It’s becoming a cliched response for directors, but Alex Kurtzman has played the “not for critics” card following the poor reviews for The Mummy. Although completely asinine, this isn’t the first time a filmmaker has fired back at critics for not liking their films, claiming they were made “for the fans” (which suggests that critics aren’t fans and that “real fans” will accept any old bollocks put in front of them). “I’m not making movies for [critics],” he told Business Insider. “Would I love them to love it? Of course, everybody would, but that’s not really the endgame. We made a film for audiences and not critics so my great hope is they will find it and they will appreciate it.” Read more here.
Last week An American Werewolf in London director John Landis revealed he was sick and tired of Marvel Studio’s output, and yesterday he decided it was time to take a shot at The Mummy. “It’s not a new idea,” he told Entertainment.ie. “If you remember with Universal back in the ’40s, once they made all their classics, they started cross-pollinating. House of Dracula, House of Frankenstein, Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man – you know what they used to call those? Monster rallies! (laugh) And then of course, one of the great ironies is what was considered… OK – it’s over now!… was Abbot & Costello Meets Frankenstein, which is actually a very funny movie and very respectful of the monsters. I think, y’know, maybe that’s one of the problems with Universal’s Dark Universe is that it isn’t respectful of the monsters.” Read more here.
The ongoing drama of Spidey in the MCU continues as Spider-Man: Homecoming goes into press-overdrive. This time it’s the turn of director Jon Watts who told the crowd at Australia’s Supernova Comic-Con in regards to Amy Pascals comments from yesterday’s Daily News Roundup, “I don’t think she [Amy Pascal] meant that in an apocalyptic way. I think she was just trying to say what an unprecedented deal [it was] that Marvel and Sony teamed up.” Read more here.
Sticking with the MCU briefly, and Chris Hemsworth has revealed that the final Infinity Stone will make its appearance “very soon”. Read more here.
Although the series was showing signs of waning with the fourth installment, audiences have lapped up Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, and the film has passed $650 million worldwide. Read more here.
EMPIRE LOGOS
Thanks to Star Wars collector Gus Lopez, we’ve got a rather interesting look at some of legendary artist Ralph McQuarrie’s early logo designs for 1980’s Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back thanks to a series of rough sketches, all of which are very different from the iconic logo which McQuarrie and George Lucas eventually settled upon. Check them out here.
Graeme Robertson looks at movies about loners that show the dark side of depression, which you can read here.
Originally published June 20, 2017. Updated November 30, 2022.
