George Clooney and Brad Pitt reunite as two fixers hired for the same job in Apple TV+’s Wolfs trailer.

The fix is in, and it’s lowkey hilarious. For the first time in 15 years, George Clooney and Brad Pitt are together again for the upcoming thriller Wolfs. The film reuintes Clooney and Pitt as rival fixers called into to dispose of a corpse by their shadowy employer, only for the corpse to be far from dead, and in the possession of a massive amount of drugs. Going by the teaser trailer, the film has serious buddy-comedy vibes, mixed with a bit of gunplay and action. With a September 20th release date, a debut at one of the fall film festivals would make sense, with TIFF an obvious choice for that looks to be a star-studded crowdpleaser. Indeed, seeing Clooney and Pitt mixing it up again is fantastic.

Jon Watts (Spider-Man: No Way Home) directed and wrote Wolfs, which centers on two lone-wolf fixers assigned to the same job. Amy Ryan, Austin Abrams, and Poorna Jagannathan star alongside Clooney and Pitt, and the project hails from Sony Pictures Entertainment.

George Clooney and Brad Pitt helped lead Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s Eleven and its two sequels, Ocean’s Twelve and Ocean’s Thirteen. Pitt’s Rusty Ryan and Clooney’s Danny Ocean light up the screen in the Ocean’s films, with the duo’s comedic timing and clever chemistry elevating the franchise to great heights. The duo can also be seen in 2008’s Burn After Reading, a quirky comedy from Joel and Ethan Coen about mysterious information from a CIA agent ending up in the hands of two unscrupulous and daft gym employees who attempt to sell it.

Are you excited to learn more about Wolfs? What do you think about today’s Wolfs teaser trailer? What’s the most awkward car ride you’ve ever experienced? I once had to drive two hours with my friend’s stepmom, who was a cop, after getting caught for underage drinking the night before. The kicker? I didn’t even drink! It was my friend. She was angry at me for “letting it happen.” Ridiculous.

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.

Netflix has unveiled a trailer for the romantic comedy A Family Affair, which is set to begin streaming in June

One month ago today, the Netflix streaming service unveiled a batch of images that gave us our first look at the upcoming romantic comedy A Family Affair, which is scheduled to begin streaming on June 28th. With that date now just one month away, a trailer for A Family Affair has been released, and you can check that out in the embed above.

The film was directed by Richard Lagravenese, whose previous credits include Living Out Loud, A Decade Under the Influence, Freedom Writers, P.S. I Love You, Beautiful Creatures, and The Last Five Years. Speaking with the Netflix promotional website Tudum, Lagravenese said he was drawn to the material because, “I saw in it a coming of age story for three different characters at three different stages of their lives. I was going through my own sort of transition into what Gail Sheehy called Second Adulthood, where after you’ve fulfilled all your expectations and you’ve been what you need to be for everyone else, and you’ve achieved something and children are grown and all that stuff, you get a chance of being who you are and the things that you lost along the way.“

The first produced screenplay by writer Carrie Solomon, A Family Affair has the following synopsis: A surprising romance kicks off comic consequences for a young woman, her mother and her movie star boss as they face the complications of love, sex, and identity.

Nicole Kidman (Moulin Rouge) stars as “Brooke Harwood, Zara’s writer mother who falls into bed with movie star Chris Cole… who just happens to be Zara’s former boss.” Zac Efron (The Iron Claw) is “moderately conceited movie star Chris Cole: Zara’s nightmare boss, the star of the blockbuster Icarus Rush franchise, and Brooke’s new paramour.” Joey King (The Kissing Booth) plays “Zara, the harried assistant to Chris Cole who finds herself in a horribly awkward position when he falls in love with her mother.” Liza Koshy (Players) is in the cast as Zara’s close friend, Eugenie, and Kathy Bates (Misery) plays “Leila, Brooke’s wisecracking mother-in-law and a voice of wisdom in Brooke and Zara’s lives.”

Joe Roth and Jeff Kirschenbaum produced A Family Affair, while Solomon served as an executive producer with Michelle Morrissey and Alyssa Altman.

What did you think of the trailer for A Family Affair? Will you be watching this movie when it starts streaming on Netflix next month? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

Dwayne Johnson and Auli‘i Cravalho return in the new island adventure that takes you on a journey into long lost waters.

Journey back to the tranquil locations of the tropical beaches and vast oceans with the new teaser trailer for Moana 2. Disney has just shared the new look at the sequel to the popular 2016 film starring Dwayne Johnson and Auli‘i Cravalho as their respective characters — Maui and Moana. In addition to the teaser trailer, Disney has also released a couple of teaser posters that sets the stage for a new adventure across the sea.

The official synopsis from Disney reads,
“Opening only in theaters Nov. 27, 2024, Moana 2 reunites Moana and Maui three years later for an expansive new voyage alongside a crew of unlikely seafarers. After receiving an unexpected call from her wayfinding ancestors, Moana must journey to the far seas of Oceania and into dangerous, long-lost waters for an adventure unlike anything she’s ever faced. Directed by David Derrick Jr., Jason Hand and Dana Ledoux Miller, and produced by Christina Chen and Yvett Merino, Moana 2 features music by Grammy® winners Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear, Grammy nominee Opetaia Foaʻi, and three-time Grammy winner Mark Mancina.”

Moana 2 was announced, produced and is due for release all in this year. The film was one of the new projects showcased at the Disney panel at CinemaCon, which was introduced by none other than Dwayne Johnson, flanked by a group of Polynesian dancers. “It’s so much deeper of a movie to me, and it’s so much deeper of a movie to Disney as well,” Johnson said. “We are so excited to welcome back audiences all over the world to a new adventure.” Johnson then played a clip from the sequel, which finds Moana returning to her home island and the debut of a brand-new song, “We’re Back.” At least one character isn’t big on belting out the tune, as they ask, “Do we have to sing?” To which everyone responds, “Yes, we have to sing!”

It was also announced last year that the first film was to get a live-action adaptation. Disney announced its plans for the live-action reimagining with the help of Dwayne Johnson, who plays Demigod Maui in 2016’s animated original. Johnson will reprise his role in Kail’s live-action adaptation and produce through his Seven Bucks Productions alongside Dany Garcia and Hiram Garcia. Beau Flynn also produces via Flynn Pictures Co. Jared Bush, who wrote the animated original, returns to pen the remake. Further information on this development has not been released since this animated sequel was announced.

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.

The WTF Happened to This Adaptation series looks back at the 1990 horror film The Guardian, directed by William Friedkin

Here we are with another case of “Wait, that was a book first?” Although, having watched the movie for the first time and seeing its reputation online, this is also a case of “Wait, that was a movie?” William Friedkin was a master filmmaker and although most of his stone-cold classics happened before 1990, he proved he still had plenty in the tank with things like The Hunted and Bug to name a couple. He was a replacement director which seems surreal considering his talents and he was one of 3 credited writers on a little remembered horror movie adaptation from 1990. The Guardian (watch it HERE) is based on The Nanny from 1987 and it’s a strange pairing of source material and finished product. Both pieces of media are mostly slept on in their respective fields but how close did Friedkin and the other writers come to matching the book? Always do a background check on your employees as we find out what happened to this adaptation.

The Movie

Universal pictures in 1989 decided to option a book by Dan Greenburg who had had some success with his works being adapted already. The movie was The Guardian, and it was based on the novel The Nanny from 1987. Originally the studio had tapped Sam Raimi to direct after he was coming off the failure of Crimewave and the success of Evil Dead II. He would drop out to direct Darkman and boy; did we luck out. While the original script for The Guardian may have turned out to be a decent Sam Raimi flick and, lets be honest here, there’s a strong chance we would have seen Bruce Campbell in a bigger role here, if he stays, we most likely don’t get Darkman and that would be a travesty. Exit Sam Raimi and enter the legendary Oscar winner William Friedkin. It’s claimed by the original writers that the first script was sillier and more up Raimi’s alley, but Friedkin would get very involved and rewrite it enough to get a credit.

Friedkin started his Hollywood career with the TV movie The People Vs. Paul Crump in 1962 but hit it big in the 70s with a trio of heavy hitters that were The French Connection, The Exorcist, and Sorcerer that was a remake of the great 50s French film The Wages of Fear. While he would never match that trilogy again, the man who died out of spite to haunt David Gordon Green, would have hits well into the 2000s. The writers on the movie include Friedkin as well as both Steven Volk and author of the book Dan Greenburg. Greenburg had a solid and lengthy career that included a lot of adapting his own work. This and Private School are probably his most famous movies but none of them really lasted in the public zeitgeist.

Volk, by accounts behind the scenes, was driven to a nervous breakdown with the number of changes, had a fun career with his first screenplay being for Ken Russell’s Gothic. After today’s movie he did the TV movie Ghostwatch and with all the attention that the superb Late Night with the Devil is getting… you should go check out Ghostwatch. Not the same, but similar styles. The rewrites didn’t just stress Volk out either as many of the actors, particularly Jenny Seagrove, were frustrated by the constant changes. Speaking of which, Jenny Seagrove, along with Dwier Brown, Carey Lowell round out the main 3. The late, great Miguel Ferrer and Brad Hall round out the cast. Seagrove, who plays the villain here, also appeared in Local Hero among a ton of other things.

Dwier Brown has been a that guy for a while with credits in Field of Dreams, House 1 and 2, To Live and Die in LA, and Gettysburg. Carey Lowell hasn’t had the longest career, but it is an impactful one with 50 episodes of Law and Order and of course as one of the tougher Bond Girls in Licence to Kill. Miguel Ferrer needs no introduction, but I’ll call out Night Flier and Brad Hall is actually more of a writer than actor. The movie made 17 million but I can’t find its budget and it did not do well with critics, with Roger Ebert hating it more than most.

The Story

The Nanny is a relatively short novel written by Dan Greenburg and published in 1987. Greenburg was born in Chicago and got degrees from the University of Illinois and UCLA. While he was first published in Esquire magazine, he would go on to be an editor for other publications and end up writing several fiction and non-fiction stories. His first wife was famous author and director Nora Ephron and even though we are discussing an adult horror novel today, his biggest contribution to literature is through a series of kids’ books called the Zak Files. This would even be turned into a Canadian TV series that lasted over 50 episodes. To stay relevant, he would often visit schools and chat with kids there or even throw some of his ideas at them to see what they thought. He had a modicum of success in the Hollywood realm as well. In addition to today’s movie being adapted by Friedkin and company, he would also write screenplays for some of his other works that got turned into film or tv series. He lived until the age of 87 and just passed away at the end of 2023.

What is the Same

A couple moves from Chicago to another big city where the husband, Phil, gets a job at an advertising firm and the wife works with interior design. They become pregnant and have a baby boy but both wish to work still and decide to go through an agency to hire a nanny. While an English woman is a possibility, they aren’t entirely sold on her until they ultimately decide to hire her. She bonds with the child almost instantly and Phil even walks in on her giving the boy a bath with her inside the tub too. He finds her very attractive and even has a dream that he is having an affair with her. There are some questionable things that come up about the nanny and the couple is warned by a former employer of the dangerous that nanny presents.

People that have a relation to the couple die and its clear that nanny is something much more than just a caretaker. They try and flee from the nanny but one of the family members becomes sick with a coma like mystery illness and they are forced to fight the nanny to save themselves. Phil is able to kill her and all three of the family members surprise their shocking ordeal.

What is different?

This is a case of a bunch of writers, including the original author, bringing in a ton of different ideas as well as the director having a certain vision. That director is William Friedkin, and he typically has the sway to get what he wants. The bare bones of the story is certainly present. The book couple is Phil and Julie Pressman while the movie is Phil and Kate Sterling. They have a baby boy in both stories with Jake as the name in the movie and Harry in the book. They end up hiring a very attractive English Nanny who is named Camilla in the movie and Luci Redmon in the book. The two types of media split fairly drastically from there, however.

The book opens with a flash forward of the nanny creature going after Phil and his family in a house in upstate New York from both Phil and the monster’s point of view. Also, the book takes place after the couple moves to New York while the movie takes place in LA. The movie shows us exactly what the Nanny is, kind of, as she is with a different family and takes the younger child to a tree to sacrifice. That’s probably the main difference. The movie monster is a tree nymph monster that has ties to a specific tree and must keep it alive while the book nanny monster is more of an undead creature. The book does a good job not really explaining much or showing what she’s really capable of until the end while the movie takes the make-up and special effects approach to show what she is. She can also summon and even shift into the form of a wolf in the movie while the book she is just very strong and resilient to most attacks.

The tertiary characters also vary from page to screen with Phil’s coworkers being focal points and his boss even dying trying to protect him. What’s cool in the book is that we never really know how The Nanny kills her victims but boy is it described as brutal in the aftermath. The boss character in the book, Mary Margaret Sullivan, is somewhat replaced by Ned who is the architect that built the house that Kate and Phil moved into. He has a crush on Camilla and finds out what she really is even though it costs him his life before he tries to warn them with a phone message. The violence in the movie is really amped up from the book while the story has a much more dread inducing implied tone. A great example of this is the biker scene from the movie where Camilla and her tree absolutely wreck a gang that is trying to assault her.

While there are quite a few things taken directly from the book such as some of the names and even scenes, they are clearly two different stories told from the same idea. We learn of what Camilla did through the poor family shown in the beginning while book Phil finds out by calling the references given by Lucy. There are very short chapters intercut that have a nameless man in a hospital of some kind and we slowly learn that his family was destroyed by Lucy and he eventually gets a call in to Phil. While the book has that opening chapter just like the movie shows the prologue chapter of the family before, it’s much more effective and original told by short, disjointed chapters that randomly appear. One of the final big differences is with the ending. While Julie and Harry in the book become comatose from whatever power that the nanny exudes, its just the baby in the movie and the movie has a much more definitive ending. Camilla is killed along with her tree and melts away completely while the final chapter of the book has miss Redmon trying to get with another client, having healed from all of her injuries and possibly being immortal.

Legacy

Both in the realms of Fredkin’s filmography and 90’s horror in general, The Guardian isn’t discussed or even remembered fondly. It has a Scream Factory Blu-ray and is a neat if not messy horror movie to enjoy once. The same, however, could be said of the book which has no Wikipedia entry let alone any other YouTube deep dives into it. While it is one of a handful of books by the author that got turned into a movie, its certainly not his most famous contribution. That being said, it’s a very quick read and not an expensive book to find. While neither will stay with you for the rest of your life, I think the book explores more interesting and clear ideas and makes its characters much more relatable in the end. My vote is the book but check both out and decide for yourself.

A couple of the previous episodes of WTF Happened to This Adaptation? can be seen below. To see the other shows we have to offer, head over to the JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel – and subscribe while you’re there!

Camila Morrone of Daisy Jones & The Six has signed on to join Tom Hiddleston in the cast of The Night Manager season 2

Last month, Prime Video and the BBC officially announced that they are moving forward with two more seasons of the series The Night Manager, with Tom Hiddleston remaining in the lead role. Someone who is not expected to return for season 2 is Elizabeth Debicki, who played Hiddleston’s character’s “secret lover” – but maybe he’ll find love again. Variety reports that Camila Morrone, who recently starred in the Prime Video series Daisy Jones & The Six, has signed on to join Hiddleston in the cast of The Night Manager season 2. Details on Morrone’s character have not yet been revealed.

Created by David Farr and based on a 1993 novel by John le Carré, the first season of The Night Manager saw Hiddleston taking on the role of Jonathan Pine, the night manager of a luxury hotel in Cairo and a former British soldier. Pine is recruited by Angela Burr, the manager of a Foreign Office task force investigating illegal arms sales, to infiltrate the inner circle of arms dealer Richard Roper. Season 2 will pick up eight years after the events of the first season, moving beyond the story told in the novel.

Hugh Laurie played Richard Roper in the first season and was also an executive producer on the show. While Laurie remains on board as executive producer for seasons 2 and 3, it’s not clear if he’s going to be showing up on screen. Hiddleston is also an executive producer on the series, and season 2 is set to be directed by I Hate Suzie’s Georgi Banks-Davies.

The Night Manager comes to us from The Ink Factory, in association with Character 7, Demarest Films and 127 Wall, and in co-production with Spanish partner Nostromo Pictures. The Ink Factory is headed up by le Carré’s sons Simon Cornwell and Stephen Cornwell, and they provided the following statement: “Season 1 of The Night Manager proved a landmark moment for the golden era of television – uniting on-screen and behind-the-camera talent at the top of their game – and an audience reception which was beyond our wildest imagining. Revisiting the story of Pine also means going beyond the events of John le Carré’s original work: that is a decision we have not taken lightly, but his compelling characters and the vision David has for their next chapter were irresistible.“

I became a fan of Camila Morrone while watching her performance in Daisy Jones & The Six, so I’m glad to see her joining the cast of another interesting show. Are you looking forward to The Night Manager season 2? 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.

Bill Skarsgård has expressed unhappiness with how The Crow ends, suggesting it may be leaving the opportunity for a sequel.

The very idea of a new version of The Crow sparked plenty of outrage online, with fans of the Brandon Lee original saying no one could possibly replace him. Things only got worse when images of Bill Skarsgård as Eric Draven dropped, prompting negative responses from fans and even the original’s director, Alex Proyas. As we await The Crow’s August release, Skarsgård himself has his own thoughts on the movie…and they’re not exactly positive, either.

In a new profile in Esquire, Bill Skarsgård said that the ending of The Crow is far from satisfying, declaring, “I personally preferred something more definitive.” This would suggest that Rupert Sanders’ movie teases something more open-ended, quite possibly attempting to set up a sequel to fully reboot the franchise. Did Sanders not see the other Crow movies…?

Outside of The Crow, Bill Skarsgård has had other problems leading up to a potentially hit movie’s release. As he recalled in the same interview, he was met with internet backlash once the studio released their first look at him in fully Pennywise garb. “They did a thing that I felt was kind of mean…I was so incredibly nervous to start this job, and then the Internet is having so many hateful opinions on the weird, strange look of the thing.”

That moment, however, did give Skarsgård a chance to reevaluate his approach, saying, “You can only make this performance to please yourself.” But that might be part of an ongoing problem. Sure, ultimately the performance belongs to the actor, but certainly Skarsgård was aware that his casting as Eric Draven in The Crow would be the target of online hate.

As it is, Bill Skarsgård feels like something of a go-to for pre-existing creepy and/or goth characters, landing both It and The Crow. The actor also has Nosferatu lined up for later this year, although the fanbase for Count Orlok is exponentially lower than that of Pennywise – a character he did fully make his own and resurrect for a new generation – and Eric Draven; as such – and backed by the prestige of Robert Eggers – Nosferatu has far more buzz to it than any of the aforementioned titles.

The Crow flies into theaters on August 23rd while Nosferatu is set to rise on December 25th.

Adria Arjona and Richard Jenkins have signed on to star in Prime Video’s series adaptation of Ed Brubaker’s Criminal graphic novels

At the start of the year, it was announced that Criminal, the Eisner Award-winning graphic novel series written by Ed Brubaker and illustrated by Sean Phillips, is getting a series adaptation from Prime Video. Now Variety reports that Adria Arjona of Morbius and the upcoming Netflix release Hit Man and Richard Jenkins of The Shape of Water and The Visitor are set to star in the series.

Criminal tells “the interweaving saga of several generations of families tied together by the crimes and murders of the past.” The official logline for the series says it will show viewers an interlocking universe of crime stories.

Brubaker has written the script for the pilot and will serve as showrunner of the series alongside Jordan Harper (Hightown). Brubaker and Harper are also executive producing with Sean Phillips, Sarah Carbiener, Phillip Barnett, and Legendary Television.

Arjona is taking on the role of Greta, “a sharp-tongued top-level car thief and driver and the widowed mother of Angie. Ever since her husband died in a bank job gone bad, Greta has been battling with herself about how to escape the only life she’s ever known – and the only place she’s ever thrived. The problem is, she’s good at this. She’s looking for a big score, a lump of money she can use like a gun to shoot her and Angie out of this life and into another one.” Jenkins’ character is Ivan, “Leo’s dad’s best friend, and has always been an uncle figure to him. He used to be a robber and criminal, but is now currently suffering from dementia. Leo is trying to care for him but realizes he’s more work than he can handle.” Now we wait to find out who will be playing Angie and Leo (and Leo’s dad).

Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden, the filmmaking duo behind Half Nelson, Sugar, It’s Kind of a Funny Story, Mississippi Grind, Captain Marvel, and Freaky Tales, will be directing the first four episodes of Criminal.

Are you interested in Criminal? What do you think of Adria Arjona and Richard Jenkins signing on to star in the series? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

The video game-inspired chaotic action of Boy Kills World will be coming to physical media in 4K UHD glory from Lionsgate.

Boy Kills World is one of many box office victims from this year. However, after its April release, Lionsgate is preparing to bring the mayhem home in crisp clarity on July 9 as the Bill Skarsgård actioner has been announced to have a 4K UltraHD Blu-ray release, courtesy of Blu-ray.com. The film had a pretty warm, but mediocre reception, getting a 59% rating on Rotten Tomatoes with a 72% audience score. But our own Chris Bumbray was grinning ear-to-ear with it, saying in his review, “The movie itself is a pretty wild, dystopian action epic with heavy doses of black comedy and outrageousness mixed in. […] Overall, I had a total blast with this demented actioner. Director Moritz Mohr makes an impressive debut, and the film includes enough world-building that it could easily spawn a franchise.”

The description reads,
“Skarsgård stars as ‘Boy’ who avows revenge after his family is murdered by Hilda Van Der Koy (Janssen), the deranged matriarch of a corrupt post-apocalyptic dynasty that left the boy orphaned, deaf and voiceless. Driven by his inner voice, one which he co-opted from his favorite childhood video game, Boy trains with a mysterious shaman (Ruhian) to become an instrument of death and is set loose on the eve of the annual culling of dissidents. Bedlam ensues as Boy commits bloody martial arts mayhem, inciting a wrath of carnage and blood-letting. As he tries to get his bearings in this delirious realm, Boy soon falls in with a desperate resistance group, all the while bickering with the apparent ghost of his rebellious little sister.”

The details and specs for the film have yet to be released. However, the film notoriously sports two different cuts that involve the narration aspect of the film. It could be possible that the Blu-ray releases had alternate tracks where you can switch from both.

The plot depicts Skarsgård’s Boy character as being a deaf-mute, but he still has an inner monologue. In the TIFF version, Skarsgård would naturally provide the voiceover. According to Chris Bumbray’s multiple viewings of the different cuts, in the final version, “Skarsgard himself doesn’t provide the voice-over, which H. Jon Benjamin of Archer fame does. The conceit is that the narration is the last voice Boy heard before going deaf, being the voice of an over-the-top 80s-style arcade game. In the version that I saw originally, this idea was dropped, with Skarsgard narrating the whole film himself in an unaffected voice. I believe there’s yet another cut out there where Skarsgard himself does the video game voice, which was teased in a promo trailer that leaked months before the movie played TIFF.”

If you saw Boy Kills World, what were your impressions? Would you be interested in hearing the alternate narrations?

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.

We revisit the classic con-artist comedy Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, starring Steve Martin and Michael Caine.

One of the classic movie tropes of studio comedies, and especially in the 70s and 80s- is the ever-clever “slobs vs snobs” tale. You know, the blue-collar underdog against a preppy, often annoyingly sophisticated social elite. Movies like Revenge of the Nerds, Animal House, Wayne’s World, or Caddyshack make this the crux of their stories and often use multiple characters in each category to drive the shenanigans all the way up. But in some cases, a movie will tell the story with just one slob and one snob- and crank them both to their absolute extremes- and then throw in a heist because… we love that stuff. 

In today’s episode of Revisited, we’re going to be talking about 1988’s buddy comedy classic- Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. This movie stars Steve Martin and (the now retired) Michael Caine as two con artists who make an old western-style bet to run each other out of town. The bet? Whichever con can scam a rich tourist out of $50,000 first gets to keep the cash and claim the quaint French Riviera all to themselves. If the plot of this movie sounds familiar, that’s because this movie is a remake of the 1966 film called Bedtime Story starring Marlon Brando in the Steve Martin role (what????) and David Niven in the Michael Caine part (ok, that at least makes sense). There was also a 2019 remake starring Rebel Wilson and Anne Hathaway called The Hustle.  

Although I am a fan of each of these films, I would be lying if I said that this version was anything less than my favorite. I mean, we’re talking Steve Martin and Michael Bloody Caine here. So, if you want to watch an incredible nostalgic movie but you’ve only got 15 minutes to do it- then step into my time capsule once again as we flash back to 1988 and watch Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.

The director’s cut of Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon: Part Two – The Scargiver has earned an R rating for violence, gore, and more

We’ve known from the start that director Zack Snyder intended to released extended director’s cuts of his movies Rebel Moon: Part One – A Child of Fire (read our review HERE) and Rebel Moon: Part Two – The Scargiver (read our review of that one HERE), which were rated PG-13 in their shorter form. At the start of this month, we learned that the director’s cut of Rebel Moon: Part One has been given a R rating for brutal bloody violence and gore, sexual content, graphic nudity and language. Now the Motion Picture Association ratings board has revealed that the director’s cut of Rebel Moon: Part Two has been rated R for strong bloody violence and gore throughout, strong sexuality, nudity and some language.

We don’t know a release date for the director’s cuts just yet, but Snyder has said that the director’s cuts of both films will be released through the Netflix streaming service on the same day, possibly in August.

Snyder has always been open about the fact that he’s hoping “a massive IP and a universe that can be built out” from the foundation of Rebel Moon. He crafted the story for Rebel Moon with 300 co-writer Kurt Johnstad, and the pair wrote the screenplay with Army of the Dead co-writer Shay Hatten. The events of the two films, which draw inspiration from Seven Samurai, are set in motion when a peaceful colony on the edge of the galaxy is threatened by the armies of a tyrannical regent named Balisarius. Desperate, the colonists dispatch a young woman with a mysterious past to seek out warriors from neighboring planets to help them make a stand.

Rebel Moon: Part Two – The Scargiver continues the epic saga of Kora and the surviving warriors as they prepare to sacrifice everything, fighting alongside the brave people of Veldt to defend a once peaceful village, a newfound homeland for those who have lost their own in the fight against the Motherworld. On the eve of their battle, the warriors must face the truths of their pasts, each revealing why they fight. As the full force of the Realm bears down on the burgeoning rebellion, unbreakable bonds are forged, heroes emerge, and legends are made.

The films star Sofia Boutella (The Mummy), Charlie Hunnam (Sons of Anarchy), Djimon Hounsou (A Quiet Place Part II), Ray Fisher (Justice League), Doona Bae (The Host), Jena Malone (Sucker Punch), Staz Nair (Supergirl), E. Duffy (whose previous credits are all short films), Charlotte Maggi (MaveriX), Sky Yang (Tomb Raider), Michiel Huisman (Game of Thrones), Alfonso Herrera (Ozark), Cary Elwes (Saw), Corey Stoll (Ant-Man), Ed Skrein (Deadpool), Anthony Hopkins (Hannibal), and Stuart Martin (Army of Thieves).

Snyder, his wife Deborah Snyder, and Wesley Coller are producing the Rebel Moon films through their company Stone Quarry. Eric Newman is producing via his banner, Grand Electric, while Grand Electric’s Sarah Bowen executive produces.

Are you looking forward to the Rebel Moon: Part Two – The Scargiver director’s cut? What do you think of the reason given for the R rating? Let us know by leaving a comment below.