Motion Picture: New Productions and Director Comebacks
Action/fantasy/sci-fi: With Disney not releasing a Marvel film this fall, DC has made a comeback with the release of critically acclaimed film, Joker. Starring Joaquin Phoenix, the film has already broke the record for biggest October opening of all time making 127 million internationally. To add to the great news, Warner Brothers released the trailer to Birds of Prey with an ensemble filled with new and familiar faces. The film staring Margot Robbie audiences get a closer look at Harley Quinn persona outside of Suicide Squad. The trailer gives a quick look at the infamous comic book characters such as as Black Canary played by Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Huntress portrayed by Ella Jaw Basco and Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Cassandra Cain. Director Cathy Yan became first Asian women to direct a DC comic film.
Many new trailers have been released throughout the week, this including American Beauty director Sam Mendes new war film, 1917. Entertainment Weekly reported “the film was shot to look like one continuous take” prior to filming actors and crew knew how the film would be captured. The film starring Richard Blake (Rocket Man) as Blake and Andrew Scott (Black Mirror) as Leslie , the story follows two British soldiers at the peak of the rising conflict between Britain and Germany during the First World War. The boys have been given an important message to travel as far as possible to British soldiers from an untimely death, one being Blake’s own brother. The films is to be released on Christmas Day.
Ang Lee (Life of Pi ) new film, Gemini Man, stars Will Smith as an assassin who is being targeted by a younger cloned version of himself. This film will hopefully revive Lee’s and Smith's careers as there were many issues that made this film challenging to make due to the complexity of the story and computer engineered duplicate. Lee said “I was proud of that film,” “But I got beat and that’s hard to swallow. I want to figure it out this time. I want to make it work and prove that I was right, like anybody would. The higher frame rate in 3D is a first-person experience because we have two eyes scanning and they come to a point, so the z-axis in relation to the frame is …” The film is to be released in theaters across the country October 11th.
Documentary: Ghosts of Sugar Land is a short 20 minute documentary about a group of Texas Muslims living with the effects of close friend who disappeared to join ISIS. The award winning documentary directed by independent filmmaker, Bassam Tariq, won the Grand Jury award at Sundance for short non-fiction. The film premiered in SXSW and will be released on Netflix on October 16th.
Photo: Jae Suh Park
Industry update: Jordan Peele has landed a five year deal with Universal Pictures in which he will direct and write through his production company MonkeyPaw productions. Peele has a reputation for bringing the eyes to the screen with 2017 Get Out making 176 million dollars with a 5 million dollar budget and his sophomore 2019 film Us grossing $255 million. It was announced Universal Filmed Entertainment Group chairman Donna Langley said “We also share an important goal with Monkeypaw when it comes to increasing representation on screen in the characters that are portrayed, the stories that are told and the people who tell them.” MonkeyPaw productions will also be developing on 1992 remake of Candyman, written by Peele and Win Rosenfeld.
With further good news, Fresh off the Boat star Randall Park alongside Michael Glanoc and Hieu Ho, creates a Production Company called Imminent Collision, to help spawn comedy driven stories about the Asian American experience. With the success of Netflix’s, Always be my Maybe and the ABC’S family sitcom, Fresh off the Boat , Park gained the “trust” of 20th TV President of Creative Affairs Carolyn Cassidy. Cassidy declared “They share our desire to bring voices to the screen that are underrepresented and in doing so, create series that reflect the drama and humor of the world we live in today.” Park and his business partners brimming new ideas on bringing diversity into primetime television.