Art meets action: how Emily Blunt became Britains biggest Hollywood star Emily Blunt

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• Francis Ford Coppola’s ‘Megalopolis’ Faces Uphill Battle for Mega Deal: “Just No Way to Position This Movie”
• Marvel Studios' Eternals
• Lost 1970 Beatles Doc 'Let It Be' to Stream on Disney+
• Box Office: ‘Civil War’ Drawing Blood in Battle With New Vampire Pic ‘Abigail’ for No. 1
• Movies / TV
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Funny, full of action, and an all-around good time, Jungle Cruise is a ride well worth taking. The two stars have an undeniable plucky chemistry in a fantasy adventure so rollicking it threatens to turn romance into one more special effect. There’s a bunch of superfluous business with Nilo Nemolato (Paul Giamatti, with another shticky accent, plus a cockatoo), the commercial rival to whom he owes a bunch of money. But Lily is soon scammed into engaging Frank’s services, and they set off upriver on what could generously be called a rollicking, fantastical riff on Heart of Darkness.

Emily Blunt Eyed to Reunite With Dwayne Johnson in A24 Film - CBR - Comic Book Resources

Emily Blunt Eyed to Reunite With Dwayne Johnson in A24 Film.

Posted: Fri, 01 Mar 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]

Francis Ford Coppola’s ‘Megalopolis’ Faces Uphill Battle for Mega Deal: “Just No Way to Position This Movie”

“He said to me once, ‘I love that your debut was onstage with Dame Judi Dench and mine was in the wrestling ring cutting myself with razors,’ ” Blunt says. Cut to London in 1916, two years into World War I. Blunt’s Lily Houghton, a female Indiana Jones fully equipped with pith helmet and safari gear, infiltrates the chambers of a science society to steal a recently recovered arrowhead believed to be the key to finding the Tears of the Moon. As a decoy, her brother MacGregor (Jack Whitehall) presents her theories about the unparalleled healing powers of the mysterious tree, which could revolutionize modern medicine and greatly aid the war effort. The Hollywood Reporter announced that Emily might play Dawn Staples, who is married to UFC Heavyweight Tournament Champion Mark Kerr, in the movie. The actors linked up onscreen for Disney’s 2021 thriller Jungle Cruise.

Marvel Studios' Eternals

But Johnson wasn’t done talking about potential future collaborations with Blunt. When asked about the possibility of donning his ascot and suspenders again for a sequel to “Jungle Cruise,” Johnson responded, “Possibly. Maybe, we’ll see.” A sequel was announced to be in development roughly one month after the film came out in 2021, but there has been little disclosed about the project since then. Next will come a return to action-comedy antics opposite Ryan Gosling in The Fall Guy, already a crowd-pleasing smash at last month’s SXSW festival, plus a voice role in her husband’s family comedy IF. The next few years saw Blunt reaching for household-name status while spreading her bets career-wise across a range of films, from horror to romcom. On paper, her role as waspish fashion PA Emily in the 2006 summer smash The Devil Wears Prada might not have looked like much.

Lost 1970 Beatles Doc 'Let It Be' to Stream on Disney+

You can practically touch the one-liners as they ping off the screen. Johnson, who had been taken with Blunt since The Devil Wears Prada, felt she’d be his ideal sparring partner in the film, which was envisioned as a two-hander. In Frank's cabin, Lily finds his research on the Tears of the Moon, but Frank insists he stopped searching long ago. They are captured by cannibals that are actually the Puka Michuna tribe who work for Frank as part of his contrived jungle cruise adventure. Angered, Lily distrusts Frank and sets off to find the Tree herself.

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Tribal chief Trader Sam translates the symbols on the arrowhead, revealing the Tree's location and that it only blooms under a blood moon. It’s 20 years since we first saw Blunt on the big screen, following some TV appearances. Offbeat Londoner Natalie Press had the larger role as the gawky, besotted Yorkshire lass, cueing a career of character parts that gradually tapered off. As a callous seductress fresh out of boarding school, Blunt, with her cut-glass delivery and magazine-cover features, was fast-tracked to leading-lady ­status.

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Following a year of post-production and a year of further delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Jungle Cruise was finally released in the United States on July 30, 2021, simultaneously in theaters and digitally via Disney+ Premier Access. The film received mixed reviews and grossed $221 million worldwide against a production budget of $200 million. It also made $66 million over its first 30 days on Premier Access.[6][7] A sequel is in development, with Johnson and Blunt set to reprise their roles.

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Jungle Cruise, which is based on a 65-year-old riverboat cruise theme park ride, is no slam dunk. While 2003’s Pirates became a five-film box office juggernaut, that same year’s The Haunted Mansion was panned, and Disney’s most recent ride-inspired movie, Tomorrowland, flopped — even in the much more hospitable 2015 moviegoing environment — grossing just $209 million globally. Box office tracking has been less predictive during the pandemic, but some sources close to the film already are worried about Jungle Cruise, hopeful the Disney+ premium offering buttresses their numbers, like it did for Disney’s Cruella. As the studio did with Black Widow, in a rare display of transparency for the streaming era, it is expected to release the Disney+ numbers for Jungle Cruise publicly. Jungle Cruise is a 2021 American fantasy adventure film directed by Jaume Collet-Serra from a screenplay written by Glenn Ficarra, John Requa, and Michael Green. It is based on Walt Disney's eponymous theme park attraction.

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Produced by Walt Disney Pictures, the film stars Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Édgar Ramírez, Jack Whitehall, Jesse Plemons, and Paul Giamatti. It tells the alternate history of the captain of a small riverboat who takes a scientist and her brother through a jungle in search of the Tree of Life while competing against a German expedition, and cursed conquistadors. In the film, which is set in the early 20th century, Blunt plays Dr. Lily Houghton, a pants-wearing scientist who hires Johnson’s steamboat captain, Frank Wolff, to steer her down a jungle river in pursuit of the Tree of Life.

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Though kids are the target demographic, anyone older is likely to spend a lot of time thinking about the superior films being ransacked here for ideas, among them Raiders of the Lost Ark, Romancing the Stone and The African Queen. But the Disney brand and the Rock factor should ensure a sizable audience. Everything about Jungle Cruise points not to creative inspiration in spinning a feature property out of the ride, but to corporate bean counters enthusing, “Hey, it worked for Pirates of the Caribbean! ” Following that template to a fault, the project has been in the works for more than 15 years, originally slated to shoot in 2005 for a 2006 release date. Since then, the script has passed through many hands before being taken up by Michael Green (who co-wrote the terrific Wolverine farewell, Logan, and penned Kenneth Branagh’s Agatha Christie remakes) with Glenn Ficarra and John Requa. Meanwhile, Joachim locates the conquistadors petrified inside a cave.

At 41, she carries an established aura of prestige that sometimes stands separately from the films she makes. If they handed out Oscars not for individual performances but for thespian comportment, she would doubtless have several by now. ANAHEIM, Calif. – WWE phenom, movie smackdown champ and "Jungle Cruise" star Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson did not grasp what he was getting into by relentlessly pursuing very British "Mary Poppins Returns" star Emily Blunt to co-lead the Disney action adventure.

Yet Blunt made the most of it, not merely by reeling off said one-liners with vinegary aplomb – “Do you have some prior commitment? ” she snarls – but by locating a seam of sadness in her character’s bitchery. Her Emily stood for a generation of hungrily interning young women in the big city, willing to accept any amount of exploitation for a step up the ladder. She was witty and poignant enough to land Bafta and Golden Globe nominations, along with the more long-term reward of enduring pop-culture quotability. Collet-Serra is coming off of principal photography of Black Adam, the DC and New Line movie that stars Johnson. Stars Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt are set to return as wisecracking skipper Frank Wolff and intrepid researcher Dr. Lily Houghton, respectively, for the brand new adventure with Michael Green, who co-wrote the hit, back at the keyboard.

Expected to also come back are director Jaume Collet-Serra and the film’s producing team of John Davis, John Fox, Beau Flynn, Johnson, Dany Garcia and Hiram Garcia. Its craft isn't quite as sturdy as some of the classic adventures it's indebted to, but Jungle Cruise remains a fun, family-friendly voyage. "Join my ace Emily Blunt (the female Indiana Jones) and myself on THE ADVENTURE OF A LIFETIME as our DISNEY's JUNGLE CRUISE hits theaters and your living rooms ON THE SAME DAY — JULY 30th," Johnson wrote alongside the announcement clip. When asked about Diesel’s comments, Johnson says, “I laughed and I laughed hard.

He’s played by Jack Whitehall, in a pinpoint performance that benefits from not having to repress the implication that the character is gay, though it might have benefited even more if his coming-out speech to Frank didn’t dance around the subject nearly as torturously as the old repression. But it’s like watching a romantic comedy while strapped to a roller-coaster with a VR headset on. “Jungle Cruise” is at once a love story, a made-for-4DX action movie, a “Pirates of the Caribbean”-style fairy tale featuring a ghostly conquistador (Edgar Ramirez) and his pewter-armored henchman with digital snakes slithering through their bodies, and God knows what else. Blunt, appealingly brash, makes mincemeat of Frank the lug but lets you know she likes him anyway, and Johnson knows how to deliver a genial putdown that still stings. They’ve got a chemistry, no doubt about it, but in a funny way the romantic pluck of “Jungle Cruise” plays like one more trick effect.

The jungle and its creatures have ravaged the conquistadors’ bodies, suspending them between life and death, so Ramirez is rendered unrecognizable by CG excesses that transform him into a mass of writhing snakes. One of his comrades (Dani Rovira) is the spirit of the beehive — in what’s almost certainly not an homage to the classic Victor Erice film. Frank repeatedly exaggerates the dangers ahead — and fabricates some scares — to encourage Lily to turn back. But the feisty explorer remains determined, even when they face treacherous rapids. As they search for the sacred tree, Prince Joachim does everything possible to blow them out of the water, first with weaponry and then by setting loose the reanimated conquistadors. (The German’s supernatural communication powers are never quite explained.) The pointed detail that the otherwise fearless Lily can’t swim makes it no surprise when she is forced to lead a daring underwater maneuver, which at the same time ups the romantic ante with Frank.

Jungle Cruise review: Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt head up Pirates of the Caribbean without a paddle

Table Of Content

• Dwayne Johnson & Emily Blunt Answer Burning Questions
• Marvel Studios' Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
• Cast Camaraderie Featurette Disney’s Jungle Cruise Experience it July 30
• References to the ride
• Arrow Disney’s Jungle Cruise Experience it July 30
• How Dwayne Johnson Wooed Emily Blunt for ‘Jungle Cruise’ — and Why She Ghosted Him

She in turn gave the film the kind of warm human gumption that its male leads, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis, didn’t provide. Where Blunt’s earlier career seemed evenly pitched between English-rose arthouse refinement and mass-market Hollywood stardom, she has largely chosen the latter course since, and hasn’t looked back. Most would agree that’s worth a few trophies missing from the cabinet. Earlier this year Emily Blunt received her first Academy Award nomination, for her sly, brittle supporting turn in Christopher Nolan’s eventual best picture champion, Oppenheimer. It felt like an overdue achievement for the British star, who at that point already had a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors’ Guild award to her name, not to mention four Bafta nominations.

Dwayne Johnson & Emily Blunt Answer Burning Questions

A sequel for the movie is said to be in the works, but details have been scarce. But it was 2012’s Looper that pointed a clear way forward for the actor, hitherto not an obvious fit for a high-octane action film. Rian Johnson’s ingeniously knotted sci-fi thriller cast her effectively against type as a hard-bitten Kansas farmer and single mother who can wield a shotgun with the best of them.

Emily Blunt in Talks to Reunite With Dwayne Johnson for 'The Smashing Machine' - Just Jared

Emily Blunt in Talks to Reunite With Dwayne Johnson for 'The Smashing Machine'.

Posted: Thu, 29 Feb 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]

Marvel Studios' Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

⋄ The guard Lily overpowers near the start of the film is Emily Blunt’s brother, Sebastian Blunt.⋄ Emily Blunt and Jack Whitehall grew up in the same part of London, only streets apart. With Jungle Cruise crossing the $100 million at the domestic box office this past weekend, the studio is pulling the trigger on a sequel. The long-awaited adventure film, based on the Disney Parks attraction of the same name and starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Emily Blunt, will be sailing onto screens July 30. Periodically throughout the interview, Blunt seems to be trying to keep Johnson’s candor in check. When he starts to answer a question about their contracts, she’ll interject, “You’ll be quoted.” Some of this is a shtick they’ve adopted for the film’s promotion, but some is genuinely rooted in their DNA. As stars, Blunt, 38, and Johnson, 49, barely seem to hail from the same galaxy.

Cast Camaraderie Featurette Disney’s Jungle Cruise Experience it July 30

The original version fell through and Johnson joined in 2015. Blunt and the rest of the cast joined in 2018 in a revamped version, with filming taking place in Hawaii and Georgia, from May, through September that year. Blunt has been in talks to join Johnson for what will be Safdie’s solo directorial debut — a biopic about MMA and UFC champion Mark Kerr.

MacGregor’s account to Frank of his bumpy family history, being disinherited after refusing various suitable marriage opportunities because his interest lay “elsewhere,” is played unambiguously. But his gradual transformation from stuffed shirt into plucky adventurer is strictly by-the-numbers. There’s a turbulent sequence in which the boat speeds toward a waterfall, and a funny one that fools us into thinking, for a moment, that the movie is going to exploit the woefully outdated stereotype of a “primitive” tribe of cannibals wearing skull masks. (It’s actually mocking it.) Lily has brought her brother, MacGregor, along for the ride, and he’s a pampered dandy who think it’s not dinner unless you’re wearing a dinner jacket.

Partially revived, Aguirre agrees to bring Joachim the arrowhead in exchange for lifting the curse when he finds the flowers. Joachim diverts the river to flood the cave and Aguirre and his conquistadors are reanimated while fused with rainforest elements. The conquistadors attack the tribe and Aguirre stabs Frank through the heart. Lily flees with the artifact, chased by conquistadors, but the jungle vines pull them back to the river, preventing her capture. However, Emily is reportedly in the running to star alongside Dwayne in the actor’s new movie The Smashing Machine.

Some early humor comes from MacGregor packing like Lorelei Lee in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, with trunk after trunk of toiletries and apparel for every occasion, most of which Frank tosses overboard. Meanwhile, Lily’s radical-for-the-era choice of pants is repeatedly emphasized to establish her feminist bona fides. The big trick with that was the art direct-ability of the boat, the speed of which you went through the rapids and what kind of splashes it made. I think with a sequence like that, it's so heavily buried in physics.

And I wish them the best of luck on Fast 10 and Fast 11 and the rest of the Fast & Furious movies they do that will be without me.” Blunt can’t resist extending the moment. The two brought those disparate perspectives into their meetings with Disney about how to release Jungle Cruise, with the studio ultimately deciding on the hybrid release strategy due to the slow pace of vaccine rollouts globally.

How Dwayne Johnson Wooed Emily Blunt for ‘Jungle Cruise’ — and Why She Ghosted Him

Brought together onscreen for their odd-couple appeal, offscreen the duo share a business savvy. Where they differ is on their willingness to openly engage on such matters. The climactic action — including revelations about Frank’s history — is so convoluted that many audiences will be checking out, especially as the movie careens toward the two-hour mark. That applies both to the unlocking of the Tears of the Moon mystery and to the inevitable battle with Aguirre and Joachim, even if the screenwriters’ bid to infuse a sense of the mythic elevates the story slightly above the generally juvenile level. By the time Lily and fussbudget toff MacGregor reach the Brazilian port that will be their embarkation point, I was already growing restless.

It’s a two-second bit, and perfectly executed punctuation in a Disney theme park movie overloaded with question marks. The film, based on the Jungle Cruise attraction at the Disneyland Resort, also stars Édgar Ramírez, Jack Whitehall, Jesse Plemons and Paul Giamatti. The pair embark on a great adventure, traversing the jungle in search of the tree. Along the way, they encounter various dangers and obstacles — hissing snakes, leopards on the attack and a human-manned submarine that seems intent on getting in their way. In Jungle Cruise, Blunt, 38, plays Lily Houghton, a researcher aiming to find Lagrimas de Cristal who hires Johnson's character, Frank, a river guide tasked with guiding her to it.

The movie, which was in development for more than 15 years before finally making its way to the screen, is based on the popular Disneyland attraction, where it was one of the original rides when the theme park opened in 1955. If only the core charms that have given the Disneyland ride such longevity weren’t so smothered by overstuffed plot. Compared to other attempts to turn theme park attractions into fresh revenue streams, it’s not as lifeless as The Haunted Mansion or Tomorrowland. Like Plemons and Giamatti, Ramirez is another talented actor squandered in a thankless part. There’s none of the hammy fun of his Pirates counterpart, played by Geoffrey Rush.

I enjoyed the movie more than I did the two recent “Jumanji” films, because you can kind of pretend that there’s something at stake, and the director, Jaume Collet-Serra, stages it all with a certain breathless bravura. Leaving the dock in the Brazilian jungle where Frank plays P.T. Barnum to gullible tourists, our heroes set off in his barely seaworthy steamboat, only to have to get out of the way of a torpedo launched by Prince Joachim, a Teutonic megalomaniac played by Jesse Plemons with a smirky flourish. The ship plows right into Frank’s docking station, which blows up real good.