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Live From Hollywood...
July26
Demi Moore's 'The Substance' to Open Midnight Madness at Toronto Film Fest
Demi Moore in "The Substance" (image courtesy Cannes Film Festival)
by Etan Vlessing
The Substance, a feminist horror pic where Demi Moore plays an aging Hollywood star who embraces a secret cloning procedure to save her career will open the Midnight Madness sidebar at the Toronto Film Festival with a North American premiere, organizers said Thursday.
The Cannes award winner from director Coralie Fargeat also stars Margaret Qualley and Dennis Quaid, and will hit theaters on Sept. 20.
The Midnight Madness section, which launched the career of Eli Roth with Cabin Fever and saw Sacha Baron Cohen arrive in a cart pulled by donkeys to screen Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, booked in all 10 genre movies with chills and thrills for this year's 2024 lineup.
The program that has film buyers and Hollywood execs staying up after midnight plans world premieres for Thibault Emin's fantasy pic Else, which stars Matthieu Sampeur and Edith Proust and imagines a disease that has those afflicted melting into their surroundings; and Andrew DeYoung's feature directorial debut Friendship, an indie comedy starring Tim Robinson, Paul Rudd and Kate Mara.
Also getting a world bow in Toronto is Joseph Kahn's creature feature Ick, which stars Brandon Routh and Mena Suvari and features a terrifying alien being, or the titular Ick, invading a small town (Kahn's Bodied won TIFF's Midnight Madness audience award in 2017); Japanese director Kenichi Ugana's punk movie The Gesuidouz; and Indonesian director Timo Tjahjanto's gory martial arts action film The Shadow Strays for Netflix.
First trailer for Bob Dylan biopic shows Timothée Chalamet as the star
Timothée Chalamet in "A Complete Unknown" (image courtesy Gotham / GC Images)
by Benjamin Lee
The first trailer for A Complete Unknown shows Oscar nominee Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan in the much-anticipated biopic.
The Dune and Call Me by Your Name star has transformed into the legendary musician for an awards-aiming drama to be released in the US in December and in the UK in January. It comes from the film-maker James Mangold, who previously directed the Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line.
It starts in New York City when Dylan arrives in 1961 and ends 72 hours after the Newport folk festival in 1965.
The film will include the actors singing, with the Top Gun: Maverick star Monica Barbaro playing Joan Baez, Edward Norton as Pete Seeger and Boyd Holbrook as Johnny Cash. Elle Fanning also stars as Suze Rotolo, the artist who had a major influence on Dylan during that period. Mangold has called it "a strong ensemble piece".
"I'm much more interested in the wake that this person has left on others, as much as I'm interested in unpacking who he is in some kind of conventional movie-Freudian way," Mangold said to Rolling Stone.
Chalamet reportedly used his Dune: Part Two co-star Austin Butler's "entire Elvis team" to help transform himself. "I just saw the way [Butler] committed to it all – and realised I needed to step it up," Chalamet said to GQ.
His vocal coach, Eric Vetro, who also worked with him on last year's hit musical Wonka, has called what he brings to the table the "essence" of Dylan. "You're not getting an impersonation of him," he said. "It's breathing new life into that voice that we know so well."
Mangold also said of Chalamet's performance: "It's going to be impossible for people in trailers or teasers or photos to see, but the way he grows this character is a real act of acting brilliance in my opinion."
'Inside Out 2' Surpasses 'Frozen 2' as Highest-Grossing Animated Film in History
"Inside Out 2" is now the highest grossing animated film of all time (image courtesy Pixar)
by Rebecca Rubin
Disney is jumping for Joy. That's because the studio's emotion-laden "Inside Out 2" has surpassed "Frozen II" to stand as the highest-grossing animated film in history.
After six weeks of release, "Inside Out 2" has generated $601 million domestically and $861 million internationally, bringing its global tally to a staggering $1.46 billion. "Frozen II" was bigger than the very successful original 2013 film and collected a mighty $1.45 billion during its theatrical run in 2019. (Disney's 2019 remake of "The Lion King," which earned a staggering $1.65 billion, is technically computer-generated, but the studio has categorized the movie as live-action. So, it doesn't have a place on the list of top animated movies.)
In terms of global ticket sales, "Inside Out 2" just overtook "Barbie" ($1.446 billion) as the 13th-biggest movie of all time. Among its many records, the Pixar sequel is the fastest animated film to cross the $1 billion benchmark, having done so in 19 days. It's also the highest-grossing movie of 2024 to date, and the only one this year to join the billion-dollar club.
"Inside Out 2" has succeeded theatrically thanks to several factors, including goodwill for the original 2015 film, stellar word-of-mouth and four-quadrant appeal. The first "Inside Out" triumphed with $858 million globally, but the sequel managed to clear those ticket sales in a matter of weeks.
The PG-rated "Inside Out 2," which cost $200 million to produce, also jolted Pixar out of its box office slump. Critics and audiences were charmed by the sequel, so positive word of mouth was a boon for ticket sales. Nearly a decade after the original, "Inside Out 2" revisits the mind of the now-teenaged Riley, whose familiar emotions of Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith) and Anger (Lewis Black) were running the show. As she heads to summer camp, though, a whole bunch of new ones, such as Anxiety (Maya Hawke), Envy (Ayo Edebiri), Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser) and Nostalgia (June Squibb), show up and bring some chaotic energy.
Ryan Reynolds [left] as Deadpool and Hugh Jackman as Wolverine in the upcoming "Deadpool & Wolverine" (image courtesy Marvel / Disney)
by Michael Cripe
Deadpool & Wolverine has positioned itself as a cameo-filled entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), but not everything Marvel Studios has told its fans about the team-up movie has been true.
That comes from executive producer Wendy Jacobson, who teased that fans may have even more surprises in store during an interview with GamesRadar+. While fans have combed over details for hints of ties to the greater MCU plan or even additional crossovers with existing X-Men universes, it turns out that some of the efforts may have been in vain.
The producer says that Marvel went to great lengths to keep some of its best surprises under wraps, as she explains, "there may or may not have been some subterfuge and misdirections on the internet or in-person in order to protect the secrecy."
It's a comment that will surely send internet sleuths into a frenzy as they second-guess some of the information we've learned about Deadpool & Wolverine through the last few years. One notably fishy example involves Vinnie Jones' Juggernaut. Jones had cautioned earlier this year that he would not appear in the film due to some personal grudges he held against the burly villain's original suit. Fans were then thrown for a loop when, months later, a trailer seemed to feature his character.
Other characters believed to make appearances include Lady Deadpool and Cowboy Deadpool, with many believing the former will be played by Ryan Reynolds' real-life wife, Blake Lively. Fans had previously speculated Taylor Swift would play her before Entertainment Weekly reported that the singer did not have a cameo in the film. James Marsden's Cyclops, Professor X, and Jennifer Garner's Elektra are just a few of the other characters fans have latched onto as potential Deadpool & Wolverine cameo candidates.
Jacobson doesn't go as far as to spoil any surprises but does promise that every character included in this week's MCU release plays an important role in the narrative.
Box Office: 'Twisters' Whips Up Huge Storm With Record $80.5M Domestic Opening
A pic from "Twisters", directed by Lee Isaac Chung (image courtesy Universal / Warner Bros. / Amblin Entertainment)
by Pamela McClintock, Aaron Couch
Lee Isaac Chung's Twisters is whipping up huge winds at the box office, with forecasters predicting a far better than expected domestic opening of $80.5 million in North America. That's even up from Saturday's already massive estimate of $74.6 million.
The record-breaking movie, playing in 4,151 theaters, easily boasts the top domestic opening ever for a natural disaster film, not adjusted for inflation. (The current crown holder is Roland Emmerich's The Day After Tomorrow, which bowed to $68.44 million in 2004.) It's also the third biggest start of the year to date behind Inside Out 2 ($154.2 million) and Dune: Part Two ($82.5 million) after edging out Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire ($80 million).
The turnout for Twisters cements the rising star status of Hollywood's man-of-the-moment Glen Powell, along with Daisy Edgar-Jones and Anthony Ramos (the trio lead the ensemble cast). It's also a notable win for Chung, the acclaimed filmmaker of indie hit Minari. The film's demos are impressive: It is playing evenly among females and males, as well as appealing to both younger and older adults in what could lead to a new franchise. The film's critics score on Rotten Tomatoes is a decent 77 percent, but its audience score is much higher at 92 percent, in line with an A- from Cinemascore.
Twisters arrives 28 years after Twister, the envelope-pushing feature that broke ground for marrying visual effects with practical effects. It starred the late Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt, and hailed from filmmaker Jan de Bont. The original film was a box office juggernaut, opening to $41 million ($82 million in today's dollars) and ending its run with $494.5 million globally ($992.08 million today).
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Elsewhere, Universal and Illumination's Despicable Me 4 raced past the $500 million mark globally. Domestically, it held at second place in its third outing with an estimated $23.8 million for a cume of $159.5 million. Overseas, the animated movie took in another $52 million from 79 markets for a worldwide haul of $574.4 million. Excluding China, the family pic is pacing on par with Minions and Minions: The Rise of Gru, and is ahead of the the last two Despicable Me films. (In recent days, the Despicable Me/Minions series became the first animated franchise in history to cross the $5 billion mark at the global box office.
Talk about the theatrical animated marketplace being back in big way: Pixar and Disney's Inside Out 2 remained a powerhouse in its sixth outing and placed third with an estimated $12.8 million as it prepares to jump the $600 million mark domestically on its way to becoming the top-grossing animated film of all time both in North America and globally. It's now just days away from surpassing Frozen II's $1.451 billion in worldwide ticket sales, including $609 million domestically. Inside Out 2 - Pixar's top-grossing film ever - finished Sunday with a domestic tally of $596.4 million for a worldwide total of of $1.443 billion.
Neon's breakout horror hit Longlegs continued to win over moviegoers in its second outing, falling a scant 47 percent to $11.7 million for a 10-day domestic total of $44.7 million against a budget shy of $10 million budget.
Final 'Deadpool & Wolverine' Trailer Reveals Female Characters Lady Deadpool and X-23
by Kevin Dolak
The third and final Deadpool & Wolverine trailer has arrived and with it so have the ladies of the franchise, Lady Deadpool and X-23, played by Dafne Keen, last seen in the hit movie Logan, the supposed swan song for Hugh Jackman's portrayal of Wolverine.
Jackman is playing another iteration of the famed X-Men antihero, as he has told the press and as happens occasionally in comic book franchise blockbuster movie universes. Ryan Reynolds returns as the titular smartass vigilante with a total disregard for the fourth wall, and the final trailer release ahead of Deadpool & Wolverine, opening in theaters next week, focuses on the dramatic moments between Wolverine and Deadpool, two of the biggest misanthropes Marvel has produced (so a natural pairing here).
"I know I turn everything into a joke. But I care. And I wanted to use that for something important," Reynolds, as Deadpool, says via voiceover, taking an uncharacteristically serious tone. Expected in this round are multiple versions of the feisty main character, including Cowboy Deadpool and Lady Deadpool, of whom we see a full top-to-bottom shot for the first time in this trailer.
However, Lady Deadpool's face is masked, so viewers still don't know who was cast as the female crime fighter. Taylor Swift, who is friends with Reynolds, and his wife, Blake Lively, are at the top of the rumor list. Either would certainly delight audiences.
Later in the drama and action-packed trailer, Wolverine sits in the woods, saying, "Whoever you think I am, you've got the wrong guy." A reverse shot reveals he's speaking with Keen's X-23.
Director Shawn Levy recently told Collider of Deadpool & Wolverine that the movie features Deadpool's tone but is not a sequel to Deadpool 2.
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