With major theater chains expected to remain closed indefinitely and no major releases on the horizon, DEG: The Digital Entertainment Group recently introduced the “Watched at Home Top 20” list, which would tally up the most popular titles consumed on disc and digital (excluding outside subscription-based streaming platforms). 

This week, Sony’s Bad Boys for Life repeated at #1 while Paramount’s Sonic the Hedgehog reclaimed the #2 spot, further establishing itself as the go-to choice for kids & family entertainment during this trying time. Rounding out the top five are Disney/Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, which dipped down to #3 for the first time, Sony’s Jumanji: The Next Level, and STX/Universal’s The Gentlemen.

As for the new releases, Warner Bros. Animation’s Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge was the only major new entrant, debuting at #17, which is definitely a promising development for upcoming animated releases, including the recently released Justice League Dark: Apokolips War. On another note, after dipping out last week, Disney’s Frozen II reentered the Top 20. 

For the week of May 7, here is the ‘Watched at Home Top 20’ list:

1. Bad Boys For Life (Sony)
2. Sonic the Hedgehog (Paramount)
3. Star Wars: Ep IX – Skywalker (Disney)
4. Jumanji: The Next Level (Sony)
5. The Gentlemen (STX/Universal, 2019)
6. Dolittle (Universal)
7. The Call of the Wild (Disney, 2020)
8. 1917 (Universal)
9. Little Women (Sony, 2019)
10. Birds of Prey: Harley Quinn (WB)
11. Underwater (Fox)
12. Like a Boss (Paramount)
13. Bloodshot (Sony, 2020)
14. The Way Back (WB, 2020)
15. Ip Man 4: The Finale (Well Go USA)
16. Knives Out (Lionsgate)
17. Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge (WB)
18. Spies in Disguise (Fox)
19. Frozen II (Disney)
20. Fantasy Island (Sony, 2020)

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Shortly after directing Chronicle, Josh Trank was being courted by just about every major studio in Hollywood. Among the projects he soon found himself linked to was Venom, but as we recently learned, Sony Pictures weren’t on board with the R-Rated vision he had for the iconic anti-hero.

Earlier today, we talked to Josh about his new film Capone starring Tom Hardy (which will be available on VOD on Tuesday, May 12), but I had to ask the filmmaker more about what direction he was planning to take Venom in. He started by explaining how he landed the job, and revealed that he’s actually a big fan of the character and artist Todd McFarlane’s interpretation of him.

“It’s funny [Laughs] because that came full circle. When Tom told me he was going to do Venom, I was like, ‘I was going to do Venom!’ [Laughs],” Trank explains, recalling conversations he had with Capone‘s star. “That was something I was really excited about. About a month after Chronicle came out, because I was doing all these general meetings with everybody, I met with Amy Pascal and the senior executives at Sony. It was a really cool meeting and Amy Pascal is really sweet and everybody there is really cool. They loved Chronicle and wanted to find a project that made sense, and Amy brought up Venom out of nowhere.”

“I’m a huge fan of Todd McFarlane in general and Venom was just a character I’ve always loved,” he continues. “I immediately thought about The Mask. This could be like a really cool synthesis of everything about The Mask that I loved, but infused into the lore of this iconic Marvel character.”

From there, things started moving quickly. “We were off to the races, we made a deal for it, and I was really excited. I brought on a very good friend of mine Robert Siegel, who was the writer and director of Big Fan, and he’s somebody who was a mentor of mine when I was much younger. He was also the original editor in chief of The Onion, a genius and somebody you would love to talk to. He has a great mind. Something he is great at is tapping into the most uncomfortable sides of a character portrait, but I definitely miscalculated being within the studio system with that kind of aesthetic. I thought this was an opportunity to make something really character-y, uncomfortable, and break ground in terms of having this super nuanced uncomfortable character story with the branding of a massive four quadrant superhero film. We turned in the treatment, and they didn’t like it. That kind of says everything, but the irony is that Tom ended up doing it later on.”

As for what the director thinks of the Venom movie that ended up finding its way into theaters, he admits to not having had chance to watch it yet, but is enthusiastic about seeing Hardy’s take on the character, especially as it, in many ways, relates to what he had planned for Eddie Brock. 

“I still haven’t had the opportunity to see it because I’ve been working on Capone as the sole editor, and I’ve been working on my own Tom Hardy movie this whole time and didn’t want to have any crossover with what they were doing. The fact Tom and I are so in sync with each other, it makes sense he would go into that using the perfect Jim Carrey as The Mask template type of character for Eddie Brock and Venom. I’m so happy it did as well as it did as it’s cool to know everyone loves Tom Hardy for that, and he’s one actor out there who’s really gonna go there while at the same time having real bona fide potential as an action star. It’s so rare.”

Despite missing out on Venom, Trank would go on to helm Fantastic Four, and the rest is history. However, he’s making a comeback in a big way with Capone, and you’ll be able to read our review of the film early next week. As for Venom, some fans loved it, and some hated it, but this complex take on the character the filmmaker describes sounds legitimately fascinating.

Next week, we’ll have more highlights from our interview, focusing on why Hardy was the right choice to play Al Capone and the filmmaker’s thoughts on potentially writing, directing and editing all his future projects after Fantastic Four. For now, you can check out the Capone trailer below!
 

Once a ruthless businessman and bootlegger who ruled Chicago with an iron fist, Alfonse Capone was the most infamous and feared gangster of American lore. At the age of 47, following nearly a decade of imprisonment, dementia rots Alfonse’s mind and his past becomes present. Harrowing memories of his violent and brutal origins melt into his waking life. As he spends his final year surrounded by family with the FBI lying in wait, this ailing patriarch struggles to place the memory of the location of millions of dollars he hid away on his property.

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Thanks to a fascinating profile over at Polygon, we now know a lot more about what Josh Trank went through with Fantastic Four. At the time, many of us were too wrapped up in the scandalous claims made about his work on the film to appreciate that he was a young filmmaker put in an unenviable spot by a studio system it’s hard for even the most experienced director to navigate.

It’s clear that there was more to the story than meets the eye and, to put it bluntly, he was obviously treated terribly by Fox and stopped from making the film he wanted. The fallout from that was, of course, significant, and it led to him walking away from a Boba Fett movie at Lucasfilm.

That’s all in the past now, though, and Trank is currently doing the rounds to promote his new film Capone starring Tom Hardy (which will be available on VOD on Tuesday, May 12). However, when we recently caught up with the filmmaker to discuss that movie, we had to ask what he had planned for the iconic bounty hunter and, unfortunately, NDAs mean he can’t say much! 

“The simple answer is, I signed so many NDAs that there would be no possible way I could discuss that in a responsible manner,” Trank admits. “What I would say is that as a filmmaker, why I’m so excited to be talking about [Capone] and why I’m so excited about everything going forward as opposed to where I was when I was working on Boba Fett and Fantastic Four and all of these other extremely high profile, very secretive projects, is the fact that I’m not a very secretive person by nature, and when you’re working on those kinds of movies, you’re not allowed to talk about anything you’re doing.”

“You also know that everybody who loves these movies and loves what you love, they want to know about what’s going on and you want to talk about it so desperately because you want to share that with everybody and you don’t want to close yourself off from the community of fandom that you relate to. There’s no way I can talk about any of that stuff, except that it was something that obviously I was so excited about,” he continues.

However, the director could talk a little about what it was like for him to be part of that Lucasfilm machine, even if it was only for a brief time. “The fact that all of the people at Lucasfilm I had the honour to work with for a little over two years are really close friends of mine to this day. We had so much fun together. The people who work up there in San Francisco are just the most creative, cool people I had ever gotten to work with before I started working on Fonzo [Capone’s original title].”

It’s a shame to think that we’ll never learn more about Trank’s ideas for Boba Fett, but still fascinating to hear what it was like to be part of a Star Wars movie. Next week, we’ll have more highlights from our interview, focusing on why Hardy was the right choice to play Al Capone and the filmmaker’s thoughts on potentially writing, directing and editing all his future projects after Fantastic Four.

You’ll also be able to read our review on Monday, and we’ll have some comments for you on his ideas for Venom later today as well. In the meantime, we want to extend a huge thank you to Josh for taking the time to talk to us, and you can check out the trailer for Capone in the player below:
 

Once a ruthless businessman and bootlegger who ruled Chicago with an iron fist, Alfonse Capone was the most infamous and feared gangster of American lore. At the age of 47, following nearly a decade of imprisonment, dementia rots Alfonse’s mind and his past becomes present. Harrowing memories of his violent and brutal origins melt into his waking life. As he spends his final year surrounded by family with the FBI lying in wait, this ailing patriarch struggles to place the memory of the location of millions of dollars he hid away on his property.

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Press Release

BURBANK, Calif. (May 7, 2020) – Disney+ has ordered the 8-episode series Just Beyond from writer Seth Grahame-Smith and produced by 20th Century Fox Television. The horror/comedy anthology, based on the best-selling BOOM! Studios graphic novel series from iconic children’s writer R.L. Stine (Goosebumps), was created by Grahame-Smith, who has a history of moving between horror and comedy as author of the bestselling novels Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, and screenwriter of Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows, The Lego Batman Movie and The Saint for director Dexter Fletcher and star Chris Pine.

“I grew up watching “Twilight Zone” reruns and the original “Amazing Stories” with my parents,” said Seth Grahame-Smith. “I’ve always wanted to make a genre anthology series that families could enjoy together, and do it in a way that delivered for kids and adults alike. R.L. Stine has been a part of millions of childhoods, and Disney+ has already proven itself as a place that knows how to make high-quality shows for the whole family. I couldn’t be more excited to be working with both of them.”

“Back in the day, we had a Goosebumps HorrorLand attraction at Walt Disney World,” said author R.L. Stine. “It was one of the thrills of my life. Now I’m thrilled to be back with Disney for the TV series based on my graphic novels. Writing “Just Beyond” for BOOM! Studios has been a joy from the beginning, and I’m so happy to have the wonderful screenwriter Seth Grahame-Smith bring the series to life on Disney+. How lucky can I be?”

A writers room is being assembled and the series is expected to come to Disney+ in the fall of 2021.

Grahame-Smith and David Katzenberg will produce through their KatzSmith Productions banner. KatzSmith is represented by WME and Ziffren Brittenham.

BOOM! Studios is represented by UTA and Matt Saver.

Just Beyond is produced by 20TH Century Fox Television, a part of Disney Television Studios. Seth Grahame-Smith will serve as writer and executive producer alongside David Katzenberg, Stephen Christy and Ross Richie.  R.L. Stine is attached as co-executive producer.

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The Czech Republic and Prague have brought in some new regulations which will allow productions to resume there immediately. That’s good news for The Falcon and The Winter Soldier after the series was forced to leave the country when the global COVID-19 pandemic started worsening.

While productions will be exempted from certain restrictions, foreign actors and crew members will have to show a negative test result before leaving the country and entering Czech Republic. They will then be given a second test upon arriving, and will only remain quarantined for a maximum of 72 hours (which is much different to the fourteen days which applies to other visitors). 

The new regulations were drawn up by the Czech Audiovisual Producers’ Association in cooperation with the Czech Film Fund and the European Institute for Health and Safety in Film Industry.

As well as this Marvel Studios series, Amazon has Carnival Row and The Wheel of Time in production there, while Netflix was working on 473 Transatlantic and Margret. Justin Kurzel’s war thriller Ruin starring Margot Robbie is another major one, but the hope among comic book fans will obviously be that The Falcon and The Winter Soldier is now able to premiere in August. 

Prague has had a relatively low number of COVID-19 cases, so it’s feasible a studio like Disney will be happy to return to work there, but whether that extends to cast and crew is hard to say. 

Still, this definitely bodes well when it comes to The Falcon and The Winter Soldier arriving on the streaming service as planned at the end of the summer. As with everything, it’s now a waiting game.

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While doing press for her upcoming film Castle in the Ground, horror icon and legendary final girl Neve Cambell sat down with Rotten Tomatoes and revealed that she has already had preliminary talks with the filmmakers behind Spyglass Media’s upcoming Scream reboot, which may now actually be shaping up to be a sequel – the fifth film in the main continuity. 

She tells RT, in an interview that will publish in full next week, “We’re having conversations – I have been approached about it, the timing’s a bit challenging because of COVID. You know, we only started the conversation maybe a month and a half ago, so it’s going to take some time to figure out how it’s all going to work out…. We’re negotiating, so we’ll see.”

It was reported in early March that Spyglass Media had enlisted Ready or Not directors Matthew Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett to helm the new film and it sounds like the directing duo have already made quite the impression on Campbell. She says, “The two directors wrote me a very touching letter about Wes Craven and how he was such an inspiration to them and how they really want to honor him, and that meant a great, great deal to me. So we’ll see. Hopefully, we can all see eye to eye on the project and find a way to make it.”

Campbell later continued, “I’m so grateful for these films… I love Sidney Prescott. It’s always fun for me to step back in her shoes, and it’s always fun for me to see the cast come back and make one of these films again and try to make another good one.”

The first four extremely successful films were all directed by horror legend Wes Craven with Kevin Williamson writing three of them, including the game-changing first installment, and starred Campbell in the lead role as Sidney Prescott with Courteney Cox and David Arquette also appearing in every installment.

In lieu of a Scream 5, the series was given a small-screen reboot on MTV in 2015, but it was canceled after two seasons and later revived on VH1 where it aired its final season last year.

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