Cinema news

Broadway’s two-part Harry Potter and the Cursed Child production is a fascinating beast. It brings with it most of its West End cast, acting as direct sequel to the books yet trading on the iconography of the film series, all while making its own unique mark on Harry Potter canon. Picking up from the originals’ “Seventeen Years Later” epilogue, it follows a new generation of characters – best friends Albus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy, sons of bitter rivals Harry and Draco – across four years of their schooling in a matter of minutes, before diving back into time itself. Time is central to The Cursed Child, both as a fictional construct as well as a force of nostalgia. The play’s relationship to an audience that grew up with these characters is paramount. However, the only “Easter eggs” it trades in are those that, through their exploration, lead to a more complex, more complete understanding of the characters as they enter their middle age. Each adult character – Ron, Hermione, Gi...

How to Train Your Dragon 3 , or rather, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World , has been in the works for years. Originally announced in 2012 for release in 2016, the third and final installment of the DreamWorks Animation franchise is now slated to arrive in March of 2019. After just learning the title of the anticipated sequel back in April, we’re finally getting a glimpse at what the story will offer thanks to a new poster and the promise of the first trailer arriving next week. How to Train Your Dragon 3 Poster Not only does the poster feature Hiccup ( Jay Baruchel ) in some new armor, but the environment in which he’s standing looks colorful and vibrant, like a black light poster or even the the Avatar world of Pandora at night. But of course, the bigger, more important detail is the second dragon facing the Night Fury dragon known as Toothless. The dragon is essentially the complete opposite of Toothless. Instead of having black scales and skin, this new dragon ha...

Finally, someone decided to stop casting Jennifer Garner as suburban moms and let her kick some ass in an action role again. Garner stars in  Peppermint , a new action-thriller from Taken  director  Pierre Morel . Garner plays a woman out for justice after waking up from a coma to find her family murdered. Watch the  Peppermint trailer below. Peppermint Trailer I really like Jennifer Garner, and I’m happy to see her get back in the action game. Garner has spent such a long time playing suburban moms or popping-up in commercials that it’s easy to forget she comes from an action background. Her breakout role was on the J.J. Abrams series  Alias , and she even got to lead her own action movie once –  Elektra , a spin-off from  Daredevil . Now Garner appears in  Peppermint , a revenge-thriller that sounds a little like  Death Wish Starring Jennifer Garner . In  Peppermint , Garner plays a wife and mother “who awakens from a coma aft...

The first Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom box office tracking numbers have arrived, and it looks like director  J.A. Bayona ‘s dino-centric sequel could make anywhere between $130-$150 million domestically on its opening weekend. That would put it well below Jurassic World ‘s huge $208 million opening weekend, but that movie is currently sitting at number four on the all-time biggest opening weekend list, and no one is expecting this sequel to outperform that 2015 monster hit. Deadline’s sources say Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is expected to pull in around $140 million when it debuts in late June. If it earned exactly $140 million, that would put it at number 23 on the all-time biggest opening weekend list, sandwiched between Twilight: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 and Twilight: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 . Again, Colin Trevorrow’s Jurassic World shocked Hollywood when it opened to $208 million, which, at the time, was the highest opening weekend ever. (I enjoy that movie and I’m s...

It’s the movie news that demanded an emergency podcast last week: Boba Fett is apparently locked in for his own  Star Wars  spin-off, to be directed and co-written by James Mangold . The Fett film had long been rumored, so for many fans, the bigger surprise probably came from seeing Mangold’s name attached to the project. However, the news makes perfect sense if you consider Mangold’s filmography. It may not be outwardly apparent just from scanning the list of movies he’s made , but when you focus in on his best work, it becomes clear that Mangold is a filmmaker who draws great inspiration from a genre whose heyday has largely passed: namely, the Western. If the American Western is a fable in the same way that Star Wars is a fairy tale, then throughout his career, Mangold has consistently been able to reimagine that fable in new film settings. This is what makes him such a good match for a space western about everyone’s favorite Mandalorian bounty hunter. The bygon...

Maybe it’s time to admit that  The Crow  will never rise from the grave. After a troubled development and a revolving list of directors and stars, the Crow remake is dead yet again, as star Jason Momoa and director Corin Hardy exit the project. How hard is it to get  The Crow off the ground?  Very hard, apparently. In fact, it’s damn near impossible. Deadline reports that the long-gestating remake is in trouble yet again, as star Jason Momoa and director Corin Hardy have both exited the project. Per Deadline, “this has to do with creative and financial differences with Samuel Hadida, whose Davis Films holds the underlying rights and who was financing the film.” The Crow is based on the  James O’Barr graphic novel of the same name. In 1994,  Alex Proyas adapted O’Barr’s comic into a goth-as-hell action thriller. The plot involves a murdered rockstar who returns from the grave to get revenge against the punks who killed him and his girlfrien...

We’re two weeks away from seeing Pixar’s superhero family  The Incredibles returning to action in a sequel that fans have been wanting to see for 14 years. That means we’re heading into the home stretch of Disney’s marketing campaign, and a new clip has arrived online showcasing some  action. The Incredibles 2 clip from Disney and Pixar comes from the opening sequence of the movie that picks up where the original movie left off. The villain who calls himself The Underminer has shown up to create trouble in Municiberg, and our family of superheroes is ready to take him down.  Watch the Incredibles 2 Clip Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl take the lead in trying to stop The Underminer’s drilling vehicle from destroying more of the city. As Mr. Incredible explains, the ground-dwelling villain has already escaped, and now they’re left trying to clean up this mess he’s left them. Meanwhile, even though Dash and Violet proved that they can handle themselves in the first mov...