By George Robbins
As of late, there have been many production companies that have been doing their best in order to try and get their production crews back out in the field to continue on with their filming that they had to postpone. At the same time that movie theaters in the U.S. shut down, Hollywood as a whole shut down movie productions all over the world in order to help prevent spread of the coronavirus. There were productions going on all over the world that have been greatly affected by the shut down and it will take some time before they can truly get up to speed to resume. Before any productions are allowed to resume in any other countries, there is a 2-week grace period for quarantine to make sure no one on staff has it. Then, and only then, are they allowed to begin working on their productions again.
James Cameron wanted very much to restart production on his second ‘Avatar’ film and this became very much within the realm of possibility back in May when New Zealand announced no new cases. In order to resume production, the cast and crew had to fly out to the country and spend two weeks in isolation in order to ensure that no one had the virus. These precautions were put into place in order to prevent the outbreak from occurring in the country again and to allow the production crews the necessary freedom they will need to shoot the film. Without the guarantee that people will not end up being sick in some way, there would be no way to make the film without restrictions in place. These restrictions would cause nothing but trouble and could completely change the movie itself.
Among the places that have such restrictions in place is the U.K., who have started to allow production crews back into the country to allow them to resume filming. In the U.K. the rules for the two week quarantine must be put into place in order to prevent spread of the virus among the crew who are working there. It seems, however, that the seventh upcoming film for one of the longest action franchises, ‘Mission: Impossible 7’ will be able to resume filming with special exception to the quarantine rule. This rule is in place for people from foreign countries, but if a film or television production is considered British, they can resume filming without the quarantine. This seems to be more of a loophole since they are taking advantage of British Film Institute classifications to continue working.
Even though this might be seen as something akin to a loophole, it applies very specifically to cast and crew who are only there for film and television productions. Their goal was to start up production again by September, but now that they will be able to start working as soon as they get there, they may start sooner rather than later. By saving two weeks of production time, there is a good chance that they are simply trying to keep the release on schedule as much as possible to prevent an even bigger delay than they already have. They will be starting filming with outdoor scenes first which gives them more opportunity to play around with the restrictions for interior shots which could help the film. The movie was supposed to have a release date some time in July 2021, but when the pandemic started they had to move the theatrical release date to some time in November of 2021.
By George Robbins
There are countless monster movie icons that exist in the world, but the giant monsters are the ones that have made the biggest resurgence over the last few years. Of those giant monsters, the ones that are known by most are Godzilla and King Kong due to Legendary’s MonsterVerse that they’ve concocted. The idea was to create a universe where the giant monsters from Toho’s original monster movies could find their way to the big screen in a more modern age. There were many types of shared universes that companies have tried creating over the past decade or so with many just not really going anywhere. Out of those universes came the MonsterVerse crafted by Legendary Pictures, and although they only have three films released as of now, it is very successful.
Although there are only a few movies to have released thus far, there have actually been a large number of monsters that have been introduced to the MonsterVerse. With the most recent ‘Godzilla: King of the Monsters’ movie they introduced a very large number of monsters to the universe. For those who paid attention during the credits, there have also been a number of monsters that weren’t seen on screen that exist in that universe that were revealed. In the last film, it has become a fact that Gozilla has solidified his place among all of the monsters in the world as the alpha, but according to source material outside of the movie, Kong doesn’t listen and does whatever he wants. This creates the question as to whether Godzilla will remain the king when it comes time for the two of them to fight one another.
There have been a number of announcements over the last month or so in regards to the upcoming ‘Godzilla vs Kong’ such as the fact that the film has secured its PG-13 rating. On the not so bright side side of news in regards to the film, the studio decided that they were going to delay the film due to the rise in Covid-19 cases as of late. Instead of premiering the movie in November as intended, they changed the new release date to May of 2021. This isn’t all that surprising considering everything else that is happening, but it does mean that we will have to wait a while longer before we can watch the titanic show-down. The question is why the two titans would end up coming up against one another and if they are really the only two monsters in the film.
Although the title of the movie suggests that it is a fight for dominance between the titular monsters, there is a good chance we will be seeing other monsters involved somehow. It has already been spoiled by the toy lines that at least two other kaiju will appear in the movie alongside the titular titans. One of those monsters is another Toho original, Mechagodzilla, and a wholly original monster by the name of Nozuki. There is no explanation as to just what roles they will have in the movie, but it is clear that there will more than certainly be multiple combatants taking part in the fight for control. All we can do now is wait and see for sure when more information becomes available in regards to the movie.
By George Robbins
Sony’s ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse‘ was, from the moment it released into theaters, a film where there was a unanimous love for it. The story of the film pulls some inspiration from the comics that it was based off, but it also tells a story that is wholly unique. There are not many movies nowadays that can say that they have managed to captivate audiences with a new and original plot. Beyond just the story of the film though there is the look of the film itself and it looks extraordinary due to the amount of time and effort put into the film. There was a lot of time put into making this animated movie, and now we have a film where every single shot looks like a moment from a comic book.
Despite the fact that there are multiple Spider-Men existing in the same place at the same time, it really isn’t overwhelming because of how it was done. Every character in the film is given sufficient backstory which helps those who don’t know the characters in understanding what worlds they are from. They also do an excellent job of demonstrating throughout the film that no matter what universe they are from, they will almost always be the same. Even though it is a story which features so many different characters, we know immediately who the protagonist is and we know that it is really his origin story as a hero. All of this combined is what made the movie so incredible to watch and still keeps the movie interesting even if you want to watch it again.
Not too long ago we found out that Sony had started up production for ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse 2’ and that we will see the film release possibly within 2 years from now or maybe a little over 2 years. The first movie was absolutely incredible in terms of the animation and the comic book feel gives the movie its own identity. Not only is the style unique to the story, but the fact that each universe has its own unique style within the movie just shows the effort that they went through to make the movie its own thing. The producer for the upcoming sequel, Christopher Miller, has said that the next film will have animation more incredible than the first film’s.
Given how well they did with the first film, it is incredibly difficult for them to be able to create a film where the visuals are even better than they were the first time around. What it really means for the film’s visuals to be better is pretty much unknown at this point and it won’t be until we see a trailer for the movie that we’ll understand the meaning behind that statement. That is the moment we will be able to judge whether or not what he said was true. In the meantime, we have a lot to look forward to when the movie comes out and hopefully it ends up being as great as advertised and we get something as great or greater than the first film.
By George Robbins
As many of us all know by now the nation is still suffering in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic which is responsible for changing the daily lives of everyday people. Not only is it responsible for the changing of people’s daily lives, but also many different forms of industry. One of the industries to have some of the biggest issues at the moment is the entertainment industry and more specifically, the movie industry. There have been a good number of times that we have already spoken about the numerous issues being faced by the movie industry. Things such as the massive delays for films and the reaction that movie theaters are having to the increasing delay time are all tenuous at the moment. Studios are having pretty much daily discussions at this point about what they should do about their movies’ theatrical releases.
With the newest surge in Covid cases as of late, most studios at this point have moved their film releases into late August, September, or even some time later this year/early next year. At this point, the decisions that studios are having to make must be done on a regular basis because things just keep seeming to get worse recently. Many companies are taking hits in constantly moving around dates like this, but if they release at the wrong time, they stand to lose a good portion of the value the movie would be worth otherwise. Among the companies that have had to move things around to accommodate for the current climate is Disney. Disney now owns so many properties that they almost constantly have movies coming out throughout the year. This has become an issue as of late since they have had to delay their films.
Disney was getting ready to release their live-action version of ‘Mulan‘ when the pandemic hit with another movie, ‘Black Widow,’ meant to be releasing in late April. Instead, ‘Mulan’ was pushed back to late July and now it has been pushed back to late August with a good chance that it could be pushed yet again to September. ‘Black Widow,’ on the other hand, had a significant delay that set the theatrical release date back to November of this year. The actual presentation of movies has been a topic of discussion that has stayed in the air for months now. On the other hand, movie productions have been in talks to resume for many different movies so long as they are following the new filming guidelines put in place. One of those movies is Marvel’s upcoming ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings‘ which will be resuming production at the end of July.
The upcoming film is another introduction to a brand new character that will appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe for the Phase 4 movies they have lined up. This is a character that hasn’t really existed outside of the comic book medium and it gives a chance to put another character in the spotlight. Disney’s Marvel Studios being able to resume production will mean that they might not have to really delay as much as they anticipated or even have to delay it at all. Thus, there is at least a little bit of good news going the way of the studio and hopefully in the not too distant future we will get to see a film that shows us what the character will truly be capable of in the MCU.
By George Robbins
The movie sector of the entertainment industry has been dealing with a lot these past few months, and it doesn’t seem like it will be getting any easier. Countless movies were given massive delays until their full theatrical releases due to the coronavirus pandemic. Due to the movies being delayed so heavily, movie theaters haven’t been able to have a proper reopening because they need to have new films to even attempt to properly draw audiences in. Then, the fact still remains that they have restrictions in place that sees them having to limit the occupancy of any and all theaters tremendously to maintain the social distancing policy. This has all resulted in a terrible climate for movies that are trying to release and the theaters that want to show those movies.
Although that aspect of the industry is not doing so well right now, there is still good news that we are seeing in other parts of the industry as of late. Many movies, although having to follow strict guidelines, have started their productions back up or they are in the process of doing so. Also, even though most theaters are not open, Fandango has made it easier on the general public to interact with the theaters by launching entirely new services to help people find what they are looking for. Some of these services include a locator to see what theaters are currently open nearby and also offers the ability for people to purchase contact-less tickets where no one actually has to interact with one another. Then, on top of these things is the individual news we are discovering about upcoming movies such as ‘Jurassic World 3.’
The upcoming end chapter of the ‘Jurassic World’ trilogy which is aptly named ‘Jurassic World: Dominion’ sees the world after the end of the second film ‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.’ For those that haven’t seen it yet, Spoilers ahead. The end of the movie sees all of the dinosaurs that were rescued from Isla Nublar- the original site of ‘Jurassic Park’ and ‘Jurassic World’- being released from captivity. This has given them all free reign to run wild all over the place with no restrictions and has essentially returned dinosaurs to the world. Spoiler End: No one is quite sure how the upcoming movie will play out as no plot details have really been revealed as of yet. All we now know is that the original cast from the first ‘Jurassic Park’ trilogy will be making their return in the upcoming film.
Sam Neill, the actor who portrayed Alan Grant in the original ‘Jurassic Park’ and ‘Jurassic Park 3’ will be returning to reprise his role in the upcoming film. He has since announced that not only will he be returning to his role from the films, but also Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum will be returning as their characters from the first few films as well. Not only will they be appearing in the movie as Neill also said that they will actually have major roles in the upcoming film and play those roles throughout the entirety off the film. For many fans of the original trilogy, this is very exciting as we only ended up with a cameo from Jeff Goldblum in ‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’ and he was never seen again throughout the rest of the film. So now, we have something to look forward to in the upcoming film and we will get to see those characters and their current roles in that universe.
By George Robbins
Movie theaters really are having the worst time right now due to the lack of new movie releases ever since restrictions have been lifted enough for theaters to reopen. Many places have started allowing theaters to reopen their doors with restrictions that limit the overall number of people that can occupy a theater at once. This stacked on top of the lack of new film releases kind of ruins any kind of incentive for people to go to the movies other than leaving the house. Even that isn’t that much of an incentive because there are other activities available to people now than going out to see old movies that they can pay just as much to rent at home. With this in mind, it is no wonder that most theaters only want to really reopen around the time there will be new releases.
Among the movie theater chains there is no guarantee nowadays as to when they can open up their locations since it seems trouble keeps brewing on the horizon. AMC was meant to reopen their theaters in the middle of July, but they have since announced that they will be pushing back the reopening date by at least two weeks. Given the fact that new films such as ‘Tenet’ and ‘Mulan’ have been pushed back due to the surge in new virus cases, they have had no reason to open up at this point in time. The moment that at least one new film becomes available for theaters to show, there will be enough incentive for theaters to properly open up. This is why it appears as though theater reopenings are chasing after film release dates.
Reportedly, studios are starting to worry over whether it is even a good idea to release movies over the course of these next two months. There are films such as ‘No Time to Die‘ that were meant to release back in April that have had their release dates pushed very far back to the last couple of months during the year. This seems to have been the better bet as the number of cases is now increasing once again which makes it kind of difficult for companies to stay open. If there is a high risk that movie theaters are just going to end up shutting down as soon as they open, then there is no point in releasing films because it wastes time and money and could ruin the overall release of a film. This is becoming more and more apparent to movie studios that know that these coming months are going to be full of tough decisions.
The danger has become so clear that even movies scheduled for September or later like ‘The Conjuring 3‘ are going to have a rough go of things. There is no telling if even those films will keep their release dates because the entire industry is in a sort of panicked state where no one really knows what is going on right now. This has caused companies like Warner and Disney to re-think their delay plans and they may just end up delaying their film releases again to September. At this point, the industry is working to figure things out on a day-to-day basis because that is the basis that people are watching the spread of the virus on. It is still very dangerous out in public and it seems like they are acknowledging that to some degree by re-thinking their release dates.
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