If you grew up in the early 2000s, you probably saw a trailer for Kangaroo Jack. The trailer gives the impression that the movie is a screwball road trip comedy about two friends and their wacky, talking Kangaroo sidekick. Except it’s not that. It’s an extremely unfunny movie about two idiots escaping the mob. There’s a random kangaroo in it for like 5 minutes and he only talks during a hallucination scene that lasts less than a minute. Turns out, the producers knew that they had a stinker on their hands so they cut the movie to be PG and focus the marketing on the one positive aspect that test audiences responded to, the talking kangaroo, tricking a bunch of families into buying tickets.

What other movies had similar, deceitfully malicious marketing campaigns?

> Universal announcing the new Christopher Nolan on the same week that ‘Joker 2’ was bombing in theaters was seen by some as a “twisting the knife” on Warner Bros. > >Puck’s Matt Belloni is reporting that Warners co-chiefs Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy weren’t even allowed to read the script for Nolan’s next movie. Only Universal’s Donna Langley was given the honor of going through the pages. It turns out, Nolan didn’t even consider Warner Bros. > >De Luca was very open about wanting Nolan’s return to his “home” studio after their public fallout over the previous regime’s theatrical strategy for “Tenet” during the pandemic. “We’re hoping to get Nolan back,” De Luca told Variety last summer. “I think there’s a world.” > >In a sign of rapprochement, Nolan had even been allowed to do post-production work on "Oppenheimer" on the Warners lot. The get-back-Nolan campaign went as far as De Luca convincing his boss, David Zaslav, to write Nolan a seven-figure “royalty” check to make up for the “Tenet” debacle. > > All of these olive branches didn’t seem to help since Nolan has now returned to Universal for his next film, the same studio that drove Oppenheimer to gross nearly $1B worldwide and winning seven Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director for Nolan.

> In a recent interview with That Hashtag Show, Smith was promoting the VOD release of his “The 4:30 Movie” and was asked about the status of “Dogma”. He says plans are afoot for the release:

> “The movie has been bought away from the guy that had it for years and whatnot. The company that bought it, we met with them a couple months ago.

>They were like, ‘Would you be interested in re-releasing it and touring it like you did with your movies?’ I said ‘100 percent, are you kidding me? Touring a movie that I know people like, and it’s sentimental and nostalgic? We’ll clean up.’

>Right now, 2024 is our 25th anniversary this year. November is when we came out. I think 2025 it looks like is when the movement is going to happen there. Back on home video, then back out in theaters, and I’ll tour it.”

>Smith also teased a follow-up could be in the cards:

>“Maybe, at this point, sequels, TV versions, in terms of extending the story. Something we could never do before. So exciting man. And all those people who worked in it are still viable.”

> The 2010s were a monumental decade when it came to filmmaking, seeing the release of a multitude of legendary and widely beloved titles, from exciting blockbuster franchises to poignant and powerful independent films. However, the decade also had its fair share of critical disasters that went above and beyond to create deeply unenjoyable experiences with heinous reputations thanks to their lack of quality. Thanks to the rise of the digital era and the lowered barrier to entry, Hollywood was creating more films than ever before, making the release of these terrible films all the more inevitable. > > More than just a film that underperformed at the box office or one that was a slight disappointment to one's expectations, when it comes to the absolute worst films that the 2010s has to offer, the quality is among the worst cinematic experiences imaginable. Films that are not just lacking in positive qualities, but are actively and consistently making the worst possible decisions in able to make a film that appeals to as few people as possible. Several of these films go beyond the worst of the 2010s, but are some of the worst films of all time.

1. 'The Last Airbender' (2010)
2. 'Foodfight!' (2012)
3. 'Slender Man' (2018)
4. 'Kirk Cameron's Saving Christmas' (2014)
5. 'Airplane Mode' (2019)
6. 'Jack and Jill' (2011)
7. 'Birdemic: Shock and Terror' (2010)
8. 'Cats' (2019)
9. 'The Emoji Movie' (2017)
10. 'Scary Movie V' (2013)

> Amazon had to raid its (very sizable) safe to bring Phoebe Waller-Bridge in-house — but at least Prime Video will (eventually) get “Tomb Raider” out of their giant, extended deal, Jen Salke, the head of Amazon Studios, wants to remind everybody. > >In 2019, Waller-Bridge, the “Fleabag” star and creator, signed a three-year deal at Amazon worth a reported $20 million annually. The deal was renewed with very similar terms in 2022. With “Tomb Raider” taking forever, a “Sign Here” adaptation still in development, and Waller-Bridge bailing on the “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” series (she was replaced by Maya Erskine), Amazon has exactly nothing to show for its gigantic investment. But Salke recently told Variety that she does not regret the overall deal with Waller-Bridge. > > “When we look at a longterm commitment to a creator like Phoebe — we’re so happy now that we retained her because she’s obsessed with and grew up playing Lara Croft/’Tomb Raider,'” Salke said. “So the fact that she’s the creator and bringing this character to life, we think it’s going to be a huge franchise for us.” > > Consider Waller-Bridge’s overall deal more of a holding deal, we suppose. > >Salke called the “Tomb Raider” project “really exciting,” adding that Waller-Bridge is “well into” the process. She had no updates on “Tomb Raider” beyond that. > >“She went off to do a movie, there are things that happened — if people want to go take an accounting of what deals they were able to get value out of or not, there’s still probably a lot to do there,” Salke continued. > >The movie Salke is referencing there is likely the fifth “Indiana Jones.” OK, but technically Waller-Bridge left “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” over creative differences with Donald Glover. Even Waller-Bridge says that. > > But Salke is right to demand a recount on overall deals across Hollywood. What auditors would find, however, is that the Waller-Bridge deal was definitely among the worst given the size of the investment and $0 value. A company like Amazon, though, can chalk it up as a costly learning experience. > >“I think we’re looking at converting a lot of those deals to a very performance-based model, based on what they accomplish,” Salke said. “And that’s been received very well because you’ve got to change with the times.”

> It’s been six years since Steve Rodgers handed over Captain America reigns to Sam Wilson, Aka The Falcon, in “Avengers: Endgame.” Wilson (Anthony Mackie) will be the lead of Julius Onah’s “Captain America: Brave New World.” A trailer was released in the summer. > >Two different cuts of the film test screened last week, and plot details for one of the cuts have leaked online. The person who attended didn’t seem to like the movie all that much. > >Based on the folks I’ve spoken to, those who attended were either given a red or green bracelet and were split up into two different theaters. The reactions I’ve heard have not been very kind to this movie, which is being described as “inessential” and “flat.” > > ... > > Reshoots on ‘Brave New World’ happened in August. This could explain why two different cuts were shown. Last year, after receiving negative test scores in another screening, and Marvel themselves underwhelmed by an early cut they saw of the film, ‘Brave New World’ was delayed to February 2025. Extensive reshoots were called, with “three major action sequences” having been filmed, between May and August 2024 in Atlanta. > >‘Brave New World’ had originally wrapped filming in June 2023, and was set for a July 2024 release date, but it’s now turned into this monstrous mess for Marvel. You just don’t push a movie this big out of your calendar, and then decide to dump it in February, unless major trouble is brewing. > >Last December, Matthew Orton was hired by Marvel to pen “additional scenes and material”. Orton’s work was shot during this summer’s reshoots. They’ve also added new characters to the story. Will audiences even show up to a Captain America movie that doesn’t star Chris Evans?

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/18520893

> > A new film about a gossipy and scheming group of cardinals who must select the new Pope has received its UK premiere at the London Film Festival. > > > >Conclave, which stars Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci and Isabella Rossellini, is adapted from the 2016 novel by Robert Harris. > > > >The film is thought to be a strong contender for the best picture award at next year's Oscars, and several of its stars could also be in contention for individual acting prizes. > > > >Conclave is directed by Edward Berger, the acclaimed German-Austrian film-maker whose 2022 adaptation of All Quiet on the Western Front was nominated for nine Academy Awards.

> Sam Raimi is staying in the MCU as he’s all but closed a dealdirect ‘Doctor Strange 3' (via The InSneider). > >In July, Raimi signed on to direct the horror thriller “Send Help.” It remains unclear whether Raimi will direct that movie first, or ‘Doctor Strange 3.’Here’s hoping he chooses the horror-thriller. > >I also wish Raimi more luck in directing this latest ‘Doctor Strange’ movie than the last one. “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” although it grossed $955M worldwide, was not that well received critically or by fans and had a pre-production filled with drama. > >Raimi only came on board ‘Multiverse of Madness’ after original director Scott Derrickson parted ways with Marvel due to “creative differences.” The script had many rewrites up to that point — an actor in the film claimed it had been rewritten 33 times.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/18403658

> > If there is anyone who knows what is happening behind the scenes in the saga over who will become the next James Bond, it’s Jennifer Salke, the global head of Amazon MGM Studios – home of box-office crown ­jewels including the 007 and Rocky franchises. > > > >Salke was part of the Amazon team that sealed an audacious $8.5bn deal in 2021 to buy the 100-year-old MGM and its celebrated library of 4,000 film titles and 17,000 hours of TV programming – ranging from Gone with the Wind and The Hobbit to The Handmaid’s Tale and Legally Blonde. > > > >Nevertheless, it is the future of the evergreen spy that remains the hottest topic of conversation among movie fans. > > > > The problem is that control of James Bond – at 62 years old, one of the world’s longest-running film franchises – remains largely with Eon Productions in the UK, which is run by Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson. Eon’s strict control even extends to who plays Bond. > > > >Intense media interest has sparked a flurry of speculation naming almost any male actor who might fit the profile – from Idris Elba to Aaron Taylor-Johnson and, more recently, Barry Keoghan, the star of the Amazon hit Saltburn. > > > > ... > > > > Salke is neither shaken nor stirred by the hiatus. “There are a lot of ideas [about potential actors] that have popped up that I thought are interesting,” says Salke. “I think there are a lot of different ways we can go. We have a good and close relationship with Eon and Barbara and Michael. We are not looking to disrupt the way those wonderful films are made. For us, we are taking their lead. > > > >“The global audience will be patient. We don’t want too much time between films, but we are not concerned at this point.” > > > > Salke also gives her version of reports alleging that, early on, she got on the wrong side of Broccoli for raising the idea of a Bond TV series. > > > >“It was never really raised in that way,” says Salke, who is conducting the interview via video at an unearthly hour in the morning from her home in Los Angeles. > > > > “When you are looking at iconic intellectual property like that, you look at what the entire long-term future might be. Of course you look at every facet.”

Can be anything, from South Korean, to Spanish, Indian, etc.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/18386198

> > Workaholic yuppie Conor is in an existential rut until one night he catches a bizarre ad for a party hotline hosted by a strange dancing goblin: Frankie Freako. Could this be just the recipe to spice up his boring life? > > IMDb

> The 1980s was a good time to be a fan of titles broadly definable as B-movies. The golden age for the humble B-movie might've been a little further back in time, when double features were more common and the second half of such an event was the cheaper of the two; a supporting movie, so to speak. But then the term came to define movies that were generally low-budget and/or kind of schlocky. > > Schlock isn't inherently a bad thing, and some B-movies – though rough – offer just as much that’s impressive and entertaining as so-called A-movies. There were enough in the 1980s that some are rather obscure, with the following movies all containing B-grade elements or energy while either being somewhat forgotten to time or perhaps unlucky enough to never truly find an audience.

1. 'Thunder of Gigantic Serpent' (1988)
2. 'Voyage of the Rock Aliens' (1984)
3. 'King Kong Lives' (1986)
4. 'Spirits of the Air, Gremlins of the Clouds' (1987)
5. 'The Soldier' (1982)
6. 'The Island' (1980)
7. 'Five Element Ninjas' (1982)
8. 'Escape from the Bronx' (1983)
9. 'Ghosts… of the Civil Dead' (1988)
10. 'Holy Flame of the Martial World' (1983)

> The carnage extended to other titles, but 'The Wild Robot' and 'Beetlejuice Beetlejuice' remain strong.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/18450593

> > A passion project in the works for eight years, Alice Lowe’s follow-up to Prevenge borrows from the likes of Terry Gilliam and Stanley Kubrick to tell a story about the obsessive pursuit of love, with a healthy side of schlocky gore. Lowe has long been something of a savant of the strange and macabre, from her breakout role in Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace onwards. But her imagination really runs wild here, leaping between centuries with aplomb, even if the jokes are disappointingly weak. > > > > ... > > > > Although there’s fun to be had in the whimsy and inventiveness, the comedy could have used some extra oomph. A sense of repetition inevitably creeps in after Agnes experiences a flash of recognition from a past or future self for the umpteenth time. The character herself is also too thinly drawn: her erotomania often exists more as a device to string together a collection of zany comedy sketches rather than as an intense emotional experience. And yet, for these faults, Timestalker is a genuinely unique expression of colour and imagination, one that could only come from inside its creator’s head.

It is a quite well-known movie, so probably no need to introduce it too much.

Still a very nice movie for that genre, I recommend it to people looking for a good romcom with several parallel plotlines

I was a bit taken aback when they mention "class of 2011" in the movie. Time flies.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/18439911

> > Residents reported seeing flashing lights in the sky as production work began at Canal Street, St Helens, at the former Pilkington Watson Street Works. > > > >Oblik Productions confirmed to the Star in September that filming for a Second World War Netflix film called The Immortal Man. > > > >An article on whats-on-netflix.com suggests that the project is a 'Peaky Blinders' film. > > > >It says that a "long-awaited Peaky Blinders movie" entitled The Immortal Man is soon heading into production and will be "set during World War II". > > > > It says Cillian Murphy will reprise his role as Tommy Shelby from the hit TV series. > > > >The article adds that Tim Roth is also among the cast members to have been confirmed, and it was reported that Tom Hardy has signed on for the movie.

> Much of the press about The Shrouds since its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year has focused on the deeply personal inspiration for the film: David Cronenberg’s grief over the death of his wife in 2017. For those who are aware of this context going in, one could see signs of that extra investment on the writer-director’s part here and there, especially in the way one of the film’s stars, Vincent Cassel, is made up to look like Cronenberg himself. Lest that suggests something more overtly emotional than what one might expect from the Canadian auteur, though, The Shrouds dispels that notion very early on. > >The film’s opening credits sequence features a bunch of swirling dots that eventually form into the outline of a woman. Allied with the insinuating low-pitched electronic droning of Howard Shore’s score, the sequence dissolves into a dreamy vision of a man looking into the prehistoric-looking underground surroundings of a nude female corpse before Douglas Koch’s camera zooms right into the yelling man’s mouth and snaps us back into reality: to Karsh Relikh (Cassel) having his teeth inspected by his dentist, Dr. Hofstra (Eric Weinthal). > > Not only are we in distinctly Cronenbergian territory here, with the director thrusting forbidding bodily imagery in front of us, but as the film goes on, it becomes clear that we’re in distinctly late-Cronenbergian territory. Some of what The Shrouds shares with his previous film, Crimes of the Future, is stylistic in nature. Instead of the memorably outré sights of his earlier work, both films are abundant in dialogue scenes, in which important events are generally talked about rather than directly shown. Christopher Donaldson’s editing rhythms are relaxed, Koch’s cinematography almost unnerving in its digital clarity. Both films share broadly similar thematic obsessions as well: an alternately intrigued and critical fascination with the ways technology encroaches on humanity, a paranoid interest in rooting out underlying conspiracies.

> Roger Ebert's selections for the worst superhero movies of all time may have looked differently if he had lived to see the blockbuster phases of Marvel's cinematic universe and DC's succession of flops. Regardless, the critic shared his thoughts on the heroes of his era, the best, the good, the okay, and the worst. His ratings for sequels leaned lower as he questioned the dedication to developing storylines that weren't immediate rinse-and-repeats for quick release. With every negative review, Ebert counterbalanced with a title that succeeded where the other failed. Like many genre moviegoers, he found excitement in the potential of revisiting the iconic symbols of Gotham or the nostalgia of placing hope in the hands of a superhero. He commended the mastery of special effects that elevated the premise and not overtake it. > > The worst movies of the genre skimp out on the development of the very characters it seeks to endorse for moviegoers to idolize, giving the actors he deemed unfortunate to portray them nothing to work with. These movies pay little to no attention to the emotional and psychological ranges of these superpowered beings, taking away the humanistic element that connects with its audience. For some, they don't go to the blockbusters of the genre for the story, but rather for the action. For Ebert, it has to be both, and the worst superhero movies, in his opinion, are unable to do both.

• 'X-Men Origins: Wolverine' (2009)
• 'Batman & Robin' (1997)
• 'Supergirl' (1984)
• 'Thor' (2011)
• 'Elektra' (2005)
• 'RoboCop 3' (1993)
• 'The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen' (2003)
• 'Catwoman' (2004)
• 'The Spirit' (2008)
• 'Fantastic Four' (2005)

> Imaginary. Borderlands. The Crow. Megalopolis. 2024 has been a colossally bad year for Lionsgate Films. Whether it’s critical ratings or box office take, there’s not a lot to be optimistic about if you’re a fan or shareholder. This is too bad as Lionsgate has always been the studio I’ve always rooted for. As distributors of the Saw, John Wick, and Rambo they’ve always had an edge to them, giving smaller films a chance to reach larger audiences. And franchises like Twilight (purchased from Summit), Divergent, and Hunger Games showed their ability to make/acquire broadly appealing films. Then they’ve even gotten into the Oscar space with releases like La La Land, Knives Out, and Sicario. But it’s getting to the point where I groan every time the Lionsgate logo comes up as it’s no longer a sign of quality or fun. > > It’s hard not to blame Lionsgate at least a little bit for this. Borderlands, The Crow, and Megalopolis were largely considered to be bad ideas from the start. Another adaptation of the graphic novel which hasn’t had a good film since the original? A film based on a video game completely miscast and coming from a horror director? And finally, a passion project from a once great filmmaker who hasn’t made a good movie in 32 years? Each of these was a clear failure and largely made fun of when announced. So the fact that they threw so much cash at them is baffling. The Crow was always going to be a tough sell, and to be sure, Lionsgate is only the distributor, not the producer (same with Megalopolis). But it still begs the question as to why they would acquire a film with such a low upside. Another head-scratcher is the release of White Bird this weekend, which is a prequel/sequel to their 2017 hit Wonder. That movie sat on the shelf for a few years (despite perfectly respectable reviews), but was released in a very low-key way for a film related to one of their biggest word-of-mouth hits. > > ... > > As far as big releases to save the year, Lionsgate doesn’t have much of anything left. With a small Cillian Murphy drama and The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, the chances of recovering their losses don’t seem great. But 2025 should be a little better with the return of the Saw franchise with XI, the John Wick spinoff Ballerina, and the popular magic series Now You See Me 3. But then again, they are producing a Dirty Dancing sequel so I’m not sure if they’ve learned their lesson yet. Especially with the rumors that much of Ballerina had to be reshot, as the original cut was such a mess. Whatever happens, Lionsgate is in need of some major changes going forward as the studio has become a shell of its former self. Hopefully, they take inspiration from other mini-majors like A24 and start focusing on quality and creativity. But who knows, maybe some Lionsgate exec just got a great idea for The Crow 2. shudders

I think we all owe The Marvels an apology...

> It's a sad reality that streaming services are deleting original films from platforms - here's everything that's disappeared from Disney+

It's too long to abbreviate here. It's quite surprising what they've deleted.