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Sunday, May 10, 2020

Toy Story 4 Is Going To Have More Easter Eggs Than You Can Count

Toy Story 4 Is Going To Have More Easter Eggs Than You Can Count
Buzz Lightyear with Bunny and Duckie in Toy Story 4

If you're a serious Pixar fan, then you probably enjoy hunting for classic Pixar easter eggs. From the Pizza Planet truck to the Luxo Ball, there are always little hidden nods to the history and future of Pixar in every feature film the company produces, but Toy Story 4 is going to put them all to shame, as the movie may very well have more easter eggs hidden inside it than it is possible to count.


Last month i had a chance to visit Pixar Animation Studios in Emeryville, California. While there i had a chance to take a pretty deep dive into the production of Toy Story 4 including the new locations the story will visit. One of those locations, as viewed in the trailer, is an antiques mall where Woody sees that Bo Peep has ended up, and where we meet the film's villain, the doll Gabby Gabby.


I spoke with Pixar Sets Supervisor Thomas Jordan and Sets Technical Director Rosie Cole about the work they did creating the mall, and they reveled how much work they did creating all the references. According to Jordan...





In the antique mall in particular there's so many objects that are just beyond the view of the characters and there's lots of fun things, especially easter eggs and homages to other Pixar films and jokes that you would get if you watched all of our movies.



The antiques mall is just full of objects. It's packed to the ceiling with stuff. However, it's not just any stuff. As the animation team responsible for creating the environment revealed, a lot of the objects that have placed around the characters are actually easter eggs referencing all sorts of other Pixar films.


Among the easter eggs to look out for in the Toy Story 4 antique store:





Elastigirl's Elasticycle from Incredibles 2 can be seen as a toy


A scream canister from Monsters Inc is partially visible


A pinball machine that uses the Maori statues from the aquarium from Finding Nemo


A record of "Remember Me" from Coco playing on a gramophone



Not every easter egg in Toy Story 4 can be found in the antique store however. The other major location seen in the Toy Story 4 trailer is a carnival, and and Thomas Jordan let me know about one very fitting Pixar easter egg that will be visible there.



The balloon cart from Up, because Carl was a balloon salesman. His balloon cart, complete with the balloons are in the carnival.





Several Pixar easter eggs are seen in all, or nearly all, of the studio's films. The Luxo Ball, the yellow ball with the red star on it, that was screen in Pixar's first short Luxo Jr. Can be seen as a sticker on the toy rockers in the image above from the trailer. The Pizza Planet truck, which made its debut in the original Toy Story will appear in Toy Story 4 as well, though Thomas Jordan told me in won't appear in a way that viewers might expect.



The Pizza Planet truck is in the movie, but it’s seen in a very unusual way. I think the audience will see it, and I think they will be surprised.



Another Pixar tradition is placing an easter egg for Pixar's next film in the current one. That means that we'll see a reference to Pixar's Onward at some point. I asked for a hint as to where we'll be able to see it. The only thing I was told was where it won't be found.





We can tell you it is not in the antiques mall.



Of course, since very little of Onward has been shown to the public, there's a decent chance we won't even know what the easter egg was until after we see the movie in 2020.


I asked the team how many easter eggs that they'd created might not even be visible in Toy Story 4 because they'd been covered by other objects, potentially other easter eggs, and they admitted that might very well be the case. It seems that to see every reference that the new film has to offer, it will either require multiple viewings in the theater, or more likely, a frame by frame analysis once Toy Story 4 comes out on Blu-ray.




Toy Story 4 arrives in theaters June 21.

The Gambit Movie Has Been Shelved

The Gambit Movie Has Been Shelved
Gambit comics

Earlier today, Disney announced a lot of new release date information, which included three new Star Wars movies being slotted and both the Avatar sequels and The New Mutants being delayed. But there was one movie conspicuously absent from the updated Disney calendar: Gambit. Yes, it appears that after years in development hell, Gambit has finally been shelved.


Ever since Gambit was officially announced back in 2014, five years after Taylor Kitsch played the first live action incarnation of Remy LeBeau in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, it’s been repeatedly been delayed, and when last we heard, it was supposed to come out on March 13, 2020. However, now Disney has acquired 21st Century Fox, and rather than continue that studio’s pattern of pushing Gambit back, the Mouse House has opted to just take the movie off the board entirely.


Barring some surprise announcement later down the line, the five-year saga of attempting to give Gambit his own solo movie has ended. That’s a shame for Channing Tatum, who’s been attached to play Tatum since Gambit officially entered development. Maybe he’ll find another opportunity to play a superhero down the line, but throwing energized playing cards is not in his future.




Even if Disney had been willing to still release Gambit, there’s no way it would have been ready to go by that March 2020 date. Following the departures of Rupert Wyatt, Doug Liman and Gore Verbinski over the years, Gambit had still not found a replacement director. The movie also changed a lot from how it was originally conceived, but alas, we won’t get to see this particular tale unfold.


Gambit’s removal, as well as the cancellation of all the other X-Men spinoffs in development, further signals the end of the X-Men franchise that began in 2000. Dark Phoenix is wrapping up the main X-Men film series next month, and while Disney is insistent that we’ll see The New Mutants next year, it’ll likely just be a standalone tale rather than spawn sequels.


The only thing that will be staying the same when it comes to Marvel’s mutant properties is Deadpool, as Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige recently said that there are no plans to change the Merc with the Mouth. But other than that, it’s believed that the X-Men franchise will be rebooted to fit within the Marvel Cinematic Universe continuity, although it will be a while until that happens.




Maybe there’s a future for Gambit within the MCU’s forthcoming X-Men adaptations; just because he was never able to star in his own movie doesn’t mean he can’t be an important player in ensemble pieces. Regardless, fingers crossed that someday there’s a book written about all the effort that went into trying to get the Gambit movie off the ground.


Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for all the latest and greatest updates concerning Marvel movies. You can learn what’s coming to the MCU in our comprehensive guide, or you can plan your trips to the theater later this year with our 2019 release schedule.

Saturday, May 9, 2020

Why Star Wars Can't 'Do What Marvel Does' With Film Releases, According To Kathleen Kennedy

Why Star Wars Can't 'Do What Marvel Does' With Film Releases, According To Kathleen Kennedy
Luke Skywalker in Star Wars: The Last Jedi

When Disney bought Lucasfilm is was made plain that the plan was to bring the franchise back in a big way. A new trilogy was announced and following that, additional films were confirmed and several others began to be rumored. It looked like Disney was getting ready to launch another massive franchise to rival their own Marvel Cinematic Universe, but now, it appears things won't be happening quite like that.


While Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker will mark the fifth Star Wars movie in five years, after that, Star Wars will be taking a brief break. The next movie, from the creators of the Game of Thrones series, will be arriving in 2022, and we'll only be getting one movie every other year, rather than getting one movie or more in a year like Marvel now does. Lucasfilm chief Kathleen Kennedy says that this is necessary, as Star Wars simply won't work the way Marvel does as a franchise...



I think there is a larger expectation that Disney has. On the other hand, though, I think that Disney is very respectful of what this is, and right from the beginning we talked about the fragility of this form of storytelling. Because it’s something that means so much to fans that you can’t turn this into some kind of factory approach. You can’t even do what Marvel does, necessarily, where you pick characters and build new franchises around those characters. This needs to evolve differently.





It's hard to imagine that this response from Kennedy in Vanity Fair isn't a direct response to the fact that the last Star Wars movie, a film designed around a set of characters picked out from the franchise, didn't do well. While Solo: A Star Wars Story still made good money in an absolute sense, it still didn't make nearly as much money as the other new films have done, and its behind the scenes issues made the film more expensive than it was supposed to be, resulting in the first Star Wars film to reportedly lose money.


It's also true that because of the way that Star Wars has existed in the past, with two, and now three, movie trilogies, each separated by decades, there's a feeling that Star Wars is something special, that it needs to be handled slowly and with care. One of the reasons that has been given for Solo's poor performance is that it was released only six month after Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and fans didn't like to see so much happening so fast.


Whether or not Star Wars is truly "fragile" and thus prevents the sort of approach that Marvel has been using or not, it does seem clear that Disney now believes that it is, otherwise you could be sure we would be getting exactly that. Kathleen Kennedy is honest about the "larger expectation" that Disney has, certainly the parent company wants to be able to do as much with Star Wars as possible because the brand is successful and that means profit for the company.




It's possible that the solution has been found in a sort of middle ground. A pair of new Star Wars series are set to debut on the Disney+ streaming service over the next couple of years, and so it could be that instead of releasing multiple movies over the next several years, the plan could be to supplement the few films we get with series like The Mandalorian.


I'm not sure that I buy that Star Wars can't work as a larger franchise. If Marvel can maintain a level of quality as it has, it certainly seems that Star Wars could as well, but if the feeling is that it needs to move slower to stay good, I'd certainly rather have fewer movies that are better.


Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker hits theaters in December.



How The Guardians Of The Galaxy Movie Characters Compare To Their Comic Counterparts

How The Guardians Of The Galaxy Movie Characters Compare To Their Comic Counterparts
The Guardians of the Galaxy (circa 2017) assembled side-by-side

The comic book movie genre was forever changed by Christopher Nolan when The Dark Knight convinced Hollywood to take superheroes seriously. That was until the comic book movie was revolutionized again six years later by James Gunn when Guardians of the Galaxy, starring then sitcom star Chris Pratt, convinced Hollywood to take superheroes less seriously again.


The planet-hopping, ‘70s pop hit-blasting, sarcasm-quipping heroes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe changed the superhero movie game as soon as we saw Chris Pratt’s Peter Quill (sorry, “Star-Lord”) jamming to Redbone’s “Come and Get Your Love” at the beginning of 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy. The funny thing is, despite becoming one of the most beloved groups of comic book movie characters in history, their source material is among Marvel’s most obscure and unrecognizable properties. In fact, if you ask a true fan of the comic’s original run, Star-Lord, Gamora, Groot, and company don’t look familiar.


In order to immerse yourself in the world of the Guardians of the Galaxy, first, you must forget everything you know about the refreshing sci-fi/comedy combo Guardians of the Galaxy (sorry, Chris Pratt fans) and go all the way back to even before Blue Swede released “Hooked on a Feeling,” when Marvel first introduced a group of ragtag cosmic warriors.




Guardians of The Galaxy (1969 comic book lineup):


In the deepest reaches of space in the 31st century, a group of lone fighters, each the last of their own species and with vengeance in their hearts, must unite to defend the Earth solar system from the evil alien race the Badoon. They call themselves the Guardians of the Galaxy. Their names are Major Vance Astro, Martinex T’Naga, Charlie-27, and Yondu Udonta.


While you probably recognize one of those names from the MCU, the others probably have you scratching your head. The truth is that when the Guardians of the Galaxy first appeared in Marvel Super-Heroes #18 in January 1969, they were nothing like who their mainstream identities eventually became. Even the initial concept that inspired them was wildly different from the final product.


Guardians co-creator Roy Thomas had the idea of superhuman guerilla soldiers fighting against the Russian and Chinese armies in a wartorn United States, but after discussion with fellow writer Arnold Drake and Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Stan Lee, it evolved into an interplanetary adventure instead. Drake, with help from Lee, came up with the characters, who would get their own series years after their first introduction and were used infrequently in other Marvel works throughout the 1970s and 80s, gaining additional members Starhawk, Aleta Ogord, Nikki, Mainframe, and more.




While many of these characters would later be referenced in a post-credits scene in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, James Gunn’s film adaptation of the characters for the MCU focused on the 2008 relaunch of the series, using cosmic Marvel comic staples such as Peter Quill, Gamora, Rocket Raccoon, and other notable characters. Yet, even the characters in the films are essentially just shadows of their comic book counterparts. How do the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1 and their sequel characters compare to their original inception?


Guardians of the Galaxy (2014-present movie lineup)


Peter Quill (Star-Lord)


The leader of the Guardians of the Galaxy, Peter Quill (or, as he might prefer you to call him, "Star-Lord"), has a tragic backstory as a boy who was abducted by space pirates seconds after his mother died from cancer, but who still manages to enjoy the interplanetary life whilst donning a red leather duster and nano-tech face mask, blasting enemies with dual hand cannons, and rocking out to the Jackson 5. While the comic book character who inspired the MCU's introduction still has the mask, the blasters, and the charm, much about Chris Pratt's Star-Lord is the design of writer and director James Gunn.




Created by Steve Englehart and Steven Gan in 1976, Peter Quill was born in Colorado (not Missouri - that was St. Louis-native James Gunn's own personal home state shoutout) to human mother Meredith Quill and alien father J'Son, the then-heroic heir to an intergalactic empire whose ship crash-landed on Earth when he met Meredith. Quill's parentage is amended slightly in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 with his father revealed to be Ego The Living Planet (portrayed in human form as Kurt Russell), whose comic book background is another story entirely.


In the comics, Quill is orphaned at 10 years old after his mother is murdered by two soliders of the Badoon race seeking to end J'Son bloodline. Quill kills them before they reach him and he is later placed in an orphanage before growing up to become as astronaut. On a NASA mission, his ship malfunctions and he becomes stranded in the unknown reaches of space, where Yondu Odonta and the Ravagers save him and make him one of their own. He would later go on to become an interplanetary policeman and then form the 2008 version of the Guardians of the Galaxy that served as inspiration for James Gunn’s 2014 film adaptation.


Chris Pratt's interpretation of Star-Lord, despite being half-celestial, is still a relatively grounded human being whose skills do not stretch much farther than piloting, marksmanship, and '80s movie trivia. In the comics, however, Peter Quill, has telepathic abilities that allow him to communicate with Ship, a sentient energy source that primarily takes the form of his spaceship, hence the name. Of course, in the movie, Quill refers to his purely mechanical mode of transportation as the Milano, another nostalgic Easter Egg from James Gunn, referencing Quill’s childhood crush, Alyssa Milano from Who’s The Boss?




Gamora


As far as base characteristics go, James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy got Gamora (Zoe Saldana) pretty much exactly right. Created by Jim Starlin and first appearing in Marvel's Strange Tales series in 1975, she is the adopted daughter of Thanos, the last of the green-skinned Zen-Whoberis, and is, unquestionably, the most dangerous woman in the universe.


Her life on the side of heroism stretches further than her team-up with the Guardians in the 2008 comic book reboot, however. For one, she first attempted to betray Thanos just in her teens before later working as an assassin with the intent to avenge the genocide of her planet, becoming a key member in the battle for the Infinity Gauntlet, and even battling an earlier version of Drax the Destroyer at one point.


We should also mention not to bother looking to the comics for deeper insight into Gamora and Star-Lord’s romance. While their linked counterparts have a strong professional bond, that’s pretty much as far as it goes. Her most notable love interests have been space cop Richard Rider of the Nova Corps and Adam Warlock, with whom she adopted a daughter, Atleza. While neither of those characters have yet to be properly introduced into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the comics have seen Gamora hooking up with Tony Stark once. Yeah.




Apparently it is also a trend in the comics for her to die over and over and over again, and each time she is resurrected is only temporary until she bites the dust again. With this in mind, we have a few interesting theories about Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.


Drax the Destroyer


Wrestler Dave Bautista made his star-making performance as Drax, the Guardians of the Galaxy favorite whose inability to pick up on sarcasm is made up by his imposing physicality and fierce skills in hand-to-hand combat (excluding placing his finger on his enemy's throat). Of course, Drax's backstory in James Gunn's reimagining is also one of tragedy, having sworn revenge for the baddies killing his wife and child, but the comics gave him a similar, yet much darker, origin.


Marvel writer Jim Starlin introduced in a 1973 issues of The Invincible Iron Man the character of Arthur Douglas, a human being from Burbank, California, who was killed along with his wife by Thanos, who took Douglas’ daughter as his own. A being named Kronos was in need of a fighter to take on Thanos, so he took the vengeful spirit of Douglas and melded it with a powerful body of his creation. Thus, Drax the Destroyer was born with the sole purpose to kill Thanos.




During the character’s run through Marvel’s Silver Age, Drax was also blessed with powers he no longer has, including flight, the psychic ability to detect Thanos from far away, and cosmic concussive blasts that emit from his hands. Maybe that would have come in handy against the Abilisk in the opening of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. His skin also has a green tint, as opposed to the bluish-gray paint that covers Dave Bautista’s body in the film adaptations. Perhaps that helps Zoe Saldana’ Gamora stand out better, not that she needed much help in that area if we are being honest.


Groot


At the time, there was no moment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe more heartbreaking than Groot sacrificing his life for his new family in the third act of the first Guardians of the Galaxy. How could you not feel an emotional attachment to the kindhearted tree-like creature who is, arguably, the best role of Vin Diesel's career? What if I told you that when Groot first graced the pages of Marvel comics, he was the last creature you would want to cross?


Groot comes from Planet X, home to the Flora colossi: a species of tree-like beings whose rough larynges makes their language almost impossible to understand, as if they are repeating “I am Groot” over and over. Now, that part is certainly true to James Gunn's film. But, he was originally introduced in 1960 in Marvel's Tales to Astonish as a villain who invaded Earth to capture humans for experimentation in the Tales to Astonish series, not to mention he was a monstrous 25 feet tall as opposed to 9 feet in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1. Yikes.




Groot would not be reintroduced as the heroic, friendly charmer we know him as today until 2006 in the “Annihilation: Conquest” storyline, which would later spin off into the modern day incarnation of Guardians of the Galaxy in 2008. Thank God for that, otherwise "I Am Groot" takes on a whole new meaning.


Rocket Raccoon


No one expected (heck, we all laughed at the idea) that a talking, gun-toting raccoon would be a key player in some of the most important battles of the universe (see Avengers: Endgame), but Bradley Cooper's voice and Sean Gunn's motion capture performance gave Rocket Raccoon just the right amount personality in Guardians of the Galaxy to be able to take him seriously. In fact, Rocket could get his own movie and it would probably be just as good as anything James Gunn has given us so far. He has already proven himself worthy as a loner when you look at his comic book history.


If you thought Rocket Raccoon's name sounded a little too much like a Beatles reference, it is not be by accident. Even his origins are inspired by “Rocky Raccoon,” a song off of The White Album, given that the title of one of his first comic book appearances, in The Incredible Hulk #271 in 1982 (“Now Somewhere In the Black Holes of Sirius Major There Lived a Young Boy Named Rocket Raccoon”), references the lyrics. Later, in the mid-1980s, Marvel published a four-issue limited series with Rocket as the central character of his own before becoming a member of the relaunched Guardians of the Galaxy in 2008. It was even Rocket who recommended the name, having once heard it mentioned by founding member Major Vance Astro.




The differences between Rocket cinematic persona and comic book persona are subtle. He is still the same badmouthing expert strategist and tactician, but instead of being born a talking, anthropomorphic animal, James Gunn reimagined him as a creature of unknown origin whose current form as the furry woodland creature is the result of years of experimentation. Pretty dark for being referred to as "Avengers Light" for a while, huh?


Nebula


When we first met the cybernetic Nebula, played by the unrecognizable Karen Gillan in an uncomfortable amount of makeup and prosthetics in Guardians of the Galaxy, she was an ally to Ronan who we loved to hate, but from the end of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 to her contribution to Avengers: Endgame, we saw her as a tortured soul, seeking redemption and earning our sympathies. Even if she can still be a bit of "Blue Meanie," we can't really blame her, given her bleak upbringing as Thanos' adopted daughter. In fact, James Gunn's reimagining of Nebula's origin is even darker than the comics.


Created by Roger Stern and John Buscema, Nebula was first introduced in the 1980s as a ruthless, Luphomoid space pirate and mercenary under Thanos’ command. She would eventually take on many key players from the Marvel Universe, from The Avengers (whose series she debuted in) to the Skrull Empire. At one point, she became lucky enough to wield the Infinity Gauntlet herself.




Her origins as a half-cyborg differ from the comics too. When Nebula claims to be Thanos' granddaughter, he is offended by this and replaces most of her body with mechanical parts before officially claiming her as his own creation. In the Guardians of the Galaxy films, we learn that, while Nebula was growing up, Thanos replaced one part of her body with a new robotic device, one by one, as punishment each time she was defeated by Gamora in battle practice. And you thought high school was the worst nightmare a teen could face.


Mantis


She may have the very unique and intriguing ability to emulate or manipulate feelings, but Mantis did not seem to be the likeliest choice as a new member of the team when she first appeared as Ego's companion in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, played by Pom Klementieff. Fans fell in love with her endearing charm and child-like innocence, but compared to the rest of the crew, I would never have expected her to contribute much to the battlefield. More surprising is discovering that Mantis is, just about, the most watered-down character in James Gunn's reimagining.


Born on Earth and of half-Vietnamese and half-German descent, Mantis was abandoned by her father in a section of Earth belonging to the Kree. Believing her to be the Celestial Madonna (think cosmic Virgin Mary), the Kree trained her in martial arts, which eventually earned her a spot with the Avengers (her first appearance in 1973) and later among the modern incarnation of the Guardians of the Galaxy characters.




For someone whose storyline was condensed in the movies, essentially, to “I touch people and feel how they feel,” Mantis has a swelling history in the comics. You could practically call her the Forrest Gump of the Marvel Universe. Hopefully, Gunn is taking note of this for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.


Yondu Udonta


We know him as a no-nonsense space pirate, Star-Lord's true "daddy," and, most importantly, "Mary Poppins, ya'll!" But the Yondu Udonta of the Guardians of the Galaxy films is a pretty far cry from his noble savage comic book persona, other than being blue.


Yondu, a 31st-century being, debuted as the last of the Centurian species and a founding member of the aforementioned original Guardians of the Galaxy in 1969. Since he was not part of the current incarnation of Guardians of the Galaxy characters, James Gunn figured out how to work him into the story as a Ravager leader with a country-fried accent, courtesy of actor and friend to Gunn, Michael Rooker.




Remember that punk rock mohawk head fin he wore throughout the second half of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 that was referred to as a “prototype”? To comic book purists, that was the “true” fin, as it was Yondu’s own natural appendage in the original incarnation. In the films, Yondu uses the fin to control his floating arrow, a reference to his comic book counterpart’s skills with a bow and arrow. Of course, the MCU already had an archer, so that explains that.


James Gunn's vision of Marvel's cosmic avengers may be an exciting, colorful, ticklish nostalgia trip, but how much deeper the world of Guardians of the Galaxy goes in ink only makes us more excited to see what references and other surprises are in store for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. With that in mind, check back with CinemaBlend for more updates.

DC's Super Pets Movie Has Been Pushed Back

DC's Super Pets Movie Has Been Pushed Back
Ace, Krypto and B'dg in DC Super Pets

Early this year, Warner Bros. planted its flag on the calendar, setting release dates for a few of its upcoming DC films, including Matt Reeves’ The Batman, James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad soft reboot and the newly-announced animated movie DC Super Pets. The latter of those films was set for release on May 21, 2021 but has now been pushed all the way back into the following year.


Warner Bros. has pushed its DC Super Pets movie back an entire year and the movie about the crime-fighting pets of DC’s biggest superheroes will now release on May 22, 2022 according to Deadline. No specific reason has been given as of yet to why DC Super Pets has been pushed back so far.


Earlier this week, on the heels of John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum’s successful box office debut, John Wick: Chapter 4 was announced and slated for release on May 21, 2021. That would have had it opening the same weekend as DC Super Pets, although I doubt that was the reason for the move. There may be some small overlap, but in general an animated kids movie and an R-rated action film aren’t competing for the same audience.




DC Super Pets now lands in a 2022 calendar that is largely populated by untitled films from the various studios and franchises. The dates have been claimed, but we don’t know what will be coming out on them as of yet. But we can now look forward, way forward, to seeing something quite different from DC in the form of DC Super Pets in three years time.


It's worth clarifying that DC Super Pets, from directors Jared Stern and Sam Levine, is not based on the Capstone Publishing line of the same name, though there could be some similarities. That imprint followed the crime-fighting adventures of the pets of DC characters like Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman. Among the furry heroes were Superman’s Krypto the Super-Dog, Batman’s Ace the Bat-Hound, Wonder Woman’s kangaroo Jumpa, Aquaman’s seahorse Storm and the space squirrel and Green Lantern B’dg.


From 2012-2013, a series of animated shorts based on the characters aired on Cartoon Network’s DC Nation block. It will be interesting to see how this DC Super Pets movie compares to the previous comics and animated shorts, but feel free to check out a clip of DC Super Pets from Cartoon Network below to see what the previous onscreen incarnation was like.




While we all love cohesive cinematic universes like the MCU, it is exciting that something as obscure and silly and fun as DC Super Pets is going to eventually make its way to the big screen. Last year’s big screen DC animated film, Teen Titans Go! To The Movies only made $52 million. But its budget was only $10 million and it gave audiences, especially the younger ones, something different from the standard superhero blockbuster.


Hopefully DC Super Pets can continue that trend and like Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, give us some variety in our cinematic superhero adventures.


DC Super Pets may be delayed until 2022, but 2021 still has two huge DC movies with The Batman on June 25 and The Suicide Squad on August 6. That’s all a long way off though so check out our 2019 Release Schedule for movies you can see this year.



Friday, May 8, 2020

Arnold Schwarzenegger Describes The Brutal Death Scene That Would've Earned Commando An X Rating

Arnold Schwarzenegger Describes The Brutal Death Scene That Would've Earned Commando An X Rating
Arnold Schwarzenegger in Commando

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s output during the 1980s was legendary. The A-list action superstar cranked out a series of memorable thrillers in that particular decade, from The Terminator (1984) to Predator (1987). But none were quite as violent as 1985’s Commando, which cast Schwarzenegger as a retired Special Forces colonel fighting to rescue his kidnapped daughter (played by Alyssa Milano).


There were a number of incredibly graphic kills in Commando, including one scene where Arnold throws a pipe through a guy’s chest and INTO a steam pipe. Naturally, Schwarzenegger buttons the scene up by telling the guy to “Let off some steam!” It’s brilliant. But in a Reddit session today following the drop of the new Terminator: Dark Fate trailer, Schwarzenegger revealed a kill scene that he wanted to do in Commando, but it got shot down.


He said:





I wanted to cut off a guy’s arm and kill him with it. This wasn’t in the script. He would throw a knife at me, and after he missed, while his arm was still extended, I chop it off at the shoulder with a machete and beat him to death with it. Needless to say, I was asked by the head of the studio, Larry Gordon, to come to his office. And he said ‘What the fuck is the matter with you? Do you want to make money with this movie, or [be] an X-rated movie?’ I said, ‘You’re right.’ And he said, ‘Get the fuck out of my office.’



Hard to argue with the studio head not wanting to see Arnold Schwarzenegger sever a man’s arm, and then beat him to death with it. There are limits in an R-rated studio movie, even one that has the incredible death scene like the one below:


He’s dead tired! God, Arnold’s one-liner game was on point in Commando! It kind of had to be, because the plot of Commando was kind of a hot mess, with Arnold getting out of deadly jams using his brawn instead of his brain, and leaving a trail of dead bodies in his wake.




This was peak Schwarzenegger. He would transition from Commando to Raw Deal, Predator, The Running Man and Red Heat before tapping into his comedic side for movies like Twins (1988), Kindergarten Cop (1990) and Last Action Hero (1993).


Part of me is really happy that, back in the Commando days, Arnold was looking for new ways to increase the gratuitous violence in his movies, that might have made them more C-list, but also more cult-movie in tone. But then again, if that studio head had allowed it, Schwarzenegger might never have become the major movie star that he continues to be to this day.


Arnold will be back on screen later this year with Tim Miller’s Terminator: Dark Fate. Look for it in theaters on November 1.



Doctor Who’s Matt Smith Denies Star Wars Episode IX Role

Doctor Who’s Matt Smith Denies Star Wars Episode IX Role
Matt Smith as the Doctor

It's was just over six months ago when it was reported that, among the names like Keri Russell, Richard E. Grant and a returning Billy Dee Williams, former Doctor Who star Matt Smith was joining the cast of Star Wars Episode IX. We hadn't heard much since then, and the initial report seemed solid, so we all went on our merry way looking for more Star Wars details, but now it appears the initial report may not have been entirely accurate, as Smith himself now says he's not actually in the movie at all. According to Smith himself...



As far as I can tell, I’m definitely not



The quote comes courtesy of the L.A. Times who recently sat down with Smith for an interview. While the profile doesn't go any further than Smith's single quote, the statement does appear to be quite definitive.




The initial report from Variety said little more than that Smith would be in the movie, no information on his character was revealed. Still the source tended to be accurate and there was no initial denial from Smith or anybody else that the story wasn't true. Of course, there also wasn't a confirmation and many of those who have been cast have been able to admit it, even if they can't say much more than that.


If we wanted to believe that the initial report was true, there is certainly room to parse Matt Smith's statement in a number of different ways. Maybe Smith is in Star Wars Episode IX, but he'll play an alien, meaning we'll never actually see the actor himself on the screen. Maybe Smith filmed a scene, but he's already aware that it will likely be edited out of the final cut, meaning he was going to be in the movie, but now he won't be. That would explain the odd "as far as I can tell" part of the statement.


Of course, Matt Smith could also be straight up lying. It wouldn't be the first time that somebody just lied about the truth of a movie in order to attempt to keep a secret. Episode IX is being directed by J.J. Abrams after all, the same guy who directed Star Trek Into Darkness, the film where everybody swore up and down that Benedict Cumberbatch wasn't playing Khan, before we all saw the movie and learned he was totally playing Khan.




While these things are possible, the more likely scenario is that Smith is telling the truth and he's not in Star Wars Episode IX. Maybe he was in talks to be in the movie but those talks fell through. The news that Matt Smith had joined Star Wars: Episode IX came within only a few days of the news that Dominic Monaghan had also joined the cast. Maybe they were both up for the same role, and Smith lost out, then the rumor mill got its wires crossed. It wouldn't be the first time that happened either.


Or maybe the whole things was just a bunch of crap.


We'll know the truth one way or another this December when Star Wars: Episode IX hits theaters.



 

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