After that massive reveal in Chapter 1043, the events have just started as Luffy unleashes his true power of the Hito Hito no Mi. With a farewell to the Gomu Gomu no Mi, Suki, Joe and a returning Fezzy talk all things Nika, as well as discuss the reveals from the big One Piece livestream.
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‘Moon Knight’ Directors Promise a “Mind-Bending” Episode 4
Moon Knight is a rather different kind of hero, as he not only is facing off against world-ending threats but also himself. The first episode has teased a man’s mind shattered, as the personalities of Steven Grant and Marc Spector fighting for control. It looks like they might fully dive into it throughout the series, but director Aaron Moorhead has teased that episode 4 might go even one step further, as he promises there will be a “mind-bending swing” that recontextualizes the rest of the series.
As you say, there’s a big, mind-bending swing in episode four that makes you reconsider some of the stuff that you’ve seen. Being able to do stuff like that — which pops up all over the comics, and also do great service to the tone and feel of the comics, the excitement of opening something up and seeing something you haven’t seen before — was one of the reasons that we wanted to do this
Aaron MoorheadFellow director Justin Benson adds that they really went back to explore the character’s 50 years to play around with the project, as they embraced the many “big swings” that it took in the many different runs.
When you look at the 50 years of incredible content that’s been generated for Moon Knight and Marvel, the best of it is defined by taking big swings, by being bold. So in that way, we were empowered to continue that, to be bold, especially with [episode four]. Visually, something that we were really drawn to, especially for that episode, was the [Jeff] Lemire and [Greg] Smallwood run [of Moon Knight].”
Justin BensonIt sounds exciting to see what the series has in store once we hit that episode, especially how it builds up beyond that. If there is a mind-bending twist, it makes you wonder how it might change the way we view the series and how it comes together at the end. The directors enthusiasm for playing around with the story, as well as embracing the comics. No wonder they were chosen to tackle Loki‘s next season as well.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
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‘Moon Knight’s Opening Sequence Was Ethan Hawke’s Idea
Ethan Hawke has talked about how Marvel Studios has offered a more cooperative environment unlike other studios. In the same interview with Variety, the actor has also talked about how the opening of Moon Knight came together, highlighting that creative input offered. The memorable opening sequence introduces us swiftly to his character of Dr. Arthur Harrow, as he crashes up glass with his cane and putting them into his shoes before walking off. He reveals that it was actually his idea, wanting to give the villain his own scene reminiscent of comic book one pagers.
That [scene] really sprang out of my imagination and our conversations. When you read a comic book, some of the pages have eight drawings, some of them have 16, some have four, and then every now and then, they’ll give like the villain one full-page drawing.
Ethan HawkeThat comic inspiration seemingly got his gears turning on what they might do, and the creative team gave him the opportunity to explore that aspect, which led to him reflecting on his character.
I kept asking the writers and directors, if it was a comic book, what would his full-page drawing be? And they were like, “What do you think it was?” I started really meditating on that, and I started thinking about spiritual people who go crazy, who get mad on their own spiritual pride, and how often that turns inward and you see that they’re secretly self-lacerating in some way and hating themselves
Ethan HawkeThe connection to the sequence came in the inclusion of his cane, and how it could tie into his character. It probably became the moment that cemented the collaborative nature of this project.
I knew he had a cane and I kept saying, “Wait, I have a cane. Do I have a limp?” They’re like, “No, you don’t have limp.” And I thought, “Ahh, I know why he has a cane.” So I told them this idea. And this is what I mean about what was so surprising about Marvel: They’re like, “Let’s shoot that. That’s a great idea. Let’s open the show with that.” I’m like, “Okay, well, I guess these guys do want to play.”
Ethan HawkeIt’s great to see that the actors are able to also add something to the projects they are working on, especially in how they can highlight their characters effectively. The opening may have caught many off-guard, as the show focused on Moon Knight set the stage in a very different way by focusing on its main antagonist. We’ve only just started and it’ll be interesting to see what the future has in store for Harrow.
Source: Variety
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‘Moon Knight’s Ethan Hawke on How Marvel Studios is Different From Other Studios
There’s been much debate on Marvel Studios’ relationship with its actors and directors given they run a tight ship. many believe that the Marvel Cinematic Universe is purely studio-driven, but there have been hints that the company has a very different dynamic with its talent than the industry standards might make you think. In an interview with Variety, Ethan Hawke shed further light on what it’s like working with the industry and how Marvel Studios sticks out.
Every other experience I’ve ever had in film is generally that the more money they have, the more fearful the producing staff is. They really want you to do this cookie-cutter thing, do what we paid you to do, don’t have any ideas.
Ethan HawkeHe went on to compare the Disney-owned subsidiary like a kitchen and how it works with the many cooks in its kitchen.
Marvel clearly has a good relationship with actors. The metaphor I like to use is, you have to cook in their kitchen and use their ingredients, but once you’re in the kitchen, and with their groceries, you can do whatever you want. So that was kind of fun.
Ethan HawkeHe also goes on to highlight that the studio isn’t “brittle and arrogant” as some others are. The company seemingly has supported the team behind Moon Knight to bring their vision to life.
I was impressed. They have a tremendous confidence. A lot of people who are really successful, get brittle and arrogant. And wonderful people get confident, and they believe in others and instead of having power over people, they empower people. They really empowered Oscar, Mohamed, myself, May, other people working on the show to try to have a good time and try to make something that we cared about. Because they basically bet that if we liked it then other people would like it.
Ethan HawkeIt certainly sounds like the company is more focused on establishing a collaborative effort and hopes to empower creatives to bring their visions to life. The Disney+ series have highlighted that they are offering their teams more freedom as they’ve added more projects. Of course, the studio still has an active hand in the work such as the CEO Kevin Feige pitching some ideas while bringing projects to life. Movies and TV series are a collaborative effort. It looks like Marvel Studios tries to keep that alive somewhat.
Source: Variety
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Jim Carrey Has “Mixed Emotions” About ‘The Batman’s Riddler
Matt Reeves‘ The Batman finally hit theaters last month, and was welcomed with rave reviews. A large portion of the acclaim went to Paul Dano‘s performance as classic Batman baddie The Riddler, who was reimagined for the film as a sadistic serial killer hell bent on exposing the many crimes of Gotham’s elite.
However, not everybody is over-the-moon about the antagonist’s new portrayal, and the list of those with mixed feelings apparently includes a rather famous former Riddler himself. In a recent interview with British outlet Unilad, promoting his upcoming film Sonic the Hedgehog 2, superstar Jim Carrey revealed that the darker tone of Dano‘s villain was not exactly his cup of tea:
I’ve not seen it. It’s a very dark version. I have mixed emotions about it. To each his own and all that. I love [Paul Dano] as an actor, he’s a tremendous actor. I do worry. There’s a spot of worry in me over gaffer-taping people’s faces and encouraging people to do the same. Some sickos out there that might adopt that method…I do have a conscience about the things I choose…I know there’s a place for it, and I don’t want to criticize it, but it’s not my kind of thing…it’s very well done, those movies are very well done.
Jim CarreyCarrey became the third person to bring Riddler to life on screen in 1995’s Batman Forever, which starred Val Kilmer in the title role with Tommy Lee Jones as fellow rogue Two-Face. That film was infamously campy, as director Joel Schumacher took over the franchise and reintroduced some of the lighthearted goofiness of the 1960s television series.
Riddler’s plot in Forever was not to violently murder anyone, but instead to steal their intelligence with an improbable, convoluted doohickey. Though he doesn’t agree with the disturbing nature of the latest Batman film, it is nice to hear the Canadian comedian still give praise to Dano‘s acting ability and give lenience towards other’s enjoyment of the movie.
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 releases in theaters on April 8th.
Source: Unilad
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Adil El Arbi Shares New Set Photo as ‘Batgirl’ Wraps Production
Director Adil El Arbi has taken to his personal Instagram account to share that the HBO Max film Batgirl has wrapped up production. He alongside Billal Fallah took on the task to bring the famous super heroine to life, as Leslie Grace takes on the titular role. There are theories that it might not release until next year due to the delay of The Flash, which was set up to reintroduce Michael Keaton as Batman into the DC Extended Universe. Still, it’s great to see that they were able to wrap up production, and even shared a new look at Grace‘s costume.
Batgirl will see the young heroine face off against Firefly, a popular Batman villain that is known for his love of arson. We know very little about the plot or even if other villains may have a role of some kind. It’s even more surprising given how many photos have found their way online from the production, especially during its stay in Glasgow. Of course, there are probably enough interior shots that were done that way to avoid any potential leaks.
Grace will be joined by some veteran actors in their respective roles, most notably Michael Keaton that originally took on the role in Tim Burton‘s 1989 film. It’s uncertain if the film will build up his return through The Flash, but as it’s planned as a follow-up it can just skip to that part directly.
Source: Instagram
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‘Morbius’ Opens to $5.7M in Thursday Previews, Eyeing a Potential $50M- Opening Weekend
Morbius is a curious case of a film constantly getting pushed back even after it originally eyeing a release in January of 2020. After all that, it was welcomed by some harsh reviews and opened up to a 15% on Rotten Tomatoes. The film has now seemingly still managed to pull in $5.7M on a Thursday, which is half of what Venom: Let There Be Carnage got last year. It’s not a great opening but with a $75M budget it’s still nothing to get worried about for Sony.
Still, the weekend will be the ultimate test, as photos of seemingly empty theaters are making the rounds and hints that the latest blockbuster entry may lose its momentum quite fast. While at best it could score around $45M, it might be closing in on $35M by the end of its weekend run. Early predictions did have it at potentially breaking $50M opening weekend early on, which could still be possible if it somehow picks up in its second weekend.
Sony wasn’t dumb and invested less into the picture knowing that Morbius isn’t a household name like Venom is. Most of its marketing put all its money on building up the connection to Spider-Man. We even got various hints at it either being part of the MCU, Maguire‘s universe or even the Amazing franchise. Yet, as director Daniel Espinosa openly leaked the post-credit sequences a week ahead of its release, it’s unclear if there are any expectations of the film moving forward.
Source: Forbes, Box Office Pro
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‘The Mandalorian’ and ‘Loki’ Lead Disney+ Viewership
There’s been a lot of debate on just how well the various series perform on Disney+. While some might want to use it to argue on their personal favorite series leading the pack, but it’s also an indicator of what was the most popular production on the streaming app. While none of Disney+s original productions could compete with Star Wars or Marvel, The Hollywood Reporter and Nielsen offers a little insight into how they generally performed through an analysis based on viewing data for the streamer. As of now, it seems that The Mandalorian and Loki remain the best performing series on the site.
Throughout their runtime, every entry of the six live-action shows across both major brands were in the top 10 each week they released a new episode. Yet, it is highlighted that they continuously made billion more minutes of view time spent afterwards. Even What if..? and Star Wars: The Bad Batch made appearances throughout with around two billion minutes of viewing time within seven weeks. The Mandalorian is yet the clear leader with 14.5 billion minutes watched throughout the year. However, 8.4 billion were alone from the time the second season made its debut.
While the Marvel shows have yet to top the series that started Disney+, Loki managed to draw in 5.23 billion minutes of watch time. It even passed one billion in a single week, and is the only Marvel series to do so. On top of that, it had the highest average watch time for any series, even including Star Wars with 872M minutes per episode in its six week runtime. Falcon and the Winter Soldier actually ranked right behind it with 692M minutes per episode, but reaching 4.15B average. Hawkeye had a weaker run with 3.46B minutes watched during its viewing time.
The biggest challenge will come for Marvel Studios introducing new characters to the franchise through Moon Knight and Ms. Marvel. All previous entries were built on existing characters but they are believed to have the potential to become next quarter’s biggest series alongside Obi-Wan Kenobi. We also have to keep in mind these aren’t direct numbers from Disney+, where they might have a very different picture. It strongly depends on what they base their success on that could reshuffle this order.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
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REVIEW: ‘Morbius’ Just Sort Of… Happens
In 1623, famed playwright William Shakespeare published a comedy about love and hijinks. Despite its lighthearted nature, the story dealt with a variety of themes that included heavier topics like deceit and the woes of an identity crisis. Its title, Much Ado About Nothing, was a play on the fact that, despite a rather complicated plot, the events of the story would ultimately be insignificant in the lives of its protagonists. Morbius, the latest entry in Sony’s universe of spider-adjacent characters, is a lot like Much Ado About Nothing. Like the aforementioned work, it deals with brotherly betrayal and the struggle of lacking control. The main difference between the two is that, while Shakespeare‘s play used “nothing” as a motif, Sony’s film uses the same concept as a plot device.
Over the course of nearly two hours, Jared Leto‘s new starring vehicle essentially just exists. Incidents occur, one after the other, but they come in what feels like a series of manufactured moments. There are sometimes interesting visuals, and on paper, there are developments that should serve to keep the audience invested, but somehow the movie never manages to achieve the sensation of being complete. Materially a paint-by-the-number, beats come and go like colorless shapes quickly filled with gaudy pigmentation, with the lines between sections still oddly discernable to the human eye. From really far away, with a squinty eye, it might seem like director Daniel Espinosa and his crew have constructed something worthwhile, but any further inspection reveals they were likely just making somebody else’s idea look as pretty as their minds could muster.
The production tries to fool you, and occasionally it verges on working. A triumphant score from Jon Ekstrand blasts over the loudspeakers as the titular antihero, surrounded by screeching vampire bats, rises from certain defeat to conquer his foe. Scenes transition to spectacular slow motion as Dr. Michael Morbius plays with the outer limits of his newfound power. An impressive neon-lit landscape functions as the backdrop to a passionate rooftop kiss. Classic movie moments, which have worked before and are certain to work again. Just not here. Any of these concepts could have performed perfectly had they been set up properly, but instead they are just thrown together without much glue to keep them intact.
To get a better sense of what I mean by this, just take a look at a few key plot points and examine how they’re executed in the film. For starters — and this is the official spoiler warning to skip to the next paragraph if need be — the first transformation of Morbius into the Living Vampire is not even shown on screen. After a couple of clunky time jumps between adult Morbius illegally collecting bats in Costa Rica and child Morbius delivering a lot of exposition to a new friend in the hospital (who should probably already know about his own rare blood disease), viewers are suddenly vaulted into the midst of the character finishing his experimental cure. Then, after a few more quick scenes, Morbius is already strapped to a chair on a boat in international waters, about to test his new creation on himself. An intrusion causes the camera to cut away, and moments later when it cuts back, Morbius is fully transformed and clinging to the ceiling, not having made a peep.
It’s an almost jarring shift in tone, with the music doing its absolute best to convince anyone watching that what just happened made sense. Although, once again, therein lies the problem. Events going on in the movie are simply happening, not as the result of any prior build-up or payoff, but purely because they’re what’s supposed to happen next. Skipping to the end of the movie, Adria Arjona‘s Dr. Martine Bancroft has been murdered by Matt Smith‘s predictable, yet admittedly kind-of-fun baddie, Milo. Mostly off-screen. Immediately after Milo has just killed an entirely different major supporting character. There’s not really any time to mourn either of them, even if the VFX department put a lot of money into the look on Morbius’ pained vampire face as he screams in emotional agony to convince viewers otherwise. Just one thing after the other, coming about as the plot deems it so.
These are two notable bookends, but it’s more or less how the entire film functions. When the credits began to roll, many of us in the theater found ourselves sitting there still waiting for more. Not because we thought there would be, but because our brains had not yet registered that a full movie had played out in front of us. We were still waiting for somebody to come in and paint over the visible lines. Instead, we were treated to a handful of sequel teases played at lightspeed, almost all of which violated previously established character arcs and universal rules for the sake of forcing future conflict. Truly just a mess, and hopefully one that never needs to be spoken of at length again. If Sony and Marvel wanted to forget that Morbius ever happened, it probably wouldn’t take much convincing for general audiences to follow suit.
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‘Sonic the Hedgehog 2’s Jim Carrey is “Fairly Serious” on Retiring Soon
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is finally finding its way to theaters and with a third entry already on the horizon, the franchise seems set in stone to further expand. Of course, there’s hope to keep actors involved as much as possible but it seems one of its big draws, Jim Carrey, might be considering retiring soon. In an interview with Access Hollywood, the actor talked about wanting Dr. Robotnik’s mustache to grow even bigger but also revealed that he’s “fairly serious” about retiring from acting.
While he does say “probably” and that it depends on “if the angels bring some sort of script that’s written in gold ink that says to me it’s going to be really important for people to see” but then pointed out he’s going to take a break to focus on his art world. He highlights that he’s “done enough” and that is why he’s considering leaving this part of his life behind him for a more calmer experience.
It would be a shame, as he has generally retreated from acting for some time. He’s also has a Netflix special on the horizon to honor the late and talented Bob Sagat, but it was a rather surprising reveal during the interview, especially as it was made after finding out Dolly Parton wants him to play Porter Wagoner in a biopic. If he goes through with it, it’s unclear if the newly established Sonic the Hedgehog franchise will move forward without Dr. Robotnik or potentially even recast him. Of course, they could also have him appear in smaller roles throughout to lessen the work load while still keeping him active in it.
If you are interested, you can check out his interview with Access Hollywood right here:
Source: Access Hollywood
