Guy Ritchie Is Returning To His Crime Roots With The Gentlemen, And I Am Pumped

Guy Ritchie Is Returning To His Crime Roots With The Gentlemen, And I Am Pumped

In recent years, Guy Ritchie has become a go-to director when studios are developing new brand products. It started back in 2009 when Sherlock Holmes became a surprise success, and since then all of his features have been based on pre-existing properties – including Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, and the upcoming Aladdin.

At the same time, though, there are still plenty out there who continue to admire him for his early work in the crime genre, as he wouldn’t be where he is today without the cult popularity of titles like Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels, and Snatch. And while he hasn’t made a movie in that vein in more than a decade, that streak is soon coming to an end, as he’s returning to his roots with his new movie for STX Films: The Gentlemen.

Obviously we’re still waiting for Aladdin to be released (it’s scheduled for late May this year), but earlier today at CinemaCon in Las Vegas – the annual convention for theater owners – we got our very first look at The Gentlemen, and it definitely has us keyed up. The project has had a few different names as it’s moved through development, including Toff Guys and Bush, but regardless of what it’s called, what makes it really stand out is it’s absolutely fantastic ensemble cast playing bad people who do bad things to other bad people.

Admittedly it was a bit challenging to get a full read on the full plot of the movie, as it appears that there is a whole lot going on, but the footage did get across the basic idea. Charlie Hunnam, who played Guy Ritchie’s lead for King Arthur, is our protagonist, and a criminal who is stuck in a steadily escalating conflict between an eccentric, marijuana-specializing kingpin (Matthew McConaughey) and forces that want to see him pushed out – led by a character played by Henry Golding. Those three names alone create some serious expectations, but they’re joined in the insanity by Colin Farrell, Jeremy Strong, Eddie Marsan, Michele Dockery, and Hugh Grant (sporting an awesome cockney accent that is thousands of miles away from the posh inflections we typically hear from the actor).

This is the kind of filmmaking and storytelling that helped Guy Ritchie stand out when he was first making a name for himself in the late 1990s, and while one can’t really fault him for his more mainstream project choices recently, it’s exciting to see him pursue something like this. The fact that it’s totally original is obviously its own bonus, but what particularly stood out in the Gentlemen footage was the pitch-perfect dark comedy tone. Whether it was a dude doing a full sprint past his captors after being let out of a car trunk; or kids being chased for their cell phones after filming a man tripping and falling off a balcony, the preview gave the sense that Ritchie’s sharp, black-as-night sense of humor is just as strong now as it was nearly 20 years ago.

STX Entertainment acquired the film for distribution earlier this year, but sadly they have not yet announced a release date – which means that we are still in the dark as to when exactly it is coming out. That being said, production on The Gentlemen began last November and ended this past February, and it’s not exactly a movie that looks like it is stuffed to the gills with visual effects. If Guy Ritchie gets to put all of his attention towards it when he finishes promoting Aladdin, is it possible that we could see it come out some time before December? Right now we don’t know, but we will be keeping our fingers crossed, and we will keep you up to date with all of the latest information right here on CinemaBlend.

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Guy Ritchie Gave His Aladdin Choreographer A Very Funny Cameo In The New Movie

Guy Ritchie Gave His Aladdin Choreographer A Very Funny Cameo In The New Movie

In the making of a musical, a choreographer is an immensely important, but sometimes invisible presence. It’s an incredibly hard job that occasionally requires making sure a hundred or more people are working in coordination, but part of the choreographer’s job is to make sure it all looks effortless and natural.

This is partially true for the new live-action Aladdin, as while you’re watching the movie you’re focusing on the magic of the dance sequences instead of thinking about the work required to make them happen – but something you might not know is that the film does give back in a special way to the man who helped make the musical numbers possible, as I recently learned from director Guy Ritchie:

As noted in the video above, one of my favorite bits in the new movie involves a prince that Genie (Will Smith) conjures in the desert during a conversation with Aladdin (Mena Massoud), and I was surprised to learn during a recent interview with Guy Ritchie that the person playing said prince is none other than Jamal Sims – the film’s choreographer. You never see a close-up of the character, as he is kept in the far distance for his entire scene, but that makes it no less an awesome gift to one of the filmmakers responsible for injecting the live-action Aladdin with a great deal of its flair.

It was a cameo that Guy Ritchie was very excited to talk about during the Los Angeles press day for his new movie this past weekend, as he expressed a great deal of appreciation for Jamal Sims’ contribution to the film. Discussing the small role, the filmmaker told me,

So I'm quite glad you asked that question, because he is Jamal Sims. Jamal Sims is our choreographer, who I have nothing but positive things to say about. For example, if people ask me what was my favorite scene in the film is, because I have the memory of a goldfish I usually go for the last scene in the film, which is the dance sequence, right? Which was Jamal's. And I gave him all that challenge a week before. And I thought, 'I'm sure he's going to fail,' though he failed on nothing else. It was very hard to pull off a dance sequence in a short period of time, and he really delivered on that.

The scene plays out shortly after Aladdin and Genie manage to escape the Cave Of Wonders and are discussing what it is that the latter can do for the former wish-wise. Realizing that he needs to be royalty in order to marry the lovely Princess Jasmine (Naomi Scott), Aladdin makes the request, “Make me a prince” – but Genie points out that this phrasing is just a tad vague. Illustrating his point, the magical being conjures an actual prince who is left standing about 500 feet behind them having absolutely no clue what’s going on – wondering where his palace is, and just wanting to go home. This is the part played by Jamal Sims, and he gets some of the biggest laughs in the film.

Having the choreographer play this part was a special way for Guy Ritchie to say “thank you” for the work that Sims did in the making of the movie, which apparently also included the coordination of an end credits dance sequence that came together at the very last minute. The director added that he even gave the prince more lines than what we actually see in the finished cut of Aladdin, and that it was all quite funny:

Jamal was a key character throughout the entire production. 'I just want to go home, man.' So that was Jamal. We wanted to use Jamal because he was so integral to the movie. 'Anyone see my palace? Where's my palace?' He actually had more dialogue. I think if you saw the whole thing of Jamal Sims and the lost prince, it's quite entertaining.

We can’t say for certain right now, but that would certainly make for some great bonus content on Aladdin’s home video release later this year.

Starring Mena Massoud. Will Smith, Naomi Scott, Marwan Kenzari, Navid Negahban, Nasim Pedrad, Billy Magnussen, and Numan Acar, Aladdin arrives in theaters everywhere this weekend.

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Guardians Of The Galaxy’s Sean Gunn Reveals How He First Brought Rocket To Life

Guardians Of The Galaxy’s Sean Gunn Reveals How He First Brought Rocket To Life

After a long year of waiting, Avengers: Endgame is just days away from arriving in theaters. Moviegoers are eager to jump back into the MCU, and see how the galaxy is recovering after losing half of all life. Infinity War shocked fans by killing off a ton of characters, with the upcoming movie reportedly focusing on the survivors. From the Guardians of the Galaxy, the only ones left are Nebula and Rocket.

Rocket Raccoon is a fan favorite of the Guardians franchise, and is brought to life by a pair of actors. While Bradley Cooper voices the foulmouthed pilot, actor Sean Gunn stands in and plays the role throughout filming. Gunn recently opened up about this process, and how he essentially invented the method on the spot. As he tells it,

When I arrived in London just about a week later, it all moved really fast. It was like, OK, you ready to go? You're coming to London in a week for six months. And so when I arrived then we sort of figured out Rocket on the fly. I read Rocket in the first table read that we did, and then when we started rehearsals, I just got down on my hands and knees and started doing it from the character's height and position. And lo and behold, that's what ended up really working. And since the formula worked, we've stuck with it for four movies.

Well, this is an interesting peek behind the curtain. Because while Sean Gunn and Marvel Studios have Rocket's motion capture work down to a science, the kinks weren't worked out prior to filming the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie. And Gunn's willingness to use his body and transform into Rocket on set is part of the reason why the CGI character seems so real.

Standing in for Rocket during rehearsals and filming might seem like a thankless job, but Sean Gunn has another role in the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise. He also plays Ravager Kraglin, one of Yondu's closest buddies. Of course, Kraglin hasn't been included in Infinity War and Endgame, so Gunn has an under the radar part in those massive ensemble projects.

Sean Gunn might not be voicing Rocket, but he has just as much ownership over the character. Since he's the one inhabiting the fan favorite Guardian during all of his scenes, he's spent more time with Rocket than Bradley Cooper. Cooper's voice performance is stunning, but someone needs to be on set to act along Rocket's scene partners. Enter Mr. Gunn.

Rocket is one of the survivors of Thanos' snap (aka The Decimation), so he should presumably have a meaty role in Avengers: Endgame. The Russo Brothers keeping Rocket and Nebula alive is an inspiring creative choice, as they're the most damaged members of the Guardians. The apocalypse may just force them together, and hopefully change their dynamic in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.

Sean Gunn's work as Rocket can be seen when Avengers: Endgame arrives in theaters on April 26th. In the meantime, fill out CinemaBlend's Endgame death pool, and check out our 2019 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.

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Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3: What We Know So Far

Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3: What We Know So Far

There is no questioning that the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise is one of the greatest achievements of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Prior to the titular group’s big screen debut, general pop culture awareness of their existence was basically zero, and many questioned why Marvel Studios would take such a huge risk on an unknown property. Two blockbusters later, the brand has earned $1.6 billion at the global box office, and the characters have become some of the most popular in the entire comic book movie canon.

Because of this, fans have spent years both expecting and waiting for the third movie in the series, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, and soon enough it will be making its way to a theater near you. But, what do we know about the project? When is it coming out? Who is making it? Who will appear? It’s for addressing all those questions and more that we have written this latest installment of our What We Know So Far series, so read on and find out everything you need to know about the upcoming space adventure.

What Is The Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 Release Date?

In October 2014 – approximately seven months before the release of The Avengers: Age of Ultron – Marvel Studios held a special event in Los Angeles where they made a big show of announcing their Phase 3 slate, revealing all of the projects they were making for the next five years (or at least all the ones that were in the works at that time). Unfortunately, the company hasn’t been as forthcoming when it comes to information about their Phase 4 plans. Not wanting to count their chickens before they hatch / give everything away, Marvel has held off on officially announcing release dates for films coming out after July 2019’s Spider-Man: Far From Home, and that includes Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.

That doesn’t mean that there haven’t been clues – but it’s also worth noting that plans have very much changed during the blockbuster’s development. Originally it looked as though Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 was going to be one of the three films slated for release in 2020, but for reasons we’ll get into in a minute those plans were put on hold after July 2018. Now, with James Gunn working on another project at another studio, it appears that the movie won’t be released until at least 2022, but even that isn’t 100% certain.

What Is The Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 Rating?

In 2016, Tim Miller’s Deadpool changed the comic book movie world forever. While it had once been thought that superhero features couldn’t be successful without attracting teenage audiences, the Merc With The Mouth put that theory to rest by making a stunning $783.1 million worldwide with an epic number of swear words, a touch of nudity, and quite a bit of ultra-violence. We’ve seen a few more success stories since then as well, including both Deadpool 2, and Logan, but Marvel Studios has not yet made the plunge when it comes to R-rated blockbusters – and as a result we can definitely assume that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will be certified with a PG-13.

As a writer / director, James Gunn does have a number of R-rated credits on his resume, including his first two features – Slither and Super – and there are a few adult references to be found in both Guardians of the Galaxy and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. That being said, the idea that this series will change gears for its third installment is ridiculous. We won’t actually know what Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will be rated until the movie is ready to come out, as the MPAA doesn’t do its grading until after a project has been assembled, but you can be certain that this is a blockbuster that will be made with a PG-13 rating in mind.

The Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 Writer/Director

This one is a bit of a journey, so strap in.

To the surprise of very, very few, in the weeks leading up to the 2017 release of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, James Gunn announced that he had made a deal with Marvel Studios to take the helm of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 – confirming that the movie would “conclude the story of this iteration of the Guardians of the Galaxy.” He wrote the script himself, and wheels were clearly in motion to make the blockbuster one of the earliest films released as a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Phase Four.

But then the troll attack happened. In the days surrounding San Diego Comic-Con 2018, James Gunn found himself at the center of some controversy due to some nearly decade-old Tweets that had been dug up by those who were, apparently, unhappy with his politics. The social media messages, which featured extremely distasteful jokes about horrendous subjects, put the family-friendly Walt Disney Company in an awkward situation, and they made the decision to remove Gunn as the director of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 in response.

Of course, that was only the start of the controversy. In the following days, weeks, and months, it wasn’t only fans who voiced thunderous support for James Gunn (with over 400,000 signing a petition for his reinstatement), but also many of his colleagues. The members of the Guardians of the Galaxy cast – including Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Sean Gunn, Pom Klementieff and Michael Rooker – all signed an open letter requesting that Gunn be reinstated, and many fellow directors made their voices heard on the subject as well. When names like Edgar Wright, Taika Waititi, Chris Lord and Phil Miller were proposed as possible replacements at the helm of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, the filmmakers let it be known that they stood behind Gunn and had no interest in taking the job.

For more than half a year it was unclear how exactly Marvel Studios would be able to move forward with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, but the situation was resolved in mid-March 2019. Following the release of Captain Marvel, the news was made official that a new deal had been made with James Gunn that would see him reinstated as the director of the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy capper. This coincided with a few plan changes for the project in terms of scheduling, as Gunn had spent his months being fired working out a deal with Warner Bros. to both write and direct the upcoming The Suicide Squad – which is currently on track for release in August 2021. This is why it’s unlikely we will see the filmmaker’s third epic space opera until 2022 at the earliest.

Now that he’s directing Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 again, James Gunn will actually become the first filmmaker in Marvel Studios history to complete a full trilogy for the franchise. At this stage it’s unclear exactly what he has planned story-wise for the film – which is no surprise given the secrecy surrounding these projects – but details should start to come out as we get closer to the movie entering production.

Star-Lord

The role of Peter Quill a.k.a. Star-Lord completely changed Chris Pratt’s career overnight. One minute he was the goofy, lovable idiot on Parks and Recreation, and the next he was one of the biggest movie stars in the world. He is now known in pop culture as one of the “Chrises” (along with Evans, Hemsworth, and Pine), and because of his popularity it’s basically impossible to imagine that he won’t be back for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. There is, however, one little hitch.

Those who saw Avengers: Infinity War know that as things currently stand in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Star-Lord is dead. Along with half of the universe, the leader of the Guardians was turned to dust when Thanos managed to assemble the Infinity Gauntlet and snap his fingers. We suspect that the events that go down in the upcoming Avengers: Endgame will change this status, but right now we have no idea if that’s actually true, or really any clue how it might happen.

Gamora

Like Star-Lord, Gamora is another character who is technically dead in the Marvel Cinematic Universe at this time (prepare to see a lot more of this as we continue), but it’s worth noting that her situation is a bit different. Rather than being dusted in The Decimation, Gamora was killed by Thanos when he was trying to acquire the Soul Stone – with the Mad Titan forced to make a sacrifice of something he loved in order to acquire the precious ingot. Because of this, it’s unclear if Gamora will be brought to life should the surviving members of the Avengers and Guardians save everyone destroyed by the snap, or if her timeline has come to an end.

It would certainly be an earned death story-wise, though the permanence of it would be a serious bummer for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, as the film would be missing one of the best characters from the first two movies. That being said, even if Gamora is gone for good it’s still possible that Zoe Saldana could make an appearance in the upcoming blockbuster, via dreams, flashbacks, or any other various narrative devices. She did, after all, form an incredibly close relationship with Star-Lord during the four years in which they knew each other, and it’s hard to imagine him just forgetting about her after the whole Thanos ordeal is over.

Drax The Destroyer

During the whole “James Gunn getting fired” saga, nobody stood up for the writer / director the way that Dave Bautista did. Clearly recognizing and fully acknowledging how Gunn very much changed his career by casting him as Drax, Bautista was extremely vocal about how incredibly pissed off the whole situation made him. Even though it could have potentially hurt his career, he wasn’t at all shy about his fury aimed towards Disney, and he even suggested that he would request a release from his contract with the studio if Gunn’s script for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 wasn’t used.

Now that James Gunn has been rehired, one can imagine him seriously rewarding Dave Bautista for his incredible loyalty – but exactly how that might play out is currently up the air. Why? Because like the previous two characters mentioned, Drax The Destroyer currently exists as flakes of dust floating around the atmosphere on Titan. Again, there is expectation that he will somehow be resurrected in Avengers: Endgame, and going by the comics he may even be the one to put Thanos down, but we have no evidence right now to suggest that will happen.

Rocket

Finally, a character who is currently alive! Rocket is one of only two Guardians of the Galaxy who survived The Decimation – left without any of his teammates on Earth in the aftermath of the Battle Of Wakanda. He did what he could to try and help the heroes stop Thanos from completing the Infinity Gauntlet, including assisting Thor in the creation of Stormbreaker, but the efforts weren’t enough at the end of the day, so in Avengers: Endgame we’ll watch as he teams with all of the survivors to try and save the universe.

James Gunn has said many times that Rocket is his favorite character among the Guardians, and the one he most relates to, so it’s pretty easy to imagine that he will have a meaty role to play in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. We can assume that he will once again be brought to life courtesy of performance capture work from Sean Gunn, and with the voice of Bradley Cooper, but beyond that we won’t have any firm expectations for the character until after we see Endgame.

Groot

Of all the characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, weirdly it’s Groot who has the hardest time staying alive. The original version of the living tree sacrificed himself so that the Guardians of the Galaxy could live through their first movie, and while Baby Groot managed to survive Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, the slightly older version of himself – Adolescent Groot – was another character turned to dust in Avengers: Infinity War.

It’s hard to imagine Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 featuring a somber narrative following Rocket in a post-Groot universe, however, and we expect that somehow events will transpire that bring the character back to life. At the very least we hope this to be the case just because we want to see what the next stage of his evolution looks like.

Nebula

Nebula, played by Karen Gillan, has had a very different trajectory than most in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. She started out as a rage-filled antagonist – an ally of Thanos and possessing a true hatred for her sister, Gamora – but her edges definitely softened through the events of both Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and Avengers: Infinity War. And, based on what we know about Avengers: Endgame, it seems like she is going to evolve even more by the time we see her in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.

Along with Rocket, Nebula is the only surviving member of the Guardians of the Galaxy after The Decimation, though they were in two very different places when the snap went down. In the case of the blue cyborg, she was stranded on Titan along with Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), and there is a presumption that they will have to work together closely in order to A) get back to Earth, and B) get revenge against Thanos. But will she survive the mission and have the opportunity to appear in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3? As of right now that’s a very big question mark.

Mantis

Brought to the big screen by Pom Klementieff, Mantis became a member of the Guardians of the Galaxy when the team saved her from Ego in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and her special extraterrestrial skills have been put to good use. She is not only a powerful empath, but also can put even the most powerful beings to sleep with her hands – though it takes a good amount of concentration and energy. This was useful for a good minute in the battle against Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War, but sadly right now she can be counted among the dead Guardians of the Galaxy in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Given that she hasn’t exactly been around very long (less time than every other Guardians character), we definitely want to believe that Mantis will be back in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, but right now we technically don’t have any actual evidence of that being true. We’ll just have to wait and see how things play out in Avengers: Endgame, and once we know the details of the fallout we’ll be able to judge the situation better.

Be sure to keep your eye on this guide, as we'll keep it fresh with new details on the development of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 as they become available to us!

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Grey’s Anatomy Star Wants To Be The MCU’s Shang-Chi

Grey’s Anatomy Star Wants To Be The MCU’s Shang-Chi

When Spider-Man: Far From Home approaches theaters this summer, MCU’s Phase Three will officially close out and leave room for the studio’s future plans to be finally be revealed. Among them is a film for Shang-Chi, which will mark Marvel’s first central Chinese protagonist. The movie about the Master of Kung fu has a director and scriptwriter already picked out, but who will play the titular comic book character?

26-year-old Grey’s Anatomy actor Alex Landi is throwing his name in the ring! Landi is best known for joining the ABC drama in Season 15 as Dr. Nico Kim, but he is setting his sights on Shang-Chi. Here’s what he said:

The first Asian superhero for Marvel, that would be dope. That’s my dream role right there. Any role in that movie, I think, would be great.

The actor isn’t just talk, he also told Huff Post that he has a background in martial arts! Even if he doesn’t get cast in the titular role, Alex Landi will settle for any role in the film as well; he just wants to part of it. Shang-Chi will be opting for a primarily Asian and Asian American cast, so maybe he has a chance for his dreams to come true.

The Grey’s Anatomy regular has quickly risen in the ranks for fans of the series with his cute relationship with Dr. Levi Schmitt (played by Jake Borelli), who are the first gay male doctors on the show to share a romance in the show’s history. The couple are lovingly known as “Schmico” and their story will continue in season 16, following last week’s finale.

Alex Landi also recently earned a role on Netflix’s second season Insatiable, which faced controversy when it premiered last summer. Will he even have time to play Shang-Chi if offered the role? Grey’s Anatomy has not had problems with writing out other characters in the past for their other gigs if it happened, but it would certainly sadden Schmico fans.

Shang-Chi is set to be helmed by Short Term 12 director Destin Daniel Cretton and written by Dave Callaham, who created the Expendables franchise, wrote the story for 2014’s Godzilla, co-wrote Wonder Woman 1984 and has signed on to write the upcoming Into the Spider-Verse sequel. Shang-Chi was created in 1973 during the prime of martial arts’ popularity, as Bruce Lee ruled the scene.

Per his origin story, Shang-Chi lives out his childhood in a compound in China where he trains in the ways of martial arts before being sent out by his father on missions. However, he later learns his dad is a centuries-old villain known as “Fu Manchu” and “the Devil’s Doctor,” and the two become arch-enemies.

Considering Kevin Feige’s recent tease about the return of the Mandarin and the Ten Rings, Shang-Chi may also be dealing with them in the film as well. News of Phase Four can’t come soon enough!

What do you think about Alex Landi playing Shang-Chi? Would it be a good choice? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

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Green Book Just Passed An Impressive Box Office Milestone

Green Book Just Passed An Impressive Box Office Milestone

The Best Picture winner at this year’s Academy Awards Ceremony Green Book came out all the way back in the middle of November, but it is still playing in theaters nearly four months later. Not only that, but Green Book is enjoying a resurgence at the box office, riding a wave from its Oscar wins. Now, Green Book has another accolade to add to its list of accomplishments, passing the $200 million milestone.

The dramedy from director Peter Farrelly has crossed $200 million at the worldwide box office, and through Wednesday sits at $204.2 million according to The Hollywood Reporter. That breaks down to $77.3 million domestic and a sizable international haul of $126.9 million. That’s a heck of an accomplishment for a film that debuted in wide release in ninth place in North America and never cracked the top 3 at the box office domestically.

Green Book’s rise in success is due to two factors: a great debut in China as well as strong holds in other overseas markets and renewed interest in North America. The film opened in China on March 1 beating expectations to the tune of $17.1 and going on to $25 million by Wednesday. It now stands as the most successful Best Picture winner in China behind only Titanic.

How much is the title of Best Picture worth to a movie’s bottom line? It turns out it can be quite a lot actually, at least as far as Green Book is concerned. Over this past weekend, the first weekend since February’s Oscar ceremony and Green Book’s 16th in release, the film earned $4.7 million in North America, a number that was good enough for the 5 spot at the box office.

The Oscar bump is real and that weekend haul was over a 100% increase from the previous week. That was in part due to the renewed interest in the film, which saw it expand its theater count by 1,388 according to Box Office Mojo to 2,641.

For comparison, last year’s Best Picture winner The Shape of Water, only earned $2.3 million the weekend after the Oscars. To find a film that performed better than Green Book in the post-Oscars frame you’d have to go back to 2011 when The King’s Speech made $6.2 million following the Academy Awards.

It is an impressive run for a movie that only cost $23 million to make, and was dogged by controversy its entire awards season run. It does make you wonder if the backlash to Green Book’s Best Picture win actually did it a favor at the box office. Best Picture winners naturally receive a bump as audiences want to see the movie that earned the golden statue, but the backlash may have also made some others curious and feel like they had to see what all the fuss was about.

Whatever the case, Green Book has proven to be a worldwide hit that has had serious legs at the box office and caught its second wind after its big Best Picture win.

Green Book is now playing. Check out our 2019 Release Schedule to see the movies that will be vying for their own statues at next year’s awards.

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Green Book Is Still Hitting Box Office Milestones

Green Book Is Still Hitting Box Office Milestones

A little less than a month ago, Best Picture winner Green Book crossed the $200 million milestone at the worldwide box office, racking up quite a bit of green to go with all that gold. Peter Farrelly’s film didn’t stop there though, as Tony Lip and Dr. Don Shirley continued to cruise at the box office. Now Green Book has passed another box office milestone. The winner of three Oscars, including Best Picture, has now made over $300 million worldwide.

Over this past weekend, Green Book’s impressive run pushed it over the $300 million mark, and the film’s worldwide total now stands at $304 million through Sunday, according to Deadline. The $23 million-price tagged film has earned $84.48 million of that total in North America, where it is now in its 20th week in release and still landed in the top 20 despite being available on home video.

Credit for that is in no small part due to the film’s Oscar wins and status as Best Picture. People have sought out the film that earned the industry’s highest honor, and Green Book has enjoyed the highest post-Academy Awards bump since The King’s Speech. Those golden statues aren’t just for bragging rights, they can confer real monetary benefits.

Green Book, a film about two characters traversing the American South in the 1960s, has proven especially appealing to foreign audiences, and this past weekend added another $4.5 million from the 62 overseas markets where it is playing. To date a whopping $219.6 million of the film’s $304 million box office has come from international ticket sales.

The biggest of those international markets, China, has really showed up for Green Book with $70.7 of the film’s box office coming from there alone. That’s the best performance for an original release Best Picture winner in the country, topping Titanic. The release window for Green Book has been extended in the Middle Kingdom until the end of the month so it will continue to add to its total there.

Other major contributors to Green Book’s $300 million feat are Japan with $14.6 million, France with $14 million, Germany with $13.5 million and the United Kingdom with $12.9 million. Notably, in all of those markets, the film didn’t open until 2019, while it has been out since November domestically.

So despite the various controversies surrounding the film, the divided critical reaction and the many people who were unhappy with its Best Picture win, Green Book has continued to prove the power of its crowd-pleasing narrative at the box office. Love it or hate it, Green Book is at least an Oscar movie that people actually saw.

Green Book is now available on Digital, Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD. Check out our 2019 release schedule to see all the biggest movies headed to theaters this year and stay tuned to CinemaBlend for all your movie news.

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Good Boys Red Band Trailer Has Jacob Tremblay Dropping F-Bombs And Playing With Sex Toys

Good Boys Red Band Trailer Has Jacob Tremblay Dropping F-Bombs And Playing With Sex Toys

We’ve entered the era of Jacob Tremblay getting into raunch comedy. The adorable 12-year-old kid from Wonder and Room will next star in Good Boys, a raunch comedy about three friends who get into trouble while trying to figure out how to kiss girls. You can can check out the ridiculous premise, as well as sex toys, drones, drugs and more in the full trailer below.

As you can probably tell with the early explanation to this trailer it’s Red Band and thus NSFW.

Jacob Trembley is joined by fellow actors Brady Noon and Keith L. Williams in the Good Boys trailer. The Red Band look at the movie has a funny intro featuring Seth Rogen, who produced the flick alongside Evan Goldberg, Joe Drake, Nathan Kahane and James Weaver. Basically the gist is that the middle schoolers in the movie can’t actually watch the red band trailer because they aren’t old enough, even though the were the ones tasked with dropping f-bombs and more here.

Although the kids are much younger in this trailer, obviously this movie has some of the same “kids getting into shenanigans” narrative that Superbad did more than 10 years ago. Universal Pictures and Good Pictures make a point to connect the new movie with “the guys who brought you Superbad.” (Superbad was written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg.)

It’s always a little bit of a shock factor when 12-year-old boys are dropping f-bombs, but that’s something they often do with their friends. Otherwise, despite the references to Molly and the specific and varied uses of dildos, this trailer is witty and heartwarming.

Seriously, though, there are so many sex toys here.

Also, there are plenty of f-bombs from the youngsters who aren’t Jacob Tremblay and more. The general plot is that these kids are trying to figure out how to kiss. They use a drone to spy on some nearby women, which then leads to them stealing a purse to exchange it for the drone. Unfortunately, there are drugs in the purse and shenanigans ensue.

These shenanigans involve frat boys, stealing beer from a gas station, watching porn and seemingly causing a major traffic accident on a freeway. Just a regular Saturday for these young men. (Actually they are in way over their heads.)

Good Boys doesn’t currently have a release date, but we’ll let you know as soon as the Universal Pictures movie does get a date. In the meantime, take a look at the full movies schedule to see what else is coming up in 2019. If you are keeping tabs on Jacob Tremblay's career at all, you'll also be able to catch him in Doctor Sleep and The Twilight Zone coming up.

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Godzilla Vs. Kong Has Wrapped In Australia

Godzilla Vs. Kong Has Wrapped In Australia

Fans of Godzilla are already excited because Godzilla: King of the Monsters is almost here. The film will pit the classic movie monsters against several of his famous foes from the Japanese Toho films of the 50s, 60s, and 70s. However, King of the Monsters is designed to only be a step on the road toward the major showdown that is Godzilla Vs. Kong. That showdown is now one step closer to reality, as Adam Wingard, the director of both films, recently announced that principal photography on the monster showdown has finished filming in Australia.

Australia was the primary filming location for Godzilla Vs. Kong. It's unclear if finishing production in Australia, as Adam Wingard revealed on Instagram (via comicbook.com) means that principal photography for the entire movie is over. It's possible there is more work to be done on location elsewhere. However, with a release date for the film already set for March of 2020, production should be wrapping up very quickly if this isn't the end.

With Godzilla: King of the Monsters still not even out in theaters yet, the details of Godzilla Vs. Kong are being kept more tightly under wraps than even what we're used to seeing with most recent tent pole releases. It's very likely that knowing too much about Godzilla Vs. Kong would reveal a great deal about what is set to happen in Godzilla: King of the Monsters.

Godzilla Vs. Kong will bring together the version of the giant lizard monster from 2014's Godzilla and the forthcoming sequel and put him up against the version of King Kong that was introduced in 2017's Kong: Skull Island. In both sets of movies, the giant monster is mostly viewed as a hero and ally to humanity, at least as long as humanity doesn't try to kill them, so why the two will apparently be fighting, is unclear. Ultimately, fighting is what these giant monsters do and it's part of the reason that we like to watch them. The context is far less important.

The fact that Godzilla Vs. Kong went into production so soon after Godzilla: King of the Monsters wrapped certainly showed that the studio had a lot of faith in both projects. While various cinematic universes, like Universal's Dark Universe, have faltered out of the gate, this one has been a bit more successful and has continued forward. Nobody waited to be sure King of the Monsters made money before green lighting the next entry in the series.

Of course, at this point Godzilla Vs. Kong may actually be the end of the story. We don't know what the plans are for the franchise after this. That may very well come down to a question of box office. If the film is so successful that it's clear the fans want more, we may very well get it.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters will be here next month, followed by Godzilla Vs. Kong in 2020.

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Godzilla Vs. Kong Could Be An ‘Underdog Battle,’ According To King Of The Monsters’ Director

Godzilla Vs. Kong Could Be An ‘Underdog Battle,’ According To King Of The Monsters’ Director

After a five year hiatus, Godzilla is finally returning to the MonsterVerse this weekend in Godzilla: King of the Monsters, where he’ll collide with Rodan, Mothra and King Ghidorah. After that, he won’t have much time to catch his breath as he’ll be back next year for Godzilla vs. Kong, and many have wondered how the showdown between these two Titans will go down.

In addition to directing and co-writing Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Michael Dougherty also co-wrote Godzilla vs. Kong, and he was well aware of how initially this battle could seem unfair, what with Godzilla having atomic breath and King Kong just being a giant ape. Nevertheless, he recently explained that part of the fun of watching this fight is that audiences are witnessing a “potential underdog fight.” Dougherty elaborated:

We’re looking at an almost David vs. Goliath situation. Because everyone, the moment you say Godzilla’s going to fight Kong, your first reaction is Kong doesn’t stand a chance. Godzilla’s got his radioactive breath, et cetera, et cetera. But then if you really take the time to look at Kong as a character, it’s like, okay, in Skull Island he was an adolescent, so he was still growing. So who knows how big he is since the 1970s when they first met him?

While he hasn’t been adapted nearly as much as Godzilla over the decades, we’ve seen various incarnations of King Kong, and the MonsterVerse’s version is definitely the biggest of them. That said, as Michael Dougherty noted, the ape was still a young’un in Kong: Skull Island, and he has a lot more growing to do. It’s unclear when Godzilla vs. Kong takes place, but there’s a 46-year difference between Kong: Skull Island and Godzilla vs. Kong. Just imagine how much taller Kong is after nearly five decades!

But it’s not size and brawn that factor into this upcoming battle of the ages. As Michael Dougherty also mentioned in his interview with Bloody Disgusting, King Kong also has brains on his side, and compared his clash with Godzilla to Rocky IV’s main match. As Dougherty put it:

Kong is extremely intelligent. As a primate, he’s a tool-user. So he’s got speed, he’s got agility, he might have some good size. And I like a good underdog battle. You know, it’s like watching Rocky go up against Ivan Drago. It seems like it’s unfair but clearly, this means the underdog might have a few surprises.

We saw in Kong: Skull Island how King Kong used tools like tree trunks and chains to vanquish foes like the Skullcrawlers, and whether any of Godzilla vs. Kong’s fights take place on his home turf or elsewhere in the world, perhaps this ability to think outside the box will give the ape an edge in his battle with Godzilla. He’ll need all the help he can get.

Of course, there’s still the big question of why Godzilla and King Kong are brawling. Michael Dougherty didn’t provide any specific reasoning, but did say that he hopes that their motivations for fighting each other are “sound, and not contrived,” and also that he thinks there’s “something primal” in human beings to see a fight like that which goes back to ancient myths and legends.

Naturally the main draw for Godzilla vs. Kong is seeing the two eponymous beasts coming to blows, but the movie will also follow Monarch embarking on a mission to learn about the origins of the Titans and a conspiracy to destroy the Titans being uncovered. The main cast includes Millie Bobby Brown, Kyle Chandler and Zhang Ziyi reprising their Godzilla: King of the Monsters roles, as well as Alexander Skarsgard, Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, Eiza González, Julian Dennison, Shun Oguri, Jessica Henwick, Demián Bichir and Lance Reddick.

Godzilla vs. Kong rampages into theaters on March 13, 2020, so stay tuned to CinemaBlend for continuing coverage. In the meantime, the MonsterVerse continues this Friday, May 31, with the release of Godzilla: King of the Monsters, and you can check out our 2019 release schedule to learn what other movies are opening later this year.

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Godzilla: King Of The Monsters' Worldwide Opening Numbers Are Massive

Godzilla: King Of The Monsters' Worldwide Opening Numbers Are Massive

There is perhaps no more appropriate movie to usher in the summer months than one in which a bunch of giant monsters fight each other. That is what we are getting with this weekend’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters from director Michael Dougherty. As befitting a movie with beasts of leviathanic proportions, the sequel to 2014’s Godzilla is looking to stomp its way into theaters in grand fashion with massive worldwide opening numbers.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters should reign supreme at the worldwide box office this weekend with an opening in the range of $230-$235 million according to Deadline. That’s a massive worldwide opening and one that would be a great start for a movie that may have had a production budget of $170 million before print and advertising.

Such an opening would give Godzilla: King of the Monsters the top spot at the worldwide box office, and the ability to say it’s the biggest movie in the world in TV spots, as well as besting Aladdin’s impressive $213.5 million opening from last weekend. An opening of $230-$235 million would also crush Legendary’s previous two MonsterVerse movies, Godzilla, which opened to $196 million and Kong: Skull Island, which opened to $146.1 million.

As far as how that $230-$235 million breaks down, domestically the tracking for King of the Monsters has the film landing between $50-$55 million. This is on the upper end of the long-range tracking from a couple months back that had the sequel opening between $40-$60 million.

However, there is an expectation that the Rotten Tomatoes score could have an effect on the domestic box office for Godzilla 2. Namely, if negative reviews continue to drag the film’s score on the Tomatometer down into the 20th percentile range, that could damper the enthusiasm of domestic audiences and thus hurt the film’s chances to enjoy that $50-$55 million debut.

Nevertheless, as anyone who follows the box office of films of this ilk could probably guess, Godzilla: King of the Monsters was always going to live and die overseas. On that front, the kaiju clash is expected to top the box office in 75 offshore markets for an international debut of $180 million. That would best the $140 million and $160 million international openings for Godzilla and Skull Island respectively.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters’ opening crucially includes China and where the movie ultimately lands on the weekend will depend a great deal on how it fares in the Middle Kingdom. A great debut there could possibly push Godzilla to $200 million international in its opening weekend. High anticipation and an international cast could work in its favor, with Godzilla 2’s Chinese debut estimated to be in the $75-$90 million range.

Also opening this weekend and hoping to counterprogram against Godzilla and friends is Rocketman. The Elton John musical from Dexter Fletcher is looking at a $25 million domestic bow and $45+ million worldwide. It obviously won’t take the crown from Godzilla, but it shouldn’t get drowned out either, as other would-be counterprogramming success stories have this year.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters hits theaters on May 31. Check out our 2019 Release Schedule to keep track of all of this summer’s biggest titles.

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Godzilla: King Of The Monsters Reviews Are In, Here’s What The Critics Are Saying

Godzilla: King Of The Monsters Reviews Are In, Here’s What The Critics Are Saying

It’s been five years since Godzilla kicked off the MonsterVerse, and while we rewound the clock back in 2017 to delve into King Kong’s origins in Kong: Skull Island, Godzilla is finally back in action this weekend for Godzilla: King of the Monsters. This time around, the giant reptile is colliding with Rodan, Mothra and King Ghidorah, and these Titans vying for supremacy will leave humanity’s existence hanging in the balance.

The public is still a few days away from getting to see Godzilla: King of the Monsters, but reviews from critics are now being published, and it’s looking like this sequel improves upon its predecessor in some ways, but is still a mixed affair.

CinemaBlend's own Mack Rawden gave the film 3 stars on our official review, citing major problem with the film's pacing. While praising the film's visuals, Rawden revealed:

In fact, the pacing is so strange that after about the twenty minute-mark, I had no concept whatsoever of how far into the film’s runtime we were. I’m usually pretty good at timing out a movie in my head and estimating what percentage we’ve completed. Not here. Not even close. There’s no slow burn or escalating momentum. The whole movie is in the deep end. Godzilla: King Of The Monsters is just a relentless haze of destruction throughout, a creative decision that obviously brings with it an enormous amount of pros and cons.

On the more positive end of the spectrum, William Bibbiani from Bloody Disgusting gave Godzilla: King of the Monsters a 4 out of 5 score, declaring that it felt like Warner Bros heard the collective complaints about how the 2014 Godzilla movie didn’t have enough monster action and “unloaded three sequels worth of monster fights into one follow-up.” That being said, King of the Monsters is filled with a lot of one-note characters, and if you treat blockbusters “like any other movie,” you’ll be disappointed with how this blockbuster fails to properly utilize its ensemble.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters is a big, kinda silly, but otherwise exciting blockbuster. It’s gorgeous, it’s epic in the extreme, and it features some of the most impressive monster fights you’ve ever seen. Maybe someday Americans will make a Godzilla movie that isn’t just ‘badass,’ but which also works on another level and resonates in a meaningful way.

Conversely, The AV Club’s Katie Rife wasn’t pleased with Godzilla: King of the Monsters, stamping it with a C- grade. Rife acknowledged that the look of the movie’s Titans and their fights are cool, but the rest of the King of the Monsters suffers as a result, with the human characters failing to impress. The family drama that occurs between the members of the Russell clan (Millie Bobby Brown’s Madison, Vera Farmiga’s Emma and Kyle Chandler’s Mark) is described as the “least successful flavor.”

Of course the monsters should be the stars of a Godzilla movie. But until blockbuster filmmaking goes entirely non-narrative, some attention should be paid to the rest of it as well.

James Whitbrook from io9 took a middle ground stance in his review of Godzilla: King of the Monsters, calling it “big, dumb and beautiful.” The sequel functions excellently as a love letter to the history of these cinematic beasts and the set pieces are “gorgeously rendered,” but the storyline is weak, there’s an inconsistent tone and there’s no proper exploration of the moral debate it sets up early on.

If you’re fine with some incredibly stupid people playing second fiddle to glorious kaiju moments, King of the Monsters will provide one of the best popcorn blockbusters of the summer. But if you wanted a Godzilla movie that had something, anything to say about its destruction? Then you’ll be definitely looking for something meatier than Ghidorah flank to chew on.

Empire’s Ben Travis did not enjoy Godzilla: King of the Monsters, giving it just one star out of five. In Travis’ opinion, the “staggeringly poor script” has the characters doing nothing but standing around or explaining the plot and their personal motivations with cliched dialogue. Making matters worse, the action sequences are also disappointing, with the final clash between Godzilla and King Ghidroah being described as “an overload of repetitive, joyless destruction that mistakes volume and demolition for actual excitement.”

Globe-trotting but not adventurous, action-packed but not remotely exciting, utterly overstuffed and completely paper-thin. Nuke it from orbit.

Finally, Scott Collura from IGN awarded Godzilla: King of the Monsters a 7.8 out of 10, observing, like many other critics, that the human characters get the short end of the proverbial stick, but the explosive monster action helps even the scales. Although the script is convoluted, King of the Monsters ultimately succeeds in delivering a lot of excellent battles and nerdy Easter eggs.

Godzilla returns in King of the Monsters, focusing on monster spectacle first and foremost. Which is as it should be!

These are just some of the Godzilla: King of the Monsters reviews that are now available, so feel free to look for others if you’d like more viewpoints. It is interesting, though, how one of the main complaints of the 2014 Godzilla movie was that there wasn’t enough monster action and too much focus on the humans, and now for King of the Monsters, the criticisms have been reversed. Talk about difficulty finding middle ground.

You can judge Godzilla: King of the Monsters for yourself when it arrives in theaters this Friday, May 31. Don’t forget to look through our 2019 release schedule to learn what movies are coming out later in the year.

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Godzilla: King Of The Monsters Production Designer Really Doesn't Want To F-Up The Monsters

Godzilla: King Of The Monsters Production Designer Really Doesn't Want To F-Up The Monsters

Although it is perhaps for the best, there are sadly no real titans that can be trained to battle for our cinematic enjoyment. That means that a whole lot of people need to put in a lot of work to bring these kaiju to life on the big screen for a movie like Godzilla: King of the Monsters. One of those people is production designer Scott Chambliss, who spoke about his role on the film and the guiding principle to not screw things up, saying:

It’s one of the interesting things for me in my career. It’s, of course, creating the environments for the story of the movie, but also I was hired to be the ringleader of the design team that we brought on to collaborate on the updating of the monsters themselves and, to me, is very exciting ... As part of a design team, none of us wanna fuck it up.

Not wanting to fuck it up is probably a pretty good objective to have in any creative endeavor, but especially one like Godzilla: King of the Monsters, where the potential to do just that is so high. Scott Chambliss wasn’t just in charge of creating the world of the film as production designer, he also had the responsibility of shepherding the design team through the process of updating the look of the monsters.

As Scott Chambliss told Forbes, updating and designing these awesome monsters that are what people pay to see was really exciting-- but it also carries with it a huge degree of responsibility. Neither he nor the rest of the design team wanted to fuck it up and that is not as easy as it sounds, as he explained:

The challenge of trying to remain true at our core to the designs of these original monsters that people really hold dear in their hearts, but also bringing them up to date in a way that honors their past, but feels much more contemporary, not only technologically, but in terms of how monsters function in movies as characters. We focused a lot of design attention on what the environment in terms of how all the monsters are affecting it, whether they’re directly or indirectly affecting it and what, visually, their place is in [the] world and what sort of natural elements they represent.

It’s one thing to design a new character, but another entirely to depict an iconic one that audiences have known for decades in a new way. That’s why things like the casting for the next James Bond or the design of superhero costumes are subject to such scrutiny. People have very high and specific expectations that must be met and that holds true for the monsters of Godzilla 2, some of which have existed since the 1950s.

The creatures in Godzilla: King of the Monsters couldn’t look totally different than their previous iterations, because fans of the property already have basic ideas in their heads of what Mothra, Rodan and Ghidorah look like. So Ghidorah can’t have 1 head or 8 and Mothra can’t have bat wings. They need to stay true to the things that made them iconic in the first place.

But these giant monsters had to be designed to fit within the world and aesthetic of the current iteration of the franchise and also be updated to appeal to modern sensibilities. Scott Chambliss previously spoke to CinemaBlend about this topic and how difficult it was to design Mothra for Godzilla: King of the Monsters. They wanted to make her truly feminine and graceful, but also frightening and powerful and it is quite a challenge to find the design that fits that balance.

Therefore it wasn’t as simple as a technological facelift using current CGI technology. For Scott Chambliss, that was the needle that had to be thread with the monster designs for Godzilla: King of the Monsters.

I also found it interesting that he wanted look at the monsters as characters and having visual representation of how they interact with their environment and what elements they represent. In the trailers, Mothra has this ethereal glow to her and King Ghidorah has this charged electricity around him, so perhaps those traits are a reflection of those efforts.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters is tracking to make between $40 million and $60 million opening weekend and if the early reactions to the film are any indication, they didn’t fuck it up. Godzilla: King of the Monsters opens in theaters on May 31. Check out our 2019 Release Schedule for all of this summers biggest movies.

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Godzilla: King Of The Monsters Made Sure Ghidorah Didn't Look Like Other Dragons

Godzilla: King Of The Monsters Made Sure Ghidorah Didn't Look Like Other Dragons

Dragons are a huge part of pop culture right now thanks to Game of Thrones, which set a new bar for what dragons (or wyverns) can look like onscreen. Because of that, any property looking to use dragons will have to distinguish them from what else is out there. Although Godzilla: King of the Monsters doesn’t feature a dragon in the traditional sense either, Ghidorah is dragon-like and therefore couldn’t be like other dragons, as the film’s production designer Scott Chambliss explained:

Ghidorah is from another planet and he’s basically the heavy in the film. One of the challenges was, we’re inundated with dragons in our culture right now. So, Ghidorah risks being the most ho-hum of [the monsters in the film]. What Michael did was, he played on the very human characteristics. He played on characteristics that we associate with human beings but he applied them to the monsters. Ghidorah, with his three heads, was an opportunity to have three different aspects of a generally similar creature.

Dragons are always awesome and it’s hard to imagine them ever becoming passé, but Scott Chambliss’ point stands. He and director Michael Dougherty didn’t want Ghidorah to be just another dragon; instead, they wanted him to be memorable and stand on his own as a creature that thrills audiences and feels like something different on the big screen.

That was obviously very important because Ghidorah isn’t just another creature among the sea of titans in the film, he’s the big bad, the King whose crown and title Godzilla must claim if the planet and humanity are to survive. So basically, he has to be cool and badass and unlike the dragons people are used to seeing.

To achieve that, Michael Dougherty gave Ghidorah human characteristics, as Scott Chambliss told Entertainment Weekly. Ghidorah and the rest of the titans aren’t just mindless killing machines. The titans all have their own motivations and unique personalities. We’ve seen dragons have personalities before; Drogon was not thrilled to see his mom hooking up with some stranger.

The difference with Ghidorah is that, to steal a line from the Game of Thrones source material, the dragon has three heads. Ghidorah isn’t a robot and his heads aren’t all acting in unison in Godzilla: King of the Monsters. Despite sharing a body they each have different personalities unique to them, just as humans and animals do. So that will allow us to see different sides of Ghidorah and make him a more fully realized character, even if he doesn’t talk.

The film even used three different actors to portray Ghidorah's three heads via motion capture, giving each a unique performance. How all that will manifest itself for Ghidorah in and out of battle in the film we’ll have to wait and see, but it is something we’ve seen with multi-headed dragons before, like with Zak and Wheezie in Dragon Tales and Devon and Cornwall in Quest for Camelot.

The human personalities aren’t the only distinguishing factor for Ghidorah though. Although the Targaryen sigil may be a three-headed dragon, we aren’t used to seeing an actual three-headed dragon-like creature onscreen and in the trailers we’ve already seen how cool and effective that can be in battle.

Also, Ghidorah is not of this world and is thus seems more science fiction than fantasy. He also stands more upright than most dragons and despite being winged, scaled and with dragon-like heads, he doesn’t breathe fire and instead shoots lightning.

You can see King Ghidorah in all his glory when Godzilla: King of the Monsters arrives in theaters on May 31. Check out our 2019 release schedule to see all the biggest movies headed your way this summer.

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Godzilla: King Of The Monsters’ Kyle Chandler Loved All The Green Screen Work

Godzilla: King Of The Monsters’ Kyle Chandler Loved All The Green Screen Work

When you think of movie monsters, there are none quite as massive (literally) as Godzilla. The titan has enthralled generations of moviegoers, appearing in countless live-action adaptations. The big guy is getting extra attention over the last few years, as the MonsterVerse puts Godzilla front and center. Following the release of Kong: Skull Island, the cinematic universe will introduce a ton of Godzilla monsters, who will go to battle with the franchise protagonist in Godzilla: King of the Monsters.

Giant monster movies obviously require a ton of visual affects, so actors must act with/in front of massive green screens. But there's also a push to include more practical sets and effects for major blockbusters, citing the difference it makes for performers. Kyle Chandler is starring in Godzilla: King of the Monsters, and previously worked in the genre with 2005's King Kong. Chandler recently expressed how he enjoys the challenge that comes with extensive green screen work, saying:

I mean, you know a big film like this, there's the challenge of all the green screen, which I did in King Kong, but this is more extensive. And the deal with that is it's fun because a lot of people say 'Isn't that hard, because there's nothing there?' But the fact is everything's there, and it's yours. You're creating what's there and that's sort of enjoyable. And when you're working with it, or running through it or jumping over it, it doesn't matter what you see or what is. They put something there for you so it's sorta fun to jump over something and wonder 'I wonder what I'm gonna see in the film. Is it ice or a bullet or, what have you.' And then the idea of this will be international, so for me as an actor that's something new as well. To be seen by crowds I haven't been seen by before, so that's a good positive right there.

It looks like Kyle Chandler's love for green screen work is two fold. One one hand, it gives the actor the chance to really exercise his imagination and create a brand new world from scratch. And he also get to watch the finished product with as much wonder as audiences, because he has no clue how the movie will end up looking.

Kyle Chandler's comments from the set of Godzilla: King of the Monsters (via Comic Book) may surprise cinephiles who prefer more practical sets and effects. Too much green screen has been a point of contention in movies like the Star Wars prequel trilogy, with the current trilogy using far more practical means to film. But Chandler seems to enjoy working with extensive green screens. And with projects as massive as Godzilla and King Kong, there's really no other choice.

In Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Kyle Chandler will play Dr. Mark Russell. An animal behavior specialist and the father of Millie Bobby Brown's Madison, he'll play an instrumental role in understanding the massive monsters that occupy the blockbuster. And there's going to be plenty of them.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters will arrive in theaters on May 31st. In the meantime, check out our 2019 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.

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