Computer Generated Imagery, or CGI, is not a new development in the movie industry. In 1973 the first 2D CGI was used in the Yul Brynner movie Westworld.
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Live From Hollywood...
Mar18
'Winnie-The-Pooh: Blood and Honey' Franchise to Launch Crossover Event 'Poohniverse'
Poster for the upcoming "Poohniverse: Monsters Assemble" (image courtesy Jagged Edge / ITN Studios)
by Etan Vlessing
The makers of Winnie-The-Pooh: Blood and Honey 1 & 2 are at work on another twisted take on A.A. Milne's children's story.
The prolific low-budget genre labels Jagged Edge Productions and ITN [Studios] have unveiled plans to swing their bloody axe again with Poohniverse: Monsters Assemble, a slasher horror pic set to shoot this year ahead of a 2025 release.
"It will be complete carnage. We are heavily influenced by Freddy Vs Jason and The Avengers. We would love to see a horror movie where the villains group together and are going after their survivors. We have some incredible set pieces in mind and some sequences I think will truly shock people," Jagged Edge producer Rhys Frake-Waterfield said in a statement.
The original creature slasher Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey movie featured a 6-foot Pooh and his sidekick Piglet going on a murderous rampage through the Hundred Acre Wood after being left to fend for themselves by Christopher Robin, only to go to feral.
That was followed by a sequel, and now, Poohniverse: Monsters Assemble, which Frake-Waterfield will direct and with a higher budget as Pooh, Tigger, Rabbit, Owl, Piglet, Pinocchio, Sleeping Beauty, Bambi, The Mad Hatter, Peter Pan and Tinkerbell join forces to wreak havoc.
"When you see the stand alone movies you will see the easter eggs hinting toward the crossover. Some of the villains also will not see eye to eye which will allow for some carnage within the group in some epic sequence of monster vs monster," said fellow Jagged Edge producer Scott Chambers, who will also return to play Christopher Robin in the latest film.
Box Office: 'Kung Fu Panda 4,' 'Dune 2' Lead Weekend as New Entries Lack Bite
Promotional pics from "Kung Fu Panda 4" (left) and "Dune: Part 2" (images courtesy DreamWorks / Warner Bros.)
by Pamela McClintock
Kung Fu Panda 4 and Dune: Part Two are still going strong at the box office, with both movies celebrating milestones this weekend.
From DreamWorks Animation and Universal, the Jack Black-voiced Kung Fu 4 is expected to top the chart with an estimated $31.5 million-plus from 4,067 theaters as it leaps past the $100 million mark to finish Sunday with a pleasing 10-day domestic total of roughly $109.4 million, based on Friday and early Saturday grosses (numbers for all films could shift by Sunday). The pic is looking at a respectable decline of 46 percent.
Not far behind is Denis Villeneuve's Dune 2, now in its third weekend. The Legendary-Warner Bros tentpole is the first release of 2024 to clear $200 million domestically. The pic is expected to gross around $29 million from 3,847 cinemas for the weekend, putting its North American cume north of $205 million through Sunday.
New offerings this weekend include feel-good canine adventure drama Arthur the King, featuring an ensemble cast led by Mark Wahlberg. The Lionsgate and eOne film is opening on the low end of expectations with around $8 million from 3,003 cinemas. Tracking this week had suggested $8 million to $10 million, but the film's backers believe an A CinemaScore from audiences will result in long legs.
Simu Liu, Juliet Rylance, Nathalie Emmanuel, Ali Suliman, Paul Guilfoyle, and real-life adventure racer and TV host Bear Grylls, who plays himself, round out the cast. The film follows a pro adventure racer (Wahlberg) who forms an unbreakable bond with a dog named Arthur after he and his team travel 435 miles over 10 days.
Lionsgate is also taking the fourth spot on the chart with Blumhouse's supernatural horror pic Imaginary, which is on course to gross $5.2 million or from 3,118 cinemas in its sophomore outing for a 10-day cume of $18.1 million. The film's decline is a scant 42 percent.
Coming in No. 5 is Angel Studio's faith-themed Cabrini, which is falling off a steep 62 percent in its second weekend. The biographical drama about a real-life 18th-century Catholic missionary is on course to gross an estimated $2.7 million from 2,850 theaters for a 10-day domestic tally of $12 million. Angel Studios is also home to Monteverde's 2023 surprise blockbuster and cultural sensation Sound of Freedom.
Canada's indie movie theatres say industry is in crisis
by Kevin Maimann
Canada's independent cinema industry is in crisis, its owners say, as they face mounting challenges from streaming services and restrictive Hollywood studio rules.
Sixty per cent of independent movie theatre operators were at a loss at the end of their most recent fiscal year, according to a report released Tuesday by the Network of Independent Canadian Exhibitors (NICE). They were surveyed between December and February.
About two-thirds of the 67 respondents said they need increased public funding in order to stay open, with many saying they would need about $50,000 annually for the next three years to close immediate gaps.
Sonya William, director and founder of NICE, called the numbers "stark."
"A lot of these venues are really at risk of closing."
While theatre owners are asking for government help in the form of funds and advocacy, they place much of the blame on rules imposed by major studios like Disney that determine when and for how long they are able to screen certain big-ticket films.
Disney did not respond to an email requesting comment by press time.
The organization is pushing for an end to "clean runs," when studios require an independent theatre to dedicate a screen to just one film for up to four weeks, even if the film stops drawing crowds after the first week.
This can be especially frustrating for small-town theatres that only have one screen, says Shaun Aquiline, who runs the Gem Theatre in Grand Forks, B.C., with his wife Kirstin.
"I've just shut the doors and locked it up and told the staff we will open back up when the contract is done, because right now we're just losing money and there's no point staying open."
He said he is just breaking even, and restrictions from big studios make it hard to run a theatre in a town of 4,000 people.
Aquiline said he even had to cancel a live comedy event last month because a major studio threatened to pull his licence from future films if he held any event outside of the clean run.
"They said if your door's open, you're showing our product.
"What else could you do? We had no choice but to cancel, so that's what we did."
'The Crow' Trailer: Bill Skarsgard Exacts His Bloody Revenge Over and Over Again
by Kory Grow
"I killed you," says a man. "Yeah, you did," says the Crow, played by Bill Skarsgård, as he cocks a gun at the man's head in the trailer for the upcoming remake of the phantasmagoric revenge movie from 1994.
A trailer for The Crow, due out this summer, shows Skarsgård in the role of Eric Draven, a restless spirit hellbent (literally) on avenging his own death, as well as that of his lover, Shelley Webster, played by FKA Twigs.
"When someone dies, a crow carries their soul to the land of the dead," a voice explains in one scene, as Draven walks through a crow-filled abandoned warehouse. "But sometimes something so bad happens that the soul cannot rest until you put the wrong things right."
The film, which also stars Danny Huston, will be a fresh adaptation of James O'Barr's comic-book character. The special effects are slicker than the original movie's, and the trailer suggests this version will be even gorier with close-ups of bad guys' brains splattering all over the floor when Draven shoots them, hunting down each person who was responsible for his and Webster's deaths.
By the end of the trailer, the character has applied full marionette corpsepaint to his face and donned a black trench coat, marching gun in hand, towards his foes. And, since he's dead, he seems to be able to withstand any brutal assaults, even pulling a katana blade from his own stomach.
Filmmaker Rupert Sanders (Snow White and the Huntsman) directed the picture based on a screenplay by Zach Baylin (King Richard, Creed III) and William Schneider.
Jennifer Lopez in Atlas Trailer: See Star Go Out of This World for Netflix's Sci-Fi Action Movie
by Benjamin VanHoose
Jennifer Lopez is on a mission to save humanity in her upcoming sci-fi film Atlas.
Netflix debuted the first trailer for the film on Wednesday, showcasing Lopez as Atlas Shepherd, a "brilliant but misanthropic data analyst with a deep distrust of artificial intelligence," per a synopsis.
She "joins a mission to capture a renegade robot with whom she shares a mysterious past. But when plans go awry, her only hope of saving the future of humanity from AI is to trust it."
Atlas is directed by Brad Peyton, who previously made the Dwayne Johnson movies San Andreas and Rampage, among other films.
Along with Lopez, 54, the cast also includes Simu Liu, Sterling K. Brown, Gregory James Cohan, Abraham Popoola, Lana Parrilla and Mark Strong.
The latest installment in Columbia Pictures' Tom Hardy-led Venom franchise now has an official title and an earlier release date.
Director Kelly Marcel's Venom: The Last Dance hits theaters Oct. 25, Sony announced Tuesday. Starring Hardy, Juno Temple and Chiwetel Ejiofor, the film had been untitled and moves up two weeks from its previous release date of Nov. 8.
In addition to helming the feature, Marcel wrote the script, with the story credited to herself and Hardy. Hardy, Marcel, Avi Arad, Matt Tolmach, Amy Pascal and Hutch Parker serve as producers.
Hardy returns as the Marvel antagonist that he originated in 2018is Ruben Fleischer-directed Venom. Andy Serkis took over directing duties on the 2021 follow-up Venom: Let There Be Carnage. Marcel is making her feature directorial debut after earning writing credits on both earlier movies.
This will now be the third Venom film to hit theaters in October, and the pre-Halloween space has worked out nicely for the franchise. The first movie surpassed $850 million globally, while the sequel crossed the $500 million mark worldwide.
Hardy took to Instagram in November to announce that the film, billed as the final one in the series, had resumed production after taking a break due to last year’s actors strike. The project had initially been planned for a June 2024 release but was later moved to November on account of the labor stoppage.
Messi, the handsome Anatomy of a Fall dog, has his own seat at the Oscars
Messi the 'Anatomy of a Fall' dog sits at the 2024 Oscars (image courtesy Getty)
by Joey Nolfi
Messi the dog - handsome canine star of Anatomy of a Fall and a good little boy - was so well-behaved on this year's awards circuit that he got his own seat at the Oscars.
The seven-year-old border collie, who played a supporting role in director Justine Triet's Best Picture-nominated French drama, took his perch on a chair inside the Dolby Theatre on Sunday as he patiently awaited the start of the show.
Though Triet and star Sandra Hüller received standout praise - and Oscar nominations - for their work on the Cannes Palme d'Or-winning film, Messi's piercing blue eyes captured Hollywood's attention across the last year, and he unexpectedly became the film's mascot on the awards trail.
Messi's appearance at the Oscars came after false reports circulated over the weekend, indicating that Messi might not show up after stealing the spotlight at key awards season events - including the Academy's nominees luncheon earlier this year.
"The big moment was with Billie Eilish, who bonded with Messi for almost 10 minutes," said Laura Martin, Messi's trainer and owner, in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. "They were hugging and petting and they really had a vibe. Then Bradley Cooper bumped into him in the hallway. The dog went right to him, so they also had a connection."
Martin previously told IndieWire that Messi had to train for two months straight to be able to complete a scene that sees his character, Snoop, keel over after being poisoned.
Oppenheimer wins best picture Oscar as Emma Stone pulls surprise win
Emma Stone wipes away tears during her Oscars acceptance speech (image courtesy Reuters)
by Benjamin Lee
Christopher Nolan's blockbuster biopic Oppenheimer has triumphed at this year's Oscars taking home seven awards including best picture, best actor and best director.
The drama, telling the story of the "father of the atomic bomb", lost the box office battle to Barbie during last summer's Barbenheimer showdown but has now won the awards war with Greta Gerwig's Mattel comedy winning just one Oscar for best original song.
Cillian Murphy was named best actor for his performance, beating out Paul Giamatti and Jeffrey Wright, and Robert Downey Jr was named best supporting actor, up against Robert De Niro and Ryan Gosling.
Murphy, winning his first Oscar from his first nomination, is also the first ever Irish-born winner in his category. "I'm a little overwhelmed," he said before dedicating his award "to the peacemakers everywhere".
Downey Jr won his first Oscar after being nominated twice before for Chaplin and Tropic Thunder. "I'd like to thank my terrible childhood and the Academy in that order," he said before later adding: "I needed this job more than it needed me."
Nolan picked up his first best director Oscar, after being nominated previously for Dunkirk, beating out Martin Scorsese and Jonathan Glazer. When speaking about cinema in his speech he said: "We don't know where this incredible journey is going from here but to know that you think I'm a meaningful part of it means the world to me."
The film also won for editing, cinematography and score.
Emma Stone pulled a surprise, beating out favourite Lily Gladstone to be named best actress for her role in Yorgos Lanthimos's offbeat period comedy Poor Things. It's the actor's second best actress Oscar after previously winning for La La Land. "It's not about me, it's about a team that came together to make something greater than the sum of its parts," she said during an emotional speech.
The film also picked up awards for production design, hairstyling and makeup and costume design.
Jonathan Glazer's German and Polish-language Holocaust drama The Zone of Interest was named best international feature, the first ever British film to win in this category. The film also won for sound.
Box Office: 'Kung Fu Panda 4' Lands Victorious $58.3M U.S. Opening; 'Dune 2' Nears $370M Worldwide
Po (Jack Black) and Zhen (Awkwafina) in 'Kung Fu Panda 4' directed by Mike Mitchell (image courtesy DreamWorks)
by Pamela McClintock
Jack Black's Po is back after nearly a decade, and he's already receiving a hero's welcome from audiences.
Kung Fu Panda 4 opened to a stellar $58.3 million domestically, well ahead of expectations and a near-series best in a win for the family marketplace, as well as for DreamWorks Animation and parent company Universal (the studio behind Sunday is Academy Awards frontrunner Oppenheimer). The only other Kung Fu Panda installment to open higher was the first one in 2008 with $62 million, not adjusted for inflation.
Along with Black, returning members of the Kung Fu Panda 4 voice cast include Dustin Hoffman as Kung Fu master Shifu, James Hong as Po's adoptive father, Bryan Cranston as Po's birth father Li and Ian McShane as Shifu's former student and arch-nemesis.
Series newcomers include Viola Davis as a tiny lizard and shapeshifting sorceress and Awakawfina as a quick-witted thief whom Po needs in order to protect their world. Ke Huy Quan also joins the franchise as a criminal leader named Han. The film boasts an A- CinemaScore from audiences and strong PostTrak exits.
Kung Fu Panda 4 is directed by Mike Mitchell, who also helmed Trolls and Shrek Forever After.
All eyes are also on Denis Villeneueve's Dune: Part Two to see how it holds up in its second outing. The Legendary and Warner Bros. sci-fi epic opened last weekend to a stellar $82.5 million domestically and finished Thursday with a North American tally of more than $110 million and $200 million globally.
Heading in into Oscar weekend, box office pundits believed Dune 2 could earn $40 million or so in its second outing; it earned $46 million, thanks in part to keen demand for higher-priced Imax and other premium large-format screens. Overseas, its foreign tally hit $210 million after landing in China. The estimated global cume is $376.5 million.
Lionsgate and Blumhouse's Imaginary also entered the mix and opened to a pleasing $10 million. The story follows a young woman (DeWanda Wise) who moves back to her childhood home, where her youngest stepdaughter (Pyper Braun) develops an eerie attachment to a stuffed bear named Chauncey she finds in the basement. The film is directed by Jeff Wadlow, who also produces alongside Jason Blum. It earned a C- CinemaScore, which is not unusual for horror.