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We all love Jason Statham, and it shows with every release of his. The English actor is in a league of his own when it comes to action-heavy roles, carving a niche for himself with features like the Transporter franchise, Crank, and The Beekeeper. His latest release and second collaboration with director David Ayer, A Working Man, has had a modest box office run but is grabbing eyeballs on streaming. According to FlixPatrol, A Working Man is steadily climbing the Vudu charts, standing tall at #3 behind animated Dogman at #1, and Marvel Studios’ Captain America: Brave New World at #2 on the Top 10 list. The feature is a through-and-through action flick with an emotional core and thrilling plot. No wonder fans are enjoying the feature at their leisure.

The movie has divided the audience and critics, as seen in the split Rotten Tomatoes score: while critics give it a 49%, the audience score...

The Oscar Isaac-led animated filmThe King of Kings, which depicts the life of Jesus Christ through Charles Dickens telling a story, has broken a few records. The King of Kings is a South Korean animated film acquired by the faith-based production company Angel Studios, who made waves in 2023 by acquiring the surprise hit Sound of Freedom. The King of Kings features a stacked voice cast that includes Oscar Isaac, Kenneth Branagh, Uma Thurman, Pierce Brosnan, Mark Hamill, Ben Kingsley, and Forest Whitaker, to name a few, and opening a week before Easter has paid off.

Deadline reports that The King of Kings brought in $19 million in its opening weekend, taking the number two spot at the box office behind A Minecraft Movie. This was enough to surpassed 1998's The Prince of Egypt's $14 million gross as the biggest opening weekend for a biblical animated film. The King of Kings...

Market movies are majorly marketed toward kids, but let’s be real, some of the best films of all time have come from animation. If you have seen movies like the Toy Story franchise, Woody and Buzz always have an amazing tale to share with some of the best messages. Even Lightning McQueen’s redemption in Cars is proof that animation isn’t just for kids.

Animated films have the ability to bend stories easily due to a lack of realism, and this gives creators great freedom in creating movies and stories that would be hard to make with real-life actors. Signs of a good animated movie will have a balance of stunning visuals, a heartfelt story, and good humor.

A still from an upcoming Pixar Animated movie | Credits: Warner Bros.

Coming to 2025, the lineup of animated movies looks promising, some being long-awaited sequels and some new releases with fresh...

I don’t know what’s crazier: The fact that “The Day the Earth Blew Up” is the first fully-animated “Looney Tunes” feature ever released in theaters, or that Warner Bros. — who first commissioned the project for HBO Max (Rip) before shopping it around to other buyers — was so determined to prevent the film from achieving its destiny.

Can a fun, slap-happy, and beautifully animated buddy comedy fronted by some of the most famous cartoon characters of all time and budgeted at 8.57% the cost of “Inside Out 2” really be that big of a risk? New distributor Ketchup Entertainment is certainly hoping to prove otherwise, and they’re doing so with the benefit of a movie that’s very much about the joy and importance of preserving the classics long after they’ve gone out of fashion.

A wise man once promised “that gum you like is going to come back in style,...

Palme d’Or-winning actor Caleb Landry Jones has reunited with both Luc Besson, his director on the 2023 action thriller “DogMan” and the upcoming “Dracula: A Love Tale,” and Peter Brunner, who directed him in the experimental 2008 drama “To the Night,” on a secret passion project they’ve been working on for several years.

“Down the Arm of God,” being unveiled for the first time, was co-written by Brunner and Landry Jones and is set and shot within the homeless community in Texas, where production will soon wrap. Besson is producing through EuropaCorp, while Landry Jones also produces alongside Christian Sosa and Jon Wroblewski via their Roosevelt Film Lab.

The film — which is being formally introduced to the industry by Kinology at the EFM in Berlin — follows a young pastor (Landry Jones) through a harsh winter in a small Texas town, where his mission to help the homeless is faced with resistance by his congregation,...

A new movie by Luc Besson, June and John, which was filmed with a phone in Los Angeles during the Covid-19 lockdowns in 2020, has a new trailer and poster ahead of a spring 2025 release, per Variety. The film from The Fifth Elementdirector stars newcomers Mathida Price as June and Luke Stanton Eddy as John.

Kinology, who co-produced with Besson's EuropaCorp, originally showcased the film to potential buyers and distributors during the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, but nothing was heard about it until the unveiling of the trailer and poster. The official plot, according to Variety, follows:

"John, a young man stuck in a monotonous routine, whose life is transformed when he meets June, a vibrant and fearless woman. Together, they embark on a whirlwind adventure filled with passion, risk, and self-discovery — a race against the clock (and the law) that injects color, magic, and love into their lives."

Will 'June & John...

French filmmaker Luc Besson (“The Fifth Element”) is back after bringing us “Dogman” in 2023 with a surprise project heading to the European Film Market. This new movie, “June & John,” is a romantic comedy set in Los Angeles that stars newcomers Matilda Price and Luke Stanton Eddy.

Shot in L.A. during the 2020 lockdown with a phone should be a very different experience for audiences accustomed to Besson’s bigger adventures if you’re unfamiliar with the yearly event.

Continue reading ‘June & John’ Trailer: Luc Besson Shot A Secret L.A. Rom-Com With A Phone During The 2020 Lockdown at The Playlist.

"The future is the last unexplored territory where anything could happen!" Europacorp has revealed the official trailer for June & John, a romantic thriller secret project made by Luc Besson years ago during the start of the pandemic. This was shot by Luc Besson sometime after Anna (2019) and his other recent film DogMan (which opened last year). Variety describes it as a "secret project that he shot during the Covid-19 lockdown of 2020" that was apparently filmed entirely on a phone (it doesn't say iPhone or another?) in Los Angeles. I guess they had no budget & nothing to work with in 2020. Besson's June & John is described as a "love story for the ages" starring newcomers Matilda Price and Luke Stanton Eddy, featuring "at least one helicopter chase and an open-topped car driving into the sunset." This the story of John, a man of banal existence. John runs into a woman both beautiful and mysterious: June.

Josh Ruben’s Heart Eyes brought a brand new original slasher to the box office over the weekend, with the holiday-themed horror movie nearly matching the opening weekend of fellow Spyglass slasher Thanksgiving back in 2023. While that movie opened to $10.3 million, Heart Eyes came up a tad bit short with a domestic opening weekend haul of $8.5 million.

Sony released Heart Eyes into 3,102 theaters across the United States over the weekend, with the slasher/romantic comedy hybrid competing with the Super Bowl on Sunday. But the real test for Heart Eyes will be this coming weekend, with Valentine’s Day Weekend giving the Valentine’s Day-themed horror movie a perfect opportunity to win over more hearts.

Heart Eyes, which comes with a reported $18 million production price tag, is currently in the #2 spot on the domestic box office charts behind the animated family movie Dogman.

The slasher is currently Certified Fresh on...

After slowly returning to production in the wake of a restructuring, EuropaCorp, the company founded by “The Professional” director Luc Besson, is now fully back in action with several French and international films in the pipeline. These include the Snoop Dogg sci-fi movie “The Last Man,” and “Disorder,” a thriller starring Dylan Sprayberry (Teen Wolf”) and Thalia Besson who plays Geneviève in “Emily in Paris” season 4.

The banner, which is best known for its high voltage franchise movies such as “Taken,” “The Transporter” and the Scarlett Johansson movie “Lucy,” is also about to ramp up its output in the scripted TV space. EuropaCorp is nearing a deal with a Federation Studios label to team on the development and production of series based on its best known IP’s, Variety has learned. Although a “Lucy” spin-off was previously in development, it’s not believed to be part of the franchises that...

Snoop Dogg will star in and co-produce Luc Besson’s next movie, an original sci-fi movie titled “The Last Man.”

Although the post-apocalyptic plot is under wrap, it may be connected in some ways to Dogg’s 2009 song “Last Man Standing.”

The project is penned by Luc Besson, who successfully dived in science-fiction with the 1997 cult movie “The Fifth Element” starring Bruce Willis, and then with “Lucy” starring Scarlett Johansson. The latter was a box office hit, grossing $469 million worldwide in 2014. Three years later, Besson then went on to direct the pricey “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets” which grossed $225.9 million worldwide. “The Last Man” will likely be in the same vein as “The Fifth Element,” blending science-fiction, comedy and action.

Dogg and Besson previously worked together almost 20 years ago on the animated feature “Arthur and the Minimoys.” Dogg voiced one of the main characters of the movie.

Starring in The Wild Robot was the best kind of collaborative movie experience for Lupita Nyong'o.

"This film is the most fruitful, I would say, of my work in voice acting," Lupita Nyong'o told IndieWire about playing The Wild Robot's titular Rozzum Unit and the scope of her involvement in Roz's story. "I had a larger role to play and so I had a full arc, and because it is the titular role, figuring out that arc really does unlock all the other characters," she said, adding, "That greater responsibility led to more creative input. The collaboration was special. I really didn’t want to sign onto this project if it was going to render me as just an executor of a voice."

Related Morbius and Black Panther Stars Unite for Cold War Caper

Oscar-winning actors from Morbius and the Black Panther movies are uniting for a Cold War-era film.

The film is being distributed by Briarcliff Entertainment, so it’s not as easy to say where “The Apprentice” will become available.

As the 2024 U.S. presidential election draws closer, audiences are getting a chance to see Republican candidate Donald Trump from a different perspective. The former president is the subject of the new biographical drama “The Apprentice,” which makes its theatrical debut on Friday, Oct. 11. Since the Sebastian Stan movie is not being released by a major give distributor, I will break down the best guesses as to when and where you’ll be able to stream it from home!

Key Details “The Apprentice” has a 79% approval rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes. The movie is being distributed by Briarcliff Entertainment, which makes it difficult to determine its on-demand home. Premium video-on-demand platforms like Prime Video will almost certainly get “The Apprentice” first. 30-Day Free Trial $8.99+ / month amazon.com Watch...

Luc Besson is known for his iconoclastic movies, as he continues to challenge the beliefs of his audience and seemingly cares little about a potential uproar. Bessons movies occasionally lack realism, at least to some extent, but the main focus of his projects is to move people. Whether it is in discomfort, hope, or confusion, the director has managed to evoke a myriad of emotions within his audience. Besson has been an established filmmaker for over three decades now, which seemingly allows him to explore his creativity beyond societys expectations and maybe even its limits.

One of his most recent movies, which was released in the United States at the beginning of 2024, has received split opinions, as it combines a variety of strong emotions. The dark thriller DogMan, which was written and directed by Besson, delivers a distressing story of childhood trauma and complex struggles with healing from cruelty. Even...

On Wednesday October 2 2024, Discovery broadcasts Expedition X!

The Dogman Conspiracy Season 8 Episode 7 Episode Summary

The upcoming episode of “Expedition X,” titled “The Dogman Conspiracy,” promises to take viewers on an intriguing journey into the world of cryptids and urban legends. Josh Gates, along with his team members Phil Torres and Heather Amaro, will dive deep into the mystery surrounding the legendary Dogman. This creature, often described as a half-dog, half-man figure, has captured the imagination of many and sparked countless stories across different cultures.

In this episode, the team travels to various locations known for Dogman sightings. They will speak with locals who claim to have encountered the creature and investigate the evidence that has surfaced over the years. Gates and his team are known for their thorough approach, combining scientific investigation with engaging storytelling. Their goal is to uncover the truth behind the Dogman legend and determine whether there...

"How evil can one cat be?" "Pretty evil, ha ha ha!"...

The upcoming Dracula film, Dracula: A Love Tale, sees French filmmaker and The Fifth Element and Lon: The Professional director Luc Besson reuniting with DogMan star Caleb Landry Jones in a reimagining of the iconic vampire. This adaptation will present a somewhat different version of Dracula to the audience, exploring how Dracula came to be after love was ripped away from him, leading him to renounce God and live for eternity as punishment.

Jones plays the titular vampire lord Dracula, previously known as Prince Vlad of Wallachia. In an interview with Collider, Jones discussed how he got the role and revealed how he approached his portrayal of this age-old character. He revealed he was approached by Besson for the role of Dracula before they even began filming their first film together, DogMan. In terms of preparation, Jones focused on what Besson wanted to see from this new take on Bram Stoker's beloved creation.

If anyone had a particularly surreal Venice in 2023, it was Caleb Landry Jones.

Not only was the actor on the Lido for barely 24 hours — for the world premiere of Luc Besson’s “DogMan” in which he played a cross-dressing vigilante-thief with a pack of canines at his command — but the 34-year-old had effectively been yanked from a muddy film set on the top of a mountain in Scotland early one morning, flown to Italy, put in a shirt, ferried from press conference to red carpet, flown back to Scotland the next day and driven to the top of a mountain to shoot a crucial scene.

“I was in Venice, but all I was thinking about was this really important scene I had to do,” he says. “And I kept falling asleep in the screening and trying to wake up and Luc would be like, ‘Man, it’s ok, go to sleep,...

Ali Abbasi’s Donald Trump movie “The Apprentice” starring Sebastian Stan as Trump and Jeremy Strong as Roy Cohn will get a chance to help shape the 2024 presidential election.

“The Apprentice” has been acquired for U.S. distribution by Briarcliff Entertainment, which plans to release it in theaters ahead of the election on October 11, IndieWire has learned.

Abbasi’s film made its premiere in competition at Cannes to lukewarm reviews, even given the morbid-curiosity factor of seeing Trump’s rise to power — as well as it being an “Avengers” star who portrays the 45th president. In his review of “The Apprentice” out of Cannes, IndieWire critic David Ehrlich wrote that while the film generates an ounce of sympathy for Cohn and the “monster he helped create” in Trump, Trump as a character is too shallow to be dramatically interesting.

“Sometimes in broad strokes and sometimes with brutal specificity, ‘The Apprentice...

Newly released images provide audiences with a first look at X-Men: First Class star Caleb Landry Jones as Count Dracula on set of Luc Besson's upcoming film, Dracula: A Love Tale, set to release in 2025.

The photo below, which comes to us from Deadline, depicts Jones (right) and Besson (left) on set for the upcoming film. Towering over Besson and the rest of his fellow cast members, Jones is unrecognizable after four hours of special effects makeup. The film is set to co-star two-time Academy-Award winner, Christoph Waltz, as a priest and Matilda De Angelis as Maria, Dracula's love interest.

Related Caleb Landry Jones Set to Play Dracula in 'Big-Budget Reimagining'

Details have been revealed about a new Dracula origin story starring X-Men: First Class star Caleb Landry Jones.

Written and Directed by Luc Besson, the film was announced in February 2024 and production began in late March. According...

Not only will Eva Longoria play herself in season 4 of Only Murders in the Building; she’ll also play a version of Selena Gomez’ Mabel.

“The new installment of the series starring Martin Short, Steve Martin and Selena Gomez has the trio heading to Los Angeles when they learn a Hollywood studio wants to turn their podcast into a movie… In season four, Longoria stars as a version of herself who plays Gomez’s character, Mabel, in the movie about their podcast.”

Read more at The Hollywood Reporter

Natalie Portman takes center stage in Apple TV+’s Lady in the Lake, but that’s not necessarily a good thing.

“Despite intriguing characters and settings, Lady in the Lake never becomes the noir thriller it could have been. Har’el buries the tale in puzzling surrealist moments. Consequently, Ingram’s Cleo is positioned as a bystander in her own story, allowing...

Cameras are now rolling on director Luc Besson's new take on Dracula, with his DogMan star Caleb Landry Jones on board to play the legendary Transylvanian Count.

The movie is titled Dracula: A Love Tale, and is described as a “a big-budget reimagining” of the vampire's origin story.

Deadline has shared a first look at the movie, giving us a behind-the-scenes glimpse of Jones in his armor, presumably as a pre-vampire Prince Vlad "The Impaler" Tepes.

“It’s a totally romantic approach,” Besson says of his adaptation. “There’s a romantic side in Bram Stoker’s book that hasn’t been explored that much. It’s a love story about a man who waits for 400 years for the reincarnation of his wife. That’s the true heart of the story, waiting an eternity for the return of love.”

To be fair, the romantic elements of the story have been...

Earlier this year, it was announced that director Luc Besson would be making Dracula movie called Dracula: A Love Tale, a “big-budget reimagining” of the Dracula concept that will feature “some epic and potentially spectacular set pieces.” that project is now several months into production, aiming to wrap up this month – and Deadline has just shared a behind the scenes image that shows Besson and Caleb Landry Jones, who just worked with Besson on his most recent film, Dogman – with Jones in costume as Dracula! An edited version of the image can be seen above, and the full image can be found at the bottom of this article.

The idea that Jones would make a great Dracula occurred to Besson while they were on the set of Dogman. Wanting to work with the actor again as quickly as possible, the filmmaker then started assembling his take on Dracula. He told...

Exclusive: Caleb Landry Jones extends a gnarly bejewelled hand as he arrives on the set of Luc Besson’s gothic drama Dracula: A Love Tale.

The Three Boards and Nitram actor is unrecognizable after four hours in make-up. His already tall frame augmented by platform shoes, he towers over Besson, the cast and the crew.

“How are you?” asks Jones, staying in character with a thick Transylvanian accent and syntax, adding in response to a comment on his appearance: “They done incredible… this man back here, he make everything.”

Jones has appeared at the end of a tour of the extensive Dracula: A Love Tale set in the vast Darkmatters studio southwest of Paris, conducted by Besson. Above is a first behind-the-scenes look at the actor as the blood-smeared Count.

Deadline is not invited to sit in on filming. Besson likes intimate shoots without distractions, sitting beside his cinematographer and close to his actors,...

Exclusive: As it preps for the release of notable titles like Nickel Boys, production company Louverture Films has added a handful of key execs and collaborators, including two principal partners and a chief financial officer.

As those new arrivals come aboard, co-founder Danny Glover has announced he is stepping down as CEO but will remain a partner. Melony Lewis and Adam Lewis have joined as principal partners and Longtime German film finance expert Frank Lehmann is now CFO. Colombian producer Diana Bustamante, a significant figure in South American cinema and former head of the Cartagena Film Festival, is collaborating with Louverture on a number of projects.

Along with the Lewises, the company’s partners include Glover, co-founder Joslyn Barnes, Susan Rockefeller, Sawsan Asfari, Tony Tabatznik and Jeffrey L. Clark.

Louverture is known for a number of acclaimed international co-productions, among them narrative titles Memoria, Zama, Capernaum and documentaries Gunda, Hale...

France’s film and TV sales agencies are expanding their efforts to do business with companies in China and Southeast Asia. That requires travelling to the region and, for some, a tweak to established mindsets.

This month has seen a delegation of sales firms set up stall in specially-organized rights markets in Beijing, China, and another in Saigon (aka Ho Chi Minh City) in Vietnam. The efforts were backed by Unifrance, the trade association which now draws its membership from both film and TV disciplines. And the events drew additional support from the French embassy in each country.

“For us, 2024 is the year of renewed showcase events. And China and Asia are at the top of our list,” said Sarah Hemar, Unifrance’s director of audiovisual.

That is a refrain which echoes the comments previously made by French pay-tv giant Canal+, which has paid $300 million for a 37% stake in Asian streamer Viu.

The 23rd edition of the Transilvania International Film Festival, kicked off Friday night with a sold-out screening of Dogman, the canine-focused revenge thriller by the French veteran Luc Besson, with Dogman co-star Jojo T. Gibbs in attendance.

Some 3,500 viewers backed Unirii Square in Cluj-Napoca for the start of the 11-day festival, which runs through June 24. The biggest film extravaganza in Romania, the festival is one of the premier events on the Eastern European industry calendar, with more than 200 films, exhibitions, concerts, talks and special events scheduled, and around 1,000 industry professionals expected.

Alongside Jojo T. Gibbs, most recently seen in Alex Garland’s Civil War, the TIFF guest list this year includes Italian filmmaker Daniele Luchetti (The Yes Man), who will be honored with the festival’s special award for contribution to world cinema; and Romanian film and theater legend Catrinel Dumitrescu (Aurora), who will receive the excellence award at the closing gala on June 22nd.

Exclusive: Activist Artists Management has signed Jojo T. Gibbs, the actress, writer, producer and stand-up comedian best known for her starring role in Lena Waithe’s semi-autobiographical BET series Twenties, for representation. Bernie Cahill and Grant Pennel will run point for the client.

Airing for two seasons from 2020-2021, Twenties was a comedy-drama following the lives of three young women in their twenties as they navigated the challenges of adulthood in Los Angeles. Starring opposite Christina Elmore, Gabrielle Graham, Sophina Brown and Big Sean, Gibbs portrayed Hattie, a queer Black woman based on Waithe, who aspires to be a screenwriter.

Most recently seen in Alex Garland’s buzzy A24 pic Civil War, Gibbs’ other recent credits on the film side include Luc Besson’s Dogman opposite Caleb Landry Jones, Celine Song’s A24 Best Picture nominee Past Lives, Hulu’s Mimi Cave thriller Fresh, Amazon’s Something from Tiffany’s, and Cora Bora,...

Nora Arnezeder (“The Famous Five”) and Maria Bello (“A History of Violence”) are set to co-star in “Hell in Paradise,” a female-powered thriller inspired by a true story and produced by EuropaCorp’s Virginie Besson-Silla (“Dogman”).

Penned by Karine Silla (“A Butterfly Kiss”), “Hell in Paradise” revolves around Nina, a young French girl who leaves her native Marseille and accepts her first job as a receptionist at a luxurious hotel resort on a magnificent island of the Maldives, hoping for a better life. But when a tragedy befalls the hotel, Nina is propelled in a relentless spiral of lies and manipulations. Wrongly accused and sentenced to life in prison, she will have no other choice but to run between traps and escape this paradise turned into hell.

Arnezeder and Maria Bello star opposite Josephine de la Baume, Alyy Khan, Shubahm Saraf and Ranjit Krishnama. Gregoire Melin’s Kinology handles international...

From the beginning of his career, Caleb Landry Jones has been a dependable source of colorful characters who light up a scene. Since first appearing as one of the kids in the final scene of No Country For Old Men, he has moved on to be an important player in films ranging from X-Men: First Class to Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, and Get Out. He specialized in playing either guys who just gave you the willies for a reason you can't explain or ones who come off as a goofy manchild which makes him endearing. While he hasn't often had the chance to be the lead in a major film, whenever he does get to star, he absolutely nails it. See Brandon Cronenberg's Antiviral or Luc Besson's latest film, Dogman, to see Jones effortlessly step into the spotlight. One of his very best leading performances came in 2021 with the Australian drama,...

Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

Asphalt City (Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire)

I entered Asphalt City at last year’s EnergaCAMERIMAGE festival with nothing but morbid curiosity. Having engendered some rank responses from its Cannes premiere and not secured any known U.S. distributor, Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire’s film had the right kind of bad-object energy one needs at the jetlagged start to their week in a small Polish city. (Or just the comfort I personally get from a Brooklyn-shot feature featuring two Club Random guests.) I walked away boasting complicated, fascinated enthusiasm: nearly every second is ridiculous and never boring, and it doesn’t not deserve to play at a cinematography festival––having the most cinematography counts for something. Starting and ending with a blatant homage to The New World...

Before Luc Besson's latest thriller, DogMan, hit theaters, Collider hosted a special early screening where we invited two of the film's stars, Caleb Landry Jones (Get Out) and Jojo T. Gibbs (Past Lives), to sit down for an extended Q&a with us after the credits. Hosted by our own Therese Lacson, the duo discuss what it was like behind the scenes on a Besson movie, and the challenges faced in preparation for their roles.

In the latest feature from Luc Besson, a young man seeks revenge in an original fashion. Caleb Landry Jones is fantastic as the DogMan. As ‘Douglas Munroe,’ the actor is given the chance to take on the role fearlessly. The story revolves around a man who was horribly abused. His love and appreciation of dogs follows him into his adult years, leaving him angry at the world around him. And thankfully, he trains man’s best friend to take care of other, not-so-nice, people in his life. The film also stars Jojo T. Gibbs and the two are terrific together.

Recently, we spoke with Caleb Landry Jones and Jojo T. Gibbs about the film. Caleb opened up about working with Luc Besson and taking on such a powerful role. For Ms. Gibbs, she discussed working with Caleb and both of the two seemingly found inspiration working off of each other.

Easter is behind us, we’re into a new month, and we’re fully into spring … and yet, the box office might be hitting another lull. Read on for Gold Derby’s box office preview.

There aren’t many scenarios where “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” doesn’t win its second weekend at #1. Even with a steep drop from its Easter opening, it should still be able to bring in another $30 million this coming weekend, which will be hard to beat.

It might be a coin flip on which of the other two new wide releases might do better, but I have to give a slight edge to “The First Omen,” 20th Century’s prequel to a horror franchise that began all the way back in 1976 with the horror film, “The Omen,” directed by Richard Donner pre-“Superman.” That led to two sequels in 1978 and 1981, even though the original...

Chicago – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Scott Thompson on Wbgr-fm on March 28th, 2024, reviewing “DogMan,” a new film by director Luc Beeson (“The Fifth Element” “Lucy”), in wide release on April 5th, see local listings.

Rating: 4.0/5.0

The DogMan is Doug (Caleb Landry Jones) and as the movie begins we see him busted by New Jersey law enforcement, where they find several dogs in his truck, and he’s also in drag as Marilyn Monroe. Wanting to get into his motivations, they put their psychiatrist Evelyn (Jojo T. Gibbs) on the case, and she begins to unravel the DogMan’s life, which includes childhood abuse, paralysis and Shakespeare. He also has a psychic connection to the dogs he keeps, using them as an army to protect and do break-ins for him. Finally, because of all these circumstances, he lands a job as a drag queen,...

Luc Besson directs DogMan, a character-driven thriller with Caleb Landry Jones in the lead role. The movie follows Doug's journey from abuse to becoming a master of dogs and performing in a drag show. Jones and Gibbs discuss their unique experiences working with Besson on the film.

Luc Besson returns to the director's chair with another unique take on the character-driven thriller genre with DogMan. The movie serves as Besson's first directorial effort in five years, with his previous being the 2019 action-thriller Anna. The French filmmaker is best known for his action genre efforts, having directed the likes of La Femme Nikita, Léon: The Professional, The Fifth Element, and the Scarlett Johansson-led Lucy, while also penning the scripts for Taxi, Jason Statham's Transporter trilogy and Liam Neeson's Taken, among many others.

The movie sees Besson returning to his Léon past as he's crafted a character-driven story with loose thriller elements revolving around Doug,...

In this week’s episode of The Discourse, host Mike DeAngelo digs into the film “DogMan” with writer/director Luc Besson (“The Fifth Element,” “Leon: The Professional,” “Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets.”). The film follows Doug (Caleb Landry Jones), a young, crippled, abandoned man, beaten down by a tough life who has a supernatural connection to his canine companions.

Continue reading ‘DogMan’: Luc Besson On His Divisive Dog-Eat-Dog Drama, Gary Oldman’s “Genius” & More ‘Valerian’ [The Discourse Podcast] at The Playlist.

When Quentin Tarantino begins production on his upcoming film “The Movie Critic,” it is expected to mark the fulfillment of his highly publicized pledge to retire after directing 10 movies. Tarantino has long been outspoken about his desire to step away from filmmaking at the top of his game and cited his plan to limit himself to 10 films as a reason he passed on directing an R-rated “Star Trek” movie for Paramount. But while Tarantino’s retirement plans are well-documented, he might not have been the one to come up with the idea.

In an upcoming interview on The Discourse Podcast (via The Playlist), Luc Besson claimed that Tarantino copied his idea to retire after 10 films. While Besson did not stick to the plan, he said that his idea stuck with Tarantino as the “Pulp Fiction” director plotted his career.

“What’s funny is that I said that to Tarantino a long time ago,...

Luc Besson expresses surprise and confusion over reports of a potential Lucy 2. The ending of the first movie presents a unique challenge in creating a sequel storyline. A spinoff TV show centered on Morgan Freeman's character is already in development, though no updates have been given in two years.

As the filmmaker mounts a return to the director's chair, Luc Besson has a disappointing update on Lucy 2. The 2014 movie starred Scarlett Johansson as the titular American student in Taiwan who, after inexplicably becoming a drug mule, begins developing superhuman abilities from the drugs she's meant to be transporting. Scoring mixed-to-positive reviews and amassing an impressive $469 million box office haul against its $40 million production budget, talks have swirled in the years since about a potential follow-up.

During a recent interview with The Playlist for his upcoming drama thriller Dogman, Besson was asked about whether Lucy 2 will come to fruition.

It’s been a tumultuous few years for French filmmaker Luc Besson, to put it mildly. But with #MeToo allegations outwardly behind him and the director seemingly exonerated, it appears to be full steam ahead for the “Fifth Element” and “Leon: The Professional” director. After a four-year absence from the screen, his latest effort is the drama “DogMan,” starring Caleb Landry Jones, about a boy bruised by life who finds his salvation through the love of his dogs.

Continue reading Luc Besson Says ‘Lucy 2’ Sequel Is News To Him & Addresses Natalie Portman’s Negative Thoughts On ‘Leon’ at The Playlist.

Luc Besson is back in US theaters with “Dogman,” and he’s already hard at work on his upcoming adaptation of “Dracula” with Caleb Landry Jones. “I started shooting it already,” Besson said in an upcoming interview with The Discourse Podcast. “It comes from the from the Bram Stoker tale, but the vision for me is a love story between him and his princess – like in the book.

Continue reading Luc Besson Says He Gave Tarantino The Idea For The 10-Film Retirement Plan & Says He Has 3 Films Left at The Playlist.

Caleb Landry Jones stands out with a brilliant performance. The supporting cast weakens the film, dragging down the strong lead. The lack of clear vision and direction from Luc Besson makes the movie fall short.

Luc Besson's DogMan is clever, well-produced, and particularly beautiful to watch, but none of that makes up for the poor execution that turns a clever concept into a weak movie. DogMan has a few strengths that can make it enjoyable, and the film works hard to deliver a message, but it fails to follow through on the promise of purpose, with heavy-handed religious imagery, and weak performances from almost the entire cast. Caleb Landry Jones, who plays the hopeful hero, is brilliant, but the rest of the cast dulls his performance and turns something with promise hollow.

3/10

DogMan is an action-thriller by director Luc Besson that follows Doug, a man with a tortured past and a love of dogs.

Last month, it was announced that Luc Besson would be making Dracula movie called Dracula: A Love Tale, which is meant to be a “big-budget reimagining” of the Dracula concept that will feature “some epic and potentially spectacular set pieces.” When the announcement was made, Christoph Waltz, who won Oscars for his performances in the Quentin Tarantino films Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained, was already on board to star in the film alongside Caleb Landry Jones, who just worked with Besson on his most recent film, Dogman. Just one month later, Besson has revealed to the folks at Collider that his Dracula is already filming in Finland, with production expected to go on until the end of July.

Besson told the site, “I’ve started already. I’m gonna make another movie with Mr. Caleb Landry Jones and Mr. Christoph Waltz — Dracula . I started a few days ago in Lapland in the north.

A Luc Besson film provokes thought as much it takes viewers along a mesmerizing emotional journey. Besson is the brainchild behind Leon: The Professional, The Fifth Element, The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc, and Lucy. Besson's new film, DogMan, which he wrote and directed, is a gripping character study and one of the most captivating — if not surreal and edgy — psychological dramas to hit the screen recently.

The film also gives us a fascinating protagonist in Douglas (Caleb Landry Jones in a winning turn), an eccentric and wounded soul who recounts his tale to a prison psychologist (JoJo T. Gibbs). Leaping from past to present, we discover how Douglas wound up behind bars and how his diverse pack of dogs became his most loyal allies. If you're a fan of psychological thrillers and films with inventive endings, dive into this exceptional film. In excerpts from an exclusive MovieWeb interview,...

Redhead Caleb Landry Jones got lucky on his first audition, at age 17. His father took a day off from work and drove him from Garland, Texas, to Dallas for a try-out, then to Austin for a callback with the Coen brothers, for a role as “the boy on the bike” in eventual Best Picture Oscar-winner “No Country for Old Men” (2007). Little did Jones know, as he launched his acting career, that he would join the ensemble on “X-Men: First Class” (2011) or win Best Actor at Cannes for playing a mass murderer in “Nitram” (2021), or that one critic would dub him “a menacing oddball character actor.”

When I read that quote to Jones over Zoom, he paused for a moment and said, “That sounds Ok to me. I heard ‘actor,’ so that sounded good.”

The Coens did Jones a huge favor, he said. “Javier Bardem. Not a bad person to see...

Exclusive: Briarcliff Entertainment has acquired domestic rights to the comedy Not Another Church Movie, starring Jamie Foxx, Vivica A. Fox, Kevin Daniels, Mickey Rourke and more, slating it for a wide release in theaters on May 10th.

Daniels leads the ensemble as Taylor Pherry (his P is silent), an ambitious young man given a holy mission from God Himself: to tell his family’s stories and inspire his community. What he doesn’t know is that the Devil has plans of his own. Foxx plays God, with Rourke as The Devil, in the film directed by Johnny Mack.

A Monty the Dog Production, the film was produced by James Michael Cummings and former Warner Bros executive Jim Cardwell, with Valerie McCaffrey serving as executive producer. Tisha Campbell, Jasmine Guy, Kyla Pratt and Lamorne Morris co-star.

“A huge credit to Johnny Mack, James Michael Cummings and the entire cast and crew...

Easter weekend should help end March as one of the best months of the year so far, thanks to yet another major franchise sequel, this time “Godzilla.” Read on for Gold Derby’s box office preview.

As March comes to an end, considerably better than earlier months this year, Warner Bros. are releasing the third sequel of the month that follows up a pandemic release, as “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” brings back the giant monsters that Legendary Pictures has been shepherding along since the 2014 “Godzilla” opened with $93 million, grossed $200.7 million domestic and $529 million globally. In 2017, “Kong: Skull Island” opened with $61 million, leading into 2019’s “Godzilla: King of the Monsters,” which opened with considerably less, $47.8 million, and only made $383 million worldwide.

Those three movies led to 2021’s “Godzilla vs. Kong,” which was stymied by the pandemic when it was released in late March 2021, just as movie theaters were reopening...

Caleb Landry Jones will never forget his experience in DogMan. In writer/director Luc Besson’s trippy new thriller, the X-Men: First Class and Get Out star survived his fair share of creative chaos. For starters, he had to become an octopus. Best to expound upon later, so let’s start with some facts.

There were more than 120 trained (ish) dogs prancing around in Besson’s twisted revenge drama. Plus, canine handlers and the crew, of course. Meanwhile, the unconventional storyline gave Jones plenty to nosh on creatively, losing himself in a transformative performance as Douglas, a mysterious and crafty performer who uses a wheelchair and has a troubling past. Douglas works in drag for a living, and his deep connection to a pack of loyal canines is downright surreal.

“Dogs are dogs,” Jones told us about working with his four-legged companions. “Dogs would do whatever they want, no matter how you train them.

The Sudanese drama Goodbye Julia is continuing its impressive awards run, earning the Grand Jury Award for Best Narrative Feature over the weekend at the Sonoma International Film Festival in California.

Mohamed Kordofani directed the story set in the context of the secessionist movement that led to the establishment of the independent nation of South Sudan in 2011.

“We commend the festival for its impressive selection of narrative features and unanimously select Goodbye Julia as the best film,” jurors wrote. “An outstanding first feature from Mohamed Kordofani, anchored by two stellar performances from Eiman Yousif and Siran Riak, Goodbye Julia provides a glimpse into a culture and region that’s underrepresented and underexplored in contemporary cinema.”

The jury, comprised of Rosa Bosch (Begin Again Films), Tyler Coates (The Hollywood Reporter), Rebecca Fisher (Magnolia Pictures), Jason Hellerstein (Sideshow), and Julie Huntsinger (Telluride Film Festival), awarded a Special Mention to Hesitation Wound, describing...

Chicago – In one of the more unusual film releases of late, Caleb Landry Jones and Jojo T. Gibbs are the feature lead actors in “Dogman,” opening in Chicago on March 29th and wider on April 5th. Written and directed by Luc Besson (“The Fifth Element’), the film defies convention in a story that is multi-faceted and symbolic.

The DogMan is Doug (Caleb Landry Jones) and as the movie begins we see him busted by New Jersey law enforcement, where they find several dogs in his truck, and he’s also in drag as Marilyn Monroe. Wanting to get into his motivations, they put their psychiatrist Evelyn (Jojo T. Gibbs) on the case, and she begins to unravel the DogMan’s life, which includes childhood abuse, paralysis and Shakespeare. He also has a psychic connection to the dogs he keeps, using them as an army to protect and do break-ins for him.