No matter how hard you try, you can’t break up with your past. Universal Pictures has just released the trailer for Love Hurts.

This Valentine’s Day, Oscar winner Ke Huy Quan (Everything Everywhere All at Once, Loki, The Electric State) rockets into his first major leading man role as an unlikely hero, a seemingly mild-mannered realtor with a dark secret that he is desperate to leave behind. Spoiler alert: He won’t. 

From 87North—producers of the groundbreaking action films Nobody, Violent Night, Bullet Train, Atomic Blonde and The Fall Guy—comes a visceral, high-octane story of wrath and revenge.  

Quan stars as Marvin Gable, a realtor working the Milwaukee suburbs, where ‘For Sale’ signs bloom. Gable receives a crimson envelope from Rose (Oscar winner Ariana DeBose; West Side Story, Argylle), a former partner-in-crime that he had left for dead. She’s not happy.  Now, Marvin is thrust back into a world of ruthless hitmen, filled with double-crosses and open houses turned into deadly warzones. With his brother Knuckles (Daniel Wu; Tomb Raider, Warcraft), a volatile crime lord, hunting him, Marvin must confront the choices that haunt him and the history he never truly buried.

The film features a killer soundtrack and impressive and diverse cast that includes former NFL running back and Super Bowl champion Marshawn “Beast Mode” Lynch (Bottoms, 80 for Brady), Mustafa Shakir (Emancipation, Luke Cage), Lio Tipton (Crazy, Stupid, Love., Lucy), Rhys Darby (Jumanji: The Next Level, Yes Man), André Eriksen (Violent Night, The Trip) and Sean Astin (The Lord of the Ringstrilogy, Perry Mason).

Produced by 87North’s Kelly McCormick and David Leitch, Love Hurts is written by Matthew Murray (Sheltered, CloudStreet: Soaring the American West) & Josh Stoddard (Warrior, Kaleidoscope) and Luke Passmore (Archenemy, Slaughterhouse Rulez). Guy Danella (Violent Night) is also producing. The executive producer is Ben Ormand. 

Making his feature film directing debut on Love Hurts is acclaimed veteran stunt coordinator and fight coordinator JoJo Eusebio, whose credits include some of the greatest action films of the past decade including Black Panther, The Avengers, the John Wick films, The Matrix Resurrections, Violent Night, The Fall Guy and Deadpool 2. Eusebio also served as the second-unit director on Deadpool 2, Violent Night and Birds of Prey. 

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Disney+ has mined the world of superheroes quite well with their various series forays into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But, there are other graphic novels and stories that fit within the Disney wheelhouse. It is a fortuitous coincidence that Everything Everywhere All At Once won big at the Academy Awards just as marketing began for American Born Chinese, boasting Oscar winners Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan, plus Oscar nominee Stephanie Hsu, amongst many other cast members. But it is no coincidence that American Born Chinese is a solid series for the streaming platform.

American Born Chinese, which has Shang Chi’s Destin Daniel Cretton and Lucy Liu on board as directors, is an adaptation of the comic by Gene Luen Yang. It follows the Journey to the West story about the Monkey King and the mythical battle between gods and humans. Updating that story to a contemporary and American setting, American Born Chinese blends high school characters with the supernatural for an action-packed story about family, legacy, and the fate of humanity with awesome martial arts sequences and special effects.

I chatted with a lot of those involved with American Born Chinese, including stars Ben Wang and Sydney Taylor, who discussed how the series treats teen characters as realistic rather than cliche as well as the future for the pair in season two. Yeo Yann Yann talked about being a part of this global cast and how this series felt as her first American project. Chin Han talked about his connection to the material after being a part of massive projects over the last decades. Daniel Wu talked about portraying another version of this story in Into The Badlands and how this series differs from it. Producer Melvin Mar talked about the series’ journey to the screen, and author Gene Luen Yang gave his feelings on how this adaptation honors his book. Check out the full interviews in the embed above.

American Born Chinese premieres on May 24th on Disney+.

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PLOT: In the future, technology allows users to relive memories as a way to escape the grimness of a mostly-flooded world. A private investigator (Hugh Jackman) who specializes in this technology falls in love with a mysterious woman (Rebecca Ferguson). When she vanishes, he uses his memories to find her, only to discover that she has deadly secrets of her own that could get him killed.

REVIEW: It’s hard to fathom where a movie like Reminiscence went so wrong. The brainchild of writer-director-producer Lisa Joy, one of the people behind HBO’s Westworld, this should have been a slam-dunk. After all, it’s a futuristic Neo-noir starring Hugh Jackman! Suffice to say, Reminiscence goes badly awry right from the start, adding up to a convoluted, dull genre mash-up that’s highly unoriginal.

One movie I couldn’t get out of my head throughout was Kathryn Bigelow’s Strange Days, which this movie copies so closely it almost feels like a (bad) remake. In that movie, Ralph Fiennes played a guy selling memories, who pined over his nightclub singing ex, while assisted by a bad-ass ex-military vet (Angela Bassett) who secretly adored him. Reminiscence has a nearly identical plot, in that Jackman pines over a nightclub chanteuse (Rebecca Ferguson) while being protected by his gun-wielding ex-military partner (Thandiwe Newton) who, you guessed it – secretly adores him. That’s how original this is.

Jackman is an ill fit as the noirish hero. We’re supposed to believe that he’s madly in love with Ferguson and that the two had red hot sexual chemistry, but the film utterly fails to build up any chemistry between the two whatsoever. Jackman cannot evoke the obsessiveness of someone like Michael Douglas, who might have been able to make a movie like this work twenty or so years ago. Jackman and Ferguson (who seems way too sophisticated and reserved to play a femme fatale) are miscast.

The film also awkwardly tries to shoehorn in some action, perhaps in a bid to appeal to Jackman’s fanbase. Unfortunately, while essentially a mystery, the movie dips its toe into the other genre during a wildly over-the-top gunfight peppered with silly slo-mo and a foot-chase/fight sequence that seems cribbed from another movie. Oh well, at least these moments liven up what’s otherwise a deadly dull piece of work.

Part of me wonders whether post-production tinkering might be the culprit here, with the film having a suspicious amount of voice-over narration and exposition data dumps. It wouldn’t surprise me if the film’s first cut is significantly different from what we see here, but even still, I doubt there’s a classic director’s cut sitting on a shelf somewhere. Jackman seems ill at ease in a part that doesn’t suit him. Newton tries to inject some life into the movie but also seems too fresh-faced to be playing a character that we’re told over and over again is an alcoholic war vet known for her high body count. Actors like Daniel Wu and Cliff Curtis pop in and out of the film in wildly over-the-top character parts, while some dialogue is corny beyond belief.

Suffice to say; this is a disastrous star vehicle for Jackman and big-screen debut for Joy. There is a silver lining, though. Hopefully, with it getting a simultaneous HBO Max release, the film will come and go from theaters without much of a peep and be quickly forgotten. Some technical credits are solid, such as the VFX that convey a half-flooded, futuristic Miami or DP Paul Cameron’s cinematography, but this is a noir tribute that fails on every level imaginable. It’s one of the worst studio films I’ve seen in a long time.

Reminiscence

TERRIBLE

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The sequel to 2018's Tomb Raider reboot has seen its fair share of delays, thanks mostly to the COVID-19 pandemic but actress and star, Alicia Vikander, is hopeful that she'll be able to reprise the role of Lara Croft very soon.

During a chat with ComicBook.com, Vikander was aware that the current circumstances with the global pandemic put the already greenlit sequel in limbo but she promised that a script is coming soon and she's excited to give it a read:

"[Writer/director] Misha [Green] is about to … A script is coming in very soon. She's extremely hardworking. And so, I can't say anything, because like you said, [current circumstances] kind of put everything just up in the air. But yeah, I'm excited to read scripts and hope that it's something that we'll find a way to make."

In October of last year, It was announced that MGM had pulled Tomb Raider 2 from its March 19, 2021 release date and they didn't indicate any future dates for the film at that point. Around that time, Vikander was asked about the sequel and, given the global pandemic, she believed that she wouldn't get to work on the film until early this year. She did confirm that the original plan was to film the sequel in 2020 but the coronavirus delays put things in limbo:

"The plan was for us to start making one this year, of course, due to the situation, that's now very different. We're still in discussions about it, so I hope we can probably get to it next year."

2018's Tomb Raider was directed by Roar Uthaug and it mostly served as an origin story for Lara Croft, taking inspiration from the most recent series of video games. The film received mixed reviews from critics, scoring a 51% rotten score on Rotten Tomatoes but the film did well enough worldwide to warrant a sequel. While the film wasn't a huge hit domestically, the film did earn $274.6 million at the global box office on a $94 million budget. MGM is likely hoping that with a well-liked actress who has an Oscar to her name and a new filmmaker at the helm for the sequel, things can be turned around a bit to make a sequel more profitable than the first film. Misha Green, who is hot coming off showrunning the critically acclaimed Lovecraft Country, is directing the sequel and she took to social media to reveal a potential title called Tomb Raider: Obsidian. Despite that reveal, Green said, "Still a long journey to production. Title's not even approved but first draft finished!"

Do YOU think Tomb Raider 2 will actually hit the big screen?

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A trailer and a poster have arrived online for the Warner Bros. sci-fi mystery Reminiscence, which is set to reach theatres on August 20th. Like all Warner Bros. releases this year, Reminiscence will also be available to watch on the HBO Max streaming service the same day it starts playing on the big screen. The trailer is embedded above, and the poster can be seen below.

Written and directed by Lisa Joy (Westworld), Reminiscence stars Hugh Jackman and Rebecca Ferguson. The synopsis: 

Nick Bannister (Hugh Jackman), a private investigator of the mind, navigates the darkly alluring world of the past by helping his clients access lost memories. Living on the fringes of the sunken Miami coast, his life is forever changed when he takes on a new client, Mae (Rebecca Ferguson). A simple matter of lost and found becomes a dangerous obsession. As Bannister fights to find the truth about Mae's disappearance, he uncovers a violent conspiracy, and must ultimately answer the question: how far would you go to hold on to the ones you love?

Also in the cast are Thandiwe Newton, Angela Sarafyan, Daniel Wu, Cliff Curtis, Nico Parker, Natalie Martinez, Marina de Tavira, Mojean Aria, and Brett Cullen.

Joy produced the film with Jonathan Nolan, Michael De Luca, and Aaron Ryder.

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The first trailer for Reminiscence is here and it finds Hugh Jackman exploring people's memories in this sci-fi drama thriller.

Directed by Lisa Joy in her feature directorial debut, the film follows Nicolas Bannister, a rugged and solitary veteran living in a near-future Miami flooded by rising seas. He is an expert in a dangerous occupation: he offers clients the chance to relive any memory they desire. His life changes when he meets Mae. What begins as a simple matter of lost and found becomes a passionate love affair. But when a different client's memories implicate Mae in a series of violent crimes, Bannister must delve through the dark world of the past to uncover the truth about the woman he fell for. The film also stars Rebecca Ferguson, Thandiwe Newton, Daniel Wu, and Cliff Curtis.

Reminiscence is a 2021 film release that saw its release date change this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The film was originally scheduled for release on April 16, 2021, before the slot was replaced by Mortal Kombat, leaving the film without a new release date. It was late rescheduled to be released theatrically in the United States on September 3, 2021, but that was moved to August 25, 2021, to avoid competing with Marvel's Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. The film will finally be released on August 20, 2021, theatrically and it will also stream simultaneously on HBO Max in the U.S. for 30 days.

Did YOU like the Reminiscence trailer?

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For years, Awesome Art We've Found Around The Net has been about two things only – awesome art and the artists that create it. With that in mind, we thought why not take the first week of the month to showcase these awesome artists even more? Welcome to “Awesome Artist We’ve Found Around The Net." In this column, we are focusing on one artist and the awesome art that they create, whether they be amateur, up and coming, or well established. The goal is to uncover these artists so even more people become familiar with them. We ask these artists a few questions to see their origins, influences, and more. If you are an awesome artist or know someone that should be featured, feel free to contact me at any time at theodorebond@joblo.com.This month we are very pleased to bring you the awesome art of… 

Stephen Sampson, The Dark Inker

Stephen Sampson, AKA The Dark Inker, lives and works on the South Coast of the UK with his lovable sidekick, Ico the cat!  Stephen has been drawing stuff since he was old enough to hold a pencil. The early days were inspired by comics from the adventures Asterisk and Tin Tin to the many stories of superheroes and strange worlds from Europe, America, and Asia.

His first big break came in the comics industry where he was lucky enough to illustrate the adventures of Judge Anderson in 2000 AD for a number of years. Later he moved into the Games and Movies industries. In 2014 he was thrilled to be invited to become a member of The Poster Posse and has worked on a number of exciting projects, such as Star Wars, Big Hero 6, Aliens, Cars 3 to name a few.

As a freelance illustrator, he has also been lucky enough to work with clients such as NASA, netFlicks, Titan Books, Spectrum Films, Printed in Blood. Still inspired by Comics as well as Books, Movies, Music, and the World around us and not to forget the space beyond. His passion for creating art continues to grow stronger with every exciting project he is lucky enough to be asked to contribute to!

JoBlo: What got you started as an artist?
Sampson: I'm sure this is a very common answer but books and comics at an early age were my first real inspirations to attempt to draw something. Once the bug for drawing had hold of me it's something I can't imagine being without. After studying art at school and for a year at college I got sidetracked for a few years and worked as a sheet metal worker. But even then all my spare time was spent drawing and once I was made redundant as a metalworker I started as a freelance illustrator, picking up small jobs here and there until I got the incredible chance to work for 2000 AD the home of Judge Dredd.

Who were some of your favorite artists growing up?
So many influences over the years! Early "art world" heroes were Gustav Klimt, Alphonse Mucha and Leonardo da Vinci. Other big influences are my wonderful art teacher Mr O'sullivan, Albert Uderzo, Barry Windsor-Smith, Jack Kirby, Frank Frazetta, Moebius, The Designers Republic, Katsuhiro Otomo, Syd Mead, David Bowie, Ridley Scott, Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, Robert E. Howard, Lewis Carroll, Frank Herbert, Fiona Staples and Loish. I really could just go on and on and I'm sure I'll kick myself for not mentioning someone or another!

Who do you really dig these days, follow on Instagram?
Wow! man that's such a hard one, the list would be endless, I guess check my social feeds to see who I follow and in truth, it grows day by day. So many incredible artists out there working in all kinds of industries but maybe as you ask this question when it's women's history month I'll name a few females off the top of my head and apologies if I forget someone! To start with all the female Poster Posse members, epic artists one and all Ziqqix, SG Posters, Courtney Autumn Martin, Cryssy Cheung, Freya Betts, Erin Gallagher, Bella Grace, AJ Frena, Nicky Barkla, Chelsea Lowe, Aracely Munoz, Tracie Chinq and a few others Loish, Fiona Staples, Vanessa Mckee, Nan Lawson, Charlie Bowater, Becky Cloonan.

What advice would you have for budding artists today?
Work hard, never miss a deadline! If art is your passion, use every minute you can to create. Learn from your mistakes, we all make them! And always do your best to be kind and thoughtful to others, you never know what people are going through at any given moment in their life.

What should we be looking out for from you in the future?
The Art of FireFly Book has just been released by Titan Books and Printed in Blood and I was very lucky to have my image chosen for the cover! I've also done an image for the Printed in Blood artbook for Halloween the movie, which has already been posted as a promotion for the book. And I'm working on an image for their recently announced Art Book for Hannibal the TV series, having a lot of fun with this one! Also over the first lockdown period in the UK, I started work on some personal images, kind of fantasy, sci-fi worlds, inspired by the everyday world around us.
Titled Lockdown Worlds should be posting them soon. Also during the lockdown, I got into Star Wars The Clone Wars and started to do some character portraits, which again I will post soon. And as a Games artist, I've been working on an exciting project that hopefully will be out sometime later this year! 

Being a fansite, we have to ask you… What are some of your favorite movies/TV shows of all time?
Mate! These questions are not easy! Again this could be the list to end all list's but I'll try to keep to whatever comes quickly to mind! And in no particular order! The Banana Splits, Marine Boy, Captain Scarlet, Jason and the Argonauts, Blade Runner, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Alien, Taxi Driver, Pulp Fiction, Seven, Silence of the Lambs,  Crimson Peak, Pan's Labyrinth, Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Tekkonkinkree, The Iron Giant, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Laputa Castle in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro, Ringu, Alita Battle Angel, Train to Busan, A Quiet Place, Game of Thrones, Hannibal, Stranger Things, Taboo, FireFly, and on it goes! But just to add I'm so looking forward to Denis Villeneuve's Dune, one of my favorite books! And I'm currently watching the TV series The Terror, which I think is brilliant!!

Scroll down to check out some of our favorite art pieces from Josh as we continue to follow his journey across his Website and social media hubs: Instagram / Twitter / Facebook/ Artstation / Linkedin / YouTube / Prints / Firefly Book  

Aliens

Ashoka

Black Widow

Cars 3

Dune

Edge of Tomorrow

Firefly

Ghost In The Shell 

Halloween

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay

IT

John Wick

Kylo Ren

The Legend of Zelda

The Mandalorian

Stranger Things

Tomb Raider

Toy Story 4

True Detective

 

The post Awesome Artists We’ve Found Around The Net: Stephen Sampson appeared first on JoBlo.

Alicia Vikander will be back as Lara Croft for Tomb Raider 2 and Deadline has reported that MGM has tapped Misha Green to write and make her feature directorial debut on the sequel.

Misha Green has written for Heroes, Spartacus, Helix, and Underground, but is best known for creating and writing Lovecraft Country, a recent HBO series that followed "Atticus Freeman (Jonathan Majors) as he joins up with his friend Letitia (Jurnee Smollett-Bell) and his Uncle George (Courtney B. Vance) to embark on a road trip across 1950s Jim Crow America in search of his missing father (Michael Kenneth Williams). This begins a struggle to survive and overcome both the racist terrors of white America and the terrifying monsters that could be ripped from a Lovecraft paperback." It had previously been announced that the Tomb Raider sequel would be directed by Ben Wheatley (Rebecca) from a script by Amy Jump (Free Fire), but it would seem that they've obviously departed the project. In a statement on Twitter, Green said:

The Tomb Raider sequel had previously been slated to hit theaters later this year, but the COVID-19 pandemic meant that production couldn't begin last year. Alicia Vikander commented on filming plans for the sequel last year, confirming that "the plan was for us to start making one [in 2020], of course, due to the situation, that's now very different. We're still in discussions about it, so I hope we can probably get to it [this year]."

The post New Tomb Raider 2 director found in Lovecraft Country’s Misha Green appeared first on JoBlo.

We're going to have to wait an indefinite amount of time to see Alicia Vikander suit up as Lara Croft again. It has been announced that MGM has pulled TOMB RAIDER 2 from its March 19, 2021 release date and currently, hasn't announced a new scheduled release for the film.

The news of the sequel's delay isn't all that surprising because, according to all accounts, no filming has commenced on the film as of yet. The sequel was announced back in 2019 with Ben Wheatley directing and its release date was set at that time. Vikander was recently asked about the sequel and, given the global pandemic, she believed that she wouldn't get to work on the film until early next year. She did confirm that the original plan was to film this year but the coronavirus delays put things in limbo:

"The plan was for us to start making one this year, of course, due to the situation, that's now very different. We're still in discussions about it, so I hope we can probably get to it next year."

2018's TOMB RAIDER was directed by Roar Uthaug and it mostly served as an origin story for Lara Croft, taking inspiration from the most recent series of video games. The film received mixed reviews from critics, scoring a 51% rotten score on Rotten Tomatoes but the film did well enough worldwide to warrant a sequel. While the film wasn't a huge hit domestically, the film did earn $274.6 million at the global box office on a $94 million budget. MGM is likely hoping that with a well-liked actress who has an Oscar to her name and a new filmmaker at the helm for the sequel, things can be turned around a bit to make a sequel more profitable than the first film.

Do YOU think TOMB RAIDER 2 will actually hit the big screen?

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MGM has announced that FREE FIRE and SIGHTSEERS director Ben Wheatley has been tapped to direct a sequel to 2018's TOMB RAIDER starring Alicia Vikander in the title role. Vikander will be reprising her role as Lara Croft for the sequel, one of pop culture's most beloved explorers and hunter of all things shiny and supernatural. Writing the script this time out is Amy Jump (HIGH-RISE, FREE FIRE). Meanwhile, Graham King will produce through his GK Films studio with Elizabeth Cantillon.

The Tomb Raider property was rebooted in 2018 by director Roar Uthaug. The exploratory action film unearthed $275 million at the global box office and served as an origin story for the Lara Croft character. In the film, Lara Croft, the fiercely independent daughter of a missing adventurer, pushed herself beyond her limits while searching for the island where her father disappeared.

Where do you think Wheatley's film will find Lara venturing off to for her next death-defying excursion? Do you think having Jump on scripting duties will take the character in a more action-heavy direction? When Vikander was gearing up for 2018's TOMB RAIDER, did you happen to catch any video of her training routine? If you ask me, that woman went into pure BEAST MODE for her TOMB RAIDER training, and I have no doubt that she'll be doing it again for the sequel. I tried a few exercises from her routine once and nearly killed myself. I do not recommend making an attempt to replicate her sweet moves without a proper warm-up or a certified personal trainer. After all, you want to be able to walk into the theater when then next TOMB RAIDER film comes out, right? Play it smart, my friends.

Ben Wheatley's TOMB RAIDER sequel has set a release date of March 19, 2020.

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