Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows is hitting theaters in two weeks. That's not an endorsement or a condemnation so much as a piece of information with which you can choose to do just about anything. Like back out of this page. Or hold your head in your hands. Or, if you're a fan of Paramount's live-action take on the half-shell heroes, click through all of the new stills from the blockbuster sequel.
Since Hollywood never met a pop-culture fixation couldn't appropriate (see: this weekend's Angry Birds Movie), perhaps it shouldn't be surprising to hear that someone is working on bringing the Fruit Ninja mobile app to the big screen in - get this - a "live-action family comedy."
With Shane Black out on the press circuit to support this weekend's '70s-set caper The Nice Guys (if you haven't seen it yet, there are few original-concept thrillers that pack a better, more entertaining punch out right now), some of his conversations have inevitably steered back to the script that put Black on the map - namely, his Lethal Weapon screenplay - and the state of that currently dormant franchise.
Like a neon-lit sign above a seedy store in a bad part of town, The Nice Guys exerts the kind of hazy, hypnotic pull you'll likely find yourself drawn in by - despite the protestations of your more strait-laced, moralistic instincts. A trashy love letter to Raymond Chandler and the noirish excesses of 1970s Los Angeles, it's a movie that eschews the more righteous path in order to exude shaggy-dog coolness at every turn, from its stylized title treatment to its winkingly ludicrous opening scene (in which a porn star plunges to her death in a cliffside car crash, smashing through her windshield to land atop a rock with breasts perfectly exposed).
Why should Dick Wolf get to have all the fun? NBC, hot on the heels of ordering its umpteenth Chicago series, has committed to a spinoff of its popular crime-procedural drama The Blacklist, titled The Blacklist: Redemption.
The box-office juggernaut that is the Marvel Cinematic Universe has long since surpassed the total grosses of any other big-screen franchise in cinematic history, and it's hitting another unprecedented landmark with the release of Captain America: Civil War yielding absolutely superhuman returns around the planet: the $10 billion mark.
Though Spider-Man's inclusion in the superhero battle royale that was Captain America: Civil War has shown executives and audiences alike that corporate synergy can be a wonderful thing, Marvel Comics is still spread across an array of big-name studios, meaning that bringing together some characters known for rubbing elbows in comic-book panels can be a lot more complicated on the big screen. However, that's not stopping some actors in different camps from vocalizing their desires to see such team-ups happen.
ABC has been the center of a whole lot of TV-related carnage this week, cutting a significant tie with Marvel by axing the terrific Agent Carter and shaking up its lineup by doling out pink slips to Castle, Nashville, The Muppets and The Family. But amid all the bloodletting, one quirky show met its maker quietly in the background: medieval musical comedy Galavant, which miraculously hung on at the notoriously ruthless network past its low-rated freshman run.
It's an exciting time to be a Marvel fan. Comic-book aficionados already knew the studio was moving in a terrific direction with Black Panther, its first superhero film toplined by an African character, by tapping Creed filmmaker Ryan Coogler to co-write and direct - but these past few days have been sensational in terms of putting into perspective just how committed Marvel is to populating the pic with strong and thrillingly diverse cast. 12 Years a Slave breakout Lupita Nyong'o signed on in the lead female (not voice-acting!) role, then Creed star Michael B. Jordan came aboard in what's rumored to be a villainous role. That one-two punch of a casting coup, coupled with a lead performance by Chadwick Boseman proven to be awesome by Captain American: Civil War, set the Internet ablaze.
