We here at /Film love a well-placed needle drop. Whether it's the inclusion of Simon & Garfunkel's "The Sound of Silence" in "The Graduate" to emphasize the complicated future of the two leads or Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" in "Wayne's World" that inspired audiences everywhere to headbang in their cars, there's an art to the (often very expensive) cinematic needle drop. A song choice can truly make or break the effectiveness of a scene and when done properly, the collaboration between song and screen can become synonymous. "Top Gun" and the Kenny Loggin' song "Danger Zone" now go hand-in-hand with one another, and you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who hears the tin whistle opening of "My Heart Will Go On" by Celine Dion and not immediately think about Jack and Rose in "Titanic."

For a filmmaker like James Gunn, music is often key to his stories. For instance, the titular "Peacemaker" has an obsession with '80s hair metal that directly reflects his feelings on masculinity and his relationship with his father, and music is so important in "The Guardians of the Galaxy" trilogy, each installment is named like one of Peter Quill's mixtapes. The soundtracks for the films are often just as sought after as the films, and "The Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" is no exception. While some artists probably view licensing out their hits as a great way to make some secondary income, plenty view it as a great honor.

For Florence Welch of the popular band Florence + the Machine, the inclusion of her song "Dog Days" had such a powerful impact, it brought the English rocker to tears.

She Couldn't Believe It Happened

Florence Welch took to TikTok to express her gratitude, posting a video of herself watching the film and sobbing uncontrollably at the song's usage during an exciting moment toward the end of the film. Check out the video below and grab a box of tissues for yourself, because her joy might get you a little choked up yourself.

@florence

So I cried all the way through this movie but when the The Guardians of the Galaxy started dancing to Dog Days I really lost it. Thank you so much for all the love for this moment. The superhero obsessed little girl in me can't believe it happened ♥️ x

♬ Dog Days Are Over - Florence + The Machine

"So I cried all the way through this movie but when the Guardians of the Galaxy started dancing to 'Dog Days' I really lost it," she captioned the video. "Thank you so much for all the love for this moment. The superhero-obsessed little girl in me can't believe it happened."

As to be expected, there are a lot of incredible songs in "The Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3," but "Dog Days" might be the best needle-drop of the whole movie, if not the whole trilogy. If you've already seen the film, you can attest that the song placement is absolutely perfect, and for those who've yet to see it, just know that "Dog Days" hits at a time that will probably make you cry happy tears too. James Gunn is great at a lot of things, but few directors can hold a candle to his soundtracking skills. Moving forward, it's going to be difficult to hear this song and not immediately associate it with the scene in question. 

"The Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" is now available in theaters.

Read this next: Every Pre-MCU Marvel Movie Ranked

The post Watch Guardians of the Galaxy 3's Final Soundtrack Cue Make Florence Welch Cry appeared first on /Film.

If you thought Mike Flanagan was done with Stephen King adaptations ... buddy, have I got some news for you. Not only is the writer/director working on bringing "The Dark Tower" to some form of TV series format, but it was also just announced that he will be writing, directing, and producing an adaptation of the recent King novella "The Life of Chuck" and he has attached a ridiculously hot cast already.

Per the break at Deadline, Tom Hiddleston will be playing the title character of Chuck, a man who discovered he is terminally ill at only 39 years old, and Luke Skywalker himself, Mark Hamill, will be playing Albie, Chuck's grandfather who may or may not be seeing ghosts in his house.

The adaptation will be produced by Flanagan's Intrepid Pictures and FilmNation is handling international sales with the project ready to hit the Cannes marketplace. Deadline says the production has cited "The Green Mile," "The Shawshank Redemption," and "Stand By Me" as touchstones for this adaptation, which has been in the works for months and, reportedly, has a completed script.

This would be the first time Flanagan has worked with Tom Hiddleston and the second time he's worked with Hamill, who will star in the filmmaker's "House of Usher" which is expected to drop on Netflix sometime this year.

Things Get Real Weird In This Story

"The Life of Chuck" was one of four novellas published in King's recent collection "If It Bleeds," and it is by far the most surreal of them all. I don't want to ruin things for you if you've never read the story, but I will say that it's unlike any previous Stephen King story, although you can feel the author's trademark talent at fleshing out real characters even while the story goes into some borderline Charlie Kaufman/"Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" areas.

The story is told in three stages, one stage is a world on the brink of collapse and you don't know why and in parallel is the story of Chuck. When we meet him he's dying and the story goes backward from there, all the way back to his childhood and his relationship with his grandparents, including his ghost-seeing grandpa.

Interestingly enough, Darren Aronofsky's production company, Protozoa Pictures, was the first to option this story, although it seems their option lapsed and King has now trusted it to Flanagan after the success of his previous adaptations, "Gerald's Game" and "Doctor Sleep." 

The interesting thing about Mike Flanagan is he seems to specialize in adapting notoriously difficult-to-adapt King properties. "Gerald's Game" was thought unfilmable for a long time because almost the entire story takes place in the mind of a woman handcuffed to a bed and "Doctor Sleep" had the impossible task of bringing together Stephen King's world and Stanley Kubrick's iconic cinematic (if not terribly faithful) adaptation. He knocked both out of the park and now he's tasked with this odd-ball title.

As a major King fan, I can't think of someone better for the job.

Read this next: The Best Cosmic Horror Movies That Will Make You Hate The Unknown

The post Stephen King's The Life Of Chuck is Being Adapted By Mike Flanagan with Mark Hamill and Tom Hiddleston Starring appeared first on /Film.

There's a hilarious irony to some of the productions currently halting in the wake of the Writers Guild of America's strike following the failure of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers to develop an acceptable deal during contract negotiations. Take, for example, the show "Loot," which features Maya Rudolph as a billionaire looking to distribute her immense wealth, or "Severance," a dystopian thriller about the ways corporations devalue and dehumanize their workforce in increasingly corrupt and terrifying ways. The latter comes from creator and writer Dan Erickson, who conceived the series that would later be directed and executive produced by Ben Stiller, with Aoife McArdle producing and directing as well.

"Severance" was one of the hottest shows of 2022, with many declaring the debut season one of the strongest first seasons of an original series in TV history. But its second season is now on hold according to Deadline, after members of IATSE and the show's Teamsters stood in solidarity and refused to cross the picket line of WGA members in New York City, effectively shutting down production. The news of a production halt should come as no surprise given that we're in the second week of the WGA strike, but previous interviews with Erickson regarding the parallels between "Severance" and real life prove that the writing's been on the walls for quite some time.

No, Erickson is not some mythic seer who was the singular predictor of the strike, but the success of "Severance" is due in large part to the brilliant ways it incorporates the real trials and tribulations of working in an American, capitalist society. Season 1 ends with the workers plotting to overthrow their corporate overlords, so it's not hard to see the similarities with the current strike.

Erickson has even spoken candidly about it.

'How Much Can Companies Ask Of People?'

During an interview last year with Esquire, Dan Erickson was asked what "Severance" can tell audiences about worker solidarity. "I absolutely love that people have grabbed onto that element of the story and are seeing that fight reflected on the show," Erickson said. "I'm by no means a labor expert, but I think it's undeniable that we're at a tipping point. How much can companies ask of people? What can workers do to find agency?"

The WGA has been extremely transparent about what they're asking of the AMPTP, and a majority of their proposals come down to eliminating existing loopholes that allow the exploitation of writers. This is exactly the sort of thing Erickson was thinking about when creating his hit series. "I love that we're living in a time of rethinking the structure of labor. Within the film and television industry, I've seen firsthand why unions are so necessary because there were times where I felt extremely uncomfortable with what we were asking people to do — the sheer amount of hours that people were put through," he said.

Erickson's pilot script for "Severance" first gained notoriety on The Blood List back in 2016, and he told Esquire that he was "learning as I went about this thing that's been bubbling for quite some time," while working on the set of the series. "As hours get longer, as certain industry norms fade, what must workers do to reassert their power and dignity? I think that's something that a lot of industries are reckoning with right now."

I think it's safe to say the reckoning is currently in progress.

Read this next: The Moments That Defined TV In 2022

The post How Severance Creator Dan Erickson Predicted the Current Writers Strike appeared first on /Film.

Loyalty and quality of work mean nothing to corporations when weighed against maintaining their profit and power, and HBO proved this true once again by suspending their deal with "The Wire" creator David Simon. The news broke via Simon himself, who shared it on Twitter and noted (with video evidence) that when he received the news, he was doing the "write thing" — walking a picket line with his fellow Writers Guild of America (WGA) members.

In case you doubted whether these two events were connected, Simon clarified in a subsequent tweet that the suspension was a "Strike response and not unexpected." Simon is outspoken about his beliefs and (liberal) politics, so his supporting the strike with such fervor is no surprise.

Simon is best known for "The Wire" (which ran from 2002 to 2008) but he's remained one of the most prolific creators of TV at HBO since. His subsequent work includes "Treme" (set in New Orleans during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina); "Show Me A Hero" (where Oscar Isaac played Nick Wasicsko, the late Mayor of Yonkers, New York); "The Deuce" (covering the adult film industry in 1970s New York City); and "The Plot Against America" (an adaptation of Philip Roth's alternate history novel, where the 1940s USA turns Fascist under President Charles Lindbergh).

HBO burning a bridge this profitable is a sign of how hard studios (and their conglomerate owners) are hunkering down against the WGA's cries for fair compensation.

Solidarity Forever

At the onset of the strike on May 2, 2023, HBO sent a letter (obtained by the Hollywood Reporter) to WGA members who serve in other roles such as showrunners and producers. The letter instructed them to fulfill their non-WGA-covered duties:

"HBO/HBO Max respects your membership in the WGA, and will not do anything to place you in jeopardy of violating WGA rules. However, we believe certain services, such as participating in the casting process and/or contributing to non-writing production and post-production work are clear examples of non-WGA required services that should continue to be rendered during this time."

This delineation of duties is why, for instance, Tony Gilroy is still overseeing the shoot of "Andor" season 2 for Disney, despite his WGA membership and the ongoing strike. Simon is taking a firmer line in solidarity with other writers, hence the suspension. The strike will have been on for a week tomorrow and industry insiders expect it to go on much longer. That leaves plenty of time to see if dual writers + showrunners/producers follow Simon's example or Gilroy's. The outcome could help tilt the balance of power.

When asked to provide further comment, Simon replied "Address [requests] to the union, which governs our media comms. I do as told, happily." You can read the full breakdown of the WGA's proposals and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers' (AMPTP) offers (as supplied by the WGA) here.

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The post HBO Suspends The Wire Creator David Simon's Deal After 25 Years appeared first on /Film.

On May 23, 2023, the streaming service Max will debut a reboot of "Clone High," the Canadian animated series created by Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, and Bill Lawrence that initially ran in 2002 and 2003. 

For those unfamiliar with the series, it had something of an odd premise. A shadowy governmental organization called the Secrey Board of Shadowy Figures has found a way to clone notable leaders from throughout human history. Hundreds of them were cloned about 16 years ago, and the teenage versions of the historical figures are now all attending the same all-American high school. The series lead was Abraham Lincoln (Will Forte), who would encounter the usual trials of adolescence. Abe would have an on-again-off-again relationship with Cleopatra (Christa Miller), and was best friends with Joan of Arc (Nicole Sullivan) and Gandhi (Michael McDonald). Abe's primary rival was the womanizing JFK (Chris Miller). Other attendees of Clone High included Martin Luther King, Jr., Buddy Holly, Marie Antoinette, Harriet Tubman, Genghis Khan, and Moses. 

The central joke of the series is that the clones, more or less a glorified science experiment, are just as foolish and horny as average teenagers. They may possess some of the qualities as the providers of their genetic material, but not so much that they behave historically. 

The new Max series will be a continuation of the original show, but sees the clones surviving a 20-year cryogenic slumber only to wake once more in 2023, where they are still teenagers. Now, not only are they descended from history, but their slang is trapped in 2003. Like anything made by Lord & Miller, it's wonderfully high-concept. 

The new series will premiere its first two episodes on May 23, 2023, with two new episodes dropping every Thursday from June 1 through June 22, 2023.

Unfrozen

The show's broad, hand-drawn, sharp-angled animation style will be left intact, as will the cast and the series' wild, deliberately crass sense of humor. If the thought of a teenage Confucious snapping embarrassing videos of JFK in shop class is your jam, then "Clone High" is for you. Also, because "Clone High" is a sci-fi show with a mad scientist at its center, it will also incorporate monsters and mutants. The actual story has not yet been released. 

Gandhi will not be a returning character on the series following controversy from its initial run. Although "Clone High" did not broadcast in India, several Indian citizens caught a few episodes and objected to the depiction of Gandhi as a character; notably, there was a scene wherein Gandhi was savagely beaten up. India threatened to pull the broadcasting rights of MTV's parent company, Viacom, if it didn't take "Clone High" off the air, and Lord & Miller were subsequently asked to pitch a version of the show without Gandhi. In one version, Gandhi would merely be gone and no one would address his absence. In another, it would be revealed that Gandhi was, in fact, a clone of the late actor Gary Coleman. The higher-ups opted for the former. 

Playing (clones of) themselves on the rebooted show will be Michael Bolton, Ian Ziering, Mandy Moore, and Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr. 

Actor Mitra Jouhari (from "History of the World, Part II") will take over playing Cleopatra while Christa Miller will play the new role of Candide Simpson (perhaps a clone of Voltaire?). Ayo Edebiri will take over playing Harriet Tubman from Debra Wilson. 

"Clone High" is a rare occasion when a property invented after 2001 will be rebooted. Others include "The Last Airbender," "Pretty Little Liars," and the "Percy Jackson" reboot.

Read this next: Every Time Futurama Predicted The Future

The post Clone High Trailer: Joan, JFK, Abe, and Cleo Are Thawed Out and Back in School appeared first on /Film.

The Film Gods observed the release of Jason Statham Takes On A Prehistoric Megalodon With His Bare Hands, aka "The Meg," back in 2018 and saw that it was good. (So, too, did certain outlets such as /Film in our review, bravely speaking out in defense of the shark-snacking blockbuster upon release.) Then, after years of waiting for updates, the Film Gods finally deigned to give their blessing to the production of what would eventually be called "Meg 2: The Trench" ... and we will see that this will most likely be good, too, especially if that early, dino-chomping footage screened during CinemaCon is any indication.

Now, we're getting our first real look at the utter madness in store for us as Warner Bros. has seen fit to release the official trailer for "Meg 2." Not only does this sequel bring back Jason Statham as everyone's favorite rescue diver/action hero extraordinaire Jonas Taylor — I absolutely had to look up his character's name and I'm just now realizing how funny it is that "Jonas" is an anagram of "Jason" — but it also features another killer megalodon and, incredibly enough, will be directed by talented indie filmmaker Ben Wheatley, of all people. I don't make the rules, people, I simply go where the Film Gods tell me to go.

In any case, we now have 100% more "Meg" footage to obsess over than we did 10 minutes ago, and that's reason enough to celebrate. Thought it was safe to venture out to the giant megalodon-infested waters? HA, think again!

Catch Some Waves ... And Meg 2: The Trench Trailer!

Get your harpoons and fancy underwater submarines, folks, because our first extended look at "Meg 2: The Trench" is here. I don't know about you, but my day has suddenly improved exponentially. Who knew that the cure to the weekday doldrums would be watching hordes of innocents getting terrorized by yet another kaiju-sized shark — actually, make that multiple kaiju-sized sharks — out for blood?

"The Meg" sequel features the return of Jason Statham, Cliff Curtis, Shuya Sophia Cai, and Page Kennedy from the original movie, which was based on the novel by author Steve Alten. The sequel, as you'll likely not be surprised to learn, pulled from Alten's follow-up book titled "The Trench," which continues the misadventures of the man who simply can't stop running into prehistoric aquatic animals that should've been extinct by now. It's a pretty specific niche to find yourself in, admittedly, but somebody has to do it!

Directed by Wheatley with a script credited to writers Jon Hoeber, Erich Hoeber, and Dean Georgaris (the original writers on the 2018 film, as well), "Meg 2: The Trench" also stars newcomers Sergio Peris-Mencheta, Sienna Guillory, Skyler Samuels, Wu Jing, and more. 

The greatest cinematic sequel of our time (what, too much?) swims into theaters on August 4, 2023.

Dive into uncharted waters with Jason Statham and global action icon Wu Jing as they lead a daring research team on an exploratory dive into the deepest depths of the ocean. Their voyage spirals into chaos when a malevolent mining operation threatens their mission and forces them into a high-stakes battle for survival. Pitted against colossal Megs and relentless environmental plunderers, our heroes must outrun, outsmart, and outswim their merciless predators in a pulse-pounding race against time.

Read this next: The 31 Scariest Movie Scenes Ever

The post Meg 2: The Trench Trailer: Jason Statham Returns to Fight Three More Giant Sharks appeared first on /Film.

This post contains spoilers for "Barry" season 4, episode 5.

In the latest episode of "Barry," entitled "tricky legacies," the HBO show takes a huge narrative risk by sending the series and its characters eight years into the future. By placing Barry (now named Clark) and Sally (now Emily) in the middle of nowhere and on the run, the final season is also potentially jeopardizing the show's ability to still deliver the same sudden thrills and uncomfortable laughs that fans have come to expect week-to-week. Now with a son of their own named John (Zachary Golinger), Barry appears to be trying to keep his makeshift family life inside a tightly controlled bubble where everyone is safe from the outside world. 

Just as Barry has taken a new name and made a new life for him and his family, he's trying to craft a better, more righteous version of himself that's ultimately making him even more clueless to the reality around him. Sally is crying all the time, drinking often, and their poor son John is completely isolated for fear of him finding out the truth about his father's past life. As part of that reworking of his image, Barry also turns to religion, or at least the surface teachings of evangelicals spouting out feel-good proverbs on Sunday morning television. 

In what will probably amount to a one-off episode where Barry and Sally have time to self-reflect and stew a little, "tricky legacies" is using the trappings of suburbia and religious dogma to underscore one of the main themes of "Barry." Bill Hader has crafted a lead character that thinks he deserves a better life and thinks he's not an evil person (even though he clearly is). No amount of time or protection is going to give Barry what he really wants, which is to be forgiven for past sins.

Trying To Convert Without Atoning

In episode 5's uncomfortably claustrophobic and self-contained episode, Barry has become something of an armchair cult leader to Sally and John. Sally knows the truth about Barry, and John can't ever know that truth. So they exist in a sort of self-created limbo where Barry floats around pretending he's a convert when, really, he's still a convict now stuck in a prison of his own making.

With just a few episodes left, when Hader set out to make "tricky legacies," he wanted Barry to use religion as a crutch without criticizing anyone else's belief system, telling The Ringer:

"I have family members and friends who are very religious and they get a lot out of it, so I never wanted to do something that was commenting on religion. It was more of, in my mind, that Barry needs to be forgiven by somebody. And you know, you see this a lot with cons, you know, they go into jail and they get religious, so it made sense to Duffy [Boudreau] and I that he would become religious. But because it's Barry, he doesn't fully understand it. He likes the idea of it."

What Hader is subtly saying in this episode is that Barry will never really be forgiven for what he's done by anyone, not even himself. By the end of "tricky legacies," it's clear Barry hasn't taken any of those teachings to heart at all. He's just been biding his time until his past comes crashing back into his life. That happens when a long-haired Gene Cousineau (Henry Winkler) emerges as a potential consultant for a film about Barry's life, now that he's a famous fugitive. But if Gene wants to get into the world of true crime, he better start looking over his shoulder, because Barry just chose killing again over being born again.

Read this next: Every Yellowjackets Main Character, Ranked

The post Barry's Evangelicalism in Season 4 Episode 5 Isn't Truly About Religion appeared first on /Film.

On Tuesday, May 2, 2023, talks between the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers fell apart over issues pertaining to, among other things, the paltry residuals writers get for streaming revenue. The WGA said in a statement that pay had become so low that the AMPTP had essentially created "a gig economy inside a union work force." The WGA was also concerted with the disturbing, and very real possibility that authors could ostensibly be replaced by studio-owned AI programs. 

The writers' strike took effect at 12:01 a.m. and, as of this writing, is still in effect. Production on several high-end TV shows has already ceased as a result. 

Negotiations for better wages and higher job security are, it seems, not terribly complicated. According to filmmaker Judd Apatow, who recently spoke with Variety, the strike isn't about bureaucratic details or untangling complex legalese, but a mere game of chicken being played by the studios. Apatow has intuited that, for the producers, the strike is little more than a protracted bargaining chip. Apatow seems to think that the producers can -- and will -- end the strike at any time, and have been looking at the entire enterprise as a matter of crunching numbers, saving cash, and paying out when they feel they can afford it. Apatow also thinks it's going to go on a long time. 

For context, the writers' strike of 1988, the longest in the organization's history, lasted 153 days. The 2008 strike lasted 100 days. 

'That's Why It's An Existential Problem'

Apatow was succinct, saying: 

"I always think that whatever happens, they could have figured it out already. When these things conclude, you never go, 'I understand why it took that long.' It's never something so inventive, and groundbreaking, that you think, 'Oh, people needed to go to war for months over it.' It's always a very obvious position. [...] So that's what's scary about it is that there is a solution, but I'm not sure that all of the business interests are interested in getting to it quickly."

Apatow hopes that the strike will reveal to beancounters the actual importance of writers in the creative ecosystem of Hollywood. He compares Hollywood to the recent kerfuffle at Twitter, wherein an inexperienced new CEO moved in and, as a cost-saving measure, laid off a great deal of the company's staff, deeming them redundant. He feels that the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (also known as the AMPTP) would happily lay off its workers if it could, all in the name of saving money. Apatow feels, however, that doing so would drive people away from the business altogether. If writers aren't being paid, the incentive to become a professional goes away. The writer/director/producer believes that online fame would be pursued instead. In his words:

"That's why it's an existential problem. If the ecosystem of writers doesn't exist, no one will learn how to do it. No one will be able to survive doing it. And then everyone will go, 'Well, maybe I'll write video games, maybe I'll make TikToks at home and become an influencer.' It's a lot of creative people who can do other things. So you don't want the whole system to collapse."

Apatow's daughter, Maude, is something of a TikTok celebrity already, so he's seen it in action.

It's Not About Greed

Apatow lays out this future, of course, as a mere possible outcome of an industry working at extremes. None of the picketing writers has said they will leave the business and become a TikTok influencer instead (at least not publicly), and Apatow wasn't suggesting that they should. The writer of "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" and "This is 40" was merely concerned for an environment where writing is no longer valued as a craft. If a mega-hit will net a writer the same small payment as a bomb, there is less incentive to try. This seems to be the case with major streaming services. Apatow said:

"We have a system now that does not reward success for a lot of these projects. [...] If you make something and a billion people watch it, you don't make more money than if it was a disaster, right? That's not good for creativity because it takes away a lot of the motivation for the creative people, because people work really hard to create some sort of cushion for their lives."

Success, Apatow added, should be a fortunate side effect of writing, and the old model -- of living off residuals while writing the next project -- was preferable to a model where there were no residuals at all. 

"All of our work is ebb and flow. The successes pay for the time when things aren't going well. Sometimes they go well and sometimes they don't, but you can live off of the time that you wrote something that had a lot of residual [fees paid out]. It's always been a tenuous career. But if you take away most of the linchpins, it's a career that a majority people can't survive." 

Read this next: The Greatest Misfires In Movie History

The post The Writers Strike Presents an 'Existential Problem' for the Film Industry, Judd Apatow Says appeared first on /Film.

Back in 2021, "Saturday Night Live" debuted recorded sketches from the comedy group known as Please Don't Destroy. Having carved out a viral comedy presence on social media, the trio of Martin Herlihy, John Higgins, and Ben Marshall have established themselves as the latest successors to The Lonely Island's game-changing SNL Digital Shorts. Frequently, Please Don't Destroy's sketches have been among the best efforts in each new episode of "SNL," such as the one below featuring Taylor Swift. Beyond that, Herlihy, Higgins, and Marshall have also been responsible for writing plenty of other memorable sketches from the past two seasons.

Please Don't Destroy was meant to make their big screen debut this year, having written the script for a feature film produced by longtime comedy filmmakers Judd Apatow and Jimmy Miller. The film was slated to be released in theaters this August, but sadly, Variety reports that the yet-to-be-titled Please Don't Destroy movie will now be released on Peacock in November instead. However, the good news is that we finally have details on what the movie will be about. 

A Riff On Treasure Of The Sierra Madre?

Described as a buddy comedy, the Please Don't Destroy movie is said to follow three childhood friends who live and work together, but when they realize that they're unhappy with the trajectory of their lives, they set off to find a gold treasure that is rumored to be buried in the nearby mountain. Finding said treasure, however, turns out to be the easiest part of the adventure. 

The film sounds like a comedy of errors that may be inspired by "Treasure of the Sierra Madre," which follows two down-on-their-luck Americans searching for work in 1920s Mexico who convince an old prospector to help them mine for gold in the Sierra Madre Mountains. Clearly that's just a jumping-off point, and if you've seen the comedy of Please Don't Destroy on "SNL," you know that they're quite experienced with unexpected mishaps. 

Shot last year during the summer hiatus from "SNL," the film is directed by Paul Briganti, who has been at the helm of several great pre-recorded "SNL" sketches, such as the "Joker" trailer parody "Grouch" with David Harbour as a live-action Oscar the Grouch:

The Please Don't Destroy movie's full cast hasn't been revealed, but the roster includes "SNL" cast member Bowen Yang, former "SNL" writer and late night legend Conan O'Brien, Meg Statler ("Hacks"), X Mayo, Nichole Sakura, Cedric Yarbrough and Sunita Mani.

All three dudes from Please Don't Destroy are also executive producing along with Josh Church, M. Riley, Sam Hansen, and Michael Sledd.

Why Is It Going To Peacock?

It's not clear why Universal opted to send the movie to Peacock instead of theaters, but studios have become rather averse to sending comedies to the big screen these days, especially when it comes to R-rated fare. There are very few slated for release, with Jennifer Lawrence's "No Hard Feelings" being one of them, and studios have opted to only support comedy when it's part of a high concept premise. That's a real shame, because the community experience of seeing a comedy in theaters with the audience erupting with laughter is one of the best times you can have at the multiplex. But since Universal's "Bros" underperformed last year, the studio is probably leery to take a risk on another comedy that is R-rated "for pervasive language, sexual material, some drug material, brief graphic nudity and violence."

Basically, don't let this serve as a strike against the film's quality. It sounds like a business decision based on the R-rated material and the box office climate in recent years. Even Marvel Studios features aren't performing quite as well, so it's not easy to get audiences into theaters unless you've got massive intellectual property appeal like "The Super Mario Bros. Movie." But if studios don't take a chance on those comedies in theaters, we'll never really know if audiences are hungry for them again. 

The Please Don't Destroy movie will arrive on Peacock on November 17, 2023.

Read this next: The 95 Best Comedy Movies Ever

The post Please Don't Destroy's Movie Is Now Heading to Peacock Instead of Theaters, and That Sucks appeared first on /Film.

We're less than a week into the Writers Guild of America strike, and the effects on the TV industry are already being felt. As it turns out, writing is an invaluable part of the TV-making process; one that doesn't just stop once the script is revised after the table read. Whereas some other shows currently in production (like "House of the Dragon") have announced they'll still be filming in "strictly a non-writing capacity," the "Stranger Things" showrunners have shown some much-needed awareness that this is pretty much impossible for any showrunner who wants to maintain their show's quality.

"Writing does not stop when filming begins," the Duffer Brothers tweeted. "While we're excited to start production with our amazing cast and crew, it is not possible during this strike. We hope a fair deal is reached soon so we can all get back to work."

This might seem like overkill, but as screenwriter Sera Gambles could tell you, a writer's role is vital at pretty much every stage of the production process. Filming stuff in real life is inherently different than writing the script, and the crew needs someone intimately familiar with the whole story who can assist with all the little improvisations required. "The writer on set is often the only person who knows minute details of what's gonna happen [six] episodes from now," Gamble explained. "So they're able to see performance through that lens, and advise the director who can work with an actor to make choices that will best support their character's arc."

What This Means For A Strike

The Duffer Brothers' decision is particularly noteworthy because of how massive "Stranger Things" is. It's a pop culture phenomenon that's approaching its climactic final season, and its many prominent kid actors aren't getting any younger. Streaming services like Netflix think they're saving money by not paying their writers better, but the indefinite delay of one of their most profitable shows should surely serve as a strong counter-argument to that idea.

The season 5 delay is also notable because "Stranger Things" is a show that's emblematic of a lot of the concerns strikers have over the current TV landscape. After all, it's released on Netflix, the platform that ushered in the streaming era that's denied so many TV writers the residuals that once allowed to support themselves solely through writing. It's also a show guilty of making seasons with low episode counts and longer-than-average episode runtimes, allowing the studio to pay the crew less for more work.

The last WGA strike in 2007 went on for 100 days, and the longest strike ever (in 1988) went on for 153 days. With any luck, the studios and writers will soon reach an agreement that allows the TV industry to become accessible again to people who aren't already rich, hopefully some time before the "Stranger Things" kid actors reach their 30s. Fans of the show might be disappointed at this delay, but fans of TV in general should applaud the Duffer Brothers' decision. A better TV industry is possible, and they're helping to make it happen.

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