Even though critics continually tear these movies apart, Michael Bay is coming back with a fifth installment to his Transformers franchise, and he's bringing back a familiar face along with him. Josh Duhamel is set to return as Lieutenant Colonel William Lennox and will join Mark Wahlberg's Cade Yeager. I don't know how these two are going to meet, but having these two characters share the screen will be pretty cool. And oh yeah, the movie has a title. It's going to be called Transformers: The Last Knight.
Do you remember how Age of Extinction ended? Look, if you are a movie critic and you're reading this, letting me explain to you that yes, these movies do have plots. They may not be great stories, but they do follow a plot none the less. Anyways, at the end of Age of Extinction we saw our Autobot leader Optimus Prime flying off into space in search of the creators. They were kind of touched upon by the bounty hunter robot Lockdown, but little else is known about these creators. Lockdown said that the Autobots and Decepticons were too busy fighting one another to understand the true purpose of their creation. So Optimus Prime flies off to find them. He was also sporting some pretty cool new equipment at the end of the film, too. Along with his updated armor, he carried a sword (the Sword of Judgment, maybe?) that could lead people to think that the movie title could be referring to Optimus himself. Of course, these titles are often misleading, so maybe the last knight refers to the creators, or "creator" if there's only one left? I don't know, this is all speculation.
Besides Duhamel and Wahlberg returning, Tyrese Gibson is letting us know that he's interested in making a return to the franchise as well, but no word on whether this will happen or not. It should, if Col. Lennox is coming back, he ought to have his trusted number two around, right? Maybe this will be a new trend for the franchise, bring back the actors from previous films and mix them in with the new bunch? They could bring back Megan Fox (Yay!) and Shia LaBeouf (Boo!) and get the band back together. I doubt that will happen. Fox is too busy with TMNT's franchise that I don't see her coming back. Plus, she was pretty much just eye candy in the series, and she said she'd done with roles like that, so don't expect her to return any time soon. As far as LaBeouf goes, his exit was probably the best thing for the series. Look, say what you will about the guy, but he is a good actor. It's just that this wasn't a role that fit him very well.
This might be Bay's last go around with the franchise. Directing five of these films is pretty impressive for any director. Paramount has said that it wants to do some spin off movies to the series, maybe focusing on Bumblebee or one that takes place on Cybertron. Regardless of their plans, if the movie makes a lot of money you can expect to see more of these in the future. Just an F.Y.I., the franchise has banked $3.75 billion at the box office so far. Transformers: The Last Knight will make it's debut June 23, 2017.
Yesterday I talked about X-23 and today I'm going to talk about Harley Quinn. Do you know what these two characters have in common? They both first appeared in animated television shows before making their way to comic books. Both have become fan favorites, but Harley Quinn has shot to super-stardom. She's one of the most popular characters that you'll see women cosplay as at comic book conventions, and even people not familiar with comic books recognize her. She's spanned television, comic books, and video games, and now she'll be making her big screen debut in Suicide Squad which comes out this August. Margot Robbie will be playing Harley Quinn, and even though this is a movie that has a large group of characters competing for screen time, she seems to be the main focus of trailers and promotions.
Since Warner Bros. had signed Robbie to a muti-picture deal, it was assumed that this would mean that she would appear as a supporting character in a Suicide Squad sequel and/or the Batman solo film, but now it's being reported that she may be getting a solo movie of her own...kind of. Robbie approached Warner Bros. with an unnamed female writer to pitch their idea for a Harley Quinn movie, and from the reports going around, Warner Bros. loved it. Robbie will not only be starring in the film, but will also produce it. She has her own production company called LuckyChap Entertainment, which is currently in post-production on their first feature film called Terminal. Here's where things get interesting.
The movie won't just be a solo outing for Harley Quinn, but will include a whole array of female-centric DC characters. While nothing has been confirmed (obviously) word is that it would also feature the likes of Batgirl and the Birds of Prey. I can see why Warner Bros. is excited about a movie like this. With Marvel ruling the box office, Warner Bros. is trying to work their way into the comic book movie conversation with their own universe. While Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice have failed to be the blockbusters that they had been hoping for, don't count them out yet. Suicide Squad seems to be tracking good with fans after releasing three different trailers for the film, and Wonder Woman has been getting good word of mouth as well. Wonder Woman is particularly popular with fans because this would be the first female comic book character to get her own solo movie. This is something that Warner Bros. has an edge over Marvel with, and if they were to make a Harley Quinn movie, too, well...that would give them an even bigger edge over Marvel in drawing in younger female audiences.
Like I said earlier, nothing has been confirmed yet, possibly in case Suicide Squad bombs at the box office they can walk away from the deal and pretend it never happened. With Harley Quinn's popularity, as well as Margot Robbie's, I find this happening hard to believe. That, and Suicide Squad has something going for it that Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice didn't...it's not being directed by Zach Snyder!
If you're a regular reader of this blog, you know that 20th Century Fox is doing everything that it can to expand their X-Men property into multiple movie titles. X-Men: Apocalypse will conclude the second of the X-Men movie trilogies, and Wolverine 3 will be Hugh Jackman's last appearance as Wolverine, so where do they go from here? They've already branched out when they gave us Deadpool and they're also working on a Gambit solo film, but these movies just follow one character (even if others might show up). What they want is another mutant team that can give them more characters to feature. You know, like their own version of Avengers or Justice League.
Two projects that have been mentioned as moving forward are New Mutants and X-Force. Out of the two, New Mutants seems to be moving along faster than X-Force. Fox has announced three release dates for unannounced X-Men projects, and it's being assumed that they are for the Gambit movie, Deadpool 2, and New Mutants. That's not to say that they aren't working on the X-Force movie. In fact, Simon Kinberg is current working on a script for the film, and some interesting news that's being said about it? IT's going to feature a female Wolverine.
I've talked about X-23 in previous posts, so I won't go into the details of who Laura Kinney (a.k.a. X-23) is, but if you aren't familiar with her, just go to my old posts and you'll find her information there. Getting back to her, though, if this information is true, then I think it's a good decision on Fox's part (which is surprising in itself). The main reason why I think this is a good idea is that trying to replace Hugh Jackman as Wolverine just a few years after his stepping down from the role would be stupid. Too many people would be comparing the new actor to Jackman, and it would take away from the movie. Jackman has been playing Wolverine for the past 16 years, and fans love him in this role. I just think that people would be unwilling to accept anyone else as Wolverine, and a movie with a new Logan would bomb. So what do you do? You stay true to the comics, and instead of replacing the actor, you replace the character...just like they did in the comic books.
There have been rumors that X-23 will be making an appearance in Wolverine 3 (coming out March 3, 2017) so will this give us our first look at the actress that will be possibly appearing in the X-Force movie? If the movie does well and the fans accept her as Logan's "daughter," then that might help sell the X-Force movie for when it comes out. That, and if Cable does make an appearance in Deadpool 2, then that would give the movie studio two characters that fans are already familiar with to help in promoting the X-Force movie. Of course, all of this is just speculation, nothing has been confirmed, not even that the movie is going to get made.
So what do you think? Do you like the idea of X-23 becoming the new Wolverine, or do you think they should try focusing their attention on other mutants in the X-Men universe? Let me know your thoughts in the comments section down below.
Before I talk about everything that happened last night on television (and some other things) let me just point out the obvious...***HUGE SPOILERS*** if you haven't watched last night's DC Legends of Tomorrow.
Still with me? Good. So last night was the first season finale for the show, and it left us with a bit of a shake up. First, Hawkgirl and Hawkman both split. Not from each other, just from the team. Now that they were rid of Vandal Savage after the team defeated him last night, they wanted to go off and live free from his grasp for the first time in 4000 years. Can't say that I blame them. But then the unexpected happened...at the very end of the show, a second Waverider shows up and out comes Rex Tyler (a.k.a. Hourman) and tells them that he was sent from the future and that he was part of the Justice Society of America (JSA). Didn't see that one coming. Nice touch on leaving the show with a cliffhanger, though. Marc Guggenheim has already said that we can expect to see some more new DC characters in season two of the show, so it looks like Hourman is just the first of many that are going to be introduced.
Something else that surprised me while watching Legends last night, I saw a commercial for Supergirl season two on the CW. They didn't waste any time letting people know that she'll be joining the other DC television shows over there. It was a good commercial, too. It was able to blend Kara in with the Green Arrow and Flash, like she's always belonged there. To be honest, she should have been there all along. CBS was not the place for that show. But now that she's over on the CW, the network's head, Mark Pedowitz, has confirmed that next season we can expect a massive four-show crossover event. It hasn't been confirmed whether it will span across all four shows, or if it will only feature characters from the four shows on just one or two of the programs. It's way too early for them to be deciding that just yet. It has been reported, though, that it will take place some time this December.
DC is doing something with their television properties that Marvel hasn't been able to do with theirs. They've managed to successfully blend them all together into one shared universe. Look, I know that Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is supposed to take place in the same universe as their movie properties, but even so...the show just seems isolated from everything. Marvel is just now starting to do the same thing as DC with their Netflix shows, but it's much darker and doesn't appeal to as wide of an audience as the CW's shows. They also aren't getting the same ratings as the CW's shows. As far as money goes, Marvel still trounces DC in that area, but as far as enjoyable television? DC wins that hands down. Now if they can only get their DCEU on the same track...
Two of my favorite movies growing up were Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins and The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension. These were both classic and campy 80's movies that were a lot of fun to watch. And even though they both seem to indicate by their titles that there are multiple movies with these characters (i.e. "The Adventure Begins", "The Adventures of...") these were the only ones made featuring these characters. That soon might change...well, at least for one of them. And it'll be on television.
It seems that writer/director/podcaster Kevin Smith has gained some confidence with directing television shows after his first go at it with The Flash. He stepped out of his comfort zone by doing it, but now he seems to have caught the bug. He's not the only one that's gained confidence in himself. Production studios have also taken notice. Because of this, Smith is looking to move forward on a project that he's been wanting to do, a television remake/reboot of Buckaroo Banzai. He's already pitched the idea to MGM, and they seem to be on board with the project. Now they just have to shop it around to different television companies.
The movie followed a "physicist/neurosurgeon/test pilot/rock musician" named Dr. Buckaroo Banzai, played by Peter Weller. He's out to save the universe with the help of a team of fellow adventurers by traveling across space and time in a supped-up Ford F-350. They're out to stop a band of interdimensional bad guys that are led by Dr. Emilio Lizardo, played by John Lithgow. Smith's pitch for the television show would follow the same story from the movie and have it take place all through season one. This is a good idea, considering that one of the main complaints of the film was there was way too much going on that it made it hard to follow. Season two would then go on to a new adventure (if it gets picked up for a season two).
It's easy to complain that this is just another attempt at Hollywood going back to old ideas and trying to bring them into the present culture and make money off of them, but I don't think this the case here. Well, at least about the first part, everybody is looking to make money in that business. With Smith's fanboy credentials and love of comics, I believe that he'll stay true to the original movie's characters and story. He'll just be able to define them both a little more than the movie was able to.
No word yet on if it'll get picked up by anyone for a pilot yet, but if I hear anything else, I'll make sure to post it here once I do. If anyone else out there remembers this movie, let me know what you thought about it in the comments section below.
Sometimes good things happen for all of the wrong reasons. That's kind of the case when talking about Clark Gregg's Agent Phil Coulson. Originally written as a throw away character that was only to appear in the first Iron Man movie, a strange sequence of events led to him becoming one of the most beloved characters in the MCU.
Zack Stentz, one of the two writers for the first Thor movie (the other writer being Ashley Miller) recently sat down with Kevin Smith for his Fatman on Batman podcast to talk about being tasked by Marvel to do a re-write for the film, and only being given a few weeks to do it. Here's what he had to say:
“This was a page one re-write, based very loosely on story beats that they gave us… there were beats that they had, and beats that they didn’t have, and we were kind of working them together. At one point it was like ‘Okay we want S.H.I.E.L.D. to be in there’ and they’re like ‘We can’t have S.H.I.E.L.D. as the bad guys!’ ‘No, not the bad guys, just the people opposing Thor; they’ll be the good guys by the end, trust us.’
“And then they’re like ‘Well, you can have S.H.I.E.L.D., but Sam Jackson’s holding us up in negotiations so we don’t know if we can have Nick Fury. And we’re like ‘Well, how about that Clark Gregg guy from the first Iron Man, he was great and he popped! Can we have Coulson?’ And they’re like ‘Coulson, Coulson, Coulson… oh him! Yeah, you can have him.’… They ended up giving him a bigger role in Iron Man 2 because they liked how he was popping in Thor. Clark Gregg actually sent us t-shirts as a thank you.”
So Samuel L. Jackson holding out in negotiations is responsible for Clark Gregg's rise in the MCU. See what I mean by good things happen for all of the wrong reasons? Even though it was his charisma and talent that made him memorable to the writers, it was Jackson's contract negotiations that actually led to his becoming a main player. Funny how things work out. Oh, and Gregg's not the only MCU character that should be thanking Stentz and Miller. Stentz went on to say:
“You want to know who owes us and hasn’t said ANYTHING? Part way through [the script] there’s ‘the SHIELD Sniper takes aim’ and we identify ‘Barton’. And [the producers said] ‘But if we get Hawkeye, we’ll have to get a real actor.’ And then they realized we can just shoot the A-Side, and then when we cast for The Avengers we’ll just go back and shoot a thing with that actor. So, Jeremy Renner: You’re welcome!”
It sounds like some clever camera shots were made to Renner's Hawkeye to get into the film before making an appearance in Avengers. Like I said, funny how things work out sometimes.
It was recently announced that Michael B. Jordan had been signed on to the Black Panther movie that Marvel is outing out, and it sounds like he'll be playing the villain. This is a huge win for Marvel, since Jordan is fast becoming a bankable star...even with his appearance as Johnny storm in 20th Century Fox's poor attempt at a Fantastic Four reboot. The Black Panther movie is getting some stellar talent for the film. Besides Jordan signing on, Oscar-winner Lupita Nyong is also reported to have a role in the film, as well as Chadwick Boseman, who we all were able to see play T'Challa, the leader of Wakanda, in this month's Captain America: Civil War. His role, as well as Tom Holland's Spider-Man, were shinning moments in the film, and the buzz for his solo movie outing is starting to reach fever pitch. But let's get back to Jordan...
With Jordan joining the film, this will mark his third film working with director Ryan Coogler. Jordan and Coogler teamed up back in 2015 to make a little movie called Creed, which helped the star and the director become A-list talent, the prior in front of the camera and the latter behind the camera. They had also worked on Fruitvale Station together. Does this mean that Coogler had a hand in getting Jordan signed to the film? I'm sure it didn't hurt. When directors find actors that they enjoy working with, they tend to continue to working with them in other projects. Christopher Nolan is one of these directors. Go to IMDB and see how many times he's worked with the same actors.
On the negative side of this announcement is that it pretty much dooms any sort of possibility of Marvel and Fox coming together for a crossover event with their Fantastic Four property. I know that it doesn't completely rule it out, but in order for this to happen, first, well...they'd actually have to sit down and agree to it. But second, they'd have to do what Sony is doing with Spider-Man and recast and reintroduce us to the team all over again. That won't happen any time soon. Why do I say this? Simon Kinberg (Fantastic Four and X-Men writer-producer) says that he still sees a sequel to the Fantastic Four film happening, and promises that it will be more light and fun. If Fox is really considering doing this after the terrible going that the FF had last time around, they must really be desperate. You also have to consider that the cast may not want to come back and take another beating at the box office. It sure wouldn't help them being considered for any future projects. I even read that some of the cast didn't even watch the final cut of the movie that they starred in! If they didn't even want to see it, why would we? And why would we want a sequel to that movie?
So Jordan's Johnny Storm might not be coming back, but at least Jordan is. I'm looking forward to seeing him back with Marvel, but actual at Marvel where he truly belongs. Black Panther hits theaters February 16, 2018.
