Total Film -February 2023

SETH ROGEN on Spielberg, cancel culture & superheroes BOSTON STRANGLER PEARL DEAD FOR A DOLLAR SCREAM VI MOVIE SHOOTS FROM HELL PLUS THE WORLD’S MOST TRUSTED FILM REVIEWS “IT’S NEXT LEVEL ... IT’S BANANA CAKES” EXCLUSIVE! KEANU REEVES UPS THE ACTION (AGAIN) CHAPTER 4 JONATHAN MAJORS on Creed III, Kang and keeping it real JULIANNE MOORE SEBASTIAN STAN PAUL MESCAL CHARLOTTE GAINSBOURG PAUL RUDD AND CAST UNDER THE MICROSCOPE

TOTALFILM.COM FEBRUARY 2023 | TOTAL FILM | 3 CALL SHEET THIS ISSUE’S EXTRAS Always a pleasure to have Keanu Reeves on our cover, and this month is a corker as John Wick gets a fourth outing and Reeves promises that he’s more badass than ever. As one of Hollywood’s longest-serving action stars (and a thoroughly decent chap), getting to chat with Reeves is always a treat (I talked to him for Bill & Ted and my teen self was freaking out!) and we’ve gone for a deep dive into the ever-expanding world of Wick. That’s not the only franchise we’re digging into: get ready for Kang in Ant-Man 3 – a baddie essayed by Jonathan Majors who is also doing sterling work in Creed III. We chat to him about getting into the ring, and we also discuss cancel culture and more with Seth Rogen, get the inside track on the incredible Pearl (saw this at the Venice Film Festival and LOVED it) and delve into the most nightmarish film shoots ever. A bit like this issue, which started well before descending into chaos and coming back through the other side. Luckily we didn’t have ‘creative differences’ or anyone locking anyone out of the editing room… But y’know, there’s always next month. JANE CROWTHER, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF @TOTALFILM_ JANE Enjoy the issue! Welcome to The Sharper team interviews were memorable: Sebastian Stan was thrilled that we were both wearing purple hoodies, Briana Middleton was getting a tattoo, and Julianne Moore had a puppy licking her face. LEILA LATIF @LEILA _LATIF CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Spoke to Keanu Reeves, Donnie Yen and loads more about John Wick: Chapter 4 this issue. Main takeaways: it’s going to kick ass, and Keanu Reeves has a disarmingly highpitched giggle. ONLINE EDITOR JORDAN FARLEY @JORDANFARLEY NEWS EDITOR JAMES MOTTRAM @JAMESMOTTRAM Didn’t just chat the upcoming Ant-Man threequel with Paul Rudd. We bonded over ’80s bands. Turns out he’s a big Depeche Mode fan. Just can’t get enough – of Rudd. CONTRIBUTING EDITOR MATT MAYTUM @MATTMAYTUM Found Seth Rogen to be an intriguing interviewee – he was smart and funny, but it wasn’t until I mentioned ‘cancel culture’ in comedy that he really got fired up… DEPUTY EDITOR I often give stars a compliment, but don’t often get one. Brad Pitt spent a minute trying to describe my handwriting. He landed on “effusion”! JACK SHEPHERD @JACKJSHEPHERD ONLINE EDITOR Had a great time at the M3GAN screening; the pre-movie performance by a line of life-sized dancing dolls really set the camp, creepy mood. MATTHEW LEYLAND @TOTALFILM REVIEWS EDITOR PS: This is the last issue for our online editor, Jack Shepherd – a double for Joe Keery who puts up with being called Jackie O and has been a cracker of a collaborator. Bye, Jacqueline!

TEASERS 7 SCREAM VI Ghostface is back to slice up the Big Apple. 10 PAUL MESCAL The Aftersun#vwdu#gxvwv#rļ# his sandals for Gladiator 2. 12 RAHUL KOHLI The Midnight Mass star is talkin’ to us. 14 BOSTON STRANGLER Keira Knightley and Carrie Coon hunt a real-life serial killer. 26 DEAD FOR A DOLLAR Walter Hill saddles up for a truly gritty new western with Christoph Waltz. 29 IT SHOULDN’T HAPPEN TO A FILM JOURNALIST Our Jamie on the distinct lack of three-star reviews. 31 CHARLOTTE GAINSBOURG On Bob Dylan, streaming and her directing debut. TOTAL FILM BUFF 108 IS IT BOLLOCKS? Skyfall’s cannibal-rat story: based on rodent fact, or pure rat-a-hooey? 109 10 OF THE BEST Runs! Our countdown of the best sprints, jogs and races in the movies. 110 FLOP CULTURE Doubling down on Will Smith and Ang Lee’s clone dud, Gemini Man. 117 INSTANT EXPERT Your shortcut to being super-knowledgeable on action icon Jackie Chan. THIS ISSUE 32 JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4 Exclusive! TF enters the foray with star/stuntman extraordinaire Keanu Reeves and the JW4 team wr#wdon#Ľjkwv/#fduv/#dqg# weapons. Lots of weapons. 44 ANT-MAN AND THE WASP: QUANTUMANIA The miniature hero gets a movie of huge stature. TF Ľqgv#rxw#zk|#Dqw0Pdqġv# joining the big league. 52 CREED III Mrqdwkdq#Pdmruv#wdonv# vkdnlqj#xs#wkh#PFX-1# +-PdjqlĽfhqw#Fuhhg# Xqlyhuvh1, 56 SHARPER Prruh#prqh|/#Prruh# problems. Julianne, Sebastian Stan and co. spill on their slick con drama. 62 THE BEST HORROR FILMS… …that nobody actually wklqnv#ri#dv#kruuru#Ľopv1 68 PEARL Pld#Jrwk#dqg#Wl#Zhvw#rq# their X-rated prequel. 74 NIGHTMARE SHOOTS A brief history of moviemaking disasters. EVERY ISSUE 3 EDITOR’S LETTER The team’s latest antics. 78 TOTAL FILM INTERVIEW Seth Rogen on comedy, drama and cancellation. 120 DIALOGUE \rxu#pdlo=#mxvw#Pduyho0orxv1 SCAN TO GET OUR WEEKLY NEWSLETTER #334 FEBRUARY 2023 CANDLE WICK Keanu Reeves and Chad Stahelski on their upcoming four-quel. 32 4 | TOTAL FILM | FEBRUARY 2023 TALFILM.COM/SUBS

SCREEN 88 THE WHALE Txdolw|#ľlfn#wkdw#surev#frvw# less than one pixel of an Avatar space whale. 90 PUSS IN BOOTS: THE LAST WISH The cat in the feathered hat is back… but for how long? 91 THE SON Hugh Jackman/Laura Dern idp0gudp1#Dq#rļvkrrw#ri# The Father, so to speak. 91 SAINT OMER French courtroom stunner loosely based on a real case. 92 MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON The YouTube star brings some sole to the big screen. 92 EO Could this donkey fable be Eeyore new fave movie? 93 WOMEN TALKING Impactful, all-star drama; the title alone deserves a +Urq,vhdo#ri#dssurydo1 94 THE INSPECTION Semi-autobiographical study of a military man Ľjkwlqj#djdlqvw#suhmxglfh1 95 WHAT’S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT? The title may be familiar, exw#grhv#wkh#Ľop#vhuyh#xs# second-hand emotions? 96 BROKER Two men and a baby box. 97 BLUE JEAN Excellent exposé of the infamous Section 28 bill. 100 RE-RELEASES Titanic sails again. 101 CLASSIC TV Learning about Seinfeld. 102 TECH SPECIAL Including a car that’s the odwhvw#lq#ylhzlqj#nlw+w,1# 56 78 68 44 7 ‘HE’S FULL OF RAGE. HE WANTS REVENGE ON THE HIGH TABLE’ TOTALFILM.COM FEBRUARY 2023 | TOTAL FILM | 5

CITY OF DEATH We don’t want Scream VI to be a retread of Scream 5,” says Tyler Gillett, co-director, with Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, of last year’s legacy-sequelskewering Scream and its imminent follow-up. “And there’s really nothing more different to Woodsboro than New York City. Just setting it there immediately gave the entire project a different tone and a feel and an energy that translates throughout the movie.” That’s right, for the first time since Scream 3’s divisive excursion to LA, scary-movie fanatic Ghostface is venturing outside the Munch-maskedmurder capital of America to take a stab at big-city slaying. “One of the fun parts of developing the script was: ‘What are the sequences that feel so iconic to New York that they can only exist in this movie?’” says Gillett with a mischievous grin. Gillett and BettinelliOlpin learnt that Scream VI would be set in New York during post-production on 2022’s Scream, and before work was complete on Guy Busick and James Vanderbilt’s script – a fact that proved incentive enough to return, before the requel raked in more than $140m at the box office. “That was the carrot that was dangled in front of us. Our imaginations were running wild with how many cool, potential set-pieces there could be just based on what that city can offer,” Gillett enthuses, a Ghostface mannequin (we hope) looming behind the directing duo during their Zoom call with Teasers. “We talked specifically SCREAM VI Ghostface relocates to the Big Apple to continue the meta murder mayhem in the sequel to the requel. FEBRUARY 2023 | TOTAL FILM | 7 EDITED BY JORDAN FARLEY @JORDANFARLEY

was revealed to have survived her encounter with Ghostface via an Easter egg featured in Scream (2022). There will be blood, of course – the painful death of Dewey a stark reminder that in the world of Scream, anyone can find themselves on the pointy end of the knife. “I think in the DNA of Scream, and one of the many reasons we all love Scream so much, is because it’s not safe,” Bettinelli-Olpin points out. “It’s the only franchise for both of us that manages to have that tension and that lack of safety throughout.” Made on an unusually accelerated 14-month production schedule (“Making movies is sort of like the Goldilocks story: it either takes way too long, or it happens way too fast,” Gillett chuckles), with Montreal doubling for New York, Scream VI was written before the requel released, allowing this new film to “confidently be what it is”, according to Gillett. “It really moves like it’s on rocket fuel,” the director explains. “You sit down, it starts, and the movie is just a ride. You get off two hours later, and you feel like you haven’t taken a breath.” One consequence of this propulsive pacing is that there will be less time for meta movie chatter, according to the filmmakers. “This starts, and it just goes,” Gillett explains. “So there aren’t really these large pockets to talk about other movies. It of course has all of the fun nods and meta commentary. But we really loved how accelerated this story is. It felt like a reflection of how accelerated the process of making it was.” As a murder(s) mystery, Scream (2022) also found itself at the vanguard of the recent whodunnit resurgence, a wave the directors are thrilled to be a part of. “First of all, this re-emergence of the whodunnit is one of the most exciting things that’s happened in movies,” Bettinelli-Olpin smiles. “To that end, we wanted to make sure that we’re having fun with it. That’s something we were especially conscious of on this one: how do you subvert expectations without tiptoeing into bananas land?” The Scream series is about to make another killing. JORDAN FARLEY SCREAM VI RELEASES IN CINEMAS ON 10 MARCH. about the kills, and wanting to design things that are so distinct in their identity that you can say, ‘Oh, that’s the garage-door kill.’ The locations within New York really lend themselves naturally to those very identifiable, very distilled, fun concepts. There are a handful of really intense, really unique set-pieces in this.” The film will introduce an even more aggressive iteration of Ghostface than previous entries, one who – the teaser trailer implies – has no qualms about striking on a packed subway train during Halloween, with Jasmin Savoy Brown’s Mindy pounced on by an assailant in a Ghostface costume. “We wanted to make this really different, while still having all the stuff you love,” Bettinelli-Olpin adds. “Having a bolder, more brazen Ghostface was a big part of that.” As well as dealing with the fallout from Richie and Amber’s toxic fandomfuelled killing spree, Scream VI will tackle the implications of there being a literal killer inside Sam (Melissa Barrera), revealed to be the daughter of OG Ghostface Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich). Sam’s surviving sister Tara (Wednesday’s Jenna Ortega) also returns, alongside twin siblings Mindy and Chad (Savoy Brown, Mason Gooding) and a line-up of new suspects/dead meat, including Avatar: The Way Of Water’s Jack Champion, Willow’s Tony Revolori, and Samara Weaving, re-teaming with her Ready Or Not directors. “We want Sam to be in everything that we do,” says Gillett. “People are going to love her in this movie.” As widely reported, Neve Campbell opted to skip Scream VI after receiving a lowball pay offer, making this the first Scream film not to feature its resilient final girl Sidney Prescott. Neither will David Arquette’s Dewey Riley be returning, at least alive (in a series where Billy Loomis can reappear, almost anything goes). Courteney Cox will return, however, as intrepid reporter Gale Weathers, while Hayden Panettiere is set to reprise fan-favourite Scream 4 movie geek Kirby Reed, who Reporter Gale Weathers has been following – or followed by? – Ghostface for 27 years. Hayden Panettiere’s Kirby returns to the Screamverse for the first time since 2011. Co-directors Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin have promised a next-level Ghostface for Scream VI. Start spreading the news: the small-town blues are melting away for the Scream gang. 8 | TOTAL FILM | FEBRUARY 2023 ‘The film really moves like it’s on rocket fuel – you sit down, it starts, and the movie is just a ride’ TYLER GILLETT

© 2022 PAR AMOUNT PICTURES. GHOST FACE IS A REGISTERED TR ADEMARK OF FUN WORLD DIV., EASTER UNLIMITED, INC. ©1999. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega return as half-sisters Sam and Tara. FEBRUARY 2023 | TOTAL FILM | 9

HOT RIGHT NOW PAUL MESCAL WILL HAVE HIS VENGEANCE… Recently, Paul Mescal played Marlon Brando on stage. Well, not Brando exactly, but the brutish Stanley Kowalski in Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, a role Brando helped make famous. Mescal approached it as a new role, a boxing-clever strategy that may help the indie star as he navigates the colosseum of spectacle cinema, following in the sandalsteps of another huge performance. Mescal seems likely to lead Ridley Scott’s Gladiator 2 as Lucius, son to Lucilla and nephew to Commodus from the original film. And while Russell Crowe’s command over his audience will take some matching, Mescal will surely win the crowd. To date, his fascination with exploring the – he says - “many different versions of masculinity that interest me” has resulted in work of range, power and depth: emotionally vulnerable and intensely physical. After early stage gigs, he proved as much in TV’s Normal People, the lovely lockdown hit that made him and Daisy Edgar-Jones stars. In The Lost Daughter, he resisted any urge to act up alongside Olivia Colman, showing sensitive restraint. In God’s Creatures, he offered a harder vision of manhood, before his finest work yet as Aftersun’s anguished father, his pain raw rather than unduly performative. Mescal’s incoming slate suggests he’ll honour this commitment to independent films, with twists. He’s certainly picking directors well. Mescal will lead alongside Andrew Scott and Claire Foy in Lean On Pete helmer Andrew Haigh’s time-travel movie Strangers, and co-star with kindred spirit Saoirse Ronan in Lion director Garth Davis’ sci-fi thriller Foe. He’ll also join forces with Josh O’Connor for World War One love story The History Of Sound, under Living director Oliver Hermanus. Citing Adam Driver and Joaquin Phoenix as actors he admires for their choices and integrity, Mescal makes similarly high and clear demands of the scripts he receives: “Do I feel something? Am I moved when I read this?” And while Gladiator 2, thrillingly, gives him a chance to ask another question – “Are you not entertained?” – he’s also keeping the indie faith. As we write, Mescal is being linked to Richard ‘Boyhood’ Linklater’s 20-year Sondheim musical project, Merrily We Roll Along. Twenty years? Clearly, he’s a keeper. KEVIN HARLEY GLADIATOR 2 IS IN PRE-PRODUCTION. SHUTTERSTOCK 10 | TOTAL FILM | FEBRUARY 2023 TALFILM.COM/SUBS

01 03 05 02 04 06 GENERATIONAL TRAUMA BEAU IS AFRAID Ari Aster’s mind-bender shows the many faces of Joaquin Phoenix… BEAU IS AFRAID IS AWAITING A UK RELEASE DATE. TRAILER BREAKDOWN The film will span decades in Beau’s life, with Phoenix piling on the prosthetics to play a much older Beau. “Must feel totally unreal,” says Roger. It’s an apt description of a trailer that’s impossible to fully parse. Ari Aster’s Benjamin Button? Time will tell. But with initial suggestions of a four-hour runtime, one thing’s for sure: you can expect a really big swing. JORDAN FARLEY Meet Beau, played as a teen by Armen Nahapetian, and at other stages of his life by Joaquin Phoenix. Beau’s mother (Zoe Lister-Jones) apologises “for what your daddy passed down to you”. Menacing. Beau emerges into a storybook world where “wild supernatural threats” lurk around every corner. The film’s title hints at a connection to Aster’s 2011 short Beau, in which a man is tormented by a demon. “I’m visiting my mother tomorrow,” says a now-adult Beau. During the treacherous trip, he’s run over by Grace (Amy Ryan) and confined to a house by Roger (Nathan Lane), before breaking free. Aster has described the film as a “nightmare comedy”, so while the whimsy has been dialled up, the Hereditary/Midsommar director isn’t completely abandoning his knack for soul-quaking scares. TOTALFILM.COM FEBRUARY 2023 | TOTAL FILM | 11 A24

Kohli stars as Teddy in Mali Elfman’s debut feature, Next Exit. BLUE FINCH FILM RELEASING, GETTY YOU TALKIN’ TO ME? FILM QUOTES POSE AS QUESTIONS. FILM STARS TRY TO COPE. IN THE CROSSHAIRS THIS MONTH… RAHUL KOHLI You talkin’ to me? Yes, and I’m on vacation at the moment. I just did two series back to back and I’m burnt out. One of those series was The Fall Of The House Of Usher. My relationship with Mike Flanagan started off like any other job. I just auditioned for [The Haunting Of] Bly Manor and I got that off a tape. Then I flew out to Vancouver when production started. Not long in, he was eyeing me for Midnight Mass, and through that came a friendship, I guess. We hung out yesterday, actually, and talked about some new stuff. Do you have an off switch? [Laughs] I have a huge off switch. I’m one of the laziest dudes around. If you give me a three- or four-day weekend, I hunker in and put some videogames on and I do not move from the couch. I don’t watch movies or TV any more, as silly as that sounds to say to Total Film. I kind of fell out of love with TV and film when I started working a lot. After coming home from set, the last thing I want to do is watch some other fucker make choices on screen and act. I’ve just experienced that all day, mate – I’m good. How much can you know about yourself if you’ve never been in a fight? I mean, it’s true – under moments of pressure, we definitely reveal ourselves to ourselves. I do know myself, I guess, in a fight. I’ve had the benefit of finding that out. And I kind of like it and run head-on into it. It’s a bit of a problem. I do like playing with fire, so I take myself out of those situations now. I stay away from bars and clubs. I had one recently, at an industry event, with a couple of guys. Comments were made, and I saw myself reacting the way I’d usually have reacted, prior to having a career. After it was over, I felt terrible, because I thought, “I’ve got more to lose than these guys – what am I doing?” We all go a little mad sometimes, haven’t you? Yeah, definitely. It’s part of… where do I take this? I could I love Psycho. It’s one of the movies my dad got me to watch when we were younger. There’s something about Psycho that still hits the beats. It’s timeless. It still gives me goosebumps. My favourite go-to is probably Shaun Of The Dead. I’m an ’80s baby, so I grew up watching Beetlejuice and Aliens and Predator, things like that. The thing that scared me the most was Ghostbusters II. There’s a scene in the tunnel where Winston calls out, “Hello” and there’s no echo. He does it again and his own name comes back, and then there are just decapitated heads everywhere. That and Temple Of Doom were the two movies that would get me. What would you do if you knew you had less than one minute to live? Call my mum. I’m a mummy’s boy. Obviously I love my dad too, but she’s the one I FaceTime. I travel a lot. I speak to my mum at least once every couple of days. Just to have a laugh, see what’s on the telly. So I’d do that before I explode, or whatever it is. Have you ever danced with the Devil in the pale moonlight? Um, how do I interpret that one? I’ll interpret it in a weird way, actually… I’d absolutely love to play the villain. Back in my theatre days, it was my strong suit, then as soon as I got on telly, no one ever wanted me to be a bad dude – the industry wants me to be the charming, lovable guy. It’s crazy that my strongest punch is playing more evil roles and I’ve never really done it publicly. Do we realise when we’re in the glue, when the water around us is boiling? Or do we sit there saying, “This will be OK”? Wait, where is that from? The Haunting Of Bly Manor? Really? That’s embarrassing. See, I can recite Star Wars movies, drunk, from start to finish. I can do it for all of them – I did it for charity. But I can’t remember lines from my own show. JAMIE GRAHAM NEXT EXIT IS ON DIGITAL DOWNLOAD 20 FEBRUARY. get really serious. I think that people close to me feel that I have mental-health issues. I have always somehow found a way to equate that to being a strength as an actor. And I think that’s probably some sort of toxic way of looking at it. Not being able to control my emotions, and my mood swings… I was like, “Yeah, but the good thing is, on set I can hit an 11 when I need to.” And that’s probably not the right attitude to have. I should be a bit more responsible as I hit 40, and maybe talk to someone about it. What’s your favourite scary movie? I’m not really a big horror fan. It’s weird that I became the horror dude, because of Mike. Hmm… QUESTIONS TAKEN FROM: TAXI DRIVER, DEADPOOL, FIGHT CLUB, PSYCHO, SCREAM, SOURCE CODE, BATMAN, THE HAUNTING OF BLY MANOR 12 | TOTAL FILM | FEBRUARY 2023 TALFILM.COM/SUBS

EXCLUSIVE When Belgian director Lukas Dhont was, in his own words, “a young queer boy growing up in the Flemish countryside,” he found himself drawing away from his contemporaries out of fear his gestures of friendship might be misinterpreted. “At a certain point I started to fear the intimacy that I shared with other boys, because immediately it was categorised through the lens of sexuality,” he tells Teasers. “I started to push people away more than I wanted to, because of certain norms linked to masculinity.” Years later Dhont came across the work of US academic Niobe Way, who – in works such as 2011’s Deep Secrets: Boys’ Friendships And The Crisis Of Connection – scrutinised how closeness among teenaged boys becomes a taboo as they move into adolescence. “When I read that, it was incredibly powerful for me,” the 31-year-old goes on. “I realised I hadn’t gone through something unique and was not alone in experiencing that emotion.” Out of that cathartic revelation came Close, a moving drama about two 13-year-old boys – Léo (Eden Dambrine) and Rémi (Gustav De Waele) – whose inseparable bond is put to the test when they commence secondary education. Léo, bright and outgoing, wants to fit in with his new classmates. To do so, however, he must leave his friend behind, a change that the sensitive Rémi is ill-equipped to handle. “There were two words on paper when I started writing this film: fragility and brutality,” Dhont explains. “I knew that I wanted to create a beautiful, tender universe between two young men, but also show what the arrival of brutality could do to that universe. We live in a society that’s divided into boxes, where everything’s labelled and compartmentalised. But there are people for whom that does not necessarily work, who feel they’re falling in the gap between those codes and boxes.” Clearly it would take a pair of exceptional young actors to convey those internal conflicts on screen. It was remarkably fortuitous, then, that Dhont should happen upon one of them while travelling from Antwerp to Ghent by train. “I looked to my right and saw this young boy talking to his friends really expressively,” he remembers. “I was looking for someone who could translate true expression through the face, so I went up and asked if he wanted to do a casting.” That boy was Dambrine, who would reward the director’s intuition tenfold with his subtle and soulful performance. “Sometimes I think it was luck but there are times I think it was destiny,” smiles Dhont, whose casting of a non-trans actor as Girl’s transgender lead saw his 2018 debut feature become mired in controversy. “I always wondered if stuff like that happened – and apparently, it does.” NEIL SMITH CLOSE OPENS IN CINEMAS ON 3 MARCH. BOY STORY CLOSE The director of Girl returns with another coming-of-ager that won the Grand Prix at Cannes. ‘There were two words on paper when I started writing this film: fragility and brutality’ LUKAS DHONT MUBI Gustav De Waele stars as Rémi, who feels left behind by Léo. The pair’s friendship is put to the test when they become teenagers. TOTALFILM.COM FEBRUARY 2023 | TOTAL FILM | 13

EXCLUSIVE BREAKING NEW(S) GROUND BOSTON STRANGLER Two pioneering journalists battle misogyny to bring down a killer in this true-crime thriller. Despite growing up in Boston, Massachusetts, it took director Matt Ruskin decades to become acquainted with the name of Loretta McLaughlin, the trailblazing reporter who broke the story with her colleague Jean Cole – and coined the moniker – of the infamous Boston Strangler, a serial killer who murdered 13 women in the area between June 1962 and January 1964. With Boston Strangler, Ruskin sets out to shine a light on the groundbreaking work of McLaughlin (played on film by Keira Knightley) and Cole (Carrie Coon), who defied rampant sexism and worked at great personal risk to identify the killer and safeguard other women in the Boston neighbourhood. Tackling yet another true-crime story after 2017’s award-winning Crown Heights, Ruskin is aware of the added pressure that comes with portraying 14 | TOTAL FILM | FEBRUARY 2023

‘The more I learned about Loretta and Jean, the more I grew to respect them’ MATT RUSKIN real-life people. “For me, it always starts with character,” he tells Teasers. “You always want to get it right. I felt a responsibility to try to, at the very least, get the spirit of these reporters and bring that to life in the film.” Serendipitously, Ruskin realised in the early stages of research that Jean Cole’s granddaughter was an old friend. “She introduced me to both Loretta and Jean’s families, because they had both passed away, and the more I learned about them, the more I grew to respect and admire them both and the more convinced I was that this was a story that should be told. “Being able to talk to their families gave me a sense of who they were beyond just reporters. These were really three-dimensional people, trying to juggle all the different aspects of their lives like the rest of us but at a much more difficult time,” continues Ruskin, reflecting on the many obstacles McLaughlin and Cole had to overcome in their journey to break the serial killing news – sexism perhaps the greatest of them all. CHALLENGING NORMS Although Boston Strangler tackles gender inequality, Ruskin emphasises he does not set out to make political films, but that the stories that interest him often intersect with wider discussions on social issues, such as Crown Heights’ exploration of systemic racism. “I think that documentaries and political advocacy are all very important, but that’s not what has attracted me to storytelling and filmmaking. The substance and the relevance are what resonate with me, so by wanting to tell a story about the Boston Strangler murders and these journalists, a part of it is sexism in the workplace in the early 1960s.” Was he concerned with being a man writing and directing a film about the hurdles of women? “I did my best to educate myself,” guarantees the director. “I spoke to a number of women journalists, some of whom overlapped with Loretta and Jean, to try and get a sense of what it was like for them. I also spoke to some women who were first in their fields, who gave me a sense of what it was to be trailblazers in their place of work.” When asked about the backlash suffered by recent true-crime narratives such as Ryan Murphy’s hit TV show Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, Ruskin says he was highly aware of the sensitivities at hand and made To catch a killer: Journalists Loretta McLaughlin (Keira Knightley) and Jean Cole (Connie Coon) join the dots. The reporters defied workplace sexism, which was endemic in the early 1960s. DISNEY TOTALFILM.COM FEBRUARY 2023 | TOTAL FILM | 15

film in a lot of the old neighbourhoods that still exist there, some of which are very close to where these crimes actually happened. “We worked with a production designer named John Goldsmith, who brings such a sense of history and a deliberate approach to every detail. I know that people who lived in the area loved getting to see these old cars on the streets. It brought a lot of people back to a different period and that was really gratifying.” Shooting in the city also allowed Ruskin to tap into Boston’s thriving theatre community, casting local actors “who add a layer of authenticity to the film”. His Loretta, however, was always Knightley, an actress with a clear affinity for playing real-life feminist trailblazers (think Colette and Misbehaviour). “She responded to the role and the script, so we built it around her. We were also able to get incredible actors like Chris Cooper and Carrie Coon, which was such a privilege for this film.” RAFA SALES ROSS BOSTON STRANGLER RELEASES ON DISNEY+ ON 17 MARCH. a priority of being respectful to the victims and their families. “There is very little onscreen violence; we did not want to be sensational or gratuitous in how we depicted these crimes. We always wanted to feel the horror of it, to humanise the victims and not desensitise people to it in any way. “Obviously, it is all so dark and awful,” he continues, going on to add how his personal ties to the city have made it all the more haunting. “When I was researching, there was one moment when it really hit close to home. I drove around Boston, looking at all the different apartments where the victims lived, and I knew there was one in the Harvard Square area. I found that address and realised it was right across the street from this bus stop I used to wait at to go home from work for two years as a kid in high school. And that, all of a sudden, just made it feel so much more immediate.” To Ruskin, being able to recreate 1960s Boston was one of the greatest joys of making the movie. “We were able to shoot in Boston, which was incredible in terms of being able to ‘We wanted to humanise the victims’ MATT RUSKIN Pondering the Boston Strangler’s next move. McLaughlin and Cole leave no stone unturned. 16 | TOTAL FILM | FEBRUARY 2023 TALFILM.COM/SUBS

IT’S YOUR LAST TIME AT THE CINEMA WHICH FOUR MOVIES ARE YOU PROGRAMMING? AND WHY? Baz Luhrmann Robert Eggers Noomi Rapace Joe Wright Aimee Lou Wood JOIN OUR CELEBRITY PROJECTIONISTS... GETTY

Bound up in the many themes of Rebecca Zlotowski’s latest film, Other People’s Children, is the question of why failing to get pregnant is still a taboo subject. “I think there’s still a lot of shame,” offers Zlotowski. “It’s still painful and shameful to be ageing and not having children and being told that this is the end of [your] fertility. It is, I would say, more shameful and painful than for a guy not to get a hard-on.” In her film, Benedetta star Virginie Efira plays Rachel, a childless teacher in her late thirties who falls for Ali (Roschdy Zem), a divorcee with a five-year-old daughter. Zlotowski had no children when she wrote the script, but fell pregnant before shooting began. Yet her sincerity is clearly genuine. “It was a pain for me [not having kids],” she says. “And I wanted to make the film for people like me.” It’s why she remains sympathetic to Rachel’s plight, rather than show the aggression that can be directed towards women with no children – notably in the scene where she visits a gynaecologist. “For instance, this gynaecologist could have said, ‘You’ve been waiting too long [to get pregnant]!’ Sometimes doctors are very mean to people.” It also gave her the chance to cast her friend, the legendary documentary filmmaker (and occasional actor) Frederick Wiseman, as the kindly doctor. “I’ve been jealous of the other films he’s been playing in,” she smiles. With this her fifth feature (her 2016 movie Planetarium, with Natalie Portman, remains her highest profile), Zlotowski seems delighted her latest movie is destined for the cinemas. “I would never have made this film for a streamer because I would have known that I did not have the tools to seduce the viewer,” she says. In other words, Other People’s Children takes its time – not ideal in this age of short attention spans. “I am like that,” she shrugs. “After 10 minutes, I go to bed if it’s not catchy enough for me. This one needed to be screened in the theatre.” JAMES MOTTRAM OTHER PEOPLE’S CHILDREN OPENS IN CINEMAS ON 24 MARCH. PREGNANT PAUSE OTHER PEOPLE’S CHILDREN The body clock is ticking in Rebecca Zlotowski’s taboo-buster… EXCLUSIVE Virginie Efira 18 | TOTAL FILM | FEBRUARY 2023 SUBSCRIBE AT WWW.TOTALFILM.COM/SUBS What drew you to Other People’s Children? When I read the script, I immediately felt something very intimate. And I recognised myself, with my own experiences. I’ve been in the position of [being in a relationship with] a man who then left me and I had to leave his kids as well. But besides that there is a special relationship with a world that a woman has… a tendency to be by yourself and to feel a connection to a family whenever you meet one. How did you find Rebecca as a director? Rebecca didn’t make any mystery of what she was about to do. She’s someone that can put music on a set just to give you an idea of the pace and the rhythm. And she also gives you a visual indication of the way you have to move. And she showed us a lot of Diane Keaton’s films, like Shoot The Moon, the Alan Parker film. One scene sees you outside the apartment – with no clothes! What was that like? I think this scene is really funny, the one where I’m naked on the balcony. It was minus-20 degrees. I was freezing cold. And then it was not a locked set. We didn’t have much money. So everyone could see me out there, out on the balcony! JAMES MOTTRAM Stars Virginie Efira, Callie Ferreira-Goncalves and Roschdy Zem. GETT Y, SIGNATURE ENTERTAINMENT not ideal in this age of short attention s. “I am like that,” she shrugs. er 10 minutes, I go to f it’s not catchy gh for me. This one ed to be screened e theatre.” ES MOTTRAM ER PEOPLE’S LDREN OPENS NEMAS ON ARCH. SUBSCRIBE AT E AT WWW.TOTAL I think this sce funny, the on naked on the It was minusI was fre And th not a We d muc So eve could s out th on th JAME

The month in dialogue and digits. 700,000 TOTALFILM.COM FEBRUARY 2023 | TOTAL FILM | 19 CLOSE CALL Jeremy Renner is in recovery after a snowplough accident at his home in Nevada on New Year’s Day left him in critical condition. MIKE HODGES RIP Best known as the director of Flash Gordon, Croupier and Brit-crime classic Get Carter, Mike Hodges has died at the age of 90. “I don’t think I sound like him still but I guess I must because I hear it a lot.” AUSTIN BUTLER SHRUGS OFF QUESTIONS ABOUT HIS LINGERING ELVIS VOICE. “IT WAS FUNNY. AND A LITTLE SCARY. BUT THE MAIN THING WAS: I WAS UNRECOGNISABLE.” PRINCE HARRY WORE HIS FRIEND TOM HARDY’S ACTUAL FURY ROAD COSTUME TO A HALLOWEEN PARTY. THE PERCENTAGE IMPROVEMENT AT THE UK BOX OFFICE IN 2022 OVER 2021, BUT IT WON’T REACH PRE-PANDEMIC LEVELS TILL 2024. “I DIDN’T TAKE NOTICE OF ‘EMILY THE CRIMINAL’ BECAUSE I SOMEHOW CONFUSED IT WITH ‘EMILY IN PARIS’.” PAUL SCHRADER CAME LATE TO ONE OF LAST YEAR’S BEST FILMS FOR A HILARIOUS REASON. THE NUMBER OF UK SUBSCRIBERS NETFLIX IS EXPECTED TO LOSE OVER 2022-23. “ I ’ V E M I L K E D T H AT T O T H E B O N E . I ’ M S T I L L G O I N G FO R S I X O R S E V E N , W H AT E V E R T H E Y WA N T.” JENNIFER COOLIDGE WILL HAPPILY PLAY STIFLER’S MOM IN MORE AMERICAN PIE MOVIES. “[COREY FELDMAN] WAS AUCTIONING THE EAR THAT HE WORE AS TEDDY IN ‘STAND BY ME’ AND I GUESS I VERY CREEPILY BOUGHT IT.” JORDAN PEELE DETAILS HIS LATEST MOVIE MEMORABILIA PURCHASE. GETTY

EXCLUSIVE Yak to school: Sherab Dorji stars as teacher Ugyen. This film’s journey has been incredible,” says debut writer/director Pawo Choyning Dorji with a befuddled grin. “I made it with first-time actors, the crew were all working on a movie for the first time, and we didn’t have any budget. How crazy is it, from there to an Oscar nominee?” SKY HIGH LUNANA: A YAK IN THE CLASSROOM From a Himalayan mountaintop to the Oscars… Nominated for Best International Feature Film at last year’s Academy Awards, Bhutanese drama Lunana: A Yak In The Classroom follows teacher Ugyen (Sherab Dorji) on a year’s assignment to the remote mountain village of Lunana. Ugyen’s had his fill of teaching – he wants to emigrate to Australia and become a singer – but now finds himself in a bare stone classroom with a handful of scraggly kids, no blackboard, and a yak who occasionally wanders in. “Everyone was trying to convince me not to film in Lunana, saying, ‘Why put yourself through so much hardship?’” explains Dorji, who led the crew on an eight-day hike to reach the tiny village 4,800 metres above sea level. “We had to carry everything up. There’s no electricity, no refrigerator. We shot on top of a mountain with solar batteries.” The local kids who star in the film had never turned on a light switch, let alone seen a movie. But from such humble beginnings grew a drama that’s conquered hearts worldwide. “This is one of the most culturally, linguistically, geographically diverse films you’re going to watch, but it touches upon this universal human quality of seeking where you belong,” says Dorji. “I think that message carried across to the world.” JAMIE GRAHAM LUNANA: A YAK IN THE CLASSROOM OPENS 17 FEBRUARY. ‘It touches on this universal human quality of seeking where you belong’ PAWO CHOYNING DORJI BEST OF THE FEST UNDER THE SKIN Jonathan Glazer’s otherworldly masterpiece was shot on the streets of Glasgow, so where better to give it a 10th-anniversary screening? To make the event more special still, Mica Levi’s instantly iconic score will be performed live by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. GIRL Also set in Glasgow, this riveting debut by writer-director Adura Onashile examines the relationship between Grace (Déborah Lukumuena) and her 11-year-old daughter, Ama (Le’Shantey Bonsu), in a hostile community. The film announces Onashile as a bold new voice in British cinema. MY NAME IS ALFRED HITCHCOCK Can anyone say anything new about the Master of Suspense? Well, if anyone can, it’s Mark Cousins (The Story Of Film, The Eyes Of Orson Welles), and this documentary dives deep into Hitch’s recurring themes of loneliness, desire and the pursuit of escape. BUTCHER’S CROSSING Moby Dick set on the American frontier, with buffalo in place of the white whale? Nicolas Cage playing the monomaniacal hunter? Winter conditions to rival those seen in The Revenant? Count us in for Gabe Polsky’s vivid adaptation of John Williams’ classic novel. JAMIE GRAHAM THE GLASGOW FILM FESTIVAL RUNS FROM 1-12 MARCH. TICKETS AVAILABLE ONLINE NOW. PECCADILO PICTURES 20 | TOTAL FILM | FEBRUARY 2023 SUBSCRIBE AT WWW.TOTALFILM.COM/SUBS

NEXT BIG THING I feel lucky that I’ve been able to play quite a lot,” says Vivian Oparah, who brings the fun as messy singleton Yas in Raine Allen-Miller’s South London-set romance, Rye Lane. Following a stint at the National Youth Theatre, and small-screen appearances in Doctor Who spin-off Class and Michaela Coel’s I May Destroy You, a major breakout awaits. It’s a film that shows a different side to South London. Did that appeal? There’s so much colour in these places. It gets lost. There are obviously things that ping out about these places as well. People seem to gravitate towards telling those stories. And those voices are also really VIVIAN OPARAH IS MOVING INTO THE FAST LANE… so paranoid about the way things plant themselves in your subconscious, and suddenly you’re recreating it. I understood where we were situated and wanted to go in fresh. Dream role? I’d love to play something psychological. I just want Paul Thomas Anderson to give me a character like Philip Seymour Hoffman in The Master. A really, really, really detailed, nuanced character that you can just get your teeth into, someone that, on the surface, is deplorable, but makes the audience fall in love with them. Something with range, you know? JORDAN FARLEY RYE LANE OPENS IN CINEMAS ON 17 MARCH. important to be heard. But there’s a beauty in the mundane everydayness of places like Peckham that I think we captured in the film. Is there much of you in Yas? I’d like to think I’m not as insecure as Yas. How cutting she can be when she’s being defensive, or trying to deflect, is something that resonated with me. Her chaos is something that feels familiar, but my personal chaos takes a different shape. Definitely parts of her resonate. Did Raine give you any homework ahead of filming? She did say I could watch Before Sunrise if I wanted to – but I actually never did! I get TOTALFILM.COM FEBRUARY 2023 | TOTAL FILM | 21 CHRIS HARRIS

CAN WE TALK ABOUT? Released in 2019, Danny Boyle’s Yesterday imagined a world without The Beatles. Now, another absence has hit the headlines: Ana de Armas. Two US movie fans saw her sitting there in the trailer. Then they rented the movie, only to discover her scenes gone, and set out to sue Universal for false advertising. A judge’s ruling that they can proceed has stirred debate about their chances and, indeed, about trailers. Can a trailer be a standalone entity? Or is it a commercially binding promise, beholden to ticket buyers’ expectations? As trailer watchers know, trailer-to-film edits are not rare. Good trailers often mislead, without necessarily misrepresenting. Sometimes that involves deliberately excluding footage from the film; witness early plugs for Jurassic Park, T2 and Trainspotting (Renton trailer houses are expected to honour tone, theme and content, they often can’t know for sure which angle or line reading will reach the film after editing and post-production. After all, the filmmakers often won’t. Remember Rogue One’s “I rebel” clunker? Snipped. Or The Thing’s big arrival in 2015’s Fantastic Four, which went on to clobber cutting-room floors? Will a de Armas-sized absence be deemed a more significant gap? Will the lawsuit set a precedent for further customer complaints? While, surely, no one would argue that trailers are responsible for the end product, the Yesterday case perhaps reminds us that trailers can be snapshots of filmmaking in flux, or a craft unto themselves, rather than just collages of giveaways. Even if cases of megastars falling out of films post-trailer/pre-release are rare, studios may feel honour-bound to trail more cautiously in future. Maybe more tease, less reveal could be a workable way forward. on the rails). Sometimes it’s about spoiler protection, as in Avengers: Endgame’s secretive tease and Spider-Man: No Way Home’s Lizard-punching trickery, or about cool images: remember Homecoming’s flight-formation Spidey and Iron Man? Elsewhere, trailers from 1998’s The (other) Avengers to 2016’s Suicide Squad teased material later carved out by studio cuts. Given the way trailers are made, it’s perhaps surprising more don’t feature material that ends up snipped. Trailers will often be outsourced to agencies, sometimes working tightly with directors, sometimes not. While TRAILER TROUBLE SHOULD SNEAK PEEKS PROMISE WHAT A FILM DOES NOT DELIVER? ‘MORE TEASE, LESS REVEAL COULD BE A WORKABLE WAY FORWARD’ Now you see her... Ana de Armas in the Yesterday trailer. KEVIN HARLEY @KEVINSHARLEY UNIVERSAL 22 | TOTAL FILM | FEBRUARY 2023 TALFILM.COM/SUBS

Julie (Laure Calamy) feels the strain in Full Time. EXCLUSIVE When Eric Gravel started writing Full Time, he was inspired by his experiences living outside of Paris. Whenever he commuted in, he saw the same faces every day. “I thought this is something more and more common. People start to live further and further from the city because of the cost… [and] I didn’t hear about it in the media, I didn’t hear about it in cinema. Maybe for a reason. Because talking about somebody that takes the train in the morning, goes to work, comes back at night, and is tired, is not necessarily a subject. Because it’s so common.” Nonetheless, Gravel crafted a story that feels anything but mundane, as harassed, debt-ridden mother Julie (Call My Agent! star Laure Calamy), a head chambermaid in a posh Parisian hotel, tries to better her life. As she heads to an interview for a job in marketing, travel strikes delay her – every bit as tension-inducing as the Safdies’ Uncut Gems or Tom Tykwer’s Run Lola Run. While Gravel admits an interest in socio-economic dramas (his 2017 debut Crash Test Aglaé explored outsourcing), he felt it needed to be told like a thriller. “I like to find a way of telling a story using the cinematographic language,” he says, “and I thought that’s how you feel when you take the train every morning. You have to run like a chicken to just go through the day, and have some anxiousness, similar to when you go see a Jason Bourne movie.” It’s why he added in a nervy, propulsive score by French electronic/techno music producer Irène Drésel, music that simply adds to the anxiety of Julie’s experiences. “That was my main purpose,” he says. “To feel it from the inside.” Intriguingly, Gravel had not seen Calamy in Call My Agent! but had caught her in critical hits such as Léa Mysius’ Ava and Dominik Moll’s Only The Animals. “I found that she had an amazing range. And I knew on paper that the character was kind of harsh, kind of tough. And I wanted to express something without having to explain it: maybe she was better before. She’s so sparkling, so fresh, normally… We’re going to see that this woman is not at a best part of her life.” It’s little wonder she’s so stressed, given what Julie has to face – including the rather grim everyday occurrences of working in a five-star hotel, such as guests leaving what can only be described as dirty protests. “When we talked with women working in hotels, they had a lot of scatological stories!” reveals Gravel. “So I had to put something like that in. The most common thing… [they] poop in the bath. Why? They don’t know.” Now that’s what you call a shit job. JAMES MOTTRAM FULL TIME OPENS IN CINEMAS ON 17 MARCH. JOB’S WORTH FULL TIME If Jason Bourne ever did a 9-5, it might be like Eric Gravel’s workplace thriller… ‘This woman is not at a best part of her life’ ERIC GRAVEL PARKLAND DISTRIBUTION Julie’s efforts to better her life are constantly upended. TOTALFILM.COM FEBRUARY 2023 | TOTAL FILM | 23

EXCLUSIVE Like Primer, Timecrimes or Safety Not Guaranteed, Andrew Legge’s LOLA is a low-fi sci-fi that teases audiences with time-travel tropes. In this case, 1940s sisters Martha (Stefanie Martini) and Thomasina (Emma Appleton) invent a machine – which they dub ‘LOLA’ – capable of intercepting radio waves from the future. Legge had already road-tested the idea, in a way, in his 2009 short The Chronoscope, about an Irish scientist who creates a device to look into the past. Nevertheless, Legge felt a story examining what’s gone before was “dramatically more limited” by holding few surprises. “It’s difficult to drive a full feature.” Reversing the idea on LOLA, he adds: “The thing that really made me want to make the movie was the idea of these characters getting exposed to culture from the future, listening to music, seeing movies. That juxtaposition of these 1940s women getting punk rock influences… that made me think it would be a fun film to make.” Martha and Thomasina are soon discovering the songs of David Bowie and The Kinks, and the films of Stanley Kubrick, although using the machine to help Britain stay ahead of the Nazis during World War Two has unexpected consequences for the future. “I liked the idea that they had two different outlooks,” Legge explains. “Martha sees the machine as a kind of window into the future in this way and Thom sees it as a weapon. I liked that delineation.” Structured like a found-footage film, the conceit has it that, in 2021, a pile of edited celluloid was discovered in the cellar of a Sussex country house that once belonged to the siblings. What makes Legge’s film really stand out is the way he and his team doctored archival footage, such as World War Two-era newsreels. Splicing it with material he shot – using old-school cameras such as a Bolex or a Newman & Sinclair – he was able to create 1940s-style images on a micro-budget. Meanwhile, the grand-looking LOLA itself was innovatively assembled. “The machine is homemade. Our model maker built it and was able to salvage all those parts from old radios and things. When you’re doing it with that [old-fashioned] aesthetic, it’s much, much more budgetary-friendly than if you’re trying to do cyberpunk, where you’re building this amazing futuristic [world]. The crinklier the better!” The unique nature of the project also drew in some incredible talent – not least The Divine Comedy’s Neil Hannon, who wrote the score. “My favourite thing about this movie was the music,” admits Legge, “which came late because Neil officially came on board about three weeks before we shot the film. And then he’d say: ‘What do you want?’ And I’d say: ‘I want a fascist pop song from the 1980s!’ I think his music really elevates it.” Divine inspiration, you might say. JAMES MOTTRAM LOLA IS IN CINEMAS FROM 3 MARCH. RADIO DAYS LOLA The future is now in Andrew Legge’s innovative 1940s sci-fi… ‘The machine is built from old radios and things…’ ANDREW LEGGE SIGNATURE ENTERTAINMENT Time team: Martha, Thomasina and the magnificent LOLA. 24 | TOTAL FILM | FEBRUARY 2023 TALFILM.COM/SUBS

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EXCLUSIVE Dead For A Dollar (led by Christoph Waltz as bounty hunter Max Borlund) is a throwback to earlier Westerns. HIGH PLAINS GRIFTER DEAD FOR A DOLLAR Writer-director Walter Hill’s auspicious return to the western. I ’m as old as shit, but I still feel good,” says jovial 82-year-old Walter Hill when he sits down with Teasers on the balmy patio of the Ausonia Hungaria Hotel on Venice’s Lido during the 2022 film festival. He’s in town to bow his latest film, a back-to-basics return to the genre Hill maintains all his films essentially are with western Dead For A Dollar. Written and directed by The Warriors’ creator, it follows bounty hunter Max Borlund (Christoph Waltz) in 1897 New Mexico, on the hunt for a businessman’s missing wife (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’s Rachel Brosnahan) held hostage by an African-American army deserter (Brandon Scott). During his search, Borlund reunites with his nemesis (Willem Dafoe), encounters a local Mexican kingpin (Benjamin Bratt) and uncovers a story of abuse and trauma. There are gun battles, bullwhip fights, dames carrying derringers in their sudsy baths and golden-hour vistas of an America lost to the pages of history. An unapologetic throwback then, Dead For A Dollar (“The title is probably a little more lurid than the film itself,” Hill chuckles) is an old-school, almostsepia cowpoke drama and all the better for it according to the director and his star, Django Unchained’s Waltz. “There’s this kind of mythopoetic idea of the western and American culture,” says Hill of the enduring appeal of the genre. “The way Americans feel about themselves has probably always been, in some ways, associated with the western. Jeff Bezos, when he went into space – he gets down, he comes out, and he takes off his helmet, he puts on a cowboy hat! There was certainly an effort [with this film] to not only valorise the traditions of the western, but also to bring certain contemporary issues – race, feminist ideas – into play as well.” But don’t think that the inclusion of modern worries means that this is a concept film or an issues one, according to Waltz, a long-time friend of Hill who jumped at the chance to essay a character based on real-life Danish soldier-turned-bounty hunter Chris Madsen. “It was the simple solidity that brought it back to the essentials,” Waltz says of the lure of an old-timer tale. “And that’s exactly why I said yes immediately. You don’t need highfalutin contortions to tell a story; straightforward open commitment to a story is a fabulous quality – and it’s become a rarity, lamentably so. Everybody tries to turn the screw one more time to make it special. You don’t make it special, you make it confusing and the stories become a commentary on a story.” Hill, says Waltz as he nurses a tiny, bitter Italian coffee, is a master of this oeuvre and this story encapsulates all his interests that birthed projects as ‘There’s nothing like the sound of a crack of a whip’ WALTER HILL UNIVERSAL PICTURES 26 | TOTAL FILM | FEBRUARY 2023 TALFILM.COM/SUBS

Rachel Brosnahan plays Rachel, a businessman’s kidnapped wife. Benjamin Bratt as crime boss Tiberio Vargas. Borlund’s nemesis, Joe Cribbens (Willem Dafoe). What was the attraction of getting on the set of a Walter Hill western? One of the things that was exciting about this film is it plays with so many of these western tropes – but when Walter and I first spoke about the project, he expressed this desire to contribute to the canon in a new way, and be a part of its evolution. It’s encouraging to see that at 80 years old, someone like Walter is still curious enough to grow and evolve. It’s inspiring. How would you characterise him as a director? He’s very direct, which I love. There’s no bullshit! He warned me that this project would never have enough time, and never have enough money, and that it would be fast and furious. So he encouraged me to be prepared [laughs]. We sometimes shot one take – two or three, if we were lucky. So whatever you brought on the day is what ended up in the film. It was invigorating – it feels almost like theatre in that you get one shot, and it better be perfect. Christoph Waltz regretted choosing uncomfortable boots for his character. How was your wardrobe? I wore a proper lace-up corset that took about three people to get me into, and it was blazing hot. I had a wig on that was like wearing a winter hat in the summer, and all the petticoats and the layers. It was the most challenging way I’ve ever ridden a horse, that’s for sure! The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is coming to an end – bittersweet to say goodbye? Yeah. I grew up on this show. I was just 26 when we started working and it’s been five seasons in six years. Those are really pivotal years. I probably won’t have anything really intelligent to say about it until about three months after we finish. But I’m really excited for what’s next. JANE CROWTHER Rachel Brosnahan diverse as Southern Comfort, 48 Hrs. and Wild Bill during his five-decade career. “This is more than his bread and butter – it is his very incentive of making movies, his raison d’être, his most personal interests,” says Waltz. “Morally and historically and professionally. Walter is a true Hollywood director, the real deal – in as much as he is a very sophisticated, very educated person and he can find an expression that does not require his sophistication and education. He doesn’t leave a simple mind behind without giving up his intention. Walter is a true commercial filmmaker; in the interest of commercialism he doesn’t have to scale down his level of approach. It’s neither trick or magic; it’s true knowledge and craft of filmmaking.” WHIP ROUND Having cast Waltz, Hill brought in his Streets Of Fire buddy Dafoe (“I thought that Willem would be a very good antagonist to Christoph’s protagonist”) and finally Brosnahan, who was cast just weeks before filming. Allowing his cast to choose their own character hats and accoutrements (Waltz admits the boots he picked out for Borlund turned out to be the most uncomfortable footwear he could imagine), Hill shot fast and loose, leaning into an old-school shooting vibe and ensuring plenty of action. “There’s nothing like the sound of a crack of a whip,” he smiles of adding an intense, third-reel bullwhip duel in the middle of a high-plains township (and recalling Ellen Barkin nicking him with a flick of a whip on Wild Bill). “I remember when I was writing that, I thought the movie was flagging – the story was flagging. So I wanted something thrilling. To wake everybody up. I always put it that way: to make sure they’re awake.” Venice audiences stayed awake for Dead For A Dollar, but Hill is sanguine about the movie’s prospects in the current climate. How will an almost oldfashioned western fare alongside Avatars and Marvel films? “I’ve been hearing about westerns coming back for about 40 years. OK, I’m ready,” he smiles. But he’s not about to rest on his laurels whatever the outcome. Hill is as much a workhorse now as he was when he was starting out in the ’70s. “I’m going home after this to look for the next job,” he says, standing up to get on to the next thing… JANE CROWTHER DEAD FOR A DOLLAR RELEASES DIGITALLY TO RENT OR OWN ON 27 MARCH. FEBRUARY 2023 | TOTAL FILM | 27

Jennifer Saunders’ Nurse Gilpin works on a geriatric ward that’s under threat. EXCLUSIVE Age, they say, is only a number. Were the combined years of Allelujah’s ensemble cast to be tallied, though, the resulting digits would be well in their thousands, the likes of Dame Judi Dench (88), Sir Derek Jacobi (84) and Pinocchio’s David Bradley (80) ensuring this wry portrait of an endangered Yorkshire hospital’s busy geriatric ward rings resoundingly true from morning bed bath to lights-out nightcap. Given society’s obsession with the young and the fresh, this adaptation of Alan Bennett’s 2018 play feels almost radical. Yet that was precisely its appeal for director Sir Richard Eyre, no spring chicken himself at a sprightly 79. “I hate it when you hear about ‘the vulnerable and the elderly’ on the news, like it’s a group beyond the margins,” he tells Teasers. “The wisdom people like Judi or David have accumulated about the world and their profession is something to be drawn on, while it’s a joy to get Julia McKenzie, one of the great icons of the musical world, to play a small part.” Yet it’s not just the patients who come under the microscope in Allelujah. The staff of the Bethlehem (known locally as ‘The Beth’) do so as well, idealistic young doctor Valentine (Bally Gill) and the stern Nurse Gilpin (Jennifer Saunders) among them. “There are two ways of looking at health care,” Eyre continues. “One is a utopian view, that believes we should try our best to achieve the ideals of the original institution; while the other views it pragmatically, as a broken system that has to be made to work within existing parameters. Bally and Jennifer’s characters embody those respective views.” As a knight of the realm, an exdirector of the National Theatre, and a one-time governor of the BBC, Eyre is clearly a supporter of venerable institutions. It’s no surprise then that he is a passionate champion of the NHS, which turned 70 the year Bennett’s play opened and turns 75 later in 2023. “It’s a great creation, and the fact it may be not at its best from time to time doesn’t negate the ideas that justified its foundation,” he argues. “There is so much talk about the National Health Service being an outdated idea, but that’s simply not true. It’s a magnificent idea that’s important to hold on to.” Although Bennett’s play has been opened out and restructured for the screen by Call The Midwife’s Heidi Thomas, its spiky humour has been transplanted intact. One feature that has been downsized, however, is the exclamation mark that used to follow its title. “I saw Allelujah! on the page and it made it look like a Cliff Richard movie,” says Eyre. “I must say I don’t regret its absence...” NEIL SMITH ALLELUJAH OPENS IN CINEMAS ON 17 MARCH. NEW AGE ALLELUJAH A hospital threatened with closure is the setting for a starry Alan Bennett adaptation. ‘The National Health Service is a magnificent idea that’s important to hold on to’ RICHARD EYRE WARNER BROS Bally Gill (Dr Valentine), director Richard Eyre, writer Alan Bennett, and Judi Dench (Mary) on set. 28 | TOTAL FILM | FEBRUARY 2023 TALFILM.COM/SUBS

When Avatar: The Way Of Water sloshed into cinemas in midDecember, the first four reviews I read gave James Cameron’s gigantic sequel one star, two stars, four stars and five stars. The rating I didn’t see, three stars, was arguably the most feasible of all when you balance the oceans of scale, ambition and technical achievement against the puddle-deep storyline and characterisation, but I wasn’t surprised by its absence. Most films that come out theatrically are three-star films. I’m not stating this scientifically, or categorically, but that’s my gut feeling. If I were to make a list of every film that’s made it onto the big screen in the last 20 years, and rated each and every title, the three-star column would win. In fact, it wouldn’t even be close – the talent involved before and behind the camera on the majority of films that secure theatrical distribution almost guarantee a certain standard, as much as anything can be guaranteed in that’s ridiculous. Just last month I awarded five stars to Spielberg’s The Fabelmans, not because I think it’s on a level with Jaws, Close Encounters and E.T., but because it’s one of Spielberg’s finest for years and will likely be a contender for my Top 10 list of 2023. I wanted to urge people to see it – so, five stars. But there’s no escaping that some reviews now seem to be weaponised. Avatar: The Way Of Water, one star? Please, Cameron couldn’t make a one-star film if he tried. Blonde, one star, because you didn’t agree with its presentation of Marilyn Monroe? Full marks for Alicia Vikander’s Tomb Raider? and Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again!? Sure, art is subjective, and no opinion is correct or incorrect. But increasingly there seem to be agendas at play, and if that is the case, then it’s unfair on not just filmmakers and film journalism but on the film viewers who might plan their visits to the cinema based on those reviews. IT SHOULDN’T HAPPEN TO A FILM JOURNALIST Editor-at-LargeJAMIE GRAHAM lifts the lid on film journalism. media, and should a critic take their time to fashion an exquisitely calibrated review that demonstrates that film criticism itself can be an art form, it won’t get a fraction of the clicks awarded to five-star eulogies and onestar takedowns. It used to be there were a handful of outlets reviewing films. Now everyone’s a critic and the favoured tactic is to scream your hot take at the top of your lungs to make yourself heard. STARGATE Now, five-star reviews and onestar reviews can also be expertly written and persuasively argued, and I’m all in favour of film critics using the full five-star scale – in videogame criticism, few products are ever given under 50%, which is bizarre at best, a mockery at worst. So while I started out as a film journalist, in the ’90s, believing that five-star ratings should be reserved for copper-bottomed masterpieces like Goodfellas, The Piano and Hoop Dreams, I now think the business of picture-making. But it takes something more – a special talent, a particular vision, originality, alchemy, luck – to make a really good movie, let alone a great one. So why do modern-day reviewers swerve the three-star rating? ON THE CLOCK For starters, a three-star review is the hardest to write, and the least fun. Tight word counts are usually an issue, and it’s difficult to communicate the pros and cons in a flowing review, with any sort of balance, without it reading like a checklist. To do so requires nuance, measure and rigorous concision. It’s far easier to either applaud or attack with sleeves rolled up. This is especially true in the age of the internet and last-minute screenings. If the embargo breaks an hour after the new Marvel movie finishes, then reviewers will likely run fast and hard in one direction to hit the finish line. Besides, nuance and measure and rigorous concision are antiquated values when it comes to social THIS MONTH... THE DEATH OF THREE-STAR REVIEWS JAMIE WILL RETURN NEXT ISSUE… FOR MORE MISADVENTURES, FOLLOW: @JAMIE_GRAHAM9 ON TWITTER. ‘JAMES CAMERON COULDN’T MAKE A ONE-STAR FILM IF HE TRIED’ Tuk Sully searches for some more measured responses to the new Avatar movie. TOTALFILM.COM FEBRUARY 2023 | TOTAL FILM | 29

EXCLUSIVE Autofiction films always pop up from time to time, but the past six months or so have seen an unusually high number of releases inspired by the filmmakers’ lives: from Steven Spielberg and James Gray with The Fabelmans and Armageddon Time, respectively, to newcomers like Charlotte Wells with Aftersun, among others. Elegance Bratton’s The Inspection joins this company, and also explores similarly delicate social issues in its semi-autobiographical tale. The Inspection is Bratton’s fiction feature debut, having previously directed shorts and documentaries, including Pier Kids, a 2019 doc following young homeless queer and trans youth in New York City. That way of living has a particular resonance for Bratton, as is made clear in The Inspection. At age 16, he was kicked out of his New Jersey home for being gay and spent a decade homeless. Set in 2005, The Inspection follows his attempt at a fresh start. He joined the Marines in the middle of the US military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” era, when LGBTQ+ people were blocked from serving openly. “It’s not easy to grow up in this world as a queer person, as a Black person, as a human being, period,” Bratton tells Total Film. “But this is a movie that I hope will remind folks that they have it within them to persevere over those trials and to ultimately triumph.” Bratton went on to become a videographer during his service, a future hinted at in the film, which primarily focuses on his onscreen surrogate’s time at a South Carolina boot camp. Playing the tough drill sergeant is ever-dependable character actor Bokeem Woodbine, while Gabrielle Union plays the devout, homophobic mother. As lead character Ellis French, Jeremy Pope shines in a Golden Globenominated performance. “Full Metal Jacket and Moonlight were huge influences,” Bratton says. “But probably the biggest was Rocky. I’ve been calling it ‘the Black, gay Rocky’ as a shorthand.” That Rocky reference might indicate a slightly simplistic streak, but The Inspection does interrogate the military industrial complex from a personal lens, while acknowledging the camaraderie found within it. A personal lens is something Bratton believes is inherent to all filmmaking: “Whether it’s horror, sci-fi or a romantic comedy, if you look into what’s being done onscreen, you’ll invariably discover something about who makes it. I’m thrilled at the possibility of doing more films from my life, but also excited to engage with fans in a game of guessing which part is or isn’t about me in everything that I do. I want to do genre pieces, I want to do big Marvel movies, I want to continue to do smaller films like this.” JOSH SLATER-WILLIAMS THE INSPECTION IS IN CINEMAS ON 17 FEBRUARY. MARINE’S CORE THE INSPECTION Jeremy Pope navigates boot camp while keeping in the closet. ‘It’s not easy to grow up in this world as a queer person, as a Black person, as a human being, period’ ELEGANCE BRATTON SIGNATURE ENTERTAINMENT Jeremy Pope (here with Raúl Castillo) plays a young gay man joining the US Marines. 30 | TOTAL FILM | FEBRUARY 2023 TALFILM.COM/SUBS

NETFLIX, CURZON, XXX I have a lot of films that mean a lot to me,” purrs Charlotte Gainsbourg. Understandable, when collaborators include Todd Haynes (I’m Not There), Alejandro Iñárritu (21 Grams) and Lars von Trier (Antichrist, Nymphomaniac, Melancholia). Now, the daughter of French singer Serge Gainsbourg and English actress Jane Birkin adds director Scott Cooper, for gothic mystery The Pale Blue Eye, to that esteemed list. A career spanning 40 years: The Pale Blue Eye, Paroles Et Musique, with Catherine Deneuve, and Antichrist. We’ve just seen you alongside Christian Bale in Netflix’s The Pale Blue Eye. How was the experience? It was wonderful. Yeah, I got to join them in Pittsburgh, which is not that fun! You co-starred with Bale before, on Bob Dylan film I’m Not There. Were you a big Dylan fan? My father was. It was the first thing he said. If you had to buy one song, you buy ‘Lay Lady Lay’ – it was his favourite song. Have the streamers made it easier to get more work? No, I don’t feel that there are more offers. But it’s true that I’m doing a series for the first time and it’s six months of shoot. But also, it’s in and out. So it’s not really six full months, but it’s so strange to have projects that you step in, step out, do another film, then step back into that other character. It’s sort of fun. I like it. And I love miniseries. So this is the upcoming Amazon series Alphonse, with Jean Dujardin. How’s it been? Having fun, laughing, just not taking yourself seriously! I was quite hard for a child actor to continue. So I was so scared that that would happen to me and that everything would stop. So I was really superstitious… I didn’t dare say that that was what I wanted to do, even to myself. You had a serious brain injury a few years back. How did that change your attitude to work? At the time, it was so scary. It made me realise that I was not that brave. And especially afterwards, because it came after a snowboarding accident. And at the time, when I had to go through the surgery, I wasn’t scared. It’s afterwards when I understood how close I had been to dying – that’s when I got very scared and lost it for a while. And then, thank God, I got to meet Lars von Trier. Doing Antichrist helped me so much because I was able to stop focusing on myself, and just dive into this very demanding part. It was the best thing that happened. You recently directed your first film, Jane By Charlotte, about your mother. Did it change your relationship with her? At one point it did. Now, I think we’re back to our old selves. I think she got the message of what I wanted to tell her. I think she was moved also to see that it is a film, and what people have said to her after watching it. So I think she keeps saying that she’s very proud… but I say that, “You shouldn’t be proud of me. It’s a film about you.” But all she can say is that she’s proud! Has Lars seen it? I sent him a link and I don’t think he was even bothered to [watch it]! I’m sure he’ll be so bored! He’ll tell me because he’s very honest. JAMES MOTTRAM THE PALE BLUE EYE IS ON NETFLIX NOW. always saying to my agents, “Please find a comedy. I want to do comedy.” And I did Prête-Moi Ta Main, which was a big success in France, and I loved doing that. So much. But it’s been, I think, 16 years or so. Yeah. Finally, I’ve stepped back into that arena. You started acting very young, on Paroles Et Musique. What do you remember? I loved the crew. I loved going to dinner with the crew, being in a hotel for the first time. On Paroles Et Musique, I was 12. Nearly 13. I was able to go to Montreal on my own. And it was complete luxury. It was always CHARLOTTE GAINSBOURG THE ANGLO-GALLIC STAR IS KEEPING HER EYE ON THINGS… ‘WHEN I UNDERSTOOD HOW CLOSE I HAD BEEN TO DYING, THAT’S WHEN I GOT SCARED’ TOTALFILM.COM FEBRUARY 2023 | TOTAL FILM | 31

We’re thinking he’s back… the hardest-hitting American action series returns for a Japaneseflavoured fourth instalment that promises a mano-a-mano main event with a martialarts legend, and puts John Wick under an existential spotlight in his fight for liberation from the High Table. Total Film suits up with Keanu Reeves, director Chad Stahelski, and the wider cast and crew to uncover a film gunning for greatness. WORDS JORDAN FARLEY FEBRUARY 2023 | TOTAL FILM | 33

here’s a saying on the set of the John Wick films, one that’s uttered when the punishing demands of a series lauded for its best-in-league action needs to be acknowledged by all present: Wick is pain. It’s an expression that comes from a place of affection, and is used for two reasons: “Because Chad [Stahelski], the director, likes to torture John Wick,” chuckles the man typically on the receiving end of said torment, and the phone today, Keanu Reeves. And, secondly, to make it clear to anyone entering the world of Wick that, when it comes to what you see on screen in these films, there are no shortcuts. “A lot of people say they want to do John Wick action,” Reeves notes in that instantly recognisable drawl. “And then when they get there, they’re like, ‘Oh, yeah, this is something else.’” For John Wick: Chapter 4, the latest instalment in the puppy-avenging punchathon which started from relatively humble beginnings in 2014 and is soon to spawn its own expanded universe (more on that later), Reeves trained intensively for the best part of a year, adding the bow and arrow and nunchucks to an already loaded repertoire of lethal weapons (guns, knives, pencils…). Taking his movie martial arts to the “next level” with judo and ju-jitsu practitioner Dave Camarillo, Reeves also boosted his driving skills for a full-throttle setpiece that takes place in the shadow of the Arc de Triomphe. “John Wick: 34 | TOTAL FILM | FEBRUARY 2023 TALFILM.COM/SUBS

Chapter 4 has the most action of any of the [John Wick] films, which is saying a lot,” Reeves exclaims. “And it’s more by a good margin. It’s a big show!” When TF catches up with Reeves and Stahelski in early January there’s a week left until work is completed on Chapter 4. It’s the culmination of a bruising threeyear production – the longest period of time the pair have dedicated to a single Wick movie. Contrary to expectations given the series’ everdeepening mythology, there is no long-term plan, according to Stahelski; no prescriptive multi-movie arc that the team is pursuing with these films. In fact, “after number three, Keanu and I were both fairly done,” the director admits. “We kind of wanted to just end on a cliffhanger.” What changed their opinions, as it has in the past, was a trip to Japan on the home stretch of a Wick publicity tour. “We’re usually down at the Imperial Hotel [in Tokyo]. They have an amazing Scotch bar there,” Stahelski says. “It’s been months since we wrapped. We sit in the Scotch bar, talking about what a good time we had, and, ‘Oh my God, it was painful, but it wasn’t that painful.’ Then you start talking like, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if…? We wish we could have done this…’ And usually by the end of that press tour, we’re like, ‘Hey, man, we should write another script.’” He erupts into a knowing laugh. On Chapter 4, the baton was passed from Wick creator Derek Kolstad to 28-year-old screenwriting wunderkind Shay Hatten, who got his big break in 2017 when his Ballerina spec script, written at weekends while Hatten was a writer’s assistant at Robert Downey Jr.’s production company, was bought by Lionsgate with the intention of incorporating the female-assassin story into a wider Wick universe (a process finally nearing completion, see boxout p37). Hatten has a credit on Chapter 3, but wrote this latest instalment from whole cloth, and Laurence Fishburne and Ian McShane join Keanu Reeves once again in the latest John Wick instalment (above). Reeves with director Chad Stahelski on location in Paris (left). ‘Chapter 4 has the most action of any of the films… And it’s more by a good margin!’ KEANU REEVES TOTALFILM.COM FEBRUARY 2023 | TOTAL FILM | 35 JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4

with Reeves, conceived a story that interrogates John Wick’s very reason to keep fighting. “With 4, you get to this place of asking an existential question of John,” explains Hatten, who says that while the tone and action of the films largely comes from Stahelski, the characterisation of Wick is all Keanu. “When you find him, there’s been a little bit of a time break between [Chapters] 3 and 4. He’s full of rage. He wants revenge on the High Table for the things that happened in the third movie. But the questions that everyone around him is asking are: ‘Literally why are you still doing this? What is the value of your life, even if you get out?’ And would his wife value the man that he’s become in going down this gauntlet of revenge? You get to really examine John’s soul, and make him confront this idea of who he is, and what he’s fighting for.” LAST ACTION HERO In Chapter 3, we learnt that John, aka Jardani Jovonovich, was once an orphan taken in by the Ruska Roma crime syndicate – represented by Anjelica Huston’s Director. In order to secure safe passage in that film, he cashes in his remaining chips with the Ruska Roma. Or, more accurately, “My ticket was torn,” says Reeves between gritted teeth, that Wick growl bubbling to the surface. Chapter 4 will again see Wick turning to his found family in order to take the fight to the High Table – the all-powerful organisation seemingly pulling the strings in the film’s heightened underworld of organised killers. “I need my family to do something,” Reeves explains. “I need a reconnection. And I have some trials to go through in order to make that connection, to try to gain my freedom. But of course, since ‘Wick is pain’, the trials have some tribulations.” After fighting his way across Rome and Morocco in previous entries, those tribulations will once again take Wick well outside his native New York. Filmed over four months from late June to late October 2021, the globetrotting script took the production to Aqaba in Jordan, Berlin, Paris, Tokyo and, of course, New York. “I love being on location. Death, to me, is being on a soundstage,” Stahelski states. It is Japan which will have the biggest impact on Chapter 4, with Wick revealed to have history there in the form of two old allies: Donnie Yen’s blind swordsman Caine, and Hiroyuki Sanada’s Shimazu. The choice to tie the series to Japan has elegant thematic connections to the strict honour code observed in Wick’s assassin underworld, but is primarily driven by the fact that both Stahelski and Reeves are passionate fans of Asian cinema, and Japanese culture in general. “Japanese anime and Japanese filmmaking have definitely been something I’ve loved and have been influenced by,” Reeves says. “And bushido is definitely a theme in our film – you know, the code of the samurai – so, from the outside, it feels like a great fit, the idea of honour and sacrifice. There’s definitely a strong Japanese influence.” Stahelski succinctly sums up the series’ new flavour: “If you took Sergio Leone and mixed him with Kurosawa, that’s kind of John Wick 4.” The western genre’s influences have always been present in the John Wick films, and have been further expanded in Chapter 4, which introduces single combat, winnertakes-all, pistol duelling to the series’ ornate mythology. “Nothing is more personal than a duel as a way to settle disputes,” Stahelski explains. John sees it as a way to challenge the authority of the High Table, but runs into an issue of hierarchy. “You have to earn the right to duel,” Stahelski continues. “Back in the day of medieval duels, you couldn’t duel outside of your class, that’s how they use power to manipulate. I thought that was a fascinating idea to mess with, a way to show a different class within our world. And it’s a nod to all the great westerns out there.” Wick’s challenge to the High Table puts him in the crosshairs of the Marquis de Gramont, a “viciously ambitious” individual looking to make a name for himself, played by Bill Skarsgård. “The Marquis is a young man of unknown origin who has quickly climbed the ladder within the High Table doing god knows what,” Skarsgård says. “I always saw him as someone from the gutter that now savours the glittery suits he’s wearing. He functions as the new sheriff set out to rid the world of John Wick once and for all.” Donnie Yen joins as a blind swordfighting ex-assassin (right). Hiroyuki Sanada and Rina Sawayama as Shimazu and daughter Akira (bottom). Stahelski with new bad guy Bill Skarsgård (below right). ‘Nothing is more personal than a duel as a way to settle disputes’ CHAD STAHELSKI 36 | TOTAL FILM | FEBRUARY 2023 TALFILM.COM/SUBS COVER STORY

LET’S DANCE How spin-off Ballerina is poised to blow the world of Wick wide open. Expected to release later this year, though officially undated, Ballerina is the first big-screen John Wick spin-off. Directed by Underworld’s Len Wiseman, it stars Ana de Armas (pictured above in No Time To Die) as the titular, classically trained assassin, and features an appearance from one J. Wick. “It’s a cool story,” says Reeves. “Len Wiseman has a vision, but is also embracing, affectionately, the world of John Wick. Ian McShane is in it as Winston. So I felt that there was a cool handoff of stewardship, and it was fun to put the suit on again, however briefly. There’s a reason for [John] to be in Ballerina; it’s very organic. And working with Ana was great. She really loves action, and she’s really good at it.” Writer Shay Hatten is similarly complimentary. “Ana is going to just completely blow people away,” he claims. “She’s showing up in a way that the stunts of these movies really demand that you do. She’s really going to match the level of Keanu.” Originally writing the script as “its own totally separate, original action spec” that was “even more over-the-top than John Wick”, Hatten describes the experience of seeing his work come to the screen as “any writer’s dream come true”. It could also serve as a template for future Wick spin-offs going forward. “I think this movie is just opening up more and more avenues of this world,” Hatten explains. “There’s all these little pockets of different crime families, and different corners of the world that John might never have a reason to go visit in his mainline story quest. But Ballerina, through the lens of the ballet theatre that we see John visit in the third movie, explores a character who’s come up through that, and then gets sent on a journey to a new pocket of the Wick world that I think is a concept that we haven’t seen in any of the four previous movies. I think it really just shows this limitless potential for expanding and exploring the grey areas of this world.” JF TOTALFILM.COM FEBRUARY 2023 | TOTAL FILM | 37 JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4

The Marquis embodies the “bureaucratic evils” of the High Table by enforcing and manipulating the arbitrary rules of a system designed to keep John and others like him under its thumb. He may not be a physical match for John Wick – let’s face it, who is? – but the Marquis’ skill in twisting these rules to his favour makes him a threat that Wick can’t simply fight the only way he knows how. “John’s getting old and tired, the Marquis is offering him a way out,” Skarsgård teases. “To be the one who finally kills the Baba Yaga would secure his status and power within the High Table.” WICK’S WORLD John isn’t about to move on the High Table alone. Laurence Fishburne’s Bowery King is back, and “assists John Wick in the fight against the High Table in the most delightful, unexpected way,” Fishburne hints. And, of course, there’s Ian McShane’s Continental manager, Winston. When last we saw Winston, he had just gunned down his old pal Jonathan, sending him tumbling to the street from the roof of the Continental. The trailer shows Winston and Wick working together, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re allies, teases McShane. “Of course, they’re speaking. They’re on the same side… aren’t they?” Similarly complex is the relationship between Wick and Shimazu, a character John has known for a long time, serving in part as “an invitation to explore John’s backstory more”, according to Hatten. Shimazu’s daughter, Akira, is played by singer/songwriter Rina Sawayama in her first screen role. She’s a character who is relatively new to the world of assassins, but what she lacks in experience she makes up for in gun(g)-ho enthusiasm, something Sawayama could relate to as a newcomer to film and John Wick. “The intensive training is something I’ve never had to do before and I was pushed to new limits, which I loved… although it was totally brutal!” Sawayama says. “It was a complete culture shock getting used to the physical training as it’s very different to choreo for stage and music videos, as well as every shot being at night-time, so training your mind to be alert at strange hours. It was a real experience, honestly.” Inarguably, the most exciting addition to the cast for Chapter 4 is Hong Kong action icon Donnie Yen as Caine. Long before he was one with the Force in Rogue One, Yen was blazing a trail in Asian action cinema, bringing mixed martial arts and Wing Chun into the mainstream. The idea to cast Yen in a role that would put him in direct conflict with Wick came from Stahelski and Yen’s mutual respect for each other’s work, with Yen describing ChagyPb\d as like “the Super Bowl concert stage” of western action movies, while Stahelski initially pitched Yen on a more traditionally Zatoichitype blind swordsman. “Donnie was like, ‘I get what you’re going for. I just don’t want to be the old, blind guy with a cane.’” Stahelski ‘I was pushed to new limits, which I loved… although it was totally brutal!’ RINA SAWAYAMA 38 | TOTAL FILM | FEBRUARY 2023 TALFILM.COM/SUBS COVER STORY

not an actor that you have to train for each specific fight. He is a great actor who is also a trained fighter. His ability to enhance the choreography through his own creativity is world class. When you add that to the many years of John Wick training that Keanu Reeves has invested, you end up with something very special.” Reeves graciously admits that “my bar is nowhere near the heights of Donnie Yen”, adding that “to see his talent in person was amazing”. Like Reeves, Yen is in his late fifties (Yen is in fact 59, while Reeves is a sprightly 58). Describing himself as “older, and not much wiser” than when he first played John Wick nine years ago, Reeves claims that “John Wick: Chapter 4 was the hardest physical role I’ve ever had in my career so far. They really trained me up to be able to have what we call the toolbox.” A key tool that Reeves was required to hone for Chapter 4 was his stunt driving, with the film set to reintroduce car-fu to the series in showstopping style. “We took the car-driving to the next level, which I really LUCK OF THE DRAW Five great movie duels THE KILLER 1989 John Woo’s hugely influential Hong Kong actioner sees Chow Yun-Fat’s assassin and Danny Lee’s cop gun down dozens of gangsters in a church before coming up against Shing FuiOn’s triad for one final shoot-out, as the latter grabs a damsel for a body shield. Pistols in both hands… Nobody does stand-offs better than Woo. THE DUELLISTS 1977 Ridley Scott’s acclaimed debut, set in the early 19th century, boasts more duels than you can shake a bayonet at, though none better than the classic face-off between Harvey Keitel and Keith Carradine’s rivals in the grounds of a ruined chateau. Tricked into discharging both his pistols, Keitel’s Feraud is left alive by Carradine’s character, but with his honour permanently tarnished. BARRY LYNDON 1975 Set in a tithe barn, pigeons fluttering around the rafters, Ryan O’Neal’s titular social climber finally gets what’s coming to him, courtesy of Leon Vitali’s Lord Bullingdon, as they take turns to shoot, in Stanley Kubrick’s masterful take on Thackeray’s novel. According to Vitali, only he and Kubrick weren’t shat on by pigeons. THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN 1974 Roger Moore’s 007 pits his Walther PPK against Christopher Lee’s gun-forhire Scaramanga and his high-calibre pistol in a ‘gentlemanly’ duel to the death on the villain’s private island. After contending with a freaky hall of mirrors in a funhouse, Bond finally outwits him by posing as a mannequin. What a dummy. FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE 1965 Why have two gunslingers when you can have three? Sergio Leone’s spaghetti western sees Lee Van Cleef’s Mortimer go toe-to-toe with Gian Maria Volonté’s El Indio, their actions in time to the chimes of a stolen pocket watch (and Ennio Morricone’s masterful score) as Clint Eastwood’s Man With No Name looks on. Bellissima! JM chuckles. “He came back, and goes, ‘If it’s all the same to you, I’d rather be the cool guy in the suit… It’s John Wick. It’s a suit movie. It’s cool!’ I was like, ‘You know what, Donnie? You’re absolutely right!’” As well as the Zatoichi archetype, Chow YunFat’s character in The Killer was an inspiration, as was footage of Bruce Lee in a tailored suit from an old screen test. “Caine is an old buddy of John Wick – and an ex-assassin as well,” details Yen of a character who is far from a cut-and-dry antagonist. “Most extraordinary is that he is a man who gave up his own sight in exchange for the safety of his daughter.” MORTAL COMBAT As Hatten points out, “there’s only so many actors in the world who can pose a viable threat to [Reeves] on an action level, and Donnie Yen is one of those.” According to stunt coordinator and second unit director Scott Rogers, Yen “brings ‘master level’ fighting abilities” to his films, meaning “he is Rina Sawayama’s inexperienced assassin Akira (opposite, top). Bill Skarsgård’s Marquis de Gramont with Winston (Ian McShane, opposite, middle). Shamier Anderson joins the series as the Tracker (opposite, third from top). TOTALFILM.COM FEBRUARY 2023 | TOTAL FILM | 39 JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4

enjoy,” Reeves says. “There’s 180s, forward-into-reverse 180s, reverseinto-forward 270s, drifting… So it was really fun to get a chance to learn those skills, and to play.” Everyone involved in the making of the John Wick films recognises that a crucial element of their success is that Reeves is always visibly front and centre of the action, often performing full-on fight scenes in unedited wide shots with nowhere to hide. It’s something that adds untold complexity and challenge to the process – not least to Reeves himself – but the results speak for themselves. “Overall, John Wick films are inherently very difficult because of the level of action and the fact that everyone involved wants Keanu Reeves to be embedded in that action,” Rogers says. “So you have to develop sequences that are physically within his grasp.” That also extended to Chapter 4’s Arc de Triomphe car sequence. “That was challenging in a number of ways,” Rogers adds. “First and foremost was the fact that we wanted it to editorially fit with the rest of the film, as in longer takes with [Reeves] doing the action. We started training Keanu nine months in advance to develop his driving skills and then choreograph the sequences around his strengths and abilities. Then we started developing a way to shoot it that would more resemble a John Wick fight than a standard car sequence.” Stahelski is confident he has the most committed and capable leading man in Hollywood when it comes to action, and especially car stunts. “I dare you to find anybody, any cast member in Hollywood – and I’m including all the big names – that can drive better than [Reeves],” an animated Stahelski says. “I’ll throw down the gauntlet! You know the other names I’m throwing it down to, and I bet Keanu can out-drive them all. That’s how much time we put in. No skydiving or base-jumping; I can’t throw that gauntlet for sure. But in a vehicle, he’s amazing. And he puts in the time not just on set – he puts in the pre-lap time.” EXPANSION PACK Given that the mainline John Wick series has gone from strength to strength both critically and commercially, and shows no signs of abating, it should come as no surprise that the world of Wick is currently expanding. Later this year Ma^y<hgmbg^gmZe, a three-episode miniseries set in the eponymous New York hitman hotel, will air, starring Mel Gibson, with Colin Woodell as a young Winston. Then there’s Ballerina, in which Ana de Armas stars as a Ruska Roma dance assassin (see page 39). Already confirmed is that John Wick will appear in the latter and throw down with de Armas’ character. ‘I dare you to find any cast member in Hollywood that can drive better than Keanu’ CHAD STAHELSKI 40 | TOTAL FILM | FEBRUARY 2023 TALFILM.COM/SUBS COVER STORY

MURRAY CLOSE/LIONSGATE way back to the Matrixes,” noted Stahelski, having famously doubled for Reeves as Neo in the original trilogy. “But I grow a lot in between films. Hopefully someday, someone who maybe has nothing else to do for the weekend will watch all four John Wicks, and I would like to think that the movies get not just bigger, but better, because in between I got better. It gives you that time to breathe, to research, to come up with new ideas, to try different things.” Since making his feature directing debut with the first film in 2014, as a features director Stahelski has worked exclusively on the John Wick series, though not for lack of trying to get other projects off the ground, including a long-mooted Highlander reboot. If the filmmaker has his way, he’ll finally turn his attention to a non-Wick project next – Without Remorse follow-up Rainbow Six, starring Michael B. Jordan. “You might have to give me and John Wick just a little break,” Stahelski says. “Ask me in a couple of months. In the next week, I’m praying to the movie gods that I finish this one.” Though he’s yet to see a finished cut at the time we speak, Reeves is confident they’ve pulled off something special with this latest instalment; no mean feat given the series’ spectacular track record. “John Wick: Chapter 4 is our opus,” he says without hesitation, incapable of containing his enthusiasm. “Oh my god, it’s crazy, man! It’s banana cakes!” John Wick might be pain, but Reeves knows better than anyone: no pain, no gain. JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4 OPENS IN CINEMAS ON 24 MARCH. At one stage, there were even reports that John Wick Chapters 4 and 5 would film back to back. A follow-up to 4 is still officially unconfirmed though, at least until it’s discussed over a glass of Scotch in Tokyo. “You have to see how the audience responds to what we did,” says Reeves, who has proven time and time again across his career that he knows how to pick films that audiences connect to. “The only reason we’ve had a chance to make these movies is that people have liked what we have done. So I think we have to wait and see how the audience responds to it. Hopefully they’ll like it.” As for the decision not to shoot two films back to back, Stahelski is confident he made the right call. “I understand the mentality to do that. I’ve been part of a couple of projects that have shot back to back, This being a John Wick film, we’re sure these two are going to work out their differences peacefully. TOTALFILM.COM FEBRUARY 2023 | TOTAL FILM | 41

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Marvel’s tiniest hero returns in Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania, as Paul Rudd’s diminutive Avenger faces off with the MCU’s newest big bad. Total Film meets Rudd and the team to talk about kicking off Phase 5 and why it’s time for Ant-Man to step up – and not be stepped on. WORDS JAMES MOTTRAM MAKING OF 44 | TOTAL FILM | FEBRUARY 2023

FEBRUARY 2023 | TOTAL FILM | 45

n the ever-evolving Marvel Cinematic Universe, everyone plays a role. In the case of Ant-Man, the Avenger capable of morphing his human form to insect size, he’s always been – to some extent – the light relief. It’s hardly a surprise, with Paul Rudd bringing his comic chops to the role and Peyton Reed, director of Bring It On, calling the shots on both Ant-Man (2015) and its sequel Ant-Man And The Wasp (2018). The character was the perfect palate cleanser, his two adventures respectively following the epic Avengers: :`^H_yNemkhg and Avengers: Infinity War in the MCU’s chronology. When Reed started pondering where a third Ant-Man outing might go, along with Marvel chief Kevin Feige and Stephen Broussard, his producer on Ant-Man And The Wasp, he knew that couldn’t happen again. “I was like, ‘You know what? Being a palate cleanser is great. It’s where you expect to be with an Ant-Man movie. But I don’t want to be a palate cleanser, I want to be the big Avengers movie that someone else follows with a palate cleanser.’ And we all liked this idea. It felt like a natural organic growth to the Ant-Man movies… I really wanted to paint on a much larger canvas for this movie.” It was a feeling that had been brewing even on the set of Ant-Man And The Wasp, recalls Rudd. “[We said] if we ever do another one of these – which at that time, we didn’t know whether or not we would – it would be fun to take a big swing. And I always thought that that was one of the really fun things about [2017’s Taika Waititi-directed] KZ`gZkhd. It was the third Thor movie, and it was totally different than the other two. And that was kind of one of its strengths. And I was excited, 46 | TOTAL FILM | FEBRUARY 2023 TALFILM.COM/SUBS

as was Peyton and Stephen too, at the idea of trying to take a bigger swing with a third one.” It’s early December when MhmZe?bef chats with Rudd, 53, over Zoom. Dressed in a slicklooking suit, his quiff-like dark hair springing from his head like a cartoon, he’s just finished a photo shoot, part of his publicity drive for his third solo Marvel outing: Ant-Man And Ma^PZli3JnZgmnfZgbZ. With Rudd returning as Scott Lang, the one-time criminal turned Avenger, the film will launch the MCU’s Phase 5 and offer up the proper introduction of a major new nemesis: Kang the Conqueror. After all that past palate-cleansing, Rudd couldn’t be more delighted. “I think that we wanted to make a big old movie, and we wanted it to be visually striking and a huge story and a really serious villain. And we wanted people to be overwhelmed, and walk out of there saying, ‘Wow, I can’t believe that was an Ant-Man movie.’ That was a goal. And I also think that with everything that Scott has Conqueror,” says Reed. “That thrilled me to be able to introduce Kang in this movie. It was something that I really, really wanted.” He also felt it allowed Ant-Man, “the tiny Avenger”, to flex his muscles finally. “In some people’s minds early on [ma^rmahn`am], ‘Well, what is this guy’s power? What can he do?’ Putting this guy up against the most powerful being in the multiverse? That seems dramatically rich.” Indeed, Ant-Man battling the biggest villain to grace the MCU since Thanos clicked his fingers almost seems like an unfair mismatch. “He’s a formidable foe – the understatement of the century,” says Rudd. “Scott’s never faced anybody like this. He’s Kang the Conqueror! Thanos is obviously the closest but, yeah, he doesn’t have any of the other [Avengers] gang with him. How do you go about stopping somebody like that? It’s not easy. Whether or not Scott is even successful people will see… but I think that hopefully the emotion, and wanting to do what he’s trying to do, makes sense to an audience. Hopefully they’ll be rooting for me.” THE BIG KANG THEORY Technically speaking, Kang the Conqueror has already (briefly) appeared in the MCU in an episode of the time-busting TV show Ehdb, as the “variant” He Who Remains. Playing him was Jonathan Majors, the 33-year-old who came to prominence in 2019’s Ma^EZlm;eZ\d FZgBgLZg?kZg\bl\h. Reed was heavily involved in the casting of Majors when it came to his appearance in Ehdb, knowing the same actor would reappear in JnZgmnfZgbZ. “There were other people in contention,” he says. “But I really pushed hard for Jonathan and I felt he was the guy, and we were absolutely proven right because he is a force of nature.” Majors always felt the two roles, in Ehdb and JnZgmnfZgbZ, were different. “I’m so radical about my language around it because I say, He Who Remains is He Who Remains,” he notes, solemnly. “I don’t even call him Kang. He may or may not be a Kang variant. I leave my mind open to think that Kang the Conqueror may be a He Who Remains variant. It has to be that lucid for me, to keep it going. But, no, there’s no similarities in the two roles. I did play Kang the Conqueror second… I didn’t even look at the template for He Who Remains in regard to Kang. On purpose.” As the film’s title suggests, the battleground will be the Quantum Realm, the sub-atomic micro-verse teased in the earlier Ant-Man films. Populated by bizarre beasties and Paul Rudd and Kathryn Newton as Scott Lang/ Ant-Man and daughter Cassie. been through, everything that audiences have seen these characters go through, up until now, it called for something of this scale. I think that was the way to go.” While Rudd was convinced that Lang and his alter ego Ant-Man needed a bigger mission this time around, some were concerned that the stakes were being raised. “I worried about that,” admits Evangeline Lilly, as she delicately inhales mouthfuls of sushi during a lunchtime chat. Like Rudd, her journey as Hope van Dyne – better known as Ant-Man’s agile ally Wasp – has seen her grow in stature. But opening Phase 5? “I didn’t know how our brand would carry that. Because the Ant-Man franchise is so light and sweet, and grounded in reality. And I just thought, ‘Oh, I hope we can pull off a larger-scale thing.’” It will doubtless be a question on fans’ lips too, with JnZgmnfZgbZ responsible for fully unveiling a significant baddie. “We wanted to put Scott Lang up against one of the most powerful adversaries in the whole Marvel Comics canon, and that was Kang the ‘I WAS EXCITED AT THE IDEA OF TRYING TO TAKE A BIGGER SWING’ FEBRUARY 2023 | TOTAL FILM | 47 QUANTUMANIA

trippy rock formations, it’s a corner of the MCU that Reed had a “field day” fleshing out with his production designer Will Htay and the film’s myriad VFX artists. “It was a massive world-building endeavour, figuring out the laws of physics, the looks of these environments, the ecosystems, the creatures and sentient beings down there… It’s just teeming with life and civilisation, but also has politics and oppression.” While the earlier Ant-Man films were largely shot in San Francisco, this production moved to Britain’s Pinewood Studios, with the majority of the movie filmed on soundstages – meaning the creative team’s imaginations were the limit when it came to forging the Quantum Realm. Reed was able to take inspiration not only from the original Marvel comics, but also such diverse influences as electron-microscope photography, A^ZorF^mZe magazine and fantasy/sci-fi artwork by the likes of John Harris and Richard M. Powers. “These artists who painted these one-shot paperback covers: you’d look at this imagery… it was so strong and forward-thinking and just strange.” The Quantum Realm was last glimpsed in Ant-Man And The Wasp, being the place where Hope’s mother, Janet van Dyne (Michelle Meet Marvel’s latest recruit… How did you react to being cast as Cassie Lang? I was overly excited. I’m a big fan of Ant-Man and a huge fan of Paul Rudd. And then to get to work with the creative team behind it… Peyton Reed, our director, is a super mega positron! He was always positive and happy, and made me feel like a superhero. Can you describe Cassie for us? I look at Cassie Lang like me. She’s just a girl who’s trying to figure it out. She’s kind of a mess. Like you are when you’re young. You think you know everything and you’re a little impatient. She’s a bit impatient. In a way, we all want to be superheroes. But there’s a lot of responsibility that comes with that. And I think that comes with growing up. You’ve been in movies like Freaky and shows like Big Little Lies. Do you feel you’ve built up to Ant-Man? Being a Marvel superhero has always been something I wanted. So it’s always been something I’ve been working towards. And you don’t know what the universe holds. You don’t know if you’re ever going to get that. But I always kind of acted like I had it. I acted like I was a superhero. And even on Freaky, I was running and doing my stunts… I’m an athlete, I’m a high-level golfer. And so I train all the time. A golfer? Did you ever want to turn pro? I still want to be a professional golfer. That’s totally a dream! I was recently in Scotland, at the Alfred Dunhill Links tournament, and somebody asked me in an interview, “Would you rather win a golf tournament or win an Academy Award?” And I was like, “Golf tournament for sure.” Golf is way harder than acting, OK? To be really, really good at it. JM TALFILM.COM/SUBS

So what did Janet get up to in the Quantum Realm? Well, there’s a connection to MCU newcomer Krylar, who – in the comics – was characterised as an alien scientist. “I can say that he definitely was a part of Janet van Dyne’s past in her time in the Quantum Realm,” confirms Reed. “And it might have been a very complicated relationship.” Playing him is the one and only Bill Murray, whose only previous Marvel experience was appearing as The Human Torch on a short-lived ?ZgmZlmb\ ?hnk radio show in 1975, narrated by Stan Lee. Since then? “He’s someone who was, in his mind, really blissfully unaware of the Marvel movies. It’s just not in his daily life,” adds the director. “And it intrigued him [mhchbgnl].” The presence of Rudd and Murray, who previously starred together in 2021’s @ahlm[nlm^kl3 :_m^keb_^, was always likely to alleviate Lilly’s concerns about keeping Quantumania “light”. “I actually think having done it now – and I’m not just saying this – it might be our best film yet,” she admits. “And I think what’s so neat about it is bringing that sweet family energy into an epic, huge story in an otherworldly space. I think we kept it very grounded in the characters and the relationships, and that’s going to carry it.” Scripted by Jeff Loveness (a former writer on animated hit Kb\d:g]Fhkmr, this marks his suit, hinting that she’s liable to take on one of the superhero alter egos, Stature or Stinger, first introduced in the comics. “She is definitely following in her father’s footsteps,” grins Newton, secretively. While Newton sees the movie as “about a father and a daughter, rekindling that [eho^] and reconnecting”, Cassie is also a budding science geek, taking an interest in Hank Pym’s old journals, and particularly quantum tech. When she invents a gizmo that sends a signal to the Quantum Realm, Scott, Cassie, Hank, Hope and Janet are sucked back into the subatomic universe. As you can imagine, Janet is particularly unimpressed about being pulled back into the psychedelic prison that held her for three decades. “She is not in the best of moods,” laughs Lilly. “And frankly, neither am I. I am not impressed with the situation I find myself in. One, because Hope doesn’t deal well with her own failure or her own mistakes. And she’s having to face the fact that she’s actually made a mistake by creating an opening [with Cassie] through which they could go to the Quantum Realm. And two, because I’m realising all kinds of things about my mother that I had never been told by her. And it’s a very painful process for Hope.” Pfeiffer), languished for 30 years. The onetime S.H.I.E.L.D. operative – and Wasp before her daughter inherited the mantle – became trapped there after she sacrificed herself to disarm a US-bound Soviet missile during the Cold War. It was only thanks to Scott, Hope and Janet’s husband (and Hope’s father), genius physicist Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), that she found her way out. “We always knew we wanted to explore the Quantum Realm,” says Reed. “We wanted to do right by answering that question of ‘What did Janet van Dyne do down there for 30 years?’ And also it struck us as an obvious entry point for Kang the Conqueror.” The question is, why exactly is Scott Lang back in the Quantum Realm? That answer is fairly clear from the teaser: Scott’s daughter, Cassie Lang. “Yeah, from the trailer, you can tell it’s definitely her fault!” giggles Kathryn Newton, the 25-yearold rising star who plays Cassie in JnZgmnfZgbZ. The Scott-Cassie relationship has always been central to the Ant-Man films, says Rudd. “Scott, before he identifies himself as a superhero, thinks of himself as a dad.” Last seen as a teenager (played by Emma Fuhrmann), Cassie is now a young woman – and an adventurous one at that. Footage shown at San Diego’s Comic-Con last July revealed that Cassie has her own purple Ant-Man-like Kathryn Newton takes on the role of Scott’s nowgrown-up daughter Cassie. Jonathan Majors plays new big bad Kang The Conqueror. Michael Douglas and Michelle Pfeiffer are also back as Hank Pym and Janet van Dyne. TOTALFILM.COM FEBRUARY 2023 | TOTAL FILM | 49 QUANTUMANIA

DISNEY/MARVEL STUDIOS first feature), curious references had been bandied around early in the writing process. “Literally we talked about things like GZmbhgZe EZfihhgƅlOZ\Zmbhg,” says Reed. “What if you throw all the Langs and the Pyms and the van Dynes into a Winnebago and they’re going somewhere and they’re working out all their family dynamics and their emotional shit in the middle of a crazy adventure. Tonally, it felt too light to us – we wanted to introduce some real stakes and some unexpected things in this movie. But no idea was too insane. That’s practically our motto: no idea too insane.” While JnZgmnfZgbZ won’t quite be the equivalent of the National Lampoons’ Griswold clan on holiday (though maybe the Quantum Realm is the new Walley World?), there’s no question that Lang and the others are tight-knit. “I mean, it feels like a family now,” says Rudd. “And I think we all kind of care about one another. And so that’s why we all want to fight for each other. It’s why there’s a lot at stake. And that’s what makes it emotional.” Though, as the latest gang to go exploring the MCU, “we’re not nearly as rock’n’roll as the Guardians of the Galaxy,” smiles Lilly. “We’re much more like the science geeks!” This familial vibe, adds Rudd, was crucial. “It’s a big part of all of the Ant-Man films, I think, and not just Scott and Cassie, but Hank and Hope and Janet and Hope. These relationships between parents and kids and family. So we didn’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. We knew we would be in a new setting and a new storyline and introducing a lot of new and exciting characters. But we didn’t want to lose all the humour. We didn’t want to lose the character arcs and relationships that we’ve already established. Hopefully what people liked about the first two movies, they will like and see in this one as well. And then some.” All of which intrigues when you consider that they’ll be coming up against Kang. Early released footage sees him imploring Ant-Man to help him in exchange for safe passage out of the Quantum Realm. Is he to be trusted? “You put those two characters toe to toe, and if you’re a betting person, you might not bet on Ant-Man,” says Reed. “That seems exciting to us.” Moreover, Majors’ villain is set to take centre stage in 2025’s in-development Avengers: The DZg`y=rgZlmr – also written by Loveness and ‘THAT’S PRACTICALLY OUR MOTTO: NO IDEA TOO INSANE’ Majors previously played the role as He Who Remains in Loki. 50 | TOTAL FILM | FEBRUARY 2023 SUBSCRIBE AT WWW.TOTALFILM.COM/SUBS MAKING OF