If you’ve been waiting for the streaming premiere of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two, you won’t have long to wait. Warner Bros. announced today that the acclaimed sequel will start streaming exclusively on Max on May 21st, which is just next week.

Dune: Part Two is already available on Digital and was released on Blu-ray/4K Ultra HD today, so the upcoming streaming release means that Paul Atreides’ saga will soon be accessible for all who want it. The Dune sequel explores “the mythic journey of Paul Atreides as he unites with Chani and the Fremen while on a path of revenge against the conspirators who destroyed his family. Facing a choice between the love of his life and the fate of the known universe, he endeavors to prevent a terrible future only he can foresee.“

Dune: Part Two won’t be the end of the saga, as Villeneuve is expected to return for Dune Messiah, but don’t expect that to happen immediately. After spending six years working on the first two movies, Villeneuve is ready for a break. “I felt that it was a good idea to move forward right after Part One. We were already designing, writing et cetera. But it also meant that for six years I was on Arrakis non-stop, and I think it will be healthy to step back a little bit,” Villeneuve said. “First, make sure that we have a strong screenplay. The thing I want to avoid is not having something ready. I never did it, and now I feel it could be dangerous because of the enthusiasm. We need to make sure all the ideas are on paper.“

Villeneuve added, “If we go back, it needs to be real, it needs to be relevant, if ever I do Dune Messiah, [it’s] because it’s going to be better than Part Two. Otherwise, I don’t do it.” Just last month, the director said he was already writing the third installment. “That anger [felt by Zendaya’s character at the end of Dune: Part Two] is tremendous,” he said. “I don’t want to reveal what I’m going to do with the third movie. I know exactly what to do. I’m writing it right now. But there’s a lot of firepower there, and I’m very excited about that decision.“

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Hayao Miyazaki’s cerebral fantasy film The Boy and the Heron is flying onto Max in the United States after winning the Best Animated Feature Oscar at this year’s awards ceremony. In addition to bringing Miyazaki’s latest breath-taking animated feature to the streaming platform, Warner Bros. Discovery is entering a multiyear pact with GKids to extend Max’s exclusive U.S. film streaming rights for Studio Ghibli. 

Per the new deal, Max will be the future home of The Boy and the Heron, with a premiere date to be announced later this year. The agreement also secures exclusivity on Max for other films in Studio Ghibli’s library, including Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, Porco Rosso, and more.

“Our subscribers are always looking for unique stories, and we are happy to continue to offer these award-winning, critically acclaimed films and to add ‘The Boy and the Heron’ to our deep and rich Max content offering,” Elizabeth Bannan Atcheson, VP of content acquisitions, Warner Bros. Discovery, said in a statement.

After his mother dies during WW2, a young Japanese boy, Mahito Maki (Soma Santoki), is sent to live with his Aunt, Natsuko (Yoshino Kimura), with whom his munitions factory owner father is trying to start a new family. Traumatized by the death of his mother and struggling to accept his circumstances, Mahito finds himself lured into a fantasy world out of time and space by an antagonistic grey Heron (Masaki Suda). As Mahito struggles to make sense of the new macrocosm, he ends a vicious cycle of generational trauma, ultimately making peace with his new surroundings by accepting the winds of change. The Boy and the Heron is a beautiful, frequently trippy tribute to the act of honoring the memory of a loved one and forging a new path that begins with healing.

The English language dubbed version of the film features the voices of Christian Bale (Ford v Ferrari, Amsterdam, The Pale Blue Eye), Dave Bautista (Dune, Guardians of the Galaxy), Gemma Chan (The Creator, Eternals, Crazy Rich Asians), Willem Dafoe (At Eternity’s Gate, The Florida Project), Karen Fukuhara (The Boys, Suicide Squad), Mark Hamill (The Machine, House of Usher), Robert Pattinson (The Batman, Tenet, upcoming Mickey 17), and Florence Pugh (Oppenheimer, Black Widow, Little Women). Luca Padovan joins the cast as Mahito Maki, and Mamoudou Athie, Tony Revolori, and Dan Stevens are featured as the Parakeets. GKids handled casting and produced the English version in close consultation with Studio Ghibli, with ADR direction by Michael Sinterniklaas at NYAV Post, and an English script adaptation by Stephanie Sheh. The English language dub was produced under the SAG-AFTRA Foreign Dubbing Agreement.

When it hits the streaming service, will you watch The Boy and the Heron on Max? Let us know in the comments section below.

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The planned Harry Potter TV series at Warner Bros. has long been in development for the past few years and the studio has made the announcement this morning that they’re aiming for a 2026 release. The new TV series adaptation will be transforming each of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter novels into a single season, meaning that the entire series could span seven seasons or more. David Zaslav revealed that he met with J.K. Rowling a few weeks ago in London for the high-profile project.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Zaslav shared his excitement of taking on this new phase of the property. He states, “We’ve not been shy about our excitement around Harry Potter. The last film was made more than a dozen years ago.” He also details his meeting with Rowling, “I was in London a few weeks ago with Casey [HBO and Max chief Casey Bloys] and Channing [WBD TV chief Channing Dungey] and we spent some real time with J.K. and her team. Both sides are thrilled to be reigniting this franchise. Our conversations were great, and we couldn’t be more excited about what’s ahead. We can’t wait to share a decade of new stories with fans around the world on Max.”

For as long as the streaming project has been in development, it was not known if the director of much of the Harry Potter films, David Yates, would also transfer over into the series after having the tenure at Hogwarts. Yates would eventually come to the realization that he would not continue with the property. Back when Yates was promoting Pain Hustlers, he stated, “Do you know what? Honestly, I could not, in any conceivable way, get involved…It’s simply: I spent a long time at that school, in those corridors and in those classrooms, and it was an exquisite experience and one I will always treasure. But to go back and do another year or two, for me, I feel I’ve left it.”

Last year, the studio released a statement saying, “Each season will be authentic to the original books and bring Harry Potter and these incredible adventures to new audiences around the world, while the original, classic and beloved films will remain at the core of the franchise and available to watch globally.”

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Grab your cartoonishly oversized hammer and an egg sandwich from your favorite bodega because Harley Quinn Season 5 is happening at Max! The new season picks up after the events of Season 4, revolving around Harley’s attempt to join the Legion of Doom.

“The talented Harley Quinn team has once again succeeded in delivering a season that builds on everything that has come before while still feeling fresh and inventive,” said Suzanna Makkos, Executive Vice President of Original Comedy and Adult Animation, Max and Adult Swim. “They continue to provide hilarious, heartwarming, and deranged stories with our lovable group of DC misfits, and we couldn’t be more excited for the fans to see what they’ve accomplished in season 5.”

Lake Bell, Alan Tudyk, Ron Funches, Tony Hale, Diedrich Bader, J.B. Smoove, Christopher Meloni, Jim Rash, and more join Cuoco as the primary cast members of Harley Quinn.

“Harley Quinn has raised the comedic crowbar with every new season,” said Peter Girardi, Executive Vice President, Alternative Programming at Warner Bros. Animation. “We’re excited to continue this partnership with Max and take our biggest swing yet for season 5.”

“We’re thrilled that the news of Harley and Ivy’s continuing misadventures is finally out and we can stop telling people in secret,” said executive producers Justin Halper, Patrick Schumacker, and Dean Lorey. “We must have handed out at least three thousand NDAs by now. It was a big waste of paper.”

While waiting for Harley Quinn Season 5, why not check out the Spotify audio series Harley Quinn and The Joker: Sound Mind? The series, written by Eli Horowitz (Homecoming), shares a new story from the perspective of one of Gotham City’s most iconic villains. Spotify’s Harley Quinn podcast follows in the footsteps of DC’s other ultra-successful podcast series, Batman Unburied.

Leading the cast as Harleen Quinzel is Emmy-nominated actor Christina Ricci (Yellow Jackets, Sleepy Hollow, The Addams Family), in an audio series that finally tells Harley’s story from her perspective instead of the one The Joker has told. When listeners meet Harley, she’s Dr. Harleen Quinzel, a gifted psychologist at Arkham Asylum in Gotham City determined to help the patients her colleagues have written off. But her dad is sick and in need of an expensive life-saving operation, which Harleen can’t afford. When she meets “Patient J,” a unique criminal who seems to have a strange power over everyone but her, Harleen makes a fateful decision: to use her relationship with J to get what she needs, leading both of them down a dangerous path that will change their lives forever.

All episodes of Harley Quinn and The Joker: Sound Mind are available now on Spotify. I devoured this series upon release and highly recommend checking it out.

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The long winding journey of The Flash finally reached home markets when the much-maligned film became available to the world on digital this time last month. Now, the DCEU movie inevitably sets it sights on its premiere for the streaming platform, Max. The Flash‘s infamous reception makes it sound like the death knell for the DCEU to audiences, and the fresh release of Blue Beetle signifies the start of the new DCU as James Gunn claims the titular character is the first in his universe. However, the next Aquaman movie, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, is still in the wings, waiting for release. It was once thought it might be delayed for next year, but the Jason Momoa vehicle is expected to keep its date for December.

Deadline reports that The Flash is slated to make its debut on the Warner Bros. streaming service next week on Friday, August 25. The promotion for the film was a unique one as it seemed to be counting on the confidence that executives thought they had the next Dark Knight on their hands. Ironically, they would try to reach out to Christian Bale for a cameo on many futile attempts. Warner Bros. decided to light a fire on the buzz for them to get word of mouth to gain awareness and curiosity since they knew their star, Ezra Miller, would not be able to do any promotion.

After a long year in public relations scrambling, the film would lean further into the angle that Michael Keaton’s Batman makes his grand return in an effort to stoke the passion for nostalgia. According to Deadline, when the solo outing for the Scarlet Speedster finally hit screens, “it opened to $55.1 million over its first three days domestically, and $64M over the Juneteenth holiday frame. Along with a similarly tepid performance overseas, all those numbers were below expectations for a DC tentpole with a budget of $200M. The pic, directed by Andy Muschietti, is currently sitting on a $268.5 million global box office total.”

At one point before its release, it was revealed that a sequel’s script was already written with Keaton’s Batman and Sasha Calle’s Supergirl set to make appearances, as well as a planned Batman Beyond adaptation. However, once the figures came in, all of those plans had been scrapped.

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Animation and comedy fantasy fans, rejoice! The Netflix series from the creator of The Simpsons and Futurama, Matt Groening returns for the “shocking conclusion!” The Disenchantment trailer has now debuted for viewers anticipating the final season.

The official Netflix synopsis reads,
It all endeth here. The misadventures of hard-hitting, hard-drinking Queen Bean, her feisty elf companion Elfo and her personal demon Luci culminate in an epic battle for Dreamland in the fifth and final installment of Matt Groening’s comedy fantasy series Disenchantment.

To save Dreamland from Queen Dagmar’s wicked rule, Bean must vanquish her mother and outrun a prophecy that foretells she will kill someone she loves. The stakes are as high as ever as our heroes face Satan, a headless corpse, an evil stientist and most terrifying of all- their true destiny.

The series features the voice talents of Abbi Jacobson (“Bean”), Eric Andre (“Luci”) and Nat Faxon (“Elfo”) along with John DiMaggio, Tress MacNeille, Richard Ayoade, Matt Berry, Noel Fielding, Meredith Hagner, David Herman, Sharon Horgan, Maurice LaMarche, Lucy Montgomery and Billy West.

Disenchantment is due to stream on Netflix starting September 1.

Next, we have the new Max original Adventure Time spin-off, Adventure Time: Fiona and Cake. This show features the voices of Madeleine Martin as Fionna, Roz Ryan as Cake, the cat, Tom Kenny as Ice King, along with Andrew Rannells, Donald Glover, Kayleigh Mckee, Sean Rohani, and more.

The official synopsis of Adventure Time: Fiona and Cake, courtesy of Collider, reads,
In the upcoming series, Fionna and Cake find themselves in the crosshairs of a powerful new foe and will need the help of Ice King to defeat him and save the universe. We’ll see the trio travel throughout the multiverse while being chased by the new antagonist who is hell-bent tracking them down and erasing them from existence. The series will also see appearances from Marshall Lee, Marceline the Vampire Queen, Princess Bubblegum, and Finn the Human. Fans should get ready for this ride which will take them to a familiar setting but in the most unusual ways.

Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake will premiere with two episodes on August 31, which will then followed by two episodes weekly through September 28 on Max.

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One of the most chastised men in the industry right now is Warner Bros. Discovery head David Zaslav. And, honestly, with his track record, he deserves quite a bit of it. This is the guy who launched questionable mergers, cost hundreds of people jobs, severely cut the libraries of major streaming services, made sure HBO got changed to Max – which many of us will just plain never be down with – and…should we keep going?*

Now, a new GQ article criticizing David Zaslav has been pulled, a peculiar move that stems from its author wanting his own byline removed. As per The Washington Post, “A Zaslav associate complained to GQ about the story soon after it was published…” Available versions of both the original version that reporter Jason Bailey wrote and the ones edited by GQ higher-ups apparently show distinct differences, with lines like those calling the CEO “the most hated man in Hollywood” being snipped. But don’t worry, the article is pretty easy to find on the internet because, well, it’s the internet:

*OK, we’ll keep going. David Zaslav also gave screwing up Turner Classic Movies a shot – which is hopefully blocked by the likes of Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese and Paul Thomas Anderson – not to mention seeking a tax break after canning the “unreleasable” Batgirl, dropping stocks of Warner Bros. Discovery…should we keep going?+

The decision to pull the GQ article on David Zaslav from publication may have some serious insider play going on as well, as The Washington Post notes, “The magazine’s parent company, Condé Nast, is owned by Advance Publications, a major shareholder in Warner Bros. Discovery.” So, no, it’s probably not a good look on their end. According to Bailey, “When I was asked to rewrite it after publication, I declined. The rewrite that was done was not to my satisfaction, so I asked to have my name removed and was told that the option there was to pull the article entirely, and I was fine with that.”

Feel free to chime in with your thoughts on David Zaslav – and the pulled GQ story – in the comments section below!

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As the successful HBO show Succession comes to an end, the series’ patriarch, Brian Cox, reflects on his time and what the show has meant to him and so many. According to The Hollywood Reporter, as the show finally takes its final bow after the airing of its series finale, Cox would address his fans, his cast and his crew via his Instagram stories on Memorial Day with graciousness and appreciation. Succession had premiered the series finale just the day before, so Cox would not hesitate to express his feelings.

Cox writes on his Instagram stories, “We have now come to the end. And what has been, in my career, certainly the greatest work experience ever. The harmony between cast and crew was truly amazing. It was on [its] way to become a great series but the Love and commitment from crew to cast and writers, made it memorable. I would like to thank all of us in the making and creating of this show from the very bottom of my heart.”

The actor had recently shared his opinion about the fate of Logan Roy, stating that he was written out “ultimately too early.” He would continue, “I was fine with it ultimately, but I did feel a little bit rejected.You know, I felt a little bit like all the work I’ve done and finally I’m going to, you know, end up as an ear on a carpet of a plane.” Although, Cox would also tease that perhaps he’s not dead afterall, “If you think about it, from Logan’s point of view, he has to find out, how are his children going to behave when he dies, what will then happen? And the only way to do that is to fake his death and actually, at some distant point he’s observing the chaos that is following.”

While there has been such acclaim for Cox’s ruthless performance on the show, the actor would additionally be unfiltered and outspoken about his connection with his co-stars. For as much as he’s enjoyed working with them, he didn’t mince words about his disagreements with their acting methods in the past. Cox would speak about Jeremy Strong’s method, “I’ve worked with intense actors before. It’s a particularly American disease, I think, this inability to separate yourself off while you’re doing the job. The result that Jeremy gets is always pretty tremendous.I just worry about what he does to himself. I worry about the crises he puts himself through in order to prepare.”

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Now that HBO Max has dropped the “HBO” portion of their name, many subscribers have expressed confusion and skepticism through social media posts and memes. But Peacock has taken it one further, cracking an immature yet pretty hilarious joke that plays off of their name.

In a Twitter post from Tuesday, Peacock wrote, “I know you’re all very disappointed, but I will *not* be dropping the first half of my name any time soon”, along with a pair of side eyes…

Now, we here at JoBlo don’t want to have to spell things out for our readers, but let’s just say that the name that Peacock hints at wouldn’t necessarily be appropriate for a service that offers Blippi. Still, it’s hard to deny that such a major streaming service having some NSFW fun at the expense of a competitor is downright funny. Peacock has also engaged with some comments from followers. Responding to one’s skull/dead emoji, they wrote, “that’s what legal said”, which itself feels like a pun on Michael Scott’s “That’s what she said!” from The Office, available for streaming on the service. For their incredible diss, yes, the person in charge of Peacock’s Twitter account deserves hall of fame recognition.

For those unsure how Max is different from HBO Max, they outlined some general information for subscribers: “Max brings all the iconic programming that you love about HBO Max together with an even deeper library of crave-worthy genres like true crime, reality, food, comedy, and more — all for the same great price.” That same price is $9.99/month for basic with ads, $15.99/month for ad-free streaming and $19.99/month for the ultimate package, which includes 4K UHD access and up to 100 downloads for on-the-go viewing. For what it’s worth, Peacock is priced at $4.99/month for Premium and $9.99/month for Premium Plus with no ads and live NBC access.

Peacock has plenty of content available and in development, including the highly anticipated Community movie and Mr. Monk’s Last Case: A Monk Movie.

How do you feel about HBO Max rebranding as Max? Do you subscribe to Peacock as well?

The post No, Peacock will not shorten their name to… appeared first on JoBlo.

Some cliche somewhere said that ‘a picture is worth a thousand words.’ This has proven to be the case for me and especially when it comes to fan art. I have always sought out great fan art and have wanted to share it with as many people as possible. “Awesome Art We’ve Found Around The Net” is the outlet for that passion. In this column, I will showcase the kick-ass artwork of some great artists, with the hopes that these artists get the attention they deserve. That’s the aim. If you have any questions or comments, or even suggestions of art or other great artists, feel free to contact me at any time at theodorebond@joblo.com.

Bullitt by Ted Hammond

The Fast and the Furious by Ben Terdik

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 by Alan David

Han Solo by Grant Griffin

John Wick Chapter 4 by Julien Rico Jr.

The Last of Us by Ludo D. Rodriguez-Pascal

Lord of the Rings The Fellowship of the Ring by JB Roux

Peter Pan and Wendy by Handy Kara

Skeletor by Flavio Luccisano

Super Smash Bros. by Kevin Tiernan

The post Awesome Art We’ve Found Around The Net: Bullitt, The Fast and The Furious, Guardians of the Galaxy, John Wick appeared first on JoBlo.