Gemini Man Trailer Has Will Smith Fighting Will Smith

Gemini Man Trailer Has Will Smith Fighting Will Smith

One of the most intriguing under-the-radar movies of 2019 is Ang Lee’s Gemini Man. The film from the Academy Award-winning director of Life of Pi stars Will Smith as an over-the-hill hitman who is forced to face off with a clone of his younger self. The first footage from the sci-fi film impressed CinemaCon audiences with its de-aging technology and now we have a full trailer of Will Smith fighting Will Smith. Check it out:

The first thing that must be mentioned upon viewing this trailer is how amazing and impressive the de-aging on Will Smith looks. Despite the fact that he is a CG creation, the clone of Will Smith’s Henry Brogan looks nearly indistinguishable from the flesh and blood actor that we saw on film and TV screens in the '90s.

What makes this really stand out is that he is blending in perfectly to real environments with other actors; he’s not just surrounded by CGI. If the execution weren’t perfect, he’d stand out like a sore thumb, venturing into uncanny valley territory. For a film where Will Smith’s younger clone is one of the main characters, this absolutely had to look great, and based on this first trailer, Ang Lee and his team appear to have pulled it off.

There's also some good action in the Gemini Man trailer, with hand-to-hand combat, gun battles and plenty of explosions. I also really liked how the clone launched a dirt bike at his progenitor. Other than maybe Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Ang Lee isn’t really known as an action director, but he looks to have crafted some interesting set pieces here.

It won’t be all action though, as the film appears to have a major emotional and psychological element as well, and it is clear that Will Smith’s role as an aging hitman is one with a lot of pathos. In the trailer, we hear that the clone is Henry Brogan without the pain, and we see some of that pain, a weariness and melancholy etched on Will Smith’s face. One of the questions I’ll have going in to this movie is what is the cause of all that pain.

That’s not the only question, though. I’m also quite curious about the world this film is set in because it doesn’t appear to quite take place in the modern world as we know it. How far is this in the future, what role does Will Smith’s hitman play in this world and why is his clone being sent after him are all mysteries that I’m excited to see explored. And what’s the deal with that cave of skulls the two Will Smiths are fighting in?

Alongside the double-helping of Will Smith, Gemini Man has a great cast that includes Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Benedict Wong. Gemini Man also stars Clive Owen as Clay Verris, a nefarious looking character who seems to have some unknown agenda. It feels like we don’t see Clive Owen in big movies enough, so it’s great to see him here.

In addition to the aforementioned de-aging, Gemini Man will also be Ang Lee’s second film, after Billy Lynn’s Halftime Walk, to employ high frame rate technology. The film is being made in 3D at 120 frames per second in 4K resolution, according to THR. The public hasn’t embraced high frame rate films yet, as evidenced by Billy Lynn and the reception to The Hobbit’s 48fps, but it will be interesting to see if this kind of blockbuster can give the format a boost, provided audiences can find a theater that can display it the way it was meant to be seen.

Gemini Man opens in theaters on October 4. Check out our 2019 Release Schedule to see all the movies headed to theaters this summer season and the rest of the year.

Robert Pattinson Says Christopher Nolan's New Movie Is Wildly Long

Robert Pattinson Says Christopher Nolan's New Movie Is Wildly Long

You never know what you’re going to get next with Christopher Nolan. One moment, he’s helming one of the biggest pre-Avengers comic book series with his Dark Knight Trilogy, and the next he’s experimenting in the realms of sci-fi and historical narrative. Back to his old tricks again, Nolan is currently working on a rather enigmatic film that, per his usual process, is being kept tightly under wraps. Details are scarce, but according to one of the film’s actors, Twilight veteran Robert Pattinson, it’s going to be a pretty long sit. And when he says long, it’s about three movies’ worth of length.

This detail casually came out during a recent interview, as he spoke about working on Christopher Nolan’s latest mystery film, and what it means to him as an actor. Robert Pattinson’s remarks were as follows:

As an actor, the only bit of control is whether or not you're doing a movie. Working with these important directors makes you feel more secure in the choices you're making. Like, I'm doing a big movie with Christopher Nolan after this. It's the craziest thing I've seen in years. It's the length of three movies.

The length of three movies sounds pretty intimidating, no matter how you slice it. On the more conservative side of things, per guidelines over what qualifies as a feature length film, you’re looking at three 80-minute Christopher Nolan films strung together, which roughly adds up to a four hour film. While that sort of undertaking has been done before, it’s not exactly a common occurrence in the modern world of filmmaking.

Though, for the sake of audience’s physical comfort, let’s hope that the length is closer to Nolan’s shortest film and not his longest, as 2014’s Interstellar holds that particular record at two hours and 49 minutes. Three movies of that run time wouldn’t feel like a movie anymore, it’d feel closer to a David Lynch TV series, and theater seats just aren’t comfortable enough to sit that long.

However, if you were to take the Nolan standard of film length, with his shortest film being his directorial debut Following, the result would still be in the same ballpark. Clocking in at 69 minutes, Christopher Nolan might have a roughly three and a half hour film lined up for confirmed stars Robert Pattinson, John David Washington, and Elizabeth Debicki to work their way through.

Other than this particular claim from Robert Pattinson’s interview with AZ Central, as well as some interesting stories -- like how he had to read the script in a locked room in the name of privacy -- we don’t know all that much about this untitled Christopher Nolan film. Some reports, such as a recent THR article, have pegged this new film as dealing with the time continuum; while other debunked reports had the film likened to “North By Northwest meets Inception.”

Maybe somewhere in-between lies the truth, both in the realm of the film’s story and its running time, but we probably won’t know until whatever point Christopher Nolan decides to share more details with the world. Let’s hope that if it does run as long as this outrageous claim suggests, it’ll at least come with an intermission to let folks stretch and tend to their bodily needs.

The as of yet untitled Christopher Nolan movie is set to blow minds when it opens on July 17th, 2020. In the meantime, Robert Pattinson can currently be seen in High Life, which is in limited release at this very moment.

Ouch, Hellboy Had A Massive Drop In Second Weekend At Box Office

Ouch, Hellboy Had A Massive Drop In Second Weekend At Box Office

Hellboy is a movie with problems. Those problems started with a slew of negative reviews making the film one of the most critically lambasted of the year. If the movie was hoping to be a success with fans, more than critics, it didn't have much luck there either, as it opened in third place and wasn't even the highest grossing new release of the weekend.

If Hellboy was looking to then fix things with some positive word of mouth, it's come up short there as well, as the film saw a serious box office drop of nearly 68% which almost saw it fall out of the top 10 during only its second weekend.

Hellboy finished its second weekend at the box office with just short of $4 million, a 67.8% drop compared to its opening weekend gross. That put the film behind Jordan Peele's Us, which finished its fifth weekend at the box office with $4.2 million.

A two-thirds drop in box office isn't an unreasonable drop, many films see their box office numbers fall by that much or more from their first to second weekend. However, Hellboy's problems are that it didn't start out in the best position. In addition, the movies that opened against Hellboy last weekend have shown much more remarkable staying power, making Hellboy look that much worse by comparison.

The comedy Little, which ended up beating Hellboy last weekend, only saw its fortunes fall by 45%, giving it the number five spot. Even more impressive, Laika's Missing Link which actually opened in ninth place last weekend, only saw it's box office fall by 26%, resulting in it actually gaining a slot and finishing its second weekend in eighth place

Part of the reason that these films saw such low box office drops, Captain Marvel jumped up two spots in the top 10 and actually made more money this weekend than it did the previous weekend, is that there was no major tentpole release to suck all the air, and money, out of the room. The box office was won by The Curse of La Llorona with only $26 million.

But then, a weekend like this, where movies that have been out for a while still had strong weekends shows just how badly things are going for Hellboy as it wasn't able to benefit from the same situation as every other movie at the multiplex. Nobody was even morbidly curious to see how the movie turned out when there was nothing else to see at the theater.

With Avengers: Endgame hitting this weekend we can pretty much write off Hellboy from a box office perspective. It will fall out of the 10 next weekend and will have to hope that it finds new life as a digital rental or perhaps on streaming services.

Early Detective Pikachu Reviews Are In, Here's How It's Doing On Rotten Tomatoes

Early Detective Pikachu Reviews Are In, Here's How It's Doing On Rotten Tomatoes

Pokemon is about to make its debut for a mass audience when the first live-action film in the franchise, Detective Pikachu, debuts next week. A handful of critics have already seen the movie, and their reviews are now online. So far, the new film is doing pretty well, while the movie only has 32 reviews as of this writing, the majority of them are positive, as Rotten Tomatoes currently has the film with a solid 75% positive score.

The movie has actually seen something of a boost in the last few hours. When Detective Pikachu first had enough reviews posted on Rotten Tomatoes to calculate a score, it had a 67% score after 21 reviews. Since then, 11 additional reviews have come in, and they've clearly been more positive.

Having said that, the movie has an average rating of 6.26 out of 10, which means that while most of the reviews may think the movie is good, they're not necessarily glowing.

While most seem to be in agreement that Detective Pikachu as a character is adorable as hell, and that the digital effects are impressive, It seems the story might be a bit disjointed and convoluted.

It's certainly going to be interesting to see just how Detective Pikachu does at the box office. The size and passion of the Pokemon fan base cannot be understated. Pokemon is a huge brand globally and it seems to be almost a certainty that overseas this movie is going to do serious business.

Domestically, things might be a little different. If you're not an expert on the hundreds of types of Pokemon that exist, will Detective Pikachu still work? Some of the critics seem to indicate thew answer is no, and as such there's a segment of the potential audience for whom lukewarm reviews might be enough to keep them home.

Still, Ryan Reynolds is incredibly popular and while Pikachiu might not be Deadpool, trailers indicate Reynolds is bringing a very similar style of (more family friendly) humor that could bring in a larger audience.

For those that have been waiting their entire lives for a live-action Pokemon movie, however, this film is almost certainly "critic proof." The only question is just how big that fan base is. Box office estimates currently have the movie looking at a domestic opening weekend of $82 million. In absolute numbers, that's a solid effort, even if it still might mean coming in second to the third weekend of Avengers: Endgame, which is currently still a possibility.

Certainly, there are going to be a lot more critics that are going to be seeing Detective Pikachu before it hits theaters next Friday, and considering how the Rotten Tomatoes score jumped significantly with only 11 reviews, it has the potential to do the same, and in either direction, after many more people file their opinions.

Detective Pikachu hits theaters May 10.

The Avengers: Endgame Cameo That Gave The Russo Brothers A ‘Panic Attack’

The Avengers: Endgame Cameo That Gave The Russo Brothers A ‘Panic Attack’

The following story contains spoilers for Avengers: Endgame.

The 22nd official movie in the MCU had virtually every single character who appeared on screen before, from “Thunderbolt” Ross (William Hurt) and Alexander Pierce (Robert Redford) to heroes like Captain Marvel (Brie Larson). Most of them showed up for one of the final scenes – Tony Stark’s funeral, which was an all-star event. But there was one face at the funeral that was a bit of a head-scratcher for a lot of audience members, mainly because the actor playing the character had aged significantly since audiences last saw him.

Ty Simpkins (Jurassic World) was standing near the back of the gathered crowd at Tony Stark’s funeral. If you don’t recall that Simpkins played Harley Keener, the young inventor, in Shane Black’s Iron Man 3, don’t worry… you weren’t alone in being confused. And that confusion, shared by several early test screeners, was giving the Russo brothers anxiety. During a spoiler-filled conversation with our ReelBlend podcast, the siblings shared a very funny story about filming that scene, where the stars of the MCU weren’t even sure who Simpkins was. They told us:

Joe Russo: Every time we screened it, people would ask us [who that kid was].

Anthony Russo: Literally, every time. [Laughs] I don’t know if there has ever been a single person who has recognized him!

Joe: He’s three times taller than he was. So I think he has grown up so much that, you know, it’s a deep Easter egg. But I feel like that's what's compelling about the Marvel universe. By the way, there are quite a few Easter eggs in the movie people still haven’t identified.

As if you needed another reason to go back and see Avengers: Endgame. Now you have to hunt for Easter eggs that haven’t been identified yet by fans.

As Joe and Anthony Russo elaborated in the set up of that jaw-dropping scene – a one-shot that traces over almost every facet of the MCU, in character form – Anthony elaborated on the sheer panic that the directors were feeling because as they were mapping it out, none of the famous actors on set understood who Ty Simpkins was supposed to represent. Anthony tells ReelBlend:

You guys will appreciate this. In order to do that shot, to amass that cast, we rehearsed that shot like crazy. We set up the camera moves with stand-ins. … Because they were all going to be in that shot, we spent days setting that shot up. Days! Okay? So we had everybody. We had the entire camera move figured out specifically. We had the time of day. We had everything perfect, right? So we get there on the day, we finally put the actors in the shot for the first time, right? [laughs] And we have this moment on set where he and I go into a panic attack over Ty, because we're having this [question] over Ty.

At the end of the day, the Russo realize that Easter eggs are a common occurrence in MCU movies, and fans would have something cool to discuss during what is one of the most heartfelt moments in all of Avengers: Endgame.

The Ty Simpkins story is just one of many gems included in this bonus episode of ReelBlend, which is all spoilers with Joe and Anthony Russo, so press play and dive in.

Avengers: Endgame is in theaters as we speak, and based on the box office numbers, a good number of you have headed to theaters to check it out. What did you think? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Godzilla Vs. Kong Has Wrapped In Australia

Godzilla Vs. Kong Has Wrapped In Australia

Fans of Godzilla are already excited because Godzilla: King of the Monsters is almost here. The film will pit the classic movie monsters against several of his famous foes from the Japanese Toho films of the 50s, 60s, and 70s. However, King of the Monsters is designed to only be a step on the road toward the major showdown that is Godzilla Vs. Kong. That showdown is now one step closer to reality, as Adam Wingard, the director of both films, recently announced that principal photography on the monster showdown has finished filming in Australia.

Australia was the primary filming location for Godzilla Vs. Kong. It's unclear if finishing production in Australia, as Adam Wingard revealed on Instagram (via comicbook.com) means that principal photography for the entire movie is over. It's possible there is more work to be done on location elsewhere. However, with a release date for the film already set for March of 2020, production should be wrapping up very quickly if this isn't the end.

With Godzilla: King of the Monsters still not even out in theaters yet, the details of Godzilla Vs. Kong are being kept more tightly under wraps than even what we're used to seeing with most recent tent pole releases. It's very likely that knowing too much about Godzilla Vs. Kong would reveal a great deal about what is set to happen in Godzilla: King of the Monsters.

Godzilla Vs. Kong will bring together the version of the giant lizard monster from 2014's Godzilla and the forthcoming sequel and put him up against the version of King Kong that was introduced in 2017's Kong: Skull Island. In both sets of movies, the giant monster is mostly viewed as a hero and ally to humanity, at least as long as humanity doesn't try to kill them, so why the two will apparently be fighting, is unclear. Ultimately, fighting is what these giant monsters do and it's part of the reason that we like to watch them. The context is far less important.

The fact that Godzilla Vs. Kong went into production so soon after Godzilla: King of the Monsters wrapped certainly showed that the studio had a lot of faith in both projects. While various cinematic universes, like Universal's Dark Universe, have faltered out of the gate, this one has been a bit more successful and has continued forward. Nobody waited to be sure King of the Monsters made money before green lighting the next entry in the series.

Of course, at this point Godzilla Vs. Kong may actually be the end of the story. We don't know what the plans are for the franchise after this. That may very well come down to a question of box office. If the film is so successful that it's clear the fans want more, we may very well get it.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters will be here next month, followed by Godzilla Vs. Kong in 2020.

The Story Behind Howard The Duck And Avengers: Endgame

The Story Behind Howard The Duck And Avengers: Endgame

Spoilers ahead for Avengers: Endgame.

It's been nearly a month since Avengers: Endgame arrived in theaters, and new revelations about the movie are still being made every day. With the spoiler ban officially lifted by the Russo Brothers, the cast and crew of Endgame have been able to get more chatty about the film's contents. And considering just how massive the blockbuster is, there's a lot to unpack-- especially related to its ending.

Avengers: Endgame included the biggest MCU battle in history, as the dusted characters were teleported to the battlefield-- and they had some help with them. Every major character united in the battlefield, alongside countless troops of Wakandans, Ravagers, Masters of the Mystic Arts, and Asgardians. This includes Howard the Duck, who briefly pops up alongside the Ravagers. Visual effects supervisor Matt Aitken helped bring this stunning sequence to theaters, and recently opened up about the process of inserting Howard into Endgame, saying:

If Howard the Duck's in there, then it's kind of like everybody's in there, right? Nobody's missed out. We got that call from Marvel that and we were well underway with that shot and we were kind of close to finishing some of them, so it was a little bit of a scramble. But it wasn't totally last minute.

It looks like the idea of bringing Howard into the final battle against Thanos came relatively late into the process. But Matt Aiken and company had enough time to make it a reality, and include the fan favorite character in his third cameo in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Howard The Duck got brought from Contraxia to Earth through one of the portals, facing off against the Mad Titan's countless forces.

Related: Infinity War Almost Had A Howard The Duck Cameo Scene

In his conversation with Comic Book, Matt Aitken explained how the visual effects artists decided where to drop Howard the Duck. It was a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment that most moviegoers missed on their first viewing. As Aitken revealed,

We said he had time to do it, and there was a nice little gap between a couple of the Ravagers that he would just drop right into. It was nice that he wasn't so obvious in the middle of the frame that everybody was going to see him straight away. It was a little bit of a nice little Easter egg that people would have to hunt out to a degree.

Howard The Duck's Endgame cameo might seem like a bit of fan service, but it makes sense within the canon of the MCU. The last we saw Howard, he had a hot date on Contraxia in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. It stands to reason that he might be in that party spot when the dusted characters were revived, and hopped in a portal that the Ravagers were utilizing.

Despite not having a meaty role or much screen time, it still took Matt Aitken and his team of artists at Weta Digital a ton of work to fully render Howard the Duck, and insert him into the mind-blowing final battle. Aitken explained the kind of detail work that was needed, saying:

You can't skimp on these things, so he's a hero insert, he's got feathers, all the feathers are rigged. He's got hero pictures and he had to be animated. There's no corner-cutting in lots of this work, you just have to do it. But we did it all, and just delighted that he could be in there.

All that work really paid off, not only where Howard the Duck is concerned. The entire final battle was stunning, and had more action than the average viewer could ever keep track of. It was a sequence meant for the big screen, and one that fans will likely be dissecting with a fine toothed comb once Endgame is available for home purchase.

Avengers: Endgame is in theaters now. Be sure to check out our 2019 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.