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Add another entry to the time loop directory with Joe Carnahan’s Boss Level arriving as this month’s installment of what feels like a regular ritual these days. It’s not socially relevant like The Obituary of Tunde Johnson, emotionally poignant like Before I Fall, genre-bending like Happy Death Day, or irreverently subversive like Palm Springs, but it is entertaining. This is especially true for fans (like me) of the director’s Smokin’ Aces since that’s the title this latest work most closely resembles whether by way of its frenetic pacing, eccentric criminals, or blunt yet quick-witted humor. With sardonic narration dripping with the frustration that comes from constantly waking up to deadly assassins ensuring death arrives before 1:00pm each day, it never tries to be something it’s not.

That narrator is Roy Pulver (Frank Grillo)—a former covert military operative who finds himself growing bored...

Michael Ahr Oct 11, 2019

Treadstone executive producer Ben Smith joins The Fourth Wall podcast to talk about the USA Network’s Bourne prequel series.

This interview is spoiler-free for Treadstone, which premieres on October 15, 2019 on the USA Network.

With the prevalence of “cinematic universes” these days, it’s no surprise that Universal has sought to create a shared world for the Jason Bourne saga with upcoming movies starring Jeremy Renner and Dwayne Johnson. But Ben Smith, who has produced a number of Robert Ludlum adaptations for the theater, has now branched into television with a new Bourne prequel for Ucp on the USA Network entitled Treadstone. Smith talked to us for The Fourth Wall podcast about the series’ premise, which explores the origins of the sleeper assassin program that began with The Bourne Identity.

Den Of Geek: For those who may not be familiar with the Ludlum novels, what can you...

Point Blank

Stars: Anthony Mackie, Frank Grillo, Marcia Gay Harden, Stuart F. Wilson, Buster Reeves, Christian Cooke, Teyonah Parris, Boris McGiver, Reggie Willis, Shanessa Sweeney, Nik Pajic, Markice Moore | Written by Adam G. Simon | Directed by Joe Lynch

Point Blank, directed by Joe Lynch, is a remake of Fred Cavayé’s À bout portant, which was originally released in 2010. The film stars two actors from the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Frank Grillo and Anthony Mackie as Abe and Paul, respectively. Paul has to break Abe out of custody in a hospital as his brother has taken Paul’s pregnant wife hostage. What commences is an unorthodox buddy-action comedy, in what is sadly yet another dull and tedious action-adventure.

It is hard to watch Point Blank and not debate why this was made, or even distributed by Netflix. Everything from its plot, actors and actress, or even filmmaking evokes a sense of direct-to-dvd nature.

Dylan O'Brien is going to blow audiences away with his gritty performance in American Assassin. His turn as Mitch Rapp will be mentioned in the same breath as Matt Damon's Jason Bourne and Daniel Craig's James Bond. He shreds the screen with an intense, physical ferocity. The role would be demanding for any actor. It's astonishing to think that Dylan O'Brien shot American Assassin seven months after his headline making injuries on the set of The Maze Runner: The Death Cure last March. He suffered life threatening facial fractures and body lacerations from an ill-conceived stunt.

The Maze Runner: The Death Cure halted production until Dylan O'Brien could recover. The accident also endangered the rights to American Assassin. The rights for the film would revert from Lionsgate and CBS Films back to the estate of author Vince Flynn if not completed that year. American Assassin is one in...

Tiger Zinda Hai, the larger than life, slick spy drama from Yash Raj Films has wrapped up its schedule in Mumbai. Having travelled to exotic locales of Austria and Abu Dhabi, the film shot it’s next schedule in Mumbai. This time, the shoot featured Katrina Kaif in fighting fit form for an action sequence.

A source from the film’s unit said, “Director Ali Abbas Zafar has committed to deliver action, stunts and fight sequences that will compete with global standards with Tiger Zinda Hai. To shoot for Katrina’s action scenes, Tom Struthers, the action and stunts director of the film worked with her. Buster Reeves, the fight coordinator of many Hollywood films, also worked with Katrina on this portion. Given Struthers shot for certain action sequences for Christopher Nolan’s Batman films including the Dark Knight Rises, expect the absolute best from these scenes. There are also stuntmen from France,...

London – We are here at Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden, where the Harry Potter films were shot, among other works. Working at the studio today are a number of people who participated in that legendary franchise. There is the production designer for all eight films, Stuart Craig; producer of six of them, David Barron; and the director of four (five if you include the upcoming Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which Craig has also worked on), David Yates. On this September 2014 day, however, Yates and company aren't telling some improbable tale of a boy wizard, no, they're telling the improbable tale of a boy who was raised by animals in the jungle and, as a man, finds himself back in that very same jungle to save the woman he loves. They are at work on The Legend of Tarzan featuring Alexander Skarsgard as the legendary vine-swinger. Also appearing in the movie are Margot Robbie as Jane; Christoph Waltz as the villainous Captain Rom; Djimon Hounsou as Chief Mbonga; and Samuel L. Jackson as George Washington Williams, who is working with our hero. This film has been a long time coming. Certainly not the first on board, Skarsgard started to talk to Yates about this project about two years before I met him on set in 2014. 18 months ago he started training, as the film was originally scheduled to shoot in the summer of 2013. "It was really devastating," Skarsgard explains about the delay and the potential the movie wasn't going to ever get made. That sadness though turned back to something more positive when, after going off the grid to ski at the South Pole, Skarsgard finally made it to a place where "they actually had internet there, like really slow dial-up" and received an email from Yates saying that things were looking good for Tarzan. While that may be Skarsgard's origin story for this role, the movie itself is not an origin tale. In fact, it isn't even based on an Edgar Rice Burroughs Tarzan tale. David Barron informs us, "None of it comes from Burroughs." It is, Barron says, "based on the character" Burroughs created but an original tale. Legend of Tarzan features its hero (John Clayton III, as he is known in England) returning to Africa as a trade emissary, Jane getting kidnapped by Rom, and Tarzan having to save her. Skarsgard promises us flashbacks to the character as a boy, but the bulk of the story is about his adult life and return to Africa, "The emotional journey isn't, you know, the man from the jungle trying to readjustment or adapt to life… in Victorian London. It's quite the opposite. When you first meet him, he's in England… he's Lord Greystoke and he's very civilized and a British lord and then he goes back to his home—his emotional home—the Congo, and it's that kind of dichotomy between man and beast. He's not really happy in England. He's got an amazing wife; a fantastic manor… a really good life on the surface, but he's not happy. He's not really himself there." As the movie progresses, Skarsgard says, there is, "more Tarzan and less John Clayton III." Sadly for those of us on set this day, they are filming a scene relatively early on in Tarzan's return to Africa. There is a train car set up on a stage and Tarzan is having a moderate disagreement with some Belgian soldiers, a disagreement mainly expressed through some violent physical acts. We can't get a good look at what's happening inside the train car—although we do see a soldier wearing a harness get lifted out of the car after being manhandled by Tarzan—but we get to see the movie magic of the car rocking back and forth along with the lights moving so as to simulate the motion of the train. What is impressive is not the fisticuffs on this stage, but the jungle that exists on another. Well, the jungle that exists on two other stages. Rearranging the trees and paths that run through these two stages, seven total looks have been made available to Yates when filming in the trees. Speaking of this jungle, Craig tells us that what we see on the set isn't quite the way it would be in the rain forest – the trees, for example, are grouped too close together. He describes them as "a piece of architectural sculpture." Try to tell the actual mushrooms growing on the set that things aren't real though. Yes, the jungle is in England. No principal photography for the movie is taking place in Africa—six weeks of shooting will take place in Gabon, mainly the aerial unit for visual effects background plates, says Barron—due to the difficulties of shooting there and the cost. Barron explains that it's "not a nice place to work. Fun place to go to, but not a nice place to spend several months shooting." He says that with the help of visual effects, "no one will ever know this is not Africa." One of the things that will add to this verisimilitude is the number of extras who portray the tribes. The film's makeup and hair designer, Fae Hammond, describes getting 160 people ready as "like a factory" with each individual going around to various sections (hair, scars, etc.). It takes as long, Hammond says, as three hours for a team of about 40 to 50 to get the makeup done for the tribes people. Many questions posed to the cast and crew this day are about other Tarzan films as the character does have such a long big screen legacy. How big? Well, this is not Craig's first experience with the character. He was also the production designer on 1984's Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes. While the two films may not be directed related, that film, he says, is "in a way, the kind of prequel to this." As Craig explains things, the former movie takes Tarzan from his birth out of the jungle and this one is "his return to Africa" and consequently "they kind of follow on, in narrative terms." He also notes though that they didn't have the use of computers for that movie. Having people in ape suits performing stunts limited production design in a way that this film does not have to worry about. As he puts it, "it compromised the set, the jungle set." While Craig's previous experience with Tarzan might lead into this movie, he also acknowledges that the way the worlds that are being portrayed are not the same. "I think there was an attempt to be deliberately different," he says after noting the use of a different look for the paddle steamer, tree house jungle home, and ancestral home for Tarzan's family (this time it's Kedleston Hall in Derbyshire, last time it was Floors Castle). Discussing an entirely different sort of "look" for the film, namely nature of the action, is stunt coordinator Buster Reeves who can delve into everything from vine-swinging, to the tight confines of the train fight being shot today, to the "CGI padded suit" worn by some members of his team. With this last one, Reeves describes how they took the measurements of gorillas for this suit so that it could be appropriately padded. They also, "designed a set of arms to make them elongated… [since] monkeys arms are longer than the legs and we're vice-versa." He adds, "it's a real interesting process that when you put that stuff on, how much you feel your body physically change" and just how different it is from way most people would act while doing a monkey impression. How, exactly, audiences respond to the world that Yates and his team have put together remains to be seen. Barron promises that this is "just a great, big, fun action-adventure romp." That is, of course, precisely what has made Tarzan so popular in both literature and on the screen. Perhaps, if they have gotten everything just right and those who go to the theaters love it, Skarsgard will supplant Johnny Weissmuller (whom Skarsgard himself lists as his favorite) as the classic depiction of the character. The Legend of Tarzan is swinging into theaters in just a few short weeks.

New behind-the-scenes footage from The Dark Knight Rises has been released. The featurette focuses on Anne Hathaway as Catwoman, and features director Christopher Nolan, producer Emma Thomas and stunt coordinator Tom Struthers discussing her physical commitment to the role. "She just attacked it with a precision, and I can't imagine how difficult it must have been for her," Thomas enthused. "She was having to do the most amazing stuff, and having to do it backwards and in high heels." Fight arranger Buster Reeves went on to describe the fighting (more)...

From cinematographer Wally Pfister to Bane's body double, meet the brains and the beefcake who brought the Batman series to such a spectacular end

The Beginnings

Wally Pfister, cinematographer

Chris [Nolan] and I evolved our process of how to approach action pictures together, and it was very helpful that what we did in between were very different kinds of projects. There's a bit of release between these movies that allowed us both to grow in different directions and explore different approaches. After Batman Begins, we did The Prestige, a 19th-century period piece about magic; it had very little action but an awful lot of fascinating character studies, so we applied some of the things we learned to The Dark Knight. Then we shot Inception in lots of different countries, and Chris really applied that to The Dark Knight Rises, which opened up a fresh approach to scale. I believe there's only...

The 18th Screen Actor Guild Award ceremony took place last night at the Shrine Exposition Centre in La HBO series 'Game of Thrones', which is filmed in Northern Ireland, was honoured with the Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Television Series. The series stunt coordinator was Paul Jennings (Clash of the Titans, The Dark Knight), Amie Stephenson (Red, Clash of the Titans) was the stunt manager on set and Buster Reeves(Green Latern, Red) provided fight arrangement. includes such Irish talent as Ifta nominated Michelle Fairley, Ian McElhinney, Aidan Gillen and Jack Gleeson.

After grossing over $125 million in the Summer of 1995, the popularity of the hit arcade/console game Mortal Kombat was apparent beyond the joystick. Obviously, due to its success, a sequel was made and released in November 1997, but the same type of success eluded Mortal Kombat: Annihilation. Critically ripped apart, the film did go onto gross $51 million, which on a budget of $30, was a minor success still.

John R. Leonetti took over as director for Paul W.S. Anderson, who went on to direct Event Horizon as this film followed the events of the closing moments of the first film. Shao Kahn (played by genre vet Brian Thompson) has ignored the sacred rules of the tournament, and with the defeat of Shang Tsung, has entered the Earth Realm to seize his control. With the help of Raiden (Dexter‘s James Remar filling in for the departed Christopher Lambert), Liu Kang (Robin Shou...

Karl Urban is one of those cool actors who seems to get all of the cool jobs. From demon hunting in Doom to going where no one has gone before, he's one of the most well liked, and respected actors in the business. He's also an enormous nerd with a light saber collection. In this interview for Red, Karl talks about his character, punching Bruce Willis in the face, shooting guns, his work on “Priest” and more Star Trek sequels as Red week wraps up here at Latinoreview. When you got on this project, who was attached when you first signed on? Urban: When I was attached, it was Bruce, Mlp, Morgan…who else? Helen, Ernie Borgnine, and I think Malkovich came on just after myself. So when you first heard about the cast, were you immediately like, “Yeah, this sounds real good”? Urban: Yeah. I mean it is extraordinary.

On a sunny day in New Orleans a few months ago, I got to visit the set of Summit Entertainment’s Red while the production was filming in a shipping yard. The scene I watched involved Bruce Willis, Mary-Louise Parker, John Malkovich and a group of “evil doers” as they tried to kill our protagonists. Needless to say, our heroes escaped unharmed. For more on the set visit, read my report here.

While the scene featured a lot of the main cast, Karl Urban had the day off, but he agreed to come to set anyway to talk to the visiting online journalists. Needless to say, we were all happy he came by. During our extended interview he talked about the challenges of filming Red, his character, filming in Toronto and New Orleans, training for the film, Star Trek and possible sequels, and so much more. It’s a great...

In “Clash of the Titans,” the ultimate struggle for power pits men against kings and kings against gods. But the war between the gods themselves could destroy the world. Born of a god but raised as a man, Perseus (Sam Worthington) is helpless to save his family from Hades (Ralph Fiennes), vengeful god of the underworld. With nothing left to lose, Perseus volunteers to lead a dangerous mission to defeat Hades before he can seize power from Zeus (Liam Neeson) and unleash hell on earth.

Propelling audiences into a mythological world of epic action and adventure, “Clash of the Titans” is presented in 3D, making the gods even more formidable, the creatures even more fearsome, and taking audiences even deeper into the mythological realm of Perseus’ quest. Directed by Louis Leterrier, the film’s supporting cast includes Mads Mikkelsen, Gemma Arterton, Jason Flemyng, Danny Huston, and Alexa Davalos.

Sam Worthington,...

The SAG Awards sparkled. Women in beautiful dresses, perfectly accessorized; men crisply attired in suits or tuxes; and flash cameras and video everywhere—it was quite a scene. There was drama …

… and romance:

Boldface names made their way down the red carpet: the bolder the name, the faster they moved. Oops, there went Brad Pitt (Benjamin Button). Too late. But Alec Baldwin (30 Rock) did pause for a moment:

He picked up an award later that evening for male actor in a comedy series. Meanwhile, the unofficial award for cutest kids went to the ones playing adman Don Draper’s children in Mad Men. Kiernan Shipka looks sweet …

… but advised me that if she won an award (she did, as part of an ensemble), it would go next to her Tae Kwon Do trophies. Easy there tiger! Meanwhile, her cast-mate and fellow winner Aaron Hart is a handsome little fellow …

… but...

The winners for the 15th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards® have been announced. The ceremony was held on Sunday, Jan. 25, at the Los Angeles Shrine Exposition Center and was simulcast by TNT and TBS. Dany Boyle's acclaimed "Slumdog Millionaire" took home the best Cast of a Motion Picture, Sean Penn won for his dramatic performance in "Milk" and Heath Ledger was recognized again for his work as 'The Joker' in "The Dark Knight." Actresses taking home top honors were Meryl Streep who impressed most again with a win for her performance in Miramax Films' "Doubt" and Kate Winslet added another award for her work on The Weinsten Company's "The Reader." As announced by the Screen Actors Guild, here are the winners: 15th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards® Recipients Theatrical Motion PICTURESOutstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role Sean Penn Harvey Milk "Milk" Focus FeaturesOutstanding Performance...