Author: Christopher Marc

Posted on in Film News

Rundown of 2021 Movies That Have Been Given New Release Dates

No Time To Die wasn’t the only studio film to get a bump to later in the year as there were a wave of release changes yesterday. The COVID-19 pandemic doesn’t seem to be letting up over the spring or possibly the summer meaning that theatrical releases are going to be further delayed.

Here is a rundown of those releases changes that took place over the week.

  • Godzilla vs. Kong – March 26th, 2021 (moved up)
  • Nobody – April 2nd, 2021
  • BIOS – August 13th, 2021
  • The Many Saints of Newark – September 24th, 2021
  • No Time To Die – October 8th, 2021
  • Last Night In Soho – October 22nd, 2021
  • Antlers – October 29th, 2021
  • Ghostbusters: Afterlife – November 11th, 2021
  • Nightmare Alley – December 3rd, 2021
  • Morbius – January 21st, 2022
  • Uncharted – February 11th, 2022
  • Ambulance – February 18th, 2022

We’re likely to get more release date changes in the coming weeks as summer movies alongside other spring films might be getting pushed later in the year or to 2022. I wouldn’t be terribly shocked if we saw new dates for films such big films as Black Widow, Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Spider-Man 3, F9, The King’s Man, Top Gun: Maverick, Jungle Cruise and others.

I know people are going to assume that studios will simply throw these projects on streaming services, however, considering the large budgets involved they will be more interested in turning a profit than offloading the films from their slates, they are still businesses that need to generate revenue. Until we get those official announcements it seems a little premature to speculate which projects will end up on streaming as plenty of these releases escaped that fate in 2020 and might continue that in 2021.

I personally believe the best way to go is with reasonable prices for multiple digital renting and buying options along with great access to those choices. Having access to these films suck behind a paywall then given high price of $30 like with what Disney did with Mulan meant that Disney+ subscribers still had to pay a premium price alongside their monthly subscription. At the very least, they should have given a discount to subs asking for $10-20.

We’ll certainly update when further changes are announced.

Posted on in Film News

‘No Time To Die’ Officially Delayed To October 8th

EON has officially announced that No Time To Die has been bumped from April 2nd to October 8th. A rumored fall delay had been making the rounds lately which has now been confirmed by the studio.

It looks like other studios are delaying their big films coming in the spring as well.

The cast will include Daniel Craig as James Bond, Lea Seydoux as Madeleine Swann, Rami Malek (Bohemian Rapsody) as a new villain named Safin (Dr. No?), Jeffrey Wright (Westworld) as Felix Leiter, Ralph Fiennes (The King’s Man) as M, Christoph Waltz returning as Spectre’s Blofeld, Naomie Harris as Moneypenny, Lashana Lynch (Captain Marvel) as Nomi aka the new Agent 007, Ana de Armas (Blade Runner 2049) as Paloma, Ben Whishaw as Q, Billy Magnussen, Rory Kinnear as Bill Tanner, David Dencik, and Dali Benssalah.

NO TIME TO DIE – Bond has left active service and is enjoying a tranquil life in Jamaica. His peace is short-lived when his old friend Felix Leiter from the CIA turns up asking for help. The mission to rescue a kidnapped scientist turns out to be far more treacherous than expected, leading Bond onto the trail of a mysterious villain armed with dangerous new technology. 

SOURCE: EON

Posted on in Film News

Hugh Grant & Josh Hartnett Reuniting With Guy Ritchie For His Spy Thriller ‘Five Eyes’

Deadline has two new additions to the cast of Guy Ritchie‘s spy thriller formerly known as Five Eyes as Josh Hartnett is set for a role and Hugh Grant reportedly is also in talks. The pair of actors joining a cast that consists of Jason Statham, Aubrey Plaza, Cary Elewes, and rapper Bugzy Malone.

The feature follows MI6 guns-and-steel agent (Statham) who is recruited by a global intelligence agency to track down and stop the sale of a deadly new weapons technology that threatens to disrupt the world order. Reluctantly paired with CIA high-tech expert, Fortune sets off on a globe-trotting mission where he will have to use all of his charm, ingenuity and stealth to track down and infiltrate billionaire arms broker. 

Josh recently worked with Guy and Jason on the armored car action flick Wrath of Man based on the 2004 French film Le Convoyeur. Hugh Grant working with Ritchie on The Gentlemen and The Man From U.N.C.L.E. previously.

Filming is said to be underway in Qatar and will eventually move to Turkey.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Television News

‘Game of Thrones’: HBO Finally Developing ‘Tales of Dunk & Egg’ Series

House of The Dragon won’t be the only Game of Thrones prequel series in the works at HBO based on established work written by George R.R. Martin. Today, Variety reports that HBO is in early development on Tales of Dunk & Egg, a new series adaptation based on Martin’s A Knight of The Seven Kingdoms, a collection of the three novellas focused on characters Ser Duncan The Tall (Dunk) and a young Aegon V Targaryen (Egg).

A young, naive but courageous hedge knight, Ser Duncan the Tall towers above his rivals – in stature if not experience. Tagging along with him is his diminutive squire, a boy called Egg – whose true identity must be hidden from all he and Dunk encounter: for in reality he is Aegon Targaryen, and one day he will be king. Improbable heroes though they be, great destinies lie ahead for Dunk and Egg; as do powerful foes, royal intrigue, and outrageous exploits.

There had been rumblings for ages that the duo would be perfect fodder for an HBO series adaptation. Their adventures takes place 90 years before the events of the main novels and the Game of Thrones series.

Writers and showrunners aren’t mentioned but there is an expectation that Martin will be closely involved creatively along with being the show’s executive producer.

House of The Dragon, another prequel that has been given a full series order at HBO for a debut in 2022 with a cast that consists of Paddy Considine as King Viserys Targaryen, Matt Smith as Prince Daemon Targaryen, Olivia Cooke as Alicent Hightower, and Emma D’Arcy as Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen. Directors on the first season of that show are Miguel Sapochnik, Clare Kilner, Geeta Patel, and Greg Yaitanes.

SOURCE: VARIETY

Posted on in Television News

‘Star Wars’: Alan Tudyk Downplays Involvement As K-2SO In Season 1 of ‘Andor’

Despite being announced alongside Rogue One: A Star Wars Story co-star Diego Luna for the prequel Disney+ series Andor, a new quote from K-2S0 actor Alan Tudyk suggests he might not be as involved with the series as previously thought or originally promoted by Lucasfilm.

Alan was speaking with Collider and revealed that while Andor is filming at the moment he hasn’t shoot any scenes giving the impression he might not be showing up in future seasons. The actor revealing he’s not in Season 1, but that seems odd for a multitude of reasons.

TUDYK: “They’re shooting it right now, I’m not in it. But, if it stays on the air, stories keep getting told, I’ll end up in there.”

“I’m going to be in the show. It’s just that the story that Tony [Gilroy] is telling doesn’t involve K-2SO until later on… I can’t be too specific, but I can definitely say that I’m not going to be in the first season.”

It’s a little perplexing since Alan was on stage with Luna for the series announcement giving us the impression his role was likely minimized during the show’s rewrites. The show takes place five years before the events of Rogue One and maybe they wanted to explore Cassian Andor’s origins before pairing him with the surly droid.

Alan’s name was missing in a recent press release announcing new cast members on the official website, a possible first clue that he wasn’t going to be showing up after a potential retooling.

Star Diego Luna will be joined by Genevieve O’Reilly, who will reprise her role as Mon Mothma (Rogue One, Tin Can), as well as newly-announced co-stars Stellan Skarsgard (Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, Good Will Hunting), Denise Gough (Collett, Angels in America) and Kyle Soller (Anna Karenina, The Titan).

Tony Gilroy, who co-wrote Rogue One, will write, direct and serve as showrunner for the series, which takes place five years before the events of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Additional writers on the series include Dan Gilroy (Nightcrawler), Beau Willimon (House of Cards), and Stephen Schiff (The Americans).

Filming is underway and is expected to drop sometime in 2022 on Disney+.

SOURCE: COLLDIER

Posted on in Television News

‘Star Wars’: Jason Isaacs Open To Playing Live-Action Version of The Grand Inquisitor With Some Conditions

After Katee Sackhoff reprised the role of Bo-Katan in The Mandalorian, there has been some speculation that other voice actors from the animation side of Star Wars might make the jump to playing live-action incarnations of their characters.

Collider recently spoke with fellow Star Wars: Rebels voice actor Jason Isaacs about the possibility of him playing The Grand Inquisitor in undisclosed live-actions projects for Lucasfilm and he sounds open to idea. It sounds like the quality of the script and the limited amount of prosthetics would be conditions for Jason to do it.

ISAACS: “I think it was because of his lightsaber. I’d like to use that spinning red lightsaber. I have the coolest wand in the Harry Potter world and I have the cool lightsaber in the Star Wars world.”

“I’m open to anything. It’s always about the script. I don’t want to just turn up so that I can take some photographs and go to conventions. I’d like to play parts. The Inquisitor was a great part when I played it and if the Inquisitor was a great part again, I’d be up for it. I’m not sure I’ve got the patience of Doug Jones who plays Saru in Discovery, who was the creature in The Shape of Water and stuff. I don’t now how many hours I’d like to spend in prosthetics. But yeah, Katee had a very good time. I know Katee and I’ll say, I’ve loved being part of the Star Wars world. They’ve invited me in although I’ve only ever been an animated character before.”

“It’s always the script and what you get to do. I know that for other people they go, ‘I’d love to see you in this,’ or, ‘I’d love to see you in that.’ Mostly it’s people would like to see me do something they’ve seen me do before. They go, ‘There’s a character just like that in this. Wouldn’t you like to be in Outlander playing so and so?’ And I go, ‘Well, not really because you’re just saying I should bring that character over from The Patriot,’ or whatever.”

However, given his character’s death in Star Wars: Rebels, he’d likely have to appear in things that take place before those events such as the Obi-Wan Kenobi limited series starring Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen. Considering Darth Vader is confirmed for the Disney+ show, having a version of The Inquisitors appearing is a strong possibility given that they’d still be hunting down Jedi at this point in the timeline.

SOURCE: COLLIDER

Posted on in Film News

‘Blade Runner’: Jared Leto Still Wants To Reprise Villain Niander Wallace For A Prequel Project

Back in July, Jared Leto mentioned a desire to explore Niander Wallace‘s origin when interacting with a fan. Wallace was the puppet-master villain of Blade Runnder 2049 and runs the company that has taken over Replicant production from the Tyrell Corporation.

LETO: “Maybe we can do a Niander Wallace origin story one day. Would be interesting to see where this mad man came from. He must have had some history. I have some ideas…”

Jared is still very much interested in returning to Wallace while speaking with Jake’s Takes (spotted by The Playlist) this month.

LETO: “You know, with every character I play, I don’t know if it’s because I work so intently and I tend to dig really deep and put a lot of time and energy into it, but when I’m done playing with them, done playing the parts, I do miss them a little bit. And you do all this work anyway, it would be kind of nice to go back and explore other [characters]. Like Niander Wallace in Blade Runner, I would love to play that part again as a prequel or something.”

Wallace’s fate is unknown at the end of the film has he zipped off-world in a ship to one of the many human colonies. It could be interesting to see if he had a hand in those colonies and potentially the off-world wars that have been referenced in both movies.

Leto isn’t the only mulling over the idea of a return to the Blade Runner Universe, as director Denis Villeneuve told Empire last year he’d like to make a non-sequel that is disconnected to the first two movies.

VILLENEUVE: “It’s such an inspiring place, the Blade Runner world. The problem is have is the word ‘sequel’. I think cinema needs original stories. But if you ask me if I’d like to revisit this universe in a different way, I can say yes. It would need to be a project on its own. Something disconnected from both other movies. A detective noir story set in the future… I wake up sometimes in the night dreaming about it.”

The only official continuation of the franchise that has been in the works is an anime project for Crunchyroll and Adult Swim titled Blade Runner: Black Lotus with a debut sometime in 2021.

SOURCE: JAKE’S TAKES

Posted on in Television News

‘She-Hulk’: Ginger Gonzaga Confirms Role In Marvel Series – Reportedly Playing Jennifer Walters’ Best Friend

It looks like we finally have our second new cast member on Marvel’s She-Hulk series!

Deadline reports that Space Force and Kidding actress Ginger Gonzaga as been tapped to play Jennifer Walter’s best friend in the show, calling it a co-starring role. Emmy-winner Tatiana Maslany is playing Jennifer Walters, the defense lawyer cousin of Bruce Banner, who in the comics is given an emergency blood transfusion from Banner leading to her becoming a Hulk herself empowered with similar strength and abilities.

UPDATE: The actress has confirmed her involvement on Twitter.

Filming is said to begin this March in Atlanta, Georgia under the working title Libra.

Rick & Morty‘s Jessica Gao is the lead writer on the MCU series with Kat Coiro and Anu Valia directing.

The series is described as a superhero workplace comedy and will also feature Mark Ruffalo as the Hulk and Tim Roth making his triumphant return as The Incredible Hulk‘s Abomination. There are also expectations that other actors from that film be returning, but have yet to be confirmed officially. William Hurt‘s Thunderbolt Ross has been popping-up in multiple projects since The Incredible Hulk and almost appeared as his second comic book persona, Red Hulk, in Captain America: Civil War.

Kevin Feige has also teased other superhero cameos which some fans have assumed could mean either Peter Parker or Matt Murdock.

We should be getting a couple more casting additions before production starts.

She-Hulk is expected to begin airing on Disney+ in late summer/fall of 2022 given the extensive special effects needed for the multiple Hulks on the show.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

‘Shazam! Fury of The Gods’: ‘Kingsman’ & ‘The Old Guard’ Production Designer Paul Kirby Confirmed For DC Comics Sequel

The Ronin can confirm that production designer Paul Kirby has indeed joined the upcoming production team for David F. Sandberg‘s DC Comics sequel Shazam! Fury of The Gods. Kirby’s credits include Kingsman: The Secret Service, The Old Guard, Jason Bourne, Captain Phillips, and the Hellboy reboot.

Sandberg returns to direct from a script penned by Henry Gayden.

Other DC Comics productions on the horizon include The Flash and Black Adam with The Batman still shooting in the United Kingdom.

Fury of The Gods is set to be released on June 2nd, 2023.

SHAZAM! – We all have a superhero inside of us — it just takes a bit of magic to bring it out. In 14-year-old Billy Batson’s case, all he needs to do is shout out one word to transform into the adult superhero Shazam. Still a kid at heart, Shazam revels in the new version of himself by doing what any other teen would do — have fun while testing out his newfound powers. But he’ll need to master them quickly before the evil Dr. Thaddeus Sivana can get his hands on Shazam’s magical abilities.

Posted on in Film News

George Clooney Adds ‘The Midnight Sky’ Cinematographer For His Long Island Drama ‘The Tender Bar’ Starring Ben Affleck

The Ronin can confirm that director George Clooney will be reuniting with cinematographer Martin Ruhe for his Amazon drama The Tender Bar. Martin and George previously worked together on Netflix’s The Midnight Sky and the WWII satirical series Catch-22 for Hulu.

Ruhe’s other credits include Control, The American, and Harry Brown.

A recent Deadline report revealed that Ben Affleck is in negotiations to take a lead role.

The Departed screenwriter William Monahan worked on the drama’s script which is based on the J.R. Moehringer memoir and that will focus on J.R’s experiences growing up in Long Island and seeking out father figures at his uncle’s bar.

Ben Affleck’s recent projects include the erotic thriller Deep Water, Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel, and leading Robert Rodriguez’s crime thriller Hypnotic. The latter will see Affleck playing a detective that becomes entangled in a mystery involving his missing daughter and a secret government program, while investigating a string of impossible high-end heists. He also signed-up to direct Keeper of The Lost Cities for Disney and had been attached to direct the WWII film Ghost Army.