NICK ROMANO
December 19, 2017 AT 09:00 AM EST

Josh Brolin has called Sicario 2: Soldado, the sequel to 2015’s Sicario, a “more severe” and “much bigger” film than the first. Benicio Del Toro would just add that while Sicario was more of a “really hardcore straight line,” this one “is a little more complicated.”

Brolin and Del Toro are back as C.I.A. agent Matt Graver and his “man on fire” Alejandro in the first trailer for Sicario 2: Soldado, Entertainment Weekly‘s exclusive preview of what’s next in this volatile war on drugs. While Sicario focused on Emily Blunt’s F.B.I. agent Kate Macer and her recruitment into this off-the-books cartel-hunting task force, the sequel sees what happens when it’s just Matt and Alejandro operating with no oversight.

In Soldado, the drug war has escalated as the cartels have shifted to trafficking terrorists across the U.S.-Mexico border, and that’s when Matt’s bosses — including one played by Catherine Keener — ask him to intervene.

Blunt won’t be making a return appearance because, as Sheridan previously put it, Kate’s arc was “complete.” With Alejandro, however, “there was so much left unsaid.”

Sicario taught us that Alejandro is a man out for revenge against the people who killed his family. Now he’s thrown into a new assignment involving Isabelle (Isabella Moner), the daughter of a drug lord, and he reaches a moral crossroads. The gloves may be off, but he’s at a point where he now “either has to follow orders or make the right decision,” Del Toro says, “and so that’s kind of where the character’s stuck.”

But there are even more changes. Two other faces from the original, director Dennis Villeneuve (Blade Runner 2049) and cinematographer Roger Deakins, aren’t returning for Soldado. It’s Stefano Sollima (Suburra) at the helm, but Del Toro says the filmmaker proved through his work to be one to watch.

See the first trailer for Sicario 2: Soldado above, plus exclusive photos and more from Del Toro’s interview with EW below.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What can you say about Alejandro, where we find him now and his arc in this film?
BENICIO DEL TORO: We learn from Alejandro in Sicario that he was a man who was motivated by revenge, right? And then in Soldado, he gets selected to a new assignment by Josh Brolin and then at some point he’s at a crossroads in that situation where he either has to follow orders or make the right decision, and so that’s kind of where the character’s stuck, you know? And that’s the cool thing about the character, is that he’s got to make a decision and then the consequences will follow if he goes this way or the other way, so I would say that’s the difference for the character in this movie versus the Alejandro in Sicario.

How does this movie compare to the original?
I think the characters are faced with more decisions, more forks in the road. I could say the same for Josh’s character and for Alejandro. They have to make decisions that are more difficult, perhaps. … There are difficult decisions that both characters have to make, I would say for Matt and Alejandro — and also I think it’s a little more than, like saying that, in Sicario there [are] moments where they make decisions but the decisions are all going in one direction. Here, the decisions and the surprises are kind of like unexpected, so the decisions are unexpected decisions which makes it a little bit more complicated for the character. … Let me put it this way, the characters in this one really try to think on their toes, to react in the spirit of the moment because of complications. When I think [about] Sicario, there were moments like that but they were under control, they had everything under control beforehand. In this point in time, they do as well, but then things start to not happen as planned, let’s put it that way.

When you think about Emily Blunt’s role in the first movie, she was the audience’s lens into the world of Sicario. With Soldado, where do you think that audience connection or that human factor comes from?
I think it comes from the character of Isabelle, which is played by Isabella Moner. She’s terrific in the movie, very strong, and I think that that’s part that’s gonna “replace,” if we could even say that, that feeling that we had for Emily Blunt’s character, Kate, in Sicario.

You have a different director this time around, and a different cinematographer as well. We see little snippets of how things are different in the trailer, but from your perspective, what would you saw are the biggest differences between Stefano Sollima and Denis Villeneuve’s approach and execution of this material?
I’d say Stefano brings in a little bit more of a, maybe a European sensibility, but Denis brings in something, you know, he’s the original director… I had a good time working with both of them, it was just, like, much respect for both of them. I think that Stefano had to come in a little bit like, you know, where Josh and myself, we have played these characters before, so he had to deal a little bit with that, and I think he did a really good job of allowing both Josh and myself to put ourselves on the table about the characters and how they would react in situations and all that stuff, so it was very inclusive that way. And I think both of them are extremely talented and I think Stefano, under the circumstances, is coming in and being the director of these movies and the style and success… I think Sicario is cinematically, in terms of cinematically, he did a really good job and in terms of bringing that quality — the standards of the quality — up. I don’t know if there’s one single thing that I would say. … I think they are both very talented and I think Stefano showed that he was definitely one of those really up-and-coming directors.

I think it’s also interesting that when the cast and crew have been talking about this movie, Soldado has been described as being an anthology film as opposed to a direct sequel, and yet the title for this film is Sicario 2: Soldado. So, I’m curious, is the standalone format still the focus for this film?
Well, I think it could stand alone, definitely. I think it could stand alone because it’s a different assignment, you know? So it’s like two guys getting an assignment. I think that we project what we know from, in the original — in Sicario — and that we’re… subjected to the characters in this movie, but even after Sicario I think we still could have the feeling for these characters and get to know them in this movie about who they are and what they do. So I think it does stand alone. I don’t think it needs… It’s just a new assignment, you know? Matt and Alejandro go on a different assignment.

Do the events of Soldado happen after the events of Sicario?
Yes. Yes, I believe so. I haven’t seen the very final, final cut, but yeah, I do believe that they are after the events of Sicario.

Taylor and Stefano have both teased the possibility of doing a third installment after this film. Is that something that you’ve already discussed with the producers?
No, not as of today, but I’d be interested to see what’s the idea.

Sicario 2: Soldado is scheduled for theaters on June 29, 2018.

Source: ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

By Bryan Alexander

Even Chris Hemsworth, who makes a living as a cape-wearing, hammer-wielding demigod, concedes that the image of a modern military leader rolling into battle on horseback makes for a curious spectacle.

“That absolutely got my attention, the visual uniqueness of this warfare,” says Hemsworth of the Afghanistan war drama 12 Strong (in theaters Jan. 19), which premieres its first trailer at usatoday.com. “Then I found out what was actually achieved in those conditions. It blew my mind, to say the least.”

Based on Doug Stanton’s 2009 best-selling historical account Horse Soldiers, the movie follows Hemsworth’s Green Beret Capt. Mitch Nelson, who immediately leaves his home and his wife (Hemsworth’s real wife, Elsa Pataky) for combat after the 9/11 attacks.

Nelson and a handful of Special Forces soldiers (played by an ensemble including Michael Peña, Trevante Rhodes and Michael Shannon) secretly enter Afghanistan and convince Northern Alliance General Dostum (Navid Negahban) to join forces against their common adversary: the Taliban and their Al-Qaeda allies.

Outnumbered 40 to one, the combined forces defeat the Taliban to capture the strategic city of Mazar-i-Sharif.

“It’s a fascinating story. These guys went in with the strong possibility that they would not coming be back,” says producer Jerry Bruckheimer. “They had to go through these mountain passes the only way they could do it, on horses.”

Hemsworth has experience with movie horsemanship from Thor. But this was a different level.

“Riding in full military gear with packs, weapons and all sorts of equipment is a whole other thing,” says Hemsworth. “But it was a hell of an exciting shoot for obvious reasons, including getting a horse to hit his mark on camera while you’re giving a line. That’s not easy.”

Even the least horse-savvy actors (Hemsworth isn’t naming names) got a pass since the actual soldiers had little or no saddle experience, receiving basic riding instruction before battle.

“So we didn’t need to look like the best horsemen, but rough, dirty and unpredictable,” says Hemsworth. “And that’s how it felt most days.”

The real Special Forces showed uncommon grit and the ability to work with allies on the ground for a common objective. Upon taking the city back, they were hailed as heroes.

“It’s one of the few tales out of our current history that shows how America can respond in a positive way, helping people,” says Bruckheimer. “They went in there and got the job done, driving the Taliban out and changing the war.”

Though battle details were kept classified for years, the horse soldiers are finally getting their due. A bronze statue depicting a Green Beret soldier on horseback was unveiled in September 2016 at Ground Zero in New York. That’s a worthy tribute, Hemsworth says.

“As soldiers, they put themselves in extraordinarily dangerous situations for the benefit of others,” the actor says. “But these men embedded themselves and worked diplomacy with the locals to free the oppressed. It’s insanely impressive.”

Source: USA TODAY

9:00 AM PDT 10/11/2017 by Todd McCarthy

THE BOTTOM LINE
An engaging account of a tragic real-life story.

Jeff Bridges, Josh Brolin, Jennifer Connelly, Taylor Kitsch and Miles Teller star in a drama about the Granite Mountain Hotshots, who battled against the Yarnell Hill fire in Arizona in 2013. The well-worn dramatic format of putting a unit of professional men in a tense situation and watching them deal with it is given a big shot in the arm by Only the Brave. This robust and vigorously acted telling of the tragic loss of 19 top-tier firefighters in Arizona’s Yarnell Hill blaze in June 2013 most directly follows in the line of such recent true-life-derived action hits as American Sniper and Lone Survivor. But temperamentally it’s also a descendant of Hemingway’s grace under pressure, of Howard Hawks’ “Are you good enough?” explorations of male camaraderie in extremis.

As a fall attraction aimed at the nation’s mid-section dwellers rather than at coastals, this Sony/Columbia release is certainly good enough to make a notable score commercially.

The members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots were all just regular guys, but they were also members of a true elite, the creme-de-la-creme of a fraternity of men who risked their lives containing fast-spreading wildfires. They were mostly gung ho, can-do types with a penchant for horsing around and downing a few brewskies, but all that would immediately be put aside when danger called. However variable and volatile they may have been off-duty, they were Medal of Honor material on the job.

At first, the outfit overseen by “Supe” (as in superintendent) Eric Marsh (Josh Brolin in absolute top form) aren’t yet in the major leagues of firefighting; they’re a Prescott, Arizona, municipal team trying to crack through to cherished “hotshots” status. A table-setting scene of the men at work provides vivid evidence of the amazing rapidity with which wildfires can spread, and also serves as a springboard for Supe’s crew to win acceptance into the elite of firefighters.

Since such a unit consists of 20 firefighters, we’re not about to get to know many of the men very well; the well-wrought script by Ken Nolan (Black Hawk Down and — ahem — Transformers: The Last Knight) and Eric Warren Singer (American Hustle) decides to principally concentrate on the most capable, Supe, who has what seems like a great marriage to feisty, loving Amanda (Jennifer Connelly), a horse whisperer for battered steeds, and the least likely to succeed, Brendan “Donut” McDonough (Miles Teller). When met, the latter is a no-account wastrel and druggie who’s just gotten a poor young thing pregnant, an issue he views as just one more “whatever.” He’s a total jerk, indicating a very long road back to redemption.

After just this straightforward bit of setup, the film has already succeeded in immersing the viewer in a particular way of talking, a way of life. When it’s time to kick back, the guys know how to do it, Western-style, with the customary booze and B.S.-ing humor embedded in strong feelings of professional camaraderie. And music, too, of course, some of it supplied by Supe’s closest confidant, old fire chief Duane Steinbrink (Jeff Bridges, for once clean-shaven, conventionally coiffed and unburdened with the gravely voice he seems mostly to have used since playing Rooster Cogburn).

By throwing down the welcome mat and inviting the viewer into close quarters with generally positive characters in a distinctive enclave within an otherwise recognizable small-town world, director Joseph Kosinski (Tron: Legacy, Oblivion) establishes a crucial audience bond that will make the tragic end you know awaits all the more powerful. The film is also good at the perfunctory stuff of showing how the Hotshots train, create burn areas to prevent fires from spreading further, give each other a hard time and otherwise go about being the best at a job that can keep you away from your family for long stretches; in the worst of circumstances, it can also end tragically. It’s hard not to genuinely admire these guys who work very hard for very little other than the satisfaction of doing the job well.

The screenwriters do have a tendency to conclude too many scenes with little upbeat kickers, but these are exceeded by small details that stick in the mind, such as a burned tree almost falling on a man out of the blue, another fellow being bitten by a rattlesnake when his mind is on much bigger threats or the guy who’s expert at cleanly opening a bottle of beer with a chainsaw.

Because of its cast of young men being buff and hormonal and good at their jobs, one could say that Only the Brave is the Top Gun of firefighter movies, the difference being that the new pic feels like it’s embedded in reality rather than in an aerial wet dream.

The tragic climax is a mighty and grim thing to behold, a catastrophe dictated by stupid mistakes, misfortunes and the whims of nature. No one was more qualified or could have been better prepared to face the adversities of that day than this squad, which had set so many controlled burns before. It was just a day when very bad luck trumped very good preparation.
Brolin strongly conveys the brawn, brains and confidence any foot soldier would want in a leader, and James Badge Dale offers fine backup as the second-in-command. Teller so convincingly embodies a massively loathsome young lout at the outset that it’s hard to believe you can at least somewhat come around to believing he’s reformed by the end. Connelly is unusually spirited as Supe’s deeply invested wife.

Production values are all they need to be, first and foremost the quite believable fire effects.

Production companies: Columbia Pictures, di Bonaventura Pictures, Conde Nast Entertainment, Black Label Media, Relevant Entertainment
Distributor: Sony
Cast: Josh Brolin, Miles Teller, Jeff Bridges, James Badge Dale, Taylor Kitsh, Jennifer Connelly, Andie MacDowell, Scott Haze, Alex Russell, Ben Hardy, Rachel Singer, Natalie Hall, Geoff Stults, Jake Picking
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Screenwriters: Ken Nolan, Eric Warren Singer
Producers: Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Eric Howsam, Michael Menchel, Molly Smith, Trent Luckinbill, Thad Luckinbill, Dawn Ostroff, Jeremy Steckler
Executive producer: Ellen H. Schwartz
Director of photography: Claudio Miranda
Production designer: Kevin Kavanaugh
Costume designer: Louise Mingenbach
Editor: Billy Fox
Music: Joseph Trapanese
Casting: Roma Kress
Rated PG-13, 134 minutes

Source: Hollywood Reporter

By Gary Goldstein

The journey of J.D. Salinger from young wiseacre to world-celebrated author and notorious recluse is absorbingly traced in Danny Strong’s “Rebel in the Rye.”

The movie opens in 1939, when budding scribe Jerome “Jerry” Salinger (Nicholas Hoult) takes an inspiring Columbia University writing class from Story magazine editor Whit Burnett (Kevin Spacey).

The action continues through Salinger’s deeply traumatic stint in World War II, during which he began his novel “The Catcher in the Rye.” His postwar depression, writer’s block, self-sabotage and soul searching eventually give way to completing “Catcher,” which was published in 1951 to unprecedented acclaim and, much to Salinger’s chagrin, serious influence.

As Hoult’s Salinger says here, he was “shackled” by his creation, a state whose social and psychological roots — and subsequent effects — are credibly, dimensionally etched via director Strong’s smart script, based on the book “J.D. Salinger: A Life” by Kenneth Slawenski, and by Hoult’s agile depiction of the gifted, prickly, tortured author.

Impressive production and costume design plus solid supporting turns by Spacey; Hope Davis and Victor Garber as Salinger’s parents; Zoey Deutch as debutante Oona O’Neill; and Sarah Paulson as Salinger’s agent, round out this evocative biopic.

————-

‘Rebel in the Rye’

Rating: PG-13, for some language including sexual references, brief violence, and smoking

Running time: 1 hour, 49 minutes

Playing: The Landmark, West Los Angeles

Source: LA TIMES

Before he became famous around the world as the author of The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger was a young man in search of inspiration. As portrayed by Nicholas Hoult in Rebel in the Rye, he has no lack of confidence; he knows he wants to be a professional writer, but he doesn’t yet know how to achieve his dream.

That is, until World War II breaks out and everything changes for him. Zoey Deutch costars as Oona O’Neill, a potential romantic interest; Kevin Spacey plays an influential professor who has a defining effect on the budding scribe. Lucy Boynton, Sarah Paulson and Victor Garber also star; Danny Strong wrote the screenplay and directed. Watch our exclusive trailer below and then make plans to see the movie when it opens in theaters on September 15.

Source: FANDANGO

Here’s your first look at the movie inspired by GQ’s feature story on the Granite Mountain Hotshots and their battle against one of the deadliest wildfires in U.S. history.

Source: GQ