Even after Warner Bros. barred critics from seeing M. Night Shyamalan’s concert-set mystery “Trap” ahead of time, IndieWire managed to see it, and gave it a B review. Josh Hartnett makes this implausible and often self-aware-ridiculous thriller, about a serial killer (played by Hartnett) being ensnared by authorities at a Taylor Swift-esque stadium show, sing. IndieWire discusses the latest Shyamalan “experience” and more on this week’s episode of the “Screen Talk” podcast.
Anne Thompson and Ryan Lattanzio also dive into the goings-on at Apple, which just greenlit a sequel to Venice premiere “Wolfs” even while withdrawing the movie from a wide theatrical release. The Jon Watts-directed drama starring Brad Pitt and George Clooney, who both produced through their respective Plan B and Smokehouse outfits, will now debut in theaters for a week starting September 20. Then, the film will move to Apple TV+ on September 27. Apple Films, working in collaboration with Sony on the theatrical release, clearly wants to draw eyes and ears to its Apple TV+ streaming service, having great success recently with the much-talked-about Jake Gyllenhaal series “Presumed Innocent.”
Apple is also betting big on “Disclaimer,” Alfonso Cuarón’s seven-part limited series that will premiere in Venice out of competition. The “Gravity” filmmaker adapted Renée Knight’s pageturner about a documentary filmmaker (here played by Cate Blanchett) who opens a manuscript that happens to be about her own life, and a very dark secret she’s long worked to conceal from her past. Kevin Kline and Kodi Smit-McPhee also star in the show, which Cuarón has labeled as his most narrative work yet. He said that Apple allowed him to shoot the series as a seven-hour movie rather than an episodic.
Elsewhere in the realm of tech companies laying down all their chips to entice top-name auteurs, Amazon MGM Studios said this week it is committed to releasing 16 films theatrically going forward. That would put Amazon ahead of Netflix, and in the league of the major studios in terms of release output and cadence. Amazon MGM is headed up by Courtenay Valenti, with marketing guru Sue Kroll at the helm also. The studio had great success with the release of “Challengers” earlier this year and will launch Zoë Kravitz’s directorial debut “Blink Twice” in theaters on August 23.
On the latest “Screen Talk,” Anne and Ryan also catch up on Metrograph Pictures’ release of the haunting teenage slice-of-life “Good One,” the newbie shingle’s flagship film it acquired after a Sundance premiere. Anne also brings us up to speed on “Kneecap,” the Sony Pictures Classics release that is surely destined to be Ireland’s Best International Feature Oscar submission.
Watch the full episode above or listen to it below.
Screen Talk is produced by Azwan Badruzaman and available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and Spotify, and hosted by Megaphone. Browse previous episodes here, subscribe here, and be sure to let us know if you’d like to hear the hosts address specific issues in upcoming editions of Screen Talk.
