It’s been three months since Universal Pictures and DreamWorks released the teaser trailer and poster for The Girl on the Train and today they’ve finally released the official poster and full trailer. The much-anticipated drama is based on Paula Hawkins’ bestselling book and was adapted for the screen by Erin Cressida Wilson. The Help‘s Tate Taylor directed the thriller which stars Emily Blunt, Rebecca Ferguson, Haley Bennett, Justin Theroux, Luke Evans, Allison Janney, Edgar Ramirez, Lisa Kudrow and Laura Prepon. The Girl on the Train will open in theaters on October 7, 2016.
The Plot: In the thriller, Rachel (Blunt), who is devastated by her recent divorce, spends her daily commute fantasizing about the seemingly perfect couple who live in a house that her train passes every day, until one morning she sees something shocking happen there and becomes entangled in the mystery that unfolds.
Lena Headey in ‘Game of Thrones’ season 6 episode 10 (Photo: Courtesy of HBO)
HBO announced filming on the critically acclaimed dramatic series Game of Thrones‘ season seven will begin later this summer. The show’s coming off its best season to date and while fans were still holding out hope for an April 2017 premiere of season seven, HBO just dashed those hopes by confirming it won’t arrive until next summer. The network also confirmed that season seven will only consist of seven one-hour episodes. That’s right…just seven episodes.
Season seven is set to shoot in Northern Ireland, Spain (Sevilla, Caceres, Almodovar del Rio, Santiponce, Zumaia and Bermeo), and Iceland. Mark Mylod, Jeremy Podeswa, Matt Shakman, and Alan Taylor have signed on to direct episodes. Mylod directed the No One (2016), The Broken Man (2016), Sons of the Harpy (2015), and High Sparrow (2015) episodes. Podeswa directed Home (2016), The Red Woman (2016), Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken (2015), and Kill the Boy (2015). Alan Taylor has directed six Game of Thrones episodes: Valar Morghulis (2012), The Prince of Winterfell (2012), The Night Lands (2012), The North Remembers (2012), Fire and Blood (2011), and Baelor (2011). Matt Shakman joins the series as director for the first time with the seventh season.
“Now that winter has arrived on Game of Thrones, executive producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss felt that the storylines of the next season would be better served by starting production a little later than usual, when the weather is changing,” said Casey Bloys, president, HBO programming. “Instead of the show’s traditional spring debut, we’re moving the debut to summer to accommodate the shooting schedule.”
Chris Hemsworth at the Thor: The Dark World premiere (Photo by Richard Chavez)
Just days before the third film of the new Star Trek film franchise arrives in theaters, Paramount Pictures, Bad Robot, and Skydance confirmed there will be a fourth Star Trek movie. In addition, the studio says Chris Hemsworth will be reprising his role from 2009’s Star Trek as George Kirk. The rest of the main cast – Chris Pine, John Cho, Simon Pegg, Zachary Quinto, Zoë Saldana, and Karl Urban – are expected to return. Paramount did not say who will be taking over the role of Chekov following the tragic death of Anton Yelchin.
According to the official announcement “in the next installment of the epic space adventure, Chris Pine’s Captain Kirk will cross paths with a man he never had a chance to meet, but whose legacy has haunted him since the day he was born: his father.”
The untitled fourth Star Trek film will be written by Patrick McKay and J.D. Payne, with Lindsey Weber and J.J. Abrams producing. Dana Goldberg and David Ellison are on board as executive producers.
The official trailer for The Magnificent Seven introduces the men who make up the Seven: The Bounty Hunter, the Gambler, the Outlaw, the Sharpshooter, the Assassin, the Warrior and the Tracker. Directed by Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, Shooter), the new The Magnificent Seven stars Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, Byung-Hun Lee, Martin Sensmeier, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Peter Sarsgaard, and Haley Bennett. Sony’s releasing the Western in theaters on September 23, 2016.
The Plot: With the town of Rose Creek under the deadly control of industrialist Bartholomew Bogue (Peter Sarsgaard), the desperate townspeople employ protection from seven outlaws, bounty hunters, gamblers and hired guns – Sam Chisolm (Denzel Washington), Josh Farraday (Chris Pratt), Goodnight Robicheaux (Ethan Hawke), Jack Horne (Vincent D’Onofrio), Billy Rocks (Byung-Hun Lee), Vasquez (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), and Red Harvest (Martin Sensmeier). As they prepare the town for the violent showdown that they know is coming, these seven mercenaries find themselves fighting for more than money.
The 2016 remake/reimagining of the 1984 comedy Ghostbusters performed slightly better than Sony’s pre-release estimates but still lost out on the #1 spot at the box office to reigning champ, The Secret Life of Pets. Ghostbusters grossed $46 million domestically, making it the highest grossing opening weekend for both director Paul Feig and actress Melissa McCarthy. Whether or not there will be a new Ghostbusters 2 will likely depend on how well the film performs over the next few weeks, although Sony executives seem to be happy about the opening weekend box office take. “We’re ecstatic with this opening. We have successfully restarted an important brand,” stated Sony’s Josh Greenstein.
The weekend also proved to be a good one for Disney as Finding Dory swam into the first place position as the highest grossing animated film domestically. As of the July 15, 2016 weekend, Finding Dory passed the $445 million mark and took over first place from Shrek 2.
Disney’s released three new clips from the upcoming family-friendly film Pete’s Dragon directed by David Lowery (Ain’t Them Bodies Saints). The studio labels this new Pete’s Dragon a “reimagining” of the classic 1977 film that starred Helen Reddy, Mickey Rooney, Shelley Winters, Jim Dale, and Sean Marshall. The cast of the new Pete’s Dragon includes Bryce Dallas Howard, Robert Redford, Karl Urban, Oona Laurence, Wes Bentley, Oakes Fegley, and a CG dragon. Disney’s set an August 12, 2016 theatrical release date for the PG fantasy adventure.
The Plot: For years, old wood carver Mr. Meacham (Robert Redford) has delighted local children with his tales of the fierce dragon that resides deep in the woods of the Pacific Northwest. To his daughter, Grace (Bryce Dallas Howard), who works as a forest ranger, these stories are little more than tall tales…until she meets Pete (Oakes Fegley). Pete is a mysterious 10-year-old with no family and no home who claims to live in the woods with a giant, green dragon named Elliot. And from Pete’s descriptions, Elliot seems remarkably similar to the dragon from Mr. Meacham’s stories. With the help of Natalie (Oona Laurence), an 11-year-old girl whose father Jack (Wes Bentley) owns the local lumber mill, Grace sets out to determine where Pete came from, where he belongs, and the truth about this dragon.
Attendees at the 2016 San Diego Comic-Con will once again be given handy bags that feature Warner Bros Television shows, Warner Bros. Animation series, and Warner Bros Pictures films to use for collecting goodies during the four-day event. More than 135,000 bags will be given out to those lucky enough to have a ticket to the sold-out fanfest which runs July 21 through July 24 in downtown San Diego.
For the first year, the bags will come with an “interactive, augmented reality experience courtesy of the visual discovery app Blippar.” Comic-Con attendees will each receive a bag with one of 18 designs and upon activating the Blippar app on a mobile device, they’ll be able to unlock an augmented reality experience.
2016 marks the seventh year Warner Bros. shows and films have been featured on the backpack style bags. Warner Bros. Television shows represented on the collectible bags are The 100, Arrow, The Big Bang Theory, Blindspot, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, The Flash, Gotham, iZOMBIE, Lucifer, Supergirl, and Supernatural. One bag design will feature both The Originals and The Vampire Diaries.
Warner Bros Animation series on the bag designs Justice League Action, Teen Titans Go!, and Vixen, and DC Super Hero Girls is also on a bag. Warner Bros Pictures will be represented with Suicide Squad and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them bags.
The Vampire Diaries‘ Ian Somerhalder delivers a special message about how to activate Blippar app on the Comic-Con bags:
Director Gareth Edwards (Godzilla) says shooting the new Rogue One: A Star Wars Story film was a bit like being a four year-old kid playing with Star Wars toys again. Disney released a special behind the scenes video from Rogue One with Edwards discussing what it’s like to be one the set of a Star Wars film. Felicity Jones also weighs in on being a part of the sci-fi action epic which is set to arrive in theaters on December 16, 2016. The sizzle reel debuted at the Star Wars Celebration in London where director Edwards, producer Kathleen Kennedy, and Rogue One stars Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Ben Mendelsohn, Donnie Yen, Mads Mikkelsen, Alan Tudyk, Riz Ahmed, Jiang Wen, and Forest Whitaker took the stage and provided a preview of what Star Wars fans can expect from this stand-alone film.
The Plot: Lucasfilm’s Rogue One, which takes place before the events of Star Wars: A New Hope, tells the story of unlikely heroes who have united to steal plans to the dreaded Death Star.
All manner of insults were leveled at the studio and director Paul Feig when the cast of the Ghostbusters reboot was announced. The outcry grew even louder with the release of the first trailer which earned the distinction of being the most disliked trailer in the history of YouTube. As I type this there are 939,711 dislikes on the video on Sony’s official YouTube channel and only 267,500 likes, and the comments are ruthless.
However, Feig and his co-writer Katie Dippold understood what they were getting themselves into by not only rebooting/revamping/reimagining (or any of the other associated “re-“ words) the popular classic comedy but also casting four women as the new Ghostbusters. Feig and Dippold smartly incorporated pointed digs at the haters, not necessarily embracing the backlash but at least acknowledging it in obvious references at the beginning of the film.
The movie kicks off with a tour guide (Zach Woods) at the Aldridge Mansion pointing out the estate’s face bidet, its anti-Irish security fence, and a door that shall always remain locked lest something evil emerge from the basement. Something otherworldly does, in fact, show up once the tour group’s left the premises, literally scaring the crap out of the tour guide and prompting a call to Columbia University professor Erin Gilbert (Kristen Wiig). Years earlier, Erin wrote a book about ghosts, which she’s since disavowed and has tried to keep hidden because she’s on the verge of receiving tenure at the college. Unfortunately, her former friend and co-writer, Abby (Melissa McCarthy), is selling the book online which is how Erin gets drawn into helping out the Aldridge Mansion staff.
Rather than take on the case herself, Erin pays a visit to Abby who’s still into proving the existence of ghosts along with her new research partner, Jillian Holtzmann (Kate McKinnon). One thing leads to another, Erin gets slimed, and the new team of Ghostbusters is formed. MTA worker Patty Tolan (Leslie Jones) joins the ghostbusting fun after her own run-in with a particularly creepy ghost in the subway. Patty doesn’t know anything about the science behind trapping ghosts, but she’s well-versed in the history of Manhattan which proves helpful when bizarre things begin happening around town. The final member of the team is Kevin (Chris Hemsworth), a mimbo with a chiseled body and nothing but empty space between his ears. Kevin’s brought on board solely on the basis of his looks as he has absolutely no hireable skills, although he’s undeniably sweet and extremely easy on the eyes.
Feig found the right actresses to fill the Ghostbuster jumpsuits with Kate McKinnon in particular embracing her character’s wackiness and stealing every scene. The technical mumbo gumbo just rolls off McKinnon’s tongue, but it’s the goofy non-sequiturs, the wacky dance moves, and her character’s love of her work that will make Holtzmann a fan favorite. McKinnon’s line delivery is perfect, although at times it appears she was on the verge of busting out some of her SNL moves. Leslie Jones also brings her A-game to the film playing the non-academian of the group. Of course Wiig and McCarthy have funny lines, but they’re just as often relegated to playing the straight women to McKinnon’s lunacy. But what ultimately makes Ghostbusters so appealing is that McCarthy, Wiig, Jones, and McKinnon have great chemistry. It’s easy to embrace them as a new ghostbusting team.
The film’s loaded with references to the original movie and without giving away spoilers, fans of the 1984 comedy from director Ivan Reitman will feel all warm and fuzzy when certain characters (both live and CG) appear on screen. Feig made sure to pay tribute to the original movie, acknowledging it while creating his own take on the story of four people who ain’t afraid of no ghosts.
While some attempt to use this film to argue about gender politics, 2016’s Ghostbusters isn’t a flag carrier for feminism. The film’s talented female cast obviously just wants the audience to have fun and not read more into it. This Ghostbusters doesn’t seem to be in the least bit interested in advancing any particular agenda, despite what those who’ve prejudged it want to believe.
The 2016 Ghostbusters isn’t an assault on anyone’s childhood. The fond memories we carry of the original Ghostbusters are all still intact. If you were one of the chorus who screamed, “Why?!!!” at the news of a female-driven Ghostbusters, director Paul Feig (Spy, Bridesmaids) answers that question by delivering a goofy summer comedy that’s just plain entertaining. Put aside your preconceived ideas about the new Ghostbusters and just give into the silly – and slimy – fun.
P.S. Be sure to stick around for the credits.
GRADE: B
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for supernatural action and some crude humor
Writer Kelly Fremon Craig makes her directorial debut with The Edge of Seventeen, a coming-of-age comedy/drama produced by Oscar-winning filmmaker James L. Brooks (Terms of Endearment). STX Entertainment’s just released a redband (restricted – not safe for work or kids) trailer for the film along with a new poster featuring the movie’s star, Hailee Steinfeld (Begin Again, Pitch Perfect 2).
Along with Steinfeld, the cast includes Woody Harrelson, Kyra Sedgwick, Haley Lu Richardson, Blake Jenner, and Hayden Szeto. The Edge of Seventeen opens in theaters on September 30, 2016.
The Plot: Everyone knows that growing up is hard, and life is no easier for high school junior Nadine (Hailee Steinfeld), who is already at peak awkwardness when her all-star older brother Darian (Blake Jenner) starts dating her best friend Krista (Haley Lu Richardson). All at once, Nadine feels more alone than ever, until the unexpected friendship of a thoughtful boy (Hayden Szeto) gives her a glimmer of hope that things just might not be so terrible after all.
