Christina Milian, James Martinez, Alex Shimizu, and Reno Wilson have been added to the cast of Dexter: Original Sin

A little over a year ago, Showtime announced that they were ordering a series – then known as Dexter: Origins, now known as Dexter: Original Sin – that would serve as a prequel series to their popular show Dexter, which finished its eight season initial run back in 2013, then recently came back for a new season (called Dexter: New Blood) that appeared to wrap things up for good… for the title character, anyway. Now they’re assembling the cast for Dexter: Original Sin, and The Hollywood Reporter reveals that Christina Milian (Falling Inn Love), James Martinez (Love Victor), Alex Shimizu (The Blacklist), and Reno Wilson (Mike & Molly) have all been cast as characters with names that will be familiar to Dexter fans.

Milian, Martinez, and Shimizu are all playing younger versions of characters that viewers have met before. As The Hollywood Reporter explains, “Milian will portray Maria LaGuerta, the role previously portrayed by Lauren Velez. The character is Miami Metro’s first female homicide detective. Martinez will take over the role of Angel Batista, played in the original series by David Zayas. In Original Sin, Angel is an up-and-coming homicide detective who leads with his heart. Shimizu steps into the witty role of Vince Masuka, a forensic analyst who eagerly shares his expertise while relishing the chance to boss around his new intern, Dexter Morgan. C.S. Lee previously played Masuka.” Wilson’s character is someone who was referenced but never seen on the original series, “Bobby Watt, the longtime partner and confidant of Dexter’s adoptive father, Harry.”

Milian, Martinez, Shimizu, and Wilson join previously announced cast members Patrick Gibson of Shadow and Bone (as the young Dexter Morgan), Christian Slater of Mr. Robot (as Dexter’s dad, Harry Morgan), and Molly Brown of Senior Year (as Dexter’s younger sister, Debra Morgan.)

Dexter: Original Sin follows Dexter in 1991 Miami, as a student transitioning into a serial killer in training. When his bloodthirsty urges can no longer be ignored, Dexter finds solace and understanding in Harry. As his only confidant, he teaches Dexter a Code that’s designed to help him find and kill people who deserve to die—all while avoiding getting caught by law enforcement. This is a particular challenge for young Dexter as he begins a forensics internship at the Miami Metro Police Department.

Played by Michael C. Hall in the nine seasons of Dexter, the title character is “a serial killer with a code which directs his compulsions to kill only the guilty. As a blood spatter analyst for the Miami police, he has access to crime scenes, picking up clues and checking DNA to confirm a target’s guilt before he kills them.“

Dexter: Original Sin will be available from Paramount+ with Showtime. The first season of the show is expected to consist of 10 episodes.

Clyde Phillips, who served as showrunner on the first four seasons of Dexter and returned to the job for Dexter: New Blood, serves as showrunner on this new show as well. Phillips is also executive producing alongside Scott Reynolds, Mary Leah Sutton, Tony Hernandez, Lilly Burns, and Michael C. Hall. Robert Lloyd Lewis is producing with Showtime Studios and Counterpart Studios. Michael Lehmann, who directed Slater in the cult classic film Heathers, will serve as directing executive producer. The show is being creatively overseen by Gary Levine and Urooj Sharif for Showtime Studios, with production supervised by Tara Power. It will be distributed by Paramount Global Content Distribution outside of Paramount+ markets.

Last we heard, Dexter: New Blood is also expected to continue on Showtime, now shifting the focus to Dexter’s son Harrison. Phillips is overseeing the expansion of the Dexter franchise, with other possibilities in the line-up including “spinoffs that trace the back stories of some of the show’s most iconic characters. This includes John Lithgow’s memorable Trinity Killer.”

Are you interested in Dexter: Original Sin? What do you think of Christina Milian, James Martinez, Alex Shimizu, and Reno Wilson being added to the cast? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

The Best Horror Movie You Never Saw video series looks at Larry Fessenden’s film The Last Winter, starring Ron Perlman and Connie Britton

I’ve been on a bit of a Larry Fessenden kick lately either intentionally or by circumstance. I really wanted to talk about the movie Late Phases which has a cameo from the man and his name in the produced by section. This led to one of our favorites in Danielle Harris wishing that more people knew about a movie she did called Stake Land. While this had a six degrees of separation angle attached to it with Late Phases star Nick Damichi also starring and writing Stake Land, it also brought back Fessenden in his comfortable producer role, oh and another cameo. We’ve gone down another rabbit hole and heard from the man himself that The Last Winter (watch it HERE) is a movie of his that he wishes had been seen by more people. This movie see’s Larry in not only his producing and cameo roles that he is known for but also in the hats of Director, Writer, and Editor. We here at JoBlo Horror Originals happen to agree with the man that The Last Winter in one of the Best Horror Movies You Never Saw.

Larry Fessenden is a wonderful writer and director even if by far and away he has the most credits in acting and producing. He started out with short films as early as the late 70s and in 1982 made a short vampire film called The Habit. 3 years later, he would create his own production company called Glass Eye Pix that is still around today and churning out movies from both Fessenden himself and the young directors he mentors. Jim Mickle of Stake Land and Ti West of House of the Devil amongst others are two of the directors he has mentored and taken a chance on. On the acting side, he has worked with high profile directors such as Jim Jarmusch and the legendary Martin Scorsese. As one of the big gamer guys here at JoBlo, I’d also be remiss if I didn’t mention his role in one of the greatest horror games that also plays out like a choose your own adventure horror movie, Until Dawn. Why are we talking about Larry so much before we get into today’s movie you ask? Let me explain.

Larry may be the closest thing we have to a modern-day Roger Corman, and I say that with all due respect. Low budget movies that take on lives of their own? Check. Giving aspiring directors a chance that end up having nice careers of their own? Check. Being much more known as a producer than writer and director which he is more than capable of? Check. Check. Check. While the comparison is a clear one, Fessenden doesn’t just hold Corman’s torch, he took it and lit his own fire that still burns brightly today. The Last Winter is only his fifth feature film as a director, but it takes everything he has learned from producing and working with other creators and works perfectly. While it is an environmental horror at heart, it takes the Wendigo lore from his previous movie starring Jake Weber called, appropriately, Wendigo.

The Last Winter was partially inspired by the true story of the Shackelton expedition but has enough yelling and paranoia that you can see the influence from The Thing as well in all the right ways. It was originally conceived as a group consisting of Muslim and non-Muslim factions having to work together. As politically charged as that would have been, Fessenden and co-writer Robert Leaver turned it into big corporate vs the environmentalists which works great. The movie falls under the little seen and rarely executed well environmental horror category that includes such wonders as The Bay and Prophecy. Leaver has only written this and 2015’s Amok but his skill from this movie alone is clear.

The movie opens with one of the employees from the K.I.K Corporation getting ready to head out into the frozen tundra of Alaska as he has a promotional video of his own company rolling in the background. This employee, Max, is played by Zach Gilford which I didn’t notice back in the halcyon days of Blockbuster but is unmistakable now. Not only is he one of our favorite quarterbacks from Friday Night Lights, but he has also inserted himself nicely in the Mike Flanagan troop of actors starting with his wonderful turn in Midnight Mass. The next morning, a very small plane lands to drop off site boss Ed Pollack who is played by the great Ron Perlman. Perlman was sought out by Fessenden after seeing him light up the big screen as unconventional superhero Hellboy. Perlman is not new to horror in both the main and indie scenes with roles in things like Blade 2 and Cronos among many, many others.

Pollack is on site to make sure both operations are going smoothly and to check out his government liaisons who he has both some control over but also would rather be able to play nice with. We get to meet the rest of the crew which include Elliot and Hoffman who are the environmental team, as well as Abby, Motor, Lee, and Dawn. They seem to get along like a team stuck together in a place that feels like it has no escape. There is a clear division between the work crew and environmental team, well, except for Hoffman and Abby who are sleeping together. We get some built in tension as we quickly learn that Abby and Pollack also used to be romantically involved. Abby is played by Connie Britton who, coincidentally, is also a main character from Friday Night Lights but her horror output also includes the Nightmare on Elm Street remake and a run on American Horror Story. Hoffman is played by James LeGros who Fessenden was a big fan of. He has been around since the early 80s and I first noticed him as Roach in Point Break, but he has also done horror like Phantasm 2 and the Psycho remake.

Strange things start to happen as members of the team start seeing or hearing strange things out on the frozen tundra including what looks and sounds like galloping hooves. Hoffman seems tired and on edge and won’t sign off on Pollacks plan as it will hurt the surrounding area even though the company pushes its own agenda. Max goes missing during the day and when they are about to go out and get him, he shows up back at base with his tracker clocking an outlandish 300 miles. Pollack has pulled his political strings to get Hoffman removed from his post and the tension continues. What the movie does incredibly well is use its character building and slow burn atmosphere to catch you off guard when it seemingly decides to change genres from political intrigue to flat out horror. The catalyst is the finding of what is essentially found footage followed by a body that nobody expects to look like it does.

The close quarters of the base juxtaposed with the blinding white and seemingly endless outdoor areas create a sense of confusion, claustrophobia, and even an overwhelming sense of loss in all the right ways. While most of the horror is seen on screen be it from characters going crazy and killing each other or horrific accidents like a plane crash, the real horror is seen in the mind of one man. Hoffman, who is supposed to be a world-renowned brain on all things environment and what we are doing to the earth, has clearly broken. His partner finds his journal and its an erratic mess of scribbles, fear, and paranoia that warn of the titular last winter where mother nature has decided to fight back and clean its surface for good. This ties into the Wendigo angle of the film too as that is a spirit manifestation of fighting back. While Fessenden aimed for it to be seen as not literal monsters and all in Hoffman’s head, the other events that happen are too physical and real for it to only exist inside Hoffman.

The last third of the movie plays out at a much more brisk pace than before and we get a combination of the paranoia, beliefs, and selfishness that usually ends up being the downfall of mankind. Is it just the arctic base and the surrounding area or is this truly the last winter? The score, cinematography, and, yes, editing from Fessenden himself all stand out from start to finish and the cast excels with great acting performances all the way around. The movie came out in 2007 though and that was a busy year for both mainstream horror and smaller scale fare as well. You had things like I Am Legend, 28 Weeks Later, The Mist, and new entries in both the Saw and Hostel franchises on the bigger side and even smaller entries like The Poughkeepsie Tapes, Rogue, and Feast that seemed to last longer on the independent side.

The movie was released in theaters on the festival circuit in September of 2006 and then received a small wider release in September of the following year. Its budget was 7 million dollars which is not bad when you include the actors in it and all of the places, they shot but sadly it only made 33 thousand domestically and an additional 64 thousand internationally. That sub 100k total would seem like a failure but it received great reviews from those that saw it and I remember being a huge proponent of this movie when we got our 4 copies at blockbuster. It was an easy recommend and I was happy when people came back and found it to be fun and different.

Fun and different seems to be Larry’s stock and trade. Even when he makes vampire or werewolf movies which he was heavily inspired by with the Universal monsters or two straight horror movies involving the tale of the Wendigo, you will still get something a little bit different each time. While it’s easy to recommend nearly anything he puts his name on, The Last Winter fell through the cracks more than most. Give Larry a little more peace of mind and check this movie out and cross it off your list of Best Horror Movies You Never Saw.

A couple previous episodes of the Best Horror Movie You Never Saw series can be seen below. To see more, and to check out some of our other shows, head over to the JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel – and subscribe while you’re there!

Now that Road House has become a hit over at Amazon, Jake Gyllenhaal is already brainstorming ideas for the greenlit sequel.

When images started to surface of Jake Gyllenhaal filming a UFC fight scene for the Road House remake, audiences got a glimpse at how the Doug Liman film for Amazon would differentiate itself from the original Patrick Swayze film from 1989. The consensus was that making Dalton a former professional fighter was an interesting twist that wouldn’t make the remake a complete copy of the Swayze film. However, the die-hard fans would remain skeptical. Now that the film has been released on Prime Video (along with the controversy of not being given a theatrical window), many agree that it doesn’t have the heart of the original, but there is still a division among the viewers on who may have still found it serviceable.

Despite the mixed reception, the remake was a big hit for Amazon MGM and a sequel had already been greenlit. Along with Road House‘s success, Gyllenhaal’s production company, Nine Stories, would sign a three-year first-look movie deal with Amazon. According to a new interview from The Hollywood Reporter, Gyllenhaal is already brainstorming casting country legend Willie Nelson in the sequel. He told THR that he was listening to “Willie’s Roadhouse” on Nelson’s Sirius XM channel while en route to the interview and thought,

Wait, Willie Nelson’s got to be in this. Willie Nelson’s got to do a song with Post Malone.”

While Gyllenhaal was taking the time to promote his upcoming AppleTV+ series Presumed Innocent, he would talk about his background and spoke about another Patrick Swayze classic that he loved while growing up. He reminisced about how he’s watched 1991’s Point Break more than any other movie in his life and showed much admiration to Swayze and Keanu Reeves’ performances from that film. “To deliver a line that goes into a trailer, with the right gusto and belief, and even with the absurdity of it, it’s a mastery,” Gyllenhaal says. “There’s that thing, the camera’s pushing in and I’m always like, ‘Oh wow, this is when you see Bruce Willis do the line, the thing. And now I’m doing the thing. Like, oh God.’ ” “The thing” he may be referring to is the line from his Road House that was featured in the trailer where he taunted an opponent before a fight with talk of insurance and the nearest hospital. He concluded the thought with, “It requires this ease, but focus. I’m in awe of people who can do it.”

About the Author

E.J. is a News Editor at JoBlo, as well as a Video Editor, Writer, and Narrator for some of the movie retrospectives on our JoBlo Originals YouTube channel, including Reel Action, Revisited and some of the Top 10 lists. He is a graduate of the film program at Missouri Western State University with concentrations in performance, writing, editing and directing.

Production has wrapped on the horror thriller Dead and Breakfast, starring Dermot Mulroney of Scream VI and Anyone but You

Close on the heels of his performances in the slasher Scream VI and the hit romantic comedy Anyone but You, Dermot Mulroney has just wrapped production on a new horror thriller called Dead and Breakfast. This one is coming our way from the Las Vegas-based production companies Beno Films and Al Bravo Films, but filming took place in Little Rock, Arkansas. Deadline got their hands on a pair of first-look images from Dead and Breakfast, and you can check those out in this article.

Written and directed by Loppo JP Martinez, Dead and Breakfast follows five petty criminals who rob a pawn shop in Kansas City. Still, on their drive back to Little Rock, an unexpected engine failure forces them to stay in a bed & breakfast in the middle of nowhere where their plan quickly derails into a bloodbath. So no, in case you were wondering, this Dead and Breakfast doesn’t have anything to do with the musical zombie comedy Dead & Breakfast that was released in 2004.

Mulroney is joined in the cast by William Moseley (The Chronicles of Narnia), Chris Mullinax (Hell on the Border), and Texas Battle (Final Destination 3).

Dead and Breakfast is being produced by Eduard Osipov, Al Bravo, and RJ Collins. Michael Pizzimenti and Michelle Deppe co-produce for Al Bravo Films, in association with Fluffybear Media. Mulroney previously worked with Bravo on the revenge thriller Ruthless.

Mulroney’s other credits include Secret Invasion, Umma, Hanna, The Purge, The Righteous Gemstones, Arrested Development, Station 19, New Girl, American Horror Story, Insidious: Chapter 3, Stoker, The Grey, J. Edgar, Gracie, Zodiac, The Family Stone, The Wedding Date, Friends, About Schmidt, My Best Friend’s Wedding, The Trigger Effect, Copycat, Bad Girls, The Thing Called Love, Point of No Return, Career Opportunities, Longtime Companion, Survival Quest, and much more (he has over 140 credits to his name). I have been a Dermot Mulroney fan since seeing his performance in the Western classic Young Guns when I was a kid, so I look forward to seeing how Dead and Breakfast turns out.

Are you a Dermot Mulroney fan, and does Dead and Breakfast sound interesting to you? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

Tom Hardy and Kelly Marcel had a lot of creative control on Venom: The Last Dance, which might end up with an R rating

A couple days ago, Sony Pictures unveiled a trailer for their Marvel Comics adaptation Venom: The Last Dance, giving us our first look at the film that’s meant to wrap up the Venom series and is aiming for an October 25th theatrical release. Now Forbes has published an interview with star Tom Hardy in which he talks about ending the series with a bang – and teased that this movie might have an R rating. (The previous two Venom movies were rated PG-13.)

Hardy told Forbes, “This one – I’m so, so excited about because we’ve gone much bigger. If the mission statement is commercial, blockbuster, action and superhero movie, how can we imbue a sense of something that’s fun and different? What’s going to entice people that they have a memory, they have a moment, they have an event? This comes from us who are really, really caring about this. By the third one, we’ve been given so much creative support to do – to push it. It’s a much wider piece and there’s much more love – not that there was not love in the last ones. We’ve been allowed to put more of our ideas into it and I’m really excited to see how they land. I think you got to swing for the fences with these things. It’s the last one and we want to go out with a bang, and lay the foundations for optionality and possibilities because it’s been such a great ride. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed working within that field and remit of a big film with big ideas, and a lot of people looking to you to back that up.” The interviewer mentions that Hardy pointed to the success of the two Deadpool films as proof that R-rated Marvel adaptations can be successful.

When Hardy says “we” in there, he’s talking about himself and Kelly Marcel, who have collaborated on all three Venom movies. The first Venom was scripted by Jeff Pinker, Scott Rosenberg, and Kelly Marcel. Ruben Fleischer directed that film, which made $856 million. But then Fleischer turned his focus to making Zombieland: Double Tap and Uncharted – so Andy Serkis took over as director on Venom: Let There Be Carnage. Which was written by Kelly Marcel, working from a story she crafted with star Tom Hardy. That sequel earned $506 million at the pandemic era global box office. Serkis said he would be glad to return to the helm for a follow-up – but when Venom 3 actually did come up, he opted to focus on other projects instead. So Venom: The Last Dance marks the feature directorial debut of Kelly Marcel. She also wrote the screenplay, based (again) on a story she crafted with Hardy.

Hardy is reprising the role of Eddie Brock / Venom for Venom: The Last Dance, and he is joined in the cast by Juno Temple (Ted Lasso), Clark Backo (Letterkenny), and Chiwetel Ejiofor (Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness). Official details on the new characters have not been revealed – but no, Ejiofor is not playing his Doctor Strange character Baron Mordo, since the Venom films are set in a different universe than the Marvel Cinematic Universe films. There was a rumor that he might be playing Orwell Taylor, the leader of the group known as The Jury. As ComicBookMovie noted, “that group existed solely to take out Venom, with each member of The Jury outfitted in powerful armoured suits and tech based on Tony Stark’s designs. Throw in the fact that they had sonic blasters and flamethrowers, and it’s not hard to imagine the government tasking this clandestine group with taking out an apparent threat like Venom.” Members of The Jury in the comic book source material include Sentry, Bomblast, Firearm, Ramshot, Wysper, and Screech.

Here is the official synopsis from the studio: In Venom: The Last Dance, Tom Hardy returns as Venom, one of Marvel’s greatest and most complex characters, for the final film in the trilogy. Eddie and Venom are on the run. Hunted by both of their worlds and with the net closing in, the duo are forced into a devastating decision that will bring the curtains down on Venom and Eddie’s last dance.

Are you looking forward to Venom: The Last Dance, and would you like to see it end up with an R rating? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

“Freeze mother bitches!” What’s the all-time best buddy cop movie ever made? 48 Hrs? Lethal Weapon? Beverly Hills Cop? Rush Hour? The Nice Guys? In terms of story and dramatic action, any one of these titles warrants serious consideration. But when it comes to the onscreen rapport and natural chemistry between two stars in a buddy cop movie, it’s hard to beat 1995’s Bad Boys – the directorial debut of the divisive filmmaker Michael Bay. Sure, Bay has earned a rightful rep as a bold and boisterous music-video director turned filmmaker who favors big, dumb, pyrotechnic excesses over quality cinematic storytelling. 

However, Bay does deserve at least a modicum of credit for pairing the comedic talents of Will Smith and Martin Lawrence together as Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett – two immensely likable Miami narcotics officers who trade crackling banter and witty one-liners whose onscreen partnership drives the engagement and entertainment level. Indeed, without the effortless comedic energy and comic timing displayed by Smith and Lawrence, there would almost certainly not be a fourth Bad Boys movie headed to theaters (check out our review HERE).

But get this. Did you know that the original title Bad Boys was Bulletproof Hearts, conceived as a starring vehicle for SNL stars Dana Carvey and Jon Lovitz? Hell, did you know that Eddie Murphy and Wesley Snipes were first considered to play Mike and Marcus? Better yet, are you aware that most of the dialog was improvised by Smith and Lawrence due to a problematic screenplay that Michael Bay downright detested? Well, we’re about to peel back the curtain and detail the checkered production history and find out for real, What Happened to Bad Boys!

A buddy comedy for Dana Carvey and Jon Lovitz?

In the early stages of development, Bad Boys was originally titled Bulletproof Hearts. Producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson felt the material was suited for SNL alums Dana Carvey and Jon Lovitz and sought to pair them to play the two narcotics officers, Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett. Simpson, the notoriously unhinged Hollywood producer who died of a cocaine overdose in 1996 just 8 months after Bad Boys was released, arranged a meeting with Carvey and Lovitz in Las Vegas. During the meeting, Carvey was reportedly so disturbed by Simpson’s wild behavior that he turned down the role of Mike Lowrey on the spot. Once Carvey declined to star, Disney put the film in turnaround. Once Sony purchased the rights to the screenplay for $3 million, the studio hired Michael Bay to direct the film.

As mentioned, the production of Bad Boys began with Michael Bay’s dissatisfaction with the screenplay. Bad Boys came from a story by George Gallo, and the script was accredited to Michael Barrie, Jim Mulholland, and Doug Richardson. Despite Sony purchasing the screenplay from Disney for $3 million, Bay was never happy with the generic story beats and banal dialogue. Although several scribes were recruited to rewrite the script, including David Milch, James Toback, and others, Columbia only agreed to pay $10,000 for the rewrites. With such a paltry fee, Bay ultimately insisted that his two stars rewrite their lines and improvise the dialogue on the spot based on their pre-established comedic personas. However, Smith and Lawrence were not the first choices to play Mike and Marcus in the movie.

Before Smith and Lawrence were cast, Eddie Murphy and Wesley Snipes were considered to star as the two leads. Bruckheimer and Simpson famously produced Beverly Hills Cop with Eddie Murphy, and Snipes was in the middle of his successful ‘90s action movie run. Funnily enough, Martin Lawrence mentions Snipes in the opening scene of Bad Boys by evoking the actor by name and mentioning Passenger 57, an amusing in-joke that holds up well. Meanwhile, Eddie Murphy and Wesley Snipes would go on to star in Dolemite is My Name and Coming 2 America over 20 years later. 

Speaking of Coming 2 America, Arsenio Hall was also offered the role of Mike Lowrey and claimed that turning it down was the dumbest decision of his entire career. Some accounts differ on whether Smith or Lawrence was cast first. Bay insists he cast Smith after Arsenio Hall dropped out, claiming that he recognized the star potential Smith shined on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Other reports claim that Sony was already interested in making an action film with Smith and Simpson and Bruckheimer convinced Sony to hire Lawrence. However, in Smith’s memoir, he credits Lawrence with convincing him to star in Bad Boys, indicating that Lawrence was the first of the two leads cast in Bad Boys. Lawrence credits his sister, Rae Proctor, for suggesting he work with Smith. Lawrence also told GQ Magazine years later that Laurence Fishburne declined the role of Mike Lowrey. Regardless, it’s also worth noting that Marisa Tomei was considered to play Julie Mott before Tea Leoni was cast. 

Will Smith becomes an action hero

Although Bad Boys had a reported estimated budget of $19 million, Bay contradicts himself on the DVD commentary. At first, Bay says the budget was $17 million but later states he had only $9 million to make the movie. The lack of funding was a consistent problem throughout the production. At one point, Bay paid the studio $25,000 – a quarter of his directing fee – to reshoot the climactic action scene at Opa-Locka Airport. 

Principal photography on Bad Boys began on June 27, 1994, and lasted until August 31, 1994. Although the story was originally set in New York City, Bay opted to film in Miami, Florida. Notable Miami filming locations include the Biltmore Hotel, The Tides Hotel on South Beach, and the aforementioned Opa-Locka Airport. The movie’s police station was filmed on the second floor of the Alfred DuPoint building in downtown Miami. Police Headquarters were filmed at the Dade County Courthouse. Meanwhile, the scenes inside the heroin lab were filmed on a cargo ship docked on the Miami River. 

The rapid two-month film shoot had to accommodate Lawrence and Smith’s busy schedules for their popular TV shows. Remember, Smith’s star-making role as The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air lasted from 1990 to 1996, while the beloved sitcom Martin lasted from 1992 to 1997. The two comedic stars made Bad Boys in the middle of their iconic TV runs, which only makes their performances as Mike and Marcus more impressive. The final season of Fresh Prince even references Bad Boys. In the episode “I, Stank Horse,” Nicky Banks complains that he is forbidden from watching Bad Boys. Will Smith responds by saying, “Bad Boys, huh? Whatcha gonna do?” 

The opening scene in Bad Boys introduces Mike and Marcus while being held up by two carjackers. Believe it or not, this scene was filmed several weeks after principal photography wrapped. Bay and the studio felt the movie needed a more comedic and compelling introduction that established the playful chemistry between Mike and Marcus, and a new opener was created. The Porsche 911 used in the reshot opening belonged to Michael Bay, which he donated to the production after the studio refused to pay for a rental and the car manufacturer failed to sponsor the production. Once Bay showed the reshot opening to his mother Harriet, she complained about the excessive profanity. As a result, Bay re-edited the scene and removed most of the foul language to appease his mother. 

Another early scene takes place inside a Miami boxing gym, where Mike reunites with his old friend Max. The shots of Marcus futzing around the gym equipment were ad-libbed by Lawrence on the day and inserted into the scene after the fact. The irony of Lawrence struggling to hit the punching bag is also a sly in-joke referring to Lawrence’s past as a Mid-Atlantic Golden Gloves boxing contender in Maryland before his acting career began. Due to Lawrence and Smith’s ability to improvise on the spot, coupled with the screenplay deficiencies, Bay encouraged the two stars to ad-lib as often as possible in the movie. 

According to Bay, the Bad Boys screenplay was a “piece of shit.” In the DVD commentary, Bay traces the script problems back to the original drafts of Bulletproof Hearts tailored to Carvey and Lovitz. Bay states:

“The funny thing about Bad Boys was it was written so white,” adding, “I guess that line Will just said, ‘Who tore off and whooped your ass now?’ is like, ‘What happened to you?’” The big challenge for Bay was to adapt the material to better suit Smith and Lawrence’s sense of humor and comedic voices. As such, the most memorable quotes and quips in the film were improvised by Smith and Lawrence while the cameras were rolling. 

For instance, Bay told Lawrence to call Smith a “bitch” for the iconic final car chase. The entire “two bitches in a sea” exchange was ad-libbed by Smith and Lawrence on the spot. When Julie asks if Marcus is gay, Lawrence’s reaction is also improvised. The hilarious “Driving Miss Daisy” scene was also made up on the spot after Lawrence complained to Bay about Smith calling him a “bitch.”

Another example of ad-libbed dialog includes the liquor store scene. When the clerk puts a gun to Marcus’ head, the line “Freeze mother bitches” was ad-libbed, prompting the hilarious impromptu response: “No, you freeze, bitch! Now back up, put the gun down, and get me a pack of Tropical Fruit Bubbalicious. And some Skittles.” 

Of course, not every impromptu moment while making Bad Boys ended happily. While filming one of the intense action scenes, Tea Leoni was knocked unconscious by Martin Lawrence’s stunt double. According to Leoni:

“I ended up in the hospital at one point. It was the AK-47 under the jaw that got me. I wasn’t on a proper mark when the stunt guy hit me with it. My legs went over my head and I landed flat on my back. Didn’t have much memory at that point. The director, Michael Bay freaked out … I started to cry because I’d never thought that the chill of Hollywood would be so close in my face.”

Despite the successfully improvised dialogue by Smith and Lawrence, more problems continued to threaten the fate of Bad Boys while making the movie. Most of the problems derived from the poorly-written screenplay, criticized for recycling too many buddy-cop tropes and relying too much on action-heavy set-pieces. According to Bay, the lack of money and budgetary resources also hindered what he could achieve visually onscreen. Even after showing the dailies to the studio and receiving an additional $2 million to complete the production, Bay has never been satisfied with the final cut.

One of the biggest problems came when Don Simpson arrived in Miami just one week before filming began. Simpson holed up in a hotel and wrote an 85-page screed detailing everything that was wrong with the screenplay. Worse yet, Simpson handed a ream of notes to Bay two days before principal photography began. Not one to back down, Bay brashly stormed into Simpson’s office, slammed the notes on his desk, and demanded that Jerry Bruckheimer remove their name from the project. In Bay’s view, Simpson and Bruckheimer were more invested in Crimson Tide than they were in producing Bad Boys.

Simpson wasn’t the only person Bay had arguments with while making Bad Boys. For the foot chase finale in which Mike pursues a criminal through Miami – which was filmed on one day – Bay wanted Smith to film the scene while shirtless. Smith refused but agreed to wear an unbuttoned dress shirt instead. In the film’s final moments, Marcus tells Mike that he loves him. Bay encouraged Smith to say the heartfelt response, “I love you, too,” but Smith refused to read the line on the day of filming after never expressing an issue with the line beforehand. The result was a heated 90-minute fight between Bay and Smith over how to finish the scene. Once Lawrence and Leoni also became involved in the argument, Bay gave up and told Smith he didn’t have to say the line. Moments later, Bay pointed to the setting sun and barked, “That’s motherf*cking nature, and she’s not f*cking waiting for us.” Afterward, Smith read the line as Bay originally intended and the movie ends on the tender and touching note we all know and remember. 

Bay also argued with Line Producer Bruce Pustin over the shot of villain Fuchet expelled from the airplane during the climax. Despite extensive planning, the shot had to be postponed several times due to weather delays. During the final week of production, Pustin declared that the film was a wrap. Bay reminded Pustin that they hadn’t gotten the final shot of Fouchet flying out of the plane in flames, which the director referred to as “the audience” shot marks the moment for the crowd to erupt with applause. Rather than leaving out the shot, Bay negotiated a deal to defer a quarter of his salary for directing the movie to film the incendiary image. When he showed the scene to the studio, Bay left a note reading: “To Columbia Pictures, from Michael Bay, $25,000, a quarter of my directing fee.”  

Despite paying $25,000 out of pocket to achieve the explosive shot, Bay has never been satisfied with the final result. It’s one of many instances in the movie that Bay felt resulted from a lack of money, a poorly-written script, and being a first-time filmmaker in Hollywood. Despite threatening to leave the film business after his combative experience on Bad Boys, Bay made The Rock the following year before helming Bad Boys II in 2003. Following years as a successful music video director, Bad Boys launched Bay’s directorial career in Hollywood and formed his reputation as a purveyor of large-scale, FX-driven spectacles with high commercial appeal. While no one will accuse Bay of being an Oscar-caliber artist with a Capital A, at least Columbia was wise enough to pass Bad Boys For Life off to talented filmmakers in Moroccan filmmakers Adil & Bilall. The same filmmakers will unveil a fourth franchise entry, Bad Boys Ride or Die, on June 7, 2024. Smith and Lawrence will star as Mike and Marcus, respectively, with the duo returning to Miami in the upcoming sequel. So…that’s What happened to Bad Boys! The movie overcame its deficient screenplay thanks to the incredible comedic chemistry and improv skills of TV stars Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, becoming a commercially successful movie despite the first-time direction by Michael Bay. The popularity of Bad Boys spawned three sequels and launched the movie careers of Bay, Smith, and Lawrence into a new star-studded stratosphere. 

The Die Hard-at-a-hockey game that stars the Muscles from Brussels and features some outlandish sequences skates home in glorious clarity this summer.

Many action stars tried their hand at a Die Hard copycat. Sylvester Stallone had Die Hard-on-a-mountain with his action movie Cliffhanger. Wesley Snipes had Die Hard-on-a-plane with the movie Passenger 57. Steven Seagal had both Die Hard-on-a-boat with Under Siege and Die Hard-on-a-train with Under Siege 2: Dark Territory. Martial arts star Jean-Claude Van Damme would get his own copycat film in the form of Die Hard-at-a-hockey-game with the 1995 film Sudden Death. You can now take the violent hockey action home with an all-new 4K transfer with the ultra HD Blu-ray from Kino, according to the announcement on Blu-ray.com.

Van Damme’s fare with this sports-themed film has its share of fans but is more notoriously known for the amusingly wild sequences that utilize its hockey setting, which include Van Damme fighting a terrorist who is disguised as a mascot for the Pittsburgh Penguins, as well as Van Damme finding himself as a goalie for the Penguins during a play at the Stanley Cup finals as he evades the bad guys. The film also stars Powers Boothe, Raymond J. Barry, Michael Gaston, and Audra Lindley. This film is considered to be one of the lesser clones of Die Hard that infamously features Van Damme’s character correctly GUESSING where the terrorists have planted bombs at the Pittsburgh Civic Arena.

The synopsis per Blu-ray.com reads,
“Ex-fireman Darren McCord (Jean-Claude Van Damme) has a new job working security at the Pittsburgh Civic Arena. Hoping to impress his kids, he’s scored tickets to the Stanley Cup Finals, unaware that the place has been taken over by a group of terrorists. Ex-CIA agent Joshua Foss (Powers Boothe) is holding the vice president hostage in a press box and plans to blow up the building if he doesn’t pay the ransom. But, when Darren learns of his scheme, he jumps into action to save the day.”

The specs read:
Video
Codec: HEVC / H.265
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
HDR: Dolby Vision, HDR10
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Audio
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
Subtitles
English SDH
Discs
4K Ultra HD
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD-100, 1 BD-50)
Packaging
Slipcover in original pressing
Playback
4K Blu-ray: Region free
2K Blu-ray: Region A

The Sudden Death 4K release hits the market on August 27.

About the Author

E.J. is a News Editor at JoBlo, as well as a Video Editor, Writer, and Narrator for some of the movie retrospectives on our JoBlo Originals YouTube channel, including Reel Action, Revisited and some of the Top 10 lists. He is a graduate of the film program at Missouri Western State University with concentrations in performance, writing, editing and directing.

Simon Pegg recommends watching Godzilla Minus One – but only the subtitled version, never the dubbed version

When Shaun of the Dead star Simon Pegg first showed up on our screens back in the day, he earned a lot of fans through the fact that he was a celebrity-on-the-rise who had “geeky” interests and embraced “geek culture.” There’s a quote from him bouncing around where he said, “Being a geek is all about being honest about what you enjoy and not being afraid to demonstrate that affection. It means never having to play it cool about how much you like something. It’s basically a license to proudly emote on a somewhat childish level rather than behave like a supposed adult. Being a geek is extremely liberating.” He even titled his memoir Nerd Do Well… But last year, he distanced himself from his past self, writing off nostalgia as a neurological disorder and telling The Guardian, “I’ve aged out of a lot of what people assume I’m about. I don’t feel like I’m that geeky guy any more, particularly. I don’t have the same interests I had when I was 35 or 40 even. I’d much rather watch Succession than some sci-fi.” But this new version of Pegg is still willing to make some time for Godzilla, and he has even taken to social media to heap praise on Godzilla Minus One, which recently dropped onto the Netflix streaming service.

As shared by Kaiju No. 14, Pegg posted a video where he said, “Godzilla Minus One is now on Netflix. So if you haven’t seen it, watch it. It’s the single best Godzilla movie since Shin Godzilla. It’s incredible. It’s a proper Godzilla movie, made by the people who sired Godzilla from their subconscious as they wrestled with the massive ramifications of what happened during the Second World War. It’s not some rock ’em, sock ’em f*cking cultural appropriation.” The next day, Pegg posted a follow-up to say, “If you are going to watch Godzilla Minus One, by the way, just as an addendum to what I was saying yesterday, watch it in Japanese. Don’t watch it auto-dubbed. Never watch anything dubbed. Never. Always have subtitles because you want to hear the original performances and the original language.“

Written and directed by Takashi Yamazaki, Godzilla Minus One (which won an Oscar for its special effects) sees an already devastated postwar Japan facing a new threat in the form of Godzilla. Interestingly, one of Yamazaki’s previous credits was the 2007 film Always: Sunset on Third Street 2, which features a Godzilla cameo in a fantasy sequence. 

The film stars Ryunosuke Kamiki, Minami Hamabe, Yuki Yamada, Munetaka Aoki, Hidetaka Yoshioka, Sakura Ando, and Kuranosuke Sasaki, with music by Naoki Sato.

Toho’s Koji Ueda has said, “Set in a post-war Japan, Godzilla Minus One will once again show us a Godzilla that is a terrifying and overwhelming force, which you already get a sense of from the teaser trailer and poster. The concept is that Japan, which had already been devastated by the war, faces a new threat with Godzilla, bringing the country into the ‘minus.’“

Are you a fan of Godzilla Minus One, and are you glad to see Simon Pegg recommending the film? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

We talk The Watchers with writer/director Ishana Shyamalan, as well as stars Dakota Fanning and Georgina Campbell

In the new thriller The Watchers, a group of strangers are brought together by unexpected circumstances. Written and directed by Ishana Shyamalan, the creepy story features Dakota Fanning, Georgina Campbell, Olwen Fouere, and Oliver Finnegan. And frankly, it’s not hard to see a little inspiration from when it comes to the strange and mysterious tale it tells. What are “The Watchers?” Well, I won’t spoil it here, but like the tagline claims, they see everything. I recently sat down for a few terrific interviews with Ms. Dakota Fanning, as well as Georgina Campbell and the storyteller, Ishana Shyamalan. It was an absolute pleasure chatting with all three. Having spoken to both Fanning and Campbell previously, it was nice to discuss their latest. The two actors opened up about being pulled into this world and working with a director telling a different kind of story. Both of these talents give terrific performances in the new feature.

As for Ishana, she talked about connecting to the material – the film is based on the book written by A.M. Shine – and creating a moody piece of fiction. It’s not hard to see where the filmmaker may have had a little inspiration. Much like her father, she shares a sort of whimsical quality in the mysterious. With her work here, and on Servant, it will be exciting to see what’s next.

Ishana is the daughter of the legendary M. Night Shyamalan, who worked as his daughters second unit director on The Watchers – and said the experience changed him as a filmmaker.

The Watchers opens this Friday at a theatre near you. Here’s the synopsis: A 28-year-old artist gets stranded in an expansive, untouched forest in western Ireland. Finding shelter, she unknowingly becomes trapped alongside three strangers who are stalked by mysterious creatures every night.