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A sequel to hit Disney musical Moana arrives in November. Take a look at the first Moana 2 trailer.

Though Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson has a string successful films to his name, few have embedded themselves in the public consciousness like Disney musical Moana. The film was a critical and commercial success upon its release in 2016. In fact, the biggest surprise is that it has taken this long for a sequel to materialize.

The first film follows the titular girl as she teams up with demigod Maui to stop a curse he accidentally unleashed.

A live-action remake is also in the works. While Johnson will reprise his role, Auli’i Cravalho, who voiced the titular character, will not return for the live-action version. Original screenwriter Jared Bush will return to pen the script together with Dana Ledoux Miller. The film is scheduled to be released on the 10th July 2026.

However, both...

Seemingly out of nowhere, Disney not only announces Moana 2, but reveals that the film is arriving this November. More here.

How’s this for a surprise announcement. If you go by the rule of thumb that a Walt Disney Animation Studios movie takes three to four years to bring to fruition at the very least, then to learn of major new release with roughly ten months’ notice is quite something. Especially in the modern era of leaks and internet gossip.

Yet at its shareholder meeting overnight, Disney sprung the news that not only is a Moana 2 animated movie coming, but we’ll be seeing it this very year.

It comes off the back of two commercial disappointments for Walt Disney Animation Studios on the bounce: 2022’s underappreciated Strange World and last winter’s 100th birthday celebration movie Wish.

Moana 2 must be very welcome tonic for those who count the money around the place.

'Saint Joan': Constance Cummings as the George Bernard Shaw heroine. Constance Cummings on stage: From sex-change farce and Emma Bovary to Juliet and 'Saint Joan' (See previous post: “Constance Cummings: Frank Capra, Mae West and Columbia Lawsuit.”) In the mid-1930s, Constance Cummings landed the title roles in two of husband Benn W. Levy's stage adaptations: Levy and Hubert Griffith's Young Madame Conti (1936), starring Cummings as a demimondaine who falls in love with a villainous character. She ends up killing him – or does she? Adapted from Bruno Frank's German-language original, Young Madame Conti was presented on both sides of the Atlantic; on Broadway, it had a brief run in spring 1937 at the Music Box Theatre. Based on the Gustave Flaubert novel, the Theatre Guild-produced Madame Bovary (1937) was staged in late fall at Broadway's Broadhurst Theatre. Referring to the London production of Young Madame Conti, The...

Raymond Massey ca. 1940. Raymond Massey movies: From Lincoln to Boris Karloff Though hardly remembered today, the Toronto-born Raymond Massey was a top supporting player – and sometime lead – in both British and American movies from the early '30s all the way to the early '60s. During that period, Massey was featured in nearly 50 films. Turner Classic Movies generally selects the same old MGM / Rko / Warner Bros. stars for its annual “Summer Under the Stars” series. For that reason, it's great to see someone like Raymond Massey – who was with Warners in the '40s – be the focus of a whole day: Sat., Aug. 8, '15. (See TCM's Raymond Massey movie schedule further below.) Admittedly, despite his prestige – his stage credits included the title role in the short-lived 1931 Broadway production of Hamlet – the quality of Massey's performances varied wildly. Sometimes he could be quite effective; most of the time, however, he was an unabashed scenery chewer,...

'Henry V' Movie Actress Renée Asherson dead at 99: Laurence Olivier leading lady in acclaimed 1944 film (image: Renée Asherson and Laurence Olivier in 'Henry V') Renée Asherson, a British stage actress featured in London productions of A Streetcar Named Desire and Three Sisters, but best known internationally as Laurence Olivier's leading lady in the 1944 film version of Henry V, died on October 30, 2014. Asherson was 99 years old. The exact cause of death hasn't been specified. She was born Dorothy Renée Ascherson (she would drop the "c" some time after becoming an actress) on May 19, 1915, in Kensington, London, to Jewish parents: businessman Charles Ascherson and his second wife, Dorothy Wiseman -- both of whom narrowly escaped spending their honeymoon aboard the Titanic. (Ascherson cancelled the voyage after suffering an attack of appendicitis.) According to Michael Coveney's The Guardian obit for the actress, Renée Asherson was "scantly...

The Four Feathers Directed by: Zoltán Korda Written by: R. C. Sherriff Starring: John Clements, Ralph Richardson, C. Aubrey Smith, June Duprez Billed as a sort of adventure film, I wasn't entirely sure what to expect from The Four Feathers. Even though the tale has been told on film multiple times, I went in to it knowing nothing about the story and was pleasantly surprised. The film is set in the 1890's during the Mahdist War. I won't claim to have heard of this particular war previous to this film, nor will I act as any sort of expert on the background of this conflict (something to do with the British colonization of Africa). The lead character, Harry Faversham (played by John Clements) was brought up in a family rooted in military history. He's a member of the British Army but resigns on the eve of a massive deployment to Khartoum.

DVD Playhouse—November 2011

By Allen Gardner

Tree Of Life (20th Century Fox) Terrence Malick’s latest effort is both the best film of 2011 and the finest work of his (arguably) mixed, but often masterly canon. A series of vignettes, mostly set in 1950s Texas, capture the memory of a man (Sean Penn) in present-day New York who looks back on his life, and his parents’ (Brad Pitt, Jessica Chastain) troubled marriage, when word of his younger brother’s suicide reaches him. Almost indescribable beyond that, except to say no other film in history so perfectly evokes the magic and mystery of the human memory, which both crystalizes (and sometimes idealizes) the past. Like Stanley Kubrick’s 2001, this is a challenging, polarizing work that you must let wash over you. If you go along for the ride, you’re in for a unique, rewarding cinematic experience. Also available on Blu-ray disc.

The Criterion Collection has some of the most anal-retentive fans in the history of collecting. So I wonder how fans might stock 3 Women and The Four Feathers. Perhaps just by the number in the catalog, but with 3 Women – the Robert Altman film from 1977 starring Sissy Spacek and Shelly Duvall – does it get to go in a number section or in the T’s? And if you have a number section, shouldn’t Four Feathers – the 1939 adventure spectacle from Zoltan Korda, starring John Clements and Ralph Richardson – go in it? However you file them both are now out on Blu-ray and our reviews follow after the jump. When talking about Robert Altman’s career, I like to say that he’s the Howard Hawks of the Easy Riders, Raging Bulls generation. Like Hawk,s he spent his career jumping all over the map of genre films. He made war films (M...

When deciding which film adaptation of A.E.W. Mason’s classic novel The Four Feathers was best, you have a number of films to choose between, and each has their own set of pros and cons. The 2002 and most recent iteration had modest performances with outstanding visuals, but set against a poorly plotted take on the tale. While not an utter trainwreck, when compared to Zoltan Korda’s iteration, it’s impossible not to see how the 1939 classic easily outclasses its sanitized 2002 counterpart in acting, storytelling, and direction. Shot in Technicolor, The Four Feathers stars John Clements as the shamed soldier Harry Faversham who takes upon an epic quest across continents to redeem himself in the eyes of his friends and fiancée. Now, 72 years later, The Criterion Collection has brought the beautifully restored film and all its themes of honor and social class to Blu-ray with a restored version which, while...

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“The Four Feathers” (The Criterion Collection)

On DVD and Blu-Ray

By Raymond Benson

Based on A.E.W. Mason’s classic 1902 adventure novel, The Four Feathers had been made three times before this definitive version of a “British Empire Adventure Film” was released in 1939. Produced by Hungarian-born but UK-based Alexander Korda, one of the great filmmakers of British cinema, and directed by his brother Zoltan Korda, The Four Feathers represents the best of what England had to offer during its day, as well as the epitome of the kind of yarns spun by Kipling and his ilk.

In vivid Technicolor and sporting a cast of hundreds of ethnic extras, the picture captures the grand Victorian era of the British military and takes place mostly in Africa some ten years or so after the fall of Khartoum. The story is simple (albeit somewhat improbable):...

Rank the week of October 14th’s Blu-ray and DVD new releases against the best films of all-time: New Releases Green Lantern

(Blu-ray & DVD | PG13 | 2011)

Flickchart Ranking: #2480

Win Percentage: 43%

Times Ranked: 6760

Top-20 Rankings: 25

Directed By: Martin Campbell

Starring: Ryan Reynolds • Blake Lively • Peter Sarsgaard • Mark Strong • Temuera Morrison

Genres: Action • Action Thriller • Based-on-Comics • Comic-Book Superhero Film • Crime • Crime Thriller • Science Fiction • Sci-Fi Action • Thriller

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Horrible Bosses

(Blu-ray & DVD | Nr | 2011)

Flickchart Ranking: #750

Win Percentage: 54%

Times Ranked: 6278

Top-20 Rankings: 23

Directed By: Seth Gordon

Starring: Jason Bateman • Jason Sudeikis • Jennifer Aniston • Kevin Spacey • Jamie Foxx

Genres: Black Comedy • Comedy • Workplace Comedy

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Zookeeper

(Blu-ray & DVD | PG | 2011)

Flickchart Ranking: #10259

Win Percentage: 37%

Times Ranked: 470

Top-20 Rankings: 9

Directed By: Frank Coraci

Starring: Kevin James • Rosario Dawson • Leslie Bibb • Ken Jeong • Donnie Wahlberg

Genres: Animal Picture • Comedy • Family-Oriented Comedy

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Judy Moody And The Not Bummer Summer

(Blu-ray & DVD | PG...

Your Weekly Source for the Newest Releases to Blu-Ray Tuesday, October 4th, 2011

Aspen Extreme (1993)

Synopsis: T.J. and his friend Dexter quit their jobs in Detroit to become ski-instructors in Aspen. While T.J. advances to the most popular instructor of the school during the season, he has to take care for Dexter, who’s future is less bright and who’s eventually thinking about jobbing as drug courier – bringing their friendship to a test. Meanwhile the rich business woman Brice supports T.J. in his writing ambitions and invites him to live at her home. But in her absence he falls in love with the stunningly beautiful blond radio moderator Robin. (highdefdigest.com)

Special Features:

Unknown

The Bad Seed (1956)

Synopsis: An ideal housewife begins to suspect her loving eight-year-old daughter may be a heartless killer. (blu-ray.com)

Special Features:

Audio Commentary Featurette Theatrical Trailer

Beautiful Boy (2010)

Synopsis: Bill and...

Release Date: Oct. 11, 2011

Price: DVD $29.95, Blu-ray $39.95

Studio: Criterion

The spectacular 1939 Technicolor epic The Four Feathers, directed by Zoltán Korda (Jungle Book), is considered the finest of the many adaptations of A.E.W. Mason’s classic 1902 adventure novel about the British Empire’s exploits in Africa.

Set at the end of the 19th century, the adventure film follows the travails of a young officer (John Clements, Rembrandt) accused of cowardice after he resigns his post on the eve of a major deployment to Khartoum. Ultimately, he must fight to redeem himself in the eyes of his fellow officers and fiancée (June Duprez, The Thief of Bagdad).

Featuring music by Miklós Rózsa (The Killers) and Oscar-nominated cinematography by Georges Périnal (The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp), The Four Feathers remains a timeless, thunderous movie epic.

The film was remade by Shekhar Kapur in 2002. Not nearly as invigorating as the Korda version, the...

Peter O'Toole, Omar Sharif, Lawrence of Arabia Turner Classic Movies' "Race and Hollywood: Arab Images on Film" continues this evening with four movies about European powers and their difficult relationship with "the Arab races": Lawrence of Arabia, Lion of the Desert, The Four Feathers, and Young Winston. In David Lean's sprawling Lawrence of Arabia, Peter O'Toole is a much taller version of T. E. Lawrence, the Englishman who fought alongside Arabs at the time of World War I. Lawrence of Arabia won a total of seven Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director; it's also considered by many one of the greatest movies ever made. Personally, I find Lawrence of Arabia great-looking but much too long: 227 minutes. Also, at times I couldn't quite figure out what Lean's and screenwriter Robert Bolt's political take was; I'm not sure if their vision is just too muddled and wishy-washy, or...