Charles Bramesco
Booze, Burlesque, and Bad Taste: John Waters Is Running a Summer Camp
Ahh, summer camp: any kid who was shipped off for six-to-eight weeks of rigidly scheduled fun holds the memories near and dear. There’s something sweetly all-American about the mess hall meals, late-night gabfests, the smooches stolen after s’more-and-singalong campfires. And who better to desecrate all that is wholesome than the one and only John Waters, that baron of bad taste?
‘Avengers 3’ and ‘Avengers 4’ Will Each Be Their Own Thing
Never lacking in ambition (at least when it comes to the expanding frontiers of branding and marketing), Marvel boldly announced back in 2015 that the third film in the Avengers series would be unlike those that came before it. At the time of the project’s initial reveal, Marvel head honcho Kevin Feige clarified his plans to split Avengers: Infinity War into two parts that would be released independent of one another. This was cause for great excitement, as moviegoers love nothing more than to shell out for two separate tickets just for the privilege of waiting up to a year to see the conclusion of a self-contained story. Incredibly, however, Feige backpedaled on that can’t-fail proposition shortly thereafter, amending their plans to separate Avengers 3 1 and Avengers 3 2 into the simpler Avengers 3 and Avengers 4.
An R-Rated Animated ‘Watchmen’ Adaptation May Be in the Works
If Zack Snyder if the filmmaking equivalent of a supervillain, and that’s precisely what he is, then his dark origin story came in 2009. He had earned a lot of admirers for his adaptation of Frank Miller’s 300, rendering the account of the Spartan warriors’ doomed last stand with visual panache and lots of sexy slow-mo. In 2009, he tackled an even more dense and beloved graphic novel with Watchmen and began his long, illustrious career in mangling things comic book nerds love. His Watchmen was literal, goofy, dim-witted, and dull, slavishly faithful to the source material without for a moment understanding what makes it work. It is history best overwritten.
Here’s Why There’s No ‘Fate of the Furious’ Post-Credits Scene
Audiences who stuck around after the end credits of newly released cinematic demolition derby The Fate of the Furious were disappointed to learn that there would be no bonus stinger scene, as has been customary in past installments of the franchise. (In addition to the pre-existing disappointment resulting from learning that Charlize Theron’s character is named Cipher.) It’s atypical for the series to refrain from teasing its next ride, and many fans are wondering what gives. Wonder no longer! Vin Diesel, as fate would have it, is reportedly to blame.
‘Wreck-It Ralph 2’ Gets a Title and Release Date, and It Will (Literally) ‘Break the Internet’
What exactly does the term “break the internet” mean? Web-surfers understand the definition as “causing a commotion of such great size and scale that the World Wide Web could shut down as a result of its enormity,” and yet the phrase only conjures one image to mind — that of Kim Kardashian on her notorious Paper Magazine cover, popping champagne directly onto a glass balanced atop her buttocks. So when Disney announced yesterday that their sequel to video game hodgepodge Wreck-It Ralph would bear the subtitle Ralph Breaks the Internet, we may interpret it one of two ways. Either Ralph’s going to go on an epic quest through the online wilds, or the 8-bit hero is about to blow our minds with the roundest ’donk in the history of animated cinema.
Andrew Dice Clay Could Be Lady Gaga’s Dad in Bradley Cooper-Directed ‘A Star Is Born’ Remake
Have we all safely made it through the headline above? No, you’re not having a stroke, those words are all in the correct order. (Unless part of your face is sagging and your speech isn’t making sense, in which case please stop reading mildly amusing entertainment news posts and contact a medical emergency service immediately.) Depending on how closely you’ve been following this project, the most shocking/perplexing/frightening part could be that Bradley Cooper will make his first foray into feature directing with a remake of the classic showbiz saga A Star Is Born, or maybe the fact that professional weirdo Lady Gaga will presumably assume human form to take the starring role. But those up-to-date on the development of this production will express the most surprise and bafflement over the breaking news that none other than Andrew Dice Clay — the Diceman, the Diceman, twice-as-nice-man — has entered the mix.
‘Avatar 2’ Bumped From 2018 Release, Upsetting Fragile ‘Avatar’ Economy
The Avatar franchise has turned into James Cameron’s Xanadu, a vanity project of staggering scale to which the public will seemingly never be permitted access. It’s kept him busy since 2009, as he’s concurrently scripted a whopping four sequels to the immensely lucrative 2009 sci-fi epic. Perhaps, one day, it shall be his tomb. But to us unwashed rabble in the general populace, the grand Avatar franchise is little more than an idea, and a weird idea at that. As our beloved Editor-in-Chief Matt Singer noted not too long ago, pretty much everybody has moved on from Avatar as a cultural touchstone. Cameron seems more jazzed about this plan than anyone else, but he’ll have to put his dreams on hold for a little while longer.
‘Transformers’ Spinoff ‘Bumblebee’ Lands ‘Kubo’ Director Travis Knight
Upstart stop-motion animation studio Laika hasn’t been doing so hot as of late. Though such early efforts as Coraline and Paranorman generated healthy grosses, the box-office receipts have been in a steady decline with The Boxtrolls and last summer’s Kubo and the Two Strings. Though their films have been marvels to behold across the board, their expenditures have increased as they’ve expanded and invested in new technologies, and Kubo ended up as their first flop when it needed to be their biggest hit. In what might seem like the most dire sign of all for the studio, Kubo director and Laika President/CEO Travis Knight has now taken high-profile work elsewhere.
Jordan Peele’s Got Four More Horror Movies About ‘Social Demons’ To Come
Hope you liked Get Out — and if the near-unanimous critical consensus, robust opening weekend box office receipts, and massive swell of support on social media are any indicator, you probably did — because there’s a whole lot more where that came from. We all rushed to anoint director Jordan Peele as a bold new voice in the horror landscape upon his debut feature’s release, and a new notice today suggests that he’s going to ride this wave as long as he can. In a new interview with Business Insider, Peele stated that in the grand tradition of John Carpenter and Wes Craven before him, he’s getting into the sequel business.
‘Moonlight’ Expanding to 1500 Screens, So Now You Have No Excuse
Did you see Moonlight, the Oscar-anointed Best Picture which also happens to be the actual best picture of the year? No? Why not? The common answers include “looked super sad” (accurate, but shouldn’t be a deterrent), “looked boring” (empirically incorrect), “couldn’t relate to it” (probably a little racist, a little homophobic, or both), “been busy lately” (get your priorities in order), and moreso than any other, “wasn’t playing near me.” That last one is hard to argue with, as A24’s October release did leave a lot of communities bereft of access to Moonlight. But as this film’s mass-marketability has become evident with high-profile Oscar wins and a $26 million gross on a budget of $1.5 million, A24 has smartly moved to spread the love.