Steven Spielberg is responsible for a number of classic films over the years including the likes of Jaws, Jurassic Park, E.T., and even Hook. In regards to the latter, we recently spoke with Dante Basco, the actor who is best-known for having portrayed Rufio in the film.

Over the years Basco has gained additional fame for such roles as Prince Zuko in Avatar: The Last Airbender and he was recently cast in Twitch’s scripted sci-fi interactive series Artificial: Remote Intelligence. When we spoke to Dante about his experience on the show, we couldn’t help but to ask a few questions about his time acting alongside Robin Williams.

In addition to learning some interesting tidbits about the movie, we also asked about the prequel that Basco worked on called Bangarang, which we’ve included at the bottom of the article below the audio portion of the interview. Check out what the actor had to say in his comments below!

Joe: I was chatting with my friend Noah, and he had told me a little bit about a short film you had done called Bangarang which is a prequel for Rufio. Can you tell me a little bit about that?

Dante Basco: Oh yeah! I was approached by some filmmakers, Jonah Feingold, who is a USC Grad with his production team. He grew up with Hook and it’s one of his favorite films so we met at a club in Los Angelos and he pitched me the full short and I said let’s collaborate and do it! So we raised some money for it and it actually went viral so now there are some things in the works for the development and finishing a Rufio origin story.

Joe: That’s awesome man, everyone loves Rufio!

Dante Basco: Yeah man, if we can get that off the ground, that’ll be awesome. I think people will be pretty excited about it.

Joe: Yeah, definitely. I think Rufio is the perfect entry point to revive this franchise for a younger generation.

Dante Basco: Totally.

Joe: Now we had talked a little before about how Robin Williams helped you get into poetry. I was curious about the scene where the two of you traded insults back and forth and whether that was off-the-cuff or if it was scripted? And how many takes did it take?

Dante Basco: It was scripted! I don’t remember all the takes with it being so long ago, but it was definitely a full day’s work. It was scripted, but you know with the way Robin is, he’s really like the godfather of improv for film and television, at least at that time he was one of the pioneers doing all of that. So we had to be on our toes to do the scripted version and then to just roll with it and keep up with someone who has such world renown, you know, he was one of the greats.

Joe: Sure, and speaking of greats, what was it like to act under Steven Speilberg at such a young age?

Dante Basco: Yeah, I mean, again, I was very fortunate to be amongst some of the literal legends and gods of our industry and I didn’t take it lightly you know? I was fifteen at the time and I had been studying since I was ten so I knew who all of those people were and I was a huge fan of things like E.T. and Close Encounters and so many things, especially with Robin Williams. So many things were going on and I was there watching. And you know, with Dustin Hoffman being one of the greats, I would just come to set on my days off in order to study and watch the greats work.

Joe: And your hard work definitely paid off. Which would you say you get recognized for more, Rufio or Prince Zuko?

Dante Basco: Thanks man. It’s a generational thing. I think for my whole life I’ve been “Rufio” to the world at large longer than I haven’t been. So I can get into Bangarang chats any day of the week and I think a lot of people recognize me as Rufio, as a “90’s baby”. And then the newer generation that knows me as Prince Zuko is kind of a phenomenon that happened 15 years later, so honestly it’s kind of even depending on where I’m at and the generation of people that I’m around.

Joe: Do you feel like you get cast in these hothead roles like Rufio and Zuko?

Dante Basco: To a degree, you know. I’ve been in all kinds of roles over the last thirty years but I’m usually cast as a hot head guy or a rival to whoever the hero may be. I guess my more popular roles from when I was a kid are the hotheaded bad boy roles like Rufio and Zuko.

What do you guys think of these comments from Dante Basco? If you want to hear the audio component, check out the podcast episode below and make sure you share your thoughts with us in the comments section!

Every story has a beginning. Elle, Sebastian, Ruby, and Justin begin the new journey of the AI to be named. Catch up on the story, and jump in.

Artificial is a Live and Interactive Science Fiction series where the audience changes the story. It is the first original sci-fi series on Twitch and was the winner of the 2019 Primetime Emmy Award for Innovation in Interactive Media.

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Beyond The Trailer’s Grace Randolph recently caught up with director Zack Snyder to talk Justice League, and the filmmaker specifically elaborated on his plans for Superman in the Snyder Cut. In Joss Whedon’s theatrical version, many of Henry Cavill’s scenes were the result of reshoots, so Snyder’s plans for the Man of Steel are a mystery for the most part. 

Talking about making the character more relatable, Snyder explained that there’s a certain responsibility with bringing the most iconic of DC’s heroes to the big screen. 

“Superman is such an abstract character, in his powers and what he’s able to do. Anytime you can kind of bring him back down to Earth, he becomes a lot more relatable, and for that he’s more interesting,” Snyder explained. “A huge respect for his  moral code, and I think his ultimate place as the top of the pyramid of the DC superhero world. In the end, he has to achieve that pinnacle.”

Quizzed if he plans to take Superman to that “pinnacle” in the version of Justice League coming to HBO Max, the director added: “I always felt like that was what I was doing. Now like with the resurrection sort of theme, concept. You know, who is he now? What is he? When you touch the eternal, in the sense that coming back from the grave. How are we changed by that?”

In other words, it’s sounding like Snyder has big plans to address what becomes of Superman after he’s brought back from the dead, something Whedon glossed over for the most part in his film. We can probably also expect this to tie into those “Knightmare” flash forwards in some fashion!

Click HERE for more Zack Snyder’s Justice League news from CBM!

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If you’ve checked Twitter today, chances are you will have seen #ReleaseTheAyerCut trending. Whether Warner Bros. (and more specifically HBO Max) will take note of that remains to be seen, but the #ReleaseTheSnyderCut campaign certainly ended up paying off for Justice League fans. 

Suicide Squad was clearly supposed to be a very different movie to the one that ended up in theaters back in 2016, and rumors have persisted for some time about an alternate final battle involving Jared Leto’s Joker. Lots of teases have been shared about that in recent months, and a handful of images have even been shared online showing the burned up Clown Prince of Crime. 

The latest comes in the form of a script page share by director David Ayer himself which details Joker threatening to detonate the bombs in the necks of each member of Task Force X. 

Joker demands that Harley Quinn gives him Katana’s sword, the Soultaker, but it seems likely this was the moment she decided to remain loyal to her fellow villains rather than go back to her abusive “Puddin’.” Unfortunately, Ayer has yet to share any additional pages from the Ayer Cut’s screenplay.

This is bound to get fans talking, however, and will only further encourage the #ReleaseTheAyerCut movement!

Click HERE for more Suicide Squad news from CBM!
 

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A lot has changed in the DC Extended Universe since Zack Snyder was working on Justice League, and films like Aquaman, Shazam!, and Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey have pointed to Warner Bros. having moved on from the storylines set in place by the filmmaker during those early years.

When Zack Snyder’s Justice League arrives on HBO Max in early to mid-2021, it’s unlikely to affect future movies set in the DCEU. Instead, the movie/limited series is almost certainly going to be standalone in nature, and Snyder himself has now clarified how it fits into the larger picture.

In an interview with Beyond The Trailer’s Grace Randolph, Snyder explained that his “main focus” is to finish the arc he started with 2013’s Man of Steel and acknowledged that the theatrical cut (which he still has not seen) is likely “tighter in continuity” than his version of Justice League. 

“Frankly, the DC cinematic universe has branched like a tree and blossomed and grown in amazing and great ways,” the filmmaker began. “But for me, where [Justice League’] falls, I believe that it really sort of represents its own path. It’s kind of separate now from the DC cinematic universe continuity. And I think that’s a good thing.”

It sounds like Snyder believes his Justice League now exists in its own separate universe, and it could lead to stories from this world continuing on HBO Max in any number of spinoff films/TV shows.

Click HERE for more Zack Snyder’s Justice League news from CBM!

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With so much secrecy surrounding Warner Bros.’ plans for the DC Extended Universe on HBO Max, it’s hard to know what to expect from the streaming service and this comic book world. One persistent, and very hard to believe, rumour is that Ben Affleck will reprise the role of Batman in a limited series also starring Joe Manganiello as Deathstroke. 

A show like that would obviously serve as The Batman movie Affleck once planned to direct. However, not only is it hard to imagine the actor reprising the role, it’s also impossible to imagine this coming to HBO Max when there’s already a prequel to Matt Reeves’ own take on The Batman. 

Regardless, it’s definitely a nice thought, and artist Bosslogic has shared a couple of very cool fan posters imagining what such a series could look like. Look closely, and you’ll notice that it also teases possible appearances from The Joker and The Riddler, and the fact we missed out on this battle between the Dark Knight and Deathstroke will never not sting! 

Affleck is likely to return for ADR work for Zack Snyder’s Justice League, while Manganiello’s original post-credits scene as Slade Wilson is bound to also be included in that, so that’s something. 

Check out the posters below:
 

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