Thursday, June 4, 2026

Now Showing: Stretch Armstrong

 

Stretch Armstrong
Genre: Action/Comedy/Sci-Fi
Director: Phil Lord & Chris Miller
Writer: Giovanni Garcia
Based on the action figure
Cast: Ryan Gosling, Adria Arjona, Michael Pitt, Angela Bassett, Ruth Wilson, Channing Tatum (cameo)

Plot: The Mediterranean gleams like molten glass under a Monte Carlo moon, waves catching starlight and tossing it into the gilded windows of a casino. Inside, tuxedos gleam, champagne bursts, and a brassy remix of “Let’s Get Physical” blares. At the bar, Jake “Stretch” Armstrong (Ryan Gosling) leans as though the room were sculpted just for him—martini in hand, half-smile, tuxedo snug like second skin.

Across the room, a briefcase of micro-data changes hands, unnoticed in the glitter. Stretch sees it reflected in his martini glass. “Here we go again,” he murmurs, flicking his cufflink.

The villain bolts for the stairwell. Stretch’s arm snaps forward, silver whip-like, latching onto a chandelier. The crowd gasps as he slingshots through the air, flips in slow motion, and lands perfectly in a red convertible outside. Over his earpiece, Director Vera Harding (Angela Bassett) sighs.

“You were supposed to grab the briefcase, not redecorate the casino.”
Stretch smirks. “One of them really tied the room together.”

The briefcase flies mid-run as he lashes back through a window, reels it in, adjusts his tie, and strolls into the night. Horns blast. **STRETCH ARMSTRONG: FLEX AGENT.**

F.L.E.X. headquarters is chaos in motion—agents bouncing on spring-loaded boots, gadgets sparking, recruits ricocheting off padded walls. Stretch strolls through like a rock star on tour, arms doubling as jump ropes for rookies, letting them punch him and rebound, laughter spilling like confetti. Every mirror he passes flickers, warping slightly, as though remembering someone else’s face. Harding watches from her control room—stern, elegant, a chess master with secrets stacked like pawns.

“Armstrong’s performance is beyond human,” an analyst whispers.
“Exactly,” Harding murmurs, eyes narrowing.

Nightfall in Morocco. Desert winds whip sand into the sky, searchlights cutting the darkness. Stretch drops from a plane mid-firefight, body fanning like a human parachute. Inside a burning lab, Dr. Mara Finch (Ruth Wilson) is bound amid flames. Stretch bursts through the inferno, shielding her with his expanding form, smashing through glass and tumbling into the sand. She trembles.

“Jason?” she whispers. “They told me you didn’t survive.”
Stretch freezes. “…Jason?” The name doesn’t fit; it drags across memory like a glitchy film reel.

Back at Harding’s office, shadows hug steel walls. “She’s delusional,” Harding says, dismissive.
“Focus on the mission,” an analyst adds.
“You’re not paid to ask who you are, Armstrong. You’re paid to be who we need,” Harding says. Stretch nods, leaving, but his reflection lingers a heartbeat too long, flickering like a stutter in memory.

Then, the world flickers.
Every screen on Earth hijacks, static screaming before resolving into Marcus Virox (Michael Pitt) — pale, sharp, a grin that feels like a dare.
“F.L.E.X. made him,” he whispers. His voice is low, deliberate, oddly playful. “They made you. You’re all stretched into something you’re not.”
He leans closer to the lens, smiling too softly. “I’ll show them what it means to be free.”

Harding orders pursuit. Stretch doesn’t wait. He’s already gone rogue—engine roaring, suit creaking, body stretching like taffy across the open road.
F.L.E.X. sends rookie June Park (Adria Arjona) after him. She’s sharp, no-nonsense, and secretly driven by a desire to prove herself—the same shadow of doubt she’d faced when her parents vanished in a F.L.E.X. experiment years ago. Their first encounter: a taser to Stretch mid-gloat.
“Protocol.”
“You have impeccable timing,” he grins, flexing through the jolt.

Training montage: its utter chaos. Stretch’s suit overextends, boots launch him into the ceiling, he winks mid-contortion, and smacks his own face. June’s eyes roll; her sighs are punctuation marks against his anarchic ballet.

The Grand Bazaar explodes with color, awnings snapping in the wind. Stretch ricochets through rooftops like a human slingshot, arms grappling every ledge, torso springing like rubber. June follows, furious but determined. He bounces off a spire, tears through laundry lines, crashes through a fruit stand. Melons explode like grenades.

“You do this every day?” she pants.
“Only weekdays. Weekends I stretch for fun.”

They duck into a rug stall mid-chase.
“Why risk your life for a briefcase?” she asks.
He shrugs. “Because sometimes I forget what else I’m risking.”
Their eyes meet — and for a second, the noise fades.

They find Finch in an abandoned lab, bathed in static light.
Finch speaks to Jake as softly she can but her tone betrays her, voice trembling.
“Jake… you weren’t recruited. You were built. Project Elastica. You’re not supposed to exist.”

Finch looks at Jake with immense guilt and regret.

Stretch stares at his hands. They ripple, bend, fracture against the glass. “…I was made to bend… and now I’m breaking.”

Reflections glitch. Memories of Jason flicker inside his eyes—a past he’s never lived. June reaches for him; he waves her off.
“I can bend for anyone,” he whispers. “But who bends for me?”

Virox watches from a high-rise loft, surrounded by broken tech sculptures and flickering neon.
He speaks to a drone as if it’s an audience:
“They think flexibility means obedience. But chaos, darling—” he grins, slicing his hand through the air, “chaos bends back.”
He paints on a cracked mirror with black oil. His reflection grins wider than he does.

Above Istanbul, on a spire, the city glowing below. June sits beside Stretch, dangling legs.
“What do normal guys do when confused?”
“Therapy?”
“Pizza.” She hands him a slice; the cheese stretches impossibly long, snapping, both laughing. Stretch feels human again.

Over the Pacific, Virox’s floating fortress rises — part aircraft carrier, part cathedral of chrome. A biomechanical virus churns inside, pulsing like a heart.
“Freedom,” he murmurs. “Everyone deserves to be elastic. To lose their shape. To let go.”

Stretch and June infiltrate. He contorts through vents, muttering, “This is how you fold laundry, not people.”
She rolls her eyes. “Do you ever stop talking?”
“Only when I’m stretching,” he grins.

They crash into Virox’s sanctum — walls breathing, screens flickering.
Virox stands before the virus core, arms open, like welcoming an audience.
“You were made to serve,” he says, smiling like a ghost. “You’ll always snap back to who they built you to be.”
Stretch steadies his breath. “Maybe. But I choose who I am.”

Virox tilts his head, delighted. “Oh, good line. Keep that for the obituary"

They clash — a ballet of distortion and velocity. Stretch twists through laser fire; Virox moves like liquid metal, impossible angles. He laughs mid-fight, hair wild, eyes gleaming: “See, Jake? You are art.”
Stretch wraps himself around the core—a MΓΆbius-strip move, trapping Virox in a tangle of glowing, elastic body. He absorbs the energy, radiating white-hot light.
“Jake!” June cries.
He smiles weakly. “It’s Stretch.” And lets go.

The fortress collapses in slow motion. June catches him mid-air, parachute blooming from his own suit.
He grins faintly. “Told you I was flexible.”

Weeks later. F.L.E.X. is dismantled. Harding vanishes. Finch and June rebuild something new — a home for the strange and the stretched.

In a sunlit yoga studio, Stretch tries to meditate.
“Remember,” says the instructor, “don’t overextend.”
He exhales.
Across the room, someone wobbles in a pose. His arm snakes out, fixes their posture, retracts before anyone notices.
“Mr. Armstrong,” sighs the instructor.
He smirks. “It’s Stretch.”

Post-Credits Scene
Grainy footage flickers — F.L.E.X. archives, stamped CLASSIFIED.
Agent Brick (Channing Tatum) and Stretch sprint through chaos.
Brick yells, “You miss, I’m paste!”
Stretch grins. “Trust me, Brick — I’m solid!”
He fires an arm-slingshot — Brick flies screaming into a helicopter rotor’s path.
Cut to black.
Brick’s voice echoes: “I hate field work!”




Wednesday, June 3, 2026

IN DEVELOPMENT

 

Double Date: Director Nicholas Stoller's LRF debut, the R-rated 20-something rom-com Double Date, has rounded out its supporting cast with the additions of Xolo Mariduena (Bunny, "Cobra Kai"), Niles Fitch (Power Rangers, Klondike), and Madison Wolfe (The Man in the White Van, "We Were Liars"). Jacob Jones penned the film.

1995: 1995, the coming-of-age adventure from director Stephen Chbosky and writer Joshua Collins has scoured Hollywood for young actors to join the more established Grant Felly and Nell Fisher as the core group of friends on the search for a haunted house. Those young actors will be Eli D. Goss ("Daredevil: Born Again"), Ja'Siah Young ("Raising Dion, "FBI: Most Wanted"), and Asher Morrissette ("The Baxters").

Lobo: Ruth Negga (Haute Couture, Scion) was announced as part of the cast of Lobo at the most recent LRF Comic-Con where Vin Diesel revealed she'll be playing Lobo's mechanic/confidant Darlene. Also officially joining the film will be Zach Cherry ("Severance", "Fallout") as the shady bail bondsman Bunsen, and Alyssa Sutherland (Evil Dead Rise, "Vikings") as princess/intergalactic mercenary Shaola von Darragon. Doug Liman is directing the DC Comics adaptation from a script by Jack Brown. 

Gray: A radical updated take on Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray is on the way from director Luca Guadagnino (Hideaway, Tears of an Angel). Timothee Chalamet (Punch Buggy, Hideaway) will star as a model who, after becoming the subject of a mysterious portrait that ages and decays in his place descends into violence, hedonism, and madness. Jared Leto (Murder Mysteries, Natural Selection) will play the artist who makes Gray his subject, while Suki Waterhouse (Home Before Dark, Golden Girl) play a singer who finds herself in a tragic romance with Gray. The adaptation was written by Roy Horne (Tara's Wrath, The Hammer of Thor: The Frost War).

The Quiet Between Us: Denzel Washington (Before Love Came to Kill Us, The Invincible Iron Man) has signed on to the lead role in The Quiet Between Us. He will play a man struggling to care for his terminally ill wife. Angela Bassett (The Stand, Dishonest) will play Denzel's wife while Tessa Thompson (Assata, The Night Swim) will play their adult daughter. Derek Cianfrance (Cedar Ridge, Tomato Can) has been tasked with directing the drama from a script by Dawson Edwards (Unkempt Garden, Ghost Recon).

1016 West Monroe: Quintessa Swindell (Black Adam, Master Gardener), Lewis Pullman (Bastion, Eye of the Scarecrow), and Diana Silvers (Lonely Planet, X-Men: Age of Apocalypse) are set to star in the 1950s jazz drama, 1016 West Monroe. The film will tell the story of a talented singer from Louisiana (Swindell), a club owner (Pullman), and cafe owner threatened by the attention the club owner gives the singer. Barry Jenkins (Ghost Town, Before Love Came to Kill Us) is at the helm of the film, directing from a script by Meirad Tako (Thus Dreamed Zarathustra, Police Story: Retribution).

PREMIERE MAGAZINE #352

 


Tuesday, June 2, 2026

THE ROUNDUP WITH JEFF STOCKTON (SEASON 36 ROUND 2)

 

Six films into Season 36 and the story is becoming clearer: when LRF hits, it hits big. The problem? There are an awful lot of misses piling up underneath those wins. We’ve now got two genuine blockbusters carrying the weight of four money-losers, and a few uncomfortable truths are starting to emerge. Let’s get into it. Here's The Roundup....



DONKEY KONG COUNTRY
Sometimes audiences just want to have fun.

No complicated mythology. No self-serious reinvention. No desperate need to “elevate” the source material into something it was never supposed to be. Donkey Kong Country understood the assignment: give audiences a colorful, funny, adventure-heavy crowd-pleaser and let them enjoy themselves.

The best surprise? It actually worked as a movie. Big box office is one thing, but Donkey Kong Country wasn’t just financially successful — it was genuinely entertaining. Mike Mitchell clearly knew the tone he was aiming for, APJ kept things moving, and Dwayne Johnson somehow found a sweet spot where his natural charisma actually fit the role instead of overwhelming it. Nintendo adaptations are quietly becoming one of LRF’s safest bets.


PIROUETTE
I’ll admit it: Pirouette was probably a little too slow for my taste.

But even when I found myself wishing somebody would speed the thing up, I couldn’t deny what the film was doing well — namely, giving Monica Barbaro the kind of role actors dream about. This wasn’t just another strong performance. This felt like a legitimate “career test,” the kind of film where an actor either proves they can carry difficult material or gets swallowed whole by it. Barbaro passed.

And then there’s Johnny Depp, who frankly steals half the movie. The man walked into a supporting role and immediately turned it into what feels like an inevitable Golden Reel Awards conversation. Love him or hate him, this is exactly the sort of late-career comeback performance awards voters eat up.


BLOCKBUSTERS
Two rounds in. Two blockbusters.

For all the handwringing people (including myself) inevitably do over misses, the reality is that major hits change the mood of an entire season. Boba Fett proved LRF could make Star Wars feel commercially relevant again. Donkey Kong Country proved the Nintendo momentum wasn’t a fluke after Mario and Zelda.

If you’re running a studio, you’ll take blockbuster problems over “everything is mediocre” problems every single time. Season 36 may not be consistent yet, but at least people are showing up when LRF gives them something worth seeing.




BOX OFFICE
Four of six films have lost money. That’s… not ideal.

Yes, the blockbusters are doing heavy lifting, but this is the sort of trend that becomes concerning if it continues into Round 3 and beyond. A healthy slate usually needs middle-tier wins — films that may not explode commercially but at least turn respectable profits. Right now, Season 36 feels extremely top-heavy.

You can survive a few bombs when Boba Fett and Donkey Kong Country are printing money. But if the pattern becomes “one giant hit covering for two or three flops,” eventually somebody in accounting starts sweating.


DIARY OF A WIMPY KID
I genuinely do not understand the thought process here. Who exactly was this movie for? Fans of the books? Probably not, considering they showed up expecting Diary of a Wimpy Kid and instead got an R-rated stoner comedy that felt more like a parody of the franchise than an adaptation. Fans of edgy comedies? Also probably not, because the movie just wasn’t very funny.

This is the rare bomb where the problem feels obvious from the pitch stage. Taking a beloved kids property and turning it into an edgy adult comedy can work — in theory — but only if the humor actually lands and there’s a clever angle underneath it. Here, it mostly just felt misguided.


FINN WOLFHARD
I’m not putting the majority of the blame on Finn Wolfhard here. That belongs to Alex Conn. But Wolfhard absolutely misplayed this situation.

He had built real momentum in LRF as both a young star and emerging director — enough goodwill that people were starting to view him as one of the more promising multi-hyphenate talents in the system. Then he chooses this as a directing vehicle? An R-rated Diary of a Wimpy Kid stoner comedy?

That’s a gamble you make when the script is undeniable. This script was not undeniable.

Frankly, Wolfhard should’ve passed on starring in it, let alone directing the thing himself. One flop doesn’t ruin a reputation, but this feels like the first real career misstep from someone who had been building momentum very quickly.

On Location (Season 36 Round 2)

 


Pirouette
- Paris, France



Diary of a Wimpy Kid
- Yonkers, New York, USA

Monday, June 1, 2026

BOX OFFICE BREAKDOWN (SEASON 36 ROUND 2)

 

DIARY OF A WIMPY KID
Budget:
$19,000,000
Total Box Office: $18,000,669
Total Profit: -$17,489,101




Despite recognizable source material and a comedic twist on the beloved franchise, Diary of a Wimpy Kid failed to connect with audiences and became one of the weaker commercial starts for a comedy in recent LRF history. The result continues an uneven financial track record for writer Alex Conn in the genre.

BOX OFFICE FACT
Alex Conn has now written 16 comedy films for the studio, but only five have turned a profit, with the most recent success coming from Slowly Dying back in Season 30.

GENRE RANKINGS
Comedy: #94





DONKEY KONG COUNTRY
Budget: $120,000,000
Total Box Office: $720,434,668
Total Profit: $242,043,104


Nintendo’s momentum within LRF continued in dominant fashion as Donkey Kong Country became an instant event film and one of the studio’s strongest animated performers ever. While it fell short of Super Mario’s all-time record, the film comfortably solidified Nintendo adaptations as one of LRF’s safest commercial brands.

BOX OFFICE FACT
Donkey Kong Country now ranks as the #2 highest-grossing animated film in LRF history, surpassing Season 33’s The Legend of Zelda ($471M) and trailing only Season 17’s Super Mario ($879M). All three are Nintendo adaptations.

GENRE RANKINGS
Animation: #2
Adventure: #5
Comedy: #5




PIROUETTE
Budget: $25,000,000
Total Box Office: $39,100,555
Total Profit: -$4,332,122


A strong critical reception and awards potential ultimately failed to translate into financial success for Pirouette, which narrowly missed profitability despite respectable theatrical business for an adult drama. Even so, the loss stands out more because of the names involved than the severity of the underperformance.

BOX OFFICE FACT
Jimmy Ellis and John Malone have now co-written 14 films together, with Pirouette becoming only their third financial loser, joining Paki (-$31M, Season 26) and Blue Ridge (-$21M, Season 23).

GENRE RANKINGS
Drama: #283





Season 36 Round 2 Total Box Office:
$777,535,892

Season 36 Round 2 Total Profit:
$220,221,881

Back-to-back monster rounds have immediately made Season 36 one of the strongest starts in studio history, with
Donkey Kong Country accounting for nearly 93% of Round 2’s total worldwide gross
.



Season 36 Total Box Office:
$1,601,000,660


Season 36 Total Profit:

$406,349,246


Through just two rounds, Season 36 has already crossed $1.6 billion worldwide, powered almost entirely by the one-two punch of Boba Fett and Donkey Kong Country.

SEASON 36 BOX OFFICE STANDINGS

  1. Boba Fett$763,673,771 πŸ‘‘
  2. Donkey Kong Country$720,434,668 πŸ‘‘
  3. Pirouette$39,100,555 πŸ“‰
  4. Three Rounds$34,386,590 πŸ’£
  5. Heartbeat$25,404,407 πŸ’£
  6. Diary of a Wimpy Kid$18,000,669 πŸ’£

LRF TRIVIA TIDBITS (SEASON 36 ROUND 2)

 

Round 2 of Season 36 highlights the growing influence of cross-media franchises, performance-driven casting choices, and emerging multi-hyphenate talent stepping into larger creative roles. From expanding gaming universes to actor-director negotiations, each film reflects a different kind of behind-the-scenes leverage.

Donkey Kong Country
With Donkey Kong Country, LRF continues to build out its Nintendo-inspired slate, following the animated Super Mario film from Season 17 and Season 33’s The Legend of Zelda and Metroid. The project signals a clear long-term strategy to develop a shared ecosystem of game-based adaptations across both animation and live-action formats.


Pirouette

Authenticity was key in casting Pirouette, with Monica Barbaro and Emma Mackey both selected in part due to their real-life ballet training. Johnny Depp, meanwhile, signed on for a supporting role largely because of his prior working relationship with director Maiwenn, following their collaboration on Jeanne du Barry.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid
Finn Wolfhard leveraged his casting in a major way, agreeing to take the lead role only if he could also direct the film—while even cutting his acting fee in half to make it happen. The result is a rare case of a young actor using a studio adaptation to simultaneously establish himself as a filmmaker, particularly with the project’s unexpected R-rated, stoner-comedy twist.