Star Wars is back on the big screen!
But instead of huzzahs, the movie is facing down a slew of negativity and questions. Does Mandalorian & Grogu move things forward for the franchise, or is it keeping the seat warm for Star Wars: Starfighter next year? Is it just a super-sized episode of the show? Why was it even made in the first place?
Disney insiders say its ancillary effects — merch, parks, future Disney+ streaming numbers — are more important than the box office, and they will be satisfied if it gets to $500 million to $600 million. The former certainly rings true, but the latter...well, what happens if this movie doesn't even make Solo numbers ($392.9 million)?
Luckily for all, Star Wars does not live or die on this movie. But, and we love using these three words, ALL EYES ON ... Starfighter.
The more interesting box office story this weekend is Obsession. Curry Barker's horror movie has a shot at being the rare feature to earn more in its second weekend than its first. It's been killing it during the week, with it earning around $3 million-plus every weekday.
It's looking smarter and smarter that Jason Blum and Roy Lee locked down Barker for his next feature before Obsession even premiered at TIFF last year, and that A24 closed its deal last week for him to handle Texas Chainsaw Massacre before Obsession opened.
If you missed it, check out our profile of Barker here, where among other things, he reveals that Zach Cregger begged him to cut pages from his next movie (he didn't listen).
We're going to send you off on the long weekend in style, starting with an unusual story involving everyone's favorite Deadpool creator. —Aaron Couch and Borys Kit.
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ROB LIEFELD IS NO LONGER TELLNG ALL.
In a rather eyebrow-raising reversal, the Deadpool creator has canceled a memoir titled Robservations that he has been working on for the last few years, and has returned his advance fee to BenBella Publishing.
It a surprising turn of events, given that Liefeld is not shy when it comes to telling things as he sees them. He is known for standing on his soapbox with his podcast, also called Robservations.
He had no qualms about going public a year ago about the indignities he said he suffered at the premiere of Deadpool & Wolverine, making headlines with his scorched Earth departure from Marvel.
And on social media, Liefeld is known for sharing thoughts on everything from what he sees as the shortcomings of Marvel execs to his comic book rivals.
The book promised insights from the ring side seat he's had to comic book and Hollywood history, from the heady days of late 1980s Marvel to the pandemonium of founding of Image Comics to the ups and downs of Deadpool coming to the big screen.
But, he says that happening upon an interview with Mick Jagger gave him clarity in his decision to shelf his book. The Rolling Stones legend was apparently once asked why he's never written a memoir. Liefeld paraphrases is this way: “Why would you look back when you can be in the now and look forward."
"I gave the money back to publisher," Liefeld says. "I could do certain sections of my life, but there are some that I just couldn’t put together. I said, 'Forgive me.' They were totally cool about it."
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NETFLIX HAS LANDED A HOT SPEC SCRIPT.
The streamer has scooped up the spec for Run the Football from writing team Josh Marentette and Spencer Marentette.
Sources describe it as a nuclear weapons thriller that involves Air Force One going down. Behind the scenes, the project has a few of the players from the 2024 Netflix hit thriller Carry-On, which is the streamer's third most watched movie of all time.
Producing are Dylan Clark and Brian Williams for Dylan Clark Productions, along with Carry-On director Jaume Collet-Serra (who is only producing at this stage) and Max Jacoby for Jadis Collective. In addition to directing, Collet-Serra exec produced Carry-On, while Clark produced and Williams exec produced.
As for the writers, they are Canadian brothers who previously sold their original action pitch Wheels of War to Amazon with Michael B. Jordan's Outlier Society producing.
Special guest star Ryan Gajewski pilots this scoop.
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➤ A long time coming: Marvel Comics gets a shake-up, with vet Dan Buckley exiting and Marvel TV's Brad Winderbaum taking over. Deadpool creator Rob Liefeld didn't hold back his thoughts. Or celebrations. Other execs are laid off as part of the broader cost-cutting or retiring.
➤ Zoinks: Scooby-Doo getting an anime from Tubi. Matthew Lillard and Frank Welker are among the voices.
➤ Jelenic and Horvath Go!: The guys (Michael and Aaron are their first names) behind Teen Titans Go! and the Super Mario Bros. movies sign an overall deal with Netflix.
➤ Adventures in Big Screenland: David Fincher's Cliff Booth movie, which stars good ol' Brad Pitt, getting a two-week IMAX release.
➤ Going to the Matt: Damon in early talks to be the big-name in the latest feature project from Daniels, aka the guys that made Everything Everywhere All at Once. And what else do we know? Teens are the leads, there are two time periods, and maybe a superhero is involved.
➤ Who's crying now?: 1986's bomb-turned-cult movie The Transformers: The Movie getting a theatrical re-release.
➤ Talk to the axe: Barbaric, a medieval fantasy series based on the Vault Comics, gets a greenlight at Netflix. Deals with Michael Bay to direct and Sam Claflin and Patrick Stewart to star are still in negotiations.
➤ News that excited us from Cannes: The buzz on Na Hong-jin’s monster movie Hope; Keanu Reeves to lead voice cast of stop-motion samurai epic Hidari; The Big Short writer Charles Randolph adapting Muppets in Moscow: The Unexpected Crazy True Story of Making Sesame Street in Russia.
➤ Trailers, trailers: Raise the red green Lanterns, which also gets an Aug. 16 release date. Maika Monroe is not a good babysitter in Victorian Psycho; bend it like Aang in Avatar: The Last Airbender.
➤ RIP: Tom Kane, the prolific voice actor whose body of work included turns as Yoda and Professor Utonium, dies at 64; Ann Robinson of The War of the Worlds fame dies at 96.
Catch up on these Heat Vision interviews...
➤ Emile Hirsch was so devastated by Speed Racer's poor reception in 2008 that he fired his agent, so its reappraisal over the years means all the more to him.
➤ After winning an Oscar for his doc Navalny, Daniel Roher had a major creative block until he met a Los Angeles-based piano tuner, paving the way for his narrative debut, Tuner.
➤ Mortal Kombat II star Adeline Rudolph still has hope for Kitana's sister-clone, Mileena.
➤ Mortal Kombat II writer Jeremy Slater details why he quit Moon Knight, plus his meetings with Lucasfilm about Star Wars.
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ONCE THERE WAS A THING CALLED A DAILY NEWSPAPER.
And in that daily newspaper, read by millions of people, were the funny pages, also known as the comics strips.
And for a brief but very memorable time, from 1979 to 1984, Star Wars had a daily strip.
The strip had good talent on it – Russ Manning was the original writer and artist – but it entered a halcyon era when Al Williamson took over as illustrator.
Williamson, who made his mark on classic sci-fi EC Comics in the 1950s and passed away in 2010, brought a whole new level of realism and art to comic strips and to Star Wars itself when he began drawing the Archie Goodwin-written dailies and the Sunday editions in 1981, staying on all the way through to the strip’s conclusion.
Most of his Star Wars art has never been available for sale, which may explain what happened earlier in May. For the first time, his estate put up for auction a batch of early strips. And collectors had a meltdown snapping them up.
Choice dailies sold for over $15,000, even $20,000 while some Sunday pieces shattered lightsabers with prices hitting over $20,000. One Sunday piece went for $75,000!
The sumptuous space scene below, featuring the mighty villainy of Darth Vader with an image measuring 19.29” x 6.25”, went for a crazy $26,250. We want them all.
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