Welcome to 2020, the year everyone sees more clearly!

As can be expected, there hasn’t been a lot happening in Hollywood over the last couple weeks since my last Studio Coffee Run.

Because of that, I won’t be doing the regular sections, but we’ll just go through all of the stuff that’s been happening over the last couple weeks.

Netflix Top 10

First of all, Netflix released a list of its top 10 movies and shows of 2019 from viewership, and there are only a few real surprises:

  1. Murder Mystery
  2. Stranger Things 3
  3. 6 Underground
  4. The Incredibles 2
  5. The Irishman
  6. The Witcher
  7. Triple Frontier
  8. Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile
  9. The Umbrella Academy
  10. The Highwayman

There’s only one movie on the list that wasn’t produced by Netflix and that was Disney’s The Incredibles 2, which presumably will be on Disney+ soon, if it isn’t already. Of Netflix’s fall season releases, only The Irishman made it onto the top 10 – no Marriage Story or Dolemite is my Name – but Michael Bay’s 6 Underground, which just debuted, is almost at the top of the list. Despite bad reviews, the new series The Witchermade it onto the list while other series like the Dark Crystalprequel are nowhere to be found.  Still, it was Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston’s Murder Mystery, which topped the entire list, proving that Netflix made a good investment in Sandler.

Are you ready for more Baby Yoda and Marvel in 2020?

Filmmaker Jon Favreau took to social media just after Christmas to announce that his popular Disney+ series, The Mandalorian, would be back in the fall of 2020.

 

Not only that, but apparently, we’ll get Marvel’s WandaVisionAND The Falcon and the Winter Soldierseries next year, rather than having to wait for them until 2021, as originally announced. This was announced via Disney+’s 2020 highlight reel, which you can watch below.

DEADPOOL 3 is happening… duh! 

This isn’t that big a shock really as many have been saying that a third “Deadpool” movie was in some form of development, but actor Ryan Reynolds appeared on Live with Kelly and Ryan just before Christmas. When asked about Deadpool 3, he said that they were working on it, and suddenly, that was the biggest news of the week. In fact, this really is no surprise, but we have to remember that films need to be written, sometimes a timely process, and then we’ll have to wait and see who directs it – will David Leitch return? Or Tim Miller? – and who might be brought on board in terms of new cast or characters. For a while, Fox’s plan was to do an X-Force movie but is that still in play? Surely another Deadpool movie will be done in a way that the character can transition into the MCU, right?

Jon Chu wants a Rose Tico series for Disney+

Rose Tico
Lucasfilm

There was quite a lot of aggravation over the holidays after people went to see Star Wars: the Rise of Skywalker and were disappointed by how little Kelly Marie Tran’s character, Rose Tico, appeared in the movie. It began the hashtag #RoseTicoDeservedBetter, but one person that went even further was filmmaker Jon M. Chu (Crazy Rich Asians) who took to Twitter to pitch a Rose Tico series for Disney+. Granted, it’s not too surprising that one of Hollywood’s better known Asian filmmakers would want to see better Asian representation in a franchise like “Star Wars,” but since when is Twitter the best place for  anyone to pitch a project, except maybe to get some internet support for when they actually have an idea for a show?

 

Is Tarantino directing Star Trek or not?

 Just before the holidays, it seemed like Quentin Tarantino was slowly backing away from making a “Star Trek” movie, but while doing press at the Whistler Film Festival, actor Simon Pegg, who played “Scotty” in the last three movies and even co-wrote Star Trek Beyond, said that he would have been part of that Tarantino movie, as would the other actors introduced in JJ Abrams’ 2009 reboot.  You can watch Pegg’s full interview with GoldDerby.com below, but essentially, this is what was said:

As far as I know, Quentin Tarantino’s Star Trek idea is still kind of in the mix. That’s down to [him] about what he wants to do next. There’s been talk of various spinoffs possibly. We’ll see. I’m always happy to get back into that universe. I think it’ll be bittersweet for us now to do another one after losing Anton [Yelchin], just because we were very much a family. And we’ll miss him more than we normally do, because he will be conspicuous by his absence. But we’ll see what happens.

 

What’s odd is that back in July, Tarantino took a shot at Pegg for speaking out on the project, saying that he doesn’t know anything about it, so why on earth would Pegg go back on the record again, if this is the case?

Filmmakers ditching projects

It wasn’t all wine and roses over the holidays as Bumblebee director Travis Knight seems to have stepped away from the long-in-development Uncharted movie, because Tom Holland’s schedule for the next Spider-Man movie delaying that movie’s production. On top of that, the Safdie Brothers, whose Uncut Gems, starring Adam Sandler, announced over the weekend that they won’t be involved with the 48 Hours remake, which definitely would be in their wheelhouse, the original movie having influenced their 2018 film, Good Time.

PARASITE is back in black… and white

Parasite
NEON

Another interesting tidbit from the holiday break was the fact that director Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite, a movie that’s been killing it with critics and at the box office as one of the highest grossing Korean films of all time.

Director Bong is bringing a special black and white version of the movie to the Rotterdam Film Festival in Holland, so we’ll have to see if the movie’s distributor NEON decides to release that version in some form Stateside.

But will there be any interesting new additions to Hasbro’s toy line?

One of the stories that got lost in the shuffle over the holiday break was that toy giant Hasbro bought distributor and production company Entertainment One for $3.8 billion. Most of you will probably be more familiar with the former than the latter, but Entertainment One (i.e. eOne) is one of the bigger distributors outside of the United States, as well as producer of a number of mid-range indie films. Chances are that this purchase was done to help with Hasbro’s place in the entertainment field, having a strong production company and distributor under its belt, but it also could be due to the popularity of eOne’s “Peppa Pig” franchise, which would be quite profitable for a toy company. We’ll have to see if Hasbro continues eOne’s push into the prestige adult arthouse fare that it’s become known for or just uses it to help product more family-friendly fare.

Okay, we actually do have one trailer to wrap up this edition of Studio Coffee Run, and that’s the new trailer for John Krasinski’s A Quiet Place: Part II, which once again puts Emily Blunt into this post-Apocalyptic world filled with aliens who attack when they hear any small sound. The sequel looks just as tense and exciting as the original movie, and it will hit theaters on March 20.

That’s it for this week’s Friday Edition. Josh Hilgenberg will be back on Tuesday and then I’ll be right back here next Friday.

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9 COMMENTS

  1. Rose Tico was a boring character who brought nothing to the Last Jedi. The long sequence she was in could actually be excised from the film and you wouldn’t notice it was gone because at the end of it nothing changed and her mission proved to be pointless.

  2. After her treatment in Rise of Skywalker, I wouldn’t blame Tran for saying “Screw this franchise.” And “Screw aging, clueless male fans like the one who posted above.”

    Disney let the sexist, racist trolls know that if they scream loudly enough, The Mouse will roll over for them.

  3. “No Explanation Can Justify Kelly Marie Tran’s Tiny Role in The Rise of Skywalker”

    https://slate.com/culture/2020/01/rise-of-skywalker-kelly-marie-tran-rose-chris-terrio-explanation.html

    “If (co-writer Chris) Terrio and J.J. Abrams agreed that something was wrong with Rose as a character, then they should’ve corrected it by writing Rose better, not by writing her out. In doing so, they’ve set a terrible precedent of rewarding fans’ bad behavior.”

  4. “No Explanation Can Justify Kelly Marie Tran’s Tiny Role in The Rise of Skywalker”

    Except she was a terrible character who had a terrible story line that provoked significant fan backlash over how terrible it all was. And the bad behavior here from fans ISN’T coming from those who don’t like Rose Tico and what she represents. It’s from people like George who’ve apparently decided that THEY own Star Wars now and THEY get what THEY want and everyone else can just suck it. Even George Lucas stopped ramming Jar Jar down people’s throats.

    By the way, “The Rise of Skywalker” is now on track to possibly make less money at the box office than “Rogue One” and I don’t think it’s because fans are outraged over the treatment of Rose Tico.

    Mike

  5. “By the way, “The Rise of Skywalker” is now on track to possibly make less money at the box office than “Rogue One” and I don’t think it’s because fans are outraged over the treatment of Rose Tico.”

    There are various reasons for “ROS”s disappointing box office (bad word of mouth; poor reviews; burn-out after 5 movies in 4 years). But it’s NOT because everyone hated “The Last Jedi.”

    Real people in the real world (as opposed to hardcore geeks) liked “Last Jedi” just fine. It was people who wouldn’t know a good movie if they tripped over one — which describes the typical fanboy — who hated that movie.

    BTW, Rian Johnson’s “Knives Out” is still playing and is GREAT!

  6. “But it’s NOT because everyone hated “The Last Jedi.””

    Numbers don’t lie. “The Last Jedi” made significantly less than “The Force Awakens.” “Solo” was an outright bomb. Now “The Rise of Skywalker” is on pace to make not only less than “The Last Jedi” but possibly less than the spin-off “Rogue One.” These are facts.

    Marvel also made about 20 movies in 10 years and concluded it with the biggest box office hit of all time. This is also a fact.

    By the way, throwing in a Rian Johnson shout out is a perfect way to label yourself as “the typical fanboy.”

    Mike

  7. “By the way, throwing in a Rian Johnson shout out is a perfect way to label yourself as “the typical fanboy.”

    Mike, your total lack of self-awareness continues to amaze me.

    “Marvel also made about 20 movies in 10 years and concluded it with the biggest box office hit of all time. This is also a fact.”

    Adjusted for inflation, “Gone With the Wind” is still the biggest box office hit of all time, followed by the 1977 “Star Wars.” “Avengers: Endgame” isn’t even in the top 20. It has sold far fewer tickets than movies made 80 years earlier.

    People just don’t have the same insatiable appetite for Star Wars that they currently have for Marvel. As I said earlier, most people are content with SW being a “once in a while” thing. Too much SW has been shoved at them lately.

  8. Uh, you do know “Gone With the Wind” was made before television and the internet… right? “Endgame” may have sold fewer tickets but it also faced an exponentially more competitive entertainment market. But that’s besides the point, which is that Marvel produced far more content without dimming the fan’s appetite.

    “The Last Jedi” made only about $20 million less its opening weekend than “The Force Awakens.” It went on to make $300 million less in America and $700 million less worldwide. “Solo,” the movie that immediately followed “The Last Jedi,” made $300 million less than “Rogue One” in America and $600 million less world wide. These are facts.

    One of us is lacking in self-awareness. It ain’t me.

    Mike

  9. Mike, you are aware that books, radio, pulps, newspapers and comic books existed when GWTW came out in 1939? There has always been competition for people’s entertainment hours — and in the Depression, a lot of people stopped going to movies and stayed home with their radios.

    But you’ve probably never heard of the Depression or seen a movie older than the first Star Wars. It’s fanboys like you who give fanboys a bad name, Mikey.

Comments are closed.