The Biggest Movie & TV News Stories Of 2018 - Page 4 of 4

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R.I.P. Stan Lee
The co-creator of Spider-Man, The Avengers, Iron Man, The Hulk, Thor, Black Panther, Fantastic Four, X-Men and dozens of Marvel characters who are now worth megafortunes, Marvel legend Stan Lee died in 2018. An outpouring of love came in the wake of the news, Lee was a titan of comic books and pop culture creations, but it wasn’t the easiest year for the man who died at 95 years-of-age. Lee’s 2018 was haunted by #MeToo-like accusations of past sexual misconduct and claims of elder abuse at the hands of his managers and handlers (Lee himself denied this, but speaking through whom is unknown). Fortunately for Lee, his death seemed to quickly erase the narrative leading up to his passing, but it didn’t sound like an easy year for the Marvel creator, but the glowing sendoff is probably exactly what the optimistic comics legend would have wanted. – RP

Sony Reverses Course On Their Spider-Verse
Rewind to 2015. After two “Spider-Man” movies in the “Amazing Spider-Man” fail to crack $800 million each (“The Amazing Spider-Man 2” earning half of what Raimi’s original “Spider-Man” made domestically in 2002 and barely $700 million worldwide), Sony’s president Amy Pascal is kicked to the curb. One of the last moves she makes before she is ousted and demonstrating how weak the SpiderVerse is at Sony, she gives creative control to Marvel Studios: Kevin Feige and Marvel now produce the new “Spider-Man” films with Tom Holland while Sony distributes them (and earns most of the profits). But without Marvel, the conventional wisdom was that “Spider-Man” was floundering under Sony leadership. Wiped out with the Pascal/Andrew Garfield-era of Spider-Man was a “Sinister Six” bad guys team up movie and several spin-offs. Pascal and the Spider producers Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach, kept at it with the new iteration of Spider-Man (Holland and Marvel), but “Venom” suffered bad buzz all year round, critics and fans expecting a huge flop. Instead, audiences loved it; critics hated it, but it still made $855 million worldwide. And so, Sony’s version of the SpiderVerse seems to be reborn, especially given the just-released animated movie “Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse.” While not a box office smash yet (it might be one that grows over the next two months, critics are gaga for the film and so are the audiences that have seen it. ‘Spider-Verse,’ has been heralded as one of the best superhero films of all time and perhaps the best Spider-Man movie of all time, even above the Raimi films. Some of those spin-offs are getting back on track, Spidey spin-off “Morbius” with Jared Leto is next and the world seems like Sony’s oyster at the moment. One should also note that Sony wasn’t really performing at the box office yearly compared to other studios, but thanks to “Venom” and “Jumanji 2” (which nearly made $900 million worldwide). – RP

Goofy Superhero Movies Come Back In Vogue? & Does China Adore Them Already?
The “Venom” phenomenon leads us into what seems to be the “Aquaman” phenomenon and perhaps a new still-gestating trend: the acceptance of goofy, broad, garish superhero movies that hark back to the 90s and early aughts when movie studios hadn’t yet nailed superhero films and struggled with tone and ridiculous films like “Ghost Rider,” “Daredevil,” “Elektra,” “Catwoman” and the Joel Schumacher-directed Batman movies. “Venom” was trashed by critics and adored by audiences, raking in a ton of dough (see above), but “Aquaman,” well, it’s barely fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, but perhaps critics are warming up to the recent embrace of more wackiness in superhero films (and worldwide, it’s already making bonkers money; the oh-so-important market of China seems to adore both films). Does that mean the dark and gritty era of DC or the grounded Marvel time is up? Or do audiences just love superhero movies no matter what? Both remain to be seen, but definitely keep an eye on this space. – RP

Cannes Vs. Netflix (Vs. Venice) & Netflix (Sort of) Bowing To Theatrical Pressure
The film festival wars shifted away from the Venice/Telluride/Toronto battles from years past to France this year. The gist: the Cannes Film Festival rules that movies that premiere at the festival have to be in French cinemas within a certain window of time didn’t jibe with Netflix’s worldwide strategy. Thus, Cannes was poorer this year, missing out on world premieres of films by Alfonso Cuaron (“Roma”), the Coen Brothers, Paul Greengrass and the two Orson Welles-related films among others (included the long-awaited debut of his long-gestating, completed-after-the-fact drama, “The Other Side of The Wind”). Cannes’ loss was Venice’s gain, and the Italian festival definitely came out the winner if you want to declare a winner in the non-existent 2018 Film Festival Sweepstakes. Italy had no such rules and wasn’t eager to try and apply any of them, and it was a huge press windfall for Venice and Cannes certainly had a muted year. And of course, seemingly succumbing to the pressure of it all, Netflix, who generally never releases their films theatrically gave semi-significant theatrical bows to all of the aforementioned movies in the hope of not just Oscar consideration, but media and public goodwill. It’s hard to say whether this campaign has paid off (living in Brooklyn, I can’t say any of these films were easily accessible, and BK is supposed to be the 4th biggest city in the U.S., maybe Manhattan got all the love), but perhaps it’s just the first step and tentative sign that Netflix is willing to budge— or will begrudgingly budge—from their strategy if it seems like an overall good play on multiple fronts. – RP

That’s about it. Other than Thanos’ snap wiping out half the MCU, other stories that kept you occupied or up at night included Ava DuVernay continued to blaze trails and became the first African-American woman to direct a live-action film with a $100 million-plus budget (“A Wrinkle In Time”). While it wasn’t a substantial out-of-the-park hit, that’s obviously not the point, and big ups for more inclusive barriers to be broken like this; Danny Boyle deciding to direct and then suddenly drop out of directing the next James Bond movie was seriously seismic news; Robert Redford announcing his retirement and then and then semi-retracting the news made a major splash; and of course, more R.I.P.’s to some greats: the deaths of Burt Reynolds, Bernardo Bertolucci, Johann Johannsson, Emma Chambers, Isao Takahata, Verne Troyer, Steve Ditko, Aretha Franklin, Gary Kurtz, William Goldman, Nicolas Roeg, and many more.