Author: Christopher Marc

Posted on in Television News

‘Moon Knight’: Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead To Direct Multiple Episodes

The Hollywood Reporter has learned that Marvel Studios has hired indie directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead for their upcoming superhero series Moon Knight that will air exclusively on Disney+ and will begin shooting in March. The duo are said to be working on multiple episodes with Egyptian filmmaker Mohamed Diab still directing the bulk of them.

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. 

Having multiple directors isn’t a new thing for the Marvel shows as it’s the same case for Ms. Marvel and She-Hulk.

Using the working title Good Faith, the Marvel show will be filming in Budapest, London, and possibly in the United States. Morocco had been recently used as a location for Black Widow and would make sense to double as Egypt, but the pandemic could make international filming a little trickier.

Star Wars actor Oscar Isaac had been in talks for the lead role of Marc Spector and the show’s cinematographer Gregory Middleton seemingly confirmed the actor on his Instagram account this week. There hadn’t been official confirmation as during Kevin Feige’s Marvel Studios presentation at the Disney Investor Day event in December, Oscar wasn’t mentioned in connection to Moon Knight puzzling many of us expecting a casting confirmation from Marvel.

We’ve been hearing that Disney+ is hoping that production could be completed in a timely manner allowing Moon Knight to be ready to begin airing in the spring/summer of 2022.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Posted on in Film News

Deal Nearing For ‘Godzilla vs Kong’ With Legendary Poised To Distribute In China – ‘Dune’ May Keep Theatrical Window

A new report from The Hollywood Reporter suggests that WarnerMedia and Warner Bros. Pictures may avoid an incoming lawsuit from production partner Legendary Entertainment as they’re nearing a new distribution deal for Godzilla vs Kong and possibly Dune as well.

Last year, it was announced by WarnerMedia they would be throwing the 17 feature films from their 2021 slate on HBO Max with a day-and-deal model, allowing HBO Max subscribers to view new releases exclusively on the streaming service for a month. This led to backlash as none of the filmmakers, talent or production partners like Legendary were informed about the decision in a timely manner ahead of the public announcement.

Godzilla vs Kong will keep it’s theatrical release on May 21 with Legendary handling the distribution in China, the company has Chinese ownership and makes sense they’d want to tackle the local roll-out. It also seems to be heading to HBO Max.

Legendary is still negotiating with talent on Godzilla but that is not expected to derail a deal. The movie will keep its May 21 release date in theaters, including IMAX, as well as HBO Max. Legendary will release the film in China.

Legendary along with Dune director Denis Villeneuve had voiced their opposition as the studio has reportedly sided with Denis as they rallied against WarnerMedia’s announcement. It’s pointed out the film could end up landing a theatrical window and another hiccup has been revealed as WarnerMedia may have used Dune “images” to promote HBO Max without permission from Legendary.

According to a source, conversations regarding various theatrical windowing approaches are ongoing and it remains unclear which option will be acceptable to Villeneuve. Another potential issue: It appears Warners may have been using Dune images to promote its streaming service without approval.

They also hypothesize that other filmmakers like Matrix 4 director Lana Wachowski could also demand theatrical window, like Villeneuve, that could help dissolve the day-and-date model for bigger films.

If Warners gives Dune an exclusive release, that could set a precedent allowing others, such as Matrix 4 filmmaker Lana Wachowski, to demand similar treatment. As talks continue, it is unclear whether Warner Media will be able to hold the line on its day-and-date strategy to bolster its streaming service. Wachowski is said to be adamant about an exclusive theatrical run.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Posted on in Film News

Damien Chazelle’s R-Rated 1920s Hollywood Drama ‘Babylon’ Bumped To Christmas 2022 By Paramount

Deadline has revealed that Paramount Pictures is bumping the release date of Damien Chazelle‘s latest movie titled Babylon an entire year to December 25, 2022 . The film will be a period drama set in Hollywood’s transition to talkies in the 1920s with Brad Pitt attached to star and Margot Robbie reportedly in talks for a role after Emma Stone exited.

The film is a period, R-rated drama, set in the shifting moment in Hollywood when the industry turned from silent film to talkies. 

This new release date would place Babylon in direct competition with upcoming blockbusters Avatar 2 and Aquaman 2 as both will drop earlier in the month.

The pair of actors starred in Quentin Tarantino‘s Once Upon A Time In Hollywood leading to Pitt’s Oscar win for Best Supporting Actor, however, they never shared the screen together. It’ll also be interesting to see if the project will skew more in the realm of something similar to David Fincher‘s latest project Mank, a dramatic biopic about the Citizen Kane screenwriter that takes place well after that talkies have dominated the film industry.

Brad Pitt is currently shooting the Sony Pictures assassin action flick Bullet Train in Los Angeles for director David Leitch (Deadpool 2, John Wick, Atomic Blonde).

Margot Robbie‘s next theatrical release will be The Suicide Squad on August 6th and is said to have a role in David O. Russell‘s next project.

It’s certainly notable that movies focused on Hollywood and the film industry tend to do extremely well during awards season nominations suggesting that Babylon could be gearing-up to become a contender even before cameras roll.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

‘No Time To Die’ Expected To Get Another Release Delay

We’ve been waiting almost a full year to finally get to watch the final Daniel Craig outing as James Bond, however, No Time To Die has moved it’s official release date twice already and it looks like there might be another release hiccup on the way. According to a small tidbit from Daily Mail reporter Baz Bamigboye (very reliable for Bond news) another delay for the action blockbuster is expected.

The actress plays an MI6 agent with a licence to kill in No Time To Die. But the 007 movie keeps being postponed. A release date was set for April 2. Expect it to shift again.

We’ll have to wait for official word from EON/MGM concerning No Time To Die‘s release delay.

This wouldn’t be terribly shocking as the pandemic is getting increasingly worse in both the United States and the United Kingdom, both top box office markets for the Bond franchise. There is also the less than speedy distribution and administration of the COVID-19 vaccines in North America. Delaying a couple of months into the summer or even November at this point seems like a foregone conclusion for it’s distributor to avoid a weak box office performance in April.

We have yet to hear about the fate of other movies in the spring but there could be a move from studios to either push releases to later in the year, further offload to streaming services or quickly put together PVOD options for consumers. It seems tougher to find homes for these massive blockbusters given their budgets and projected profits.

Wonder Woman 1984 recently had an extremely tough time earning money at the domestic box office over the holiday season proving that releasing big films theatrically during the pandemic won’t magically create box office dollars even with large studio IP and franchises. It’s also worth mentioning that WarnerMedia’s streaming service HBO Max was a direct competitor with U.S. theaters via their day-and-date release model likely kneecapping those domestic numbers alongside online piracy, a symptom of early digital access.

How major studios and distributors will react to the pandemic in 2021 isn’t fully known at this point as we’re only in January. There are signs that WarnerMedia might pivot from dumping their entire 17 film lineup on HBO Max after backlash and potential lawsuits from Legendary, films like Dune may avoid the day-and-date model. If this extends to other big projects remains to be seen.

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: DAILY MAIL

Posted on in Film News

‘Army of The Dead’: Zack Snyder Says Warner Bros. Passed On The Zombie Project – Prequel Movie Wraps Production

Zack Snyder‘s horror remake Dawn of The Dead (penned by James Gunn) is arguably one of the filmmaker’s most accessible feature films to date. So, having the the director return to the zombie/action-horror genre with Army of The Dead for Netflix is exciting for a multitude of reasons.

Following a zombie outbreak in Las Vegas, a group of mercenaries take the ultimate gamble, venturing into the quarantine zone to pull off the greatest heist ever attempted.

In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, Zack reveals that the film had been lingering at Warner Bros. for years but the studio ultimately didn’t want to make it because of the money involved for the budget that would have taken to get it made the way that Snyder wanted.

SNYDER: “They didn’t want to spend that kind of money on a zombie movie, or just didn’t take it that seriously. I was always like, ‘Look guys, this is more than [just a zombie movie],’ but it fizzled out.”

Ultimately, the streaming giant Netflix picked-up Army of The Dead after they loved the pitch detailed by Snyder. They’ve been so enthused about the project, Netflix also recently wrapped on a prequel film last month directed by franchise actor Matthias Schweighofer.

SNYDER: “We were in a meeting at Netflix and I was talking about some of these scripts I was working on. And I mentioned the idea to [Netflix head of original films Scott Stuber] and he was like, ‘That is the movie! Go write that movie and let’s make it.’ I was like, ‘What, do you mean now?’ And he’s like, ‘Go write it tomorrow and we’ll do shoot it in a week.'”

Netflix obviously has few roadblocks concerning budgets for their projects as they notably spend a hefty amount of money on original programming, however, The Gray Man from The Russo Brothers will be their first film budgeted over $200 million competing on the level of major film studios.

Army of The Dead’s large cast consists of Dave Bautista, Ella Purnell, Ana De La Reguera, Theo Rossi, Huma Qureshi, Omari Hardwick, Hiroyuki Sanada, Garret Dillahunt, Matthias Schweighöfer, Raúl Castillo, Nora Arnezeder, Tig Notaro, and Samantha Win. 

It’s expected to drop later this year and Netflix is banking on it becoming their new horror franchise. A trailer is likely on the horizon given the new promotion for the film.

SOURCE: ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

Posted on in Television News

‘Moon Knight’ Cinematographer May Have Confirmed Oscar Isaac Has Landed Marc Spector Role

It looks like we finally have some confirmation concerning Moon Knight casting.

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. 

Gregory Middleton (Watchmen, Game of Thrones), the Marvel show’s cinematographer has seemingly confirmed on Instagram previous reports that Oscar Isaac has landed the role of Marc Spector aka Moon Knight.

The Star Wars actor had been in talks according to trade reporting but absent from Marvel Studios’ big Disney Investor Day presentation in December, while She-Hulk‘s Tatiana Maslany was officially announced by Kevin Feige.

Egyptian director Mohamed Diab had been recently announced for the series.

Production is confirmed for Budapest, Hungary where Middleston was located when he made the Instagram post. Budapest is a popular production locale which has been used for Marvel’s Black Widow, Showtime’s Halo series, Blade Runner 2049, Legendary’s Dune remake, The Martian, Red Sparrow, Terminator: Dark Fate, Bloodshot, Gemini Man, Midsommar, and the first season of Netflix’s The Witcher.

Filming under the working title Good Faith was said to begin in March with other filming locations expected to take place in London and the United States.

Morbius production designer Stefania Cella had confirmed her involvement on her website.

We are also hearing that Disney+ is hoping to have episodes of Moon Knight begin airing sometime in the spring of 2022, this will be all dependent if production goes smoothly in 2021 as the pandemic still marches on.

Casting announcements for other roles are coming soon.

SOURCE: GREGORY MIDDLETON

Posted on in Television News

‘Loki’ Writer Michael Waldron Returning For Season 2 Thanks To Overall Deal With Disney

Another tidbit mentioned in a report from Deadline revealing that screenwriter Michael Waldron is expected to return in some capacity for Season 2 of Loki after making a deal with Disney that includes working on Kevin Feige‘s untitled Star Wars movie for Lucasfilm.

We’ve known even before the Disney+ series set in the Multiverse began shooting that there were plans at Marvel to give the Tom Hiddleston series multiple seasons. It’s unclear if Kate Herron will return to direct Season 2 as they’re just about to complete filming Season 1 but there is a really good shot that her return will be announced in the near future.

Set photos have confirmed that we will be seeing Multiverse versions of Loki such as Lady Loki and it remains to be seen if Hiddleston’s Loki will be showing up in upcoming films that has the Multiverse connected to plots such as Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness or Thor: Love & Thunder.

There are plenty of other shows on the horizon for Marvel Studios and when they’ll want to begin shooting on a second season has yet to be confirmed.

Ms. Marvel and Hawkeye are currently in production with She-Hulk and Moon Knight said to begin filming in March. Other MCU shows that are in the works includes Armor Wars, Ironheart, and the crossover Skrull event Secret Invasion.

The first season will begin airing on the streaming service in May.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

Kevin Feige’s ‘Star Wars’ Movie Reportedly Adds ‘Loki’ & ‘Doctor Strange 2’ Screenwriter Michael Waldron

Another big update concerning the Star Wars franchise as Deadline reports that the Kevin Feige-produced project has hired screenwriter Michael Waldron (Rick & Morty) to pen a script. Waldron recently working with Feige at Marvel Studios on both Loki and Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness

Feige is the head of Marvel Studios and Marvel’s chief creative officer, which would make this his first non-MCU project as producer since leading the studio. Lucasfilm hasn’t revealed any details about the new film or even what era within the timeline it will take place.

I’m sure people are curious if this means that Kevin will attempt to produce more films within the Star Wars Universe alongside the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

It had been previously announced that the next feature film will be Patty Jenkins’ Star Wars: Rogue Squadron coming out on December 22nd, 2023. Taika Waititi is also developing another film which could go into production once he finishes Thor: Love & Thunder for Marvel and Rian Johnson had been announced to be working on an original trilogy for the studio.

There is a wave of Disney+ shows on the way with Andor, Obi-Wan Kenobi, The Book of Boba Fett, Season 3 of The Mandalorian, Rangers of The New Republic, Ahsoka, Lando, and The High Republic era series The Acolyte.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

‘Eternals’: Director Chloe Zhao Confirms She Was A Writer On The New Marvel Movie

We’ve been dying to see some footage from Chloe Zhao‘s upcoming Marvel Studios film Eternals as a trailer has yet to be released by the marketing department at Disney. The project is based on the obscure cosmic superhero team creating Jack “King” Kirby that had a limited run but led to characters like Sersi joining the ranks of The Avengers.

It sounds like Chloe had an extensive hand in the creative side of Eternals when it comes the script as she revealed during an interview with Margret Gardiner (spotted by The Playlist) that she is one of the writers on the film and briefly talked about that experience.

ZHAO: “I am the writer on Eternals, the credits just aren’t updated yet. I don’t know what it would be like if I didn’t write the film, if I wasn’t at least a huge part of the writing process. So yeah I haven’t experienced that in my career, I’m scared of that if that happens one day.”

“In the writing process, that’s sort of where I bring my sensibility in, that’s a huge part of it. And creating situations that will allow certain kinds of cinematic language to come in, that is something that I’ve learned from my last three films. I think what Marvel has been so incredible at – Kevin [Feige] and Nate [Moore] and the whole team – they knew from the moment I pitched the film, I really wanted the scope and scale at the same time as the intimacy. They knew I wanted both. They have been so incredible holding my hand through the entire process of allowing me to go as far as possible and as small as possible, and how that fits into the whole MCU. It’s been a pretty incredible process. You’ll have to wait and see.”

You can watch that full interview below which was to promote her upcoming film Nomandland which is already getting Oscar buzz.

Zhao wouldn’t be the only Marvel director to have added their own flare to the script of the project they’re working on as James Gunn and Taika Waititi had a similar process on their first films. The other two credited screenwriters are Kaz Firpo and Ryan Firpo.

It’s cast includes Gemma Chan as Sersi, Kit Harington as Dane Whitman aka Black Knight, Barry Keoghan as Druig, Richard Madden as Ikaris, Angelina Jolie as Thena, Lauren Ridloff as Makkari, Brian Tyree Henry as Phastos, Kumail Nanjani as Kingo, Salma Hayek as Ajak, Lia McHugh as Sprite, and Don Lee as Gilgamesh.  

The reshoots for Eternals have seemingly already taken place late last year which should allow them plenty of time to focus on tweaking the visual effects before the potential release on November 5th.

SOURCE: MARGARET GARDINER

Posted on in Film News

‘The Flash’: Ray Fisher’s Cyborg Cameo Reportedly Written Out – Role Won’t Be Recast

It’s starting to look like Ray Fisher and his character Cyborg won’t be appearing in The Flash after all.

The Wrap is supporting a tweet from Forbes writer Mark Hughes that Cyborg’s cameo in the film has been removed and they will not be recasting the part. This news would debunk unreliable online rumors that the studio and director was recasting the Cyborg role specifically for The Flash.

Justice League actor Ray Fisher, who was offered a cameo role last June to appear as Cyborg in The Flash solo movie, has been written out of the screenplay and will not be recast, according to insiders with knowledge of the situation.

However, we aren’t terribly shocked by this news as the Justice League actor seemed to telegraph this update on his character. Ray Fisher made the following statement on Twitter last month signaling he wouldn’t be working with DC Films or Walter Hamada in the future, possibly getting ahead of the reports of his cameo being nixed by the studio. Essentially announcing his exit from the franchise.

DC Films had previously announced a solo Cyborg movie that never materialized as neither a screenwriter or director were ever announced as developing it. The character is also being used in the live-action realm with the series Doom Patrol, played by Jovian Wade.

Andy Muschietti (IT, Mama) is directing from a script penned by Christina Hodson (Batgirl, Birds of Prey) with a cast said to include Ezra Miller, Ben Affleck, and Michael Keaton using a different version of The Flashpoint storyline that will usher-in DC Comics’ own Multiverse.

Filming on The Flash is expected to begin this April at Warner Bros. Leavesden Studios in Watford, England. The facility is currently being used for Fantastic Beasts 3 as it’s been the homestead production stages for the Harry Potter franchise and was used for previous DC Comics movies such as The Batman, Justice League, and Wonder Woman.

It’s release date has been set for November 4th, 2022.

SOURCE: THE WRAP