By George Robbins
As we are all painfully aware of at this point, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or MCU, is perhaps the most famous franchise ever. It has been one of the longest lasting on-going movie franchises and is still continuing to bring in new fans as time goes on. The last film to be a part of the MCU that has released was ‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’ and it finished off the third phase of the MCU. As of now, the next film that is meant to release is ‘Black Widow’ but due to the pandemic, its release date has been pushed to almost the end of the year. The next entries that are supposed to come into existence after this movie are going to feature a lot of new heroes and it will be an exciting time for the MCU as a whole.
The MCU has had a lot happening to it as of late and no one is quite sure of the future of the MCU given the situation with the pandemic. Adding to this was recent and tragic loss of Chadwick Boseman who played the ‘Black Panther’ character. It isn’t a great time in the world at the moment, but the MCU is still moving forward with whatever they can. Marvel Studios has a pretty good idea about what they will be doing over the next couple of years. The thing is, though, is it something that the fans will be wanting because they have all been pretty vocal over the past year or so about upcoming projects. One of the things that gets mentioned a lot is that people want the X-Men to become an official part of the MCU.
Just recently, we saw the long-awaited release for the movie ‘The New Mutants’ which was meant to serve as a standalone film. The movie was considered a remnant of the X-Men franchise that was being worked on by Fox before they were acquired by Disney last year. After they were acquired the movie continued being worked on, and was set to release back in April but the pandemic pushed the official release until recently. This past weekend was the opening weekend for the film and the movie did not receive good reviews. Although the movie was poorly reviewed, it did help thee box office a little bit by bringing in over $3 million, which is the most theaters have seen since March.
What many MCU fans were hoping was that ‘The New Mutants’ would serve as a gateway movie for the MCU given that Disney owned the property and they could get the X-Men into the franchise that way. Unfortunately, it isn’t just the bad reviews that prevent this from being the case, but also the fact that it was never the plan to begin with. Director Josh Boone says there have been zero talks with Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige about incorporating the mutants into the MCU. This means that, as far as we now know, there are no plans to somehow incorporate the X-Men into the MCU any time soon. It could be many years before this even becomes a remote possibility and even then, there is no guarantee.
By George Robbins
Much of the world is still suffering on a daily basis due to the fact that no one is really able to do much nowadays due to the pandemic. With this in mind, however, there are a lot of things that have been announced that have gotten people very excited recently. Much of the most recent excitement seen as of late is a direct result of the relatively recent DC FanDome convention. This convention was held for its first time ever the weekend prior to this previous one and it was considered a complete success. It was the perfect opportunity for DC fans to find out more about upcoming projects being worked on by the company. It was also the perfect opportunity for fans to tune in and find out some interesting facts about the universe they like to be a part of.
One of the movies that is getting the most attention due to having been shown off during the convention was the upcoming film, ‘The Batman.’ This upcoming film sees the titular hero, being played by Robert Pattinson, as he tries to navigate being in only his second year as the Caped Crusader. This provides a perfect opportunity for film-makers to show just how difficult it was for him in the early years. It is also meant to show people just how different the character was early on and how much he had to change in order to become the hero that people expect him to be. Although we have seen Batman movies before, this one is shaping up to be something different entirely.
Most previous Batman films explored the character after he had already learned to be the hero so many people loved. There were even movies which followed his origins, but they didn’t go into what it was like for the character to learn more about himself during his tenure in the beginning. That rage and naivety that would be displayed in a young Bruce Wayne is what has been advertised for the movie already and it is what most fans are looking forward to seeing in the movie. Batman will not be the only character to be portrayed in their early career as the Penguin, Catwoman, and the Riddler will all be seen in the film as well. Someone else that hasn’t really been mentioned who will also be in the film is Gordon.
Batman fans understand that Gordon plays a huge part in Batman’s career as he is usually his liaison for the police department. This means that we will most definitely be seeing him in the film and he will be portrayed by actor Jeffrey Wright. Wright, like many of the other cast, is excited for the film and has recently said that one of the things that stood out to him about the film is the Batmobile. Wright said recently that, “It was described as this kind of retro, hyper-hemified muscle car, that was just the craziest, coolest thing you’d ever seen. And when I read that I said ‘A ha, yes.’” He became excited about the vehicle just from reading the script so it is no surprise that fans would fall in love with it after seeing it in the trailer. Next year we will even get to see the new iteration of the Batmobile on screen.
By George Robbins
There is an unbelievable number of franchises in the world right now and many of them have been around for a very long time. Even now, years after many of those franchises were originally started, they are still on-going in some shape or form. One of the easiest things for a studio to do nowadays is go back to older intellectual properties and make a movie set in more modern times to get people out to the movies. The movies that they pick to bring out again are more times than not films that have done well in the past and have a dedicated fanbase still. Thus we have movies releasing these days that use movies from back to the 80’s as a reference to go off of.
One of the most famous franchises to exist in general is the ‘Jurassic Park‘ which made its resurgence after well over a decade later. It is now known to the world as the ‘Jurassic World’ franchise in order to re-brand it as something different from the original films. This being said, it leans heavily off of the already existing universe that we know and love which is why the two most recent films have done so well. People have always loved the dinosaurs that have been seen on the big screen and bringing them to a new generation has made Universal a lot of money. Now that we are about to get the third, and what appears to be final, film in the new iteration of the franchise, some things appear to be changing.
I say changing, but really, the movie is going back a bit to the original roots it was founded upon with dinosaurs loose in the wild. ‘Jurassic World’ and its sequel both introduced the idea of hybrid dinosaurs to the series, and while interesting, the movies didn’t feel the same. The thing is, though, that there are not meant to be any more hybrids appearing in the upcoming ‘Jurassic World: Dominion.’ This is going to bring the story back to just the fact that there are now dinosaurs loose once again in the world. What we now know about the film is the fact that the plot will be one that takes place all over the world where characters must deal with the new world they live in.
We have learned a number of details thus far about the upcoming film, but one of the more interesting things was that Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum would be returning to play their original roles. They won’t just be cameos though as, apparently, they will actually have major roles in the film. Beyond just who will appear in the upcoming film, we now know that new dinosaurs will be shown off as well. In order to make the dinos feel more alive this time, they will be using more practical effects and the results speak for themselves. We are looking at a very interesting movie in the near future so all we have to do now is wait until next summer.
By George Robbins
As we all have recognized at this point in time is the fact that Robert Pattinson has managed to find a place for himself among some pretty top brand films at the moment. After his early stint of fame from the Twilight films, he went on to star in some independent films which showed just how much range he has. As a result of these starring roles in independent films, Pattinson has made his way into bigger blockbuster films and as of late two very big examples come to mind. These would be the recently released ‘Tenet‘ which will soon be making its way to domestic theaters and ‘The Batman.’ The latter of which he is the titular character and we will see that film some time late next year.
Pattinson has managed to cement a place for himself in Hollywood now because many people now recognize that he is capable of playing many a role. He has done his best to distance himself over the years from the ‘Twilight’ saga that started his career in bigger films in Hollywood. Unfortunately, his role in those films often made him be taken less seriously as an actor and he would only end up being a one-and-done actor. This is not what he wanted, so he found his way into a couple of independent films over the years which have made it clear to Hollywood that he has significant range. Thus he soon became a part of the two aforementioned films which are both incredible looking films.
Pattinson has been working with director Christopher Nolan for awhile while working on Nolan’s ‘Tenet’ due to the fact he plays the character of Neil in the movie. This character was seen ostensibly throughout the promotional material for the film and given the strong response to the film abroad, it would seem he had a hand in a great film. Not only is he impressive for that, but also because the trailer for ‘The Batman’ also released recently and it is shaping up to be an incredible film. From what we have seen in the trailer thus far, it would appear that he is able to play a young, angry, and naive Bruce Wayne. This will go a long way towards making the film all the greater as it follows the Caped Crusader through his second year wearing the cowl.
As many well know, Nolan made a huge name for himself when he directed the well-acclaimed ‘Dark Knight Trilogy‘ which saw another iteration of Batman coming to fruition. Since Pattinson was working on ‘Tenet’ with Nolan and he also started working on ‘The Batman’ some way through production, some expected that he might have asked Nolan about the character and his production. This ended up not being the case and they actually hardly ever spoke about it. Nolan is apparently known for being quite reserved by not getting involved in another person’s production, so while they may have joked about it on the set of ‘Tenet,’ there wasn’t really any discussion. So whatever we see of Pattinson will be wholly original to him and the rest of the people working on the film.
By George Robbins
This past weekend was a big weekend for movie theaters everywhere even if it didn’t necessarily seem like it would be. Domestically, it wasn’t really an all too huge weekend when it came to the box office and how much was made over that time. The only new movie that ended up being shown this previous weekend domestically was ‘The New Mutants.’ This movie was one that was being worked on for years and it only just recently got a release after a delay caused by the start of the pandemic. This movie ended up bringing in $3 million to the box office this past weekend. This isn’t necessarily a lot, but it is the most that has been seen domestically because of the shut-down.
Another movie that had its grand premiere this past weekend was the movie ‘Tenet‘ which premiered internationally for the first time ever. Unfortunately, the movie has yet to have its theatrical release domestically because of the way that things turned out with the pandemic. As such, the movie will premiere in the United States on September 3rd, but as of now it is available in the rest of the world. Although the movie is, and will be, available, there are still restrictions in place that must be followed because of the fact that the pandemic is still ongoing. For instance, not every theater is opened for the public and those that are have limited capacity.
Before the release of ‘Tenet,’ tickets were available for early purchase and the result of that was that ‘Tenet’ became one of Christopher Nolan’s biggest seat-sellers. This made it understandable that the movie would probably go on to bring in a lot of money upon its theatrical release, especially since it was going to get an international release before a domestic one. Many were hoping that box office numbers for the film would be high in order to make up for the massive shortcomings experienced by the industry these past months with theaters closed. Apparently ‘Tenet’ would go on to blow those expectations out of the water as the movie brought in $53 million. Although this is far from a true financial success, it is most definitely a start.
By George Robbins
Disney is responsible for making many movies over the years that have brought a lot of entertainment to families everywhere. Those films are what made the Disney company into the conglomerate that it is today and paved the way for them now owning much of the entertainment industry. Much of the groundwork was laid down by the animated films created by Walt Disney and his team of animators and this gave the company the love of the public and made it possible for much more to happen in the future. Other than the movies, the world was given the theme parks which gave the public a place to escape to and to find their inner child. Eventually, they would even start working in honest towards making live action films.
Nowadays Disney is still known for their animation but more so known now for their having control over some of the biggest companies and franchises in the world. They have control of Marvel Studios which covers the live-action front and they have Pixar which helps by covering their animated front. This doesn’t detract from the fact that the Disney company themselves also put out movies of their own in both markets. Not every film they make is incredible, but some of their older live-action films were highly regarded for the most part. Among those early films was the movie known as ‘The Haunted Mansion.’
Originally, ‘The Haunted Mansion’ used to be a ride in the Disney World theme park, but that would go on to be made into a movie all its own. This new movie version would even go on to inspire an updated version of the attraction. Now it would appear that after all these years that Disney is planning on bringing back the classic film in the same way they have been bringing back some of their other older films. They are apparently going to start working on an updated reboot of the original film, this time with the writer from 2016’s Ghostbusters taking the helm to make the script. It is still a ways off before we really see anything done for the film, but this is definitely something to keep an eye on.
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