It’s never easy to write a film script with a specific actor in mind. There’s always a chance that they’d have no interest in the project, or potentially even end up missing out due to scheduling conflicts. Luckily, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, which was written with Nicolas Cage playing a fictional version of himself, managed to get the actor to join the project. One of the writers of the script, Kevin Etten, who wrote it alongside Tom Gormican, shared that they almost didn’t get the actor to join, as Cage was hesitant at first.
We were told that Nick has done these projects before and he’s not wild about Nick as Nick. And we weren’t two guys who had a huge body of work that you could point to and be like, ‘No, trust us. The funny part about that was we have a bunch of studios interested in the script. But there’s an asterisk on all of this meaning if he doesn’t want to do it, your sale goes away. Like, by the way, we don’t want this fucking thing if he’s not in it. There is no other version of it. When he was reading the script it was like this sort of double anxiety. It’s not like if he doesn’t do it, we’ll offer it to somebody else. It was gone
Kevin Etten
Once it seemed uncertain if the actor would join, they’ve also considered casting someone else in the role, which seemingly included Daniel Day-Lewis and even Christian Bale. Luckily, we know that Cage ended up joining the cast and bringing the fictional version of himself to life.
There were times when I think I… was trying to talk myself into other ideas. The only actually good idea — I don’t know whose it was — was to have either Christian Bale or Daniel Day-Lewis playing Nick Cage.
Kevin Etten
Even if we got the original vision, it would’ve been fun to imagine just how crazy it would look if someone else took on the role. Though, it would be fun to explore the concept with different actors, which could create some interesting scenarios and very
Michael Waldron has been quite busy as he’s promoting his latest Marvel project, the upcoming release of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. He made quite the splash after working on the first season of Loki that he was swiftly attached to write up the script for the film. In an interview with The Playlist, he shared his thoughts on the new directing duo Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, who is taking over for Kate Herron, who gave us the iconic first season.
Benson and Moorhead, I know those guys. They’re great. They’re brilliant in their own right. You know, I think they’re going to come in and they’re going to do what everybody on this project does, which is to elevate, you know? Then they’ll take what was great about it and fit it with their own awesome instincts and everything and hopefully will make something even better
Michael Waldron
The directing duo left an impression with Marvel Studios after their work on Moon Knight, and they have teased that they are excited to bring their experience from that series to this new project. It’s also the first project of Marvel Studios to get a second season, which creates an interesting scenario on how exactly it might fit as a sequel to the first series from 2021 and fit into the ever-growing MCU.
Waldron being excited certainly adds to what the future may have in store for us, especially with the cliffhanger from the first season teasing the arrival of Kang the Conqueror. It’ll likely closely connect to the upcoming Ant-Man and the Wasp threequel. So, we’ll see if we might see some familiar faces pop up.
The last few days have been rough for Netflix. Not only did they publicly have to acknowledge that they lost subscribers for the first time in over ten years, but they’ll face 2M more jumping ship by the next quarter. Subsequently, investors are furious and fearful as their shares have dropped by a scary amount. Many find themselves wondering what exactly has led to this sudden shift within the market, as streaming was seen as this bottomless potential with billions of subscribers. What seems like they have potentially reached their limit, may showcase a general trend that has been waiting to show its fangs over the years.
One thing is for sure, it’s not a good look for Netflix and there are many discussion points that can be made on what led to this current downward spiral. Netflix will still hold on to its top spot and we’re already seeing it with the decision to add an ad-supported version at a cheaper price. Yet, there’s one aspect that seems worth exploring and that is Netflix’s obsession with quantity. They are investing a lot of money in originals, which leads us to get a diverse selection of projects. Yet, it also led to the new perception of the streamer becoming a safe haven for canceled projects but sadly a new trend has arisen.
Oddly enough, they’ve become obsessed with swiftly canceling projects. While some select projects manage to have some sense of longevity, they manage to drop franchises that have even proven to be quite successful. When Bright was first released in 2017, it was one of their most-watched films. Yet, somehow the sequel was buried at one point without any fanfare, and we got a prequel Anime spinoff that had little to no marketing push. There are projects where we do get some news ahead of its release, but there’s a trend that a lot of it is creator-driven.
The biggest example of Netflix’s modern marketing approach was their live-action Cowboy Bebop series. While production did face quite the delay and an adaptation of such a cult classic was definitely going to face some backlash, it just suddenly arrived. Its release date was announced on August 23rd and would hit the streamer on November 19th. At the time we didn’t get a trailer to build up the excitement and it wasn’t until the 19th of October that we got a mini-episode titled The Lost Session. we wouldn’t get the actual trailer until the 27th with only a few more weeks before it hit Netflix.
By the time we got any actual promotion or the series, people’s opinions have already been made on what to expect and a new audience had barely any time to relate to it. Considering it was released on the 19th of November, it barely even got a few weeks before Netflix just dropped the axe on the series on December 9th. Early reports indicated that the production was going in expecting multiple seasons and it was cut short before it even got started. The issue is also we don’t know what exactly the metric is that they are going for, especially with newly established franchises. They seemingly banked on the addition of the anime which may have hurt the release more than anything else.
It almost creates this belief that existing IPs will always draw in an audience no matter what. Yes, Cowboy Bebop has an extensive following but it’s also quite a bit more niche than some might expect, especially given Netflix’s focus on worldwide viewership. They are currently working on two other projects with Avatar: The Last Airbender and One Piece that have strongly established audiences but would still require a certain amount of marketing to ensure fans that this will be a faithful adaptation while pulling in new audiences.
There’s also a strange inconsistency with how much marketing a project ends up getting. As we were speaking of building upon existing IPs, there is the series Human Resources, the spinoff of the animated series Big Mouth, that got released on March 18th. The series actually got the first teaser back on October 4th. Even if it was short, it had the strict advantage of building upon an already established franchise on the service even if the naming wouldn’t hint at a connection. Its official trailer dropped in January, which gave it multiple months of momentum ahead of its release. The Season 2 renewal wasn’t until a full month before an announcement was made.
Ironically, a project that already has a well-established audience is given more time than a project that only a select few really are aware of. The odd decision to drop many animation projects as a result of the current development creates this odd disconnect of what exactly Netflix’s end goal is. They seemingly are dogpiling project after project that get no more than one or, if they’re lucky, two seasons.
Even those that seem like sure-fire franchises to build upon are killed off before they even get a chance to get going. The life and death of a series, or even an entire franchise, ends faster before it even has a chance to start. With the amount of growing competition, it’ll get more and more difficult for this model to survive by only giving spinoffs time to grow and just wait and see if a new series, even if based on a new IP, will somehow end up becoming successful.
Once a show drops with every episode, there’s hard to no additional marketing at play to keep it alive. They pretty much just bank on the show living on their own without putting in the work to keep it so. Disney+, Amazon Prime, Peacock, and more are slowly leaning towards weekly releases as it keeps these series alive way more than a single release. Yes, viewers are complaining about it but it’s a sign of how these continued marketing attempts build up the momentum as we get more impatient for what lies at the end. Perhaps Cowboy Bebop could’ve had some more attention given to it if it was a weekly release, especially as it moved away from the more disconnected storylines of the original.
Yes, Squid Game technically was one of the most talked-about series for weeks but that was a lightning in-the-bottle moment. If Netflix is hoping to keep that kind of series as their ongoing pillar, they are putting all their eggs into a single basket. Competition is rising, the demand is higher than ever and growth can no longer be the only focus. Some people subscribe to their service for specific series and franchises. If they have the feeling it barely sticks around, they won’t either. Word-of-mouth depends if the series is a game-changer and only rarely do we see that happen.
We’re seeing a new era of television, as Netflix’s original model is potentially reaching its limit. We’re either going to see more hybrid models moving forward, as we slowly step back into elements that made broadcast television work. As legacy companies are getting their hands back on their projects and Netflix is more dependent on its originals to keep people watching, they might require the number of reasons that remain as binge-able as The Office, Friends, and more. As they are losing their usual library and may soon no longer have all the bit IPs they usually had available, investments will only continue to grow moving forward.
People come to watch The Ozark, but they stay to watch their favorite comfort show. At some point, they became so dependent on existing series, that the demand for newer ones has reached some rather questionable highs if they keep canceling shows out of convenience. perhaps shifting to more long-form storytelling with various stories unfolding and growing audiences across multiple seasons will benefit them moving forward. With Netflix’s Geeked Week on the horizon, perhaps we’ll see a new shift in how they tackle their projects moving forward.
Here’s an interesting revelation, but it looks like the upcoming Star Wars Disney+ series Andor was already mapped out ahead of production on its first. While we still have no release date, the Director of Photography, Adrian Goldman, revealed in an interview with TVCultura that the series was originally mapped out with five seasons in mind. Now, it seems that they have decided to go with three instead. It’s uncertain why exactly the change was made, as he doesn’t elaborate on it. The full quote, as translated by Bespin Bulletin, is as follows:
The series I worked on was supposed to be five seasons long, but I think it’s not happening. It will now have three maybe.
Adrian Goldman
Bespin also adds that they’ve heard that multiple seasons were planned and the timing of it taking place five years ahead of Rogue One was quite deliberate. They may have noticed it is difficult to fill out a story for each year and adapted it depending on what stories they wanted to tell. They also are seemingly focusing on filming the seasons back-to-back so they will get these out at a decent pace over the coming years. It’s certainly exciting to know that many more Star Wars series are heading our way and Disney+ is also continuing to offer a balance between long-running shows and mini-series.
Robert Eggers has made quite the splash in the industry with his work in his films The Witch and The Lighthouse. Now, he is also going to leave his imprint on Viking stories with The Northman, which sees Alexander Skarsgard in the role of Amleth on a path of vengeance. While he seems quite proud of his story, he still has openly talked about the hardships of not only working with a larger budget but also the stronger involvement of the studio. So, in an interview with CQ, he highlights that he’s moving his focus to a smaller production once again.
Right now, I definitely want to do something smaller, where it won’t be as painful, or I’ll have full control. There’s always give and take and studio notes. There always is. There was on The Witch. I didn’t have this much gray hair when we wrapped photography. It’s all from post-production.
Robert Eggers
If you’re wondering what he might be focusing on, he highlighted that he definitely has no interest in filming something in the modern age. A big part of what he enjoys is “doing all this historical research” to bring his films to life. So, he goes on to highlight that he has a disconnect on filming modern technology.
If I was making a contemporary film, what am I supposed to do with myself? Obsess over wallpaper swatches, until my eyes fall out? It’s just not interesting. For whatever reason, it just does not inspire me. And you can’t shoot something that doesn’t inspire you.
Robert Eggers
He does hint that he’s been listening to “lots of lutes” as he is starting an Elizabethan phase. So, we might expect that era to become the main focus of his next story. So, we’ll see where his research leads him next, and taking a step back with his budget gives him a project that may lead to fewer grey hairs.
Once Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was banned to release in Saudi Arabia, it was only a question of time before other countries would follow suit. IMAX Egypt took to its official Twitter account to announce that the screenings for the Doctor Strange sequel have been canceled in the country. While no explicit reason is stated, it’s very likely due to the fact that Marvel Studios refuses to remove LGBTQ elements. Xochitl Gomez will play the character of America Chavez, who has been openly gay in the comics.
Currently, the film is banned in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Qatar but the United Arab Emirates is still seemingly open to showcasing the film. Even Eteranls, which also included an openly LGBTQ character, was released on the market. These two films refused to adapt their offerings and are some of the few films moving away from this trend. Warner Bros. still removed LGBTQ scenes for the Chinese release of Fantastic Beast: the Secrets of Dumbledore. claiming it won’t change the film’s score, which adds some questionable aspects about how these story elements are so easily removed.
It’s not been easy for LGBTQ representation worldwide, and there are still markets where these discussions aren’t at a stage that one might expect. As Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is currently sticking to its guns, we will also very unlikely see the film release in China, which hasn’t let in any of the last few Marvel films. It’s great to see the film stick to its guns and not adapt its film to just add to its box office worldwide. We’ll see just how big the film might end up being though, as it currently is doing quite well in its presales.
The Jackass crew is back! After Jackass3, fans of the franchise have been eagerly been awaiting the return of the Jackass crew. There were plenty of bumps along the way, but the film finally arrived in theaters this past February. After a pretty successful run at the box office followed by its release on Paramount+, the movie finally arrived to purchase on digital, and now Blu-Ray with some bonus features, including some never-before-seen stunts that didn’t make it in the final cut of the film.
Jackass Forever is definitely the Jackass fans know and love with some new faces added to the mix. The franchise has always pushed the boundaries of what audiences are willing to accept in a film, from the original Jackass‘ infamous butt x-ray to Jackass 3‘s poo cocktail supreme. Unsurprisingly, Jackass Forever takes things even further, and is not for the feint of heart. After all, there is a penis dressed as a Godzilla type monster in the opening scenes.
While Jackass 3 remains the pinnacle of the series in terms of pacing, Jackass Forever certainly ups the ante in terms of stunts. The latest film is sure to bring fans back to the old days of watching this group of guys perform outlandish stunts with makeshift ramps, to now having the budget to build a human cannon that seemingly stands 50 feet in the air. It has definitely been a massive evolution, but it begs to question whether it really was for the better. While the advancements have been amazing to see, it is hard not to wonder if some of the hook of the original, being normal guys make-shifting stunts and pranks, was lost because of it.
On top of the original film, the Blu-Ray release is packed with bonus features. It comes with 16 deleted scenes that include a VR prank and extended looks at some of the pranks done in the film. What stands out most is that, while the film added multiple new cast members, we never really got to know them the same way we got to know the original crew. Thankfully, the deleted scenes do managed to provide fans with more footage of the new cast. Unfortunately, that’s not nearly enough to help keep fans interested in the new cast. Rather than include the various celebrity cameos in the film, surely these new characters could have received the spotlight instead of being shoved to the bonus features.
Jackass Forever on Blu-Ray is definitely worth the purchase for any Jackass fans out there. If you loved the film, you get more of what you’d expect. While the film’s release made it seem like this was the end of the franchise, one might wonder if the new cast members are a look into the next evolution. You can currently purchase Jackass Forever on Blu-Ray and Digital, or stream it without bonus features with your Paramount+ subscription.
Disneynature has created quite the collection of wildlife documentaries over the years. The next installment, Polar Bear, tells the story of a new mother whose memories of her own youth prepare her to navigate motherhood in the increasingly challenging world that polar bears face today.
Polar Bear is narrated by two-time Academy Award nominee Catherine Keener and helmed by Alastair Fothergill and Jeff Wilson, the directing team also behind Disneynature’s Penguins. The documentary is full of moments in the polar bear’s life that will surely make viewers experience a wide range of emotions. In an exclusive interview with Murphy’s Multiverse, directors Fothergill and Wilson revealed some of the moments that impacted them the most. Fothergill recounted a moment when a polar bear was filmed doing an “aquatic stalk”:
For me, the moment when the female was hunting the seal—they’re doing their what’s called an aquatic stalk—which actually, interestingly, has become more and more common with climate change. But that moment when she was so so carefully and quietly, trying to push herself out of the water, so she could grab the hooded seal. We were there and the cameraman and I, literally, were holding our breath. And we held our breath for a long time because it’s a very long shot in the film. And then she goes back down so quietly and sneaks under the ice flow and tries to grab the shield that fails. That, for me was an amazing moment. Never been filmed like that before.
Alastair Fothergill
Both directors note moments that they experienced which had never been caught on film before. While Fothergill described a hunting moment affected by climate change, Wilson recalls a particularly joyful moment:
[For me,] the serendipity of finding a sperm whale carcass washed up with 20 Bears feeding off of it. It’s something that completely was beyond my wildest dreams. And so to be there and to witness that…And a well fed bear is a happy bear and a happy bear as a playful bear. And there are some very, very unique and special and never been seen before kind of behaviors that are happening around that where you just have 20 bears who come together and play together and almost like a pool party, or barbecue, you know, that just that is so special and so unique that you know, that’s going to be forever seared into my memory as as an experience.Jeff Wilson
Viewers can experience these moments and more for themselves when Disneynature’s Polar Bear launches exclusively on Disney+ on April 22, 2022—Earth Day.
When Disney purchased 21st Century Fox in 2019, Marvel Studios gained access to the live-action rights of a treasure trove of Marvel Comics characters. The X-Men. The Fantastic Four. Doctor Doom. Galactus. The Silver Surfer. Annihilus. The list goes on…and it really goes on. However, 3 years after the deal was sealed, we’ve only seen a Variant of Kang the Conqueror and some Skrulls, which were already kinda-sorta useable anyway, while Marvel Studios carefully constructs their plans for the mutants and The First Family.
To date, very little is known about said plans. At SDCC ’19, Kevin Feige announced that a Fantastic Four film was on the way and teased the arrival of the mutants. Since then, however, other than announcing that the new FF film would be helmed Jon Watts, whose recently completed Spider-Man trilogy integrated the Sony-owned Webslinger into the MCU, there has been no official news. Word did come that Marvel Studios was seeking pitches on The Mutants and minor tidbits have surfaced here and there about the Fantastic Four, but nearly 3 years later fans are still in the dark. And that’s ok. It’s ok because, as Feige well knows, Marvel Studios has to proceed carefully with both properties because, simply put, they have to get it right.
As with Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four and X-Men have had previous and relatively recent films. In the case of the FF, the most recent attempt to bring the characters to resulted in one of the most despised superhero films of all times; in the case of The X-Men, Fox’s love affair with Wolverine and inattention to continuity left some of the best characters on the bench, some others poorly adapted and fans feeling fairly frustrated with the end result. As Marvel Studios attempts to reboot these properties, fans are going to carry their experiences with these previous iterations with them into the new projects. In a way, that means Feige and the Parliament are starting in a hole they didn’t dig, but if they don’t get it right out of the gate with these projects, they’ll bury what should be two different properties that could each generate a decade’s worth of stories.
As mentioned previously, fans will be be wary of these MCU reboots as they carry the trauma of the previous versions with them into theaters. If the MCU versions of these properties start to follow familiar arcs or feel similar to what Fox did, fans will find themselves triggered and the aforementioned decade of projects will be DOA. In this case, doing it right almost certainly means they need to do it very differently to separate the MCU versions from the Fox versions as much as possible. That’s no easy task, given that both the Fantastic Four and The X-Men franchises have each been “rebooted” once already, however, Feige and The Parliament could find some inspiration in an already established property that has been incredibly successful: Doom Patrol.
The three properties are a great example divergent evolution in comics, so while their modern day iterations don’t seem to be incredibly similar, Doom Patrol, the X-Men and the Fantastic Four are fairly inexorably entangled and have been for nearly 50 years. The group of metahuman misfits that came to be known as Doom Patrol first appeared as The Legion of the Strange in the pages of 1963’s My Greatest Adventure #80. Just 3 months later, TheX-Men #1 introduced comic readers to the world of mutants whose strange powers kept them from being accepted by society. If the similarities of a team of weirdos being led by a wheelchair-bound doctor/professor hadn’t ever occurred to you, they certainly did to Doom Patrol creator Arnold Drake, who once stated his belief that his plans for the team somehow made their way to X-Men creator Stan Lee, allowing him to launch his book shortly after the Doom Patrol first appeared. While Drake’s stance on “insider trading” softened over time, the reality is that other than some superficial similarities, the books didn’t truly have much in common. The X-Men dealt with themes of social injustice while Doom Patrol found themselves caught up in the incredibly strange types of adventures that fans of the HBO Max streaming series have come to know and love. And in that regard, it’s another group of Marvel heroes that have much more in common with Doom Patrol than the X-Men really ever did.
As Marvel Studios prepares to bring the First Family to the MCU, they could certainly take a few cues from the way that DC has brought Doom Patrol into live-action. Most importantly, Jon Watts and the creatives behind the project should embrace the strangeness that really defined the early days of The Fantastic Four and has made Doom Patrol a streaming hit. The Fantastic Four has been drastically redefined over the years, but their roots grew through stories about Mole Man and Monster Isle, Skrulls being turned into cows, traveling through time and having Ben Grimm be mistaken for Blackbeard, meeting the Impossible Man and many more ludicrous adventures that often take a back seat to Doctor Doom.
In order for Marvel Studios’ Fantastic Four to be successful, it has to be different from its predecessors. Embracing the weirdness of the Puppet Master, The Red Ghost and His Indescribable Super Apes, the Mad Thinker and his Awesome Android ensures that nobody will mistake this iteration for one of Fox’s attempts. Doom Patrol has provided a template for doing so successfully, not just because of the weirdness, but because the series has captured something that is also central to the story of the Fantastic Four: a family.
Sure, Doom Patrol isn’t a family in the same sense that the FF are, but they share a sense of tragedy and loss and loneliness that unites them. Over the course of several seasons, the characters of Doom Patrol have come to know, care for and rely on one another as a result of their crazy adventures and this idea is, at its core, what Marvel Studios could-maybe even should-do with their Fantastic Four. A family of explorers going on the type of weird adventures not previously seen in the MCU, but in the DCEU.
It was back in March when we got our first look at the production of Sony’s Kraven the Hunter film. Their next attempt at a Spider-Man universe is well underway in production and sees former Quicksilver Aaron Taylor-Johnson taking on the role of the titular hunter. We only saw an action sequence of him holding unto a car. Now, JustJared has shared a few new photos that offer a better close-up of the actor in the iconic Marvel villain role.
What stands out is that he has the classic beard of the hunter, as well as hair that is similar to the comics. The image of him in a suit showcases that he has a necklace with a claw of some kind attached, which is probably a way to pay tribute to his necklace in the comics that usually consists of multiple claws. His other outfit seems a bit more militarized with the necklace and a strange brown bracelet on one of his wrists. It’s unclear what the event is that he is attending.
We don’t know if we’ll get to see Kraven wear his iconic fur coat made from a lion he hunted. There’s a lot we don’t know about this project, especially how they might explore his potential connection to the setup from Morbius‘ post-credit sequence. The fact they are building a team to take down Spider-man without ever interacting with the character does add some confusion to what the endgame of this universe may end up being, especially as we don’t know which Spider-Man exists in this timeline.
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