Author: Christopher Marc

Posted on in News

‘Argylle’: Rob Delaney Joins Henry Cavill’s New Spy Pic Directed By Matthew Vaughn

Matthew Vaughn’s next feature film made some big headlines over the summer when it was revealed, Argylle, had been reportedly picked-up by Apple for hefty $200 million.

The spy flick’s impressive cast would include Henry Cavill (The Witcher, Man of Steel), Sam Rockwell (Iron Man 2, Moon, Seven Psychopaths, Three Billboards), Bryce Dallas Howard (Black Mirror, Jurassic World, Jurassic World: Dominion), Bryan Cranston (Godzilla, Breaking Bad), Catherine O’Hara (Home Alone, SCTV, Schitt’s Creek), John Cena (Bumblebee, F9: The Fast Saga, Peacemaker, The Suicide Squad), Samuel L. Jackson (Pulp Fiction, The Hateful Eight, Django Unchained, Secret Invasion, The Marvels), and singer Dua Lipa making her acting debut.

A new casting addition has been announced via The Hollywood Reporter with Rob Delany landing a small role. Delany previously worked on Deadpool 2, Mission: Impossible 7, and Guy Ritchie’s Wrath of Man.

Argylle is based on the upcoming novel by Ellie Conway with a script from Jason Fuchs (Wonder Woman, Pan).

Previously, The Ronin first revealed the film’s title and working title being Tartan along with multiple reports confirming key crew members such as cinematographer George Richmond (Fantastic Beasts 3, Kingsman: The Secret Service, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, Rocketman, Eddie The Eagle), production designer Daniel Taylor (Tetris), and costume designer Stephanie Collie (Layer Cake, Silent Night, Hellboy, Peaky Blinders).

Filming began in August and will be released on Apple TV+ in 2022.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

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‘Rebel Moon’: Sofia Boutella Set To Lead Zack Snyder’s Sci-Fi Take On ‘Seven Samurai’

After being on the outs with Warner Bros. over Justice League, Zack Snyder moved on to make Army of The Dead at Netflix and has decided to make his next couple films at the streaming giant.

Deadline reports that actress Sofia Boutella (Atomic Blonde, Star Trek Beyond) has nabbed the lead role in Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon, a project that originally started out as his Star Wars pitch to Lucasfilm during the early days that Disney acquired the franchise.

Rebel Moon is a sci-fi take on Akira Kurosawa’s iconic samurai flick Seven Samurai that Snyder co-wrote with Shay Hatten and Kurt Johnstad.

The story is set in motion when a peaceful colony on the edge of the galaxy is threatened by the armies of a tyrannical regent named Balisarius. Desperate people dispatch a young woman with a mysterious past to seek out warriors from neighboring planets to help them make a stand.

Boutella will play the film’s female heroine and has a dance background making her a perfect selection for the action sequences. Interestingly enough, she had a big role in the last Star Trek film and might be up for extensive makeup if it’s required.

After Rebel Moon, Snyder will direct Planet of The Dead, a sequel to Army of The Dead.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

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‘Dune’ Crosses $300M At Global Box Office

According to Warner Bros., Denis Villeneuve’s first installment in the Dune franchise has earned an impressive $300 million at the worldwide box office.

It’s a huge win for fans of Dune, who have been waiting decades for a studio to make a competent version that was appealing to general audiences. Thankfully, Villeneuve was able to spend the runtime of Dune to properly world-build and explain most of the dense mythology, before jumping into the more action-focused sequel.

The second film, Dune: Part Two, was officially announced last week by Legendary/Warner Bros. for a release date of October 20, 2023.

Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Villeneuve doubled-down on the idea of making a trilogy and suggests he’s “always envisioned” making three movies. The idea was that he’d adapt Frank Herbert’s second novel, Dune Messiah, for a third movie.

“I always envisioned three movies. It’s not that I want to do a franchise, but this is Dune, and Dune is a huge story. In order to honor it, I think you would need at least three movies. That would be the dream. To follow Paul Atreides and his full arc would be nice.”

“Herbert wrote six books, and the more he was writing, the more it was getting psychedelic. So I don’t know how some of them could be adapted. One thing at a time. If I ever have the chance to do Dune: Part Two and Dune Messiah, I’m blessed.”

As far as we know, Jon Spaihts is only tackling the Dune: Part Two script and they haven’t said they are actively working on a Dune Messiah movie, just the intention to do so in the future. Spaihts was originally tackling Dune: The Sisterhood before the second film became a priority at Legendary.

Denis has indicated he’d stop at three films given that Herbert’s books such as Children of Dune, God Emperor of Dune, Heretics of Dune, and Chapterhouse: Dune would mean new castings given the time-jumps.

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‘Oppenheimer’: Matt Damon & Robert Downey Jr. Are Joining Christopher Nolan’s Atomic Bomb Movie

Christopher Nolan is returning to World War II after tackling Dunkirk, with a new biopic that will focus on J. Robert Oppenheimer that helped create the atomic bomb for the United States military.

J. Robert Oppenheimer’s development of the atomic bomb in the Manhattan Project ultimately led to the surrender of the Japanese after two atomic bombs were unleashed upon the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the U.S. military, killing countless civilians in an instant and even more than that slowly/painfully over time.

Cillian Murphy and Emily Blunt have previously taken key roles on the project and two other actors have reportedly joined.

Deadline reveals that Matt Damon and Robert Downey Jr. are in talks to take unnamed roles. Damon previously worked with Nolan on the sci-fi drama Interstellar.

Cameras are expected to roll in early 2022. Universal Pictures won a bidding war to secure Oppenheimer after Christopher Nolan decided to part ways with Warner Bros. and the pic has an exclusive theatrical release window. It debuts on July 21, 2023.

It’ll be interesting to see if Christopher Nolan will attempt to document the Pacific War and the Japanese side of the story along with the civilians that were essentially erased from the planet as part of a power move by the United States to end the bloody South Pacific campaign with an extreme show of force before having to invade the mainland of Japan. It was one of the darkest moments in human history.

Cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema will reunite with Nolan after working on, Interstellar, Dunkirk, and Tenet along with Oscar-winning Swedish composer Ludwig Göransson (Tenet, Black Panther, The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever) joining the film too.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

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‘The Book Of Boba Fett’: Jennifer Beals From ‘Flashdance’ Confirmed As A Twi’lek Character

Yesterday, Disney and Lucasfilm released the first look trailer for the next live-action Star Wars show, The Book of Boba Fett.  The former bounty hunter has hung up his spurs for a more ambitious adventure, taking over Jabba’s criminal syndicate. A rather large feat given all the criminal scum of the Star Wars underworld looking to bump him off and take his position.

Temuera Morrison (Boba Fett) and Ming-Na Wen (Fennec Shand) have been the only two cast members identified officially for The Book of Boba Fett, until now as a new actress has been spotted in the footage.

One of the more striking shots was one with two Twi’lek women and it’s been confirmed that actress Jennifer Beals (Flashdance, The Book of Eli) is playing one of them.

https://twitter.com/jenniferbeals/status/1455243614913634306

I’m curious how many other 80s icons are part of the series, but we’ll have to wait and see.

Its directing team is expected to include Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, Robert Rodriguez, Bryce Dallas-Howard, and Sam Hargrave.

The new series will debut on December 29 on Disney+ and will continue into 2022.

Andor, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and season three of The Mandalorian are other Star Wars shows that are expected to be released next year, giving fans a heap of content ahead of the next film, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron being released in 20223.

“The Book of Boba Fett,” a thrilling Star Wars adventure teased in a surprise end-credit sequence following the Season 2 finale of “The Mandalorian,” finds legendary bounty hunter Boba Fett and mercenary Fennec Shand navigating the galaxy’s underworld when they return to the sands of Tatooine to stake their claim on the territory once ruled by Jabba the Hutt and his crime syndicate. “The Book of Boba Fett” stars Temuera Morrison and Ming-Na Wen. Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, Robert Rodriguez, Kathleen Kennedy, and Colin Wilson are the executive producers. Karen Gilchrist and Carrie Beck serve as co-executive producers, with John Bartnicki producing and John Hampian as co-producer.

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FX’s ‘Shōgun’ Adds ‘Lord Of The Rings’ Director Charlotte Brändström

The Ronin can confirm that Swedish-French television director Charlotte Brändström has joined the FX samurai series Shōgun. She recently worked on Amazon’s Lord of The Rings series, Netflix’s The Witcher, Outlander, Jupiter’s Legacy, and The Man In The High Castle.

FX has hired Hiroyuki Sanada (Westworld, John Wick 4, The Last Samurai), British actor Cosmo Jarvis, and Anna Sawai (F9: The Fast Saga) as the leads of Shōgun.

Shōgun is set in feudal Japan. It charts the collision of two ambitious men from different worlds and a mysterious female samurai: John Blackthorne (Jarvis), a risk-taking English sailor who ends up shipwrecked in Japan, a land whose unfamiliar culture will ultimately redefine him; Lord Toranaga (Sanada), a shrewd, powerful daimyo, at odds with his own dangerous, political rivals; and Lady Mariko (Sawai), a woman with invaluable skills but dishonorable family ties who must prove her value and allegiance.

The new project currently shooting in Vancouver was written by Justin Marks and Rachel Kondo, which is based on the novel by author James Clavell. It had been adapted for American television back in 1980 and starred legendary Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune (Yojimbo, Seven Samurai) as Lord Yoshii Toranaga. 

Other actors on the show consist of Tadanobu Asano, Fumi Nikaido, Tokuma Nishioka, Takehiro Hira, Ako, Shinnosuke Abe, Yasunari Takeshima, Hiroto Kanai, Toshi Toda, Hiro Kanagawa, Néstor Carbonell, Yuki Kura, Tommy Bastow, Moeka Hoshi, Yoriko Doguchi, and Yuka Kouri.

We also exclusively reported the series would have Reprisal’s Jonathan van Tulleken on the directing team.

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Chris Pratt Tapped To Voice ‘Garfield’ In A New Animated Film

Chris Pratt is suddenly getting a lot of studio voice acting work after headlining the Lego movies for Warner Bros. and most recently turning heads when he was cast as the voice of Mario in a Super Mario Bros. animated film at Illumination/Universal Pictures.

The actor is now reportedly set to play another iconic character, as The Hollywood Reporter revealed he’s been selected to voice Garfield in a new animated movie for Alcon Entertainment and will be distributed by Sony Pictures.

Garfield’s script was penned by Oscar nominee David Reynolds (Finding Nemo) and directed by Mark Dindal (Chicken Little), the two previously worked together on Disney’s The Emperor’s New Groove. He’s a sarcastic lazy orange tabby that is obsessed with lasagna, hating Mondays, and terrorizing the lovable but simple dog, Odie, by kicking him off tables.

You might remember Bill Murray voiced the cinematic version of Garfield in the live-action hybrid movies at 20th Century Fox (pre-merger), the casting was a nod to Lorenzo Music, who originally voiced the cartoon cat and also Murray’s Ghostbusters character in The Real Ghostbusters.

I’m slightly confused why Alcon didn’t simply cast Pratt’s Parks & Rec co-star Nick Offerman, who obviously is a better fit for the lazy sarcastic cat when Pratt gives off major Jon Arbuckle vibes.

Pratt is about to begin shooting James Gunn’s Guardians of The Galaxy Vol.3 and is loosely attached for a sequel to The Tomorrow War, the sci-fi actioner from Christ McKay that landed at Amazon.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

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Scarlett Johansson & Taika Waititi May Reunite For Disney’s ‘Tower Of Terror’ Movie

Black Widow actress Scarlett Johansson publicly sued Disney during the summer because of a dispute over Disney shutting her out from participating in Disney+ revenue for the Marvel Studios film, which subsequently dinged her bonuses based on box office earnings. They eventually settled out of court when Disney’s big smear campaign against the actress backfired hard and almost led to The Russo Brothers backing out of a new potential project at Marvel.

After the dust settled, there was a report that she would still make Disney’s Terror of Tower movie, based on the horror attraction from their parks. It looks like they might have secured a director.

The Disinsider now is reporting that Kiwi director Taika Waititi has “signed on” to direct.

This would be a reunion as the two previously worked on the Oscar-winning comedic drama Jojo Rabbit, which focused on a family hiding a Jewish girl in Nazi Germany as the young son, Jojo, is being indoctrinated in the Hitler Youth.

Taika Waititi is a busy lad as his films Next Goal Wins and Thor: Love & Thunder still have to be released. He’s also developing a new live-action Flash Gordon movie for 20th Century Studios and is still chipping away on a script for an untitled Star Wars film.

It’s worth mentioning that Taika is currently in post with his Thor sequel and his Star Wars script hasn’t been completed, as Patty Jenkins’ Star Wars: Rogue Squadron is the priority and goes into production next year at Pinewood Studios UK. There haven’t been any real signs of what his next film project will be.

Tower of Terror isn’t the only family-friendly horror project at Disney as they’re shooting a new incarnation of Haunted Mansion with director Justin Simien (Dear White People), another Star Wars creative that is developing the Lando series for Lucasfilm.

Josh Cooley (Toy Story 4, Inside Out) had been previously announced as the film’s screenwriter, but if Waititi is involved he’ll likely add his own polishes to the script given the Jojo Rabbit screenwriter won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay.

JOJO RABBIT – Writer-director Taika Waititi (THOR: RAGNAROK, HUNT FOR THE WILDERPEOPLE), brings his signature style of humor and pathos to his latest film, JOJO RABBIT, a World War II satire that follows a lonely German boy (Roman Griffin Davis as JoJo) whose world view is turned upside down when he discovers his single mother (Scarlett Johansson) is hiding a young Jewish girl (Thomasin McKenzie) in their attic. Aided only by his idiotic imaginary friend, Adolf Hitler (Taika Waititi), Jojo must confront his blind nationalism.

SOURCE: THE DISINIDER

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‘Silent Night’: John Woo & Joel Kinnaman Team For Action Flick From ‘John Wick’ Franchise Producers

John Woo is reportedly making his comeback to American action projects, after a nearly 20-year hiatus. The legend of Hong Kong action filmmaking is said to be partnering with John Wick franchise producers Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee for Silent Night, a high-concept project that will see Swedish actor play a father looking for revenge in the criminal underworld after his son is murdered.

Deadline first reported on the project that is currently being sold at the American Film Market.

The unique angle is that there will be no dialogue will be in the movie.

Woo hasn’t made a mainstream Hollywood film since 2003’s Paycheck and it’s unclear if he’ll return to making Chinese projects after this movie.

He’s likely best known in the west for films such as Hard Target, Face/Off, Windtalkers, Broken Arrow, and Mission: Impossible 2. While those movies had bigger budgets than his Hong Kong movies, the action did not live up to things like The Killer and Hard Boiled. Hopefully, Silent Night can take cues from his earlier work.

Joel Kinnaman is no stranger to action roles in Suicide Squad, RoboCop, The Suicide Squad, Run All Night, Safe House, Snabba Cash, and the cyberpunk series Altered Carbon.

Producers Iwanky and Lee are behind the upcoming John Wick: Chapter 4, the John Wick spinoff film Ballerina starring Ana De Armas and directed by Len Wiseman, and the prequel series at Starz, The Continential.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News, News

‘Doctor Strange 2’ Merch Confirms Lovecraftian Villain Shuma-Gorath Will Appear?

Well, leave it to Marvel Studios to be beaten again by the merchandise side of Disney.

A product listing for a tie-in puzzle (see below) on the Australian website Booktopia (spotted by Slash Film) has revealed that the Multiverse villain Shuma-Gorath will be showing up in some capacity in Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness, a Lovecraftian type creature with tentacles (teased in What If…?) and a single giant eyeball.

Shuma-Gorath was first seen as an adversary for Doctor Strange in Marvel Premiere #10 back in 1973.

It’s been a no-brainer from the jump that Shuma-Gortah would show up given the Multiverse angle. I even predicted his appearance on Twitter back during San Diego Comic-Con in 2019, when the film was first announced and the title was revealed by the former director Scott Derrickson (later replaced with Sam Raimi).

However, it’s still unclear how much Shuma-Gorath will be in the film and if he’s even going to be the main villain or just one of many that will appear. The other piece of artwork on the puzzle box would seemingly suggest that Wanda’s Scarlet Witch will be one of the heroes.

The cast of Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness far consists of Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Stephen Strange, Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff aka Scarlet Witch, Benedict Wong as Wong, Chiwetel Ejiofor as Baron Mordo, Rachel McAdams as Dr. Christine Palmer, and newcomer Xochitl Gomez as America Chavez.

We first reported Sam Raimi’s production team would include cinematographer John Mathieson (Logan, X-Men: First Class) and production designer Charles Wood (Black Widow, Avengers: Endgame). Spider-Man composer Danny Elfman confirmed back in February to Inverse he’d be reuniting with Raimi.

The team of stunt coordinators consists of seasoned vets such as Jo McLaren (Overlord, Annihilation) and Brycen Counts (Spider-Man: Homecoming, Spider-Man: Far From Home, Ant-Man & The Wasp) with Liang Yang (Morbius, Wonder Woman 1984) taking the role of fight coordinator.

Filming took place at Longcross Studios in Surrey, England, and is the current stage facility being used for Nia DaCosta’s Captain Marvel sequel, The Marvels.

The release for Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness had been recently pushed from March 25, 2022, to May 6, 2022. Hopefully, it won’t be further delayed.

SOURCE: BOOKTOPIA