filmlover

There were definitely reports when this was first announced in late 2022 that it would be about the daughter of Hunt and Paxton's characters, which is presumably who the DEJ character was supposed to be. Who knows when they decided to drop that since they've been claiming this isn't a direct sequel. Might've been when it became clear that Hunt wasn't coming back (whether that was always the plan or they made an offer to her and she passed? We might never know).

Bad Boys: Ride or Die

I caught up on the whole Nelson Peltz interview. Somebody call the flop mess mop up Avengers, we need a cleanup on aisle 36.

It was baffling then and even more baffling now that this movie, of all things, was the launching pad for a hate campaign from a group of folks who obviously wouldn't be caught dead watching something like this in the first place. Clowns have no shame smh.

She's clearly comfortable with genre fare at this point, and seems to have a solid relationship with Universal (Lucy, the Sing movies, Focus-released Asteroid City). Can't blame her for securing the nice paycheck, especially when she's turning the dreaded-for-an-actress age of 40 this year.

ScarJo officially in talks. Scarlett Johansson in Talks to Lead New 'Jurassic World' Movie (hollywoodreporter.com)

We're never getting another season of this show lmao. Also: We've always known you were a saint Chris!

The long range forecast has it predicted for an opening between $12-22M and a $28-66M total. Will probably come down to the final marketing push + reviews as to which way it will go.

Disney just opened a Tron ride at Magic Kingdom last year. That more than anything else is probably why they're trying with the property one last time. Expect Evan Peters and/or Greta Lee to visit it around the time the movie comes out for the cross-promotion (and the all-expense-paid trip to Disney World).

I wonder if Universal has any concession plans for Twisters. Those could be almost as...creative...as The Dune Popcorn Bucket.

Since when? The Twilight movies and Snow White & the Huntsman were projects sold more on brand name than individual star power.

I'm almost surprised there hasn't been any attempt at continuing Casper as a big screen property in the nearly 30 years since the '95 movie, which adjusts to well over $200M today. Must be a theatrical film rights issue (I would assume Universal still has them but you never know) because one would do pretty well released around Halloween.

Very impressive number for Late Night with the Devil given it's an IFC release. David Dastmalchian, Box Office Superstar?!

My Ghostbusters showing yesterday was PACKED with families (as I predicted earlier based on what it was like seeing the previous two entries in the series on their OWs). That's clearly the main demo for the franchise at this point.

A- Dune: Part Two B- Kung Fu Panda 4 Mean Girls C Bob Marley: One Love C- Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire D+ Argylle

A lifeless sequel that clearly exists for no other reason than to further extend a franchise that no longer has any creative juice left. The jokes land with a thud, the plot is haphazardly assembled, and with the exception of McKenna Grace, the cast drifts through the movie stuck on autopilot (though I think I've come to the conclusion that Finn Wolfhard peaked as an actor when he was a child). There are a couple of solid moments here and there (most of them from the interaction between Grace and the ghost girl, though it's obvious the filmmakers wanted to take their friendship to a deeper level and chickened out), but otherwise, this just reinforces that this is a series that has overstayed its welcome long past its sell-by date. Which might have been 1984. C-

The Imitation Game is the only one of those listed above that stands out as being given the green light under dramatically different conditions today than it was a decade ago out of all those movies (although The Other Woman is an obvious Netflix dump now). Limited series is generally considered to be the way to go for projects like that these days.

Also I'm pretty sure No Good Deed will still be a cheap Screen Gems theatrical release even today. It just wouldn't star wildly overqualified actors for the material like Idris and Taraji.

Non-Stop is definitely a straight to streaming release a decade later, the "Neeson unofficially remakes Taken in a different setting" action subgenre dried up a while back. Or is conceived as a vehicle for another actor. Michael B. Jordan, maybe?

Wahlberg has never been a consistent draw and Arthur the King was pretty much dumped by the studio (given how long ago it was made, it's probably lucky it didn't go straight to streaming). It's no surprise it's not doing well.

MGM/Amazon are going all in on promoting Challengers and it doesn't come out for another month. Zendaya (along with Tom Holland) attended the BNP Paribas Tennis Open last weekend. If it flops, it definitely won't be due to lack of awareness.

A rather meh launch for Ghostbusters, which is bound to get hit hard next weekend (even with the Easter frame) between Godzilla x Kong arriving + taking over all IMAX/PLF screens. Hopefully now they'll take the hint the potential they dream of for this IP is clearly not there.

Neon's still waiting for that one project that will truly catapult them into the more mainstream conscious ala A24. Their only movies to make $20M+ in their nearly 7 year existence are I, Tonya (which also had renewed interest in that scandal to give it a boost) and Parasite, both of which had the benefit of being largely assisted by awards season.

Seriously. But it's not a shocking, certainly not in 2024, that those who claim to want to break the cycle are also actually the ones who continue to perpetuate it.