We’ve got a wonderful trailer here for you to watch for an upcoming inspiring film titled Minari. The movie was a big hit at Sundance this year as it won both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to see the film while I was there, it was a hard one to find a ticket to. But I heard nothing but great things and I can’t wait to see it.

The film comes from Korean-American filmmaker Lee Isaac Chung, and the film is described as a “tender and sweeping story about what roots us.” The story follows a “Korean-American family that moves to a tiny Arkansas farm in search of their own American Dream. The family home changes completely with the arrival of their sly, foul-mouthed, but incredibly loving grandmother Soonja. Amidst the instability and challenges of this new life in the rugged Ozarks, Minari shows the undeniable resilience of family and what really makes a home.”

The director of the film actually grew up in rural Arkansas, so this is a personal story for him. The movie also has a great cast that includes Steven Yeun (The Walking Dead) as the father, Alan S. Kim, who plays his young boy named David, Yari Han as his wife Monica, Yuh-Jung Youn as grandma, with Will Patton, Noel Cho, Scott Haze, Eric Starkey, and Esther Moon.

A24 will release Minari in select theaters either late this year or early next year.

James Cameron, Christopher Nolan and Others Pen Letter Urging Congress to Save Theaters

Movie theaters have been hit hard during the COVID pandemic due to restrictions that more or less discourage moviegoing along with an utter lack of high profile films to lure audiences out of their homes with. As such, a number of high profile filmmakers, including James Cameron, Christopher Nolan, Clint Eastwood, Zack Snyder, Steven Soderbergh, Martin Scorsese, M. Night Shyamalan and Edgar Wright (among many others) have reached out and called on Congress to reallocate funds from the CARES Act proposals to movie theaters in order to keep them alive.

RELATED: Bill & Ted Face the Music Earned Around $32 Million from PVOD Release

It’s great to see some of Hollywood’s finest come together in order to save cinemas, which have lost absurd amounts of money. In an article in the LA Times, it was reported that AMC Theatres, the world’s largest cinema operator, “posted a massive loss for its most recent fiscal quarter” totaling $561 million as a result of the pandemic. Yikes. Hopefully, this letter moves Congress to some sort of action to save the theatrical experience from vanishing altogether.

Here’s the letter in its entirety (via Deadline):

Dear Leader McConnell, Speaker Pelosi, Leader Schumer, and Leader McCarthy:

Thank you for your leadership at this challenging time for our country. As you consider forthcoming COVID-19 relief legislation, we ask you to prioritize assistance for the hardest-hit industries, like our country’s beloved movie theaters.

No doubt you are hearing from many, many businesses that need relief. Movie theaters are in dire straits, and we urge you to redirect unallocated funds from the CARES Act to proposals that help businesses that have suffered the steepest revenue drops due to the pandemic, or to enact new proposals such as the RESTART Act (S. 3814/H.R. 7481). Absent a solution designed for their circumstances, theaters may not survive the impact of the pandemic.

The pandemic has been a devastating financial blow to cinemas. 93% of movie theater companies had over 75% in losses in the second quarter of 2020. If the status quo continues, 69% of small and mid-sized movie theater companies will be forced to file for bankruptcy or to close permanently, and 66% of theater jobs will be lost. Our country cannot afford to lose the social, economic, and cultural value that theaters provide.

The moviegoing experience is central to American life. 268 million people in North America went to the movies last year to laugh, cry, dream, and be moved together. Theaters are great unifiers where our nation’s most talented storytellers showcase their cinematic accomplishments. Every aspiring filmmaker, actor, and producer dreams of bringing their art to the silver screen, an irreplaceable experience that represents the pinnacle of filmmaking achievement.

As well as their critical cultural impact, theaters are economic force multipliers. In addition to the 150,000 employees working in cinemas nationwide, the industry supports millions of jobs in movie production and distribution, and countless others in surrounding restaurants and retailers that rely on theaters for foot traffic. Movie theaters are also leaders in employing underrepresented groups, including people with disabilities, senior citizens, and first-time job holders. Cinemas are an essential industry that represent the best that American talent and creativity have to offer. But now we fear for their future.

Theaters need specific relief targeted to their circumstances. We urge you to come together on a
bipartisan solution that provides this relief, by reallocating unspent funds from the CARES Act toward programs designed for industries like movie theaters, or by enacting new proposals such as the RESTART Act. These solutions would fulfill Congress’s intent in helping severely distressed sectors of the economy and ensure that our resources are focused on the industries that need them the most.

Please fight for our country’s beloved and essential cinemas by including relief for them in any
forthcoming COVID-19 legislation. Thank you for your leadership and for considering this request.

Sincerely,

John Fithian President & CEO, NATO
Russ Hollander, National Executive Director, DGA
Charles Rivkin, Chairman & CEO, MPA
Thomas Schlamme, President, DGA

Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Wes Anderson, Judd Apatow, Jon Avnet, Sean Baker, Noah Baumbach, Michael Bay, Susanne Bier, Barbara Broccoli, James Cameron, Antonio Campos, Damien Chazelle, Jon M. Chu, Sofia Coppola, Alfonso Cuarón, Lee Daniels, Dean Devlin, Clint Eastwood, Andrew Erwin, Jon Erwin, Paul Feig, Shana Feste, Scott Frank, Cary Joji Fukunaga, Greta Gerwig, Evan Goldberg, Paul Greengrass, Leslie Greif, Luca Guadagnino, Catherine Hardwicke, Alma Har’el, Albert Hughes, Allen Hughes, Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu, Barry Jenkins, Patty Jenkins, Rian Johnson, Miranda July, Nicole Kassell, Jon Landau, Francis Lawrence, Mimi Leder, Ang Lee, Rob Letterman, Shawn Levy, Richard Linklater, James Mangold, Sam Mendes, Adam McKay, Steve McQueen, Ted Melfi, Reed Morano, Christopher Nolan, David O. Russell, Todd Phillips, Guy Ritchie, Seth Rogen, Joachim Rønning, Michael R. Roskam, Martin Scorsese, M. Night Shyamalan, Zack Snyder, Steven Soderbergh, Joey Soloway, David E. Talbert, Betty Thomas, Emma Thomas, Liesl Tommy, Denis Villeneuve, Taika Waititi, James Wan, Lulu Wang, Chris Weitz, Paul Weitz, Michael G. Wilson, Edgar Wright, Joe Wright, Cathy Yan, David Yates.

The post James Cameron, Christopher Nolan & More Urge Congress to Save Theaters appeared first on ComingSoon.net.

“Sometimes the only way to beat the system is to break it.”

Saban Films has released the trailer for its upcoming crime spree action-thriller titled Echo Boomers. The movie comes from first-time director Seth Savoy and it stars Michael Shannon, Patrick Schwarzenegger, and Alex Pettyfer.

The film is based on a true story that follows five college graduates who decide that the best way to get back at the unfair economy and live the life they’ve always wanted is to steal from Chicago’s richest and give to themselves. They claim that the reason for this is to send a message.

I usually watch anything that Michael Shannon is in. The guy is such a talented actor and he usually jumps onboard great film projects. This movie certainly doesn’t look like his best work, as it looks like a fairly standard crime thriller. But, I’ll still give it a chance in hopes that it turns out to be better than it looks.

Echo Boomers also stars Hayley Law, Lesley Ann Warren, and Oliver Cooper. Saban Films will release the movie direct-to-VOD on November 13th.

We’ve got a new teaser trailer as well as a new poster for you to check out for Adam Sandler’s upcoming Netflix movie, Hubie Halloween. This teaser gives fans a look at the spooky fun that this movie is guaranteed to bring us.

The film stars Sandler as Hubie, as well as Kevin James, Rob Schneider, June Squibb, Kenan Thompson, Shaquille O’Neal, Michael Chiklis, Julie Bowen, Ray Liotta, Noah Schnapp, Steve Buscemi, and Maya Rudolph. Here’s the synopsis:

Hubie Dubois (Adam Sandler) thanklessly spends every Halloween making sure the residents of his town, Salem, celebrate safely and play by the rules. But this year, an escaped criminal and a mysterious new neighbor have Hubie on high alert. When people start disappearing, it’s up to Hubie to convince the police (Kevin James, Kenan Thompson) and townsfolk that the monsters are real, and only he can stop them. 

Check out the teaser and the poster below, and let us know if you’re excited to watch Hubie Halloween on Netflix on October 7th.

Yesterday, we learned that Tom Sturridge (Far from the Madding Crowd, Velvet Buzzsaw) is in talks to star in Netflix’s series adaptation of Neil Gaimen’s The Sandman. Today, /Film is reporting that Liam Hemsworth and  Dacre Montgomery are in the running to play one of the major villains in the story known as The Corinthian.

The Corinthian is a rogue nightmare created by Morpheus “to be the darkness, and the fear of darkness in every human heart. A black mirror, made to reflect everything about itself that humanity will not confront.” But he’s deemed a failure for having done nothing other than committing gruesome murders.

The character’s most notable physical feature in the comics is his lack of eyes: in their place, two rows of small, jagged teeth line each eye socket, which he often covers with sunglasses. He can speak, eat, see, and even respire through these mouths.

The report describes The Corinthian as “a supernaturally handsome character oozing sex appeal whose pleasing physical appearance hides a sadistic, predatory persona.” He also often eats the eyeballs of victims. He’s quite a sinister villain, and I hope that Montgomery, who you know from Stranger Things, lands the role. I can totally see him as this character. Hemsworth? Not so much.

Netflix gave the series an 11 episode order, and Doctor Who and Black Mirror director Toby Hayes was hired to helm some of them. Allan Heinberg (Wonder Woman, The Catch, Grey’s Anatomy) is writing the show, and he will also serve as showrunner.

The story focuses on Morpheus, the Lord of the Dreaming, a deity who personifies dreams. Gaiman also introduced the Endless, a group of powerful brothers and sisters named Destiny, Death, Destruction, Despair, Desire, and Delirium (as well as Dream).

The first season of the series is expected to adapt the first arc of the Vertigo comics series, “Preludes and Nocturnes,” which finds Morpheus captured by a black magician and held prisoner for the better part of a century. When he finally escapes, he sets about recovering three very important items.

In a previous interview, Gaiman confirmed that the storyline for the show will be set in 2021, and there will be some changes from the source material. He explained:

“We’re working with Netflix, we were meant to start shooting at the end of May. Given this COVID world, everything is on pause. The Netflix version is going to begin in 2021, so Morpheus will have been kept prisoner in the Netflix version for 105 years rather than 70 years. We’ll take that one, see what that does. It’s already in the scripts, it does interesting things because… if we were creating this character now, what gender would the character be?”

Gaiman is developing the show along with David S. Goyer and Allan Heinberg. Who would you like to see take on the role of The Corinthian?

Finally! A month not filled with remakes! We do have a lot of sequels this month, but they all look to be refreshing spins on well-established franchises. Check out what we’re excited for and let us know in the comments below which ones you’re planning on playing day one!

CRASH BANDICOOT 4: IT’S ABOUT TIME – October 2nd

PlayStation 4, Xbox One

The Bandicoot is back to spin, jump around and smash the world. With a slew of new powers, slick graphics, and other characters to play as we’re excited to go through another adventure with this zany character.

STAR WARS: SQUADRONS – October 2nd

PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One

Lightsabers? No, we’ll take ships. In this Star Wars story, players will hop into the cockpit of Tie-Fighters and Rebel ships. A huge part of this game will be its PVP mode too; squads of four battling in the skies for various objectives in various places in the galaxy. With beautiful graphics and what should be a pretty good story, this is going to a Star Wars experience fans should be excited about.

AMNESIA: REBIRTH – October 20th

PC, PlayStation 4

The first Amnesia game sacred me to my core (I was much younger). I hadn’t experienced something that could still deliver the scares in broad daylight with the sound almost completely off. Now, the third entry of this franchise is coming out later this month. I don’t know if I am prepared to play something so creepy…but we all gotta try it eventually!

GHOSTRUNNER – October 27th

PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One

Ninjas are cool. Parkour is cool. Robots are cool. Ghostrunner takes all three and smashes them into a breathtaking, cybernetic, first-person, free-running game that seems to run as smooth as its blade goes through enemies (which is like a hot knife through butter).

WATCH DOGS: LEGION – October 29nd

Google Stadia, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X

Be anyone. Go everywhere. Take over the system with the click of a button or a tap of the phone. We are super excited to see this ambitious game set players on a path of digital weaponry and chaos while rocking a plethora of outfits and personas.

THE DARK PICTURES ANTHOLOGY – LITTLE HOPE – October 30th

PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One

Supermassive Games is back with another choice-driven horror tale. Little Hope looks to be another thrill ride that is hopefully full of twists, kills, and scares. Watch out for this one as it comes out the day before Halloween. If you’re stuck at home for Halloween, this seems like it will be a great way to spend your night.

SUPER MARIO BROS. 35 – October 1st

Nintendo Switch

Ride 4 – October 5th

Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X

FIFA 21 – October 6th

Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One

THE JACKBOX PARTY PACK 7- October 15th

Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One

ZOIDS WILD: BLAST UNLEASHED – October 16th

Nintendo Switch

BOOM! Studios has released the final issue for Alienated. The six-issue series comes from writer Simon Spurrier and illustrator Chris Wildgoose. I’ve personally enjoyed this short series, and all I’ll say before the spoiler warning is that the ending is nice. It may not be my favorite series, but it’s a nice break from some of the others that I read. You can grab a physical copy of Alienated #6 from your local comic shop or get a digital copy from outlets like comiXology.

Samuel is a selfish jerk. He’s so caught up in the fact that no one watches his videos that he becomes all self righteous and murders his mother and Samir in the name of changing the world. It’s ludicrous really. Samantha tries standing up to him, but his bond with Chip is pretty powerful. He beats her up pretty good, but she’s able to get Chip to help her stop Samuel from hurting anyone else. Samuel is one of my least favorite kinds of villains, the entitled brat. It’s heartbreaking that there are people like that. It’s also a stark contrast to what happened when Samir and Samantha got carried away with Chip. They did some pretty bad things, but they realized what they were doing is wrong. Samuel never comes to that realization. Like I said, he becomes absorbed in a self-righteous rationalization.

Well, Chip seemingly traps Samuel in his own mind and Samantha then explains that the alien is free. She stresses being careful and is sad to see him go as anyone would be after becoming so intimately close to another creature.

We then get a nice little epilogue following Samantha. She talks with Chelsea who was put into a coma during this whole mess and we learn that they used to be friends (or at least I forgot that was a thing) and now Chelsea wants to be friends again. Sam agrees and it’s pretty happy. We also learn that Vern got a big break as the people working with Waxy seemingly just jumped ship. In addition, we learn that there’s a little memorial for Samir. Finally, Sam finds some ice cream in her locker which must’ve been left by Chip. Such a sweet ending.

One thing that I really appreciate about the ending for Alienated is that things don’t get reset. In so many other stories, Samir would’ve been brought back after Samuel is stopped. Chip would’ve somehow been able to return everything to how it was. Spurrier and Wildgoose don’t do that here, and it’s very refreshing.

During the Tokyo Game Show, Bandai Namco dropped a new trailer for the upcoming title Scarlet Nexus and it showed off a new playable character, Kasane Randall. Kasane mixes projectiles with psychic powers to bring down The Others and she looks serious.

Kasane is an orphan who lost her parents in a raid from the Others when she was a child and adopted by the powerful Randall family when she was 12 years old. She is now an elite super soldier with superb fighting skills. Kasane and Yuito are supported by various party members through their journeys including Gemma Garrison, Luka Travers, and Tsugumi Nazar.

Scarlet Nexus will launch eventually on PC (via Steam), PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series.

In the far distant future, a psionic hormone has been discovered in the human brain, granting people extra-sensory powers, and changing the world as we know it. As humanity enters this new era, deranged mutants known as Others begin to descend from the sky with a hunger for human brains. Impervious to conventional weapons, those with acute extra-sensory abilities, known as psychics, are our only chance to fight the onslaught from above and preserve humanity. Since that fateful day psychics have been scouted for their talents and recruited to the Other Suppression Force, humanity’s last line of defense.

Overwatch has been hitting it’s community with a lot of small bits of entertainment and bits of content to keep the community busy until Overwatch 2 comes out. Blizzard has worked with Dark Horse Comics to make a new Tracer comic that gives us some insight into Tracer’s day-to-day life after Overwatch was shut down.

The art is good, but it doesn’t show off any majorly spectacular full-page drawings, or striking/memorable scenes. It’s just Tracer walking around London, talking to people and jumping around trying to be a good citizen. It is really nice to have a new skin come out that is tied to the comic. The pages of the comic being plastered onto Tracer’s legs look pretty cool, but I think some higher quality images and more dynamic scenes could have added a lot to the comic and the in-game skin. 

As for the story itself, it was pretty subpar. It’s just a general story of Tracer getting to know some Omnics, befriending them, and learning more about their oppression. The problem with the story is that we already knew the problems in the world and we didn’t learn any more information on how or why they’re oppressed, it didn’t dive deeply at all into the subject matter. We also already knew that Tracer was very sympathetic to Omnics, so there was no character development at all. As much as the story was a pretty simple and nice little bit of lore, it didn’t add anything to the overall understanding or overall depth of the characters or Overwatch universe.

As a side note, I think that comic about Tracer is honestly kind of a waste. I’m not complaining about a comic or a new skin, but why choose Tracer? There are other characters in Overwatch that have gotten no extra lore, comics, animated shorts or anything yet. Why not do something about Zenyatta, Lucio or Hammond?

I think this is a fine comic, but it just doesn’t add much or anything to the conversation. Nothing is particularly wrong, but the art, story or skin are all fairly average. There also isn’t much of a reasoning or driving factor or necessity for the comic’s existence, therefore making it feel somewhat wasteful of Blizzard and Dark Horse Comics resources. I do understand that this is part one of five, but it barely builds anything up or brings up any real conflict. We’ll see how the other issues are, but they’ll have to do a lot to make it worth while for the readers to take the time and patience to read the five issues over who-knows-how-long for them to come out.

We’ve got a series of eerie character posters to share with you for Netflix’s highly-anticipated horror series, The Haunting of Bly Manor. This serves as the second season of The Haunting of Hill House, but it is going to tell a whole new terrifying tale with different characters. However, there are several cast members from Hill House that will be playing these new characters.

The posters below feature Victoria Pedretti, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Henry Thomas, Amelia Eve, Amelie Bea Smith, Benjamin Evan Ainsworth, Rahul Kohli, T’Nia Miller, and Tahira Sharif.

If you haven’t watched the trailer yet, check it out here! There’s also a behind the scenes featurette worth checking out that you can watch here.

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The upcoming series comes from The Haunting of Hill House creator Mike Flanagan and producer Trevor Macy, and this is the synopsis that was shared:

THE HAUNTING OF BLY MANOR, the next highly anticipated chapter of The Haunting anthology series, set in 1980s England. After an au pair’s tragic death, Henry Wingrave (Henry Thomas) hires a young American nanny (Victoria Pedretti) to care for his orphaned niece and nephew (Amelie Bea Smith, Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) who reside at Bly Manor with the estate’s chef Owen (Rahul Kohli), groundskeeper Jamie (Amelia Eve) and housekeeper, Mrs. Grose (T’Nia Miller). But all is not as it seems at the manor, and centuries of dark secrets of love and loss are waiting to be unearthed in this chilling gothic romance. At Bly Manor, dead doesn’t mean gone.

The Haunting of Bly Manor is an adaptation of the 1898 novel by Henry James, The Turn of the Screw. It will also include elements of “dozens” of James’ other horror stories. It was also explained that while Hill House “was the story of family struggle and trauma, Bly Manor is about broken hearts that never heal and tragic star-crossed romance.” You can read more about what we can expect from the story for Bly Manor here.

The series will premiere on Netflix on October 9th, 2020.