Matthew Monagle
James Cameron Announces the Release Dates for the Four ‘Avatar’ Sequels
It’s been nearly eight years since James Cameron’s Avatar took the global box office by storm, and while it’s become très chic for some corners of the internet to endlessly bash Avatar, I still maintain my stubborn affection for Cameron’s movie. Very few filmmakers can create action-driven science-fiction that operates at Cameron’s level; just look at how many times people have messed up Cameron’s Terminator franchise, a near-flawless formula for blockbuster movies that studios have nevertheless run directly into the ground. We may laugh at Cameron’s planned sequels, but they are both original (technically!) and creator-driven movies. Isn’t that what we claim to want from Hollywood?
Watch Chewbacca ‘Disarm’ an Enemy in This ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ Deleted Scene
While Star Wars: The Force Awakens was an international smash hit, it wasn’t devoid of criticism. Some people felt that the film veered a little close to the storyline of the original Star Wars film; others felt that the family friendly action didn’t quite line up with the darker tone they expected from movies like The Empire Strikes Back and Revenge of the Sith. So to those fans, I offer you the above deleted scene (via i09) where Chewbacca rips out the arm of Unkar Plutt. It may be another throwback to the original movies, but at least it’s one with a little bit of bite.
Al Gore’s ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ Gets a Sequel Just in Time for Sundance
Al Gore is one of those people who gets me thinking about legacy. When Gore’s time on the earth comes to a close, how will he be remembered? As a solid vice president who lost one of the most hotly disputed elections of all time? Or as a champion of environmental conservationism? From the outside, it certainly appears that Gore is angling for the latter. Just this past weekend, it was announced by Paramount Pictures (via Variety) that Al Gore has been working on a sequel to his 2006 documentary An Inconvenient Truth and that the film was set to be the opening night film at next year’s Sundance Film Festival.
Sony Sets a ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming 2’ Release Date
File this one under ‘Least Surprising News Stories of the Day’: right on the heels of releasing the first trailer for Spider-Man: Homecoming, Sony has announced the release date for Spider-Man: Homecoming 2, proving that no title is so awkward as to prevent Hollywood from slapping the number ‘2’ on it and calling it a day.
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.
‘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.
Magic Can Fix Anything in the Latest ‘Fantastic Beasts’ Clip
The way I see it, I’m kind of the target audience for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. I’ve seen all of the movies but read none of the books, which puts me on a kind of level playing field with everyone else tackling J.K. Rowling’s original screenplay. Granted, a lot of people might know about the history of Newt Scamander or how the events of Fantastic Beasts fits into the Harry Potter universe as a whole, but I don’t mind being left out. I spent years of my adolescence being a Star Wars book snob; as an adult, it’s kind of nice to just be able to show up to a franchise and learn as you go.
A Whole Bunch of ‘Batman’ Is Coming to HBO in November
Between the epic run of Game of Thrones and the impressive first season of Westworld, odds are good that you’re currently rocking an annual subscription to HBO or HBOGo. Few networks are still in the business of appointment television, but with social media sites like Twitter exploding into a flurry of spoilers after each new episode of both shows, fans are finding that their only real options are to watch on time or to not watch at all. In fact, we can sometimes get so caught up in the flurry of long-form television that we forget that HBO has some pretty darn good movies, too.
Marvel Will Release a ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ Prequel Comic
While Tom Holland’s introduction as Spider-Man in Captain America: Civil War has to be considered a rousing success, perhaps our favorite part of the character was what we didn’t see: namely, yet-another origin story that puts him through the familiar paces of spiders, wrestling, and that old yarn about great power and great responsibility. Any self-professed Spider-Man fan knows Peter Parker’s history like the back of his hand; the fact that Captain America: Civil War was content to pick up the character’s life midstream bodes well for Marvel’s approach to the character in Spider-Man: Homecoming.
Tom Cruise Will Live to Be 1,000 in Biblical Epic ‘Methuselah’
Tom Cruise is not one for subtlety. After spending the last decade in peak physical condition and proving his prowess through a series of action films, the actor was seemingly worried that we still did not get the point of how impressive he is. So what does Cruise do? He signs on for Methuselah, a movie about a famous biblical character who lived over 900 years and was considered a great warrior and leader for almost all of them. Yes, Tom Cruise, we get the point. You’re amazing and will never actually die
‘Deadpool’ Director Tim Miller Leaves ‘Deadpool 2’
One of the biggest Hollywood success stories of the past few years was Deadpool, the R-rated superhero movie from 20th Century Fox. From dead in the water to surprise box office smash, Deadpool became a perfect parable for young filmmakers who have a story to tell and won’t let failure stand in the way of getting their movie made. Unfortunately, though, life doesn’t always adhere to clean narratives. Despite all the setbacks that Deadpool director Tim Miller faced along the way, it turns out there was only one thing that could cause him to throw in the towel: success.
Watch This Supercut of All Available ‘Rogue One’ Footage
It seems like the only time that people talk about trailers is to complain about them in some fashion. They gave away too much, they gave away too little, they didn’t feature the right colors or characters or soundtrack. It’s tough to cut an enticing movie trailer in 2016, not least of all because of our culture’s increasing hand-wringing about what constitutes a spoiler. A good trailer — one that gives you just enough without giving you everything — should be celebrated as its own miniature art form.