News Around the Net
We’ve been getting some fun teases lately for Guardians of the Galaxy volume 2. (Great title, by the way.) This is a solid poster and the tag-line, “obviously”, is genius. And then there is this tantalizing new trailer:
That hits all the right notes for me. Love it.
After the release of a series of photos, we also got our first real look at the upcoming Wolverine solo film, titled Logan, with this trailer:
While this trailer squashes any hope I might have had for a more faithful adaptation of Mark Millar and Steve McNiven’s brilliant comic book story Old Man Logan (something I really never should have even dared hope for, since this X-Men series, even when it is great, has never shown any interest in faithful adaptations of classic X-Men stories), I am very happy by what I see here. It looks like they’ve taken some of the general ideas of Old Man Logan to craft an entirely new story, and I am impressed that they’ve chosen to jump into the future and leave the rest of the X-Men franchise behind. Hugh Jackman (sporting a crazy Mel Gibson-like beard) and Patrick Stewart both seem as awesome as usual. I am excited for this. (My one quibble — one of the coolest ideas of Old Man Logan was that Logan had vowed never to unsheathe his claws again, and so they make you wait a long, long, long time before you finally get a “snikt.” From this trailer, in which we see plenty of Logan’s claws, I guess the film is taking a different approach…)
Holy cow, is there really a new Martin Scorsese movie coming out next month?? Here’s a look at Silence:
Whoo, that looks harrowing. I am very intrigued by that trailer.
This new look at Kong: Skull Island is… well… take a look:
This trailer really shows us a lot of the shape of the movie. Most significantly, we see the real monsters/villains of the film other than Kong. I was surprisingly taken by the goofy tone of the trailer. Is this movie going to balance a war-movie aesthetic with a lot of humor as well as this trailer does? We’ll see…
Cars is my least favorite of all the Pixar movies. As a result, Cars 2 is the only Pixar movie I’ve never seen! So I’m not really interested in a Cars 3, though I admit that my eyebrows were raised by this weird, grim teaser:
I’m not sure I understand Disney studio’s desire to seemingly create a live-action remake of every single one of their animated films, but this trailer for Beauty and the Beast is impressive:
That’s a spectacular cast and the film looks gorgoeus. (And I loved the play on the Disney logo at the start of the trailer!) Still, can this story possibly be told better than the animated film did?
Speaking of live-action remakes of famous animated films, here’s our first look at Ghost in the Shell:
I don’t have the love for the original Japanese animated film that many do. This trailer looks like it’s trying to be Blade Runner, but I’m just not sure I am interested in this story…
On the other hand, I am very excited for Ben Affleck’s Live By Night:
I’ve really enjoyed all three films that Mr. Affleck has directed — in particular, Gone Baby Gone is a true masterpiece — and so I have high hopes for this one.
Michelle Yeoh has joined the cast of Star Trek: Discovery? That’s great news. (Since I had read that this new series would NOT center around a starship captain as most of the previous Trek series had, and this article claims Ms. Yeoh has been cast as a captain, I wonder if she will have a substantial lead role in the series or if this will be more of a cameo…)
Emilia Clarke has joined the cast of the upcoming Han Solo prequel? Hmmm… that’s… OK news. I love Ms. Clarke in Game of Thrones but she underwhelmed in Terminator: Genisys. (Though how much can I really fault her for that lame film?) Boy, I really am NOT excited about the idea of a young Han Solo film…
Speaking of bad prequel ideas… they’re making an Edge of Tomorrow sequel… but it’s going to be a prequel? Sigh.
So Marvel’s Inhumans isn’t going to be a movie, despite having been announced as being a part of the Phase Three slate of films… instead it’s going to be a TV show whose first two episodes will be released to IMAX theatres? OK, that’s a surprising twist. I’d love to see the Inhumans brought to life, but I’m not thrilled that ABC will be in charge of this property. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn’t give me much hope. (I stuck with that show through two and a half seasons and then finally threw in the towel.)
I love this teaser poster for Alien: Covenant. I love seeing the classic Alien look for the creature. I am excited for this (and saddened once again that rewrites warped Prometheus away from the direct Alien prequel it was originally designed to be).
I was super-excited for Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim, and while the film is gorgeous and fun to watch, I was surprised how slight the story and characters were. (Click here for my original review.) It felt like the film never quite lived up to the super-cool premise and incredible design work. So I’m happy to see them take another whack at this with a sequel — and after years of on-again-off-again rumors, the sequel, now titled Pacific Rim: Maelstrom, is actually happening, with the great John Boyega (Attack the Block, Star Wars: The Force Awakens) as the lead. I would love for this to be great.
Gary Oldman is playing Winston Churchill in an upcoming film, Darkest Hour? Count me in! Check out this just-released photo of Mr. Oldman in the role.
I loved both the original Cloverfield and the sort-of-but-not-really-a-sequel film 10 Cloverfield Lane that was released last year. So I am super-excited that the space-set upcoming film The God Particle has been revealed as a third Cloverfield film!! I am super-excited for this.
Speaking of sort-of-sequels, I am not quite sure what to make of the in-production movie Going Places, which features John Turturro reprising his iconic role as Jesus Quintana from The Big Lebowski! This is not a new Coen Brothers film — instead, Going Places was written and directed by Mr. Turturro, who also stars in the film. Here’s a first look. I am intrigued and cautiously interested in this!
I loved the first Robert Downey Jr Sherlock Holmes film, and I was then hugely let down by the sequel, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. As with Pacific Rim, I feel this is a franchise with life left in it and I’d love them to take another swing. So I’m pleased to hear that Mr. Downey Jr. is working to develop a third film, and that he’s using a “writers room” approach no less. In movies, it’s often a sign of problems when you see a lot of credited writers. On the other hand, this approach works wonders for TV. I’d be delighted for this process to result in our getting a third film. We’ll see…
OK, I think I have rambled on long enough. I’ll leave you with this great article: The 53 best movies under 90 minutes long.
Have a happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Thank you all so much for reading!