It’s a new month and Netflix is here with some much-anticipated new original movies and TV shows. As always Netflix is proving itself by releasing compelling content month after month on its platform. This month is no different as there will be something new for everyone, from comedy to drama and action to fantasy. So, here are the best new original movies and shows coming on Netflix in June 2024.
Sweet Home Season 3 (June 6)
Sweet Tooth is coming to an end with its third and final season. Based on a DC comic book limited series of the same name by Jeff Lemire, the Netflix series is going to tell its final story on June 6. In Season 3 we will see Gus and his group of friends heading to Alaska to find his mother who is working to uncover the mystery behind the deadly Sick. In his journey to find answers he...
Sweet Home Season 3 (June 6)
Sweet Tooth is coming to an end with its third and final season. Based on a DC comic book limited series of the same name by Jeff Lemire, the Netflix series is going to tell its final story on June 6. In Season 3 we will see Gus and his group of friends heading to Alaska to find his mother who is working to uncover the mystery behind the deadly Sick. In his journey to find answers he...
- 5/29/2024
- by Kulwant Singh
- Cinema Blind
Descubre todos los detalles. © Netflix
Netflix ha desatado la acción con el primer tráiler y póster de su nueva película “Detonantes” (“Trigger Warning”), protagonizada por Jessica Alba.
“Detonantes” sigue a Parker (Jessica Alba), miembro del comando de las Fuerzas Especiales, que se encuentra en servicio activo en el extranjero cuando la llaman para que regrese a su ciudad natal con la trágica noticia de que su padre ha muerto repentinamente. Allí se reencuentra con su antiguo novio, convertido en sheriff, Jesse (Mark Webber), su temperamental hermano Elvis (Jake Weary) y el senador Swann (Anthony Michael Hall), mientras trata de entender qué le ocurrió realmente a su padre. La búsqueda de respuestas de Parker no tarda en torcerse y se ve enfrentada a una violenta banda que campa a sus anchas por su ciudad natal. Insegura de en quién puede confiar realmente, Parker recurre a su entrenamiento de comando mientras busca...
Netflix ha desatado la acción con el primer tráiler y póster de su nueva película “Detonantes” (“Trigger Warning”), protagonizada por Jessica Alba.
“Detonantes” sigue a Parker (Jessica Alba), miembro del comando de las Fuerzas Especiales, que se encuentra en servicio activo en el extranjero cuando la llaman para que regrese a su ciudad natal con la trágica noticia de que su padre ha muerto repentinamente. Allí se reencuentra con su antiguo novio, convertido en sheriff, Jesse (Mark Webber), su temperamental hermano Elvis (Jake Weary) y el senador Swann (Anthony Michael Hall), mientras trata de entender qué le ocurrió realmente a su padre. La búsqueda de respuestas de Parker no tarda en torcerse y se ve enfrentada a una violenta banda que campa a sus anchas por su ciudad natal. Insegura de en quién puede confiar realmente, Parker recurre a su entrenamiento de comando mientras busca...
- 5/22/2024
- by Marta Medina
- mundoCine
Netflix has debuted the first official trailer for Trigger Warning, an upcoming action thriller that stars Jessica Alba (Fantastic Four; Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer; Sin City) in the lead role as a skilled Special Forces commando who takes ownership of her father's bar after he suddenly dies, and soon finds herself at odds with a violent gang running rampant in her hometown.
Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Alba expressed her excitement and inspiration for making this film. "I loved Die Hard. I loved Star Wars. I loved Lethal Weapon, Beverly Hills Cop, all these movies I grew up with, but I always felt like I wanted to see the women kicking ass instead of always being saved."
In addition to Alba, the supporting cast features Mark Webber, Tone Bell, Jake Weary, Gabriel Basso, Anthony Michael Hall, Kaiwi Lyman, and Hari Dhillon.
Mouly Surya helmed the upcoming actioner, with...
Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Alba expressed her excitement and inspiration for making this film. "I loved Die Hard. I loved Star Wars. I loved Lethal Weapon, Beverly Hills Cop, all these movies I grew up with, but I always felt like I wanted to see the women kicking ass instead of always being saved."
In addition to Alba, the supporting cast features Mark Webber, Tone Bell, Jake Weary, Gabriel Basso, Anthony Michael Hall, Kaiwi Lyman, and Hari Dhillon.
Mouly Surya helmed the upcoming actioner, with...
- 5/22/2024
- ComicBookMovie.com
Jessica Alba isn’t satisfied with the explanation for her father’s unexpected death in the first trailer for the Netflix action thriller Trigger Warning.
Mouly Surya directed the film that launches June 21 on the streaming service and includes co-stars Mark Webber, Jake Weary, Anthony Michael Hall, Kaiwi Lyman and Hari Dhillon. Trigger Warning centers on Special Forces commando Parker (Alba) becoming the new owner of her dad’s bar in their hometown after his sudden passing. Back home, she learns that the town is now controlled by a violent gang as she aims to get answers about the tragedy.
“I don’t think his death was an accident,” Alba says in the trailer. Later, she explains, “This is about more than just my dad. I need to know the truth.”
The action-packed promo features Alba exerting bodily harm with an array of garden tools. At one point, she responds to getting attacked by quipping,...
Mouly Surya directed the film that launches June 21 on the streaming service and includes co-stars Mark Webber, Jake Weary, Anthony Michael Hall, Kaiwi Lyman and Hari Dhillon. Trigger Warning centers on Special Forces commando Parker (Alba) becoming the new owner of her dad’s bar in their hometown after his sudden passing. Back home, she learns that the town is now controlled by a violent gang as she aims to get answers about the tragedy.
“I don’t think his death was an accident,” Alba says in the trailer. Later, she explains, “This is about more than just my dad. I need to know the truth.”
The action-packed promo features Alba exerting bodily harm with an array of garden tools. At one point, she responds to getting attacked by quipping,...
- 5/21/2024
- by Ryan Gajewski
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
If you take any lessons away from today’s Trigger Warning trailer, it’s this: Don’t f**k with Jessica Alba. The L.A.’s Finest and Killers Anonymous star is coming hard and fast in a brutal look at the Mouly Surya-directed action film punching its way onto Netflix on June 21, 2024, and there’s no escape from her wrath.
In today’s Trigger Warning trailer, Jessica Alba is a Special Forces commando who returns home to investigate her father’s mysterious death. Not long before, she uncovers a nefarious plot and finds herself at the heart of a dispute and cover-up that inspires her to unleash her special skills. As the plot thickens, Alba’s character, Parker, summons the best of her abilities to lay waste to the people causing chaos in her hometown. No stone remains unturned, and no bones remain unbroken. Let’s f**king go!
In today’s Trigger Warning trailer, Jessica Alba is a Special Forces commando who returns home to investigate her father’s mysterious death. Not long before, she uncovers a nefarious plot and finds herself at the heart of a dispute and cover-up that inspires her to unleash her special skills. As the plot thickens, Alba’s character, Parker, summons the best of her abilities to lay waste to the people causing chaos in her hometown. No stone remains unturned, and no bones remain unbroken. Let’s f**king go!
- 5/21/2024
- by Steve Seigh
- JoBlo.com
Jessica Alba isn’t taking any prisoners this summer when her new action film, Trigger Warning, brings a violent revenge tale to Netflix on June 21, 2024. Today, Netflix shared a gallery of first-look images from the upcoming film, which features Alba as a Special Forces commando who finds herself pulled into a violent gang war when her father suddenly dies. The Trigger Warning images show Alba in action and some behind-the-scenes antics of the film’s production.
Mouly Surya (The City is a Battlefield) directs Trigger Warning from a script by John Brancato, Josh Olson, and Hailey Gross. Mark Webber, Tone Bell, Jake Weary, Gabriel Basso and Anthony Michael Hall star alongside Alba as primary cast members, with Kaiwi Lyman and Hari Dhillon co-starring.
Here’s the official synopsis for Trigger Warning:
Special Forces commando Parker (Jessica Alba) is on active duty overseas when she gets called back to her...
Mouly Surya (The City is a Battlefield) directs Trigger Warning from a script by John Brancato, Josh Olson, and Hailey Gross. Mark Webber, Tone Bell, Jake Weary, Gabriel Basso and Anthony Michael Hall star alongside Alba as primary cast members, with Kaiwi Lyman and Hari Dhillon co-starring.
Here’s the official synopsis for Trigger Warning:
Special Forces commando Parker (Jessica Alba) is on active duty overseas when she gets called back to her...
- 4/30/2024
- by Steve Seigh
- JoBlo.com
Netflix has shared a first look at the upcoming action thriller Trigger Warning, which will be available to stream starting on June 21, 2024.
In the film, Special Forces commando Parker (Jessica Alba) is on active duty overseas when she gets called back to her hometown with the tragic news that her father has suddenly died.
Now the owner of the family bar, Parker reconnects with her former boyfriend-turned-sheriff Jesse (Mark Webber), his hot-tempered brother Elvis (Jake Weary), and their powerful father Senator Swann (Anthony Michael Hall) as she looks to understand what actually happened to her dad.
Parker’s search for answers quickly goes south, and she soon finds herself at odds with a violent gang running rampant in her hometown.
Unsure of who she can truly trust, Parker draws on her commando training and proves herself a force to be reckoned with as she hunts down the truth and attempts...
In the film, Special Forces commando Parker (Jessica Alba) is on active duty overseas when she gets called back to her hometown with the tragic news that her father has suddenly died.
Now the owner of the family bar, Parker reconnects with her former boyfriend-turned-sheriff Jesse (Mark Webber), his hot-tempered brother Elvis (Jake Weary), and their powerful father Senator Swann (Anthony Michael Hall) as she looks to understand what actually happened to her dad.
Parker’s search for answers quickly goes south, and she soon finds herself at odds with a violent gang running rampant in her hometown.
Unsure of who she can truly trust, Parker draws on her commando training and proves herself a force to be reckoned with as she hunts down the truth and attempts...
- 4/30/2024
- by Mirko Parlevliet
- Vital Thrills
Over the past three decades, few filmmakers have mastered their craft better than David Fincher. With a fastidious eye for framing and a deep focus on directorial details, Fincher has fashioned some of the most precisely orchestrated cinematic outings since his big screen debut in 1992. Yet, for most avid cinephiles and casual movie fans alike, Fincher will almost always be most associated with Se7en and Fight Club in the 90s and perhaps The Social Network and Gone Girl in the 2010s. If that’s an accurate assessment, then it begs the question – what is David Fincher’s all-time most underrated movie? While the recent release of The Killer is a worthy candidate, and a serious case can be made for Zodiac, The Game continues to be a criminally unheralded psychological thriller that, upon repeat viewings, toys and torments the audience with devious plotting and duplicitous tricks as only Fincher can forge.
- 3/6/2024
- by Jake Dee
- JoBlo.com
Kevin Williamson is in his Universal TV bag.
The esteemed writer and producer of such juggernauts as Scream and The CW’s Vampire Diaries is developing several projects as part of his overall deal with the studio. Among them is a reimagining of the Alfred Hitchcock film Rear Window which, according to Deadline, has set up shop at Peacock and will see him pen the script.
More from TVLineGet Paramount+ 30-Day Free Trial - Watch the Super Bowl Online for FreeTVLine Items: The Chi Return Date, We're Here Season 4 Premiere and MoreThe Regime: HBO Releases Official Trailer For Kate Winslet...
The esteemed writer and producer of such juggernauts as Scream and The CW’s Vampire Diaries is developing several projects as part of his overall deal with the studio. Among them is a reimagining of the Alfred Hitchcock film Rear Window which, according to Deadline, has set up shop at Peacock and will see him pen the script.
More from TVLineGet Paramount+ 30-Day Free Trial - Watch the Super Bowl Online for FreeTVLine Items: The Chi Return Date, We're Here Season 4 Premiere and MoreThe Regime: HBO Releases Official Trailer For Kate Winslet...
- 2/9/2024
- by Keisha Hatchett
- TVLine.com
Ever since he exploded onto the horror scene in 1996 by revitalizing the slasher flick with his screenplay for "Scream," Kevin Williamson has been one of Hollywood's go-to writer/creators for teen skewing films and television shows — and it all happened so fast. Within a span of three months, Williamson had "I Know What You Did Last Summer" and "Scream 2" tearing up the box office, and "Dawson's Creek" posting impressive Nielsen ratings for the WB.
He's had a couple of brief down periods, but he's never gone completely away (he rode out a rough creative run in the 2010s simply by having "The Vampire Diaries" on the air). Still, it's been a while since his name moved the needle in Hollywood, although his Covid-19 slasher "Sick" from 2022 did pretty well on streaming. But had the Gen X-er who'd connected so palpably with younger viewers for 20-plus years finally lost his touch?...
He's had a couple of brief down periods, but he's never gone completely away (he rode out a rough creative run in the 2010s simply by having "The Vampire Diaries" on the air). Still, it's been a while since his name moved the needle in Hollywood, although his Covid-19 slasher "Sick" from 2022 did pretty well on streaming. But had the Gen X-er who'd connected so palpably with younger viewers for 20-plus years finally lost his touch?...
- 2/9/2024
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
Kevin Williamson has set an overall deal with Universal Television, where he is developing four new series: adaptations of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954 film “Rear Window,” Ruth Ware’s 2022 book “The It Girl” and David Fincher’s 1997 film “The Game,” as well as an original series titled “The Waterfront.”
Williamson is known for launching the “Scream” franchise and creating “Dawson’s Creek” and “The Vampire Diaries among several other film and TV credits. He enters the deal along with his production banner Outerbanks Entertainment.
If greenlit, the “Rear Window” series will stream on Peacock. It is billed as a “reimagining” of the Hitchcock film, which follows a photographer who uses a wheelchair and begins spying on his neighbors through his window. Williamson serves as writer and will executive produce alongside Outerbanks’ Ben Fast and Davis Entertainment’s John Davis and John Fox. Mkt Productions also produces.
“The It Girl” follows a woman...
Williamson is known for launching the “Scream” franchise and creating “Dawson’s Creek” and “The Vampire Diaries among several other film and TV credits. He enters the deal along with his production banner Outerbanks Entertainment.
If greenlit, the “Rear Window” series will stream on Peacock. It is billed as a “reimagining” of the Hitchcock film, which follows a photographer who uses a wheelchair and begins spying on his neighbors through his window. Williamson serves as writer and will executive produce alongside Outerbanks’ Ben Fast and Davis Entertainment’s John Davis and John Fox. Mkt Productions also produces.
“The It Girl” follows a woman...
- 2/8/2024
- by Selome Hailu
- Variety Film + TV
Putting a fresh spin on one of the greatest movies of all time can’t be an easy task, but Kevin Williamson is up for the challenge. Deadline reports that the Scream writer is developing a TV series reimagining of Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window, and I can already hear the cries of sacrilege.
Based on Cornell Woolrich’s 1942 short story It Had to Be Murder, Rear Window starred Jimmy Stewart as a photographer in a wheelchair who spies on his neighbours from his apartment window and becomes convinced one of them has committed murder, despite the skepticism of his fashion-model girlfriend, played by Grace Kelly. To be fair, the iconic film was remade before with the 1998 made-for-tv movie starring Christopher Reeve. There’s also Disturbia, which was at least partially inspired by the Hitchcock film.
Related Awesome Art We’ve Found Around The Net: Candyman, They Live, The Warriors...
Based on Cornell Woolrich’s 1942 short story It Had to Be Murder, Rear Window starred Jimmy Stewart as a photographer in a wheelchair who spies on his neighbours from his apartment window and becomes convinced one of them has committed murder, despite the skepticism of his fashion-model girlfriend, played by Grace Kelly. To be fair, the iconic film was remade before with the 1998 made-for-tv movie starring Christopher Reeve. There’s also Disturbia, which was at least partially inspired by the Hitchcock film.
Related Awesome Art We’ve Found Around The Net: Candyman, They Live, The Warriors...
- 2/8/2024
- by Kevin Fraser
- JoBlo.com
Kevin Williamson, the writer of teen horror classics Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer, has been a staple in the world of film and television since the 1990s, and Deadline reports today that Williamson’s next venture partners him up with Universal Television.
Deadline reports, “Under an overall deal for Williamson and his production banner Outerbanks Entertainment, he already has four high-profile projects in development at the TV studio that run the gamut from thriller to murder mystery to a family crime drama.”
“They include Rear Window, a series reimagining of the Hitchcock classic, which has been set up at Peacock,” the site’s report from writer Nellie Andreeva continues. “The It Girl, based on Ruth Ware’s book, with Sarah L. Thompson co-writing alongside Williamson, and The Waterfront, based on an original concept, have been taken out to the marketplace, I hear. The fourth project, The Game,...
Deadline reports, “Under an overall deal for Williamson and his production banner Outerbanks Entertainment, he already has four high-profile projects in development at the TV studio that run the gamut from thriller to murder mystery to a family crime drama.”
“They include Rear Window, a series reimagining of the Hitchcock classic, which has been set up at Peacock,” the site’s report from writer Nellie Andreeva continues. “The It Girl, based on Ruth Ware’s book, with Sarah L. Thompson co-writing alongside Williamson, and The Waterfront, based on an original concept, have been taken out to the marketplace, I hear. The fourth project, The Game,...
- 2/8/2024
- by John Squires
- bloody-disgusting.com
Exclusive: Prolific TV and film writer-creator Kevin Williamson has set up shop at Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group. Under an overall deal for Williamson and his production banner Outerbanks Entertainment, which was finalized in December, he already has four high-profile projects in development at the TV studio that run the gamut from thriller to murder mystery to a family crime drama.
They include Rear Window, a series reimagining of the Hitchcock classic, which has been set up at Peacock. The It Girl, based on Ruth Ware’s book, with Sarah L. Thompson co-writing alongside Williamson, and The Waterfront, based on an original concept, have been taken out to the marketplace, I hear. The fourth project, The Game, based on the David Fincher film with the movie’s original writers John Brancato & Michael Ferris executive producing, is in internal development.
“Kevin is a prolific and brilliant creator with...
They include Rear Window, a series reimagining of the Hitchcock classic, which has been set up at Peacock. The It Girl, based on Ruth Ware’s book, with Sarah L. Thompson co-writing alongside Williamson, and The Waterfront, based on an original concept, have been taken out to the marketplace, I hear. The fourth project, The Game, based on the David Fincher film with the movie’s original writers John Brancato & Michael Ferris executive producing, is in internal development.
“Kevin is a prolific and brilliant creator with...
- 2/8/2024
- by Nellie Andreeva
- Deadline Film + TV
While “based on a true story” is typically a ploy to lure in audiences, the basis of the 2007 movie Primeval does, in fact, exist. Or at least he did, at one point. The whereabouts of what many deem the “world’s most prolific killer” — a decades-old Nile crocodile named Gustave who allegedly claimed somewhere between 200 and 300 human lives — are murky nowadays. Some say Burundi’s most infamous reptile is long gone, and others demand proof of his passing. Regardless, Gustave’s notoriety lives on in this panned Hollywood creature-feature with a severe identity crisis.
Back then, it was understandable to have a cursory look at the original ad campaign for Primeval and not realize the movie is about a crocodile. An intentionally vague trailer led to complaints of deception from viewers; they were expecting a movie about a human serial killer. Imagine their surprise once they watched Primeval, which, for obvious reasons,...
Back then, it was understandable to have a cursory look at the original ad campaign for Primeval and not realize the movie is about a crocodile. An intentionally vague trailer led to complaints of deception from viewers; they were expecting a movie about a human serial killer. Imagine their surprise once they watched Primeval, which, for obvious reasons,...
- 1/12/2024
- by Paul Lê
- bloody-disgusting.com
Actor / Filmmaker Alex Winter joins Josh Olson and Joe Dante to discuss movies featuring a cog in the machine – the individual struggling to exist within the system.
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Bill And Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989) – Alex Kirschenbaum’s Bill and Ted character power rankings
Bill And Ted’s Bogus Journey (1991)
Bill And Ted Face The Music (2020)
The Game (1997)
Showbiz Kids (2020)
The Panama Papers (2018)
Zappa (2020)
200 Motels (1971)
Modern Times (1936)
Metropolis (1927) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
Avatar (2009)
Things To Come (1936) – Jesus Trevino’s trailer commentary
M (1931)
M (1951)
The Last Laugh (1924) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
Brazil (1985)
Gremlins (1984) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review, Tfh’s Mogwai Madness
City Lights (1931)
Goin’ Down The Road (1970)
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
The Young And The Damned (1950)
Shock Corridor (1963) – Katt Shea’s trailer commentary
The Naked Kiss (1964)
Stroszek (1977)
Even Dwarves Started Small (1970)
Ikiru (1952) – Glenn Erickson’s trailer...
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Bill And Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989) – Alex Kirschenbaum’s Bill and Ted character power rankings
Bill And Ted’s Bogus Journey (1991)
Bill And Ted Face The Music (2020)
The Game (1997)
Showbiz Kids (2020)
The Panama Papers (2018)
Zappa (2020)
200 Motels (1971)
Modern Times (1936)
Metropolis (1927) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
Avatar (2009)
Things To Come (1936) – Jesus Trevino’s trailer commentary
M (1931)
M (1951)
The Last Laugh (1924) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
Brazil (1985)
Gremlins (1984) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review, Tfh’s Mogwai Madness
City Lights (1931)
Goin’ Down The Road (1970)
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
The Young And The Damned (1950)
Shock Corridor (1963) – Katt Shea’s trailer commentary
The Naked Kiss (1964)
Stroszek (1977)
Even Dwarves Started Small (1970)
Ikiru (1952) – Glenn Erickson’s trailer...
- 10/11/2022
- by Kris Millsap
- Trailers from Hell
David Fincher‘s The Game turns 25 in 2022. It has been a quarter of a century since the film was released. Some of you might have watched it when it first came out, but chances are, there are a lot of people, especially the young ones, who haven’t. The Game is a 1997 American psychological thriller film directed by David Fincher and written by John Brancato and Michael Ferris. The movie stars Michael Douglas as Nicholas Van Orton, a wealthy investment banker who wants to live life to the fullest with his brother, Conrad (Sean Penn), after their father’s death.
“The Game” Turns 25 In 2022: Here’s Why You Should Rewatch It...
“The Game” Turns 25 In 2022: Here’s Why You Should Rewatch It...
- 2/6/2022
- by A.E. Oats
- TVovermind.com
Exclusive: Netflix’s action-thriller Trigger Warning rounds out its cast with Anthony Michael Hall, Mark Webber (The Place of No Words), Alejandro De Hoyos (The Man from Toronto), Tone Bell (The Flash), Jake Weary (It Follows), and Gabriel Basso (Hillbilly Elegy).
The newly added actors join previously announced lead Jessica Alba in her first feature project since 2019’s Killers Anonymous.
Trigger Warning, directed by Mouly Surya, tells the story of Parker (Alba), an active-duty Special Forces officer described as a female John Wick. Parker takes ownership of her grandfather’s bar shortly after he dies, and soon finds herself at odds with the violent gang that killed him.
Filming is set to begin in New Mexico this fall.
Executive producers include Esther Hornstein for Thunder Road Pictures; Jeanette Volturno and Jason Clark for Catchlight Studios; and Alba. Trigger Warning is written by Josh Olson and...
The newly added actors join previously announced lead Jessica Alba in her first feature project since 2019’s Killers Anonymous.
Trigger Warning, directed by Mouly Surya, tells the story of Parker (Alba), an active-duty Special Forces officer described as a female John Wick. Parker takes ownership of her grandfather’s bar shortly after he dies, and soon finds herself at odds with the violent gang that killed him.
Filming is set to begin in New Mexico this fall.
Executive producers include Esther Hornstein for Thunder Road Pictures; Jeanette Volturno and Jason Clark for Catchlight Studios; and Alba. Trigger Warning is written by Josh Olson and...
- 9/2/2021
- by Rosy Cordero
- Deadline Film + TV
The producer of Narcos takes us on a walk through some of the movies that made him.
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Contagion (2011)
Panic In The Streets (1950)
Rififi (1955)
Night And The City (1950)
Thieves’ Highway (1949)
Never on Sunday (1960)
The Karate Kid (1984)
The Game (1997)
The Dirty Dozen (1967)
The Great Escape (1963)
Children of Men (2006)
Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory (1971)
If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium (1969)
Charlie And The Chocolate Factory (2005)
The Wild Bunch (1969)
The Godfather (1972)
Apocalypse Now (1979)
Animal House (1978)
An American Werewolf In London (1981)
Trading Places (1983)
Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession (2004)
Fellini Satyricon (1969)
The Beastmaster (1982)
Sheena (1984)
High Risk (1981)
Ghostbusters (1984)
The Masque of the Red Death (1964)
Piranha (1978)
Gallipoli (1981)
Witness (1985)
The Killing Fields (1984)
Mad Max (1980)
Max Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981)
Picnic At Hanging Rock (1975)
The Last Wave (1978)
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
The Lord of the Rings (1978)
The Hobbit (1977)
The Return of the King (1980)
Class (1983)
The Great Santini (1979)
Fast Times At Ridgemont High...
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Contagion (2011)
Panic In The Streets (1950)
Rififi (1955)
Night And The City (1950)
Thieves’ Highway (1949)
Never on Sunday (1960)
The Karate Kid (1984)
The Game (1997)
The Dirty Dozen (1967)
The Great Escape (1963)
Children of Men (2006)
Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory (1971)
If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium (1969)
Charlie And The Chocolate Factory (2005)
The Wild Bunch (1969)
The Godfather (1972)
Apocalypse Now (1979)
Animal House (1978)
An American Werewolf In London (1981)
Trading Places (1983)
Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession (2004)
Fellini Satyricon (1969)
The Beastmaster (1982)
Sheena (1984)
High Risk (1981)
Ghostbusters (1984)
The Masque of the Red Death (1964)
Piranha (1978)
Gallipoli (1981)
Witness (1985)
The Killing Fields (1984)
Mad Max (1980)
Max Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981)
Picnic At Hanging Rock (1975)
The Last Wave (1978)
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
The Lord of the Rings (1978)
The Hobbit (1977)
The Return of the King (1980)
Class (1983)
The Great Santini (1979)
Fast Times At Ridgemont High...
- 6/16/2020
- by Kris Millsap
- Trailers from Hell
After the tremendous success of Extraction, Netflix is doubling down on more action, and this time they've tapped Jessica Alba to lead their latest effort. Alba is set to star in the action-thriller Trigger Warning, directed by Mouly Surya with a script from Josh Olson and John Brancato. In the film, Alba plays a traumatized veteran who inherits her grandfather’s…...
- 5/18/2020
- by Gaius Bolling
- JoBlo.com
Following the success of Chris Hemsworth’s “Extraction,” Netflix is doubling down on action movies, tapping Jessica Alba to lead the next one.
Sources tell Variety that Alba will star in the new Netflix action-thriller “Trigger Warning,” with Mouly Surya directing. Josh Olson and John Brancato penned the script, and Thunder Road’s Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee are producing. Alba will exec produce.
Alba plays a traumatized veteran who inherits her grandfather’s bar, and is faced with a moral dilemma after discovering the truth behind his untimely death.
Sources consider this a possible franchise starter and have high hopes for its success, considering the reception of the streamer’s other action pics, including “Spenser Confidential” and “Extraction.”
Surya’s profile has been on the rise in the directing circuit after her movie “Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts” premiered as an official Directors’ Fortnight selection at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival.
Sources tell Variety that Alba will star in the new Netflix action-thriller “Trigger Warning,” with Mouly Surya directing. Josh Olson and John Brancato penned the script, and Thunder Road’s Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee are producing. Alba will exec produce.
Alba plays a traumatized veteran who inherits her grandfather’s bar, and is faced with a moral dilemma after discovering the truth behind his untimely death.
Sources consider this a possible franchise starter and have high hopes for its success, considering the reception of the streamer’s other action pics, including “Spenser Confidential” and “Extraction.”
Surya’s profile has been on the rise in the directing circuit after her movie “Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts” premiered as an official Directors’ Fortnight selection at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival.
- 5/15/2020
- by Justin Kroll
- Variety Film + TV
Jessica Alba is getting into the Netflix action game. The actress will star in Trigger Warning for the streaming service, with the film coming from director Mouly Surya, who helmed the well-recieved Cannes entry Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts that became Indonesia's foreign film Oscar submission.
Trigger Warning centers on a traumatized veteran (Alba) who inherits her grandfather's bar and faces a moral dilemma after learning the truth behind his untimely death. The film has a script from Josh Olson, who was nominated for an Oscar for the 2005 graphic novel adaptation A History of Violence, and John Brancato,...
Trigger Warning centers on a traumatized veteran (Alba) who inherits her grandfather's bar and faces a moral dilemma after learning the truth behind his untimely death. The film has a script from Josh Olson, who was nominated for an Oscar for the 2005 graphic novel adaptation A History of Violence, and John Brancato,...
- 5/15/2020
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Jessica Alba is getting into the Netflix action game. The actress will star in Trigger Warning for the streaming service, with the film coming from director Mouly Surya, who helmed the well-recieved Cannes entry Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts that became Indonesia's foreign film Oscar submission.
Trigger Warning centers on a traumatized veteran (Alba) who inherits her grandfather's bar and faces a moral dilemma after learning the truth behind his untimely death. The film has a script from Josh Olson, who was nominated for an Oscar for the 2005 graphic novel adaptation A History of Violence, and John Brancato,...
Trigger Warning centers on a traumatized veteran (Alba) who inherits her grandfather's bar and faces a moral dilemma after learning the truth behind his untimely death. The film has a script from Josh Olson, who was nominated for an Oscar for the 2005 graphic novel adaptation A History of Violence, and John Brancato,...
- 5/15/2020
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
A podcast shingle co-created by Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger has inked a deal with a major studio.
Warner Bros. Digital Networks has signed a first-look deal with Rainy Day Podcasts, a new company from Jagged Films partners Mick Jagger and Victoria Pearman, producer Steve Bing and writer Josh Olson, with the aim of producing a number of original narrative podcasts.
“Everything starts with the word,” said the four partners in a statement. “We’re very excited to be working with Warner Bros. to create an environment where the best writers are free to pursue their passion projects with maximum creative freedom.”
The agreement ties Rainy Day to a slate of up to seven new podcast series based on original IP, and may include but are not limited to: scripted dramas or comedies, non-fiction or docuseries and talk or discussion podcasts. Rainy Day has an initial production deal with Allison Anders,...
Warner Bros. Digital Networks has signed a first-look deal with Rainy Day Podcasts, a new company from Jagged Films partners Mick Jagger and Victoria Pearman, producer Steve Bing and writer Josh Olson, with the aim of producing a number of original narrative podcasts.
“Everything starts with the word,” said the four partners in a statement. “We’re very excited to be working with Warner Bros. to create an environment where the best writers are free to pursue their passion projects with maximum creative freedom.”
The agreement ties Rainy Day to a slate of up to seven new podcast series based on original IP, and may include but are not limited to: scripted dramas or comedies, non-fiction or docuseries and talk or discussion podcasts. Rainy Day has an initial production deal with Allison Anders,...
- 1/24/2020
- by Elaine Low
- Variety Film + TV
Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger has set up podcast producer Rainy Day Podcasts — and in its first act, the company has signed a development deal with Warner Bros to make up to seven narrative podcasts.
Rainy Day Podcasts is a collaboration between Jagger and his Jagged Films partner Victoria Pearman, producer Steve Bing, and A History of Violence writer Josh Olson.
Under its first-look deal with Warner, the company will produce a slate of podcasts spanning genres including comedy, drama, documentaries and talk shows. It has already set production deals with Thor writer Zack Stentz, The Game scribe John Brancato and Allison Anders, the Peabody-winning director behind Gas Food Lodging.
Warner Bros Digital Networks will oversee the strategic and business elements of the pact with Rainy Day, Warner digital unit Blue Ribbon Content will be responsible for the creative aspect of the partnership, while Warner Bros Domestic Television Distribution will sell the finished podcasts.
Rainy Day Podcasts is a collaboration between Jagger and his Jagged Films partner Victoria Pearman, producer Steve Bing, and A History of Violence writer Josh Olson.
Under its first-look deal with Warner, the company will produce a slate of podcasts spanning genres including comedy, drama, documentaries and talk shows. It has already set production deals with Thor writer Zack Stentz, The Game scribe John Brancato and Allison Anders, the Peabody-winning director behind Gas Food Lodging.
Warner Bros Digital Networks will oversee the strategic and business elements of the pact with Rainy Day, Warner digital unit Blue Ribbon Content will be responsible for the creative aspect of the partnership, while Warner Bros Domestic Television Distribution will sell the finished podcasts.
- 1/24/2020
- by Jake Kanter
- Deadline Film + TV
There was a time in the ‘80s when the rights to Marvel’s Spider-Man passed from producer Roger Corman to Cannon Films. As you know, neither of the studios were known for their high quality films. They didn’t have very high standards.
When Cannon Films landed the rights to Spider-Man in 1985, they started developing it as a horror movie that was inspired by David Cronenberg’s The Fly! The studio even brought on The Texas Chain Saw Massacre director Tobe Hooper to work on the film along with Outer Limits creator Leslie Stevens to write a script for the film.
This would have been unlike any Spider-Man story that’s even been told! In this version of Peter Parker’s origin story, “instead of being bitten by a radioactive spider, Parker was deliberately bombarded with radiation by a corporate scientist – named Doctor Zork – who transforms the ID photographer into a giant eight-armed spider-hybrid,...
When Cannon Films landed the rights to Spider-Man in 1985, they started developing it as a horror movie that was inspired by David Cronenberg’s The Fly! The studio even brought on The Texas Chain Saw Massacre director Tobe Hooper to work on the film along with Outer Limits creator Leslie Stevens to write a script for the film.
This would have been unlike any Spider-Man story that’s even been told! In this version of Peter Parker’s origin story, “instead of being bitten by a radioactive spider, Parker was deliberately bombarded with radiation by a corporate scientist – named Doctor Zork – who transforms the ID photographer into a giant eight-armed spider-hybrid,...
- 6/19/2019
- by Joey Paur
- GeekTyrant
Close-Up is a feature that spotlights films now playing on Mubi. David Fincher's The Game (1997) is showing March 23 – April 22, 2019 in many countries around the world.“...from any given body of fictional text, nothing necessarily follows, and anything plausibly may.”—William H. Gass, “The Concept of Character in Fiction”What is The Game? “The eternal question,” an unnamed character intones, when he is asked this by its newest player, Nicholas van Orton (Michael Douglas), a middle-aged millionaire unaccustomed to befuddlement. Mainstream critics, who similarly dislike being perplexed, didn’t quite know what to make of the film when it premiered in 1997: responses were tepid and noncommittal, and, despite its $100 million box office draw, it has long been considered a minor work in David Fincher’s oeuvre, ensconced between the seminal Se7en (1995) and the belatedly-loved Fight Club (1999). It is a film that is at once subtle and silly, whose perfunctory...
- 3/26/2019
- MUBI
Exclusive: For a couple of guys whose summer entry Avengers: Infinity War became only the fourth ever to top $2 billion in worldwide ticket sales, and — at least until their sequel next summer — wiped out a good portion of the signature characters of the Marvel universe, Joe and Anthony Russo have been extreme multi-taskers, moving in overdrive to get their Agbo studio up and running. They’ve just firmed with Netflix plans for an India and Thailand shoot for Dhaka, a kidnap extraction drama that will star Chris Hemsworth — whose Thor character is central to the two Avengers films — and marks the feature directorial debut of Sam Hargrave. He has graduated from being Chris Evans’ stunt double in Captain America: The Winter Soldier to fight to stunt coordinator in Captain America: Civil War, to holding those jobs plus some second unit directing in Avengers: Infinity War. Dhaka is a script written...
- 8/30/2018
- by Mike Fleming Jr
- Deadline Film + TV
Joe and Anthony Russo are producing the prehistoric drama “The Last Neanderthal” through their Agbo production company.
The brothers have closed a deal for John Brancato’s pitch and hired stunt coordinator Terry Notary to direct “The Last Neanderthal,” which will be shot primarily with motion capture technology. Notary, a stunt coordinator and movement choreographer, played Cull Obsidian in Marvel’s “Avengers: Infinity War” and King Kong in “Kong: Skull Island.” He has credits on “Avatar,” “Mowgli” and “War for Planet Of The Apes.”
“The Last Neanderthal” is described as an epic adventure and a tale of survival, revenge, and redemption. Brancato and Notary wrote the story. Brancato’s credits include “Terminator Salvation,” “Terminator 3,” “The Game” and “Trigger Warning,” which he wrote with Josh Olson.
The Russo brothers directed “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” “Captain America: Civil War” and “Avengers: Infinity War” and its untitled sequel. They also worked on the comedy series “Arrested Development,...
The brothers have closed a deal for John Brancato’s pitch and hired stunt coordinator Terry Notary to direct “The Last Neanderthal,” which will be shot primarily with motion capture technology. Notary, a stunt coordinator and movement choreographer, played Cull Obsidian in Marvel’s “Avengers: Infinity War” and King Kong in “Kong: Skull Island.” He has credits on “Avatar,” “Mowgli” and “War for Planet Of The Apes.”
“The Last Neanderthal” is described as an epic adventure and a tale of survival, revenge, and redemption. Brancato and Notary wrote the story. Brancato’s credits include “Terminator Salvation,” “Terminator 3,” “The Game” and “Trigger Warning,” which he wrote with Josh Olson.
The Russo brothers directed “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” “Captain America: Civil War” and “Avengers: Infinity War” and its untitled sequel. They also worked on the comedy series “Arrested Development,...
- 8/4/2018
- by Dave McNary
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Joe and Anthony Russo’s Agbo has closed a deal for John Brancato’s original prehistoric pitch The Last Neanderthal. The film will be shot primarily with motion capture technology, and will mark the directorial debut of Terry Notary, a stunt coordinator and movement coach who is best known for his motion capture performances in Avatar, The Hobbit, and The Planet Of The Apes.
The Last Neanderthal is an epic adventure and a powerful drama, a tale of survival, revenge, and redemption that draws on recent discoveries to depict a prehistorical tale. Brancato and Notary wrote the story together.
Brancato’s produced credits include Terminator Salvation, Terminator 3, and the David Fincher-directed The Game. He also adapted the latter as a TV series for USA. He most recently sold to Basil Iwanyk’s Thunder Road the spec Trigger Warning, which he wrote with A History Of Violence‘s Josh Olson.
The Last Neanderthal is an epic adventure and a powerful drama, a tale of survival, revenge, and redemption that draws on recent discoveries to depict a prehistorical tale. Brancato and Notary wrote the story together.
Brancato’s produced credits include Terminator Salvation, Terminator 3, and the David Fincher-directed The Game. He also adapted the latter as a TV series for USA. He most recently sold to Basil Iwanyk’s Thunder Road the spec Trigger Warning, which he wrote with A History Of Violence‘s Josh Olson.
- 8/3/2018
- by Mike Fleming Jr
- Deadline Film + TV
Stars: Sam Worthington, Odeya Rush, Allen Leech, Tina Maskell, Eben Young, Stephanie Dooley, Eudald Font, Amy Landecker, Martin Compston | Written by John Brancato, Michael Ferris | Directed by Jonathan Mostow
Lucas, (Sam Worthington) is a solitary assassin who is hired to kill a young woman, Ella (Odeya Rush). When he can’t bring himself to pull the trigger the plan falls apart, setting in motion a twisted game of cat and mouse with both now marked for death. Forced into an uneasy alliance, the pair is relentlessly pursued across Europe, their only hope for survival lying in the exposure of those responsible for the brutal murder of Ella’s family…
Based on Kevin Wignall’s novel For the Dogs, The Hunter’s Prayer is a EuropaCorp-wannabe that sorely needed the guidance of Luc Besson and his team to pull this out of the by-the-numbers Bourne-inspired, generic action thriller doldrums within which it resides.
Lucas, (Sam Worthington) is a solitary assassin who is hired to kill a young woman, Ella (Odeya Rush). When he can’t bring himself to pull the trigger the plan falls apart, setting in motion a twisted game of cat and mouse with both now marked for death. Forced into an uneasy alliance, the pair is relentlessly pursued across Europe, their only hope for survival lying in the exposure of those responsible for the brutal murder of Ella’s family…
Based on Kevin Wignall’s novel For the Dogs, The Hunter’s Prayer is a EuropaCorp-wannabe that sorely needed the guidance of Luc Besson and his team to pull this out of the by-the-numbers Bourne-inspired, generic action thriller doldrums within which it resides.
- 9/11/2017
- by Phil Wheat
- Nerdly
The Hunter’S Prayer (2017) Blu-ray Review, a movie directed by Jonathan Mostow, written by John Brancato, Michael Ferris, based on the novel by Kevin Wignall, starring Sam Worthington, Martin Compston, Odeya Rush, Amy Landecker, Allen Leech and Eudald Font. Release Date: August 8, 2017. Plot “This high octane thriller focuses on a solitary assassin, hired to kill a young woman. When he can’t bring himself to [...]
Continue reading: Blu-ray Review: The Hunter’S Prayer (2017): Praying Doesn’t Work...
Continue reading: Blu-ray Review: The Hunter’S Prayer (2017): Praying Doesn’t Work...
- 7/26/2017
- by Marco Margaritoff
- Film-Book
Starring Sam Worthington, the action-packed thriller The Hunter’S Prayer arrives on Blu-ray (plus Digital), DVD, and Digital HD August 8 from Lionsgate Home Entertainment. The film is currently available On Demand.
Based on the novel by Kevin Wignall, the action-packed thriller The Hunter’s Prayer arrives on Blu-ray (plus Digital), DVD, and Digital HD August 8 from Lionsgate. The film is currently available On Demand. Sam Worthington stars as a deadly assassin assigned to kill a young woman named Ella. When his conscience gets the best of him, he defies orders and instead protects Ella. Together they must escape the formidable enemies who are determined to kill them both at all costs. From Jonathan Mostow, the director of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machinesand Breakdown, and written for the screen by John Brancato & Michael Ferris (Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and Terminator Salvation), The Hunter’s Prayer home entertainment release...
Based on the novel by Kevin Wignall, the action-packed thriller The Hunter’s Prayer arrives on Blu-ray (plus Digital), DVD, and Digital HD August 8 from Lionsgate. The film is currently available On Demand. Sam Worthington stars as a deadly assassin assigned to kill a young woman named Ella. When his conscience gets the best of him, he defies orders and instead protects Ella. Together they must escape the formidable enemies who are determined to kill them both at all costs. From Jonathan Mostow, the director of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machinesand Breakdown, and written for the screen by John Brancato & Michael Ferris (Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and Terminator Salvation), The Hunter’s Prayer home entertainment release...
- 7/21/2017
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Keep up with the wild and wooly world of indie film acquisitions with our weekly Rundown of everything that’s been picked up around the globe. Check out last week’s Rundown here.
– L.A.-based outfit Strand Releasing has acquired U.S. rights to Michael O’Shea’s Cannes premiere “The Transfiguration.” The film was sold by Protagonist Pictures at Toronto, and it marks the feature debut of writer-director Michael O’Shea. The atmospheric feature puts a new spin on the vampire movie.
“Mr. O’Shea’s film is a unique hybrid that audiences and critics will be compelled by,” said Strand Releasing’s partner Jon Gerrans, who discovered the film at Cannes. No word yet on release plans.
– Oscilloscope Laboratories has announced that Joel Potrykus’s latest dark comedy, “The Alchemist Cookbook,” will be available worldwide for pay-what-you-wish via BitTorrent Now on October 7, before it screens in select theaters across the country.
– L.A.-based outfit Strand Releasing has acquired U.S. rights to Michael O’Shea’s Cannes premiere “The Transfiguration.” The film was sold by Protagonist Pictures at Toronto, and it marks the feature debut of writer-director Michael O’Shea. The atmospheric feature puts a new spin on the vampire movie.
“Mr. O’Shea’s film is a unique hybrid that audiences and critics will be compelled by,” said Strand Releasing’s partner Jon Gerrans, who discovered the film at Cannes. No word yet on release plans.
– Oscilloscope Laboratories has announced that Joel Potrykus’s latest dark comedy, “The Alchemist Cookbook,” will be available worldwide for pay-what-you-wish via BitTorrent Now on October 7, before it screens in select theaters across the country.
- 9/16/2016
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Saban Films has acquired Us rights to Jonathan Mostow’s action-thriller starring Sam Worthington and newcomer Odeya Rush.
John Brancato and Michael Ferris adapted the screenplay to The Hunter’s Prayer from Kevin Wignall’s novel For The Dogs, about a hitman who forms a bond with a target and sets out to find her family’s killers.
Wme Global and CAA co-represented Us rights and Sierra/Affinity handles international sales.
Navid McIlhargey produced with Anthony Rhulen, Chris Milburn, John Schwarz, Michael Schwarz, Sam Worthington, Tove Christensen, Michael Wexler, Juan Garcia Peredo, Jimmy Costas, Paul Rock and Paul Leyden.
Executive Producers include Gavin Poolman, Duncan Reid, Hugo Heppell, Norman Merry, Peter Hampden, IIdiko Kemeny, David Minkowski and Jack L. Murray.
Earlier in the week Saban announced it had picked up North American rights to Sean Penn’s The Last Face.
John Brancato and Michael Ferris adapted the screenplay to The Hunter’s Prayer from Kevin Wignall’s novel For The Dogs, about a hitman who forms a bond with a target and sets out to find her family’s killers.
Wme Global and CAA co-represented Us rights and Sierra/Affinity handles international sales.
Navid McIlhargey produced with Anthony Rhulen, Chris Milburn, John Schwarz, Michael Schwarz, Sam Worthington, Tove Christensen, Michael Wexler, Juan Garcia Peredo, Jimmy Costas, Paul Rock and Paul Leyden.
Executive Producers include Gavin Poolman, Duncan Reid, Hugo Heppell, Norman Merry, Peter Hampden, IIdiko Kemeny, David Minkowski and Jack L. Murray.
Earlier in the week Saban announced it had picked up North American rights to Sean Penn’s The Last Face.
- 9/9/2016
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Deadline reports that Thunder Road Pictures — the company behind movies like The Town and Sicario — has acquired a spec script titled Trigger Warning that's described as a female-led mix between Rambo and another Thunder Road action thriller, John Wick, in which "the reluctant heroine reveals herself in a small town."
A History of Violence writer Josh Olson and The Game scribe John Brancato (who also penned Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and Terminator Salvation) wrote the script. As the outlet points out, gender-bent twists on traditional plots are en vogue right now with Ghostbusters and the upcoming Ocean's Eight, so this fits in alongside those pretty well. I just hope Ronda Rousey doesn't end up starring in it. I'd love to see someone with some legitimate acting ability take on a role like this (sorry, Ronda).
There aren't any directors or actors attached yet, but it has a potentially...
A History of Violence writer Josh Olson and The Game scribe John Brancato (who also penned Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and Terminator Salvation) wrote the script. As the outlet points out, gender-bent twists on traditional plots are en vogue right now with Ghostbusters and the upcoming Ocean's Eight, so this fits in alongside those pretty well. I just hope Ronda Rousey doesn't end up starring in it. I'd love to see someone with some legitimate acting ability take on a role like this (sorry, Ronda).
There aren't any directors or actors attached yet, but it has a potentially...
- 6/24/2016
- by Ben Pearson
- GeekTyrant
Thunder Road – the production company that most recently delivered John Wick and Sicario – has snapped up a spec script written by Josh Olson (A History Of Violence) and John Brancato (Terminator: Salvation), titled Trigger Warning. The film is an original action tale with a female hero at its centre – and its development ensures the chance of women-oriented stories beyond the planned remakes and re-boots of male-led movies.
Little is known about the specific plot of Trigger Warning but, unsurprisingly, it is described in broad terms through comparison to well-known male-led movies. This is almost unavoidable, since the genre has historically been dominated by male-centric tales and so, Trigger Warning is characterised as a female Rambo: First Blood, with a dash of John Wick thrown in.
The significance of this project cannot be overstated. There has, for some time, been an increasingly vocal call for better female representation in leading roles in movies,...
Little is known about the specific plot of Trigger Warning but, unsurprisingly, it is described in broad terms through comparison to well-known male-led movies. This is almost unavoidable, since the genre has historically been dominated by male-centric tales and so, Trigger Warning is characterised as a female Rambo: First Blood, with a dash of John Wick thrown in.
The significance of this project cannot be overstated. There has, for some time, been an increasingly vocal call for better female representation in leading roles in movies,...
- 6/24/2016
- by Sarah Myles
- We Got This Covered
Exclusive: We’ve got a female-driven Ghostbusters, and a female-driven Ocean’s Eleven from Gary Ross and Steven Soderbergh. Why not an action film with a female heroine who’s one part John Wick and one part Rambo? Thunder Road has closed a deal for Trigger Warning, a spec script by A History Of Violence scribe Josh Olson and Terminator: Rise of the Machines‘ John Brancato. The script is described as a female First Blood with John Wick thrown in for good measure, where the…...
- 6/23/2016
- Deadline
Moon Bloodgood is in final negotiations for the female lead in McG's Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins.
Bloodgood will star alongside Christian Bale, Sam Worthington and Anton Yelchin in the fourth installment of the sci-fi series, being produced by Halcyon Co. and set for a Warner Bros. release in summer 2009.
Bloodgood will play a no-nonsense and battle-hardened member of the resistance.
Halcyon's Victor Kubicek and Derek Anderson are producing with Moritz Borman and Jeff Silver. David Campbell Wilson, John Brancato and Michael Ferris wrote the screenplay. Peter Graves, Dan Lin and Jeanne Allgood are exec producing.
Principal photography is set to begin May 5.
Bloodgood starred in NBC's short-lived series Journeyman and is shooting "Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li." She also appears in What Just Happened.
Bloodgood is repped by Paradigm, Caliber Media, and attorneys Dave Feldman and Patrick Knapp.
Bloodgood will star alongside Christian Bale, Sam Worthington and Anton Yelchin in the fourth installment of the sci-fi series, being produced by Halcyon Co. and set for a Warner Bros. release in summer 2009.
Bloodgood will play a no-nonsense and battle-hardened member of the resistance.
Halcyon's Victor Kubicek and Derek Anderson are producing with Moritz Borman and Jeff Silver. David Campbell Wilson, John Brancato and Michael Ferris wrote the screenplay. Peter Graves, Dan Lin and Jeanne Allgood are exec producing.
Principal photography is set to begin May 5.
Bloodgood starred in NBC's short-lived series Journeyman and is shooting "Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li." She also appears in What Just Happened.
Bloodgood is repped by Paradigm, Caliber Media, and attorneys Dave Feldman and Patrick Knapp.
- 4/20/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Ving Rhames, Radha Mitchell and Rosamund Pike have joined Bruce Willis in the sci-fi thriller The Surrogates for Disney.
Jonathan Mostow is directing the film based on the graphic novel by Robert Venditti and artist Brett Weldele of Top Shelf Comix. Michael Ferris and John Brancato -- the writing duo that last teamed with Mostow on "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines" -- penned the script. Mandeville Film's David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman are producing along with Max Handelman and Elizabeth Banks.
Ned Vaughn ("Frost/Nixon") was also previously cast in the film, which is set in the future where humans live risk-free lives through robot surrogates that are eternally young, perfect-looking versions of themselves.
Rhames plays a charismatic cult figure who disdains the use of surrogates and tries to lead an uprising against the "new world order."
Mitchell plays the professional partner of Willis' character, a cop that through his surrogate investigates the murders of others' surrogates.
Pike plays his wife.
Production is set to begin in late April on the film, which will be released through Touchstone.
Jonathan Mostow is directing the film based on the graphic novel by Robert Venditti and artist Brett Weldele of Top Shelf Comix. Michael Ferris and John Brancato -- the writing duo that last teamed with Mostow on "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines" -- penned the script. Mandeville Film's David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman are producing along with Max Handelman and Elizabeth Banks.
Ned Vaughn ("Frost/Nixon") was also previously cast in the film, which is set in the future where humans live risk-free lives through robot surrogates that are eternally young, perfect-looking versions of themselves.
Rhames plays a charismatic cult figure who disdains the use of surrogates and tries to lead an uprising against the "new world order."
Mitchell plays the professional partner of Willis' character, a cop that through his surrogate investigates the murders of others' surrogates.
Pike plays his wife.
Production is set to begin in late April on the film, which will be released through Touchstone.
Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group has bought the international distribution rights to Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins, the fourth installment in the multibillion-dollar movie franchise.
The deal inked with the film's producers, Victor Kubicek and Derek Anderson of the Halcyon Co., hands Sony's worldwide acquisitions group arm all foreign distribution rights except for Korea and some Middle East countries. There are no plans to sell off any of those foreign rights to third-party distributors, a SPWAG spokesman said.
Warner Bros. is handling U.S. and Canadian distribution rights for the film, set to bow in first-half 2009.
"The Sony distribution team is really energized by this opportunity to work with Victor and Derek at the Halcyon Co. in continuing our involvement with the 'Terminator' series," said Peter Schlessel, president of worldwide affairs at Sony.
McG will helm the film, the first in a new Terminator trilogy that stars Christian Bale as John Connor. The project also reunites John Brancato and Michael Ferris, who partnered to pen Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, as well as Moritz Borman, a producer on the 2003 film.
The deal inked with the film's producers, Victor Kubicek and Derek Anderson of the Halcyon Co., hands Sony's worldwide acquisitions group arm all foreign distribution rights except for Korea and some Middle East countries. There are no plans to sell off any of those foreign rights to third-party distributors, a SPWAG spokesman said.
Warner Bros. is handling U.S. and Canadian distribution rights for the film, set to bow in first-half 2009.
"The Sony distribution team is really energized by this opportunity to work with Victor and Derek at the Halcyon Co. in continuing our involvement with the 'Terminator' series," said Peter Schlessel, president of worldwide affairs at Sony.
McG will helm the film, the first in a new Terminator trilogy that stars Christian Bale as John Connor. The project also reunites John Brancato and Michael Ferris, who partnered to pen Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, as well as Moritz Borman, a producer on the 2003 film.
- 2/26/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Christian Bale is in negotiations to star in Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins, the fourth installment of the hit science fiction series. McG is in negotiations to direct the movie, which is being made by the Halcyon Co. and will be distributed by Warner Bros.
The series, which originated from filmmaker James Cameron and made Arnold Schwarzenegger a star, centered on a robot from the future where machines wage war against humanity, whose goal was to kill Sarah Connor, the mother of the future leader of the human resistance. As the movies progressed, the son, played by Edward Furlong in Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Nick Stahl in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, took a more prominent role.
T4's story, by David Campbell Wilson, John Brancato and Michael Ferris, focuses on John Connor (Bale), now in his 30s, as he leads what is left of the human race against the machines.
The role of Marcus, a Terminator robot model that predates the robot killer originally played by Schwarzenegger, has yet to be cast.
The series, which originated from filmmaker James Cameron and made Arnold Schwarzenegger a star, centered on a robot from the future where machines wage war against humanity, whose goal was to kill Sarah Connor, the mother of the future leader of the human resistance. As the movies progressed, the son, played by Edward Furlong in Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Nick Stahl in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, took a more prominent role.
T4's story, by David Campbell Wilson, John Brancato and Michael Ferris, focuses on John Connor (Bale), now in his 30s, as he leads what is left of the human race against the machines.
The role of Marcus, a Terminator robot model that predates the robot killer originally played by Schwarzenegger, has yet to be cast.
- 12/2/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The Terminator is coming back.
The Halcyon Co. -- a recently formed, privately financed film development, production and financing company headed by co-CEOs Derek Anderson and Victor Kubicek -- has acquired the franchise rights to the popular movie series from C2's Mario Kassar and Andrew Vajna, intending to make a new trilogy that would anchor their movie company.
The deal is said to be in the tens of millions of dollars.
Terminator 4 will be based on a script by John Brancato and Michael Ferris, which was part of the transaction. Halcyon plans to immediately begin preproduction on the film. While no distribution agreement has been set, Halcyon is hoping that "T4" will be ready for release in the first half of 2009.
The deal includes the right to produce any future Terminator films, as well as all future merchandising and licensing rights, certain future revenue derived from Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, as well as certain rights in the television project The Sarah Connor Chronicles and the sole right to produce all future Terminator projects in any new or existing media.
The Halcyon Co. -- a recently formed, privately financed film development, production and financing company headed by co-CEOs Derek Anderson and Victor Kubicek -- has acquired the franchise rights to the popular movie series from C2's Mario Kassar and Andrew Vajna, intending to make a new trilogy that would anchor their movie company.
The deal is said to be in the tens of millions of dollars.
Terminator 4 will be based on a script by John Brancato and Michael Ferris, which was part of the transaction. Halcyon plans to immediately begin preproduction on the film. While no distribution agreement has been set, Halcyon is hoping that "T4" will be ready for release in the first half of 2009.
The deal includes the right to produce any future Terminator films, as well as all future merchandising and licensing rights, certain future revenue derived from Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, as well as certain rights in the television project The Sarah Connor Chronicles and the sole right to produce all future Terminator projects in any new or existing media.
- 5/10/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Dominic Purcell is set to star in Primeval, a killer-crocodile thriller that would serve as the feature debut of veteran television director Michael Katleman for Touchstone Pictures. Orlando Jones also has signed on to the movie, which is being produced by Gavin Polone and his Pariah shingle. The high-stakes adventure follows a news producer, reporter and cameraman who are dispatched to South Africa to track down and bring home alive a legendary 25-foot crocodile known as Gustave. However, their quarry proves far more elusive and deadly than they anticipated, and their situation turns even more perilous when a feared warlord targets them for death. Purcell plays the producer, while Jones portrays the cameraman. Scribe duo John Brancato and Michael Ferris (The Game, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines) wrote the screenplay, which is inspired by a man-eating crocodile in Africa.
- 2/28/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Writers Michael Ferris and John Brancato have been hired to adapt Universal Pictures' The Sigma Protocol, one of the last books written by author Robert Ludlum. Paul Sandberg is producing. Protocol centers on an American economist who becomes the target of professional assassins. When a U. S. intelligence agent investigating his case finds herself discredited, the two end up on the run and uncover a vast multinational conspiracy manipulating the global economy and world events.
- 2/25/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The next installment of the Terminator series will hit cinema screens in 2005 - but reportedly without Arnold Schwarzenegger. Schwarzenegger recently ditched acting for politics by becoming governor of California and, according to sources, his part in Terminator 4 will be reduced to a cameo role, while a new robot takes the limelight. A draft of the screenplay has just been completed by Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines writers John Brancato and Michael Ferris. Sources say it is about what happens when the world's computer systems are infected by viruses.
- 9/27/2004
- WENN
If nothing else, Catwoman is the first superhero action movie to focus on consumer protection. Because the evil its heroine is asked to thwart lies not in treacherous robots or a nuclear bomb or a madman threatening world domination but rather bad cosmetics. It's hard to understand why Warner Bros. Pictures and the film's producers want to stake a potential franchise on a battle over bad makeup -- albeit a cream that causes faces to drip away, similar to what those Nazis suffered in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Halle Berry makes an appealing heroine, if one prefers kitsch over true erotica. But wasn't it only 12 years ago that Michelle Pfeiffer strutted her feline stealth as a much more authentic Catwoman in Batman Returns? Berry's sex kitten, we are told, is "a Catwoman for the 21st century," which apparently means take a script suffering from an absence of logic -- credited to, or better, blamed on four writers -- cast an Oscar-winning actress and hand the enterprise over to a French digital effects maven named Pitof, whose only seeming interest is the movie's visual design.
The result is not the train wreck one might anticipate from surfing the Net. The catfights, overacting and Berry's swagger in a skimpy, tight, leather outfit that would be right at home at a Hookers Ball make for campy fun. This Catwoman seems destined to join Showgirls and its ilk as a fast-starting and even faster-fading theatrical release that could enjoy an afterlife as a midnight movie and video/DVD item where viewers supply alternate dialogue. Certainly the scripted dialogue makes you long for a mute button.
The heroine is not Selena Kyle of the Batman comics and movies but Patience Phillips. In other words, she is not that Catwoman but some other Catwoman.
Patience labors as a talented but often abused graphics designer for a large cosmetics firm run by megalomaniac tycoon George Hedare (a stiff, unctuous Lambert Wilson) and his wife and company model/spokeswoman Laurel (Sharon Stone generously bathed in soft light). Patience possesses an annoying best friend in Sally (Alex Borstein) and a mysterious companion in the form of a cat that lurks outside her loft window.
Inadvertently, Patience overhears a conversation that reveals the toxicity of the company's new anti-aging cream.
To silence her permanently, company goons flush her through factory tunnels into the sea, where through unexplained metaphysics she washes up on a rocky outcropping surrounded by feral cats. One is her strange neighbor, which breathes life back into the presumably dead woman. Soon she is eating tuna out of cans and hissing at dogs. More importantly, she leaps and prowls through the night in peekaboo leather with a mean whip.
While it takes far too long to get to this point, the movie does pick up once female empowerment takes over. Girls, at least very young ones, will thrill to the role reversals, and guys will dig the revealing leather costume (even as fans of the comic books will disparage the disguise). Even here, though, one might wish Berry were more catlike. Since when do cats sashay their hips? And because Berry is not an experienced martial artist, Pitof must stage her fights in quick cuts with ample visual effects.
Then again, Pitof is predisposed to visual technology, as the entire movie is tricked out with digital dazzle and cameras gliding through a cityscape that looks designed for a video game. The effect is not so much that of watching a movie as a virtual reality.
Speaking of role reversals, Benjamin Bratt as Patience's boyfriend cop, Tom Lone, is trapped in the ingenue role. A nice-guy cop without a corrupt or cynical bone in his body, he courts Patience like something out of a romance novel, including one-on-one basketball with plenty of body contact. The only mildly original twist comes in a fight between Tom and Catwoman, whom he doesn't recognize as the woman he just slept with, where she teasingly avoids and evades Tom while doing him no bodily harm.
The concluding catfight between Catwoman and Laurel is pretty one-sided until an eleventh-hour revelation that constant use of her company's beauty products has turned Laurel's skin into virtual marble, leaving her impervious to Catwoman's blows. Even so, things end not with a bang but a meow.
Technical credits nearly overwhelm the movie as actors are treated as objects integrated with CG images to achieve Pitof's artistic vision.
CATWOMAN
Warner Bros. Pictures
Warner Bros. Pictures in association with Village Roadshow Pictures presentsa Di Novi Pictures production
Credits:
Director: Pitof
Screenwriters: John Brancato, Michael Ferris, John Rogers
Story: Theresa Rebeck, John Brancato, Michael Ferris
Based on characters created by: Bob Kane and published by DC Comics
Producers: Denise Di Novi, Edward L. McDonnell
Executive producers: Bruce Berman, Robert Kirby
Director of photography: Thierry Arbogast
Production designer: Bill Brzeski
Music: Klaus Badelt
Co-producer: Alison Greenspan
Visual effects supervisor: Ed Jones
Costume designer: Angus Strathie
Editor: Sylvie Landra
Cast:
Patience/Catwoman: Halle Berry
Tom Lone: Benjamin Bratt
Laurel Hedare: Sharon Stone
George Hedare: Lambert Wilson
Ophelia: Frances Conroy
Sally: Alex Borstein
MPAA rating: PG-13
Running time -- 104 minutes...
Halle Berry makes an appealing heroine, if one prefers kitsch over true erotica. But wasn't it only 12 years ago that Michelle Pfeiffer strutted her feline stealth as a much more authentic Catwoman in Batman Returns? Berry's sex kitten, we are told, is "a Catwoman for the 21st century," which apparently means take a script suffering from an absence of logic -- credited to, or better, blamed on four writers -- cast an Oscar-winning actress and hand the enterprise over to a French digital effects maven named Pitof, whose only seeming interest is the movie's visual design.
The result is not the train wreck one might anticipate from surfing the Net. The catfights, overacting and Berry's swagger in a skimpy, tight, leather outfit that would be right at home at a Hookers Ball make for campy fun. This Catwoman seems destined to join Showgirls and its ilk as a fast-starting and even faster-fading theatrical release that could enjoy an afterlife as a midnight movie and video/DVD item where viewers supply alternate dialogue. Certainly the scripted dialogue makes you long for a mute button.
The heroine is not Selena Kyle of the Batman comics and movies but Patience Phillips. In other words, she is not that Catwoman but some other Catwoman.
Patience labors as a talented but often abused graphics designer for a large cosmetics firm run by megalomaniac tycoon George Hedare (a stiff, unctuous Lambert Wilson) and his wife and company model/spokeswoman Laurel (Sharon Stone generously bathed in soft light). Patience possesses an annoying best friend in Sally (Alex Borstein) and a mysterious companion in the form of a cat that lurks outside her loft window.
Inadvertently, Patience overhears a conversation that reveals the toxicity of the company's new anti-aging cream.
To silence her permanently, company goons flush her through factory tunnels into the sea, where through unexplained metaphysics she washes up on a rocky outcropping surrounded by feral cats. One is her strange neighbor, which breathes life back into the presumably dead woman. Soon she is eating tuna out of cans and hissing at dogs. More importantly, she leaps and prowls through the night in peekaboo leather with a mean whip.
While it takes far too long to get to this point, the movie does pick up once female empowerment takes over. Girls, at least very young ones, will thrill to the role reversals, and guys will dig the revealing leather costume (even as fans of the comic books will disparage the disguise). Even here, though, one might wish Berry were more catlike. Since when do cats sashay their hips? And because Berry is not an experienced martial artist, Pitof must stage her fights in quick cuts with ample visual effects.
Then again, Pitof is predisposed to visual technology, as the entire movie is tricked out with digital dazzle and cameras gliding through a cityscape that looks designed for a video game. The effect is not so much that of watching a movie as a virtual reality.
Speaking of role reversals, Benjamin Bratt as Patience's boyfriend cop, Tom Lone, is trapped in the ingenue role. A nice-guy cop without a corrupt or cynical bone in his body, he courts Patience like something out of a romance novel, including one-on-one basketball with plenty of body contact. The only mildly original twist comes in a fight between Tom and Catwoman, whom he doesn't recognize as the woman he just slept with, where she teasingly avoids and evades Tom while doing him no bodily harm.
The concluding catfight between Catwoman and Laurel is pretty one-sided until an eleventh-hour revelation that constant use of her company's beauty products has turned Laurel's skin into virtual marble, leaving her impervious to Catwoman's blows. Even so, things end not with a bang but a meow.
Technical credits nearly overwhelm the movie as actors are treated as objects integrated with CG images to achieve Pitof's artistic vision.
CATWOMAN
Warner Bros. Pictures
Warner Bros. Pictures in association with Village Roadshow Pictures presentsa Di Novi Pictures production
Credits:
Director: Pitof
Screenwriters: John Brancato, Michael Ferris, John Rogers
Story: Theresa Rebeck, John Brancato, Michael Ferris
Based on characters created by: Bob Kane and published by DC Comics
Producers: Denise Di Novi, Edward L. McDonnell
Executive producers: Bruce Berman, Robert Kirby
Director of photography: Thierry Arbogast
Production designer: Bill Brzeski
Music: Klaus Badelt
Co-producer: Alison Greenspan
Visual effects supervisor: Ed Jones
Costume designer: Angus Strathie
Editor: Sylvie Landra
Cast:
Patience/Catwoman: Halle Berry
Tom Lone: Benjamin Bratt
Laurel Hedare: Sharon Stone
George Hedare: Lambert Wilson
Ophelia: Frances Conroy
Sally: Alex Borstein
MPAA rating: PG-13
Running time -- 104 minutes...
- 8/13/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
With a base price in the mid-$70,000 range, the sleek Jaguar XJR isn't the type of product placement usually seen in the summer, when tentpole popcorn movies are clearly aimed at the mass market. Nevertheless, a scene in Warner Bros. Pictures' Catwoman, which opens today, not only won Jaguar's immediate approval but also served as the creative spark for one of the luxury car manufacturer's largest advertising and promotional campaigns of the year. The brief scene -- conceived by director Pitof and screenwriters John Brancato, Michael Ferris and John Rogers -- features the movie's star Halle Berry in her sexy Catwoman costume. Landing in the middle of a street after leaping from a tall building, she is almost hit by a Jaguar XJR as its driver slams on the brakes. Catwoman, finding herself face-to-face with the Jag's pouncing metallic hood ornament, lightly strokes the Jaguar, slithers along the side of the vehicle, pulls the driver out, and takes off in the car.
- 7/23/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Michael Douglas has survived wild escapades and adventures with a book-writing blonde in "Romancing the Stone" and was tormented by an obsessive wacko in "Fatal Attraction", but the dial gets turned up in "The Game", a chilly psychological suspenser unveiled at the Toronto International Film Festival as PolyGram Films' maiden release.
Chilled and edged to near-perfection by director David Fincher, "The Game" should win approval from sophisticated viewers, but its overall dark tone and lack of warmth will dampen word-of-mouth. While the mind-game histrionics are inventive and intriguing, "The Game" stays at a clinical distance from our feelings.
His hair pulled back in a full mane, his wardrobe cuff-linked by an expensive array of designer suits and his manner revved up to a composed vehemence, Douglas seems the West Coast reincarnation of Pat Riley in this slick venture as Nicholas Van Orton, a hardball investment banker of considerable family wealth. About to celebrate (in his case, ignore) his 48th birthday, Nicholas' manner is, not surprisingly, czarlike. He drives his big, black BMW with the full fury of a man who has never much worried about the peasantry getting in the way; indeed, Nicholas is not much of a people person. Sipping a scotch with the old boys at the club or dozing in front of the Financial News Network is his idea of human connection.
But not all is as placid or even-keeled under that steely demeanor - he's tormented by his father, who killed himself on his 48th birthday (has he got that in his genes?). To aggravate matters, his prodigal younger brother (Sean Penn) shows up with a mysterious birthday gift: a certificate for a life-changing experience as orchestrated by a company called CRS - Consumer Recreation Services.
Reluctant, but undeniably intrigued, Nicholas signs up, going through a battery of physical and psychological tests to prove he is up to "the game." Each game is designed for the individual, giving them something they desperately need but are not capable of doing on their own, constricted by their psychological makeup or life circumstances.
The game begins and, for Nicholas, it is designed to go right toward his weaknesses and, accordingly, his phobia. Man-in-control Nicholas is assaulted by an onslaught of unsettling experiences: his home sanctuary is violated, he screws up a business meeting, he's made to look messy and ridiculous.
In short, his whole world is assaulted, and his ability to make things happen is quashed. Nicholas wants out, but once you're in "the game," it's to the end. It's as if he's riding a raging roller coaster, the type of model he's least able to handle.
The premise by writers John Brancato and Michael Ferris is brainy, entertaining and smartly cross-connected to the character's hot wires. Never letting Nicholas, or the audience, get a firm sense of footing, "The Game" is fast, devious and all-involving. Still, its Byzantine gyrations, despite being firmly rooted in character and narrative logic, ultimately prove mind-numbing and, perhaps not surprisingly, we become somewhat distanced from Nicholas' woes.
It's a quality inherent in a story that centers on a cold fish; in essence, our sympathies with this character never warm to the extent they did, say in "Romancing the Stone" or "Fatal Attraction", where we feel sorry for the guy. Only those people who rooted for Deep Blue in the chess match with Garry Kasparov will, perhaps, feel an affinity for veins-of-ice Nicholas.
But "The Game" is tantalizing entertainment overall, its psychological creases perfectly fleshed by the talented production team. From cinematographer Harris Savides' chilly, gelid hues to composer Howard Shore's ripe, minor-key gracings, "The Game" is superbly crafted. Also deserving praise are production designer Jeffrey Beecroft for the sumptuously unnerving look and costume designer Michael Kaplan for Douglas' severe, tasteful threads.
The supporting players are smartly cast, with Penn convincing as Nicholas' loose-cannon, drug-addled younger brother and Deborah Kara Unger properly mysterious as a devious blonde. Other performances add smartly shaded particularity, including James Rebhorn's elusive CRS rep, Carroll Baker's steadfast domestic, Peter Donat's supportive attorney and Armin Mueller-Stahl's cuddly book editor.
THE GAME
PolyGram Films
PolyGram Filmed Entertainment
A Propaganda Films production
A David Fincher film
Producers Steve Golin, Cean Chaffin
Director David Fincher
Screenwriters John Brancato, Michael Ferris
Director of photography Harris Savides
Production designer Jeffrey Beecroft
Editor James Haygood
Sound designer Ren Klyce
Music Howard Shore
Costume designer Michael Kaplan
Executive producer Jonathan Mostow
Co-producers John Brancato, Michael Ferris
Casting Don Phillips
Color/stereo
Cast:
Nicholas Van Orton Michael Douglas
Conrad Sean Penn
Christine Deborah Kara Unger
Jim Feingold James Rebhorn
Samuel Sutherland Peter Donat
Ilsa Carroll Baker
Elizabeth Anna Katarina
Anson Baer Armin Mueller-Stahl
Running time - 128 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
Chilled and edged to near-perfection by director David Fincher, "The Game" should win approval from sophisticated viewers, but its overall dark tone and lack of warmth will dampen word-of-mouth. While the mind-game histrionics are inventive and intriguing, "The Game" stays at a clinical distance from our feelings.
His hair pulled back in a full mane, his wardrobe cuff-linked by an expensive array of designer suits and his manner revved up to a composed vehemence, Douglas seems the West Coast reincarnation of Pat Riley in this slick venture as Nicholas Van Orton, a hardball investment banker of considerable family wealth. About to celebrate (in his case, ignore) his 48th birthday, Nicholas' manner is, not surprisingly, czarlike. He drives his big, black BMW with the full fury of a man who has never much worried about the peasantry getting in the way; indeed, Nicholas is not much of a people person. Sipping a scotch with the old boys at the club or dozing in front of the Financial News Network is his idea of human connection.
But not all is as placid or even-keeled under that steely demeanor - he's tormented by his father, who killed himself on his 48th birthday (has he got that in his genes?). To aggravate matters, his prodigal younger brother (Sean Penn) shows up with a mysterious birthday gift: a certificate for a life-changing experience as orchestrated by a company called CRS - Consumer Recreation Services.
Reluctant, but undeniably intrigued, Nicholas signs up, going through a battery of physical and psychological tests to prove he is up to "the game." Each game is designed for the individual, giving them something they desperately need but are not capable of doing on their own, constricted by their psychological makeup or life circumstances.
The game begins and, for Nicholas, it is designed to go right toward his weaknesses and, accordingly, his phobia. Man-in-control Nicholas is assaulted by an onslaught of unsettling experiences: his home sanctuary is violated, he screws up a business meeting, he's made to look messy and ridiculous.
In short, his whole world is assaulted, and his ability to make things happen is quashed. Nicholas wants out, but once you're in "the game," it's to the end. It's as if he's riding a raging roller coaster, the type of model he's least able to handle.
The premise by writers John Brancato and Michael Ferris is brainy, entertaining and smartly cross-connected to the character's hot wires. Never letting Nicholas, or the audience, get a firm sense of footing, "The Game" is fast, devious and all-involving. Still, its Byzantine gyrations, despite being firmly rooted in character and narrative logic, ultimately prove mind-numbing and, perhaps not surprisingly, we become somewhat distanced from Nicholas' woes.
It's a quality inherent in a story that centers on a cold fish; in essence, our sympathies with this character never warm to the extent they did, say in "Romancing the Stone" or "Fatal Attraction", where we feel sorry for the guy. Only those people who rooted for Deep Blue in the chess match with Garry Kasparov will, perhaps, feel an affinity for veins-of-ice Nicholas.
But "The Game" is tantalizing entertainment overall, its psychological creases perfectly fleshed by the talented production team. From cinematographer Harris Savides' chilly, gelid hues to composer Howard Shore's ripe, minor-key gracings, "The Game" is superbly crafted. Also deserving praise are production designer Jeffrey Beecroft for the sumptuously unnerving look and costume designer Michael Kaplan for Douglas' severe, tasteful threads.
The supporting players are smartly cast, with Penn convincing as Nicholas' loose-cannon, drug-addled younger brother and Deborah Kara Unger properly mysterious as a devious blonde. Other performances add smartly shaded particularity, including James Rebhorn's elusive CRS rep, Carroll Baker's steadfast domestic, Peter Donat's supportive attorney and Armin Mueller-Stahl's cuddly book editor.
THE GAME
PolyGram Films
PolyGram Filmed Entertainment
A Propaganda Films production
A David Fincher film
Producers Steve Golin, Cean Chaffin
Director David Fincher
Screenwriters John Brancato, Michael Ferris
Director of photography Harris Savides
Production designer Jeffrey Beecroft
Editor James Haygood
Sound designer Ren Klyce
Music Howard Shore
Costume designer Michael Kaplan
Executive producer Jonathan Mostow
Co-producers John Brancato, Michael Ferris
Casting Don Phillips
Color/stereo
Cast:
Nicholas Van Orton Michael Douglas
Conrad Sean Penn
Christine Deborah Kara Unger
Jim Feingold James Rebhorn
Samuel Sutherland Peter Donat
Ilsa Carroll Baker
Elizabeth Anna Katarina
Anson Baer Armin Mueller-Stahl
Running time - 128 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
Anthony Michael Hall's surprisingly self-assured comic performance gives "Into the Sun, '' an airborne knock-off of "The Hard Way, '' an amiably satirical edge, although this action comedy ultimately doesn't have enough dash or flash to guarantee much of a boxoffice impact. However, the film's comic assets should play well on the small screen, making its video future look considerably brighter.
Hall plays Tom Slade, an almost casually egotistical Hollywood star who attaches himself to Air Force pilot Paul Watkins (Michael Pare) to do research for an upcoming role. Watkins, a no-nonsense type, is immediately put off by Slade's New Age-speak and by the star's uncanny ability to master new tasks with ease.
This portion of the film, further enlivened by Terry Kiser's hilarious impersonation of Slade's agent, is the best, with Hall's offhanded self-absorption well set-off by Pare's effectively limned fuming straight man.
However, when Watkins finally gives in and takes Slade on an F-16 patrol, the two are shot down by enemy aircraft over an unfriendly Arab country, and the comedy begins to play second fiddle to the action elements. And while the flying sequences are authentic enough, the activity on the ground never compensates for the diminishing laughs with any punch of its own.
The movie goes so far as to set up an American turncoat (Linden Ashby) flying for the Arabs, but his conflict with Watkins isn't an analogous match for Slade's.
Also given that the fleetingly glimpsed Arabs in the film come in two varieties -- brutal and greedy -- the film has left itself open to charges of ethnic insensitivity. Deborah Maria Moore as Watkins' in-service girlfriend and Brian Haley as a fellow pilot add to the film's generally accomplished acting credits.
INTO THE SUN
Trimark
A Trimark/Hess-Kallberg Production
Producers Kevin M. Kallberg, Oliver G. Hess
Director Fritz Kiersch
Story and screenplay John Brancato, Michael Ferris
Editor Barry Zetlin
Director of photography Steve Grass
Music Randy Miller
Production designer Gary T. New
Casting Jack Jones
color
cast:
Tom Slade Anthony Michael Hall
Paul Watkins Michael Pare
Mitchell Burton Terry Kiser
Major GoodeDeborah Maria Moore
Running time -- 100 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
Hall plays Tom Slade, an almost casually egotistical Hollywood star who attaches himself to Air Force pilot Paul Watkins (Michael Pare) to do research for an upcoming role. Watkins, a no-nonsense type, is immediately put off by Slade's New Age-speak and by the star's uncanny ability to master new tasks with ease.
This portion of the film, further enlivened by Terry Kiser's hilarious impersonation of Slade's agent, is the best, with Hall's offhanded self-absorption well set-off by Pare's effectively limned fuming straight man.
However, when Watkins finally gives in and takes Slade on an F-16 patrol, the two are shot down by enemy aircraft over an unfriendly Arab country, and the comedy begins to play second fiddle to the action elements. And while the flying sequences are authentic enough, the activity on the ground never compensates for the diminishing laughs with any punch of its own.
The movie goes so far as to set up an American turncoat (Linden Ashby) flying for the Arabs, but his conflict with Watkins isn't an analogous match for Slade's.
Also given that the fleetingly glimpsed Arabs in the film come in two varieties -- brutal and greedy -- the film has left itself open to charges of ethnic insensitivity. Deborah Maria Moore as Watkins' in-service girlfriend and Brian Haley as a fellow pilot add to the film's generally accomplished acting credits.
INTO THE SUN
Trimark
A Trimark/Hess-Kallberg Production
Producers Kevin M. Kallberg, Oliver G. Hess
Director Fritz Kiersch
Story and screenplay John Brancato, Michael Ferris
Editor Barry Zetlin
Director of photography Steve Grass
Music Randy Miller
Production designer Gary T. New
Casting Jack Jones
color
cast:
Tom Slade Anthony Michael Hall
Paul Watkins Michael Pare
Mitchell Burton Terry Kiser
Major GoodeDeborah Maria Moore
Running time -- 100 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
- 1/27/1992
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.