Author: Christopher Marc

Posted on in Film News, News

‘Shang-Chi’: Kevin Feige Admits Marvel Had Been Dreaming Of Making A Movie For Two Decades

Simu Liu is about to make his debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Shang-Chi. Some might assume that it was only in the last five or so years that Marvel Studios was itching to make Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings. That’s really not the cast at all according to the studio.

While on the red carpet for the film’s premiere, Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige confirmed to Variety that during his time at Marvel (joining in 2000) they had been trying to make a Shang-Chi movie for the last two decades.

“We’ve been thinking and dreaming about making a Shang-Chi movie for the entirety of the two decades that I’ve been at Marvel.”

In 2001, Blade director Stephen Norrington was reportedly attached for a feature film of Shang-Chi alongside an early incarnation of Ghost Rider too. He quietly retired after making 20th Century Fox’s The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and headaches he had during that production. Norrington had originally wanted to cast Jet Li as Blade villain Deacon Frost but the actor was busy shooting Richard Donner’s Lethal Weapon 4. You can tell from Blade that the filmmaker was heavily influenced by Hong Kong action movies with their use of wire-work, a year before The Matrix.

DreamWorks attempted to get things going again in 2003, as Variety reported they had hired Woo-ping Yuen (True Legend) to direct and script from Band of Brothers writer Bruce McKenna. Woo-ping Yuen had been the fight choreographer for The Matrix, Kill Bill Vol.2, Kung Fu Hustle, The Forbidden Kingdom, The Grandmaster, and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Oscar-winner Ang Lee (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Brokeback Mountain, Life of Pi) boarded as a producer in 2004, a year after his Hulk movie was released. However, the rights to Shang-Chi eventually reverted back to Marvel.

Even before that, a Shang-Chi television series was being cooked up at Marvel.

Inverse was able to speak with former Marvel Productions CEO and President Margaret Loesch, who revealed that Stan Lee met with Bruce Lee’s son Brandon Lee (Showdown In Little Tokyo, The Crow, Rapid Fire) at the Marvel offices for a potential Shang-Chi television series in the 80s. The late Bruce Lee and his film Enter The Dragon had been the template for the martial arts superhero. Sadly, Brandon had a tragic death as he was killed during the filming of The Crow.

You have to really question what took them so long to get here, but Ike Perlmutter was notoriously dismissive of diverse projects at Marvel until he was ultimately pulled off the film division by Disney, upon the request of Kevin Feige. Suddenly, we started to see movies spring up like Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Black Widow, Shang-Chi, and Blade once Perlmutter was nix from the film side of things.

Shang-Chi hits theaters exclusively on September 3.

SHANG-CHI & THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS – Marvel Studios’ “Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings” stars Simu Liu as Shang-Chi, who must confront the past he thought he left behind when he is drawn into the web of the mysterious Ten Rings organization.

Joining Simu Liu in the Marvel cast includes Tony Leung as Wenwu, Awkwafina as Shang-Chi’s friend Katy, and Michelle Yeoh as Jiang Nan, as well as Fala Chen, Meng’er Zhang, Florian Munteanu, and Ronny Chieng. Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings is directed by Destin Daniel Cretton and produced by Kevin Feige and Jonathan Schwartz, with Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso, and Charles Newirth serving as executive producers. David Callaham & Destin Daniel Cretton & Andrew Lanham wrote the screenplay for the film, and experience it in theaters on September 3, 2021.

SOURCE: VARIETY

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Scarlett Johansson, Jason Schwartzman & Rupert Friend Join Wes Anderson’s Next Movie: Filming Begins In Spain

Wes Anderson is said to have started filming his next project in Spain and have added three more cast members.

The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that Scarlett Johansson (Jojo Rabbit, Marriage Story), Jason Schwartzman (Rushmore, Scott Pilgrim, Fargo), and Rupert Friend (Death of Stalin, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Homeland) have taken undisclosed roles.

The untitled movie already has Wes Anderson regulars Bill Murray (Rushmore, The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The French Dispatch, Isle of Dogs, The Royal Tenenbaums, Moonrise Kingdom), Tilda Swinton (Moonrise Kingdom, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The French Dispatch), and Adrien Brody (The Darjeeling Limited, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The French Dispatch) among the cast.

Two other newcomers includes Margot Robbie (Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, The Wold of Wall Street) and Tom Hanks (Road To Perdition, Saving Private Ryan) are also among the call-sheet.

Plot details have been kept under wraps and might be a while before we know what it’s exactly about or who the cast will be playing. I’m sure fans will be interested to know if Wes is attempting something more in the way of genre filmmaking (western or sci-fi) or still continue in the realm of quirky character-driven comedy.

A release timeline hasn’t been given but it’s assumed that the movie will land at Searchlight Pictures with a potential festival run in 2022 if the film is completed in time.

His latest movie, The French Dispatch, will be released by Searchlight Pictures on October 22.

The French Dispatch brings to life a collection of stories from the final issue of an American magazine published in a fictional 20th-century French city. It stars Benicio del Toro, Adrien Brody, Tilda Swinton, Léa Seydoux, Frances McDormand, Timothée Chalamet, Lyna Khoudri, Jeffrey Wright, Mathieu Amalric, Stephen Park, Bill Murray, and Owen Wilson.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

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‘Shang-Chi’: Director Destin Daniel Cretton Confirms Post-Blip Setting & Talks Cinematic Inspirations

Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings will be the next big character introduction to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It also ushers-in one of the few Asian-led Hollywood blockbusters and could help nudge studios to take more of an active role in giving more opportunities to Asian casts/filmmakers to tackle action-adventure films.

Director Destin Daniel Cretton has spoken with Fandango about Shang-Chi, confirming that the film “is set in the present day in the MCU timeline” post-Blip. He gave an indication of what audiences should expect from the new film’s genre.

“I think Shang-Chi is a cross between a classic kung fu film and a family drama, but it’s also really funny.”

When Destin Daniel Cretton was asked about cinematic inspirations for the superhero film, the filmmaker’s answers were certainly interesting. Especially, the nod to Good Will Hunting.

“One of the very loose inspirations for tone and character was Good Will Hunting, which may be a surprise. Will Hunting is a character that I think has a lot of similarities to Shang-Chi, just in that they have a big secret and they have a lot of baggage that they have to learn to deal with in order to step into their fully realized shoes. Some of the other inspirations… every Jackie Chan movie ever made, the Ip Man series — there’s a big inspiration from Jet Li’s Tai-Chi Master, and, of course, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. There is a long list. I cannot not give enough props to Kung Fu Hustle, which is one of my favorites. We watched a lot of these classic movies to make sure that we were paying proper respect to them and to the long history of martial arts and kung-fu movies that came before us.”

The shout-out to Kung Fu Hustle is curious since Destin recently posted an image of himself and the film’s star Yuen Wah in Sydney, Australia in 2020 on Instagram (see below). The actor co-starred alongside Jackie Chan and Michelle Yeoh (confirmed for a role) in the fantastic Supercop aka Police Story 3 in the role of Panther. Early on in his career, Yuen Wah appeared in Bruce Lee movies such as Fist of Fury, Enter The Dragon, Way of The Dragon, and Game of Death.

UPDATE: Michelle Yeoh has posted an image on Instagram of Yueh Wah, in costume on the set.

Could the famed martial arts actor be appearing in Shang-Chi?

https://www.instagram.com/p/CSMbCD5KrhY/

Shang-Chi will hit theaters exclusively on September 3.

SHANG-CHI & THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS – Marvel Studios’ “Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings” stars Simu Liu as Shang-Chi, who must confront the past he thought he left behind when he is drawn into the web of the mysterious Ten Rings organization.

Joining Simu Liu in the Marvel cast includes Tony Leung as Wenwu, Awkwafina as Shang-Chi’s friend Katy, and Michelle Yeoh as Jiang Nan, as well as Fala Chen, Meng’er Zhang, Florian Munteanu, and Ronny Chieng. Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings is directed by Destin Daniel Cretton and produced by Kevin Feige and Jonathan Schwartz, with Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso, and Charles Newirth serving as executive producers. David Callaham & Destin Daniel Cretton & Andrew Lanham wrote the screenplay for the film, and experience it in theaters on September 3, 2021.

SOURCE: FANDANGO

Posted on in Film News, News

‘The Suicide Squad’: James Gunn Indicates Studio Uncertainty About Superman Is Why He Wasn’t Used

The Suicide Squad is winning over a lot of people and there had been early ideas to have Task Force X being assembled to take down Superman. However, the main threat of the film was the Borg-like alien Starro The Conqueror, who was able to control the minds of anyone that was unlucky enough to get one of the self-replicated mini-Starro attached to their face.

James Gunn has revealed to the Script Apart podcast (via Comic Book) that one of the big reasons they didn’t go with Superman was the studio’s uncertainty about Henry Cavill sticking around or what exactly their DCEU plans for the son of Krypton moving forward.

“There was a time when I thought The Suicide Squad should fight Superman. At the time, there were a lot of questions like, ‘Who is Superman in the DCEU? Is this movie outside the DCEU?’ I just didn’t want to deal with it all that much.”

This could also explain why the Superman cameo in Shazam! was a stand-in, despite that film clearly takes place within the Snyderverse/DCEU.

It’s revealed that Idris Elba’s Bloodsport put Superman in the ICU after shooting him with Kryptonite bullet, so at the least they were able to add that small connective tidbit.

Gunn explained why he wanted to use Starro.

“I think he’s a perfect comic book character because he’s absolutely ludicrous but also very scary in his own way. What he does is scary. He used to scare the crap out of me when I was a child, putting those face-huggers on Superman and Batman. So I thought he was one of the major, major DC villains that was probably never going to be put into another movie. And if they did, it’d have been a ‘black cloud’ version of Starro. Not a giant walking starfish, a kaiju that’s bright pink and cerulean blue, this ridiculously big, bright bad guy.”

The studio has indicated that they’re keen on working with James Gunn again on more DC movies, but that seemingly won’t Gotham City Sirens as the director downplayed recent speculation on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/JamesGunn/status/1426194551866335232

SOURCE: SCRIPT APART PODCAST

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‘Spawn’ Remake Getting Rewrites From ‘Broken City’ Screenwriter Brian Tucker

Despite almost going into production a while back, it looks like Blumhouse has hired a new screenwriter to help with rewrites on the their Spawn remake. Image Comics’ Todd McFarlane created the comic book character after leaving Marvel Comics to form his own creative-driven comic book company. McFarlane is also set to direct the mature comic book film and wrote the original draft of Spawn’s script.

Spawn is centered on a black-ops agent, Al Simmons, who is betrayed and murdered and his soul sent to hell for all the innocents he killed. While there, he makes a deal with a demon who allows him to return to the earthly plane and his wife. However, five years have now passed, and his wife has moved on, while he is a disfigured and superpowered spawn of hell.

The Hollywood Reporter revealed that the studio has assigned Brian Tucker (Broken City) to do rewrites on the script, however, the extent of the reworking isn’t clear. Tucker is also working on The Fugitive remake for Warner Bros. that was announced a while back.

It sounds like they’ve been having trouble getting the film financed and hopefully some rewrites will get things in motion. McFarlane’s original pitch for the remake sounded so off-case that it sort of didn’t even sound like a Spawn movie anymore. As a fan, I kind of wish they’d look to the HBO animated series for inspiration instead of trying to make a low-budget horror film using the Spawn brand to get money for it.

Oscar-winner Jamie Foxx (Miami Vice, Baby Driver, Project Power) had been originally attached to play Al Simmons/Spawn and Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker, Wind River) was going to play Detective Twitch before the project stalled multiple times. It’s unknown if the pair of actors will be coaxed back to return at this point or if the studio will look at finding replacements.

Foxx recently joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe by reprising his role of Electro in Spider-Man: No Way Home coming out on December 17 and Renner’s Disney+ series Hawkeye will debt on November 24.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

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Legendary’s ‘Toxic Avenger’ Reboot Wraps Filming & ‘Fargo’ Cinematographer Dana Gonzalez Confirmed

Legendary finally has made their Toxic Avenger film reboot after ages of development.

The Toxic Avenger was essentially Deadpool before the mutant merc-with-a-mouth was ever a notion at Marvel Comics. The hyper-violent comic book hero parody debuted in 1984 and suddenly became a cult hit with multiple sequels, landing a short-lived comic book published by Marvel, the Toxic Crusaders cartoon, and a kids toyline connected to the show.

This is the story of Melvin, the Tromaville Health Club mop boy, who inadvertently and naively trusts the hedonistic, contemptuous and vain health club members, to the point of accidentally ending up in a vat of toxic waste. The devastating results then have a transmogrification effect, his alter ego is released, and the Toxic Avenger is born, to deadly and comical results. The local mop boy is now the local Superhero, the saviour of corruption, thuggish bullies and indifference. 

The cast consts of Peter Dinklage (Avengers: Infinity War, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Game of Thrones) as Toxie, Jacob Tremblay (The Predator, Room, Good Boys), Elijah Wood (Lord of The Rings Trilogy), Taylour Paige (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, White Boy Rick), Jonny Coyne Sarah Niles, and the villain will be played by Kevin Bacon (Flatliners, Tremors, Super).

Writer/director Macon Blair has announced on Twitter that production on the Toxic Avenger has wrapped in Bulgaria. Blair’s last film was the comedy thriller I Don’t Feel At Home In This World Anymore and is a longtime actor collaborator with director Jeremy Saulnier (Blue Ruin, Green Room).

The Ronin has been able to confirm that the film’s cinematographer is indeed Dana Gonzalez, who is known for shooting Noah Hawley shows such as Legion and Fargo. He was the director of photography on the Gerard Butler disaster film Greenland.

A release date for Toxic Avenger has yet to be announced as the action comedy doesn’t officially have a distributor. I wouldn’t be terribly shocked if Netflix attempts to secure the global rights to it as they’re developing various projects together including an upcoming live-action Gundam film from director Jordan Vogt-Roberts (Kong: Skull Island, Metal Gear Solid).

Posted on in Film News, News

‘Salem’s Lot’: James Wan-Produced Vampire Flick Adds ‘Malignant’ Cinematographer Michael Burgess

New Line Cinema, producer James Wan, and writer/director Gary Dauberman are re-teaming for a feature film adaptation of the Stephen King vampire novel Salem’s Lot.

Salem’s Lot is a small New England town with white clapboard houses, tree-lined streets, and solid church steeples. A stranger had also come to the Lot, a stranger with a secret as old as evil, a secret that would wreak irreparable harm on those he touched and in turn on those they loved. Author Ben Mears returns to Salem’s Lot to write a book about a house that has haunted him since childhood only to find his isolated hometown infested with vampires. While the vampires claim more victims, Mears convinces a small group of believers to combat the undead.

Dauberman has some strong horror credits as he previously wrote the scripts for It and It: Chapter Two for director Andy Muschietti, another Stephen King adaptation. Other projects he’s written include the Swamp Thing series, The Nun, Annabelle Comes Homes, Annabelle: Creation, and Annabelle.

Things are finally coming together on Salem’s Lot as they’re assembling their production team.

The Ronin can confirm that cinematographer Michael Burgess will reunite with director Gary Dauberman, after previously working with him on Annabelle Comes Home. Burgess has worked on other horror films such as The Nun, The Conjuring 2, The Curse of La Llorona, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, and James Wan’s upcoming horror pic Malignant.

We’re still waiting on official news concerning casting for Salem’s Lot.

James Wan is currently shooting Aquaman & The Lost Kingdom at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden in Watford, England with Jason Momoa, Amber Heard, and Patrick Wilson reprising their roles.

His next pic Malignant will hit theaters and HBO Max on September 10.

Madison is paralyzed by shocking visions of grisly murders, and her torment worsens as she discovers that these waking dreams are in fact terrifying realities.

Posted on in News, Television News

‘Dark City’ Series In Early Development According To Director Alex Proyas

While The Wachowskis’ Matrix got the main attention for revitalizing the sci-fi genre, movies like The Thirteen Floor, The Cell, and Dark City attempted similar themes of reality bending and digital worlds. I also recommended checking out those movies if you haven’t seen them.

Interestingly enough, 1998’s Dark City shot on the same sound stages in Australia as Matrix, the Wachowskis even reused some of the Dark City sets, which explains how it might feel like the two sci-fi films share some DNA.

It’s been likely twenty years since anyone really thought about Dark City, but it’s director seems to want to revisit it. Alex Proyas (The Crow) has revealed during a Q&A via Bloody Disgusting that he’s working on developing a series based on the film.

“Dark City right now is really an intriguing one to me because we’re developing a series, a Dark City series. Which we’re in the very early stages [of] but I’m having to reanalyze in order to construct a new story. I’m having to go back and kind of jog my memory as to what we actually did and what I think worked and what I think didn’t work and reevaluate my own film, so that’s been a very interesting experience as well which I’ve not done before.”

The original film starring Rufus Sewell, Jennifer Connelly, Kiefer Sutherland, William Hurt and others had a dream-like noir feel to it and it would be interesting the angle a series would go, but it would likely depend on who was paying for it and who ultimately was behind it creativity.

DARK CITY – John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell) awakens alone in a strange hotel to find that he is wanted for a series of brutal murders. The problem is that he can’t remember whether he committed the murders or not. For one brief moment, he is convinced that he has gone completely mad. Murdoch seeks to unravel the twisted riddle of his identity. As he edges closer to solving the mystery, he stumbles upon a fiendish underworld controlled by a group of ominous beings collectively known as the Strangers.

SOURCE: BLOODY DISGUSTING

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‘Dune’: Denis Villeneuve Says ‘Dune: Part Two’ Will See Zendaya’s Chani As The Protagonist

Many might know that Denis Villeneuve’s Dune is on the way, but most might be unfamiliar that the movie is only the first half of a two-part story. Legendary and Villeneuve split the first novel into two films, hopefully, to make the epic fantasy tale more digestible to an international audience.

Screenwriter Jon Spaihts is currently working on a sequel, Dune: Part Two, after being pulled off the spinoff series Dune: The Sisterhood to focus on the next feature film.

Villeneuve has spoken to Italian magazine Il Venerdi (via Secrets of Dune) about the sequel (hasn’t been given a release date) and mentions that Dune: Part Two will see Zendaya’s Fremen character Chani become the protagonist.

While this might seem jarring given that the first film will essentially be told from the perspective of Timothée Chalamet’s Paul Atreides, but it seems the film will end before we see either The Emperor (hasn’t been seen in any promotional materials) or Paul’s sister Alia Atreides.

Paul quickly gains a reputation among the Fremen, the native inhabitants of Arrakis, who eventually see him as part of a local prophecy (a manufactured one created by the Bene Gesserit) and they see him as religious figure worth rallying around to fight against the brutal foreign rulers, House Harkonnen.

Telling the second installment from Chani’s point of view could help establish the character as being just as important as Paul. Not to mention giving the Fremen a bigger voice in the story, given that Arrakis is their planet.

Legendary is also in a unique position as author Frank Herbert penned six dense books before his death, leaving a legacy of work that could be adapted for years to come. There are also subsequent books from Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, so there is a hefty amount of source material to pull from for future films and television shows.

Dune will hit theaters and HBO Max on October 22.

DUNE – A mythic and emotionally charged hero’s journey, Dune tells the story of Paul Atreides, a brilliant and gifted young man born into a great destiny beyond his understanding, who must travel to the most dangerous planet in the universe to ensure the future of his family and his people. As malevolent forces explode into conflict over the planet’s exclusive supply of the most precious resource in existence—a commodity capable of unlocking humanity’s greatest potential—only those who can conquer their fear will survive.

SOURCE: IL VENERDI

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‘Alien’: FX Says Noah Hawley’s “Very Grounded” Series Could Release In 2023 & Will Feel Part Of The Cinematic Universe

We’re all excited to see Noah Hawley’s latest entry in the Alien franchise with his FX series that will be produced by Ridley Scott. FX boss John Landgraf spoke at the TCA presentation via Deadline and gave some brief updates on the Earthbound show he’s calling “very grounded.”

First, Landgraf made it clear that the “beast” of a show will feel familiar to fans.

“I think you’ll also see that the show will feel like a part of the cinematic universe you’re familiar with in terms of Alien.”

He also teased a potential release in 2023.

“I have optimism that that show may well roll out in 2023. It will probably roll out 2023, but we want to get it right.”

Noah Halwey has talked up the idea of an Alien story focusing on the humanity/company angle previously and told Vanity Fair the following:

“Those are great monster movies, but they’re not just monster movies. They’re about humanity trapped between our primordial, parasitic past and our artificial intelligence future—and they’re both trying to kill us. Here you have human beings and they can’t go forward and they can’t go back. So I find that really interesting…It’s a story that’s set on Earth also. The alien stories are always trapped… Trapped in a prison, trapped in a space ship. I thought it would be interesting to open it up a little bit so that the stakes of ‘What happens if you can’t contain it?’ are more immediate.”

“On some level it’s also a story about inequality. You know, one of the things that I love about the first movie is how ’70s a movie it is, and how it’s really this blue collar space-trucker world in which Yaphet Kotto and Harry Dean Stanton are basically Waiting for Godot. They’re like Samuel Beckett characters, ordered to go to a place by a faceless nameless corporation. The second movie is such an ’80s movie, but it’s still about grunts. Paul Reiser is middle management at best. So, it is the story of the people you send to do the dirty work…In mine, you’re also going to see the people who are sending them. So you will see what happens when the inequality we’re struggling with now isn’t resolved. If we as a society can’t figure out how to prop each other up and spread the wealth, then what’s going to happen to us? There’s that great Sigourney Weaver line to Paul Reiser where she says, ‘I don’t know which species is worse. At least they don’t fuck each other over for a percentage.’”

It’ll be interesting who they will ultimate cast and might end up start production sometime in 2022, given that 2023 target mentioned for a release.

SOURCE: DEADLINE