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The filmmaker behind classics like ‘Predator’ and ‘The Hunt for Red October’ is working on his first film in more than 20 years, as well as a book about his experience in prison

In conversations about the golden age of Hollywood action films, references to one or more of the films of John McTiernan (Albany, New York, 74 years old) are inevitable. In the late glow of the 1980s alone, the director shot three back-to-back classics: Predator (1987), Die Hard(1988) and The Hunt for Red October(1990). After receiving a tribute in Paris from the French Cinemathèque, McTiernan visited Spain to collect the honorary award he received this year from the Sombra fantasy film festival. The veteran filmmaker is grateful for the successive career recognitions, but as he tells EL PAÍS, he’s far from calling it a day. As he revealed in talks organized by Sombra, more than 20 years after his last film, he is planning his return to the big screen, though he’s still reluctant to share many details. “I’m a little superstitious about talking about movies until we’re shooting them. I’ve had a couple of independently financed films that I was certain were going to happen and then didn’t. I’m just going to wait and see.”

The long-awaited Red Sonja movie reboot is one step closer to arriving on movie screens worldwide. The film’s release was delayed as the producers secured a theatrical release and an R-rating in the United States. Both these tasks have now been accomplished.

The character of Red Sonja was originally created as a supporting character for Marvel Comics‘ Conan the Barbarian comic series. Based on two historical heroines created by Robert E. Howard (Red Sonya of Rogatino and Dark Agnes), she was intended to act as a foil to the young Conan. Sonja grew to be popular in her own right, with her comics inspiring a 1985 film starring Brigitte Nielsen. However, the finished film took little from the source material, and was an infamous box office bomb.

Deadline confirmed that Samuel Goldwyn Films will distribute the Red Sonja movie reboot. The MPAA later confirmed the movie had been presented with an R-rating for “strong/bloody violence.” This indicates that the final film will be truer to the source material than the 1985 adaptation.

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A release date for the Red Sonja movie reboot has yet to be specifically announced. However, it has been confirmed that it will be released during the later half of 2025. It has also been confirmed that the reboot movie will be based on the more recent comics, based on Red Sonja’s rebooted history in 2013. In her new origin, Sonja lost her family earlier in life and was not blessed by a war goddess in exchange for an oath of chastity.

Filmmakers and studio executives, be warned: a long-suspected Oscars curse may in fact be real.

Over the past 13 years, the vast majority of best director winners have followed up their wins with disastrous films that tanked at the box office or alienated viewers. These films ultimately brought the highs of a career-defining moment crashing down to the reality of the fickle and unpredictable tastes of modern audiences.

Take a look and a pattern becomes clear: Ang Lee’s Life of Pi (2012) follow-up Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk (2016) was a box office disaster. Damien Chazelle’s La La Land (2016) follow-up First Man (2018) failed to connect. Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley (2021) didn’t come close to making back its budget after The Shape of Water (2018) dazzled the Academy. Chloé Zhao followed up the gorgeous Nomadland (2020) with the would-be superhero franchise starter, Eternals (2021). That one landed with a thud.

The heretofore suspected best director curse — seen as early as 1980 with the epic Western and studio bankrupting Heaven’s Gate, Michael Cimino’s post-The Deer Hunter dud — lurched into full view in recent weeks with Mickey 17, Bong Joon Ho’s big-budget, big-swing sci-fi bomb.

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And hey, maybe the curse isn’t real and something else is happening here. Doherty suggested to THR that the best director Oscar may create a halo effect around the filmmaker, which can play a part in dooming his or her follow-up project.

“I wonder if the people working with the director — producers and writers and actors — are over-awed and therefore less willing to question his/her judgment because his/her auteurist brilliance has been validated by the industry’s highest award,” he said. “Back in the studio days, a mogul could tell the director on the payroll the film was too long and he needed to cut 25 minutes. And that was that. Who today would have the stones to say that to Martin Scorsese or Christopher Nolan?”

The organization that bestows the Academy Awards has apologized to “No Other Land” co-director Hamdan Ballal after mounting criticism following its response to the violent attack on the Oscar winner

• Death of a Unicorn, a horror-comedy from A24
• The Woman in the Yard, a psychological horror from Blumhouse
• A Working Man, an action-thriller from MGM

I'm making this post to bring attention to original movies being released that people here might not have heard about. If it's recieved well, perhaps I'll make this a weekly series of posts about originals being released.

Okay, technically, A Working Man is based on a book, but for all intents and purposes, it's original.

Summary:

Father-Daughter duo Elliott and Ridley hit a unicorn with their car and bring it to the wilderness retreat of a mega-wealthy pharmaceutical CEO.

Director: Alex Scharfman

Writer: Alex Scharfman

Cast:

• Paul Rudd as Elliot Kintner
• Jenna Ortega as Ridley Kintner
• Richard E. Grant as Odell Leopold
• Will Poulter as Shepard Leopold
• Téa Leoni as Belinda Leopold
• Anthony Carrigan as Griff
• Jessica Hynes as Shaw
• Sunita Mani as Dr. Bhatia
• Steve Park as Dr. Song
• Kathryn Erbe as Tapestry Video Narrator

Rotten Tomatoes: 57%

Metacritic: 55

VOD: Theaters

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/26464803

Angels in the Asylum, a British indie film starring Simon Pegg and Katherine Waterston, has stopped shooting indefinitely after running out of cash midway through production, Deadline can reveal.

Angels in the Asylum was mounted without its financing fully in place and had to halt filming in February, 15 days into a month-long shoot. There is no clarity on when the £5M ($6.4M) production might restart as producers scramble to bring in new finance.

Angels in the Asylum set out to tell an important story about women incarcerated against their wishes, but has created a messy legacy in which crew members are said to be owed at least £600,000 in wages. Cast pay was ringfenced in an escrow account under Equity union agreements.

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The reasons for the financial strife are disputed. The position of Sorrenti and Greenwood is that funding under an arrangement with distributor Parkland Pictures has not materialized. In a statement, they said it was “devastating” that Angels in the Asylum did not have the funds to carry on shooting. They are in talks with other financiers in a bid to resurrect the movie and “remain determined to find a solution.”

Parkland CEO John Cairns told Deadline that his company had no agreement to finance Angels in the Asylum beyond its work as a sales agent. He added that proposed tax credit funding through Parkland Film Capital was not finalized and, even if it was, there would still be a “very large gap” in the budget.

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Angels in the Asylum was able to begin production with funding from other investors, while Sorrenti and Greenwood also put cash into the project. Around 150 people were left out of work when the film went on hiatus, with crew members being owed at least three weeks’ wages, expenses, and holiday pay. Suppliers are also said to be significantly out of pocket.

Some crew members said they had been left in financial jeopardy amid precarious conditions in the UK film and TV production industry. A small number of people are pursuing legal claims in an effort to recover the money they are owed. Bectu and Equity are supporting members impacted by the hiatus.

Those caught up in the collapse are furious, with some complaining that the issues have been compounded by poor communication and false hope from those running the production. When filming paused in February, producers said they hoped it would be a week before production could resume. “We have been strung along, it’s unbelievable,” said one person. Another source added: “The producers were in over their heads.”

The position of the producers is that they have been working tirelessly to resolve the funding gap. Sorrenti and Greenwood said they have also not been paid and are working to resuscitate the film without remuneration. They are said to be heartbroken about what has taken place.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/27420837

Zendaya will play legendary Ronettes singer Ronnie Spector in a biopic for A24, to be directed by Barry Jenkins.

• WOLF CHILDREN: May 11, 12, and 13
• SUMMER WARS: July 27, 28, and 29
• THE GIRL WHO LEAPT THROUGH TIME: September 28, 29, and 30

Addditionally, all three movies will be released on 4K Blu-ray - Wolf Children on August 5, Summer Wars on April 1 (next week), and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time for fall 2025.

Writer-director Alain Guiraudie must surely now be said to match Quentin Dupieux for the weirdest sense of humour in French cinema. But is comedy exactly what is happening here? Because this has to be one of the strangest films of the year – or the most deadpan of deadpan in-jokes. At one point, I thought I saw the performer playing a police officer almost laugh, but perhaps every single actor here was on the verge of cracking up throughout the shoot. It could be that every time Guiraudie yelled “Cut” everyone burst out laughing.

You could also call Misericordia queer cinema, with the word “queer” also working in its non-sexual sense. Guiraudie made his international breakthrough with his 2013 film Stranger By the Lake, but it’s now clear that the seriousness and vehemence of that psychosexual drama are atypical of the director’s real instincts, which are towards waywardness and playfulness and unreadable, inscrutable mischief. And here, as sometimes in the past, he looks as if he is making it up as he goes along.

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Perhaps this film is just too self-consciously odd, but you feel that you are watching a dream which has been minutely transcribed and re-enacted; or perhaps all the performers are sleepwalking in the most vivid and lucid way. The film is also notable for showing semi-erect penises very candidly.

Trailer

IMDb

Watch the livestream announcement here.