The cast is set for Francis Ford Coppola’s latest, Megalopolis; a Parker Posey profile in The New Yorker is as joyful as you might imagine; Dan Stevens reteams with Adam Wingard on a sequel, while elsewhere, another sequel to an ’80s classic is set (No, not Top Gun); a teaser trailer for the intense Rebecca Hall thriller, Resurrection. All in today’s Movie News Run Down.
But First: The Kids in the Hall are back! Their new series arrived on Amazon Prime today, and cast member Bruce McCulloch joins Tim Molloy on our MovieMaker podcast to discuss everything from the divisive Cancer Boy character to Amazon’s occasional apprehension about new KITH jokes. He’s also joined by Vance Banzo of the rising comedy quintet Tallboyz, whose show McCulloch executives produces.
Bad News in Los Angeles: Landmark Theatres’ 12-screen multiplex in Los Angeles is permanently closing at the end of May when the lease expires, Deadline reports. With the Arclight Hollywood still closed, this is more bad news for the arthouse and specialty box-office scene in Los Angeles. Landmark Theatres is owned by Charles S. Cohen, who runs specialty distributor Cohen Media Group and bought the theater chain in 2018.
More Belated Sequels: Top Gun: Maverick finally hits theaters at the end of the month, 36 years after its original. And now, a sequel to 1984’s mockumentary classic This Is Spinal Tap has been announced. It will hit theaters in early 2024 to coincide with the original’s 40th anniversary.
My Mini Top Gun: Maverick Review: Joseph Kosinski’s film does a fantastic job of setting up the stakes and precise details of the mission at the center of the film. The mission feels just impossible enough to make the training sequences and its eventual execution extremely tense throughout. Sometimes, when an iconic franchise introduces new characters in a sequel, some are clearly set to be fan favorites over others. But here, from Glen Powell to Monica Barbaro to Lewis Pullman to Miles Teller, I was invested in the entire squadron. Tom Cruise is America’s icon, and he was right in fighting hard to preserve the theatrical experience for this movie.
Megalopolis Cast is Set: Adam Driver, Nathalie Emmanuel, Forest Whitaker, Laurence Fishburne and Jon Voight are set to star in Francis Ford Coppola’s latest epic, Megalopolis, which he is self-funding to the tune of just under $100 million, The Hollywood Reporter says. On self-financing the project, Coppola tells THR: “There’s a certain way everyone thinks a film should be, and it rubs against the grain if you have another idea. People can be very unaccepting, but sometimes the other idea represents what’s coming in the future. That is worthy of being considered.”
Rematch and a Reteam: Godzilla and Kong are stepping in the ring again for a heavyweight rematch, and this time actor Dan Stevens is joining in on the fun, Deadline reports. Stevens reunites with director Adam Wingard after leading 2014’s The Guest. Here’s Wingard telling the MovieMaker podcast how the Godzilla vs. Kong team determined the exact scale of each monster.
Weekend Reading Recommendation: Rachel Syme has a delightful New Yorker profile of Parker Posey tied to the HBO Max miniseries The Staircase. (Side note: If you’re not watching The Staircase, please correct that. It’s very good and the cast is stacked beyond belief.) In The New Yorker piece, Posey talks indiscriminently to friends and strangers alike as they walk around. She also tells Syme that the topic of whether Michael Peterson was guilty or not was discussed nonstop on set. “Oh, everyone was talking about it. All the time. Like, every weekend, we got together and talked about it.” Posey, who grew up in Louisiana and Mississippi, also discusses playing a Southern woman for the first time in her long career.
Weekend Parker Posey Streaming Recommendation: Check out The Daytrippers on HBO Max! It’s a nice window into a world where the hottest party in Manhattan on a given weekend was a book release party. That world sadly no longer exists, but writer-director Greg Mottola memorializes it well.
Resurrection Trailer: I caught Andrew Semans’ unclassifiable thriller, Resurrection, out of Sundance, and its a wild ride. Between this and The Night House, Rebecca Hall has proven her supreme ability to carry every frame of a film. Resurrection arrives in theaters and on demand on August 5, but a teaser for the film is out now. Watch below:
Main image: Parker Posey as Freda Black in The Staircase. Courtesy of HBO Max
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