Movies
‘John Wick: Chapter 2’ Poster Measures Up Keanu Reeves
Lionsgate will host a power-packed panel that will feature the stars and filmmakers from the highly anticipated feature films John Wick: Chapter 2 and Saban’s Power Rangers during New York Comic Con on Saturday, October 8. Fans attending the hour-long panel will be treated to Q&A sessions with the cast and producers of Saban’s Power Rangers and John Wick: Chapter 2, as well as exclusive, never-before-seen footage from both films.
Those who cannot attend will be able to watch the panel LIVE on Twitch.
Location: The Theater at Madison Square Garden
Date: Saturday, October 8
Time:2:00 PM
John Wick: Chapter 2 hits theaters February 10, 2017. Keanu Reeves returns, although he motivation this time around won’t be the murder of his dog given to him by his dead wife. It’ll be interesting to see what sets him off this time as no plot details have been revealed. With that said, paparazzi set photos depict him with a new dog – this one much bigger; could this have been subtitled “John Wick: A Dog’s Revenge”?
Update: We did get our hands on the first ever plot details, hurrah!
In this next chapter following the 2014 hit, legendary hitman John Wick [Keanu Reeves] is forced back out of retirement by a former associate plotting to seize control of a shadowy international assassins’ guild. Bound by a blood oath to help him, John travels to Rome where he squares off against some of the world’s deadliest killers.
Chad Stahelski directs from a screenplay by Derek Kolstad. Co-starring are Thomas Sadoski and Ruby Rose.
The trailer for Ti West’s upcoming adaptation of A Christmas Carol raised a lot of eyebrows when it dropped earlier this week. While plenty of folks initially dismissed Ebenezer as a derivative project meant to cash in on the recent wave of unnecessary prequels that expand the backstory of beloved characters (such as 2023’s Wonka), Charles Dickens’ original novel already made a point of exploring Ebenezer Scrooge’s origins in detail – meaning that this new film is likely just a particularly faithful adaptation of the source material under a different name.
Couple that with the fact that the movie is being helmed by a genuine horror auteur and I think it’s safe to say that the latest iteration of the first modern ghost story is in good hands.
That being said, one detail that immediately jumped out at me during the brief teaser (other than a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it nod to Johnny Depp’s iconic bedroom death scene from the original A Nightmare on Elm Street) is the fact that many of Ebenezer’s ghosts appear to have been directly lifted from the iconic John Leech illustrations that accompanied the first edition of Dickens’ novel.
Here are a couple of stills from the trailer compared to the original artwork:
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
The Phantoms in ‘A Christmas Carol’ and ‘Ebenezer’
Marley’s Ghost in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
Mainly working with old-school wood and steel engravings that would later be transferred to print, Leech was instrumental in crafting the iconic look of history’s most influential phantoms – especially since Dickens is said to have been deeply involved with the creation of these so-called “comic illustrations.”
And since the novel is commonly said to have popularized spiritualism in Victorian England, much of the ghostly iconography that we still see in genre media to this very day (including some of Ti West’s previous films) can be traced back to the author’s partnership with Leech.
Ebenezer won’t be the first A Christmas Carol adaptation to borrow heavily from these designs, but I can appreciate how Ti West is incorporating an important part of horror history into his latest film.
Ebenezer will be available in theaters starting November 13.
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