Tag: Movies

First Set Photos Drop from Upcoming Joaquin Phoenix Joker Movie, and Maybe There’s Hope for DC Yet

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For those who haven’t heard, the Clown Prince of Crime is going to get his own standalone origin movie next year, with Joaquin Phoenix set to play the lead role and Todd Phillips set to direct.

The movie isn’t scheduled to be released until October 2019, but we were already treated to a few interesting set photos this past weekend (h/t Just Jared) as well as a close-up of what a pre-Joker Joaquin Phoenix will look like:

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(His name will also apparently be “Arthur.”)

Let me just start off by saying that I am totally on board with Phoenix as the Joker. Not only is he a brilliant and extremely talented actor – seriously, he’s probably one of the very best alive at the moment – but he’s also just batshit crazy enough to pull off a performance that could actually rival Heath Ledger’s iteration of the legendary villain from The Dark Knight.

(Side note: Jared Leto has failed MISERABLY so far in the DCEU, like embarrassingly so. If you even try to defend his portrayal of the Joker in any way, you are plain wrong and we’re not going to be friends.)

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However, I’m not as sold on the director.

Todd Phillips, a guy known for making cheeky, frat-boy-humor comedies like Road Trip, Old School, and the Hangover trilogy, is going to be in charge of building the backstory for one of the most compelling, sinister, and vicious villains in entertainment history. Though many may not like to admit it, a large part of the Joker’s ubiquitous appeal is his truly perverse, malicious, and downright sociopathic nature, and any story focused on what made him that way is going to have to be quite dark. Is Phillips up to the task?

Fortunately, Scott Silver, who wrote 8 Mile and helped write The Fighter, is helping Phillips co-write the Joker movie. Not only were both of those films pretty excellent, but they also both feature main characters who are dealing with some pretty serious personal demons and unfortunate life circumstances which ultimately end up molding them into the person they eventually become.

OK. Fine. I’ll keep the faith that the two of them together can get the job done.

It was also reported back in March (h/t Screen Rant) that the movie would indeed be an origin story, showing the Joker’s – aka Arthur Fleck’s – demise as a failed comedian and the path he ultimately took toward a life of crime. This is derived from Alan Moore’s and Brian Bolland’s 1988 classic Joker tale The Killing Joke, easily one of the most dark and macabre (and best!) Batman graphic novels of all time. The alleged theme of the film is making me hopeful that the movie will be as “super dark and real” as Brendan Schaub (h/t Batman-News) said it was going to be during an interview last summer.

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If you still haven’t read this one, do so immediately.

What makes this movie even more interesting and appealing is the fact that it is truly a “standalone.” It will not be a part of the current DCEU, which is in a state of flux at the moment, and it will instead fall under a new banner at Warner Brothers which will focus more on origin stories and other spinoffs from the universe’s main entities going forward.

Back in December 2016 (h/t Hollywood Reporter), a future Gotham City Sirens movie focusing on Harley Quinn, Catwoman, and Poison Ivy was announced. The studio has also already confirmed a Harley-Quinn-centric Birds of Prey movie, and there’s potentially even another Harley solo movie being discussed as well. Each of those films will star Margot Robbie, who was excellent as the Joker’s main gal in Suicide Squad.

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We love you, Margot, and fortunately Warner Bros. does, too.

They will also be making a Batgirl movie, too, which makes a lot of sense considering Barbara Gordon’s pivotal role in The Killing Joke storyline. Hopefully, we could even start to see other awesome and super underappreciated characters like Nightwing and Red Hood – and, eventually, Oracle – finally make their way onto the big screen as well.

So wait…what about Leto, though?

As much as I would love for his character to fade completely into obscurity, it seems as though Warner Brothers is still going to give him plenty more screen time. As first mentioned by The Hollywood Reporter, Leto is getting another chance to be the Joker in what looks like a weird, edgy (and probably entirely unnecessary) romantic comedy with Harley Quinn, which is set to come out after the Suicide Squad sequel. (So, wait, we now have to see him at least TWO more times??!!) Fortunately, this was reported last summer with virtual radio silence on the topic since, so here’s to hoping DC scraps the idea entirely and sticks with the other much better projects in process. For now, though, it seems like Leto’s sticking around, at least in the main DCEU.

Regardless, at least it seems as though the first Joker movie set to come out has some pretty solid potential, and I’m now actually pretty excited to see the finished product. And as confusing as all the DC movie “announcements” have been over the past year or so, at least the gears are turning over at Warner Bros. and things no longer seem quite so dire for DC.

The untitled Joker movie is officially set to hit theaters on October 4, 2019.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Production Put on Ice; Is Marvel’s Future in Trouble?

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Esquire – In the wake of the Mike Cernovich-engineered firing of Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn, production has halted on the third film in the series. Preproduction crewmembers were let go and instructed to seek new work, according to The Hollywood Reporter:

One person characterized the production hold as temporary and more of a “regrouping” as Marvel and Disney look for a filmmaker to take on the third installment of a franchise that has grossed over $1.6 billion and made stars out of Chris Pratt, Dave Bautista and Zoe Saldana. “The timeline has been pushed out,” says a source. Disney never set a release date for Guardians 3.

OK, I think everyone just needs to stay the hell off Twitter. (And, as evidenced by Red’s most recent piece about J.D. Martinez, maybe Instagram, too.)

For those who aren’t up to speed: At the end of July, James Gunn, director and co-writer of the first two Guardians of the Galaxy movies, was fired by Disney (which owns Marvel Entertainment) after a series of offensive tweets from his Twitter account, which were posted a decade ago, were discovered by The Daily Caller.

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Upon first hearing the news, many people were outraged that Gunn would be punished for something he wrote almost 10 years ago. And before actually reading what he wrote, I’ll admit I was in that camp, too.

To be entirely honest, though, I’m now kind of on Disney’s side, as the things he said were just gross and not even remotely funny. (You can find the actual tweets by doing a simple Google search.) Gunn’s “apology” basically said that while he was sorry, he was simply trying to be a “provocateur” and make a name for himself through crass humor. Maybe, just maybe, that excuse could have worked for a 20-year-old avant-garde comedian, but dude you were like 42 at the time and made multiple references to violating young boys. The fuck?

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The star-studded cast of the franchise made an effort to save Gunn about a week later via an “open letter” to fans, stating that while they were “not here to defend” the offensive material Gunn was still a good guy and deserves his job back. But it was to no avail, as Disney pretty much immediately stated they’re most likely not bringing him back.

But I’m not here to debate the character of James Gunn. I’m here to discuss the fact that news broke this week that the third installment of the Guardians franchise is now on hold until further notice and what that means for the MCU going forward.

First and foremost, the Guardians movies are the friggin’ balls. Whether you’re a casual comic-book movie fan or a die-hard Marvel nerd, each of the first two movies were an extremely fun and fun-ny experience for pretty much everyone. In fact, they were two of the MCU’s biggest hits ever, with both Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1 and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 sitting comfortably within the top 10 in terms of the studio’s highest-grossing films of all time (h/t Entertainment Weekly).

The films provided a nice little career bump to already moderate-to-mega stars like Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Chris Pratt, and Zoe Saldana. Even more importantly, they introduced us to the wonders of Dave Bautista as an actor. (If you don’t agree that Drax is the best character in the series, and quite possibly the entire MCU overall, we might have problems. The guy is a freakin’ gem.) And above all, it provided the MCU with a nice boost in the middle of what was, in my opinion, a bit of a lackluster Phase 2.

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Seriously, he’s the best.

And that relates exactly to my next point: If Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is tabled for too long, or if a suitable replacement isn’t found for Gunn, what else does Marvel have in the arsenal for the long-term?

OK, sure, quite possibly the most important movie Marvel will ever make comes out next year, when we finally get to see the second part of the Infinity War story line. And, yes, Black Panther, which came out at the beginning of 2018, has technically been it’s most successful movie to date. Also, Spider-Man: Homecoming was pretty solid, too.

OK FINE. But what’s next?

Captain Marvel, starring Academy-award winning actress Brie Larson, definitely has some potential, and I’m actually pretty excited to see it next March. We also already know that Spider-Man: Far From Home is scheduled for a 2019 release as well. But after that it’s a bunch of “maybes” and “well, I guess we could do another Doctor Strange” chatter. (Please don’t, Marvel.)

The route most people are expecting Marvel to take would be to continue pumping everything into the Black Panther franchise, which seems like a pretty obvious move. I was a big fan of T’Challa and crew (especially Okoye, who is an absolute BEAST and has already become one of my favorite MCU characters), and I totally get it.

BUT let’s also not forget that sometimes when movies run too hot the first time around, oftentimes their respective sequels just can’t live up to the hype. The very same can be said for Spider-Man, but at least Marvel knows he has a much larger and more seasoned fan-base from which to draw a crowd.

A Black Widow movie has also been rumored, which could be cool. But after that nobody seems to know what Marvel plans to do after the Avengers finally hang ’em up for good.

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Will Natasha finally get her own solo movie?

To be fair, regardless of what happens down the line Marvel has had a pretty impressive run since their first foray into the movie industry back in 2008 with Iron Man. Very few studios, if any, can claim to have had as much success as the MCU has had over an entire lifetime, let alone its first decade. And if the MCU ultimately begins to fade into obscurity in the mid-2020s, I don’t think Feige & Co. should necessarily go home hanging their heads.

However, it will be interesting to see how they handle the situation with the Guardians franchise going forward as well as how they plan to keep the entire studio chugging along in the future. With a still-pretty-peeved cast – as evidenced by Bautista’s threat to ask Disney to release him from his contract if they don’t use Gunn’s script for the third movie – let’s hope it doesn’t get too difficult.

For now, we’ll all just need to continue to sit back and enjoy the ride for as long as we possibly can.

J.K. Rowling Confirms Big Fan Theory; I Now Somehow Love Harry Potter Even More

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JK Rowling apologised for killing Dobby the house-elf

MSN.com – J.K. Rowling has come out and revealed what her favorite Harry Potter fan theory is, and it’s quite something.

It seems dark theories do not put JK Rowling off, who has finally not only revealed her favourite fan theory but suggested it could quite well be plausible.

When asked by a fan what was her favourite one, the novelist replied: ‘Dumbledore as death. It’s a beautiful theory and it fits.’

(Full theory explained in MSN.com link above.)

If there’s anything I love more than my sports teams, it’s Harry Potter. (And I’ll bet my Ravenclaw keychain that Papa Giorgio and Joey Ballgame are right there with me, too.)

And if there’s anything I love more than those two things, it’s allegories or subtle, hidden metaphors in text that make the reader surmise the true meaning of what’s going on, right or wrong, which only adds to the whole experience.

(Yeah, this one is for my fellow bookworms, guys.)

This is exactly where fan theories derive from. And, yes, fan theories can be exhausting. It’s almost impossible to keep up with all of them, and half the time they are absolute fucking garbage.

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But I LOVE this one. And it only further proves just how deep the whole story goes.

First and foremost, Dumbledore is one of the greatest characters ever written. I don’t think this is a very hot take, and I’d say virtually all HP fans would agree. Truthfully, I’d look at someone who doesn’t like Dumbledore the same way I’d look at someone who doesn’t like dogs. Just don’t see how it’s even humanly possible.

I’ve learned more life lessons from Dumbledore than I have from either of my parents or any teacher I’ve ever had. (That is not meant as any disrespect toward my incredible parents; Dumbledore just spits the absolute truth.) And his death in the sixth book was an extremely trying moment in my life.

But no, really though. When he reveals to Harry the whole reason Harry was placed in Gryffindor instead of Slytherin was simply because Harry asked to be placed in Gryffindor, ultimately proving that the whole “where you derive from seals your fate” adage is a bunch of bullshit and that only you can determine your fate: BOOM. Mind blown. It’s not that I didn’t believe in that philosophy before, but hearing it from Dumbledore just reinforced it with the fury of a thousand suns and made me feel like I wanted to run full speed up the side of Everest.

“Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic. Capable of both inflicting injury, and remedying it.”

Oh! Talk dirty to me, Albus!

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The whole idea that he now represents Death is, as Rowling put it, truly beautiful. At first glance, associating Dumbledore with such a seemingly negative entity sounds a little off-putting. However, when you realize that Death is actually a very intelligent, gracious being that rewards those who are deserving of what they desire due to cunning and strong will, it TOTALLY makes sense.

To be clear, the theory does not state that Dumbledore IS the original Death in “The Tale of Three Brothers.” That wouldn’t make sense; the story was written way before Dumbledore was even born, and we already know he needed to obtain the Elder Wand from Grindelwald, proving that Dumbledore was not its creator.

I also love how Snape, Harry, and Voldemort fit so perfectly into the metaphor as well. The whole thing rings very similarly to the Tin Man, Lion, and Scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz, which is yet another classic allegorical tale that can either be viewed as a history lesson or simply enjoyed as a great work of art and entertainment.

So, for all my fellow HP fans out there who continue to yearn for more, hopefully this bit of news added a little flair to your Hump Day.

What do you guys think? What are some of your other favorite fan theories? Let us know in the comments below!

IT’S OFFICIAL! The 300s Will Be at Boston Comic Con Next Saturday!

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We’ve been talking about going to one of the northeast Comic Cons for years now, but its always either a tough date, the lineup is terrible, or we all just flake and bail on doing it. Not this year. The 300s will be headed to Boston Comic Con on Saturday, August 11th with Red and Papa G to nerd out, shoot some video, and hopefully get a wave from Amy Jo Johnson.

We’ll be looking for the best, worst, and weirdest cosplayers, interviewing anyone moderately funny, and hopefully getting a reaction out of the celebrity guests by bringing up their most obscure roles.

If there’s anything you think we need to do or see or you just wanna get in on the video tweet it at @The300sBoston and let us know!

 

The First Look at Tom Hardy’s Venom Leaked and I Am ALL IN

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It looks like the best Marvel villain not named Magneto is finally getting the treatment it deserves and I am all sorts of jacked up about it. I am declaring myself ALL IN, six months before it even comes out.

As a comic book nerd I am still angry about the absolute disaster Spider-Man 3 was with Eric Forman as Venom.

Don’t get me wrong, I love That 70s Show. Its a highly underrated sitcom, but holy hell who thought casting this guy:

to play the psychotic badass villain Venom was a good idea? The character that Wikipedia describes as:

“According to S.H.I.E.L.D., [Venom] is considered one of the greatest threats to humanity, alongside Magneto, Doctor Doom, and Red Skull…Venom was ranked as the 22nd Greatest Comic Book Villain of All Time in IGN’s list of the top 100 comic villains.”

I could handle Tobey Maguire as Spidey, but Topher Grace as Venom was just a bad fit from Day 1. But I digress.

When Tom Hardy was announced as the star in Sony’s latest take on the symbiote my nerdgasm could be seen from space. You knew Hardy would nail the darker, grittier tone that Sony was going for, but then rumors started coming out that you might not even see the Venom suit in the movie. Coupled with an ambiguous and underwhelming teaser trailer and I was a little nervous. But then this shit leaked last night:

My goodness. This isn’t Captain America where you had Chris Evans pack on some muscle and put him in the right costume or even the Hulk, which you can just CGI the shit out of. This was going to take some serious work to get it right, as we saw in previous iterations just how wrong it can go.

And they absolutely NAILED it.

October 5th cannot come soon enough. Full trailer below.

Its Official: Disney Has Bought FOX for $52 BILLION. So What Does That Mean for the Avengers and X-Men?

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Yahoo – After weeks of rumors, the deal is done — Disney will buy up large chunks of Rupert Murdoch’s Fox media empire for $52 billion. The list of what it won’t take is shorter: the Fox News cable channel, broadcast networks and Fox Sports, which are expected to spin off as their own business. The Disney conglomerate adds the Fox movie and TV studios (including big-name franchises like X-Men, Avatar,Alien and The Simpsons), it now has majority control of Hulu, cable channels like FX/FXX and more.

Thats Billion with a B. I’m always a little surprised when giant acquisitions like this actually go through with all the concerns around monopolies. Remember when DraftKings and FanDuel announced a merger last year? Well the United States government disagreed and basically nixed that entire deal. Whoops!

Now onto what everyone cares about from this gigantic deal; the X-Men are finally back under the Marvel umbrella via Disney. It remains to be seen what exactly Disney and Marvel will do with Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, but I am stoked for potential crossovers down the line (and maybe a Fantastic Four movie that doesn’t blow goats).

Its probably a little too late in the game to expect any current X-Men to show up in Avengers 3 or 4 as they bring Phase 1 to an end. Sure, maybe there’s some easter eggs or brief cameos thrown in, but X-Men has a ton of shit already going on they probably need to handle first. There’s the upcoming “Dark Phoenix” movie with my girl Sansa Stark seemingly taking the reigns of the franchise as X-Men does a second take on Jean Grey’s Phoenix character, which they royally fucked up in X-Men 3. *shutters*

Phoenix is slated for a November 2018 release. I haven’t seen much about that one yet, but I’m a huge fan of the X franchise so I’m always juiced for a new one. They’re not always critically acclaimed, but they always do their own thing and take some chances rather than rolling out the same old storylines. They did an entire movie around time travel for christ’s sake in “Days of Future Past.”

There’s also the incredibly intriguing spinoff/horror movie “The New Mutants” coming out in 2018, which the director has already hinted at being a trilogy.

The one thing that does worry me about this acquisition though is Marvel hitting the wrap it up box on the current X-Men universe before rebooting them AGAIN.

Disney/Marvel was not shy about rebooting Spiderman and introducing a third Peter Parker in less than 10 years.

Granted, the GOAT X-Men Wolverine played by Hugh Jackman is allegedly retired from the game so people probably wouldn’t cry too hard if Marvel went in another direction with a new flock of mutants.

Also, good luck fixing some of the inconsistencies that already exist now that both studios are under one roof; most notably the fact that there are two Quicksilvers. One, played by Aaron Taylor Johnson who (spoiler) got gatted in Avengers: Age of Ultron.

Then there’s the FOX version of Quicksilver, Evan Peters, who is still alive and well.

So that character will either require some rickety duct tape explanation for being alive (and deciding which actor will actually play him) or he’ll most likely just get kicked to the curb, which is a shame.

I’m sure there are more of these inconsistencies as FOX owned the rights to X-Men, but not all of the individual X-Men characters, which is why garbage spin off shows with fringe mutants like The Gifted and Inhumans even existed in the first place.

All I ask is that the executives over at the Mouse don’t neuter Deadpool. It took years of Ryan Reynolds campaigning to get that movie made the way it was made and it was a goddamn mega-hit. Don’t fix what ain’t broke.

Now give me a Magneto vs Iron Man battle ASAP.

Brock Lesnar Possibly Playing Ivan Drago’s Son In “Creed 2”

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Yahoo – Remember when Rocky Balboa had to fight Thunderlips in Rocky III? Well, Sylvester Stallone might be resurrecting a similar storyline for the Creed sequel, aptly titled Creed 2, which follows the life and times of Adonis Creed, the fatherless son of the late Apollo Creed. Creed Sr., as you know, was killed by Ivan Drago in Rocky 4. “Sly” recently posted an image of him boxing former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar, who resumed his pro wrestling duties for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) a few years back.

Chalk this up to one of the true blue “sure, fuck it” moments of the sports and entertainment section of your life. Brock Lesnar, the mercurial WWF (Ya I said it, fuck you you nostaligia-stomping tree huggers in the World Wildlife Foundation) superstar, biggest “What if?” in MMA history, and part-time Canadian poacher, may play a supporting role in the never-dying “Rocky” series. Sly actually said in the above mentioned IG post that Drago’s son would be played by someone else but if he sees the reaction to this, would you be shocked if he changed his mind? I mean, Lesnar has the look (muscular, intimidating,…..blond) to play the part, and you don’t really need him to speak, i.e act so depending on how much this character is in the movie this actually could be perfect. so sure, fuck it, let Brock do it.

Really what I can here to blog (If Dougie actually publishes this one) though is that I know “Creed” got great reviews, I love Wallace Michael B. Jordan, blah blah – but seriously these movies need to end. Actually, can we cap the number of movies that can be made for any series not beginning with the word “Fast…” ? No more 15 Star Wars or 78 Avengers. A beginning, a middle, and an end. As God. Shakespeare, and Abraham Lincoln intended it. That’s a cinematic world I hope to some day live in.

X-Men Has a New Horror Movie Coming Out and I Am ALL IN

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What have we here? Aside from Deadpool, this is the first real X-Men spinoff/side movie, however you want to phrase it, to really go away from the core characters. Not to mention they seemingly have decided to go a completely new route with the horror movie feel this trailer’s giving off.

I am ALL IN. The X-Men movies in general have always been criminally underrated. X2 is really the only one I remember, and I guess Logan as well, that got any love from people.

The original legit started the whole comic book movie era that we’re still living in today. The first Spiderman with Tobey didn’t even come out for another 2 years after X-Men.

There is some hot garbage in there of course like the clusterfuck that was X-Men: The Last Stand, but this franchise has always been the one thats not afraid of trying new directions. I mean how many other films can take their core characters, and then make prequels about them in the 1960s using completely different actors and have it work? (X-Men: First Class)

And then take that already convoluted idea, and send them back in time? Because time travel always makes things easier to understand. (X-Men: Days of Future Past)

But hey it worked, which is why I’m down with X-Men dipping their toes into the horror genre. Plus you got miniature Arya Stark in there so sign me up.