Category: Industry News

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Disney Is Pulling ‘Frozen’ Short Film From ‘Coco’ Screenings, But Not Because People Hate It!

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If you’ve been to the theaters recently to watch Pixar’s Coco film, then you probably know the madness that is Olaf’s Frozen Adventure. The 22-minute short film plays before Coco, and it starts right after you watch 10 minutes of trailers. As much as I loved Coco, I hated the Frozen short film more.

And I’m not alone. Thousands of fans have been complaining about the short film online. Many people went on their social media accounts to warn their friends and family to arrive 20 minutes late.

While Coco has been receiving wonderful reviews (97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes) Olaf’s Frozen Adventure has a terrible 38 percent audience score. And look, it’s not that the short film is THAT bad. It’s the runtime that has everyone pissed off. If this film was 5-10 minutes long, no one would be complaining.

But 22 minutes? After 10 minutes of trailers? That’s too much. Coco co-director Adrian Molina explained why Disney made the decision to place the short film in front of Coco…

“This year, we came out with two films: We had Cars 3 in the summer, and then Coco in the fall. Attached to Cars 3 was Lou, a [Pixar] short that we had developed in the studio. But for Coco, we didn’t have anything ready for it. And so Disney [Animation] contacted us and said, ‘We’ve got this Frozen short, and it’s kind of in the same wheelhouse in that it deals with the themes of family traditions and knowing what your family traditions are.’ And were like, oh, that sounds like a nice pairing.

It is longer than any short that has preceded one of our films before. So that was a little bit of an experiment.”

The good news is that Olaf’s Frozen Adventure was always going to be a limited release, which means it was never planned to be in front of Coco during its entire theater run. Disney told theaters this weekend to remove the short film, so if you wait a week or two to watch Coco, you’ll be able to avoid the 22-minute short.

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Bo Burnham’s Directorial Debut Film ‘Eighth Grade’ Will Premiere At The 2018 Sundance Film Festival

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All you OG YouTube fans out there probably remember the name Bo Burnham. His videos, which featured him singing humorous songs inside his bedroom received millions of views. And instead of taking the easy road by diving deeper into YouTube, Burnham removed himself from the website and started his career in stand-up.

His most recent comedy special, Make Happy, is probably one of my favorite stand-up specials on Netflix. He adds just the right amount of theatrics to stand-up. It’s different…he’s different, which is why I’m such a huge fan of his.

After the release of his stand-up special, he announced he would be focusing more on going behind the camera. He wanted to write and direct, and it looks like he got his wish. His writing/directorial debut film titled ‘Eighth Grade‘ will premiere at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival.

It’ll be in the U.S. dramatic competition. According to The Salt Lake Tribune, the coming-of-age comedy will follow a 13-year-old girl during her final week of middle school.

“Comedian Bo Burnham wrote and directed this coming-of-age comedy, centering on 13-year-old Kayla (Elsie Fisher, the voice of Agnes in the ‘Despicable Me’ movies), trying to survive the last week of her disastrous eighth-grade year before leaving middle school forever for high school. Josh Hamilton also stars.”

Well, I’m sold. When you combine Bo Burnham with a coming-of-age film? That’s a recipe for greatness. I can’t wait to watch this film. Oh and I forgot to add that A24 has distribution rights, so you know…another layer of greatness.

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Trailer For ‘Batman Ninja’ Has Been Released, Check It Out Inside! (VIDEO)

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Have you been disappointed by the recent Batman films being put out? Of course you have been. Batman v Superman was a huge disappointment, and the recent Justice League film didn’t perform much better with hardcore fans.

So maybe the answer to the Batman problem is animation. Warner Bros. has released the first trailer for Batman Ninja. The feature-length anime features all the characters you love, including Harley Quinn, the Joker, and Robin.

Polygon explains the plot:

“When they’re accidentally transported to Japan in the Middle Ages, Batman must figure out a way to stop the Joker and his minions from forever altering the future of the country.”

The film will be released in Japan in 2018. It’ll also be available worldwide on DVD and Blu-ray next year. Check out the trailer below…

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Joaquin Phoenix Is Jesus Christ In First Trailer For Mary Magdalene

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We never thought we’d see Joaquin Phoenix playing Jesus Christ in a movie, but here we are. The first trailer for Mary Magdalene was released this week, and it promises to be a little different than your typical Biblical drama.

Rooney Mara stars in the movie as Mary, Phoenix as Jesus, and Chiwetel Ejiofor as Paul. The great Garth Davis (Lion) is the director behind this project, which chronicles the story of the “titular Biblical figure as she becomes more embedded into the life of Jesus Christ and his Apostles.”

This movie looks stunning. The picture is beautiful. What’s interesting is that Universal Pictures International is handling distribution around the world, but The Weinstein Company is still handling U.S. distribution. Most projects connected with the company recently have tried their best to distance themselves from the Weinstein name.

We have to imagine the folks behind this movie will do the same before its release. By the way, Mary Magdalene is scheduled to be released inside theaters March 30, 2018.

Check out the trailer below…

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New Trailer For ‘Thoroughbreds’ Has Been Released, Check It Out Inside!

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Any trailer released this week will probably get overlooked, thanks to Marvel releasing the first teaser trailer for Avengers: Infinity War, but we’re trying to do our part here to even the playing field.

Focus Features just released a new trailer for the upcoming dark comedy film Thoroughbreds. The film, which was written and directed by Corey Finley, stars Olivia Cooke and Anya Taylor-Joy as childhood friends who reconnect in Connecticut and bond over one another’s destructive tendencies.

The film actually looks pretty decent. I wasn’t expecting much, but after watching this latest trailer, I am excited to check it out. It’s scheduled to hit theaters March 9, 2018.

Check out the official synopsis and trailer below…

“Childhood friends Lily and Amanda reconnect in suburban Connecticut after years of growing apart. Lily has turned into a polished, upper-class teenager, with a fancy boarding school on her transcript and a coveted internship on her resume; Amanda has developed a sharp wit and her own particular attitude, but all in the process of becoming a social outcast. Though they initially seem completely at odds, the pair bond over Lily’s contempt for her oppressive stepfather, Mark, and as their friendship grows, they begin to bring out one another’s most destructive tendencies. Their ambitions lead them to hire a local hustler, Tim, and take matters into their own hands to set their lives straight.”

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THAT WAS FAST! New Trailer For ‘All The Money In The World’ Features Christopher Plummer Replacing Kevin Spacey

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Things move fast in Hollywood. Real fast. It was just last month that we found out Kevin Spacey was a huge creep, who allegedly tried to seduce a 14-year-old boy several years ago. He was fired from his Netflix show, House of Cards, and more surprisingly, he was completely removed from his upcoming film, All the Money in the World.

We say surprising, ’cause the movie is scheduled to be released December 22. It’s a little late in the production game to be removing an actor, and replacing him with a new one, but director Ridley Scott managed to do it.

Christopher Plummer was hired this month to reshoot Spacey’s scenes in the film, and it looks like they’re already finished with the reshoots. A new teaser trailer has been released, which shows Plummer in character…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XtXMAv1dek

Crazy, right? It’s like Spacey was never involved. By the way, Scott talked for the first time about his decision to replace Spacey in the film.

He talked to Entertainment Weekly and explained Plummer was his first, second choice.

“You have to know who you’re going to go for [to recast the role] and if he’s available. Chris [Plummer] was always on the list. So you find that out, but quietly, because you don’t want it going around. I flew into New York and met with [Plummer] and he said yes. So then we had to figure out if everyone else would be available to fit in these new days of shooting. Miraculously, they were. Before you can make the decision you have to make these quick phone calls around — not to the actors directly, but to the agents — saying there’s a possibility I may need some pickups [a.k.a. additional shooting days]. You don’t say why because of the gossip, but of course it was really for something much more significant.”

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The First Teaser Trailer For ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ Has Been Released, Check It Out Inside!

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After a long wait, Marvel fans are probably jumping up and down today. The first teaser trailer for the insane superhero team-up film, Avengers: Infinity War, has been released.

This movie has the chance to be one of Marvel’s biggest films ever, mostly because it’s bringing all your favorite superheros together. They are uniting the Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, and just about every other superhero team you can think of in Marvel’s universe.

Marvel fans will probably love the ending to this teaser, which features Thor meeting the Guardians of the Galaxy team and wondering who the hell they are.

Avengers: Infinity War is set to be released inside theaters May 4, 2018, and you can bet it will break at least a few box office records. The story is expected to continue in a still-untitled Avengers film set for release in 2019.

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Jennifer Lawrence Reveals She Processed The Negative Reactions To ‘mother!’ Differently Than Darren Aronofsky

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Jennifer Lawrence and Darren Aronofsky fell in love while making ‘mother!‘ and now it looks like they fell out of love while promoting it. As most of you know, the two stars dated for a year, but it was announced last week that they recently decided to end things.

And during the annual Actors on Actors interview series, Lawrence may have revealed why they couldn’t make things work following the release of their bizarre film.

She sat down with Adam Sandler, and they both talked about how they try to avoid reading any reviews about their movies, especially the negative reviews. mother! received mixed reviews from critics, and that’s putting it nicely. It was obviously a shock to see such a negative reaction to the movie, but Lawrence didn’t want to spend time thinking about it. She loved the movie, and that’s all she cared about.

But Aronofsky? He couldn’t let it go…

“We’d be on the tour together, I’d come back to the hotel and the last thing I want to talk about or think about is the movie, and he comes back and that’s all he wants to talk about. I was doing double duty of trying to be a supportive partner while also being like, ‘Can I please, for the love of God, not think about ‘mother!’ for one second?’”

They also didn’t agree on the correct way to promote the movie. Aronofsky wanted the audience to go in cold. He didn’t want them to know anything about the movie.

Lawrence does not agree with that…

“Some think: don’t tell anyone anything, let them figure it out on their own. I feel like it’s better to know and understand the metaphor and allegories because then you know what you are looking at. I’ve been spilling the themes and metaphors all over town!”

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‘Lady Bird’ Sets Rotten Tomatoes Record, It’s Now The Most Reviewed Movie To Stay At Perfect 100% Rating

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If you missed our post last week, where we talked about how wonderful Lady Bird is, you should go check it out now. The coming-of-age dramedy truly is perfect. And when I say perfect, I don’t mean it’s the best film ever made, I simply mean I have nothing negative to say about it. There’s not one thing I would subtract, add, or alter.

The film, which was written and directed by Greta Gerwig, has been receiving rave reviews from critics…all critics. Every critic out there, and that’s not hyperbole.

It still has that 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which makes it the most reviewed film to stay at that mark in the site’s history. It’s been reviewed by 170 critics, and all 170 of them gave the film a fresh rating. Before Lady Bird came around, Toy Story 2 had the record with the 100% rating after 163 reviews. That being said, Toy Story 3 has a 99% rating with over 290 reviews counted, which could be considered more impressive.

On the Gotham Awards red carpet, Gerwig was shocked by the news that her film beat a record set by Toy Story 2…

“It’s amazing. It’s so exciting. You make a movie and you put so much into it . . . to have it reflected back to you, it’s an amazing thing.”

This definitely sets it up nicely for a wonderful Oscar run. It should probably at least receive four nominations: Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Actress, and Best Supporting Actress.

If you haven’t watched it yet, please do. You’ll enjoy it…I promise.

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So, Uh, The Early Reviews Are Coming In For ‘Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle’ And They Are Surprisingly Positive

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I have to be honest, I was not expecting much from the Jumanji reboot, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. It seemed like Hollywood’s latest attempt to take advantage of nostalgia. It also seemed like Hollywood’s latest attempt to randomly throw The Rock into a movie.

But you know what? I might have been wrong. The early reviews are coming in, and most of the critics have positive things to say. In fact, it’s difficult to find anything negative right now. Of course, these are just the early social media reactions from a handful of critics, so don’t get too excited yet.

However, it does look like the film has the potential to be a lot of fun…

I know. I’m shocked too. One thing I am happy to see is the amount of love Jack Black is getting. School of Rock is one of my favorite movies, so he will always hold a special place in my heart.

You can view the trailer for Jumanji below. It’s scheduled to hit theaters December 20, 2017.