After some recent hints from Halo lead actor Pablo Schreiber that filming was about to resume on the sci-fi series, Showtime and Pablo have confirmed this on Twitter/Instagram that production has started back up in Budapest, Hungary.
Pablo plays John 117 aka Master Chief in the sci-fi action military series based on the beloved Microsoft/Xbox video game franchise which will have 10-episodes on Showtime. Filming originally started in Budapest last November before COVID-19 restrictions became a hiccup in 2020 across the globe concerning the halt of film and television productions.
It was revealed by Rogue director M.J. Bassett, that he will not be returning to the series due to a scheduling conflict with his next film.
I’ve recently learned that Showtime has already started the lengthy post-production process on the series which is a good sign that they’ll be able to cross the finish line in the not too distant future.
Filming on the new Lord of The Rings series resumed at the end of September in Auckland, New Zealand with a cast that consists of Robert Aramayo, Markella Kavenagh, Morfydd Clark, Ema Horvath, Ismael Cruz Cordova, Maxim Baldry, Nazanin Boniadi, and Joseph Mawle.
The new series writers will have to fill in many blanks and may be allowed to use certain characters that were around in during The Second Age but unlike the original novels and The Simarillion (they don’t have access to The First Age material) showrunners will have to piece together a Middle-Earth series based on small tidbits and scraps instead of full novels as blueprints.
One key thing we do know is that Numenor will be featured, an advanced island kingdom in the West that is the Middle-Earth version of Atlantis that is eventually corrupted by Mairon aka Sauron (in his more beautiful form) leading to it’s doom because of their jealously of the immortality of the Elves. Sauron at this point is the former second in-command of the original Dark Lord, Melkor aka Morgoth, who was banished to the void before the start of The Second Age.
After stoking distrust of the Elves, Sauron eventually convinces Numenor to invade the Undying Lands leading to their fleet of ships to be destroyed along with the kingdom of Numenor returning to the water, an obvious nod to the Atlantis myth.
Other notable events in The Second Age include the creation of the Rings of Power by Sauron and Celebrimbor. An elf Prince of The Noldor, Celebrimbor was the ruler Eregion and was killed by Sauron after hiding the lesser rings. We’ve seen a version of this character covered in The Shadow of Mordor and The Shadow of War video games that had Celebrimbor as a playable character in the form of a wraith looking for revenge against Sauron.
I’d personally love to see Celebrimbor explored in the series.
Towards the end we see the fall of Sauron at The War of The Last Alliance at the hands of Isildur that was shown in the opening sequence in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of The Rings. I think it’ll be interesting to see if they would be willing to show Sauron’s perspective during his rise to power as he’s been mostly an ominous figure in previous live-action adaptations.
Some of those tidbits from The Second Age that could also show up in the new series could possibly see two wizards that really have only been briefly mentioned in passing show up. The Blue Wizards, Alatar aka Morinehtar (Darkness Slayer) and Pallando aka Rómestámo (East Helper), were according to Tolkien important unseen players in both The Second and The Third Ages as they helped to stir up rebellions against Sauron in the dark East.
The pair could be excellent replacements for Gandalf, who won’t be part of the show.
There are convincing fan theories that the duo after falling to evil of Sauron at some time in the Third Age could have been the evil force in J.R.R. Tolkien’s sequel to The Lord of The Rings titled The New Shadow (13 pages) taking place in a never fully realized Fourth Age where the world of man has forgotten Sauron. This isn’t hard to imagine given that Sauron was also Maia (like the five wizards) before becoming a minion of Margoth and taking his place as the second Dark Lord. Fellow wizard Saruman was eventually turned by Sauron and attempted his own power grab becoming a main villain for a good chunk of the Lord of The Rings trilogy.
The Fourth Age could be worth exploring at Amazon once they’ve finished-up with The Second Age as it would allow them return to Middle-Earth and explore something never fully developed by J.R.R. Tolkien given that they don’t have access to The First Age. Although, I’m not sure if that will actually happen and the Tolkien Estate could have a change of heart.
Men of The White Mountains could play a role in the latter part of the series as they were worshipers of Sauron that promised to aid Isildur in The War of The Last Alliance. They were cursed by Isildur after breaking their oath leading to them becoming the Army of The Dead aka Oathbreakers that were only released after helping Aragorn during The War of The Ring.
I’ve been hearing that Amazon will be deviating from the Peter Jackson films visually and we could be seeing different takes of characters/creatures we’ve previously seen in the six films. I’ll be very curious to see those changes and if fans will be all-in given for their love for what Peter Jackson accomplished.
We already know from Hugo Weaving that he’s not interested in reprising the Elrond role anytime soon, which would further suggest that we might not see any actors from the films who played elves return to their roles in the Amazon series despite those characters being around in The Second Age. Adding to the talk that the series won’t be as connected to the Peter Jackson films as originally thought and becoming it’s own take on Middle-Earth.
While we didn’t any new details about Jordan Peele’s third directorial effort for Universal Pictures, the studio announced via Deadline that the untitled film’s release date has been set for July 22nd, 2022 a week after Fantastic Beasts 3 and in the third week of release of Captain Marvel 2. This would suggest Peele’s project will have some stiff competition opening weekend.
Details on Jordan’s next feature film haven’t been made public but his last two films Get Out and Us skewed into the societal horror sub-genre. Peele won a Best Original Screenplay Oscar for his work on Get Out.
I’ll keep my hopes up for him to tackle something more in the realm of science fiction.
As a producer he’s a busy bee as Jordan is behind HBO’s Lovecraft Country, Amazon’s Hunters, The Twilight Zone reboot, the upcoming soft-reboot of horror flick Candyman directed by Captain Marvel 2’s Nia DaCosta, and is reportedly developing a remake of The People Under The Stairs.
While I was slightly let down with Us, I’m beyond excited to see what he’s planning on doing next.
Today, Warner Bros. announced that their Potterverse film Fantastic Beasts 3 would be getting a new summer release date of July 15th, 2022. The sequel will be competing directly with Marvel Studios’ Captain Marvel 2 in it’s second weekend of release.
It remains to be seen if Captain Marvel 2 keeps it’s July 8th, 2022 spot or if Warner Bros. moves Fantastic Beasts 3 again. The film’s previous release date was November 12th, 2021.
This comes after filming has already begun in England despite the announcement that Johnny Depp has officially exited the franchise as the main villain. The actor released a statement on his Instagram account last week that he was being forced to give up the role upon request of the studio.
There is an expectation that Warner Bros. will recast the Grindelwald role but has yet to make any formal announcements on Depp’s replacement.
Deadline reports that filmmaker Jeff Nichols (Mud, Midnight Special) has been hired by Paramount Pictures to write and direct a third film in the A Quiet Place franchise, which had it’s first two installments directed by John Krasinski.
They aren’t saying if the project is a direct sequel featuring the Abbott family or simply set in the world of the other two films.
Jeff had been developing a remake of Alien Nation for 20th Century Fox before the merger with Disney. The original was a sci-fi take on the Lethal Weapon and Beverly Hills Cop model of the buddy cop genre.
A Quiet Place II was delayed by Paramount Pictures to April 23rd, 2021 due to COVID-19.
A QUIET PLACE II – The Abbott family must now face the terrors of the outside world as they fight for survival in silence. Forced to venture into the unknown, they realize that the creatures that hunt by sound are not the only threats that lurk beyond the sand path.
The Ronin has been able to independently confirm that Skydance and Amazon’s upcoming Jack Reacher series reboot starring Alan Ritchson will be shooting in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Filming is on the streaming series is expected to take place next year from April 15th to July 30th.
Alan Ritchson isn’t a stranger to shooting projects in Canada as he shot DC Universe’s Titans in Toronto as well.
The first season is reportedly taking cues from the novel The Killing Floor written by Lee Child and takes place in Georgia.
Jack Reacher comes to the little town of Margrave looking for information about the mysterious death of a guitar player named Blind Blake. Instead, he finds one of the largest counterfeiting operations in history.
Tom Cruise previously played the titular role in the Paramount feature films Jack Reacher and Jack Reacher: Never Go Back. A casting choice that author Lee Child was never happy with given the character is a tall and hulking figure in the books.
Skydance Media is also behind Amazon’s Jack Ryan series starring John Krasinski.
Since that Jack Reacher isn’t likely going to wrap until the summer (barring production delays) I wouldn’t assume that it would be ready to be released before the fall of 2021 or early 2022.
While promoting his upcoming action film Rogue, director M.J. Bassett was asked by The Hollywood Reporter about finishing up his work on Showtime’s Halo series. Bassett revealing that a commitment to another movie has become a conflict with a return to the show as filming will be resuming soon.
BASSETT: “I got wrapped about a few days before I was due to start shooting, and I can’t go back to it because I have another project I was penciled in for. It’s my next movie, in fact. I managed to keep the date for the movie, but Halo is also going to get up and running on that date. So I had a conflict and had to step away, which is a terrible shame because Halo is going to be a really fun show. I was really looking forward to it. We built the sets, planned everything and had scripts that were working. It’s going to be an enormous, enormous show. Pablo Schreiber is going to be a great Master Chief. The whole cast was good, but unfortunately, I can’t go back to it.”
A new Instagram post today from Master Chief actor Pablo Schreiber would suggest that they’re still shooting as production was taking place in Budapest. I recently got intel that Showtime has already started the lengthy post-production process on the sci-fi project.
The Ronin has been able to confirm that The Mighty Ducks franchise actor Emilio Estevez will be taking the role of director on the upcoming Disney+ series currently filming in Vancouver. The actor is reprising the role of Gordon Bombay as well.
Estevez might be best known for directing the comedy Men At Work that co-starred his brother Charlie Sheen but has tackled TV with CSI: NY and Cold Case.
Disney+ is looking to bring multiple nostalgia projects from 80-90s to the streaming platform including a soft-reboot film of Honey, I Shrunk The Kids titled Shrunk with director Joe Johnston (Jurassic Park 3, Captain America: The First Avenger) returning and Turner & Hooch reboot series.
This new incarnation of The Mighty Ducks will star Lauren Graham (Bad Santa, Gilmore Girls) and Brady Noon (Good Boys).
The series is set in present-day Minnesota, where the Mighty Ducks have evolved from scrappy underdogs to an ultra-competitive, powerhouse youth hockey team. After 12-year-old Evan (Noon) is unceremoniously cut from the Ducks, he and his mom, Alex (Graham), set out to build their own ragtag team of misfits to challenge the cutthroat, win-at-all-costs culture of competitive youth sports.
The Mighty Ducks is expected to drop on Disney+ sometime in 2021.
The Ronin has been able to independently confirm that James Gunn’s upcoming 8-episode Peacemaker series for HBO Max will shoot in Vancouver under the working title The Scriptures. Filming will take place from January 18th until June 15th.
James Gunn recently mentioned on Twitter that filming would be taking place in Canada.
The HBO Max series is a direct spinoff of his DC Comics film The Suicide Squad starring John Cena as Christopher Smith aka Peacemaker and Steve Agee returning as Warden John Economos.
Oh f*ck, it’s Peacemaker! HBO Max is set to explore the origins of the Peacemaker character, the master of weapons from the highly anticipated upcoming The Suicide Squad film, in the new Max Original action-adventure-comedy series Peacemaker. HBO Max has given a straight-to-series order of eight episodes for the first season of the show. John Cena will reprise his role from The Suicide Squad movie to star in the series, and the film’s acclaimed writer/director James Gunn will write all eight episodes of Peacemaker and will direct multiple episodes, including the first. Gunn and The Suicide Squad producer Peter Safran will serve as executive producers of the series, with Cena as co-executive producer. Based on characters from DC, Peacemaker will be produced by Gunn’s Troll Court Entertainment and The Safran Company in association with Warner Bros. Television. Peacemaker is scheduled to begin production in early 2021, prior to Gunn beginning work on the next Guardians of the Galaxy film.
Gunn is expected to begin prepping Guardians of The Galaxy 3 once he finishes up on Peacemaker and could begin shooting once the promotional tour for the August 6th, 2021 release of The Suicide Squad ends.
James reassured fans on Twitter that Peacemaker won’t be delaying Guardians of The Galaxy 3.
GUNN: “I’m doing Peacemaker in the time always allotted between The Suicide and Guardians of Galaxy Volume 3. Normally I would have been taking more of a break in this space but it’s Covid, I’m stuck at home, so I wrote a TV series.”
We should be getting more casting announcements very very soon.
Today, director and co-writer Colin Trevorrow has announced via Twitter that they’ve finally wrapped filming on Jurassic World: Dominion. The film’s impressive cast includes Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Daniella Pineda, Justice Smith, DeWanda Wise, Mamoudou Athie, Dichen Lachman, Scott Haze, Isabella Sermon, Jake Johnson, Omar Sy, and Campbell Scott.
TREVORROW: “Wrap on Jurassic World Dominion. All my gratitude to our extraordinary crew and cast. We made a family.”
Wrap on Jurassic World Dominion. All my gratitude to our extraordinary crew and cast. We made a family. pic.twitter.com/svD3yURmHw
Production took place at Pinewood Studios UK, Vancouver, and Malta.
Deadline adding some significant information on the shoot’s COVID-19 protocols.
Jurassic World: Dominion began pre-production more than 18 months ago when the world was a very different place. The $165M Universal blockbuster wrapped this morning at the UK’s Pinewood Studios after an unprecedented shoot, which required 40,000 COVID tests, millions of dollars spent on protocols, and for cast and key crew to isolate in a bubble for months.
Universal commissioned a private medical facility called Your Doctor to manage the entire production’s medical requirements. Testing was the backbone of the safety measures. Deadline can reveal that more than 40,000 COVID-19 tests were conducted, with .25% returning positive. That’s around 100 positive results. Some of these were false positives and some were returned prior to employment at Pinewood.
Universal Pictures recently announced a new release date of June 10th, 2022 a day before filming had to be paused due to COVID-19.
(2/2) entire cast & crew is paramount at all times, those who initially tested positive are currently self-isolating, as are those who they have come into contact with. As a result filming has been temporarily paused & will resume in accordance with established safety guidelines.
THE RONIN 