Category: Movies

Video of the Day, The Lord Of The Rings Recap Rap, Bros edition.

:snicker: Spoilers*:

 

That’s a generic ‘bros,’ by the way.  As the video notes, we are all bros.

Moe Lane

*I mean, I dunno how you’ve managed to get this far without knowing the plot while at the same time wanting to eventually watch the trilogy, but in case you have: spoilers.

Ava DuVernay tapped to direct New Gods for DC/Warner Bros.

Ava DuVernay is the director of A Wrinkle In Time, but I’m not trying to hold that against her. There is some indication that she actually wishes to direct this particular superhero movie, which is good; and New Gods is of course Jack Kirby at his Kirby-ish.  If it’s walled off from the rest of the DCEU — if, indeed, it can even be said to be part of the DCEU, Steppenwolf or no — that may very well be for the best.  I have high hopes for the Aquaman movie, but we’re still trying to get a director who can really understand Superman as a concept. Or who can be allowed to show that concept, I suppose.

So I hope DuVernay can make it work. But — speaking as a DC comics kid — I really wish that DC had somebody like Kevin Feige directing traffic. It’s not so much that all of the MCU movies flow into each other; it’s that the Marvel movies are all being watched over by somebody who fundamentally cares about the source material. Then again, I have no idea who that might be, so what do I know? I guess that the best that we can hope for is the occasional good standalone. May this be one of them.

Anybody see Tomb Raider?

I’m hearing that Tomb Raider’s not bad — for a movie based on a video game.  Which is, of course, grading on an insane curve. Video game movies are often universally panned; the best one I ever saw (John Wick) works mostly because it’s not actually a video game movie. It just steeps itself in the sensibilities of video game movies, while not being forced to actually use any of the bits from a game that the fans would insist upon, and everybody else would scratch their heads over.  I think that I’ve mentioned this before.

Anyway, anybody see it? I’m assuming that I’m going to go see Pacific Rim: Uprising next week, because giant robots punching giant monsters in the face. Between that and Infinity War and of course Ant-Man and the Wasp and the Aquaman flick my movie schedule is filling up.

Kirsten Wiig to play Cheetah in Wonder Woman 2.

Straight from the director:

Continue reading Kirsten Wiig to play Cheetah in Wonder Woman 2.

Lucasfilm hires Jon Favreau to produce live-action Star Wars TV series.

Witness the power of this fully operatiOK, that joke is played out: “Lucasfilm is excited to announce that Emmy-nominated producer and actor Jon Favreau has signed on to executive produce and write a live-action Star Wars series for Disney’s new direct-to-consumer platform. Favreau is no stranger to the Star Wars galaxy having played roles in both the Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series and in the upcoming Solo: A Star Wars Story.”   But will it suck?

Good question.  By all accounts, Clone Wars does not — but it’s animation, which means that they save a mint on special effects that way.  The question really is, what are they going to do in that universe?  I mean, sure, KOTOR screams out for a miniseries.  It screams so very, very loudly.  But who here thinks that Disney’s gonna go down that road?

Yeah… yeah.  Me, neither.

Moe Lane

PS: I’d so totally watch a KOTOR miniseries. First and second campaigns. I’d pay for the streaming service providing it without even slowing down.

Interesting: BBC doing an adaptation of His Dark Materials.

Maybe it’ll work this time: “The King’s Speech director Tom Hooper and Logan‘s Dafne Keen are set to join the adaptation of Philip Pullman’s series “His Dark Materials, according to Deadline. Hooper is up to direct the eight part series while Keen is on board to play the main character Lyra.”  For a given value of ‘work,’ of course.  The great advantage of television over movies for this sort of thing is that it’s harder to say when something’s failed, financially. The market can be a cruel gatekeeper. Continue reading Interesting: BBC doing an adaptation of His Dark Materials.