A poster has been unveiled for the Toxic Avenger remake, starring Peter Dinklage, which is set to reach theatres in August
Fans have been waiting a long time to see writer/director Macon Blair’s remake of the Troma cult classic The Toxic Avenger (watch it HERE), which wrapped filming way back in 2021 and unveiled a teaser trailer near the end of 2023, around the time it had its world premiere screening – but we won’t have to wait much longer. At the start of the year, it was announced that Cineverse had acquired the distribution rights with the intention of giving the film an unrated wide release, and we’ve since learned that they’re aiming for an August 29th theatrical release. Yesterday, the first clear images of the title character made their way online, and now a new poster has been unveiled. You can check it out at the bottom of this article.
Blair’s version of The Toxic Avenger stars Peter Dinklage as Winston Gooze, a stereotypical weakling who works as a janitor at Garb-X health club and is diagnosed with a terminal illness that can only be cured by an expensive treatment that his greedy, power hungry employer refuses to pay for. After deciding to take matters into his own hands and rob his company, Winston falls into a pit of toxic waste and is transformed into a deformed monster that sets out to do good and get back at all the people who have wronged him.
Dinklage is joined in the cast by Kevin Bacon as villainous corporate overlord Bob Garbinger; Elijah Wood as Bob’s brother Fritz Garbinger, who is described as “sort of Riff Raff from The Rocky Horror Picture Show and the Danny DeVito Penguin mixed together”; a group of lunatics / musicians called the Killer Nutz, who are “a rock and roll group where their presentation is theatrical evil, like KISS or Alice Cooper, but their moonlight gig is professional assassins”; Taylour Paige as investigative reporter / vigilante detective JJ Doherty; Jacob Tremblay as Winston’s stepson Wade; Jonny Coyne as a “shadowy criminal figure”; Sarah Niles as a “corrupt city official”; Julia Davis as an unspecified character; and Blair as a guy named Dennis.
The Toxic Avenger remake was filmed in Bulgaria. Troma’s Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz produced with Legendary Entertainment. The film has received an R rating for “strong violence and gore, language throughout, sexual references and brief graphic nudity“ – and the gore includes a moment that has been referred to as “the butt guts scene“.
Are you looking forward to The Toxic Avenger remake? Take a look at the poster, then let us know by leaving a comment below.
About the Author
Cody is a news editor and film critic, focused on the horror arm of JoBlo.com, and writes scripts for videos that are released through the JoBlo Originals and JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channels. In his spare time, he’s a globe-trotting digital nomad, runs a personal blog called Life Between Frames, and writes novels and screenplays.
Brandon Sklenar is playing an unhinged character in the upcoming thriller The Housemaid, while Michele Morrone plays a weirdo
Sydney Sweeney (Anyone But You, Madame Web), Amanda Seyfried (Mean Girls, Jennifer’s Body), Brandon Sklenar (It Ends With Us, 1923), and Michele Morrone (365 Days, Subservience) star in the psychological thriller The Housemaid for Lionsgate and director Paul Feig, whose credits include Bridesmaids, Ghostbusters, and A Simple Favor. Lionsgate will be releasing the film on Christmas Day 2025 – and in new interviews, Sklenar and Morrone revealed that they’re playing unhinged, weirdo characters.
The film has the following synopsis: In The Housemaid, Millie (Sydney Sweeney) is a struggling young woman who is relieved to get a fresh start as a housemaid to Nina (Amanda Seyfried) and Andrew (Brandon Sklenar), an upscale, wealthy couple. She soon learns that the family’s secrets are far more dangerous than her own. Rebecca Sonnenshine wrote the screenplay adaptation.
Feig is producing the film with Todd Lieberman, Carly Kleinbart Elter, and Laura Fischer. Sweeney, Seyfried, and McFadden serve as executive producers with Alex Young.
Sklenar told Variety that his character is like “Norman Bates meets Patrick Bateman” and the film is “very dark, dramatic, twisted. It’s not gory but it’s twisted. It’s out there for sure. I am a little unhinged. You very rarely get the opportunity to just let the cat out of the bag.“
Morrone plays Enzo, the family’s groundskeeper. He told Variety, “I think the film is going to be very faithful to the book. That’s all I can actually say.” He did add that his character is “a weirdo. I like to play weirdos, as you know. But I’m proud of myself to be part of that project and being a weirdo!“
Lionsgate Motion Picture Group co-president Erin Westerman provided the following statement when the project was first announced: “Part of the fun of the book was imagining the cast while we read it, and Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried are perfect for Millie and Nina — they’re both mysterious, nuanced, and incredibly skilled at becoming characters who don’t reveal everything right away. We’re thrilled to team them with Paul Feig, who we worked with on A Simple Favor and its upcoming sequel, and has a proven track record of developing stories with dynamic female leads.“
Adam Fogelson, Lionsgate Motion Picture Group chair, added: “I’m thrilled to have The Housemaid join our upcoming slate. A great filmmaker and a great cast with a great script from a great book is a terrific place to start. My prior work experiences with Paul and Amanda have been nothing short of spectacular, and Sydney is as talented and compelling as can be.“
If The Housemaid does well at the box office next December, there’s franchise potential here, as the novel has already received multiple follow-ups: The Housemaid’s Secret, The Housemaid’s Wedding, and The Housemaid is Watching.
Are you looking forward to seeing Brandon Sklenar and Michele Morrone play unhinged, weirdo characters in The Housemaid? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
The Shrouds, the latest film from David Cronenberg, is coming to theatres in April and the trailer is online now
David Cronenberg has said that his new film The Shrouds – which has been making the festival rounds lately (you can read what JoBlo’s own Chris Bumbray thought of it HERE) – was originally intended to be a Netflix TV series, but the streamer dropped it after paying him to write the pilot episode. So a feature film it is, and Sideshow and Janus Films have acquired all U.S. distribution rights to the film, with their plan being to give it a theatrical release next month. The Shrouds will be reaching theatres in New York and Los Angeles on April 18th, then will expand nationwide on April 25th. With those dates right around the corner, a trailer has dropped online and can be seen in the embed above.
In The Shrouds, Vincent Cassel, who previously worked with Cronenberg on Eastern Promises and A Dangerous Method, takes on the role of Karsh, “an innovative businessman and grieving widower, who builds a novel device to connect with the dead inside a burial shroud. This burial tool installed at his own state-of-the-art though controversial cemetery allows him and his clients to watch their specific departed loved one decompose in real time. Karsh’s revolutionary business is on the verge of breaking into the international mainstream when several graves within his cemetery are vandalized and nearly destroyed, including that of his wife. While he struggles to uncover a clear motive for the attack, the mystery of who wrought this havoc, and why, drive him to reevaluate his business, marriage and fidelity to his late wife’s memory, as well as push him to new beginnings.”
Diane Kruger (National Treasure, Inglorious Basterds, In the Fade), Guy Pearce (Memento, The Hurt Locker), Sandrine Holt (Homeland, House of Cards), Al Sapienza (The Sopranos, Reacher), Elizabeth Saunders (From, Mary Kills People), and Jennifer Dale (Coroner, Into Invisible Light) are also in the cast.
The Shrouds was produced by Saïd Ben Saïd, Martin Katz and Anthony Vaccarello for Saint Laurent. It’s an SBS, Prospero Pictures & Saint Laurent Productions Film, with the participation of Telefilm Canada, Eurimages, Ontario Creates in association with Sphere Films, Crave & CBC Films with the support of Canal +, OCS & the Centre National du Cinema et de L’image Animée.
Sideshow/Janus provided the following statement: “Building on a long history with David Cronenberg that has included releases of Videodrome, Scanners, The Brood, Crash, Dead Ringers, and Naked Lunch, Janus Films and Criterion are very proud to be working with Sideshow and Saïd Ben Saïd, Martin Katz and Anthony Vaccarello to premiere The Shrouds, a major new work by the Canadian master in the United States. Cronenberg is at his wittiest, most personal and romantic in this thought-provoking thriller with knockout performances from Vincent Cassel and Diane Kruger.“
What did you think of the trailer for The Shrouds? Will you be catching this movie on the big screen next month? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis experience more bodyswap shenanigans in Disney’s teaser trailer for Freakier Friday.
Things get freaky for Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis in Disney‘s teaser trailer for Freakier Friday, the long-anticipated sequel to the acting duo’s 2003 comedy smash. The upcoming cinematic romp brings the bodyswap mechanic back with style as the switcharoo magic extends to other members of the Coleman family. In addition to the Freakier Friday teaser trailer, Disney dropped a new poster for the film featuring Lohan and Curtis in panic as chaos returns to haunt their best-laid plans.
In Freakier Friday, Lohan’s Anna has a daughter and a soon-to-be stepdaughter. They, too, get caught up in the switcharoo shenanigans, doubling the confusion and consequences of tampering with unknown forces.
The film also stars Julia Butters, Sophia Hammons, Manny Jacinto, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Rosalind Chao, Chad Michael Murray, Vanessa Bayer, and Mark Harmon.
Nisha Ganatra directs Freakier Friday, based on the book Freaky Friday by Mary Rodgers. Freakier Friday could be another hit for Lohan, who delighted audiences with Netflix’s 2024 romantic comedy Irish Wish. The fantasy film features Lohan as Maddie, whose crush gets engaged while she’s stuck being a bridesmaid at his Irish wedding. Hilarity ensues as Maddie tries to navigate her feelings and responsibilities to the betrothed.
Jamie Lee Curtis recently wrapped production for Ella McCay, a comedic drama directed by James L. Brooks. The film will follow an idealistic young politician who juggles familial issues and a challenging work life while preparing to take over the job of her mentor, the state’s longtime incumbent governor. The film also stars Woody Harrelson, Rebecca Hall, Emma Mackey, Ayo Edebiri, Kumail Nanjiani, Albert Brooks, and more.
Since her welcomed comeback, Lohan has been selective about her acting projects. After starring in Irish Wish, which essentially resuscitated the romantic comedy genre alongside Sydney Sweeney and Glenn Powell’s Anyone but You, Lohan starred in Netflix’s holiday romance Out Little Secret. In the film, two resentful exes must awkwardly spend Christmas together after they learn that their new partners are siblings. Ian Harding, Kristin Chenoweth, Tim Meadows, and more star in Our Little Secret.
Are you ready to get freaky with Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis for Freakier Friday? What do you think about the teaser trailer? Let us know in the comments section below.
About the Author
Born and raised in New York, then immigrated to Canada, Steve Seigh has been a JoBlo.com editor, columnist, and critic since 2012. He started with Ink & Pixel, a column celebrating the magic and evolution of animation, before launching the companion YouTube series Animation Movies Revisited. He’s also the host of the Talking Comics Podcast, a personality-driven audio show focusing on comic books, film, music, and more. You’ll rarely catch him without headphones on his head and pancakes on his breath.
A poster has been unveiled for the sci-fi thriller The Assessment, starring Alicia Vikander, Elizabeth Olsen, and Himesh Patel
The sci-fi thriller The Assessment, starring Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina), Elizabeth Olsen (WandaVision), and Himesh Patel (Station Eleven), had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival last year, and is now heading for a March 21st theatrical release, courtesy of Magnolia Pictures. With that date just a week away, a poster for the film has been unveiled and can be seen at the bottom of this article.
The feature directorial debut of music video director Fleur Fortuné, who was working from a screenplay by John Donnelly and Mr. and Mrs. Thomas, The Assessment centers on Mia (Olsen) and Aaryan (Patel), a successful couple who hope to become parents in a near future where resources are extremely limited and the government keeps firm control over reproduction. In looking to do so, the pair are assigned an assessor named Virginia (Vikander), who moves into their home for seven days to evaluate whether they deserve to move forward in their parenting journey. What Mia and Aaryan are hoping is a routine test quickly unravels into a psychological nightmare, forcing them to question the very foundations of their society and what it truly means to be human.
Minnie Driver (Good Will Hunting), Indira Varma (Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning), Nicholas Pinnock (Captain America: The First Avenger), Charlotte Ritchie (Wonka), and Leah Harvey (Foundation) are also in the cast.
Stephen Woolley, Elizabeth Karlsen, Jonas Katzenstein, Maximilian Leo, augenschein Filmproduktion, Shivani Rawat, Julie Goldstein, and Grant S. Johnson produced The Assessment. Allen Gilmer, Riki Rushing, William Shockley, Tom Brady, Connor Flanagan, Madeleine K. Rudin, William Bruce Johnson, Thomas K. Richards, Carlotta Lӧffelholz, Jonathan Saubach, and Rusta Mizani served as executive producers.
Magnolia Pictures co-CEOs Eamonn Bowles and Dori Begley provided the following statement: “Alicia Vikander, Elizabeth Olsen and Himesh Patel are all beyond fantastic in this scary, twisted, mind-blower of a movie. Fleur has fashioned an incredibly imaginative world that feels terrifyingly believable.“
Fortuné was thrilled by the distribution deal, saying that Magnolia “have always made bold choices, giving a voice to some of my favorite filmmakers, who make us think and have a different perspective on the world.“
Are you looking forward to The Assessment? Take a look at the poster, then let us know by leaving a comment below.
Michael Fassbender not only showed up late to his audition for George Miller but was given a harsh lesson by an acting coach.
We here at JoBlo.com love us some Michael Fassbender. From Hunger to Inglourious Basterds to 12 Years a Slave to pretty much any of his upcoming projects, the man is one of the finest actors of his generation. But it’s not like he lands every role he wants. He has been open about inadvertently sabotaging his own audition for James Bond by pushing Daniel Craig instead of himself, but he’s missed out on major parts in worse ways than that.
Appearing on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Michael Fassbender remembered trying to land the role of Max Rockatansky for George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road. But it went about as bad as it could, with the actor remembering it was straight-up awful. For starters, he was late to meet with Miller by nearly an hour. Frazzled, he said he didn’t have his bearings when he did finally make it to the Warner Bros. lot. “I arrived and I was like, ‘I’m so sorry,’ and they were like, ‘Fine.’ And then George Miller has this acting coach…and it was like, it was so excruciating. I’ve been classically trained, so I have my process of, obviously, there’s an objective that the character has and activities that I’m gonna play to get it. So I felt like you’re teaching granny how to suck eggs here — this guy really got on my nerves.”
The acting coach – merely doing his job at the instruction of George Miller – took it one step further. “He was like, ‘I want you to say this phrase: get out of the room, but I want you to physicalize it Michael,’” which seems like the coach trying to lay a bit of a burn…“It was so… I couldn’t wait to get out of there.” Michael Fassbender would eventually man a very different set of wheels, competing in the famed 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2022 and 2023.
Of course, Tom Hardy ended up getting the Fury Road lead. Instead, that year Michael Fassbender would play both Macbeth and Steve Jobs, showing just how diverse of an actor he truly is. Fassbender is currently starring in Steven Soderbergh’s Black Bag (you can read our review here).
How do you think Michael Fassbender would have done as Mad Max in Fury Road? Let us know below!
Brenda Song told Jennifer Hudson her fiancé, Macaulay Culkin, might have tarnished her tradition of watching Home Alone.
Has Home Alone star Macaulay Culkin committed a Christmas-related cinematic crime? According to Running Point and The Suite Life of Zack & Cody actress and Culkin’s fiancé Brenda Song, the Mac Attack’s first-hand insight into the film’s making could have “ruined” her viewing of Home Alone, the “Die Hard for kids”-like holiday classic.
While appearing on The Jennifer Hudson Show, Song said that when she and Culkin started dating, she suggested watching Home Alone to continue a holiday tradition. Culkin agreed, but then the curtain fell, and Macaulay’s unique perspective started to feel like a swinging paint can to the face.
“Christmastime came around — and it’s a tradition, I’ve always watched Home Alone every Christmas,” Song said. “He hadn’t seen the movie in almost a decade — he didn’t want to watch it — and I forced it. I was like, ‘We have to.’”
Culkin eventually caved, but that’s when the trouble began. While watching the film, Song says Macaulay “started telling me all the behind-the-scenes stories. And I was like, ‘Stop. Stop. You’re ruining it for me.’” To clarify, Song continued, “The movie holds such a special place in obviously so many people’s hearts, it’s just hard for me, that’s all.”
Some stars find watching former projects challenging. I get it. I often avoid rewatching my JoBlo interviews, but my wife always insists. They’re always better than I remember, and I’m glad she pushes me to watch. Everyone’s their own worst critic, after all.
In the 1990 holiday classic Home Alone, Macaulay Culkin stars as Kevin McCallister, an eight-year-old accidentally left behind on Christmas vacation. While enjoying his newfound freedom, Kevin catches wind of The Wetr Bandits’ (Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern) plot to rob his family home. Instead of running to the authorities, Kevin hunkers down, sets traps throughout the house, and tortures the robbers until they’ve no choice but to give up. Culkin starred in the sequel, Home Alone: Lost in New York, which followed a similar premise but with a much larger playground for his antics.
Is Brenda Song’s tradition of watching Home Alone during the holidays tarnished forever? Has anyone ever ruined a movie for you with their intimate knowledge of its production? Let us know in the comments section below.
About the Author
Born and raised in New York, then immigrated to Canada, Steve Seigh has been a JoBlo.com editor, columnist, and critic since 2012. He started with Ink & Pixel, a column celebrating the magic and evolution of animation, before launching the companion YouTube series Animation Movies Revisited. He’s also the host of the Talking Comics Podcast, a personality-driven audio show focusing on comic books, film, music, and more. You’ll rarely catch him without headphones on his head and pancakes on his breath.
In response to the Covid pandemic, Warner Bros. gave all of their 2021 films day-and-date theatrical and Max streaming releases – and one movie that really benefited from the streaming side of that strategy was the video game adaptation Mortal Kombat, released in April of 2021. As reported by Business Insider, Mortal Kombat had the best weekend of any of the Warner Bros. releases on Max, with a total of 3.8 million viewers during its first few days. In addition to that, the film, whichcost $55 million to make, earned $83.6 million at the global box office. So, within months of its release, Warner Bros. was already developing sequels and spinoffs. The first follow-up will be making its way into theatres sometime in 2025 – and here’s everything we know about Mortal Kombat 2.
DIRECTOR
Commercial director Simon McQuoid made his feature directorial debut with the 2021 Mortal Kombat, following in the footsteps of Paul W.S. Anderson, who directed a popular 1995 film based on the video game franchise, and John R. Leonetti, who was the cinematographer on the ’95 Mortal Kombat before being promoted to director on the poorly-received 1997 sequel Mortal Kombat: Annihilation. McQuoid landed the job because producer Todd Garner was impressed by a Duracell commercial he directed, which was set in the Star Wars universe.
McQuoid actually turned down the job offer at first. As he explained to The Hollywood Reporter, he told his agent, “The first movie out, I think it shouldn’t be a video game. I’ve done video game commercials, and I get it, but let’s try to get something other than that.” But then, he was won over by the script and agreed to make the movie. And since the movie turned out to be a success, the producers and Warner Bros. decided to have McQuoid return to the helm for the sequel.
WRITER
Greg Russo and Dave Callaham received screenplay credit on Mortal Kombat ’21, with Russo also credited for crafting the story with Oren Uziel, working from the ideas presented in the video game franchise created by Ed Boon and John Tobias. That film had the following synopsis: MMA fighter Cole Young, accustomed to taking a beating for money, is unaware of his heritage — or why Outworld’s Emperor Shang Tsung has sent his best warrior, Sub-Zero, an otherworldly Cryomancer, to hunt Cole down. Fearing for his family’s safety, Cole goes in search of Sonya Blade at the direction of Jax, a Special Forces Major who bears the same strange dragon marking Cole was born with. Soon, he finds himself at the temple of Lord Raiden, an Elder God and the protector of Earthrealm, who grants sanctuary to those who bear the mark. Here, Cole trains with experienced warriors Liu Kang, Kung Lao and rogue mercenary Kano, as he prepares to stand with Earth’s greatest champions against the enemies of Outworld in a high stakes battle for the universe. But will Cole be pushed hard enough to unlock his arcana — the immense power from within his soul — in time to save not only his family, but to stop Outworld once and for all?
A synopsis hasn’t been revealed for Mortal Kombat 2 yet, but we do know who wrote the script: in January of 2022, it was announced that Jeremy Slater, who was the lead writer on Marvel’s Moon Knight series and created the TV series based The Exorcist, had been hired to write the sequel. Soon after the announcement, the writer spoke with The Direct to give an update on the script and tease that the filmmakers learned from the mistakes of the first movie. Slater said, “It’s really fun so far. We’re about halfway through the script. I’m working really closely with the director and the studios, and the game guys, and I think—I can’t say anything about the actual story, but I think they definitely learned some lessons the last time around in terms of, ‘Here’s the stuff fans responded to, and here’s what people liked out of the movie, and here’s the stuff that didn’t work out as well as we hoped.’” He added that they’re viewing the Mortal Kombat sequel as “the chance to take everything that worked in the first one and do it even better and give the audience even more, and make something that is just incredibly satisfying, and really exciting, and unpredictable.” He went into this job wanting to make the Mortal Kombat sequel that no one is expecting, one that can sneak in and “blow everyone away.“
CAST
Lewis Tan played Cole Young in Mortal Kombat, a new character who had some mysterious ties to the mythology of the series. He reprises the role in the sequel – and before production started, he told Film Updates, that he hoped Mortal Kombat 2 would be bigger and bloodier than the first movie. “We got an amazing writer, Jeremy Slater, who wrote Moon Knight for Marvel, on board. His writing is really good and he’s really smart. I’m excited to see what he develops, because it’s a tricky one with Mortal Kombat. There are so many storylines. It’s very complex; there are so many characters. It’s a hard one to get done in a two-hour period or an hour and a half. Hopefully, they can make the sequel a little bit longer and we can explore more characters and more themes, and just make it even bloodier and even bigger than the first one. That’s our plan.”
In addition to Tan, cast members returning from the previous Mortal Kombat movie are Jessica McNamee as Sonya Blade, Josh Lawson as Kano, Tadanobu Asano as Lord Raiden, Mehcad Brooks as Jax, Ludi Lin as Liu Kang, Chin Han as Shang Tsung, Joe Taslim as Bi-Han and Sub-Zero, Hiroyuki Sanada as Hanzo Hasashi and Scorpion, and Max Huang as Kung Lao.
Now, the new additions. Fans have been anxiously waiting to see the Johnny Cage character, and there were a lot of fan casting suggestions: Ryan Reynolds, James Marsden, wrestler The Miz. That last one was such a popular bit of fan-casting, The Miz even told ComicBook.com that he had been hitting the gym to make sure he would be prepared to play the character if he got the call. “I have been working on my splits. I’ve been working on my kicks. As soon as I saw that Mortal Kombat was out and there was no Johnny Cage yet and my name was literally trending worldwide No.1, ‘We want Miz as Johnny Cage’, I was like, ‘if they want that to happen, I need to basically make sure that I am prepared and ready if that opportunity presents itself, then I will be ready and focused.” But, the job didn’t go to The Miz. Instead, it was The Boys star Karl Urban who was cast to play Johnny Cage. And it sounds like he had a blast working on the project. He wrote on social media that Mortal Kombat 2 was “hands down the most action packed fun I’ve ever had on a film!“
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina actress Adeline Rudolph was cast to play Princess Kitana, who is 10,000 years old and the stepdaughter of the evil Shao Khan. Rudolph’s Chilling Adventures of Sabrina co-star Tati Gabrielle was castas Jade, the friend and bodyguard of Princess Kitana.
Bodybuilder/actor Martyn Ford (F9: The Fast Saga) landed the role of Outworld emperor Shao Kahn, with Ana Thu Nguyen (Suka) as Kahn’s wife Queen Sindel, Damon Herriman (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) as Netherrealm demon Quan Chi, and Desmond Chiam (Joy Ride) as Jerrod, who was the King of Edenia (and married to Sindel) until Edenia’s warriors lost in the Mortal Kombat tournament. It looks like we’ll be seeing a flashback to Jerrod’s downfall in this movie. Speaking to ComingSoon, Ford, who also played Goliath in the Prime Video series House of David said that Shao Khan was a dream role. “The last few years I’ve had a massive opportunity to play various characters of stature. It just seems like one dream happens and the next one comes. The last three characters I’ve played have been Flamma (in Those About to Die), who is a gladiator within history, the greatest gladiator of all time. Then Shao Kahn in Mortal Kombat 2, and then to play Goliath just topped it off. So for me, I’m not sure where I go from this as far as baddies are concerned. I think I’ve probably hit three of the greatest baddies of all time and Goliath being the ultimate icing on the cake.“
Ludi Lin told Screen Rant the sequel is “gonna be pretty immense, everything is going to be bigger. The story’s going to be great. Karl Urban as Johnny Cage, I hope you guys are ready, because he’s going to blow your socks off.” He said that Urban fills out the role of Johnny Cage, and the essence that he brings to the character adds another dimension to it, helping bring the movie to the next level.
Speaking with The Direct, Lawson took a moment to hype up the return of his character Kano, who was killed in the first movie. “I can say that in the second Mortal Kombat, Kano has a new chapter in his life, that being death. And, you know, death alters you. So yeah, prepare yourselves for a Kano 2.0. As we all know, if anyone’s a fan of games, Kano’s alliances can change at the drop of a hat, and that’s certainly true in the second one… [It’s going to] keep you on your toes guessing [about] who Kano’s kind of siding with.“
PRODUCTION
Mortal Kombat 2 started filming in June of 2023 – but hadn’t been rolling for long before production had to shut down due to the writers and actors strikes. After a four month break, filming resumed in November and wrapped in January of 2024. James Wan’s Atomic Monster and Michael Clear are producing Mortal Kombat 2 alongside Broken Road Production’s Todd Garner. Simon McQuoid and E. Bennett Walsh are also producers on the film. Also more involved in the process this time around was Mortal Kombat video game co-creator Ed Boon.
Lewis Tan also told ComicBook.com, “Now, we have Ed Boon with us as well, so we got the stamp of approval from the legend himself. #2 is just going to be absolutely insane. Way bigger.” Ed Boon told Polygon, “Warner Bros. owns the IP, but I’m actually more involved now. I’m involved with the animated series, and the next movie that’s coming out, so it’s very exciting, because there’s some really cool stuff that’s being worked on. Just being involved in the scripts and which characters we’re going to include [in projects], and all that stuff, is very exciting for me. Before, I was involved, but not in an official capacity. Now, it’s a little bit more official. And it’s an exciting time — I can’t wait to see people’s reaction to some of the crazy stuff that’s coming out.“
The 2021 Mortal Kombat was rated R for strong bloody violence and language throughout, and some crude references. In November of 2024, we learned that sequel has been rated R for strong bloody violence and gore, and language.
As production came to an end, producer Todd Garner took to social media to share some behind-the-scenes images, while cast members also celebrated the successful completion of the film.
In February of 2025, the film’s logo and a Johnny Cage poster were unveiled:
And that’s everything we know about Mortal Kombat 2… for now.
Opus features John Malkovich at his absolute best, but goes off the rails in the last thirty minutes.
PLOT: A group of journalists are invited to a remote compound where a reclusive pop star (John Malkovich) plans to unveil his first album in thirty years. However, when they arrive, they realize the artist has built himself a cult, which may or may not mean harm to the assembled journalists.
REVIEW: You can tell that Opus’s writer-director, Mark Anthony Green, is a former entertainment journalist (he spent years working at GQ). Having participated in my share of junkets and set visits as part of my work with JoBlo, I certainly find it surreal to be taken into an entertainer’s orbit. It’s an exhilarating experience, and Green, who’s clearly experienced this many times himself, mines it beautifully in the film’s first half, where a young writer at a music magazine, Ariel (Ayo Edebiri), unexpectedly gets invited to singer Alfred Moretti’s (John Malkovich) compound as he unveils what’s supposed to be a musical masterpiece.
The first hour of the film, which is light on the horror aspects being teased by A24, works well as a kind of satire on modern entertainment journalists and their relationships with the entertainers they write about. Malkovich is at his best in an atypical piece of casting. Who would ever imagine him as the world’s greatest pop star? Yet, Malkovich, who actually cut several tracks with Nile Rogers (of CHIC) and The Dream, pulls it off, with him looking like he’s having the time of his life playing a kind of New Wave version of Vincent Price.
Everyone seems in on the joke, with the performances fairly broad, with Murray Bartlett a veteran entertainment journalist (and Ariel’s boss) who’s an old hand at rock star debauchery. At the same time, Juliette Lewis plays a gossip columnist who has a history with Moretti.
This first part of the film is a ton of fun, but for me, it starts to go off the rails when the horror aspect kicks in. As the trailer reveals, Moretti’s the head of a kind of New Age cult, and soon, the journalists realize they’ve been lured to the retreat for sinister reasons. However, we’ve seen many cult movies over the years, from Midsommar to The Sacrement, and both did the horror part better. When they kick in, the genre parts almost feel like an afterthought, like Green shoehorned his rather fun satire into a horror film, and the mix is uneven. It’s better when it plays as a kind of music-driven version of The White Lotus.
Ayo Edebiri, who’s incredible on The Bear, does her best with what amounts to a fairly two-dimensional “final girl” role, with her as the only journalist at the compound who finds the fact that this nineties pop star has a cult of personality built up around him unusual. Despite being our protagonist, she’s also a frustratingly passive heroine, even once Moretti’s retreat becomes deadly. The one who’s really having fun in this one is definitely Malkovich.
Another problem with Opus’s detour into horror, other than the lack of originality, is the fact that it’s not scary. Nothing here happens that you haven’t seen before, and once the carnage gets going, it becomes predictable, with very little in the way of inspired chaos. It also has a very anticlimactic ending that tries to explain away the motivations behind the entire plot, but this doesn’t amount to much, ending the film on a sour note.
Considering the talent involved, Opus turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. It’s still a decent first film for Green, who certainly has a promising voice as a director, but the fact is that the last forty minutes of the film don’t live up to the promise of the film’s first hour, which is a ton of fun. As such, Opus is a letdown, but it is still worth watching, especially for A24 fans, of whom there certainly are many. If you go in expecting more of a satire, you’ll probably like this more than if you were to go in expecting anything scary.
Matlock and Accused star Jason Ritter is ready to bask in Green Lanterns light for HBO’s upcoming Lanterns series.
In darkest day, in blackest night, Matlock and Accused actor Jason Ritter is ready to bask in Green Lantern’s light. Ritter is the latest star to join DC and HBO’s Lanterns, a television series revolving around the comic publisher’s imaginative space cops series. Ritter joins Kyle Chandler, Aaron Pierre, and Kelly MacDonald for the series spearheaded by Chris Mundy, Damon Lindelof, and comic book mastermind and author Tom King.
According to reports, Jason Ritter will play Billy Macon for Lanterns, “a good-looking charmer who does his father’s (Garret Dillahunt) bidding. Capitalizing on his family’s reputation, he clings to his small-town ego and has everything to lose.”
Previously, we learned that Lanterns will have True Detective vibes (let’s hope it’s the first season), with Green Lanterns Hal Jordan (Chandler) and Jon Stewart (Pierre) investigating an Earth-based murder mystery in the American heartland. Poorna Jagannathan (Zoe), and Ulrich Thomsen (Sinestro) also star in the series. HBO produces the eight-episode series with Warner Bros Television and DC Studios. Mundy, who serves as showrunner, Lindelof, and King are co-writing and executive producing.
Lanterns experienced backlash when DC revealed the show would take a “grounded” and “believable” approach to the comic property’s over-the-top premise and Kyle Chandler’s casting as Hal Jordan. However, DC Studio’s boss, James Gunn, is unconcerned about misinformed fans. Speaking with IGN, Gunn said, “Wait a second, comic book fans had an opinion on casting. What are you talking about!?”
“The truth is Chris [Mundy] and Tom [King] and Damon [Lindelof] wrote an amazing series, like an incredible series. I’m so excited for people to see this. It’s very grounded, very believable, very real. The kind of things that you would never think that would be the truth about a Green Lanterns television series. And very human, adult and wonderful. And the story that they wrote fit a couple of actors who were of these ages and so that’s who they cast. Those were their choices. I totally backed them up. I love them.”
Honestly? I’m here for it. I hope the Lanterns use their rings to help solve the mystery, but I’ll reserve judgment until we see the final product. Additionally, I’m the type of person who appreciates when creative forces think outside the box and give us something unexpected. If I wanted a traditional Green Lantern, I’d pick up one of the thousands of comics available in stores and online apps.
What do you think about Jason Ritter joining the cast of HBO’s Lanterns? Let us know in the comments section below.
About the Author
Born and raised in New York, then immigrated to Canada, Steve Seigh has been a JoBlo.com editor, columnist, and critic since 2012. He started with Ink & Pixel, a column celebrating the magic and evolution of animation, before launching the companion YouTube series Animation Movies Revisited. He’s also the host of the Talking Comics Podcast, a personality-driven audio show focusing on comic books, film, music, and more. You’ll rarely catch him without headphones on his head and pancakes on his breath.
