Beyond the Screen #25 – Bond Turns 60, Smile, Wolverine’s Return, Star Trek in Hell and John Waters Back in Director’s Chair
Smile Laughs All the Way to the Bank
In another entry to 2022’s strong catalogue of modest horror hits, Smile pulled off a $22 million opening weekend, largely supported by younger filmgoers. The horror film likely benefitted from a ‘viral’ marketing push, photobombing public events like baseball games or news broadcasts with background appearances by actors baring menacing grins. The film may have overperformed, but considering their vastly different appeals, Smile is unlikely to have stolen attendance away from another original IP property opening last weekend.
Bros, labelled the first gay romcom from a major studio. With a pretty steep (for the genre) budget of $22 million, plus marketing (supposedly between $20-40 million), Bros disappointed with a $4.8 million opening domestically, despite a hugely positive reception by critics and positive tracking for opening night audiences. Leading man Billy Eichner went on to decry the underperformance on Twitter; “That’s just the world we live in, unfortunately. Even with glowing reviews, great Rotten Tomatoes scores, an A CinemaScore etc, straight people, especially in certain parts of the country, just didn’t show up for Bros. And that’s disappointing but it is what it is.” Eichner went on; “Everyone who isn’t a homophobic weirdo should go see Bros tonight! You will have a blast! And it is special and uniquely powerful to see this particular story on a big screen, especially for queer folks who don’t get this opportunity often. I love this movie so much. Go Bros!!!”.
Meanwhile, Don’t Worry Darling suffered an enormous (for non-superhero or horror films) 62% drop in its second weekend, still managing $7.3 million, while The Woman King held well in its third weekend (down 36%), for $7 million. The Avatar rerelease has racked up just over $58 million domestically. Global totals are as follows: Home Coming from China with $58 million, Smile with $ 37 million, then Ponniyin Selvan: Part One’s $28 million gross, the Avatar rerelease with $17 million, Don’t Worry Darling at $13 million, while romcom Ticket to Paradise brought in $9.4 million ahead of its American release. Black Adam is looking to shake up the box office with a blockbuster performance before long.
Hugh Jackman Returning as Wolverine for Deadpool 3
Ever since Disney purchased 20th Century Fox, and thereby the rights to the X-Men and Deadpool, there have been grumblings over the treatment the third Deadpool film might expect (being MCU-ified and all). We got our first insights into the film’s production thanks to a skit posted by star Ryan Reynold’s personal Twitter account, along with a casting that’s sure to win over at least a few skeptics. Hugh Jackman saunters by in the background of the video and nonchalantly agrees to return in the role of Wolverine, a character he had, strictly speaking, retired from with 2016’s Logan, but since when do Deadpool movies bother with toeing the line?
In a follow-up post, however, Reynolds and Jackman sat down to clear up some concerns fans might have had about the crossover, including timeline questions, the Logan canon, and a few MCU FAQs. The explanation devolves into gibberish, as you might have expected. A crucial caveat: the sovereignty of Logan seems to be respectfully maintained.
Star Trek Taken Off Release Slate
The sequel to 2016’s Star Trek Beyond has been in development hell for some time and seemed closer to coming to fruition than ever before when the news of its being added to Paramount’s release slate was announced. Unfortunately, one step forward has been followed by a bold step back; once again without a planned release date. Star Trek has had a revival of series adaptations in recent years, though a return of the Kelvin Timeline cast would be welcome, even as it seems increasingly challenging.
Friday Sequels Shut Down
Ice Cube explained why a fourth film in the franchise has yet to take off, two of his proposed scripts have been rejected by Universal Studios, who own the Friday property. “I’m trying to get it out of Warner Bros. They don’t believe in the culture, man.” One proposed script featured Craig and Da Da winding up in prison: “The shit is funny,” Ice Cube said. “After they rejected it, they had all these movies about going to jail. So, I was like, ‘Man, see, y’all fuck me up.’ The other script was about the youngsters in the hood having beef with the OGs, and Craig has to come back and squash that. Smokey’s son is the new Deebo, and he’s wilding.” Whether Chris Tucker would be on board for another film in the series is in doubt.
In Development: Beverly Hills Cop, Now You See Me, Planet of the Apes, Tarzan, Nosferatu
A third entry in one of the most unlikely franchise success stories in recent memory is on the way. Now You See Me 3 will be directed by Ruben Fleischer, the man behind Uncharted and the Zombieland films, with a new treatment by writer Seth Grahame-Smith. Said Fleischer; “There are three things in this world I absolutely love… Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson and magic. To have the chance to work with these two talented actors, as well as the rest of the incredible cast of the Now You See Me movies is a dream come true”.
Following the seemingly conclusive War for the Planet of the Apes, the next Ape film will be set “many years after the time of Caesar”. Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes, penned by Josh Friedman, starring Patrick Aison, Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver is on track for a 2024 release.
Sony Pictures purchased the rights to adapt Edgar Rice Buroughs’ Tarzan for the big screen, with a “total reinvention” and 21st century modernization in mind, per The Hollywood Reporter. The most recent attempt at reigniting franchise potential for the Tarzan story was in 2016, met with an underwhelming performance at the box office. Sony seems to be in the very early stages of development on their take.
Eddie Murphy is making a push to revive one of his most beloved characters with Beverly Hills Cop: Axel Foley, now co-starring Kevin Bacon and entering production at Netflix, with Mark Molloy directing a script by Will Beall. Among the cast are the familiar faces of Judge Reinhold, Paul Reiser, John Ashton and Bronson Pinchot with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Taylour Paige joining.
Robert Eggers’ ever-in-jeopardy Nosferatu remake seems to be on track at last, with casting announcements revealing the film’s stars: Bill Skarsgård and Lily-Rose Depp. Despite the relative financial underperformance of Eggers’ big budget Viking revenge epic The Northman, the director seems to finally have signed what must be signed, courted who must be courted, and impressed enough bigwigs to move ahead with his long-time-coming passion project.
Bond Turns 60
Dr. No, the first theatrical Bond film, first blazed a trail through cinematic history 60 years ago, premiering on the 5th of October 1962. Still going strong, the series producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson gave a few more vague insights into their work on rebooting the franchise with a new leading man for the 26th Eon produced Bond.
Speaking with Empire’s Chris Hewitt, Broccoli had this to say: “When you change the actor you have to reimagine the direction the film’s gonna go in. When you hire an actor, you’re hoping you’re going to spend a decade at least with them and make four or five or six films with them. So you have to think through, ‘what is the trajectory? What is that actor going to bring? How are you going to move the series into another direction? It’s not just flicking through Spotlight and saying, ‘Oh, there’s a guy who’s 6’1″‘ We’re going to take our time. We want to get a sense of where we want to go with the series and we want to do that before we bring anybody else on.”
John Waters to Return to Directing
For the first time in 18 years, 76-year-old maverick maniac John Waters will step into the director’s chair to adapt his own novel; Liarmouth: A Feel-Bad Romance. “‘Liarmouth’ is the craziest thing I’ve written in a while so maybe it’s fitting that my novel was shocking enough to jumpstart the engine of my film career. Thrilled to be back in the movie business, hopefully to spread demented joy to adventuresome moviegoers around the world.”.
