Matthew Monagle
Check Out Willem Dafoe’s Terrifying Original ‘Spider-Man’ Green Goblin Mask
While plenty of fans hold Sam Raimi‘s Spider-Man film close to their hearts, it’s probably fair to say that the costume for Willem Dafoe‘s Green Goblin hasn’t aged particularly well. Given the dynamic costumes for the current generation of Marvel villains - including Frank Grillo‘s Crossbones, Cate Blanchett‘s Hera, and plenty more - Dafoe’s Green Goblin seems a little bulky and a lot campy, not unlike a Power Rangers villain that wandered out of his franchise and somehow ended up in the Marvel universe. It certainly gets the job done by the standards of the day, but rewatching scenes from that film suggest that the studio had a missed opportunity to do something a little more memorable with the character.
Early Buzz Suggests Critics Are Going Bananas for ‘War for the Planet of the Apes’
If we’re lucky, a few times each year we’ll be treated to a $100 million blockbuster that manages to wow critics and audiences alike. This was the case with Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, which managed to pull in both a 90% on RottenTomatoes — normal caveats about RottenTomatoes aside — and grossed over $700 million at the global box office. When Hollywood finds just the right balance of magic and money, we catch a glimpse at the potential of the right filmmaker with a ton of money at his or her disposal. It’s what has so many fans excited for War for the Planet of the Apes. Can Matt Reeves and 20th Century Fox team up for a second incredible blockbuster movie?
Watch ‘The Mummy’ Cast Film That Zero-g Sequence in This 11 Minute, 360 Degree Feature
Most cinephiles have heard that old Gene Siskel chestnut about a movie needing to be more interesting than a dinner table conversation between its stars. I would like to add the following qualifier to that adage: any Tom Cruise movie should be more interesting than a behind-the-scenes interview on Cruise performing some of the film’s biggest stunts. Cruise’s attention to detail for action sequences is legendary, and while I may not have enjoyed The Mummy, I’ve honestly had a blast watching Cruise talk about the filmmaking process in every video that Universal Pictures has released.
Colin Trevorrow Went Back to the Books for ‘Jurassic World 2’s Ian Malcolm
Whether you are someone who loved or hated Jurassic World when it first hit theaters, there’s probably something we can all agree on: the movie needed itself some Jeff Goldblum. Goldblum’s Ian Malcolm — mathematician-turned-dinosaur-expert-turned-intellectual-action-hero — is one of the standouts of both the original Jurassic Park film and its sequel, and the news that Goldblum would be returning for Colin Trevorrow’s sequel was a welcome one. Goldblum may not have been enough to save Independence Day: Resurgence, but its a quantifiable fact that all movies are better with a little bit of his signature ‘ums’ and ‘ahs.’
Judge Declares a Mistrial in the Bill Cosby Rape Case
For years now, America has been struggling with the allegations that Bill Cosby — once a beloved television father and comedian — may have used his position in Hollywood to commit a series of violent sexual assaults. For those unfamiliar with the timeline involved in the Cosby case, I would encourage you to check out ABC’s detailed recap of everything that led up to this past month’s trial, including the civil cases brought against the actor-comedian and the Hannibal Burgess joke that is widely regarded as the instigating event in bringing these accusations to the public. And today, as noted by Deadline, a Norristown, PA jury has forced the judge to declare a mistrial in Andrea Costand’s case against Cosby.
Film Production in Cuba Is on Hold Because of the Trump Administration
While most fans walked away from Universal’s Fate of the Furious impressed by the movie’s use of New York City, it was the film’s use of Cuba that really opened the eyes of American audiences. Back in April, Variety sat down with Fate of the Furious director F. Gary Gray and discussed what it was like to be one of the first major studio films to be shot on location in Cuba. Gray recalled several logistical challenges — hotel rooms, location shoots, and the like — while also complimenting the people they had met on their trip. By all accounts, Fate of the Furious was to be the film that opened up the Cuban film market to the broader Hollywood community.
Watch Charlize Theron Cut Loose in These ‘Atomic Blonde’ Clips
As excited as we are for this summer’s Atomic Blonde — you can read our own glowing review from this year’s SxSW if you still need a gentle nudge — you’d think we’d be all over every new piece of footage from the movie. But it seems a few clips managed to slip through our fingers this past week, so I’m taking this opportunity to bring you back up to speed. Two new Atomic Blonde clips, each themed to a piece of period-appropriate music? Plenty of Charlize Theron kicking [expletive] and taking names? Yeah, that’s definitely worth circling back a little bit for those of you who may have missed these clips.
Antonio Banderas Gives His Best John McClane Impression in the ‘Security’ Trailer
Look, we all know that there’s a moment for every movie. Sometimes you want to watch the challenging documentary about a group of people struggling against a broken system; sometimes you want to watch the award-winning foreign film that exposes injustices in another country. And sometimes, just sometimes, you want to watch the movie where Antonio Banderas plays a mall cop who shoots a bunch of bad guys in the head. We may not be able to help you with the first two, but today? Today we’ve got enough Banderas goodness to make your Sunday just a little brighter.
Violence Erupts at the Algiers Hotel in the First ‘Detroit’ TV Spot
Every major historical movie comes with a choice. Do you go seek the true story behind the film’s events in an attempt to be well-read prior to its release? Or do you embrace your ignorance — albeit temporarily — in order to ensure the sanctity of the cinematic experience? It isn’t difficult to find in-depth literature about the film; Wayne State University Press recently re-released The Detroit Riot of 1967, a first-hand account by the former aide to the Detroit police commissioner who now serves as the Dean of Public Affairs at the University of Michigan. In many ways, Kathryn Bigelow’s Detroit seems to be setting a historical precedent for the abuse of power stories we see in every city across America.
A New ‘Sin City’ Television Series Is on the Way
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but Sin City is about to become a television series. Back in 2013, Bob Weinstein of The Weinstein Company made headlines by saying that his company had plans for a television series set in the Sin City universe that would bring back both Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller in some capacity. And while that didn’t exactly pan out the way that the Weinsteins hoped, that project was apparently more asleep than dead, because the news broke today that The Weinstein Company has all their ducks in a row for a Sin City series.
Lucasfilm Didn’t Have a ‘Mapped Story’ in Place Beyond ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’
With all the new pieces in play in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, it sure seems like Lucasfilm is setting the Star Wars universe up to go somewhere special. Once Kathleen Kennedy and company made the decision to blow up the preexisting Star Wars canon, we watched firsthand as they began the process of stitching together a new continuity. There were Star Wars books explaining the events that followed Return of the Jedi, new television shows that wove together the old and new trilogies, and even video games fleshing out some of the new planets and species we’d seen in The Force Awakens.
Here Are Your Major Cannes Film Festival Award Winners
Even by its normally prestigious standards, this was a pretty exciting year for the Cannes Film Festival. Surprise selections, an atypically fun jury, and countless debates about Netflix and the future of film exhibition all combined to make headlines all around the world. Oh, and there were also a handful of the most highly anticipated films of 2017 receiving serious recognition from the festival. You know, no big deal.