PLOT: Wes Anderson directs an all-star collection of short films based on the work of Roald Dahl.

REVIEW: What exactly is Wes Anderson’s The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar? When the famed director was first linked with this Netflix adaptation, everyone assumed he would be making a feature, but that’s not what this is. It’s one of four short Roald Dahl shorts Anderson has dropped on Netflix, which, taken together, roughly add up to perhaps a 70-minute (or so) anthology film.

It’s a fun experiment for Anderson and, surprisingly, perhaps his most successful work since The Grand Budapest Hotel. The centrepiece of this loose quadrilogy of shorts is The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar itself, which runs about forty minutes and teams the director with Ben Kingsley, Benedict Cumberbatch, Richard Ayode and Dev Patel for the first time (all of whom play dual roles).

Like a lot of Anderson’s films, the movie is framed as a story within a story, with Ralph Fiennes playing a dry version of Dahl himself, who narrates the story of Henry Sugar (Cumberbatch), an aloof bachelor who discovers a story about two Indian physicians (Dev Patel & Richard Ayoade), who investigate a man (Ben Kingsley) who says he can see without his eyes.

Structurally, the film is similar to Asteroid City, with some of the story being shot cinematically, like a feature. By contrast, a lengthy tale about Kingsley’s Imdad Khan encountering a yogi from whom he learns his skill is shot like a stage play, with stage hands bringing in props.

In true Anderson fashion, the film is cast to perfection, with Cumberbatch, Patel and Kingsley dominating and delivering pages and pages of dialogue in monologue/narration. Amazingly, Anderson never worked with them before, as they fit perfectly into Anderson’s world. Despite the scant running time, Anderson’s themes come through powerfully, with the titular Sugar wanting to learn Khan’s seeing technique to cheat at cards. Initially a scoundrel, as usual in Anderson’s work, Sugar does indeed become a better man, but, it comes at a high cost.

By comparison, the other films, which are available to stream separately on the service, are smaller in scale, but they’re all interesting in their own way. First up is The Swan, which features Rupert Friend, fresh from stealing scenes in Asteroid City. He plays the narrator, who tells the story of young Peter Watson (Asa Jennings), who is tormented by two idiotic bullies. Here’s what makes the tale really interesting: you never see the bullies. In fact, there is no dialogue spoken at all, only narration, with Friend voicing everyone’s roles as Jennings reacts. Sound confusing? Well, you need to see it for yourself. It’s very strange but very cool, and Friend gets to deliver a tour de force performance.

The Rat Catcher centers around Ralph Fiennes, not playing Dahl this time, but rather the gross titular character, who tells two local fellows (a returning Ayode – who narrates – and Friend) about how he plays to catch his prey. The twist here? You never see the rats. Fiennes pantomimes their presence until, later, they’re revealed in stop-motion form.

And finally there’s Poison, in which Benedict Cumberbatch plays a man with a deadly snake sitting on him, ready to bite him, as Patel and Kingsley try to save him. All four stories are beautifully done adaptations, with them at once reverent to Dahl’s work but also winking at the author’s irascibility, punctuated by moments of Fiennes, as the author, reading his stories in his cluttered office.

Between this collection and The Fantastic Mr. Fox, Anderson has brought the author’s stories to life magnificently. The Henry Sugar collection was all shot with a tiny cast of only a half-dozen actors, most new to Anderson’s films and minimalistic sets. Unlike most of his work, these films don’t have musical scores (or any music at all), and the minimalism is a nice contrast to the more lavish Asteroid City, which got carried away (a bit) in its technique. The Dahl films are altogether different. While they can’t be classified as full-on films or even a limited series, they are lovely little pieces of Anderson’s imagination and likely movies I’ll be returning to regularly.

All four short films are now streaming on Netflix.

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The sound design of Saw X — particularly the eye vacuum scene — is so intense that one editor had the police sent over.

As Saw X proves to be a surprising critical hit – it currently holds an 87% on Rotten Tomatoes, marking the first “fresh” Saw ever – one has to imagine that a lot of work went into making this installment a real showstopper. And while the traps are some of the most interesting in the series, they wouldn’t be nearly as effective without the sound design. And that’s just what one member of the editing team perfected – so much so that the cops were called on him.

According to Saw X director Kevin Greutert (speaking with NME), first assistant editor Steve Forn was working on the sound design when he got a visit from the local police…and they were not interested in playing a game. “There was a knock at the door…We have the doorbell [camera] video of the police walking up, [Forn answering the door] and the police saying, ‘The neighbours [have been] calling and saying someone’s being tortured to death in here.’ And he was like, ‘Actually, I’m just working on a movie… You can come in and see it if you want?’ The cops started laughing! They said, ‘We want to but, you know, you’re all right.’ It must have been a pretty realistic performance!” As it turns out, the Saw X clip Forn was working on was the eye vacuum trap, a version of which has been used in much of the movie’s publicity.

Saw X has been tracking to pull in anywhere between $15-20 million in its opening weekend, which would put it on the lower end of the franchise’s hauls. But considering its critical success, it might even out for the filmmakers in terms of celebration. Interestingly, Kevin Greutert also directed Saw 3D (aka Saw: The Final Chapter), which is the lowest-rated movie of the series on Rotten Tomatoes at just 9%. Saw X is also the only movie in the franchise outside of Spiral that hasn’t been released in October. Saw X serves as a direct sequel to the original movie.

Have you had a chance to see Saw X on the big screen yet? How do you think the traps compare to those in previous entries?

John Carney’s Flora and Son is another music driven charmer, with Eve Hewson and Joseph Gordon-Levitt at their most appealing.

PLOT: Flora (Eve Hewson) is a hard-partying young mother living in Dublin with her teenage son, Max (Orén Kinlan). He’s a would-be delinquent constantly in trouble with the cops, while her ex (Jack Reynor) is a well-meaning but unreliable flake. When she finds a guitar in the trash, she decides, spur of the moment, to take online guitar lessons. Her teacher (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) turns out to be kind-hearted and sympathetic, and soon she discovers that music could be a way that finally allows her to reach her son.

REVIEW: When it comes to making movies about the healing power of music, there’s simply no one better than John Carney. He’s directed a couple of classics: Once, Begin Again, and Sing Street. Flora and Son is very much in the mode of those other films, telling a profane, hilarious, and touching story about how even the most troubled relationships can be salvaged when you find common ground.

Eve Hewson’s Flora is a terrific role for the rising actress, who impressed me a few years ago on Cinemax’s The Knick. She’s portrayed as a hellraiser, with her a hard-drinking party girl whose ways haven’t been changed because she’s now essentially a single mother. Her son, Max, seems to despise her, but she acknowledges that she’s never really been there for him – although now that he’s a teenager, his rebellious ways are catching up with him. He’s on the verge of being sent to reform school, so she buys him a guitar in a last-ditch attempt to find him a creative outlet. He rejects her gift, so Flora opts to learn the guitar herself, more as a way of sticking it to him and his bass-playing, wannabe pop star father (Jack Reynor), only to discover she actually has some talent.

The role allows Hewson to be funny and vulnerable in equal measures, and she has a good singing voice (perhaps not a surprise as her father, as literally every article about her will note, happens to be Bono). She’s wonderful in the role, and so is Orén Kinlan as her son, who starts the film as a brat but becomes more nuanced as the film continues. Kinlan, as per usual in a Carney movie, is a talented musician, with his character shown to be an aspiring electronic music composer and rapper. This allows Carney to branch out into different forms of music than we’ve seen from his films previously, and the final track had the Sundance audience clapping along with its chorus – something I’ve never seen here before.

Another recurring theme in Carney’s movies is how not all relationships have to end with a happily ever after to have a positive influence on someone’s life. In Once and Begin Again, the two leads come in and out of each other’s lives, with hints of romance, only for the two to not end up together, even if they make each other’s lives better through their interactions. Flora and Son has the same type of relationship at its core, with Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s guitar teacher living in Los Angeles and Flora living in Dublin. They both have commitments and can’t drop everything to be together, and their relationship is emotional and takes place entirely over Zoom. The way Carney keeps this from being visually stagnant is that Flora imagines her hunky teacher is sitting next to her, putting the two in the same space. The style portrays their emotional closeness rather than how close they are physically, and Levitt is at his most appealing as the romantic, kindly teacher.

Jack Reynor, who was showcased to great effect in Sing Street, also has a good part as Flora’s irresponsible ex. In another movie, he would be portrayed as a monster, but he means well here. He and Flora can’t get along, but you get the sense that he cares for his son (and even Flora) in his own way. His dreams of pop stardom are evoked through a funny video he shot for his band in the mid-2000s, with him a wannabe Chris Martin, whose biggest claim to fame is once being on the same bill as Snow Patrol.

One really has to give Carney a lot of credit, as he typically stays in one genre (the music-driven romance/comedy), but he does so brilliantly. Nobody makes movies like he does, and each of his films feel like a gift. Flora and Son is no exception. Flora and Son is now streaming on Apple TV+.

9

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We take a look back at the infamous 1985 adaptation of Red Sonja starring Brigitte Nielsen and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

In the early eighties, Arnold Schwarzenegger had become a star through his role in Conan the Barbarian. Following a critically maligned but successful sequel, Conan the Destroyer, Schwarzenegger sought to move into more contemporary roles. His contract with producer Dino De Laurentis was ending, but the legendary mogul wanted to use Schwarzenegger’s star power to launch another adaption of Robert E. Howard’s work – Red Sonja. The resulting film was a star vehicle for Brigitte Nielsen, who some saw as a potential female action icon, and Schwarzenegger, due to his contract with De Laurentis, had no choice but to appear in a critical supporting role (for which he would be top-billed) opposite Nielsen, who played the titular character.

Directed by Richard Fleischer, who had also directed Conan the Destroyer, Red Sonja, with its $6.9 million gross, ranks as the least successful film Schwarzenegger made during his heyday, with even his wife, Maria Shriver, warning him that the film could have killed his career. Later, Schwarzenegger would say the movie was so bad that if his kids were misbehaving, he’d force them to watch the movie. While widely despised by Arnold fans, Red Sonja is interesting as perhaps the only major female-dominated fantasy film of the eighties.

With a reboot of the character on the way from Solomon Kane director M.J Bassett, a Robert E. Howard expert, if ever there was one, we’ve decided to give the film a reppraisal on this episode of Fantasizing About Fantasy Films. Written and narrated by Jessica Dwyer, and edited by Bill Mazzola, we dig into whether Red Sonja has any redeeming features and whether or not Arnie is right to be ashamed of it. Do you think Red Sonja deserves all the hate? Let us know in the comments!

Jigsaw was no match for animated puppies as Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie took first place while Saw X saw a solid second place debut.

Two new releases and one wide expansion were no match for the animated puppies of Paw Patrol as their newest movie Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie easily snagged first place with $23 million. That number represents a nearly $10 million increase over the $13.1 million earned by 2021’s Paw Patrol: The Movie in its debut. It would seem this sequel has earned its mighty moniker.

The film has garnered some solid critical reviews with the consensus being that this movie is a great way to introduce younger audiences to the big screen experience while the parents of those younger audience members took to the internet to propel the film to a solid 94% audience score and a great A cinemascore. With no family films hitting screens until November 17 when Trolls Band Together opens, you can expect this one to have decent legs, although I don’t expect it to play as well as other recent animated hits as I think Paw Patrol has a bit more of a limited audience appeal than things like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Super Mario Bros. 

Coming in second place is the best reviewed new movie of the week… Saw X! That’s right, the tenth Saw film has officially become the first film in the franchise to receive majority positive reviews (including a 7/10 from our own Tyler Nichols) with a Rotten Tomatoes score that is nearly 80% better than the worst reviewed movie of the franchise (the 9% earned by Saw: The Final Chapter). With an awards worthy performance by franchise mainstay (despite being killed off in the third movie) Tobin Bell, Saw X was able to secure a solid $18 million debut. Despite that number being a bit softer than the first batch of movies (Saw’s 2-5 all opened with over $30 million with Saw III having the best opening of the franchise at $33.6 million. Part VI started to see diminishing returns for the franchise with the last Saw adjacent film 2021’s Spiral: From The Book of Saw opening with a franchise worst $8.7 million, although that one opened at a time when people weren’t rushing out to theaters due to a global pandemic), it is actually a really solid opening number for a film that reportedly cost just $13 million. 

Third place belongs to Gareth Edwards’ The Creator with an estimated $14 million. Reviews for the John David Washington fronted film have ranged from calling it a modern sci-fi classic (including the 8/10 review from Chris Bumbray) to a visually stunning film that lacks any depth. That’s where I fall with this one, it is a very well made movie, tremendous to look at, it just did not hold my attention at all. Audiences seem to be just as split as they have given it a mediocre 77% audience score with a slightly better B+ cinemascore. With a reported $80 million budget, this movie needed to have a better opening plain and simple. With some big titles coming up, you can expect The Creator to fizzle out at the domestic box office. All eyes will be on international numbers to see if this title can be saved from financial ruin. I will say though, despite not being a big fan of this film, it is a genuine shame whenever a piece of original filmmaking like this doesn’t catch on with audiences, it sends the wrong message to the studios.

Rounding out the top five is the fourth week of The Nun II with an estimated $4.6 million added to its solid running domestic total of $76.7 million. With The Exorcist: Believer opening next week there will be some competition for this Conjuring Universe film, but with a solid month before Halloween this one still has a decent shot at hitting the magical $100 million mark. Coming in fifth is the new faith based film The Blind with a reported $4.1 million. The film tells the story of Duck Dynasty patriarch Phil Robertson and how his faith helped him in his life. Faith based films have their dedicated audiences who generally show up any time a movie geared towards them hits screens and with a current 99% audience score this one may have some decent legs in the weeks to come. 

Coming in under A Haunting in Venice’s $3.8 million weekend is the wide expansion of Dumb Money with just $3.5 million. The story of the recent Game Stop Stock Market phenomenon had a slow roll out over the past few weeks where it amassed decent numbers, however it seems the film just didn’t have the crossover appeal needed to propel this one into a surprise hit. For me, this movie will go down as one of my favorites of the year as it gives a detailed look at something we had all heard about but perhaps didn’t fully comprehend when it was happening (although I wish I did, because I could have made a lot of money!) Sadly, with a reported $30 million budget, this is another movie that needed to garner stronger numbers to ultimately be successful. This one will definitely play better once it hits home video as it doesn’t scream “big screen experience” but I recommend keeping an eye out for it, because it is worthy of your time.

Eighth place belongs to the other Washington fronted movie as John David’s father, Denzel, heads up The Equalizer 3 which saw a fifth weekend of $2.7 million added to its over $85 million domestic take. With the film tapering off and the October marketplace being pretty packed, I’m not sure this one has the momentum to get to that magical $100 million mark, but it is still a respectable finish to the highly entertaining franchise. 

A franchise that doesn’t seem to have gone out with respectable numbers is The Expendables as the fourth and presumed final installment in the series: Expend4bles garnered just $2.4 million in its second week, representing a horrific 69% decline from its opening weekend and only a $13.2 million domestic total off a reported $100 million budget. 

Last but certainly not least is Barbie which likely sees her final week in the top ten after nearly three months with a weekend take of $1.4 million and a domestic total of $633 million. The movie wasn’t just a hit, it was a phenomenon and you can expect the chatter to only ramp up as awards season gets into full swing in the coming months.

Did you make it out to theaters this weekend? If so, what did you see? Let us know in the comments and don’t forget to check out our weekly poll where we ask: What is your most anticipated movie coming out in October 2023?

Blumhouse wants to bring Friday the 13th — which hasn’t had a movie in well over a decade — back to the big screen.

The dispute over ownership of the Friday the 13th is one of the most storied in horror movie history. And while things have settled over the last few years, there’s another studio that wants in on the action. Blumhouse — the studio behind the new Halloween trilogy and this month’s The Exorcist sequel Believer — is interested in making Friday the 13th the focus of their next big project.

Speaking with Inverse, Blumhouse producer Ryan Turek said that Friday the 13th is definitely in the studio’s crosshairs (perhaps via a speargun?). “Jason [Blum] and I are definitely in agreement that Friday the 13th is the thing we would love to get our hands on. I really want to go back to the basics. You don’t need too many ingredients for a Friday the 13th film. You need summer camp, you need campers, and you need Jason Vorhees in a mask.” Jason Blum has previously expressed interest in acquiring rights to Friday the 13th.

As for the level of excitement at Blumhouse over the potential to resurrect the Friday the 13th franchise, he added, “Listen, I’ve gone on the record saying Halloween is the ultimate slasher film for me. That’s my favorite slasher film of all time. But Friday the 13th as a franchise is one that I just bow down to. I just love everything about it. And if we were able to live in both worlds, like we do with Halloween, then to be able to live at Crystal Lake for a while would be so incredible.”

There hasn’t been a new Friday the 13th movie since the awful 2009 reboot. And while a Friday the 13th TV series (no, not *that* one) is planned, with original final girl Adrienne King set for a recurring role, it really does feel like something Blumhouse may as well tackle. After all, before it went completely off the rails, David Gordon Green’s Halloween movies were looking like proper continuations of the stories and characters. And soon fans will need more Jason Voorhees, as Gun Media’s Friday the 13th video game’s own license will expire this year.

What do you think? Would Friday the 13th be a good property for Blumhouse to tackle next?

Arrow in the Head’s October Horror Movie Preview looks ahead to releases like The Exorcist: Believer, Totally Killer, and more

The spookiest month of the year has official begun! This year, October has a Friday the 13th to add to the usual Halloween Horror Fest, making this an extra special month for horror fans. Sure enough, the month is jam-packed with loads of horror movies that will be coming out theatrical and on streaming. With Saw X and The Nun in theaters now, here’s our definitive October Horror Movie Preview, packed with spooky movies you can check out all month long!

TOTALLY KILLER – Streaming, October 6

Coming to the Prime Video streaming service is director Nahnatchka Khan’s time travel slasher Totally Killer, which stars Kiernan Shipka as a modern day heroine who travels back in time to 1987 so she and a teenage version of her mom (played by Olivia Holt) can take down a masked maniac called the Sweet Sixteen Killer. Time travel + slashing + ’80s setting = high hopes for this one.

PET SEMATARY: BLOODLINES – Streaming, October 6

Directed by Lindsey Anderson Beer from a screenplay she wrote with Jeff Buhler (who was also a writer on the 2019 version of Pet Sematary), this prequel will take viewers back to 1969 so we can watch a young version of the character Jud Crandall (played here by Jackson White) discover sinister secrets and confront dark family history. White’s co-stars include Henry Thomas, Samantha Mathis, David Duchovny, and the legendary Pam Grier. Pet Sematary: Bloodlines will be streaming on the Paramount+ service.

V/H/S/85 – Streaming, October 6

The anthology franchise continues with V/H/S/85, which will be released through the Shudder streaming service, just like the last two entries (V/H/S/94 and V/H/S/99). The directors bringing us found footage horror this time around are David Bruckner (Hellraiser 2022), Scott Derrickson (The Black Phone), Gigi Saul Guerrero (Bingo Hell), Natasha Kermani (Lucky), and Mike P. Nelson (the Wrong Turn reboot). V/H/S/85 is the sixth V/H/S movie, but if you factor in the spin-offs SiREN (which was based on a segment from the first movie) and Kids vs. Aliens (based on a segment from the second V/H/S), it’s the eighth installment in the overall franchise. Or what one might call the “V/H/S Cinematic Universe”.

THE EXORCIST: BELIEVER – Theatrical, October 6

Universal and Peacock forked over an amount somewhere in the range of $400 million to acquire the rights to distribute a new trilogy of The Exorcist sequels from Blumhouse Productions, Morgan Creek Entertainment, and director David Gordon Green (who previously directed a trilogy of Halloween sequels). In October, we’ll find out if that was a wise investment. Indeed. the film was supposed to open on Friday the 13th, only to move at the eleventh hour when it was announced Taylor Swift’s concert film would be opening the same day. The Exorcist: Believer stars Leslie Odom Jr. as a man who seeks the help of original The Exorcist character Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn reprises the role) when his daughter and her friend are possessed.

DEAR DAVID – Theaters, VOD, and Digital, October 13

Battling The Exorcist: Believer for Friday the 13th box office will be Dear David, based on a ghost story that went viral when BuzzFeed writer Adam Ellis wrote it out on Twitter in 2017. Augustus Prew plays Ellis, who becomes haunted by the ghost of a dead child named David. The film is directed by John McPhail, who previously brought us the awesome, Christmas-set zombie outbreak musical Anna and the Apocalypse.

DARK HARVEST – One Day Theatrical on October 11th, Digital on October 13

This Friday the 13th release sees the return of director David Slade (Hard Candy, 30 Days of Night) to the big screen horror game, being an adaptation of the novel by Norman Partridge. Here’s the synopsis: “In a cursed town, the annual harvest becomes a brutal battle for survival. On Halloween 1963, Sawtooth Jack, a terrifying legend, rises from the cornfields, threatening the town’s children. Groups of boys unite to defeat the murderous scarecrow before midnight. Richie, a rebellious outcast, joins the run, motivated by his brother’s previous victory. As the hunt progresses, Richie makes a shocking discovery and faces a pivotal choice to break the relentless cycle.”

FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY’S – Theatrical and Streaming, October 27

A long-awaited feature adaptation of the popular video game franchise, Five Nights at Freddy’s will be streaming on the Peacock service the same day it reaches theatres. Directed by Emma Tammi, the film stars Josh Hutcherson and Matthew Lillard in the story of a troubled security guard who finds himself battling maniacal animatronic creatures in Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, a darker version of Chuck E. Cheese.

SUITABLE FLESH – Theaters and Everywhere You Rent Movies, October 27

Brian Yuzna, Barbara Crampton, and Dennis Paoli worked with the late Stuart Gordon on some of the most popular H.P. Lovecraft adaptations ever made. Now they have teamed up with director Joe Lynch on a new Lovecraft movie that’s described as an “erotic body-swapping horror”. Suitable Flesh stars Heather Graham as a psychiatrist whose obsession with helping a patient leads her into dark occult danger.

November Bonus: THANKSGIVING – Theatrical, November 17

Sixteen years after director Eli Roth contributed the faux slasher trailer Thanksgiving to the Robert Rodriguez / Quentin Tarantino double feature Grindhouse, he’s finally bringing us a feature expansion of the concept. Patrick Dempsey, Addison Rae, and Gina Gershon are among the cast members who will be in danger of a slasher who terrorizes a small Massachusetts town during the Thanksgiving festivities. While this definitely isn’t an October release, it’s certainly a movie people will be buzzing about all month long, as a fresh horror movie from Eli Roth is always an event.

So, what do you think of this Fall Horror Movie Preview? How many of these movies will you be watching? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

Crossroads, which starred a Razzie-winning Britney Spears, will be in theaters at the same time as Taylor Swift’s concert movie.

Britney Spears isn’t about to be outdone by Taylor Swift again, as her 2002 flick Crossroads is returning to theaters. OK, we have to admit here and now that she will once again be outdone by Taylor Swift…

While 2023 might seem like an odd choice for a re-release of Crossroads – 21st anniversaries aren’t typically celebrated on the big screen… – it is meant to coincide with the release of Britney Spears’ upcoming memoir, “The Woman in Me”. But this re-release of Crossroads, which will play on October 23rd and 25th, will also have it in theaters at the same time as Taylor Swift shakes it off with her Eras Tour concert movie, due out on October 13th. But will Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour have two bonus sing-alongs like Crossroads? We don’t think so!

Of course, the showdown between Britney Spears – who we hope is on the rebound – and Taylor Swift will be virtually nonexistent, as early predictions pegged The Eras Tour to make over $100 million on opening weekend. Those are the kind of numbers that shift release calendars completely, as it has been reported that movies ranging from The Exorcist: Believer to John Cena action-comedy Freelance to Martin Scorsese’s Oscar contender Killers of the Flower Moon have all changed release dates due to the concert movie. Crossroads will be offered in less than 900 theaters.

Speaking on Crossroads, director Tamra Davis said, “I recently rewatched Crossroads and was so enthralled with the time capsule of nostalgia that this incredible ensemble cast brings to the screen. Britney is absolutely breathtaking to watch, and Shonda is showing us her early expertise in writing complicated female characters.”

Widely panned upon release, the Britney Spears vehicle Crossroads would earn the most Razzie nominations for its year with eight: Worst Picture, Worst Director, Worst Actress, Worst Screenplay, Worst Screen Couple (Spears and Anson Mount), two for Worst Original Song, and Most Flatulent Teen-Targeted Movie, whatever that means. Spears would “win” Worst Actress (tying with Madonna in “Swept Away”), while “I’m Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman” took home Worst Song.

How do you think Crossroads will fare in its limited re-release? How much money do you think Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour concert movie will make?

Peacock says Bumper in Berlin is canceled after one season despite being renewed for another batch of episodes.

The Pitch Perfect spin-off, Bumper in Berlin, is getting bumped off. According to Deadline, Peacock is not moving forward with the sophomore season of the musical comedy series. Previously, the network renewed Pitch Perfect: Bumper in Berlin for a second season in early January. Unfortunately, Pitch Perfect: Bumper in Berlin is another victim of the ongoing WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. The fight for better representation, pay, and safety in the entertainment space is delaying productions across a broad spectrum, and Bumper in Berlin is getting swept up in the fallout.

While Pitch Perfect: Bumper in Berlin is canceled, Universal says Pitch Perfect is still an essential part of its IP library. The franchise’s Elizabeth Banks continues developing projects with the studio, and Bumper in Berlin showrunner Megan Amram still has an overall deal with Universal Television.

Written and showrun by Megan Amram, Pitch Perfect: Bumper in Berlin follows Devine’s character, who moves to Berlin after learning he’s a hit in the land of quality beer, lederhosen, and courageous pornography. Throughout his journey, Bumper makes new friends, acquires a new rival, and discovers that fame and fortune don’t happen without much heart and hard work.

Joining Devine in the Pitch Perfect: Bumper in Berlin trailer are Sarah Hyland (Modern Family, Shadowhunters), Flula Borg (Saturday Night Live, The Suicide Squad), Jameela Jamil (The Good Place, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law), and Lera Abova (Anna, Good Side of a Bad Man).

“To think this journey began over 15 years ago – from the discovery of Mickey Rapkin’s book, to three incredible films, and now a television series. We could never have imagined the life that this story would take on. It was really important to us that ‘Bumper in Berlin’ be recognizable to the fans, for its irreverent comedy and phenomenal music, but also entirely distinct from what you’ve seen before. We wanted to honor The Barden Bellas and the ‘Pitch Perfect’ world, while expanding into a fresh and brilliantly weird character journey,” executive producer Elizabeth Banks said when Peacock announced the show. “This story is about second chances, friendship and the idea that your dreams can come true in unexpected ways – anywhere in the world, at any point in your life. When we brought Megan Amram on board, it was clear she shared that vision and brought the whole Berliner world and characters to life in a way that only Megan could.”

“With Bumper in Berlin, the other producers and I decided we wanted to expand the world of ‘Pitch Perfect’ into something recognizable yet unique. We wanted to keep what made the movies special but create a new world that felt completely original,” Amram remarked about bringing Bumper to the small screen.

Pitch Perfect: Bumper in Berlin likely won’t be the only show getting canceled despite getting a second-season renewal as negotiations between the WGA, SAG-AFTRA, and AMPTP continue. With talks happening today, our fingers are officially crossed for a swift and fair resolution.