By George Robbins
Countless issues continue to arise due to this outbreak of the novel coronavirus and will continue to do so for awhile moving forward. One of the most affected industries to be inconvenienced by the pandemic we are currently wading through is the entertainment industry. In the entertainment industry one of the most monetarily lucrative parts of it, namely the movie industry, has been affected horribly by this. What I mean to say is that the industry is at a standstill for the most part with very little being done productively. There is no way for movies to be presented to people right now with theaters shut down other than releasing them straight to VOD.
Some movies have already been released straight to VOD and they are selling quite well on that platform. However, for good faith between production companies and theater companies, as well as the prospect of making more money, some companies have decided to delay their film. This covers what is happening to movies that have already been made and are just getting ready to be shown to the public. There is still the issue that all movies and television shows have had to halt their production and won’t be able to start up again until around the times most theaters reopen their doors. This creates an entirely new set of problems for people to deal with in the industry.
With filming productions currently halted, there are many who simply want to get back to work on sets all over the world. However, much of the world does not have plans for relaxing the rules of the lockdown in order to allow filming again. There are some places that do plan on allowing productions to start up again soon with one of them being the state of Georgia. Georgia state has started reopening businesses a few weeks ago with restrictions in order to try and get the economy back on track. So now that businesses have been opened for a little while, they are making plans to allow filming to start up again. This is, however, not without new guidelines in place to keep people safe during the pandemic.
The guidelines which will be in place during the filming of any shows or movies is similar to ones that must be followed by any businesses. These guidelines include things like temperature checks, masks, and the most poignant rule to date, social-distancing. On sets, crew members will be forced to adhere to these rules, less crew members will be allowed to be present, and an Occupational Risk Prevention employee must remain present at all times to see if they adhere to the policies. While not filming, actors must keep masks on, they must bring as much of their own wardrobe as possible, and they must adhere to the distancing policy. These guidelines have been discussed many time until now, and it seems they will actually be going along with this set of rules after all. Productions will be allowed to begin again in Georgia on July 8th.
By George Robbins
With not much else for us to do during this pandemic, we don’t really have much of a choice but to wait for new content to release. This pandemic has got everybody annoyed by the fact that they can’t go out and properly enjoy what the world has to offer. That doesn’t mean that there is absolutely nothing to do, though it does mean that we have a lot of stuff to wait for. As of now, some new movies have been released straight to VOD, while most movies have had their release dates pushed back to accommodate the reopening of most theaters. This will give theaters a small chance to recuperate, but only if people are confident enough in the industry to go back out there. Hopefully things can soon be fixed before theaters are forced into bankruptcy.
Theaters have now been shut down for nearly two and a half months and most don’t plan on reopening their doors to the public until the beginning of July. While it is a good thing that theaters have a plan in place, it isn’t helping them now to pay their expenses. They may not be open, but they still have plenty of expenses that need to be accounted for so that they can eventually open their doors for the public again. It is very unfortunate that we will not be getting any new movies a a little while longer, but that doesn’t mean we can’t start getting hyped up for those movies now. This is being shown by a series that has generations of fans by this point and that is ‘Godzilla.’
Specifically, I am talking about ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’ which is supposed to release later this year in November. It is currently one of the few movies slated for release this year that was not affected by the pandemic due to it having such a late year release date. In order to get people more excited about the monster on monster violence that will ensue, Legendary Pictures is going to be dropping graphic novels for the public as supplemental reading materials for the upcoming movie. They have done this with the other MonsterVerse movies that they’ve done thus far as well with one graphic novel to supplement each film. This time they are going to be supplementing their upcoming film with two novels.
The first novel that Legendary mentioned they would be releasing was one that shows Godzilla’s perspective as the guardian of the planet. Next, the second novel will focus on the perspective of a female pilot and will feature King Kong. These two novels are meant to serve as the prequels to the monster smack-down that we will be witnessing when ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’ drops into theaters. Hopefully, if people still aren’t frequenting theaters as much by the time the film releases, people will be excited enough to go out and see it. People need to be safe, but they can try and have fun while doing so to keep themselves sane.
By George Robbins
Marvel Comics have become the basis for numerous stories that have been told over the years and have given the public a lot of entertainment. While a lot of the credit for popularizing comic book movies usually goes to the first ‘Iron Man’ film, the Sam Raimi ‘Spider-Man’ films did a fairly good job at that as well. ‘Spider-Man’ has become something of a staple in the Marvel franchise of movies and this is something that is not bound to change considering how important ‘Spider-Man’ is to Marvel as a whole. Although Disney is responsible for the inception of the newest Spidey films ala Marvel Studios, it is Sony that has the rights to the ‘Spider-Man’ character and franchise.
Sony has recently been living it up with the character because the Marvel Studios films have been doing so well. On top of that, they produced the massively popular ‘Into the Spider-Verse’ film which did very well critically and financially. So, it makes sense that they would want to expand upon the universe of the character that they have so much invested into. This resulted in them hiring director S.J. Clarkson to become the director for a new ‘Spider-Man’ spin-off film that will feature a female character as the main character of the film. This is in line with them wanting to set up backgrounds for all of their characters in the collective ‘Spider-Verse’ franchise.
Sony Pictures has two more films releasing that will give us background on new characters in the webslinger’s comic book universe. Those films are the upcoming ‘Venom’ sequel, ‘Venom: Let There Be Carnage,’ and ‘Morbius.’ Now, Clarkson has the opportunity to make a film unlike the others by directing a female-led spin-off that could give us a character like Madame Web taking the spotlight. For those unaware, Madame Web is the character who was originally the first Spider-Woman in the comics. This would definitely make the character enter the limelight and would give a platform for even more lesser known characters that could expand upon the ‘Spider-Man’ universe.
By George Robbins
Edgar Wright is a director who is known, at this point, for his quirky style of directing and the well done movies that are made as a result. Wright has always included hints, trivia, and other visual easter eggs throughout his films that make them all the more entertaining. One film of his that was filled to the brim with these sorts of things was ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.’ This film is full of content that viewers will sometimes only notice after a few viewings and it is always enjoyable to watch even multiple watch-throughs later. This movie is one that has a relatively simple plot, but complex characters that can make anyone invested in it the moment they start watching it.
‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’ was first released to the world through theaters in 2010. When the movie first released, it was considered a box office bomb, despite the fact that the movie ended up receiving mostly good reviews. The reason it was considered a bomb was because, on a budget of $60 million, it didn’t even make back $50 million at the box office after it released. Despite this fact, the movie would go on to receive something of a cult following due to how well done the movie was. For both the directing style of the movie and the acting skills of all those involved with the film, the movie easily became a film that people fell in love with.
The movie was based off a comic of the same name which may have been a reason that it didn’t do so well in theaters. Its growing popularity over the years has made it possible for Edgar Wright to do things like announce the fact it will be making a return to theaters for its 10th anniversary. It was originally meant to go back into theaters in August, the month it originally released, but with the coronavirus pandemic causing havoc on release schedules, he has had to change that plan. He still wants to show the film in theaters soon, but he will have to wait a little longer than anticipated.
By George Robbins
So with all this craziness going on in the world, people are trying to figure out what they are doing with their lives. While some people are finding more things to do outside, at a safe distance from everyone else, others are waiting for more things to become available. Those who work in the entertainment world are doing even more than that by constantly jumping the daily hurdles that seem to keep popping up. The coronavirus pandemic has made everyday life challenging, but has made the jobs of those in the entertainment industry even more challenging. People working in the industry haven’t been able to get steady work or be able to work on the projects they were a part of.
Many artists in the industry such as writers, producers and directors have had to make compromises when it came to getting projects done or starting work on new ones. For instance, many movies have had to change release dates due to the fact that theaters have closed and thus theatrical release schedules are out of whack. Some studios managed to save themselves a lot of hassle by simply releasing there films straight to VOD or they are planning to do this. However, films that are not going to forego theatrical releases have another issue to contend with. This issue is whether it is worth it to release on the dates they were originally intended to release on.
Most movie theaters, chains included, plan on reopening their doors to the public with new health and safety rules in place to keep people safe during this pandemic. Even when theaters reopen, this lockdown will still be in place because the virus is still as viable a threat as it was when the pandemic began and it will remain so for a long while yet. This means that not as many people will really be able to go to the movies even if they wanted to. Only a couple of new movies will end up being available to people when theaters actually do reopen and one of those movies is ‘Tenet.’ No one is quite sure what this movie is about just yet since the only thing known before now is the fact that it has a cold war-like setting.
‘Tenet’ is Christopher Nolan’s newest movie set in a world where agents are doing their best to try and prevent some world-wide catastrophe from taking place. The original trailer for the film that dropped some months back gave us some kind of look into the movie when it showed some kind of time-manipulation happening. This is the only thing that we had a chance to look at, however, and we have mostly been left in the dark. New TV spots have dropped for the movie recently, giving us a little more insight into the plot of the film. Actor Robert Pattinson, who plays a major part in the film, has said that the film does not involve time-travel, but some sort of time “bending.”
The new TV spots point to the fact that today, May 21st, a new trailer will drop for the film which is expected to reveal more plot details for the film. These spots also point to the title ‘Tenet’ being a major plot point for the film which is poignant since the word is a palindrome. This means that the words is spelled the same front to back, so if we think about the idea of time-bending in the film, then it should be the same where time plays itself similarly front to back in some way. The trailer may give more insight into this point, but the only way to know for sure is to wait for the movie to release. As of now, it will release on July 17th, but this is still a point of heavy debate since it might not be a good idea for the studio to release it so soon after theaters reopen.
By George Robbins
During this pandemic, there are a lot of things that people are trying to do in order to keep themselves busy. Many people are stuck in doors most of the day and it is causing people to start losing their minds. This results in people trying to figure out a host of different things in order to keep themselves busy on a regular basis. There are some who are attempting to help those people by either making something for them to do or creating content to keep those people busy. A lot of news nowadays tells people about the things to look forward to when this pandemic is over, and it keeps people from feeling like the world is stagnating.
The entertainment industry is actively trying to keep itself from stagnating and it is a good thing that it is full of nothing but creative types. There have been a number of stories at this point of writers, producers, and directors working on new films or some other projects to keep busy. Many of these people are moving forward while movies and television productions and releases are stuck in limbo. While many artists have been working on projects that will be released in the future, some are reworking projects that have already released. One such director happens to be Zach Snyder and his work on the infamous Snyder cut of the Justice League movie.
‘Justice League’ was a massively produced movie that released back in 2017 that was received with a lukewarm reception. No one was sure of what to expect when the film first released due to the fact that there were only a few films in the DCEU by that point. On top of there being so few movies in the franchise, only one of them, ‘Wonder Woman,’ was received pretty well. The other movies at that point didn’t really have much going for them in the way of good critical reception. This made it difficult for anyone to become too excited for the film, but that didn’t stop DC fans from hoping for the best. After the movie released, a lot of people ended up being disappointed by the fact that the movie had no proper lead up and didn’t tell enough of a cohesive story.
Not long after the movie’s release, there was word of a director’s cut of the film which told more of a story and this became known as the infamous Snyder cut. For years at this point, that version of the film was a rumor that people would simply not let die out. The idea behind this was that people believed that Snyder had an entirely different version of the movie made up, but Warner Bros. would not let him release his version of the movie and they instead released the version people saw in theaters. It has been stated repeatedly over the years since its release that this was not the truth and that there was no other version of the film in existence. This is a fact which turned out to be true in the end because Snyder is now making his cut with a new production budget.
Snyder recently revealed that he will be making his own director’s cut for the ‘Justice League’ movie and that it will release some time in 2021. What we have learned so far is that this new cut of the film has to have an estimated $20-30 million budget if it is going to be done the way that Snyder wants it. This is a version of the film that fans have been waiting years now for and it can’t be underdone otherwise what was the point in doing it at all. The newest version of the film is going to be released some time next year on HBO Max to the public and has already been advertised. This is something else to keep people’s minds occupied during a time where it is hard to find things to do.
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