Patrick Wilson and the cast on Insidious: The Red Door: ‘I wanted to give audiences something new’

Insidious: The Red Door is coming to haunt your dreams. Star and first time director Patrick Wilson, along with his fellow cast members Ty Simpkins, Sinclair Daniel and Lin Shaye chat to whynow about bringing the horror franchise back to life in this exclusive interview. 

It’s a really great time to be a horror fan right now. Lee Cronin did the impossible and brought Evil Dead back in a gloriously gory fashion. We’re getting a proper Five Nights at Freddy’s adaptation this year and it looks terrifying. Horror directors are consistently being hired for the top jobs in Hollywood. 

The first Insidious, released in 2010, was the brainchild of Leigh Whannell and James Wan, the two blokes behind Saw. The memorable scares in Insidious quickly made it into a franchise and Insidious: The Red Door, in cinemas 7 July, is the fifth film in the franchise. The film continues the story of the Lambert family, who still can’t shake the demonic dimension only known as The Further.

Insidious was always the slightly camp, funnier cousin to Wan’s The Conjuring universe, but there was always something very visceral about the jumpscares in the Insidious films. 

“I want our audiences to have the kind of Insidious movie that they’re used to and that they expect and yet, I wanted to push it. I wanted to give them something new,” says Patrick Wilson who plays Josh Lambert in the film and also makes his directorial debut with The Red Door. 

The first two Insidious films focused on the Lambert family. Josh and his wife Renai (Rose Byrne, also returning in the new film) went through every family’s nightmare when their young son Dalton (Ty Simpkins) fell into a coma in Insidious. 

With the help of the psychic Elise (Lin Shaye), the Lamberts found out Dalton is lost somewhere in The Further and Josh, who also had the ability to travel there, saved him, only to be possessed by a spirit himself, leading to the events of the second film. 

After the third and fourth films in the franchise focused on different families, The Red Door brings the focus back to The Lamberts. Shaye, whose character Elise technically died in the first film, but has appeared in every single Insidious movie since, credits the family dynamic as one of the reasons Insidious has remained popular. 

“You first fell in love with this family, and that they were in jeopardy was very upsetting. And I think that drew you into the horror that James Wan created around us with the monsters. The fear factor became very powerful, because you feared for this family as well as [for] yourself at that point,” the 79-year-old actress says. 

Elise is arguably the heart and soul of Insidious, the one constant throughout the franchise. Shaye has appeared in many more horror films, earning herself the title ‘scream queen’, but Insidious is by far her most iconic role. 

Shaye says Elise is someone with “big antennas” and that she is “a good listener and a good radio” when it comes to other people. 

“When you think of us, how limited we are with what we hear and what we see, we’re sort of closed off, we have blinkers on half the time, you don’t really look around to see what’s happening. And Elise has the ability and the need to take in information. I think there’s something very appealing about seeing that.”

Simpkins is another actor returning to his role in the franchise. He was only 9-years-old when he played Dalton in the very first film. Since then, he has appeared in some of the biggest franchise films of our time, including Jurassic World and Avengers: Endgame. He also appeared in Darren Aronofsky’s acclaimed The Whale earlier this year. 

Now, at 21, he was able to relate to Dalton, who heads off to college in The Red Door, in a whole new way. 

“He was going through a lot of the same stuff that I was going through at the time and just to be able to express that through this was a really fun, very fun and healthy thing to do,” the actor tells whynow. 

“I think it’s always a fun challenge when you get presented with something that you’ve never really done before, and especially someone like Dalton, who I’ve played around with for 12 years, it’s a really exciting thing to be able to visit him again. And now that he’s a fully fleshed out character.”

If Shaye, Wilson and Simpkins were all returning to the roles they’ve been mulling around for over a decade, Sinclair Daniel had the challenge of joining a very tight-knit group, a cinematic family.

“The fact that all the original family members were back and Patrick was directing. And we had people on the crew who’d been in previous movies in all departments. This was a very well established group of people. So I was definitely a little nervous coming into it,” Daniel says. 

In the film, she plays Chris, Dalton’s new roommate at college, who also gets a taste of the horrors that seem to follow Dalton. Despite being nervous to join the Insidious family, Daniel speaks highly of the experience.

“I’d say by halfway through the first day, that all fell away, everybody was so nice and welcoming, and just happy to be there and making this movie that they all care so much about.”

Insidious: The Red Door is perhaps the most meaningful to Wilson. The acclaimed actor is making his directorial debut and closing out the Lambert chapter of Insidious. Wilson makes crafting scares look easy, but then again, he did learn from the best. 

Wilson has worked with Wan in 7 films total and Wan is credited as a producer in The Red Door. When I ask Wilson what he’s learned from observing Wan so closely over the years, the actor turned director laughs nervously. 

“That’s a loaded question,” he chuckles before answering in his typical humble nature. 

“I wasn’t one of those people that I went and shadowed him,” Wilson says. “I see how efficient he is with the camera, I see how he is with actors, I see how he is with tension, setting up scares and setting up the shot. But more than that, [it] really was something that he said to me before shooting this. He just said ‘make it yours’.”

Mission accomplished; The Red Door feels like a completely different type of Insidious film. It’s much more serious in tone, for one and the film has a laser-tight focus on the Lambert family, especially the restrained relationship between Josh and Dalton. 

“Even if people don’t realise, [James Wan] is a very emotional director, meaning that he loves to have those character scenes and relationships, he knows that that’s what people care about. That’s the thing that I probably dug into the most, just understanding that it’s not just about getting to the scare,” Wilson describes. 

While it might not be all about the scares, Wilson does seem very capable of crafting those big jumpscares Insidious became known for. The series’ most famous scare is in the first film, when a red-faced demon (lovingly called the Red Lipstick Demon) suddenly appears behind Wilson’s Josh out of nowhere, scarring an entire generation for life. 

Wilson notes that jump scares are “technical” in nature, but refuses to take credit for them. 

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Up for the ultimate scare? These malls will have a midnight screening of 'Insidious: The Red Door'

Horror movies are always more fun and exhilarating when you stream them on your TV at midnight and beyond, so what more if you can watch them on the big screen where the lights are dim and the speakers are booming?

Several cinemas in the country are set to have a midnight screening of the upcoming supernatural horror film Insidious: The Red Door on July 5.

The film will premiere starting at 12:01 a.m. at SM Cinema Cebu, SM Cinema Davao, SM Cinema Iloilo, SM Cinema Mall of Asia, SM Cinema Marikina, SM Cinema Megamall, SM Cinema North Edsa, and SM Cinema Seaside.

Insidious: The Red Door is the fifth film in the Insidious franchise and serves as a direct sequel to 2010's Insidious and 2013's Insidious: Chapter 2. The film follows the supernatural encounters of the Lambert family as they are plagued by demons coming from The Further, a dark place where many souls are damned to remain forever.

Set ten years after the ending events of the second film, the story follows Josh Lambert as he drops his son Dalton off at an ivy-league university. However, Dalton’s college dream becomes a nightmare when the repressed demons of his past suddenly return to haunt them both. 

Touted as the "epic conclusion to the terrifying saga of the Lambert family," Insidious: The Red Door reunites the original cast from the first film that includes Patrick Wilson (who is also helming the film in his directorial debut), Ty Simpkins, Rose Byrne, and Andrew Astor.

Speaking about the film, Wilson said he wanted to continue the story of the Lambert family by trying to explore their trauma because of the hauntings.

"After the second film, I felt there was nothing more to be done or said or explored with the Lambert family. The biggest question that I asked, and that I wanted to pose to the audience, was what happens to a family after ten years, when you’ve been hypnotized in order to forget your family trauma?" he said.

"In hindsight, that’s probably not the healthiest way to deal with trauma: ‘It didn’t happen, you’ll forget this.’ I wanted to unpack that," Wilson continued. 

Co-producer Jason Blum was meanwhile elated to have the original cast back again, "Getting to see how the cast has aged–especially the actors who were children and have grown into young men–underscores the heart of the story for me: that this is a family finding their way as they move through their lives."

Commentary: ‘Elemental’ is a reminder to thank our parents while we still can

How do you convey how thankful you are for everything your parents have done for you?

That’s one of the key dilemmas Ember (voiced by Leah Lewis) has to navigate in Pixar’s “Elemental,” out now in theaters (although box office reports suggest audiences may be waiting for its arrival on Disney+). A young fire woman who grew up in the shop her parents built after leaving their homeland, Ember has always assumed she would take over the business so her father can finally retire.

At least, that’s what she always dreamed. But after a chance encounter with Wade (Mamoudou Athie) — a water guy who’s very in tune with his emotions — she’s forced to realize that she’s never taken the time to really be honest with herself, because it’s a luxury she never thought she had. Ember’s focus has always been on being a “good daughter” to her parents who left everything and everyone they knew behind to seek better opportunities in a strange new land.

It’s a familiar dynamic for those with immigrant parents, but Ember’s story is relatable to anybody who grew up knowing their parents worked hard and made sacrifices just to give their kids a shot.

For director Peter Sohn, “Elemental” is a deeply personal story. While he can trace his inspiration for the animated movie’s whimsical premise — different elements living as neighbors — to the periodic table he first saw in science class, the heart of Ember’s story came from Sohn’s experiences as a child born and raised in New York’s Bronx to Korean immigrant parents, as well as his interracial marriage.

During a recent video call, Sohn recounted the time he was onstage waiting to make remarks at an event celebrating Pixar (his feature directorial debut, “The Good Dinosaur,” was also for the studio). Seeing his family’s faces in the audience, he was suddenly struck by how thankful he was, so he scrapped his planned speech and talked about them instead.

“It got very emotional,” said Sohn. “I cried up there. It was embarrassing. Someone in the background was like, ‘You better thank them!’ I came back to Pixar with that story and some of the folks here said, ‘Hey, that’s your next film.’ ”

That feeling of gratitude permeates “Elemental.”

Sharing intimate family stories isn’t easy. Even Sohn admitted he had difficulty being “so vulnerable about personal stuff” and that it was a couple of years into the production before he saw these elements as more than just ingredients for the movie, and really leaned in.

Adding to that is the loss Sohn experienced in the years it took to make “Elemental.” Sohn’s father died early during the production, and his mother died a few years later. He wanted to honor them with this movie, he said, but pouring his grief into his work took the film to a much darker place than he intended.

“I had to wrestle with a lot of these issues of grief,” said Sohn. He said he “grab[bed] on to this guiding light, this North Star of just wanting to thank the people in our lives that have sacrificed or taken risks for us. It became this saddle that I held on to.”

It’s these tiny flecks of grief that tinge “Elemental’s” message that really resonated with me as a viewer — and in a different way than recent films about the relationships between Asian mothers and their daughters.

Ember struggles with the idea of being honest with her family because she doesn’t want to let them down. What goes unmentioned is that when you are keenly aware you’re an outsider — in Ember’s case, a fire woman living in a world not built for fire people — it’s that much harder to risk any disapproval from those who have provided the one place where you feel you do belong.

Wade, the water guy, whose father died before the events of the movie, reminds Ember that her parents won’t be around forever and that it’s important to be honest with them while she can.

My father died when I was 22 while I was off chasing what I thought were my dreams. Until then, I was lucky enough that I never really had to consider my parents’ mortality and took for granted that they would be around forever. I was nowhere near mature enough to have really considered who my dad was outside of being my dad.

As the years passed, the more I’ve thought about the conversations we didn’t have and the sides of me he’d never see. We spent a lot of time together, but since I inherited his tendency to express love through action (he always found a way to let me pursue any interest I expressed), I sometimes wonder if that was enough.

More than any lingering ache I feel that my dad never really got a chance to know the real me — I didn’t even know the real me at 22 — is the fear that he died without really hearing my thanks. Did I say it loud enough, if I didn’t always use my words?

How do you convey how appreciative you are for everything your father has done for you when he’s no longer around for you to tell him?

“Elemental” offers one answer. After Ember finally tells her father about her new dream of pursuing the arts, she realizes that all her parents have really wanted for her is to be able to pursue happiness, even if it’s something (or with someone) they hadn’t ever considered before.

Many of us get to chase ambitions that our parents never had the luxury of imagining — such as making a living watching and writing about animated movies. One way to show them our thanks might be to keep dreaming big. But the film’s biggest takeaway is to always say thank you while you can.

Pixar film 'Elemental' opens as studio's second-lowest box office debut

Pixar's animated movie "Elemental" took in roughly $30 million at U.S. and Canadian box offices over the weekend, the second-lowest debut in the history of the acclaimed studio behind the "Toy Story" franchise, "Finding Nemo" and other classics.

"Elemental," a story about overcoming outward differences, added $15 million overseas for a global total of $45 million from Friday through Sunday, distributor Walt Disney Co (DIS.N) said. The film opened in just three major international markets and will expand to other countries in the coming weeks.

"The Flash," the latest DC superhero movie from Warner Bros (WBD.O), also underwhelmed at the box office. It topped the domestic charts with an estimated $55.1 million, according to researcher ComScore, at the low end of pre-weekend forecasts.

Analysts had predicted that "Elemental" would open with at least $31 million at domestic theaters. The $30 million estimate, which will be finalized on Monday, would rank just ahead of the $29.1 million for 1995's "Toy Story," Pixar's first movie. "Toy Story" became a global blockbuster that spawned multiple hit sequels.

The studio is looking to rebound from the box office disappointment of its 2022 release "Lightyear," the origin story of "Toy Story" hero Buzz Lightyear. The movie brought in an earthbound $226.7 million in global ticket sales, a fraction of the $1 billion take for 2019's "Toy Story 4."

The director and producer of "Lightyear" were laid off last month, Reuters first reported, as Disney shed 7,000 jobs across the company in a cost-cutting effort.

"Elemental" is set in Element City, where Fire, Water, Earth and Air characters live together. An unexpected friendship between Fire and Water borrows from director Peter Sohn’s relationship with his Italian-American wife, which he initially hid from his parents.

Tony Chambers, head of theatrical distribution at Disney, said he was disappointed by the domestic ticket sales for "Elemental," which received positive feedback from movie critics and audiences and was heavily marketed. Audiences gave the film an "A" rating in polling by CinemaScore.

Chambers noted that both live-action and animated films based on original stories and characters have struggled at theaters since the COVID-19 pandemic. Franchises based on well-known intellectual property (IP), such as current hit "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse," are drawing mass audiences.

"Original IP has a harder time cutting through in the market," Chambers said. "At this point in time, it's a very busy marketplace."

During the pandemic, former Chief Executive Bob Chapek decided to release three Pixar movies - "Soul," "Luca" and "Turning Red" - exclusively on the Disney+ streaming service.

That taught audiences to expect Pixar movies would be available to watch at home, said Jeff Bock, senior box office analyst at Exhibitor Relations Co.

At theaters, "they're going to go back to the drawing board, and in this case what the drawing board means is sequels," Bock said, pointing to next year's "Inside Out 2" and the planned "Toy Story 5." "Disney knows how to sequel," he said.

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Elemental actor targeted by bigots after starring as Pixar’s first non-binary character

Pixar is making waves with its groundbreaking non-binary character in new film Elemental – but positive reactions have been drowned out by a wave of bigotry.

Set in a city inhabited by ‘elementals’ – residents made of either water, fire, air or earth – Pixar’s new film Elemental brings family and friends together for an animated caper that expertly blends emotion and humour with much-needed representation.

Elemental follows the story of Ember and Wade, a “fiery young woman and a more go-with-the-flow guy”, who “discover something elemental” over the course of the film, which explores wider themes of immigration, family and finding unity over difference.

Somewhere in all that trademark Pixar zaniness, appeared the animation company’s first ever non-binary character, in the form of water element and Wade’s younger sibling, Lake Ripple.

It’s wonderful to see Pixar’s first explicitly non-binary character – and Lake’s voice actor, the similarly non-binary 22-year-old Kai Hauser, thinks so too.

Hauser took to Twitter on Friday (16 June) to announce their groundbreaking role, writing: “I got to play Pixar’s first non-binary character! Meet Lake!”

Despite the film’s sub-par opening (marking Pixar’s worst box office debut of all time, according to the Hollywood Reporter), the character of Lake was warmly received by many Twitter users.

“Had no idea Lake was Trans non-binary – so cool!” one wrote. “Pixar movies always make me feel comfortable and cozy and now #Elemental just became extra comfortable and cozy!”

Other fans have called the character’s inclusion “inspiring” and “amazing”, with one adding: “This is a massive W (win) for everybody.”

That hasn’t stopped bigots making their feelings known, however, and Hauser has become the target for a hateful anti-LGBTQ+ backlash.

“Disney Pixar‘s latest film Elemental has a non-binary character who has a girlfriend and uses they/them pronouns. They just can’t stop shoving this down kids’ throats can they?” one irrationally angry Twitter user wrote, before claiming that the “animators were smoking crack” in designing Lake.

Another told Pixar to “go back to entertaining instead of indoctrinating”.

Others have jokingly referenced previous Pixar characters that they perceive as non-binary, including the mix and match toys from Toy Story, and several other critics have pointed out the irony of Pixar’s “first non-binary character” being water.

The film’s director, Peter Sohn, also posted a personal message on Twitter, addressing some of the film’s themes and inspirations of community and acceptance.

“I’m the child of immigrants … like our main character Ember, I felt this intense calling to honour my family and their sacrifices,” Sohn wrote.

“Elemental is a love letter to my parents – thanking them for building such a supportive foundation for my brother and I.”

Elemental is also the first non-franchise Pixar original feature to be released in theatres rather than straight to Disney+ since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Pixar’ss next film, Elio, is set for release in March 2024. It’s a sci-fi adventure about a boy who gets abducted by aliens and convinces them he’s the ambassador for Earth.

Adipurush: From Lakshman’s Neon Sanjeevani Juice Bath To GoT-Style Gait Of Ravan, A Non-Film Critic Points Out Everything Wrong With The Film

A non-film critic has pointed out everything that was wrong with 'Adipurush' - from incorrect descriptions to excessive westernisation - Read

Within a week of its release, the Ramayana-inspired ‘Adipurush’ has had the interest of the audience crash and nearly die down for a number of reasons.

To begin with, those who grew up following Hindu culture, whether or not they explicitly identify with the Ramayana-oriented belief system, are bound to raise eyebrows at this Om Raut misadventure touted to be an adaptation of the epic.

And those who are not from the community, but wish to know a thing or two about ‘Hindu culture’ by way of casually watching a movie, will be comically misguided if they go by what they see. Poor dialogues are only the tip of the iceberg.

Ravan was a great demon king — yes, great, because even though he was a demon, his merit was incontestable and even the gods acknowledged it.

His kingdom was situated in the tropical region of the Indian subcontinent and notwithstanding the vagaries of climate change, the Lanka of Ramayana would have been much greener than we can imagine — not black!

The details in the film, which could have been a mark of great cinematic finesse, are but a displeasing imitation of some iconic details from Hollywood films: the Harry Potteresqe death eaters that float about Lord Ram (Raghav); the Game Of Thrones-style gait of Ravan (who has uncharacteristically neatly cropped and gelled hair) and his dragon-like bat for a vehicle; a charcoal-finished Lanka looking like the evil twin of Thor’s Asgard, the Planet of The Apes-replica ‘vanar sena’, inclusive of a King Kong here and there; and costumes and hairdo of the villains that are just not Indian by any stretch of imagination.

These striking details were lifted without much effort to customise them to fit the context of Ramayan, which is not just an object of fancy but a deeply revered cultural heritage. Even Hollywood would have had exotic goblets, instead of those gold-streaked black wine glasses, knowing that it is a story from ancient times.

This Rs 500-crore film could have been otherwise justified for its visual effects, which were impressive but terribly misplaced in an incredibly wrong storyline that just rushed to conclude. This amounts to a mockery and an insult to our cultural heritage.

As far as common filmmaking goes, there may be no limit to imagination, but with regard to depicting an established piece of work, especially one that has religious sentiments attached to it, it becomes an obligation to accomplish such an undertaking much a sense of responsibility.

The inept recitation of a part of the Tandav Stotra by Ravan before Sita, when he says that he will climb on to Ram’s chest and do the Tandav, only betrays the embarrassing lack of research by the makers — Tandav is a dance form (the divine dance performed by Lord Shiva), and Tandav Stotra is a hymn composed by Ravan in praise of the god — it is not a victory jingle!

Even if a handful of research scholars and artists struggling for stable employment were hired for just Rs 500 a day, they would have furnished better research and illustrations that would have guided the filmmakers to represent the details of the age (the architecture and the artifacts) with some semblance of authenticity.

The series of blunders and misrepresentations simply don’t end. Several depictions are factually incorrect, apart from being exaggerated. Ravan, instead of immortality, earned the boon of invincibility and immunity from all gods, demons, heavenly spirits, serpents, and wild beasts from Brahma.

So, he died at the hands of a human — Lord Ram. But the film mixes up mythological characters from across scriptures and depicts Ravan enjoying the death-evading boon, which was actually granted to Hiranyakashyap, the demon king from the Pauranic texts, who was killed by Lord Vishnu in his Narasimha (half man, half lion) form.

Further, the occultist warrior prince Meghnad is nearly fictionalised with that ‘swarna jheel’ innovation. Treating Lakshman with what looked like a shallow neon Sanjeevani juice bath in the middle of a war at its turning point was going overboard without any care for common sense.

Even the very name of the film, ‘Adipurush’, is incorrect and utterly mindless. The word, literally meaning ‘the first man’, has no significance in the context of Ramayan. Adidev is a term that means ‘the first god’.

Among several Ramayan-associated actors who have come forth with their criticism, Arun Govil, who portrayed Lord Ram in Ramanand Sagar’s ‘Ramayan’ (the 1987 TV series), made a valid point when he said that the Lord and Ramayan are beyond “modernisation” and that there is no need to attempt that and disrespect people’s devotion.

Nonetheless, it remains the filmmaker’s responsibility to be mindful and respect the line between creative liberty and distortion.

It is said that in 1987, in villages and small towns, where a TV set was not a common possession, people gathered at a common place before one to watch Ramanand Sagar’s ‘Ramayan’ and when Ram appeared, they held their hands together and bowed in devotion. This is just a snippet of the audience’s sentiments associated with the epic and its popular depiction.

Away from the screens, various Hindu religious outfits and political parties have joined the chorus to ban the film. It is important to recall here that last October, monks from Ayodhya had raised objections to the “distortions” seen in the film’s trailer.

The head priest of Ram Janmabhoomi, Acharya Satyendra Das, said that despite protests, the filmmakers misrepresented the characters of Ramayana and “distorted” Hindu deities.

Mani Ram Das Chhavni Peeth, the most powerful body of Ayodhya saints, has also backed the demand that the film be banned.

No doubt, ‘Adipurush’ is a thoroughly disappointing misadventure, but one might wonder what is the point of such a film at all. Also, how did the Censor Board not feel the need to “regulate” its content?

When ‘Adipurush’ was not even released, there came the news of a ‘Ramayana’ being made by Nitesh Tiwari, starring Alia Bhatt and Ranbir Kapoor as Sita and Ram.

So, does the Indian audience not know Ramayana enough to be educated about it (or entertained) through commercial cinema? Or does it serve some other purpose by keeping people engaged in a circular discourse and have them enforce their Hindu identity on the pretext of Ramayana for reasons that warrant another discussion? Let us wait and watch!

Pixar Used AI to Stoke Elemental's Flame

It’s harder to make fire than you might think. But the Pixar team was determined to do the impossible.

PIXAR HAD A problem. It had a great new idea for a movie—Elemental, based on characters from The Good Dinosaur's director Peter Sohn—but actually animating the film’s titular elements was proving to be a problem. After all, it’s one thing to draw a crumbling mound of sentient dirt, but how do you capture the ethereal nature of fire onscreen, and how would a corporeal body made of water even work? Can you see through it? Do the eyes just float around?

While some of those questions could be answered with good old-fashioned suspension of disbelief, Pixar’s animators thought the fire issue was a real conundrum, especially considering that one of their movie’s leads, Ember, was actually supposed to be made of the stuff. They had tools to make a flame effect from years of previous animations, but when you actually tried to shape it into a character, the results were pretty terrifying, a cross between Studio Ghibli’s Calcifer and Nicolas Cage’s Ghost Rider, but somehow harsher.

“Our fire fluid simulations are very naturalistic and they're designed to mimic reality,” says VFX supervisor Sanjay Bakshi. With a character like Ember, Bakshi says, “it's really important to concentrate on the performance of the face,” but the studio was having trouble balancing the dynamism of the fire with the character’s shape and sensibilities. Paul Kanyuk, a crowds technical supervisor at Pixar, says that at first crack, Ember looked like a ghost or even a demon. “It can look horrifying if it's too realistic, like you actually have a human figure made of real pyro,” he explains.

Even if you can get the scary tamped down, Sohn says, you still have to craft something that’s recognizably fiery. “Fire naturally is so busy, but if you slow it down, it can turn into something that looks like a plasma,” he explains. “It was interesting to compare it to other anthropomorphized characters, because they’re all very fantastical and you can do anything with them. If you’re drawing an emotion, there is no one-to-one, but everyone knows what fire looks like.”

Basically, Sohn explains, to make Ember, every single shot of Elemental would need an effects pass, something that’s not only incredibly time-consuming, but also very expensive.

Fortunately, Kanyuk had an idea. He’d been working on crowd animation at Pixar since 2005, starting with Ratatouille, and always struggled with ways to make the clothes on big groups of people look right. While trying to solve the problem he’d gotten involved with the Association for Computing Machinery’s Siggraph, a community organization devoted to the advancement of computer graphics. Around 2016, he found some of the group’s research on using machine learning to hone cloth simulations and has been trying to master it ever since.

Elemental gave him an opportunity to apply what he learned.

AROUND 2019, KANYUK came across a paper out of Siggraph Asia about using neural style transfer (NST)—the type of artificial intelligence used to make a photo look like a Van Gogh or a Picasso—to move voxels (basically 3D pixels, with volume) around in animation, all with the goal of giving a character a certain look. Kanyuk thought NST could help Pixar master its flame problem, though he told Sohn (who’d also signed on to direct the film) that, like much of machine learning, there was only about a 50 percent chance it would work. “I said, ‘I’m going to give you five ideas, and maybe two of them will work.’ But he said, ‘Let’s do all of them,’” Kanyuk says.

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‘The Flash’ Box Office Flameout: David Zaslav’s Regime Suffers First Major Miss

The Warner Bros. Discovery CEO could have easily distanced himself from the DC superhero tentpole — which opened to a woeful $55 million — but embraced the pic as if it were his own.

By late April, all indications pointed to The Flash opening to $100 million or more domestically. That’s when Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav took the stage at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, triumphantly telling theater owners it was the best superhero pic he’s ever seen.

The powerful executive could have easily kept a poker face and distanced himself from The Flash considering it was made by the previous regime. Instead, Zaslav bet on it as if it were his own. That included arranging for Tom Cruise — who was still basking in the afterglow of Top Gun: Maverick — to watch the movie, with his positive reaction becoming a talking point on the press tour. Zaslav’s newly installed DC Studios co-chief and top lieutenant James Gunn also trumpeted The Flash, although he tempered his remarks, saying in January it is “probably one of the greatest superhero movies ever made.” Whatever the wording, expectations skyrocketed.

But in a stunning turn, The Flash, one of the most anticipated films on the 2023 summer calendar, was a major box office miss in its launch. The tentpole, starring Ezra Miller in the titular role, opened to a dismal $55 million over the June 16-18 weekend, on par with past DC bomb Watchmen ($55.2 million) and not far ahead of infamous DC stumble Green Lantern ($53.5 million), not adjusted for inflation.

“It is unfathomable to me why Zas and James Gunn promise how wonderful any picture or new plan will be months into the future. The public doesn’t care and isn’t aware of their prognostications,” one veteran studio executive tells The Hollywood Reporter, noting that such forecasts don’t sway the share price or potential buyers. “Let the product talk.”

And talk The Flash did, albeit not in a healthy way as it opened in cinemas around the globe. Things went from bad to worse as poor word-of-mouth spread.

Based on Friday traffic, The Flash was expected to earn $58 million for the three-day weekend and $70 million for the four-day Juneteenth holiday weekend, according to Saturday morning estimates issued by Warners. But grosses were downgraded on Sunday morning and again on Monday after traffic fell off more than expected. By Sunday, Warners released a four-day estimated gross of $64.2 million, including $55.7 million for the three days. The final weekend numbers that came out Tuesday were even lower — $55 million for the three days and $61.2 million for the four (the three-day number is considered the official opening gross).

Observers note that while The Flash is not as well-known as a Batman or a Wonder Woman, the character is not obscure. “Was it going to be an Avengers-level hit? Probably not, that would have been an unfair expectation, but it had a clear pathway to at least be what a film like Days of Future Past was for X-Men nine years ago after that franchise seemingly lost its way with confusing timelines and dwindling continuity,” says box office analyst Shawn Robbins of Boxoffice Pro. “The increasingly disjointed state of DC storylines is as equally to blame as other outside factors, leaving the franchise at a point where lack of consistency prevented the kind of emotional connection with most of its characters that a sprawling universe needs.”

The story looked much different in February when the first trailer debuted to fanfare. “The Flash looked like it had so much potential following its Super Bowl trailer. Hopes were very high. Instead, it is more DC Comics mediocrity,” says Wall Street analyst Eric Handler. “Zaslav could have easily swept it under the rug since he inherited it.”

Comscore’s Paul Dergarabedian is somewhat more forgiving, noting, “The Flash unfortunately had a rough road to the multiplex and given the complexities and challenges of the marketing and positioning of the film in the marketplace, the number one debut is actually a solid result for the latest from DC Comics in such a crowded and competitive summer season.” 

The Flash was slapped with a B CinemaScore, which is really the equivalent of a C or worse when it comes to all-audience event pics. Exit scores on PostTrak were also unusually bad, with only 58 percent of ticket buyers saying they would recommend the film, and 77 percent saying it was excellent or very good. That compares to an 82 percent definite recommend score for Sony’s fellow superhero pic Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and 93 percent excellent/very good ranking (Across the Spider-Verse opened the week before.)

The gender breakdown was also an issue. While most superhero films and big action films often skew notably male — think 62 percent or 63 percent — The Flash prompted many to do a double take to make sure they were reading the numbers right. Around 72 percent or 73 percent of ticket buyers were male, according to PostTrak.

Like audiences, critics disagreed with Zaslav and Gunn’s assessment, resulting in a lukewarm Tomatometer score of 66 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.

Considering Zaslav and Gunn’s confidence, many were surprised when The Flash officially came on tracking three weeks ahead of its debut to an underwhelming forecast of $70 million. They assumed tracking services, and Warner Bros., were being conservative. If only that were true.

To be sure, Warners was in a tough spot when it came to the tentpole’s marketing and publicity campaign, helping to explain why Zaslav stepped in. Miller was arrested multiple times last year, culminating in the actor issuing a statement in August 2022 apologizing for their behavior and saying they would receive help for “complex mental health issues.” Miller did no press for The Flash in the months leading up to the pic’s release aside from walking the red carpet at the film’s Los Angeles premiere and making brief remarks.

Op-Ed: ‘Elemental’ is Pixar’s Best Love Story Since ‘Up’

Anyone who has lurked about social media this week already knows that Pixar’s Elemental suffered a big blow at the box office. Some are calling it a forced racial allegory, others are claiming it plagiarized Zootopia, and some don’t even know what to make of it. However, this writer can certainly say that it is one of the best emotional experiences to come out of Pixar since Carl met Ellie.

While the film is horrifically plagued by misleading marketing, Disney and Pixar fans need to rush to get their tickets because this film hits way differently than ads and artwork would have you believe. Moreover, it’s a movie that will melt nearly every adult viewer in the audience.

Pixar Gets Steamy in Elemental

After an abysmal opening weekend, Elemental might be starting to pick up steam as far as reviews are concerned. However, people going into the theatre expecting a movie about inequality issues told through the basic elements of earth, fire, water, and air only pick up a small percentage of the plot.

There is truly a story-rich narrative of the immigrant experience thanks to the marvelous direction of Peter Sohn, but that’s not the biggest reason to see the film. The relationship between Ember and Wade is one of the most charming, emotional, and heartwarming pairings in Pixar’s canon. In this writer’s opinion, it’s the best rom-com to hit theaters in years.

It’s quite poetic that the film carries out the Pixar tradition of beginning with a short film about Carl Fredricksen from Up and his new romantic adventure, as it feels like a passing of the torch from one emotional love story to another. While Carl and Ellie didn’t need a nearly two-hour film to get their romance across, Wade and Ember’s carries a similar emotional weight and meaning that many audience members will appreciate, particularly older viewers.

Speaking of which, this is quite possibly the most “adult”  or mature Disney film to come out in some time. Not only does it tackle the very real struggles the Lumen family faces, but it also covers the internal complexities of new relationships, mixed-race couples, and other hoops we all have to jump through on the quest to find love.

Yes, the movie checks a lot of boxes for cinematic romantic comedies, but it does it the way only Pixar can. The world is colorful and engaging, the characters are vibrant and lovable, and the facial expressions alone are enough to keep audiences absolutely glued to the screen. Pair that with its incredible love story, and it’s truly that special something that the studio has needed for a long while.

A dance group had a hypnotic blindfolded act that earned a golden buzzer!

Spoilers ahead for the June 20 episode of America's Got Talent Season 18 on NBC.

Season 18 of America's Got Talent has wasted no time in handing out golden buzzers to advance standout performers straight through to the live shows in the 2023 TV schedule, and the latest one rewarded more than sixty dancers. Just a week after 8-year-old drummer Chioma got a golden buzzer from AGT host Terry Crews, judge Howie Mandel hit the button for the Murmuration dance group from France after rocking blindfolds for their audition. They also received a comparison to a previous AGT champion that could bode very well for their future this season!

It was clear as soon as a long stream of dancers walked out onto to the stage that something special was going to happen, with veteran judges Heidi Klum and Howie Mandel commenting on the size of the group. The comments were nothing but enthusiastic after they performed, though! Take a look at the performance that mesmerized Mandel:

Count on Howie Mandel to deliver some comedy before hitting the golden buzzer! His moves may not be enough for him to score an invite to join the 60+ crew of Murmuration, but he clearly made a lot of people very happy when he surprised the group by hitting the buzzer. After telling them that he was mesmerized and describing them as "hypnotic," perhaps it shouldn't have been much of a surprise for viewers from home! 

Of course, Mandel wasn't the only judge impressed by Murmuration, although Simon Cowell losing his voice meant a lot less commentary from him over the course of the episode, which will be available for rewatch via Peacock Premium subscription. Heidi Klum started her commentary with "Wow!" and went on to praise how they were in sync with each other despite the blindfolds, while Sofia Vergara paid them the compliment of comparing them to Mayyas. 

Fans will remember Vergara hit her buzzer for the Lebanese dance group back in Season 17, and Mayyas went on to win after a very close vote that earned them a spot on the list of AGT champions who won a golden buzzer first. Could Murmuration follow the same path toward victory in Season 18? It's too soon to say after just four episodes, and the other acts who have already gotten golden buzzers – including one that motivated Simon Cowell to lead the other judges in making history – are certainly set up for success as well. 

Their odds definitely seem better at this point than they would have in earlier seasons of the show. Mayyas were the very first group to win a season of America's Got Talent (with the arguable exception of Olate Dogs from Season 7). If fans were willing to vote for a group last season, why not Season 18? Of course, Murmuration isn't even the only group to get a golden buzzer so far this season after Mzansi Youth Choir was the first. 

Whatever the future holds for the French dance group of 60+ performers, fans presumably won't see any more of them for quite some time now that they've been advanced to the live shows. See more auditions with new episodes of America's Got Talent on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on NBC!

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Tommy Lee's Wife Downplays Pamela Anderson Relationship And Says She Totally Bonded With Heather Locklear

Thanks to one of the best true crime shows in recent memory — Pam & Tommy — and Pamela Anderson’s own documentary on Netflix, Pamela: a love story, there’s been a lot of reflection over the past year or so about the marriage between the Baywatch star and Tommy Lee. The pair had a whirlwind romance in 1995 before becoming embroiled in their infamous sex tape scandal, but the Mötley Crüe drummer’s current wife downplayed that relationship in recent comments. Brittany Furlan called Heather Locklear — not Anderson (or herself) — “the love of his life,” as she opened up about being “very close” with the Melrose Place star.

Brittany Furlan, who married Tommy Lee in 2019, got real about her husband’s former marriages, saying that while much is made of his three-year partnership with Pamela Anderson, people forget he was married to Heather Locklear for much longer. Furlan spoke highly of the Dynasty actress, as she told People it’s important to her to try to stay friendly with Lee’s exes, saying: 

While it’s true that Heather Locklear’s marriage to the rock star has so far lasted the longest of Tommy Lee’s four (his union with first wife Elaine Starchuk lasted a year from 1984 to 1985), Pamela Anderson is the mother of Lee’s two sons, Dylan and Brandon, so that probably adds some weight to the legitimacy of relationship. It also really can’t be overstated how much the couple’s stolen sex tape cemented their place in pop culture history.

However, it’s Heather Locklear who Brittany Furlan has formed a relationship with. She said they met through Tommy Lee and called her “the most kind, down-to-earth person.” Furlan continued to rave about the actress, saying:

She was the love of his life. I see it, because she's just a fun, sweet, caring, awesome person. Tommy even says he messed up in that relationship. He cheated on her. To this day, that's why they're still really good friends. … I yell at my husband, I'm like, 'I can't believe you cheated on her. She’s so cool.’ That was a different time. He was 25 years old, 26 years old. Not to make excuses, but he's a very different man now from all those years ago. You live and you learn.

The fact that the Mötley Crüe star and Heather Locklear had been divorced for over two decades by the time Brittany Furlan came into the picture likely helped with any possible weirdness, and it’s always good when unnecessary drama can be avoided, right? Furlan didn’t comment on her relationship with Pamela Anderson, but text messages she sent to Tommy Lee did cause a bit of a stink earlier this year.

If you want to watch Lily James and Sebastian Stan’s portrayals of the scandalized lovebirds, you can stream Pam & Tommy with a Hulu subscription, or you can get the story straight from the source by streaming Pamela: a love story via your Netflix subscription. 

Pixar Used AI to Stoke Elemental's Flame

It’s harder to make fire than you might think. But the Pixar team was determined to do the impossible.

PIXAR HAD A problem. It had a great new idea for a movie—Elemental, based on characters from The Good Dinosaur's director Peter Sohn—but actually animating the film’s titular elements was proving to be a problem. After all, it’s one thing to draw a crumbling mound of sentient dirt, but how do you capture the ethereal nature of fire onscreen, and how would a corporeal body made of water even work? Can you see through it? Do the eyes just float around?

While some of those questions could be answered with good old-fashioned suspension of disbelief, Pixar’s animators thought the fire issue was a real conundrum, especially considering that one of their movie’s leads, Ember, was actually supposed to be made of the stuff. They had tools to make a flame effect from years of previous animations, but when you actually tried to shape it into a character, the results were pretty terrifying, a cross between Studio Ghibli’s Calcifer and Nicolas Cage’s Ghost Rider, but somehow harsher.

“Our fire fluid simulations are very naturalistic and they're designed to mimic reality,” says VFX supervisor Sanjay Bakshi. With a character like Ember, Bakshi says, “it's really important to concentrate on the performance of the face,” but the studio was having trouble balancing the dynamism of the fire with the character’s shape and sensibilities. Paul Kanyuk, a crowds technical supervisor at Pixar, says that at first crack, Ember looked like a ghost or even a demon. “It can look horrifying if it's too realistic, like you actually have a human figure made of real pyro,” he explains.

Even if you can get the scary tamped down, Sohn says, you still have to craft something that’s recognizably fiery. “Fire naturally is so busy, but if you slow it down, it can turn into something that looks like a plasma,” he explains. “It was interesting to compare it to other anthropomorphized characters, because they’re all very fantastical and you can do anything with them. If you’re drawing an emotion, there is no one-to-one, but everyone knows what fire looks like.”

Basically, Sohn explains, to make Ember, every single shot of Elemental would need an effects pass, something that’s not only incredibly time-consuming, but also very expensive.

Fortunately, Kanyuk had an idea. He’d been working on crowd animation at Pixar since 2005, starting with Ratatouille, and always struggled with ways to make the clothes on big groups of people look right. While trying to solve the problem he’d gotten involved with the Association for Computing Machinery’s Siggraph, a community organization devoted to the advancement of computer graphics. Around 2016, he found some of the group’s research on using machine learning to hone cloth simulations and has been trying to master it ever since.

Elemental gave him an opportunity to apply what he learned.

AROUND 2019, KANYUK came across a paper out of Siggraph Asia about using neural style transfer (NST)—the type of artificial intelligence used to make a photo look like a Van Gogh or a Picasso—to move voxels (basically 3D pixels, with volume) around in animation, all with the goal of giving a character a certain look. Kanyuk thought NST could help Pixar master its flame problem, though he told Sohn (who’d also signed on to direct the film) that, like much of machine learning, there was only about a 50 percent chance it would work. “I said, ‘I’m going to give you five ideas, and maybe two of them will work.’ But he said, ‘Let’s do all of them,’” Kanyuk says.

Pixar’s Talking Blobs Are Becoming More and More Unsatisfying

The fantastical world of Elemental masks a lack of imagination from the once-inventive studio.

On paper, Pixar’s new film, Elemental, seems like the kind of wildly inventive, visually dynamic project that has made the company such a consistent success in the animation world. The studio’s formula is clear enough: Take an inanimate, perhaps abstract thing (a toy, a car, a feeling, a human soul) and personify it, even as a talking blob of sorts, building out a representational world that nonetheless feels familiar. In Elemental, beings representing the four classical elements (earth, fire, water, and air) live in a bustling city, work humanlike jobs, and have humanlike relationships. The premise quickly expands to a recognizable metaphor of prejudice, with fire people—talking pillars of flame that struggle not to set things on fire—functioning as an oppressed underclass who strive to fit in with the other elements.

So why did Elemental just post the second-worst opening weekend in the company’s history? There are plenty of external forces to point to—reviews were tepid, and audiences have possibly grown used to waiting for Pixar movies to debut on Disney+ after that became standard practice during the pandemic (and ended with last year’s Lightyear). Still, the highest-grossing film of 2023 so far is an animated movie (Illumination’s Super Mario Bros.), indicating that families are now flocking back to theaters. And while there may be some Pixar fatigue after decades of success, all it would really take is one bona fide, critically acclaimed smash to start turning things around.

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Tom Holland Breaks Free: Talking Zendaya, ‘The Crowded Room’ and the Future of Spider-Man

After six stints as the web crawler, the 27-year-old Brit opens up about the pressures of mega-celebrity, his superstar girlfriend and his “Spider-Boys” group chat with Tobey and Andrew.

Tom Holland is having a rough morning. Not because he partied too hard the night before — though the Marvel Studios superstar had enough reasons to, what with it being his birthday and the world premiere at New York’s MoMA of The Crowded Room, the Apple TV+ series that he both stars in and executive produced.

But Holland quit drinking alcohol a year and a half ago. No, this particular migraine comes from waking up to learn that Crowded Room — what Holland deems the “hardest thing I’ve ever done” (this according to a guy who has played Spider-Man in six feature films) — has been met by rough early reviews.

“It was a kick in the teeth,” Holland admits, unprompted, over eggs Benedict on the quiet terrace of a hotel in SoHo. “Rolling over, looking up the reviews, and then all of a sudden I was like, ‘Wow. That’s a bad review.’ Sometimes there’s a redeeming quality in there. There was nothing.”

Holland speaks loudly and confidently and in a thick London accent — he grew up there and still calls it home. At first it’s disorienting. Most of his characters are American and voiced in milder tones. Onscreen, he is jokey and self-effacing. Speaking to a journalist, he’s serious and a bit guarded. He makes rock-solid eye contact whenever he wants to convey a point. He is pale, lean — whatever the ideal body fat percentage is, he has it — and delicately handsome. He’s wearing loose-fitting jeans and a Moscot T-shirt featuring a vintage drawing of a man taking an eye test.

Every star learns to take their knocks in stride. And at 27, Holland is already a savvy veteran of the Hollywood game. He certainly still looks young enough to don the Spider-Man suit once again, perhaps even for another trilogy. Meetings to determine the fate of his Peter Parker are in fact already underway. But he knows that career longevity will ultimately hinge on every move he makes outside the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Uncharted, his first swing at a non-Spider-Man action franchise, was a win: The 2022 video game adaptation earned $400 million worldwide on a $120 million budget. But Cherry, a 2021 drama directed by the Russo brothers in which he played a strung-out heroin addict, drew a humdrum response.

Initial reviews of The Crowded Room seemed no better. But right after bringing them up, Holland brightens: “There will be good ones. There will be. I try to have a healthy outlook on all that sort of stuff and respect everyone’s opinion.”

As if he willed them into existence, more encouraging evaluations soon began ticking the Tomatometer back up. And Holland’s performance in Crowded Room — he plays Danny Sullivan, a psychologically distraught man accused of a shooting at Rockefeller Center — was widely singled out for praise. (It’s the long and twisty path to the “big revelation” at the center of the show — Danny’s diagnosis — that rubbed some critics the wrong way.)

Holland’s brother, Harry, 24, tagged along to the New York premiere to lend emotional support. But his girlfriend, Zendaya — whom he met on the set of 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming (she plays his love interest, MJ) — did not.

“We’ve been to events together before,” says Holland. As recently as March, he accompanied the 27-year-old Euphoria star to Las Vegas, where she was presented an award at CinemaCon. While there, they took in an Usher concert, which made headlines and trended on social media. Just about everything they do, especially together, trends on social media. “But she’s visiting her grandma,” he continues. “We’re two very busy people, and we’re on the opposite sides of the world at this present time, so she couldn’t come.”

Holland takes a deep breath and shakes it all off: the distance from his girlfriend, the frustrating reviews, the multibillion-dollar expectations resting on his wiry shoulders.

“The thing is,” he says, “I love my job. I love my friends. I’m not worried about what people think. The only thing I really care about is how I feel. And right now, I feel really happy and excited for people to see this show.”

I reply, “People seem to enjoy you a lot,” citing his 67 million Instagram followers.

“It seems that way,” he says. “I just hope it stays that way.”

Holland found The Crowded Room while filming 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home, the capper to the blockbuster trilogy that came out of Sony and Marvel Studios’ 2015 agreement to share rights to the enormously popular character. Anchored by Holland in the title role, the deal paid off in a huge way: Despite bowing amid the COVID-19 pandemic, No Way Home earned $1.9 billion worldwide and became the third-highest-grossing film domestically of all time, behind 2019’s Avengers: Endgame — which also features Holland’s Spider-Man — and 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Holland was “at that stage where I was looking for my next job” when his agents caught wind of a project based on the 1981 nonfiction novel The Minds of Billy Milligan, by Daniel Keyes. The Crowded Room had been bouncing around Hollywood since the early 1990s, when James Cameron adapted Minds of Billy Milligan into a feature film script. (It was Cameron who coined the title The Crowded Room.) Cameron abandoned the project, and various directors circled it in the years to follow, including the late Joel Schumacher and, at one point, David Fincher. In 2015, Leonardo DiCaprio signed on as a potential star. None of it came to pass.

Eventually Akiva Goldsman — who won an Oscar for 2001’s A Beautiful Mind and more recently has been a showrunner on several Star Trek series — found his way to the material. Goldsman was drawn to the idea of a young male subjected to horrible trauma at a young age and how that trauma affects the brain. Further along in the development process, he chose to fictionalize the true story of Billy Milligan, who stood trial for a string of rapes, and instead turn it into the tale of the far more sympathetic Danny Sullivan, accused of a victimless crime for reasons that don’t reveal themselves until halfway through the series.

Holland and Goldsman met about the project — then set up at Apple TV+ — in early 2021. At that point, it was going to be a direct adaptation of The Minds of Billy Milligan. “I read the book and was really blown away by the opportunity it presented as an actor,” Holland says. “I instantly felt safe with Akiva. I trusted him. It was a pretty easy yes from there.”

The trust went both ways. “He has a superpower, which I think may come from his early experiences as a dancer,” says Goldsman, referring to Holland’s ability to instantly see a scene in three dimensions from the page. “Tom will take one look at the set with the scene in his hand and he will know where the blocking is going to end up. I’ve just never seen anything like it.”

The project came along at a time when Holland was having his own mental health struggles, which he revealed in a video posted to his Instagram on Aug. 13. “I find Instagram and Twitter to be overstimulating, to be overwhelming,” he told his followers. “I get caught up and I spiral when I read things about me online and ultimately it’s very detrimental to my mental state, so I’ve decided to take a step back and delete the app.” I ask Holland whether that disclosure figured into him taking on something like The Crowded Room.

“I wouldn’t say I particularly have a history of issues with mental health,” he says. “I just feel like I am a young person living in a world where we are expected to share every moment online. We are under the pressures of public opinion and other people’s opinions, and you’ve got these pressures of delivering to a certain standard. And it’s stressful. It’s hard.”

Then Holland’s thought transforms: It’s not just that he’s a young person whose life is laid bare online. It’s that he’s one of the world’s most famous young people, living constantly under the glare of the public eye. There is no escaping the scrutiny.

“It’s tough when every time you leave your front door, you are working. You’re on camera. I can’t walk around New York without clicking everywhere I go. And social media was bringing that outside world into my house. I just had to get rid of it. I needed to get back to reality, remind myself of who I am and where I’m from, and just live my life as normally as possible, in my abnormal way. Which is my career, I guess,” he says.

Reacts to Finally Seeing His Vision in ‘The Flash’: “An Absolute Delight”

Smith initially penned several draft screenplays for the 1998 film 'Superman Lives' that never happened.

Filmmaker Kevin Smith had a full-circle moment when watching The Flash and seeing Nicolas Cage’s cameo as Superman.

During a recent interview with Rolling Stone, the director/producer/writer said he “just about passed out” when he first learned the actor was going to be making an appearance in the Andy Muschietti-directed film as the iconic superhero.

“I finally got to see Nic Cage be Superman,” Smith said. “It has been an absolute delight for me.”

It hits close for Smith because he initially penned several draft screenplays for the infamous 1998 film Superman Lives that never happened. Smith has been open about difficulties they faced with the film and production, including producer Jon Peters making several demands, such as Superman having to fight a giant spider. They two also disagreed on who should play the title role.

“Jon Peters was like, ‘I want Sean Penn to play Superman.’ He had just seen Dead Man Walking, and he goes, ‘Look at his eyes in that movie. He’s got the eyes of a violent animal, a caged killer,” he recalled. “And I was like, ‘Bro, it’s Superman!’ So he’s like, ‘Who do you see?’ I always loved Nic Cage, so I was like, ‘Nic Cage loves Superman. He talks about knowing the comics real well. You guys should go after Nic Cage.’ And so when Tim Burton got hired, and suddenly they were going with Nic Cage, I was like, wow, I had an idea and somebody took it seriously.”

Warner Bros. ended up calling off the movie just weeks before filming was set to begin due to creative differences. But fast-forward to 2023: Smith finally got to see the vision they once had come to life, when Cage appears during a scene in The Flash when Ezra Miller’s Barry Allen opens the multiverse to see the different universes. It’s at that point that Barry sees Cage as Superman fighting a giant spider.

After seeing that scene, Smith said it was “mind-melting,” adding, “One of the first things I thought when I saw it at the premiere is, ‘Goddammit, it [the giant spider] would have worked.’ As much as I used to make fun of Jon Peters, that looked badass.”

When asked if it can officially confirm he likes the spider now, Smith responded, “You know what? He [Peters] wasn’t wrong. Like, it totally could have panned out.”

The quick cameo also reminded the filmmaker of all the possibilities in the multiverse and that he’s still down to see Cage in the legendary supersuit.

“If I’m Warner Bros., I’m going, like, ‘Fuck it. There’s a multiverse, man. Let’s give Nic Cage a Superman movie,'” Smith added. “You don’t have to be the only Superman, but why not? We’ve got multiple Batmans. I mean, shit, it would be one of the most interesting Superman flicks ever made. With all due respect to James Gunn and Superman Legacy, like, you’re talking about one of the greatest American actors alive. I still would back that play 100 percent.”

Source: https://cinecittadaily.com/

Box Office: Ezra Miller’s ‘The Flash,’ Pixar’s ‘Elemental’ Get Iced by Moviegoers

Elemental' marks Pixar's lowest opening since 'Toy Story' nearly three decades ago, while 'The Flash' was snubbed. One bright spot of the holiday weekend was 'Asteroid City,' which secured the best location average since 'La La Land.'

Such was the refrain across Hollywood as opening weekend estimates circulated for DC’s highly anticipated The Flash and Pixar’s Elemental, which are debuting domestically over the long Juneteenth holiday weekend. (As well as Father’s Day on Sunday.)

Starring Ezra Miller in the titular role, Warner Bros. and DC’s The Flash is anything but flashy in the opinion of moviegoers. The film earned an estimated $55.7 million for the three days and projected $64.2 million for the four days, notably behind expectations. Final numbers will be tallied Tuesday.

The hope had been for The Flash to get a three-day start of at least $70 million so as to come in ahead of such disappointing DC titles as Black Adam, which collected $67 million in its first three days.

Overseas, the superhero tentpole also faced challenges. It opened to $72 million from 79 markets, including a dismal $13.8 million in China, for a global opening north of $130 million through Sunday.

The studio’s leadership has been hyping The Flash for months, with Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav proclaiming it is the greatest superhero movie he’s ever seen. Many critics don’t agree with the assessment; the pic currently has a 67 percent Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes. A bigger problem: Audiences gave the movie a mediocre B CinemaScore (as a way of comparison, Elemental received an A).

While superhero fare often skews heavily male, The Flash is even more so than usual, at 70 percent.

Box office pundits are divided as to whether Miller’s offscreen woes are impacting the film’s performance. Miller was arrested multiple times in 2022 and was the subject of several controversies, culminating in the actor issuing a statement in August of last year apologizing for their behavior and saying they would receive help for “complex mental health issues.” Miller walked the red carpet at the movie’s premiere but has otherwise been absent from doing publicity for The Flash.

In the Andy Muschietti-directed film, Miller stars in dual roles as alternate-timeline versions of heroic speedster Barry Allen, with Michael Keaton and Ben Affleck making splashy returns in their respective Batman roles (in Keaton’s case, it’s a character he hasn’t played since 1991). Sasha Calle stars as Supergirl, while Michael Shannon reprises his role as General Zod from the 2013 feature Man of Steel. (And there was another secret cameo.)

DC was counting heavily on The Flash to improve its standing after the tepid showing of Shazam! Fury of the Gods and Black Adam.

Ditto for Pixar, which has Elemental opening this weekend. But the family film quickly fell flat at the box office in the latest blow for the storied animation studio. Many pundits worry that original animated IP is no longer a theatrical proposition. Also, the former regime at Disney sent several Pixar movies straight to streaming during the pandemic, possibly changing consumer habits.

Elemental earned an estimated $29.6 million for the three-day weekend, the lowest wide weekend debut ever for a Pixar title outside of Toy Story, which started off with $29.1 million nearly three decades ago, not adjusted for inflation. (Toy Story, of course, went on to make cinematic and box office history. Elemental isn’t expected to do the same.) Elemental’s four-day holiday gross is an estimated $33.4 million.

Overseas, Elemental earned $17 million from its first 17 markets, including beating The Flash in South Korea with $3.2 million. The movie stumbled in China, however, with $5.2 million. (The only other major market was Australia.)

The hope now is that Elemental will parlay its A CinemaScore into long legs at the box office.

Directed by Peter Sohn (The Good Dinosaur), Elemental is set in Element City, where fire, water, land and air residents live together. The film’s themes include connection, celebrating differences and finding one’s place in the world.

The story follows Ember (Leah Lewis), a tough, quick-witted and fiery young woman, whose friendship with a sappy, go-with-the-flow guy named Wade (Mamoudou Athie) challenges her beliefs about the world they live in, where “elements don’t mix.”

Competition from Sony holdover Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is another issue for The Flash, as well as for Elemental.

Now in its third weekend, the animated Spidey film earned a hearty $27.8 million for the three-day weekend and an estimated $32.4 million for the four days for a domestic total of $285 million through Monday. Globally, it soared to nearly $490 million through Sunday as it approaches the $500 million mark.

Paramount and Skydance’s Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is another Flash competitor. The pic, coming in at No. 4 domestically, grossed $20 million for the three days and a projected $23 million for the four days. Overseas, it pulled in another $23 million for a global total north of $170 million.

Tim Story’s The Blackening, about a group of Black friends who decided to spend the holiday weekend at a remote cabin only to find themselves trapped with a twisted killer, debuted to an estimated $6 million. The film rounded out the top five.

Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City made headlines at the specialty box office in the U.S., where it launched in six theaters in New York and Los Angeles before expanding nationwide next weekend. The Focus Features project posted a three-day, per-theater location average of $132,211 — the best showing since La La Land in 2016 ($176,000).

Furthermore, the Anderson pic was the top-grossing title at the AMC Century City in Los Angeles on Friday and Saturday despite competition from the likes of The Flash.

Source: https://cinecittacinema.org/

‘The Flash’ and ‘Elemental’ flash warning signs for the summer box office

Watching the coming attraction for “Blue Beetle,” the next movie adaptation of a DC comic, a thought emerged almost reflexively: “There’s one to stream.”

After a weekend that saw a twin bloodbath in terms of major film releases that fell well short of box-office expectations, “The Flash” and “Elemental,” it’s difficult to overstate how corrosive that mentality has become for the theatrical business – fueled, admittedly, by a wide variety of factors, but with the shift toward streaming having clearly contributed to the problem.

“Elemental,” Disney’s latest Pixar movie to hit theaters after several of its brethren went directly to streaming, and “The Flash,” a superhero from the DC/Warner Bros. stable (like CNN, units of Warner Bros. Discovery), earned roughly $30 million and $55 million during their opening weekends, respectively, evoking descriptions like “flop” and “disappointing” – despite mostly positive reaction from moviegoers who did see the films.

Given the high costs associated with producing and marketing those films, each studio faces the prospect of sizable financial losses, although these projects will continue to provide revenue down the pipeline in harder-to-measure ways, including, yes, the value they bring to the studios’ respective streaming services.

For theater owners, there’s small consolation in that. And for Hollywood talent – beginning with the Writers Guild of America, which is well into the second month of a strike against the major studios and streamers – the lack of transparency about streaming revenue and how it’s calculated has represented a major sticking point in those contract negotiations.

As the Los Angeles Times reported, writers have taken to calling this “the Netflix strike,” a reference to the way streaming – as exemplified by the streaming giant and emulation of its practices – has upended the existing business model and clouded the future.

Whether that’s an entirely fair assessment, what seems clear is the one-two punch dealt to movies going by the push toward streaming in 2019, and the pandemic that began the following year, has shifted consumer habits, despite some encouraging signs of a rebound. For every “Top Gun: Maverick,” “Avatar: The Way of Water” or “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” there appear to be two or three high-profile titles that look destined to leave their corporate parent awash in red ink.

Perhaps no once-reliable hit maker has experienced a more sweeping setback than Pixar, which saw Disney move films like “Turning Red” and “Soul” directly to streaming during the pandemic, and “Lightyear” – a spinoff from the mighty “Toy Story” franchise – underperform at the box office. The prevailing sense is part of the audience that once dutifully flocked to Pixar fare as family-friendly outings have been reprogrammed to wait and consume those items in the comfort of their homes.

Similarly, “The Flash” follows a string of box-office disappointments for DC with what amount to second-tier superheroes, following “Black Adam” and “Shazam! Fury of the Gods.” Even Marvel hasn’t been immune to such issues, as “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” failed to deliver much of a “wow” factor commercially (or creatively) speaking, though the latest “Guardians of the Galaxy” sequel fared considerably better.

The main challenge, to borrow screenwriter William Goldman’s famous line about Hollywood that “Nobody knows anything,” is the lack of hard and fast rules about what might work, and the aforementioned bright spots indicating that there’s still life in traditional movie exhibition, including the occasional happy surprise.

For now, though, Hollywood is engaged in the usual second guessing and finger pointing, hoping “The Flash” and “Elemental” represent specific examples as opposed to further evidence of systemic erosion that bodes ill for the big summer releases yet to come. While it’s tempting to blame the movies themselves, that’s a harder case to make when people didn’t see and reject them but rather didn’t show up in the first place.

With apologies to Goldman, we do know at least this much: Streaming is fundamentally changing things. How much remains harder to pinpoint, but compared to the movie business as we knew it even five years ago, the warning signs are flashing.

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Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is an entertaining final outing for Indy

Finales are always tricky to get right, especially so when the previous instalment of a series wasn't exactly well received by fans. Do you go back to basics and just repeat past glories, or do you double down and try to change up the formula one final time?

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny has certainly gone for the former as it bids farewell to Harrison Ford's iconic character.

Despite the poor reception out of its Cannes premiere, the approach should be enough to satisfy Indiana Jones fans. Fittingly, Dial of Destiny digs into the past to play more like a greatest-hits package of what you expect from an Indy movie.

It won't end up as anybody's favourite Indiana Jones movie, but with Harrison Ford as good as ever in the role, it's a decent send-off.

Where Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull had Indiana Jones dealing with unexpected fatherhood, the new movie sees him entering retirement and pondering his own mortality. (Not in a deep way, this is a blockbuster, after all.)

His fedora, whip and leather jacket are gathering dust and his adventuring days are behind him, at least until his goddaughter Helena Shaw (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) shows up asking about a rare artefact, the Archimedes Dial, which her father (Toby Jones) entrusted to Indy years earlier.

Helena isn't reminiscing about the past, though, and has no desire to follow in her godfather's footsteps. She's all about the money and when she gets her hands on the Dial, she plans to sell it to the highest bidder.

Indy knows that the Nazis were once after it and when his old nemesis Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen) resurfaces, now working as a physicist in the US space program, Indy must set off on one final adventure to protect Helena, the Dial and, potentially, history as we know it.

You can't go wrong with Nazis in an Indiana Jones movie, and director James Mangold – who also wrote the script with Jez Butterworth, John-Henry Butterworth and David Koepp – sticks with what he knows the fans want.

Even the movie's opening allows Mangold to go back to the classic Indy era as he comes across the dial for the first time in 1944. Deploying some surprisingly effective de-aging, it's a rip-roaring beginning to the movie that starts in a castle occupied by Nazis and ends with an extended chase sequence on board a moving train.

If it feels familiar, that appears to be the point. It might be an homage to the series' past but, when it's done well, a bit of familiarity isn't an issue. Dial of Destiny continues in this vein when it switches to 1969, almost feeling like there's a checklist being ticked off, from MacGuffins and tombs to creepy-crawlies and on-screen maps.

Lip service is paid to Indy being older and thankfully we get minimal old-timer jokes, but otherwise you wouldn't really know. He can still do everything we want to see him doing in several well-staged set pieces which feel classically Indy due to the decision to shoot on location and practically, where possible.

If anything, it's not the familiarity that holds the movie back. The one 'tradition' that's not held over from previous movies is the runtime. Gone is the rough 2-hour template, replaced by a runtime over two and a half hours – and it feels it.

Mangold tries to keep the energy up to make Dial of Destiny an old-fashioned romp, but the formulaic plot often halts it in its tracks. When the plot boils down to getting one MacGuffin to get another MacGuffin on the way to the ultimate MacGuffin, there's not enough to justify the extended runtime and it ends up being repetitive.

The cast manage to see the movie through its lulls though. We know how good Harrison Ford is in the role, it's one that fits him better arguably than any of his others, but unlike in Crystal Skull, he has stronger supporting characters on his journey.

Phoebe Waller-Bridge brings an unpredictability and expert comic timing to Helena, while Mads Mikkelsen is sinister and charismatic in a way that marks Voller out from the usual Nazis in Indiana Jones movies. Other characters, such as Ethann Isidore's Teddy and Boyd Holbrook's Klaber, don't feel as fully rounded as there is tomb raiding to be done instead.

While Crystal Skull has been re-evaluated somewhat in recent years, its finale was certainly divisive at the time. Dial of Destiny's wild final act is set to be a big talking point too, although perhaps not as much as the aliens.

It's here where Mangold manages to blend Indy tradition with something new and, thematically, it works as an affecting finale for the character. It strikes you as a missed opportunity for similar ambition throughout to really make the movie stand out as much as you can understand the 'back-to-basics' approach.

The result is that Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny might not feel particularly innovative, but it is well-made blockbuster entertainment that will deliver what Indiana Jones fans want.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny - Official 'Train' Teaser Trailer

Check out the new Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny teaser trailer. Harrison Ford returns as the legendary hero archeologist for the franchise's final installment. The film also stars Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Antonio Banderas, John Rhys-Davies, Shaunette Renee Wilson, Thomas Kretschmann, Toby Jones, Boyd Holbrook, Oliver Richters, Ethann Isidore, and Mads Mikkelsen.

Directed by James Mangold, the movie is produced by Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall and Simon Emanuel, with Steven Spielberg and George Lucas serving as executive producers. John Williams returns to compose the film's score.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny arrives in UK cinemas on June 28 and US theaters on June 30, 2023.

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Jensen Ackles “Would Want To” Play Batman In ‘The Brave & The Bold’ & Joked Pedro Pascal Would End Up Getting It

As James Gunn and Peter Safran take the DC Universe in a new direction and casting is underway for Superman: Legacy, speculation for who the next Batman in The Brave and the Bold has grown.

Fans of the superhero genre have thrown out names for who they want the next Bruce Wayne to be and Supernatural alum Jensen Ackles recently addressed rumors he was up for the role.

“Uh, I don’t know. Even if I knew, I wouldn’t tell you,” Ackles at the Jus In Bello Convention in Italy. “I mean, could I do it? Sure. Would I want to do it? Yes.”

Ackles joked that Pedro Pascal would probably get the part adding, “Will I be mad when Pedro Pascal gets it? Yeah. God bless you, Pedro. You just keep killing it, buddy. Let me know when you pass on something.”

He continued, “Look, right now nobody’s talking about anything. There’s a strike going on in the entertainment industry, and until that gets solved, nobody is having conversations about anything. Would I entertain the idea of playing my favorite superhero of all time? Nah, I’m good. It seems like a lot of work, you know. You gotta put in a bat suit and be a superhero. I would love it. Sign me up.”

It was recently confirmed that The Flash director Andy Muschietti would be directing The Brave and the Bold, story which features Batman and his son Damien Wayne, as Robin.

Disney Chief Diversity Officer Latondra Newton To Exit Company

Latondra Newton, who has served as Disney’s chief diversity officer since 2017, is leaving the company. An internal memo from Disney chief human resources officer Sonia Coleman announcing Newton’s departure was circulated to staff Tuesday.

Coleman wrote that Newton “decided to leave The Walt Disney Company to pursue other endeavors.” We hear that she plans to join a corporate board and focus on a creative company she owns.

Disney said Newton’s direct reports will now report to Julie Merges, SVP Talent Acquisition, who will run the DEI operations on an interim basis while the search for Newton’s replacement is underway.

Newton’s title was SVP, Chief Diversity Officer, a role in which she oversaw Disney’s strategic diversity and inclusion initiatives. According to Disney’s bio, she worked with “various business segments and leaders across the enterprise to build on Disney’s commitment to produce entertainment that reflects a global audience and sustains a welcoming and inclusive workplace for everyone.”

Her time at Disney included co-signing with Bob Iger and Bob Chapek the May 2020 memo to Disney staff in the wake of the George Floyd killing, titled “Resolve in the Time of Unrest.” In it, the trio pledged “to use our compassion, our creative ideas and our collective sense of humanity to ensure we are fostering a culture that acknowledges our people’s feelings and their pain. We also realize that now more than ever is the time for us all to further strengthen our commitment to diversity and inclusion everywhere.”

Before Disney, Newton was Group Vice President, Social Innovation and Chief Diversity Officer. Toyota Motor North America, Inc. and Chief Program Officer, Toyota Mobility Foundation, Toyota Motor Corporation. She began her career at Toyota in 1991.

Adele Told Sylvester Stallone Offer To Buy His House Was A “No Deal” If Rocky Statue Was Not Included

Adele is seemingly a huge Rocky fan and when she recently made an offer to buy Sylvester Stallone’s mansion, she made it contingent that she keep the poolside statue of the fictional boxer.

In a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, Stallone said he wanted to keep the statue but the “Hello” singer said, “‘That’s a no deal. That’s gonna blow the whole deal,'” with the actor adding, “She wanted the statue.”

Adele is busy renovating the home she bought from him with Stallone saying, “I like what she’s doing, she’s making it gorgeous.”

Stallone first played Rocky Balboa in the 1976 film Rocky, directed by John G. Avildsen and written by the star himself. The success of the film spawned a whole series of films through the 1980s ending in 1990 with Rocky V. Stallone would play the character again in the 2006 film Rocky Balboa, the sixth installment in the franchise.

In 2015, Stallone reprised his role of Rocky Balboa in the film spin-off Creed that starred Michael B. Jordan. Ryan Coogler directed the film and co-wrote it with Aaron Covington. Stallone returned for Creed II in 2018 and co-wrote the script with Juel Taylor.

Stallone is very protective of Rocky and the characters and when it was reported that a spinoff movie centered on Drago, the actor slammed original producer Irwin Winkler.

“Another Heartbreaker… Just found this out… ONCE AGAIN , this PATHETIC 94 year old PRODUCER and HIS MORONIC USELESS VULTURE CHILDREN, Charles And David, are once again picking clean THE BONES of another wonderful character I created without even telling me,” Stallone wrote on Instagram. “I APOLOGIZE to the FANS, I never wanted ROCKY characters to be exploited by these parasites.”

Dolph Lundgren, who portrays Drago, released a statement saying that he was “under the impression that my friend Sly Stallone was involved as a producer or even as an actor.” Lundgren said there was “no approved script, no deals in place and no director.”

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Alexis Sánchez Reports In France Forward Midfielder Marseille Best Performers Ligue 1

According to reports in France, the Chilean forward wants to see the club build a competitive squad and there are already four names on the shortlist. The status of Alexis Sánchez at Olympique de Marseille is a major talking point in France.

The Chilean has been one of the best performers in Ligue 1 this season but his existing deal with the club ends in just over a month. Despite his age the 34-year-old will not be short of offers from elsewhere and Marseille know that they need a convincing pitch if they are to keep him at the club.

“Alexis? He’s a leader,” Marseille midfielder Valentin Rongier told Téléfoot. “He doesn’t like to lose, and we’re very happy to have him with us. He doesn’t like to be tackled or criticized. He’s a bit of a complainer, but he’s a great professional.”

Marseille have already secured a spot in the qualifying rounds of the Champions League for next season but look likely to miss out on the top two automatic spots. This means that the club goes into the summer with more than a hint of uncertainty about their financial situation.

Marseille to bet big in the transfer market

Direct qualification to the Champions League would help convince Sanchez to stay, but without that certainty reports in France suggest that the club will try to show intent by bolstering the squad.

According to the French press, there are several high profile names on the shortlist.

Midfielder Denis Zakaria is thought to be a key target. The 26-year old has spent the season on loan to Chelsea from Juventus but has made just seven Premier League appearances. He also struggling to break into the Juventus side after his move from Borussia Monchengladbach in 2021 so is likely to be open to a move.

More ambitious is the interest in Raphael Guerreiro, who has been a regular starter for Bundesliga leaders Borussia Dortmund this season. However the 29-year-old is out of contract at the end of this season and may be tempted by a return to France, the nation of his birth.

Marseille are also thought to be considering moves for two young players plying their trades in the French leagues. Paris Saint-Germain’s 18-year-old forward Mahamadou Diawara and Habib Diarra, a 19-year-old midfielder with Racing de Strasbourg, are in contention. Diarra in particular is a highly-rated prospect and has also drawn interest from a host of Premier League sides, including Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur and Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Facing a one-year transfer ban from FIFA, Marseille went to court Wednesday in a dispute with Watford over the 2020 signing of Senegal midfielder Pape Gueye.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport said Gueye — who faces a four-month playing ban by FIFA for breach of contract — was attending the start of a two-day hearing in Lausanne, Switzerland. No target date has been set for the verdict.

Marseille is second in the French league and on track to qualify for the Champions League next season, when the ban could take effect if the club loses the case.

Marseille also faces being blocked from registering new players for two consecutive transfer windows, and Gueye could be sidelined from all soccer for four months. The punishments were initially handed down by FIFA last year but were put on hold pending the appeal verdict.

Watford announced in April 2020 that it had made a pre-contract agreement with Gueye, a Paris-born France youth international then playing for Le Havre, on a five-year deal starting after that season.

Gueye, then 21, backed out of joining Watford and later signed with Marseille, which had finished runner-up in Ligue 1 to qualify for the following season’s Champions League.

Watford filed a case claiming breach of contract at FIFA’s disputes resolution chamber, which found in the club’s favor and imposed the bans on Marseille and Gueye. Marseille was reportedly ordered to pay Watford 2.5 million euros ($2.6 million).

Watford announced the ruling in January 2022 while Gueye was with Senegal at the African Cup of Nations in Cameroon. He helped Senegal win that tournament, and played in three of the country’s games at the World Cup in Qatar.

The CAS case combines three separate appeals, filed by each of the clubs and the player.

Gueye has since been loaned out by Marseille to play for Sevilla for the rest of the season, although was not included in the Spanish team’s squad list for the Europa League. Six-time champion Sevilla hosts Fenerbahce on Thursday in the round of 16.

Alexis Sanchez is ageing like a fine wine in the Mediterranean sunset

The endlessly boring discourse surrounding Ligue 1 being a ‘farmer’s league’ consistently distracts from the likes of Marseille and other sides when they do put together an impressive domestic campaign, which is exactly what Igor Tudor’s side have done this year.

In a division where Paris Saint-Germain manage to keep the top prize hostage for the majority of the time thanks to an endless cash flow provided by an oil state, even the sniff of being in contention for the Ligue 1 crown is enough for the likes of Marseille to be proud of.

They’re not settling for that, though, and neither is talisman Alexis Sanchez on his European revenge tour.

Sanchez netted his 17th goal of the season in all competitions to fire Marseille to a comeback victory over Auxerre.

On a weekend where PSG dropped points in a dramatic encounter against Lorient, the Sunday evening win for Les Phoceens puts them within five points of the defending champions, making for a more interesting end to the Ligue 1 season than Christophe Galtier’s side would’ve hoped for.

It’s been quite the rollercoaster ride for the Chilean, who very quickly went from Arsenal gunman to failed piano player and then Serie A misfit all in the space of a few seasons. Humbling, to say the least.

Especially for a player of his calibre. Because when Sanchez is on it, he’s absolutely electric. The problem is that he looked to have lost all that for good after his move to Manchester United, where it all very quickly went pear-shaped – if it was any shape other than that in the first place.

Quietly, though, Sanchez has reinvented himself on the Mediterranean coast, with unfortunately very little made of those efforts. That’s where we step in, though.

It’s time to give the 34-year-old his flowers. Once looking done, dusted and ready for a swansong in the MLS, he now leads the line for an exciting side that is pushing oil-rich PSG to the very limit, against the odds and against everyone’s belief.

“I’m happy and content in Marseille, I love the fans,” He said, when asked about extending his current deal beyond June.

And if he can contribute to somehow toppling the beast in red and blue currently atop the table before the season ends, we’re sure the supporters would do anything to keep him around.

He doesn’t even want to entertain the idea of falling at the final hurdle, though. There’s that winning mentality coming back out to play. Big club pedigree. All the cliches you hear the pundits spout.

“We need to believe we can get the title, I believe we can do it. We need to have hope and stay united as a team,” the Chile international said.

That’s fighting talk from a man with a point to prove. And perhaps it’s exactly that.

Winning the Ligue 1 title isn’t a want for Sanchez, it’s a need. A way to complete the comeback story in a deserving fashion, sealing his time in France with the perfect kiss and righting the wrongs of his previous missteps in England and Italy.

He’s the experienced head in a side carefully blended between young and old. The killer finisher operating off the flank. And it’s been joyous watching him rediscover his best form again.

Sure, he lifted a Serie A and a Coppa Italia with Inter, but he wasn’t the one leading the charge. It’s different this time, though.

Sanchez is affecting games, firing his team to glory and dragging the rest of them up with him when it matters. The spark is back and it’s incredibly evident when watching him strut his stuff.

He’s already achieved the fourth-highest scoring season in his career and can improve on that before 2022-23 comes to an end. And undoubtedly he will.

Everything we loved about the Chilean appears to be back, from his splash of pace over short distances, his shrewd positioning off the shoulder and his ability to find the back of the net from any angle he’s presented with.

If it’s not meant to be and PSG do keep their hands on France’s top prize, then so be it. But that won’t damage the individual season that Sanchez has produced for Marseille and the lengths he has gone to, in order to enjoy the late-career resurgence he so deserved.

A wonderous footballer at his best for Barcelona and Arsenal, it’s fitting that he bows out from the very top in a similarly glowing style.