EXCLUSIVE:Cut Off, Jonah Hill’s new comedy for Warner Bros. Pictures, has another new addition in Nathan Lane (Only Murders in the Building), Deadline has learend.
As previously announced, Hill and Kristen Wiig lead the cast also featuring Bette Midler, who officially boarded the project only yesterday. In the film, following a pair of rich siblings (Hill & Wiig) who are cut off from their parents, Lane will play the family patriarch, with Midler portraying his wife.
Hill will direct from a script co-written with Ezra Woods, also producing alongside Matt Dines and Ali Goodwin under his Strong Baby banner. Jesse Ehrman and Zach Hamby are overseeing the project for Warner Bros, which has slated it for release in theaters worldwide on July 17, 2026. The rare film these days to shoot in Califonia, the film will do so this fall with a $10M tax credit, as previously reported.
An eight-time Emmy nominee who won for the first time a few years ago for a guest star role in Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building, Lane has also over the course of his career been seen in more than 35 films — among them, two recent titles for A24 (Beau Is Afraid and Dicks: The Musical), as well as such classics as The Lion King, The Birdcage, and The Producers.
Also the recipient of two Golden Globe nominations, a SAG Award, an American Comedy Award, and a Critics Choice Lifetime Achievement Award, Lane’s other recent credits on the TV side include HBO Max’s The Gilded Age and Hulu’s Mid-Century Modern. Earlier TV credits included Monster, Penny Dreadful: City of Angels, Modern Family, American Crime Story, and The Good Wife, to name just a few.
One Battle After Another reviews are beginning to come in, and perhaps unsurprisingly, Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film is getting massive praise ahead of its release on September 26, 2025.
What are the One Battle After Another reviews saying?
On Rotten Tomatoes, One Battle After Another debuted its reviews today, and debuted with a whopping 97% score on the aggregator site. The Leonardo DiCaprio-led movie is being hailed as another masterpiece from Anderson, with some even calling it the best movie of his illustrious career.
Elsewhere, Rolling Stone’s David Fear hailed the movie as a “humanistic masterpiece.” “Anderson’s humanistic masterpiece of a movie says: You fight it with love. That’s the end game. That’s how you retain your decency and sanity. That’s the only way you protect the future, and change it. That’s how you live to battle another day.” ComingSoon’s Jonathan Sim also praised the movie, noting that it “crackles with energy, wit, and vision.”
The movie is reported to be “somewhat inspired” by a 1990 novel called Vineland by Thomas Pynchon.
“Here, in an Orwellian 1984, Zoyd Wheeler and his daughter Prairie search for Prairie’s long-lost mother, a Sixties radical who ran off with a narc,” a description of the book reads. “Vineland is vintage Pynchon, full of quasi-allegorical characters, elaborate unresolved subplots, corny songs (‘Floozy with an Uzi’), movie spoofs (Pee-wee Herman in The Robert Musil Story), and illicit sex (including a macho variation on the infamous sportscar scene in V.).”
In April, movement on a 2024 lawsuit involving AI, Tesla, Warner Bros., and the production company behind Blade Runner 2049 caught the attention of sci-fi fans. Today, there’s an update that skews in favor of Warner Bros.
Alcon Entertainment, which produced the 2017 Denis Villeneuve film and has the Prime Video Blade Runner 2099 series on the way, alleged that promotional material used at an October 2024 Tesla event very closely resembled stills from that film.
Those concerns were further heightened by the fact that Alcon had asked Warner Bros., which distributes its films and was partnering with Tesla for a “robotaxi” or “Cybercab” unveiling, not to allow the use of Blade Runner 2049 imagery as part of the event.
The ensuing lawsuit alleges that Tesla circumvented that request by feeding Blade Runner 2049 stills into an AI image generator, and that’s what was eventually used to backdrop the Tesla presentation.
The lawsuit touches on several complicated issues, including, as the Hollywood Reporter points out, “whether the creation of a visual by an AI image generator by copying a portion of a copyrighted work without a license constitutes copyright infringement.” That’s one of the as-yet undecided issues in the ongoing proceedings.
As THR reports, now dismissed are “claims seeking to hold Warner Bros. Discovery responsible for Tesla’s use of the photos” as well as “another claim alleging that Warner Bros. Discovery had a duty to stop Tesla from infringing Alcon’s intellectual property.”
However, “Warner Bros. Discovery still faces a claim for contributory infringement, which accuses the studio of facilitating the alleged misconduct.”
You can read more about the lawsuit in THR; the complexities of this specific case, however, are coming at a time when Hollywood is facing issues centered on AI’s encroachment of intellectual property on an unprecedented scale.
Earlier this month, we learned that Warner Bros. joined Disney and Universal in filing a lawsuit against Midjourney; as Variety reported, the allegations accuse “the AI image-generating platform of blatant copyright violations” involving copyrighted WB characters.
We don’t know yet how Alcon, which (per THR) has one more try to “fix claims for direct and vicarious copyright infringement,” will ultimately fare in its legal fight. But even if Warner Bros. ends up overcoming the remaining claims in this case, it seems the studio has now taken new interest in protecting its library from copyright infringement with generative AI elsewhere.
If you’re a movie prop replica collector, you know exactly which Beetlejuice sign we’re talking about.
For years, as a Beetlejuice decor hunter, there has been one item I refused to buy on principle because it had one glaring mistake: it was not in-universe accurate. I’ve bought the Adam and Barbara monster face hanging decor, the inflatable Sandworm for my lawn, and the “Here Lies Betelgeuse” tombstone—but never the iconic light-up sign due to the fact that it always featured the ghost with the most’s name spelled wrong.
Here’s what I mean. On the left, the scene from Beetlejuice; on the right, the old version of the sign from Spirit Halloween:
The spelling of Beetlejuice’s name has long been a point of contention. Tim Burton’s classic film spells its title Beetlejuice. But within the movie, Michael Keaton’s wisecracking dead guy always spells it “Betelgeuse.” It’s seen on the lighted sign, the tombstone, and the flyer the Maitland family finds.
Whether it was an oversight or products simply going with the recognizable spelling, it always bugged me that the licensed replicas were technically incorrect. And in my household, we love to collect in-universe-specific items, so when we built up our Beetlejuice decor, we never bought the sign—or any other item that featured the “Beetlejuice” spelling when it should have been “Betelgeuse.”
So you can imagine my surprise when, perusing the Spirit Halloween website, I noticed the change we film snobs have been waiting for in this, our year 2025:
We would like to thank whoever made this happen for looking out for the fandom. Now, of course, the hunt is on to find it at our local Spirit Halloween; good luck!
There is a lot going on in the news today. And just when you thought “hey, maybe it is slowing down,” news broke that Paramount, which recently merged with Skydance, is playing with the idea of merging with another company: Warner Bros. Discovery. You know, another merged entertainment entity.
Right now, it is just simply an idea in the mind of David Ellison, who was formerly the CEO of Skydance Media before it became officially part of Paramount. Now, Ellison is the CEO of Paramount and his family is one of the richest families in the world. So if he is really trying to merge the companies, it could be a possibility.
According to Deadline, this isn’t just an out of the blue thought. “Ellison has been looking at Warner Bros for a while,” Deadline says an individual close to Paramount told the publication. “Nothing new there, he’s just taking a closer look, assessing the pros and cons.”
Now here is the thing, as John Mulaney once said “Now we don’t have time to unpack all of that.” While this is currently a big MAYBE for the companies, it probably isn’t a great idea to have one mega studio but also what do I know? I’m not a studio head. Maybe the meeting of the minds will prove me wrong and decide that it is, in fact, good.
But given the rest of the current state of the world, I’m going to go out on a limb say that this one is one we can all just address at a later date.
Here are some other things we saw on the internet today:
Yes, we do want to see Frank Reynolds edited into our favorite movies (Pajiba)
Natalie Portman really is just like us, meaning she loves Studio Ghibli (Collider)
We have all been cursed by having to watch Andrew Como walk the runway at NYFW (Jezebel)
Rachel Leishman (She/Her) is an Assistant Editor at the Mary Sue. She’s been a writer professionally since 2016 but was always obsessed with movies and television and writing about them growing up. A lover of Spider-Man and Wanda Maximoff’s biggest defender, she has interests in all things nerdy and a cat named Benjamin Wyatt the cat. If you want to talk classic rock music or all things Harrison Ford, she’s your girl but her interests span far and wide. Yes, she knows she looks like Florence Pugh. She has multiple podcasts, normally has opinions on any bit of pop culture, and can tell you can actors entire filmography off the top of her head. Her current obsession is Glen Powell’s dog, Brisket.
Her work at the Mary Sue often includes Star Wars, Marvel, DC, movie reviews, and interviews.
Paramount Skydance, apparently now in a state of permanent merger, plans to make a bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, . The company was recently formed following of Paramount for $8 billion. Newly anointed Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison was able to afford the acquisition thanks to , Larry Ellison.
Despite Warner Bros. Discovery’s to split back into , “the bid will be for the entire company, including its cable networks and movie studio,” the report says. A successful acquisition of the company will likely be very pricey. According to The Wall Street Journal, “Warner Bros.’s nearly $33 billion market cap is more than double that of Paramount Skydance.”
Further consolidation in the entertainment industry will likely lead to less varied and interesting film and television, but a merger between Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery could also concentrate even more power in the hands of the federal government.
Prior to the deal going through, to settle a lawsuit with Trump, which may have affected the President’s stance towards the acquisition. Skydance’s commitment to abandon DEI programs at CBS and make the television network “embody a diversity of viewpoints across the political and ideological spectrum” was also cited as justification for the FCC approving the acquisition. Following the deal, Paramount appointed Kenneth Weinstein as an Ombudsman to “review editorial questions and concerns from outside entities and employees.” Weinstein previously served as an advisor to the Trump administration, Variety reports.
Fusing two giant Hollywood studios obviously impacts competition. The question now is how the FCC will respond to this possible acquisition, with even more money and power on the line.
Warner Bros. Discovery has filed a lawsuit against popular AI image generator Midjourney, accusing it of stealing and exploiting its intellectual properties. The complaint revolves around the AI tool’s ability to generate images and videos of Warner Bros.’ popular fictional characters, including Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Scooby Doo, Bugs Bunny and his friends from Looney Tunes. “Midjourney thinks it is above the law,” the company wrote in its lawsuit. It said that the image generator sells a commercial subscription service powered by AI technology that was illegally trained using its copyrighted works.
The company argued that Midjourney has the technology to prevent users from generating images of the characters it owns. It apparently refused to generate videos based on Warner Bros.’ properties when it first launched its video model. But within the past couple of weeks, it allegedly removed those protections and told its users that they would encounter “fewer blocked jobs.” The ability to generate Warner Bros.’ characters are a clear draw for its subscription service that costs $10 to $120 a month, the media conglomerate said. “It is hard to imagine copyright infringement that is any more willful than what Midjourney is doing here,” the plaintiff added. “Midjourney has prioritized and sought to preserve the hundreds of millions of dollars it earns annually from its service by doubling down on its theft of copyrighted works.”
In the complaint, the company gave several examples of Midjourney-generated images and video stills next to images and screencaps of its movies and shows. The image above, for instance, shows Midjourney’s output from the prompt “Batman, screencap from The Dark Knight.” next to actual promotional materials from the Christian Bale-led movie. Further, generic prompts like “classic comic book superhero battle” could lead to output with WB characters even if they’re not specifically mentioned.
Midjourney is already facing a copyright infringement lawsuit filed by Disney and Universal Studios back in June. They accused the AI service of “help[ing] itself to countless” copyrighted works to train its models and for infringing on their copyright by allowing users to generate images of characters from Star Wars, Shrek, The Simpsons and Despicable Me, among other properties.
Warner Bros. Discovery is now asking the court for statutory damages of “up to $150,000 per infringed work by virtue of Midjourney’s willful infringement.” We’ve reached out to Midjourney and will update this post when we hear back.
Johnny Cage (Karl Urban) will have to wait for showtime just a little longer than originally anticipated, as Mortal Kombat II will bow out of 2025’s fall movie release schedule, instead opening in May 2026.
The Warner Bros., New Line, and Atomic Monster production was originally slated to be released on October 24 of this year, but that is no longer the case. According to Deadline, it’s not a reflection of the film’s quality, as the trade reports the film has been testing well, but rather a pivot to bank on the success of the early summer window it saw with Final Destination Bloodlines. The New Line horror flick cultivated a solid box office debut of $51.6 million after opening in mid-May.
With that in mind, the sequel to 2021’s Mortal Kombat will now open on May 15, 2026.
The film stars Urban as Cage—a casting many have been anticipating since the first movie—and will feature returning stars Lewis Tan (Cole Young), Ludi Lin (Liu Kang), Jessica McNamee (Sonya Blade), Mehcad Brooks (Jax), Josh Lawson (Kano), Chin Han (Shang Tsung), Joe Taslim (Bi-Han), Tadanobu Asano (Lord Raiden), and Hiroyuki Sanada (Hanzo Hasashi and Scorpion). The ensemble is joined by newcomers Tati Gabrielle (Jade) and Adeline Rudolph (Kitana).
Mortal Kombat II‘s release date has officially been pushed back, with Warner Bros. announcing that the film has been moved out of 2025 entirely.
When is the new Mortal Kombat II release date?
According to Warner Bros. Pictures, the film’s new release date has been set for May 15, 2026. The new date is a significant change, with the film now being delayed over seven months and out of 2025 entirely and through most of the first quarter of 2026.
The news was announced alongside a new poster highlighting Kung Lao’s (Max Huang) hat, and a message that the “tournament demands a new time and place.” Check out the new poster for Mortal Kombat II below:
Mortal Kombat II is directed by Simon McQuoid, from a screenplay written by Jeremy Slater. The film is a sequel to 2021’s Mortal Kombat, and stars Karl Urban as Johnny Cage, deline Rudolph, Jessica McNamee, Josh Lawson, Ludi Lin, Mehcad Brooks, Tati Gabrielle, Lewis Tan, Damon Herriman, with Chin Han, Tadanobu Asano as Lord Raiden, Joe Taslim as Bi-Han, and Hiroyuki Sanada as Hanzo Hasashi and Scorpion.
“From New Line Cinema comes the latest high-stakes installment in the blockbuster video game franchise in all its brutal glory, Mortal Kombat II,” reads the film’s official logline. “This time, the fan favorite champions—now joined by Johnny Cage himself—are pitted against one another in the ultimate, no-holds barred, gory battle to defeat the dark rule of Shao Kahn that threatens the very existence of the Earthrealm and its defenders.”
The Sphere’s version of The Wizard of Oz has already drawn controversy over its use of AI. Now we know another unsettling element has been introduced into the Hollywood classic: a likeness of Warner Bros. Discovery CEO and president David Zaslav.
No, really: the exec, along with the Sphere’s executive chairman and CEO, James Dolan, will be superimposed on the faces of uncredited background characters in what are apparently blink-and-you’ll-miss-them appearances. The stunt is to celebrate the movie’s monumental screening series at the Sphere in Las Vegas.
Dolan announced the surprise AI cameos at a special walkthrough of the experience. “I won’t tell you where, it’s only for like two seconds,” he disclosed, according to the Hollywood Reporter. “[They] replaced the faces of two very short, two-second characters in the movie with mine and [David’s]. I challenge you to find it.”
Now whether they’ll depict Munchkins or flying monkeys (or some other characters entirely) is something you’ll have to discover for yourself if you plan on seeing the MGM classic (now owned by Warner Bros.) in Las Vegas. The Sphere used AI to augment The Wizard of Oz to fit its unconventionally sized and shaped screen, hoping it will attract tourists despite the discourse surrounding the tech.
“I think [with] the controversy around AI replacing humans through technology, we ended up employing more artists on this project than I think Hollywood has employed in previous years, just to continue this journey,” shared the Sphere’s visual effects specialist Ben Grossmann in defense of its use to showcase the film to audiences in a new way.
Let us know what you think of The Wizard of Oz: The Zaslav Cut in the comments.
On August 22, 2020, Warner Bros. held its first-ever DC FanDome, a weekend-long virtual event meant to make up for that year’s San Diego Comic-Con, which was canceled due to the pandemic. If you’ve ever followed big industry events like the Game Awards or… well, Comic-Con, you know they often come with a big trailer or two that’s meant to make it all worth it. And for WB, the big showcase for its inaugural, short-lived event was the very first look at Matt Reeves’ The Batman.
Trailers for superhero movies have gradually become more and more of a big deal, whether they’re telegraphed in advance, leaked, or appear just out of the blue. The Batman already caught the internet’s eye with casting Twilight alum Robert Pattinson in the lead role, and excitement truly began to grow once Reeves showed the actor in his Batsuit and the most car-looking Batmobile in years.
It also didn’t hurt that this was the first solo Bat-movie in nearly a decade and technically the true start of WB’s plans to dabble around with a cinematic multiverse that kept this Batman in his own world away from other goings-on at the time.
Within 24 hours, that teaser amassed over 31 million views, and while those numbers are short in the grand scheme, it did its job in getting people talking about Batman again. If online circles weren’t discussing its darkness in comparison to the Nolan films, they were gushing over Colin Farrell’s makeup job as Penguin or listening to Nirvana’s “Something in the Way” on repeat. For a movie that was openly marketing itself back then as still in the works, it won enough of the internet over right away that they were willing to follow Reeves to hell if it meant getting to see this on the big screen.
Had things gone to plan, The Batman would’ve come out in June 2021, but the pandemic forced a readjustment. The Batman was a quarter into production when it was indefinitely paused for most of 2020, during which the film’s dialect coach Andrew Jack passed away from covid and Pattinson himself tested positive just days after work resumed again. As a result, things were basically radio silent until late 2021, when the film basically reintroduced itself with a new trailer that kept the mood and song but featured more bombast and a great idea of what the movie would be about. On just one of WB’s YouTube accounts, it’s gotten over 65 million views and closes on a shot that’ll likely define Reeves’ entire Batman tenure. If there were any doubts that people lost interest in this movie because of the pandemic, that second trailer sure proved that wrong.
Since that first trailer came and went, The Batman (which hit theaters March 4, 2022) has continued to have a hold on the internet, which has been waiting impatiently for its sequel. Like its predecessor, The Batman Part II has had no shortage of production problems and delays, to the degree that DC Studios head James Gunn politely (but firmly) told people to back off Reeves. The second movie isn’t due for another two years and change and only recently entered pre-production—but when the first proper look at that one hits, expect comparisons between it and its predecessor’s first trailer as fans once again prepare to fall in love with Reeves’ interpretation of DC’s ever-brooding leading man.
Alex Sohn and Gavin Johannsen penned the spec screenplay for With the 8th Pick, which follows the high-stakes process that led to Bryant getting drafted into the NBA in 1996. The project was generating high interest from other studios and streamers before Warners stepped in preemptively to nab it. A director has not yet been attached.
With the 8th Pick is said to focus on the New Jersey Nets and then-general manager John Nash, who held the eighth pick in the draft and considered taking Bryant out of high school. The future Hall of Famer ended up being taken by the Charlotte Hornets with the 13th pick before he was traded to the Lakers, where he would win five NBA championships and become an icon of the city.
The project is described as having elements of Moneyball (which starred Brad Pitt), The Social Network and Air, Ben Affleck’s Matt Damon-starring pic that tracked the beginning of Michael Jordan’s now-legendary partnership with Nike. With the 8th Pick is said to detail the pivotal process during which slightly different decisions could have changed the NBA’s future.
Producers include Tim and Trevor White for Star Thrower Entertainment and Ryan Stowell for Religion of Sports. Also producing is Gotham Chopra, who co-founded Religion of Sports with Tom Brady and Michael Strahan.
Bryant was part of the legendary Lakers teams that included center Shaquille O’Neal and coach Phil Jackson. Bryant died in a helicopter crash in 2020 at age 41, as did 13-year-old daughter Gianna.
Sohn is also writing Netflix’s planned John Madden project that hails from Religion of Sports. He is represented by Verve and Lit Agency. Johannensen is repped by Verve and Gotham.
This weekend, Ian McKellen had a bit of Hobbiton-disturber-of-the-peace energy about himself when he revealed at a fantasy convention in London that Frodo Baggins would appear in Andy Serkis’ upcoming Lord of the Rings prequel movie, The Hunt for Gollum. Frodo is far from the only familiar face who has been teased as making a potential appearance in the film (due out in 2027), but he is a particularly interesting one considering the chronology of events we already know from Tolkien’s books.
When Is The Hunt for Gollum Set?
Speaking to Empire Magazine late last year, producer Phillipa Boyens said that The Hunt for Gollum “falls after the birthday party of Bilbo and before the Mines of Moria” during the events of The Fellowship of the Ring. We’ve already seen parts of that journey in both the theatrical release and extended editions of the film. Galadriel’s prologue covers Bilbo’s finding of the ring (before, again, we see that covered even further during The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey), and we see moments of Gollum’s torture at the hands of Sauron’s forces pointing the Ringwraiths to the Shore. Several scenes added in the extended cut see members of the Fellowship acknowledge that they are being tracked by Gollum by the time they have arrived in Moria.
In the chronology of Tolkien’s own writing, events play out similarly, but we learn that, in contrast to the perception of the movie, those events take place over a much, much longer period of time.
Wait, How Many Years Passed Between Bilbo’s Party and the Formation of the Fellowship?
One of the things most poorly conveyed from the books in the film adaptation of Fellowship is that almost two decades pass between Gandalf leaving Frodo in the Shire after Bilbo departs for Rivendell and the meeting of the council of Elrond that puts into motion the quest to destroy the One Ring once and for all.
In Tolkien’s writing, Bilbo’s 111th birthday celebration takes place in the year 3001 of the Third Age, and in that same year, Gandalf recruits Aragorn to track and find Gollum’s whereabouts, after the two first crossed paths almost half a century earlier. Gollum had left his cave dwellings in the Misty Mountains in 2944 to search for the halfling who took the ring from him and was captured in 3009 by Aragorn. After being brought to the realms of Mirkwood for interrogation, Gollum flees the elven realms while they are attacked by the forces of Mordor almost a decade later in 3018—a year after Gandalf, as seen in Fellowship of the Ring, rides to Gondor’s capital, Minas Tirith, and uncovers information leading him to believe that Bilbo’s magic ring is indeed the One Ring of power. The Council of Elrond, where Gandalf details his history tracking Gollum in the books, takes place in October of that year.
That means Gollum’s capture by the forces of Sauron and the torture that eventually leads to him sharing his knowledge of the ring’s location occur at some point in the almost 70 years between leaving his mountain home and his capture by Aragorn. And that which is conveyed as weeks or months at best in the film adaptation of Fellowship of the Ring is actually seventeen years. The only real acknowledgement that a significant passage of time has occurred is Bilbo’s own aging, although that can be in part credited to his vitality no longer being sustained by the One Ring.
What Was Frodo Doing in the Years Between?
The answer is that we simply don’t know, beyond the fact that he continued to stay at Bag End after Bilbo’s departure from the Shire and that he kept the ring hidden as per Gandalf’s request. We know that, at Gandalf’s request when he went to Aragorn to discuss finding Gollum, Dúnedain rangers kept watch over the Shire, which probably means that Frodo wasn’t exactly running around Middle-earth for fun during that time, so he presumably stayed living the same life he had since coming under Bilbo’s guardianship.
Well, the easy answer is that Frodo doesn’t have to be a hugely involved character in however the film portrays its version of the passage of time from Tolkien’s books and writings. Peter Jackson’s film trilogy already played loose in communicating, for the most part, the years that pass between the events of Fellowship, Two Towers, and Return of the King, and we don’t know enough yet about what kind of time frame Hunt for Gollum will spread its own interpretation over.
But regardless of that, Frodo is at least present in three largely vague points: the opening, set with Gandalf departing the Shire and recruiting Aragorn after Bilbo’s party; the ending, which presumably climaxes with Gandalf’s return to the Shire to confirm his belief that the One Ring has been found; and then literally anywhere between those two points, waiting out for word from Gandalf and living his best halfling life. Any role Frodo would have in Hunt for Gollum could be incredibly slight.
The film could also take the approach The Hobbit trilogy did with its own Frodo appearance. There, Frodo appears in the framing device that opens An Unexpected Journeyalongside the late Ian Holm, once again portraying the older Bilbo, as the two hobbits discuss Bilbo writing the story of his adventures. Hunt for Gollum could very easily, say, flash back from Frodo writing his own adventures down in Return of the King‘s epilogue to him wondering what Gandalf did after he left the Shire again.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard is out tomorrow, October 31. Whether you’re a seasoned veteran of developer BioWare’s fantasy RPGs or a newcomer looking to see what all the fuss is about, it’s worth noting that The Veilguard represents a pretty drastic shift from the tactical, open-zone RPG gameplay of its predecessor, Dragon Age: Inquisition. So no matter what your previous experience, there are a few things worth noting before you dive into this long-awaited return to Thedas. I’ve put over 60 hours into the game, so here are a few things I’ve learned for you to keep in mind as you get started. – Kenneth Shepard Read More
It’s only been a whole week since Joker: Folie à Deux hit theaters, but the reactions and takes couldn’t be more divisive. Folks who saw it (or just read the synopsis online) have a lot of thoughts on various parts of the movie, mainly its ending. Director Todd Phillips and star Joaquin Phoenix have already talked about it (and how they came up with it), so now it’s time for the film’s secret key player to share their thoughts on the matter.
After being fully rejected by Lee (Lady Gaga) and placed back in Arkham Asylum, Arthur (Joaquin Phoenix) gets approached by a fellow inmate played by Connor Storrie, who’s been watching him in secret throughout the film. The inmate tells Arthur a joke, and then stabs him to death before carving that classic Glasgow smile onto his own face. Just like that, he’s taken the Joker mantle for himself.
Speaking to TMZ, Storrie said that he’s not really surprised the end’s got fans feeling some type of way. Like many, he was admittedly thrown by the news that this would be a musical, considering how “raw and grimy” the first Joker was. But as far as he’s concerned, the polarizing opinions were inevitable, and might be justified in some respects. “I’d rather things be polarizing than things be boring or squeaky clean,” he said. “You don’t make such a big swing like that without knowing it gives people the opportunity to not get behind your choices.”
While Storrie commends Phillips for “having the balls to make such a bold swing,” he said he never considered Folie à Deux as a secret origin story. (It seems he didn’t even know what else would happen in the movie beyond him killing Arthur.) He knows how big a deal Joker is, obviously, but he stressed to not “considering what that [ending] could mean or where it could go. It felt very clear that this is Joaquin’s movie, [and] this is my place in that. […] It is a part of Arthur’s story more than it is becoming anything else after that.”
Joker: Folie à Deux may have been a surprise damp squib at the box office this weekend, but its ending has gotten people talking regardless if they went out to see the sequel or not. And as controversial a conclusion as it is, apparently we almost got something similar in the original film’s climax… if not for a purported refusal from Christopher Nolan himself.
Folie à Deux climaxes with an imprisoned Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix), his trial concluded and awaiting the death sentence, being stabbed to death by a fellow inmate. As Arthur bleeds out, in the obscured background we see the inmate begin to cackle in a Joker-ish manner, before taking the knife to their own face and seemingly carving a smiling scar along their mouth, akin to the appearance of Heath Ledger’s Joker in The Dark Knight. As one Joker falls, another metaphorically rises. But a new report suggests that a version of that controversial moment almost came to pass in Todd Phillips’ original Joker movie.
As part of a new report at the Hollywood Reporter discussing the fallout of Folie à Deux‘s box office flop, the trade cites a source that alleged that the original script for the first Joker concluded with Arthur, standing before his gathered supporters, scarring himself in that familiar smile pattern. However, the idea was scrapped—not at Phillips’ behest, or even Warner Bros.’, but one of the studio’s other premier directors at the time, Christopher Nolan, who purportedly believed that only the late Heath Ledger’s incarnation of the Joker should be distinguished by the smile scar.
At the time of the first Joker, Nolan and Warner Bros. had an incredibly tight relationship—a relationship that would then distinctly sour in the wake of the 2020 covid-19 pandemic, when the director balked at Warner Bros.’ plans to put its 2021 theatrical slate on streaming day and date through the studio’s platform Max (then known by its full name, HBO Max). Already frustrated by the theatrical rollout of his time-bending film Tenet through Warner in 2020, Nolan was one of the most vociferous and notable directors who publicly lambasted the decision. Breaking his traditional distribution relationship with Warner Bros., he took his critically acclaimed smash hit Oppenheimer to Universal last year.
All that means that by the time that Folie à Deux was rolling around, Nolan wasn’t exactly in at Warner Bros. with the sway to nix at least someone getting scarred in the movie’s climax. Would the moment have been more controversial if it was Arthur’s Joker scarring himself, or is the wild ending twist more about how it sharply takes him out of the picture? We’ll never know now, but one thing’s for certain—don’t ask Chris Nolan how he feels about it, he almost definitely won’t tell you.
The big promise of Todd Phillips’ Jokerwas stripping out the titular character’s comic book elements and showing what would happen if a regular guy in 1980s Gotham decided to put on clown makeup. (Turns out, things didn’t go well, mainly for everyone else around him.) A young Bruce Wayne is in the original movie, and you may be wondering what would happen if an adult Batman met this version of his nemesis. According to director/writer Todd Phillips, he thinks Arthur Fleck would just think Batman’s neat. (You’re shocked, I’m sure.)
In a recent IGN interview, Phillips explained how Arthur would “be in awe of the alpha male that is Batman. I think [he’d] look up and appreciate it.” In his read, Arthur is “fascinated by men at ease,” such as his own coworkers and Robert De Niro’s talk show host Murray Franklin from the first movie. Those men are everything he’s not, and why wouldn’t that extend to Batman? Presumably, this Batman knows Arthur’s responsible for his parents’ murder, but maybe they can move past that.
The original Joker ended with Arthur eventually losing his cool so bad he shot Murray in the face on live TV, so that fascination clearly has a limit. Still, Phillips’ comments get at something, namely how Arthur has been very quick to fall in love, either romantically or platonically. But Warner Bros. is probably not interested in making the decades of subtext between Bats and Jokes into actual text, or at least no more than what Lego Batman already did back in 2017. Considering Arthur’s luck with people he crushes on, anything between this Clown Prince and a Dark Knight old enough to punch his face in would likely end in a bad romance.
It’s officially September, and for the first weekend of the month, Beetlejuice Beetlejuicewas the record-breaking, box office winner.
Warner Bros. and Tim Burton’s horror-comedy sequel opened to $145.4 million. According to Variety, the bulk of that came domestically, where it began its theatrical run with $110 million. It’s the second-biggest September debut of all time behind the $123 million debut of 2017’s It: Chapter One (and directly ahead of It: Chapter Two’s $91 million in 2019). For 2024 overall, it’s the third-best domestic opener of the year behind Deadpool & Wolverine’s massive $211.4 million start and Inside Out 2’s $154.2 million.
There’s been a big marketing push behind Beetlejuice Beetlejuice over the past several months, and renewed interest in the larger franchise. Along with getting people to rewatch the first film to see if it still holds up (and maybe just Burton’s entire filmography overall), it definitely helps that the 90s animated series recently hit Tubi ahead of the sequel’s release. Its stars can also be credited: people love them some Winona Ryder, Michael Keaton, and Jenna Ortega, particularly the latter thanks to Wednesday and the Scream sequels. Add on the strong word of mouth from its premiere at the Venice Film Festival, and it’s no surprise that folks have drank the Juice, as it were.
What else is there to look forward to this month? Genre-wise, Blumhouse’s Speak No Evilremake will finally hit theaters on September 13, along with a one-day run for the first three episodes of Dandadan, Lionsgate’s action-comedy The Killer’s Game, and the Megan Fox sci-fi horror flick Subservience. The folllowing week on September 20, we’ve got the animated prequel Transformers One, Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley’s The Substance, and Halle Berry protecting kids once more in Never Let Go. Finally, September 27 will close things out with Hellboy: The Crooked Man, The Wild Robot, Azrael, and Megalopolis.
Reports of a game set in the universe of Matt Reeves’ The Batmanare, apparently, greatly exaggerated. The internet was swirling with rumors of such a game’s existence on the morning of August 30, with many hoping that such a project was real. However, none other than James Gunn, the head of DC films, weighed in to set the record state.
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The rumors stem from an article on news site Puckdiscussing the state of Warner Bros. and the outlook of its CEO, David Zaslav, on selling assets. The article states that former Warner Bros. parent company AT&T decided against selling the Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment division responsible for games because it was “too valuable to unload.” The article goes on to claim that, in addition to the upcoming Penguin HBO show, there is a game in development “rooted in the 2022 The Batman movie.” This one line made fans theorize on what this could be, and if the game itself would be more closely tied to the movie or the Colin Farrell series. If true, this would be the first Batman game set in the Reeves’ universe. However, it seems the game does not actually exist.
On social media site Threads, a user directly asked James Gunn if there was any accuracy to the rumors. Gunn succinctly shut them down by saying, “Sadly there is no truth to this whatsoever.” For hopeful fans, though, the use of “sadly” may suggest that he does hope a project like this will exist at some point. Batman fans are long overdue for another great game starring the caped crusader. 2025 will mark the tenth anniversary of Batman: Arkham Knight’s release, which is arguably the last good Batman game Warner Bros. has released. If you are really craving another Batman game, however, the VR title Batman: Arkham Shadowis set to release this fall, and it actually looks kind of good! Still, hope springs eternal for another amazing AAA Batman game.
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) announced Tuesday its plans to commit more than $8 billion to partner with UNLV to lease and operate Nevada Studios, but only on one condition.
The partnership between the two and Birtcher Development is contingent on the passing of a film tax credit incentive bill initially introduced in 2023, according to a release from WBD.
The proposal, which aims to “establish film and TV studio infrastructure and workforce development programs” in Nevada, is expected to be reintroduced at the next regular session of the Nevada State Legislature in February 2025.
“When talking with citizens we hear repeatedly that we need to further diversify our southern Nevada economy and at the same time commit the resources to develop our workforce,” State Senator Roberta Lange said.
Lange added that having a partner with the depth of Warner Bros. will be a “key difference” to the proposal and will help meet those two priorities.
Nevada Studios, which will be renamed “Warner Bros. Studios Nevada,” will be located at UNLV’s Harry Reid Research & Technology Park in Las Vegas. It will be the primary studio on the proposed 34-acre campus.
“Warner Bros. Discovery is one of the largest producers of scripted and unscripted film and television content in the world spanning general entertainment, animation, lifestyle and nonfiction,” Chief Operating Officer of Warner Bros. Studios Simon Robinson said. “Studios Nevada represents a great opportunity to further expand our facilities to accommodate these productions and more in the future.”
“We are fully committed and excited about the potential of a long-term partnership and presence in Nevada and are confident it will be a win/win for the State of Nevada, the Las Vegas community and WBD as we look ahead to our next 100 years of exceptional storytelling,” Robinson added.
According to the release, the studio will “feature full-service film and television studios and other facilities designed to capitalize on emerging technologies related to WBD’s content creation.”
Part of the planned partnership will be the Nevada Media and Technology Lab, an immersive learning facility that will provide space and opportunities for the UNLV film department and other departments at the university.
“The partnership with WBD will allow space to support vocational training, internship experiences, and research and workforce development opportunities for both K-12 and higher education partners throughout Nevada,” the release stated.
“This is a big moment for UNLV and the State of Nevada,” UNLV President Keith Whitfield said. “Together, [UNLV and Warner Bros.] can help develop the next generation of filmmakers and storytellers, while reaching new heights in training a young workforce, engaging students of all ages in content creation, and enabling UNLV to become synonymous with other leading film schools across the nation.”
This is the second movie studio hoping to be built in Las Vegas. In March, the Clark County Zoning Commission voted unanimously to support plans for a motion picture studio to be built on 30 acres in Summerlin.
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