WTF Happened To....?!

Yo ho mateys! One of the most unlikely franchises to become a multi-billion dollar grossing juggernaut was indeed Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean series. Led by Johnny Depp’s iconic Jack Sparrow, the series has run five instalments (to date) and grossed an estimated 4.5 billion dollars worldwide. This is pretty incredible considering that, in 2003, the first film was seen as a huge gamble. Pirate-based swashbucklers hadn’t been popular since the days of Errol Flynn, and modern attempts to revitalize the genre, including 1983’s Nate & Hayes, Roman Polanski’s Pirates and 1995’s Cutthroat Island, were all notorious flops. Add to that the fact that Johnny Depp was going pretty far out with his “hero” Jack Sparrow, who looked much more like Keith Richards than Errol Flynn, and you had one nervous studio. However, the resulting film was an absolute smash, leading to four sequels of varying quality. In this episode of WTF You Need to Know About This Franchise (written, edited and narrated by Kier Gomes and produced by Tyler Nichols), we dig into the saga and give our picks for which Jack Sparrow adventures you should go on and which ones you can skip. 

When director Sean S. Cunningham set out to make the original FRIDAY THE 13TH, he was trying to craft a cinematic rollercoaster ride. His little independent production was such a crowd-pleasing thrill ride it became one of the biggest hits of 1980. And spawned a franchise that is still going on to this day. So let’s celebrate FRIDAY THE 13TH by looking back and figuring out WTF Happened To This Horror Movie?

Now, I know what you’re thinkin’ punk; what’s the deal with making an episode about WTF Happened to this Celebrity about Clint Eastwood? Nothing happened to him. He’s still making movies at ninety-two. Indeed, you would be correct - but we here at JoBlo are such massive fans of Eastwood that we couldn’t help but whip together an awesome WTF episode exploring his life and legacy. The fact is, it’s unlikely any other actor has ever had the impact that ol’ Clint did. Sure, others were maybe better actors, but were there better “stars”? And not only that, but he’s been directing movies since the seventies, and some of them are all-out masterpieces such as Unforgiven, Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby, and so many more. In this episode, we trace Clint’s humble beginnings, as a second lead on the show Rawhide, through his breakout as the “Man with No Name” in a trilogy of westerns with Sergio Leone, through the Dirty Harry series, his passion projects like Bird and so much more. So sit back, relax and enjoy WTF Happened to Clint Eastwood, written (with Brad Hamerly), narrated, produced and edited by Taylor James Johnson.

It’s not a stretch to say that James Cameron’s The Terminator might be one of the most influential movies of all time. Produced on a shoestring budget, The Terminator introduced the world to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s T-800 and Linda Hamilton’s Sarah Connor, mother of the human resistance. In this original classic, Arnie’s T-800 is a terrifying figure, much different from the heroic character we’d come to love in the sequels. Here, he’s sent back to kill Sarah Connor before she can give birth to her son John Connor, only to be protected by a heroic soldier from the future, Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn). With its iconic, menacing score by Brad Fiedel and novel FX via Stan Winston, The Terminator is considered by many to be one of the best sci-fi action hybrids ever. Still, the road to the big screen was not easy for James Cameron’s epic. We’ll dive right in on this week’s WTF Happened to this Movie, written and narrated by Dave Davis and edited by Juan Jimenez. 

John Carpenter’s The Thing didn’t go over well when it was released in 1982. Ignored by movie-goers, it was a box office failure. Reviled by critics, it even saw Carpenter labeled a pornographer of violence by some reviewers. It was such a disappointment for the studio they took another project away from Carpenter as punishment. But it gradually found its audience, building up a cult following. And soon, a legion of fans and critics alike began calling it one of the greatest horror movies ever made. It didn’t take long for THE THING to go from being known as reprehensible trash to being considered an all-time classic. So let’s take a look at the making of this classic with a new episode of WTF Happened to This Horror Movie?

Every kid of a certain age grew up wanting to be Jackie Chan. A legend in Hong Kong and most of the world from the late-seventies on, Jackie Chan also, at long last, became a superstar in North America after the release of his 1996 classic Rumble in the Bronx. Supercop, First Strike and more dubbed versions of his Hong Kong movies would follow, but it was 1998’s Rush Hour, which paired him with Chris Tucker, that made him a phenomenon in the United States. It was as if, at long last, the United States was let in on a secret the rest of the world already knew.

Jackie Chan emerged in the late nineties after a failed attempt to make him into a Bruce Lee clone. Never wanting to be a typical martial arts star, Chan opted to mix comedy and martial arts in a way that made him a household name throughout much of the world in the eighties. His movies like Police Story, Wheels on Meals (you read that right), Dragons Forever, Armour of God (which almost killed him), and more were giant hits worldwide. The U.S did indeed try to use him in a few films, with him having minor roles opposite Burt Reynolds in The Cannonball Run and its sequel, and he got solo action films (in English) with The Big Brawl and The Protector. Neither film’s director knew how to use him, especially in The Protector, which tried to make him into a Clint Eastwood-style tough guy, a formula that didn’t mesh with Chan at all, leading to him temporarily swearing off U.S movies. Finally, in the nineties, he could do it his way, and in this episode of WTF Happened to this Celebrity, written (with Mathew Plale), narrated, and edited by Taylor James Johnson, we trace his career and where he’s at now. 

Jupiter Ascending was a movie sci-fi fans were really looking forward to. It would mark the long-awaited return of the Wachowskis to the sci-fi action genre, something they left behind when Speed Racer flopped theatrically. This promised to be a large-scale fantasy epic that fans hoped would be the new Matrix. Alas, things didn’t work out that way, with critics savaging the film when it came out and audiences staying away in droves. Complaints included a muddled sci-fi universe, a bizarre choice to make Channing Tatum’s hero part dog, and the fact that newly minted Oscar-winner Eddie Redmayne’s acting was so over the top that people thought he should have his award taken back. A charming performance by Mile Kunis as the heroine and a solid score by Michael Giacchino was not enough to save this turkey. It would mark the Wachowskis' swan song as a team, with Lilly Wachowski stepping away from directing. Lana would rebound with the decisive sequel, The Matrix Resurrections, which would also prove to be a financial flop.

So WTF Happened to Jupiter Ascending? Let's unpack this well-intended and fun (in a camp way) sci-fi fantasy in an episode edited by Diane Baldwin, written by Daniel Woburn, and narrated by Mathew Plale.

If one were to list the greatest rock n’ roll frontmen of all time, Van Halen’s David Lee Roth would be near the top. With a swagger and look that seemed tailor-made for the MTV era, Roth was riding high in the eighties and, for a while, was among the biggest rock stars on the planet. From 1974 to 1985, he was Van Halen’s lead singer, but after the release of 1984, their biggest album, Roth departed from the band. He would reunite with them for brief stints in 1996 and 2001, before a mostly permanent reunion in 2007, but even without the band backing him up, some of his solo work has been iconic. In this episode of WTF Happened to this Celebrity, we look at a true rock n’ roll legend!

Ben Stiller's Tropic Thunder memorably satirized both the Hollywood war film and the often ridiculous lengths actors will go to in order to "capture" the characters they're playing. While the notion that Robert Downey Jr's Kirk Lazarus would dye his skin to play an African-American might be hard to swallow, it wasn't entirely out there fourteen years ago. Hollywood's self-seriousness was arguably at its zenith at this moment in time, and Stiller's film brilliantly satirizes some of the more infamous performances of the era, such as Sean Penn in I Am Sam, Eddie Murphy in Norbit & The Klumps, and more. It's also just a damn funny film (with Tom Cruise as you've truly never seen him before in a Harvey Weinstein/Scott Rudin satire that went over a lot of heads back then), as we dig into Tropic Thunder in this episode of WTF Happened to this Movie!

While there have been plenty of horror remakes over the years, there's only one directed by Martin Scorsese. And while that should be enough to garner limitless interest, add in Robert De Niro and Jessica Lange and you've got a recipe for something spectacular. So join us as we dive into the maniacal world of Max Cady in Cape Fear.

A long time ago in a movie theater not too far away . . . a series of films came out that captured the imagination of movie fans everywhere. The Star Wars franchise has been a giant among the most loved movies ever made. The original trilogy has been held up as sacred. When it came time for the Prequels, original fans were let down, but young fans embraced them. They have finally aged into their place in Star Wars canon.

When Lucasfilm was sold to Disney for a staggering $4.5 billion fans knew it was only a matter of time before we finally got some films with some of our favorite characters returning to the big screen. The first two divided audiences, but the third may have been the one that really made fans wonder what was happening behind the scenes. There didn't seem to be a plan for the new films and every director went by the seat of their pants. Originally, film director Colin Trevorrow was supposed to come in and direct the final film, capping off this trilogy and paying off on storylines from the first two films.

When The Rise Of Skywalker was released fans began to wonder what the original plan for the film was back when it was titled Duel Of The Fates. Why did Trevorrow leave? What was the actual plan for the film? Let's find out all that and more here on What Happened To This Unmade Film

The last two years have not been good for Armie Hammer, and things will likely only worsen. With Discovery’s docuseries - House of Hammer - on the way, we look back at how exactly one of Hollywood’s most promising young stars ended up an industry pariah. 

Before he went off the deep end, Hammer was considered a top-notch leading man. After making heads turn in David Fincher’s The Social Network, where he famously played Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss in a dual role, Hollywood was keen to make him their next big star. He immediately hopped into leading roles in big tentpoles. He was The Lone Ranger, and he starred in The Man from U.N.C.L.E., but both pricey movies tanked at the box office. Suddenly Hollywood wasn’t so sure he was bankable, but then a co-starring role in Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me By Your Name unleashed his full charisma and once again put him at the head of casting lists, with him nabbing leads in the price Netflix remake of Rebecca and Kenneth Branagh’s Agatha Christie adaptation, Death on the Nile.

Alas, this is where things took a turn when it was alleged Hammer had certain “proclivities,” which led to abuse allegations from several women. At the same time, his alleged drug use became wildly known, but the allegations (which made people think he was a cannibal) sealed his fate in Hollywood, especially once text messages and D.M.’s were leaked. As quickly as his star rose, it fell to the point that he was recently apparently selling timeshares to make ends meet. Is this the end of Hammer? Hollywood loves a comeback, but will there be a way forward post-House of Hammer? We dig into it in this episode of W.T.F. Happened to this Celebrity, narrated and written (with Brad Hamerly) by Taylor James Johnson, and edited by Juan Jimenez.

Aeon Flux is often forgotten when discussing Charlize Theron's action roles. Before Mad Max: Fury Road turned her into a legitimate genre icon, a status re-affirmed by Atomic Blonde and The Old Guard, her first attempt at headlining an action flick, 2005's Aeon Flux, had been largely forgotten. At the time, Theron was mostly known for prestige drama. She had won an Oscar in 2004 for his role as Aileen Wuornos in Patty Jenkins' Monster. She chose to follow this up by trying her luck at leading an action franchise, as female-driven action films were having a moment thanks to the success of the Underworld franchise. Directed by Karyn Kusama and based on the cult MTV Animated series, Aeon Flux seemed to have everything going for it. Still, the film was a notorious bomb that temporarily derailed Kusama's career, while Theron would avoid action movies until being lured back by George Miller. 

So what happened? We explain how studio battles, dulling cuts of the film and a fetishized heroine derailed what could have been a big franchise for all involved in this episode of WTF Happened to this Movie, written by Gaius Bolling, edited by Paul Podeyn, and narrated by Mathew Plale. 

Pitting two titans of cinema against each other has been in the public consciousness since Frankenstein, and The Wolfman met up in 1943. And in the years since, we've seen many different iconic figures do battle: Batman vs Superman, Godzilla vs Kong, and even Freddy vs Jason. Yet there was one film that brought together two of the greatest sci-fi monsters ever, and so today, we're looking into the making of 2004's AVP: Alien vs. Predator!

If you grew up in the nineties, you undoubtedly grew up a massive fan of The Sandlot. A coming-of-age story centering around a group of baseball-loving kids who hang out every day in a Sandlot, the movie didn’t make much of a peep in theatres back in 1993. However, the box office didn’t tell the whole story, with the movie becoming a cult film on VHS, cable and later DVD, with writer-director David Mickey Evans eventually returning to make a DTV spin-off, The Sandlot 2, while a prequel is still in development.

But what happened to all of the kids in The Sandlot? Unlike a movie like Stand by Me, there were no megastars like River Phoenix to emerge, but the cast still fared well in the years to come. Many have gone on to everyday lives, while others continue to work (successfully) in showbiz almost 30 years later. In this special episode of WTF Happened to this Celebrity, we catch up with The Sandlot kids, including Patrick Renna (Ham), Tom Guiry (Smalls), Chauncy Leopardi (Squints), Marty York (Yeah Yeah), Brandon Quintin Adams (Kenny), Mike Vitar (Benjamin) and more!  

This episode of WTF Happened to this Celebrity is written (with Brad Hamerly), produced, edited and narrated by Taylor James Johnson! Let us know if you have fond memories of The Sandlot in the comments!

When it comes to leaving a mark on cinematic history and scaring the bejesus out of people while doing it, John Carpenter would be on the Mount Rushmore of Horror. Known for directing some of the most iconic and influential films in horror history, Carpenter is responsible for helming Halloween, The Fog, Escape From New York, The Thing, Christine, Starman, Big Trouble in Little China, and Prince of Darkness, to name a few. Each of the films mentioned above has left an indelible mark on film history, with many filmmakers crediting Carpenter as a source of inspiration for their chosen careers.

In addition to helming a handful of cinematic gems, Carpenter is also an award-winning composer, producer, screenwriter, and actor. He’s a Swiss Army knife of talent, but not every career isn’t without a few scars. In 2001, Carpenter released Ghost of Mars, a sci-fi horror film that received raised eyebrows and a few thumbs pointing downward. Don’t you haters ever come for In the Mouth of Madness, though. We’ll mess you up!

Still an integral part of the filmmaking industry, Carpenter has contributed to several Halloween projects, including short films and David Gordon Green’s recent trilogy. There is seemingly no end to Carpenter’s creativity, and we’re about to explore much of it in today’s WTF Happened to John Carpenter presentation.

There are few horror films that are able to surpass the genre and make it to Awards season. But the winning combination of Rob Reiner, Kathy Bates, and James Caan proved to be too much, and Academy voters were no longer able to ignore the often-forgotten genre. Yet why, of all the films, was this able to surpass those unfair expectations? Join us as we tell you all about it as we dive into Stephen King's Misery.

Let us preface this by saying that we know Jennifer Lawrence is still a massive star. After all, she’s got several movies coming out this year and, by all accounts, delivers an excellent performance in the TIFF-bound drama Causeway. But, it has to be said that Hollywood tends to anoint young actors as the next big superstar and then ditch them after one or two flops. In the wake of The Hunger Games, Jennifer Lawrence was everywhere, winning an Oscar for Silver Linings Playbook and solidifying her box office power with a long-running role as Mystique in the X-Men prequels. But, when The Hunger Games series ended, and she had a few high-profile flops, including Mother, Dark Phoenix and the surprisingly great Red Sparrow, Lawrence all but disappeared from view for two years. 

She re-emerged last year in Don’t Look Up, but what happened, and why isn’t Lawrence still leading massive tentpole movies? Where’s her big franchise? Or was this lower-key return Lawrence’s idea, as she looks to re-establish herself in roles far removed from the ones that made her famous? It makes sense if you consider that much of her early career was defined by two franchises. One, The Hunger Games, showed Lawrence at her best, but it can also be argued that the X-Men series showed her at her worst, with many complaining her performance as Mystique began to grow listless by the time the franchise finally came to an end with Dark Phoenix. We dig inter her career in this episode of WTF Happened to this Celebrity!

2016’s Gods of Egypt was meant to be a significant franchise starter for Lionsgate, mixing Egyptian mythology and fantasy in a way that should have been explosive but landed with a thud. Director Alex Proyas, who directed a few seminal classics, including The Crow and Dark City, did his best to deliver an exciting fantasy film. Still, critics were savage, and audiences stayed away. In the end, it lost an estimated $90 million, despite the presence of Gerard Butler and Game of Thrones’ favorite Nikolaj Coster-Waldau. Is it as bad as people remember? Check out this episode of WTF Happened to this Movie!

As with many film adaptations based on a title in any medium loved by many, it’s hard to get the right tone to satisfy a die-hard fan. Well, I’m here to tell you that one has seemingly been overlooked in the praise department. One that captures the tone and spirit of the game completely. Fasten your seatbelts and keep your eyes on the road as we take a trip to find out WTF Happened To Silent Hill?