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From Mortal Kombat 2 to Bond 26, these upcoming movies have made the right calls so far.
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00:00The number of creative decisions that go into making a single successful movie is absolutely
00:06mind-boggling. It generally takes a village to make a great or even good film. And while no
00:12movie is beyond surprising us all when it finally comes out, sometimes there's an early sign that
00:18it's doing things right. I'm Ellie for WhatCulture and let's take a look at these upcoming movies
00:23that just made incredibly smart decisions. Starting with a street-level sequel, Spider-Man
00:30Brand New Day. Much as the Marvel Cinematic Universe's multiverse saga has been a ripe
00:36vehicle for oodles of fan service, it's also fair to say that the concept risks running itself into
00:43the ground if it continues unabated. And so it is a relief to hear from MCU producer Kevin Feige
00:49himself that the franchise's fourth Spider-Man film, the now-shooting Spider-Man Brand New Day,
00:54which, fun fact, has just been filming in my hometown in the last month, will be focused
00:59at the street level with less of an emphasis on huge-scale world-ending events. This tracks
01:05given that we know Brand New Day will feature appearances from Daredevil, Kingpin and The
01:10Punisher, who are typically much better suited for grittier, comparatively grounded stories.
01:15After the unrestrained fan service of Spider-Man No Way Home, bringing the story back down to earth
01:21for the next film seems like the right creative call. This will also allow it to serve as a much-needed
01:26palate cleanser between the more out-there shenanigans of The Fantastic Four First Steps
01:32and Avengers Doomsday. Casting an unknown actor, Bond 26. Ever since Daniel Craig wrapped up his James
01:40Bond tenure with 2021's No Time to Die, speculation has run rampant about who will succeed him in the
01:46role of the iconic spy. Just a few of the bookies' favourites in recent years have included Aaron
01:52Taylor-Johnson, Theo James, Harris Dickinson and Callum Turner. Though a recent report indicates that
01:58studio Amazon and director Denis Villeneuve have opted to go in another direction. If the scuttlebutt can be
02:04believed, the filmmaker will be forgoing established names in favour of an unknown actor to portray a
02:10younger iteration of Bond in his late 20s or early 30s. Now obviously, unknown is a relative term,
02:17but it certainly indicates that Villeneuve will be casting a wide net for the role, looking beyond
02:22rising film actors and likely considering those still cutting their teeth in TV and theatre. Now given
02:27that just about any name actor will bring a certain amount of baggage to a role as statuesque as Bond,
02:33discovering a talented off-the-radar performer is infinitely more exciting and interesting.
02:39Cutting the budget, keeping it simple, Fast 11. The most recent Fast and Furious movie, Fast X,
02:45was basically all of the series' worst instincts dialed up to 11, with a scrawled-on-a-napkin script
02:51and wildly overstuffed cast undercutting set pieces that began to feel disappointingly ordinary. It was
02:57also a ridiculously expensive monument to Hollywood excess, with an eye-wateringly massive budget of
03:03$340 million, ensuring it didn't stand a chance of turning a profit theatrically.
03:09However, Fast X's commercial underperformance, being the lowest grossing since 2011's franchise
03:15rejuvenating Fast 5, has reportedly prompted something of a pivot for the series' apparently
03:20final mainline entry, Fast 11. Now according to the Wall Street Journal, Universal won't greenlight the
03:27sequel until it can be produced for a budget of no more than $200 million. That's a whole $140 million
03:33less than the last film. And honestly, some belt tightening and fat trimming for a franchise that's
03:38become a bloated, unwieldy shadow of its former self is no bad thing. Given that Vin Diesel has
03:44already claimed that Fast 11 will be a more grounded film centred around street racing in Los Angeles,
03:50it should absolutely be possible to deliver that for $200 million or less. For a franchise whose origins
03:56seem almost hilariously quaint by today's standards, returning to something more straightforward for
04:01its big farewell does seem totally apt. Confirming Cillian Murphy's cameo, 28 years later, The Bone
04:09Temple. Though some were disappointed not to see original franchise lead Cillian Murphy make an appearance
04:15in the recent 28 years later, director Danny Boyle did confirm during the sequel's press tour that
04:21Murphy will 100% show up in the next film, 28 years later, The Bone Temple. But in a laudably
04:28pro-audience move, Boyle also went on to reveal that Murphy will only appear in a brief cameo in The
04:34Bone Temple, teeing up a more substantial lead role in a prospective follow-up that will only be made if
04:40The Bone Temple succeeds at the box office. Now while Sony likely weren't happy that Boyle
04:45spilled the beans on the size of Murphy's role up front, it's also smart to set the right
04:50expectations before a film's release. In this case, ensuring that audiences are aware they won't be
04:56getting a lot of Murphy in the next movie. Whether this approach will have an impact on the film's
05:00box office remains to be seen, but 28 years later certainly didn't hurt commercially for Murphy's
05:06absence. A $40 million budget, Clayface.
05:09One of the riskier projects in James Gunn's DC Universe is Clayface, a body horror film centred
05:16around the famed antagonist from Batman's rogues gallery. Though Clayface is certainly a well-known
05:21Batman foe, he's hardly the safest choice for his own movie, especially with the tendency for most
05:26modern superhero movies to be inherently high-budget, high-risk productions. But in a surprising move,
05:33Clayface will actually only cost $40 million, a practically paltry price tag compared to, say,
05:39the $225 million recently spent on Gunn's Superman. Now this likely speaks to the film being helmed by
05:45a lesser-known filmmaker, Speak No Evil's James Watkins, rather than genre royalty, with an on-the-rise
05:51ensemble cast who aren't commanding massive paychecks. But above all else, it suggests that
05:56we're not going to see much of Clayface in his clay form, which would require extensive, costly VFX
06:03work. Now given that Clayface is a shapeshifter capable of assuming anyone's form, he'll presumably
06:08just hop from disguise to disguise throughout the film with only some intermittent clay-morphing effects
06:13to sell each transformation. Considering the movie will need to work hard to win over the disinterested
06:19casual mainstream, keeping the budget low is definitely a canny choice right out of the gate.
06:25Getting Anna Faris and Regina Hall back, Scary Movie 6
06:29For more than a decade, it truly seemed like the Scary Movie franchise was deader than disco.
06:35After 2013, Scary Movie 5 was near-universally panned by critics and grossed less than half
06:41of the previous film. Even though the spoof genre seemingly died a death in the 2010s as high-quality
06:47parodies could be freely disseminated by content creators on social media, last year it was
06:52unexpectedly announced that Scary Movie 6 was in development.
06:56Now while it was a relief to hear that the Wayans brothers were back on board as writers and
07:01producers, the real coup here was in securing the services of original stars Anna Faris and Regina
07:07Hall, who conspicuously sat out Scary Movie 5. Whether Scary Movie can prove itself relevant in
07:12the 2020s remains to be seen, but even if the rest of the movie is a mess, which is a distinct possibility,
07:18it'll at least be a delight to see Faris and Hall reprising the roles of Cindy and Brenda for the first time
07:24in 20 years. Revealing the accents early, The Odyssey
07:28Audiences who went to see Jurassic World Rebirth in cinemas back in July were treated to a teaser
07:34trailer for Christopher Nolan's new fantasy epic, The Odyssey, focused on a tense conversation between
07:39Tom Holland's Telemachus and a currently unconfirmed character played by John Bernthal.
07:44As gorgeous as the footage looked, some took umbrage with the fact that Holland and Bernthal both used
07:49American accents to portray ancient Greek characters, complaining that it came across
07:54as anachronistic. Many expected them to either adopt broad English accents, basically cinematic
08:00shorthand for historical epics, or even try their hand at some version of a Greek twang.
08:05But ultimately, what audiences expect and what's actually historically accurate are two different
08:10things. And more to the point, The Odyssey is an adaptation of an epic fantasy text, so who really
08:16cares? This was obviously an artistic choice on Nolan's part, and he was incredibly smart to drop
08:21a dialogue-filled teaser trailer a full year before release, allowing everyone to get the tired accent
08:27discourse out of their system long before the movie comes out. Going meta, Anaconda
08:33Many eyebrows were raised in 2020 when it was announced that Columbia Pictures were developing
08:39a reboot of the schlocky 1997 monster movie Anaconda. As commercially successful as the original film was,
08:46there simply wasn't much desire to see the IP dusted off for another go-around. And even when
08:51Paul Rudd and Jack Black were confirmed to star in this comedy horror reimagining, it was tough not
08:57to think, who asked for this? But then the first trailer for Anaconda dropped, and it all started
09:01to make sense. The big hook here is that this new film is basically a meta-legacy sequel, with Black and
09:07Rudd playing friends who enter the Amazon rainforest in order to remake their favourite childhood movie,
09:13Anaconda. Things get complicated when a real ancient oversized snake shows up and starts
09:19eating everyone with a wink-wink vibe that's undeniably Shades of Tropic Thunder. Now, there's
09:25still no guarantee that this one sings, but given that it's being co-written and directed by Tom
09:30Gormacon, it's entirely possible this gives the mouldy IP a riotous, unexpected shot to the heart.
09:37Getting it made fast, Man of Tomorrow. As co-chairman and co-CEO of DC Studios, James Gunn is one hell of a
09:45busy guy. So it would have surprised absolutely nobody if a sequel to his recent Superman reboot
09:51took three, four, even five years to hit screens. But Gunn has rather shrewdly decided to make the
09:57follow-up, Man of Tomorrow, his top priority. Gunn confirmed that he was writing the sequel before
10:02the first film was even released, and then completed his first draft back in September.
10:07Around this time, Gunn went one further and announced the sequel's release date for July 9th,
10:132027, with shooting scheduled to begin next April. In an era where even slam-dunk sequels can take years
10:20and years to get made, this is incredibly smart. Superman performed well critically and commercially,
10:25and so striking while the iron is hot is absolutely paramount, both to cement this new iteration of
10:31the Man of Steel in pop culture, and further build momentum for the burgeoning DC universe.
10:37Bringing James Gunn back, Saw 11. James Gunn was the director of the original Saw,
10:43and also helped conceive the story with writer Lee Warnell. And though he subsequently collaborated
10:48on the story for Saw 3, that's more or less where his creative contributions to the series ended.
10:54Gunn has received an executive producer credit on the seven subsequent sequels, effectively meaning
11:00that he gets paid for each new film by being the co-creator of the IP. But after Blumhouse acquired
11:05a stake in the franchise earlier this year, it was announced that Wan would be creatively involved
11:10with the upcoming 11th film, with co-producer Jason Blum affirming a desire to return the series
11:16to the people who built it in the first place. Wan himself has expressed a desire to do right by
11:22long-time fans while opening Saw up to a new audience. And given Wan's track record in horror,
11:27it's exciting to see him actively working in the franchise that made him a household name.
11:33If anyone can revitalise Saw moving forward, it's him.
11:37The incredible casting, The Hunger Games, Sunrise on the Reaping.
11:42Casting is one of the most underappreciated filmmaking disciplines, so it's fitting that
11:46the Academy will be giving out a Best Casting Oscar from next year's ceremony onward.
11:51And regardless of how the rest of the movie turns out, Hunger Games prequel slash sequel,
11:56Sunrise on the Reaping, already gets an A-plus for its utterly stupid good casting choices.
12:02Where to begin? Ray Fiennes will play a middle-aged Coriolanus Snow. Jesse Plemons has been cast
12:07as Plutarch Heavensby. Elle Fanning is a young Effie Trinket. And Kieran Culkin takes over from
12:13Stanley Tucci as Cesar Flickerman. That's some incredibly inspired casting right there. To say
12:19nothing of the new characters to be played by Glenn Close, McKenna Grace, Maya Hawke, Lily Taylor,
12:24and many more. It's often said that 90% of directing is casting, in which case director
12:29Francis Lawrence hit an absolute home run before he even shot a single frame of the film. And here's
12:34hoping the rest of the movie lives up to it.
12:36A theatrical-only release, Five Nights at Freddy's 2.
12:40It wasn't remotely surprising that the big-screen adaptation of hit horror video game franchise
12:45Five Nights at Freddy's was a stonking commercial success. But it was surprising just how well it did,
12:51despite releasing on streaming the very same day in the US. Even with a simultaneous streaming
12:57bow, the film scared up an astonishing $297.1 million against a mere $20 million budget,
13:04ensuring that Blumhouse swiftly greenlit a sequel. Many box office analysts came away from the first
13:10film feeling that Universal and Blumhouse left an enormous amount of money on the table with the
13:15day-and-date release model. And they're not going to make the same mistake again,
13:19as Five Nights at Freddy's 2 will be a theatrical-exclusive release.
13:24It remains to be seen if the sequel will outgross its predecessor,
13:27or whether casual viewers had their fill the first time. But given that buying a cinema ticket
13:32will be the only way to see it day one, it's clearly going to be an explosive hit either way.
13:37Getting David Fincher to direct The Adventures of Cliff Booth
13:41When it was announced that a sequel to Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was in the works,
13:46and that Quentin Tarantino would be returning as writer but not director, the list of filmmakers
13:52who could have conceivably replaced him was surely incredibly short. And Netflix swiftly
13:57announced that The Adventures of Cliff Booth would be directed by none other than the great David
14:01Fincher. While Fincher's filmmaking style differs considerably from Tarantino's, it doesn't take
14:07much imagination to picture him doing wonders with a Tarantino script. And of course, Fincher has
14:12worked with star Brad Pitt three times previously. Really, the only other director who would feel
14:18right to direct Tarantino's dialogue is Paul Thomas Anderson. But given that he doesn't seem
14:23to have much interest in either franchises or making movies for streaming services, Fincher was
14:28clearly the right and only choice. Though it's disappointing that Tarantino isn't directing the
14:33follow-up himself, it's tough to feel too put out when he's secured one of the world's greatest
14:38living filmmakers to replace him. Making Lin Shay the lead, Insidious 6
14:44Even though the most recent Insidious film, Insidious The Red Door, was the highest grossing
14:50in the franchise, the general critical and fan response was wildly mixed, with many missing
14:55the presence of Lin Shay's iconic medium Elise Rainier, who is without question the series' fan
15:00favourite character. Elise appeared in only a throwaway cameo in The Red Door, though in a classic
15:06case of giving the audience what they want, it was recently confirmed that Shay will be reprising
15:11her role as Elise as one of the main characters in the now-shooting sixth movie.
15:16It speaks to how much audiences love Shay's performance, that they want Elise in these
15:20movies no matter that she died at the end of the first film. But between supernatural hooey
15:25and the endless possibility of prequels, there's always a way to get her back in the fray.
15:30No matter how it happens, having the now 82-year-old Shay leading the charge once again will be
15:35a sight for sore eyes.
15:38Telling an original story, Resident Evil
15:40The Resident Evil video game franchise sure has been put through the ringer where live-action
15:46adaptations are concerned. Paul W.S. Anderson's original 2002 film wasn't particularly faithful
15:52to the games, but remains by far the best of the series, while the more source-faithful
15:57follow-ups prove the difficulty of translating heightened video game ideas to a different medium.
16:02And though 2021's reboot, Resident Evil Welcome to Raccoon City, was by far the most
16:08game-accurate movie to date, effectively smashing the first and second games into one story,
16:13its middling execution failed to do much for most fans.
16:16There was much excitement then when Barbarian and Weapons director Zack Kreger was announced
16:21to be directing a new Resident Evil reboot. Kreger was quick to point out, however, that his
16:27film will tell an entirely original story featuring no characters from the games, which left some fans
16:32disappointed. But considering Kreger's penchant for fusing gut-wrenching horror with blackly
16:38comedic absurdity, he honestly feels like a perfect fit for the B-movie-inspired tone of the Resident Evil games.
16:44Sure, you're not going to get classic characters like Leon, Chris, Jill and Claire, but isn't a
16:49brand new story that exists within that universe so much more interesting, especially with a
16:54world-class horror filmmaker steering the ship?
16:56Getting away from Avengers Doomsday, Shrek 5
16:59At the start of the year, it was announced that the long-awaited Shrek 5 had been delayed from
17:05July 1st, 2026 to December 23rd of the same year. That was all well and good until a few
17:11months later when Disney announced that Avengers Doomsday was being pushed from May 1st to December
17:1718th, meaning that Shrek 5 would be releasing just five days after the most anticipated superhero
17:22movie in years. Rather than stubbornly stick to their guns, DreamWorks announced a short while
17:27later that Shrek 5 was moving out of 2026 to June 30th, 2027, where it will face little in the way of
17:34direct box office competition. Now, given that Avengers Doomsday will suck all the oxygen out of
17:40the room at the end of the next year, regardless of its quality, getting far, far away from it was
17:46definitely a smart call here, much as Shrek fans will surely resent waiting an extra six months to see the
17:51new sequel. A little-known director and cast, Evil Dead Burn
17:562023's Evil Dead Rise continued the series' impressive winning streak, even though it was
18:02something of an anomaly, given that it didn't feature Bruce Campbell's legendary Ash, nor did it
18:07continue on from 2013's solid remake of the original film. An entirely standalone story helmed by a
18:14relatively unknown filmmaker, Lee Cronin, and featuring a cast you've likely not seen before, Evil Dead Rise
18:20prove that the series could succeed without big names or significant creative involvement from
18:25Campbell or creator Sam Raimi. And so the upcoming Evil Dead Burn will be basically attempting to
18:31repeat that same success, by hiring an on-the-rise genre director, infested filmmaker Sebastian
18:36Vanacek, to bring his own unique voice to the IP, while working with a cast of mostly lesser-known
18:43performers. If it can retain the same tone as Rise, melding grim horror with flecks of absurdist black
18:49comedy, then Evil Dead Burn will show beyond any doubt that the IP can exist as a collection of
18:55largely standalone stories from this point on. Having Terrence Stamp shoot his scenes first, Priscilla,
19:02Queen of the Desert 2. When the great Terrence Stamp passed away back in August, it was simply assumed
19:08that he would therefore not be included in the upcoming sequel to 1994's classic comedy,
19:14The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. But back in September, returning writer-director
19:19Stefan Elliott confirmed that Stamp had actually already pre-shot his scenes as one of the film's
19:25three protagonists, Bernadette, in the months prior to his death. An 87-year-old Stamp, well aware he
19:31wasn't getting any younger, agreed to shoot all of his scenes before the rest of production, with the
19:36actor performing his entire role in front of a nine-camera array. This will then allow it to be
19:41digitally pasted over a stand-in who will be present for the main shoot. Now it's certainly a risky
19:46strategy to preserve Stamp's role in the film, but absolutely preferable to using a CGI-slash-AI deepfake
19:53of the actor, as his pre-shot performance will still be the essence of Bernadette on screen.
19:58Considering that Stamp completed his scenes only shortly before he passed away in August,
20:03I'd say this was definitely the right call. Now we can only hope that the technical aspects
20:07make Stamp's role feel wholly convincing in the final film.
20:11Making Cole a supporting character, Mortal Kombat 2
20:15Despite delivering a bevy of grisly R-rated action, 2021's Mortal Kombat reboot was widely
20:22criticised for centring its story around an entirely original character not featured in the video game.
20:28Cole Young. Though Lewis Tan worked with what little he had, most questioned why source
20:33material with such a deep roster of iconic characters needed to throw a bland audience
20:38surrogate into the mix, and one who came saddled with a wife and daughter for some reason.
20:43Thankfully, the early indication is that the filmmakers have listened to the vocal feedback,
20:48as the marketing for Mortal Kombat 2 suggests that the protagonist this time around will be video
20:53game fan fave, Johnny Cage. In fact, Cole has barely been featured in the sequel's trailers at all,
20:59leading some fans to theorise that he might be getting killed off early, in much the same way
21:04that Cage himself was in the original 1997 sequel, Mortal Kombat Annihilation. But even if Cole lives,
21:10it's clear that he's going to be taking a back seat this time around.
21:14And finally, putting the title in quotation marks, Wuthering Heights.
21:19Saltburn director Emerald Fennell's new adaptation of Emily Bronte's classic novel Wuthering Heights
21:24faced a tidal wave of controversy from the moment its two lead cast members were announced.
21:30Many bristled against the fact that a 34-year-old Margot Robbie will be playing Catherine Earnshaw,
21:36who is in her late teens in the end of the story, while a 27-year-old Jacob Elordi portrays Heathcliff,
21:42who is said to be around 40 years of age and of ambiguous ethnicity in the novel.
21:47Fennell is clearly taking some bold creative liberties with the source material then,
21:51a fact clarified by the film's recent first trailer, which also made the curious choice
21:56to include its title within quotation marks. This is basically a cute visual shorthand for
22:01Fennell to instantly tell anyone who stumbles across the trailer or poster that this is an intentionally
22:07loose, radical take on Bronte's text, rather than an ultra-faithful adaptation.
22:12Again, setting the right audience expectations is always important, and this is a sly way to do it
22:17without talking incessantly about how far it strays from the source material.
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