James Cameron may hand off Avatar parts four and five; Netflix is offering a Swedish twist Groundhog Day; Joseph Quinn, who plays Eddie in Stranger Things, shares his thoughts about the Season 4 ending. All in today’s Movie News Rundown.
Legion M: Is funding a new William Shatner documentary directed by Alexandre O. Philippe, and the fan-owned entertainment company is doing something they’ve never done before: they’re offering anyone a chance to invest directly into the movie itself instead of into Legion M as a whole. You can read up here about the company’s unique business model — and the doc.
Box Office: The Minions are at it again. Minions: The Rise of Gru set a July 4th holiday-weekend box office record, according to Variety, with a total of $125.1 million. That beats the previous record-holder, 2011’s Transformers: Dark of the Moon, which got $115.9 million over the extended holiday weekend, by about $9 million.
James Cameron May Hand Off Avatar: The director whose idea it was to do four more movies following 2009’s Avatar — the highest-grossing film of all time — is thinking about passing the baton to someone else to complete films four and five. Maybe. “The Avatar films themselves are kind of all-consuming,” James Cameron told Empire. “I’ve got some other things I’m developing as well that are exciting. I think eventually over time – I don’t know if that’s after three or after four – I’ll want to pass the baton to a director that I trust to take over, so I can go do some other stuff that I’m also interested in. Or maybe not. I don’t know.”
Swedish Groundhog Day: Netflix has just announced a new Swedish comedy movie coming in 2023 called One More Time, directed by Jonatan Etzler and starring Hedda Stiernstedt (Beforeigners). It’s about a 40-year-old woman who gets hit by a bus and is transported back in time to her 18th birthday, which was the best day of her life. But soon she finds herself in a rather Bill Murray-ish position: She keeps waking up on the same day, according to Netflix’s description. I’m excited to see this one — somehow twists on Groundhog Day never gets old.
Stranger Things Spoilers: If you haven’t seen the end of Season 4 of Stranger Things, skip down to the next paragraph. Okay, still here? Joseph Quinn, the actor who plays Eddie Munson (my favorite character this season), told Variety his thoughts about his tragic yet heroic ending — and that epic Metallica guitar solo from “Master of Puppets.” Of his sad, sad ending, he says he had hoped to do another season of Stranger Things, but his plans were foiled: “I thought maybe if I did all right, they might invite me back. That didn’t work, clearly! So they killed me, but that’s OK, I guess. I’ll dust myself off!” He also says he played some of the guitar in the “Master of Puppets” scene, but not the actual solo. On the show, they had a “black belt heavy metal guitarist” bust that part out, he says, but he played the riff and the parts around the solo.
BIFA Goes Gender-Neutral: The British Independent Film Awards has switched to gender-neutral acting categories for its 25th anniversary, according to Deadline. Instead of separate actor/actress awards, BIFA has adopted the following four acting categories, each with 10 nominees: Best Lead Performance, Best Supporting Performance, Best Joint Lead Performance, and Best Ensemble. The fifth acting category, the Breakthrough Performance award, remains unchanged.
Main Image: Hedda Stiernstedt in One More Time. Photo Credit: Robert Eldrim. Courtesy of Netflix.