Cameron eyes 2nd historic tragedy
And DC movie's horrible test screenings
What to know
James Cameron wants to direct Last Train From Hiroshima before Avatar 4… Avatar 3 is already deep in the works, but before Cameron returns to Pandora he wants to finally make a Hiroshima/Nagasaki movie after 10 years of trying. The director has long held the rights to nonfiction book The Last Train From Hiroshima: The Survivors Lost Book, which details real accounts form survivors of the U.S.’s atomic bomb strikes on Japan in WWII. He’s had success with historical retellings of tragic events in the past (there’s that one about a boat), and arguably he has a bigger blank check than ever before, so yeah why not. Avatar: The Way of Water, by the way, just sank Titanic to become the 3rd highest-grossing movie of all time. We’ll get Avatar 4 eventually. 🎬
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Aquaman 2 test screenings are reportedly not so good… Rumor is people have even been walking out of them. Yikes. DC is obviously in a transition phase right now, but it needs to maintain a base level of success as it bridges to the James Gunn era. Pair this with Quantuania’s mixed reception (it got the lowest CinemaScore of any MCU movie) and you start to worry about the future of the comic book genre. Then again, Ant-Man 3 was basically critic-proof, outperforming expectations with its $105.5M draw — the best of the franchise and the 3rd best President’s Day weekend ever, so maybe comic book movies are fine. 🐠
All Quiet wins the BAFTA, Daniels take DGA, Austin Butler’s chances grow… The BAFTAs and the DGAs were this weekend and what you really need to know is that All Quiet is a safe bet for the Best International Oscar but probably not Best Picture, Spielberg and the Daniels are neck and neck for Best Director, and Austin Butler winning the BAFTA over Brendan Fraser and Colin Farrell ups his Oscar chances in one of the most competitive fields. 🏆
Richard Belzer, actor and comedian, has died at 78… Belzer had one of the coolest careers, making a name for himself in standup comedy (and eventually hosting a talk show) before becoming one of the most recognizable TV drama actors. His character of Detective Munch appeared on so many shows that it created an entire connected universe way before connected universes were a thing. 🎤
Spielberg turning Kubrick’s Napoleon script into a 7-part miniseries… Love something as much as Steven Spielberg loves completing unfinished Stanley Kubrick projects. This time the AI director is producing a “large scale production” based on Kubrick’s Napoleon biopic about the eponymous emperor. HBO is at the table though a series order has not been finalized yet. 🇫🇷
Jonathan Majors will reportedly have a bigger role in Loki season 2… This is great news. Marvel should be deploying Majors as much as humanly possible, he’s one of the few universally exciting things they’ve got going right now. ⏳
Can mediocre movies save the box office? Otto, Ticket to Paradise, and 80 for Brady say yes… Though I’d argue besides being just OK, these movies also share that they were made for and star older people. That’s not nothing. 🎟
J.K. Rowling isn’t worried about anti-trans backlash hurting her legacy: “I’ll be dead”… She’ll be dead, but while she’s here she wants to upset as many people as possible. 🤔
Alec Baldwin no longer facing 5 years in prison after some Rust charges dropped… A win for the actor, but I still can’t believe they’re going back into production on this movie. ⚖️
/Film: Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania delivered the weirdness Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness needed… Couldn’t agree more! 🐝
A new live-action Hellboy adaptation is in the works… If at first you don’t succeed and if at second you don’t succeed, try try again? 👹
TV Guide launching new print magazine, TV Insider, focused on streaming… A new print magazine? In this economy? 😮
Laurie Metcalf and Tatiana Maslany team up for Broadway show… Acting powerhouse alert. 🎭
Netflix gets rid of “surprise me” function… Turns out no one wanted to be surprised. 🍿
Ahsoka series likely hitting this fall, Andor season 2 probably coming in second half of 2024… One way out! One way out! ✨
Big Shot, Mighty Ducks: Game Changers canceled at Disney+… No country for teen sports shows. 🦆
Shyamalan’s Knock at the Cabin is now available to watch on demand… Knock, knock, who’s there? 🚪
Early buzz around Cocaine Bear is strong… Pure and strong. 🐻
The Super Mario Bros. Movie is 92 minutes… Praise Yoshi. 🍄
What’s new
Liaison — Feb 24 | Apple TV+ drama series | 🍅
We Have a Ghost — Feb 24 | Netflix comedy film | 🍅
Party Down s3 — Feb 24 | Starz comedy series | 🍅 93%
Cocaine Bear — Feb 24 | Action comedy in theaters | 🍅
SAG Awards — Feb 26 | Award show on Netflix’s YouTube page
Returning: Outer Banks s3, Bel-Air s2
What to watch
Noah Baumbach’s White Noise, available on Netflix, is far from a perfect movie — but it’s bolder and more deliberate than a lot of what’s out there right now, and for that it’s worth a second glance. Even if you’ve never read the novel, you can see Baumbach trying to get his arms around a comprehensive and exhaustive tome that takes wild narrative, genre, and character swings. The result is a furious postmodern reckoning with modern American life and the spectre of death that hangs over all of us. While other filmmakers were inspired by the pandemic to go off and make navel gazing, auto-biographical introspections, Baumbach grabbed this beast of a 1980s novel by the horns and used it reflect the 2020s back to us. And it’s not just COVID and capitalism he’s wrestling, quite coincidentally, there’s a train derailment chemical spill incident in the news right now that’s eerily similar to some of this movie. All in all, the film is ugly, and unsettling, and thought-provoking, and it works. Netflix marketed it as an indie apocalypse thriller, primarily promoting the chunk of the story about an airborne toxic event. Part of the movie is that—Baumbach borrows liberally from Spielberg with a wink and a nudge to pull it off—but the movie is also a highfalutin intellectual drama, a tested marriage story, and a surreal Lynchian revenge noir. Again, postmodern. It’s incredible to think that Baumbach, mostly known for quieter dramas and comedies, even had this movie in him. It makes you wonder what else is up his sleeve.
For all past ‘what to watch’ recommendations, see the full list here!