Millennial favorite Scary Movie is back in theaters and so is Gen-X fixture Masters of the Universe, nearly forty years after Dolph Lundgren played He-Man. And while Scary Movie will come in at No. 1, all anyone still wants to talk about is Backrooms and Obsession. Call it revenge of the Gen Zers.
Obsession will cross $200 million globally this weekend, making it Focus Features' top grossing movie of all time globally (it already holds that record domestically). Backrooms — already A24's top movie stateside, will eventually follow suit and top Marty Supreme's $191 million global haul as the indie studio's top movie. When you have McDonald's making a Backrooms parody ad, you know you're well into the mainstream pop culture. (Or is it that McD's is suddenly very plugged in?)
Even as Hollywood goes on a feeding frenzy for YouTube talent, it may be missing the point: it's not just about the platform, but about the filmmaker. If you are an agent or producer looking for the next Curry Barker, you could be looking for a long, long time if you are just scrolling through YouTube.
Well, as exciting as it is to see new voices, we were also amped by what's going on at DC, with the first look at Lex Luthor's armor in Man of Tomorrow, a clip leaked from the set with a Superman smackdown, and Supergirl having its first press screening Thursday night. The people who were there are keeping mum...for now.
And in the meantime, Hollywood as always is looking for that next piece of IP that can hit big. We've got word on what one veteran producer thinks is it. —Aaron Couch and Borys Kit.
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GET READY FOR THE SOUTH TOWN CINEMATIC UNIVERSE.
In the 1990s, video game company SNK launched a series of influential arcade and video games such as Fatal Fury and The Art of Fighting, many set in a fictional American city known as South Town. Now, those games are in development for the screen at the Arena, the Saudi-backed indie production banner launched last year by former studio executive-turned-producer Erik Feig.
We recently stopped by the Arena's Los Angeles offices to get the first look at what they are doing. Among the highlights:
The Dark Knight scribe David S. Goyer is penning a Fatal Fury movie, centering on two brothers, Terry and Andy Bogard, who watch their adoptive father be killed by South Town crime boss Geese Howard, then, after years of training, return for a revenge-soaked combat tournament.
Reptile filmmaker Grant Singer is developing a standalone movie telling the origin story of Geese Howard, as he is born into a violent underworld and forged by pain and betrayal to become the insidious villain of South Town. They are positioning this as this universe's take on the first Joker movie.
And Robert Kirkman's Skybound is producing an animated Fatal Fury series focusing on the formative years of the brothers.
Borrowing a phrase from filmmaker Pete Berg, who may have borrowed it from Navy SEALS, Fieg said the thinking is “slow is smooth and smooth is fast.”
“Usually, you can move really fast but you don’t have the ability to get stuff done. Or you can get stuff done but there is group think and a lot of people involved and you make choices that are too safe,” said Feig. “Here we can actually do both. We can go for it and we can do it nimbly and dynamically.”
Enter the Arena.
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BILL NIGHY IS FEELING CAINE IN HIS FINGERS AND IN HIS TOES.
The British thespian is the latest name to join the John Wick spinoff focused on Donnie Yen's blind assassin. Yen is also directing the feature, now in production in Budapest and Hong Kong.
Also on the call sheet are Mason Thames (The Black Phone) and Dacre Montgomery (Stranger Things) as well as Rina Sawayama, who is reprising her role as Akira, who in Wick 4 worked in the hitman hotel that was overrun by assassins and blamed Caine for the death of her father.
The story follows the events of Wick 4, with Caine having been freed from his obligations to The High Table, the council that runs a global empire controlled by the elite crime families. But, guess what? Just when he thought he was out…
Raising Caine.
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➤ Partying like its 1997: Zack Snyder to tackle a remake of John Carpenter's Escape From New York
➤ RIP: Marjane Satrapi, known for her autobiographical graphic novel series Persepolis (and incidentally, the first woman to be nominated for an Oscar for best animated picture), dies at 56.
➤ Hope for us all: Na Hong-jin's Cannes creature feature breakout Hope gets a September U.S. release from Neon.
➤ Sydney Sweeney to star in Hollow, Lindsey Anderson Beer’s Legend of Sleepy Hollow take.
➤ Anger management: Streets of Rage video game movie now being written by Sonic the Hedgehog scribes Pat Casey and Josh Miller and to be directed by Harder They Fall filmmaker Jeymes Samuel.
➤ This one has buzz: Robert McCammon short story Yellowjacket Summer to be a movie courtesy of Gary Dauberman of It movies fame.
➤ Trailer Town: End of Oak Street is dino-mighty; Onslaught courses with super soldiers in its veins; welcome to the neighborhood, Hold the Fort; the kids are not all right in Ice Cream Man.
➤ Brian Davids goes deep with the Wonder Man team in this week's THR magazine.
➤ Winston Cho investigates how a 26-year-old alleged hacker leaked the upcoming Last Airbender animated movie.
Catch up on these Heat Vision interviews...
➤ Carolina Caroline and Dinner in America star Kyle Gallner says that he and director Adam Carter Rehmeier have already a shot an unannounced third film together In THR's interview with Rehmeier ahead of TIFF last year, he mentioned having a "grindhouse-style film" in the can.
➤ Power Ballad director John Carney says he's already working with a mystery pop star on the music for his next project.
➤ Tuner star Havana Rose Liu still feels imposter syndrome since she didn't set out to be an actor. That began to change when Tuner director Daniel Roher, who won an Oscar for the Navalny doc, asked her what blocking is.
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BATMAN SIDEKICK ROBIN DIDN'T MAKE his first modern big screen appearance until 1995's Batman Forever, with Chris O’Donnell taking on the role. But there is one alternate Earth out there in which good ol’ Dick Grayson would have appeared in the Caped Crusader’s first outing, Tim Burton’s classic Batman.
And Heritage Auctions has the proof.
Currently up for grabs is a storyboard sequence showing a never-shot scene from Batman that features Robin in a struggle with the Joker, with Batman’s life hanging in the balance.
The whole sequence was to have been a third act intro of Robin but was deemed too much of a shoehorn and thus was cut. Robin’s intro was punted to the sequel, where he would have been played by future Scary Movie star Marlon Wayans. But that, too, got nixed.
These four pages are drawn by David Russell, a storyboard artist who also worked on classic Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. The art is rendered in mixed media on sheets of 8.5" x 11" with the art measuring roughly 7" x 4" each.
The pages are currently going for $59 but there is still 13 days left to go in the auction. Check out this piece of alternative history below.
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