By George Robbins
As of late there has been a lot of talk in regards to how movie theaters would function as things move forward now that they are slowly starting to reopen. Theaters have had the fun lately of trying to open and have something to show the public at large. Movie theaters have a strict set of rules that they have to follow and included on that is the fact that they now have limited capacity. This limitation makes it difficult for them to make any kind of income because they essentially have to sell out their seats while trying to draw people in. This endeavor is one that they have had a hard time trying to succeed with and it has made them slightly desperate for content to show.
Movie theaters that have been open for the past month or two have had no choice but to show older movies or show the ones that they were showing when the pandemic began. Still, they are looking for new content in order to keep movie patrons entertained and one of the movies that they are banking on is ‘Tenet.’ This movie is the newest original film from director Christopher Nolan who has made many unique films over the past few years. The mystery surrounding the movie is what has drawn people to be so interested in the film, but due to the pandemic, the studio has had to push back the movie multiple times. Now that things are becoming a bit more stable, they have release dates in mind.
‘Tenet’ will release internationally at first on August 26th in over 70 countries worldwide, which is something Warner Bros. never expected they would have to do. Although they originally went into this plan with no official release date for theaters in the states, they now have one set for a September 3rd release. Those who don’t want to wait so long to actually see the movie domestically will have the opportunity to see the movie sooner than anticipated. This Friday, August 21st, tickets will be going on sale for early showings of the movie while the tickets being sold for the opening weekend will not be available until August 27th. This is something movie-goers and theater owners alike have been waiting for and it may perhaps be the thing that is needed to allow theaters to get back up and running again; at least a little bit.
By George Robbins
With news of the upcoming ‘Scream 5’ comes more information about previous entries in the series from the actors themselves. The upcoming sequel is going to be the first film in the franchise that was not worked on by the late Wes Craven. He was known for his work over the years and how he went about making his movies with some kind of message in mind while working on them. Usually, his films were something of a satire on other films in the same genre and usually they come off as being very subtle. This subtleness is what caused a lot of his films to just go straight over the heads of those watching them. That aside, even if the movies ended up being glossed over by the general public, they were usually good movies.
Craven’s movies were all considered to be pretty good for the most part and almost every entry in the ‘Scream‘ franchise was received well critically. I say almost every one because the third film in the franchise is known to be the worst one out of all four of the Craven-made ‘Scream’ movies. This has been something that has been up for some debate as many people know about how the film was made and what the process was like from the people who worked on the movie, but there is always something more. With the third ‘Scream’ film there were, apparently, many changes made to the script while the movie was in development. This is seen as potentially the biggest cause for why the movie didn’t do so well.
Among those who feel that the constant changes in the script were the reason for why the movie wasn’t so great is David Arquette. Arquette is known for his role as Dwight “Dewey” Riley in the ‘Scream’ film franchise and everyone knows that he has been a mainstay in the series since the beginning. He will be continuing to play his role in the upcoming sequel, and as such, he has spoken to people lately about the franchise as a whole and among that discussion was the topic of ‘Scream 3.’ It was widely regarded as being a bad movie in general and Arquette himself believes that the reason for this is the aforementioned constant script changes. Throughout the film’s development, the script was changed multiple times which messed with the plot and pacing of the film. Hopefully this sort of thing doesn’t end up happening for ‘Scream 5.’
By George Robbins
Movie theaters have been in the hole ever since the start of the pandemic back in the middle of March. They haven’t really been drumming up any kind of business; mostly due to them being shut down in order to protect public health and safety. Even though the pandemic is still a very real threat, businesses were slowly given the green light to reopen their doors and let people in. This gave many businesses the push they needed in order to stay open and prevent going out of business for the foreseeable future. This is not the case with every business unfortunately, but it is still better than all of them going under. Theaters were, and still are, on the shortlist of what businesses are still not opened up everywhere.
Even though places such as malls are allowed to be opened, they still have restrictions in place to allow only a handful of people in at once. Theaters have already stated their plans and they acknowledge the guidelines that were put in place that restrict their capacity. This has caused many companies to be outraged considering other public places were allowed to open but they could not open yet. Since then, they have been given the green light in most places so long as they continue to follow the rules that have been put in place. Therefore, theaters are going to be back up and running soon enough and they will need films to show.
When all of this pandemic business began, movie theaters had no choice but to shut down and the movies they were showing didn’t really get a full run. Although new movies that were coming out had to be delayed, the ones being affected the most were the movies that were already in theaters. Unfortunately, they had to be taken out when movie theaters had to shut down in order to try and make them available online. Video on Demand, or just plain old VOD, has become an important business practice ever since all of this began. Some studios decided to just release their films through that medium rather than delaying them for a full theatrical release. Though most films still ended up being delayed so that they could have full runs.
Now that theaters are beginning to open up their doors again, the studios have another option available to them. Although they have already shown some films and had to put them on VOD early, they now have the option to give theaters something to show by putting them back in theaters. This helps both the studios and the theaters by bringing business back to them so they can both make revenue. This is the case with Vin Diesel’s ‘Bloodshot’ movie which had to be pulled after only a couple of weeks in theaters. Now it seems that the studio will be putting the movie back into theaters in order for it to have a full theatrical release. Maybe this will have the intended effect and some people might be more inclined to go out to theaters in the coming weeks.
By George Robbins
The DC Extended Universe, or DCEU, has a number of films involved in it nowadays, but one of the newest films involving one of DC’s most iconic characters is not going to be a part of it. Every live-action DC related film that has released since ‘Man of Steel’ has been a part of the DCEU and has contributed to its roster. Despite what people may think about the individual movies, the DCEU as a whole has become very successful. While many of the films have not been seen with favorable eyes, they still bring in a lot of money from fans of the characters. This is what has kept them all going and allows for more films to be made. We will not be seeing the next entry that involves Batman being a part of that shared universe.
Although Batman has been a part of the DCEU since the second film in that universe released, he is not slated to make a return any time soon. The upcoming movie ‘The Batman‘ has already been stated to be a standalone film that will feature the titular hero as well as some iconic ‘Batman’ villains. So far the development for the movie has seen rough times due to the pandemic and they have only just recently been able to start working on the film again. Though they only just started again, many are apparently excited to return to work on the movie. The script for the film has been talked about excitedly by the actors that are going to appear in the film and it is one that they apparently believe will make DC fans happy.
Although filming for ‘The Batman’ had started in England, the remainder of all of the rest of the film will not be shot on location anymore. Despite this they have been putting a lot of effort into getting the movie done by handcrafting all of the set pieces they need in order to film the rest of the movie. Although they had to stop filming for a lengthy period of time, they still plan to have the movie out by October of next year. This is only a little bit longer from when they originally wanted to show the film. Although we have had the chance to see many set photos for the film, we have not seen any kind of footage in the form of a trailer. This has made it difficult to gauge how people will feel about the standalone film. Apparently, they will have something to show at the upcoming virtual convention DC FanDome.
The DC FanDome event is a virtual convention that is akin to other virtual conventions that we have seen thus far. It will allow people to see panels and things like merchandise from the safety of their own homes and they can see what is going on with all things DC. Reportedly, among the things that will be shown off will be some kind of footage from the upcoming movie ‘The Batman.’ This will give fans and the general public alike a chance to see just what the movie is about and it will offer an opportunity for people to see just how the character will be portrayed. This footage could even get people more excited about going to see the film next year in October.
By George Robbins
Pixar is extremely well known at this point because of all of the films that they have put out over the years. Nearly all of their films have done well and the amount of time they put into their animations shows up very well in their films. They have become a strong studio on their own over the years and because of that, they were eventually scooped up by Disney who saw how well they were doing. Pixar has made many different films over the years, but there is one series of films that has always done well. The ‘Toy Story’ series has done well ever since the first film was released back in 1995.
The first ‘Toy Story‘ movie was something that the world had never seen before because CGI was never used in such a way at that point. At the time of release, CGI was still a relatively new concept and it was only used as a supplementary technology to help make some films look better. Though those effects haven’t really held up over the years because CGI objects transplanted in a real life world was bound to cause issues. Nowadays, this isn’t much of an issue and CGI is pretty well done and it doesn’t take away from people’s experiences watching films. Back in the 90’s, it was hard for CGI to find a place, but Pixar figured out exactly what they were going to do with it.
As already stated, CGI had not really been used all that much back in the 90’s and it usually didn’t translate very well as time went on. This is where ‘Toy Story’ becomes different as it was a film that was animated entirely with nothing but CGI. With no real life components making up the film, the CGI animation had room to breath and it doesn’t stand out the way it would in a live-action film. Even today, while Pixar’s newest films look incredible by animation standards, their older films still hold up, including ‘Toy Story.’ Now that they have improved their animation tech, their newest ‘Toy Story’ films, ‘Toy Story 3’ and ‘Toy Story 4,’ both look amazing and have found themselves well adjusted by today’s standards.
The ‘Toy Story’ films are now iconic and they will never be forgotten as time goes on as we have seen with the last two films. Even if many years pass since the release of the previous films, they have been putting a lot of time and effort into the films. They also try and keep up with trends nowadays as a question was recently asked about whether the toys in the universe could die. The answer for which was yes, but only if they are completely destroyed. In the most recent film, we had to recognize that ‘Toy Story’ would not stay the same as it was story-wise, but it will always remain an incredible series. The character of Forky and the departure of Woody in the most recent film showed us that this is a new era if the films continue. Forky’s voice actor, Tony Hale, wants to continue to be a part of it and wants to reprise his role in ‘Toy Story 5.’ Hopefully it won’t be too long before we hear more about it.
By George Robbins
This pandemic has been a massive drain on people all over the world, but not everyone is necessarily suffering because of it. They have simply had to re-think the way that they do things because they can’t just do what they want like before. Those in the entertainment industry have had the most fun trying to figure out exactly how to move things forward, but there are some among the industry who aren’t having many issues. These people would be the writers, because who would benefit from having nothing better to do than sit down and write while stuck indoors. Among those writers is one who has written and directed his own works for years and that would be Kevin Smith.
Smith came to prominence in the 90’s when he released his first film ‘Clerks,’ which he had written and directed himself. Although it was really just an indie movie, its interesting look at the daily lives of two convenience store clerks drew a lot of attention. This attention is what allowed him to continue making movies that were unique to this style and we got interesting and sort of out-of-this-world films. Although a lot of things were added for the sake of comedy, most of what happened in his films focused on aspects of daily life. One of his earlier films was ‘Mallrats’ which followed a day in the lives of two slackers, who both broke up with their girlfriends, while they were at a mall.
‘Mallrats‘ had some moments in it that were highly memorable but some parts of the film were still a bit outside the realm of an ordinary day. That aside, it looked at various situations that the two men were put into as they spent time in the mall that day. One of those situations involved a character, played by Ben Affleck, who started dating the ex-girlfriend of one of the two main characters. His character was seen as one of the antagonists in the film and by the end of the film, his character ended up being arrested. Kevin Smith revealed within the past couple of months that he has managed to finish a script for ‘Mallrats 2’ and he wanted Affleck to return for the film. Now, he has confirmed that Affleck will in fact return for the new film, so that is something to look forward to as we wait for the film to release.
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