Movie News

In today’s film news roundup, Denis O’Hare joins the cast of Mindy Kaling’s “Late Night,” Global Road and Participant make executive hires and the Mammoth Lakes Film Festival unveils its lineup.

Castings

30West and FilmNation Entertainment have cast Denis O’Hare, John Early, Max Casella and Megalyn Echikunwoke for Mindy Kaling’s comedy “Late Night,” directed by Nisha Ganatra.

The film also stars Kaling, Emma Thompson, John Lithgow, Hugh Dancy, Reid Scott and Paul Walter Hauser. 30West and FilmNation Entertainment are financing. Kaling wrote the script and is also producing with Howard Klein, alongside Imperative Entertainment and FilmNation Entertainment, which are also handling international sales. 30West and CAA are handling Us rights.

Thompson plays a late-night talk show host at risk of losing her long-running show right, when she hires her first female writer (Kaling) who revitalizes her show and her life. Principal photography has commenced in New York.

While at CinemaCon, we had the chance to sit down and talk to director Antoine Fuqua for his upcoming sequel, The Equalizer 2 and posed the question about tackling the comic book genre after making waves in the action and crime thriller genre. Fuqua said he was approached for Morbius: The Living Vampire at Sony as he's a Spider-Man villain primarily. Here's what he had to say:

Last year it was announced that Justice League star Jason Momoa has joined the cast of Just Cause, an adaptation of the hit video game series, which has Brad Peyton attached to direct.

Coming off the back of another video game adaptation Rampage, which opened in theaters around the world earlier this month, Peyton has provided an update on the film’s progress during an interview with Collider, as well as discussing why Momoa is perfect for the character of Rico Rodriguez, a.k.a. Scorpio.

“We’re working on the script. Jason Momoa, myself, and my producing partner, Jeff Fierson, have a show on Netflix, called Frontier, so we have a good working relationship with him, and he’s a really easy, good guy to work with. At this point, we’re just working on his character and we’re working on the script.

“The world has this fun tone.

In March 2017, Joss Whedon was brought on to write, direct, and produce a Batgirl movie for Warner Bros. In that same year, he also directed Justice League, Justice League was poorly received, and Wonder Woman surpassed the studio’s expectations to be one of the biggest hits of the year. In February 2018, he exited Batgirl saying he “didn’t have a story.” Some fans were outraged that he could be on the project for so long with no story, but that claim always had a ring of hyperbole to it. Now Whedon has provided a bit of clarification. …

Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely are franchise guys, and happily so. The screenwriters behind six Marvel Cinematic Universe films — including this week’s much-anticipated new release “Avengers: Infinity War” and its upcoming untitled 2019 sequel, plus all three “Captain America” films — first broke into Hollywood with their “Chronicles of Narnia” films, scripting three different franchise entries before the series sputtered out after 2010’s low-earning “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.”

While Markus and McFeely are no longer on the “Narnia” beat, the beloved C.S. Lewis series is still in the Hollywood mix, and rumors of a “Silver Chair” film adaptation have persisted since October 2013, when the film rights were purchased by the Mark Gordon Company (the original films were made by Walden Media). Screenwriter David Magee was set to write the screenplay, and director Joe Johnston came on board in April 2017.

In January 2016, producer Mark Gordon told Collider that “Silver Chair

“Avengers: Infinity War” marks the sixth time Scarlett Johansson has played Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow on the big screen, and it won’t be the last if the actress has anything to say about it. During an interview with Ellen DeGeneres, Johansson expressed interest in continuing to play the character and addressed the reports that Marvel is finally developing a standalone Black Widow film.

“I think there’s room for it,” Johansson said with excitement. “The only way to do it would be if it were something that we’ve never seen before that was really groundbreaking and incredibly badass. I think if anyone could make that happen my boss Kevin Feige could. He’s a visionary.”

“I think it could be something really special,” she continued. “Theres a lot of room there. The character has a tortured past, she’s had to make a lot of difficult decisions. She has a lot of trauma.

If the Academy send a press release in April it likely means new rules for Oscars. And today’s announcement featured a bunch that will affect not only the voting, but how studios campaign for the 91st Academy Awards. Oh, and it might conveniently increase the organization’s revenues too.

The biggest voting change is coming to the music categories. This year all members of the Music Branch will be eligible to view films vying for Original Score and film clips of eligible Original Songs in order to vote in a preliminary round.

Super-sized set pieces, sharp one-liners and surprising deaths abound in the Russo brothers’ colossal and utterly confident comic-book movie mash-up

Not infinity perhaps, but a really really big finity war. Colossal, cataclysmic, delirious, preposterous – and always surreally entertaining in the now well established Marvel movie tradition. It’s a gigantic showdown between a force of cosmic wickedness and a chaotically assembled super team of Marvel superheroes made more complicated by Doctor Strange’s tendency to multiclone himself in moments of battle stress.

There are some very unexpected family relationships that we had no idea about – potentially compromising unity in the face of encroaching evil. There are also some very surprising deaths – of which of course the less said the better. There are moreover some surprising omissions in the cast list. Or are there?

Las Vegas – When James Wan told the audience at CinemaCon that Warner Bros. made him show a sneak peek at his highly anticipated next effort, “Aquaman,” it prompted a light-hearted laugh from the crowd. But if you were paying close enough attention it was clear Wan wasn’t really kidding. And after watching the somewhat impressive preview you understood why. It truly was a work in progress.

The most polished scenes were the ones that featured our hero, Arthur Curry (Jason Momoa) aka Aquaman, on land or above sea (basically out of the water).

Mia Farrow expanded on the tumultuous year her children have had, revealing that she originally didn’t want her daughter Dylan to go public with her story of alleged abuse at the hands of Farrow’s ex-partner Woody Allen.

“I just wanted it all to go away,” Farrow said at the Time 100 gala Tuesday night. “I did not want to resurrect — it was a horrible chapter for all of us, but I also understood and respected that she needed to do that and she wanted to be part of the Me Too movement and have her voice heard.”

Dylan Farrow’s accusations against her father first came to light during Farrow and Allen’s split in the ’90s; she spoke about them for the first time publicly in 2014, and then wrote an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times in December 2017 questioning why the now-popular Me Too movement had left out Allen.

The once-mighty Warner Bros. is no longer the cock of the walk among major studios. (That’s Disney.) A year ago, after disappointing results, chairman Kevin Tsujihara installed New Line chief Toby Emmerich in charge of studio production. This January, he promoted Emmerich to chairman, presiding over not only production but worldwide marketing and distribution.

In other words, Tsujihara is letting his new studio chief sink or swim. That includes righting the DC universe, which has been decidedly hit or miss since the glory days of Dick Donner’s “Superman” and Tim Burton and Christopher Nolan’s serial cracks at “Batman.” Despite Tsujihara’s bold 2013 “Batman v. Superman” announcement, Zack Snyder proved to be no Kevin Feige. Now Emmerich has installed his “Conjuring” series producer Walter Hamada as DC president.

Introducing his first Warners presentation at CinemaCon, Emmerich looked nervous as he touted last year’s $5.1 billion global box office and blockbusters “Wonder Woman,

The Stx Entertainment presentation Tuesday night was a pleasantly relaxed affair, with chairman Adam Fogelson serving as an Mc more warm and capable than many of his major-studio cohorts. And when it came to Mark Wahlberg and Peter Berg presenting “Mile 22,” their latest guns-and-muscles drama, Fogelson knew better than to get in the way.

“We’ve had a few glasses of wine,” Berg announced as he came on stage with the film’s stars, who included Wahlberg, Ronda Rousey, Lauren Cohan, and Iko Uwais.

“His nipples are razor-hard and sharp,” said Wahlberg. “Maybe that’s why.”

“My nipples are hard tonight,” Berg replied. “I don’t know why.”

Fogelson looked at Berg, who seemed slightly disheveled in a gray polo shirt and jeans. “Didn’t you have a suit?”

“I had one,” Berg replied. “I don’t know where it is.”

With that, Wahlberg returned to his subject. “Hence the hard nipples.

Melissa McCarthy snorting ecstasy with a bunch of sex-crazed muppet castoffs was the foul-mouthed highlight of Stx’s CinemaCon presentation on Tuesday night.

“The Happytime Murders,” the film in question, seems certain to shatter quite a number of childhood memories and taboos, and presents the newbie studio with perhaps its best chance at major box office success. McCarthy produces and headlines the hard R comedy, which is directed by Brian Henson, the head of the Jim Henson Company and a puppeteer in his own right. Footage from the film featured puppets offering oral sex to McCarthy, cursing like teamsters, and, in one uproarious scene, ejaculating all over a dingy office. The whole thing makes “Ted” look like “Fraggle Rock.”

Since launching in 2014, Stx has struggled at times to find its footing. It scored with the “Bad Moms” movies and “The Foreigner,” but other pictures such as “Free State of Jones

“Black Panther” filmmaker Ryan Coogler has made no bones about his affection for fellow director Spike Lee’s sprawling filmography, including using a post-screening Q&A of his own boundary-breaking Marvel film to heap praise on both Lee’s “Malcolm X” and “Do the Right Thing,” and now the Brooklyn mainstay is returning the favor. During an hour-long conversation at the Tribeca Film Festival on Tuesday evening, Lee was asked by an audience member if he’d seen Coogler’s film and what he thought of it.

“I loved it! My brother, I’ve seen it four times,” Lee answered. (Lee just so happened to be in attendance at that same screening where Coogler named his most influential films, so we’ve long known he’d seen the film at least once.)

Lee continued, “I will say, I look at the world now differently, before ‘Black Panther’ and after ‘Black Panther.

Bradley Cooper’s screenwriting, directing, and onscreen singing debut has already earned raves from four-time co-star Robert De Niro. At CinemaCon on April 24, the first trailer for “A Star Is Born” had the National Association of Theatre Owners and their guests not only smitten, but also sensing an award-season contender. Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group chairman Toby Emmerich called Cooper’s three-year endeavor about musicians who pair up and reverse fortunes “extraordinary.”

Damn, A Star is Born looks powerful, I cannot lie. #CinemaCon

— Kevin Polowy (@djkevlar) April 25, 2018

First trailer for A Star Is Born gave me chills. Lady Gaga’s Hollywood moment is far from over. Music is phenomenal. #CinemaCon

— Crystal Bell (@crystalbell) April 25, 2018

Bradley Cooper introduced the first trailer for A Star Is Born. It’s obviously a passion project for him and that earnestness shows in the footage. Lady Gaga was really impressive even in a couple minutes of footage.

Tracy Morgan and Tiffany Haddish met at the very first table read for “The Last O.G.”

That’s what Morgan remembered, anyway.

“That was not the first time we ever met,” Haddish said.

“It wasn’t?” Morgan said.

“No, the first time we met was at the Saddle Ranch in Hollywood,” she said.

At that, Morgan let out a loud, long “wow” — probably not remembering the exact evening, but knowing what kind of meeting Haddish was about to recount.

“By the end of the night, your shirt was off. You were dancing,” she said, as part of her response was drowned out by Morgan’s laughter and ever so slight embarrassment.

“You met that Tracy!” Morgan said. “[Back then] my publicist would call every week and go, ‘God damn it!’ Because every week, I was doing something crazy.”

Now, Morgan and Haddish are making a well-received TBS comedy, joining the network

“It: Chapter 2” will be even more scary than last year’s horror blockbuster, director Andy Muschietti promised Tuesday.

“Bring your adult diapers,” he told the audience at Caesar’s Palace in a video clip on the second day of the CinemaCon convention of the nation’s theater owners during the Warner Bros. presentation.

Though the studio showed no footage of the sequel, which has not begun shooting yet, it screened plenty of scenes from the original — which stunned the movie world with a $700 million worldwide gross. The sequel was dated a week later.

Stephen King’s 1986 novel focuses on a group of friends in a fictional Maine community that battles the small town’s demon as children, and then again as adults. The blockbuster movie centered on the children, while the upcoming film will follow them into adulthood.

Warner Bros. also highlighted its horror film “The Nun,” a spinoff movie

When Jason Momoa kicked off press obligations for his standalone “Aquaman” movie on April 24 at CinemaCon, Warner Bros. presentation host Will Arnett took a dry jab at the “Game of Thrones” and “Conan the Barbarian” vet: “Have you ever wanted to play a character who wears a shirt?”

Momoa will reprise his duel “Justice League” role as Arthur Curry/Aquaman in the latest film from Australian director James Wan. Co-stars Amber Heard (Mera) and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Black Manta) helped Wan and his five-time collaborator Patrick Wilson (Orm/Ocean Master) debut the first footage from the film, which resembled “The Little Mermaid” meets “Ready Player One,” and evoked “Black Panther” in its plotline. Half-human Curry must return to his underwater birthplace in attempt to seize power from his corrupt brother (Wilson). Along the way, he is aided by the hydrokinetic and telepathic undersea warrior, who happens to be a woman.

Decoding Westworld is a weekly podcast recapping the HBO original series Westworld. In this episode, Joanna and David discuss the Season 2 premiere, “Journey Into Night.” Be sure to check out Chris Evangelista’s recap and Joanna Robinson’s recap of this episode. Thanks for listening to this season of Decoding Westworld. Want to sponsor an episode? Leave […]

The post Decoding Westworld S2E01 – Journey Into Night appeared first on /Film.

Burbank came to Vegas today, as both Disney and Warner Bros attempted to wow exhibitors in their own patented ways at CinemaCon. Disney brought the movies. Warners brought the stars. Both played well in the desert, and especially with the mom and pop theater owners who eat this stuff up. In all my years attending WB’s “The Big Show” presentations here, I have never seen the sheer numbers of filmmakers and actors who boarded the corporate jet and hit the Colosseum stage…