World Movie News: The Last 24 Hours
Jason Sudeikis is back on our screens, the industry’s mourning a producer whose CV reads like a “greatest family films of the 70s and 80s” list, and Mumbai prepares for a busy release weekend.
Here’s what happened in the world of movies during the last 24 hours. I’ve tried to give this one a proper international flavour too, so we’re hopping from Mumbai to Lagos to Beijing along the way.
Today is a big streaming date on both sides of the Atlantic: Neither of these is strictly “Movie News”, but Ted Lasso returns for its long-awaited fourth season on Apple TV, with Sudeikis’s endearingly hapless coach now — plot twist — in charge of the women’s team at fictional AFC Richmond, alongside Brendan Hunt and Tanya Reynolds. It’s one of two big returning-show dates this month for UK and US subscribers; Reacher brings Alan Ritchson back for a fourth season on Prime Video on August 14, for anyone who fancies something with rather more neck-snapping in it.
Sadder news from the production side: Richard L. O’Connor, the Emmy-winning producer and studio executive behind On Golden Pond, The Muppet Movie and Raise the Titanic — genuinely three very different films to have on one CV — has died in Palm Desert, California, at 96. His family confirmed the death but didn’t give a cause.
On the release front, family audiences either side of the pond have something to look forward to this weekend: PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie continues early-access preview screenings, ahead of its wider run. Meanwhile Eli Roth’s gleefully over-the-top slasher Ice Cream Man — reviewed elsewhere as somewhere between Home Alone and Hostel, which is quite the sentence to type — is expanding across the US now, and lands in UK cinemas on August 7.
August 7th is also shaping up to be an absolute pile-up on the Bollywood calendar, with five films opening at once: Pankaj Tripathi’s Oh My Dog, R. Madhavan’s inventor biopic GDN, Lokesh Kanagaraj’s DC: The Bloody Valentine, plus Aryabhatt Ka Zero and Hanuman Ansh — before Emraan Hashmi and Disha Patani’s Awarapan 2 muscles in the following week for what’s being billed as the month’s headline clash.
Nollywood, not to be outdone, has a strong run of its own coming: Willis Ikedum’s family comedy-drama Sweet 16 opens nationwide on August 14; Ikenga: The Last Festival — a cultural suspense drama that sees Pete Edochie, Nkem Owoh and Patience Ozokwor onscreen alongside Regina Daniels and Destiny Etiko — follows on August 21; and the historical epic King Kosoko: The Battle for Lagos rounds the month off on August 28. Hopefully, I might get to see some of these at the upcoming London Film Festival that kicks off in October.
Over in China, Spider-Man: Brand New Day has given Hollywood a genuinely rare win in the world’s second-biggest film market — $121 million in its first few days, and the best IMAX opening day for a Hollywood release since Avengers: Endgame. It’s still not top dog domestically, mind you; homegrown hits Kung Fu Soccer and the animated All Wishes Come True! continue to lead China’s summer box office past $650 million, with the folk-tale animation The Eight Immortals now confirmed for a global rollout starting August 13.
Also worth a mention: the Sarajevo Film Festival is honouring Woody Harrelson with its Heart of Sarajevo Award at its 32nd edition later this month, with a 25th-anniversary screening of his Oscar-nominated No Man’s Land thrown in for good measure.
And back to the big one — Spider-Man: Brand New Day remains the story of the year, full stop, with Sony still eyeing a $2 billion global run.
More as the week’s news develops.
That’s all for today. More as the week’s news develops.
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