HBO Max recently made a few announcements regarding the upcoming Max Original, Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin. First, it was revealed that Lisa Soper (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina) will direct the first two episodes of the series. Then, it was revealed that Chandler Kinney (Zombies 2) and Maia Reficco (Strangers) have joined the cast as Tabby and Noa respectively. Tabby is described as “an aspiring director and horror movie buff. Like the other Little Liars, Tabby’s hiding a secret.” Meanwhile, Noa is “a striving, sardonic track star who’s working hard to get her life back to normal after a summer spent in juvenile detention.”
Twenty years ago, a series of tragic events almost ripped the blue-collar town of Millwood apart. Now, in the present day, a group of disparate teen girls — a brand-new set of Little Liars — find themselves tormented by an unknown Assailant and made to pay for the secret sin their parents committed two decades ago…as well as their own. In the dark, coming-of-age, horror-tinged drama PRETTY LITTLE LIARS: ORIGINAL SIN, we find ourselves miles away from Rosewood, but within the existing Pretty Little Liars universe — in a brand-new town, with a new generation of Little Liars.
Original Sin is set to being production later this summer and comes from Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Lindsay Calhoon Bring.
Walt Disney Animation Studios has released the first teaser trailer for their forthcoming fantasy animated movie titled Encanto, which hails from acclaimed Zootopia filmmakers Byron Howard and Jared Bush along with Charise Castro Smith. The video transports viewers into the magical Casa Madrigal, the home of an exceptionally gifted family who each member possesses special powers including superhuman strength and shapeshifting abilities. It also introduces us to the film’s main character in the form of Mirabel, the only Madrigal child who didn’t get a unique ability. On top of its teaser, the studio has also revealed its first poster and full voice cast which will be led by Brooklyn Nine-Nine star Stephanie Beatriz as the voice of Mirabel.
The original film is scheduled to make its debut on November 24. Its current theatrical release date pits Encanto against three other competitors in the form of Sony’s Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, STXfilms’ National Champions, and Ridley Scott’s true crime biopic Gucci.
Check out the Encanto teaser trailer in the player below along with the first poster.
Disney’s Encanto tells the tale of an extraordinary family, the Madrigals, who live hidden in the mountains of Colombia in a magical house, in a vibrant town, in a wondrous, charmed place called an Encanto. In the film, the magic of the Encanto has blessed every child in the family with a unique gift from super strength to the power to heal—every child except one, Mirabel. But when she discovers that the magic surrounding the Encanto is in danger, Mirabel decides that she, the only ordinary Madrigal, might just be her exceptional family’s last hope.
“Mirabel is a really funny, loving character who also deeply yearns for something more,” Beatriz said in a statement. “She’s also not afraid to stand up for what she knows is right—something I love and relate to very much.
She continued, “I’m Colombian on my father’s side, and playing this role fills me with immense pride. As a Disney kid, I’d burn through my VHS tapes and adored every single magical story that the world of Disney introduced me to. I learned in those that stories that anything is possible, especially if you believe in magic and the goodness rooted deep inside us all.”
The animated film will feature a voice cast led by Stephanie Beatriz (Brooklyn Nine-Nine, In the Heights) as Mirabel, an ordinary 15-year-old who’s struggling to find her place in her family. Joining her are María Cecilia Botero, Wilmer Valderrama, Adassa, Diane Guerrero, Mauro Castillo, Angie Cepeda, Jessica Darrow, Rhenzy Feliz and Carolina Gaitan.
Encanto is directed by Zootopia helmers Byron Howard and Jared Bush from a screenplay co-written by Bush with co-director Charise Castro Smith. The filmmakers were deeply inspired by their research trip to Colombia during early development of Encanto, as well as their continuous work with a group of expert consultants assembled through the course of the film’s production.
The film will feature all-new songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hamilton, Moana) including an original song titled “Colombia, Mi Encanto,” performed by Latin Grammy winner Carlos Vives. It is produced by Clark Spencer and Yvett Merino.
Bill Condon, the filmmaker behind Chicago, Dreamgirls, and Disney’s live-action adaptation of Beauty and the Beast, is set to helm another musical. This one is a film adaptation of the Broadway hit musical Guys and Dolls.
Guys and Dolls originally made its Broadway debut in 1950. The show won a Tony Award for best musical, and five years after its Broadway premiere, it was adapted into a film starring Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons, Frank Sinatra, and Vivian Blaine.
The story follows gambler Nathan Detroit, who has few options for the location of his big craps game. “Needing $1,000 to pay a garage owner to host the game, Nathan bets Sky Masterson that Sky cannot get virtuous Sarah Brown out on a date. Despite some resistance, Sky negotiates a date with her in exchange for bringing people into her mission. Meanwhile, Nathan’s longtime fiancée, Adelaide, wants him to go legit and marry her.”
The Broadway play and film are based on the original Damon Runyon short stories about gamblers and gangsters in the New York underworld. TriStar Pictures, which operates under Sony, acquired rights to those stories in 2019, as well as the rights to the Broadway musical and Samuel Goldwyn’s 1955 film adaptation.
John Goldwyn and Marc Toberoff will serve as producers on Guys and Dolls. I’ve never seen the Broadway musical, but I have seen the 1955 film. It’s been years since I’ve seen it, but I remember liking it. I’m sure that Condon will make a great adaptation like he’s done with all of his other musical projects.
During Nacon Connect, Daedalic Entertainment showed off new footage for the upcoming title The Lord of the Rings: Gollum. The game allows you to experience the world of Middle-Earth through the lens of the iconic character who just wants his precious. The gameplay is described as a stealth action-adventure game.
The Lord of the Rings™: Gollum™ is a story-driven action adventure, where players take on the role of Gollum to win back his precious lost ring. They have to climb, jump and sneak through dangerous areas, avoid getting caught and try to keep the upper hand. Gollum is skillful and sly, but also torn by his split personality. It is up to you to decide whether the darker side of Gollum takes over or if there is a spark of reason left in what once was Sméagol.
Fans will be able to enjoy Gollum in 2022 on Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.
Universal Filmed Entertainment Group recently announced that it signed a new streaming deal with Peacock. According to the deal, Universal films will be available to stream on Peacock within four months of their theatrical debuts starting in 2022.
This includes big name titles like Jurassic World: Dominion, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, and Minions: The Rise of Gru. This continues a growing trend of movies moving quickly from the theater to the web. It also shouldn’t surprise anyone as both Universal and Peacock are under the umbrella of NBCUniversal. The new deal also gives Peacock exclusive streaming rights during the first and last four-month segments of a new program that divides the more traditional 18-month Pay-One window into segments. Talking about the deal, Matt Strauss said:
Since launching Peacock just one year ago, we have seen incredible viewership of movies and continue to expand our catalog with a range of films for every fan and occasion. Universal Filmed Entertainment Group has been a fantastic partner and we are excited to not only bring their amazing slate of blockbuster films and beloved franchises to Peacock in the first-pay window, but also provide a steady stream of fresh, original films exclusively for Peacock customers throughout the year.
Peter Levinsohn added:
This new dynamic Pay-One agreement demonstrates UFEG’s continued commitment to building a film ecosystem that allows filmmakers and artists to reach the broadest possible audience, celebrates and strengthens the theatrical experience, and, above all, empowers fans to experience the films they love on their own terms. We’re excited to become Peacock’s first Pay-One partner while the platform continues to curate and build a vast film library that will delight its rapidly growing subscriber base.
Peacock is about to get a huge boost in content thanks to this deal. Will it be enough to draw in more subscribers?
Frontier Foundry and Ratloop Games Canada recently announced an upcoming PC beta for the title Lemnis Gate. The game is a turn-based combat strategy shooter with a focus on time loops. You can play in 1v1 and 2v2 formats. It definitely looks intriguing and in a new Dev Diary, fans learned what they can expect from the beta. In the beta, fans will have access to four maps, two game modes, and all seven Operatives. As you play, you’ll be able to unlock exclusive skins for weapons and Operatives only available from the beta. Any unlocked skins will carry over to the full game at launch. The PC beta will run from July 22-26 and then the full game will launch on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S on August 3.
Bandai Namco has dropped the opening cinematic for the upcoming game Tales of Arise and it feels straight out of an anime. I love it. The song used is “Hibana” by the j-rock band Kankaku Pierrot, and the animation is done by Ufotable. It’s absolutely incredible, and I cannnot wait to watch this new anime…I mean play this new game on September 10.
Tales of ARISE follows the story of Alphen, an iron-masked individual whose home planet of Dahna has been enslaved and stripped of natural resources for the past 300 years by the nearby planet of Rena. As Alphen fights to free his people he encounters Shionne, a girl from Rena who is on the run from her countrymen. Both Alphen and Shionne will be joined throughout journey by a supporting cast of characters to help in their fight for freedom.
Tales of Arise will be available on PC (via Steam), PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.
Xbox recently revealed the list of titles and perks coming to Xbox Game Pass during the first half of July. The games include Dragon Quest Builders 2 via the Cloud which is pretty awesome. It’s a fun game. New perks include early access to Space Jam: A New Legacy The Game starting right now. Here’s the full list of games and perks.
Games
Dragon Quest Builders 2 (Cloud) – July 8
Dragon Quest Builders 2 is a block-building RPG set in a fantasy land threatened by an evil cult. Explore, battle, create, and harvest in the charming single-player campaign or build big projects in the online sandbox mode for up to four players.
Tropico 6 (Cloud, Console, and PC) ID@Xbox – July 8
In Tropico 6, travel to a beautiful island state and make it your own. In this sixth entry in the series, build and manage a whole archipelago, decking it out with your choice of buildings, industry, and décor. Will you rule your people as a generous statesman or ruthless dictator? The choice is yours.
UFC 4 (Console) EA Play – July 8
Shape your legend with EA Play and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate – UFC 4 is coming soon to The Play List! Members can enter the Octagon on July 8 to create and customize their own character and start their journey from unknown amateur to UFC superstar.
Bloodroots (Cloud, Console, and PC) ID@Xbox – July 15
Left for dead by a colorful group of bandits, you will chain killing sprees to exact revenge on the treacherous Mr. Black Wolf. Improvise your kills with utterly everything you can get your hands on from carrots to plasma guns.
Farming Simulator 19 (Cloud, Console, and PC) – July 15
The ultimate farming simulation returns! Become a modern farmer and develop your farm on two huge American and European environments, filled with exciting new farming activities, crops to harvest and animals to tend to.
The Medium (Cloud) ID@Xbox – July 15
Discover a dark mystery only a medium can solve. Travel to an abandoned hotel resort and use your unique psychic abilities to uncover its deeply disturbing secrets, solve dual-reality puzzles, survive encounters with sinister spirits, and explore two realities at the same time.
Perks
Space Jam: A New Legacy The Game – Play It First with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate
Play as LeBron, Bugs, and Lola as they face the Goon Squad in a wacky basketball beat-em up! Claim this Perk to get exclusive early access and play the full game right now through Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Perks. Space Jam: A New Legacy – The Game will be available as a free-to-play title for all players starting July 15 through the Microsoft Store on your Xbox console.
Black Desert – Special Gift Bundle – Available now
The new class Corsair joins the battlefield of Black Desert! Gear up with this special bundle and embark on an adventure you’ve been longing for!
Apex Legends – Protocol 3 Weapon Charm – Available now
Show the competition what you’re made of with your new Protocol 3 Weapon Charm, brought to you by EA Play! Equip this to your favorite weapon and battle for glory, fame, and fortune in style.
World of Warships: Legends – Navy of the Realm – Available now
Get a pair of powerful early German warships in the new Xbox Game Pass bundle: Navy of the Realm. You’ll get your hands on the fan favorite cruiser Königsberg and the destroyer G-101 along with plenty of Camouflages and Boosters.
Sadly, some titles are leaving the service, so hurry and play them while you can.
The Forever Purge is now in theaters and sees a group of anarchists that “decide to overtake America through an unending campaign of mayhem and massacre.” The film stars Ana de la Reguera in the lead role and was directed by Everardo Gout from a script by James DeMonaco.
ComingSoon’s Alyse Wax spoke with The Forever Purge producer Jason Blum about the film’s themes, why it’s his favorite in the series, and why he’s so excited about Halloween Kills. Check out the video below or read the full transcript.
Alyse Wax: How did we get to The Forever Purge? Can you tell me a little bit about how the idea came up?
Jason Blum: James DeMonaco, who wrote all these movies, and directed the first three, it was his idea to do a Purge with no rules. A Purge with what happens when all the rules go out the window. So anarchy reigns forever. I thought it was a great idea. I thought it was a new take on the franchise. I loved it. I encouraged him to do it. I think it’s my favorite of all The Purge movies. I just love that notion of you let anarchy in a little bit and it takes over.
Is there anywhere to go after this, now that we’ve got The Forever Purge, can we go back?
Well, I think there are lots of places to go. James says it’s the last movie, but I’m not giving up yet, so hopefully, I’ll get a few more movies out of him. I wouldn’t want to make a purchase order without James, but I’m not ready to let him quit quite yet.
The Purge movies have gotten progressively more intense and more insane. Is that because of the way that film franchises work, they get bigger the longer they go, or do you think it has to do with the discourse in this country?
I think both. I think the discourse has unfortunately inspired James to go bigger. I also think the audience expects every movie to be better than the last one. So both of those things are at work.
All of The Purge movies have political socioeconomic overtones, but this one seems especially intense. Can you talk a little bit about what inspired that?
Yeah. I mean, I think James really felt the wall was a horrible idea and this was a movie about that. There’s two sides to a wall, so, so I think that’s what inspired the movie.
You’ve got a ton of films coming up. What are you most looking forward to?
I’m most looking forward to Halloween, which has been a year delayed and I think the movie is amazing. I love it. The fans are going crazy to see it. I can’t wait for them finally to have the chance to see it. I think it’s going to be such a big deal in the fall. I love the movie. So that’s probably what I’m most looking forward to in terms of our movies is finally getting Halloween out there. Shortly thereafter, we have a new Scott Derrickson movie called The Black Phone, which I just saw a week ago, which is also terrific, very different, very original. So those are our two next theatrical movies, which I’m excited for audiences to get a chance to see.
Directed by Chris McKay, The Tomorrow War is a sci-fi action flick that releases on Amazon Prime Video today. The film features a star-studded cast featuring Chris Pratt, Yvonne Strahovski, J.K. Simmons, Edwin Hodge, Sam Richardson, Jasmine Matthews, and Keith Powers.
“The world is stunned when a group of time travelers arrive from the year 2051 to deliver an urgent message: Thirty years in the future mankind is losing a global war against a deadly alien species,” says the official synopsis. “The only hope for survival is for soldiers and civilians from the present to be transported to the future and join the fight. Among those recruited is high school teacher and family man Dan Forester (Chris Pratt). Determined to save the world for his young daughter, Dan teams up with a brilliant scientist and his estranged father in a desperate quest to rewrite the fate of the planet.”
ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke with director Chris McKay about how his past in animation prepared him to succeed across genres, the emotional punch in The Tomorrow War, and the great performance by Sam Richardson. Check out our video interview or read the full transcript below.
Tyler Treese: One of my favorite television shows of all time is Moral Orel. So I have to ask, seeing you blow up and have all this success. How do you go from directing that to something wholesome like the Lego Batman Movie, then a blockbuster action flick? How are you able to go across so many genres?
Chris McKay: I’m lucky, I guess. I’m really lucky that I’ve been in the right place at the right time in a couple of instances. I loved working on Moral Orel that was. I’d been working on Robot Chicken, and Moral Oral and Robot Chicken they sort of shared a space and a team of animators and things like that. So for half the year, we would do Robot Chicken, for the other half of the year we do Moral Oral. Working with Dino [Stamatopoulos] and Jay [Johnston] and Scott [Adsit] on Moral Orel was a real treat and a real education. So a lot of fun. I loved working on the show. I love the design of the puppets and it was fun.
It was fun to do storytelling in stop motion and sort of storytelling that went. It wasn’t just a bottle episode after bottle episode, it was storytelling that went on. You were rewarded if you paid attention over multiple episodes and things like that. That’s what was behind Dino’s initial impulse on that show is to really tell us the story about this family and that town. That was a lot of fun, but it was a great training ground for me because Robot Chicken was very sketch comedy-based. So being able to do storytelling in Moral Orel and Titan Maximum, that was great. That prepared the way for me to work on The Lego Movie with Chris and Phil, and then ultimately direct The Lego Batman Movie after that. Then I kind of bounced around developing some stuff and working on a few … sort of like helping out in other people’s movies a little bit, kind of behind the scenes.
Then I got the opportunity for The Tomorrow War, which was titled Ghost Draft when the script crossed my desk. I am a huge genre fan. I love genre movies and I love John Cassavetes movies. I love things that have heart and soul and sometimes wear their heart on their sleeve. So Tomorrow War is kind of a blending of all the things that I love. It’s a solid sci-fi, action, or genre movie, and it’s also got a character study and a family story kind of in its heart. So yeah, it kind of melds both worlds as far as I’m concerned.
What surprised me about The Tomorrow War is there’s so much great action, but there’s so much heart to the film. I think the theme of family and being able to accept your loved one’s mistakes and their ability to do better was so apt today. How did you connect personally to that?
That’s a good question. I think we all have, at one point or other, difficult relationships with our parents or our siblings. So for me being able to tell a story about generations, I don’t have kids, but I also think a lot about what’s the legacy you want to leave behind? How do you want to leave a world in a better place than the world that you found? What can I do to participate in making the world better? So a movie that kind of had stuff like that on its mind was something that was really attractive to me. Chris Pratt and J.K. [Simmon]’s relationship is a kind of relationship that I’ve seen in my life. It was something that I wanted to try to replicate. Chris and his relationship with his family and his struggles to sort of want to feel important, or to do some important things and stuff like that. I sympathize with them, and so for me, there’s a lot of stuff that was personal.
There are some really emotional scenes between Chris Pratt and Yvonne. As a director, how do you approach those types of scenes and how are you able to give them the necessary breathing space?
Well, breathing space is a great way of putting it because on the scene on the beach, for instance, I just wanted them to be able to move anywhere they felt like moving. I didn’t want them to be tied down to blocking. So that creates a lot of problems for Larry, the DP, the camera operator, for everybody. It’s been important to me to let the actors feel like they could kind of just use the space to do anything that they wanted. So, and fortunately, we had a really great camera operator Lucas [Bielan], who was just like another actor in the scene. I mean, he literally did a dance with Yvonne and with Chris and just kind of followed them. I treated him like another actor in the way that I gave him direction and things like that.
He just responded to that kind of stuff. He would just wait for the right times to move, his instincts, he just got in sync with the way Chris and Yvonne were acting. So it gave them a lot of confidence to feel like they can move and that the focus pullers and everyone would find them in that scene. It starts giving them a bit of freedom to feel like they’re the priority, that their emotional landscape is the priority. That whatever they need to get to, the place they need to go, that that’s the priority, and then nothing else is going to stand in the way. That we’re going to capture it no matter what they do. I think maybe there’s a level of trust or something, but I think that’s what kind of got us to the place we needed to go with the emotional scenes.
I was glad that you brought up rewarding the viewer for paying attention to Moral Orel because I saw some similarities in The Tomorrow War, where there’s no filler and every scene has a meaning to it. There’s either character development or moving the plot forward. How important is it to make sure that every scene has a meaning and the viewer gets something out of it?
There’s a lot of movies. I mean, think we’ve all watched movies that it’s a great movie and we had a great time, but it’s like a movie that could have been told a little bit faster, a little more economically. The movie didn’t need to be over two hours long or that kind of thing. I knew that our movie was going to be long because I knew there was a lot of story to tell, especially with where the movie ends up going in the third act. So I really wanted us to pack as much as humanly possible into every scene.
So there had to be multiple layers of things going on, and particularly when talking about sort of like rewarding the audience I wanted the beginning of the movie to introduce you to some characters. You think that they’re there for one reason or another, but then they end up coming back later in the third act for a whole other reason. Because Chris is going to talk to J.K., Chris is going back for another reason other than just to get the plot moving. He’s going back there for character reasons, and it shows something that he’s changed and that kind of thing. So, for me, trying to pack that’s where getting everything into the writing before you start shooting as much as humanly possible. Really work that script before you show up on set. That’s where stuff like that’s really important cause otherwise payoffs like that don’t exist. That stuff can’t happen unless you’re really cramming it. I also have to give a lot of credit to the animatic team because I was doing a lot of previs and storyboards and animatic. So they would be pumping out versions of the scenes and then I’d sit down and watch them and I’d go, let’s try to get this in the scene. Let’s try and do that. So it’d be writing stuff into the scenes as we’re building these animatics before we started shooting so that we could just really make sure that the movie gave you as much information as humanly possible.
You have a great ensemble cast in this film. One of the breakout stars is Sam Richardson. He’s been really having a lot of momentum and I thought he was phenomenal in this role. He shows his comedy. He’s able to show an action side, which I wasn’t really expecting. How bright is his future?
When I pitched to the studio at Skydance and to Chris Pratt, my take on doing the movie before I was ever hired, the second or third to last panel in my keynote presentation was a picture of Sam Richardson and it said, “you need to hire this guy to play Charlie.” Even if you don’t use me as your director, hire this guy to play Charlie because he’s going to bring, you know, he’s a comedy generator, he’s got a great every man look. He’s also a really great actor. Sam brought emotional stuff to that character at times it was really moving, uh, to me. I can’t say enough good things about Sam. Sam’s the greatest. Any movie I do from here on out is going to have Sam if at all possible. So, I’m always going to hire Sam and I’m sure a lot of other people will.
