It's a sad reality that streaming services are deleting original films from platforms - here's everything that's disappeared from Disney+

It's too long to abbreviate here. It's quite surprising what they've deleted.

From their official Twitter account.

Gladiator II is on the cover of Total Film’s upcoming issue 356, which hits print and digital newsstands on October 10. It’s with a heavy heart that we announce that this will be the final issue of the print magazine.

We like to think that this final print edition is a showcase of everything that Total Film magazine strived for, with a thrilling blockbuster on the cover, A-list interviews, fair and impartial reviews, smaller interesting movies nestled alongside the more mainstream fare, and above all else a passion for cinema radiating out of every page.

In the cover feature, we’re talking to Ridley Scott, Paul Mescal, Denzel Washington and more about returning to the Colosseum for Gladiator II. From epic set pieces, to Scott’s unique approach to shooting, to Maximus’ legacy, it’s the perfect primer to this autumn’s most anticipated sequel.

Print subscribers will receive their issue with an exclusive cover shortly (and our subscriptions team will be in touch shortly to discuss next steps).

So for now, it only leaves us to say a huge thank you to all the staff, writers, designers and photographers who made Total Film print magazine what it was over the past 27 years. And we’d also like to express our endless gratitude to everyone who has read, subscribed to or otherwise supported the magazine.

While the magazine itself is going away, our archive content and expert movie and TV writing will continue to live on at http://gamesradar.com/totalfilm.

From the official Netflix twitter account:

Here's a first look at Millie Bobby Brown and Chris Pratt in The Electric State. Directed by the Russo Brothers. Coming 2025.

After a robot uprising in the '90s, an orphaned teen searching for her brother travels the American West with a robot, a smuggler, and his sidekick.

And some more information from Dark Horizons;

Millie Bobbie Brown, Chris Pratt, Ke Huy Quan, Giancarlo Espostito, Anthony Mackie, Stanley Tucci, Jason Alexander, Brian Cox, and Jenny Slate star in the coming-of-age sci-fi western tale set in a retro-futuristic alternate 1990s.

Brown plays an orphaned teenager who traverses the American West with her robot friend and Keats (Pratt), an eccentric drifter and veteran of the robot-human war in search of her younger brother.

The project is based on the acclaimed graphic novel by Simon Stalenhag. Shot in October 2022 and wrapping in February 2023, further reshoots took place in March and April of this year.

While Vanity Fair published the photos, not mentioned in the piece accompanying it is all the talk of the film’s budget with the movie reportedly costing around $320 million to produce.

The budget blowout on this film is rumored to be one of the reasons why Netflix reassessed its film division and brought Dan Lin to replace Scott Stuber as head of film with a mandate of being more frugal.

The pictures were released in this one block.

Meet the man behind the music that changed our lives.

Watch the trailer for Music By John Williams, an all-new documentary, streaming November 1 on @DisneyPlus.

Hellboy: The Crooked Man | How the dwindling of home media has affected a cult comic book franchise

by Ryan Lambie | October 1, 2024

Hellboy's back in cinemas with The Crooked Man, but its budget is drastically reduced from its 2000s heyday. A shrinking home video market may be the reason.

There was a crooked man who walked a crooked mile... presumably so he could share top billing in Hellboy: The Crooked Man, which snuck into UK cinemas on the 27th September.

For fans of the source comics, seeing the antihero back on the big screen after the disappointment of 2019's Hellboy reboot -- a film even its director Neil Marshall, publicly disowned -- will be at least some cause for celebration. But what's noteworthy about Hellboy: The Crooked Man (directed by Crank co-director Brian Taylor) is just how small-scale it looks compared to the visually sumptuous movies director Guillermo del Toro served up in the 2000s.

Where 2004's Hellboy served up a bold-looking take on the comic books, The Crooked Man is a contained story largely set in run-down chapels and shacks in Appalachia. Where 2008's Hellboy II: The Golden Army featured dozens of intricately-designed characters and action set-pieces, this year's movie offers up a smaller cast and a title villain who could have come from one of Blumhouse's low-budget horrors.

Although it's far from a bad film -- it's certainly less muddled than its 2019 predecessor -- its relatively low budget of $20m is often plain to see, from its muddy lighting to uneven digital effects. All of which might beg the question: what happened in the preceding 20 years? How did the movies go from budgets of $60-80m in the 2000s to less than a third of that in 2024? The likely answer doesn't necessarily come down to the popularity of Hellboy himself, but rather a changing filmmaking ecosystem.

It's worth pointing out that neither Hellboy nor its immediate sequel were huge hits. The 2004 original made roughly $100m worldwide on its $60m-ish budget; its sequel did better with worldwide take of about $168m, but then that film's budget also swelled to around $85m.

Back in the 2000s, however, profits in cinema only formed a part of a movie's lifecycle, and 2004's Hellboy was a big success on DVD. A two-disc special edition, released that July, reportedly sold about 500,000 copies; a three-disc director's cut was also released in the autumn of that year, and likely sold well in the run-up to Christmas.

It was that popularity on its home release that convinced Revolution Studios to go ahead with Hellboy II: The Golden Army, which followed a similar pattern: it more-or-less made a profit theatrically, but it was on disc that it made the most money. In fact, The Golden Army, despite its expanded budget, would have gotten a sequel itself were it not for outside forces acting against it. Guillermo del Toro expressed his interest in making Hellboy 3, a film that would have completed the trilogy with title star Ron Perlman, but he spent several years working on an adaptation of The Hobbit that, ultimately, would never happen.

By 2014, del Toro revealed that he'd tried to pitch Hellboy 3 to studios, but they'd all turned it down. The reason, he said in a Reddit AMA, was due to the collapse of the home video market in the years since The Golden Army came out.

"We have gone through basically every studio and asked for financing, and they are not interested," the filmmaker wrote that July. "I think that the first movie made its budget back, and a little bit of profit, but then it was very very big on video and DVD. The story repeated itself with the second already, it made its money back at the box office, but a small margin of profit in the release of the theatrical print, but was very very big on DVD and video. Sadly now from a business point of view all the studios know is that you don't have that safety net of the DVD and video, so they view the project as dangerous."

Del Toro estimated elsewhere that his concept for a third Hellboy would require a budget of $120m -- a sum studios were increasingly reluctant to stomach. When a new Hellboy finally emerged in 2019, directed by Neil Marshall and with David Harbour replacing Ron Perlman as its demonic antihero, it was made with a budget of $50m. Given how much inflation had risen since 2004, that sum was even tighter than it might initially sound.

Although intended as a reboot, the 2019 Hellboy wasn't quite the fresh start its studio might have hoped, with a troubled production and an ultimate box office take of about $55m. That the movie made about $12m on its home release in the US likely helped push its profits nearer to the black than the red, but it's still far below the franchise's high point in the 2000s.

All of which explain why, when Millennium Media decided to reboot Hellboy again with The Crooked Man, the budget was slashed again, this time to a reported $20m. Now featuring Jack Kesy as the gun-wielding, crimson lead, its R-rated action and backwoods horror tone will no doubt be familiar to readers of the source comics, but the downside is that it's far less cinematic in its presentation than what emerged from del Toro's baroque imagination some 20 years ago.

In the 2020s, movies still have other ways of making profits beyond their initial cinema releases, from premium video-on-demand to fancy 4K Blu-rays. The market for physical media has shrunk dramatically since 2005, however; an industry at its peak worth some $16bn in the US alone is now worth more like $2bn. It was once the case that you could see movies in most major retailers, and buy a DVD or Blu-ray on impulse. By now, many outlets -- including Best Buy in the US -- have stopped selling them entirely.

The market for physical media's still there, but its huge reduction has seen studios grow increasingly wary of where they invest their money -- and how much they spend. Just ask Hellboy.

She's back! And she's learned NOTHING.

Why is anyone listening to this woman? I couldn't watch the whole video, she's mad!

Veteran character actor’s career spanned over 50 years in TV and films, including Little Big League and Midnight Run

Filmmaker Mel Gibson has a couple of key sequels on his slate to direct in the coming years – namely a follow-up to “The Passion of the Christ” and a fifth “Lethal Weapon” entry.

Both projects have been floated as possibilities for many years now, but they have also taken on a new urgency recently and are seemingly much closer to fruition than ever before.

Gibson is also an industry veteran and is well aware of how film productions are all about various elements aligning just right – a big reason why so many filmmakers have multiple projects in development as you never know which one may suddenly be ready to move forward.

Speaking with ComicBook.com, Gibson was asked what film he would direct first to which he said it’s not completely clear which of the films might go sooner:

“I don’t know, and that’s the funny thing, I mean, there’s various obstacles to getting any film up on its feet, and not just budgetary, but there’s like, there’s 1,000,001 reason why something goes and why it doesn’t. So it’s really kind of a crapshoot at this point. You know, what goes first and which came first, whether it’s the chicken or the egg.”

The comments follow on from Gibson revealing earlier this year that he was still planning on directing “Lethal Weapon 5,” stepping in for the late Richard Donner who passed away in 2021.

Donner had done a bunch of work on a screenplay for a fifth film with Gibson getting further work done on it and, as of earlier this year, he was “pretty happy” with how it turned out.

The comments also follow reports a week ago that Gibson has been in Malta with a production team scouting potential filming locations for the “Passion” sequel and production could begin as soon as early next year.

Personal opinion, neither? 🤷‍♂️😄

New RoboCop TV series has James Wan as executive producer

James Wan is on board to executive produce a new TV series inspired by the classic 1987 film RoboCop for Amazon MGM

Back in 2022, Amazon closed an $8.5 billion acquisition of the film studio MGM, giving them ownership of the studio's thousands of films and TV shows. Last year, we heard that the six MGM properties Amazon was most interested in doing something with were Poltergeist, *Stargate, The Thomas Crown Affair, Legally Blonde, Rocky, *and RoboCop... and we've recently heard updates on some of those projects, with a Poltergeist TV series finding its showrunners and Michael B. Jordan signing on to both direct and star in a new version of The Thomas Crown Affair. Now Deadline has broken the news that a new RoboCop TV series is moving forward and has James Wan, the director of such films as Saw, The Conjuring, and Aquaman, on board as executive producer.

Peter Ocko (Lodge 49) has been hired to write, executive produce, and serve as showrunner on the potential series. Wan, Michael Clear, and Rob Hackett are executive producing through their company Atomic Monster, while Danielle Bozzone is overseeing the project for Atomic Monster. The series is being produced by Amazon MGM Studios.

Directed by Paul Verhoeven from a screenplay by Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner, the 1987 film RoboCop has the following synopsis: In a violent, near-apocalyptic Detroit, evil corporation Omni Consumer Products wins a contract from the city government to privatize the police force. To test their crime-eradicating cyborgs, the company leads street cop Alex Murphy (Peter Weller) into an armed confrontation with crime lord Boddicker (Kurtwood Smith) so they can use his body to support their untested RoboCop prototype. But when RoboCop learns of the company's nefarious plans, he turns on his masters. The movie was followed by sequels RoboCop 2 (1990) and RoboCop 3 (1993), an animated series that ran for one season in 1988, a live-action TV series that ran for one season in 1994, a 2001 mini-series called RoboCop: Prime Directives, and a 2014 remake, as well as video games, comic books, toys, clothing, and other merchandise.

The new TV series has the following official logline: A giant tech conglomerate collaborates with the local police department to introduce a technologically advanced enforcer to combat rising crime

a police officer who's part man, part machine.

Now the last time they did this, it was back in 2000 with a series called RoboCop: Prime Directives. It comprised of four 90 minute films. I followed the official website for all the news, it sounded great. It was going to ignore the sequels and follow on from the original. I was quite excited as RoboCop is a scifi classic.

When I finally managed to see it here in the UK, I was so disappointed I didn't even finish the first episode. So I'm not holding out any hope here. I didn't think much of the 2014 remake either.

The new Hellboy movie, Hellboy: The Crooked Man, is skipping theatres and going right to a digital release this October (8th)

Casino Royale filmmaker Martin Campbell directs, with Ridley starring alongside Clive Owen and Taz Skylar. Anton produces with UK outfit Qwerty Films.

The story begins when a group of radical activists take over an energy company's annual gala in London, seizing 300 hostages. But their cause is hijacked by an extremist within their ranks, who is ready to murder everyone in the building to send his anarchic message to the world. It falls to an ex-soldier turned window cleaner, played by Ridley, to save the day.

Sky Cinema has snapped this up for broadcast in UK/Ireland early next year. Personally, I'm interested in seeing Daisy in an action role that sounds very Statham-y.

AGBO Creative Chief spills details about the upcoming sci-fi film, The Electric State

Angela Russo-Otstot, sister of Joe and Anthony Russo, shares new information on their production company’s new ambitious film.

September 24th 2024, 9:01am The Russo Brothers' sci-fi adventure film The Electric State, starring Millie Bobby Brown, has secured a PG-13 rating

The Russo brothers have quite a bit on their plate. Not only are they returning to one of the biggest franchises in movies with future Avengers films, but the brothers’ artist-led production company, AGBO, is also bringing the Citadel franchise to Prime Video with its many incarnations, as well as finally releasing their long-awaited sci-fi film, The Electric State, next year in March. The Chris Pratt and Millie Bobby Brown film would finally secure a rating from the MPA with a PG-13 for sci-fi violence/action, language and some thematic material.

The Hollywood Reporter recently got to sit down with the Russo’s sister, Angela Russo-Otstot, who is the Creative Chief for AGBO, as she talks about the upcoming projects from their company. Russo-Otstot would divulge some details about The Electric State. She calls the film “a really interesting exploration of a world where service robots live alongside humans. Within their time performing specific services for humans, the robots start to realize that they may want something more than the purpose they [were made] for, and the humans begin to fear this. So, eventually, a conflict plays out. There’s a war between the humans and the robots, and the humans leverage technology to win, and they take all of the robots and banish them into an exclusion zone in the middle of a desert wasteland in the center of the U.S. But it’s a global conflict as well. So there are other stories and narratives that can play out in different countries around the world, but we witness the U.S. story in this film.”

Russo-Otstot also mentions that the robots “have a real nostalgia to them.” Some of them are based on actual brands, like Woody Harrelson’s Mr. Peanut-inspired robot. “And I remember when we had to approach Hormel to ask permission to do this. We were like: ‘It has to be Mr. Peanut. We have to make this work.’ And fortunately, it did work out.”

The Russo sister also talks a bit of the background behind the film, saying, “It’s a wonderfully imaginative alternate history that takes place in the 1990s. It’s based on an illustrated novel by an artist [from Sweden] named Simon Stålenhag.” It was adapted by frequent Russo and Marvel collaborators Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. “They were the writers that did all four of the Marvel movies that Anthony and Joe directed. They work at our company as the co-presidents of story department. Christopher found this book on Facebook in a crowdfunding. And he said, there’s a movie here. And so we optioned the book, and he and Stephen built out a really rich mythology. There was an existing mythology in the book, but they expanded upon it.”