After the first trailer for Zack Snyder’s new highly-anticipated sci-fi movie, Rebel Moon is all everyone can talk about. The first images are definitely promising and as the stars and creator start dishing out the details, the hype is seriously building.
Meanwhile, a hot new K-Pop group is reaching an important milestone with an upcoming Netflix drama, as the streamer grows its Korean output, and the new poster for Wes Anderson’s The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar puts Benedict Cumberbatch front and center in an eerily familiar pose.
The hype is real for Zack Snyder’s answer to Star Wars
The comparisons between Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon and Star Wars have been entirely inevitable, but the cast and crew are not hiding the similarities, instead using them to their advantage. After all, being connected to as heavyweight a genre as fantasy/sci-fi can’t hurt, especially if you’re confident that your series has the chops to live up to fan expectations. And it sounds like the Rebel Moon gang has them in spades.
Star Ed Skrein, who plays a villain in the upcoming film, was excited to step into a mainstream production with “subversive tendencies,” he told ScreenRant. The wink at mature audiences who might not feel catered to by Disney’s Star Wars feels very much intentional, with Skrein making it a point to shout out the movie’s raunchier aspects. “It’s like Star Wars, but with violence, sex, and swearing.” It can’t get better than that.
Also reminiscent of Star Wars are the swords wielded by the warrior Nemesis, played by Sense8‘s Doona Bae, which look more than a little like lightsabers. Worse — they look like better, cooler lightsabers than what Star Wars has recently offered, and the franchise’s fans have noticed. “Star Wars should learn a thing or two,” as one Twitter user put it, is not exactly something you want to hear about a project that was almost yours.
The Snyder-dom doesn’t end with Rebel Moon
Everyone wants a piece of Snyder. The beloved director has got his feet dipped into a number of different projects, including but not limited to Rebel Moon, Twilight of the Gods, and Army of the Dead —all a part of his deal with Netflix. With his attentions now turned towards promoting the first chapter of his sci-fi double-header that’s set to drop in December, the questions about other ventures are still hard to dodge.
At GamesCom, Snyder was asked what video game he’d like to adapt to the big screen, and his answer sounded just a tad too realistic to be just hopeful daydreaming. Turns out the Justice League director has given repeated thought to the idea of adapting Gears of War, he revealed to IGN — coincidentally, the same IP Snyder collaborator Dave Bautista has previously fawned over. The two worked together on Army of the Dead in 2021, so reconnecting for this hypothetical Gears of War endeavour sounds like a no-brainer.
Speaking of Army of the Dead: fear not, Snyder has not forgotten about it. Although he has admitted that the spin-off animated series Lost Vegas is currently on hold, the direct sequel to the 2021 film is very much present in his mind. Ideally, the fimmaker told ScreenRant, he’d intercalate the Army developments with new Rebel Moon installments, alternatively hopping between one and the other.
“It’s funny because, I was trying to figure out the cadence and how we would go forward, and whether we’re going to do the Army of the Dead sequel and then come back and do another one of these [Rebel Moon] movies if it’s desired,” Snyder said, in what should come as positive news for fans of the Dave Bautista-led flick.
Fifth Generation sensation NewJeans checks the OST box off the K-Pop bucket list
Releasing a song for the soundtrack of a Korean drama is basically part of the initiation ritual to any legitimate K-pop group and newcomers NewJeans are about to cross that bridge. A new trailer for an upcoming Netflix K-drama titled A Time Called You came with the added bonus of a never-before-heard teaser to the K-Pop girl group’s very first OST.
“Beautiful Restriction” is the name of the song by the five-member band, which will be primarily fronted by 18 year-old Vietnamese-Australian singer Hanni. A Time Called You is led by Business Porposal‘s Ahn Hyo-seop and Vincenzo‘s Jeon Yeo-been. It drops on Netflix Sept. 8.
Benedict Cumberbatch can’t shake off his Doctor Strange-ness in the official poster for Wes Anderson’s new extravaganza
Benedict Cumberbatch is about to make his Wes Anderson debut in the short film The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, where he will be playing the title character, but what none of us were expecting was for the first look at his character to feel so déjà vu.
The first thought on everyone’s minds when Netflix shared the official poster for Anderson’s latest was how similar Cumberbatch’s pose looked to what is arguably his most famous role to date. The actor can be seen sitting cross-legged on a chair while meditating — although it almost looks like he’s levitating in much the same manner as the Master of the Mystic Arts himself, Doctor Strange. In fact, the most recognizable image of the superhero comes from the moment in Avengers: Infinity War, where he’s levitating while picturing every possible future ahead. Fans couldn’t help but imagine what a Wes Anderson-directed Doctor Strange film could look like.
This poster is awesome & I love the Doctor Strange nod, I wish this wasn’t a short film but we can’t complain thanks to #AsteroidCity
— DMP (@DavidMPontes) August 24, 2023
Wes Anderson Dr Strange I see? I’m in!
— ChrisDoodles (@ChrisThomasma) August 24, 2023
Are you sure this isn’t an A I Wes Anderson’s Dr Strange?
— JB ☠️ (@jbombardier25) August 24, 2023
Attendees at the Venice Film Festival will be able to catch the short film, also featuring Ralph Fiennes, Dev Patel, and others, as early as next week. Us common mortals will have to wait until it drops on Netflix Sept 27.