Matthew Monagle
Date Night Takes a Turn for the Steamy in This ‘Fifty Shades Darker’ Clip
For most people, the decision to make a sequel to 2015’s Fifty Shades of Grey is probably the punchline to a bad joke. But have you actually stopped and looked at the box office numbers for Fifty Shades of Grey recently? We’re not talking about $100 million at the global box office; we’re not even talking about $200 million. We’re talking about $571 million worldwide, more than Mad Max: Fury Road and Creed combined and the eleventh highest-grossing movie of the year. With those kind of numbers, you pretty much have to make a sequel. I don’t blame them.
‘King Arthur’ Promises a King in New Poster, Teaser Trailer
Is Guy Ritchie still one of our most interesting Hollywood filmmakers? After beginning his career with indie standouts Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, Ritchie has settled into a kind of forgettable jumble of big budget movies that hold their own both with critics and at the box office. I would certainly describe the Sherlock Holmes movies and The Man From U.N.C.L.E. as solid, but ‘solid’ isn’t the type of praise we typically issue to one of our best directors. And King Arthur: Legend of the Sword seems ready to continue this streak. The Arthurian legend with GoPros? Solid. Not great, but solid.
Tom Cruise Is Only Mostly Dead in the First Trailer for ‘The Mummy’
Every year, when the bottom drops out of the summer movie season and audiences decide to stay home and watch television instead, some well-meaning critic will publish an article asking if cinema is dead. And every year, I pose the same question in response: “Is Tom Cruise still an action star?” As long as Tom Cruise is running across multiplex screens — fighting rogue nations, government consiparcies, and even the occasional mummy — there is still hope for cinema. Then, when Cruise’s career is done and Hollywood is in ashes, then, cinema, you have my permission to die.
The Latest ‘Rogue One’ TV Spot Puts the ‘War’ Back in ‘Star Wars’
Even with a little bit of distance from their initial release, there’s not a lot to enjoy about the Star Wars prequels. They’re still poorly acted, overly reliant on CGI, and too bogged down in origin stories instead of developing new characters for us to care about. That being said, give credit to George Lucas for writing a powerful arc for Senator Palpatine. Palpatine’s methodical dissolution of the Old Republic — and our mounting horror as we watch him convince the galaxy to give up freedom in exchange for a false sense of safety — aren’t enough to save the Star Wars prequels entirely, but they do represent some of the smartest writing of Lucas’ career.
U.S. Court Dismisses MPAA Case Requiring Movies With Smoking to Be R-Rated
As times change, standards change, and we occasionally find ourselves bumping up against old traditions that need to retire. Even some of our most beloved childhood movies feature behavior and activities — smoking, strong language, casual misogyny — that went unnoticed and unappreciated by our older selves. Given the well-established health risks that smoking poses, one person recently took it upon himself to sue Hollywood in an attempt to get onscreen smoking banned. I’ll give a moment to guess who won.
Ewan McGregor Explains Why He Nearly Turned Down ‘Star Wars’
Over the past few years, there has been a small but noticeable attempt to rehabilitate the image of the Star Wars prequels in popular culture. Last November, for example, the A.V. Club published an article on why the Star Wars prequels don’t deserve our hatred. Similar pieces have been published in The Mary Sue, USA Today, and many other websites and online publications. It just goes to show that there is a lid for every pot, no matter how misshapen that pot may be.
‘Jurassic World 2’ Will Start Filming Next March
One of the peculiarities of the modern studio system is that we often know the date a movie will be released long before we know the date when a movie will actually go into production. For example, we’ve known since last year that Jurassic World 2 would be released in June of 2018, but here it is, the end of 2016, and we’re just now learning the timeline to actually make the darn thing. Production schedules, like box office gross, sometimes have a logic all their own.
‘The Mummy’ Screenwriter Says His Is the First ‘Mummy’ Movie With the ‘Power to Terrify’
Since screenwriters are often the most overlooked part of any Hollywood production, you probably aren’t familiar with the name Jon Spaihts, but odds are good that you have pretty strong feelings about his work. Spaihts broke onto the scene back in 2007 when his script for Passengers was named to that year’s Black List; while that film is just now finding its way into theaters, Spaihts is also one of the writers behind Doctor Strange, Ridley Scott’s Prometheus series, and the upcoming cinematic universe of monsters at Universal Pictures. In other words, Spaihts is a name to remember.
Ewan McGregor Could See Himself Doing Two Obi-Wan Movies
When an actor expresses interest in returning to an iconic role, I always wonder whether the actor needs the movie more than the studio needs the actor. Ron Perlman, for example, has spent years talking up his interest in another Hellboy movie, despite it being fairly obvious that the studio had no real interest in getting that project off the ground. So when Ewan McGregor told reporters last year that he would come back for an Obi-Wan Kenobi standalone movie, I wondered: does this make sense for everyone involved? Or was McGregor just doing the Hollywood equivalent of jumping on a trending hashtag?
‘Wonder Woman’ Goes to War in These Brand New Leaked Photos
Ever since the Wonder Woman trailer blew the doors off of Comic-Con International, fans have been ready for another round of footage or trailers. Everything about the character lends hope to the idea that Wonder Woman will be the movie to right the sinking ship of the DC Cinematic Universe. And while it isn’t exactly the new trailer or huge photo spread we were hoping for, we do have a pair of new leaked photos to tide us over until the next official thing.
Julia Roberts to Star in True-Crime Story of Framed PTA Mom
Last month, the Los Angeles Times began a six-part story on Kelli Peters, a school volunteer and PTA member in the community of Irvine, California who became the unwitting subject of a bizarre conspiracy to ruin her family’s name. A few days later, Peters’ tell-all book, I’ll Get You! Drugs, Lies, and the Terrorizing of a PTA Mom, hit bookshelves across the country. It wasn’t long before the film rights to the book were shopped around in Hollywood, and now it appears a major star is interested in playing the role of Peters herself.
‘Jurassic World 2’ Director J.A. Bayona Confirms ‘Jurassic World’ Trilogy
About a year ago, Jurassic World director Colin Trevorrow went on a Jurassic Park-themed podcast and talked about Universal’s plans to make his film the first in a trilogy of movies about dinosaur-induced mayhem. And while nothing really seemed to indicate that the creative team had switched gears since then, today we did finally get confirmation that a Jurassic World trilogy is still the plan going forward.