Brian Raftery

It’s here! After months — wait, make that years — of speculation, the first full trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens finally arrived Monday night. Here are some of our favorite moments from the new footage, which didn’t at all get us a bit misty-eyed, we promise!

Related: Watch the New 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ Trailer!

1. Han and Leia, solo no more!

Though we don’t get a new glimpse of Luke Skywalker in the trailer, we do see some of our old Star Wars pals, including a first glimpse of Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher). She’s seen sharing a mournful-looking hug with Han Solo (Harrison Ford), though it’s not clear why they’re upset (maybe they just learned that the space-slug they visited during their Empire heyday has finally died of indigestion?). We also watch as Han, Chewbacca, and newcomer Finn (John Boyega) — all of whom are clearly in trouble — look off to the distance, stunned, after being captured. Could someone be coming to their rescue in, say, the Millennium Falcon? 

We can only guess! But speaking of the Falcon...

2. Ship happens — in a big way!

Nothing gives Star Wars fans chills faster than seeing the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy in action — and the trailer gives us some roaring new footage to obsess over. The coolest of these glimpses is the Falcon’s leap into hyperspace, proving that the old ship still has some moves left in it, decades after they finally got that cranky hyperdrive fixed. The Falcon was just first among some serious hardware in the new spot, which also shows footage of an epic dogfight, and a shot of a mysterious, damaged TIE fighter falling through the sky:

Watch the full trailer for ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’:

3. Rey is the movie’s true force

When desert-scavenging loner Rey (Daisy Ridley) tells Han that “there were stories about what happened,” it’s a startling revelation that, in this future universe, memories of the Force and the Jedi have been all but forgotten. (It’s a theme that takes on even more power considering Luke is still very much MIA.) The trailer underlines what’s been hinted at before: that at least part of The Force Awakens will be about Rey’s discovery of her place in the Force. “It’s calling to you,” says a female voiceover (Leia?) at the end. “Just let it in.” Whatever happens, the trailer clues us in that Rey is battle and blaster ready. 

4. Poe is full of woe

Until now, all we really knew about Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) is that he was a darn fine X-wing pilot who gets recruited by Princess Leia for a big mission. But in the new trailer, we find out that at one point he’s apparently captured by Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) and tortured. Is Ren grilling him for information? Or is he trying to turn him to the Dark Side? Either way, it looks like Poe’s having about as much fun as Han did back on Bespin.

5. BB-8 flies!

Ball droid? More like brawl droid! Until now, the newest Star Wars droid hasn’t done much more than roll along excitedly and look bashful on the Falcon. But the new trailer shows him riding on an X-wing and staring down a legion of TIE fighters. What if this adorably chirpy robot is a serious ship-slayer? We’ll find out when The Force Awakens Dec. 18.

Watch our breakdown of the trailer:

Tonight, we’ll finally get an extended look at Star Wars: The Force Awakens, in the form of a trailer airing during the halftime portion of ESPN’s Monday Night Football. The movie is less than two months away — it opens Dec. 18, soon to be known as National Call-In Sick Day — and so far we’ve seen two teasers, a Comic-Con behind-the-scenes video, and a few mini-teasers for tonight’s trailer. That might sound like a lot, but in fact, director J.J. Abrams has been holding out on us a bit: Little actual information is known about the film’s plot, and there are several key Star Wars characters, both old and new, that we haven’t seen yet. As we gear up for tonight’s big debut, here are a few things we’re wondering about what will Awaken:

1. Will we get a looky-loo at Luke?

To quote Uncle Owen: “Luke? Luuuuke?” The Jedi hero hasn’t turned up in any of the new footage, with the exception of a voiceover cameo and this brief shot from the second teaser, which would appear to feature the robo-limb Luke received after his arm was saber-sawed by Darth Vader in The Empire Strikes Back:

But other than those brief appearances, we haven’t seen an official full shot of Mark Hamill as Luke in any of the promotional materials — including the new poster. And while plenty of nifty new Force Awakens toys were released last month, none of them feature Luke’s likeness. Will he finally appear in tonight’s trailer? Or is Abrams deliberately keeping the by-now wizened Jedi out of sights until opening day?

2. So what’s this movie about, anyway?

Several official big-picture plot points have dribbled out by Abrams and Co. over the past few months, while plenty of deeply spoilery (and potentially fabricated) story details have been careening around the web ever since Force Awakens began production in 2014. Still, we do know the broad outline of The Force Awakens: Namely, that newcomers Finn (John Boyega), Poe (Oscar Isaac), and Rey (Daisy Ridley) are dragged into an intergalactic battle involving new baddie Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), and that Han, Luke, Leia, Chewie, and the droids are all involved, as well. But we’re still in the dark about the real nitty-gritty stuff: How do Finn and Rey wind up hooking up with Han and Chewie? Where has Luke been all of these years? Are Han and Leia still a hot item? Oh, and…

3. What is that cool planet-destroying thingee on the poster?

Over the weekend, we got our first glimpse of a giant, Death Star-like weapon-planet, thanks to that new poster:

Yet we don’t know what it’s called, where it’s aimed, or who’s running the thing: Is it overseen by Kylo Ren? Or perhaps by First Order big General Hux (played by Domhnall Gleeson)? Or maybe it’s run by yet another villain — one we’ve yet to see. No matter who’s in charge of this mega-weapon, we hope he or she thought about independent contractors while drawing up the blueprints.

4. Will we finally get a glimpse of the new Star Wars characters (and stars) we’ve been hearing about?

The Force Awakens welcomes several big actors to the Star Wars galaxy, including Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o, two-time Oscar nominee Max von Sydow, mo-cap maestro Andy Serkis, and Shaun of the Dead and Star Trek star Simon Pegg. But beyond knowing that Nyong’o’s character is a CGI space pirate named Maz Kanata and Serkis is playing the evil-sounding Supreme Commander Snoke, we have no idea how they figure in the plot or what they look like. Then again, It’s long been rumored that Teedo, the scavenger-dude pictured in the middle of the new poster, is voiced by Pegg — after all, he does look appropriately spaced:

(UPDATE: Slashfilm is reporting that this character is actually Kanata, so now we're even more confused, since Nyong'o has said the character wouldn't be seen until the film's release. So now we’re completely confused. Let’s just give it our own made-up Star Wars name, like Jax Pillmill, Slurpy Ro-Ro, or Greedo Sarducci.)

5. Will we learn Rey and Finn’s full names?

This summer, Abrams told Entertainment Weekly that he was deliberately not revealing the new characters’ full monikers (“I will only say about that that it is completely intentional that their last names aren’t public record”). That’s led to speculation that Rey and Finn’s respective lineages could possibly be traced to past Star Wars heroes — perhaps even a Skywalker or a Solo. After all, in the second teaser, we hear Luke say, “The Force is strong in my family … you have that power, too.” We don’t know who he’s addressing, but we’re guessing he ain’t talking to BB-8.

Find out if any of your ‘Star Wars’ toys are worth big bucks by watching the video below:

Have an HBO Now account? Check out the TV and film titles that are coming to (including American Sniper, Taken 3 and Little Miss Sunshine) and leaving (including Meet the Parents, The Lake House and Gravity) the streaming service in October.

See the list of highlights below.

Jake Gyllenhaal and Benedict Cumberbatch are in talks to play George Westinghouse and Thomas Edison in the Weinstein Company’s The Current War.

Alfonso Gomez-Rejon is in talks to direct the film written by Michael Mitnick.

The movie takes place in the late 1880s and revolves around power titans Edison and Westinghouse’s battle over the supply of electricity. Edison championed the use of a direct current for electric power distribution over an alternating current, which was backed by several European companies and Westinghouse Electric.

TWC will finance and distribute the film.

Timur Bekmambetov, who was originally eyed to direct the movie, will produce alongside Film Rites’ Steve Zaillian and Garrett Basch.

Gyllenhaal is currently shooting Tom Ford’s Nocturnal Animals, Cumberbatch is about to start filming Marvel’s Doctor Strange and Gomez-Rejon is working on Collateral Beauty. Gyllenhaal also has the Boston Marathon bombing pic Stronger on his slate.

Gyllenhaal is coming off a strong festival season after Everest and Demolition premiered at the Venice and Toronto film festivals, respectively. Gyllenhaal, who is repped by WME, most recently worked with with Weinstein Co. on the boxing drama Southpaw.

Cumberbatch can currently be seen in Warner Bros.’ Black Mass. He is repped by UTA, Conway van Gelder Grant in the UK and attorney Robert Offer.

Gomez-Rejon, who is also repped by WME, is coming off strong reviews for his Sundance pic Me and Earl and the Dying Girl and had been weighing several other directing offers.

Tom Hiddleston seems like a nice enough chap: Even when he’s playing a vengeful, Asgard-aspiring Marvel villain (Thor) or a glumly expatriate rock-and-roll vampire (Only Lovers Left Alive), the 34-year-old English actor has a molecular-level charisma that makes his nastiest moments palatable. That serves him well in the new movie High-Rise, which debuted this week at the Toronto International Film Festival — and quickly became one of the most divisive movies of the event, inspiring mixed reviews, and even prompting more than a few walk-outs (at one screening, a good 20 or so people streamed to the exits during the film’s first hour).

The split reaction is understandable, as it’s hard to think of a recent movie with this big of a cast and this sizable of a budget that’s so outright outré as High-Rise. Based on the 1975 novel by J.G. Ballard, it’s the story of Dr. Robert Lang (Hiddleston) a successful physiologist who, after the death of his sister, moves into a newly built, ridiculously opulent English apartment complex (High-Rise’s exact year is never given, but based on the shaggy muttonchops and even shaggier rugs, it’s clearly set in the late ‘70s, just as the era of Thatcherism is getting underway). 

The upper floors of the building are reserved for the rich — including the patriarchal architect, played by Jeremy Irons — while the lower floors are for the less-off families with kids. But as the power supply begins to wane, and as the communal pool becomes overcrowded, a intra-building kerfuffle begins, with Lang — torn between his upper-echelon job and his lower-floor friendships — stuck literally and figuratively in the middle.

It’s not giving away much to say that what follows is a sex-slathered, baroquely grotesque battle between the classes: After all, this is a movie that begins with Hiddleston, bloodied and burnt out, dining on one of the apartment’s pets (suffice to say: if you’re the type of person who regularly needs to consult the site Does the Dog Die?, this is not the movie for you). As we flash back, we watch Lang and the rest of the residents — including Sienna Miller and Luke Evans — slowly degrade themselves: Stupor-inducing orgies are held in penthouses. Horses begin roaming the halls. Lang has lusty sex with an upstairs neighbor (Elisabeth Moss), and even lustier sex with a downstairs neighbor (Sienna Miller). (He also strips down a few times — a fact not lost on the internet — though Hiddleston fans hoping for a lookie at his loki may be disappointed.)

High-Rise was directed by Ben Wheatley, the English filmmaker whose work includes the twisty hired-killer thriller Kill List and the deadpan murder-travelogue Sightseers. High-Rise is his biggest movie yet, and its visual style alone ensures the movie cult-classic status down the line. There are gorgeously staged moments of excess and brutality that recall A Clockwork Orange; tinges of psychedelica that bring to mind movies like the Monkees’ Head; and detail-obsessed production design that’s borderline-pornographic in its lushness. Every frame is freeze-worthy, even if they’re often part of longer sequences that might feel like an endurance-test.

Daniel Craig feels that his interpretation of James Bond is "not as sexist and misogynistic" as previous incarnations of the British spy, but 007 still has a way to go to be considered a modern man.

In a frank, lengthy and expletive filled interview with U.K. Esquire, Craig said that he saw Bond as someone who was "lonely" and who's life was filled with "great sadness," despite 007 having the uncanny knack of bedding beautiful women in the most exotic locations.

“He’s very f-cking lonely,” Craig told Esquire. “There’s a great sadness. He’s f-cking these beautiful women but then they leave and it’s… sad. And as a man gets older it’s not a good look. It might be a nice fantasy – that’s debatable – but the reality, after a couple of months…”

Craig, the sixth actor to play Bond, felt that though the world had changed, Bond hadn't fully changed with it, but he said the character is lot less of what M called a "dinosaur" than previous 007s. “Hopefully, my Bond is not as sexist and misogynistic as [earlier incarnations]. The world has changed. I am certainly not that person. But he is."

Related: Idris Elba "Too Street" to Play James Bond

Talking about his fourth outing as Bond in Spectre, Craig says there was a lot of pressure on the production team after the huge success of Skyfall, which became the biggest British film of all time. "[T]he biggest British movie of all time’. What does it f-cking mean? Where do we go from there? How do you process that? It could have been an albatross around everyone’s necks. It turned out not to be, but there was a massive amount of pressure at the beginning.”

Craig fought for Sam Mendes to return for Spectre, and he feels he's established a good working relationship with the Skyfall director, on what would be their third film working together. “I felt like [Mendes and I] got into a real groove with it. I felt like we’d started something on that movie and I was so keen to finish it.”

On how they would approach Spectre: “We did have the conversation: it’s got to be bigger and better... The stunts, the action, every department.”

He added: “I feel like we’ve all done our absolute fucking best and that’s a good feeling. Whether that makes a better movie we’ll see.”

Read the full Esquire interview here.

The “flix” part of Netflix is about to get less precise: Thousands of movies through its deal with Epix, the JV of Paramount, Lionsgate and MGM, are set to roll off the streaming service when the pact expires next month.

It’s sure to cause the subscription VOD leader some short-term pain with customer irritation and confusion. And Reed Hastings can’t be pleased that Hulu is opportunistically stepping into the breach with Netflix’s pass (though Amazon, it’s important to note, has had a pact with Epix since 2012 for exactly the same stuff).

But for Netflix, letting this deal go by the wayside is ultimately a savvy move.

Related: Epix Movies Are Leaving Netflix, Coming to Hulu

The loss of the Epix catalog is real. Of the top 10 box-office grossing movies in each the last three years, Netflix currently offers just two on streaming — both via Epix: The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and Transformers: Age of Extinction. In the most recent quarter, Netflix subs have streamed an average of 75 million Epix movies per month, according to a source familiar with the pact, which would represent about 1.8 per U.S. sub monthly.

It’s not that Netflix doesn’t want movies. It’s that it wants exclusive rights, with titles you can’t watch on any other subscription service. That’s why Netflix is spending more on original film acquisitions, and why it’s paying Disney top dollar for pay-TV window rights for Mouse House pics starting with 2016 releases.

Given Netflix’s trajectory, its pact with Epix was doomed. Netflix calls itself an Internet TV subscription service and compares itself to HBO… and so, by extension, it’s also really a competitor to Epix.

In a certain light, then, Netflix carrying the movies from Epix is like McDonald’s cutting a deal to sell Whoppers.

Make no mistake: Epix wanted Netflix to renew, though Hulu presumably will help make up the difference. For Epix, which employs the traditional cable-distribution model, the more distributors it has on board the better. It sells through cable, satellite and telco TV providers and carved out an additional SVOD window, with titles coming to Netflix (soon to be Hulu instead) and Amazon 90 days after they hit TV distribs.

That’s fine. But Netflix decided a while ago it doesn’t want sloppy seconds to pay TV. Yes, non-exclusive library content is important to buttress the proposition that there will always be something to watch in your Netflix queue, including TV and movie favorites. The company’s infamouslyinexpensive output deal with Starz in 2008 (which ended in 2012) certainly helped jump-start Netflix’s meteoric rise.

Now Netflix is about quality — or, more accurately, exclusivity — not quantity. Last year, for example, it didn’t bid for SVOD rights to HBO’s library (for series three years or more after airing on the cable network) which remain available on HBO Go and HBO Now; instead, Amazon acquired that basket.

Related: Netflix to Focus on Adding Higher-Rated and Exclusive Titles, CFO Says

Netflix has eschewed the notion of being a comprehensive on-demand entertainment source, because it’s just too expensive. Live TV sports? Forget it, Ted Sarandos says; leave that for overpriced pay-TV bundles. And if you want movies or TV shows not available via streaming, it will happily sell you a DVD-by-mail subscription.

“Netflix is a focused passion brand, not a do-everything brand: Starbucks, not 7-Eleven; Southwest, not United; HBO, not Dish,” the company says in its long-term view manifesto.

That’s a smart, sustainable strategy for standing out in the market. True, Netflix at some point soon will have to decide which content it must own itself instead of rent (originals including House of Cards and Orange Is the New Black are licensed from other studios, not produced by Netflix). And nobody can possibly argue that Netflix original films like indie drama Beasts of No Nation or Adam Sandler’s Ridiculous Six are going to outperform top Epix-supplied fare like Hunger Games: Catching Fire, The Wolf of Wall Street or Star Trek Into Darkness.

FIRSTLOOKYOU SELFIE REVIEWS MINIONS ANT-MAN TRAINWRECK

Everybody’s a critic — and that includes you! With the first selfie movie-review app FirstLookYou, brought to you by Yahoo Movies, you can upload your own opinion about the latest blockbusters — and it may just show up on the big screen. Just download the FirstLookYou app, then as soon as you leave the theater after your next movie, shoot a selfie review (good or bad: let ‘em have it!): You can share your clip with friends, and you might also catch it here on Yahoo Movies or even in theaters before the next movie you see. Check out the video above for selfie critics’ takes on three of this summer’s biggest films — Minions, Trainwreck, and Ant-Man — and then watch below for simple instructions on how to submit your own review (Sponsored).

With the first selfie movie-review app FirstLookYou, brought to you by Yahoo Movies, you can upload your own opinion about the latest blockbusters — and it may just show up on the big screen.

Alex Rocco as Moe Greene in ‘The Godfather’ (Photo: Everett Collection)

Alex Rocco, the veteran tough-guy character actor with the gravelly voice best known for playing mobster and Las Vegas casino owner Moe Greene in The Godfather, has died. He was 79.

Rocco died Saturday, his daughter, Jennifer, announced on Facebook. 

No other details of his death were immediately available. Rocco, who studied acting with the late Leonard Nimoy, a fellow Boston-area transplant, also was the voice of Roger Meyers Jr., the cigar-smoking chairman of the studio behind “Itchy and Scratchy” on The Simpsons, and he played Arthur Evans, the father of Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s character, on the stylish Starz series Magic City. 

Rocco starred as a white Detroit detective who is reluctantly paired with a black detective (Hari Rhodes) in Arthur Marks’ Detroit 9000 (1973) and voiced an ant in A Bug’s Life (1998). “That was my greatest prize ever in life, because I did about eight lines as an ant, and I think I made over a million dollars,” he said in a 2012 interview. 

Rocco won an Emmy Award in 1990 for best supporting actor in a comedy for playing sneaky Hollywood talent agent Al Floss on the short-lived CBS series The Famous Teddy Z, starring Jon Cryer.  

Related: Hollywood's Notable Deaths of 2015

He also had regular roles on The Facts of Life (as Charlie Polniaczek, the father of NancyMcKeon’s character, Jo), The George Carlin Show, Three for the Road, Sibs and The Division. 

In the 2012 interview, Rocco said that landing the role of Jewish mobster Moe in The Godfather (1972) was "without a doubt, my biggest ticket anywhere. I mean that literally." "When I got the part, I went in to Francis Ford Coppola, and in those days, the word was, ‘Read [Mazio Puzo’s] book,’ which I already did, and then the actor would suggest to him which part they would like. Well, I went for … I dunno, one of the Italian parts. Maybe the Richard Bright part [Al Neri]. But Coppola goes, ‘I got my Jew!’ And I went, ‘Oh no, Mr. Coppola, I’m Italian. I wouldn’t know how to play a Jew.’ And he goes, ‘Oh, shut up.’ [Laughs.] He says, ‘The Italians do this,’ and he punches his fingers up. ‘And the Jews do this,’ and his hand’s extended, the palm flat. Greatest piece of direction I ever got. I’ve been playing Jews ever since." 

"And people on the golf course will say, ‘Hey, Alex, would you call my dad and leave a line from The Godfather?’ I say, ‘OK. “I buy you out, you don’t buy me out!” “He was bangin’ cocktail waitresses two at a time …” “Don’t you know who I am?” ’ [Laughs.] But I enjoy doing it. It’s fun. I’ve been leaving Moe Greene messages for 40 years.” 

Born Alexander Federico Petricone in Cambridge, Mass., Rocco came to L.A. in the early 1960s and made his movie debut in Motorpsycho! (1965), directed by Russ Meyer, and he was a henchman on Batman in 1967 in the episodes in which the Dynamic Duo meet up with the Green Hornet and Kato. Rocco worked frequently with Alan Arkin, being paired with him on such films as Freebie and the Bean (1974), Hearts of The West (1975), Rafferty and the Gold Dust Twins (1975) and Fire Sale (1977). 

Watch Joss Whedon speech Comic-Con 2015

At Comic-Con this past weekend, Avengers: Age of Ultron writer-director Joss Whedon took the stage for a one-man panel and Q&A session, in which he discussed moviemaking, comic books, and creativity in general. You can watch the whole thing above.

Even the biggest stars — 6’5” and 260 pounds big — can get starstruck from time to time.

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson confessed in an interview with Esquire that he was reduced to grinning “like a big-ass kid” when he recently received a letter from Steven Spielberg praising his work, calling it the defining moment when he knew he’d made it as an actor.

The Schindler’s List and Jurassic Park director wrote to the WWE Superstar turned action star out of the blue, telling him:

“Been enjoying your movies over the years. Very entertaining. I feel like I’ve really gotten to know you over the years, most recently after watching you host Saturday Night Live. Great job. You continue to go for it. Proud of your work and look forward to meeting you. Steven Spielberg.”

Related: Dwayne Johnson Sideswipes Car, Poses for Picture With Owner (Photo)

Needless to say, it had an impact comparable to the massive earthquake in Johnson’s latest disaster film and sparked an emotional response.

“It took me back to being just like a kid. I was so blown away,” he told Esquire.

The HBO Ballers star also wrote a gushing Instagram post next to a photo of him holding the letter in which he recalled seeing Indiana Jones on its opening weekend in Charlotte, North Carolina, when he was just eight years old.

In the text accompanying the photo, Johnson wrote:

Grinnin' now like a big ass kid... When I was 8yrs old I sat front row to see a sold out INDIANA JONES in its opening weekend in Charlotte, North Carolina. I walked out of that theater excited and wanted to be "Indy".. cool, funny, charming with the ladies and kickin' ass w/ a smile. But at 8yrs old I was also perfectly content playing w/ my Star Wars figures and sneaking off listening to Richard Pryor concerts. Throughout the years I've credited this man and his movies as being my greatest inspiration in becoming an actor and wanting to always make "his kind" of movies - entertaining, quality and above all else.. heart. Just receiving this personal letter from him and its not only made me incredibly humbled and grateful, but it's also brought me back to being that 8yr old boy again who not only loves movies, but I now get to make the movies I love and enjoy the impact they have on others. THANK YOU STEVEN SPIELBERG for these inspiring and motivating words in your letter and cheers to making sure I'm always listening to that little voice in my gut. #CoolestGiftEver #BigAss8yrOldKid #SpielbergInspired

Watch a countdown of the 40 biggest summer movies of the last 40 years below:

EXCLUSIVE: Netflix has acquired distribution rights to War Machine, the David Michod-directed drama which will star Brad Pitt as a four-star rock star U.S. military general. The character is patterned after Gen. Stanley McChrystal, for a time the commanding general of international and U.S. forces in Afghanistan. The film is a satirical comedy inspired by the bestselling book The Operators: The Wild And Terrifying Inside Story Of America’s War In Afghanistan, by the late journalist Michael Hastings. Script was written by Michod, whose credits include Animal Kingdom and The Rover. Pitt and his Plan B cohorts Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner will produce with Ian Bryce.

Related: New Regency Taps Brad Pitt, David Michod To Tell Gen. Stanley McChrystal Afghan Story

This picture package was on Deadline’s list of his Cannes titles, but Pitt and his reps have for several weeks been down the road with Ted Sarandos and his Netflix cohorts on an alternative strategy. With this deal, Sarandos has an opportunity to make the kind of seismic move in features as he did with TV series like House Of Cards. This will be the biggest investment Netflix will have made so far in a feature film, in the $30 million range. It is also the first time Netflix has really gotten hold of a film with one of the biggest global A-list movie stars, in his prime, along with his producing cohorts whose recent credits include Best Picture winner 12 Years A Slave and Best Picture nominee Selma.

The streaming service continues to establish itself in countries around the world — itjust announced Italy, Portugal and Spain to raise its penetration to more than 150 countries — and is expected to be in even more by the time this movie is ready for a qualifying theatrical run, and then a big Netflix worldwide bow late in 2016.

Plan B acquired the Hastings book last year and originally it seemed like a straight nonfiction film. It has instead been turned into a fictionalized satire. The book captured McChrystal in his cocky glory, and focused on the backrooms and politics of war and the high-stakes maneuvers and political firestorm that shook the country. Hastings, who followed McChrystal around Europe and Afghanistan for a month in 2010 for a Rolling Stone article, quoted the general badmouthing the White House and its handling of the war. That proved to be his undoing; after Rolling Stone published the article “The Runaway General,” McChrystal was ordered back to D.C. by President Obama, and McChrystal tendered his resignation there.

Even though this is sophisticated subject matter and not the popcorn fare that studios covet, any studio or independent distributor would have salivated over releasing a movie with Brad Pitt as its star. But it is also the kind of movie that is often hard pressed to find a large theatrical audience, and P&A is exorbitant to chase that business. Pitt and his advisers instead decided to experiment with the idea that potentially more people would see the film through the Netflix global streaming subscriber base. Deadline has reported that when Netflix makes a deal like this — or on a movie like the Cary Fukunaga-directed Idris Elba-starrer Beasts Of No Nation or the four movies that will star Adam Sandler and be produced by his company — its model eliminates the possibility for overages because the priority is the streaming service. We’ve heard that Netflix will pay 130% of a film’s budget. In order to get this coup, it paid at least that much or more, but it potentially knocks down a wall that could give Netflix a real shot at movie-star-driven pictures that want one-stop shopping. Netflix will also heavily market the movie.

“War Machine is a rip-roaring, behind-the-facade tale of modern war decision-makers, from the corridors of power to the distant regions of America’s ambitions,” said Sarandos, the chief content officer of Netflix. “Brad and David are a perfect team to make this timely, compelling and entertaining film.”

Said Pitt: “We are so excited to be a part of the inspiring commitment by Netflix to produce cutting-edge content and to deliver it to a global audience.”

Said Michod: “I’m humbled to be making a big, bold movie about the whole sprawling, complex, cumbersome and crazy machinery of modern war and the many lives it touches.”

Pitt has hardly abandoned the traditional theatrical release that launched his star. He wrapped By The Sea, the Universal film with Angelina Jolie, who directed. After he wraps War Machine, Pitt will join Marion Cotillard in an untitled Steven Knight-scripted period spy thriller that will be directed by Robert Zemeckis for Paramount. He will then reprise in a sequel to the zombie apocalypse hit World War Z, which is being scripted by Knight and will be directed by Juan Antonio Bayona, with Plan B producing.