Author: Trafficblast

The new Will Smith action movie Gemini Man is expected to lose many millions of dollars. According The Hollywood Reporter, Gemini Man could lose $75 million or more following a slow start at the box office.

Gemini Man only made $20.5 million million in the US and Canada over its October 11-13 opening weekend. Worldwide, it’s made $118.7 million thus far. That is a lot of money, but the film had a reported production budget of $138 million in addition to $100 million or more in marketing costs.

The good news, if it can be called that, is that Gemini Man’s expected losses will be spread throughout at least four different companies. The movie was financed by Skydance Media, Paramount Pictures, Fosun, and Alibaba. Paramount and Skydance funded 35 percent each, with the China-based Fosun and Alibaba making up the remaining 30 percent (25 percent from Fosun and 5 percent from Alibaba, according to THR’s sources).

As THR notes, Paramount’s losses on the project will be mitigated by the fee it gets as the movie’s distributor. Fosun is distributing Gemini Man in China.

Gemini Man didn’t score the highest reviews from critics, though it was praised by some for its technical work with the digital de-aging of Will Smith and its very high 120 FPS frame rate. In the movie, Smith plays a hitman whose younger clone is out to kill him.

The movie was directed by Oscar winner Ang Lee, who previously made Hulk (2003), Brokeback Mountain (2005), and Life of Pi (2012).

GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.

A new trailer for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker will premiere very soon. The official Star Wars Twitter account has confirmed that the “final” trailer for the sci-fi epic will be released during Monday Night Football on ESPN on Monday, October 21.

ESPN is owned by Disney, which owns Star Wars, so that explains that.

Monday Night Football begins around 8:15 PM ET / 5:15 PM PT on October 21, but there is no word yet as to when during the broadcast the trailer will debut. Whatever the case, we’ll post it on GameSpot as soon as possible. October 21 would have been Carrie Fisher’s 63rd birthday.

This will apparently be the “final” trailer for The Rise of Skywalker before its December 20 premiere date. Given the trailer is posting two months before the movie comes to theatres, it’s expected there will be many more TV trailers and the like, though this may be the last “full” trailer.

The Rise of Skywalker is the final entry in the Skywalker Saga that began with the 1977 original. It’s directed by JJ Abrams, who also directed The Force Awakens.

The new movie stars Daisy Ridley as Rey, Adam Driver as Kylo Ren, John Boyega as Finn, Oscar Isaac as Poe Dameron, Kelly Marie Tran as Rose Tico, Lupita Nyong’o as Maz Kanata, Domhnall Gleeson as General Hux, Mark Hamill as Luke, and Billy Dee Williams as Lando.

The Rise of Skywalker’s release in December will follow the live-action Star Wars TV show The Mandalorian that comes to Disney’s streaming platform Disney Plus in November. The first episode of the show will be available on November 12, which is the day the service launches. Watch the first Mandalorian trailer here, and check out everything we know about every upcoming Star Wars movie and TV show.

This week’s episode of New Releases is ready to throw down, whether it’s in the squared circle with WWE 2K20 or the Nintendo Switch port of Skullgirls: 2nd Encore. This week is also home to two highly anticipated AAA releases: The Outer Worlds and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. It’s also time to start getting spooky with the MediEvil remake.

WWE 2K20 — October 22

Available on: PS4, Xbox One, PC

This year’s wrestling game features Bayley, Charlotte Flair, Sasha Banks, and Becky Lynch, the Four Horsewomen of the WWE. It’s also the first game to feature a female storyline, alongside the usual male-focused campaign. Last year’s fan-favorite 2K Towers mode is back too.

More Coverage:

Skullgirls: 2nd Encore — October 22

Available on: Switch

You can probably already tell from the screenshot above, but Skullgirls is known for its gorgeous hand-drawn animation. Each of the game’s 14 fighters have a unique look, personality, and moveset. The Switch version lets you battle others online of course, but you can also fight your friends locally using a single pair of Joy-Cons.

More Coverage:

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare — October 25

Available on: PS4, Xbox One, PC

This isn’t a remaster of the 2007 classic–it’s a full-on reboot. You’ll see familiar characters like Captain Price, but they’re part of a totally new campaign that ties in more closely to the game’s other co-op and multiplayer modes. Speaking of multiplayer, there’s a big emphasis on tactics with this game, including a Realism Mode that shuts off your HUD.

More Coverage:

The Outer Worlds — October 25

Available on: PS4, Xbox One, PC

This week’s other big shooter is an RPG. The Outer Worlds comes from Obsidian, best known nowadays for Fallout: New Vegas, hence all the “Fallout in space” comparisons the game keeps getting. But The Outer Worlds sets itself apart from Fallout by letting you explore multiple planets, each one dominated by mega-corporations. There’s also a flaw system, which allows your character to actually develop special perks if they keep injuring themselves in various ways.

More Coverage:

MediEvil– October 25

Available on: PS4

Much like Sir Daniel Fortesque rising from his grave, this game has been rebuilt from the ground up. It might feel like the same PS1 platformer, but this remake sports a fancy coat of 4K paint if you’ve got a PS4 Pro and a capable TV.

More Coverage:

We’ve got one more batch of October games coming up. Next week, New Releases will take a look at Luigi’s Mansion 3 on Nintendo Switch. The handheld console is also getting its own ports of Resident Evil 5 and 6.

We already knew Jared Leto was reportedly not thrilled with DC’s decision to make the new Joker movie with Joaquin Phoenix, and now a new report alleges that Leto tried to stop the movie. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Leto was so frustrated with Warner Bros. making the new movie with Phoenix and director Todd Phillips that he complained to his then agents at CAA and also asked another one of his manager’s to try to reach out to reach out to top management at Warner Bros. to try to kill the new Joker movie.

A source from Leto’s team, however, told THR that Leto never did this. Leto and this agent, Irving Azoff–who represents Leto in his music endeavors–have since split up. Another thing to know as well is that CAA is the same talent management company that represents Phillips. Leto has since signed with CAA rival company WME.

Reports have suggested that Leto felt he was promised his own standalone Joker movie, and he was upset when Warner Bros. decided to make the new movie with Phoenix. Sources said Leto believed his agents at CAA should have fought harder for his take on Joker and should have informed him earlier about the Joker movie with Phoenix and Phillips. He reportedly wanted more respect as a Oscar winner (Dallas Buyers Club).

According to the site’s sources, Warner Bros. did not think Joker would be a big hit, given its tone and R-rating, and only greenlit the project on a small budget (~$55 million) to try to push Phillips off the idea of making the movie in the first place. That is not how it all worked out, however, as the low-budget movie went on to become a massive success; it has earned critical acclaim and more than $730 million at the box office.

The THR report goes on to say that WB management “wasn’t thrilled” with how Leto handled himself in the process of making Suicide Squad, his first appearance as Joker. According to the report, he gave “gifts” to castmates like a live rat to Margot Robbie (Harley Quinn) and a dead pig for every actor during rehearsals. Leto only ended up with about 10 minutes of screen time in Suicide Squad.

“In his defense, it was never really his movie, but his attempt to ‘invent’ a place for himself in it backfired,” a source told THR.

According to Leto, the number of Joker scenes cut from Suicide Squad’s theatrical version amounted to enough to fill an entire Joker movie.

“I think that I brought so much to the table in every scene, it was probably more about filtering all of the insanity,” Leto said in an earlier interview. “Because I wanted to give a lot of options, and I think there’s probably enough footage in this film for a Joker movie.

Leto is still employed by Warner Bros., as he is filming The Little Things with Rami Malek and Denzel Washington at the studio currently. However, Leto is reportedly finished playing Joker, as he won’t appear as the character in the Harley Quinn spinoff Birds of Prey or The Suicide Squad.

One of Hollywood’s best-known and most esteemed directors, Francis Ford Coppola, has backed up Martin Scorsese’s negative comments about Marvel movies, and he took things a step further. The five-time Oscar winning director behind movies like The Godfather and Apocalypse Now said Scorsese is right when he said superhero movies are “not cinema” and that movie theatres have become more like “amusement parks.”

Marvel movies don’t offer enlightenment, knowledge, or inspiration, the 80-year-old director said to reporters after accepting the Lumiere Award in France recently.

“When Martin Scorsese says that the Marvel pictures are not cinema, he’s right because we expect to learn something from cinema, we expect to gain something, some enlightenment, some knowledge, some inspiration,” he said, according to the Agence France-Presse news agency and France 24.

“I don’t know that anyone gets anything out of seeing the same movie over and over again. Martin was kind when he said it’s not cinema,” Coppola added. “He didn’t say it’s despicable, which I just say it is.”

Coppola’s comments led to a swift response on social media from movie fans and movie-makers. Deadpool creator Rob Liefeld said Scorsese and Coppola are titans of the movie business, and they have “earned” a place to share their opinions about film.

That being said, Liefeld correctly pointed out that Marvel, DC, and others will not stop making superhero movies just because Scorsese and Coppola don’t like them.

Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn, meanwhile, said in a post on Instagram that no one should be surprised by the comments made by Scorsese and Coppola.

Many of our grandfathers thought all gangster movies were the same, often calling them ‘despicable.’ Some of our great grandfathers thought the same of westerns, and believed the films of John Ford, Sam Peckinpah, and Sergio Leone were all exactly the same. I remember a great uncle to whom I was raving about Star Wars. He responded by saying, ‘I saw that when it was called 2001, and, boy, was it boring!’ Superheroes are simply today’s gangsters/cowboys/outer space adventurers. Some superhero films are awful, some are beautiful. Like westerns and gangster movies (and before that, just MOVIES), not everyone will be able to appreciate them, even some geniuses. And that’s okay”

Marvel’s MCU is the most profitable film franchise in cinema history, grossing a gargantuan $18 billion over the past 10 years.