Matthew Monagle

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times: whenever you need to cast someone as a giant floating face planet, get Kurt Russell. Russell has long been one of our most self-deprecating movie stars, an immensely talented actor with movie star looks who, for some wonderful reason, always preferred to play the buffoon over the action hero. Movies like Big Trouble in Little China and even the more recent The Hateful Eight reveal that Russell is never happier than when making fun of his movie star persona.

This weekend, as he normally does, Dwayne Johnson went on Instagram to say goodbye to his most recent movie shoot and say hello to the next thing in his pipeline (seriously, the only time this guy sleeps must be when he is flying from one movie location to another). And while it’s worth noting that Johnson thanked many of the Fast 8 cast and crew excluding Vin Diesel  —  the feud lives on!  —  it was another small comment about his upcoming production of Jumanji that turned a few heads.

At this point in his career, there shouldn’t be much cause for behind-the-scenes drama when it comes to Tom Cruise movies. Cruise wants to star in another Jack Reacher movie? Pay the man. Cruise wants to play a special forces operative fighting a centuries-old mummy? Pay the man. Cruise wants to release a movie where all he does is run for two hours? By all that is holy and good in this world, pay the man!

With Sausage Party setting an August box office record this past weekend, that sound you hear is doors across Hollywood opening for R-rated animated movies. This is probably an overdue development. Movies from studios like Pixar and Studio Ghibli have long been praised by people of all ages for the maturity of their themes; it was only a matter of time until someone with a proven track record and a bit of vision  —  a filthy, filthy vision  —  pushed animated movies right off into the deep end.

Simon Kinberg must have been feeling pretty chatty this past weekend. After weighing in on the screenplay for Deadpool 2 and all the superhero and sequel jokes the movie could make, Kinberg also opened up on the never-ending production delays faced by the studio’s long-awaited Gambit standalone film. And if you’ve been following the Gambit production for years and can’t take the stress, don’t worry: the film is still happening, it’s just not quite where anyone wants it to be yet.

Few movie stars understand the power of social media quite as well as Dwayne Johnson. Whether he’s using his Instagram account to announce upcoming projects or putting together a teaser trailer for a brand new YouTube channel, the artist formerly known as The Rock takes every chance he can to connect with his fans and give them a chance to see what life is like for one of Hollywood’s most in-demand movie stars.

How’s this for awkward timing: just as an entire generation of moviegoers are rediscovering their love for Winona Ryder thanks to Stranger Things, her chances at reappearing in the role that made her famous may be dying on the vine. The last time we checked in on Beetlejuice 2, it was Ryder who thought the sequel might actually be happening. Now it is Michael Keaton, her costar from the original film, who seems determined to put the final nail in the coffin.

Since spending the GDP of a small country to acquire the Star Wars rights from George Lucas, Disney has done its best to wipe the slate clean of decades of accumulated fan theories and speculation. Under the guidance of Kathleen Kennedy and the rest of LucasFilm, the new creative team has streamlined the canon, narrowed down the list of key characters for the sequels, and otherwise done it’s best to mark a new course for the Star Wars franchise. So when a new set of rumors began to surface at Star Wars Celebration Europe this past month, it was no surprise that the official response was immediate and firm.

Here’s one small sneak peek into our madness: everyone has heard at least in passing about the method approach that Jared Leto brought to his role as the Joker, but the dynamic onset was apparently a little more complex than the soundbites might suggest. According to Suicide Squad star Viola Davis, the dedication that Jared Leto brought to the role had two effects: one, it made everyone — including his friend and costar Scott Eastwood — afraid to interact with him, and two, it made each of them want to be at the top of their game. In one case, Leto mailed a live rat to Harley Quinn actress Margot Robbie, eliciting the scream that he wanted… but Robbie also had the last laugh by adopting the rat as her new pet.

Some movies just seem destined to never get made. It’s been two-and-a-half years now since people first reported that those Channing Tatum rumors surrounding Gambit had some basis in fact, and while many comic books fans are excited to see the lovable Cajun rapscallion get his own movie, it seems that the production rumors and casting and hiring process was doomed to spin on well past the point where Tatum was young enough to still play an action hero.

It’s a matter of public record that anyone who came of age during the ’90s has a soft spot for The Rock. Not only did the film convince an entire generation that Nicolas Cage was a viable action star — thereby ensuring the existence of movies like Con Air, Face / Off, and yes, even Snake Eyes — but it also cemented director Michael Bay’s reputation as one of the great action filmmakers of his generation, Transformers be damned.

In the old days, it used to be that an actor who Hollywood had deemed past his or her prime would be relegated to television or low-budget superhero movies. It’s funny how far we’ve come. Nowadays, both television and superheroes are big business, and actors in the final third of their career are one more step removed, playing the once-famous people who used to be in television or low-budget superhero movies.