Author: Christopher Marc

Posted on in Film News

Xochitl Gomez Reportedly Joins ‘Doctor Strange’ Sequel – Is She Playing America Chavez?

Deadline has revealed that young actress Xochitl Gomez has landed an undisclosed role in Marvel’s Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness. The newcomer is likely best known for her role in the Netflix series revival of The Baby-Sitters Club.

Considering there has been rumblings of America Chavez aka Miss America being a supporting lead role (via casting grids/audition tapes) in the film having Gomez be the first new cast member announced for the sequel, this would suggest that Xochitl has landed the role of Miss America.

Chavez like Hawkeye’s Kate Bishop and Ms. Marvel’s Kamala Khan is a member of the Young Avengers.

Xochitl will join previously confirmed cast members Benedict Cumberbatch, Elizabeth Winstead, Benefict Wong, and Chiwetel Ejiofor.

Spider-Man trilogy director Sam Raimi had replaced Scott Derrickson on the film.

The Ronin had confirmed that Logan and X-Men: First Class cinematographer John Mathiesonhas joined Raimi’s production team. Filming is also set to take place under the working title Stellar Vortex at Longcross Studios in Surrey, England.

There is an assumption that both Disney+ shows WandaVision and Loki could plant seeds for the events/characters in Doctor Strange 2. Not to mention that Doctor Strange’s Benedict Cumberbatch is reportedly showing up in Jon Watts’ Spider-Man 3 alongside Tom Holland which is currently slated to be released a few months before Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness.

Former director Scott Derrickson had previously mentioned on social media that both Doctor Strange supporting characters Brother Voodoo and Clea could show up in the film as well. This has yet to be confirmed officially with casting announcements.

Marvel has given the film a release date of March 25th, 2022.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Television News

Jon Favreau Hopeful Season 3 of ‘The Mandalorian’ Will Begin Filming Before The End of 2020 and Is Open To Making A Movie

In a new interview with Variety, showrunner Jon Favreau states that Season 3 of The Mandalorian is seemingly on schedule to begin filming before the end of the year as soon as Pedro Pascal finishes up a film he’s working on in Europe.

Executive producer and showrunner Jon Favreau told Variety that The Mandalorian is “on schedule” to start production on Season 3 of the series “before the end of the year” — after Pascal wraps shooting in Europe on the feature film The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent with Nicolas Cage.

The Ronin previously confirmed that production designer Andrew Jones is already set to return for Season 3.

Jon talked up about focusing on characters and flushing them out being a high priority along with not rushing things.

FAVREAU: “I love the world of Star Wars because, on the one hand, there’s a familiarity with this sub-genre, but there’s also a tremendous amount of flexibility of which way you can go and genres you could explore within that sub-genre. As we’re meeting new characters, and as we’re starting to hit our stride, from a production standpoint with how this technology can be used, we are beginning to explore where we could go.”

“And we could start to expand what we’re doing and our ambitions about what characters we want to follow.”

“I learned a lot from my experience over at Marvel, where it was very organic, how it would evolve. You’re paying attention to a larger story arcs and characters that could come together, but also smaller stories of individual characters that could go off [on their own thing]. The key here is keep maintaining the quality and never scaling to the point that we’re losing sight of what’s important to us and what people like about the show.”

When asked if they were keen on the idea of making a feature film Jon says they’re in “no rush” but is open to the idea.

FAVREAU: “The line is blurring now. Things that you would have only seen in the movie theater, you’re seeing on streaming, and I think it could go the other way as well.”

“But we’re definitely open to it and excited to see where the story leads us and have that flexibility — because there’s no rulebook now.”

Actor Pedro Pascal, who will be returning to shoot Season 3 despite rumors he’ll be replaced, is also game to do a movie.

PASCAL: “I think that the work is so beautiful that I would love for that to be held by a big screen experience. But it seems to work so well that also I’m not sure it’s something that I would want corrupted by any kind of change, you know? I mean, I certainly know that the challenge can be met. It’s not like these people don’t have the experience. If anybody can do it, they can!”

Giancarlo Esposito recently suggested The Mandalorian would be getting a fourth season before that has been officially announced which could suggest they plan on going pretty far with their Mandalorian run on Disney+. There have also been plenty of unconfirmed rumors about this season leading to multiple spinoff series but that has yet to be supported by industry trades or announced by Disney/Lucasfilm.

Season 2 of The Mandalorian begins airing on Disney+ starting on October 30th.

SOURCE: VARIETY

Posted on in Film News

Watch The First Trailer For ‘Monster Hunter’ Trailer – Milla Jovovich Returns To Secure Her Crown As The Queen of Video Game Adaptations

MONSTER HUNTER – Behind our world, there is another: a world of dangerous and powerful monsters that rule their domain with deadly ferocity. When an unexpected sandstorm transports Captain Artemis (Milla Jovovich) and her unit (TI Harris, Meagan Good, Diego Boneta) to a new world, the soldiers are shocked to discover that this hostile and unknown environment is home to enormous and terrifying monsters immune to their firepower. In their desperate battle for survival, the unit encounters the mysterious Hunter (Tony Jaa), whose unique skills allow him to stay one step ahead of the powerful creatures. As Artemis and Hunter slowly build trust, she discovers that he is part of a team led by the Admiral (Ron Perlman). Facing a danger so great it could threaten to destroy their world, the brave warriors combine their unique abilities to band together for the ultimate showdown.

Sony Screen Gems has released the first Monster Hunter trailer which stars Milla Jovovich and martial arts star Tony Jaa from Resident Evil franchise director Paul W.S. Anderson (Soldier, Event Horizon, Alien vs. Predator).

The film looks to be a hybrid homage of Transformers meets Reign of Fire meets Jurassic Park that certainly has it having a lot more scale than the Resident Evil films alongside what looks like could be quality VFX (at least in this trailer). Hopefully, it’s a little more accessible and coherent than the previous Resident Evil films given that it’s an entirely new video game franchise it could allow for something a little more interesting.

Also from Capcom, the Monster Hunter video games skew more into the realm of fantasy adventure.

In an unnamed high fantasy setting, humans and other sentient races have set their eyes on the New World, a separate continent from the populated Old World. The New World is an untamed wilderness where many powerful monsters roam, and where researchers have been drawn to uncover new mysteries. Players take the role of a Hunter that serves to help protect a village or help research the large monsters that roam the various areas near the village.

Milla Jovovich has established herself as one of the few actresses that consistently does genre action gaining an international following from playing both Leeloo from The Fifth Element and Alice in the Resident Evil films.

Earlier this month it was revealed that Monster Hunter’s theatrical release date got bumped-up from April 23rd, 2021 to December 30th. I guess we’ll have to wait and see if that date sticks.

Sony Screen Gems also released a new domestic poster.

SOURCE: SONY

Posted on in Television News

‘The Boys’ Showrunner Eric Kripe Confirms February Production Start In Toronto For Season 3

We now have confirmation from series creator and showrunner Eric Kripe that Season 3 of The Boys will indeed begin shooting this February in Toronto as he confirmed the scheduled start via Twitter.

However, with the province of Ontario and the country of Canada on the brink of a second shutdown due to COVID-19 there is a good possibility that they might have to delay the start if the government steps in to press pause on all production in Toronto.

Local sources indicate that filming will take place between February 1st and August 12th of next year barring any future delays in prep or COVID-related shutdowns.

On a more positive note, recent casting announcements include Supernatural’s Jensen Ackles as Season 3 villain Soldier Boy and Lord of The Rings actor John Noble taking the role of Billy Butcher’s father.

Amazon claims that Season 2 has been one of the popular originals they’ve ever released (take with a grain of salt) and have already started developing a spinoff series from Craig Rosenberg focusing on a college for supes run by Vought International.

The spinoff is set at America’s only college exclusively for young adult superheroes (or “supes”) that is run by Vought International. It is described as an irreverent, R-rated series that explores the lives of hormonal, competitive supes as they put their physical, sexual, and moral boundaries to the test, competing for the best contracts in the best cities. Part college show, part Hunger Games — with all the heart, satire and raunch of The Boys.

We’ll keep our fingers crossed they’ll be able to keep to their production schedule and release the next season on time.

SOURCE: ERIC KRIPE

Posted on in Film News

Eddie Murphy’s ‘Coming 2 America’ Heading To Amazon For An Impressive $125M and Could Drop December 18th On Prime Video

I guess we won’t have to wait too long before getting access to Eddie Murphy’s long-awaited sequel to his 1988 hit Coming To America titled Coming 2 America.

Variety is reporting that Amazon in the process of purchasing the comedy sequel for a hefty $125 million from Paramount Pictures and is planning on dropping the film over the holidays, possibly on December 18th.

Prince Akeem is set to become king of the fictional country of Zamunda when he discovers he has a son he never knew about in America — a street-savvy Queens native named Lavelle. To honor the former king’s dying wish to groom his grandson as the crown prince, Akeem and Semmi set off to America.

Paramount had originally planned on releasing the film theatrically on August 7th before delaying it to December 18th, due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

Joining Eddie in the sequel directed by Craig Brewer includes James Earl Jones, Jermaine Fowler, Tracy Morgan, Leslie Jones, Arsenio Hall, and Wesley Snipes.

Brewer and Murphy had recently teamed on the Netflix film Dolemite Is My Name.

We could see more sales from studios looking to offload their delayed features to streaming services for some quick cash considering that many studios are having to push multiple films out of the 2020 slate entirely. Amazon had also recently acquired the Borat sequel and Paramount’s spy action flick Without Remorse starring Michael B. Jordan that takes place within the Jack Ryan universe created by Tom Clancy.

COMING TO AMERICA – Prince Akeem (Eddie Murphy) is the prince of a wealthy African country and wants for nothing, except a wife who will love him in spite of his title. To escape an arranged marriage, Akeem flees to America accompanied by his persnickety sidekick, Semmi (Arsenio Hall), to find his queen. Disguised as a foreign student working in fast food, he romances Lisa (Shari Headley), but struggles with revealing his true identity to her and his marital intentions to his king father (James Earl Jones).

SOURCE: VARIETY

Posted on in Film News

Legendary Reportedly Lands Film Rights To Iconic Sci-Fi Hero ‘Buck Rogers’

The Wrap reports that Legendary Entertainment has nabbed the movie rights to Buck Rogers and has partnered with Transformers producer Don Murphy via Angry Films.

The project is based on the “Armageddon 2419 A.D.” novella by Philip Francis Nowlan that introduced the Buck Rogers character in 1928. The story centers on a coal mine inspector who awakens from suspended animation after 500 years to find himself in the middle of a planetary war.

Buck Rogers has been adapted into various comic strips, a movie serial, radio and television shows. Developed by Chicago newspaperman John F. Dille in the 1930s, it immediately became one of the world’s most popular comic strips, read by millions daily in the newspapers all over the world. The strip was essentially Rip Van Winkle in the future in which a modern-day man wakes up 500 years in the future to a world that is no longer recognizable to him.

The popularity of Buck Rogers led to the creation of the more notable Flash Gordon (rights are at 20th Century Studios) and could easily be traced to the origins of Star Wars as well.

At one time, Sin City’s Frank Miller attempted to direct a feature film over ten years ago but when his film The Spirit tanked his involvement dissolved.

Legendary is behind the Monsterverse with Godzilla vs Kong set to be released next year along with Denis Villeneuve’s first installment of the Dune franchise. They have serious genre experience and could give new life to an aged property like Buck Rogers that has slipped from the consciousness of modern audiences.

Considering Legendary’s relationship with Warner Bros. there is a got shot it could land there for distribution.

SOURCE: THE WRAP

Posted on in Film News

‘Wolf of Wall Street’ Duo Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill Join Adam McKay’s ‘Don’t Look Up’ – Play Two Scientists Warning The World A Meteor Will Strike Earth

Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill have joined the cast of Adam McKay’s Don’t Look Up For Netflix taking two key lead roles according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The pair previously worked together on the Martin Scorsese film The Wolf of Wall Street.

Don’t Look Up centers on two low-level scientists who, upon discovering that a meteor will strike the Earth in six months, go on a media tour to try to warn the world but find an unreceptive and unbelieving populace.

Leo and Jonah will play the two scientists.

They will be added to a cast that includes Jennifer Lawrence, Cate Blanchett, Rob Morgan, Meryl Streep, Himesh Patel, Timothée Chalamet, Ariana Grande, Kid Cudi, Matthew Perry and Tomer Sisley.

Adam McKay has been behind more mature Oscar-winning films recently with The Big Short and Vice.

Filming on Don’t Look Up is expected to begin on November 19th in Boston.

DiCaprio is also attached to star opposite Robert De Niro in Martin Scorsese’s crime thriller Killers of The Flower Moon.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Posted on in Film News

Ridley Scott and Joaquin Phoenix To Reunite On Napoleon Film ‘Kitbag’ For 20th Century Studios

Deadline reports that Ridley Scott has completed his period drama The Last Duel and will next move on to his Gucci crime film starring Lady Gaga, but has also lined up his project after that as well with a period epic titled Kitbag for 20th Century Studios.

The Napoleon project will star Oscar-winner Joaquin Phoenix as the French military leader and emperor, the pair previously worked together on the Oscar-winning film Gladiator.

The film is an original and personal look at Napoleon’s origins and his swift, ruthless climb to emperor, viewed through the prism of his addictive and often volatile relationship with his wife and one true love, Josephine. The intention of the film is to capture Napoleon’s famous battles, relentless ambition and astounding strategic mind as an extraordinary military leader and war visionary.

The script was penned by David Scarpa, who previously wrote on All The Money In The World, a version of the upcoming Cleopatra film, and episodes of The Man In The High Castle.

Despite the myth, the French leader was not short but of average height.

One of the most famous unmade Stanley Kubrick films was also going to focus on Napoleon and more recently had been planned as HBO mini-series from Cary Joji Fukunaga (No Time To Die, True Detective) using Kubrick’s research as inspiration with Steven Spielberg producing.

Ridley will begin filming Gucci for MGM in Italy starting in March and when Kitbag is aiming to start shooting is a little unclear. Joining that Gucci cast led by Lady Gaga includes Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Adam Driver and Jared Leto.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

Sarah Shahi Confirmed For Role In DC Comics Film ‘Black Adam’

Earlier, it was reported by The Illuminerdi that actress Sarah Shahi (Person of Interest) was joining the cast of Black Adam which has now been confirmed by Deadline.

In the film, Shahi will play a university professor and freedom fighter leading the resistance in Kahndaq.

She joins Dwayne Johnson as Black Adam, Noah Centineo as Atom Smasher, and Aldis Hodge as Hawkman. Doctor Fate and Cyclone are also roles expected to be filled as confirmed at DC FanDome.

Rory Haines, Sohrab Noshirvani, and Adam Sztykiel have worked on Black Adam’s script with Jamue Collet-Serra set to direct.

Dwayne and Jaume recently worked together on Disney’s Jungle Cruise.

Filming on Black Adam is expected to begin sometime next year in Atlanta, Georgia and possibly in Los Angeles, California.

Matrix 4 recently took the film’s release date of December 22nd, 2021 and still hasn’t landed a new date.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

Producer Barbara Broccoli Debunks New James Bond Casting Rumor – “You Can Only Be In Love With One Person At A Time”

Most recently, there was a rumor circulating online that Tom Hardy has been locked-in as the official replacement for Daniel Craig in the James Bond franchise for months. However, producer Barbara Broccoli has now seemingly debunked that. Going into detail with Total Film stating that nobody has been hired for the role while promoting No Time To Die. Suggesting they will not even consider looking until No Time To Die has been released and some time has passed.

BROCCOLI: “I always say you can only be in love with one person at a time. Once the film’s come out, then some time will pass, and then we’ll have to get on to the business of the future. But for now, we just cannot think about anything beyond Daniel.”

This direct quote would surely counterclaim that Tom Hardy has cast as James Bond. 

Most of the time tabloids and websites will run any sort of Bond rumor to drum-up traffic because it’s well-known that EON doesn’t often comment on such silliness. However, Barbara seemingly has killed that Tom Hardy rumbling for the time being and previously debunked the Bond 25 title rumors as well.

On a more positive note, it was reported that No Time To Die screenwriter Phoebe Waller-Bridge is currently working on a Bond 26 script. Director Cary Joji Fukunaga and producers have also recently suggested interest for his return to the franchise in the future, Cary being open to directing multiple films beyond No Time To Die.

No Time To Die’s release date has been moved to April 2nd, 2021. 

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: TOTAL FILM