Independent films
fromThe New Yorker
6 days agoThe Director Behind the Michael Jackson Bio-Pic
Antoine Fuqua is a successful director known for action films, now exploring a different genre with the Michael Jackson biopic 'Michael.'
They just hired a fantastic writer/director who did Tom Cruise's last four movies. They just hired [Christopher McQuarrie] to write and direct King Conan. He added that the part will be written to be "age-appropriate," where he will "still go in there and kick some ass, but it will be different."
For most big movie studios, January is a dumping ground, a dry, dead place to unload whatever cinematic leftovers they couldn't bother promoting during better attended theatrical seasons. But for director Ric Roman Waugh, January is the perfect time to have grizzled, waning action stars confront their mortality. In fact, Waugh's so fecund he's brought two movies to the box office graveyard of early 2026.
Immortal killing machine Andromache of Scythia (Charlize Theron) lost her regeneration powers in 2020's slick action film The Old Guard. Now she's trying to navigate life while facing a new threat to her team (played by Uma Thurman), as well as the return of an old friend, who is out for vengeance after being trapped for centuries at the bottom of the ocean.
According to Angel Plana, experts in the field, stunt performers today are not just limited to dangerous scenes; they frequently step in for main actors in what seem like simple sequences.
With that in mind, perhaps the more pressing question that "Ballerina" exists to put forward is this: Can the world of John Wick survive without series director Chad Stahelski?