Lizzie McGuire star thinks Disney Plus reboot suffered with 'bad timing'
Lizzie McGuire star Jake Thomas thinks the cancelled reboot was hurt by "bad timing".
The 35-year-old actor was set to return as Matt - the on-screen brother of Hilary Duff's titular character - in a planned Disney revival of the hit sitcom, but the sequel series was scrapped five years ago.
He told E! News: "We actually filmed two episodes of the reboot, but unfortunately it fell apart.
"Sometimes that just happens. It was bad timing with everything. It was right at the beginning of COVID.
"It just kinda fell apart. And I was really excited to see where Matt was gonna be today, and more importantly for audiences to see that."
Pondering what Matt and Lizzie's sibling bond would be like today, he insisted it would be "much the same".
He explained: "They still loved each other, at the end of the day, they just didn't like to show it.
"I think it would be that - but maybe they're kinda helping each other deal with the big adult issues of the day.
"You can be sure Matt would defintely take the cheapshots when he can, the low-hanging fruit."
Jake also hopes he and the fans won't have to wait too long to see the characters on screen together again.
Asked about working with Hilary in the future, he said: "I'll never say never.
"We went, what, like 17 years between a movie and a reboot? We'll see! [laughs]
"Hopefully not another 17 years!"
Hilary previously revealed how creative differences caused the Disney+ revival to be scrapped, but she remained hopeful.
During an appearance on 'Watch What Happens Live', when a viewer asked her if she would agree to another reboot of the show she said: "Of course! Disney+ was very new and I think they were figuring out their...and we were figuring out our...I'm optimistic!"
When she announced the decision to cancel the reboot, Hilary noted that had been an "honour" to play Lizzie but insisted she would want any revival series to be an "honest" representation of her signature character.
At the time, she wrote on Instagram: "I know the efforts and conversations have been everything trying to make a reboot work, but sadly [and] despite everyone's best efforts, it isn't going to happen.
"I want any reboot of Lizzie to be honest and authentic to who Lizzie would be today. It's what the character deserves.
"We can all take a moment to mourn the amazing woman she would have been and the adventures we would have taken with her.
"I'm very sad, but I promise everyone tried their best and the stars just didn't align. Hey now, this is what 2020's made of. (sic)"
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The Age
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Dressing up was part of the fun at these events – and Leto was the trend-setter with his Christ-like outfit (the camps were discontinued after the pandemic). Just so nobody missed what he was going for, the band's social media wrote: 'Yes, this is a cult #MarsIsland.' Self-styled cult leader Leto may have styled himself as the head of a cult, but his childhood reads closer to a Southern Gothic novel. He was born in impoverished Bossier City, Louisiana, where the major local industry was a trio of riverside casinos. His father, Tony Bryant, abandoned the family when he was an infant. Leto recalled his father's last words as, 'I'll see you, kid, just going to the store to get a carton of milk'. Bryant died when Leto was eight. His mother Constance had by then moved back in with her parents. She later married Carl Leto, Jared's adoptive father. However, there was little stability in Leto's life. By 16, he was taking drugs and paying for his habit with theft. 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The project is essentially done and dusted and Disney has already put out a series of trailers – top heavy with Tron's familiar whizz-bang 'light cycles', along with footage of Leto's co-stars Gillian Anderson, Greta Lee and Jeff Bridges (returning from the original). 'Ready?' says Bridges in the latest promo. 'There's no going back'. Disney may come to regret that line.
Sydney Morning Herald
3 hours ago
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‘Predatory, terrifying and unacceptable': The accusations faced by Jared Leto
Even before these latest accusations, there were question marks around the now 53-year-old actor. In 2018, Disney actor Dylan Spouse tagged Jared Leto in a tweet and said: 'Yo @JaredLeto now that you've slid into the dm's of every female model aged 18 - 25, what would you say your success rate is.' In a deleted post, Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn added, 'he starts at 18 on the internet?' Leto appears not to have taken Gunn's shade to heart. Twelve months later, in 2019, he was photographed in Croatia, modelling white robes and a Jesus-like beard, surrounded by fans of 30 Seconds To Mars (where his brother Shannon plays drums). They had accompanied him to Central Europe for the latest in a series of 'summer camps', where activities include yoga, cooking classes and – well, there's always a downside – a 30 Seconds To Mars performance. Dressing up was part of the fun at these events – and Leto was the trend-setter with his Christ-like outfit (the camps were discontinued after the pandemic). Just so nobody missed what he was going for, the band's social media wrote: 'Yes, this is a cult #MarsIsland.' Self-styled cult leader Leto may have styled himself as the head of a cult, but his childhood reads closer to a Southern Gothic novel. He was born in impoverished Bossier City, Louisiana, where the major local industry was a trio of riverside casinos. His father, Tony Bryant, abandoned the family when he was an infant. Leto recalled his father's last words as, 'I'll see you, kid, just going to the store to get a carton of milk'. Bryant died when Leto was eight. His mother Constance had by then moved back in with her parents. She later married Carl Leto, Jared's adoptive father. However, there was little stability in Leto's life. By 16, he was taking drugs and paying for his habit with theft. 'There was a moment involving a gun and some cocaine that may have been a turning point for me. I knew it wasn't good,' he would say. He turned himself around, though, and, aged 22, had his big break as Jordan Catalano in the teen drama My So Called Life. 'He went full Joker' It's probably as well Leto and his 30 Seconds To Mars 'Echelon' – as fans call themselves – have a strong bond. Cinema has proven to be a less supportive environment. In 2014, he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for playing a transgender character in Dallas Buyer's Club. However, his campaign to carve out a space in blockbusters came unstuck with his disastrous turn in David Ayer's Suicide Squad in 2016. The problem wasn't Leto on screen – he was perfectly fine as a sleazy Joker (he returned to the character in a new scene filmed for Zack Snyder's four-hour Justice League). The issue was his behaviour off-camera and rumours he had gone too far trying to freak out other cast members. 'He did some bad things, Jared Leto did. He gave some really horrific gifts,' said Suicide Squad star Viola Davis. 'He had a henchman who would come into the rehearsal room, and the henchman came in with a dead pig and plopped it on the table, and then he walked out. And that was our introduction into Jared Leto.' Along with the pigs, Leto was said to have sent used condoms, dead rats and pornographic magazines. Even Will Smith – an actor whom we can now safely say is no stranger to controversy – was weirded out. 'First we found out that Jared wasn't going to be in rehearsals,' said Smith, who played Deadshot. 'And we were like, 'That's messed up! How is he not going to be in rehearsals?' And then there was a bang on the door, and this dude barges in and throws a dead pig on the floor in front of us. We're like, 'OK. Jared has officially set off the Suicide Squad. He went full Joker'.' Going 'full Joker' was nothing new. Throughout his career, he has taken method acting to extremes. In preparation for 2022's superhero film Morbius, Leto met 'doctors and patients who could teach him about living with a rare, incurable blood disease'. To walk with a cane – as Morbius does in the film – he 'studied with real cane users'. 'I remember fearing for this guy's spine,' said co-star Adria Arjona. 'It was like seeing Jesus walking into a temple' He'd taken things ever further, appearing opposite Lady Gaga in Ridley Scott's House Of Gucci. 'I did it all,' Leto told i-D magazine. 'I was snorting lines of arrabbiata sauce'. In Blade Runner 2049, in which he played a villainous and blind tech evangelist, he wore special contact lenses that dramatically reduced his vision. 'He was walking with an assistant, very slowly,' director Dennis Villeneuve told the Wall Street Journal. 'It was like seeing Jesus walking into a temple. Everybody became super silent, and there was a kind of sacred moment. Everyone was in awe.' Most drastic of all was Dallas Buyer's Club, for which he shed weight by eating nothing but cucumbers. 'I stayed in character the entire shoot. I couldn't imagine doing it another way. I'd gone too far to pick it up and drop it off,' he informed the Guardian. 'I lost around 40lb [almost three stone/18kg] and then I stopped counting. For me, it was about how it made me feel, how it made other people treat me. I got down to something like 114lb [about eight stone], and that was enough to do what I wanted it to do, which was to change everything about me.' He was widely acclaimed for Dallas Buyers Club. Suicide Squad, however, was a mess, and Leto's scenes were cut significantly. He would later deny the grisliest of the rumours and was reportedly outraged when Warner Bros announced it was pivoting to a Joker origin story starring Joaquin Phoenix, directed by Todd Phillips (for which Phoenix would win an Oscar). 'Leto's frustration that Warner Bros was moving ahead with the Phillips project was so great early on that he tried to throttle the rival Joker in its cradle,' according to a 2019 article in the Hollywood Reporter. 'According to sources familiar with Leto's behaviour, when he learnt of the Phillips project, he not only complained bitterly to his agents at CAA, who also represent Phillips, but asked his music manager, Irving Azoff, to call the leader of Warners's parent company.' Uncertain future And then came his Citizen Kane of terrible films, the Venom spin-off Morbius, in which Leto played a moody vampire – a role described by the Telegraph at the time as a 'cross between Russell Brand and a Barbary macaque'. He went on to star opposite Anne Hathaway in We Crashed, Apple TV+'s underwhelming chronicling of the rise and fall of the We Work startup (ironically – or perhaps appropriately – Leto has reportedly made a $US90 million fortune from early investments in tech companies such as Airbnb and Uber). He has since gone back on the road with 30 Seconds To Mars, albeit with diminishing returns. London's O2 was half empty when the band played there last year – though an ongoing tour of Europe this summer is sold out. But it was on the big screen that his attentions were focused, with Tron: Ares to have been followed by a big screen reboot of Masters of the Universe, with Leto playing sarcastic mega-villain Skeletor. As with so much else in Leto's career, the commercial prospects of these projects are now uncertain. In the case of Tron: Ares it is too late for Disney to flip the ejector switch. The project is essentially done and dusted and Disney has already put out a series of trailers – top heavy with Tron's familiar whizz-bang 'light cycles', along with footage of Leto's co-stars Gillian Anderson, Greta Lee and Jeff Bridges (returning from the original). 'Ready?' says Bridges in the latest promo. 'There's no going back'. Disney may come to regret that line.
The Advertiser
6 hours ago
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How to Train Your Dragon remake doesn't slay but ... it's OK
In the old days, studios would rerelease movies that were perennial favourites to cinemas before selling them to TV or issuing them on home media. The Disney studio in particular was a master of this strategy, bringing out its classic animated films every few years to capture new generations of kids. Nowadays, animated movies aren't reissued. They're remade. It's an expensive way to try to make more money from a property, but it often seems to work. There are a lot more serious players in the feature animation game now, so Disney's not the only one doing it. Sometimes the new movies are reinterpretations, quite different, and other times they're very similar to their predecessors indeed. Definitely in the latter category is Dreamworks' new live action/CHI hybrid redo of its excellent 2010 animated feature How to Train Your Dragon, based on the book by Cressida Cowell. 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It's an awkward situation for both of them. During one raid, Hiccup uses one of his gizmos to shoot down a dragon, a rare Night Fury, but it doesn't land nearby so nobody sees what happened. He goes away and discovers the wounded creature but can't bring himself to kill it. Instead, he befriends and trains the beast, whom he names Toothless, and goes for flights on its back. He keeps all this under his Viking helmet, but his knowledge comes in handy when his father finally makes him enrol in dragon-fighting classes: he's able to subdue the beasts without fighting. One of his classmates, Astrid (Nico Parker from The Last of Us), suspects something is up and follows him, discovering his secret. And the story goes on much the same as before, so if you liked the previous version you'll probably enjoy this one too. For a movie that has no compelling artistic reason to be, How to Train Your Dragon isn't bad. It's about half an hour longer than the animated version and there are a few changes - one rather strange one being a multi-ethnic group of Vikings. But the additional length hasn't been used to add much more depth and the final battle is a bit of a disappointment. There's still a broad-brush approach to the story and characters, and the original remains superior. The colour palette is perhaps limited by the setting of the story - lots of furs, fogs and forest - but this and especially the lighting (very dim even when it's not night) could have been brightened up a little. The bursts of flame provide some welcome visual relief. For newcomers, this might be "their" version of the story, and they could do worse. The tale and the characters are still appealing - older viewers might even see political allegories - but the earlier movie should not be forgotten. Whether the new film does well enough to lead to sequels, like its predecessor, remains to be seen. In the old days, studios would rerelease movies that were perennial favourites to cinemas before selling them to TV or issuing them on home media. The Disney studio in particular was a master of this strategy, bringing out its classic animated films every few years to capture new generations of kids. Nowadays, animated movies aren't reissued. They're remade. It's an expensive way to try to make more money from a property, but it often seems to work. There are a lot more serious players in the feature animation game now, so Disney's not the only one doing it. Sometimes the new movies are reinterpretations, quite different, and other times they're very similar to their predecessors indeed. Definitely in the latter category is Dreamworks' new live action/CHI hybrid redo of its excellent 2010 animated feature How to Train Your Dragon, based on the book by Cressida Cowell. It's written and directed by Dean DeBlois, who co-wrote and co-directed the earlier version, so it's no surprise there are a lot of similarities. The story is set on the isle of Berk, where for generations Vikings have battled dragons. Despite heavy casualties and constant danger, the Vikings don't want to find somewhere else to live - that stubborn macho pride, perhaps - so they keep having to train new generations to fight. Hiccup (played sympathetically by Mason Thames from The Black Phone) doesn't seem destined to be a warrior. He's a gawky, inventive teenager who, deemed too feeble to fight, has been apprenticed to the community blacksmith, Gobber the Belch (Nick Frost). It's a worthy occupation but it doesn't command respect like fighting dragons or even putting out fires. And Hiccup knows it. What makes things worse is that Hiccup is the son of the Viking chief, Stoick the Vast (Gerard Butler reprises the role from the earlier film, this time seen as well as heard). It's an awkward situation for both of them. During one raid, Hiccup uses one of his gizmos to shoot down a dragon, a rare Night Fury, but it doesn't land nearby so nobody sees what happened. He goes away and discovers the wounded creature but can't bring himself to kill it. Instead, he befriends and trains the beast, whom he names Toothless, and goes for flights on its back. He keeps all this under his Viking helmet, but his knowledge comes in handy when his father finally makes him enrol in dragon-fighting classes: he's able to subdue the beasts without fighting. One of his classmates, Astrid (Nico Parker from The Last of Us), suspects something is up and follows him, discovering his secret. And the story goes on much the same as before, so if you liked the previous version you'll probably enjoy this one too. For a movie that has no compelling artistic reason to be, How to Train Your Dragon isn't bad. It's about half an hour longer than the animated version and there are a few changes - one rather strange one being a multi-ethnic group of Vikings. But the additional length hasn't been used to add much more depth and the final battle is a bit of a disappointment. There's still a broad-brush approach to the story and characters, and the original remains superior. The colour palette is perhaps limited by the setting of the story - lots of furs, fogs and forest - but this and especially the lighting (very dim even when it's not night) could have been brightened up a little. The bursts of flame provide some welcome visual relief. For newcomers, this might be "their" version of the story, and they could do worse. The tale and the characters are still appealing - older viewers might even see political allegories - but the earlier movie should not be forgotten. Whether the new film does well enough to lead to sequels, like its predecessor, remains to be seen. In the old days, studios would rerelease movies that were perennial favourites to cinemas before selling them to TV or issuing them on home media. The Disney studio in particular was a master of this strategy, bringing out its classic animated films every few years to capture new generations of kids. Nowadays, animated movies aren't reissued. They're remade. It's an expensive way to try to make more money from a property, but it often seems to work. There are a lot more serious players in the feature animation game now, so Disney's not the only one doing it. Sometimes the new movies are reinterpretations, quite different, and other times they're very similar to their predecessors indeed. Definitely in the latter category is Dreamworks' new live action/CHI hybrid redo of its excellent 2010 animated feature How to Train Your Dragon, based on the book by Cressida Cowell. It's written and directed by Dean DeBlois, who co-wrote and co-directed the earlier version, so it's no surprise there are a lot of similarities. The story is set on the isle of Berk, where for generations Vikings have battled dragons. Despite heavy casualties and constant danger, the Vikings don't want to find somewhere else to live - that stubborn macho pride, perhaps - so they keep having to train new generations to fight. Hiccup (played sympathetically by Mason Thames from The Black Phone) doesn't seem destined to be a warrior. He's a gawky, inventive teenager who, deemed too feeble to fight, has been apprenticed to the community blacksmith, Gobber the Belch (Nick Frost). It's a worthy occupation but it doesn't command respect like fighting dragons or even putting out fires. And Hiccup knows it. What makes things worse is that Hiccup is the son of the Viking chief, Stoick the Vast (Gerard Butler reprises the role from the earlier film, this time seen as well as heard). It's an awkward situation for both of them. During one raid, Hiccup uses one of his gizmos to shoot down a dragon, a rare Night Fury, but it doesn't land nearby so nobody sees what happened. He goes away and discovers the wounded creature but can't bring himself to kill it. Instead, he befriends and trains the beast, whom he names Toothless, and goes for flights on its back. He keeps all this under his Viking helmet, but his knowledge comes in handy when his father finally makes him enrol in dragon-fighting classes: he's able to subdue the beasts without fighting. One of his classmates, Astrid (Nico Parker from The Last of Us), suspects something is up and follows him, discovering his secret. And the story goes on much the same as before, so if you liked the previous version you'll probably enjoy this one too. For a movie that has no compelling artistic reason to be, How to Train Your Dragon isn't bad. It's about half an hour longer than the animated version and there are a few changes - one rather strange one being a multi-ethnic group of Vikings. But the additional length hasn't been used to add much more depth and the final battle is a bit of a disappointment. There's still a broad-brush approach to the story and characters, and the original remains superior. The colour palette is perhaps limited by the setting of the story - lots of furs, fogs and forest - but this and especially the lighting (very dim even when it's not night) could have been brightened up a little. The bursts of flame provide some welcome visual relief. For newcomers, this might be "their" version of the story, and they could do worse. The tale and the characters are still appealing - older viewers might even see political allegories - but the earlier movie should not be forgotten. Whether the new film does well enough to lead to sequels, like its predecessor, remains to be seen. In the old days, studios would rerelease movies that were perennial favourites to cinemas before selling them to TV or issuing them on home media. The Disney studio in particular was a master of this strategy, bringing out its classic animated films every few years to capture new generations of kids. Nowadays, animated movies aren't reissued. They're remade. It's an expensive way to try to make more money from a property, but it often seems to work. There are a lot more serious players in the feature animation game now, so Disney's not the only one doing it. Sometimes the new movies are reinterpretations, quite different, and other times they're very similar to their predecessors indeed. Definitely in the latter category is Dreamworks' new live action/CHI hybrid redo of its excellent 2010 animated feature How to Train Your Dragon, based on the book by Cressida Cowell. It's written and directed by Dean DeBlois, who co-wrote and co-directed the earlier version, so it's no surprise there are a lot of similarities. The story is set on the isle of Berk, where for generations Vikings have battled dragons. Despite heavy casualties and constant danger, the Vikings don't want to find somewhere else to live - that stubborn macho pride, perhaps - so they keep having to train new generations to fight. Hiccup (played sympathetically by Mason Thames from The Black Phone) doesn't seem destined to be a warrior. He's a gawky, inventive teenager who, deemed too feeble to fight, has been apprenticed to the community blacksmith, Gobber the Belch (Nick Frost). It's a worthy occupation but it doesn't command respect like fighting dragons or even putting out fires. And Hiccup knows it. What makes things worse is that Hiccup is the son of the Viking chief, Stoick the Vast (Gerard Butler reprises the role from the earlier film, this time seen as well as heard). It's an awkward situation for both of them. During one raid, Hiccup uses one of his gizmos to shoot down a dragon, a rare Night Fury, but it doesn't land nearby so nobody sees what happened. He goes away and discovers the wounded creature but can't bring himself to kill it. Instead, he befriends and trains the beast, whom he names Toothless, and goes for flights on its back. He keeps all this under his Viking helmet, but his knowledge comes in handy when his father finally makes him enrol in dragon-fighting classes: he's able to subdue the beasts without fighting. One of his classmates, Astrid (Nico Parker from The Last of Us), suspects something is up and follows him, discovering his secret. And the story goes on much the same as before, so if you liked the previous version you'll probably enjoy this one too. For a movie that has no compelling artistic reason to be, How to Train Your Dragon isn't bad. It's about half an hour longer than the animated version and there are a few changes - one rather strange one being a multi-ethnic group of Vikings. But the additional length hasn't been used to add much more depth and the final battle is a bit of a disappointment. There's still a broad-brush approach to the story and characters, and the original remains superior. The colour palette is perhaps limited by the setting of the story - lots of furs, fogs and forest - but this and especially the lighting (very dim even when it's not night) could have been brightened up a little. The bursts of flame provide some welcome visual relief. For newcomers, this might be "their" version of the story, and they could do worse. The tale and the characters are still appealing - older viewers might even see political allegories - but the earlier movie should not be forgotten. Whether the new film does well enough to lead to sequels, like its predecessor, remains to be seen.
