We’ve reached the best part of the year, Popculturology friends. It’s my birthday weekend. (Yay, 40.) Halloween is almost here. Next month we get to eat way too much for Thanksgiving. And before you know it, it’ll be Christmastime. But for now, we’re closing out October with the biggest stories in pop culture from the past month.
Let’s jump into this edition of The Monthly, with the three things you need to know, two trailers you need to watch and one story you need to read.
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Vin Diesel, Mother Gothel and Kylo Ren. / Universal Pictures, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Lucasfilm
3 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
Fast and Furious: Budget Drift
As the Fast and Furious movies have become bigger and bigger spectacles, their budgets have grown too — and now Universal Pictures is reportedly slamming the brakes on the next installment unless costs can come down.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Universal isn’t interested in spending the $340 million it cost to produce Fast X, instead eyeing a $200 million cap on the budget on the next film in the franchise. (The Wall Street Journal)
“We got it solved”:Fast and Furious star Vin Diesel (who often seems to believe that he’s the one calling the shots on the franchise?) posted a video on social media of himself with Michael Moses, Universal’s chief marketing officer, after the WSJ story. “I’m drifting with Dom Toretto, planning everything,” Moses says in the video. “We got it solved.” (Vin Diesel)
• • •
Gotta remake ’em all
Welp, Disney’s live-action remake machine is revving back to life. After it looked like Snow White’s $205.7 million worldwide box office haul had killed Disney’s push to turn every one of its animated classics into live-action movies, this year’s Lilo & Stitch remake and its $1.038 billion worldwide haul convinced the studio otherwise.
We learned earlier this month that not only is the studio’s remake of Tangled back in the works, the studio is in talks with Scarlett Johansson to play Mother Gothel in the film. (Deadline)
• • •
I guess Disney doesn’t want to make a good Star Wars movie?
The folks running Disney were fine explaining the return of Palpatine in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker with the half-assed “somehow, Palpatine returned” line, but don’t ask them to wrap their heads around how a movie could further the story of Ben Solo after his death in the final film in the Skywalker Saga.
Adam Driver, who portrayed Ben Solo/Kylo Ren in the sequel trilogy, told The Associated Press that he pitched Lucasfilm and Disney on The Hunt for Ben Solo, a movie that would explore what happened to the character after Rise of Skywalker and had director Steven Soderbergh on board. Lucasfilm said yes. Disney said no.
“Paid more than any screenwriter in Lucasfilm history”: We got additional reporting on The Hunt for Ben Solo on Friday, with the news that Lucasfilm had actually given the project the green light before Disney killed it. On top of that, Scott Z. Burns “was paid more than any screenwriter in Lucasfilm history” for the screenplay. (The Playlist)
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Nick Wilde and Judy Hops. / Marvel Studios, Walt Disney Animation Studios
2 TRAILERS YOU NEED TO WATCH
Wonder Man
I loved Yahya Abdul-Mateen II in HBO’s Watchmen series, and I can’t wait see to what he’s going to do in this limited series that also brings Ben Kingsley back into the MCU fold after his Iron Man 3 and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings appearances.
• • •
Zootopia 2
Walt Disney Animation Studios has had three films that crossed the $1 billion mark over the past decade: Moana 2 ($1.059 billion), Frozen II ($1.452 billion) and Zootopia ($1.019 billion). And if you take Moana 2 — a film that was never supposed to exist, cobbled together from a Disney+ streaming series — out of the equation, the studio’s recent releases have not done anywhere that level of business at the box office. (Encanto grossed $231 million worldwide during the omicron phase of the pandemic.)
Zootopia 2 is Disney’s chance to finally land another massive theatrical hit.
I dunno, it seems bad that one of the major players in the push to make generative AI happen just declared that copyrights no longer matter. I’m sure Disney and every other studio believed that they didn’t need to let these tech companies know that, yes, they still wanted those copyrights honored. (The Hollywood Reporter)
CATCHING UP
Here’s what you might have missed from The Omnicosm this month ...
The Omnicosm founder. Popculturology, Deep SNL Thoughts and Snackology writer. A Rochester, N.Y., native now living in the Washington, D.C., area. Won’t pass up a Genny Cream Ale.
I guess it was more important to make Jared Leto’s ‘Tron’ movie. PLUS: Warner Bros. Discovery puts itself up for sale, Netflix wins ‘Catan,’ and ‘ParaNorman’ returns in a new short.
