- Andrew Lynch
REEL NEWS: FEB 6TH-12TH
Viola Davis Joins EGOT Club
Viola Davis (The Woman King, The Suicide Squad, How To Get Away With Murder) has joined the illustrious EGOT Club.
The EGOT club is an unofficial group of people who have the honour of having won; an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony.
So a TV award, music award, movie award and theatre award.
At the Grammys, Viola Davis won her first Grammy for the audio book of her memoir, Finding Me.
Davis previously won an Emmy for her performance in How To Get Away With Murder.
Her Oscar and Tony awards are kinda cheating since they are for the same role in the movie and theatre production of Fences.
Davis joins the likes of John Legend, Mel Brooks, Andrew Lloyd Weber, Whoopi Goldberg, Jennifer Hudson and Audrey Hepburn.
Heaps of celebrities are inches away from joining the club like Lin Manuel Miranda (needs an Oscar); Elton John (an Emmy); Cher (Tony); Hugh Jackman (Oscar); Julie Andrews (Tony) and Al Pacino (Grammy).
I Know What You Did Last Summer Reboot/Remake/Sequel-thing
We've exhausted 80s horror (and even 70s horror) for modern reboot/sequels (requels), now lets dig up the 90s horror for middling commercial success.
I Know What You Did Last Summer is getting a new sequel, over 25 years since the original.
The 1997 slasher film sees four teenagers (Freddie Prinz Jr, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Geller and Ryan Phillippe), involve in a hit-and-run before they are stalked by a hook-wielding killer.
Ya know, standard slasher stuff.
The new movie is potentially to be directed by Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, off her success on Netflix's Do Revenge (Camilla Mendes, Maya Hawke).
With the success of the Scream reboot, it's no wonder that 90s horror is getting its time in the sun following the Halloween reboot trilogy and the upcoming The Exorcist requel.
Scream 6 TV Spot
Speak of the masked 90s killer and they shall...not reveal themselves. Cause that's the point of the movie, duh!
Scream 6 (or ScreaVI) received a new trailer spot, ahead of the Super Bowl which already has a plethora of trailers ready to drop.
Jenna Ortega, Melissa Barrera, Courtney Cox, Jasmin Savoy Brown and Mason Gooding all return from Scream 5 and Hayden Panettiere reprises her role from Scream 4.
ScreaVI sees the crew head to New York City only to be pursued by Ghostface taking Manhattan. Or was that the other guy?
Nothing new is revealed in the spot, only that tickets are now on sale, and that bloody hijinks will ensue.
Scream 6 is out in theatres March 10.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor Adding Fast Travel (thank God!)
New gameplay from Star Wars Jedi: Survivor was shown off, highlighting the new traversal features, combat features and Thank The Maker, fast travel is added to the game.
The sequel to the first good, non-LEGO Star Wars game in over a decade, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is a highly anticipated game of 2023 with players returning to play as surviving Jedi (oh that's where they got the title from!), Cal Kestiss.
One of the most tedious parts of Fallen Order, as anyone who has played the game will know, is constantly getting lost or backtracking to previous locations with new skills on the planet Zeffo.
With Survivor, players just pick the location on the map and will instantly travel there.
Improvements don't stop there with rideable creatures and vehicles included as well as a grapple hook to make game traversal less of a burden.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor arrives on Xbox Series X, PS5 and PC on April 28th.
Harry Potter and The Endless Controversy of Trans Rights
Benjamin Franklin wrote that nothing is certain except life, death and taxes.
He also forgot, trans rights vs Harry Potter universe.
The upcoming Wizarding World game Hogwarts Legacy is out now after much controversy, as is standard for any Harry Potter related media today.
Hogwarts Legacy is an RPG game set in the 1800s at Hogwarts, giving players the choice to customise their character with some wondering (or even hoping) that there would be choice regarding a character's gender or sex.
There is no explicit "Non-binary" setting, but players are free to choose between a male or female 'archetype' (which determines your dormitory), and then can change facial structure, hair style/length and down to even voice pitch.
It may not be enough for some, but it'll certainly piss off the right people, including the series creator J.K Trolling, who it must be emphasised was NOT involved in the development of the game.
There is however a character that players meet at The Three Broomsticks called Sirona Ryan, a trans witch, the first trans character in the Wizarding World.
The debate over supporting the Wizarding World and showing support for the trans community is more complex than this hetro white male can or should comment on, and will not resolve any time soon
And now for something, completely different...
Ant-Man: Quantumania Premire Reactions
Inital reviews for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania have appeared online following the three-quels world premiere.
The consensus across all the Twitter reviews is:
-Johnathan Majors is amazing
-Michelle Pfeiffer almost steals the movie
-Its weird and crazy
While these are only short reviews that don't breach legal embargos, they are not exactly comforting for the 31st installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The last time a Marvel movie's intial reviews only highlighted the villain and the wacky tone was Thor: Love and Blunder.
Premiere reactions are always exaggerated, and understandably so since the people attending have:
A) Been invited
B) Meet or seen famous people
C) Been shmoozled by Marvel to have a good time
Those of us that begrudingly pay to see it in theatres so that we can continue to be apart of the MCU discourse even though we know we're kinda losing interest, may not have as positive a reaction.
Also, these are intial reactions and not after the reviewer has dwelled on it and started to unravel the movie as a whole and notice the glaring issues of it.
Either way, Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania is out Febuary 16th.
DC's Constantine 2 Still Going Ahead
After last week's major update on the new (and hopefully improved) DC Universe, lead by James Gunn and Peter Safran, it seemed like the confusion surronding DC properties and universes was settled.
Well Keanu Reeves has other ideas.
A sequel to 2005's Constantine was announced in September 2022, with Keanu Reeves set to return as the supernatural, devil-may-care, detective.
Having not been mentioned in Gunn & Safran's announcement last week, it is safe to assume that it is no longer happening.
A Warner Bros. representative informed Entertainment Weekly that the project is still going ahead and that Francis Lawrence, the original's director, is back as well.
So it's nice to know that somethings never change.
John Constantine is a DC 'hero' from London who deals with the occult and supernatural world, with a pesimistic approach to life and death.
Based on Gunn/Safran's new film slate, Constantine 2 will fall under the 'Elseworlds' title along with The Batman and Joker as they are not connected to the larger, main DC Universe.
The DC Universe, Chapter 1: Gods and Monsters kicks off with Superman: Legacy released July 11, 2025.
Fawlty Towers Is Cancelled...No, sorry...Rebooted
Please, Mr. Cleese tell me how cancel culture is a thing!
Fawlty Towers, the British comedy series from the 1970s and starring John Cleese is getting a modern reboot.
Cleese is co-creating the new series with his daughter Camilla Cleese and with Rob Reiner's production company.
Fawlty Towers, like most British shows, ran for 2 seasons and a total of 12 episodes and saw the hijinks of an unhinged man (Cleese, shockingly) run a hotel resulting a many a nervous breakdown each episode and assault of his staff.
After bemoaning the fact that you can't say anything and the woke mob is out to get him, it is comforting to see the put-upon white male comedian being given an olive branch by the entertainment industry, which is so rare nowadays.
The new series will explore Basil Fawlty discovering he has a daughter and teaming up with her to run a boutique hotel.
And Cleese has said it won't be at the BBC as they would not give him the creative freedom he desired.
So expect the classic gags of physical abuse, imitating a Nazi walk in front of German guests, degrading a Spanish worker for being fluent in English, casual racism and some good old groping.
You just can't say anything nowadays.
Disney, please, let IT GO!
Old Bob is back as Disney CEO after New Bob failed to meet the Disney board's expectations for a profit made during an unprecedented pandemic and dwindling numbers on Disney+.
In a shareholder conference, Bob Iger announced changes for Disney to make a quick buck and recoup some losses made over the last few years, with the intention of saving $5.5 billion USD.
The first is the classic, fire a bunch of hard working employees to save money instead having the executives take a pay cut.
Sorry 7,000 Disney employees, daddy needs to fuel his private jet and maintian his villa in Europe and Malibu holiday house and New York apartment and fleet of yachts and cars! Thanks for being so understanding.
The other announcement for a sure fire way to make money is announcing sequels to financially viabel properties regardless of if it makes narrative sense.
Sequels to Toy Story, Frozen and Zootopia (or Zootropolis, i can't tell anymore) were confirmed to be in development.
Frozen 3 is a non-brainer since that previous 2 earned over $1 billion USD globally. Not to mention the merchandise sales, stage adaptations, ice skating shows or album sales/downloads.
Zootopia/tropolis 2 is a welcome surprise with the first one tackling racism, bureaucratic corruption, red lining and the drug marketing in the guise of cute animals.
So look forward to the BLM Movement in Zootopia 2.
And the toys that keep on chugging are back with Toy Story 5 announced.
After an emotionally satisfying and devestating conclusion with Toy Story 3, a fourth seemed like a gross money grab but Toy Story 4 acted well as an epilogue for the character of Woody finding his place in the world without Andy.
But when there's oil to be dug, Disney will keep on digging. Hopefully there is an emotional, character driven story to tell like the previous films and this isn't a Lightyear situation.
No word yet on the release date for each property.
FastX Movie Released Online By Mistake
Someone over at Universal has done a bit of a whoopsie cause the whole Fast X movie is online now...
...Oh that was the trailer?
Yeah, right, who would make 3 minute and 45 second trailer that doesn't give away every plot and action beat of the movie?
Fast X mercifully promises to be the beginning of the end of the La Familia franchise with a castlist that is somehow longer than the trailer.
Franchise staples return including (but not exclusive to):
Vinny D
Michelle Rodriguez
Tyrese Gibson
Ludcaris
Nathalie Emmanuel
Jason Statham
Helen Mirren
Charlize Theron
Jordana Brewster
John Cena
Sung Kang
Gal Gadot
Joining the team are:
Brie Larson
Alan Ritchson
Michael Rooker
Rita Moreno
And Jason Mamoa as the latest muscle bound baddie with hard-on to kill Dom Torretto for past grievances who will probably join the team in the next installment.
I'd say i'm not going to spoil the movie, but there is no plot in the Fast & Furious franchise and this trailer is offical so the studio have nothing to hide.
Basically, Jason Mamoa's dad may have been the bad guy from Fast Five (the one where they drove a bank vault through Brazil). Dom and co. killed said dad, Mamoa lost his family, so Dom has to lose his.
And there's the usualy physic defying shenanigans the franchise is now known for.
Fast X races into theatres 19th May.
The Flash Poster
Lastly, The Flash is gearing up its marketing campaign, two years since getting our first offical look.
The poster sees The Fastest Man Alive in a costume heavily inspired by Francis Manapul's New 52 design.
The big draw is the ominous silhouette above the Flash which appears to be The Batwing from Batman (1989).
It was announced early on that Michael Keaton would return as Batman, and as the tagline suggests, we will see The Flash arrive in the Keaton Batman universe.
There will also be the inclusion of Supergirl, played by Sasha Calle and potentially one last hurray for the DCEU with this film acting as the reset button for the DCEU and Gunn's new DCU.
The first and only trailer debuted at DC Fandome in 2021, showing off the new suit, Supergirl, two Barry Allens and a voice over from Michael Keaton.
An unfortunate amount of controversy has occured in the two years since that trailer was released.
Ignoring the corporate swindling and maneuvering going at Warner Bros. and DC, there have been the numerous criminal charges made against the lead actor, Ezra Miller.
While WB and Miller have made a statement they are seeking mental health support, a writen statment has not alieved audiences of the conflicting emotions of seeing the Scarlet Speedster's first live action film with the incidents committed by Miller.
The Flash races into (wait, i've already done that one)...whizzes?...into theatres June 16.