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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
00:17it'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
00:42the 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
01:26-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.
01:37Ever since Daniel Craig wrapped up his James Bond tenure with 2021's No Time to Die, speculation has run
01:44rampant about who will succeed him in the role of the iconic spy. Just a few of the bookies' favourites
01:50in recent years have included Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Theo James, Harris Dickinson and Callum Turner.
01:56Though a recent report indicates that studio Amazon and director Denis Villeneuve have opted to go in
02:01another direction. If the scuttlebutt can be believed, the filmmaker will be foregoing established
02:07names in favour of an unknown actor to portray a younger iteration of Bond in his late 20s or
02:13early 30s. Now obviously, unknown is a relative term, but it certainly indicates that Villeneuve
02:19will be casting a wide net for the role, looking beyond rising film actors and likely considering
02:24those still cutting their teeth in TV and theatre. Now given that just about any name actor will bring
02:29a certain amount of baggage to a role as statuesque as Bond, discovering a talented, off-the-radar
02:35performer is infinitely more exciting and interesting. Cutting the budget, keeping it simple, Fast 11.
02:42The most recent Fast and Furious movie, Fast X, was basically all of the series' worst instincts
02:48dialed up to 11, with a scrawled-on-a-napkin script and wildly overstuffed cast undercutting set
02:54pieces that began to feel disappointingly ordinary. It was also a ridiculously expensive monument to
03:00Hollywood excess, with an eye-wateringly massive budget of $340 million, ensuring it didn't stand
03:06a chance of turning a profit theatrically. However, Fast X's commercial underperformance,
03:12being the lowest grossing since 2011's franchise-rejuvenating Fast 5, has reportedly prompted
03:18something of a pivot for the series' apparently final mainline entry, Fast 11. Now according to
03:24The Wall Street Journal, Universal won't greenlight the sequel until it can be produced for a budget
03:29of no more than $200 million. That's a whole $140 million less than the last film. And honestly,
03:36some belt tightening and fat trimming for a franchise that's become a bloated, unwieldy shadow of its
03:41former self is no bad thing. Given that Vin Diesel has already claimed that Fast 11 will be a more
03:47grounded film centred around street racing in Los Angeles, it should absolutely be possible to
03:52deliver that for $200 million or less. For a franchise whose origins seem almost hilariously
03:57quaint by today's standards, returning to something more straightforward for its big farewell does
04:03seem totally apt. Confirming Cillian Murphy's cameo 28 years later, The Bone Temple
04:09Though some were disappointed not to see original franchise lead Cillian Murphy make an appearance in
04:15the 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
04:34The Bone Temple, teeing up a more substantial lead role in a prospective follow-up that will only be
04:39made if The 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. One of the riskier projects in James Gunn's DC Universe
05:13is Clayface, a body horror film centred around the feigned antagonist from Batman's rogues gallery.
05:19Though Clayface is certainly a well-known Batman foe, he's hardly the safest choice for his own movie,
05:25especially with the tendency for most modern superhero movies to be inherently high-budget,
05:30high-risk productions. But in a surprising move, Clayface will actually only cost $40 million,
05:36a practically paltry price tag compared to, say, the $225 million recently spent on Gunn's Superman.
05:42Now, this likely speaks to the film being helmed by a lesser-known filmmaker, Speak No Evil's James
05:48Watkins, rather than genre royalty, with an on-the-rise ensemble cast who aren't commanding
05:53massive paychecks. But above all else, it suggests that we're not going to see much of Clayface in his
05:59clay form, which would require extensive, costly VFX work. Now, given that Clayface is a shapeshifter
06:05capable of assuming anyone's form, he'll presumably just hop from disguise to disguise throughout the film
06:11with only some intermittent clay-morphing effects to sell each transformation.
06:15Considering the movie will need to work hard to win over the disinterested, casual mainstream,
06:20keeping 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 of
06:41the 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
07:06Regina Hall, who conspicuously sat out Scary Movie 5. Whether Scary Movie can prove itself relevant
07:12in the 2020s remains to be seen, but even if the rest of the movie is a mess, which is
07:17a distinct
07:17possibility, it'll at least be a delight to see Faris and Hall reprising the roles of Cindy and Brenda
07:23for the first time in 20 years.
07:25Revealing 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
07:39between Tom 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
07:49used American accents to portray ancient Greek characters, complaining that it came across as
07:55anachronistic. 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 a
08:22dialogue-filled teaser trailer a full year before release, allowing everyone to get the tired
08:27accent discourse out of their system long before the movie comes out.
08:31Going 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
08:45film was, there simply wasn't much desire to see the IP dusted off for another go-around. And even when
08:51Paul
08:51Rudd and Jack Black were confirmed to star in this comedy horror reimagining, it was tough not to
08:57think, 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
09:07and
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 eating
09:19everyone with a wink-wink vibe that's undeniably Shades of Tropic Thunder. Now, there's still no
09:25guarantee that this one sings, but given that it's being co-written and directed by Tom Gormacken,
09:31it's entirely possible this gives the mouldy IP a riotous, unexpected shot to the heart.
09:37Getting it made fast, Man of Tomorrow
09:40As co-chairman and co-CEO of DC Studios, James Gunn is one hell of a busy guy. So it
09:46would have
09:47surprised absolutely nobody if a sequel to his recent Superman reboot took three, four, even
09:52five years to hit screens. But Gunn has rather shrewdly decided to make the follow-up, Man of
09:57Tomorrow, his top priority. Gunn confirmed that he was writing the sequel before the first film was
10:03even released, and then completed his first draft back in September. Around this time, Gunn went one
10:09further and announced the sequel's release date for July 9th, 2027, with shooting scheduled to begin
10:15next April. In an era where even slam-dunk sequels can take years and years to get made, this is
10:21incredibly smart. Superman performed well critically and commercially, and so striking while the iron is
10:26hot is absolutely paramount, both to cement this new iteration of the Man of Steel in pop culture,
10:32and further build momentum for the burgeoning DC Universe. Bringing James Wan back, Saw 11
10:39James Wan was the director of the original Saw, and also helped conceive the story with writer
10:45Lee Warnell. And though he subsequently collaborated on the story for Saw 3, that's more or less where
10:51his creative contributions to the series ended. Wan has received an executive producer credit on the
10:57seven subsequent sequels, effectively meaning that he gets paid for each new film by being the co-creator
11:03of the IP. But after Blumhouse acquired a stake in the franchise earlier this year, it was announced
11:08that Wan would be creatively involved with the upcoming 11th film, with co-producer Jason Blum
11:14affirming a desire to return the series to the people who built it in the first place. Wan himself
11:20has expressed a desire to do right by long-time fans while opening Saw up to a new audience, and
11:25given
11:26Wan's track record in horror, it's exciting to see him actively working in the franchise that made him a
11:32household name. If anyone can revitalise Saw moving forward, it's him.
11:36The 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. And regardless of
11:52how the rest of the movie turns out, Hunger Games' prequel slash sequel Sunrise on the Reaping
11:57already gets an A-plus for its utterly stupid good casting choices. Where to begin?
12:03Ralph Fiennes will play a middle-aged Coriolanus Snow. Jesse Plemons has been cast as Plutarch
12:08Heavensby. Elle Fanning is a young Effie Trinket. And Kieran Culkin takes over from Stanley Tucci as
12:14Cesar Flickerman. That's some incredibly inspired casting right there, to say nothing of the new
12:20characters to be played by Glenn Close, McKenna Grace, Maya Hawke, Lily Taylor, and many more.
12:25It's often said that 90% of directing is casting, in which case director Francis Lawrence hit an
12:30absolute home run before he even shot a single frame of the film. And here's hoping the rest
12:34of 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
12:51did despite 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, as Five Nights at
13:20Freddy's 2 will be a theatrical-exclusive release. It remains to be seen if the sequel will outgross its
13:26predecessor, or whether casual viewers had their fill the first time. But given that buying a cinema
13:31ticket will be the only way to see it day one, it's clearly going to be an explosive hit either
13:37way.
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 announced
13:57that The Adventures of Cliff Booth would be directed by none other than the great David Fincher.
14:02While Fincher's filmmaking style differs considerably from Tarantino's, it doesn't take much imagination
14:08to picture him doing wonders with a Tarantino script. And of course, Fincher has worked with
14:13star Brad Pitt three times previously. Really, the only other director who would feel right to direct
14:19Tarantino's dialogue is Paul Thomas Anderson. But given that he doesn't seem to have much interest
14:24in either franchises or making movies for streaming services, Fincher was clearly the right and only
14:30choice. Though it's disappointing that Tarantino isn't directing the follow-up himself, it's tough
14:35to feel too put out when he's secured one of the world's greatest living filmmakers to replace him.
14:40Making 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'
15:00fan favourite character. Elise appeared in only a throwaway cameo in The Red Door. Though in a
15:06classic case 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. It speaks to how
15:17much
15:17audiences love Shay's performance, that they want Elise in these movies no matter that she died at the end of
15:23the first film. But between supernatural hooey and the endless possibility of prequels, there's always
15:28a way to get her back in the fray. No matter how it happens, having the now 82-year-old
15:33Shay leading
15:34the charge once again will be a sight for sore eyes.
15:37Telling 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 follow-ups
15:58prove the difficulty of translating heightened video game ideas to a different medium. And though
16:032021's reboot, Resident Evil Welcome to Raccoon City, was by far the most game-accurate movie to
16:09date, effectively smashing the first and second games into one story, its middling execution failed
16:14to do much for most fans. There was much excitement then when Barbarian and Weapons director Zach
16:20Kregger was announced to be directing a new Resident Evil reboot. Kregger was quick to point
16:25out, however, that his film will tell an entirely original story featuring no characters from the
16:30games, which left some fans disappointed. But considering Kregger's penchant for fusing,
16:36gut-wrenching horror with blackly comedic absurdity, he honestly feels like a perfect fit for the B-movie
16:42inspired tone of the Resident Evil games. Sure, you're not going to get classic characters like
16:47Leon, Chris, Jill and Claire. But isn't a brand new story that exists within that universe so much
16:52more interesting, especially with a world-class horror filmmaker steering the ship?
16:56Getting away from Avengers Doomsday, Shrek 5. At the start of the year, it was announced that
17:02the long-awaited Shrek 5 had been delayed from July 1st, 2026 to December 23rd of the same year.
17:09That was all well and good until a few months later when Disney announced that Avengers Doomsday
17:14was being pushed from May 1st to December 18th, meaning that Shrek 5 would be releasing just
17:19five days after the most anticipated superhero movie in years. Rather than stubbornly stick to
17:25their guns, DreamWorks announced a short while later that Shrek 5 was moving out of 2026 to June
17:3130th, 2027, where it will face little in the way of direct box office competition. Now, given that
17:37Avengers Doomsday will suck all the oxygen out of the room at the end of the next year, regardless of
17:43its quality, getting far, far away from it was definitely a smart call here, much as Shrek fans
17:48will surely resent waiting an extra six months to see the new sequel.
17:52A little-known director and cast, Evil Dead Burn
17:572023'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,
18:19Evil Dead Rise proved that the series could succeed without big names or significant creative
18:24involvement from Campbell or creator Sam Raimi. And so the upcoming Evil Dead Burn will be basically
18:30attempting to repeat that same success by hiring an on-the-rise genre director, infested filmmaker
18:36Sebastian Vanacek, to bring his own unique voice to the IP, while working with a cast of mostly
18:43lesser-known performers. If it can retain the same tone as Rise, melding grim horror with flecks of
18:48absurdist black comedy, then Evil Dead Burn will show beyond any doubt that the IP can exist as a
18:55collection of largely standalone stories from this point on. Having Terrence Stamp shoot his scenes
19:01first, Priscilla, Queen of the Desert 2. When the great Terrence Stamp passed away back in August,
19:07it was simply assumed that he would therefore not be included in the upcoming sequel to 1994's
19:13classic comedy, The 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 make
20:07Stamp'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
20:27video games, Cole 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 surrogate into the
20:39mix, and one who came saddled with a wife and daughter for some reason. Thankfully, the early indication is
20:45that the filmmakers have listened to the vocal feedback, as the marketing for Mortal Kombat 2
20:50suggests that the protagonist this time around will be video game fan fave Johnny Cage.
20:55In fact, Cole has barely been featured in the sequel's trailers at all, leading some fans to theorise
21:01that he might be getting killed off early, in much the same way that Cage himself was in the original
21:061997 sequel Mortal Kombat Annihilation. But even if Cole lives, it's clear that he's going to be taking a
21:12back seat this time around. And 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
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
22:06intentionally loose, 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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