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Ema Horvath Joins Amazon’s “Lord Of The Rings”!

Actress Ema Horvath has joined the slowly assembling cast of Amazon Prime’s adaptation of the novels and unpublished writings of J.R.R. Tolkien, becoming only the fifth actor to do so – at the rate this is going, we should have a full cast sometime by the end of next year: but filming apparently begins in February, so the series’ casting directors might want to speed things up and stop searching relentlessly for hairy bikers and “wonderful noses”. All the wonderful noses in the world aren’t going to help a show that can’t pull together a main cast.

Ema Horvath Joins Amazon's "Lord Of The Rings"! 1
forbes.com

Still, Horvath’s casting is at least a welcome sign of life from the project, which seems to randomly tumble into our newsfeeds every month or two with a sudden, startling announcement that makes us all sit up for twenty minutes before settling back into the long dark of Moria. Perhaps, if Amazon Prime could release some plot details, character names, or even a few pieces of concept art, we might have cause to get really excited: but these little unofficial news-stories are becoming increasingly infuriating as we’re forced to wait in silence for weeks in between, contenting ourselves with reading frustrating articles about all the things that the show could do wrong or “has” to get right (naming no names, of course).

Horvath herself is not likely to heighten our excitement or give outsiders a reason to get hyped: she’s a relatively obscure actress, with a small resume. I’m not certain which character she could be portraying onscreen, but I hope we might get an indication soon, as the show moves into production. I’d love it if Amazon could surprise us all and suddenly put out a big, detailed press release or something that all of us theorists could obsess over for a couple of weeks. That would be nice.

What do you think of the casting? Share your own thoughts, theories and opinions in the comments below!

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“Wonder Woman 1984” Trailer Review!

Yes, this is really happening. Diana Prince, the world’s one and only Wonder Woman, has officially returned in the first trailer for her long-awaited sequel movie, Wonder Woman 1984.

The trailer finds Diana living her best life in the 1980’s, far removed from the horrors of warfare that she braved and defied in her origin movie: elegant and mature, she’s now a wine-sipping, evening gown-wearing celebrity with a fancy apartment in Washington D.C., and easy access to the flashy, vibrant world of the rich and famous. She’s got new friends, including the quirky, clumsy Barbara Ann Minerva, and new enemies, like Pedro Pascal as a charming but suspicious businessman and motivational speaker named Maxwell Lord (more on both these characters in a moment). And of course, she’s joined once again by the love of her life, Steve Trevor, who appears as if by magic to dance with her at a party – there’s no explanation yet for how he’s miraculously returned from the dead, but I think the trailer gives us plenty of clues.

But first: the 80’s. There’s been a lot of tension in the DC fandom recently about whether or not it’s a mistake to take the normally serious and epic character of Wonder Woman and place her in a time period so often associated with…well, shoulder pads and bangles. But Diana fits perfectly in this era – not only when she’s living it up in the big city, but also when she’s going full 80’s action hero: lassoing bad guys in the White House, swinging from lightning bolts (she is the daughter of Zeus, after all), and blowing up an entire caravan of heavily-armored military trucks. So everybody who was worried that a 1984 setting meant cheesy comedy and nauseatingly bright colors can cool it – this movie has the best of both worlds. Incredible action and techno music.

And who will she be fighting? Surprisingly, we still don’t have any idea what Barbara Ann Minerva will look like as the anthropomorphic super-villain Cheetah (though she does sport a lavish cheetah-print outfit at one point: a far cry from her other appearance in the trailer, which has her wearing giant round glasses and a rather bizarre hairstyle). But we do get a long look at Maxwell Lord, who also has a wide range of stylistic choices in these two minutes: he’s a dapper, sickly sweet collector of ancient artifacts, who has the power to make dreams come true – rumor has it that he will grant Barbara Ann’s wish to be a superhuman, and Diana’s personal, unspoken wish to be reunited with Steve Trevor.

As for Steve and Diana, their romance is still just as strong as ever, and they have a couple of cute moments – riding in Diana’s invisible jet and visiting museums together (Steve Trevor not being able to tell modern art apart from garbage cans is very relatable). But the focus is all on the woman herself, and her new, impressive suit of golden armor, which comes with unfolding wings. She doesn’t even need a Godkiller sword at this point, because she just is the weapon. Diana’s really out here about to rock this world to its core, and I don’t know if we as a society are ready for that.

Scratch that – I am. June 5th can’t come soon enough.

So what do you think of the trailer? Share your thoughts, theories and opinions in the comments below!

Trailer Rating: 9.5/10

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“Free Guy” Trailer Review!

A lot of people thought Ryan Reynolds’s signature brand of crazy, edgy, meta humor would be suffocated under the Disney label, but the first trailer for his comedy action movie Free Guy proves that Reynolds isn’t going to be easily dissuaded from doing whatever he wants – including poking fun at the Mouse House in the first few moments of the trailer: the opening title cards read “From the studio that brought you Beauty & The Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King“, followed after a beat by “Twice”). And from there on out, Free Guy looks like a wildly fun, unabashedly ridiculous movie that fans of Reynolds will love.

Reynolds plays an NPC (non-playable character) named Guy, trying to live his life in the background of a gigantic, action-packed video game filled with explosions, car/motorcycle/helicopter/fighter plane crashes, and daily heists and hostage crises at the bank where he works. But one day, he can’t take it anymore, and sets out to change his tiresome routine by becoming the hero of his virtual reality. So basically this movie is what would happen if Disney’s Wreck-It Ralph and 20th Century Fox’s Deadpool had a baby – or rather, it is what happens when Disney and 20th Century Fox merge and start making movies together.

The trailer looks comedic and entertaining in a 90’s sort of way, with catchy music, bright colors, and a familiar cast of characters. It looks fun: nothing more, nothing less. I had been expecting something a little more unpredictable, but what we’ve got looks good enough for right now.

Trailer Rating: 6.9/10

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“Aladdin” Spinoff In The Works At Disney+!

When I tell you that news broke last night that Disney is producing a spinoff series based on a character from their billion-dollar summer blockbuster Aladdin, a live-action remake of the animated classic, I’m sure your assumption would be something like: oh, a spinoff about Aladdin? I’d watch that.

But it’s not about Aladdin. Guess again.

Princess Jasmine? Jafar?

Wrong on both counts. Last guess.

Um…the Genie? Abu the Monkey? The flying carpet?

Nope. See, you’re not thinking in the mindset of a studio executive, who looks at a great movie with one of Disney’s most ethnically diverse live-action casts and asks themselves: is there any way to make an entire TV show about the one white guy in this movie?

"Aladdin" Spinoff In The Works At Disney+! 2
geektyrant.com

Still not ringing any bells? That’s because the one white guy in Aladdin only had two scenes, and you probably forgot him long ago, he was so insignificant. Prince Anders, the regal visitor from a far away kingdom called Skanland (in my review of Aladdin, I mistakenly marked it down as Scotland: my bad), made no impression on any of the characters around him, and thus made no impression on us, the audience. And yes, I’m sure Billy Magnussen was doing his very best in the role (and clearly he thinks he was good enough to warrant his own miniseries, as he was apparently involved in pitching this idea to the studio), but Anders came across as an unlikable buffoon who absolutely nobody would want to spend time with – if there was any purpose to his character, that was it. He unsuccessfully courted Princess Jasmine (and in a deleted scene gifted her a giant cannon, which blew up his own ship), and then hung around in the background like a clingy house-guest that everybody was this close to escorting out the door. And yet, he’s getting his very Disney+ streaming series.

Disney has hired Jordan Dunn and Michael Kvamme to write a script for the series (Disney’s first spinoff of a live-action remake), which will star Magnussen. Plot details are still unknown, but if the series is going to have anything to do with Aladdin, it will presumably follow the dim-witted prince on his…journey? Leisurely stroll?…through the city of Agrabah. It is not known whether any of the other main cast of Aladdin will show up in the series – don’t forget, a sequel to that film is also supposedly in the works at Disney.

Despite that, many people are understandably upset that this news broke just days after Aladdin star Mena Massoud revealed that, since the blockbuster’s release back in May, he hasn’t gotten a single audition. While he’s probably going to star in the unconfirmed Aladdin 2, the optics of this announcement are ridiculously bad. Firstly, because nobody was asking for an entire spinoff series about an annoying background character whose biggest scene was deleted from the movie. Secondly, because there are a number of other characters in Aladdin who would make for much more interesting and compelling protagonists: a Jafar prequel series, exploring his rise from street rat to vizier; a fun comedy series following Genie and his new love-interest Dahlia on their voyages around the world; literally anyone else in Agrabah who is actually, oh I don’t know, an Agrabahan (Agrabahon? Agrabahni?).

I also fear that this announcement means Anders isn’t going away anytime soon, and will stick around for the Aladdin sequel, assuming his series has any sort of popularity. Personally, I’d be happy forgetting that this character ever existed – but alas, I don’t have my own personal Genie who can wish this nonsense out of existence.

What do you think of the news? Share your own thoughts, theories and opinions in the comments below!