Latest news with #sequels
Yahoo
10 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Ryan Gosling Fan-Favorite Movie ‘The Nice Guys' Gets Long-Awaited Sequel Update
While Hollywood has leaned more heavily on movie remakes over recent years, fans seem to have an increased interest in another approach: sequels. Fortunately, many are getting their wish, with a few popular older movies getting sequels or spinoffs of late, including the upcoming Happy Gilmore 2 as a prime example. The latest film to address the idea of a potential sequel originally premiered in 2016, so the buzz hasn't been quite as loud lately, but it's apparent fans still want it. The Ryan Gosling, Russell Crowe detective mystery, The Nice Guys, earned rave reviews and director Shane Black addressed the possibility recently. As /Film revealed, Black's comments came on Second Sight Films' new limited edition 4K release of The Nice Guys. His comments were also made after Gosling previously said it was unlikely a sequel would happen after The Angry Birds Movie hurt their release at the box office. Black went on to detail how challenging a sequel to The Nice Guys may be due to all the parties involved, per /Film. "I know the rights situation on The Nice Guys is a bit difficult. Joel [Silver] is a producer, Warner Bros. is the distributor, there's an overseas company that Ken Kao is a producer on," Black explained. "So to carve it out and make sure — in other words, can you make the sequel? Yes. Will it be financially feasible once you pay off everyone involved, including the actors getting their bump?" "That's the problem—is you're gonna present something that the actors have to agree to, that's a good script, and that is going to be very expensive and the studio's going to say, 'Well, didn't the last one sort of bomb at the theaters?' And you say, 'Yeah, but we want you to spend twice as much on this one anyway to get everyone back.'" So while Black didn't entirely shoot down the idea, it seems like it's an extremely long shot that fans are ever treated to The Nice Guys 2. But keep your fingers crossed, because the idea even being mentioned nine years later is a positive, at least. The Nice Guys earned an impressive 91 percent critic score from Rotten Tomatoes, while picking up a 79 percent rating on the fan-focused Gosling Fan-Favorite Movie 'The Nice Guys' Gets Long-Awaited Sequel Update first appeared on Men's Journal on Jun 14, 2025
The Independent
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Amanda Seyfried calls for ‘more original' movies amid Mamma Mia 3 talk
Amanda Seyfried expressed her frustration with the prevalence of sequels in Hollywood, stating a preference for "original content" which she views as "scary and brave." Seyfried acknowledged the financial motivation behind sequels but admitted she would "do Mamma Mia! 3 in a heartbeat." Seyfried's remarks were made during an interview with Rachel Brosnahan, where they discussed the upcoming Superman movie and the potential for a "Barbenheimer"-like cultural phenomenon this summer. Brosnahan, who plays Lois Lane in the new Superman film, agreed that she would return for a sequel. Seyfried also revealed that she is working on a sequel to the 2009 cult horror-comedy Jennifer's Body, despite her co-star Megan Fox 's character's death in the original film.
Gizmodo
03-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Gizmodo
Clint Eastwood Says Viral Interview Is Fake, and He's Mad About It
An interview with 95-year-old film legend Clint Eastwood recently blew up online after he sent some shots at Hollywood's sequel and franchise film obsession. The problem, it appears, is that he never actually said what has been attributed to him. In fact, according to a statement he gave to Deadline (I mean…we're pretty sure he actually gave this one, right?), he said that the entire interview that produced his viral shellacking of the film industry is 'phony.' Let's take a step back real quick. On May 30, an Austrian outlet called Kurier, which The Guardian reports has a circulation of about 100,000 readers, published an interview with Clint Eastwood, supposedly given right before his 95th birthday. In that interview, which frankly comes off as a pretty generic press tour conversation, Eastwood supposedly gave the following take when asked how the business has changed in recent years: I long for the good old days when screenwriters wrote movies like 'Casablanca' in small bungalows on the studio lot. When everyone had a new idea. We live in an era of remakes and franchises. I've made sequels three times, but I haven't been interested in them for a long time. My philosophy is, do something new or stay home. That quote got picked up online and spread like wildfire, in part because it's a sentiment that lots of film lovers agree with and in part because it's Clint Eastwood taking shots at Hollywood, and that is always going to play in the right-wing internet ecosystem. The quote also got picked up by the aggregator industrial complex, getting play in Variety, IndieWire, and the New York Post among others. Fast forward to June 2, and word had gotten back to Eastwood that he's getting a lot of attention for this quote, which was probably quite confusing for him since he insists he never said it. When Deadline reached out to him to confirm the quote, Eastwood told the publication: 'A couple of items about me have recently shown up in the news. I thought I would set the record straight. I can confirm I've turned 95. I can also confirm that I never gave an interview to an Austrian publication called Kurier, or any other writer in recent weeks, and that the interview is entirely phony.' Kurier has since affixed a disclaimer to the top of the supposed Eastwood interview stating, 'The KURIER editorial team is currently investigating the matter, which will take some time given the time difference to the US. We will comment on the matter immediately thereafter.' So what happened? For what it's worth, if you run the supposed Eastwood answers through an AI detector (which are notoriously unreliable tools to begin with that produce lots of false positives), it doesn't think the text is AI-generated. And faking quotes from celebrities is not only unethical but pretty dumb because of exactly what happened here: They have a bigger platform than you and motivation to respond. As it turns out, the Eastwood quotes are sort of real. They just weren't given as part of a single interview. In a statement, which has since replaced the original interview, Kurier explained that the reporter took a collection of answers that Eastwood gave at a series of roundtable events and put them together in a single story, formatted as if they were given over the course of a single, continuous interview. 'The article was formatted as an interview, not a portrait. This was intended to create the impression that it was a new interview. The fact that this wasn't the case is not in keeping with the quality standards the KURIER maintains,' the publication said. 'Even though no quote is fabricated, the interviews are documented, and the allegation of falsification can be refuted, we will no longer work with the author in the future because transparency and our strict editorial standards are paramount to us.'
News.com.au
03-06-2025
- Entertainment
- News.com.au
‘I long for the good old days': Clint Eastwood lets rip on Hollywood
Clint Eastwood is channelling his 'Get off my lawn!' character from Gran Torino. In a new interview, the 95-year-old actor and director slammed Hollywood's growing reliance on sequels and remakes. 'My philosophy is: do something new or stay at home,' the Oscar winner told Kuria, an Austrian newspaper. 'I long for the good old days when screenwriters wrote movies like Casablanca in small bungalows on the studio lot. When everyone had a new idea,' added Eastwood, whose career spans seven decades. 'We live in an era of remakes and franchises. I've shot sequels three times, but I haven't been interested in that for a long while.' Eastwood is likely referring to the 1970s and '80s Dirty Harry movie series, in which he starred in four sequels: Magnum Force, The Enforcer, Sudden Impact and The Dead Pool. The man puts his money where his mouth is. Last year, Eastwood directed Juror No. 2, an acclaimed original courtroom thriller starring Nicholas Hoult. While the film made the National Board of Review's top 10 list, it did not receive a wide release in the US. It grossed $24 million overseas. Eastwood, who's won four Academy Awards for the films Million Dollar Baby and Unforgiven, says he won't retire for 'a long time.' 'There's no reason why a man can't get better with age,' the Mystic River director said. 'And I have much more experience today. Sure, there are directors who lose their touch at a certain age, but I'm not one of them.' A secret to his longevity, Eastwood says, are the work habits he learned early in his career as an actor. 'As an actor, I was still under contract with a studio, was in the old system, and thus forced to learn something new every year,' he said. 'And that's why I'll work as long as I can still learn something, or until I'm truly senile.'
Geek Culture
01-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Culture
Karate Kid: Legends - Review
Nostalgia in Hollywood can be a powerful, but at times blunt weapon, in the hands of different people. Top Gun: Maverick (2022) showed that gloabl audiences were hungry for a sequel to the 1986 Tom Cruise-led classic, and the last two Ghostbusters sequels, Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021) and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024), showed how a mix of original and new cast could take the franchise in new directions. Yet, there have been an equal number of misses. The last two Die Hard films, Live Free or Die Hard (2007) and A Good Day to Die Hard (2013), tried but failed to live up to the original trilogy despite the presence of franchise lead, Bruce Willis, while the recent Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023) failed to connect with audiences young and old, likely due in part to an ageing Harrison Ford, and the absence of co-creators Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. Then we have The Karate Kid , a wonderful 1984 film about a mother and her son, Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) who moves away from home to a new city, meets a girl and gets in trouble with the girl's male friend, Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka), and learns karate from an old master, Mr Miyagi (Pat Morita), to defend himself. That film resonated with fans and spawned two sequels with Macchio and Morita, until a fourth movie saw only Morita return but with a new disciple. Morita's death in 2005 would have led to the franchise's end, since he served as the mentor and heart of the series, but with Hollywood, what's death got to do with anything? A 2010 remake, starring Jackie Chan as the ageing martial arts master, Mr Han, was originally a remake of the 1984 film, which saw a mother and her son move from the US to China, only for the son to meet a girl and get in trouble with her male friend, and this time, he has to learn kung fu to defend himself. Even though many lamented calling a kung fu-inspired remake The Karate Kid, that film was a hit, though no sequel ever materialised. Until 2018, when Cobra Kai , a streaming series revival focusing on Lawrence, made its debut alongside a long list of characters retruning from the original trilogy. The reunion of Macchio and Zabka, along with new characters, saw the series achieve almost universal acclaim among fans young and old. Which leads us to Karate Kid: Legends , the first big screen outing that retcons previous narratives, as it places both Macchio and Chan's movies as part of the same narrative universe. The opening scene, which borrows heavily from a sequence from 1986's The Karate Kid Part II , expands on the original narrative that saw Miyagi and Han's ancestor establish relationship in China, to set-up how LaRusso and Han share a strong connection. But this isn't their movie, because, and stop us if you're read this before, it's about a mother, Dr. Fong, (Ming-Na Wen, The Mandalorian) ) and Han's niece, and her son Li Fong (Ben Wang, American Born Chinese ), moving from the China to New York City, only for the Li to meet a girl, Mia Lipani (Sadie Stanley, The Goldbergs ) and get in trouble with her male friend, Conor Day (Aramis Knight, Ms. Marvel ) and this time, he has to learn kung fu to defend himself. In fact, aside from short appearances at the start, with archival footage of Macchio, and by Chan in events in China, the film spends the first half dealing with Li dealing with his new life in America, and saving Mia's father Victor (Joshua Jackson, Doctor Odyssey ) from loan sharks. It's a nice set-up that reverses the premise of the Macchio and Chan's first films, thereby setting up Li to swap out his kung fu capabilities for some karate chops. While the foundation of boy meets girl and pisses off her ex isn't new, it's nice to see some solid chemistry between Wang and Stanley, and of course, Wang's natural skills in Chinese martial arts. His scenes, fighting with others, and sparring with Chan are highlights. Those skills come in play when Li plays shifu (master) and coaches former boxer Victor, leading Victor to a showdown that see him hospitalised. Aspects of the Fongs are revealed, and in comes Han who decides that the only way for his nephew to get past the trauma of fight or freeze, is to enter him in a karate tournament. And it's the last half hour that fans will enjoy, when Han recruits LaRusso to train Li in karate. Narratively, this will only make more sense if you've seen Cobra Kai , and know that across six seasons of that series, LaRusso went from having given up on karate, to opening a dojo and training students. Otherwise, how does it make sense for a former karate champion audiences last saw in a 1989 film, to emerge from out of nowhere, to help train a student in 2025? It's this part where British filmmaker Jonathan Entwistle ( The End Of The F***ing World ) drops the ball somewhat, as he does nothing to little to introduce LaRusso and you need to be a fan of the 41-year-old franchise, to understand his significance to the movie. But if you're a fan, you get to understand how quickly LaRusso adapts, to be able to learn how to support Han and combine two forms of martial arts – it's what he did on Cobra Kai , merging his and Johnny Lawrence's different karate style, to reclaim the glory for his new students in the streaming series. Yet, because this movie and that series are linked but creatively separate, it's this gap that doesn't show up in a flashback or montage, that skips telling audiences why LaRusso's input matters. Yes, he's Miyagi protege but the film doesn't show us the how and why. It's only in the start where you see footage from the second film to get a hint, but the absence of it is frustrating to longtime fans. The ending is as anticipated, and not even surprising, as the finishing move was orchestrated from the get go, but it's nice to see some fancy footwork between Wang and Knight on screen. If anything, the combined might of Han and LaRusso, sparring physically and verbally are the highlights that could have been better fleshed out. Fans are treated to the jacket on, jacket off, and jokes about which style or form of karate or kung fu is superior, and stay to the end for a cameo that again, ties back to the first movie and the recently concluded streaming series – you won't understand or appreciate it as much if you didn't watch all six seasons of it. Summary While the premise isn't fresh (it's already the third time it's been used), the links between Ralph Macchio's original and Jackie Chan's version are a nice touch. Fans of Cobra Kai will be pleased with how LaRusso is depicted, and equally upset that, aside from a cameo, the series is barely even referenced. Karate moves can be fluid, we get it, but having a strong foundation has always been the approach that works. Story - 7/10 Direction - 7/10 Characterisation - 7/10 Geek Satisfaction - 8/10 Hsals needs more space in his house, and more money in his bank account to pay for all the toys, collectibles and other geek related items that companies are churning out. Free-time? Girlfriend? Who's got time for those? Cobra Kai Jackie Chan Karate Kid Karate Kid: Legends Ralph Macchio Review
