1. “Wicked: For Good” (PG) Trailer
At the end of the first movie, Elphaba discovered that not only is the Wizard a fraud with no real magic of his own, but he’s also responsible for oppressing the talking animals of Oz. And once she rebels, she’s vilified and exiled.
This one picks up with her fighting to stop animals from being used to build the yellow brick road. Meanwhile, Glinda’s manipulated into selling the Wizard’s lies to lift people’s spirits and calm their fears from all the Wicked Witch propaganda.
Eventually Dorothy makes an appearance and we get new backstories on the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion.
The big songs from the first movie were “Popular”, and “Defying Gravity”. This one’s big songs are “No Good Deed” and “For Good”. Plus, Elphaba gets a new original song that wasn’t in the stage play called “No Place Like Home”.
The movie’s expected to have a record-breaking opening weekend and pull in at least $120 million in the states or a total of over $200 million worldwide. The first movie pulled in a total of $758 million by the time it was done.
As for your casting reminders: Cynthia Erivo stars as Elphaba, Ariana Grande is Glinda, Jonathan Bailey from “Bridgerton” is their heartthrob Fiyero, Jeff Goldblum is the Wizard, and Michelle Yeoh is the manipulative Madame Morrible.
2. “Rental Family” (PG-13) Trailer
Brendan Fraser is an American actor struggling to find his purpose in Tokyo when lands a gig as the token white guy for a Japanese “rental family” agency.
Basically, what he does is step into the role of being the client’s parent, sibling or friend for special events or in their personal life, including helping a lesbian convince her very traditional parents that she’s marrying a dude.
And he’s cool with being an emotional stand-in for strangers, until he’s asked to play a little girl’s long-lost father and then the moral implications hit hard.
Takehiro Hira from “Shogun” is the owner of the agency, and Mari Yamamoto from “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters” is Brendan’s skeptical coworker.
