Home Blog Page 2

The Dark Knight: Uwe Boll decides to change title of Armie Hammer thriller after “friendly” chat with Warner Bros.

0
The Dark Knight: Uwe Boll decides to change title of Armie Hammer thriller after “friendly” chat with Warner Bros.

Uwe Boll has decided to change the title of The Dark Knight after speaking with Warner Bros. The thriller stars Armie Hammer.

The Dark Knight: Uwe Boll decides to change title of Armie Hammer thriller after “friendly” chat with Warner Bros.

The upcoming Uwe Boll thriller starring Armie Hammer shares its title with Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, or at least it did until somewhat recently. According to Variety, Boll had a “friendly” chat with Warner Bros. and has decided to change the name of his film from The Dark Knight to Citizen Vigilante.

We had a very friendly conversation with Warner Bros. and decided to change our title to ‘Citizen Vigilante’ to avoid any confusion with Warners’ famous character,” Boll explained.

Executive producer Michael Roesch added, “We also got a lot of feedback from fans, who asked us to change the title because of its similarity with Chris Nolan’s movie, so this was another factor in changing the title. Warner Bros. contacted us and asked us to change the title. It was a very amicable discussion.

Boll confirmed earlier this year that Warner Bros. had sent him a cease-and-desist letter regarding the title. “DC and Warner already contacted and said I can’t use the title,” Boll said. “I understand that, but I told them, ‘Guys, remember Rampage, the Rock movie? You used my title.’ The fact that they did that and called me for permission, they could show gratefulness and say, ‘listen, it’s not a Batman movie, and you can use the title.’” While it initially felt like Boll would be holding firm in his choice, it really was only a matter of time before he made the switch.

Armie Hammer in Citizen Vigilante as Sanders, a vigilante “who takes justice into his own hands as he sets out to hunt down criminals. While his crusade transforms him into a social media sensation and a hero in the eyes of the public, the local police chief sees him as a menace to society and aims to take him down.” Boll has said that the film is a “very dark and violent movie” which features “rapes and knife attacks” as it examines the “landscape in Europe.

Uwe Boll plans to present Citizen Vigilante at this year’s Cannes Film Market, but it may just be a promo reel. “Although we are ahead of schedule, the full movie will most likely not be finished by then,” Roesch said.

Originally published at https://www.joblo.com/the-dark-knight-uwe-boll-changes-title/

Will Forte says not doing The Amazing Race with Val Kilmer is his biggest regret

0
Will Forte says not doing The Amazing Race with Val Kilmer is his biggest regret

Will Forte and Val Kilmer really wanted to appear on The Amazing Race together, but their agents put an end to it.

Will Forte says not doing The Amazing Race with Val Kilmer is his biggest regret

Will Forte and Val Kilmer worked together on MacGruber, where they became good friends. In fact, when Kilmer needed a place to stay after “having a dispute with his landlord,” he moved in with Forte for nearly three months. Forte wrote a lovely remembrance of this time for Vulture and mentioned that one of his biggest regrets is not appearing on The Amazing Race with Kilmer. Pardon?

I used to watch ‘The Amazing Race,’ and he came back home at some point when I was watching it and was like, ‘What are you watching that garbage for? Come on, that stuff’s going to rot your mind.’ I said, ‘It’s pretty good. You should sit down and watch it. Give it a try before you s—t on it,’” Forte explained. “So he sat down and he started watching it, and he got really into it. Then, at a certain point, he said, ‘Will, you and I have to go do ‘The Amazing Race.’ We have to. Let’s do ‘The Amazing Race.’” I’m like, ‘I am so fully in.’

Forte continued, “We got really excited about it, and then we called our respective agents and managers, and they were like, ‘There’s no way you guys are doing that.’ That is, maybe to this day, the biggest regret of my whole career — that I never did ‘The Amazing Race’ with Val. I think we would’ve gotten out very quickly, but it just would’ve been the experience of a lifetime.” It would have been something, that’s for sure.

When Forte was preparing to film MacGruber, he was really nervous about being around Kilmer for fear that he’d leave the movie, but he quickly found out that Kilmer was the type of man who would literally give you the shirt off his back.

I remember one time, I got to set, and he was wearing this red plaid shirt. I said, ‘Oh man, that’s my kind of shirt! That is right up my alley!’ And he just took the shirt off and said, ‘This is yours now,’” Forte said. “Then he was just sitting there with his shirt off, fully exposed to the world, while we continued to talk. Without even thinking, he literally gave me the shirt off his back. He was the most interesting person in the world, because there were so many elements to his personality. He was incredibly funny and incredibly smart. He could be super-silly and then turn around and be a little frickin’ devil — but a sweet little devil. Life is more vivid when you’re hanging out with Val.

The loss of Val Kilmer, who was just 65, is a tough one. The man gave us such incredible performances in so many fantastic movies. Although throat cancer had robbed him of his voice, it was such a delight to see him return in Top Gun: Maverick as Admiral Tom “Iceman” Kazansky.

Originally published at https://www.joblo.com/will-forte-val-kilmer-the-amazing-race/

JoBlo Friday Night Flicks live stream looks back Val Kilmer’s career, checks out Superman footage, and digs into CinemaCon

0
JoBlo Friday Night Flicks live stream looks back Val Kilmer’s career, checks out Superman footage, and digs into CinemaCon

On tonight’s episode of JoBlo Originals’ Live Stream, Friday Night Flicks with Kier Gomes, we’re talking Val Kilmer and CinemaCon

The OFFICIAL JoBlo Originals’ Live Stream, Friday Night Flicks with Kier Gomes, is back! You can watch the show on our JoBlo Originals channel (or via the embed above) – TONIGHT at 8pm ET/ 5pm PT.

Just a few days ago, we received the devastating news that the legendary Val Kilmer has passed away at the age of just 65. We’ve paid tribute to Kilmer here on JoBlo by putting together a list of his 10 greatest roles and pointing out that he deserved more credit and accolades for his performance in The Doors – and on tonight’s live stream, Kier will be taking a look back over Kilmer’s career.

As you might have noticed, entertainment news this week was dominated by reports from the CinemaCon event in Las Vegas. JoBlo’s own Chris Bumbray and Lance Vlcek were at the event, sending in reports daily, letting us know about everything Sony, Lionsgate, Warner Bros., Universal, Amazon MGM, Paramount, and Disney showed off during their panels. Kier will be digging into the information we received, with a special focus on the new Superman footage that was unveiled during the Warner Bros. panel.

If you want to pay tribute to Val Kilmer along with Kier and hear about some of the CinemaCon highlights, make sure to WATCH LIVE and participate in the chat!

What else would you like to hear Kier weigh in on during the Live Stream tonight? Let us know in the comments, and tune in TONIGHT at 8pm ET/ 5pm PT right HERE!

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.

Originally published at https://www.joblo.com/joblo-live-cinemacon/

Black Mirror creator says he considered a USS Callister spinoff series

0
Black Mirror creator says he considered a USS Callister spinoff series

Charlie Brooker says he considered giving fan-favourite episode USS Callister its own spinoff series or even a feature film.

Black Mirror creator says he considered a USS Callister spinoff series

USS Callister consistently ranks among the best episodes of Black Mirror. The episode proved so popular that it’s actually getting a sequel in the upcoming seventh season, but creator Charlie Brooker told Deadline that he once considered expanding it into a limited TV series or even a feature film.

Of all the stories we’ve done, this one ended as though we were setting it up for the sequel,” Brooker said. “It went through various guises but in the end we made it feature length within the season. It took so long getting it together — we had the pandemic, writers’ strike and then had to get everyone’s schedules lined up, and that was its own Rubik’s cube on a unicycle.

A USS Callister spinoff series could have been too much of a good thing, but it’s safe to say that the sequel, titled USS Callister: Into Infinity, is the most highly anticipated episode of the new season. The synopsis reads: “Robert Daly is dead, but now the crew of the USS Callister – led by Captain Nanette Cole – are stranded in an infinite virtual universe, fighting for survival against 30 million players.

While speaking with THR last year, Brooker said that he knew he wanted to return to USS Callister as soon as the filming had wrapped. “This has been brewing for actually quite a long time. And it’s partly because of the way that it ends. The first one ends like you could just carry that story on and follow where they go now. So it was always like, ‘Hmm, I’m going to do that,’” Brooker said. “It was something we were looking at for quite a long time. There were various iterations it went through, various versions we wanted to do and were discussing on and off for several years.

Brooker continued: “But there are a lot of schedules to sort out, and then the pandemic got in the way. It was something that looked like it wasn’t going to happen, and so I was delighted when it did. So, it’s been a minute. But even writing the characters is a luxury I don’t often get. I’ve never had it before on Black Mirror, to have a character that survives beyond one episode! So that’s been a lot of fun, and then seeing them all on set has been fantastic.

Will there be more USS Callister on Black Mirror? I suppose we’ll have to wait and see where the episode leaves us when the entire season debuts on Netflix on April 10th.

Originally published at https://www.joblo.com/black-mirror-uss-callister-spinoff-series/

IMDb issues disclaimer on Snow White page?

0
IMDb issues disclaimer on Snow White page?

IMDb is trying to combat review-bombing for the live-action version of Snow White, but will it work or are the trolls too strong?

snow white imdb

Snow White was poisoned from the start. From the casting of Latina Rachel Zegler in the title role to the handling of the dwarf characters to the openly publicized political stances of its stars to the sheer existence of Gal Gadot, there was just no chance for it. As such, it has only taken in around $70 million domestically on a budget pegged upwards of $270 million. But forget the box office — moviegoers hate it! At least, those who claim they saw it do…

As it stands, Disney’s 2025 reimagining of beloved animated classic Snow White holds a 1.6/10 on IMDb based on 311,000 reviews…and 91% are one-star ratings. (The 2.7% of 10-star reviews are clearly from people who didn’t see it, either…) This looks to be an obvious case of review-bombing, which always hits a movie that has some sort of controversy heading into the release. It had even been so hazed that it was temporarily on the list of lowest-rated movies on the site, sitting alongside the likes of Manos: The Hands of Fate, Birdemic: Shock and Terror and Baby Geniuses 2. It has since been removed.

As a result, IMDb has issued a unique warning for Snow White which indicates “unusual activity”, point to “Our rating mechanism has detected unusual voting activity on this title.” Just for context, Kirk Cameron’s Saving Christmas holds no such disclaimer…

Movie fans — or at least those who claim to be — have no problem hitting review sites and forums with their opinions. And while there’s nothing wrong with that and it’s obviously encouraged if constructive, it’s those users who take it too far (as in the case of Snow White and IMDb) that don’t really serve a function other than to troll. We’ve seen it so many times before on various platforms but it really says something when one has to start issuing alerts. But will any others follow suit? Or is this just a futile gesture on their part?

How do you feel about IMDb’s disclaimer for Snow White? Could this in any way deter trolls from review-bombing?

Originally published at https://www.joblo.com/imdb-issues-disclaimer-on-snow-white-page/

Interview With Artist Dave Dick (Awesome Art)

0
Interview With Artist Dave Dick (Awesome Art)

Last Updated on April 9, 2025

For years, Awesome Art has been about two things only – awesome art and the artists that create it. With that in mind, we thought why not take the first week of the month to showcase these awesome artists even more? Welcome to “Awesome Artist We’ve Found Around The Net.” In this column, we are focusing on one artist and the awesome art that they create, whether they be amateur, up and coming, or well established. The goal is to uncover these artists so even more people become familiar with them. We ask these artists a few questions to see their origins, influences, and more. If you are an awesome artist or know someone that should be featured, feel free to contact me at any time at [email protected].This month we are very pleased to bring you the awesome art of…

Dave Dick is a Philadelphia-based illustrator who specializes in the unsettling and macabre. Drawing inspiration from childhood nightmares and a lifelong love of horror films, his meticulous works grace movie posters, book covers, and more, sending shivers down spines with intricate details and chilling atmospheres. Despite the darkness he conjures, Dave maintains a vibrant personal life, balancing his craft with the joys of being a husband, father, and pet owner. This unexpected duality fuels his artistry, proving that even the spookiest minds have a soft spot for family and a purring cat.

JOBLO: What got you started as an artist?
DAVE:
It was probably the first time I made a homemade greeting card for my mom as a kid, and she cried a little. That moment sealed my destiny as an artist. The rush of stirring raw emotion through my art became a dragon I’ve been chasing ever since.

Who were some of your favorite artists growing up?
There have been a lot over the years, from Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud to Tim Burton and Stephen Gammell. But the ones who really made an impression on me would have to be Ralph Steadman, Ashley Wood, and Dave McKean.

Who do you really dig these days, follow on Instagram?
Oh so many! But here are a few that I’m really digging lately. Ken Miller, Sophia Rapata, Justin Valliere, Jeremy Parker, Jed Leiknes, Delic Saike, Meth Fawn.

What advice would you have for budding artists today?
Draw every day, embrace every risk, never measure yourself against other artists, and network as much as you can.

What should we be looking out for from you in the future?
By the time this interview comes out, my latest exhibit will already be in full swing. I’m part of a group show called Master of Suspense: The Alfred Hitchcock Tribute Art Exhibit at Sugar Mynt Gallery in South Pasadena, CA. The show runs until May, and in September, I’ll be part of another group show paying homage to the late, great David Lynch. It’s called Transcendental: Artwork Inspired by David Lynch at Talleyville Gallery in Wilmington, DE.

Additionally, I’ve been working on a few books that will feature both interior and cover artwork. They’re slated to be published later this year, but the titles and release dates haven’t been announced yet. I’ll share details as soon as they’re available on my social media.

Being a fansite, we have to ask you… What are some of your favorite movies/TV shows of all time?
This is like asking me to pick a favorite child.. it feels wrong to narrow it down. Among my top horror movies are The Thing (1982), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), Return of the Living Dead (1985), and The Blair Witch Project (1999).

As for non-horror, some of my favorites are Dumb and Dumber, The Big Lebowski, John Wick, Drive, and Superbad.

On the TV side, my current favorite show has to be Severance. It’s one of the best series to come around in a long time. Other favorites include Yellowjackets, From, Silo, The Righteous Gemstones, What We Do in the Shadows, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and Bob’s Burgers.

Scroll down to check out some of our favorite art pieces from Dave as we continue to follow his journey across his Website and social media hubs: Instagram / Facebook / Threads / YouTube / TikTok / BlueSky / Shop / Etsy Shop

The Altar

Ascent

Captain Spaulding

The Clown With The Tearaway Face

The Dark Watchers

Dr. Finkelstein

Fairy Tale Creature

The Forest Dwellers

Ghostface

Ghosts Enjoying A Snow Day

I Think My Treehouse Is Haunted

The Jersey Devil

Krampus

Leatherface

Officer Friendly

Pinhead

Samantha + Oscar

Scarecrow

The Season Of The Witch

The Snarly Yow

Someone Is Hangry

Terrifer

The Two Witches

Wendigo



Originally published at https://www.joblo.com/interview-with-artist-dave-dick-awesome-art/

Box Office Update: A Minecraft Movie is the hit exhibitors have been waiting for

0
Box Office Update: A Minecraft Movie is the hit exhibitors have been waiting for

A Minecraft Movie is proving to be a runaway smash hit, with it on track for a $135 million weekend.

Last Updated on April 9, 2025

A Minecraft Movie

CinemaCon was this week, and amid all the excitement, it can’t be denied that a certain chill had set in among exhibitors. The fact is, the first quarter of 2025 has been a disaster, with absolutely no hit movies. Sure, Captain America: Brave New World has come close to $200 million stateside, but with the huge budget, it seems on track to lose millions, while Snow White and Mickey 17 were giant flops. There have been some small-scale singles and doubles, like The Monkey, A Working Man and Dog Man, but there have been no blockbusters.

Lo-and-behold, the box office gods have given us the first legitimate hit of the year, and it comes from beleaguered Warner Bros. Deadline is reporting that A Minecraft Movie is far exceeding expectations, with it likely to make over $135 million this weekend. That’s a pretty stunning result (and significantly more than we predicted), with the PG-rated family film perfectly tapping into the cultural zeitgeist (it also helps that stars Jack Black and Jason Momoa have been promoting the heck out of it – including here at JoBlo). Directed by Napoleon Dynamite’s Jared Hess,  this is the first movie this year that will make a boatload of money for exhibitors and the studios – and a rare longshot that paid off for WB. If their next big gamble, Sinners, also makes money, it could turn things around for them.

That said, A Minecraft Movie is pretty much the only movie people are going to see this weekend, with the latest batch of episodes from The Chosen – The Last Supper Part 2 – on track for a softer than expected $7 million weekend. Meanwhile, Jason Statham’s A Working Man looks like it will dip a so-so 56% to a $6.8 million weekend. 

What do you think of A Minecraft Movie’s success? Let us know in the comments!

Originally published at https://www.joblo.com/box-office-update-a-minecraft-movie-is-the-hit-exhibitors-have-been-waiting-for/

Tron: Ares official trailer and poster revealed!

0
Tron: Ares official trailer and poster revealed!

Following its successful debut at CinemaCon, Disney has officially unveiled the first Tron: Ares trailer and poster.

Last Updated on April 9, 2025

One of the most exciting moments – for me anyway – at this year’s CinemaCon was when we got to see some early footage from Tron: Ares. What made the moment especially memorable was that star Jared Leto used the occasion to pay tribute to his co-star, Jeff Bridges (Flynn himself!), who, in turn, seemed psyched by the fact that the movie was being scored by none other than Nine Inch Nails. The footage was very well received, and now Disney has opted to release the CinemaCon trailer online. Check it out embedded above. 

As per the official synopsis, TRON: Ares” follows a highly sophisticated program, Ares, who is sent from the digital world into the real world on a dangerous mission, marking humankind’s first encounter with A.I. beings.”

It’s always interesting to see Disney try to relaunch the Tron saga, as the series has always been incredibly formative and influential, even if the box office receipts have never quite matched up to its cultural significance. Tron, which came out in 1982, was the first movie to use extensive CGI but it proved to be a commercial disappointment. The sequel, Tron: Legacy, had a lot more hype when it came out in 2010, but while it just about broke even, it also wasn’t the blockbuster the studio had been hoping for.

Nonetheless, Disney is taking another kick at the can with Tron: Ares, which benefits from two things. One, CGI animation has taken a huge leap forward in the fifteen years since this last film, and two, the movie’s AI themes are a lot more relevant (and scary) now than they were when the last two films came out. Maybe this is the first Tron movie that will connect in a big way.

Tron: Ares comes out on October 10th. The film is directed by Kon-Tiki’s Joachim Rønning and stars Jared Leto, Greta Lee, Evan Peters, Gillian Anderson and Jeff Bridges!

Check out the trailer, along with the official poster below, and let us know how you think Tron: Ares looks!

Tron: Ares

Originally published at https://www.joblo.com/tron-ares-official-trailer-and-poster-revealed/

Pierce Brosnan says he could still play James Bond “in a pinch”

0
Pierce Brosnan says he could still play James Bond “in a pinch”

Pierce Brosnan seems surprisingly open to playing James Bond again, noting, “they know where to find me.”

Last Updated on April 9, 2025

brosnan bond

Never Say Never Again? While it looked like the Pierce Brosnan era came and went in the wake of the franchise’s reboot with Daniel Craig, things seem a little more flexible now. With Amazon now owning the rights to the James Bond franchise and actively working on a new direction for the series, fans are hoping the now seventy-one-year-old Brosnan might get one more kick at the can. While promoting his new TV series, MobLand, in which he co-stars against another popular choice to play 007, Tom Hardy, Brosnan was asked on The Today Show if he thought he could still play the role. 

“In a pinch,” he said, adding, “Let’s see where the wind takes us. Let’s see what happens. They know where to find me…why not?” While it seems likely Amazon will want to choose a young actor to usher us into a new era of 007, a lot of Bond fans think Brosnan deserves a proper send off. His departure as Bond was highly controversial, as all of his films had been major hits, and he was eager to reprise the role. While the producers understandably figured the series needed a refresh in the wake of Die Another Day (which was still the highest-grossing Bond film of all time up to that point), many felt Brosnan was shafted by the producers. In fact, Brosnan himself took issue with the fact that he was dismissed from the role via a phone call from the Broccoli family saying, “I was utterly shocked and just kicked to the curb with the way it went down.”

With the Broccoli family now out of the picture, Brosnan suddenly seems way more open to the idea of reprising his role for one final go-round. Whether or not it should happen is another thing. Part of me thinks Amazon needs to somewhat reinvent the franchise in the same way the Broccoli family did with Casino Royale, but I also hated the way Brosnan was treated, as he deserved a proper send-off. A one-off with all the trimmings might rectify a huge injustice. 

What do you think? Let us know in the comments!

Originally published at https://www.joblo.com/pierce-brosnan-says-he-could-still-play-james-bond-in-a-pinch/

The Ghost and the Darkness: The Best Val Kilmer Movie You Never Saw

0
The Ghost and the Darkness: The Best Val Kilmer Movie You Never Saw

We revisit one of Val Kilmer’s most ambitious star vehicles, the wildly underrated The Ghost and the Darkness, co-starring Michael Douglas.

Last Updated on April 9, 2025

THE STORY: A British military engineer (Val Kilmer) travels to Africa circa 1900 to complete a railroad project that’s been plagued by delays. While there, he’s horrified to discover his native workers are being picked off one by one by a pair of man-eating Lions. Ill-equipped to deal with the almost supernaturally deadly lions, he enlists the aid of a famed American hunter (Michael Douglas) with a tortured past.

THE HISTORY: If you’ve read William Goldman’s second volume of memoirs, “Which Lie Did I Tell?” you’ll note that the esteemed writer of Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid and The Sting is not entirely pleased with the finished version of The Ghost and the Darkness. This was his passion project, basing it on the real Tsavo Man-Eaters, who are on display at the Museum of Natural History in Chicago. He wound up having a lot of grievances against the finished film, but the big sticking point is the casting of Michael Douglas as Remington, the hunter. As they went into production, Douglas was already involved in the film as a producer, and they tried to get Sean Connery or Anthony Hopkins to take the part, only for Douglas to step in out of necessity. However, once he was cast, the part had to be beefed up, and Douglas apparently insisted on rewrites that Goldman thinks ruined the film.

“Michael decided to play the part himself. My initial reaction was delight. He is a major star, he gave the movie all the weight it would need. He also ensured against any catastrophe that the movie would get made. More than that, I knew the script was protected because I had spent hours and days with him going over it and I knew he understood what the strengths were. But shit, as we all know, has a way of happening.” – William Goldman, ‘Which Lie Did I Tell: More Adventures in the Screen Trade’

His original script may well have been a masterpiece, and the movie probably would have been better with Connery. But, the fact is the finished film is pretty damn good, and even Goldman’s feelings on the film have improved in recent years, with him recently admitting that director Stephen Hopkins did a great job. While mostly treated as a footnote in Douglas’s career, I’ve noticed that The Ghost and the Darkness has a lot of fans over the years, most of whom, I presume, are like me, having seen the film in theaters as a fourteen-year-old, who found the idea of Douglas and Kilmer hunting lions in Africa pretty damn exciting.

In 1996, this was considered a prestige movie, even getting a late fall release. It wound up bombing both financially and critically, with the late Kilmer getting a much undeserved Razzie nomination for his performance thanks to a controversial Irish accent (although it did get one Oscar nod – for best sound editing). I believe it wound up earning a profit with the foreign gross. Still, it was bad enough that for the next few years, Douglas stuck pretty close to type, mainly playing harassed businessmen, until really shaking things up in 2000 with the one-two combo of Wonder Boys and Traffic.

The Ghost and the Darkness: The Best Val Kilmer Movie You Never Saw

WHY IT’S GREAT: There’s something about the old-fashioned pageantry of The Ghost and the Darkness that just appeals to me. A kind-of “Out of Africa meets Jaws”, there’s no way a movie like this would be made on the same scale nowadays as it was in the nineties. At the time, Michael Douglas was one of the biggest stars in the world, and Val Kilmer was coming off Batman Forever and some other great roles, so the studio probably thought they had a huge hit on their hands. While it didn’t do very well at the box office, it’s developed an appreciative following over the years, and it’s a damn exciting, grounded thriller with amazing sound design and an incredible score by Jerry Goldsmith, one of my all-time favorite composers.

“Michael wanted the audience moved when Remington died. That’s what I think was at the heart of the changes. And the best way to do that was to win sympathy for Remington. What he succeeded in doing was destroying him.” – William Goldman, ‘Which Lie Did I Tell: More Adventures in the Screen Trade’

To be fair to Goldman, he has a point about Remington’s story being too prominent. While Douglas is off-screen until the second half, and used sparingly, there’s a scene that’s just as bad as Goldman says it is – which is when some clunky exposition reveals he lost his family in The Civil War. It humanizes a character that should have been mysterious and larger-than-life and probably would have stayed that way if Connery or Hopkins had played him.

Even still, the movie is magnificently shot and edited, with terrific action scenes, and a fun “high adventure” vibe throughout. I love these kinds of old-fashioned adventure films, and the supporting cast is full of character actors who went on to become big names, like Emily Mortimer as Kilmer’s wife, Tom Wilkinson as his boss, and Lord of the Rings’s Bernard Hill as the requisite cynical safari doctor. John Kani, who showed up as Black Panther’s doomed father in Captain America: Civil War, also steals scenes as the cynical African foreman who sticks around once the lions start turning his workers into lunch.

“I also think the time was wrong. Not the time of year when it was released, I mean the time for lions. In our long history, perhaps no other animal has had such graph changes. From being vermin to being gods. Now is a cutie-pie stage. BORN FREE and THE LION KING. I don’t think the audience wanted much to hear about these two monsters that shredded so many lives.” – William Goldman, ‘Which Lie Did I Tell: More Adventures in the Screen Trade’

PARTING SHOT: I get pretty nostalgic for movies like The Ghost and the Darkness because I can remember a time when big-tentpole movies weren’t solely the domain of superhero sagas and sequels. In the era of Sherry Lansing, Paramount was one of the last hold-outs to keep making old-fashioned star-driven entertainment, and I kinda wish people like her were still around calling the shots.

Originally published at https://www.joblo.com/the-best-movie-you-never-saw-the-ghost-and-the-darkness-333/