HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON flies to No.1, SAW gets new owners, Russell Crowe joins an '80s remake, and More!
Plus: ELIO, BAD BOYS, BATMAN BEGINS, NASHVILLE & THE BLUE BROTHERS
How to Tame the Box Office
Live-action remakes of animated hits aren’t going away anytime soon, as How to Train Your Dragon topped the box office with $84M in the US and $123M overseas. Lilo & Stitch is also continuing strongly with a further $15M added to its haul, bringing its total to a remarkable $870M. Will it enter the $1BN Club this summer?
A24’s romantic drama Materialists, starring Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans, and Pedro Pascal, debuted with $11M… while Mission: Impossible: The Final Reckoning earned another $10M to bring its total to $512M globally… and Ballerina only mustered $9.8M in its second weekend, now pirouetting around $42M overall. I think the curtain is closing on that film.
Wan back to SAW, Pixar announce feline project, HIGHLANDER and SPIDER-MAN cast grows, and a former wrestler joins the ROAD HOUSE…
Blumhouse has acquired the rights to make more Saw films from Lionsgate, putting original director James Wan back in control of the long-running horror saga. Lionsgate will retain 50% ownership of the franchise.
Saw XI recently fell apart “due to significant disagreements among producers and between producers and Lionsgate regarding the film's direction”, so will Blumhouse resurrect that planned sequel, or attempt some kind of hard reset and start afresh?
Can this franchise even work without 82-year-old Tobin Bell as John Kramer/Jigsaw? No Saw film has ever been made without using his iconic voice at the very least. The series has already tried to diverge from the formula with Spiral: From the Book of Saw, but it’s never completely turned its back on what’s come before. The surprisingly successful Saw X was also predicated on taking place amidst the original “trilogy” made under Wan’s control.
With sci-fi adventure Elio blasting into the box office this weekend, Pixar also announced an animated cat movie from Enrico Casarosa (Luca) called Gatto.
Dave Bautista is joining the cast of Road House 2, alongside the returning Jake Gylenhaal.
Jon Bernthal will reprise his role as Frank Castle/The Punisher on the big-screen, as he’s joined the cast of Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Intriguing. Wouldn’t it also be fun if Charlie Cox appeared as Daredevil?
The remake of Highlander with Henry Cavill in the lead, presumably franchise hero Connor MacLeod, has hired Russell Crowe in an undisclosed role. It would make the most sense if he's playing the Sean Connery part of Juan Sánchez-Villalobos Ramírez, Connor’s friend and mentor. Please try a Spanish accent, Russ!
🚓 Trailer Spotlight: THE NAKED GUN
A full trailer for the new Naked Gun movie was released, showing a lot more of the tone and style of this direct sequel to the comedy trilogy that starred Leslie Nielsen as Lt. Frank Drebin. Here, the similarly deadpan Liam Neeson is playing his namesake son, who seems to be equally inept.
There are definitely some fun gags here, but I’m not sure the tone is working for me. It’s playing into the harder edge of what audiences perceive from Neeson, who’s now better known for the Taken films and similarly violent action movies. But moments when he’s clubbing someone with their own torn-off arms, or shanking a bank robber with a lollipop stick, just feel… off to me.
But I’m in my mid-forties and a huge fan of the OG Naked Guns, which played into the cosier 1970s TV series feel, with 1940s film noir overtones. It was born into a tougher post-Lethal Weapon world itself, but always felt like a throwback to simpler times. There was a playfulness and charm to Drebin and the cases he worked, which I’m not yet seeing in this new version. But it’s only a trailer.
I certainly hope it rejuvenates general interest in going to the cinema to have a collective laugh with strangers, as comedy’s had it especially tough in the past 15 years on the big screen.
🔎 Critical Lens: a prospector, some toys, a lady, a tramp, a geeky kid, a billionaire superhero, a ghost, two cops, and a lot of singers.
reviewed Pixar’s Toy Story 3 for its 15th anniversary (where is the time going?), The Blues Brothers for its 40th, Lady and the Tramp for its 70th, and kindly celebrated Frame Rated’s 10th anniversary with a look at his favourite screen performances since 2015.
Conall McManus went back 100 years to review Charlie Chaplin’s silent comedy The Gold Rush.
Dan Perrin reviewed Batman Begins for its 20th anniversary,
Evan Sharp reviewed Apple TV’s thriller Echo Valley starring Julianne Moore and Sydney Sweeney.
dug into Radiance’s new Blu-ray on Japanese supernatural horror The Tale of Oiwa’s Ghost.
Robert English reviewed Elio, the new sci-fi film from Pixar.
Jono Simpson revisited Michael Bay’s Bad Boys for its 30th anniversary.
reviewed Robert Altman’s classic Nashville for its 50th anniversary.
👀 What Have We Been Watching?
: “I recently watched the late, great David Lynch's Inland Empire for the first time and was absolutely blown away by many of its sequences. Lynch's ability to evoke feelings of disquiet are unparalleled here, especially given the fact that he shot the movie with a Sony DCR-VX1000 camcorder. In fact, the ugly camera footage somehow adds to the creepy experience tenfold, while still allowing for some beautifully ethereal moments along the way. Though I prefer the more conventional first hour of the movie, it's an unforgettable and stirring experience that makes me very grateful to know that I get to relive it again and again over the coming years, as I try to make more sense of its motifs and what they signify.”
: “Matt Wolf’s two-part documentary Pee Wee as Himself on HBO. It’s detailed, unsparing and heartfelt. Wolf works painstakingly with Paul Reubens, the artist and actor behind the iconic character, to create a transparent portrait of a man who was anything but. Reubens was deeply private even as he ambitiously sought greater fame and accolades, choosing to hide his queer identity from the world for the sake of his career. Reubens even hid the fact that he was dying of cancer from Wolf and the producers of the film, and never fully surrendered himself to being a subject in someone else’s project. But Wolf still manages to arrange their affectionately combative interviews alongside stunning archival footage and glistening nostalgic clips from Reubens’ career into a moving tribute to a true visionary. It’s a brilliant film- and not just for fans of Pee Wee’s Playhouse or Pee Wee’s Big Adventure.”