Hope For National Treasure 3; Hollywood Loves Journalists; Stan Lee Documentary

There may still be hope for National Treasure 3 according to Justin Bartha; Hollywood loves to make movies about journalists, and we’ve got a list of 18 of our favorites; Disney+ is making a documentary about the late great Stan Lee. All in today’s Movie News Rundown.

Journalists Are Everywhere: Have you ever noticed how many movies have main characters that are journalists? Once you start noticing it, they’re everywhere. Hollywood loves to make movies about journalists, and no, I’m not just saying that because I am one. There’s a reason for it, which Vengeance writer-director B.J. Novak kindly explains to us right here in this story, which also features a list of 18 of our favorite journalist-centric movies from All The President’s Men to The Devil Wears Prada.

Avatar 2 Hits $1 Billion: James Cameron’s Avatar sequel has officially crossed the $1 billion mark in box office revenue globally. According to Variety, it’s the fastest movie this year to reach that mark. The only other two movies that did it were Top Gun: Maverick, which took 31 days, and Jurassic World Dominion, which took more than 4 months to reach the number.

Hey Dad! I Mean… Paul Dano: In a new interview, Paul Dano told me that when he was playing Steven Spielberg’s father in The Fabelmans, Spielberg’s three sisters would often visit set. And do you know what they would call him? Dad. Yes, it’s true. “Steven’s sisters would come to set and they would sometimes call me ‘dad,’ and it was just wild. It was moving,” Dano told MovieMaker. Read the full story here.

AI Movies: The other day, I was on the phone with my grandpa and he asked me if I’d heard of this new technology that could make movies directly from people’s imaginations. I told him I’d never heard of such a thing, but I wouldn’t be surprised. Then, today, I see this story from Vulture about an artificial intelligence tool called Midjourney which is doing just that — taking people’s ideas, like “an alien squid attacking a horrified Sigourney Weaver,” and making detailed, hyper-realistic film stills out of them. Apparently, it’s now possible to make videos this way, too, producing full scenes and even two-hour-long movies using only AI programs. The AI video generators haven’t been released to the public yet, but when they are, the film industry might just be in for a change.

National Treasure 3?: If you’re still craving the answer to the cliffhanger at the end of National Treasure: Book of Secrets (what’s on Page 47???), franchise star Justin Bartha, who played Riley Poole in the first two movies and appears in the new Disney+ spinoff series National Treasure: Edge of History, says “there’s still hope” for a third film to complete the trilogy. “The constant drum beat from the fans for a third movie just makes it a no-brainer for me,” he told Variety.

Stan Lee Documentary: Marvel teased a new documentary about the late, great comic book writer, editor, publisher, and producer Stan Lee, who died in 2018 at the age of 95. A documentary about his life is coming to Disney+ in 2023, according to a teaser trailer released on Marvel’s Instagram in honor of what would have been Lee’s 100th birthday. “100 years of dreaming. 100 years of creating. 100 years of Stan Lee,” the post reads. Watch the teaser below.

Main Image: A still from the teaser for Disney+’s upcoming Stan Lee documentary. Photo credit: Marvel/Disney+.