Lost in the flood of Venice's incredible film lineup - Errol Morris' upcoming doc about Steven Bannon, “American Dharma"

Details are scarce when it comes to documentary filmmaker Errol Morris' latest film "American Dharma." What we do know about the secretive documentary is that it's about Steve Bannon. 

Bannon is the former Breitbart chairman and was seen, by many, as the brains behind Donald Trump's presidential campaign. 

Debuting at the upcoming Venice Film Festival, "American Dharma" has been described as a “dialogue," which, if you know many of Morris' films like "The Fog of War," probably means that the entire film is an interview with Steve Bannon. I do hope that we learn more about Bannon who, whether you want to admit it or not, changed America forever. Donald Trump took Bannon's agenda and claimed it as his own (although, you will never have Trump admitting that).

“Star Wars" director Rian Johnson deletes 20,000 tweets after James Gunn's firing

Well, if James Gunn did it...

Yes, after Gunn attempted to delete controversial tweets last week, but was caught in the process, Hollywood is, to put in simple terms, in total freak-out mode. It's panic in la-la land as artists try to erase their past on Twitter and Facebook. That is what happens when you give social media blabbermouths all the power in the world to wreak havoc and censor anything and everything deemed "un-pure."

“The Last Jedi” director Rian Johnson has followed in Gunn's footsteps and deleted 20,000 old tweets, probably because he doesn’t want to risk being on the Twitter community's neverending hit-list. Don't you just love how these, supposedly, "progressive" times now include Marxist-like, hell even Robespierre-like, witch-hunts to demean and destroy people whose beliefs, even if uttered more than a decade ago, aren't aligned with your own? People like Gunn and company have been stripped of their chance to, like any human being should strive for, progress as an individual. Gunn and many others before him have been turned into pariahs because of something childish they may have said in the past.

Hell, what does that say about President Obama, who in 2008 said “I believe that marriage is the union between a man and a woman,” or how about Hilary Clinton, who around the same time as Obama's quote,  exclaimed “I think a marriage is as a marriage has always been, between a man and a woman.” Are they not allowed to progress? Will the speeches they gave in which they said those things about gay union be deleted from existence?

Distributed by Netflix, Orson Welles‘ Upcoming “The Other Side of the Wind" Could Change Cinema and The Way Stories Are Told

I do know this aboutOrson Welles‘ The Other Side of the Wind - When it will premiere at Venice next September, the reviews will most likely mention how odd of a narrative collage it is. 

A few years before embarking on "The Other Side of the Wind," Welles had made "The Immortal Story," a 60-minute made-for-French-TV oddity.  Before that, he was coming off the trifecta of "Touch of Evil," "The Trial," and "Chimes at Midnight." What many fail to realize was that, at this phase in his career, Welles decided to radicalize himself and push the boundaries a little more. A sort of radical, Godard-ian phase for him. Which could explain why so many failed and/or unfinished projects resulted after "Chimes of Midnight," Wells wanted to reinvent cinema, but he was sure how and he wasn't sure who would give hum funding for such experimental ventures. He did manage to squeeze a film out of this radical phase, his last one, in fact, 1974's "F For Fake.""The Other Side of Hope" was supposed to be the other.

Last May, an Indiegogo campaign was launched to help complete Welles' final, but unfinished, film. The six-year shoot of "The Other Side of the Wind" was plagued by budget cuts, troubles in production, casting and other legal issues.  It remained unfinished at the time of Welles’ death in 1985. 

Netflix took on the task and nabbed the global rights to the film, the deal implied that they were to finance the completion and restoration of "The Other Side of the Wind."

Director Rian Johnson attended a special screening of the film [Vanity Fair], claiming he had seen a 117-minute edit  twice. A screening in Santa Monica, California, on January 16, 2018 with Quentin Tarantino, Alexander Payne, Paul Thomas Anderson, and other VIPs, who "were all gobsmacked."

"As a Welles fan, this movie lands so hard," Johnson said. "On a style level, it's cut in a way that feels slightly beyond where we are now. It's got a very fast, collage-like feel. This movie keys directly into what's grand and tragic about (Welles') later years. It taps directly into the fuse box of that tragedy. I've seen it twice, and I need to see it a dozen more times."

The synopsis of the film is as follows: "The film covers the 70th birthday party of movie director Jake Hannaford, who is struggling to make a commercial comeback. It opens with Hannaford's death just after the party, and mostly focuses on the night before his death. We also see extracts of Hannaford's daring new film-within-a-film, The Other Side of the Wind. As we learn more about Hannaford at his party, the audience realises that he is a far more complex character than he seems, and harbors several big secrets."

"The film presents a cynical portrait of Hollywood in the 1970s, parodying the passing of the studio system, and the experimental new film-makers of the new Hollywood, as well as mocking successful European directors such as Antonioni. It was shot in a variety of different styles—color, black-and-white, still photography, 8mm, 16mm and 35mm film, all rapidly intercut together, and was planned as a collage of these different styles."

A source on HE: “Orson had a feature script. He shot that movie, infamously, over a period of years. Then he fine-cut the 42-minute version. Then he got busy, got distracted and then died. The 42 minutes were scenes from different parts of the story. The 42-minute reel is famous because its cutting style is so radical — Orson was trying to reinvent editing and shooting styles, as collage.

“The only thing I can compare it to would be parts of JFK, decades later, where Oliver Stone and Bob Richardson were intercutting lots of film stocks and jumping around, to keep you off-balance.

“The footage has two styles — (a) the cutty, jumpy documentary style, which follows the characters, and (b) the movie-within-the-movie, which [offers] a very composed, beautiful, landscape type of photography, sort of mocking Antonioni. But none of this is secret. The footage has been circulating for decades. The script has been published. So this radical style has been known forever.

“The editing team has cut the remaining uncut footage, doing their best to follow the two editing styles which Orson already established. The result is pretty seamless. It is very definitely of the time — it feels very early ’70s experimental. A hint of what he was going for would be in his other film from this era, F For Fake, which is heavy on collage. Orson called it an ‘essay film.’ If you watch that movie, you’ll get a sense of what Orson was up to. He was trying to throw out the rules and reinvent things.

10 years later: “Step Brothers" and why it was the end of an era for comedy

Back in 2008, Will Ferrell was coming off back-to-back critical and box-office disappointments with "Semi-Pro" and "Blades of Glory." Never one to be counted out, the popular comedian decided to re-team with John C. Reilly for his next movie. There were clearly comedic sparks happening between the two of them, what with the infectious chemistry they displayed in 2006's "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby." It was inevitable that they would team up again for another comedy. 

In Adam McKay's absurdist salute to immaturity "Step Brothers," Ferrell and Reilly played the ultimate man-children as Brennan and Dale, two 40-year-olds who seem to act like authentic 12-year-olds. Mary Steenburgen and Richard Jenkins played their frustrated children. 

Lest we mention Adam Scott stealing scenes as Brennan's self-aggrandizing, but more successful brother and Kathryn Hahn, as this was the movie that forever immortalized her into the comedy time-capsule. It now feels like an almost prophetic statement on today’s epidemic of stay-at-home millennials, except "Step Brothers" was released 10 years before this concerning phenomenon.

“Movies are such a controlled medium,” said New York magazine critic David Edelstein. Step Brothers is an exception to that rule. “I think what it represents to me,” the writer added, “is a kind of improvisatory freedom that you rarely see on screen.”

And what improv! Watching "Step Brothers" you feel as though almost every joke was created on-the-spot, as the cameras were rolling, and, yet, it efficiently works, as a kind of this-is-how-you-should-do-it guide to improv moviemaking. In other words, McKay, Ferrell, and Reilly gave Christopher Guest a run for his money.

Greeted with mixed reviews (55% on Rotten Tomatoes, and 53 on Metacritic), the film nevertheless garnered top box-office money ($100M domestically). Still, the way critics beat up on the film, with Roger Ebert giving it 1.5 stars and famously saying, "When did comedies get so mean?" nobody in their right mind foreshadowed the inevitable fanfare the film would garner on home video and TV.

The repetitive cable airings have proven to be very beneficial for "Step Brothers," Rolling Stone had a famous re-evaluation of the film, The AV Club had it as the 21st best comedy of the aughts, Complex ranked it as the 13th best comedy of ALL TIME, but most impressively, a BBC poll of 177 critics had it ranked as 64th greatest comedy of all-time and 7th best of the aughts. Not too shabby for a film that was the whipping boy of the critical community during the summer of 2008. Hell, the film can even count Marion Cotillard as a super fan.

Oddly enough, ever since "Step Brothers," things have drastically changed in Ferrell's career. The comedown has been harsh with  "Land of the Lost," "Anchorman 2" "Get Hard" "Daddy's Home" (which I liked) "Daddy's Home 2," "The Campaign," "Casa de mi Padre," and "The House" (which I also liked) almost all bombing critically and commercially. Maybe one, or some, of these will have a shelf life like other Ferrell classics such as "Old School," "Anchorman" and "Step Brothers" did back in the 2000s.

EW's Chris Nashawaty has a theory behind the Ferrell comedown:

"The kind of arrested development, clueless blowhards he specializes in were really a product of the early-to-mid 2000s. It was a great mode of comedy, but I wonder if it became a bit too male, too Hustler-in-the-tree house to keep perpetuating. I am just spitballing. However, I wonder how this movie would be received in 2018. What do you think?"

"Step Brothers" was "the apex of a now-debased comedy form. White Man-Children Who Totally Heterosexually Love Each Other were all over the 2000s, thanks in no small part to Ferrell and Step Brothers producer Judd Apatow. And because a significant voting minority of Americans decided that a petulant man-child joke should be president, it’s fair to say that this movie would feel outright assaultive if it hit theaters today. Like, the mid-credits sequence of Step Brothers features Ferrell and Reilly beating up a bunch of children. It’s goddamn hilarious, but I dunno, it feels like that kind of aggressively, encroachingly NC-17 comedy has lost favor.

I guess we were all making very different jokes ten years ago.

"Correct Mr. Nashawaty. Ever since "Step Brothers”, we've had a very strange shift in Hollywood comedies. Just try to compile a list of the funniest films this decade. I can barely come up with ten: "21 Jump Street," "This is the End," "Bridesmaids," "Neighbors," "Game Night" "MacGruber," "The World's End" and, a personal guilty pleasure, "That's My Boy.") 

Did Hollywood cut down on the number of comedies made this decade or has the social media zeitgeist made it practically impossible for a comedy about an arrogant, white man-child, like Ferell's character in "Step Brothers" or really in any of his films, survive the restraints of political correctness in Hollywood.

Shane Black's “The Predator" Undergoing Re-Shoots, Again.

According to Production Weekly, Shane Black's "The Predator" is set to" undergo additional photography on July 28 and 29."

Listen, reshoots do happen. It doesn't mean the film is in trouble, but this upcoming 2-days of additional photography sure does cut close to the film's September 12th release date. It also doesn't help that the film has had a history of reshoots and rewrites.

“The Predator” was originally scheduled for release March 2nd, 2018, then pushed back to February 9th, then pushed forward to August 3rd and now the release seems to be September 14th. Why the flurry of date shifts you ask? Well, we finally have our answer. The film's entire third act was rewritten.

Actor/comedian Keegan-Michael Key stars in the film and told Cinema Blend in an interview that rewrites and re-shoots happened:

“We just finished [reshoots] last week, and just about three-quarters of the third act was rewritten,” Key said. “And Shane Black is… he’s just a consummate professional, and a consummate writer. He’s a wordsmith! It was a really, really exhilarating experience, and I think that he’s still one of our most vibrant writers of cinema.”

Black is coming off the success of "The Nice Guys," which brought him back to "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang," buddy cop mode. Before that he was struggling to attain creative freedom for "Iron Man 3," but that film did end up becoming one of the more pleasant entries in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (and a Christmas classic as far as I'm concerned).

Black started off his career as a 27-year-old whiz-kid screenwriter, writing the screenplays for films such as "Lethal Weapon," "The Last Boy Scout," "The Last Action Hero" and "The Long Kiss Goodnight."

Netflix Looking to Dominate Awards Season With Impressive Fall Lineup

Netflix does not usually do theatrical runs for their films, but their fall lineup is so stacked with awards contenders that they have decided to go the theatrical route this coming fall. 

Yes, Netflix will be launching a theatrical campaign this October, November, and December (via Kristopher Tapley from Variety) for Paul Greengrass’ “22 July” (October 16), the highly-anticipated “Roma,” from Alfonso Cuaron (December 14), the Coen Brothers’“The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” (released sometime in October or November) and, Orson Welles' “The Other Side of the Wind” (November 2). 

Those are just the movies that were selected for Venice and Toronto, but the TIFF and Telluride lineup have still not been completed and there's still plenty of room for these other Netflix contenders:

David Mackenzie’s “Outlaw King,”  Morgan Neville’s “They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead,”  Jeremy Saulnier’s “Hold the Dark” and a new untitled Noah Baumbach film. 

All of this before the grandaddy of all Netflix movies, maybe the most anticipated movie of the whole decade, Martin Scorsese's "The Irishman" starring Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, and Harvey Keitel, is released next year. Although, I'm hearing whispers here and there that Netflix might even attempt to squeeze it in for a release this December, in order to qualify for Oscar consideration, their fall lineup is more than enough to launch an awards campaign. 

Especially with Cuaron's "Roma" being the best-buzzed film of any this festival season.

"As IndieWire’s Anne Thompson noted earlier this week, Netflix’s theatrical plan for “Roma” is one of the big question marks of the upcoming Oscar season. Sources close to Netflix told IndieWire that a 70mm theatrical rollout for the movie has not been finalized yet, and its festival screenings are an open question as well. Toronto International Film Festival artistic director Cameron Bailey told IndieWire this week that “Roma” would most likely screen at the festival in 4K, though its Bell Lighthouse would be equipped to utilize the Dolby Atmos sound mix."

Netflix's and Coen's “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs" is actually a 132 minute feature-length film, to compete at Venice.

Joel and Ethan Coen‘s "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs" is no longer a six-part Netflix anthology series? At least that's what Variety's Kris Tapley is saying, implying that it is actually a feature film using an anthology structure.

Did the Coen's con Netflix? Did they just tell Netflix, as Jeff Wells is saying over at HE, “Sorry, guys, but that western anthology series we sold you on, that six-segment concept that might’ve run somewhere between three and six hours…sorry but we prefer the idea of a feature film with a six-chapter structure.”

Up until today, we did not know the six seperate segments that make up "Buster Scruggs" were half hour each. The Venice Film Festival annoucned its lineup today and, lo and behold, "Buster Scruggs" is listed as being 132 minutes.  Tapley is hinting at a possible new Best Picture contender.

Joel Coen: “We’ve always loved anthology movies, especially those films made in Italy in the ’60s” — i.e., RoGoPaG — “which set side-by-side the work of different directors on a common theme. Having written an anthology of Western stories we attempted to do the same, hoping to enlist the best directors working today. It was our great fortune that they both agreed to participate.”

I wrote earlier this week: "It is quite thrilling to see all these great directors make the switch to TV. The last few years, legendary directors such as Martin Scorsese, David Lynch, David Fincher, Woody Allen, Steven Soderbergh, Spike Lee, Todd Haynes, and Ridley Scott have made the switch to television."

"Last we heard from Joel and Ethan Coen was in 2016 when they released "Hail, Caesar" a film which I desperately need to re-watch considering I didn't think much of it upon release. As far as those kind of off-beat, "light" comedies the Coens are known to release in between their darker dramas, 'Caesar' felt a little flat, in other words, it didn't reach the levels of "The Big Lebowski," and "Burn After Reading," it was more in line with their lower-tier stuff such as "The Ladykillers," "Intolerable Cruelty," and, as much as I thought it was a 'watchable' affair, 1994's "The Hudsucker Proxy."

The six segments are describe on Wikipedia as follows:

(1) “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” — The story of a singing cowboy named Buster Scruggs (Tim Blake Nelson);

(2) “Near Algodones” — A high-plains drifter whose own fecklessness dogs his attempts at bank robbery and cattle driving, costarring James Franco, Ralph Ineson and Stephen Root;

(3) “Meal Ticket” — The story of an actor and impresario of a traveling show;

(4) “All Gold Canyon”– A prospector (possibly Tom Waits) happily finds a gold seam but then unhappily finds an evil encroacher;

(5) “The Gal Who Got Rattld” — The story of two trail bosses on the Oregon Trail and a woman on the wagon train who needs the help of one of them and who might be a marriage prospect for the other, w/ Zoe Kazan and Jackamoe Buzzell; and

(6) “The Mortal Remains” — Five very different passengers find themselves on a stagecoach to a mysterious destination w/ Tyne Daly, Saul Rubinek.

Venice Competition announced: Best lineup ever? Guadagnino, Coen, Leigh, Cuaron, Assayas, Audiard, Greengrass, Chazelle, Schnabel, Reygadas, Lanthimos and more

The fact that Cannes had a unique way of selecting their lineup this year, what with the Netflix boycott and the fact that they refused to select films by some prominent directors, which they deemed not good enough, Venice is either taking their scraps or have found themselves with an absolute goldmine of cinematic heaven.

Films that were supposed to be at Cannes by the likes of Assayas, Audiard, Cuaron, Greengrass, Guadagnino, Leigh, Nemes, Reygadas and Welles will all take part in the Venice festivities. Oh, and lest we include premieres from Chazelle, Coen, Morris, Schnabel, Zahler, Cooper, Wiseman and Tsai Ming-Ling.

Suffice to say, now I'm thinking of going to Venice.

Of course, this lineup can't only come with positive reaction, there is a backlash occuring because of the lack of female filmmakers in competition. Only Jennifer Kent is there.  Venice festival head Alberto Barbera defended the the lack of women in the lineup:

“Putting another film in the main competition just because it’s made by a woman, from my point of view, that would be really offensive for the director,” Barbera tells The Hollywood Reporter in Rome. “I would prefer to change my job if I would be forced to select a film only because it’s made by a woman and not on the basis of the quality of the film itself.”

“As I’ve said many times in the past, the best way to see a film is watching it without reading the credits. I don’t want to be influenced by the filmmaker. I don’t care if it’s a woman or a man,” he says. “My job consists in deciding if it’s a good film or not, and if a film is better than another one.”

“Of course if I see ROMA I know that it’s made by Alfonso Cuaron. If I see a film made by Jennifer Kent I know Jennifer Kent made the film. We watched Nightingale because we knew the filmmaker was a promising talent and so on,” he says.

“But when we see a first feature coming out of the blue from I don’t know where, when we’re looking at the quality of the filmmaking, I don’t care if it’s a man or a woman. I just care because it’s a good film,” says Barbera. “Of course I would be happy to have more females in the festival, but it doesn’t depend on me.”

“We can’t do anything about that. What can you do about that? I would be happy to say oh, I have an equal number of films made by men and women,” says Barbera. “This will happen in the future.”

Competition 

First Man – Damien Chazelle (opening film) 
The Mountain – Rick Alverson 
Non-Fiction – Olivier Assayas 
The Sisters Brothers – Jacques Audiard 
The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs – The Coen Brothers 
Vox Lux – Brady Corbet 
Roma – Alfonso Cuaron 
22 July – Paul Greengrass 
Suspiria – Luca Guadagnino 
Werk Ohne Autor – Florian Henckel Von Donnersmarck 
The Nightingale – Jennifer Kent 
The Favorite – Yorgos Lanthimos 
Peterloo – Mike Leigh 
Sunset – Laszlo Nemes
Nuestro Tiempo – Carlos Reygadas 
At Eternity’s Gate – Julian Schnabel 
Capri-Revolution – Mario Martone 
What You Gonna Do When The World’s On Fire – Roberto Minervini 
Freres Ennemis – David Oelhoffen 
Acusada – Gonzalo Tobal 
Killing – Shinya Tsukamoto

Out Of Competition – Fiction

Una Storia Senza Nome – Roberto Ando
Les Estivants – Valeria Bruni Tedeschi
A Star Is Born – Bradley Cooper
Mi Obra Maestra – Gaston Duprat
A Tramway In Jerusalem – Amos Gitai
Un Peuple Et Son Roi – Pierre Schoeller
La Quietud – Pablo Trapero
Dragged Across Concrete – S. Craig Zahler
Shadow – Zhang Yimou

Out Of Competition – Non Fiction

A Letter To A Friend In Gaza – Amos Gitai
Aquarela – Victor Kossakovsky
El Pepe, Una Vida Suprema – Emir Kusturica
Carmine Street Guitars – Ron Mann
Isis, Tomorrow. The Lost Souls Of Mosul – Francesca Mannocchi, Alessio Romenzi
American Dharma – Errol Morris
Introduzione All’Oscuro – Gastón Solnicki
1938 Diversi – Giorgio Treves
Your Face – Tsai Ming-Liang
Monrovia, Indiana – Frederick Wiseman

Out of Competitions – Special Events

The Other Side Of The Wind – Orson Welles
They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead – Morgan Neville
My Brilliant Friend – Saverio Costanzo
Il Diario Di Angela – Noi Due Cineasti – Yervant Gianikian

TIFF notes - Toronto Film Festival Lineup Includes ‘A Star Is Born,’ ‘Widows,’ ‘First Man’

I am, quite honestly, shocked that Steve McQueen's "Widows" and Barry Jenkins' "If Beale Street Could Talk" won't make it to Telluride this year. Both are alumni of the fest, especially Jenkins ( a former volunteer of the festival, who was the toast of the town back in 2016 with "Moonlight")

Canadian and International Premieres that are probably Telluride-bound: 

"Cold War," "Dogman," "First Man," "Non-Fiction," "Roma," "Shoplifters," "Can You Ever Forgive Me?" "The Front Runner," "The Old Man and the Gun," "What They Had," "White Boy Rick."

NOT going to Telluride because they are listed as World or International Premieres:

"If Beale Street Could Talk," "Widows," "Beautiful Boy," "A Star Is Born," "Burning," "Capernaum," "Everybody Knows," "Life Itself," "Sunset," "The Sisters Brothers"

Still possible for Telluride: 

"Peterloo," "The Other Side of the Wind," "Boy Erased," "On the Basis of Sex," "Happy as Lazarro," "Backseat," "The Favourite," "Mary Queen of Scots."

The full lineup can be found HERE.

The 43rd Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 6 to 16.


Michael's Telluride Blog has been an immense source of info.

Mike Leigh tackles the Peterloo massacre of 1819

Mike Leigh's "Peterloo" (Amazon, 11.9), has had a strange journey ever since it was, most likely, rejected by Cannes. Venice picked it up as a premiere, but a dark shadow looms all over this movie. Is it as bad as the rumors say it is? The trailer doesn't necessarily give you that impression, but it also doesn't announce a potentially rousing film either. This looks like the kind of film that Ken Loach consistently produces in his sleep.

Leigh's film is a recreation of the Peterloo Massacre of 1819, a clash between government officials and protesters which ended with 15 civilians being killed.  What originally started as a march of 60,000 citizens at St. Peter’s Field, to demand Parliamentary reform and an expansion of voting rights, turned into a police state bout of violence that still stings to this day.

Leigh's last film was 2014's "Mr. Turner," a biopic of artist J.M.W Turner. His stock has slightly tumbled over the last few years, although he still remains one of the greatest British directors of all-time. The director's indisputably great movies will always be, for me at least, "Secrets and Lies," and "Naked."

Yorgos Lanthimos' “The Favourite" to open 56th New York Film Festival

New York, NY (July 23, 2018) – The Film Society of Lincoln Center announces Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Favourite as Opening Night of the 56th New York Film Festival (September 28 – October 14), making its New York premiere at Alice Tully Hall on Friday, September 28, 2018. 

 In Yorgos Lanthimos’s wildly intricate and very darkly funny new film, Sarah Churchill, the Duchess of Marlborough (Rachel Weisz), and her servant Abigail Hill (Emma Stone) engage in a sexually charged fight to the death for the body and soul of Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) at the height of the War of the Spanish Succession. This trio of truly brilliant performances is the dynamo that powers Lanthimos’s top-to-bottom reimagining of the costume epic, in which the visual pageantry of court life in 18th-century England becomes not just a lushly appointed backdrop but an ironically heightened counterpoint to the primal conflict unreeling behind closed doors. 

New York Film Festival Director and Selection Committee Chair Kent Jones said, “The Favourite is a lot of things at once, each of them perfectly meshed: a historical epic; a visual feast; a wild, wild ride; a formidable display of the art of acting from Rachel Weisz, Emma Stone, and Olivia Colman, abetted by a brilliant cast; a tour de force from Yorgos Lanthimos. And… it’s a blast. We’re very excited to have it as our opening night film.” “It’s a great privilege to be showing The Favourite for the opening night of the New York Film Festival, which is a very special place for the film,” said Lanthimos. “I had a wonderful experience screening The Lobster at this distinct festival and I’m looking forward to sharing The Favourite with audiences in New York. I was envisioning this film for many years and eventually had a lot of fun making it.”

"The Favourite" is a Fox Searchlight Pictures release and opens November 23, 2018. 

James Gunn's Firing: ‘Guardians' Stars Chris Pratt and Zoe Saldana Condemn Disney; Petition to Re-Hire Reaches 200k Signatures

Over 200,000 people have now signed the petition for Disney to re-hire James Gunn. This petition is only the tip of what has become a full-on Hollywood push for Disney to re-hire the writer-director of "Guardians of the Galaxy."

“Guardians” cast members Zoe Saldana and Chris Pratt have taken to social media to condemn Disney for the firing of their director. 

“It’s been a challenging weekend I’m not gonna lie,” Saldana tweeted. “I’m pausing myself to take everything in before I speak out of term. I just want everyone to know I love ALL members of my GOTG family. Always will.”

Pratt decided to quote a Bible verse instead as his statement: “Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters. Let every person be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger.”

Dave Bautista, who plays the scene-stealing Drax in 'Guardians', tweeted Gunn was set-up via 'Cyber-Nazi crimes', probably referring to the man who revealed the tweets themselves, conservative pundit Mike Cernovich.

Saldana and Pratt don't necessarily mention Gunn by name, but the anger in their tweets nevertheless does seep through loud and clear. Whereas Bautista has gone full-attack in his defense of the director.

Alan Horn, Chairman of The Walt Disney Studios, had announced last Friday that they were cutting ties with Gunn after past tweets featuring lurid jokes about rape and Pedophilia resurfaced. 

Robert De Niro Rumored to Join Joaquin Phoenix in Joker Movie

Things are getting mighty interesting for the low-budgeted, Joaquin Phoenix Joker movie, which is being directed by Todd Phillips and produced by Martin Scorsese. According to Variety, it looks like Scorsese's old-school, cinematic muse Robert De Niro will join Phoenix in the movie, which is set to start production this fall:

"Robert De Niro is ready to do his first comic book movie. The veteran actor is in negotiations to join Joaquin Phoenix in Warner Bros.’ upcoming Joker stand-alone movie from The Hangover helmer Todd Phillips. Phoenix is portraying the DC Comics villain in a movie that is more moderately budgeted and darker than the studio’s other DC-based movies, known as the DC Cinematic Universe. Phillips is directing from a script he's co-written with Scott Silver (8 Mile, The Fighter). While plot details are largely unknown, the stand-alone is supposed to be set in Gotham City in the early 1980s."

"If a deal is made, De Niro would play a talk show host who is somehow instrumental in the Joker’s origin.

"The Joker stand-alone is being developed as no ordinary comic book movie. The budget is in the $55 million range, significantly lower than most comic book tentpoles that feature characters from Marvel or DC. And the stand-alone is said to be a character exploration as well as a drama, not a fight-fest. The project is due to begin lensing September in New York."

Ryan Reynolds wants to explore Deadpool's bisexuality in future films

Ryan Reynolds’ decision to have Deadpool’s pansexuality be known was a highlight of Saturday's San Diego Comic-Con.

I have absolutely no problem with Ryan Reynolds' desire to have the Deadpool universe, which he all but owns creatively at this point, to feature more LGBTQ characters. He even wants Deadpool's alter-ego Wade Wilson, a self-described pansexual, to show off that side of hiss sexuality in the near future. 

“I certainly think that this universe…needs to represent and reflect the world in very real ways,” Reynolds said when asked by a fan if future Deadpool movies will feature more gay or bi characters. “The great thing about Deadpool is that we’re allowed to do things that other superhero movies don’t necessarily do. It’s something that I’d love to see more of, certainly through Wade, certainly through this universe because it’s something that we’re building out more.”

If we can use the superhero genre for the betterment of society, then I'm all for it.

Coen Brothers Netflix Mini-Series, “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs,” to Compete for Golden Lion at Venice

Just as news broke of actor Bradley Cooper’s directorial debut, “A Star is Born” expected to have its world premiere, out of competition, at this year’s Venice Film Festival [Variety], festival insider Cédric Succivalli, a trustworthy source for festival news, just tweeted additional news:

“On top of the US titles @Variety has already announced, The Coen Bros, Rick Alverson, Brady Corbet and Julian Schnabel to Compete for the Golden Lion.”

The Coens? That’s right, those brilliant Coen Brothers are expected to premiere a mini-series titled “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs,” a Western anthology that they wrote and directed for Netflix. The film will screen in competition. Will we have the same "does it count as a movie?" debate as last year with "Twin Peaks"? I do expect, if it is any good, critics will not hesitate to put it on their year-end top lists.

It is quite thrilling to see all these great directors make the switch to TV. The last few years, legendary directors such as Martin Scorsese, David Lynch, David Fincher, Woody Allen, Steven Soderbergh, Spike Lee, Todd Haynes, and Ridley Scott have made the switch to television. 

Last we heard from Joel and Ethan Coen was in 2016 when they released "Hail, Caesar" a film which I desperately need to re-watch considering I didn't think much of it upon release. As far as those kind of off-beat, "light" comedies the Coens are known to release in between their darker dramas, 'Caesar' felt a little flat, in other words, it didn't reach the levels of "The Big Lebowski," and "Burn After Reading," it was more in line with their lower-tier stuff such as "The Ladykillers," "Intolerable Cruelty," and, as much as I thought it was a 'watchable' affair, 1994's "The Hudsucker Proxy"

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is a mini-series written, directed, and produced by the Coen brothers. It is a collaboration with Annapurna Television that consists of six tales. The series' cast includes James Franco, Zoe Kazan, Tyne Daly, Willie Watson, and Ralph Ineson. Tim Blake Nelson, Stephen Root, Liam Neeson and Brendan Gleeson. 

The full lineup for Venice is expected to be announced on Wednesday, and the festival itself will begin on August 29 with the screening of Damien Chazelle's "First Man."

“Equalizer 2" Impresses at the Box-Office

I seem to be in the minority when it comes to Antoine Fuqua and Denzel Washington‘s "Equalizer 2" which has earned a CinemaScore grade of A and topped the week-end Box-Office with a cumulative take of $35.8 million (the 2014 original had a $34.1 million opening). Oh, and my lovely significant other seems to be a fan of the film as well. So, in my "other world," people really do like this film.

I have to say, though, that I do have the critical community behind me on this film. Its 50% rotten score on RottenTomatoes and 49 score on Metacritic look about right to me.

My take of the film wasn't very kind: 

"Maybe "The Equalizer 2" is a film that, after all, just shouldn't take itself so seriously. At least the original showed a flawed, aging human being that retired from the game, character background that is nevertheless still thin but represents much better screenwriting than in this movie. In fact, it feels like Fuqua threw out the developments of the first installment and decided to tackle a different character, but still played by Denzel Washington and, While we're at it, let's stamp the movie with an "Equalizer 2" in its title and sell it as a sequel."

"Yes, the film represents a step back in the cinematic food chain. Even for a summer movie. Instead of insisting that what we're watching on-screen is nothing more than empty brain candy, Fuqua tries to turn McCall into a modern, self-serious superhero with a "specific set of deadly skills." 

1. The Equalizer 2 — $35.8M (Debut)
2. Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again! — $34.4M (Debut)
3. Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation — $23M ($91M Total)
4. Ant-Man and the Wasp — $16M ($164.6M)
5. Incredibles 2 — $11.5M ($557M)
6. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom — $11M ($384M)
7. Skyscraper — $10.96M ($46.7M)
8. The First Purge — $5M ($60M)
9. Unfriended: Dark Web — $3.5M (Debut)
10. Sorry to Bother You — $2.8M ($10.3M)

“Glass" Could be M. Night Shyamalan's Best Chance at a Major Comeback

You can hate on the guy all you want, but, at some point, M. Night Shyamalan was known as the guy that gave us "The Sixth Sense" and "Unbreakable." As far as I'm concerned, those two films justify his existence in the cinematic spectrum. "The Village" and "Signs" weren't half-bad either. Of course, following those, then we got "Lady in the Water," and "The Happening," two unwatchable films that signaled, maybe, the end of his career as the heir of Hitchcock/Spielberg for millennials. 

Ever since that streak of six films, with his signature style stamped on all of them, came to an end, Shyamalan has been dabbling mostly in Hollywood crap that has none of the carefully calibrated voice he created between 1999-2008: "After Earth," and "The Last Airbender" completely crushed his soul, I'm sure. And so, the last four films he had released by 2015 ("Lady in the Water," "The Happening," "The Last Airbender" and "After Earth") were some of the worst movies I have ever seen since becoming a film critic. 

These films greatly affected the latter part of his moviemaking career and his reputation as a major has-been. Why would a studio trust him with a big project ever again? They haven't since "After Earth." However, all of this seemed to have sparked a fresh new creative freedom in the director that none of us saw coming. 

He made his most "watchable" film in quite some times with 2015's low-budget creepfest "The Visit," a film that could creep you out and at the same time have you chuckling, it was a successful venture into uniquely original genre filmmaking. 

The real comeback, however, came last year with "Split" which had James McAvoy playing a man with dissociative identity disorder, he had 23 personalities with his body chemistry making him change at any moment to another voice. In "Split" this deranged man ended up kidnapping three women (Anya Taylor-Joy, Betty Buckley, Jessica Sula, and Haley Lu Richardson) and taking them hostage at his labyrinthine home.

"Split" ended with a major reveal, one that may have announced the beginning of a new phase for Shyamalan. A connection to his earlier work, more specifically "Unbreakable," which announced, quite possibly, a new phase for47-year-old old director. 

Here’s the official synopsis for "Glass":

"From Unbreakable, Bruce Willis returns as David Dunn as does Samuel L. Jackson as Elijah Price, known also by his pseudonym Mr. Glass. Joining from Split are James McAvoy, reprising his role as Kevin Wendell Crumb and the multiple identities who reside within, and Anya Taylor-Joy as Casey Cooke, the only captive to survive an encounter with The Beast. 

Following the conclusion of Split, Glass finds Dunn pursuing Crumb’s superhuman figure of The Beast in a series of escalating encounters, while the shadowy presence of Price emerges as an orchestrator who holds secrets critical to both men. 

This riveting culmination of his worldwide blockbusters will be produced by Shyamalan and Jason Blum, who also produced the writer/director’s previous two films for Universal. They produce again with Ashwin Rajan and Marc Bienstock, and Steven Schneider, who will executive produce."

Will Shyamalan mess up this new opportunity for a comeback?

“Glass” is set to be released January 18, 2019.

“Aquaman" Has A Trailer, But Will the DCEU Have Better Days Ahead of Them?

Is this part of the DCEU? Whether you like it or not, Geoff Johns is a major creative force, his decisiveness really started with Zack Snyder's firing from "Justice League." 

The Geoff Johns era will really start at the WB with "Aquaman," and "Wonder Woman 1984."

Directed by James Wan (“The Conjuring” “Insidious: Chapter 2,” “Furious 7“), "Aquaman" is a film of the utmost importance for the DCEU. Wan is no slouch and this could mean the beginning of interesting director partnerships for the superhero company, alongside Patty Jenkins and "Wonder Woman," and Matt Reeves' "The Batman."

“James has done an incredible job with his team,” spouted Warner Bros. film chief Toby Emmerich to EW this week. “The film is taking you to a different place and imagining the underwater world in a way you haven’t seen before.”

The cast includes Jason Momoa as Aquaman, Amber Heard as Mera; Willem Dafoe as Vulko; Temuera Morrison as Tom Curry; Dolph Lundgren as Black Manta; with Patrick Wilson as Orm/Ocean Master; and Nicole Kidman as Atlanna.

“Aquaman” opens on December 21, 2018.