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38,791 (Jan-Dec 2017) 32,154 Print 6,637 Digital MATTHEWLEYLAND JORDANFARLEY MATTMAYTUM REVIEWSEDITOR NEWSEDITOR DEPUTYEDITOR Wasmetbyhordesof HighlightofTIFF– MyinterviewwithJason fansataswankySoho witnessingJamieLeeCurtis Momoawasinterruptedby lunchjustasIwasreaching taketothestageafter anLAthunderstorm“You’re formySharpieIsaw Halloween’smidnight inthesafestroombro–I’ve theyweretherefor premiereThewalkhomeat gotyou”hequippedlike JustinBieber… amwasaknee-knocker atruesuperhero Future plc is a public Chief executive Zillah Byng-Maddick company quoted on the Non-executive chairman Richard Huntingford London Stock Exchange Chief ˡnance ofˡcer Penny Ladkin-Brand (symbol: FUTR) www.futureplc.com Tel +44 (0)1225 442 244
NOVEMBER 2018 | TOTAL FILM ContentsNOVEMBER THIS ISSUE TEASERS
60 AQUAMAN 11 ROBIN HOOD Total Film heads into the Will Taron Egerton’s edit bay and meets the arrow hit the bullseye? team behind the superhero 14 SUSPIRIA movie that’s not really a superhero movie at all… Fiy shades of red in the horror remake. 70 FANTASTIC BEASTS 16 YOU TALKIN’ The Crimes Of Grindelwald TO ME? cast assemble to spill secrets on witchcra, Ben Schwartz babbles. wizardry and baby nifflers. 18 ALITA: 76 WIDOWS BATTLE ANGEL On the Chicago set Clap your (giant) eyes of Steve McQueen’s on this first look. electrifying thriller, aka 22 THE OLD MAN Women On The Verge & THE GUN Of A Nervous Break-in. Robert Redford’s going out in style as a craggy crim. 80 WHITE BOY RICK Mahew McConaughey 27 IT SHOULDN’T and co on the jaw-dropping HAPPEN TO A true crime story. FILM JOURNALIST 84 2001: A SPACE Jamie discusses the ups ODYSSEY and downs of screening Christopher Nolan explains links for critics. why he restored one of the 30 CHRISTMAS PREVIEW greatest sci-fi films ever. Festive fancies jingling Plus, insight from those your way. who were there in ’68. TOTAL FILM EVERY ISSUE BUFF
3 EDITOR’S LETTER 116 IS IT BOLLOCKS? Selfies with Aquaman and The Meg – true story the highlights of TIFF. or old wives’ Shark Tale? 7 DIALOGUE 117 DEATHS BY All your missives and HOUSEHOLD OBJECT musings in our postbag. Ignominious offings. 88 TOTAL FILM 120 THE ’00S INTERVIEW The final stop in our An audience with decades deconstruction. the straight-talking future Joker, 130 60-SECOND Joaquin Phoenix. SCREENPLAY The Predator is 60 in our laser-sight.
44 UNDERWATERLOVE TFgetswetsuitedandbooted totalkAquamanwithJason MomoaAmberHeardand therestoftheDCgang
TOTAL FILM | NOVEMBER 2018 SUBSCRIBEATWWWTOTALFILMCOM/SUBS 11
70
BIG SCREEN 76 42 WIDOWS Viola Davis and crew ‘IT’SAWORLD have a score to sele. 44 HALLOWEEN WE’VENEVER Was this a horror franchise worth reviving? SEENBEFORE’ 45 THE HATE U GIVE Should you choose the THUG life? 46 BAD TIMES AT THE EL ROYALE Drew Goddard’s latest is worth checking in to. 49 OVERLORD J.J. Abrams produces, but it’s not a Cloverfield movie.
50 VENOM Tom Hardy’s Marvel movie has a split personality. 53 PETERLOO Mike Leigh’s most ambitious film yet couldn’t be more timely.
SMALL SCREEN
98 INCREDIBLES 2 The ultimate family flick 80 arrives on home-ent with superpowered extras. 100 JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM Strife finds a way yet again, but how do the giant dinos hold up on the telly? 102 2001 The ‘unrestored’ Kubrick classic arrives on Ultra HD Blu-ray. Prime your eyeballs for the ultimate trip. 104 EXTRAS Geekify your kitchen with a Star Wars cookbook and Game Of Thrones scotch. 108 ON DEMAND Some big-hiers ready to stream, including Apostle 84 and 22 July.
GAMESRADARCOM/TOTALFILM NOVEMBER 2018 | TOTAL FILM
EMAILtotalfilm@futurenetcomWRITETotalFilm thFloor EmersonStudios -EmersonStreet London SE DU postaladdresseswillbeusedforthesolepurposeofsendingoutprizesgamesradarcom/totalfilm twiercom/totalfilmfacebookcom/totalfilmDropusalinetotalfilm@futurenetcom
TF’SCINEMATICAGONY UNCLEHASYOURBACK
DEAR WINGMAN, Your (great) feature ‘20 Songs 7KDW'HÀQHG&LQHPD·>7)@ JRWPHWRWKLQNLQJ«LVWKHUHD VRQJWKDWKDVEHHQ RYHU XVHGLQ ÀOPV")RUPHWKHRQHVRQJWKDW FRPHVWRPLQGLV¶%H\RQG7KH 6HD·ZKLFKIRUDWLPHSRSSHG STAR LETTER XSLQHYHU\WKLQJIURPBlack Rain become a movie, an app, an escape OHMOTHER… to GoodFellasDQGFRQWLQXHVLQ Just had an inspired brainwave room…). Eleanor and everyone with AmandaSeyfried HYHU\WKLQJZDWHUUHODWHGIURP + and intend to speak to Benny and a letter printed here will receive a steelsherselffor Finding Nemo to The Meg. Björn about it… Mamma Mia 3! I’d pack copy of the searing Sicario 2: Soldado, anotherflashback it with Abba showstoppers not already available on digital download from 7KRXJK,·PVXUH%REE\'DULQ·V used in the first two movies: so plenty 22 October and 4K UHD, Steelbook, HVWDWHLVQ·WFRPSODLQLQJ« of unforgettable B-sides, album fillers Blu-ray and DVD from 29 October via PHIL LAWRENCE, STEVENAGE we skip and formulaic toe-tappers that Lionsgate. Didn’t send an address? wingman says… sound a bit like the big hits but were Email it! See Del Toro, watch Brolin, never quite as good. All shoehorned digging the action scenes… 2KWKHUH·VHQRXJKWRÀOOD into a hotel re-re-opening party with WULSOHDOEXP ¶1RZ7KDW·V a bit of how’s and who’s your father, PACKING HEAT :KDW,&DOO7KDW6RQJ)URP along with the amazing Cher playing ’ve noticed something in movies 7KDW)LOP· ¶6ZHHW+RPH a great-grandmother and her 17-year- Iand TV shows that happens $ODEDPD·¶0U%OXH6N\· old self in a flashback sequence… whenever anyone needs to start a fire. ¶*LPPH6KHOWHU·¶$OO6WDU· Voulez-vous wanna see that?!? Whether intentionally or on the spur of ¶$XOG/DQJ6\QH·¶+DSS\ ELEANOR PALMER, VIA EMAIL the moment, nine out of 10 people have %LUWKGD\7R
GAMESRADARCOM/TOTALFILM NOVEMBER 2018 | TOTAL FILM TOTALFILMONLINE @TOTALFILM CAINE-ING IT bit.ly/2P4pACt Here at TF Towers, one theme has dominated 2018: pulverising cakes with mallets. This King Of Thieves number saw us get away with a major break-in (before necking the evidence). Lovessweets does choreswhataguy JOAQUIN PLAYS HIS JOKER bit.ly/2y8oePN onto the fuel source – even though I feel most reviews nowadays of big, “Shows they’re aiming for they’ve not smoked a fag all through franchise movies (Star Wars, Marvel) a Ledger feel,” admired Alan the movie/24-episode series. Maybe will lead me down one of two very Barbarin of the first still from the it’s just me who doesn’t have any opposing paths – those who LOVED Joker film. “He looks like a creative writing instructor,” fire-lighting equipment in my pocket… it and those who HATED it. What said @BarryDAlbrecht. Just, um, kidding? DEV ORTON, LEEDS happened to balance? SIMON ELLIOTT, VIA EMAIL WHO SHOULD BE SUPERMAN NEXT? Like the saying doesn’t go, where bit.ly/2zLskzb there’s no fag smoke, there’s fire. We’re all about balance at TF Towers. “Ray Winstone” (@corconian); And any lighter seen early doors in a Reviewers are encouraged to tattoo “Deadpool” (@NukaWoelk); movie will be handsomely engraved their knuckles with ‘love’ and ‘hate’ “Me” (@Neil_Dev78). Lots of
with a sentimental message/symbol/ à la The Night Of The Hunter, which support for Cavill to stay Supes, though @chemalino one half of the nuclear codes, not oddly seems to give us first dibs on suggested: “Daniel Craig. Straight swap with Bond.” some disposable tat. We need to the Doritos in screening rooms. Solo, update ‘Chekhov’s Gun’ to ‘Chekhov’s meanwhile, is what we refer to as – DARK PHOENIX TRAILER: DISCUSS Zippo’: “A lighter seen in act one will and this is very technical stuff, so pay bit.ly/2y7AT5D later be used to set off the sprinklers attention – a ‘low four’, which means “I thought it was great,” said and/or immolate the vampire king.” it’s a stand-out scene (or two) short Yiorgos Perris, following through of a ‘solid four’, but a meme-able with four exclamation marks. TENTPOLES APART one-liner (or two) ahead of a ‘high Others weren’t so sure: “Not happy with no Wolverine,” question. In relation to tentpole three’. There’s a chart explaining it said Jonnyb57, but “I’ll probably watch it.” Amovies, has film critique followed all in the TF kitchen; it’s like an eye politics/social media and lost the ability test designed by The Matrix. SOLO: A STAR AWWS STORY to find the middle ground? Can a movie bit.ly/2Qocb8A like Solo: A Star Wars Story, whose recent TALKING THE HAWKE Last month it was giant sharks; Small Screen review included the line, enjoyed reading the ‘Between this month it’s wookiees. TF’s toy “The plot is almost an afterthought. ITakes’ interview with Ethan Hawke collection is as hard as they come. The real story here is a sequence of in TF277. Given his film roles, I was Mind you, this furry fella looks as likely to lick your face nods to Star Wars history,” really be perhaps wrongly expecting someone and leave you limbless. Bring it in, fuzzball! a four-star film? Although your great a bit different. But he seems like a mag often proves the exception, normal guy, talking about getting on CAPTAIN MARVEL TRAILER: THOUGHTS? bit.ly/2NdQMwB “The wait was worth it… now OFFICE SPACED just gonna have to sit here until Chatter ‘gems’ overheard in the Total Film office this month… March.” (Stephen White) “How long is she going to wear the ugly green costume in the film?” (r1dogz) *“HadaGeorgeLucasdreamhepatted CAKEY RICH ASIANS melikeIwasChewie” “Jane!There’s bit.ly/2zMIMzs * Readers, we married them. The anothersharkinthecupboard!” cakes. We married the cakes. Well, “YesitisanarseButit’saonetimearse” that’s what we assume the ring * was for on these Crazy Rich treats. They’re what we’ve *“I’mtropicalMattisfuzzypeaches” always wanted (since they binned the vending machine).
TOTAL FILM | NOVEMBER 2018 SUBSCRIBEATWWWTOTALFILMCOM/SUBS GET A FREE ISSUE OF Start your 30-day trial today on iPad, iPhone or Android SEARCHFORTOTALFILM ONYOURDEVICE
with people at work, having an Achilles heel for sweets (don’t we all?) and always having loads to do at home. It got me wondering, who else has come across as really down to Earth in interviews, and who’s a bit off-piste? but then [in TF277] you go further and blockbusters, we never knowingly FUNNYHOW? CHRIS GARLICK, PONTYPRIDD reveal a vital plot element: Predators back a loser; and while we remain Predslovesanexcuse in army cargos! Semi-ruined the film a broad church, our populist bent topullouthisJoe Well, that would be air-kissing and before it was even out! Oh, and can does mean we’re more likely to Pesciimpression telling, wouldn’t it? We’d be lying if we please stop doing BIG pieces on put a Spidey or Stath on the we didn’t say the odd interviewee has blockbusters that turn out shite, while stain-glassed windows. left us, well, piste-off; but the vast little-known gems get five-star corner majority are civil, accommodating, reviews? Just a thought. Otherwise, PLOTTING DEVICES really interesting, smell great and… keep up the good work. ’ve finally watched the why yes, we would like 10 minutes PAUL FLANAGAN, VIA EMAIL Ioriginal Predator for the longer than all the other journalists, first time and the thermal that would be smashing. Have you ne question: is The Predator vision got me thinking. been away? You look radiant! Oa comedy? Throughout the years we’ve JOHN BASKERVILLE, BIRMINGHAM had many interesting villains KILLING TIME with different skills and ell, I’ve just seen Well, not in the Bridget Jones’s abilities that’ve come out of WThe Predator. Filled HAVE Diary sense, but yes, Black nowhere. My question is, what with excitement, I sat did seem as keen on villain’s gadgets and abilities are down ready to watch YOUR SAY funny-bone-tickling as your favourite? Not the best, just the movies’ greatest gamesradar.com/ spinal-column-stripping. the ones you found fun to watch. killing machine (apart totalfilm As it turns out – anti- KYBER 73, VIA EMAIL ĥL?:;EIĥĥH;L?;MIĥĥ from Jaws). Shane Black ĥJH7?B;HIĥĥD;MIĥĥĥĥ spoiler warning! - the bit said he looked to the original with Preds in army pants Despicable Me’s Gru has some corkers; for inspiration. All I can say is didn’t make it to the final cut; every time we go in John Lewis we he must have been in a pissed-off shame, we’d love to have seen them idly hope to buy a fart gun or squid mood about being offed first, because looking like the world’s angriest All launcher, only to come away with a the new film is absolutely awful. Saints tribute act. As for big, shite new dustpan. Damn you, adulthood! What was he thinking? An absolute joke of a film which had so much potential. I feel let down as I’m GET THE BEST sure lots of others will too. DANNY, BAGSHOT Print PACKAGE JUST * Free Zavvi t-shirt worth £14.99 lthough I love a good update £11 * Massive savings on the cover price EVERY 3 Aon upcoming films, I’ve noticed * Subscriber-only magazine content MONTHS that The Predator has made it on to * Exclusive subscriber-only covers your cover several times in the last few Visit www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/zavvi18film months. Half a page here and there…
GAMESRADARCOM/TOTALFILM NOVEMBER 2018 | TOTAL FILM
COMINGATTRACTIONS
A horror film with class p14 The year’s most controversial film p26 Meet Marvel’s newest hero p20 A Christmas classic in the making p30 EDITED BY JORDAN FARLEY
EXCLUSIVE Boy in the hood
ROBINHOOD I Is a cool cast led by Taron Egerton enough to justify TAKINGABOW TaronEgertonstars yet another take on Sherwood’s mythical outlaw? Teasers investigates. asthedo-gooding thiefinaradical hen the trailer dropped for Otto Bathurst’s revisionist Robin – which had a mixed reception, but reimaginingof Hood – starring Taron Egerton – confusion reigned, with the has to be said did very good business.” theBritlegend Mediterranean-looking Nottingham and machine-stitched But is that a reason simply to W hoodies greeted grumpily by cynics. “If you bring any regurgitate Robin once more? With historical expectation, you’re going to be very angry within 10 seconds,” an impressive career in TV – helming says Bathurst, in London’s Soho Hotel. The British director is fully aware episodes of Peaky Blinders and Black that his take on Robin Hood will antagonise purists. “It’s got some edge to Mirror – did Bathurst really want to it, it’s got a voice,” he argues. “It’s very different to any other [version].” risk his feature debut on this? “My take on the Robin Hood story was initially: Since the silent movie era, was reluctant when he was first ‘Really? Another one? Why does the Nottingham’s iconic robber of the approached. “I remember the email: world need another Robin Hood story?’” rich has reappeared on screen every ‘Are you interested in playing Robin It’s a point that was made to the decade, played by everyone from Errol Hood?’ And I said, ‘No,’” admits the cast, notes Jamie Dornan, the Fifty Flynn to Kevin Costner. Most recently Kingsman star, when TF meets him Shades star who signed on to play it was Russell Crowe in Ridley Scott’s in New York’s Mandarin Hotel. “It felt Robin’s peer Will Scarlet. “And then 2010 movie. No wonder Egerton too soon, post the Russell Crowe one he saw the opportunity to make it
GAMESRADARCOM/TOTALFILM NOVEMBER 2018 | TOTAL FILM something that is his own. Even from Rickman in 1991 gem Robin Hood: Prince the trailer, you can tell it’s nothing like Of Thieves? “A huge portion of our a Robin Hood movie that you’d expect.” audience will never have seen the Kevin Bathurst’s Robin Hood is a fast- Costner movie,” the director shrugs. paced origin story showing how Robin “It’s a very, very different movie. Ben of Loxley became the outlaw Hood Mendelsohn’s sheriff is much darker as he returns from the Crusades with – there’s no cancelling of Christmas.” feelings of vengeance towards the Foxx compares it to another film corrupt crown. “I think what we tried he starred in, Quentin Tarantino’s to do, to make this one different, is Django Unchained, “which was a story reach a younger audience that are used set in slavery [times], but it really to playing videogames and watching wasn’t about slavery.” Likewise, Robin superhero films,” adds Eve Hewson, Hood shakes off the shackles of its who plays Maid Marian. “We tried to predecessors. “When we were shooting, make Robin a superhero in a way.” I didn’t think about any other Robin The director wanted to get past Hoods. We were cooking in a whole the usual “myopic” Hollywood view different way. Literally, when you see of Robin. “My take on it is you don’t that opening scene, you go, ‘What the become a legend for 600 years if all fuck am I watching?’” that you’ve done is stolen a few bags Syria-set, this visceral sequence of money from some rich people sees Robin and Little John at the and given it to some poor people,” Crusades pinned down by a Saracen he says. “That’s not enough for major sniper. “It feels like Black Hawk Down,” legendary status. Clearly this guy was says Bathurst, who desperately wanted a militarised anarchist, a truth seeker, to contemporise Robin’s adventures. a freedom fighter, a justice warrior.” He also visualised the horse-set action If Robin is the like car chases
mythical and re-imagined rabble-rouser Nottingham writ large in ‘ITRESONATES as “the political, folklore, it’s why WITHPEOPLE financial and Bathurst was cultural centre LOVEANDWAR finally convinced HUNGRYFOR of Europe” to PaulAndersonas another telling make the story thesheriff’shead was relevant. HIGH-OCTANE feel bigger. henchmanGuyof Egerton concurs. Further twists Gisbornetop EveHewsonas “There is a SUPERHEROFARE’ include Robin’s MaidMarian relationship growing gap TARONEGERTON above between how with Will Scarlet. wealthy people are, an inflating sense “They’re not friends and it’s not the LAWAND of wealth in the one per cent. I think half-brother thing,” reveals Dornan. DISORDER in a climate like that, there is space Instead, he’s something of a rival BenMendelsohn for a Robin Hood story.” – notably for the affections of astheSheriff But will this be enough to convince Marian. “There is a cool, interesting, ofNottingham cinemagoers to accept a new Robin complicated love triangle that’s going JamieDornan asWillScarlet after so many incarnations? “Audiences on,” says Hewson, who promises centre forget quickly. Just look at Spider- Marian isn’t merely decoration. “She’s Man,” argues Egerton. “We’ve tried not pushed around by the guys.” to make a myth feel like something While there was a delay in the that resonates with an audience that release date, the film is now going are so thirsty and hungry for high- up against the Fantastic Beasts sequel, octane superhero fare. And I really suggesting a confidence that Robin Hood feel we’ve succeeded.” could be the start of a franchise. Rather than go for A-list, Bathurst “Hopefully we get a chance to make has cast intriguingly. “When you some more within this series,” nods want to really re-version something, Dornan. And if they don’t? “I would bet everything is open,” he says. It’s why the ranch on the fact that after us there he went for Jamie Foxx as Robin’s ally will be another re-telling of Robin Hood. Little John, here re-fashioned with It’s just one of those characters.” JM Moorish origins. Meanwhile, Rogue One’s Ben Mendelsohn is the Sheriff ETA | 21 NOVEMBER / ROBIN HOOD of Nottingham. Can he match Alan OPENS NEXT MONTH.
TOTAL FILM | NOVEMBER 2018 NOTTSBOUNTY JamieFoxxis anall-action LittleJohn andRobin’s gung-hoally
GAMESRADARCOM/TOTALFILM NOVEMBER 2018 | TOTAL FILM ‘ARGENTOSAIDHISMOVIE WASFEROCIOUSANDWILD ANDMYMOVIEIS INTELLECTUALANDTENDER!’ LUCAGUADAGNINO
EXCLUSIVE Dance Macabre SUSPIRIAI Luca Guadagnino’s remake casts a spell…
alermo, 1985.” Luca Guadagnino remembers exactly where he was when he first saw Dario Argento’s 1977 horror masterpiece Suspiria. “It was the living room of my family home and I was all P alone. It was 9 o’clock in the evening. I was scared and shocked.” Now it’s his turn to crank up the scares with this chilling and challenging remake of Argento’s vivid supernatural tale.
Hot off his Oscar-nominated Call Me by Thom Yorke, the first time the By Your Name, Guadagnino has gathered Radiohead frontman has ever written a strong female cast led by his star from a soundtrack. “I felt this movie needed 2015’s A Bigger Splash, Dakota Johnson. the voice of our generation, for the music “An actress who never goes for the of this film.” How did he get Yorke? obvious,” she plays Susie Bannion, “I always ask! I try! Sometimes you an American dancer who joins a Berlin succeed, sometimes you don’t!” dance academy hiding a witches’ coven. With the cast including Argento’s While it’s almost an hour longer than original star Jessica Harper and Chloë the original, Guadagnino does not feel Grace Moretz, Guadagnino’s muse his version is so different. “I like to think Tilda Swinton plays multiple roles, this film is a sibling, a cousin, a member including an ageing male shrink (under of the Argento family,” he says. Argento prosthetics and credited to the fictional even gave his blessing after seeing Lutz Ebersdorf). “Our aim was to have the remake. “He said his movie was a new face born on screen,” he grins. ferocious and wild and my movie is “That’s what I can tell you.” JM intellectual and tender!” This may come from the exhilarating ETA | 16 NOVEMBER / SUSPIRIA OPENS choreography by Damien Jalet and score NEXT MONTH.
NOVEMBER 2018 | TOTAL FILM REX
school, I could dunk a softball. And every year since then, I’ve gotten further and further away from my YOU TALKIN’ TO ME? goal of dunking a basketball. Film quotes pose as questions. Film stars try to cope. You either surf or fight… Get me and my arch-nemesis on a longboard, put us in the ocean, and let us scuffle it out. Whoever falls off first INTHECROSSHAIRSTHISMONTHBENSCHWARTZ is the loser, American Gladiators-style.
Do you like what you do for a living, Are you talkin’ to me? these things that you see? I am, in fact, talking to you from a Tesla I love what I do for a living. The biggest SpaceX rocket. I’m going towards the appeal of [Blue Iguana] was Sam sky. I shouldn’t even have brought it up, Rockwell. I think Sam is truly one of but I appreciate your candour and acting the best actors. This was before he won like it’s not blowing your mind. an Oscar, so I was on it way before then. But the other thing was to play in one Do you feel lucky, punk? of these heist movies that I watched I do. I feel like I’m pretty lucky to be growing up, and to also have that British in this business in the first place, and flare to it. It’s so fun that I get to fire a I picked up a heads-up penny moments gun, or be that clumsy idiot, or talk too ago, and immediately after an anvil just much shit. It was all those components. missed me. So I do feel very lucky lately. What would you do if you knew you You talk the talk, do you walk had less than one minute to live? the walk? I would google “coolest things to do I made a big deal of being like The Rock, in under 60 seconds”. That would
and I haven’t even been to the gym this probably be the end of my minute. week. So, I guess that’s a personal attack on me and I’m not psyched about it. What’s in California? A lot of smog, but also Teslas. What’s the last thing that you So it’s weird. You’re not quite certain do remember? what’s happening. I remember waking up, and then I had all these different words on my body Why don’t you turn that frizzown telling me what to do. So the last thing upside-dizity? I remember was looking down, and [laughs] You’re right. I think that’s it said “call this number” on my arm. ‘I’MSTILLINAWETHATPEOPLE a beautiful sentence, and you’re right, You’re calling out my lack of memory. I will. The idea that I’ve been feeling sad This is a very aggressive interview. LOVEJEAN-RALPHIOIT’SME for one second makes me want to feel TURNINGINTOACARTOON’ happy again. I’m still in awe that people Have you ever danced with the love [Parks And Recreation’s] Jean- devil in the pale moonlight? When you can live forever, Ralphio. If you watch that character, I have, and he’s unbelievable at what do you live for? it’s me slowly turning into a cartoon. cha-cha. The movement and pizzazz I guess retweets and likes. Is that I had so much fun doing it. JF of the devil? I cannot recommend all anybody cares about now? doing it enough. ETA | OUT NOW / BLUE IGUANA IS AVAILABLE Why so serious? NOW ON BLU-RAY, DVD AND ON DEMAND. You ever have that feeling where Because I want to have a real interview. you’re not sure if you’re awake I don’t want to go goofing off. I want Schwartzwith or still dreaming? to make sure that you know I’m being SamRockwell Yes. There’s a term for it: sleep serious, and all my answers are real. inBlueIguana
paralysis. It happened to me three times atParksAndRecreation eamTheSixthSense eamTheSixthSense at college. This isn’t even a joke. It was What’s your favourite scary movie? terrifying. I couldn’t move, but I was Up, because I’m terrified of balloons. trying to scream to my roommate to wake me up. And then I finally gasp for If you could change something
air, wake up and go, “Did you hear I was in your life, anything at all, TheDarkKnightScr screaming?” He goes, “No, what are you what would it be? talking about?” I don’t know why I just I would be able to dunk a basketball, told you a real, personal story. I thought because this is nonsense. I’m 37 now, ApocalypseNowSeenSourceCodeBor this interview was supposed to be fun. and I can’t do it. When I was in high AnswersTaxiDriverDirtyHarryFullMetalJacketMementoBatman TheMatrixTwilight
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angle and Mothra’s portrayal as a Rodan Warriors BRIDGETOOFAR goddess. Notably, Emma and Madison Monstersinthe first encounter her in an ancient mistMillieBobby temple. What’s more, Dougherty GODZILLAKINGOFTHEMONSTERS I BrownasMadison Russellbelow banked blessings from the source: Michael Dougherty on his MonsterVerse love… “Toho had final approval on the creatures. I had to go to Japan and ong ago, Michael Dougherty was swept away by a winged creature. do a big presentation – which was “As a kid, there was a Rodan toy I wanted badly for Christmas and intimidating. Thankfully, they signed I never got it,” he tells Teasers. “Even into adult life, it always felt off on everything without hesitation.” L like the holy grail.” Though the Krampus helmer eventually fulfilled Dougherty doesn’t hesitate, either, his dream via eBay, he’s getting to dream bigger with his position as co-writer/ to praise Gareth Edwards’ 2014 Godzilla, director of Legendary’s third MonsterVerse movie. which “loved the character as much as I do”, he says. His cast loved the Previous entries Godzilla (2014) are kidnapped by nefarious forces, creatures, too, with Brown falling for and Kong: Skull Island (2017) both Emma’s ex-hubby (Kyle Chandler) the goddess-in-residence. “Madison distinguished their tentpole turmoil mounts a rescue campaign. Joining the has a really, like, interesting connection with a heightened pulp passion for their mix are O’Shea Jackson Jr.’s military to Mothra,” she teases. resident monsters. So, before gecko man and Zhang Ziyi’s mysterious Dougherty, meanwhile, maintains fights monkey in 2020’s Godzilla Vs. scientist, while survivors of 2014’s a love for Rodan, “because he’s always Kong, Dougherty promises similar levels Godzilla include Sally Hawkins, been a bit of an underdog.” If the of lizard-love: “Some of my earliest Ken Watanabe and daddy G himself, MonsterVerse offers its own pulp-y memories are watching Godzilla movies. headlining the menagerie of outsized underdog alternative to cinema’s My mother is Vietnamese, and Godzilla insect Mothra, dino-bird Rodan and slicker expanded universes, its secret movies and kung fu movies were the triple-headed dragon King Ghidorah. weapon could be that very reverence. only places I could see Asian people on While Dougherty wanted to create “I have such a deep-rooted love for TV. He’s been with me my entire life.” “a film that could stand on its own”, these creatures,” Dougherty says. Family connections fuel the film’s he also set out to respect founding “These aren’t just giant story, with Stranger Things’ Millie Bobby Japanese studio Toho’s kaiju monsters, they’re ancient gods.” Brown making her movie debut as canon. Declaring his monsters Get ready to hail the king. KH Madison Russell, daughter to crypto- “very faithful” to the original zoological agency Monarch’s Dr. Emma films, he promises to honour ETA | 31 MAY / GODZILLA: KING OF Russell (Vera Farmiga). When the pair both the “morality play” THE MONSTERS OPENS IN SPRING.
GAMESRADARCOM/TOTALFILM NOVEMBER 2018 | TOTAL FILM EXCLUSIVE They’re alive! JOHNCARPENTERI Sometimes, they come back.
ohn Carpenter’s ’80s classics The Fog, Escape From New York, Prince Of Darkness and They Live J have all been restored to grace cinema screens once more before their release on EST, DVD, BD and 4K UHD.
Gleaming like never before, they thrill and chill as they always have, and perhaps viewers will now catch on to what Carpenter has always maintained – that the last two listed above, often overlooked, are among his finest. “They Live was about Reaganism,” Carpenter tells Teasers, before pointing out its themes are more relevant than ever in the Trump era. “It’s stunning what’s happened to my country. But it’s always been there – I grew up in the Jim Crow south. Trump just brought it out. That’s the sad EXCLUSIVE thing. I looked at the white supremacist stuff at Charlottesville last year and thought, ‘My God, the country’s in trouble.’” Beyond Borg As for the dread-drenched Satanic shocker Prince Of Darkness, which blends theoretical ALITABATTLEANGELI When Robert physics with theology to singularly scary effect, he now reveals another influence Rodriguez met James Cameron… beyond the oft-quoted Quatermass movies and TV show. “A lot of it was inspired by hen James Cameron bought the rights to Yukito Kishiro’s that Dario Argento movie, Inferno. It was manga Battle Angel Alita, the plan was for it to be his next nuts. I thought, ‘I could do that.’ So I pulled production after TV series Dark Angel. That was back in 2000. out everything on that film.” JG W But then Cameron got lost in Avatar’s universe and Alita became an unmade Cameron script – until Robert Rodriguez stepped ETA | 26 OCTOBER–22 NOVEMBER / THE CARPENTER in. Asked by Cameron and his producer Jon Landau to take the helm, FILMS PLAY SELECTED CINEMAS, AND RELEASE the director undertook a daunting prospect. ON HOME ENTERTAINMENT, FROM OCTOBER.
TOTAL FILM | NOVEMBER 2018 SUBSCRIBEATWWWTOTALFILMCOM/SUBS ‘I’MJUSTASTONISHEDON ADAILYBASISWHENIGET NEWEFFECTSSHOTSTHAT AREMIND-BLOWING’ ROBERTRODRIGUEZ
Wading through “a thousand Based in the metropolis of Iron million project, Rodriguez has remained pages of notes, a 200-page script and City (built extensively at Rodriguez’s faithful not only to the manga but to a tonne of artwork”, it’s been a “huge Troublemaker Studios in Austin), the spirit of Cameron. When he first production”, says Rodriguez, dwarfing Alita is a broken cyborg discovered came on board, he made a promise every movie he’s done, from Sin City by Christoph Waltz’s kindly doctor. to his screenwriter. “I said, ‘Hey man, to Spy Kids. Even now, some two years Played by Rosa Salazar, via performance I’m not going turn it into a Robert after the shoot, his team are still capture, Alita gradually comes to Rodriguez movie. I’m going shoot it as finessing the extensive visual effects. realise things about her past life. a missing Jim Cameron movie! I want “I’m surprised it didn’t go longer,” Or, as Rodriguez puts it, “It’s about to see that film!’” Don’t we all. JM he adds. “I’m just astonished on a warrior finding their heart.” a daily basis when I get new effects With Cameron’s Lightstorm ETA | 5 FEBRUARY / ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL shots in that just are mind-blowing.” Entertainment behind the $200 OPENS NEXT YEAR.
GAMESRADARCOM/TOTALFILM NOVEMBER 2018 | TOTAL FILM TRAILER BREAKDOWN Absolute Hero CAPTAINMARVELI Step aside Thor, Marvel’s strongest super gets a debut teaser…
01 02
The MCU has progressed in real time (more or less). But as an Further proof: digitally de-aged Samuel L. Jackson as a biocular amnesiac Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) falling into a Blockbuster shows, Nick Fury. Long before the Avengers Initiative, Fury was a S.H.I.E.L.D Captain Marvel is set mainly in the past. The early ’90s, to be precise. suit ready to quit, until he met “renegade soldier” Danvers.
03 04
Skipping the usual origin story structure, Danvers is introduced as They’re led by Jude Law’s “devout” commander. Initially rumoured a member of elite Kree warrior team StarForce, alongside Gemma to be playing the heroic Mar-vell, speculation has shifted to Yon- Chan’s sadistic sniper Minn-Erva and Djimon Hounsou’s Korath. Rogg, a Kree warlord with ties to “turdblossom” Ronan the Accuser.
05 06
Shape-shifting aliens the Skrulls make their MCU debut. Amidst a But with “powers that are off the charts” (Kevin Feige’s words), war with the Kree, the Skrulls invade Earth under Ben Mendelsohn’s Carol is more than a match for the ugly green E.T.s, especially when Talos, who hides in plain sight as Fury’s S.H.I.E.L.D. boss. she taps into into her ‘binary form’. Thanos must be bricking it. JF
ETA | 8 MARCH / CAPTAIN MARVEL OPENS NEXT YEAR.
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While Netflix got involved, Joel is swift BESTWESTERN to point out that the project was never SIX SHOOTER LiamNeesonasthe meant as a TV series, despite media Impresarioin‘Meal reports. “It was a bit of a perfect storm THEBALLADOFBUSTERSCRUGGS I Ticket’TimBlake Nelsonasthetitular of confusion,” he says. “We never went The Coens go way out west… Busterbelow back, modified, re-wrote, re-cut or re-organised what we were doing.” un fact: the Coen brothers’ 2010 remake of the John Wayne classic With the Coens shooting from True Grit was the biggest hit of their career. “It was wildly successful Nebraska to New Mexico, it became one in the States for some damn reason,” shrugs Ethan Coen. “Nobody of the most difficult projects of their F expected that.” Especially as the western is the genre that the career, despite being surrounded by industry perennially claims is out of fashion, despite making sporadic their usual collaborators. Take ‘The re-appearances. “It’s hard to kill it,” argues Joel. “Maybe this movie will!” Gal Who Got Rattled’, which stars Zoe Kazan and Bill Heck. “The logistical He’s referring to their latest, other movies to pay the bills!” laughs parts of that are just unbelievable,” The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs – a Wild Ethan, though in truth they had no says Joel. With wagons, livestock and West-set anthology of six shorts. idea what to do with the shorts. extras to wrangle, “something is going The first episode – the titular tale of Eventually, the idea of an anthology to go wrong!” says Ethan. “Every take, a singing, sharp-shooting cowboy, arose – and they promptly penned the it was always something… it was played here by Tim Blake Nelson final two episodes, wagon train yarn a fucking pain in the ass!” – was written as far back as 25 years ‘The Gal Who Got Rattled’ and the While it’s not as if the Coens had ago, which may explain its comic-book stagecoach-set ‘The Mortal Remains’. to whittle down a dozen or so stories violence, à la early Coen movies like to the final six, they do reveal that there Raising Arizona. “It does feel like is one short that got left unmade, ‘The a throwback,” admits Joel, “but Warden’s Hobby’. “It’s too advanced something we were perfectly even for this movie,” says Ethan. “It happy to re-engage with.” was one of the sub-genres we didn’t do Over the years, they wrote further – the Yuma prison western.” Joel adds, stories – including ‘Near Algodones’ “It was about a warden” – he glances (which stars James Franco as a luckless at Ethan – “but we’re not going to bank-robbing varmint), the gothic talk about that!” His brother starts ‘Meal Ticket’ (Liam Neeson as a snickering. “You couldn’t handle it!” JM freak-show peddler) and ‘All Gold Canyon’ (a Jack London adaptation, ETA | 16 NOVEMBER / THE BALLAD OF with Tom Waits as a prospector). BUSTER SCRUGGS IS AVAILABLE ON “[We took] little breaks to work on NETFLIX NEXT MONTH.
GAMESRADARCOM/TOTALFILM NOVEMBER 2018 | TOTAL FILM
EXCLUSIVE
the 2016 Disney remake Pete’s Dragon, A WRINKLE IN CRIME FINALWORD that was a mere test run, allowing RobertRedford the filmmaker “to get over all the playsbankrobber butterflies in my stomach”. With THEOLDMANANDTHEGUN I David Lowery ForrestTucker inwhatmightbe Tom Waits and Danny Glover cast directs Robert Redford’s last stand… hislastfilmrole as Tucker’s cohorts, Lowery brought in Sissy Spacek to play Jewel, a farm ctors don’t always get to announce their retirement. Often, widow who offers the ageing robber the industry simply stops casting them. But not Robert Redford. a law-abiding life. Remarkably, Redford This year, the Sundance Kid announced that The Old Man And had never worked with – or even really A The Gun would likely be his last movie. “As a fan, I hope that met – the Badlands star. “I thought that it’s not the final film he does,” says Old Man’s writer-director David Lowery. was insane. They feel like they’re cut “But if it is, as a filmmaker, I consider it a tremendous honour that he loves from the same cloth.” the movie enough to feel that it’s a fitting note to go out on.” When it came to Tucker, Lowery was drawn to depicting a self- Telling the story of real-life perennial prison multiple times. Some were mythologising “gentleman” criminal bank robber Forrest Tucker, the film based on reality. Others were nods to who did most of his stealing without comes across like an homage to Redford’s famous movie moments in films like the aid of a gun or violence. “He really illustrious career, with the actor carrying Escape From Alcatraz. And then one wanted a movie to be made of his life.” 60-odd years of cinematic baggage. was a clip from Redford’s early 1965 Tucker even sent his life story to Clint “Just by virtue of him appearing in the effort The Chase, in which he played Eastwood when he was in prison, film, you wind up having a film that is a convict on the lam. “It suddenly before he died in 2004 in Texas. So about the actor Robert Redford,” says became not just about Forrest how would he have felt about Redford Lowery. “Rather than try to hide from Tucker and how brilliantly he playing him? “He would’ve been it… I thought the natural thing to do broke out of prison so many thrilled,” beams Lowery. “He was just let that be part of the film. It times, but also about Robert would’ve ignored all the liberties didn’t take any extra effort on my part. Redford and his career as I took with his story!” JM It was just a matter of embracing it.” a movie star and outlaw Notably, Lowery does so in the on the silver screen.” ETA | 7 DECEMBER / THE OLD bravura montage that shows how the While Lowery and Redford MAN AND THE GUN OPENS Florida-raised Tucker escaped from previously worked together on THIS WINTER.
TOTAL FILM | NOVEMBER 2018 BSCRIBEATWWWTOTALFILMCOM/SUBS THE NEXT BIG THING HERA HILMAR ISNOMEREMORTAL…
est known for historical fantasy series Da Vinci’s Demons, 29-year-old Icelandic actress Hera Hilmar is Babout make a major splash on the big screen, starring alongside Ben Kingsley in An Ordinary Man and heading up the cast of Peter Jackson-produced post-apocalyptic sci-fi Mortal Engines, as revenge-fuelled assassin Hester Shaw. “It’s like being a big kid in a playground.”
Were you aware of Philip Reeve’s Mortal Engines books before signing up? I wasn’t. I was a bit like, “What is this? It sounds bonkers.” But if you know Peter Jackson is making it, you go, “Well, it’s probably going to be good bonkers!” There are cities on wheels that hunt other cities, so they can get their food and metals, and even people to use as slaves. So it’s like capitalism on wheels.
How would you describe Hester? Philip Reeve wrote her as the hero of the books, but she’s allowed to be fierce and flawed. I feel very privileged to play her, because a lot of films have heroines that are sexy and cool, but Hester is just a normal girl trying to figure shit out. She’s really damaged in the beginning and has to learn how to become human again.
You come from a family of filmmakers. Did you always want to be an actor? Yeah. That was the world I lived in. I think you can grow up and hate it, but I really liked it. My dad would let me appear in his films sometimes, but they never put that pressure on me. When the time came, I did it on my own.
Will you always return to Iceland between British/American projects? Of course. That’s where I grew up, they’re my people, first and foremost. It’s always been important to me to be part of that, and not just start there then leave. I couldn’t go through life without telling stories from my home. JF
ETA | 8 DECEMBER / MORTAL ENGINES OPENS THIS WINTER. STEPHANIE SIAN-SMITH STEPHANIE MAKINGACONNECTION Ralph and Vanellope’s relationship is at the sequel’s heart. “Ralph is still defining himself by the way somebody else thinks about him,” explains Johnston. “He still has a lot of insecurity, and Vanellope as a character is really just coming into her own.” With scope for more emotional development, “we were thinking about the internet as a bigger, more fast, crazy, wild world” to test them further.
EXCLUSIVE Back Of The Net RALPHBREAKTHEINTERNETWRECK-IT RALPH I Deconstructing Walt Disney Animation Studio’s biggest film to date…
ix years after Wreck-It Ralph, Disney is reconnecting reluctant arcade villain Ralph (John C. Reilly) and his best pal, racing princess Vanellope (Sarah Silverman). S This time they’re surfing the web on a visit to the internet itself, in search of spare parts. Remarkably, this is the first theatrical Disney Animation sequel since Fantasia 2000, and the first ever to share the original’s creative team. Teasers spoke to co-director/co-writer Phil Johnston and producer Clark DIVAFEVER Spencer about logging back in to Ralph’s world, bit by bit. The film’s trailer nearly broke the internet when Vanellope was seen hanging out with the Disney VIRALSENSATION princesses in their loungewear. In As in Wreck-It Ralph, great care has been taken to balance a real casting coup, a dozen original known brands with new creations. So while a trip to voice actors – including Mandy eBay drives the plot, Spencer confirms, “The biggest Moore’s Rapunzel and Kristen Bell’s pieces of the storytelling take place in websites we Anna – signed up for cameos. created ourselves. That gave us the latitude to make “There’s a piece of them that’s still them fit the story.” These include vintage search those characters,” reckons Spencer. engine KnowsMore, online game Slaughter Race “Importantly, they were able to and social media sensation BuzzTube, run by influence how that character trendy algorithm Yesss (Taraji P. Henson). would act in those scenes.”
TOTAL FILM | NOVEMBER 2018 SUBSCRIBEATWWWTOTALFILMCOM/SUBS INFORMATIONSUPERHIGHWAY With movies as diverse as The Lego Movie and The Emoji Movie following Wreck-It Ralph into the gaming world, it was vital that the film’s depiction of the internet stood out. “The internet is the biggest city in the world that you can imagine,” promises Johnston. “Our film is literally the biggest film that Disney Animation has ever done. There’s one shot in our movie that has one million extras!”
GOINGUNDERGROUND Visiting the dark web, Ralph discovers the internet isn’t all good news. After collaborating on Zootopia, with its thoughtful exploration of racism, the team was confident in shining a spotlight on the internet’s murkier corners. “You can go and take an MIT class [online], and you can go and be bullied in a chatroom,” muses Johnston. “We’re hoping that people will come out of this feeling they can talk to their kids about all of that stuff.”
WORLDWIDEWEB Given Disney’s global reach, it was vital that the internet’s characters – the Netizens – reflected different cultures. “We wanted it to feel like there was Asia and Europe and South America all represented in that world,” Spencer explains. To nail that authenticity, “We went to every market and we got brands from every country, so it wouldn’t feel like it was just the internet for either North America or English-speaking countries.” SK
ETA | 30 NOVEMBER / RALPH BREAKS THE INTERNET: WRECK-IT RALPH 2 OPENS NEXT MONTH.
GAMESRADARCOM/TOTALFILM NOVEMBER 2018 | TOTAL FILM EXCLUSIVE “Yeah, that’s pretty precise. Moral combat OUTFORBLOOD If I had made this film earlier in my MattDillonis career, Jack would have got away with serial killerJack it. But he doesn’t. I don’t believe in THEHOUSETHATJACKBUILT I Lars von Trier inwhatcouldbe Lars vonTrier's punishment, but somehow it felt right is back. And this time he’s really upsetting people… mostdivisivemovie and clean. I thought that if Jack was yetYesreally a part of me, then I’d throw him out: he House That Jack Built is Lars von Trier’s most controversial film ‘And don’t you come back.’” yet – quite some statement, you might think. Matt Dillon plays Judging from the walkouts at Cannes Jack: architect, engineer, connoisseur of European art and history, and the furious articles that followed, T and serial killer; mainly women, but children too. He arranges the self-loathing and atonement in their bodies into horrific tableaux in a walk-in freezer. The House That Jack Built are not seen as enough. Many, clearly, felt that the Throughout the film, Jack recounts part of me, and reactions to part of mea culpa coda was insincere, or a case his 60 kills to Verge (Bruno Ganz), me. Jack is me, but I’m a few steps of von Trier wanting to have his cake who offers counterarguments to his behind, because I don’t kill.” and eat it given the litany of distressing rationalisations and justifications. The But is the debate between Jack and images that have come before. Calling pair also discuss the sexual politics of Verge a discussion that he has in his the female characters Lady 1, Lady 2 misogyny (the action is set in the ’70s, own head – on the one hand defending and Lady 3 doesn’t help, and nor does but these dialogues seem aimed at the his actions, and on the other meting Jack naming Riley Keough’s character #MeToo movement), gun culture and out self-punishment? Simple before mutilating her. the Third Reich – this last, presumably, “When you put it that way, I can as a meta-response to von Trier being see what you mean,” admits von Trier. made persona non grata at Cannes in “But then they [Jack and Verge] have 2011 following an ill-advised Nazi joke. a discussion: if he hates women, and The entire film feels like an internal feels superior, stuff like that. I don’t debate. It’s a provocation, certainly, feel superior to women at all. On but also a confession and an apology. the contrary.” “You can see it that way,” responds The jury's still out, but this is a film von Trier, who’s clearly in a bad place, you have to see for yourself to have his words halting, his voice cracked and an opinion on. JG his body trembling. “But when I do something, my main characters – and ETA | 14 DECEMBER / THE HOUSE THAT all the characters, for that matter – are JACK BUILT OPENS THIS WINTER.
TOTAL FILM | NOVEMBER 2018 SUBSCRIBEATWWWTOTALFILMCOM/SUBS It Shouldn’t Happen n page 84 of this To A Film silently embedded into heads very issue of Total with zero impact, the sound Film, I sit down effects guy never able to keep with Christopher Journalist up with the killer. Nolan to discuss Othe glory of presenting 2001: NSFW A Space Odyssey in 70mm on the Editor-at-Large JAMIEGRAHAM The above brings to mind biggest screen possible. Nolan, lifts the lid on film journalism. another problem with movie of course, is one of the loudest links – sometimes I have to proponents for celluloid and the watch one in the office in immersive cinema experience. readiness for an interview, and His movies are screened to the THISMONTHWATCHINGFILMSONDIGITALLINKS do so with headphones firmly in press at IMAX theatres. place, oblivious to those walking Imagine what he’d say, then, by. All Jill from marketing wants if he saw film journalists leaning is to collect a banana from the into their laptops to scrutinise kitchen, but instead she sees fuzzy images and decipher tinny someone mutilating a bird (My dialogue. Not that a major studio Friend Dahmer) or Shia LaBeouf is about to send out a digital link going at it hammer and tongs of their latest $250m blockbuster (Nymphomaniac). so that a reviewer can watch it But the worst thing about at home while doing the ironing. digital links is the watermarking But we do now live in an age when designed to ward off piracy.
10 to 20 movies hit UK cinemas Usually the distributors go with every Friday, while a deluge of the journalist’s name – trust me, content goes straight to DVD and/ few things distract from a film or streaming platforms. Whatever like having your own moniker It’sbeenanothertoughday the breadth of the journalist’s emblazoned across it – and attheofficeforJamie… good intentions or depth of frequently they opt to slam obsession, it’s no longer possible it right in the middle of the to keep up with releases by screen. Not being able to see dedicating your every evening Worse, my old laptop always the protagonist’s eyes because to the screening rooms of Soho. managed to lose the synchronicity they’re hidden behind a ruddy And the smaller distributors know of sound and image about 10 great ‘J’ and ‘E’ is infuriating. this, choosing to vie for eyes by minutes into the movie. It left me Nope, Nolan would not be emailing journos their latest title. with a choice: pause the film for impressed. But then one of the a minute or so, which resynced other key advocates of celluloid THEHORROR sound and image, and then and cinema, Paul Thomas These days I’ve perfected a pretty continue for another 10 minutes Anderson, told me in 2014 that sweet system, hooking my laptop until the lag began again; or he watches movies on aeroplanes up to my TV so I at least have a watch the entire movie in and his phone because there decent-sized screen and volume one go with the equivalent aren’t enough hours in the day with oomph. I used to watch of terrible dubbing. and, well, needs must. Will film movies on the sofa with my laptop The ordeal was especially journalists one day be sent balanced on my chest – I needed to abhorrent when watching links of the new Nolan, PTA be that close to hear the dialogue. horror movies: characters or Tarantino movies to watch Each time I shifted my position, I’d lurched into the frame only on their iPad? Probably not, recalibrate the angle of the screen for the blare on the soundtrack though those guys will be the or else lose details to the murk. to arrive a second later; axes first to embrace the next wave of tech when films are zapped straight into the cerebral cortex. ‘JILLFROMMARKETINGDOESN’T Now that’ll be immersive. EXPECTTOSEELABEOUFGOING Jamie will return next issue… For more misadventures, follow: ATITHAMMERANDTONGS’ @jamie_graham9 on Twitter. GETTY
GAMESRADARCOM/TOTALFILM NOVEMBER 2018 | TOTAL FILM EXCLUSIVE
John] walked on set I didn’t watch COMICTIMING Another Fine Mess SteveCooganand the monitor, I watched the crew’s JohnCReillyplay faces,” Baird recalls. “I knew by the STAN&OLLIE I Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly thelegendary expressions that they had got it, slapstickstars because it was like watching these star in a heartfelt study of Laurel and Hardy… ghosts appear in the room.” In a neat touch, Laurel and Hardy’s ’m seeing Mr. Scorsese today,” Jon S. Baird tells Teasers from a New antics aren’t limited to their stage York hotel. This is a humblebrag with a point – Baird’s new film performances, with several famous Stan & Ollie opens with a bravura tracking shot following legendary skits bleeding into the pair’s ‘real’ lives. I double act Laurel and Hardy through a Hollywood soundstage during “That was something we built into the shoot for Way Out West. “He saw the film a few weeks ago. I said, ‘You the script quite late,” says Baird, who know where the first shot of the film is coming from?’ He gave a little worked from a script by Philomena’s Jeff chuckle, as if to say, ‘Yeah, you’re not the first to do that…’” Pope. “One of the most iconic moments in a Laurel and Hardy movie is the piano Scorsese homages aside (Baird chuckles. Enter Steve Coogan and John that falls down the stairs in The Music promises a “silver star” to the TF reader C. Reilly. The pair count Laurel and Box. So we built that into the storyline, who spots the second), Stan & Ollie Hardy among their comedy heroes, and and wrote around it.” is no assembly line biopic. Focusing rehearsed with a clown choreographer In a thrilling what-if? Baird also on Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy’s for three weeks to perfect the duo’s filmed a snippet of Laurel and Hardy’s little-known live tour of Britain in stage routines. “The first time [Steve and final, unmade picture – a Robin Hood 1953, it’s a poignant platonic love story feature the pair were hoping to finance between two men in the twilight of with the British tour. “There was a lot their careers. “The film is called Stan of pressure doing that, because that’s & Ollie, because we wanted to make when you really have to get it right,” a film about two friends who just Baird admits. “But it was great fun to happened to be these icons,” says Baird. do. Steve and John were getting very “There’s a real sadness to what happens excited about doing a real Laurel and to these guys. They were exploited Hardy film, and saying, ‘We should by the studio system. They’re facing actually do this Robin Hood film. mortality and trying to hold onto This should be the sequel!’” JF that thing they had in their youth.” Pathos-fuelled it may be, but ETA | 11 JANUARY / STAN & OLLIE OPENS no Laurel and Hardy film would be NEXT YEAR, AND PREMIERES AT THE complete without a steady stream of LONDON FILM FESTIVAL ON 21 OCTOBER.
TOTAL FILM | NOVEMBER 2018 SUBSCRIBEATWWWTOTALFILMCOM/SUBS Worst on-set experience? When I did Jamón Jamón, I was 21 and it was my first big movie. Penélope [Cruz] was only 16 at the time, and her character had this nightmare that I was hanging from a goalpost, naked, like a leg of ham. So I was strung up naked in the middle of nowhere… in December. I remember we had problems with the crane and it took forever to shoot. I was cold, I was humiliated and I felt like, “Shit, what the fuck do I want to be an actor for?!”
Have you ever stolen from a film set? No. Sometimes I take some clothes, but I always ask first. I was also told I could have the coin that I flip in No Country For Old Men, but the prop guy forgot to give it to me. But then Viggo Mortensen did a movie called The Road and apparently met the same guy. He gave the coin to Viggo and then Viggo came to Spain and gave it back to me. I keep it near the Oscar.
Best ever wrap party? Wow, there have been some good ones. The one that Julian Schnabel gave us for
Before Night Falls, in Veracruz, Mexico, BETWEEN TAKES was a really wild party that ended up in the pool. We had so many nationalities of people there having a good time, it was fun. Also, I was 30 years old. Now JAVIER BARDEM I’m almost 50, I usually turn up, give everyone a hug, and then go back home! The Oscar-winning actor chats long days and legs of ham… What was it like sharing the set What’s the first thing you do when What’s the longest day you’ve ever with your wife on Loving Pablo? you arrive on set? spent on a film set? It’s great having Penélope there because I like to say hello to everyone. And then When I was doing The Sea Inside, I would we bring the kids with us too. It’s hard I head straight for the coffee. I can’t do about four-and-a-half hours of when you have to work apart from each function if I don’t have coffee. make-up every day, plus 12 hours of other on the other side of the world. But shooting, plus one hour of taking the you have to be careful not to bring any of What do you take on set with you? make-up off – so that was almost the character home. I think we’re pretty I always carry a copy of the script 18 hours. Every day. For a week. good at that though. We’ve been doing and I cover the pages with notes. And I still didn’t sleep! it for a long time! PB I believe in paper and pencil more than computers and buttons, but I also Hot or cold lunch? ETA | 2018 / LOVING PABLO RELEASES make voice notes on my phone during I prefer the working lunch. I don’t like ON DEMAND LATER THIS YEAR. the rehearsals, and I make sure I have to stop for an hour to eat – I prefer to eat them with me on set too. whatever I can around the shooting… Bardemwith just snacks, here and there. It interrupts real-lifewife Do you ever sleep on set? the rhythm of the acting sometimes PenélopeCruz Definitely not. I can’t act when I’ve just and it’s sometimes hard to get back inLovingPablo woken up. If I have to be woken up to into it again. I don’t like stopping the go to set, I’m gonna be bad! process for anything.
‘WRAPPARTIES?NOWI’MALMOST ITURNUPGIVEEVERYONEA
GETTY HUGANDTHENGOBACKHOME!’
GAMESRADARCOM/TOTALFILM NOVEMBER 2018 | TOTAL FILM CHRISTMAS MOVIE PREVIEW
Die School Musical SCHOOL'SOUT Christmascarnage attheschool ANNAANDTHEAPOCALYPSE I A Christmas concertEllaHunt asAnnabelow zom-com-musical worth singing about… ELLA HUNT f you watch one Scottish zombie Christmas musical this year, it has to be Anna And The Apocalypse, the movie that’s been drawing Didyouauditionforthepart? IgotsentthescriptandjustloveditI’ve comparisons to Shaun Of The Dead and hoovering awards as fast beenanactresssinceIwasThiscame I as it hoses blood on the festival circuit. throughanditwas “Thisisit”Annadoesn’t haveyour stereotypicalteenagegirl’sstory “My favourite musical is South Park: What Anna lacks in budget it makes arcShedoesn’trideoffintothesunsetwith Bigger, Longer & Uncut, but I didn’t know up for in verve, blending characters a boyIlikedthat musicals that well before I came on board you care about with dynamic direction, – you’d have had to take me kicking and big laughs, a bigger heart, truly terrific Youcopalotofclaretinthismovie… screaming,” grins director John McPhail, numbers written by Scottish singer- Ilovedbeingcoveredinbloodfortwo whose previous romcom Where Do We Go songwriters Roddy Hart and Tommy months!It’sreallystickyandmakesyou feellikeabadassButthefighting From Here? won him the chance to pitch Reilly, nods to Romero, Raimi and elementwasdifficultformeI’m for the gig. “So I had to watch countless Carpenter, a boo-hiss school principal naturallyclumsyIreallybuiltupand musicals. I fell in love with West Side Story in the form of Paul Kaye, and fountains I hadafemalefightcoordinator – the cutting, the cinematography, the of the red stuff. movement – but I only lasted 10 minutes “I wanted practical gore,” says Andyougettodance… of High School Musical.” McPhail, who’s a proud genre nerd. IdanceandIfightbutnotusually Anna (Ella Hunt) is a teen living in “I love horror, and I am not going to atthesametimeThere’sasong the sleepy town of Little Haven. She alienate ‘my people’.” Indeed, the kills rightattheendofthefilmwhere longs to get out but excitement, not to are ickily inventive crowd-pleasers, with IcombinethetwoThatwasreally trickybecauseIalsosing andhadtoget mention terror, comes to her when a the decapitation of a zombie wearing therightexertionsoundsintomysinging zombie apocalypse hits town on the an outsized snowman outfit even night of the school Christmas concert. winning Total Film’s ‘Best Death’ award Astrickyasfilminginthebalmy “We filmed in a wee place called Port at horror festival FrightFest. “It was Scottishweather? Glasgow,” says McPhail. “It’s rough as fun,” says McPhail, grinning once more. IlovetheScotsbutGod Ican’thackthe fuck but the Clyde runs through it and it’s “Lopping off a snowman’s head and coldFilminginminusthree!ButIdidget got these rolling hills. It was perfect: nice getting a blood cannon in there...” JG towearacoat–wedesignedthecostume residential streets, parks, a school that we tolooklikeaScottishschoolgirlinwinter could base the production in… And the ETA | 30 NOVEMBER / ANNA AND THE notlikeLaraCroftinTombRaiderJG
locals were great. They were so up for it.” APOCALYPSE OPENS NEXT MONTH. GETTY
TOTAL FILM | NOVEMBER 2018 SUBSCRIBEATWWWTOTALFILMCOM/SUBS Claus And Effect THECHRISTMASCHRONICLES I Netflix launches a new festive franchise…
re there five words in the English language more exciting than “Kurt Russell is Santa Claus”? Chris Columbus – the man behind yuletide classics Home Alone and Gremlins – thinks not. “He’s your A dream Santa Claus,” Columbus tells Teasers. “It’s not Bad Santa. He’s incredibly charismatic, tough and confident when he needs to be. And really frustrated at the depictions of him on Coca-Cola ads!”
Russell stars as Saint Nick in The “It’s a complicated time,” Columbus Christmas Chronicles, a Netflix original about explains. “In this film there’s a chance a brother and sister who put Christmas that Christmas won’t exist in 2018. The itself in jeopardy when their attempt to theme of the film, and the theme of this photograph Santa goes terribly wrong. particular Santa Claus, is: Christmas SCREAM TEAM Angry Birds’ Clay Kaytis is making his must endure.” live-action debut in the director’s chair, And endure it will if Columbus has his HOMEALONE I Chris but Columbus was there “24/7” as a way, with plans for a wider Christmas-verse Columbus on his Xmas classic… producer after identifying some familiar should the first film fly. “As we were making qualities in Matt Lieberman’s script. the film, I realised there was a much bigger Are you surprised by Home Alone’s legacy? “It’s got a bit of Adventures In Babysitting world here. So I got excited about the Surprised? No. The mantra was really: when in it; it’s got a bit of Home Alone; it feels potential of digging deeper, with maybe you’re home at two in the morning, 20 or 30 a little like The Goonies at times. It’s very another film in the series, and treating the years from now, I wanted to make sure it felt inspired by the John Hughes world that world of the North Pole and the mythology as fresh as the day it was made. I last saw I cut my teeth on as well,” says Columbus. of Santa Claus with a seriousness that it’s Home Alone a couple of years ago with the San
“And it feels like Potter. It’s a North Pole never been treated with.” Christmas comes Francisco Symphony orchestra playing live. unlike you’ve ever seen.” early in 2018. JF I hadn’t seen the film with an audience since Many of Columbus’ festive films tap 1990. So to actually see that it still worked for into the dichotomy of Christmas – that, ETA | 22 NOVEMBER / THE CHRISTMAS an audience and that they were still laughing for some, it’s the most difficult time of year. CHRONICLES LAUNCHES ON NETFLIX just as uproariously as they were from the And The Christmas Chronicles is no different. NEXT MONTH. film’s initial release? That’s a fantastic feeling.
SLEIGHRIDE Did you have any ideas for sequels beyond KurtRusselltheway Home Alone 2? you'vealwayswanted There’s some parts of me that prefer the to seehim –asSanta humour in Home Alone 2, but we knew we were doing basically a remake of the first film. I had a great time making Home Alone 2, because it was like making Harry Potter 2. There was not the pressure of making the first film. I felt that after we had finished the second film that was enough Home Alone. Trying to reboot it... you’ll never capture that magic again.
Do you watch your own films at Christmas? No, no, no, no. I laugh about it with my family. We can’t escape it, from like Thanksgiving to 1 January, it seems like a lot of my films are on TV. Christmas is a very important time in the Columbus household. I’m at the tree loft the very first day it opens, picking out the biggest tree. I decorate my own tree. And because I don’t want to fall off a ladder, I have a company putting up a ridiculously embarrassing amount of lights in front of my house. I’m pretty obsessive. JF
ETA | 5 DECEMBER / HOME ALONE IS RE-RELEASED IN CINEMAS THIS CHRISTMAS.
GAMESRADARCOM/TOTALFILM NOVEMBER 2018 | TOTAL FILM CHRISTMAS MOVIE PREVIEW WHO, WHERE, WHY?
GOTOTOWN “Youstartwithallthesedesignclues thatDrSeussgaveusinthebook Theshapeofthesnowtheformof thebuildingsInthebookWhoville isjustafewpenlines”
PICTUREPERFECT “Wewantedthetowntobeaplace fullofauthenticallygoodpeople Ithadtolooklikeaplacethatwould stilllookprettycoolevenoncethe decorationsweretakendown” Green is good THEGRINCH I Despicable Me studio Illumination tackles The Who Who Stole Christmas…
or an animator, attempting to remake How The Grinch needed someone who can do Stole Christmas is to step into some fairly big ’toon boots. everything from subtle humour “The first memory I have of the story is from the Chuck and wacky slapstick to real Jones cartoon,” says director Yarrow Cheney. “It was emotional depth, and there’s HOMESWEETHOME F such a big part of the holiday season for me growing up. Because just no one better,” says Cheney), “Mostimportantlywewanteda that version is so wonderful, and so perfect, I really didn’t want the biggest problem for the place theGrinchmightactuallywant to remake it. So I decided to go back to the original instead.” animators was figuring out toliveWewantedabustlingcitythat how to make his world look wasfulloflifeIt’snotjustapostcard Pushing aside Jones’ 1966 classic The Secret Life Of Pets, that meant convincingly Christmassy. ofahappytown” short (and completely ignoring Ron finding the warmth in the Grinch’s “Every single character in Howard’s 2000 live-action version famously cold heart – a guy who our film is covered in fur, and starring Jim Carrey), Cheney and hates Christmas so much that to make matters more difficult, the rest of the Illumination team he can’t even stand to see anyone everything else is covered with went back to Dr. Seuss’ 1957 else enjoying it. snow. So you’ve got furry picture book for inspiration. “He starts out as a real jerk,” characters trudging through snow, “We wanted the book to be the laughs Cheney. “But we don’t and the snow has to stick to their anchor of absolutely everything we want people to not like the Grinch. fur… Literally every pixel was a did,” he adds. “We looked at each He should be grumpy, but likeable. technical challenge. If the Grinch illustration, each story point, each He lashes out, but only because wore Lycra and lived somewhere curve and angle, and we sort of he’s hurt. It’s a fine line, but we sunny, it definitely would have filled in the gaps.” For Cheney, knew we didn’t want a caricature been a whole lot easier!” PB co-directing with Kevin Smith of meanness.” stalwart Scott Mosier and taking Casting Benedict Cumberbatch ETA | 9 NOVEMBER / THE GRINCH on his second feature after 2016’s as the voice of the Grinch (“We OPENS NEXT MONTH.
SUBSCRIBEATWWWTOTALFILMCOM/SUBS STAY FROSTY SURVIVINGCHRISTMAS I The festive family comedy that tells it like it really is…
t’s not a Christmas movie,” snaps director James Dearden. “It’s a movie about a family that just happens to take place at Christmas.” Standing in a rustic mansion near London’s Canada Water, with I decorations lining the walls and children bouncing around in glittery jumpers, Dearden is the one person who doesn’t look like he’s having a ball.
For Dearden, Surviving Christmas hits a “Everything that could go wrong, particularly raw nerve. Writing the script goes wrong,” laughs Whelan. “From after several manic Christmases of his leaky pipes and bad Wi-Fi to fights, own, Dearden decided to turn all of his infidelity and exploding turkeys. bad festive memories into a family We’ve got dogs, cats, rabbits, donkeys, comedy with a rougher, more realistic chickens and pigs running everywhere!” edge. “There are some pratfall moments, With the film’s producer pitching it as but it’s not a bloody Jim Carrey movie!” “Meet The Fockers and Nativity meet Fatal He might not like to admit it, Attraction”, it’s back to Dearden to tell but Surviving Christmas is a comedy us just what makes it unique. “I think - set over three mad days in the life a lot of people can relate to this kind of of Dan (Julian Ovenden) and Miranda Christmas – one that doesn’t look like the (Gemma Whelan) as they spend their sentimental vision shown in Hollywood,” first Christmas together in a crumbling he says, taking another exasperated look country house. He’s still seeing his ex, around. “Sometimes everything goes she’s invited her snooty sister (Joely wrong and we only realise how much Richardson) and a dozen other relatives fun it was after it’s all over...” PB
– plus the plumbing doesn’t work, the kids are fighting and the house ETA | 30 NOVEMBER / SURVIVING is full of farm animals. CHRISTMAS OPENS NEXT MONTH. KIDDING AROUND NATIVITYROCKS! I How to make a sequel the hard way…
hat’s more difficult than trying to direct a class of eight-year- olds in a play? How about doing it while trying to direct a film at the same time? Not tough enough? Why not adlib the entire W thing too? Debbie Isitt has been making Nativity films for almost 10 years now, so she really only has herself to blame, but she looks remarkably calm in the middle of the messiest, loudest, craziest set TF has ever seen.
“It’s pretty much always like this!” between seasons of Strictly Come Dancing. she shouts, screaming over the sound “I always said I wanted to be in a horror of an entire class of kids all hurling movie and I guess this is as close as I’m themselves at a fancy dress box, a film going to get!” crew trying to reset the lights, 50 parents Back in character, Horwood tells clutching lint brushes, and one guy one little girl that she “looks stupid in on the piano who’s playing a live her glasses” and she bursts into tears. background score in the corner. “It’s tough when you get in the The script is fully improvised, as per moment,” says Celia Imrie, comforting the other three films in the series, so the kids off camera as the “nice one” none of the actors know what’s going to in the group. “I think these children happen next – just as well your co-stars are quite brilliant. And I think everyone have been roped in from the local making this film is utterly mad!” PB primary school. “I’ve already made two children cry today,” says Craig Revel ETA | 23 NOVEMBER / NATIVITY ROCKS! Horwood, making his film debut OPENS NEXT MONTH.
GAMESRADARCOM/TOTALFILM NOVEMBER 2018 | TOTAL FILM EXCLUSIVE Suki Waterhouse (Sarah) I always think LADIESINRED it’s so boring when you see texting in Killer Queens AbraOdessa films. It’s not in this movie. It’s super- YoungHariNefand exciting. We all had our own phones, SukiWaterhouse and we were taking behind-the-scenes ASSASSINATIONNATION I Sam Levinson playfourteens footage ourselves. It actually makes it demonisedby gives the Salem witch trials a modern-day spin… their town so terrifying, seeing violence through the lens of a phone, and hyper-real. napped up for a whopping $10 million-plus at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Assassination Nation is a 21st Century horror story Hari Nef (Bex) #MeToo is about the very about a small town that loses its “motherfucking mind” when vulnerable, difficult process of speaking S a hacker exposes the salacious secrets of its residents. Centred out about assault and processing on four inseparable young women who take the blame before fighting back, trauma. This film is more about it’s a hyper-stylised cautionary tale with plenty to say about the perils of defending yourself from assault – it’s the internet age. Writer/director Sam Levinson and his cast prepare Teasers this fantasy of fighting back. It’s very for a night of terror… rare that a woman who is going to be assaulted has a gun on her, or a samurai Sam Levinson (writer/director) Social so far from you in real life, get into your sword. But the fantasy of that is what media is not the villain of this film. head like that – it’s a really weird space is feeling so cathartic – particularly for Righteousness is the villain – people to live in. I’m saying that anyone can women who watch this. It has a place who believe, with absolute certainty, mind-fuck you from far away. in the #MeToo era, but there are that what they are doing in any given nuances that are worth parsing. moment is right. That’s a horror film. That’s scary. Mobs are scary. I think Odessa Young (Lily) The red coats were all social media has done is it’s allowed a big deal because it symbolised that humans to be the best versions of community. I remember when I saw themselves and the worst versions us all [in the coats], I was like, “Oh, of themselves. It’s a tool for us to we look badass. I get it.” I don’t think be either crazier or kinder, more we were told there would be that many empathic or more violent. teenage girls behind us. Watching this convergence of teen girls come up and be Abra (Em) It’s just a mirror. It’s cheering behind you, and unified on the a big reflection of what’s going on. home front – it was fucking incredible. JF Sometimes it’s really ugly to look at, sometimes it’s not. But to let people ETA | 23 NOVEMBER / ASSASSINATION you don’t know, and people who are NATION OPENS NEXT MONTH.
TOTAL FILM | NOVEMBER 2018 SUBSCRIBEATWWWTOTALFILMCOM/SUBS
CAN WE TALK ABOUT...? CARY JOJI FUKUNAGA DIRECTING BOND Why Boyle’s exit isn’t bad news…
or six decades, we’ve watched iterations of Ian Fleming’s gentleman spy that may have re-tweaked the franchise formula, but never Fradically departed from it. Yes, we could deal with the killing of a beloved character in Skyfall, but could we have tolerated the offing of 007 himself – reportedly what assigned director Danny Boyle and his screenwriter John Hodge suggested for their unorthodox Bond 25?
Ultimately, whatever it was that wouldn’t wash with Bond maven Barbara Broccoli (an astute guardian of the franchise with a proven nose for what audiences want
from their special agent) led to Boyle’s departure three months before production started on the basis of ‘creative differences’. Within a month, Broccoli and her co-producer, Michael G. Wilson, had announced dark horse replacement Cary Joji Fukunaga, a director whose most notable recent run-in with a franchise was bailing on It due to disagreements over creative direction and his self-confessed dislike of being “micro-managed”. A rush decision? Wouldn’t Fukunaga similarly struggle under Eon’s legendary control and Daniel Craig’s clout? Was he the right guy for this jewel in the British cinema crown? Well, yes – having made a name with stylish, violent and urgent fare such as Sin Nombre, True Detective and Beasts Of No Nation, it’s clear that Fukunaga can handle the action and cool required by 007. But more importantly, his experience with It, plus his working relationship with behemoth production houses like Netflix for Maniac and HBO should have primed him for Bond’s high-wire balancing act of commercial and creative. He cannot have gone into negotiations with Eon without understanding exactly where his artistic control tipping point was – perhaps more so than Boyle – meaning he should be a steady hand as he steers this instalment to its new Valentine’s Day 2020 release date. And let’s talk about that – for all Bond’s gritty evolution, his romantic entanglements and treatment of women have remained problematic. Fukunaga (the franchise’s first American director) showed with his outsider view of a British classic in 2011’s Jane Eyre that he could create on-screen steam and strong female characters on top of a fresh spin on a known property. And as one of the youngest helmers of the series (at 41), he may ensure that Bond 25 reflects more acutely the post-#MeToo world we live in today. Mission accomplished, Barbara Broccoli. JC
TOTAL FILM | NOVEMBER 2018 EXCLUSIVE
concentrate on the people, which is Passion Week FORBIDDENLOVE what makes a story universal.” RonitRachel That human drama is complicated DISOBEDIENCE I Rachel Weisz and Rachel Weiszreturns homedisrupting by the fact Esti’s devout husband Dovid McAdams are illicit lovers in Sebastián Lelio’s thelivesofEsti (Alessandro Nivola) is a respected Rabbi, RachelMcAdams and the favoured successor to Ronit’s follow-up to A Fantastic Woman… andherhusband father at the synagogue. “It was DovidAlessandro fascinating to use that to increase the ebastián Lelio has had a busy 18 months. After shooting three films Nivolabelow temperature of the conflict that trinity back to back – A Fantastic Woman, Disobedience and a remake of his own was going through,” explains Lelio, 2013 feature Gloria – the Chilean writer/director capped it all by winning who nevertheless felt it important that S the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. “I feel very lucky, because I’m the community weren’t painted as the not in a post-Oscar void of anxiety saying, ‘What am I going to do now?’” Lelio villains. “We were trying to avoid falling smiles. “Because I had already transitioned into English-language films.” into the trap of: ‘Oh, the Orthodox are the bad guys. They’re throwing stones at An adaptation of Naomi Alderman’s and Shabbat dinners, and spending lesbians.’ It’s more complex than that.” 2006 novel, Disobedience is a story of a week in an Orthodox hotel during Which brings us to the film’s forbidden love between two women the scripting stage, there were as many much-discussed sex scene. Lelio placed in the Orthodox Jewish community of as 12 consultants on set at any one great importance on a five-minute Hendon, north London. Rachel Weisz time. “We became obsessed with consummation that manages to be both plays Ronit, a photographer shunned trying to get the cultural texture right, erotic and meaningful. “I realised that as a teen for her attraction to a female in order to later on forget about it and was the heart of the film, and that we friend. When Ronit’s estranged father had to avoid making it generic – some dies she returns home, and rekindles rotation, some moaning, and then ‘next!’ a romance with Rachel McAdams’ Esti. Whatever.” Lelio scoffs. “So I became “You have two possible destinies for quite obsessed with the specificities of the same situation,” Lelio says. “One how those lovers physically manifest escaped – Ronit – and by doing that, what they feel for each other. It was she lost her origins. And the other a beautiful, difficult day of shooting. one – Esti – stayed and lived a good And at the end, I remember Rachel life, but by doing that she lost herself.” Weisz opening a bottle of whiskey Admitting he was “crazy” to and we all drank as if we’d had sex tackle such a hyper-specific subject together!” We’ll drink to that. JF for his English debut, Lelio strived for authenticity in his depiction of a world ETA | 30 NOVEMBER / DISOBEDIENCE few truly know. Attending ceremonies OPENS NEXT MONTH.
GAMESRADARCOM/TOTALFILM NOVEMBER 2018 | TOTAL FILM WORLD CINEMA SPOTLIGHT
Sea Change RIDINGHIGH Indiansuperstar AamirKhanabove THUGSOFHINDOSTAN I Bollywood icons team facesBollywood up for India’s answer to Pirates Of The Caribbean… legendAmitabh AAMIR Bachchanbelow KHAN op quiz: who’s the biggest movie star on the planet? Tom Cruise? Jennifer Lawrence? How about Aamir Khan, the Hindi cinema HowwouldyoudescribeFirangi? He’saveryslipperycharacterHehas superstar whose latest film beat The Last Jedi at the Chinese box absolutelynoconscienceHe’salsoveryfunny Thugs Of Hindostan P office. Things are getting even bigger with – a whichiswhyhe’scharmingButhe’sasurvivor Bollywood blockbuster making Hollywood’s high-seas efforts walk the plank. andhashisownagendawhichhe’sconstantly following…sohe’sagreatcharacter! Set in 1795, Khan stars as Firangi, For Acharya, no stranger to large- the kind of man who would sell his own scale projects, shooting on water proved You’vemadealotoffilmswithpowerful mother to get ahead. Firangi is recruited a new challenge. “We shot in Malta, socialmessagesisthisthesame? by the East India Company to infiltrate because we needed somewhere that No it’spurelypopcornlaughsI’msorryif and dismantle the rebel pirates resisting could give us water and not actually you’redisappointedButI’vedonealotof seriousfilmssoIthinkitwillbefuntosee British rule, led by Khudabaksh Azaad take us out to sea,” Acharya explains. me inafilmthatispureentertainment (Amitabh Bachchan). Thugs marks the “So we built two ships and a boat, and first time Bollywood’s biggest star, then just hoped everything would float!” WhatwasitlikeworkingwithAmitabh and its legendary elder statesman, While the $42 million budget may Bachchanforthefirsttime? will appear together onscreen – a seem modest by Hollywood standards, Itwasoneofthemostexcitingthingsfor momentous occasion not lost on writer/ upon its release Thugs will be the most me becauseIgrewupwatchinghisfilms director Vijay Krishna Acharya. “It was expensive Bollywood film ever made, Everydaywe’dshoot Iwouldbesitting a little daunting, to say the least!” says with Acharya and Khan leading the next tohimandjustenjoythemoment Acharya. “But I hope everybody will see charge in crafting accessible I was likealittlekid that we had a lot of fun together.” Hindi language films. LagaanisoneofthreeHindifilmsto Fun is the word, with Acharya “[Bollywood filmmakers] benominatedforanOscarWereyou describing Thugs as “an irreverent period are a pretty strange bunch, disappointeditdidn’twin? film” in contrast to Bollywood’s typically I think,” Acharya laughs. I’mnotsomeonewho’sreally respectful depiction of Indian history. “But we shouldn’t be hiding crazyaboutawardsWhat Case in point: the murderous Thuggee behind the fact that our makesmehappyisthefact cult (best known as the bad guys in budgets are a fraction of the thatpeopleconnectwithmy Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom), Hollywood budgets. In today’s films andI’mabletoreach which terrorised India for centuries. times every film has to be global.” JF people’sheartsThat’swhat reallyexcitesme–the Thugs will steer clear of the gang’s grim potentialtotouch reality in favour of a fictional story of ETA | 9 NOVEMBER / THUGS OF people’slivesJF
con men, revenge and aquatic action. HINDOSTAN OPENS NEXT MONTH. GETTY
TOTAL FILM | NOVEMBER 2018 York Film Critics’ Association and a few ATTHEHELM other awards. I met with Keanu, who VanSant’slatestfilm wanted to do something that was a isanothertaleofanot little more artistic. River had done The alwayslikeableoutsider Last Crusade, Running On Empty, Stand By Me. He was friends with Keanu, who got him a script because River’s agent was like, “He’s not doing this.” And River called back and said, “If Keanu and I do it together, it will be fun.”
What made you think of Sean Penn as Harvey Milk? I gave it to Sean in 1997. Tom Cruise was going to play [Milk’s assassin] Dan White. Penn, at the time, was 37, not 47 as the character was. Then time went by and nothing happened. And then [Dustin] Lance [Black] came to me with a new script and all the ducks were in a row. We went to Sean with that version and he was still interested and now he was the right age. We went back to Tom, and then a few different people, before Josh Brolin.
Do you consciously switch it up between the mainstream movies, indies and avant-garde projects?
The films all have their own personalities. It’s exciting to try THE HERO and push yourself. But I don’t know. When an audience decides it works, GUS VAN SANT I go, “Yeah, of course.” And when they decide it doesn’t work, I also say, Talking actors, accolades and the avant-garde… “Yeah, of course it doesn’t work.” All the movies I’ve made are pretty or 30 years, Gus Van Sant has hopped between mainstream titles much long shots. Good Will Hunting and indies with the likes of Drugstore Cowboy, Good Will Hunting, was unknown writers, unknown actors. Elephant and Milk. My Own Private Idaho helped establish the New F Queer Cinema of the early ’90s, and his films often deal with Is it true that Elephant’s roving marginalised subcultures. His new film Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far On camerawork was influenced by Foot stars Joaquin Phoenix as quadriplegic cartoonist John Callahan… Alan Clarke’s Elephant? I hadn’t seen it. It was called Elephant You began working on Don’t Worry… You always cast very well. because our producer said, “I can’t in the ’90s. Why so long? What’s your secret? ODDONESOUT make Columbine because it’s too much It was initiated by Robin Williams. I think there’s a type that appears toptobottom of a hot topic, but I can make Elephant.” He had optioned the book. He knew as you’re reading the script, but I don’t RobinWilliamsand I said, “What’s Elephant?” and he said, Callahan’s cartoons and his friend, necessarily agree with the idea that it MattDamonin “It’s a film that was commenting about ’sGoodWill Christopher Reeve, was a quadriplegic has to be a particular person. Sometimes Protestant-Catholic violence in 1989.” HuntingSeanPenn from a horse-jumping accident. It was a project comes with an actor attached. Eventually I saw it, after I’d made my astheeponymous also a story about alcohol problems, and Good Will Hunting – Matt and Ben were HarveyMilkJoaquin film. It was Béla Tarr’s Sátántangó [that Robin was familiar with that. He invited always going to play the parts. Phoenixstarringin influenced the style]. me to help guide a screenplay along. theupcomingDon’t But it was enough of a personal project Keanu Reeves and River Phoenix in WorryHeWon’t Are you ever fearful when you take that the studios were afraid. My Own Private Idaho was inspired… Get FarOnFoot on a risky project? Drugstore Cowboy had just won the New If you’re thinking in terms of whether How was it reuniting with Joaquin it will play or not, it will just give you Phoenix all these years after To Die For? fear. I try to be happy when accolades He doesn’t seem to have changed. come my way, and if they don’t, He’s older so he’s had more experience. ‘ALLTHEMOVIESI’VEMADEARE that’s OK too. JG/JM He was very thorough. He had a version of the book I’d given him and he’d LONGSHOTSIT’SEXCITING ETA | 26 OCTOBER / DON’T WORRY, HE WON’T
REX marked every page. TOTRYANDPUSHYOURSELF’ GET FAR ON FOOT OPENS THIS MONTH.
GAMESRADARCOM/TOTALFILM NOVEMBER 2018 | TOTAL FILM BIG PAYOFF UP-LIFT-ING GOOD JOB CRIMINAL LOCK IT UP BIG
‘AHEISTMOVIE THATPOSITIVELY EXPLODESOFF THESCREEN’
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47 NEW RELEASES
OUTNOW 44 Bad Times At The El Royale ++++ p46 Venom +++ p50
OCTOBER Dogman ++++ p48 Fahrenheit 11/9 +++ p47 Gangsta +++ p51 Halloween +++ p44 Hunter Killer ++ p49 Science Fair ++++ p49 The School In The Cloud ++++ p52 Touch Me Not ++ p55
OCTOBER The Hate U Give ++++ p45
OCTOBER An Evening With Beverly Luff Linn ++++ p52
OCTOBER Bad Reputation ++++ p52 Beetlejuice ++++ p49 Donkeyote +++ p47 Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far On Foot ++++ p48 The Guilty ++++ p51 Possum +++ p54 Utøya – July 22 ++++ p51 Waiting For You ++++ p52
NOVEMBER Black Mother +++ p53 Juliet, Naked +++ p55 Mirai ++++ p51 Peterloo ++++ p53 The Yukon Assignment ++ p55
NOVEMBER Widows +++++ p42
NOVEMBER Overlord +++ p49
NOVEMBER Bisbee ’17 ++++ p49 The Other Side Of Everything ++++ p55 Waru ++++ p55 Wildlife ++++ p54
NOVEMBER The Price Of Everything ++++ p48 Siberia ++ p48 Suspiria ++++ p47 3 Days In Quiberon +++ p54 9 To 5 ++++ p48
ALSORELEASED We couldn’t see them in time for this issue, so head to 42 gamesradar.com/totalfilm for reviews of the following: TITLE RELEASE DATE Bohemian Rhapsody 24 October Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween 19 October WIDOWS The Grinch 9 November The Nutcracker And The Four Realms 2 November Bold wives’ tale… Slaughterhouse Rulez 31 October For more reviews visit gamesradar.com/totalfilm
GAMESRADARCOM/TOTALFILM NOVEMBER 2018 | TOTAL FILM THE WORLD’S MOST TRUSTED REVIEWS
CERTIFICATE TBCDIRECTORSteveMcQueenSTARRING ViolaDavis MichelleRodriguez ElizabethDebicki CynthiaErivo ColinFarrellSCREENPLAYGillianFlynn SteveMcQueen DISTRIBUTORFoxRUNNINGTIMEmins TBC
WIDOWS Debt reckoning… OUT 6 NOVEMBER
aint incredulity greeted the news that arthouse powerhouse Steve McQueen would follow the Oscar-winning 12 Years A Slave with a remake Fof 1983 Brit-TV crime series Widows. What next, a big-screen Minder reboot? But transformed into this tough, topical and unabashedly thrilling Chicago-set female heist movie, it positively explodes off the screen.
McQueen’s muscular, melancholic SEE THIS make-over starts literally with a bang, IF YOU as Harry Rawlings (Liam Neeson), his
LIKED… gang and their big cash haul go up in WIDOWS- smoke after a high-octane botched ITV’stwo-series robbery. As Harry’s devastated widow showearnedLynda Veronica, Viola Davis essays a raw, LaPlanteher scriptingbreakout dignified grief – one that’s inflamed by local kingpin Jamal Manning (a GONEGIRL smoothly menacing Brian Tyree Henry) GillianFlynn’staleof husbandsandwives insisting on a refund-or-death deal for secretsandlies his stolen $2m. Owning nothing but SUICIDE Harry’s secret blueprint for a major Theheistwasgoingtobebigsorting SQUAD robbery, the heist she proposes to her adecentpackedlunchwascritical ViolaDavisisthe fellow widows – single mother Linda one pullingthe (Michelle Rodriguez) and the flaky, crims’ stringsin this DCadap helpless Alice (Elizabeth Debicki) is squabbling son of Robert Duvall’s Tightening like a noose around a life-saving necessity, not a caper. Trumpian politico, to win a lucrative both plots are the escalating The reluctant amateurs show election in a black-majority ward suspicions of Jatemme (Daniel a defiant desperation that injects by any means necessary. Kaluuya), Manning’s psychotic some overdue realism into the genre, enforcer. Committing a shocking act echoing gritty forebears such as Paul TAKING THE RAP of brutality in a bowling lane (“This is Schrader’s Blue Collar (1978) or broke Richly lensed by McQueen’s regular like that Operation game”), or forcing girls bank-job Set It Off (1996). There’s DoP Sean Bobbitt, the settings a terrified freestyle rap from victims, real pleasure in watching them skill offer some resonant contrasts. he’s proof that McQueen can muster up (or screw up), while cajoling and The Mulligans’ lavishly antique Old sphincter-tightening gangland menace blackmailing guns, a getaway van and Chicago offices clash with Veronica’s as well as heavyweight themes. vital info out of unsuspecting targets. stark glass penthouse and the That said, there’s some fascinating Resolutely refusing to dumb down for widows’ dark shabby warehouse overlap with Hunger and 12 Years A Slave the multiplex, the movie also weaves HQ. Meanwhile, Mulligan Jr.’s limo in the gal-gang’s stubborn refusal to in a cynical, all-male story of Chicago glides through neighbourhoods submit. As Linda puts it: “I want my corruption, as Manning battles Colin beset by peeling poverty en route kids to know I did something. Didn’t Farrell’s devious Jack Mulligan, to his gentrified fortress. just sit there and take it.” There’s shared ground with Shame, too, in Viola Davis’ powerful portrait of sustained ‘CIRCLINGPLOTSCOLLIDEINKINETIC suffering, dogged by knife-sharp flashbacks of loving Harry. Pole-axed CARCHASESANDBLOODYPAY-OFFS’ by sorrow, scared, angry and vengeful,
TOTAL FILM | NOVEMBER 2018 SUBSCRIBEATWWWTOTALFILMCOM/SUBS
PREDICTED INTEREST CURVE™ late-recruited getaway driver Belle puzzle of a job, heightened by the flaunts a quiet toughness that lets widows’ desperation. Circling plots THRILLED The Chicago Way Casing the joint her go toe-to-toe with Davis. collide in kinetic car chases and bloody ENTERTAINED Tunnel Widows’ From Four “Crying It’s all vision peak Characters this well drawn take pay-offs, all favouring rough justice NODDING OFF funerals Bereaved about the stick-up isn’t on Finger on to burn and a the list” and Benjamins time, however. The film’s panorama over sleek ingenuity. It leads to a ZZZZZZZZZ betrayed the trigger… up… bedding of grief and grift is sprawling and searing showdown that’s studded with RUNNING TIME 0 25 50 75 100 128 absorbing, rather than swift-footed. loss and Davis’ badass determination. It’s lightened by co-writer Gillian If McQueen fans miss the lyrical, Davis is the film’s motor. It’s Flynn’s (Gone Girl, Sharp Objects) piercing depth of his earlier work, Veronica’s guts and gravitas that push trademark grit and dark humour, novel there’s an echo of it in the quartet’s the women’s scrappy scheme on; their stuff in McQueen’s often punishing faint, flawed nobility. Empowering secret weapon the fact that “no one work. Indeed, there’s a Black Lives and engrossing, with a cynical eye thinks we have the balls to pull it off”. Matter-style tragedy sprung here that and a social conscience that adds heft has sharp emotional recoil. But after and heart to the heist, it’s a hugely SAVED BY THE BELLE a midpoint gut-punch, revenge gives accomplished and enjoyable addition But the biggest surprise is Debicki, a booster rocket to the film’s back half. to McQueen’s oeuvre. Kate Stables digging courage and ingenuity from Hans Zimmer’s thrumming score steps battered Alice by masquerading as a up the pace, as the visceral tension mail-order bride to grab Glocks and of the robbery run-up starts to bite. THE VERDICT other vital assets. Rodriguez shows Clumsy, violent and threatened McQueen segues smoothly to the a tenderness untapped in the Fast & by rookie errors, the heist is the polar mainstream with a crackerjack thriller Furious series, while Cynthia Erivo’s opposite of Ocean’s 8’s slick, jigsaw packing a chewy political message.
GAMESRADARCOM/TOTALFILM NOVEMBER 2018 | TOTAL FILM THE WORLD’S MOST TRUSTED REVIEWS
WilliamShatnerisn’t ageingbrilliantly
SEE THIS IF YOU LIKED... HALLOWEEN H Curtis’Lauriereturns tokickassaer a-yearhiatus PINEAPPLE EXPRESS GreenandMcBride putacomedy spinonanother well-lovedgenre STARWARS THEFORCE AWAKENS Abelated crowd-pleasing sequeldoneright revisitingfamiliar craggyfaces
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CERTIFICATEDIRECTORDavidGordon Between the gruesomely inventive HALLOWEEN GreenSTARRINGJamieLeeCurtis Judy kills and the visual stylings, Green GreerSCREENPLAYDavidGordonGreen operates with affection for Carpenter’s In decent Shape… DannyMcBride JeffFradleyDISTRIBUTOR original. If that’s aided by Carpenter’s UniversalRUNNINGTIMEmins exec producer role, the reprise of his OUT 19 OCTOBER score (alongside new music from facility allows this is symptomatic of Carpenter, his son Cody, and Daniel fter ditching the majority of the franchise’s the film’s lack of logic – for better or A. Davies) also adds to the atmosphere. 40-year canon to serve as a direct follow-up worse, the emphasis falls on fun here. But where Halloween 2018 deviates to John Carpenter’s 1978 original, is Halloween The podcasters next visit the wildly is in the humour. Danny McBride A (2018) a worthy sequel? Well, yes and no. reclusive Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee co-writes, and it shows: while some Thrill-seeking fans of Carpenter’s definitive slasher will Curtis), who has trained herself in knowing gags suggest you should just have a good time with the nods, call-backs and mostly survival skills. The interview is bungled enjoy the fun, the insistent one-liners relentless pace. But anyone hoping to see some Blade badly, but director David Gordon Green detract from the tension. Runner 2049-style heft added to the mythology is likely (Stronger, Pineapple Express) is more The humour and allusions suggest to walk away unsatisfied. sensitive in his treatment of Strode. a film that’s intended to be whooped One of the biggest delights here is along to at midnight screenings, and The film opens with Michael Myers Curtis’ badass return to her career- the cracking final sequence ensures (played by James Jude Courtney and, launching role: the film lights up audiences will leave on a high. But in a key cameo, a returning Nick Castle) whenever she’s at the forefront. given all that has been sacrificed to give having been incarcerated in a high- In a hint that trauma may have the franchise a shot at redemption, the security facility for 40 years. Two created a monster in Strode, her end result feels flimsy and throwaway. irritating podcasters arrive to try and daughter (Judy Greer) has little There’s enough ambiguity in the get the mute killer talking, using his time for her after a childhood spent ending to suggest further sequels could mask to taunt him. The fact that the learning weapons skills. But any be on the way, but on this evidence, chance of the subplots being there’s not a lot left to be wrung from PREDICTED INTEREST CURVE™ examined goes out of the window this well-worn franchise. Matt Maytum (and disappears from the front lawn) THRILLED Mouldy Park the bus Home alone pumpkin as the hack-and-slash begins. After ENTERTAINED a slightly slow start and an ill-advised THE VERDICT NODDING OFF “By today’s Motion- standards…” Adventures sensor Generation facility transfer, the pace doesn’t let The latest Halloween instalment is ZZZZZZZZZ Serial/ killer in babysitting sickness game up once Myers starts murdering his fun while it lasts, but unlike the RUNNING TIME 0 20 40 60 80 10 way back to Haddonfield. original, it’s not a classic for the ages.
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AmandlaStenberg shinesasteen Starr Carter
SEE THIS IF YOU LIKED... BOYZNTHE HOOD CubaGooding Jrgoesfromboy tomaninJohn Singleton’sclassic JUSTANOTHER GIRLON THEIRT ABrooklynteenager growsupthe hard wayinthis low-budgetindie CROOKLYN SpikeLeemines hischildhoodin thislook ata’s Bed-Stuyfamily
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CERTIFICATEADIRECTORGeorge prepares herself for the grand jury THE HATE TillmanJrSTARRINGAmandlaStenberg appearance that will decide if ‘Officer ReginaHall RussellHornsby AnthonyMackie 115’ pays for his actions. Yet she also SCREENPLAYAudreyWells TinaMabry finds time for some Guess Who-inflected U GIVE DISTRIBUTORFoxRUNNINGTIMEmins humour: Hornsby’s flabbergasted Starr vehicle… response to the prom-night arrival proves uncommonly astute at of his daughter’s white beau offers OUT 22 OCTOBER delineating the code-switching tightrope a moment of tension-easing laughter. its young heroine must walk between Rightly being talked about as a aking its title from Tupac Shakur’s “Thug Life” the two worlds in which she operates. potential Oscar contender, The Hate acronym (“The Hate U Give Little Infants Fucks At her upscale private school, she’s Ny@bo^ could possibly have shed 20 Everyone”) and inspired by the same shooting a mild-mannered poster child for racial minutes without losing any of its T that informed Fruitvale Station, George Tillman integration, coolly accepting of her forcefulness and resonance. Yet any Jr.’s adap of Angie Thomas’s novel is a teen movie with a classmates’ casual bigotries and concerns over its occasional flabbiness difference. At its heart is a 16-year-old girl dealing with all fetishising of black culture. Back in are quickly dispatched by a riveting the usual travails of adolescence: peer pressure, boyfriends, the ghetto she calls home, in contrast, performance from Hunger Games expectations. Yet Starr Carter (Amandla Stenberg) has she’s a whip-smart latchkey kid with veteran Stenberg that fizzes with an extra burden to bear: that of being the only witness an ex-convict father (Russell Hornsby), intelligence, compassion and moral to a friend’s unwarranted killing by a trigger-happy cop. a hard-working mum (Regina Hall) authority. Back when her casting was and a powder-keg neighbourhood just announced, some fans of the book The Black Lives Matter undercurrent outside her front door that crackles voiced the view that her role should gives Ma^AZm^N@bo^ a relevance and with gunfire when the sun goes down. have gone to a darker-skinned actress. topicality far beyond the teen pic’s After a routine traffic stop ends with Stenberg repays the hate they gave with normal parameters. Even before the Khalil (Detroit’s Algee Smith) breathing a charismatic, magnetic and startlingly shooting though, Tillman Jr.’s film his last in her arms, Starr sets out to mature turn that shows that she, see justice done in his name – a quest like the teen movie genre itself, has PREDICTED INTEREST CURVE™ that soon puts her on a collision course triumphantly come of age. Neil Smith with the police, the judicial system THRILLED Taken for a ride Live at five and the local w crime kingpin (Anthony ENTERTAINED Shot in I predict Flame Mackie) for whom Khalil worked. THE VERDICT NODDING OFF the dark a riot resistant The Common Jury House Rest in duty Screenwriters Audrey Wells (The Truth An all-too-familiar story is told with ZZZZZZZZZ Talk party conversation peace Speaking up About Cats And Dogs) and Tina Mabry empathy and vigour in a film arguing RUNNING TIME 0 20 40 60 80 100 133 deftly crank up the tension as Starr for tolerance, activism and change.
GAMESRADARCOM/TOTALFILM NOVEMBER 2018 | TOTAL FILM THE WORLD’S MOST TRUSTED REVIEWS
SEE THIS IF YOU LIKED… BARTONFINK TheCoensbook playwrightJohn Turturrointothe hotelfromhell THECABININ THEWOODS Goddardtakes thehorrormovie andyourbrainto anotherdimension HOTELARTEMIS Badtimesata differentDrew’s Pearceominous establishment
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Havingabearworking receptiondidn’thelp…
CERTIFICATEDIRECTORDrewGoddard star Chris Hemsworth as bare-chested, BAD TIMES STARRINGJeffBridges DakotaJohnson flaxen-locked cult leader Billy Lee ChrisHemsworth CynthiaErivo JonHamm shoves a real stick of dynamite up LewisPullmanSCREENPLAYDrewGoddard the third act. Proclaiming “What does AT THE EL DISTRIBUTORTwentiethCenturyFox God mean to you?” Hemsworth is RUNNINGTIME mins ROYALE eminently watchable as a hair-trigger guru in the Charles Manson mould. Heart-race hotel… seen better days, but that doesn’t stop Likewise, Hamm is enjoyable with a gaggle of guests arriving at the same his effusive Don Draper-lite character, OUT NOW time: priest Father Daniel Flynn (Jeff but it’s the ladies who set the film on Bridges), put-upon singer Darlene fire. Shedding her Fifty Shades good-girl ix years on from the belated release of The Cabin Sweet (Cynthia Erivo), garrulous image, Johnson has a blast as the In The Woods, Drew Goddard returns with his salesman Laramie Seymour Sullivan ruthless Emily, though it’s Erivo (who second film as writer/director. A bloody (Jon Hamm) and the mysterious Emily also stars in Steve McQueen’s Widows, S1960s-set crime yarn centred on the eponymous Summerspring (Dakota Johnson), see p76) that really rocks the house. run-down Lake Tahoe hotel, BTATER comes armed with who signs the register “Fuck You”. BTATER may not be a musical, but her quick-draw dialogue, violent stand-offs, Motown cuts Once they’ve checked in with renditions of ‘You Can’t Hurry Love’ and casual allusions to real-life figures. Starring a juicy concierge Miles (Lewis Pullman), and other standards are captivating. ensemble, it’s got a Pulp Fiction vibe to it, even if Goddard squabbling over their choice of rooms, If the film isn’t quite as inventive doesn’t have a voice as distinctive as Tarantino’s. Goddard begins to explore exactly why as the game-changing horror that was they’re all here. With the first four Cabin (which boasted Joss Whedon as After a prologue in which a crook chapters named after each room number co-scripter), it’s infused with affection stashes a bag of cash under the the guests select, we soon learn that and craft. Even if the plot logic doesn’t floorboards in one of the rooms, we just about nobody is who they say they always hold up, it’s rich on rain- fast-forward 10 years. The El Royale has are. Moreover, the hotel itself creaks drenched atmosphere as we’re left with secrets, not least because all the trying to figure out who’ll be the last PREDICTED INTEREST CURVE™ rooms are fixed with two-way mirrors woman or man standing. James Mottram and an observation corridor, allowing THRILLED Gunishment Miles to film any kinky goings on. ENTERTAINED Mirror, Singalong Goddard’s script is such a treasure THE VERDICT NODDING OFF mirror Bar Miles away presence trove of twists that it might be fairer to Bags of fun. Drew Goddard and his ZZZZZZZZZ Check-in Billy boy resist wading into spoiler territory. That cast have a riot in a thriller that RUNNING TIME 0 30 60 0 120 140 said, the late arrival of Goddard’s Cabin dances to its own beat.
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CERTIFICATETBCDIRECTORLucaGuadagninoSTARRINGDakota Fanning TildaSwinton ChloëGraceMoretz MiaGothSCREENPLAY LucaGuadagninoDISTRIBUTORMubiRUNNINGTIMEmins
SUSPIRIA Hurty dancing… OUT 16 NOVEMBER
all Me By Your Name director Luca Guadagnino’s remake of Dario Argento’s gonzo masterpiece is Cuncoincidentally set in 1977, the year the original Suspiria came out. There are a few more nods and winks, but like other successful horror remakes (Herzog’s Nosferatu, Carpenter’s The Thing, Cronenberg’s The Fly), this is a wholesale reimagining. The gist is the same – American dance student Susie Bannion (Dakota Fanning) attends a German academy run by a coven of witches – but we’re now in Berlin in the shadow of the Wall. In place of Argento’s dazzling colours and Goblin’s hellish noise-mongering are wintry hues and Thom Yorke’s eloquently evil arrangements. The two-and-a-half-hour runtime, meanwhile, is studded with digressions. In fact, the whole thing aspires to such upscale artiness it seems determined to be the last word on the ‘elevated horror’ debate. But Fanning is good and Tilda Swinton, as the academy’s formidable grand dame Madame Blanc, is better. Meanwhile
Guadagnino, like Argento, is hell-bent on disorientating viewers. What’s more, there are Grand Guignol flourishes that go straight into the genre’s pantheon, including a death-by-dance number, and an outré climax that bursts, literally, with insanity, tumult and exultation. Jamie Graham
MadameBlanc THE VERDICT ladyin…red Not all of it works and it naturally can’t touch the original, but much of Guadagnino’s remake is devilishly fine.
FAHRENHEIT 11/ 9 DONKEYOTE SMALLFOOT FUNNY GIRL: THE MUSICAL OUT 19 OCTOBER OUT 26 OCTOBER OUT NOW “How the fuck did this happen?” As per the title, Chico Pereira’s This disposable monster ’toon OUT 24 OCTOBER demands Michael Moore at the doc shares beats with Cervantes’ feels like a stitch-job formed of The life story of Broadway star outset of his latest doc – and classic novel: an old man (Pereira’s numerous (better) family flicks, Fanny Brice earned Barbra he’s not only referring to Donald uncle Manuel) journeying across with little of its own invention Streisand an Oscar, but the role’s Trump. Targeting the woeful state Spain with his donkey on a or wit. Channing Tatum is goofily now almost as synonymous with of present-day America, Moore’s tragi-comic quest. Manuel feels charming enough as yeti Migo, Sheridan Smith, a bright-eyed polemic goes on too long and tries from a different age: a raconteur but James Corden – as a wildlife Brice in this recording of the recent to cram in way too much. Still, who sleeps outside and apparently presenter – once again fails to stage revival (in cinemas 24 the director’s as feisty as ever prefers the company of animals prove why he keeps landing voice October only). What you lose in and plenty of his points hit home, (whom he hopes to take Stateside) roles. Both abominable snowmen live atmos you gain in a bigger especially when he tackles the to his family. But despite exquisite and the twist on monster/human spotlight for Smith’s expressive water-pollution crisis in his native camerawork, the languid pacing relationships were done way turn, from tears to comedy Flint, Michigan. Philip Kemp ultimately exhausts. Tim Coleman better in Monsters, Inc. Rob James ’tache antics. Matthew Leyland
GAMESRADARCOM/TOTALFILM NOVEMBER 2018 | TOTAL FILM THE WORLD’S MOST TRUSTED REVIEWS
CERTIFICATETBCDIRECTORGusVanSantSTARRINGJoaquin JoaquinPhoenixstarsas Phoenix RooneyMara JonahHill JackBlackSCREENPLAYGusVan real-lifenewspaper SantDISTRIBUTORMUBIRUNNINGTIMEmins cartoonistJohnCallahan DON’T WORRY, HE WON’T GET FAR ON FOOT Joaquin goes to ’toon… OUT 26 OCTOBER
us Van Sant delivers one of his more personal films with this biographical tale of Portland Gcartoonist John Callahan. A story brought to him by the late Robin Williams, after their collaboration on Good Will Hunting, this too touches on therapy and self- healing. Callahan (Joaquin Phoenix) is a heavy drinker, and it’s an ill-fated hook-up with Jack Black’s party- hound that leads him to a car accident. Paralysed and in a wheelchair, Callahan’s boozing gets worse until he finds his way to a rehab group run by Jonah Hill’s touchy-feely soul-saver, with Kim Gordon and Beth Ditto as fellow patients. Just as his cartoons gathered as many detractors as admirers for their controversial content, so Callahan arrives as a disruptive, obnoxious presence. Phoenix hits the right notes of screw-you bitterness and
sardonic humour throughout. And with Van Sant adopting an appealingly loose-limbed structure, the only misstep is a miscast Rooney Mara as Annu, the angelic Swedish physical therapist Callahan falls for. Otherwise, this is a winning return to form for Van Sant. James Mottram
THE VERDICT A punchy, poignant and honest portrayal of recovery, Phoenix and Van Sant’s reunion is cause for celebration.
SIBERIA THE PRICE OF 9 TO 5 DOGMAN EVERYTHING OUT 16 NOVEMBER OUT 16 NOVEMBER 19 OCTOBER Keanu Reeves heads to Russia OUT 16 NOVEMBER It’s 38 years since this spiky Matteo Garrone returns to Italy’s (actually Winnipeg) to find his What makes good art? What workplace satire came out, criminal underclass for a bitingly missing partner in a sleepy thriller makes valuable art? What makes but in the wake of the #MeToo intimate, emotionally complex with artsy pretensions. With good art that’s valued at squillions movement and greater focus story about the way violence limited time to obtain diamonds of dollars? These and myriad other on gender disparity, it’s still can corrupt even gentle hearts. for some shifty mobster types, questions are chewed over in depressingly relevant. Charting Marcello Fonte plays a dog our hero instead hooks up with a Nathaniel Kahn’s conversation- three women (Jane Fonda, groomer and pushover; dealing waitress (Ana Ularu), goes hunting starting doc. Artists, auctioneers Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton) cocaine to pay for his daughter’s with her brothers and Skypes his and collectors all weigh in; if wreaking revenge on their sexist holidays, his good nature is soon wife (Molly Ringwald) in a film the style is more portrait than bully boss (Dabney Coleman), exploited. While the canine cast whose mildly exciting finale is polemic, it paints the madness it’s dated only in technology, delights, Fonte deserves best- scant reward for the unmitigated of the market in no uncertain fashion and a payoff that flubs actor chatter as a hangdog you tedium that precedes it. Neil Smith strokes. Matthew Leyland a feminist message. Jane Crowther can root for. Jordan Farley
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BEETLEJUICE BISBEE ’17 SCIENCE FAIR HUNTER KILLER OUT 26 OCTOBER OUT 9 NOVEMBER OUT 19 OCTOBER OUT 19 OCTOBER Pre-CGI, pre-Johnny Depp: Robert Greene, director of 2016’s Smart, charming and inspiring, Gerard Butler stars as Joe Glass, without his later crutches, Tim Kate Plays Christine, plays with the this Sundance favourite tails nine a submarine captain tasked with Burton’s riotous 1988 goth-com form again in an exploration of international high-schoolers navigating foreign waters to save ages well. Canny twists on a mass deportation of immigrant desperate to win big at ISEF, ‘the the Russian president from a home-invasion basics see newly miners in 1917 Arizona. Enlisting Olympics of science fairs’. More coup. Co-starring Gary Oldman as deads Geena Davis and Alec the inhabitants of modern-day Hoop Dreams than Spellbound, it a trigger-happy Pentagon bigwig, Baldwin summoning bio-exorcist Bisbee to re-enact this shameful celebrates the teens’ ambitious this patriotic action thriller may Betelgeuse (Michael Keaton) to rid episode, Greene offers them projects (a Zika virus vaccine, as well be called Olympus Has their home of yuppies. Keaton’s a way to atone for an inherited ‘flying wing’ aircraft, and a Sunken. Missile launches blend madcap incursions are unleashed guilt while giving us a troubling water-pollutant detector), while with camaraderie and a message judiciously, the visuals crackle and but redemptive examination casting a shrewd, sympathetic eye of tolerance, but the script is Winona Ryder makes winning of industrial relations and over their setbacks and struggles submerged in clichés at least as work of Lydia. Kevin Harley collective culpability. Neil Smith with schoolmates. Kate Stables old as the Cold War. Matt Looker
CERTIFICATEDIRECTORJuliusAverySTARRINGJovanAdepo WyaRussell MathildeOllivier PilouAsbækSCREENPLAYBillyRay MarkLSmithDISTRIBUTORParamountRUNNINGTIMEmins
OVERLORD War is ‘what the hell?!’… OUT 7 NOVEMBER
.J. Abrams loves to plunge viewers down a rabbit hole before dragging them backwards through Ja maze made up of hairpin turns. Overlord, which he produces while Julius Avery (Son Of A Gun) directs, is the latest example. No spoilers here, but suffice to say that what starts off as a men-on-a-mission World War 2 action-drama morphs with all the blood, blisters and body butchery of a Rick Baker werewolf transformation into an 18-rated horror movie. The one-take opening is exceptional, as captain Ford (Wyatt Russell), greenhorn grunt Boyce (Jovan Adepo) and the rest of a hyperventilating squad parachute into southern France on the eve of D-Day. With their plane shot from the sky, they plummet through thunderous explosions and then creep past roaming Nazis until they reach a small town to take out its radio tower. And then things really start to get messy… From its jolt-start as an airborne Saving Private Ryan, the only way is down, and the grisly horrors that await our heroes slowly slide from the surprising and the pleasingly queasy to the, well, a bit silly. That said, the soulful Adepo is a star in the making and Russell, best-known as stoner Willoughby in Everybody Wants Some!!, convinces as a gritty, bruised-heart leader. Jamie Graham
Theladsfromthevillage THE VERDICT tookapplescrumping War movie, character piece, Cronenbergian body horror… reallyseriously there’s a lot of good stuff here before it jumps the shark.
GAMESRADARCOM/TOTALFILM NOVEMBER 2018 | TOTAL FILM THE WORLD’S MOST TRUSTED REVIEWS
Thealiensymbiote’sabig fanofhisnewselfiestick
SEE THIS IF YOU LIKED… ANAMERICAN WEREWOLFIN LONDON Seriouslyscary howlinglyfunny –the blendVenom is goingfor
THEFLY Goldblumgrows super-strongwhenhe fuseswithaflyThen hiscockfallsoff
FIGHTCLUB Venomriffson JekyllandHyde SodoesFincher’s masterpiece
FORMORE REVIEWSVISIT GAMESRADAR COM/TOTALFILM
CERTIFICATEDIRECTORRuben ‘edgy’ character piece (shots of VENOM FleischerSTARRINGTomHardy a hunched Brock walking the San MichelleWilliams RizAhmed JennySlate Francisco streets are Taxi Driver minus A symbiote favour… SCREENPLAYScoRosenberg JeffPinkner the porno theatres) to multiplex- KellyMarcel WillBeallDISTRIBUTORSony friendly body horror, to riotous RUNNINGTIMEmins OUT NOW buddy-com. Hardy might have been joking (or not) when he said the best 40 uben Fleischer’s Venom has many questions billionaire Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed), minutes of Venom are on the cutting- to answer. Can it do justice to Marvel’s iconic whose Life Foundation has launched room floor, but it certainly feels rushed antihero, an alien symbiote that can run, leap a space programme to find cures for and gutted. The action’s solid at best, Rand swing like Spider-Man but likes to bite off overpopulation and climate change. the computer effects very, well, people’s heads? Can it survive on its own merits while Spidey As the film opens, we see a homeward- computer-y, and Williams’ role is is otherwise engaged in the MCU? Will it compromise bound shuttle carrying four alien so thankless it makes one of the 1993 source series Lethal Protector as the PG-13 certificate organisms that could hold the key to world’s best actresses seem ordinary. – 15 in the UK – suggests (Logan and Deadpool dared to go postponing humankind’s extinction. What saves Venom is Venom. hard-R)? And the two biggies: can it erase memories of Only the ship crashes and one of the And Brock. Meaning Hardy, flaunting Tobey Maguire dancing in a jazz club, and can Tom Hardy ETs hotfoots it from the wreckage, a new-found knack for physical muster a villainous voice that’s in some way intelligible? while the other three specimens are comedy. Throwing himself, literally, delivered to Drake’s San Francisco HQ, into the action, he also unleashes a The answers are sort of, just about, ready for experimentation to begin. series of yips, yowls and yelps that put sadly yes, hmmm, and you betcha… It’s no spoiler to say that Brock – Tom Cruise’s Mummy memes to shame. with the help of an industrial sub- whose snooping costs him his job and It’s a jerky, whiplash-inducing ride woofer. The plot is your standard origin his fiancée (Michelle Williams) – finds to get there, but come the final act, story, as investigative journalist Eddie himself hosting a symbiote. “I am Venom and Brock have found the Brock (Hardy) aims to take down Venom,” it growls after revealing perfect symbiosis, and the movie’s itself in its full seven-foot, toothy, found its tone. Jamie Graham PREDICTED INTEREST CURVE™ Gene Simmons-tongued glory. Brock spends the rest of the movie bicker- THRILLED “Have a nice life” “Pussy!” “I am Venom” Sting 2 Date night bantering with the voice in his head THE VERDICT ENTERTAINED Sting 1 and fighting off Drake’s henchmen Fleischer made a better comedy- NODDING OFF Hosting a party Sucking face On yer via an array of CGI gymnastics. horror with Zombieland, but Venom’s ZZZZZZZZZ Shoddy spaceship CGI Pollack painting bike Tonally, Venom leaps and stretches a decent buddy actioner. You might RUNNING TIME 0 25 50 75 100 112 like the symbiote itself, hopping from even laugh your head off…
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CERTIFICATEPGDIRECTORMamoruHosodaVOICESMoka Kamishiraishi HaruKuroki GenHoshinoSCREENPLAYMamoru HosodaDISTRIBUTORNationalAmusementsRUNNINGTIME mins
MIRAI The kids are all flight… OUT 2 NOVEMBER
he whimsical theme song to Mamoru Hosoda’s animated domestic fantasy seems to promise Tsweeter, cutesier fruit than the director’s more epic endeavours. But don’t be fooled. With charm, vigour and dry wit, Mirai extends the familial themes of Hosoda’s Wolf Children and The Boy And The Beast into a tale of sibling jealousy that holds true to kids’ wayward imaginations and bolshy energies… not to mention seismic sulks. Imagine The Boss Baby re-channelled via the snot-nosed nipper in Ghibli’s Ponyo and you’ll be halfway towards the situation facing four-year-old Kun (Moka Kamishiraishi), whose cosy home life is disrupted by his baby sister’s incursion. Kun’s tolerance soon devolves into titanic tantrums, heightened as mum starts work and (cue somewhat dated Fk'yFhf-ish japes) dad assumes childcare duties. Here, Mirai takes wing with Kun’s retreat into a fantasy world populated by re-imagined versions of his family and pets. The life lessons they serve evoke A Christmas Carol,
but Hosoda dodges moral didacticism to conjure child’s-eye views of changes and challenges, rich in detail and sensation. The wondrous and terrifying train-station climax is exemplary: if it unavoidably echoes Ghibli, Mirai is too gently, fluently assured to suffer by the comparison. Kevin Harley
They’renotsureiftheylikethe THE VERDICT lookofthenextlifelesson… Between its domestic intimacies and dragon trains, Hosoda’s fable brims with home truths and surreal wonders.
A WOMAN UTOYA – JULY 22 THE GUILTY GANGSTA CAPTURED OUT 26 OCTOBER OUT 26 OCTOBER OUT 19 OCTOBER OUT 27 OCTOBER Released in the same month as When emergency call centre In a lively warm-up for their Bad When Marish, 53, met filmmaker Paul Greengrass’ account of the operator Asger (Jakob Cedergren), Boys film, directors Adil El Arbi Bernadett Tuza-Ritter, she had 2011 massacre of Norwegian teens answers a kidnap victim, he’s and Bilall Fallah bring stylistic been a victim of modern-day by a right-wing extremist (see meant to dispatch the cops and flash to a tale of four small-time slavery for more than a decade. p108), Erik Poppe’s version is move on. Except Asger, driven by dealers out of their depth in Her captors allowed the director chillingly concentrated. In one demons to play the hero, won’t let Antwerp’s criminal underworld. access, and for the next 18 months unbroken take we follow 18-year- go… Never leaving the office and A clichéd third-act comedown Tuza-Ritter recorded Marish’s old Kaja (Andrea Berntzen) as she conducted in real time, Gustav hits the viewer hard, but until daily life, encouraging her to flee searches for her sister and tries Möller’s claustrophobic thriller is then it fair rattles along, with for freedom. While upsetting, the to save herself and others from a a thorny look at responsibilities Matteo Simoni summoning insights into hidden abuses make brutal death. Shot in the real time and consequences. Not since Locke a jittery energy reminiscent of for one of the most remarkable that the killings played out, this has such tension been mined from Robert Pattinson in the superior docs of the year. Tim Coleman is compelling stuff. Philip Kemp phone convos. Simon Kinnear Good Time. Chris Schilling
GAMESRADARCOM/TOTALFILM NOVEMBER 2018 | TOTAL FILM THE WORLD’S MOST TRUSTED REVIEWS
BAD REPUTATION MAKE ME UP THE SCHOOL WAITING FOR YOU IN THE CLOUD OUT 26 OCTOBER OUT NOW OUT 26 OCTOBER Rock ’n’ roll with a kick of raw Artist Rachel Maclean’s satire OUT 19 OCTOBER His father’s deathbed confession feeling is the rousing recipe for presents a bubblegum-pop Not as whimsical as it sounds, sees grieving Paul (Colin Morgan) Kevin Kerslake’s Joan Jett portrait. dystopia where women compete this doc nonetheless involves turn sleuth in Charles Garrad’s Kerslake doesn’t get under Jett’s in degrading challenges. Yet as some blue-sky thinking: Professor slow-burning thriller. Set mostly skin, but he plots her roller- vital as Maclean’s call for female Sugata Mitra’s notion that in France, the mystery surrounds coaster ride from The Runaways solidarity is, the film’s message – web-based schooling is the future. Madeleine (Fanny Ardant), to the Hall Of Fame with rigour, that women feel obliged to adhere TED talks and classroom trials daughter to an acquaintance hinged heavily on Jett’s deep- to unrealistic beauty standards, (contrasting education in England of his dad. It’s a story built on drawl commentary. While her particularly in the social-media era and India) flesh out Mitra’s secrets, where smart lensing odd-couple bond with manager – is hardly new, and it’s hammered ideas; dissenting voices, gender probes for echoes of the past. Kenny Laguna adds warmth, home with grinding repetition. politics and the scene-stealing The visual intelligence is matched Jett’s empathy for female rockers Even at a slender 82 minutes, Cloud Grannies invigorate the by Morgan’s smouldering, roars loudest of all. Kevin Harley it feels overstretched. Chris Schilling debate. Matthew Leyland suppressed emotion. Simon Kinnear
CERTIFICATEDIRECTORJimHoskingSTARRINGAubreyPlaza She’daskedfor JemaineClement CraigRobinsonSCREENPLAYJimHosking the‘Rachel’… DavidWikeDISTRIBUTORPicturehouseRUNNINGTIMEmins
AN EVENING WITH BEVERLY LUFF LINN Love and other rugs… OUT 23 OCTOBER
im Hosking’s follow-up to The Greasy Strangler tones down the gore and gross-out and ups the Jstar power. The absurdity level, meanwhile, remains the same; which is to say, through the roof. Like Strangler, which left even fans feeling queasy, it won’t be everyone’s cup of weird. But if your funny bone’s in synch with Hosking’s humour – with its running (sometimes into the ground) gags, deadpan performances, sleazy cartoon vibes and fashion crimes – you’ll have a memorable Evening. Rather than one man’s lust affair with lard, the hook here is a love quadrangle, with all corners occupied by quality comic talent: Aubrey Plaza, giving great side-eye as runaway wife Lulu Danger; Jemaine Clement, giving good-bad wig (and other hairs) as lovestruck stranger Colin; Matt Berry as Rodney, platonic (and possessive) life partner to the titular Mr. Linn; and Craig Robinson, growling away as the man himself, whose sold-out show is the icing on a cake layered with sight gags, non sequiturs and an unexpected dose of sweet sincerity. Clearly, Hosking is no bullshit artist. Matthew Leyland
THE VERDICT The Greasy Strangler director tries a little tenderness… with loony, loveable results.
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CERTADIRECTORMikeLeighSTARRINGRoryKinnear Maxine Peake NeilBell PhilipJackson PearceQuigleySCREENPLAY MikeLeighDISTRIBUTOREOneRUNNINGTIME minutes PETERLOO Talkin’ ‘bout a revolution OUT 2 NOVEMBER
n 16 August 1819, upwards of 60,000 protesters gathered at St. Peter’s Field, Manchester, to rally Ofor reform. Into this peaceful crowd waded the Salford Yeomanry and the 15th Hussars with sabres drawn. Mike Leigh’s biggest and most overtly political film to date does what school textbooks do not – tells the tragic tale of the massacre that became known as Peterloo. Tracking the four years between the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars and that fateful day in August, Leigh hops between several parties (monarchy, government, courts, various factions of dissenters) as unemployment, famine and hefty trade tariffs deepen class divisions. Exposition is rife, but is compensated for by lived-in performances (Rory Kinnear’s reformer Henry Hunt is the standout), full-bore orations at a series of smell-the-sawdust, taste-the-ale underground meetings, and a surprising amount of humour. The Brexit parallels, meanwhile, add to the immediacy. Leigh’s previous period movies (Mr. Turner, Vera Drake, Topsy-Turvy) are among his very finest work. Peterloo isn’t
in that bracket, but it boasts faultless contributions from all of its technical departments, while the climactic massacre is a masterclass – spontaneous, squalid, sorrowful, it’s the antithesis of the choreographed battle scenes of, say, Akira Kurosawa or Peter Jackson. Jamie Graham
Capturingthehorrorof THE VERDICT whenthepeacefulprotest Meticulously crafted, long and talky, but this is politics turnedintoabloodbath with passion. You’ll leave with fire in your fist.
SOME LIKE IT HOT JOHNNY ENGLISH ORPHÉE BLACK MOTHER STRIKES AGAIN OUT 2 NOVEMBER OUT 19 OCTOBER OUT 2 NOVEMBER Nearly 60 years on, Billy Wilder’s OUT NOW A gleaming restoration of Jean Khalik Allah’s kaleidoscopic film is cross-dressing farce still warrants The bad news? See title. The good? Cocteau’s reworking of the Greek ostensibly a doc about pregnancy, its ‘best ever comedy’ tag. That’s This is no worse than the previous myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. but plays out as a free-form tone not just because of its obvious misadventures of Rowan Beginning in post-WW2 Paris, poem ruminating on Jamaican pleasures: the note-perfect script, Atkinson’s Brit-spy buffoon; in this monochrome fantasy follows culture, motherhood and black Marilyn Monroe’s star quality, the fact, a couple of set-pieces (one its own dream-like logic as poet identity. Deploying a mosaic of gusto with which Tony Curtis and involving baguette-based battery) Orphée (Jean Marais) is captivated disjointed images and voiceover Jack Lemmon embrace playing are classic Atkinson. Still, the by an envoy of Death (María from (mostly unnamed) characters, ‘Josephine’ and ‘Daphne’. What’s character – pitting his analogue Casares). It’s a film of matter- Allah’s bold choices exhilarate at remarkable is how fresh it feels, ‘wits’ against a digital mastermind of-fact brilliance, where ‘special first but then wear thin. The lack thanks to Wilder’s audacious – is as boorish as ever, and the effects’ derive from everyday of a clear narrative anchor doesn’t blending of genres and insouciant Bond spoofery’s less funny than objects, and memories of the war help a film that frustrates as bending of genders. Simon Kinnear the real thing. Matthew Leyland haunt the atmosphere. Tom Dawson much as it compels. Tim Coleman
GAMESRADARCOM/TOTALFILM NOVEMBER 2018 | TOTAL FILM THE WORLD’S MOST TRUSTED REVIEWS
Thediscoveryofthe“mixed CERTIFICATEADIRECTORPaulDanoSTARRINGCareyMulligan colours”washingincident JakeGyllenhaal EdOxenbouldSCREENPLAYPaulDano ZoeKazan didn’thelphismood… DISTRIBUTORKaleidoscopeEntertainmentRUNNINGTIMEmins
WILDLIFE Parting shots… OUT 9 NOVEMBER
s an actor, Paul Dano majors in conveying the fraught feelings beneath precision-controlled Afronts. A similar grasp of contained emotion is suggested by his directing debut, crisply adapted from Richard Ford’s novel of marital meltdown in ’60s Montana. The story unfolds via photographer’s apprentice Joe Brinson (Ed Oxenbould), a teenager who watches reservedly as parents Jeanette (Carey Mulligan) and Jerry (Jake Gyllenhaal) splinter over dad’s job crises. As Jerry sinks into gloom, Jeanette teaches swimming; when Jerry leaves home to fight fires, Jeanette’s simmering frustrations ignite into an affair. Pleasingly, Gyllenhaal never showboats, letting his slumped shoulders tell Jerry’s tale; likewise Mulligan’s body language communicates depths about a woman’s eagerness to burst. Rather than forcing his emotional hand, Dano’s lingering camera teases at the truths behind seemingly blank surfaces; the excellent Oxenbould’s undemonstrative expression, the Gregory Crewdson-ish suburban exteriors. True, Dano
takes few risks, beyond a faintly over-heated fire metaphor. But his handling of cast, character and composition shows a natural director’s intuition, right down to the marriage of surface reserve and under-the-skin emotion in the impeccably focused final shot. Kevin Harley
THE VERDICT Dano’s slow-burn character piece suggests he could be fanning the directing flames for the long haul.
THE EVIL DEAD NIGHT SCHOOL POSSUM 3 DAYS IN QUIBERON OUT 26 OCTOBER OUT NOW OUT 26 OCTOBER Two sequels, a remake, a TV Hot comic properties Kevin Hart “Can you spy him deep within, OUT 16 NOVEMBER spin-off… Not bad for the and Tiffany Haddish grate rather little possum black as sin?” This chamber drama from one-time ‘video nasty’. Sure, than spark in this scattershot Beautifully made but furiously writer-director Emily Atef revisits this shocker remains disquieting comedy about a qualifications- obtuse, this Lynchian debut from the candid interview given by (the ‘tree rape’ sequence is hungry high-school dropout writer/director Matthew Holness Austrian film star Romy Schneider rightly notorious) but the infamy and his tough-talking teacher. feels like The Babadook rewritten to Stern magazine, conducted doesn’t convey Raimi’s unhinged Unable to trigger the raucous fun by Samuel Beckett. Set in the just a year before her untimely exuberance and invention. With of Girls Trip, director Malcolm Norfolk backwaters, where Sean death aged 43. Handsomely hurtling camerawork, shrieking D. Lee settles for a bickering Harris is tormented by Alun photographed in black and white, sound design and gross-out FX, adult version of Breakfast Club. Armstrong’s abusive patriarch, this is worth seeing for Marie the funhouse atmosphere borders Diehard fans of Hart’s big-hearted the atmosphere unnerves, but it’s Bäumer’s compelling central on outright, albeit pitch-black, bluster will give it a passing more haunting short than fully performance as the troubled yet comedy. Simon Kinnear grade, regardless. Kate Stables realised feature. Matt Glasby defiant Schneider. Tom Dawson
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THE OTHER SIDE THE YUKON TOUCH ME NOT WARU OF EVERYTHING ASSIGNMENT OUT 19 OCTOBER OUT 9 NOVEMBER OUT 9 NOVEMBER OUT 2 NOVEMBER A dream-like wandering into the The impact of a child’s death on Srbijanka Turajlic was a Belgrade Kitted out with GoPros and intimate (and semi-fictionalised) d#Pdrul#frppxqlw|#lv#odlg#eduh# University professor in the early handicams, British adventurer lives of actor Laura Benson and across eight female-directed ’90s when Yugoslavia started to Chris Lucas leads his father director Adina Pintilie, this vignettes, each taking place in a collapse, and the decade-long Niall into the Canadian wilds docu-fiction interrogates how we continuous, 10-minute shot. Yet wars began. Interviewed by her before becoming a dad himself achieve closeness through touch. this gripping anthology is no mere daughter Mila, she provides in this amateur doc. The result is It claimed the Golden Bear at experiment. From the trials of a personal and political lens essentially a home movie turned Berlin, but Pintilie’s film only a struggling mum to a reporter through which to view Serbian tourist ad: while there are glimpses pleases when the camera diverts fighting prejudice in a ghoulish history. A startling portrait of of emotional resonance, any from the navel-gazing of its main newsroom, the episodes confront courage in the face of fascism insight into the pair’s relationship two protagonists, showing sparse a cycle of violence and highlights emerges, making it challengingly is dwarfed by the awe-inspiring moments of uncomfortable the courage of the women seeking relevant. Tim Coleman surroundings. Tim Coleman brilliance. Marion Koob to break it. Chris Schilling
CERTIFICATETBCDIRECTORJessePeretzSTARRINGRoseByrne Theyagreedtodisagree EthanHawke ChrisO’DowdSCREENPLAYEvgeniaPeretz JimTaylor abouthisshirt… TamaraJenkinsDISTRIBUTORUniversalRUNNINGTIMEmins
JULIET, NAKED A stripped-down romcom… OUT 2 NOVEMBER
he ingredients look familiar in this British- American romcom – Nick Hornby source, awkward Tlove triangle, kooky siblings – but it has enough going on under the surface to make it worth a look, with melancholic musings outweighing belly laughs. The none-more-Hornby setup sees fanboy/manchild Duncan (Chris O’Dowd) thrilled when an unreleased demo tape by his idol, reclusive rocker Tucker Crowe (Ethan Hawke), surfaces. Duncan’s long-suffering partner Annie (Rose Byrne) is less impressed; when she leaves a scathing review that catches Tucker’s attention, the two start corresponding. The cutesy seaside setting and Annie’s job at a local museum of curiosities feel twee, but Byrne is reliably charming, and the role of enigmatic, washed-up musician fits Hawke like a bobbly cardy. O’Dowd gets most of the laughs as the self-important cultural studies lecturer, but all of the leading trio contribute to the film’s deeper themes of fandom, self-reflection and lives half-lived. Directed by Girls regular Jesse Peretz and produced by Judd Apatow, Juliet is a little too low-key for its own good, never quite generating extremes of emotion. But it’s poignant and sharp enough for anyone who pines for the days when romcoms had substance as standard. Matt Maytum
THE VERDICT An understated, charming dramedy that can meander, but is elevated by the combo of Byrne, Hawke and O’Dowd.
GAMESRADARCOM/TOTALFILM NOVEMBER 2018 | TOTAL FILM THE WORLD’S MOST TRUSTED REVIEWS BOXOFFICECHARTS 03.09.18 – 30.09.18
UK TOP 10
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STILLOUTSTILLGOOD OURPICKOFTHEMOVIESOUTNOW
A STAR IS BORN
“Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper deliver Oscar-worthy turns in a remake that hits the high notes… Raw and romantic, this is one film that sings from the heart.”
MANDY
“Nicolas Cage delivers his most infernal performance yet in a bloody, druggy, superbly crafted revenge thriller. A nightmare vision that’s startlingly unique.” FIRST MAN COLUMBUS “La La Land’s Damien Chazelle broadens his horizons with this superbly detailed account of the 1969 Moon landing. “Sweet but never saccharine, this walking-and-talking As Neil and Janet Armstrong, Ryan Gosling and Claire Foy two-hander echoes the Before trilogy… Meticulous are out of this world. Ambitious, artful and authentic.” direction, incisive dialogue, revelatory turns.”
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COMINGSOON THEBIGHITTERSONTHECARDSFORNEXTMONTH…
CREED 30 NOVEMBER here’s a school of thought that Creed should have been a standalone, the perfect sign-off for the Rocky saga. T Looking at Creed II’s trailers, one can’t help but respond: shut up, school of thought. This RALPHBREAKS ROBINHOOD THEOLDMAN isn’t a mere ‘sequel’ to Ryan Coogler’s 2015 hit; THEINTERNET 21 NOVEMBER &THEGUN it’s payback for Rocky IV, as boxer’s son Michael 30 NOVEMBER Youcan’ttellusalivelierHood OUT 7 DECEMBER B. Jordan gets in the ring with the son of the boxer Disney’sloveablelummox thanRidleySco’sgrumpy RobertRedfordmadesuperb who offed his pops. Dolph Lundgren is back in his returnsforanotherwrecking rebootisnotworthfighting workofhis‘oldmanandthe for especiallywithTaron star-making role as taciturn titan-turned-trainer rampage presumablybecause sea’inAllIsLost sohope CAPTCHAs auto-runads EgertoninthegreenDirector bloomsforhisreportedlyfinal Ivan Drago, giving ol’ Sly the evils again (if not and“accept-cookies”pop-ups OoBathurstalsooversaw actinggig acrimecaperfrom brain damage). Rumours are flying that other finallybrokehimOrmaybe BlackMirror’spiggy-sode hisPete’sDragondirector familiar franchise faces are also set to return… hesawTheEmojiMovie? sowhoknowswhatmischief DavidLoweryTomWaitsand Can Creed Jr. avenge Creed Snr.? Will Stallone get Eitherway hitthebackkey BenMendelsohn’ssheriff SissySpacekprovidevintage the Oscar this time? What’s Mark Rylance got topage formoreon mightgetuptoMerriment supportFormore fillthat coming out? See next issue’s ringside coverage… Disney’scyber-sequel awaitsonpage swag-bagonpage
GAMESRADARCOM/TOTALFILM NOVEMBER 2018 | TOTAL FILM
COVER STORY
TOTAL FILM | NOVEMBER 2018 AQUAMAN
Once the laughing stock of the comics stable, AQUAMAN is now set to carry the DC extended universe into a new era. TF meets the cast and joins the director in the edit bay of a standalone adventure that’s more fantasy film than superhero story. WORDSMATTMAYTUM
NOVEMBER 2018 | TOTAL FILM COVER STORY
his was hell… none of it’s comfortable, that’s why it looks amazing.” growls Jason Momoa of his Atlantean armour costume from Aquaman. It’s on display in a room in The London Hotel, West Hollywood, and he’s giving Total Film a guided tour of the most chafing area. “If you look in here,” he says, tugging open the waistband with little regard for the mannequin’s modesty, “this just clogs, Momoa cuts an imposing “I think Aquaman definitely has a lot of rubs everywhere on you. And then if you presence. Or at least he would if he me,” he says, bundling his hair up into have [fake] tattoos on, the costume rubs didn’t have such an eager, puppyish a bun as he speaks. “I’m not that jaded, everything off.” friendliness and charm. Every day is but he’s definitely ornery and playful It’s a truth, widely if not universally clearly an adventure, and he’s loving and likes beer! He’s a bit of a smartass. acknowledged, that actors are generally INTHEFRAME riding the Aquaman wave; it’s just days We obviously have a lot of hair.” smaller in the flesh than they appear JasonMomoa ahead of Aquaman’s footage debut at Aquaman, the solo movie, has been asAquamanwith on screen. Momoa pretty much takes this July’s 2018 Comic-Con. a long time coming for Momoa. He buddiesMera this concept and grinds it to dust in his was cast by Zack Snyder back in 2014, AmberHeard This current screen iteration of Herculean palms: 6ft 4in and built like a andVulkoWillem Aquaman is so closely tailored to making a fleeting cameo in Batman V Dothraki warrior, sporting that wild hair Dafoediscussinga Momoa’s own strengths, it’s hard to Superman: Dawn Of Justice, and then and bushy beard, even dressed casually scenewithdirector tell where he ends and Arthur Curry, taking a more prominent role in Justice in a khaki t-shirt, jeans and Birkenstock JamesWan heir to the throne of Atlantis, begins. League. From the outset, casting Momoa seemed like a drastic step away from the much-mocked comic character: within the DC Comics panels, Arthur Curry had blond ringlets and a gold-and-green costume, and he could talk to fish. His portrayal in Saturday morning cartoon Super Friends didn’t do him any favours, and when Robot Chicken piled in, it seemed liked game over for Aquaman’s credibility. So the narrative certainly changed when Game Of Thrones man mountain Momoa was cast, and in an instant reframed expectations. Justice League would disappoint, critically and financially, but it’s worth remembering that the best DCEU movies so far have been the standalones: Man Of Steel and Wonder Woman. After being a team player, Momoa has no qualms about carrying a movie entirely on his shoulders. Not feeling nervous, “just
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chairman Toby Emmerich has called it “a bit of a bridge movie”. So, will this build a bridge to a new era? “DC gets bashed on a lot… you know, Justice League, obviously, what happened there,” says Momoa. “I just feel like, if it is [a bridge], then great. I just think it’s a great story. It’s definitely colourful. We’re underwater. It’s a world we’ve never seen before. If that’s what it takes to bridge it? Fuck. Put it on my back. I’ll guess I’ll help everyone if you need me!” Moving away from the surface to the underwater world where Aquaman is predominantly set afforded Wan the opportunity to scour the very depths of his imagination, and to take inspiration from the master adventure filmmakers he grew up adoring: Spielberg, Lucas, Jackson. “I didn’t want it to take place in our world for very much,” Wan continues. “When it takes place in our world, I want it to be something you don’t go to all the time. There’s a big set-piece that takes place in a small fishing village off the coast of Sicily. It’s not stuff that we see every day.
FINDING ‘HE’S PLAYFUL ATLANTIS fromtopA youngAquaman AND LIKES BEER. completely stoked”, he says. “It’s been OtisDhanji six years since Zack called me into his playswithhis HE’S A BIT OF office… Now I’m finally here, and it’s tridentexploring all mine, and it’s phenomenal.” Atlantisshooting A SMARTASS!’ You’d think that directing a colossus anabove-the- JASON MOMOA such as Momoa might be intimidating, surfacescene but not so for James Wan. “I’ve directed ridingintobattle The Rock and Vin Diesel,” he laughs. So even that has a heightened romantic “So Jason is a piece of cake. He’s easy.” quality to it. I really wanted that magic Horror maestro Wan (Saw, The Conjuring) and wonderment, with just that sense has experience stepping into an of nautical romance in there.” established property with Fast & Furious Momoa points to some pretty 7. When he was brought on to the DCEU, weighty reference points when it comes he had a choice of taking on the Flash to the feel and tone of this standalone or Aquaman. “And the more I thought movie. “I hate comparing things to it, about it, the biggest thing that struck me but when I watched Avatar – and it’s not at the time was the fact that we’ve seen Avatar, and I don’t want to be like that – incarnations of the Flash on TV and stuff but when I watched it, I felt like that,” like that, but we’ve never really seen an he says. “Or how I felt when I watched Aquaman movie at all,” says Wan, his Indiana Jones and Star Wars, and there’s dark hair flecked with red highlights. little things in it – the essence. But it’s “That part got me very excited. I feel also its own new world.” like the landscape is quite littered with While Aquaman will follow on from a lot of superhero movies, and the the events of Justice League, as well as opportunities to do something that feels flashing back to fill in Arthur’s origin different and looks different, that no one story, it’s set to be a standalone film in has really seen before – it felt like the the truest sense of the word – don’t go freshest path into the superhero world.” expecting any Justice League cameos. “It’s literally a standalone movie,” WORLD BUILDING explains Wan. “Not because I wasn’t With a shift in tone and location, open to the idea of potentially another Aquaman would seem to mark a new era character from the bigger universe, but it for the previously dark and brooding DC just so happens that the roads that these Extended Universe, and Warner Bros characters go on are not associated with
GAMESRADARCOM/TOTALFILM NOVEMBER 2018 | TOTAL FILM COVER STORY
to that. She’s not intimidated by that. And that’s what I wanted with this. She doesn’t need saving. If anything, she’s the one who saves him, because he doesn’t quite understand that world.” “I think our chemistry shows, and we get to dig at each other,” says Momoa of Heard. “Not that you could ever compare it to Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner, but I was raised by my mother, so we definitely watched Romancing The Stone, and I loved that bickering between the two. We strived for that… It was just really easy and effortless.” Aquaman and Mera’s journey will take in land and sea, where they’ll explore the different realms of Atlantis, and the myriad creatures that dwell within. But there will be two chief threats along the way. Firstly, there’s David Kane, aka Black Manta, a mercenary with a grudge any of the other superhero characters. HAVINGABLAST I heard it was a warrior queen,” she says. against Aquaman. He’s played by Yahya I keep saying it would be weird to see DavidKaneaka “To play an action superhero, not a Abdul-Mateen II, the stratospherically Batman in Atlantis, or even Superman BlackMantaYahya damsel, not a love interest who needs to rising star best known thus far for The for that matter. Wonder Woman might Abdul-MateenII be saved, but to truly play a superhuman Get Down, Baywatch and The Greatest keepsacloseeye be the only one that feels like they can in her own right, was appealing.” Showman. Kane crafts a bug-eyed onAquamanabove belong, that they’re siblings of some Abdul-Mateenon In another change from Justice League, supersuit in order to take out Aquaman, kind. But no, and that’s the best way. setwithWanbelow Wan was keen to tease out more of and he’s the antagonist behind the This way, I can tell my own story and DjimonHounsou Momoa’s sense of humour and charm, laser-blasting Sicily sequence. not be affected by what they’re doing astheFisherman and the interplay between Aquaman and “I think if I do my job well, people over there, and they’re not affected by Kingbottom Mera was key to that. “Amber just really will understand that there’s a method what I’m doing over here. But we all hit it off with Jason,” says Wan of the behind his approach, and that it’s rooted live in the same space.” screentesting process. “She understood in something real,” grins Abdul-Mateen, his sense of humour, his goofiness. He’s dressed top-to-toe in denim and UNDERWATER ALLY sort of brash, as well. And she stands up beaming like you would if you’d packed Even though this is a solo movie, Aquaman won’t be navigating Atlantis alone. His main guide to the world below is Amber Heard’s Mera, an Atlantean warrior and princess who teams up with Aquaman in an attempt to unite the sea in the face of an impending war. “I think I have PTSD from wearing that suit,” says Heard (half-)jokingly, nodding at the emerald-green all-in-one that’s positioned in the corner of the room where we meet. “At the very end, after I’d been doing it for eight months every day, I think the quickest I got in and out of it was about 30 minutes. That was by the end. it didn’t start that way, let me tell you. It takes a team.” Today, Heard is looking sharp in a grey-check three-piece suit and red boots. Her character also got a brief introduction in Justice League, but it’s in Aquaman that we’ll really get to know her, and that we’ll get to see her chemistry with Arthur, as the two bicker and flirt their way through this adventure. Heard admits to trepidation before her first meeting with Zack Snyder, but was won over once she got a better sense of how Mera was going to be portrayed. “I was interested because
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in your day job just a few years ago I could be,” says Wilson, looking buff between the two blockbusters. “You and were now starring in giant comic- in a pale pink t-shirt. “I wanted to get could look at a monitor that was filming book movies. “He’s not a guy who has bigger. I wanted to get in shape and be in a greenscreen room, with all these a devious plot to take over the world. a formidable opponent to Jason. I can’t elements covered with green fabric He’s a guy who’s out to get revenge, do much about my height, but I can and all these reference points, and then and I think a very relatable revenge. certainly go to the gym, and eat, and you could go to the monitor and see People will definitely be able to get gain whatever it was: 15, 20lb. I wanted the completed set, but in a rendering behind his cause.” to do that.” He also cites his love of UFC, that was laid over the live scene,” A role like this comes with other and the way that a height difference he explains. “So that was sometimes perks, too. “The Black Manta costume: doesn’t really mean you can’t destroy very helpful. So when you’re on this you put it on, and you’re immediately your opponent in the octagon. “[Orm’s] big object that’s moving around on the indestructible,” he says. “I felt like got a chip on his shoulder,” Wilson gimbal that’s supposed to be a shark I could run through walls. I felt like continues, “but it’s very easy for me to – you could actually go to the monitor I could break stuff. It’s so powerful. You look at a guy defending his world that’s and see the size of the shark you’re on.” can understand how this guy could give a guy like Aquaman a run for his money.” ‘I REALLY WANTED THAT SENSE BAD COMPANY The other villain who’ll be getting on OF MAGIC AND WONDERMENT’ Aquaman’s gills is Orm – aka Ocean JAMES WAN Master, played by frequent James Wan collaborator Patrick Wilson. Orm is been polluted and destroyed, and he The sub-aquatic world is one of Aquaman’s half-brother, and he doesn’t can’t do anything about it… You Aquaman’s defining features, and like the fact that his half-Atlantlean, definitely want people to understand something that hasn’t really been half-human sibling is closer to the where he’s coming from. It doesn’t done in a live-action movie – let alone throne than he is. He also harbours a matter if you like him. I don’t care if a comic-book movie – on this scale beef against the surface world, and the you like him. But you’ll understand.” before. “The VFX team were able to give negative effects of their pollution on the A friendlier face in Atlantis comes us the underwater quality that was sea, so he plans to wage war on them, in the form of Willem Dafoe’s Vulko. super-important,” says Wan. “And we SIBLINGRIVALRY leading an army riding sharks, crocs “He’s an advisor to King Orm, and he’s did a lot of R&D early on. What would PatrickWilson also a mentor to Aquaman,” Dafoe tells people look like underwater? When you and other aquatic fantasy beasts. asAquaman’s The look of the character – blond- half-brotherOrm TF. Returning to the comic-book movie go underwater, you don’t actually look haired, elf-like Aryan – acts as a contrast belowVulkoenjoys world some 16 years after the game- wet. It’s only when you come out of to the reinvented Aquaman. “I just anon-sharkjaunt changing Spider-Man, Dafoe did notice water that you look wet.” In order to wanted to be as ‘opposite’ to Jason as belowright significant tech advances in the time allow the characters to speak naturally
GAMESRADARCOM/TOTALFILM NOVEMBER 2018 | TOTAL FILM COVER STORY
and move in a superhuman way, much basically.” Momoa has an affinity with of the underwater footage was filmed the sea, not least through his Hawaiian in studios. Wan whips out his phone heritage and marine biology studies. to show TF the rigging equipment used “I’m pretty good in the water,” he to make the actors look like they’re concurs. “I’m a Hawaiian. I’ve been swimming, attached at the waist by raised in it. I’ve drowned. I’ve had my a gliding crane arm. “It was so ironic ass handed to me. I’ve been celebrated. – when we had to shoot the scenes I’ve given gifts from the ocean. She’s where the actors are supposed to be punished me for it.” He pauses briefly. underwater but we’re shooting it “But we had this great moment where dry-for-wet against a bluescreen, we I’m in this ridiculous outfit,” he QA& have to make sure they cannot sweat. continues, pointing back to the When they start to look glossy, it looks displayed costume. “If a wave hit like we shot them on dry land.” this, it’s going to turn into a yard sale. AMBER HEARD It’s not exactly a day at the beach for The shit comes off. Velcro can’t keep Mera Mera… the actors being hoisted around. “I had this together, with the power of the to be able to have [the rigs and harnesses] ocean. I think there’s paparazzi that Howwouldyoudescribeyourcharacter? attached to the sides of my costume, got pictures of it.” Meraisadedicatedcommitteddrivenpowerfulwarrior at my hips, and be suspended 18ft in No matter where you rank on the call who’ssettobequeenofanationthatshedeeplycaresabout the air, and run by a team of men in sheet, if you work on Aquaman, you’re andfeelsadeepsenseofloyaltytoShe’stoughShe’sfierce bright blue Lycra onesies,” laughs Heard. still going to get a soaking. “Nicole She’sawarriorShehascommandedarmiesandsheiswilling “It was just a very weird experience all Kidman had to wear some pretty gnarly tofightanddieforherkingdomArthurandMeraareforced intoasituationwheretheyhavetobeunlikelyandreluctant around.” Of course, you can’t make a outfit in some pretty cold conditions, alliesandworktogetherWeseethisrelationshipunfold film like Aquaman without occasionally soaked to the bone, and do scenes with astheirjourneyunfoldsIt’sreallynicebecauseattheend getting a little wet. It meant that, me over and over,” remembers Momoa youfeelthatit’searned sometimes, the actors would just have with a laugh. “James definitely likes to get a soaking. “So, sometimes I would to do a lot of takes…” Didyouhaveanyhesitationabouttakingtherole? start my work day,” remembers Heard Becauseofmyunfamiliaritywiththecomic-bookmoviesand with a giggle. “They would build me WATER UNDER THE BRIDGE superheromoviesIwastrepidatiousbecauseIhadavague a little step, a little grate. I’d sit on When we catch up with Wan in the edit imageinmymindofaveryspecifictypeofrepresentationof the grate. They’d just hose me down, bay on the Warner Bros lot a couple of womenIthoughtitwouldbelimitingtosomethingthatwas superficialorputmeinareactionaryposturebymakingme basically. I don’t know many times weeks later, he’s in his usual buoyant adamselorsomeonewhoneededtoberescuedSoIwas I was like, ‘Adult woman. A grown mood, and despite being deep in hesitantIspoketothemandIimmediatelyhadmyinterest woman being hosed down.’” post-production with a December piquedwhenIwaspitchedbyZackSnyderas…youknow Heard says of her water-loving release deadline looming, he’s hepresentedMeraasastrongindependentpowerfulfeisty co-star Momoa that, “He’s a fish, remarkably relaxed and welcoming. intelligentwarriorqueenIthought“OhIgetacrownand aswordManknowshisaudience!”Meaningme
Doesitfeellikethere’sabeenapositivechangerecently inthewaythesesortsofcharactersarepresented inHollywoodmovies? Therepresentationofwomenhasbeenchronicallypoorinthat it’sbinarylimitedinaccurateandsimpleIthinkinthewakeof recentmovementswe’rehearingasurgeofdemandofvoices thataresickofseeingtheoldarchetypalrolesthathave previouslybeenavailabletowomenbeingplayedoutagain Thedemandformoreaccuraterepresentationofthefemale experienceinitsvarietyislongoverdueandithasn’tcaught upwiththetimesbyanymeansButit’snicetoseeHollywood showingsignsofrespondingtoit
IsMeraacharacteryou’dliketorevisitagain? HellyeahIhadsomuchfunmakingitItwashardworkIthink peoplearegoingtoreallyenjoyseeingabadasschickinthis kindofroleandit’sabouttimewehadsomemoresuperheroes andcomic-bookheroesthatarewomenandthataresaving thedaythemselvesIlikethatI’drevisitthatanydayalthough IdoneedtimebeforeIgobackinthatsuit
What’supnextforyou? I’mworkingonsomethingsthatIamproducingandtryingto getmadeI’mtryingtofindinterestingcontentwithcomplex rolesforwomenI’dliketofindwaysthatIcanworkwithother womenwhoalsowanttodothatandhaveprojectsI’mtrying toworkonthatwouldinvolveanall-femalecrewAndtojust kindofaddsomemomentumtomakeupforthedeficitthat isthereintheindustryasofnowMM
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TF takes a seat on the sofa in front of SEAMOTHER desert-based bantz between Aquaman for his take on Aquaman. “The other an enormous TV and speaker system to aboveleft and Mera as they seek – and then find thing I wanted to get right, too, is his view some key sequences from the film, NicoleKidmanas – a hidden temple in the sand. Trading classic weapon, his trident,” he adds, and the evidence suggests that Wan and supermumQueen quips and generating sparks, the duo in reference to Aquaman’s five-pronged Atlannawho his team have been very true to their look set to be fun company. Justice League weapon. “I wanted to couplesupwith word: what we see is very different There’s also a look at an extended make sure that it’s actually a trident.” TemueraMorrison’s to any other superhero fare out there. ThomasCurryto ceremonial bout between Aquaman “It’s a hard suit to pull off,” laughs An extended opening sequence shows makelittleArthur and Orm in one of the key underwater Momoa. “He’s been literally ridiculed how Kidman’s Queen Atlanna falls in KaanGuldur sequences; with VFX incomplete, the his whole career. I feel like the real love with a human lighthouse keeper, footage varies on a shot-to-shot basis die-hard Aquaman fans are going to becoming parents to Arthur. In a fluid between fully rendered and CGI-free. be like, ‘Yes!’” It’s all part of Wan’s and dynamic action scene, their house The scale of the ambition is clear plan to give Aquaman the classic is raided by Atlantean soldiers who want though, and the contrast between the hero’s journey, something he wanted Atlanna to return to the ocean. Other finished glimpses and raw footage shows to ensure from the outset. clips that Wan shares include some just how much post-production work And if the film succeeds and restores has gone into creating the world. Aquaman to glory, what next? Wan is ‘YOU PUT ON THE COSTUME AND IMMEDIATELY FEEL INDESTRUCTIBLE’ YAHYA ADBUL-MATEEN II
Wan also shares the Comic-Con hesitant to jinx anything by thinking sizzle reel again, the one that has so about sequels too early, but will say, far only been seen in the hallowed “There’s definitely stories, even within Hall H. As well as showcasing the Sicily the world we’ve created, that you can sequence, as Black Manta and his actually see other storylines [spinning footsoldiers storm an idyllic village, off from] as well. There’s the Aquaman leaping rooftops and bursting through story, but then there’s the stories of the walls in a unique style, there’s a final seven different kingdoms as well. I think tantalising glimpse of Aquaman in those would be very fun to explore.” a classic green-and-yellow costume Momoa is more forthcoming when that pays tribute to the character’s it comes to ideas about a potential comic roots. “It took a long time follow-up. “I definitely have an designing it,” admits Wan of the opinion,” says Momoa. “Even when updated look. “The suit is kind we were shooting Aquaman, I have the of campy… So I’m like, opening of Aquaman 2 ready. I went in ‘How do I make it and pitched it to [producer Peter] Safran, cool for today’s and I pitched it to Toby Emmerich. audience?’” They loved it. It’s awesome… But yeah, Wan also I have plans for Aquaman 2.” had another sticking point AQUAMAN OPENS ON 14 DECEMBER.
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GAMESRADARCOM/TOTALFILM NOVEMBER 2018 | TOTAL FILM IN CONVERSATION
Newt Scamander is back and – nifflers aside – things are about to get a whole lot darker. Total Film talks wand injuries, kissing and custard creams with the cast of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes Of Grindelwald. WORDSJANECROWTHER
espite the sweltering, sunny what we do know: part two of a planned five- you insist that they shoot some of it in Paris?” [laughs] August weather, there is a film arc sees returning magizoologist Newt We tried and failed. palpable sense of dread hanging Scamander (Redmayne) co-opted by Hogwarts’ Jude Law I shot in Lacock [near] Bath. That was about it. over the swanky Rosewood headmaster, Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law), to Eddie Redmayne I got to go to Canning Town [in Hotel in Holborn, London. A pall of anxiety, help track down escaped dark wizard Gellert London]. I was actually quite excited about that. I lived a tangible tension. Is it the menace of Obscurus? Grindelwald (Johnny Depp), who is on a crusade really close at the time so it was a very small commute. Or the threat of Dumbledore arch-nemesis to take over the world. As Newt is drawn deeper and baddie wizard, Grindelwald? Well, sort of. into a dangerous fight for power, relationships Magic moments With both ethereal dangers haunting the are tested, lines are drawn and sides must be Jude Law Eddie encouraged me to be open and incoming sequel to Fantastic Beasts And Where chosen. Oh, and nifflers have babies. playful. One great piece of advice he did give me To Find Them and promising more peril and Let’s talk around that premise, shall we? was during one of our early scenes. We were trying character introspection, there’s also another TF sits down with Law, Redmayne, Katherine to come up with a device that would help create an shadow hanging, phantom-like, over the cast Waterston (Newt’s MACUSA Auror friend and element of mystery. He reminded me I had a magic as they gather with TF in a glossy suite on the future wife, Tina Goldstein), Miller (Obscurial, wand, and therefore could do whatever I wanted! third floor. That of J.K. Rowling’s displeasure Creedance Barebone), Claudia Kim (Maledictus Katherine Waterston The special effects department or the fallout of breaking a contractually agreed Nigini, who can turn into a snake and will always panics when the actors start coming up with, code of silence if any of them should so much eventually become Voldemort’s pet and “Oh, I could just…” But that’s how we did the change as hint at a plot development or talk specifics. horcrux), Fogler (Jacob Kowalski, Newt’s in the first film, when we changed our outfits. Because Eddie Redmayne does a nice line in no-maj mate), Sudol (Legilimens sister of I was an Auror, I thought it was like undercover work, answering (charmingly) a different question to Tina, Queenie), Callum Turner (Newt’s older so I’d need something so that I wouldn’t stand out as the one you’ve asked. Ezra Miller deflects with war-hero brother and Brit Auror, Theseus) a detective. You sort of go up to [the special effects tall tales about circus training and wide-eyed and Kravitz (former Newt love-interest and team] and say, “Could I just…” discussion of the Mandela Effect. “Whooops!” now fiancée of Theseus, Leta Lestrange)… Eddie Redmayne Can I tell a story? There was one chastises Alison Sudol when she thinks Dan moment on set when Jude – or Dumbledore – out of Fogler has inadvertently let a secret go (he Glamorous locations (erm, not) nowhere pulls an address card out of the air [as seen hasn’t). “That was smart! I was totally about Eddie Redmayne Last time, the whole film was set in in the latest trailer]. We got to rehearse the scene. to answer that question!” finger-wags Zoë New York and we shot it all in Watford, just outside of We’re shooting it. We were going to do it, and Jude Kravitz when TF thinks she’s about to spill. London. So when Jude got cast, and I knew that the was like, “Can I have the card?” David [Yates, director] But, let’s agree – not knowing is part of the film was set in Paris, I emailed him going, “Mate, if you and the effects guys said, “Oh, no, no, guys, you don’t fun of J.K. Rowling’s sorcery world. So here’s haven’t done your deal yet, will you just not sign it until need the card. We’ll just put it in with visual effects.”
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Jude was like, “Give me the card. I’ve spent the sees the good in all beasts and monsters. There’s a part remember my whole school, it was all anyone talked first three weeks training with a magician to fucking pull of Albus that sees himself as a monster, and loves the about. I didn’t have Daniel Radcliffe on my wall… this card out of the air.” The look on his face when he fact that this companion is someone who’ll not judge Callum Turner I had Daniel Radcliffe on my wall. I can was told they could just put it in, in post… He was like, that, and sort of see the good in him. say that! [laughs] It was really, really nerve-wracking [to “No way. That’s not happening.” I’ll have you know, join the project], but exciting at the same time. By day he did it himself, and that’s the one in the film. Newt and Tina two, it felt like I’d been part of a family for years. It was Zoë Kravitz It’s very easy to feel silly [working with Katherine Waterston One of the most amazing things lovely. I screen tested with Eddie, and kissed Eddie on CG], because the thing is, you have to commit 100 per about being in this process with Jo is that she doesn’t the forehead in a scene. I think that’s why I got it. It cent, or it doesn’t look right. But you also feel so silly. short-change any of the characters. There’s time and wasn’t warranted in the scene. If in doubt, kiss Eddie! I remember one day, it was me and Eddie, and we room to grow throughout the entire series. Obviously, Zoë Kravitz It’s so funny. I kissed Eddie in my screen were fighting these creatures, and there’s nothing in the first film, I’ve been demoted at work, and then test, too – no, I didn’t, really. [laughs] I taped myself at there. We were both – they call “action!”, and me and at the very end, I get my old job back. So that’s a big home, and then I did a Skype session with David and Eddie are like [makes fighting noises and waves arms change for Tina. And she certainly has a great deal Eddie, where I had to read the scene. I got off that call around]. And if you watch playback, you watch yourself more confidence in this film than she did in the first. and was like, “I’ve bombed that. That was so awkward.” struggling by yourself on the ground, and you’re just She was right about what was wrong in the first film, But they brought me to London to screen test with like, “I hope they put a creature there, or else it’s so she feels a little bit more confident in her instincts Eddie. It was a long process. going to look really awkward!” – and I think quite proud to have that position back, Callum Turner Theseus is head Auror at the British and to be doing what she thrives at doing. But it’s not Ministry Of Magic – it’s a tongue-twister! – and is really Taking on Dumbledore all coming up roses for her, because there’s still some straight-laced. And Newt’s not. He’s the complete Jude Law David [Yates] and Jo [Rowling] both gave things keeping her on slightly unstable ground, because opposite, and he actually wants him to get in line and me a huge amount of freedom right from the get-go, some boys aren’t always what they seem to be! try to save the world. Because he knows he’s special, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say that those two great Eddie Redmayne It’s a bit like what Jude was saying but he won’t do that. And that’s the tension. That’s actors [former Dumbledores Richard Harris and about knowing who Dumbledore [becomes]. We all what’s going on between the two brothers. A brother Michael Gambon] were somewhat hanging over my know that Tina and Newt live happily ever after, trying to boss his other brother around, basically! head, even if it was just subconsciously. But in a way, hopefully, in Dorset somewhere, I think. But at the But I feel very lucky to be part of it. Privileged, you know, it’s a blessing. It’s very rare you play a part same point, it’s about how you’re going to get there. where you can close your eyes and picture your Newt has always been very content in himself and his character as an older person. Knowing that that’s own world, after struggling to socially engage for so where he gets to… so I didn’t really feel restricted long. And throughout the last adventure, he connected by it. [I was] more curious about things that we’ve with three people, and particularly Tina, and suddenly all read in the novel. There’s things I read in the novel it’s opened up a whole chunk of his heart. At the that I was able to demonstrate a bit more visually, beginning of the film, that’s all he wants, to regain that. the challenges that he’s going through as a man, as But suddenly, all these things are put in his way… opposed to being an older man having resolved all of those issues, or at least put them to bed. I was able Favourite Beasts to physicalise them a little bit more, or emote them Katherine Waterston I feel like it’s going to be Pickett a little bit more. I was free – with impending doom! for life for me. Eddie Redmayne I love how loyal you are. Newt and Dumbledore Katherine Waterston No creature is going to top Jude Law There’s a certain element of master Pickett. He’s so expressive and tender. and apprentice, but I feel like Newt’s capacity to be Eddie Redmayne He has a tiny little face. There are himself against all odds is something that Dumbledore’s baby nifflers in this new film and there’s a little scene admired. Newt’s always sort of loved Dumbledore where they’re just causing havoc, and Newt’s trying to – but there’s a moment when the kid is becoming the recapture them. I worked with this woman, Alexandra adult, and forgetting to question his motivations, and Reynolds, who’s a dance choreographer. We looked at what his agenda is, and whether he’s going to speak hacky sack. There are guys in the States and all over cleanly to him. Quite often, in that way Dumbledore the world who, like you keep a football in the air – they has, everything is through the gauze of caprice. I think do it with hacky sacks, and they catch them in all these the dynamic of Harry Potter and Dumbledore is… the places. So that was like my inspiration. age gap is far more accentuated. He allows Harry to Alison Sudol We’re all very excited about the fact that grow up and he’s steering him, but at the same time everyone loved the niffler – I’m obsessed with the he’s allowing him to make the discoveries himself. He’s niffler. And then there’s babies! We’re all just… aware there are certain things he can’t help him with, Dan Fogler They’re very cute. Really cute. just because of his age, and that he has to grow up. Alison Sudol I can’t deal. That’s not present in this relationship. I think Zoë Kravitz I love the baby nifflers! They’re so cute! it’s a much more mutual and balanced relationship. I mean, the nifflers are cute, and then the baby niffler But at the same time, there’s still a certain amount is even cuter. It’s going to make you swoon. of manipulation going on. And I think there’s also a Dan Fogler There’s a really cool creature. It’s a Chinese huge amount of admiration. Without giving too much lion dragon, the Zouwu. A long tail. They’ve mastered away, I think Albus in this film is dealing with a certain the fur. It just looks like it’s there. And it’s aggressive. amount of his past and regret, and demons that I’m very excited about that one. he’s trying to deal with that have put him in a certain position. He sees in Newt someone who is pure and Joining the Potter universe more upstanding. There’s a great line in it, which I’m Zoë Kravitz I remember when the first book came going to paraphrase, which is to do with how Newt out when I was in sixth grade or something. I just
TOTAL FILM | NOVEMBER 2018 FANTASTIC BEASTS 2
actually. I did the house sorting with my girlfriend and Zoë Kravitz And I was going crazy. They were like, her friends – they all got Slytherin, and I got Hufflepuff. “Where’s Zoë? Oh, over by the custard creams.” I was so annoyed. But I like that you guys say “brilliant” for everything. Zoë Kravitz You’re not Slytherin! “Brilliant. It’s brilliant.” Or “fabby!” That’s what Callum Turner Yeah, exactly. It’s very Hufflepuff David [Yates] always says. If he likes a scene, of you. he goes, “Fabby! Fabby!” Zoë Kravitz I’m Slytherin. Training and injuries Perfecting an English accent Katherine Waterston Something I learned on the first Zoë Kravitz I was very nervous, especially being film, there’s bits of wand work or stunts that we have around all English people and wanting to not make to do that we practised for weeks. But sometimes, a fool of myself. But I worked really hard. I guess you get to a set, and they say, “Right, you’re going to the key is not thinking about it while you’re tumble down these massive stairs and reach across doing it, so you can still be in the moment in here.” And you just have to do it that day. terms of the emotion in the scene. So I tried Eddie Redmayne And there’s nothing you can do to to stay in the accent all day, and I would make prep for it, really. The weird injuries are still the same myself do it at the weekends, getting coffee or injuries. There was a bit where Callum and I were getting in a taxi or whatever, just to keep it up having to fend off some huge spell. The reality of or see if people could tell I wasn’t really British. shooting that is, one would be like [acts pushing an But it was a great challenge, and I hope it sounds invisible force]. You put so much tension into your OK. Do I have a favourite English expression? arms to try to make it look like something is pushing Callum Turner You like custard creams. against you. You do sort of wake up with the oddest Zoë Kravitz That’s not an expression! injuries. Wand wrist and wizard’s elbow! Callum Turner I introduced Zoë to custard creams Ezra Miller We started with tightrope walking, and right towards the end. then we were juggling swords. We started sword- swallowing. There was an injury, and it was really bad. We had to take a two-month hiatus from all circus training. And then we got back on those balls – you just walk on those balls. At the time, when Claudia had to do the lion stuff, I had to go and do a different esoteric training in the Alps. It’s a very particular cave where you can go. But you, of course, have to kill a zebra to get a map, and they’re endangered. So I can’t recommend it to anyone else. Claudia Kim [shaking head at Ezra’s fibs] So I worked with the movement coach that helped Eddie do that dance in the first movie. So that was really interesting. But I will say it’s more of an emotional journey that she led me into. I would love to say more… Zoë Kravitz Yeah, I did mess up my arm at one point. Not anything serious, but you’re fooling around, and it’s easy to get hurt. Going darker Jude Law What I loved about the Potter series was that it evolved into that. The darkness was allowed to bubble up over a period of films. And it’s that element I like about [Rowling’s] world in particular, that everyone has darkness, as we all do. I think it’s why it’s so relatable, that we all have demons. It’s how you handle them and what you learn from them and what choices you make. Zoë Kravitz Leta is a pureblood wizard, and she has a darkness to her, which in the film, you’ll see what that’s about, and where that comes from. And I just love the way that Jo writes these incredibly complex characters. No one’s good, no one’s bad. Everyone’s just human. Yeah, it’s really refreshing, as a woman especially, to get a character that has so many layers. Ezra Miller Grindelwald deceives people by giving them popcorn ideologies that are instantly appealing or gratifying, or enforce their sense of identity. We’re all so void of purpose, I think, that we’re all really vulnerable to manipulation. Because we just want to feel like we have something to do on this dying planet.
GAMESRADARCOM/TOTALFILM NOVEMBER 2018 | TOTAL FILM IN CONVERSATION
And I think the same thing is happening on into the patterns written into that trauma. I think that’s up your own mind about something for once in a broader scale with a certain type of thoughtless, the metaphor at play with the Obscurus. Obviously your life. Do your own research. Make up your own political alignment. we know that the Obscurial Credence is an anomaly mind. Follow your heart, and really, really investigate in the sense that he shouldn’t have lived this long with situations before you identify yourself and pick Working with Johnny Depp this force inside of him. So we just don’t know what’s a side, and start throwing things at the opposition. Jude Law Well, I’ve yet to work with him. It’s all going to happen. Because that’s what’s totally screwing everything hinted at in this one. I’m just looking in a mirror I think that what Jo has given people is a very up right now. And it polarises us. We’re all human, at him. Lovingly. useful and powerful metaphor, because it applies to and there’s a lot of things we can agree on. Yeah, Katherine Waterston I didn’t encounter him too all of us in some way or another. Our human power is I’m ranting… much. But I got to be sort of skulking around while repressed by the societies that we’ve created. And the he was giving this big speech [seen in the latest trailer]. cultural normative standards that exist within those Queenie and Jacob It was amazing to see him work and his commitment societies I do feel prevent us from acknowledging Alison Sudol It’s complicated, right? We’re not to the work. It was probably 90 per cent extras while and tapping our full potential of our human power. supposed to know each other, let alone love each he was giving that speech. I think we all react in different ways when we’re other. That’s very, very, very forbidden, in a very Eddie Redmayne It was in this massive amphitheatre, growing up, and adopting that conditioning. But there backwards system of the state’s magical law. So it’s this huge rally. He’s having to seduce everyone with are definitely specific cases of humans all over this Queenie is not having that, basically. It’s so hard to charisma. It’s interesting, because in film, you’re used to world who, because of that conditioning, they find love. It’s so hard and so rare. But also, Jacob’s playing to cameras here [indicates close-up], and he internalise the idea that that power is not OK. So they been through a lot of life that maybe Queenie hasn’t was having to play to an audience of hundreds and push it down into the shadows. And then the shadows seen yet – of war, and of real division, and seeing the hundreds of people [throws his arms wide]. It was themselves will come to call. They want that power. dangers that can happen in the world. So he’s much extraordinarily compelling, and he had to do it again So it’s the idea that if you deny your calling, it will more conservative than she is. She’s very like, “Nope, and again and again. come for you with increasing violence and aggression. I love you, and this is happening.” Jude Law I have to say, I’m so excited for the journey And I think it is a really powerful metaphor for people Dan Fogler Jo’s written these iconic, classic this film takes that character on. Because obviously all over the world who feel like they cannot express hero’s journey characters. They just work, man. Jo’s already created one of the great villains in their potency in their own social contexts, or in the Like any relationship, it gets more complex as spells cinematic history, and this guy is so different and just societies in which they’re raised. wear off, and wars are brewing. Things get crazy. And as threatening. And yet, like Voldemort, he’s seductive, everyone’s got a wand. [Being a non-maj is] like being too. It goes back to what we said before about in a western without a pistol, you know? But Jacob is everyone having demons. They’re always sort of magical in his own right. My great-grandfather was a seductive, too. It’s exciting. You’re in for a treat. baker on the Lower East Side of New York, probably Callum Turner Did Zoë and I work with him? on the same street that we were emulating. And holy I think that’s a… We can’t answer that, can we? crap, that was weird, just to read it and be like, “I know Zoë Kravitz Oh, yeah, it’s a spoiler. Sorry. this. This guy is like an ancestor.” So I think I’m being one of my grandfather’s brothers or something. I look The introduction of Nagini like Uncle Manny. Claudia Kim I can tell you she’s the Maledictus… Ezra Miller Right there, you’ve got her gender Where do we go from here? identification and occupation. It’s a lot. I hope you’re Dan Fogler I have an idea what’s going on in the next paying attention. She’s the Maledictus. Go on… movie. But in the first movie, J.K. sat with some of us. Claudia Kim So, yes, she will one day permanently She gave me the arc. She was like, “Here’s his arc for transform into a beast. She’s a circus performer. the entire five-episode run.” I was like, “Oh my God, Her powers are exploited by the circus master. Dumbledore’s sexuality this is the greatest journey in the world.” And then And I would think that she only dreams of freedom. Ezra Miller It is being addressed! It’s a funny idea I came back for this [film]. We all met for a dinner at And that is the very thing that Credence gives to her. to me that every form of representation has to look the beginning of rehearsals. I was just like so content. It’s just incredible to see how excited the fans are, the same. For me, personally, I find Dumbledore’s I was like, “Aha, I know everything that’s happening.” and they’re so incredibly knowledgeable, that all queerness extremely explicit in this film. I mean, all And then I just sat with Jo for a second. I was like, of their [Nagini] theories are so convincing. around. He sees Grindelwald, his young lover who’s “I just wanted a recap. So just going into this one, we’ll Ezra Miller [laughs] Yeah. We’ve got a lot of fringe the love of his life; he sees him in the Mirror of Erised. be doing this and that’s going to happen…” And she theories that honestly we wish were true. Do you What does the Mirror of Erised show you? Nothing was like, “Oh, no, that’s all changed.” “Damnit!” I don’t know what I mean? We’ll be like, “Oh, that would more than the most desperate desire of your heart. know what the method to her madness is, but maybe be awesome.” We were like, “Jo, have you read this If that’s not explicitly gay, I don’t know what is. she’s just changed the whole thing. Now I’m like, I don’t fan theory? Is that a good idea or what?” She’s like, I think it’s also really powerful to have characters want to get my hopes up or get too excited about it. “Nuh uh.” She’s got it all mapped. who are fascinating, dynamic people, doing magical It could be one storyline or one arc, it could anything. works in the world, and that the story does not only Alison Sudol Yeah. She said one thing to me which Credence, suffering and survival pertain to their sexuality. People have to also take I can’t repeat, which was such a giant bomb, but then Ezra Miller Like all people who carry trauma, to figure a moment and acknowledge the gift that Jo Rowling didn’t say… You know when someone tells you half out how to reconcile that with their life and identity, gave us by writing one of the greatest characters in of something huge, and they’re like, “I can’t tell you that’s the prayer of the Obscurus. When survivors literary history, one of the most beloved characters the rest.” I harangued her. I was at the wrap party, do that they become incredibly powerful bodies and across the whole spectrum of civil society, and the and I was like, “Can you just a little… can you just voices in this world. A lot of the people who have beliefs and ideologies there; one of the most beloved elaborate a little bit?” She’s like, “Nope.” It’s kind given us the greatest works in human history have characters; and then, at the end of writing that series, of fun in that you don’t know what your future is. come from a place of transforming their own trauma. was like, “Oh, yeah, and he’s gay. What? Step to me.” None of us know what our future is, right? We also know that it’s the kid who gets abused at She is forever a god for that. But everybody chill. home who often becomes the bully on the playground, Why don’t you wait until you see the film before FANTASTIC BEASTS: THE CRIMES OF GRINDELWALD and that there are cycles of abuse where you can fall you start talking shit on Twitter? Or wait to make OPENS ON 16 NOVEMBER.
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NOVEMBER 2018 | TOTAL FILM ON SET
What happens when a pulpy 1980s ITV drama is reworked by Oscar-winning filmmaker Steve McQueen? A game- changing heist movie that casts four women in the leads and reflects the world we live in. TF visits the set of WIDOWS to find out more about the year’s most
scintillating thriller. WORDSJAMESMOTTRAM
TOTAL FILM | NOVEMBER 2018 WIDOWS
NOVEMBER 2018 | TOTAL FILM ON SET
ith its magnificent mosaic-patterned dome, the Chicago Cultural Center has welcomed royalty, presidents and diplomats. Today, it’s playing host to Widows, the hugely anticipated fourth movie by Britain’s Steve McQueen – and his first since the Oscar-winning 12 Years A Slave. Three-hundred extras, all dressed in tuxedos and gowns, WHATWOMENWANT ElizabethDebicki are gradually filing in to the Preston Bradley Hall to sit ViolaDavisandMichelle at 20 immaculately laid tables. Rodriguezfendfor Joining them will be Robert Duvall and Colin Farrell, themselvesafterthe playing father and son politicos Tom and Jack Mulligan deathsoftheirhusbands – part of the old money elite in a multi-layered story andarejoinedbysingle co-scripted by McQueen and Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn. mumCynthiaErivo “This film is tackling so many subjects, it really is,” marvels Farrell, when he greets Total Film. “It’s about the heart of Chicago, the heart of America. But it’s about the heart of the civilised world.” He pauses. “There’s a lot of ugliness in this film.” There’s also a lot of empowerment – “Buzzword of the day,” laughs Farrell’s co-star, Elizabeth Debicki. But it’s true. As the title suggests, this is not about the men in charge, but the women left behind, after their criminal husbands are killed in an armed But Ocean’s 8 this is not. robbery. McQueen refers to the “The heist is almost like a quartet of lead female characters metaphor for these women as “fingers”. He clenches his hand surviving and surviving really shut. “Together they make a fist.” difficult circumstances,” Intriguingly, Widows is based says Debicki. “Surviving grief, on the ITV series by Lynda La Plante that ran for two series ENDRUN surviving financial difficulties, then actually surviving in the mid-’80s. “I had this connection with the women,” LiamNeeson a super-dangerous experience. It’s life or death.” remembers McQueen. “They were being judged by their belowplays the appearance and deemed as not being capable. A 13-year-old ill-fatedpartnerof Davisaboveleft black child in London… I was having the same kind of Carrying on impressions put on me and therefore it just stuck with While such male-skewed stories would never focus on the me – these four women and their journey.” characters’ domestic lives, Widows considers the economic The idea to adapt Widows came to McQueen after first realities its women are under. “It’s just interesting how people being courted by the studios. “I remember going to Hollywood navigate these domestic worlds,” says McQueen. Linda has two and noticing these amazing actresses were not working.” kids to raise and a failing shop to keep open; Alice is so broke, Here was a chance to rectify that. Alongside Debicki, there is her mother (Jacki Weaver) not-so-subtly hints she should join Fences Oscar-winner Viola Davis, Fast & Furious star Michelle an online escort service. Even Veronica’s wealth is dwindling. Rodriguez and British newcomer Cynthia Erivo. “These are women who were married to men who failed “We could not be any more different,” says Davis. them,” says Davis. “Completely failed them. Now they’re “We could not be any more unapologetic.” dead, they’re gone. So now they have to make their lives It’s Davis’ Veronica, a teacher’s union rep, who what they will. They have to make their lives. It’s not instigates the meet-up with Debicki’s Alice and just about using their body parts or being cute in a scene; Rodriguez’s Linda. Unbeknown to the women, it’s about them using their intelligence, using their their husbands all worked together, led by fortitude, and doing it in community with each other.” Veronica’s partner Harry (Liam Neeson). But They’re also recognisable. “She is a woman that when a robbery goes wrong, leaving the men I saw a lot growing up in Jersey City,” says Rodriguez dead and the money up in flames, Veronica of Linda. “A woman who got pregnant young. Ended is confronted by Jamal Manning (Brian Tyree up staying with the husband, who’s a bad boy… Henry) – a local gang boss running for election this character is in many ways what could’ve against Farrell’s Jack Mulligan, whose $2m happened to me very easily had I not been who campaign funds were stolen by Harry. I am. I probably would’ve been attracted to the Facing violent recriminations, the only same things. Had a kid early and maybe decided way to repay Jamal, reasons Veronica, is to to settle down, because of my life situation.” pull off Harry’s next meticulously planned Newest to the group is Erivo’s Belle, a mother $5m job – the blueprints for which who lives in Chicago’s run-down South Side have been left in a safety deposit box. and works two jobs – as a hairdresser and as
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think you have more colours to show the world than what you’ve been doing for most of your career.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, I know but I like those colours because they’re strong. And these colours look weak and I don’t like weak.’ We have enough weak in the real world.” Sweet home Chicago Back on set, the evening scene – as Duvall’s character is being honoured by the Chamber of Commerce at a glitzy gala dinner – is just beginning. When Duvall arrives, taking his place at a podium to give a speech, the extras spontaneously applaud. Hunkered down over a monitor, McQueen watches Duvall intently as he runs through Mulligan’s speech. “He turned me down three times!” the director reveals later (it took Francis Ford Coppola to change Duvall’s mind). Fortunately, he takes less persuading to speak to Total Film. “For me it’s a OPENFIRE love-hate relationship between SteveMcQueenabove hadnoproblemwith father and son,” Duvall explains, MichelleRodriguez’s “[set] against this city of Chicago, ‘difficult’reputation which is one of the most corrupt cities in America, they say.” McQueen is familiar with Chicago; his first museum show was exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art there in 1996. He calls it a “fertile ground” to explore politics, economics, race, a babysitter. “She doesn’t pull any religion and gender, a city where punches,” says Erivo. “She’s the the one per cent live in gated kind of a woman who has had communities just round the corner more of a life than you would from the deprived. “It doesn’t just expect her to, even though she’s reflect Chicago but reflects how really young.” It’s through minding we live today,” he says. “We were Linda’s kids that she gets brought into the gang as a driver. taking Chicago under a microscope, but if you turn it around, “I think she’s an intelligent and resilient woman.” it’s a telescope reflecting the world.” While Widows has been in development for years, Nevertheless, Widows shows a city where those in power its arrival feels apt at a time when gender rights are high are desperate to keep it from those that crave it. “I have a line on the social agenda. McQueen is pleased it’s part of the where I say, ‘We made this city. We can’t have it taken away conversation, but calls it “bittersweet” that the film is from us by people who come here illegally or people who coming out now. “When I saw this TV show 35 years ago, can’t stop making babies,’” says Duvall, who can’t stop you expected things to change. But they haven’t. If this film waxing lyrical about a scene he did earlier with Farrell where could help in a way to pay attention to this time for father and son “fight like crazy”. The Irishman women… [then] great, fantastic, excellent.” smiles on hearing this. “Oh that’s beautiful. Even so, assembling this diverse group was I’m glad he enjoyed it but I shit myself!” anything but easy. For Veronica, when McQueen ‘These are women Violence is also sewn deep into the film. For cast Davis, he told her to wear her hair naturally. Davis it’s been a guilty pleasure. “I’m not going to “There is an element in cinema that has erased who were married to lie. I love it!” she cackles. But from Alice suffering the dark-skinned woman with the natural hair,” domestic abuse to cold-blooded executions handed the actress says. “They don’t find her feminine or men who completely out by Jamal’s brother Jatemme, played by a attractive or sexual or viable. So it’s great he has a terrifying Daniel Kaluuya, the reality isn’t pretty. 51-year-old dark-skinned woman with her natural failed them’ “Violence brings violence,” shrugs McQueen. hair in the forefront of a movie.” Viola Davis “Again, look at Chicago – and how the cops It’s with these small but ground-shifting treat black males. It’s a sickness. An epidemic.” moments that cinema can change; McQueen Somehow, McQueen has stirred all of these simply wasn’t interested in trusting conventional wisdom. elements into a “roller-coaster” heist story that’d make “Michelle Rodriguez, I was very interested in working with Michael Mann proud. Take the opening robbery. “We go her but people were telling me, ‘Don’t work with her, she’s from zero to 60 in four seconds! I wanted to throw things difficult.’ I was like, ‘What’s that about?’ I thought: ‘It’s like around… and just shake up the audience.” Yet amid all the me being described as difficult which I often am.’ I’ve been adrenaline, “It’s a lesson for men and women,” says Davis. deemed to be a perfectionist. And because she’s a woman The housewife “who had your hot meal on the table as who speaks her mind, she’s been deemed as difficult.” soon as you came home and waxed her private parts… Rodriguez initially turned McQueen down, unconvinced by she doesn’t exist”. The times, they are a-changing. Linda. “That person reminded me of my mother,” she says. “I was judging her. When I spoke to Steve, he’s like, ‘I really WIDOWS OPENS ON 6 NOVEMBER. READ TF’S REVIEW ON P42.
GAMESRADARCOM/TOTALFILM NOVEMBER 2018 | TOTAL FILM MAKING OF Matthew McConaughey and ’71 director Yann Demange team up for an unbelievable true crime story, as an unassuming Detroit teen becomes the youngest ever FBI informant and a drug dealer. Total Film meets the crew behind WHITE BOY RICK, an original gangster movie. WORDSMATTMAYTUM
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“ found it fascinating, but I didn’t see a film in it,” says Yann Demange of the true-crime article that inspired White Boy Rick. “I wasn’t interested in that story. So I passed on acquiring the rights to the article, actually.” Not quite how you expect a director to start a conversation about the source material of their latest film. It’s September 2018, and Total Film is meeting Demange in a grandiose boardroom (“It’s like The Hudsucker Proxy,” he laughs) in the Fairmont Royal York hotel in Toronto. Demange and his cast are in town for the Toronto International Film Festival, and like the movie itself, the conversation moves in not-at-all-obvious directions. Perhaps unsurprising, given the true story – the headline account of it, anyway – falls into the stranger-than-fiction bracket. In the ’80s, Detroit teen Richard Wershe Jr. (aka ‘White Boy Rick’, due to his outsider status in a predominantly black community) became embroiled with drug dealers as the youngest FBI informant ever, fathered a child, and started his own drug-dealing racket, all before turning 16. Not that it was ever quite as simple as the headlines,
NOVEMBER 2018 | TOTAL FILM MAKING OF
or even the film’s own trailer and With Oscar-winner McConaughey taglines, would have it. on board, the rest of the cast fell into “About a year-and-a-half later, I got place: Bel Powley as Rick’s sister Dawn; sent the script… and there were these Bruce Dern and Piper Laurie as Rick’s amazing scenes of a father and son,” grandparents, and Jennifer Jason Leigh, adds the disarmingly unpretentious Brian Tyree Henry and Rory Cochrane Demange in his unmistakeable as the FBI agents who engage the young London accent. “And then the father Rick in undercover activity. Just one disappears, and it became the rise and piece was missing: Rick Jr. himself. fall of a gangster. I was like, ‘Oh my “There was a little concern when God, this father and son relationship’ I was meeting actors that you could feel – I really identify with it.” As a person these kids hadn’t really been around of mixed race (Algerian-French) who African-American kids,” Demange was born in Paris and raised in London, explains. “They were appropriating the straight-talking Demange (whose the culture from a distance. They were previous work includes ’71 and TV’s YouTubing, they were acting. Not to Top Boy) related to the outsider aspect diss…” Demange, who had street-cast ‘WORKING WITH A YOUNG PERSON WHO’S NEVER ACTED BEFORE EXCITED ME. IT TELLS ME THEY WON’T WATER IT DOWN’ MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY
of Wershe Jr., but didn’t want to before, insisted they also explore that have a third act that devolved into avenue, even though it freaked some stereotypical gangland thrills. execs out. “It’s gold-digging,” he says. Thankfully, the A-list star he was “You’re sieving through, but if it courting to play Rick’s father, arms happens, you can get something that dealer and street hustler Richard can just give your film an authenticity Wershe Sr., was on the same page. that you need in a story like this.” festival, but also very happy to talk “In the original script I read, the third about this life-changing experience. act turned into this sort of Scarface rise The crazy real-life story didn’t faze him and fall of this young kingpin,” says ABOUT A BOY at all. “I believed it 100 per cent: I’ve Matthew McConaughey, who’s an Casting director Jennifer Venditti seen it with my own eyes,” he says in unadulterated blast of Texan charisma – who scouted American Honey’s a low mumble. “I’ve seen how cops can when TF encounters him in the same non-pro cast – was in the head’s office manipulate kids… [Demange] didn’t boardroom. “It was exciting and stuff, of a Baltimore school as part of the want somebody who had to play ‘from but it was a different movie, and the search. He suggested she start with the the streets’. He wanted somebody that family was nowhere to be found.” kid sitting outside: Richie Merritt. This MAKINGAMARK knew exactly how it is.” McConaughey came to his first untrained teen would go on to nab the DirectorYann In fact, Merritt was so green that Demangeon meeting with Demange ready to title role. “I’m real known in my school, he hadn’t even heard of the project’s setwithMatthew quibble, but the director allayed his A-list star. “I’m like, ‘Who? Matthew because I’ve got five brothers, and McConaugheybelow fears immediately. “I pushed my notes all three of my older brothers went leftRickRichie McConaughey? I’m trying to paint across for him, and said, ‘Have you been [there],” Merritt tells TF. Sporting an Merrittmakeshis a picture in my head. Who is Matthew reading my mail?’” He cracks a wolfish ostentatious satin jacket, Merritt’s bidtoenterthelocal McConaughey?’” he recalls with grin. “And then we were off…” clearly tired from working his first film crimecircuitbelow a sheepish smile. “He pulls up one day, and I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s who. I know who you’re talking about.’” McConaughey himself had no qualms about starring opposite an untested talent. “Because with a decision like this, it tells me, ‘Oh, they’re not going to try to water this down,’ which I would not have liked,” drawls McConaughey, pausing for a sip of green tea. “And the fact I’m working with him, that excited me. I was like, ‘OK, great, because I do know that if you can get a young person who’s never acted before… [this is like] someone behaving honestly in a documentary.’ There’s no better acting than that.”
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of White Boy Rick, Demange repeatedly points out that he didn’t want to tell the ‘procedural’. “I’m trying to give you an emotional experience, rather than a factual breakdown of the events,” he says. That emotional connection was no doubt deepened by the time Demange spent in contact with the real Rick Wershe Jr., who was paroled last year but is still awaiting release from prison after serving 30 years for being busted with a significant amount of cocaine aged 17. His work with the FBI was no help when it came to reducing the sentence. “It really struck me,” says Demange of Wershe Jr.’s situation. “Kids not getting a chance to have a childhood really resonates with me. I was fostered between four and 12. I just cared about him deeply. I was like… it’s almost like an exercise in compassion.” McConaughey also spent a lot of time talking with Wershe Jr. “The main thing I got from him [was] how honest he was,” says McConaughey. “I’ve met a lot of people in prison, and 99 per cent of them would say they were innocent. He’s like, ‘No, I’m not going to say I wasn’t a criminal. I wasn’t a criminal to the extent that they made me out to be. But I’m no choir boy. I was doing this and doing that. Yeah, I was dealing.’” McConaughey also points out Wershe Jr.’s parole was coincidentally reappraised when the film kicked into production. “I’m not saying the movie is responsible,” he says. “I’m asking the question. Did making a Hollywood movie about this, and a man who’s been in there for 27 years for getting caught dealing drugs, did it put a spotlight on the case? Did it make them have a closer look?” He theatrically grabs TF’s notebook and examines Merritt’s presence grounded the film While on paper the characters seem the pages to emphasise his point, in practical ways too: he helped Powley like they could be larger-than-life before sliding it back. “I don’t know, – playing Rick’s crack-addict sister, stereotypes, they’re presented with but the timing sure is interesting.” Dawn – nail a specific accent. “I’ve done genuine empathy. “It was trying to Whether you come armed with lots of standard American accents,” marry that emotional throughline of knowledge of the outcome or not, says Powley, today looking a million the themes of an impoverished family, it’s a sobering, shocking and moving miles from her strung-out character and corruption taking advantage of the conclusion to a film that rails against in a white t-shirt and cream skirt, her impoverished,” considers Demange. the formula of boilerplate rags-to-ill- bright blue eyes beaming. “But Detroit “I was like, here’s an opportunity to gotten-riches crime stories. In short, in the ’80s – and it’s an urban accent – engage. What does life look like at the Scarface it ain’t. “I think people keep was the most difficult accent I’ve ever coalface of poverty in America when wanting and hoping he’ll be smarter, done. I had a coach who helps you try to you’ve got fuck-all options? Who are and he’s got a grand plan, and he’s do it phonetically, and that’s been really we to judge? Let’s spend some time ONTHEUP going to outwit them,” says Demange useful to me in the past. But in the end, and have compassion for them.” RickheadstoVegas of Rick. “He was just a dumb kid. A tomixitupwithmajor the best way to do it was: I literally sat dumb, uneducated, streetwise kid that underworldplayers wasn’t ahead of the game, had no grand down with Richie and had him read topwithsisterDawn every single one of my lines – with NO SECOND ACTS BelPowleyabove plan, wasn’t going to become a kingpin. no intonation – and then I would just [The rest of this feature contains spoilers, leftanddadRickSr He wasn’t a Scarface tactician.” listen to them on repeat, and just so if you’d prefer to go into the film cold, McConaughey listen to him in general.” stop reading now.] In telling the story aboveright WHITE BOY RICK OPENS ON 7 DECEMBER.
GAMESRADARCOM/TOTALFILM NOVEMBER 2018 | TOTAL FILM CHRISTOPHERNOLAN tells Total Film why he’s bringing his favourite film, 2001: A Space Odyssey, to a new generation… and we journey back to its making with Keir Dullea, Jan Harlan and Stanley Kubrick’s daughter Katharina. WORDSJAMIEGRAHAM
Christopher Nolan was seven years old when his father took him to Leicester Square to watch Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. “The thing that I really remember is the scale and awe of the spectacle of it, and the idea that the movie screen can transport you anywhere,” he tells Total Film 40 years later. “That has absolutely stayed with
me: the scale of the imagery and the sense of immersion… it’s something I’ve been chasing in cinema ever since. You’re looking to get back to that childlike sense of wonder.” It is 14 May, and the previous evening Nolan marked the 50th anniversary of his favourite film by screening it at the Cannes Film Festival, to a standing ovation. A lot of painstaking work went into 2001’s tip-top presentation – all of it overseen by Nolan, a renowned perfectionist, working from Kubrick’s notes. And yet, cutely, he has dubbed it the “unrestored” version, for there has been neither revisionism or interpretation: new 70mm prints were struck from the original negative; digitalisation was eschewed (“You tend to lose the emotional impact of the shot in ways that are more subconscious than conscious”); and even the original six-track mono soundtrack of the film’s 1968 release was adhered to. In six months’ time – as you read this article, in fact – Nolan’s own personal odyssey to deliver Kubrick’s star-trekking, soul-searching epic to a new generation will continue with 2001’s release as a 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray with High Dynamic Range. “4K UHD allows the closest recreation of viewing the original film print in your own home,” explains Nolan, immaculate in casual suit and open-necked shirt. “Kubrick’s masterpiece was originally presented on large format film and the deeper MAKING OF
colour palette and superior resolution HIGHSANDLOWS What slowly came together was satellites; ditching Alex North’s score comes closest to matching the original Fromthefirst [spoiler warning ahead for anyone who in favour of strains of classical music analogue presentation.” mammalstobrandish has not yet seen the 50-year-old classic] and deep spells of silence. toolsbelowtothe a story bridging millions of years, from Kubrick described the finished SOLAR FLARE dizzyingmajestyof apes wielding bones on the African film as “basically a visual, non-verbal outerspaceabove After the release of his seventh movie, veldt to a pair of astronauts, Dr. David experience that hits the viewer at an Dr. Strangelove, in 1964, Kubrick decided Bowman (Keir Dullea) and Dr. Frank inner level of consciousness, just as that his eighth film should be a Poole (Gary Lockwood), journeying music does, or painting”. And 50 years science-fiction spectacle that would to Jupiter, their quest signposted by on, viewers are still debating 2001’s grapple with Big Questions rather than mysterious monoliths. With them meaning. Existentialism, evolution, outsized monsters. He had a colleague are three scientists in suspended technology, AI, destruction, hope, reach out to writer and futurist Arthur animation, while the ship’s computer, rebirth, extra-terrestrial life, God… C. Clarke, and Clarke responded that HAL 9000, mostly operates their vessel, themes and theories float and he’d be “frightfully interested in Discovery One. Then HAL undergoes glimmer like stars in our solar system. working with that enfant terrible”. a terrifying breakdown and Bowman, “Neither of them [Kubrick or Clarke] Kubrick and Clarke first met in April who’s exited Discovery One in an EVA were religious,” says Kubrick’s 1964, in New York, and spent many pod, is pulled into a vortex to travel brother-in-law and long-time months reading books on science and vast distances of space. He arrives at producer, Jan Harlan. He is in Cannes anthropology, and watching sci-fi a neoclassical bedroom to view older with Kubrick’s daughter Katharina movies. Clarke’s short story The versions of himself until he is lying in a and 2001’s leading man, Keir Dullea. Sentinel – about the discovery of a bed as a dying man. A monolith appears “But both of them were totally signal-transmitting artefact on Earth’s and he is transformed into a foetus that respectful that there is so much more Moon – would act as the basis for the floats through space in an orb of light. than we can understand,” Harlan screenplay and novel that were being continues. “They wanted something developed. But it needed expanding. ATTACK OF THE CRAB that tells the audience that we know MONSTERS IT AIN’T nothing. It’s just impossible to know: The film – shot at MGM-British Studios billions of stars just in our galaxy. and Shepperton Studios between Stanley takes a bow to the unknowable. December 1965 and September 1967, You can call it God, you can call it extra- with Kubrick overseeing the 205 special terrestrials… I don’t know. Stanley effects shots from June 1966 to March didn’t know. Arthur didn’t know.” 1968 – underwent many changes. “As characters, we didn’t have Often it was a case of Kubrick taking an overall awesome view of what was away: removing a prologue of scientists happening… there was no deep insight talking of extra-terrestrial life; into the meaning of the film,” shrugs extracting a voiceover; jettisoning Dullea. “To paraphrase Stanley: ‘How an early draft’s proposal to have the do you explain in words your experience climactic Star Child set off nuclear of Beethoven’s ‘Fifth Symphony’?’ weapons carried by Earth-orbiting You can’t. Every human being has
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a different experience because you “That Star Gate sequence would bring a different persona to hearing so obviously become digital now,” that music. It’s the same with 2001.” says Nolan, whose own films favour practical effects and whose revolving CHILD’S PLAY corridor fight sequence in Inception For Katharina, what 2001 means to her borrowed wholesale from Kubrick’s is a period of her life. She was 10, living centrifuge. “And it wouldn’t have the in New York, when her father started same impact. The impact is to do with a work on it, and then the family moved tactile, handmade, hand-crafted quality to Elstree, England, and she spent that has a massive sophistication to many amiable days on set. it, and real-world textures. That’s “We would play with the something animation can never do.” chimpanzees and walk on the centrifuge [a huge rotating set] and FANTASTIC VOYAGE eat the food,” she smiles. “The Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey broke sandwiches in the film were actually all the rules, narratively, visually, sponge cake, because he didn’t want technically. For many, at the time, it was them to crumble. They were trying too much – there were 240 walkouts at to make it as real as possible yet 2001 the New York premiere and it got mixed was made with glue and string and reviews, with Pauline Kael labelling it a tape and models – Airfix kits. The art “monumentally unimaginative movie”. department was the most amazing But the counterculture youth got it place to visit. All these people (a tagline reading ‘The Ultimate Trip’ beavering away and being inventive.” tapped into the market) and 2001 “The set was polish and paint and became the biggest box-office hit of plywood and gears, and velvet with 1968. Now, 50 years on, it is considered holes in it,” Harlan agrees. “There one of the greatest films – and pieces of were no computer graphics. It had art, period – of the 20th Century, still to be done real.” inspiring viewers and filmmakers alike.
Dullea, naturally, adored having “Every time you watch it, it such sets and practical effects to work changes,” says Nolan. “There’s a with. He grins while recalling how primal simplicity to the way the images he would just walk on the spot in the tell the story that sustains many, many centrifuge and it was actually the watchings and many, many readings. entire set, including Gary Lockwood I think the change in the film is partly eating food at his station, that was you changing in your own life. But revolved down to him (“When they I think it’s mostly because it’s about first shot it, the food all dropped. the future. Its relationship with the It took an hour to clean up the mess”). future ebbs and flows.” Nolan goes on In fact, representing zero gravity to reference FaceTime, iPads and Siri, on a 38ft Ferris wheel was a doddle all predicted, in kind, by 2001, and DIRECTOR’SCHAIR compared to getting through the points out that “its relationship with topKubrickwith dialogue scenes with HAL… our world has never been stronger; productiondesigner “For HAL, we didn’t yet have the it feels taken from the headlines”. TonyMastersabove voice of Douglas Rains,” says Dullea. As for Nolan’s own moviemaking, super-fan “Stanley couldn’t make up his mind he acknowledges his debt (he refused ChristopherNolan so he said, ‘I’ll worry about it in to watch 2001 as he prepared to make I’MAFRAIDDAVE post-production.’ He turned to his Interstellar, saying it was “frankly too KeirDulleaas assistant director Derek Cracknell and daunting”) and explains, “You try and astronautDavid said, ‘You do the voice of HAL.’ It was not lift anything from Kubrick in any Bowmanleft [adopts Cockney accent], ‘Y’know what conscious sense, because he works on Byf^Zg?’ Like working with Michael a plane far above the rest of us. The Caine. Now that was acting – keeping inspiration you take is a general one: a straight face.” movies can be anything. You can make As for the famous ‘Star Gate’ up your own rules. 2001 just whole sequence, that too was all achieved cloth reinvents cinema. So as an in-camera, using slit-scan aspiration, that’s what you look to. photography of thousands of high- It’s something to chase – how a contrast images on film, plus printed filmmaker can carve out a space circuits, electron-microscope for autonomy within mainstream photographs of molecular and crystal cinema, and how radical films can be.” structures, and slow-motion photography of coloured paints and 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY IS AVAILABLE ON chemicals swirling in a cloud tank. 4K ULTRA HD BLU-RAY FROM 29 OCTOBER.
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WORDS JAMES MOTTRAM PORTRAITS RICCARDO GHILARDI
YOU DON’T REALLY KNOW IF A MOVIE IS GOING TO BE SHITTY OR NOT. YOU JUST KNOW IF THE EXPERIENCE IS SHITTY, RIGHT?
JOAQUIN PHOENIX From Gladiator to The Master, Joaquin Phoenix’s trademark intense turns have seen him hailed as his generation’s greatest actor. As he returns for biopic Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far On Foot, and preps to play the Joker, Total Film discovers a man who’s still able to set fire to the screen. RICCARDO GHILARDI/CONTOUR BY GETTY BY GHILARDI/CONTOUR RICCARDO
TOTAL FILM | NOVEMBER 2018 SUBSCRIBEATWWWTOTALFILMCOM/SUBS THEINTERVIEW
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GAMESRADARCOM/TOTALFILM NOVEMBER 2018 | TOTAL FILM THEINTERVIEW
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TOTAL FILM | NOVEMBER 2018 SUBSCRIBEATWWWTOTALFILMCOM/SUBS JOAQUINPHOENIX
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JOAQUIN PHOENIX FANCLUB
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GAMESRADARCOM/TOTALFILM NOVEMBER 2018 | TOTAL FILM SOMTHING WICKED HIS WAY COMES...
the world’s number one sci-fi and fantasy magazine on sale now! EDITED BY MATTHEW LEYLAND
THE TOTAL FILM HOME ENTERTAINMENT BIBLE
HEL(L)EN YES BOB WELL DONE CUTS A DASH BELOW PAR(R) JACK IT IN
DISC OF THE MONTH DOUBLEWHAMMY WHY INCREDIBLES 2 IS ONE OF PIXAR’S PUNCHIEST SEQUELS
NEWRELEASES –
SMALL SCREEN DVD & BLU-RAY
BLOODY SPEAR AT MOUNT FUJI ++++ P102 THE UNINVITED +++ P103 THE BREADWINNER ++++ P101 WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION ++++ P103 CHILDREN OF MEN +++++ P102 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY +++++ P102 THE HAPPY PRINCE ++++ P101 INCREDIBLES 2 ++++ P98 SMALL SCREEN PLUS JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM +++ P100 BOOKS P114 100 OCEAN’S 8 +++ P101 8K EXPINER P111 OPERATION RED SEA +++ P101 EXTRAS P104 A RAISIN IN THE SUN ++++ P103 GAMES P113 RUSHMORE +++++ P102 ON DEMAND: APOSTLE P109 SCHLOCK +++ P103 ON DEMAND: 22 JULY P108 SICARIO 2: SOLDADO ++++ P101 SOUNDTRACKS P112 SKYSCRAPER +++ P101 TV MAKING OF: CHILLING TROLL: THE COMPLETE ADVENTURES OF SABRINA P106 COLLECTION +++ P103 TV MAKING OF: THE FIRST P10 TUCKER: THE MAN AND HIS DREAM +++ P103 TV REVIEWS P110 ILLUSTRATION BY LIZZY THOMAS
GAMESRADARCOM/TOTALFILM NOVEMBER 2018 | TOTAL FILM DISC OF THE MONTH
parr excellence ASEQUELSOENTERTAININGITSHOULDBEILLEGAL…
ago, notwithstanding that Bird’s PG experiences in live action (especially INCREDIBLES 2 Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol) FILM EXTRAS have clearly helped refine his gift for action set-pieces. OUT NOVEMBERDVD BD DBD DigitalHDEXTRASCommentary Featuree Shorts Deletedscenes Ouakes Themesongs HELENBREAKSLOOSE On the other hand, Incredibles 2 SEE THIS ne of the reasons behind the enduring success of The Simpsons is is infused with a genuine feel for the IF YOU that its characters never age. For nearly three decades, Bart has political sensibilities of 2018. It swirls LIKED... been 10, Lisa eight and Maggie a toddler. So why worry when Brad with topical undercurrents. Where TOYSTORY / Bird (a Simpsons veteran himself) decides to return to the world of the first film saw Mr. Incredible (Craig / O The Incredibles, 14 years after their debut? To put that gap in perspective, the T. Nelson) headhunted for a mission, TheonlyPixar sequelstotopthis revival of Doctor Who hadn’t been broadcast back in 2004, and we’re now on this time it’s his wife who’s in demand, the fifth new Doctor. Closer to home, Pixar has delivered Wall·E, Up, Inside Out, plus noticeably hired under her MISSION IMPOSSIBLE Coco, three Cars movies and several other follow-ups to its beloved early hits. pre-marriage nom de plume Elastigirl. –GHOST Suddenly, Helen (Holly Hunter) wears PROTOCOL But hey, just seconds into Incredibles loose thread was still hanging from the the trousers – well, thigh-length boots Birdtakesflight withTomCruise’s 2, it feels like we’ve been with the Parr first film’s perfect narrative. Namely and tights – and Bob is left to play BurjKhalifaclimb family all along. True, the film doesn’t that, technically, superheroes are still out-of-his-depth house-husband GUARDIANS scale the heights of the original, which illegal. Cue a quick return to mediocrity, to the three children. OFTHEGALAXY had an emotional resonance that’s now with the added insult of being This is smart storytelling, not only VOL largely lacking here. But it comes a lot housed in a motel, until a mysterious in giving Hunter the lion’s share of Moreraccoon/‘baby’ sparring inthe closer to sustaining its predecessor’s request for the family’s services the dialogue (a boon in itself given the verbalsense quality than, say, Finding Dory or arrives from telecoms guru Winston richness of her unmistakable drawl), Monsters University. Deavor (Bob Odenkirk) and his sister but also in the way it toys with the Picking up immediately where the Evelyn (Catherine Keener). themes of the original. Bird took some first film left off, the sequel sees the Bird pulls off a delicate balancing flak for the Ayn Randian-esque subtext Parrs tackle the Underminer (John act here. On the one hand, this really that superheroes should flaunt their Ratzenberger), only to realise that one could have been made a decade superiority. Here, that’s subverted,
TOTAL FILM | NOVEMBER 2018 SUBSCRIBEATWWWTOTALFILMCOM/SUBS BLU DVDRAY & VOD
Thesuper-familyare back onlythistime it’sverymuchmum Helen akaElastigirl takingthelead
with the alpha male getting his to be overly serious and sermonising, about everything, is Pixar’s funniest, DADDYDAYCARE mid-life crisis while Helen kicks ass. above Thegang but there was a good hour in the middle most energised and politically on-point Think this is coincidental? Certainly meetmysterious that fizzed and ricocheted with gags, subplot in years, as the Parr family not, when the villain of this movie newrecruiters action and excitement. Here, he’s gradually discovers the full extent WinstonandEvelyn – the Screenslaver (Bill Wise) – is Deavor below allowed these elements to overrule of Jack-Jack’s powers. conspicuously addressing the haves Bobswilydiscovers the life lessons. Only hinted at in The Incredibles and have-nots of the modern world. thatlookingaer If some of the first Incredibles’ (and confirmed in 2005’s spin-off short Jack-Jackcould When we try to set up the select few peril and pathos are in shorter supply, Jack-Jack Attack), here we get the full behisgreatest as worthy of slavish devotion, the challengeyet… there are dazzling displays of technical Looney Tunes symphony of what the sequel suggests, it instils an in-built bravura. Bird’s best set-piece is youngest Parr is capable of. The variety complacency and intellectual lethargy a gripping bike-versus-train chase; keeps the action unpredictable and the in everybody else. NAPPYEVENT ‘IT’SBOLDSTUFFBUTDECANTED It’s a theme that resounds far more now – after a decade of MCU INTOBREEZYENTERTAINMENT’ supremacy – than it would have done if the sequel had been made runner-up goes to a spooky search of laughs free-flowing, especially in pre-Iron Man. It also has pointed a gloomily lit apartment that suddenly Jack-Jack’s stand-off against a raccoon, things to say about social media, explodes into a vivid, eye-scorching a contender for the year’s best fight fake news and the cult of fight. There are throwaway gags, both scene. More than that, the message – personality that surrounds visual (a nappy change on a boat) and that we all have potential, and should a certain president. verbal (a very familiar tale about how be allowed to express it – is a fittingly It’s bold stuff, but hard it is to buy the right batteries). woke refinement of everything the decanted into breezy There’s also a delectable score first film attempted to say. entertainment. Bird by Michael Giacchino which, Extras include the charming short came a cropper even by the composer’s Bao and a new mini-movie, Auntie Edna, in 2015’s standards, is a blast. which gives us more time with Edna Tomorrowland And, coursing Mode than the main film’s brief but by trying through just on-point cameo allows. Simon Kinnear
NOVEMBER 2018 | TOTAL FILM THE HOME ENTERTAINMENT BIBLE
light bite Housetrainingwas BAYONAKEEPSITSNAPPY… notgoingwell…
catastrophically dumb decisions (irksome if done poorly, but Bayona JURASSIC WORLD: makes a crowd-pleasing fist of it). 12 Act three is also a showcase for the FALLEN KINGDOM Indoraptor, whose lab-designed DNA FILM EXTRAS appears to include a helping of skeksis. OUT OCTOBERDigitalHDNOVEMBERDVD BD DBD KEXTRASFeaturees ChrisPra’sJurassicJournals Undoubtedly b(e)ast in show, the Indo’s crocodile-eyed charisma surpasses its human co-stars. Our heroes aren’t t the tail-end of Fallen Kingdom’s featurettes, there’s a telling SEE THIS unlikeable; they’re merely… able. exchange. “When you guys look back on Jurassic Park, does it look IF YOU As the (bitty, breezy) extras’ Jurassic LIKED… primitive to you?” asks Jeff Goldblum. Responding in the negative, Journals attest, Chris Pratt as Chris co-writer/producer Colin Trevorrow says, “Unfortunately, you’re JURASSICPARK Pratt is tons more fun than Chris Pratt A held to that standard every time. The question is, why doesn’t [a new Jurassic as Owen Grady. Post-heelgate, we get FK’sextrashonour film] look so much better than [in] 1993?” Goldblum’s a less calculating, more caring Claire open-shirtmoment… (Bryce Dallas Howard), but the series Ostensibly, they’re talking about the Trevorrow-directed Jurassic World TELETUBBIES is still shy of an icon à la Ian Malcolm the VFX; and on that front, yes, those re-opened the gates with an efficient - (brimming with anecdotes, Goldblum galloping gallimimus do look a bit imitation of Parks past, Fallen Kingdom …whileanEaster scores more screentime in the eggawaitsforfans primitive, especially in juxtaposed goes more off-road. featurettes than the film). ofthecolourful clips from Spielberg’s original and this Just when you think you’re getting kiddieshow The ending, meanwhile, lets loose J.A. Bayona-helmed fivequel. But the Dante’s Peak with dinos, Bayona shrinks GUARDIANSOF a threequel-baiting twist that tantalises remarks are pertinent to the movies the spectacle to an old dark house. THEGALAXY while making Fallen Kingdom feel very per se: Jurassic ’93 remains set in amber Despite suggestive use of shadows and VOL much a bridge to bigger, hopefully as the standard-bearer, its sense of nods to 1979’s Dracula (a Bayona fave), Pra-ledsci-fi bolder things. In any case, a third World sequelthatdelivers awe still fresh despite the ripe CGI. the fear factor peaks with the oceanic appeals because, to quote Spielberg, thegoods butnot Still, with Spielberg remaining opener, which out-Megs The Meg. thegreat “The T-rex is never going to lose its in the backseat, the franchise hasn’t The mansion section is more about bite.” That’s true of Bayona’s monster suffered a Jaws-like drop-off. It’s even runaround thrills and the familiar ritual merry-go-round, but the marks managed to evolve, to a point. Where of seemingly intelligent people making don’t linger too long. Matthew Leyland
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OCEAN’S 8 12 SKYSCRAPER 12 FILM EXTRAS FILM EXTRAS OUTNOWDigitalHD OCTOBER OUTNOVEMBERDigitalHD BD DVD KEXTRASFeaturees NOVEMBERDVD BD DBD K Deletedscenes BD EXTRASCommentary Featurees THE BREADWINNER 12 Deleted/Extendedscenes espite the star wattage of its FILM EXTRAS Dleads, Gary Ross’ breezy relaunch OUTNOWDVD BD DigitalHDEXTRASCommentary post-Rampage Dwayne Johnson of the Ocean’s series is more enjoyable Intro MakingOf Aswaps knowing cobblers for diversion than full-on dazzler. It’s put earnest cobblers with this Die Hard together with Soderberghian slickness, arking an Oscar-nom hat-trick for Cartoon Saloon, redux, which ups scale and lowers while there are standout turns from Mthis tale of life under the Taliban in Afghanistan circa smarts. You can swiftly tell where Helena Bonham Carter as a disgraced 2001 is tighter and grittier than earlier outings, without it’s going, but once Johnson’s security fashion designer and Anne Hathaway, sacrificing charm or whimsy. The latter’s represented by assessor starts not only climbing a hoot as the preening starlet whose storybook segments that punctuate and illuminate the cranes freehand, but climbing cranes diamond necklace is the target. But the journey of Parvana, an 11-year-old out to find her falsely freehand in order to jump onto burning
heist goes a little too smoothly: fun imprisoned father. If it’s not always clear whom this buildings (occupants: family members, though it is to watch the pieces fall into too-tough-for-tots adap of a kids’ book is aimed at, terrorists), guilty pleasure takes place, it lacks the nail-gnawing tension it strikes a keen balance between horror and hope. Extras hold. Extras offer tales of dick pics of a vintage caper. Chris Schilling include intro from exec-prod Angelina Jolie. Matthew Leyland and pineapples. Matthew Leyland
OPERATION THE HAPPY PRINCE 15 RED SEA 18 FILM EXTRAS FILM EXTRAS OUTNOWDigitalHD DVD BD OUTNOWDigitalHD OCTOBER EXTRASMakingOf DVD BDEXTRASFeaturee Deleted 15 scenes Gallery upert Everett shows commanding SICARIO 2: SOLDADO Rrange as writer, director and star FILM EXTRAS ne of the year’s biggest hits of this thoughtful Oscar Wilde biopic. OUT OCTOBER DVD, BD, 4K, Digital HD EXTRAS Featurettes O($579m worldwide) skipped a UK Rather than repeat Wilde’s oft- cinema release. Perhaps it was because dramatised rise and fall, however, espite losing some MVPs at the border, the sequel to this gung-ho account of an elite naval Everett focuses on the writer’s final D2015’s tense narco-thriller carries over – and adds – unit taking on terrorists is unadorned years in European exile, battling penury enough clout to hold its end up. Though Emily Blunt is military propaganda. Nonetheless, it’s and prejudice while inexorably drawn missed, returnees include Josh Brolin’s shady CIA agent a riveting example of how the Chinese back to the affair that ruined him. and Benicio Del Toro’s magnetically inscrutable hitman, film industry is taking on Hollywood. Naturally, there’s waspish wit to spare, this time tackling people trafficking. Director Stefano Director Dante Lam’s sustained but this is mostly a melancholy, Sollima (Suburra) can’t quite match Denis Villeneuve’s set-pieces are the definition of overkill, moving tragedy. Everett’s direction has suspense-basting efficacy, but Taylor Sheridan’s script outdoing even Michael Bay. And, given a suitably faded, fin de siècle grandeur trades in richly grey-shaded complexities and – replacing the level of gore, they’re not kidding and his performance bursts with Jóhann Jóhannsson – Hildur Guðnadóttir’s huge score about the red, either… Simon Kinnear wounded romance. Simon Kinnear grinds your skull nicely. Kevin Harley
GAMESRADARCOM/TOTALFILM NOVEMBER 2018 | TOTAL FILM THE HOME ENTERTAINMENT BIBLE
stargazing SCI-FICLASSICLOOKSBETTERTHANEVER…
2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY 12 FILM EXTRAS OUT OCTOBERKBD DigitalUHDEXTRASCommentary Documentaries Interviews Artcards Booklet
his summer, on the 50th anniversary of its big-screen debut, 2001 was re-released in an ‘unrestored’ format overseen by Christopher Nolan (see page 84). This Ultra HD 4K Blu-ray transfer – mastered T from the 65mm original camera negative – is, according to Nolan, “the closest recreation of viewing the original film print in your own home”.
There’s no chance of a rewatch rapt. Kubrick leaps millennia in service feeling like an academic exercise in of a story that, like all great art, will be celluloid preservation, though. It’s interpreted differently by everyone who almost impossible to hold yourself at approaches it. The label ‘masterpiece’ a remove when you’re immersed in doesn’t seem strong enough. the overwhelming sensory experience. Extras – all ported from previous The film is still one of the most editions – feature big names waxing intense U-certificates ever released lyrical about its legacy, but it’s a shame (an archive interview with Kubrick there’s no new Nolan featurette specific earns the disc its 12). From the howling to this version, as insight into the
void-like overture, to the burnished restoration process would have been sunsets of ‘The Dawn Of Man’ fascinating. But it’s still an essential Heneverwentanywhere withouthisboombox sequence, to the outer-space scenes purchase for fans seeking another hit that impress to this day, it’ll hold you of the ultimate trip. Matt Maytum
RUSHMORE 15 BLOODY SPEAR FILM EXTRAS AT MOUNT FUJI 12 OUTNOWBDEXTRASCommentary FILM EXTRAS MakingOf Featurees Storyboards Poster OUTNOWBDEXTRASCommentary Intro Interviews Booklet he curtains, compositions, CHILDREN OF MEN 15 Tconnoisseur-ish music, cutting omu Uchida’s period drama is FILM EXTRAS drollery… Even with Wes Anderson’s Ta samurai movie – but forget OUTNOVEMBERBDEXTRASCommentary tics set, his second pic remains thoughts of invincible swordsmen. Documentary Featurees Deletedscenes Gallery a wickedly wrong-footing treasure. The samurai here, Lord Sakawa, is an You never know where you are as Jason amiable, slightly feckless figure who ith every passing year, Alfonso Cuarón’s portrait of Schwartzman’s precocious student turns nasty when drunk. The hero is Wan isolated, anti-immigrant Britain circa 2027 looks (15 going on 48) battles Bill Murray’s Gonpachi, his bulky spear-carrier, who increasingly prescient, frighteningly plausible and very much millionaire (48-ish going on 15) for lumbers along keeping an eye on his a masterpiece. Abandoning the usual dystopian clichés, this Olivia Williams’ love (and carrots). master – and proves formidable when is sci-fi recast as social-realist action thriller, as Clive Owen’s Should we cringe, cry, or cackle? the chips are down. For most of its world-weary misanthrope becomes the unlikely midwife Anderson keeps the tonal balance length this is a relaxed, humorous road to society’s rebirth. Cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki spry, aided by the late-’90s Murray- movie; only in the last few minutes remains the film’s MVP for his startlingly lucid long-take sance in full (anti-)bloom. Criterion does the violence explode, and is all set-pieces, but it’s Cuarón’s sure grasp of tone that locates extras are on-point. Kevin Harley the more fearsome for it. Philip Kemp hope and humanity amid the horror. Simon Kinnear
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SCHLOCK 12 TUCKER: THE MAN FILM EXTRAS AND HIS DREAM 12 OUTNOWBDEXTRASCommentary FILM EXTRAS Q&A Interviews Booklet OUTNOWBDEXTRASCommentary Deletedscene Featurees ore Kentucky Fried Movie than WITNESS FOR THE MAn American Werewolf In London, PROSECUTION U rare flight of non-fancy from this handmade creature feature is FILM EXTRAS ALucasfilm, this period piece still the debut of 21-year-old writer- OUTNOWBDEXTRASCommentary Featurees Booklet ticks off exec producer George Lucas’ director John Landis. The proto-auteur pet themes: dreaming big; fighting the also proves a winning mime within okum played to the hilt,” says Simon Callow of Billy system; cars. It’s also a passion project Rick Baker’s ape suit – he is HWilder’s Agatha Christie adap. And no one plays it for Lucas’ pal, director Francis Ford Schlockthropus, the prehistoric beast better than Charles Laughton as the ailing but unassailable Coppola, whose biopic of ’40s motor who falls in love with a blind woman, barrister defending murder suspect Tyrone Power (in his maverick Preston Tucker (Jeff Bridges) goes to the movies to watch The Blob, final role). The Oscar-nommed Laughton’s stair-lift was originally planned as a musical. and plays a little jazz piano between shenanigans, monocle mischief and bickering with real-life The result has a spring its step, but
killing 789 people. The humour is wife Elsa Lanchester engross just as much as the courtroom Coppola’s camera tricks tend to distract skit-and-miss, but the affection glows. dramatics. End credits implore punters not to blab the as much as dazzle. Extras include old Don’t miss the cracking yak-track killer twists; even though you can spot one fake-out footage of the beardy peers enjoying by Landis and Baker. Jamie Graham a mile off, this hokum still holds up. Matthew Leyland edit-suite bantz. Matthew Leyland
A RAISIN IN TROLL: THE THE SUN 12 COMPLETE FILM EXTRAS COLLECTION 18 OUTNOWBDEXTRASInterviews FILMS EXTRAS Videoessays - OUTNOWBDEXTRAS THE UNINVITED PG Commentary MakingOf Deletedscenes dapted by Lorraine Hansberry Featurees Musicvideo Booklet FILM EXTRAS Afrom her own Broadway play OUTNOWBDEXTRASVisualessay Radioadaps Booklet – and retaining its original cast – his is a rare horror ‘franchise’ that this absorbing melodrama movingly Tactually improves as it goes along. eckoned to be Hollywood’s first ‘serious’ shot at highlights the hardships of a black Packaged with exhaustive extras, 1986’s Ra ghost story (with cinematographer Charles Lang Chicago family and their conflicting Troll is naff monster mayhem; the picking up an Oscar nomination), director Lewis Allen’s dreams. Staid direction means it never completely unrelated Troll 2 (1990) is a atmospheric movie isn’t as serious as all that; star Ray quite escapes its theatrical origins, but meme-tastic train wreck of staggering Milland’s corny frivolities persistently lighten the tone. it’s impeccably acted, with a live-wire cine-incompetence (NB: this is a good After buying an old Cornish cliff-top house, siblings Roderick Sidney Poitier matched by Claudia thing); and 2009’s Best Worst Movie (Milland) and Pamela (Ruth Hussey) get embroiled with the McNeil’s dignified matriarch. Extras is a decent, cast-made doc glorifying previous owners: grumpy old Donald Crisp and his naïve examine Poitier’s desire to beef up his the latter and ignoring the former. granddaughter (Gail Russell). There are some elegantly part and the play’s enduring influence Confused? You will be. Guiltily staged fright moments, while Victor Young’s score on black theatre. Chris Schilling entertained? That too. Matt Glasby includes the haunting ‘Stella by Starlight’. Philip Kemp
GAMESRADARCOM/TOTALFILM NOVEMBER 2018 | TOTAL FILM THE HOME ENTERTAINMENT BIBLE
MY NEIGHBOUR TOTORO STATIONARY VARIOUSOUT OCTOBER
his year marks the 30th anniversary of two Studio Ghibli classics: Grave Of TThe Fireflies and My Neighbour Totoro. One of these lends itself more to cute merch than the other. Both adorable and functional, Chronicle Books’ new line of Totoro stationary includes a 30-postcard set (featuring final frames from Hayao Miyazaki’s masterpiece) and a top-up notecards kit (five designs, repeating twice). Imagine one of these on your desk/doormat/bedside table; you’d be grinning like a Cheshire catbus.
SUPERHERO SLIPPERS FOOTWEAROUTNOW
es, saving the world’s a noble cause, but you don’t Ywant to be bothering with all that when the nights are drawing in. Instead, reinvent yourself as an armchair superhero with some slippers based on comic-book heroes. If you’re a Marvel kid, there’s Groot and Captain America (both open-backed, like something from the Avengers Facility spa). DC lovers, meanwhile, can choose from Batman (cape, belt, embroidered abs) and Aquaman (modelled on the comic version rather than Jason Momoa’s bare feet). Available from ThinkGeek/GameStop.
TOTAL FILM | NOVEMBER 2018 SUBSCRIBEATWWWTOTALFILMCOM/SUBS EXTRAS
THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS GAMES BOARDGAMESOUTNOW
his is Halloween, this is THalloween… and if you can’t be arsed to dress up, or risk life- changing injury for the sake of a decorative pumpkin, why not stay in with a Burtonian board game? There are two twisted twists on old favourites: Operation challenges you to remove bats, bugs, worms and other nasties from the body of Oogie Boogie, while Monopoly hedges its seasonal bets with Halloween and Christmas game cards and… what’s this? A zombie duck token?! Sold!
HAN SANDWICHES BOOK/KITCHENWAREOUTNOW
t’s been a bit of a (H)annus horribilis for the Star Wars saga:
WHITE WALKER Iongoing Last Jedi backlash, plus a new movie that made WHISKY less money than Hotel Transylvania 3. But this latest Star Wars ALCOHOLOUTNOW Cookbook (from BB-Ate author Lara Starr) is a source of cheer for the puns alone: ‘Quesogreedos’; ‘Hoth Dog’; ‘Scruffy- njoy a pre-winter warmer with Looking Nerf Burgers’. But the USP is a pair of sandwich EJohnnie Walker’s White Walker cutters shaped like the Millennium Falcon and Chewie’s (then try saying that after you’ve had shaggy noggin. Munch it! ML a few glasses). Inspired by Game Of Thrones’ undead, unthawed army, this limited-edition whisky will tingle your taste buds with notes of caramelised sugar and vanilla, red berries and orchard fruit. And when the bottle’s been chilling a while, it reveals a secret message… Who’ll claim the Iron Throne? Season 8’s broadcast date? “All men must rye”? Available from Amazon.
GAMESRADARCOM/TOTALFILM MAKING OF
casting a spellman THENEWSABRINASETFORNETFLIXANDCHILLING…ADVENTURES
SEE THIS omic books, animation, TV… and now the teenage witch enters other things. I got to try different IF YOU the world of streaming with Netflix’s Chilling Adventures Of experiences, which is super LIKED… Sabrina. A dark reimagining that mixes horror with (wicked) important. I truly feel like it’s the SABRINATHE humour, it stars Kiernan Shipka (previously best known as right time for me to do something like TEENAGEWITCH C Don Draper’s daughter on Mad Men), who introduces TF to this fresh spin… this. I was totally itching to get back - MelissaJoanHart to TV because it’s fun to keep growing workedhermagic How would you pitch this new in any period but are timeless. I’m a over time as a character. oversevenseasons take on Sabrina? big Riverdale fan so I’m excited about MADMEN - In many ways it’s about a girl that possibility, too. Does this show pay homage Shipka’sstar-making role astearaway growing up, so it’s analogous to a to previous versions? teenSallyDraper teenage experience. But it also has What’s your history with Sabrina? One of the main charms – no pun RIVERDALE elements of fantasy, of dealing with I didn’t really watch the [1990s] intended; I can’t believe I just said -PRESENT the two separate sides of Sabrina show growing up. But when we were that! – of the original Sabrina, The TVseriesderived Spellman. It really turns into this shooting in Vancouver, I got chatting Teenage Witch was that it was funny, fromArchieComics theoriginalsource beautiful journey back and forth to some girls from Ireland in an and I think Chilling Adventures honours forSabrina between the mortal world and the elevator and they went crazy over that. But at the same time, it’s super witch world; [Sabrina] goes to great the old show, like, “Oh my God! dark and scary, taking inspiration lengths to save a lot of people, which Harvey! Salem the cat!” It was from Rosemary’s Baby and The Exorcist. gets her into some crazy situations eye-opening what a cult following you’ve never seen before. the show still has. What would you use witchcraft for yourself? Sabrina shares a comic-book Did you have any second thoughts I would love to be able to heal people. universe with Archie… will we about doing another TV show I’d also love to fly. Any time I’m in see a Riverdale crossover? post-Mad Men? traffic in Los Angeles I think it would Riverdale is technically the next I wrapped Mad Men when I was just be so convenient to fly over it! town over. It’s not something that’s 15 and started filming this when Jenny Cooney Carillo touched on a lot in the show, but it I was 18, so I definitely had time is referenced, so anything is possible there to figure myself out, figure CHILLING ADVENTURES OF SABRINA in the future. Both shows are not set out what I wanted to do and work on STARTS ON NETFLIX ON 26 OCTOBER.
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MAKING OF
better off red THELOWDOWNONNEWMISSION-TO-MARSSHOWTHEFIRST…
IT’SMOSTLY of eventually travelling 50 million SEE THIS machinations aplenty as Laz attempts IF YOU EARTH-BOUND… miles away.” Then there’s Laz Ingram LIKED… to persuade a recalcitrant Congress to After an extraordinary opening (Natascha McElhone), the driven, fund her proposals. “Laz’s argument sequence on the launchpad, sci-fi slightly awkward visionary behind THERIGHT about needing an alternative to Earth, STUFF drama The First focuses on the crew as the mission. “There’s a subdued Seminalspace- given the difficulties this planet faces, they prepare for their proposed mission anxiety with Laz,” McElhone explains. trainingfilmcentred falls flat with the senators,” explains to Mars. “Some people would have “She’s like a well-polished fortress, onChuckYeager Willimon. “Generally people respond liked us get to Mars sooner,” admits but there’s also an undercurrent of THEMARTIAN more to an inspiring narrative and showrunner Beau Willimon. But the paranoia about winning and coming she’s not good with language, so she MaDamonfa e ces story remains Earthbound for a while in first. It’s quite an American attitude.” lifealoneonMars brings Hagerty in to help make the order to foster investment in the crew MARS case. She’s smart enough to know and the task ahead. “We fully explore THESTARSARESHINING RonHoward’s her limitations and know he exudes how much work and preparation goes “Tom is a hero, but deeply flawed,” TVdocudrama that thing language can’t quite touch. seriesabout into just getting to the launch. Getting says Willimon. “You need an actor with a mission You can’t underestimate the to Mars is not an easy proposition!” that range and level of commitment importance of inspiration.” that Sean will bring. He has to tap into …BUTTHAT’SNO the ugliest, most difficult aspects of SEASON MIGHT BADTHING a human soul, while convincing you SHOWMOREOFMARS Especially when the personal dramas he’s capable and deserving of leading “It wouldn’t be unreasonable to are so intriguing. Take widower and a mission to Mars. And Natascha is assume a crew may even make it to mooted mission commander Tom so generous, warm, open and smart. the surface of Mars itself,” promises Hagerty (Sean Penn, in his first TV Everything she brings makes you Willimon. “You’ve got to know the drama), who wrestles with leaving his root for a character who can be characters well enough by the end daughter behind as she struggles with difficult to relate to at times.” of Season 1 that you’d want to addiction. “Her journey into herself is see them being split up next,” in some ways as dangerous as her dad’s IT’LLGETHOUSE muses McElhone. “How will those journey to Mars,” says Willimon. Other OFCARDSFANS relationships play out when members of his crew are coping with ONBOARD they’re as far apart as anyone ill parents or marital difficulties, as Although considerably ever has been in the history well as a heightened sense of their own more hopeful than the of mankind?” Gabriel Tate mortality. “Their lives are flawed and bleak Washington DC saga messed up like the rest of us,” says that made Willimon’s name, THE FIRST STARTS ON CHANNEL 4 Willimon. “But against the backdrop The First offers political LATER THIS AUTUMN.
GAMESRADARCOM/TOTALFILM NOVEMBER 2018 | TOTAL FILM ON DEMAND
allow Breivik the freedom of speech DAYOFHORROR TBC JonasStrandGravli to expound his anti-immigration 22 JULY right asViljar one manifesto without granting him the FILM ofthesurvivorsof platform he craved so that others theterroraack AVAILABLENOW|NETFLIX might follow. The answer is to show democracy operating at its finest and to n 22 July 2011, right-wing U – July 22 takes that approach, surround Breivik’s gospel of hate with terrorist Anders Behring and does so responsibly), Greengrass survivor tales of tolerance and optimism. O Breivik detonated a car bomb presents the massacre swiftly and Though 22 July is engrossing from in Oslo, killing eight people, before harrowingly, neither sanitising the first frame to last, Greengrass sensibly heading 40km north-west to a Labour violence nor resorting to gratuitous tames the frantically kinetic visuals Party Youth Camp on Utøya Island, bloodshed. He then concentrates on the that became his trademark in the where he shot dead another 69. healing process of one survivor, Viljar Bourne movies – better a somewhat From such horrific events, Paul Hanssen (Jonas Strand Gravli), and the mechanical progression through Greengrass has made a dignified, trial of Breivik (Anders Danielsen Lie). events than a tasteless thriller inspiring film, at once dispassionate Such a structure presents the same dynamic. The result is a film that and compassionate. Far from focusing challenge to Greengrass as that which matches Bloody Sunday and United 93 for on the terror attack (Erik Poppe’s faced the Norwegian courts – how to conscience and impact. Jamie Graham
OPERATION DARKEST HOUR PG THREE SEVEN CELLULAR 15 BEST IN SHOW 12 ALL THE FINALE 15 BILLBOARDS… 15 PSYCHOPATHS 15 PRESIDENT’S TBCNOV|SKY NOW|AMAZON OCT|AMAZON MEN 15 NOW|NETFLIX GaryOldmandons TBCNOV|SKY NOW|NETFLIX Fromthewriterof Callitpoochperfect LackingArgo’space Oscar-winning FrancesMcDormand Here’sone PhoneBoothcomes ascanineowners OCT|AMAZON andSchindler’sList’s prostheticsfor onferocious McDonaghmade thismoremobile competetobetop RedfordandHoffman weight ChrisWeitz’s anOscar-winning Oscar-winningform earlier ameta none-more-noughties doginChristopher areWatergate thrilleraboutthe performanceas asagrievingmother meditationoncrime thriller inwhich Guest’smock-doc whistleblowers captureofsenior WinstonChurchill demandingjusticefor moviesthatstartsto apre-CapChris The human cast Woodwardand NaziAdolfEichmann barnstorminghis herdeaddaughterin self-deconstructin Evansresponds areallwelldeserving Bernsteininthe remainsvery waythroughclassic MartinMcDonagh’s actthreeButwhen tokidnappedKim ofimprovrosettes newspapermovie watchable speechesandholding tightropewalk it’sgood it’sgreat Basinger’scallWith notleastGuest bywhichallothers particularlywhen thestorytogether betweenhard-hitting andwhenit’sgreat TheStathasthe himselfasa arejudgedAlan sparksflybetween eveninitsdaftest dramaandblack thatusuallymeans baddie itsbatteries bloodhoundowner JPakula’scool BenKingsley hour gatheringvox comedyJustpretend ChristopherWalken staychargedfor withahang-dogface directionkeeps andOscarIsaac popsontheTube youmissedthedeer… isbeingrandom theduration andanosefornuts youhooked
TOTAL FILM | NOVEMBER 2018 SUBSCRIBEATWWWTOTALFILMCOM/SUBS blood island GARETHEVANSRAIDSHISHORRORTOOLBOX…
SEE THIS iconic The Wicker Man, Evans doesn’t IF YOU 18 LIKED… follow up with any giant flaming APOSTLE effigies. Instead, he ventures into FILM THEWICKER fantastical territory with enough ‘eww’ AVAILABLENOW|NETFLIX MAN RobinHardy’s factor to satiate most gore hounds toweringpagan (anyone squeamish about eyes really rit director Gareth Evans built his rep on Indonesian actioner The Raid scarerisclearlyan needs to look away for one scene). influenceonApostle (2011) and its sequel. Four years on from the latter, he’s back, and on As the aforementioned blood- no-less spectacular form with Apostle. A twisted, Netflix-produced THERAID letting hints, Evans’ film is awash B Evans’breakout horror, it’s a cult-centred story that seems destined for cult status. Set in 1905, stunnerredefined with the red stuff. An early scene, in it stars Dan Stevens as Thomas Richardson, a prodigal son who renews family actioncinema which a government spy/assassin gets ties when he sets out to find his missing sister, Jennifer (Elen Rhys), who has THEGUEST stabbed with several spears, sets the been abducted by a mysterious cult based on a remote island; Thomas’ plan is Tautthrillerwith brutal tone, while fingers get wrenched to infiltrate their ranks then save his sibling. Stevensasthe and flesh is torn in an increasingly hellishhouseguest grisly final act. Extra thrust is also The isolated group is led by on whether Thomas will be revealed added by the power play between a self-appointed prophet named as an interloper. But there are further Malcolm and his associate Quinn Malcolm (Michael Sheen, with a face secrets to be unpicked, as young lovers (Mark Lewis Jones). as severe as his haircut), and it’s only enjoy covert assignations and animals Stevens compels as the a matter of time before Thomas finds are born onto the island in mangled disenchanted missionary with the out just how weird life is on the isle, form. As Thomas discovers, not scars to prove it, while Sheen is superb. where books from the mainland are everyone appears so keen on this At over two hours, however, it could banned. Spending his nights stealthily devout lifestyle – take, for example, arguably do with a trim; some subplots gathering information, he witnesses a Andrea (Lucy Boynton), who also weave an overly tangled web. woman being forced to cut her arm and happens to be Malcolm’s daughter. But as the main thread reaches its drain blood into a receptacle – a bizarre Moreover, this apparently utopian climax, Evans hits full flow, with as ritual expected of all newcomers. community is in dire straits, with many bruising and bloody body blows In the first half, Evans gradually failing crops causing consternation. as The Raid. This is one cult worth cranks up the tension, centred mostly If that’s a direct nod to Robin Hardy’s offering yourself to. James Mottram
GAMESRADARCOM/TOTALFILM NOVEMBER 2018 | TOTAL FILM THE HOME ENTERTAINMENT BIBLE
Doingwhat’s required… protect and swerve butforwho? DON’THAVETOBEMADDENTOWORKHEREBUT…
BODYGUARD 15 SHOW EXTRAS TBC OUTNOWDVD DigitalHDEXTRASTBC
ichard Madden plays Costner to Keeley Hawes’ Whitney in a scarily tense thriller from Line Of Duty’s Jed Mercurio that had half the nation biting its fingernails in September. Liberally festooned R with sadistic surprises and bookended by two nerve-shredding sequences involving suicide vests, Bodyguard is a prime example of watercooler TV – one that left ITV’s Vanity Fair adap trailing in its wake.
After defusing a terrorist incident Mercurio’s love of fiendish on a London-bound train, troubled war conspiracies, long interrogation scenes vet turned specialist protection copper and the wanton dispensing of key David Budd (Madden) is given a plumb characters makes for an occasionally new assignment – shadowing Julia credulity-stretching saga. Indeed, Montague (Hawes), a home secretary one particular act of thwarted self- with designs on Number 10. harm pushes the narrative seriously The scale of the task becomes clear close to shark-jumping territory. after she narrowly survives a sniper Like the best Line Of Duty arcs, attack. Yet the greater threat may be however, Bodyguard cries out to be
Budd himself, whose concern for her watched in its compulsive entirety well-being masks a resentment of the – for one thing, it sees Madden stake policies she supported that left him a claim to a certain super-spy role that with physical and psychological scars. could soon be up for grabs. Neil Smith
FLEABAG S1 15 THE CROWN S2 15 SHOW EXTRAS SHOW EXTRAS OUTNOWBDEXTRASTBC OUT OCTOBERDVD BD EXTRASFeaturees Tea-timetrivia BD rief, sex, depression and family PG Gresentment are all in the STAR WARS REBELS S4 laire Foy and Matt Smith bow out crosshairs of Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s SHOW EXTRAS Cas Liz and Phil in a second serving caustic comedy, finally released on - OUT OCTOBERDVD BD of Netflix’s regal soap opera that places Blu-ray. A supporting cast of rich EXTRASCommentary BD Featurees their rumoured marital difficulties characters, including Olivia Colman’s centre stage. The result is a more devastatingly passive-aggressive t’s a wrap for the pre-Ep IV adventures of the Ghost crew. intimate (and slightly cheaper-looking) stepmother, surround Waller-Bridge’s ISome characters already have their names on Rogue One affair than the lavish Season 1, with Bafta-winning performance as the Easter eggs, but what fate awaits the rest (not to mention seismic world events – the Suez Crisis, irrepressibly selfish and perverse a certain Thrawn in our heroes’ side)? That question raises JFK’s assassination – taking a back – but ultimately tragic – Fleabag. the stakes even as the narrative narrows its focus; the seat to Margaret’s love life and the She delivers unfiltered honesty, Rebels’ mission to liberate one planet seems positively education of Charles. The impending slyly switching between direct-to- intimate by Star Wars standards. Some business with talking cast overhaul (Olivia Colman and camera commentary, mournful wolves makes you thankful this isn’t live action, but this is Helena Bonham Carter incoming) gazes and wicked smiles. Hilarious a strong finish for a show that’s sometimes struggled to slip should see the show’s third season fully and heartbreaking. Matt Looker the shadow of its Clone Wars predecessor. Matthew Leyland recover its dramatic mojo. Neil Smith
TOTAL FILM | NOVEMBER 2018 SUBSCRIBEATWWWTOTALFILMCOM/SUBS higher power WHAT’SNEXTINHOME-CINEMATECH…
long with January’s current standard for large TVs, 8K is the contrast on your TV to make the REALITYCHECK Las Vegas-based tech next big leap. With a picture resolution Wait youthought picture more realistic. Unlike its bonanza CES, Berlin’s of 7680x4320 pixels, 8K has four times yourKTVwas predecessor, HDR10, which only allows IFA is one of the world’s as many pixels as 4K. And more pixels cuingedge?Meet for an entire movie to be set at one A Philips’OLED" biggest gadget fests. The largest means better picture quality. So far, withaddedHDR " level of brightness, HDR10+ permits names in tech recently gathered there isn’t really much 8K content, but filmmakers to vary the brightness, not on German soil to showcase the latest early 8K TVs will be able to upscale HD just in each scene, but frame by frame. in home cinema – and it was 8K TV and 4K images for a better picture. The idea is you get to see the film that stole the show… just how the director intended. HDR10+ HOWABOUTHDR ? is a joint venture between Samsung, WHATISK? HDR10+ is a brand-new High Dynamic Panasonic and 20th Century Fox, and With 4K having pretty much taken Range (HDR) format. HDR tech is will go head to head with rival HDR over from High Definition (HD) as the designed to boost the colour and format Dolby Vision. Libby Plummer
future views Thebestkittobuy…
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GAMESRADARCOM/TOTALFILM NOVEMBER 2018 | TOTAL FILM THE HOME ENTERTAINMENT BIBLE
fresh CLASSIC spin SOUNDTRACK TFscoresthe latestsoundtracks…
Mandy
ThelateJóhann Jóhannssonleaves uswithathingof filthymajestyAfter searing/sublime scoresforSicarioand Arrival Jóhannsson followsthroughwith etherealsynthdrone anddoom-metal distortionforPanos Cosmatos’revenge movieWithguitars fromavant-rock worshippersSunn O ’sStephen O’Malleyand drumsfromhell ‘Waste’and‘Temple’ aresulphurous scalp-melters beetlejuice DANNYELFMAN/GEFFEN
Halloween hirty years ago, a bug-eyed bio-exorcist liberated Danny Elfman’s Model’ evokes key Elfman influence spirit. “Beetlejuice was tons of fun because it was way off the radar,” Bernard Herrmann possessed by Evenifyoucan’t the composer recalled. “I was so amazed that my score to Pee-wee’s a punk spirit; ‘Juno’s Theme’, improveperfection T Big Adventure wasn’t thrown out… So, by the time Beetlejuice came meanwhile, pre-empts Elfman’s JohnCarpenter along, I decided to just really have fun with it.” Gotham City symphonies. DanielDaviesand As the disparate parts merge John’ssonCody Previously the singer of new-wave pitch gloriously. After Harry Belafonte’s on ‘The Incantation’, Elfman syncs dotheirdamnedest performance-art project The Mystic vocal cameo, galloping pianos, ghostly his sonic chaos to Burton’s madcap torespectand Knights Of The Oingo Boingo, Elfman voices, whooshing strings, clamouring narrative with a sure sense of intuition. reinventCarpenter’s came to movies via the comic fantasy clarinets and thrusting rhythms jostle A little showtime thus earned, trail-blazing scorefor ’s Forbidden Zone (1980) and Tim Burton’s with an anything-goes vigour. It really Elfman’s score resembles a poltergeist sequelWithgnarled 1985 Pee-wee pic. Elfman would make shouldn’t hold together, but it does, lobbing sonic furniture around for the guitars pulsingbeats bigger (Batman), more romantic thanks to the force of Elfman’s multiple climaxes. Fairground music andpulverising (Edward Scissorhands) music for Burton invention and sly structural know-how. and calliope chaos bustle restlessly, effectsadding than 1988’s Beetlejuice, his second With Betelgeuse’s frenetic theme before reprisals of the core character density ‘Michael collaboration with the director; The established, Elfman sustains a flair themes remind us of the guiding hand KillsAgain’andthe Nightmare Before Christmas, meanwhile, for character themes in mock-jaunty steering the shape-shifting lunacy. spoiler-ishtrack banked him an eternity of reissues. down-home parodies (for the Along the way, Belafonte’s ‘Day-O stylishlysustain But it was Beetlejuice that flung the Maitlands) and gothic waltzes (The Banana Boat Song)’ and ‘Jump theoriginal’s nerve-scrunching doors wide open on the duo’s goth-com (for Lydia). From here, the afterlife In Line (Shake, Shake Señora)’ provide purityofpurpose circus, thanks to its delirious disregard dominates as Elfman’s score swerves deliciously random calypso digressions. for restraint and its foreshadowing every which way, lurching from church Much to Belafonte’s delight, ‘Day-O’ of Elfman highs to come. to fairground at the click of a castanet. even re-charted thanks to Beetlejuice. A high-theatre curtain-raiser Strings and harps swoop; woodwinds “I’ll be around for a while,” the singer of tremendous vim, ‘Main Titles circle; organs boom; percussive jitters noted. Likewise, Burton and Elfman (Beetlejuice)’ sets the hyperactive nibble at the score’s fringes. ‘In The were here to stay. Kevin Harley
TOTAL FILM | NOVEMBER 2018 SUBSCRIBEATWWWTOTALFILMCOM/SUBS GAMES two more Recentthumb- twiddlers…
Wandersong stumble in the jungle Acheerfulminstrel seekstostave CROFT’SCATACLYSMICQUESTISNOTALARAFUN… offimminent armageddonthrough thehealingpower and caves to probe, environmental ofsonginthis puzzles to solve and treasures to pilfer offbeatadventure SHADOW OF THE this time around. But recurring control thatusesitshero’s prompts take the joy out of traversal, versatilevoiceas TOMB RAIDER akindofmusical and the challenges require little GAME Swissarmyknife thought to complete. Itsunusualpuzzles OUTNOW|PC PS XboxOne Cozumel offers some breathtaking aresupplementedby scenery, though the (barely) hidden astorythathitsfew he concluding chapter of this prequel trilogy promises the final steps city of Paititi never quite convinces, falsenotesenroute of Lara Croft’s journey to “become the Tomb Raider she was destined coming off more like a tourist resort. toitssoaringclimax
to be”. Yet there’s little evidence she’s ready: the game begins with The storytelling is a mess, its po-faced T Lara stealing an ancient dagger, setting off a Mayan apocalypse dialogue and sombre mood at odds with that can only be stopped by finding another artefact. And so she heads to the fanciful plot. And early hints that the Mexican island of Cozumel, in a race against militant organisation Trinity. Lara’s thoughtless actions might finally be addressed are swept aside by a tone- However, they’re only a sporadic armed patrols, this marks a shift away deaf climax that attempts to paint her threat. Outside a few stalk-and-stab from the more combat-heavy recent as some kind of righteous saviour – one Donut County sequences in which Lara must smear instalments, with a keener focus on last stumble in an adventure that rarely herself in mud to avoid detection from exploration. True, there are more crypts puts a foot right. Chris Schilling Asatireabout gentrification masqueradingas aquirkyindiepuzzler thisengaginglittle curiocastsyou asahole which steadilywidens asyouswallow upincreasingly FORZA HORIZON 4 VA LKYRIA TRANSFERENCE largeobjectsuntil GAME CHRONICLES 4 GAME nothingremains OUTNOW|PC XboxOne GAME OUTNOW|PC PS XboxOne Theoccasional OUTNOW|PC PS Switch XboxOne creativeflourish enlivensthese icrosoft’s racing festival pitches ombining film footage with amusingvignettes Mup in England, but it’s not ega’s cult strategy series recovers Cfirst-person exploration, this butdespitedroll just the familiar setting – rendered Sfrom last year’s misguided spin-off movie-length chiller is an impressive dialogue it’smostly in astonishing detail – that makes this Valkyria Revolution with painterly debut for Elijah Wood’s SpectreVision. emptycalories fourth instalment so memorable. The panache. Its story runs concurrently Co-directed by Wood himself, the story ability to create your own races should to the decade-old original, tracking hinges on tech (built by Macon Blair’s sustain players well beyond an already a squad of likeable young soldiers frazzled scientist) that allows users substantial single-player mode, while on a high-risk operation behind to inhabit another’s consciousness: seasonal weather has much more than enemy lines. Combining real-time in this case, three members of a family, a cosmetic impact: when winter arrives, manoeuvres with thoughtful strategy, whose home becomes a nightmare as you’ll be able to drive across the Lake its scenarios are as riveting as they technical hitches cause increasingly District’s icy waters. And now you can are varied, while its distinctive disturbing effects. It’s undoubtedly best buy your own in-game property, you’re watercolour art and comic-book experienced in VR, with its unsettling even more likely to stick around. CS framing look better than ever. CS audio and perspective shifts. CS
GAMESRADARCOM/TOTALFILM NOVEMBER 2018 | TOTAL FILM moretwo Thesewon’tsend youtohypersleep
THEY DREW AS THEY PLEASED VOL. 4
TheHiddenArtOf Disneyseriesreaches the’ sand’ s theeraofCinderella AliceInWonderland PeterPanand saving thebestforlast TheJungleBook Awordlesssection to the wealth of concept art, on-set onthelatterfeels photos and other memorabilia that likeavintagepicture THE MAKING OF accompanies author Rinzler’s (The book buttextis PLANET OF THE APES Making Of Star Wars) exhaustive text. abundantelsewhere (Highlights include a four-page mock shiningaspotlighton BOOK newspaper published to coincide with fivekeyanimators’ JWRINZLER|HARPERDESIGN Apes’ UK release and pictures of Edward livesandworking methodsAndasever G. Robinson in orangutan make-up.) therearetantalising rip-roaring horror story, How it instead became a modestly Along the way we’re told the odd teasesofprojects a classic thriller [and] the budgeted B-movie toplined by a largely choice anecdote, one concerning a unrealisedDisney’s A most unusual movie ever naked Charlton Heston is detailed at script draft in which writer Rod Serling DonQuixote anyone? made!” So proclaimed producer length in a lavishly illustrated volume had Lady Liberty salute Heston’s Arthur P. Jacobs as he tried to drum that sets out to be the final word on astronaut with a raised middle finger. up interest in an adaptation of Pierre Franklin J. Schaffner’s 1968 classic. But what really jumps off the page Boulle’s 1963 novel La Planète Des That it largely succeeds is less down is the incredible forbearance of his Singes, a sci-fi spectacular that to the syrupy foreword from Heston’s latex-wearing co-stars, one of whom might have starred Paul Newman son Fraser (“Dad had an uncanny ability – Kim Hunter – needed a daily dose of and been directed by Blake Edwards. to choose the right projects”) and more valium just to get through it. Neil Smith ALIEN COVENANT: DAVID’S DRAWINGS
Chartingone strandedandroid’s nervousbreakdown thisin-universe BUFFY THE STEVEN STRANGER THINGS: sketchbookstarts VAMPIRE SLAYER: SPIELBERG FAQ WORLDS TURNED innocuouslywith A PICTURE BOOK BOOK UPSIDE DOWN flora faunaand BOOK BARRYMONUSH|APPLAUSE BOOK anatomystudies… KIMSMITH|QUIRK GINAMCINTYRE|CENTURY beforegoingfull an-fired enthusiasm helps make Gigerwithwhat conceptartists ollowing re-tellings of Home Alone, Fup for a lack of searching analysis ike the ’80s-based show, this MattHattonand FE.T. and others, the Pop Classics in this Spielberg tribute. Gunning for Lofficial making-of companion has DaneHallettcall series turns Buffy into a bedtime story. detail over depth, Monush reels in a loving eye for period detail, from the a“lovinglycrafted It avoids any of that awkward teenage nuggets such as Ellen Brody’s preferred faux-weathered cover to the yearbook- andperverted stuff by depicting the Slayer and her salad dressing in Peter Benchley’s style cast profiles and vintage ‘ads’ for homagetoDr besties (“It’s pronounced ‘Zander’”) as Jaws novel. Criticisms of Spielberg, the Duffers’ fave paperbacks and videos. ElizabethShaw” adorable eight-year-olds afraid of the meanwhile, are largely ducked. The Though weighted towards Season 1, the Lessacoffee-table dark (with, it turns out, good reason). box-office chapter runs surplus to book tackles S2’s key points (ie the bookthanasplutter- Not an awful lot of vampire action, but needs, but Monush treads lightly over infamous seventh episode) and offers a your-coffeebook… fun for first-generation fans with kids, the minutiae of adaptations, shoots and picture-less ‘look’ at what’s to come in especially the busy (and Easter egg-y) cameos, banking goodwill for his robust S3 – “Our grossest season,” promises final spreads. Matthew Leyland (and correct) A.I. defence. Kevin Harley Ross Duffer. Rad! Matthew Leyland
TOTAL FILM | NOVEMBER 2018 SUBSCRIBEATWWWTOTALFILMCOM/SUBS 116 120
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BUFF CINEMA CELEBRATED AND DEBATED. BOOSTING YOUR MOVIE GENIUS TO SUPERHERO 118 LEVELS… 130
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TOTALFILMCOM NOVEMBER 2018 | TOTAL FILM FILM BUFF
INVESTIGATION ALTERNATIVE IS IT BOLLOCKS? BOX OFFICE Film Buff investigates the facts behind THEBIGGESTMOVIES…WITH KEYROLESFORAQUATICMEN outlandish movie plots.
THISMONTH STATHAM’SFINNEDFRIEND
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In The Meg, a prehistoric shark appears from an Q undiscovered ocean trench. A bit fishy or factual? ON LOCATION REELSPOTSBEHINDTHECAMERA DRTOMFLETCHER SHARKPALAEOBIOLOGIST A UNIVERSITYOFLEICESTER$FOSSILGUYTOM 2011 With more than 80 per cent of the ocean unexplored, it’s possible that creatures as large as the megalodon could be found, but unlikely. Sharks such as megalodon would have shed their teeth constantly, but the latest we’ve found are 2.6 million years old. We haven’t found a trace of it in modern oceans – nothing’s washed ashore or been detected in photos. I’d love it to be out there, but the scientist in me says it’s long gone. But if it was around, would it want to eat Jason Statham? Megalodon 2018 probably ate whales, so unless Statham had eaten a lot of cheesecake and beer, the likelihood is he wouldn’t have packed the calories a shark really wants. I can’t account for how annoyed the shark is though, and WHAT?In Midnight In Paris, a wine-happy Gil (Owen The Stath seemed to annoy it a lot in this film! But sharks are beautiful Wilson) wanders the French capital’s streets, resting on machines – they’re capable of almost supernatural perception. As well some church steps before he time travels to the 1920s. as an incredibly good sense of smell, they have sensory organs all over WHERE? Saint-Étienne-du-Mont Church, Place de their bodies that can detect small movements in the water, and they L’Abbé Basset, Paris. can even pick up the electrical signal of a distressed animal. Megalodon GO?The steps are by the church’s north-facing side door would have had the same arsenal at its disposal. Terrifyingly cool. so you need to wander, tipsy perhaps, round the building to find them and lounge there. Thanks to Rebecca Sharp VERDICTBOLLOCKS Snapped yourself at a film location? Send us the details Want us to investigate if a movie scenario is bollocks? Ask us at [email protected] at [email protected]
TOTAL FILM | NOVEMBER 2018 SUBSCRIBEATWWWTOTALFILMCOM/SUBS BOOSTING YOUR MOVIE GENIUS TO GOD-LIKE PROPORTIONS
TOP 10 DEATHS BY HOUSEHOLD OBJECTS Danger lurks at home…
SHALLOW GRAVE GREMLINS Hot on the trail of the The kitchen scene is a gem 01 traitorous Hugo, two thugs 02 of gruesome glory, but there’s torture their way through a nothing that says Christmas series of informants to track like the fate of the dog-hating down their missing cash. Mrs. Deagle. As the mini- Perhaps most memorably, monsters run amok, they one unfortunate soul is sent tamper with the old lady’s for an indefinite lie down in stair-lift and send her a chest freezer. Cold-blooded. skyrocketing into orbit.
BETTER HALLOWEEN WATCH OUT It’s easy to forget that before Looking to settle a bet about 03 the slasher boom of the 04 Home Alone’s booby traps, ’80s, John Carpenter’s ’78 one budding serial killer sends masterpiece helped to create a paint can crashing into the the clichés: such as when mass face of a hostage. Needless to murderer Michael Myers uses say, the results are decidedly an everyday carving knife to
more splattery than Chris impale randy youth Bob to the Columbus’ Chrimbo classic. wall like a literal teen pin-up.
YOU’RE NEXT TORN CURTAIN After surviving a home Largely considered one of 05 invasion from animal-masked 06 Hitchcock’s lesser works, attackers, survivalist Erin this 1966 Cold War thriller (Sharni Vinson) faces down nevertheless contains a the last assailant by smashing sequence where Paul Newman a blender onto one guy’s head dispatches Soviet agent Gromek and hitting the power. Brings via choking, stabbing and a whole new meaning to cramming his head into an “a little off the top”. oven. It’s bake off, spy-style.
FINAL THE DRILLER DESTINATION KILLER The Final Destination movies 07 Power-tool murder movies 08 manage to see peril in the most are a genre unto themselves, mundane of objects, such as but few are as notorious as in the 2000 original, when Abel Ferrara’s sick-flick. Failed unlucky Tod (Chad Donella) artist Reno (Ferrara himself) avoids the opening plane crash merrily plugs holes in a only to be choked to death cross section of New York’s by an innocuous clothes line. underworld. DIY indeed.
THE HAPPENING JOHN WICK: During the pre-Split nadir CHAPTER 2 09 of Shyamalan’s career, this 10 “I once saw him kill three unintentionally hilarious film men in a bar… with a pencil,” still has moments of inspired Michael Nyqvist’s mobster carnage. During an epidemic notes in Chapter One. In the of mass suicides, one person sequel, Keanu’s titular assassin decides to end it by lying in makes good on that promise, front of a lawnmower. Pretty driving a scribbler deep into much how the audience felt too. one man’s brain. Ouchy. TC
GAMESRADARCOM/TOTALFILM NOVEMBER 2018 | TOTAL FILM FILM BUFF YEAHBABYYEAH rightfromtopMike Myers’AustinPowers withspypartner VanessaKensington LizHurleyJoeSon’s RandomTaskfembot frenzyTaskwith Myers’DrEvilPowers frozenintime
RETROSPECTIVE
As Mike Myers returns to the big screenBLAND in Bohemian SIMONBLANDSIMON Rhapsody, Buff catches upWORDSWORDS with him to reflect on the grief that inspiredhis the career. swinging super-spysuper spy who defined BOOSTING YOUR MOVIE GENIUS TO GOD-LIKE PROPORTIONS
t’s a very odd thing growing While a lot has been written about up in Canada in an English Austin’s aesthetic inspirations – the immigrant house,” smiles Michael Caine glasses, Mick Jagger Mike Myers, tracing the cravat, Beatles boots – a large part of homegrown origins of Austin the character’s persona comes directly Powers: International Man Of from Myers himself. “With Austin, it’s Mystery. Following its 1997 admiring people that have confidence,” release, this spy spoof launched a he admits. “I’m not a terribly confident franchise, infected pop culture and person and the thing I love about James redefined Myers in the wake of his Bond is that confidence that I don’t previous mega-hits Wayne’s World and naturally have. With Dr. Evil, it’s that Wayne’s World 2. However, as the film nothing technological in my life works celebrates its 21st birthday, the man for me. I have the Midas touch in behind the Powers myth reveals its reverse when it comes to anything roots lay less in spies, espionage and technological. Clouseau is a big the swinging ’60s, and more in a desire influence, too, which is a similar to pay loving tribute to his parents. belief in your own confidence in “There’s nobody more English than the face of nothing working.” an Englishman who no longer lives in To realise Austin’s sexualised ’60s, England, and my house was almost a Myers and director Jay Roach found little colony of Liverpool,” he tells Total inspiration in old print interviews Film. “Things like James Bond weren’t and adverts. “I went to a thrift shop, just great movies, they were part of bought every magazine they had from my heritage, so I wanted to honour 1967 and tore out everything I thought my parents with tales of World War 2, was in the movie,” says Myers. “When or one of the greatest film series ever I knew I wanted Jay to direct, I gave him created,” recalls the star. “I always had the script and he returned it with 10 jokes about the inconsistencies of the pages of typewritten notes. They just
James Bond world and the magical made it better, sharper and heightened. realism of it, so that’s what I did.” I invited him over to my house, put Having written the script in just all the pull-outs on the floor and two weeks, Myers began bringing his a style guide emerged. It was AT&T super-spy to life. First stop: a name. blues, Coca-Cola reds, Kodak yellows… “I wanted the name to be a British polka dots were in that world but no car and some attribute,” he recalls. tie-dye because this was Carnaby “Healey was a name for a while and Street, not Woodstock.” Morris – then it was Austin. Francis Twenty-one years and two sequels Gary Powers was the guy who got shot later, the Austin Powers mythos down in his U-2 plane over the USSR, continues to resonate, with a fourth so it became Austin Powers, sort film regularly rumoured. Back in of like ‘Powers by name, Powers 1997, however, nothing was certain. by reputation’,” says Myers. “I put “Audiences weren’t sure what to together a band called Ming Tea, which make of it at first,” remembers Myers. is the band that’s in Austin Powers, and “It was people old enough to know we played a number of gigs around Los the tongue was firmly implanted in Angeles. The banter between songs was the cheek and young people who just how I got the sea-legs to do Austin.” liked the enthusiasm and primary And as for his arch-enemy… “I also colours. It hung in there and then knew I was going to play Dr. Evil but one day, it tipped. That was one of there wasn’t really a way to workshop the most satisfying things,” he smiles. that,” he continues. “I’d always loved “Austin Powers was a tribute to my the guy who brings you to his lair, tells father and it was really my way of you his plan and shows you all of his handling grief. Both of my parents exotic things,” laughs Myers, switching made a huge impact on me culturally to a decidedly more Dr. Evil-like voice. – just by giving me the idea that pop “‘Have you ever seen a unicorn, Mr. culture is a subject worth looking at. Bond? There’s only two in the world I think the personal significance for and I own one… for now.’” They’re me is just being able to turn complete brothers and were always designed grief into celebration,” says Myers. that way, he says. “It justified things “That’s what was most gratifying.” later on if I looked too much like Dr. Evil as Austin Powers. There’s AUSTIN POWERS IS AVAILABLE ON DVD
a family resemblance.” AND BLU-RAY NOW. GETTY
NOVEMBER 2018 | TOTAL FILM
Buff’s ongoing series reaches its final instalment, as the turn of the new millennium paves the way for Harry Potter, extreme horror, gross-out comedy and a new kind of action movie. WORDSJORDANFARLEY FILM BUFF
The history of cinema is one of one that began in the ’90s, but reached technological advance, from talkies its zenith in the noughties – the move to colour film to widescreen projection from hand-drawn 2D animation to and surround sound, and the noughties computer-generated 3D by American were no different. Computer-generated animation studios such as Disney, Pixar imagery had been in its infancy since and DreamWorks. It was Pixar that the ’80s, but it was the ’00s that saw proved it could be done, to breathtaking CGI become an integral part of a effect with Toy Story in 1995, but it took filmmaker’s toolkit, used for everything the rest of the animation houses half from invisible set enhancements in Cast a decade simply to catch up. Away to the building of fully artificial, Shrek proved a huge hit for photo-real alien worlds in Avatar. DreamWorks, but it was Pixar that The biggest breakthroughs came dominated the ’00s with one of the at the start of the decade, with Peter hottest filmmaking streaks in cinema Jackson’s celebrated Lord Of The Rings history. From Monsters, Inc. to Up, trilogy. Where previously filmmakers there wasn’t a single dud in the bunch. 1 had reached for the sun only for their Up capped the decade off with a Best
the Dark Knight in the wake of Joel 'Performance capture became a viable technique thanks Schumacher’s disastrous ’90s efforts, to Weta, Andy Serkis and Gollum, just two years after Jar while the Marvel Cinematic Universe kicked off in earnest with Iron Man Jar Binks had filmgoers furious at what CGI had wrought' and The Incredible Hulk in 2008. With ultra-stylised comic-book wings to melt (see 1998’s Lost In Space Picture Oscar nomination – only the adaps 300 and Sin City, directors such or even the Star Wars Special Editions second animated film to do so following as Zack Snyder and Robert Rodriguez
for how horribly it can go wrong), Beauty And The Beast in 1991. also proved that “comic-book movie” Jackson understood both the CGI was also a crucial factor in the didn’t always have to mean “superhero opportunities that CGI provided, and explosion of comic-book and superhero movie”, or even “kid’s movie”. its limitations. Throughout the trilogy, movies in the noughties. Starting with the combination of massive miniatures Bryan Singer’s X-Men, filmmakers now (or ‘bigatures’) with CGI resulted in had the means to convincingly realise HARDCORE HORROR the creation of the most convincing the impossible abilities and powers that At the opposite end of the budget fantasy world ever seen on screen, separate the supermen from the boys. spectrum, young filmmakers were while motion capture, or ‘performance’ This technological event horizon getting their hands dirty (in most cases, capture, became a viable technique coincided with the coming of age of literally) with low-budget horrors that thanks to the pioneering work of filmmakers who grew up reading offered ample freedom with little risk, Weta and Andy Serkis in the creation comics, such as Sam Raimi, who but potentially huge rewards. James of Gollum, just two years after Jar Jar shepherded childhood favourite Wan’s Saw (2004) is often credited with Binks had filmgoers furious at what Spider-Man to colossal critical and the birth of the “torture porn” genre, CGI had wrought. commercial acclaim. Over at DC, but is a much smarter, and more finely Computers were also at the Christopher Nolan rebooted Batman crafted horror than most give it credit forefront of another major shift, with a trilogy of films that resurrected for. What’s undeniable is its legacy
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– not just six sequels, but a wave extremes. But this was nothing of films designed to elicit shock and compared to the adults behaving badly scares from the extremity of their in the likes of Step Brothers, Wedding bloodshed, including Hostel, The Devil’s Crashers and The Hangover. Judd Apatow Rejects, Wolf Creek, The Collector and was undoubtedly the most influential more. This in turn led to the New voice of the decade. His features – The French Extremity, best exemplified by 40 Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up – set Pascal Laugier’s transcendentally brutal a stoner comedy template that many Martyrs and Xavier Gens’ Frontier(s). imitated, but never mastered. By the end of the decade, the The Brits also kept their end up with appetite for extreme violence had Shaun Of The Dead proving an instant largely been replaced with nostalgia, horror-comedy favourite on both sides with studios seemingly hellbent on of the Atlantic, while Sacha Baron
remaking every ’70s and ’80s horror Cohen took America by storm with his movie going, not limited to Dawn Of satirical mockumentary Borat! Cultural Films that defined a decade… The Dead, Halloween, Friday The 13th, Learnings Of America For Make Benefit The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Hills Glorious Nation Of Kazakhstan. 1 CROUCHING TIGER, Have Eyes, The Last House On The Left HIDDEN DRAGON 2000 and Black Christmas. The decade closed The Matrix had ignited a passion for martial arts with a glimpse of horror’s future as KEEPING IT REAL in American audiences, and Crouching Tiger was Paranormal Activity went from micro- Documentary cinema also went perfectly placed to capitalise, proving a surprise budget home movie to one of the most through a renaissance in the early hit on release despite being subtitled. profitable motion pictures of all time, noughties with Super Size Me, An a template producer Jason Blum has Inconvenient Truth, March Of The 2 GLADIATOR 2000 repeated with great success ever since. Penguins, Grizzly Man and more proving Briefly inspiring a wave of sword-and-sandal films Comedy, meanwhile, was also surprise hits at the box office and, (Troy, 300), Gladiator made a megastar out of pushing boundaries, but with gross- in some cases, having a major impact Russell Crowe, while putting director Ridley out laughs rather than shock and gore. on the real world. It was Michael Scott firmly back on the map. Hot on the heels of American Pie, Road Moore, however, who proved the Trip, Scary Movie and Superbad took teen decade’s undisputed documentary 3 DONNIE DARKO 2001 depravity to its bodily fluid-covered superstar. The outspoken filmmaker’s Richard Kelly’s ambitious indie sci-fi was the kind of cult smash that only comes along once 5 a decade, and was proof that ultra-weird works, albeit in small doses. 4 the lORD OF THE RINGS 2001-2003 Still a gargantuan achievement, Peter Jackson’s definitive Rings trilogy fed the appetite for fantastical escapism, and simple good vs evil stories, while being a near-perfect Tolkien adap. 5 FINDING NEMO 2003 Pixar led the way when it came to animation in the noughties, and Finding Nemo was its biggest hit, thanks in no small part to the film’s sensational underwater visuals.
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investigation into gun violence, Despite increasing suspicion Bowling For Columbine, was the and intolerance of outsiders, foreign first documentary to compete in language cinema became more popular competition at the Cannes Film Festival than ever in the noughties. Thanks in 46 years, while George W. Bush in part to the proliferation and polemic Fahrenheit 9/11 became the first accessibility of DVDs, the works of documentary ever to win Cannes’ top world cinema’s greatest filmmakers prize – the Palme d’Or – and the first were now simply a click away. documentary to cross the $100m mark At the multiplex, meanwhile, the at the box office (though it couldn’t likes of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, prevent Bush’s re-election in 2004). The Passion Of The Christ, Apocalypto, Real world events were also being Amélie, Downfall and City Of God all filtered through cinema in other ways. had significant crossover appeal for The destruction of the Twin Towers on an audience that would typically turn 11 September 2001 had a major impact their noses up at subtitles. The success on American filmmakers. War movies of Studio Ghibli’s Spirited Away also 'Comedy was pushing boundaries with gross-out laughs. Judd Apatow was the most influential voice of the decade, his stoner template often imitated but never mastered'
fell out of favour for much of the saw the remaining films in the decade, as did action movies depicting Japanimation powerhouse’s beloved terrorism. Spike Lee was one of the first back catalogue dubbed into English
filmmakers to address the aftermath for release in America, many of of the devastating attacks indirectly which were overseen by Pixar’s in 25th Hour – a post-9/11 examination head honcho John Lasseter. Films that defined a decade… of racial intolerance in New York. It would take five years for a 6 SHAUN OF THE DEAD 2004 mainstream American movie to depict BRAINS AND BRAWN Edgar Wright’s homage to the horror movies the events of 9/11 onscreen. First came Audiences, it seemed, were less and of his youth was a breath of fresh air amid the Paul Greengrass’ intense and upsetting less interested in checking their brains Apatow productions dominating American United 93, swiftly followed by Oliver at the door – a fact most apparent comedy, and inimitably brilliant to boot. Stone’s sentimental but heartfelt with the success of the Bourne series. World Trade Center. Both proved only Starting with The Bourne Identity, 7 THE BOURNE modest successes at the box office. the Matt Damon-fronted trilogy had ULTIMATUM 2007 Escapism, understandably, was the smarts to match its highly influential The quintessential noughties action movie, order of the decade. action, taking place in a recognisable Ultimatum perfectly encapsulates the series’ trailblazing action and real-world smarts. Every US action movie since has existed in its shadow. 8 THERE WILL BE BLOOD 2007 Paul Thomas Anderson’s tale of a success- obsessed oil tycoon boasts not only one of the decade’s best performances, but a soundtrack that has influenced composers ever since. 9 THE DARK KNIGHT 2008 Still the best superhero movie ever, Christopher Nolan’s Bat sequel ushered in the era of gritty comic-book movies, and features one of the all-time-great villains in Heath Ledger’s Joker. 10 AVATAR 2009 Like Titanic, many expected James Cameron to make his first great folly with Avatar. He quickly 6 proved critics wrong with groundbreaking tech breakthroughs and staggering box-office success.
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7 9 world shaped by global politics and the her ex-husband James Cameron The Departed. And in 2009, Danny paranoia of contemporary surveillance to the Best Director Oscar, making her Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire captured culture. There’s little question the the first woman to scoop the prize. the cultural zeitgeist, chiming with action helped, too, particularly when In 2002, the Best Animated Feature a new era of tolerance in the wake Paul Greengrass took the reins of Oscar was introduced (Shrek being the of Barack Obama’s election. the series, instilling Bourne with first recipient). In 2004, The Lord Of The Capping off the decade in style his signature shakycam style. Rings: The Return Of The King swept the was James Cameron, who didn’t just So impactful were the Bourne movies board, winning 11 Oscars – a record put the cherry on the tech-powered that the near 50-year-old James Bond equalled only by Titanic and Ben-Hur. noughties with Avatar, a film that franchise was forced to reinvent itself In 2006, Paul Haggis’ Crash pulled off remains on the cutting edge of to keep up with the times. Out went one the greatest Oscar upsets of all technology to this day, but made Pierce Brosnan after the disastrous Die time by beating Ang Lee’s superb the highest grossing film of all time. Another Day. In came hard man with a Brokeback Mountain to the top prize. Even Star Wars: The Force Awakens fell heart of gold Daniel Craig. Fan reaction In 2007, Martin Scorsese was finally half a billion short, and that’s with was overwhelmingly negative to news awarded a long overdue Best Director the help of inflation. Decades in of his casting, but dissipated after the Oscar for his Infernal Affairs remake cinema don’t get much bigger. release of Casino Royale – not only a wildly successful, Bourne-tinged reinvention of the series, but arguably the best Bond movie ever. The only British movie franchise to rival Bond also took flight in the noughties – Harry Potter. J.K. Rowling’s boy wizard proved an instant smash hit on the big screen, despite requiring a perplexing title change in the States, and opened the doors to a series of young adult literary adaptations later in the decade – most notably Twilight, which briefly made Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart more popular than dogs on the London Tube. Finally, it was a decade of several significant firsts at the Oscars. In 2002, Halle Berry became the first black woman to win the Best Actress gong (for Monster’s Ball), while 2009’s The 10 Hurt Locker saw Kathryn Bigelow beat
NOVEMBER 2018 | TOTAL FILM FILM BUFF
otal Film could feel the extreme heat of the conflagration despite standing more than 500 metres away. In March 2012, we were the THE BIG SHOT only press on-set of Skyfall, as 007’s childhood Scottish home went Tup in flames, stunt helicopters swooping in the inky sky above, faces BOND’S HOME of the crew pinking from the scorch – and an iconic film moment was made. Turns out we couldn’t write about family mansion – it was a major spoiler that day spent on Hankley Common, moment in an instalment that made ALONE MOMENT near Godalming in Surrey (not actually Britain’s most famous spy essential the wilds of Glencoe), poking about again after the disappointment of the full-scale, intricately detailed Bond 2008’s Quantum Of Solace.
TOTAL FILM | NOVEMBER 2018 BOOSTING YOUR MOVIE GENIUS TO GOD-LIKE PROPORTIONS
Here, for the first time in the previously played host to Gladiator “It was a harsh place against the franchise’s 50-year history, we saw – featured flanking stag gateposts elements. What does Bond do to fight something of Bond’s backstory. We and drive, house, barn, chapel and back? He goes home, back to his were invited, along with Judi Dench’s graveyard (complete with Bond clan deepest instincts. It’s a privilege for us M, to see the cold, brooding place, names and dates). It was designed by to see it.” And a privilege to watch it go complete with hidden recesses, that art director Dean Clegg and constructed up like a torch – warning audiences that made 007. And witness him take that over six months, based on the look nothing is sacred and foreshadowing personal history and destroy it. and feel of Duntrune Castle in Argyll. the ultimate demise of a character Though interiors were built on Production designer Dennis Gassner we thought indestructible. A literal Pinewood sound stages, this epic set wanted this house to represent the scorched earth policy that proved on MOD training ground – that had personal demons at battle inside Bond. Bond could still be a game changer. JC
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VOTE NOW www.goldenjoysticks.com REX GAMESRADARCOM/TOTALFILM production of a stageactor,appearingin1956 Jr. headedtoNewYorkbecome February 1936,Burton LeonReynolds Supporting ActorOscar,for year isnocomebackstory,”hesaiduponbeingshortlistedfor1998’sBest group of city slickers whose rafting group ofcityslickerswhose rafting (1972), playingLewis,the leaderofa followed in Charlton Heston.Televisionwork Presents often inNativeAmerican roles. with severalmovies,Reynolds and R BURT REYNOLDS BURT Born in Lansing, Michigan, on 11 Born inLansing,Michigan,on11 His bigbreakcamein 1936-2018 Hawk , Gunsmoke over the next decade, along overthenextdecade,along Riverboat Hollywood’s most resilient stars. “My being nominated this Hollywood’s mostresilientstars.“Mybeingnominatedthis career acrossfilm,TVandtheatre,Burt Reynoldswasoneof successive yearsbetween1977and1981,witha60-year ated America’snumberonebox-officeattractionforfive Mister Roberts , The Twilight Zone , Alfred Hitchcock Alfred Hitchcock Deliverance with with Boogie Nights
. “Isimplyrefusedtogoaway.” stuntman tohugelypopular effect. eyed humour andcapabilities asa meanwhile, utilisedReynolds’ twinkle- Gator directing himselfinsuchvehiclesas (’81) cementinghiscredentials. The such as action andgoodol’boy,withmovies survival. Reynolds’brandwasmanof descends intoagruellingbattlefor adventure intheAppalachians (’75) and He also proved a capable filmmaker, He alsoprovedacapablefilmmaker, Smokey AndTheBandit (’76)and The LongestYard The CannonballRun Sharky’s Machine (’74), series, series,
Hustle (’81). (’81).
his adoptedson,Quinton. 6 September2018.Heis survived by because nobodycanleave,” hequipped). passing onJohnMcClanein when SeanConnerysteppedaside,and ups anddowns:turning downBond they only show in prisons and planes, they onlyshowinprisonsandplanes, them good(“Mymovieswerethekind TV creditsand (’90-’94) andrackingupmorethan300 posing nudein winning anEmmyfor such asSallyFieldandKathleenTurner. relationships withfemaleco-stars the ’80s;andareputationforabusive in divorce;anaddictiontotriazolam and LoniAnderson,thatbothended two marriages,toactressesJudyCarne Reynolds died of cardiac arrest on Reynolds diedofcardiac arreston Reynolds’ life comprised vertiginous Reynolds’ lifecomprisedvertiginous But through it all he kept working, But throughitallhekeptworking, BOOSTING YOUR MOVIE GENIUS YOUR MOVIEGENIUS BOOSTING a lot Cosmopolitan TO GOD-LIKEPROPORTIONS of movies, not all of ofmovies,notall Evening Shade JG in 1972; in1972; Die Hard NOVEMBER 2018
;
| TOTAL FILM
SPOILER ALERT!
TF SAVES YOU A NIGHT OUT EVERY MONTH. THIS ISSUE: THE PREDATOR…
FADE IN: JACOB TREMBLAY TREVANTE RHODES A package from Dad! Wait, what’s Oh shit, there are also two Predator EXT: SPACE all this state-of-the-art space crap? dogs! Why couldn’t it be Predator A big Predator ship chases a small That deadbeat promised me Ninjago! cats?! They’d give us a bit of a Predator ship, which falls down scratch, get bored and go back to a wormhole towards Earth. Thanks JACOB presses a button that sends licking their mandibles. a bunch, wormhole. an e-vite to THE GALAXY’S BIGGEST, HARDEST PREDATOR. The big Predator kills the little FALLING PREDATOR Predator and kidnaps Jacob. Everything’s out of control! THE GALAXY’S BIGGEST, HARDEST PREDATOR It’s all fire and noise! We’re Thanks, kid! Where’d you say you JACOB TREMBLAY going into a giant nosedive! lived? Wait a mo, I’ll get a pen. Well, at least I don’t have to listen Also – I think there might be Yeah, yeah, that’s right, I’m just to another 40 minutes of knob gags… a metaphor in there somewhere! like E.T. Tend to be a bit lairier when I’ve had a beer, mind. EXT: FOREST EXT: JUNGLE Our heroes battle THE GALAXY’S The ship crash-lands near sniper INT: GOVERNMENT LAB BIGGEST, HARDEST PREDATOR in scenes BOYD HOLBROOK, who happens to be The earlier PREDATOR lies restrained of explosive carnage too poorly lit taking out some members of a Mexican with sticky tape and pipe cleaners to actually see. drug cartel in the area. (double knotted). BOYD HOLBROOK FALLEN PREDATOR HAPLESS SCIENTIST Who’s dead? Am I dead? Or did it just Drug cartel? What is this, Sicario Vs. There, that should hold ’im! Now, butcher a hedge instead? Predator? Look, I don’t want to get who’s up for the world’s most suicidal caught up in any politics, I’m just game of Operation? Oh look, my left THE PREDATOR here to do some slaughtering! arm’s suddenly missing. Shall we do this in my ship instead? I think I just harpooned my own shin… The PREDATOR starts a game of The PREDATOR legs it, massacring skin the bit-parter, only to be anyone who’s not in the trailer. INT: GOVERNMENT LAB incapacitated by BOYD, using his Also given a free pass: anyone With THE GALAXY’S BIGGEST, HARDEST own gauntlet against him. gratuitously naked called Olivia. PREDATOR defeated, it’s time for the big sequel-baiting reveal… FALLING ASLEEP PREDATOR OLIVIA MUNN So it takes Arnie an entire film Quickly, deploy the callback OLIVIA MUNN to stop one of us, and this guy like one-liners! Come on! They’re here! What’s it gonna be then? An Arnie five minutes? That wasn’t a wormhole, Kill them! Do it now! cameo? Zombie Carl Weathers? it was a plot hole! An actual ending? OLIVIA teams up with BOYD and a group BOYD HOLBROOK of military vets who swap ‘mum’ jokes No, it’s a new Predator suit that Hmm, what to do with all this strange, that date back to 1987. does… nothing. potentially lethal alien technology? I know, I’ll pop it in the post to BOYD HOLBROOK AUDIENCE my schoolboy son! Can’t wait to see Here comes another Predator, twice You set us up! Get to the car park! the look on his face. If he still as tall as the first! My years of has one, of course. combat experience tell me there’s FIN only one way to defeat it: find INT: SUBURBAN HOUSE, US somewhere with a low ceiling. NEXT ISSUE: VENOM
SHATTERING RINGSIDE SEATS AND A COUNTDOWN PLUS! GETTING READY DON’T RISK NEXT MISSING IT! COVERAGE OF AT A GRUDGE TO KEEP YOU WARM FOR CHRISTMAS SUBSCRIBE NOW AT ISSUE A LONG AWAITED MATCH DECADES DURING THOSE WITH A DIFFERENT ON SALE 16/11 SUPER SEQUEL! IN THE MAKING… DARK, DARK NIGHTS! KIND OF ANGEL…
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