The Ray Pletcher Blog

  30 years from now in the year 2051 I’ll be 52 years old and who knows what my life will look like then, but in Chris Pratt’s science-fiction epic The Tomorrow War the future is a dark, dangerous, and treacherous place not to be trifled with. Directed by Chris McKay The Tomorrow War follows Chris Pratt as Dan Forester, a family-man high school biology teacher with an ex-military background who has his world upended when time travelers from the future draft him to fight in their future war in the year 2051 against an alien threat that promises mass extinction of the human species as we know it. The Tomorrow War is an incredibly visceral and exciting as well as emotionally poignant and thought-provoking science-fiction thriller that is masterfully brought to life by its dynamic lead stars in Chris Pratt and Yvonne Strahovski.      WARNING: SPOILER ALERT - WATCH THE MOVIE FIRST The action begins in the distant future of Christmas 2022 as Chris Pratt’s character Dan ...

  “I suspect foul play, and I have eliminated no suspects”, states Benoit Blanc in the whodunit mystery Knives Out . Written and directed by Rian Johnson the film starred Daniel Craig as the eccentric Southern private detective that investigated the death of a patriarch of an eccentric, combative family and was a crackling success with audiences and critics alike. The film developed by Rian Johnson based on his love of the mystery genre and as a homage to the Agatha Christie whodunits of yesteryear but set in present-day America was what drove Knives Out to become what it did with its all-star cast ensemble keeping the audience on pins and needles.      The complicated and layered murder mystery almost didn’t land its leading man though as Daniel Craig who was always a prime candidate for the role in Rian Johnson’s mind almost missed out on playing Benoit Blanc as he was set to begin filming No Time To Die , starring as James Bond himself. However, the attached dire...

  J.K. Simmons is returning to the Batman universe as The Hollywood Reporter reports that the Oscar-winning actor is in talks to reprise his role as Commissioner Gordon in the Batgirl movie. The film is being directed by Bad Boys for Life directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah from a screenplay by Bumblebee writer Christina Hodson. J.K. Simmons previously portrayed Commissioner Gordon in Justice League in a couple of key scenes which were to lead to Simmons returning to the role in Ben Affleck’s The Batman and its potential sequels, a franchise that never came to fruition as Robert Pattinson took over the role under the direction of Matt Reeves.      The news that J.K. Simmons is coming back as Gordon is certainly surprising and certainly raises the question of what timeline this HBO Max film is set in. Others had assumed with the casting of In The Heights’s Leslie Grace as Barbara Gordon/Batgirl that Jeffrey Wright, the Gordon of Matt Reeves’s incarnation of...

  After an intensive week of testing and auditions this week for the new DC film Batgirl , the role of Barbara Gordon has finally been cast as In the Heights star Leslie Grace has been selected to portray the titular superhero in the new DC film which is one of a wave of mid-budget HBO Max releases to come in competition to Marvel’s Disney + programming.      Several actresses made it to the finals this week in the rigorous auditioning process including Isabella Merced, Zoey Deutch, and Haley Lu Richardson. Richardson was the runner-up for the role of Barbara Gordon next to Leslie Grace with Grace ultimately winning out. Batgirl will be directed by Bad Boys for Life directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah with a screenplay by Bumblebee writer Christina Hodson.      As detailed by a report from Complex last winter DC is planning on ramping up its production to release 4 major theatrical releases a year by 2022 with 2 more “riskier” projects designed...