Interview with Len Wiseman and Ana de Armas ahead of the upcoming film Ballerina
Interview with Len Wiseman and Ana de Armas ahead of the upcoming film Ballerina. Starring Ana de Armas, Ballerina takes place in the John Wick Universe and follows a ballerina-assassin trying to avenge her father's death.
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Irish Examiner
21 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
Dragons, zombies, dinosaurs, and The Naked Gun coming to a screen near you
Here comes the summer — the big screen blockbusters coming to a cinema or streaming platform near you Ballerina (cinemas, June 6) This spin-off from the world of popular series John Wick centres on Eve Macarro (Ana de Armas) as she prepares to train as an assassin. Expect revenge, chaos, and blood-splattered mayhem. Len Wiseman of the Underworld movie series directs. Predator: Killer of Killers (Disney+, June 6) Filmmaker Dan Trachtenberg follows the well-received Prey, starring Amber Midthunder, with another action movie. The film's anthology story revolves around three fierce warriors: A Viking raider guiding a bloody quest for revenge, a ninja in feudal Japan who turns against his Samurai brother in a brutal battle for succession, and a Second World War pilot who takes to the sky. They don't know it yet, but they are about to become prey for a much greater force. How to Train Your Dragon (cinemas June 13, previews from June 9) How to Train Your Dragon hits cinemas on June 9, 2025. The original animation release of 2010's How to Train Your Dragon was a big hit with family audiences and spawned a multimedia franchise that included two sequels. Now the movie is getting the live-action treatment, with a cast that includes Gerard Butler — reprising his role in the original film — and Nico Parker. Set on the island of Berk, where Vikings and dragons have been enemies for years, tradition is upended by a young Viking boy named Hiccup who befriends a dragon named Toothless. Deep Cover (Prime Video, June 13) Prime's big summer action movie draws a starry cast that includes Bryce Dallas Howard and Orlando Bloom. Howard plays an improvisation comedy teacher wondering if success will ever come her way. When an undercover cop (Sean Bean) offers her the ultimate acting challenge, she recruits two of her students (Orlando Bloom and Nick Mohammed) to take on London's gangland by impersonating dangerous criminals. British TV and film director Tom Kingsley ( Black Pond) is at the helm. Echo Valley (Apple TV, June 13) Apple Original Films thriller, Echo Valley, starring Julianne Moore, Sydney Sweeney and Domhnall Gleeson. for TV Summer 2025 A star-studded cast including Julianne Moore, Sydney Sweeney, and our own Domhnall Gleeson, star in Apple's suspense thriller from director Michael Pearce, who previously brought us a breakthrough performance from Jessie Buckley in Beast. Moore is Kate, a woman whose life is upended by the arrival of her troubled daughter (Sweeney), hysterical and covered in somebody else's blood. Elio (cinemas, June 20) The alien-obsessed Elio discovers more than he bargained for when he's transported to an interplanetary paradise, in the latest tale from animation giants Pixar. Elio is thrilled to discover intelligent life from many sources — but when he's mistaken for planet Earth's leader, things get complicated. Yonas Kibreab as Elio is joined by a voice cast that includes Zoe Saldaña and Shirley Henderson, in a tale from the makers of previous Pixar movies Coco and Turning Red. 28 Years Later (cinemas, June 20) Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and his son Spike (Alfie Williams) in Columbia Pictures' 28 YEARS LATER. Anticipation is high and plot details scarce for the third film in the post-apocalyptic horror series from director Danny Boyle. Written by Alex Garland, the film is set 28 years after the lethal 'Rage' virus first made its presence felt, causing havoc in the world. That film starred the young Cillian Murphy in a major breakthrough role and Murphy is poised to return in a forthcoming sequel to this new film, said Boyle in a US interview this week. F1 (cinemas, June 25) Brad Pitt and Kerry Condon in F1 (2025). A once-promising driver is drawn back to Formula 1 decades after an accident almost ended his career in the new film from Joseph Kosinski ( Top Gun: Maverick). Tasked with mentoring a talented young driver, the former racing star is given a shot at redemption in the film, which was shot at real racing tracks and events as part of its production. Brad Pitt and Irish actress Kerry Condon star. M3GAN 2.0 (cinemas, June 27) Two years after an AI doll caused all sorts of chaos on a murderous rampage, this sequel looks at the aftermath of those events. M3GAN's creator has become a high-profile author and advocate for government oversight of AI. However, the tech that powered the first doll risks falling into the wrong hands. Jurassic World: Rebirth (cinemas, July 2) Jonathan Bailey and Scarlett Johansson in Jurassic World: Rebirth (2025). Picture: Jasin Boland/Universal Pictures - © Universal Studios. British filmmaker Gareth Edwards ( Monsters, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) helms the latest Jurassic dinosaur series blockbuster . Scarlett Johansson has wanted to take on a role in the series for years. She joins this film as a scientist leading a team of operatives to one of the most volatile environments on Earth. Joining her in the film are actors Jonathan Bailey, Mahershala Ali, and Rupert Friend. The Old Guard 2 (Netflix, July 2) Following up on her role as Andy, the toughest and strongest in a group of mercenaries with special powers, Charlize Theron returns to this action sequel for Netflix. This time she must face a new foe, 'the first of the immortals', who calls herself Discord, played by Uma Thurman ( Kill Bill). Superman (cinemas, July 11) One of the screen's most popular superheroes returns to our cinemas, with Superman played by US actor David Corenswet in this latest portrayal of the DC Comics character. Directed by James Gunn ( Guardians of the Galaxy), the film sees British actor Nicholas Hoult play Superman's greatest foe, Lex Luthor. Rachel Brosnahan plays the plucky news reporter at the heart of the story, Lois Lane. Happy Gilmore 2 (Netflix, July 25) Almost three decades after golfer Happy Gilmore won the Tour Championship in 1996, Adam Sandler returns to play him in a new adventure for Netflix. Original cast members including Ben Stiller return to compliment a new cast that include Sandler's actress daughters Sadie and Sunny. The Naked Gun (cinemas, August 8) Liam Neeson plays Frank in The Naked Gun from Paramount Pictures. Liam Neeson aims to tickle our funny bones in a new Naked Gun movie described as, 'the single most important Naked Gun movie since the other Naked Gun movies'. He plays Frank Drebin Jr, the son of the character made famous by Leslie in the original film. Joining Neeson is a cast that includes Pamela Anderson, enjoying a career resurgence following her role in The Last Showgirl. The Thursday Murder Club (Netflix, August 28) A group of retirees turn super sleuths in The Thursday Murder Club, a comedy mystery adapted from the bestselling novel by Richard Osman. Directed by Chris Columbus (Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone), a band of household names has been assembled for the movie, about a group of friends in a retirement home who solve murders for fun but get caught up in a real case. Coming to Netflix later this summer, they include Helen Mirren, Ben Kingsley, and our very own Pierce Brosnan.
Irish Independent
3 days ago
- Irish Independent
Interview with Len Wiseman and Ana de Armas ahead of the upcoming film Ballerina
Interview with Len Wiseman and Ana de Armas ahead of the upcoming film Ballerina. Starring Ana de Armas, Ballerina takes place in the John Wick Universe and follows a ballerina-assassin trying to avenge her father's death.
Irish Times
4 days ago
- Irish Times
25 films to check out in summer 2025: From Liam Neeson in Naked Gun to Scarlett Johansson in Jurassic World: Rebirth
When does the summer begin? Hollywood , sharing some ancient Druidical energy, always gets a few of its big beasts out of the cage before May is done. This year it was Thunderbolts* and Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning . But we are plumping for the cinematic space laid out between the Cannes and Venice film festivals: June, July, August. Sorry to say, sequels and reboots still dominate the blockbuster economy. The only big-budget live-action event film not based on existing intellectual property here is Brad Pitt's Grand Prix drama F1. Oh well. There are still smaller gems to seek out. Ballerina The John Wick films helped transform action cinema over the past decade. This first spin-off features Ana de Armas as, yes, a ballerina who is training to be an assassin. Len 'Underworld' Wiseman directs. The cast also includes Gabriel Byrne and Anjelica Huston. Opens June 6th Dangerous Animals Dangerous Animals was featured in the Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Festival. One of the most surprising inclusions in the otherwise austere Directors' Fortnight strand at the recent Cannes Festival was Sean Byrne's shocker about a surfer trying to avoid being fed to sharks by a serial killer. The Australian director is hitherto best known for the 2015 horror The Devil's Candy. Opens June 6th How to Train Your Dragon DreamWorks' take on Cressida Cowell's adored children's books was one of the most charming family animations of the past 15 years. Two solid sequels followed, but now, the laws of contemporary cinema being what they are, the time has come for a live-action remake. Trailers suggest they are not moving far from the original. Opens June 13th READ MORE Elio Battle commences. A week after the Dragon flick, Pixar makes its latest play for the family dollar with an animation about a space-mad kid who is beamed into an alien world. The recent Oscar winner Zoë Saldaña is among the voices. Domee Shi, creator of the studio's delightful Turning Red, codirects. Opens June 20th 28 Years Later It is not really 28 years since the first sequel to Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later, but George W Bush was still US president when Juan Carlos Fresnadillo's decent 28 Weeks Later emerged. Boyle is back for zombie fun with Ralph Fiennes and Jodie Comer. A fourth film is due early next year. Opens June 20th F1 Brad Pitt (right) stars in F1 A lot is riding on this motor-racing flick from Top Gun: Maverick's Joseph Kosinski. Brad Pitt stars alongside Damson Idris and our own Kerry Condon. The veteran Jerry Bruckheimer and the top driver Lewis Hamilton are among the producers. Kosinski denied the budget was as high as a reported $300 million, but it ain't cheap. Opens June 25th M3gan 2.0 The first killer-doll movie was a hoot. So we have a right to expect yucks from a movie that hangs around the creation of a deadlier rival to M3gan called Amelia. What? Why not Am3lia? Gerard Johnstone, Kiwi director of the original, is back behind the megaphone. Opens June 27th Jurassic World: Rebirth Jonathan Bailey as paleontologist Dr Henry Loomis and Scarlett Johansson as covert operations expert Zora Bennett in Jurassic World Rebirth. Photograph: Jasin Boland/Universal Pictures The Jurassic World trilogy wasn't much cop, but it made a staggering amount of money. Express no surprise that the series continues with a return to the research facility where the experiment began. Gareth Edwards, who made the attractive The Creator, directs. Scarlett Johansson and Mahershala Ali star. Opens July 2nd The Shrouds The Shrouds is about a company that markets live relays of decaying corpses in the grave. David Cronenberg's latest, about a company that markets live relays of decaying corpses in the grave, finally gets a deserved release after premiering at Cannes in 2024. Shows its origins as a TV series, but the atmosphere is grimly compelling. Opens July 4th Hot Milk Adaptation of Deborah Levy's popular novel about a mother and daughter's journey to Spain at a time of economic uncertainty. Rebecca Lenkiewicz, writer of fine films such as Ida and Disobedience, makes her directorial feature debut. Emma Mackey, Fiona Shaw and Vicky Krieps star. Opens July 4th Superman David Corenswet in Superman Lordy, this again! One David Corenswet follows Christopher Reeve, Brandon Routh and Henry Cavill in the latest effort to make sense of a now-ancient superhero. The sometimes snarky James Gunn has already annoyed the nerdisphere with a trailer featuring Krypto the Superdog. Opens July 11th Four Letters of Love Pierce Brosnan , Gabriel Byrne and Helena Bonham Carter are the senior stars in an adaptation of the Irish writer Niall Williams 's sweepingly romantic novel. Rising (or possibly risen) actors Fionn O'Shea and Ann Skelly provide Gen Z interest. 'Squarely aimed at hopeless romantics,' Screen International tells us. Opens July 18th Harvest The antidote, perhaps, to Superman, Athina Rachel Tsangari's challenging drama goes among the mud and cruelty of the English Middle Ages. Caleb Landry Jones and Harry Melling star in a film that divided audiences at the 2024 Venice film festival. Opens July 18th I Know What You Did Last Summer The odd habit of naming sequels after the opening episode continues. Apparently, the new film has a fresh array of teenagers seeking advice, after covering up an automobile accident, from survivors of the original 1997 horror. Yes, Jennifer Love Hewitt is back. More power to her. Opens July 18th The Fantastic Four: First Steps The Fantastic Four could be huge, or it could be a disaster. Photograph: 20th Century Studios/Marvel Studios Interesting one, this. There have been three outings for the venerable Marvel superheroes on screen this century. None clicked with audiences. The latest attempt to break the curse stars Pedro Pescal , Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn and Ebon Moss-Bachrach. Could be huge. Could be a disaster. Opens July 25th The Bad Guys 2 Hang on, what was that again? Oh, yes. That 2022 animation that cast a variation of the Rat Pack with anthropomorphic wolves, snakes and sharks (but not rats, oddly). It seems as if the gang have been called back into action to do 'one last job'. If you say so. Opens July 25th Bring Her Back Danny and Michael Philippou, Australian online pranksters who go by the collective name of RackaRacka, had a deserved hit with the ghostly horror Talk to Me in 2023. They return with a film that casts Sally Hawkins as another dabbler in occult rituals. Opens August 1st The Naked Gun No less a figure than Liam Neeson replaces Leslie Nielsen in a reboot of the classic comedy about a bumbling detective. The trailer divided fans, but anyone who saw Neeson in Ricky Gervais's Extras knows he can do deadpan comedy. Opens August 8th Weapons Julia Garner in Weapons Zach Cregger, director of the horror hit Barbarian, moves into the big leagues with a shocker about the mysterious vanishing of all but one child from the same class. Cregger has claimed Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia as an influence. Josh Brolin and Julia Garner star in a film of which much is expected. Opens August 8th Freakier Friday Long-awaited sequel to the 2003 remake of the 1976 Disney flick about a mother and daughter swapping bodies. Will this still work with a 37-year-old Lindsay Lohan and a 65-year-old Jamie Lee Curtis ? It will surely be fun to see them try. Opens August 8th Materialists Celine Song's follow-up to the Oscar-nominated Past Lives has been shuffled around the schedule with worrying randomness. It looks as if Dakota Johnson , Chris Evans and Pedro Pescal are starring in a traditional Manhattan sitcom. Nothing at all wrong with that. Opens August 15th The Life of Chuck There was puzzlement when Mike Flanagan's unheralded adaptation of a Stephen King story beat the likes of Anora to the People's Choice Award at Toronto last year – a sure sign of Oscar potential – but the sentimental philosophical yarn has all the makings of a crowd-pleaser. Tom Hiddleston stars. Opens August 22nd Sorry, Baby Arriving after raves at Sundance and Cannes, Eva Victor's tonally precise, serious comedy follows a university lecturer as she attempts to process a sexual assault. Victor somehow finds humour in unshakeable trauma. The director stars opposite Naomi Ackie, Lucas Hedges and John Carroll Lynch. Opens August 22nd Eddington Joaquin Phoenix (left) as a New Mexico sheriff Ari Aster follows up Beau Is Afraid with a film that, if possible, has already proven even more divisive than that provocation. Premiering at Cannes, the new movie stars Joaquin Phoenix as a New Mexico sheriff who gives in to paranoia and conspiracy theories during the Covid lockdowns. Funny and infuriating. Opens August 22nd Caught Stealing Welcome back, Darren Aronofsky. The latest from the director of Requiem for a Dream and Black Swan casts Austin Butler as a former baseball player who gets dragged into criminal mischief during the 1990s. A starry cast also features Regina King, Zoë Kravitz, Matt Smith and Carol Kane. Opens August 29th
