood in Los Angeles, CA, on Sunday, March 27, 2022. Photo Credit: Kyusung Gong / A.M.P.A.S.
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Apple probably thought it was on to a stone-cold awards contender with Antoine Fuqua’s latest, ‘Emancipation’.
With Will Smith starring in the stirring based-on-truth story of Peter, a man who escapes from slavery, relying on his wits, unwavering faith and deep love for his family to evade cold-blooded hunters and the unforgiving swamps of Louisiana on his quest for freedom, it looked like it could be Oscar bait.
For anyone who has been living under a rock, it all went down when Chris Rock took the stage at the Academy Awards to present Best Documentary. He made a number of jokes, including one directed at Jada Pinkett-Smith that referred to her bald head.
Given that Pinkett-Smith has alopecia, the joke was seen in poor taste and Smith, after initially chuckling, then took the stage and slapped Rock. Upon his return to his seat, he shouted, “keep my wife’s mouth out of your f*****g mouth” more than once.
It shocked the audience, and the wider watching world, and Smith returned to the stage later in the evening to collect Best Actor for ‘King Richard’. Yet the ramifications continued well after the night itself.
Smith issued apologies, while Rock mostly talked about it during stand-up shows in the months following. The Academy went the disciplinary route, banning Smith from its events for a decade, but letting him keep his award.
Will Smith stars in Apple’s ‘Emancipation,’ directed by Antoine Fuqua.
Which brings us back to ‘Emancipation’, which was announced back in 2020 and quickly snapped up by Apple.
The historical story and triumph of the human spirit must’ve been a big appeal to Apple – and the presence of Smith, especially when he was Oscar-nominated for ‘King Richard’, just added to that.
Yet now the company faces the uphill struggle of releasing the movie in the wake of the Academy Awards incident, with a star who couldn’t collect his Oscar even if he’s nominated or wins.
Still, there is a lot that is compelling about this one: When Peter showed his bare back during an Army medical examination, photos were taken of the scars from a whipping delivered by an overseer on the plantation owned by John and Bridget Lyons that nearly killed the slave. When the photo known as “the scourged back” was published by the Independent in May 1863 and then ‘Harper’s Weekly’s July 4 issue, it became indisputable proof of the cruelty and barbarity of slavery in America. The photo reached around the world, and legend has it that it made countries like France refuse to buy cotton from the South. It solidified the cause of abolitionists and prompted many free blacks to join the Union Army.
“It was the first viral image of the brutality of slavery that the world saw,” Fuqua told Deadline when the movie was originally confirmed. “Which is interesting, when you put it into perspective with today and social media and what the world is seeing, again. You can’t fix the past, but you can remind people of the past and I think we have to, in an accurate, real way. We all have to look for a brighter future for us all, for everyone. That’s one of the most important reasons to do things right now, is show our history. We have to face our truth before we can move forward.”
Facing some hard truths will reach beyond the movie’s narrative.
