The Monthly October 2024

Why hello there. Welcome to the second edition of The Monthly. October is just about over, so now it’s time to boil the month down to its most important bits of pop culture news.

Three things to know. Two trailers to watch. One article to read.

The Monthly hits your inbox on the last Sunday of every month.

3 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

Nolan sticks with Universal for mysterious next film

A new Christopher Nolan movie is always a big deal. The director has delivered a string of critical and box office hits, launching the Dark Knight Trilogy, diving into dreams with Inception, taking us into the cosmos with Interstellar, showing us the creation of the atomic bomb with Oppenheimer and, um, doing whatever it is he did with Tenet. (Look, I haven’t seen Tenet.)

The news that Nolan has a new movie in the works isn’t a surprise. The fact that Nolan is sticking with Universal Pictures, though, is a bit of a surprise. The director had a long working relationship with Warner Bros. up until the studio began sending their films directly to Max during the pandemic — a massive infraction for Nolan, who is a Cinema guy with a capital C.

Nolan set up Oppenheimer with Universal, which scored a Best Picture Oscar nomination and grossed just shy of $1 billion worldwide for the studio.

Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav desperately wants Nolan back, though, to the level where his studio gave the director “a seven-figure check [to return] the Tenet fees he waived.”

It wasn’t enough. Nolan is now heading toward a July 17, 2026, release date for his movie, which will reportedly star Matt Damon and Tom Holland ... and might be “a vampire movie set in the 1920s.” Or it might not be. We also learned on Friday that Sony has set its fourth Spider-Man movie starring Holland for release just a week after Nolan’s next film — a move I can’t imagine will please Nolan. (Deadline)

Joker sequel bombs

It’s probably a bad idea to give a director a blank check to make a movie ... and to acquiesce his choice to not test the film ... and to spend a reported $200 million to produce the film and another $100 million to market and distribute it.

But, hey, when that movie is the sequel to Joker, the film that grossed $1.063 billion worldwide and earned Joaquin Phoenix an Oscar for Best Actor along with nominations for Best Picture and Best Director, I guess you let Todd Phillips do all of those things.

It only becomes a problem when that sequel, Joker: Folie à Deux, is not only a critical failure but also a box office bomb.

The Joker sequel hit theaters earlier this month with a thud. It debuted with just $37.7 million and will likely fail to ever cross $100 million in North America. The film has had such an insignificant impact at the box office, you’ll already be able to rent it on digital next week.

Both The Hollywood Reporter and Variety tried to figure out what went wrong with Folie à Deux. How did Phillips miss the mark so poorly?

“He’s always trusted his gut — and it’s gotten him pretty far,” a Warner Bros. insider told THR. “He thought people would get the joke.”

Variety got a more grim take on Phillips.

“No one could get through to Todd,” a source told the outlet. “And the one thing about genre stuff: If you don’t listen and pay attention to what the fan expectations are, you’re going to fail.” (The Hollywood Reporter) (Variety)

Blade gets cut

If you had reserved Nov. 7, 2025, on your calendar for Marvel Studios’ Blade reboot, you can scratch that one. The studio pulled the film from its release slate earlier this week.

Despite announcing that Mahershala Ali would play Blade back in 2019, this film has been a tough one for Kevin Feige and Marvel Studios to crack. The film has already gone through two directors, with both Ghosts of Sugar Land’s Bassam Tariq and Lovecraft Country’s Yann Demange stepping away.

Should Marvel cut their losses and just bring Wesley Snipes back? Thanks to Deadpool & Wolverine, the man who starred in the first three Blade films has been embraced by a new era of filmgoers. Can Ryan Reynolds convince Feige to bring Snipes back for real? (Deadline)

2 TRAILERS YOU NEED TO WATCH

Dune: Prophecy

I love the Dune movies. (I’m still working my way through the Dune books. God Emperor of Dune is a tricky one.) While we wait for director Denis Villeneuve to get production on Dune Messiah going, I can’t wait to jump back into that world with Dune: Prophecy.

The Max series is set thousands of years before the Dune movies and will chronicle the rise of the Bene Gesserit, the sisterhood secretly pulling the strings of the universe behind the scenes. I wonder who they’ll cast to play the Gom Jabbar ...

What We Do in the Shadows

OK, so this one is cheating a bit. The sixth and final season of What We Do in the Shadows debuted this past week. But if you haven’t watched it yet or if you were on the fence about watching it, hopefully this trailer will convince you to start watching What We Do in the Shadows. This is also the perfect chance to read about visiting the Shadows set — and to make you wonder why there’s a giant David Schwimmer poster there.

1 ARTICLE YOU NEED TO READ

Is Disney Bad at Star Wars? An Analysis

When Disney announced that it bought Lucasfilm — and by default Star Wars — the acquisition seemed like a no-brainer. The iconic studio had already turned Marvel into a cinematic universe (yes, the seeds were planted before Disney bought the company, but Marvel Studios was still in its infancy), and it seemed like a sure thing that Disney could make that happen with George Lucas’ creation.

The Hollywood Reporter’s James Hibberd broke down just how hard that’s actually been for Disney. (A super timely topic in light of the report on Friday that screenwriter Steven Knight bailed on director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s Star Wars movie that’s supposed to bring Daisy Ridley back into the fold.) From decreasing box office returns to a graveyard of movie pitches to an unclear plan for its TV shows, Star Wars’ decade-plus life under Disney’s ownership hasn’t been smooth sailing. Can the studio fix this? Or, is Disney just bad at Star Wars? (The Hollywood Reporter)

CATCHING UP

Here’s what you might have missed from Popculturology and Snackology this month ...

Friday Newsletter

• ‘All vampire, no bullshit’: What We Do in the Shadows is still sharp in final season
• The teens and tweens are buying Wild Robot tickets to sneak into Terrifier 3
• Hear us out: Shane Gillis and ‘Sushi Glory Hole’ have me talking about SNL again
• Stupid sexy Sauron

Deep SNL Thoughts

• Halloween horror: Alec Baldwin returns to SNL as Michael Keaton hosts
• Ariana Grande keeps it low key — but can’t keep from calling out Bowen Yang’s ‘toad chode’
• Washington dreams again as Nate Bargatze hosts SNL
• The celebrity cameos strike back: SNL kicks off Season 50 on a low note

The Box Office Report

• No frowns for Smile 2 this weekend
• The killing nope: Joker sequel bombs at the box office
• The Wild Robot exceeds its programming to rally for a $35M debut

Snackology

• Surely this review of 7Up Shirley Temple can’t be serious
• Toast or roast the Frosted Marshmallow Hot Cocoa Pop-Tarts?
• The Chicken Big Mac changed my entire Big Mac worldview
• Is Wendy’s and SpongeBob’s Krabby Patty Kollab F.U.N.?