Author: Simon Andrews

As filming continues in and around New York for Season 2 of Marvel’s The Punisher, the accompanying set photos just keep on coming thick and fast. So far they’ve given fans a first look at new characters Amy Bendix (Giorgia Whigham) and John Pilgrim (Josh Stewart), as well as Frank interacting with the returning Dinah Madani (Amber Rose Revah) and Curtis Hoyle (Jason R. Moore). And now some new leaked shots have given us our first glimpse of the show’s big villain, Jigsaw.  When we last saw Billy Russo (Ben Barnes), he was lying in a coma, after being beaten…

It’s fair to say that the porn industry has come a long way since the era of dog-eared communal magazines and grainy VHS tapes. These days, it’s a multi-million dollar machine, enjoying media coverage and financial investment that a mainstream Hollywood movie studio would envy. One of the key reasons for the irresistible rise of pornographic cinema is it’s ability to stay relevant, managing to showcase and satirize every aspect of modern society. No subject is safe from a bit of sexual spoof, not even Solo: A Star Wars Story. Pick any big film or TV franchise, and there will…

In terms of shared movie universes, they don’t come much bigger than Star Wars or the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a fact which is much to the chagrin of the struggling DCEU. To score a role in either of these franchises is the equivalent of winning the lottery for an actor, bringing untold levels of public recognition, and even the possibility of being immortalized somewhere else within in the extended canon and materials that support the blockbuster movie releases. Because these are BIG, sprawling cinematic universes, propped up by numerous comics, TV shows and computer games that can further boost and…

In addition to Wilson Fisk, Season 3 of Daredevil will also be introducing another iconic Daredevil villain, Bullseye. It’s pretty much a given now that each new Marvel/Netflix series will have a couple of bad guys to throw at the protagonist, and with Season 2 of Marvel’s The Punisher currently filming in and around NYC, fans are eagerly awaiting a glimpse of Ben Barnes, in the hope he will be wearing his new Jigsaw makeup. But we have a sneaking suspicion that Billy Russo might not be the only facially-scarred villain that Frank faces of against this season, and that Irish…

Most film franchises contain at least one movie that pretty much everybody associated with it wishes had ultimately never happened. Whether it’s The Phantom Menace, Rise Of The Machines or either of Joel Schumacher’s  attempts at a Batman movie, studios so often have a tendency to fiddle with their films in the furtherance of profit, with disastrous and long-term consequences. Over in Bryan Singer’s X-Verse, the holder of the aforementioned unwanted  accolade is generally accepted to be X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Memorable for some spectacularly poor CGI and notoriously off-key character design, it’s an awkward and uncomfortable entry in the franchise.…

In the closing stages of Season One of Marvel’s The Punisher, Marvel gave fans of their iconic character exactly what they’d been waiting for. After betraying and repeatedly trying to kill off his old war buddy, Billy ‘the Beaut’ Russo finally received the  appropriate payback he deserved. With half of his face ground off using broken glass, and having been beaten into a coma, there was a question over what role Russo would play (if any) in the show’s second season. Well, some video that has surfaced this week has answered now that question, in spectacular style. Russo’s coma left…

The Hollywood sexual impropriety scandal has been ongoing for the last seven months now, and has effectively ended the movie careers of some pretty big names. As well as movie supremo Harvey Weinstein and Academy Award winner Kevin Spacey, actors such as T.J. Miller and Ed Westwick will struggle to work again, and directors like Brett Ratner and John Lasseter look to have been permanently exiled from the industry.  Well, it looks like you can now add director Luc Besson to the growing list. French native Besson has been making movies in Hollywood for the last 30 years, and is…

When we last saw Jon Bernthal’s version of Marvel’s most iconic vigilante, he’d succeeded in killing (or in some cases, brutally maiming) everybody he’d managed to connect to the deaths of his family. The final few scenes of Season One of The Punisher showed Frank reconnecting with War buddy Curtis Hoyle (Jason R. Moore) and sitting down to try and deal with his demons in group therapy. Well, if the new set photos that have just leaked from the filming of season 2 are anything to go by, that attempt to put his violent past behind him will last all…

Amidst all the political controversies, critical acclaim and big talking points surrounding last month’s release of Black Panther, one of the film’s standout successes was its portrayal of the eponymous hero’s new frenemy, M’baku. Winston Duke’s spirited performance of what should have been a minor supporting character, captured the hearts of an international audience, and we’d argue that the events of Infinity War now might mean that he’s also the MCU’s new Black Panther. The decision to include M’Baku in the film sparked controversy as soon as it was announced. A Z-List villain from the original source material who went…

There’s never been so much pressure on TV show-runners to attract and keep hold of audiences, with this week seeing a brutal cull of poorly-performing shows across all of the major networks. Fox struck first, cutting five entertainment shows including fan favorite Brooklyn Nine Nine (later picked up by NBC). They were followed by Syfy, who announced that despite holding an unprecedented 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, The Expanse would not be renewed at the end of Season Three. And now ABC have followed suit, with Marvel’s Inhumans axed after a deeply disappointing debut season. The decision by ABC to…