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Jon Bernthal Lost 30 Pounds Training For King Richard Role

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Jon Bernthal Lost 30 Pounds Training For King Richard Role

Jon Bernthal reveals he lost 30 pounds while learning how to play tennis and training for his role as tennis coach, Rick Macci, in King Richard.

King Richard star, Jon Bernthal, revealed he lost 30 pounds learning to play tennis in preparation for his role as tennis coach, Rick Macci. Bernthal is an American actor best known for his roles in The Walking Dead, Daredevil, and The Punisher. He first gained prominence in the 2000s with his role as Shane Walsh on The Walking Dead. His breakthrough role came in 2016 when he portrayed The Punisher in Marvel’s Daredevil, a role he would reprise for his solo series, The Punisher, in 2017. Viewers still hold out hope that Bernthal might yet reprise his role as The Punisher once more in the MCU.

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For now, though, Bernthal has taken on an entirely different role in the film King Richard. The biographical drama film, released on November 19, 2021, follows Richard Williams’ unrelenting dream and efforts to make his two daughters, Venus and Serena, the world’s best tennis players. Bernthal stars as a Macci, the legendary American tennis coach and player, who trained five number one ranked tennis players, including Serena and Venus. Bernthal’s role in King Richard required quite a bit of training to do justice to Macci’s tennis skills.

Related: King Richard Ending Explained: What Happened To Everybody After The Movie


In an interview with THR, Bernthal revealed that he lost 30 pounds playing tennis while training for his King Richard role. Bernthal admitted that he knew very little of tennis when he first landed the role. However, he held immense respect for Macci and believed that it was very important to make a sports film accurate. To prepare for his role, he trained at an academy in Ojai for 3 hours a day, losing 30 pounds in the process. He also got the opportunity to train a real-life Junior National Player, Kamea Medora, while in character. When the pandemic shut down production, Bernthal took it as an opportunity to put six additional months into his training. Check out his statement below:


It was such a joy for me to channel you, man. I believe in the way that you conduct your life. It was a joy for me to play such a joyous person. I played sports my whole life. I did not know much about tennis when this thing started. But I am a firm believer that if you’re going to do a sports movie, you’ve got to get the sport right. I find it enormously disrespectful when films don’t do that. I was enormously grateful to the producers to give me the infrastructure to really learn the game of tennis. I trained at an academy out here in Ojai for three hours a day. I lost 30 pounds. I would learn the game of tennis, but then I also got to learn how to coach. I worked with a top 50 junior nationals player named Kamea Medora, who was awesome, and I trained her in character. To be able to do those drills and be able to coach in character, I felt that then stepping in, I was in a great place. The other thing is, Rick — I mean, besides the unbelievable sexiness and beauty of that mustache, and your overall thing you’ve got going on — you have one of the most unique voices and dialects and speech patterns of anyone I’ve ever heard. That was one thing I really wanted to get right … but the thing that I felt like I was most interested in was your heart. Your heart, loving these two young women, loving this family, wanting to be a part of this mission. And [having production] shut down for six months [during the pandemic] gave me six more months to keep on preparing, keep on playing, keep on training.

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Bernthal wasn’t the only one who had to undergo some intense training for his role in King Richard. Saniyya Sidney and Demi Singleton who portray Venus and Serena, respectively, had never played tennis before their roles. Their roles as Serena and Venus required hours of intense training to be able to accurately portray the sport. As Bernthal expresses, though, when a biographic sports film is made, it needs to be as close to the real deal as possible. Fortunately, all of the actors and actresses seem to have shown incredible work ethic in truly learning and loving the sport as their characters did. Bernthal especially attempted to embrace the heart and joy that Macci exhibited, which made him such a beloved coach.


King Richard has received overwhelmingly positive reception from critics since its release. The film received praise for its overall premise of warmth and emphasis on the power of determination and belief. Critics especially praised the performances of the actresses and actors across the board. Will Smith particularly shined as Venus and Serena’s father and has prompted conversation about a potential Oscar nomination. However, while Smith, Sidney, and Singleton certainly gave astounding performances, Bernthal’s story shows that it was a combined effort from all of the cast and crew that brought the film to life. These actors and actresses seemed especially intent to accurately capture the heart and joy of the sport, using hours of their time each day to learn the ins and outs of tennis. Much of King Richard’s success stems from the cast who put their entire hearts into their characters to do justice to the real-life figures.


More: Every Song In King Richard

Source: THR

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Review: SAMARITAN, A Sly Stallone Superhero Stumble

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Review: SAMARITAN, A Sly Stallone Superhero Stumble

Hitting the three-quarter-century mark usually means a retirement home, a nursing facility, or if you’re lucky to be blessed with relatively good health and savings to match, living in a gated community in Arizona or Florida.

For Sylvester Stallone, however, it means something else entirely: starring in the first superhero-centered film of his decades-long career in the much-delayed Samaritan. Unfortunately for Stallone and the audience on the other side of the screen, the derivative, turgid, forgettable results won’t get mentioned in a career retrospective, let alone among the ever-expanding list of must-see entries in a genre already well past its peak.

For Stallone, however, it’s better late than never when it involves the superhero genre. Maybe in getting a taste of the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) with his walk-on role in the Guardians of the Galaxy sequel several years ago, Stallone thought anything Marvel can do, I can do even better (or just as good in the nebulous definition of the word).

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The property Stallone and his team found for him, Samaritan, a little-known graphic novel released by a small, almost negligible, publisher, certainly takes advantage of Stallone’s brute-force physicality and his often underrated talent for near-monosyllabic brooding (e.g., the Rambo series), but too often gives him to little do or say as the lone super-powered survivor, the so-called “Samaritan” of the title, of a lifelong rivalry with his brother, “Nemesis.” Two brothers entered a fire-ravaged building and while both were presumed dead, one brother did survive (Stallone’s Joe Smith, a garbageman by day, an appliance repairman by night).

In the Granite City of screenwriter Bragi F. Schut (Escape Room, Season of the Witch), the United States, and presumably the rest of the world, teeters on economic and political collapse, with a recession spiraling into a depression, steady gigs difficult, if not impossible, to obtain, and the city’s neighborhoods rocked by crime and violence. No one’s safe, not even 13-year-old Sam (Javon Walker), Joe’s neighbor.

When he’s not dodging bullies connected to a gang, he’s falling under the undue influence of Cyrus (Pilou Asbæk), a low-rent gang leader with an outsized ego and the conviction that he and only he can take on Nemesis’s mantle and along with that mantle, a hammer “forged in hate,” to orchestrate a Bane-like plan to plunge the city into chaos and become a wealthy power-broker in the process.

Schut’s woefully underwritten script takes a clumsy, haphazard approach to world-building, relying on a two-minute animated sequence to open Samaritan while a naive, worshipful Sam narrates Samaritan and Nemesis’s supposedly tragic, Cain and Abel-inspired backstory. Schut and director Julius Avery (Overlord) clumsily attempt to contrast Sam’s childish belief in messiah-like, superheroic saviors stepping in to save humanity from itself and its own worst excesses, but following that path leads to authoritarianism and fascism (ideas better, more thoroughly explored in Watchmen and The Boys).

While Sam continues to think otherwise, Stallone’s superhero, 25 years past his last, fatal encounter with his presumably deceased brother, obviously believes superheroes are the problem and not the solution (a somewhat reasonable position), but as Samaritan tracks Joe and Sam’s friendship, Sam giving Joe the son he never had, Joe giving Sam the father he lost to street violence well before the film’s opening scene, it gets closer and closer to embracing, if not outright endorsing Sam’s power fantasies, right through a literally and figuratively explosive ending. Might, as always, wins regardless of how righteous or justified the underlying action.

It’s what superhero audiences want, apparently, and what Samaritan uncritically delivers via a woefully under-rendered finale involving not just unconvincing CGI fire effects, but a videogame cut-scene quality Stallone in a late-film flashback sequence that’s meant to be subversively revelatory, but will instead lead to unintentional laughter for anyone who’s managed to sit the entirety of Samaritan’s one-hour and 40-minute running time.

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Samaritan is now streaming worldwide on Prime Video.

Samaritan

Cast
  • Sylvester Stallone
  • Javon ‘Wanna’ Walton
  • Pilou Asbæk

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Matt Shakman Is In Talks To Direct ‘Fantastic Four’

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According to a new report, Wandavision’s Matt Shakman is in talks to direct the upcoming MCU project, Fantastic Four. Marvel Studios has been very hush-hush regarding Fantastic Four to the point where no official announcements have been made other than the film’s release date. No casting news or literally anything other than rumors has been released regarding the project. We know that Fantastic Four is slated for release on November 8th, 2024, and will be a part of Marvel’s Phase 6. There are also rumors that the cast of the new Fantastic Four will be announced at the D23 Expo on September 9th.

Fantastic Four is still over two years from release, and we assume we will hear more news about the project in the coming months. However, the idea of the Fantastic Four has already been introduced into the MCU. John Krasinski played Reed Richards aka Mr. Fantastic in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The cameo was a huge deal for fans who have been waiting a long time for the Fantastic Four to enter the MCU. When Disney acquired Twenty Century Fox in 2019 we assumed that the Fox Marvel characters would eventually make their way into the MCU. It’s been 3 years and we already have had an X-Men and Fantastic Four cameo – even if they were from another universe.

Deadline is reporting that Wandavision’s Matt Shakman is in talks to direct Fantastic Four. Shakman served as the director for Wandavision and has had an extensive career. He directed two episodes of Game of Thrones and an episode of The Boys, and he had a long stint on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. There is nothing official yet, but Deadline’s sources say that Shakman is currently in talks for the job and things are headed in the right direction.

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To be honest, I was a bit more excited when Jon Watts was set to direct. I’m sure Shakman is a good director, but Watts proved he could handle a tentpole superhero film with Spider-Man: Homecoming. Wandavision was good, but Watts’ style would have been perfect for Fantastic Four. The film is probably one of the most anticipated films in Marvel’s upcoming slate films and they need to find the best person they can to direct. Is that Matt Shakman? It could be, but whoever takes the job must realize that Marvel has a lot riding on this movie. The other Fantastic Four films were awful and fans deserve better. Hopefully, Marvel knocks it out of the park as they usually do. You can see for yourself when Fantastic Four hits theaters on November 8th, 2024.

Film Synopsis: One of Marvel’s most iconic families makes it to the big screen: the Fantastic Four.

Source: Deadline

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Dan Aykroyd, Chevy Chase Star in ‘Zombie Town’ Mystery Teen Romancer (Exclusive)

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Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase have entered Zombie Town, a mystery teen romancer based on author R.L. Stine’s book of the same name.

The indie, now shooting in Ontario, also stars Henry Czerny and co-teen leads Marlon Kazadi and Madi Monroe. The ensemble cast includes Scott Thompson and Bruce McCulloch of the Canadian comedy show Kids in the Hall.

Canadian animator Peter Lepeniotis will direct Zombie Town. Stine’s kid’s book sees a quiet town upended when 12-year-old Mike and his friend, Karen, see a horror movie called Zombie Town and unexpectedly see the title characters leap off the screen and chase them through the theater.

Zombie Town will premiere in U.S. theaters before streaming on Hulu and then ABC Australia in 2023.

“We are delighted to bring the pages of R.L. Stine’s Zombie Town to the screen and equally thrilled to be working with such an exceptional cast and crew on this production. A three-time Nickelodeon Kids Choice Award winner with book sales of over $500 million, R.L. Stine has a phenomenal track record of crafting stories that engage and entertain audiences,” John Gillespie, Trimuse Entertainment founder and executive producer, said in a statement.

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Executive producers are Trimuse Entertainment, Toonz Media Group, Lookout Entertainment, Viva Pictures and Sons of Anarchy actor Kim Coates.  

Paco Alvarez and Mark Holdom of Trimuse negotiated the deal to acquire the rights to Stine’s Zombie Town book.

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