Sony’s latest live-action Spider-Verse movie, Kraven the Hunter, is unlikely to top the box office this weekend.
This weekend sees the release of Sony’s final (?) live-action instalment of their extended Spider-Verse franchise focused around Spider-Man’s rogues gallery. While the Venom trilogy did good business, Morbius and Madame Web were all-out disasters, and their poisonous reception will likely keep Kraven the Hunter from making much of a dent at the box office this weekend. The knives have been out for this one for some time now, and even if the movie got good reviews, it would still have had an uphill climb at the box office. As it is, the reviews have been poor (including ours), so I’m not expecting this to make more than $15 million this weekend, which should keep it from either of the top two spots, which will undoubtedly go to holdovers Moana 2 and Wicked.
As Moana 2 had a steeper decline at the box office last weekend than I anticipated, I’m thinking this weekend it should make about $25 million. Wicked, which is now riding a wave of awards buzz (it garnered a lot of Golden Globe and Critics Choice nominations) should come in second place with about $20 million. Expect Kraven the Hunter in third place with $15 million. Gladiator II should be right behind it with about $7 million
The weekend’s other new release is the animated Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, which might manage to crack the top 5 with about $5 million – if it can beat Red One (although given the fact that it’s now streaming on Prime Video – it might start to decline at the box office). Another possibility is that the re-release of Interstellar might be able to crack the top five, as it’s selling out pretty much everywhere. It might be playing on too few screens to make the top five, but it would be quite an achievement if it did.
My predictions:
Moana 2: $25 million
Wicked: $20 million
Kraven the Hunter: $15 million
Gladiator II: $7 million
Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim: $5 million
Are you going to give Kraven the Hunter a shot this weekend? Let us know in the comments.
Novocaine directors Dan Berk and Robert Olsen join us for an in-depth interview about their latest off-the-wall action comedy blowout.
Last Updated on December 13, 2024
Action movies are a dime-a-dozen. Still, now and again, filmmakers go above and beyond the call of duty to bring something fresh to the genre. In Novocaine, when the girl of his dreams (Amber Midthunder) is kidnapped, everyman Nate (Jack Quaid) turns his inability to feel pain into an unexpected strength in his fight to get her back.
For a concept this outlandish, we needed to speak with the film’s directors, Dan Berk and Robert Olsen, who, in their talk with us, shared the details of their approach to making an off-the-wall action film featuring a disabled protagonist who turns his condition into a superpower. The following interview explains how the duo navigates Nathan’s rare condition, how Leigh Whannell’s Upgrade inspired aspects of the film, and how the limits of the film’s violence are kept in check.
JoBlo: The premise for Novocaine is really off the wall. I’d like to hear your thoughts about your first response to the screenplay. How did you know this was going to be your next project?
Dan Berk & Robert Olsen: When we read the original draft of the screenplay, it had a different tone than what we had wound up with. But that idea just stuck with us, you know. We’re sent a lot of scripts, and a lot of times, there’ll be something wrong with them, and you’re always going to have to fix something. You’re just looking for that one golden nugget. Does this have the seed of an idea that can turn into something? This one really did. The concept of a normal person who can’t feel pain going on a journey like this. That felt like it was an easily communicated idea because there’s so much shit flying at everybody all the time. There are so many new shows and movies coming out. So, you need something that’s going to stick out a little bit. People often use the term “sticky concept.” That’s what you’re looking for when you’re trying to find a project that you think might be successful. You’re going to want a concept people won’t stop talking about, and our brains immediately lit up with all of these set pieces that weren’t in that original draft that we incorporated when we took our pass.
JoBlo: There’s a particular energy to the concept and trailer. Aspects of Novocaine remind me of Leigh Whannell’s Upgrade.
Dan Berk & Robert Olsen: Oh, yeah. Upgrade was definitely one of our references. That’s a great example of a “sticky concept” movie. There’s a fight scene in Upgrade where the character fights goons in his apartment, and the fight extends to the kitchen. You see his body and mind fighting with one another. His body is fighting back, but his face is apologetic. It’s a funny juxtaposition you can see in every fight scene. What makes Novocaine unique is that the action scenes don’t feel like John Wick, where your protagonist is kicking everybody’s ass the whole time. Nova is getting his ass kicked for the majority of the fight until he figures out some way to win.
There are a lot of movies featuring a gardener who’s actually a former CIA agent, and they’ve got these crazy assassination skills locked away. For us to engage and dedicate two years of our lives to a concept, it needs to stand out from the pack and do something for the genre that takes it in a different direction. We wanted to make something funny but action-packed. Finding that balance is part of the fun. Lethal Weapon is a good example of a balanced comedic action film. It’s funny, but there’s also drama and actual stakes. There’s also romance, but it’s not the foundation of either film. With Novocaine, we want you to invest in the relationship on-screen.
JoBlo: The concept of an action hero who can’t feel pain introduces a near-limitless amount of opportunities for outlandish exploits. Did you feel a creative rush while shooting Novocaine‘s elaborate set pieces?
Dan Berk & Robert Olsen: Yes, definitely. We even felt a rush filming the dialogue scenes. Once we started seeing dailies from our fight scenes, we were like, okay, fuck yeah! When you’re filming a comedic fight scene and making the crew laugh, that’s how you know it will hit. The crew is often the toughest audience.
In the trailer, there’s a scene of Nathan being tortured, and everyone was laughing. Jack [Quaid] is so incredible. We knew early on that we had something that would blow audiences away. It does take someone like Jack to carry that tone. The concept is cool, but you still need an actor who can carry the weight of comedy and drama. Because our character can’t feel pain, Jack has to relearn how to take a punch. When you get hit, you wince because of the pain. In Nathan’s case, he’s getting hit but can’t feel it. How do you get hit and not react? It’s a difficult line to walk, physically and visually. Sometimes, we’d be filming, and Jack would say, “I think that looked like I was in pain. Let’s go again,” and he’d give us different versions of the scene. It was a huge rush to see all that come together.
JoBlo:It’s a thin line to walk for sure. Did you research Jack’s condition, CIPA (Congenital Insensitivity to Pain with Anhidrosis), during filming?
Dan Berk & Robert Olsen: Yeah, it’s a fascinating medical condition. There are obviously liberties taken with the condition in Novocaine, as it’s very debilitating. Anyone who knows about people with that condition would say that what we’re doing goes beyond the ability of someone in that situation. At the same time, it’s a movie. We wanted to tell a story about this disability, but also someone who learns to turn that condition into a weapon. Nathan has felt like a liability his whole life, but in the movie, he turns that disability into a superpower. We did test screenings, and people really responded to the idea of a character turning their disability into a superpower, and the feedback was very positive. A lot of them were happy to see someone with a disability using it to their advantage, like it was something not to be ashamed of.
JoBlo: Was there any point while making the film when you had a great idea but, upon further reflection, realized it needed to be scaled back or cut for its absurdity?
Dan Berk & Robert Olsen: Not necessarily because of its absurdity. During production, you will have set pieces that need to be scaled down for budgetary purposes. Still, it’s funny; in almost every case, we end up falling in love with the solution to the problem more than the original concept. Honestly, though, there were only so many things we had to scale down on this movie. Novocaine is like a freight train; once it starts, it doesn’t stop. If there was any scaling back, it was during the writing phase. We needed to know what type of damage Nova’s body could take. We didn’t want him to bleed out or experience brain trauma. So, he’s not just a human pincushion. You have to keep track of the damage being done so you don’t step outside the bounds of what’s believable.
In our exclusive sit-down, Aaron Taylor-Johnson explains how Kraven the Hunter is different from the usual superhero fare.
A few weeks ago, I got the opportunity to have a chat with Aaron Taylor-Johnson about his long-gestating Spider-Verse entry, Kraven the Hunter. In it, he plays the titular character Sergei Kravinoff, who becomes a global manhunter named Kraven, who, in the comics, eventually becomes one of Spider-Man’s most infamous foes. However, the Kraven we see on-screen here is distinctly heroic, with seeds being planted hinting at his eventual transformation, which I suppose is being planned for future instalments should the film perform well enough at the box office to deliver a sequel (or a role in Spider-Man 4).
One thing to note is that I hadn’t actually seen Kraven the Hunter when I interviewed Taylor-Johnson. Sony opted to show us about twenty minutes of footage, as the director, J.C. Chandor, was still working on his final cut at the time of the press day. In the interview, Johnson discussed with me how going for a hard-R rating was important, as they wanted to make this grounded and hardcore. Notably, he also called Kraven a gangster movie, with them going for that kind of vibe as their way of paving the way for Kraven to ultimately become a super-villain with whom Spider-Man can tangle. Check out the interview (embedded above) and read my review of the finished film HERE.
Strange Darling distributor has filed a lawsuit against their marketing partner, feeling the film’s box office could have been improved
Just before Halloween back in 2022, it was announced that Willa Fitzgerald and Kyle Gallner – who both have experience working in the Scream franchise, as Fitzgerald was in the Scream TV series and Gallner appeared in the 2022 Scream movie – were set to star in the “cat and mouse thriller” Strange Darling. The movie was given a theatrical release back in August, and JoBlo’s own Tyler Nichols loved it; you can read his 9/10 review at THIS LINK. It has since moved on to digital and physical media releases… but distributor Magenta Light Productions feels that it should have performed better at the box office, and believe it would have if the film had a better marketing campaign. So they have filed a lawsuit against their marketing partner, Spellbinder.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Magenta Light Productions, in a fraud and breach of contract lawsuit filed this week in Los Angeles Superior Court, is seeking at least $10 million and accuses Spellbinder of “failing to contribute its half of the $2 million marketing spend for the film. It also claims that the company kept some of the funds and bought social media followers and views on various platforms to create the appearance of a successful marketing campaign.” To find out more details, click over to The Hollywood Reporter or the lawsuit document.
Strange Darling made about $3 million during its theatrical run, on a budget of at least $4 million.
The film was written and directed by J.T. Mollner (Outlaws and Angels). Filming took place in Portland, Oregon. Former Miramax CEO Bill Block produced alongside Chris Ivan Cevic, Steven Schneider, Roy Lee, and actor Giovanni Ribisi, who also served as the director of photography.
Strange Darling will work best if viewers have as little information as possible going in. We previously heard that it has something to do with a spontaneous hookup gone terribly wrong. The official synopsis reveals that nothing is what it seems when a twisted one-night stand spirals into a serial killer’s vicious murder spree. If you’re planning to watch the movie, try not to know anything more than that about it.
Fitzgerald and Gallner were joined in the cast by Oscar nominee Barbara Hershey (The Entity) and Emmy nominee Ed Begley Jr. (Better Call Saul). According to IMDb, the cast of the film also features Madisen Beaty (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood), Bianca A. Santos (Ouija), Steven Michael Quezada (Breaking Bad), Eugenia Kuzmina (Bad Moms), Denise Grayson (The Social Network), and Duke Mollner – who happens to be the director’s father, and also had a role in Outlaws and Angels.
What do you think of Magenta Light Productions suing their marketing partner over Strange Darling‘s box office performance? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.
Warner Bros Pictures Animation is developing a new Tom and Jerry movie and have tapped Rashida Jones to co-write the script.
Deadline reports that Warner Bros Pictures Animation is developing a brand-new Tom and Jerry movie, which will be written by Rashida Jones, Will McCormack, and Micahel Govier.
William Hanna and Joseph Barbera created the mischievous cat and mouse at MGM in 1940. Over the next two decades, they produced 114 shorts that won 7 Oscars. Others have revived the duo over the years with more shorts and a variety of TV shows. The characters most recently starred in the 2021 live-action/animated hybrid film Tom & Jerry, which received largely negative reviews and grossed $136 million worldwide.
This new Tom and Jerry movie will be starting fresh, which, considering the reaction to the last movie, is probably a good thing. Our own Matt Rooney really didn’t care for the 2021 film. “The premise – Tom and Jerry run amok in a hotel – is perfect for a several-minute segment in a series of cartoons, but for the movie, it’s a stretched out, mostly aimless exercise with a bevy of uninteresting humans having the impossible task of trying to pad it all out. Even the actors themselves seem to know they’re in the way, rushing through dialogue and letting jokes evaporate into thin air so the movie can get to what the people came for – elaborate pranks and shenanigans between a cartoon cat and mouse,” Rooney wrote. “It seems nitpicky to go to town on a children’s film. But being a children’s film doesn’t give you the license to be terrible. Maybe with more innovative minds behind the scenes, this could’ve been great. A big, colorful world could’ve been created for these two classic characters to play in, but instead, they get New York on an uneventful Tuesday afternoon. My problem isn’t that it’s never funny; sometimes it can be. It’s just that when it’s not, it’s painfully dull and uninspired. Parents will get tired of the nostalgia after ten minutes, and kids will likely run to the other room when the cat and mouse aren’t on screen.” You can check out the rest of his review right here.
How do you feel about a new Tom and Jerry movie? What can it do to correct the mistakes of the last one?
Blue Bloods will be coming to an end after 14 seasons and nearly 300 episodes, but Tom Selleck doesn’t understand why.
After 14 seasons and 292 episodes, Blue Bloods will be coming to a close with its series finale tomorrow, and Tom Selleck still doesn’t understand why.
Selleck, who stars as Frank Reagan, the New York Police Department Police Commissioner, told Variety that everyone involved wanted to come back for more. “I can’t figure out why they didn’t start streaming it, do 10 episodes a year,” he said. “But I’m not the boss. Everybody wanted to come back. And I think with this cast, it would have been a gift for the audience. I don’t make those decisions. I’m prepared to celebrate and commemorate this show, but I’m still getting used to it.” 14 years and nearly 300 episodes is a hell of a run, especially nowadays, but the cast just didn’t want it to end.
In fact, Donnie Wahlberg (who plays Frank’s son) found himself getting very emotional when Selleck delivered his wrap message, a reading of Edna St. Vincent Millay’s Love Is Not All poem. “I didn’t make it through; I was doomed,” Wahlberg said. “But when Tom started saying it, literally, my life passed before my eyes. I was listening to his voice mesmerize this room and thinking about what a magical journey, and what a gift that this boy, who didn’t know where his next meal was going to come from half the time, in this scrappy family, who grew up watching this man on TV, is sitting next to him, sharing this magical moment of his wisdom and grace. I couldn’t turn off the tears for another probably two days!“
Although Selleck would love to keep going with Blue Bloods, he has no plans to retire. “I’m not retiring. I‘ve got a mortgage; I got a ranch that I love and I love the work. Look, I’m not exactly a spring chicken in the business,” he said. “I’m still adjusting. I’d like to think that somebody will think of something different. A comedy would be nice.” Of course, in TV land, nothing is truly dead, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Blue Bloods wasn’t resurrected in some form.
Jim Carrey says he would consider doing a sequel to 1994’s The Mask provided that the story actually works.
Somebody stop him! Jim Carrey has been almost exclusively tied up in the franchise world, playing the cartoonish villain Dr. Robotnik in the Sonic the Hedgehog movies. But he has rarely brought his more iconic characters into the 21st century, only reprising Lloyd Christmas for Dumb and Dumber To. But he’s not entirely against it, saying he would don The Mask one more time under the right circumstances.
While Jim Carrey has previously said he has zero interest in reprising any of his most famous characters – giving the reason that it feels more like an imitation than anything – he seems to be backtracking on that now. In addition to saying he could see himself return as The Grinch provided motion capture is used (Carrey notoriously hated the make-up process, even if it did win an Oscar), Jim Carrey said Stanley Ipkiss from The Mask could be on the table as well.
Speaking with ComicBook.com, Carrey said that if a good enough script was in front of him for The Mask 2, he might consider doing it. “Oh gosh, you know, it has to be the right idea. If somebody had the right idea, I guess…It’s not really about the money. I joke about the money…But I never know. You can’t be definite about these things. I said I’d like to retire, but I think I was talking more about power-resting. Because as soon as a good idea comes your way, or a group of people that you really enjoyed working with and stuff, it just – things tend to change.”
A sequel to The Mask might have been a lot of fun as an immediate follow-up in, say, 1996, but instead we ended up getting Son of the Mask, which I pin as one of the five worst movies ever. And that wouldn’t be the first time that a Jim Carrey sequel would suffer for his lack of involvement: yes, we’re looking at you, Evan Almighty…But Carrey has signed on for his share of sequels, including Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls, Kick-Ass 2 (he would later disown it) and, of course, the 23rd installment in the long-running The Number series…
Do you think a sequel to The Mask could work 30 years on?
Per Deadline, Hulu has ordered a pilot for the Prison Break reboot from Mayans M.C. co-creator Elgin James. Plot details are being kept under wraps, but the report states that while the project is its own thing, it will be set in the same universe as the original series.
If you’re hoping to see any original Prison Break characters show up in the reboot, it was previously reported that the series “is not expected to involve the characters at the center of the original series.” Plus, Wentworth Miller (who played Michael Scofield) has said he’s done with the series as he no longer wants to play heterosexual characters.
James will executive produce through his Sierra Drive banner alongside original series executive producers Dawn Olmstead, Neal Moritz, and Marty Adelstein. Prison Break creator Paul Scheuring is also onboard as an executive producer. Earlier this summer, Adelstein gave an update on the project, saying it was “going really well. The first script was really, really well done. They’ve given notes and it looks like it’s on its way.“
According to Nielsen, when the original Prison Break returned to Netflix this July, it quickly became the #1 most streamed series in the US in August. I imagine that this boosts Hulu’s confidence in the reboot.
Prison Break debuted in 2005 and followed Michael Scofield (Miller) as he attempted to get his brother Lincoln Burrows (Dominic Purcell) off death row and escape from Fox River State Penitentiary. With its twists and turns, the series was one of the biggest of the year. The series came to a close after four seasons and was followed by a TV movie, The Final Break. However, much of the main cast returned for a Prison Break revival in 2017, and although another season was in the early stages of development, it didn’t move forward. Even as the series got more convoluted in later seasons, I always loved it. While it may seem sacrilegious to bring Prison Break back without any of our favourite characters, I am looking forward to a new take on the concept.
Cillian Murphy is not playing the emaciated infected person shown in the recently released 28 Years Later trailer
28 Days Later director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland have finally reunited to make a sequel to their zombie (or, if you prefer, infected people) movie classic. As we reporter earlier this year, this sequel is set up at Sony, is going to be called 28 Years Later – and it’s meant to launch a whole trilogy of 28 Days Later sequels. The theatrical release date is June 20th, 2025… and it has been said that 28 Days Later star Cillian Murphy returns for this film “in a surprising way.” When the trailer dropped online a couple of days ago, a lot of fans thought they spotted him in there, thinking that an emaciated infected person seen in the trailer was Murphy. Would they really spoil that surprise in the first trailer? Apparently not. The Guardian has been able to confirm that the emaciated infected person in the trailer is not played by Cillian Murphy, but by newcomer Angus Neill.
According to The Guardian, “Neill, an art dealer specialising in old masters, was talent-spotted by Boyle, who was much struck by his distinctive looks. Neill also works as a model, with his professional profile suggesting he has a 28-inch waist.”
Neill told them, “Danny told me he’d always had me in mind for the role. So we met up, hit it off, and I agreed to take part. On set he has an extraordinary ability to hypnotise you, and working with him on the film was a very, very intense experience.“
The cast of 28 Years Later also includes Jodie Comer (The Bikeriders), Aaron Taylor-Johnson (The Fall Guy), Ralph Fiennes (Conclave), and Erin Kellyman (The Falcon and the Winter Soldier). In the original film, Murphy played bicycle courier Jim, who wakes up from a coma to find himself in an apocalyptic England that’s overrun by people who have been infected by a rage virus. Boyle and Garland went through several endings for 28 Days Later before landing on the one movie-goers saw in theatres – and that ending was the only one where Jim survived. So he’s still out there, ready to live through another rage virus nightmare 28 years later. As The Hollywood Reporter previously noted, “The 2002 film grossed $82.7 million globally and spawned a sequel, 2007’s 28 Weeks Later, though Boyle and Garland were only nominally involved as executive producers.”
Garland also wrote the screenplay for the sequel that will come after 28 Years Later. Of the two 28 Years Later projects currently in the works, Boyle only planned to direct the first one. For the second film, he has passed the helm over to Candyman and The Marvels director Nia DaCosta – and that sequel, titled 28 Years Later Part II: The Bone Temple, has already wrapped production.
When 28 Years Later came up during an interview with IndieWire, Fiennes decided to go ahead and tell us all about it: “Britain is 28 years into this terrible plague of infected people who are violent, rabid humans with a few pockets of uninfected communities. And it centers on a young boy who wants to find a doctor to help his dying mother. He leads his mother through this beautiful northern English terrain. But of course, around them hiding in forests and hills and woods are the infected. But he finds a doctor who is a man we might think is going to be weird and odd, but actually is a force for good.“
Thanks to their deal with Sony, each of these new films will be receiving a theatrical release and will have budgets in the $60 million range. 28 Years Later has a budget of $75 million.
Boyle and Garland are producing 28 Years Later with Bernie Bellew, original producer Andrew Macdonald, and Peter Rice, who was the head of Fox Searchlight Pictures when that company backed 28 Days Later. Murphy is executive producing.
Are you glad to know Cillian Murphy is not the emaciated infected person in the 28 Years Later trailer? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.
Marvel Comics is publishing a six-issue series called Godzilla vs. Marvel next year, pitting Godzilla against multiple superheroes
Back in 1976, Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Stan Lee was able to score the licensing rights to bring Toho’s iconic monster Godzilla into the Marvel world. Running for 24 issues from 1977 to 1979, the Godzilla, King of the Monsters comic book series, written by Doug Moench and drawn by Herb Trimpe, saw Godzilla rampaging through the United States and taking on the likes of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, the Fantastic Four, Devil Dinosaur and Moon Boy, the Champions, and the Avengers. Now, it’s time for a rematch. Marvel re-printed the entire run of Godzilla, King of the Monsters in color for the first time last year, and to celebrate they created fifteen variant covers for various comic books that featured Marvel heroes facing off with Godzilla. Turns out, those variant covers were paving the way for Godzilla vs. Marvel, a six-issue series of one-shots that will include the Fantastic Four, Hulk, Spider-Man, the X-Men, and Thor.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the six comics will take place over different time periods, with the first issue of Godzilla vs. Marvel coming in March. Godzilla vs. Fantastic Four will center on the Fantastic Four battling classic Godzilla antagonist King Ghidorah, who has been imbued with the power cosmic as the new herald for Galactus, the giant devourer of worlds. In this issue, Godzilla will actually team up with the Silver Surfer in order to attempt to save the Earth. Ryan North is writing, with John Romita Jr. providing the artwork.
Sven Larsen, Marvel’s VP of licensing and publishing, has been talking to Toho for years, trying to make this crossover event happen. Marvel editor-in-chief C.B. Cebulski said, “We approached them initially for our reprints, but a while after those conversations, it was clear that both of our teams were excited to do more together. These crossovers started coming together over that time, in direct collaboration with Toho, and we felt the perfect time for them was for Godzilla’s 70th anniversary. We’ve been thrilled to work with them on these, and we hope this will be a sign for more exciting projects to come.“
Dan Buckley, president, Marvel Comics & Franchises added, “For us, kaiju—and specifically Godzilla—are important parts of Marvel’s comic history, so we knew we wanted to explore something with their teams. We’ve always been fans of Godzilla, but with the steady rise in Godzilla’s popularity over the years, it’s part of our current cultural zeitgeist and a perfect example of the fun that the comics industry can bring. We’re focused on the storytelling first and foremost, but fun opportunities for crossovers like this give both of our fans an entertaining escape that they won’t want to miss.“
Will you be collecting the Godzilla vs. Marvel series? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
