Keanu Reeves Was Put In ‘Movie Jail’ After Turning Down Speed 2

Keanu Reeves Was Put In ‘Movie Jail’ After Turning Down Speed 2

Keanu Reeves made the leap from Bill and Ted slacker to legitimate action star thanks to his role in 1994's Speed. The movie made over $350 million (in 1994 dollars) and was one of the top 10 movies at the box office that year. The fact that a sequel went into the works is no surprise. However, when it came time to make the movie, Reeves ended up turning the role down, a decision which apparently sent him to "movie jail" for more than a decade. According to the actor...

I didn’t work with [Fox] again until The Day the Earth Stood Still.

Speed 2: Cruise Control was released in 1997 and The Day the Earth Stood Still came out in 2008. It seems that in that time, Fox was none to happy with Keanu Reeves. The actor doesn't go into detail with GQ regarding "movie jail," but it seems Reeves was well aware that it wasn't a coincidence that none of his projects for the next decade or so ended up at the studio. Apparently, Fox was miffed that he turned down the Speed sequel. One certainly wonders what sorts of Fox projects Reeves could have potentially been a part of had it not been for his 10 year sentence to movie jail.

A brief look at the box office results makes it clear why Fox was unhappy. Speed 2 made $168 million, less than half what the original movie did. While it's hard to chalk up all of that difference to the fact Keanu Reeves wasn't in the movie, Reeves was certainly a bigger name than Jason Patric, the guy who took the role of male lead opposite Sandra Bullock in the sequel. Also, the simple fact that Reeves didn't return could have potentially signaled to many moviegoers that the follow-up wasn't worth their time. If Reeves was the reason you saw the first one, why bother with the sequel.

It's unclear here if the reason Reeves didn't reprise his role from Speed was because he had any issues with the movie itself. He chose to play Hamlet on stage in Canada instead, but he may have just really wanted to play Hamlet more than make the movie.

Of course, Reeves would go on to star in the Matrix trilogy which turned him into an even bigger star. Now he's part of another major franchise, the John Wick series, which is produced by Lionsgate, a much smaller studio. In fact, as GQ points out, Reeves hasn't made a movie with any major studio since 2013's 47 Ronin, which was something of a flop, so perhaps the actor is actually back in movie jail, but just doesn't know it.

At the end of the day, business is business, but those businesses are also run by people, and if you upset people, they can react in emotional ways. It seems that's what happened here.

Read More

How The Best Of Enemies Stands Out From All Other Civil Rights Biopics

How The Best Of Enemies Stands Out From All Other Civil Rights Biopics

When making a film that covers a part of history as cinematically saturated as the civil rights movement, it’s important to have a fresh angle for the audience to take in. It’s not an easy job, but when done correctly, it really makes the difference when trying to sell a film like this weekend’s The Best of Enemies. Based on the true story of the fight for school desegregation in Durham, North Carolina, this story’s unique perspective is a tried and true method that focuses more on the characters and their transformation, rather than the events themselves.

No one understands this better than the film’s stars, Taraji P. Henson and Sam Rockwell, and they said as much in their conversation with CinemaBlend, as we were on hand for The Best of Enemies’ recent press day. Sitting down with Henson and Rockwell, their feelings on just how this film stands out are pretty indicative of such an angle, as they provided the following thoughts when asked about that subject:

Henson: 'I think that what makes [The Best of Enemies] uniquely different is that you see a real transformation happen. Not that in other movies you don’t see the transformations of the characters, but I’ve never seen a film where a Ku Klux member denounces the KKK, and becomes a civil rights activist.'

Rockwell: 'And that’s true, he tore up his card. Spoiler alert for the movie. It spoils the ending.'

Respectively playing civil rights activist Ann Atwater and prominent regional leader of the Ku Klux Klan C.P. Ellis, Taraji P. Henson and Sam Rockwell are in agreement that the key detail that makes The Best of Enemies different from the various civil rights biopics that exist is the element of transformation.

While Ellis’ transformation from white supremacist to his eventual position as a labor crusader who denounces his Klan membership may be the more visible, and definitely more surprising one, there’s still a transformation that occurs on Atwater’s end. Seeing her go from a sworn enemy of C.P. Ellis to an actual friend and collaborator is the other half of the equation, which only makes the end result of The Best of Enemies all the sweeter. However, there’s another interesting discussion to be had thanks to this conversation.

Specifically, that second line of thought is in the debate over what counts as a spoiler when it comes to a movie like The Best of Enemies. As the film is an adaptation of a piece of history, rather than a whole cloth fabrication of fictional basis, but is also based on a story that’s not widely discussed, the line between spoiled or not spoiled can be somewhat blurry. This is especially true as not only is there a treasure trove of information available on this very subject in reference materials, there’s other adaptations that have told this story before the narrative film version was even in production.

Taking all of this into account, Sam Rockwell, a recent veteran of historical adaptation pictures thanks to his work on Vice and the upcoming FX series Fosse/Verdon, sounded like he was of the mind that revealing that detail about his character before people have been able to see The Best of Enemies was indeed a spoiler. However, Taraji P. Henson believes that the other side of the coin is true. She said as much during that very same conversation, as she laid out the following case for historical movies being somewhat spoiler proof:

It doesn’t, because the movie is already out there. It’s a play. If you know anything about this film, it’s not like the gig is up. It actually happened, and if anybody wants to google it, they’re gonna find out.

One could say that even with the historical evidence provided, knowing that C.P. Ellis tears up his Klan card at the end of The Best of Enemies is a spoiler because it’s crucial to the story that the film is telling. But no matter which side of the argument you land on, it’s easy to agree that The Best of Enemies’ usage of the personal transformation angle is what makes it a special case when it comes to a film approaching an often covered part of history. And so long as there are stories deeply rooted in how people reacted to events such as these, then there’s still room left to tell those stories in the world of cinema.

The Best of Enemies bridges the gap between history and cinema, on April 5. Stay tuned to CinemaBlend, as we’ll have more coverage on this film throughout the week. Though if you’re looking for more true to life stories headed to theaters this year, our 2019 release calendar is there to help you decide on which stories to follow.

Read More

Viola Davis Officially Returning As Waller For The Suicide Squad

Viola Davis Officially Returning As Waller For The Suicide Squad

DC's live-action universe has had a fascinating tenure in theaters, with plenty of twists and turns accompanying each blockbuster. During the DCEU's early stages, Warner Bros. failed to acquire a true critical and box office darling. Batman v Superman, Justice League, and Suicide Squad all failed to live up to their expectations, and it seemed like the behemoth franchise was in jeopardy. But DC seems to have course correct, focusing less on crossovers and serialized storytelling and more on individual director-driven blockbusters.

Just look at The Suicide Squad, which will be written and directed by Guardians of the Galaxy visionary James Gunn. Gunn will take on the titular team of villains from David Ayer, who helmed the somewhat disappointing first film. Gunn has been focused on bringing his cast together, featuring both newcomers and returning players from Suicide Squad. And now another returning face has joined the new project, as Viola Davis will reportedly reprise her role as Amanda Waller.

This news comes to us from The Wrap, as the publication has contacts with someone close to production. While Viola Davis' involvement hasn't been officially confirmed by the studio, it's a development that should get DC fans very excited. Because while not every aspect of the first Suicide Squad was successful, Davis brought a tenacity and ruthlessness to Amanda Waller that the next movie would be remiss to exclude.

If the report is to be believed, Viola Davis is the second Suicide Squad actor to officially sign on for James Gunn's developing movie. She joins Jai Courtney, who played the rowdy Captain Boomerang in the first film. It's also widely believed that Margot Robbie will return to play Harley Quinn for the third time, although that hasn't been officially confirmed by the studio yet.

Viola Davis returning as Amanda Waller potentially provides The Suicide Squad with an enemy for the titular team of villains to face off again. David Ayer's Oscar winning movie showed what Waller was calculating, manipulative, and steadfast in her beliefs. She was willing to kill the Squad as well as her own team in order to accomplish her goals, and make it out of the conflict with The Enchantress alive.

Suicide Squad's post-credits scene also saw Amanda Waller come face to face with Ben Affleck's Batman. What's more, she knew his true identity as Bruce Wayne. But with Affleck officially hanging up his cowl and cape, we probably won't see this plot line come to fruition. But at least Oscar and Emmy winner Viola Davis is returning to bring life to Waller once more.

It should be interesting to see who else returns for The Suicide Squad. Idris Elba is taking on the role of Deadshot, while it's also been reported that James Gunn is bringing new characters into the team. We'll just have to wait and see.

Viola Davis' potential involvement in The Suicide Squad is fascinating, and might tease what James Gunn has in store for his upcoming DC debut. The writer/director reportedly wants to approach the blockbuster more like a reboot than a sequel, not necessarily picking up the narrative after the first film. This seems like a great idea considering the movie's disappointment performance, and would allow Gunn to do some world-building and assemble a motley crew of comic book characters.

James Gunn's reported commitment to a full reboot gained steam with Idris Elba's casting as Deadshot. Will Smith's performance as the character was one of Suicide Squad's stronger points, so having him return to the role seems like a no brainer. But he ultimately tapped out, leaving room for Elba to take on the mantle. Since then, DC fans waited to see what other characters could be recast.

But so far Deadshot is the only character who will be played by a new actor. What's more, James Gunn is reportedly bringing back a variety of characters from the first film for The Suicide Squad, including Captain Boomerang and Amanda Waller. Margot Robbie's Harley seems like an obvious choice to help roundup the cast, although she'll first appear in Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn).

Amanda Waller's inclusion in The Suicide Squad also makes a great deal of sense, as the Viola Davis' character didn't actually change much throughout the course of the first movie. When Enchantress is taken down by the motley crew of characters, Waller seems just as dedicated to her cause. And while the titular team was given a decade off their sentences and some special privileges, they were all promptly sent back to Belle Reve at Waller's behest.

If The Suicide Squad's narrative is at all influenced by the events of the first movie, Amanda Waller should be floating on her success. The concept of the Squad worked out in the end, even if her treatment of Enchantress was also the cause of the conflict. Since then, there have been even more superheroic events from Justice League, Aquaman, and even Shazam! It seems the DCEU needs Waller's team of villains more than ever. At least, that's what she'd want the authorities to think.

James Gunn signed onto The Suicide Squad before Disney welcomed him back to the fold for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. As such, his DC movie should come to theaters before the Guardians get their eventual threequel. And he seems like an inspired choice to take on the franchise, as he's clearly demonstrated a knack for ensemble comic book movies with a motley crew of underdogs. So perhaps he'll be able to bring the Suicide Squad to where the team deserves.

The first trailer for David Ayer's Suicide Squad was hot fire, as "Bohemian Rhapsody" played to accompany the wild characters and action shots. Unfortunately, that same energy failed to transfer to the final cut, although the movie still made great money, won an Oscar for makeup, and kickstarted a spinoff and eventual sequel.

The Suicide Squad is currently set to arrive in theaters on August 6th, 2021. In the meantime, check out our 2019 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.

Read More

6 Pokemon Movies We’d Like To See After Detective Pikachu

6 Pokemon Movies We’d Like To See After Detective Pikachu

Warning: spoilers for Pokemon: Detective Pikachu are in play. If you don’t want to be spoiled, head over to another story and come back once you’re current.

Over this past weekend, the world was more than kind to the unveiling of what represents the first step into a greater world, with the release of Pokemon: Detective Pikachu. As the world of the Pokemon craze has finally hit the big screen in live-action, the possibilities are now endless.

But in a world where any Pokemon movie could happen, which ones should? There’s already a wealth of films that could come out of this first installment, and it’s a topic worthy of discussion.

In honor of Pokemon: Detective Pikachu’s impressive opening weekend, and in tribute to all of the Pokemon fans out there who made it so big, here’s a list of the next films we’d love to see come out of this burgeoning cinematic universe.

Detective Pikachu 2

The first suggestion is an obvious one, as Pokemon: Detective Pikachu could always use a direct sequel, and one is already in the works. With Justice Smith’s Tim Goodman now staying in Ryme City with his father, and his intent to try and become a detective, there’s definitely room for at least one more adventure with the Goodman family.

While it’d obviously have to be different than the first film, as Harry’s Pikachu wouldn’t have his consciousness in it this time, the wisecracks between father and son would basically serve the purpose that “Detective Pikachu” did in this first film. Also, the bonus is that we’d get to discover the personality of the actual Pikachu that Harry’s partnered up with, which is bound to be cute and informative.

Pokemon Snap

One of the most fondly remembered games in the Pokemon canon, Pokemon Snap has a pretty simple story to it. A young man by the name of Todd Snap is hired to take pictures of various Pokemon, in a region that doesn’t see a lot of human action. This allows anyone who wants to visit it access to some hard data about various species and their lives in the wild.

If that’s not a fantastic idea for a Pokemon film, then good luck finding another one. Pokemon Snap could be an adventure on the same level as Jurassic Park, with a small group of photographers joining Todd along for the ride. We’ve seen the miracle of Pokemon living with humans already, so seeing them undisturbed in the wild, along with any exciting consequences that come from when they are disturbed, seems like it’d be a lot of fun.

Team Rocket’s Origin Story

Confession time: when the mysterious substance “R” was revealed in Pokemon: Detective Pikachu, it felt like there was a setup in the works that would eventually reveal Team Rocket as a part of the cinematic universe. While that never panned out, it wouldn’t be a terrible idea to help expand that corner of the universe.

We already know that the events of Pokemon: The First Movie are canon, thanks to Mewtwo’s backstory folding it into Pokemon: Detective Pikachu. So going back to where it all began, and bringing that story into a live-action context, would be another great step to building the Pokemon stable of films.

A Pokemon: The First Movie Live-Action Remake

Another good thing about folding Pokemon: The First Movie into the canon that exists in the live-action film universe of Pokemon is the fact that, if the studio really wanted to, they could remake that classic original film. And remaking it into a live-action version would serve more of a purpose than just reviving nostalgia.

For starters, the story of Pokemon: The First Movie could be enhanced and retrofitted to slot in with Pokemon: Detective Pikachu’s story a lot better. Also, bringing back the adventures of Ash Ketcham and his dear friends in a new remake would set up an entire series of his adventures being brought to film, filling in the years in-between. Of course, there’s another reason that bringing Pokemon: The First Movie into the recent canon would work perfectly, and it’s to set up another new opportunity to tell a Pokemon-centric story.

A Brand New Mewtwo Stand-Alone Story

With Mewtwo wondering around the wilderness of the Pokemon universe for almost two decades, there’s a lot of story that could be told in that very window of opportunity. Much like Planet of the Apes’ Caesar, Mewtwo has a hell of a story to be told when dealing with his checkered past involving humanity.

And much like Pokemon Snap, this Mewtwo stand-alone adventure could take the action to a far off location in the more wooded areas past Ryme City, allowing for more open and wild adventures to take place. Throw in the fact that we might even get to see what Mew has been up to in the time that Mewtwo has been running wild, and that’s just more story for the taking in a Mewtwo movie.

Super Smash Bros: The Movie

Perhaps the greatest potential for a Pokemon follow-up movie is one that would take some heavy lifting, and years of preparation. With a roster of characters from games far and wide, Super Smash Bros is something that would excite fans of not only Pokemon, but also the greater video game universe. But even if you're not a dyed in the wool fan of this particular fighting series, being a fan of at least one of the properties represented will give you a way into the story of this particular film.

The game's simple story of combatants from all over being drawn together to fight for victory under a specific set of circumstances is basically The Avengers of video games, and taking that to the big screen would be a feat that would be so daunting, and yet so rewarding. If the creative team behind a Super Smash Bros movie nailed that concept on film, the payoff would be so great that there might be hope for other video game movies to get it right themselves. Also, Pikachu and Mewtwo are just two of the Pokemon available in that game, so the ties to the franchise run deeper than most would expect.

Six movies, each of them amazing examples of how Pokemon has set itself up to tell a story so great, it could chance the face of video game movies forever. In Pokemon: Detective Pikachu, Warner Bros and the creative team they've enlisted have proven that they truly understand the world of the franchise and what it needed to become a live-action crossover hit. Now it's time to push the envelope again, and choose to go places that this series, and video game films in general, haven't gone yet, if not for the studio's sake, then for the fans who are already enamored with Pokemon: Detective Pikachu.

Pokemon: Detective Pikachu is in theaters now, waiting for Pokemon fans to understand the power that’s inside this new cinematic universe. But before we leave, we have a question: which of these potential Pokemon films do you want to see the most?

Use the poll below to tell us which of these prospects is your particular favorite, and don’t forget to explain your answer in the comments below!

Read More

8 Differences Between the Animated and Live-Action Dumbo

8 Differences Between the Animated and Live-Action Dumbo

Warning: SPOILERS for the new Dumbo are ahead!

Last weekend, Disney released the latest live-action remake of one of its classic animated films. This time the spotlight shined on Dumbo, who first appeared in 1941. Directed by Tim Burton, the new Dumbo fell short of expectations at the box office and received mixed reviews, so it hasn't caught on fire like many of Disney's other remakes. However, what sets Dumbo apart from those films is that it isn't afraid to deviate from the source material.

Not since Pete's Dragon has there been a Disney remake that changed so much from original movie. You can argue that Dumbo had to make those changes because the cartoon was only about an hour long and some of its elements haven't aged well. Regardless, the remake is really different from the original and most of the changes make it an improvement. Here are eight things that the new Dumbo did differently from its predecessor.

More Emphasis On Human Characters

1941's Dumbo was all about, well, Dumbo. Even though Dumbo never spoke, thanks to the power of animation, audiences were still able to identify with him because of how expressive he was. Plus, he had a small cast of animal characters to speak for him and to keep the plot moving. For his live-action debut, Dumbo is photo-realistic, which means its harder to base an entire movie around just him because he can't be as expressive. So, you need human characters to interpret Dumbo's feelings. Colin Farrell stars as World War I veteran Holt Farrier, who returns home to the circus to raise his two children, who become the caretakers of the newborn Dumbo. The original Dumbo only really had one human character, the ringmaster, who is played here by Danny DeVito.

No More Talking Animals

Seeing as how the remake is a mostly grounded take on Dumbo (excluding the whole flying elephant thing), the film made a decision not to include any talking animals. Dumbo never spoke anyway, but that meant no sassy elephants and no Timothy Mouse, Dumbo's sidekick. The latter is probably the most notable exclusion, but Timothy's role as Dumbo's emotional support is fulfilled by the Farrier children, so there's no real loss from a story perspective. Timothy does still have a cameo as a mouse being trained to perform in the circus. Another benefit of this approach is that the film doesn't have to deal with the talking crows, who in the 1941 version were a racial stereotype of African Americans. (The lead crow was actually named Jim Crow!)

Almost The Entire Plot

1941's Dumbo is barely over an hour long, so a modern day remake would naturally have to reenvision most of the original to fit a two-hour runtime. Additionally, most of the original is just Dumbo going through various shenanigans while trying to reunite with his mother until he learns to fly in the final five minutes(!!!) of the movie. So, a lot of the plot is entirely new to the remake. About the first 30 or so minutes of the movies are the same before the remake deviates from the path. Once Dumbo becomes an overnight sensation, theme park mogul V.A. Vandevere buys Dumbo's circus and brings it to his Dreamland amusement park so that Dumbo can be his star attraction. From there, the film is about Dumbo preparing for his debut while the Farriers hatch an escape plan after learning that Vandevere isn't such a nice guy.

Dumbo Doesn't Get Wasted

Probably the most memorable sequence in 1941's Dumbo is "Pink Elephants on Parade," in which Dumbo and Timothy (accidentally) get drunk and have a trippy hallucination of dancing pink elephants. I hate to be the one to break it to you, but no, a baby elephant doesn't get wasted in this movie. In fact, the remake makes a very quick nod to that when a clown offers to give Dumbo a celebratory drink and DeVito snaps "No champagne near the baby." However, this doesn't mean that the pink elephants don't make an appearance. In the remake, they are massive bubbles that are conjured at Dreamland before Dumbo's big act. They don't play their trumpets like horns, but it's a satisfactory sequence that doesn't leave Dumbo with a hangover.

Dumbo Is Born The Old Fashioned Way

Rather than have Mrs. Jumbo be pregnant and need to explain to kids how babies are born, the original Dumbo had a stork deliver the baby elephant to his mother. It's actually really cute, but the live-action version obviously wasn't going to go that route. Nope, Dumbo is born the old fashioned way. The actual birth isn't shown, but Dumbo shows up about 10 minutes into the movie. The movie does have another nod to the original when the pregnant Jumbo spots a stork right outside her cage the night she gives birth to Dumbo. Dumbo's father is a no-show in both versions.

Uh, Someone Dies

Dumbo is about as light of a kid's movie as you can get, though, it can be really sad in places. However, no one ever died in the original, which you can't say about the remake. Early on in the film, there's a mean circus worker who hates Holt because of... reasons, and he especially seems to hate the elephants. With Holt in charge of the elephants, the worker tries to jeopardize him during Dumbo's very first show by agitating Jumbo and setting her loose in the big top. It doesn't help that everyone was making fun of her big-eared baby, but Jumbo inadvertently knocks over one of the supporting columns during her rampage, and it crushes the worker. The movie whizzes by this and no one sheds a tear for the guy, but it's still pretty weird to say that there was death in a Dumbo movie.

Jumbo Is Sold From The Circus

The inciting incident in Dumbo is that his mother is imprisoned after she attacks people for making fun of her son. She's chained up and locked away in her own cage, which happens in both movies. However, the remake goes a step farther and sells Jumbo back to her original owner, truly separating her from Dumbo. Thus, Dumbo tries to become a circus star in the hopes that his act will raise enough money to buy back his mother. Jumbo is later sold to Vandevere and reunites with Dumbo when he arrives in Dreamland, but Vandevere decides to send her away and have her killed so that Dumbo won't have any distractions. In the original, Jumbo stays in elephant jail and is simply let go once Dumbo starts flying.

Dumbo Is Released From Captivity

Perhaps nothing highlights the differences between the two movies and the decades they were created than the ending. At the end of the original film, Dumbo learns to fly and is reunited with his mother, living a life of luxury at the circus as a superstar. The remake goes in the exact opposite direction. The Farrier family and the circus performers decide to help Dumbo and his mother escape Dreamland after learning Vandevere will kill Jumbo. Realizing that Dumbo shouldn't be forced to live a life of captivity performing, the Farrier's get Dumbo and Jumbo on a boat to East Asia, where the two can live in freedom. The film ends with Dumbo soaring above a herd of elephants and the circus flourishing with no animal captivity.

The Dumbo remake made a ton of changes to the original, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. The original is less than perfect, and if Disney was gung-ho about redoing it, then a lot needed to be updated and changed. Again, Dumbo doesn't fly until the last five minutes of the original, which is INSANE. The remake has him airborne relatively fast, which is an example of a change that was for the better. While none of these changes necessarily make Dumbo a better movie, they certainly don't hurt it.

Read More

New Toy Story 4 Trailer Shows Buzz Flying And Rex Panicking

New Toy Story 4 Trailer Shows Buzz Flying And Rex Panicking

As the summer release of Pixar’s fourth Toy Story adventure is now just under three months away, the studio is starting to give us a closer look regarding just what the beloved toys will be up to this time around. We already know we’ll meet a craft-project named Forky, the gang will go on a roadtrip with Bonnie and Woody will reunite with Bo Peep at a carnival. The new international trailer is showing us a bit more of Buzz Lightyear’s storyline, along with some memorable lines we already can’t wait to quote. Check it out:

Excited yet? The Disney UK trailer features a ton of the fun footage we have seen thanks to the release of the full Toy Story 4 trailer last week, but also has a few more tidbits to show off we have yet to see until now. First off, there’s a great Rex line that will certainly find its way into reaction gifs: “the panic is attacking me!” The plastic T-Rex looks to be talking about the toys’ upcoming road trip, but it’s a great addition to the anxious character’s other lines such as “I just don’t think I can take that kind of rejection” and “Oh, I hate all this uncertainty”. Same Rex. Same.

Another new moment seen in this new trailer is a bit more of what looks to be a hilarious exchange between Woody and Forky on the side of the road. The craft project runs away from the vacation because he doesn’t feel like he belongs there and Woody goes after him to convince him to come back to Bonnie. The new footage features Forky asking Woody to carry him before Tom Hanks’ iconic character gives him a hard “no”.

There is also more footage of what will be going on for Buzz in Toy Story 4. After Woody and Forky leave the RV, Buzz plays the hero (as always) and decides to opt for his own rescue mission and fly out the window. The character voiced by Tim Allen seems to learn nothing from the first movie, as his flight attempt turns into one big “fall with style” that gets him captured and turned into a carnival prize.

Buzz ends up next to Key and Peele’s new characters, Ducky and Bunny, who seem a little threatened by his presence in the toy lineup. Ducky makes fun of Buzz by saying “To infinity and my foot” while kicking the space cadet before it gets stuck in his helmet.

The new Toy Story 4 moments are primarily comedic ones that tease some laugh-out-loud moments between the new and old toy characters as they venture into the carnival setting that the new movie seems to largely take place in. Where will the movie take us (and our tears) this time? The movie comes out on June 21, 2019.

Read More

How A Romantic Relationship Introduces A Big Change For Shaft

How A Romantic Relationship Introduces A Big Change For Shaft

John Shaft and his son John Shaft Jr. (evidently their familial relationship has changed) have both been known for two things: their reputations as ladies’ men and tough crime fighters who know how to get answers. With the addition of the third generation in JJ, Shaft is going to add some interesting dynamics to the world of that character. And one of the most surprising is the relationship between Samuel L. Jackson’s John Shaft Jr. and the mother of his child, Maya, played by Regina Hall.

For a man who followed in his father’s footsteps as being very social with women, John Shaft Jr. apparently found his romantic Achilles’ heel in Maya, as we’ll see in director Tim Story’s Shaft reboot. And during a set visit early last year, CinemaBlend was on hand with other journalists to learn just how that relationship will affect not only the story of the Shaft reboot, but also how it effects the legendary image of this character.

To start us off, here’s what we learned from Regina Hall, in terms of why Maya is so attractive to Shaft, but also why their relationship broke up at the beginning of Shaft:

She’s very good in bed. That’s how she got [John] Shaft. You know, Shaft has a lot of ‘em, but Maya came along, and he was like ‘That, right there.’ … His lifestyle is the problem, so when they have a child and she becomes a mother, and they get shot at by about 10 men, she decides that it’s probably safer for her to raise the baby away from Shaft.

While the trailer for Shaft showed audiences a lot of the set-up for three generations of John Shafts running around and fighting crime, we do get to see a little bit of Maya putting John Jr. in his place when confronting him about their son’s involvement in the film’s central case. And instead of the typical argument you would expect to ensue, we see Samuel L. Jackson’s second generation John take their encounters in stride.

It’s this fact that Regina Hall continued to elaborate on, as she further discussed the relationship between John Jr. and Maya as follows:

It’s good to see him in a position where he cares, so he’s not in a power position. And that’s the only time he’s not in the power position is when he’s with Maya. He’s like a man in love.

One of the core tenets of Shaft’s central character is that he is, in fact, a sex machine to all the chicks. But with JJ hot on the case of a murdered friend, and his father John Jr. helping him investigate, John Jr. and Maya get to bristle with energy

During that same day on the set visit for Shaft, we got to also talk to Samuel L. Jackson, as he walked into the room during our discussion with Regina Hall. And like any good partner, Jackson jumped in with further details about how John Jr. and Maya’s relationship is different from a typically conflicting romance. He laid down the following clues as to what we’ll see in their interactions during Shaft:

It’s not even a love/hate thing, it’s just a love/safety thing. She took him away from me, because my lifestyle is too dangerous. It had nothing to do with her falling out of love with me. But in the absence, people create and fill their space how they need to fill it. And she’s done that in those 25 years. … The separation is one thing. It’s like we literally don’t see each other, so all of a sudden when we see each other you can see, when they look at each other, this thing happens that’s almost irresistible. But it’s like, I’m not letting you pull me back in.

As there’s more of a careful mix between comedy and action in director Tim Story’s Shaft reboot, one of the binding agents that seems to balance those two factors out is this family reunion of John Jr., Maya and JJ; as well as the addition of Richard Roundtree’s original John. In a series primarily known for a single protagonist solving a crime, doing the legwork to find those responsible, and bringing them to justice, you need a strong hook to introduce such a dynamic this late in the game.

And the best description of just how the John Jr./Maya relationship balances those tones in Shaft is the one that both Samuel L. Jackson and Regina Hall gave as they discussed their on-screen romance:

Jackson: And generally, every time they’re together, something fucking dangerous happens.

Hall: Within six minutes, some shit pops off.

Jackson: Or I say something wrong.

Let’s just hope that Regina Hall’s Maya gets to be one bad mother herself, once it all hits the fan. We certainly won’t have to wait too long to find out, as Shaft is in theaters on June 14, and we’ll have more coverage available on CinemaBlend as we get closer to that film’s launch.

Read More