Christopher Nolan will not only celebrate his big Oscar wins this year, but one of his big sci-fi hits of the past is also set to return to the large formats.

The past year has been a major one for Christopher Nolan. The popularity of the director’s historical epic, Oppenheimer, blew up in a major way (pun intended). Not only did it have the strength of Nolan’s reputation, but the seemingly unintentional scheduling that paired its release with another anticipated summer film, Barbie, created a whole other level of recognition for it. Then, the film would achieve an amazing feat for Nolan where it would sweep a number of categories at this year’s Academy Awards.

Deadline now reveals that one of Nolan’s past blockbusters will be returning to theaters in celebration of its 10-year anniversary. At Paramount’s panel during this year’s CinemaCon, the studio revealed as part of their upcoming slate that Interstellar will be traveling back into cinemas along with IMAX and 70MM prints. The Dark Knight director has been a champion of IMAX film for years and special showings in a limited number of movie houses would present Oppenheimer in the grand medium. The actual IMAX film format is not too common a practice, and with the lengthy runtime, many theaters would either have faulty preparation of Oppenheimer‘s screenings or the projectors would break down altogether.

Recently, actress Anne Hathaway had stated how grateful she was for Nolan to cast her in both The Dark Knight Rises as Selina Kyle and in Interstellar as it would come at a time when her public perception was not very favorable. In a new Vanity Fair profile, Anne Hathaway said of her time on the outs with Hollywood, “A lot of people wouldn’t give me roles because they were so concerned about how toxic my identity had become online. I had an angel in Christopher Nolan, who did not care about that and gave me one of the most beautiful roles I’ve had in one of the best films that I’ve been a part of.” She added, “I don’t know if he knew that he was backing me at the time, but it had that effect. And my career did not lose momentum the way it could have if he hadn’t backed me.”

Interstellar arrives in theaters on September 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.

Daniel Radcliffe remembered thinking that Alan Rickman hated him when they first started making the Harry Potter movies.

Alan Rickman could be an intimidating presence; by all accounts, though, he was one of the most gracious and encouraging actors in the business. But try telling that to a pre-teen who was about to star in his first movie. Yes, Daniel Radcliffe was scared stiff of Severus Snapes himself, Alan Rickman, during the making of Harry Potter.

As Radcliffe revealed on the Happy Sad Confused podcast (via Variety), “I was so intimidated by Alan Rickman [while making Harry Potter]. How can you not be by that voice? Even hearing that voice you forget quite how low it was until it echoes through you. I was so intimidated by him for the first three movies. I was terrified by him and was like, ‘This guy hates me.’” However, Radcliffe kept at his task, showing nothing but dedication to playing Harry Potter that “somewhere along the lines he saw that I really wanted to do this and work at it.”

Rickman would go on to be a major supporter of Radcliffe’s not just on the screen but on stage as well. “He cut short a vacation in Canada to come and see me in Equus. He saw every piece of stage work I did when he was alive. He would take me out afterwards and we would talk about it. He was one of the first people to say like, ‘You should look at voice coaching and investigate all this stuff.’ I am so lucky.”

It’s pretty awesome that Alan Rickman didn’t just speak or write about his thoughts on the Harry Potter cast and production – as he did diaries released years after his 2016 death – but also showed it, something that goes so far, especially with a young cast who is trying to figure out how the business works.

Daniel Radcliffe wasn’t the only one who was petrified of Alan Rickman during the early Harry Potter outings. Tom Felton, who played Draco Malfoy throughout the series, remembered Rickman – in costume as Snape – telling him on the set of Half-Blood Prince to not “step on my f*cking cloak.” Felton was an adult by that point but that is the last thing you would want to hear from Severus Snape – that and “Sectumsempra”…

In which Harry Potter movie do you think Alan Rickman gave his best performance? Drop your pick below!

Writer/director Rob Zombie is working on a book about the making of his first feature, House of 1000 Corpses

The 20th anniversary of writer/director Rob Zombie’s feature directorial debut House of 1000 Corpses (watch it HERE) came and went last year – but today, Zombie took to social media to announce that he’s celebrating the 21st anniversary of the film by working on a book about the making of it! Zombie also shared multiple behind-the-scenes images, and you can check those out at the bottom of this article.

Zombie wrote, “To celebrate the 21st anniversary of House of 1000 Corpses being released I thought I would give you a sneak peek at the House of 1000 Corpses book that I have been working on. This thing is packed with rare photos, blueprints, storyboards, makeup tests and my original script with all my handwritten notes and sketches. So much stuff for all you Corpse-Heads! Coming your way soon.”

House of 1000 Corpses has the following synopsis: Two young couples take a misguided tour onto the back roads of America in search of a local legend known as Dr. Satan. Lost and stranded, they are set upon by a bizarre family of psychotics. Murder, cannibalism and satanic rituals are just a few of the 1000+ horrors that await.

The film stars Sid Haig, Erin Daniels, Bill Moseley, Karen Black, Sheri Moon Zombie, Rainn Wilson, Dennis Fimple, Walton Goggins, Chris Hardwick, Jennifer Jostyn, Matthew McGrory, Robert Mukes, Irwin Keyes, Walter Phelan, Michael J. Pollard, Tom Towles, Harrison Young, and Jake McKinnon.

Zombie has described his first movie as a “calamitous mess“. Are you a fan of House of 1000 Corpses, and are you glad to hear that Zombie is working on a book about the making of the film? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

Last year, author Dustin McNeill released a book called House of Rejects, which covered the making of 1000 Corpses and its follow-ups The Devil’s Rejects and 3 from Hell, the films that make up Zombie’s “Firefly trilogy.” While you’re waiting for Zombie’s book, you can pick up a copy of McNeill’s book at THIS LINK. Other books by McNeill include Reign of Chucky, the Halloween franchise books Taking Shape and Taking Shape II, Phantasm Exhumed, and Slash of the Titans (about Freddy vs. Jason‘s long journey through development hell). 

The Sarah Connor actress returns to the 80s in Stranger Things, but definitely doesn’t plan to return to the future war.

Linda Hamilton will be making an appearance in the upcoming Stranger Things, which poetically takes place in the era when she catapulted to fame thanks to The Terminator. Her defining performance as Sarah Connor sealed her in pop culture as one of the best sci-fi characters of all time. However, even though she would make a return to the series with the sequel Terminator: Dark Fate, Hamilton has definitively stated that she is no longer interested in reprising her iconic character.

The Beauty and the Beast TV show star recently sat down with The Hollywood Reporter to talk about her projects. It was inevitably asked if she would come back for another round with the cybernetic organism when they inquired what was more likely: an AI-written Terminator sequel or her reprising the role of Sarah Connor. Hamilton answered, “AI writing the next Terminator movie. And they kill me off before we start. That’s the best scenario.” When pressed for clear confirmation, she responded, “Shoot me. Shoot me! I’m very glad I did it, but…” Hamilton does not have regrets about doing Terminator: Dark Fate, saying, “I don’t do a lot of regret. I think in the end, it holds true that we regret what we didn’t do, not what we did.”

She continued to expand on her position with the film, noting that her experience was enjoyable despite not being to receptive to the final product. “I’m very glad I went back. I loved [director Tim Miller], I love my ladies [Mackenzie Davis and Natalia Reyes], and while I can’t say I love the film, that’s because I was so attached to it. I only saw it once. I felt like it was too fast. But we did so much good work, and it was the greatest time of my life, and the worst time of my life, all rolled into one film,” She expounded. The stunt work would also take a toll on her while filming, “I was 63 or whatever I was, and it was the hardest shoot. Every day it was like a triathlon: ‘Now we’re going to swim for two hours and then we’re going to run for two hours.’ I read 40 books on that show. That’s all I could do, lie down and read, send my mind somewhere else and rest my body.”

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.

Michael Douglas is excellent in a historical espionage series that is not nearly as good as it could have been.

Plot: In December 1776, Benjamin Franklin is world famous for his electrical experiments. But his passion and power are put to the test when he embarks on a secret mission to France—with the fate of American independence hanging in the balance.

Review: Of all the television and big screen depictions of the Revolutionary War and the early days of the United States, few have focused specifically on Benjamin Franklin. The scientist, inventor, scholar, and dignitary has been a key character in many projects, notably played by Tom Wilkinson in HBO’s John Adams and by Howard De Silva in the musical 1776, but always as a supporting player. Despite being one of the Founding Fathers and having his iconic visage gracing the one hundred dollar bill, the first narrative production centered on his life is just now being released. Franklin, an eight-episode limited series from AppleTV+ and ITV America, focuses on Franklin‘s decade-long mission to secure France’s support in the fight for independence from England. Boasting an impressive performance from Michael Douglas, Franklin positions itself more as a tale of espionage, negotiation, and political intrigue than a war film or even a biopic. The result is an interesting look into the life of the most famous American politician never to be President but one that lacks the momentum or energy deserving of such a tale.

Opening in December 1776, Franklin begins with the titular character completing his voyage from Philadelphia to France during a torrential downpour. Recognized for his brilliance and intelligence, Franklin (Michael Douglas) arrives with his grandson William Temple Franklin (Noah Jupe), who is his assistant and protege. Temple, the illegitimate son of Franklin’s illegitimate son, joins his grandfather to learn from him in the hopes of becoming a politician. Almost immediately, the Franklins are dismissed by the Comte de Vergennes (Thibault de Montalembert), the First Minister to the King of France, who wants nothing to do with the American war with England. Secretly, Ben Franklin and his colleague Edward Bancroft (Daniel Mays) work through alternative channels to secure weapons and money to help finance the American military which is flagging badly in the West. This means that Ben Franklin must use his wit and wisdom to persuade reluctant aristocrats while staying one step ahead of British spies and other loyalists to the Crown.

Over the next eight chapters, Ben Franklin forges alliances with playwright Beaumarchais (Assaad Bouab), entrepreneur Jacques Charmont (Olivier Claverie) and his wife Therese (Florence Darel) and the beautiful musician Anne-Louise Brillon (Ludivine Sagnier). Along the way, Temple also crossed paths with an idealistic young French solider named Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette (Theodore Pellerin), who would majorly impact the Revolution. Equally, the elder Franklin’s life is forever changed as he enters romances with Brillon and Anne-Catherine de Ligniville, also known as Madame Helvetius (Jeanne Balibar). The exploits that Franklin engaged in over eight years in Europe would forever change the fate of the United States, and that sentiment rarely goes unspoken. Because of the thousands of miles between France and the ground battles in America, the tension in Franklin replaces guns and swords with secret messages, impostors and stand-ins for complex misdirections, and plain old palace intrigue as backroom conversations and deals forever change the fate of democracy.

The dynamic between Michael Douglas and Noah Jupe works best in the series. Rather than playing Franklin in his prime, Douglas (who is eight years older than the real Ben Franklin was at the time of this series), portrays the statesman as eldery but still very capable. Believing that he would not live to see the United States as an independent nation, Franklin is stoic but passionate and still very much fill of the vigor of a much younger man. The series also makes sure that he is not portrayed as a universally beloved figure, even in America, as we find out when John Adams (Eddie Marsan) arrives for secret negotiations towards the end of the series. Noah Jupe is also very good as the seventeen year old Temple. Willing to learn from his grandfather, Temple becomes enamored with the stately court of Verseilles which throws a wrench between them, something that is a focal point for much of the series. The trouble with that dynamic, though, is that it develops incredibly slowly over the course of the series.

Writers Kirk Ellis and Howard Korder adapted Franklin from Stacy Schiff’s book “A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America” with an eye on trying to make the series into a political thriller. Korder, who has experienced writing for the stage, helps transform the dialogue into a central strength for Franklin but still struggles with building momentum. Individual scenes are beautifully shot as interiors within French palaces and mansions. At the same time, the exteriors show the countryside of Europe in an often overcast light. Still, even the most cinematic sequence fails to overcome the fact it is mostly just people talking and walking in period attire. Veteran director Tim Van Patten, best known for The Sopranos, The Wire, Deadwood, Game of Thrones, Boardwalk Empire, Perry Mason, and Masters of the Air, is more than capable of capturing the scope of the drama being articulated by the cast, but that does not change how slowly this series movies. Nevertheless, despite the pace, Franklin is a showcase for Michael Douglas.

Having watched the entirety of Franklin, I gained a deeper appreciation for this perspective on American history that I was never taught in school. The picture many of us have of Benjamin Franklin is only a superficial layer of the brilliant man. Michael Douglas inhabits him more fully than any other role in the actor’s career. Franklin may not be as exciting or quotable as Lin Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton, but it still presents a unique glimpse into how America became an independent nation. Thanks to solid supporting turns from Ludivine Sagnier and Noah Jupe, Franklin is a good series that finally gives the title figure the biopic he deserves, even if it is not quite as sprightly and energetic as the man himself.

Franklin premieres on April 12th on Apple TV+.