Latest news with #actionfilm
Daily Mail
12 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Rebel Wilson larks around at Bride Hard premiere after undergoing emergency plastic surgery
Rebel Wilson looked poised and ready to fight at the Los Angeles premiere of her action Bride Hard. The Pitch Perfect actress, 45, stars as a maid of honour in the film - where a mercenary group hold a wedding hostage but it turns out Rebel's character is a secret agent. The action film is full of stunts, many of which were carried out by Rebel's stunt double Meredith Richardson. However Rebel was caught up in a 'freak accident' on set which saw her face almost 'permanently disfigured' with the star needing surgery on her nose. Seemingly recovered, Rebel stepped out for the Los Angeles premiere of the film, which also stars her Pitch Perfect co-star Anna Camp, at the DGA Theater Complex on Wednesday. Rebel showed off her trim figure in a striking bright red gown featuring a plunging neckline and shoulder pads as she walked the red carpet. The Pitch Perfect actress, 45, stars as a maid of honour in the film - where a mercenary group hold a wedding hostage but it turns out Rebel's character is a secret agent She was joined by You star Anna, who who looked glamorous in a mint green sleeveless sequin gown. Also in attendance were their co-stars Anna Chlumsky, Gigi Zumbado Justin Hartley and Sherry Cola. Rebel recently revealed she was caught up in a 'freak accident' on the set of her new film Bride Hard that almost left her face 'permanently disfigured.' The actress explained that she got smacked in the nose in a dramatic fight scene on the last day of shooting, which left a 'pool of blood.' Luckily, Rebel was quickly sent to see a plastic surgeon who stitched her up. 'A gun accidentally got whacked across my face,' Rebel shared in a recent interview. 'It was just a freak accident, and my nose got split open, so I left set. 'It was weirdly my last night of shooting. I was like, "How unlucky can I be?"' Speaking to Access Hollywood, she continued: 'I was freaking out. They take an ambulance, and they have to call a plastic surgeon, because if they didn't, I would have been permanently disfigured. 'So, we got the plastic surgeon, they did all the stitches, and you can't tell now.' Rebel plays a secret agent named Sam in the upcoming action-comedy film alongside fellow Pitch Perfect star Anna. Directed by Simon West and written by Shaina Steinberg, the movie follows Sam (Wilson) as she serves as the maid of honor at her childhood best friend's lavish wedding, which is taken hostage by mercenaries. Anna Chlumsky, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Gigi Zumbado, Stephen Dorff, and Justin Hartley also star. 'There's so much comedy in this, but there's also so much action,' Rebel told Savannah Guthrie during an appearance on the Today show of the film, which is set for release on June 20. 'I kick butt… it was hardcore.' Rebel went on to add that she did all the stunts in the movie herself, without the need for a stunt double. 'I did a bit of karate back in the day when I was younger, and at one point when I was 18 and I was a complete idiot, I went in at an all-star martial arts fighting competition and then I got punched in the face and I thought fighting isn't for me,' she continued. 'But maybe I had some muscle memory left because I do all the fights in this movie and fight off the mercenaries who come to attack the wedding. 'It was really fun.' Rebel was spotted out and about in New York on June 16. In paparazzi photos she flaunted her trimmed-down figure in a bright red jumpsuit with a V-neck design and retro boxy shoulders. The flattering garment was tied at the waist with a matching fabric belt and Rebel added a pair of pointed red heels. She coordinated her makeup to her look with a raspberry lip stain and a warm rosy blush and wore her blonde hair down in soft mermaid waves and largely skipped the accessories. The actress recently posted to social media to share her latest eating tip as she entered the last week of her 'health challenge'. At that time, Rebel said she had shed 1kg over five weeks after cutting chocolate and ice cream from her diet. The Bridesmaids star posted a selfie to show off a 'healthy' evening meal consisting of chicken breast and salad.
Forbes
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Ming-Na Wen On ‘Karate Kid: Legends' And Film's Challenge To Persevere
Ming-Na Wen is still wondering how — after kicking butt as Melinda May in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and as Fennec Shand in the Star Wars series The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett — she didn't have any fight scenes in Karate Kid: Legends. Plus, let's not forget that the iconic actor is also a force to be reckoned with as the long-time voice of Disney's Mulan. 'I didn't get to throw a punch after all the characters I play fighting all the time — and I was working with Jackie Chan,' Wen said, laughing, in a recent Zoom conversation. 'But I did try to convince Jonathan Entwistle, our director, that since [Jackie's] Wen stars in the pivotal role of Dr. Fong in Karate Kid: Legends, which merges the worlds of original Karate Kid franchise star Ralph Macchio's Daniel LaRusso and Chan's Mr. Han from the 2010 reimagining of The Karate Kid. In Karate Kid: Legends, now playing in theaters, Ben Wang stars as Li Fong, a karate prodigy who studies under Mr. Han in Beijing against wishes of his mother, Dr. Fong. As it turns out, Li's brother, Bo (Oscar Ge), was killed in an incident stemming from a karate tournament and out of fear of losing her other son, Dr. Fong tries to keep Li away from the martial arts. After Dr. Fong lands a new job at a hospital in New York City, she and Li move from Beijing to get a fresh start. However, when Li settles into his new surroundings, he starts to get bullied by a local karate champ, Conor Day (Aramis Knight), and wants to fight back, so he enlists the help of Mr. Han — who in turn contacts Daniel — to train him. If all the pieces fall into place, Li will advance far enough in the New York City's prestigious 5 Boroughs Karate Tournament to take on his bully and help some friends in need in the process. Karate Kid: Legends also stars Sadie Stanley as Mia Lipani, whom Li befriends when he arrives in New York City, while Wyatt Oleff plays Li's tutor, Alan. Joshua Jackson also stars as Mia's father, Victor, a former boxing champion who hopes to get back into the ring with the help of Li's training. While Ming-Na Wen doesn't throw a punch in Karate Kid: Legends, that doesn't mean her character hasn't been in past battles, particularly those dealing with mental anguish. Since Dr. Fong has already suffered the loss of her son, Bo, she's desperate to keep Li safe. As a parent in real life, Wen admitted that playing out the worst fear every father and mother faces was tough to wrap her head around. Luckily, she added, the film also has an important element of hope. 'This particular Karate Kid film is quite dark and serious at times. It's more than just about a coming-of-age story in which Ben Wang plays Li so beautifully,' Wen said. '[Them losing Bo] is a huge loss and so incredibly tragic, but instead of making that the focus of the story, it's also about persevering. It's about being able to survive and go through the pain and still try to find meaning.' As such, Wen said Karate Kid: Legends presents a story from her character's standpoint that everybody can relate to, including herself. 'We've suffered several different losses in our family recently, and I took all of that emotion and pain and filtered it into that into my character,' Wen explained. 'Also, I've seen how other family members work through that pain and still try to find meaning in life and that is what Dr. Fong is all about.' Helping Wen channel those real-life emotions into Dr. Fong in Karate Kid: Legends was Wang, whom she said immediately felt like a family member when she met him. 'When I met Ben, I immediately had maternal feelings for him and playing his mom was very easy,' Wen said. 'He's such a lovable guy and it was easy to build a relationship and a chemistry with him. 'Art gets easier when you can just tap into the nuances of who you are and be able to work them into your character,' Wen added. 'So, it was quite easy for me to become Dr. Fong and be that mom who wants to protect her kids and guide them and set ground rules, which they always break.' That's not to say, however, that Wen is a super-strict mom in real life like Dr. Fong is in Karate Kid: Legends. 'I'm a much cooler mom than Dr. Fong,' Wen enthused. 'I'm kind of like the rock and roll mom!' In addition to working with Wang and Jackie Chan in Karate Kid: Legends, Wen was thrilled to have the opportunity to star in a project with Ralph Macchio for the first time. Of course, making the opportunity even better was that her work with Macchio happened to be in a Karate Kid film. 'I'm friends with [Karate Kid Part II star] Tamlyn Tomita and I've met Ralph a few times through conventions, upfronts and things like that, and he's always so gracious and so lovely to finally get to work with him and to see his passion and his love for this franchise and how protective he is of it. It's just so lovely to see. 'I think Pat Morita would just be patting him on the back and saying, 'Good job son,'' Wen added. 'He is really endearing, lovely, hard-working and detailed. It was so great that I got to work with the original Karate Kid.' Karate Kid: Legends is playing in theaters nationwide.
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Rebel Wilson looks poised and ready to fight at the premiere of her action film Bride Hard after freak accident on set left her needing a nose job
Rebel Wilson looked poised and ready to fight at the Los Angeles premiere of her action Bride Hard. The Pitch Perfect actress, 45, stars as a maid of honour in the film - where a mercenary group hold a wedding hostage but it turns out Rebel's character is a secret agent. The action film is full of stunts, many of which were carried out by Rebel's stunt double Meredith Richardson. However Rebel was caught up in a 'freak accident' on set which saw her face almost 'permanently disfigured' with the star needing surgery on her nose. Seemingly recovered, Rebel stepped out for the Los Angeles premiere of the film, which also stars her Pitch Perfect co-star Anna Camp, at the DGA Theater Complex on Wednesday. Rebel showed off her trim figure in a striking bright red gown featuring a plunging neckline and shoulder pads as she walked the red carpet. She was joined by You star Anna, who who looked glamorous in a mint green sleeveless sequin gown. Also in attendance were their co-stars Anna Chlumsky, Gigi Zumbado Justin Hartley and Sherry Cola. Rebel recently revealed she was caught up in a 'freak accident' on the set of her new film Bride Hard that almost left her face 'permanently disfigured.' The actress explained that she got smacked in the nose in a dramatic fight scene on the last day of shooting, which left a 'pool of blood.' Luckily, Rebel was quickly sent to see a plastic surgeon who stitched her up. 'A gun accidentally got whacked across my face,' Rebel shared in a recent interview. 'It was just a freak accident, and my nose got split open, so I left set. 'It was weirdly my last night of shooting. I was like, "How unlucky can I be?"' Speaking to Access Hollywood, she continued: 'I was freaking out. They take an ambulance, and they have to call a plastic surgeon, because if they didn't, I would have been permanently disfigured. 'So, we got the plastic surgeon, they did all the stitches, and you can't tell now.' Rebel plays a secret agent named Sam in the upcoming action-comedy film alongside fellow Pitch Perfect star Anna. Directed by Simon West and written by Shaina Steinberg, the movie follows Sam (Wilson) as she serves as the maid of honor at her childhood best friend's lavish wedding, which is taken hostage by mercenaries. Anna Chlumsky, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Gigi Zumbado, Stephen Dorff, and Justin Hartley also star. 'There's so much comedy in this, but there's also so much action,' Rebel told Savannah Guthrie during an appearance on the Today show of the film, which is set for release on June 20. 'I kick butt… it was hardcore.' Rebel went on to add that she did all the stunts in the movie herself, without the need for a stunt double. 'I did a bit of karate back in the day when I was younger, and at one point when I was 18 and I was a complete idiot, I went in at an all-star martial arts fighting competition and then I got punched in the face and I thought fighting isn't for me,' she continued. 'But maybe I had some muscle memory left because I do all the fights in this movie and fight off the mercenaries who come to attack the wedding. 'It was really fun.' Rebel was spotted out and about in New York on June 16. In paparazzi photos she flaunted her trimmed-down figure in a bright red jumpsuit with a V-neck design and retro boxy shoulders. The flattering garment was tied at the waist with a matching fabric belt and Rebel added a pair of pointed red heels. She coordinated her makeup to her look with a raspberry lip stain and a warm rosy blush and wore her blonde hair down in soft mermaid waves and largely skipped the accessories. The actress recently posted to social media to share her latest eating tip as she entered the last week of her 'health challenge'. At that time, Rebel said she had shed 1kg over five weeks after cutting chocolate and ice cream from her diet.
Khaleej Times
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Khaleej Times
Inside Ana de Armas' brutal training for 'Ballerina' with Keanu Reeves' stunt double
When Ana de Armas signed on for Ballerina —the spin-off set in the world of John Wick —she knew this wouldn't just be another action role. The brutality, the emotional weight, and the balletic precision of the franchise demanded a transformation that went far beyond choreography. With guidance from veteran stunt performer and coordinator Jackson Spidell, who has played Keanu Reeves' stunt double for John Wick, de Armas immersed herself in a physically punishing and emotionally exacting journey that blurred the lines between dancer and warrior. Her transformation began at 87eleven, the stunt and fight choreography studio behind John Wick. There, de Armas trained for over two months under Spidell's supervision—logging up to five hours a day in martial arts, judo, wrestling, reaction drills, gunplay (with a focus on the CAR system), and learning to fall and recover like a pro. In a MotionPictures interview, Spidell recalled how the sessions were 'relentless,' designed not just to build technique but to mimic the fatigue and chaos her character would experience onscreen. "When we rehearse these fights, we break them down into parts. Rehearse that four or five times," he said. "That endurance is important because these are intricate fights. Halfway through filming, something might go wrong or someone forgets something, and you have to get right up and start from the beginning again. Over and over." The training continued in Prague, where production was based, and de Armas kept up the same tempo: sweat, bruises, repetition—and determination. Rather than mimic John Wick's cold, calculating efficiency, Ballerina demanded a different combat psychology. De Armas' character would use anything at hand—pans, chairs, surroundings—to survive. "It's like if you had a little sister, and she tried to fight me and four of my friends, how is she going to beat us? By cheating. By using your environment," Spidell said. "So we really wanted to play it as a cat and mouse [situation] where Eve is just this really smart mouse." The action was designed to evolve with the character's arc—starting off raw and reactive, and becoming more refined and deliberate as her journey progressed. Off-camera, de Armas showed a deep emotional commitment to the role. 'She wore her bruises like badges,' Spidell said, noting her toughness and willingness to throw herself fully into each scene. 'And it's funny because she could be so intense during the fight scenes, but as soon as you say 'Cut,' she'll be laughing and light. Ana is one of those actors who's able to turn it on and off." Ballerina was released on June 5 in UAE cinemas and is still showing in select theatres. In addition to de Armas, the film also stars Norman Reedus.
BBC News
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- BBC News
'It lacked any sort of sell': Did Ballerina's title spell box-office disaster?
Action blockbuster From the World of John Wick: Ballerina has been one of the summer's big flops so far – and its muddled title could be to blame. Last week saw the release of From the World of John Wick: Ballerina – a spin-off of the Keanu Reeves gun-fu series – but you'd be forgiven for not noticing. The film had an underwhelming opening weekend at the US box office, making just $24m (£17.8m). That amount has since climbed to $41.8m (£31m), but it's still a disappointing figure for the film's studio, Lionsgate, considering the $90m (£66.8m) budget. Several factors may have been responsible. From the World of John Wick: Ballerina is a vehicle for Ana de Armas, and female-centred action films are a difficult sell. The release was pushed back to make time for reshoots: if it had come out closer to de Armas' explosive turn in the 2021 Bond film No Time To Die, as initially planned, cinema-goers might have been more intrigued. Additionally, last year's John Wick television spin-off, The Continental, lasted just three episodes before being cancelled – a sign of potential franchise fatigue, or that it's Reeves' central character that fans love in these films rather than the world he occupies. But there's another factor that can't be ignored: the title. "Ballerina doesn't scream action film," wrote film-industry news site Deadline in their analysis. "If you want to make a ton of money, maybe don't call your hardcore action movie Ballerina," echoed film commentator Mark Harris. Fans on Reddit have come to a similar conclusion: "Would your average moviegoer unplugged from the [media] hype know it's full of kick-ass fight scenes, from that word on a poster, on a cinema marquee?" asked one commenter, to plenty of upvotes. A glimpse at the marketing of the film suggests that Lionsgate anticipated this exact problem during its production. The film – about a pirouetting murder machine, directed by Underworld's Len Wiseman – was titled Ballerina when purchased as a spec script in 2017. But as shooting wrapped and the release date approached, the studio began to tinker. In the last year, the film's official title has changed from Ballerina to John Wick Presents: Ballerina to, finally, From the World of John Wick: Ballerina – an attempt to put Reeves' beloved hitman front and centre, despite him having only a small cameo in the film. But that still leaves the word "Ballerina" – it's now just "Ballerina" with too many other words bolted on. Tom Lashley of Gower Street Analytics, a firm that tracks and predicts box-office performance, believes that this might well have contributed to the tumbleweeds blowing in Ballerina screenings last weekend. As a title, it "lacked any sort of sell", he tells the BBC. "So the studio began tacking the name John Wick onto it in more and more aggressive ways, in an attempt to pull in more awareness. For me, it's never a good sign when things are getting renamed like that." There's precedent when it comes to Hollywood studios accidentally sabotaging their own releases by failing to land on titles with the right kind of appeal. Edge of Tomorrow (2014), starring Tom Cruise, was adapted from a Japanese novel entitled All You Need Is Kill, but as the producer of the time-twisting science-fiction thriller, Edwin Stoff, told The Hollywood Reporter at the film's premiere, "I think the word 'kill' in a title is very tricky in today's world." However, it was replaced by a title easily mistakable for a Lady Gaga track, revealing little of the film's "Groundhog Day during an alien invasion" concept. Even the film's fans were disgruntled, so when Edge of Tomorrow was released on DVD, the title was given less prominence than its tagline: "Live. Die. Repeat." More like this:• A combat epic that 'does what film does best'• Thunderbolts* is 'the greatest Marvel in years'• Disney's Snow White has a major 'identity crisis' On the other hand, swapping a bad title for a good one at the right moment can pay dividends. Pretty Woman was originally called Three Thousand, and then 3,000, because that's how much the sex worker is paid by her employer: at that point, the film was a dark skewering of "economic imbalance… it wasn't about sex work as much as an attack on out-of-control capitalism," screenwriter J F Lawton explained in 2020. But Disney executives thought that it sounded like a science-fiction film. When Lawton's screenplay was reconfigured as a fairy-tale romantic comedy, it was renamed Pretty Woman, a catchy title which referred to Roy Orbison's song, Oh, Pretty Woman, and which was used to describe Julia Roberts in countless articles about the film's breakout star. To Lashley, some of the best and most effective titles across film and TV are straightforward, distilling the story down to a single word – just as long as that word, unlike Ballerina, is the appropriate one. "[1990s sitcom] Friends was originally titled Across the Hall. It's hard to imagine it would have been as successful with that name," he says. The same might be said of the iconic Alien – or as it was originally titled, Star Beast, until screenwriter Dan O'Bannon realised that that name promised something more fantastical and Star Wars-esque than the lean, brutal horror Ridley Scott was creating. Ditto Casablanca – a film originally destined to hit cinemas as Everybody Come to Rick's – and Beetlejuice, a film that Warner Bros pushed director Tim Burton to release under the imagination-less title House Ghosts. Burton pushed back by pretending to be dead set on calling the film Scared Sheetless. Warner backtracked: maybe Beetlejuice wasn't such a bad name after all, they decided. Sometimes, it seems, the protagonist's distinctive name can be the answer, whether it's Annie Hall – changed from Anhedonia – or Amélie, Moana or Barbie. Take the example of a film with the vague working title Scorn. It was shot, edited and prepped for release, but its star kept getting its name wrong in interviews, referring to it by his character's name instead. Not a good sign. Executives at the studio financing the film decided to change the title now that buzz was building. That star was Keanu Reeves. The film was called, eventually, John Wick. -- If you liked this story sign up for The Essential List newsletter, a handpicked selection of features, videos and can't-miss news, delivered to your inbox twice a week. For more Culture stories from the BBC, follow us on Facebook, X, and Instagram.
