MovieFest

Well, this certainly is rather interesting. Word has come from The Hollywood Reporter that  Alice Braga  is replacing  Rosario Dawson  for  Josh Boone 's  New Mutants  X-Men spinoff film. So far, the reason for the split, and subsequent replacement is unclear. Braga, will join  Anya Taylor-Joy (The Witch)  , Maisie Williams (Game of Thrones), Charlie Heaton (Stranger Things), Blu Hunt, and Henry Zaga in the horror-inspired tale that sees five diverse teens learning to cope with their superpowers who must escape a secret facility where they are being held against their will. Braga will not step into the role of Dawson's Claire Temple aka Night Nurse, but instead will go on to play Dr. Cecilia Reyes, a medical doctor who has the ability to generate a protective bio-field around herself but also has more going on than she lets on. New Mutants is expected to fit snuggly into Fox's X-Men universe, which also houses the Deadpool  and Logan properties. The film i

Previous pictures from filming have teased new characters and shown Cole Sprouse wolfing down a cheeseburger, but now we’ve perhaps got the most interesting look yet at the forthcoming season. In the pictures, we can see Archie and Reggie Mantle, now played by Charles Melton, looking stern while filming in Barnaby, Canada in what’s being touted as a wedding dream sequence. If you fancied a closer look at KJ Apa’s Archie doing an action-pose in his kilt – you’re in luck too. Enjoy. Interestingly, the pictures also confirm the return of Jason Blossom in flashback format – after previously being killed in season one. So if this is a wedding dream sequence – could this potentially be Betty having a weird nightmare about Archie and Veronica getting married? Is she secretly still in love with Archie? Scream? The first three episode titles from season two have been revealed so far, which are A Kiss Before Dying, Nighthawks and the ominous The Watcher In The Woods. Riverdale se

★★★★★ God has packed his bags and fucked off from heaven, and Jesse Custer knows it. Now it's up to a lapsed preacher, a sexy criminal, and a Irish drug-addled vampire to track Him down and hold Him accountable for His disappearance. If there's some need for assistance, then maybe Jesse and co will be able to provide it. If God has simply abandoned His creation, then Jesse has sworn to hold Him accountable for the disappearing act. It's a bold claim, and it's going to shape up to be a long, strange journey across south America. I have to give mad props to Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. As directors, they seemed to have grown significantly into their responsibilities. The opening of the premiere episode of Preacher is just so technically impressive, as they go from Cassidy ranting and raving about circumcision and how the government are putting them in our face creams, to a full-fledged shoot-out between a half-dozen highway patrol officers and an unkillable cowb

One of the most discussed superhero-related movie stories this year has involved Sony’s plans to develop certain “Spider-Man spinoffs” separate from the Marvel Cinematic Universe that currently includes Spider-Man himself.  The first such film will be Venom (10/5/18), and in 2019, we’re likely to get the second spinoff, Silver Sable and Black Cat (possibly shortened to just Silver and Black). In sort of a perfect example of a “buried lede,” The Hollywood Reporter inadvertently revealed that Sony Pictures is now developing spinoff movies for Spider-Man villains Mysterio and Kraven the Hunter (Sergei Nikolaevich Kravinoff), neither of whom has ever been portrayed in an actual live-action film. Kraven is possibly best known for the 1980s storyline “Kraven’s Last Hunt“, and Mysterio (Francis Klum, Quentin Beck, Daniel Berkhart) is a Hollywood special FX artist who decides to become a super villain (as you do). From that same THR story, we also now know that the second Spider-Man movie

9/10 That was 'Raw' to say the least, the debut feature film of French director Julia Ducournau, is both a cannibal horror movie and a coming-of-age movie, one in which the sexual awakening of its young protagonist Justine (Garance Marillier) sits alongside the birth of a more destructive, if similarly all-consuming kind of hunger. The film opens as the young teenager, brought up in a vegetarian family, heads off to college for the first time. Her destination – a (creepy) veterinary school, alma mater of both her parents and the current home of her older sister Alexa (Ella Rumpf), a senior student – in a Frankenstein’s laboratory of horrors: think about floating, detached organs and drugged farm animals. Justine’s career path may have been motivated by a desire to help animals: early on, she says, with evangelical seriousness, that she sees no difference between “a raped woman” and a “raped monkey”. But the practical callousness of her fellow students, and the way in w

5/10 Here comes yet another addition to the “ironic film remake of a beloved 70s/80s TV series” genre, which is starting to look as dated as the shows it purports to send up. Updating the cops-on-bikes action drama of the same name, ChiPs stars Michael Peña in the old Erik Estrada role of Ponch, a sex-addicted FBI agent who is tasked with rooting out police corruption by going undercover in the California highway patrol unit. There he’s paired up with idiot-savant rookie Jon Baker (Dax Shepard, also the film’s director), whose guilelessness is counterbalanced by a remarkable gift for riding motorbikes. Soon the pair are on the trail of a dirty cop (Vincent D’Onofrio, entirely wasted in a gruff, underdeveloped role), bickering and blowing stuff up as they go. When placed next to the gleeful postmodernism of the 21 Jump Street films, this feels remarkably timid, its humour built around off-colour gags (including one desperately poorly judged Oscar Pistorius joke, which was kind of

He butchered, as Bill. . He seduced in The Unbearable Lightness of Being . And he murdered, in There Will Be Blood. This week, Daniel Day-Lewis — a three-time Oscar winner, and incomparable film chameleon — announced he is retiring from acting at 60 earlier this week. A statement released by his spokeswoman gave no explanation, saying this is a private decision, and that Day-Lewis will have no further comment. The actor has often taken lengthy sabbaticals between films, but this time it's apparently permanent. So what will he be doing? Well, we know that Day-Lewis has a number of deep passions outside of acting. Woodworking for one, dating back to when he was in boarding school. Back then, he imagined a life making furniture and even applied for an apprenticeship with a cabinetmaker — before drama drew him in. Years later, he apprenticed with a master cobbler — learning the craft of shoe-making, in Florence. A journalist from npr asked Day-

★★★★☆ Based on a Stephen King novella from the 1980’s The Mist is small-scale paranoia ramped up by small town mentalities. More prevalent now than upon its initial literary release the show establishes stock characters early, drops in an atmospheric sense of unease within five minutes while setting up small town rivalries and broadly written stereotypes. Teacher Eve Copeland (Sutherland) is put on suspension because of unorthodox methods, her husband (Spector) the local newspaper man who is trying to raise their daughter. Conspiracy theorists living next door and a bunch of testosterone fuelled police, more interested in snapping selfies than stopping crimes. After a girl has cause to get the local quarterback in trouble the aforementioned ‘Mist’ rolls in with no degree of subtlety instantly wreaking havoc. From that point on people quickly lose their noodles and are constantly telling each other there is something in The Mist while still going out into it without any hesitat

Sometimes, you can tell by the very plot of a film that it is going to be a gut-wrenching but promising watch. Jake Gyllenhaal and Tatiana Maslany's film Stronger is a prime example. It tells the story of Boston Marathon bombing survivor Jeff Bauman and his relationship with his girlfriend Erin Hurley after he lost his legs, and the struggles they go through as Bauman's character deals with despair and the pressure of being a symbol of American and Bostonian bravery. In the trailer of the film, we see Gyllenhaal weak and struggling at first, unable to cope with the emotional and physical pain of losing his legs. Later, his spirits are lifted and he begins walking with the help of prosthetic legs (Gyllenhaal brings so much emotion to the character, he really pulls at your heartstrings). Coming to the story it is based on, Gyllenhaal plays Bauman, who lost his legs at the knees due to the bombs that went off at the finish line of the marathon, where he was standing to suppo

American Gods season 2 has the green light! Starz's glossy adaptation of the bestselling Neil Gaiman novel - about a battle of the Old Gods and the New Gods, in contemporary America - was renewed for a second season a couple of months ago. But today, we're hearing that the second season will be slightly longer than the first. During an interview piece with series overseer Bryan Fuller, The Wrap claims that American Gods will have ten episodes. (which is a hole 2 episodes more, and I'm not even being sarcastic) Fuller also teased the journey ahead for Ricky Whittle's brilliant Shadow Moon.  "Whenever anyone engages in a faith bargain and they commit to it, they change their perspective in a massive way," Fuller explained. "So the story we get to tell with Shadow in the future is one of a character who’s crossed that first benchmark, which was non-believer to believer. Now that he believes, how does he believe? And how will what’s happened with h

Plans for a Venom movie where around for well over a decade; David Goyer’s New Line version before Spider-Man 3, a spin-off from Spider-Man 3 itself, and even a couple of incarnations in the Amazing Spider-Man series. One idea has popped up over and over again in all these different iterations, and that’s Venom as an anti-hero fighting the crazy symbiote Carnage.  Now, with english actor Tom Hardy in the lead role of a movie that’s actually happening (maybe, we know what sonyou are like), it seems like this eXtremely ‘90s idea will finally come to full fruition. THR (Hollywood Reporter) reports that the villain will appear in next year’s average Sony Spin-Off Universe (come up with a better name and I’ll give you a fiver), and honestly, we’ve been kind of preparing for this possibility for the last ten fucking years.  For those unaware (who the fuck doesn't know Carnage, wake up), Carnage is basically Venom – a superpowered symbiote latching itself on to a host and

Following the announcement in April that Shameik  Moore will star as Miles Morales  in Sony’s  Spider-Man animated film , according to cbr the studio has reportedly expanded the voice cast with the addition of actors from  Luke Cage  and  Atlanta . According to  The Tracking Board , Oscar winner Mahershala Ali who played villain 'Cottonmouth' in marvel and netflix's 'Luke Cage'  will play Miles’ uncle, Aaron Davis, who “loves his nephew but operates on the wrong side of the law,” while Brian Tyree Henry will follow his breakout role on  Atlanta  as 'Paper Boi' with a turn as Miles’ father Jefferson Davis. Introduced in 2011 by Brian Michael Bendis and Sara Pichelli, teenage Miles Morales assumed the identity of Spider-Man following the death of Peter Parker in Marvel’s Ultimate Universe. Following the end of Marvel’s Ultimate imprint in 2015, Miles was integrated into Marvel’s main universe. Co directed by Bob Persichetti ( The Little Prince

Behind every remarkable protagonist is an equally memorable antagonist pushing them to there limits. And Aubrey Plaza's stellar performance as the satanic/enigmatic Lenny Busker in the Marvel-based FX original series, "Legion," may have just secured her a place in super villain history at least in the TV universe. Although Lenny was introduced as a fellow patient to the troubled David Haller (Dan Stevens) at the Clockworks Psychiatric Hospital, she was eventually revealed to be one of the identities used by the psychic parasite known as the Shadow King in order to torment David's mind and keep the powerful psychic mutant unaware of the truth behind his existence. And now that the Shadow King has found a new host in the equally powerful mutant Oliver Bird (Jemaine Clement), what new struggles will Lenny bring to David and the rest of Summerland in the series' second season? In a recent interview with Gold Derby , Plaza shared that while she ha

Mr. Wednesday’s war has finally come, but we’ve gotten his target wrong all along. Sure, he wants to unite the surviving old gods of the world’s various fallen faiths and pantheons against the New Gods of American hegemony—technology, the media, guns, commercialization, and the military-industrial-corporate-intelligence-government complex represented by the mysterious Mr. World. But attacking we the people is his way to win. In “Come to Jesus,” the eight and final episode of American Gods’ spectacular first season, the war begins — a biological war in which Wednesday recruits Ostara, goddess of spring, to destroy all the vegetation in the nation until people begin worshipping the old gods again. “Never once have they had to work for it,” he reasons, “give thanks for it.” His plan is to starve the pampered Americans into prayer. Wednesday’s thesis, and by extension the show’s, is an even more fundamental misreading of American life than the series’ underlying assertion that in Am

So Production is officially underway on the sequel to 2014’s “Godzilla” reboot and the third film in Warner's ‘MonsterVerse’ following the first and this year’s “Kong: Skull Island”. Michael Dougherty (“Trick R Treat”) is at the helm of the movie which seems to have ditched the “Godzilla: King Of The Monsters” moniker. However, Warner Bros. Pictures has now revealed a full cast list and a new official synopsis which teases the monsters we’ll see and it sounds pretty awesome. The cast consists of: Vera Farmiga, Ken Watanabe, Sally Hawkins, Kyle Chandler, Millie Bobby Brown, Bradley Whitford, Thomas Middleditch, Charles Dance, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Aisha Hinds, and Zhang Ziyi. As for the plot: “The new story follows the heroic efforts of the crypto-zoological agency Monarch as its members face off against a battery of god-sized monsters, including the mighty Godzilla, who collides with Mothra, Rodan, and his ultimate nemesis, the three-headed King Ghidorah. When these ancien

Back in 2006, when Fox adapted the fan favourite  Dark Phoenix Saga  from 1980 as  X-Men: The Last Stand , broad changes were made, including the deaths of two major characters, and the absence of any of the cosmic characters and settings in the comics. So if you haven't heard already, Fox is now preparing to retell the story as  X-Men: Dark Phoenix  (11/2/18), and Jessica Chastain  (The Martian ,  Interstellar )  is in talks to co-star  as Empress Lilandra of the Shi’ar Empire, described as the film’s “villain.” That word is in quotes because  in the comics , Lilandra not only becomes an  X-Men  ally, but after a lengthy romance, she marries Professor freaking X! Speaking of Charles Xavier, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, and other recent  X-Men cast members  are in talks to return  for  Dark Phoenix  (Evan Peters as Quicksilver is a notable exception), which  will be directed by  Simon Kinberg.  Game of Thrones ‘s Sophie Turner is set t

Earlier this year, there was some intimation from Chris Evans that he might soon be hanging up his shield as Marvel’s Captain America. However, there were also statements — like this — that muddied the waters. Now two months later, Chris Evans is speaking more authoritatively on the issue, confirming the fourth Avengers movie (May 3, 2019) will be his last film as Captain America.  “I had six films in my Marvel contract, so I could have said after the third Avengers I was done, but they wanted to make the third and fourth Avengers films as a two-parter,” Evans said. “They said they had so many other characters to fit in… and couldn’t get them all into one movie. [I agreed] because it made sense. It’s going to wrap everything up.” (Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel is scheduled for release in between Avengers: Infinity War and the fourth Avengers movie on March 8, 2019.)

The first trailer for the latest big-screen version of Murder on the Orient Express was revealed a couple of days ago.  The film, an adaptation of Agatha Christie’s 1934 detective novel of the same name, is directed by Kenneth Branagh and features a starry cast of actors, including Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz, Judi Dench, Derek Jacobi, Daisy Ridley, Josh Gad, Michelle Pfeiffer and Willem Dafoe. As well as directing, Branagh will also star as Christie’s redoubtable detective Hercule Poirot, who is tasked with investigating the murder of a passenger aboard a busy long-distance train. Murder on the Orient Express was most recently adapted in 2001 for a made-for-television film starring Alfred Molina. However, arguably the most famous adaptation of the book remains Sidney Lumet’s 1974 film version, which starred Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman, Richard Widmark, Sean Connery, John Gielgud, Vanessa Redgrave, Michael York, Jacqueline Bisset and Anthony Perkins, with Albert Finney playin

So far, Season 3 has introduced us to new locations and some new rather intriguing characters, and this episode continues to focus on that. The episode title is an acronym ‘TEOTWAWKI’ that means ‘the end of the world as we know it,’ which is what the Otto family called the potential ‘end of the world’ before the apocalypse actually happened. The Ottos were survivalists who have been preparing for the apocalypse for many years, which we learn through a weird but wonderful video of the family at the beginning of the episode. Since this is something we’ve yet to see in The Walking Dead universe, it makes it much more interesting than the farm reboot in Season 2. This episode also gives us a better look into Troy’s psyche. While he continues to act creepy towards Madison, it may be in a more mother-son way than originally suspected. Jeremiah tells Madison that Troy’s mother was an alcoholic and ended up passing away, and that has clearly left a hole in Troy’s life. We also learn that

It’s strange to think that Emily Browning might just become the breakout star of American Gods, but here we are. You’d expect someone like Ricky Whittle to blow up, or perhaps Corbin Bernsen will get that career renaissance I spoke about last week. Maybe Omid Abtahi will translate the beatific charm of Salim into a big career, or Chris Obi will become a household name after displaying both calculated menace, kindness, and comic timing, usually in the same scene. And yet, Emily Browning, who played the lead in several huge-budget movies, is poised to make a career leap with performances like her most recent in A Prayer For Mad Sweeney. The tale of Essie McGowan (Emily Browning playing a second role) is a familiar one to a whole lot of Americans. Essie, in love with son of the lord of the manor where she works, is given a sweet gift and a promise of marriage. That gift is mistakenly believed to be stolen, and Essie’s spineless beau gives the answer his mother wants to hear, and not