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While some movies seem doomed from the start, others make brilliant choices that get fans hyped. Join us as we break down the smartest decisions being made for the next wave of major Hollywood films.
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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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