Tag: Scarlett Johansson

New Movie The Phoenician Scheme Streaming On Prime Friday December 5, 2025

The Phoenician Scheme stars Benicio Del Toro as wealthy businessman Zsa-zsa Korda who appoints his only daughter, a nun, as sole heir to his estate. As Korda embarks on a new enterprise, they soon become the target of scheming tycoons, foreign terrorists, and determined assassins. The Movie also stars:

  • Mia Threapleton
  • Michael Cera
  • Riz Ahmed
  • Tom Hanks
  • Bryan Cranston
  • Mathieu Amalric
  • Richard Ayoade
  • Jeffrey Wright
  • Richard Ayoade
  • Scarlett Johansson
  • Benedict Cumberbatch
  • Rupert Friend
  • Hope Davis

The Phoenician Scheme was produced, written and directed by Wes Anderson from a story he conceived with Roman Coppola. The Phoenician Scheme had its world premiere in the main competition of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival on May 18, 2025 and was released theatrically in the United States by Focus Features on Friday May 30, and in Germany by Universal Pictures on June 29, 2025.

From The BBC Article by Emma Jones May 21, 2025:

One of the trademarks of a Wes Anderson film is the guaranteed tranche of famous faces that always appear. But the charismatic actor set to be the biggest talking point in Anderson’s latest feature, The Phoenician Scheme, is practically unknown. Twenty-four-year-old Mia Threapleton, whose mother is the actor Kate Winslet, has been described by critics as “sensational” in her first leading role, following the film’s world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival this week.
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Threapleton plays Liesl, a red-lipped, pipe-smoking, alcohol-drinking noviciate nun, whose withering put-downs turn her father Zsa Zsa Korda, a wealthy tycoon embarking on a questionable multi-national infrastructure project (aka “The Phoenician Scheme”), into putty. She is ordered out of her convent to go on a trip with him, as he tries to groom her, comedy Don Corleone-style, for the family business.
⋅
An exploration of a family dynamic is hardly a departure for this director, but Anderson says that he and Coppola had been planning something quite different for the story. They were, he says, intending on writing something “very dark” about an industrialist who “is not really concerned with how the big decisions he has empowered himself to make for the world, are affecting populations of workforces and landscapes.”
⋅
“Originally what I thought we would make was about a guy who refuses to be killed, who refuses to die even when he does die, and that he’s gathering people, resources, minerals, great possessions and money and none of it is having any effect on him,” Anderson tells the BBC. “It was going to be about someone who learns a lot and changes zero. But that wasn’t what we ended up writing at all.” By the end of the first scene, he adds, they’d gone into “a vision, a biblical motif” which gives the film a black-and-white subplot of Korda’s judgement in heaven, presided over by Bill Murray as God. But the heart of the film became the father-daughter love story Threapleton and del Toro enact.
⋅
“I think if I didn’t have a nine-year-old daughter, this character Korda probably wouldn’t have a daughter,” Anderson confesses. “There’s also an inspiration for the character from my father-in-law (the late Lebanese construction entrepreneur Fouad Mikhael Malouf) and I observed the relationship between him and my wife. So parts of my life went into this one. Roman Coppola has a daughter, Benicio has a daughter. It’s something that connected all of us and I think that’s how it got into the centre of the film.”
⋅
The Phoenician Scheme was made in Babelsberg Studios in Germany; the cast and crew stayed together and shared mealtimes, which is standard practice on an Anderson set.  Threapleton describes the experience as “the best summer camp ever”.
⋅
“The idea of the circus, or the travelling acting troupe, that’s what I am drawn to and I like stories with that kind of atmosphere,” Anderson says. “There is an itinerant feel about the way I make films; we tend to make these stories in different countries, in different settings, and we bring our group to those places, and it’s always a big reunion when we start a new movie. Ultimately, I think the only true reason why we work this way is because I think it’s more fun and I like it more.”
(L to R) Benicio Del Toro as Zsa-Zsa Korda and Mia Threapleton as Liesl in director Wes Anderson’s THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME, a Focus Features release.
Credit: Courtesy of TPS Productions/Focus Features © 2025 All Rights Reserved.
Benicio Del Toro stars as Zsa-Zsa Korda in director Wes Anderson’s THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME, a Focus Features release.
Credit: Courtesy of TPS Productions/Focus Features © 2025 All Rights Reserved.
Mia Threapleton stars as Liesl in director Wes Anderson’s THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME, a Focus Features release.
Credit: Courtesy of TPS Productions/Focus Features © 2025 All Rights Reserved.

Jurassic World Rebirth

2025   Universal Pictures

Rated:  PG-13

Length:  2 hr  13min

Action ~ Adventure ~ Sci-Fi ~ Thriller

Directed by:  David Koepp

Starring:  Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali, Jonathan Bailey, Rupert Friend, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Luna Blaise, David Iacono and Ed Skrein.

A New Era Is Born

Five years after dinosaurs overran the planet, most species are dying out, except for those surviving on a remote equatorial island where only the toughest creatures remain. Covert ops expert Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johansson) leads a dangerous mission, funded by a big pharmaceutical company, to collect rare dinosaur DNA in hopes of making a life-saving medicine. Zora assembles a skilled team, including her old friend and right-hand man Duncan Kincaid (Mahershala Ali), skeptical paleontologist Dr. Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey), and confrontational company rep Martin Krebs (Rupert Friend). Their arrival sparks tension as each brings their own secrets and agendas to the table.​

Trouble finds them quickly when a civilian family, the Delgados (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Luna Blaise, David Iacono and Audrina Miranda), become stranded on the island after their boat falls victim to a massive aquatic dinosaur. With the jungle full of both classic predators and wild new hybrid dinosaurs, Zora’s crew and the family are forced into uneasy cooperation—and constant danger. Along the way, young Isabella (Audrina Miranda) forms an unexpected bond with a small herbivore, who becomes a timely ally during tense moments.​

The team’s mission pushes them through a gauntlet of close encounters extracting DNA from three different giants, a marine Mosasaurus, a towering Titanosaurus, and a flying Quetzalcoatlus, where not everyone makes it out unscathed. Meanwhile, old secrets and betrayals surface, leading to distrust when Martin’s true motives come under suspicion and a traitor’s actions put the group at risk. Survival means navigating both the deadly prehistoric wildlife and the hidden agendas within their own ranks.​

As conditions worsen on the island and dinosaurs begin to mutate, both Zora’s crew and the Delgados race toward the island’s abandoned InGen lab, hoping for rescue. Along the way, they’re stalked by a monstrous new hybrid called the D. rex and threatened by dangerous showdowns between the island’s top predators. Trust is in short supply, with double-crosses and desperate alliances shaping every step of their journey as they battle nature, and each other, in hopes of getting back home alive.

Given the history and the success of previous Jurassic movies, and the star power of Scarlett Johansson and Mahershala Ali, I expected more from Jurassic World Rebirth. It fell way short of my expectations quickly. Kudos to Scarlett, Mahershala and the rest of the actors for trying, but this was just too unbelievable, even the dinosaurs themselves were a disappointment. Some of the scenes and situations were just plain silly, there is no way that looked real. I think it was an attempt at humor but it sure didn’t come off that way. Predictable, boring and completely unbelievable……

To be fair I don’t think I have seen any of the Jurassic movies past the second or MAYBE the third Jurassic Park movie. At that time I was like, “Nah, If you’ve seen one Jurassic Movie…you’ve seen them all.” That pretty sums up Jurassic World Rebirth for me, should have been called Jurassic World Regurgitated………..

Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme Coming To Theaters Friday May 30, 2025

TICKETS AVAILABLE HERE!

The Phoenician Scheme stars Benicio Del Toro as wealthy businessman Zsa-zsa Korda who appoints his only daughter, a nun, as sole heir to his estate. As Korda embarks on a new enterprise, they soon become the target of scheming tycoons, foreign terrorists, and determined assassins. The Movie also stars:

  • Mia Threapleton
  • Michael Cera
  • Riz Ahmed
  • Tom Hanks
  • Bryan Cranston
  • Mathieu Amalric
  • Richard Ayoade
  • Jeffrey Wright
  • Richard Ayoade
  • Scarlett Johansson
  • Benedict Cumberbatch
  • Rupert Friend
  • Hope Davis

The Phoenician Scheme was produced, written and directed by Wes Anderson from a story he conceived with Roman Coppola. The Phoenician Scheme had its world premiere in the main competition of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival on May 18, 2025 and will be released theatrically in the United States by Focus Features on Friday May 30, and in Germany by Universal Pictures on June 29, 2025.

From The BBC Article by Emma Jones May 21, 2025:

One of the trademarks of a Wes Anderson film is the guaranteed tranche of famous faces that always appear. But the charismatic actor set to be the biggest talking point in Anderson’s latest feature, The Phoenician Scheme, is practically unknown. Twenty-four-year-old Mia Threapleton, whose mother is the actor Kate Winslet, has been described by critics as “sensational” in her first leading role, following the film’s world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival this week.
⋅
Threapleton plays Liesl, a red-lipped, pipe-smoking, alcohol-drinking noviciate nun, whose withering put-downs turn her father Zsa Zsa Korda, a wealthy tycoon embarking on a questionable multi-national infrastructure project (aka “The Phoenician Scheme”), into putty. She is ordered out of her convent to go on a trip with him, as he tries to groom her, comedy Don Corleone-style, for the family business.
⋅
An exploration of a family dynamic is hardly a departure for this director, but Anderson says that he and Coppola had been planning something quite different for the story. They were, he says, intending on writing something “very dark” about an industrialist who “is not really concerned with how the big decisions he has empowered himself to make for the world, are affecting populations of workforces and landscapes.”
⋅
“Originally what I thought we would make was about a guy who refuses to be killed, who refuses to die even when he does die, and that he’s gathering people, resources, minerals, great possessions and money and none of it is having any effect on him,” Anderson tells the BBC. “It was going to be about someone who learns a lot and changes zero. But that wasn’t what we ended up writing at all.” By the end of the first scene, he adds, they’d gone into “a vision, a biblical motif” which gives the film a black-and-white subplot of Korda’s judgement in heaven, presided over by Bill Murray as God. But the heart of the film became the father-daughter love story Threapleton and del Toro enact.
⋅
“I think if I didn’t have a nine-year-old daughter, this character Korda probably wouldn’t have a daughter,” Anderson confesses. “There’s also an inspiration for the character from my father-in-law (the late Lebanese construction entrepreneur Fouad Mikhael Malouf) and I observed the relationship between him and my wife. So parts of my life went into this one. Roman Coppola has a daughter, Benicio has a daughter. It’s something that connected all of us and I think that’s how it got into the centre of the film.”
⋅
The Phoenician Scheme was made in Babelsberg Studios in Germany; the cast and crew stayed together and shared mealtimes, which is standard practice on an Anderson set.  Threapleton describes the experience as “the best summer camp ever”.
⋅
“The idea of the circus, or the travelling acting troupe, that’s what I am drawn to and I like stories with that kind of atmosphere,” Anderson says. “There is an itinerant feel about the way I make films; we tend to make these stories in different countries, in different settings, and we bring our group to those places, and it’s always a big reunion when we start a new movie. Ultimately, I think the only true reason why we work this way is because I think it’s more fun and I like it more.”
(L to R) Benicio Del Toro as Zsa-Zsa Korda and Mia Threapleton as Liesl in director Wes Anderson’s THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME, a Focus Features release.
Credit: Courtesy of TPS Productions/Focus Features © 2025 All Rights Reserved.
Benicio Del Toro stars as Zsa-Zsa Korda in director Wes Anderson’s THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME, a Focus Features release.
Credit: Courtesy of TPS Productions/Focus Features © 2025 All Rights Reserved.
Mia Threapleton stars as Liesl in director Wes Anderson’s THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME, a Focus Features release.
Credit: Courtesy of TPS Productions/Focus Features © 2025 All Rights Reserved.

Jurassic World Rebirth

COMING THIS SUMMER FROM UNIVERSAL PICTURES:

Release Date July 2, 2025

A new era is born. This summer, three years after the Jurassic World trilogy concluded with each film surpassing $1 billion at the global box office, the enduring Jurassic series evolves in an ingenious new direction with Jurassic World Rebirth.

Anchored by iconic action superstar Scarlett Johansson, Emmy and SAG nominee Jonathan Bailey and two-time Oscar® winner Mahershala Ali, this action-packed new chapter sees an extraction team race to the most dangerous place on Earth, an island research facility for the original Jurassic Park, inhabited by the worst of the worst that were left behind.

Also starring acclaimed international stars Rupert Friend and Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, the film is directed by dynamic visualist Gareth Edwards (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) from a script by original Jurassic Park screenwriter David Koepp.

Five years after the events of Jurassic World Dominion, the planet’s ecology has proven largely inhospitable to dinosaurs. Those remaining exist in isolated equatorial environments with climates resembling the one in which they once thrived. The three most colossal creatures across land, sea and air within that tropical biosphere hold, in their DNA, the key to a drug that will bring miraculous life-saving benefits to humankind.

Academy Award® nominee Johansson plays skilled covert operations expert Zora Bennett, contracted to lead a skilled team on a top-secret mission to secure the genetic material. When Zora’s operation intersects with a civilian family whose boating expedition was capsized by marauding aquatic dinos, they all find themselves stranded on a forbidden island that had once housed an undisclosed research facility for Jurassic Park. There, in a terrain populated by dinosaurs of vastly different species, they come face-to-face with a sinister, shocking discovery that has been hidden from the world for decades.

Ali is Duncan Kincaid, Zora’s most trusted team member; Critics Choice and Olivier Award winner Jonathan Bailey (Wicked, Bridgerton) plays paleontologist Dr. Henry Loomis; Emmy nominee Rupert Friend (Homeland, Obi-Wan Kenobi) appears as Big Pharma representative Martin Krebs and Manuel Garcia-Rulfo (The Lincoln Lawyer, Murder on the Orient Express) plays Reuben Delgado, the father of the shipwrecked civilian family.

The cast includes Luna Blaise (Manifest), David Iacono (The Summer I Turned Pretty) and Audrina Miranda (Lopez vs. Lopez) as Reuben’s family. The film also features, as members of Zora and Krebs’ crews, Philippine Velge (Station Eleven), Bechir Sylvain (BMF) and Ed Skrein (Deadpool).

Jurassic World Rebirth is directed by BAFTA winner Edwards from a script by Koepp (War of the Worlds), based on characters created by Michael Crichton. The film is produced by Oscar® nominee Frank Marshall and Patrick Crowley, both longtime Jurassic franchise producers and of last summer’s blockbuster, Twisters. The film is executive produced by Steven Spielberg, Denis L. Stewart and Jim Spencer.

Fly Me To The Moon

2024   Sony Pictures

Rated:  PG-13

Length:  2  hr 12min

Comedy ~ Drama ~ Romance

Directed by: Greg Berlanti

Starring:  Scarlett Johansson, Channing Tatum, Ray Romano, Woody Harrelson, Jim Rash and Anna Garcia.

“The whole world will be watching. We can’t afford to lose. We need to be prepared to present an alternate version of the moon landing.”

Scarlett Johansson stars as Kelly Jones, an advertising executive working in Manhattan. The year is 1968, Richard Nixon is President, the Vietnam war consumes the news broadcasts and the US Government and NASA are in a “Space Race” with the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union successfully launched it’s Sputnik Satellite into orbit in 1957, being the first country to do so. The United States followed a year later and the race between the two superpowers to be the first in space became a US priority until the Vietnam War took precedent. Kelly is very good at her job and has built a reputation as one of the best advertising executives around. Just having won a major contract with Ford for their Mustang, she is celebrating in an upscale Manhattan Bar when she is approached by……………..

Woody Harrelson AKA Moe Berkus, who works for the President Of The United States. He explains to her that The Government is concerned about the public’s waning support for NASA amidst the Vietnam War. He wants to hire her to run NASA’s new public relations department and get the Apollo Space Mission, and it’s goal of being the first on the moon, back into the public consciousness. He also blackmails her with a folder containing the secrets of her past. She must accept the job and Moe promises that the folder and her past will disappear never to be seen again, or it will be made public if she refuses. Seeing no choice she accepts and Kelly and her assistant (Anna Garcia) fly to Cocoa Beach, Florida to begin their work. After checking into a hotel, Kelly heads to a diner to get a bite to eat and start working on her agenda.

Channing Tatum, who stars as NASA Flight Director Cole Davis, walks in to get a cup of coffee and a meal to go. He notices Kelly sitting at a table and is immediately smitten with her and strikes up a conversation. He leaves after getting his food to go but comes back in to confess that she is the most beautiful woman he has ever seen but now is not a good time for him. The next day as Kelly is starting her PR campaign with her assistant at NASA, she enters into a classified area where they are building the Apollo 11 rocket. Cole and his right hand man Henry Smalls (played by Ray Romano) immediately escorts her out and shows her where her new office is in a storage close, and advises her to stay out of their way.

Moe Berkus shows up at Kelly’s Hotel room one night to explain to her that as NASA prepares the Apollo 11 mission to land on the moon, they must prepare for any outcome. Since Kelly has come up with the grand idea to televise the moon landing and put a camera on the lunar lander, they must make sure that no matter what, that is what America watches on TV. Moe wants her to secretly stage a real life replica of the Moon landing in an abandoned hanger on NASA property. It must look like the real thing and nobody must know. Kelly reluctantly agrees and brings in her best Director (Jim Rash) Lance Vespertine.

What follows is a hilarious journey and look at the Apollo 11 mission as it races towards launch day. Being replicated in secret on NASA property by Kelly and Moe, as Cole and Henry are pulling the real thing together. A romance has blossomed between Kelly and Cole and the tension is palatable as they try to do their jobs and not upset the other in doing so. In the end they come together to join forces to outsmart Moe who insists on televising the fake landing no matter what. Channing Tatum and Scarlett Johansson were awesome in this, I loved their chemistry together. Ray Romano is loveable as Cole’s assistant Harry. Jim Rash is goofy but loveable as Lance Vespertine. And you gotta love Woody Harrelson as the very secretive Government man who knows everything about everything.

The movie is based on the true story of the Apollo Space program and the Apollo 11 mission of being the first men on the moon. It is also based on the completely unfounded conspiracy theory that NASA and the Government cooked up the ruse to fake the Lunar landing just to beat the Russians in the space race. I thought it was a great story and a great movie. An excellent Rom-Com Drama well directed and filmed. The Ryan Gosling movie First Man is also a fascinating look at the Apollo program and the Apollo 11 mission, also well worth a watch.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

TWO THUMBS UP!