A Quick Update on STAR WARS: STARFIGHTER...

So I just read online that Mia Goth—who was amazing in such horror flicks as 2023's Infinity Pool and 2024's MaXXXine—has been cast in 2027's Star Wars: Starfighter...which will be directed by Deadpool & Wolverine's Shawn Levy and star Ryan Gosling.

Unsurprisingly, Goth will be playing the lead villain in Starfighter. According to online reports, Goth will portray an antagonist who's after the young nephew of Gosling's character in the Star Wars spinoff flick. It remains to be seen if Goth's villain will be a former member of the First Order or Final Order...since Starfighter is supposed to take place just five years after the events of 2019's The Rise of Skywalker.

Some Sequel Trilogy characters (like Oscar Isaac's Poe Dameron, which would make sense since he's a starfighter pilot) may return in this film!

Star Wars: Starfighter is set to hit theaters nationwide on May 28, 2027.

A New, Long-Awaited Category Will Soon Be Presented at the Academy Awards...

It was announced earlier today that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will soon have a new category to present at the Academy Awards a few years from now...for Best Stunt Design!

This award to recognize stunt performers in the filmmaking community has been years in the making, with the first Best Stunt Design Oscar to be presented in 2028—during the 100th Academy Awards ceremony.

Director David Leitch (who helmed 2024's The Fall Guy, 2022's Bullet Train and 2018's Deadpool 2) led the initiative on behalf of the stunt community to bring this new official Oscar category to fruition.

Can't wait to see who'll take home the first trophy for stunt design! This category will honor movies that will be released in 2027, so will Avengers: Secret Wars, The Batman: Part II and Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum be among the first nominees? Stay tuned.

Lookin' Ahead to Next Year's 97th Academy Awards...

Earlier today, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the shortlists for 10 categories that will be presented during next March's 97th Oscars ceremony.

Gladiator II, which should've crossed the $400 million mark at the worldwide box office today, was mentioned in three categories: Sound, Visual Effects and Original Score.

In regards to Sound, Gladiator II is currently in contention with other blockbusters like Alien: Romulus, Deadpool & Wolverine, Dune: Part Two and Wicked.

For Visual Effects, director Ridley Scott's legacy sequel to 2000's Gladiator is running against Civil War, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, the upcoming live-action Disney prequel Mufasa: The Lion King and Twisters.

And lastly, in terms of Original Score, Gladiator II shares the same category as Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, The Brutalist, Conclave, the upcoming horror film Nosferatu and The Wild Robot.

The 10 shortlisted categories are Sound, Visual Effects, Original Score, Documentary Feature, International Feature, Makeup and Hairstyling, Original Song, Animated Short Film, Documentary Short Film and Live Action Short Film.

The Oscar nominations will be announced on January 17, while ABC TV will air the Academy Awards (with Conan O'Brien hosting) live on March 2. Stay tuned!

A Day of Moviegoing at Regal Edwards...

Gettin' ready to watch Deadpool & Wolverine today!

This is the second time I'm watching the Deadpool threequel on the big screen... I saw Deadpool & Wolverine at the AMC Theatres that I usually go to yesterday!

An Update on DEADPOOL 3...

So cool to finally see Hugh Jackman don the classic yellow suit of Wolverine in the second sequel to Deadpool! It's too bad that principal photography for Deadpool 3 will most likely be put on hold by the impending strike by the Screen Actors Guild, along with the continuing strike by the Writer Guild of America...

Carry on.

GLADIATOR 2 Has a 2024 Release Date!

So I just found out earlier today that Gladiator 2, starring Paul Mescal and once again directed by Ridley Scott, will make its theatrical debut around Thanksgiving of next year!

Based on the 2024 movie list below, the Gladiator sequel's November 22 opening date doesn't come as a surprise...since it would've need to deal with the Mad Max: Fury Road spinoff Furiosa and Part 2 of Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning, as well as Marvel's Captain America: New World Order and Thunderbolts during the summer, and potential awards season contenders like Wicked: Part One, Joker: Folie à Deux and Avatar: The Seed Bearer later that year.

And Marvel's Deadpool 3 will open two weeks before Gladiator 2...on November 8. It's all good.

(The first Gladiator film was released on May 5, 2000.)

All I can say is— Movie-wise, 2024 can't come soon enough! In regards to this year, I'm excited to watch Titanic on the big screen again when it returns to theaters next week (on February 10 for its 25-year anniversary, which was last December), Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania on February 17, and Cocaine Bear a week after that...on February 24. Heh.

Blockbusters releasing in 2024:

- Gladiator 2
- Furiosa
- Avatar 3
- Mickey 17
- Joker 2
- Deadpool 3
- Blade
- Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse
- WICKED Part 1
- Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning — Part 2
- Godzilla V Kong Sequel
- Thunderbolts
- Captain America 4
- Mufasa pic.twitter.com/2gN62Av5pw

— Cinema Solace (@CinemaSoIace) February 3, 2023

Movie Review: BULLET TRAIN...

Earlier today, I watched the action comedy film Bullet Train—starring Brad Pitt, directed by David Leitch (of Deadpool 2) and based on the Japanese novel Maria Beetle by Kōtarō Isaka—at AMC theaters.

It was definitely enjoyable...with Bullet Train basically being Pulp Fiction if it took place on a high-speed railway line in the Land of the Rising Sun.

Bullet Train is about a peaceable assassin codenamed Ladybug (Pitt) who has to retrieve a briefcase from aboard the high-speed vehicle, and ends up running into other colorful killers (played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Brian Tyree Henry and Zazie Beetz) who are after Ladybug's precious cargo as well.

It doesn't help that Ladybug confronts other lethal assassins (played by Andrew Koji, Hiroyuki Sanada, Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio and Joey King) aboard the train during this increasingly-complex mission!

Of course, despite these unfortunate circumstances, Ladybug manages to survive this trip aboard the bullet train and reunites with his handler (played by Sandra Bullock) at the end.

What makes Bullet Train so fun is that it's Ladybug's huge amount of bad luck in this flick that got him through all of the confrontations with the killers mentioned above, as well as the main antagonist who brought all these assassins aboard the train in the first place: the White Death (portrayed by Michael Shannon).

If I had the same amount of bad luck that Ladybug had in Bullet Train, I'd probably go on to win the lottery, pay off my credit card debts (again) and maybe even get my favorite job back! I lost it over a decade ago. Happy Sunday!

Movie Review: FREE GUY...

Earlier today, I went to my local AMC theater to watch the Ryan Reynolds sci-fi comedy flick, Free Guy. Needless to say, it was a very enjoyable movie...and much deeper than the trailers made it out to be!

As a quick synopsis for the film, Free Guy is about a video game character named Guy (played by Reynolds) who was created through advanced artificial intelligence and quickly became aware that the world he lived in wasn't what it appeared to be.

Guy runs into Molotov Girl (portrayed by Jodie Comer), the woman of Guy's dreams who's on a secret mission to expose the true origin of Free City...the metropolis where Guy happily lived in and worked at as a coffee-sipping bank teller.

Like Deadpool, but with a PG-13 rating, Free Guy aptly made use of Reynolds' quick wit and comedic talent. Also providing hilarious and at-times heartwarming moments to the movie were his co-stars...from Comer (who also played Millie in the film's real-world scenes), Joe Keery (as Keys), Utkarsh Ambudkar (as Mouser), Channing Tatum (as Avatar), Matty Cardarople (as Gamer), Aaron W. Reed (as Dude) and Lil Rel Howery (as Buddy) to Taika Waititi (as the hilarious antagonist, Antwan).

In regards to the movies that Free Guy reminded me of, it had moments that were reminiscent of the 1998 Jim Carrey film The Truman Show, the 2018 Steven Spielberg flick Ready Player One, the 1998 rom-com You've Got Mail (starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan), Christopher Nolan's 2010 sci-fi flick Inception, 2010's Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (starring Michael Cera and Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and unsurprisingly, 1999's The Matrix. But with a much lighter tone and a PG-13 rating.

Free Guy was originally supposed to be released last year, but was obviously postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, the wait was worth it! As mentioned earlier, this movie played to Ryan Reynold's greatest strengths, and it clearly had a couple of messages to convey (from betraying people to earn lots of money and wanting to live life to the fullest, to finding true love) that weren't really emphasized in the film's TV ads and theatrical trailers.

Free Guy is a must-see movie—especially considering that it also had a couple of cool cameos in it! SPOILER ALERT: I won't elaborate on the appearance made by a cast member who starred in several Marvel films like The Avengers, but it was emotional to see the late and great TV game show host Alex Trebek show up in Free Guy.

Before I end this blog entry, let me just say, "Don't have a good day, have a great day!" That is all.

A Sad Day for L.A. Moviegoers...

FREDERIC J. BROWN / AFP via Getty Images

A few hours ago, I found out through the Hollywood Reporter that ArcLight Cinemas and Pacific Theatres will permanently shut their doors—as business was unable to recover due to the COVID-19 pandemic. All I can say is, this is hugely disappointing...to the point where I almost became a bit teary-eyed as I read various news articles about this. Between 2004 and 2010, I had a fun job at a market research company where I worked movie test and press screenings at the ArcLight in Hollywood and Pacific Theatres throughout Southern California. Also, I watched such films as Avatar, Zero Dark Thirty and two Star Wars films (Revenge of the Sith and The Force Awakens, to be specific) at the ArcLight as well. Not only that, but I visited the ArcLight on Sunset Boulevard numerous times over the past decade to see costumes and vehicles used in flicks like Ant-Man and the Wasp, Deadpool 2, The Force Awakens and Transformers: Dark of the Moon, respectively, inside its main theater lobby.

And now it's all gone.

It's just painful that more nails continue to be placed in the coffin in terms of my memories at places that I'll no longer work at that I do want to work in again. I could make this Blog entry extremely long to voice more of my disappointment at this breaking news, but I'll conclude this here. Another era that I cherished comes to an end.

Welcome, Arthur Fleck... A New JOKER Is Revealed!

Several hours ago, the video below was posted online—courtesy of director Todd Phillips (of The Hangover trilogy and 2016's War Dogs) himself—of Joaquin Phoenix transforming into the Clown Prince of Crime for 2019's Joker. Personally speaking, I dig the look! Right off the bat he ranks above Jared Leto's version from 2016's Suicide Squad on the Joker scale. And I hope Arthur Fleck (the name of Phoenix's character before he dons the make-up) asks a hapless victim "Am I not merciful?" (if you watched 2000's Gladiator you'd get the reference) in the same manner that the late, great Heath Ledger would ask "Why...so...serious?"

Joker hits theaters on October 4, 2019 (which is when I um, celebrate my 40th birthday). Joining Joaquin Phoenix in this DC Comics standalone flick is Zazie Beetz (who played Domino in Deadpool 2) and Robert De Niro. And in case you're wondering, yes—Leto is set to get his own Joker movie as well. I'm more excited for the one starring Commodus, though. Have a great weekend!

First look at Joaquin Phoenix in makeup as the Joker via Todd Phillips pic.twitter.com/Xp8olpI8Gl

— Lights, Camera, Pod (@LightsCameraPod) September 21, 2018

Disney Acquires 21st Century Fox...

So as of today, Disney not only owns Star Wars, Indiana Jones and the majority of the Marvel film franchise, but it now has total control over The Simpsons, Aliens, Avatar, Independence Day, Family Guy and the rest of the Marvel film franchise (Sony owns Spider-Man but Marvel Studios is allowed to use him in its own movies). All I can say is, offer Hugh Jackman a huge paycheck so he can play Wolverine one last time in Avengers 4, make sure that Deadpool remains R-rated, ensure that James Cameron's Avatar sequels don't conflict with the release dates of future Star Wars movies (i.e. Rian Johnson's new trilogy) and (this is a NO-BRAINER) make sure that the next Fantastic Four and X-Men flicks (Will next year's Dark Phoenix be canceled? Of course not) are officially included in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Oh, and create an Independence Day sequel that's as good as the first one! Carry on.

And yes, I will be watching The Last Jedi during a 7 PM screening at AMC Theatres tonight.

Meme of the Day: That Crazy Deadpool!

Just thought I'd share this meme that I saw on Facebook showing Deadpool poking fun at next month's highly-anticipated film, Captain America: Civil War. If you watched the Ryan Reynolds movie over the last two months, you'll remember that one scene where he makes the observation that Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead are the only students of Professor X who Deadpool kept running into during the flick ("It's almost like the studio couldn't afford another X-Man"). Well— The same applies to Civil War... Where money and the running time limited the amount of superheroes who could show up to fight alongside Captain America or Iron Man in this film. But looking at the comparison between the comic book and movie below, it really is sad that Civil War's epic storyline won't be given full justice on the big screen. At least Spider-Man will make an appearance. That is all.

Work-In-Progress Photos of the Rey (and BB-8), Deadpool and Armored Batman Drawings...

As promised, here are the work-in-progress pics of the Rey/BB-8, Deadpool and Armored Batman drawings that I posted yesterday. To view clickable versions of these images, go to the Artwork section on my main website. Carry on!

Images of the Day: It's Rey, Deadpool and Armored Batman! Oh, and BB-8, Too...

Just thought I'd share these drawings that I made over the past week depicting Star Wars: The Force Awakens' Rey and BB-8, the Merc with a Mouth (a.k.a. Deadpool), and Armored Batman from Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Coming up tomorrow: Work-in-progress pics of these illustrations that I took while I was drawing them. I captured these images with my Android smartphone since I no longer have a computer scanner. And that scanner was a piece of garbage even if I still had it. Happy Monday!