In news sure to blow the heads off Star Wars geeks everywhere (excuse me while I collect the pieces of my head off the floor), Lucasfilm has just announced that Rian Johnson, writer and director of the forthcoming Star Wars: The Last Jedi will create an all-new trilogy of adventures.
Details are scarce of course, but Lucasfilm say Johnson will write and direct the first new film with longtime collaborator Ram Bergman onboard to produce.
“We had the time of our lives collaborating with Lucasfilm and Disney on The Last Jedi,” Johnson and Bergman said in a joint statement. “Star Wars is the greatest modern mythology and we feel very lucky to have contributed to it. We can’t wait to continue with this new series of films.”
Kathleen Kennedy, president of Lucasfilm, said “We all loved working with Rian, he’s a creative force, and watching him craft The Last Jedi from start to finish was one of the great joys of my career. Rian will do amazing things with the blank canvas of this new trilogy.”
No release dates have been set for the new films, but you can start speculating wildly about which characters the trilogy will feature right about…
…now!
Johnson’s upcoming Star Wars: The Last Jedi arrives in cinemas (here in Norway, at least) on Dec. 13, 2017.
Thor: Ragnarok has laughs. Plenty of them. Perhaps too many. Allow me to explain…
I’ll start by saying there is a huge amount to love about Marvel’s third solo outing for the God of Thunder. First of all it’s the most fully rounded vision of Stan Lee, Larry Lieber and Jack Kirby’s four-colour hero to date, Kirby’s cosmic visuals are like a roadmap for Thor: Ragnarok. It’s also yet another step forward for both the Thor solo franchise and indeed the Marvel Cinematic Universe in embracing its comic book roots.
There’s little desire to coddle non-comic book fans with grounded scenes set on Earth (and the whistle-stop moments we do get on our home planet actually push things into even geekier comic books realms, particularly in one cameo sequence, teased at the end of a previous movie). Within the first twenty minutes or so we’ve been taken to Hell (or the Norse equivalent), Asgard (including another couple of genuinely jaw-dropping cameos), Earth and then into the vast reaches of outer space. It’s all colourful, exciting and breathtaking, and the pace doesn’t really let up, cutting between Thor’s adventures in space and events back on Asgard.
We’re also given the best version of the onscreen Hulk yet, realised by Mark Ruffalo along with state of the art mo-cap, animation and fine attention to detail with character so he now has full Hulk-speak dialogue scenes (and jokes) with other characters. Special mention to Tessa Thompson too, for giving us a delightful, kick ass version of a much-loved Marvel character. I really hope we see more of her in future movies. Idris Alba is given a little more screen time as Heimdall but still feels wasted. Director Waititi features as another comic character, alien stone man Korg, engaging and pretty much played for laughs.
The film also mostly succeeds in breaking the curse of the underwhelming Marvel villains by giving us several of them, all in various hues and shades of villainy. Cate Blanchett is obviously having a bad guy ball as Hela, Queen of the Underworld, Karl Urban crops up to reaffirm his geek cred as Skurge, The Executioner, there’s the ever mercurial Loki brilliantly essayed by Tom Hiddleston, of course, plus we have Jeff Goldblum doing his best Jeff Goldblum thing as The Grandmaster. They’re all layered, interesting and fun.
Ah yes, then we get to the laughs. Ragnarok might best be described as Marvel’s first comedy, so far do Waititi and his team push the humour of the film. I’m all about seeing Marvel broaden their canvas, playing with expectations and giving each film a fresh tone, an approach that’s paid dividends with the likes of James Gunn and it mostly pays off here as this is most definitely a Taiki Waititi film. It’s an approach which should help the longevity of Marvel movies and keep audiences on their toes (and anyone who thinks of Marvel films as being cookie cutter affairs really needs to open their eyes to the palettes of movies as far apart as Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Ant-Man, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and now Thor: Ragnarok).
So far, so Marvel dandy. However, we’re also here for the drama, and occasionally the jokes are laid on so relentlessly in Thor: Ragnarok that they frequently end up severely undercutting the drama.
A major event, foreshadowed all the way through, actually comes to pass near the end of the movie. It should be quite the dramatic moment, as it affects most of the characters and shakes up some of the status quo of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. So, a big deal. There’s a nice, humorous set up to the moment, then straight after it happens any drama arising from the scene is wiped out with a not particularly firing-on-all-cylinders quip. It’s unnecessary, and damaging to our empathy for the characters we’ve been following for six years since Kenneth Branagh’s first Thor movie. That’s quite an investment, and one that takes a hit for the sake of a throwaway gag.
I should reiterate, Waititi and Marvel have produced a top-notch film which will undoubtedly leave you with a smile on your face and the knowledge you’ve spent a good night out at the cinema. But finding that sweet spot between drama and humour takes a careful aim, and this time it feels like Thor’s hammer missed the target by a few inches.
(UPDATE: Williams’ Superman score is in and can be heard in the track I’ve just added, Friends And Foes)
Whatever the heck comes out from the complicated production history of Warner/DC’s Justice League movie, at least we’ll be getting some kickass music.
Friend to the cinematic capes Danny Elfman (Batman, Darkman, Spider-Man etc) is scoring the film and insists he will use his iconic Batman theme (as heard in the 1990s movies and Batman – The Animated Series). In fact, there even seem to be traces of it heard in the new Justice League theme (hear for yourself below).
Rumours are also running rife that the film will reintroduce John Williams’ even more iconic (iconicer?) Superman theme.
This certainly all lends credence to the suggestion that DC are using the retooled-by-Joss-Whedon Justice League to do a major spot of course correction with their flagship characters, no doubt spurred on by the success of Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman. Hopefully this pans out and we’ll get to see the more hopeful, upbeat representation these characters deserve and leave behind Zack Snyder’s dour, grimdark take on the DC universe.
We’ll know for sure in just a few weeks, but in the meantime here’s the brand new Justice League theme from Elfman. Enjoy…
(UPDATE: Here’s a track featuring John Williams’ Superman Theme)
Here at Out of Dave’s Head we have unequivocal love for all things Paul Thomas Anderson and Daniel Day Lewis, so you can easily imagine we might be rather excited at the release of the trailer for Phantom Thread, their latest collaboration.
The trailer looks rather lovely (as does the just released poster, above), so luxuriate in this before we say more:
We also have an official synopsis for the film:
Set in the glamour of 1950’s post-war London, renowned dressmaker Reynolds Woodcock (Daniel Day-Lewis) and his sister Cyril (Lesley Manville) are at the center of British fashion, dressing royalty, movie stars, heiresses, socialites, debutants and dames with the distinct style of The House of Woodcock. Women come and go through Woodcock’s life, providing the confirmed bachelor with inspiration and companionship, until he comes across a young, strong-willed woman, Alma (Vicky Krieps), who soon becomes a fixture in his life as his muse and lover. Once controlled and planned, he finds his carefully tailored life disrupted by love.
This is Anderson’s eighth movie and his second with Day Lewis (after There Will Be Blood), who threatens that this will be his final movie before retiring from acting. If that, sadly, turns out to be true we can only hope this will see the mercurial actor go out on a high.
Perfect Thread promises to be the perfect Christmas present by opening on December 25th, 2017.
You know how some days are – non-stop work, no time to think, you come home exhausted and… there’s a new trailer for Marvel’s Black Panther waiting for you. Result!
Feast your eyes on this and we’ll talk more after…
Well, that looks cool as heck, right!? Ryan Coogler’s take on the hidden nation of Wakanda is spectacular, and looks ready to open up a whole, new corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And with that truly amazing cast Black Panther is shaping up to be another in the increasingly refreshing run of Marvel movies led by Scott Derrickson’s Doctor Strange, James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2 and Taika Waititi’s Thor: Ragnarok.
As a bonus you can ogle the lovely new poster, below.
Black Panther opens on February 16th and that date can’t arrive quickly enough.
After the success Fox have had with more individual writer/director projects, Deadpool and Logan, it seems the studio is forging ahead with this gameplan, seeing Josh Boone lurch into full-on horror with The New Mutants.
It doesn’t look like there’ll be much room for blue/black and yellow leotards in the movie, coming April 13th 2018, but the film suggests it will make up for that in scares. It certainly has a different feel to the main run of X-Men movies.
With an great cast including Maisie Williams (Game of Thrones) and the increasingly wonderful Anya Taylor-Joy (The Witch), the film promises a “Stephen King meets John Hughes” vibe while bringing in the Demon Bear character from the highly regarded run of New Mutants comics by Bill Sienkiewicz and Chris Claremont.
The New Mutants becomes more intriguing the more I hear about it. What are your thoughts…?
Let’s face it, I could pretty much be writing my shopping list here but you’ll be skipping past my no-doubt exciting consumer needs to take a look at the final trailer for Star Wars – The Last Jedi. Okay, off you go…
Well, there’s certainly a lot to unpack, with a great deal more of the story hinted at than in previous trailers. Personally, I’m rather excited to see what Rian Johnson has in store for us at Christmas, to the point where I’m actually rather disappointed that Disney/Lucasfilm decided to go with J J Abrams again for the final episode of this trilogy in the latest round of Hire-And-Fire-The-Director.
Will this be a simple nostalgia retread, like The Force Awakens, or will we get some real development in the saga this time? I guess we’ll see soon enough…
Star Wars – The Last Jedi opens on December 13th (at least, here in Norway, your country’s mileage may vary). Book your tickets now.
While I found the last series of The X-Files to be somewhat hit and miss, I’m still happy to see David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson break out the flashlights for one more go around the FBI headquarters block, especially if, as suggested by Anderson at the New York Comic-Con today, this might be Scully’s final run.
The season eleven trailer looks like the usual mix of aliens, monsters, conspiracies and (seemingly) the end of the world as brought about by Mulder & Scully’s son. As we head into darker autumn nights and the Halloween season this all seems particularly welcome (even if the series doesn’t hit until next year).
And so the latest (in a seemingly long, long line) of Justice League trailers hits.
Each trailer has shown a marked improvement and the greater reliance on character has been showing through more each time. What does this mean for the movie with Joss Whedon taking over after director Zack Snyder’s departure due to a terrible family loss? That remains to be seen, of course, but at least the trailers have been getting better.
Not much else to say at this point. Let’s hope Justice League can continue the rehabilitation of the DC Extended Universe after the promise shown by Wonder Woman.
Let’s get this out of the way first: Blade Runner 2049 has not resulted in the kind of film I feared it would be when I first heard that this belated sequel would happen and thought: “That has to be the worst idea in the history of bad ideas.”
Quite the opposite, in fact. Director Denis Villeneuve, screenwriters Hampton Fancher (also partly responsible for the original) & Michael Green, executive producer Ridley Scott and their crew have offered up one of the most powerful science fiction films of the new millennium. It’s been a long time, in fact, since we’ve been given a cinematic experience as pure as this.
Set 30 years after Scott’s classic, the sequel sees a mystery set in place when Ryan Gosling’s Blade Runner retires a Replicant-in-hiding who has been guarding a secret which could change the course of the world forever.
From just that plot description it’s clear this is no mere retread of the first movie, which had a fairly contained hunter versus hunted narrative.
Villeneuve and company paint on a much broader canvas, and this time the questions seem to revolve around not what it is to be human, but what it is to be more than human. It has an utterly palpable mood of tense gloom, giving you the constant feeling that something big and awful is about to happen, but it does this by widening the scope of Scott’s world, which is quite an act to pull off.
The music (by Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfisch, with plenty of nods to Vangelis) is bold and wonderful, the sound design by Theo Green and Mark Mangini is overwhelming and the cinematography by the cinematic god that is Roger Deakins is dazzling and beautiful, all of which work together to produce something that absolutely demands to be seen on the big screen. As big a screen as possible.
Gosling is great in the lead (as ‘K’), and while it’s a little difficult to go into depth on his role while avoiding spoilers, he finds just the right balance of what must have been a tricky character to get right. The rest of the cast is filled out by superb actors who know how to make the best of smaller roles, but the film really belongs to Gosling and, of course, Harrison Ford.
Ford returns as Blade Runner, Deckard, and I honestly can’t recall when I last saw him so fully engaged and fully immersed in a role. He is magnificent, Deakins’ camera loving every deep crag and crevice on his sandblasted face, and is a full-on the movie star of the old guard. I hope this is the beginning of a renaissance for the actor, because I’ve missed seeing him do great work onscreen.
There is a slight thorn in this rose, however. An unfortunate element that stands out is that the future as presented here is very much patriarchal: street-walkers roam in packs, artificial women are everywhere, as companions and toys for men, their sole aim to pleasure. And there’s a great deal of violence towards women (four female characters are brutally murdered). This troublesome theme pushes to the forefront of the story with Jared Leto’s Wallace, as he casually kills one of the synthetics his company has just given birth to. It’s a (deliberately) horrific scene, and I’m still trying to decide whether this is a deliberate part of the texturing, a barbed comment on misogyny in society and even if so, whether it was a necessary choice for the film. I’m not so sure.
I love the original with a vengeance, and while I’m glad they didn’t attempt to replicate (…sorry…) that film, what results is a somewhat colder effort than Scott’s remarkable and enduring tone poem, and only time will tell whether this will similarly work its way into my affections.
It’s rather like hearing a new track by Led Zeppelin, riffing on one of your favourite Beatles songs, you know you’re getting something astonishing but you’re not sure if you’ll grow to love it.
However, against all the odds, Blade Runner 2049 is a towering achievement, a smart, powerful juggernaut of a movie which ultimately suggests something akin to hope for mankind. In an era of cookie cutter sequels that we’ve been given a sequel to a great movie that forges it’s own unique path is close to a miracle, which means that, much like the original, it’s a film which comments on its own premise (you’ll need to see the film to fully understand that).
Movies like this don’t come along too often and when they do we should celebrate them. Go to a cinema and experience it.
out of dave's head 