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  • Samuel L. Jackson Reveals Where ‘Secret Invasion’ Lands on His List of MCU Projects

    Samuel L. Jackson Reveals Where ‘Secret Invasion’ Lands on His List of MCU Projects

    Nearly ten years after it first hit theaters, Captain America: The Winter Solider remains one of Marvel Studios’ most highly regarded projects. Tonally different from anything that came before it, the second installment in the Captain America franchise is the gold-standard spy thriller of the MCU and according to Secret Invasion star Samuel L. Jackson, connects to his upcoming Disney Plus streaming series.

    “It ranks as number one in terms of things that I’ve done in the, you know, Marvel Cinematic Universe,” said Jackson during the global press event for the new series. “I really loved Winter Soldier, so that tone, you know, flows into this in a very real kind of way. And it’s a story about people doing people stuff, you know, without, you know, all those supers coming in to save you and help you and doing all that other stuff.“

    Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury in Marvel Studios’ SECRET INVASION, exclusively on Disney+. Photo by Des Willie. © 2023 MARVEL.

    Those “supers”, as Jackson calls them, aren’t expected to make an appearance in Secret Invasion, as co-star Don Cheadle explained, leaving Fury to assemble a different kind of team and showing a new side of the “invulnerable” character fans have grown accustomed to. Where that leaves Fury remains unclear as critics have only seen the first two episodes of the streaming series’; however as fans of the comics are sure to understand, nobody should underestimate Nick Fury!

  • Don Cheadle Speaks Out on Rhodey Stepping Out of the Shadow of Iron Man and The Avengers in ‘Secret Invasion’

    Don Cheadle Speaks Out on Rhodey Stepping Out of the Shadow of Iron Man and The Avengers in ‘Secret Invasion’

    Following a brief cameo in The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, Don Cheadle‘s James Rhodes steps into a bit of a new role as a “political animal” in his second post-Blip appearance in Secret Invasion. Now the “right hand” of Dermot Mulroney‘s President Ritson, Rhodey has traded in the War Machine suit for a three-piece (at least through the first two episodes). While Rhodes’ full role in the series has yet to be revealed, Cheadle’s character seems as though he’ll survive and advance given he’s set to star in Armor Wars.

    For Cheadle, Secret Invasion provided not only his first time to share an extended scene with star Samuel L. Jackson but also for the character to step out of the shadow of Tony Stark and The Avengers. During the global press event for the Disney Plus streaming series, Cheadle was asked what it was like to step into the role again without the comfort of so many familiar characters. “It was liberating not to have to carry that dead weight,” joked Cheadle before shooting straight.

    It was great. Look, I’ve known Sam for a long time, and, you know, we’ve spent a lot of time, you know, talking about what it would be like to work together, looking for projects to do together. So, you know, the central relationship between myself and Sam, and this is, you know, it was very important to me and I was very glad to be brought on.

    Don Cheadle on Rhodey’s role in Secret Invasion

    Cheadle went on to reveal that his character didn’t originally have a role in Secret Invasion…until his longtime friend changed that. “I don’t think it was originally conceived that Rhodey was gonna be in this,” said the actor. “But when it came to me and Sam called me, I was really excited about leaning into it.” And lean into it he did, especially given the room he had to work in the new environment.

    And also being in a show like this, that’s really a departure from what I have been in, as far as the genre goes, it’s really an opportunity to act and really, you know, lean into some human stuff, which was also a lot of fun. And, you know, as Emilia [Clarke] said and as Olivia [Colman] said, as Kingsley [Ben-Adir] said, as Ben [Mendelsohn] said, this is a great cast and [director] Ali [Selim]was a great director, a great leader. So it was just all upside, and, you know, very happy to, you know, look into who Rhodey is and to probe that more and kind of find out what really makes him tick.

    Don Cheadle

    Fans don’t have long to wait to find out exactly what it is that makes Rhodey tick as Secret Invasion premieres on Disney Plus on June 21st .

  • ‘The Flash’s Sasha Calle Met With DC Studios Heads to Return as Supergirl

    ‘The Flash’s Sasha Calle Met With DC Studios Heads to Return as Supergirl

    The Flash may have had a rocky weekend at the box office, but many seem to agree that the biggest part is Sasha Calle’s Supergirl. While we’re entering a new DC Cinematic Universe under the new leadership of Peter Safran and James Gunn, the future for many existing characters is uncertain.

    Luckily, it seems that Calle is not going to just accept she won’t return and is seemingly already in talks. In an interview with USA Today, she revealed that she’s already in talks with Peter Safran to potentially return. Sbe also goes on to highlight her love for portraying Supergirl.

    I hope to continue playing Supergirl. I love her so deeply and I feel so connected to her.

    Sasha Calle

    It’s always great to see such a talent love the character they portray and the determination to return as much as they could to keep playing them. While her future remains a mystery given the multiversal storyline of The Flash, there’s always a way for them to bring her back. They have a Supergirl film planned later down the line and it would be a shame not to bring her back.

    Source: USA Today

  • ‘One Piece’ Episode Titles Potentially Revealed

    ‘One Piece’ Episode Titles Potentially Revealed

    At TUDUM, we finally got our first look at the official One Piece live-action adaptation from Netflix. Showrunners Matt Owens and Steven Maeda have been busy at work on this project for many years, and are currently continuing an important fight to ensure the safety of their industry. In the meantime, the cast gets to promote the new season and it looks like right after the trailer dropped, the WGA has updated its database.

    As first noticed by @OP_Netflix_Fan and the OPLA discord, WGA database has seemingly listed the episode titles for the upcoming One Piece series. While the directory for the actual show hasn’t listed them, the titles seem fitting for the show. There’s a chance these aren’t the final titles, but they are definitely interesting.

    Here are the titles of the eight episodes in no specific order as it is provided by the WGA currently:

    • Eat at Baratie!
    • Romance Dawn
    • Tell No Tales
    • The Chief and the Chore Boy
    • The Girl with the Sawfish Tattoo
    • The Man in the Straw Hat
    • The Pirates are Coming
    • Worst in the East

    So, we can definitely connect some of these episodes. “Romance Dawn” is oddly spelled “Down” but we know that is the pilot episode’s name. “The Man in the STtaw Hat” could either be the second episode or even the last one, as it’s how Smoker describes Luffy when they meet.

    The “Pirates are Coming” and “Tell No Tales” seem very easy to connect to Usopp’s Syrup Village arc. “Eat at Baratie!” and “The Chief and the Chore Boy” match the Baratie beyond the obvious connection. “That only leaves “The Girl with the Sawfish Tattoo” is also obvious for the Arlong Park storyline.

    So, we only have “Worst in the East” and “The Man in the Straw Hat” without any truly fitting. As previously mentioned, the latter could be either the first or the last, but “Worst in the East” seems fitting for Arlong. Though, they could also use it as a way to hint at the dangers that Buggy represents. For now, let the speculation begin.

    Source: WGA

  • Don Cheadle on Rhodey’s “Different Role” in ‘Secret Invasion’

    Don Cheadle on Rhodey’s “Different Role” in ‘Secret Invasion’

    Along with Nick Fury, James Rhodes is the longest-surviving member of the MCU (technically Pepper Potts and Happy Hogan are in that boat as well, though it’s highly unlikely that Gwyneth Paltrow knows that after having made their first appearances in 2008’s Iron Man. While Secret Invasion puts Samuel L. Jackson‘s Nick Fury front and center, Don Cheadle‘s Rhodey has a part to play as well, albeit a little different one than what fans have become accustomed to. During the global press event for the upcoming Disney Plus streaming series, Cheadle gave some insight into his character’s “different role” in Secret Invasion.

    “I think we’re just kind of finding out what’s happening with Rhodey as this series goes on,” said Cheadle about his character’s evolution in the post-Blip world. “He’s in a different role. We see him as more a political animal than we have in the past. He’s been more of a military man, but now he’s sort of, you know, in some ways, a right hand of the president and this special envoy, in that regard.” And, as has been teased in the trailers for the series, that role puts him a bit at odds with Nick Fury despite their shared past.

    Don Cheadle as James ‘Rhodey’ Rhodes in Marvel Studios’ Secret Invasion, exclusively on Disney+. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. © 2022 MARVEL.

    For Cheadle, having the opportunity to explore that changing relationship with Fury–and the rest of the cast–is what he most enjoyed about working on Secret Invasion. “I think what I’m looking forward to is just seeing more, you know, getting under the hood of who he is,” explained Cheadle. “And seeing how this relationship, not only with Nick Fury, but the other cast members evolves.”

    With Cheadle’s Armor Wars project set to spin out of the events of Secret Invasion, it seems like there might be another evolution ahead for War Machine.

  • ‘One Piece’s Inaki Godoy on the Challenge of Playing Luffy

    ‘One Piece’s Inaki Godoy on the Challenge of Playing Luffy

    Iñaki Godoy may have decided to tackle one of the hardest characters to bring to live-action, the loveable Monkey D. Luffy in Netflix’s live-action One Piece series. There’s a lot of cynicism surrounding these types of adaptations due to the way animation or drawings are generally translated into live-action. With quite a few projects not capturing the spirit of the original, they have a big goal to accomplish, but Godoy seems very aware of that challenge.

    In an interview with Decider, Godoy got a chance to sit down and discuss what it’s like to bring this iconic character to life. He highlights the biggest challenge is simply in balancing the two worlds of this kind of pirate-themed adventure with supernatural elements, especially when trying to still ground it as much as possible.

    You have this world where there’s Laos pirates and stretchy pirates, and you need to find a way to make that feel real human.

    Iñaki Godoy

    He goes on to highlight the biggest challenge being how should he bring someone who is made of rubber to live action. He definitely used existing material as a reference, such as trying to replicate the way Luffy grabs his arm after punching. He definitely tried to look into as many details as he could in bringing the character to life.

    How can I translate this rubber-man into live-action? In those cases, I really used the anime and manga for reference and I literally tried to replicate the way this guy [Luffy] fights. I can see how this guy fights. Why wouldn’t I use that as a reference? When he throws a punch and he takes it back, he puts his hand on his bicep or his shoulder. So, if he does that, I should do that too, right? And when he’s about to throw a punch, sometimes he lifts up his leg. I just tried to look for those little details in the original product.

    Iñaki Godoy

    Of course, TUDUM’s reveal was just the teaser trailer for the adaptation and we still have some time before we get an actual full look at what to expect. The only villain teased so far was Buggy, who is the only one with his own Devil Fruit power. So, the early season won’t have to juggle that many VFX elements. A lot of focus is already on the portrayal of his stretchy powers and here’s hoping the final product can deliver.

    Source: Decider

  • Eiichiro Oda Would Send Storyboards for the Live-Action ‘One Piece’ Series

    Eiichiro Oda Would Send Storyboards for the Live-Action ‘One Piece’ Series

    For quite some time, the Netflix cast has been quite open about the involvement of Eiichiro Oda in the live-action adaptation of the classic manga series. He even stated recently that he has the final say if the show is allowed to release, which highlighted that they are respecting his involvement. Yet, it turns out that he did quite a bit more than one would think.

    Netflix’s Director of Original Series Ted Biaselli offered some insight in an interview with The Mary Sue, where they highlight that they have a lot of respect towards Oda. They stated that he would regularly give notes to the series, but even the shape of storyboards. That sounds a lot like how he handled the movies but it would be amazing to get one’s hands on scenes of the live-action crew being showcased in his iconic art style.

    He went on to highlight that Oda is “brilliant.”

    I don’t throw the word ‘brilliant’ around very often, but he is brilliant. He is a master of the pop culture zeitgeist. He’s well-versed and articulate about music history … He has a playlist in his mind every time he writes.

    Ted Biaselli

    They also seemingly made sure to inform Oda of any changes they made early in the scripting phase. Sometimes they would get “Try it out, let’s see” statements that would lead to him getting screenings to evaluate how it turned out. Not just that, it seems he got pretty much everything screened and teased he got “misty” during one scene in the end-of-season screening. This was also highlighted by Emily Rudd, who plays the role of Nami.

    They also highlighted his involvement in the casting process. One part was that he actively praised Rudd’s work and spent time with Iñaki Godoy, who took on the role of Luffy. Here’s hoping all his work comes to fruition with this live-action adaptation breaking the curse that others have seemingly had over the years.

    Source: The Mary Sue

  • ‘The Flash’ Stumbles to $55M in its Opening 3-Day Weekend

    ‘The Flash’ Stumbles to $55M in its Opening 3-Day Weekend

    It’s not looking good for releases this Juneteenth holiday weekend, as some of the biggest releases of the summer are not performing as one would hope. While most expected Elemental to have a softer opening due to Pixar’s unique situation with the Disney+ releases throughout the last few years, The Flash is a very different story. Yes, it was a troubled production due to its star but with a B CinemaScore, expectations still had it hitting around $70M throughout the three-day weekend.

    Early estimates after a softer-than-expected Friday did retract that to them reaching that high throughout a four-day weekend with at least $60M in the bank. Mixed word-of-mouth might not carry it throughout the upcoming weeks. However, it still had the potential that people pick it up afterward due to long-time fans wanting to relive the DCEU before it is closed completely. Though that B CinemaScore has been quite detrimental to recent films as it stands for an “I’ll get it on streaming later” kind of tepid reaction.

    Now, the film has hit a snag and is likely to open around $55.1M over three days. Four-day predictions range from a low $62M to $64M which doesn’t look good for the film to make up its ballooning budget. It would place the film even behind Black Adam’s $67M that it made in just three days. Though, that film had the star power of Dwayne Johnson to push it forward a bit even with a C-list character. Yet, one could argue that The Flash is one of the biggest members of the Justice League and should be a crowd-pleaser.

    Elemental continues to show a different side of the streaming issue due to it being set to open around $29.5M over a three-day weekend. That would make it the lowest opening weekend for any Pixar title since the original Toy Story almost 30 years ago. Also, it only pulled in $17M in its first 17 markets. Even an A CinemaScore will have to go a long way to build up that loss in box office revenue.

    Source: The Hollywood Reporter

  • Book Review: ‘Hungry Ghost’

    Book Review: ‘Hungry Ghost’

    Hungry Ghost by Victoria Ying

    My rating: 4 of 5 stars

    When I requested Hungry Ghost off of NetGalley, I did so with quite a bit of hesitation. I knew what the subject matter was and how heavy of a topic it was, but I also appreciated that the graphic novel tackled such an important topic.

    Hungry Ghost tells the story of a high school student named Valerie who suffers from an eating disorder. She suffers in silence, desperately trying to please her mother who constantly reminds her of what will happen should she ever become fat, while also trying to live life as a normal teenager. Val hates having to live a lie and wants nothing more than to be happy like her best friend, Jordan, who is overweight but doesn’t let it stop her from being happy. It all comes to a head when a tragedy occurs in Val’s life that forces her to take another look at everything — including herself. It’s a very, very hard read, however, Victoria Ying does a great job of tackling such an important topic with both her words and artwork.

    Eating disorders are so common and yet not talked about nearly enough. There are so many others like Val that need to read a story like this to know they are not alone. And Ying tells this story, one she herself has lived, with such care. It doesn’t shy away from the harsh realities those suffering face. It doesn’t shy away from the pain or the toll such a disorder can take on one’s mental health.

    Overall: Hungry Ghost is a hauntingly beautiful, but painful read. More importantly, though, it’s such an important read.

    View all my reviews

    Note: This book is already out. Our review is just late.

  • TUDUM: Live-Action ‘One Piece’ to Release in August

    TUDUM: Live-Action ‘One Piece’ to Release in August

    It’s crazy to think that we first heard about the live-action One Piece series back in 2017. After all this time, we finally have a first look at the adaptation of this iconic series from the TUDUM event. While Netflix has accidentally leaked the trailer ahead of the actual panel featuring the cast. Yet, the first look is finally here, and with it comes a long-expected confirmation.

    Having been teased quite some time ago, live-action One Piece will arrive in just a few more months. Luffy and the rest of the Straw Hats will arrive on streaming services on August 31st. A perfect way to end the summer with one of its wildest adventures yet.