'The Marvels' reactions are in
'The Marvels' reactions are in
And the 'Mean Girls' musical trailer is hiding something
What to know
Early reactions to The Marvels are mostly positive, full reviews more mixed… Early reactors enjoyed the short, sweet, and fun movie, while the full reviews complained about a poorly constructed plot. (As a reminder, Disney likes to sweeten premiere audiences which is why the reactions were better.) And yet, those good reactions might have come too little too late, as the movie is already headed for a disastrous weekend by Marvel standards. Why did Disney wait to show people the movie? Maybe positive word of mouth could have helped boost interest if the studio showed these folks the movie a week or two ago? 🤔
Live-action Legend of Zelda movie in the works at Nintendo and Sony… Holy shit! It’s really, finally happening! Maze Runner director Wes Ball is at the helm with Avi Arad (Spider-Man movies) producing. I’m optimistic about this and can’t wait to see what Nintendo comes up with. If the movie can match the beauty, complexity, and intricacies of the games (especially the recent ones), it will be something really special. Ball is a bit of a lesser known director, so while some might argue that he’s unqualified, I’m going to go cup-half-full here and suggest that he must have had a great pitch to Nintendo and Sony if they hired him to do it. 🗡️
Netflix to release Richard Linklater’s Hitman in 2024… It’s too bad they couldn’t get it in for award season this year, but it might have gotten buried around all the other high-profile films, so maybe it’s good that it will release sometime next year. 🤔
Spotify to offer paid subs 15 hours of free audiobooks a month… That will get you a third of the way through Barbra Streisand’s new memoir. 📕
Kevin Feige’s Star Wars movie isn’t happening… Perhaps that’s for the best. ✨
What’s new
The Buccaneers — Nov 8 | Apple TV+ period drama | Ⓜ️ 78
The Killer — Nov 10 | Netflix David Fincher thriller | Ⓜ️ 74
The Curse — Nov 10 | Paramount+/Showtime dark comedy series | Ⓜ️ 76
The Marvels — Nov 10 | Marvel movie in theaters | Ⓜ️
Returning: The Santa Clauses s2, Rap Sh!t s2, For All Mankind s4
What to watch
Trailer: Mean Girls — Jan 12 in theaters
Directed by Arturo Perez Jr. and Samantha Jayne, written by Tina Fey, starring Angourie Rice, Auliʻi Cravalho, Reneé Rapp, Jaquel Spivey, Avantika Vandanapu, Bebe Wood, Christopher Briney, Jenna Fischer, Jon Hamm, Ashley Park, Busy Philipps, Fey, and Tim Meadows.
I want to see the data from the studios that’s telling them not to market musicals as musicals. They must have some reason for trying to hide the fact that musicals are musicals in damn near every teaser trailer for a movie musical — because it keeps happening. If you didn’t know this was a musical remake of the 2004 film—you know, the main thing setting it apart from the original—this trailer is not cluing you in at all to the fact that it is a musical. Besides some very brief moments of dancing, it includes absolutely no singing and no clips of the musical’s original songs. And I think by omitting the fact that it’s a musical, a lot of people are going to see this trailer and think, “why remake a beloved, barely 20-year-old movie that’s perfectly fine as it is?” Especially when this trailer shows that this movie is hitting all of the same beats as the original. The most offensive thing here is that Paramount didn’t even use any of Jeff Richmond’s wonderfully catchy and super modern songs from the musical as tracking score underneath this trailer. They used an Olivia Rodrigo song! OK rant over. All of that said, I think this looks good and feels super bright and poppy, which is what you want. It’s glossier for sure, but that’s musicals for you. I’m optimistic about everything going on here, I’m just worried that Paramount is setting itself up for failure with this marketing strategy.
For all past ‘what to watch’ recommendations, see the full list here!