Movie News & Trailers: Coming Attractions

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Talk about upcoming movies here.

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Uncle Retrospective

Maybe even more fun was the in-universe Johnny Cage trailer from yesterday:

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Uncle Retrospective

Heh. Okay, now I kinda want to see this Mortal Kombat movie, which is not something I thought could happen.

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Uncle Retrospective, Dave

Taika Waititi Tackling ‘Judge Dredd’ Movie in Hot Package Hitting Hollywood (Exclusive) – Hollywood Reporter

Drew Pearce, whose screenwriting credits include ‘Fall Guy’ and ‘Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation,’ is attached to write the script.

Judge Dredd Taika Waititi.

Those two names have studio heads and executives sitting up this week as one of the hottest packages of the year hits the Hollywood marketplace.

Waititi, the Thor: Ragnarok and Jojo Rabbit filmmaker, is attached to direct a new feature film take on Dredd, the popular and violent British comic book character.

Drew Pearce, the scribe known for his action movie-filled resume thanks to titles such as Fall Guy and Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, is attached to write the script.

Producers include Dredd rights holders Chris Kingsley, Jason Kingsley and Ben Smith of Rebellion Developments, Roy Lee of Vertigo Entertainment, Jeremy Platt, Natalie Viscuso and Pearce.

Sources say Pearce and Waititi both grew up with the books and are friends who have been trying to find a project to work on together for years.

Created in the late 1970s by writer John Wagner and artist Carlos Ezquerra, Dredd debuted in the pages of weekly British anthology 2000 AD. He is a police officer in the bleak future metropolis of Mega-City One, part of a law enforcement corps that empowers officers to be judge, jury, and executioner. The character and his stories were a satire on a judicial system taken to the extreme. Dredd proved hugely popular, engendering several more comics and comics strips, video and board games, books, and even postage stamps in the United Kingdom. It is said that over 100,000,000 comics and graphic novels have been sold.

The character was given the glossy Hollywood treatment in 1995 with a big-budget adaptation that starred Sylvester Stallone. It was poorly received. More warmly was the reception for Dredd, a 2012 adaptation that starred Karl Urban with a script by Alex Garland, the writer behind 28 Days Later, who also wrote and directed Civil War.

The logline is being kept under the visor, but the pitch is said to take inspiration more from the comics than the previous screen iterations, leaning into the world-building and dark humor. It is also meant to be a fun sci-fi blockbuster that nonetheless speaks to this moment in culture. The desire is to see the movie launch a Dredd universe that could be explored with additional movies and shows across various platforms.

Sean Robinson wrote:

The logline is being kept under the visor, but the pitch is said to take inspiration more from the comics than the previous screen iterations, leaning into the world-building and dark humor. It is also meant to be a fun sci-fi blockbuster that nonetheless speaks to this moment in culture. The desire is to see the movie launch a Dredd universe that could be explored with additional movies and shows across various platforms.

Cool. I liked the Alex Garland Dredd, but I like Pearce’s writing a lot, and I Waititi would be a great fit for the more satirical, funnier sides of Dredd. I really hope this happens, it could be awesome.

But, you know. Waititi is at the same time in pre-production for a Star Wars movie, the Incal movie, a revisionist Huck Finn movie, and a Kazuo Ishiguro robot movie adaptation. Plus, he’s producing like twenty TV shows.

So… we’ll see how far this goes. Fingers crossed.

Christian wrote:

But, you know. Waititi is at the same time in pre-production for a Star Wars movie, the Incal movie, a revisionist Huck Finn movie, and a Kazuo Ishiguro robot movie adaptation. Plus, he’s producing like twenty TV shows.

So he’s not doing Akira any more? Thank fuck.

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Christian

Dave wrote:

Christian wrote:

But, you know. Waititi is at the same time in pre-production for a Star Wars movie, the Incal movie, a revisionist Huck Finn movie, and a Kazuo Ishiguro robot movie adaptation. Plus, he’s producing like twenty TV shows.

So he’s not doing Akira any more? Thank fuck.

The Akira rights finally expired a few weeks ago, so nobody’s working on it now, until another studio pays up.

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Christian

Bradley Cooper has a new movie coming out, in which Will Arnett plays… John Bishop??

https://www.filmlinc.org/nyff2025/daily/bradley-coopers-is-this-thing-on-will-make-world-premiere-as-closing-night-of-the-63rd-new-york-film-festival/

Will Arnett and Laura Dern play Alex and Tess Novak, whose marriage has reached an impasse. With amicable sorrow, the couple—parents of two young boys—mutually agree to split up. Yet in director Bradley Cooper’s keenly observed comic drama, their separation leads to unpredictable midlife self-reckonings, most dramatically in Alex’s wild career pivot to become a confessional stand-up comedian in New York City’s West Village, where he finds new direction and camaraderie. This seemingly outlandish scenario—in a script by Cooper, Arnett, and Mark Chappell inspired by the true story of British comedian John Bishop—is never played for easy laughs

‘Highlander’: Dave Bautista to Play Villain Opposite Henry Cavill in Amazon MGM’s Remake – Hollywood Reporter

Dave Bautista in final negotiations to play the villain in Amazon MGM’s remake of the 1980s cult classic Highlander.

The actor will join Henry Cavill and Russell Crowe in the action fantasy, which hails from Amazon MGM’s United Artists banner and is slated to get a theatrical release.

Chad Stahelski is directing the feature that is due to begin principal photography at the end of the September and shoot in locales in the UK as well as Hong Kong.

More in link…

New ‘Archie’ Movie Set at Universal Pictures – Hollywood Reporter

‘Spider-Verse’ producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller are behind the studio pic based on the Archie comic books about Archie, Veronica, Betty and their friends, with Archie Comics producing.

A feature adaptation of the Archie comic books is in the works at Universal Pictures, with Spider-Verse franchise producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller at the helm.

Tom King, the Eisner-winning comic book author (Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow) making a push into screenwriting, will pen the script for the untitled Archie movie, with plot details for the film remaining under wraps.

“We are longtime fans of Archie, Veronica, Betty and the gang in all of their iterations. When we heard Tom King’s take on the classic material, we instantly thought it made sense as an event movie for all audiences — both lifelong fans and a whole new generation. We’re so excited to bring these beloved characters to the big screen,” said Lord and Miller in a statement on Wednesday.

More in link…

That looks fucking awesome! I hope I can see this one in a theatre. The rate at which Lanthimos is putting out movies is insane, though, I haven’t even seen Kinds of Kindness.

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Sean Robinson, Dave, Todd

Kinds of Kindness is great fun. That trailer almost looks like it could be a fourth story strand from that movie.

[Christian]

Speaking of terrible trailers with Grogu and the fucking Mandalorian, the first trailer for The Bride! is fucking amazing. I knew nothing about this movie and now I desperately want to watch it.

Kudos, Miss Gyllenhall!

Edited to add the “!” to “The Bride!”, because that makes the title of the movie so much cooler.

• This reply was modified 8 months, 3 weeks ago by Christian.

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Todd, Dave

The single-movie version of Kill Bill is finally getting a wide release in December.

https://variety.com/2025/film/news/kill-bill-the-whole-bloody-affair-sets-theatrical-release-1236536800/

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Todd, Sean Robinson, njerry

Godzilla Minus One “2” has a name: Godzilla Minus Zero – The Verge

Zero.For Godzilla Day 2025, Toho has revealed the name of its follow-up to the 2023 flick, Godzilla Minus One, a year after we saw the first teaser for the sequel.
All it seems to confirm is the name, Godzilla -0.0 (Godzilla Minus Zero), and the return of writer/director Takashi Yamazaki.

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Uncle Retrospective, Todd

Gremlins 3 is on the way.

https://variety.com/2025/film/news/gremlins-3-release-date-november-2027-1236571272/

Dave wrote:

Gremlins 3 is on the way.

https://variety.com/2025/film/news/gremlins-3-release-date-november-2027-1236571272/

Directed by Chris Columbus.

FFS.

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Sean Robinson, Todd

Uncle Retrospective wrote:

Dave wrote:

Gremlins 3 is on the way.

https://variety.com/2025/film/news/gremlins-3-release-date-november-2027-1236571272/

Directed by Chris Columbus.

FFS.

Yeah, I know Columbus wrote the original, but he hasn’t made a decent movie in over 30 years.

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Uncle Retrospective, Todd

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Sean Robinson

Dave wrote:

Wow. That’s how they’re going to play a Jackson biopic? No look at his darker side at all? Not even the way he himself was abused in his childhood?

Be interesting to see if there are enough hardcore fans left to turn this into a success.

Few years ago, there was an art exhibition about him here (well, it was an international exhibition, but it was also shown here). It included the accusations and other critical things. It was interesting to take a guided tour because there were some hardcore fans in the group – including sparkly gloves and whatnot – and it was very clear they were not having any of that. No bad word against their god-king.

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Todd

I think there have been some legal issues around the settlements with the victims that prevent their stories from being included in the biopic. But I agree, if they don’t include any of that aspect of his life at all then it will feel like a complete whitewash.

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Christian

Dave wrote:

I think there have been some legal issues around the settlements with the victims that prevent their stories from being included in the biopic. But I agree, if they don’t include any of that aspect of his life at all then it will feel like a complete whitewash.

It being a complete whitewash is the point. It’s been reported that the original third act of this movie was the early 90s trial, in a way that made clear that the family made it up and were only suing for the money.

They filmed all of that, and it was supposed to be out around now, but after they finished someone told the producers that the settlement with the family included a clause that the case could never be depicted in film, and they had to scrap it all.

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Todd

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Al-x

Super Mario Galaxy: Um… sure, I guess.

Toy Story 5: Man, I haven’t even 3 and 4 yet! I did smile at the premise, that’s a good one.

Toy Story 3 is genuinely a masterpiece, you should watch it.

Toy Story 4 is OK but is the first one where you felt like maybe they should have just left the whole thing alone. Weirdly it’s really kind of saved by two new characters voiced by Key and Peele.

We’ll see how 5 goes but I’m not getting my hopes up.

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Christian

Some guerilla footage of the filming of the upcoming Zelda movie.

Suspect that footage won’t survive long.

Dave wrote:

Toy Story 3 is genuinely a masterpiece, you should watch it. Toy Story 4 is OK but is the first one where you felt like maybe they should have just left the whole thing alone.

I would confidently omit the ‘maybe’ from that sentence. TS3 is a perfect ending to an excellent trilogy. They really should have left it alone as the 4th was pretty average.

So Christian, watch TS3. Imagine it finishes there.

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Christian, njerry, Dave

The 100 Best Comedy Movies of All Time

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Sean Robinson, Uncle Retrospective

Scarlett Johansson to Star in New ‘Exorcist’ Horror Movie for Blumhouse, Universal – Hollywood Reporter

Mike Flanagan, who previously tackled Stephen King adaptations ‘Gerald’s Game’ and ‘Doctor Sleep,’ is writing and will direct the feature film.

Scarlett Johansson will star in Mike Flanagan’s “fresh, bold” take on The Exorcist.

Blumhouse and Universal are behind the latest attempt to revive the horror franchise, which follows the companies’ ill-fated effort to launch a franchise with 2023’s The Exorcist: Believer.

Flanagan wrote the script and is directing and producing the new feature that is not a remake nor a sequel but set in the Exorcist “universe,” whatever that entails.

The original Exorcist, based on the novel by William Peter Blatty and directed by William Friedkin, focused on the demonic possession of a young girl and the priests that try to save her. The film was nominated for 10 Oscars. The various follow-ups mostly featured stories centered on the girl (now grown-up), the back stories of the priests or other demonic cases detectives from the first movie investigated.

…more in link…

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njerry

Glen Powell Goes to Extremes to Secure His Inheritance in A24’s ‘How to Make a Killing’ Trailer – Hollywood Reporter

Margaret Qualley and Ed Harris also star in director John Patton Ford’s thriller feature that hits theaters early next year.

Writer-director John Patton Ford’s thriller feature hits theaters Feb. 20, 2026. Margaret Qualley, Jessica Henwick, Zach Woods, Topher Grace, Bill Camp and Ed Harris round out the cast.

How to Make a Killing is inspired by director Robert Hamer’s 1949 British crime movie Kind Hearts and Coronets. The new film centers on Becket Redfellow (Powell), who has been cast aside by his phenomenally wealthy family and will go to any lengths necessary — including violence — to ensure his inheritance.
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James Cameron-Backed $1 Billion U.K. Film Studio Gets Go-Ahead From British Government – Hollywood Reporter[=B]

Marlow Studios was initially denied planning permission over conservation and sustainability fears, but development is now set to go ahead.

A 750 million pound ($986m) film studio in Buckinghamshire, England, has been given the go-ahead by the British government.

Marlow Studios was initially denied planning permission over conservation and sustainability fears, but an appeal to the U.K.’s Housing, Communities and Local Government department was successful and the campus — dubbed by Marlow CEO Robert Laycock as “a bespoke facility, leading in emerging technology and design that drives creativity and storytelling” — has received the green light.

The lot is set to boast 18 soundstages and a skills academy among extensive production facilities, rivaling the millions of pounds spent annually on the likes of Elstree, Pinewood and Leavesden and a key show of support for the country’s creative industries.

Director Sam Mendes and Neal Street’s Pippa Harris are among the studio’s backers as well as acclaimed filmmaker James Cameron who, according to the Financial Times in 2024, is eyeing Marlow as a potential U.K. and European base and training center for Lightstorm3D, a company he’s set up to develop tools and tech for film.

The news comes as Britain’s top finance minister unveiled her autumn budget Wednesday, an annual event in which the government’s chancellor — in this case, the Labour Party’s Rachel Reeves — outlines the key changes for the next financial year across tax, welfare, housing and public services.

The budget doubled down on government plans that eligible film studios in England will receive a 40 percent reduction on their gross business rates bills until 2034. 

Laycock said the Marlow team are “very pleased” with the outcome. “The determination is a real vote of confidence in the U.K. and in its creative industries,” he commented. “This is a meaningful decision for anyone who believes in the U.K.’s future, our nation’s creative genius, and our unmatched capability to inspire the world.

“We know that Marlow Studios will be a media campus like no other,” he added, “offering the world’s creative businesses a bespoke facility, leading in emerging technology and design that drives creativity and storytelling…. The global creative sector is growing fast, with a pace of change that is driving new investment. New platforms, new technology, including AI and new ways of telling stories require a different approach. Marlow Studios will be the campus that drives creative collaboration for the coming era.”

Victoria Du Croz, head of planning and a partner at Foresters law firm, said the government’s decision “gave greater weight to the wider benefits to justify this development in the Green Belt, including its alignment with the growth agenda given it would attract global investment.”

“Interestingly,” said Du Croz, “the decision found that there would be no severe impact on the highway network in direct contrast to the local council’s decision. The areas around the [major highway] M25 is a hotbed of film studios and it is perhaps telling of the strength of the U.K.’s creative industries that when the devastating L.A. fires hit in January there wasn’t a single film in production in LA’s studios, but the U.K. studios were already busy.”

While the decision by the local council highlighted the negative local impact the film studio would have on infrastructure and highways, she continued, “the government’s growth agenda is its core focus and with millions of square feet of studio space playing host to some of the top films of the current day, the wider economic benefit is hard to turn down.” With major studio presence in the U.K. already, “it does beg the question how the development will be funded and whether it will be built out speculatively.”

That looks really good.

Pattinson is having an interesting career.

Christian wrote:

That looks really good.

Pattinson is having an interesting career.

I saw a movie he did in 2008 called “How to Be”. I was genuinely impressed with his performance. I think he is one of those actors who isn’t afraid to take risks. He is genuinely talented.

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Uncle Retrospective, Bruce

That Street Fighter teaser looks bonkers. Wasn’t sure what to expect when this was announced but looks like they’re going for full tilt silliness with it.

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Dave

Yeah and I think that’s what’s needed. Total cartoonish silliness. Seeing the car at the end totally sold me on it.

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Bruce, Uncle Retrospective

Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland are a family divided in new The Odyssey images (exclusive) – Entertainment Weekly

New exclusive images of Christopher Nolan’s next movie,” The Odyssey,” show Damon, Hathaway, Holland, Robert Pattinson, and Himesh Patel, in adaptation of Homer’s epic.

Christopher Nolan isn’t one for telling small stories — and his next one is no exception. In fact, it’s an epic.

The Oppenheimer Oscar-winner is tackling one of the most expansive stories ever written: Homer’s The Odyssey, a work of Greek literature written around the 8th century BC. He’s reteaming with Matt Damon, who stars as Odysseus, king of Ithaca, on his 10-year trek home following the Trojan War, as seen in Entertainment Weekly’s exclusive new images, along with Himesh Patel’s Eurylochus.

That journey isn’t an easy one: Along the way, he encounters mythical creatures, including the cyclops Polyphemus, as well as the seduce-to-death-by-song Sirens, and the witch Circe, who infamously turned Odysseus’ men into pigs.

More in link, with images…

I’m keen to see this but this is a pretty boring trailer.

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njerry

I like Nolan best when he’s following his weirder concepts. Dunkirk and Oppenheimer just weren’t as interesting to me, and I suspect the same will go for The Odyssee. I am sure it’ll be a good adaptation of the story, but… well, anybody can adapt the Odyssee, you know? But only Nolan will make a movie like Tenet.

Atm I’m not that interested in Odyssey, I might go see it if it has glowing reviews. This teaser is underwhelming.

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njerry

That does look like quite a bit of fun. And it’s nice to see Raimi keeping busy.

Jesus, he’s still quite young given the impact he’s had on our generation, isn’t he? Sixty-six.
Wasn’t even twenty when he made his first short horror film starring Bruce Campbell. Man was that dude lucky he knew Raimi.

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Dave, Uncle Retrospective, Sean Robinson, Todd

Oscar nominations are out – impressive work from Sinners.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/jan/22/sinners-becomes-first-film-in-history-to-earn-16-oscar-nominations

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njerry

Have to say, this looks like a great movie to watch if you’re fourteen.

So when Adam’s in the shop with the sword, there’s a shelf of Big Jim toys behind the girl who talks to him. That was a wildlife adventure toy line Mattel had in the early 80s, and the original Masters of the Universe prototypes were made by taking Big Jim, sculpting additional muscles on the body, and then doing a plastercast of the results.  The Battle Cat toy was just a slight modification of a tiger from Big Jim

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Christian, Dave, Sean Robinson, njerry, Todd

Oh hell yeah

 

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Todd

lorcan_nagle wrote:

Oh hell yeah

 

That looks like so much fun!

I should hate this but I physically can’t.

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Christian

Disney’s live-action remake of beloved classic Robin Hood has been scrapped: “It’s dead sadly”

The live-action remake of Disney’s beloved ’73 animated classic, Robin Hood, has been scrapped, according to the director.

The remake was first reported in 2020, and it was set to be a CGI and live-action hybrid, as well as a musical. Raya and the Last Dragon director Carlos López Estrada was set to helm the film.

“It’s dead sadly. I say sadly because I actually thought there was something really special (and original!) there. Some truly extraordinary music we had figured out for it,” Estrada wrote in a Reddit AMA, adding: “I keep daydreaming about doing it independently with different characters.”

The animated Robin Hood depicts all the major characters as animals, with Robin Hood a red fox, Little John a bear, and Prince John a (pretty scrawny) lion. The Sheriff of Nottingham is a wolf, Maid Marian another red fox, and the rest of the cast are made up of the likes of rabbits, a rooster, a badger, and a snake.
Naturally, then, a lot of the film’s unique charm comes from the animation, which likely would have been stripped away by a live-action reimagining. That’s a sentiment a lot of movie fans are sharing, with one writing on Reddit: “Oh, I know! Let’s take the thing people love about animation and get rid of it! They’ll love animation even more without the animation!”

“There are already too many Robin Hood movies anyways, including the one with Hugh Jackman which comes out this summer,” points out another person.

Someone else simply said, “GOOD!” while another agrees: “This is the best news. These ‘live action’ remakes are stupid.”

However, the news that the film isn’t going ahead is pretty surprising, considering the live-action Lilo and Stitch grossed over $1 billion at the box office last year, and the live-action Moana is arriving in just a few months. It’s unclear when the decision was made to scrap the Robin Hood remake, though.

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njerry

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Sean Robinson

Dune looks good but I’m not sure a movie about an increasingly deranged power-mad dictator needlessly waging war with foreigners in a sandy environment is going to feel particularly resonant this year

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Christian, Uncle Retrospective, Todd, Ben, Sean Robinson, lorcan_nagle

lorcan_nagle wrote:

Co-written by BRIAN K. VAUGHAN!

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Christian, Todd, lorcan_nagle

So that’s why it takes so long for him to write an issue of Saga!!!

Seriously though, I am happy for him. Great to be a part of this, I am sure.

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lorcan_nagle

This looks like great fun.

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Todd, Sean Robinson, njerry

Very In-Bruge-ey dynamic, that one. Not that that’s a bad thing, and after Three Billboards and Banshees, nobody can accuse MacDonagh of too much of the same thing, I’d say.

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Dave, Uncle Retrospective, Todd

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Uncle Retrospective, Todd

‘Rogue Trooper’ First Look: Duncan Jones Unveils His Hand-Crafted Take On ‘2000 AD’ Comic Book’s Dystopian War Machine

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Christian

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Todd, njerry

Dave wrote:

Great, another “get Matt Damon home!” movie…

Seriously, I’m just not feeling it. The casting doesn’t feel right. I’ll see it, but I have very low expectations.

That trailer for the Odyssey is bland. Nothing in it makes me feel I need to some more of this.

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Todd

I love Nolan’s Weird Big Idea movies, but he’s not an interesting director to me when he’s doing “normal” movies. Oppenheimer (sorry), Insomnia, even his Batman movies retrospectively… they’re okay, but I don’t love them.

I suspect the same will go for The Odyssee. Perfectly fine big epic movie about that story, without anything making it particularly special.

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Uncle Retrospective

He also did Dunkirk. I think that one was very forgetable. Yeah some nice cinematography, but other than that nothing special. Some war stuff, some bullets, some people dying bla bla bla

Arjan Dirkse wrote:

He also did Dunkirk. I think that one was very forgetable. Yeah some nice cinematography, but other than that nothing special. Some war stuff, some bullets, some people dying bla bla bla

I thought Dunkirk was excellent! As with most Nolan movies, even when telling a relatively straightforward story he plays with time and structure (see also Oppenheimer), and Zimmer’s music in Dunkirk was superb too and elevated the whole thing another notch.

It might be an unfashionable opinion but I don’t think Nolan has made many bad films. Tenet was a bit of a misfire for me but I always find his films very well-made and thought-provoking and I’m looking forward to The Odyssey.

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Todd, Sean Robinson, njerry

Not saying it’s bad, it’s just not that great. It didn’t stick in my mind like a great movie should.

 

Like can you name any character from Dunkirk without looking it up? Mabe it’s just my memory being bad, I dunno. But if I compare it to a movie like Inglorious Basterds, that movie has lots of specific characters, scenes and details that stick in my mind.

Dave wrote:

It might be an unfashionable opinion but I don’t think Nolan has made many bad films.

Is that unfashionable? I thought with the Oppenheimer hype, he’s at the height of his career now pretty much.

Dave wrote:

Tenet was a bit of a misfire for me

I thought Tenet was great. Very 2D characters, but that wasn’t the point after all. The point was trying to see if he could make the narrative structure of this time travel thing work, and he definitely did.

I like all his Big Idea movies, from Memento to the Prestige (well, this one less than the others) to Inception to Interstellar and Tenet. It’s when he does conventional movies that I think they’re, well, conventional. Well-made, but nothing that’d make me remember them in particular.

Christian wrote:

Is that unfashionable? I thought with the Oppenheimer hype, he’s at the height of his career now pretty much.

I’ve seen a lot more advance criticism of The Odyssey than I have excitement for it. He seems to be one of those popular directors that it’s trendy to say isn’t very good, when I think he actually is very good, technically and conceptually.

Christian wrote:

I thought Tenet was great. Very 2D characters, but that wasn’t the point after all. The point was trying to see if he could make the narrative structure of this time travel thing work, and he definitely did.

See, for me that one didn’t work because it’s one of the few examples of him letting all the clever-clever stuff overwhelm the narrative thrust and emotion of the film. I didn’t have a clue what was meant to be going on in that big climactic backwards-forwards battle, the movie had totally lost me by that point.

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Todd

Christian wrote:

It’s when he does conventional movies that I think they’re, well, conventional. Well-made, but nothing that’d make me remember them in particular.

Where I agree on this is Insomnia. That’s his flattest and most conventional film and doesn’t stand out for me. A big comedown after Memento.

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Todd

Dave wrote:

Christian wrote:

It’s when he does conventional movies that I think they’re, well, conventional. Well-made, but nothing that’d make me remember them in particular.

Where I agree on this is Insomnia. That’s his flattest and most conventional film and doesn’t stand out for me. A big comedown after Memento.

Insomnia had one of the best Easter eggs on its dvd. While they were making the movie, there was an avalanche and they caught it on film. Hilary Swank is just standing there in awe. It was pretty cool.

My favorite Nolan movie is The Prestige.

I did like Insomnia. But Memento is my favorite of his.

 

Looking back at his Batman movies, there is a lot in it that is weird and sort of dumb. Except the first one which was pretty straight forward.

BTW I actually LOLd at this twitter comment: “I didn’t know Helen of Troy could generate so much conflict.”

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Tobias Radesäter, Todd, Uncle Retrospective

I guess I am just gonna wait for the reviews of Odyssey, I might still see it based on that.

 

Odysseus was the original island hopper. There is something magical about travelling the Greek islands. If the cinematography manages to portray that magic, I guess the movie is worth seeing just for that.

Dave wrote:

I thought Dunkirk was excellent! As with most Nolan movies, even when telling a relatively straightforward story he plays with time and structure (see also Oppenheimer), and Zimmer’s music in Dunkirk was superb too and elevated the whole thing another notch.

I loved Dunkirk too. I think it was aided by watching it in Imax with Dolby Atmos, the tick-tock of the soundtrack had me on edge and there’s a palpable relief and my heart rate dropping as they get on the train at the end and it switches to Elgar (or Zimmer’s variation on Enigma).

It’s a very visceral experience and I don’t think it’s really a criticism that Arjan couldn’t remember the characters, it’s a film with very little dialogue. In that sense I think it’s similar to Mad Max: Fury Road in that it’s a visual experience as much as a narrative.

People take the piss out of how precious Nolan can be on insisting his films be seen on the big screen but for some films it is true. I’ll try and see Odyssey on an Imax if I can as it’s the first film done completely with an Imax camera, apparently they can’t normally do that for dialogue scenes because the camera makes too much noise so Nolan had them invent a new one that’s quieter.

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Ben, Todd, Christian, Dave

My experience of seeing Dunkirk in the cinema was slightly ruined by the woman a couple of seats away from me with a pint glass of white wine loudly declaring at the end that the film made no sense because there was no way Tom Hardy’s plane could have been in the air for a week.

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Ben, Sean Robinson, Todd, garjones, njerry

Dave wrote:

I’ve seen a lot more advance criticism of The Odyssey than I have excitement for it. He seems to be one of those popular directors that it’s trendy to say isn’t very good, when I think he actually is very good, technically and conceptually.

Well, I criticised him before it was cool to do so!!!!

I think I wrote at least a dozen or though diatribes about Inception on this forum over the years, after all.

That said, I do think he’s a great director. It’s just that not each of his movies clicks with me (and even when they do, I love to nitpick because it’s the kind of movie you’ll want to think about some more).

I think with the Odysee, the things is more that it’s been caught up in the culture war?

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Ben

Christian wrote:

I think with the Odysee, the things is more that it’s been caught up in the culture war?

Yes I have seen some criticism of the casting, nominally that it is historically inaccurate but seemingly mainly to complain that the cast includes black and trans actors.

Apparently complaints about historical inaccuracy don’t extend to them all having American accents and speaking English though, that’s obviously fine.

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Ben, Sean Robinson, Todd

Eh Hollywood must be Hollywood. If you can’t stand a bit of wokeness it’s not advisable to go to any movie that comes out of the US mainstream these days. I think it’s kinda stupid but I don’t care that much. I just wish they made good movies.

 

 

Arjan Dirkse wrote:

Eh Hollywood must be Hollywood. If you can’t stand a bit of wokeness it’s not advisable to go to any movie that comes out of the US mainstream these days. I think it’s kinda stupid but I don’t care that much. I just wish they made good movies.

 

 

I have never considered Nolan a “woke” director. He is a director with a very specific vision for each project. He casts who he thinks will bring his vision to life. He also has enough clout that I don’t see the studio pushing anything on him without him pushing back harder.

Nah man, it couldn’t possibly be that Lupita Nyong’o and Eliot Page are the best choice for the roles.  It’s gotta be wokeness

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Todd, njerry, Uncle Retrospective

Never until now has a casting decision launched a thousand tweets.

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Christian, Todd

lorcan_nagle wrote:

Nah man, it couldn’t possibly be that Lupita Nyong’o and Eliot Page are the best choice for the roles.  It’s gotta be wokeness

And yet, he casts Matt Damon…

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lorcan_nagle

Well at least he didn’t cast Pedro Pascal.

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Todd, Uncle Retrospective

Who would’ve been one guy who at looks vaguely like he could be Greek…

Complaining about historical accuracy with The Odyssee is a bit like those complaints about Lord of the Rings. Jesus, people, it’s all made up! What, are the cyclopses also not historically accurate?

I get that it’s sometimes hard for people to understand that this doesn’t matter if you’re doing this kind of movie. But it’s not that hard a concept to understand that you can just ignore skin colour and gender in these kind of movies. You can’t if you’re making a MLK biopic, sure, but this one isn’t about history, or even the real world, people. But it’s not like that is really the concern, is it? Or they would’ve complained about Brad Pitt as Achilles, or Diane Kruger as Helen. It’s about them wanting to exclude anybody who doesn’t look like them, because they feel attacked the moment they don’t recognise themselves in even two of fifty faces in a movie.

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garjones, njerry, Dave

Christian wrote:

Or they would’ve complained about Brad Pitt as Achilles, or Diane Kruger as Helen.

Achilles is depicted as blond in the Iliad though. There is a small minority of Greek people who are blond, and in mythology more are described as blond. Like Apollo is usually described as blond. For the record I do think it is dumb when it is done the other way as well, like for the sequel to Passion of the Christ they are letting a Nordic looking man play Jesus. I think blond hair was very uncommon among the Hebrews at the time.

 

But I don’t care that much. I may still go see Odyssey if the reviews are good.

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Todd

Arjan Dirkse wrote:

Achilles is depicted as blond in the Iliad though.

There’s a fasicinating scholarly examination of what the word ξανθός that is used may refer to, which blonde is part of, kind of.

(This was part of a discussion about a BBC/Netflix thing in 2018, nothing to do with Nolan.)

Scholars Respond to Racist Backlash against Black Achilles, Part 2: What did Achilles look like?

It is true that Achilles’ hair is twice described by the adjective ξανθός/xanthos, which is often translated “blonde”: in Iliad book 1 line 197, Achilles, newly enraged by the general Agamemnon’s treatment of him, draws his sword to kill his commander before Athena stops him by seizing him by his “xanthos hair.” In Iliad book 23 line 141 Achilles dedicates a “xanthos lock of hair” at the funeral pyre of Patroclus. Whatever the interpretation of these lines, two words in a 16,000 line poem is not much evidence for the appearance of its hero.
The descriptions of colors found in the Homeric epics match so poorly to our perceptions of color — the most famous example is the epic description of the ocean as “wine dark” — that it used to be thought that the Greeks must have been colorblind. This is untrue, as Mark Bradley (author of a book on ancient color) and Pharos contributor Tim Whitmarsh (in a recent essay on “black Achilles”) have argued: the ancient Greeks could see as many colors as we can but they conceptualized them differently than we do. The sea is described as “wine dark” following tragic passages in the poem because the description represents the mood of the scene more than the superficial color. Any reference to color in the Homeric poems should be examined for its broader symbolism, including the description of Achilles’ hair.
So, we should be cautious about assuming we know what is meant by xanthos. Although the term has consistently been translated “blonde,” “yellow,” and “fair” starting with the earliest English translations of the poem, the d-scholia to the Iliad — ancient scholarship dating from the 5th and 4th century BCE — translated the description of Achilles’ hair from Iliad book 1 using the Greek word πυρρός/purros, which is usually translated “red.” The persistence of the translation “blonde” may be a relic of a time when classical scholars insisted (wrongly) that the ancient Greeks had been conquered by northern Europeans in the (still unproven) “Dorian invasion,” a debunked theory that many white supremacists cite in their appropriations of ancient Greece.
The word xanthos is used in ancient Greek to describe many things that we consider yellow: honey, sunlight, olive oil, etc. But there are also examples of it being used to describe things that we would not call yellow, or even red, which only makes sense if, as noted above, color terms in ancient texts work differently than ours do. Xanthos may refer, for example, not to yellowness but to a shimmering quality. This may be the case in the 34th Homeric Hymn, of unknown date, when the term is used to describe water, which elsewhere in early Greek epic is very often described as “dark.”
In a fragment of the comedies of Antiphanes (fr. 216 Kassel-Austin) xanthos is used to describe the smell of a cooking fish. This shows that ancient color terms may describe aspects of something that are not even visual. Translators of this fragment recognize that the word cannot simply mean “blonde” and translate it “brown fragrance” or “browning scent,” but an 18th century editor, unable to see how xanthos could refer to anything other than a color, rewrote the Greek text to make the line describe not the smell but to some kind of rays of light, which produces the only freely available (but inaccurate) translation of the passage of Athenaeus (14.623c) in which the poem is quoted.
The Homeric epics occasionally describe both gods and humans as having blue hair and/or blue eyebrows, further evidence that we should not be too literal in interpreting descriptions of color. The adjective used is κυανός/kuanos, which is often translated as “dark” (as in the translations linked above) but which is the same word used to describe unmistakably blue things such as lapis lazuli. It has been suggested that the gods’ hair is described with this color because of their association with the sky, which is in keeping with the metaphorical quality of Homeric color terms.
Just as the gods’ hair may be blue because of their heavenly nature, the ancient Homeric scholar Aristonicus explained that the word xanthos in Iliad book 1 is not describing the color of Achilles’ hair at all. He is describing the quality of Achilles’ anger at Agamemnon. Aristonicus wrote: “through this word [that is, xanthos] Homer is hinting at the hot-headedness and irascibility of the hero. For such men are marked by blazing (xanthos) anger (xolos; the word used by Aristonicus is ξανθόχολοι/xanthoxoloi).”
A cross-cultural comparison of the association of color words and emotions found that “in all nations, the colors of anger were black and red,” making it not unreasonable that a color term that ancients connected with “red” would be used to describe Achilles’ anger. Stanley Lombardo’s popular translation of the Iliad begins by describing Achilles’ wrath as “black and murderous.” Lombardo told Pharos that he had “Achilles’ dark mood” in mind when he decided to use a color to characterize his rage.
Achilles’ anger is the organizing theme of the Iliad, announced in the first line of the poem. This anger, not the color of his hair, is his defining characteristic. His hair is only called xanthos twice: once in his initial anger, and once in his grief at the loss of his friend Patroclus, who died because of that anger. Menelaus, by contrast, is described as xanthos twenty-seven times. One might be able to argue that hair color is Menelaus’ defining characteristic (Menelaus is played by brunette Jonas Armstrong in Troy: Fall of a City) but it is hard to do so for Achilles.
Thus when racist commentators, attempting to make a connection between Achilles and the physical traits of the northern Europeans that white supremacists admire, claim that the Iliad says Achilles had blonde hair, they are basing the claim on translations of a term that suppress the range of meanings that word had in antiquity and the way color terms are used in the Homeric epics. The descriptions of Achilles in the Iliad that they cite do not exclude the possibility of Achilles being black.
What’s more, when the Iliad describes Achilles hair as xanthos, it is just as likely to be describing not his literal hair color but the quality of the anger which, unlike his supposed “race,” is Achilles’ defining characteristic in that poem.

This looks terrible in all the right ways

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njerry, Todd

Arjan Dirkse wrote:

There is a small minority of Greek people who are blond, and in mythology more are described as blond.

I think there’s a general denial that apart from a few Scandiavians blonds are only children. My father was blond as an infant, he had hair like Jack Nicholson by his 50s, my younger brother was blond, now black. I had hazelnut brown hair, black since I was 20. Blond hair in any adult is 95% hair dye.

That’s why it hugely rare outside women as men are too lazy to bother with dye.

lorcan_nagle wrote:

This looks terrible in all the right ways

That looks fun.

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lorcan_nagle

‘Disclosure Day’ First Reactions Laud Emily Blunt’s Performance, Declare It “Spielberg’s Best Film In 20 Years” – Deadline

“First reactions” on social media are usually laudatory and vague, and those around Steven Spielberg‘s upcoming Disclosure Day are no less so. But the specifics they do offer are intriguing and somewhat atypical, given that those posting call the film “funny,” the director’s “weirdest” and call out its “X-Files-meets-The Bible script.”

Scroll down for a sampling.

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