Latest news with #liveActionRemake
Bloomberg
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Bloomberg
Pixar's ‘Elio' Debut Topped by Returning ‘Dragon' at Box Office
How to Train Your Dragon, a live-action remake of the 2010 animated hit, topped the box office again in its second weekend, besting new releases 28 Years Later and Elio. Dragon, from Comcast Corp. 's Universal Pictures and DreamWorks units, took in $37 million in US and Canadian theaters over the weekend, according to market researcher Comscore Inc.
New York Times
18-06-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
David Hekili Kenui Bell, an Actor in ‘Lilo & Stitch,' Dies at 46
In Disney's latest live-action remake, 'Lilo & Stitch,' David Hekili Kenui Bell has a short but memorable role in which he is so bewildered to see aliens that he lets his shaved ice plop to the ground. The appearance was his first in a feature film. Mr. Bell, who had played minor roles in a few productions, died on Thursday. He was 46. His sister, Jalene Bell, confirmed his death on social media on Sunday and in a family statement that did not provide a cause of death. He was credited simply as Big Hawaiian Dude on his IMDb page, but on TikTok he referred to himself as the Shave Ice Guy. 'Lilo & Stitch,' which is based on the 2002 film and the animated franchise, was released on May 23 and became one of the most profitable recent films as it raked in more than $800 million in sales. His role was part of a running gag in the franchise. In those moments, a sunburned character who is relaxing somewhere drops his ice cream when the aliens arrive. In one of two movie scenes where he appeared, the aliens startle him while he sits at the beach in a sleeveless shirt, with a towel on one shoulder and sunglasses atop his head. Predictably, he drops his shaved ice. 'These damn aliens owe me a shave ice,' he captioned the scene on TikTok. In the original 'Lilo & Stitch,' the man dropping the ice cream is bald and is often not wearing a shirt. Mr. Bell had also appeared in two episodes of a 'Magnum P.I.' remake in 2018 and 2019, as well as in one episode of a 'Hawaii Five-0' remake in 2014, according to IMDb. He was involved in the upcoming film 'The Wrecking Crew,' about two half brothers solving their father's murder in Hawaii, his page on the site said. He appeared in the 'One Life, Right?' commercials for the Kona Brewing Company. The ads won a 2025 Pele Award, according to his sister and the organization's website. The Pele Awards honor excellence in advertising and design in Hawaii. Outside of acting, Mr. Bell worked at the Kona International Airport near Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, according to the social media statement from his sister. Complete information on survivors was not available. To celebrate her brother's life and express their grief, Ms. Bell said that she and her grandson went to get shaved ice. 'David loved being an actor,' doing voice-overs and traveling as part of his work, his sister said. 'The film industry and entertainment was so exciting to him.'
Forbes
17-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
‘How To Train Your Dragon's Nick Frost Gives Us Food For Thought
Whether it is the projects he picks or the meals he eats, How to Train Your Dragon's foodie actor Nick Frost is full and sated. Similarly, audiences are devouring the live-action remake. Debuting in theaters at the top of the box office and exceeding expectations, it has grossed $83.7 million domestically, the best domestic opening weekend for the franchise. Additionally, it grossed $197.8 million globally, making it one of the best openings of 2025 so far. Based on the 2010 animated film that launched a lucrative franchise, How to Train Your Dragon takes place on the Viking island of Berk, where an ancient threat endangers both the human inhabitants and the dragons alike. However, an unlikely friendship between Hiccup, the son of Gerard Butler's Viking leader, and Toothless, a Night Fury dragon, proves to be the key to both species creating a new future together. Shaun of the Dead's Frost plays veteran warrior Gobber, a character originally voiced by Craig Ferguson. So, who inspired his take? "Ray Winstone," he reveals without hesitation as we chat in a Beverly Hills hotel. Winstone is best known for his iconic performances in films such as Sexy Beast, The Departed, and Nil by Mouth. "When I was doing his voice at home to prep for the film, I was like, 'It sounds a bit like Ray.' I'm absolutely channeling my inner Ray." 'That is also the name of my new book, The Inner Ray," Frost jokes. How to Train Your Dragon was filmed in Belfast, Northern Ireland. While there, the Hot Fuzz actor saw it as an opportunity to make the most of the food scene, which led him and the film's cast to discover a spot that he believes serves "the best pizza in the world." "You're going to love this," he laughs. "There is a guy called Peter Thompson, and he runs a pizza place in Belfast called Flout. He had a job in marketing and then this thing happened to him, which was awful, and it made him reevaluate his life." "He went from never making pizza at all to making arguably the best pizza in the world, and he did it in five years. He's like the Yoda of pizza dough. He had never cooked before. We were in contact with each other on Instagram, and he said, 'Come down and try the pizza,' and it was fantastic." Frost freely shares his love of food and cooking on social media and has spent years improving his relationship with food. He knows what he likes, and he knows what he's talking about. So, has the gastronome ever been offered a foodie TV show? He's come close. "People brought me some after my cookery book came out, and we are at a point where we signed some kind of deal, but then other stuff happened," he laments. "It goes pretty way down your pecking order once you're going to be Hagrid until you're 63, so maybe cooking can come after that." Frost is referring to his casting as Rubeus Hagrid in HBO's Harry Potter television series. When How to Train Your Dragon came his way, Frost wasn't that up to speed with the series of animated films. Although he's a father, his oldest was "kind of at the tail end of it." However, he was drawn to the project because of his ongoing love of movies and animation, which goes back to the days when he shared an apartment, or flat as Brits call them, with friend and collaborator Simon Pegg in North London. He would have loved How to Train Your Dragon even back then. "Me and Simon and our flatmates were all massive animation fans, so as soon as anything anime was released, we were watching it," the actor recalls. "We were all also sci-fi and fantasy geeks, so all we asked was, 'Is it animated? Does it have dragons in it or a spaceship? Yes. Two out of three ain't bad.' What this film is going to do, though, is it already has that audience, and then it will just ignite a whole other bunch of people, which is great. It deserves to be seen. I never saw the originals in the cinema, so when I saw this, it was like, 'Wow, that was fantastic.'" Another thing that appealed to Frost was the fact that writer-director Dean DeBlois was willing to let him do his own thing with Gobber. "I went for a meeting with Dean, and he's lovely. He was like, 'Do whatever. Come and have a laugh,'" he recalls. "What I have thought about a lot this week is that I'm so lucky to have worked as long as I have, but also what it does is it enables you to is to listen to the little voice that sometimes says, 'Hey, could I try this?' One would have been forgiven for thinking that Dean would say, 'Do this because it works.' I would have been fine with that and just do it because what Craig did was great anyway, but Dean wanted us to have a play and bring whatever we wanted. Once you realize what's possible, saying yes to the job becomes a no-brainer." Frost admits that the reality of Gobber wasn't always fun and games. The heavy costuming and the character's trademark facial hair were challenges. "They were heavy," he admits. "I'm very lucky in as much as I kind of have a jerkin then a big furry thing on top, and that was kind of it for me. Gerard got it in the neck. His stuff must have weighed 50 kg. It was nuts. My problem was my mustache. That was my bugbear. I hated it." "I hated the process of getting it on. I was very respectful for the first six weeks or so, going back at the end of the shoot day and letting the makeup team take it off gently. After that, it got to a point about four weeks before we finished, where as soon as they wrapped me, I would pull it off, which is very unprofessional, but as I was walking back to the car, I'd yank it off and hand it to my beard lady and say, 'Thank you.' The next day, it would be ready to go again." However, he has nothing but respect for the craftspeople who made the magic of How to Train Your Dragon come alive. "Stuff like that is fascinating to hear about and beautiful to see. We're in the film, we're the actors, and sometimes we're on posters and in the trailers, so it's easy to look at what we do, but when you look at what the puppeteers did, you'll see their names in the credits, but you won't know who they are and you won't see the work they did," Frost enthuses. "To see those guys turn up every day in their green leotards, holding their huge dragon heads, it's a lot of work they put in. I've noticed that with many different departments, they do these little things that people may not notice, but as an actor, you do notice it 100 percent. For me, that is a dragon. I can't see the people in it. I can't see them controlling it. I don't notice the blue screen. It comes down to you and me, and Dean and Bill Pope, the DOP, and that's what it is. If you start thinking about the big picture and that 300 people are watching me acting, it's nerve-racking." Something that continues to impress Frost is the enduring legacy and depth of love for the How to Train Your Dragon universe, as well as its deep influence on pop culture. A prime example is the creation of a world at the Universal Epic Universe theme park in Orlando, Florida. How does he feel about a world he's now a part of being immortalized that way? "It happens all the time," he jokes. "There was Shaun of the Dead World, but then kids got killed so that shut it. Then they had the Hot Fuzz Land, and again, children died. The World's End Place is still open, but it rains a lot, so the weather's kind of shit." "I'm connected to three already now when you think of it. I'm SM-33 in Star Wars, and that has theme park attractions. There are also the Hogwarts and Harry Potter ones, so my Hagrid has to get in there eventually. When I started out 23 years ago, it's what I wanted to happen to me,' the How to Train Your Dragon actor laughs. "Basically, I just wanted to be a part of theme park ride culture."
Yahoo
17-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
How Does the Live Action 'How to Train Your Dragon' Compare to the Original?
It's been 15 years since the original How to Train Your Dragon hit screens, which means it's time for a live-action reboot to cash in on that mid-aughts nostalgia. Based upon Cressida Crowell's 2003 YA novel, the original How to Train Your Dragon juiced a waning theatrical animation market with its combination of sharp design and airtight screenwriting. Two animated sequels followed, neither of which rose to the original's heights, and now original co-director Dean DeBlois is back with a Disney-style live-action remake. But does this new version of How to Train Your Dragon do anything different from the original, or is it largely a scene-by-scene remake? The Viking isle of Berk has for centuries waged war with dragons who have invaded their village, robbing inhabitants of both limbs and family members. But Hiccup (Mason Thames), the son of Chief Stoick the Vast (Gerard Butler), goes against his brethren by befriending Toothless, one of the feared Night Fury dragons. Even as their bond repairs the relationship between humans and dragons, Chief Stoick sees an opportunity to wipe out the Night Dragons once and for all. With the help of Astrid (Nico Parker), Hiccup tries to protect his newfound friend's family and his you can tell from that plot description, DeBlois doesn't stray far at all from the confines of his and Chris Sanders's animated original, though there are a few tweaked elements which play nicely into the live-action element. One gets the sense (and sincerely hopes) that if there are future live-action Dragon sequels, they'll be allowed to deviate a bit from their animated predecessors, because the divergent elements are also the strongest. As far as remaking a valuable property goes, you can't blame anyone involved for playing the hits—look no further than the online furor over Astrid's revised appearance for evidence as to why this remake plays it so safe—but like most of Disney's live action reimaginings, it feels completely pointless by the end. (Universal, which produced this retread, was clearly inspired by the Mouse House.) Scenes are recycled almost shot-for-shot, with the script largely unchanged. This is 27 minutes longer than the original, but you'd be hard pressed to explain why. How do you lengthen something by nearly a half hour without adding anything that drastically alters the story? The elongated length proves deadly, allowing too much downtime for the audience to ponder the story's holes. Part of the trouble is that animation suited this story perfectly, and in transitioning to live action, the filmmakers have rather jumbled the tone. This iteration of How to Train Your Dragon is much more serious than any of its predecessors and, perhaps predictably for 2025, far more concerned with CGI destruction than witty characterization. (Truthfully, despite the label, a whole lot of this is still animated.) Practically gone is the warmth and whimsy which made the original stand out, which then seems at odds with the film pitching itself squarely to the under-10 market. There's a peculiar lack of mirth, yet the movie also goes out of its way not to address any darkness or grittiness associated with the Viking lifestyle. In the end, it feels neither here nor there—too limp to excite but not charming enough to be things that do work about the movie are largely to do with Butler (reprising his role from the original) and Thames. They perfectly understand the tone and go a long way towards making the transition from animation to live action less rocky than it could have been, but their efforts are dampened as the movie becomes increasingly action-driven. Thames, who was particularly good in The Black Phone, is a tremendously amiable screen presence and does some interesting character work here, hinting at a long and likely more interesting career ahead. Though some of the early sequences are an unwieldy combination of CGI and live action, everything comes together for a pleasantly psychedelic finale, which, though too extended, at least looks exciting. How to Train Your Dragon 2025 doesn't distinguish itself enough from the original to warrant a recommendation, though it has enough going for it that you consistently hope it will break out and try something different. It's passable entertainment, albeit unlikely to engage adults nearly as much as kids. For devotees of the franchise, there will undoubtedly be much to celebrate here. Most viewers will walk away feeling as though they've seen a rather baggy carbon copy of a classic animation, which would be Does the Live Action 'How to Train Your Dragon' Compare to the Original? first appeared on Men's Journal on Jun 12, 2025
Yahoo
17-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Universal Film Crushes Box Office With Nearly $200 Million in Opening Weekend
A decade and a half ago, "How to Train Your Dragon" was released in theaters. Now, the live-action remake was released by DreamWorks and Universal. With Disney's "Lilo & Stitch" remake capturing box offices during Memorial Day weekend, this time it was the new edition of "How to Train Your Dragon" that captivated moviegoers. The new movie crushed it at the box office, netting just under $200 million worldwide, per Jonathan Landrum Jr. of The Associated Press. "The Universal live-action adaptation of the beloved animated franchise soared to a strong $83.7 million debut in North American theaters, according to Comscore estimates reboot easily outpaced 2019's How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, which opened with $55 million. The latest film earned more than $114.1 million internationally, bringing the global total to $197.8 million." The initial Rotten Tomatoes score for the movie was 83% with 40 reviews as of June 9, so there was a lot of positive feedback for the film. Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore, spoke about the new release crushing it in its first weekend. 'This is yet another example of a live-action remake really delivering on the promise of the marketing. I think the longevity and playability of some of these films particularly in the summer has been nothing short of miraculous.' The next-highest domestic box office film was "Lilo & Stitch" at $15.5 million, although that movie has been in theaters for a few weeks now, with the third-highest of the weekend being "Materialists" at $12 Film Crushes Box Office With Nearly $200 Million in Opening Weekend first appeared on Men's Journal on Jun 16, 2025
