Did the Oscar slap hurt Will Smith’s career? For months, there was talk that the controversial violence at the 94th Academy Awards ceremony in 2022 badly damaged the Academy Award-winner’s career, and studios were abandoning ship from his star. Well, the terrific 2024 opening of “Bad Boys Ride Or Die”—$74 million in its opening weekend, $126 million so far after one week—may have suddenly changed all that.

Continue reading Will Smith May Team With Jonathan Nolan & Lisa Joy For A Mystery A.I. TV Thriller at The Playlist.

Built on a wearying cheerful optimism/cruel fatalism dichotomy—contrasting chords that aren’t all that engaging or novel to begin with but repeated ad nauseum regardless—it’s astonishing just how quickly the post-apocalyptic sci-fi series, “Fallout,” wears out its welcome. Startlingly glib, one-note, and yet self-assured in its vacant design, the series reveals its shallow hand very early. “Fallout” endlessly reprises the wholesome quaintness vs. the grotesque or freakishly ruthlessness mode of apposition and fails to do anything remotely interesting with it, reinforcing what swiftly becomes a long, tiresome pattern and slog.

Continue reading ‘Fallout’ Review: One Note Clash Of Post-Apocalyptic Hostility & Quaint ‘50s Retro Futurism Is Exhaustingly Dull at The Playlist.

Three months after it was renewed for season five, HBO abruptly changed course and suddenly canceled “Westworld” last year, the dystopian science-fiction series by creator Jonathan Nolan (co-writer on ‘The Dark Knight’ trilogy) and his wife and creative partner Lisa Joy. “Westworld” wasn’t cheap to make; the ten-episode first season was reportedly produced on a budget of approximately $100 million, with per-episode budgets somewhere between $8 million to $10 million, and the pilot episode alone costing $25 million to produce.

Continue reading ‘Westworld’: Jonathan Nolan Recalls Butting Heads With HBO & Their “Handwringing”: We Were At “Loggerheads” at The Playlist.

The annals of unmade Christopher Nolan films are not particularly long. Perhaps one of the legendary projects mentioned in the past was Nolan’s unrealized Howard Hughes project—some brief elements of which he folded into Bruce Wayne’s recluse period in “The Dark Knight Rises.” There was also, at one point in the past, Nolan’s intentions of remaking the surreal 1960s TV series, “The Prisoner,” created by and starring Patrick McGoohan (which is loosely rumored to be among the next projects he is thinking about making post “Oppenheimer”).

Continue reading Jonathan Nolan Says One of Christopher Nolan’s Unmade Film Projects Is A Comedy at The Playlist.

Jonathan Nolan (“Westworld”) is out in the world promoting his upcoming post-apocalyptic Amazon series “Fallout” and, of course, his time working on “The Dark Knight” trilogy with his brother Christopher Nolan is still a topic that journalists are insatiable curious about. While speaking with Josh Horowitz on his podcast, Happy Sad Confused, Nolan took a tour down memory lane, reflecting on all things Batman.

Continue reading Jonathan Nolan Says They Toyed With Idea Of Using The Riddler For ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ at The Playlist.

While he was known for years as Christopher Nolan’s co-writer, his younger brother, Jonathan Nolan, has really taken off in recent years and made his name for himself on television. Following shows like “Person of Interest” and HBO’s “Westworld,” a series he created and led for many years, the younger Nolan is about to debut his latest show, “Fallout,” on Amazon Prime.

Continue reading Jonathan Nolan Says Christopher Nolan Was Initially “On The Fence” About Making More ‘Batman’ Films After ‘Batman’ Begins’ at The Playlist.

Despite HBO canceling the series and scrubbing it from its library, Jonathan Nolan still wants to finish the “Westworld” story. But does anybody else, even the show’s old fans, feel the same way?

EW reports (via THR) that Nolan plans to make the ex-flagship series’ fifth and final season, even if HBO has moved on. “Yes. 100 Percent,” he told THR when asked about if he still wants to make the show’s original ending.

Continue reading ‘Westworld’: Jonathan Nolan “100 Percent” Wants To Make The Show’s Fifth & Final Season: “We’re Completionists” at The Playlist.

With the superhero genre sort of on the ropes, maybe it’s time for the age of video game adaptations to finally shine. And if the small screen keeps giving us quality shows like “The Last of Us,” perhaps the future of this once-maligned genre looks much more promising. One of those that could keep things thriving is Jonathan Nolan’s (“Westworld”) post-apocalypse show “Fallout,” an Amazon Prime Video project based on the wildly popular satirical video game franchise.

Continue reading ‘Fallout’ Showrunner Jonathan Nolan Says Appeasing Fans Would Have Been “A Fool’s Errand” at The Playlist.

While you have names like Weiss and Benioff (“Game Of Thrones”), the Duffer Brothers (“Stranger Things”), and Noah Hawley (“Fargo”), there aren’t that many writers/directors/showrunner auteurs in television. However, one recent pair to surface is Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, the creators of “Westworld.” In the middle of their run on HBO’s “Westworld,” the pair signed a lucrative deal with Amazon Studios.

Continue reading ‘Fallout’ Trailer: Jonathan Nolan’s New Post-Apocalyptic Series Stars Ella Purnell, Walton Goggins & Hits April 2024 at The Playlist.

The “Fallout” franchise is one of the most beloved in video game history. Not only is it just a solid franchise with amazing gameplay, but it’s also one of the most mythologically rich franchises in the medium. It’s a video game franchise, much like “The Last of Us,” which just begs to be told in live-action. Well, we’re soon going to find out what a “Fallout” series is like, thanks to the folks at Prime Video. 

READ MORE: ‘Fallout’: Amazon’s Post-Apocalypse Series Directed By Jonathan Nolan Will Debut On April 12

We are just about six months away from the premiere of “Fallout,” and the studio has released first-look images of the main actors in the show.

Continue reading ‘Fallout’ First Look: Jonathan Nolan & Lisa Joy’s New Apocalyptic Series Stars Ella Purnell & Walton Goggins at The Playlist.

Amazon’s Prime Video is going deep into genre in order to lure more subscribers. The streamer is moving ahead with season two of “The Lord of The Rings: The Rings of Power” and already has a plan to turn the acclaimed game “God of War” (the recent two installments exploring a version of Norse mythology) into a live-action series too. They’re also doing the same with the beloved post-apocalypse video game franchise “Fallout.”

Thankfully, we now know when the “Fallout” series will debut as Variety revealed that its debut date on Prime Video will be April 12, 2024.

Continue reading ‘Fallout’: Amazon’s Post-Apocalypse Series Directed By Jonathan Nolan Will Debut On April 12 at The Playlist.

After four seasons, HBO’s ambitious series “Westworld” from showrunners Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan is officially ending. “Westworld” was mainly about sentient robots, aka hosts, created for a lavish theme park for the extremely rich where “anything goes.” Eventually, after killing a heap of humans, they make their way outside the park into a dystopian future society.

“Westworld” was actually renewed for a fifth and final season in August, but clearly, under the new leadership of David Zaslav at Warner Bros.

Continue reading ‘Westworld’: HBO Cancels Their Ambitious Sci-Fi Series After 4 Seasons at The Playlist.

Few recent sci-fi programs have premiered with the same fanfare and anticipation as Prime Video’s “The Peripheral,” dropping its first two episodes on the Amazon streamer on October 21st with a weekly rollout to follow. It’s got that Bezos money, the two main voices behind “Westworld,” and source material by the beloved William Gibson (it’s loosely based on his 2014 novel of the same name). And yet, almost from the very beginning, it’s a clunky disaster.

Continue reading ‘The Peripheral’ Review: Prime Video Wants To Transport You To A Dull, Incoherent Future at The Playlist.

Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan may have made themselves known as a Hollywood duo after the success of HBO’s “Westworld,” but soon into that run, they became so in demand that they signed a major deal with Amazon’s Prime Video. At the time, it seemed unclear what that would mean for “Westworld,” but it seems they’ve managed to keep everything concurrently running, “Westworld” is now on season four, and many Prime Video projects are in the works.

Continue reading ‘The Peripheral’ Trailer: Chloë Moretz Does Sci-Fi For ‘Westworld’ Creators Jonathan Nolan & Lisa Joy at The Playlist.

Since the mid-1980s, William Gibson has set a precedent for heady SF novels, with “Neuromancer” and its “Sprawl” trilogy being the ur-texts of cyberpunk. So, how have William Gibson‘s novels never crossed over to movies and TV? Maybe because Gibson’s speculative fiction is too hard to translate to a broad appeal. After all, only two of Gibson’s short stories have made it to the big screen: 1995’s dismal “Johnny Mnemonic” and Abel Ferrara‘s underrated corporate raider tale “New Rose Hotel” from 1998.

Continue reading ‘The Peripheral’ Trailer: Chloë Grace Moretz Stars In New Prime Video SF Series From Lisa Joy & Jonathan Nolan at The Playlist.

The third season of HBO’s “Westworld” was a dour death march as the show’s over-reliance on convoluted twists and turns led it to a place in which it barely resembled the clever sci-fi thriller it was in the first two seasons. Breaking the characters of this world out of the park that gave it a name allowed creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy a chance to tell any number of stories, and they arguably lost their way in this vision of the future, diving so deep into its philosophies and technology that they forgot to entertain.

Continue reading ‘Westworld’ Review: Season 4 Tries to Find Its Way Home In Inconsistent But Improved New Chapter at The Playlist.

Amazon is looking to turn IP television into appointment viewing. The streamer is about to debut “Lord of The Rings: The Rings of Power” in September and is already looking to take high-profile video game franchises like “Fallout” and “Mass Effect” into live-action brands. And with that in mind, it seems like Amazon has found its lead actor for “Fallout.”

According to Deadline, character actor Walton Goggins of “Justified” has landed an unnamed lead role in the series and is said to be playing a ghoul, a type of mutated humanoid from the game.

Continue reading ‘Fallout’: Walton Goggins To Lead Amazon’s Post-Apocalypse Series at The Playlist.

Over at HBO, the network is diving into the post-apocalyptic video game adaptation business with the upcoming TV series “The Last of Us.” Not to be outdone, it appears Amazon is ready to get the ball officially rolling on its own post-apocalyptic video game adaptation with “Fallout,” and the streaming platform thinks Jonathan Nolan is the right Nolan to direct.

Continue reading ‘Fallout’: Jonathan Nolan Will Produce & Direct Amazon’s TV Adaptation Of The Videogame Franchise at The Playlist.

If you’re a fan of either Jake Gyllenhaal or Denis Villeneuve, you know that both are creators working at the top of their game right now. You have Gyllenhaal taking some of the most interesting and challenging roles of his career, while Villeneuve is off making ambitious sci-fi epics such as “Dune.” But the two also work incredibly well together, even if it’s been a while since we’ve seen them collaborate.

Continue reading ‘The Son’: Jake Gyllenhaal & Denis Villeneuve Teaming Up For HBO Series From The Producers Of ‘Westworld’ at The Playlist.

While Chloë Grace Moretz has never been shy about working in genre films previously, as she may be best known for her superhero role in the “Kick-Ass” films, recently, she’s gone for more auteur works, such as “Greta,” “Suspiria,” “The Miseducation of Cameron Post,” and the never-released “I Love You, Daddy.” But lately, she appears to be jumping headfirst into genre yet again with her upcoming film, “Shadow in the Cloud” and a new Amazon series based on a novel from sci-fi author William Gibson.

Continue reading ‘The Peripheral’: Chloë Grace Moretz To Star In Amazon’s Sci-Fi Series Produced By ‘Westworld’ Creators at The Playlist.

“Westworld” may continue to become the source of much debate amongst TV fans, with its seasons varying greatly in both quality and story. But that doesn’t mean that creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy are any less in-demand in Hollywood. And it appears that they’re about to begin work on a brand-new series based on one of the most popular video game franchises of all time, “Fallout.”

READ MORE: HBO Gives Early Renewal For ‘Westworld’ Season 4

According to THR, Amazon Studios have teamed up with Joy and Nolan to develop a new TV series based on the “Fallout” video game franchise.

Continue reading ‘Westworld’ Creators Adapting ‘Fallout’ Video Game Franchise For A New Amazon Series at The Playlist.

Though the third season seems to be watched by fewer people than previous seasons, HBO is committed to “Westworld.” So much so, the network has already given the sci-fi series early renewal for a fourth outing, while Season 3 is still airing.

READ MORE: ‘Westworld’ Season 3 Premiere Saw A Massive Viewership Decline From Season 2

HBO has announced that Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy are returning to tell another season’s worth of stories for “Westworld” in the future.

Continue reading HBO Gives Early Renewal For ‘Westworld’ Season 4 at The Playlist.

If you’re one of the viewers that have stuck around to watch Season 3 of “Westworld” (a not-so-large number, apparently), then you were probably surprised to see a special addition to the cast of the sci-fi series in last night’s episode. A character appeared that has his roots in another HBO megaseries, and his appearance in the newest “Westworld” episode has fans curious about what’s to come.

READ MORE: ‘Westworld’ Season 3 Premiere Saw A Massive Viewership Decline From Season 2

**Spoiler for episode 2 of “Westworld” Season 3**

Last night, a dragon appeared in “Westworld.” But not just any dragon.

Continue reading George R.R. Martin Wanted A Much Bigger ‘Thrones’ Presence In Last Night’s ‘Westworld’ at The Playlist.

It’s been almost two years since fans of “Westworld” have seen a new episode of the incredibly popular HBO series. And let’s just say Season 2 didn’t really leave such a great taste in many of their mouths, as the series was criticized heavily for the writing and storyline of the most recent batch of episodes. But if you’re hoping that Season 3 is going to be different, you’re in luck, according to one of the show’s stars, Tessa Thompson.

Continue reading Tessa Thompson Says ‘Westworld’ Season 3 Feels Like “The Show Is Starting All Over Again” at The Playlist.

While we keep waiting to see what happens to the robots that escaped from the park in “Westworld,” HBO released a new teaser on Friday that contains hints for the upcoming season 3. This being a show full of twists and turns, the teaser doesn’t show any of the characters or settings we are familiar with. Instead, the teaser introduces us to a Silicon Valley-style company called Incite Inc.

Continue reading New ‘Westworld’ Teaser Expands The Show’s Universe Via New Tech Corporation at The Playlist.