Underworld Blood Wars Delayed Till 2017
Underworld: Blood Wars the fifth film in the Underworld franchise had been scheduled to hit cinemas on October 14th this year, but the release has now been delayed until January 6th 2017.
The long gestating sequel will see lead actress Kate Beckinsale reprise her leather clad role as Vampire heroine Selene. Theo James also returns in a prominent role having starred in the most recent installment Underworld Awakening. Charles Dance is another familiar face set to return alongside newcomers Bradley James, Tobias Menzies and Lara Pulver.
Blood Wars will be directed by Anna Foerster, who has worked as second unit director on a series of blockbusters, including The Day After Tomorrow and Independence Day. The new Underworld movie will mark her debut as a director. A move welcomed by the film’s star Beckinsale.
The previous four films in the Underwold series have hauled in a combined $458 million at the box office alone, with additional DVD and VOD sales boosting the finanical appeal of yet another sequel.
Check out our recent chat below with Beckinsale about returning t the franchise and finally welcoming a female director to the series.
The Neon Demon Review
The Plot
When aspiring model Jesse (Elle Fanning) moves to Los Angeles, her youth and vitality are devoured by a group of beauty-obsessed women who will take any means necessary to get what she has.
The Good
Director Nicolas Winding Refn mixes his art house style with the world of fashion in this dark and disturbing tale of beauty and youth. With Elle Fanning as the main subject, the Drive director has a demanding presence for the films centerpiece and Fanning provides an utterly compelling performance as 16 year old Jesse.
Two of The Neon Demon’s biggest assets come from the tantalising score that harkens back to the electro style of Winding Refn’s previous films, and the fantastically dazzling lighting used throughout. Whether it’s the dark red lighting or the bright white or the elegant use of strobe lighting, it’s difficult to find a shot in the two hour runtime that doesn’t drip with beauty.
The Bad
Unfortunately the score and cinematography aren’t enough to give The Neon Demon much accessibility for general audiences. If you’re not one for art house films but perhaps were won over by Refn’s previous films such as Bronson or Drive, this is much harder to sink your teeth into. While the surface of the film is easy enough to follow, the many directions the plot takes some drastic twists and turns giving it an incredibly uneasy tone. Themes of unspeakable sexual taboos and cannibalism are also thrown in. Such provocative elements could have worked without an elaborate art house facade, but instead they only serve to make the film more unbearable and uncomfortable viewing.
Even then, the story feels far too thin, with the film ultimately feeling more like beauty over substance, which is ironic given the very theme it is attempting to explore. Aside from the overall look and sound of the film, the story never really takes flight, instead moving from scene to scene looking like it’s trying desperately to pay homage to art house styles from obscure films which the majority of the audience will perhaps not even have heard of.
Clocking in at nearly 2 hours, The Neon Demon emits a notion of being long for longevity’s sake. Take away thirty minutes (including the unnecessary addition of Keanu Reeves as a creepy motel owner) and you would still have the exact same film. At the very least you’d have something more economic and watchable. A tighter runtime would at least have afforded Refn less time to waste on strange scenes of a cougar trashing a motel room.
The Ugly Truth
Nicolas Winding Refn’s latest is a beauty to behold, but it’s story lacks any real interest. Alongside the stunning visuals and fantastic music, The Neon Demon drags out some frankly unsettling sequences without offering much justification. The films apparent efforts to shock and outsmart audiences will not be welcomed outside of a dedicated art house crowd.
Review by Johnny Ellis
Anna Kendrick Table 19 Trailer
Here’s the first trailer for Table 19, another wedding themed comedy starring Anna Kendrick fresh on the back of Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates. Written by the Duplass brothers the film finds Kendrick’s character resigned to table full of undesirable wedding guests. Joining her on the table on undesirables are the familiar faces of Stephen Merchant, Craig Robinson, Lisa Kudrow, Tony Revolori and June Squibb. RSVP to the film with a look at the trailer below:
Daniel Radcliffe Imperium Trailer
Imperium sees Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe playing an FBI agent reluctantly going dangerously undercover in a Neo-Nazi terrorist group. Co-starring Toni Colette and a lot of angry bald men the new trailer below gives a taste of the trouble that Radcliffe soon finds himself in.
Joe Thomas Rules Out Another Inbetweeners Sequel
The Inbetweeners and Fresh Meat comedy star Joe Thomas has firmly put an end to any lingering speculation that the enormous financial success of The Inbetweeners movies might eventually lead to another sequel despite the initial vocal reluctance of the series creators and cast to continue the franchise.
After the first big screen adventure for The Inbetweeners broke British box office records the shows creators and cast ultimately found it impossible to resist going back for a lucrative second film. However the series creators Iain Morris and Damon Beesley were even more adamant that the series truly had ended this time.
After a few years fans may have wondered whether perhaps this determination to avoid pushing the franchise past yet another natural end point ma have weakened. Speaking to Red Carpet News at the East End Film Festival premiere of his new indie film The Darkest Universe, star Joe Thomas was quick to confirm that there really won’t ever be a third film.
“I think we’re not going to do a third! I think it was an amazing journey that we went on and we never expected it to get that far. I think we’re all now ready to call it a day on that front. I think we’ve just run out of stories and anecdotes from that time of our lives. It was amazing and we were so grateful that we got to go along that far and it seems surreal we got to do it for that long. But I think it’s extremely unlikely we do something now, it was a great thing but it’s time to call it a day….
I think it was a bit like saying you can’t behave like that in adult life to be honest. There will come a point where you can’t be forgiven for this sort of behavior. I think they did want to put them in a bit of jeopardy. To say you’ll get out of your depth if you carry on like this. Those characters had to grow up at some point. I would say you can be a total idiot when you’re teenage boy and everything will probably be okay. But you can’t really carry that on into your 20s and thirties. I think the film was maybe leading towards saying something along those lines.”
Joe talking about his new indie film and the end of Fresh Meat below as well: