As always, more interesting Hollywood news.
There’s also been some great releases this week and some great recommendations.
I decided to pick some stuff that relates to what’s been going on around the world lately to give that extra sense of realism.
LATEST RELEASES
1- IT ENDS WITH US
Director - Justin Baldoni
Starring - Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni, Jenny Slate, Hasan Minhaj
Runtime - 2hrs 10mins
Synopsis - Adapted from the Colleen Hoover novel, Lily overcomes a traumatic childhood to embark on a new life. A chance meeting with a neurosurgeon sparks a connection but Lily begins to see sides of him that remind her of her parents' relationship.
2 - TRAP
Director - M. Night Shyamalan
Starring - Josh Hartnett, Alison Pill, Hayley Mills
Runtime - 1hr 45mins
Synopsis - A father and teen daughter attend a pop concert, where they realize they’re at the center of a dark and sinister event.
3 - BORDERLANDS
Director - Eli Roth
Starring - Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Ariana Greenblatt, Jamie Lee Curtis
Runtime - 1hr 41mins
Synopsis - Lilith (Blanchett), an infamous bounty hunter with a mysterious past, reluctantly returns to her home, Pandora, the most chaotic planet in the galaxy.
THE NEWS
DISNEY+ PRICE INCREASE FOR THE SECOND TIME IN 12 MONTHS
So there’s good news and bad new news with Disney’s current updates.
The bad news is that they’re increasing their prices (again).
Due to take effect in October, The Hollywood Reporter has said that Disney’s ad tier will go up to $9.99 per month and their ad-free tier up to $15.99 per month.
A rise of $2 each.
This will be Disney Plus’ second price increase in 12 months.
'The Disney Bundle' – which packages together Disney and Hulu – will get a $1 rise to $10.99/month.
However, this does work out at better value for money for those wanting both packages in one subscription.
But here comes the good news.
This won’t just be a price increase with no benefits.
Disney + is looking to add a new feature to their platform.
They will be adding streaming channels.
It seems streaming services are making their way back to normal cable TV, and Disney + will be the latest to join the club.
Disney Plus’ new feature will reportedly include separate channels for different types of content.
One would assume that would be things like a Marvel channel, a Star Wars channel and a Disney animated channel, just to name a few.
The channels would run 24/7, and would include content curated by Disney, which users could jump straight into whenever they log into the service.
Services like Peacock and Pluto have been doing this for years, and although people seem to love choosing exactly what they want to watch, sometimes you’re just stuck on the Netflix home page for an hour trying to decide.
The idea of having channels allows you to jump straight into a movie and removes the problem of having to choose between hundreds of different movies.
This way the user may find a new film they’ve never watched before, or rediscover an old favourite they’d forgotten about.
This new feature will also help the platforms themselves as they will be able to broadcast projects that they want more exposure on.
Having a 24/7 broadcast channel is also heaven from an advertisement perspective.
They will be able run ads throughout the day inbetween shows and movies, and even include ad breaks, just like the old days.
This will help them increase profitability as they’ll be making money from advertisers aswell as users paying a monthly subscription.
An article written in Polygon back in April says:
“one reduced subscription rate for several services — and suddenly the whole business of watching things at home is starting to look a whole lot like the cable model the industry moved away from in the late 2010s. Maybe part of the reason both companies and viewers are slowly coming back to that era is that it wasn’t quite as bad as everyone thought, it just took seeing the alternatives for everyone to realize how good we had it. More importantly, if all the streaming era accomplished is putting a dent in the cable monopolies that dominated the 1990s and 2000s, it will all have been worth it.”
MICHAEL MANN LOOKS BACK ON COLLATERAL 20 YEARS LATER
Michael Mann sits down with IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast and discusses his film collateral 20 years after it was made.
Mann still considers the script to be flawless in its structure.
Collateral represented a new visual approach for Mann and american films in general, as it was the first wide-release digital film, aiming for more realism
Here’s a snippet from the IndieWire article written after the podcast episode:
“The attractiveness of ‘Collateral’ was quite intense,” Mann said. “To go from doing larger-scale narratives to this story taking place within 12 hours with all the refractions that are happening within the facets of the story to push the metaphor to absurdity…that was the appeal. Imagine doing one wardrobe change for an entire movie! You could just concentrate on the intensity of what’s going on in those 12 hours and the interrelationship of the two characters. The compression of the narrative meant that I could do a deep dive into the intensity of these two characters relating to each other within the confines of one taxi cab in one night in one place.”
You can read the full article here: https://www.indiewire.com/features/podcast/michael-mann-collateral-20th-anniversary-tom-cruise-jamie-foxx-1235031790/
OFFICIAL TRAILER RELEASED FOR UGLIES
Uglies is a film based on a book of the same name.
Set to release in September on Netflix the film is set in a world where teens are tracked down and forced to undergo plastic surgery to be their most “perfect” selves.
The film is directed by McG (Joseph McGinty Nichol), director of Terminator Salvation and Charlie’s Angels.
The film stars Joey King, alongside Outer Banks actor Chase Stokes.
You can watch the trailer here:
UPCOMING PROJECTS
STREAM
Director - Micheal Leavy
Starring - Danielle Harris, Terry Kiser, David Howard Thornton
Runtime - 2hrs 3mins
Release Date - 21st August 2024 (US)
Synopsis - The Keenan family's simple weekend getaway truly turns into a vacation to die for, as four deranged killers playing a sadistic game lock down their hotel and compete for the most creative murders of all the guests.
THE CROW
Director - Rupert Sandes
Starring - Bill Skarsgård, FKA Twigs, Danny Huston
Runtime - 1hr 51mins
Release Date - 23rd August 2024 (UK)
Synopsis - In this modern re-imagining of the 1994 cult classic, "The Crow," soulmates Eric and Shelly are brutally murdered. Given a chance to save her, Eric must sacrifice himself and traverse the worlds of the living and the dead, seeking revenge.
THE FORGE
Director - Alex Kendrick
Starring - Karen Abercrombie, Priscilla C. Shirer, T.C Stallings
Runtime - 2hrs 3mins
Release Date - 23rd August 2024
Synopsis - After graduating from high school without any plans for the future, Isaiah receives a push to start making better life decisions.
THIS WEEKS RECOMMENDATIONS
THE PURGE: ELECTION YEAR
There’s a lot going on surrounding the upcoming U.S election.
Not only that, but in the UK there has been a lot of tormoil surrounding politics and what the current Prime Minister is doing to stop the current riots.
With the combination of all these things going on, I thought it appropriate to recommend The Purge: Election Year.
Because that’s how things are starting to look out there!
In this film, Former Police Sergeant Barnes becomes head of security for Senator Charlie Roan, a Presidential candidate targeted for death on Purge night due to her vow to eliminate the Purge.
A great watch as is all of the films in the franchise.
COLLATERAL
With it being the 20th Anniversary of the films release this month, I thought it was pretty much a no brainer to recommend this film.
A cab driver (Jamie Foxx) finds himself the hostage of an engaging contract killer (Tom Cruise) as he makes his rounds from hit to hit during one night in Los Angeles.
FINAL DESTINATION
And my final recommendation for this week is Final Destination.
Alex has a premonition that he and his friends are going to die aboard a flight. He manages to act quickly and save the day but not before aggravating death who comes after them one by one.
This is a great classic horror/thriller film and everyone should watch it.
It’s also currently in the Top 10 this week on UK Netflix
And that’s it for this weeks issue!
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