The online hype around Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse seems to not be dying out anytime soon as Sony Pictures Animation employees who have worked on the movie are coming out and sharing production art. However, among the names that have received viral praising for their shared behind-the-scenes work, one name has stood out to most as a shocking prodigy.
Preston Mutanga—known online as LegoMe_TheOG—is known by his YouTube fanbase (as well as Twitter) to make impressive LEGO animations in Blender using dynamic posing, lighting, and shot composition. What shocks most people is that he’s 14 years old and doing this at a level where those within the industry—namely, producers and writers Phil Lord & Christopher Miller—were taking notice.
Mutanga’s recreation of the first trailer went lightly viral on Twitter, visible enough to where Lord & Miller noticed, showing it to those working on the film. After some negotiations between the studio, Mutanga, and his family, they worked out a contract for Mutanga to build the scene of the LEGO universe briefly explored within the film.
The LEGO universe within Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse was briefly mentioned in an interview with Jake Johnson, the voice of Spider-Verse’s Peter B. Parker, though its prominence and direction was unknown beyond its confirmation. While it was a nice inclusion to put another The LEGO Movie-esque feather in the cap of Lord & Miller, we’re all very pleased that a skilled young artist like Preston Mutanga is receiving the recognition and work he deserves from his passion project.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is playing in theaters now worldwide.
Wes Anderson is going right into production of his 13th feature film later this year, The Film Stage revealed earlier today.
The announcement came during the press tour for Wes Anderson’s new film, Asteroid City, set to release next Friday. Cinematographer and frequent collaborator on Anderson’s films Robert Yeoman revealed Wes Anderson’s plans to head into production on a new film later this year, with Michael Cera being cast in a currently undisclosed starring role.
The sudden announcement shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to those familiar with Anderson’s work—Yeoman goes on to describe Anderson as a “workaholic”, citing the short release gaps between his films in the past. Once filming on Asteroid City wrapped, Anderson and Yeoman reportedly went right back into filming with the director’s elusive Henry Sugar adaptation set to release on Netflix in the future.
Three of the names in talks to join the film are Michael Cera, Jeff Goldblum, and Benicio del Toro. While Goldblum and del Toro have starred in Wes Anderson films before—their most recent appearances being Asteroid City and The French Dispatch, respectively—Cera is a newcomer to the director’s productions. However, it should be noted that Cera was originally in talks to join Jeff Goldblum early in Asteroid City’s production, though negotiations obviously fell through. Cera’s performance could bring a new flavor of eccentricity to Anderson’s stories, due to the strange nature of the characters he’s often been cast into in previous films and shows.
Wes Anderson’s newest film Asteroid City is set to have a limited release on June 16th, followed by a wide theatrical release on June 23th a week later.
On July 21st, two movies will release in theaters that, alongside each other, have caught the attention of moviegoers worldwide: Oppenheimer and Barbie. One film grapples with existentialism and the alertness of death; what it means to be human in a world where its true darkness is hidden to the naked eye.
The other film is Christopher Nolan’s biopic about J. Robert Oppenheimer.
Two pieces of media sharing a release date is a common love for the internet. Between 2019 and 2020, fan art between the DOOM and Animal Crossing series saw a massive rise due to the shared release date of the franchises’ newest entries (DOOM Eternal and Animal Crossing: New Horizons, respectively). Three years later, the trend seems to repeat itself as Greta Gerwig’s Barbie and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer will be releasing on the same day, with many moviegoers intending to see them back-to-back.
Matt Damon, who stars in Oppenheimer as Leslie Groves, reminded audiences that “people are allowed to go see two movies in a weekend,” in an interview with Vanity Fair, following his admission that he’d never heard of a “war” between the two movies.
Regardless of which films an audience member will choose to see—one, both, or none—it can be said for both movies that they seem to be shaping up to be equal parts fun and captivating. The Barbie film seems to be a surprisingly sincere adaptation of the brand, much like how The LEGO Movie was to its namesake brand. Each actor seems to have fun in the film, corroborating this sentiment in interviews leading up to the release. In addition, the chilling acting in Oppenheimer mixed with the gritty theming and explosive practical effects is leading up to another great film from Christopher Nolan. The film has earned Nolan his first undisputed R-rating in over two decades, which would allow him creative freedom to take the story of J. Robert Oppenheimer’s life where it needs to go.
It seems another release date war may be brewing following these films, however. It was recently revealed that the current release dates of Fast X: Part 2 and Minecraft are one in the same: April 4, 2025. And what changes? Jason Momoa is set to star in both.
Barbie and Oppenheimer will release worldwide on July 21st, 2023.
Twitter seems perplexed by the Paul brothers’ ventures once again as the youngest of the two, Jake Paul, has announced he will be starring in his feature film debut, to be distributed and produced by Wonder Street and Mandalay Pictures.
The general public took this about as well as you would expect.
The Paul brothers in recent years have seen a bit of a downward spiral in their public images. Over the past couple of years, Jake Paul came under fire for the promotion and alleged scamming of his fans through forms of cryptocurrency he heavily advocated for and promoted, often without telling them of said prearranged promotions.
However, the announced film seems to have higher stakes and production to it than in Paul’s previous appearances—Mandalay Pictures’ most recent films, Air, was praised by critics due to the performance of its cast, and the collaboration with Paul could have a similar effect on critics if done similarly.
The announcement comes during a time of multiple announcements of YouTuber-led films; in April, YouTubers Mark Fischbach and Seán McLoughlin—often known as Markiplier and Jacksepticeye respectively—announced their involvement in Fischbach’s feature directorial debut, Iron Lung, based on the video game of the same name. A24 recently greenlit a film based on The Backrooms from Kane Parsons, known online as Kane Pixels, as well as acquiring the rights to YouTube duo RackaRacka’s feature film debut Talk to Me. This followed a bidding war between the studio and Universal after the film’s screening at Sundance earlier this year.
by J. Nagle
It’s THAT good.
When Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse released in 2018, it shocked fans and critics alike. Sony, a company historically protective of the film rights to Spider-Man, worked with Phil Lord and Christopher Miller to produce a well-rounded animated film that not only revolutionized the superhero movie genre, but the medium of animation as a whole in cinema. Newer animated films have already been seen to take cues from the film in their stylistic decisions and mature theming, such as Kid Cudi’s Entergalactic and Joel Crawford’s Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, both releasing late last year.
Naturally, both audiences and critics had high expectations and hopes for the sequel. It wasn’t a matter of topping the first film, but rather of reaching that high level of quality and potency it served audiences five years ago. As expected, the stakes and innovations and emotions that Into the Spider-Verse brings to the table are amplified and expanded upon in its tense and riveting sequel.
Much like its predecessor, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is a masterclass in multiversal storytelling and a celebration of the medium of animation as a whole. Each character introduced feels unique, and each world traveled to fills the viewer with a different feeling. Whether it’s warmth, excitement, suspense, or anxiety, the viewer is along for the ride as Miles has to come to terms with the fact that his journey as Spider-Man is far from over, and the death of his Uncle Aaron was only the start of the hardships he’ll have to face.
Each character’s animation is affected by these new environments we see them in. Gwen Stacy’s world is heavy on mood lighting, which is extremely effective in aiding her story in the direction it ends up in outside of the film’s main plot. The disruption Miles’ presence causes in Pavitr’s world is felt directly because of the clash in art direction by the end of the sequence. Spider-Punk’s animation style took a reported 3 years to develop, due to multiple parts of his model being animated at different frame rates. While a bit distracting in his first moments during the film, this style eventually feels natural enough as the viewer has had enough time to meet all these different Spider-People.
Even with all this in mind, Across the Spider-Verse feels like it’s only the tip of the iceberg in terms of different animation styles, emotional developments, and the journey through the Spider-Verse overall, that’s not at all to its detriment. The film gives the viewer just enough to work with to not be overwhelming, while the cameos and references feel logical and retain the plot’s spotlight rather than taking time away from it. Everything is explained in a way that doesn’t feel like exposition to a hardcore fan while also making sure not to alienate any Marvel newcomers.
Lord and Miller are now 2-for-2 in terms of making really good Spider-Man movies. By extension—we’re pretty confident in their ability to make an amazing conclusion in Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse next year.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is playing in theaters now worldwide.
by Emily Nagle
Joe and Anthony Russo of “Avengers: Endgame” fame are taking a break from superheroes to producing a live-action adaptation of Disney’s 1997 animated film “Hercules“. The film will be produced by the brothers’ studio AGBO, and directed by Guy Ritchie, who also directed “Aladdin” in 2019.
Joe Russo said of Disney, “We have an amazing relationship with them that we’ve built over a decade. I think we have a point of view on how they can stretch the limits of their IP moving forward, rather than playing IP management.”
Russo describes that the live-action “Hercules” adaptation as being “a little bit more experimental in tone, a little bit more experimental in execution.” This is sure to be a breath of fresh air for Disney’s live-action remakes, which have often been criticized for bringing nothing new to their original stories (the most recent example being “Pinocchio” back in September).
Disney’s “Hercules” from 25 years ago is a musical chronicling the Greek demigod’s rise to stardom and journey of learning what it truly means to be a hero. The live-action adaptation will follow suit, albeit in a different way: Joe Russo explains that he’s taking inspiration from TikTok to learn more about what people look for in movie musicals.
“Audiences today have been trained by TikTok, right? What is their expectation of what that musical looks like and feels like?” Russo questions. “That can be a lot of fun and help us push the boundaries a little bit on how you execute a modern musical.”
Turning to TikTok for musical inspiration may sound outlandish, but Russo might just be onto something. At the end of 2020, thousands of TikTok users collaborated on a crowdsourced musical based on Pixar’s “Ratatouille”, complete with a playbill, set design, and choreography. It premiered via a charity livestream that ended up raising over $2 million and gathering 350,000 viewers.
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