Bill Murray’s cameo in ZOMBIELAND (2009) is the gold standard. The movie stops, reveals that Bill Murray has been spending the apocalypse pretending to be a zombie, and somehow every second of it is exactly as funny as it sounds.
The final trailer for Steven Spielberg’s ‘DISCLOSURE DAY’ has been released.
The film follows the disclosure to the world that aliens might be real.
In theaters on June 12.
The plane sequence in The Incredibles (2004) is still one of the most intense scenes Pixar has ever made. The panic in Helen’s voice once she realizes there are missiles locked onto the plane completely changes the energy of the movie. https://t.co/hewPqYwetL
Christian Bale revealed that he actually hit Heath Ledger during the interrogation scene in The Dark Knight (2008).
Ledger kept urging him — “I said, ‘I don’t need to hit you.’ He just kept egging me on, ‘Go on.’”
SPIDER-MAN was released 24 years today.
During the upside-down kissing scene, water poured into Tobey Maguire’s nose and blocked his air when Kirsten Dunst pulled up his mask, leaving him gasping for breath between takes.
Captain America: Brave New World didn't make its money back. Thunderbolts didn't either. Joker 2 lost Warner Bros $144 million. Kraven cost Sony another $71 million. Superman was supposed to clear $700 million worldwide to be called a hit. It finished at $619 million.
So for their next DC movie, Warner Bros spent $40 million. That movie is Clayface. James Gunn dropped the trailer yesterday. It opens October 23. Same studio as Superman, same shared movie universe, same decade, about one-sixth the budget.
Superman cost $225 million to make and another $125 million to market. It took in $619 million worldwide. After theaters took their cut, Warner Bros walked away with roughly $125 million in profit. A 35% return on a $350 million bet, on the best-performing superhero movie of the year. Marvel used to clear over a billion dollars on films that cost less than Superman did.
Clayface cost $40 million. It's a horror movie about a struggling actor whose face gets cut up in a knife attack. He tries an experimental treatment to fix it. His whole body starts turning into clay. Two-month shoot in England. Halloween release. Built like a Blumhouse movie.
Which matters because Blumhouse has been running the most profitable studio in Hollywood for over a decade. Last year's Speak No Evil cost $15 million and made $43 million. Get Out cost $4.5 million and made $255 million. The original Paranormal Activity cost $15,000 (not a typo) and made $194 million. Across around 200 films, Blumhouse has grossed over $5.7 billion.
James Gunn and Peter Safran are running DC on a 10-year plan. Two $225 million superhero films a year would bleed them dry. Two $40 million horror films that each clear $100 million is actually a business.
The Clayface poster shows half a face dripping into clay. The budget behind it tells the bigger story: the kind of movie that ruled the 2010s can barely cover its own bills now, and a Batman villain horror flick made on Blumhouse money might out-earn the next $225 million superhero movie.
In 28 Days Later (2002), London looks eerily empty but it was all low-budget guerrilla filmmaking, no CGI.
Danny Boyle shot at dawn on Sundays with a tiny crew, just 45 mins before the city woke, & even had to ask people on Westminster Bridge to pause.
#Sinners DP Autumn Durald Arkapaw just made #Oscars history.
She is the first woman to ever win the Academy Award for best cinematography.
https://t.co/YCGMHcYLXu
Modern films lean heavily on exposition, treating dialogue as a crutch instead of a supplement. Earlier cinema trusted framing, blocking, and duration to communicate meaning.
As the year comes to a close, TCM remembers the actors, filmmakers and creatives we lost this year.
Gone, but never forgotten.
Song title and artist: "In the Western Wind and the Sunrise" by Dave Simonett and the Sunrise.