IN DEVELOPMENT

 

Grand Theft Auto IV: Rounding out the cast of the long-awaited fourth Grand Theft Auto film will be Imogen Poots (Sandbox, Flicker), Ashton Sanders (Malik, The Nickel Boys), Pilou Asbaek (Norse: Valhalla, Thorne), and Alison Oliver (Wuthering Heights, "Task"). Taylor Sheridan helms from a script by Mo Buck.

Nightwing: Bloodhunt: Two familiar female faces will be returning for the next Nightwing film for LRF's DC Comics Universe in the form of Rachel Brosnahan (Nightwing, The Deadliest Night in Show Business) as Amy Rohrbach and Madelaine Petsch (Batgirl, Bunker 17) as Barbara Gordon/Oracle. A new addition will be Alessandro Borghi (No Pain, "Supersex") as the son of Alfred Molina's villain from the previous film. Sam Hargrave is once again directing from a script by Jimmy Ellis and APJ.

Bloodsong: The Native American-themed supernatural horror project Bloodsong has added some talented supporting players, with Martin Sensmeier (Sgt. Rock, Ocean Pawn), Wes Studi (The Lone Ranger, Scion 3), and Q'Orianka Kilcher (Days Without End, Green Arrow) all signing on to the project. Issa Lopez is directing the Holden Abbott-penned film.

X-Force: The latest Marvel Universe project, X-Men spin-off X-Force has cast a trio of young mutants to add to franchise: Rowan Blanchard (Mask of the Phantom, Revolution) will play Maria Callasantos aka Feral, D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai (The Dogs of Winter, "Reservation Dogs") will play James Proudstar aka Warpath, and Rudy Pankow (Ecstasy, Robopocalypse) will play Warren Worthington III aka Angel. Robert Rodriguez is directing the mutant mayhem based on a script by Dwight Gallo.

The Righteous Path: Speaking of X-Men, LRF's Jean Grey herself, Jessie Buckley (The Midnight Library, Dust Saint), is set to headline the drama The Righteous Path. She will play a woman raised in strict religious cult who feels and encounters the outside world for the first time. She will be joined by Alicia Witt (Redhead, Batgirl) as her guide in the outside world and Cary Elwes (The Incredible Shrinking Man, The Maid) as the cult's leader. Todd Haynes (Prodigy, Starlight) is set to direct from a script by Andrew Doster (Rise Again, The Letter Never Sent).

Space Sheriff Helios: Takashi Miike (The Crow: Yomi, Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo) is back behind the camera for LRF, this time for film based on the Japanese "Space Sheriff" television franchise. Kazuya Kamenashi (Policeman and Me, Lumberjack the Monster) is set for the title Space Sheriff. He'll be joined by Miike regular Tadanobu Asano (The Crow: Yomi, Shogun) as Helio's reluctant pilot ally. Meirad Tako (The Midnight Library, Police Story: Retribution) penned the adaptation.

PREMIERE MAGAZINE #362

 

The Roundup with Jeff Stockton (Season 37 Round 2)

 

Well, that didn’t take long. After I complained last round that Season 37 wasn’t giving me enough material for the “Down” section, the studio apparently took that as a challenge. Round 2 gave us two money-losers, a mobile game adaptation that barely seemed interested in being a mobile game adaptation, and another trip into the surprisingly depressing universe of Metroid. Thanks, guys. My job is safe again. Here's The Roundup....

JON BERNTHAL

Twenty-six seasons. That’s how long it’s been since Jon Bernthal last got to headline an LRF movie. Bernthal certainly hasn’t disappeared during that stretch. He’s remained a dependable supporting presence in plenty of projects, but Below the Surface finally puts him back where he belongs: at the center of the movie. Now, I thought Below the Surface itself was a pretty average drama. Nothing particularly wrong with it, nothing that’s going to stick with me six months from now. Bernthal was not the problem. He has exactly the kind of weathered, lived-in presence this material needed, and it was nice seeing LRF remember that he’s capable of doing more than showing up for 25 minutes, growling at somebody, and making the lead actor look tougher by association.

Hopefully he won’t have to wait another 26 seasons for the next starring role.

MEL GIBSON

On paper, Hay Day made a lot of sense for Mel Gibson. Stubborn old farmer. Family legacy. Corporate villains. Violence. Old-fashioned values colliding with the modern world. You can practically hear Gibson saying yes before finishing the pitch. And as both star and director, I thought he committed completely. Whatever problems I had with this movie—and there were plenty—they weren’t because Gibson mailed it in. If anything, he seemed to understand the movie Hay Day could have been better than the screenplay did. There’s a grittier, angrier, more emotionally grounded version of this story hiding somewhere inside the finished product, and Gibson occasionally manages to drag pieces of it onto the screen through sheer force of personality. Unfortunately, Alex Conn never gave him enough material to build the rest.

VIDEO GAME FILMS

Two rounds. Two major video game adaptations already. And we’re nowhere close to finished. After Pokémon opened the season, Metroid Prime keeps the gaming train moving, with Grand Theft Auto, Mortal Kombat, The Legend of Zelda and more still coming later this season. At this point, Season 37 is starting to look like LRF’s unofficial video game season. And honestly? I’m interested. Hollywood spent decades treating video games like source material that needed to be apologized for. LRF seems much more willing to just embrace the worlds people already love and build actual movies around them. They won’t all work. But judging by the schedule, we’re certainly going to find out which ones do.

BOX OFFICE

Two out of three films losing money is never a good round. Period. Metroid Prime did its job. It made a healthy profit and prevented Round 2 from becoming a complete financial disaster. But it wasn’t Pokémon. Last round, Pokémon made so much money that the studio could basically shrug at anything happening around it. Metroid Prime was successful, but it wasn’t successful enough to completely erase the losses from Below the Surface and Hay Day. That’s the difference between a hit and a blockbuster.

Season 37 still has plenty of financial cushion thanks to its opening round, but this was a reminder that you can burn through that cushion surprisingly quickly.

ALEX CONN

I generally try not to single out writers in this column. Generally. But Hay Day has some fundamental problems that trace directly back to the page. First question: Why is this a Hay Day adaptation? Seriously. Other than the title and the existence of a farm, what exactly required the branding of a mobile game? If you’re going to adapt something—even something as narratively thin as Hay Day—then either find an ingenious way to incorporate what makes that property recognizable or just write an original movie.

Instead, Conn takes pieces that could have made for a genuinely compelling modern western about family farms, corporate agriculture, inheritance, and economic desperation... and never develops them deeply enough. That’s the frustrating part. I can see the better movie sitting right there. Hay Day isn’t anywhere near the worst thing Alex Conn has written, but this feels like a concept that should have been challenged much earlier in development. Why this property? Why this story? Why these characters? The movie never came up with convincing answers.

METROID PRIME

Maybe the Metroid experts can correct me here. I’m certainly not one of them. I vaguely remember playing one of these games approximately 30 years ago, and I don’t remember thinking, “You know what this really needs? Crushing existential sadness.” Yet two movies into LRF’s Metroid series, this franchise is miserable. I understand Samus Aran has trauma. Her family was killed. That’s terrible. We got it. At some point, though, Jennifer Lawrence has to be allowed to do something other than stare mournfully into the middle distance like someone just canceled Christmas.

This is a giant sci-fi adventure series filled with alien worlds, space pirates, bizarre creatures and futuristic technology. Why does everything feel like we’re attending a funeral in space? Robert Pattinson’s Batman watches his parents die every time he closes his eyes and somehow looks like one of The Wiggles compared to Samus. Lighten up. Just a little. I’m not asking her to start cracking Marvel jokes every thirty seconds. I just want Metroid to occasionally remember that exploring strange planets and fighting giant alien monsters is supposed to be exciting.

On Location (Season 37 Round 2)

 

Hay Day

- Tahlequah, Oklahoma, USA

Metroid Prime

- Johannesburg, South Africa

Below the Surface

- Jasper, Alberta, Canada

BOX OFFICE BREAKDOWN (SEASON 37 ROUND 2)

 

METROID PRIME

Budget: $170,000,000

Total Box Office: $338,796,929

Total Profit: $66,229,489

The second Metroid film remained a solid commercial performer, even if it failed to match the box office of its predecessor. With a $66 million profit, the sequel still delivered a healthy return on a sizable production budget and kept the young franchise firmly in profitable territory.

BOX OFFICE FACT

Metroid Prime grossed about $12 million less than its predecessor, but the first two films in the series have still combined for nearly $690 million at the worldwide box office.

GENRE RANKINGS

Action: #153 

Sci-Fi: #64

BELOW THE SURFACE

Budget: $15,000,000

Total Box Office: $18,126,005

Total Profit: -$14,000,062

The modestly budgeted drama failed to connect with a theatrical audience, finishing with a worldwide gross only slightly above its production budget and ultimately losing $14 million. While the relatively small budget limited the damage, the result still places the film among the weaker performers of Sammy-Jo Ellis’ LRF career.

BOX OFFICE FACT

Below the Surface narrowly avoids becoming the lowest-grossing film of writer Sammy-Jo Ellis’ LRF career. That dubious distinction still belongs to Season 27’s Flick.

GENRE RANKINGS

Drama: #385

HAY DAY

Budget: $50,000,000

Total Box Office: $59,532,823

Total Profit: -$30,445,900

The unusual adaptation of the mobile farming game struggled to justify its $50 million budget, ultimately finishing more than $30 million in the red. The result becomes another setback for Mel Gibson behind the camera at LRF, where his directing record has been considerably weaker than his work as an actor.

BOX OFFICE FACT

Mel Gibson has enjoyed a much stronger LRF track record as an actor than as a director. His two directorial efforts — Hay Day and Season 20’s The Emperor of Latium — have now combined to lose approximately $73 million for the studio.

GENRE RANKINGS

Drama: #206

Thriller: #111

Season 37 Round 2 Total Box Office:

$416,455,757

Season 37 Round 2 Total Profit:

$21,783,527

Round 2 finished in the black entirely on the strength of Metroid Prime. Its $66.2 million profit was forced to absorb more than $44 million in combined losses from Below the Surface and Hay Day, leaving the round with only a modest overall gain.

Season 37 Total Box Office:

$1,353,027,560

Season 37 Total Profit:

$350,840,873

Two rounds into Season 37, the studio has already generated more than $1.35 billion worldwide and $350.8 million in profit, but the season remains heavily dependent on its enormous opening-round performance from Pokémon. Round 2 added relatively little to the bottom line, making it too early to tell whether Season 37 will develop the depth needed to turn its strong start into an exceptional full-season result.

SEASON 37 BOX OFFICE STANDINGS

1. Pokémon — $776,788,299 👑

2. Metroid Prime — $338,796,929 💰

3. Deadline — $112,721,449 ⚖️

4. Hay Day — $59,532,823 💣

5. The Passageway — $47,062,055 💣

6. Below the Surface — $18,126,005 💣

LRF TRIVIA TIDBITS (SEASON 37 ROUND 2)

 

Round 2 of Season 37 offers three very different glimpses behind the curtain: an ambitious sequel discovering that even LRF can’t land every star it wants, a longtime supporting player finally getting another chance to lead, and a surprisingly late first for the studio’s ever-growing library of video game adaptations.

METROID PRIME

Building out the ensemble around Jennifer Lawrence’s Samus Aran proved trickier than expected, particularly after the filmmakers aimed high with several supporting roles. Denzel Washington, Rami Malek, and John Boyega were all approached but ultimately declined, with their respective roles eventually going to Jamie Foxx, Anthony Ramos, and Stephan James.

BELOW THE SURFACE

Below the Surface gives Jon Bernthal a rare opportunity to take center stage in his 10th LRF appearance. Remarkably, it is only his second starring or top-billed role for the studio, following the George Miller thriller flop B.R.I.G.A.N.D.S. all the way back in Season 11.

HAY DAY

Despite LRF’s long history of adapting video games across multiple genres and generations, Hay Day represents a genuine studio first. More than 36 seasons into LRF history, it becomes the first film based on a video game originally created exclusively for mobile phones and devices.

Release: Hay Day

 

Hay Day

Genre: Drama/Thriller

Director: Mel Gibson

Writer: Alex Conn

Based on the mobile game

Cast: Mel Gibson, Laura Dern, Kiernan Shipka, Kieran Culkin, JK Simmons

Budget: $50,000,000

Domestic Box Office: $40,100,333

Foreign Box Office: $19,432,490

Total Profit: -$30,445,900

Reaction: These are definitely not the numbers we were hoping for during Mel Gibson's resurgence for us at LRF. Clearly foreign audiences had little interest in an American farm drama-thriller.

"Hay Day is a solid but ultimately familiar rural drama that leans too heavily on well-worn archetypes and blunt messaging. The central conflict, corporate expansion versus generational land ownership, is compelling, and the tone carries a grounded, somber weight. However, the characters feel predictable, particularly the clear-cut morality of Jack and the increasingly one-note nature of Alex as the antagonist. The escalation into outright violence feels abrupt, stretching credibility and undercutting the more grounded tension built earlier." - Simon Reeves, Honolulu Highlights

"Hay Day is an unexpectedly grim rural thriller elevated by committed performances and Mel Gibson’s grounded direction. The central conflict between generational farming and corporate greed may not be subtle, but it’s effective. While the story occasionally leans too heavily on familiar 'last stand' tropes, it builds to a bleak, memorable ending." - Allen Poole, AV Club 

"It’s almost fitting that Hay Day is based on a mobile game, because the depth of its story—and its understanding of farming—barely rises above that level. The film reduces complex agricultural realities into cartoonishly broad strokes, offering little insight into either the industry or the people within it. Instead, it leans on a barrage of clichés: the noble farmer, the evil corporation, the inevitable violent showdown. The script is thin, underdeveloped, and often unintentionally simplistic, with dialogue that feels more like placeholder than character-driven writing. To his credit, Mel Gibson does what he can both behind and in front of the camera, bringing some grit and sincerity to material that doesn’t support him, but even that effort can’t elevate a story this shallow." - Dave Manning, Ridgefield Press

Rated R for violence and language