The CEO of Sony Pictures has referred to Uncharted as a ‘franchise’, suggesting a sequel is on the way.
According to Deadline, Tom Rothman sent a companywide email following the film’s US box office success this weekend, praising staff for its performance.
“With over $100 million in box office worldwide in just one weekend, and a 90% positive audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, Uncharted is a new hit movie franchise for the company”, Rothman said.
“This marks a great victory for every single division of the company, as the film was our first major production entirely shut down by the advent of Covid, yet we persevered to complete a picture the audience loves and marketed and distributed it with strategic verve worldwide, despite the pandemic.”
Rothman added: “I want to thank all of the filmmakers, the wonderful cast and crew, and especially our friends at PlayStation Studios and Sony Interactive Entertainment for their support. And of course, I want to thank each and every one of you for your creativity, dedication and belief.”
The use of the term ‘franchise’, which is generally used to describe a series rather than a standalone film, suggests there are already plans to make a second Uncharted movie.
A post-credits scene at the end of Uncharted also teases a potential sequel, and director Ruben Fleischer told Entertainment Weekly (warning: its article spoils the scene) that it was designed to “let audiences know that this, hopefully, wouldn’t be the last of them hearing of [Drake and Sully]”.
The Uncharted movie, which had a $120 budget, launched in 15 markets on February 11 and made a solid start internationally. It has earned $139 million worldwide to date.
The it then hit US theatres on February 18 and reportedly recorded the fourth biggest opening weekend for a video game adaptation at the US box office, generating $44 million in its first three days to top the weekly sales chart.
Only 2001’s Tomb Raider ($47m), 2019’s Detective Pikachu ($54m) and 2020’s Sonic the Hedgehog ($58m) have enjoyed stronger US openings.
His voice is a little deeper, there are a few creases around the eyes, but Tom Cruise is as we remember him. At 59, Cruise has been one of the few constants in the ever-changing film business.
He has yet to play a superhero. He’s resisted the siren call of television.
“I make movies for the big screen,” he recently told the crowd at Cannes Film Festival where he presented Top Gun: Maverick, a sequel to the 1986 air combat film from director Tony Scott.
There was a time Cruise was shaking things up. He was the slippery sex guru of Magnolia. The bellowing studio exec of Tropic Thunder. Even director Stanley Kubrick found a complexity to Cruise’s Ken doll charisma in the steamy Eyes Wide Shut.
For the last decade, Cruise has been laser-focused on a singular kind of character: The Best. Whether it’s space ranger, fighter pilot, or covert agent, Cruise plays the optimal human. The bravest. The most determined. The only flaws are coming from those who stand in his way.
Which brings us to Cruise’s return as Capt. Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell. As Admiral Bates breathlessly intones in the new film, “his exploits are legendary.”
Known by his call sign, Maverick is one of the most experienced combat pilots in the navy. Set 30 years after the original, the film opens with Maverick working as a test pilot. As Cruise pushes the experimental jet past Mach 10, hammering the dashboard with his patented “Come On!” a flinty-eyed rear admiral (Ed Harris) orders him to land.
He does not.
But before the admiral can clip his wings, there are new orders: report to Top Gun training school.
If the cycle of derring-do with a dash of insubordination sounds familiar, buckle up, because Top Gun: Maverick is a heat-seeking missile of movie memories, weaponizing every frame of the original film for maximum impact.
Jennifer Connelly plays Penny, a local bar owner and old flame of Maverick’s who just can’t resist the pilot’s approach. (paramount Pictures)
Just as with the original, Top Gun: Maverick opens with a montage of ear-splitting takeoffs, fiery afterburners all accompanied by the Kenny Loggins classic song Danger Zone. America’s war machine has never looked better.
But that’s just the warm-up.
As he prepares to return to Top Gun academy, Cruise pullsThe Jacket out of his locker. He puts on the mirrored sunglasses and jumps on his Kawasaki motorcycle. Director Joseph Kosinski films Maverick’s return to the flight school with all the majesty of a knight in shining armour mounting his steed.
As Cruise zooms past the tarmac, little does he know this is a different kind of mission. No longer a competitor, he’s now the teacher — and he’ll be training a new generation of elite fighter pilots to take out a dangerous uranium enrichment facility. The country of this rogue state is never mentioned. To maximize profitability and avoid any potential offence, the politics of the film have been completely neutered to the point where even Cruise’s famous flight jacket hadJapanese and Taiwanese flags removed to avoid upsetting China.
Top Gun: Maverick is not a subtle film. This is a story where each young pilot comes with a call sign and their own baggage, repeated multiple times for maximum clarity. Glen Powell plays Hangman, a pilot with a carnivorous smile who only looks out for himself. Then there’s the Rooster, played by the mustachioed Miles Teller, who doesn’t know when to take the shot.
In Top Gun: Maverick, Cruise’s character is responsible for preparing a new generation of flight pilots to go on a dangerous mission to destroy a uranium enrichment plant. (paramount Pictures)
Rooster is much more than a pilot fighting his instincts, he’s the frustrated son of Goose — who died when Maverick’s jet spun out of control 30 years ago. With Teller’s height and long face, he easily could be the son of actor Anthony Edwards who played his fictional father in the original.
Militarily, Maverick’s biggest challenge is getting the students ready for a seemingly impossible mission in three weeks. But what he’s really battling are the ghosts of the past, wrestling with the death of his friend and the responsibility of putting Goose’s son in danger.
It’s difficult to critique how heavy-handed the storytelling is because the film is so naked in its intentions. This smart bomb of nostalgia repurposes every element from the original, from the sweaty beach sports sequence to the synth pop pumping in the background. Even Val Kilmer, who lost his voice to throat cancer, was recruited and returns as Iceman, now promoted and acting as Maverick’s guardian angel. While Kilmer’s role is mainly silent, his star presence is enough that his brief appearance is effective.
In the centre, Miles Teller plays Rooster, the son of Goose — who died on a training mission with Maverick. (paramount Pictures)
What Top Gun: Maverick lacks in subtlety it makes up for with stunning cinematography and flight sequences with actors in the centre of the action. Cruise is an experienced pilot who is known for pushing his cast and crew. Not only did he design a five-month flight training course for the young actors, but he reportedly insisted on the camera system being placed in the cockpits to capture the flight manoeuvres. The result is a blend of acting and real aerial footage that is breathtaking.
We’re so accustomed to watching computer-generated effects that it takes a moment to process that those are real canyons and clouds whipping past the actors as the world swings around them like a gyroscope.
Monica Barbaro and Cruise prepare for a scene using the special camera system that captures the actors in cockpit during real flights. (Scott Garfield)
But there’s one special effect Cruise can’t replicate: his younger self’s vulnerability. Yes, the Tom Cruise of 1986 was a bit of a babyface who looked like he should barely be driving, never mind flying $30-million fighter jets. But there was a spark of danger there. Pete had something to prove. He earned that call sign Maverick. Even Iceman didn’t trust him. He was too hungry, too reckless.
In the sequel, nothing is left to chance. The camera orbits around him, his skills are unquestioned. Even Jennifer Connelly as the old flame Penny inevitably gives in with a love scene that has all the passion of a Christmas card. But this too makes sense. There is an almost saintly air about the characters Cruise plays now. He’s gone beyond the needs of the flesh. Call it the Church of Tom.
Top Gun: Maverick ends with a stunning 30-minute climax filled with roaring jets and close calls. His face hidden behind the oxygen mask, all we have are Cruise’s eyes and voice. The jet has become a projection of his will.
“Don’t think, just do,” he tells Rooster as they zip over the terrain.
The actor has spent the past 10 years showing us he’s the best at everything. He’s clearly convinced himself and the people he works with. But in his mania to control every element, he’s lost a little of the spark that made him so watchable in the first place.
It’s been nearly a year since production on HBO’s big-budget adaptation of The Last of Us descended on Alberta, shutting down major roads and flyovers and drawing leagues of curious fans to peer at the production from afar, sometimes with binoculars.
Albertans will have to wait until some time in 2023 to see the fruits of that labour on screen, but production on the first season is drawing to a close this week. The final day of shooting is scheduled for Friday.
“I think it’s been an amazing year for film and television in this province,” said Calgary Economic Development’s film commissioner, Luke Azevedo. “That particular series had a lot to do with the growth and development of film and television this past year.”
The show, which stars Pedro Pascal of The Mandalorian and Bella Ramsey of Game of Thrones as Joel and Ellie, respectively, is based on the hit video game of the same name.
The show is set in a post-apocalyptic world 20 years after modern civilization has been destroyed. In the video game series, Joel and Ellie seek to survive as they are pursued by mutated humans infected by a parasitic fungus.
WATCH | Late last year, production on The Last of Us turned the Fourth Avenue flyover into a post-apocalyptic movie set:
A TV production based on the video game The Last of Us, recently turned the Fourth Avenue flyover into a post-apocalyptic movie set. It drew a crowd of curious onlookers, trying to catch a glimpse of the show’s stars and a zombie or two.
The production’s budget for the first season hasn’t been officially disclosed by HBO (and the network did not respond to requests for comment), but Alberta Premier Jason Kenney has said the series is the largest in Canadian history.
It is expected to represent more than $200 million in revenue for Alberta.
The series spent time filming at Mount Royal University and at SAIT and headed north to Edmonton, where the production covered the Alberta Legislature Building in vines.
A still released by HBO shows a first look at the network’s adaptation of The Last of Us, starring Pedro Pascal as Joel and Bella Ramsey as Ellie. The series, which shot around Alberta over the past year, was written and executive produced by Craig Mazin, who created HBO’s acclaimed Chernobyl series, along with Neil Druckmann, who directed the video game series. (Naughty Dog/HBO)
Calgary resident Mark Innes, who resides in Sunnyside, says most of the sets for the production have been within a 10-minute bike ride from his house — so he frequently took to cycling down with a camera to document the production.
“I visited some other sets and was just really impressed with the craftsmanship. And the way that the city was transformed to be Boston or Pittsburgh,” he said.
“It just creates some excitement in the city. We’ve been lacking for [that] since oil and gas crashed. So something like this, I think it brings added excitement to the area.”
At left, a drone shot taken by Calgary photographer Nick Coyne reveals a post-apocalyptic version of the city, with cars strewn about the streets. On the right, a shot taken by Calgary resident Mark Innes, who was inspired by the scale of the production and spent time biking to the sites to experience them first-hand. (Submitted by Nick Coyne, Mark Innes)
Azevedo said the size of the production signals that Alberta has infrastructure in place to suit similar film and television projects.
“It has had an impact on the entire province — hotels have felt it, restaurants have felt it, car rental facilities have felt it, infrastructure like studios and sound stages have felt it,” he said.
“A project of this size, enabling all of our sector to be able to support it, was an amazing, amazing experience.”
The original The Last of Us video game has sold more than 20 million copies as of October 2019, and is one of the highest-selling PlayStation video games of all time.
Boom in location production
The project has coincided with a number of other big-budget productions filming around the province in recent months, including Under the Banner of Heaven, Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock and Ghostbusters: Afterlife.
That’s led to some memorable moments in recent weeks on the press junket from the actors starring in those productions, such as Under the Banner of Heaven starAndrew Garfield fondly reminiscing about his time spent at the Repsol Sports Centre (recently rebranded as the MNP Community and Sport Centre).
“It has a great steam room,” Garfield told Entertainment Tonight Canada. “Big ups to the Repsol Centre.”
“I loved it. I genuinely loved a href=”https://twitter.com/cityofcalgary?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”@cityofcalgary/a and I loved a href=”https://twitter.com/TravelAlberta?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”@TravelAlberta/a. I love the people. I love the restaurants. I love the food. I loved the nature as you said – a href=”https://twitter.com/banfflakelouise?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”@banfflakelouise/a” – actor Andrew Garfield on his time in the province shooting “Under the Banner of Heaven” a href=”https://t.co/zhcqLdKsun”pic.twitter.com/zhcqLdKsun/a
Yet another surprise in today’s avalanche of summer LEGO sets is 40560 Professors of Hogwarts that appeared in the LEGO online shop. A pack of four characters in the format of BrickHeadz adds Professors Snape, McGonagall, Moody, and Trelawny to the collection. The set will go perfectly with other characters, like Albus Dumbledore from LEGO BrickHeadz 41621 set or less friendly-looking characters like Voldemort and Bellatrix from set 40496. The new pack will retail for US $39.99 | UK £39.99 but the release date is yet to be announced.
“The Batman” isn’t trying to connect to everything DC has done at the movies since it formed the Justice League (who are still around — just don’t expect a get-together anytime soon). And the film isbetter for it. You won’t see star Robert Pattinson showing up in November’smultiverse tale “The Flash,” whichstars boththe O.G. Batman, Keaton, and the last actor to wear the cowl, Ben Affleck. And that’s how it should be.
“Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore” got off to a less than magical start in its first weekend in U.S. and Canadian theaters. The third installment in the Harry Potter spinoff opened to $43 million in North America, according to studio estimates Sunday.
It was enough to secure the film the top spot on the box office charts, but it’s also a low for the franchise. The first film had a $74.4 million debut in 2016 and the second, “The Crimes of Grindelwald” opened to $62.2 million in 2018. “The Secrets of Dumbledore,” which Warner Bros. released in 4,208 locations in North America, also carries a $200 million production price tag.
It’s more common than not for sequels and threequels to come in lower than their predecessors, but “Dumbledore” also follows several franchise titles that defied that logic, including “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” “Venom 2” and “Sonic the Hedgehog 2.”
Critics were largely not on board with “Dumbledore.” With a 49% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, most came in on the negative side. AP Film Writer Jake Coyle wrote in his review that “the purpose of these movies has never felt like much beyond keeping the Potter train running” and that this iteration is “a bit of a bore.” Audiences, which were 56% female, were a little kinder, giving it four stars on PostTrak and an overall B+ CinemaScore.
The eight Harry Potter films were responsible for over $7.7 billion in box office, while the first two “Fantastic Beasts” films made $1.5 billion total.
This installment stars Eddie Redmayne, Jude Law, Ezra Miller and Mads Mikkelsen.
In its second weekend, “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” fell 58% and earned an estimated $30 million, according to paramount. The film has grossed $119.6 million to date.
Sony also released “Father Stu” in 2,705 locations on Wednesday. Starring Mark Wahlberg, who helped finance the film, “Father Stu” is based on a true story and is a rare mainstream Hollywood movie with religious themes. It earned an estimated $8 million in its first five days in theaters.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
1. “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore,” $43 million.
2. “Sonic the Hedgehog 2,” $30 million.
3. “The Lost City,” $6.5 million.
4. “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” $6.2 million.
Phil Rosenthal has one of the best jobs in the world: as the creator and star of the hit Netflix series, “Somebody Feed Phil,” Rosenthal travels almost everywhere, and eats just about everything. “We go to fabulous places on the Earth, and I try to get you to come there by showing you the best places there to eat,” Rosenthal told CBS News chief medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook.
“There’s no more mind-expanding thing we can do than travel,” he said. “It literally changes your way of thinking. It changes your perspective.”
Rosenthal’s buddy, actor Ray Romano, had some high praise for his friend: “Wherever I am in the world, if it’s time to go out to eat with my wife and we don’t know where to go, I text Phil.”
The two met in 1996 when Rosenthal created, wrote and was executive producer of “Everybody Loves Raymond.” Romano said, “They took me from New York and they had set up ten meetings with potential showrunners. And let’s tell the true story: you were the second one. But the first guy turned it down! So, I went with Phil.”
“Yeah, isn’t that nice?” Rosenthal laughed.
The show ran for nine seasons on CBS, which is how the idea for Rosenthal’s current travel show began 25 years ago, while they were making the sitcom.
Rosenthal recalled: “I can honestly say it’s his fault. I asked him: ‘What are you going to do on your hiatus,’ that break between season one and season two? And do you remember?”
“The Jersey shore, like we always do,” Romano said.
“Right, right! And I said, ‘Oh that’s nice. Have you ever been to Europe?’ And he said: ‘No.’ And I said, ‘Why not?'”
“I said, ‘I’m not interested in other places,'” Romano laughed.
Art imitated life. Rosenthal said, “A light bulb went off. We’ve got to do that episode. We’ve got to do that episode where we send him with that attitude.”
Phil Rosenthal, star of “Somebody Feed Phil,” and actor Ray Romano.
CBS News
Rosenthal wrote two episodes that explored Romano’s stated lack of desire to travel beyond his beloved Jersey shore, and his eventual transformation.
Raymond first notices a beautiful flower stand, and then, while walking alone, runs into two kids kicking a soccer ball. “Comes my way, and I kind of give it back to them, and then they actually engage me to play with them. Kick it around with them,” Romano said.
For Rosenthal, “It’s one of my favorite things I’ve ever done on the show.”
And finally, Raymond buys a slice of real Italian pizza.
Ray: “This is like the best pizza I ever had, man!” Vendor: “You like more?” Ray: “Hell yes, I want more!”
“I love it so much,” Rosenthal said. “It’s everything I love about travel, how your mind literally gets changed.”
LaPook asked, “We know what happened in the episode, but what happened in real life?”
Romano said, “We stayed in Italy, and we flew to Sicily to visit my wife’s hometown. So, we spent a week in this little village in the mountainside. The stuff we did in that episode, I was living in real life. We were in a car this big. They were feeding us from the food they grew. You know, it’s just seeing goodness from people who don’t look like you, sound like you. You know, there’s like this common denominator that you realize people are good all over.”
“So, I see this happen to him,” Rosenthal said, “and I think, what if I could do this for other people?”
Rosenthal held onto the idea, and started his travel and food show in 2018. He says he never asks to taste something before filming: “Nope, I just jump in like an idiot. And when something’s amazing, yeah, I share it with everyone. It’s also the secret to why I’m not 400 pounds. It’s because I taste everything, I finish nothing. Share everything.”
He is especially fond of a chef he met in Thailand. “It’s a Michelin-starred shack. Unbelievable! A crab omelet. There’s like a pound, a pound-and-a-half of freshly-shucked crab. It’s probably the most expensive street food in the world. I think it’s fifty dollars for this omelet. and it’s so frickin’ delicious. You never see it in America, because it would be prohibitive, it would be two to three hundred dollars here.”
Rosenthal has just finished a book, published by Simon Schuster (part of paramount, which owns CBS), to document his travels and the best recipes he’s discovered.
Simon Schuster
He said, “It’s these artisans, these craftsmen who take such care and pride. It’s their national heritage, their personal family history that’s in every bite of the food you’re getting. And I swear to you, you can taste it.”
As for Romano, since “Everybody Loves Raymond,” he has continued to act in comedies and dramas, including Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman.”
And he’s just finished directing and starring in a dramedy called “Somewhere in Queens,” which he also co-wrote, once again drawing on memories of his family. “Do they yell? Do they scream? And are they loud? Yeah. There’s that love underneath it. You can’t deny it. There’s a bond that can’t be broken.”
… Which also perfectly describes Ray Romano’s bond with Phil Rosenthal.
“Pretty humbling now for me to go to dinner with him,” Romano said. “And when people come up for to talk for an autograph, it’s for this guy now.”
A baby boy perfectly channeled Voldemort when he got his hands on a toy wizarding wand.
Fans of the Harry Potter series are shaking over this mini version of He Who Must Not Be Named. The little boy’s Voldemort-like laugh (and energy) was adorably too close for comfort in a viral video posted by @scarehbelle on TikTok.
The boy waved around the plastic wand with a glowing blue tip. He shrieked “da-da-da-da” before letting out a loud screech, clutching his fists and throwing the wand.
The hilarious clip received 5.6 million views and 1.5 million likes on TikTok.
“Well he’s definitely not a muggle,” another said.
“I think he gets an automatic early enrollment to Hogwarts. Pre-school wizarding game is strong!” a person commented.
“IDK what just happened but now my dog is floating,” a TikToker replied.
However, most users compared the boy to a scene from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part Two.
“Translation: the boy who lived, come to die. Avada kedavra,” someone said.
In the film, the villain Voldemort tells the protagonist Harry Potter, “The boy who live, come to die,” then launches a killing spell at him by saying, “Avada kedavra.” The spell emits a giant blue blast of energy similar to the color of the baby boy’s wand.
So let’s just hope the tiny tot’s parents can get him to harness all that power for good.
Shop ‘Gossip Girl’ star Evan Mock’s looks from his In The Know cover shoot:
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Mogwai have shared their beautiful new song ‘Boltfor’.
The band’s 2021 album ‘As The Love Continues’ swept to the pinnacle of the charts, and rightfully took its place in our End Of Year countdown.
Mogwai will play London’s Alexandra Palace on May 27th, and to celebrate the Glasgow group have shared something new.
A song that revels in space and control, ‘Boltfor’ was kicked off during those recent album sessions, before being finished at the band’s own Castle Of Doom space.
‘Boltfor’ is a spacious return, one that resolves into a grinding rhythm that suggests broad vistas and open landscapes.
Director Sam Wiehl picks up on this, constructing a “metaphysical road movie” in response.
He comments…
“The video is a visual metaphor for the constant movement in life and the unceasing urge to move forward as individuals… in the form of a metaphysical road movie.”
Speaking on his Sacred Symbols+ podcast (paywalled on Patreon, transcribed by VGC), Colin Moriarty when his co-host brought the game up in discussion said, “I’m hearing behind the scenes that game is not coming out this year, and that it’s in some sort of trouble.”
While Moriarty didn’t elaborate, the game hasn’t been publicly shown in some time, and currently has no release date beyond 2022.
ORIGINAL STORY CONTINUES: Late last year, Rachel Wakely, Warner Bros. general manager spoke to Toy World magazine about the Wizarding World IP, in which she referred to “two major releases in 2022”. The first was the upcoming Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbeldore, she said, which releases in the UK on April 8. The second was Hogwarts Legacy.
“From what we’ve seen, the launch will be well worth the wait and deliver a unique way for fans to interact with the franchise”.
This could suggest that the game isn’t set to release until after Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbeldore.
Hogwarts Legacy will also reportedly add the ability for players to create transgender heroes, following controversy stemming from comments made by series creator J.K. Rowling.
According to a Bloomberg report citing anonymous sources at Warner Bros.’ Avalanche studio, some members of the game’s development have since fought to make the game as inclusive as possible, in response to the author’s comments.
