‘Blue Beetle’ Director Ángel Manuel Soto Says The DC Film Is A ‘Love Letter To Our Ancestors’

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Guillermo Del Toro acted as back-up director for his friend, the late great William Friedkin, during the shoot of Friedkin’s last movie “The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial,” which world premieres on Sunday at the Venice Film Festival. Friedkin, who died on Aug. 7 in Los Angeles at age 87, contractually needed a back up in order for the movie to be made.

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While he probably hoped “Blue Beetle” would have had a bigger opening weekend, it doesn’t appear director Angel Manuel Soto is struggling to find a new project. In fact, he’s already lined up “The Wrecking Crew” as his next film, with two massive stars in the lead roles.

While he probably hoped “Blue Beetle” would have had a bigger opening weekend, it doesn’t appear director Angel Manuel Soto is struggling to find a new project. In fact, he’s already lined up “The Wrecking Crew” as his next film, with two massive stars in the lead roles.

Over the weekend, DC Studios released “Blue Beetle,” the latest attempt to kickstart a superhero franchise. And judging by the opening weekend box office, while it was the #1 film domestically, not nearly as many people watched Angel Manuel Soto’s superhero film as the studio might have hoped.

Dave Bautista (Guardians of the Galaxy franchise) and Jason Momoa (Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom) have been set to star in The Wrecking Crew, a buddy action comedy that Blue Beetle‘s Ángel Manuel Soto will direct for MGM, Deadline can confirm.

The DC superhero film “Blue Beetle” led weekend ticket sales with a modest $25.4 million opening, according to studio estimates Sunday, dethroning “Barbie” from the top spot after a record-setting run that left movie theatres coloured pink for a month.

Todd Longwell This year’s batch of Emmy-nominated series is rich with visually arresting locations that subtly buttress dramatic themes and flesh out the lives of its leading men, from the Altadena Craftsman that serves as the home of grieving therapist Jimmy (Jason Segal) in Apple TV+’s “Shrinking” to the California prisons (the California Correctional Institution in Tehachapi and the Stark Youth Training Facility in Chino) that house Bill Hader’s title character in HBO’s “Barry” to the downtown L.A. high rise where covert-agent-on-the-lam Dan Chase (Jeff Bridges) lives when he’s posing as a wealthy investor in FX’s “The Old Man.” And, it turns out, choosing a location is not dissimilar to casting an actor, with looks, price, and personality all factoring into the decision.

DC’s latest addition to superhero cinema, Blue Beetle (★★☆☆☆), seems to thread together two disparate films that the makers struggle mightily to fuse into a satisfying, cohesive whole.At its most successful, the movie, directed by Ángel Manuel Soto (Charm City Kings), introduces Mexican college grad Jaime Reyes, played by Cobra Kai’s Xolo Maridueña, along with Jaime’s loving, but financially imperiled family. Dad Alberto (Damián Alcázar), mom Rocio (Elpidio Carrillo), younger sister Milagro (Belissa Escobedo), crazy conspiracy theory-addled uncle Rudy (George Lopez), and feisty matriarch Nana (Adriana Barraza, who almost steals the show) all rally around Jaime when a mysterious sapphire-blue scarab latches onto his body and consciousness, making him an unwilling host to a “world-destroying weapon.” Time spent with Jaime and the Reyes family, steeped in authentic Latino culture, humor, and relationships, plays like the warmly comic pilot episode of a sitcom I’d gladly binge.Each episode could include a flashback to the adventures of Nana Reyes, which, based on the hints she drops, would be as thrilling and dangerous as anything Jaime encounters in his new scarab-assisted superhero form as Blue Beetle.That brings us to the other, less successful counterpart to the Meet the Reyes Family sitcom: the relatively lame-ass origin story of another DC Comics hero that’s so clearly intended as a setup for future appearances that it fails to do anything interesting with the character’s big-screen debut.

Even though kids are heading back to school, the summer box office isn’t giving up yet, and there’s a chance we could near $4 billion thanks to the final act power of Barbie and Oppenheimer. Warner Bros is hoping the first Latino superhero movie, Blue Beetle, will stoke its core moviegoers; that DC title seeing $3.3M last night in previews that began at 2PM from 3,400 locations, while Universal is looking to give guys something to laugh at after Oppenheimer with the R-rated bawdy doggie comedy, Strays, grossing $1.1M from showtimes that began at 5PM at 2,700 theaters.

is the newest hero in the DC cinematic universe, and he's got his work cut out for him!Director Ángel Manuel Soto recently sat down with ET's Ash Crossan to talk about making the first major superhero movie with a Latino lead — and the uphill battle that has been releasing it amid the ongoing WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. «The strike was not in my bingo card,» Soto admitted.

director Ángel Manuel Soto knew that making the first major superhero movie with a Latino lead would require a pitch-perfect cast. That included the voice of the alien Scarab, which becomes the Blue Beetle's exoskeleton supersuit when it attaches to host Jaime Reyes (Xolo Maridueña).So, whom did he cast? None other than Mexican-American pop superstar Becky G!«I really wanted to work with Becky G,» Soto raved to ET's Ash Crossan in a recent interview.

DC Comics’ dreadful movies deserve to be violently squished, but not “Blue Beetle,” a refreshingly spry new film featuring the lesser-loved, bug-shaped superhero who’s been crawling around in some form since 1939.Running time: 127 minutes. Rated PG-13 (sequences of action and violence, language, and some suggestive references.) In theaters Aug.

Xolo Maridueña is experiencing a life changing moment. The actor and star of “Blue Beetle” plays a superhero, with the film placing an emphasis on Latin representation, one that remains all too rare in mainstream cinema. 21 Netflix original series and films featuring Latinx talent in front of or behind the camera‘Cobra Kai’ actress Vanessa Rubio is proud of the series Latinx representationIn an interview with PEOPLE conducted before the SAG-AFTRA strikes, Maridueña discussed the life changing opportunity that this film represents.

Xolo Maridueña wants Blue Beetle to perform well at the box office, and he’s explaining why that’s so important.

The latest D.C. superhero movie is not another grim Batman sequel, or yet another Superman reboot.

Give the waning days of the old era of DC movies at Warner Bros some credit for going out in style. I might have been something of a dissenting voice, but I thought June’s big-screen The Flash, despite disappointing some fanboys and at the box office, was a winning affair, a step above most superhero fare. And now I can say the same for the first cinematic attempt at bringing Blue Beetle to life, a much better movie than its August 18 release date might indicate.

Angelique Jackson Amid the ongoing Hollywood strikes, Warner Bros. and DC Studios launched “Blue Beetle” on Tuesday night in Los Angeles with a star-free “fan screening” in lieu of a splashy blue-carpet premiere. Despite the fact that the film’s actors — including Xolo Maridueña, Bruna Marquezine, George Lopez and Oscar winners Adriana Barraza and Susan Sarandon — could not attend due to the SAG-AFTRA strike, there was still plenty of fanfare outside the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.

In what is poised to be a case of Warner Bros beating itself for the No. 1 spot at the box office this coming weekend, the studio’s new DC superhero title, Blue Beetle, is poised to halt Barbie‘s three-weekend streak with a $28M-$32M opening. Barbie, meanwhile per industry sources, is looking at a $22M-$24M fourth weekend, -30%. Through Monday, the Greta Gerwig directed Mattel doll feature counts $531.2M.