Queen Rocks the Box Office
Bohemian Rhapsody, a musical biopic chronicling the rise of the legendary British rock band Queen, conquered last weekend’s box office. Featuring Gwilym Lee as the band’s lead guitarist Brian May, Ben Hardy as the drummer Roger Taylor, Joseph Mazzello as bass guitarist John Deacon and Rami Malek as the one and only Farrokh Bulsara, AKA Freddie Mercury, Bohemian Rhapsody grossed $51 million in its first weekend in cinemas.
In the second place is the fantasy adventure film The Nutcracker and the Four Realms with $20,3 million. Directed by Lasse Hallström (What’s Eating Gilbert Grape) and Joe Johnston (The Rocketeer), this CGI-heavy extravaganza features Morgan Freeman, Richard E. Grant, Keira Knightley, and Helen Mirren. Nobody’s Fool, a romantic comedy by Tyler Perry (Boo! A Madea Halloween) is in the third place with $13,7 million. In the fourth place of the last weekend’s box office is the drama A Star is Born with $11 million. The top five list closes off with Halloween that, after spending two weekends at the top, sharply dropped to the fifth place of the weekend box office, earning mere $10.8 million. All of this data comes courtesy of the Box Office Mojo.
Swamp Thing Series Finds Its Hero… And Monster
Back in June, we wrote about the upcoming DC Universe streaming service and one of its live-action shows – Swamp Thing. Deadline recently reported that the show has finally found its Swamp Thing. While Andy Bean (Power) will play Alec Holland, an unfortunate scientist who finds himself changed into the titular monster that will, in turn, be played by Derek Mears (Jason Voorhees in the Friday the 13th reboot).
The last couple of months saw a steady stream of news about casting for the show that, so far, includes the likes of Virginia Madsen (Candyman), Will Patton (Armageddon), Crystal Reed (Gotham), Maria Sten (Channel Zero) and Henderson Wade (Riverdale). Swamp Thing is co-produced by James Wan, writer and director best known for horror movies such as Saw, Conjuring and Insidious as well as by Len Wiseman, who helped create shows such as Lucifer, Sleepy Hollow, and The Gifted. Writer Len Wein and artist Bernie Wrightson created Swamp Thing for DC Comics in 1972. Since then the character became surprisingly popular, leading to 1982 movie directed by Wes Craven (Nightmare on Elm St.) and a TV series that aired on USA Network from 1990 to 1993.
Netflix Unveils New Animated Shows, Including Perennial Children’s Favorite – Watership Down
Over the last two years, Netflix has been on a creative offensive, producing a number of original TV shows and movies. Recently, Variety revealed that the streaming service plans to produce a number of new animated TV shows and movies, such as stop-motion animated Pinocchio helmed by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Guillermo del Toro. Then there’s Kid Cosmic, a cartoon series by Craig McCracken, best known for The Powerpuff Girls. Netflix will also help produce My Father’s Dragon, a new 2D animated feature film by the Academy Award nominee Nora Twomey, director of The Secret of Kells.
Netflix has also recently announced that Peter Capaldi (Doctor Who) will join the voice actors in the upcoming CGI-animated adaptation of Watership Down. This adaptation already features an impressive cast that includes Gemma Arterton (Quantum of Solace), John Boyega (Star Wars: The Last Jedi), Olivia Colman (Broadchurch), Taron Egerton (Kingsman: The Secret Service), Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out), Ben Kingsley (Gandhi) and James McAvoy (X-Men: Days of Future Past). Based on a novel by Richard Adams first published in 1972, Watership Down tells a story of a group of rabbits battling for survival against wild beasts, farmers, traps, poison, and each other. Watership Down was already adapted into an animated film in 1978, forever scarring viewers thinking that there can’t possibly be anything grim in a cartoon about fluffy bunnies.
