mission impossible fallout – Cinematic Slant

Picking Up the Spare – Christopher Robin, The Darkest Minds and More

The Miseducation of Cameron Post

Chloe Grace-Moretz goes all [fire emoji] on the idea of gay conversion therapy and talks about the recent moments that have dramatically changed her thinking on the idea. She also unloads on the studio mentality that marginalizes female actors and characters as well as her belief stories should be told by the kind of people portrayed in the story, highlighting the difference in reaction to this movie by a queer woman and the upcoming Boy Erased, which tells a similar story but is directed by a straight man.

The Spy Who Dumped Me

Lots of new interviews from late last week with director Susanna Fogel, who talked about casting the film and telling a story about a strong female friendship, the (slightly) increased willingness by the studios to tell heretofore underrepresented stories, the sometimes choppy waters of her career to date, how filming action sequences helped her embrace her “inner badass” and more.

Mission: Impossible – Fallout

The popular Battlegrounds Mobile video game is getting a movie-themed level.

Christopher Robin

I did not realize the movie was written by Alex Ross Perry, who’s been primarily known to date for his smaller character dramas, but he talks about just that topic here.

Lots of the movie’s positive reviews are included in this “Now Playing” TV spot.

The Darkest Minds

Director Jennifer Yuh Nelson says she doesn’t mind at all if the movie and its story invite comparisons to current real world political resistance movements.

The cast also talks more in a joint interview about how the story mirrors the recent youth-driven drives for societal change on various topics.

Fox has released a series of “Meet…” character introduction videos like this one, apparently hoping that such explainers will help audiences get interested in characters they may not otherwise be familiar with.

Puzzle

There’s a new TV spot, the first for the movie I believe, that outlines the story and relationships while highlighting some of the positive reviews it’s received.

Eighth Grade

Regal Cinemas has been running this update as a promoted post on Twitter highlighting the movie and its emotional story.

This past Wednesday A24 hosted a series of free screenings around the country that, importantly, were voluntarily free of MPAA ratings enforcement. That’s been a subject of conversation around the movie as the R rating the movie was given for a a few bad words and some age-relevant discussions of sexual matters have put it out of reach of many actual eighth graders.

Sorry To Bother You

Writer/director Boots Riley ignited a thousand hot takes when he spoke up about the lack of international distribution for his well-received movie, citing a belief by the studio and others that “black” movies still don’t work overseas.

There isn’t usually a lot of attention paid to producers, but Nina Yang Bongiovi got a nice profile covering how she has become a force in the indie movie world and helped bring this movie to fruition.

Pineapple Express

Among the interesting tidbits shared by writer/star Seth Rogen marking the movie’s 10th anniversary was one saying a smoking billboard was shut down by the LA fire department for obvious reasons.

Deadpool 2

Another fun teaser for the movie’s home video release.

BlacKkKlansman

John David Washington appeared on “Kimmel” to talk about the movie, working with Spike Lee and more.

Chris Thilk is a freelance writer and content strategist who lives in the Chicago suburbs.

Picking Up the Spare – Mission: Impossible – Fallout, Eighth Grade and More

Mission: Impossible – Fallout

There’s some good points made in this story about how the M:I franchise is the rare movie sold on its star and not an IP brand. I don’t, though, think it goes far enough to look at how the marketing relied on the combination of Tom Cruise’s name recognition and the promise of mind-blowing stunt work *is* a brand. If Cruise was actually still a market-driver on his own, Edge of Oblivion 2 would already be in production.

A new TV spot has been released emphasizing the incredibly high marks the movie has received from critics.

Teen Titans Go! To the Movies

The movie’s directors share which joke was almost too much for DC/WB to allow and it’s a doozy.

Eighth Grade

Another profile of breakout star Elsie Fisher here, where she talks about making the movie and how she got started in the business.

A24 has also released a bunch of clips like this to help show people what all the buzz is about.

The Catcher Was A Spy

The real-life Moe Berg, played by Paul Rudd in the movie, is getting an exhibit at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.

The Spy Who Dumped Me

I missed a couple press hits in my recap.

First, an interview with director Susanna Fogel where she talks about trying to craft a story that was funny and feminist but which also an “authentic” spy movie that adheres to that genre’s tropes.

Second, a feature piece that includes Fogel along with Kunis and McKinnon where they talk about bonding on set, how they wanted to sell the comedy, the importance of showing female friendships on-screen and more.

Christopher Robin

Ewan McGregor showed up on “Colbert” and “Late Night” to talk about the movie and working with an invisible character, something he does have previous experience with.

More interviews from the movie’s premiere, which happened on the Disney lot that was transformed into the Hundred Acre Wood for the occasion. This time it’s director Marc Forster sharing how he made the movie for his own daughter and kids like her that have grown up with Winnie the Pooh. And another interview with Hayley Atwell here.

The Miseducation of Cameron Post

A number of media outlets have been rerunning interviews they did from the movie’s festival appearances, while Chloe Grace-Moretz made a few additional media appearances like this stop at “Colbert.”

Director Desiree Akhavan has also gotten a bit of press, including this interview where she talks about her festival experiences and why it is she hasn’t yet had the same mainstream success some of her contemporaries have.

Chris Thilk is a freelance writer and content strategist who lives in the Chicago suburbs.

Picking Up the Spare: Ant-Man and The Wasp, Teen Titans Go! and More

Ant-Man and The Wasp

Marvel released a new video promoting the movie-themed sponsorship of Girls Who Code, the popular tech-based educational program. It shows director Peyton Reed and others speaking to groups about the science of the story and how important a STEM-based education is.

There was also a new interview with Hannah John-Kamen where she talks in particular about working with Michelle Pfeiffer.

Deadpool 2

One of the stunts pulled at Comic-Con was a Chuck E. Cheese-esque animatronic band with Deadpool and a bunch of animals playing “9 to 5” and you can see a promotional video for the group’s tour here. The panel with Ryan Reynolds and other members of the cast was as offensive as you’d expect.

Another round of Deadpool-themed alternate Blu-ray covers for other Fox movies is coming, some of which were also handed out at Comic-Con.

The Equalizer 2

More from costar Ashton Sanders on what it was like to work with Denzel Washington and learn from the veteran actor.

The IMAX poster is much cooler than what was used more generally, showing just Washington’s torso with a tie that takes the shape of Lady Justice.

Teen Titans Go! To the Movies

The Regal Cinemas exclusive poster continues the meta theatrical theme by showing the Titans as well as a few other heroes – and Slade – sitting in the theater watching a movie.

Blindspotting

Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal appeared together on “The Daily Show” to talk about creating the movie and what the story meant to them. They’re also interviewed here about how there’s a slight surge in the number of movies, including their own, set in the Bay Area.

Another TV spot that plays up the critical acclaim the movie has accumulated.

Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far On Foot

Another substantive feature interview with director Gus Van Sant here about how the film fits into his overall body of work.

Eighth Grade

Both director Bo Burnham and star Elsie Fisher have showed up on more late night talk shows, with Burnham appearing on “Seth Myers” and Fisher appearing on “Kimmel.”

Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again

Lily James talks here about how she got an American accent down and how she studied Meryl Streep’s line readings from the first movie to mimic her speaking patterns as much as possible.

Mission: Impossible – Fallout

Lots more official featurettes have been released, including an IMAX Q&A with director Christopher McQuarrie, and character-specific profiles of Simon Pegg, Henry Cavill and Angela Bassett.

Bassett also joined Tom Cruise on “The Late Late Show” while Cavill popped up on “Kimmel” to talk about stunts and other aspects of making the movie. Meanwhile costar Vanessa Kirby, who wasn’t a huge part of the main campaign, was interviewed about the stunts (of course) and her decision to join the franchise.

Extinction

Star Michael Pena stopped by “Colbert” but only got a plug for the movie in briefly at the end of the interview.

Chris Thilk is a freelance writer and content strategist who lives in the Chicago suburbs.

Mission: Impossible – Fallout – Marketing Recap

You can read all about the marketing of Mission: Impossible – Fallout over at The Hollywood Reporter.

Media and Publicity

Until just a few days prior to the movie’s release there wasn’t a whole lot of earned media activity outside of what resulted from the distribution of official featurettes and other content.

That didn’t change until just recently as Tom Cruise stopped by “Kimmel” to engage in some pranks and talk some more about the injuries he sustained filming the stunts in the movie. Henry Cavill also showed up on “GMA” to talk about the movie in general.

It’s not terribly surprising there wouldn’t be a whole lot of these kinds of press appearances. Cavill has a history of putting his foot in his mouth during interviews and I don’t think anyone wants Cruise speaking in a non-monitored environment. Plus, owned channels were utilized sufficiently to get the word out, especially how widely and frequently that content was amplified by the press.

There have also been a few new IMAX-related promotions that continue to emphasize how big the movie is and how you need to see it on the biggest screen possible to fully enjoy it. Those include a look at how such a screen was constructed for the Paris premiere and members of the cast talking about what they would do with 26% more of various objects.

Overall

It’s almost as if it’s being sold as the anti-comic book movie. The characters may likewise regularly survive situations that the average person wouldn’t, but the studio and star are telling us the stakes are far higher because they’re very, very real.

PICKING UP THE SPARE

The popular Battlegrounds Mobile video game is getting a movie-themed level.

A new TV spot has been released emphasizing the incredibly high marks the movie has received from critics.

Lots more official featurettes have been released, including an IMAX Q&A with director Christopher McQuarrie, and character-specific profiles of Simon Pegg, Henry Cavill and Angela Bassett.

A location-based VR experience has been developed by VRWERX and Nomadic that allows participants to interact with objects and environments from the film.

Two new featurettes came in early December, one showing how members of the press were taken for a helicopter ride and one about how those same journalists and producers were taken for a spin on BMW’s stunt test track. Both of those still find time to mention how hard Cruise worked to master the needed skills.