Jumanji: The Next Level Dethrones Queen Elsa!
Action-adventure comedy Jumanji: The Next Level dominated the cinemas last weekend, says the Box Office Mojo. A sequel to a 2017 fantasy adventure comedy that was, in itself, a sequel to a 1995 film Jumanji, The Next Level grossed over $60 million in its inaugural weekend. The film once again features Jack Black (Goosebumps), Dwayne Johnson (Hobbs & Shaw), Karen Gillan (Doctor Who) and Kevin Hart (Night School) as teenagers stuck in the digital wilderness as their video-game avatars.
After dominating the box office for three weeks, Disney’s Frozen II dropped to the second place last weekend, earning $19,2 million. It’s domestic gross now stands at $366,5 million. Rian Johnson’s Knives Out is in third place with $9,2 million and a total domestic gross of almost $79 million. In the fourth place with $5 million is Clint Eastwood’s Richard Jewell. This biographical drama depicts a true story of a security guard Richard Jewell (played in the film by Paul Walter Hauser – I, Tonya, BlacKkKklansman) who, after discovering the plot to plant the bomb during the 1996 Olympics, becomes FBI’s main suspect. Finally, in the fifth place of the last weekend’s box office is the horror film Black Christmas with $4,4 million. A loose remake of a 1974 Canadian flick of the same title, Black Christmas follows a college sorority under an attack by a masked killer.
Amazon Casts Its Galadriel
Casting for Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings TV series continues. Variety says that studio just found its Galadriel – Welsh actress Morfydd Clark. Clark will depict the younger version of Galadriel during the Middle-earth’s Second Age. She is the first actor cast as a character familiar to the fans from Peter Jackson’s films.
Clark is on a roll lately: this year she appeared in Alexandre Aja’s horror film Crawl and HBO’s adaptation of Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials novels. Clark will also portray Mina Murray in BBC’s upcoming Dracula and star in Rose Glass’ psychological thriller Saint Maud.
Even though the shooting hasn’t begun, The Lord of the Rings has nevertheless already been renewed for a second season. This adaptation of fantasy fiction is not to be confused with The Wheel of Time, which is Amazon’s other fantasy show based on a best-selling novels. Nor should it be mistaken with Stephen King’s Dark Tower, which is yet another Amazon’s fantasy TV show.
David Ayer Remakes Dirty Dozen
Warner Bros is looking to remake the 1967 classic Dirty Dozen with David Ayer as director. Ayer will also re-write the script by Marco Ramirez (Daredevil, Sons of Anarchy). According to Deadline, Warner Bros. wants to make this remake sometime in 2020.
Ayer is best known (or notorious, depending on your taste) for his 2016 superhero blockbuster Suicide Squad. Not unlike Dirty Dozen, that movie also follows a group of disposable crooks on a dangerous mission. Ayer started by writing scripts for war movies (U-571), crime dramas (Training Day), and action films (The Fast and the Furious). As a director, Ayer filmed movies like Harsh Times, Sabotage and Fury.
Robert Aldrich (The Flight of the Phoenix, The Longest Yard) directed Dirty Dozen in 1967. The film was based on a 1965 bestselling novel by E. M. Nathanson that was, in turn, inspired by real-life exploits of behind-the-lines demolition specialists called “Filthy Thirteen.” The film featured, among others, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, George Kennedy, Lee Marvin, Robert Ryan, Telly Savalas, and Donald Sutherland. Dirty Dozen was followed by three sequels as well by a short-lived TV series.
