Torrent Invites - #1 To Buy, Trade, Sell Or Find Free Tracker Invites! - Movies And TV https://torrentinvites.org/ Discuss everything related to movies and TV shows here. en Sat, 03 May 2025 12:02:57 GMT vBulletin 60 https://torrentinvites.org/images/styles/ChitChat/misc/rss.png Torrent Invites - #1 To Buy, Trade, Sell Or Find Free Tracker Invites! - Movies And TV https://torrentinvites.org/ ‘The Smashing Machine’ Trailer: Dwayne Johnson Is Unrecognizable as UFC Legend Mark https://torrentinvites.org/f41/smashing-machine-trailer-dwayne-johnson-unrecognizable-ufc-legend-mark-649072/ Thu, 01 May 2025 10:24:03 GMT ‘The Smashing Machine’ Trailer: Dwayne Johnson Is Unrecognizable as UFC Legend Mark Kerr in Benny Safdie’s Biopic From A24

Dwayne Johnson undergoes his most dramatic on-screen transformation yet in the first trailer for “The Smashing Machine,” a biopic about two-time UFC heavyweight champ Mark Kerr. A24 pulled the curtain back on the drama Tuesday morning.

Benny Safdie, one of the two Safdie brothers who co-directed and wrote “Uncut Gems” and “Good Time,” makes his solo directorial feature debut on the film. In addition to Johnson, the cast includes Emily Blunt as Kerr’s wife Dawn Staples, Bas Rutten, Lyndsey Gavin and Oleksandr Usyk. “The Smashing Machine” is Johnson and Blunt’s second collaboration since Disney’s “Jungle Cruise” in 2021, and they’re set to next team with Leonardo DiCaprio on a Hawaiian crime thriller from Martin Scorsese.

Kerr was a mixed martial artist who fought from 1997 to 2009, winning four ADCC World Championships in his career. In 2002, Kerr was the subject of an HBO documentary also entitled “The Smashing Machine,” which centered around his substance abuse issues and tumultuous relationships with his girlfriend and trainers.

Johnson previously said that he wanted to work with Safdie on “The Smashing Machine” because “Benny wants to create, and continues to push the envelope when it comes to stories that are raw and real, characters that are authentic and at times uncomfortable and arresting. I’m at a point in my career where I want to push myself in ways that I’ve not pushed myself in the past. I’m at a point in my career where I want to make films that matter, that explore a humanity and explore struggle [and] pain.”

Safdie wrote the script and produces alongside Johnson, Dany Garcia, Eli Bush, Hiram Garcia and David Koplan. Tracey Landon executive produces.

“The Smashing Machine” comes to theaters on Oct. 3.


]]> Movies And TV MindHunter https://torrentinvites.org/f41/smashing-machine-trailer-dwayne-johnson-unrecognizable-ufc-legend-mark-649072/ Jessica Biel and Elizabeth Banks Are Estranged Sisters at Center of Murder Mystery https://torrentinvites.org/f41/jessica-biel-elizabeth-banks-estranged-sisters-center-murder-mystery-649055/ Thu, 01 May 2025 02:48:49 GMT Jessica Biel and Elizabeth Banks Are Estranged Sisters at Center of Murder Mystery in ‘The Better Sister’ Trailer

It’s a mix of family drama and murder in the official trailer for Prime Video’s upcoming series The Better Sister.

Jessica Biel and Elizabeth Banks star as estranged sisters Chloe Taylor (Biel) and Nicky Macintosh (Banks) who despite living opposite lives — Chloe leads a picturesque existence with her lawyer husband Adam (Corey Stoll) and teenage son Ethan (Maxwell Acee Donovan), while Nicky struggles to stay clean — must come together when Chloe’s husband is murdered. To make matters more complicated, Nicky is also Adam’s ex and Ethan’s biological mother.

In the trailer, Biel’s Chloe is shown discovering a murdered Adam in their home, only to then have Ethan, herself and Nicky at the center of media attention and Ethan a suspect in his father’s murder. Though the sisters must stay united in the aftermath as they fight to discover the truth behind Adam’s murder, they must also confront lingering secrets and a complicated family history. The series explores “the terrible things that drive sisters apart and ultimately bring them back together.”

“Keeping secrets and living double lives. This is what your family is about,” a prosecutor says about their family.

“My husband has been murdered. And my sister is here. And though I am feeling anxiety about this, I release it,” Biel’s Chloe is shown reciting to herself in the bathroom as she attempts to calm down amid the turmoil.

“What a crazy turn, the world knowing you stole your sister’s life,” Kim Dickens’ Nancy Guidry says in the trailer.

The eight-episode series is based on the novel by best-selling author Alafair Burke. Bobby Naderi, Gabriel Sloyer, Gloria Reuben, Matthew Modine and Lorraine Toussaint also star in the series produced by Amazon MGM Studios and Tomorrow Studios (part of ITV Studios).

Olivia Milch (Ocean’s 8) and Regina Corrado (Mayor of Kingstown) executive produce and serve as showrunners. Series director Craig Gillespie and Annie Marter exec produce through Fortunate Jack Productions alongside exec producers Biel and Banks, Michelle Purple, Kerry Orent and Marty Adelstein, Becky Clements and Alissa Bachner through Tomorrow Studios.

The Better Sister premieres on Prime Video on May 29.




]]> Movies And TV MindHunter https://torrentinvites.org/f41/jessica-biel-elizabeth-banks-estranged-sisters-center-murder-mystery-649055/ FX Releases ’Shogun’ Season 2 Details, Sets Production Start Date https://torrentinvites.org/f41/fx-releases-shogun-season-2-details-sets-production-start-date-649054/ Thu, 01 May 2025 02:47:49 GMT FX is plotting its return to feudal Japan, setting a production start date for season two of its Emmy-winning drama Shogun. Season two of... FX is plotting its return to feudal Japan, setting a production start date for season two of its Emmy-winning drama Shogun.

Season two of the series — which set a record at last year’s Emmys with 18 wins — is set to begin production in Vancouver in January 2026. The announcement serves as official confirmation that a second season will indeed happen (though it was never really in doubt) after FX announced it was developing two additional installments in May 2024.

Co-creators and showrunners Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks recently wrapped a writers room for the coming season, which will jump off from the James Clavell novel that formed the source material for season one.

With the conclusion of the writers room, FX has also released the first sketch of what Shogun season two will look like. Per FX, the show will pick up “10 years after the events of the first season and continue the historically-inspired saga of these two men from different worlds whose fates are inextricably entwined.”

Hiroyuki Sanada, who won the Emmy for best lead actor in a drama last year, will reprise his role as Lord Yoshii Toranaga. Cosmo Jarvis is also set to return as English sailor John Blackthorne, whose arrival in Japan after a shipwreck sets the story in motion. They’re the first confirmed returning actors for season two; FX isn’t announcing any other casting yet.

Sanada will also be an executive producer on Shogun’s second season, joining Kondo, Marks, Michaela Clavell, Edward L. McDonnell and Michael De Luca. Jarvis will be a co-EP. FX Productions is the studio.

In addition to its record-shattering Emmy haul, Shogun is also the most watched show in FX’s history, the Disney-owned outlet says. The series, which aired on FX’s cable channel and streamed on Hulu, spent 10 weeks on Nielsen’s streaming charts last year, amassing 4.27 billion minutes of viewing time over that span (plus an unpublicized amount after falling out of the top 10 original series). The season one cast also featured Anna Sawai, Tadanobu Asano, Takehiro Hira, Tommy Bastow and Fumi Nikaido, among others. ]]> Movies And TV MindHunter https://torrentinvites.org/f41/fx-releases-shogun-season-2-details-sets-production-start-date-649054/ Chris Hemsworth to Star in Submarine Thriller ‘Subversion’ for Amazon MGM https://torrentinvites.org/f41/chris-hemsworth-star-submarine-thriller-subversion-amazon-mgm-649053/ Thu, 01 May 2025 02:46:25 GMT Chris Hemsworth is taking a deep dive for Amazon MGM Studios. The actor, last seen in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, is set to star in... Chris Hemsworth is taking a deep dive for Amazon MGM Studios.

The actor, last seen in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, is set to star in Subversion, a submarine thriller that Patrick Vollrath will direct for Amazon MGM.

Lorenzo di Bonaventura is producing via his di Bonaventura Pictures banner. The project is eying a production start this fall in Australia.

Written by Andrew Ferguson, the story has been described as a “Die Hard on a submarine” style thriller that centers on a once-promising Naval commander (Hemsworth) who is blackmailed by a cartel-like operation into piloting a dangerous submarine carrying illegal cargo across international waters. Thrust into a high-stakes game of cat and mouse, the man must outmaneuver blockades and navigate perilous threats both in and outside of the submarine.

Vollrath already proved his mettle with a story set in a contained environment. He made his feature directorial debut with 7500, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a pilot stuck in his cockpit while his plane is hijacked. The filmmaker, whose live-action short film Everything Will Be Okay was nominated for an Academy Award in 2016, is repped by Gotham Group and Davis Law Group.

Ferguson’s scripts frequently land on the Black List (four times, to be exact), with one titled Blood Rush currently in development at Amazon MGM.

Subversion reunites Hemsworth with Amazon MGM as he’s also starring in Crime 101, an all-star thriller that also counts Mark Ruffalo, Barry Keoghan, Halle Berry and Monica Barbaro in its cast. The company is giving the feature a theatrical release in 2026. ]]> Movies And TV MindHunter https://torrentinvites.org/f41/chris-hemsworth-star-submarine-thriller-subversion-amazon-mgm-649053/ ‘Road House 2’: Guy Ritchie to Direct Sequel to Amazon MGM’s Hit Action Movie https://torrentinvites.org/f41/road-house-2-guy-ritchie-direct-sequel-amazon-mgm-s-hit-action-movie-649052/ Thu, 01 May 2025 02:45:15 GMT Guy Ritchie has signed on to direct Road House 2, the sequel to Amazon MGM Studios’ hit action movie starring Jake Gyllenhaal.

Will Beall, whose credits range from comic book movies such as Aquaman to action flicks including Bad Boys: Ride or Die, is writing the script.

Gyllenhaal will reprise his role as Dalton, the ex-UFC fighter who takes a job as a bouncer at a Florida Keys bar. Gyllenhaal will also produce with Josh McLaughlin via the duo’s Nine Stories Productions banner along with Charles Roven and Alex Gartner of Altas Entertainment.

Plot details, as well as the setting, are being kept under the shirt.

The 2024 movie, a remake of the 1989 movie that starred Patrick Swayze, was directed by Doug Liman and was written by Anthony Bagarozzi and Chuck Mondry. It was a massive hit for the streaming unit, attracting nearly 80 million worldwide viewers on Prime Video after only eight weeks.

Liman was unlikely to return for a sequel thanks to a nasty fight with Amazon over the release of the movie, which he maintained was owed a theatrical release. Amazon countered that the filmmaker chose a streaming release but with a higher budget.

Ritchie is considered a good replacement for the piece. The filmmaker already has a relationship with Gyllenhaal, having previously worked together on Amazon MGM’s Guy Ritchie’s the Covenant, a well-regarded action drama set during the Afghanistan war. And the filmmaker has shown a propensity for kinetic and knuckle-busting movies with decades of thrillers, big and small.

Ritchie has also shown himself to be a filmmaker with a lit fuse behind his back, directing movies like a man possessed. After directing 2021’s Wrath of Man, he had two movies released in 2023 — Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre and The Covenant — then created the 2024 series The Gentlemen for Netflix while also putting out spy action caper The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare.

This year, he has two movies in postproduction, Wife and Dog and In the Grey. He also has Fountain of Youth, starring John Krasinski and Natalie Portman, coming from Apple. ]]> Movies And TV MindHunter https://torrentinvites.org/f41/road-house-2-guy-ritchie-direct-sequel-amazon-mgm-s-hit-action-movie-649052/ <![CDATA[Box Office: Chris Hemsworth, Halle Berry’s ‘Crime 101′ Lands Presidents’ Day 2026 rel]]> https://torrentinvites.org/f41/box-office-chris-hemsworth-halle-berry-s-crime-101-lands-presidents-day-2026-rel-649051/ Thu, 01 May 2025 02:42:31 GMT Chris Hemsworth and Halle Berry‘s heist movie Crime 101 has landed a high-profile release date in theaters.

Amazon MGM Studios will open the film on Feb. 13, the beginning of the long Valentine’s Day and Presidents’ Day weekend.

Directed by Bart Layton, Crime 101 is based on author Don Winslow’s novella of the same name. The story follows detective Lou Lubesnick as he attempts to solve a string of multi-million dollar jewel heists by tracking the perpetrator who follows a strict set of rules known as “Crime 101.” As the fates of the various characters converge, the line between hunter and hunted blurs. Layton wrote the adapted script.

Mark Ruffalo, Barry Keoghan, Monica Barbaro, Corey Hawkins, Tate Donovan, Devon Bostick, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Nick Nolte round out the cast.

Working Title produced Crime 101 alongside The Story Factory, RAW and Wild State. ]]> Movies And TV MindHunter https://torrentinvites.org/f41/box-office-chris-hemsworth-halle-berry-s-crime-101-lands-presidents-day-2026-rel-649051/ ‘North of North’ Renewed for Second Season at Netflix https://torrentinvites.org/f41/north-north-renewed-second-season-netflix-649029/ Wed, 30 Apr 2025 07:42:49 GMT Netflix is heading back above the Arctic Circle for more North of North.

The streamer, in conjunction with Canada’s CBC and APTN, has renewed the comedy series set in an small town in Nunavut. The series, created by Stacey Aglok MacDonald and Alethea Arnaquq-Baril, stars Anna Lambe as a young Inuk woman looking to restart her life after an abrupt — and very public — exit from her marriage.

The renewal for North of North comes less than three weeks after its Netflix debut. It made the streamer’s global top 10 list for English-language series in its first two weeks.

“When I got the call from Alethea, Stacey and Miranda [de Pencier] about North of North being renewed for a second season, my heart exploded in the best way possible,” Lambe said in a statement. “I’m so excited and overwhelmed with joy, I can’t wait to head back to Ice Cove!”

North of North premiered April 10 on Netflix after a January debut on the CBC and APTN in Canada. The show has earned almost unanimously positive reviews; The critic Angie Han wrote of the series, “Ice Cove, Nunavut, might be nestled in a literal tundra. But the comedy’s affection for its characters, and the community they call home, make it feel as cozy as a hot bath after a long day.”

Lambe also said about how the North of North audience has responded to the show: “People want original content. They want new stories, they want something that they’ve never seen before. North of North is a place that a lot of people haven’t seen before — or at least not in this way, with so much warmth and so much laughter.”

Along with Lambe, the show stars Maika Harper, Braeden Clarke, Jay Ryan, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Kelly William, Zorga Qaunaq, Bailey Poching, Nutaaq Doreen Simmonds, Keira Belle Cooper and Tanya Tagaq.
Aglok MacDonald and Arnaquq-Bari executive produce with de Pencier, Anya Adams, Susan Coyne and Garry Campbell. ]]> Movies And TV MindHunter https://torrentinvites.org/f41/north-north-renewed-second-season-netflix-649029/ ‘Thunderbolts*’ Review: Florence Pugh and Sebastian Stan Lead a Gratifyingly Fresh .. https://torrentinvites.org/f41/thunderbolts-review-florence-pugh-sebastian-stan-lead-gratifyingly-fresh-649028/ Wed, 30 Apr 2025 07:40:57 GMT ‘Thunderbolts*’ Review: Florence Pugh and Sebastian Stan Lead a Gratifyingly Fresh and Soulful Marvel Adventure

Much to the chagrin of Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova, the name hastily cooked up by another member of the rough-edged new superhero crew in Thunderbolts* is borrowed from the Pee Wee Soccer team of her childhood, which never won a game. That implicit underdog tag is in keeping with a group that’s continually underestimated, dismissed as a bunch of “antisocial losers” by the villain who wants them out of the way. But the asterisk tacked onto the title of this enjoyable Marvel offshoot indicates that the name and its history will not define them. While a handful of the characters and the actors playing them have appeared in previous entries, there’s a disarming freshness to this first-time assembly, not to mention something even more unexpected: heart. That’s due to an appealing ensemble cast but also to the new blood of a creative team with a distinctive take on the genre.

Chief among them is director Jake Schreier, best known for the Netflix hit Beef, and the screenwriting duo of Eric Pearson, who co-wrote Thor: Ragnarock and Black Widow, and Joanna Calo, another Beef alum whose credits also include multiple episodes of The Bear and BoJack Horseman.

Thunderbolts* by no means reinvents the superhero movie and its pacing isn’t as consistent as it could be. But at a time when Marvel fatigue has taken a bite out of more than one fizzled blockbuster, it’s a relief to watch a comic-book movie in which the smug wisecracking is dialed way down and the characters are given interior dimensions beyond their powers, including a certain emotional fragility. That doesn’t mean there’s any less physical action or threatened destruction, but there’s a kind of back-to-basics innocence here that makes the stakes feel more real.

Yelena is the center of the group and Pugh the movie’s MVP in a performance that expands on the character traits that made her so captivating in Black Widow — the deadpan insouciance but, more notably, the depth of bruised feelings she attempts to hide behind her tactical skills as a trained assassin. If that 2021 film hinged on the repair of frayed surrogate family ties and the contentious but binding hold of sisterhood, Thunderbolts* shows Yelena brooding on the emptiness of her life in the wake of her adoptive sister’s death.

She’s questioning whether the void is just boredom or something bigger as she undertakes a cleanup assignment in a Malaysian lab, eliminating both material and human evidence that can be tied back to CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) through the scientific research company OXE. Yelena feels adrift, prompting her to request that Valentina reassign her to a “more public-facing” position.

The transparently shifty CIA director agrees on the condition that Yelena first destroy one last OXE facility, embedded in a mountain. Valentina’s involvement in experimental injections of super serums into human guinea pigs has made her the target of an impeachment hearing conducted by Congressman Gary (Wendell Pierce). She has her sharp assistant Mel (Geraldine Viswanathan) working overtime to clean up the evidence.

Freshman Congressman Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), whose Winter Soldier life will be hard to put behind him, is working behind the scenes to help expose Valentina’s malfeasance; he spots a potential asset in Mel.

The familiar team-up element of the MCU formula happens when Yelena finds herself in conflict in an underground vault at the remaining OXE site with John Walker (Wyatt Russell), whom she dubs “the dime-store Captain America”; Ava Starr, aka Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen); and, in a blink-and-you-miss-it appearance, Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko).

Realizing that Valentina has set them up in a death trap as more potential damage to be removed, the group bands together, taking a dazed and confused lab patient named Bob (Lewis Pullman) along with them as they bust out.

The father figure whose every word prompts an eye-roll from Yelena, Alexei Shostakov (David Harbour), turns up to get them out of there in the “Red Guardian” vehicle that he operates as a limo service (“Protecting You From Boring Evening,” reads the slogan painted on the door). But when a convoy of tanks threatens to end them as they speed across the desert (Utah serves as a panoramic location), it’s Bucky’s intervention on a motorcycle that saves their asses. Or so it seems.

Marvel Comics obsessives will likely guess the revelations about Bob and the reasons he is separated from the group. But for audiences without that encyclopedic knowledge, developments around the character, and his affinity with Yelena, will be a rewarding part of the story. Beautifully played by Pullman as a sweet-natured, broken man struggling to outrun his troubled past, Bob is a complex figure through which the movie explores mental instability and the fight between light and darkness.

The screenplay’s introduction of “interconnected shame rooms,” where characters get stuck in painful memories from their past — Yelena’s lingering trauma from her training as a childhood assassin; John’s sorrowful separation from his wife and child — dips perhaps a little heavy-handedly into textbook psychology. But having them confront their emotional debris gives them satisfying depths that enrich the experience of the movie.

The destructive forces unleashed on New York allow the Thunderbolts to shake off their disillusionment and rediscover the joy of heroism, something of which Harbour’s Russian super soldier, Red Guardian, says, “There is no higher calling.” Leaning into the goofball aspects of the character — and the amusingly chewy accent — Harbour gets many of the funniest lines, at one point telling Yelena: “The light inside you is dim, even by Eastern European standards.”

The ways in which mayhem is visited upon the city and thwarted almost feel like a throwback to vintage Superman and Batman films, before mass CG destruction pretty much pummeled any visceral excitement out of the superhero genre. Just watching characters block falling slabs of concrete or hurtling cars, whisking New Yorkers out of the way to safety in the nick of time, is refreshing after so many movies with actors stuck in front of greenscreens battling annihilation beams from space.

The change of aesthetic clearly is the result of a creative team not plucked from the usual MCU stable, including talented cinematographer Andrew Droz Palermo, who brought such distinctive visuals to the David Lowery films A Ghost Story and The Green Knight. Instead of the usual bland plastic sheen, he gives us a movie with grit and texture, echoed in the details of Grace Yun’s sets. And the score by experimental group Son Lux is a welcome shift away from orchestral bombast into more nuanced territory.

Pugh proves herself more than capable of leading a Marvel joint and this is very much her movie, though the entire ensemble play crucial parts, in keeping with the story’s ethos. The banter among the Thunderbolts is droll without ever trying too hard, and snippy without ever putting the team’s unity in doubt. That carries through to the requisite post-credits sequence, which lays groundwork for the next installment, just as the coda on Black Widow suggested a core element of this one.

Stan, Russell, John-Kamen and Harbour all get to find new colors in roles they have played in previous MCU installments. Louis-Dreyfus, while never quite escaping the shameless persona of Selina Meyer (maybe it’s just seeing her back in Washington), clearly relishes power-hungry Valentina’s ruthless villainy and her political opportunism, without sacrificing the humor. Viswanathan, one of few saving graces in Ethan Coen’s painful Drive-Away Dolls, is a very likeable presence with potential for future developments. And as the most significant addition, Pullman is wonderful.

Whether Thunderbolts* can rescue the MCU from its doldrums remains to be seen when audiences weigh in. But it at least seems a step in the direction of creative renewal. ]]> Movies And TV MindHunter https://torrentinvites.org/f41/thunderbolts-review-florence-pugh-sebastian-stan-lead-gratifyingly-fresh-649028/ Greg Berlanti Nabs Series Order for Horror Drama ‘Stillwater’ at Amazon https://torrentinvites.org/f41/greg-berlanti-nabs-series-order-horror-drama-stillwater-amazon-648992/ Tue, 29 Apr 2025 04:31:20 GMT Greg Berlanti is getting back into the writers room. The mega-producer has three projects, at three different streamers, in various... Greg Berlanti is getting back into the writers room.

The mega-producer has three projects, at three different streamers, in various stages of development — including a series order for Stillwater, based on the horror comic of the same name, at Amazon’s Prime Video. Berlanti is also developing a high school mystery series at Hulu and a family drama at Max.

All three projects come from Warner Bros. TV, where Berlanti has a rich overall deal and has been his studio home for most of his career.

Stillwater and the Hulu project, Foster Dade, will also mark Berlanti’s first teleplay credits in several years. While the prolific producer has a “developed by” or creator credit on many of the shows his eponymous company has produced — including most of The CW’s Arrow-verse series — he hasn’t had a writing credit since the early days of You, which is now wrapping its run on Netflx.

Berlanti and Carly Wray (Watchmen, Mad Men) are adapting Skybound’s comic Stillwater. The show follows ex-convict Daniel West, who receives a mysterious letter promising answers about his past and a substantial inheritance in the small town of Stillwater. There he discovers a community where nothing ever ages, no one dies and nobody ever gets out.

Berlanti and Wray will executive produce with Robert Kirkman, David Alpert, Rick Jacobs, Glenn Geller and Chip Zdarsky of Skybound, Berlanti Productions chair Sarah Schechter, Leigh London Redman, Robbie Rogers and Jonathan Gabay.

Hulu bought Berlanti and Bash Doran’s (Life After Life, The Looming Tower) spec script for Foster Dade and is eyeing a pilot order. It’s based on the novel Foster Dade Explores the Cosmos by Nash Jenkins and delves into the mystery behind a tragedy at a prep school. The show’s logline says it will delve into “privilege, power, sexuality, and masculinity in the age of the Internet, anxiety and pharmaceuticals.” Berlanti, Doran, Schechter, Redman, Jenkins, Rogers and Donald De Line are set to executive produce.

The Max project is still in the early stages of development, but it is a family drama that Berlanti will co-write. The streamer is looking to produce the show in a similar model to The Pitt, with 15 episodes per season and a regular schedule.

Berlanti’s current series include All American at The CW and Found and Brilliant Minds at NBC; the final season of You premiered on Netflix on April 24. He’s also executive producing a live-action Scooby-Doo series at Netflix, which snagged a series order in March. ]]> Movies And TV MindHunter https://torrentinvites.org/f41/greg-berlanti-nabs-series-order-horror-drama-stillwater-amazon-648992/ Mamoru Hosoda’s Anime Princess Film ‘Scarlet’ Lands December 2025 Release https://torrentinvites.org/f41/mamoru-hosoda-s-anime-princess-film-scarlet-lands-december-2025-release-648991/ Tue, 29 Apr 2025 04:30:11 GMT Oscar-nominated Japanese filmmaker Mamoru Hosoda’s upcoming anime pic Scarlet will open in North American theaters on Dec. 12, during the the lucrative year-end holiday corridor and the heart of awards season.

Sony Pictures, which is co-producing and co-financing the film with Studio Chizu and Nippon TV, announced the release date Monday. Sony will distribute the film in the U.S. and around the globe except for in Japan, where Toho is handling the movie theatrically.
Scarlet tells the story of a brave princess who transcends time and space.

Hosoda’s credits include Belle, Wolf Children and 2018’s Mirai, which was nominated for the Oscar for best animated feature after making its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.

Yuichiro Saito and Nozom Takahashi of Studio Chizu are producing Scarlet alongside Toshimi Tanio of Nippon TV.

Hosoda is the founder of production house Studio Chizu. Many of the writer-director’s fantastical movies have been inspired by watching his own kids interact and his ongoing preoccupation with family dynamics, including 2015’s The Boy and the Beast and 2012’s Wolf Children. ]]> Movies And TV MindHunter https://torrentinvites.org/f41/mamoru-hosoda-s-anime-princess-film-scarlet-lands-december-2025-release-648991/ Matt Lauria To Star With Morena Baccarin In ‘Sheriff Country’ CBS Series https://torrentinvites.org/f41/matt-lauria-star-morena-baccarin-sheriff-country-cbs-series-648990/ Tue, 29 Apr 2025 04:28:49 GMT In his return to CBS, former CSI: Vegas star Matt Lauria has been tapped as what is believed to be the male lead opposite Morena Baccarin on the... In his return to CBS, former CSI: Vegas star Matt Lauria has been tapped as what is believed to be the male lead opposite Morena Baccarin on the network’s upcoming drama series Sheriff Country, a spinoff from hit Fire Country.

Sheriff Country, which will premiere in the fall, stars Baccarin as straight-shooting sheriff Mickey Fox, the stepsister of Cal Fire’s division chief Sharon Leone (Fire Country‘s Diane Farr), who investigates criminal activity as she patrols the streets of small-town Edgewater while contending with her ex-con father (W. Earl Brown) and a mysterious incident involving her wayward daughter.

Lauria will play Boone, Sheriff Mickey Fox’s smart, tough and capable deputy and longtime partner. Originally from Oakland, he’s used to a different kind of policing. Their contrasting law enforcement styles makes their partnership both complex and occasionally tense.

In addition to Baccarin and Brown, whose characters have been introduced on Fire Country, Lauria joins fellow Sheriff Country new series regulars Christopher Gorham and Michele Weaver who play Mickey’s ex-husband and a Sheriff deputy, respectively.

The Sheriff Country planted spinoff episode was written by Tony Phelan and Joan Rater with story by Phelan, Rater and Max Thieriot, the trio behind Fire Country. Executive producing the series are Matt Lopez, who serves as showrunner, Thieriot, Phelan, Rater, and Jerry Bruckheimer and KristieAnne Reed for JBTV. CBS Studios is the studio behind the Fire Country franchise.

Lauria will next be seen recurring in JJ Abrams’ period thriller drama series Duster for Max as Izzy’s (Camille Guaty) oncologist boyfriend. He recently wrapped indie film Drowning and recurred on the second season of Prime Video’s sci-fi Western Outer Range. His series credits also include major roles on DirecTV’s Kingdom, Apple TV+’s Dickinson, CBS All Access’ Tell Me A Story, Channel 4’s Traitors, Sky Atlantic’s Little Birds, NBC’s Parenthood and his breakout turn on Friday Night Lights. In features, he was most recently seen in Paramount’s 80 for Brady. Lauria is repped by Gersh, Principal Entertainment LA and Johnson, Shapiro, Slewett, & Kole. ]]> Movies And TV MindHunter https://torrentinvites.org/f41/matt-lauria-star-morena-baccarin-sheriff-country-cbs-series-648990/ Box Office: ‘Sinners’ Blowing Past ‘Accountant 2,’ ‘Revenge of the Sith’ https://torrentinvites.org/f41/box-office-sinners-blowing-past-accountant-2-revenge-sith-648947/ Sun, 27 Apr 2025 13:54:26 GMT The weekend box office is on fire, with ticket sales up more than 100 percent over the same frame last year. The blaze is led by Warner... The weekend box office is on fire, with ticket sales up more than 100 percent over the same frame last year.

The blaze is led by Warner Bros.’ Sinners, directed by Ryan Coogler and starring Michael B. Jordan. Heading into its sophomore outing, the film was expected to compete with Ben Affleck-starrer The Accountant 2 for the top spot with anywhere from $20 million to $25 million.

But the supernatural period vampire pic continues to defy all the odds and is now on course to easily stay No. 1 domestically with a phenomenal $42 million to $44 million after earning $13 million on Friday (rival studios all are betting on the higher number). Either way, Sinners — which opened to $48 million a week ago — could enjoy one of the smallest drops in history for a movie playing outside of the year-end holidays.

Graced with virtually perfect audience scores and the best reviews of filmmaker Coogler‘s already acclaimed career, Sinners has transformed into the rare title that has become a runaway water-cooler sensation. It’s expected to finish Sunday with a 10-day cume hovering around $120 million in a major victory for Warners’ movie chiefs Pamela Abdy and Michael De Luca.

Amazon MGM Studios’ new action-thriller The Accountant 2 and Disney’s 20th anniversary release of Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith are also fueling the boom (ditto for Warners’ A Minecraft Movie, which remains high up on the chart in its fourth weekend). Depending upon who you ask, the order of those three movies varies and won’t be determined until Sunday or even Monday.

The Accountant 2 is hoping for a second-place finish with a promising $23 million-$25 million after scoring strong reviews and exit scores, including an A- CinemaScore. That would be a win as Amazon MGM ramps up its theatrical ambitions (it’s now home of the James Bond franchise).

The first Accountant, released by Warners, opened to $24.7 million in 2016 on its way to grossing $155.5 million globally and becoming the most-rented digital film in 2017.

Reuniting Affleck and director Gavin O’Connor, Accountant 2 currently sports a fresh 76 percent critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, compared to a rotten 53 percent for the first film. Consumers are far more entranced, judging by the sequel’s current 93 percent audience Rotten Tomatoes score.

Affleck produced the sequel via his and Matt Damon’s Artists Equity, alongside Lynette Howell Taylor for 51 Entertainment and Mark Williams for Zero Gravity Management. The film made its world premiere at SXSW last month, winning the audience award for the Headliners section.

Jon Bernthal, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Daniella Pineda, Allison Robertson and J.K. Simmons co-star in Accountant 2, which sees Affleck’s character compelled to step in and help solve the murder of an old acquaintance with the help of his estranged brother and a U.S. Treasury agent. Together, they uncover a deadly conspiracy, becoming targets of a ruthless network of killers who will stop at nothing to keep their secrets buried.

Revenge of the Sith is looking at a weekend haul of anywhere from $21 million to $23 million, which would be one of the top openings ever for a rerelease (one rival shows the film earning $25 million). The crownholder belongs to 1977’s Star Wars, which grossed $35.9 million when it hit theaters again in 1997, not adjusted for inflation, according to Comscore.

The Star Wars rerelease comes amid the 20th anniversary of the final of George Lucas’ prequel films. The prequels, while divisive at the time, have only grown more appreciated in recent years, with a generation of kids who grew up with them considering the films their preferred Star Wars trilogy. Star Hayden Christensen received a rock star-esque greeting last week at the Star Wars Celebration in Tokyo, while he and Sith star Ewan McGregor reprised their roles for the Disney+ series Obi-Wan Kenobi in 2022, returning their versions of the characters Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader and Obi-Wan Kenobi to the zeitgeist.

In terms of more recent rereleases in the franchise, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace earned $8.7 million on its opening weekend in May 2024, while the rerelease of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi grossed $5.1 million in late April 2023.

Both Accountant 2 and Sinners are R-rated and are competing with Revenge of the Sith for male attention, although the latter has the advantage of also playing to families.

Screen Gem and Sony’s new horror offering Until Dawn looks to round out the top five with a forgettable opening in the $7 million to $8 million range. ]]> Movies And TV MindHunter https://torrentinvites.org/f41/box-office-sinners-blowing-past-accountant-2-revenge-sith-648947/ ‘Dope Thief’ Star Wagner Moura Explains That Inevitable Ending https://torrentinvites.org/f41/dope-thief-star-wagner-moura-explains-inevitable-ending-648912/ Sat, 26 Apr 2025 03:21:01 GMT [This story contains major spoilers from the season finale of Dope Thief, “Innocent People.”]

Dope Thief, the Apple TV+ limited series from Ridley Scott and Peter Craig, has wrapped its eight-episode run.
Adapted from Dennis Tafoya’s 2009 debut novel, the series followed self-appointed leader Ray (Brian Tyree Henry, also an executive producer) and his friend Manny (Wagner Moura), with whom he is trauma-bonded with while incarcerated. With limited options to generate money, Ray has the pair pose as DEA agents to shake down small-time drug dealers. They hit a life-threatening snag, however, when a score on bad intel results in an anonymous drug kingpin being determined to kill them. Even worse, the real DEA undercover agent Mina (Marin Ireland) who, unknown to Ray and Manny, survived the attack, is helping the investigation while barely holding on to life. With that information, the DEA is convinced that Ray, especially, is also a kingpin, so Ray and Manny must escape them, too.

Unlike Ray, Manny has no ego, making him more willing to follow. As a Brazilian immigrant who had no family growing up, Manny feels even more abandoned than Ray, who has had his “Ma” in Kate Mulgrew’s Theresa. Because of that, Ray is the family Manny never had. Falling head over heels in love with Sherry (Liz Caribel Sierra) complicated that, however, when, not only is Ray jealous, since he’s still haunted by the death of his girlfriend whom he loved, he also felt entitled to Manny’s complete loyalty. So, even as they stand together, they bump heads throughout the series. It also doesn’t help that Manny is more out of control in his drug addiction than Ray. Whereas Ray moves in life more stoically, Manny can’t hide his emotions, and that kind of vulnerability in this fight for survival is a weakness.

Pulling off a layered character like Manny takes skill, and Wagner Moura does it effortlessly. The Brazilian actor, who portrayed real-life notorious Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar in Netflix’s trailblazing series Narcos in his breakthrough role, stepped out of his comfort zone again to play Manny, a role that he landed only days before filming, but jumped at to work with Ridley Scott, a personal hero.

Moura virtually from his native Brazil to talk about Dope Thief, working with Scott, building chemistry with Henry on the fly, how Manny represents another side of the drug trade where defenseless young men are caught in a cycle created by unfortunate circumstances, and the tragic and heartbreaking ending to Manny that he says we had to see coming.

Is Dope Thief your first time working with Ridley Scott? What did you learn from the experience?

That was one of the things that made me want to do it. When I spoke with Ridley and Peter for the first time, we spoke on Friday and they wanted me to be on set Monday. My first reaction was to say, “I can’t do this,” because I always valued preparation. But I was like, “Okay, this is Ridley Scott, man, you want to work with me.” It was an opportunity to work with him and I was also looking for something that would make me feel more loose and less prepared. The fact that Ridley Scott was directing was a major factor. He’s a hero of mine. And it was insane. My first days were really crazy because I was literally learning the lines on the airplane. Then when I landed, they were in a hurry because they had shot that episode before with another actor and had to reshoot it, and Ridley is known for shooting really fast. He shoots with six cameras at the same time and sometimes you don’t even know where the cameras are.

I really learned a lot and it brought me lots of confidence about what I can do as an actor. Most of all, it was an opportunity to be on set with the man who directed Blade Runner, who directed Thelma and Louise, Alien, Gladiator, oh my god. And he’s so cool. It’s great when you [work] with a hero of yours and it’s great. He called me after the first week just to say, “Hey mate. Just want to say, it’s great.” I’m loving it.’ That’s something [to have] Ridley Scott call me to say, it’s great.

Many people know you from playing Pablo Escobar in Narcos and in Dope Thief, Manny is a very different role but in the same sort of world. Talk about the differences between playing a very aggressive role as Pablo Escobar and this very vulnerable one as Manny.

Our show is violent like Narcos, but with Manny and Ray, and especially Manny, what I love about them is that they’re not fit for that job. They don’t want to be there. It’s just another immigrant, another Latino guy who was told his value was that, and he sort of believed it. Two dudes that were incarcerated since they were 16, the Black man and a Latino guy, like another statistic of incarcerated minorities.
The tragic thing about Manny is that he discovers h might have the chance to have another life, but it might be too late for him. It’s a classic Greek tragedy character, those characters who walk to a very tragic end, and there’s nothing that can stop it from happening. And it’s beautiful because he tries, he really tries. Pablo wanted to be what he was; Manny didn’t want to be part of that. It’s life and social injustice and that kind of shit that has him here.

How did you and Brian create the kind of chemistry that Ray and Manny have?

That was really crazy because I didn’t know Brian. I was summoned three, four days before, and it is so hard really to create that intimacy with someone you don’t know. Even in productions nowadays, they don’t give the actors the space to create that. I love rehearsals. I know some actors don’t, but I think it’s a space for you to know the other actor and spend time with them, so, therefore, when you go to the scene, you have some sort of connection with the person that appears on screen. With Brian, we didn’t have time. So I’m so glad it was an immediate connection, maybe forced by the circumstances.

I met him when we were already in our costumes as Manny and Ray. We were walking to set. I was like, “This is insane; I don’t know this guy and he’s supposed to be my brother…. Stop guys, please, I need a second.” I took Brian to this green room and stood in front of him, held his hands and said, “My name is Wagner Moura. I’m Brazilian. I have three sons.” I started to talk a bit about myself, and he looked at me and did the same. That moment that we shared in a very rushed circumstance really connected us. I think we would be friends if we met [during] another opportunity. Our souls connected, fortunately.

But that also works with the relationship, because there’s tension between Manny and Ray. Though they are like brothers, there is tension because Manny wants to go another way.

It’s a toxic relationship. But this happens with people who love each other. They love each other, but that relationship is not healthy for Manny anymore. He wants to have a life with Sherry. He wants to have his own autonomy. Ray is a very control freak guy and he embraces Manny in a way that it’s hard for him to escape, because he loves Ray. It’s a tragic love story, it’s a love story between two dudes. Two guys who really love each other but are not well equipped to make this relationship healthy as a good friendship should be.

His relationship with his love Sherry is one of the sweetest sides we get to see of Manny. He looks like he’s really in love.

I love that you see that because I think he is one of the sweetest characters I’ve played, and one of the most vulnerable characters I’ve played. He really loves Sherry; he really wants to have a life with her. And he really loves Ray as well. If these characters had come from maybe another social place, they would be able to pay for a therapist or maybe if they were fed with love when they were children, they would be well-equipped to deal with these challenges. I feel that also Ray and Manny behave like two teenagers. They were frozen [into] the age when they were incarcerated, and they sort of behave in that way as two adults, and Manny starts to understand that and tries to run away from it but he can’t. Manny is an artist, right? He draws on Ray’s cast, and in his house, there are many drawings of Sherry that he did. So he has this artistic thing, but he’s engulfed in violence.

Also, he’s an addict. How did you prepare for that part of it? Have you played addicts before?

I played one in the show for Apple TV+ called Shining Girls. It’s Elisabeth Moss. It’s such a great show. Check it out. I play a journalist who is also an alcoholic. It’s another thing that’s part of, unfortunately…

This cycle?

Yeah exactly. This cycle is just part of it. Both Ray and Manny were introduced to drugs since they were little, and it seems like they cannot get away from there. They both spent the entire show trying, going to AA meetings and things like that, not being able to get away from the destiny that was designed for them. Unfortunately, in real life, few Mannys and Rays manage to escape that. Coming from Brazil, I’ve seen that in the favelas; it’s hard. It’s hard when you’re told since you were little this is your only way, this is your value. It’s hard to escape.

How hard was it to play the scenes in the prison where they attack Manny?

It was very demanding, physically and emotionally. We had that grenade scene in episode four. All our scenes are very emotional. My scenes with Brian are both of us screaming at each other. But we have a scene in episode seven that’s really heartbreaking. One of the things I really like about the show is that the scenes were very dramatic and demanding emotionally, but also very funny, right? That’s the way it is in life, right? You’re going through a complicated thing, and then you make it light. But it’s something that says a lot about Peter Craig’s writing. He is a very, very, very, very good writer.

Let’s zero in on the tragic, heroic part when Manny, I think, decides that “I’m going to just die.” (He kills himself by overdosing on heroin.) Maybe it’s a noble thing to do, but it’s crushing. Take us into the mindset of why Manny makes that choice.

I love that episode because it’s like he was pushed to a point. But there was no other solution. Would he betray Ray? I don’t think so.

But did Ray betray him?

No, I don’t think so either. But then Sherry shows up saying she’s pregnant, and can you imagine for a kid that was abandoned when he was little to have to think that now I can be a father? So he was in a situation where there was no way out. He’s a classic tragic character. We know since day one when we see Manny that something awful is going to happen to him, and it happens.

I remember when Peter Craig called me to say that Manny was going to die, it was almost as if he was talking about a member of the family: “I have to tell you this, and, oh, man, my heart is broken.” I was like, “What’s going on Peter?” and he says, “I think it’s not going to end well for Manny.” But I sort of knew that already. [Manny] says, “I’m not strong enough.” And he’s not; he’s not strong. And Ray, in one scene, says to him, “They went straight to you because you’re weak” in a very mean way. But it’s not that he’s weak.

He’s supposed to be somewhere else.

Yeah, he’s supposed to be somewhere else. Exactly, and he wanted to be, and he discovered that late. Had he discovered that he could be someone else before, maybe his life could be [different] but it was too late for him. He was put in a situation where [it was either] Sherry and the baby or Ray, and he was like, “I prefer to die.” ]]> Movies And TV MindHunter https://torrentinvites.org/f41/dope-thief-star-wagner-moura-explains-inevitable-ending-648912/ ‘The Accountant 2’ Director Gavin O’Connor on the Sequel’s Real-Time Relevance https://torrentinvites.org/f41/accountant-2-director-gavin-o-connor-sequel-s-real-time-relevance-648911/ Sat, 26 Apr 2025 03:14:38 GMT Gavin O’Connor walked quite the tonal tightrope on The Accountant 2.

In 2018, the filmmaker initiated development on a follow-up to his Ben Affleck-led sleeper hit from two years earlier. Alongside franchise screenwriter Bill Dubuque, they decided to tackle human trafficking inside a buddy action-comedy about Christian (Affleck) and Braxton Wolff’s (Jon Bernthal) fraternal reconnection. O’Connor was well aware of the “tall tonal order” in front of him, but after his previous Affleck drama, The Way Back (2020), opened in theaters just five days before the pandemic shut down the country, he knew he also wanted to give audiences some theater-friendly popcorn entertainment.

The sequel’s story still has some of the darker undertones of the predecessor, namely in the form of a central mystery involving a fractured Salvadoran family that fled the MS-13 gang violence of their native El Salvador for the States. The subplot bears at least some resemblance to the current headlines about the family of Salvadoran migrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia, and O’Connor admits that it’s been bizarre to see his long-gestating sequel become this relevant in real time. (The nature of Affleck’s autistic vigilante accountant character has its own newfound relevance, as well.)

“It’s not new that people are determined to leave the violence and poverty of that country to come to America and start a new life. It’s a country that Bill and I had read about and researched, and it just felt like the right place,” O’Connor said in support of April 25’s theatrical release. “Shining a light on it and putting that up on screen was just really important to me. But it was very tricky, tonally, to straddle that line and still try to make a fun movie.”

O’Connor is determined to complete an Accountant trilogy, and he’s confident that the threequel won’t take the better part of a decade like the sequel.

“We always intended it to be a trilogy, and we’re having conversations [with Amazon], so it will not be another nine years before we do our third one,” O’Connor stresses. “Chris [Affleck] needs to find love. So I want to be able to give Christian that by the end of the third movie.”

O’Connor’s 2011 film, Warrior, continues to be one of the most beloved sports dramas of all time. The MMA story about the Conlon brothers — starring two then-mostly-unknown leads in Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton — underperformed at the box office, grossing $24.2 million against a $25 million budget. However, it’s had a storied post-theatrical afterlife between its near $20 million in estimated DVD/Blu-ray sales and a consistent presence on premium and basic cable channels, as well as streamers.

O’Connor previously had a spiritual sequel series set up at Paramount+ and HBO Max, respectively, but both streamers dropped out mid-development, likely due to 2022’s major market correction toward streaming. In any event, the Long Island native still hasn’t given up on one of his dream projects.

“If there’s any project I’ve ever had that is so passionately alive in my bloodstream, it’s this TV series. So I’m hoping I find the right home for it,” O’Connor says. “The DNA of the movie Warrior was two brothers on a collision course to fight each other in the Sparta tournament. So the series is called Warriors because we took that idea for two men and two women. There’s nothing like it on television, so hopefully someone can see what I have in my head.”

Below, O’Connor also discusses why he isn’t optimistic about California’s chances of meaningfully reigniting production, before addressing how a lightsaber ended up in Affleck’s character’s hands.
***
In December ‘21, I asked Jon Bernthal about a then-potential Accountant sequel, and he wasn’t ready to count his chickens just yet.

(Laughs.)

Was there quite a bit of uncertainty as to whether this would actually happen?

Yeah, there’s been uncertainty for years. It’s been a very kafkaesque experience trying to get this movie made, especially considering The Accountant did fairly well at the box office, vis-a-vis the [$44 million] budget that we had on that first movie. It was a pretty profitable film, domestically and globally. So, for a myriad of reasons, there was a lot of starting and stopping, and obstacles kept getting thrown in the way. So it wore on all of us, and while we all passionately wanted to make the movie, I think we were all cautious after all the starts and stops. It just never felt like it was guaranteed to happen.

You really have a knack for telling fraternal stories. Is there a deep-rooted explanation for this?

I definitely gravitate towards stories of brothers and stories of fathers and sons, so there’s a thematic through-line there. When I look at Warrior, that was a very biographical film in so many ways. As a filmmaker, I’m obviously trying to express myself through story. So [Accountant franchisewriter] Bill Dubuque and I very intentionally wanted to explore the relationship with the two brothers in the second Accountant movie. That was always a very important exercise for us. People have asked about Anna Kendrick’s [absence], but she was never intended to be in the second movie. It was always about bringing the brothers together so they can try to fix things with each other. That’s really what we wanted to explore.

These are two guys that are searching for human connection and love, which we can all relate to. So I love the idea of exploring stories of brothers, but I’m very far away from Chris [Wolff] in a lot of ways, and I’m very far away from Braxton [Wolff] in a lot of ways. So [The Accountant 2] is probably a little less personal than some of my other films in regard to the depth of the characters, but not in regard to the emotional through-line of brothers trying to basically find love with each other and acceptance and understanding and hope.

You upped the comedy rather significantly from the original. Both of the Wolff brothers have hysterical reintroduction scenes. Was this a way to offset the darkness of the human trafficking story that everybody is investigating?

That’s a really good question. Yeah, shining a light on human trafficking was something that was really important to me. But predators feasting on the world’s most vulnerable people doesn’t really make for an entertaining movie. When Ben and I made The Way Back, the movie opened on a Friday, and the theaters closed on Monday [due to the pandemic]. It was just dead in the water, and it was so heartbreaking. So, yes, as much as I wanted to build the plot around human trafficking, I also wanted to make an exuberantly entertaining movie [for theaters]. It was very intentional that I wanted to make a fun, emotional film. In essence, I wanted to make my version of a popcorn movie. That’s really what I was trying to do. It’s not necessarily just a thriller or just an action movie; it has a lot of food groups in it. But ultimately, it’s a story about a search for love and connection that’s always focusing on the characters.

So the smuggling business part of it was challenging. This idea of people coming here with the dream of living in America and trying to really deal with that honestly was a tall tonal order, while balancing, as you just mentioned, the fun and comedy of the movie. And I honestly didn’t know that I pulled it off. I certainly didn’t know when I was shooting it, though I was tracking it the whole time. It wasn’t clear until I actually showed the movie to Ben. He is the first person who saw [my director’s cut] when I felt like it was ready to be seen. So he called me up, and he was very pleased. He felt like I pulled it off. I then put it up in front of a test screening audience, and that cemented it all because it was very well-received. So it could have gone the other way, brother. It really could have, but fortunately, it didn’t.

Is this also why you dialed back Christian’s rituals involving death metal, strobe lights and a wooden stick?

No, I just felt like we did that already. I had no interest in repeating what we did before. There were certain DNA elements that we preserved from the first film, but very few. There’s obviously the Airstream and some behavioral details. Bill and I talked a lot about what it should be, architecturally, and what we were going for in terms of plot and theme and the brothers. But the first draft Bill handed me had a lot of homages to the first film, and I remember calling him up and saying, “Dude, I have no interest in repeating what we did already. I really want to just entirely refresh the tank. I want to build on the first one, but I want to do something very different and very new.” So I would’ve been bored just repeating what we did before.

There was already a relevance to this movie, but recent headlines have made it all the more relevant. Having lived with this movie for many years now, is it quite bizarre to see it become so of the moment in real time?

It is, and we started the ideas of the movie in 2018. That’s when we started having conversations and getting a script going. I wanted to build the movie around human trafficking. Again, that was really important to me, and we knew that [J.K. Simmons’] Ray was going to die at the beginning. That was the key in the ignition of the movie. It makes it personal for everybody. So that was very intentional, as was bringing Braxton into the story at the end of the first act, making it a buddy picture and sort of a 48 Hours film. That’s what was in my head.

My jaw hit the floor when the central family’s country of origin was revealed.

I’m assuming you’re referring to El Salvador?

Precisely.

Well, it’s not new that people are determined to leave the violence and poverty of that country, like many other Central American and Latin countries, to come to America and start a new life. It’s a country that Bill and I had read about and researched, and it just felt like the right place. Then there’s this arduous, dangerous journey from Central America across Mexico, before reaching the U.S. border and being captured by a drug cartel. This is all real stuff. So we just did a lot of research and tried to deal with that as honestly as possible. Shining a light on it and putting that up on screen was just really important to me. We know what happens to these people. They get forced into prostitution and maid work — jobs that people in America don’t want. But as I said, it was very tricky, tonally, to straddle that line and still try to make a fun movie. There ain’t nothing funny about human trafficking.

You had the good fortune of shooting The Accountant 2 in California, and the local industry is in desperate need of more production opportunities. Are you optimistic that the state will take the necessary steps to ensure that outcome?

​​To be totally honest, with [Gavin] Newsom as our governor, I’m not optimistic about anything with that guy. I feel like he puts his finger up to the wind and parrots whatever is popular in the moment, and then he’ll change his mind and about face when the wind blows the other way. So, sadly, I’m not [optimistic]. But we were always shooting here whether we got the rebate or not, because Ben and I didn’t want to go to Atlanta again. We have families here [in L.A.], so we wanted to stay home. Fortunately, [Affleck and Matt Damon’s] Artists Equity was financing the movie, so it was really Ben’s call. He was gracious enough to be like, “Even if we don’t get [the rebate], we’re shooting here.” And I’m so deeply grateful to him for that.

We then got an A-plus crew because people were like, “I can work with you guys and go home at night to get in bed with my wife, and be home with my kids on the weekends?” So we had the pick of the litter in regard to the crew, which was fantastic. We had a fantastic group of people working on this film, and there was an esprit de corps that was going on just because [of where we shot]. Everyone worked really hard, obviously, but we were really conscious of getting people home on time. I was always trying to not only make my days, but also do 10-hour days to get people home to their families. That pays huge dividends with a crew, creatively, artistically and spiritually.

I never expected to see Ben Affleck holding a lightsaber in an Accountant movie. Shawn Levy and Ryan Reynolds had to do this for a movie, but did you guys also have to write a request letter to Disney?

(Laughs.) It’s so funny you bring that up. In the script, Chris calls Brax while sitting on his bed, and going to the set that morning, I was like, “There’s better than that. How do we keep pushing character?” I’m always trying to keep pushing character. So when I got to set, my prop master, J.P. Jones, was the first person I grabbed. I said, “I need a lightsaber. Find me a lightsaber. I’ll push the scene until later in the day.” And you know what? We never asked Disney. I just shot it without getting permission. Fortunately, very fortunately, they were very cool about it, but I ignorantly didn’t even ask for permission. We just shot it.

I was the captain of my high school basketball team, and so I’ve played ball for some flawed individuals in my life. Thus, I connected a great deal with The Way Back.

Given the weight of that subject matter, I have to imagine that it was a very heavy set. Did The Accountant 2 set have a completely opposite vibe?

There were some really heavy days [on The Way Back], but we also had a lot of fun with the kids. They could all play basketball, and Ben was so great with them. That was the first film I shot digitally. I actually wanted to shoot Super 16, but I got a lot of pushback from Warner Bros. So I started doing tests with the ARRI digital camera and live grain to represent the Super 16 look. We moved really fast. Ben would literally get there in the morning, and he never left set. He just hung out all day and never went back to his trailer. So we were rocking and rolling, and there were scenes that were really intense and heavy. And I love that. I was really happy with how the film came out, but as I said, it was so disappointing when the theaters got shut down. I had a day or two of disappointment, but then I thought, “What the fuck? It’s a movie. People are really suffering with Covid. Who am I to be whining about it?”

[The Accountant 2] felt different because I hired First AD Mariela [Comitini]. This was the first time I’ve ever worked with her, and I will make every movie with her now. She’s a fucking surgeon in regard to building a board and a schedule and moving things around like a puzzle master. She’s brilliant at that, but she’s also so kind and so loving. I always play music on set; that’s something I’ve always done. But she said, “I like to start the day with a song that’s thematic for whatever we’re doing that day.” So once everyone shows up, she blasts a song, she starts to sing, she starts to dance, and then she gets everybody on the crew dancing. So we started every day with a dance party in the morning. We had a blast, and it allowed us to connect. It allowed us to have this comradery, and we all had this love for each other. We really did even though it was a circus. So we really bonded at the start of every day before getting to work, and she was really responsible for setting that fun tone every morning.

Do you still intend to turn TheAccountant into a trilogy?

Yeah, absolutely. We always intended it to be a trilogy, and so we’re having conversations. Ben and I, our producer Lynette [Howell Taylor], and writer Bill [Dubuque], we’re all having conversations with Amazon about that very thing, so it will not be another nine years before we do our third one. Chris needs to find love. That’s what we set up with this character who’s in search of love and human connection. So I want to be able to give Christian that by the end of the third movie.

I’m proud to say that I paid to see Warrior in a movie theater way back when. Is your spinoff series, Warriors, still alive in some capacity?

When we set it up, it was at Paramount+. We wrote a script, and then, for whatever reason, they decided they wanted to go in a different direction. What happened is all unexplainable to me. But I had a script at this point, and it’s very representative of what the series is going to be. It introduces all the characters except for one. HBO Max then said they wanted to do it, and so we pivoted to HBO Max. And then, for whatever reason, they decided they didn’t want to do it. They were going in a different direction. So I need to find a home, man. Excluding the movie Warrior, if there’s any project I’ve ever had that is so passionately alive in my bloodstream, it’s this TV series. So I’m hoping I find the right home for it.

The DNA of the movie Warrior was two brothers on a collision course to fight each other in the Sparta tournament. So the series is called Warriors because we took that idea for two men and two women. They’re all fighters, but I hook you into their life fights outside of the cage. We’re going to explore their stories as they’re on a collision course to fight each other at Sparta. So that’s the idea, and I hope we can find a home, because I so believe in this show and what it could be. There’s nothing like it on television, so hopefully someone can see what I have in my head.

Lastly, you produced the 2002 documentary, The Smashing Machine, about mixed martial artist Mark Kerr. Are you eager to see how Benny Safdie translates that story into a narrative feature starring Dwayne Johnson?

I am. Mark Kerr is a friend of mine, so I actually found that out through Mark himself. He called me up, and he was just trying to get some legal advice because it involved his life rights, obviously. So that’s how I found out about it. My First AD, Mariela, is also friends with the producers. I don’t know either of the Safdies, but they’re obviously really good filmmakers. So I’ll be the first person in line to see that when it comes out in the theater. ]]> Movies And TV MindHunter https://torrentinvites.org/f41/accountant-2-director-gavin-o-connor-sequel-s-real-time-relevance-648911/ Sydney Sweeney to Star in Jon M. Chu’s ’Split Fiction’ Film Adaptation https://torrentinvites.org/f41/sydney-sweeney-star-jon-m-chu-s-split-fiction-film-adaptation-648880/ Fri, 25 Apr 2025 05:28:07 GMT Sydney Sweeney will star in Jon M. Chu’s adaptation of the video game Split Fiction.

The Split Fiction co-adventure video game, from developer Hazelight Studios and publisher Electronic Arts, centers on a pair of authors, Mio and Zoe, who become trapped in the worlds they wrote. The game was designed to allow a split-screen co-op gameplay.
The role for which Sweeney will take on has yet to be announced.

Chu will direct the film with Deadpool & Wolverine screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick penning the screenplay. Mike Goldberg and Dmitri M. Johnson’s Story Kitchen and Chu’s Electric Somewhere will produce. Sweeney is set to executive produce.

The Split Fiction video game, released in March, sold two million copies in its first week on the market.

“SPLIT FICTION has sold 2 MILLION copies in 1 WEEK!! Holy crap, we’re blown away here! Simply amazing… Thank you to all of our new and old fans - we love how excited you are for our game” Hazelight Studios wrote when announcing the game’s success.

The film marks another project underway for Sweeney and the second video game adaptation. The Euphoria star and Michael Bay are revving up a movie adaptation of the Sega video game franchise OutRun. Universal Pictures is behind the project that has Bay set to direct and produce, with Sweeney also onboard to produce.

Sweeney is also set to star and produce an adaptation of an English teacher’s Reddit story “I pretended to be a missing girl” and star in a Christy Martin biopic. Sweeney is also starring in The Housemaid, based on Freida McFadden’s bestselling novel of the same name, alongside Amanda Seyfried and Brandon Sklenar. The film will release on Netflix on Dec. 25. ]]> Movies And TV MindHunter https://torrentinvites.org/f41/sydney-sweeney-star-jon-m-chu-s-split-fiction-film-adaptation-648880/