IN DEVELOPMENT

 

Bloodsong: The Civil War-era supernatural horror film from director Issa Lopez has added Tantoo Cardinal (Pocahontas, Killers of the Flower Moon), Michael Greyeyes (Berserker, The Lone Ranger),  and Angus Wright (Here, Bank of Dave) to complete its casting process. Cardinal and Greyeyes will play tribal elders, while Wright will ruthless military officer. Holden Abbott penned the film.

X-Force: The latest Marvel Universe production has added Richard Dreyfuss (Tumulus, The Life of the Party) and Judd Nelson (The Most Dangerous Game, Madness in the Method) to round out its supporting cast. Dreyfuss will play an inethical scientist Emrys Killebrew, while Nelson will play the warden of a mutant detention center. Robert Rodriguez is directing the film from a script by Dwight Gallo. 

The Righteous Path: The Jessie Buckley-led cult drama will also round out its supporting cast with the additions of Sadie Soverall (Elsinore, "Every Year After"), Amy Forsyth (Eileen, Plainclothes), Cody Christian (Friday the 13th, "All American"), and Nick Offerman (Gas Bar Blues, Nick Fury and His Howling Commandos). Todd Haynes is at the helm, based on a script from Andrew Doster.

Space Sheriff Helios: Director Takashi Miike and writer Meirad Tako's big screen take on the Japanese "Space Sheriff" franchise will complete its cast, adding Eita Nagayama (Monster, Undercurrent) and Yuki Amami (Kaiji: Final Game, Climbing for Life). Nagayama's role is reportedly villainous in nature. 

Mortal Kombat III: Prepare for fatalities, because Mortal Kombat is back for a third entry. Many familiar faces are set to return, starting with Iko Uwais (Assassin's Creed: The New Order, Mortal Kombat II) as Liu Kang, Jet Li (Scarlet Witch, Mortal Kombat II) as Raiden, Ronda Rousey (Mortal Kombat, Ocean Pawn) as Sonya Blade, Scott Adkins (Mortal Kombat, Task Force X: Jungleland) as Johnny Cage, and Patrick Wilson (E.P., Time Out!) as Kurtis Stryker. The film will find the heroes defending all the realms against the villainous efforts of a tyrannical Elder God. Gareth Evans (Mortal Kombat II, Blue Heat) is returning to direct alongside returning writers APJ (Donkey Kong Country, Batman: Duality) and Chad Taylor (Fletch, Starlight).

Friday the 13th: Inferno: Another LRF franchise hitting its third film this season will by Friday the 13th. Daniel Cudmore (Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Friday the 13th) will be back as the mask-wearing Jason Voorhees, while Amber Heard (Friday the 13th: Blood Ties, Julie) will be back for more flashback sequences as Pamela Voorhees. Olivia Thirlby (Dan Star, Oppenheimer) is set for the new female lead. This entry will depict Jason being captured by authorities and the resulting bloodbath. Patrick Lussier (Friday the 13th: Blood Ties, Play Dead) is back to direct, once again from a script by Jack Brown (Blood and Glory, Lobo).

PREMIERE MAGAZINE #363

 

The Roundup with Jeff Stockton (Season 37 Round 3)

 

This round we got a solid DC sequel, a respectable Grand Theft Auto movie that somehow forgot to be much fun, and an animated fantasy that apparently decided subtlety was for cowards. Nothing here was disastrous, but I’m still waiting for Season 37 to produce another movie that feels genuinely enormous. Here's The Roundup....

NIGHTWING: BLOODHUNT

I wouldn’t call Nightwing: Bloodhunt a high point for either Jimmy Ellis or APJ. But I was entertained. Sometimes that’s enough. The biggest improvement here is finally giving Nightwing villains who actually feel worthy of a superhero movie. Professor Pyg brings genuine creepiness, while Deathstroke gives Dick Grayson the kind of physical threat he should have been dealing with all along. That alone makes this feel more substantial than some of Nightwing’s previous outings. The screenplay isn’t especially deep, and I don’t think either writer will be pointing to this as career-best material, but the movie moves, the action works, and Sam Hargrave knows how to make a fight scene land. For a third solo Nightwing film? I’ll take it.

BOX OFFICE

Now this is more like it. Last round, two of three films lost money. This time? Two of three made money. Amazing what a difference reversing those numbers can make. No, Round 3 didn’t deliver another Pokémon-sized monster hit, but honestly, the studio doesn’t need every round to produce one. Sometimes a couple of solid profitable releases are exactly what keeps a season healthy. Nightwing: Bloodhunt did well. Grand Theft Auto IV did enough. And while The Silver Swan dragged the round down, at least it didn’t completely wipe out the gains made by the other two. After Season 36 spent half the year finding new ways to turn decent rounds into financial headaches, I’ll happily take boring profitability.

SOUNDTRACKS

Finally. Through the first two rounds, Season 37 had produced exactly zero soundtrack contenders. Round 3 suddenly gave us two. Now, did I personally enjoy both of them? Absolutely not. We’ll get to The Silver Swan in a minute. But from an awards standpoint, this is good news. Best Soundtrack is always more interesting when there are actual stylistic choices competing against one another instead of voters scrambling to fill out a ballot. Two soundtracks in one round gives the category some life. I may not want to listen to all of them again. But at least there’s something to argue about now.

THE SILVER SWAN

I understand the message. Trust me. The movie makes absolutely certain of that. Again. And again. And again. There’s a perfectly decent animated fantasy buried inside The Silver Swan, but every theme gets hammered so relentlessly that eventually I stopped feeling anything and just started waiting for the next speech from Morgan Freeman's narrator explaining what I was supposed to feel. Subtlety was apparently not invited.

Then there’s the soundtrack. Look, I respect The King’s Singers. I understand the appeal of a cappella. I do not understand why this story needed quite so much of it. The music didn’t just fail to connect with me personally — I’m not convinced it always connected with the movie either. Several numbers felt like they had been selected because somebody liked the idea of an a cappella animated musical, not because the songs actually strengthened the story being told. Interesting experiment. Not one I need repeated.

GRAND THEFT AUTO IV

Let me start by saying this: Grand Theft Auto IV is not a bad movie. It’s probably not even the worst Grand Theft Auto adaptation LRF has made. That almost makes its problems more frustrating. Because where was the fun? This is Grand Theft Auto. Crime. Chaos. Dark humor. Bad decisions. Bigger bad decisions made to fix the first bad decisions. Instead, the movie frequently feels surprisingly restrained and gloomy. Taylor Sheridan obviously knows how to handle crime material, but this sometimes felt like he was trying to turn Grand Theft Auto into one of his prestige westerns with cars.

And then there’s Sebastian Stan. Good actor. Wrong role. I never completely bought him as the guy at the center of this particular world. He can play damaged and morally compromised all day long, but GTA needs a little more danger, humor, and unpredictability in its lead. Stan gave me brooding. I wanted trouble.

BLOCKBUSTERS

Three rounds into Season 37, and the picture is starting to come into focus. We’ve got two solid hits. One enormous blockbuster. That’s a perfectly respectable start. The problem is what comes next. Looking over the rest of the schedule, I see plenty of movies that could make money. I see potential hits. I see franchises with built-in audiences.

What I don’t see are a whole lot of obvious monsters. Where’s the next Pokémon? Maybe Zelda gets there. Maybe Mortal Kombat explodes. Maybe X-Force does X-Men business. Maybe something nobody expects catches fire. But after watching Season 36 fall short financially because too many modest successes were asked to compensate for too many expensive failures, I’m a little nervous about another season built around “pretty good” box office. Hits are nice. Blockbusters pay for mistakes. And LRF always makes a few of those.

ON LOCATION (SEASON 37 ROUND 3)

 

Grand Theft Auto IV

- New York, New York, USA

Nightwing: Bloodhunt

- Louisville, Kentucky, USA

BOX OFFICE BREAKDOWN (SEASON 37 ROUND 3)

 

GRAND THEFT AUTO IV

Budget: $100,000,000

Total Box Office: $202,571,839

Total Profit: $9,676,226

Grand Theft Auto IV cleared $200 million worldwide, but its relatively thin profit margin kept the adaptation from becoming a major financial win. Still, the result continued a remarkably consistent overall box office pattern for LRF's long-running video game franchise.

BOX OFFICE FACT

LRF's four Grand Theft Auto films have now combined to gross approximately $840 million worldwide — an average of about $210 million per film, remarkably close to the $202.6 million earned by Grand Theft Auto IV.

GENRE RANKINGS

Action: #226

Crime: #15

Thriller: #19

THE SILVER SWAN

Budget: $30,000,000

Total Box Office: $28,002,086

Total Profit: -$26,763,294

LRF's latest animated release struggled badly at the box office, failing even to match its modest production budget in worldwide ticket sales. The resulting $26.8 million loss makes the film one of the round's clear disappointments — and its raw box office total sets an unfortunate studio record.

BOX OFFICE FACT

The Silver Swan takes possession of a dubious LRF record, becoming the lowest-grossing animated film in studio history.

GENRE RANKINGS

Animation: #30

Family: #13

Fantasy: #107

NIGHTWING: BLOODHUNT

Budget: $110,000,000

Total Box Office: $336,402,669

Total Profit: $73,400,229

Nightwing: Bloodhunt delivered another solid theatrical showing for Dick Grayson, earning more than three times its production budget worldwide and coming just shy of LRF's Hit threshold in profit. While Nightwing may never approach Batman-level numbers, the solo series has established itself as a dependable piece of the studio's DC slate.

BOX OFFICE FACT

While far from Batman territory, Nightwing has been remarkably consistent at the box office. Across three Dick Grayson solo films, the series has now generated approximately $951 million worldwide.

GENRE RANKINGS

Action: #155

Superhero: #93

Season 37 Round 3 Total Box Office:

$566,976,594

Season 37 Round 3 Total Profit:

$56,313,161

Round 3's strength came primarily from Nightwing: Bloodhunt, whose $73.4 million profit absorbed the sizable loss from The Silver Swan. Grand Theft Auto IV provided another $9.7 million in gains, allowing the round to finish comfortably in positive territory despite the animation flop.

Season 37 Total Box Office:

$1,920,004,154

Season 37 Total Profit:

$407,154,034

Through three rounds, Season 37 has generated $1.92 billion worldwide and just over $407 million in profit. The season remains in a healthy position thanks largely to the enormous success of Pokémon, but the six films released since then have produced a much more mixed financial picture. With seven rounds remaining, Season 37 still has plenty of time to establish whether that explosive start will translate into a genuinely strong overall season.

SEASON 37 BOX OFFICE STANDINGS

1. Pokémon — $776,788,299 👑

2. Metroid Prime — $338,796,929 💰

3. Nightwing: Bloodhunt — $336,402,669 🔥

4. Grand Theft Auto IV — $202,571,839 💰

5. Deadline — $112,721,449 ⚖️

6. Hay Day — $59,532,823 💣

7. The Passageway — $47,062,055 💣

8. The Silver Swan — $28,002,086 💣

9. Below the Surface — $18,126,005 💣

LRF TRIVIA TIDBITS (SEASON 37 ROUND 3)

 

Round 3 of Season 37 digs into alternate versions, studio milestones, and long-running character arcs—revealing how one major adaptation nearly looked completely different, how one writer has come to dominate LRF animation, and how a familiar comic-book character finally embraced his villainous side.

GRAND THEFT AUTO IV

LRF audiences nearly received a very different version of Grand Theft Auto IV several seasons ago, when an earlier creative team developed the project with offers out to Jason Statham and Adam Sandler for the lead roles. That incarnation ultimately fell apart, allowing writer Mo Buck and director Taylor Sheridan to rebuild the film from the ground up with Sebastian Stan and Cameron Britton taking over those respective parts.

THE SILVER SWAN

Writer Jacob Jones has become LRF’s undisputed king of animation in terms of volume. The Silver Swan marks his 15th animated film for the studio, meaning Jones alone is responsible for exactly half of the 30 animated features released in LRF history.

NIGHTWING: BLOODHUNT

Nightwing: Bloodhunt marks Jean-Claude Van Damme’s third appearance as Slade Wilson/Deathstroke, but surprisingly, his first as an outright villain. He debuted in a cameo during the prison break sequence in Batman: Knightfall before taking center stage as the protagonist of Deathstroke. It took until Bloodhunt for Van Damme’s Slade to finally assume his more traditional antagonistic role.

Relase: Nightwing: Bloodhunt

 

Nightwing: Bloodhunt

Genre: Action / Superhero

Director: Sam Hargrave

Writers: Jimmy Ellis & APJ

Based on DC Comics characters

Cast: Taron Egerton, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Rachel Brosnahan, Madelaine Petsch, Allesandro Borghi, John Carroll Lynch, Kyle MacLachlan, Ted McGinley

Budget: $110,000,000

Domestic Box Office: $182,309,113

Foreign Box Office: $154,093,556

Total Profit: $73,400,229

 

Reaction: Another strong solo outing for Nightwing, even if overall box office and profits are both slightly lower than his last entry and far from Batman heights. 

"Nightwing: Bloodhunt wisely doubles down on what made the first film work: treating Dick Grayson like a person instead of just another superhero. Sam Hargrave delivers muscular, grounded action—particularly the warehouse fight with Deathstroke—while giving surprising weight to Dick’s internal struggle between police work and vigilantism. Taron Egerton continues to feel perfectly cast, and Rachel Brosnahan gives Amy real personality beyond “cop partner.” Jean-Claude Van Damme, meanwhile, is used sparingly but effectively as an aging, frighteningly efficient Deathstroke. The film’s plotting occasionally feels more like setup than payoff, especially regarding H.I.V.E., but the emotional arc lands cleanly." - Paul Landon, Film School Rejects

"A remarkably grounded, blue-collar crime thriller that treats Blüdhaven like a character and handles Dick Grayson's internal conflict with real maturity. Everyone from Egerton to Lynch holds their own in their roles. That all being said, it does stumble under the weight of its own mythology: muddled villain motivations and an anticlimactic warehouse raid takes the wind out of the sails of an overall good Nightwing movie." - Dexter Quinn, Cinematic Observer Newsletter

"Though competently made and occasionally exciting, Nightwing: Bloodhunt struggles to fully justify itself as a sequel. The central badge vs. mask conflict for Dick is compelling in theory, but often spelled out too explicitly, leaving little ambiguity or emotional complexity. Professor Pyg feels strangely disposable despite a memorable introduction, Tomas Dorrance barely registers as a villain, and H.I.V.E. mostly functions as sequel bait. Jean-Claude Van Damme brings welcome menace to Deathstroke, but he feels more like a recurring threat than a meaningful antagonist here. Strong action and an appealing lead keep it watchable, though the story sometimes feels more transitional chapter than complete film." - Dave Manning, Ridgefield Press

Rated PG-13 for sequences of strong violence and action, disturbing images, and thematic material.