Charles Bramesco
Joseph Fiennes Goes Michael Jackson (Gulp) in New ‘Urban Myths’ Trailer
When noted British actor and confirmed Caucasian male Joseph Fiennes announced last year that he’d play Michael Jackson for an upcoming TV series called Urban Myths, the public had an understandably adverse reaction. Though Fiennes confirmed that he’d portray the King of Pop after he got his controversial skin-whitening procedure, the fact remains that a white man would be playing an African-American man in a confusing sort of blackface without a literal black face. The Fiennes’ credit, he’s confessed to The Hollywood Reporter that he understands “why people are up in arms,” but hopes that audiences will be a little more understanding when they see that the show takes all sorts of liberties with the personal lives of historical figures.
Crime Runs in the Family in New ‘Trespass Against Us’ Trailer
Crime fiction has a long, rich legacy of stories pitting one character’s allegiances against each other. Internal conflict is the engine that generates drama for criminals; torn between conscience and instinct, between right and wrong, or in the case of upcoming British import Trespass Against Us, between family and the law. Which is a long-winded way of saying that a good deal of crime thrillers boil down to “protagonist would rather not do crime, but someone else wants him to do crime, so he must.” And when Michael Fassbender’s your protagonist and Brendan Gleeson is your someone else, you’re off to a pretty strong start.
Things Get Steamy, and Deadly, in Extended ‘Fifty Shades Darker’ Trailer
It’s every woman’s fantasy: not the perfect man, but the man who is perfect in all ways except one, which can only be changed with the gentle touch of a lover. Anastasia Steele, the Dakota Johnson-played protagonist of the Fifty Shades of Grey franchise, shares this widespread fixer-upper fetish, and she makes as much clear in the new trailer for Fifty Shades Darker. In the film disappointingly not titled Fifty-One Shades of Grey, Ana accepts Christian back into her life under the condition that he cut it out with all the brooding angst that originally attracted her to him and got old pretty quickly. They let one another back into their lives (and beds, and red-lit sexual torture chambers), but tragedy may cut the honeymoon phase short.
James Franco Looks Like He’s Actually Trying in the ‘I Am Michael’ Trailer
Showbiz is weird sometimes: director Justin Kelly premiered his first feature-length film I Am Michael at Sundance in January 2015, where James Franco earned scattered praise for his performance as real-life “ex-gay” Michael Glatze. Instead of sitting on his hands and waiting for the film to land a distribution deal, Kelly went right ahead and commenced work on his second feature, the gay porn saga King Cobra, which premiered at Tribeca back in the spring of 2016. “James Franco in a movie about gay porn” proved to be a more hooky angle, and the film was shown in theaters across America this past fall. That bump to Kelly’s profile enabled him to finally land distribution for I Am Michael, the trailer for which surfaced yesterday in advance of its release on January 27. Both debut and not, Kelly’s first film will be his second release. Just a fun film-industry fact.
Tighten Those Whiteys, Here’s the First Look at ‘Captain Underpants’
A longtime boon to children looking to placate mothers who wish they’d read more, the Captain Underpants series of chapter books was the pinnacle of toilet humor to kids in the ’90s and early ’00s. Over 12 books and three spin-offs, author Dav Pilkey generated gaggles of giggles with the superheroic adventures of a crimefighter clad only in a red cape and tightened whiteys, who used a plunger in his unending battle against bathroom-appropriate crime. Such nefarious villains as Doctor Diaper, the Turbo Toilet 2000, and Professor Pippy Pee-Pee Poopypants (a phrase I like to imagine executives at 20th Century Fox saying out loud, usually while seated at a long conference table) all crossed paths with the minimally-clothed defender of truth, justice, and excretive freedoms.
Crossing $11 Billion Mark, Hollywood Poised for Biggest Year to Date
Even if it feels like things are getting worse all the time, with Hollywood delivering an unholy crop of expensive flops amidst murmurs of cinema’s death in 2016, that may not be the case. At the very least, the American film industry isn’t in danger of collapsing any time soon — quite the opposite, in fact. If we’re to take the total sum of money generated by ticket sales in a given year as a barometer of the industry’s overall health, Tinseltown’s still as strong as an ox, Ben-hur remake or no.
Michael Peña and Alexander Skarsgard Declare ‘War on Everyone’ In Raucous New Trailer
A bruise-black crime comedy about a pair of tough-guy partners working in a dark-grey moral area to unravel a larger crime syndicate, executed with a '70s flair. It sure looks like 2017 will find its The Nice Guys in John Michael McDonagh's upcoming feature War on Everyone, the trailer for which debuted today in advance of its February 3 debut. The new Gosling/Crowe power couple is none other than Michael Peña (poised to rebound from the career cyanide of Collateral Beauty) and Alexander Skarsgård (also in need of a rebound, from this summer's dud Tarzan), as a pair of police officers who make typical cop-on-the-edge types look like they're not even on the edge, like they're a safe distance from the cliff.
‘Rock Dog’ Trailer: A Character In This Movie Is Named Fleetwood Yak
If you heard the title Rock Dog and made the reasonable assumption that the film is about a dog who rocks, then well done, you’ve cinched your saddle up on the basic premise of Lionsgate’s upcoming animated feature. Bodi (voiced by Luke Wilson) is a dog, who dreams of one day rocking. But this dog cannot rock — not yet, anyway. For the dog to attain his dreams of rock stardom, he’ll need the help of feline record producer Angus Scattergood (voiced by Eddie Izzard), a cartoon kitty version of Ralph Fiennes in A Bigger Splash. But the new trailer released today seems to indicate that rock is well within this dog’s abilities, and that after undergoing a substantial personal transformation, he will take up his rightful mantle as the one true rock dog. Rock Dog.
Amy Schumer and Goldie Hawn Are the Sexual Equivalent of Melted Candles in ‘Snatched’ Trailer
The public’s first look at Amy Schumer’s upcoming crime-comedy Snatched came a couple of months ago, when she posted that video of her and her costar Goldie Hawn doing a lightly choreographed dance routine tribute to Beyoncé’s “Formation” and instantly earned the ire of the internet. Somewhat less likely to earn her charges of cultural appropriation, however, is the official red-band trailer for that movie, which Schumer released today in the hopes that she has not yet fallen entirely out of favor with the general public. The people will most likely smile more kindly on Schumer when she’s getting a beverage spat on her instead of putting her face on an anthem for black womanhood — the spit take can bridge any cultural gap, truly.
Slow-Motion Run, Don’t Walk, to the First ‘Baywatch’ Trailer
It has become increasingly apparent that the best thing a revival of a tired ‘80s pop-culture artifact can be is the neo-21 Jump Street, judging by the new trailer for the Dwayne Johnson-fronted Baywatch. The parallels are striking: we’ve got the central odd couple in the Rock’s bombastic beach hero and Zac Efron’s hard-partying young gun, light meta touches about “reviving the brand,” some playful winks to the core goofiness of the source material (the “why does she always look like she’s running in slow motion?” line may be the best of the clip), even a scene where our heroes are dressed down by a furious black cop. You may call it derivative, but I call it a good start.