Matthew Monagle
Rumor: Sony Has Plans for a ‘Nightwatch’ Movie in Its Spidey-Verse
If you, like me, find yourself down the rabbit hole of comic book conspiracy theories, you might eventually come across the case of Nightwatch, the Manhattan time-traveling superhero whose costumes and powers bears a striking resemblance to Todd McFarlane’s Spawn. Adding to this speculation is the fact that Marvel introduced Nightwatch less than a year after McFarlane left to start his own comic book company. Did Marvel basically steal Spawn from an ex-employee? Were there ongoing legal battles we should’ve been reading about this whole time? Are we missing out on superhero drama?!
Sylvester Stallone Hints That ‘Creed 2’ Will Begin Filming in 2018
Despite the fact that Creed 2 remains very early in the pre-production process, Sylvester Stallone hasn’t shied away from providing fans with regular updates on his screenwriting process. That’s included photos of his handwritten Creed 2 script as well as a promise that his character would face off against Dolph Lundgren’s Ivan Drago in the much-anticipated sequel. And while star and studio have avoided giving us a firm timeline for the sequel’s release — I mean, other than a rumored 2017 release date that they, uh, are clearly going to miss — it sounds like Stallone is making a lot of progress on he film.
‘It’ Director Andy Muschietti Reveals His Inspiration for Pennywise
One of the most challenging parts of any Stephen King adaptation is walking that fine line between childhood fears and adult terror. It is a perfect example: how do you take images meant to be frightening to 12 and 13-year-olds and adjust them for an adult audience? This is the formula that King has used to make him one of the most successful authors of all time, but stepping outside of the characters’ heads — and behind a movie camera — only ramps up the challenge of balancing tone just right. That’s why it’s been so heartening to hear It director Andy Muschietti say all the right things in pre-release interviews. For better or worse, it sounds like he really gets it.
Weekend Box Office Report: Weirdest. Labor Day Weekend. Ever.
In a weekend where no new releases cracked the Top 10 and six movies maintained their exact spot in the rankings, you’d think there would be less news worth sharing. That isn’t quite the case. Sure, as sites like Box Office Mojo have noted, this is a historically bad Labor Day Weekend for movies in theaters, but it’s also a uniquely static weekend for releases, one that even required me to create a second chart just to capture all the data points. Let’s start as we always do, with the box office grosses as of Sunday afternoon:
Watch This Super-Sized Behind-the-Scenes ‘It’ Featurette
If the early buzz is to be believed, fans couldn’t get any more excited for the upcoming adaptation of Stephen King’s It. Not only does the film have one of the most-watched movie trailers of all time, and is also projected to make over $60 million in its opening weekend, it’s also coming into theaters riding a wave of impressive reviews. And somehow, the movie has done all of this without tipping its hand on some of the most impressive scares. All of this for an R-rated horror movie about children being jeopardized. We’ve come a long way since the original miniseries, America.
Weekend Box Office Report: ‘Hitman’s Bodyguard’ Wins a Historically Bad Weekend
There are bad weekends, there are bad weekends, and then there are historically terrible weekends the likes of which haven’t been seen in decades. Guess which one applies to this past weekend? With the overall box office dipping more than $30 million from last week, and the overall numbers landing as historically bad, we seem to be ending August on a terrible note. Nevertheless, here are the box office numbers through Sunday afternoon:
The Early Buzz for ‘It’ Promises a Scary and Heartfelt Horror Film
Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of The Dark Tower isn’t that it failed to live up to expectations decades in the making, or even that it mangled Stephen King’s source material in a way that die-hard fans found unforgivable. No, the most frustrating aspect of The Dark Tower is that it’s just… fine. Despite the plethora of negative reviews, it isn’t some disastrous flop a movie, nor is it an ambitious mess that reached for the stars and came crashing back to earth. It’s just sorta there, a Young Adult action-fantasy film that limps through its paces before ending with a thud. Really, how do you even make a King adaptation that doesn’t have a little bit of ambition?
Warner Bros. Says ‘Gotham City Sirens’ Is ‘Super Important’ to the Studio
With a flurry of DCEU announcements this past week — we’re getting two more Joker movies with two separate Jokers! The Batman isn’t going to be one big crossover affair! — the writing seems to be increasingly on the wall for some of the second-tier Warner Bros. projects. Projects like Gotham City Sirens, the woman-driven comic book movie featuring popular characters Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, and Catwoman. Gotham City Sirens was noticeably absent from Comic-Con this year, and while alleged director David Ayer recently took to Twitter to reassure everyone of his involvement, things have been quiet. A little too quiet, maybe.
Watch Hulk Smash in This New ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ Clip
I’d like to think I’m not prone to hyperbole, so believe me when I say I’m putting all my remaining Marvel eggs in the Thor: Ragnarok basket. Sure, I’ve more-or-less enjoyed most of the movies in the franchise — this year’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, for example, might be one of their best yet — but superhero movies are like anything else: the more you ingest, the less you enjoy it the next time around. If Marvel is going to continue making these movies until the sun explodes, then I’m ready for things to get a little bit weird, and Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi is the right person to deliver.
The ‘Uncharted’ Director Explains the Decision to Make a Prequel
It’s not an exaggeration to say that Uncharted fans have been looking forward to a movie adaptation of the blockbuster video game franchise for years. Heck, the rumors surrounding an Uncharted adaptation even predate our own movie archives; if you scroll all the way back, our first mention of the movie is five years ago, when David O. Russell and Mark Wahlberg had already departed from the project. So when Sony finally decided to move forward with the project, fans were more than a little confused to hear that it was Tom Holland who would be playing Nathan Drake. Why go the prequel route when there’s so much established canon to explore?