Editor’s Note: this interview took place prior to the actors’ strike, which began on July 14 and which Hollywood has effectively shut down.
Heart of stoneThe Netflix director thinks the Netflix movie could be a kickstart for a new movie franchise. In an exclusive chat with TechRadar ahead of the release of the Gal Gadot movie, Tom Harper said he believes there’s more character development and world-building to explore in potential sequels, as long as Netflix has a Heart of stone movie series.
That may seem unlikely given the negative reviews so far, and Harper revealed he hadn’t discussed any sequel or spinoff plans with Netflix so far, but at least that was in part so he could focus on finishing the first one. movie.
“I actually like to focus on one project at a time,” said Harper. “If I started thinking about what audiences or critics thought about it, or looking to the future before this movie comes out, there’s a danger that you’ll become crippled with fear.
“Having said that, I’d love to work with Gal, Matthias (Schweighöfer) and Alia (Bhatt) again. I think there’s still plenty to develop with their characters, and I’ve definitely had a great time making Heart of stone with our cast and crew. So I hope there is a future for the franchise.”
A dagger in the heart of Netflix’s next film series?
Unfortunately, it looks like Harper won’t get his wish. At the moment of writing, Heart of stone has been rated ‘rotten’ on the review aggregator website Rotten tomatoeswith one of the new 2023 Netflix movies getting a paltry 34% approval rating from 50 critics.
Of course there are other variables that can determine whether Heart of stone returns for another term. The action movie only launched today (August 11) on the world’s top streaming service, so the vast majority of Netflix’s 238 million strong user base haven’t had a chance to stream it and give their verdict on the movie yet.
Those who did have clearly remained unimpressed. On ResetEra for example Aipops called it a “bootleg Mission Impossible 7while fellow forum user soy suggested that Heart of Stone would be what “a Ubisoft open-world game would look like a movie”. Similar comments can be found all over X (formerly Twitter) as well, like user valshopaholic’s verdict below:
#HeartOfStone isn’t a bad movie, just another attempt by Netflix to make a big action movie for the small screen and the end result is just that. Maybe it would have worked if they had spent less money on the well-known cameos we’ll never see again and spent it on writing fewer clichés.August 11, 2023
We’ll find out how well Heart of stone has done when Netflix releases its updated list of Top 10 Movies on Tuesday, August 15. Heart of stone could surprise us all and deliver another big hit for the streaming giant.
Finally, The gray man – starring Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans and Ana de Armas – was not universally adored by critics, but was one of the most streamed Netflix movies of 2022. Unsurprisingly, a Gray man sequel and spin-off movie were announced shortly after it topped the streaming charts.
Of Red noticestarring Gadot alongside Dwayne Johnson and Ryan Reynolds, and the Chris Hemsworth-led extraction film series (Extraction 2 arrived in mid-June) also drew huge crowds despite their mixed response, Heart of stonefate is not completely sealed. But if it were up to me, there wouldn’t be a sequel. But hey, I’m not Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, so I have nothing to say about it.
For more Netflix-based coverage, read our best Netflix movie guide. Or find out how heart of stone explores the benefits and dangers of artificial intelligence.