Wrath of Man Kicks and Punches Its Way to the Top
Wrath of Man, the latest shoot-em-up by Guy Ritchie (The Gentlemen, The Snatch), fought its way to the box office top in its inaugural weekend in the US cinemas. A US remake of a 2004 French action thriller Cash Truck by Nicolas Boukhrief, Wrath of Man tells the story of Patrick Hill (Guy Ritchie regular Jason Statham), who starts working as a security guard for armored trucks. However, in a completely unexpected twist, it turns out he’s a kind of character typically portrayed by Jason Statham. Wrath of Man grossed $8,3 million.
Wrath of Man is our sole newcomer among the top five highest-grossing movies of the last weekend. The rest of the titles should be familiar by now. According to the Boy Office Mojo, the Japanese surprise blockbuster hit Demon Slayer: Mugen Train is in second place, with a bit over $3 million. By now, Demon Slayer earned around $433 million worldwide. In third place is Mortal Kombat with $2,4 million and a combined gross of $73 million. Fourth place belongs to Godzilla vs. Kong, which earned almost $2 million last weekend. A genuine blockbuster hit of the COVID-19 era, Godzilla vs. Kong earned $423 million since it came out in late March. And then there’s Raya and the Last Dragon. Disney’s CGI-animated fantasy adventure has been in cinemas for ten weeks now, yet it remains among the top five. It earned $1,9 million last weekend, bringing its total gross to $105 million worldwide.
Jamie Ball to Play a Serial Killer in Apple’s Shining Girls Series
Jamie Bell (Rocketman, Snowpiercer) joined the cast of the Apple TV Plus sci-fi thriller series The Shining Girls, reports SlashFilm. Bell will portray the show’s principal villain – a serial killer named Harper Curtis who, in 1930s Chicago, discovers a house with portals leading to other time periods. Encouraged by the House itself, Curtis begins hunting down and killing “shining girls” – women with unique potential. His final target is Kirby Mazrachi (Elisabeth Moss – The Handmaid’s Tale, The Invisible Man). Since she’s played by Moss, you know she’s going to survive his attack and live long enough to turn the tables on him.
The Shining Girls is an adaptation of a 2013 best-selling novel by Lauren Beukes – who is also one of the show’s producers. The series has been in the works for some time now, led by the writer and executive producer Silka Luisa (Strange Angel). Wagner Moura (Elite Squad, Narcos) will appear in the show as well. While there’s still no information about the show’s release date, we do know that filming will start in Chicago this summer.
Mystery Science Theater 3000 Wins at Kickstarter… Again!
Joel and the bots have done it again! Last month, the crew of Mystery Science Theater 3000 launched a Kickstarter campaign that would help them produce new episodes of the show and create the Gizmoplex – a web portal that would serve as a permanent MST3K home online. According to the AVClub, the campaign was a rousing success, reaching all of its goals. These include a dozen new episodes, as well as Halloween and Christmas specials.
This is the second time Joel Hodgson and his team went to Kickstarter to finance their projects. The first one – launched in August 2015 – raised $5,76 million for fourteen new episodes that were later picked up by Netflix and released in April 2017. Well, this Kickstarter was even more successful, raising $6,518 million within six weeks.
Jonah Ray will return as a show’s new host/victim Jonah Heston. Hodgson’s character Joel Robinson will return too. They will be joined by Emily Marsh, who joined the show’s live tours in 2019. Together, they will all once again riff of the bad old (and not so old) sci-fi and horror movies.
