We’ve seen that anything can happen with Star Wars projects concerning the resurrection of characters and having actors reprising their roles. Collider recently spoke with The PhantomMenace actor Liam Neeson while promoting his new film The Marksman where they asked him if he’d be open to returning to the franchise potentially doing a flashback scene for Lucasfilm’s Obi-Wan Kenobi series starring Ewan McGregor as the former Jedi, now in hiding on Tatooine as he protects a young Luke Skywalker from being discovered by his father Darth Vader.
Liam sounded open to the idea of doing something for the Disney+ series.
NEESON: “Sure, I’d be up for that, yeah.”
Last month, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy revealed during the Disney Investor Day presentation that Hayden Christensen would be returning to the franchise and will play Darth Vader. How much we’ll see of Hayden is unknown at this time.
Australian actor Joel Edgerton just might be back as Uncle Owen alongside a new actor playing a young Luke.
There is an expectation as with Andor, we could be hearing more casting announcements in the very near future ahead of it’s production start in a couple of months. We’ll keep our fingers-crossed that some Legends characters that has yet to join canon or live-action could be reworked for upcoming Star Wars shows such as Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Deborah Chow, who directed action-heavy episodes of The Mandalorian in Season 1 will be helming Obi-Wan Kenobi with filming set to begin this March in the United Kingdom as announced by Kennedy and it’s release date expected to be sometime in 2022.
The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that Palm Springs screenwriter Andy Siara has been tapped to write an untitled science fiction film for Apple Studios with Andy Samberg set to star. Details on the sci-fi film are currently undisclosed in the report but is apparent based on idea from Bojack Horseman creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg.
They’re about to start their search for a director.
Interesting enough, the producing team alongside Samberg will include Noah Hawley and Ben Stiller. Noah Hawley recently wrapped-up airing Season 4 of Fargo and is currently working with Ridley Scott on an original Earthbound series set within the Alien franchise for FX on Hulu.
Palm Springs seems to be on a path for some awards consideration which likely helped spark Apple’s desire to get involved with the untitled project.
PALM SPRINGS – When carefree Nyles (Andy Samberg) and reluctant maid of honor Sarah (Cristin Milioti) have a chance encounter at a Palm Springs wedding, things get complicated when they find themselves unable to escape the venue, themselves, or each other. The film stars Andy Samberg, Cristin Milioti, J.K. Simmons, Meredith Hagner, Camila Mendes, Tyler Hoechlin, and Peter Gallagher.
A new report from outlet Yonhap News (spotted by The Playlist) is suggesting that South Korean director ImSang-Soo is about to make is English-langague debut with SoHo Sins, a thriller that takes place within the art scene in New York City, with actors Brad Pitt and Hugh Jackman being eyes for the lead roles.
They claim this information comes from Yeolmae Entertainment and it’s budget is $30 million.
Hollywood stars Hugh Jackman and Brad Pitt are being considered for lead roles in the 33 billion won (US$30 million) project, it added.
After the massive success of Best Picture winner Parasite, it feels like general western audiences are truly getting on board for more films coming from South Korean filmmakers, something that has been a trend within the film community for decades now.
The project is an adaptation of the Richard Vine novel.
They were the New York art scene’s golden couple until Amanda Oliver was found murdered, and her husband Philip confessed to shooting her. But was he a continent away when she died? Art dealer Jackson Wyeth sets out to learn the truth, and uncovers the secrets of Manhattan’s galleries and wild parties, a world of beautiful girls growing up too fast and men losing their minds. But even the worst the art world can imagine will seem tame when the final sin is revealed.
Pitt recently won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor after co-starring in Quentin Tarantino‘s Once Upon A Time In Hollywood and is currently shooting the Sony action film Bullet Train based the Japanese novel Maria Beetle by Kotaro Isaka.
Jackman recently worked on the Warner Bros. sci-fi thriller Reminiscence, the feature film directorial debut of Westworld series creator Lisa Joy. He’s also attached to lead MichaelMann‘s Enzo Ferrari.
Pre-production on SoHo Sins is said to begin sometime in July.
Another tidbit from Collider’s conversation with Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige gives us an episode count for their upcoming She-Hulk series, which will be given 10-episodes, however shorter than normal at 30-minutes.
Some can be much longer than that. But She-Hulk, for instance, is being developed as 10 30-minute episodes.
She-Hulk is directed by Kat Coiro and Anu Valia, with Jessica Gao serving as head writer.
Canadian actress Tatiana Maslany will be playing superhero defense lawyer Jennifer Walters aka She-Hulk with Mark Rufflao reprising his role as Jennifer’s cousin Bruce Banner aka Hulk and the return of Incredible Hulk actor Tim Roth as villain Emil Blonsky aka The Abomination.
We’ll likely see more actors from Incredible Hulk make a return just like Roth.
There is an assumption that William Hurt could be reprising Thunderbolt Ross in the show, the character becomes Red Hulk in the comics, something that was considered for Captain America: Civil War but was ultimately cut during development stages. Ross has also been part of the newer incarnation of the Thunderbolts team alongside Deadpool, ThePunisher, and Elektra.
In the comics, Walters needs a lifesaving blood transfusion from Banner leading to her becoming a Hulk herself. How Marvel is going to tackle her origin in the MCU remains to be seen and if they’re going to mimic the comic books that closely. Jennifer is also sort of big crossover character which has already been teased by Kevin Feige during the Disney Investor Day presentation leading many to believe fellow Marvel lawyer Matt Murdock might show up. The heroine had at one time been a member of both Fantastic Four and The Avengers, I’ll be curious if she’ll have a role to play in JonWatts‘ reboot of Marvel’s first family.
Production on She-Hulk under the working title Libra is said to begin this March in Altanta, Georgia.
A release sometime in 2022 on Disney+ is expected given the amount of visual effects work needed to render multiple Hulks in the series, we’re thinking the release could skew late summer or fall of 2022.
It looks like we finally know how long Marvel’s Moon Knight series will be.
Moon Knight, aka Marc Spector, a mercenary who has numerous alter egos — cabbie Jake Lockley and millionaire playboy Steven Grant — in order to better fight the criminal underworld. But later he was established as being a conduit for the Egyptian moon god Khonshu. Most recently, the character was a consultant who dresses in all-white and goes by the name Mr. Knight.
While speaking with Kevin Feige about various runtimes of the upcoming Disney+ shows, the Marvel Studios president mentions to Collider that Moon Knight will land six episodes but run a bit longer than something like She-Hulk, which is going to have 30-minute episodes.
He also added that the upcoming Moon Knight will fall into the six, 40-50 minute episode category.
A similar episode run and length as 2021 shows such as Loki and The Falcon & The Winter Soldier.
Star Wars and X-Men alumni Oscar Isaac had finally been confirmed for the main role of Marc Spector aka Moon Knight. The American actor had also recently attached himself to Sony’s Metal Gear Solid film based on the iconic action video game series playing Solid Snake.
The directing team consists of Egyptian filmmaker Mohamed Diab along with the indie duo of Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead.
Production on Moon Knight is said to begin this March in Budapest, Hungary under the working title Good Faith, a location that was used for their feature film Black Widow. Other filming locations had once included London and the United States.
How Marc Spector will fit into the greater Marvel Cinematic Universe is a little less known than some of the other characters given his supernatural and vigilante ways. Various characters getting their own solo series on Disney+ have a clearer path for crossovers, however, there has been speculation it could have some connection to Mahershala Ali‘s new Blade reboot but that yet to be confirmed in any substantial way.
We have been hearing that Disney+ hoped to have the series ready to begin airing sometime in the spring/summer of 2022.
While it was revealed at San Diego Comic-Con 2019, that Marvel Studios‘ X-Men reboot would be at least five years away the promise of Deadpool 3 seemingly would see mutants introduced into the Marvel Cinematic Universe beforehand.
The rights reverted directly back to Marvel after the merger between Disney and 21st Century Fox led to those Marvel Comics characters attached to both X-Men and Fantastic Four headed into the hands of Kevin Feige. You might remember one of Kevin’s first big Hollywood gig was working for X-Men producer Lauren Shuler Donner on the original films at 20th Century Fox.
It looks like X-Men internal discussions are already happening at the studio as revealed by Kevin while speaking with Screen Rant. A good sign as they’ve already announced that Spider-Man 3‘s Jon Watts will direct Fantastic Four and likely already have an idea what they’re going to do there.
FEIGE: “You know how much I love the X-Men. I already said that’s where I started. I can’t tell you anything before we actually announced it, but rest assured, the discussions have been long and ongoing internally.”
Feige also recently reaffirmed to Collider that Deadpool 3 will indeed keep it’s R-rating (echoing previous statements made by Disney’s Bob Iger and Alan Horn) and finally confirmed the sequel would be taking place within the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
While fans have been trying to convince themselves that Marvel will keep the Singerverse version of the franchise for future movies, the headache of those film’s connection to director Bryan Singer, who is during the era of #MeToo a PR nightmare, would be the worse idea imaginable for Disney. Removing that baggage completely with a fresh hard reboot is the best way to go considering those Fox movies weren’t terribly faithful to the comics and characters to begin with.
We have good example of this thanks to Marvel’s Spider-Man reboot bringing in TomHolland as their MCU version for Captain America: Civil War and other films.
It’ll be interesting who they ultimately hire to direct and write this franchise reboot for them. I’ve been extremely curious what that lineup will ultimately look like because for every era of X-Men, the mutant lineup looks completely different and there is an overwhelming characters to choose from.
Fans have all been pushing for their own ideas who should be recast in various roles for the reboot but it seems like the most important casting will be finding the right actor to fill Hugh Jackman‘s boots as Wolverine given he’s their biggest crossover character from the X-Men franchise. I wouldn’t be shocked if we saw his debut before the main X-Men film.
Director Danny Boyle is returning to television with a 6-episode limited series for FX titled Pistol according to Deadline.
The project will focus on the British punk band The Sex Pistols, told from the perspective of guitarist Steve Jones and based on his memoir. Boyle, who will direct the limited series is best known for his break-out films Trainspotting and Oscar-winner SlumdogMillionaire.
Pistol is written/created by Moulin Rogue!’s Craig Pearce and is co-written by Frank CottrellBoyce, the latter was responsible for the amazing British comedic biopic 24 Hour Party People. Let’s just say the combination of people working on the project should make any music fan excited to see what they come up with.
Australian actor Toby Wallace recently seen in Babyteeth will play Jones with Game of Thrones alumni Maisie Williams playing punk icon Pamela Rooke aka Jordan.
Here is the rest of the cast.
Anson Boon as John Lydon
Louis Partridge as Sid Vicious
Jacob Slater as Paul Cook
Fabien Frankel as Glen Matlock
Dylan Llewellyn as Wally Nightingale
Sydney Chandler as Chrissie Hynde
Emma Appleton as Nancy Spungen
Filming is said to begin on March 7th.
Danny Boyle previously worked with FX on the limited series Trust which was essentially the television version of Ridley Scott‘s All The Money In The World.
This wouldn’t be the first time the punk bank has been explored before as the Gary Oldman film Sid & Nancy attempted to cover volatile and drug addicted guitarist Sid Viscous and his girlfriend Nancy Spungen.
Ben Affleck has seemingly secured yet another directing project.
Deadline reports he’ll be adapting the novel Keeper of The Lost Cities written by Shannon Messenger for Disney as it’s director, producer, and co-writer with screenwriter Kate Gritmon.
A telepathic girl must figure out why she is the key to her brand-new world before the wrong person finds the answer first. When 12-year-old Sophie finally discovers where her secret telepathic ability comes from, she learns she’s actually not human but is from another world that exists side-by-side with ours.
Affleck has been a busy bee lately working on his erotic thriller Deep Water co-starring with now girlfriend Ana de Armas along with a small role in Ridley Scott‘s period drama The Last Duel and leading the crime thriller titled Hypnotic directed by Robert Rodriguez at Solstice Studios. There was talk of a sequel to The Accountant in the works but hasn’t fully materialized.
He is also attached to direct a WWII film titled Ghost Army for Universal Pictures with a script penned by True Detective‘s Nic Pizzolatto.
The film tells the true story of a squadron of recruits from art schools, ad agencies and other creative businesses who were tasked with fooling the Nazis into thinking the U.S. had larger troop numbers than it actually did.
It’s unclear when they expect to begin shooting the Disney film or if he’ll make Ghost Army for Universal beforehand.
It was announced by WarnerMedia, via press release circulated to trades such as Deadline, that they’ve just hired Joe Barton to become the new showrunner on their Gotham PD-centric series on HBO Max that is produced by The Batman director Matt Reeves, taking place years prior to the events of the upcoming film starring Robert Pattinson.
Barton replaces Boardwalk Empire‘s Terence Winter, who had exited over creative differences and is no stranger to gritty underbellies of crime as he was creator of the Yakuza series Giri/Haji.
Here is what Matt Reeves had to say about the DC Comics series when promoting it over the summer at DC FanDome.
REEVES: “The idea of this story was a story in which Gotham, which has this depth of corruption, and the idea that we could do a series that is going deeper into an aspect of it, which in this case is the corrupt police department, the corrupt inner workings of the city. And the way we’re gonna do this series. Terence Winter is just an incredible writer, so the idea that we got him to do this, just is literally a dream. The idea is, we go back to year one, and year one is the beginning of the first emergence, the first appearance of this masked vigilante that starts to unsettle the city, and you start to see the story through the POV of these corrupt cops, and one in particular. And the story is actually a battle for his soul.”
“He’s a cop over generations and the history of corruption in Gotham is enormous and goes back many years, and the story is like, as you realize that there’s this myth-building in the background, you’re actually in a new place where you’ve never seen these characters before – some of them we’ll touch on that you may have seen in the comics, but others are totally new. Then you can go down an avenue and go into detail that you couldn’t do in a movie, and to go into these rich places and meet entirely new characters that Terence is going to create.”
This was the original press release for the project before Winter’s exit.
HBO Max announced today that it has given a series commitment to an original DC drama set in the Gotham City police department from The Batman filmmaker Matt Reeves, Boardwalk Empire creator Terence Winter, The Batman producer Dylan Clark, and Warner Bros. Television. The groundbreaking television series to be written by Winter is set in the world Reeves is creating for The Batman feature film and will build upon the motion picture’s examination of the anatomy of corruption in Gotham City, ultimately launching a new Batman universe across multiple platforms. The series provides an unprecedented opportunity to extend the world established in the movie and further explore the myriad of compelling and complex characters of Gotham. This marks the first television project for Reeves under his recently announced overall deal with the Warner Bros. Television Group.
The Batman is reportedly still shooting in the United Kingdom despite new lockdown restrictions due to a new variant of COVID-19 that is rapidly spreading there. Warner Bros. had pushed the film’s release date from October 1st, 2021 to Mach 4th, 2022 because of previous production delays. Pattinson himself had tested positive for the virus at one point.
Reeves has previously stated this would be the first in a new trilogy with the film introducing us to Batman’s rogues gallery which will include The Riddler, Catwoman, Carmine Falcone, and The Penguin.
This version of Batman according to DC Films takes place within Earth 2 and the show takes place during Bruce Wayne’s first year operating as the Caped Crusader.
From Warner Bros. Pictures comes “The Batman,” with director Matt Reeves (the “Planet of the Apes” films) at the helm and with Robert Pattinson (“Tenet,” “The Lighthouse,” “Good Time”) starring as Gotham City’s vigilante detective, Batman, and billionaire Bruce Wayne.
Also in the star-studded ensemble as Gotham’s famous and infamous cast of characters are Zoë Kravitz (“Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald,” “Mad Max: Fury Road”) as Selina Kyle; Paul Dano (“Love & Mercy,” “12 Years a Slave”) as Edward Nashton; Jeffrey Wright (the “Hunger Games” films) as the GCPD’s James Gordon; John Turturro (the “Transformers” films) as Carmine Falcone; Peter Sarsgaard (“The Magnificent Seven,” “Black Mass”) as Gotham D.A. Gil Colson; Barry Keoghan (“Dunkirk”) as Officer Stanley Merkel; Jayme Lawson (“Farewell Amor”) as mayoral candidate Bella Reál; with Andy Serkis (the “Planet of the Apes” films, “Black Panther”) as Alfred; and Colin Farrell (“Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” “Dumbo”) as Oswald Cobblepot.
Deadline is reporting that Darren Aronofsky has picked his next feature film which will be a drama titled The Whale starring Brendan Fraser as an obese gay man named Charlie. The project has been picked-up by A24 and playwright Samuel D. Hunter will be adapting his own play for the big screen.
Variety also provides a bit more insight into the project than the original report with a synopsis.
It’s the story of a 600-pound middle-aged man named Charlie and his attempts to reconnect with his 17-year-old daughter. The two became estranged after Charlie abandoned his family for his gay lover, who later died. Charlie then turned to compulsive eating out of grief.
Aronofsky is best known for his dramas such as Requiem For A Dream, The Wrestler, and Black Swan, films that often highlight deeply flawed characters in unsettling environments.
Fraser best known for starring in studio comedies and action films for the better part of two decades fell off the map but recently had got some success with the television series Doom Patrol.
THE RONIN 