It’s been a relatively not-so-awful first week back after the summer and Labor Day holiday breaks, at least for everyone not named Jeremy Renner.
Since most of the last couple SCRs has included something about either Netflix or Disney+ or Apple+ or HBO Max, it might be appropriate to kick this installment off with a new section called….
Streaming Snippets!
I wasn’t sure if I would have enough new streaming news on a weekly basis to actually create a section, but at this point, it looks like I will indeed have enough streaming news to fill this column, hence…
- The Mandalorian is obviously one of the series that is getting Star Wars fans excited about being some of the first to subscribe to Disney+ — apparently, Disney has sold a LOT of those three-year packages — and with the series premiering in just two months, Entertainment Weekly got their hands on new picture they could share of actor Pedro Pascal fighting two “Trandoshans” which you see below:
- Another update this past week was that Netflix seems to be reacting to Disney+ announcing it would release some or all of its series episodically with one chapter a week rather than what’s becoming the common these days of releasing the entire season in a single day. In fact, it was Netflix that started this binge-worthy tradition and other streaming services began to follow. But don’t worry, that doesn’t mean you won’t be able to binge most of Netflix’s series still and/or watch at your own speed, because this is mostly going to affect competitive shows like The Great British Baking Show and the rap competition show Rhythm &Flow. It makes some sense, since there needs to be some sort of tension and anticipation for shows like those to work – if you can just fast forward to the ends of each episode, then what’s the point?
- Now, if for some reason you can’t wait until Disney+ launches on November 12, Disney is also bringing four of its princesses back to theaters, and in fact, its four movies that will not be on the streaming service at launch, although one of them (Princess and the Frog) is currently on Netflix. Maybe Disney just wants to remind fans of its animated movies before remaking them all into pseudo-live-action films like this summer’s blockbuster The Lion King.
In Case You Missed It…
And it’s one of Britain’s finest, Mr. Ben Wheatley! Alicia Vikander is back as Lara Croft, and the director of 2016’s action movie Free Free, and plenty of other cool genre fare – Kill List, Hi-Rise, A Field in England and one of my personal faves, the dark comedy Sightseers. Apparently, Wheatley has finally been discovered in Hollywood despite his last movie Happy New Year, Colin Burstead being another smaller indie film, which I’m not sure has even been released.
And it’s actor Will Poulter, last seen over the summer in Ari Aster‘s Hereditary, who kind of looks like he belongs in a Lord of the Rings series, I guess, even at 6’2” tall. He’s clearly too tall to play a hobbit or elf without CGing everything and everyone around him, but hey, he is NOT the worst actor in the world, so it’s good to hear he might have a steady gig.
Casting Tidbits…
-
Photo: BBC America. Just when you thought James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad was all cast up, another announced actor has joined the ginormous ensemble cast, and another actor is “in talks.” 12th Doctor Peter Capaldi seems to have joined the cast in an undisclosed role and Saturday Night Live’s young breakout star Pete Davidson is in talks to do the same. Heaven forbid we’re actually told whom either one will play, so that we can have dreams of this new and expanded Suicide Squad while we sleep, but let’s face it, there’s a good chance some of these roles might be smaller non-Task Force X ones.
Iorek Byrnison in His Dark Materials. Photo: HBO/BBC. - With HBO’s adaptation of Watchmen about a month away, the cable network and the BBC are finalizing the cast for its series based on Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials with the announcement of who will be voicing its star creatures. Armored bear Iorek Byrnison will get his voice in the form of Joe Tandberg from Netflix’ The Innocents. Iorek is a very popular character, mainly because he’s a talking bear but also because he’s a warrior that will probably be involved in some of His Dark Materials’ biggest battles.Also joining the cast are David Suchet (who has played Agatha Christie’s Det. Poirot) as the gyrfalcon daemon Kaisa belonging to witch Serafina Pekkala (Ruta Gedmintas), and comedian Cristela Alonzo as the voice of arctic hare daemon Hester, who is paired with Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Lee Scoresby. Kit Connor, who was amazing as the young Elton Jon in Rocketman, will voice Pantalaimon, the unsettled daemon belonging to Dafne Keen’s Lyra Belacqua, while Helen McCrory from Peaky Blinders will voice the snow leopard daemon belonging to James McAvoy’s Lord Asriel.
The Golden Monkey daemon belonging Ruth Wilson’s Mrs. Coulter will not speak or have a name, but be given a voice by lead puppeteer and CFX coordinator Brian Fisher. I wish I knew what all of this meant, but I’ve never read Pullman’s His Dark Materials book series and the movie The Golden Compass was so frickin’ long ago, I don’t remember it. Still, I’m happy to see McAvoy moving over to some television work, as he’s had quite a year of ups and downs in the movie. Plus, Lin-Manuel Miranda! I heard he was pretty good in Hamilton, but he was long gone by the time I saw the show.
-
Photo: YouTube Red. I’m eagerly watching developments on Aquaman director James Wan’s upcoming indie horror film Silvercup (working title?), and it’s interesting that he definitely seems to be going for lesser known actors outside of Annabelle Wallis, who starred in Annabelle (but not AS Annabelle, which is a doll). 23-year-old Maddie Hasson just joined the cast, which includes Jake Abel and George Young with plans to start shooting at the end of the month. Hasson appeared in the excellent indie Novitiate (with Margaret Qualley from Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood) and appeared in a number of shows like Twisted and the YouTube Red series Impulse, but this should be a pretty big role for her.
Trailers! Trailers! Trailers!
- Before he gets going on his Shang Chi movie, director Destin Daniel Cretton is doing another movie with Brie Larson — their third together! — this one starring Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Foxx, and it’s the courtroom drama Just Mercy that seems to be vying for awards based on its serious topic and its late December release date. It actually will open in select cities Christmas and then be released nationwide on Jan. 10, something Warner Bros. has done with quite a few hit dramas, including Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper.
- One of my esteemed colleagues doesn’t think there’s any interest in the return of Will Smith and Martin Lawrence for the threequel Bad Boys for Life (or “3ads 3oys 4 Life” if you’re really into having numbers in your sequel titles), and I can’t wait for him to eat his words when it comes out next January, and it makes a bucketload of money. I mean, come on, this is Smith and Lawrence as the characters that first made them popular outside their TV sitcom roles. That’s opening a week after Just Mercy on January 17.
- Horror remakes go hand in hand with the holidays like peanut butter and thumb tacks, but that’s not stopping Blumhouse and Universal from making yet ANOTHER remake of the 1974 horror… listen, I’m not even going to call it a “classic” because a.) It wasn’t great and b.) it helped kick off the slasher sub-genre that I’ve never been a huge fan of. Regardless, the makers of Get Out and the hit 2018 Halloween remake are giving Black Christmas another go, ignoring the disappointing 2006 remake starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Michelle Trachtenberg.The cool thing about this one is that it was directed by Sophia Takal, whose indie film Always Shine is quite a treat, and her cast includes Imogen Poots and Cary Elwes from a little movie called Saw. This one will open on December 13.
- Going even further OFF the Beaten track is the new trailer for Zack Galifiankis’ Between Two Ferns: The Movie, which will be on Netflix in October, but hey, I found most of those faux interviews funny, since there have been so many times when I wanted to deliberately bomb an interview.
Also, because it wouldn’t be a Studio Coffee Run without even a mention of the great Taika Waititi, Fox Searchlight released a new trailer and poster for his new movie Jojo Rabbit, which premieres at the Toronto Film Festival this weekend.
Before we leave, there are some interesting rumors circulating about Fox’s long-delayed The New Mutants movie, the latest being that Disney/Marvel are trying to cut any and all ties to the recently demised “X-Men” franchise. The movie doesn’t open until next April, so we probably won’t know for sure what’s going on until then. Frankly, I think they should just put it on Hulu since it’s probably too dark for Disney+.
That’s it for this week’s Studio Coffee Run. I’m taking next week off, but Mr. Josh Hilgenberg will have you well covered both on Tuesday and Friday
“And it’s actor Will Poulter, last seen over the summer in Ari Aster‘s Hereditary, who kind of looks like he belongs in a Lord of the Rings series, I guess, even at 6’2” tall. He’s clearly too tall to play a hobbit or elf without CGing everything and everyone around him, but hey, he is NOT the worst actor in the world, so it’s good to hear he might have a steady gig.”
Tolkien’s Elves are not short. If anything they tend to be taller than Men. In any case, I’m not expecting any Hobbits to show up in the Second Age.
This is true. Yet both Cate Blanchett and Orlando Bloom are both under 6 feet. I guess Hugo Weaving was ducking cause he’s 6’2″.
Comments are closed.