Scott Derrickson On Why ‘Barbie’ Should Win Best Picture At Oscars & Why He Walked Away From Marvel’s ‘Doctor Strange 2’

No surprise here: after Jason Blum teased a potential sequel to “The Black Phone” at CinemaCon earlier this year, the film now has an official release date. Granted, it’s almost a year and a half away.

Barbie film has led to a major spike in sales for the toy for its manufacturer Mattel.Greta Gerwig’s film was released in July this year, and has since become the highest grossing film ever directed by a solo female director and the highest grossing film ever released by Warner Bros., having brought in over $1.4 billion (£1.2 billion).One knock-on effect has been that from July to September, as reported by the BBC, sales of Barbie toys increased by 16 per cent compared with the equivalent window in 2022, lifting the company to its first quarter of sales growth in a year.“Our strategy is serving us well,” said Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz in a message to investors. “We are very well positioned competitively and expect a strong holiday season.”Mattel had previously said that it hoped to receive a $125 million (£103 million) boost from the film, most of which has already been realised.

Jordan Moreau The “Black Phone” is ringing again. Universal and Blumhouse have announced a sequel to the 2022 horror film, “The Black Phone,” set for June 27, 2025. The companies say “The Black Phone 2” is the “launch of a sinister new franchise.” The original movie starred Ethan Hawke, as a child abductor and murderer called the Grabber, and Mason Thames, a 13-year-old boy named Finney who crosses the killer’s path.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Ava DuVernay‘s moving drama “Origin,” which tells the story of author Isabel Wilkerson’s journey to write her famous nonfiction novel “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent,” is the latest film to be making the switch from an adapted screenplay run, to original. Deemed an original screenplay by the Writers Guild of America, the announcement comes after Variety reported “Barbie” from Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach and “The Bikeriders” by Jeff Nichols, were also deemed original by the WGA.

Marvel has claimed that actor Edward Norton is banned from returning as the Hulk in any future movies.In Joanna Robinson’s new book, MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios, it’s claimed that while the call is open for other guest actors to return to their roles, Norton won’t be asked back.The book claimed: “If the Inhumans could be rehabilitated, apparently everyone in MCU history was on [Marvel boss’ Kevin] Feige’s call list—except Edward Norton, the franchise’s first Bruce Banner, and Joss Whedon, whose Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. characters remained in limbo”Shortly before development began on The Avengers, Feige released a statement on Norton’s role in the MCU.He said at the time: “We have made the decision to not bring Ed Norton back to portray the title role of Bruce Banner in the Avengers.

John Carpenter has said that he is still in shock after watching the Barbie movie this summer.The Halloween director opened up about watching the film to Los Angeles Times saying parts of Greta Gerwig’s record-breaking film “went right over my head.”He went on to say that he watched the movie at home, not in the cinema, and that he loved Margot Robbie’s performance, deeming it “fabulous”.He told the publication: “I watched Barbie. I can’t believe I watched Barbie. It’s just not my generation.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Horror master John Carpenter told the Los Angeles Times that he’s heard about the negative reaction to Universal and Blumhouse’s “Exorcist” reboot, which currently sits at a paltry 23% approval rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes and opened to under $30 million at the box office. Universal spent $400 million on rights to the franchise with the intent of starting a new trilogy. The reboot, titled “The Exorcist: Believer,” is directed by David Gordon Green, who worked with Carpenter on the most recent “Halloween” reboot trilogy.

Three things are true. Everyone has an opinion on “Barbie,” you’re in a fantastic position if everyone is talking about your film (hello, Oscars),  and old, cantankerous DGAF filmmakers make for excellent copy.

UPDATED with lineup additions, 11:01 AM: The American Film Institute today added some films to its 2023 lineup. The five films selected by Guest Artistic Director Greta Gerwig are All That Jazz, An American in Paris, Wings of Desire A Matter of Life and Death and Pee-wee’s Big Adventure. She will introduce the latter two.

Angelique Jackson Netflix and Shondaland have acquired worldwide rights to “Black Barbie,” a documentary that dives into the history of the first Black Barbie doll — which debuted in 1980, 31 years after the original Barbie — and three Black women at Mattel who advocated for the toy. Directed by Lagueria Davis, “Black Barbie” debuted at this year’s SXSW and the “work-in-progress” cut of the film was met with widespread acclaim.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Martin Scorsese has not seen Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” or Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer,” but that didn’t stop him from celebrating the “Barbenheimer” phenomenon during a recent interview with the Hindustan Times. Scorsese himself has ties to “Barbie,” as it stars and was produced by his “Wolf of Wall Street” breakout Margot Robbie and shot by his longtime cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto. The latter filmed “Barbie” after wrapping up work on Scorsese’s own “Killers of the Flower Moon.” “I do think that the combination of ‘Oppenheimer’ and ‘Barbie’ was something special,” Scorsese said.

Barbie.During a Screen Talk conversation at the BFI London Film Festival on Sunday (October 8), Gerwig said she was asked whether the sequence led by Ryan Gosling’s Ken was necessary during a “big meeting”.“It just said in the script, ‘And then it becomes a dream ballet and they work it out through dance,’” Gerwig told Succession creator Jesse Armstrong at the event (via Variety). “There was a big meeting that was like, ‘Do you need this?’ And I was like, ‘Everything in me needs this.’“They were like, ‘What do you even mean? What is a dream ballet?’ And I was like, ‘A dream ballet? Where do I begin!’”Gerwig said the sequence, which is soundtracked by the song ‘I’m Just Ken’ written by Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt, was inspired by 1952’s Singin’ In The Rain which featured a “dream ballet inside of a dream ballet”.“I was like, if people could follow that in Singin’ In The Rain, I think we’ll be fine,” Gerwig said.

Though the film is titled “Barbie,” there’s no denying the breakout performance from the blockbuster is from Ryan Gosling as Ken. And if you point to one moment in the film to showcase just how great Gosling’s performance is, you can talk about the “I’m Just Ken” song sequence.

The first week of the British Film Institute’s (BFI) London Film Festival wrapped this evening with a rapturous onstage Q&A session with writer-director Greta Gerwig.

The production team behind Barbie were on hand at Deadline’s Contender’s London event today to reveal some of the secrets behind the smash hit’s unique journey and what set it on the road to becoming the year’s biggest movie at the box office.

As you’ve hopefully already seen, in this week’s upcoming episode of The Discourse, director Scott Derrickson (“Doctor Strange,” “Sinister,” “The Black Phone”) stopped by to discuss “V/H/S/85.” It’s the sixth installment of the beloved horror anthology series, this edition follows five sinister found footage tales that delve into the grim underbelly of 1980s America.

Doctor Strange, saying that he left to avoid making a “monstrosity”.The director, who helmed the original 2016 film, was originally announced to direct the sequel, titled Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness. Derrickson, however, departed the project in January 2020 citing “creative differences”, and was later replaced by Sam Raimi.Speaking on The Playlist’s The Discourse podcast, Derrickson went into further detail on the differences between his vision and that of Marvel Studios.“All I can say is that what we said publicly is exactly the truth,” Derrickson said.

In this week’s episode of The Discourse, host Mike DeAngelo pops in a tape to discuss “V/H/S/85” with director Scott Derrickson (“Doctor Strange,” “Sinister,” “The Black Phone”). The sixth installment of the beloved horror anthology series follows five sinister found footage tales that delve into the grim underbelly of 1980s America.

In this week’s upcoming episode of The Discourse, director Scott Derrickson (“Doctor Strange,” “Sinister,” “The Black Phone”) stops by to discuss “V/H/S/85.” The sixth installment of the beloved horror anthology series, this edition follows five sinister found footage tales that delve into the grim underbelly of 1980s America, one of which is directed by Derrickson (others include David Bruckner, Gigi Saul Guerrero, Natasha Kermani, and more) and it also features his two sons Dashiell as an actor in the short, and Atticus, as the composer.

Usually, it’s the Adapted Screenplay category that is super-competitive and the Original category that’s completely wide open.