Phase IV of the Marvel Cinematic Universe took center stage with some big reveals at a Disney investor event last year. Since then it’s all been about shuffling release dates. In the interim Disney+ has launched both WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, with Black Widownow scheduled for arrival July 9, 2021, which was when we’d initially expected to see the premiere of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Probably the most unexpected of the forthcoming movies from Marvel, this is another film where we expect to find, as with Guardians of the Galaxy, a new access point to the Marvel superheroes for a new generation of movie audiences. Along with a new poster, now we have our first teaser trailer.
Long-time comics readers will know Shang-Chi as the Master of Kung Fu from the pages of 1970s Marvel Comics by Steve Englehart and Jim Starlin. Originally the son of Fu Manchu, the character was an attempt by Marvel to create a monthly like the Kung Fu TV series after they failed in their bid to get the adaptation rights. And everyone knew visually he was based on Bruce Lee. In the new film Shang-Chi is played by Canadian actor Simu Liu (Orphan Black, Warehouse 13), comedian and comedic actor Awkwafina(Nora from Queens, Jumanji: The Next Level) plays his friend Katy, Tony Chiu-Wai Leung(Once Upon a Time in Hong Kong, Forced Vengeance) as The Mandarin, Michelle Yeoh (Star Trek Discovery, Guardians of the Galaxy 2) is Jiang Li, Florian Munteano (Creed 2) as a new cyborg, and Ronny Chieng(Godzilla vs Kong, Crazy Rich Asians) as Shang-Chi’s friend Jon-Jon.
Wait no longer! Here’s the first look at Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings:
Once a year at borg we ask: What makes a great screen heroine? It’s time for borg′s annual look at the Best Kick-Ass Genre Heroines in film and television. Despite delays in releases due to the covid pandemic, nothing kept Hollywood from including great female characters on the screen, even if that meant moving movies to the small screen for a while. We’re highlighting the very best from a slate of fantastic heroines, with characteristics to learn from and root for. Determined, decisive, loyal, brave, smart, fierce, strong, you’ll find no one here timid or weepy, but all rely on their individual skills to beat the odds and overcome any obstacle that comes their way. Over the years we have expanded the list to include any tough, savvy, gritty character played by a woman, so villains are welcome here, too. (Want to see previous years’ kickass genre heroines to see how 2020 compares? Here are 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, and 2015). Some may be frazzled, put-upon, war-weary, or human, but all have fought, some against difficult circumstances, others against personal demons (literally, figuratively, or both), and some against gun and laser fire. And they all showed what a tough, kick-ass, and often badass, character is about.
This year we add masked superheroines, a CDC epidemiologist, aliens, assassins, martial artists, warriors, cyborgs, a telephone operator, an engineer, a bounty hunter, and a frog and a pig–with a roster evenly split between television and movie characters. Credit goes to both the writers, costumers, and other creators of the characters and the actors and performers that brought them all to life.
These are the Best Kick-Ass Genre Heroines of 2020:
Bo-Katan Kryze(The Mandalorian, Star Wars: The Clone Wars). In the animated series she would let nothing stand in her way. In a galaxy with villains like Grand Admiral Thrawn and Grand Moff Gideon, we’re lucky to have Bo-Katan on our side. Leading a team to find the Darksaber and restore Mandalore, she’s also willing to enlist a lone straggler, and help him for his efforts. With Katee Sackhoff, the actress behind Starbuck, in the armor, the coolness factor goes up by a factor of 100. Great heroines are great leaders, and, like Bo-Katan, they wield an incredible arsenal of skills. (Disney/Lucasfilm)
Sheriff Nicole Haught (Wynonna Earp). Katherine Barrell’s tough, savvy, and friendly sheriff is one of the best reasons to watch Wynonna Earp, now four seasons running. She’s the girlfriend of Wynonna’s sister Waverly, she is plugged into the local supernatural happenings, and she’s always available to lend a hand, when she’s not carrying out her sheriff duties. She’s an investigator who is loyal, driven, and smart. She’s also fun and friendly, making her the heart of the series. In a show about supernatural people, she holds her own as law enforcer simply by her own human wits. (Syfy)
Seven of Nine (Star Trek Picard). More than forty years of Star Trek have revealed some exceptional women leaders. This year we were lucky to see the re-appearance of one of the best, a character who was captured as a child and trapped in what amounts to a technological cult. With the help of a strong captain, Seven was able to break free, and re-learn what it means to be human. This year that meant helping a legendary former admiral, avenge the death of her closest friend, and fight for good long after her call to duty. (CBS All Access)
Like the split between fans of the third Star Wars trilogy and The Mandalorian, fans of Star Trek probably see themselves aligned to prefer either Star Trek: Discovery or Star Trek: Picard. Or maybe there’s even a better contrast between Star Trek: Discovery’s first season worldbuilding vs. that series’ second season’s throwback concepts. Was your favorite character the badass Mirror Universe Emperor Philippa Georgiou (formerly Federation Captain), played by the sly and fabulous Michelle Yeoh (the only actor onscreen who could actually immobilize someone in real life with her martial arts skill and the highest paid actress in Asia)? Maybe it was the very Original Series-inspired engineer Jett Reno, who got the best dialogue and had the best style of any character in this decade of Trekdom, played by the brilliantly funny Tig Notaro? Maybe it is the series lead, the very straight-laced Ant-Man and The Wasp-inspired sci-fi-meets-superheroine, Captain Michael Burnham, played by Sonequa Martin-Green? Or maybe it is Anson Mount giving his own superhero performance as an early (and later?) famous Captain Christopher Pike of the familiar good ship Enterprise? Turns out, if any one of the above fits the bill for you, Star Trek has something for you heading your way.
It’s time for borg′s annual look at the Best Kick-Ass Genre Heroines in film and television. This year we selected 26 characters that rose to the top. Again the studios gave us more to cheer about than ever. We’re highlighting the very best from a slate of fantastic heroines, with characteristics to learn from and root for. Determined, decisive, loyal, brave, smart, fierce, strong, you’ll find no one here timid or weepy, but all rely on their individual skills to beat the odds and overcome any obstacle that comes their way. Over the years we have expanded the list to include any tough, savvy, gritty character played by a woman, so villains are welcome here, too. Some may be frazzled, put-upon, war-weary, or human, but all have fought, some against difficult circumstances, others against personal demons (literally, figuratively, or both), and some against gun and laser fire. And they all showed what a tough, kick-ass character is about.
Several characters who made previous years’ kick-ass heroine lists returned to TV and film and could very well make the list again, but we’re looking for new recruits. So we’re not forgetting Lagertha in Vikings,Liv Moore from iZombie,Trish Walker in Jessica Jones, and Juliana Crain from The Man in the High Castle, all in their final seasons of their series, plus Eleven in Stranger Things,Juliet Higgins in Magnum PI,Liz Dudley in Lodge 49, the 13th Doctor in Doctor Who,Betty Cooper from Riverdale, and Sabrina Spellman and Ms. Wardwell from The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. At the movies Valkyrie, The Wasp, and Okoye were back, this time in Avengers: Endgame, Martha/Ruby Roundhouse returned in Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, and Rey was back one more time in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. This year we add a mystic, a former Russian operative, a DHS agent, an adventurer, an undercover cop, a bounty hunter, a general, a gang leader, superheroes, martial arts masters, special agents, survivors, former soldiers, resistance fighters, gelflings, warriors, witches, a bride, an emperor (not empress!), and even a cyborg–with a roster evenly split between television and movie characters.
Credit goes to both the writers and other creators of the characters and the actors and performers that brought them all to life.
These are the Best Kick-Ass Genre Heroines of 2019:
Aughra(The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance). If there was a greater woman character in the history of fantasy film, we don’t know who that would be. We first met her 37 years ago thanks to Jim Henson in the original movie, and she hardly changed at all for the prequel series that arrived at last this year. Voice actor Donna Kimball and Muppeteer extraordinaire Kevin Clash perfectly replicated the witchy sorceress whose wisdom, savvy, and mystic powers were stealthily used this season. She went to death and back again, and was key to defeat the Skekses once again. (Henson/Netflix)
Black Widow(Avengers: Endgame). After a decade of being the only superheroine in the Avengers, Scarlet Johannson’s Natasha Romanoff finally took center stage this year as the bravest of the entire bunch, giving her life to save not only everyone on Earth, but everyone across the universe destroyed by Thanos. And yet she still didn’t get the fanfare that Tony Stark did. We’re hoping she gets the solo film she deserves when she’s back one more time next year in her own movie. (Disney/Marvel)
Hattie Shaw(Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw). As part of a big bad assassin family, whose mother was played by Helen Mirren and brother by Jason Statham, Vanessa Kirby’s Hattie might be the toughest of them all. If you need to track down a missing deadly virus in the hands of a cybernetically enhanced superhuman, who else are you going to call to team up with Statham and The Rock? (Universal)
Agent M (Men in Black: International). Valkyrie Tessa Thompson is back on the list again, this time as the first movie lead Woman in Black, earning her nebulizer with the help of her Thor-world partner Chris Hemsworth. As a little girl, Molly witnessed an alien as her parents were zapped by Men in Black, and she worked her entire life to be able to get into the CIA or FBI, hoping one would be the entry point into the secret organization. Agents O and High T would recognize her value to the team, as she saved the planet from the latest menace. (Columbia/Sony)
Cyclone Mei(The Legend of the Condor Heroes). Even as an evil witch, Viola Mi’s master of the Nine Yin White Bone Claw and Heart Destroying Palm techniques became a sympathetic villain after her husband died at the hands of young Guo Jing and she became blind. Even blind she used internal techniques to defeat anyone she perceived as a threat. Master of the whip with fearsome claws, beautiful and fierce Mei Chaofeng once joined her husband as the “Twin Masters of the Dark Winds” to possess a forbidden manual of martial arts, and would leave mountains of bodies in their wake as they sank deeper into the dark teachings. (iQIYI)
Sarah Connor (Terminator: Dark Fate). We were excited when we heard Linda Hamilton would return to the franchise 27 years after she had a major transformation from waitress into the woman who would save 3 billion lives. One of Sci-Fi’s two best-known kick-ass heroines (along with Ellen Ripley), original terminator target Sarah Connor lost none of that drive and determination to continue to kill Terminators into the 21st century. As a grandma surrogate and mentor to the next generation of leadership, we’ve no doubt the future is safe again. (Paramount/20th Century Fox)
Special Agent Dinah Madani (Marvel’s The Punisher). For the entire second season, Amber Rose Revah’s DHS agent was hot on the trail of taking down Billy Russo’s villain Jigsaw. Who knew she’d need to get through his psychiatrist first. She was always tough and good at her job, but proved herself in the final two episodes of the series. (Netflix)
Leia Organa(Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker). Princess or General, Carrie Fisher’s Leia Organa was one of the 1970s brand of kick-ass heroines, although we still wish she’d had the opportunity to show her stuff just as Rey was able to in the third trilogy movies. We prefer seeing her as she continued after the original trilogy in Timothy Zahn’s novels, the Dark Empire comics, and the 20 years of the Expanded Universe stories, where we saw her realize power as great as Luke and the rest of the Jedi Order. (Disney/Lucasfilm)
Captain Marvel(Captain Marvel/Avengers: Endgame). Brie Larson’s take on Captain Marvel was an end-to-end story about being tough and taking charge. An entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe that didn’t fit the mold of past films, it allowed audiences to meet her for the first time and ramp up our appreciation for all she could do in short order. Soon enough she’d be integral to relocating Thanos after The Snap, and she’d return one more time in the final battle to try to turn the universe back to the way it was. (Disney/Marvel)
Cara Dune(The Mandalorian). A master of hand-to-hand combat as well as crack sharp-shooter, the latest Star Wars heroine (played by Gina Carano) helped the Mandalorian take down an AT-ST in their first go. Once a shock trooper with the Rebel Alliance and a fighter after the Battle of Endor, Cara is just the help the Mandalorian and The Child need going forward in the series. (Disney/Lucasfilm)
Sue Lynn Blackbird(Stumptown). Always the smartest person in the room, and ten steps ahead of everyone else, Tantoo Cardinal’s Sue Lynn runs the local Tribal Casino, but she does much more. She’s a businesswoman who always negotiates from the power position. Her leadership role means she has the power to excommunicate anyone who isn’t acting in the best interests of the tribe–or give them another chance. She’s also tough enough to forgive and mentor younger walking disasters she encounters from time to time. (ABC)
Emperor Philippa Georgiou(Star Trek: Discovery). We’ve always loved Michelle Yeoh, but the series writers for her latest character held back in the first season of the series. At last viewers got the full monte when the mirror version of the series lead character’s captain returned not only to help her, but to eliminate any who got in her way, and proceed to take over the secret spy agency of the prime world timeline. Up there with Jaylah from Star Trek Beyond, “Mirror Georgiou” is one of the new breed of badass Star Trek character.
Christine Gavin (Wu Assassins). Vikings star Katheryn Winnick makes her second showing on the list, this time as San Francisco undercover police officer Christine Gavin. Expecting to find the ringleader of a major crime syndicate, she began her work gaining the trust of a man in a local chop shop, only to discover a larger world existed beyond the world we see every day. Possessing some major martial arts skills and a street fighting manner, she didn’t lose a fight all season long, and helped battle evil in both dimensions. (Netflix)
Grace (Terminator: Dark Fate). Sent from the future to save a young woman who has the potential to go forward and lead a rebellion against a new technological apocalypse, Mackenzie Davis’s Grace stepped up to fight a new brand of Terminator. A human that volunteered to undergo enhancements to make herself into a full-fledged cyborg, she would fulfill her mission, giving the ultimate sacrifice for the future of humanity. (Paramount/20th Century Fox)
Huang Rong (The Legend of the Condor Heroes). Quick thinking with a photographic memory, Yitong Ling’s Rong’er met her future husband on one of her outings in beggar garb disguised as a man, practicing her skills as a thief and 13th century grifter. Young and easy to underestimate, with the witty banter of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and an almost supernatural ability to coerce anyone to do her bidding, her charismatic traits were only matched by her mastery of enough schools of martial arts to prevent anyone from learning who taught her. Raised on Peach Blossom Island by her father, she learned how to confuse an enemy, and is able to convince Hong Qigong to teach her even more, all in exchange for her cooking–hey, you can be a badass and also a master chef. (iQIYI)
Maudra Fara(The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance). Refusing to recognize Seladon’s claim to the position of All-Maudra, she’d challenge her for the Living Crown. Fara assumed the title of Maudra after Vala, her mother, had been killed during the First Battle of Stone-in-the-Wood, and she would prove to be the fiercest of all the Gelflings, male or female. Who wouldn’t follow her into harm’s way? Alice Dinnean was the puppeteer behind the scenes, with Lena Headey supplying her voice. (Henson/Netflix)
Grace(Ready Or Not). Samara Weaving’s character Grace made for the perfect bride on her wedding day… who married into a family of psychopaths that required she first beat them in a wedding night game of hide and seek–to the death. A horror movie that was also a suspense thriller, Ready Or Not ran circles around the similar Knives Out from an entertainment and excitement standpoint. Grace had to shoot though her in-laws and extended family to survive the night, somehow finding the mettle to defend herself when the unthinkable became the thinkable–and for audiences it was so much fun! (Mythology/Vinson)
Vedek Kira Nerys(Deep Space Nine: What We Left Behind). In this year’s Deep Space Nine documentary, the creators of the series returned to give viewers a glimpse at what Season 8 would have looked like had they been able to continue, complete with Kira as Vedek, in charge of the space station and taking her seven year character arc into new places. It’s the same grit Nana Visitor gave to her performance, and the spirit of the original shown through as she joins with her former Starfleet colleagues at the show’s cliffhanger.
Agent Francesca “Frankie” Trowbridge (Whiskey Cavalier). Lauren Cohan’s Frankie had it all, and unfortunately for fans the show was canceled after only one season. But what a season! This agent was every bit 100% James Bond but she also used her looks and smarts to double as “Bond girl” when the mission called for it. In hand-to-hand combat or with a weapon, whatever bad guys the writers threw at her, nobody could get past her for long. (ABC)
Zan Hui(Wu Assassins). Cold and near emotionless, Hong Kong movie star JuJu Chan’s Zan was ruthless as henchwoman to the leader of the Triads. But she was also ambitious, and at her first opportunity she didn’t hesitate to act. Incredibly skilled in kung fu and street fighting as well as weaponry, she didn’t need the supernatural skills of the other characters to make an impact. (Netflix)
Two (6 Underground). Melanie Laurent’s Camille was ready to join One and his secret force of ghosts, undoing some of the damage she’d done while CIA operative. Quiet and saying little most of the time, she reveals to the squad’s hitman she knows all she needs to navigate international politics. Take down a government led by a murderous villain and replace him with someone better? Count her in. (Netflix)
Gunnhild(Vikings). An entire series could be written around Ragga Ragnars’ strong and proud warrior. As shield-maiden, she doesn’t hesitate to lead the fight with her sword onto the battlefield. Also kind and humble, she also doesn’t hesitate to make sure her niece and nephew are protected when she has a dream that they are in danger. As Queen of Kattigat she proves she’s the right person at the right time in history. (History)
Dex Parios(Stumptown). Taking a character from the comic books to the screen, Cobie Smulders made ex-Marine Dex her own. Her P.I. is a walking disaster, always “this close” to succeeding, and always trying to claw her way back from the last worst decision she could have made. Somehow she is able to look after her brother. She makes Jessica Jones look like a lightweight, always her own worst enemy. But if she keeps fighting back in this city, she may just make it after all. (ABC)
Amelia Wren (The Aeronauts). Nobody else on the list had to climb to the top of a balloon in freezing cold temperatures with frostbitten, unusable fingers at a height of more than 30,000 feet. And Felicity Jones’s Amelia Wren was based on a real person. Does it get more badass than that? That she was a composite character doesn’t matter–she’ll make audiences breathless as she performs one death-defying feat after another in her two-hour flight. (Netflix)
Bell Mallory(The Man in the High Castle). In the series’ alternate histore, while the Eastern United States was still being fought over by the Nazis and a small band of resistance fighters, Frances Turner’s Bell Mallory rescued San Francisco and led a revolt that removed Japanese occupation from the entire west coast. Undercover op? Whatever it takes. A strategist and brains behind taking out a slew of leaders, she knew who to trust and who not to, and her decisions helped put the U.S. back into American control. (Amazon Studios)
Deet(The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance). The nicest gelfling of the Grottan clan you could ever meet, she befriends plant and animal alike. Once she experiences a vision by touching Vliste-Staba, the Sanctuary Tree located in the Mountains of Grot, the nature loving soul joins the resistance. And when the Skekses are ready to destroy Thra, she is the only one who can muster the power to stop them. An unlikely hero, we don’t yet know the extent of the price she paid for restoring the balance of Thra. Performers Beccy Henderson and Nathalie Emmanuel couldn’t have created a better heroine. (Netflix)
And that’s this year’s list. Keep coming back the remainder of this month as we reveal the rest of our Best in Film, Best in TV, and Best in Print, and our borgHall of Fame inductees for 2019.
Want to see previous years’ kickass genre heroines? Here are 2018, 2017, 2016, and 2015.
From Hong Kong to the U.S. and Australia to Uganda, Australian director Serge Ou and writer Grady Hendrix track the scope of the Hong Kong kung fu movie industry and its pop culture influence on the world in the documentary Iron Fists and Kung Fu Kicks, now streaming this month on Netflix. Splicing interviews with kung fu legends of the past with new discussions with martial artists and actors influenced by them, Ou offers up a surprisingly rich look at how and why kung fu movies gained an international following that continues to this day via Jackie Chan comedies, the Matrix movies (with a sequel due in theaters next year), and new television series like Wu Assassins and Iron Fist.
Beneath what is in essence an overview of the genre is a smart mixture of social and cultural commentary on a global phenomenon centered on an artform mixing athleticism, dance, and grace. Kung fu made its way to American audiences with Tom Laughlin in Billy Jack, and into millions of homes via the Kung Fu series. This was paralleled by Bruce Lee movies and lesser films (they call them Bruce-sploitation) from China and U.S. studios, direct-to-video crotch-kicking and “squirrel-grabbing” action on VHS tapes in video stores, heroines leading the way as a sub-genre, eventually moving to black and inner city audiences embracing the culture, starting with martial artist and actor Jim Kelly (who co-starred with Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon), re-emerging later as an influence on hip hop music. The genre got even bigger boosts with Jackie Chan heavy-stunt comedies, followed by The Matrix and the Academy Awards arrival of the genre with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Chinese co-productions with other nations, and actors of Chinese background in the mainstream outside of Asia would eventually come along.
Viewers meet (or revisit) early kung fu icons Cheng Pei-Pei and Sammo Hung in new interviews, along with Billy Banks, who would turn the genre into his own fortune via the creation of the Tae Bo workout, early American female kung fu star Cynthia Rothrock, martial artist Richard Norton, plus from the 21st century shows, Iron Fist actor Jessica Henwick, Wu Assassins actor JuJu Chan, Doctor Strange actor Scott Adkins, and Marvel stuntwoman and choreographer Amy Johnston, among others. It’s all interspersed with great action sequences and other clips from more than 100 films. A theme underscoring much of kung fu movie history is a distinct lack of safety standards, with more than one participant in the documentary stressing that Hong Kong kung fu movies couldn’t be made anywhere else for that reason.
Twenty years ago this weekend, the sovereignty of Hong Kong was handed back to China by the United Kingdom as the last act of the old British Empire, without incident.
The anniversary of this transfer of power coincides with the release by Hard Case Crime of one of crime fiction readers’ most eagerly awaited events: the final novel of Donald E. Westlake. The result surpasses all expectations from one of America’s most celebrated authors: the adventure of Ian Fleming, the complexity of Michael Crichton, the surprises of Stephen King, the thrills of Peter Benchley, the pulse of John Grisham. A taut thriller, gripping, heart-pounding, and jaw-dropping, Forever and a Death is Donald E. Westlake saving his best for last. Forever and a Death is his never-before-published new novel–a James Bond story of sorts–with an intriguing backstory. Tapped to write the second James Bond film to feature Pierce Brosnan as Bond, Westlake created a compelling story of international intrigue revolving around the return of Hong Kong to China on July 1, 1997. Because of the success of GoldenEye, the uncertainty of a smooth transfer of power of Hong Kong, and a distaste by the Chinese market for Bond, the Broccoli family and the Bond franchise machine amicably parted ways with Westlake. But he then reworked his story in secret, leaving behind at his death in 2008 a stunning action adventure, only snipping the world famous spy from the story.
The result is one of the most intelligent, loathsome, and shrewd Bond villains you’ll ever meet, Richard Curtis, an enormously wealthy business mogul who has amassed a network of corporations across the globe that will allow him to carry out his every wish. When he is booted from Hong Kong at the transfer of power, he becomes fixated on a power play to destroy Hong Kong as payback. As with many wealthy CEOs, Curtis is charismatic and influential. He has encircled himself with individuals who are beholden to him for their own wealth and they would do anything to maintain his and their own lifestyle. And that includes murder. Not as preposterous as many Ian Fleming constructions, the method Westlake creates for Curtis is completely believable: using a series of carefully calculated explosions, a soliton wave will be created that will shake the very foundation of Hong Kong and reduce the entirety of the city–skyscrapers, homes, and millions of lives–to sediment. Westlake introduces his male protagonist to show us the way, a trusted engineer named George Manville (a partner in action with Bond in the original treatment). Kept in the dark about the ultimate goal, Manville completes the first test on a small abandoned island near Australia that he believes to be part of a plan to make the island into a lavish resort. But when an environmental group tries to stimy Curtis’s test, a headstrong activist and diver emerges, a woman named Kim Baldur (who would become, to a small extent, Michelle Yeoh’s Wai Lin in Tomorrow Never Dies) dives into the ocean and swims for shore to stop the operation. Unfortunately for her, Manville neglected to incorporate a kill switch to the project, and she is swallowed by the wave and what would have been a superb Honey Ryder-esque Bond girl is left for dead. And this is only the introduction of the novel.
Artist Paul Mann completing the original artwork for the cover of Forever and a Death (from Illustrated 007).
Westlake peppers his story with completely unique characters, and readers will find they empathize with even the most minor of them as they are subjected to Curtis’s gruesome tactics. You may need to remind yourself to breathe as well-meaning whistleblowers find themselves in Hong Kong’s underbelly just as Curtis begins to carry out a plan to walk away from his destruction with a haul of gold bars that rest in the bank vaults beneath the city.
CBS has now revealed six cast members for the next Star Trek television series, the CBS All Access pay channel series Star Trek: Discovery. Focusing on another ship of the Starfleet line that flew the friendly galactic skies ten years before the original Star Trek series, USS DiscoveryNCC-1031 is slated to be available to subscribers sometime in 2017. Supporting many fans’ analysis that the ship sports design elements from Federation and Klingon vessels from the era of the original show, three new cast members were revealed this week–all of them to play Klingons.
Along with word that originally-tapped showrunner Bryan Fuller is no longer part of the production, CBS announced in the past few weeks that award-winning actress Michelle Yeoh, known to genre fans for both her leading role in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and as a “Bond girl” in Tomorrow Never Dies, will play Captain Georgiou, but at least at first she will not be leading the Discovery, but a vessel called the Shenzhou. Known for his extensive work in heavy make-up, genre fans were pleased to learn Doug Jones will be featured in the series. Known for roles in Hellboy, Pan’s Labyrinth, Crimson Peak, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, DC’s CW Network series, and much more, Jones will play Lieutenant Saru, a Starfleet science officer and member of an alien species new to Star Trek. Anthony Rapp (Psych, A Beautiful Mind, Rent, The X-Files, Twister) will play Lieutenant Stamets, an astromycologist (a fungus expert) and Starfleet science officer aboard the Discovery.
So who are the Klingons? Chris Obi will play T’Kuvma, a Klingon leader set on uniting the Klingon houses. Shazad Latif will play his protégé, Commanding Officer Kol. And Mary Chieffo will play the Klingon vessel’s Battle Deck Commander L’Rell. Obi has worked in series including Doctor Who and American Gods as well as Snow White and the Huntsman. Latif has been seen in series from MI-5 to Penny Dreadful. Chieffo is a relative newcomer to television, known for her “statuesque” 6-foot tall presence.
For fans of take-no-names action movies, a sequel to a Jason Statham movie is a pretty cool thing. Statham has seen a fair number of sequels in movies like The Transporter, Fast & Furious, and The Expendables franchises. This year Statham adds another sequel to his catalog of films with Mechanic: Resurrection. Statham reprises the role of Arthur Bishop from The Mechanic, a 2011 movie co-starring Ben Foster and Donald Sutherland.
Bishop is an assassin, an assassin hired for his skill in making deaths look like accidents. Statham packs his films full of great stunts, as seen in the first trailer just released by Lionsgate.
Mechanic: Resurrection co-stars Tommy Lee Jones, Jessica Alba, and Michelle Yeoh. Jessica Alba looks like she gets to be more than just eye candy this time around, kicking some butt in the preview.
Check out this first trailer for Mechanic: Resurrection:
The popular, epic martial art film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is getting a sequel 15 years later. The awesome Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh (Tomorrow Never Dies) returns as the sword-wielding warrior Yu Shu Lien in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny.
Sword of Destiny will be a direct-to-home release via Netflix with a limited IMAX theatrical release. Jason Scott Lee (The Jungle Book, Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, Back to the Future II) co-stars along with Donnie Yen (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Shanghai Knights) as Silent Wolf. Action choreographer Yuen Woo-ping returns to direct the sequel.
Check out this first preview for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny:
