OHMYGOSSIP — Anya Taylor-Joy was determined to play a “modern” Princess Peach.
The 26-year-old actress voices the character in ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’ but took the role on the basis that Peach would be more than the damsel in distress that she is presented as in the Nintendo video games.
Speaking to Slash Film, Anya said: “When I was first approached about playing Peach, I was A) extremely honoured, but B) a little bit hesitant just because in my head, before I met everybody, I thought, ‘Oh, I really want to do this, but I only want to do it if she is a modern – not only princess, but ruler.’
“She’s really a leader in this. I felt like we could create a more three-dimensional character that had her own agency.”
The new take on Princess Peach does not need to be rescued and Anya was pleased that the crew felt the same way about the development of the character.
‘The Menu’ actress said: “I was so thrilled when I first met everybody that everyone was on the same page. We all wanted to do the same thing. That just made for a very exciting process because there are moments where I did want to call back to the original game and have that fandom payoff in that way.
“But also, it wouldn’t have worked for the whole of the movie. She’s a three-dimensional character now. You have to have colours in her voice. I just feel very grateful that I was supported every step of the way and there wasn’t any pushback.”
Video game movie projects have thrived in recent times and Anya believes that the passion of the cast and crew will make the Mario movie a success.
She said: “It’s fans making movies for fans, if that makes sense. At least, that’s the way it feels in this film. Everyone’s a fan. Everybody wants to deliver that fan experience that I think they’re looking for themselves.
“If you’re making movies in that way, if you’re making movies in a way to… I don’t know, fulfill some need, then, naturally, people are going to love it.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — ‘John Wick 5’ could already be in the pipeline.
The fourth installment of the Keanu Reeves hitman franchise just into its cinema run, but Lionsgate Motion Picture Group president Joe Drake says the “will” and “openness” is there to make a follow-up – after a “tiny rest”.
Despite Reeves’ eponymous assassin apparently meeting his demise at the end of ‘John Wick: Chapter 4’, Drake told The Hollywood Reporter about the possibility for another installment: “There’s a will and there’s an openness. And you could certainly interpret that ending in different ways.
“We’re all going to take a tiny rest here and then scratch at ideas about whether there’s a credible way to get into five. But there’s no guarantee.”
Drake alluded to a prequel as a possibility for Wick 5, adding: “You could certainly go earlier [with the story].”
The studio chief added about the film’s team, including its director Chad Stahelski, not wanting Wick to overstay his welcome: “Keanu and Chad, rightly so, are very protective about never screwing with the audience.
“So we certainly have our work cut out for us… Keanu is so beloved and that character is so beloved; that’s not lost on him.”
The fourth Wick had widely been expected to be the final part of the action series, but its astonishing opening at the global box office is likely to be the main factor behind thoughts of keeping the franchise alive.
Wick 4 served up a massive $73.8 million domestically, while overseas it debuted to a “resounding $67.6 million from 71 markets for a global start of $141.4 million”, according to THR – which called the takings “a series record on all fronts”.
Stahelski has stated he and Reeves were almost certain Chapter 4 was the end for the dog-loving hitman’s big screen battles, but the filmmaker had considered making the fourth and fifth films back-to-back.
The idea was scrapped once the ending of Chapter 4 was decided upon.
‘John Wick 4’ is the second-best domestic opening of his live-action career behind ‘The Matrix Reloaded’, which started off with $91.8 domestically two decades ago in 2003.
Despite a movie version of ‘John Wick 5’ not coming anytime soon, Reeves is already due to return to the character in ‘Ballerina’, the series’ first spinoff, which stars Ana de Armas as a killer-for-hire.
Ian McShane, Anjelica Huston and the late Lance Reddick also star in the film, expected to be released in 2024, and which is set between the events of ‘John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum’ and ‘John Wick: Chapter 4’.

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OHMYGOSSIP — John Boyega has recalled being “blown away” by the script for his social injustice bank heist film ‘Breaking’.
The Star Wars actor, 31, played real-life depressed US Marine Corps veteran Brian Brown-Easley in the 2022 movie, who calmly walked into a Wells Fargo branch in Atlanta, Georgia, in 2017 and threatened to set off the bomb he claimed was in his backpack unless he was paid $892 he was owed in disability benefits that had been brutally cut off in a bureaucratic move which plunged him into poverty.
Boyega told NME about loving the script, co-written by the film’s first-time feature director Abi Damaris Corbin with British dramatist Kwame Kwei-Armah: “I read it; I was blown away by it. I read it as if I was watching the movie.
“I liked the complication and the duality of his character.
“So much going on: the PTSD he’s going through; not having access to his daughter… .”
Boyega also loved that Easley was a movie and comics nerd, and was jokey and gentle – completely at odds with the man trying to pull off his desperately sad bank heist.
Easley was shot in the head with a single bullet by Cobb County Police Department Officer Dennis Ponte, a sniper on the force with a military past.
He had been hiding in the woods and had let his commanders know he had a clean shot.
Boyega says the marksman was “basically influenced by the same kind of stereotypical fear that causes these hasty violent situations”.
He was referring to “situations” such as the police killing of George Floyd – whose 2020 death drove Boyega to join thousands of others on a Black Lives Matter protest in London on June 3 that year.
He famously said in an impromptu speech howled through a megaphone at the demonstration: “Black lives have always mattered.”
Boyega then battled tears to tell protestors: “We are a physical representation of our support for George Floyd.
“We are a physical representation of our support for Sandra Bland. We are a physical representation of our support for Trayvon Martin. We are a physical representation of our support for Stephen Lawrence. For Mark Duggan.”
Kwei-Armah said one of the reasons Boyega was wanted for ‘Breaking’ was the intensity he showed on the march.
He told NME that because the film’s action was rooted in one space, the role of Easley required an actor who “can carry interiority” and an actor who could portray his “angered dignity”.
Director Corbin agreed: “(Boyega) can capture with his eyes what I couldn’t do with two pages of exposition of showing you a scene. You see the past unveiled in his eyes.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Josh Brolin blames director Jimmy Hayward and studio interference for the failure of ‘Jonah Hex’.
The 52-year-old actor starred in the lead role of the 2010 comic book movie, which was a critical and commercial flop, and he thinks he “still owes” his co-stars an apology because of what the film turned out to be, which he blames on the filmmaker going “out partying” instead of devoting all his time to the project.
He told Variety: “It was not successful creatively or monetarily. I mean, everybody knows how I feel about ‘Jonah Hex’.
“But the biggest thing with ‘Jonah Hex’ is rushing into hiring somebody. I remember Jeff Robinov, who I’m still close with, who was running Warner Brothers at the time and he was like, look, you’ve got to get a director in the next two weeks, otherwise we’ve got to can this thing.
“And then you meet somebody who has a lot of knowledge, Jimmy Hayward, and I remember it didn’t feel right. I loved that he was excited, but he just didn’t have the experience and he didn’t treat it like I would imagine somebody would want to treat it — to run back to their house at the end of their every day and watch tonal inspirations and Scorsese movies or this or that. He would be out partying instead.
“And not that I had a ton of pull then, but I brought in Megan [Fox,] who I thought was perfect for that role. Maybe not the best actress at that moment, but for that type of parody, forget it. Her, at that moment? You couldn’t do better than that. And [Michael] Fassbender? One of our best actors, who had done ‘Shame’ and ‘Hunger’, are you kidding me? Malkovich, who had just been ripped off by Bernie Madoff, and we’re asking him to do it for a third of his price. He said yes. I mean, f***, I still owe these people. Michael Shannon was in it, he was cut out…
“So the intention was there, I just think we made a big mistake with the director — not to blame it all at him, because that was my choice, that was my bad choice.”
Josh then hit out at Warner Bros. for getting involved and making the movie “worse”.
He continued: “And then the studio took it over and every time that’s happened, in my experience, it has only gotten worse.
“They did it with ‘Old Boy’ with Spike Lee. I thought Spike’s cut was actually way better than the studio’s, but the studio took it away and I thought they’d cut it very poorly and I thought it ended up having the opposite effect.
“That’s what happens when you start cutting to this idea of pandering for an audience, and how testing can bite you in the a**. You don’t know what the audience is going to want.
“‘Jonah Hex’ was them taking the movie back and saying, how can we make this the most accessible movie? And they ended up making the least accessible movie.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Michelle Rodriguez loved the use of “real” effects instead of CGI in ‘Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves’.
The ‘Fast and Furious’ actress, 44, plays axe-wielding barbarian Holga in the new film directed by John Francis Daley, 37, and Jonathan Goldstein, 54, who said they wanted it to be a throwback to the family films of the 1980s, and used puppets and real-life effects where possible to recreate the feel of beloved classics such as ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’, ‘The Goonies’ and ‘The Princess Bride’.
Michelle told Hey U Guys on the red carpet at the premiere of the film at The Cineworld in Leicester Square, London: “I always enjoy being around such talent every day… and seeing everyone’s work on building the sets – the amazing boats and the chariots. “The attention to detail in this feature is extraordinary.
“And it does make a difference from a digital flat world.
“I think there will always be a place for digital (effects), but I just think it shouldn’t be the entire equation.
“You should mix it up a little, and I think the boys (John and Jonathan) did it really well.
“I just really enjoyed making this movie, you know?”
Michelle, who had to gain 15lbs of muscle for the flick’s gruelling action shoot, added the film’s diverse cast clicked and just “get on”.
‘Dungeons and Dragons’ also stars Chris Pine, 42, as a reformed thief, while Hugh Grant, 62, is a slimy villain and ‘Bridgerton’ actor Rege-Jean Page, 34, has a scene-stealing turn as warrior Xenk, who is immune to irony or sarcasm.
Michelle said: “It is very different – it’s quite nice not to take yourself seriously, and I enjoyed that 1980s vibe. I miss it… we’re (the cast) are such knuckleheads!
“It’s so funny – we’re so different but we somehow compliment each other, it’s strange.
“Like, I don’t know if it’s fluke or it’s alchemy, but John and Jonathan did a really good job casting this movie, because we just get on.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Songwriting duo Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez are “vey excited” about ‘Frozen 3’ being made.
Disney officially confirmed in February the third instalment in the fantasy franchise is in the works – three years since ‘Frozen 2’ ranked as the highest-grossing animated movie – and husband-and-wife team Kristen, 51, and Robert, 48, are likely to return to write the threequel’s soundtrack after scooping an Oscar for co-writing ‘Let it Go’ from the original in the series.
Kristen, whose daughters with Robert, Katie and Annie, had voice roles in ‘Frozen’, told Collider about the news it was getting a third part: “They told us, the day of, and a little bit about what they’re thinking. It got us very excited. Now, we have to let the wheels of Hollywood do what they do, but we were very excited with their ideas.”
Robert said in a joint interview with his wife about how they wrote tunes for ‘Frozen’ as its main characters reminded him of his kids: “The thing that we love about our own career, if we can say something we love about it, is that we get to pick projects that we feel so passionate about.
“With ‘Frozen’, when they showed us the pictures of Little Anna and Little Elsa, we were like, ‘That’s Katie and Annie. That’s our kids. This is for them. This is what we have to be saying to the world right now.’
Kristen also told how she and Robert have learned to communicate better in their personal and working relationships through therapy.
She said: “Over the years, in collaboration, we’ve learned so much, as individuals, through therapy.
“One of the things we both learned is how to communicate differently. We actually learned this wonderful means of communication that we still use in our collaboration today where, if things get really tense, sometimes we have to say, ‘Okay, we need to have conscious dialogue,’ which means that I’m going to talk to you and I’m gonna say, ‘Here’s what I’m feeling right now. I am feeling that your attitude is making me close down. I brought you something that was really fresh and raw, and you shut it down immediately. It makes me feel very defensive, and I’m bringing that defensiveness into the room.’
“And then, his job is to then reflect that back to me and say, ‘You’re feeling a little defensive because I shut you down. Is there anything else?’
“And then, I have to say, ‘Oh, yeah, and actually that other thing that happened at breakfast also made me feel this thing.’
“And he’s like, ‘So, you’re mad about what happened at breakfast. Anything else?’ And then, I can go, ‘No, you’ve got that right.’
“And then, he has to say, ‘That makes sense to me because I was a dick at breakfast. I was just shutting you down.’
“And then, he gets to do his thing, and I have to reflect it back to him.
“That way, we really slow down the process and hear each other, and have to see it from each other’s point of view. That’s been a game changer in our relationship and in our collaboration, when things get tense.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Bradley Cooper was asked to cameo in ‘Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves’ “on a lark”.
The ‘Silver Linings Playbook’ actor previously worked with John Francis Daley – who co-directed the film with Jonathan Goldstein – on short-lived TV series ‘Kitchen Confidential’ and had stayed in touch, and the Oscar-winning star “really responded” when his pal showed him a rough cut of the movie and agreed to make a brief appearance as the pint-sized Marlamin, the former husband of warrior Holga (Michelle Rodriguez).
John told Entertainment Weekly: “I asked him on a lark if he would be game to come and spend a day with us.
“We sent him a rough cut of the film and fortunately he really responded to it.”
An early cut of the film showed actor-and-director Dexter Fletcher in the role, which the directors explained was done as a favour because of COVID-19 restrictions during filming, but the paid had always wanted someone highly recognisable to play the part.
Jonathan said: “Anybody who was willing to come to work with us had to endure a quarantine in the UK. So it limited some of the choices we had.
“Dexter was a friend of the court and someone who we thought would be great, and he was kind enough to come and do the part.”
John added: “He was great. It was a really sweet, touching scene, but our intention had always been to cast that role with someone who immediately, when they open the door, the audience gasps in recognition.”
When the scene was reshot with Bradley – and a chair made “30 percent bigger” to highlight the difference in size between Marlamin and Holga – Michelle admitted his casting made the moment even funnier.
She said: “I felt like I dropped character for a second there and it was like a spoof on a spoof within the movie, and then we can go back to suspension of disbelief. ‘Cause for a moment there I think everybody is not thinking about the character within the movie. They’re just seeing Bradley Cooper, this iconic actor, celebrity on screen.
“And I thought that was kind of really funny. I noticed in the audience at Austin [for the film’s SXSW premiere] we all were thrown aback for a minute there.
“It was really cute. It was funny. It was a funny moment.”
Co-star Justice Smith added: “What I love about that scene is that it’s hilarious, but it is also very sincere.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Mia Goth trusted ‘Infinity Pool’ director Brandon Cronenberg so much on set she had no problem showing her wild side for the nightmarish sex and violence-packed film.
The 29-year-old ‘Nymphomaniac’ actress, who plays temptress Gabi alongside Alexander Skarsgård in the new film, added Brandon – son of Canadian horror director David – made the set so welcoming she found it easy to throw off any inhibitions required for the part.
She told Hey U Guys when asked if she had to use any techniques to brace herself for filming its shock scenes: “I think trust is everything in making a movie generally, and especially in this kind of movie, when you are required to go to really vulnerable places, and that was something established with me.
“I’d seen (Brandon’s) previous movies and I knew he was an incredibly capable director, so that came naturally to me and because I was able to trust him to that level.
“I felt protected, and I just felt… it wasn’t something I had to grapple with in any way to be honest with you.”
Mia also said she was happy to be “vulnerable” as she found working on the film so “fulfilling”.
She added: “The work on set was incredibly fulfilling and because I felt so satisfied with the work… I was able to let it go at the end of the day.
“It is more difficult when it feels like we’re not hitting the scenes the way I want to be.. but when it feels like we were achieving what we set out to do, it’s thrilling.”
Mia added she decided to sign on to ‘Infinity Pool’ just by reading a memo and treatment on the film that was emailed to her.
She also hailed Brandon “an actors’ director” as he “gives you a lot of space to do as you please” while setting “a parameter that is necessary” for characters to exist within.
‘Infinity Pool’ sees Alexander’s married writer character James seduced by Mia’s Gabi, before he is plunged into a futuristic nightmare after he kills a local man in a car accident before being offered the chance to be cloned so his double can be killed in his place as punishment.
Film critic Mark Kermode said in The Observer about Mia’s performance: “Whether she’s slyly enticing James to follow his own ego into her arms or screaming like an avenging angel from the bonnet of an open-topped car, her ability to shift from the understated to the unhinged is breathtaking… it’s Goth who provides the real fireworks.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Shamier Anderson wants Meryl Streep to join the ‘John Wick’ universe.
The 31-year-old actor stars as Mr. Nobody / Tracker in the action film ‘John Wick: Chapter 4’ and revealed he has some ideas about who he would love to see join the Keanu Reeves-starring franchise next.
He told IndieWire: “Liam Neeson would be a great antagonist. I think Denzel Washington would be a crazy antagonist. It would be really interesting to see a female villain; Meryl Streep would be something different. So those are my top three choices: Denzel Washington, Liam Neeson, and Meryl Streep.”
And, Anderson hopes he will still be around if any of his suggested actors ever join the franchise as he wants to develop his character even more in the future.
He explained: “I felt like [Tracker] was the most relatable person to that audience. He didn’t wear the crazy clothes and didn’t do the crazy things. He didn’t really believe in the themes of The Continental. And so what I wanted to do is root it in, ‘How do I make this guy lovable even though he has a vicious pup? How do I make this guy lovable even though he wants to go after John Wick’s head?’ I said, ‘What is his motivation?’
“And I don’t talk about this too much. Hopefully, it can be earned in a derivative of this story, whether it’s a Tracker spinoff or a Tracker series or something. But I thought about his mother. Why would somebody want an inordinate amount of money? Why would somebody want $50 million for somebody outside of this fantastical world? I felt like it was about his mother. Why his mom? I think that’s the secret that I’ll definitely hold onto until we get to that next phase and hopefully I’ll be able to get back in Tracker’s shoes. For me, it was about this human being.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Matt Damon has compared Viola Davis’ acting in ‘Air’ to Marlon Brando.
The 57-year-old actress stars as Michael Jordan’s mother in Ben Affleck’s new movie and both Ben and co-star Matt were hugely impressed by Viola.
Ben told Entertainment Weekly: “It’s easy to [act] opaque — ‘I’m not going to show you anything’. It’s extremely difficult to be opaque and have the sense that there’s an enormous amount of feeling inside, you just don’t know what it is. It makes you want to lean in even closer, and that is as good as acting gets.”
Matt added: “That’s masterful acting. That’s what Brando did, right? It’s not doing nothing, it’s the opposite of doing nothing. You present it as if you’re doing nothing, but everything in the world is happening right underneath, and it’s awesome.”
Viola signed up to play Deloris Jordan in the movie which details basketball legend Jordan’s hugely successful partnership with sportswear giant Nike after he put her name forward – and Viola has admitted she couldn’t resist the challenge.
She told The Hollywood Reporter: “Mothers are the most important figures in anybody’s life, so I was very flattered and deeply moved to be asked to play Michael’s mother.
“I know Michael Jordan but didn’t know that Deloris brokered this deal to get him a huge stake in the shoe and in turn, protected her son’s legacy. I wanted to know more about this woman who had the strength and courage to fight for her son’s worth. For Deloris to have this insight and progressive vision, to stand her ground in the negotiation room – which I know can be the hardest part of the job – makes her an incredible woman. That made me lean into this project.”
Ben previously admitted the part of Deloris was initially quite small until he met with Jordan and was told how she helped broker the deal that produced his Air Jordans range. The sports legend then asked Ben to cast Viola in the role – prompting a rewrite of the script to make the part much bigger.
Ben explained to THR: “He actually talked about his mom, who wasn’t really in the script. That’s when I understood what the movie was. Talking to him about his mom was incredibly moving, and I went: ‘Oh, this isn’t about Nike’.
“I said: ‘So, do you have any ideas about who would …?’ … I knew who he was going to say because it was the same person that I’ve wanted to direct for so long … I’m thinking: ‘Oh my God, he wants me to offer this to Viola Davis. How am I going to offer Viola Davis a movie with one line? That’s not going to happen.’ “But he was like: ‘That’s my mom’. He was dead serious. ‘Viola Davis, that’s my mom.’ And that was it. Discussion was over.”

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OHMYGOSSIP — Sarah Michelle Gellar has hailed the horror genre for giving women lead roles.
The ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ actress, 45, said she loved how 2004’s ‘The Grudge’, in which she played haunted exchange student Karen Davis, turned out to be one of the biggest smashes in film history.
She told SFX magazine: “Horror takes you to a totally different place. It’s also about the roles for women.
“Traditionally, there were only a few genres where women could really lead. I remember when ‘The Grudge’ came out, and I am sure it’s been surpassed, but at the time it was the second-highest, female (fronted) opening ever.
“I am sure it’s still in the top 10 because they just don’t make movies with women up front in the lead.
“Horror is one of the few genres where you get to do that. Having a character like Buffy, who is so three-dimensional and hits all those notes… you don’t just want to be the wife or the girlfriend.”
‘The Grudge’ came after the success of the American remake ‘The Ring’ in 2002, with Sony Pictures hiring its original director Takashi Shimizu to make Sarah’s version.
It made $187.3 million in global box office takings on a budget of $10 million and spawned three more films in the series.
Sarah added she is also proud of the legacy of her six-year run on the ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ series – despite last year joining other cast members in branding it a “toxic” set.
She said: “As an actor, all you ever want to do is a show that affects people, that they love and holds up.
“That is your legacy. I am so proud of what we created. It’s been a tumultuous couple of years, and understanding the show and its legacy, there is good and bad to all of it.
“I have gotten to a place now where we can really appreciate the show for what we created.
“I am so proud that during the pandemic, the show reached a whole new generation of people that still felt that it spoke to them, that it was still timely and it still meant something to them.”

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