Germain Lussier

Director James Wan lights up when talking about his Aquaman star Jason Momoa. Back in 2018, the two had an unexpected box office smash with the first film and are hoping to top even that with this month’s Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, out December 22. This time around, that relationship between director and star seems to have only gotten stronger, as Momoa received a “story by” credit on the film, after several of his suggestions about where his character would go made it into the movie.Zillow Says You’ll Buy Your Next…

It’s been a bit of an up-and-down week for the House of Ideas, as Marvel both pulled out of reporting any further on The Marvels’ box office performance and Ryan Reynolds bit back against Deadpool 3 set leaks. All this, more Doctor Who, and even Star Wars’ 2024 made the list of our most read stories, so here’s you might have missed this week!—James WhitbrookZillow Says You’ll Buy Your Next House With… AI? | AI UnlockedDisney Gives Up on The MarvelsBrie Larson as Captain Marvel in The MarvelsImage: Marvel StudiosMarvel…

What would National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation look like if Clark and his family had to fight a bunch of killer elves? You can get a very, very close approximation in the new movie There’s Something in the Barn. It stars Martin Starr (Freaks and Geeks, Silicon Valley) as a happy-go-lucky father who moves his family to Norway only to find that an actual elf lives in their barn. The elf is cool with the family being there... until they start breaking his rules. Then all hell breaks loose.“Even AI Rappers are Harassed by…

Image: Warner Bros.Wonka—the musical Charlie and the Chocolate Factory prequel—has screened for critics, and the reactions are mixed... but mostly good.Like It or Not, Your Doctor Will Use AI | AI UnlockedDirected by Paul King (Paddington) and starring Timothée Chalamet as Willy Wonka, Warner Bros.’ Wonka sets out to deepen the origin of the eccentric candy factory owner from Roald Dahl’s classic 1964 novel—and previously played by Gene Wilder in 1971's Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. (Also, there was that other…

Image: Warner Bros.Obviously, we could be thankful for Barbie just because it’s Barbie and it’s great. But the real reason Barbie is on this list is because it probably shouldn’t have been great. For a moment, take Greta Gerwig, Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, and all those people away. The simple statement “Warner Bros. is making a Barbie movie” sounds like a recipe for disaster. But then, all those talented people were hired. Everyone did incredible work. And Barbie ended up being one of those rare cinematic events that…

It took all of five days, but 8,000 people pledged $500 each and made it certain that Hasbro would be making its mega version of the Ghost from Star Wars Rebels and Ahsoka. The project, which was announced last week at San Diego Comic-Con, is the latest in Hasbro’s Haslab series. It’s the company’s version of Kickstarter where it conceives dream projects that would never usually get made, and then actually moves forward once a certain amount of people opt in. Andor Episodes 1-3 ReviewThe latest is the Ghost, which still…

For a child of the 1980s, it doesn’t get much better than getting to direct a Rocky movie followed by a Transformers movie. But for Steven Caple Jr., that’s exactly what happened. The filmmaker went from Creed II, which reunited two epic 1980s rivals in Rocky Balboa and Ivan Drago, to Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, which does the same for two other 1980s rivals: Optimus Prime and Unicron.Giving Optimus Prime a Proper Back Story | io9 InterviewThat pair met in the unforgettable 1986 animated film, Transformers: The…

We’ve been hearing about The Flash for so long—it had a bumpy road through production, plus there were some major DC Studios shake-ups along the way—it’s hard to believe it’s finally opening in theaters next week. The first full reviews are now online; they’re mostly on the positive side, but not everyone was a fan.The Woman Who Would Be PhotonFirst, here’s an excerpt from io9's own review by Germain Lussier:“The number of plates The Flash spins is incredible, mixing time travel tropes with multiversal madness and big…

One minute, you’re sitting at home. The next, you have mere days to be on set and in charge of one of the biggest film franchises in the world. It sounds like the plot of a movie but it’s what happened to director Louis Leterrier. The man behind Now You See Me, The Transporter, and The Incredible Hulk was asked by Universal to take over on Fast X mere weeks into shooting, after original director Justin Lin departed the project. Spoilers of the Week April 18-22What was that like? How was he able to adapt? And how much of…

When you hear the name “Robert Rodriguez,” a montage of images instantly comes to mind. Antonio Banderas shooting a gun shaped like a guitar case. Salma Hayek dancing with a snake. Two gadget-covered kids popping out of the screen in 3D. A black-and-white Mickey Rourke lumbering through a comic book frame. With Desperado, From Dusk Till Dawn, Spy Kids, Sin City, and others, Rodriguez has long made genre films that have stood the test of time. And during all of that, he’s been toying with one other idea. One he thought…