Murphy's Multiverse

Tag: Movies

  • ‘The Little Mermaid’ Cinemascore Reveals Audience’s Impression of the Live-Action Reimagining

    ‘The Little Mermaid’ Cinemascore Reveals Audience’s Impression of the Live-Action Reimagining

    Disney’s live-action reimagining of the 1989 animated classic, The Little Mermaid, looks set to have one of the top five Memorial Day box office takes of all time with experts predicting as much as $125M. Critics have given the film mostly positive reviews and given it a thumbs up as a worthy companion to the beloved original. Now, following its opening night, audiences have given their opinion.

    After taking in the film on its first Friday, audiences have spoken loud and clear about where they stand on the remaining with it grading out with an A according to Cinemascore.

    Critics and audiences seem to agree that the film, carried by the strong performance Halle Bailey as Ariel, stands tall among Disney’s efforts to reimagine its catalog of animated classics. That’s good news for the studio whose Disney Plus release of Peter Pan & Wendy certainly didn’t catch the same positivity.

    The Little Mermaid is now in theaters.

  • ‘The Little Mermaid’ Cast Shares What Makes Their Romance Stand Out From the Original

    ‘The Little Mermaid’ Cast Shares What Makes Their Romance Stand Out From the Original

    The Little Mermaid is set to continue Disney’s trend of bringing their beloved animated classics to a new generation in live-action. It’s not an easy task and while there have been many discussions on if it truly played out for the studio, there’s a lot of hope with the talents behind this project that it’ll stand out from what came before.

    During the official press conference for the Disney remake, Jonah Hauer-King, who plays Prince Eric, got a chance to share what he believes makes this version of the iconic romance between his character and Ariel stand out from the original. He highlights that it’s “friendship” and how they tackle what connects these characters rather than the love at first sight trope.

    Friendship, I think. Disney romances are always, you know, they’re filled with that instinctive attraction to one another. We all wanna see that. But I think what was fun about this, and I think a lot of it came from our off-screen selves as well, was looking at Ariel and Eric as two people who were kindred spirits. Who felt a little bit restless, who felt like they were behind the four walls of their respective castles, and were very much looking outwards and not in.

    Jonah Hauer-King

    It’s definitely a great move to add a bit more depth to their romance by having them share a common theme. Ariel’s journey is all about going beyond the world she knows, and having Eric reflect that on the surface adds a little something extra to give more insight into what connects them.

    And I think what was nice about that was that it meant that their relationship feels really earnt. They both felt like they were teaching each other things. They were excited and fascinated by each other’s worlds although they didn’t actually know it until the end.

    Jonah Hauer-King

    Of course, it’s one thing saying that this was their approach and something pushed further by their bond behind the scenes, the challenge will definitely be in how they showcase it for viewers. The Little Mermaid’s remake will be longer than the original and they might make use of that additional time to add a bit more depth to the story and just give them more time to share their experiences.

  • Summer Box Office May Be Slowing Down With ‘The Flash’ and ‘Elemental’s Soft Forecasts

    Summer Box Office May Be Slowing Down With ‘The Flash’ and ‘Elemental’s Soft Forecasts

    Here’s a surprise but it seems the summer tentpoles are showing quite a bit of a slowdown. The Little Mermaid is heading to a strong $120M+ opening weekend over Memorial Day, which puts it at $100M over three days. That is slightly behind the other Disney releases Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantmania but still a strong opening if the film has legs like the previous Guardians film.

    Yet, the rest of the box office is looking a little lukewarm so far. Fast X made a huge splash internationally but is slowing down quite a bit domestically at $67.5M. Even the return of the former box office champion isn’t really lighting up the box office’s engine with Transformers: Rise of the Beasts tracking for a soft $40M in early projection. Yet, it seems some other hopefuls aren’t showing that momentum many hoped for this year.

    The Flash is currently heading for $70M. It’s quite a bit lower than what Warner Bros. Discovery is banking on given that they used all of Shazam: Fury of the Gods‘ marketing budget on this film that they are pushing as “the best superhero film of all time.” The question remains if it’ll have strong word-of-mouth and legs afterward. If it offers what is promised, it does have a good chance but it’s still far from where you’d want your $250M+ film to open.

    There’s also the depressing development of Pixar’s box office due to the Disney+ releases throughout the last few years. Elemental is looking at a $40M similar to Transformers, which would put it on track with Onward and The Good Dinosaur but even Ratatouille managed to become a success with a soft $47M. They just need to hope that old momentum carries over.

    Source: Variety, Hollywood Reporter

  • REVIEW: ‘The Boogeyman’ Reminds Us Why We Used To Be Afraid of the Dark

    REVIEW: ‘The Boogeyman’ Reminds Us Why We Used To Be Afraid of the Dark

    The Boogeyman, at its core, gets at the most basic of premises: What if the monster in the shadows that we feared as a child was real? Our protagonist Harper Family — a recently widowed father and his two daughters — represent the stages of life where that fear goes from real to remote, and as the story progresses, we experience the foreboding and the terror of a monster lurking in the place you forgot to look.

    The film is carried by its cast, as Sophie Thatcher of Yellowjackets fame brings a certain outcast quality along with her savvy. As the teenage daughter Sadie Harper, she’s too old for monsters, but she is nonetheless no stranger to trauma, as she is still steeped in sadness about her mother’s death. She’s the big sister that is expected to be the strong one, but grief casts a pall over her ability to see what she needs to see to protect her sister Sawyer from the very real danger that stalks them.

    (L-R): Sophie Thatcher as Sadie Harper, Chris Messina as Will Harper, and Vivien Lyra Blair as Sawyer Harper in 20th Century Studios’ THE BOOGEYMAN. Photo by Patti Perret. © 2023 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.

    In her portrayal of Sawyer, Vivien Lyra Blair (Young Leia from Obi-Wan Kenobi) gives us a child who is desperate not to be the monster’s next victim but is also terrified (and rightfully so). As these types of movies are wont to do, we get a lot of scenes where we’re alone with her in rooms where the monster can be anywhere, and as viewers, her paranoia becomes ours, and her frustration at no one believing her invests us in her fate.

    Chris Messina, on the other hand, is in the toughest spot as Will. He’s the dad, a therapist whose patient tells him about a monster, and whose children tell him about a monster as well, but his natural response is to conclude that the answer is more therapy, because monsters couldn’t possibly be real. His own grief, as he grapples with the loss of his wife is conveyed well by Messina, so even though his decisions aren’t particularly helpful in the face of the dangers his daughters face, he never crosses the line into unsympathetic.

    Sophie Thatcher as Sadie in 20th Century Studios’ THE BOOGEYMAN. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2023 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.

    This is a really good script, economical and well-paced, and director Rob Savage gives us the suspense shots and jump scares at the appropriate times. Characters get the right amount of screen time and don’t outstay their welcome. I won’t spoil the final body count here, but unsurprisingly, not everyone we meet makes it. And the creature design is solid. The screams are earned. I would say that if you’re a fan of gore, it might not scratch that particular itch, as it’s less about blood and guts and more about the psychological horror of a monster that doesn’t just want to gut you, but wants you to anticipate it.

    Overall, The Boogeyman is a good thriller of a horror movie. It doesn’t necessarily tread new ground or push the genre forward, but with its capable leads, a solid emotional core, and terrifying sequences that will have you reconsidering every creepy crevice in your own home, it delivers the goods.

  • ‘Mortal Kombat’ Sequel Finds its Kitana

    ‘Mortal Kombat’ Sequel Finds its Kitana

    Mortal Kombat‘s next film is finally revving up. Surprisingly, the film had one of the biggest releases on HBO Max during the day-and-date release strategy but somehow Warner Bros. has been quite hesitant about getting the next one into production. While the WGA strike is running, casting is still moving forward for the sequel with the latest addition Adeline Rudolph joining the production as Kitana.

    The actress actually starred opposite Tati Gabrielle in Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, who is also going to appear in the film. They are the third addition after Karl Urban was recently confirmed to take the iconic role of Johnny Cage. While we might have to wait a bit longer until we see him with the tattoo of his first name across the chest, it’s still looking like Simon McQuoid is ready to start production on the sequel.

    2021’s Mortal Kombat wasn’t quite the faithful adaptation of the original games that people hoped it would be, but it still offered some of the fun charms. Fatalities weren’t kept a secret and it still tried to establish its own unique take on the lore of the original; though it was weird that the first Mortal Kombat film was more a prequel to the tournament of the same name. Still, we’ll see if the second one offers what the first couldn’t.

    Source: Hollywood Reporter

  • Set Photos From Chinatown Set of ‘Captain America 4’ Include a Potentially Major Twist

    Set Photos From Chinatown Set of ‘Captain America 4’ Include a Potentially Major Twist

    Downtown Atlanta was recently transformed into Chinatown as part of production on Marvel Studios Captain America: New World Order as revealed through photos shared by Christopher Oquendo. The photographer was back at the location again and among some high-quality close-up looks at the set is a very interesting location that could indicate a major twist to what already seems like a packed plot.

    As part of the Chinatown set, a restaurant reveals that the scenes being shot on location are set on Canal St. in Chinatown. While it’s much more likely that it’s not an important detail, Canal St. has actually been an important location in the pages of Marvel Comics in the past as the location has served as a hideout for The Hand and The White Dragons, a gang under the control of Mister Negative.

    The addition of either Mister Negative or The Hand to the film, which is already packed full of villains, would be shocking. However, given so little is known about the plot of the film and Marvel Studios’ history with mashing up characters, it’s not out of the question that the Serpent Society is somehow tied to one or the other. Of course, it’s far more likely that it’s just a nice touch on a setpiece that may not even make the final cut of the film but it’s interesting nonetheless.

    Captain America: New World Order hits theaters on May 3, 2024.

  • ‘The Little Mermaid’ Director Rob Marshall Explains How the New Film is Grounded in the 19th Century Fairy Tale

    ‘The Little Mermaid’ Director Rob Marshall Explains How the New Film is Grounded in the 19th Century Fairy Tale

    Disney’s live-action reimagining of the beloved 1989 animated musical fantasy, The Little Mermaid, has been fairly warmly received as one of the studio’s best efforts in their quest to remake every animated film in their catalog. Rather than directly adapting the animated classic shot-for-shot, director Rob Marshall and the production team, which included Lin-Manuel Miranda and John DeLuca, looked for ways to make the live-action version a “completely original confection” and a “massive musical” that still captured the heart of the story.

    For the new film, that meant more music, bigger swings and helping the stars of the project find their comfort zone and their voices to make the audience feel like they were seeing something new. That’s no small task given that not only is it a reimagining of one of Disney’s most popular films but also based on a nearly 200-year-old fairy tale. Surprisingly enough, as Marshall revealed at the global press junket for The Little Mermaid, it was revisiting Hans Christian Andersen‘s 1837 story that helped the production team find the foundation of their film in one very famous quote.

     But a mermaid has no tears and therefore she suffers so much more

    The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen
    Halle Bailey as Ariel in Disney’s live-action THE LITTLE MERMAID. Photo courtesy of Disney. © 2023 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

    “Well, it’s so interesting ’cause the first thing that John and I did when we actually started this journey was to go back to the Hans Christian Andersen tale to understand where it all came from,” said Marshall of the famous quote that is shown on screen as the film opens. “We were immediately aware of how this was a very contemporary story already in the 1830s about this young girl who feels displaced and wants to, you know, go on a journey of self-discovery, you know, to another world. And so, for me, [clears throat] the quote, to be able to find something from Hans Christian Andersen specifically, so we sort of ground this in where it came from, was important to us, to find something from him. And this, you know, it’s the most sort of famous quote from the tale.”

    That quote turned into one of the film’s prevalent themes and was emoted wonderfully by Ariel actress Halle Bailey. According to Marshall, adapting the story to live-action actually aided in realizing the Andersen quote. “And I have to say that because we were bringing, I think, more depth and emotion, which you can in a live-action piece. You know, that’s what this genre helps you do,” he explained. The idea that, because a mermaid has no tears, and she feels more, she suffers more, it felt to us like it set the table for this more emotional telling of the story.” Bailey’s performance has been roundly praised by critics as elevating the overall quality of the film, including the strong emotional performance delivered when the character is without a voice. Audiences can see Bailey’s emotional performance for themselves as The Little Mermaid is now previewing in theaters ahead of tomorrow’s wide release.

  • Melissa McCarthy Shares How She Brought Ursula to Life

    Melissa McCarthy Shares How She Brought Ursula to Life

    While all eyes are on the performance of Halle Bailey as Ariel, there’s a talented cast that has the challenge of bringing some iconic characters to life, especially the iconic songs that made The Little Mermaid what it was. Melissa McCarthy will be the one to bring us “Poor Unfortunate Souls” as the iconic Ursula. Some trailers have already teased her performance as the underwater witch, she got a chance to share the challenges of playing the character in live-action.

    Animation doesn’t have any restrictions on how a character is brought to life. So, you can much easier imagine someone with multiple limbs swimming around while singing. In the case of McCarthy, the actress had the challenge of constantly floating with a rig as revealed during the film’s official press event. She does share one funny moment that did happen the one time she touched anything while acting.

    I slipped on the clam shell occasionally, on my back, but I was never literally on my feet. We were either up in rigs or, you know, there were all different magical things. You know, if you were diving, it was one rig. If you were spinning, it was another. But no, never on the ground.

    Melissa McCarthy

    It must’ve been fun just hanging around from a rig while acting out your soul or even singing. She sadly doesn’t share what that was like, it’s still interesting to know just what kind of movie magic they used to ensure Ursula stays as true as possible to the original film from 1989.

  • ‘Alita: Battle Angel’ Star Rosa Salazar Joins the Cast of ‘Captain America 4’

    ‘Alita: Battle Angel’ Star Rosa Salazar Joins the Cast of ‘Captain America 4’

    Given the spotlight is always shining on the next big Marvel Studios project, surprise castings are a rare occurrence. While most lead roles are scooped by trades, even supporting roles are big news and are often leaked by scoopers and/or smaller sites. Captain America: New World Order pulled off that rare feet by casting the members of the villainous Serpent Society in complete secrecy. Had it not been for photographer Christopher Oquendo staking out the Brown Airport location for the film, the revelation that WWE Superstar Seth Rollins had been cast as one of the Serpents may have stayed a surprise until the film’s 2023 release. While Rollins was easily identified, the identity of his female counterpart in the scene, Serpent Society member Diamondback, has remained a mystery…until now.

    Murphy’s Multiverse can share that Alita: Battlestar and Maze Runner actress Rosa Salazar as the actress who joined Rollins on set as Diamondback. While Salazar’s reps did not respond to inquiries about her status on the project, we are confident that she is attached to it.

    The Serpent Society’s role in the film is unclear but in the comics, they’ve served as antagonists to Captain America more than once. As for Salazar’s Diamondback, her history with Captain America is a little more complicated. Though a member of a criminal organization, Diamondback once dated Steve Rogers so her presence in the film could mean interesting things on the horizon for Sam Wilson.

    Captain America: New World Order is currently slated to hit theaters May 3, 2024.

  • Atlanta Transformed into Chinatown in Latest ‘Captain America 4’ Set Photos

    Atlanta Transformed into Chinatown in Latest ‘Captain America 4’ Set Photos

    A lot seems to be going on in Captain America: New World Order. Sam Wilson’s first solo feature film as Cap will see Harrison Ford‘s Thaddeus Ross become President of the United States, the return of Tim Blake Nelson‘s Samuel Sterns and Liv Tyler‘s Betty Ross, the debut of the Serpent Society and the rumored discovery of Adamantium on the corpse of Tiamut the Celestial. While there’s been no Celestial or Adamantium sightings just yet thanks to a massive set that was reportedly built for the film, much of the rest of the goings on have been captured on film while production has been ongoing around Atlanta.

    Photographer Christopher Oquendo, who has recently been very busily scoping out the locations of Captain America: New World Order has once again come through with some photos of a setpiece being assembled in downtown Atlanta. While the location has yet to go live, the photos show a portion of downtown Atlanta being transformed into Chinatown. This won’t be the first or last time that a part of Atlanta has been used as a stand-in for New York City but it is a fascinating location for this project.

    With filming not yet having taken place in the new location, there’s no way to be sure just what’s going on in Chinatown. The location has been featured prominently in Daredevil and Spider-Man comics, most recently when the Dragon Lords, Mister Negative and The Hood skirmished. It’s also where the Sons of the Tiger, three martial artists powered by the same jade amulet that gave power to the White Tiger, set up their dojo. None of those characters are known to be in Captain America 4, however, and while the Serpent Society does have ties to New York City, they arent specific to Chinatown. Given Oquendo’s hashtag indicated the shoot will be spoilery, these are definitely worth following up on as soon as the site goes live!