All posts tagged: Franchise

Toy Story 5 review – It’s time to end this repetitive, increasingly bad franchise

Toy Story 5 review – It’s time to end this repetitive, increasingly bad franchise

Published by Daniella Wilson

Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter We can only say goodbye to Toy Story so many times before it starts to get a little absurd. The series first ended in 2010 with Toy Story 3, as Woody (Tom Hanks), Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen), et al waved their beloved owner Andy off to college and prepared for a new life with his young neighbour Bonnie. Then it ended again with Toy Story 4 (2019), an existential, pseudo-epilogue about making peace with life’s many endings, as Woody and Bo Peep (Annie Potts) retired from the toy life to take a shot out in the wilderness. Yet somehow, the pair turn up back at Bonnie’s bedroom window in Toy Story 5. Scratch that personal growth. There’s more money to be made. This one is certainly topical. It tackles the impact of technology on children’s imaginative play, and arrives in the …

Steven Spielberg Was Rejected by James Bond Franchise

Steven Spielberg Was Rejected by James Bond Franchise

Published by Daniella Wilson

In this day and age, it’s hard to imagine anyone ever turning down three-time Oscar winner Steven Spielberg. But the filmmaker revealed that he was previously rejected multiple times after asking to direct a James Bond movie. During a recent interview on The Rest Is Entertainment podcast, the Disclosure Day director was asked if he regrets not helming a 007 film. “I have regrets that they didn’t approach me to direct a Bond film,” Spielberg clarified. “I approached Cubby Broccoli [James Bond franchise producer] after Jaws was a big hit. I’d always wanted to make a James Bond film from the day I saw Dr. No, so I called Cubby Broccoli after Jaws and volunteered. I said, ‘If you need a director, I would love to direct one.’ And he said no and he moved on.” The E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial filmmaker said he pitched himself again a few years later following the release of 1977’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind. At the time, he recalled Broccoli reaching out, asking to use his film’s iconic …

‘Toy Story 5’ Team Pitches Quentin Tarantino to Continue Franchise

‘Toy Story 5’ Team Pitches Quentin Tarantino to Continue Franchise

Published by Daniella Wilson

Toy Story 5, which premiered in Los Angeles on Tuesday night, is almost guaranteed to be both a critical and commercial success. However, there’s one vocal fan that still needs winning over: Quentin Tarantino. During several interviews over the last few years, the filmmaker has revealed himself to be a devoted lover of the Toy Story franchise, counting Toy Story 3 as one of his favorite movies of all time. During a 2024 chat with Bill Maher, though, Tarantino said he had no interest in watching beyond the third movie, as “You literally ended the story as perfect as you could, so no, I don’t care if it’s good. I’m done.” So what does the team behind Toy Story 5 have to say to Tarantino, and those like him, who may have dropped off along the way? “I would say the simple pitch of Pixar doesn’t put out bad stuff,” Tony Hale — who voices Forky, a character Taraninto hasn’t yet met as he was introduced in Toy Story 4 — told The Hollywood Reporter …

Marlon Wayans Says Other People Taking Over the ‘Scary Movie’ Franchise Was Like ‘Watching Your Child Become a Crackhead’

Marlon Wayans Says Other People Taking Over the ‘Scary Movie’ Franchise Was Like ‘Watching Your Child Become a Crackhead’

Published by Jenni Sidey

You’ve also taken that trauma toward your standup, which is more and more personal every year. You’re now touring a special about one of your kids, who transitioned. Yeah. But it’s not their transition. It was my transition going from denial to acceptance and the five stages of grief that I went through in order to get there. See, it doesn’t sound like a comedy. It doesn’t. But I put dramatic structure under my comedies because as a writer, that’s what I’ve learned from writing. Every comedy I write has some kind of dramatic structure. So you have that dramatic structure and for me, that’s the heart and it’s like a great sitcom. In every great sitcom, 22 minutes long, there’s like a minute of heart. In every great special, I try to go, I need two minutes of heart. Every time I work it, I find something new. I recently had Dave Chappelle come and he saw it when I was in Dayton. He goes, “Man, man, it’s powerful. It’s powerful, man.” And he’s …

This is the most underrated sci-fi film franchise of the 21st century

This is the most underrated sci-fi film franchise of the 21st century

Published by skeptic

Caesar (Andy Serkis) leads the fight in Rise of the Planet of the Apes 20thC.Fox/Everett/Shutterstock Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and its sequelsOn demand AS A sci-fi fan, you learn not to dwell on the films that could have been. Whether it’s Alejandro Jodorowsky’s unmade Dune, Guillermo del Toro’s cancelled take on At the Mountains of Madness, or the versions of Return of the Jedi that Davids Lynch and Cronenberg could have made, it’s best not to torture yourself over cinematic what-ifs. That’s why I had given up hope of there being a new instalment of the most underrated sci-fi film franchise of the 21st century so far. Though well received by critics and audiences alike, none of the four films have won Oscars or seem to have made much of an impact on pop culture. But then, earlier this month, we got confirmation that a fifth movie was on the way. I’m talking, of course, about the rebooted Planet of the Apes films. We’re all familiar with the Charlton Heston film from …

James Bond star says she was ‘sad’ when franchise was sold to Amazon MGM

James Bond star says she was ‘sad’ when franchise was sold to Amazon MGM

Published by Daniella Wilson

Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter James Bond star Léa Seydoux has admitted she was saddened by the news of Amazon MGM Studio’s acquisition of the iconic franchise. In February 2025, long-serving producers of the spy series, Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, announced they were handing over creative control to the Jeff Bezos-founded streamer. “I was a bit sad when I heard that it was sold,” Seydoux, 40, told Variety in a new interview. The acclaimed French actor — who starred as Dr. Madeleine Swann, the love interest of Daniel Craig’s 007 in Spectre (2015) and No Time to Die (2021) — however, expressed relief that the next installment is in the hands of her Dune: Part Two director, Denis Villeneuve. “Now that it’s Denis, I was like, ‘Oh, at least it’s him, so it will be cinema,’” she said, further praising the Oscar-nominated Canadian filmmaker as …

Hocus Pocus franchise future confirmed, 4 years on from hit sequel to classic ‘90s movie

Hocus Pocus franchise future confirmed, 4 years on from hit sequel to classic ‘90s movie

Published by Daniella Wilson

Almost three decades passed between the release of the first Hocus Pocus movie in 1993 and its 2022 sequel – but it’s just been revealed there will be a much shorter wait for the third film in the fantasy series. Deadline has reported that a new follow-up is in the works with the main trio – Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy – all set to reprise their roles as the Sanderson sisters. While the last film went straight to steaming on Disney+, it’s being claimed that the plan this time is for a theatrical release, but that has not been confirmed by Disney at this stage. There had earlier been talk of a third movie back in 2023, but those discussion stalled after the former president of Disney Studios motion picture production Sean Bailey left the company a year later. It now looks like the project is a go, however, and while no plot details have been revealed at this early stage, Middler previously revealed in 2025 that she had already read …

Star Wars Day misery as Mandalorian and Grogu predicted to open to franchise low box office

Star Wars Day misery as Mandalorian and Grogu predicted to open to franchise low box office

Published by Daniella Wilson

Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter The Mandalorian and Grogu, the first Star Wars film to open in cinemas in seven years, is likely to open to a franchise low at the box office – making this Star Wars Day one of the most worrying in recent memory. The fourth day in May is known as the annual celebration of all things Star Wars, inspired by a pun on the franchise catchphrase “may the force be with you”, with many fans celebrating the series today (4 May), marrying their spouses in Star Wars-themed weddings today, or buying Star Wars products. But few at Disney, the franchise’s backers, will be amused by early tracking data which suggests the forthcoming The Mandalorian and Grogu movie will struggle at the box office. Current predictions suggest that it will open to a historic low, and even lower than 2018’s Solo: A …

The Bachelor Franchise ‘Not Going Anywhere,’ Says ABC Unscripted Boss

The Bachelor Franchise ‘Not Going Anywhere,’ Says ABC Unscripted Boss

Published by Daniella Wilson

The Bachelorette already took a break before Taylor Frankie Paul’s season was shelved three days before it was set to premiere on March 22. ABC and producers Warner Bros. had high hopes for the 22nd season that was set to star the breakout reality star from sibling Hulu’s reality hit, The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. The crossover casting was supposed to bring in a new audience following a ratings decline and the female-led cycle taking a season off in 2025 following Jenn Tran’s 21st season. All of that changed, of course, when the network made the decision to scrap Paul’s already-filmed season entirely following the release of a damning video connected to her 2023 domestic violence arrest, and amid investigations into new claims of alleged domestic incidents involving Paul and her ex-boyfriend Dakota Mortensen. Later, in April, The Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office decided not to file charges related to the new incidents. Since The Bachelorette was pulled, viewers and critics alike wondered if the show would ever return amid the scandal (see …