Matthew Monagle
The ‘Sicario’ Screenwriter Explains Why Emily Blunt Won’t Be Back for the Sequels
Let’s say you’ve been given three wishes by one of those C-list celebrities that keep appearing as the Ghost of Christmas Whatever in Hallmark specials. What do you wish for? Since I like to think of myself as a good person, I’d probably spend the first two wishes ridding the world of hunger and violence or cleaning up our carbon footprint with a snap of my fingers. But my third? That one I might waste on unlimited money, so I could continue to make movies that solidifies Emily Blunt as the biggest action star of our generation. Forget Scarlett Johansson; after The Huntsman: Winter’s War, Sicario, and Edge of Tomorrow, Blunt is the woman to beat in my book.
A New Studio Could Mean New Problems for ‘The Crow Reborn’
It’s probably fair to assume that if a movie ever made a little bit of money at the box office, someone somewhere is hard at work on a reboot, prequel, sequel, or ‘reimagining’ of the franchise. Back in 2015, for example, we were inundated with rumors that The Crow was getting a reboot, first with Jack Huston playing the undead spirit of vengeance and then Justice League star Jason Momoa in the role. For a lot of movies, this is where the rumors dry up, but for The Crow Reborn, the headaches had just begun. Now Relativity Media has sold the rights to their tortured production and a whole new round of rumors and speculation can begin.
‘Jurassic World 2’ Will Start Filming Next March
One of the peculiarities of the modern studio system is that we often know the date a movie will be released long before we know the date when a movie will actually go into production. For example, we’ve known since last year that Jurassic World 2 would be released in June of 2018, but here it is, the end of 2016, and we’re just now learning the timeline to actually make the darn thing. Production schedules, like box office gross, sometimes have a logic all their own.
Director Joe Carnahan Provides Some Much-Needed ‘Bad Boys 3’ Updates
If there’s one thing that Joe Carnahan excels at, it’s overshooting our expectations. I promise that isn’t just faint praise: Carnahan has rebooted The A-Team as a summer movie; shot a feature-length film where Liam Neeson punches wolves; released an ensemble action film about the mob trying to kill a magician. Each of these films could have been a disaster in the wrong hands, but Carnahan has consistently delivered fun and thoughtful action movies where audiences least expect it. For my money, that makes him one of the most underrated writer-directors working in the action genre today.
Want to See ‘Rogue One’ Early? Fly to the United Kingdom
How far would you go to see one of the most anticipated movies of the year a few days early? Would you drive to the theater on the other side of town? Drive to a neighboring city? Cross state boundaries? Or — gee, I don’t know — fly all the way from your hometown to the United Kingdom for a chance to see a movie like Rogue One: A Star Wars Story 24 hours before everyone else?
This Horror Movie Supercut Is Perfect for Your Halloween Party
How are your plans for Halloween shaping up? For me, the hardest part of throwing a Halloween party is choosing a soundtrack. We can probably all agree that those sound effect CDs — the ones with creaking doors and thunder and maniacal laughter — have no business outside of an elementary school haunted house, but then what? Do you put together a playlist of all the obvious soundtrack selections? Do you choose pop songs that have some vague tie-in to the season? Who really wants to hear Warren Zevon’s “Werewolves of London” on Halloween for the umpteenth time, anyways?
‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ Star on Rey’s Parents: ‘We Will See in a Year’
While Star Wars: The Force Awakens left us with plenty of unanswered questions, perhaps no question looms as big over the franchise as the lineage of Daisy Ridley’s Rey. Ever since the film was released, fan theories have run wild with the questions of why Rey was abandoned by her parents and how she may have come by her force sensitivity. Is she the daughter of Obi-Wan Kenobi? Is she the daughter of Luke Skywalker? What is the significance of that flashback sequence? Inquiring minds want to know.
Watch Keanu Reeves Train With Firearms for ‘John Wick Chapter 2’
While there are no shortage of talented action stars working today, I’d be hard-pressed to name two American actors I like more than Tom Cruise and Keanu Reeves. Both Cruise and Reeves are often called upon to learn elaborate fight choreography in lieu of snappy editing or misleading camera work. We’ve come to appreciate each actor’s hard work with the training reels for movies like John Wick and Collateral, and speaking frankly, watching someone like Keanu Reeves practice his quick draw for hours on end is the perfect cure for whatever bad CGI ails you.
Ewan McGregor Could See Himself Doing Two Obi-Wan Movies
When an actor expresses interest in returning to an iconic role, I always wonder whether the actor needs the movie more than the studio needs the actor. Ron Perlman, for example, has spent years talking up his interest in another Hellboy movie, despite it being fairly obvious that the studio had no real interest in getting that project off the ground. So when Ewan McGregor told reporters last year that he would come back for an Obi-Wan Kenobi standalone movie, I wondered: does this make sense for everyone involved? Or was McGregor just doing the Hollywood equivalent of jumping on a trending hashtag?
Watch This Supercut of All Available ‘Rogue One’ Footage
It seems like the only time that people talk about trailers is to complain about them in some fashion. They gave away too much, they gave away too little, they didn’t feature the right colors or characters or soundtrack. It’s tough to cut an enticing movie trailer in 2016, not least of all because of our culture’s increasing hand-wringing about what constitutes a spoiler. A good trailer — one that gives you just enough without giving you everything — should be celebrated as its own miniature art form.